In this paper, we present novel algorithms for finding small relations and ideal factorizations in the ideal class group of an order in an imaginary quadratic field, where both the norms of the prime ideals and the size of the coefficients involved are bounded. We show how our methods can be used to improve the computation of large-degree isogenies and endomorphism rings of elliptic curves defined over finite fields. For these problems, we obtain improved heuristic complexity results in almost all cases and significantly improved performance in practice. The speed-up is especially high in situations where the ideal class group can be computed in advance.

We examined the contributions of genetic and environmental factors to body mass index (BMI) over approximately 28 years. Participants were 693 male, predominantly middle-class, twins (355 monozygotic, 338 dizygotic) from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. The phenotypic correlation between age 20 and age 48 BMI was 0.52; the genetic correlation was 0.60. Most of the remaining variance at both times was accounted for by nonshared environmental factors. Since genetic factors are not perfectly correlated, this indicates that other genes affect BMI at one or both time points, leaving room for further exploration of the genetics of body mass stability. Mean BMI increased significantly from 22.7 (normal) to 27.8 (overweight). Overweight BMI at age 20 predicted midlife adult onset diabetes (adjusted odds ratio = 4.62, 95% CI 1.91 to 11.18), but not hypertension. Depending on one's vantage point, the results indicate elements of both stability and change in BMI. Very similar phenotypic and genetic correlations were observed over a similar time period in a WW II twin sample, but without the substantial mean increase in BMI. It seems unlikely that different genes influence BMI in the two cohorts. Therefore, we argue that nonshared environmental factors are probably primarily responsible for the secular increase in midlife BMI. Our results also provide prospective evidence that early excess BMI may have serious long-term health consequences, and that this risk is not limited to minorities or adults of lower socioeconomic status.

The Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA) is a large-scale investigation of cognitive aging from middle to later age. The intended sample of 1440 twin subjects is recruited from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry (VETR), a registry of middle-aged male-male twin pairs who both served in the military during the Vietnam conflict (1965–1975). VETSA employs a multitrait multimethod approach to cognitive assessment to focus on the genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive processes over time, as well as the relative contributions to cognitive aging from health, social, personality, and other contextual factors. The cognitive domains of episodic memory, working memory, abstract reasoning, and inhibitory executive functioning are assessed through neuropsychological testing. In addition, VETSA obtains the participant's score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, taken at the time of induction into the military around age 20 years, and readministers the test. Two other projects — VETSA Cortisol and VETSA Magnetic Resonance Imaging — are also in progress using subsamples of the VETSA twins. Prior waves of data collection by VETSA investigators using the VETR have provided historical data on physical and mental health, while future waves of VETSA data collection are planned every 5 years. These methods will provide data on multiple pheno-types in the same individuals with regard to genetic and environmental contributions to cognitive functioning over time, personality and interpersonal risk and protective factors, stress and cortisol regulation, and structural brain correlates of aging processes.

Molecular genetic research has provided some evidence for the association between depression and metabolic disorders. We sought to determine if molecular findings are reflected in twin analyses testing if common genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to the co-occurrence of diabetes and depression. Data to derive depression and diabetes were collected from 1,237 male-male twins who participated in the 2005 Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging (VETSA). The 1,237 twins were comprised of 347 MZ pairs, 3 MZ singletons, 267 DZ pairs and 6 unpaired twins. Depression was defined as a score below 46 on the Short Form-36 mental component summary score. Diabetes was defined by self report, use of anti-diabetic medications and insulin. Twin models were fit to estimate the correlation of genetic and environmental contributions to depression and diabetes. Consistent with other studies these data support the association between depression and diabetes (OR = 1.7; 95%CI: 1.1–2.7). Genetic vulnerability accounted for 50% (95%CI: 32%–65%) of the variance in risk for depression and 69% (95%CI: 52%–81%) of the variance in risk for diabetes. The genetic correlation between depression and diabetes was r = 0.19 (95%CI: 0–0.46) and the non-shared environmental correlation was r = 0.09 (95% CI: 0–0.45). Overall there is little evidence that common genetic and environmental factors account for the co-occurrence of depression and diabetes in middle aged men. Further research in female twins and larger cohorts is warranted.

A graph is claw-free if it does not contain an induced subgraph isomorphic to K1,3. Cycles in claw-free graphs have been well studied. In this paper we extend results on disjoint cycles in claw-free graphs satisfying certain minimum degree conditions. In particular, we prove that if G is claw-free of sufficiently large order n = 3k with δ(G) ≥ n/2, then G contains k disjoint triangles.

The Cultural Heritage Science (CHS, formerly SCIART) Program seeks to enhance opportunities for chemistry and materials research at the interface between science and art. The objective is to promote collaboration between cultural heritage scientists, mainly located in US museums and chemists and/or materials scientists in US academic institutions to address grand challenges in the science of cultural heritage. Through the first competition, eight projects, two to three years in duration, were funded at $270,000 to 495,000 each. Every successful proposal demonstrated a clear need for collaboration with good synergy between the collaborating groups, and provided plans for meaningful training experiences for students and/or postdoctoral researchers in the field of cultural heritage science. It is anticipated that the CHS Program will continue for two additional years in a similar fashion. During this period, researchers should be able to more easily identify the disciplinary programs in materials research or chemistry relevant to their work, and their proposals will be reviewed together in panels. Proposals falling outside of the CHS specifications may be submitted directly to the relevant program/s of interest at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as unsolicited proposals. After the CHS Program ends, unsolicited proposals will remain the key mechanism for obtaining NSF funding in this research area.

Ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization of Au and Ag doped amorphous Si results in segregation and trapping of the impurity. Combining the measured interface velocity and impurity profiles in segregation simulations provides a measure of the segregation coefficient k during growth. To adequately match the experimental profiles, k must increase during the early stage of growth until saturating at a temperature dependent value. This segregation process cannot be explained within standard models where k depends on the inteface velocity (kinetic trapping) or the interface impurity concentration (thermodynamic solubility). Instead the data suggests that the number of trapping sites at the interface increases during the initial stages of ion beam induced growth. We present several possible mechanisms for this trapping increase and discuss their significance in ion beam and thermal epitaxy models.

The competition between solid phase epitaxy and random nucleation during thermal annealing of amorphous Si implanted with the fast diffusers Cu and Ag has been studied. For low concentrations of these impurities, solid phase epitaxy proceeds with small deviations from the intrinsic rate and with the impurity remaining in the shrinking amorphous layer. At a critical metal concentration in the amorphous layer of ∼ 0.12 at.% rapid random nucleation occurs, halting epitaxy and transforming the remaining amorphous material to polycrystalline Si via grain growth. The nucleation rate is at least 8 orders of magnitude greater than the intrinsic homogeneous rate. At higher Cu concentrations nucleation is observed below the temperature needed for epitaxy (400°C). This nucleation, clearly caused by the presence of Cu or Ag in the layer, may be induced by the impurities exceeding the absolute stability concentration and starting to phase separate, leading to enhanced crystal Si nucleation in the metal rich regions.

Ion beam induced epitaxial crystallization of Au and Ag doped amorphous Si results in segregation and trapping of the impurity. Combining the measured interface velocity and impurity profiles in segregation simulations provides a measure of the segregation coefficient k during growth. To adequately match the experimental profiles, k must increase during the early stage of growth until saturating at a temperature dependent value. This segregation process cannot be explained within standard models where k depends on the inteface velocity (kinetic trapping) or the interface impurity concentration (thermodynamic solubility). Instead the data suggests that the number of trapping sites at the interface increases during the initial stages of ion beam induced growth. We present several possible mechanisms for this trapping increase and discuss their significance in ion beam and thermal epitaxy models.

The interface velocity of Au and Ag doped amorphous Si during ion beam induced epitaxy was measured using in situ time resolved reflectivity. Interfacial segregation coefficients were determined as a function of composition from numerical simulations. At 320°C Au impurities enhanced the velocity by up to a factor of 2.5 compared to the intrinsic case. Silver slightly retarded re-growth by 10 %. These effects are qualitatively similar to the case of thermal solid phase epitaxy. Using the measured impurity profiles and interface velocity, computer simulations relate the segregation coefficient to the concentrations of the impurity at the interface. In both cases, the segregation coefficient increases with increasing interfacial impurity concentration.

The density of amorphous Si was measured. Continuous and buried amorphous Si films were produced by 0.5-8 MeV Si implantation through a steel contact mask. Surface steps of amorphous Si stripes with initial thicknesses from 0.9 to ∼ 5.0 μm were measured using a surface profilometer. For implants up to 5 MeV, the amorphous Si is constrained laterally by the surrounding crystal and deforms plastically. The density of amorphous Si deduced from the surface step heights is 4.91 × 1022 cm-3, 1.7 ± 0.1 % less than the density of crystal Si (5.00 × 1022 cm-3).

Segregation and diffusion of impurities in amorphous Si during furnace and ion-beam-induced epitaxy will be discussed. The use of ion beams to enhance the crystal growth process has resulted in novel behavior for fast diffusers such as Au. Diffusion is enhanced in the temperature range 300–700 K with activation energies ∼0.3 eV. Segregation and trapping are analogous to behavior at liquid-solid interfaces

GaAs layers were grown directly on misoriented (2° off (100)→[011]) Si substrates by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition. The threading dislocation density at the surface of 4 μm thick layers was typically 108cm−2, as determined by both preferential etching and transmission electron microscopy. Rapid thermal annealing (900°C, 10s) improved the crystalline quality of the GaAs near the heterointerface while allowing no detectable Si diffusion into this layer. Two deep electron traps were observed in the undoped GaAs, but were present at a low concentration (∼ 1013 cm−3 ). The (400) x-ray diffraction peak width from the GaAs was significantly reduced with increasing GaAs layer thickness, indicating improved material quality. This is supported by Si implant activation data, which shows higher net donor activity in thicker layers.

The diffusivity of implanted As in crystalline Si has been measured using Rutherford backscattering and channeling for specimens annealed at temperatures between 850 and 1000°C under pressures up to 30 kilobars. The diffusivity, at a given temperature, was found to increase with pressure with a maximum increase of a factor of ten. This diffusivity enhancement can be described by an average activation volume of -5.7±.8 cm3/mole. The activation enthalpy ranges from an ambient value of 4.5 eV to 3.6 eV at 30 kilobars