Practical quantum realization of the ampere from the electron charge

One major change of the future revision of the International System of Units (SI) is a new definition of the ampere based on the elementary charge \emph{e}. Replacing the former definition based on Amp\`ere's force law will allow one to fully benefit from quantum physics to realize the ampere. However, a quantum realization of the ampere from \emph{e}, accurate to within $10^{-8}$ in relative value and fulfilling traceability needs, is still missing despite many efforts have been spent for the development of single-electron tunneling devices. Starting again with Ohm's law, applied here in a quantum circuit combining the quantum Hall resistance and Josephson voltage standards with a superconducting cryogenic amplifier, we report on a practical and universal programmable quantum current generator. We demonstrate that currents generated in the milliampere range are quantized in terms of $ef_\mathrm{J}$ ($f_\mathrm{J}$ is the Josephson frequency) with a measurement uncertainty of $10^{-8}$. This new quantum current source, able to deliver such accurate currents down to the microampere range, can greatly improve the current measurement traceability, as demonstrated with the calibrations of digital ammeters. Beyond, it opens the way to further developments in metrology and in fundamental physics, such as a quantum multimeter or new accurate comparisons to single electron pumps.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Disposition of14C-labelled endotelon in humans

Summary: In order to study the disposition of ENDOTELON in humans, this compound was labelled withl4C by photosynthesis. ENDOTELON consists of a complex of procyanidolic oligomers extracted from the seeds of a variety of vine cultivated in the Bordeaux wine-growing region, and is prescribed for the treatment of chronic venous insufficiency and retinal lesions. Considering the difficulty in labelling the various constituents of the product, the labelling procedure was based on providing radioactive C02 to the plant. After isolation and purification, 150 mg of active material (50 μCf) was administered orally to six healthy volunteers. Radioactivity was measured in the blood over time until 72 and 120 hours in the same subjects after drug administration. Urinary and faecal elimination was measured for a period of 167 hours. Urinary elimination of the radioactive compounds represented 12 to 27% of the administered dose and faecal elimination represented 47 to 75% depending on the subject. The radioactivity of thel4C02 eliminated in the breath was also measured, and represented around 8% of the total radioactivity for the 72-hour period after administration. Although the disposition of ENDOTELON is based on the total radioactivity measured over time, this technique allows the evaluation of the elimination rate of the product and its metabolites from the human bod

Experimental Test of the Numerical Renormalization Group Theory for Inelastic Scattering from Magnetic Impurities

We present measurements of the phase coherence time \tauphi in quasi one-dimensional Au/Fe Kondo wires and compare the temperature dependence of \tauphi with a recent theory of inelastic scattering from magnetic impurities (Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 107204 (2004)). A very good agreement is obtained for temperatures down to 0.2 $T_K$. Below the Kondo temperature $T_K$, the inverse of the phase coherence time varies linearly with temperature over almost one decade in temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Quantum Hall effect in exfoliated graphene affected by charged impurities: metrological measurements

Metrological investigations of the quantum Hall effect (QHE) completed by transport measurements at low magnetic field are carried out in a-few-$\mu\mathrm{m}$-wide Hall bars made of monolayer (ML) or bilayer (BL) exfoliated graphene transferred on $\textrm{Si/SiO}_{2}$ substrate. From the charge carrier density dependence of the conductivity and from the measurement of the quantum corrections at low magnetic field, we deduce that transport properties in these devices are mainly governed by the Coulomb interaction of carriers with a large concentration of charged impurities. In the QHE regime, at high magnetic field and low temperature ($T<1.3 \textrm{K}$), the Hall resistance is measured by comparison with a GaAs based quantum resistance standard using a cryogenic current comparator. In the low dissipation limit, it is found quantized within 5 parts in $10^{7}$ (one standard deviation, $1 \sigma$) at the expected rational fractions of the von Klitzing constant, respectively $R_{\mathrm{K}}/2$ and $R_{\mathrm{K}}/4$ in the ML and BL devices. These results constitute the most accurate QHE quantization tests to date in monolayer and bilayer exfoliated graphene. It turns out that a main limitation to the quantization accuracy, which is found well above the $10^{-9}$ accuracy usually achieved in GaAs, is the low value of the QHE breakdown current being no more than $1 \mu\mathrm{A}$. The current dependence of the longitudinal conductivity investigated in the BL Hall bar shows that dissipation occurs through quasi-elastic inter-Landau level scattering, assisted by large local electric fields. We propose that charged impurities are responsible for an enhancement of such inter-Landau level transition rate and cause small breakdown currents.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

The study of doping market: how to produce intelligence from Internet forums

Despite the predominant role played by Internet in the distribution of doping substances, little is currently known about the online offer of doping products. Therefore, the study focuses on the detection of doping substances and suppliers discussed in Internet forums. It aims at having a comprehensive understanding of products and sellers to lead an operational monitoring of the online doping market. Thirteen community forums on the Internet were investigated and one million topics were extracted with source code scrappers. Then, a semantic analysis was conducted with a semi-automatic process to classify the relevant words according to doping matters. Additionally, the ranking of doping products, active substances and suppliers in regards to the number of contributors to the forums were established and analyzed over time. Finally, promotion methods of suppliers were evaluated. The results show that anabolic androgenic steroids, used to enhance body image and performance, are the most discussed type of products. A temporal analysis illustrates the stability of the most popular products as well as the emergence of new products such as peptides (e.g. CJC-1295). 327 suppliers were detected, mostly with dedicated websites or direct sales by e-mail as selling methods. Globally, the implemented methodology shows its ability to detect products and suppliers as well as to follow their temporal trends. The intelligence will serve the definition of online monitoring strategies (e.g. the selection of appropriate keywords). Additionally, it also allows the adjustment of customs inspection strategies and anti-doping analysis by monitoring the popular and emerging substances

Impact of multiangular information on empirical models to estimate canopy nitrogen concentration in mixed forest

Directional effects in remotely sensed reflectance data can influence the retrieval of plant biophysical and biochemical estimates. Previous studies have demonstrated that directional measurements contain added information that may increase the accuracy of estimated plant structural parameters. Because accurate biochemistry mapping is linked to vegetation structure, also models to estimate canopy nitrogen concentration (CN) may be improved indirectly from using multiangular data. Hyperspectral imagery with five different viewing zenith angles was acquired by the spaceborne CHRIS sensor over a forest study site in Switzerland. Fifteen canopy reflectance spectra corresponding to subplots of field-sampled trees were extracted from the preprocessed CHRIS images and subsequently two-term models were developed by regressing CN on four datasets comprising either original or continuum-removed reflectances. Consideration is given to the directional sensitivity of the CN estimation by generating regression models based on various combinations (n=15) of observation angles. The results of this study show that estimating canopy CN with only nadir data is not optimal irrespective of spectral data processing. Moreover adding multiangular information improves significantly the regression model fits and thus the retrieval of forest canopy biochemistry. These findings support the potential of multiangular Earth observations also for application-oriented ecological monitoring

Superconducting proximity effect in the presence of strong spin scattering

We report measurements of the four terminal temperature dependent resistance of narrow Au wires implanted with ~100 ppm Fe impurities in proximity to superconducting Al films. The wires show an initial decrease in resistance as the temperature is lowered through the superconducting transition of the Al films, but then show an increase in resistance as the temperature is lowered further. In contrast to the case of pure Au wires in contact with a superconducting film, the resistance at the lowest temperatures rises above the normal state resistance. Analysis of the data shows that, in addition to contributions from magnetic scattering and electron-electron interactions, the temperature dependent resistivity shows a substantial contribution from the superconducting proximity effect, which exists even in the presence of strong spin scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Saturation of dephasing time in mesoscopic devices produced by a ferromagnetic state

We consider an exchange model of itinerant electrons in a Heisenberg ferromagnet and we assume that the ferromagnet is in a fully polarized state. Using the Holstein-Primakoff transformation we are able to obtain a boson-fermion Hamiltonian that is well-known in the interaction between light and matter. This model describes the spontaneous emission in two-level atoms that is the proper decoherence mechanism when the number of modes of the radiation field is taken increasingly large, the vacuum acting as a reservoir. In the same way one can see that the interaction between the bosonic modes of spin waves and an itinerant electron produces decoherence by spin flipping with a rate proportional to the size of the system. In this way we are able to show that the experiments on quantum dots, described in D. K. Ferry et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 82}, 4687 (1999)], and nanowires, described in D. Natelson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}, 1821 (2001)], can be understood as the interaction of itinerant electrons and an electron gas in a fully polarized state.Comment: 10 pages, no figure. Changed title. Revised version accepted for publication in Physical Review

The discovery of nitro-fatty acids as products of metabolic and inflammatory reactions and mediators of adaptive cell signaling

Foundational advances in eicosanoid signaling, the free radical biology of oxygen and nitric oxide and mass spectrometry all converged to enable the discovery of nitrated unsaturated fatty acids. Due to the unique biochemical characteristics of fatty acid nitroalkenes, these species undergo rapid and reversible Michael addition of biological nucleophiles such as cysteine, leading to the post-translational modification of low molecular weight and protein thiols. This capability has led to the present understanding that nitro-fatty acid reaction with the alkylation-sensitive cysteine proteome leads to physiologically-beneficial alterations in transcriptional regulatory protein function, gene expression and in vivo rodent model responses to metabolic and inflammatory stress. These findings motivated the preclinical and clinical development of nitro-fatty acids as new drug candidates for treating acute and chronic metabolic and inflammatory disorders