Metal carbonyls are important for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of metals and alloys and formation of high surface area metallic particles which have potential applications as catalysts. Rhodium carbonyl [Rh6(CO)16] produces high surface area metallic particles whose structure has been reported as monoclinic (I2/a) with lattice dimensions, a=17.00(±0.03)Å, b=9.78(±0.02)Å, c=17.53(±0.03)Å and β=121°45' ± 30' at room temperature. Generally, metal carbonyl crystals dissociate under vacuum as carbonyl gas and decompose to metallic crystals and carbon monoxide at higher temperatures. However, the behavior of rhodium carbonyl crystals is different; they decompose directly to metallic rhodium without the formation of rhodium carbonyl gas in vacuum. Several residual fine grains of rhodium metal are found after the decomposition in vacuum at relatively low temperatures. The metallic samples of rhodium were obtained from vapor pressure experiments using torsion Knudsen-effusion apparatus. X-ray diffraction analyses performed on these grains showed severely broadened Bragg reflections indicative of small particle size and/or lattice microstrain. In this study, a comparison of lattice strains and domain sizes obtained by integral breadth and Fourier methods has been made. In addition a comparison of the lattice strains and domain sizes has been made between the Cauchy, Gaussian, Cauchy-Gaussian and Aqua integral breadth methods.

Introduction: We previously reported that a targeted knowledge translation (KT) intervention was associated with a trend towards increased awareness and knowledge of the Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) emergency medicine (EM) recommendations. We wished to assess if the intervention changed physician practice, specifically looking at the imperative “do not order lumbar XRs for non-traumatic low back pain unless red flags exist”. Methods: A departmental KT initiative was implemented in April 2016 and consisted of a 1-hour seminar reviewing the CWC-EM recommendations, access to a video cast, departmental posters, and a before and after awareness survey. The effectiveness of our intervention was assessed by analyzing the frequency of lumbar XR imaging conducted for low back pain before and after the introduction of our intervention at a tertiary teaching hospital emergency department. All patient visits for the complaint of low back pain were included. The rates of XR imaging from June 2014 to September 2014 for the pre-intervention period and June 2016 to September 2016 for the post-intervention period were collected and analyzed using Fisher exact tests. A sample size of 683 was required to detect a 5% change with an alpha of 0.05 and a power of 80%. Results: Baseline characteristics of patients were similar for the pre- and post-intervention periods. There was a total of 781 patient visits for low back pain in June to September 2014 and 672 in June to September 2016. The XR imaging rate for low back pain increased from 12% (95% CI 9.9-14.5) to 16.2% (95% CI 13.6-19.2) following the intervention (p=0.023). Conclusion: We previously demonstrated a trend towards increased awareness and knowledge of the CWC EM recommendations following a knowledge translation initiative. Baseline XR imaging rates for low back pain were lower than what has been reported. We observed that our intervention was associated with an increased frequency of imaging for low back pain. This may be due to a contrarian effect. We feel this calls into question the role of knowledge translation initiatives where physician practice already closely adheres to pre-established recommendations.

Introduction: Choosing Wisely is an innovative approach to address physician and patient attitudes towards low value medical tests; however, a knowledge translation (KT) gap exists. We aimed to quantify the baseline familiarity of emergency medicine (EM) physicians with the Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) EM recommendations. We then assessed whether a structured KT initiative affected knowledge and awareness. Methods: Physicians working in urban (tertiary teaching hospital, Saint John, NB) and rural (community teaching hospital, Waterville, NB) emergency departments were asked to participate in a survey assessing awareness and knowledge of the first five CWC EM recommendations before an educational intervention. The intervention consisted of a 1-hour seminar reviewing the recommendations, access to a video cast and departmental posters. Knowledge was assessed by asking respondents to identify 80% or more of the recommendations correctly. Physicians were surveyed again at a 6-month follow up period. The Fisher exact test was used for statistical analyses. A sample size of 36 was required to detect a 30% change with an alpha of 0.05 and a power of 80%. Results: At the urban site, 16 of 25 (64%) physicians responded to the pre- and 14 of 26 (53.8%) responded to the post-intervention survey. Awareness of the EM recommendations did not increase significantly (81.3% pre; 95% CI 56.2-94.2 vs. 92.9% post; 66.4-99.9; p=0.60). There was a weak trend towards improved knowledge with 62.5% (38.5-81.6) of physicians responding correctly initially, and 85.7% (58.8-97.2; p=0.23) after the intervention. At the rural site, 8 of 11 (72.7%) physicians responded to the pre- and post-intervention survey. There was a trend towards improved awareness, (25% pre; 6.3-59.9 vs. 75% post; 40.1-93.7; p=0.13), with 50% (21.5-78.5) responding correctly pre, and 87.5% (50.8-99.9; p=0.28) after the intervention. Conclusion: We have described the current awareness and knowledge of the CWC EM recommendations. Limited by our small sample size, we report a trend towards increased awareness and knowledge at 6 months following our KT initiative in a rural setting where there was a low baseline awareness. At the urban site where baseline knowledge was high, changes seen were less significant. Further work will look at the effectiveness of our initiative on physician practice.

We present the results of a multi-wavelength investigation of the dwarf galaxy populations in three interacting galaxy groups: NGC 871/6/7, NGC 3166/9, NGC 4725/47. Using degree-scale Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Hi mosaics and deep optical photometry from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we measured the Hi and stellar properties of the gas-rich low-mass group members to classify each one as a classical dwarf galaxy, a short-lived tidal knot or a tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG). Our observations detect several dwarf irregulars and various tidal knots. We identify four potentially long-lived tidal objects in the three groups, implying that TDGs are not readily produced. The tidal objects examined in this small survey also appear to have a wider variety of properties than TDGs formed in current simulations.

Two global (re-)emerging zoonoses, leptospirosis and hantavirus infections, are clinically indistinguishable. Thirty-one patients, hospitalized in Sri Lanka for acute severe leptospirosis, were after exclusion of other potentially involved pathogens, prospectively screened with IgM ELISA for both pathogens. Of these, nine (29·0%) were positive for leptospirosis only, one (3·2%) for hantavirus only, seven (22·5%) for both pathogens concomitantly, whereas 13 (41·9%) remained negative for both. Moreover, in a retrospective study of 23 former patients, serologically confirmed for past leptospirosis, six (26·0%) were also positive in two different IgG ELISA hantavirus formats. Surprisingly, European Puumala hantavirus (PUUV) results were constantly higher, although statistically not significantly different, than Asian Hantaan virus (HTNV), suggesting an unexplained cross-reaction, since PUUV is considered absent throughout Asia. Moreover, RT–PCR on all hantavirus IgM ELISA positives was negative. Concomitant leptospirosis-hantavirus infections are probably heavily underestimated worldwide, compromising epidemiological data, therapeutical decisions, and clinical outcome.

Effect of Gd substitution at Y-site on the structural and magnetic properties of Y1-xGdxMnO3 (x=0, 0.05) nanoparticles prepared by conventional solid state reaction method has been studied. The structural study using X-ray diffraction pattern indicates the hexagonal structure with P63cm space group for all the samples. The average particle size for all the samples lies in the range of 30-40 nm as confirmed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The change in a and c lattice parameters confirm the substitution of Gd at Y-site. Magnetization versus temperature measurements show enhanced magnetic moment and an increase in Neel temperature with Gd-doping. Spin glass behavior is observed at low temperature in all the samples. Exchange bias effect has been observed at 5 K after field cooling the samples which is ascribed to the formation of antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic (AFM-FM) core-shell structure of the nanoparticles. A significant improvement in the dielectric properties of Gd-doped samples has also been observed.

The partial excavation under rescue conditions in 1961–63 of the ditches and interior of an enclosure of the earlier neolithic period is described. The enclosure, covering a total area of approximately 2.4 ha, was defined by double concentric interrupted ditches, which were for the most part naturally filled. There were many traces of activity within the interior, presumed to be contemporary with the ditches, including pits, gullies, post- and stake-holes, and varying concentrations of struck and burnt flint and pottery. Human burials were found. There is a little Ebbsfleet pottery in secondary contexts and there are later prehistoric, Roman and medieval finds. It is probably not possible to ascribe a single or specific role to the site, which may have been important as a place where several activities were concentrated, including occupation, subsistence, exchange, enclosure or defence, burial and ritual.

A low thermal budget process for back-end compatible PCMO based RRAM cell is essential for 3D stacked memory. In this paper, we investigate two strategies to engineer low thermal budget processing for bipolar switching - (i) deposition engineering i.e. based on deposition temperature and oxygen partial pressure, (ii) post deposition anneal i.e. based on inert anneal of room temperature deposited PCMO film.. We demonstrate that both deposition and anneal shows a transition temperature above which bipolar switching is realized. Oxygen partial pressure is a key deposition process parameter. As oxygen partial pressure is reduced memory window increases, however beyond an optimal O2 partial pressure, unipolar switching is observed. Inert anneal is more effective in thermal budget reduction as N2/550°C/2min anneal has same memory performance as 650°C/2hour deposition process.

The role of field-induced electrochemical migration oxygen ions in switching behaviour of LSMO films is established through I-V measurements under various top electrode device configurations. We report observation of bubbling, mechanical damage and delamination of top electrode in LSMO-based large area RRAM devices. Polarity dependence of this phenomenon, as observed in-situ during electrical measurements, reveals O-evolution to be the likely cause for such electrode damage. The effect of this phenomenon on switching behaviour of devices with reactive as well as inert top electrodes is presented. To mitigate the electrode integrity issue, we explore the use of conducting oxide electrodes on the active LSMO film.

We have successfully prepared La0.5Sr0.5MnO3nanowires using a novel hydrothermal synthesis process and studied their magnetic and magnetocaloric properties. The system exhibits an inverse magnetocaloric effect (IMCE) around 175 K indicating presence of significant AFM correlation. The MCE study reveals a clear paramagnetic (PM) to ferromagnetic (FM) transition near room temperature (T ~ 325K) which is followed by onset of AFM at lower temperatures. The development of the FM-like magnetic state at low temperature is attributed to the enhanced double exchange (DE) driven ferromagnetism in AFM state as predicted by recent theoretical studies.

Heteroepitaxial growth of indium arsenide films on indium phosphide substrates is being actively pursued since the electronic properties of these films make them promising materials for optoelectronic and other high speed devices. The various structural aspects of the film that affect their electronic properties are structural defects like dislocations, film-substrate interface roughness and chemical inhomogeneities. In InAs films, electrons accumulate at the film-air interface, making surface morphology an important factor that decides the electronic properties. The InAs films used in this study were grown on InP substrates by metal organic vapor deposition, at different temperatures. A higher growth temperature not only resulted in poor surface morphology of the film, but also created a rough film-substrate interface. However, at all deposition temperatures, the film-substrate interfaces are sharp. At lower growth temperature, the interfaces were flat. Films grown at lower temperatures had good surface morphology and a flat and shaip heterointerface.

The sol-gel process is a solution synthesis technique which provides a low temperature chemical route for the preparation of rigid transparent matrices. A number of laser dyes have been incorporated in different sol-gel matrices and tunable laser action has been demonstrated with these materials. This paper extends the sol-gel laser field into two significant areas, infrared dyes and pyrromethenes. The work with the tricarbocyanine dyes shows the versatility of sol-gel chemistry as organic modifications produce a favorable environment for the dye molecules. The results with the pyrromethene system show a considerable increase in output energy and offer the promise of longer laser lifetimes.

Four pyrromethene-BF2 visible laser dyes, dissolved in a MIL-STD tested high temperature polymer matrix and pumped with a doubled Nd:YAG laser produced 61 % slope efficiency and retained 78% of the initial lasing efficiency after 95,000 pulses.

The Heat Exchanger Method (HEM) of crystal growing was combined with the Fixed Abrasive Slicing Technology (FAST) to produce low-cost, high-quality sapphire substrates for deposition of the GaN family of compounds. Production quantities of 2-inch diameter blanks have been supplied, and 3-inch diameter material has been qualified. Current technology can be used to prepare sapphire blanks up to 6-inch diameter.

Spectral ellipsometry (SE) was applied to in situ composition control of Hg1−xCdxTe grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and the impact of surface topography of the Hg1−xCdxTe layers on the accuracy of SE was investigated. Of particular importance is the presence of surface defects, such as voids in MBE- Hg1−xCdxTe layers. While dislocations do not have any significant impact on the dielectric functions, the experimental data in this work show that MBE- Hg1−xCdxTe samples having the same composition, but different void densities, have different effective dielectric functions.