665 research outputs found
Mapping the unconventional orbital texture in topological crystalline insulators
The newly discovered topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) harbor a
complex band structure involving multiple Dirac cones. These materials are
potentially highly tunable by external electric field, temperature or strain
and could find future applications in field-effect transistors, photodetectors,
and nano-mechanical systems. Theoretically, it has been predicted that
different Dirac cones, offset in energy and momentum-space, might harbor vastly
different orbital character, a unique property which if experimentally
realized, would present an ideal platform for accomplishing new spintronic
devices. However, the orbital texture of the Dirac cones, which is of immense
importance in determining a variety of materials properties, still remains
elusive in TCIs. Here, we unveil the orbital texture in a prototypical TCI
PbSnSe. By using Fourier-transform (FT) scanning tunneling
spectroscopy (STS) we measure the interference patterns produced by the
scattering of surface state electrons. We discover that the intensity and
energy dependences of FTs show distinct characteristics, which can directly be
attributed to orbital effects. Our experiments reveal the complex band topology
involving two Lifshitz transitions and establish the orbital nature of the
Dirac bands in this new class of topological materials, which could provide a
different pathway towards future quantum applications
Rare parasitic copepods (Siphonostomatoida: Lernanthropidae) from Egyptian Red Sea fishes
© The Author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The attached file is the published version of the article
Formation of heavy d-electron quasiparticles in Sr₃Ru₂O₇
The phase diagram of Sr3Ru2O7 shows hallmarks of strong electron correlations despite the modest Coulomb interaction in the Ru 4d shell. We use angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements to provide microscopic insight into the formation of the strongly renormalized heavy d-electron liquid that controls the physics of Sr3Ru2O7. Our data reveal itinerant Ru 4d-states confined over large parts of the Brillouin zone to an energy range of <6 meV, nearly three orders of magnitude lower than the bare band width. We show that this energy scale agrees quantitatively with a characteristic thermodynamic energy scale associated with quantum criticality and illustrate how it arises from a combination of back-folding due to a structural distortion and the hybridization of light and strongly renormalized, heavy quasiparticle bands. The resulting heavy Fermi liquid has a marked k-dependence of the renormalization which we relate to orbital mixing along individual Fermi surface sheets
Sensible heat has significantly affected the global hydrological cycle over the historical period
Globally, latent heating associated with a change in precipitation is balanced by changes to atmospheric radiative cooling and sensible heat fluxes. Both components can be altered by climate forcing mechanisms and through climate feedbacks, but the impacts of climate forcing and feedbacks on sensible heat fluxes have received much less attention. Here we show, using a range of climate modelling results, that changes in sensible heat are the dominant contributor to the present global-mean precipitation change since preindustrial time, because the radiative impact of forcings and feedbacks approximately compensate. The model results show a dissimilar influence on sensible heat and precipitation from various drivers of climate change. Due to its strong atmospheric absorption, black carbon is found to influence the sensible heat very differently compared to other aerosols and greenhouse gases. Our results indicate that this is likely caused by differences in the impact on the lower tropospheric stability
Phase 1 Study of a Combination AMA1 Blood Stage Malaria Vaccine in Malian Children
Apical Membrane Antigen-1 (AMA1) is one of the leading blood stage malaria vaccine candidates. AMA1-C1/Alhydrogel consists of an equal mixture of recombinant AMA1 from FVO and 3D7 clones of P. falciparum, adsorbed onto Alhydrogel. A Phase 1 study in semi-immune adults in Mali showed that the vaccine was safe and immunogenic, with higher antibody responses in those who received the 80 microg dose. The aim of this study was to assess the safety and immunogenicity of this vaccine in young children in a malaria endemic area.This was a Phase 1 dose escalating study in 36 healthy children aged 2-3 years started in March 2006 in Donéguébougou, Mali. Eighteen children in the first cohort were randomized 2 ratio 1 to receive either 20 microg AMA1-C1/Alhydrogel or Haemophilus influenzae type b Hiberix vaccine. Two weeks later 18 children in the second cohort were randomized 2 ratio 1 to receive either 80 microg AMA1-C1/Alhydrogel or Haemophilus influenzae type b Hiberix vaccine. Vaccinations were administered on Days 0 and 28 and participants were examined on Days 1, 2, 3, 7, and 14 after vaccination and then about every two months. Results to Day 154 are reported in this manuscript.Of 36 volunteers enrolled, 33 received both vaccinations. There were 9 adverse events related to the vaccination in subjects who received AMA1-C1 vaccine and 7 in those who received Hiberix. All were mild to moderate. No vaccine-related serious or grade 3 adverse events were observed. There was no increase in adverse events with increasing dose of vaccine or number of immunizations. In subjects who received the test vaccine, antibodies to AMA1 increased on Day 14 and peaked at Day 42, with changes from baseline significantly different from subjects who received control vaccine.AMA-C1 vaccine is well tolerated and immunogenic in children in this endemic area although the antibody response was short lived.Clinicaltrials.gov NCT00341250
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Atlantic Ocean influence on a shift in European climate in the 1990s
European climate exhibits variability on a wide range of timescales. Understanding the nature and drivers of this variability is an essential step in developing robust climate predictions and risk assessments. The Atlantic Ocean has been suggested as an important driver of variability in European climate on decadal timescales1, but the importance of this influence in recent decades has been unclear, partly because of difficulties in separating the influence of the Atlantic Ocean from other contributions, for example, from the tropical Pacific Ocean and the stratosphere. Here we analyse four data sets derived from observations to show that, during the 1990s, there was a substantial shift in European climate towards a pattern characterized by anomalously wet summers in northern Europe, and hot, dry, summers in southern Europe, with related shifts in spring and autumn. These changes in climate coincided with a substantial warming of the North Atlantic Ocean, towards a state last seen in the 1950s. The patterns of European climate change in the 1990s are consistent with earlier changes attributed to the influence of the North Atlantic Ocean, and provide compelling evidence that the Atlantic Ocean was the key driver. Our results suggest that the recent pattern of anomalies in European climate will persist as long as the North Atlantic Ocean remains anomalously warm
Quasiparticle interference and strong electron-mode coupling in the quasi-one-dimensional bands of Sr2RuO4
The single-layered ruthenate SrRuO has attracted a great deal of
interest as a spin-triplet superconductor with an order parameter that may
potentially break time reversal invariance and host half-quantized vortices
with Majorana zero modes. While the actual nature of the superconducting state
is still a matter of controversy, it has long been believed that it condenses
from a metallic state that is well described by a conventional Fermi liquid. In
this work we use a combination of Fourier transform scanning tunneling
spectroscopy (FT-STS) and momentum resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy
(M-EELS) to probe interaction effects in the normal state of SrRuO. Our
high-resolution FT-STS data show signatures of the \beta-band with a distinctly
quasi-one-dimensional (1D) character. The band dispersion reveals surprisingly
strong interaction effects that dramatically renormalize the Fermi velocity,
suggesting that the normal state of SrRuO is that of a 'correlated
metal' where correlations are strengthened by the quasi 1D nature of the bands.
In addition, kinks at energies of approximately 10meV, 38meV and 70meV are
observed. By comparing STM and M-EELS data we show that the two higher energy
features arise from coupling with collective modes. The strong correlation
effects and the kinks in the quasi 1D bands may provide important information
for understanding the superconducting state. This work opens up a unique
approach to revealing the superconducting order parameter in this compound
Imaging Cooper Pairing of Heavy Fermions in CeCoIn5
The Cooper pairing mechanism of heavy-fermion superconductors, while long
hypothesized as due to spin fluctuations, has not been determined. It is the
momentum space (k-space) structure of the superconducting energy gap delta(k)
that encodes specifics of this pairing mechanism. However, because the energy
scales are so low, it has not been possible to directly measure delta(k) for
any heavy-fermion superconductor. Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference (QPI)
imaging, a proven technique for measuring the energy gaps of high-Tc
superconductors, has recently been proposed as a new method to measure delta(k)
in heavy-fermion superconductors, specifically CeCoIn5. By implementing this
method, we immediately detect a superconducting energy gap whose nodes are
oriented along k||(+-1, +-1)pi/a0 directions. Moreover, we determine the
complete k-space structure of the delta(k) of a heavy-fermion superconductor.
For CeCoIn5, this novel information includes: the complex band structure and
Fermi surface of the hybridized heavy bands, the fact that highest magnitude
delta(k) opens on a high-k band so that gap nodes occur at quite unanticipated
k-space locations, and that the Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference patterns
are most consistent with dx2-y2 gap symmetry. The availability of such
quantitative heavy band- and gap-structure data will be critical in identifying
the microscopic mechanism of heavy fermion superconductivity in this material,
and perhaps in general.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, supplementary informatio
Multiple Dendritic Cell Populations Activate CD4+ T Cells after Viral Stimulation
Dendritic cells (DC) are a heterogeneous cell population that bridge the innate and adaptive immune systems. CD8α DC play a prominent, and sometimes exclusive, role in driving amplification of CD8+ T cells during a viral infection. Whether this reliance on a single subset of DC also applies for CD4+ T cell activation is unknown. We used a direct ex vivo antigen presentation assay to probe the capacity of flow cytometrically purified DC populations to drive amplification of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells following infection with influenza virus by different routes. This study examined the contributions of non-CD8α DC populations in the amplification of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells in cutaneous and systemic influenza viral infections. We confirmed that in vivo, effective immune responses for CD8+ T cells are dominated by presentation of antigen by CD8α DC but can involve non-CD8α DC. In contrast, CD4+ T cell responses relied more heavily on the contributions of dermal DC migrating from peripheral lymphoid tissues following cutaneous infection, and CD4 DC in the spleen after systemic infection. CD4+ T cell priming by DC subsets that is dependent upon the route of administration raises the possibility that vaccination approaches could be tailored to prime helper T cell immunity
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