1,570 research outputs found
Josephson supercurrent in a topological insulator without a bulk shunt
A Josephson supercurrent has been induced into the three-dimensional
topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3. We show that the transport in
Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 exfoliated flakes is dominated by surface states and that
the bulk conductivity can be neglected at the temperatures where we study the
proximity induced superconductivity. We prepared Josephson junctions with
widths in the order of 40 nm and lengths in the order of 50 to 80 nm on several
Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 flakes and measured down to 30 mK. The Fraunhofer patterns
unequivocally reveal that the supercurrent is a Josephson supercurrent. The
measured critical currents are reproducibly observed on different devices and
upon multiple cooldowns, and the critical current dependence on temperature as
well as magnetic field can be well explained by diffusive transport models and
geometric effects
Person-Specific Non-shared Environmental Influences in Intra-individual Variability : A Preliminary Case of Daily School Feelings in Monozygotic Twins
Most behavioural genetic studies focus on genetic and environmental influences on inter-individual phenotypic differences at the population level. The growing collection of intensive longitudinal data in social and behavioural science offers a unique opportunity to examine genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual phenotypic variability at the individual level. The current study introduces a novel idiographic approach and one novel method to investigate genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual variability by a simple empirical demonstration. Person-specific non-shared environmental influences on intra-individual variability of daily school feelings were estimated using time series data from twenty-one pairs of monozygotic twins (age = 10 years, 16 female pairs) over two consecutive weeks. Results showed substantial inter-individual heterogeneity in person-specific non-shared environmental influences. The current study represents a first step in investigating environmental influences on intra-individual variability with an idiographic approach, and provides implications for future behavioural genetic studies to examine developmental processes from a microscopic angle
Accurate evaluation of the interstitial KKR-Green function
It is shown that the Brillouin zone integral for the interstitial KKR-Green
function can be evaluated accurately by taking proper care of the free-electron
singularities in the integrand. The proposed method combines two recently
developed methods, a supermatrix method and a subtraction method. This
combination appears to provide a major improvement compared with an earlier
proposal based on the subtraction method only. By this the barrier preventing
the study of important interstitial-like defects, such as an electromigrating
atom halfway along its jump path, can be considered as being razed.Comment: 23 pages, RevTe
Growth Diagrams for Individual Finger Strength in Children Measured with the RIHM
Background: Although grip and pinch strength provide a more global measure of a large number of digits and muscles, measuring strength of individual fingers or the thumb can provide additional and more detailed information regarding hand strength. Questions/purposes: We developed growth diagrams for individual finger strength in children. Patients and Methods: We measured thumb palmar abduction, thumb opposition, and thumb flexion in the metacarpophalangeal joint, and abduction of the index and little fingers in 101 children (4-12 years old) using a myometer. We recorded hand dominance, gender, height, and weight. All measurements were performed in a randomized order by the same researcher. We developed statistical models for drawing growth diagrams using estimated percentiles for each strength measurement. Separate models for dominant and nondominant hands of boys and girls were developed, in addition to a combined model. Results: Because there was no difference in strength between boys and girls and between dominant and nondominant hands, both hands and genders were combined in one growth diagram for each measurement. The normative data were presented in a table format and in growth diagrams for each myometer measurement. Conclusions: These diagrams can be used for pediatric patients such as patients with congenital malformations or neuromuscular disorders who receive interventions or therapy aimed at function of the hand, fingers, or thumb. The growth diagrams facilitate distinguishing between the effects of growth and intervention on strength development
Vortex trapping and expulsion in thin-film YBCO strips
A scanning SQUID microscope was used to image vortex trapping as a function
of the magnetic induction during cooling in thin-film YBCO strips for strip
widths W from 2 to 50 um. We found that vortices were excluded from the strips
when the induction Ba was below a critical induction Bc. We present a simple
model for the vortex exclusion process which takes into account the vortex -
antivortex pair production energy as well as the vortex Meissner and
self-energies. This model predicts that the real density n of trapped vortices
is given by n=(Ba-BK)/Phi0 with BK = 1.65Phi0/W^2 and Phi0 = h/2e the
superconducting flux quantum. This prediction is in good agreement with our
experiments on YBCO, as well as with previous experiments on thin-film strips
of niobium. We also report on the positions of the trapped vortices. We found
that at low densities the vortices were trapped in a single row near the
centers of the strips, with the relative intervortex spacing distribution width
decreasing as the vortex density increased, a sign of longitudinal ordering.
The critical induction for two rows forming in the 35 um wide strip was (2.89 +
1.91-0.93)Bc, consistent with a numerical prediction
The Effect of Steroid Treatment on Lipocortin Immunoreactivity of Rat Brain
Lipocortin-1, lipocortin-2 and lipocortin-5 were
immunohistochemically assessed in rats. Apart from animals receiving
no treatment, other animals received pretreatment with
methylprednisolone, or the 21-aminosteroid U-74389F. Whereas
Hpocortin immunoreactivity was absent in the greater part of the
brain in animals not pretreated with steroid (except in sporadic
microglial cells and choroid plexus), there was obvious
immunostaining of parenchymatous elements in steroid pretreated
animals. In the steroid pretreated animals lipocortin
immunoreactivity of the brain tissue may indicate local formation of
lipocortin under the influence of steroids that had entered the
tissue. The cellular elements which showed immunostaining included
meningeal cells, neurones, ependyma, oligodendroglia and capillary
endotheHum
Optics-less smart sensors and a possible mechanism of cutaneous vision in nature
Optics-less cutaneous (skin) vision is not rare among living organisms,
though its mechanisms and capabilities have not been thoroughly investigated.
This paper demonstrates, using methods from statistical parameter estimation
theory and numerical simulations, that an array of bare sensors with a natural
cosine-law angular sensitivity arranged on a flat or curved surface has the
ability to perform imaging tasks without any optics at all. The working
principle of this type of optics-less sensor and the model developed here for
determining sensor performance may be used to shed light upon possible
mechanisms and capabilities of cutaneous vision in nature
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