Effects of a weakly interacting light U boson on the nuclear equation of state and properties of neutron stars in relativistic models

We investigate the effects of the light vector U-boson that couples weakly to nucleons in relativistic mean-field models on the equation of state and subsequently the consequence in neutron stars. It is analyzed that the U-boson can lead to a much clearer rise of the neutron star maximum mass in models with the much softer equation of state. The inclusion of the U-boson may thus allow the existence of the non-nucleonic degrees of freedom in the interior of large mass neutron stars initiated with the favorably soft EOS of normal nuclear matter. In addition, the sensitive role of the U-boson in the neutron star radius and its relation to the test of the non-Newtonian gravity that is herein addressed by the light U-boson are discussed.Comment: 8 pages,7 figure

Microbial communities and arsenic biogeochemistry at the outflow of an alkaline sulfide-rich hot spring.

Alkaline sulfide-rich hot springs provide a unique environment for microbial community and arsenic (As) biogeochemistry. In this study, a representative alkaline sulfide-rich hot spring, Zimeiquan in the Tengchong geothermal area, was chosen to study arsenic geochemistry and microbial community using Illumina MiSeq sequencing. Over 0.26 million 16S rRNA sequence reads were obtained from 5-paired parallel water and sediment samples along the hot spring's outflow channel. High ratios of As(V)/AsSum (total combined arsenate and arsenite concentrations) (0.59-0.78), coupled with high sulfide (up to 5.87 mg/L), were present in the hot spring's pools, which suggested As(III) oxidation occurred. Along the outflow channel, AsSum increased from 5.45 to 13.86 μmol/L, and the combined sulfide and sulfate concentrations increased from 292.02 to 364.28 μmol/L. These increases were primarily attributed to thioarsenic transformation. Temperature, sulfide, As and dissolved oxygen significantly shaped the microbial communities between not only the pools and downstream samples, but also water and sediment samples. Results implied that the upstream Thermocrinis was responsible for the transformation of thioarsenic to As(III) and the downstream Thermus contributed to derived As(III) oxidation. This study improves our understanding of microbially-mediated As transformation in alkaline sulfide-rich hot springs

Transmission of doughnut light through a bull's eye structure

We experimentally investigate the extraordinary optical transmission of doughnut light through a bull's eye structure. Since the intensity is vanished in the center of the beam, almost all the energy reaches the circular corrugations (not on the hole), excite surface plasmons which propagate through the hole and reradiate photons. The transmitted energy is about 57 times of the input energy on the hole area. It is also interesting that the transmitted light has a similar spatial shape with the input light although the diameter of the hole is much smaller than the wavelength of light.Comment: 3 pages,4 figure

Two variants on T2DM susceptible gene HHEX are associated with CRC risk in a Chinese population

Increasing amounts of evidence has demonstrated that T2DM (Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus) patients have increased susceptibility to CRC (colorectal cancer). As HHEX is a recognized susceptibility gene in T2DM, this work was focused on two SNPs in HHEX, rs1111875 and rs7923837, to study their association with CRC. T2DM patients without CRC (T2DM-only, n=300), T2DM with CRC (T2DM/CRC, n=135), cancer-free controls (Control, n=570), and CRC without T2DM (CRC-only, n=642) cases were enrolled. DNA samples were extracted from the peripheral blood leukocytes of the patients and sequenced by direct sequencing. The χ(2) test was used to compare categorical data. We found that in T2DM patients, rs1111875 but not the rs7923837 in HHEX gene was associated with the occurrence of CRC (p= 0.006). for rs1111875, TC/CC patients had an increased risk of CRC (p=0.019, OR=1.592, 95%CI=1.046-2.423). Moreover, our results also indicated that the two variants of HEEX gene could be risk factors for CRC in general population, independent on T2DM (p< 0.001 for rs1111875, p=0.001 for rs7923837). For rs1111875, increased risk of CRC was observed in TC or TC/CC than CC individuals (p<0.001, OR= 1.780, 95%CI= 1.385-2.287; p<0.001, OR= 1.695, 95%CI= 1.335-2.152). For rs7923837, increased CRC risk was observed in AG, GG, and AG/GG than AA individuals (p< 0.001, OR= 1.520, 95%CI= 1.200-1.924; p=0.036, OR= 1.739, 95%CI= 0.989-3.058; p< 0.001, OR= 1.540, 95%CI= 1.225-1.936). This finding highlights the potentially functional alteration with HHEX rs1111875 and rs7923837 polymorphisms may increase CRC susceptibility. Risk effects and the functional impact of these polymorphisms need further validation

Robust warming pattern of global subtropical oceans and its mechanism

Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Climate 28 (2015): 8574–8584, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00809.1.The subsurface ocean response to anthropogenic climate forcing remains poorly characterized. From the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), a robust response of the lower thermocline is identified, where the warming is considerably weaker in the subtropics than in the tropics and high latitudes. The lower thermocline change is inversely proportional to the thermocline depth in the present climatology. Ocean general circulation model (OGCM) experiments show that sea surface warming is the dominant forcing for the subtropical gyre change in contrast to natural variability for which wind dominates, and the ocean response is insensitive to the spatial pattern of surface warming. An analysis based on a ventilated thermocline model shows that the pattern of the lower thermocline change can be interpreted in terms of the dynamic response to the strengthened stratification and downward heat mixing. Consequently, the subtropical gyres become intensified at the surface but weakened in the lower thermcline, consistent with results from CMIP experiments.The work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB955600), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41125019, 41206021), and the U.S. National Science Foundation (AGS 1249145, 1305719).2016-05-0

In situ imaging of field emission from individual carbon nanotubes and their structural damage

©2002 American Institute of Physics. The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/80/856/1DOI:10.1063/1.1446994Field emission of individual carbon nanotubes was observed by in situ transmission electron microscopy. A fluctuation in emission current was due to a variation in distance between the nanotube tip and the counter electrode owing to a "head-shaking" effect of the nanotube during field emission. Strong field-induced structural damage of a nanotube occurs in two ways: a piece-by-piece and segment-by-segment pilling process of the graphitic layers, and a concentrical layer-by-layer stripping process. The former is believed owing to a strong electrostatic force, and the latter is likely due to heating produced by emission current that flowed through the most outer graphitic layers

Probing the Electron States and Metal-Insulator Transition Mechanisms in Atomically Thin MoS2 Based on Vertical Heterostructures

The metal-insulator transition (MIT) is one of the remarkable electrical transport properties of atomically thin molybdenum disulphide (MoS2). Although the theory of electron-electron interactions has been used in modeling the MIT phenomena in MoS2, the underlying mechanism and detailed MIT process still remain largely unexplored. Here, we demonstrate that the vertical metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) heterostructures built from atomically thin MoS2 (monolayers and multilayers) are ideal capacitor structures for probing the electron states in MoS2. The vertical configuration of MIS heterostructures offers the added advantage of eliminating the influence of large impedance at the band tails and allows the observation of fully excited electron states near the surface of MoS2 over a wide excitation frequency (100 Hz-1 MHz) and temperature range (2 K- 300 K). By combining capacitance and transport measurements, we have observed a percolation-type MIT, driven by density inhomogeneities of electron states, in the vertical heterostructures built from monolayer and multilayer MoS2. In addition, the valence band of thin MoS2 layers and their intrinsic properties such as thickness-dependence screening abilities and band gap widths can be easily accessed and precisely determined through the vertical heterostructures

Label-free quantitative imaging of cholesterol in intact tissues by hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering microscopy

A finger on the pulse: Current molecular analysis of cells and tissues routinely relies on separation, enrichment, and subsequent measurements by various assays. Now, a platform of hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering microscopy has been developed for the fast, quantitative, and label-free imaging of biomolecules in intact tissues using spectroscopic fingerprints as the contrast mechanism