bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Construction of d-α-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate/PEO core–shell nanofibers on a blood-contacting surface to reduce the hemolysis of preserved erythrocytes
Authors: Shi Qiang , Xu Xiaodong , Fan Qunfu , Hou Jianwen , Ye Wei , Yin Jinghua
Published: January 2015

The TPGS released from the electrospun SEBS protected the preserved red blood cells from oxidative damage, resulting in low hemolysis and mechanical fragility.
Engineering and functionalization of biomaterials via surface modification
Authors: Wu Guosong , Li Penghui , Feng Hongqing , Zhang Xuming , Chu Paul K.
Published: January 2015

Recent progress pertaining to the surface treatment of implantable macro-scale biomaterials and using micro- and nano-biomaterials for disease diagnosis and drug/gene delivery is reviewed.
Wiring functional groups in mesoporous organosilica materials
Authors: Luka M. , Polarz S.
Published: January 2015

Conducting organic polymers inside mesoporous organosilica materials have been facilitated for electrically connecting the surface bound functional groups.
Supramolecular gel-functionalized polymer films with tunable optical activity
Authors: Jintoku Hirokuni , Dateki Momoko , Takafuji Makoto , Ihara Hirotaka
Published: January 2015

A new method for the fabrication of an optically active polymer film, involving the self-assembled nanofibres in a solid polymer.
Platinum polyoxoniobates
Authors: Abramov P. A. , Vicent C. , Kompankov N. B. , Gushchin A. L. , Sokolov M. N.
Published: January 2015

Coordination of {Pt(OH)2}2+ fragments to Lindqvist type hexaniobates
The fate of phenothiazine-based redox shuttles in lithium-ion batteries
Authors: Casselman Matthew D. , Kaur Aman Preet , Narayana Kishore Anand , Elliott Corrine F. , Risko Chad , Odom Susan A.
Published: January 2015

The decomposition of phenothiazine redox shuttles used in lithium ion batteries are explored through a combined experimental and theoretical study. Modest changes in chemistry are shown to produce dramatic changes in stability and performance.
Catalysis Science & Technology: Catalysis in the USA
Authors: Rioux Robert M. , Dean Toste F.
Published: January 2015

Editorial for the themed issue “Catalysis in the USA”.
CO2- and thermo-responsive vesicles: from expansion–contraction transformation to vesicles-micelles transition
Authors: Zou Hui , Yuan Weizhong
Published: January 2015

The vesicles exhibit dual CO2-responses and undergo reversible vesicles-micelles transition upon thermo and CO2 stimulations.
A green, catalyst-free, solvent-free, high yielding one step synthesis of functionalized benzo[f]furo[3,2-c]chromen-4-(5H)-ones and furo[3,2-c]quinolin-4-(5H)-ones
Authors: Kumar Manoj , Kaur Tanpreet , Gupta Vinod K. , Sharma Anuj
Published: January 2015

A green, solvent and catalyst free, microwave assisted 3-CR was explored for the synthesis of annulated furans in good yields.
A spinneret as the key component for surface-porous graphene fibers in high energy density micro-supercapacitors
Authors: Cai Weihua , Lai Ting , Ye Jianshan
Published: January 2015

A metal needle spinneret was found to be the key component to synthesize neat graphene fibers with a porous surface in the wet spinning process. The as-prepared neat graphene fibers possess a large specific surface area and an excellent specific capacitance, and could be further assembled into solid-state micro-SCs.
Effects of Verb Familiarity on Finiteness Marking in Children With Specific Language Impairment
Authors: Abel Alyson D. , Rice Mabel L. , Bontempo Daniel E.
Published: January 2015

Purpose

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have known deficits in the verb lexicon and finiteness marking. This study investigated a potential relationship between these 2 variables in children with SLI and 2 control groups considering predictions from 2 different theoretical perspectives, morphosyntactic versus morphophonological.

Method

Children with SLI, age-equivalent, and language-equivalent (LE) control children (
n
= 59) completed an experimental sentence imitation task that generated estimates of children's finiteness accuracy under 2 levels of verb familiarity—familiar real verbs versus unfamiliar real verbs—in clausal sites marked for finiteness. Imitations were coded and analyzed for overall accuracy as well as finiteness marking and verb root imitation accuracy.

Results

Statistical comparisons revealed that children with SLI did not differ from LE children and were less accurate than age-equivalent children on all dependent variables: overall imitation, finiteness marking imitation, and verb root imitation accuracy. A significant Group × Condition interaction for finiteness marking revealed lower levels of accuracy on unfamiliar verbs for the SLI and LE groups only.

Conclusions

Findings indicate a relationship between verb familiarity and finiteness marking in children with SLI and younger controls and help clarify the roles of morphosyntax, verb lexicon, and morphophonology.
Equalisation technique for high mobility OFDM‐based device‐to‐device communications using subblock tracking
Authors: Zhang Han , Wu Xianda , Cui Haixia , Pan Daru
Published: January 2015

This study presents a ‘subblock tracking’ based equalisation technique for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) based device‐to‐device communications over high mobility environment. This technique is to use a rectangular‐shaped receive window to partition the OFDM block into subblocks rendering the channel response of each subblock to be time‐invariant, thereby allowing one to equalise the channel frequency response on each subcarrier of the subblocks simply by a single tap. The equalised signals are then combined to give the final output, where the combination weights are designed to minimise detection errors. The authors mathematically characterise the detection performance by deriving the signal‐to‐interference ratio as a function of channel‐time‐variation and the numbers of subblocks. To further enhance the proposed design without imposing computational consumption, a subblock tracking scheme with partially overlapped partition is presented and theoretically analysed. Simulation results demonstrate the advantages this method over the conventional schemes in high mobility environment.
Periodic event/self‐triggered consensus for general continuous‐time linear multi‐agent systems under general directed graphs
Authors: Yang Dapeng , Liu Xiangdong , Chen Weisheng
Published: January 2015

This study considers the decentralised periodic event‐triggered consensus problem for continuous‐time linear multi‐agent systems (MASs) under general directed graphs. The authors discretise the continuous‐time MASs based on zero‐order hold, and propose an event‐triggered consensus control (ETCC) algorithm rendering the states of agents reach consensus. They prove that under the proposed ETCC implemented in multiple steps, there is no Zeno‐like behaviour exhibited in the sense of sampling. To relax the requirement of the periodic monitoring in the ETCC, it is further proposed a self‐triggered consensus control algorithm, where the next triggering instant is predetermined by each agent at the previous triggering instant. For the case where the states of MASs are unavailable, the authors further propose an observer‐based ETCC algorithm. Simulation results are given to illustrate the theoretical results.
Cyclostationary modelling of amplitude and frequency modulated signals in heart and respiration monitoring Doppler radar systems
Authors: Kazemi Somayeh , Ghorbani Ayaz , Amindavar Hamidreza
Published: January 2015

Unobtrusive and continuous monitoring of cardiopulmonary activity at a distance provides a potential tool in making health care and emergency delivery more efficient. Doppler radar remote sensing of vital signs has shown promise to this end, with proof of concept demonstrated for various applications such as more comfortable monitoring for many people. In this study, the authors present a second‐order cyclostationary model for the returned amplitude and frequency modulated radar signal, which is contaminated with various noises, body motion artefacts and dc offset, to extract vital signs. They validate their model with confidence interval extraction from 500 simulation runs and also with 50 experiment runs on a female student using a miniaturised non‐contact heartbeat and respiration monitoring radar system based on the quadrature Doppler effect.
Point-of-Care Testing in Critically Ill Patients
Authors: Fries Dietmar , Streif Werner
Published: January 2015

Point-of-care (POC) testing in hemostasis has experienced a significant increase in the spectrum of available tests and the number of tests performed. Short turn-around time and observation of rapid changes in test results are facilitated. The quality control process in POC testing must encompass a preanalytic (collection), analytic (measurement), and postanalytic (clinical response) phase. Erroneous interpretation of findings and difficult quality controls can outweigh the advantages of POC testing.

Only a limited number of hemostatic POC tests have proven useful so far: prothrombin time POC—monitoring of oral vitamin K antagonists; activated clotting time POC—monitoring of high-dose heparin therapy; platelet function analyzer (PFA; Siemens, Marburg, Germany) closure time (CT)—detection of von Willebrand disease and severe platelet function defects; whole blood aggregometry (WBA) Multiplate (Roche Diagnostics, Rotkreuz, Switzerland), and the VerifyNow system (Accumetrics, San Diego, CA)—detection of platelet dysfunction due to antiplatelet drugs; thromboelastography—continuous observation of clot formation and fibrinolysis. The use of various agonists in WBA and thromboelastography (TEG) requires some expertise. In experienced hands the PFA CT and WBA and TEG are recommended combinations.

Application of POC testing depends strictly on whether it improves medical care and patient outcome. More POC test systems are in the research pipeline, but only a few will resist the ravages of time.
Nierenbiopsie
Authors: Wolke Holger
Published: January 2015

Der Goldstandard für die Diagnostik der meisten Nierenerkrankungen ist die sonografisch geführte Nierenbiopsie. Lesen Sie hier Schritt für Schritt, wie die Biopsie abläuft – von der Indikation und Patientenvorbereitung bis zur Nachsorge.
Hybrid molecular-continuum simulations using smoothed dissipative particle dynamics
Authors: Petsev Nikolai D. , Leal L. Gary , Shell M. Scott
Published: January 2015

We present a new multiscale simulation methodology for coupling a region with atomistic detail simulated via molecular dynamics (MD) to a numerical solution of the fluctuating Navier-Stokes equations obtained from smoothed dissipative particle dynamics (SDPD). In this approach, chemical potential gradients emerge due to differences in resolution within the total system and are reduced by introducing a pairwise thermodynamic force inside the buffer region between the two domains where particles change from MD to SDPD types. When combined with a multi-resolution SDPD approach, such as the one proposed by Kulkarni et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 138, 234105 (2013)], this method makes it possible to systematically couple atomistic models to arbitrarily coarse continuum domains modeled as SDPD fluids with varying resolution. We test this technique by showing that it correctly reproduces thermodynamic properties across the entire simulation domain for a simple Lennard-Jones fluid. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this approach is also suitable for non-equilibrium problems by applying it to simulations of the start up of shear flow. The robustness of the method is illustrated with two different flow scenarios in which shear forces act in directions parallel and perpendicular to the interface separating the continuum and atomistic domains. In both cases, we obtain the correct transient velocity profile. We also perform a triple-scale shear flow simulation where we include two SDPD regions with different resolutions in addition to a MD domain, illustrating the feasibility of a three-scale coupling.
Charged conformal Killing spinors
Authors: Lischewski Andree
Published: January 2015

We study the twistor equation on pseudo-Riemannian Spinc-manifolds whose solutions we call charged conformal Killing spinors (CCKSs). We derive several integrability conditions for the existence of CCKS and study their relations to spinor bilinears. A construction principle for Lorentzian manifolds admitting CCKS with nontrivial charge starting from CR-geometry is presented. We obtain a partial classification result in the Lorentzian case under the additional assumption that the associated Dirac current is normal conformal and complete the classification of manifolds admitting CCKS in all dimensions and signatures ≤5 which has recently been initiated in the study of supersymmetric field theories on curved space.
Influence of Prandtl number on the instability of natural convection flows within a square enclosure containing an embedded heated cylinder at moderate Rayleigh number
Authors: Liao Chuan-Chieh , Lin Chao-An
Published: January 2015

Influence of Prandtl number (0.07 ≤ Pr ≤ 7) on the buoyancy induced flow within a square domain containing an embedded heated cylinder is investigated numerically at moderate Rayleigh number (2 × 105 − 2 × 106). In general, reduction of Prandtl number thickens the thermal boundary layer, and hence, the decrease of predicted Nusselt number is observed. However, the dynamic boundary layer becomes thin and this leads to the increase of internal counter rotating vortex pairs and further to the breakdown of vortex symmetry and hence the eventual instability. In the unsteady regime, the Nusselt number oscillation frequency is as expected twice of other flow variables and increases with the reduction of Prandtl number. For the Rayleigh number investigated, the unsteady-regime is dominated by the growth of thermal boundary layer and hence the averaged Nusselt number decreases accordingly. Also, different scaling laws for the Nusselt number exist due to the change of vortex structures in the steady and unsteady regions. Rayleigh number and Boussinesq number are the proper scaling parameters in the respective steady and unsteady regions with higher and lower Prandtl numbers.
Modeling of thermoelectric properties of SiGe alloy nanowires and estimation of the best design parameters for high figure-of-merits
Authors: Yi Su-in , Yu Choongho
Published: January 2015

We present comprehensive thermoelectric transport models of SiGe nanowires based on the Boltzmann transport theory with the relaxation time approximation to calculate electrical conductivity, thermopower, and thermal conductivity at a wide range of temperature up to 800 K. Our model does not only accurately reproduce the experimental data of SiGe nanowires but also predict the best possible thermoelectric performance and the optimum conditions. In particular, non-ionized impurities, whose concentration is often significant in heavily doped (or degenerate) semiconductors, were introduced to correct the discrepancies between the experimental electrical conductivity of SiGe nanowires and calculated values obtained from earlier models. Our models also considered bipolar thermal conductivity and separate longitudinal and transverse phonon modes as well as employed adjusted cutoff frequencies to minimize the errors associated with the linear approximation of the phonon dispersion. With optimal ionized impurity concentrations without non-ionized impurities, ZT of a Si0.73Ge0.27 nanowire was found to be as high as 1.3 at 800 K. In case that the diameter of the Si0.73Ge0.27 wire is reduced down to 10 nm, it may be possible to have an even larger ZT of 1.9 at 800 K. We believe our comprehensive models are useful for predicting thermoelectric properties of various semiconductor nanowires at a wide range of temperature, which can guide experiments to develop high performance thermoelectric materials at desired temperatures.
Molecular engineering of Schiff-base linked covalent polymers with diverse topologies by gas-solid interface reaction
Authors: Liu Xuan-He , Guan Cui-Zhong , Zheng Qing-Na , Wang Dong , Wan Li-Jun
Published: January 2015

The design and construction of molecular nanostructures with tunable topological structures are great challenges in molecular nanotechnology. Herein, we demonstrate the molecular engineering of Schiff-base bond connected molecular nanostructures. Building module construction has been adopted to modulate the symmetry of resulted one dimensional (1D) and two dimensional (2D) polymers. Specifically, we have designed and constructed 1D linear and zigzag polymers, 2D hexagonal and chessboard molecular nanostructures by varying the number of reactive sites and geometry and symmetry of precursors. It is demonstrated that high-quality conjugated polymers can be fabricated by using gas-solid interface reaction. The on-demanding synthesis of polymeric architectures with diverse topologies paves the way to fabricate molecular miniature devices with various desired functionalities.
Complex oxide growth using simultaneous in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction and x-ray reflectivity: When is one layer complete?
Authors: Sullivan M. C. , Ward M. J. , Gutiérrez-Llorente Araceli , Adler Eli R. , Joress H. , Woll A. , Brock J. D.
Published: January 2015

During layer-by-layer homoepitaxial growth, both the Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) intensity and the x-ray reflection intensity will oscillate, and each complete oscillation indicates the addition of one monolayer of material. However, it is well documented, but not well understood, that the phase of the RHEED oscillations varies from growth to growth and thus the maxima in the RHEED intensity oscillations do not necessarily occur at the completion of a layer. We demonstrate this by using simultaneous in situ x-ray reflectivity and RHEED to characterize layer-by-layer growth of SrTiO3. We show that we can control the RHEED oscillation phase by changing the pre-growth substrate annealing conditions, changing the RHEED oscillation phase by as much as 137°. In addition, during growth via pulsed laser deposition, the relaxation times between each laser pulse can be used to determine when a layer is complete, independent of the phase of the RHEED oscillation.
Extrinsic anomalous Hall effect in epitaxial Mn4N films
Authors: Meng M. , Wu S. X. , Ren L. Z. , Zhou W. Q. , Wang Y. J. , Wang G. L. , Li S. W.
Published: January 2015

Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in ferrimagnetic Mn4N epitaxial films grown by molecular-beam epitaxy is investigated. The longitudinal conductivity σxx is within the superclean regime, indicating Mn4N is a highly conducting material. We further demonstrate that the AHE signal in 40-nm-thick films is mainly due to the extrinsic contributions based on the analysis fitted by ρAH=a′ρxx0+bρxx2 and σAH∝σxx. Our study not only provide a strategy for further theoretical work on antiperovskite manganese nitrides but also shed promising light on utilizing their extrinsic AHE to fabricate spintronic devices.
Grain boundary junctions of FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films on SrTiO3 bi-crystal substrates
Authors: Si Weidong , Zhang Cheng , Shi Xiaoya , Ozaki Toshinori , Jaroszynski Jan , Li Qiang
Published: January 2015

Grain boundary junctions were fabricated in the epitaxial FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films on [001] tilt SrTiO3 bi-crystal substrates with a CeO2 buffer layer. Critical current densities across the junctions with different mis-orientation angles of 4°, 7°, 15°, and 24° were measured at magnetic fields up to 30 T. It was found that the 4° and 7° junctions carry critical current densities comparable to that of the intra-grain film while those of the 15° and 24° junctions were suppressed drastically. A critical mis-orientation angle of around 9° was identified that separates the strong coupling region from the weak link region. We found that the critical current densities across the grain boundary with a 24° mis-orientation angle are modulated by the magnetic field, indicating a Josephson Effect. This junction is estimated to be in the intermediate-size regime with an effective transverse junction width L ∼ 2.6–2.8 μm and a Josephson penetration depth λJ ∼ 1.2 μm.
Interfacial structure in epitaxial perovskite oxides on (001) Ge crystal
Authors: Shen Xuan , Ahmadi-Majlan K. , Ngai Joseph H. , Wu Di , Su Dong
Published: January 2015

We investigated the interfacial structure of hetero-epitaxial SrZr0.68Ti0.32O3 thin film deposited on (001) Ge single crystal via transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results from high-resolution scanning TEM and electron energy-loss spectroscopy show an atomically abrupt interface without secondary phase. We found misfit dislocations with Burgers vector of 1/2a 〈111〉 and threading dislocations with Burgers vector of a 〈100〉. Furthermore, we observed the coupling between dislocation half-loop and anti-phase boundary induced by the lattice terrace of Ge along 〈100〉 direction and their decoupling after annealing. We proposed models based on half-loop theory to interpret the coupling and the dislocation reactions.
Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of amorphous [CoSiB/Pt]N thin films
Authors: Kim T. W. , Choi Y. H. , Lee K. J. , Yoon J. B. , Cho J. H. , You C.-Y. , Jung M. H.
Published: January 2015

Materials with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) have been intensively studied for high-density nonvolatile memory such as spin-transfer-torque magnetic random access memory with low switching current density and high thermal stability. Compared with crystalline PMA multilayers, considerable works have been done on amorphous PMA multilayers because the amorphous materials are expected to have lower pinning site density as well as smaller domain wall width. This study is an overview of the PMA properties of amorphous [CoSiB/Pt]N multilayers with varying N, where the energy contribution is changed from domain wall energy to magnetostatic energy around N = 6. By measuring the field-induced domain wall motion, we obtain the creep exponent of μ = 1/4. These results in the amorphous PMA multilayers of [CoSiB/Pt]N demonstrate possible potential as a free layer for PMA-based memory devices.
Enhancement of the magnetic entropy change on substitution of Ge in ErSn1.1Ge0.9
Authors: Gupta Sachin , Pal Lakhan , Suresh K. G.
Published: January 2015

Magnetic and magnetocaloric properties of polycrystalline ErSn0.5Ge1.5 have been studied. It is found that substitution of Ge for Sn in ErSn1.1Ge0.9 results in a nominal increase in the magnetic moment, but a considerable enhancement in the magnetocaloric effect. The magnetocaloric effect, calculated from magnetization data, shows a large value of 13 J/kg K for a field of 50 kOe. Magnetization, heat capacity, and magnetocaloric data reveal field induced metamagnetic transition in this compound.
Effects of gas molecules on an ultraviolet photodetector with a single-layer titania nanosheet
Authors: Matsuzaki Koji , Taniguchi Takaaki , Matsumoto Yasumichi , Hara Masahiro
Published: January 2015

We have demonstrated an ultraviolet photodetector fabricated from a chemically exfoliated single-layer titania nanosheet. The photocurrent showed a clear on/off switching with a short time response under periodic pulsed illuminations. Suppressions of the photocurrent due to environmental gas molecules were observed under medium vacuum region (1.0–300 Pa). The observation even in inert nitrogen gas implies an enhancement of annihilations of photo-excited carriers due to collisions of inert gas molecules on the surface-sensitive titania nanosheet.
Communication: Photodissociation of CH3CHO at 308 nm: Observation of H-roaming, CH3-roaming, and transition state pathways together along the ground state surface
Authors: Li Hou-Kuan , Tsai Po-Yu , Hung Kai-Chan , Kasai Toshio , Lin King-Chuen
Published: January 2015

Following photodissociation of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) at 308 nm, the CO(v = 1–4) fragment is acquired using time-resolved Fourier-transform infrared emission spectroscopy. The CO(v = 1) rotational distribution shows a bimodal feature; the low- and high-J components result from H-roaming around CH3CO core and CH3-roaming around CHO radical, respectively, in consistency with a recent assignment by Kable and co-workers (Lee et al., Chem. Sci. 5, 4633 (2014)). The H-roaming pathway disappears at the CO(v ≥ 2) states, because of insufficient available energy following bond-breaking of H + CH3CO. By analyzing the CH4 emission spectrum, we obtained a bimodal vibrational distribution; the low-energy component is ascribed to the transition state (TS) pathway, consistent with prediction by quasiclassical trajectory calculations, while the high-energy component results from H- and CH3-roamings. A branching fraction of H-roaming/CH3-roaming/TS contribution is evaluated to be (8% ± 3%)/(68% ± 10%)/(25% ± 5%), in which the TS pathway was observed for the first time. The three pathways proceed concomitantly along the electronic ground state surface.
A dynamic operation of a PIN photodiode
Authors: Okhonin S. , Gureev M. , Sallin D. , Appel J. , Koukab A. , Kvasov A. , Pastre M. , Polzik E. S. , Tagantsev A. K. , Uddegard F. , Kayal M.
Published: January 2015

Traditionally, photodiodes operate at static reverse bias, and incident light intensity is obtained from the relatively week photocurrent. In this paper, we introduce a different concept of photodiode function: the photodiode is used in a dynamic regime where it is switched from the reverse to forward state. Thus, the light intensity is defined not by the measured photocurrent but by the delay time of appearance of the strong forward current with the amplitude independent of the light intensity. Our experimental results as well as finite element modeling show that the dynamic mode of photodiode operation can potentially provide an improvement of the device performance.
Communication: Anti-icing characteristics of superhydrophobic surfaces investigated by quartz crystal microresonators
Authors: Lee Moonchan , Yim Changyong , Jeon Sangmin
Published: January 2015

We investigated the anti-icing characteristics of superhydrophobic surfaces with various morphologies by using quartz crystal microresonators. Anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) or ZnO nanorods were synthesized directly on gold-coated quartz crystal substrates and their surfaces were rendered hydrophobic via chemical modifications with octyltrichlorosilane (OTS), octadecyltrichlorosilane (ODS), or octadecanethiol (ODT). Four different hydrophobic nanostructures were prepared on the quartz crystals: ODT-modified hydrophobic plain gold (C18-Au), an OTS-modified AAO nanostructure (C8-AAO), an ODS-modified AAO nanostructure (C18-AAO), and ODT-modified ZnO nanorods (C18-ZnO). The water contact angles on the C18-Au, C8-AAO, C18-AAO, and C18-ZnO surfaces were measured to be 91.4°, 147.2°, 156.3°, and 157.8°, respectively. A sessile water droplet was placed on each quartz crystal and its freezing temperature was determined by monitoring the drastic changes in the resonance frequency and Q-factor upon freezing. The freezing temperature of a water droplet was found to decrease with decreases in the water contact radius due to the decreases in the number of active sites available for ice nucleation.
Localization of electrons in dome-shaped GeSi/Si islands
Authors: Yakimov A. I. , Kirienko V. V. , Bloshkin A. A. , Armbrister V. A. , Kuchinskaya P. A. , Dvurechenskii A. V.
Published: January 2015

We report on intraband photocurrent spectroscopy of dome-shaped GeSi islands embedded in a Si matrix with n+-type bottom and top Si layers. An in-plane polarized photoresponse in the 85–160 meV energy region has been observed and ascribed to the optical excitation of electrons from states confined in the strained Si near the dome apexes to the continuum states of unstrained Si. The electron confinement is caused by a modification of the conduction band alignment induced by inhomogeneous tensile strain in Si around the buried GeSi quantum dots. Sensitivity of the device to the normal incidence radiation proves a zero-dimensional nature of confined electronic wave functions.
Near-field radiative heat transfer between metamaterials coated with silicon carbide thin films
Authors: Basu Soumyadipta , Yang Yue , Wang Liping
Published: January 2015

In this letter, we study the near-field radiative heat transfer between two metamaterial substrates coated with silicon carbide (SiC) thin films. It is known that metamaterials can enhance the near-field heat transfer over ordinary materials due to excitation of magnetic plasmons associated with s polarization, while strong surface phonon polariton exists for SiC. By careful tuning of the optical properties of metamaterial, it is possible to excite electrical and magnetic resonances for the metamaterial and surface phonon polaritons for SiC at different spectral regions, resulting in the enhanced heat transfer. The effect of the SiC film thickness at different vacuum gaps is investigated. Results obtained from this study will be beneficial for application of thin film coatings for energy harvesting.
Autoinhibitory mechanisms of ERG studied by molecular dynamics simulations
Authors: Lu Yan , Salsbury Freddie R.
Published: January 2015

ERG, an ETS-family transcription factor, acts as a regulator of differentiation of early hematopoietic cells. It contains an autoinhibitory domain, which negatively regulates DNA-binding. The mechanism of autoinhibitory is still illusive. To understand the mechanism, we study the dynamical properties of ERG protein by molecular dynamics simulations. These simulations suggest that DNA binding autoinhibition associates with the internal dynamics of ERG. Specifically, we find that (1), The N-C terminal correlation in the inhibited ERG is larger than that in uninhibited ERG that contributes to the autoinhibition of DNA-binding. (2), DNA-binding changes the property of the N-C terminal correlation from being anti-correlated to correlated, that is, changing the relative direction of the correlated motions and (3), For the Ets-domain specifically, the inhibited and uninhibited forms exhibit essentially the same dynamics, but the binding of the DNA decreases the fluctuation of the Ets-domain. We also find from PCA analysis that the three systems, even with quite different dynamics, do have highly similar free energy surfaces, indicating that they share similar conformations.
Electrical properties of random checkerboards at finite scales
Authors: Raghavan Bharath V. , Ranganathan Shivakumar I. , Ostoja-Starzewski Martin
Published: January 2015

Under investigation is the scale dependent electrical conductivity (and resistivity) of two-phase random checkerboards at arbitrary volume fractions and phase contrasts. Using variational principles, rigorous mesoscale bounds are obtained on the electrical properties at finite scales by imposing a boundary condition that is either uniform electric potential or uniform current density. We demonstrate the convergence of these bounds to the effective properties with increasing length scales. This convergence gives rise to the notion of a scalar-valued scaling function that accounts for the statistical nature of the mesoscale responses. A semi-analytical closed form solution for the scaling function is obtained as a function of phase contrast, volume fraction and the mesoscale. Finally, a material scaling diagram is constructed with which the convergence to the effective properties can be assessed for any random checkerboard with arbitrary phase contrast and volume fraction.
Viscoelastic effects on electrokinetic particle focusing in a constricted microchannel
Authors: Lu Xinyu , DuBose John , Joo Sang Woo , Qian Shizhi , Xuan Xiangchun
Published: January 2015

Focusing suspended particles in a fluid into a single file is often necessary prior to continuous-flow detection, analysis, and separation. Electrokinetic particle focusing has been demonstrated in constricted microchannels by the use of the constriction-induced dielectrophoresis. However, previous studies on this subject have been limited to Newtonian fluids only. We report in this paper an experimental investigation of the viscoelastic effects on electrokinetic particle focusing in non-Newtonian polyethylene oxide solutions through a constricted microchannel. The width of the focused particle stream is found NOT to decrease with the increase in DC electric field, which is different from that in Newtonian fluids. Moreover, particle aggregations are observed at relatively high electric fields to first form inside the constriction. They can then either move forward and exit the constriction in an explosive mode or roll back to the constriction entrance for further accumulations. These unexpected phenomena are distinct from the findings in our earlier paper [Lu et al., Biomicrofluidics 8, 021802 (2014)], where particles are observed to oscillate inside the constriction and not to pass through until a chain of sufficient length is formed. They are speculated to be a consequence of the fluid viscoelasticity effects.
Beyond the One-World Frame of Fiction: The Breakdown of Reality in Hushang Golshiri’s Stories
Authors: Khakpour Arta
Published: January 2015

The debate over political commitment in Iran was never limited to adjudicating content: it was frequently a debate over form as well. In the realm of fiction, this debate fixated on realism, the nature of mimesis, and the autonomy of art and the literary text. Within a few short years after forming the iconoclastic journal Jong-e Esfahan in 1965 with a group of likeminded colleagues, the writer Hushang Golshiri had become the preeminent modernist fiction writer in Iran. His critical essays represented a passionate defense of aesthetic autonomy at a time when realism and, particularly, socialist and “engaged” literature were powerful shibboleths in the Tehran literary scene. This paper begins with a look at Golshiri’s critical interventions in this debate and then moves on to show how the short stories he produced in the Jong era were an even more integral part of his response to the mimesis question. By reading his stories with a methodology drawn from “possible worlds” theories of narratology, Todorov’s fantastic, and Golshiri’s own theories, we see how these works break down the “one-world” frame of reality that realism takes for granted, and require the reader to grapple with multiple, often contradictory, possible realities in its stead.
Institutions in global governance
Authors: Makinda Samuel M.
Published: January 2015

In their book,Gridlock: why global cooperation is failing when we need it most, Hale, Held, and Young argue persuasively why post-World War II institutions delivered the global cooperation anticipated but ended up creating other serious problems for international society. They explain how the successes of earlier cooperation efforts produced greater multipolarity, institutional inertia, institutional fragmentation, and some difficult problems that, in turn, paved the pathways through which the governance gap between the multilateral system and global needs became wide. However, their book, whose thesis revolves around the nature and functions of global institutions, fails to define the term ‘institution’. This essay argues that had the authors elaborated institutions, their argument would have been much stronger.
Generalization and Discovery by Assuming Conserved Mechanisms: Cross-Species Research on Circadian Oscillators
Authors: Bechtel William
Published: January 2015

In many domains of biology, explanation takes the form of characterizing the mechanism responsible for a particular phenomenon in a specific biological system. How are such explanations generalized? One important strategy assumes conservation of mechanisms through evolutionary descent. But conservation is seldom complete. In the case discussed, the central mechanism for circadian rhythms in animals was first identified in Drosophila and then extended to mammals. Scientists' working assumption that the clock mechanisms would be conserved both yielded important generalizations and served as a heuristic for discovery, especially when significant differences between the insect and mammalian mechanism were identified.
Advocates or Unencumbered Selves? On the Role of Mill's Political Liberalism in Longino's Contextual Empiricism
Authors: Biddle Justin B.
Published: January 2015

Helen Longino's “contextual empiricism” is one of the most sophisticated recent attempts to defend a social theory of science. On this view, objectivity and epistemic acceptability require that research be produced within communities that approximate a Millian marketplace of ideas. I argue, however, that Longino's embedding of her epistemology within the framework of Mill's political liberalism implies a conception of individual epistemic agents that is incompatible with her view that scientific knowledge is necessarily social, and I begin to articulate an alternative conception that is better suited to a truly social theory of science.
What Is Gibbs's Canonical Distribution?
Authors: Davey Kevin
Published: January 2015

Although the canonical distribution is one of the central tools of statistical mechanics, the reason for its effectiveness is poorly understood. This is due in part to the fact that there is no clear consensus on what it means to use the canonical distribution to describe a system in equilibrium with a heat bath. I examine some traditional views as to what sort of thing we should take the canonical distribution to represent. I argue that a less explored alternative, according to which the canonical distribution represents a time ensemble of sorts, has a number of advantages that rival interpretations lack.
Would-Cause Semantics
Authors: Dowe Phil
Published: January 2015

This article raises two difficulties that certain approaches to causation have with would-cause counterfactuals. First, there is a problem with David Lewis's semantics of counterfactuals when we ‘suppose in’ some positive event of a certain kind. And, second, there is a problem with embedded counterfactuals. I show that causal-modeling approaches do not have these problems.
Typicality and the Approach to Equilibrium in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics
Authors: Frigg Roman
Published: January 2015

An important contemporary version of Boltzmannian statistical mechanics explains the approach to equilibrium in terms of typicality. The problem with this approach is that it comes in different versions, which are, however, not recognized as such and not clearly distinguished. This article identifies three different versions of typicality-based explanations of thermodynamic-like behavior and evaluates their respective successes. The conclusion is that the first two are unsuccessful because they fail to take the system's dynamics into account. The third, however, is promising. I give a precise formulation of the proposal and present an argument in support of its central contention.
Sewall Wright and Gustave Malécot on Isolation by Distance
Authors: Ishida Yoichi
Published: January 2015

Sewall Wright and Gustave Malécot developed important theories of isolation by distance. Wright's theory was statistical and Malécot's probabilistic. Because of this mathematical difference, they were not clear about the relationship between their theories. In this paper, I make two points to clarify this relationship. First, I argue that Wright's theory concerns what I callecological isolation by distance, whereas Malécot's concerns what I callgenetic isolation by distance. Second, I suggest that if Wright's theory is interpreted appropriately, a previously unnoticed connection between the two theories emerges.
Qualities, Properties, and Laws in Newton's Induction
Authors: Miller David Marshall
Published: January 2015

Newton's argument for universal gravitation in the Principia eventually rested on the third “Rule of Philosophizing,” which warrants the generalization of “qualities of bodies.” An analysis of the rule and the history of its development indicate that the term ‘quality’ should be taken to include both inherent properties of bodies and relations among systems of bodies, generalized into ‘laws'. By incorporating law-induction into the rule, Newton could legitimately rebuff objections to his theory by claiming that universal gravitation was justified by his method even if he could not specify the cause of gravity.
Robustness, Discordance, and Relevance
Authors: Stegenga Jacob
Published: January 2015

Robustness is a common platitude: hypotheses are better supported with evidence generated by multiple techniques that rely on different background assumptions. Robustness has been put to numerous epistemic tasks, including the demarcation of artifacts from real entities, countering the “experimenter's regress,” and resolving evidential discordance. Despite the frequency of appeals to robustness, the notion itself has received scant critique. Arguments based on robustness can give incorrect conclusions. More worrying is that although robustness may be valuable in ideal evidential circumstances (i.e., when evidence is concordant), often when a variety of evidence is available from multiple techniques, the evidence is discordant.
Phenomenological Obviousness and the New Science of Consciousness
Authors: Sytsma Justin
Published: January 2015

Is phenomenal consciousness a problem for the brain sciences? An increasing number of researchers hold not only that it is but that its very existence is a deep mystery. That this problematic phenomenon exists is generally taken for granted: It is asserted that phenomenal consciousness is just phenomenologically obvious. In contrast, I hold that there is no such phenomenon and, thus, that it does not pose a problem for the brain sciences. For this denial to be plausible, however, I need to show that phenomenal consciousness is not phenomenologically obvious. That is the goal of this article.
Interactive Predispositions
Authors: Tabery James
Published: January 2015

Many cases of gene-environment interaction, or $\mathrm{G}\,\times \mathrm{E}\,$, are misconstrued as evincing a genetic predisposition. I diagnose this misconstrual and then introduce a new concept—interactive predisposition—to correct for the mistake. I conclude by examining how recent debates over screening for individual predispositions are related to older debates about group differences between populations, drawing on the lessons of the latter to inform the former.
Challenging the Spacetime Structuralist
Authors: Wüthrich Christian
Published: January 2015

Structural realist interpretations of generally relativistic spacetimes have recently come to enjoy a remarkable degree of popularity among philosophers. I present a challenge to these structuralist interpretations that arises from considering cosmological models in general relativity. As a consequence of their high degree of spacetime symmetry, these models resist a structuralist interpretation. I then evaluate the various strategies available to the structuralist to react to this challenge.
In the Labyrinth of the Library: Petrarch’s Cicero, Dante’s Virgil, and the Historiography of the Renaissance
Authors: Eisner Martin
Published: January 2015

Petrarch’s 1345 discovery of Cicero’s personal letters in Verona has long been regarded as a foundational moment in the historiography of the Renaissance. In the traditional view, Petrarch’s discovery engenders a new historical self-consciousness that has frequently been described, since the middle of the twentieth century, in terms of a contrast between a medieval Dante and a Renaissance Petrarch. In keeping with recent work rethinking periodization, this essay revisits Petrarch’s letters on his discovery to reconsider the distance between Dante and Petrarch and to reveal how Petrarch constructs his new relationship with Cicero through Dante’s characterization of Virgil. While some critics have noted this Dantean presence, they have not examined its meaning. This study argues that Petrarch’s borrowing from Dante is significant because it shows how Dante’s complex relationship to the past embodied in the figure of Virgil shaped Petrarch’s construction of his Cicero and informed Renaissance ideas of history.
A quadratic formula for basic hypergeometric series related to Askey-Wilson polynomials
Authors: Guo Victor , Ishikawa Masao , Tagawa Hiroyuki , Zeng Jiang
Published: January 2015

We prove a general quadratic formula for basic hypergeometric series, from which simple proofs of several recent determinant and Pfaffian formulas are obtained. A special case of the quadratic formula is actually related to a Gram determinant formula for Askey-Wilson polynomials. We also show how to derive a recent double-sum formula for the moments of Askey-Wilson polynomials from Newton’s interpolation formula.
Finite 𝑝-groups with a Frobenius group of automorphisms whose kernel is a cyclic 𝑝-group
Authors: Khukhro E. , Makarenko N.
Published: January 2015

Suppose that a finite

p
p

-group

P
P

admits a Frobenius group of automorphisms

F
H

FH

with kernel

F
F

that is a cyclic

p
p

-group and with complement

H
H

. It is proved that if the fixed-point subgroup

C
P

(
H
)

C_P(H)

of the complement is nilpotent of class

c
c

, then

P
P

has a characteristic subgroup of index bounded in terms of

c
c

,

|

C
P

(
F
)

|

|C_P(F)|

, and

|

F

|

|F|

whose nilpotency class is bounded in terms of

c
c

and

|

H

|

|H|

only. Examples show that the condition of

F
F

being cyclic is essential. The proof is based on a Lie ring method and a theorem of the authors and P. Shumyatsky about Lie rings with a metacyclic Frobenius group of automorphisms

F
H

FH

. It is also proved that

P
P

has a characteristic subgroup of

(

|

C
P

(
F
)

|

,

|

F

|

)

(|C_P(F)|, |F|)

-bounded index whose order and rank are bounded in terms of

|

H

|

|H|

and the order and rank of

C
P

(
H
)

C_P(H)

, respectively, and whose exponent is bounded in terms of the exponent of

C
P

(
H
)

C_P(H)

.
Brannan’s conjecture and trigonometric sums
Authors: Barnard Roger , Jayatilake Udaya , Solynin Alexander
Published: January 2015

We prove some versions of Brannan’s Conjecture on Taylor coefficients of the ratio of two binomials of the form

(
1
+
z
x

)
α

/

(
1
−
x

)
β

(1+zx)^\alpha /(1-x)^\beta

and discuss some related inequalities for trigonometric sums.
Polysome arrest restricts miRNA turnover by preventing exosomal export of miRNA in growth-retarded mammalian cells
Authors: Ghosh Souvik , Bose Mainak , Ray Anirban , Bhattacharyya Suvendra N.
Published: January 2015

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are tiny posttranscriptional regulators of gene expression in metazoan cells, where activity and abundance of miRNAs are tightly controlled. Regulated turnover of these regulatory RNAs is important to optimize cellular response to external stimuli. We report that the stability of mature miRNAs increases inversely with cell proliferation, and the increased number of microribonucleoproteins (miRNPs) in growth-restricted mammalian cells are in turn associated with polysomes. This heightened association of miRNA with polysomes also elicits reduced degradation of target mRNAs and impaired extracellular export of miRNA via exosomes. Overall polysome sequestration contributes to an increase of cellular miRNA levels but without an increase in miRNA activity. Therefore miRNA activity and turnover can be controlled by subcellular distribution of miRNPs that may get differentially regulated as a function of cell growth in mammalian cells.