1,146 research outputs found
Mobile App Development to Increase Student Engagement and Problem Solving Skills
This paper describes a project designed to promote problem solving and critical thinking skills in a general education, computing course at an open access institution. A visual programming tool, GameSalad, was used to enable students to create educational apps for mobile platforms. The students worked on a game development project for the entire semester, incorporating various skills learned throughout the semester. Pre and post quiz analysis showed a significant improvement in students’ ability to design comprehensive solutions to a given problem. Survey results also showed increased student engagement, high interest in computing and a “better” understanding of information technology
Spatial risk for a superspreading environment: Insights from six urban facilities in six global cities across four continents
Introduction: This study sets out to provide scientific evidence on the spatial risk for the formation of a superspreading environment.
Methods: Focusing on six common types of urban facilities (bars, cinemas, gyms and fitness centers, places of worship, public libraries and shopping malls), it first tests whether visitors' mobility characteristics differ systematically for different types of facility and at different locations. The study collects detailed human mobility and other locational data in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, SĂŁo Paulo, Seoul and Zurich. Then, considering facility agglomeration, visitors' profile and the density of the population, facilities are classified into four potential spatial risk (PSR) classes. Finally, a kernel density function is employed to derive the risk surface in each city based on the spatial risk class and nature of activities.
Results: Results of the human mobility analysis reflect the geographical and cultural context of various facilities, transport characteristics and people's lifestyle across cities. Consistent across the six global cities, geographical agglomeration is a risk factor for bars. For other urban facilities, the lack of agglomeration is a risk factor. Based on the spatial risk maps, some high-risk areas of superspreading are identified and discussed in each city.
Discussion: Integrating activity-travel patterns in risk models can help identify areas that attract highly mobile visitors and are conducive to superspreading. Based on the findings, this study proposes a place-based strategy of non-pharmaceutical interventions that balance the control of the pandemic and the daily life of the urban population
Spin separation in cyclotron motion
Charged carriers with different spin states are spatially separated in a
two-dimensional hole gas. Due to strong spin-orbit interaction holes at the
Fermi energy have different momenta for two possible spin states travelling in
the same direction and, correspondingly, different cyclotron orbits in a weak
magnetic field. Two point contacts, acting as a monochromatic source of
ballistic holes and a narrow detector in the magnetic focusing geometry are
demonstrated to work as a tunable spin filter.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Antiferromagnetic spintronics
Antiferromagnetic materials could represent the future of spintronic
applications thanks to the numerous interesting features they combine: they are
robust against perturbation due to magnetic fields, produce no stray fields,
display ultrafast dynamics and are capable of generating large
magneto-transport effects. Intense research efforts over the past decade have
been invested in unraveling spin transport properties in antiferromagnetic
materials. Whether spin transport can be used to drive the antiferromagnetic
order and how subsequent variations can be detected are some of the thrilling
challenges currently being addressed. Antiferromagnetic spintronics started out
with studies on spin transfer, and has undergone a definite revival in the last
few years with the publication of pioneering articles on the use of spin-orbit
interactions in antiferromagnets. This paradigm shift offers possibilities for
radically new concepts for spin manipulation in electronics. Central to these
endeavors are the need for predictive models, relevant disruptive materials and
new experimental designs. This paper reviews the most prominent spintronic
effects described based on theoretical and experimental analysis of
antiferromagnetic materials. It also details some of the remaining bottlenecks
and suggests possible avenues for future research
Theory of Current-Induced Magnetization Precession
We solve appropriate drift-diffusion and Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations to
demonstrate that unpolarized current flow from a non-magnet into a ferromagnet
can produce a precession-type instability of the magnetization. The fundamental
origin of the instability is the difference in conductivity between majority
spins and minority spins in the ferromagnet. This leads to spin accumulation
and spin currents that carry angular momentum across the interface. The
component of this angular momentum perpendicular to the magnetization drives
precessional motion that is opposed by Gilbert damping. Neglecting magnetic
anisotropy and magnetostatics, our approximate analytic and exact numerical
solutions using realistic values for the material parameters show (for both
semi-infinite and thin film geometries) that a linear instability occurs when
both the current density and the excitation wave vector parallel to the
interface are neither too small nor too large. For many aspects of the problem,
the variation of the magnetization in the direction of the current flows makes
an important contribution.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review
Negative 4-Probe Conductances of Mesoscopic Superconducting Wires
We analyze the longitudinal 4-probe conductance of mesoscopic normal and
superconducting wires and predict that in the superconducting case, large
negative values can arise for both the weakly disordered and localized regimes.
This contrasts sharply with the behaviour of the longitudinal 4-probe
conductance of normal wires, which in the localized limit is always
exponentially small and positive.Comment: Latex, 3 figures available on request to [email protected]
(Simon Robinson
Current induced switching of magnetic domains to a perpendicular configuration
In a ferromagnet--normal-metal--ferromagnet trilayer, a current flowing
perpendicularly to the layers creates a torque on the magnetic moments of the
ferromagnets. When one of the contacts is superconducting, the torque not only
favors parallel or antiparallel alignment of the magnetic moments, as is the
case for two normal contacts, but can also favor a configuration where the two
moments are perpendicular. In addition, whereas the conductance for parallel
and antiparallel magnetic moments is the same, signalling the absence of giant
magnetoresistance in the usual sense, the conductance is greater in the
perpendicular configuration. Thus, a negative magnetoconductance is predicted,
in contrast with the usual giant magnetoresistance.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, major rewriting of the technical par
Posters from the 24th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy
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