Finite-element simulations of hysteretic ac losses in a magnetically coated superconducting tubular wire subject to an oscillating transverse magnetic field

Numerical simulations of hysteretic ac losses in a tubular superconductor/paramagnet heterostructure subject to an oscillating transverse magnetic field are performed within the quasistatic approach, calling upon the COMSOL finite-element software package and exploiting magnetostatic-electrostatic analogues. It is shown that one-sided magnetic shielding of a thin, type-II superconducting tube by a coaxial paramagnetic support results in a slight increase of hysteretic ac losses as compared to those for a vacuum environment, when the support is placed inside; a spectacular shielding effect with a possible reduction of hysteretic ac losses by orders of magnitude, however, ensues, depending on the magnetic permeability and the amplitude of the applied magnetic field, when the support is placed outside.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Magnetic-dipole induced appearance of vortices in a bilayered superconductor/soft-magnet heterostructure

The penetration of the magnetic field of an infinitesimal magnetic dipole into a bilayered type-II superconductor/soft-magnet heterostructure is studied on the basis of the classical London approach. The critical values of the dipole moment for the first appearance of a single magnetic vortex and, respectively, a magnetic vortex-antivortex pair in the superconductor constituent are obtained, when the magnetic dipole faces the superconductor or the soft-magnet constituent. This reveals that the soft-magnet constituent inhibits penetration of vortices into the superconductor constituent, when the dipole faces the soft-magnet constituent.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure; accepted in Physica C for the special issue of Preceedings of the 8th Int. Conference on Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity and High Temperature Superconductors (M2S-HTSC), Dresden, Germany, July 9-14, 200

Hydrogen production by photoelectrolytic decomposition of H2O using solar energy

Photoelectrochemical systems for the efficient decomposition of water are discussed. Semiconducting d band oxides which would yield the combination of stability, low electron affinity, and moderate band gap essential for an efficient photoanode are sought. The materials PdO and Fe-xRhxO3 appear most likely. Oxygen evolution yields may also be improved by mediation of high energy oxidizing agents, such as CO3(-). Examination of several p type semiconductors as photocathodes revealed remarkable stability for p-GaAs, and also indicated p-CdTe as a stable H2 photoelectrode. Several potentially economical schemes for photoelectrochemical decomposition of water were examined, including photoelectrochemical diodes and two stage, four photon processes

Evaluation of systematic review utilization in the development of OB-GYN randomized controlled trials

Introduction: The issue of research waste has been raised due to the fact that 85% of funding for biomedical research has been improperly utilized. A prominent issue is the frequency of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) being conducted without prior consultation of existing support, such as systematic reviews (SRs). Meticulous monitoring is necessary to ensure that clinical recommendations are being made with confidence in high-quality biomedical practices. The aim of this study was to survey Obstetric and Gynecology journals to analyze their published articles for citation of SR for justification of conducting the RCT.Methods: We conducted a search of PubMed for RCTs published between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2017, in the top ten Obstetric and Gynecology journals. Each included study was evaluated to determine the number of SRs cited within the introduction, methods, and discussion sections. We further analyzed whether the SR was cited verbatim or indirectly, number of participants, type of intervention being studied, funding source, type of trial, and how the outcome was perceived.Results: Of the 720 articles from our initial search, 458 (63.61%) met inclusion criteria. Of the 458 included studies, 279 (60.92%) cited an SR in the introduction, 34 (7.42%) cited an SR in the methods, and 207 (45.2%) cited an SR in the discussion as justification for conducting the study.Conclusion: A large portion of the RCTs being published in clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology journals are not citing SRs as justification for conducting their studies, which may be leading to an increase in research waste

Interactive Exploration of Chemical Space with Scaffold Hunter

The supporting information is composed of the following files: I. pyruvatekinasedata.zip The pyruvate kinase data set used for the analysis described in the referenced publication is contained in this file. The analysis is based on the Pyruvate Kinase Screen as published in PubChem under the assay ID 361. It contains all compounds checked in this screen together with the scaffold tree generated from it. Scaffold Hunter can be used to query the database and interactively display the scaffold tree. This file is a dump from a MySQL 5.1 database and was generated with MySQL Administrator 1.2.5. It can be restored with the same program. II. scaffoldhunter_profiles.zip Scaffold Hunter saves the user profiles either on the hard disk or in a database. The corresponding database schema is contained in this zip file. This schema must be contained in the MySQL database before Scaffold Hunter can be run. This file is a dump from a MySQL 5.1 database and was generated with MySQL Administrator 1.2.5. It can be restored with the same program. III. InstallationGuide_Databases.pdf This document describes the installation of a local MySQL database server and the graphical user interface MySQL Administrator. Restoration of the profiles and sample databases are also described. IV. run_ScaffoldHunter.bat Windows batch file to run Scaffold Hunter with 1024 MByte of Memory. V. run_ScaffoldTreeGenerator.bat Windows batch file to run ScaffoldTreeGenerator with 1024 MByte of Memory. VI. ScaffoldHunter_readme.txt Textfile with advice for the installation of Scaffold Hunter. VII. ScaffoldTreeGenerator_readme.txt Textfile with advice for the installation of ScaffoldTree Generator

The Big Five personality traits and partisanship in England

We propose a new framework for the study of the psychological foundation of party identification. We draw a distinction between the part of an individual's party preference that is stable throughout adult life and the dynamic part responding to lifecycle events and macro shocks. We theorize that the Big Five personality traits exert a causal effect on the stable part of an individual's party preference and provide evidence from a large nationally representative English panel dataset in support of this theory. We find that supporters of the major parties (Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats) have substantively different personality traits. Moreover, we show that those not identifying with any party, who are close to holding the majority, are similar to those identifying with the Conservatives. We show that these results are robust to controlling for cognitive skills and parental party preferences, and to estimation on a subsample of siblings. The relationship between personality traits and party identification is stable across birth cohorts

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

The Ten Martini Problem

We prove the conjecture (known as the ``Ten Martini Problem'' after Kac and Simon) that the spectrum of the almost Mathieu operator is a Cantor set for all non-zero values of the coupling and all irrational frequencies.Comment: 31 pages, no figure