Critical Field of MGB2 : Crossover from Clean to Dirty Regimes

We have studied the upper critical field, Bc2, in poly-crystalline MgB2 samples in which disorder was varied in a controlled way to carry selectively p and s bands from clean to dirty limit. We have found that the clean regime survives when p bands are dirty and s bands are midway between clean and dirty. In this framework we can explain the anomalous behaviour of Al doped samples, in which Bc2 decreases as doping increases.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure

The Crossover beteween Aslamazov-Larkin and Short Wavelength Fluctuations Regimes in HTS Conductivity Experiments

We present paraconductivity (AL) measurements in three different high temperature superconductors: a melt textured $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ sample, a $Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8$ epitaxial thin film and a highly textured $Bi_2Sr_2Ca_2Cu_3O_{10}$ tape. The crossovers between different temperature regimes in excess conductivity have been analysed. The Lawrence-Doniach (LD) crossover, which separates the 2D and 3D regimes, shifts from lower to higher temperatures as the compound anisotropy decreases. Once the LD crossover is overcome, the fluctuation conductivity of the three compounds shows the same universal behaviour: for $\epsilon =\ln T/T_c > 0.23$ all the curves bend down according to the $1/\epsilon^3$ law. This asymptotic behaviour was theoretically predicted previously for the high temperature region where the short wavelength fluctuations (SWF) become important.Comment: 4 pages, Revtex, 1 PostScript figure available upon request ([email protected]); submitted to Physical Review B rapid communication

Bismuth-Gold absorber for large area TES spiderweb bolometer

Large area spiderweb bolometer of about one centimetre diameter are required for matching multimode or quasi-optical cavities in microwave antenna for CMB measurements as proposed for the Large Scale Polarization Explorer balloon borne sky survey at 140, 220, 250 GHz. Possible applications at low frequencies, 40 GHz or less, in single mode are also foreseen. The main drawback of such large absorber is the achievement of an optimal trade-off among the thermal properties, like fast internal thermal diffusivity, heat capacity and milli-second recovery time and EM characteristics, like the matching impedance and EM power dissipation. In parallel with standard micropatterned gold film absorber deposited onto silicon nitride membrane, we have tested the Bismuth Gold in order to reduce the heat capacity even if with an increase of resistivity. Films of Bismuth Gold may have low resistivity under application of a proper post-production thermal cycle. We present the fabrication method of Bismuth Gold films for our microwave absorbers and the bolometer characterization at low temperature

Enhanced flux pinning in neutron irradiated MgB2

We study the effect of neutron irradiation on the critical current density Jc of isotopically pure polycrystalline Mg11B2 samples. For fluences in the range 1017-1018 cm-2, Jc is enhanced and its dependence on magnetic field is significantly improved: we demonstrate that, in this regime, point-like pinning centers are effectively introduced in the system proportionally to the neutron fluence. Instead, for larger fluences, a strong suppression of the critical temperature accompanied by a decrease of both the upper critical field Bc2 and Jc is found.Comment: 13 pages, 3 igure

The Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture and Health Sectors in Tanzania: A review

The impact of climate change in Tanzania is dynamic and differs among regions as they are impacted in different ways. While other regions experience normal rainfall and temperature patterns, others have continued to experience temperature extremes, severe droughts, decline in crops production coupled with food insecurity, extreme weather episodes of heavy rainfall associated with floods, loss of lives and infectious disease outbreaks. Despite the effects of climate change being recognized in the country, awareness is limited among local people, in particular the vulnerable communities. Thus, this review aims to raise awareness by giving a broader picture of impacts of climate change on agriculture and health sector. It reveals that in many parts of Tanzania, agriculture and health sectors may continue to suffer from the effects of climate change aggregated with limited awareness among communities. It is expected, that outbreaks of infectious diseases including malaria and cholera may increase as they correlate positively with high temperatures and rainfall. As a result, health problems and deaths of people, and reduced crops production will continue. Therefore, it is recommended that, the best way to overcome climate change is to invest effectively on the irrigation agriculture; and the health sector's budget should be enough to improve health care services and prepare for outbreaks of climate change sensitive diseases. Most importantly, provision of climate change awareness to the vulnerable communities must be seriously considered. About 50 peer-reviewed articles, government and International reports published between 2000 and 2017 were reviewed

Dynamical Localization in Quasi-Periodic Driven Systems

We investigate how the time dependence of the Hamiltonian determines the occurrence of Dynamical Localization (DL) in driven quantum systems with two incommensurate frequencies. If both frequencies are associated to impulsive terms, DL is permanently destroyed. In this case, we show that the evolution is similar to a decoherent case. On the other hand, if both frequencies are associated to smooth driving functions, DL persists although on a time scale longer than in the periodic case. When the driving function consists of a series of pulses of duration $\sigma$, we show that the localization time increases as $\sigma^{-2}$ as the impulsive limit, $\sigma\to 0$, is approached. In the intermediate case, in which only one of the frequencies is associated to an impulsive term in the Hamiltonian, a transition from a localized to a delocalized dynamics takes place at a certain critical value of the strength parameter. We provide an estimate for this critical value, based on analytical considerations. We show how, in all cases, the frequency spectrum of the dynamical response can be used to understand the global features of the motion. All results are numerically checked.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures included. In this version is that Subsection III.B and Appendix A on the quasiperiodic Fermi Accelerator has been replaced by a reference to published wor

Monopelopia caraguata (Chironomidae: Tanypodinae: Pentaneurini) and Phytotelmatocladius delarosai (Chironomidae: Orthocladiinae) : Two Phytotelmatous Chironomids Distributed from Florida to Argentina

Fil: Siri, Augusto. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet; ArgentinaFil: Donato, Mariano. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Laboratorio de Sistemática y Biología Evolutiva; Argentin

Thermal conductivity of MgB2_{2} in the superconducting state

We present thermal conductivity measurements on very pure and dense bulk samples, as indicated by residual resistivity values as low as 0.5 mW cm and thermal conductivity values higher than 200 W/mK. In the normal state we found that the Wiedemann Franz law, in its generalized form, works well suggesting that phonons do not contribute to the heat transport. The thermal conductivity in the superconducting state has been analysed by using a two-gap model. Thank to the large gap anisotropy we were able to evaluate quantitatively intraband scattering relaxation times of $\pi$ and $\sigma$ bands, which depend on the disorder in different way; namely, as the disorder increases, it reduces more effectively the relaxation times of $\pi$ than of $\sigma$ bands, as suggested by a recent calculation [1].Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Altered syntactic abilities in first episode patients: An inner phenomenon characterizing psychosis

Background: Research has consistently shown that language abilities represent a core dimension of psychosis; however, to date, very little is known about syntactic comprehension performance in the early stages of psychosis. This study aims to compare the linguistic abilities involved in syntactic comprehension in a large group of First Episode Psychosis (FEP) patients and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: A multiple choice test of comprehension of syntax was administered to 218 FEP patients (166 non-affective FEP patients [FEP-NA] and 52 affective FEP patients [FEP-A]) and 106 HCs. All participants were asked to match a sentence they listen with one out of four vignettes on a pc screen. Only one vignette represents the stimulus target, while the others are grammatical or non-grammatical (visual) distractors. Both grammatical and non-grammatical errors and performance in different syntactic constructions were considered. Results: FEP committed greater number of errors in the majority of TCGB language domains compared to HCs. Moreover, FEP-NA patients committed significantly more non-grammatical (z = −3.2, p = 0.007), locative (z = −4.7, p < 0.001), passive-negative (z = −3.2, p = 0.02), and relative (z = −4.6, p < 0.001) errors compared to HCs as well as more passive-affirmative errors compared to both HCs (z = −4.3, p < 0.001) and FEP-A (z = 3.1, p = 0.04). Finally, we also found that both FEP-NA and FEP-A committed more grammatical (FEP-NA: z = −9.2, p < 0.001 and FEP-A: z = −4.4, p < 0.001), total (FEP-NA: z = −8.2, p < 0.001 and FEP-A: z = 3.9, p = 0.002), and active-negative (FEP-NA: z = −5.8, p < 0.001 and FEP-A: z = −3.5, p = 0.01) errors compared to HCs. Conclusions: This study shows that the access to syntactic structures is already impaired in FEP patients, especially in those with FEP-NA, ultimately suggesting that language impairments represent a core and inner feature of psychosis even at early stages