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A Josephson junction subject to an external RF excitation may experience the inverse AC Josephson effect, where the phase across the junction locks to the drive. The resulting ``Shapiro steps'' of quantized voltage are currently utilized in primary voltage standards. The effect has also been a key technique in the search for topological superconductivity. Here, we study a particularly interesting regime in which the zero voltage state becomes unstable at zero DC bias, and the junction spontaneously develops the first Shapiro step with a voltage $V=\pm \hbar \omega /2e$. The switching time between the $+ \hbar \omega /2e$ and $- \hbar \omega /2e$ states ranges from milliseconds to hours. Most interestingly, we find a surprising regime with a non-monotonic temperature dependence, in which the switching time demonstrates a pronounced minimum at intermediate temperatures. Tuning of the measurement parameters is also shown to give rise to a tristable switching behavior, showcasing the potential for further experiments in stochastic physics and quantum thermodynamics.

It has been suggested that patients with motor neurone disease (MND) and those with MND combined with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) (ie FTD + MND) or with FTD alone might exist on a continuum based on commonalities of neuropathology and/or genetic risk. Moreover, it has been reported that both a neuronal and a glial cell tauopathy can accompany the TDP-43 proteinopathy in patients with motor neurone disease (MND) with cognitive changes, and that the tauopathy may be fundamental to disease pathogenesis and clinical phenotype. In the present study, we sought to substantiate these latter findings, and test this concept of a pathological continuum, in a consecutive series of 41 patients with MND, 16 with FTD + MND and 23 with FTD without MND. Paraffin sections of frontal, entorhinal, temporal and occipital cortex and hippocampus were immunostained for tau pathology using anti-tau antibodies, AT8, pThr175 and pThr217, and for amyloid β protein (Aβ) using 4G8 antibody. Twenty four (59 %) patients with MND, 7 (44 %) patients with FTD + MND and 10 (43 %) patients with FTD showed ‘significant’ tau pathology (ie more than just an isolated neurofibrillary tangle or a few neuropil threads in one or more brain regions examined). In most instances, this bore the histological characteristics of an Alzheimer’s disease process involving entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, temporal cortex, frontal cortex and occipital cortex in decreasing frequency, accompanied by a deposition of Aβ up to Thal phase 3, though 2 patients with MND, and 1 with FTD did show tau pathology beyond Braak stage III. Four other patients with MND showed novel neuronal tau pathology, within the frontal cortex alone, specifically detected by pThr175 antibody, which was characterised by a fine granular or more clumped aggregation of tau without neurofibrillary tangles or neuropil threads. However, none of these 4 patients had clinically evident cognitive disorder, and this type of tau pathology was not seen in any of the FTD + MND or FTD patients. Finally, two patients, one with MND and one with FTD, showed a tau pathology consistent with Argyrophilic Grain Disease (AGD). Western blotting and use of 3- and 4-repeat tau antibodies confirmed the histological interpretation of Alzheimer’s disease type pathology in all instances except for those patients with accompanying AGD where a banding pattern on western blot, and immunohistochemistry, confirmed 4-repeat tauopathy. In all 3 patient groups, amyloid pathology was more likely to be present in patients dying after 65 years of age, and in the presence of APOE ε4 allele. We conclude that tau pathological changes are equally common amongst patients with MND, FTD + MND and FTD though, in most instances, these are limited in extent. In patients with MND, when cognitive impairment is present this is most likely due to an accompanying/evolving (coincidental) Alzheimer’s disease process or, as in a single case, Dementia with Lewy bodies, within the cerebral cortex rather than as a result of TDP-43 proteinopathy. Conversely, in FTD and FTD + MND dementia is more likely to be associated with TDP-43 proteinopathy than tau. Hence, present study shows no progression in severity of (tau) pathology from MND through FTD + MND to FTD, and does not support the concept of these conditions forming a continuum of clinical or pathological change. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40478-016-0301-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

File S1. Clinical histories and neuropathological findings in patients #35 and 41. (DOCX 21Â kb)

Îą-synuclein (a-c) pathology in cingulate gyrus (a), CA2 region of hippocampus (b) and substantia nigra (c) and TDP-43 pathology in anterior horn cells of the spinal cord (d-f), with fine, particulate accumulations of TDP-43 (d,e) or skein-like structures (e,f) being present in affected cells in which the nucleus has been â clearedâ of its normal immunoreactivity. Immunoperoxidase, x400 microscope magnification. (DOCX 6504Â kb)

International audience; We present three bright z(+)-dropout candidates selected from deep near-infrared (NIR) imaging of the COSMOS 2 deg(2) field. All three objects match the 0.8-8 mu m colors of other published z \textgreater 7 candidates but are 3 mag brighter, facilitating further study. Deep spectroscopy of two of the candidates covering 0.64-1.02 mu m with Keck-DEIMOS and all three covering 0.94-1.10 mu m and 1.52-1.80 mu m with Keck-NIRSPEC detects weak spectral features tentatively identified as Ly alpha at z = 6.95 and z = 7.69 in two of the objects. The third object is placed at z similar to 1.6 based on a 24 mu m and weak optical detection. A comparison with the spectral energy distributions of known z \textless 7 galaxies, including objects with strong spectral lines, large extinction, and large systematic uncertainties in the photometry, yields no objects with similar colors. However, the lambda \textgreater 1 mu m properties of all three objects can be matched to optically detected sources with photometric redshifts at z similar to 1.8, so the non-detection in the i(+) and z(+) bands is the primary factor which favors a z \textgreater 7 solution. If any of these objects are at z similar to 7, the bright end of the luminosity function is significantly higher at z \textgreater 7 than suggested by previous studies, but consistent within the statistical uncertainty and the dark matter halo distribution. If these objects are at low redshift, the Lyman break selection must be contaminated by a previously unknown population of low-redshift objects with very strong breaks in their broadband spectral energy distributions and blue NIR colors. The implications of this result on luminosity function evolution at high redshift are discussed. We show that the primary limitation of z \textgreater 7 galaxy searches with broad filters is the depth of the available optical data.

We present three bright z+ dropout candidates selected from deep Near-Infrared (NIR) imaging of the COSMOS 2 square degree field. All three objects match the 0.8-8um colors of other published z>7 candidates but are three magnitudes brighter, facilitating further study. Deep spectroscopy of two of the candidates covering 0.64-1.02um with Keck-DEIMOS and all three covering 0.94-1.10um and 1.52-1.80um with Keck-NIRSPEC detects weak spectral features tentatively identified as Ly-alpha at z=6.95 and z=7.69 in two of the objects. The third object is placed at z~1.6 based on a 24um and weak optical detection. A comparison with the spectral energy distributions of known z1um properties of all three objects can be matched to optically detected sources with photometric redshifts at z~1.8, so the non-detection in the i+ and z+ bands are the primary factors which favors a z>7 solution. If any of these objects are at z~7 the bright end of the luminosity function is significantly higher at z>7 than suggested by previous studies, but consistent within the statistical uncertainty and the dark matter halo distribution. If these objects are at low redshift, the Lyman-Break selection must be contaminated by a previously unknown population of low redshift objects with very strong breaks in their broad band spectral energy distributions and blue NIR colors. The implications of this result on luminosity function evolution at high redshift is discussed. We show that the primary limitation of z>7 galaxy searches with broad filters is the depth of the available optical data., Comment: 15 Pages, 15 figures, accepted to ApJ

Experiments were conducted to investigate the characteristics of the nitrogen ion implanted intermetallic compound TiAl. RBS and AES analysis indicated that the Al concentration at the nitrogen ion implanted layer was very low compared with unimplanted TiAl specimens. It was found, by X-ray diffraction, that the Ti 2 N phase was formed after ion implantation. The corrosion behavior of TiAl specimens implanted with nitrogen ions has been characterized by multisweep cyclic voltammetry. The result revealed that the corrosion resistance of TiAl specimens in a solution of IN sulphuric acid had been improved after nitrogen ion implantation. An isothermal oxidation test, which was carried out at 1100 and 1300 K in a flow of pure oxygen at atmospheric pressure, showed that the oxidation rate of nitrogen ion implanted specimens was higher than of unimplanted ones. The corrosion and oxidation behavior has been explained having in view the composition and structural changes of the specimens after nitrogen ion implantation.

The interactions of the following three kinds of racemic and enantiomeric cobalt(III) chelates with montmorillonite and saponite are studied: (Co(en)3) 3§ (en = ethylenediamine), (Co(diNOsar)) 3+ (diNOsar = (1,8-dinitro-3,6,10,13,16,19-hexaazabicyclo(6,6,6)-eicosane)cobalt(III)) and (Co(diAMsar)) 3+ (diAMsar = (1,8-diamino-3,6,10,13,16,19-hexaazabicyclo-(6,6,6)eicosane)-cobalt(III)). At neutral pH, these complexes are adsorbed as a trivalent cation up to 90%-100% of the cation exchange capacity of a clay. No difference is observed in the maximum adsorption amount between the racemic and enantiomeric isomers. The basal spacings of the clay-chelate adducts are determined by the X-ray diffraction mea- surements of non-oriented powder samples: 14.3 ~, for (Co(en)3) 3+ montmorillonite, 16.5 ~ for (Co(diNOsar)) 3+ montmorillonite, and 16.9 A for (Co(diAMsar)) 3+ montmorillonite. The results imply that the chelates form a monolayer in the interlayer space. From the one-dimensional Fourier analyses of the diffraction pattern of (Co(diNOsar)) 3+ montmorillonite, the chelate is concluded to be adsorbed with its three-fold symmetry axis in parallel with the layer surface. This is in contrast with the previous results of (Ru(phen)3) 2§ and (Ru(bpy)3) 2+, which are adsorbed with their three-fold symmetry axes per- pendicular to the surface. The conclusion is consistent with the angular dependence of the infrared absorption spectrum of the film of the adduct.

where Lrnax= Jrnax for the singlet and triplet uncoupled states and Lrnax= Jrnax±l for the triplet coupled states; a=1.7 for the phase shifts; k is the wave number of the incident wave. The value of the factor a has been chosen by taking into account overbrlm­ ming effects of the two-pion and heavy meson exdianges beyond the OPE force range. Absorption parameters r;LJ have been floated for J :::;;'Jrnax and put to r;LJ = 1 for J > Jrnax, with a in Eq. (2) being taken equal to 1 ~ 1.2. By unitarity, the absorption is an effect of beginning from two-pion exchange with the range of 0.5Pt/f..l;rC in the outermost region. Overbrimmingeffects of the inner interactions beyond this range exist up to the inter-nucleon distance of ~ Pt/f..l;rC. Poor x 2 -values have been resulted when searches with the Jrnax for r;'s smaller than the above one have been carried out. With this being taken into consideration, the value of a has been adopted as above. The mass of the exchanged pion has been assumed constant.

We report the spectroscopic confirmation of a sub-mm galaxy (SMG) at z=4.547 with an estimated L_IR=0.5-2.0x10^13 L_sun. The spectra, mid-IR, and X-ray properties indicate the bolometric luminosity is dominated by star formation at a rate of >1000M_sun per yr. Multiple, spatially separated components are visible in the Ly-Alpha line with an observed velocity difference of up to 380 km/sec and the object morphology indicates a merger. The best fit spectral energy distribution and spectral line indicators suggest the object is 2-8 Myr old and contains >10^10 M_sun of stellar mass. This object is a likely progenitor for the massive early type systems seen at z~2., 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ Letters

Pão de queijo é produto tradicionalmente mineiro. Sua produção vem crescendo muito, expandindo-se inclusive para o mercado externo. Entretanto, ainda não existe um padrão de qualidade. No presente estudo, análise descritiva quantitativa foi aplicada para levantar atributos sensoriais que melhor definem modificações na aparência, aroma, sabor e textura quando alguns ingredientes são variados na formulação do pão de queijo. Sete formulações foram avaliadas por uma equipe de provadores treinados, dezoito atributos sensoriais foram definidos. Após um período de treinamento, os provadores avaliaram as amostras através de delineamento de blocos incompletos balanceados usando escala não estruturada de 9cm. As mesmas foram também avaliadas em relação a aceitabilidade através da escala hedônica de 9 pontos, por 70 consumidores de pães de queijo. Os resultados foram analisados através da ANOVA, seguida pelo teste de Tukey. As amostras apresentaram diferença significativa (p0,05) entre as amostras que se situaram entre os termos hedônicos "gostei ligeiramente" e "gostei muito". Bread cheese is a traditional product of Minas Gerais-Brazil Its production comes growing a lot, expanding besides for the external market. Despite of this expansion, a trading quality standard was not yet developed. In this work, Quantitative Descriptive analysis was applied to select sensory attributes which best define the changes in appearance, aroma, flavour and texture when different ingredients were used. Seven formulations were evaluated by a selected panel and eighteen attributes best describing similarities and differences between then were defined. After a training period panellist evaluated the samples in an incomplete block design using a 9 cm unstructured scale. The developed formulations were also appraised in relation to acceptability through the hedonic scale of 9 points, for 70 consumers of cheese breads. ANOVA and Tukey test (p0,05) was observed between the samples.

Man-made devices that can sense the taste of food and drink have been notoriously difficult to develop, despite their obvious applications in the food industry. To tackle this problem my group at Anritsu Corporation, together with researchers at Kyusyu University in Japan, have been developing a novel taste–sensing system that mimics the way that people and animals taste food. It is primarily designed to detect the taste of drinks such as beer, tea and coffee, and is able to discriminate between different brands of a particular product.

Extraction of acrid and flavor compounds from horseradish and Wasabi with liquid- and supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO 2 ) is described. It was possible to form acrid and flavor compounds by enzymatic reaction in liquid- and SC-CO 2 as well as to extract them with liquid- and SC-CO 2 . A typical acrid component, allyl-isothiocyanate (AITC), formed enzymatically from a corresponding precursor was found to be separated from freeze-pulverized horseradish with CO 2 at 20 MPa and 20°C without decreasing its peroxidase activity. Therefore, the residue after the extraction would be able to be used as a commercial source of peroxidase. The extracted AITC could be collected by forming the inclusion complex with β-cyclodextrin. The included AITC was very stable and is expected to be utilized as an additive to spices and foods.

It has been suggested that patients with motor neurone disease (MND) and those with MND combined with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) (ie FTD + MND) or with FTD alone might exist on a continuum based on commonalities of neuropathology and/or genetic risk. Moreover, it has been reported that both a neuronal and a glial cell tauopathy can accompany the TDP-43 proteinopathy in patients with motor neurone disease (MND) with cognitive changes, and that the tauopathy may be fundamental to disease pathogenesis and clinical phenotype. In the present study, we sought to substantiate these latter findings, and test this concept of a pathological continuum, in a consecutive series of 41 patients with MND, 16 with FTD + MND and 23 with FTD without MND. Paraffin sections of frontal, entorhinal, temporal and occipital cortex and hippocampus were immunostained for tau pathology using anti-tau antibodies, AT8, pThr175 and pThr217, and for amyloid β protein (Aβ) using 4G8 antibody. Twenty four (59 %) patients with MND, 7 (44 %) patients with FTD + MND and 10 (43 %) patients with FTD showed ‘significant’ tau pathology (ie more than just an isolated neurofibrillary tangle or a few neuropil threads in one or more brain regions examined). In most instances, this bore the histological characteristics of an Alzheimer’s disease process involving entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, temporal cortex, frontal cortex and occipital cortex in decreasing frequency, accompanied by a deposition of Aβ up to Thal phase 3, though 2 patients with MND, and 1 with FTD did show tau pathology beyond Braak stage III. Four other patients with MND showed novel neuronal tau pathology, within the frontal cortex alone, specifically detected by pThr175 antibody, which was characterised by a fine granular or more clumped aggregation of tau without neurofibrillary tangles or neuropil threads. However, none of these 4 patients had clinically evident cognitive disorder, and this type of tau pathology was not seen in any of the FTD + MND or FTD patients. Finally, two patients, one with MND and one with FTD, showed a tau pathology consistent with Argyrophilic Grain Disease (AGD). Western blotting and use of 3- and 4-repeat tau antibodies confirmed the histological interpretation of Alzheimer’s disease type pathology in all instances except for those patients with accompanying AGD where a banding pattern on western blot, and immunohistochemistry, confirmed 4-repeat tauopathy. In all 3 patient groups, amyloid pathology was more likely to be present in patients dying after 65 years of age, and in the presence of APOE ε4 allele. We conclude that tau pathological changes are equally common amongst patients with MND, FTD + MND and FTD though, in most instances, these are limited in extent. In patients with MND, when cognitive impairment is present this is most likely due to an accompanying/evolving (coincidental) Alzheimer’s disease process or, as in a single case, Dementia with Lewy bodies, within the cerebral cortex rather than as a result of TDP-43 proteinopathy. Conversely, in FTD and FTD + MND dementia is more likely to be associated with TDP-43 proteinopathy than tau. Hence, present study shows no progression in severity of (tau) pathology from MND through FTD + MND to FTD, and does not support the concept of these conditions forming a continuum of clinical or pathological change.