Magnetic field resistant quantum interferences in bismuth nanowires based Josephson junctions

We investigate proximity induced superconductivity in micrometer-long bismuth nanowires con- nected to superconducting electrodes with a high critical field. At low temperature we measure a supercurrent that persists in magnetic fields as high as the critical field of the electrodes (above 11 T). The critical current is also strongly modulated by the magnetic field. In certain samples we find regular, rapid SQUID-like periodic oscillations occurring up to high fields. Other samples ex- hibit less periodic but full modulations of the critical current on Tesla field scales, with field-caused extinctions of the supercurrent. These findings indicate the existence of low dimensionally, phase coherent, interfering conducting regions through the samples, with a subtle interplay between orbital and spin contributions. We relate these surprising results to the electronic properties of the surface states of bismuth, strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling, large effective g factors, and their effect on the induced superconducting correlations.Comment: 5 page

Effectiveness and toxicity of lenvatinib in refractory thyroid cancer:Dutch real-life data

Objective: The SELECT trial showed progression-free survival (PFS) benefit for lenvatinib for advanced radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAI-refractory or RR-DTC) patients, on which current clinical practice is based. We assessed whether the effectiveness and toxicity of lenvatinib in real-life clinical practice in the Netherlands were comparable to the pivotal SELECT trial. Methods: From three Dutch centres Electronic Health Records (EHRs) of patients treated in the lenvatinib compassionate use program or as standard of care were reviewed and checked for SELECT eligibility criteria. Baseline characteristics, safety, and efficacy measures were compared and PFS and overall survival (OS) were calculated. Furthermore, PFS was compared to estimates of PFS reported in other studies. Results: A total of 39 DTC patients with a median age of 62 years were analysed. Of these, 27 patients (69%) did not fulfil the SELECT eligibility criteria. The most common grade >= 3 toxicities were hypertension (n = 11, 28%), diarrhoea (n = 7, 18%), vomiting (n = 4, 10%), and gallbladder disease (n = 3, 8%). Median PFS and median OS were 9.7 (95% confidence interval (CI): 4.0-15.5) and 18.3 (95% CI: 4.9-31.7) months, respectively, response rate was 38% (95% CI: 23-54%). PFS in the Dutch real-life situation was comparable to previous real-life studies, but inferior to PFS as shown in the SELECT trial (P = 0.04). Conclusions: PFS in our non-trial population was significantly shorter than in the SELECT trial population. In the interpretation of results, differences in the real-life population and the SELECT study population regarding patient characteristics should be taken into account

Acromegaly, Mr Punch and caricature.

The origin of Mr Punch from the Italian Pulcinella of the Commedia dell'arte is well known but his feature, large hooked nose, protruding chin, kyphosis and sternal protrusion all in an exaggerated form also suggest the caricature of an acromegalic. This paper looks at the physical characteristics of acromegaly, the origin of Mr Punch and the development of caricature linking them together in the acromegalic caricature that now has a life of its own

A study of wrist-worn activity measurement as a potential real-world biomarker for late-life depression.

BACKGROUND: Late-life depression (LLD) is associated with a decline in physical activity. Typically this is assessed by self-report questionnaires and, more recently, with actigraphy. We sought to explore the utility of a bespoke activity monitor to characterize activity profiles in LLD more precisely. METHOD: The activity monitor was worn for 7 days by 29 adults with LLD and 30 healthy controls. Subjects underwent neuropsychological assessment and quality of life (QoL) (36-item Short-Form Health Survey) and activities of daily living (ADL) scales (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale) were administered. RESULTS: Physical activity was significantly reduced in LLD compared with controls (t = 3.63, p < 0.001), primarily in the morning. LLD subjects showed slower fine motor movements (t = 3.49, p < 0.001). In LLD patients, activity reductions were related to reduced ADL (r = 0.61, p < 0.001), lower QoL (r = 0.65, p < 0.001), associative learning (r = 0.40, p = 0.036), and higher Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale score (r = -0.37, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with LLD had a significant reduction in general physical activity compared with healthy controls. Assessment of specific activity parameters further revealed the correlates of impairments associated with LLD. Our study suggests that novel wearable technology has the potential to provide an objective way of monitoring real-world function.This study was funded by an award from the UK Medical Research Council (G1001828/1)

Transport and elastic scattering times as probes of the nature of impurity scattering in single and bilayer graphene

Both transport $\tau_{tr}$ and elastic scattering times $\tau_{e}$ are experimentally determined from the carrier density dependence of the magnetoconductance of monolayer and bilayer graphene. Both times and their dependences in carrier density are found to be very different in the monolayer and the bilayer. However their ratio $\tau_{tr}/\tau_{e}$is found to be of the order of $1.5$ in both systems and independent of the carrier density. These measurements give insight on the nature (neutral or charged) and spatial extent of the scattering centers. Comparison with theoretical predictions yields that the main scattering mechanism in our graphene samples could be due to strong scatterers of short range, inducing resonant scattering, a likely candidate being vacancies

Dispersively detected Pauli Spin-Blockade in a Silicon Nanowire Field-Effect Transistor

We report the dispersive readout of the spin state of a double quantum dot formed at the corner states of a silicon nanowire field-effect transistor. Two face-to-face top-gate electrodes allow us to independently tune the charge occupation of the quantum dot system down to the few-electron limit. We measure the charge stability of the double quantum dot in DC transport as well as dispersively via in-situ gate-based radio frequency reflectometry, where one top-gate electrode is connected to a resonator. The latter removes the need for external charge sensors in quantum computing architectures and provides a compact way to readout the dispersive shift caused by changes in the quantum capacitance during interdot charge transitions. Here, we observe Pauli spin-blockade in the high-frequency response of the circuit at finite magnetic fields between singlet and triplet states. The blockade is lifted at higher magnetic fields when intra-dot triplet states become the ground state configuration. A lineshape analysis of the dispersive phase shift reveals furthermore an intradot valley-orbit splitting $\Delta_{vo}$ of 145 $\mu$eV. Our results open up the possibility to operate compact CMOS technology as a singlet-triplet qubit and make split-gate silicon nanowire architectures an ideal candidate for the study of spin dynamics

Gill transcriptomic responses to toxin-producing alga Prymnesium parvum in rainbow trout

This work was supported by the BBSRC EastBio PhD studentship awarded to MC, the Danish Strategic Research Council grant No 060300449B HABFISH, and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and the Danish Fisheries Agency joint grant “Sundt Dambrug”. Molecular work at University of Aberdeen was funded by Scottish Aquaculture Innovation grant SL 2017 08. EK was supported by BBSRC grant BB/R018812/1.The gill of teleost fish is a multifunctional organ involved in many physiological processes, including protection of the mucosal gill surface against pathogens and other environmental antigens by the gill-associated lymphoid tissue (GIALT). Climate change associated phenomena, such as increasing frequency and magnitude of harmful algal blooms (HABs) put extra strain on gill function, contributing to enhanced fish mortality and fish kills. However, the molecular basis of the HAB-induced gill injury remains largely unknown due to the lack of high-throughput transcriptomic studies performed on teleost fish in laboratory conditions. We used juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to investigate the transcriptomic responses of the gill tissue to two (high and low) sublethal densities of the toxin-producing alga Prymnesium parvum, in relation to non-exposed control fish. The exposure time to P. parvum (4–5 h) was sufficient to identify three different phenotypic responses among the exposed fish, enabling us to focus on the common gill transcriptomic responses to P. parvum that were independent of dose and phenotype. The inspection of common differentially expressed genes (DEGs), canonical pathways, upstream regulators and downstream effects pointed towards P. parvum-induced inflammatory response and gill inflammation driven by alterations of Acute Phase Response Signalling, IL-6 Signalling, IL-10 Signalling, Role of PKR in Interferon Induction and Antiviral Response, IL-8 Signalling and IL-17 Signalling pathways. While we could not determine if the inferred gill inflammation was progressing or resolving, our study clearly suggests that P. parvum blooms may contribute to the serious gill disorders in fish. By providing insights into the gill transcriptomic responses to toxin-producing P. parvum in teleost fish, our research opens new avenues for investigating how to monitor and mitigate toxicity of HABs before they become lethal.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Environmental drivers of distribution and reef development of the Mediterranean coral Cladocora caespitosa

Cladocora caespitosa is the only Mediterranean scleractinian similar to tropical reef-building corals. While this species is part of the recent fossil history of the Mediterranean Sea, it is currently considered endangered due to its decline during the last decades. Environmental factors affecting the distribution and persistence of extensive bank reefs of this endemic species across its whole geographic range are poorly understood. In this study, we examined the environmental response of C. caespitosa and its main types of assemblages using ecological niche modeling and ordination analysis. We also predicted other suitable areas for the occurrence of the species and assessed the conservation effectiveness of Mediterranean marine protected areas (MPAs) for this coral. We found that phosphate concentration and wave height were factors affecting both the occurrence of this versatile species and the distribution of its extensive bioconstructions in the Mediterranean Sea. A set of factors (diffuse attenuation coefficient, calcite and nitrate concentrations, mean wave height, sea surface temperature, and shape of the coast) likely act as environmental barriers preventing the species from expansion to the Atlantic Ocean and the Black Sea. Uncertainties in our large-scale statistical results and departures from previous physiological and ecological studies are also discussed under an integrative perspective. This study reveals that Mediterranean MPAs encompass eight of the ten banks and 16 of the 21 beds of C. caespitosa. Preservation of water clarity by avoiding phosphate discharges may improve the protection of this emblematic species.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [CTM2014-57949-R]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Workloads of Competitive Surfing: Work-to-Relief Ratios, Surf-Break Demands, and Updated Analysis

The study provides an in-depth descriptive and quantitative time-motion analysis of competitive surfing, using Global PositioningSystem (GPS) units and video synchronization, which serves toextend upon the results of Farley, Harris, and Kilding (Journal ofStrength and Conditioning Research, 26, 7 [2012]). In addition,comparisons between locations and surfers competing in thesame heats were performed. Global Positioning System andvideo data were collected from 41 male competitive surfers(23.266.1 years, 71610.3 kg, 177.266.4 cm) participatingin 3 professional domestic surfing events, with competitive heatsof 20-minute duration. Fifty data sets were analyzed across the 3competitions, with velocities and distances covered, proportionof time spent performing various surfing activities, and totalwork-to-relief ratio determined. Results revealed surfers paddled44% of the total time, followed by stationary periods (42%).Surfers performed at a significantly (p#0.05) higher work-to-relief ratio (1.7:1) at the Beach-break (an exposed beach) com-pared with point-break 1 and 2 (waves breaking around a rockypoint). Point-breaks 1 and 2 had longer continuous durations ofpaddling, with significantly longer rides at point-break 1 over theBeach-break (p#0.01) and point-break 2 (p#0.01). Theaverage maximal speed (24.8 km$h21) from point-break 2 wassignificantly faster than point-break 1 (p#0.01) and Beach-break (p#0.05). This information should influence surfing drills and conditioning methods to prepare these athletes for the disparate demands, such as training for a point-break competition involving longer durations of continuous paddling and short, high-intensity workloads for a Beach-break