Spin-Orbit induced phase-shift in Bi2_{2}Se3_{3} Josephson junctions

The transmission of Cooper pairs between two weakly coupled superconductors produces a superfluid current and a phase difference; the celebrated Josephson effect. Because of time-reversal and parity symmetries, there is no Josephson current without a phase difference between two superconductors. Reciprocally, when those two symmetries are broken, an anomalous supercurrent can exist in the absence of phase bias or, equivalently, an anomalous phase shift $\varphi_0$ can exist in the absence of a superfluid current. We report on the observation of an anomalous phase shift $\varphi_0$ in hybrid Josephson junctions fabricated with the topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ submitted to an in-plane magnetic field. This anomalous phase shift $\varphi_0$ is observed directly through measurements of the current-phase relationship in a Josephson interferometer. This result provides a direct measurement of the spin-orbit coupling strength and open new possibilities for phase-controlled Josephson devices made from materials with strong spin-orbit coupling

Genetic variations in genes involved in heparan sulphate biosynthesis are associated with Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia: a familial study in Burkina Faso

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is accumulating evidence that host heparan sulphate proteoglycans play an important role in the life cycle of <it>Plasmodium </it>through their heparan sulphate chains, suggesting that genetic variations in genes involved in heparan sulphate biosynthesis may influence parasitaemia. Interestingly, <it>Hs3st3a1 </it>and <it>Hs3st3b1 </it>encoding enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of heparan sulphate are located within a chromosomal region linked to <it>Plasmodium chabaudi </it>parasitaemia in mice. This suggests that <it>HS3ST3A1 </it>and <it>HS3ST3B1 </it>may influence <it>P. falciparum </it>parasitaemia in humans.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Polymorphisms within <it>HS3ST3A1 </it>and <it>HS3ST3B1 </it>were identified in 270 individuals belonging to 44 pedigrees and living in Burkina Faso. Linkage and association between parasitaemia and the polymorphisms were assessed with MERLIN and FBAT. A genetic interaction analysis was also conducted based on the PGMDR approach.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Linkage between <it>P. falciparum </it>parasitaemia and the chromosomal region containing <it>HS3ST3A1 </it>and <it>HS3ST3B1 </it>was detected on the basis of the 20 SNPs identified. In addition, rs28470223 located within the promoter of HS3ST3A1 was associated with <it>P. falciparum </it>parasitaemia, whereas the PGMDR analysis revealed a genetic interaction between <it>HS3ST3A1 </it>and <it>HS3ST3B1</it>. Seventy-three significant multi-locus models were identified after correcting for multiple tests; 37 significant multi-locus models included rs28470223, whereas 38 multi-locus models contained at least one mis-sense mutation within HS3ST3B1.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Genetic variants of <it>HS3ST3A1 </it>and <it>HS3ST3B1 </it>are associated with <it>P. falciparum </it>parasitaemia. This suggests that those variants alter both the function of heparan sulphate proteoglycans and <it>P. falciparum </it>parasitaemia.</p

The distribution of Pearson residuals in generalized linear models

In general, the distribution of residuals cannot be obtained explicitly. We give an asymptotic formula for the density of Pearson residuals in continuous generalized linear models corrected to order $n^{-1}$, where $n$ is the sample size. We define corrected Pearson residuals for these models that, to this order of approximation, have exactly the same distribution of the true Pearson residuals. Applications for important generalized linear models are provided and simulation results for a gamma model illustrate the usefulness of the corrected Pearson residuals

Radiometric Wireless Sensor Network Monitoring of Partial Discharge Sources in Electrical Substations

A wireless sensor network (WSN) with the potential to monitor and locate partial discharge (PD) in high-voltage electricity substations using only received signal strength (RSS) is proposed. The advantages of an RSS-based operating principle over more traditional methods (e.g., time-of-arrival and time-difference-of-arrival) are described. Laboratory measurements of PD that emulate the operation of a PD WSN are presented. The hardware architecture of a prototype PD WSN is described and the particular challenges of an RSS-based location approach in an environment with an unknown, and spatially varying, path-loss index are discussed. It is concluded that an RSS-based PD WSN is a plausible solution for the monitoring of insulation integrity in electricity substations

The role of diabetes in metastatic melanoma patients treated with nivolumab plus relatlimab

Background The combination of nivolumab + relatlimab is superior to nivolumab alone in the treatment of naive patients and has activity in PD-1 refractory melanoma. We had previously observed a reduced expression of LAG3 in melanoma tissue from patients with type 2 diabetes. Method To evaluate the impact of diabetes on oncological outcomes of patients with advanced melanoma treated with nivolumab plus the LAG3 inhibitor relatlimab we performed a retrospective multicenter study. Results Overall, 129 patients were included: 88 without diabetes before the treatment, 37 who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before the start of treatment, and 4 without diabetes before treatment who developed immune checkpoint inhibitor-induced diabetes (ICI-DM). PFS was 21.71 months (95% CI: 15.61–27.81) in patients without diabetes, 10.23 months (95% CI: 5.81–14.66) in patients with type 2 diabetes, and 50.85 months (95% CI: 23.04–78.65) in patients who developed ICI-DM. OS was 37.94 months (95% CI: 31.02–44.85) in patients without diabetes, 22.12 months (95% CI: 14.41–29.85) in those with type 2 diabetes and 57.64 months (95% CI: 42.29–72.99) in those who developed ICI-DM. Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of diabetes and LDH was correlated with OS and PFS. The mean OS was 64.63 months in subjects with low levels of glucose ( 1.5) had a worse prognosis than those whose glucose level had not increased. This result was observed also in subgroups treated either in first line or further lines. Patients who developed ICI-DM during the study period had better outcomes than the overall population and patients without diabetes. Conclusions LAG3 inhibition for treating metastatic or unresectable melanoma has a reduced efficacy in patients with type 2 diabetes, possibly due to a low expression of LAG3 in tumor tissue. Higher level evidence should be obtained

Acumen : an open-source testbed for cyber-physical systems research

Developing Cyber-Physical Systems requires methods and tools to support simulation and verification of hybrid (both continuous and discrete) models. The Acumen modeling and simulation language is an open source testbed for exploring the design space of what rigorousbut- practical next-generation tools can deliver to developers of Cyber- Physical Systems. Like verification tools, a design goal for Acumen is to provide rigorous results. Like simulation tools, it aims to be intuitive, practical, and scalable. However, it is far from evident whether these two goals can be achieved simultaneously. This paper explains the primary design goals for Acumen, the core challenges that must be addressed in order to achieve these goals, the “agile research method” taken by the project, the steps taken to realize these goals, the key lessons learned, and the emerging language design

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13

Observation of associated near-side and away-side long-range correlations in √sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two-particle correlations in relative azimuthal angle (Δϕ) and pseudorapidity (Δη) are measured in √sNN=5.02  TeV p+Pb collisions using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed using approximately 1  μb-1 of data as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the transverse energy (ΣETPb) summed over 3.1<η<4.9 in the direction of the Pb beam. The correlation function, constructed from charged particles, exhibits a long-range (2<|Δη|<5) “near-side” (Δϕ∼0) correlation that grows rapidly with increasing ΣETPb. A long-range “away-side” (Δϕ∼π) correlation, obtained by subtracting the expected contributions from recoiling dijets and other sources estimated using events with small ΣETPb, is found to match the near-side correlation in magnitude, shape (in Δη and Δϕ) and ΣETPb dependence. The resultant Δϕ correlation is approximately symmetric about π/2, and is consistent with a dominant cos⁡2Δϕ modulation for all ΣETPb ranges and particle pT

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results