Application of the Nuclear Microprobe to the Imaging of Single Event Upsets in Integrated Circuits

A new form of microscopy has been developed which produces micron-resolution maps of where single event upsets occur during ion irradiation of integrated circuits. Utilizing a nuclear microprobe, this imaging technique can irradiate, in isolation, individual components of an integrated circuit (e.g. transistor drains, gates, feedback resistors) and measure immediately the effect of a high energy ion strike on circuit performance. This detailed circuit characterization technique provides a precision diagnostic with which to evaluate the design of integrated circuits that are to be used in space or other radiation environments

Scalar Quarkonium Masses and Mixing with the Lightest Scalar Glueball

We evaluate the continuum limit of the valence (quenched) approximation to the mass of the lightest scalar quarkonium state, for a range of different quark masses, and to the mixing energy between these states and the lightest scalar glueball. Our results support the interpretation of $f_0(1710)$ as composed mainly of the lightest scalar glueball.Comment: 14 pages of Latex, 5 PostScript figure

Effectiveness of common household cleaning agents in reducing the viability of human influenza A/H1N1

In the event of an influenza pandemic, the majority of people infected will be nursed at home. It is therefore important to determine simple methods for limiting the spread of the virus within the home. The purpose of this work was to test a representative range of common household cleaning agents for their effectiveness at killing or reducing the viability of influenza A virus

Quaternary faulting in the New Madrid seismic zone in southernmost Illinois

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior, under USGS award number 1434-95-G-2525Ope

Mechanisms of heavy-ion induced gate rupture in thin oxides

Single event gate rupture (SEGR) is a catastrophic failure mode that occurs in dielectric materials that are struck by energetic heavy ions while biased under a high electric field condition. SEGR can reduce the critical electric field to breakdown to less than half the value observed in normal voltage ramp reliability tests. As electric fields in gate oxides increase to greater than 5 MV/cm in advanced MOS technologies, the impact of SEGR on the reliability of space based electronics must be assessed. In this summary, the authors explore the nature of SEGR in oxides with thickness from 7 nm to less than 5 nm, where soft breakdown is often observed during traditional reliability tests. They discuss the possible connection between the present understanding of SEGR and voltage stress breakdown models

Mixing of scalar glueballs and flavour-singlet scalar mesons

We discuss in detail the extraction of hadronic mixing strengths from lattice studies. We apply this to the mixing of a scalar glueball and a scalar meson in the quenched approximation. We also measure correlations appropriate for flavour-singlet scalar mesons using dynamical quark configurations from UKQCD. This enables us to compare the results from the quenched study of the mixing with the direct determination of the mixed spectrum. Improved methods of evaluating the disconnected quark diagrams are also presented.Comment: 23 pages, 5 postscript figure

The Color of Childhood: The Role of the Child/Human Binary in the Production of Anti-Black Racism

The binary between the figure of the child and the fully human being is invoked with regularity in analyses of race, yet its centrality to the conception of race has never been fully explored. For most commentators, the figure of the child operates as a metaphoric or rhetorical trope, a non-essential strategic tool in the perpetuation of White supremacy. As I show in the following, the child/human binary does not present a contingent or merely rhetorical construction but, rather, a central feature of racialization. Where Black peoples are situated as objects of violence it is often precisely because Blackness has been identified with childhood and childhood is historically identified as the archetypal site of naturalized violence and servitude. I proceed by offering a historical account of how Black peoples came to inherit the subordination and dehumanization of European childhood and how White youth were subsequently spared through their partial categorization as adults

Epidemiology of Surgical Site Infection in a Community Hospital Network

OBJECTIVE To describe the epidemiology of complex surgical site infection (SSI) following commonly performed surgical procedures in community hospitals and to characterize trends of SSI prevalence rates over time for MRSA and other common pathogens METHODS We prospectively collected SSI data at 29 community hospitals in the southeastern United States from 2008 through 2012. We determined the overall prevalence rates of SSI for commonly performed procedures during this 5-year study period. For each year of the study, we then calculated prevalence rates of SSI stratified by causative organism. We created log-binomial regression models to analyze trends of SSI prevalence over time for all pathogens combined and specifically for MRSA. RESULTS A total of 3,988 complex SSIs occurred following 532,694 procedures (prevalence rate, 0.7 infections per 100 procedures). SSIs occurred most frequently after small bowel surgery, peripheral vascular bypass surgery, and colon surgery. Staphylococcus aureus was the most common pathogen. The prevalence rate of SSI decreased from 0.76 infections per 100 procedures in 2008 to 0.69 infections per 100 procedures in 2012 (prevalence rate ratio [PRR], 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.82–1.00). A more substantial decrease in MRSA SSI (PRR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.54–0.89) was largely responsible for this overall trend. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of MRSA SSI decreased from 2008 to 2012 in our network of community hospitals. This decrease in MRSA SSI prevalence led to an overall decrease in SSI prevalence over the study period. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2016;37:519–52

Academic self-concept, gender and single-sex schooling

This paper assesses gender differences in academic self-concept for a cohort of children born in 1958 (the National Child Development Study). We address the question of whether attending single-sex or co-educational schools affected students’ perceptions of their own academic abilities (academic self-concept). Academic selfconcept was found to be highly gendered, even controlling for prior test scores. Boys had higher self-concepts in maths and science, and girls in English. Single-sex schooling reduced the gender gap in self-concept, while selective schooling was linked to lower academic self-concept overall