Modeling cyclic behavior of lightly overconsolidated clays in simple shear

Assessment of seismic performance and estimation of permanent displacements for submerged slopes require the accurate description of the soil's stress-strain-strength relationship under irregular cyclic loading. The geological profile of submerged slopes on the continental shelf typically consists of normally to lightly overconsolidated clays with depths ranging from a few meters to a few hundred meters and very low slope angles. This paper describes the formulation of a simplified effective-stress-based model, which is able to capture the key aspects of the cyclic behavior of normally consolidated clays. The proposed constitutive law incorporates anisotropic hardening and bounding surface principles to allow the user to simulate different shear strain and stress reversal histories as well as provide realistic descriptions of the accumulation of plastic shear strains and excess pore pressure during successive loading cycles. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. | Assessment of seismic performance and estimation of permanent displacements for submerged slopes require the accurate description of the soil's stress-strain-strength relationship under irregular cyclic loading. The geological profile of submerged slopes on the continental shelf typically consists of normally to lightly overconsolidated clays with depths ranging from a few meters to a few hundred meters and very low slope angles. This paper describes the formulation of a simplified effective-stress-based model, which is able to capture the key aspects of the cyclic behavior of normally consolidated clays. The proposed constitutive law incorporates anisotropic hardening and bounding surface principles to allow the user to simulate different shear strain and stress reversal histories as well as provide realistic descriptions of the accumulation of plastic shear strains and excess pore pressures during successive loading cycles.

Growth behavior of epitaxial semiconductor axial nanowire heterostructures

In this paper, we demonstrate the key issues of axial nanowire heterostructures, such as, the fundamental criteria for formation and failure of axial nanowire heterostructures via vapor-liquid-solid mechanism and lateral misfit strain relaxation in these structures. We show the failure of axial nanowire heterostructures by growing InAs axially on GaAs nanowires, and the lateral misfit strain relaxation by axial growth of GaSb on GaAs nanowires. © 2008 IEEE.

Spatially-resolved photoluminescence imaging of CdS and GaAs/AlGaAs nanowires

We use low temperature spatially resolved photoluminescence imaging to study optical properties and electronic states of single CdS and GaAs/AlGaAs core-shell nanowires. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Temperature dependence of photoluminescence from single core-shell GaAs-AlGaAs nanowires

Temperature-dependent polarized microphotoluminescence measurements of single GaAsAlGaAs core-shell nanowires are used to probe their electronic states. The low-temperature emission from these wires is strongly enhanced compared with that observed in bare GaAs nanowires and is strongly polarized, reflecting the dielectric mismatch between the nanowire and the surrounding air. The temperature-dependent band gap of the nanowires is seen to be somewhat different from that observed in bulk GaAs, and the PL rapidly quenches above 120 K, with an activation energy of 17 meV reflecting the presence of nonradiative defects. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, learning behavior, and academic performance

The present study investigated the relationship between statistics anxiety, individual characteristics (e.g., trait anxiety and learning strategies), and academic performance. Students enrolled in a statistics course in psychology (N=147) filled in a questionnaire on statistics anxiety, trait anxiety, interest in statistics, mathematical selfconcept, learning strategies, and procrastination. Additionally, their performance in the examination was recorded. The structural equation model showed that statistics anxiety held a crucial role as the strongest direct predictor of performance. Students with higher statistics anxiety achieved less in the examination and showed higher procrastination scores. Statistics anxiety was related indirectly to spending less effort and time on learning. Trait anxiety was related positively to statistics anxiety and, counterintuitively, to academic performance. This result can be explained by the heterogeneity of the measure of trait anxiety. The part of trait anxiety that is unrelated to the specific part of statistics anxiety correlated positively with performance.

Subsurface transport behavior of micro-nano bubbles and potential applications for groundwater remediation.

Micro-nano bubbles (MNBs) are tiny bubbles with diameters on the order of micrometers and nanometers, showing great potential in environmental remediation. However, the application is only in the beginning stages and remains to be intensively studied. In order to explore the possible use of MNBs in groundwater contaminant removal, this study focuses on the transport of MNBs in porous media and dissolution processes. The bubble diameter distribution was obtained under different conditions by a laser particle analyzer. The permeability of MNB water through sand was compared with that of air-free water. Moreover, the mass transfer features of dissolved oxygen in water with MNBs were studied. The results show that the bubble diameter distribution is influenced by the surfactant concentration in the water. The existence of MNBs in pore water has no impact on the hydraulic conductivity of sand. Furthermore, the dissolved oxygen (DO) in water is greatly increased by the MNBs, which will predictably improve the aerobic bioremediation of groundwater. The results are meaningful and instructive in the further study of MNB research and applications in groundwater bioremediation.

Impact of donor traps on the 2DEG and electrical behavior of AlGaN/GaN MISFETs

As an important step in understanding trap-related mechanisms in AlGaN/GaN transistors, the physical properties of surface states have been analyzed through the study of the transfer characteristics of a MISFET. This letter focused initially on the relationship between donor parameters (concentration and energy level) and electron density in the channel in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. This analysis was then correlated to dc and pulsed measurements of the transfer characteristics of a MISFET, where the gate bias was found to modulate either the channel density or the donor states. Traps-free and traps-frozen TCAD simulations were performed on an equivalent device to capture the donor behavior. A donor concentration of 1.14× 1013 ∼ cm-2 with an energy level located 0.2 eV below the conduction band edge gave the best fit to measurements. With the approach described here, we were able to analyze the region of the MISFET that corresponds to the drift region of a conventional HEMT. © 1980-2012 IEEE.