Enhanced superconducting pairing interaction in indium-doped tin telluride

The ferroelectric degenerate semiconductor Sn{sub 1-{delta}}Te exhibits superconductivity with critical temperatures, T{sub c}, of up to 0.3 K for hole densities of order 10{sup 21} cm{sup -3}. When doped on the tin site with greater than x{sub c} = 1.7(3)% indium atoms, however, superconductivity is observed up to 2 K, though the carrier density does not change significantly. We present specific heat data showing that a stronger pairing interaction is present for x > x{sub c} than for x < x{sub c}. By examining the effect of In dopant atoms on both T{sub c} and the temperature of the ferroelectric structural phase transition, T{sub SPT}, we show that phonon modes related to this transition are not responsible for this T{sub c} enhancement, and discuss a plausible candidate based on the unique properties of the indium impurities

Schwinger type processes via branes and their gravity duals

We consider Schwinger type processes involving the creation of the charge and monopole pairs in the external fields and propose interpretation of these processes via corresponding brane configurations in Type IIB string theory. We suggest simple description of some new interesting nonperturbative processes like monopole/dyon transitions in the electric field and W-boson decay in the magnetic field using the brane language. Nonperturbative pair production in the strong coupling regime using the AdS/CFT correspondence is studied. The treatment of the similar processes in the noncommutative theories when noncommutativity is traded for the background fields is presented and the possible role of the critical magnetic field which is S-dual to the critical electric field is discussed.Comment: 29pp, LaTeX; v3. reference adde

Gauge/string duality for QCD conformal operators

Renormalization group evolution of QCD composite light-cone operators, built from two and more quark and gluon fields, is responsible for the logarithmic scaling violations in diverse physical observables. We analyze spectra of anomalous dimensions of these operators at large conformal spins at weak and strong coupling with the emphasis on the emergence of a dual string picture. The multi-particle spectrum at weak coupling has a hidden symmetry due to integrability of the underlying dilatation operator which drives the evolution. In perturbative regime, we demonstrate the equivalence of the one-loop cusp anomaly to the disk partition function in two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory which admits a string representation. The strong coupling regime for anomalous dimensions is discussed within the two pictures addressed recently, -- minimal surfaces of open strings and rotating long closed strings in AdS background. In the latter case we find that the integrability implies the presence of extra degrees of freedom -- the string junctions. We demonstrate how the analysis of their equations of motion naturally agrees with the spectrum found at weak coupling.Comment: Latex, 59 pages, 6 figure

Quantum Oscillation Studies of the Fermi Surface of LaFePO

We review recent experimental measurements of the Fermi surface of the iron-pnictide superconductor LaFePO using quantum oscillation techniques. These studies show that the Fermi surface topology is close to that predicted by first principles density functional theory calculations, consisting of quasi-two-dimensional electron-like and hole-like sheets. The total volume of the two hole sheets is almost equal to that of the two electron sheets, and the hole and electron Fermi surface sheets are close to a nesting condition. No evidence for the predicted three dimensional pocket arising from the Fe $d_{z^2}$ band is found. Measurements of the effective mass suggest a renormalisation of around two, close to the value for the overall band renormalisation found in recent angle resolved photoemission measurements.Comment: Submitted to Physica C special issue on iron-pnictide superconductor

PEP-II Status

PEP-II and BaBar have just finished run 7, the last run of the SLAC B-factory. PEP-II was one of the few high-current e+e- colliding accelerators and holds the present world record for stored electrons and stored positrons. It has stored 2.07 A of electrons, nearly 3 times the design current of 0.75 A and it has stored 3.21 A of positrons, 1.5 times more than the design current of 2.14 A. High-current beams require careful design of several systems. The feedback systems that control instabilities, the RF system stability loops, and especially the vacuum systems have to handle the higher power demands. We present here some of the accomplishments of the PEP-II accelerator and some of the problems we encountered while running high-current beams

Twenty-six years of HIV science: an overview of anti-HIV drugs metabolism

From the identification of HIV as the agent causing AIDS, to the development of effective antiretroviral drugs, the scientific achievements in HIV research over the past twenty-six years have been formidable. Currently, there are twenty-five anti-HIV compounds which have been formally approved for clinical use in the treatment of AIDS. These compounds fall into six categories: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs), nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NtRTIs), non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), protease inhibitors (PIs), cell entry inhibitors or fusion inhibitors (FIs), co-receptor inhibitors (CRIs), and integrase inhibitors (INIs). Metabolism by the host organism is one of the most important determinants of the pharmacokinetic profile of a drug. Formation of active or toxic metabolites will also have an impact on the pharmacological and toxicological outcomes. Therefore, it is widely recognized that metabolism studies of a new chemical entity need to be addressed early in the drug discovery process. This paper describes an overview of the metabolism of currently available anti-HIV drugs.Da identificação do HIV como o agente causador da AIDS, ao desenvolvimento de fármacos antirretrovirais eficazes, os avanços científicos na pesquisa sobre o HIV nos últimos vinte e seis anos foram marcantes. Atualmente, existem vinte e cinco fármacos anti-HIV formalmente aprovados pelo FDA para utilização clínica no tratamento da AIDS. Estes compostos são divididos em seis classes: inibidores nucleosídeos de transcriptase reversa (INTR), inibidores nucleotídeos de transcriptase reversa (INtTR), inibidores não-nucleosídeos de transcriptase reversa (INNTR), inibidores de protease (IP), inibidores da entrada celular ou inibidores de fusão (IF), inibidores de co-receptores (ICR) e inibidores de integrase (INI). O metabolismo consiste em um dos maiores determinantes do perfil farmacocinético de um fármaco. A formação de metabólitos ativos ou tóxicos terá impacto nas respostas farmacológicas ou toxicológicas do fármaco. Portanto, é amplamente reconhecido que estudos do metabolismo de uma nova entidade química devem ser realizados durante as fases iniciais do processo de desenvolvimento de fármacos. Este artigo descreve uma abordagem do metabolismo dos fármacos anti-HIV atualmente disponíveis na terapêutica

Global maps of soil temperature.

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km <sup>2</sup> resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km <sup>2</sup> pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

The Physics of the B Factories

This work is on the Physics of the B Factories. Part A of this book contains a brief description of the SLAC and KEK B Factories as well as their detectors, BaBar and Belle, and data taking related issues. Part B discusses tools and methods used by the experiments in order to obtain results. The results themselves can be found in Part C