Variability of structural and electronic properties of bulk and monolayer Si2Te3

Since the emergence of monolayer graphene as a promising two-dimensional material, many other monolayer and few-layer materials have been investigated extensively. An experimental study of few-layer Si2Te3 was recently reported, showing that the material has diverse properties for potential applications in Si-based devices ranging from fully integrated thermoelectrics to optoelectronics to chemical sensors. This material has a unique layered structure: it has a hexagonal closed-packed Te sublattice, with Si dimers occupying octahedral intercalation sites. Here we report a theoretical study of this material in both bulk and monolayer form, unveiling a fascinating array of diverse properties arising from reorientations of the silicon dimers between planes of Te atoms. The lattice constant varies up to 5% and the band gap varies up to 40% depending on dimer orientations. The monolayer band gap is 0.4 eV larger than the bulk-phase value for the lowest-energy configuration of Si dimers. These properties are, in principle, controllable by temperature and strain, making Si2T3 a promising candidate material for nanoscale mechanical, optical, and memristive devices.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Comparative study of freshmen college student beliefs and values between representative private and public institutions of higher education in Kentucky.

Students entering college for the first time are embarking on a life-changing journey like none they have experienced. The potential impact the college experience will have on their lives is extreme. Students will be engaged in class and co-curricular settings in ways that will challenge them to produce developmental growth that will carry them through emerging adulthood into adulthood. (Barry & Nelson, 2005) The importance of this time points to the necessity of colleges and universities ensuring that they are providing the best and most holistic educational experience possible. This study was a comparison of the level of student interest in spirituality among freshmen students that attend a state-supported, public university and a private, religiously affiliated college in Kentucky. Research questions were focused on students\u27 spiritual beliefs and values. Based on survey data collected from 579 students, the research indicated that statistically significant differences exist among the two student populations of this study in 5 of 12 constructs utilized in this study: Indicators of students\u27 spirituality, Spirituality, Ecumenical worldview, Social/political views of students, and Physical well-being. While significant, the point-biserial correlations indicated a small amount of variance in each of these constructs could be attributed to institutional type. This study reveals that regardless of institutional type, students are highly interested in spirituality or the development of their interior life. This interior development can be contrasted to the objective domain of observable behavior and material objects that you can measure directly (Astin, 2004, p. 34). Further, the interior domain is noted to include human consciousness or those private experiences in one\u27s subjective awareness. Accordingly, institutions of higher education have an opportunity to increase their ability to address the holistic education of their students by integrating spirituality based curricular and co-curricular policies and programming to create educational environments that balance more appropriately the development of the interior and exterior lives of their students. This new knowledge can inform appropriate educators of the current assessment of student interest in the area of spirituality and create opportunities for discussion regarding appropriate actions to initiate the necessary institutional, curricular, and co-curricular interventions necessary to address the changing interests

Building validation tools for knowledge-based systems

The Expert Systems Validation Associate (EVA), a validation system under development at the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center for more than a year, provides a wide range of validation tools to check the correctness, consistency and completeness of a knowledge-based system. A declarative meta-language (higher-order language), is used to create a generic version of EVA to validate applications written in arbitrary expert system shells. The architecture and functionality of EVA are presented. The functionality includes Structure Check, Logic Check, Extended Structure Check (using semantic information), Extended Logic Check, Semantic Check, Omission Check, Rule Refinement, Control Check, Test Case Generation, Error Localization, and Behavior Verification

Family Structure Effects on Parenting Stress and Practices in the African American Family

The predominant approach to African-American parenting research focuses on disadvantages associated with single parenthood to the exclusion of other issues. The current research suggests that this does not represent the diversity in family structure configurations among African-American families, nor does it give voice to the parenting resilience of single mothers. We argue that rather than marital status or family configuration, more attention needs to be given to the inadequacy of resources for this population. In the current study, we examined the parenting of infants by African- American mothers and found that mothers\u27 marital status and family configuration did not affect parenting stress or practices. This suggests, then, that single mothers parent as well as their married, partnered, and multigenerational counterparts. It seems that the economic status and parenting perceptions of mothers contributed more to parenting stress than did marital status or family structure. Our study, then, challenges the accepted wisdom in our political and popular culture that has insisted upon the centrality of the nuclear family to all aspects of familial and even national health. Instead, we have shown that a true commitment to strong families and healthy children begins with a focus on the debilitating effects of poverty in the African-American community

Poverty and the Daily Lives of Infants

It has been amply demonstrated that poor children suffer disadvantages as compared to their more advantaged peers. This paper examines important aspects of infants’ daily experiences in a southeastern city in the United States in order to illustrate differences between poor and non-poor infants. ‘‘Poor’’ infants were compared to their ‘‘non-poor’’ counterparts on the quality of parenting they received; quality of their home environments; relative health and safety; stability, structure, and predictability of their daily lives; and exposure to diverse experiences in the community. Findings reveal that poor infants are at a consistent disadvantage across all domains when compared to their more affluent counterparts. These daily deficiencies might be conceptualized as the mechanisms through which poverty exerts its negative effects. This paper shifts the focus from macro-level variables such as larger economic and social factors to the cumulative effect of deficiencies at the micro-level. Intervening to ameliorate the micro-level deficits that are most modifiable may lessen the cumulative risk and provide some small avenues toward resilience for the most disadvantaged and at-risk infants

A Comparative Study of Prospective Natural Gas for Vehicle (NGV) Buyers\u27 Behavior Intention in Thailand

This study examines the prospects of how Natural Gas Vehicles (NGV) could gain more popularity, and more consumers, throughout Thailand. A survey of 500 potential consumers, comprising l00 respondents in each of the five separate regions, identified relevant geographic locations, demographic factors and their impact on behavior intention. The results of the study suggest that consumer’s behavioral intentions toward NGV are affected by factors pertaining to social influences and NGV attributes. Each group contains several sub-variables and is used in verifying its individual impact on consumer’s behavioral intention, while the differences in vehicle factors did not strongly affect the behavior intention

Effective Customer Relationship Management of Health Care: A Study of Hospitals in Thailand

This article investigates the effects and the relative importance of the four perceived service quality dimensions on corporate image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. To obtain results, factor analysis and multiple regression techniques are applied to data collected from 500 Thai outpatients of the five largest private hospitals in Bangkok. The findings indicate that the four dimensions significantly affect corporate image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. More specifically, the doctor concern dimension is the most important factor affecting customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The tangibles dimension is the most important factor affecting corporate image

Psychographics and Patronage Behavior of Mature Consumers in Thailand

The elderly market is critically important to many businesses due to its growing size and expanding economic potential. Lifestyles or psychographics have emerged as a viable means of determining market segments for this market. This research examined the relationship between lifestyle segments and retail patronage behavior of mature consumers in Thailand. Three lifestyle or psychographic segments of mature consumers, family oriented, young and secure, and quiet introverts demonstrated a low positive relationship with patronage behavior. Two additional lifestyle segments, active retiree and self reliant, demonstrated norelationship