Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Education In The Environment: A Hands-On Student Research And Outdoor Learning Experience: Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending November 30, 2005, Margaret N. Rees

Reports (PLI Education)

During the past three-months, the focus of the university’s efforts has included the following highlights:

• Forever Earth was scheduled 15 times in the past quarter.
• Twelve Discover Mojave Outdoor World events were completed; a draft Year 2 schedule was completed.
• An Outdoor World assessment report compiled and results were presented at a professional academic conference.
• The Phase I Education in the Environment Strategy document was completed.
• A Phase II action plan is underway by the Environmental Education Committee.
• A place-based education conference, “Our Places Tell Stories,” will be held in January 2006.
• Survey data is being collected from Clark County …

Data Adaptive Pathway Testing, Merrill D. Birkner, Alan E. Hubbard, Mark J. Van Der Laan

U.C. Berkeley Division of Biostatistics Working Paper Series

A majority of diseases are caused by a combination of factors, for example, composite genetic mutation profiles have been found in many cases to predict a deleterious outcome. There are several statistical techniques that have been used to analyze these types of biological data. This article implements a general strategy which uses data adaptive regression methods to build a specific pathway model, thus predicting a disease outcome by a combination of biological factors and assesses the significance of this model, or pathway, by using a permutation based null distribution. We also provide several simulation comparisons with other techniques. In addition, …

Fibonacci Determinants — A Combinatorial Approach, Arthur T. Benjamin, Naiomi T. Cameron, Jennifer J. Quinn

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

In this paper, we provide combinatorial interpretations for some determinantal identities involving Fibonacci numbers. We use the method due to Lindström-Gessel-Viennot in which we count nonintersecting n-routes in carefully chosen digraphs in order to gain insight into the nature of some well-known determinantal identities while allowing room to generalize and discover new ones.

Percolation Quantum Phase Transitions In Diluted Magnets, Thomas Vojta, Jörg Schmalian

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

We show that the interplay of geometric criticality and quantum fluctuations leads to a novel universality class for the percolation quantum phase transition in diluted magnets. All critical exponents involving dynamical correlations are different from the classical percolation values, but in two dimensions they can nonetheless be determined exactly. We develop a complete scaling theory of this transition, and we relate it to recent experiments in La2Cu1-p(Zn,Mg)pO4. Our results are also relevant for disordered interacting boson systems.

Fluorescence Measurements Of Expanding Strongly Coupled Neutral Plasmas, E. A. Cummings, J. E. Daily, Dallin S. Durfee, Scott D. Bergeson

Faculty Publications

We report new detailed density profile measurements in expanding strongly coupled neutral calcium plasmas. Using laser-induced fluorescence techniques, we determine plasma densities in the range of 10^5 to 10^9 cm^-3 with a time resolution limit as small as 7 ns. Strong coupling in the plasma ions is inferred directly from the fluorescence signals. Evidence for strong coupling at late times is presented, confirming a recent theoretical result.

Dynamics Of A Nanomechanical Resonator Coupled To A Superconducting Single-Electron Transistor, M. P. Blencowe, J. Imbers, A. D. Armour

Dartmouth Scholarship

We present an analysis of the dynamics of a nanomechanical resonator coupled to a superconducting single-electron transistor (SSET) in the vicinity of Josephson quasi-particle (JQP) and double Josephson quasi-particle (DJQP) resonances. For weak coupling and wide separation of dynamical timescales, we find that for either superconducting resonances the dynamics of the resonator are given by a Fokker–Planck equation, i.e. the SSET behaves effectively as an equilibrium heat bath, characterized by an effective temperature, which also damps the resonator and renormalizes its frequency. Depending on the gate and drain–source voltage bias points with respect to the superconducting resonance, the SSET can …

Optimal Feature Selection For Nearest Centroid Classifiers, With Applications To Gene Expression Microarrays, Alan R. Dabney, John D. Storey

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

Nearest centroid classifiers have recently been successfully employed in high-dimensional applications. A necessary step when building a classifier for high-dimensional data is feature selection. Feature selection is typically carried out by computing univariate statistics for each feature individually, without consideration for how a subset of features performs as a whole. For subsets of a given size, we characterize the optimal choice of features, corresponding to those yielding the smallest misclassification rate. Furthermore, we propose an algorithm for estimating this optimal subset in practice. Finally, we investigate the applicability of shrinkage ideas to nearest centroid classifiers. We use gene-expression microarrays for …

A New Approach To Intensity-Dependent Normalization Of Two-Channel Microarrays, Alan R. Dabney, John D. Storey

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

A two-channel microarray measures the relative expression levels of thousands of genes from a pair of biological samples. In order to reliably compare gene expression levels between and within arrays, it is necessary to remove systematic errors that distort the biological signal of interest. The standard for accomplishing this is smoothing "MA-plots" to remove intensity-dependent dye bias and array-specific effects. However, MA methods require strong assumptions. We review these assumptions and derive several practical scenarios in which they fail. The "dye-swap" normalization method has been much less frequently used because it requires two arrays per pair of samples. We show …

Reversible Hysteresis Loop Tuning, Andreas Berger, Christian Binek, D. T. Margulies, A. Moser, E. E. Fullerton

Christian Binek Publications

We utilize antiferromagnetically coupled bilayer structures to magnetically tune hysteresis loop properties. Key element of this approach is the non-overlapping switching fi eld distribution of the two magnetic layers that make up the system: a hard magnetic CoPtCrB layer (HL) and a soft magnetic CoCr layer (SL). Both layers are coupled antiferromagnetically through an only 0.6-nm-thick Ru interlayer. The nonoverlapping switching fi eld distribution allows the measurement of magnetization reversal in the SL at low fi elds while keeping the magnetization state of the HL unperturbed. Applying an appropriate high fi eld or high fi eld sequence changes the magnetic …

Ferroelectric Switch For Spin Injection, Mikhail Y. Zhuravlev, Sitaram Jaswal, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Renat F. Sabirianov

Physics Faculty Publications

A method for the switching of the spin polarization of the electric current injected into a semiconductor is proposed, based on injecting spins from a diluted magnetic semiconductor through a ferroelectric tunnel barrier. We show that the reversal of the electric polarization of the ferroelectric results in a sizable change in the spin polarization of the injected current, thereby providing a two-state electrical control of this spintronic device. We also predict a possibility of switching of tunneling magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions with a ferroelectric barrier and coexistence of tunneling magnetoresistance and giant electroresistance effects in these multiferroic tunnel junctions.

The Optimal Sulfonation Conditions Of Self-Doped Polyaniline Obtained By Using Experimental Strategies, Wen-Yar Li, Chi-Chang Hu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The optimal sulfonation condition of self-doped sulfonated polyaniline (prepared from leucoemeraldinebase; denoted as LEB-SPANI) with a high electronic conductivity was obtained by experimental strategies, includingthe fractional factorial design (FFD) and central composite design (CCD). From the FFD experiment, the self-doped LEB-SPANI prepared at a lowtemperature (4℃), a short reaction time (1 h), and a small volume of fumingsulfuric acid (10 mL) showed a better conductivity (ca.127 mS/cm). In the CCD study coupled with a confirmationtest, the highest conductivity (ca.141 mS/cm) of the LEB-SPANI film was obtained under a sulfonation temperatureof 4℃, a sulfonation time of 75 minutes, and a volume …

The High Temperature Corrosion Of 2205 Duplex Stainless Steel With Nacl Deposit, Fu-Fu Peng, Chaur-Jeng Wang, Yu-Chang Lin

Journal of Electrochemistry

The objective of this study was to figure out the hot corrosion behavior of 2205 duplex stainless steel (2205 DSS) within the temperature ranges from 550 to 850℃ in the static air condition with 2 mg/cm² NaCl deposit, and in the air atmosphere condition with a constant flow rate of 500 vppm NaCl_(g), respectively. Experimental results show that the hot corrosion kinetics met the parabolic rate law and the corrosion rate increased constantly with increasing temperature. The scales formed included Fe₂O₃/Fe₃O₄/Cr₂O₃ and FeCr₂O_{4 …}

A Study Of Three Corrosion Inhibitors For Reinforcing Steel In Sps Solution By Electrochemical Methods, Bing Zhao, Rong-Gui Du, Chang-Jian Lin

Journal of Electrochemistry

Some electrochemical techniques such as linear polarization,electrochemical noise and EIS have been employedto study the inhibition behavior of N-lauroyl sarcosinate, β-sodium glycerophosphate and D-sodium gluconate for the reinforcing steel immersed in simulated concrete pore solution(SPS) with NaCl addition.The results show that D-sodium gluconatehas an obvious inhibitive effect for the reinforcing steelin containing Cl^- SPS solution. It has been proposed that the corrosion inhibition of D-sodium gluconate is due to its competitive adsorption and precipitation on steel surface in the simulated concrete environment.

Effect Of Hco3- Concentration On Co2 Corrosion In Gas And Oil Fields, Guo-An Zhang, Min-Xu Lu, Yin-Shun Wu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The effecs of HCO₃^- concentration on CO₂ corrosion in gas and oil fields were investigated by carrying out potentiodynamic scans and weight loss tests.Potentiodynamic polarization curves showed that the cathodic current density decreased with cm increase of HCO₃^- concentration when HCO₃^- was lower than 0.042(mol/L). The cathodic reations were promoted by increasing HCO₃^- when it reached 0.126 mol/L, Anodic behavior was an active process at low er [HCO₃^-] concentration and the anodic current density decreased with the increase of [HCO₃^-] concentration. An evident active-passive behavior …

An Investigation On Poly(Vinyl Chloride-Co-Isobutyl Vinyl Ether) Coatings Modified By Rutile Nano-Tio2 Pastes, Xiang Bin, Sheng-Tao Zhang, Yan Li, Bao-Rong Hou

Journal of Electrochemistry

The anti-corrosion coating of Poly(Vinyl Chloride-Co-Isobutyl Vinyl Ether) (PVCCIVE) was modified by rutile nano-TiO₂. The influence of nano-TiO₂ pastes on the coating's corrosion resistance was investigated through electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The results show that the addition of nano-TiO₂ pastes does not have obvious effect on the coating's performance of adhesion, flexility, impact resistance, but improves the coating's UV resistance and the gloss.Meanwhile,with the proper addition of rutile nano-TiO₂ pastes, the anti-corrosion behavior of the coating was advanced.

A Study Of Overcharge Characteristic Of Lithium-Ion Cells, Jing Pang, Shi-Gang Lu, Sha Liu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The overcharge characteristics and effect factors of lithium-ion cells containing LiMn₂O₄ cathodes were studied in detail. Overcharge testing of Lithium-ion cells with a systematic variation in the cell balance demonstrated that the overcharge characteristics of Lithium-ion cells was affected by the amount of cathode in the cells, which is independent of the amount of anode material. The rate of charge was found to be an important parameter, as electrolyte complete decomposition at low charge rates caused the end of overcharge testing, while high charge rates accelerated the rate of heat generation in the cells and the cell …

An Electrochemical Study Of Electroless Copper Plating Using Glyoxylic Acid As Reducing Agent, Li-Qiong Wu, Fang-Zu Yang, Ling Hang, Shi-Gang Sun, Shao-Min Zhou

Journal of Electrochemistry

The electroless copper plating using glyoxylic acid as a reducing agent,Na₂EDTA as a chelating agent and K₄FeCN₆ and 2,2'-dipyridyl as additives was studied. The effect of chelating agent and addtives on the polangation behaviovs of copper reduction and glyoxylie acid oxidation were analyzed by linear sweep voltammetry. The results mainly demonstrated that the chelating agent hindered both the oxidation of glyoxylic acid and the reduction of copper complexing ions. It has revealed that K₄FeCN₆ and 2,2'-dipyridyl (with the content over than 20 mg/L) both played negative actions on the oxidation of glyoxylic …

The Deactivation Mechanism Of Metal Oxide Anodes Under Alternative Current Electrolysis Condition, Jun-Tao Wang, Yan Han, Guang-Zhang Chen, Wen-Fa Liu

Journal of Electrochemistry

The metal oxide anodes coated on titanium used in seawater electrolysis were prepared by thermal decomposition. Their morphologies, compositions and phase structures were determined by scanning electron microscope(SEM), energy dispersive X-ray detector(EDX) and X-ray diffraction(XRD). The electrochemical properties of the anodes were characterized by accelerated life test, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. SEM, EDX and XRD showed that solid solution structures of (Ru, Ir, Ti)O₂ and (Ir, Ti)O₂ were formed after pyrolysis, the solid solution structures and active components were disappeared after the deactivation of the anodes. Electrochemical results indicated that the active area decreased and the …

Copper Electrodeposition Under The Perturbation Of Hard Particles, Zeng-Wei Zhu, Di Zhu

Journal of Electrochemistry

Copper electrodepositon was carried out on the rotating cathode,with hard particles(such as ceramic beads) filling between the electrodes. The rotation of cathode led hard particles to polish and impact the surface of deposit during electrodeposition.Copper deposits with a mass of cuspidal nodules were produced in acid sulfate solutions while brittle deposits without nodules were produced in alkaline sulfate solutions. It was also found that brightening and smoothing deposit could be obtained from the alkaline solution, and the deposit was approximatively disordered orientation with granular morphology of about 100~300 nm. The results show that the polishing and impact of hard particles …

Silicides And Composites Materials As Anodes For Lithium Ion Batteries, Jun-Mei Yan, Hui-Zhen Huang, Jing Zhang, Yong Yang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The anode materials of Mg₂Si and MnSi were synthesized by mechanically activated annealing(MAA) techniques in this work and the in electrochemical performances were also studied.A series of composite materials of Mg₂Si and CNTs or CMS were prepared by ball-milling method respectively. The reversible capacities of the composites were higher than that of the pure Mg₂Si and pure carbon materials.The cyclic performances have been improved greatly by ball-milling of the Mg₂Si and carbon materials. Results show that ball-milling method is one kind of method to make alloy materials into practical use.

Electrochemical Disinfection Method To Treat Wastewater From Hospitals, Zhi-Fu Li, Ya-Dong Tan, Ning Xu, Shao-Hong Ren, Yu Zhao

Journal of Electrochemistry

Electrochemical disinfection method was used to treat wastewater from hospitals. The mechanism of electrochemical disinfection was researched by using the different anode materials. The results showed that when the titanium coated with noble metal (Ru, Pt, Ir)oxide was used as an anode and stainless steel as a cathode, the current density was 6 mA/cm², hydraulic retention time was 15 min,air flow rate was 40 L/h, the rate of anode effective area to the inner water volume was 1.0, the amount of total colibacillus was below 500 CFU/L after electrochemical disinfection,All these meet the first order of Effluent Discharge …

Electrochemical Performance Of Li3.22Na0.569Mn5.78O12.0, Qing-Song Tong, Yong Yang, Jin-Ming Lian

Journal of Electrochemistry

By selecting LiOH·H₂O and Mn(CH₃COO)₂·2H₂O as starting-materials, the positive materials with the structure characterization of Li₄Mn₅O₁₂ and composition of Li_3.22Na_0.569Mn_5.78O_12.0 were prepared by two-phase sintering method consisted of microwave and solid-state sintering processes. XRD patterns data showed that a pure Li₄Mn₅O₁₂ phase was obtained by the fore-treatment of microwave sintering and the post-treatment of the solid-state sintering at 380℃. The charge-discharge tests showed that the newly prepared sample exhibited an initial capacity of 132 mAh·g …

Electrochemical Controllable Preparation Of Hydroxyapatite Coating With Different Morphologies And Preliminary In Vitro Tests, Hai-Yan Shi, Ren Hu, Chang-Jian Lin

Journal of Electrochemistry

The Controllable electrochemical deposition has been developed to prepare the hydroxyapatite(HA) coatings on Ti substrate with different morphologies and structures. Three kinds of typical topography of HA coatings, i.e. standing-up, flower and ordered porous structures have been obtained. The XRD and FTIR results demonstrate high crystallinity of the coating and exclusion of other forms of calcium phosphates. In vitro tests reveal that the biological property is largely dependent on the structure and morphology of the HA coating. It has been found that all pure HA coating show good biocompatibilities, while only the HA coating with ordered porous structures exhibits best …

Electrochemical Oxidation Of Organic Additives In Tin Plating Electrolytes, Yin-Mei Cheng, Lan-Kun Cai, Qiang Song

Journal of Electrochemistry

Cyclic voltammetry(CV) was used to characterize the voltammetric behaviours of organic additives, e.g. PSA(phenolsulfonic acid) EN(ethoxylatedα-naphthol) and ENSA(ethoxylatedα-naphthol sulfonic acid), on the anode surface. In PSA solutions, an anodic peak was obtained and the peak potential was about 1.2V. In EN and ENSA solutions, two anodic peaks were obtained and the peak potentials were about(0.95V) and 1.3V. The products of galvanostatic electrolysis were separated by HPLC(high performance liquid chromatography) and analyzed by EI/MS(electron ionizing mass spectrometry). The mechnism of the electrochemical oxidation was also disussed.

The Electrocatalystic Investigation Of 3,4-Dihydroxybenzoic Acid On The Modified Multiply Wall Carbon Nanotubes, Ming-Qi Li, Duo-Chang Cai, Xiao-Ying He

Journal of Electrochemistry

The electrochemical behavior of 3,4-Dihydroxybenzoic acid(DHBA) on modified multiply wall carbon nanotubes electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry(CV) and square wave voltammetry(SWV). Results show that in 0.1 mol/L HCl solutions the modified carbon nanotube electrode has an obvious electrocatalytic effect on the oxidation and deoxidization of DHBA. The oxidation current of DHBA is linear to it's concentration in the range of 4.0×10^-6～1.0×10^-4 mol/L and 2.0×10^-4～8.0×10^-4 1mol/L with correlation coefficient of 0.9995 and 0.9992. The detection limit is 1.0×10^-6 mol/L.

Inclusive Jet Cross Sections And Dijet Correlations In D*± Photoproduction At Hera, S. Chekanov, M. Derrick, S. Magill, S. Miglioranzi, B. Musgrave, J. Repond, R. Yoshida, Margarita C. K. Mattingly, N. Pavel, A. G. Yagües Molina, P. Antonioli, G. Bari, M. Basile, L. Bellagamba, D. Boscherini, A. Bruni, G. Bruni, G. Cara Romeo, L. Cifarelli, F. Cindolo, A. Contin, M. Corradi, S. De Pasquale, P. Giusti, G. Iacobucci, A. Margotti, A. Montanari, R. Nania, F. Palmonari, A. Pesci, A. Polini

Faculty Publications

Inclusive jet cross sections in photoproduction for events containing a D* meson have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 78.6 pb-1. The events were required to have a virtuality of the incoming photon, Q2, of less than 1 GeV2, and a photon-proton centre-of-mass energy in the range 130 < Wγp < 280 GeV. The measurements are compared with next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD calculations. Good agreement is found with the NLO calculations over most of the measured kinematic region. Requiring a second jet in the event allowed a more detailed comparison with QCD calculations. The measured dijet cross sections are also compared to Monte Carlo (MC) models which incorporate leading-order matrix elements followed by parton showers and hadronisation. The NLO QCD predictions are in general agreement with the data although differences have been isolated to regions where contributions from higher orders are expected to be significant. The MC models give a better description than the NLO predictions of the shape of the measured cross sections. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells-Materials And Prospects, Molenda Janina, Marzec Jacek

Journal of Electrochemistry

The paper summarizes and discusses the basic properties of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) components (electrode materials and electrolyte) from the point of view of their essential functional parameters suck as chemicalstability, transport, catalytic and thermomechanical properties under operational conditions in a SOFC. An interrela-tion between the defect structure of these materials related to oxygen nonstoichiometry and their electronic propertiesand catalytic activity was shown. Single-chamber fuel cell concept was also presented.

Optimized Parameters For Electrochemical Fabrication Of P-Type Silicon-Based Two-Dimensional Photonic Crystals, Wan-Yun Zhang, Jia-Rong Ji, Xiao-Dong Yuan, Wei-Min Ye, Zhi-Hong Zhu

Journal of Electrochemistry

A two-dimensional photonic band structure based on macroporous silicon with a gap centered at 20 μm has been achieved for the first time. A medium doped p-type (100) silicon substrate was patterned by the standard photolithograpgy and alkaline efthing. And this pre-patterned sample was then etched 90 μm deep by electrochemical pore formation in the mixture of hydrofluoric-acid and dimethylformamide (DMF) to produce a quare lattice of circular air rods with a lattice constant of 3.8 μm and the very high aspect ratio up to 30. The optimized electrochemical parameters such as eletrolytical components and the current density were 5 …

A Continuous Operation For Electroreduction Of Oxalic Acid To Glyoxylic Acid, Xiao-Hui Hu, Xiang-Fei Yan, Yu-Zhong Su, Jun Li, Qing-Biao Li

Journal of Electrochemistry

A simulative-continuous-operation approach was proposed to study the continuous operation for electroreduction of oxalic acid to gloxylic acid using a packed bed reactor and a parallel reactor with cooled cathode in order to solve the low productivity problem in current state by using traditional reactor. The effects of the concentration of oxalic acid and temperature on this process were also studied. Results showed that,after 30min of the reaction(residence time), the mass fraction of the produced glyoxylic acid in the catholic solution could reach 3.76% and 3.66% with respect to a saturated oxalic acid method and a step-temperature decreasing method. From …

The Mechanism Of Ethylenediamine On Electroless Ni-B Alloy Deposition, Sen-Lin Wang

Journal of Electrochemistry

The effects of ethylenediamine stabilizer on the deposition rate and on the stability of the plating bath for electroless deposition of Ni-B alloy were investigated. It was found that the addition of ethylenediamine greatly enhances the stability of the electroless plating bath. The electrochemical polarization including cathodic and anodic polarizations measurements were carried out to examine the effect of ethylenediamine on the deposition process. The results show that ethylenediamine affects both the cathodic and the anodic polarization processes. The oxidation current of the reducer and the reduction current of Ni-B alloy decrease greatly when ethylenediamine was added into the plating …