Fine motor function and neuropsychological deficits in individuals at risk for schizophrenia

Deficits in fine motor function and neuropsychological performance have been described as risk factors for schizophrenia. In the Basel FEPSY study (Früherkennung von Psychosen; English: Early Detection of Psychosis) individuals at risk for psychosis were identified in a screening procedure (Riecher-Rössler et al. 2005). As a part of the multilevel assessment, 40 individuals at risk for psychosis and 42 healthy controls matched for age, sex and handedness were investigated with a fine motor function test battery and a neuropsychological test battery. Individuals at risk showed lower performances in all subtests of the fine motor function tests, predominantly in dexterity and velocity (wrist/fingers and arm/hand). In the neuropsychological test battery, individuals at risk performed less well compared to healthy controls regarding sustained attention, working memory and perseveration. The combined evaluation of the two test batteries (neuropsychological and fine motor function) separates the two groups into individuals at risk and healthy controls better than each test battery alone. A multilevel approach might therefore be a valuable contribution to detecting beginning schizophreni

Efficient cosmological parameter sampling using sparse grids

We present a novel method to significantly speed up cosmological parameter sampling. The method relies on constructing an interpolation of the CMB-log-likelihood based on sparse grids, which is used as a shortcut for the likelihood-evaluation. We obtain excellent results over a large region in parameter space, comprising about 25 log-likelihoods around the peak, and we reproduce the one-dimensional projections of the likelihood almost perfectly. In speed and accuracy, our technique is competitive to existing approaches to accelerate parameter estimation based on polynomial interpolation or neural networks, while having some advantages over them. In our method, there is no danger of creating unphysical wiggles as it can be the case for polynomial fits of a high degree. Furthermore, we do not require a long training time as for neural networks, but the construction of the interpolation is determined by the time it takes to evaluate the likelihood at the sampling points, which can be parallelised to an arbitrary degree. Our approach is completely general, and it can adaptively exploit the properties of the underlying function. We can thus apply it to any problem where an accurate interpolation of a function is needed.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 13 pages, 13 figure

Assessing Optical and Electrical Properties of Highly Active IrO_x Catalysts for the Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution Reaction via Spectroscopic Ellipsometry

Efficient water electrolysis requires highly active electrodes. The activity of corresponding catalytic coatings strongly depends on material properties such as film thickness, crystallinity, electrical conductivity, and chemical surface speciation. Measuring these properties with high accuracy in vacuum-free and non-destructive methods facilitates the elucidation of structure–activity relationships in realistic environments. Here, we report a novel approach to analyze the optical and electrical properties of highly active oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts via spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Using a series of differently calcined, mesoporous, templated iridium oxide films as an example, we assess the film thickness, porosity, electrical resistivity, electron concentration, electron mobility, and interband and intraband transition energies by modeling of the optical spectra. Independently performed analyses using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, ellipsometric porosimetry, X-ray reflectometry, and absorption spectroscopy indicate a high accuracy of the deduced material properties. A comparison of the derived analytical data from SE, resonant photoemission spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with activity measurements of the OER suggests that the intrinsic activity of iridium oxides scales with a shift of the Ir 5d t2g sub-level and an increase of p–d interband transition energies caused by a transition of μ1-OH to μ3-O species

Remarkable preservation of microbial mats in Neoproterozoic siliciclastic settings : Implications for Ediacaran taphonomic models

The authors thank Duncan McIlroy and Alex Liu for their discussions, help, comments and field support, the National Trust for access to Longmyndian localities, and the staff of the British Geological Survey Palaeontology unit and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History for their assistance with access to materials. The comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers and Nora Noffke significantly improved the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprin

First Observation of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission in a Free-Electron Laser at 109 nm Wavelength

We present the first observation of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) in a free-electron laser (FEL) in the Vacuum Ultraviolet regime at 109 nm wavelength (11 eV). The observed free-electron laser gain (approx. 3000) and the radiation characteristics, such as dependency on bunch charge, angular distribution, spectral width and intensity fluctuations all corroborate the existing models for SASE FELs.Comment: 6 pages including 6 figures; e-mail: [email protected]

Проектирование автоматизированной групповой замерной установки при разработке Макарьевского месторождения нефти на проточном-1 лицензионном участке недр Томской области

В данной дипломной работе произведено обоснование оптимальной конфигурации и проектирование автоматизированной группой замерной установки для системы сбора продукции эксплуатационных скважин в рамках прогноза эффективности разработки Макарьевского месторождения Томской области.In this graduation work the study of the optimal configuration and design of automated group measuring system for the collection system of production wells within the forecast development efficiency Makar deposits of Tomsk region