Alternative sets of hyperspherical harmonics: Satisfying cusp conditions through frame transformations

By extending the concept of Euler-angle rotations to more than three dimensions, we develop the systematics under rotations in higher-dimensional space for a novel set of hyperspherical harmonics. Applying this formalism, we determine all pairwise Coulomb interactions in a few-body system without recourse to multipole expansions. Our approach combines the advantages of relative coordinates with those of the hyperspherical description. In the present method, each Coulomb matrix element reduces to the ``1/r'' form familiar from the two-body problem. Consequently, our calculation accounts for all the cusps in the wave function whenever an interparticle separation vanishes. Unlike a truncated multipole expansion, the calculation presented here is exact. Following the systematic development of the procedure for an arbitrary number of particles, we demonstrate it explicitly with the simplest nontrivial example, the three-body system.Comment: 19 pages, no figure

Enriching the Scope of Cultural Perceptions: Integrating Diversity and Inclusion in Dental Hygiene Education

Diversity and inclusion continue to be a systemic issue among people of color within the educational system. Understanding the importance of diversity within specific educational programs is essential to promoting access to care, particularly given the increasing growth of minority populations in the US. The first Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health in America in 2000 identifies that in the future, the primary method of reaching the underserved population will be through the education of racially and ethnically diverse oral healthcare professionals. Therefore, dental hygiene programs should select culturally competent students and develop pipeline programs to promote a diverse student population. Pipeline programs aid to support students of URM status by increasing their opportunity in advancing their careers. Cultural competency training is exceptional in aiding health care workers to provide the most pertinent care for minority groups. Although professional healthcare education programs endorse cultural competency education in their curriculum, data suggests further studies are needed to determine if students are successfully retaining and implementing cultural competency education into their clinical practice. Due to the barriers that hinder underrepresented students’ abilities to succeed in the educational setting, diversity and inclusion is essential in higher education. Pipeline programs within dental hygiene are insufficient compared to dental and medical schools who have increased the number of underrepresented students through pipeline program implementation. In order to produce dental hygiene clinicians that are equipped to reach a culturally diverse population, the experiences of students should be enhanced with clarity and emphasis on diversity and inclusion within their educational endeavors

Institutional analysis of energy provision in housing : a preliminary exploration

This paper, one of a series resulting from institutional analysis of photovoltaic (PV) acceptance, provides preliminary exploration of the energy industry in relation to energy provision in the residential sector. It is based on theoretical formulations and utilizes methods of institutional analysis developed in an earlier paper in this series. Seven institutional functions -- production, financing, regulation, political, research, service and socialization -- are reviewed as to the manner in which they are performed in the energy industry. The structure of the energy industry is described, as is the regulatory web within which its financial decisions are made and its operations conducted. The persistent and increasing activity of all levels of government in determining the practices of the energy industry is dis- cussed. The research section identifies recent efforts to develop alternative energy sources. The services section especially emphasizes the delivery of energy to residences, while the discussion of the social- ization function highlights the ways in which attitudes on energy availability and use are developed.Prepared under Dept. of Energy Contract no. EX-76-A-01-2295, Task order no.37

Localization and delocalization of charges injected in DNA

The electrical properties of DNA molecules are investigated by charge injection and electric force microscopy experiments. Prior to injection, DNA molecules exhibit a weak positively charged state. We probe the electrical behaviour of DNA by measuring the localized or delocalized character of the DNA charge states upon injection of excess charges. We show that injected charges do not delocalize for overstretched DNA prepared by a receding meniscus technique, while the adjunction of spermidine during the deposition leads to relaxed DNA molecules exhibiting a charge delocalization over microns. The interplay between charge localization/delocalization and deposition techniques may explain that transport behaviors ranging from insulating to conductive have been reported for DNA deposited on surfaces.Comment: To be published in Appl. Phys. Let

Thermodynamics of RNA/DNA hybridization in high density oligonucleotide microarrays

We analyze a series of publicly available controlled experiments (Latin square) on Affymetrix high density oligonucleotide microarrays using a simple physical model of the hybridization process. We plot for each gene the signal intensity versus the hybridization free energy of RNA/DNA duplexes in solution, for perfect matching and mismatching probes. Both values tend to align on a single master curve in good agreement with Langmuir adsorption theory, provided one takes into account the decrease of the effective target concentration due to target-target hybridization in solution. We give an example of a deviation from the expected thermodynamical behavior for the probe set 1091\_at due to annotation problems, i.e. the surface-bound probe is not the exact complement of the target RNA sequence, because of errors present in public databases at the time when the array was designed. We show that the parametrization of the experimental data with RNA/DNA free energy improves the quality of the fits and enhances the stability of the fitting parameters compared to previous studies.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures - final version as publishe