Fine structure in the decay of U

Sun, M. D.*; Liu, Z.*; Huang, T. H.*; Zhang, W. Q.*; Andreyev, A. N.; Ding, B.*; Wang, J. G.*; Liu, X. Y.*; Lu, H. Y.*; Hou, D. S.*; et al.

Physics Letters B, 800, p.135096_1 - 135096_5, 2020/01

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.135096

Passive sweat collection and colorimetric analysis of biomarkers relevant to kidney disorders using a soft microfluidic system

Zhang, Y.*; Guo, H.*; Kim, S. B.*; Wu, Y.*; Ostojich, D.*; Park, S. H.*; Wang, X.*; Weng, Z.*; Li, R.*; Bandodkar, A. J.*; et al.

Lab on a Chip, 19(9), p.1545 - 1555, 2019/05

https://doi.org/10.1039/C9LC00103D

This paper introduces two important advances in recently reported classes of soft, skin-interfaced microfluidic systems for sweat capture and analysis: (1) a simple, broadly applicable means for collection of sweat that bypasses requirements for physical/mental exertion or pharmacological stimulation and (2) a set of enzymatic chemistries and colorimetric readout approaches for determining the concentrations of creatinine and urea in sweat, across physiologically relevant ranges. The results allow for routine, non-pharmacological capture of sweat across patient populations, such as infants and the elderly, that cannot be expected to sweat through exercise, and they create potential opportunities in the use of sweat for kidney disease screening/monitoring.

Colossal barocaloric effects in plastic crystals

Li, B.*; Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kawamura, Seiko; Sugahara, Takeshi*; Wang, H.*; Wang, J.*; Chen, Y.*; Kawaguchi, Saori*; Kawaguchi, Shogo*; Ohara, Koji*; et al.

Nature, 567(7749), p.506 - 510, 2019/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1042-5

Refrigeration is of vital importance for modern society for example, for food storage and air conditioning- and 25 to 30% of the world's electricity is consumed for refrigeration. Current refrigeration technology mostly involves the conventional vapour compression cycle, but the materials used in this technology are of growing environmental concern because of their large global warming potential. As a promising alternative, refrigeration technologies based on solid-state caloric effects have been attracting attention in recent decades. However, their application is restricted by the limited performance of current caloric materials, owing to small isothermal entropy changes and large driving magnetic fields. Here we report colossal barocaloric effects (CBCEs) (barocaloric effects are cooling effects of pressure-induced phase transitions) in a class of disordered solids called plastic crystals. The obtained entropy changes in a representative plastic crystal, neopentylglycol, are about 389 joules per kilogram per kelvin near room temperature. Pressure-dependent neutron scattering measurements reveal that CBCEs in plastic crystals can be attributed to the combination of extensive molecular orientational disorder, giant compressibility and highly anharmonic lattice dynamics of these materials. Our study establishes the microscopic mechanism of CBCEs in plastic crystals and paves the way to next-generation solid-state refrigeration technologies.

Soft, skin-interfaced microfluidic systems with wireless, battery-free electronics for digital, real-time tracking of sweat loss and electrolyte composition

Kim, S. B.*; Lee, K.-H.*; Raj, M. S.*; Reeder, J. T.*; Koo, J.*; Hourlier-Fargette, A.*; Bandodkar, A. J.*; Won, S. M.*; Sekine, Yurina; Choi, J.*; et al.

Small, 14(45), p.1802876_1 - 1802876_9, 2018/11

https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.201802876

Excretion of sweat from eccrine glands is a dynamic physiological process that varies with body position, activity level, and health status. Information content embodied in sweat rate and chemistry can be used to assess health status and athletic performance. This paper presents a thin, miniaturized, skin-interfaced microfluidic technology that includes a reusable, battery-free electronics module for measuring sweat conductivity and rate in real-time using wireless power from and data communication with capabilities in near field communications (NFC). Systematic studies of these combined microfluidic/electronic systems, accurate correlations of measurements performed with them to those of laboratory standard instrumentation, and field tests on human subjects establish the key operational features and their utility in sweat analytics.

A Fluorometric skin-interfaced microfluidic device and smartphone imaging module for quantitative analysis of sweat chemistry

Sekine, Yurina; Kim, S. B.*; Zhang, Y.*; Bandodkar, A. J.*; Xu, S.*; Choi, J.*; Irie, Masahiro*; Ray, T. R.*; Kohli, P.*; Kozai, Naofumi; et al.

Lab on a Chip, 18(15), p.2178 - 2186, 2018/08

http://doi.org/10.1039/c8lc00530c

The rich composition of solutes and metabolites in sweat and its relative ease of collection upon excretion from skin pores make this class of biofluid an attractive candidate for point of care analysis. Here, we present a complementary approach that exploits fluorometric sensing modalities integrated into a soft, skin-interfaced microfluidic system which, when paired with a simple smartphone-based imaging module, allows for in-situ measurement of important biomarkers in sweat. A network array of microchannels and a collection of microreservoirs pre-filled with fluorescent probes that selectively react with target analytes in sweat (e.g. probes), enable quantitative, rapid analysis. Field studies on human subjects demonstrate the ability to measure the concentrations of chloride, sodium and zinc in sweat, with accuracy that matches that of conventional laboratory techniques.

Comparison of heavy-ion transport simulations; Collision integral in a box

Zhang, Y.-X.*; Wang, Y,-J.*; Colonna, M.*; Danielewicz, P.*; Ono, Akira*; Tsang, M. B.*; Wolter, H.*; Xu, J.*; Chen, L.-W.*; Cozma, D.*; et al.

Physical Review C, 97(3), p.034625_1 - 034625_20, 2018/03

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.97.034625

International comparison of heavy-ion induced reaction models were discussed in the international conference "Transport2017" held in April 2017. Owing to their importance for safety assessment of heavy-ion accelerators and dosimetry of astronauts, various models to simulate heavy-ion induced reaction models are developed. This study is intended to clarify the difference among them to pinpoint their problems. In the comparison study, 320 protons and 320 neutrons were packed in a 20-fm-large cube to calculate the number of particle-particle collisions as well as the energies of collisions during the time evolution. In addition to the calculation, their algorithms were compared. The author contributed to this study by running calculation using JQMD (JAERI Quantum Molecular Dynamics). The results were compared with those calculated by the other 15 codes from over the world. Algorithm comparison showed that JQMD calculates collision probabilities from protons at first and collisions by neutrons are simulated later, which might be unreasonable. On the other hand, it was clarified that the calculation by JQMD agrees with those by the others. Despite the fact that some codes deviate from the average by a factor of 2, JQMD exhibited stable performance.

Emergent Weyl fermion excitations in TaP explored by Ta quadrupole resonance

Yasuoka, Hiroshi; Kubo, Tetsuro*; Kishimoto, Yasuki*; Kasinathan, D.*; Schmidt, M.*; Yan, B.*; Zhang, Y.*; To, Hideki*; Felser, C.*; Mackenzie, A. P.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 118(23), p.236403_1 - 236403_6, 2017/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.236403

The Ta quadrupole resonance (NQR) technique has been utilized to investigate the microscopic magnetic properties of the Weyl semi-metal TaP. We found three zero-field NQR signals associated with the transition between the quadrupole split levels for Ta with =7/2 nuclear spin. A quadrupole coupling constant, = 19.250 MHz, and an asymmetric parameter of the electric field gradient, = 0.423 were extracted, in good agreement with the theoretical calculations. In order to examine the magnetic excitations, the temperature dependence of the spin lattice relaxation rate (1/) has been measured for the -line ( transition). We found that there exist two regimes with quite different relaxation processes. Above *K, a pronounced ( behavior was found which is attributed to the magnetic excitations at the Weyl nodes with temperature dependent orbital hyperfine coupling. Below *, the relaxation is mainly governed by Korringa process with (1/) = constant, while we have to include a type dependence in order to reproduce our experimental data. We show that Ta-NQR is a novel probe for the bulk Weyl fermions and their excitations.

Spin excitations in optimally P-doped BaFe(AsP) superconductor

Hu, D.*; Yin, Z.*; Zhang, W.*; Ewings, R. A.*; Ikeuchi, Kazuhiko*; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Roessli, B.*; Wei, Y.*; Zhao, L.*; Chen, G.*; et al.

Physical Review B, 94(9), p.094504_1 - 094504_7, 2016/09

AA2016-0252.pdf:2.18MB

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.094504

The temperature and energy dependence of spin excitations in an optimally P-doped BaFe(AsP) superconductor (T = 30 K) were studied by using inelastic neutron scattering. Experimental results are consistent with calculations from a combined density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory, and suggest that the decreased average pnictogen height in BaFe(AsP) reduces the strength of electron correlations and increases the effective bandwidth of magnetic excitation.

Development of the evaluation methodology for the material relocation behavior in the core disruptive accident of sodium-cooled fast reactors

Tobita, Yoshiharu; Kamiyama, Kenji; Tagami, Hirotaka; Matsuba, Kenichi; Suzuki, Toru; Isozaki, Mikio; Yamano, Hidemasa; Morita, Koji*; Guo, L.*; Zhang, B.*

Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 53(5), p.698 - 706, 2016/05

AA2015-0794.pdf:2.46MB

https://doi.org/10.1080/00223131.2016.1143409

The in-vessel retention (IVR) of core disruptive accident (CDA) is of prime importance in enhancing safety characteristics of sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). In the CDA of SFRs, molten core material relocates to the lower plenum of reactor vessel and may impose significant thermal load on the structures, resulting in the melt through of the reactor vessel. In order to enable the assessment of this relocation process and prove that IVR of core material is the most probable consequence of the CDA in SFRs, a research program to develop the evaluation methodology for the material relocation behavior in the CDA of SFRs has been conducted. This program consists of three developmental studies, namely the development of the analysis method of molten material discharge from the core region, the development of evaluation methodology of molten material penetration into sodium pool, and the development of the simulation tool of debris bed behavior.

Charge-to-spin conversion and spin diffusion in Bi/Ag bilayers observed by spin-polarized positron beam

Zhang, H. J.; Yamamoto, Shunya; Gu, B.; Li, H.; Maekawa, Masaki; Fukaya, Yuki; Kawasuso, Atsuo

Physical Review Letters, 114(16), p.166602_1 - 166602_5, 2015/04

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.166602

Charge-to-spin conversion induced by the Rashba-Edelstein effect was directly observed for the first time in samples with no magnetic layer. A spin-polarized positron beam was used to probe the spin polarization of the outermost surface electrons of Bi/Ag/AlO and Ag/Bi/AlO when charge currents were only associated with the Ag layers. An opposite surface spin polarization was found between Bi/Ag/AlO and Ag/Bi/AlO samples with the application of a charge current in the same direction. The surface spin polarizations of both systems decreased exponentially with the outermost layer thickness, suggesting the occurrence of spin diffusion from the Bi/Ag interface to the outermost surfaces. This work provides a new technique to measure spin diffusion length.