Electron-dependent thermoelectric properties in Si/Si_(1_x)Ge_(x) heterostructures and Si_(1-x)Ge_(x) alloys from first-principles

Unlike phononic thermal conductivity (which is shown in the literature to be reduced due to alloying and has a nearly constant value over a range of compositional variations), electron-dependent thermoelectric properties are shown here, from first-principles, to vary nonlinearly with composition. Of the Si/Si_(1_x)Ge_(x) systems considered, the maximum thermopower observed, which is 10% higher than that of crystalline Si, is obtained for a Si_(0.875)Ge_(0.125) alloy. Also, heterostructuring is shown to reduce thermopower, electrical conductivity, and electron thermal conductivity. Additionally, neither Lorenz number nor Seebeck coefficient shows oscillations for heterostructures, regardless of electron/hole energies, contradicting the conclusions obtained with miniband approximations

Financial Crisis, Inclusion and Economic Development in the US and OIC Countries

The following dissertation contains two distinct empirical essays which contribute to the overall field of Financial Economics. Chapter 1, entitled “Financial Inclusion and Economic Development in OIC Member Countries,” examines whether the presence of Islamic finance promotes development and alleviates poverty. To do so, we estimate the influence of financial inclusion variables on development and poverty variables for OIC countries. Using data from the World Bank, we use dynamic panel analysis using methodology similar to Beck et al (2000) to study the effects of financial inclusion on economic development and use simple cross-sectional analysis similar to Beck et al (2004) to study the effects on poverty alleviation. We find that the countries with Islamic finance tend to outperform the rest of the world. We believe that the ability of financial institutions offering Shari’a compliant services to bring otherwise excluded people under the financial system plays a major role in increased development and reduced poverty in those countries. The results support our view that financial inclusion is causing development. Chapter 2 entitled, “Asymmetric Market Reactions to the 2007-08 Financial Crisis: From Wall Street to Main Street,” examines the impact of significant news events during the 2007 – 2008 financial crisis on the abnormal stock returns for portfolios of financial and real sector firms. We recognize 17 significant news events from 2007 and 2008 and create equity portfolios using daily CRSP data from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2009. We estimate event announcement interval abnormal returns in the context of an asset pricing model similar to Fama and French (1993) and Carhart (1997). We document significant negative abnormal returns for the portfolio of non-financial firms, and the smallest firms exhibit the largest negative abnormal returns, an indication of a significant spillover of financial market news to real sector stock returns. Smaller financial firms also exhibit negative abnormal event returns, and these results are driven by broker-dealer, depository, holding-investment, and real estate firms. The results provide new evidence regarding the incorporation of news events into asset prices during financial crises

Effect of Annealing Temperature on Nanostructured WO3 Films on P-Si Substrate

AbstractNanostructured WO3 films are prepared on p-Si substrate by facing target sputtering (FTS) method with sputtering pressure, 0.1Pa and 200W. The sample is annealed at 850C in air with 5C/min. The as-deposited and annealed WO3 films have been characterized by the Grazing incidence X-ray diffractometer, Field emission electron microscopy, and Ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer. The surface morphology of the WO3 films strongly depends on the annealing temperature. An average diameter of the WO3 nanorod is 5-6μm long and 800nm diameter. It is revealed from optical study that the band-gap energy of WO3 films is around 2.85eV. The surface morphology of nanostructured WO3 films has been discussed with the increase of annealing temperature

A New Forgery Image Dataset and its Subjective Evaluation

The aim of this research paper is to present a new forgery image dataset with a thorough subjective evaluation in detecting manipulated images, considering various parameters. The original images were obtained from public sources, and meaningful forgeries were produced using an image editing plat- form with three techniques: cut-paste, copy-move, and erase-fill. Both pre-processing and post-processing methods were used to generate fake images. The subjective evaluation revealed that the accuracy of manipulated image detection was affected by various factors, such as user type, image quantity, tampering method, and image resolution, which were analyzed using quantitative data

Collective Dynamics of Hierarchical Networks

In an increasingly complex, mobile and interconnected world, we face growing threats of disasters, whether by chance or deliberately. Disruption of coordinated response and recovery efforts due to organizational, technical, procedural, random or deliberate attack could result in the risk of massive loss of life. This requires urgent action to explore the development of optimal information-sharing environments for promoting collective disaster response and preparedness using multijurisdictional hierarchical networks. Innovative approaches to information flow modeling and analysis for dealing with challenges of coordinating across multi layered agency structures as well as development of early warnings through social systems using social media analytics may be pivotal to timely 2 responses to dealing with large scale disasters where response strategies need to be viewed as a shared responsibility. How do facilitate the development of collective disaster response in a multijurisdictional setting? How do we develop and test the level and effectiveness of shared multijurisdictional hierarchical networks for improved preparedness and response? What is the role of multi layered training and exercises in building the shared learning space for collective disaster preparedness and response? The aim of this is therefore to determine factors that may be responsible for affecting disaster response. It is shown here that changes to the interconnectedness of nodes in the network may have implications on the potential to preparedness and response. In this study, theory behind social network analysis is applied to a large-scale inter-organisational Disaster Response Network (DRN) for exploring correlation between network interconnectedness and response. We discover that the leadership and involvement displayed by organisations in multijurisdictional emergency response is not equal, and hypothesise the existence of a loose tiered structure that guides how interconnected an organisation should be. A model is presented as a theoretical means to confront the issues of disaster response. To test our hypotheses, we investigate survey data from state law enforcement, state emergency services and local law enforcement by performing agency-based (macro) and cross-agency (micro) analysis to identify attributes of each network and response. Results suggest that there is a positive correlation between network connectedness and potential to effective response as well as the concept of tiers within DRN may exist which can be characterized by the sub-network that an organisation associates with.preprin

Magnetic and transport properties of Pr2Pt3Si5

We have investigated the magnetic and transport properties of a polycrystalline Pr2Pt3Si5 sample through the dc and ac magnetic susceptibilities, electrical resistivity, and specific heat measurements. The Rietveld refinement of the powder X-ray diffraction data reveals that Pr2Pt3Si5 crystallizes in the U2Co3Si5-type orthorhombic structure (space group Ibam). Both the dc and ac magnetic susceptibility data measured at low fields exhibit sharp anomaly near 15 K. In contrast, the specific heat data exhibit only a broad anomaly implying no long range magnetic order down to 2 K. The broad Schottky-type anomaly in low temperature specific heat data is interpreted in terms of crystal electric field (CEF) effect, and a CEF-split singlet ground state is inferred. The absence of the long range order is attributed to the presence of nonmagnetic singlet ground state of the Pr3+ ion. The electrical resistivity data exhibit metallic behavior and are well described by the Bloch-Gr\"uniesen-Mott relation.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figure