3,026 research outputs found
The Context of Sexual Risk among African-American Female College Students
Objective: To assess the sexually transmitted infection (STI) awareness, sexual risk behaviors, and related contextual factors of African-American female college students.
Participants: Eighty-nine African-American first year female students attending a majority public four-year college in the southern U.S. participated in the study in Spring, 2006.
Methods: Participants completed an anonymous self-administered paper-and-pencil survey and received a $15 cash incentive.
Results: Participants were highly knowledgeable and aware about STIs and their consequences. While this awareness translated into low levels of risk for many, still others engaged in behaviors and maintained beliefs that could potentially put them at high risk for contracting STIs.
Conclusions: Given the disproportionate rates of STIs among young African-American females, researchers must not ignore the non-behavioral factors (i.e. beliefs and perceptions) that may influence sexual risk behaviors to help in determining optimal methods for intervention and prevention among young African-American females
The KELT-South Telescope
The Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) project is a survey for new
transiting planets around bright stars. KELT-South is a small-aperture,
wide-field automated telescope located at Sutherland, South Africa. The
telescope surveys a set of 26 degree by 26 degree fields around the southern
sky, and targets stars in the range of 8 < V < 10 mag, searching for transits
by Hot Jupiters. This paper describes the KELT-South system hardware and
software and discusses the quality of the observations. We show that KELT-South
is able to achieve the necessary photometric precision to detect transits of
Hot Jupiters around solar-type main-sequence stars.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figure
Sensitivity of the magnetic state of a spin lattice on itinerant electron orbital phase
Spatially extended localized spins can interact via indirect exchange
interaction through Friedel oscillations in the Fermi sea. In arrays of
localized spins such interaction can lead to a magnetically ordered phase.
Without external magnetic field such a phase is well understood via a
"two-impurity" Kondo model. Here we employ non-equilibrium transport
spectroscopy to investigate the role of the orbital phase of conduction
electrons on the magnetic state of a spin lattice. We show experimentally, that
even tiniest perpendicular magnetic field can influence the magnitude of the
inter-spin magnetic exchange.Comment: To be published in PhysicaE EP2DS proceedin
Anomalous spin-dependent behaviour of one-dimensional subbands
We report a new electron interaction effect in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wires.
Using DC-bias spectroscopy, we show that large and abrupt changes occur to the
energies of spin-down (lower energy) states as they populate. The effect is not
observed for spin-up energy states. At B=0, interactions have a pronounced
effect, in the form of the well-known 0.7 Structure. However, our new results
show that interactions strongly affect the energy spectrum at all magnetic
fields, from 0 to 16T, not just in the vicinity of the 0.7 Structure.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Excimer lasers
The results of a two-year investigation into the possibility of developing continuous wave excimer lasers are reported. The program included the evaluation and selection of candidate molecular systems and discharge pumping techniques. The K Ar/K2 excimer dimer molecules and the xenon fluoride excimer molecule were selected for study; each used a transverse and capillary discharges pumping technique. Experimental and theoretical studies of each of the two discharge techniques applied to each of the two molecular systems are reported. Discharge stability and fluorine consumption were found to be the principle impediments to extending the XeF excimer laser into the continuous wave regime. Potassium vapor handling problems were the principal difficulty in achieving laser action on the K Ar/K2 system. Of the four molecular systems and pumping techniques explored, the capillary discharge pumped K Ar/K2 system appears to be the most likely candidate for demonstrating continuous wave excimer laser action primarily because of its predicted lower pumping threshold and a demonstrated discharge stability advantage
Possible evidence of a spontaneous spin-polarization in mesoscopic 2D electron systems
We have experimentally studied the non-equilibrium transport in low-density
clean 2D electron systems at mesoscopic length scales. At zero magnetic field
(B), a double-peak structure in the non-linear conductance was observed close
to the Fermi energy in the localized regime. From the behavior of these peaks
at non-zero B, we could associate them to the opposite spin states of the
system, indicating a spontaneous spin polarization at B = 0. Detailed
temperature and disorder dependence of the structure shows that such a
splitting is a ground state property of the low-density 2D systems.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Opto-mechanical micro-macro entanglement
We propose to create and detect opto-mechanical entanglement by storing one
component of an entangled state of light in a mechanical resonator and then
retrieving it. Using micro-macro entanglement of light as recently demonstrated
experimentally, one can then create opto-mechanical entangled states where the
components of the superposition are macroscopically different. We apply this
general approach to two-mode squeezed states where one mode has undergone a
large displacement. Based on an analysis of the relevant experimental
imperfections, the scheme appears feasible with current technology.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, to appear in PRL, submission coordinated with
Sekatski et al. who reported on similar result
Coulomb-Blockade directional coupler
A tunable directional coupler based on Coulomb Blockade effect is presented.
Two electron waveguides are coupled by a quantum dot to an injector waveguide.
Electron confinement is obtained by surface Schottky gates on single
GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction. Magneto-electrical measurements down to 350 mK are
presented and large transconductance oscillations are reported on both outputs
up to 4.2 K. Experimental results are interpreted in terms of Coulomb Blockade
effect and the relevance of the present design strategy for the implementation
of an electronic multiplexer is underlined.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Applied Physics Letter
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