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The role of strain in material properties is well-established, serving as a tool for altering atomic positions and defect formation, adjusting electronic structures and lattice vibrations, and influencing phase transitions, physical characteristics, and chemical properties. In this study, we conducted theoretical calculations of the binding energy and photoionization cross section (PCS) within a spherical core/shell quantum dot (CSQD) for the different transitions between the ground state of a donor impurity and the four low-lying conduction band states. During our study, we employed the finite element method to determine the energy levels and wave functions of the system within the effective mass approximation. Subsequently, we investigated the changes in PCS and binding energy while varying shell width under the influence of an applied electric field, considering both cases with and without the effect of strain. The strain effect was incorporated based on Hooke's law, and we developed specific expressions and utilized the continuum linear elasticity mechanical model for a single spherically symmetric shell. The results demonstrate that the strain correction enhances the binding energy of the four low-lying energy levels, leading to a shift of the PCS peaks toward higher energies. Conversely, the application of an external electric field has varying effects depending on the specific transition being considered. We compared our theoretical results with available experimental data and found them to be in good agreement. The pronounced blue-shift and substantial enhancement in magnitude of PCS spectra concerning shell width, electric field, and strain make CSQDs highly promising candidates for applications in adjustable nano-optoelectronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mixed convection is commonly used in electronic cooling processes and nuclear reactor technology. As a result, this study aims to demonstrate the mathematical formulation of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer under the controlling physical parameters such as mixed convection, buoyancy ratio, suction, magnetic field, and rotation angle of the sheet. The variation in the wall shrinking velocity, temperature and concentration is expressed as an exponential function. Since controlling equations are partial differential equations, similarity transformations convert these partial differential equations to ordinary differential equations. Finally, these ordinary differential equations are considered as a non-linear and non-dimensional boundary value problem. The final solution of these ordinary differential equations is obtained numerically by applying the Matlab bvp4c programme. Stability analysis which determines the most stable numerical solution between duel solutions is also made using the Matlab bvp4c programme. Comparing the obtained computational results to previously published data shows a good agreement. All numerical results are graphically illustrated and explained, including the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles, skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, and local Sherwood number. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal matrix composites (MMCs) have become attractive in a variety of applications due to its advantage of having intermediate properties between metal and ceramic. This paper presents the investigation of the effect of sintering duration on mechanical properties of Al/SiC composites. In the present work, SiC particle reinforced Al matrix composites were produced via powder metallurgical processing. Pure aluminium powder with a particle size of 63 µm and silicon carbide powder with a particle size of 37µm were used. The range of sintering duration was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 h at a fixed temperature of 590 °C. The compressive, hardness and impact tests were performed on the sintered samples to characterize the mechanical properties. It was found that as the sintering duration increased from 1 to 6 hours, the mechanical properties of the samples were enhanced. Furthermore, microscopic observations showed that the porosity level decreased as the sintering duration was increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the investigation of the effect of sintering temperature on mechanical properties of Al/SiC composites. The composites were produced via conventional powder metallurgy processing. The particle size of Al and SiC powders are 63 µm and 37 µm respectively. The sintering temperatures exerted on the samples were 550, 570, 590, 610, 630 and 650°C at a fixed time of 1 h. The compressive, hardness and impact tests were performed on the sintered samples to characterize their mechanical properties. It was found that as the sintering temperature increase, the mechanical properties of the samples were also increased at earlier temperature and show a decrease trend thereafter. Similarly, this trend was also observed in the density test. Furthermore, microscopic observations showed that the porosity level decrease as the sintering temperature increase excluding at the temperature of 650°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This was a prospective and randomized study to compare the use of Human Patient Simulator (HPS) and conventional didactic teaching in enhancing medical undergraduates, understanding of crisis recognition and resuscitation. Methods: Following Research and Ethics Committee approval, 80 final year medical students were enrolled. The students were computer-randomized into two groups: - Group A for conventional teaching and Group B for Human Patient Simulator training. All the students were trained separately on four topics, i.e. tachycardia, asystole, ventricular fibrillation and heart block; 30 minutes for each topic. A 2-hour common lecture on all the topics was given prior to training. All trainings were conducted on one day. After a washout period of two days, the students were given a 75 minutes written test on crisis recognition and resuscitation. Results: The results were analyzed using SPSS version 14. Of the 80 students enrolled, 77 students followed the whole process of training. Group B with the Human Patient Simulator training (n = 37) achieved higher average mark compared to Group A with conventional training (n = 40), i.e. 70.22% vs 65.98%. This result was statistically significant (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference between the two groups' achievement when their results, which comprised of two components, crisis recognition and resuscitation, were analyzed separately. Conclusion: In conclusion, HPS was able to enhance the understanding of medical students in terms of crisis recognition and resuscitation. However, more researches are needed to further reveal its potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) exhibit a variety of impairments in nonmotor symptoms including emotional processing and cognitive control that have implications for speech production. The present study sought to investigate whether impairments in cognitive processing in individuals with PD impact emotional sentence production as indicated by changes in speech rate. Thirty-six individuals (20 individuals with PD, 16 healthy controls) completed subtests 8A and 8B of the Florida Emotional Expressive Battery (FEEB) to elicit speech samples in five different emotional tones (happy, sad, angry, fear, and neutral). Sentences contained either semantically emotional or neutral information, resulting in conditions of congruency (same semantics-tone) and incongruency (different semantics-tone). Speech rate was impacted by the emotional tone of all participants. Individuals with PD demonstrated faster speech rates under conditions of conflicting semantic information than healthy older adults. Changes in speech rate under emotional conditions were not influenced by global measures of cognition or depression. The results of this study indicate that individuals with PD struggle to manage irrelevant information present during emotional speech production. Speech rate is a simple, easy-to-measure metric that may reflect cognitive processing impairments in PD., Competing Interests: None declared., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)