Aharonov-Bohm interference in topological insulator nanoribbons

Topological insulators represent novel phases of quantum matter with an insulating bulk gap and gapless edges or surface states. The two-dimensional topological insulator phase was predicted in HgTe quantum wells and confirmed by transport measurements. Recently, Bi2Se3 and related materials have been proposed as three-dimensional topological insulators with a single Dirac cone on the surface and verified by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments. Here, we show unambiguous transport evidence of topological surface states through periodic quantum interference effects in layered single-crystalline Bi2Se3 nanoribbons. Pronounced Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the magnetoresistance clearly demonstrate the coverage of two-dimensional electrons on the entire surface, as expected from the topological nature of the surface states. The dominance of the primary h/e oscillation and its temperature dependence demonstrate the robustness of these electronic states. Our results suggest that topological insulator nanoribbons afford novel promising materials for future spintronic devices at room temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTex forma

Perceptions of HIV cure research among people living with HIV in Australia

Participation in HIV cure-related clinical trials that involve antiretroviral treatment (ART) interruption may pose substantial individual risks for people living with HIV (PLHIV) without any therapeutic benefit. As such, it is important that the views of PLHIV are considered in the design of HIV cure research trials. Examining the lived experience of PLHIV provides unique and valuable perspectives on the risks and benefits of HIV cure research. In this study, we interviewed 20 PLHIV in Australia about their knowledge and attitudes toward clinical HIV cure research and explored their views regarding participation in HIV cure clinical trials, including those that involve ART interruption. Data were analysed thematically, using both inductive and deductive coding techniques, to identity themes related to perceptions of HIV cure research and PLHIV’s assessment of the possible risks and benefits of trial participation. Study findings revealed interviewees were willing to consider participation in HIV cure research for social reasons, most notably the opportunity to help others. Concerns raised about ART interruption related to the social and emotional impact of viral rebound, including fear of onward HIV transmission and anxiety about losing control. These findings reveal the ways in which PLHIV perspectives deepen our understanding of HIV cure research, moving beyond a purely clinical assessment of risks and benefits in order to consider the social context

Exclusive J/ψ detection and physics with ECCE

The file available on this institutional repository is an arXiv preprint which may not have been certified by peer review. The definitive version of record published by Elsevier is available at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2207.10356.Copyright © The Authors 2023. The EIC Comprehensive Chromodynamics Experiment (ECCE) detector has been recommended as a reference design for the proposed Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) program. This paper presents simulation studies of exclusive J/ψ detection and selected physics impact results in EIC using the projected ECCE detector concept. Exclusive quarkonium photoproduction is one of the most popular processes in EIC, which has a large cross section and a simple final state. Due to the gluonic nature of the exchange Pomeron, this process can be related to the gluon distributions in the nucleus. Preliminary results estimate the excellent statistics benefited from the large cross section of J/ψ photoproduction and superior performance of ECCE detector concept. The precise measurement of exclusive J/ψ photoproduction at EIC will help us to more deeply understand nuclear gluon distributions, near threshold production mechanism and nucleon mass structure.X. Li and W. Zha are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (12005220, 12175223) and MOST (2018YFE0104900). The authors would like to thank the ECCE Consortium for performing a full simulation of their detector design, for providing up-to-date information on EIC run conditions, and for suggestions and comments on the manuscript. X. Li and W. Zha would like to thank Y. Zhou for useful suggestions and discussions related to this analysis. W. Zha is supported by Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation No. 2208085J23 and Youth Innovation Promotion Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences. AANL group are supported by the Science Committee of RA , in the frames of the research project 21AG-1C028

Azithromycin-chloroquine and the intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy

In the high malaria-transmission settings of sub-Saharan Africa, malaria in pregnancy is an important cause of maternal, perinatal and neonatal morbidity. Intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy (IPTp) with sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) reduces the incidence of low birth-weight, pre-term delivery, intrauterine growth-retardation and maternal anaemia. However, the public health benefits of IPTp are declining due to SP resistance. The combination of azithromycin and chloroquine is a potential alternative to SP for IPTp. This review summarizes key in vitro and in vivo evidence of azithromycin and chloroquine activity against Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, as well as the anticipated secondary benefits that may result from their combined use in IPTp, including the cure and prevention of many sexually transmitted diseases. Drug costs and the necessity for external financing are discussed along with a range of issues related to drug resistance and surveillance. Several scientific and programmatic questions of interest to policymakers and programme managers are also presented that would need to be addressed before azithromycin-chloroquine could be adopted for use in IPTp

LongITools: Dynamic longitudinal exposome trajectories in cardiovascular and metabolic noncommunicable diseases

The current epidemics of cardiovascular and metabolic noncommunicable diseases have emerged alongside dramatic modifications in lifestyle and living environments. These correspond to changes in our “modern” postwar societies globally characterized by rural-to-urban migration, modernization of agricultural practices, and transportation, climate change, and aging. Evidence suggests that these changes are related to each other, although the social and biological mechanisms as well as their interactions have yet to be uncovered. LongITools, as one of the 9 projects included in the European Human Exposome Network, will tackle this environmental health equation linking multidimensional environmental exposures to the occurrence of cardiovascular and metabolic noncommunicable diseases

Scientific computing plan for the ECCE detector at the Electron Ion Collider

This is the arXiv pre-print which has not been peer reviewed. It is made available under a Creative Commons (CC BY) Attribution Lciense. The corrected version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2022.167859.Cite as: arXiv:2205.08607 [physics.ins-det] (or arXiv:2205.08607v1 [physics.ins-det] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2205.08607 Focus to learn more Journal reference: NIMA 1047, 167859 (2023) Related DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2022.167859 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Joseph Osborn [view email] [v1] Tue, 17 May 2022 19:53:56 UTC (29,605 KB)Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). The Electron Ion Collider (EIC) is the next generation of precision QCD facility to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory in conjunction with Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory. There are a significant number of software and computing challenges that need to be overcome at the EIC. During the EIC detector proposal development period, the ECCE consortium began identifying and addressing these challenges in the process of producing a complete detector proposal based upon detailed detector and physics simulations. In this document, the software and computing efforts to produce this proposal are discussed; furthermore, the computing and software model and resources required for the future of ECCE are described.Office of Nuclear Physics in the Office of Science in the Department of Energy, USA; National Science Foundation, USA; Los Alamos National Laboratory Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD), USA 20200022DR

Perspectives on Disconnects Between Scientific Information and Management Decisions on Post-fire Recovery in Western US

Environmental regulations frequently mandate the use of "best available" science, but ensuring that it is used in decisions around the use and protection of natural resources is often challenging. In the Western US, this relationship between science and management is at the forefront of post-fire land management decisions. Recent fires, post-fire threats (e.g. flooding, erosion), and the role of fire in ecosystem health combine to make post-fire management highly visible and often controversial. This paper uses post-fire management to present a framework for understanding why disconnects between science and management decisions may occur. We argue that attributes of agencies, such as their political or financial incentives, can limit how effectively science is incorporated into decision-making. At the other end of the spectrum, the lack of synthesis or limited data in science can result in disconnects between science-based analysis of post-fire effects and agency policy and decisions. Disconnects also occur because of the interaction between the attributes of agencies and the attributes of science, such as their different spatial and temporal scales of interest. After offering examples of these disconnects in post-fire treatment, the paper concludes with recommendations to reduce disconnects by improving monitoring, increasing synthesis of scientific findings, and directing social-science research toward identifying and deepening understanding of these disconnects

Evaluation of longitudinal double-spin asymmetry measurements in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering from the proton for the ECCE detector design

The evaluation of the measurement of double-spin asymmetries for charge-separated pions and kaons produced in deep-inelastic scattering from the proton using the ECCE detector design concept is presented, for the combinations of lepton and hadron beam energies of 5 × 41 GeV^2 and 18 × 275 GeV^2. The study uses unpolarised simulated data that are processed through a full GEANT simulation of the detector. These data are then reweighted at the parton level with DSSV helicity distributions and DSS fragmentation functions, in order to generate the relevant asymmetries, and subsequently analysed. The performed analysis shows that the ECCE detector concept provides the resolution and acceptance, with a broad coverage in kinematic phase space, needed for a robust extraction of asymmetries. This, in turn, allows for a precise extraction of sea-quark helicity distributions.We acknowledge support from the Office of Nuclear Physics in the Office of Science in the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) 20200022DR. The work of C.V.H. is, in addition, supported by the Atracción de Talento Investigador programme of the Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) No. 2020-T1/TIC-20295. The work of the AANL group is supported by the Science Committee of RA, in the frames of the research project 21AG-1C028