Is there a paramagnetic Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect?

We report on low-field measurements of the Meissner effect in a BYCO high-T/sub c/ superconductor with large pinning. The positive Meissner effect (PME) observed at low fields in a SQUID magnetometer is shown to be an artifact arising from the presence of a small field gradient. No PME is observed using an extraction technique to measure the magnetization.