乱伦强奸

Discover

乱伦强奸 researchers have demonstrated that defects on an atomically thin semiconductor can produce light-emitting quantum dots. The research, an effort to integrate quantum photonics with solid-state electronics, is part of a field known as integrated photonics.

Also known as 鈥渁rtificial atoms,鈥� quantum dots occur naturally in some nanomaterials and can be artificially engineered. The 乱伦强奸 dots act as a source of single photons and offer a way to explore the physics of how photons interact with other nanoscale materials, an important vein of research into nanophotonic applications.

Led by Nick Vamivakas, assistant professor of optics, the group used tungsten diselenide to fashion a nanoscale semiconductor that served as a platform for solid-state quantum dots in a way that did not inhibit the electrical or optical performance of the semiconductor and that could be controlled by applying electric and magnetic fields. The work was published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Vamivakas says an advantage of the new approach is that it鈥檚 easier to create quantum dots in tungsten diselenide than it is with more traditional materials.

The next step, he says, is to use voltage to 鈥渢une the color鈥� of the photons, which can make it possible to integrate the quantum dots with nanophotonic devices.

鈥擫eonor Sierra

Thinking Alike Changes How We Speak

As social creatures, people tend to mimic each other鈥檚 posture, laughter, and other behaviors, including speech patterns. A new study shows that people with similar views tend to mirror each other鈥檚 speech patterns even more closely鈥攁s do people who are better at compromising.

鈥淥ur social judgments about others and our general attitude toward conflict are affecting even the most automatic and subconscious aspects of how we express ourselves with language,鈥� says lead author Kodi Weatherholtz, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Florian Jaeger, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and coauthor of the study.

One reason people tend to align certain speech patterns is that it facilitates communication. But the study found evidence that speech alignment serves a social function. People tend to like those with whom they share characteristics, Jaeger says, and so speaking in a way more or less similar to others can be a subtle means of influencing liking, trust, and other interpersonal emotions.

The study was published in the journal Language Variation and Change.

鈥擬onique Patenaude

鈥楽ummer Slide鈥� Reduced When Kids Pick Own Books

At the end of the school year, districts often send students home with stacks of books in an effort to combat 鈥渟ummer slide,鈥� the literacy loss experienced during the long break that hits low-income students particularly hard.

But a new study led by Erin Kelly, a fourth-year resident in the medicine-pediatrics program, showed that the programs can become significantly more effective with just a small tweak: let kids choose the books.

The findings were presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in the spring. Carol Anne St. George, assistant professor at the Warner School of Education, helped to implement the study, which was conducted in kindergarten, first-, and second-grade classes in the 乱伦强奸 City School District.

More than 75 percent of students who were allowed to select at least some of their books maintained or improved their reading levels, compared to a one-month literacy loss seen in previous studies. No significant difference was seen between students who picked all of their own books and those who picked only some.

鈥擲ean Dobbin锘匡豢

Pollution Linked to Lower Birth Weight

Women in Beijing who were pregnant during the 2008 Olympics, when pollution levels were reduced by the Chinese government, gave birth to children with higher birth weights compared to those who were pregnant before or after the games.

That鈥檚 according to a study led by David Rich, associate professor in the Departments of Public Health Sciences and Environmental Medicine, which suggests that pollution may be interfering with fetal development.

In the months leading up to and during the Olympics and Paralympics, the government launched a series of aggressive measures to improve Beijing鈥檚 notoriously poor air quality, including restricting automobile and truck use, closing factories, halting construction projects, and seeding clouds to induce rainfall.

The controls鈥攚hich were relaxed after the games鈥攑roduced a significant decrease in air pollution for a six- to seven-week period during the games, including a 60 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide and a 48 percent reduction in carbon monoxide.

The researchers compared birth weights of infants born to women whose eighth month of pregnancy occurred during the games with those whose eighth month occurred at the same time of year in 2007 and 2009.

They found that babies born in 2008 were on average 23 grams larger than those born the year before and the year after. The research was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. Late pregnancy is a particularly important time for fetal growth, when the most physical growth occurs and development of the cardiovascular, central nervous, and musculoskeletal systems accelerates.

鈥擬ark Michaud

Study Sheds New Light on Brain鈥檚 Power Source

The brain requires enormous energy to do its job. While it represents only 2 percent of the average adult鈥檚 body mass, the brain consumes about 20 percent of the body鈥檚 energy supply. As a result, figuring out just how brain cells鈥攕pecifically, neurons鈥� generate energy has significant implications for understanding basic biology as well as neurological diseases that may be linked to too little or too much metabolism in the brain.

Now a new study, led by Maiken Nedergaard, the Frank P. Smith Professor of Neurosurgery and codirector of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine, shows that neurons in the brain are more independent than previously thought.

In research published in Nature Communications, the scientists found that neurons鈥攁nd not astrocytes, as previously believed鈥攖ake up more glucose in the brain, with consumption rising with brain activity and falling when the brain isn鈥檛 stimulated. With astrocytes, the uptake stayed relatively constant.

Understanding the 鈥減recise and complex biological mechanisms of the brain鈥� is critical to dealing with neurological diseases, says Nedergaard. 鈥淚f we are looking in the wrong place, we won鈥檛 be able to find the right answers.鈥�

鈥擬ark Michaud