Superconductivity of ultra-fine tungsten nanowires grown by focused-ion-beam direct-writing

The electrical properties of lateral ultra-fine tungsten nanowires, which were grown by focused-ion-beam-induced deposition with 1 pA ion-beam current, were investigated. Temperature-dependent electrical measurements show that the wires are conducting and have a superconducting transition with a transition temperature (T-c) about 5.1 K. Resistance vs. temperature measurements reveal that, with decreasing cross-sectional area, the wires display an increasingly broad superconducting transition. A residual resistive tail extending down to the low-temperature region is found only for the thinnest tungsten nanowire, which is 10 nm thick and 19 nm wide. The logarithm of the residual resistance of this wire appears as two linear sections as a function of temperature, one within 300 mK below T-c and the other extending down to the lowest measuring temperature of 4.26 K. Such features have previously been identified with phase slip processes. Our results are suggestive that the focused-ion-beam technique might be a potential approach to fabricate ultra-thin and ultra-narrow nanowires for the study of superconducting suppression in nanoscale materials and for maskless superconducting device fabrication. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Superconductivity in HfTe5 across weak to strong topological insulator transition induced via pressures

Recently, theoretical studies show that layered HfTe5 is at the boundary of weak & strong topological insulator (TI) and might crossover to a Dirac semimetal state by changing lattice parameters. The topological properties of 3D stacked HfTe5 are expected hence to be sensitive to pressures tuning. Here, we report pressure induced phase evolution in both electronic & crystal structures for HfTe5 with a culmination of pressure induced superconductivity. Our experiments indicated that the temperature for anomaly resistance peak (Tp) due to Lifshitz transition decreases first before climbs up to a maximum with pressure while the Tp minimum corresponds to the transition from a weak TI to strong TI. The HfTe5 crystal becomes superconductive above ~5.5 GPa where the Tp reaches maximum. The highest superconducting transition temperature (Tc) around 5 K was achieved at 20 GPa. Crystal structure studies indicate that HfTe5 transforms from a Cmcm phase across a monoclinic C2/m phase then to a P-1 phase with increasing pressure. Based on transport, structure studies a comprehensive phase diagram of HfTe5 is constructed as function of pressure. The work provides valuable experimental insights into the evolution on how to proceed from a weak TI precursor across a strong TI to superconductors

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Hypoxia Negatively Regulates Antimetastatic PEDF in Melanoma Cells by a Hypoxia Inducible Factor-Independent, Autophagy Dependent Mechanism

Pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), a member of the serine protease inhibitor (SERPIN) superfamily, displays a potent antiangiogenic and antimetastatic activity in a broad range of tumor types. Melanocytes and low aggressive melanoma cells secrete high levels of PEDF, while its expression is lost in highly aggressive melanomas. PEDF efficiently abrogates a number of functional properties critical for the acquisition of metastatic ability by melanoma cells, such as neovascularization, proliferation, migration, invasiveness and extravasation. In this study, we identify hypoxia as a relevant negative regulator of PEDF in melanocytes and low aggressive melanoma cells. PEDF was regulated at the protein level. Importantly, although downregulation of PEDF was induced by inhibition of 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases, it was independent of the hypoxia inducible factor (HIF), a key mediator of the adaptation to hypoxia. Decreased PEDF protein was not mediated by inhibition of translation through untranslated regions (UTRs) in melanoma cells. Degradation by metalloproteinases, implicated on PEDF degradation in retinal pigment epithelial cells, or by the proteasome, was also excluded as regulatory mechanism in melanoma cells. Instead, we found that degradation by autophagy was critical for PEDF downregulation under hypoxia in human melanoma cells. Our findings show that hypoxic conditions encountered during primary melanoma growth downregulate antiangiogenic and antimetastasic PEDF by a posttranslational mechanism involving degradation by autophagy and could therefore contribute to the acquisition of highly metastatic potential characteristic of aggressive melanoma cells

Experimental studies of e + e -→ some charmless processes containing K S0 at √s = 3.773 and 3.65 GeV

We measure the observed cross sections for the charmless processes e + e -→K S0 K - K - K + π ++ c.c., K S0 K - π + η+c.c., K S0 K - π + π + π - η+c.c., K S0 K - K - K + π + η+c.c., K S0 K - K - K + π + π 0+c.c., K S0 K - ρ ++c.c. and K S0 K - π + ρ 0+c.c. We also extract upper limits on the branching fractions for ψ(3770) decays into these final states at 90% C.L. Analyzed data samples correspond to 17.3 pb-1 and 6.5 pb-1 integrated luminosities registered, respectively, at √s = 3.773 and 3.65 GeV, with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider. © 2009 Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

Search for ψ(3770)→ charmless final states involving η or π0 mesons

We search for ψ(3770) → π+π-η, K+K-η, pp̄η, ρ0π+π-η, K+K-π+π-η, pp̄π+π-η, pp̄K+K-η and pp̄K+K- π0 using data samples of 17.3 and 6.5 pb-1 integrated luminosities recorded at the center-of-mass energies of 3.773 and 3.65 GeV, respectively, by the BES-II detector operating at the BEPC collider. We obtain cross section measurements at both energies and upper limits on ψ(3770) decay branching fractions to the final states studied. © © Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica 2010.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 21 Feb 201

The abundance and host-seeking behavior of culicine species (Diptera: Culicidae) and Anopheles sinensis in Yongcheng city, people's Republic of China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The knowledge of mosquito species diversity and the level of anthropophily exhibited by each species in a region are of great importance to the integrated vector control. Culicine species are the primary vectors of Japanese encephalitis (JE) virus and filariasis in China. <it>Anopheles sinensis </it>plays a major role in the maintenance of <it>Plasmodium vivax </it>malaria transmission in China. The goal of this study was to compare the abundance and host-seeking behavior of culicine species and <it>An. sinensis </it>in Yongcheng city, a representative region of <it>P. vivax </it>malaria. Specifically, we wished to determine the relative attractiveness of different animal baits versus human bait to culicine species and <it>An. sinensis</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><it>Culex tritaeniorhynchus </it>was the most prevalent mosquito species and <it>An. sinensis </it>was the sole potential vector of <it>P. vivax </it>malaria in Yongcheng city. There were significant differences (P < 0.01) in the abundance of both <it>An. sinensis </it>and <it>Cx. tritaeniorhynchus </it>collected in distinct baited traps. The relative attractiveness of animal versus human bait was similar towards both <it>An. sinensis </it>and <it>Cx. tritaeniorhynchus</it>. The ranking derived from the mean number of mosquitoes per bait indicated that pigs, goats and calves frequently attracted more mosquitoes than the other hosts tested (dogs, humans, and chickens). These trends were similar across all capture nights at three distinct villages. The human blood index (HBI) of female <it>An. sinensis </it>was 2.94% when computed with mixed meals while 3.70% computed with only the single meal. 19:00~21:00 was the primary peak of host-seeking female <it>An. sinensis </it>while 4:00~5:00 was the smaller peak at night. There was significant correlation between the density of female <it>An. sinensis </it>and the average relative humidity (P < 0.05) in Wangshanzhuang village.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Pigs, goats and calves were more attractive to <it>An. sinensis </it>and <it>Cx. tritaeniorhynchus </it>than dogs, humans, and chickens. Female <it>An. sinensis </it>host-seeking activity mainly occurred from 19:00 to 21:00. Thus, we propose that future vector control against <it>An. sinensis </it>and <it>Cx. tritaeniorhynchus </it>in the areas along the Huang-Huai River of central China should target the interface of human activity with domestic animals and adopt before human hosts go to bed at night.</p

Wound dressings for a proteolytic-rich environment

Wound dressings have experienced continuous and significant changes over the years based on the knowledge of the biochemical events associated with chronic wounds. The development goes from natural materials used to just cover and conceal the wound to interactive materials that can facilitate the healing process, addressing specific issues in non-healing wounds. These new types of dressings often relate with the proteolytic wound environment and the bacteria load to enhance the healing. Recently, the wound dressing research is focusing on the replacement of synthetic polymers by natural protein materials to delivery bioactive agents to the wounds. This article provides an overview on the novel protein-based wound dressings such as silk fibroin keratin and elastin. The improved properties of these dressings, like the release of antibiotics and growth factors, are discussed. The different types of wounds and the effective parameters of healing process will be reviewed

Deciphering the stem cell machinery as a basis for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying reprogramming

Stem cells provide fascinating prospects for biomedical applications by combining the ability to renew themselves and to differentiate into specialized cell types. Since the first isolation of embryonic stem (ES) cells about 30 years ago, there has been a series of groundbreaking discoveries that have the potential to revolutionize modern life science. For a long time, embryos or germ cell-derived cells were thought to be the only source of pluripotency—a dogma that has been challenged during the last decade. Several findings revealed that cell differentiation from (stem) cells to mature cells is not in fact an irreversible process. The molecular mechanism underlying cellular reprogramming is poorly understood thus far. Identifying how pluripotency maintenance takes place in ES cells can help us to understand how pluripotency induction is regulated. Here, we review recent advances in the field of stem cell regulation focusing on key transcription factors and their functional interplay with non-coding RNAs