Topological quantum materials represent a new class of matter with both exotic physical phenomena and novel application potentials. Many Heusler compounds, which exhibit rich emergent properties such ...as unusual magnetism, superconductivity and heavy fermion behaviour, have been predicted to host non-trivial topological electronic structures. The coexistence of topological order and other unusual properties makes Heusler materials ideal platform to search for new topological quantum phases (such as quantum anomalous Hall insulator and topological superconductor). By carrying out angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and ab initio calculations on rare-earth half-Heusler compounds LnPtBi (Ln=Lu, Y), we directly observe the unusual topological surface states on these materials, establishing them as first members with non-trivial topological electronic structure in this class of materials. Moreover, as LnPtBi compounds are non-centrosymmetric superconductors, our discovery further highlights them as promising candidates of topological superconductors.
This paper proposes a stator winding fault detection for interior permanent-magnet (PM) machines based on the pulsating-type voltage injection. By superimposing a pulsating voltage on d-axis with ...respect to the rotor-referred synchronous frame, measurable winding fault reflected signals occur in the injection induced current ripples. Comparing to prior diagnostic techniques, the proposed injection method is immune to the rotor saliency because saliency reflected current harmonic is decoupled once the pulsating voltage is exactly injected on rotor d-axis. It results in the improved fault detection performance on interior PM (IPM) machines as well as other salient machines. An IPM machine with three sets of turn-to-turn short is built to verify the proposed fault detection method.
Summary
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is the most common food‐borne hepatitis in the world. The study objectives were (i) to describe the epidemiology of HAV‐related hospitalizations during 1997–2011 in ...Taiwan, (ii) to examine the age effect on the length of stay (LOS) in hospital and (iii) to study the factors associated with death. The hospitalized cases were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database between 1997 and 2011 by ICD‐9‐CM code of 070.0/070.1. Patient sex, birthday, dates of hospitalization and death were analysed. A total of 3990 HAV‐hospitalized cases, males 2467 (62%), were identified. The LOS increased as patients’ age increased. The overall mortality rate was 16.8 per 1000 hospitalizations. Males had significantly higher case fatality rate than females (20.7 vs 10.5 per 1000 cases). The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for death rose by age and increased rapidly over 40 years of age. The aOR and 95% confidence interval 95%CI for aged 40–59 years and aged over 60 years were 7.89 (1.06–58.98) and 14.88 (2.02–109.40) compared to aged 0–19 years, respectively. Patients with chronic liver disease and cirrhosis had significantly higher risk of death (aOR=1.03 1.01–1.04), compared to those without liver disease. However, patients with liver disease, but no cirrhosis did not have higher risk of death (aOR=1.00 0.99–1.01). The aOR 95%CI for LOS >9 day was 3.26 (1.96–5.40) compared to cases with LOS ≤9 days. Male sex, age over 40 years, cirrhotic liver and long LOS are significant factors associated with death in HAV‐hospitalized cases.
The increasing impact of both climatic change and human activities on global river systems necessitates an increasing need to identify and quantify the various drivers and their impacts on fluvial ...water and sediment discharge. Here we show that mean Yangtze River water discharge of the first decade after the closing of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) (2003-2012) was 67 km(3)/yr (7%) lower than that of the previous 50 years (1950-2002), and 126 km(3)/yr less compared to the relatively wet period of pre-TGD decade (1993-2002). Most (60-70%) of the decline can be attributed to decreased precipitation, the remainder resulting from construction of reservoirs, improved water-soil conservation and increased water consumption. Mean sediment flux decreased by 71% between 1950-1968 and the post-TGD decade, about half of which occurred prior to the pre-TGD decade. Approximately 30% of the total decline and 65% of the decline since 2003 can be attributed to the TGD, 5% and 14% of these declines to precipitation change, and the remaining to other dams and soil conservation within the drainage basin. These findings highlight the degree to which changes in riverine water and sediment discharge can be related with multiple environmental and anthropogenic factors.
Accurate real-time tracking of influenza outbreaks helps public health officials make timely and meaningful decisions that could save lives. We propose an influenza tracking model, ARGO ...(AutoRegression with GOogle search data), that uses publicly available online search data. In addition to having a rigorous statistical foundation, ARGO outperforms all previously available Google-search–based tracking models, including the latest version of Google Flu Trends, even though it uses only low-quality search data as input from publicly available Google Trends and Google Correlate websites. ARGO not only incorporates the seasonality in influenza epidemics but also captures changes in people’s online search behavior over time. ARGO is also flexible, self-correcting, robust, and scalable, making it a potentially powerful tool that can be used for realtime tracking of other social events at multiple temporal and spatial resolutions.
The strong coupling between antiferromagnetism and ferroelectricity at room temperature found in BiFeO3 generates high expectations for the design and development of technological devices with novel ...functionalities. However, the multi-domain nature of the material tends to nullify the properties of interest and complicates the thorough understanding of the mechanisms that are responsible for those properties. Here we report the realization of a BiFeO3 material in thin film form with single-domain behaviour in both its magnetism and ferroelectricity: the entire film shows its antiferromagnetic axis aligned along the crystallographic b axis and its ferroelectric polarization along the c axis. With this we are able to reveal that the canted ferromagnetic moment due to the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction is parallel to the a axis. Furthermore, by fabricating a Co/BiFeO3 heterostructure, we demonstrate that the ferromagnetic moment of the Co film does couple directly to the canted moment of BiFeO3.
We present a study of the stellar populations in two faint M31 dwarf satellites, Andromeda XI and Andromeda XIII. Using archival images from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 onboard the Hubble Space ...Telescope, we characterize the horizontal branch (HB) morphologies and the RR Lyrae (RRL) populations of these two faint dwarf satellites. Our new template light-curve fitting routine Robust RR Lyrae light curve FITing (RRFIT) has been used to detect and characterize RRL populations in both galaxies. The mean periods of RRab (RR0) stars in And XI and And XIII are 〈P
ab〉= 0.621 ± 0.026 (error1) ± 0.022 (error2) and 0.648 ± 0.026 (error1) ± 0.022 (error2), respectively, where 'error1' represents the standard error of the mean, while 'error2' is based on our synthetic light-curve simulations. The RRL populations in these galaxies show a lack of RRab stars with high amplitudes Amp (V) > 1.0 mag and relatively short periods (
d), yet their period-V-band amplitude P- Amp (V) relations track the relation defined by the M31 field halo RRL populations at ∼11 kpc from the centre of M31. The metallicities of the RRab stars are calculated via a relationship between Fe/H, log P
ab and Amp(V). The resultant abundances ( Fe/H And XI=−1.75; Fe/H And XIII=−1.74) are consistent with the values calculated from the red giant branch slope, indicating that our measurements are not significantly affected by RRL evolutionary away from the zero-age HB. The distance to each galaxy, based on the absolute V magnitudes of the RRab stars, is (m−M)0, V
= 24.33 ± 0.05 for And XI and (m−M)0, V
= 24.62 ± 0.05 for And XIII. We discuss the origins of And XI and And XIII based on a comparative analysis of the luminosity-metallicity relation of Local Group dwarf galaxies.
Blood loss during liver surgery is found to be correlated with central venous pressure (CVP). The aim of the current retrospective study is to find out the cutoff value of CVP and stroke volume ...variation (SVV), which may increase the risk of having intraoperative blood loss of more than 100 mL during living liver donor hepatectomies.
Twenty-seven adult living liver donors were divided into 2 groups according to whether they had intraoperative blood loss of less (G1) or more than 100 mL (G2). The mean values of the patients' CVP and SVV at the beginning of the transaction of the liver parenchyma was used as the cutoff point. Its correlation to intraoperative blood loss was evaluated using the χ2 test; P < .001 was regarded as significant.
The cutoff points of CVP and SVV were 8 mm Hg and 13% respectively. The odds ratio of having blood loss exceeding 100 mL was 91.25 (P < .001) and 0.36 (P < .001) for CVP and SVV, respectively.
CVP less than 5 mm Hg, as suggested by most authors, is not always clinical achievable. Our results show that a value of less than 8 mm Hg or SVV 13% is able to achieve a minimal blood loss of 100 mL during parenchyma transaction during a living donor hepatectomy. Measurements used to lower the CVP or increased SVV in our serial were intravenous fluids restriction and the use of a diuretic.
•Blood loss in liver surgery is found to be correlated with central venous pressure (CVP).•A CVP less than 5 mm Hg is suggested in the literature.•A CVP less than 5 mm Hg as suggested by most authors is not always clinically achievable. Our results show that a CVP of less than 8 mm Hg or an SVV of 13% can achieve minimal blood loss of 100 mL during parenchyma transactions in living donor hepatectomy.
The interleukin (IL)‐12/IL‐23‐mediated Th1/Th17 signaling pathway has been associated with the etiopathogenesis of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). To address the cytokine microenvironment ...specifically in the liver, we examined the localized expression of cytokine subunits and their corresponding receptors using previously optimized immunohistochemistry with an extensive panel of antibodies directed at IL‐12p70, IL‐12p35, interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ), IL‐12RB2, IL‐23p40, IL‐23p19, IL‐17, and IL‐23R using liver from PBC (n = 51) and non‐PBC (n = 80) control liver disease patients. Multiple portal tracts in each patient were blindly evaluated and individually scored. We report herein that although IL‐12/Th1 and IL‐23/Th17 staining was detected in all of the liver sections, they were primarily localized around the damaged interlobular bile ducts in PBC. Most important, Th17 skewing was prominent in advanced PBC patients with intensive secretion of IL‐23p19 by inflamed hepatocytes around IL‐23R, IL‐12RB2, and IFN‐γ expressing degenerated cholangiocytes. Our novel finding on the direct association of Th17 skewing and disease severity illustrates the significance of the IL‐23/Th17 pathway in the perpetuation of IL‐12/Th1‐mediated immunopathology in PBC. Furthermore, localized IL‐23p19 production by hepatocytes may enhance profibrotic Th17 signaling and proinflammatory IFN‐γ production that contribute to PBC pathology. Conclusion: Our data emphasize the pathogenic relevance of IL‐12/Th1 and IL‐23/Th17 in the evolution of PBC. Of significance, however, the shift from a Th1 to a Th17 imbalance at advanced stages of the disease suggests the necessity to consider modulation of the IL‐23/Th17 pathway as a potential target for therapeutic intervention. (Hepatology 2014;59:1944–1953)
Phytochemicals have been used as potential chemopreventive or chemotherapeutic agents. However, there are data suggesting a mutagenic effect of some phytochemicals. We hypothesized that safrole would ...have anticancer effects on human oral squamous cell carcinoma HSC-3 cells. Safrole decreased the percentage of viable HSC-3 cells via induction of apoptosis by an increased level of cytosolic Ca2+ and a reduction in the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨ
m
). Changes in the membrane potential were associated with changes in the Bax, release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, and activation of downstream caspases-9 and -3, resulting in apoptotic cell death. In vivo studies also showed that safrole reduced the size and volume of an HSC-3 solid tumor on a xenograft athymic nu/nu mouse model. Western blotting and flow cytometric analysis studies confirmed that safrole-mediated apoptotic cell death of HSC-3 cells is regulated by cytosolic Ca2+ and by mitochondria- and Fas-dependent pathways.
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