38 research outputs found
Fast spectroscopic mapping of two-dimensional quantum materials
The discovery of quantum materials entails extensive spectroscopic studies that are carried out against multitudes of degrees of freedom, such as magnetic field, location, temperature, or doping. As this traditionally involves two or more serial measurement tasks, spectroscopic mapping can become excruciatingly slow. We demonstrate orders of magnitude faster measurements through our combination of sparse sampling and parallel spectroscopy. We exemplify our concept using quasiparticle interference imaging of Au(111) and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi2212), as two well-known model systems. Our method is accessible, straightforward to implement with existing setups, and can be easily extended to promote gate or field spectroscopy. In view of further substantial speed advantages, it is setting the stage to fundamentally promote the discovery of quantum materials
Procyanidins in Theobroma cacao Reduce Plasma Cholesterol Levels in High Cholesterol-Fed Rats
We evaluated the effect of cacao procyanidins (CP) on plasma lipid levels in high cholesterol-fed rats. Animals were divided into 4 groups, and each group was fed on either a normal diet, high cholesterol diet (HCD) containing 1% cholesterol (HCD without CP), HCD with 0.5% (HCD with 0.5% CP) or 1.0% CP (HCD with 1.0% CP) for 4 weeks. Plasma cholesterol level was significantly higher in the HCD without CP group than the normal diet group (p<0.01). Supplementation of CP significantly decreased plasma cholesterol (p<0.01) to levels similar to those of the normal diet group. The liver cholesterol and triglyceride levels in all HCD groups were significantly higher (p<0.01), but 1.0% CP feeding significantly reduced this increase. Fecal excretion of neutral sterol and triglyceride was significantly increased in all HCD groups (p<0.01), and the excreted amounts tended to be higher in the HCD with CP groups. The procyanidins dose-dependently reduced micellar solubility of cholesterol and this activity increased with increasing molecular weight. These results suggest that one of the mechanisms of CP to lower plasma cholesterol is inhibition of intestinal absorption of cholesterol
Osteoconductivity of hydrothermally synthesized beta-tricalcium phosphate composed of rod-shaped particles under mechanical unloading
Spherical beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) granules synthesized using a unique dropping slurry method expressed good osteoconductivity with prominent bone apposition and bioresorbability when implanted into the rat femur (Gonda et al, Key Eng. Mater. 361-363:1013-1016, 2008). The spherical β-TCP granules were implanted into the bone defect created in the distal end of the right femur of each 8-week-old female Wistar rat. To analyze performance of the spherical β-TCP granules as bone substitute in the bone with reduction in osteogenic potential, the right sciatic neurectomy was performed after implantation and the right hind limb was kept unloaded for 2 weeks before euthanization. Four weeks after implantation, some spherical β-TCP granules with resorption in part were surrounded by newly formed bone. Eight and 12 weeks after implantation, most of the residual β-TCP granules were embedded in newly formed bone, and total volume of the implant and newly formed bone was more than the other portions of the bone or the bone of control animals. Osteoclast activity in the implanted area was also higher than the other portions of the bone or the bone of control animals. Replacement of the intraosseous residual β-TCP granules for bone progressed at 12 weeks after implantation compared to those at 8 weeks after implantation. These data suggested that the spherical β-TCP granules stimulated osteogenesis and osteoclast activity of the unloaded bone
Crystal Symmetry of Stripe Ordered La1.88Sr0.12CuO4
We present a combined x-ray and neutron diffraction study of the stripe
ordered superconductor \lscox{0.12}. The average crystal structure is
consistent with the orthorhombic space group as commonly reported in the
literature. This structure however is not symmetry compatible with a second
order phase transition into the stripe order phase, and, as we report here
numerous Bragg peaks forbidden in the space group are observed. We have
studied and analysed these -forbidden Bragg reflections. Fitting of the
diffraction intensities yields monoclinic lattice distortions that are symmetry
consistent with charge stripe order.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 5 Table
Single-domain stripe order in a high-temperature superconductor
The coupling of spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom results in the emergence of novel states of matter across many classes of strongly correlated electron materials. A model example is unconventional superconductivity, which is widely believed to arise from the coupling of electrons via spin excitations. In cuprate high-temperature superconductors, the interplay of charge and spin degrees of freedom is also reflected in a zoo of charge and spin-density wave orders that are intertwined with superconductivity. A key question is whether the different types of density waves merely coexist or are indeed directly coupled. Here we profit from a neutron scattering technique with superior beam-focusing that allows us to probe the subtle spin-density wave order in the prototypical high-temperature superconductor LaSrCuO under applied uniaxial pressure to demonstrate that the two density waves respond to the external tuning parameter in the same manner. Our result shows that suitable models for high-temperature superconductivity must equally account for charge and spin degrees of freedom via uniaxial charge-spin stripe fluctuations
Weak-signal extraction enabled by deep-neural-network denoising of diffraction data
Removal or cancellation of noise has wide-spread applications for imaging and
acoustics. In every-day-life applications, denoising may even include
generative aspects which are unfaithful to the ground truth. For scientific
applications, however, denoising must reproduce the ground truth accurately.
Here, we show how data can be denoised via a deep convolutional neural network
such that weak signals appear with quantitative accuracy. In particular, we
study X-ray diffraction on crystalline materials. We demonstrate that weak
signals stemming from charge ordering, insignificant in the noisy data, become
visible and accurate in the denoised data. This success is enabled by
supervised training of a deep neural network with pairs of measured low- and
high-noise data. This way, the neural network learns about the statistical
properties of the noise. We demonstrate that using artificial noise (such as
Poisson and Gaussian) does not yield such quantitatively accurate results. Our
approach thus illustrates a practical strategy for noise filtering that can be
applied to challenging acquisition problems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Hidden magnetism at the pseudogap critical point of a high temperature superconductor
The mysterious pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors ends at a critical
hole doping level p* but the nature of the ground state below p* is still
debated. Here, we show that the genuine nature of the magnetic ground state in
La2-xSrxCuO4 is hidden by competing effects from superconductivity: applying
intense magnetic fields to quench superconductivity, we uncover the presence of
glassy antiferromagnetic order up to the pseudogap boundary p* ~ 0.19, and not
above. There is thus a quantum phase transition at p*, which is likely to
underlie highfield observations of a fundamental change in electronic
properties across p*. Furthermore, the continuous presence of quasi-static
moments from the insulator up to p* suggests that the physics of the doped Mott
insulator is relevant through the entire pseudogap regime and might be more
fundamentally driving the transition at p* than just spin or charge ordering.Comment: 26 pages, supplementary info include
Stimulatory effect of hydrothermally synthesized biodegradable hydroxyapatite granules on osteogenesis and direct association with osteoclasts.
Calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (HA) granules with a unique spherical shape were prepared using an applied hydrothermal method. Spherical stoichiometric HA granules were also prepared by normal sintering and both granules were used for implantation into rat tibiae to compare the biological responses to each implant. Twelve and 24 weeks after implantation, the volume of calcium-deficient HA granules was significantly less than that of stoichiometric HA granules, and the biodegradability of calcium-deficient HA granules was confirmed. The larger number of osteoclasts, larger osteoblast surface and larger bone volume in the implanted area of calcium-deficient HA than those of stoichiometric HA suggested that osteoclastic resorption of calcium-deficient HA affected osteogenesis in that area. To analyze the direct contribution of osteoclasts to osteogenesis, C2C12 multipotent myoblastic cells, which have the potential to differentiate into osteoblasts in the presence of bone morphogenetic protein 2, were cultured with supernatants of osteoclasts cultured on calcium-deficient HA, stoichiometric HA, beta-tricalcium phosphate disks or plastic dishes, or bone marrow macrophages cultured on plastic dishes. Supernatants of osteoclasts but not bone marrow macrophages stimulated the expression of Runx2 and osteocalcin in C2C12 cells in concert with bone morphogenetic protein 2. The expression of alkaline phosphatase was stimulated with supernatants of osteoclasts cultured on ceramic disks. These results suggested that osteoclasts produced certain soluble factors which stimulated osteoblastic differentiation and they were thought to be associated with the induction of a larger osteoblast surface and bone volume in the animals implanted with calcium-deficient HA granules