Correlated band structure and the ground-state phase diagram in high-Tc cuprates

We review results obtained with a recently proposed variational cluster approach (VCA) for the competition between d-wave superconductivity (dSC) and antiferromagnetism (AF) in the high-Tc cuprates. Comparing the single-particle spectra of a two-dimensional Hubbard model with quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) and experimental data, we verify that the VCA correctly treats the low-energy excitations. The cluster calculations reproduce the overall ground-state phase diagram of the high-temperature superconductors both for electron- and hole-doping. In particular, they include salient features such as the enhanced robustness of the AF state in case of electron doping. For electron- but also for hole-doping, we clearly identify a tendency to phase separation into a mixed AF-dSC phase at low and a pure dSC-phase at high doping.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the SCES'0

Thermoelectric effects in a strongly correlated model for Nax_xCoO2_2

Thermal response functions of strongly correlated electron systems are of appreciable interest to the larger scientific community both theoretically and technologically. Here we focus on the infinitely correlated t-J model on a geometrically frustrated two-dimensional triangular lattice. Using exact diagonalization on a finite sized system we calculate the dynamical thermal response functions in order to determine the thermopower, Lorenz number, and dimensionless figure of merit. The dynamical thermal response functions is compared to the infinite frequency limit and shown to be very weak functions of frequency, hence, establishing the validity of the high frequency formalism recently proposed by Shastry for the thermopower, Lorenz number, and the dimensionless figure of merit. Further, the thermopower is demonstrated to have a low to mid temperature enhancement when the sign of the hopping parameter $t$ is switched from positive to negative for the geometrically frustrated lattice considered.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, color version available at http://physics.ucsc.edu/~peterson/mrpeterson-condmat-NCO.pdf. V.2 has fixed minor typos in Eq. 11, 19, 25, and 26. V.3 is a color versio

Determining the effect of plasmochemically activated aqueous solutions on the bioactivation process of sea buckthorn seeds

The studies revealed the regularities of obtaining bioactivated sea buckthorn seeds using plasma-chemically activated aqueous solutions during germination. Sea buckthorn seeds were chosen as the research object. Plasma-chemically activated aqueous solutions were used to activate the germination process. This made it possible to solve the problem of processing waste from the production of sea buckthorn oil, and also contributed to obtaining a high-quality component of food products. Experimental studies have proven the effectiveness of using plasma-chemically activated aqueous solutions as effective intensifiers and disinfectants for the process of bioactivation of sea buckthorn seeds. It is shown that their use intensifies the germination of sea buckthorn seeds, contributes to a more active accumulation of biologically valuable components in the seeds. Plasma-chemically activated aqueous solutions with a peroxide concentration of 300–700 mg/l were used. An increase in the geometric parameters of seeds, namely length by 8.5–14.9 % and width by 3.7–14.8 %, was recorded. The germination energy increased by 5–13 % and germination capacity by 5–14 %. The composition of sea buckthorn seeds, both derived raw material and bioactivated, was investigated. Studies have shown that bioactivated seeds contain an increased amount of highly valuable substances. The protein content increased by 4 % compared to sea buckthorn seeds and by 1.7 % compared to the control. The lipid content increased by 2 and 1.1 %. An increase in the content of vitamins was noted: B1, B2, C, A, E, R. The amount of amino acids increased by 9–13 % compared to the control, and compared to the original raw material – by 1.5–3.5 times. In addition, plasma-chemically activated aqueous solutions effectively disinfected the raw material. The presented technology can be used in the food processing industr

Genome-wide association study identifies human genetic variants associated with fatal outcome from Lassa fever

Infection with Lassa virus (LASV) can cause Lassa fever, a haemorrhagic illness with an estimated fatality rate of 29.7%, but causes no or mild symptoms in many individuals. Here, to investigate whether human genetic variation underlies the heterogeneity of LASV infection, we carried out genome-wide association studies (GWAS) as well as seroprevalence surveys, human leukocyte antigen typing and high-throughput variant functional characterization assays. We analysed Lassa fever susceptibility and fatal outcomes in 533 cases of Lassa fever and 1,986 population controls recruited over a 7 year period in Nigeria and Sierra Leone. We detected genome-wide significant variant associations with Lassa fever fatal outcomes near GRM7 and LIF in the Nigerian cohort. We also show that a haplotype bearing signatures of positive selection and overlapping LARGE1, a required LASV entry factor, is associated with decreased risk of Lassa fever in the Nigerian cohort but not in the Sierra Leone cohort. Overall, we identified variants and genes that may impact the risk of severe Lassa fever, demonstrating how GWAS can provide insight into viral pathogenesis

Barski-lab/cwl-airflow: Updated API

<p>Updated API</p&gt

Changes in endogenous daytime melatonin levels after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage – Preliminary findings from an observational cohort study

Introduction: Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is associated with early and delayed brain injury due to several underlying and interrelated processes, which include inflammation, oxidative stress, endothelial, and neuronal apoptosis. Treatment with melatonin, a cytoprotective neurohormone with anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects, has been shown to attenuate early brain injury (EBI) and to prevent delayed cerebral vasospasm in experimental aSAH models. Less is known about the role of endogenous melatonin for aSAH outcome and how its production is altered by the pathophysiological cascades initiated during EBI. In the present observational study, we analyzed changes in melatonin levels during the first three weeks after aSAH. Materials and methods: Daytime (from 11:00 am to 05:00 pm) melatonin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in serum samples obtained from 30 patients on the day of aSAH onset (d(0)) and in five pre-defined time intervals during the early (d(1-4)), critical (d(5-8), d(9-12), d(13-15)) and late (d(16-21)) phase. Perioperative daytime melatonin levels determined in 30 patients who underwent elective open aortic surgery served as a control for the acute effects of surgical treatment on melatonin homeostasis. Results: There was no difference between serum melatonin levels measured in the control patients and on the day of aSAH onset (p = 0.664). However, aSAH was associated with a sustained up-regulation that started during the critical phase (d(9-12)) and progressed to the late phase (d(16-21)), during which almost 80% of the patients reached daytime melatonin levels above 5 pg/ml. In addition, subgroup analyses revealed higher melatonin levels on d(5-8) in patients with a poor clinical status on admission (p = 0.031), patients with anterior communicating artery aneurysms (p = 0.040) and patients without an external ventricular drain (p = 0.018), possibly pointing to a role of hypothalamic dysfunction. Conclusion: Our observations in a small cohort of patients provide first evidence for a delayed up-regulation of circulatory daytime melatonin levels after aSAH and a role of aneurysm location for higher levels during the critical phase. These findings are discussed in terms of previous results about stress-induced melatonin production and the role of hypothalamic and brainstem involvement for melatonin levels after aSAH

maxATAC: Genome-scale transcription-factor binding prediction from ATAC-seq with deep neural networks.

Transcription factors read the genome, fundamentally connecting DNA sequence to gene expression across diverse cell types. Determining how, where, and when TFs bind chromatin will advance our understanding of gene regulatory networks and cellular behavior. The 2017 ENCODE-DREAM in vivo Transcription-Factor Binding Site (TFBS) Prediction Challenge highlighted the value of chromatin accessibility data to TFBS prediction, establishing state-of-the-art methods for TFBS prediction from DNase-seq. However, the more recent Assay-for-Transposase-Accessible-Chromatin (ATAC)-seq has surpassed DNase-seq as the most widely-used chromatin accessibility profiling method. Furthermore, ATAC-seq is the only such technique available at single-cell resolution from standard commercial platforms. While ATAC-seq datasets grow exponentially, suboptimal motif scanning is unfortunately the most common method for TFBS prediction from ATAC-seq. To enable community access to state-of-the-art TFBS prediction from ATAC-seq, we (1) curated an extensive benchmark dataset (127 TFs) for ATAC-seq model training and (2) built "maxATAC", a suite of user-friendly, deep neural network models for genome-wide TFBS prediction from ATAC-seq in any cell type. With models available for 127 human TFs, maxATAC is the largest collection of high-performance TFBS prediction models for ATAC-seq. maxATAC performance extends to primary cells and single-cell ATAC-seq, enabling improved TFBS prediction in vivo. We demonstrate maxATAC's capabilities by identifying TFBS associated with allele-dependent chromatin accessibility at atopic dermatitis genetic risk loci