Studies on Fabrication of Ag/HgBaCaCuO/CdSe Heterostructures by Pulse-Electrodeposition Route

Metal/superconductor/semiconductor (Ag/HgBaCaCuO/CdSe) heterostructures have been successfully fabricated using pulse-electrodeposition technique. The electrochemical parameters are optimized and diffusion free growth of CdSe onto Ag/HgBaCaCuO was obtained by employing under-potential deposition and by studying nucleation and growth mechanism during deposition. The heterostructures are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies and low temperature four probe electrical resistivity measurements. After the deposition of CdSe the critical transition temperature of HgBaCaCuO films was found be increased from 115 K with Jc = 1.7 x 103 A/cm2 to 117.2 K with Jc = 1.91 x 103 A/cm2. When the heterostructure was irradiated with red He-Ne laser (2 mW), the Tc was further enhanced to 120.3 K with Jc = 3.7 x 103 A/cm2. This increase in superconducting parameters of HgBaCaCuO in Ag/ HgBaCaCuO/CdSe heterostructure has been explained at length in this paper. Keywords. Electrodeposition; Hg-based cuprate; semiconductor; heterostructures; electrical properties. PACS Nos 81.15.Pq; 74.72.Gr; 78.40.Fy; 84.37; 73.40 *E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]: 22 Pages, 12 Figures. Submitted to Semiconductor Science and Technology. Submitted to Semiconductor Science and Technolog

Description of Multipole in f-Electron Systems

A systematic description of multipole degrees of freedom is discussed on the basis of the Stevens' operator-equivalent technique. The generalized Stevens' multiplicative factors are derived for all of the electric and the magnetic multipoles relevant to f-electron systems. With extensive use of the Stevens' factors, we express the spatial dependences of the electric and the magnetic fields, and the electric and the magnetic charge densities of localized f electrons. The latter is utilized to draw wave functions including their magnetic profile in addition to their shape with the charge density. The definite relation between the operators as quantum-mechanical variables in a multipole exchange model and the multipole moments in expansion of electromagnetic fields is given. The general treatments for the exchange model with the RPA susceptibility and the Ginzburg-Landau free-energy expansion are discussed, using CexLa1-xB6 as a typical example. The representative formula of the vector spherical harmonics are summarized, which are suitable basis for vector fields in the spherical expansion.Comment: 18 pages, 3 tables, 6 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp

Induction and Enhancement of Cardiac Cell Differentiation from Mouse and Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells with Cyclosporin-A

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are novel stem cells derived from adult mouse and human tissues by reprogramming. Elucidation of mechanisms and exploration of efficient methods for their differentiation to functional cardiomyocytes are essential for developing cardiac cell models and future regenerative therapies. We previously established a novel mouse embryonic stem cell (ESC) and iPSC differentiation system in which cardiovascular cells can be systematically induced from Flk1+ common progenitor cells, and identified highly cardiogenic progenitors as Flk1+/CXCR4+/VE-cadherin− (FCV) cells. We have also reported that cyclosporin-A (CSA) drastically increases FCV progenitor and cardiomyocyte induction from mouse ESCs. Here, we combined these technologies and extended them to mouse and human iPSCs. Co-culture of purified mouse iPSC-derived Flk1+ cells with OP9 stroma cells induced cardiomyocyte differentiation whilst addition of CSA to Flk1+ cells dramatically increased both cardiomyocyte and FCV progenitor cell differentiation. Spontaneously beating colonies were obtained from human iPSCs by co-culture with END-2 visceral endoderm-like cells. Appearance of beating colonies from human iPSCs was increased approximately 4.3 times by addition of CSA at mesoderm stage. CSA-expanded human iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes showed various cardiac marker expressions, synchronized calcium transients, cardiomyocyte-like action potentials, pharmacological reactions, and ultra-structural features as cardiomyocytes. These results provide a technological basis to obtain functional cardiomyocytes from iPSCs

Prospects for observing and localizing gravitational-wave transients with Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA

We present possible observing scenarios for the Advanced LIGO, Advanced Virgo and KAGRA gravitational-wave detectors over the next decade, with the intention of providing information to the astronomy community to facilitate planning for multi-messenger astronomy with gravitational waves. We estimate the sensitivity of the network to transient gravitational-wave signals, and study the capability of the network to determine the sky location of the source. We report our findings for gravitational-wave transients, with particular focus on gravitational-wave signals from the inspiral of binary neutron star systems, which are the most promising targets for multi-messenger astronomy. The ability to localize the sources of the detected signals depends on the geographical distribution of the detectors and their relative sensitivity, and 90% credible regions can be as large as thousands of square degrees when only two sensitive detectors are operational. Determining the sky position of a significant fraction of detected signals to areas of 5– 20 deg2 requires at least three detectors of sensitivity within a factor of ∼2 of each other and with a broad frequency bandwidth. When all detectors, including KAGRA and the third LIGO detector in India, reach design sensitivity, a significant fraction of gravitational-wave signals will be localized to a few square degrees by gravitational-wave observations alone

The Effects of Super-Flux (High Performance) Dialyzer on Plasma Glycosylated Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (proBNP) and Glycosylated N-Terminal proBNP in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients on Dialysis

BACKGROUND: Plasma BNP levels are predictive of prognosis in hemodialysis patients. However, recent studies showed that the current BNP immunoassay cross-reacts with glycosylated proBNP, and the NT-proBNP assay underestimates glycosylated NT-proBNP. In addition, the recently developed high performance dialyzer removes medium-sized molecular solutes such as β2-microgloburin. We therefore investigated the effects of high performance dialysis on measured levels of glycosylated proBNP, glycosylated NT-proBNP and other BNP-related peptides in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on hemodialysis. METHOD: The relationships between clinical parameters and BNP-related molecule were also investigated. We used our newly developed immunoassay to measure plasma total BNP and proBNP in 105 normal subjects and 36 ESRD patients before and after hemodialysis. Plasma NT-proBNP was measured using Elecsys II after treatment with or without deglycosylating enzymes. We also measured plasma ANP and cGMP using radioimmunoassays. RESULTS: All the measured BNP-related peptides were significantly higher in ESRD patients than healthy subjects. Total BNP (−38.9%), proBNP (−29.7%), glycoNT-proBNP (−45.5%), nonglycoNT-proBNP (−53.4%), ANP (−50.4%) and cGMP (−72.1%) were all significantly reduced after hemodialysis, and the magnitude of the reduction appeared molecular weight- dependent. Both the proBNP/total BNP and glycoNT-proBNP/nonglycoNT-proBNP ratios were increased after hemodialysis. The former correlated positively with hemodialysis vintage and negatively with systolic blood pressure, while the latter correlated positively with parathyroid hormone levels. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that hemodialysis using super-flux dialyzer removes BNP-related peptides in a nearly molecular weight-dependent manner. The ProBNP/total BNP and glycoNT-proBNP/nonglycoNT-proBNP ratios appear to be influenced by hemodialysis-related parameters in ESRD patients on hemodialysis