Jim v. State, 137 Nev. Adv. Op. 57 (Sep. 23, 2021).

The Nevada Supreme Court considered whether evidence found during a routine, warrantless vehicle inventory search is validly obtained under the United States and Nevada Constitutions when the inventory is not completed.The United States and Nevada Constitutions protect against unreasonable searches and seizures,but some exceptions such as the “plain view” exception exist. Here, the Court found that the officers met the elements of the “plain view” doctrine, making the search reasonable and the evidence properly obtained

Crystal Structure, Electronic Structure, and Physicochemical Characterization of I2-II-IV-VI4 and I4-II-IV2-VI7 Diamond-Like Semiconductors Prepared by High-Temperature Solid-State Synthesis

Diamond-like semiconductors are compounds that possess bandgaps in the visible to near-infrared and crystallize in structures derived from that of cubic or hexagonal diamond. The compositions of quaternary DLSs are predictable and flexible, which allows for the tuning of physicochemical properties for technological applications. Chapter 1 provides an overview of DLSs and potential applications for which they are useful. In this work, diamond-like semiconductors (DLSs) of the family I2-II-IV-VI4, namely, Cu2ZnGeSe4 and Cu2MnGeSe4, were prepared via high-temperature solid-state synthesis Investigations to prepare Cu2ZnGeSe4, led to the serendipitous discovery of a new compound, Cu4ZnGe2Se7. To better understand the relationships between these compounds and their potential for applications, crystal structure, electronic structure, and physicochemical characterization were performed. Chapter 2 details the synthesis and characterization techniques implemented for these compounds. Chapter 3 describes the relationships between these I2 II IV-VI4 and I4-II-IV2-VI7 compounds, specifically Cu2ZnGeSe4 and the Cu4ZnGe2Se7, along with the differences in the resulting physicochemical properties. Single crystal X-ray diffraction was used to solve and refine the structure of Cu4ZnGe2Se7, which was found to crystallize in the monoclinic C2 space group. Rietveld refinement of synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) data for Cu4ZnGe2Se7 confirmed the structure and indicated ~ 95 wt. % phase purity with ~ 5 wt. % of Cu2ZnGeSe4 present as a secondary phase. Rietveld refinement of synchrotron XRPD data for Cu2ZnGeSe4 confirmed the previously reported stannite structure in space group I 42m. Cu2ZnGeSe4 and Cu4ZnGe2Se7 both were found to be direct-gap semiconductors by optical diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, with bandgap values of 1.38 eV and 0.91 eV, respectively. The discovery of the new compound, Cu4ZnGe2Se7, prompted further research into the family of materials having the formula I4-II-IV2-VI7, specifically Cu4-II-Ge2-Se7 where II = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni. This investigation was successful by leading into the discovery of more new I4-II-IV2-VI7 phases as described in the Appendix. Due to relatively lower bandgaps, a more distorted diamond-like structure, and a chemical formula naturally containing more copper, these compounds may be even better candidates for thermoelectric applications

Extensible Wind Tower

The diffusion of wind energy generators is restricted by their strong landscape impact. The PERIMA project is about the development of an extensible wind tower able to support a wind machine for several hundred kW at its optimal working height, up to more than 50 m. The wind tower has a telescopic structure, made by several tubes located inside each other with their axis in vertical direction. The lifting force is given by a jack-up system confined inside a shaft, drilled below the ground level. In the retracted tower configuration, at rest, tower tubes are hidden in the foundation of the telescopic structure, located below the ground surface, and the wind machine is the only emerging part of the system. The lifting system is based on a couple of oleodynamic cylinders that jack-up a central tube connected to the top of the tower by a spring, with a diameter smaller than the minimum tower diameter and with a length a bit greater than the length of the extended telescopic structure. The central tube works as plunger and lifts all telescopic elements. The constraint between the telescopic elements is ensured by special parts, which are kept in traction by the force of the spring and provide the resisting moment. The most evident benefit of the proposed system is attained with the use of a two-blade propeller, which can be kept horizontal in the retracted tower configuration

Monotonic solution of flow and transport problems in heterogeneous media using Delaunay unstructured triangular meshes

Transport problems occurring in porous media and including convection, diffusion and chemical reactions, can be well represented by systems of Partial Differential Equations. In this paper, a numerical procedure is proposed for the fast and robust solution of flow and transport problems in 2D heterogeneous saturated media. The governing equations are spatially discretized with unstructured triangular meshes that must satisfy the Delaunay condition. The solution of the flow problem is split from the solution of the transport problem and it is obtained with an approach similar to the Mixed Hybrid Finite Elements method, that always guarantees the M-property of the resulting linear system. The transport problem is solved applying a prediction/correction procedure. The prediction step analytically solves the convective/reactive components in the context of a MAST Finite Volume scheme. The correction step computes the anisotropic diffusive components in the context of a recently proposed Finite Elements scheme. Massa balance is locally and globally satisfied in all the solution steps. Convergence order and computational costs are investigated and model results are compared with literature on

Anisotropic potential of velocity fields in real fluids: Application to the MAST solution of shallow water equations

In the present paper it is first shown that, due to their structure, the general governing equations of uncompressible real fluids can be regarded as an "anisotropic" potential flow problem and closed streamlines cannot occur at any time. For a discretized velocity field, a fast iterative procedure is proposed to order the computational elements at the beginning of each time level, allowing a sequential solution element by element of the advection problem. Some closed circuits could appear due to the discretization error and the elements involved in these circuits could not be ordered. We prove in the paper that the total flux of these not ordered elements goes to zero by refining the computational mesh and that it is possible to order all the remaining elements by neglecting the minimum inter-element flux inside each circuit, with a very small resulting error.The methodology is then applied to the solution of the 2D shallow water equations. The governing Partial Differential Equations are discretized over a generally unstructured triangular mesh, which attains the generalised Delaunay property. Solution is obtained applying a prediction-correction time step procedure. The prediction problem is solved applying a MArching in Space and Time (MAST) procedure, where the computational elements are required to be ordered and explicitly solved. In the correction step, a large linear well-conditioned system is solved. Model results are compared with experimental data and other numerical literature results. Computational costs have been estimated and the convergence order has been investigated according to a known exact solution. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Dilated Cardiomyopathy. From Genetics to Clinical Management

The current definition of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is relatively simple: it is a heart muscle disease characterized by left ventricular (LV) or biventricular dilation and systolic dysfunction in the absence of either pressure or volume overload or coronary artery disease sufficient enough to explain the dysfunction. In the last 30 years, prognosis of patients with DCM has dramatically been improved with few similarities in the history of cardiology and medicine. Typically, in the 1980s, the average survival rate was approximately 50% in a 5-year follow-up. Nowadays, at 10 years of follow-up, the survival/free from heart transplant rate is far beyond 85%, and the projection of this improvement is significantly better for those who have had DCM diagnosed in the late 2010s. This improvement in outcomes is fundamentally due to a better characterization of etiological factors, medical management for heart failure, and device treatment, like the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), for sudden cardiac death prevention. However, other milestones should be recognized for the improvement in the survival rate, namely, the early diagnosis due to familial and sport-related screening, which allow detection of DCM at a less severe stage, and the uninterrupted, active, and individualized long-term follow-up with continuous reevaluation of the disease and re-stratification of the risk