Hot Spots on the Fermi Surface of Bi2212: Stripes versus Superstructure

In a recent paper Saini et al. have reported evidence for a pseudogap around (pi,0) at room temperature in the optimally doped superconductor Bi2212. This result is in contradiction with previous ARPES measurements. Furthermore they observed at certain points on the Fermi surface hot spots of high spectral intensity which they relate to the existence of stripes in the CuO planes. They also claim to have identified a new electronic band along Gamma-M1 whose one dimensional character provides further evidence for stripes. We demonstrate in this Comment that all the measured features can be simply understood by correctly considering the superstructure (umklapp) and shadow bands which occur in Bi2212.Comment: 1 page, revtex, 1 encapsulated postscript figure (color

STM microscopy of the CDW in 1T-TiSe2 in the presence of single atom defects

We present a detailed low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy study of the commensurate charge density wave (CDW) in 1$T$-TiSe$_2$ in the presence of single atom defects. We find no significant modification of the CDW lattice in single crystals with native defects concentrations where some bulk probes already measure substantial reductions in the CDW phase transition signature. Systematic analysis of STM micrographs combined with density functional theory modelling of atomic defect patterns indicate that the observed CDW modulation lies in the Se surface layer. The defect patterns clearly show there are no 2$H$-polytype inclusions in the CDW phase, as previously found at room temperature [Titov A.N. et al, Phys. Sol. State 53, 1073 (2011). They further provide an alternative explanation for the chiral Friedel oscillations recently reported in this compound [J. Ishioka et al., Phys. Rev. B 84, 245125, (2011)].Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Landau mapping and Fermi liquid parameters of the 2D t-J model

We study the momentum distribution function n(k) in the 2D t-J model on small clusters by exact diagonalization. We show that n(k) can be decomposed systematically into two components with Bosonic and Fermionic doping dependence. The Bosonic component originates from the incoherent motion of holes and has no significance for the low energy physics. For the Fermionic component we exlicitely perform the one-to-one Landau mapping between the low lying eigenstates of the t-J model clusters and those of an equivalent system of spin-1/2 quasiparticles. This mapping allows to extract the quasiparticle dispersion, statistics, and Landau parameters. The results show conclusively that the 2D t-J model for small doping is a Fermi liquid with a `small' Fermi surface and a moderately strong attractive interaction between the quasiparticles.Comment: Revtex file, 5 pages with 5 embedded eps-files, hardcopies of figures (or the entire manuscript) can be obtained by e-mail request to: [email protected]

Inverse photoemission in strongly correlated electron systems

Based on exact results for small clusters of 2D t-J model we demonstrate the existence of several distinct `channels' in its inverse photoemission (IPES) spectrum. Hole-like quasiparticles can either be annihilated completely, or leave behind a variable number of spin excitations, which formed the `dressing cloud' of the annihilated hole. In the physical parameter regime the latter processes carry the bulk of IPES weight and although the Fermi surface takes the form of hole pockets, the distribution of spectal weight including these `magnon-bands' in the IPES spectrum is reminiscent of free electrons. The emerging scenario for Fermiology and spectral weight distribution is shown to be consistent with photoemission, inverse photemission and de Haas--van Alphen experiments on cuprate superconductors.Comment: Revtex file, 4 PRB pages + three figures appended as uu-encoded postscript. Hardcopies of figures (or the entire manuscript) can also be obtained by e-mail request to: [email protected]

Comparative evaluation of the My5-FU™ immunoassay and LC-MS/MS in monitoring the 5-fluorouracil plasma levels in cancer patients

Background: Chemotherapies of solid tumors commonly include 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). With standard doses of 5-FU, substantial inter-patient variability has been observed in exposure levels and treatment response. Recently, improved outcomes in colorectal cancer patients due to pharmacokinetically guided 5-FU dosing were reported. We aimed at establishing a rapid and sensitive method for monitoring 5-FU plasma levels in cancer patients in our routine clinical practice. Methods: Performance of the Saladax My5-FU™ immunoassay was evaluated on the Roche Cobas® Integra 800 analyzer. Subsequently, 5-FU concentrations of 247 clinical plasma samples obtained with this assay were compared to the results obtained by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and other commonly used clinical analyzers (Olympus AU400, Roche Cobas c6000, and Thermo Fisher CDx90). Results: The My-FU assay was successfully validated on the Cobas Integra 800 analyzer in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, recovery, interference, sample carryover, and dilution integrity. Method comparison between the Cobas Integra 800 and LC-MS/MS revealed a proportional bias of 7% towards higher values measured with the My5-FU assay. However, when the Cobas Integra 800 was compared to three other clinical analyzers in addition to LC-MS/MS including 50 samples representing the typical clinical range of 5-FU plasma concentrations, only a small proportional bias (≤1.6%) and a constant bias below the limit of detection was observed. Conclusions: The My5-FU assay demonstrated robust and highly comparable performance on different analyzers. Therefore, the assay is suitable for monitoring 5-FU plasma levels in routine clinical practice and may contribute to improved efficacy and safety of commonly used 5-FU-based chemotherapie