Electronic tuning and uniform superconductivity in CeCoIn5

We report a globally reversible effect of electronic tuning on the magnetic phase diagram in CeCoIn_{5} driven by electron (Pt and Sn) and hole (Cd, Hg) doping. Consequently, we are able to extract the superconducting pair breaking component for hole and electron dopants with pressure and co-doping studies, respectively. We find that these nominally non-magnetic dopants have a remarkably weak pair breaking effect for a d-wave superconductor. The pair breaking is weaker for hole dopants, which induce magnetic moments, than for electron dopants. Furthermore, both Pt and Sn doping have a similar effect on superconductivity despite being on different dopant sites, arguing against the notion that superconductivity lives predominantly in the CeIn_{3} planes of these materials. In addition, we shed qualitative understanding on the doping dependence with density functional theory calculations.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. (October 1, 2012

Observation of the nonlinear Hall effect under time reversal symmetric conditions

The electrical Hall effect is the production of a transverse voltage under an out-of-plane magnetic field. Historically, studies of the Hall effect have led to major breakthroughs including the discoveries of Berry curvature and the topological Chern invariants. In magnets, the internal magnetization allows Hall conductivity in the absence of external magnetic field. This anomalous Hall effect (AHE) has become an important tool to study quantum magnets. In nonmagnetic materials without external magnetic fields, the electrical Hall effect is rarely explored because of the constraint by time-reversal symmetry. However, strictly speaking, only the Hall effect in the linear response regime, i.e., the Hall voltage linearly proportional to the external electric field, identically vanishes due to time-reversal symmetry. The Hall effect in the nonlinear response regime, on the other hand, may not be subject to such symmetry constraints. Here, we report the observation of the nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE) in the electrical transport of the nonmagnetic 2D quantum material, bilayer WTe2. Specifically, flowing an electrical current in bilayer WTe2 leads to a nonlinear Hall voltage in the absence of magnetic field. The NLHE exhibits unusual properties sharply distinct from the AHE in metals: The NLHE shows a quadratic I-V characteristic; It strongly dominates the nonlinear longitudinal response, leading to a Hall angle of about 90 degree. We further show that the NLHE directly measures the "dipole moment" of the Berry curvature, which arises from layer-polarized Dirac fermions in bilayer WTe2. Our results demonstrate a new Hall effect and provide a powerful methodology to detect Berry curvature in a wide range of nonmagnetic quantum materials in an energy-resolved way

A systematic review of the evidence for single stage and two stage revision of infected knee replacement

BACKGROUND: Periprosthetic infection about the knee is a devastating complication that may affect between 1% and 5% of knee replacement. With over 79 000 knee replacements being implanted each year in the UK, periprosthetic infection (PJI) is set to become an important burden of disease and cost to the healthcare economy. One of the important controversies in treatment of PJI is whether a single stage revision operation is superior to a two-stage procedure. This study sought to systematically evaluate the published evidence to determine which technique had lowest reinfection rates. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was undertaken using the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases with the aim to identify existing studies that present the outcomes of each surgical technique. Reinfection rate was the primary outcome measure. Studies of specific subsets of patients such as resistant organisms were excluded. RESULTS: 63 studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. The majority of which (58) were reports of two-stage revision. Reinfection rated varied between 0% and 41% in two-stage studies, and 0% and 11% in single stage studies. No clinical trials were identified and the majority of studies were observational studies. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence for both one-stage and two-stage revision is largely of low quality. The evidence basis for two-stage revision is significantly larger, and further work into direct comparison between the two techniques should be undertaken as a priority

Probing black hole accretion tracks, scaling relations, and radiative efficiencies from stacked X-ray active galactic nuclei

The masses of supermassive black holes at the centres of local galaxies appear to be tightly correlated with the mass and velocity dispersions of their galactic hosts. However, the local Mbh–Mstar relation inferred from dynamically measured inactive black holes is up to an order-of-magnitude higher than some estimates from active black holes, and recent work suggests that this discrepancy arises from selection bias on the sample of dynamical black hole mass measurements. In this work, we combine X-ray measurements of the mean black hole accretion luminosity as a function of stellar mass and redshift with empirical models of galaxy stellar mass growth, integrating over time to predict the evolving Mbh–Mstar relation. The implied relation is nearly independent of redshift, indicating that stellar and black hole masses grow, on average, at similar rates. Matching the de-biased local Mbh–Mstar relation requires a mean radiative efficiency ε ≳ 0.15, in line with theoretical expectations for accretion on to spinning black holes. However, matching the ‘raw’ observed relation for inactive black holes requires ε ∼ 0.02, far below theoretical expectations. This result provides independent evidence for selection bias in dynamically estimated black hole masses, a conclusion that is robust to uncertainties in bolometric corrections, obscured active black hole fractions, and kinetic accretion efficiency. For our fiducial assumptions, they favour moderate-to-rapid spins of typical supermassive black holes, to achieve ε ∼ 0.12–0.20. Our approach has similarities to the classic Soltan analysis, but by using galaxy-based data instead of integrated quantities we are able to focus on regimes where observational uncertainties are minimized

The DOCK Protein Sponge Binds to ELMO and Functions in Drosophila Embryonic CNS Development

Cell morphogenesis, which requires rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton, is essential to coordinate the development of tissues such as the musculature and nervous system during normal embryonic development. One class of signaling proteins that regulate actin cytoskeletal rearrangement is the evolutionarily conserved CDM (C. elegans Ced-5, human DOCK180, Drosophila Myoblast city, or Mbc) family of proteins, which function as unconventional guanine nucleotide exchange factors for the small GTPase Rac. This CDM-Rac protein complex is sufficient for Rac activation, but is enhanced upon the association of CDM proteins with the ELMO/Ced-12 family of proteins. We identified and characterized the role of Drosophila Sponge (Spg), the vertebrate DOCK3/DOCK4 counterpart as an ELMO-interacting protein. Our analysis shows Spg mRNA and protein is expressed in the visceral musculature and developing nervous system, suggesting a role for Spg in later embryogenesis. As maternal null mutants of spg die early in development, we utilized genetic interaction analysis to uncover the role of Spg in central nervous system (CNS) development. Consistent with its role in ELMO-dependent pathways, we found genetic interactions with spg and elmo mutants exhibited aberrant axonal defects. In addition, our data suggests Ncad may be responsible for recruiting Spg to the membrane, possibly in CNS development. Our findings not only characterize the role of a new DOCK family member, but help to further understand the role of signaling downstream of N-cadherin in neuronal development

Particle-yield modification in jet-like azimuthal di-hadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.Comment: 15 pages, 2 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/350

Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388

Enantioselective Phytotoxicity of the Herbicide Imazethapyr on the Response of the Antioxidant System and Starch Metabolism in Arabidopsis thaliana

Background: The enantiomers of a chiral compound possess different biological activities, and one of the enantiomers usually shows a higher level of toxicity. Therefore, the exploration of the causative mechanism of enantioselective toxicity is regarded as one of primary goals of biological chemistry. Imazethapyr (IM) is an acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting chiral herbicide that has been widely used in recent years with racemate. We investigated the enantioselectivity between R- and S-IM to form reactive oxygen species (ROS) and to regulate antioxidant gene transcription and enzyme activity. Results: Dramatic differences between the enantiomers were observed: the enantiomer of R-IM powerfully induced ROS formation, yet drastically reduced antioxidant gene transcription and enzyme activity, which led to an oxidative stress. The mechanism by which IM affects carbohydrate metabolism in chloroplasts has long remained a mystery. Here we report evidence that enantioselectivity also exists in starch metabolism. The enantiomer of R-IM resulted in the accumulation of glucose, maltose and sucrose in the cytoplasm or the chloroplast and disturbed carbohydrates utilization. Conclusion: The study suggests that R-IM more strongly retarded plant growth than S-IM not only by acting on ALS, but also by causing an imbalance in the antioxidant system and the disturbance of carbohydrate metabolism wit

An A91V SNP in the perforin gene is frequently found in NK/T-cell lymphomas

NK/T-cell lymphoma (NKTCL) is the most frequent EBV-related NK/T-cell disease. Its clinical manifestations overlap with those of familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHLH). Since PERFORIN (PRF1) mutations are present in FHLH, we analysed its role in a series of 12 nasal and 12 extranasal-NKTCLs. 12.5% of the tumours and 25% of the nasal-origin cases had the well-known g.272C>T(p.Ala91Val) pathogenic SNP, which confers a poor prognosis. Two of these cases had a double-CD4/CD8-positive immunophenotype, although no correlation was found with perforin protein expression. p53 was overexpressed in 20% of the tumoral samples, 80% of which were of extranasal origin, while none showed PRF1 SNVs. These results suggest that nasal and extranasal NKTCLs have different biological backgrounds, although this requires validation