The Smallest Molecular Switch

Ab-initio total energy calculations reveal benzene-dithiolate (BDT) molecules on a gold surface, contacted by a monoatomic gold STM tip to have two classes of low energy conformations with differing symmetries. Lateral motion of the tip or excitation of the molecule cause it to change from one conformation class to the other and to switch between a strongly and a weakly conducting state. Thus, surprisingly, despite their apparent simplicity these Au/BDT/Au nanowires are shown to be electrically bi-stable switches, the smallest two-terminal molecular switches to date. Experiments with a conventional or novel self-assembled STM are proposed to test these predictions.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Pilot Program Designed to Enhance Wellbeing through Self-Identified

We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an introductory and interdisciplinary program to increase participants’ knowledge and awareness of wellbeing and intention to implement self-identified lifestyle changes. “Wellness and Wellbeing: What About Me?” was a University Extension pilot program that was designed to introduce wellbeing as a multidimensional construct. The program was delivered by Extension professionals in 14 sites across Iowa. Program evaluation consisted of a post-program assessment at the end of the seven-week series. The majority of the 115 post-program survey respondents were female, ranging in age from 22-88 years. Almost all survey respondents (89%) reported learning something new, and 94% reported that they intended to make a change to their lives because they attended the program. In addition, themes derived from open-ended survey responses supported the results related to awareness and intention to change behavior. Results from this pilot implementation were used to inform modifications to future program content, length, and dissemination efforts through Extension

Ensuring the Laws Barring Sexual Harassment Protect the Reticent Victim

According to multiple employee surveys, sexual harassment is one of the most underreported forms of abuse in the workplace. There are a number of reasons that reportedly account for this reluctance to complain about sexual harassment. They include the potential shame, embarrassment, and fear that may accompany reports of sexual harassment and the blame and heightened scrutiny of the victim that may be prompted by these complaints. Unlike most other forms of discrimination, where their presence may be inferred from patterns observed in workforce data, sexual harassment is typically undetectable and certainly not actionable unless it is the subject of a legally cognizable complaint. This brief Article poses whether, and if so to what extent, the legal framework for addressing sexual harassment imposes unrealistic obligations on victims of this misconduct and, if so, whether there are strategies that practitioners can employ to help overcome these obstacles

Faces, Locations, and Tools: A Proposed Two-Stimulus p300 Brain Computer Interface

Objective. Brain computer interface (BCI) technology can be important for those unable to communicate due to loss of muscle control. Given that the P300 Speller provides a relatively slow rate of communication, highly accurate classification is of great importance. Previous studies have shown that alternative stimuli (e.g. faces) can improve BCI speed and accuracy. The present study uses two new alternative stimuli, locations and graspable tools. Functional MRI studies have shown that images of familiar locations produce brain responses in the parahippocampal place area and graspable tools produce brain responses in premotor cortex. Approach. The current studies show that location and tool stimuli produce unique and discriminable brain responses that can be used to improve offline classification accuracy. Experiment 1 presented face stimuli and location stimuli and Experiment 2 presented location and tool stimuli. Main results. In both experiments, offline results showed that a stimulus specific classifier provided higher accuracy, speed, and bit rate. Significance. This study was used to provide preliminary offline support for using unique stimuli to improve speed and accuracy of the P300 Speller. Additional experiments should be conducted to examine the online efficacy of this novel paradigm

The Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Pilot Program Designed to Enhance Wellbeing through Self-Identified Lifestyle Changes

We describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of an introductory and interdisciplinary program to increase participants’ knowledge and awareness of wellbeing and intention to implement self-identified lifestyle changes. “Wellness and Wellbeing: What About Me?” was a University Extension pilot program that was designed to introduce wellbeing as a multidimensional construct. The program was delivered by Extension professionals in 14 sites across Iowa. Program evaluation consisted of a post-program assessment at the end of the seven-week series. The majority of the 115 post-program survey respondents were female, ranging in age from 22-88 years. Almost all survey respondents (89%) reported learning something new, and 94% reported that they intended to make a change to their lives because they attended the program. In addition, themes derived from open-ended survey responses supported the results related to awareness and intention to change behavior. Results from this pilot implementation were used to inform modifications to future program content, length, and dissemination efforts through Extension

Strong light-matter coupling in bulk GaN-microcavities with double dielectric mirrors fabricated by two different methods

Two routes for the fabrication of bulk GaN microcavities embedded between two dielectric mirrors are described, and the optical properties of the microcavities thus obtained are compared. In both cases, the GaN active layer is grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (111) Si, allowing use of selective etching to remove the substrate. In the first case, a three period Al0.2Ga0.8N / AlN Bragg mirror followed by a lambda/2 GaN cavity are grown directly on the Si. In the second case, a crack-free 2,mu m thick GaN layer is grown, and progressively thinned to a final thickness of lambda. Both devices work in the strong coupling regime at low temperature, as evidenced by angle-dependent reflectivity or transmission experiments. However, strong light-matter coupling in emission at room temperature is observed only for the second one. This is related to the poor optoelectronic quality of the active layer of the first device, due to its growth only 250 nm above the Si substrate and its related high defect density. The reflectivity spectra of the microcavities are well accounted for by using transfer matrix calculations. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3477450

Simple, sensitive and species-specific assays for detecting quagga and zebra mussels (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis and D. polymorpha) using environmental DNA

Early detection is paramount for attempts to remove invasive non-native species (INNS). Traditional methods rely on physical sampling and morphological identification, which can be problematic when species are in low densities and/or are cryptic. The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a monitoring tool in freshwater systems is becoming increasingly acceptable and widely used for the detection of single species. Here we demonstrate the development and application of standard PCR primers for the detection of two freshwater invasive species which are high priority for monitoring in the UK and elsewhere: the Dreissenid mussels; Dreissena rostriformis bugensis (Andrusov, 1987) and D. polymorpha (Pallas, 1771). We carried out a rigorous validation process for testing the new primers, including DNA detection and degradation experiments in mesocosms, and a field comparison with traditional monitoring protocols. eDNA from single individuals of both mussel species could be detected within four hours of the start of the mesocosm experiment. In field trials, the two mussel species were detected at all sites where the species are known to be present, and eDNA consistently outperformed traditional kick-net sampling for species detection. These results demonstrate the applicability of standard PCR for eDNA detection of freshwater invasive species

Improved Approximate String Matching and Regular Expression Matching on Ziv-Lempel Compressed Texts

We study the approximate string matching and regular expression matching problem for the case when the text to be searched is compressed with the Ziv-Lempel adaptive dictionary compression schemes. We present a time-space trade-off that leads to algorithms improving the previously known complexities for both problems. In particular, we significantly improve the space bounds, which in practical applications are likely to be a bottleneck