Electrical Testing of Piezoelectric Transducers Applied to Accelerometer Design

Piezoelectric transducers are, by nature, electromechanical devices. Methods historically used to characterize these transducers involve both electrical and mechanical measurements. The purpose of this paper is to propose a technique to characterize piezoids which will require electrical measurements only. Thus, characterization can be accomplished through the use of readily available calibrated electrical test equipment. This technique is based upon the assumption that some insight into the dynamic behavior of a piezoid can be implied by inspection of the transducer\u27s static material properties. A necessary condition for the validity of the proposed technique is established. This test procedure is utilized in the design/test process of a piezoelectric accelerometer

Surface Energy in Cold Asymmetrical Fermion Superfluids

We derive the energy of the surface between the normal and superfluid components of a mixed phase of a system composed of two particle species with different densities. The surface energy is obtained by the integration of the free energy density in the interface between the two phases. We show that the mixed phase remains as the favored ground state over the gapless phase in weak coupling. We find that the surface energy effects emerge only at strong coupling.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, typos corrected, published versio

The motion of superconducting vortices in thin films of varying thickness

The interaction of superconducting vortices with superconductor/vacuum interfaces is considered. A vortex is first shown to intersect such an interface normally. Various thin-film models are then formulated, corresponding to different parameter regimes. A local analysis of a vortex is performed, and a law of motion for each vortex deduced. This law of motion implies that the vortex will move to the locally thinnest part of the film, and is consistent with the vortex moving under the curvature induced by being forced to intersect the boundaries of the film normall

Examining the terminology of race issues in assessments for international exchange students

This study examined assignments by students from a university in Scotland and a university in the USA, and explored the terminology used by student when referring to race issues in assignments linked to practice. The findings suggest the terminology of race issues in assessments may be inappropriate for students because they allow racism to be marginalized from practice or presented in a way that conveys little analysis

The timing of maternal depressive symptoms and child cognitive development: a longitudinal study.

Background: Maternal depression is known to be associated with impairments in child cognitive development, although the effect of timing of exposure to maternal depression is unclear. Methods: Data collected for the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a longitudinal study beginning in pregnancy, included self-report measures of maternal depression the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, completed on 6 occasions up to 3 years of age, and IQ of the index child (WISC) measured at aged 8 years. We used these data to assign women to 8 groups according to whether depression occurred in the antenatal, postnatal, preschool period, any combination of these times, or not at all. We compared a model comprising all patterns of depression (saturated model) with models nested within this to test whether there is a relationship between depression and child cognitive development and, if so, whether there is a sensitive period. We then investigated the relationship with child IQ for each model, following adjustment for confounders. Results: Six thousand seven hundred and thirty-five of 13,615 children from singleton births (49.5%, of eligible core sample) attended a research clinic at 8 years and completed a WISC with a score ≥ 70. A total of 5,029 mothers of these children had completed mood assessments over the 3 time periods. In unadjusted analyses, all three sensitive period models were as good as the saturated model, as was an accumulation model. Of the sensitive period models, only that for antenatal exposure was a consistently better fit than the accumulation model. After multiple imputation for missing data (to n = 6,735), there was no effect of postnatal depression on child IQ independent of depression at other times [-0.19 IQ points, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.5 to 1.1 points]. There was an effect of antenatal depression (-3.19 IQ points, 95% CI: -4.33 to -2.06) which attenuated following adjustment (-0.64 IQ points, 95% CI: -1.68 to 0.40). Conclusions: The postnatal period is not a sensitive one for the effect of maternal depression on child cognitive development. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Barriers and facilitators of disclosing domestic violence to the healthcare service:A systematic review of qualitative research

Domestic violence victims are in frequent contact with the healthcare service yet rarely disclose. Therefore, it is critical to understand victims' experiences and perceptions regarding disclosure in healthcare settings. The goal of this review is to provide an updated synthesis of qualitative research identifying barriers and facilitators, advice, and positive and negative outcomes of adult victims' disclosure of domestic violence to healthcare professionals (HCPs). A systematic search of PsychINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science was conducted in January 2018. Thirty-four eligible studies were identified, including 783 domestic violence victims (781 females). Formal quality assessment indicated variable study quality. Barriers of disclosure included negative HCPs attitudes, victims' perceptions of safety and concerns about the consequences of disclosing. Facilitators of disclosing included a positive relationship with the HCP, HCPs directly asking victims about abuse, and HCPs ensuring that the environment is safe and disclosure is confidential. Victims advised increased awareness of HCPs reactions to disclosure and avoiding mirroring their perpetrators minimization. HCPs were encouraged to engage in direct questioning and maintain a supportive and secure environment. Positive and negative outcomes of abuse were identified, such as being able to leave the abuser or, on the other hand, the victims' situation not changing. Our results indicate that barriers for disclosure of domestic violence in healthcare settings persist despite the widespread implementation of policies and guidelines to counter them. Based on these findings, we provide recommendations for clinical practice and future research to help improve disclosure in healthcare settings

Selected and extended papers of the Brazilian Symposium on Programming Languages 2012

The Brazilian Symposium on Programming Languages (SBLP) is an annual conference romoted by the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC), which has become an important forum for researchers and practitioners in programming language design and implementation from around the world to interact and present their results and experience. This issue of Science of Computer Programming includes extended versions of selected papers from the XVI SBLP, held in Natal, Brazil on September 23–28, 2012

Finite Temperature Phase Diagram of Quasi-Two-Dimensional Imbalanced Fermi Gases Beyond Mean-Field

We investigate the superfluid transition temperature of quasi-two-dimensional imbalanced Fermi gases beyond the mean-field approximation, through the second-order (or induced) interaction effects. For a balanced Fermi system the transition temperature is suppressed by a factor $\approx 2.72$. For imbalanced Fermi systems, the polarization and transition temperature of the tricritical point are significantly reduced as the two-body binding energy $|\epsilon_B|$ increases.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure