Fabrication of MEMS Devices by Powder-Filling into DXRL-Formed Molds

We have developed a variety of processes for fabricating components for micro devices based on deep x-ray lithography (DXRL). Although the techniques are applicable to many materials, we have demonstrated them using hard (Nd{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B) and soft (Ni-Zn ferrite) magnetic materials because of the importance of these materials in magnetic micro-actuators and other devices and because of the difficulty fabricating them by other means. The simplest technique involves pressing a mixture of magnetic powder and a binder into a DXRL-formed mold. In the second technique, powder is pressed into the mold and then sintered to densify. The other two processes involve pressing at high temperature either powder or a dense bulk material into a ceramic mold that was previously made using a DXRL mold. These techniques allow arbitrary 2-dimensional shapes to be made 10 to 1000 micrometers thick with in-plane dimensions as small as 50 micrometers and dimensional tolerances in the micron range. Bonded isotropic Nd{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B micromagnets made by these processes had an energy product of 7 MGOe

Heat to Electricity Conversion by a Graphene Stripe with Heavy Chiral Fermions

A conversion of thermal energy into electricity is considered in the electrically polarized graphene stripes with zigzag edges where the heavy chiral fermion (HCF) states are formed. The stripes are characterized by a high electric conductance Ge and by a significant Seebeck coefficient S. The electric current in the stripes is induced due to a non-equilibrium thermal injection of "hot" electrons. This thermoelectric generation process might be utilized for building of thermoelectric generators with an exceptionally high figure of merit Z{\delta}T \simeq 100 >> 1 and with an appreciable electric power densities \sim 1 MW/cm2.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

N-Terminal Pro–B-Type Natriuretic Peptide in the Emergency Department: The ICON-RELOADED Study

Background Contemporary reconsideration of diagnostic N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) cutoffs for diagnosis of heart failure (HF) is needed. Objectives This study sought to evaluate the diagnostic performance of NT-proBNP for acute HF in patients with dyspnea in the emergency department (ED) setting. Methods Dyspneic patients presenting to 19 EDs in North America were enrolled and had blood drawn for subsequent NT-proBNP measurement. Primary endpoints were positive predictive values of age-stratified cutoffs (450, 900, and 1,800 pg/ml) for diagnosis of acute HF and negative predictive value of the rule-out cutoff to exclude acute HF. Secondary endpoints included sensitivity, specificity, and positive (+) and negative (−) likelihood ratios (LRs) for acute HF. Results Of 1,461 subjects, 277 (19%) were adjudicated as having acute HF. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve for diagnosis of acute HF was 0.91 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.90 to 0.93; p < 0.001). Sensitivity for age stratified cutoffs of 450, 900, and 1,800 pg/ml was 85.7%, 79.3%, and 75.9%, respectively; specificity was 93.9%, 84.0%, and 75.0%, respectively. Positive predictive values were 53.6%, 58.4%, and 62.0%, respectively. Overall LR+ across age-dependent cutoffs was 5.99 (95% CI: 5.05 to 6.93); individual LR+ for age-dependent cutoffs was 14.08, 4.95, and 3.03, respectively. The sensitivity and negative predictive value for the rule-out cutoff of 300 pg/ml were 93.9% and 98.0%, respectively; LR− was 0.09 (95% CI: 0.05 to 0.13). Conclusions In acutely dyspneic patients seen in the ED setting, age-stratified NT-proBNP cutpoints may aid in the diagnosis of acute HF. An NT-proBNP <300 pg/ml strongly excludes the presence of acute HF

Estrous Cyclicity in Mice During Simulated Weightlessness

Hindlimb unloading (HU) is a rodent model system used to simulate weightlessness experienced in space. However, some effects of this approach on rodent physiology are under-studied, specifically the effects on ovarian estrogen production which drives the estrous cycle. To resolve this deficiency, we conducted a ground-based validation study using the HU model, while monitoring estrous cycles in 16-weeks-old female C57BL6 mice. Animals were exposed to HU for 12 days following a 3 day HU cage acclimation period, and estrous cycling was analyzed in HU animals (n=22), normally loaded HU Cage Pair-Fed controls (CPF; n=22), and Vivarium controls fed ad libitum (VIV; n=10). Pair feeding was used to control for potential nutritional deficits on ovarian function. Vaginal cells were sampled daily in all mice via saline lavage. Cells were dried and stained with crystal violet, and the smears evaluated using established vaginal cytology techniques by two individuals blinded to the animal treatment group. Estrous cyclicity was disrupted in nearly all HU and CPF mice, while those maintained in VIV had an average normal cycle length of 4.8+/- 0.5 days, with all stages in the cycle visibly observed. CPF and HU animals arrested in the diestrous phase, which precedes the pre-ovulatory estrogen surge. Additionally, infection-like symptoms characterized by vaginal discharge and swelling arose in several HU animals, which we suspect was due to an inability of these mice to properly groom themselves, and/or due to the change in the gravity vector relative to the vaginal opening, which prevented drainage of the lavage solution. Pair-feeding resulted in similar weight gains of HU and CPF (1.5% vs 3.0%, respectively). The current results indicate that pair-feeding controlled weight gain and that the HU cage alone influenced estrous cyclicity. Thus, longer acclimation needs to be tested to determine if and when normal estrous cycling resumes in non-loaded mice in HU cages prior to HU testing. Future studies might also examine whether modifications to the vaginal lavage procedure might prevent the onset of the infection-like symptoms, and allow estrous cyclicity to be measured in this model system. Research supported by NNX15AB48G to JST

Relaxation of the Dynamical Gluino Phase and Unambiguous Electric Dipole Moments

We propose a new axionic solution of the strong CP problem with a Peccei-Quinn mechanism using the gluino rather than quarks. The spontaneous breaking of this new global U(1) at 10^{11} GeV also generates the supersymmetry breaking scale of 1 TeV (solving the so-called \mu problem at the same time) and results in the MSSM (Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model) with R parity conservation. In this framework, electric dipole moments become calculable without ambiguity.Comment: Typos corrected and a footnote added, 10 p

Quantum Field Theory of Meson Mixing

We have developed a quantum field theoretic framework for scalar and pseudoscalar meson mixing and oscillations in time. The unitary inequivalence of the Fock space of base (unmixed) eigenstates and the physical mixed eigenstates is proven and shown to lead to a rich condensate structure. This is exploited to develop formulas for two flavor boson oscillations in systems of arbitrary boson occupation number. The mixing and oscillation can be understood in terms of vacuum condensate which interacts with the bare particles to induce non-trivial effects. We apply these formulas to analyze the mixing of $\eta$ with $\eta'$ and comment on the $K_L K_S$ system. In addition, we consider the mixing of boson coherent states, which may have future applications in the construction of meson lasers.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures; Eqs.(10-12) corrected, leading to new physical insights; added paragraph under Eq.(24) explaining physical interpretation of mixing in terms of vacuum condensation; references added and minor typo correcte

Irreversible Quantum Mechanics in the Neutral K-System

The neutral Kaon system is used to test the quantum theory of resonance scattering and decay phenomena. The two dimensional Lee-Oehme-Yang theory with complex Hamiltonian is obtained by truncating the complex basis vector expansion of the exact theory in Rigged Hilbert space. This can be done for K_1 and K_2 as well as for K_S and K_L, depending upon whether one chooses the (self-adjoint, semi-bounded) Hamiltonian as commuting or non-commuting with CP. As an unexpected curiosity one can show that the exact theory (without truncation) predicts long-time 2 pion decays of the neutral Kaon system even if the Hamiltonian conserves CP.Comment: 36 pages, 1 PostScript figure include

Observing Spontaneous Strong Parity Violation in Heavy-Ion Collisions

We discuss the problem of observing spontaneous parity and CP violation in collision systems. We discuss and propose observables which may be used in heavy-ion collisions to observe such violations, as well as event-by-event methods to analyze the data. Finally, we discuss simple monte-carlo models of these CP violating effects which we have used to develop our techniques and from which we derive rough estimates of sensitivities to signals which may be seen at RHIC