66 research outputs found
Superconductivity in the high-entropy ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx with possible nontrivial band topology
Topological superconductors have drawn significant interest from the
scientific community due to the accompanying Majorana fermions. Here, we report
the discovery of electronic structure and superconductivity in high-entropy
ceramics Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx (x = 1 and 0.8) combined with experiments
and first-principles calculations. The Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2Cx high-entropy
ceramics show bulk type-II superconductivity with Tc about 4.00 K (x = 1) and
2.65 K (x = 0.8), respectively. The specific heat jump is equal to 1.45 (x = 1)
and 1.52 (x = 0.8), close to the expected value of 1.43 for the BCS
superconductor in the weak coupling limit. The high-pressure resistance
measurements show that a robust superconductivity against high physical
pressure in Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, with a slight Tc variation of 0.3 K
within 82.5 GPa. Furthermore, the first-principles calculations indicate that
the Dirac-like point exists in the electronic band structures of
Ti0.2Zr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2C, which is potentially a topological superconductor.
The Dirac-like point is mainly contributed by the d orbitals of transition
metals M and the p orbitals of C. The high-entropy ceramics provide an
excellent platform for the fabrication of novel quantum devices, and our study
may spark significant future physics investigations in this intriguing
material.Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures,The manuscript with the same title will be
published by Advanced Scienc
Prevalence and Molecular Characterization of Cyclospora cayetanensis, Henan, China
To determine prevalence of Cyclospora cayetanensis infection in Henan, China, we conducted a study of 11,554 hospital patients. Prevalence was 0.70% (95% confidence interval 0.70% ± 0.15%), with all age groups infected. Most cases were found in the summer. Minor sequence polymorphisms were observed in the 18S rRNA gene of 35 isolates characterized
Optimism/pessimism and health-related quality of life during pregnancy across three continents: a matched cohort study in China, Ghana, and the United States
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Little is known about how optimism/pessimism and health-related quality of life compare across cultures.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three samples of pregnant women in their final trimester were recruited from China, Ghana, and the United States (U.S.). Participants completed a survey that included the Life Orientation Test - Revised (LOT-R, an optimism/pessimism measure), the Short Form 12 (SF-12, a quality of life measure), and questions addressing health and demographic factors. A three-country set was created for analysis by matching women on age, gestational age at enrollment, and number of previous pregnancies. Anovas with post-hoc pairwise comparisons were used to compare results across the cohorts. Multivariate regression analysis was used to create a model to identify those variables most strongly associated with optimism/pessimism.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>LOT-R scores varied significantly across cultures in these samples, with Ghanaian pregnant women being the most optimistic and least pessimistic and Chinese pregnant women being the least optimistic overall and the least pessimistic in subscale analysis. Four key variables predicted approximately 20% of the variance in overall optimism scores: country of origin (p = .006), working for money (p = .05); level of education (p = .002), and ever being treated for emotional issues with medication (p < .001). Quality of life scores also varied by country in these samples, with the most pronounced difference occurring in the vitality measure. U.S. pregnant women reported far lower vitality scores than both Chinese and Ghanaian pregnant women in our sample.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This research raises important questions regarding what it is about country of origin that so strongly influences optimism/pessimism among pregnant women. Further research is warranted exploring underlying conceptualization of optimism/pessimism and health related quality of life across countries.</p
Mobile Health (mHealth) technology for improved screening, patient involvement and optimising integrated care in atrial fibrillation: The mAFA (mAF-App) II randomised trial
Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity–soil multifunctionality relationships
From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-01-07, accepted 2021-08-12, registration 2021-08-25, pub-electronic 2021-09-09, online 2021-09-09, collection 2021-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001809; Grant(s): 31770430Abstract: Relationships between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (that is, ecosystem multifunctionality) are context-dependent. Both plant and soil microbial diversity have been reported to regulate ecosystem multifunctionality, but how their relative importance varies along environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Here, we relate plant and microbial diversity to soil multifunctionality across 130 dryland sites along a 4,000 km aridity gradient in northern China. Our results show a strong positive association between plant species richness and soil multifunctionality in less arid regions, whereas microbial diversity, in particular of fungi, is positively associated with multifunctionality in more arid regions. This shift in the relationships between plant or microbial diversity and soil multifunctionality occur at an aridity level of ∼0.8, the boundary between semiarid and arid climates, which is predicted to advance geographically ∼28% by the end of the current century. Our study highlights that biodiversity loss of plants and soil microorganisms may have especially strong consequences under low and high aridity conditions, respectively, which calls for climate-specific biodiversity conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of aridification
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