Imagining an ideal school for wellbeing: Locating student voice

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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

Automated design analysis, assembly planning and motion study analysis using immersive virtual reality

Previous research work at Heriot-Watt University using immersive virtual reality (VR) for cable harness design showed that VR provided substantial productivity gains over traditional computer-aided design (CAD) systems. This follow-on work was aimed at understanding the degree to which aspects of this technology were contributed to these benefits and to determine if engineering design and planning processes could be analysed in detail by nonintrusively monitoring and logging engineering tasks. This involved using a CAD-equivalent VR system for cable harness routing design, harness assembly and installation planning that can be functionally evaluated using a set of creative design-tasks to measure the system and users' performance. A novel design task categorisation scheme was created and formalised which broke down the cable harness design process and associated activities. The system was also used to demonstrate the automatic generation of usable bulkhead connector, cable harness assembly and cable harness installation plans from non-intrusive user logging. Finally, the data generated from the user-logging allowed the automated activity categorisation of the user actions, automated generation of process flow diagrams and chronocyclegraphs

Energy-level pinning and the 0.7 spin state in one dimension: GaAs quantum wires studied using finite-bias spectroscopy

We study the effects of electron-electron interactions on the energy levels of GaAs quantum wires (QWs) using finite-bias spectroscopy. We probe the energy spectrum at zero magnetic field, and at crossings of opposite-spin-levels in high in-plane magnetic field B. Our results constitute direct evidence that spin-up (higher energy) levels pin to the chemical potential as they populate. We also show that spin-up and spin-down levels abruptly rearrange at the crossing in a manner resembling the magnetic phase transitions predicted to occur at crossings of Landau levels. This rearranging and pinning of subbands provides a phenomenological explanation for the 0.7 structure, a one-dimensional (1D) nanomagnetic state, and its high-B variants.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Velocity measurements in the vicinity of the exit and inlet of a spiral bevel gear shroud

In many aeroengines the accessory power offtake is achieved using a spiral bevel gear set running off one of the main shafts. The crown and bevel gears are housed in an internal gearbox. Over the past few years the Nottingham University Technology Centre (UTC) in Gas Turbine Transmission Systems has researched flow near spiral bevel gears both computationally and experimentally using a purpose-built test rig. In the current investigation the rig was configured with a Trent crown gear and slightly modified shroud covering the full 360° of the gear. No external containment chamber was fitted and all testing was conducted single-phase (air only) at 5,000 rpm. Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) was used to obtain the three components of flow velocity at a shroud exit slot and at shroud inlet. A 2D system was utilised and thus two measurements were required at each point to give the 3 velocity components. The LDA technique enabled detailed mapping of flow features over the chosen regions, which included areas very near the shroud surfaces. Data was obtained over two measurement regions: 1) a volume mapping the air “jet” exiting the shroud exit slot at top dead centre (TDC) and 2) an area capturing the flow structures local to the shroud inlet. Combined the results form an excellent set of high quality, detailed, 3-component flow data for direct use in validating CFD models and/or to define CFD boundary conditions. At the shroud exit slot the maximum velocity measured was 46.2 m/s with the jet velocity dispersing over the measurement volume such that by 26 mm from slot plane the maximum velocity was less than 20 m/s. The jet angle was found to be only 16° off perpendicular azimuthally and 22° down from perpendicular. Data from the top 5 slots shows good similarity indicating the detailed data for the TDC slot is probably applicable to all slots. Air entering the shroud comes down the shroud face and up the rotating end face of the gear shaft. The azimuthal velocity component at shroud inlet was around 20 m/s; this is of the order of 50% of the maximum linear shaft surface speed. Within 3 mm of the rotating gear face the azimuthal velocity is less than 1 m/s. Detailed measurements were obtained only at one angular location but sufficient additional measurements were obtained to determine that for the purposes of CFD validation the results can be considered representative

Interaction effects at crossings of spin-polarized one-dimensional subbands

We report conductance measurements of ballistic one-dimensional (1D) wires defined in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures in an in-plane magnetic field, B. When the Zeeman energy is equal to the 1D subband energy spacing, the spin-split subband Nup arrow intersects (N+1)down arrow, where N is the index of the spin-degenerate 1D subband. At the crossing of N=1up arrow and N=2down arrow subbands, there is a spontaneous splitting giving rise to an additional conductance structure evolving from the 1.5(2e(2)/h) plateau. With further increase in B, the structure develops into a plateau and lowers to 2e(2)/h. With increasing temperature and magnetic field the structure shows characteristics of the 0.7 structure. Our results suggest that at low densities a spontaneous spin splitting occurs whenever two 1D subbands of opposite spins cross

Inhibitors of SARS-CoV entry--identification using an internally-controlled dual envelope pseudovirion assay.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV) emerged as the causal agent of an endemic atypical pneumonia, infecting thousands of people worldwide. Although a number of promising potential vaccines and therapeutic agents for SARS-CoV have been described, no effective antiviral drug against SARS-CoV is currently available. The intricate, sequential nature of the viral entry process provides multiple valid targets for drug development. Here, we describe a rapid and safe cell-based high-throughput screening system, dual envelope pseudovirion (DEP) assay, for specifically screening inhibitors of viral entry. The assay system employs a novel dual envelope strategy, using lentiviral pseudovirions as targets whose entry is driven by the SARS-CoV Spike glycoprotein. A second, unrelated viral envelope is used as an internal control to reduce the number of false positives. As an example of the power of this assay a class of inhibitors is reported with the potential to inhibit SARS-CoV at two steps of the replication cycle, viral entry and particle assembly. This assay system can be easily adapted to screen entry inhibitors against other viruses with the careful selection of matching partner virus envelopes