Hysteretic ac losses in a superconductor strip between flat magnetic shields

Hysteretic ac losses in a thin, current-carrying superconductor strip located between two flat magnetic shields of infinite permeability are calculated using Bean's model of the critical state. For the shields oriented parallel to the plane of the strip, penetration of the self-induced magnetic field is enhanced, and the current dependence of the ac loss resembles that in an isolated superconductor slab, whereas for the shields oriented perpendicular to the plane of the strip, penetration of the self-induced magnetic field is impaired, and the current dependence of the ac loss is similar to that in a superconductor strip flanked by two parallel superconducting shields. Thus, hysteretic ac losses can strongly augment or, respectively, wane when the shields approach the strip.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR

Direct detection and characterization of foot-and-mouth disease virus in East Africa using a field-ready real-time PCR platform

Effective control and monitoring of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) relies upon rapid and accurate disease confirmation. Currently, clinical samples are usually tested in reference laboratories using standardized assays recommended by The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, the requirements for prompt and serotype-specific diagnosis during FMD outbreaks, and the need to establish robust laboratory testing capacity in FMD-endemic countries have motivated the development of simple diagnostic platforms to support local decision-making. Using a portable thermocycler, the T-COR™ 8, this study describes the laboratory and field evaluation of a commercially available, lyophilized pan-serotype-specific real-time RT-PCR (rRT-PCR) assay and a newly available FMD virus (FMDV) typing assay (East Africa-specific for serotypes: O, A, Southern African Territories [SAT] 1 and 2). Analytical sensitivity, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the pan-serotype-specific lyophilized assay were comparable to that of an OIE-recommended laboratory-based rRT-PCR (determined using a panel of 57 FMDV-positive samples and six non-FMDV vesicular disease samples for differential diagnosis). The FMDV-typing assay was able to correctly identify the serotype of 33/36 FMDV-positive samples (no cross-reactivity between serotypes was evident). Furthermore, the assays were able to accurately detect and type FMDV RNA in multiple sample types, including epithelial tissue suspensions, serum, oesophageal–pharyngeal (OP) fluid and oral swabs, both with and without the use of nucleic acid extraction. When deployed in laboratory and field settings in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia, both assays reliably detected and serotyped FMDV RNA in samples (n = 144) collected from pre-clinical, clinical and clinically recovered cattle. These data support the use of field-ready rRT-PCR platforms in endemic settings for simple, highly sensitive and rapid detection and/or characterization of FMDV

Effect of doping-- and field--induced charge carrier density on the electron transport in nanocrystalline ZnO

Charge transport properties of thin films of sol--gel processed undoped and Al-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles with variable doping level between 0.8 at% and 10 at% were investigated. The X-ray diffraction studies revealed a decrease of the average crystallite sizes in highly doped samples. We provide estimates of the conductivity and the resulting charge carrier densities with respect to the doping level. The increase of charge carrier density due to extrinsic doping were compared to the accumulation of charge carriers in field effect transistor structures. This allowed to assess the scattering effects due to extrinsic doping on the electron mobility. The latter decreases from 4.6*10^-3 cm^2/Vs to 4.5*10^-4 cm^2/Vs with increasing doping density. In contrast, the accumulation leads to an increasing mobility up to 1.5*10^-2 cm^2/Vs. The potential barrier heights related to grain boundaries between the crystallites were derived from temperature dependent mobility measurements. The extrinsic doping initially leads to a grain boundary barrier height lowering, followed by an increase due to doping-induced structural defects. We conclude that the conductivity of sol--gel processed nanocrystalline ZnO:Al is governed by an interplay of the enhanced charge carrier density and the doping-induced charge carrier scattering effects, achieving a maximum at 0.8 at% in our case.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Structural and dielectric properties of Sr2_{2}TiO4_{4} from first principles

We have investigated the structural and dielectric properties of Sr$_{2}$TiO$_{4}$,the first member of the Sr$_{n+1}$Ti$_{n}$O$_{3n+1}$ Ruddlesden-Popper series, within density functional theory. Motivated by recent work in which thin films of Sr$_{2}$TiO$_{4}$ were grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on SrTiO$_{3}$ substrates, the in-plane lattice parameter was fixed to the theoretically optimized lattice constant of cubic SrTiO$_{3}$ (n=$\infty$), while the out-of-plane lattice parameter and the internal structural parameters were relaxed. The fully relaxed structure was also investigated. Density functional perturbation theory was used to calculate the zone-center phonon frequencies, Born effective charges, and the electronic dielectric permittivity tensor. A detailed study of the contribution of individual infrared-active modes to the static dielectric permittivity tensor was performed. The calculated Raman and infrared phonon frequencies were found to be in agreement with experiment where available. Comparisons of the calculated static dielectric permittivity with experiments on both ceramic powders and epitaxial thin films are discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, 8 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev.