Nodal superconductivity coexists with low-moment static magnetism in single-crystalline tetragonal FeS: A muon spin relaxation and rotation study

We report muon spin relaxation and rotation ($\mu$SR) measurements on hydrothermally-grown single crystals of the tetragonal superconductor~FeS, which help to clarify the controversial magnetic state and superconducting gap symmetry of this compound. $\mu$SR time spectra were obtained from 280~K down to 0.025~K in zero field (ZF) and applied fields up to 20 mT. In ZF the observed loss of initial asymmetry (signal amplitude) and increase of depolarization rate~$\Lambda_\mathrm{ZF}$ below 10~K indicate the onset of static magnetism, which coexists with superconductivity below $T_c$. Transverse-field $\mu$SR yields a muon depolarization rate $\sigma_\mathrm{sc} \propto \lambda_{ab}^{-2}$ that clearly shows a linear dependence at low temperature, consistent with nodal superconductivity. The $s{+}d$-wave model gives the best fit to the observed temperature and field dependencies. The normalized superfluid densities versus normalized temperature for different fields collapse onto the same curve, indicating the superconducting gap structure is independent of field. The $T=0$ in-plane penetration depth $\lambda_{ab}$(0) = 198(3) nm.Comment: 5 figure

Supermassive Black Holes with High Accretion Rates in Active Galactic Nuclei. IV. Hβ\beta Time Lags and Implications for Super-Eddington Accretion

We have completed two years of photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of a large number of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with very high accretion rates. In this paper, we report on the result of the second phase of the campaign, during 2013--2014, and the measurements of five new H$\beta$ time lags out of eight monitored AGNs. All five objects were identified as super-Eddington accreting massive black holes (SEAMBHs). The highest measured accretion rates for the objects in this campaign are $\dot{\mathscr{M}}\gtrsim 200$, where $\dot{\mathscr{M}}= \dot{M}_{\bullet}/L_{\rm Edd}c^{-2}$, $\dot{M}_{\bullet}$ is the mass accretion rates, $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington luminosity and $c$ is the speed of light. We find that the H$\beta$ time lags in SEAMBHs are significantly shorter than those measured in sub-Eddington AGNs, and the deviations increase with increasing accretion rates. Thus, the relationship between broad-line region size ($R_{_{\rm H\beta}}$) and optical luminosity at 5100\AA, $R_{_{\rm H\beta}}-L_{5100}$, requires accretion rate as an additional parameter. We propose that much of the effect may be due to the strong anisotropy of the emitted slim-disk radiation. Scaling $R_{_{\rm H\beta}}$ by the gravitational radius of the black hole, we define a new radius-mass parameter ($Y$) and show that it saturates at a critical accretion rate of $\dot{\mathscr{M}}_c=6\sim 30$, indicating a transition from thin to slim accretion disk and a saturated luminosity of the slim disks. The parameter $Y$ is a very useful probe for understanding the various types of accretion onto massive black holes. We briefly comment on implications to the general population of super-Eddington AGNs in the universe and applications to cosmology.Comment: 53 pages, 12 figures, 7 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Magnetic Silicon Fullerene

A metal-encapsulating silicon fullerene, Eu@Si20, has been predicted by density functional theory to be by far the most stable fullerene-like silicon structure. The Eu@Si20 structure is a dodecahedron with D2h symmetry in which the europium atom occupies the center site. The calculated results show that the europium atom has a large magnetic moment of nearly 7.0 Bohr magnetons. In addition, it was found that a stable "pearl necklace" nanowire, constructed by concatenating a series of Eu@Si20 units, with the central europium atom, retains the high spin moment. The magnetic structure of the nanowire indicates potential applications in the fields of spintronics and high-density magnetic storage

Cijepni soj virusa zaraznog bronhitisa patogeniji je za pileće zametke od divljeg soja 2575/98.

An avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strain 2575/98 was attenuated using serial chicken embryo passage to become a vaccine in Taiwan. The aim of this study was to investigate the replication ability, pathogenicity, and tissue tropism of the wild and vaccine strains in chicken embryos. The embryos were inoculated with different titers of wild and vaccine strains. Quantification of virus in allantoic fluid was evaluated using real time RT-PCR. The results showed that the vaccine strain replicated in higher titers than the wild strain, and caused embryo death so quickly that only a few dwarfisms occurred. The embryos inoculated with wild and vaccine strains had similar lesions that were confined primarily to the chorionallantoic membrane (CAM), liver, and kidneys. The immunohistochemical data showed that IBV was present predominantly in the lungs, kidneys, and CAM. Although both strains caused hepatic damage, very few virus antigens were detected in the hepatic tissue. The pathogenicity of the vaccine becomes higher in embryos although it is lower in chickens than its wild strain. The vaccine strain could be used as a possible new vaccine candidate for IBV control.Virus zaraznog bronhitisa peradi soj 2575/98 bio je oslabljen uzastopnim pasažama u pilećim zametcima da bi poslužio kao cijepni soj u Tajvanu. Cilj je ovog rada bio istražiti mogućnost umnožavanja, patogenost i tropizam terenskog i cijepnog soja u pilećim zametcima. Zametci su bili inokulirani cijepnim sojem različitog titra. Količina virusa u alantoisnoj tekućini bila je određena RT-PCR-om u stvarnom vremenu. Rezultati su pokazali da se cijepni soj umnažao u višem titru od divljeg soja i prouzročio uginuće zametaka tako brzo da se uspjelo razviti svega nekoliko kržljavih. U inokuliranih zametaka, bez obzira na divlji ili cijepni soj, razvile su se slične promjene pretežito na korioalantoisnoj opni, jetrima i bubrezima. Imunohistokemijski je dokazano da se virus zaraznog bronhitisa prvenstveno nalazio u plućima, bubrezima i korioalantoisnoj opni. Iako su oba soja prouzročila oštećenja jetara, neznatna količina virusnog antigena bila je dokazana u jetrenom tkivu. Patogenost cijepnog soja bila je u zametcima jača, a u pilićima slabija od divljeg soja. Cijepni soj bi se mogao rabiti kao mogući kandidat za proizvodnju novog cjepiva protiv zaraznog bronhitisa

Silver-based surface plasmon waveguide for terahertz quantum cascade lasers

Terahertz-frequency quantum cascade lasers (THz QCLs) based on ridge waveguides incorporating silver waveguide layers have been investigated theoretically and experimentally, and compared with traditional gold-based devices. The threshold gain associated with silver-, gold- and copper-based devices, and the effects of titanium adhesion layers and top contact layers, in both surface-plasmon and double-metal waveguide geometries, have been analysed. Our simulations show that silver-based waveguides yield lower losses for THz QCLs across all practical operating temperatures and frequencies. Experimentally, QCLs with silver-based surface-plasmon waveguides were found to exhibit higher operating temperatures and higher output powers compared to those with identical but gold-based waveguides. Specifically, for a three-well resonant phonon active region with a scaled oscillator strength of 0.43 and doping density of 6.83 × 10¹⁵ cm‾³, an increase of 5 K in the maximum operating temperature and 40% increase in the output power were demonstrated. These effects were found to be dependent on the active region design, and greater improvements were observed for QCLs with a larger radiative diagonality. Our results indicate that silver-based waveguide structures could potentially enable THz QCLs to operate at high temperatures

Off-line evaluation of mobile-centric indoor positioning systems: the experiences from the 2017 IPIN competition

The development of indoor positioning solutions using smartphones is a growing activity with an enormous potential for everyday life and professional applications. The research activities on this topic concentrate on the development of new positioning solutions that are tested in specific environments under their own evaluation metrics. To explore the real positioning quality of smartphone-based solutions and their capabilities for seamlessly adapting to different scenarios, it is needed to find fair evaluation frameworks. The design of competitions using extensive pre-recorded datasets is a valid way to generate open data for comparing the different solutions created by research teams. In this paper, we discuss the details of the 2017 IPIN indoor localization competition, the different datasets created, the teams participating in the event, and the results they obtained. We compare these results with other competition-based approaches (Microsoft and Perf-loc) and on-line evaluation web sites. The lessons learned by organising these competitions and the benefits for the community are addressed along the paper. Our analysis paves the way for future developments on the standardization of evaluations and for creating a widely-adopted benchmark strategy for researchers and companies in the field.We would like to thank Topcon Corporation for sponsoring the competition track with an award for the winning team. We are also grateful to Francesco Potorti, Sangjoon Park, Hideo Makino, Nobuo Kawaguchi, Takeshi Kurata and Jesus Urena for their invaluable help in organizing and promoting the IPIN competition and conference. Many thanks to Raul Montoliu, Emilio Sansano, Marina Granel and Luis Alisandra for collecting the databases in the UJITI building. Parts of this work were carried out with the financial support received from projects and grants: REPNIN network (TEC2015-71426-REDT), LORIS (TIN2012-38080-C04-04), TARSIUS (TIN2015-71564-C4-2-R (MINECO/FEDER)), SmartLoc (CSIC-PIE Ref. 201450E011), "Metodologias avanzadas para el diseno, desarrollo, evaluacion e integracion de algoritmos de localizacion en interiores" (TIN2015-70202-P), GEO-C (Project ID: 642332, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014-Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action: Innovative Training Networks), and financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (106-3114-E-007-005 and 105-2221-E-155-013-MY3). The HFTS team has been supported in the frame of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research programme "FHprofUnt2013" under contract 03FH035PB3 (Project SPIRIT). The UMinho team has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013. G.M. Mendoza-Silva gratefully acknowledges funding from grant PREDOC/2016/55 by Universitat Jaume I.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Exploring the value co-destruction model for on-line deviant behaviors of hotel customers

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd This study aims to build a value co-destruction model by exploring the online deviant behavior of hotel customers. Desire for revenge and desire for recovery are considered mediators. Hotel guests in notable Taiwan locations were surveyed via the Internet (no. = 601 valid responses). This study finds that negative emotion indirectly impacts negative electronic word of mouth (eWOM) with desire for revenge as a mediator. Furthermore, desire for recovery has the potential to mitigate the impact of negative emotion on negative eWOM. However, the desire for recovery is less intense than the desire for revenge. Based on these findings, this study concludes that emotion, by itself, does not result in action. Respondents only commit negative eWOM because they want to hurt the firm that wronged them. Respondents are also willing to entertain the idea of service recovery. However, desire for revenge is a stronger mediating factor

Novel biomarkers predict liver fibrosis in hepatitis C patients: alpha 2 macroglobulin, vitamin D binding protein and apolipoprotein AI

Abstract Background The gold standard of assessing liver fibrosis is liver biopsy, which is invasive and not without risk. Therefore, searching for noninvasive serologic biomarkers for liver fibrosis is an importantly clinical issue. Methods A total of 16 healthy volunteers and 45 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) were enrolled (F0: n = 16, F1: n = 7, F2: n = 17, F3: n = 8 and F4: n = 13, according to the METAVIR classification). Three serum samples of each fibrotic stage were analyzed by two-dimension difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE). The differential proteins were identified by the cooperation of MALDI-TOF/TOF and MASCOT; then western blotting and Bio-Plex Suspension Array were used to quantify the protein levels. Results Three prominent candidate biomarkers were identified: alpha 2 macroglobulin (A2M) is up regulated; vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) and apolipoprotein AI (ApoAI) are down regulated. The serum concentration of A2M was significantly different among normal, mild (F1/F2) and advanced fibrosis (F3/F4) (p &lt; 0.01). The protein levels of VDBP and ApoAI were significantly higher in normal/mild fibrosis, when compared to those in advanced fibrosis (both p &lt; 0.01). Conclusions This study not only reveals three putative biomarkers of liver fibrosis (A2M, VDBP and ApoAI) but also proves the differential expressions of those markers in different stages of fibrosis. We expect that combination of these novel biomarkers could be applied clinically to predict the stage of liver fibrosis without the need of liver biopsy. </jats:sec

Prognostic factors associated with the survival of oral and pharyngeal carcinoma in Taiwan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In Taiwan, a distinct ethnic group variation in incidence and mortality rates has been suggested for most carcinomas. Our aim is to identify the role of prognostic factors associated with the survival of oral and pharyngeal carcinoma in Taiwan.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Taiwan Cancer Registry records of 9039 subjects diagnosed with oral and pharyngeal carcinoma were analyzed. The population was divided into three ethnic groups by residence, which were Taiwanese aborigines, Hakka and Hokkien communities. Five-year survival rates were estimated by Kaplan-Meier methods. Ethnic curves differed significantly by log-rank test; therefore separate models for Taiwanese aborigines, Hakka and Hokkien were carried out. The Cox multivariate proportional hazards model was used to examine the role of prognostic factors on ethnic survival.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The five-year survival rates of oral and pharyngeal carcinoma were significantly poorer for Hokkien community (53.9%) and Taiwanese aborigines community (58.1%) compared with Hakka community (60.5%). The adjusted hazard ratio of Taiwanese aborigines versus Hakka was 1.07 (95%CI, 0.86–1.33) for oral and pharyngeal carcinoma mortality, and 1.16 (95%CI, 1.01–1.33) for Hokkien versus Hakka. Males had significantly poor prognosis than females. Subjects with tongue and/or mouth carcinoma presented the worst prognosis, whereas lip carcinoma had the best prognosis. Subjects with verrucous carcinoma had better survival than squamous cell carcinoma. Prognosis was the worst in elderly subjects, and subjects who underwent surgery had the highest survival rate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study presented that predictive variables in oral and pharyngeal carcinoma survival have been: ethnic groups, period of diagnosis, gender, diagnostic age, anatomic site, morphologic type, and therapy.</p