Coherent transport of armchair graphene constrictions

The coherent transport properties of armchair graphene nanoconstrictions(GNC) are studied using tight-binding approach and Green's function method. We find a non-bonding state at zero Fermi energy which results in a zero conductance valley, when a single vacancy locates at $y=3n\pm 1$ of a perfect metallic armchair graphene nanoribbon(aGNR). However, the non-bonding state doesn't exist when a vacancy locates at y=3n, and the conductance behavior of lowest conducting channel will not be affected by the vacancy. For the square-shaped armchair GNC consisting of three metallic aGNR segments, resonant tunneling behavior is observed in the single channel energy region. We find that the presence of localized edge state locating at the zigzag boundary can affect the resonant tunneling severely. A simplified one dimensional model is put forward at last, which explains the resonant tunneling behavior of armchair GNC very well.Comment: 6 pages, 11 figure

CaSiO3 microstructure modulating the in vitro and in vivo bioactivity of poly(lactide-co-glycolide) microspheres

Poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) microspheres have been used for regenerative medicine due to their ability for drug delivery and generally good biocompatibility, but they lack adequate bioactivity for bone repair application. CaSiO3 (CS) has been proposed as a new class of material suitable for bone tissue repair due to its excellent bioactivity. In this study, we set out to incorporate CS into PLGA microspheres to investigate how the phase structure (amorphous and crystal) of CS influences the in vitro and in vivo bioactivity of the composite microspheres, with a view to the application for bone regeneration. X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption-desorption analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to analyze the phase structure, surface area/pore volume, and microstructure of amorphous CS (aCS) and crystal CS (cCS), as well as their composite microspheres. The in vitro bioactivity of aCS and cCS – PLGA microspheres was evaluated by investigating their apatite-mineralization ability in simulated body fluids (SBF) and the viability of human bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). The in vivo bioactivity was investigated by measuring their de novo bone-formation ability. The results showed that the incorporation of both aCS and cCS enhanced the in vitro and in vivo bioactivity of PLGA microspheres. cCS/PLGA microspheres improved better in vitro BMSC viability and de novo bone-formation ability in vivo, compared to aCS/PLGA microspheres. Our study indicates that controlling the phase structure of CS is a promising method to modulate the bioactivity of polymer microsphere system for potential bone tissue regeneration

What Makes a Better Annuity?

The wide gulf between actual and predicted annuity demand has been well documented. However, a comparable gap exists between the current and ideal annuity market. In a world with costly and limited annuity products, we investigate what types of new annuity products could improve annuity market participation and increase individual welfare. We find that participation gains are most likely for new annuity products that focus on late-life payouts which offer a large price discount relative to their financial market analogues. For example, the marginal utility from the first dollar allocated to a late-life annuity can be several times that of an immediate annuity. Our welfare analysis indicates that an individual’s current assets suggest desirable new annuity products since annuities that lower the cost of the existing consumption plan necessarily improve welfare. Finally, we consider the implications for annuity demand if new annuity products ultimately complete the annuity market. Given access to a complete market, we find all individuals only purchase annuity contracts with a significant time gap between purchase and payout. At a minimum, enough time must pass between purchase and payout to build up a mortality discount sufficient to overcome the cost of creating the contract. Since most existing annuity products, such as immediate annuities, do not have this feature, few current annuity contract configurations are likely to survive significant product innovation. Taken together, our results indicate that there is ample opportunity for innovation to spur annuity demand and improve individual welfare

Wideband Dual Circularly Polarized Antenna for Intelligent Transport Systems

A wideband dual circularly polarized (DCP) antenna is presented for intelligent transport system (ITS) applications, which can be used to improve the receiver sensitivity and communication quality of ITS. The presented DCP antenna is composed of an orthogonal power divider (OPD) with two orthogonal input ports, four phase shifters for quadrature phase output, and four crossed dipoles for DCP radiation. Detailed equivalent circuit analysis shows that the OPD has two orthogonal inputs and four equal magnitude in-phase and out-of-phase outputs. To achieve two sets of orthogonal quadrature output signals for DCP radiation, the lumped element based differential right-hand transmission line unit cell and left-hand transmission line unit cell are elaborately introduced as the ±45° phase shifters, and incorporated into the OPD. Eventually, orthogonal quadrature signals are successfully obtained and fed to the crossed dipoles for DCP radiation. The proposed antenna was then designed, fabricated, and measured for ITS applications. The measured results show that the overlapped impedance bandwidth of both two input ports is 1.07–1.85 GHz (53.4%), and the isolation is higher than 15.2 dB. Moreover, low axial ratio (<1.7 dB) and symmetrical radiation patterns are achieved for unidirectional DCP radiation