Spin interference and Fano effect in electron transport through a mesoscopic ring side-coupled with a quantum dot

We investigate the electron transport through a mesoscopic ring side-coupled with a quantum dot(QD) in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit(SO) interaction. It is shown that both the Fano resonance and the spin interference effects play important roles in the electron transport properties. As the QD level is around the Fermi energy, the total conductance shows typical Fano resonance line shape. By applying an electrical gate voltage to the QD, the total transmission through the system can be strongly modulated. By threading the mesoscopic ring with a magnetic flux, the time-reversal symmetry of the system is broken, and a spin polarized current can be obtained even though the incident current is unpolarized.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Drought variation of western Chinese Loess Plateau since 1568 and its linkages with droughts in western North America

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Optimisation of bioscrubber systems to simultaneously remove methane and purify wastewater from intensive pig farms

The use of bioscrubber is attracting increasing attention for exhaust gas treatment in intensive pig farming. However, the challenge is to improve the methane (CH4) removal efficiency as well as the possibility of pig house wastewater treatment. Three laboratory-scale bioscrubbers, each equipped with different recirculation water types, livestock wastewater (10-times-diluted pig house wastewater supernatant), a methanotroph growth medium (10-times-diluted), and tap water, were established to evaluate the performance of CH4 removal and wastewater treatment. The results showed that enhanced CH4 removal efficiency (25%) can be rapidly achieved with improved methanotrophic activity due to extra nutrient support from the wastewater. The majority of the CH4 was removed in the middle to end part of the bioscrubbers, which indicated that CH4 removal could be potentially optimised by extending the length of the reactor. Moreover, 52–86% of the ammonium (NH4+-N), total organic carbon (TOC), and phosphate (PO43−-P) removal were simultaneously achieved with CH4 removal in the present study. Based on these results, this study introduces a low-cost and simple-to-operate method to improve CH4 removal and simultaneously treat pig farm wastewater in bioscrubbers

Bone loss and aggravated autoimmune arthritis in HLA-DRβ1-bearing humanized mice following oral challenge with Porphyromonas gingivalis

BACKGROUND: The linkage between periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis is well established. Commonalities among the two are that both are chronic inflammatory diseases characterized by bone loss, an association with the shared epitope susceptibility allele, and anti-citrullinated protein antibodies. METHODS: To explore immune mechanisms that may connect the two seemingly disparate disorders, we measured host immune responses including T-cell phenotype and anti-citrullinated protein antibody production in human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-DR1 humanized C57BL/6 mice following exposure to the Gram-negative anaerobic periodontal disease pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis. We measured autoimmune arthritis disease expression in mice exposed to P. gingivalis, and also in arthritis-resistant mice by flow cytometry and multiplex cytokine-linked and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. We also measured femoral bone density by microcomputed tomography and systemic cytokine production. RESULTS: Exposure of the gingiva of DR1 mice to P. gingivalis results in a transient increase in the percentage of Th17 cells, both in peripheral blood and cervical lymph nodes, a burst of systemic cytokine activity, a loss in femoral bone density, and the generation of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies. Importantly, these antibodies are not produced in response to P. gingivalis treatment of wild-type C57BL/6 mice, and P. gingivalis exposure triggered expression of arthritis in arthritis-resistant mice. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure of gingival tissues to P. gingivalis has systemic effects that can result in disease pathology in tissues that are spatially removed from the initial site of infection, providing evidence for systemic effects of this periodontal pathogen. The elicitation of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies in an HLA-DR1-restricted fashion by mice exposed to P. gingivalis provides support for the role of the shared epitope in both periodontal disease and rheumatoid arthritis. The ability of P. gingivalis to induce disease expression in arthritis-resistant mice provides support for the idea that periodontal infection may be able to trigger autoimmunity if other disease-eliciting factors are already present

Decays of Zb(+) and Zb'(+) as hadronic molecules

The two newly observed hidden-bottom mesons Zb(10610) and Zb'(10650) with quantum numbers J(P) = 1(+) are considered as hadronic molecules composed of BB(*) and B(*)B(*), respectively. We give predictions for the widths of the strong two-body decays Zb(+) to Upsilon(nS) + pi(+) and Zb'(+) to Upsilon(nS) + pi(+) in a phenomenological Lagrangian approach.Comment: 9 page