We survey 3 years (2013–2015) of data from the Van Allen Probes related to plasmaspheric plume crossing events. We detect 194 plume crossing events, and we find that 97% of the plumes are accompanied ...by very low frequency hiss emissions. The plumes are mainly detected on the duskside or dayside. Careful examination of the hiss spectra reveals that all hiss emissions consist of obvious fine structure. Application of a band‐pass filter reveals that the fine structure is consistent with the occurrence of discrete wave packets. The hiss data display high coherency. The events are classified by location. Duskside hiss and nightside hiss tend to have extremely high polarization with no chorus at the high‐frequency end of the dynamic spectrum. The duskside hiss has a distinct upper frequency limit. On the other hand, the dawnside hiss has strong chorus elements at the upper hiss frequency, which makes the upper frequency limit ambiguous. We show that the structure of whistler mode hiss is different from artificial random noise. Although noise also has fine spectral characteristics, the polarization and waveform data are totally different from the hiss cases. Our results strongly suggest that whistler mode hiss in plasmaspheric plumes universally possesses fine structure.
Key Points
We examine 194 plume crossing events observed by the Van Allen Probes
We observe hiss emissions in 97% of the plume events
All hiss emissions have obvious fine structure
On 23 February 2014, Van Allen Probes sensors observed quite strong electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves in the outer dayside magnetosphere. The maximum amplitude was more than 14 nT, ...comparable to 7% of the magnitude of the ambient magnetic field. The EMIC waves consisted of a series of coherent rising tone emissions. Rising tones are excited sporadically by energetic protons. At the same time, the probes detected drastic fluctuations in fluxes of MeV electrons. It was found that the electron fluxes decreased by more than 30% during the 1 min following the observation of each EMIC rising tone emissions. Furthermore, it is concluded that the flux reduction is a nonadiabatic (irreversible) process since holes in the particle flux levels appear as drift echoes with energy dispersion. We examine the process of electron pitch angle scattering by nonlinear wave trapping due to anomalous cyclotron resonance with EMIC rising tone emissions. The energy range of precipitated electrons agrees with the presumed energy for the threshold amplitude for nonlinear wave trapping. This is the first report of rapid precipitation (<1 min) of relativistic electrons by EMIC rising tone emissions and their drift echoes in time observed by spacecraft.
Key Points
Relativistic electrons disappear following intense EMIC rising tone in a few minutes
Drift echoes of localized electron depletion are detected
This is the direct observation of rapid loss process by the nonlinear EMIC scattering
Superconductivity at interfaces has been investigated since the first demonstration of electric-field-tunable superconductivity in ultrathin films in 1960(1). So far, research on interface ...superconductivity has focused on materials that are known to be superconductors in bulk. Here, we show that electrostatic carrier doping can induce superconductivity in KTaO(3), a material in which superconductivity has not been observed before. Taking advantage of the large capacitance of the self-organized electric double layer that forms at the interface between an ionic liquid and KTaO(3) (ref. 12), we achieve a charge carrier density that is an order of magnitude larger than the density that can be achieved with conventional chemical doping. Superconductivity emerges in KTaO(3) at 50 mK for two-dimensional carrier densities in the range 2.3 × 10(14) to 3.7 × 10(14) cm(-2). The present result clearly shows that electrostatic carrier doping can lead to new states of matter at nanoscale interfaces.
Electric field control of charge carrier density has long been a key technology to tune the physical properties of condensed matter, exploring the modern semiconductor industry. One of the big ...challenges is to increase the maximum attainable carrier density so that we can induce superconductivity in field-effect-transistor geometry. However, such experiments have so far been limited to modulation of the critical temperature in originally conducting samples because of dielectric breakdown. Here we report electric-field-induced superconductivity in an insulator by using an electric-double-layer gating in an organic electrolyte. Sheet carrier density was enhanced from zero to 1014 cm−2 by applying a gate voltage of up to 3.5 V to a pristine SrTiO3 single-crystal channel. A two-dimensional superconducting state emerged below a critical temperature of 0.4 K, comparable to the maximum value for chemically doped bulk crystals, indicating this method as promising for searching for unprecedented superconducting states.
Abstract In order to create a moist environment for rapid wound healing, a hydrogel sheet composed of a blended powder of alginate, chitin/chitosan and fucoidan (ACF-HS; 60:20:2:4 w/w) has been ...developed as a functional wound dressing. ACF-HS gradually absorbed DMEM without any maceration, and fluid absorption became constant within 18 h. On application, ACF-HS was expected to effectively interact with and protect the wound in rats, providing a good moist healing environment with exudates. In addition, the wound dressing has properties such as ease of application and removal and good adherence. Full-thickness skin defects were made on the backs of rats and mitomycin C solution (1 mg/ml in saline) was applied onto the wound for 10 min in order to prepare healing-impaired wounds. After thoroughly washing out the mitomycin C, ACF-HS was applied to the healing-impaired wounds. Although normal rat wound repair was not stimulated by the application of ACF-HS, healing-impaired wound repair was significantly stimulated. Histological examination demonstrated significantly advanced granulation tissue and capillary formation in the healing-impaired wounds treated with ACF-HS on day 7, as compared to those treated with calcium alginate fiber (Kaltostat® ; Convatec Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) and those left untreated.
The objective of this study was to validate the efficacy of Takeuchi classification for lateral hinge fractures (LHFs) in open wedge high tibial osteotomy (OWHTO). In all 74 osteoarthritic knees (58 ...females, 16 males; mean age 62.9 years, standard deviation 7.5, 42 to 77) were treated with OWHTO using a TomoFix plate. The knees were divided into non-fracture (59 knees) and LHF (15 knees) groups, and the LHF group was further divided into Takeuchi types I, II, and III (seven, two, and six knees, respectively). The outcomes were assessed pre-operatively and one year after OWHTO. Pre-operative characteristics (age, gender and body mass index) showed no significant difference between the two groups. The mean Japanese Orthopaedic Association score was significantly improved one year after operation regardless of the presence or absence of LHF (p = 0.0015, p < 0.001, respectively). However, six of seven type I cases had no LHF-related complications; both type II cases had delayed union; and of six type III cases, two had delayed union with correction loss and one had overcorrection. These results suggest that Takeuchi type II and III LHFs are structurally unstable compared with type I. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2015;97-B:1226-31.
We investigate rates of pathologic complete response (pCR) and tumor expression of ER, PgR, HER2 discordance after neoadjuvant chemotherapy using Japanese breast cancer registry data.
Records of more ...than 300 000 breast cancer cases treated at 800 hospitals from 2004 to 2013 were retrieved from the breast cancer registry. After data cleanup, we included 21 755 patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and had no distant metastases. pCR was defined as no invasive tumor in the breast detected during surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. HER2 overexpression was determined immunohistochemically and/or using fluorescence in situ hybridization.
pCR was achieved in 5.7% of luminal tumors (n = 8730), 24.6% of HER2-positive tumors (n = 4403), and 18.9% of triple-negative tumors (n = 3660). Among HER2-positive tumors, pCR was achieved in 31.6% of ER-negative tumors (n = 2252), 17.0% of ER-positive ones (n = 2132), 31.4% of patients who received trastuzumab as neoadjuvant chemotherapy (n = 2437), and 16.2% of patients who did not receive trastuzumab (n = 1966). Of the 2811 patients who were HER2-positive before treatment, 601 (21.4%) had HER2-negative tumors after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, whereas 340 (3.4%) of the 9947 patients with HER2-negative tumors before treatment had HER2-positive tumors afterward. Of the 10 973 patients with ER-positive tumors before treatment, 499 (4.6%) had ER-negative tumors after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, whereas 519 (9.3%) of the 5607 patients who were ER-negative before treatment had ER-positive tumors afterward.
We confirmed that loss of HER2-positive status can occur after neoadjuvant treatment in patients with primary HER2-positive breast cancer. We also confirmed that in practice, differences in pCR rates between breast cancer subtypes are the same as in clinical trials. Our data strongly support the need for retest ER, PgR, HER2 of surgical sample after neoadjuvant therapy in order to accurately determine appropriate use of targeted therapy.