bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Functionalized NbS2 as cathode for Li- and Na-ion batteries
Authors: Zhu Jiajie , Alshareef Husam N. , Schwingenschlögl Udo
Published: July 2017

Cathodes of Li- and Na-ion batteries usually have capacities <200 mAh/g, significantly less than the anodes. Two-dimensional materials can overcome this limitation but suffer from low voltages. In this context, we investigate NbS2 functionalized by O, F, and Cl as a cathode material by first-principles calculations, considering both the conversion and intercalation mechanisms. NbS2O2 shows a higher voltage than NbS2 for both Li and Na, but the voltage decreases drastically for increasing ion coverage. Even higher voltages and favorable dependences on the ion coverage are achieved by F and Cl functionalization. We obtain NbS2F2 and NbS2Cl2 energy densities of 1223 mW h/g and 823 mW h/g for lithiation and 1086 mW h/g and 835 mW h/g for sodiation, respectively. These values are higher than those for most state-of-the-art cathode materials (∼600 mW h/g). In addition, low diffusion barriers enable high cycling rates.
Determination of the impact of Bi content on the valence band energy of GaAsBi using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
Authors: Collar K. , Li J. , Jiao W. , Guan Y. , Losurdo M. , Humlicek J. , Brown A. S.
Published: July 2017

We investigate the change of the valence band energy of GaAs1-xBix (0<x<0.025) as a function of dilute bismuth (Bi) concentration, x, using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The change in the valence band energy per addition of 1 % Bi is determined for strained and unstrained thin films using a linear approximation applicable to the dilute regime. Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) was used as a complementary technique to determine the change in GaAsBi bandgap resulting from Bi addition. Analysis of SE and XPS data together supports the conclusion that ∼75% of the reduction in the bandgap is in the valence band for a compressively strained, dilute GaAsBi thin film at room temperature.
Direct observation of exchange-driven spin interactions in one-dimensional system
Authors: Yan Chengyu , Kumar Sanjeev , Thomas Kalarikad , Pepper Michael , See Patrick , Farrer Ian , Ritchie David , Griffiths J. P. , Jones G. A. C.
Published: July 2017

We present experimental results of transverse electron focusing measurements performed on an n-type GaAs based mesoscopic device consisting of one-dimensional (1D) quantum wires as injector and detector. We show that non-adiabatic injection of 1D electrons at a conductance of e2h results in a single first focusing peak, which transforms into two asymmetric sub-peaks with a gradual increase in the injector conductance up to 2e2h, each sub-peak representing the population of spin-state arising from the spatially separated spins in the injector. Further increasing the conductance flips the spin-states in the 1D channel, thus reversing the asymmetry in the sub-peaks. On applying a source-drain bias, the spin-gap, so obtained, can be resolved, thus providing evidence of exchange interaction induced spin polarization in the 1D systems.
Ab-initio quantum transport simulation of self-heating in single-layer 2-D materials
Authors: Stieger Christian , Szabo Aron , Bunjaku Teutë , Luisier Mathieu
Published: July 2017

Through advanced quantum mechanical simulations combining electron transport and phonon transport from first-principles, self-heating effects are investigated in n-type transistors with single-layer MoS2, WS2, and black phosphorus as channel materials. The selected 2-D crystals all exhibit different phonon-limited mobility values, as well as electron and phonon properties, which have a direct influence on the increase in their lattice temperature and on the power dissipated inside their channel as a function of the applied gate voltage and electrical current magnitude. This computational study reveals (i) that self-heating plays a much more important role in 2-D materials than in Si nanowires, (ii) that it could severely limit the performance of 2-D devices at high current densities, and (iii) that black phosphorus appears less sensitive to this phenomenon than transition metal dichalcogenides.
Extended-bandwidth frequency sweeps of a distributed feedback laser using combined injection current and temperature modulation
Authors: Hefferman Gerald , Chen Zhen , Wei Tao
Published: July 2017

This article details the generation of an extended-bandwidth frequency sweep using a single, communication grade distributed feedback (DFB) laser. The frequency sweep is generated using a two-step technique. In the first step, injection current modulation is employed as a means of varying the output frequency of a DFB laser over a bandwidth of 99.26 GHz. A digital optical phase lock loop is used to lock the frequency sweep speed during current modulation, resulting in a linear frequency chirp. In the second step, the temperature of the DFB laser is modulated, resulting in a shifted starting laser output frequency. A laser frequency chirp is again generated beginning at this shifted starting frequency, resulting in a frequency-shifted spectrum relative to the first recorded data. This process is then repeated across a range of starting temperatures, resulting in a series of partially overlapping, frequency-shifted spectra. These spectra are then aligned using cross-correlation and combined using averaging to form a single, broadband spectrum with a total bandwidth of 510.9 GHz. In order to investigate the utility of this technique, experimental testing was performed in which the approach was used as the swept-frequency source of a coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry system. This system was used to interrogate an optical fiber containing a 20 point, 1-mm pitch length fiber Bragg grating, corresponding to a period of 100 GHz. Using this technique, both the periodicity of the grating in the frequency domain and the individual reflector elements of the structure in the time domain were resolved, demonstrating the technique’s potential as a method of extending the sweeping bandwidth of semiconductor lasers for frequency-based sensing applications.
A matrix isolation ESR and theoretical study of MgN
Authors: Hearne Thomas S. , Yates Sally A. , Wild Duncan A. , McKinley Allan J.
Published: July 2017

Matrix isolation experiments have been conducted on the Mg14N, 25Mg14N, Mg15N, and 25Mg15N radicals which were formed by the reaction of a plume of magnesium metal produced with laser ablation and either acetonitrile vapour or nitrogen atoms. The radicals were isolated in an inert neon matrix at 4.3 K and studied with electron spin resonance spectroscopy. The ground electronic state of MgN was determined to be 4Σ−. The following magnetic parameters were determined experimentally for MgN: g⊥ = 2.004 78 (2), g∥ = 2.001 72 (4), |D| = 9797 (6) MHz, A⊥(14N) = 19.7 (2) MHz, A∥ (14N) = −4.0 (3) MHz, A⊥(15N) = 27.5 (3) MHz, A∥ (15N) = −5.7 (3) MHz, A⊥ (25Mg) = −60.7 (5) MHz, and A∥(25Mg) = −65 (3) MHz. The low-lying electronic states of MgN were also investigated using the complete active space multiconfigurational self-consistent field technique. By plotting the potential energy surface, theoretical parameters for the ground state with a configuration of 5σ26σ27σ12π12π1 were able to be determined, including re = 2.090 Å and De = 11.28 kcal/mol.
Scintillator-based transverse proton beam profiler for laser-plasma ion sources
Authors: Dover N. P. , Nishiuchi M. , Sakaki H. , Alkhimova M. A. , Faenov A. Ya. , Fukuda Y. , Kiriyama H. , Kon A. , Kondo K. , Nishitani K. , Ogura K. , Pikuz T. A. , Pirozhkov A. S. , Sagisaka A. , Kando M. , Kondo K.
Published: July 2017

A high repetition rate scintillator-based transverse beam profile diagnostic for laser-plasma accelerated proton beams has been designed and commissioned. The proton beam profiler uses differential filtering to provide coarse energy resolution and a flexible design to allow optimisation for expected beam energy range and trade-off between spatial and energy resolution depending on the application. A plastic scintillator detector, imaged with a standard 12-bit scientific camera, allows data to be taken at a high repetition rate. An algorithm encompassing the scintillator non-linearity is described to estimate the proton spectrum at different spatial locations.
A compact dispersive refocusing Rowland circle X-ray emission spectrometer for laboratory, synchrotron, and XFEL applications
Authors: Holden William M. , Hoidn Oliver R. , Ditter Alexander S. , Seidler Gerald T. , Kas Joshua , Stein Jennifer L. , Cossairt Brandi M. , Kozimor Stosh A. , Guo Jinghua , Ye Yifan , Marcus Matthew A. , Fakra Sirine
Published: July 2017

X-ray emission spectroscopy is emerging as an important complement to x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, providing a characterization of the occupied electronic density of states local to the species of interest. Here, we present details of the design and performance of a compact x-ray emission spectrometer that uses a dispersive refocusing Rowland (DRR) circle geometry to achieve excellent performance for the 2–2.5 keV range, i.e., especially for the K-edge emission from sulfur and phosphorous. The DRR approach allows high energy resolution even for unfocused x-ray sources. This property enables high count rates in laboratory studies, approaching those of insertion-device beamlines at third-generation synchrotrons, despite use of only a low-powered, conventional x-ray tube. The spectrometer, whose overall scale is set by use of a 10-cm diameter Rowland circle and a new small-pixel complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor x-ray camera, is easily portable to synchrotron or x-ray free electron laser beamlines. Photometrics from measurements at the Advanced Light Source show excellent overall instrumental efficiency. In addition, the compact size of this instrument lends itself to future multiplexing to gain large factors in net collection efficiency or its implementation in controlled gas gloveboxes either in the lab or in an endstation.
One-particle many-body Green’s function theory: Algebraic recursive definitions, linked-diagram theorem, irreducible-diagram theorem, and general-order algorithms
Authors: Hirata So , Doran Alexander E. , Knowles Peter J. , Ortiz J. V.
Published: July 2017

A thorough analytical and numerical characterization of the whole perturbation series of one-particle many-body Green’s function (MBGF) theory is presented in a pedagogical manner. Three distinct but equivalent algebraic (first-quantized) recursive definitions of the perturbation series of the Green’s function are derived, which can be combined with the well-known recursion for the self-energy. Six general-order algorithms of MBGF are developed, each implementing one of the three recursions, the ΔMPn method (where n is the perturbation order) [S. Hirata et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 11, 1595 (2015)], the automatic generation and interpretation of diagrams, or the numerical differentiation of the exact Green’s function with a perturbation-scaled Hamiltonian. They all display the identical, nondivergent perturbation series except ΔMPn, which agrees with MBGF in the diagonal and frequency-independent approximations at 1≤n≤3 but converges at the full-configuration-interaction (FCI) limit at n=∞ (unless it diverges). Numerical data of the perturbation series are presented for Koopmans and non-Koopmans states to quantify the rate of convergence towards the FCI limit and the impact of the diagonal, frequency-independent, or ΔMPn approximation. The diagrammatic linkedness and thus size-consistency of the one-particle Green’s function and self-energy are demonstrated at any perturbation order on the basis of the algebraic recursions in an entirely time-independent (frequency-domain) framework. The trimming of external lines in a one-particle Green’s function to expose a self-energy diagram and the removal of reducible diagrams are also justified mathematically using the factorization theorem of Frantz and Mills. Equivalence of ΔMPn and MBGF in the diagonal and frequency-independent approximations at 1≤n≤3 is algebraically proven, also ascribing the differences at n = 4 to the so-called semi-reducible and linked-disconnected diagrams.
Transformation of topologically close-packed β-W to body-centered cubic α-W: Comparison of experiments and computations
Authors: Barmak Katayun , Liu Jiaxing , Harlan Liam , Xiao Penghao , Duncan Juliana , Henkelman Graeme
Published: July 2017

The enthalpy and activation energy for the transformation of the metastable form of tungsten, β-W, which has the topologically close-packed A15 structure (space group Pm3¯n), to equilibrium α-W, which is body-centered cubic (A2, space group Im3¯m), was measured using differential scanning calorimetry. The β-W films were 1 μm-thick and were prepared by sputter deposition in argon with a small amount of nitrogen. The transformation enthalpy was measured as −8.3 ± 0.4 kJ/mol (−86 ± 4 meV/atom) and the transformation activation energy as 2.2 ± 0.1 eV. The measured enthalpy was found to agree well with the difference in energies of α and β tungsten computed using density functional theory, which gave a value of −82 meV/atom for the transformation enthalpy. A calculated concerted transformation mechanism with a barrier of 0.4 eV/atom, in which all the atoms in an A15 unit cell transform into A2, was found to be inconsistent with the experimentally measured activation energy for any critical nucleus larger than two A2 unit cells. Larger calculations of eight A15 unit cells spontaneously relax to a mechanism in which part of the supercell first transforms from A15 to A2, creating a phase boundary, before the remaining A15 transforms into the A2 phase. Both calculations indicate that a nucleation and growth mechanism is favored over a concerted transformation. More consistent with the experimental activation energy was that of a calculated local transformation mechanism at the A15-A2 phase boundary, computed as 1.7 eV using molecular dynamics simulations. This calculated phase transformation mechanism involves collective rearrangements of W atoms in the disordered interface separating the A15 and A2 phases.
Infrared-active optical phonons in LiFePO4 single crystals
Authors: Stanislavchuk T. N. , Middlemiss D. S. , Syzdek J. S. , Janssen Y. , Basistyy R. , Sirenko A. A. , Khalifah P. G. , Grey C. P. , Kostecki R.
Published: July 2017

Infrared-active optical phonons were studied in olivine LiFePO4 oriented single crystals by means of both rotating analyzer and rotating compensator spectroscopic ellipsometry in the spectral range between 50 and 1400 cm−1. The eigenfrequencies, oscillator strengths, and broadenings of the phonon modes were determined from fits of the anisotropic harmonic oscillator model to the data. Optical phonons in a heterosite FePO4 crystal were measured from the delithiated ab-surface of the LiFePO4 crystal and compared with the phonon modes of the latter. Good agreement was found between experimental data and the results of solid-state hybrid density functional theory calculations for the phonon modes in both LiFePO4 and FePO4.
Classical and quantum stochastic models of resistive and memristive circuits
Authors: Gough John E. , Zhang Guofeng
Published: July 2017

The purpose of this paper is to examine stochastic Markovian models for circuits in phase space for which the drift term is equivalent to the standard circuit equations. In particular, we include dissipative components corresponding to both a resistor and a memristor in series. We obtain a dilation of the problem which is canonical in the sense that the underlying Poisson bracket structure is preserved under the stochastic flow. We do this first of all for standard Wiener noise but also treat the problem using a new concept of symplectic noise, where the Poisson structure is extended to the noise as well as the circuit variables, and in particular where we have canonically conjugate noises. Finally, we construct a dilation which describes the quantum mechanical analogue.
Nonlinear equations in radiating stellar structures
Authors: Mohanlal R. , Narain R. , Maharaj S. D.
Published: July 2017

The behaviour of a bounded radiating body in general relativity is determined by a nonlinear boundary condition at the stellar surface. We systematically study the differential equations that arise using the Lie symmetry infinitesimal generators. We show that several nonlinear equations, including Bernoulli equations and Abel equations of the second kind, in addition to Riccati equations, are generated by assuming functional relationships on the gravitational potentials. We demonstrate that these equations may be solved exactly. The models found admit a linear equation of state for the radial pressure and the energy density. The energy conditions are satisfied and the matter variables are well behaved.
A rheological constitutive model for semiconcentrated rod suspensions in Bingham fluids
Authors: Férec J. , Bertevas E. , Khoo B. C. , Ausias G. , Phan-Thien N.
Published: July 2017

A rheological constitutive law is developed for a suspension of rigid rods in a Bingham fluid for volume fractions ranging up to the semiconcentrated regime. Based on a cell model approach, which allows expressing the shear stress on the particle surface, the particle stress contribution is derived and involves additional yield stress terms related to an ensemble average orientation distribution of the rods. As a first approach, a von Mises criterion is used to describe the composite flow threshold, which is found to be anisotropic in the sense that it depends on the rod orientation. A rod dynamics equation is also proposed and incorporates some diffusion/perturbation due to yielded regions encountered throughout the suspension. In parallel, an equivalent kinetic theory is also developed. The model provides good agreement with shear stress experiments for kaolin pastes filled with steel fibers of two different aspect ratios.
Graphene nanoplatelets: Thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity by the flash method
Authors: Potenza M. , Cataldo A. , Bovesecchi G. , Corasaniti S. , Coppa P. , Bellucci S.
Published: July 2017

The present work deals with the measurement of thermo-physical properties of a freestanding sheet of graphene (thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity), and their dependence on sample density as result of uniform mechanical compression. Thermal diffusivity of graphene nano-platelets (thin slabs) was measured by the pulse flash method. Obtained response data were processed with a specifically developed least square data processing algorithm. GNP specific heat was assumed from literature and thermal conductivity derived from thermal diffusivity, specific heat and density. Obtained results show a significant difference with respect to other porous media: the thermal diffusivity decreases as the density increases, while thermal conductivity increases for low and high densities, and remain fairly constant for the intermediate range. This can be explained by the very high thermal conductivity values reached by the nano-layers of graphene and the peculiar arrangement of platelets during the compression applied to the samples to get the desired density. Due to very high thermal conductivity of graphene layers, the obtained results show that thermal conductivity of conglomerates increases when there is an air reduction due to compression, and consequent density increases, with the number of contact points between platelets also increased. In the intermediate range (250 ≤ ρ ≤ 700 kg·m-3) the folding of platelets reduces density, without increasing the contact points of platelets, so thermal conductivity can slightly decrease.
Solution properties of star polyelectrolytes having a moderate number of arms
Authors: Chremos Alexandros , Douglas Jack F.
Published: July 2017

We investigate polyelectrolyte stars having a moderate number of arms by molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse-grained model over a range of polyelectrolyte concentrations, where both the counter-ions and solvent are treated explicitly. This class of polymeric materials is found to exhibit rather distinct static and dynamic properties from linear and highly branched star polyelectrolyte solutions emphasized in past studies. Moderately branched polymers are particle-like in many of their properties, while at the same time they exhibit large fluctuations in size and shape as in the case of linear chain polymers. Correspondingly, these fluctuations suppress crystallization at high polymer concentrations, leading apparently to an amorphous rather than crystalline solid state at high polyelectrolyte concentrations. We quantify the onset of this transition by measuring the polymer size and shape fluctuations of our model star polyelectrolytes and the static and dynamic structure factor of these solutions over a wide range of polyelectrolyte concentration. Our findings for star polyelectrolytes are similar to those of polymer-grafted nanoparticles having a moderate grafting density, which is natural given the soft and highly deformable nature of both of these “particles.”
Elevated transition temperature in Ge doped VO2 thin films
Authors: Krammer Anna , Magrez Arnaud , Vitale Wolfgang A. , Mocny Piotr , Jeanneret Patrick , Guibert Edouard , Whitlow Harry J. , Ionescu Adrian M. , Schüler Andreas
Published: July 2017

Thermochromic GexV1−xO2+y thin films have been deposited on Si (100) substrates by means of reactive magnetron sputtering. The films were then characterized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), four-point probe electrical resistivity measurements, X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy. From the temperature dependent resistivity measurements, the effect of Ge doping on the semiconductor-to-metal phase transition in vanadium oxide thin films was investigated. The transition temperature was shown to increase significantly upon Ge doping (∼95 °C), while the hysteresis width and resistivity contrast gradually decreased. The precise Ge concentration and the film thickness have been determined by RBS. The crystallinity of phase-pure VO2 monoclinic films was confirmed by XRD. These findings make the use of vanadium dioxide thin films in solar and electronic device applications—where higher critical temperatures than 68 °C of pristine VO2 are needed—a viable and promising solution.
Tuning the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, spin Hall switching current density, and domain wall velocity by submonolayer insertion in Ta/CoFeB/MgO heterostructures
Authors: Bommanaboyena S. P. , Meinert M.
Published: July 2017

By submonolayer insertion of Au, Pt, or Pd into Ta/CoFeB/MgO/Ta heterostructures, we tune the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and the coercive field of the ferromagnetic layer. We demonstrate that this has a major influence on the spin Hall switching current density and its dependence on the external magnetic field. Despite a rather small effective spin Hall angle of θSH≈−0.07, we obtain switching current densities as low as 2×1010 A/m2 with a 2 Å Au interlayer. We find that the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction parameter D is reduced with Au or Pd interlayers, and the perpendicular anisotropy field is reduced by an order of magnitude with the Pd interlayer. The dependence of the switching current density on the current pulse width is quantitatively explained with a domain wall nucleation and propagation model. Interface engineering is thus found to be a suitable route to tailor the current-induced magnetization switching properties of magnetic heterostructures.
Phase interferometric particle imaging for simultaneous measurements of evaporating micron-sized droplet and nanoscale size changes
Authors: Wu Yingchun , Li Haipeng , Brunel Marc , Chen Jia , Gréhan Gérard , Mädler Lutz
Published: July 2017

We have developed phase interferometric particle imaging (PHIPI) of Mie scattering to simultaneously measure the spherical and transparent droplet size at the micron scale and transient size changes at the nanoscale. The theoretical derivation of PHIPI reveals that the phase of interferometric fringes between direct transmission and reflection linearly shifts with the change in droplet size. After a proof-of-concept validation with simulation, a PHIPI system is then implemented with an elaborately designed Fourier imaging system and applied to measure single evaporating droplets of ethanol and n-Nonane. The results show that the PHIPI technique can determine the size change down to several nanometers, providing a powerful tool for accurate in-situ characterization of droplet dynamics, e.g., droplet evaporation and oscillation.
Correlation of Impedance and Effective Electrode Area of Iridium Oxide Neural Electrodes
Authors: Harris Alexander R. , Paolini Antonio G.
Published: July 2017

Iridium oxide is routinely used for bionic applications owing to its high charge injection capacity. The electrode impedance at 1 kHz is typically reported to predict neural recording performance. In this article, the impedance of activated iridium oxide films (AIROFs) has been examined. The impedance of unactivated iridium electrodes was half that of platinum electrodes of similar geometry, indicating some iridium oxide was present on the electrode surface. A two time constant equivalent circuit was used to model the impedance of activated iridium. The impedance at low and intermediate frequencies decreased with increasing number of activation pulses and total activation charge. The impedance at 12 Hz correlated with the steady-state diffusion electroactive area. The impedance at 12 Hz also correlated with the charge density of the electrode. The high charge density and low impedance of AIROFs may provide improved neural stimulation and recording properties compared with typically used platinum electrodes.
Rock climbers’ communicative and sensory practices
Authors: Jenkings K. Neil
Published: July 2017

This chapter, following Allen-Collinson & Hockey (2011), focuses on intercorporeal sensory perception in sport through verbal, haptic, ocular, and other forms of interaction as displayed and communicated by rock climbers in collaborative (en)action. It takes an ethnomethodological based video-analytic ethnographic approach, using video clips of rock climbers in collaborative (en)action to portray their verbal and non-verbal communicative and intercorporeal mundane practices. The research is based upon participant (my own, if non-expert, climbing) and non-participant observation (watching various others climb). Also interviews and video recordings of rock climbers at various climbing sites in Northumberland, Snowdonia, the Lake District and Yorkshire in the United Kingdom were conducted. Following a brief introduction to rock climbing in general, rock climbing is then discussed as an intercoproreal sporting activity after which the argument for an ethnomethodological approach to its study in this case is then made.

This paper then uses three examples of rock climbing activities: (1) two climbers discussing with a guidebook the various routes on short crag face which they intend to climb; (2) two climbers discussing a route on a boulder route which one then climbs ‘unassisted’; and lastly (3), a quarry sports climb upon which two climbers are top roping. From these we will build up a series of brief analytic descriptions of intercorporeal enaction of knowledge and practices in rock climbing. Practices, which are both verbal and non-verbal with various types of intercorporeal enaction. Thematic to the ensuing descriptions is the role of auxiliary technologies, that alongside the climbers and the rock itself, form part of the intercorporeal matrix. It will be argued that intercorporeal enaction when expertly performed allows that practical action to ‘disappear’ from the content of the ongoing verbal interaction. While the intercorporeal enaction is dropped as a conversational topic, with other non-immediate topics replacing it, the on-going physical enaction practices are still key to understanding members’ intercorporeal enaction of climbing and its performativity.
Non-actual motion in language and experience
Authors: Blomberg Johan
Published: July 2017

Dynamic descriptions of static situations, e.g. The road goes through the forest, have attracted a lot of attention in semantics. In cognitive linguistics, terms such as “fictive motion” and “subjective motion” are often used to describe such sentences. While these terms are taken to be largely synonymous, I argue that they are analytically different, and furthermore point to different possible experiential motivations behind this phenomenon. This leads to the pluralistic and integrative framework of “non-actual motion”. Within this framework, an elicitation study with speakers of Swedish, French, and Thai was designed and conducted. The results suggest that non-actual motion expressions are conventionalized in all three languages. The language-specific resources for expressing actual motion are used, but with elements suggesting actual motion demoted.
Motion event contrasts in Romance languages
Authors: Hijazo-Gascón Alberto
Published: July 2017

This chapter explores language contrasts among Romance languages in the semantic domain of motion events. Romance languages are verb-framed languages in the typology of motion events by Talmy (1985, 2000). However, some intratypological differences have been observed among them, regarding the expression of certain components such as Path, Cause, and Deixis. The aim of this chapter is twofold. First, it discusses how these semantic contrasts have implications for the theoretical framework of the study of motion events. Second, it examines how these intratypological contrasts impact on the acquisition of a second language by speakers of a typologically-close and genetically-related language. This is illustrated with examples from Spanish as a second language by native speakers of French and Italian.
Applying language typology
Authors: Filipović Luna
Published: July 2017

This chapter illustrates the benefits of applying insights from language typologies in order to afford better understanding of both theoretical and practical implications of language contrasts. It examines the practical consequences of certain typological contrasts for different professional contexts of communication, such as translation, second language acquisition and teaching, and the law. For the purpose of the present volume we focus on the cognitive domain of motion. Our analysis of the relevant motion event lexicalization phenomena is based on the three central criteria that underlie the research within Applied Language Typology (ALT): (i) presence versus absence of lexical and grammatical categories, (ii) more versus less restrictive lexical and grammatical categories, and (iii) complementarity in the distribution of categories. In this chapter, we discuss a select number of examples of lexicalization of motion and dynamic spatial relations (e.g. speaker and Figure positioning) across typologically different languages and we show how the ALT criteria enable us to identify exact points where language constrasts cause practical difficulty. Finally, we suggest future directions for ALT research that benefits both academic researchers and language practitioners alike.
The impact of bilingualism on cognitive ageing and dementia
Authors: Bak Thomas H.
Published: July 2017

Within the current debates on cognitive reserve, cognitive ageing and dementia increasingly showing a positive effect of mental, social and physical activities on health in older age, bilingualism remains one of the most controversial issues. Some reasons for it might be social or even ideological. However, one of the most important genuine problems facing bilingualism research is the high number of potential confounding variables. Bilingual communities often differ from monolingual ones in a range of genetic and environmental variables. In addition, within the same population, bilingual individuals could be different from the outset from those who remain monolingual. We discuss the most common confounding variables in the study of bilingualism, aging and dementia, such as group heterogeneity, migration, social factors, differences in general intelligence and the related issue of reverse causality. We describe different ways in which they can be minimised by the choice of the studied populations and the collected data. In this way, the emerging picture of the interaction between bilingualism and cognitive aging becomes more complex, but also more convincing.
Orthographic mapping and literacy development revisited
Authors: Ehri Linnea C.
Published: July 2017

Orthographic mapping (OM) involves the formation of letter-sound connections to bond the spellings to the pronunciations and meanings of specific words in memory. It explains how children learn to read words by sight, to spell words from memory, and to acquire vocabulary words from print. This development is portrayed by Ehri (2005a) as a sequence of overlapping phases, each characterized by the predominant type of connection linking spellings of words to their pronunciations in memory. During development, the connections improve in quality and word-learning value, from visual non-alphabetic, to partial alphabetic, to full grapho-phonemic, to consolidated grapho-syllabic and grapho-morphemic. OM is enabled by phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge. Recent findings indicate that sight word reading is facilitated by OM when beginners are taught about articulatory features of phonemes and when grapheme-phoneme relations are taught with letter-embedded picture mnemonics. Vocabulary learning is facilitated when spellings accompany pronunciations and meanings of new words to activate OM. Teaching students the strategy of pronouncing novel words aloud as they read text silently activates OM and helps them build their vocabularies. Because spelling-sound connections are retained in memory, they impact the processing of phonological constituents and phonological memory for words.
Aligned fibers direct collective cell migration to engineer closing and nonclosing wound gaps
Authors: Sharma Puja , Ng Colin , Jana Aniket , Padhi Abinash , Szymanski Paige , Lee Jerry S. H. , Behkam Bahareh , Nain Amrinder S.
Published: July 2017

Cell emergence onto damaged or organized fibrous extracellular matrix (ECM) is a crucial precursor to collective cell migration in wound closure and cancer metastasis, respectively. However, there is a fundamental gap in our quantitative understanding of the role of local ECM size and arrangement in cell emergence–based migration and local gap closure. Here, using ECM-mimicking nanofibers bridging cell monolayers, we describe a method to recapitulate and quantitatively describe these in vivo behaviors over multispatial (single cell to cell sheets) and temporal (minutes to weeks) scales. On fiber arrays with large interfiber spacing, cells emerge (invade) either singularly by breaking cell–cell junctions analogous to release of a stretched rubber band (recoil), or in groups of few cells (chains), whereas on closely spaced fibers, multiple chains emerge collectively. Advancing cells on fibers form cell streams, which support suspended cell sheets (SCS) of various sizes and curvatures. SCS converge to form local gaps that close based on both the gap size and shape. We document that cell stream spacing of 375 µm and larger hinders SCS advancement, thus providing abilities to engineer closing and nonclosing gaps. Altogether we highlight the importance of studying cell-fiber interactions and matrix structural remodeling in fundamental and translational cell biology.
Justification
Authors: Lazari‐Radek Katarzyna de , Singer Peter
Published: July 2017

On ethical questions, to express your opinion is not enough; you need to say something that justifies it or is capable of persuading others to accept it. But proving an ethical first principle is notoriously difficult. ‘Justification’ expounds Jeremy Bentham’s justification of the utilitarian principle before outlining the ‘proofs’ of John Stuart Mill and Henry Sidgwick. It also looks at John Harsanyi’s argument from rational choice under conditions of ignorance, J. J. C. Smart’s appeal to attitudes and feelings, and R. M. Hare’s universal prescriptivism. It then concludes with a new argument for utilitarianism proposed by Joshua Greene, an experimental psychologist and neuroscientist with a background in philosophy.
Objections
Authors: Lazari‐Radek Katarzyna de , Singer Peter
Published: July 2017

Utilitarianism holds that the right act is the one that brings about the best consequences, where ‘best consequences’ means, for all of those affected by our choice, the greatest possible net increase in well-being. ‘Objections’ asks whether this standard form of utilitarianism can meet the objections pressed against it. Can happiness or well-being be measured? Is utilitarianism too demanding? Instead of a simple choice between right and wrong, is there a spectrum of choices, some better than others? Does utilitarianism ignore our special obligations? Does it tell us to act immorally? These questions are considered as well as the ‘separateness of persons’ objection and the distribution of utility.
Rules
Authors: Lazari‐Radek Katarzyna de , Singer Peter
Published: July 2017

Act-utilitarianism judges each act in terms of its consequences. Rule-utilitarianism holds that acts are to be judged right or wrong by showing they are in accord with, or transgress, a justified moral rule; and a moral rule is justified by showing that acceptance of the rule will bring about the best outcome. ‘Rules’ assesses the arguments for and against these varieties of utilitarianism and also examines the charge that utilitarianism will sometimes require us to break rules, but keep the breach secret. Might the aims of utilitarianism be better advanced if people are encouraged not to follow the theory, but instead to act in accordance with moral rules?
3DBIONOTES v2.0: a web server for the automatic annotation of macromolecular structures
Authors: Segura Joan , Sanchez-Garcia Ruben , Martinez Marta , Cuenca-Alba Jesus , Tabas-Madrid Daniel , Sorzano C O S , Carazo J M
Published: July 2017

Motivation

Complementing structural information with biochemical and biomedical annotations is a powerful approach to explore the biological function of macromolecular complexes. However, currently the compilation of annotations and structural data is a feature only available for those structures that have been released as entries to the Protein Data Bank.

Results

To help researchers in assessing the consistency between structures and biological annotations for structural models not deposited in databases, we present 3DBIONOTES v2.0, a web application designed for the automatic annotation of biochemical and biomedical information onto macromolecular structural models determined by any experimental or computational technique.

Availability and implementation

The web server is available at http://3dbionotes-ws.cnb.csic.es.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Roman Literary Letters
Authors: Leach Eleanor W.
Published: July 2017

Like their Greek counterparts (see Oxford Bibliographies article in Classics Greek Literary Letters), Roman literary letters have elicited an increasing amount of scholarly attention in recent years. Seeking some common ground between the two cultures, we could settle for the principle in Demetrius (or pseudo-Demetrius) de Elocutione that letters propose to bridge distance between writer and recipient, but beyond this, Roman letters differ so greatly in content and circumstance as to constitute a genre of their own. In first place, the recipients have historical identities—in certain cases famous and distinguished—many with corroborating mention in historical text and in others discoverable through prosopographical research. Even more importantly, no Roman collection is without politics, overt in the letters of Cicero, Ovid, and Pliny but perceptible as subtext in Seneca and in Fronto who writes to emperors. Embedded letters are too sparse to have generated any independent scholarly discussions. Whereas there is no such category of fictional letters as the Greek Literary Letters article compiles, questions of authenticity have haunted discussions of letters; in this their very artfulness has weighed against them. Granted that the identities of correspondents are verifiable, scholars have in the past asked whether Ovid’s exile letters, Seneca’s epistolary road-map for the Stoic initiate, or Pliny’s whole collection were genuinely intended for posting or simply for publication, but the majority of scholars now tend to favor the idea of genuine letters. Self-representation has come to be a major topic of discussion, closely related to theories of persona or ethos in Latin rhetorical literature and practice, although to date with more attention to writer than recipient. Although this bibliography concludes with Fronto and the Classical period, the long reception history of these letter collections must be credited with preserving them for our currently renewed and often revised attention. Never having been lost, Pliny’s collection enjoyed the most consistent afterlife. With a brief Late Antique decline, it was valued during the Middle Ages, and in the Renaissance such writers as Petrarch, Thomas More, Erasmus, and Justus Lipsius made it their model. Whereas the erotic and narrative Ovid were always popular, even the lachrymose Heroides found their fans (see Chaucer’s “The Legend of Good Women”). Cicero’s letters had the scrappiest record, surviving for years only in fragments, but in 1345 Petrarch found the lost manuscript of ad Atticum in Verona and was dismayed by his philosophical idol’s revelations of emotional instability.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Aesthetics
Authors: Wyss Beat
Published: July 2017

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (b. 1770–d. 1831) developed his aesthetics by a series of lectures, held four times at Heidelberg and Berlin Universities. The text in three parts, titled Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik, got compiled and edited by Heinrich Gustav Hotho four years after Hegel’s death. So we have to get straight about the fact that a remarkable edifice of teachings, though lacking any written proof by its author, became a headstone of art history, literary studies, and philosophical aesthetics. Hegel’s approach is the first philosophical attempt to focus aesthetics specifically on art. He does so by a critique of moralist and sensualist positions that both hardly distinguish whether aesthetic experience is generated by natural or artificial phenomena. Hegel’s critical argument culminates in a refusal of Immanuel Kant’s idea about aesthetic judgment. The latter’s definition of beauty—as a cognition that pleases without a concept—performs, according to Hegel, a relapse into a fixed opposite between the subjectivity of thought and objective nature. According to Hegel, instead, artistic beauty is the mediating “middle” between spirit and nature. Hegel puts a “phenomenological” antithesis to Kant’s concept of transcendental perception. By the idea of artistic beauty, the realm of absolute spirit is entered. The lectures on aesthetics follow the hierarchical concept of perception, deployed in Hegel’s Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences: the work of comprehension starts with the artistic mode of beholding, continues with the religious mode of imagination, and culminates in the philosophical mode of thinking. The “peripathetic” performative character is constitutive to Hegel’s aesthetics, as it mirrors the work of thinking as such. Hegel’s “world spirit” is literally wandering across three eras: the symbolic, the classical, and the romantic art forms, represented by the early ancient cultures from Persia, India, and Egypt; Greek and Roman Antiquity; and Occidental culture from the Middle Ages to modernity. By historicizing the meaning of art, Hegel relinquishes rule-based poetics and aesthetics in the classical tradition of rhetorics, laying so the foundation of a sociological approach to cultural phenomena. At the same time, his historico-philosophical aesthetics is a first attempt to draft a global history of art, though Eurocentrically limited, including the genres of architecture, sculpture, painting, music, and poetry.
Immigration Politics and Policy in the United States
Authors: Silber Mohamed Heather , Farris Emily M.
Published: July 2017

Although the Statue of Liberty, one of the premier symbols of the United States, welcomes “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” America’s relationship with its immigrants has long been ambivalent. Throughout the United States’ history, there have been persistent and charged debates over the nature and consequences of immigration. At times, America has greatly restricted the number and characteristics of newcomers, despite its aspiration to be identified as a “nation of immigrants” and a “melting pot.” The heated, contentious debate over who should be included in the United States, and how they should be included, persists in the halls of Congress, the judiciary, the executive branch, and at the state and local levels. The literature related to history and contemporary debates regarding immigration politics and policy in the United States is expansive. This article addresses scholarship on a number of specific policy debates, as well as popular reactions to these polemics. The works below focus on three overarching themes. First, we discuss scholarship about the policies themselves. This research includes a historical perspective, looking back at early immigration policies that were characterized by a quota system and the exclusion of Asian immigrants, as well as a view on contemporary policy debates emerging since the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. This significant piece of legislation overturned the system of national origin restrictions and led to the development of the current immigration policy regime. The second broad theme explores the immigrants themselves, including demographic trends, political and economic incorporation, and political participation. The final major theme includes reactions to contemporary policy debates by both the public and the press. Works in this area focus on public opinion about immigration policy, social movements emerging in response to the immigration debate, the anti-immigrant backlash, and media coverage of immigration politics. The end of this article also highlights key data sources for those wishing to conduct additional research in this area.