339 research outputs found

    Identification of temperature profile and heat transfer on a dielectric membrane for gas sensors by `COSMOS' program simulation

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    The application of commercial 3-D software `COSMOS' for the design and thermal analysis of the low power consumption test structures with dielectric membrane for gas microsensors is presented. Within this work, the simulation provides the estimation of the temperature profile on the active area and the whole membrane including the four bridges and the heating efficiency in the temperature range 20-500 °C. Unravelling of the heat loss mechanisms in terms of radiation, convection, conduction by air and solid materials during heat transfer on the dielectric membrane is reported for the first time as a mean to evaluate by 3-D simulation the contribution of technological processes and lay-out design to the total heat losses

    Delayed identification and diagnosis of Huntington\u27s disease due to psychiatric symptoms

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    Huntington\u27s disease (HD) is a progressive neurodegenerative illness that affects 2-9/100.000 of the general population. The usual onset is at around age 35-40 years, but there were cases with onset above 55 years. The disease manifests clinically with many neurological and psychiatric symptoms, leading in advanced phases to dementia, but cognitive symptoms are frequently present much earlier in the disease course. HD is caused by an expanded polyglutamine stretch in the N-terminal part of a 350 kDa protein called huntingtin (HTT). This stretch is encoded by a trinucleotide CAG repetition in exon 1 of HTT. An expansion of greater than 36 repeats results in HD. The number of repeats is inversely correlated with the age of onset of motor symptoms, and disease onset during childhood or adolescence is associated with more than 60 CAG repeats. Mood disturbances may be one of the earliest symptoms of HD and may precede the onset of the motor pheno-type for almost 10 years. Neuropsychiatric symptoms may delay the appropriate diagnosis of HD and have major implications for disease management, prognosis and quality of life for patients and families. This case study is about a 58 years old female patient with late identification of Huntington\u27s disease after two admissions to psychiatric inpatient units, for the treatment of behavioral disturbances

    Positional Disorder, Spin-Orbit Coupling and Frustration in GaMnAs

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    We study the magnetic properties of metallic GaMnAs. We calculate the effective RKKY interaction between Mn spins using several realistic models for the valence band structure of GaAs. We also study the effect of positional disorder of the Mn on the magnetic properties. We find that the interaction between two Mn spins is anisotropic due to spin-orbit coupling within both the so-called spherical approximation and in the more realistic six band model. The spherical approximation strongly overestimates this anistropy, especially for short distances between Mn ions. Using the obtained effective Hamiltonian we carry out Monte Carlo simulations of finite and zero temperature magnetization and find that, due to orientational frustration of the spins, non-collinear states appear in both valence band approximations for disordered, uncorrelated Mn impurities in the small concentration regime. Introducing correlations among the substitutional Mn positions or increasing the Mn concentration leads to an increase in the remnant magnetization at zero temperature and an almost fully polarized ferromagnetic state.Comment: 17 Pages, 13 Figure

    Disorder, spin-orbit, and interaction effects in dilute Ga1xMnxAs{\rm Ga}_{1-x}{\rm Mn}_x{\rm As}

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    We derive an effective Hamiltonian for Ga1xMnxAs{\rm Ga}_{1-x}{\rm Mn}_x {\rm As} in the dilute limit, where Ga1xMnxAs{\rm Ga}_{1-x}{\rm Mn}_x {\rm As} can be described in terms of spin F=3/2F=3/2 polarons hopping between the {\rm Mn} sites and coupled to the local {\rm Mn} spins. We determine the parameters of our model from microscopic calculations using both a variational method and an exact diagonalization within the so-called spherical approximation. Our approach treats the extremely large Coulomb interaction in a non-perturbative way, and captures the effects of strong spin-orbit coupling and Mn positional disorder. We study the effective Hamiltonian in a mean field and variational calculation, including the effects of interactions between the holes at both zero and finite temperature. We study the resulting magnetic properties, such as the magnetization and spin disorder manifest in the generically non-collinear magnetic state. We find a well formed impurity band fairly well separated from the valence band up to xactive0.015x_{\rm active} \lesssim 0.015 for which finite size scaling studies of the participation ratios indicate a localization transition, even in the presence of strong on-site interactions, where xactive<xnomx_{\rm active}<x_{\rm nom} is the fraction of magnetically active Mn. We study the localization transition as a function of hole concentration, Mn positional disorder, and interaction strength between the holes.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure

    Possible experimental signature of octupole correlations in the 02+^+_2 states of the actinides

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    JπJ^{\pi}= 0+^+ states have been investigated in the actinide nucleus 240{}^{240}Pu up to an excitation energy of 3 MeV with a high-resolution (p,t) experiment at EpE_{p}= 24 MeV. To test the recently proposed JπJ^{\pi}= 02+^+_2 double-octupole structure, the phenomenological approach of the spdf-interacting boson model has been chosen. In addition, the total 0+^+ strength distribution and the 0+0^+ strength fragmentation have been compared to the model predictions as well as to the previously studied (p,t) reactions in the actinides. The results suggest that the structure of the 02+^+_2 states in the actinides might be more complex than the usually discussed pairing isomers. Instead, the octupole degree of freedom might contribute significantly. The signature of two close-lying 0+^+ states below the 2-quasiparticle energy is presented as a possible manifestation of strong octupole correlations in the structure of the 02+^+_2 states in the actinides.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, published in Phys. Rev. C 88, 041303(R) (2013

    Octupole correlations in positive-parity states of rare-earth and actinide nuclei

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    In this contribution, further evidence of the importance of multiphonon-octupole excitations to describe experimental data in the rare earths and actinides will be presented. First, new results of a (p, t) experiment at the Q3D magnetic spectrograph in Munich will be discussed, which was performed to selectively excite J(pi) = 0(+) states in Pu-240. spd f interacting boson model (IBM) calculations suggest that the previously proposed double-octupole phonon nature of the J(pi) = 0(2)(+) state is not in conflict with its strong (p, t) population. Second, the framework of the IBM has been adopted for the description of experimental observables related to octupole excitations in the rare earths. Here, the IBM is able to describe the signature splitting for positive- and negative-parity states when multi-dipole and multi-octupole bosons are included. The present study might support the idea of octupole-phonon condensation at intermediate spin (J(pi) = 10(+)) leading to the change in yrast structure observed in Nd-146

    Investigation of octupole vibrational states in 150Nd via inelastic proton scattering (p,p'g)

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    Octupole vibrational states were studied in the nucleus 150Nd^{150}\mathrm{Nd} via inelastic proton scattering with \unit[10.9]{MeV} protons which are an excellent probe to excite natural parity states. For the first time in 150Nd^{150}\mathrm{Nd}, both the scattered protons and the γ\gamma rays were detected in coincidence giving the possibility to measure branching ratios in detail. Using the coincidence technique, the B(E1)B(E1) ratios of the decaying transitions for 10 octupole vibrational states and other negative-parity states to the yrast band were determined and compared to the Alaga rule. The positive and negative-parity states revealed by this experiment are compared with Interacting Boson Approximation (IBA) calculations performed in the (spdf) boson space. The calculations are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data, both for positive and negative-parity states
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