Thermoelectric properties of graphene-like nanoribbon studied from the perspective of symmetry

Thermoelectric Properties of the Corbino Disk in Graphene

Thermopower and the Lorentz number for an edge-free (Corbino) graphene disk in the quantum Hall regime is calculated within the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. By varying the electrochemical potential, we find that amplitude of the Seebeck coefficient follows a modified Goldsmid-Sharp relation, with the energy gap defined by the interval between the zero and the first Landau levels in bulk graphene. An analogous relation for the Lorentz number is also determined. Thus, these thermoelectric properties are solely defined by the magnetic field, the temperature, the Fermi velocity in graphene, and fundamental constants including the electron charge, the Planck and Boltzmann constants, being independent of the geometric dimensions of the system. This suggests that the Corbino disk in graphene may operate as a thermoelectric thermometer, allowing to measure small temperature differences between two reservoirs, if the mean temperature magnetic field are known.

Monitoring School Absenteeism for Influenza-Like Illness Surveillance: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background

Influenza causes considerable disease burden each year, particularly in children. Monitoring school absenteeism has long been proposed as a surveillance tool of influenza activity in the community, but the practice of school absenteeism could be varying, and the potential of such usage remains unclear.

Objective

The aim of this paper is to determine the potential of monitoring school absenteeism as a surveillance tool of influenza.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of the published literature on the relationship between school absenteeism and influenza activity in the community. We categorized the types of school absenteeism and influenza activity in the community to determine the correlation between these data streams. We also extracted this correlation with different lags in community surveillance to determine the potential of using school absenteeism as a leading indicator of influenza activity.

Results

Among the 35 identified studies, 22 (63%), 12 (34%), and 8 (23%) studies monitored all-cause, illness-specific, and influenza-like illness (ILI)–specific absents, respectively, and 16 (46%) used quantitative approaches and provided 33 estimates on the temporal correlation between school absenteeism and influenza activity in the community. The pooled estimate of correlation between school absenteeism and community surveillance without lag, with 1-week lag, and with 2-week lag were 0.44 (95% CI 0.34, 0.53), 0.29 (95% CI 0.15, 0.42), and 0.21 (95% CI 0.11, 0.31), respectively. The correlation between influenza activity in the community and ILI-specific absenteeism was higher than that between influenza activity in community all-cause absenteeism. Among the 19 studies that used qualitative approaches, 15 (79%) concluded that school absenteeism was in concordance with, coincided with, or was associated with community surveillance. Of the 35 identified studies, only 6 (17%) attempted to predict influenza activity in the community from school absenteeism surveillance.

Conclusions

There was a moderate correlation between school absenteeism and influenza activity in the community. The smaller correlation between school absenteeism and community surveillance with lag, compared to without lag, suggested that careful application was required to use school absenteeism as a leading indicator of influenza epidemics. ILI-specific absenteeism could monitor influenza activity more closely, but the required resource or school participation willingness may require careful consideration to weight against the associated costs. Further development is required to use and optimize the use of school absenteeism to predict influenza activity. In particular, the potential of using more advanced statistical models and validation of the predictions should be explored.

Edge magnetization and thermally induced spin current in nanostructured graphene

In this work, the magnetic states and thermally induced spin currents in graphene nanoflake sizes with different sizes and shapes have been investigated using Hubbard model combined with non-equilibrium Green's function method. In addition to the antiferromagnetic (AFM) state governed by the sizes, shapes, armchair bond densities, and Coulomb energy, our calculations have also pointed out the emergence of ferromagnetic (FM) and complex magnetic states when the gate voltage is invoked in the graphene nanoflakes. More prominently, by exploiting the geometric symmetry of the nanoflakes without external fields, a pure spin current and zero charge current are generated in spin caloritronic device when the graphene nanoflakes are both in the AFM and FM states. The formation of pure spin currents driven by temperature difference depends on the graphene nanoflakes' size, shape, temperature and gate voltage as well. The study also shows the outstanding advantages of diamond-shaped graphene nanoflakes in both magnetic properties and spin currents. This result paves the way for the possibility of practical applications of graphene materials in spintronics and spin caloritronics.