Manipulating the ferroelectric polarization state of BaTiO 3 thin films

International audienceControlling the ferroelectric polarization at macroscopic or microscopic levels is crucial in the framework of the development of ferroelectric materials used in yet challenging photo-electrochemical (PEC) cells and spintronic applications. We report here on polarization methods allowing to electrically polarize prototypical samples of BaTiO 3 (001) films. Epitaxial single crystalline layers were grown up to a thickness of 25 nm by atomic oxygen assisted molecular beam epitaxy on 1 at.% Nb doped SrTiO 3 (001) single crystals. The samples were both microscopically and macroscopically polarized using Piezoresponse Force Microscopy and electrochemical poling in an electrolyte respectively. In addition we demonstrate the possibility to retrieve a quasi-native mixed ferroelectric polarization state after annealing. These polarization methods may be applied to many other ferroelectric thin films

The Effect of Fossil Energy and Other Environmental Taxes on Profit Incentives for Change in an Open Economy: Evidence from the UK

This paper is in the tradition of those which use input-output techniques to analyse fossil energy and environmental taxes. We put forward the view that, for a country which is open to trade at given world prices and adopts national taxes, the key mechanism for bringing about change in the short term is not through prices and, ultimately, consumer decisions but through profits and producer decisions. This mechanism provides incentives for producers to substitute more environmentally conserving production techniques and to switch productive resources from, say, energy intensive goods to less energy intensive ones. In this respect the paper seeks to deal with a specific set of circumstances which are far from applicable to every economic sector. As such it seeks to complement the existing, more widely applicable literature – to focus on the role of profits as a key short run transmission mechanism by which energy taxes effect changes in producer behaviour. We produce evidence to show that the UK is almost certainly open to trade and unlikely to be able to influence world prices for a range of economic activities. Using this as a working assumption we examine the impact of current environmental taxes in the UK on profitability for a wide range of economic sectors. We then de-compose the overall effect of these environmental taxes on profits into that part attributable to fossil energy taxes and that to other environmental taxes. In general we find fossil energy taxes to be much more significant in their effect on profits and that they introduce significant variations between sectors in the profit incentives to switch productive resources away from energy intensive activities. This paper seeks to address the way in which fossil energy and other environmental taxes provide short run profit incentives to reallocate resources within the domestic economy. It does not address carbon leakage (the transfer of production to other countries which have weaker policies on emissions)

Tissue-specific biological aging predicts progression in prostate cancer and acute myeloid leukemia

IntroductionChronological aging is a well-recognized diagnostic and prognostic factor in multiple cancer types, yet the role of biological aging in manifesting cancer progression has not been fully explored yet.MethodsGiven the central role of chronological aging in prostate cancer and AML incidence, here we investigate a tissue-specific role of biological aging in prostate cancer and AML progression. We have employed Cox proportional hazards modeling to associate biological aging genes with cancer progression for patients from specific chronological aging groups and for patients with differences in initial cancer aggressiveness.ResultsOur prostate cancer-specific investigations nominated four biological aging genes (CD44, GADD45B, STAT3, GFAP) significantly associated with time to disease progression in prostate cancer in Taylor et al. patient cohort. Stratified survival analysis on Taylor dataset and validation on an independent TCGA and DKFZ PRAD patient cohorts demonstrated ability of these genes to predict prostate cancer progression, especially for patients with higher Gleason score and for patients younger than 60 years of age. We have further tested the generalizability of our approach and applied it to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Our analysis nominated three AML-specific biological aging genes (CDC42EP2, CDC42, ALOX15B) significantly associated with time to AML overall survival, especially for patients with favorable cytogenetic risk score and for patients older than 56 years of age.DiscussionComparison of the identified PC and AML markers to genes selected at random and to known markers of progression demonstrated robustness of our results and nominated the identified biological aging genes as valuable markers of prostate cancer and AML progression, opening new avenues for personalized therapeutic management and potential novel treatment investigations

Dynamics of Hot QCD Matter -- Current Status and Developments

The discovery and characterization of hot and dense QCD matter, known as Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP), remains the most international collaborative effort and synergy between theorists and experimentalists in modern nuclear physics to date. The experimentalists around the world not only collect an unprecedented amount of data in heavy-ion collisions, at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in New York, USA, and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland but also analyze these data to unravel the mystery of this new phase of matter that filled a few microseconds old universe, just after the Big Bang. In the meantime, advancements in theoretical works and computing capability extend our wisdom about the hot-dense QCD matter and its dynamics through mathematical equations. The exchange of ideas between experimentalists and theoreticians is crucial for the progress of our knowledge. The motivation of this first conference named "HOT QCD Matter 2022" is to bring the community together to have a discourse on this topic. In this article, there are 36 sections discussing various topics in the field of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and related phenomena that cover a snapshot of the current experimental observations and theoretical progress. This article begins with the theoretical overview of relativistic spin-hydrodynamics in the presence of the external magnetic field, followed by the Lattice QCD results on heavy quarks in QGP, and finally, it ends with an overview of experiment results.Comment: Compilation of the contributions (148 pages) as presented in the `Hot QCD Matter 2022 conference', held from May 12 to 14, 2022, jointly organized by IIT Goa & Goa University, Goa, Indi

Living Fossils-Horseshoe Crabs

55It lived at a time when plant and animal life on land was just getting established.Scientists think that even older fossils may exist that will push back Horseshoe crab lineage to 490 million years

Natural Hazards- Fiery Foe

56-57A Wildfire (also known as bush fire, forest fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, and wild-land fire depending on the type of vegetation that is burning) is, as its name implies, a fire that occurs in the bush (collective term for scrub, woodland or grassland). Wild fires are different from other fires in the huge sizes they can attain, by their swiftness and their ability to suddenly change direction. Wildfires can jump gaps such as roads and rivers. </span

Natural Hazards- Tsunami:Threat from the Waves

56-57Although the oldest record of ocean waves unleashing destruction and devastation following a massive earthquake, dates back to 326 BC when the Macedonian fleet of Alexander the Great was destroyed near the Indus delta/Kutch region, it would perhaps not be wrong to say that most Indians became aware of the terrifying consequences of a tsunami on 26 December 2004 when the Indian coastline was struck by another one. Since then, the word tsunami has entered the vocabulary of the common man, although perhaps the details of what “exactly” is a tsunami is not clear to all

Living Fossils- Nightcap Oak: Untouched by Time Elapsed

55The Nightcap Oak (Eidothea hardeniana; Family Proteaceae) is an Australian rainforest tree. It bears faintly fragrant, creamy-white flowers with primitive characteristics, indicating an ancient evolutionary lineage.</span

Familiar Fossils- Dinosaur Duo: <i>Banjo and Matilda</i>

60Banjo is Australovenator wintonensis, a small meat-eating dinosaur called a theropod. Matilda is Diamantinasaurus matildae, a small herbivorous dinosaur called a sauropod