384 research outputs found
The influence of ion energy, ion flux, and etch temperature on the electrical and material quality of GaAs etched with an electron cyclotron resonance source
The residual damage incurred to GaAs via etching with a Cl2/Ar plasma generated by an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) source was investigated as a function of variations in ion energy, ion flux, and etching temperature. The residual damage and electrical properties of GaAs were strongly influenced by changes in these etching parameters. Lattice damage was incurred in all processing situations in the form of small dislocation loops. GaAs etched at high ion energies with 200 W rf power, exhibited a defect density five times higher than GaAs etched at lower ion energies with 20 W rf power. This enhanced residual damage at the higher rf powers was paralleled by a degradation in the unannealed contact resistance. Higher etch rates, which accompany the higher rf power levels, caused the width of the disordered region to contract as the rf power was elevated. Therefore, the residual etch damage is influenced by both the generation and removal of defects. Increasing the microwave power or ion flux resulted in elevating the residual defect density, surface roughness, and unannealed contact resistance. GaAs etched at high temperatures, ∼350 °C, resulted in a lower contact resistance than GaAs etched at 25 °C. The high temperature etching augmented the defect diffusion which in turn lowered the near surface defect density. This decrease in residual damage was deemed responsible for improving the electrical performance at 350 °C. The electrical measurements were found to be more sensitive to the density of defects than the vertical extent of disorder beneath the etched surface. Results of this investigation demonstrate that in order to minimize material damage and improve electrical performance, etching with an ECR source should be performed at low rf and microwave powers with a high substrate temperature. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70988/2/JAPIAU-78-4-2712-1.pd
Dealing with mobility: Understanding access anytime, anywhere
The rapid and accelerating move towards the adoption and use of mobile technologies has increasingly provided people and organisations with the ability to work away from the office and on the move. The new ways of working afforded by these technologies are often characterised in terms of access to information and people ‘anytime, anywhere’. This paper presents a study of mobile workers that highlights different facets of access to remote people and information, and different facets of anytime, anywhere. Four key factors in mobile work are identified from the study: the role of planning, working in ‘dead time’, accessing remote technological and informational resources, and monitoring the activities of remote colleagues. By reflecting on these issues, we can better understand the role of technology and artefact use in mobile work and identify the opportunities for the development of appropriate technological solutions to support mobile workers
Rapid Exchange Cooling with Trapped Ions
The trapped-ion quantum charge-coupled device (QCCD) architecture is a
leading candidate for advanced quantum information processing. In current QCCD
implementations, imperfect ion transport and anomalous heating can excite ion
motion during a calculation. To counteract this, intermediate cooling is
necessary to maintain high-fidelity gate performance. Cooling the computational
ions sympathetically with ions of another species, a commonly employed
strategy, creates a significant runtime bottleneck. Here, we demonstrate a
different approach we call exchange cooling. Unlike sympathetic cooling,
exchange cooling does not require trapping two different atomic species. The
protocol introduces a bank of coolant ions which are repeatedly laser
cooled. A computational ion can then be cooled by transporting a coolant ion
into its proximity. We test this concept experimentally with two ions,
executing the necessary transport in 107 , an order of magnitude faster
than typical sympathetic cooling durations. We remove over 96%, and as many as
102(5) quanta, of axial motional energy from the computational ion. We verify
that re-cooling the coolant ion does not decohere the computational ion. This
approach validates the feasibility of a single-species QCCD processor, capable
of fast quantum simulation and computation
Impact of hospital characteristics on patients’ experience of hospital care: Evidence from 14 states, 2009-2011
This paper uses patient responses to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey for three years (2009-2011) from 1,333 acute-care hospitals in fourteen states to analyze patterns in 10 hospital-reported patient experience-of-care scores by 29 characteristics classified as: patient characteristics, payer source, patient severity, hospital characteristics, hospital operations, and market characteristics. We also evaluate how scores have changed over the three-year period. We find significant differences in patient experience-of-care scores by hospital characteristics for 250 out of 290 HCAHPS-hospital characteristic combinations measured. We find fewer significant differences in changes in scores from 2009-2011 (135 out of 290), with hospitals categorized as high scoring also reporting consistently greater improvement. We conclude that patient experience-of-care scores vary by hospital characteristics, although improvements in scores show less variety by hospital categorization
D-brane potentials in the warped resolved conifold and natural inflation
In this paper we obtain a model of Natural Inflation from string theory with
a Planckian decay constant. We investigate D-brane dynamics in the background
of the warped resolved conifold (WRC) throat approximation of Type IIB string
compactifications on Calabi-Yau manifolds. When we glue the throat to a compact
bulk Calabi-Yau, we generate a D-brane potential which is a solution to the
Laplace equation on the resolved conifold. We can exactly solve this equation,
including dependence on the angular coordinates. The solutions are valid down
to the tip of the resolved conifold, which is not the case for the more
commonly used deformed conifold. This allows us to exploit the effect of the
warping, which is strongest at the tip. We inflate near the tip using an
angular coordinate of a D5-brane in the WRC which has a discrete shift
symmetry, and feels a cosine potential, giving us a model of Natural Inflation,
from which it is possible to get a Planckian decay constant whilst maintaining
control over the backreaction. This is because the decay constant for a wrapped
brane contains powers of the warp factor, and so can be made large, while the
wrapping parameter can be kept small enough so that backreaction is under
control.Comment: 41 pages, 3 appendices, 1 figure, PDFLaTex; various clarifications
added along with a new appendix on b-axions and wrapped D5 branes;version
matches the one published in JHE
Abnormal expression of p27kip1 protein in levator ani muscle of aging women with pelvic floor disorders – a relationship to the cellular differentiation and degeneration
BACKGROUND: Pelvic floor disorders affect almost 50% of aging women. An important role in the pelvic floor support belongs to the levator ani muscle. The p27/kip1 (p27) protein, multifunctional cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor, shows changing expression in differentiating skeletal muscle cells during development, and relatively high levels of p27 RNA were detected in the normal human skeletal muscles. METHODS: Biopsy samples of levator ani muscle were obtained from 22 symptomatic patients with stress urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and overlaps (age range 38–74), and nine asymptomatic women (age 31–49). Cryostat sections were investigated for p27 protein expression and type I (slow twitch) and type II (fast twitch) fibers. RESULTS: All fibers exhibited strong plasma membrane (and nuclear) p27 protein expression. cytoplasmic p27 expression was virtually absent in asymptomatic women. In perimenopausal symptomatic patients (ages 38–55), muscle fibers showed hypertrophy and moderate cytoplasmic p27 staining accompanied by diminution of type II fibers. Older symptomatic patients (ages 57–74) showed cytoplasmic p27 overexpression accompanied by shrinking, cytoplasmic vacuolization and fragmentation of muscle cells. The plasma membrane and cytoplasmic p27 expression was not unique to the muscle cells. Under certain circumstances, it was also detected in other cell types (epithelium of ectocervix and luteal cells). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report on the unusual (plasma membrane and cytoplasmic) expression of p27 protein in normal and abnormal human striated muscle cells in vivo. Our data indicate that pelvic floor disorders are in perimenopausal patients associated with an appearance of moderate cytoplasmic p27 expression, accompanying hypertrophy and transition of type II into type I fibers. The patients in advanced postmenopause show shrinking and fragmentation of muscle fibers associated with strong cytoplasmic p27 expression
Transplanckian axions !?
We discuss quantum gravitational effects in Einstein theory coupled to
periodic axion scalars to analyze the viability of several proposals to achieve
superplanckian axion periods (aka decay constants) and their possible
application to large field inflation models. The effects we study correspond to
the nucleation of euclidean gravitational instantons charged under the axion,
and our results are essentially compatible with (but independent of) the Weak
Gravity Conjecture, as follows: Single axion theories with superplanckian
periods contain gravitational instantons inducing sizable higher harmonics in
the axion potential, which spoil superplanckian inflaton field range. A similar
result holds for multi-axion models with lattice alignment (like the
Kim-Nilles-Peloso model). Finally, theories with axions can still achieve a
moderately superplanckian periodicity (by a factor) with no higher
harmonics in the axion potential. The Weak Gravity Conjecture fails to hold in
this case due to the absence of some instantons, which are forbidden by a
discrete gauge symmetry. Finally we discuss the realization of
these instantons as euclidean D-branes in string compactifications.Comment: 46 pages, 6 figures. Added references, clarifications, and missing
factor of 1/2 to instanton action. Conclusions unchange
Chromosome characterization and variability in some Iridaceae from Northeastern Brazil
The chromosomes of 15 species of Iridaceae of the genera Alophia, Cipura, Eleutherine, Neomarica and Trimezia (subfamily Iridoideae) were examined after conventional Giemsa staining. The karyotypes of Alophia drummondii (2n = 14+1B, 28, 42 and 56), Cipura paludosa (2n = 14), C. xanthomelas (2n = 28) and Eleutherine bulbosa (2n = 12) were asymmetric; Neomarica candida, N. caerulea, N. humilis, N. glauca, N. gracilis, N. northiana and Neomarica sp. (2n = 18); N. cf. paradoxa (2n = 28), Trimezia fosteriana (2n = 52), T. martinicensis (2n = 54) and T. connata (2n = 82) were all generally symmetric. New diploid numbers of 2n = 56 for Alophia drummondii, 2n = 18 for N. candida, N. humilis, N. glauca, and N. gracilis, 2n = 28 for N. cf. paradoxa, and 2n = 82 for T. connata are reported. The karyotypic evolution of the studied species is discussed
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