Reduced leakage current in Josephson tunnel junctions with codeposited barriers

Josephson junctions were fabricated using two different methods of barrier formation. The trilayers employed were Nb/Al-AlOx/Nb on sapphire, where the first two layers were epitaxial. The oxide barrier was formed either by exposing the Al surface to O2 or by codepositing Al in an O2 background. The codeposition process yielded junctions that showed the theoretically predicted subgap current and no measurable shunt conductance. In contrast, devices with barriers formed by thermal oxidation showed a small shunt conductance in addition to the predicted subgap current.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

The Politics of Exhaustion and the Externalization of British Border Control. An Articulation of a Strategy Designed to Deter, Control and Exclude

In response to contemporary forms of human mobility, there has been a continued hardening of borders seeking to deter, control and exclude certain groups of people from entering nation states in Europe, North America and Australasia. Within this context, a disconcerting evolution of new and increasingly sophisticated forms of border control measures have emerged, which often play out within bilateral arrangements of “externalised” or “offshore” border controls. Drawing on extensive first‐hand field research among displaced people in Calais, Paris and Brussels in 2016–2019, this paper argues that the externalization of the British border to France is contingent upon a harmful strategy, which can be understood as the “politics of exhaustion.” This is a raft of (micro) practices and methods strategically aimed to deter, control and exclude certain groups of people on the move who have been profiled as “undesirable,” with a detrimental (un)intended impact on human lives

Non-Newtonian Couette-Poiseuille flow of a dilute gas

The steady state of a dilute gas enclosed between two infinite parallel plates in relative motion and under the action of a uniform body force parallel to the plates is considered. The Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook model kinetic equation is analytically solved for this Couette-Poiseuille flow to first order in the force and for arbitrary values of the Knudsen number associated with the shear rate. This allows us to investigate the influence of the external force on the non-Newtonian properties of the Couette flow. Moreover, the Couette-Poiseuille flow is analyzed when the shear-rate Knudsen number and the scaled force are of the same order and terms up to second order are retained. In this way, the transition from the bimodal temperature profile characteristic of the pure force-driven Poiseuille flow to the parabolic profile characteristic of the pure Couette flow through several intermediate stages in the Couette-Poiseuille flow are described. A critical comparison with the Navier-Stokes solution of the problem is carried out.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures; v2: discussion on boundary conditions added; 10 additional references. Published in a special issue of the journal "Kinetic and Related Models" dedicated to the memory of Carlo Cercignan

Consensus Statement on next-generation-sequencing-based diagnostic testing of hereditary phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas

Genome Instability and Cance

Optimization methodology for high COD nutrient-limited wastewaters treatment using BAS process

Optimization of biofilm activated sludge (BAS) process via mathematical modelling is an entangle activity since economic, environmental objective and technical decision must be considered. This paper presents a methodology to optimize the operational conditions of BAS process in four steps by combining dynamic simulation techniques with non-linear optimization methods and with operative decision-making criteria. Two set of variables are separately prioritized in the methodology: essential variables related to physical operation to enforce established process performance, and refinement variables related to biological processes that can generate risks of bulking, pin-point floc and rising sludge. The proposed optimization strategy is applied for the treatment of high COD wastewater under nutrient limitation using an integrated mathematical model for COD removal that include predation, hydrolysis and a simplified approach to the limiting solids flux theory in the secondary clarifier in order to facilitate the convergence of the optimization solver. The methodology is implemented in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant for a cellulose and viscose fibre mill obtaining (i) improvement of the effluent quality index (Kg pollution/m3) up to 62% and, (ii) decrease the operating cost index (€/m3) of the process up to 30% respect the regular working operational conditions of the plant. The proposed procedure can be also applied to other biological treatments treating high COD nutrient-limited industrial wastewater such as from textile and winery production among others

Potent amyloidogenicity and pathogenicity of Aβ43.

The amyloid-β peptide Aβ42 is known to be a primary amyloidogenic and pathogenic agent in Alzheimer\u27s disease. However, the role of Aβ43, which is found just as frequently in the brains of affected individuals, remains unresolved. We generated knock-in mice containing a pathogenic presenilin-1 R278I mutation that causes overproduction of Aβ43. Homozygosity was embryonic lethal, indicating that the mutation involves a loss of function. Crossing amyloid precursor protein transgenic mice with heterozygous mutant mice resulted in elevated Aβ43, impairment of short-term memory and acceleration of amyloid-β pathology, which accompanied pronounced accumulation of Aβ43 in plaque cores similar in biochemical composition to those observed in the brains of affected individuals. Consistently, Aβ43 showed a higher propensity to aggregate and was more neurotoxic than Aβ42. Other pathogenic presenilin mutations also caused overproduction of Aβ43 in a manner correlating with Aβ42 and with the age of disease onset. These findings indicate that Aβ43, an overlooked species, is potently amyloidogenic, neurotoxic and abundant in vivo