Prediction of ferroelectricity-driven Berry curvature enabling charge- and spin-controllable photocurrent in tin telluride monolayers

In symmetry-broken crystalline solids, pole structures of Berry curvature (BC) can emerge, and they have been utilized as a versatile tool for controlling transport properties. For example, the monopole component of the BC is induced by the time-reversal symmetry breaking, and the BC dipole arises from a lack of inversion symmetry, leading to the anomalous Hall and nonlinear Hall effects, respectively. Based on first-principles calculations, we show that the ferroelectricity in a tin telluride monolayer produces a unique BC distribution, which offers charge- and spin-controllable photocurrents. Even with the sizable band gap, the ferroelectrically driven BC dipole is comparable to those of small-gap topological materials. By manipulating the photon handedness and the ferroelectric polarization, charge and spin circular photogalvanic currents are generated in a controllable manner. The ferroelectricity in group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers can be a useful tool to control the BC dipole and the nonlinear optoelectronic responses

A time-based Chern number in periodically-driven systems in the adiabatic limit

To define the topology of driven systems, recent works have proposed synthetic dimensions as a way to uncover the underlying parameter space of topological invariants. Using time as a synthetic dimension, together with a momentum dimension, gives access to a synthetic 2D Chern number. It is, however, still unclear how the synthetic 2D Chern number is related to the Chern number that is defined from a parametric variable that evolves with time. Here we show that in periodically driven systems in the adiabatic limit, the synthetic 2D Chern number is a multiple of the Chern number defined from the parametric variable. The synthetic 2D Chern number can thus be engineered via how the parametric variable evolves in its own space. We justify our claims by investigating Thouless pumping in two 1D tight-binding models, a three-site chain model and a two-1D-sliding-chains model. The present findings could be extended to higher dimensions and other periodically driven configurations.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Preoperative Subclinical Hyperthyroidism in Patients With Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma

ObjectivesNumerous studies have reported the effects of subclinical hyperthyroidism on the cardiovascular system, osteoporosis, and metabolic syndrome. However, there are few studies examining the relationships between subclinical hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between preoperative subclinical hyperthyroidism and clinicopathological characteristics in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) in terms of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and TSH receptor antibody (TRAb) values.MethodsBetween January 2001 and December 2007, 462 patients were eligible for analysis in our study; we compared the clinicopathological characteristics of 39 preoperative subclinical hyperthyroidism patients with those of 423 euthyroid patients.ResultsThere were no statistical differences between the 2 groups with respect to age, male to female ratio, primary tumor size, extrathyroidal extension (ETE), multifocality, lymph node metastasis, TNM and AMES stages, recurrence, and survival, despite significant difference in TSH concentrations between the 2 groups. In the evaluation for TRAb, primary tumor size was significantly larger in patients with normal TRAb than in patients with elevated TRAb. When the patients were subdivided into 4 categories according to TRAb values (15.0%), tumor size and ETE were significantly different. However, we could not find linear relationships in the increase or decrease of TRAb values.ConclusionThe results of our study suggest that subclinical hyperthyroidism is not independently associated with tumor aggressiveness and prognosis in PTC in spite of reduced TSH levels and increased TRAb values as compared with euthyroid patients

Effect of Octreotide Injection on Postoperative Drainage After Neck Dissection: A Preliminary Report of a Prospective, Matched Case-Control Study

Objectives Somatostatin inhibits lymph production and reduces lymph flow into the lymphatic duct. We hypothesized that octreotide, a long-acting somatostatin analog, would reduce drainage after neck dissection (ND) by reducing the overall lymphatic flow in the neck as well as thoracic duct flow. Methods From 2012 to 2014, total 123 patients who had undergone left-sided comprehensive ND, were divided into an octreotide group (49 patients) and a control group (74 patients). Seventeen patients from the octreotide group and 17 from the control group were individually matched by age (±10 years), sex, body mass index (±1 kg/m2), type of cancer, surgeon, and the extent of surgery. These 34 patients were finally included in the study. Results The total fluid drainage volume (540.9 mL vs. 707.9 mL) and drainage volume during the period of octreotide use (the first 5 postoperative days) (461.1 mL vs. 676.4 mL) were significantly lower in the octreotide group. The duration of drain placement (6.3 days vs. 9.4 days) was also shorter in the octreotide group. In the octreotide group, the mean triglyceride concentration in the drainage fluid was significantly lower than that in the control group (43.1 mg/dL vs. 88.8 mg/dL). There was no complication associated with the use of octreotide. Conclusion Our study has shown that postoperative octreotide injections reduce postoperative drainage and the duration of drain placement. Further studies with larger patient populations are warranted to confirm these results and to evaluate the clinical benefits for patients

Measurement report : Size distributions of urban aerosols down to 1 nm from long-term measurements

The size distributions of urban atmospheric aerosols convey important information on their origins and impacts. Their long-term characteristics, especially for sub-3 nm particles, are still limited. In this study, we examined the characteristics of atmospheric aerosol size distributions down to similar to 1 nm based on 4-year measurements in urban Beijing. Using cluster analysis, three typical types of number size distributions were identified, i.e., daytime new particle formation (NPF) type, daytime non-NPF type, and nighttime type. Combining a power law distribution and multiple lognormal distributions can well represent the sharp concentration decrease of sub3 nm particles with increasing size and the modal characteristics for those above 3 nm in the submicron size range. The daytime NPF type exhibits high concentrations of sub-3 nm aerosols together with other three modes. However, both the daytime non-NPF type and the nighttime type have a low abundance of sub-3 nm aerosol particles together with only two distinct modes. In urban Beijing, the concentration of H2SO4 monomer during the daytime with NPF is similar to that during the daytime without NPF, while significantly higher than that during the nighttime. The concentration of atmospheric sub-3 nm particles on NPF days has a strong seasonality while their seasonality on non-NPF days is less pronounced. In addition to NPF as the most important source, we show that vehicles can emit sub-3 nm particles as well, although their influence on the measured aerosol population strongly depends on the distance from the road.Peer reviewe

SAPrIm, a semi-automated protocol for mid-throughput immunopeptidomics

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules play a crucial role in directing adaptive immune responses based on the nature of their peptide ligands, collectively coined the immunopeptidome. As such, the study of HLA molecules has been of major interest in the development of cancer immunotherapies such as vaccines and T-cell therapies. Hence, a comprehensive understanding and profiling of the immunopeptidome is required to foster the growth of these personalised solutions. We herein describe SAPrIm, an Immunopeptidomics tool for the Mid-Throughput era. This is a semi-automated workflow involving the KingFisher platform to isolate immunopeptidomes using anti-HLA antibodies coupled to a hyper-porous magnetic protein A microbead, a variable window data independent acquisition (DIA) method and the ability to run up to 12 samples in parallel. Using this workflow, we were able to concordantly identify and quantify ~400 - 13000 unique peptides from 5e5 - 5e7 cells, respectively. Overall, we propose that the application of this workflow will be crucial for the future of immunopeptidome profiling, especially for mid-size cohorts and comparative immunopeptidomics studies

Design and Application of Variable Universe Fuzzy Controller Based on Cat Swarm Optimization

A novel variable universe fuzzy controller based on cat swarm optimization (CSO-VUFC) is proposed to regulate the temperature of the reactor system, which is characterized by nonlinearity, large time delay, and uncertainty. In CSO-VUFC, firstly, corresponding contraction-expansion factors with the function form were, respectively, introduced for the input and output fuzzy universes of the controller. Then, cat swarm optimization was used to optimize the relevant parameter values in the contraction-expansion factor function to achieve the intelligence optimization of the contraction-expansion factors, based on the system performance test function as an evaluation index; the contradiction between the universe adjustment and control accuracy of the fuzzy controller will be effectively solved to achieve the online self-adjustment of the universe. The simulation results indicate that the variable universe adaptive fuzzy control method based on the cat swarm optimization has the features of high precision adjustment, short transient time, and hard real-time