The study of high-dimensional distributions is of interest in probability theory, statistics, and asymptotic convex geometry, where the object of interest is the uniform distribution on a convex set in high dimensions. The ℓp-spaces and norms are of particular interest in this setting. In this paper we establish a limit theorem for distributions on ℓp-spheres, conditioned on a rare event, in a high-dimensional geometric setting. As part of our proof, we establish a certain large deviation principle that is also relevant to the study of the tail behavior of random projections of ℓp-balls in a high-dimensional Euclidean space.

We report the breeding success of four species of burrow-nesting petrels at sub-Antarctic Marion Island where house mice Mus musculus are the sole introduced mammal. Feral cats Felis catus were present on Marion for four decades from 1949, killing millions of seabirds and greatly reducing petrel populations. Cats were eradicated by 1991, but petrel populations have shown only marginal recoveries. We hypothesize that mice are suppressing their recovery through depredation of petrel eggs and chicks. Breeding success for winter breeders (grey petrels Procellaria cinerea (34±21%) and great-winged petrels Pterodroma macroptera (52±7%)) were lower than for summer breeders (blue petrels Halobaena caerulea (61±6%) and white-chinned petrels Procellaria aequinoctialis (59±6%)) and among winter breeders most chick fatalities were of small chicks up to 14 days old. We assessed the extent of mouse predation by monitoring the inside of 55 burrow chambers with video surveillance cameras (4024 film days from 2012–16) and recorded fatal attacks on grey (3/18 nests filmed, 17%) and great-winged petrel chicks (1/19, 5%). Our results show that burrow-nesting petrels are at risk from mouse predation, providing further motivation for the eradication of mice from Marion Island.

We describe the design and performance of the Engineering Development Array, which is a low-frequency radio telescope comprising 256 dual-polarisation dipole antennas working as a phased array. The Engineering Development Array was conceived of, developed, and deployed in just 18 months via re-use of Square Kilometre Array precursor technology and expertise, specifically from the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope. Using drift scans and a model for the sky brightness temperature at low frequencies, we have derived the Engineering Development Array’s receiver temperature as a function of frequency. The Engineering Development Array is shown to be sky-noise limited over most of the frequency range measured between 60 and 240 MHz. By using the Engineering Development Array in interferometric mode with the Murchison Widefield Array, we used calibrated visibilities to measure the absolute sensitivity of the array. The measured array sensitivity matches very well with a model based on the array layout and measured receiver temperature. The results demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of using Murchison Widefield Array-style precursor technology for Square Kilometre Array-scale stations. The modular architecture of the Engineering Development Array allows upgrades to the array to be rolled out in a staged approach. Future improvements to the Engineering Development Array include replacing the second stage beamformer with a fully digital system, and to transition to using RF-over-fibre for the signal output from first stage beamformers.

This paper treats a holomorphic self-mapping f: Ω → Ω of a bounded domain Ω in a separable Hilbert space with a fixed point p. In case the domain is convex, we prove an infinite-dimensional version of the Cartan-Carathéodory-Kaup-Wu Theorem. This is basically a rigidity result in the vein of the uniqueness part of the classical Schwarz lemma. The main technique, inspired by an old idea of H. Cartan, is iteration of the mapping f and its derivative. A normality result for holomorphic mappings in the compact-weak-open topology, due to Kim and Krantz, is used.

Poly[sulfur-random-1,3-diisopropenylbenzene (DIB)] copolymers synthesized via inverse vulcanization form electrochemically active polymers used as cathodes for high-energy density Li–S batteries, capable of enhanced capacity retention (1005 mAh/g at 100 cycles) and lifetimes of over 500 cycles. In this prospective, we demonstrate how analytical electron microscopy can be employed as a powerful tool to explore the origins of the enhanced capacity retention. We analyze morphological and compositional features when the copolymers, with DIB contents up to 50% by mass, are blended with carbon nanoparticles. Replacing the elemental sulfur with the copolymers improves the compatibility and interfacial contact between active sulfur compounds and conductive carbons. There also appears to be improvements of the cathode mechanical stability that leads to less cracking but preserving porosity. This compatibilization scheme through stabilized organosulfur copolymers represents an alternative strategy to the nanoscale encapsulation schemes which are often used to improve the cycle life in high-energy density Li–S batteries.

This paper will discuss the structure-property model developed that correlates the tensile modulus to the elastic properties and angular distribution of constituent graphitic layers for carbon fiber derived from a polyethylene precursor. In addition, a high-temperature fiber tensile device was built to enable heating of carbon fiber bundles at a variable rate from 25 °C to greater than ∼2300 °C, while simultaneously applying a tensile stress. This capability combined with synchrotron wide-angle x-ray diffraction (WAXD), enabled observation in situ and in real time of the microstructural transformation from different carbon fiber precursors to high-modulus carbon fiber. Experiments conducted using PAN- and PE-derived fiber precursors reveal stark differences in their carbonization and high-temperature graphitization behavior.

This study investigated the reciprocal relationship between parental caregiving and labour force participation to determine whether (1) caregiving related to subsequent employment; (2) employment related to subsequent caregiving; (3) caregiving and labour force participation had a reciprocal relationship across time; and (4) gender differences existed in these relationships. A cross-lagged panel design was applied with structural equation modeling. The study sample included adult children aged 51 or older with living parents or parents-in-law. No reciprocal relationship was found between caregiving and labour force participation, but gender differences were evident. Women caregivers in 2006 were less likely to be working in 2008, whereas employment status was not related to subsequent caregiving. In contrast, men working in 2008 were less likely to be caregiving in 2010, whereas caregiving was not related to subsequent employment status. Findings suggest that gender plays an important role in the relationship between caregiving and labour force participation.

The recently developed three-dimensional electron microscopic (EM) method of serial block-face scanning electron microscopy (SBEM) has rapidly established itself as a powerful imaging approach. Volume EM imaging with this scanning electron microscopy (SEM) method requires intense staining of biological specimens with heavy metals to allow sufficient back-scatter electron signal and also to render specimens sufficiently conductive to control charging artifacts. These more extreme heavy metal staining protocols render specimens light opaque and make it much more difficult to track and identify regions of interest (ROIs) for the SBEM imaging process than for a typical thin section transmission electron microscopy correlative light and electron microscopy study. We present a strategy employing X-ray microscopy (XRM) both for tracking ROIs and for increasing the efficiency of the workflow used for typical projects undertaken with SBEM. XRM was found to reveal an impressive level of detail in tissue heavily stained for SBEM imaging, allowing for the identification of tissue landmarks that can be subsequently used to guide data collection in the SEM. Furthermore, specific labeling of individual cells using diaminobenzidine is detectable in XRM volumes. We demonstrate that tungsten carbide particles or upconverting nanophosphor particles can be used as fiducial markers to further increase the precision and efficiency of SBEM imaging.

High performance and cost effective multi-junction III-V solar cells are attractive for satellite applications. High performance multi-junction solar cells are based on a triple-junction design that employs an InGaP top-junction, a GaAs middle-junction, and a bottom-junction consisting of a 1.0 – 1.25 eV-material. The most attractive 1.0 – 1.25 eV-material is the lattice-matched dilute nitride such as InGaAsN(Sb). A record efficiency of 43.5% was achieved from multi-junction solar cells including dilute nitride materials [1]. In addition, cost effective manufacturing of III-V triple-junction solar cells can be achieved by employing full-wafer epitaxial lift-off (ELO) technology, which enables multiple substrate re-usages. We employed time-resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) techniques to study carrier dynamics in both pre- and post-ELO processed GaAs double heterostructures (DHs) as well as in MOVPE-grown bulk dilute nitride layers lattice matched to GaAs substrates.

We hypothesized that presence of the short allele in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter would moderate the effect of early cumulative socioeconomic status (SES) risk on epigenetic change among African American youth. Contrasting hypotheses regarding the shape of the interaction effect were generated using vulnerability and susceptibility frameworks and applied to data from a sample of 388 African American youth. Early cumulative SES risk assessed at 11–13 years based on parent report interacted with presence of the short allele to predict differential methylation assessed at age 19. Across multiple tests, a differential susceptibility perspective rather than a diathesis–stress framework best fit the data for genes associated with depression, consistently demonstrating greater epigenetic response to early cumulative SES risk among short allele carriers. A pattern consistent with greater impact among short allele carriers also was observed using all cytosine nucleotide–phosphate–guanine nucleotide sites across the genome that were differentially affected by early cumulative SES risk. We conclude that the short allele is associated with increased responsiveness to early cumulative SES risk among African American youth, leading to epigenetic divergence for depression-related genes in response to exposure to heightened SES risk among short allele carriers in a “for better” or “for worse” pattern.

Answer Set Programming (ASP) is a popular framework for modelling combinatorial problems. However, ASP cannot be used easily for reasoning about uncertain information. Possibilistic ASP (PASP) is an extension of ASP that combines possibilistic logic and ASP. In PASP a weight is associated with each rule, whereas this weight is interpreted as the certainty with which the conclusion can be established when the body is known to hold. As such, it allows us to model and reason about uncertain information in an intuitive way. In this paper we present new semantics for PASP in which rules are interpreted as constraints on possibility distributions. Special models of these constraints are then identified as possibilistic answer sets. In addition, since ASP is a special case of PASP in which all the rules are entirely certain, we obtain a new characterization of ASP in terms of constraints on possibility distributions. This allows us to uncover a new form of disjunction, called weak disjunction, that has not been previously considered in the literature. In addition to introducing and motivating the semantics of weak disjunction, we also pinpoint its computational complexity. In particular, while the complexity of most reasoning tasks coincides with standard disjunctive ASP, we find that brave reasoning for programs with weak disjunctions is easier.

Nanocomposites of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) embedded in polyaniline fibers have been fabricated using a one-pot synthesis approach and in-situ polymerization. By using a combination of inorganic acids (e.g. HCl) and camphorsulfonic acid, polyaniline nanostructured fibers of high aspect ratio with diameters of 150 ± 50 nm and several micrometers in length were obtained. These fibers afforded high electrical conductivity of 4.2 ± 0.5 S/cm. Encapsulation of the AuNPs in the polyaniline fibers afforded nanocomposites with high electrical conductivity and dielectric constant of 34.0 ± 0.5 S/cm and 65.3 ± 5 respectively. The morphology of these materials was analyzed using SEM and HRTEM and electronic properties were analyzed using UV-Vis spectroscopy.

This study reports a high-performance hybrid lithium-ion anode material using coaxially coated silicon shells on vertically aligned carbon nanofiber (VACNF) cores. The robust bush-like highly conductive VACNFs effectively connect high-capacity silicon shells for lithium-ion storage. Such architecture allows the Si shells to freely expand/contract in the radial direction during lithium-ion insertion/extraction. A high specific capacity of 3000-3650 mAh(gSi)-1 was obtained at C/1 rate, comparable to the maximum value of amorphous Si, and ∼89% of the capacity was retained after 100 charge-discharge cycles. The lithium-ion storage capacity remains nearly the same from C/10 to C/0.5 rates. The ability to obtain high capacity at significantly improved power rates while maintaining the extraordinary cycle stability demonstrates the utilization of the unique properties of such hybrid architecture for lithium-ion batteries.

Multi-junction III-V solar cells are based on a triple-junction design that employs a 1eV bottom junction grown on the GaAs substrate with a GaAs middle junction and a lattice-matched InGaP top junction. There are two possible approaches implementing the triple-junction design. The first approach is to utilize lattice-matched dilute nitride materials such as InGaAsN(Sb) and the second approach is to utilize lattice-mismatched InGaAs employing a metamorphic buffer layer (MBL). Both approaches have a potential to achieve high performance triple-junction solar cells. A record efficiency of 43.5% was achieved from multi-junction solar cells using the first approach [1] and the solar cells using the second approach yielded an efficiency of 41.1% [2]. We studied carrier dynamics and defects in bulk 1eV InGaAsNSb materials and InGaAs layers with MBL grown by MOVPE for multi-junction solar cells.