Resistance of superconducting nanowires connected to normal metal leads

We study experimentally the low temperature resistance of superconducting nanowires connected to normal metal reservoirs. We find that a substantial fraction of the nanowires is resistive, down to the lowest temperature measured, indicative of an intrinsic boundary resistance due to the Andreev-conversion of normal current to supercurrent. The results are successfully analyzed in terms of the kinetic equations for diffusive superconductors

Marine benthic plants of Western Australia's shelf-edge atolls

One hundred and twenty-one species of marine algae, seagrasses and cyanobacteria are reported from the offshore atolls of northwestern Western Australia (the Rowley Shoals, Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef). Included are 65 species of Rhodophyta, 40 species of Chlorophyta, nine species of Phaeophyceae, three species of Cyanophyta and four species of seagrasses. This report presents the first detailed account of marine benthic algae from these atolls. Twenty-four species are newly recorded for Western Australia, with four species (Anadyomene wrightii, Rhipilia nigrescens, Ceramium krameri and Zellera tawallina) also newly recorded for Australia

Associatively-mediated stopping: training stimulus-specific inhibitory control

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Response inhibition is often considered to be a deliberate act of cognitive control. However, our and other research suggests that by repeatedly pairing stimuli with an inhibitory response, inhibition can become automatized. Currently, relatively little research has focused on the nature of the associative structure that underpins stimulus-specific inhibitory training. This paper investigated what associations can be learnt in stop-signal training tasks, distinguishing between indirect priming of the stop signal and direct activation of a stop response. We employed a novel paradigm, where colored cues are stochastically paired with a number of stop-signals, and demonstrated that cues consistently paired with stopping reduced commission errors and slowed reaction times. Furthermore, we showed that manipulating the pairings between stimuli and stop signals, in a manner that favored the formation of stimulus-stop associations, produced enhanced stop learning effects on reaction time, but not probability of responding. Our results suggest that perceptual processes supporting signal detection (priming) as well as inhibitory processes are involved in inhibitory control training, and that inhibition training may benefit from reducing the contingency between stimuli and stop-signals.Economic and Social Research CouncilER

Optimized alkylated cyclodextrin polysulphates with reduced risks on thromboembolic accidents improve osteoarthritic chondrocyte metabolism

Objectives. To compare the ability of different cyclodextrin polysulphate (CDPS) derivatives to affect human articular cartilage cell metabolism in vitro

Stochastic inversion of linear first kind integral equations I. Continuous theory and the stochastic generalized inverse

The dataset associated with this paper is in ORE; see http://hdl.handle.net/10871/17644© 2015 American Psychological AssociationThis article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.This paper is made available in accordance with publisher policies. The final published version of this article is available from the publisher’s site. at http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/xhp/index.aspxBefore reusing this item please check the rights under which it has been made available. Some items are restricted to non-commercial use. Please cite the published version where applicable.The present study explores the link between attentional reorienting and response inhibition. Recent behavioral and neuroscience work indicates that both might rely on similar cognitive and neural mechanisms. We tested two popular accounts of the overlap: The ‘circuit breaker’ account, which assumes that unexpected events produce global suppression of motor output, and the ‘stimulus detection’ account, which assumes that attention is reoriented to unexpected events. In Experiment 1, we presented standard and (unexpected) novel sounds in a go/no-go task. Consistent with the stimulus detection account, we found longer RTs on go trials and higher rates of commission errors on no-go trials when these were preceded by a novel sound compared with a standard sound. In Experiment 2, novel and standard sounds acted as no-go signals. In this experiment, the novel sounds produced an improvement on no-go trials. This further highlights the importance of stimulus detection for response inhibition. Combined, the two experiments support the idea that attention is oriented to novel or unexpected events, impairing no-go performance if these events are irrelevant but enhancing no-go performance when they are relevant. Our findings also indicate that the popular circuit breaker account of the overlap between response inhibition and attentional reorienting needs some revision.European Research CouncilFPU Fellowshi

High-quality CHO : definition, measurement, and regulation

Papers presented to the 11th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, South Africa, 20-23 July 2015.CHP (Combined Heat & Power) is a vested term referring to thermal power generation with heat recovery. The lack of clear terminology on CHP activities causes confusion and suboptimal regulation, what impairs investment decisions. An improved discourse on CHP is significant in addressing the issues. It starts at the basic definition of CHP itself. A proper definition is instrumental in identifying what the real merit of CHP is, also questioning whether high-quality CHP is a valid term. The proper yardstick of CHP performance is quantities of cogenerated electricity. In extraction-condensing steam turbines, being the most applied thermal power processes, the quantities are not directly observable. The scientific community failed to provide practical methods to assess the quantities. Basic engineering thermodynamics suffice to construct the needed methods, easy to apply and supporting investment in high-quality thermal power units and daily maximization of heat recovery. The epilogue questions the role thermodynamic machinery may play in future electric power generation.am201

Associatively-mediated stopping: training stimulus-specific inhibitory control (dataset)

Behavioural data, R analysis scripts, and documentation for two behavioural experiments described in "Associatively-mediated stopping: training stimulus-specific inhibitory control". To be published in Learning & Behavior (2015). Available in ORE at: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/18061Behavioural data, R analysis scripts, and documentation for two behavioural experiments described in "Associatively-Mediated Stopping: Training Stimulus-Specific Inhibitory Control". To be published in Learning & Behavior (2015).ESRCER

Transfer of learned category-response associations is modulated by instruction (article)

The dataset associated with this article is available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/27115This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.Although instructions often emphasize categories (e.g., odd number → left hand response) rather than specific stimuli (e.g., 3 → left hand response), learning is often interpreted in terms of stimulus-response (S-R) bindings or, less frequently, stimulus-classification (S-C) bindings with little attention being paid to the importance of category-response (C-R) bindings. In a training-transfer paradigm designed to investigate the early stages of category learning, participants were required to classify stimuli according to the category templates presented prior to each block (Experiments 1-4). In some transfer blocks the stimuli, categories and/or responses could be novel or repeated from the preceding training phase. Learning was assessed by comparing the transfer-training performance difference across conditions. Participants were able to rapidly transfer C-R associations to novel stimuli but evidence of S-C transfer was much weaker and S-R transfer was largely limited to conditions where the stimulus was classified under the same category. Thus, even though there was some evidence that learned S-R and S-C associations contributed to performance, learned C-R associations seemed to play a much more important role. In a final experiment (Experiment 5) the stimuli themselves were presented prior to each block, and the instructions did not mention the category structure. In this experiment, the evidence for S-R learning outweighed the evidence for C-R learning, indicating the importance of instructions in learning. The implications for these findings to the learning, cognitive control, and automaticity literatures are discussed.This work was supported by the European Research Council (grant number 312445). Frederick Verbruggen is a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holder

Aharonov-Bohm interference in the presence of metallic mesoscopic cylinders

This work studies the interference of electrons in the presence of a line of magnetic flux surrounded by a normal-conducting mesoscopic cylinder at low temperature. It is found that, while there is a supplementary phase contribution from each electron of the mesoscopic cylinder, the sum of these individual supplementary phases is equal to zero, so that the presence of a normal-conducting mesoscopic ring at low temperature does not change the Aharonov-Bohm interference pattern of the incident electron. It is shown that it is not possible to ascertain by experimental observation that the shielding electrons have responded to the field of an incident electron, and at the same time to preserve the interference pattern of the incident electron. It is also shown that the measuring of the transient magnetic field in the region between the two paths of an electron interference experiment with an accuracy at least equal to the magnetic field of the incident electron generates a phase uncertainty which destroys the interference pattern.Comment: 15 pages, 5 Postscript figure