Theoretical understanding of correlation between magnetic phase transition and the superconducting dome in high-Tc cuprates

Many issues concerning the origin of high-temperature superconductivity (HTS) are still under debate. For example, how the magnetic ordering varies with doping and its relationship with the superconducting temperature; and why the maximal Tc always occurs near the quantum critical point. In this paper, taking hole-doped La2CuO4 as a classical example, we employ the first-principles band structure and total energy calculations and Monte Carlo simulations to explore how the symmetry-breaking magnetic ground state evolves with hole doping and the origin of a dome-shaped superconductivity region in the phase diagram. We demonstrate that the local antiferromagnetic ordering and doping play key roles in determining the electron-phonon coupling, thus Tc. Initially, the La2CuO4 possesses a checkerboard local antiferromagnetic ground state. As the hole doping increases, Tc increases with the increase of the density of states at the Fermi surface. But as the doping increases further, the strength of the antiferromagnetic interaction weakens. At the critical doping level, a magnetic phase transition occurs that reduces the local antiferromagnetism-assisted electron-phonon coupling, thus diminishing the Tc. The superconductivity disappears in the heavily overdoped region when the antiferromagnetic ordering disappears. These observations could account for why cuprates have a dome-shaped superconductivity region in the phase diagram. Our study, thus, contributes to a fundamental understanding of the correlation between doping, local magnetic ordering, and superconductivity of HTS.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures in the main text; 11 pages, 7 figures in the supplementary material

Taxifolin increased semen quality of Duroc boars by improving gut microbes and blood metabolites.

peer reviewedTaxifolin (TAX), as a natural flavonoid, has been widely focused on due to its strong anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-virus, and even anti-tumor activity. However, the effect of TAX on semen quality was unknown. The purpose of this study was to analyze the beneficial influences of adding feed additive TAX to boar semen in terms of its quality and potential mechanisms. We discovered that TAX increased sperm motility significantly in Duroc boars by the elevation of the protein levels such as ZAG, PKA, CatSper, and p-ERK for sperm quality. TAX increased the blood concentration of testosterone derivatives, antioxidants such as melatonin and betaine, unsaturated fatty acids such as DHA, and beneficial amino acids such as proline. Conversely, TAX decreased 10 different kinds of bile acids in the plasma. Moreover, TAX increased "beneficial" microbes such as Intestinimonas, Coprococcus, Butyrivibrio, and Clostridium_XlVa at the Genus level. However, TAX reduced the "harmful" intestinal bacteria such as Prevotella, Howardella, Mogibacterium, and Enterococcus. There was a very close correlation between fecal microbes, plasma metabolites, and semen parameters by the spearman correlation analysis. Therefore, the data suggest that TAX increases the semen quality of Duroc boars by benefiting the gut microbes and blood metabolites. It is supposed that TAX could be used as a kind of feed additive to increase the semen quality of boars to enhance production performance

Overexpression of sphingosine kinase 1 is associated with salivary gland carcinoma progression and might be a novel predictive marker for adjuvant therapy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Overexpression of sphingosine kinase-1 (SPHK1) has been demonstrated to be associated with the development and progression in various types of human cancers. The current study was to characterize the expression of SPHK1 in salivary gland carcinomas (SGC) and to investigate the association between SPHK1 expression and progression of SGC.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The expression of SPHK1 was examined in 2 normal salivary gland tissues, 8 SGC tissues of various clinical stages, and 5 pairs of primary SGC and adjacent salivary gland tissues from the same patient, using real-time PCR and western blot analysis. Furthermore, the SPHK1 protein expression was analyzed in 159 clinicopathologically characterized SGC cases by immunohistochemistry. Statistical analyses were performed to determine the prognostic and diagnostic associations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>SPHK1 expression was found to be markedly upregulated in SGC tissues than that in the normal salivary gland tissues and paired adjacent salivary gland tissues, at both mRNA and protein levels. Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation of SPHK1 expression with the clinical stage (<it>P </it>= 0.005), T classification (<it>P </it>= 0.017), N classification (<it>P </it>= 0.009), M classification (<it>P </it>= 0.002), and pathological differentiation (<it>P </it>= 0.013). Patients with higher SPHK1 expression had shorter overall survival time, whereas patients with lower SPHK1 expression had better survival. Importantly, patients in the group without adjuvant therapy who exhibited high SPHK1 expression had significantly lower overall survival rates compared with those with low SPHK1 expression. Moreover, multivariate analysis suggested that SPHK1 expression might be an independent prognostic indicator for the survival of SGC patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results suggest that SPHK1 expression is associated with SGC progression, and might represent as a novel and valuable predictor for adjuvant therapy to SGC patients.</p

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Single-cell protein-DNA interactomics and multiomics tools for deciphering genome regulation

The emergence of single-cell genomic and transcriptomic sequencing accelerates the development of single-cell epigenomic technologies, providing an unprecedented opportunity for decoding cell fate decisions largely encoded in the epigenome. Recent advances in single-cell multimodality epigenomic technologies facilitate directly interrogating the regulatory relationship between multi-layer molecular information in the same cell. In this review, we discuss recent progress in development of single-cell multimodality epigenomic technologies and applications in elucidating cellular diversifications in development and diseases, with a focus on protein-DNA interactomics and regulatory links between epigenome and transcriptome. Further, we provide perspective on the future direction of single-cell multiomics tool development as well as challenges facing ahead

STUDY ON MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LPG TANK CAR WITH WALL-CLIMBING JET CLEANING

According to the requirement of LPG tank car inner wall cleaning,a wall-climbing jet cleaning trolley was designed,which combined high-pressure water jet and mechanical brushing. By establishing the static and dynamic model of car wall cleaning,the minimum adsorption force equation for reliable adsorption of car and the minimum driving force equation for stable operation and steering of car were derived. The example analysis under different wall inclination angles shows that the main instability form of static adsorption is wall sliding,and the minimum adsorption force is 51. 8 N when the wall inclination angle is120 degrees. The main instability form of stable operation is differential steering,and the minimum driving torque is 2. 95 N·m when the wall inclination angle is 50 degrees. The prototype experiment proves that the research results are reliable,which provides a theoretical basis for the development of LPG tank car automatic cleaning equipment and the corresponding technical research

Experimental study on truing of bronze-bonded diamond wheels with coarse abrasive grits using a novel hybrid method

The application of metal-bonded super abrasive wheels has provided a solution for grinding of hard and brittle materials. However, the high strength of metal bond of wheels made their truing extremely difficult. Normally metal-bonded wheels with fine grits can be trued using mechanical truing, electro-chemical truing and laser truing. For coarse wheels, due to their relatively large grits, truing can' t be completed only using any individual method mentioned above efficiently. This paper reports a hybrid method, i. e. combining electrical discharge and mechanical truing for bronze-bond diamond wheels, and clarifies its truing mechanism; additionally, the relation between the discharge gap and electrical parameters is studied and applied in the truing of bronze-bonded diamond wheels. The experimental results show that bronze-bonded diamond wheels with coarse abrasive grits can be trued efficiently by this novel hybrid method, and the truing precision can be up to 6 μm or so