Strain Induced One-Dimensional Landau-Level Quantization in Corrugated Graphene

Theoretical research has predicted that ripples of graphene generates effective gauge field on its low energy electronic structure and could lead to zero-energy flat bands, which are the analog of Landau levels in real magnetic fields. Here we demonstrate, using a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy and tight-binding approximation, that the zero-energy Landau levels with vanishing Fermi velocities will form when the effective pseudomagnetic flux per ripple is larger than the flux quantum. Our analysis indicates that the effective gauge field of the ripples results in zero-energy flat bands in one direction but not in another. The Fermi velocities in the perpendicular direction of the ripples are not renormalized at all. The condition to generate the ripples is also discussed according to classical thin-film elasticity theory.Comment: 4 figures, Phys. Rev.

Replication and Meta-analysis of the Association between BDNF Val66Met Polymorphism and Cognitive Impairment in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) adversely affects cancer patients. We had previously demonstrated that the BDNF Val66Met genetic polymorphism is associated with lower odds of subjective CRCI in the multitasking and verbal ability domains among breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. To further assess our previous findings, we evaluated the association of BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with subjective and objective CRCI in a temporally separate cohort of patients and pooled findings from both the original (n = 145) and current (n = 193) cohorts in a meta-analysis. Subjective CRCI was assessed using FACT-Cog. Objective CRCI was evaluated using computerized neuropsychological tests. Genotyping was carried out using Sanger sequencing. The association of BDNF Val66Met genotypes and CRCI was examined with logistic regression. A fixed-effect meta-analysis was conducted using the inverse variance method. In the meta-analysis (n = 338), significantly lower odds of CRCI were associated with Met allele carriers based on the global FACT-Cog score (OR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.29-0.94). Furthermore, Met allele carriers were at lower odds of developing impairment in the domains of memory (OR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.17-0.70), multitasking (OR = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.18-0.59), and verbal ability (OR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.24-0.88). Consistent with the previous study, lower odds of subjective CRCI among patients with the BDNF Met allele was observed after adjusting for potential confounders in the multitasking (OR = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.14-0.67) domain. In conclusion, carriers of the BDNF Met allele were protected against global subjective CRCI, particularly in the domains of memory, multitasking, and verbal ability. Our findings further contribute to the understanding of CRCI pathophysiology

Exploring the effect of AR filter on perceived brand image: The mediating role of realistic experience

Following its extensive application in study on consumers\u27 retail experience, AR (augmented reality) technology has been increasingly applied in social media, notably the AR filter service, which has been embraced by quite a few brands as a novel marketing tool, taking advantage of its entertaining value and dissemination effect to boost brands\u27 perceived image among consumers. However, there have been fewer studies that examine the effectiveness of brand-developed AR filter services in enhancing consumer perceptions of brand image in the context of social media. To bridge the research gap, the study, based on the S-O-R model, looked into the effect of consumers\u27 cognition of AR-filter features on the realism of their experience and thus their perceived brand image. The study was carried out via a questionnaire survey of users of AR filters developed by brand-developed in social media, with its findings having both academic and practical implications for this field

Perceived Executive Leader’s Integrity in Terms of Servant and Ethical Leadership on Job Burnout among Christian Healthcare Service Providers: Test of a Structural Equation Model

Integrity is a key component in the definition of servant and ethical leadership, and honesty, authenticity, sincerity, respect and righteousness are major virtues and descriptors that make up this leadership integrity. Many leadership studies indicate that the lack of integrity from a leader, as well as the perception of the lack thereof, will exhaust the employees’ exhilaration, degrade their physical and psychological health, and lead to frustration, fatigue and anxiety. For human service professions, this has become an occupational hazard for human service professions and is regarded as the last straw for workers, causing people to burnout and quit their jobs. 325 Full-time employees of the Metroplex Adventist Hospital were surveyed. Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis showed that a leader’s integrity offers two virtues: perceived positive integrity behavior and perceived negative integrity behavior, both of which significantly correlated with job burnout in terms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. Excluding ethnic backgrounds, some of the most significant demographic variables to determine a leader’s integrity and job burnout include Years of Service, gender and age. Employees with income below $29,999, have 1-5 years of service, who are Asian, and are of female gender have experienced the highest score of job burnout and perceived highest score of negative integrity behavior and lowest score of perceived positive integrity behavior

Hot tensile fracture characteristics and constitutive modelling of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK)

The effects of strain rate and deformation temperature on the deformation behaviors of polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) were studied by uniaxial tensile tests with the temperature range of 23–150 °C and strain rate of 0.01–1 s−1. The effects of deformation temperature and strain rate on the hot tensile deformation behavior and fracture characteristics were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and discussed in detail. SEM experimental results suggest that fracture morphology is not strain rate sensitive but temperature sensitive. Based on the tensile results, the Johnson-Cook and modified Johnson-Cook constitutive models were established for PEEK. Furthermore, a comparative study has been made on the accuracy and effectiveness of the developed models to predict the flow stress. The results show that the original Johnson-Cook model reflects the deformation behavior more accurately throughout the entire test temperature and strain rate range under uniaxial tensile conditions

Summary of a Topical Forum FAQ Based on the Chinese Composition Structure

An automatic multiple-document summarization system for producing frequently asked questions (FAQ) of a topical forum can save forum Webmasters a great deal of time in theory. This work will address summary composition issue of a previous work by proposing a structured presentation based on a four-part pattern of traditional Chinese articles. The result of the experiment shows that the enhanced system with both domain-terminology corpus methods produced a significantly better summary presentation than the original system. Recall rate and precision rate performance indices and user evaluations are also presented and discussed to show their practical implications

ANALYZING MEDICAL TRANSACTION DATA BY USING ASSOCIATION RULE MINING WITH MULTIPLE MINIMUM SUPPORTS

The quick development of IS has a huge impact on the healthcare industry. almost all the existing hospitals, clinics and other healthcare-related institutes have adopted a functionally powerful and highly integrated Hospital Information System (HIS) for management of clinic or medical-related affairs. The medical data stored in the HIS are collected from many different medical subsystems, However, problems of failed data sharing and inconsistent data content often occur among these subsystems, resulting in many hospitals collect a large amount of medical data, but not the ability to process and analyse these data properly, letting the valuable data in the HIS all go to waste. In this study, we made a practical visit to a certain hospital in Taiwan and collected radioimmunoassay (RIA) data from the Laboratory Information System (LIS) and the Departmental Registration System (DRS) of this hospital. Further, we proposed a method of the association rule mining in combination with the concept of multiple minimum supports to analyse and find valuable association rules from the RIA data. The analytical results found the method we proposed can indeed find association rules that would not be able to be found with the traditional association mining methods. It is very helpful in improving doctor-patient relationship and upgrading health care quality

The effect of music relaxation video on college students\u27 anxiety and physical vital signs

The music relaxation video is a safe and inexpensive technique that can be used for college students with anxiety. It also demonstrates beneficial effects on decreasing pulses and diastolic blood pressure. The findings can improve health among college students and can be easily utilized in educational institutions

A Neural Network Decision Method for Software Maintenance Life Cycle Identification

The software maintenance life cycle concept is a powerful model in helping software maintenance planning. The operationalization of the life cycle concept requires a heuristic decision method. Although the heuristic decision method works most of the time, the method requires integration of different tools and sometimes leads to errors. In this paper, we propose a neural network decision method, which combines data smoothing and maintenance stage identification into one unit