Thoroughbred mare's milk exhibits a unique and diverse free oligosaccharide profile.

The Thoroughbred is among the most valuable horse breeds, and its husbandry is a major industry. Mare's milk plays a major role in the health of neonatal foals. Although the main components of mare's milk are broadly characterized, free oligosaccharides (OS), which possess various bioactivities in many mammalian milks, have not been fully profiled in Thoroughbreds. The aim of this study was to identify and quantify OS in Thoroughbred mare's milk during the first week of lactation, when foals typically consume mare's milk exclusively. A total of 48 OS structures (including isomers and anomers), corresponding to 20 unique compositions, were identified by nano LC-Chip QToF-MS and confirmed by tandem mass spectrometry. Neutral OS were the most abundant glycans (58.3%), followed by acidic OS containing Neu5Ac (33.3%), a minor presence of fucosylated OS structures (6.25%) and one structure containing NeuGc (2.1%). Comparison with other well-characterized mammalian milks revealed that mare's milk shared 8 OS structures with human, bovine, pig and goat milk (i.e., 2 sialyllactose isomers, 3 hexose, LNH, LNT, and OS with the composition 3 Hex-1 Neu5Ac). Additionally, there were seven unique OS not previously found in other mammal milks. During the first 7 days of lactation, the percentage of neutral and fucosylated OS increased, whereas acidic OS decreased and the total OS concentration ranged from 217.8 mg·L-1 to 79.8 mg·L-1

Band Structures of 182^{182} Os Studied by GCM based on 3D-CHFB

Band structure properties of $^{182}$Os are investigated through a particle number and angular momentum constrained generator coordinate(GCM) calculation based on self-consistent three-dimensional cranking solutions. From the analysis of the wave function of the lowest GCM solution, we confirm that this nucleus shows a tilted rotational motion in its yrast states, at least with the present set of force parameters of the pairing-plus-quadrupole interaction Hamiltonian. A close examination of behavior of other GCM solutions reveals a sign of a possible occurrence of multi-band crossing in the nucleus. Furthermore, in the course of calculations, we have also found a new potential curve along the prime meridian on the globe of the $J=18\hbar$ sphere. Along this new solution the characters of proton and neutron gap parameters get interchanged. Namely, $\Delta_p$ almost vanishes while $\Delta_n$ grows to a finite value close to the one corresponding to the principal axis rotation(PAR). A state in the new solution curve at the PAR point turns out to have almost the same characteristic features of an yrare $s$-band state which gets located just above the $g$-band in our calculation. This fact suggests a new type of seesaw vibrational mode of the proton and the neutron pairing, occurring through a wobbling motion. The mode is considered to bridge the $g$-band states and the $s$-band states in the backbending region.Comment: LaTeX 19 pages; 14 ps figures; 1 table; submitted to Nucl.Phys.

Axial asymmetry in the IVBM

The dynamical symmetry limit of the two-fluid Interacting Vector Boson Model (IVBM), defined through the chain $Sp(12,R) \supset U(3,3) \supset U_{p}(3) \otimes \overline{U_{n}(3)} \supset SU^{\ast}(3) \supset SO(3)$, is considered and applied for the description of nuclear collective spectra exhibiting axially asymmetric features. The effect of the introduction of a Majorana interaction to the $SU^{\ast}(3)$ model Hamiltonian on the $\gamma$-band energies is studied. The theoretical predictions are compared with the experimental data for $^{192}Os$, $^{190}Os$, and $^{112}Ru$ isotopes. It is shown that by taking into account the full symplectic structures in the considered dynamical symmetry of the IVBM, the proper description of the energy spectra and the $\gamma$-band energy staggering of the nuclei under considerations can be achieved. The obtained results show that the potential energy surfaces for the following two nuclei $^{192}Os$ and $^{112}Ru$, possess almost $\gamma$-flat potentials with very shallow triaxial minima, suggesting a more complex and intermediate situation between $\gamma$-rigid and $\gamma$-unstable structures. Additionally, the absolute $B(E2)$ intraband transition probabilities between the states of the ground state band and $\gamma$ band, as well as the $B(M1)$ interband transition probabilities between the states of the ground and $\gamma$ bands for the two nuclei $^{192}Os$ and $^{190}Os$ are calculated and compared with experiment and for the $B(E2)$ values with the predictions of some other collective models incorporating the $\gamma$-rigid or $\gamma$-unstable structures. The obtained results agree well with the experimental data and reveal the relevance of the used dynamical symmetry of IVBM in the description of nuclei exhibiting axially asymmetric features in their spectra.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1402.174

Spatially Selective and Reversible Doping Control in Cuprate Films

We describe a reversible, spatially-controlled doping method for cuprate films. The technique has been used to create superconductor-antiferromagnetic insulator-superconductor (S-AFI-S) junctions and optimally doped superconductor-underdoped superconductor-optimally doped superconductor (OS-US-OS) cuprate structures. We demonstrate how the S-AFI-S structure can be employed to reliably measure the transport properties of the antiferromagnetic insulator region at cryogenic temperatures using the superconductors as seamless electrical leads. We also discuss applied and fundamental issues which may be addressed with the structures created with this doping method. Although it is implemented on a cuprate film (YBa2Cu3O7-delta) in this work, the method can also be applied to any mixed-valence transition metal oxide whose physical properties are determined by oxygen content.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Local Moment Instability of Os in Honeycomb Li2.15Os0.85O3.

Compounds with honeycomb structures occupied by strong spin orbit coupled (SOC) moments are considered to be candidate Kitaev quantum spin liquids. Here we present the first example of Os on a honeycomb structure, Li2.15(3)Os0.85(3)O3 (C2/c, a = 5.09 Å, b = 8.81 Å, c = 9.83 Å, β = 99.3°). Neutron diffraction shows large site disorder in the honeycomb layer and X-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates a valence state of Os (4.7 ± 0.2), consistent with the nominal concentration. We observe a transport band gap of Δ = 243 ± 23 meV, a large van Vleck susceptibility, and an effective moment of 0.85 μB, much lower than expected from 70% Os(+5). No evidence of long range order is found above 0.10 K but a spin glass-like peak in ac-susceptibility is observed at 0.5 K. The specific heat displays an impurity spin contribution in addition to a power law ∝T(0.63±0.06). Applied density functional theory (DFT) leads to a reduced moment, suggesting incipient itineracy of the valence electrons, and finding evidence that Li over stoichiometry leads to Os(4+)-Os(5+) mixed valence. This local picture is discussed in light of the site disorder and a possible underlying quantum spin liquid state

A genome-wide association study reveals specific transferases as candidate loci for bovine milk oligosaccharides synthesis.

BackgroundHuman milk oligosaccharides (OS) play a key role in brain and gut microbiota development of the neonate, but the underlying biosynthetic steps of OS in the mammary gland are still largely unknown. As bovine milk contains OS with somewhat similar structures and functionalities there is increased interest in further understanding the genetic basis underlying the OS content of milk for eventual extraction and generation of value-added ingredients for infant formulas and nutraceuticals. The present study is the first to report on genetic parameter estimation as well as on a genome wide association study (GWAS) from the largest bovine milk OS dataset analyzed to date.ResultsIn total 15 different bovine milk OS were monitored. Heritabilities ranged from 0 to 0.68 in Danish Holstein and from 0 to 0.92 in Danish Jersey. The GWAS identified in total 1770 SNPs (FDR < 0.10) for five different OS in Danish Holstein and 6913 SNPs (FDR < 0.10) for 11 OS in Danish Jersey. In Danish Holstein, a major overlapping QTL was identified on BTA1 for LNH and LNT explaining 24% of the variation in these OS. The most significant SNPs were associated with B3GNT5, a gene encoding a glycosyltransferase involved in glycan synthesis. In Danish Jersey, a very strong QTL was detected for the OS with composition 2 Hex 1 HexNAc (isomer 1) on BTA11. The most significant SNP had -log10(P-value) of 52.88 (BOVINEHD1100030300) and was assigned to ABO, a gene encoding ABO blood group glycosyltransferases. This SNP has been reported to be a missense mutation and explains 56% of the OS variation. Other candidate genes of interest identified for milk OS were ALG3, B3GALNT2, LOC520336, PIGV, MAN1C1, ST6GALNAC6, GLT6D1, GALNT14, GALNT17, COLGALT2, LFNG and SIGLEC.ConclusionTo our knowledge, this is the first study documenting a solid breeding potential for bovine milk OS and a strong indication of specific candidate genes related to OS synthesis underlying this genetic influence. This new information has the potential to guide breeding strategies to achieve production of milk with higher diversity and concentration of OS and ultimately facilitate large-scale extraction of bovine milk OS

Metastable cubic and tetragonal phases of transition metals predicted by density-functional theory

By means of density-functional calculations, we systematically investigated 24 transition metals for possible metastable phases in body-centered tetragonal structure (bct), including face-centered cubic (fcc) and body-centered cubic (bcc) geometries. A total of 36 structures not coinciding with equilibrium phases were found to minimize the total energy for the bct degrees of freedom. Among these, the fcc structures of Sc, Ti, Co, Y, Zr, Tc, Ru, Hf, Re, and Os, and bct Zr with $c/a=0.82$ were found to be metastable according to their computed phonon spectra. Eight of these predicted phases are not known from the respective pressure-temperature phase diagrams. Possible ways to stabilize the predicted metastable phases are illustrated.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, 7 table