In article number 2004896, John T. L. Thong, Jing Wu, and co‐workers investigate thermoelectric transport in novel 2D palladium diselenide (PdSe2) with a low‐symmetry pentagonal lattice. Due to its ...sensitive dependence on the interlayer coupling originating from the special lattice structure, the thermoelectric performance can be largely enhanced. The high band convergence and quantum confinement through thickness engineering advance and broaden the applications of thermoelectric such as in soft robotics, health monitoring, and human‐machine interfaces.
We present the improved constraints on couplings of solar axions and more generic bosonic dark matter particles using 737.1 kg days of data from the CDEX-1B experiment. The CDEX-1B experiment, ...located at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory, primarily aims at the direct detection of weakly interacting massive particles using a p-type point-contact germanium detector. We adopt the profile likelihood ratio method for analysis of data in the presence of backgrounds. An energy threshold of 160 eV was achieved, much better than the 475 eV of CDEX-1A with an exposure of 335.6 kg days. This significantly improves the sensitivity for the bosonic dark matter below 0.8 keV among germanium detectors. Limits are also placed on the coupling gAe < 2.48 × 10−11 from Compton, bremsstrahlung, atomic-recombination, and deexcitation channels and geffAN × gAe < 4.14 × 10−17 from a 57Fe M1 transition at 90% confidence level.
We present improved germanium-based constraints on sub-GeV dark matter via dark matter-electron (χ-e) scattering using the 205.4 kg·day dataset from the CDEX-10 experiment. Using a novel calculation ...technique, we attain predicted χ-e scattering spectra observable in high-purity germanium detectors. In the heavy mediator scenario, our results achieve 3 orders of magnitude of improvement for m_{χ} larger than 80 MeV/c^{2} compared to previous germanium-based χ-e results. We also present the most stringent χ-e cross-section limit to date among experiments using solid-state detectors for m_{χ} larger than 90 MeV/c^{2} with heavy mediators and m_{χ} larger than 100 MeV/c^{2} with electric dipole coupling. The result proves the feasibility and demonstrates the vast potential of a new χ-e detection method with high-purity germanium detectors in ultralow radioactive background.
A new project, high intensity heavy ion accelerator facility (HIAF), is currently under design and construction in China. The HIAF front end, composed of electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) ion ...sources, low energy beam transport (LEBT) and radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ), will produce and provide beams of ions with a mass up to uranium at a beam energy of0.5MeV/u. The typical beam intensity is designed up to 2 emA for the uranium beam with a charge state of35+. This paper presents an overall design of the front end for HIAF and discusses several key issues in the design. By modeling the beam extraction from the ECR source, we got a reliable starting beam condition to perform the design. Transverse coupling of the beam from the source was elaborated. To relieve the coupling we implanted two solenoids after the source. Space charge effect in the charge state selection of the ion source was evaluated. An overall space charge compensation degree of no less than 70% was predicted. A beam dynamics simulation was performed by using the initial particle distribution obtained from the extraction modeling. The simulation resulted in development of a beam collimation system in the LEBT to confine the transverse emittance. The RFQ design will follow the development of LEAF-RFQ at Institute of Modern Physics, which has successfully commissioned with several beams and demonstrated as an excellent design. Recent beam commissioning results of LEAF-RFQ will also be presented in this paper.
Edge contact geometries are thought to yield ultralow contact resistances in most nonferromagnetic metal-graphene interfaces, owing to their large metal-graphene coupling strengths. Here, we examine ...the contact resistance of edge- versus surface-contacted ferromagnetic metal-graphene interfaces (i.e., nickel- and cobalt-graphene interfaces) using both single-layer and few-layer graphene. Good qualitative agreement is obtained between theory and experiment. In particular, in both theory and experiment, we observe that the contact resistance of edge-contacted ferromagnetic metal-graphene interfaces is much lower than that of surface-contacted ones, for all devices studied and especially for the single-layer graphene systems. We show that this difference in resistance is not due to differences in the metal-graphene coupling strength, which we quantify using Hamiltonian matrix elements. Instead, the larger contact resistance in surface contacts results from spin filtering at the interface, in contrast to the edge-contacted case where both spins are transmitted. Temperature-dependent resistance measurements beyond the Curie temperature T C show that the spin degree of freedom is indeed important for the experimentally measured contact resistance. These results show that it is possible to induce a large change in contact resistance by changing the temperature in the vicinity of T C.
Dust mites are one of the most important allergens, widely distributed around the world, especially in household environments. Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, Dermatophagoides farinae and Blomia ...tropicalis are the most common species of dust mites. There are more than 35 known sensitization components of dust mites, among which Der p 1, Der p 2 and Der p 23 are the major components. Clinically, allergen skin test and serum specific immunoglobulin E (sIgE) detection are widely used in the preliminary diagnosis of dust mite allergy. However, these methods cannot accurately identify specific dust mite sensitization components. Considering that there are significant differences in the allergenic components of dust mites in different regions and populations, component-resolved diagnosis of dust mite is particularly important in accurately determining the allergenic components. This is not only of guiding significance for allergen avoidance, but also important for determining the immunotherapy regimen for dust mite
Context:
Isolated congenital central hypothyroidism (CeH) can result from mutations in TRHR, TSHB, and IGSF1, but its etiology often remains unexplained. We identified a missense mutation in the ...transducin β-like protein 1, X-linked (TBL1X) gene in three relatives diagnosed with isolated CeH. TBL1X is part of the thyroid hormone receptor-corepressor complex.
Objective:
The objectives of the study were the identification of TBL1X mutations in patients with unexplained isolated CeH, Sanger sequencing of relatives of affected individuals, and clinical and biochemical characterization; in vitro investigation of functional consequences of mutations; and mRNA expression in, and immunostaining of, human hypothalami and pituitary glands.
Design:
This was an observational study.
Setting:
The study was conducted at university medical centers.
Patients:
Nineteen individuals with and seven without a mutation participated in the study.
Main Outcome Measures:
Outcome measures included sequencing results, clinical and biochemical characteristics of mutation carriers, and results of in vitro functional and expression studies.
Results:
Sanger sequencing yielded five additional mutations. All patients (n = 8; six males) were previously diagnosed with CeH (free T4 FT4 concentration below the reference interval, normal thyrotropin). Eleven relatives (two males) also carried mutations. One female had CeH, whereas 10 others had low-normal FT4 concentrations. As a group, adult mutation carriers had 20%–25% lower FT4 concentrations than controls. Twelve of 19 evaluated carriers had hearing loss. Mutations are located in the highly conserved WD40-repeat domain of the protein, influencing its expression and thermal stability. TBL1X mRNA and protein are expressed in the human hypothalamus and pituitary.
Conclusions:
TBL1X mutations are associated with CeH and hearing loss. FT4 concentrations in mutation carriers vary from low-normal to values compatible with CeH.
By using DNA-analysis, clinical and biochemical phenotyping, and in vitro functional and expression studies, we show that TBL1X mutations are associated with central hypothyroidism and hearing loss.
We report constraints on the dark photon effective kinetic mixing parameter (κ) with data taken from two p-type point-contact germanium detectors of the CDEX-10 experiment at the China Jinping ...Underground Laboratory. The 90% confidence level upper limits on κ of solar dark photon from 205.4 kg-day exposure are derived, probing new parameter space with masses (m_{V}) from 10 to 300 eV/c^{2} in direct detection experiments. Considering dark photon as the cosmological dark matter, limits at 90% confidence level with m_{V} from 0.1 to 4.0 keV/c^{2} are set from 449.6 kg-day data, with a minimum of κ=1.3×10^{-15} at m_{V}=200 eV/c^{2}.
Abnormal risky decision making may represent an important factor contributing to functional impairment in psychotic disorders. Previous research revealed impaired decision making under risk in ...patients with chronic schizophrenia. However, risky decision making is under-studied in the early course of illness. We examined risky decision making in 33 patients with early non-affective psychosis and 32 demographically matched controls, using two well-validated experimental paradigms, balloon analogue risk task (BART) and Risky–Gains task (RGT), which modeled and assessed actual risk-taking behaviors in deliberative and time-pressured decision-making situations, respectively. Our results showed that patients exhibited suboptimal decision making on the BART and were more risk averse than controls by having fewer average balloon pumps in non-burst trials, lower explosion rate and lower total points gained. On the RGT, patients also behaved more conservatively than controls, with lower overall rate in choosing the risky option. Intriguingly, patients performed comparably to controls in adjusting risk-taking pattern following punished trials, suggesting relatively preserved sensitivity to punishment in early psychosis. Risk-taking measures showed no significant correlations with any symptom dimensions, impulsivity traits, cognitive functions or antipsychotic treatment after correcting for multiple comparisons. This study is the first to investigate risk-taking propensity in early psychosis based on BART/RGT performance, and consistently indicate that patients with early psychosis displayed altered risky decision making with increased risk aversion relative to healthy participants. Further investigation is warranted to clarify the longitudinal course of aberrant risky decision making and its relationship with functional outcome in early psychosis.
PDF
