Enhanced superconductivity of YBCO interfaces: origin of high critical temperature in layered superconductors

Superconducting transition temperatures Tc of the YBCO film surface and of the YBCO film/substrate interface were measured inductively. It was observed that the interface- Tc is always higher then the surface - Tc. However deposition of silver over-layer enhances the superconducting transition temperatures. This observation was confirmed by four-point resistance measurements. In the annealed YBCO/Ag bilayers magnetic properties of the interface were observed. We believe that such phenomena are a common feature of layered systems. This two dimensional structure reminds the layered microstructure of the high-temperature superconductors and one can suppose that covering of the superconducting layer by non-superconducting layer is a condition for obtaining high critical temperatures in general.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, submited to Natur

Automation Tool for Tasks in Computer Graphics Production

The goal of this project was to enhance and develop an application serving the purpose of automating the routine tasks performed by the employees of a company making digital visual effects for movies. The tasks involve various operations with image sequences, vid-eos and special software usage. Reducing the time it takes to complete these regular tasks is the main purpose of the enhanced application. The application platform was limited to the Linux operating system only and the scope of the project converged to a single company. The tools used in the application development were Python programming language, PyQt4 application framework, bash scripts and spe-cial command line utilities. Multiple scripts served as the origin of the application creation, so the main techniques of its development were procedural and object-oriented program-ming paradigms. The main enhanced module completed during the project was the automatically generated script for further converting image sequences to videos with appropriate labels and a pos-sibility to change several output parameters. Other implemented functionality included in-tegrated file browser enhancements for remembering local user settings, a convenient in-browser sorting of the sequences, utilities to control permissions on the local server and to power on the render machines remotely. Some graphical user interface improvements were done as well. The results are significant for the general workflow of the company, since both the en-hanced modules and the new application functionality save considerable amounts of time and make routine tasks completion more convenient. Further development of the applica-tion may focus on other automation tasks, advancing of the graphical user interface and creation of the unified package for the application installation