Critical chain length and superconductivity emergence in oxygen-equalized pairs of YBa2Cu3O6.30

The oxygen-order dependent emergence of superconductivity in YBa2Cu3O6+x is studied, for the first time in a comparative way, on pair samples having the same oxygen content and thermal history, but different Cu(1)Ox chain arrangements deriving from their intercalated and deintercalated nature. Structural and electronic non-equivalence of pairs samples is detected in the critical region and found to be related, on microscopic scale, to a different average chain length, which, on being experimentally determined by nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), sheds new light on the concept of critical chain length for hole doping efficiency.Comment: 7 RevTex pages, 2 Postscript figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Deterministic and stochastic P systems for modelling cellular processes

This paper presents two approaches based on metabolic and stochastic P systems, together with their associated analysis methods, for modelling biological sys- tems and illustrates their use through two case studies.Kingdom's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council EP/ E017215/1Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom BB/D019613/1Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council/United Kingdom BB/F01855X/

Land planning through GIS, RS and multicriteria decision analysis. A case study in Sardinia

During the last few years researchers and environmental planners have carried on their preliminary studies following an interdisciplinary approach. One of the main issues in this approach is the sustainability of economic development. As a matter of fact, the importance of the studies related to the distribution and the limits of natural resources is widely recognized. This can be accomplished more easily than in present by the use of extremely powerful computer application. The purpose of this contribution is to demonstrate the usefulness of an integrated approach of the GIS and of the RS to planning in complex problems of decision making. Many GIS applications are suited to the input of remote sensing and the integration of these techniques is now accepted in landscape planning. By means of GIS and RS, environmental information can be integrated with administrative, political, social and economic data. GIS, RS and fuzzy logic techniques are used to assist environmental compatibility studies and decision makin

Cost effectiveness analysis of laparoscopic hysterectomy compared with standard hysterectomy: results from a randomised trial

Objective: To assess the cost effectiveness of laparoscopic hysterectomy compared with conventional hysterectomy (abdominal or vaginal). Design: Cost effectiveness analysis based on two parallel trials: laparoscopic (n = 324) compared with vaginal hysterectomy (n = 163); and laparoscopic (n = 573) compared with abdominal hysterectomy (n = 286). Participants: 1346 women requiring a hysterectomy for reasons other than malignancy. Main outcome measure: One year costs estimated from NHS perspective. Health outcomes expressed in terms of QALYs based on women's responses to the EQ-5D at baseline and at three points during up to 52 weeks' follow up. Results: Laparoscopic hysterectomy cost an average of pound401 ($708; C571) more (95$471789; E380 437). The, probability that laparoscopic hysterectomy is cost effective was below 50% for a large range of values of willingness to pay for an additional QALY. Laparoscopic hysterectomy cost an average of pound186 ($328; E265) more than abdominal hysterectomy, although 95$46 893; E37 813). If the NHS is willing to pay pound30 0 00 for an additional QALY, the probability that laparoscopic hysterectomy is cost effective is 56%. Conclusions: Laparoscopic hysterectomy is not cost effective relative to vaginal hysterectomy. Its cost effectiveness relative to the abdominal procedure is finely balanced

Bimodal Phase Diagram of the Superfluid Density in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Revealed by an Interfacial Waveguide Resonator

We explore the superconducting phase diagram of the two-dimensional electron system at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface by monitoring the frequencies of the cavity modes of a coplanar waveguide resonator fabricated in the interface itself. We determine the phase diagram of the superconducting transition as a function of temperature and electrostatic gating, finding that both the superfluid density and the transition temperature follow a dome shape, but that the two are not monotonically related. The ground state of this 2DES is interpreted as a Josephson junction array, where a transition from long- to short-range order occurs as a function of the electronic doping. The synergy between correlated oxides and superconducting circuits is revealed to be a promising route to investigate these exotic compounds, complementary to standard magneto-transport measurements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures and 10 pages of supplementary materia

Epitaxial growth and thermodynamic stability of SrIrO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures

Obtaining high-quality thin films of 5d transition metal oxides is essential to explore the exotic semimetallic and topological phases predicted to arise from the combination of strong electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling. Here, we show that the transport properties of SrIrO3 thin films, grown by pulsed laser deposition, can be optimized by considering the effect of laser-induced modification of the SrIrO3 target surface. We further demonstrate that bare SrIrO3 thin films are subject to degradation in air and are highly sensitive to lithographic processing. A crystalline SrTiO3 cap layer deposited in-situ is effective in preserving the film quality, allowing us to measure metallic transport behavior in films with thicknesses down to 4 unit cells. In addition, the SrTiO3 encapsulation enables the fabrication of devices such as Hall bars without altering the film properties, allowing precise (magneto)transport measurements on micro- and nanoscale devices.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Photophysics of pentacene-doped picene thin films

Here were report a study of picene nano-cristalline thin films doped with pentacene molecules. The thin films were grown by supersonic molecular beam deposition with a doping concentration that ranges between less than one molecules of pentacene every 104 picene molecules up to about one molecule of pentacene every 102 of picene. Morphology and opto-electronic properties of the films were studied as a function of the concentration of dopants. The optical response of the picene films, characterized by absorption, steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements, changes dramatically after the doping with pentacene. An efficient energy transfer from the picene host matrix to the pentacene guest molecules was observed giving rise to an intense photoluminescence coming out from pentacene. This efficient mechanism opens the possibility to exploit applications where the excitonic states of the guest component, pentacene, are of major interest such as MASER. The observed mechanism could also serve as prototypical system for the study of the photophysics of host guest systems based on different phenacenes and acenes.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Fatigue characterization of Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) foam core sandwich composite using the G-control method

This paper presents experimental results from cyclic crack propagation tests performed on sandwich specimens with glass/epoxy face sheets and Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) foam cores using the G-controlled cyclic energy release rate (ΔG) test procedure. The face material was tested in tension, compression and shear to determine in-plane and out-of-plane mechanical properties, such as Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio and shear modulus. These properties were then used in an analytical model of the mixed-mode bending sandwich specimen to calculate compliance and energy release rate. Finite element analysis was used to determine the mode-mixity of the crack loading. Experimental crack growth cyclic tests were carried out on pre-cracked mixed-mode bending sandwich specimens with H45, H100 and H160 PVC foam cores under two mode-mixities (mode I and mode II dominant). Post-mortem analysis was performed on tested specimens, highlighting the influence of mode mixity and foam density on the crack path. Crack propagation diagrams showing da/dN versus ΔG curves were obtained to establish the Paris-Erdogan relation for each material combination tested at the two mode-mixities. Results showed constant crack growth rates for all the materials tested and revealed the influence on mode-mixity on crack propagation speed and foam density (higher foam density, slower crack propagation). </jats:p

Random template placement and prior information

In signal detection problems, one is usually faced with the task of searching a parameter space for peaks in the likelihood function which indicate the presence of a signal. Random searches have proven to be very efficient as well as easy to implement, compared e.g. to searches along regular grids in parameter space. Knowledge of the parameterised shape of the signal searched for adds structure to the parameter space, i.e., there are usually regions requiring to be densely searched while in other regions a coarser search is sufficient. On the other hand, prior information identifies the regions in which a search will actually be promising or may likely be in vain. Defining specific figures of merit allows one to combine both template metric and prior distribution and devise optimal sampling schemes over the parameter space. We show an example related to the gravitational wave signal from a binary inspiral event. Here the template metric and prior information are particularly contradictory, since signals from low-mass systems tolerate the least mismatch in parameter space while high-mass systems are far more likely, as they imply a greater signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and hence are detectable to greater distances. The derived sampling strategy is implemented in a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm where it improves convergence.Comment: Proceedings of the 8th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves. 7 pages, 4 figure