1,348 research outputs found
Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes as Shadow Masks for Nanogap Fabrication
We describe a technique for fabricating nanometer-scale gaps in Pt wires on
insulating substrates, using individual single-walled carbon nanotubes as
shadow masks during metal deposition. More than 80% of the devices display
current-voltage dependencies characteristic of direct electron tunneling. Fits
to the current-voltage data yield gap widths in the 0.8-2.3 nm range for these
devices, dimensions that are well suited for single-molecule transport
measurements
Ab-initio theory of NMR chemical shifts in solids and liquids
We present a theory for the ab-initio computation of NMR chemical shifts
(sigma) in condensed matter systems, using periodic boundary conditions. Our
approach can be applied to periodic systems such as crystals, surfaces, or
polymers and, with a super-cell technique, to non-periodic systems such as
amorphous materials, liquids, or solids with defects. We have computed the
hydrogen sigma for a set of free molecules, for an ionic crystal, LiH, and for
a H-bonded crystal, HF, using density functional theory in the local density
approximation. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental data.Comment: to appear in Physical Review Letter
Urban civic pride and the new localism
Civic pride relates to how places promote and defend local identity and autonomy. It is often championed as a key value and aspiration of local government. This paper argues that civic pride has been under‐examined in geography, and in particular the emotional meanings of pride need to be better understood. In response, I present an emotional analysis of civic pride and discuss its role in British cities, particularly in the context of urban regeneration and the UK's new localism agenda. In the latter part of the paper I provide a case study of Nottingham in England, where I employ a discourse analysis of recent urban policy and local media to examine how civic pride is being mobilised and contested in the city. Examining civic pride is important because it shapes and reflects the political values that local governments stand for and provides a basis for thinking about how emotions are used strategically (and problematically) in urban policy. This paper complements and challenges existing literature on cities by showing how civic pride shapes, but also obscures, the ideological politics of local government and how, as geographers, we might consider more seriously the ways forms of power, identity and inequality are reproduced and contested through emotions such as pride
UK Large-scale Wind Power Programme from 1970 to 1990: the Carmarthen Bay experiments and the Musgrove Vertical-Axis Turbines
This article describes the development of the Musgrove Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT)
concept, the UK ‘Carmarthen Bay’ wind turbine test programme, and UK government’s wind
power programme to 1990. One of the most significant developments in the story of British
wind power occurred during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, with the development of the
Musgrove vertical axis wind turbine and its inclusion within the UK Government’s wind
turbine test programme. Evolving from a supervisor’s idea for an undergraduate project at
Reading University, the Musgrove VAWT was once seen as an able competitor to the
horizontal axis wind systems that were also being encouraged at the time by both the UK
government and the Central Electricity Generating Board, the then nationalised electricity
utility for England and Wales. During the 1980s and 1990s the most developed Musgrove
VAWT system, along with three other commercial turbine designs was tested at
Carmarthen Bay, South Wales as part of a national wind power test programme. From these
developmental tests, operational data was collected and lessons learnt, which were
incorporated into subsequent wind power operations.http://dx.doi.org/10.1260/03095240677860621
Interaction effects and phase relaxation in disordered systems
This paper is intended to demonstrate that there is no need to revise the
existing theory of the transport properties of disordered conductors in the
so-called weak localization regime. In particular, we demonstrate explicitly
that recent attempts to justify theoretically that the dephasing rate
(extracted from the magnetoresistance) remains finite at zero temperature are
based on the profoundly incorrect calculation. This demonstration is based on a
straightforward evaluation of the effect of the electron-electron interaction
on the weak localization correction to the conductivity of disordered metals.
Using well-controlled perturbation theory with the inverse conductance as
the small parameter, we show that this effect consists of two contributions.
First contribution comes from the processes with energy transfer smaller than
the temperature. This contribution is responsible for setting the energy scale
for the magnetoresistance. The second contribution originates from the virtual
processes with energy transfer larger than the temperature. It is shown that
the latter processes have nothing to do with the dephasing, but rather manifest
the second order (in ) correction to the conductance. This correction is
calculated for the first time. The paper also contains a brief review of the
existing experiments on the dephasing of electrons in disordered conductors and
an extended qualitative discussion of the quantum corrections to the
conductivity and to the density of electronic states in the weak localization
regime.Comment: 34 pages, 13 .eps figure
Estimating offsets for avian displacement effects of anthropogenic impacts
Biodiversity offsetting, or compensatory mitigation, is increasingly being used in temperate grassland ecosystems to compensate for unavoidable environmental damage from anthropogenic developments such as transportation infrastructure, urbanization, and energy development. Pursuit of energy independence in the United States will expand domestic energy production. Concurrent with this increased growth is increased disruption to wildlife habitats, including avian displacement from suitable breeding habitat. Recent studies at energy-extraction and energy-generation facilities have provided evidence for behavioral avoidance and thus reduced use of habitat by breeding waterfowl and grassland birds in the vicinity of energy infrastructure. To quantify and compensate for this loss in value of avian breeding habitat, it is necessary to determine a biologically based currency so that the sufficiency of offsets in terms of biological equivalent value can be obtained. We describe a method for quantifying the amount of habitat needed to provide equivalent biological value for avifauna displaced by energy and transportation infrastructure, based on the ability to define five metrics: impact distance, impact area, pre-impact density, percent displacement, and offset density. We calculate percent displacement values for breeding waterfowl and grassland birds and demonstrate the applicability of our avian-impact offset method using examples for wind and oil infrastructure. We also apply our method to an example in which the biological value of the offset habitat is similar to the impacted habitat, based on similarity in habitat type (e.g., native prairie), geographical location, land use, and landscape composition, as well as to an example in which the biological value of the offset habitat is dissimilar to the impacted habitat. We provide a worksheet that informs potential users how to apply our method to their specific developments and a framework for developing decision-support tools aimed at achieving landscape-level conservation goals
Denial at the top table: status attributions and implications for marketing
Senior marketing management is seldom represented on the Board of Directors nowadays, reflecting a deteriorating status of the marketing profession. We examine some of the key reasons for marketing’s demise, and discuss how the status of marketing may be restored by demonstrating the value of marketing to the business community. We attribute marketing’s demise to several related key factors: narrow typecasting, marginalisation and limited involvement in product development, questionable marketing curricula, insensitivity toward environmental change, questionable professional standards and roles, and marketing’s apparent lack of accountability to CEOs. Each of these leads to failure to communicate, create, or deliver value within marketing. We argue that a continued inability to deal with marketing’s crisis of representation will further erode the status of the discipline both academically and professionally
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