2017-18 Guide for Participants: Virginia Commonwealth University Peer Mentoring Program

The Peer Mentoring Program Guide for Participants provides information for both university faculty mentees and their faculty mentors to help establish and develop a productive mentoring relationship. This Guide is the handbook for the Virginia Commonwealth University Peer Mentoring Program, which seeks to support early career faculty members, enabling them to succeed and thrive in the academy as both scholars and educators. The VCU Peer Mentoring program is part of the VCU Office of Faculty Affairs

Invariant, anti-invariant and slant submanifolds of a metallic Riemannian manifold

Properties of invariant, anti-invariant and slant isometrically immersed submanifolds of metallic Riemannian manifolds are given with a special view towards the induced $\Sigma$-structure. Examples of such metallic manifolds are also given.Comment: 26 page

Submanifolds in metallic Riemannian manifolds

The aim of our paper is to focus on some properties of submanifolds in Riemannian manifolds endowed with endomorphisms that generalize the Golden Riemannian structure, named metallic Riemannian structures. We focus on the properties of the structure induced on submanifolds, named by us $\Sigma$-metallic Riemannian structures, especialy regarding the normality of this types of structure. Examples of structures induced on a sphere of codimension 1 by some metallic Riemannian structures defined on an Euclidean space are given

Slant and semi-slant submanifolds in metallic Riemannian manifolds

The aim of our paper is to focus on some properties of slant and semi-slant submanifolds of metallic Riemannian manifolds. We give some characterizations for submanifolds to be slant or semi-slant submanifolds in metallic or Golden Riemannian manifolds and we obtain integrability conditions for the distributions involved in the semi-slant submanifolds of Riemannian manifolds endowed with metallic or Golden Riemannian structures. Examples of semi-slant submanifolds of the metallic and Golden Riemannian manifolds are given

Remarks on metallic warped product manifolds

We characterize the metallic structure on the product of two metallic manifolds in terms of metallic maps and provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the warped product of two locally metallic Riemannian manifolds to be locally metallic. The particular case of product manifolds is discussed and an example of metallic warped product Riemannian manifold is provided.Comment: 10 page

Light emitting devices based on nanostructured semiconductors

Light emitting devices based on high-efficiency photoluminescence (PL) fluorescent nanocrystals have been investigated in terms of the generation of light from the structure using a variety of deposition methods. An automated modified layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly technique has been employed to produce multilayers of thiol-capped red fluorescing CdTe nanocrystals. Indium- tin-oxide (ITO) and aluminium electrodes were used as the electrodes. Morphological characterization was carried out through Schottky field effect (SFEG) SEM and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The structures built presented clear red electroluminescence (EL) to the naked eye. Turn on voltages were found to be in the range of 3-6 volts while the onset current was in the order of tens of microamperes. The role of structure homogeneity, the presence of pinholes and lifetime extension were features addressed during this investigation. Samples with a lifetime of continuous operation in air longer than 60 minutes and highly stable EL spectra were achieved; EL was visible to the unaided eye, although the brightness was still below the commercial standards and has not yet been qualified

The Impact of Prescribed Fire on Moth Assemblages in the Boston Mountains and Ozark Highlands, in Arkansas

In addition to the impacts of prescribed fires on forest vegetation, this ecosystem process also has dramatic impacts on associated insect assemblages. For herbivorous, terrestrial insects, fire predictably results in a cycle of initial insect population reduction followed by recovery and growth, in which these insect populations exceed pre-fire abundances. We sought to examine if fire-induced disturbance cycles make prescribed burned areas more or less suitable specifically for moths (order Lepidoptera), which is a major food source for, among others, multiple bat species. We surveyed moth assemblages at 20 burned and 20 unburned sites in the Boston Mountain and Ozark Highland ecoregions of Arkansas, to determine if biomass or abundance of moths differed between areas that had been burned in the past 10 years, and those areas that had never been burned. Samples were collected early (April to July) and late (August to November) in the growing season of 2017 (hereafter early season and late season, respectively). We compared biomass and abundance of all moths, and of five representative moth species, between burned and unburned sites. The five moth species were chosen and considered to be representative due to their high relative abundance, and ease of identification. The five chosen moth species included the banded tussock moth (Halysidota tessellaris), white-dotted prominent moth (Nadata gibbosa), ailanthus moth (Atteva aurea), grape leaffolder (Desmia funeralis), and painted lichen moth (Hypoprepia fucosa). Results from paired t-tests showed no significant difference in total biomass, or abundance of representative species between burned and unburned sites. However, generalized linear regression models showed significantly higher abundance of moths in areas with high basal area that had been previously burned (β = -0.038 ± 0.004 SE,

Search for new physics with neutrinos at Radioactive Ion Beam facilities

We propose applications of Radioactive Ion Beam facilities to investigate physics beyond the Standard Model. In particular, we focus on the possible measurement of coherent neutrino-nucleus scattering and on a search for sterile neutrinos, by means of a low energy beta-beam with a Lorentz boost factor $\gamma \approx 1$. In the considered setup the collected radioactive ions are sent inside a 4$\pi$ detector. For the first application we provide the number of events associated with neutrino-nucleus coherent scattering, when the detector is filled in with a noble liquid. For the sterile search we consider that the spherical detector is filled in with a liquid scintillator, and that the neutrino detection channel is inverse-beta decay. We provide the exclusion curves for the sterile neutrino mixing parameters, based upon the 3+1 formalism, depending upon the achievable ion intensity. Our results are obtained both from total rates, and including spectral information with binning in energy and in distance. The proposed experiment represents a possible alternative to clarify the current anomalies observed in neutrino experiments.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. v2 - added 2 figure

Corruption and Positive Selection in Privatization

We consider the supply of a public good based on a publicly-owned facility. The Government has a choice between provision in-house and privatizing the facility and then outsourcing the production. In particular, we focus on corruption in the decision to privatize and on its effect on social welfare when there is asymmetric information on the public and private manager's efficiency. Our analysis shows that a corrupt Government, that chooses to privatize only in exchange for a bribe, makes a positive selection on the private firm's efficiency and, thus, may raise expected social welfare above what an honest Government could get.Corruption, Privatization, Private vs. public provision.

Experimental pharmacological research regarding the antidepressant effect of associating doxepin and selegiline in normal mice

The severity and complexity of depression can vary widely among individuals, thus making single drug therapy ineffective in some cases. Taking this fact into account and using a mouse model, we set on investigating the possibility of obtaining a synergism of action between a classical tricyclic antidepressant that inhibits noradrenalin and serotonin reuptake (doxepin), and a modern antidepressant that inhibits type-B monoamine oxidase (selegiline). We measured the antidepressant effect using the forced swimming test and the tail suspension test. We determined motor activity using the Activity Cage test. Our results have shown that the antidepressant effect intensifies significantly in the animals treated with both antidepressants simultaneously compared to those treated only with doxepin. Furthermore, we observed that selegiline decreases the sedative effect of doxepin in the Activity Cage test