Soft computing in investment appraisal

Standard financial techniques neglect extreme situations and regards large market shifts as too unlikely to matter. Such approach accounts for what occurs most of the time in the market, but does not reflect the reality, as major events happen in the rest of the time and investors are ‘surprised’ by ‘unexpected’ market movements. An alternative fuzzy approach permits fluctuations well beyond the probability type of uncertainty and allows one to make fewer assumptions about the data distribution and market behaviour. Fuzzifying the present value criteria, we suggest a measure of the risk associated with each investment opportunity and estimate the project’s robustness towards market uncertainty. The procedure is applied to thirty-five UK companies traded on the London Stock Exchange and a neural network solution to the fuzzy criterion is provided to facilitate the decision-making process. Finally, we suggest a specific evolutionary algorithm to train a fuzzy neural net - the bidirectional incremental evolution will automatically identify the complexity of the problem and correspondingly adapt the parameters of the fuzzy network

Characterization of Si/Si_(1-y)C_y superlattices grown by surfactant assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Si/Si_(0.97)C_(0.03) superlattices grown on Si(001) substrates by Sb surfactant assisted molecular beam epitaxy are characterized by in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high resolution x‐ray diffraction. The RHEED shows that, in the absence of Sb, the growth front roughens during Si_(0.97)C_(0.03) growth and smooths during subsequent Si growth. In contrast, when Sb is present, the growth front remains smooth throughout the growth. This observation is confirmed by cross‐sectional TEM, which reveals that for samples grown without the use of Sb, the Si/Si_(0.97)C_(0.03) interfaces (Si_(0.97)C_(0.03) on Si) are much more abrupt than the Si_(0.97)C_(0.03)/Si interfaces. In the case of Sb assisted growth, there is no observable difference in abruptness between the two types of interfaces. Atomic force microscopy micrographs of the Si_(0.97)C_(0.03) surface reveal features that could be the source of the roughness observed by RHEED and TEM

Sb-surfactant-mediated growth of Si/Si1–yCy superlattices by molecular-beam epitaxy

Si/Si0.97C0.03 superlattices were grown on Si(001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to study the use of Sb as a surfactant during Si1–yCy growth. In situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) shows that while carbon easily disrupts the two-dimensional growth of homoepitaxial Si, such disruption is suppressed for layers grown on Sb-terminated Si(001) surfaces. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals that for samples grown without the use of Sb, the Si/Si0.97C0.03 interfaces (Si0.97C0.03 on Si) were much more abrupt than Si0.97C0.03/Si interfaces. In the case of Sb-mediated growth, differences in abruptness between the two types of interfaces were not readily observable

Label-free proteomics identifies Calreticulin and GRP75/Mortalin as peripherally accessible protein biomarkers for spinal muscular atrophy

BACKGROUND: Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neuromuscular disease resulting from mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. Recent breakthroughs in preclinical research have highlighted several potential novel therapies for SMA, increasing the need for robust and sensitive clinical trial platforms for evaluating their effectiveness in human patient cohorts. Given that most clinical trials for SMA are likely to involve young children, there is a need for validated molecular biomarkers to assist with monitoring disease progression and establishing the effectiveness of therapies being tested. Proteomics technologies have recently been highlighted as a potentially powerful tool for such biomarker discovery. METHODS: We utilized label-free proteomics to identify individual proteins in pathologically-affected skeletal muscle from SMA mice that report directly on disease status. Quantitative fluorescent western blotting was then used to assess whether protein biomarkers were robustly changed in muscle, skin and blood from another mouse model of SMA, as well as in a small cohort of human SMA patient muscle biopsies. RESULTS: By comparing the protein composition of skeletal muscle in SMA mice at a pre-symptomatic time-point with the muscle proteome at a late-symptomatic time-point we identified increased expression of both Calreticulin and GRP75/Mortalin as robust indicators of disease progression in SMA mice. We report that these protein biomarkers were consistently modified in different mouse models of SMA, as well as across multiple skeletal muscles, and were also measurable in skin biopsies. Furthermore, Calreticulin and GRP75/Mortalin were measurable in muscle biopsy samples from human SMA patients. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that label-free proteomics technology provides a powerful platform for biomarker identification in SMA, revealing Calreticulin and GRP75/Mortalin as peripherally accessible protein biomarkers capable of reporting on disease progression in samples of muscle and skin

Selective excitation luminescence in bulk-grown GaAs

We have measured the excited state levels of two different shallow acceptors in bulk‐grown GaAs, using selective excitation luminescence. The 1S–2S energy differences were measured to be 21.5 and 18.5 meV, respectively. By comparing these values to those measured by two‐hole transition luminescence in high quality epitaxial GaAs [Ashen et al., J. Phys. Chem. Solids 36, 1041 (1975)], the acceptors were identified as Zn and C. The measured 1S–2P energy differences also support the identification. These studies demonstrate that selective excitation luminescence can be used to identify shallow acceptors in bulk‐grown semi‐insulating GaAs, and hence can be used as a diagnostic tool for bulk‐grown samples

Band offsets in Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterojunctions measured by admittance spectroscopy

We have used admittance spectroscopy to measure conduction-band and valence-band offsets in Si/Si1–xGex and Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterostructures grown by solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy. Valence-band offsets measured for Si/Si1–xGex heterojunctions were in excellent agreement with previously reported values. Incorporation of C into Si1–x–yGexCy lowers the valence- and conduction-band-edge energies compared to those in Si1–xGex with the same Ge concentration. Comparison of our measured band offsets with previously reported measurements of energy band gaps in Si1–x–yGexCy and Si1–yCy alloy layers indicate that the band alignment is Type I for the compositions we have studied and that our measured band offsets are in quantitative agreement with these previously reported results

Measurement of band offsets in Si/Si1–xGex and Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterojunctions

Realization of group IV heterostructure devices requires the accurate measurement of the energy band offsets in Si/Si1–xGex and Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterojunctions. Using admittance spectroscopy, we have measured valence-band offsets in Si/Si1–xGex heterostructures and conduction-band and valence-band offsets in Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterostructures grown by solid-source molecular-beam epitaxy. Measured Si/Si1–xGex valence-band offsets were in excellent agreement with previously reported values. For Si/Si1–x–yGexCy our measurements yielded a conduction-band offset of 100 ± 11 meV for a n-type Si/Si0.82Ge0.169C0.011 heterojunction and valence-band offsets of 118 ± 12 meV for a p-type Si/Si0.79Ge0.206C0.004 heterojunction and 223 ± 20 meV for a p-type Si/Si0.595Ge0.394C0.011 heterojunction. Comparison of our measured band offsets with previously reported measurements of energy band gaps in Si1–x–yGexCy and Si1–yCy alloy layers indicates that the band alignment is type I for the compositions we have studied and that our measured band offsets are in quantitative agreement with these previously reported results

New Limits on Local Lorentz Invariance in Mercury and Cesium

We report new bounds on Local Lorentz Invariance (LLI) violation in Cs and Hg. The limits are obtained through the observation of the the spin- precession frequencies of 199Hg and 133Cs atoms in their ground states as a function of the orientation of an applied magnetic field with respect to the fixed stars. We measure the amplitudes of the dipole couplings to a preferred direction in the equatorial plane to be 19(11) nHz for Hg and 9(5) microHz for Cs. The upper bounds established here improve upon previous bounds by about a factor of four. The improvement is primarily due to mounting the apparatus on a rotating table. New bounds are established on several terms in the standard model extension including the first bounds on the spin-couplings of the neutron and proton to the z direction, <7e-30 GeV and <7e-29 GeV, respectively.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figure

Electronic properties of Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterojunctions

We have used admittance spectroscopy and deep-level transient spectroscopy to characterize electronic properties of Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterostructures. Band offsets measured by admittance spectroscopy for compressively strained Si/Si1–x–yGexCy heterojunctions indicate that incorporation of C into Si1–x–yGexCy lowers both the valence- and conduction-band edges compared to those in Si1–xGex by an average of 107 ± 6 meV/% C and 75 ± 6 meV/% C, respectively. Combining these measurements indicates that the band alignment is type I for the compositions we have studied, and that these results are consistent with previously reported results on the energy band gap of Si1–x–yGexCy and with measurements of conduction band offsets in Si/Si1–yCy heterojunctions. Several electron traps were observed using deep-level transient spectroscopy on two n-type heterostructures. Despite the presence of a significant amount of nonsubstitutional C (0.29–1.6 at. %), none of the peaks appear attributable to previously reported interstitial C levels. Possible sources for these levels are discussed