Tuning Nanocrystal Surface Depletion by Controlling Dopant Distribution as a Route Toward Enhanced Film Conductivity

Electron conduction through bare metal oxide nanocrystal (NC) films is hindered by surface depletion regions resulting from the presence of surface states. We control the radial dopant distribution in tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) NCs as a means to manipulate the NC depletion width. We find in films of ITO NCs of equal overall dopant concentration that those with dopant-enriched surfaces show decreased depletion width and increased conductivity. Variable temperature conductivity data shows electron localization length increases and associated depletion width decreases monotonically with increased density of dopants near the NC surface. We calculate band profiles for NCs of differing radial dopant distributions and, in agreement with variable temperature conductivity fits, find NCs with dopant-enriched surfaces have narrower depletion widths and longer localization lengths than those with dopant-enriched cores. Following amelioration of NC surface depletion by atomic layer deposition of alumina, all films of equal overall dopant concentration have similar conductivity. Variable temperature conductivity measurements on alumina-capped films indicate all films behave as granular metals. Herein, we conclude that dopant-enriched surfaces decrease the near-surface depletion region, which directly increases the electron localization length and conductivity of NC films

Computational modeling of TC0583 as a putative component of the Chlamydia muridarum V-type ATP synthase complex and assessment of its protective capabilities as a vaccine antigen.

Numerous Chlamydia trachomatis proteins have been identified as potential subunit vaccines, of which the major outer-membrane protein (MOMP) has, so far, proven the most efficacious. Recently, subunit A of the V-type ATP synthase (ATPase; TC0582) complex was shown to elicit partial protection against infection. Computational modeling of a neighboring gene revealed a novel subunit of the V-type ATPase (TC0583). To determine if this newly identified subunit could induce protection and/or enhance the partial protection provided by subunit A alone, challenge studies were performed using a combination of these recombinant proteins. The TC0583 subunit alone and concurrently with TC0582, was used to vaccinate BALB/c mice utilizing CpG-1826 and Montanide ISA 720 VG as adjuvants. Vaccinated animals were challenged intranasally with Chlamydia muridarum and the course of the infection was followed. Mice immunized with individual antigens showed minimal alleviation of body weight reduction; however, mice immunized with TC0583 and TC0582 in combination, displayed weight loss levels close to those observed with MOMP. Importantly, immunization with a combination of recombinant subunit proteins reduced chlamydial inclusion forming units by approximately a log-fold. These protection levels support that, these highly conserved Chlamydia proteins, in combination with other antigens, may serve as potential vaccine candidates

Pengujian Fenomena Efek Senin (Monday Effect) dan Weekfour Effectdi Bursa Efek Indonesia

The objective of this research is to reexamine the anomaly of Monday effect and week four effect at Indonesian Stock Exchange (ISE). Using Jakarta Composite Index from 2003 until 2007 and ANOVA to answer the research questions. The results of this research show that there was no difference return between Monday and Tuesday until Friday. The first hypothesis said that Monday return would be lower than another day return was rejected. And also for the second hypothesis, Monday return would be lower on week four was rejected. It means that Monday effect and week four effect was not happen on Indonesian Stock Exchange. Key words: Monday effect, week-four effect, retur

Who goes on disability when times are tough? The role of work norms among immigrants

We consider how work norms affect the likelihood of people receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in response to worsening economic conditions. By focusing on immigrants in the US, we can examine the influence of work norms in a person’s home country, which we argue are exogenous to labor market prospects in the US. We find that the probability of receiving SSDI benefits is more sensitive to economic downturns among immigrants from countries where people place less importance on work. We also provide evidence that this result is not driven by differential labor market sensitivities to the business cycle or differences in other characteristics that might be correlated with norms

Intrinsic Optical and Electronic Properties from Quantitative Analysis of Plasmonic Semiconductor Nanocrystal Ensemble Optical Extinction

The optical extinction spectra arising from localized surface plasmon resonance in doped semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) have intensities and lineshapes determined by free charge carrier concentrations and the various mechanisms for damping the oscillation of those free carriers. However, these intrinsic properties are convoluted by heterogeneous broadening when measuring spectra of ensembles. We reveal that the traditional Drude approximation is not equipped to fit spectra from a heterogeneous ensemble of doped semiconductor NCs and produces fit results that violate Mie scattering theory. The heterogeneous ensemble Drude approximation (HEDA) model rectifies this issue by accounting for ensemble heterogeneity and near-surface depletion. The HEDA model is applied to tin-doped indium oxide NCs for a range of sizes and doping levels but we expect it can be employed for any isotropic plasmonic particles in the quasistatic regime. It captures individual NC optical properties and their contributions to the ensemble spectra thereby enabling the analysis of intrinsic NC properties from an ensemble measurement. Quality factors for the average NC in each ensemble are quantified and found to be notably higher than those of the ensemble. Carrier mobility and conductivity derived from HEDA fits matches that measured in the bulk thin film literature

Selling brands while staying “Authentic”: The professionalization of Instagram influencers

While Instagram influencers may have started out as ordinary people documenting their everyday life through a stream of photographs, they are increasingly emerging as an intermediary between advertisers and consumers. This study examines the professionalization of Instagram influencers, combining data from 11 interviews with travel influencers with a visual and textual content analysis of their 12 most recent Instagram posts (N = 132). We show how the increasing professionalization of the influencer steers their relationship with their audience, the advertisers they work with, and the platform Instagram. We argue that, for the Instagram influencer to be perceived as successful, they need to negotiate a tension: they need to appear authentic, yet also approach their followers in a strategic way to remain appealing to advertisers. Although Instagram influencers are seen as more trustworthy than traditional forms of advertising, this tension ultimately leads to a standardization of the content shared by influencers

Brachial Artery Constriction during Brachial Artery Reactivity Testing Predicts Major Adverse Clinical Outcomes in Women with Suspected Myocardial Ischemia: Results from the NHLBI-Sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study

Background:Limited brachial artery (BA) flow-mediated dilation during brachial artery reactivity testing (BART) has been linked to increased cardiovascular risk. We report on the phenomenon of BA constriction (BAC) following hyperemia.Objectives:To determine whether BAC predicts adverse CV outcomes and/or mortality in the women's ischemic Syndrome Evaluation Study (WISE). Further, as a secondary objective we sought to determine the risk factors associated with BAC.Methods:We performed BART on 377 women with chest pain referred for coronary angiography and followed for a median of 9.5 years. Forearm ischemia was induced with 4 minutes occlusion by a cuff placed distal to the BA and inflated to 40mm Hg > systolic pressure. BAC was defined as >4.8% artery constriction following release of the cuff. The main outcome was major adverse events (MACE) including all-cause mortality, non-fatal MI, non-fatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure.Results:BA diameter change ranged from -20.6% to +44.9%, and 41 (11%) women experienced BAC. Obstructive CAD and traditional CAD risk factors were not predictive of BAC. Overall, 39% of women with BAC experienced MACE vs. 22% without BAC (p=0.004). In multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression, BAC was a significant independent predictor of MACE (p=0.018) when adjusting for obstructive CAD and traditional risk factors.Conclusions:BAC predicts almost double the risk for major adverse events compared to patients without BAC. This risk was not accounted for by CAD or traditional risk factors. The novel risk marker of BAC requires further investigation in women. © 2013 Sedlak et al

Fuzzing Binaries for Memory Safety Errors with QASan

Fuzz testing techniques are becoming pervasive for their ever-improving ability to generate crashing trial cases for programs. Memory safety violations however can lead to silent corruptions and errors, and a fuzzer may recognize them only in the presence of sanitization machinery. For closed-source software combining sanitization with fuzzing incurs practical obstacles that we try to tackle with an architecture-independent proposal called QASan for detecting heap memory violations. In our tests QASan is competitive with standalone sanitizers and adds a moderate 1.61x average slowdown to the AFL++ fuzzer while enabling it to reveal more heap-related bugs

Energy-Aware Base Stations: The Effect of Planning, Management, and Femto Layers

We compare the performance of three base station management schemes on three different network topologies. In addition, we explore the effect of offloading traffic to heterogeneous femtocell layer upon energy savings taking into account the increase of base station switch-off time intervals. Fairness between mobile operator and femtocell owners is maintained since current femtocell technologies present flat power consumption curves with respect to served traffic. We model two different user-to-femtocell association rules in order to capture realistic and maximum gains from the heterogeneous network. To provide accurate findings and a holistic overview of the techniques, we explore a real urban district where channel estimations and power control are modeled using deterministic algorithms. Finally, we explore energy efficiency metrics that capture savings in the mobile network operator, the required watts per user and watts per bitrate. It is found that the newly established pseudo distributed management scheme is the most preferable solution for practical implementations and together with the femotcell layer the network can handle dynamic load control that is regarded as the basic element of future demand response programs