Experimental vortex ratchet effect in nanostructured superconductors

Superconducting Nb thin films were grown on different arrays of triangle-shape metallic islands. The vortex lattice dynamics could be strongly modified by these asymmetric vortex traps. These asymmetric pinning potentials lead to a rectification effect on the vortex motion: Injecting an ac supercurrent on the sample yields a net dc vortex flow. This vortex ratchet ffect is adiabatic and reversible: The effect is frequency independent and the polarity of the dc voltage output could be tuned by the applied magnetic fields and the input ac currents

Towards new insights in the phylogeny of the Spermacoce clade: an integrative taxonomic approach using morphology, anatomy, ecology and phylogenetics reveáis the new genus Leonoria

Phylogenetic inference analyses o f two nuclear and four plastid DNA markers from 82 accessions representing 19 genera o f the Spermacoce clade (Spermacoceae-Rubiaceae) confirm that the Brazilian genus Denscantia is biphyletic. By the analyses o f reproductive morphological characters, foliar morpho-anatomy and histochemical, geographical distribution ranges, and ecological niche derived from climatic space, Denscantia caldcóla is shown as a distinct lineage from the other Denscantia species, indicating its taxonomic segregation into a new monospecific genus Leonoria. Significant morphological diíferences o f Leonoria with Denscantia were found in inflorescence organization, stigma shape, fruit dehiscence, and pollen morphology. Morphoanatomical variation among leaf traits were found in epidemial cells, occurrence o f trichomes, mesophyll histochemical, and vascular organization. Analysis o f occurrence records o f 205 specimens demonstrates a clear ecological distinction between o f Denscantia s.s. and Leonoria, which is ecologically confined to limestone outcrops associated with seasonally dry forests. The current study demonstrates the importance of an integrative taxonomic approach - in which múltiple disciplines are combined - to the unravel complex taxonomic pattems within Rubiaceae. The genus Leonoria, to be newly described, is dedicated to Professor Elsa Leonor Cabral

Los desafíos del profesorado clínico en la educación médica

Background: There is a unique particularity of clinical teaching in medical education that isbeyond knowledge, skills or teaching methods of each clinician: this is clinical teaching context.This study aimed to analyze the main barriers in clinical teaching in a single medical school in Spain. Methods: This was a descriptive study in which all the clinical teachers (all of them associateprofessors) of a single and novel faculty of medicine were asked to answer an online, anonymousand voluntary questionnaire about aspects of support to clinical work, promotion of clinicalresearch and recognition of their professional careers. The questionnaires were organized andanalyzed into these three main issues.Results: 61 clinical teachers (42%) answered the questionnaire. The main findings that emergedwere: (i) lack of protected time for practical teaching at hospital; (ii) lack of support for clinicalresearch from hospital or faculty; and (iii) lack of recognition of their professional careers.Conclusions: The clinical teaching in medical education is a continuing challenge for busyclinicians. Further studies on this topic are needed.Antecedentes: La enseñanza clínica en la educación médica tiene una particularidad única:el contexto clínico. Este estudio tiene como objetivo analizar las principales barreras de laense˜nanza clínica en una facultad joven de Medicina de Espa˜na.Métodos: Se trata de un estudio transversal descriptivo en el que se solicitó a todos losprofesores clínicos (todos ellos profesores asociados) de una facultad joven de Medicina que res-pondieran a un cuestionario en línea, anónimo y voluntario sobre aspectos de carga asistencial,promoción de la investigación clínica y reconocimiento de sus carreras profesionales.Resultados: Sesenta y un profesores (42%) respondieron al cuestionario. Los principales hallaz-gos que se obtuvieron fueron: 1) la falta de tiempo protegido para la ense˜nanza práctica en lainstitución sanitaria; 2) el escaso apoyo para la investigación clínica por parte de la instituciónsanitaria o de la facultad; y 3) el escaso de reconocimiento de la carrera profesional.Conclusiones: La ense˜nanza clínica en la educación médica es un desafío continuo para elclínico. Son necesarios futuros estudios que analicen estos aspectos de forma más exhaustiva

Response to “Comment on ‘Transverse rectification in superconducting thin films with arrays of asymmetric defects’” [Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 176101 (2008)]

© 2008 American Institute of PhysicsDepto. de Física de MaterialesFac. de Ciencias FísicasTRUEpu

HAADF-STEM Image Resolution Enhancement Using High-Quality Image Reconstruction Techniques: Case of the Fe3O4(111) Surface

From simple averaging to more sophisticated registration and restoration strategies, such as super-resolution (SR), there exist different computational techniques that use a series of images of the same object to generate enhanced images where noise and other distortions have been reduced. In this work, we provide qualitative and quantitative measurements of this enhancement for high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging. These images are compared in two ways, qualitatively through visual inspection in real and reciprocal space, and quantitatively, through the calculation of objective measurements, such as signal-to-noise ratio and atom column roundness. Results show that these techniques improve the quality of the images. In this paper, we use an SR methodology that allows us to take advantage of the information present in the image frames and to reliably facilitate the analysis of more difficult regions of interest in experimental images, such as surfaces and interfaces. By acquiring a series of cross-sectional experimental images of magnetite (Fe3O4) thin films (111), we have generated interpolated images using averaging and SR, and reconstructed the atomic structure of the very top surface layer that consists of a full monolayer of Fe, with topmost Fe atoms in tetrahedrally coordinated sites

Gaia Early Data Release 3: The astrometric solution

[Context] Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR3) contains results for 1.812 billion sources in the magnitude range G = 3-21 based on observations collected by the European Space Agency Gaia satellite during the first 34 months of its operational phase. [Aims] We describe the input data, the models, and the processing used for the astrometric content of Gaia EDR3, as well as the validation of these results performed within the astrometry task. [Methods] The processing broadly followed the same procedures as for Gaia DR2, but with significant improvements to the modelling of observations. For the first time in the Gaia data processing, colour-dependent calibrations of the line- and point-spread functions have been used for sources with well-determined colours from DR2. In the astrometric processing these sources obtained five-parameter solutions, whereas other sources were processed using a special calibration that allowed a pseudocolour to be estimated as the sixth astrometric parameter. Compared with DR2, the astrometric calibration models have been extended, and the spin-related distortion model includes a self-consistent determination of basic-angle variations, improving the global parallax zero point. [Results] Gaia EDR3 gives full astrometric data (positions at epoch J2016.0, parallaxes, and proper motions) for 1.468 billion sources (585 millionwith five-parameter solutions, 882 million with six parameters), and mean positions at J2016.0 for an additional 344 million.Solutions with five parameters are generally more accurate than six-parameter solutions, and are available for 93% of the sources brighter than the 17th magnitude. The median uncertainty in parallax and annual proper motion is 0.02-0.03 mas at magnitude G = 9-14, and around 0.5 mas at G = 20. Extensive characterisation of the statistical properties of the solutions is provided, including the estimated angular power spectrum of parallax bias from the quasars.This work was financially supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of the Gaia project; the German Aerospace Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR) through grants 50QG0501, 50QG0601, 50QG0901, 50QG1401 and 50QG1402; the Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO/FEDER, UE) through grants ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R, RTI2018-095076-B-C21 and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”) through grants MDM-2014-0369 and CEX2019-000918-M; the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA/Rymdstyrelsen); and the United Kingdom Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) through the following grants to the University of Bristol, the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leicester, the Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory of University College London, and the United Kingdom Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL): PP/D006511/1, PP/D006546/1, PP/D006570/1, ST/I000852/1, ST/J005045/1, ST/K00056X/1, ST/K000209/1, ST/K000756/1, ST/L006561/1, ST/N000595/1, ST/N000641/1, ST/N000978/1, ST/N001117/1, ST/S000089/1, ST/S000976/1, ST/S001123/1, ST/S001948/1, ST/S002103/1, and ST/V000969/1

Gaia Early Data Release 3: The Gaia Catalogue of Nearby Stars

Smart, R. L., et al. (Gaia Collaboration)[Aims] We produce a clean and well-characterised catalogue of objects within 100 pc of the Sun from the Gaia Early Data Release 3. We characterise the catalogue through comparisons to the full data release, external catalogues, and simulations. We carry out a first analysis of the science that is possible with this sample to demonstrate its potential and best practices for its use. [Methods] Theselection of objects within 100 pc from the full catalogue used selected training sets, machine-learning procedures, astrometric quantities, and solution quality indicators to determine a probability that the astrometric solution is reliable. The training set construction exploited the astrometric data, quality flags, and external photometry. For all candidates we calculated distance posterior probability densities using Bayesian procedures and mock catalogues to define priors. Any object with reliable astrometry and a non-zero probability of being within 100 pc is included in the catalogue. [Results] We have produced a catalogue of 331 312 objects that we estimate contains at least 92% of stars of stellar type M9 within 100 pc of the Sun. We estimate that 9% of the stars in this catalogue probably lie outside 100 pc, but when the distance probability function is used, a correct treatment of this contamination is possible. We produced luminosity functions with a high signal-to-noise ratio for the main-sequence stars, giants, and white dwarfs. We examined in detail the Hyades cluster, the white dwarf population, and wide-binary systems and produced candidate lists for all three samples. We detected local manifestations of several streams, superclusters, and halo objects, in which we identified 12 members of Gaia Enceladus. We present the first direct parallaxes of five objects in multiple systems within 10 pc of the Sun. [Conclusions] We provide the community with a large, well-characterised catalogue of objects in the solar neighbourhood. This is a primary benchmark for measuring and understanding fundamental parameters and descriptive functions in astronomy.The Gaia mission and data processing have financially been supported by, in alphabetical order by country: the Algerian Centre de Recherche en Astronomie, Astrophysique et Géophysique of Bouzareah Observatory; the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) Hertha Firnberg Programme through grants T359, P20046, and P23737; the BELgian federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) through various PROgramme de Développement d’Expériences scientifiques (PRODEX) grants and the Polish Academy of Sciences – Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek through grant VS.091.16N, and the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS); the Brazil-France exchange programmes Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) – Comité Français d’Evaluation de la Coopération Universitaire et Scientifique avec le Brésil (COFECUB); the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grants 11573054 and 11703065 and the China Scholarship Council through grant 201806040200; the Tenure Track Pilot Programme of the Croatian Science Foundation and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the project TTP-2018-07-1171 “Mining the Variable Sky”, with the funds of the Croatian-Swiss Research Programme; the Czech-Republic Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports through grant LG 15010 and INTER-EXCELLENCE grant LTAUSA18093, and the Czech Space Office through ESA PECS contract 98058; the Danish Ministry of Science; the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research through grant IUT40-1; the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Programme through the European Leadership in Space Astrometry (ELSA) Marie Curie Research Training Network (MRTN-CT-2006-033481), through Marie Curie project PIOF-GA-2009-255267 (Space AsteroSeismology & RR Lyrae stars, SAS-RRL), and through a Marie Curie Transfer-of-Knowledge (ToK) fellowship (MTKD-CT-2004-014188); the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme through grant FP7-606740 (FP7-SPACE-2013-1) for the Gaia European Network for Improved data User Services (GENIUS) and through grant 264895 for the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training (GREAT-ITN) network; the European Research Council (ERC) through grants 320360 and 647208 and through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation and excellent science programmes through Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant 745617 as well as grants 670519 (Mixing and Angular Momentum tranSport of massIvE stars – MAMSIE), 687378 (Small Bodies: Near and Far), 682115 (Using the Magellanic Clouds to Understand the Interaction of Galaxies), and 695099 (A sub-percent distance scale from binaries and Cepheids – CepBin); the European Science Foundation (ESF), in the framework of the Gaia Research for European Astronomy Training Research Network Programme (GREAT-ESF); the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of the Gaia project, through the Plan for European Cooperating States (PECS) programme through grants for Slovenia, through contracts C98090 and 4000106398/12/NL/KML for Hungary, and through contract 4000115263/15/NL/IB for Germany; the Academy of Finland and the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation; the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) through grant ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 for the “Investissements d’avenir” programme, through grant ANR-15-CE31-0007 for project “Modelling the Milky Way in the Gaia era” (MOD4Gaia), through grant ANR-14-CE33-0014-01 for project “The Milky Way disc formation in the Gaia era” (ARCHEOGAL), and through grant ANR-15-CE31-0012-01 for project “Unlocking the potential of Cepheids as primary distance calibrators” (UnlockCepheids), the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and its SNO Gaia of the Institut des Sciences de l’Univers (INSU), the “Action Fédératrice Gaia” of the Observatoire de Paris, the Région de Franche-Comté, and the Programme National de Gravitation, Références, Astronomie,et Métrologie (GRAM) of CNRS/INSU with the Institut National Polytechnique (INP) and the Institut National de Physique nucléaire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) co-funded by CNES; the German Aerospace Agency (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., DLR) through grants 50QG0501, 50QG0601, 50QG0602, 50QG0701, 50QG0901, 50QG1001, 50QG1101, 50QG1401, 50QG1402, 50QG1403, 50QG1404, and 50QG1904 and the Centre for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) at the Technische Universität (TU) Dresden for generous allocations of computer time; the Hungarian Academy of Sciences through the Lendület Programme grants LP2014-17 and LP2018-7 and through the Premium Postdoctoral Research Programme (L. Molnár), and the Hungarian National Research, Development, and Innovation Office (NKFIH) through grant KH_18-130405; the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) through a Royal Society - SFI University Research Fellowship (M. Fraser); the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) through grant 848/16; the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI) through contracts I/037/08/0, I/058/10/0, 2014-025-R.0, 2014-025-R.1.2015, and 2018-24-HH.0 to the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), contract 2014-049-R.0/1/2 to INAF for the Space Science Data Centre (SSDC, formerly known as the ASI Science Data Center, ASDC), contracts I/008/10/0, 2013/030/I.0, 2013-030-I.0.1-2015, and 2016-17-I.0 to the Aerospace Logistics Technology Engineering Company (ALTEC S.p.A.), INAF, and the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca) through the Premiale project “MIning The Cosmos Big Data and Innovative Italian Technology for Frontier Astrophysics and Cosmology” (MITiC); the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) through grant NWO-M-614.061.414, through a VICI grant (A. Helmi), and through a Spinoza prize (A. Helmi), and the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA); the Polish National Science Centre through HARMONIA grant 2018/06/M/ST9/00311, DAINA grant 2017/27/L/ST9/03221, and PRELUDIUM grant 2017/25/N/ST9/01253, and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) through grant DIR/WK/2018/12; the Portugese Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through grants SFRH/BPD/74697/2010 and SFRH/BD/128840/2017 and the Strategic Programme UID/FIS/00099/2019 for CENTRA; the Slovenian Research Agency through grant P1-0188; the Spanish Ministry of Economy (MINECO/FEDER, UE) through grants ESP2016-80079-C2-1-R, ESP2016-80079-C2-2-R, RTI2018-095076-B-C21, RTI2018-095076-B-C22, BES-2016-078499, and BES-2017-083126 and the Juan de la Cierva formación 2015 grant FJCI-2015-2671, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports through grant FPU16/03827, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN) through grant AYA2017-89841P for project “Estudio de las propiedades de los fósiles estelares en el entorno del Grupo Local” and through grant TIN2015-65316-P for project “Computación de Altas Prestaciones VII”, the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence Programme of the Spanish Government through grant SEV2015-0493, the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu”) through grants MDM-2014-0369 and CEX2019-000918-M, the University of Barcelona’s official doctoral programme for the development of an R+D+i project through an Ajuts de Personal Investigador en Formació (APIF) grant, the Spanish Virtual Observatory through project AyA2017-84089, the Galician Regional Government, Xunta de Galicia, through grants ED431B-2018/42 and ED481A-2019/155, support received from the Centro de Investigación en Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CITIC) funded by the Xunta de Galicia, the Xunta de Galicia and the Centros Singulares de Investigación de Galicia for the period 2016-2019 through CITIC, the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) / Fondo Europeo de Desenvolvemento Rexional (FEDER) for the Galicia 2014-2020 Programme through grant ED431G-2019/01, the Red Española de Supercomputación (RES) computer resources at MareNostrum, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) through activities AECT-2016-1-0006, AECT-2016-2-0013, AECT-2016-3-0011, and AECT-2017-1-0020, the Departament d’Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya through grant 2014-SGR-1051 for project “Models de Programació i Entorns d’Execució Parallels” (MPEXPAR), and Ramon y Cajal Fellowship RYC2018-025968-I; the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA/Rymdstyrelsen); the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation through the Mesures d’Accompagnement, the Swiss Activités Nationales Complémentaires, and the Swiss National Science Foundation; the United Kingdom Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the United Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and the United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA) through the following grants to the University of Bristol, the University of Cambridge, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leicester, the Mullard Space Sciences Laboratory of University College London, and the United Kingdom Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL): PP/D006511/1, PP/D006546/1, PP/D006570/1, ST/I000852/1, ST/J005045/1, ST/K00056X/1, ST/K000209/1, ST/K000756/1, ST/L006561/1, ST/N000595/1, ST/N000641/1, ST/N000978/1, ST/N001117/1, ST/S000089/1, ST/S000976/1, ST/S001123/1, ST/S001948/1, ST/S002103/1, and ST/V000969/1

Mendelian Randomisation Confirms the Role of Y-Chromosome Loss in Alzheimer’s Disease Aetiopathogenesis in Men

Mosaic loss of chromosome Y (mLOY) is a common ageing-related somatic event and has been previously associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, mLOY estimation from genotype microarray data only reflects the mLOY degree of subjects at the moment of DNA sampling. Therefore, mLOY phenotype associations with AD can be severely age-confounded in the context of genome-wide association studies. Here, we applied Mendelian randomisation to construct an age-independent mLOY polygenic risk score (mloy-PRS) using 114 autosomal variants. The mloy-PRS instrument was associated with an 80% increase in mLOY risk per standard deviation unit (p = 4.22 × 10−20) and was orthogonal with age. We found that a higher genetic risk for mLOY was associated with faster progression to AD in men with mild cognitive impairment (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.23, p = 0.01). Importantly, mloy-PRS had no effect on AD conversion or risk in the female group, suggesting that these associations are caused by the inherent loss of the Y chromosome. Additionally, the blood mLOY phenotype in men was associated with increased cerebrospinal fluid levels of total tau and phosphorylated tau181 in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Our results strongly suggest that mLOY is involved in AD pathogenesis.P.G.-G. (Pablo García-González) is supported by CIBERNED employment plan CNV-304-PRF-866. CIBERNED is integrated into ISCIII (Instituto de Salud Carlos III). I.d.R is supported by a national grant from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III FI20/00215. A.C. (Amanda Cano) acknowledges the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities under the grant Juan de la Cierva (FJC2018-036012-I). M.B. (Mercé Boada) and A.R. (Agustín Ruiz) are also supported by national grants PI13/02434, PI16/01861, PI17/01474, PI19/01240, and PI19/01301. The Genome Research @ Fundació ACE project (GR@ACE) is supported by Grifols SA, Fundación bancaria “La Caixa”, Fundació ACE, and CIBERNED. Acción Estratégica en Salud is integrated into the Spanish National R + D + I Plan and funded by ISCIII (Instituto de Salud Carlos III)—Subdirección General de Evaluación—and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER—“Una manera de hacer Europa”). Genotyping of the ACE MCI-EADB samples was performed in the context of EADB (European Alzheimer DNA biobank) funded by the JPco-fuND FP-829-029 (ZonMW project number 733051061). This work was supported by a grant (European Alzheimer DNA BioBank, EADB) from the EU Joint Program—Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND). Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag

Genome-wide BAC-end sequencing of Cucumis melo using two BAC libraries

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although melon (<it>Cucumis melo </it>L.) is an economically important fruit crop, no genome-wide sequence information is openly available at the current time. We therefore sequenced BAC-ends representing a total of 33,024 clones, half of them from a previously described melon BAC library generated with restriction endonucleases and the remainder from a new random-shear BAC library.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We generated a total of 47,140 high-quality BAC-end sequences (BES), 91.7% of which were paired-BES. Both libraries were assembled independently and then cross-assembled to obtain a final set of 33,372 non-redundant, high-quality sequences. These were grouped into 6,411 contigs (4.5 Mb) and 26,961 non-assembled BES (14.4 Mb), representing ~4.2% of the melon genome. The sequences were used to screen genomic databases, identifying 7,198 simple sequence repeats (corresponding to one microsatellite every 2.6 kb) and 2,484 additional repeats of which 95.9% represented transposable elements. The sequences were also used to screen expressed sequence tag (EST) databases, revealing 11,372 BES that were homologous to ESTs. This suggests that ~30% of the melon genome consists of coding DNA. We observed regions of microsynteny between melon paired-BES and six other dicotyledonous plant genomes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The analysis of nearly 50,000 BES from two complementary genomic libraries covered ~4.2% of the melon genome, providing insight into properties such as microsatellite and transposable element distribution, and the percentage of coding DNA. The observed synteny between melon paired-BES and six other plant genomes showed that useful comparative genomic data can be derived through large scale BAC-end sequencing by anchoring a small proportion of the melon genome to other sequenced genomes.</p