255 research outputs found
A semi-quantitative scattering theory of amorphous materials
It is argued that topological disorder in amorphous solids can be described
by local strains related to local reference crystals and local rotations. An
intuitive localization criterion is formulated from this point of view. The
Inverse Participation Ratio and the location of mobility edges in band tails is
directly related to the character of the disorder potential in amorphous solid,
the coordination number, the transition integral and the nodes of wave
functions of the corresponding reference crystal. The dependence of the decay
rate of band tails on temperature and static disorder are derived. \textit{Ab
initio} simulations on a-Si and experiments on a-Si:H are compared to these
predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, will be submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Ab initio estimate of temperature dependence of electrical conductivity in a model amorphous material: hydrogenated amorphous silicon
We present an ab initio calculation of the DC conductivity of amorphous
silicon and hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The Kubo-Greenwood formula is used
to obtain the DC conductivity, by thermal averaging over extended dynamical
simulation. Its application to disordered solids is discussed. The conductivity
is computed for a wide range of temperatures and doping is explored in a naive
way by shifting the Fermi level. We observed the Meyer-Neldel rule for the
electrical conductivity with E_MNR = 0.06 eV and a temperature coefficient of
resistance, TCR ~ -2.0% K^-1 for a-Si:H. In general, experimental trends are
reproduced by these calculations, and this suggests the possible utility of the
approach for modeling carrier transport in other disordered systems.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, submitted to PRB Comments: corrected typos,
referee's comments include
On the topology and area of higher dimensional black holes
Over the past decade there has been an increasing interest in the study of
black holes, and related objects, in higher (and lower) dimensions, motivated
to a large extent by developments in string theory. The aim of the present
paper is to obtain higher dimensional analogues of some well known results for
black holes in 3+1 dimensions. More precisely, we obtain extensions to higher
dimensions of Hawking's black hole topology theorem for asymptotically flat
() black hole spacetimes, and Gibbons' and Woolgar's genus
dependent, lower entropy bound for topological black holes in asymptotically
locally anti-de Sitter () spacetimes. In higher dimensions the genus
is replaced by the so-called -constant, or Yamabe invariant, which is a
fundamental topological invariant of smooth compact manifolds.Comment: 15 pages, Latex2e; typos corrected, a convention clarified, resulting
in the simplification of certain formulas, other improvement
Surface skyrmions and dual topological Hall effect in antiferromagnetic topological insulator EuCdAs
In this work, we synthesized single crystal of EuCdAs, which exhibits
A-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) order with in-plane spin orientation below
= 9.5~K.Optical spectroscopy and transport measurements suggest its topological
insulator (TI) nature with an insulating gap around 0.1eV. Remarkably, a dual
topological Hall resistivity that exhibits same magnitude but opposite signs in
the positive to negative and negative to positive magnetic field hysteresis
branches emerges below 20~K. With magnetic force microscopy (MFM) images and
numerical simulations, we attribute the dual topological Hall effect to the
N\'{e}el-type skyrmions stabilized by the interactions between topological
surface states and magnetism, and the sign reversal in different hysteresis
branches indicates potential coexistence of skyrmions and antiskyrmions. Our
work uncovers a unique two-dimensional (2D) magnetism on the surface of
intrinsic AFM TI, providing a promising platform for novel topological quantum
states and AFM spintronic applications.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Room temperature magnetic phase transition in an electrically-tuned van der Waals ferromagnet
Finding tunable van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnets that operate at above room
temperature is an important research focus in physics and materials science.
Most vdW magnets are only intrinsically magnetic far below room temperature and
magnetism with square-shaped hysteresis at room-temperature has yet to be
observed. Here, we report magnetism in a quasi-2D magnet Cr1.2Te2 observed at
room temperature (290 K). This magnetism was tuned via a protonic gate with an
electron doping concentration up to 3.8 * 10^21 cm^-3. We observed
non-monotonic evolutions in both coercivity and anomalous Hall resistivity.
Under increased electron doping, the coercivities and anomalous Hall effects
(AHEs) vanished, indicating a doping-induced magnetic phase transition. This
occurred up to room temperature. DFT calculations showed the formation of an
antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase caused by the intercalation of protons which
induced significant electron doping in the Cr1.2Te2. The tunability of the
magnetic properties and phase in room temperature magnetic vdW Cr1.2Te2 is a
significant step towards practical spintronic devices.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure
Purification and In Situ Immobilization of Papain with Aqueous Two-Phase System
Papain was purified from spray-dried Carica papaya latex using aqueous two-phase system (ATPS). Then it was recovered from PEG phase by in situ immobilization or preparing cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs). The Plackett-Burman design and the central composite design (CCD) together with the response surface methodology (RSM) were used to optimize the APTS processes. The highly purified papain (96–100%) was achieved under the optimized conditions: 40% (w/w) 15 mg/ml enzyme solution, 14.33–17.65% (w/w) PEG 6000, 14.27–14.42% (w/w) NaH2PO4/K2HPO4 and pH 5.77–6.30 at 20°C. An in situ enzyme immobilization approach, carried out by directly dispersing aminated supports and chitosan beads into the PEG phase, was investigated to recover papain, in which a high immobilization yield (>90%) and activity recovery (>40%) was obtained. Moreover, CLEAs were successfully used in recovering papain from PEG phase with a hydrolytic activity hundreds times higher than the carrier-bound immobilized papain
Synergistic Association of PTGS2 and CYP2E1 Genetic Polymorphisms with Lung Cancer Risk in Northeastern Chinese
BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of five extensively-studied polymorphisms in PTGS2 (rs689466, rs5275, rs20417) and CYP2E1 (rs2031920, rs6413432) genes with lung cancer risk in a large northeastern Chinese population. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This is a hospital-based case-control study involving 684 patients with lung cancer and 604 cancer-free controls. Genotyping was performed using the PCR-LDR method. Data were analyzed using Haplo.stats and MDR programs. There were significant differences between patients and controls in allele/genotype distributions of rs5275 (P = 0.002/0.003) and rs6413432 (P = 0.037/0.044), as well as in genotype distributions of rs689466 (P = 0.02). The risk for lung cancer associated with the rs5275-C mutant allele was decreased by 60% (95% CI [confidence interval]: 0.21-0.74; P = 0.004) under the recessive model. Carriers of rs689466-G mutant allele had a 28% (95% CI: 0.57-0.92; P = 0.008) reduced risk of developing lung cancer relative to the AA genotype carriers. In haplotype analysis, haplotype G-C-C-T (in order of rs689466, rs5275, rs2031920 and rs6413432) decreased the odds of lung cancer by 28% (95% CI: 0.51-0.93; P = 0.019) after adjusting for confounding factors, whereas haplotype A-T-T-T had 1.49-fold (95% CI: 1.21-1.79; P = 0.012) increased risk for lung cancer. Using MDR method, the overall best model including rs5275, rs689466 and rs6413432 polymorphisms was identified with a maximal testing accuracy of 66.1% and a maximal cross-validation consistency of 10 out of 10 (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings demonstrated a potentially synergistic association of PTGS2 and CYP2E1 polymorphisms with the underlying cause of lung cancer in northeastern Chinese
<i>Neisseria</i> species as pathobionts in bronchiectasis
Neisseria species are frequently identified in the bronchiectasis microbiome, but they are regarded as respiratory commensals. Using a combination of human cohorts, next-generation sequencing, systems biology, and animal models, we show that bronchiectasis bacteriomes defined by the presence of Neisseria spp. associate with poor clinical outcomes, including exacerbations. Neisseria subflava cultivated from bronchiectasis patients promotes the loss of epithelial integrity and inflammation in primary epithelial cells. In vivo animal models of Neisseria subflava infection and metabolipidome analysis highlight immunoinflammatory functional gene clusters and provide evidence for pulmonary inflammation. The murine metabolipidomic data were validated with human Neisseria-dominant bronchiectasis samples and compared with disease in which Pseudomonas-, an established bronchiectasis pathogen, is dominant. Metagenomic surveillance of Neisseria across various respiratory disorders reveals broader importance, and the assessment of the home environment in bronchiectasis implies potential environmental sources of exposure. Thus, we identify Neisseria species as pathobionts in bronchiectasis, allowing for improved risk stratification in this high-risk group.Published versio
SNP Discovery and Chromosome Anchoring Provide the First Physically-Anchored Hexaploid Oat Map and Reveal Synteny with Model Species
A physically anchored consensus map is foundational to modern genomics research; however, construction of such a map in oat (Avena sativa L., 2n = 6x = 42) has been hindered by the size and complexity of the genome, the scarcity of robust molecular markers, and the lack of aneuploid stocks. Resources developed in this study include a modified SNP discovery method for complex genomes, a diverse set of oat SNP markers, and a novel chromosome-deficient SNP anchoring strategy. These resources were applied to build the first complete, physically-anchored consensus map of hexaploid oat. Approximately 11,000 high-confidence in silico SNPs were discovered based on nine million inter-varietal sequence reads of genomic and cDNA origin. GoldenGate genotyping of 3,072 SNP assays yielded 1,311 robust markers, of which 985 were mapped in 390 recombinant-inbred lines from six bi-parental mapping populations ranging in size from 49 to 97 progeny. The consensus map included 985 SNPs and 68 previously-published markers, resolving 21 linkage groups with a total map distance of 1,838.8 cM. Consensus linkage groups were assigned to 21 chromosomes using SNP deletion analysis of chromosome-deficient monosomic hybrid stocks. Alignments with sequenced genomes of rice and Brachypodium provide evidence for extensive conservation of genomic regions, and renewed encouragement for orthology-based genomic discovery in this important hexaploid species. These results also provide a framework for high-resolution genetic analysis in oat, and a model for marker development and map construction in other species with complex genomes and limited resources
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