121 research outputs found
Colossal magnetostriction and negative thermal expansion in the frustrated antiferromagnet ZnCr2Se4
A detailed investigation of ZnCr2Se4 is presented which is dominated by
strong ferromagnetic exchange but orders antiferromagnetically at T_N = 21 K.
Specific heat C and thermal expansion Delta L/L exhibit sharp first-order
anomalies at the antiferromagnetic transition. T_N is strongly reduced and
shifted to lower temperatures by external magnetic fields and finally is fully
suppressed suggesting a field induced quantum critical behavior close to 60
kOe. Delta L/L(T) is unusually large and exhibits negative thermal expansion
below 75 K down to T_N indicating strong frustration of the lattice.
Magnetostriction Delta L/L(H) reveals colossal values (0.5x10^{-3}) comparable
to giant magnetostriction materials. Electron-spin resonance, however, shows
negligible spin-orbital coupling excluding orbitally induced Jahn-Teller
distortions. The obtained results point to a spin-driven origin of the
structural instability at T_N explained in terms of competing ferromagnetic and
antiferromagnetic exchange interactions yielding strong bond frustration.Comment: 5 pages 4 figure
Spin-driven Phonon Splitting in Bond-frustrated ZnCr2S4
Utilizing magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, thermal expansion and IR
spectroscopy we provide experimental evidence that the two subsequent
antiferromagnetic transitions in ZnCr_2S_4 at T_N1 = 15 K and T_N2= 8 K are
accompanied by significant thermal and phonon anomalies. The anomaly at T_N2
reveals a strong temperature hysteresis typical for a first-order
transformation. Due to strong spin-phonon coupling both magnetic phase
transitions induce a splitting of phonon modes, where at T_N1 the
high-frequency and at T_N2 the low-frequency modes split. The anomalies and
phonon splitting observed at T_N2 are strongly suppressed by magnetic field.
Regarding the small positive Curie-Weiss temperature Theta= 8 K, we argue that
this scenario of two different magnetic phases with concomitant different
magneto-elastic couplings results from the strong competition of ferromagnetic
and antiferromagnetic exchange of equal strength.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A crystallographic phase transition within the magnetically ordered state of Ce_2Fe_17
X-ray diffraction experiments were performed on polycrystalline and
single-crystal specimens of CeFe at temperatures between 10 K and
300 K. Below = 1182 K, additional weak superstructure
reflections were observed in the antiferromagnetically ordered state. The
superstructure can be described by a doubling of the chemical unit cell along
the direction in hexagonal notation with the same space group as the room-temperature structure. The additional antiferromagnetic
satellite reflections observed in earlier neutron diffraction experiments can
be conclusively related to the appearance of this superstructure.Comment: 8 pages, figures, submitted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Magnetic frustration in the spinel compounds Ge Co_2 O_4 and Ge Ni_2 O_4
In both spinel compounds GeCoO and GeNiO which order
antiferromagnetically (at and , ) with different Curie Weiss temperatures (=80.5 K and -15 K),
the usual magnetic frustration criterion is not fulfilled.
Using neutron powder diffraction and magnetization measurements up to 55 T,
both compounds are found with a close magnetic ground state at low temperature
and a similar magnetic behavior (but with a different energy scale), even
though spin anisotropy and first neighbor exchange interactions are quite
different. This magnetic behavior can be understood when considering the main
four magnetic exchange interactions. Frustration mechanisms are then
enlightened.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.B (2006
Spin Driven Jahn-Teller Distortion in a Pyrochlore system
The ground-state properties of the spin-1 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model
on the corner-sharing tetrahedra, pyrochlore lattice, is investigated. By
breaking up each spin into a pair of 1/2-spins, the problem is reduced to the
equivalent one of the spin-1/2 tetrahedral network in analogy with the valence
bond solid state in one dimension. The twofold degeneracy of the spin-singlets
of a tetrahedron is lifted by a Jahn-Teller mechanism, leading to a cubic to
tetragonal structural transition. It is proposed that the present mechanism is
responsible for the phase transition observed in the spin-1 spinel compounds
ZnVO and MgVO.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figures, REVTeX, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Magnetic properties of the frustrated AFM spinel ZnCr_2O_4 and the spin-glass Zn_{1-x}Cd_xCr_2O_4 (x=0.05,0.10)
The -dependence (2- 400 K) of the electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR),
magnetic susceptibility, , and specific heat, , of the
antiferromagnetic (AFM) spinel ZnCrO and the spin-glass
(SG) ZnCdCrO () is reported. These
systems behave as a strongly frustrated AFM and SG with K and -400 K K. At high-
the EPR intensity follows the and the -value is -independent.
The linewidth broadens as the temperature is lowered, suggesting the existence
of short range AFM correlations in the paramagnetic phase. For
ZnCrO the EPR intensity and decreases below 90 K and 50
K, respectively. These results are discussed in terms of nearest-neighbor
Cr (S %) spin-coupled pairs with an exchange coupling of 50 K. The appearance of small resonance modes for K,
the observation of a sharp drop in and a strong peak in
at K confirms, as previously reported, the existence of long range
AFM correlations in the low- phase. A comparison with recent neutron
diffraction experiments that found a near dispersionless excitation at 4.5 meV
for and a continuous gapless spectrum for ,
is also given.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 1 Table. Submitted to Physical Review
Expression of the 60 kDa and 71 kDa heat shock proteins and presence of antibodies against the 71 kDa heat shock protein in pediatric patients with immune thrombocytopenic purpura
BACKGROUND: Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune disease characterized by platelet destruction resulting from autoantibodies against platelet proteins, particularly platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa. Heat shock proteins (Hsp) have been shown to be major antigenic determinants in some autoimmune diseases. Antibodies to Hsps have also been reported to be associated with a number of pathological states. METHODS: Using western blot, we measured the levels of the 60 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp60) and of the inducible 71 kDa member of the Hsp70 family (Hsp71) in lymphocytes and the presence of antibodies against these hsps in plasma of 29 pediatric patients with ITP before the treatment and in 6 other patients before and after treatment. RESULTS: Interestingly only one out of 29 patients showed detectable Hsp60 in lymphocytes while this heat shock protein was detected in the 30 control children. Hsp71 levels were slightly lower in lymphocytes of patients with ITP than in controls (1567.8 Β± 753.2 via 1763.2 Β± 641.8 integrated optical density (IOD) units). There was a small increase of Hsp71 after recovery from ITP. The titers of plasma antibodies against Hsp60 and Hsp71 were also examined. Antibodies against Hsp71 were more common in ITP patients (15/29) than in control children (5/30). The titer of anti-Hsp71 was also higher in children patients with ITP. The prevalence of ITP children with antibodies against Hsp71 (51.7%) was as high as those with antibodies against platelet membrane glycoproteins (58.3%). CONCLUSIONS: In summary, pediatric patients with ITP showed no detectable expression of Hsp60 in lymphocytes and a high prevalence of antibody against Hsp71 in plasma. These changes add to our understanding of the pathogenesis of ITP and may be important for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of ITP
P38MAP kinase, but not phosphoinositol-3 kinase, signal downstream of glutamine-mediated fibronectin-integrin signaling after intestinal injury
Glial Hsp70 Protects K+ Homeostasis in the Drosophila Brain during Repetitive Anoxic Depolarization
Neural tissue is particularly vulnerable to metabolic stress and loss of ion homeostasis. Repetitive stress generally leads to more permanent dysfunction but the mechanisms underlying this progression are poorly understood. We investigated the effects of energetic compromise in Drosophila by targeting the Na+/K+-ATPase. Acute ouabain treatment of intact flies resulted in subsequent repetitive comas that led to death and were associated with transient loss of K+ homeostasis in the brain. Heat shock pre-conditioned flies were resistant to ouabain treatment. To control the timing of repeated loss of ion homeostasis we subjected flies to repetitive anoxia while recording extracellular [K+] in the brain. We show that targeted expression of the chaperone protein Hsp70 in glial cells delays a permanent loss of ion homeostasis associated with repetitive anoxic stress and suggest that this is a useful model for investigating molecular mechanisms of neuroprotection
Function of SSA Subfamily of Hsp70 Within and Across Species Varies Widely in Complementing Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cell Growth and Prion Propagation
BACKGROUND:The cytosol of most eukaryotic cells contains multiple highly conserved Hsp70 orthologs that differ mainly by their spatio-temporal expression patterns. Hsp70s play essential roles in protein folding, transport or degradation, and are major players of cellular quality control processes. However, while several reports suggest that specialized functions of Hsp70 orthologs were selected through evolution, few studies addressed systematically this issue. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We compared the ability of Ssa1p-Ssa4p from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Ssa5p-Ssa8p from the evolutionary distant yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to perform Hsp70-dependent tasks when expressed as the sole Hsp70 for S. cerevisiae in vivo. We show that Hsp70 isoforms (i) supported yeast viability yet with markedly different growth rates, (ii) influenced the propagation and stability of the [PSI(+)] and [URE3] prions, but iii) did not significantly affect the proteasomal degradation rate of CFTR. Additionally, we show that individual Hsp70 orthologs did not induce the formation of different prion strains, but rather influenced the aggregation properties of Sup35 in vivo. Finally, we show that [URE3] curing by the overexpression of Ydj1p is Hsp70-isoform dependent. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE:Despite very high homology and overlapping functions, the different Hsp70 orthologs have evolved to possess distinct activities that are required to cope with different types of substrates or stress situations. Yeast prions provide a very sensitive model to uncover this functional specialization and to explore the intricate network of chaperone/co-chaperone/substrates interactions
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