Effects of surface forces and phonon dissipation in a three-terminal nano relay

We have performed a theoretical analysis of the operational characteristics of a carbon-nanotube-based three-terminal nanorelay. We show that short range and van der Waals forces have a significant impact on the characteristics of the relay and introduce design constraints. We also investigate the effects of dissipation due to phonon excitation in the drain contact, which changes the switching time scales of the system, decreasing the longest time scale by two orders of magnitude. We show that the nanorelay can be used as a memory element and investigate the dynamics and properties of such a device

A Carbon Nanotube Based Nanorelay

We investigate the operational characteristics of a nanorelay based on a conducting carbon nanotube placed on a terrace in a silicon substrate. The nanorelay is a three terminal device that acts as a switch in the GHz regime. Potential applications include logic devices, memory elements, pulse generators, and current or voltage amplifiers.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Structural phases driven by oxygen vacancies at the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/SrTiO3 hetero-interface

An oxygen vacancy driven structural response at the epitaxial interface between La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films and SrTiO3 substrates is reported. A combined scanning transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy study reveal the presence of an elongated out-of-plane lattice parameter, coupled to oxygen vacancies and reduced manganese oxidation state at the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 side of the interface. Density functional theory calculations support that the measured interface structure is a disordered oxygen deficient brownmillerite structure. The effect of oxygen vacancy mobility is assessed, revealing an ordering of the vacancies with time

Cognitive Disability and Postsecondary Education: A National Study on Earnings

Postsecondary education provides an opportunity to increase the economic potential of individuals. Earnings for individuals with cognitive disabilities are a major concern, as occupational outcomes are often dire. The prevalence of individuals with cognitive disabilities in postsecondary education settings is increasing, but little is known about how postsecondary attendance may relate to post-graduation earnings for this population. This article presents findings from the 2017 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey on the prevalence of individuals with cognitive disabilities who have attended various levels of postsecondary education and a series of linear regressions identifies the relationship between varying degrees and earnings while controlling for age, sex, race, ethnicity, public support systems, weeks worked each year, and hours worked each week. Results indicated that some college without a degree (14.815%), an associate’s degree (35.831%), a bachelor’s degree (68.267%), and advanced degrees (106.063%) all provide substantial earnings increases over individuals who received a high school degree or less. Findings include policy and practice implications to improve supports and services to increase access to postsecondary education for individuals with cognitive disabilities

Nonthermal Emission from the Arches Cluster (G0.121+0.017) and the Origin of γ\gamma-ray Emission from 3EG J1746-2851

High resolution VLA observations of the Arches cluster near the Galactic center show evidence of continuum emission at $\lambda$3.6, 6, 20 and 90cm. The continuum emission at $\lambda$90cm is particularly striking because thermal sources generally become optically thick at longer wavelengths and fall off in brightness whereas non-thermal sources increase in brightness. It is argued that the radio emission from this unique source has compact and diffuse components produced by thermal and nonthermal processes, respectively. Compact sources within the cluster arise from stellar winds of mass-losing stars (Lang, Goss & Rodriguez 2001a) whereas diffuse emission is likely to be due to colliding wind shocks of the cluster flow generating relativistic particles due to diffuse shock acceleration. We also discuss the possibility that $\gamma$-ray emission from 3EG J1746--2851, located within 3.3$'$ of the Arches cluster, results from the inverse Compton scattering of the radiation field of the cluster.Comment: 15 pages, four figures, ApJL (in press

An Evolving Entropy Floor in the Intracluster Gas?

Non-gravitational processes, such as feedback from galaxies and their active nuclei, are believed to have injected excess entropy into the intracluster gas, and therefore to have modified the density profiles in galaxy clusters during their formation. Here we study a simple model for this so-called preheating scenario, and ask (i) whether it can simultaneously explain both global X-ray scaling relations and number counts of galaxy clusters, and (ii) whether the amount of entropy required evolves with redshift. We adopt a baseline entropy profile that fits recent hydrodynamic simulations, modify the hydrostatic equilibrium condition for the gas by including approx. 20% non-thermal pressure support, and add an entropy floor K_0 that is allowed to vary with redshift. We find that the observed luminosity-temperature (L-T) relations of low-redshift (z=0.05) HIFLUGCS clusters and high-redshift (z=0.8) WARPS clusters are best simultaneously reproduced with an evolving entropy floor of K_0(z)=341(1+z)^{-0.83}h^{-1/3} keV cm^2. If we restrict our analysis to the subset of bright (kT > 3 keV) clusters, we find that the evolving entropy floor can mimic a self-similar evolution in the L-T scaling relation. This degeneracy with self-similar evolution is, however, broken when (0.5 < kT < 3 keV) clusters are also included. The approx. 60% entropy increase we find from z=0.8 to z=0.05 is roughly consistent with that expected if the heating is provided by the evolving global quasar population. Using the cosmological parameters from the WMAP 3-year data with sigma_8=0.76, our best-fit model underpredicts the number counts of the X-ray galaxy clusters compared to those derived from the 158 deg^2 ROSAT PSPC survey. Treating sigma_8 as a free parameter, we find a best-fit value of sigma_8=0.80+/- 0.02.Comment: 14 emulateapj pages with 9 figures, submitted to Ap

The L_X--M relation of Clusters of Galaxies

We present a new measurement of the scaling relation between X-ray luminosity and total mass for 17,000 galaxy clusters in the maxBCG cluster sample. Stacking sub-samples within fixed ranges of optical richness, N_200, we measure the mean 0.1-2.4 keV X-ray luminosity, , from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. The mean mass, , is measured from weak gravitational lensing of SDSS background galaxies (Johnston et al. 2007). For 9 <= N_200 < 200, the data are well fit by a power-law, /10^42 h^-2 erg/s = (12.6+1.4-1.3 (stat) +/- 1.6 (sys)) (/10^14 h^-1 M_sun)^1.65+/-0.13. The slope agrees to within 10% with previous estimates based on X-ray selected catalogs, implying that the covariance in L_X and N_200 at fixed halo mass is not large. The luminosity intercent is 30%, or 2\sigma, lower than determined from the X-ray flux-limited sample of Reiprich & Bohringer (2002), assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. This difference could arise from a combination of Malmquist bias and/or systematic error in hydrostatic mass estimates, both of which are expected. The intercept agrees with that derived by Stanek et al. (2006) using a model for the statistical correspondence between clusters and halos in a WMAP3 cosmology with power spectrum normalization sigma_8 = 0.85. Similar exercises applied to future data sets will allow constraints on the covariance among optical and hot gas properties of clusters at fixed mass.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, MNRAS accepte

Young-adult children of alcoholic parents: protective effects of positive family functioning

The occurrence of alcoholism is clustered within families, but the detrimental effect of a positive family history may vary with the degree of family impairment involved. In this study we assessed the effects of family history and family environment on alcohol misuse. From ongoing studies we recruited parents who had a child aged 18–30, 20 with a DSM-III-R alcohol dependence diagnosis, 20 without. The child then completed a multidimensional assessment. The young-adult participants included 20 men and 20 women (mean age=24.8). Differences by family history were restricted to substance abuse behaviors. While a high level of alcohol problems occurred in both groups, those with an alcohol-dependent parent were more likely to be heavy drinkers and showed more symptoms of alcohol dependence. Overall psychological adjustment did not differ between the groups, however. Alcohol misuse measures did correlate moderately with symptoms of poor emotional health. The most important correlates of alcohol misuse measures in this study were exposure to parental alcoholism, abusive punishment, and psychological symptoms, with some separation of effects in the two subgroups. Psychological symptoms had a stronger relationship with misuse in subjects with social-drinking parents, while abuse was more associated in the group with an alcohol-dependent parent. These results confirm the importance of environmental interactions with familial risk. A biological vulnerability from an alcohol-dependent parent was not sufficient or necessary for the participants in this study to develop alcohol dependence as a young adult, although there was an increased risk. There appear to be strong protective effects of positive family relationships on the potential negative effects of a family history of alcoholism.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73415/1/j.1360-0443.1992.tb02681.x.pd

The social value of a QALY : raising the bar or barring the raise?

Background: Since the inception of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in England, there have been questions about the empirical basis for the cost-per-QALY threshold used by NICE and whether QALYs gained by different beneficiaries of health care should be weighted equally. The Social Value of a QALY (SVQ) project, reported in this paper, was commissioned to address these two questions. The results of SVQ were released during a time of considerable debate about the NICE threshold, and authors with differing perspectives have drawn on the SVQ results to support their cases. As these discussions continue, and given the selective use of results by those involved, it is important, therefore, not only to present a summary overview of SVQ, but also for those who conducted the research to contribute to the debate as to its implications for NICE. Discussion: The issue of the threshold was addressed in two ways: first, by combining, via a set of models, the current UK Value of a Prevented Fatality (used in transport policy) with data on fatality age, life expectancy and age-related quality of life; and, second, via a survey designed to test the feasibility of combining respondents’ answers to willingness to pay and health state utility questions to arrive at values of a QALY. Modelling resulted in values of £10,000-£70,000 per QALY. Via survey research, most methods of aggregating the data resulted in values of a QALY of £18,000-£40,000, although others resulted in implausibly high values. An additional survey, addressing the issue of weighting QALYs, used two methods, one indicating that QALYs should not be weighted and the other that greater weight could be given to QALYs gained by some groups. Summary: Although we conducted only a feasibility study and a modelling exercise, neither present compelling evidence for moving the NICE threshold up or down. Some preliminary evidence would indicate it could be moved up for some types of QALY and down for others. While many members of the public appear to be open to the possibility of using somewhat different QALY weights for different groups of beneficiaries, we do not yet have any secure evidence base for introducing such a system