A new epigean false scorpion: Roncus sumadijae n. sp. (Neobisiidae, Pseudoscorpiones) from the Balkan Peninsula (Western Serbia)

A new endemic epigean species from the village of Adžina Livada, nr. Kragujevac, Mts. Gledićke Planine, western Serbia, is erected, described and thoroughly illustrated. Its main morphometric characters and important diagnostic features are analyzed and compared to the two closest congeners, Roncus ivanjicae B. Ćurčić, and R. golijae B. Ćurčić from western Serbia, respectively

Similar EEG Activity Patterns During Experimentally-Induced Auditory Illusions and Veridical Perceptions

Hallucinations and illusions are two instances of perceptual experiences illustrating how perception might diverge from external sensory stimulations and be generated or altered based on internal brain states. The occurrence of these phenomena is not constrained to patient populations. Similar experiences can be elicited in healthy subjects by means of suitable experimental procedures. Studying the neural mechanisms underlying these experiences not only has the potential to expand our understanding of the brain's perceptual machinery but also of how it might get impaired. In the current study, we employed an auditory signal detection task to induce auditory illusions by presenting speech snippets at near detection threshold intensity embedded in noise. We investigated the neural correlates of auditory false perceptions by examining the EEG activity preceding the responses in speech absent (false alarm, FA) trials and comparing them to speech present (hit) trials. The results of the comparison of event-related potentials (ERPs) in the activation period vs. baseline revealed the presence of an early negativity (EN) and a late positivity (LP) similar in both hits and FAs, which were absent in misses, correct rejections (CR) and control button presses (BPs). We postulate that the EN and the LP might represent the auditory awareness negativity (AAN) and centro-parietal positivity (CPP) or P300, respectively. The event-related spectral perturbations (ERSPs) exhibited a common power enhancement in low frequencies

Fuzzy Multi-criteria Model for Selecting the Best Location for a Regional Landfill

The expected deficit in power supply all over the world demands all types of institutions such as scientific, vocational and governmental to focus an increased attention on the problems of increasing energy efficiency, using renewable energy sources as biomass (biodegradable parts of products, waste and remains in agriculture, forestry and related industries, as well as biodegradable parts of industrial waste and urban litter, according to European Union Directive (EU) 2001/77/EC). Although biomass is often referred to as carbon neutral fuel, it can still contribute to global warming. Energy can be obtained from biomass in different ways, for example by: (1) direct burning (wood, vegetative remains, wood waste) in order to get thermal energy, (2) digestionprocessing animal waste (manure) into biogass, (3) processing biomass into alcohol (ethanol) or producing vegetable oils. It should also be noted that during its life cycle, biomass absorbs CO 2 which is released back into the atmosphere when biomass is used for obtaining energy. The EU puts a lot of effort into stimulating the use of biomass as a fuel. 4% of the overall energy demand in the EU is satisfied by biomass production, which is equal to 69m tons of petroleum. Data found in literature (International Energy Agency (IEA), Head of Communication and Information Office, Paris, France: World Energy Outlook, 2008) suggest that using biomass as a fuel may lead to diversity in energy supply, considerable decrease in emission of gases which cause the greenhouse effect, increasing the employment rate and potential cuts in prices of petroleum as a result of declining demand. One of subissues of using biomass as a fuel is the selection of a biomass burying location. The considered problem is important bearing in mind three different groups of aspects: -economic and social group of aspects (this creates the possibility to improve the competitive position of regional economy, makes new production programs as growing biomass plantation, using biomass for energy, solving the problem of waste disposal and increasing the employment rate); -socially-energetic and ecological group of aspects (preservation and/or improvement in environment protection and natural resources use, improving life quality and a contribution to the use of renewable energy sources); -the aspect of energetics development strategy realisation (improving the reliability of energy supply in both industry and households, decreasing the use of other energy forms and giving contribution to meeting local energetic needs). The problem of selecting location for biomass burying and processing has been discussed in a certain number of papers so far. I

Reduced Deadtime and Higher Rate Photon-Counting Detection using a Multiplexed Detector Array

We present a scheme for a photon-counting detection system that can be operated at incident photon rates higher than otherwise possible by suppressing the effects of detector deadtime. The method uses an array of N detectors and a 1-by-N optical switch with a control circuit to direct input light to live detectors. Our calculations and models highlight the advantages of the technique. In particular, using this scheme, a group of N detectors provides an improvement in operation rate that can exceed the improvement that would be obtained by a single detector with deadtime reduced by 1/N, even if it were feasible to produce a single detector with such a large improvement in deadtime. We model the system for continuous and pulsed light sources, both of which are important for quantum metrology and quantum key distribution applications.Comment: 6 figure

Interfacing External Quantum Devices to a Universal Quantum Computer

We present a scheme to use external quantum devices using the universal quantum computer previously constructed. We thereby show how the universal quantum computer can utilize networked quantum information resources to carry out local computations. Such information may come from specialized quantum devices or even from remote universal quantum computers. We show how to accomplish this by devising universal quantum computer programs that implement well known oracle based quantum algorithms, namely the Deutsch, Deutsch-Jozsa, and the Grover algorithms using external black-box quantum oracle devices. In the process, we demonstrate a method to map existing quantum algorithms onto the universal quantum computer

Magnetic Vortex Core Reversal by Excitation of Spin Waves

Micron-sized magnetic platelets in the flux closed vortex state are characterized by an in-plane curling magnetization and a nanometer-sized perpendicularly magnetized vortex core. Having the simplest non-trivial configuration, these objects are of general interest to micromagnetics and may offer new routes for spintronics applications. Essential progress in the understanding of nonlinear vortex dynamics was achieved when low-field core toggling by excitation of the gyrotropic eigenmode at sub-GHz frequencies was established. At frequencies more than an order of magnitude higher vortex state structures possess spin wave eigenmodes arising from the magneto-static interaction. Here we demonstrate experimentally that the unidirectional vortex core reversal process also occurs when such azimuthal modes are excited. These results are confirmed by micromagnetic simulations which clearly show the selection rules for this novel reversal mechanism. Our analysis reveals that for spin wave excitation the concept of a critical velocity as the switching condition has to be modified.Comment: Minor corrections and polishing of previous versio

Sea State Based Estimation of White Cap Fraction: Implications for Primary Marine Aerosol Fluxes

Oceanic whitecaps (hereafter, W) or the characteristic whiteness of the sea foam is an important feature for predicting exchange of gases, sea spray aerosols (SSAs), heat and momentum transfer between the ocean and the atmosphere at the air-sea interface. Due to its increased surface emission and brightness temperature, whitecaps are critical for satellite retrievals of ocean albedo, ocean color, ocean surface wind vectors from satellite borne radiometer and microwave instruments. Most of the existing models predict W using wind speed and sea surface temperature (SST). However, numerous publications have pointed out that there are large uncertainties in the predicted W and using parameterizations based on wind-wave state can improve the precision of the predicted W. Here, we integrate the University of Miami Wave Model - 2.0 (UMWM) in Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) and use wave diagnostics to predict W. We choose the year 2006 for our global UMWM/GEOS runs because of the availability of W dataset from satellite observations. We run UMWM/GEOS at 0.5o x 0.5o by replaying to MERRA2 meteorology and evaluate the wave diagnostics using measurements from fixed buoys and satellite altimeters. We use three different parameterizations for W based on: 1) Reynolds number, 2) wave dissipation energy, and 3) volume of air entrained by breaking waves. We compare our results of W with previous studies and also with the satellite based observational dataset. Predicting W is important for understanding the processes at the air-sea interface. Therefore, this work is a step further in improving the uncertainties in the aerosol and atmospheric chemistry modules of the global models

Synthesis, characterization and cytotoxicity of a palladium(II) complex of 3-[(2-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one

The polydentate ligand 3-[(2-hydroxybenzylidene)amino]-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one was synthesized in the intermolecular cyclocondensation reaction of 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde thiosemicarbazone and ethyl chloroacetate. A novel palladium(II) complex was obtained from cis-[Pd(DMSO)(2)Cl-2] by nucleophilic substitution of both DMSO ligands with the iminic nitrogen and the thiolactamic sulfur from the ligand. The structures of the compounds were characterized based on their spectral data. The cytotoxic activities of the ligand and the palladium(II) complex were studied on the tumor cell lines: human colon carcinoma HCT-116 and SW-480 cells using the MTT viability test. The results showed that the investigated palladium(II) complex had a significantly greater cytotoxic effect compared to that of the ligand

Resonant amplification of vortex-core oscillations by coherent magnetic-field pulses

Vortex structures in soft magnetic nanodisks are highly attractive due to their scientific beauty and potential technological applications. Here, we experimentally demonstrated the resonant amplification of vortex oscillations by application of simple coherent field pulses tuned to optimal width and time intervals. In order to investigate vortex excitations on the sub-ns time scale, we employed state-of-the-art time-resolved full-field soft X-ray microscopy of 70 ps temporal and 25 nm lateral resolution. We found that, due to the resonant enhancement of the vortex gyration motion, the signal input power can be significantly reduced to similar to 1 Oe in field strength, while increasing signal gains, by increasing the number of the optimal field pulses. We identified the origin of this behavior as the forced resonant amplification of vortex gyration. This work represents an important milestone towards the potential implementation of vortex oscillations in future magnetic vortex devices.open4