Digital Nomadism: the nexus of remote working and travel mobility

As the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, people worldwide started to experience a ‘new normal.’ This ‘new normal’ has normalized remote-working and resulted in the mainstream adoption of technologies to support virtual collaboration, communication, and work from a distance. While the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the restriction of mobility as borders were closed, airlines grounded, and daily commutes limited, visions of a potential future of ‘remote-life’ started to take shape. As professionals (and employers) around the world start to realize that they are no longer physically secured to their desks, offices, or work stations, they may now start to consider a future where they are remote-working from ‘exotic’ locations, often with lower costs of living (Phuket, Bali, or Costa Rica?) instead of working from ‘home.’ Companies around the world have extended their remote-working policies, implemented due to COVID, through 2021 and beyond, and are starting to consider a broader shift towards remote (or hybrid) workforce models as a means for reducing overhead costs while supporting employee productivity and wellbeing

Multiphoton Bloch-Siegert shifts and level-splittings in spin-one systems

We consider a spin-boson model in which a spin 1 system is coupled to an oscillator. A unitary transformation is applied which allows a separation of terms responsible for the Bloch-Siegert shift, and terms responsible for the level splittings at anticrossings associated with Bloch-Siegert resonances. When the oscillator is highly excited, the system can maintain resonance for sequential multiphoton transitions. At lower levels of excitation, resonance cannot be maintained because energy exchange with the oscillator changes the level shift. An estimate for the critical excitation level of the oscillator is developed.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figure

Intra-uterine fetal demise caused by amniotic band syndrome after standard amniocentesis

The amniotic band syndrome represents a prime example of exogenous disruption of an otherwise normal feta I development. It may be a sequel of invasive diagnostic procedures such as amniocentesis or fetal blood sampling. A 38-year-old gravida II, para II delivered a morphologically normal male stillborn at term. The pregnancy history had been unremarkable but for an early 2nd-trimester amniocentesis. Cause of the intra-uterine fetal demise was noted to be an amniotic band constricting the umbilical cord, An amniotic band is a rare but potentially fatal condition which may be induced by, e.g., invasive prenatal procedures. Such bands are not usually diagnosed prenatally; however, selected patients with augmented risk may profit from intensive ultrasound evaluation including Doppler studies. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

On Keller Theorem for Anisotropic Media

The Keller theorem in the problem of effective conductivity in anisotropic two-dimensional (2D) many-component composites makes it possible to establish a simple inequality $\sigma_{{\sf is}}^e(\sigma^{-1}_i)\cdot \sigma_{{\sf is}}^e(\sigma_k)> 1$ for the isotropic part $\sigma_{{\sf is}}^e(\sigma_k)$ of the 2-nd rank symmetric tensor ${\widehat \sigma}_{i,j}^e$ of effective conductivity.Comment: 1 page, 1 figur

Half-integer Shapiro steps at the 0-pi crossover of a ferromagnetic Josephson junction

We investigate the current-phase relation of S/F/S junctions near the crossover between the 0 and the pi ground states. We use Nb/CuNi/Nb junctions where this crossover is driven both by thickness and temperature. For a certain thickness a non-zero minimum of critical current is observed at the crossover temperature. We analyze this residual supercurrent by applying a high frequency excitation and observe the formation of half-integer Shapiro steps. We attribute these fractional steps to a doubling of the Josephson frequency due to a sin(2*phi) current-phase relation. This phase dependence is explained by the splitting of the energy levels in the ferromagnetic exchange field.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

A self-consistent equation of state for nuclear matter

The authors formulate a phenomenological extension of the mean-field theory approach and define a class of thermodynamically self-consistent equations of state for nuclear matter. A new equation of state of this class is suggested and examined in detail

Performance of high resistivity n+pp+ silicon solar cells under 1 MeV electron irradiation

High resistivity (1250 and 84 ohm-cm) n(+)pp(+) silicon solar cells were irradiated and their performance evaluated as a function of fluence. The greatest degradation in power occurred for the higher resistivity cell. The data were analyzed under open circuit conditions, and the components of V sub oc determined as a function of fluence. It was found that the voltage contributions from the front and back junctions decreased while the base component (V sub B) increased with fluence. The anomalous behavior of V sub B was attributed to an increase in the base minority carrier gradient with fluence. An argument that the increased power degradation in the 1250 ohm-cm cells was attributable to an increased voltage drop in the base is presented. Diffusion lengths calculated under high injection conditions were significantly greater than those determined under low injection. This was attributed to a saturation of recombination centers under high injection conditions

Radiation damage in lithium-counterdoped n/p silicon solar cells

Lithium counterdoped n+/p silicon solar cells were irradiated with 1 MV electrons and their post irradiation performance and low temperature annealing properties were compared to that of the 0.35 ohm cm control cells. Cells fabricated from float zone and Czochralski grown silicon were investigated. It was found that the float zone cells exhibited superior radiation resistance compared to the control cells, while no improvement was noted for the Czochralski grown cells. Room temperature and 60 C annealing studies were conducted. The annealing was found to be a combination of first and second order kinetics for short times. It was suggested that the principal annealing mechanism was migration of lithium to a radiation induced defect with subsequent neutralization of the defect by combination with lithium. The effects of base lithium gradient were investigated. It was found that cells with negative base lithium gradients exhibited poor radiation resistance and performance compared to those with positive or no lithium gradients; the latter being preferred for overall performance and radiation resistance