Formation of InAs Self-Assembled Quantum Rings on InP

Shape transformations of partially capped self-assembled InAs quantum dots grown on InP are studied. Atomic force microscopy images show large anisotropic redistribution of the island material after coverage by a 1 nm thick InP layer. The anisotropic material redistribution occurs within a few minutes and leads to a change from lens-like to elongated ring-like islands. The shape transformation is not accompanied by dot material compositional change. The formation of InAs/InP quantum rings disagrees with a previous model of InAs/GaAs ring formation that assumes that the driving force for the dot to ring transformation is the difference in surface diffusion velocity of indium and gallium atoms.Comment: 13 pages, including 2 figures and 1 table. Submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

Pigmented fungiform papillae of the tongue: a clinical and histologic description

A 28-year-old man with a history of mycosis fungoides presented for evaluation of multiple dark-brown macules and hyperpigmented dome-shaped papules on the distal tongue. A shave biopsy of the tongue revealed melanin pigment in the basal keratinocytes and melanophages in the lamina propria, consistent with pigmented fungiform papillae of the tongue. Relevant clinical and histologic features of this diagnosis are reviewed

Spray controller for horizontal boom movements compensation

peer reviewedLongitudinal spray distribution is mainly affected by the horizontal speed variations of the nozzles. Manufacturers classically try to reduce unwanted nozzles movements using horizontal boom suspension but these methods show performance and price limitations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a spray controller aiming to compensate the effect of the horizontal boom movements on the spray distribution besides the effect of tractor speed variations. The controller is based on three main parts: a control law describing the relationship between nozzle speed, nozzle flow and spray coverage; a real time measurement of the boom horizontal speed variations using micro-machined capacitive accelerometers and Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) no zzle flow actuators. A prototype was developed using a processor board controller (dSpace) and tested on a laboratory test bench. The nigrosine solution spray coverage was measured using image analysis for field representative multi-sine nozzle speed variations. The spray coverage uniformity using the spray controller showed about 51% compensation of the spray coverage variations observed without controller

Determinants of Teachers’ Job Satisfaction: School Culture Perspective

The main purpose of this paper was to describe the effect of school culture factors on teachers’ job satisfaction. Descriptive correlation design with mixed data approach was employed in four public secondary schools of Harari regional state, Ethiopia. The specific objectives were to describe the status of school culture and teachers job satisfaction, to identify the relationship between teachers’ job satisfaction and school culture, to investigate the effect of school culture on teachers’ job satisfaction and to sort out the determinants. The data information was gathered from teachers and educational leaders using questionnaire and interview guides respectively. Teachers’ level of job satisfaction was low. There was no relationship between teachers’ educational qualifications and their levels of job satisfaction. The relationship of teachers’ job satisfaction in terms age, sex, salary, working experience, and marital status was not significant. There was association between teachers’ job satisfaction and school culture, specifically with teachers’ professional development and collaborative leadership practices. School culture and teachers’ levels of qualification were predictors of job satisfaction in the schools. In order to enhance job satisfaction of teachers, the school leaders should strengthen and improve the existing continuous professional development program and collaborative leadership practices in the schools. Supervisors should support and facilitate professional development opportunities for teachers. Moreover, they should promote collaborative leadership practices in the schools. Future studies need to be considered in order to generalize the findings in different settings. Also undertake studies on the effect of job satisfaction and school culture on the quality of teaching-learning

Non economic and other factors in the development of Eastern Turkey

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The SPARSE model for the prediction of water stress and evapotranspiration components from thermal infra-red data and its evaluation over irrigated and rainfed wheat

Evapotranspiration is an important component of the water cycle, especially in semi-arid lands. A way to quantify the spatial distribution of evapotranspiration and water stress from remote-sensing data is to exploit the available surface temperature as a signature of the surface energy balance. Remotely sensed energy balance models enable one to estimate stress levels and, in turn, the water status of continental surfaces. Dual-source models are particularly useful since they allow derivation of a rough estimate of the water stress of the vegetation instead of that of a soil–vegetation composite. They either assume that the soil and the vegetation interact almost independently with the atmosphere (patch approach corresponding to a parallel resistance scheme) or are tightly coupled (layer approach corresponding to a series resistance scheme). The water status of both sources is solved simultaneously from a single surface temperature observation based on a realistic underlying assumption which states that, in most cases, the vegetation is unstressed, and that if the vegetation is stressed, evaporation is negligible. In the latter case, if the vegetation stress is not properly accounted for, the resulting evaporation will decrease to unrealistic levels (negative fluxes) in order to maintain the same total surface temperature. This work assesses the retrieval performances of total and component evapotranspiration as well as surface and plant water stress levels by (1) proposing a new dual-source model named Soil Plant Atmosphere and Remote Sensing Evapotranspiration (SPARSE) in two versions (parallel and series resistance networks) based on the TSEB (Two-Source Energy Balance model, Norman et al., 1995) model rationale as well as state-of-the-art formulations of turbulent and radiative exchange, (2) challenging the limits of the underlying hypothesis for those two versions through a synthetic retrieval test and (3) testing the water stress retrievals (vegetation water stress and moisture-limited soil evaporation) against in situ data over contrasted test sites (irrigated and rainfed wheat). We demonstrated with those two data sets that the SPARSE series model is more robust to component stress retrieval for this cover type, that its performance increases by using bounding relationships based on potential conditions (root mean square error lowered by up to 11 W m−2 from values of the order of 50–80 W m−2), and that soil evaporation retrieval is generally consistent with an independent estimate from observed soil moisture evolution