Nearly deconfined spinon excitations in the square-lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet

We study the spin-excitation spectrum (dynamic structure factor) of the spin-1/2 square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet and an extended model (the J−Q model) including four-spin interactions Q in addition to the Heisenberg exchange J. Using an improved method for stochastic analytic continuation of imaginary-time correlation functions computed with quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we can treat the sharp (δ-function) contribution to the structure factor expected from spin-wave (magnon) excitations, in addition to resolving a continuum above the magnon energy. Spectra for the Heisenberg model are in excellent agreement with recent neutron-scattering experiments on Cu(DCOO)2⋅4D2O, where a broad spectral-weight continuum at wave vector q=(π,0) was interpreted as deconfined spinons, i.e., fractional excitations carrying half of the spin of a magnon. Our results at (π,0) show a similar reduction of the magnon weight and a large continuum, while the continuum is much smaller at q=(π/2,π/2) (as also seen experimentally). We further investigate the reasons for the small magnon weight at (π,0) and the nature of the corresponding excitation by studying the evolution of the spectral functions in the J−Q model. Upon turning on the Q interaction, we observe a rapid reduction of the magnon weight to zero, well before the system undergoes a deconfined quantum phase transition into a nonmagnetic spontaneously dimerized state. Based on these results, we reinterpret the picture of deconfined spinons at (π,0) in the experiments as nearly deconfined spinons—a precursor to deconfined quantum criticality. To further elucidate the picture of a fragile (π,0)-magnon pole in the Heisenberg model and its depletion in the J−Q model, we introduce an effective model of the excitations in which a magnon can split into two spinons that do not separate but fluctuate in and out of the magnon space (in analogy to the resonance between a photon and a particle-hole pair in the exciton-polariton problem). The model can reproduce the reduction of magnon weight and lowered excitation energy at (π,0) in the Heisenberg model, as well as the energy maximum and smaller continuum at (π/2,π/2). It can also account for the rapid loss of the (π,0) magnon with increasing Q and the remarkable persistence of a large magnon pole at q=(π/2,π/2) even at the deconfined critical point. The fragility of the magnons close to (π,0) in the Heisenberg model suggests that various interactions that likely are important in many materials—e.g., longer-range pair exchange, ring exchange, and spin-phonon interactions—may also destroy these magnons and lead to even stronger spinon signatures than in Cu(DCOO)2⋅4D2O.We thank Wenan Guo, Akiko Masaki-Kato, Andrey Mishchenko, Martin Mourigal, Henrik Ronnow, Kai Schmidt, Cenke Xu, and Seiji Yunoki for useful discussions. Experimental data from Ref. [33] were kindly provided by N. B. Christensen and H. M. Ronnow. H. S. was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grants No. 2016M600034 and No. 2017T100031. St.C. was funded by the NSFC under Grants No. 11574025 and No. U1530401. Y. Q. Q. and Z. Y. M. acknowledge funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China through National Key Research and Development Program under Grant No. 2016YFA0300502, from the key research program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No. XDPB0803, and from the NSFC under Grants No. 11421092, No. 11574359, and No. 11674370, as well as the National Thousand-Young Talents Program of China. A. W. S. was funded by the NSF under Grants No. DMR-1410126 and No. DMR-1710170, and by the Simons Foundation. In addition H. S., Y. Q. Q., and Sy. C. thank Boston University's Condensed Matter Theory Visitors program for support, and A. W. S. thanks the Beijing Computational Science Research Center and the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences for visitor support. We thank the Center for Quantum Simulation Sciences at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Tianhe-1A platform at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, Boston University's Shared Computing Cluster, and CALMIP (Toulouse) for their technical support and generous allocation of CPU time. (2016M600034 - China Postdoctoral Science Foundation; 2017T100031 - China Postdoctoral Science Foundation; 11574025 - NSFC; U1530401 - NSFC; 11421092 - NSFC; 11574359 - NSFC; 11674370 - NSFC; 2016YFA0300502 - Ministry of Science and Technology of China; XDPB0803 - Chinese Academy of Sciences; National Thousand-Young Talents Program of China; DMR-1410126 - NSF; DMR-1710170 - NSF; Simons Foundation; Boston University's Condensed Matter Theory Visitors program)Accepted manuscript and published version

The development status of specialized nursing in ostomy care both in China and abroad

AbstractThe status of ostomy-specialized nurses' training and the specialized care for patients with permanent colostomy both in China and abroad are analyzed. Based on features and characteristics of the development of ostomy care outside China, problems in China's ostomy care are discussed to promote the sustainable development of this type of care

Potential Reductions in Greenhouse Gas and Fine Particulate Matter Emissions Using Corn Stover for Ethanol Production in China

Corn stover is an abundant raw material that can be used to produce ethanol and reduce air pollution. This paper studied the potential reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions across China if corn stover was used for ethanol production. Field surveys in nine provincial regions were conducted. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) was used to assess the GHG and PM2.5 emissions from a corn stover based ethanol system. The LCA system boundaries included several process stages from corn planting to ethanol fuel used in vehicles. Corn stover geographical distributions and emission reduction factors were combined. Results showed that the total surplus quantity of corn stover in China was 86.2 million metric tons (Mt) in 2015. It was sufficient to reach the ethanol production target set by the Chinese government. In the scenario that 38.5 Mt or 44.6% of corn stover surplus were used for ethanol production, the total potential emission reductions were 36.5 Mt CO2-eq GHG and 450.9 kt PM2.5. Among the 31 provincial regions in China, the reduction potentials varied from 0.001 to 8.9 Mt CO2-eq for GHG and from 0.013 to 109.7 kt for PM2.5. This study provided useful information to policy makers, researchers and industry managers who work on environmental control and corn stover management

TGFBI promoter hypermethylation correlating with paclitaxel chemoresistance in ovarian cancer

The purpose of this study is to determine the methylation status of Transforming growth factor-beta-inducible gene-h3 (TGFBI) and its correlation with paclitaxel chemoresistance in ovarian cancer. The methylation status of TGFBI was examined in ovarian cancer and control groups by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) and bisulfite sequencing PCR (BSP). The TGFBI expression and cell viability were compared by Quantitative Real-Time PCR, Western Blotting and MTT assay before and after demethylating agent 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dc) treatment in 6 cell lines (SKOV3, SKOV3/TR, SKOV3/DDP, A2780, 2780/TR, OVCAR8). In our results, TGFBI methylation was detected in 29/40 (72.5%) of ovarian cancer and 1/10 (10%) of benign ovarian tumors. No methylation was detected in normal ovarian tissues (P < 0.001). No statistical correlation between RUNX3 methylation and clinicopathological characteristics was observed. A significant correlation between TGFBI methylation and loss of TGFBI mRNA expression was found (P < 0.001). The methylation level of TGFBI was significantly higher in paclitaxel resistant cell lines (SKOV3/TR and 2780/TR) than that in the sensitive pairs (P < 0.001). After 5-aza-dc treatment, the relative expression of TGFBI mRNA and protein increased significantly in SKOV3/TR and A2780/TR cells. However, no statistical differences of relative TGFBI mRNA expression and protein were found in other cells (all P > 0.05), which showed that re-expression of TGFBI could reverse paclitaxel chemoresistance. Our results show that TGFBI is frequently methylated and associated with paclitaxel-resistance in ovarian cancer. TGFBI might be a potential therapeutic target for the enhancement of responses to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer patients

deepBase: a database for deeply annotating and mining deep sequencing data

Advances in high-throughput next-generation sequencing technology have reshaped the transcriptomic research landscape. However, exploration of these massive data remains a daunting challenge. In this study, we describe a novel database, deepBase, which we have developed to facilitate the comprehensive annotation and discovery of small RNAs from transcriptomic data. The current release of deepBase contains deep sequencing data from 185 small RNA libraries from diverse tissues and cell lines of seven organisms: human, mouse, chicken, Ciona intestinalis, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenhorhabditis elegans and Arabidopsis thaliana. By analyzing ∼14.6 million unique reads that perfectly mapped to more than 284 million genomic loci, we annotated and identified ∼380 000 unique ncRNA-associated small RNAs (nasRNAs), ∼1.5 million unique promoter-associated small RNAs (pasRNAs), ∼4.0 million unique exon-associated small RNAs (easRNAs) and ∼6 million unique repeat-associated small RNAs (rasRNAs). Furthermore, 2038 miRNA and 1889 snoRNA candidates were predicted by miRDeep and snoSeeker. All of the mapped reads can be grouped into about 1.2 million RNA clusters. For the purpose of comparative analysis, deepBase provides an integrative, interactive and versatile display. A convenient search option, related publications and other useful information are also provided for further investigation. deepBase is available at: http://deepbase.sysu.edu.cn/

Quantum parametric amplifiation of phonon-mediated magnon-spin interaction

The recently developed hybrid magnonics provides new opportunities for advances in both the study of magnetism and the development of quantum information processing. However, engineering coherent quantum state transfer between magnons and specific information carriers, in particular, mechanical oscillators and solid-state spins, remains challenging due to the intrinsically weak interactions and the frequency mismatch between diffrent components. Here, we show how to strongly couple the magnon modes in a nanomagnet to the quantized mechanical motion (phonons) of a micromechanical cantilever in a hybrid tripartite system. The coherent and enhanced magnon-phonon coupling is engineered by introducing the quantum parametric amplifiation of the mechanical motion. With experimentally feasible parameters, we show that the mechanical parametric drive can be adjusted to drive the system into the strong-coupling regime and even the ultrastrong-coupling regime. Furthermore, we show the coherent state transfer between the nanomagnet and a nitrogen-vacancy center in the dispersive-coupling regime, with the magnon-spin interaction mediated by the virtually-excited squeezed phonons. The amplifid mechanical noise can hardly interrupt the coherent dynamics of the system even for low mechanical quality factors, which removes the requirement of applying additional engineered-reservoir techniques. Our work opens up prospects for developing novel quantum transducers, quantum memories and high-precision measurements.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

A duplex real-time RT-PCR assay for detecting H5N1 avian influenza virus and pandemic H1N1 influenza virus

A duplex real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay was improved for simultaneous detection of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus and pandemic H1N1 (2009) influenza virus, which is suitable for early diagnosis of influenza-like patients and for epidemiological surveillance. The sensitivity of this duplex real-time RT-PCR assay was 0.02 TCID50 (50% tissue culture infective dose) for H5N1 and 0.2 TCID50 for the pandemic H1N1, which was the same as that of each single-target RT-PCR for pandemic H1N1 and even more sensitive for H5N1 with the same primers and probes. No cross reactivity of detecting other subtype influenza viruses or respiratory tract viruses was observed. Two hundred and thirty-six clinical specimens were tested by comparing with single real-time RT-PCR and result from the duplex assay was 100% consistent with the results of single real-time RT-PCR and sequence analysis

Breakpoints and deleted genes identification of ring chromosome 18 in a Chinese girl by whole-genome low-coverage sequencing: a case report study

The serological examination results. (DOCX 13 kb