Phase Transitions in a Dusty Plasma with Two Distinct Particle Sizes

In semiconductor manufacturing, contamination due to particulates significantly decreases the yield and quality of device fabrication, therefore increasing the cost of production. Dust particle clouds can be found in almost all plasma processing environments including both plasma etching devices and in plasma deposition processes. Dust particles suspended within such plasmas will acquire an electric charge from collisions with free electrons in the plasma. If the ratio of inter-particle potential energy to the average kinetic energy is sufficient, the particles will form either a liquid structure with short range ordering or a crystalline structure with long range ordering. Otherwise, the dust particle system will remain in a gaseous state. Many experiments have been conducted over the past decade on such colloidal plasmas to discover the character of the systems formed, but more work is needed to fully understand these structures. The preponderance of previous experiments used monodisperse spheres to form complex plasma systems

A history of the development and implementation of a whole language curriculum in a rural Iowa middle school

The purpose of this project was to examine the history of a whole language curriculum which was developed and implemented for grades five and six in a rural Iowa middle school and to discuss any insights gained from the process. This project presents a description of the whole language curriculum and a rationale for its development. It also explains the purpose of a whole language curriculum and its importance to students, teachers, administrators, and parents. The project describes the procedures used by the middle school in the development and implementation of the curriculum. The project concludes with a description of the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum, the status of the curriculum today, and recommendations for other schools that wish to develop and implement a whole language curriculum

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of neutron-alpha scattering

We describe a new method to treat low-energy scattering problems in few-nucleon systems, and we apply it to the five-body case of neutron-alpha scattering. The method allows precise calculations of low-lying resonances and their widths. We find that a good three-nucleon interaction is crucial to obtain an accurate description of neutron-alpha scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Proton-tetraneutron elastic scattering

We analyze the elastic scattering of protons on a 4n system. This was used as part of the detection technique of a recent experiment [1] to search for the 4n (tetraneutron) as a bound particle. We show that it is unlikely that this process alone could yield the events reported in ref. [1], unless the 4n has an anomalously large backward elastic scattering amplitude.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Increasing Tetrahydrobiopterin in Cardiomyocytes Adversely Affects Cardiac Redox State and Mitochondrial Function Independently of Changes in NO Production

Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) represents a potential strategy for the treatment of cardiac remodeling, fibrosis and/or diastolic dysfunction. The effects of oral treatment with BH4 (Sapropterin™ or Kuvan™) are however dose-limiting with high dose negating functional improvements. Cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of GTP cyclohydrolase I (mGCH) increases BH4 several-fold in the heart. Using this model, we aimed to establish the cardiomyocyte-specific responses to high levels of BH4. Quantification of BH4 and BH2 in mGCH transgenic hearts showed age-based variations in BH4:BH2 ratios. Hearts of mice (\u3c6 \u3emonths) have lower BH4:BH2 ratios than hearts of older mice while both GTPCH activity and tissue ascorbate levels were higher in hearts of young than older mice. No evident changes in nitric oxide (NO) production assessed by nitrite and endogenous iron–nitrosyl complexes were detected in any of the age groups. Increased BH4 production in cardiomyocytes resulted in a significant loss of mitochondrial function. Diminished oxygen consumption and reserve capacity was verified in mitochondria isolated from hearts of 12-month old compared to 3-month old mice, even though at 12 months an improved BH4:BH2 ratio is established. Accumulation of 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) and decreased glutathione levels were found in the mGCH hearts and isolated mitochondria. Taken together, our results indicate that the ratio of BH4:BH2 does not predict changes in neither NO levels nor cellular redox state in the heart. The BH4 oxidation essentially limits the capacity of cardiomyocytes to reduce oxidant stress. Cardiomyocyte with chronically high levels of BH4 show a significant decline in redox state and mitochondrial function

Center-of-mass effects on the quasi-hole spectroscopic factors in the 16O(e,e'p) reaction

The spectroscopic factors for the low-lying quasi-hole states observed in the 16O(e,e'p)15N reaction are reinvestigated with a variational Monte Carlo calculation for the structure of the initial and final nucleus. A computational error in a previous report is rectified. It is shown that a proper treatment of center-of-mass motion does not lead to a reduction of the spectroscopic factor for $p$-shell quasi-hole states, but rather to a 7% enhancement. This is in agreement with analytical results obtained in the harmonic oscillator model. The center-of-mass effect worsens the discrepancy between present theoretical models and the experimentally observed single-particle strength. We discuss the present status of this problem, including some other mechanisms that may be relevant in this respect.Comment: 14 pages, no figures, uses Revtex, to be published in Phys. Rev. C 58 (1998

Waldhausen Additivity: Classical and Quasicategorical

We use a simplicial product version of Quillen's Theorem A to prove classical Waldhausen Additivity of wS., which says that the "subobject" and "quotient" functors of cofiber sequences induce a weak equivalence wS.E(A,C,B)--> wS.A x wS.B . A consequence is Additivity for the Waldhausen K-theory spectrum of the associated split exact sequence, namely a stable equivalence of spectra K(A)vK(B)--> K(E(A,C,B)). This paper is dedicated to transferring these proofs to the quasicategorical setting and developing Waldhausen quasicategories and their sequences. We also give sufficient conditions for a split exact sequence to be equivalent to a standard one. These conditions are always satisfied by stable quasicategories, so Waldhausen K-theory sends any split exact sequence of pointed stable quasicategories to a split cofiber sequence. Presentability is not needed. In an effort to make the article self-contained, we recall all the necessary results from the theory of quasicategories, and prove a few quasicategorical results that are not in the literature.Comment: 83 pages. The revised and copy-edited version of this obsolete arXiv version will be soon published in the Journal of Homotopy and Related Structures. https://link.springer.com/journal/volumesAndIssues/40062 . The final, pre-copy-edit, pre-publication accepted version is at http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~tmfiore/1/research.html and will replace this arXiv version after the embargo perio

Dusty Plasma Correlation Function Experiment

Dust particles immersed within a plasma environment, such as those in protostellar clouds, planetary rings or cometary environments, will acquire an electric charge. If the ratio of the inter-particle potential energy to the average kinetic energy is high enough the particles will form either a "liquid" structure with short-range ordering or a crystalline structure with long range ordering. Many experiments have been conducted over the past several years on such colloidal plasmas to discover the nature of the crystals formed, but more work is needed to fully understand these complex colloidal systems. Most previous experiments have employed monodisperse spheres to form Coulomb crystals. However, in nature (as well as in most plasma processing environments) the distribution of particle sizes is more randomized and disperse. This paper reports experiments which were carried out in a GEC rf reference cell modified for use as a dusty plasma system, using varying sizes of particles to determine the manner in which the correlation function depends upon the overall dust grain size distribution. (The correlation function determines the overall crystalline structure of the lattice.) Two dimensional plasma crystals were formed of assorted glass spheres with specific size distributions in an argon plasma. Using various optical techniques, the pair correlation function was determined and compared to those calculated numerically.Comment: 6 pages, Presented at COSPAR '0