50 research outputs found
Electronic Collective Modes and Superconductivity in Layered Conductors
A distinctive feature of layered conductors is the presence of low-energy
electronic collective modes of the conduction electrons. This affects the
dynamic screening properties of the Coulomb interaction in a layered material.
We study the consequences of the existence of these collective modes for
superconductivity. General equations for the superconducting order parameter
are derived within the strong-coupling phonon-plasmon scheme that account for
the screened Coulomb interaction. Specifically, we calculate the
superconducting critical temperature Tc taking into account the full
temperature, frequency and wave-vector dependence of the dielectric function.
We show that low-energy plasmons may contribute constructively to
superconductivity. Three classes of layered superconductors are discussed
within our model: metal-intercalated halide nitrides, layered organic materials
and high-Tc oxides. In particular, we demonstrate that the plasmon contribution
(electronic mechanism) is dominant in the first class of layered materials. The
theory shows that the description of so-called ``quasi-two-dimensional
superconductors'' cannot be reduced to a purely 2D model, as commonly assumed.
While the transport properties are strongly anisotropic, it remains essential
to take into account the screened interlayer Coulomb interaction to describe
the superconducting state of layered materials.Comment: Final version (minor changes) 14 pages, 6 figure
Electronic correlation in the infrared optical properties of the quasi two dimensional -type BEDT-TTF dimer system
The polarized optical reflectance spectra of the quasi two dimensional
organic correlated electron system -(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)],
Br and Cl are measured in the infrared region. The former shows the
superconductivity at 11.6 K and the latter does the
antiferromagnetic insulator transition at 28 K. Both the
specific molecular vibration mode of the BEDT-TTF molecule and
the optical conductivity hump in the mid-infrared region change correlatively
at 38 K of -(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)]Br, although
no indication of but the insulating behaviour below 50-60 K are found in -(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)]Cl. The
results suggest that the electron-molecular vibration coupling on the
mode becomes weak due to the enhancement of the itinerant
nature of the carriers on the dimer of the BEDT-TTF molecules below ,
while it does strong below because of the localized carriers on
the dimer. These changes are in agreement with the reduction and the
enhancement of the mid-infrared conductivity hump below and , respectively, which originates from the transitions between the upper
and lower Mott-Hubbard bands. The present observations demonstrate that two
different metallic states of -(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)]Br are
regarded as {\it a correlated good metal} below including the
superconducting state and {\it a half filling bad metal} above . In
contrast the insulating state of -(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)]Cl
below is the Mott insulator.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Riboflavin alleviates cardiac failure in Type I diabetic cardiomyopathy
Heart failure (HF) is a common and serious comorbidity of diabetes. Oxidative stress has been associated with the pathogenesis of chronic diabetic complications including cardiomyopathy. The ability of antioxidants to inhibit injury has raised the possibility of new therapeutic treatment for diabetic heart diseases. Riboflavin constitutes an essential nutrient for humans and animals and it is an important food additive. Riboflavin, a precursor of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), enhances the oxidative folding and subsequent secretion of proteins. The objective of this study was to investigate the cardioprotective effect of riboflavin in diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced in 30 rats by a single injection of streptozotocin (STZ) (70 mg /kg). Riboflavin (20 mg/kg) was orally administered to animals immediately after induction of diabetes and was continued for eight weeks. Rats were examined for diabetic cardiomyopathy by left ventricular (LV) remadynamic function. Myocardial oxidative stress was assessed by measuring the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) as well as heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) protein level. Myocardial connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) level was measured by Western blot in all rats at the end of the study. In the untreated diabetic rats, left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP) rate of pressure rose (+dp/dt), and rate of pressure decay (−dp/dt) were depressed while left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) was increased, which indicated the reduced left ventricular contractility and slowing of left ventricular relaxation. The level of SOD decreased, CTGF and HO-1 protein expression and MDA content rose. Riboflavin treatment significantly improved left ventricular systolic and diastolic function in diabetic rats, there were persistent increases in significant activation of SOD and the level of HO-1 protein, and a decrease in the level of CTGF. These results suggest that riboflavin treatment ameliorates myocardial function and improves heart oxidant status, whereas raising myocardial HO-1 and decreasing myocardial CTGF levels have beneficial effects on diabetic cardiomyopathy
Incoherent Interplane Conductivity of kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br
The interplane optical spectrum of the organic superconductor
kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br was investigated in the frequency range from 40
to 40,000 cm-1. The optical conductivity was obtained by Kramers-Kronig
analysis of the reflectance. The absence of a Drude peak at low frequency is
consistent with incoherent conductivity but in apparent contradiction to the
metallic temperature dependence of the DC resistivity. We set an upper limit to
the interplane transfer integral of tb = 0.1 meV. A model of defect-assisted
interplane transport can account for this discrepancy. We also assign the
phonon lines in the conductivity to the asymmetric modes of the ET molecule.Comment: 7 pages with embedded figures, submitted to PR
Influence of internal disorder on the superconducting state in the organic layered superconductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br
We report high-sensitivity AC susceptibility measurements of the penetration
depth in the Meissner state of the layered organic superconductor
kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br. We have studied nominally pure single crystals
from the two different syntheses and employed controlled cooling procedures in
order to minimize intrinsic remnant disorder at low temperatures associated
with the glass transition, caused by ordering of the ethylene moieties in
BEDT-TTF molecule at T_G = 75 K. We find that the optimal cooling procedures
(slow cooling of -0.2 K/h or annealing for 3 days in the region of T_G) needed
to establish the ground state, depend critically on the sample origin
indicating different relaxation times of terminal ethylene groups. We show
that, in the ground state, the behavior observed for nominally pure single
crystals from both syntheses is consistent with unconventional d-wave order
parameter. The in-plane penetration depth lambda_in(T) is strongly linear,
whereas the out-of-plane component lambda_out(T) varies as T^2. In contrast,
the behavior of single crystals with long relaxation times observed after slow
(-0.2 K/h) cooling is as expected for a d-wave superconductor with impurities
(i.e. lambda_in(T) propto lambda_out(T) propto T^2) or might be also reasonably
well described by the s-wave model. Our results might reconcile the
contradictory findings previously reported by different authors.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
The impact of the metabotropic glutamate receptor and other gene family interaction networks on autism
Although multiple reports show that defective genetic networks underlie the aetiology of autism, few have translated into pharmacotherapeutic opportunities. Since drugs compete with endogenous small molecules for protein binding, many successful drugs target large gene families with multiple drug binding sites. Here we search for defective gene family interaction networks (GFINs) in 6,742 patients with the ASDs relative to 12,544 neurologically normal controls, to find potentially druggable genetic targets. We find significant enrichment of structural defects (P≤2.40E-09, 1.8-fold enrichment) in the metabotropic glutamate receptor (GRM) GFIN, previously observed to impact attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia. Also, the MXD-MYC-MAX network of genes, previously implicated in cancer, is significantly enriched (P≤3.83E-23, 2.5-fold enrichment), as is the calmodulin 1 (CALM1) gene interaction network (P≤4.16E-04, 14.4-fold enrichment), which regulates voltage-independent calcium-activated action potentials at the neuronal synapse. We find that multiple defective gene family interactions underlie autism, presenting new translational opportunities to explore for therapeutic interventions
Heterozygous ANKRD17 loss-of-function variants cause a syndrome with intellectual disability, speech delay, and dysmorphism
ANKRD17 is an ankyrin repeat-containing protein thought to play a role in cell cycle progression, whose ortholog in Drosophila functions in the Hippo pathway as a co-factor of Yorkie. Here, we delineate a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by de novo heterozygous ANKRD17 variants. The mutational spectrum of this cohort of 34 individuals from 32 families is highly suggestive of haploinsufficiency as the underlying mechanism of disease, with 21 truncating or essential splice site variants, 9 missense variants, 1 in-frame insertion-deletion, and 1 microdeletion (1.16 Mb). Consequently, our data indicate that loss of ANKRD17 is likely the main cause of phenotypes previously associated with large multi-gene chromosomal aberrations of the 4q13.3 region. Protein modeling suggests that most of the missense variants disrupt the stability of the ankyrin repeats through alteration of core structural residues. The major phenotypic characteristic of our cohort is a variable degree of developmental delay/intellectual disability, particularly affecting speech, while additional features include growth failure, feeding difficulties, non-specific MRI abnormalities, epilepsy and/or abnormal EEG, predisposition to recurrent infections (mostly bacterial), ophthalmological abnormalities, gait/balance disturbance, and joint hypermobility. Moreover, many individuals shared similar dysmorphic facial features. Analysis of single-cell RNA-seq data from the developing human telencephalon indicated ANKRD17 expression at multiple stages of neurogenesis, adding further evidence to the assertion that damaging ANKRD17 variants cause a neurodevelopmental disorder.Neurolog
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80 K anomaly and its effect on the superconducting and magnetic transition in deuterated {kappa}-(BEDT-TTF){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Br
In this paper, we report careful transport and magnetic measurements on single crystals of deuterated {kappa}-(ET){sub 2}Cu[N(CN){sub 2}]Br. By cooling the sample at different rates, it is found that cooling through 80K has a dramatic effect on the normal state metal-insulator transition and the superconducting transition temperatures. In-plane resistivity depends strongly on the cooling rate for temperatures below 80K, above which all resistivity curves cooled at different rates converge. By comparing it with the nondeuterated salt and the quasi-1D Bechgaard salt, we speculate that 80K corresponds to a structural phase transition in the anion chain. Fast cooling through 80K will freeze the high temperature magnetic phase to low temperatures and the presence of local magnetic moments suppresses the superconducting T{sub c}. {copyright} {ital 1998} {ital The American Physical Society