Improved nanopatterning for YBCO nanowires approaching the depairing current

An improved nanopatterning procedure has been developed to obtain YBCO nanowires with cross sections as small as 50x50 nm^2, protected by an Au capping layer. To probe the effective role of the Au protecting layer, we have measured the current-voltage characteristics and the resistive transition in temperature of the nanowires. Critical current densities up to 10^8 A/cm^2 have been achieved at T=4.2 K, approaching the theoretical depairing current limit. The resistance, measured as a function of temperature close to Tc, has been fitted with a thermal activated phase slip model, including the effect of the gold layer. The extracted values of the superconducting coherence length and of the London penetration depth give current densities consistent with the measured ones. These results cannot be achieved with same nanowires, without the Au capping layer.Comment: ASC 2012 conference contributio

The effect of quantum memory on quantum games

We study quantum games with correlated noise through a generalized quantization scheme. We investigate the effects of memory on quantum games, such as Prisoner's Dilemma, Battle of the Sexes and Chicken, through three prototype quantum-correlated channels. It is shown that the quantum player enjoys an advantage over the classical player for all nine cases considered in this paper for the maximally entangled case. However, the quantum player can also outperform the classical player for subsequent cases that can be noted in the case of the Battle of the Sexes game. It can be seen that the Nash equilibria do not change for all the three games under the effect of memory.Comment: 26 pages, 7 ps figure

Extraocular Muscle Imbalance and Outcomes of Scleral Buckling Surgery for Primary Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment

Objective: The objective was to study the muscle imbalance, restrictive motility in unlike gazes and the outcomes of the scleral buckling surgery for rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. Study design: Prospective follow-up study Settings and duration: The study was conducted at Al-Shifa Trust Eye Hospital Rawalpindi from Aug 2015 to Jan 2016. Methodology: The patients were checked prior to surgery and two follow up visits were done afterwards. Thorough history was taken along with full orthoptic assessment and ocular motility in all four main gazes including elevation, depression, adduction and abduction. Vision, type and position of explants, site of detachment, and risk factors of detachment were also observed. Results: A total of 48 eyes of 46 patients were taken. Mean age of the study participants was 37.16±20.37 years. Horizontal, vertical and combined deviations were observed in study population. Exo deviation was most common deviation among patients. Most reported risk factors of retinal detachment included trauma, pseudophakia, aphakia and myopia. Motility limitations of all four gazes was observed and it was found out that after buckling the squint and restriction is been increased up till two months. Conclusion: Ocular restriction among the patients was observed over a period of 2 months and it depicted that encircling with sclera buckling elicited an increase in restrictive ocular motility from pre-operative to 1 week and 2 months after surgery

Impact of internet experience on citizens’ adoption of e‐government in Sri Lanka

Electronic Government implementation and adoption of its services are in early stage in many developing countries. The fruitful outcome of this effort not only depends on the government side but also the citizen’s side as well. This study amended and used Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to identify the factors influencing citizens’ adoption of electronic government and moderating effect of citizens’ internet experience. University students from Sri Lanka were the participants of the study. The real data disclosed that factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence determine the participants’ behavioural intention to use electronic government services, and these factors are influenced by the participants’ internet experienc

Evaluating the Adoption of Enterprise Applications by Small and Medium Enterprises in Sri Lanka

Adoption of information and communication technology has various factors’ influence; Enterprise Applications’ (EAs) adoption is not an exception. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that share around 80 percent of Sri Lankan economy also confront the same kind of influence from various factors. Although the adoption of EAs brings various advantages for such enterprises, many firms are reluctant to make adoption decision. Vendors of such applications would be willing to know about which factors to address to motivate these SMEs’ to adopt their applications. This study aims to delineate the factors influencing SMEs’ adoption of EAs. Many adoption models have been studied in many contexts by researchers; however, these studies address selected fragmented variables. In order to provide a holistic view of factors influencing such adoption by SMEs, this study used Technology, Organization and Environment (TOE) framework.  Population for this study is from the North and the Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka. Analysis revealed that technological, organizational and environmental factors significantly influence SMEs’ adoption of EA. Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises, Enterprise Applications, Adoption, TOE Framework, Sri Lank

Comparison of the optimized conditions for genotyping of ACE ID polymorphism using conventional and direct blood PCR

ACE ID polymorphism is inevitable for genetic epidemiology of several cardiovascular and non cardiovascular diseases due to its direct influence on ACE activity level. In the present work, conditions were optimized for its analysis using conventional and direct blood PCR (DB PCR). Blood samples from nine normotensive male donors preserved in EDTA and lithium-heparin coated vacuatainers separately were used directly as template for DB PCR. Genomic DNA was isolated from each vacuatainer for theconventional PCR and DB PCR also. Conditions were optimized by adjusting the suitable annealing temperature, amount of MgCl2 (in case of conventional PCR) and amount of blood used as DNA template for DB PCR. In case of DNA from EDTA treated blood, maximum amplification of targetsequence occurred at 53oC with 2 mM concentration of MgCl2 in all samples. However, when DNA from lithium heparin treated blood was used as template, 6 out of 9 samples gave amplification results with 4mM concentration of MgCl2 at the same temperature. When 1 ìl genomic DNA from EDTA and lithium heparin treated blood was used as DNA template in DB PCR, all samples gave maximum yield at 53oC.DB PCR successfully amplified the target region when 1 ìl blood treated with EDTA and 0.5 ìl lithium heparin treated blood was used per 50 microliter reaction mixture at 51oC as annealing temperature. Itcan be concluded from the study that EDTA treated blood is more suitable for conventional and DB PCR