Evolution from a nodeless gap to d(x2-y2) form in underdoped La(2-x)SrxCuO4

Using angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES), it is revealed that the low-energy electronic excitation spectra of highly underdoped superconducting and non-superconducting La(2-x)SrxCuO4 cuprates are gapped along the entire underlying Fermi surface at low temperatures. We show how the gap function evolves to a d(x2-y2) form as increasing temperature or doping, consistent with the vast majority of ARPES studies of cuprates. Our results provide essential information for uncovering the symmetry of the order parameter(s) in strongly underdoped cuprates, which is a prerequisite for understanding the pairing mechanism and how superconductivity emerges from a Mott insulator.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Supercube grains leading to a strong cube texture and a broad grain size distribution after recrystallization

This work revisits the classical subject of recrystallization of cold-rolled copper. Two characterization techniques are combined: three-dimensional X-ray diffraction using synchrotron X-rays, which is used to measure the growth kinetics of individual grains in situ, and electron backscatter diffraction, which is used for statistical analysis of the microstructural evolution. As the most striking result, the strong cube texture after recrystallization is found to be related to a few super large cube grains, which were named supercube grains. These few supercube grains become large due to higher growth rates. However, most other cube grains do not grow preferentially. Because of the few supercube grains, the grain size distribution after recrystallization is broad. Reasons for the higher growth rates of supercube grains are discussed, and are related to the local deformed microstructure

Simulation of transition dynamics to high confinement in fusion plasmas

The transition dynamics from the low (L) to the high (H) confinement mode in magnetically confined plasmas is investigated using a first-principles four-field fluid model. Numerical results are in close agreement with measurements from the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak - EAST. Particularly, the slow transition with an intermediate dithering phase is well reproduced by the numerical solutions. Additionally, the model reproduces the experimentally determined L-H transition power threshold scaling that the ion power threshold increases with increasing particle density. The results hold promise for developing predictive models of the transition, essential for understanding and optimizing future fusion power reactors

Seasonal carbon cycling in a Greenlandic fjord: an integrated pelagic and benthic study

Climate change is expected to have a pronounced effect on biogeochemical cycling in Arctic fjords, but current insight on the biogeochemical functioning of these systems is limited. Here, we present seasonal data on primary production, export of particulate organic carbon (POC), and the coupling to benthic biogeochemistry in Kobbefjord (SW Greenland). Primary production and associated POC export from the photic zone showed marked seasonality, with annual integrated values of 7.2 and 19.9 mol C m-2 yr-1, respectively. This discrepancy, the isotopic signature, and C:N ratio of the sedimentating material suggested substantial import of marine POC from outside the fjord. At least 52% of the POC export reached the sediment, but the seasonality in pelagic productivity was not reflected in the sediment biogeochemistry, showing only moderate variation. Benthic mineralization and burial of organic carbon amounted to 3.2 and 5.3 mol C m-2 yr-1, respectively. Sulfate reduction was the most prominent mineralization pathway, accounting for 69% of the benthic mineralization, while denitrification accounted for 2%. Overall, the carbon mineralization and burial in Kobbefjord were significantly higher than previously observed in other more northerly Arctic fjords. Data compilation from Arctic fjords suggests proportional increases in surface production, POC export, benthic mineralization and burial of organic material with increasing duration of the ice-free period. Thus, the projected decline in ice coverage in higher Arctic Greenlandic fjords will, as a first approximation, entail proportional increases in productivity, mineralization, and burial of organic carbon in the fjords, which will thus become similar to present-day southerly systems

Natural Pig Plasma Immunoglobulins Have Anti-Bacterial Effects: Potential for Use as Feed Supplement for Treatment of Intestinal Infections in Pigs

There is an increasing demand for non-antibiotics solutions to control infectious disease in intensive pig production. Here, one such alternative, namely pig antibodies purified from slaughterhouse blood was investigated in order to elucidate its potential usability to control post-weaning diarrhoea (PWD), which is one of the top indications for antibiotics usage in the pig production. A very cost-efficient and rapid one-step expanded bed adsorption (EBA) chromatography procedure was used to purify pig immunoglobulin G from slaughterhouse pig plasma (more than 100 litres), resulting in >85% pure pig IgG (ppIgG). The ppIgG thus comprised natural pig immunoglobulins and was subsequently shown to contain activity towards four pig-relevant bacterial strains (three different types of Escherichia coli and one type of Salmonella enterica) but not towards a fish pathogen (Yersinia ruckeri), and was demonstrated to inhibit the binding of the four pig relevant bacteria to a pig intestinal cell line (IPEC-J2). Finally it was demonstrated in an in vivo weaning piglet model for intestinal colonization with an E. coli F4+ challenge strain that ppIgG given in the feed significantly reduced shedding of the challenge strain, reduced the proportion of the bacterial family Enterobacteriaceae, increased the proportion of families Enterococcoceae and Streptococcaceae and generally increased ileal microbiota diversity. Conclusively, our data support the idea that natural IgG directly purified from pig plasma and given as a feed supplement can be used in modern swine production as an efficient and cost-effective means for reducing both occurrence of PWD and antibiotics usage and with a potential for the prevention and treatment of other intestinal infectious diseases even if the causative agent might not be known

Reading Videogames as (authorless) Literature

This article presents the outcomes of research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in England and informed by work in the fields of new literacy research, gaming studies and the socio-cultural framing of education, for which the videogame L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, 2011) was studied within the orthodox framing of the English Literature curriculum at A Level (pre-University) and Undergraduate (degree level). There is a plethora of published research into the kinds of literacy practices evident in videogame play, virtual world engagement and related forms of digital reading and writing (Gee, 2003; Juul, 2005; Merchant, Gillen, Marsh and Davies, 2012; Apperley and Walsh, 2012; Bazalgette and Buckingham, 2012) as well as the implications of such for home / school learning (Dowdall, 2006; Jenkins, 2006; Potter, 2012) and for teachers’ own digital lives (Graham, 2012). Such studies have tended to focus on younger children and this research is also distinct from such work in the field in its exploration of the potential for certain kinds of videogame to be understood as 'digital transformations' of conventional ‘schooled’ literature. The outcomes of this project raise implications of such a conception for a further implementation of a ‘reframed’ literacy (Marsh, 2007) within the contemporary curriculum of a traditional and conservative ‘subject’. A mixed methods approach was adopted. Firstly, students contributing to a gamplay blog requiring them to discuss their in-game experience through the ‘language game’ of English Literature, culminating in answering a question constructed with the idioms of the subject’s set text ‘final examination’. Secondly, students taught their teachers to play L.A. Noire, with free choice over the context for this collaboration. Thirdly, participants returned to traditional roles in order to work through a set of study materials provided, designed to reproduce the conventions of the ‘study guide’ for literature education. Interviews were conducted after each phase and the outcomes informed a redrafting of the study materials which are now available online for teachers – this being the ‘practical’ outcome of the research (Berger and McDougall, 2012). In the act of inserting the study of L.A. Noire into the English Literature curriculum as currently framed, this research moves, through a practical ‘implementation’ beyond longstanding debates around narratology and ludology (Frasca, 2003; Juul, 2005) in the field of game studies (Leaning, 2012) through a direct connection to new literacy studies and raises epistemological questions about ‘subject identity’, informed by Bernstein (1996) and Bourdieu (1986) and the implications for digital transformations of texts for both ideas about cultural value in schooled literacy (Kendall and McDougall, 2011) and the politics of ‘expertise’ in pedagogic relations (Ranciere, 2009, Bennett, Kendall and McDougall, 2012a)