Method for atomic-layer-resolved measurement of polarization fields by nuclear magnetic resonance

A nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) method of probing the dielectric response to an alternating electric field is described, which is applicable to noncentrosymmetric sites with nuclear spin I>1/2. A radio-frequency electric field induces a linear quadrupole Stark effect at a multiple of the nuclear Larmor frequency. This perturbation is applied in the windows of an NMR multiple-pulse line-narrowing sequence in such a way that the resulting nonsecular spin interactions are observed as first-order quadrupole satellites, free of line broadening by the usual dominant static interactions. A simulation of the 69Ga spectrum for the nuclei within the two-dimensional electron gas of a 10 nm quantum well predicts resolution of individual atomic layers in single devices due to the spatial dependence of the polarization response of the quantum-confined carriers to the applied field. This method is part of a more general strategy, perturbations observed with enhanced resolution NMR. Experimentally realized examples in GaAs include spectrally resolving electron probability densities surrounding optically relevant point defects and probing the changes in radial electric field associated with the light-on and light-off states of these shallow traps. Adequate sensitivity for such experiments in individual epitaxial structures is achieved by optical nuclear polarization followed by time-domain NMR observed via nuclear Larmor-beat detection of luminescence

Harpur Palate, Volume 14 Number 2, Winter & Spring 2014

Contributors: Rebecca Baggett | Harry Bauld | Brandon Bell | Carol Berg | Vanessa Blakeslee | Conor Bracken | Callista Buchen | Jimmie Cumbie | Maria D\u27Alessandaro | Kwame Dawes | Hannah Dow | Jeff Ewing | Brad Felver | Dylan Henderson | Joseph Holt | Patricia Horvath | Lesley Jenike | M.P Jones IV | Christopher Kempf | Matt Kish | Michael Lauchlan | Mercedes Lawry | Ruth Madievsky | Hugh Martin | Danielle Mitchell | Jimmy J. Pack Jr. | Sarah Pape | Michael Pontacoloni | Richard Prins | Nicole Rollender | Mike Salisbury | Wendy Scott | Noel Sloboda | Chris Speckman | Ty Stumpf | Bob Watts | Charles Harper Webb | Larry James Wormington | Lauren Yarnal

kube-volttron: Rearchitecting the VOLTTRON Building Energy Management System for Cloud Native Deployment

Managing the energy consumption of the built environment is an important source of flexible load and decarbonization, enabling building managers and utilities to schedule consumption to avoid costly demand charges and peak times when carbon emissions from grid generated electricity are highest. A key technology component in building energy management is the building energy management system. Eclipse VOLTTRON is a legacy software platform which enables building energy management. It was developed for the US Department of Energy (DOE) at Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL) written in Python and based on a monolithic build-configure-and-run-in-place system architecture that predates cloud native architectural concepts. Yet the software architecture is componentized in a way that anticipates modular containerized applications, with software agents handling functions like data storage, web access, and communication with IoT devices over specific IoT protocols such as BACnet and Modbus. The agents communicate among themselves over a message bus. This paper describes a proof-of-concept prototype to rearchitect VOLTTRON into a collection of microservices suitable for deployment on the Kubernetes cloud native container orchestration platform. The agents are packaged in redistributable containers that perform specific functions and which can be configured when they are deployed. The deployment architecture consists of single Kubernetes cluster containing a central node, nominally in a cloud-based VM, where a microservice containing the database agent (called a "historian") and the web site agent for the service run, and gateway nodes running on sites in buildings where a microservice containing IoT protocol-specific agents handles control and data collection to and from devices, and communication back to the central node

Conference Bibliography: Juvenile Justice 1999-2013

A selected bibliography was prepared in connection with the Juvenile Justice Conference held at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on April 12-13, 2013

Mutual Fund Growth in Standard and Specialist Market Segments

We examine differences in the performance flow relationship (PFR) between different segments of the fund industry. Such differences can be caused by distinct mutual fund investors’ characteristics in different segments. In our empirical study of the US equity mutual fund industry in 1993-2001, we find a much more convex PFR in standard segments than in specialist segments. Furthermore, our results suggest that investors in the latter are more fee- and risk-aware than investors in standard segments. Overall, these results hint at investors in specialist segments being more sophisticated than investors in standard segments. Our results should have serious implications for the management of investment companies and for the behavior of fund managers.Mutual Funds, Performance Flow Relationship, Fund Growth, Investor Sophistication

Faithful Estimation of Dynamics Parameters from CPMG Relaxation Dispersion Measurements

This work examines the robustness of fitting of parameters describing conformational exchange (kex, pa/b, and Δω) processes from CPMG relaxation dispersion data. We have analyzed the equations describing conformational exchange processes for the intrinsic inter-dependence of their parameters that leads to the existence of multiple equivalent solutions, which equally satisfy the experimental data. We have used Monte-Carlo simulations and fitting to the synthetic data sets as well as the direct 3-D mapping of the parameter space of kex, pa/b, and Δω to quantitatively assess the degree of the parameter inter-dependence. The demonstrated high correlation between parameters can preclude accurate dynamics parameter estimation from NMR spin-relaxation data obtained at a single static magnetic field. The strong parameter inter-dependence can readily be overcome through acquisition of spin-relaxation data at more than one static magnetic field thereby allowing accurate assessment of conformational exchange properties

Fundamental information in technical trading strategies

Technical trading strategies assume that past changes in prices help predict future changes. This makes sense if the past price trend reflects fundamental information that has not yet been fully incorporated in the current price. However, if the past price trend only reflects temporary pricing pressures, the technical trading strategy is doomed to fail. We demonstrate that this failure can be avoided by using financial statements as additional sources of information. We implement a trading strategy that invests in stocks with high past returns and high operating cash flows. This combination strategy yields a 3-factor alpha of 15% per year, which is much higher than that of the pure momentum strategy that invests in stocks with high past returns without considering operating cash flows. The combination strategy outperforms the momentum strategy in almost all years. The outperformance can be traced back to a higher probability of picking outperforming stocks. These are stocks that yield high future cash flows and hardly ever delist due to poor performance. The combination strategy is easily implemented: the information used is publicly available, the stocks chosen are liquid, and even high transaction costs do not erode the outperformance. --

Monetary Unions and External Shocks

According to Bordo and James (2008), history shows that multinational monetary unions have dissolved mainly under the consequences of external shocks. This paper focuses on the effects of external shocks in assessing the sustainability of a monetary union and provides a theoretical argument that confirms their point.Monetary Union, Optimum Currency Areas, External Shocks

Monetary Unions and External Shocks

According to Bordo and James [2008, “A long term perspective on the Euro, ” NBER Working Paper, No. 13815], history shows that multinational monetary unions have dissolved mainly under the consequences of external shocks. This paper provides a theoretical model demonstrating their point.Monetary Union, Optimum Currency Areas, External Shocks.