Photothermal Absorption Spectroscopy of Individual Semiconductor Nanocrystals

Photothermal heterodyne detection is used to record the first room-temperature absorption spectra of single CdSe/ZnS semiconductor nanocrystals. These spectra are recorded in the high cw excitation regime, and the observed bands are assigned to transitions involving biexciton and trion states. Comparison with the single nanocrystals photoluminescence spectra leads to the measurement of spectral Stokes shifts free from ensemble averaging

School Smoking Policy Characteristics and Individual Perceptions of the School Tobacco Context: Are They Linked to Students’ Smoking Status?

The purpose of this study was to explore individual- and school-level policy characteristics on student smoking behavior using an ecological perspective. Participants were 24,213 (51% female) Grade 10–11 students from 81 schools in five Canadian provinces. Data were collected using student self-report surveys, written policies collected from schools, interviews with school administrators, and school property observations to assess multiple dimensions of the school tobacco policy. The multi-level modeling results revealed that the school a student attended was associated with his/her smoking behavior. Individual-level variables that were associated with student smoking included lower school connectedness, a greater number of family and friends who smoked, higher perceptions of student smoking prevalence, lower perceptions of student smoking frequency, and stronger perceptions of the school tobacco context. School-level variables associated with student smoking included weaker policy intention indicating prohibition and assistance to overcome tobacco addiction, weaker policy implementation involving strategies for enforcement, and a higher number of students smoking on school property. These findings suggest that the school environment is important to tobacco control strategies, and that various policy dimensions have unique relationships to student smoking. School tobacco policies should be part of a comprehensive approach to adolescent tobacco use

Comparisons between Tethyan Anorthosite-bearing Ophiolites and Archean Anorthosite-bearing Layered Intrusions: Implications for Archean Geodynamic Processes

Elucidating the petrogenesis and geodynamic setting(s) of anorthosites in Archean layered intrusions and Tethyan ophiolites has significant implications for crustal evolution and growth throughout Earth history. Archean anorthosite-bearing layered intrusions occur on every continent. Tethyan ophiolites occur in Europe, Africa, and Asia. In this contribution, the field, petrographic, petrological, and geochemical characteristics of 100 Tethyan anorthosite-bearing ophiolites and 155 Archean anorthosite-bearing layered intrusions are compared. Tethyan anorthosite-bearing ophiolites range from Devonian to Paleocene in age, are variably composite, contain anorthosites with highly calcic (An44-100) plagioclase and magmatic amphibole. These ophiolites formed predominantly at convergent plate margins, with some forming in mid-ocean ridge, continental rift, and mantle plume settings. The predominantly convergent plate margin tectonic setting of Tethyan anorthosite-bearing ophiolites is indicated by negative Nb and Ti anomalies and magmatic amphibole. Archean anorthosite-bearing layered intrusions are Eoarchean to Neoarchean in age, have megacrystic anorthosites with highly calcic (An20-100) plagioclase and magmatic amphibole and are interlayered with gabbros and leucogabbros and intrude pillow basalts. These Archean layered intrusions are interpreted to have predominantly formed at convergent plate margins, with the remainder forming in mantle plume, continental rift, oceanic plateau, post-orogenic, anorogenic, mid-ocean ridge, and passive continental margin settings. These layered intrusions predominantly crystallized from hydrous Ca- and Al-rich tholeiitic magmas. The field, petrographic and geochemical similarities between Archean and Tethyan anorthosites indicate that they were produced by similar geodynamic processes mainly in suprasubduction zone settings. We suggest that Archean anorthosite-bearing layered intrusions and spatially associated greenstone belts represent dismembered subduction-related Archean ophiolites