A road to reality with topological superconductors

Topological states of matter are a source of low-energy quasiparticles, bound to a defect or propagating along the surface. In a superconductor these are Majorana fermions, described by a real rather than a complex wave function. The absence of complex phase factors promises protection against decoherence in quantum computations based on topological superconductivity. This is a tutorial style introduction written for a Nature Physics focus issue on topological matter.Comment: pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of the published paper: 4 pages, 2 figure

A case of inflammatory pseudotumour of the gallbladder presenting as a big mass of uncertain behavior

Background: Inflammatory pseudotumour has been used to describe an inflammatory or fibrosing tumoral process of an undetermined cause that may involve a variety of organ systems, including the lungs, spleen, liver, lymph nodes, pancreas and extrahepatic bile duct with potential for recurrence and persistent local growth. In this article, we report a patient with a big mass of uncertain nature and behavior.Case presentationA 60-year-old woman presented with a 1-week history of abdominal pain, fever and jaundice. Six months before she had had right upper quadrant pain that was interpreted as biliary colic. A contrast-enhanced CT scan showed a big mass of soft tissue with diffuse infiltration of the gallbladder, displacement of the transverse colon, hepatic flexure and duodenum. For diagnostic distinction between a chronic inflammatory disease or a neoplasm, exploratory laparotomy was required. Intraoperative exploration disclosed a big mass of hard texture involving the gallbladder, with multiple concrements, hepatoduodenal ligament, right and transverse mesocolon, stomach and duodenum.Cholecystectomy was performed, preserving adjacent organs with macroscopic desmoplastic reaction. Histopathologic examination of the gallbladder showed a spindle cell proliferation with diffuse chronic inflammatory infiltrate of lymphocytes, plasma cells and hyalinized fibrous stroma. No vascular invasion or cellular atypia were evident.ConclusionInflammatory pseudotumour is a rare condition and diagnostic distinction from a chronic inflammatory disease or other neoplasm is only possible by histopathologic examination. There is a limited number of case reports in the literature indicating tumor location in the gallbladder

A new mouse model for renal lesions produced by intravenous injection of diphtheria toxin A-chain expression plasmid

BACKGROUND: Various animal models of renal failure have been produced and used to investigate mechanisms underlying renal disease and develop therapeutic drugs. Most methods available to produce such models appear to involve subtotal nephrectomy or intravenous administration of antibodies raised against basement membrane of glomeruli. In this study, we developed a novel method to produce mouse models of renal failure by intravenous injection of a plasmid carrying a toxic gene such as diphtheria toxin A-chain (DT-A) gene. DT-A is known to kill cells by inhibiting protein synthesis. METHODS: An expression plasmid carrying the cytomegalovirus enhancer/chicken β-actin promoter linked to a DT-A gene was mixed with lipid (FuGENE™6) and the resulting complexes were intravenously injected into adult male B6C3F1 mice every day for up to 6 days. After final injection, the kidneys of these mice were sampled on day 4 and weeks 3 and 5. RESULTS: H-E staining of the kidney specimens sampled on day 4 revealed remarkable alterations in glomerular compartments, as exemplified by mesangial cell proliferation and formation of extensive deposits in glomerular basement membrane. At weeks 3 and 5, gradual recovery of these tissues was observed. These mice exhibited proteinuria and disease resembling sub-acute glomerulonephritis. CONCLUSIONS: Repeated intravenous injections of DT-A expression plasmid DNA/lipid complex caused temporary abnormalities mainly in glomeruli of mouse kidney. The disease in these mice resembles sub-acute glomerulonephritis. These DT-A gene-incorporated mice will be useful as animal models in the fields of nephrology and regenerative medicine

Newsprint coverage of smoking in cars carrying children : a case study of public and scientific opinion driving the policy debate

Acknowledgements Date of Acceptance:17/10/2014 Acknowledgements: This project was funded by Cancer Research UK (MC_U130085862) and the Scottish School of Public Health Research. Cancer Research UK and the Scottish School of Public Health Research was not involved in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. Shona Hilton, Karen Wood, Josh Bain and Chris Patterson are funded by the UK Medical Research Council as part of the Understandings and Uses of Public Health Research programme (MC_UU_12017/6) at the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow. We thank Alan Pollock who provided assistance with coding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Hedgehog Spin-texture and Berry's Phase tuning in a Magnetic Topological Insulator

Understanding and control of spin degrees of freedom on the surfaces of topological materials are key to future applications as well as for realizing novel physics such as the axion electrodynamics associated with time-reversal (TR) symmetry breaking on the surface. We experimentally demonstrate magnetically induced spin reorientation phenomena simultaneous with a Dirac-metal to gapped-insulator transition on the surfaces of manganese-doped Bi2Se3 thin films. The resulting electronic groundstate exhibits unique hedgehog-like spin textures at low energies, which directly demonstrate the mechanics of TR symmetry breaking on the surface. We further show that an insulating gap induced by quantum tunnelling between surfaces exhibits spin texture modulation at low energies but respects TR invariance. These spin phenomena and the control of their Fermi surface geometrical phase first demonstrated in our experiments pave the way for the future realization of many predicted exotic magnetic phenomena of topological origin.Comment: 38 pages, 18 Figures, Includes new text, additional datasets and interpretation beyond arXiv:1206.2090, for the final published version see Nature Physics (2012

Alpha-fetoprotein-producing primary lung carcinoma: A case report

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)-producing lung adenocarcinoma is a rare type of lung cancer, with its characteristics not yet fully clarified. We recently encountered a case of this type of lung cancer. The patient was a 69-year-old man who consulted an internist with the chief complaint of epigastric pain. Chest X-ray and CT revealed a lobulated mass measuring 70 mm in diameter in the right lower lung field and a metastasis in the right hilar lymph nodes. Of the tumor markers, the serum AFP was elevated (4620 ng/ml), and the serum carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 were also slightly elevated. Transbronchial lung biopsy revealed the diagnosis of lung cancer. Under thoracoscopic assistance, right lower lobectomy + mediastinal lymph node dissection was carried out. Immunostaining showed the tumor cells to be AFP-positive. The tumor was thus diagnosed as an AFP-producing lung adenocarcinoma. The patient followed an uneventful clinical course after the surgery, with serum AFP decreasing to the normal range by about 2 weeks after the surgery. As of this writing, no sign of tumor recurrence has been noted. This case is presented here with a review of the literature

Towards a tensionless string field theory for the N=(2,0) CFT in d=6

We describe progress in using the field theory of tensionless strings to arrive at a Lagrangian for the six-dimensional $\mathcal N=(2,0)$ conformal theory. We construct the free part of the theory and propose an ansatz for the cubic vertex in light-cone superspace. By requiring closure of the $(2,0)$ supersymmetry algebra, we fix the cubic vertex up to two parameters.Comment: 46 pages, 2 figures. V2: references added; minor changes and improvement

Perspective from a Younger Generation -- The Astro-Spectroscopy of Gisbert Winnewisser

Gisbert Winnewisser's astronomical career was practically coextensive with the whole development of molecular radio astronomy. Here I would like to pick out a few of his many contributions, which I, personally, find particularly interesting and put them in the context of newer results.Comment: 14 pages. (Co)authored by members of the MPIfR (Sub)millimeter Astronomy Group. To appear in the Proceedings of the 4th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium "The Dense Interstellar Medium in Galaxies" eds. S. Pfalzner, C. Kramer, C. Straubmeier, & A. Heithausen (Springer: Berlin

Shared probe design and existing microarray reanalysis using PICKY

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Large genomes contain families of highly similar genes that cannot be individually identified by microarray probes. This limitation is due to thermodynamic restrictions and cannot be resolved by any computational method. Since gene annotations are updated more frequently than microarrays, another common issue facing microarray users is that existing microarrays must be routinely reanalyzed to determine probes that are still useful with respect to the updated annotations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><smcaps>PICKY</smcaps> 2.0 can design shared probes for sets of genes that cannot be individually identified using unique probes. <smcaps>PICKY</smcaps> 2.0 uses novel algorithms to track sharable regions among genes and to strictly distinguish them from other highly similar but nontarget regions during thermodynamic comparisons. Therefore, <smcaps>PICKY</smcaps> does not sacrifice the quality of shared probes when choosing them. The latest <smcaps>PICKY</smcaps> 2.1 includes the new capability to reanalyze existing microarray probes against updated gene sets to determine probes that are still valid to use. In addition, more precise nonlinear salt effect estimates and other improvements are added, making <smcaps>PICKY</smcaps> 2.1 more versatile to microarray users.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Shared probes allow expressed gene family members to be detected; this capability is generally more desirable than not knowing anything about these genes. Shared probes also enable the design of cross-genome microarrays, which facilitate multiple species identification in environmental samples. The new nonlinear salt effect calculation significantly increases the precision of probes at a lower buffer salt concentration, and the probe reanalysis function improves existing microarray result interpretations.</p

The Prevalence of TNFα-Induced Necrosis over Apoptosis Is Determined by TAK1-RIP1 Interplay

Death receptor-induced programmed necrosis is regarded as a secondary death mechanism dominating only in cells that cannot properly induce caspase-dependent apoptosis. Here, we show that in cells lacking TGFβ-activated Kinase-1 (TAK1) expression, catalytically active Receptor Interacting Protein 1 (RIP1)-dependent programmed necrosis overrides apoptotic processes following Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNFα) stimulation and results in rapid cell death. Importantly, the activation of the caspase cascade and caspase-8-mediated RIP1 cleavage in TNFα-stimulated TAK1 deficient cells is not sufficient to prevent RIP1-dependent necrosome formation and subsequent programmed necrosis. Our results demonstrate that TAK1 acts independently of its kinase activity to prevent the premature dissociation of ubiquitinated-RIP1 from TNFα-stimulated TNF-receptor I and also to inhibit the formation of TNFα-induced necrosome complex consisting of RIP1, RIP3, FADD, caspase-8 and cFLIPL. The surprising prevalence of catalytically active RIP1-dependent programmed necrosis over apoptosis despite ongoing caspase activity implicates a complex regulatory mechanism governing the decision between both cell death pathways following death receptor stimulation