Developing a four-mallet marimba technique featuring the alternation of mallets in each hand for linear passages and the application of this technique to transcriptions of selected keyboard works by J.S. Bach

The goal of this study is to develop a four-mallet marimba technique that utilizes alternation within each hand on linear passages, then apply this technique to selected keyboard works of J. S. Bach. This paper provides a method of training the hands for this type of alternation and will hypothesize a conception of hand positions as a method of facing the visual/spatial logistics issues of marimba performance. A performance annotation chapter will then apply the alternation sticking, and its resultant positional concepts, to three new transcriptions of J. S. Bach\u27s inventions and a prelude and fugue from his Well-Tempered Clavier (Book II). The alternation technique of this study is predicated on the hypothesis that certain linear passages for the two mallets of a single hand may be played with increased stability, accuracy, and efficiency using an alternation-based sticking in lieu of the repetition-based sticking practice used by contemporary marimbists. In many passages, the player may simply apply standard two-mallet left and right sticking practices to the two mallets of a single hand. The increased stability mentioned above may also aid the marimbist\u27s kinesthetic sense of the bars, thereby improving accuracy in one hand and freeing more of the player\u27s visual attention for the non-linear (or other-linear ) hand. The improved kinesthetic sense can assist in sight-reading, where the player must rely on the mind\u27s eye (a combination of the player\u27s kinesthetic sense and a mental picture of the keyboard) for both hands while the eyes remain trained on the unfamiliar page

Panchromatic and Spectral Characterization of Cu Contaminated Semi-Insulating GaAs

Panchromatic (integral) and spectrally resolved cathodoluminescence characterization was used to investigate the near surface gettering properties of Cu in liquid-encapsulated, Czochralski-grown, undoped semi-insulating (SI) GaAs. Samples from two sources were investigated to determine if gettering treatments applied to GaAs result in improvements in uniformity similar to those observed in gettered Si. Before Cu contamination, typical cellular structure is observed for all samples. Experimentally, it is found that the panchromatic CL images change significantly after Cu doping and subsequent gettering processing for all samples. A contrast reversal is generally observed after Cu contamination. After gettering, the image of the samples from one source remained reversed whereas the image of samples from the other source showed a second contrast reversal. Typically, both samples exhibit bright regions after gettering which closely correspond to the dislocation structure. More detailed spectrally resolved CL indicates that Cu luminescence correlates well in most cases with the band edge emission. In only a few cases were discernible differences noted. It is concluded that Cu is observed in locations from which nonradiative recombination centers have been effectively removed

From Mendel’s discovery on pea to today’s plant genetics and breeding

In 2015, we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the presentation of the seminal work of Gregor Johann Mendel. While Darwin’s theory of evolution was based on differential survival and differential reproductive success, Mendel’s theory of heredity relies on equality and stability throughout all stages of the life cycle. Darwin’s concepts were continuous variation and “soft” heredity; Mendel espoused discontinuous variation and “hard” heredity. Thus, the combination of Mendelian genetics with Darwin’s theory of natural selection was the process that resulted in the modern synthesis of evolutionary biology. Although biology, genetics, and genomics have been revolutionized in recent years, modern genetics will forever rely on simple principles founded on pea breeding using seven single gene characters. Purposeful use of mutants to study gene function is one of the essential tools of modern genetics. Today, over 100 plant species genomes have been sequenced. Mapping populations and their use in segregation of molecular markers and marker–trait association to map and isolate genes, were developed on the basis of Mendel's work. Genome-wide or genomic selection is a recent approach for the development of improved breeding lines. The analysis of complex traits has been enhanced by high-throughput phenotyping and developments in statistical and modeling methods for the analysis of phenotypic data. Introgression of novel alleles from landraces and wild relatives widens genetic diversity and improves traits; transgenic methodologies allow for the introduction of novel genes from diverse sources, and gene editing approaches offer possibilities to manipulate gene in a precise manner

Radio Frequency Reflectometry of Single-Electron Box Arrays for Nanoscale Voltage Sensing Applications

Single-electron tunneling transistors (SETs) and boxes (SEBs) exploit the phenomenon of Coulomb blockade to achieve unprecedented charge sensitivities. Single-electron boxes, however, despite their simplicity compared to SETs, have rarely been used for practical applications. The main reason for that is that unlike a SET where the gate voltage controls conductance between the source and the drain, an SEB is a two terminal device that requires either an integrated SET amplifier or high-frequency probing of its complex admittance by means of radio frequency reflectometry (RFR). The signal to noise ratio (SNR) for a SEB is small, due to its much lower admittance compared to a SET and thus matching networks are required for efficient coupling ofSEBs to an RFR setup. To boost the signal strength by a factor of N (due to a random offset charge) SEBs can be connected in parallel to form arrays sharing common gates and sources. The smaller the size of the SEB, the larger the charging energy of a SEB enabling higher operation temperature, and using devices with a small footprint (<0.01 µm2), a large number of devices (>1000) can be assembled into an array occupying just a few square microns. We show that it is possible to design SEB arrays that may compete with an SET in terms of sensitivity. In this, we tested SETs using RF reflectometry in a configuration with no DC through path (“DC-decoupled SET” or DCD SET) along with SEBs connected to the same matching network. The experiment shows that the lack of a path for a DC current makes SEBs and DCD SETs highly electrostatic discharge (ESD) tolerant, a very desirable feature for applications. We perform a detailed analysis of experimental data on SEB arrays of various sizes and compare it with simulations to devise several ways for practical applications of SEB arrays and DCD SETs

P-33 Development of a novel biosensor setup of combined QCM-D and FET

A novel setup of a biosensor that combines an EGFET (extended gate field effect transistor) and a QCM-D (quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation) has been developed. The setup utilized a commercial, affordable MOSFET, hard wired to the QCM-D without having to undergo complicated nanofabrication procedures. This sensor was capable of detecting changes in electrochemical and thickness/flexibility during bio-molecular interactions. For the proof of concept, DNA fragments of H1N1 were detected in the setup. The sensor demonstrated in situ, label-free, and multi-modal characterization of bio-molecular interactions with high sensitivity and multiple parameters through a simple instrumentation

Gate reflectometry of single-electron box arrays using calibrated low temperature matching networks

International audienceAbstract Sensitive dispersive readouts of single-electron devices (“gate reflectometry”) rely on one-port radio-frequency (RF) reflectometry to read out the state of the sensor. A standard practice in reflectometry measurements is to design an impedance transformer to match the impedance of the load to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line and thus obtain the best sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio. This is particularly important for measuring large impedances, typical for dispersive readouts of single-electron devices because even a small mismatch will cause a strong signal degradation. When performing RF measurements, a calibration and error correction of the measurement apparatus must be performed in order to remove errors caused by unavoidable non-idealities of the measurement system. Lack of calibration makes optimizing a matching network difficult and ambiguous, and it also prevents a direct quantitative comparison between measurements taken of different devices or on different systems. We propose and demonstrate a simple straightforward method to design and optimize a pi matching network for readouts of devices with large impedance, $$Z \ge 1\hbox {M}\Omega$$ Z ≥ 1 M Ω . It is based on a single low temperature calibrated measurement of an unadjusted network composed of a single L-section followed by a simple calculation to determine a value of the “balancing” capacitor needed to achieve matching conditions for a pi network. We demonstrate that the proposed calibration/error correction technique can be directly applied at low temperature using inexpensive calibration standards. Using proper modeling of the matching networks adjusted for low temperature operation the measurement system can be easily optimized to achieve the best conditions for energy transfer and targeted bandwidth, and can be used for quantitative measurements of the device impedance. In this work we use gate reflectometry to readout the signal generated by arrays of parallel-connected Al-AlOx single-electron boxes. Such arrays can be used as a fast nanoscale voltage sensor for scanning probe applications. We perform measurements of sensitivity and bandwidth for various settings of the matching network connected to arrays and obtain strong agreement with the simulations