DEFECT PHENOMENA IN SUPERCONDUCTING OXIDES AND ANALOGOUS CERAMIC OXIDES

In this review we discuss defect phenomena in superconducting oxides. We survey those aspects of oxide superconductors which relate them most closely to conventional ceramic oxides, concentrating on processes and behaviour related to defects. We also identify areas of difference between two types of oxide.Theoretical modelling of conventional oxides has been extremely effective, and we emphasize that some of these modelling tools can be exploited for the superconducting oxides too. In particular, we stress those methods and ideas that provide a framework for understanding behaviour, those that provide a datasbase of good quantitative experiments and those that provide an established and tested approach to quantitative modelling as a guide to prediction, optimization and extrapolation.Much progress has been made in both theory and experiment, but some problems do remain and these have not been omitted from our discussions. There is potential to exploit past work on defects in oxides, so as to control defect processes and microstructure and hence to enhance performance

Software Citation in Theory and Practice

In most fields, computational models and data analysis have become a significant part of how research is performed, in addition to the more traditional theory and experiment. Mathematics is no exception to this trend. While the system of publication and credit for theory and experiment (journals and books, often monographs) has developed and has become an expected part of the culture, how research is shared and how candidates for hiring, promotion are evaluated, software (and data) do not have the same history. A group working as part of the FORCE11 community developed a set of principles for software citation that fit software into the journal citation system, allow software to be published and then cited, and there are now over 50,000 DOIs that have been issued for software. However, some challenges remain, including: promoting the idea of software citation to developers and users; collaborating with publishers to ensure that systems collect and retain required metadata; ensuring that the rest of the scholarly infrastructure, particularly indexing sites, include software; working with communities so that software efforts "count" and understanding how best to cite software that has not been published

FPGA Architecture Optimization Using Geometric Programming

Volume 4 No 13 of the periodical Progression. Published November, February, May and August by The Radiant Healing Centre. SPCL PER BT 732 P76 V.1,1932-V.5,193

A novel heuristic and provable bounds for reconfigurable architecture design

Published versio

Outdoor music festivals: Cacophonous consumption or melodious moderation?

Large outdoor music festivals have emerged as part of a general expansion of licensed recreational activities, but in research terms they have been largely impenetrable due to commercial sensitivities. These sensitivities notwithstanding, the number and scale of such events necessitate a greater understanding of alcohol and drug use and the potential to promote normative protective behaviours in this context. This study examines self-reported alcohol and drug behaviours of 1589 attendees at a music festival in Scotland during the summer of 2008. Similarities between the outdoor rock music festivals and the dance club scene are considered alongside the challenges associated with risk reduction in these settings. Results show that alcohol was consumed by the majority of samples; however, negative consequences were reported by a minority of respondents, suggesting evidence of controlled hedonism within a situation traditionally associated with unrestrained excess. Similarly, the majority of samples did not use drugs. The majority also report a number of self-regulating protective behaviours suggesting that alcohol and drug use is contained within a developing social culture of ‘controlled intoxication’. Results further suggest that although music festivals are transitory events, there is a degree of consistency amongst attendees. Music festivals may therefore be atypical but potentially effective environments to increase protective behaviours using normative messaging and modern communications media. This study was resourced exclusively by local alcohol and drug partnerships

First year student experience

The application was made on behalf of the undergraduate courses team who sought to enhance the first year experience by engaging students in the practice of business. The intention was to develop and signpost enterprising qualities and characteristics in first year learners and develop confidence as well as competence. The undergraduate review for FBL commenced in September 2009. This offered an opportunity to innovate and build good practice in enterprise learning as a pilot to inform the undergraduate review. The team sought to provide a coherent and relevant set of learning experiences that could be achieved outside structured curriculum that would enable learning through live projects

The impact of a high versus a low glycaemic index breakfast cereal meal on verbal episodic memory in healthy adolescents

In this study, healthy adolescents consumed a) a low glycaemic index (G.I.) breakfast cereal meal, or b) a high G.I. breakfast cereal meal, before completing a test of verbal episodic memory in which the memory materials were encoded under conditions of divided attention. Analysis of remembering/forgetting indices revealed that the High G.I. breakfast group remembered significantly more items relative to the Low G.I. breakfast group after a long delay. The superior performance observed in the High G.I. group, relative to the Low G.I. group, may be due to the additional glucose availability provided by the high G.I. meal at the time of memory encoding. This increased glucose availability may be necessary for effective encoding under dual task conditions

Heat and fluid flow in a scraped-surface heat exchanger containing a fluid with temperature-dependent viscosity

Scraped-surface heat exchangers (SSHEs) are extensively used in a wide variety of industrial settings where the continuous processing of fluids and fluid-like materials is involved. The steady non-isothermal flow of a Newtonian fluid with temperature-dependent viscosity in a narrow-gap SSHE when a constant temperature difference is imposed across the gap between the rotor and the stator is investigated. The mathematical model is formulated and the exact analytical solutions for the heat and fluid flow of a fluid with a general dependence of viscosity on temperature for a general blade shape are obtained. These solutions are then presented for the specific case of an exponential dependence of viscosity on temperature. Asymptotic methods are employed to investigate the behaviour of the solutions in several special limiting geometries and in the limits of weak and strong thermoviscosity. In particular, in the limit of strong thermoviscosity (i.e., strong heating or cooling and/or strong dependence of viscosity on temperature) the transverse and axial velocities become uniform in the bulk of the flow with boundary layers forming either just below the blade and just below the stationary upper wall or just above the blade and just above the moving lower wall. Results are presented for the most realistic case of a linear blade which illustrate the effect of varying the thermoviscosity of the fluid and the geometry of the SSHE on the flow

Anxiety, Movement Kinematics, and Visual Attention in Elite-Level Performers

We tested the predictions of Attentional Control Theory (ACT) by examining the effect of anxiety on attention control and the subsequent influence on both performance effectiveness and performance efficiency within a perceptual-motor context. A sample (N = 16) of elite shotgun shooters was tested under counterbalanced low (practice) and high (competition) anxiety conditions. A head-mounted, corneal reflection system allowed point of gaze to be calculated in relation to the scene, while motion of the gun was evaluated using markers placed on the barrel which were captured by two stationary cameras and analyzed using optical tracking software. The quiet eye (QE) duration and onset were analyzed along with gun barrel displacement and variability; performance outcome scores (successful vs. unsuccessful) were also recorded. QE (Vickers, 1996) is defined as the final fixation or tracking gaze that is located on a specific location/object in the visual display for a minimum of 100 ms. Longer QE durations have been linked to successful performance in previous research involving aiming tasks. Participants demonstrated shorter quiet eye durations, and less efficient gun motion, along with a decreased performance outcome (fewer successful trials) under high compared with low anxiety conditions. The data support the predictions of ACT with anxiety disrupting control processes such that goal-directed attention was compromised, leading to a significant impairment in performance effectiveness