556 research outputs found
The hedgehog pathway and ocular developmental anomalies.
Mutations in effectors of the hedgehog signaling pathway are responsible for a wide variety of ocular developmental anomalies. These range from massive malformations of the brain and ocular primordia, not always compatible with postnatal life, to subtle but damaging functional effects on specific eye components. This review will concentrate on the effects and effectors of the major vertebrate hedgehog ligand for eye and brain formation, Sonic hedgehog (SHH), in tissues that constitute the eye directly and also in those tissues that exert indirect influence on eye formation. After a brief overview of human eye development, the many roles of the SHH signaling pathway during both early and later morphogenetic processes in the brain and then eye and periocular primordia will be evoked. Some of the unique molecular biology of this pathway in vertebrates, particularly ciliary signal transduction, will also be broached within this developmental cellular context
Homogeneous superconducting state at 8.1 K under ambient pressure in the organic conductor β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3
We report the observation of the first narrow and complete superconducting transition yet obtained in β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 at 8.1 K and ambient pressure after pressurization up to 1.5 kbar and a release of the helium gas pressure at low temperature. We show experimental evidences indicating that the metastable state giving rise to homogeneous superconductivity at ambient pressure is not stable above 250 K
Determining ethylene group disorder levels in -(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)]Br
We present a detailed structural investigation of the organic superconductor
-(BEDT-TTF)Cu[N(CN)]Br at temperatures from 9 to 300 K.
Anomalies in the dependence of the lattice parameters are associated with a
glass-like transition previously reported at = 77 K. From structure
refinements at 9, 100 and 300 K, the orthorhombic crystalline symmetry, space
group {\it Pnma}, is established at all temperatures. Further, we extract the
dependence of the occupation factor of the eclipsed conformation of the
terminal ethylene groups of the BEDT-TTF molecule. At 300 K, we find 67(2) %,
with an increase to 97(3) % at 9 K. We conclude that the glass-like transition
is not primarily caused by configurational freezing-out of the ethylene groups
Mott transition in one dimension
I review some of the results on the Mott transition in one dimensional
systems. In particular I discuss the phase diagram and critical properties of
both Mott transitions at fixed filling and upon doping, as well as the dc and
ac conductivity. Application of these results to organic conductors is
discussed.Comment: Proceedings of the SCES96 conference (August 96), 6 pages, 6 figures,
uses epsfi
Phase diagram of quarter-filled band organic salts, [EDT-TTF-CONMe2]2X, X = AsF6 and Br
An investigation of the P/T phase diagram of the quarter-filled organic
conductors, [EDT-TTF-CONMe2]2X, is reported on the basis of transport and NMR
studies of two members, X=AsF6 and Br of the family. The strongly insulating
character of these materials in the low pressure regime has been attributed to
a remarkably stable charge ordered state confirmed by 13C NMR and the only
existence of 1/4 Umklapp e-e scattering favoring a charge ordering instead of
the 1D Mott localization seen in (TM)2X which are quarter-filled compounds with
dimerization. A non magnetic insulating phase instead of the spin density wave
state is stabilized in the deconfined regime of the phase diagram. This
sequence of phases observed under pressure may be considered as a generic
behavior for 1/4-filled conductors with correlations
Towards a consistent picture for quasi-1D organic superconductors
The electrical resistivity of the quasi-1D organic superconductor (TMTSF)2PF6
was recently measured at low temperature from the critical pressure needed to
suppress the spin-density-wave state up to a pressure where superconductivity
has almost disappeared. This data revealed a direct correlation between the
onset of superconductivity at Tc and the strength of a non-Fermi-liquid linear
term in the normal-state resistivity, going as r(T) = r0 + AT + BT2 at low
temperature, so that A goes to 0 as Tc goes to 0. Here we show that the
contribution of low-frequency antiferromagnetic fluctuations to the
spin-lattice relaxation rate is also correlated with this non-Fermi-liquid term
AT in the resistivity. These correlations suggest that anomalous scattering and
pairing have a common origin, both rooted in the low-frequency
antiferromagnetic fluctuations measured by NMR. A similar situation may also
prevail in the recently-discovered iron-pnictide superconductors.Comment: ISCOM'09 proceedings to be published in Physica
Insulator-Metal Transition in One Dimension Induced by Long-Range Electronic Interactions
The effects of a long range electronic potential on a one dimensional
commensurate Charge Density Wave (CDW) state are investigated. Using numerical
techniques it is shown that a transition to a metallic ground state is reached
as the range of the electron-electron repulsion increases. In this metallic
state, the optical conductivity exhibits a large Drude weight. Possible
interpretations of our results are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, Revtex, minor misprints corrected and a reference to earlier
work by V. Emery and C. Noguera adde
The high-Tc superconducting state of β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 at atmospheric pressure: bulk superconductivity and metastability
The AC susceptibility study of β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 reveals that the high-Tc metastable superconducting state which can be stabilized at atmospheric pressure after a particular pressure-temperature cycling procedure, exhibits bulk superconductivity resembling very closely that of the high-Tc state, which is stabilized above 1 kbar. Annealing experiments show that the high-Tc state remains stable at low temperature as long as the annealing temperature does not exceed 125 K
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