Health anxiety (HA) is common in psychiatric and medical settings. Cognitive models of HA highlight the role of misinterpreting physical sensations as dangerous. This report presents the case of a 31-year-old man and the use of a cognitive-behavioural approach to treat his HA which also considers the role of misinterpreting intrusions as abnormal, by drawing on theoretical accounts of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). A single-case experimental design demonstrated reliable improvements in symptom measures of HA and general distress. Distinguishing sensation-based versus intrusion-based appraisals in HA has implications for interventions in health settings and for refining cognitive theory.

Sexual obsessions are common in adolescents with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but how to address these obsessions in a developmentally sensitive manner remains under-explored. This report presents the case of an adolescent who experienced unwanted sexual imagery, undergoing conventional exposure and response prevention, which was subsequently augmented with imagery-based techniques. This approach was associated with remission in symptoms of OCD and marked improvements in symptoms of anxiety and depression. The imagery-based approach was well received and valued as key to treatment success by the adolescent. This raises the tantalising possibility that working directly with images can fuel treatment innovation in tackling sexual (and non-sexual) obsessions in youth OCD.

Gravitational waves from coalescing neutron stars encode information about nuclear matter at extreme densities, inaccessible by laboratory experiments. The late inspiral is influenced by the presence of tides, which depend on the neutron star equation of state. Neutron star mergers are expected to often produce rapidly rotating remnant neutron stars that emit gravitational waves. These will provide clues to the extremely hot post-merger environment. This signature of nuclear matter in gravitational waves contains most information in the 2–4 kHz frequency band, which is outside of the most sensitive band of current detectors. We present the design concept and science case for a Neutron Star Extreme Matter Observatory (NEMO): a gravitational-wave interferometer optimised to study nuclear physics with merging neutron stars. The concept uses high-circulating laser power, quantum squeezing, and a detector topology specifically designed to achieve the high-frequency sensitivity necessary to probe nuclear matter using gravitational waves. Above 1 kHz, the proposed strain sensitivity is comparable to full third-generation detectors at a fraction of the cost. Such sensitivity changes expected event rates for detection of post-merger remnants from approximately one per few decades with two A+ detectors to a few per year and potentially allow for the first gravitational-wave observations of supernovae, isolated neutron stars, and other exotica.

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, July 30 – August 3, 2005

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, July 30 – August 3, 2006

Extended abstract of a paper presented at Microscopy and Microanalysis 2006 in Chicago, Illinois, USA, July 30 – August 3, 2005

Y-Ba-Cu-O superconducting films were prepared on polycrystalline CaO stabilized ZrO2 substrates using RF thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition. The important feature of this work is that superconducting films can be deposited at a high rate of ˜0.1 μm/min in the as-deposited state without post-oxidation. Mixed aqueous nitrate solutions of yttrium, barium and copper were used. The liquid precursors were atomized by an ultrasonic nebulizer and introduced into the RF thermal plasma using oxygen as a carrier gas. Different substrate temperatures of 450 °C, 500 °C and 600 °C were used during deposition. The substrate temperatures were controlled by varying the feed rate of cooling gas to the substrate holder. X-ray diffraction, SEM and transition temperature measurements were used to characterize the as-deposited films. The X-ray diffraction patterns show that the as-deposited films were preferentially oriented with the c-axis perpendicular to the plane of the films.