608 research outputs found
Single-electron transistors with wide operating temperature range
Abstract : Single-electron transistors are fabricated with a planar self-aligned process using chemical mechanical polishing. The method is demonstrated with TiâTiOxTiâTiOx junctions and resistless lithography. The device characterization showed Coulomb blockade up to 433K433K. High temperature data allowed one to calculate the impact of the process variations on the charging energy and thus on a realistic operating temperature. It is found that single electron devices can have an operating temperature range similar to conventional silicon transistors, opening the door to hybrid designs. These approaches are promising because advanced functionality is created by an optimal combination of both technology strengths
Occurrence of the orange wheat blossom midge [Diptera :Cecidomyiidae] in Quebec and its incidence on wheat grain microflora
à l'été 1995, on a prélevé des échantillons de blé (Triticum aestivum) dans des champs de diverses régions agricoles du Québec. La présence de larves de la cécidomyie orangée du blé (Sitodiplosis mosellana) fut quantifiée et une évaluation qualitative et quantitative de la microflore des grains fut réalisée. Les pertes moyennes de rendement causées par les larves de la cécidomyie du blé furent estimée à 6,3%. Le pourcentage des épis infestés fut significativement corrélé avec la contamination bactérienne et fongique des grains (r = 0,79). La présence spécifique du Fusarium graminearum dans les grains de blé fut aussi significativement corrélée avec le nombre de larves par épi (r= 0,67) ou par épillet (r= 0,67). Il appert que la cécidomyie du blé pourrait jouer un rÎle dans la dissémination du F. graminearum.Samples of wheat spikes (Triticum aestivum) were collected in the summer of 1995 from different crop districts in Quebec and the occurrence of orange wheat blossom midge (Sitodiplosis mosellana) and seed microflora were determined. Estimated yield loss caused by wheat midge larvae averaged 6.3%. The percentage of infested spikes was significantly correlated with total seed contamination by fungi and bacteria (r = 0.79). The specific occurrence of Fusarium graminearum in grains was also significantly correlated with number of larvae per spike (r = 0.67) or per spikelet (r = 0.67). Consequently, the wheat midge might play a role in dissemination of F. graminearum
Predictors of Academic Performance in High School Students: The Longitudinal ASAP Study
International Journal of Exercise Science 15(4): 616-631, 2022. Academic performance is influenced by multitude factors. However, little is known about their relative importance and how they evolve over time. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relative importance of cognitive control, physical, psychological and sociological factors as well as lifestyle habits in predicting academic performance in high school students using cross sectional and longitudinal approaches. One hundred and eighty-five grade seventh to ninth students (mean age: 13.1 ± 1.0 years old) from a single high school completed a 3-year prospective study. Academic performance, cognitive control, physical, psychological and sociological factors as well as lifestyle habits were assessed every year during the 3-year study. Results showed that different combinations of factors were found to predict academic performance measures in both male and female students at baseline and after a 3-year period. For example, in female students, screen time and VO2 max were found to be important predictors of academic performance, whereas working memory was the only recurring factor in predicting academic performance in male students. Moreover, our models were able to explain between 6.1 to 52.2% of the variation in the change of the different measures of academic performance. Results of the present study show that academic performance may be predicted by a wide range of multiple factors in high school students. Indeed, the factors that predicted academic performance varied between school subjects, sex and study design, highlighting the complexity of predicting academic performance in high school students
A Contractual Approach to Investor-State Regulatory Disputes
International investment arbitral tribunals are increasingly tasked with resolving regulatory disputes. This relatively new form of dispute involves a challenge by a foreign investor to a host stateâs generally applicable regulation, enacted in good faith to promote the public interest but resulting incidentally in harm to the investorâs business. Such claims typically invoke the âfair and equitable treatmentâ standard provided for in the bilateral investment treaty between the host state and the investorâs home state. The dominant view among commentators, and increasingly among the tribunals themselves, is that regulatory disputes should be analyzed within a public law framework, using tools derived from constitutional or administrative law. That means, for example, balancing the investorâs rights and host stateâs regulatory concerns as part of a proportionality analysis. I argue that the public law approach is flawed because it requires tribunals to weigh incommensurable values and ultimately to make policy judgments when they lack the expertise and legitimacy to do so. This Article proposes that tribunals instead draw on tools from contract law and theory to approximate what the contracting states intended when they agreed to a fair and equitable treatment standard. The investment treaties themselves give no guidance on how that standard should be applied to regulatory disputes. When courts confront similar gaps in contracts, they do not simply abandon the inquiry into the partiesâ intent but instead apply additional tools or principles to form the best possible estimate.
The Article explores three specific tools: a default rule approach and two default standards derived from contract lawâs analysis of changed circumstances. More generally, I argue that a contractual approach, by focusing tribunals on the contracting statesâ intent rather than requiring them to independently assess the substance of a host stateâs policy, will facilitate more principled reasoning as well as enhance the tribunalsâ legitimacy, and thereby better promote the goals of international investment in the long run
Development and validation of clinical profiles of patients hospitalized due to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.
Patients hospitalized on acute psychogeriatric wards are a heterogeneous population. Cluster analysis is a useful statistical method for partitioning a sample of patients into well separated groups of patients who present common characteristics. Several patient profile studies exist, but they are not adapted to acutely hospitalized psychogeriatric patients with cognitive impairment. The present study aims to partition patients hospitalized due to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia into profiles based on a global evaluation of mental health using cluster analysis.
Using nine of the 13 items from the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for elderly people (HoNOS65+), data were collected from a sample of 542 inpatients with dementia who were hospitalized between 2011 and 2014 in acute psychogeriatric wards of a Swiss university hospital. An optimal clustering solution was generated to represent various profiles, by using a mixed approach combining hierarchical and non-hierarchical (k-means) cluster analyses associated with a split-sample cross-validation. The quality of the clustering solution was evaluated based on a cross-validation, on a k-means method with 100 random initial seeds, on validation indexes, and on clinical interpretation.
The final solution consisted of four clinically distinct and homogeneous profiles labeled (1) BPSD-affective, (2) BPSD-functional, (3) BPSD-somatic and (4) BPSD-psychotic according to their predominant clinical features. The four profiles differed in cognitive status, length of hospital stay, and legal admission status.
In the present study, clustering methods allowed us to identify four profiles with distinctive characteristics. This clustering solution may be developed into a classification system that may allow clinicians to differentiate patient needs in order to promptly identify tailored interventions and promote better allocation of available resources
Lorsque le travail devient invisible. Lâaction publique et le travail des artistes visuels et de la scĂšne du QuĂ©bec en contexte de crise sanitaire
Les artistes interprĂštes et crĂ©ateurs ont Ă©tĂ© sĂ©vĂšrement touchĂ©s par la crise sanitaire liĂ©e Ă la pandĂ©mie de Covid-19 et les donnĂ©es statistiques indiquent que le secteur des arts et de la culture est celui qui a subi les plus fortes pertes, notamment sur le plan de lâemploi et des revenus. Cette analyse cherche Ă prendre la mesure des effets du confinement et des mesures sanitaires, qui ont conduit notamment Ă la fermeture prolongĂ©e des lieux de diffusion, sur les conditions dâactivitĂ© des artistes. Le diagnostic avancĂ© met en Ă©vidence que lâaction publique qui sâest appliquĂ©e Ă ces milieux est en partie dĂ©calĂ©e de leurs rĂ©alitĂ©s et de leurs enjeux spĂ©cifiques. Les effets de ce dĂ©calage sont observĂ©s Ă trois niveaux qui sont considĂ©rĂ©s comme des zones dâinvisibilitĂ© du travail dâartiste. Ils prennent la forme respectivement (1) dâune fragilisation des interdĂ©pendances fonctionnelles dans lesquelles est insĂ©rĂ© le travail dâartiste (2) dâune accentuation des processus de prĂ©carisation de ces professions et (3) dâeffets sur les registres de reprĂ©sentation et identitaires de ces mĂ©tiers.Creators and performing artists have been severely impacted by the health crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Recent statistics show that the Quebecâs arts and culture sector suffered the most important losses in terms of employment rates and income. This article analyzes and discusses the effects of lockdown and other public health measures, including the prolonged closure of artistic venues, on performing and visual artistsâ activity conditions. The diagnosis put forward highlights how the public action dedicated to supporting the arts and culture sector has been partly disconnected from their realities and the specific issues they encounter. The effects of this mismatch can be observed on three levels, which are conceptualized as three invisibility zones of artistic labour. These three zones take, respectively, the form of (1) a weakening of the functional interdependencies in which artistic labour is embedded, (2) a reinforcement of the precarity processes impacting artistic professions and (3) other effects on their representation and identity registers
Gambie - structures économiques et problÚmes de développement = Gambia - economic structures and development problems. VIII/1026(72)-F/B3
An original topology of GaAs-PHEMT mixer is investigated under high conversion gain consideration.Mixer topology is based on "LO source-injection"concept,since RF, IF and LO signals are respectively applied on the gate,drain and source terminals of the mixing transistor.The conversion matrix formalism allows both the optimization of matching and filtering cells and the assessment of the nonlinear stability.For 14 to 12 GHz frequency conversion, the designed MMIC single balanced mixer exhibits a conversion gain of 5 dB at -15 dBm LO power for a total power consumption of 88 mW and chip size about 0.9 mm 2. The other performances are an output IP3 of 7 dBm for â8 dBm LO Power and a NF of 7 dB
Fractal Analysis of Protein Potential Energy Landscapes
The fractal properties of the total potential energy V as a function of time
t are studied for a number of systems, including realistic models of proteins
(PPT, BPTI and myoglobin). The fractal dimension of V(t), characterized by the
exponent \gamma, is almost independent of temperature and increases with time,
more slowly the larger the protein. Perhaps the most striking observation of
this study is the apparent universality of the fractal dimension, which depends
only weakly on the type of molecular system. We explain this behavior by
assuming that fractality is caused by a self-generated dynamical noise, a
consequence of intermode coupling due to anharmonicity. Global topological
features of the potential energy landscape are found to have little effect on
the observed fractal behavior.Comment: 17 pages, single spaced, including 12 figure
Synchronizing Automata on Quasi Eulerian Digraph
In 1964 \v{C}ern\'{y} conjectured that each -state synchronizing automaton
posesses a reset word of length at most . From the other side the best
known upper bound on the reset length (minimum length of reset words) is cubic
in . Thus the main problem here is to prove quadratic (in ) upper bounds.
Since 1964, this problem has been solved for few special classes of \sa. One of
this result is due to Kari \cite{Ka03} for automata with Eulerian digraphs. In
this paper we introduce a new approach to prove quadratic upper bounds and
explain it in terms of Markov chains and Perron-Frobenius theories. Using this
approach we obtain a quadratic upper bound for a generalization of Eulerian
automata.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur
Pre-torsors and Galois comodules over mixed distributive laws
We study comodule functors for comonads arising from mixed distributive laws.
Their Galois property is reformulated in terms of a (so-called) regular arrow
in Street's bicategory of comonads. Between categories possessing equalizers,
we introduce the notion of a regular adjunction. An equivalence is proven
between the category of pre-torsors over two regular adjunctions
and on one hand, and the category of regular comonad arrows
from some equalizer preserving comonad to on
the other. This generalizes a known relationship between pre-torsors over equal
commutative rings and Galois objects of coalgebras.Developing a bi-Galois
theory of comonads, we show that a pre-torsor over regular adjunctions
determines also a second (equalizer preserving) comonad and a
co-regular comonad arrow from to , such that the
comodule categories of and are equivalent.Comment: 34 pages LaTeX file. v2: a few typos correcte
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