XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER quasar sample at the reionization epoch

The final phase of the reionization process can be probed by rest-frame UV absorption spectra of quasars at z>6, shedding light on the properties of the diffuse intergalactic medium within the first Gyr of the Universe. The ESO Large Programme "XQR-30: the ultimate XSHOOTER legacy survey of quasars at z~5.8-6.6" dedicated ~250 hours of observations at the VLT to create a homogeneous and high-quality sample of spectra of 30 luminous quasars at z~6, covering the rest wavelength range from the Lyman limit to beyond the MgII emission. Twelve quasar spectra of similar quality from the XSHOOTER archive were added to form the enlarged XQR-30 sample, corresponding to a total of ~350 hours of on-source exposure time. The median effective resolving power of the 42 spectra is R~11400 and 9800 in the VIS and NIR arm, respectively. The signal-to-noise ratio per 10 km/s pixel ranges from ~11 to 114 at $\lambda \simeq 1285$ \AA rest frame, with a median value of ~29. We describe the observations, data reduction and analysis of the spectra, together with some first results based on the E-XQR-30 sample. New photometry in the H and K bands are provided for the XQR-30 quasars, together with composite spectra whose characteristics reflect the large absolute magnitudes of the sample. The composite and the reduced spectra are released to the community through a public repository, and will enable a range of studies addressing outstanding questions regarding the first Gyr of the Universe.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. Revised version resubmitted to MNRAS after minor referee repor

Custom Integrated Circuits

Contains table of contents for Part III, table of contents for Section 1 and reports on eleven research projects.IBM CorporationMIT School of EngineeringNational Science Foundation Grant MIP 94-23221Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency/U.S. Army Intelligence Center Contract DABT63-94-C-0053Mitsubishi CorporationNational Science Foundation Young Investigator Award Fellowship MIP 92-58376Joint Industry Program on Offshore Structure AnalysisAnalog DevicesDefense Advanced Research Projects AgencyCadence Design SystemsMAFET ConsortiumConsortium for Superconducting ElectronicsNational Defense Science and Engineering Graduate FellowshipDigital Equipment CorporationMIT Lincoln LaboratorySemiconductor Research CorporationMultiuniversity Research IntiativeNational Science Foundatio

P.Oxy. XLIX 3493. Loan of wheat

Edizione di un papiro documentario inedito appartenente alla collezione degli Oxyrhynchus Papyri (Oxford), consistente in un prestito di grano del 175 d.C. redatto in duplicato e in forma di chirografo

Student evaluation of teaching, social influence dynamics, and teachers’ choices: An evolutionary model

The issue of Student Evaluation of Teaching has been explored by a large literature across many decades. However, the role of social influence factors in determining teachers’ responses to a given incentive and evaluation framework has been left basically unexplored. This paper makes a first attempt in this vein by considering an evolutionary game-theoretic context where teachers face a two-stage process in which their rating depends on both students’ evaluation of their course and on retrospective students’ evaluation of their teaching output in view of students’ performance in a related follow-up course. We find that both high effort (difficult course offered) and low effort (easy course offered) outcomes may emerge, leading either to a socially optimal outcome for teachers or not, according to cases. Moreover, there may be a potential conflict between the optimal outcome for students and for teachers. We also consider possible ways to generalize our model in future research

The globalization of R&D's implications for technological capabilities in MNC home countries: Semiconductor design offshoring to China and India

This paper addresses the empirical question of the impact of the offshoring of semiconductor design to India and China on the generation of semiconductor design skills in the offshoring multinational corporations' (MNCs) home countries. There are four main findings. First, there is a specific technology skill ladder for training “design leads” or design managers within this industry that entails direct exposure to a wide range of design activities. Thus, offshoring has potentially serious implications for development of further design leads. Second, the paper also finds that the impact on skills activities and thus potential skills generation at home from offshoring to India has been limited and gradual and from offshoring to China has been even more limited although the activities done in each country by MNCs have risen over time. Third, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis pinpoints that the operations with design leads and large design teams in 2003–2007 in conjunction with other attributes are generally the ones that pursued the most extensive expansion of semiconductor design offshoring during the subsequent 2009–2013 period. Finally, the evidence for a gradual process of offshoring from the second and third points suggests that offshoring in semiconductor design will most likely not displace the large amount of design activities in the home countries of the MNCs in the near future

A Low Temperature Fully Lithographic Process For Metal–Oxide Field-Effect Transistors

We report a low temperature ( ~ 100à °C) lithographic method for fabricating hybrid metal oxide/organic field-effect transistors (FETs) that combine a zinc-indium-oxide (ZIO) semiconductor channel and organic, parylene, dielectric layer. The transistors show a field-effect mobility of (12à ±0.8) cm2 V-1 s-1, on/off ratio of 108 and turn-off voltage of Voff = -1 V. This work demonstrates that organic and inorganic layers can be deposited and patterned using a low temperature budget, integrated lithographic process to make FETs suitable for large area electronic applications.United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Microsystems Technology OfficeHewlett-Packard Compan