6,798 research outputs found
High temperature thermoelectric efficiency in Ba8Ga16Ge30
The high thermoelectric figure of merit (zT) of Ba8Ga16Ge30 makes it one of the best n-type materials for thermoelectric power generation. Here, we describe the synthesis and characterization of a Czochralski pulled single crystal of Ba8Ga16Ge30 and polycrystalline disks. Measurements of the electrical conductivity, Hall effect, specific heat, coefficient of thermal expansion, thermal conductivity, and Seebeck coefficient were performed up to 1173 K and compared with literature results. Dilatometry measurements give a coefficient of thermal expansion of 16×10^−6 K^−1 up to 1175 K. The trend in electronic properties with composition is typical of a heavily doped semiconductor. The maximum in the thermoelectric figure of merit is found at 1050 K with a value of 0.8. The correction of zT due to thermal expansion is not significant compared to the measurement uncertainties involved. Comparing the thermoelectric efficiency of segmented materials, the effect of compatibility makes Ba8Ga16Ge30 more efficient than the higher zT n-type materials SiGe or skutterudite CoSb3
Unchanged thermopower enhancement at the semiconductor-metal transition in correlated FeSbTe
Substitution of Sb in FeSb by less than 0.5% of Te induces a transition
from a correlated semiconductor to an unconventional metal with large effective
charge carrier mass . Spanning the entire range of the semiconductor-metal
crossover, we observed an almost constant enhancement of the measured
thermopower compared to that estimated by the classical theory of electron
diffusion. Using the latter for a quantitative description one has to employ an
enhancement factor of 10-30. Our observations point to the importance of
electron-electron correlations in the thermal transport of FeSb, and
suggest a route to design thermoelectric materials for cryogenic applications.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Appl. Phys. Lett.
(2011
Bayesian model search and multilevel inference for SNP association studies
Technological advances in genotyping have given rise to hypothesis-based
association studies of increasing scope. As a result, the scientific hypotheses
addressed by these studies have become more complex and more difficult to
address using existing analytic methodologies. Obstacles to analysis include
inference in the face of multiple comparisons, complications arising from
correlations among the SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), choice of their
genetic parametrization and missing data. In this paper we present an efficient
Bayesian model search strategy that searches over the space of genetic markers
and their genetic parametrization. The resulting method for Multilevel
Inference of SNP Associations, MISA, allows computation of multilevel posterior
probabilities and Bayes factors at the global, gene and SNP level, with the
prior distribution on SNP inclusion in the model providing an intrinsic
multiplicity correction. We use simulated data sets to characterize MISA's
statistical power, and show that MISA has higher power to detect association
than standard procedures. Using data from the North Carolina Ovarian Cancer
Study (NCOCS), MISA identifies variants that were not identified by standard
methods and have been externally ``validated'' in independent studies. We
examine sensitivity of the NCOCS results to prior choice and method for
imputing missing data. MISA is available in an R package on CRAN.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-AOAS322 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
The use of ultrasonography in the perioperative management of penetrating chest trauma with indwelling blade
We report on the anaesthetic and postoperative analgesic management of a patient presenting with a single penetrating thoracic injury, with radiological confirmation of a foreign object still present in the thorax. The patient underwent an emergency right posterolateral thoracotomy. We discuss the use of ultrasound for the insertion of a paravertebral catheter for perioperative analgesic management, and its efficacy in the emergency setting. Furthermore, we discuss the use of perioperative focus assessed transthoracic echocardiography, which had a positive impact on our management, although the case highlights the need for further large multi-centre trials.Keywords: focus assessed transthoracic echocardiography (FATE), paraverterbral block, penetrating thoracic injury, thoracotomy, ultrasound-guided regional anaesthesi
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