R.F. planar magnetron sputtered ZnO films II: Electrical properties

The electrical properties of r.f. planar magnetron sputtered ZnO films are studied by means of current-voltage, capacitance-voltage and Van der Pauw measurements.\ud \ud These films are applied as piezoelectric transducers in micromechanical sensors and actuators. Their piezoelectric behaviour strongly depends on the electric properties.\ud \ud A conduction model for the polycrystalline ZnO layers is presented. This model gives a good description of the electrical behaviour, and is useful in understanding the piezoelectric properties of the films studied

Increasing altruistic and cooperative behaviour with simple moral nudges

The conflict between pro-self and pro-social behaviour is at the core of many key problems of our time, as, for example, the reduction of air pollution and the redistribution of scarce resources. For the well-being of our societies, it is thus crucial to find mechanisms to promote pro-social choices over egoistic ones. Particularly important, because cheap and easy to implement, are those mechanisms that can change people's behaviour without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives, the so-called "nudges". Previous research has found that moral nudges (e.g., making norms salient) can promote pro-social behaviour. However, little is known about whether their effect persists over time and spills across context. This question is key in light of research showing that pro-social actions are often followed by selfish actions, thus suggesting that some moral manipulations may backfire. Here we present a class of simple moral nudges that have a great positive impact on pro-sociality. In Studies 1-4 (total N = 1,400), we use economic games to demonstrate that asking subjects to self-report "what they think is the morally right thing to do" does not only increase pro-sociality in the choice immediately after, but also in subsequent choices, and even when the social context changes. In Study 5, we explore whether moral nudges promote charity donations to humanitarian organisations in a large (N = 1,800) crowdfunding campaign. We find that, in this context, moral nudges increase donations by about 44 percent

Deep learning for inferring cause of data anomalies

Daily operation of a large-scale experiment is a resource consuming task, particularly from perspectives of routine data quality monitoring. Typically, data comes from different sub-detectors and the global quality of data depends on the combinatorial performance of each of them. In this paper, the problem of identifying channels in which anomalies occurred is considered. We introduce a generic deep learning model and prove that, under reasonable assumptions, the model learns to identify 'channels' which are affected by an anomaly. Such model could be used for data quality manager cross-check and assistance and identifying good channels in anomalous data samples. The main novelty of the method is that the model does not require ground truth labels for each channel, only global flag is used. This effectively distinguishes the model from classical classification methods. Being applied to CMS data collected in the year 2010, this approach proves its ability to decompose anomaly by separate channels.Comment: Presented at ACAT 2017 conference, Seattle, US

Phase behaviour of binary mixtures of diamagnetic colloidal platelets in an external magnetic field

Using fundamental measure density functional theory we investigate paranematic-nematic and nematic-nematic phase coexistence in binary mixtures of circular platelets with vanishing thicknesses. An external magnetic field induces uniaxial alignment and acts on the platelets with a strength that is taken to scale with the platelet area. At particle diameter ratio lambda=1.5 the system displays paranematic-nematic coexistence. For lambda=2, demixing into two nematic states with different compositions also occurs, between an upper critical point and a paranematic-nematic-nematic triple point. Increasing the field strength leads to shrinking of the coexistence regions. At high enough field strength a closed loop of immiscibility is induced and phase coexistence vanishes at a double critical point above which the system is homogeneously nematic. For lambda=2.5, besides paranematic-nematic coexistence, there is nematic-nematic coexistence which persists and hence does not end in a critical point. The partial orientational order parameters along the binodals vary strongly with composition and connect smoothly for each species when closed loops of immiscibility are present in the corresponding phase diagram.Comment: 9 pages, to appear in J.Phys:Condensed Matte

Biomechanical aspects in dental replacements

This chapter deals with biomechanical aspects in dental replacements. The state of the art is critically reviewed taking into account the body of the literature results. The initial section is devoted to the mechanical properties of bone and to a description of the jaw geometry and of its loading and constraining. The following section presents a classifi cation of the various tooth replacement confi gurations and of the various materials adopted, where single and multiple replacements are considered. A specifi c section is devoted to the solid modelling of the jaw as input to numerical analyses, where the aid offered by reverse engineering and tomography is underlined. The fi nite element method as well as alternative numerical and experimental approaches are reviewed in a dedicated section. The stress analysis forecasts and measurements are biomechanically interpreted in the light of the current literature results. The chapter ends with a section devoted to biological aspects

Triggering synchronized oscillations through arbitrarily weak diversity in close-to-threshold excitable media

It is shown that arbitrarily weak (frozen) heterogeneity can induce global synchronized oscillations in excitable media close to threshold. The work is carried out on networks of coupled van der Pol-FitzHugh-Nagumo oscillators. The result is shown to be robust against the presence of internal dynamical noise.Comment: 4 pages (RevTeX 3 style), 5 EPS figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E (16 aug 2001

Human dental pulp stem cells produce mineralized matrix in 2D and 3D cultures

The aim of this study was to characterize the in vitro osteogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs) in 2D cultures and 3D biomaterials. DPSCs, separated from dental pulp by enzymatic digestion, and isolated by magnetic cell sorting were differentiated toward osteogenic lineage on 2D surface by using an osteogenic medium. During differentiation process, DPSCs express specific bone proteins like Runx-2, Osx, OPN and OCN with a sequential expression, analogous to those occurring during osteoblast differentiation, and produce extracellular calcium deposits. In order to differentiate cells in a 3D space that mimes the physiological environment, DPSCs were cultured in two distinct bioscaffolds, Matrigel™ and Collagen sponge. With the addition of a third dimension, osteogenic differentiation and mineralized extracellular matrix production significantly improved. In particular, in Matrigel™ DPSCs differentiated with osteoblast/osteocyte characteristics and connected by gap junction, and therefore formed calcified nodules with a 3D intercellular network. Furthermore, DPSCs differentiated in collagen sponge actively secrete human type I collagen micro-fibrils and form calcified matrix containing trabecular-like structures. These neo-formed DPSCs-scaffold devices may be used in regenerative surgical applications in order to resolve pathologies and traumas characterized by critical size bone defects