University of Texas at Austin

About: University of Texas at Austin is a education organization based out in Austin, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 94352 authors who have published 206297 publications receiving 9070052 citations. The organization is also known as: UT-Austin & UT Austin.

Realization of a high mobility dual-gated graphene field-effect transistor with Al2O3 dielectric

Abstract: We fabricate and characterize dual-gated graphene field-effect transistors using Al2O3 as top-gate dielectric. We use a thin Al film as a nucleation layer to enable the atomic layer deposition of Al2O3. Our devices show mobility values of over 8000 cm2/V s at room temperature, a finding which indicates that the top-gate stack does not significantly increase the carrier scattering and consequently degrade the device characteristics. We propose a device model to fit the experimental data using a single mobility value.

Thermomechanical aspects of NiTi

Abstract: The uniaxial behavior of a nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy is studied experimentally. Experiments are conducted in a temperature and deformation regime in which the alloy exhibits the shape memory effect and pseudoelasticity. These characteristics are due to the displacive nature of transformation between the two major phases of the material, austenite and martensite, and to the fact that in this alloy martensite accommodates deformation by twinning. A series of uniaxial experiments is conducted on NiTi wire at temperatures in the range of approximately −20 to 100 °C where the fundamental material response changes drastically. In addition, the loading rate and the choice of ambient medium were found to have a significant influence on the recorded stress-strain responses due to a complex interaction between the inherent mechanical properties of the material and the prevailing heat transfer conditions of the experiment. It is demonstrated that local measurements of strain and temperature can help clarify events that take place at different stages of a typical loading-unloading history. These local measurements are used to track the movement of the interfaces between phases during stress-induced phase transformations at different loading rates.

Endurance exercise performance: the physiology of champions

Abstract: Efforts to understand human physiology through the study of champion athletes and record performances have been ongoing for about a century. For endurance sports three main factors – maximal oxygen consumption , the so-called ‘lactate threshold’ and efficiency (i.e. the oxygen cost to generate a give running speed or cycling power output) – appear to play key roles in endurance performance. and lactate threshold interact to determine the ‘performance ‘ which is the oxygen consumption that can be sustained for a given period of time. Efficiency interacts with the performance to establish the speed or power that can be generated at this oxygen consumption. This review focuses on what is currently known about how these factors interact, their utility as predictors of elite performance, and areas where there is relatively less information to guide current thinking. In this context, definitive ideas about the physiological determinants of running and cycling efficiency is relatively lacking in comparison with and the lactate threshold, and there is surprisingly limited and clear information about the genetic factors that might pre-dispose for elite performance. It should also be cautioned that complex motivational and sociological factors also play important roles in who does or does not become a champion and these factors go far beyond simple physiological explanations. Therefore, the performance of elite athletes is likely to defy the types of easy explanations sought by scientific reductionism and remain an important puzzle for those interested in physiological integration well into the future.

Elemental abundance survey of the Galactic thick disc

Abstract: We have performed an abundance analysis for F- and G- dwarfs of the Galactic thick-disc component. A sample of 176 nearby (d≤ 150 pc) thick-disc candidate stars was chosen from the Hipparcos catalogue and subjected to a high-resolution spectroscopic analysis. Using accurate radial velocities combined with the Hipparcos astrometry, kinematics (U, V and W) and Galactic orbital parameters were computed. We estimate the probability for a star to belong to the thin disc, the thick disc or the halo. With a probability P≥ 70 per cent taken as certain membership, we assigned 95 stars to the thick disc, 13 to the thin disc, and 20 to the halo. The remaining 48 stars in the sample cannot be assigned with reasonable certainty to one of the three components. Abundances of C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Y, Ba, Ce, Nd and Eu have been obtained. The abundances for the thick-disc stars are compared with those for the thin-disc members from Reddy et al. The ratios of α-elements (O, Mg, Si, Ca and Ti) to iron for thick-disc stars show a clear enhancement compared to thin-disc members in the range −0.3 < [Fe/H] < −1.2. There are also other elements – Al, Sc, V, Co, and possibly Zn – which show enhanced ratios to iron in the thick disc relative to the thin disc. The abundances of Na, Cr, Mn, Ni and Cu (relative to Fe) are very similar for thin- and thick-disc stars. The dispersion in abundance ratios [X/Fe] at given [Fe/H] for thick-disc stars is consistent with the expected scatter due to measurement errors, suggesting a lack of ‘cosmic’ scatter. A few stars classified as members of the thick disc by our kinematic criteria show thin-disc abundances. These stars, which appear older than most thin-disc stars, are also, on average, younger than the thick-disc population. They may have originated early in the thin-disc history, and been subsequently scattered to hotter orbits by collisions. The thick disc may not include stars with [Fe/H] > −0.3. The observed compositions of the thin and thick discs seem to be consistent with the models of galaxy formation by hierarchical clustering in a Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) universe.

Polymers with Cavities Tuned for Fast Selective Transport of Small Molecules and Ions

Abstract: Within a polymer film, free-volume elements such as pores and channels typically have a wide range of sizes and topologies This broad range of free-volume element sizes compromises a polymer's ability to perform molecular separations We demonstrated free-volume structures in dense vitreous polymers that enable outstanding molecular and ionic transport and separation performance that surpasses the limits of conventional polymers The unusual microstructure in these materials can be systematically tailored by thermally driven segment rearrangement Free-volume topologies can be tailored by controlling the degree of rearrangement, flexibility of the original chain, and judicious inclusion of small templating molecules This rational tailoring of free-volume element architecture provides a route for preparing high-performance polymers for molecular-scale separations