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Spin–valley locking is ubiquitous among transition metal dichalcogenides with local or global inversion asymmetry, in turn stabilizing properties such as Ising superconductivity, and opening routes towards ‘valleytronics’. The underlying valley–spin splitting is set by spin–orbit coupling but can be tuned via the application of external magnetic fields or through proximity coupling. However, only modest changes have been realized to date. Here, we investigate the electronic structure of the V-intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide V1/3NbS2 using microscopic-area spatially resolved and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our measurements and corresponding density functional theory calculations reveal that the bulk magnetic order induces a giant valley-selective Ising coupling exceeding 50 meV in the surface NbS2 layer, equivalent to application of a ~250 T magnetic field. This energy scale is of comparable magnitude to the intrinsic spin–orbit splittings, and indicates how coupling of local magnetic moments to itinerant states of a transition metal dichalcogenide monolayer provides a powerful route to controlling their valley–spin splittings.The authors study the electronic structure of the intercalated transition metal dichalcogenide V1/3NbS2, showing that its bulk magnetism can lead to a strong tunability of spin–valley locked states at its surface.

The tumor suppressor serine/threonine kinase 11 ( STK11 or LKB1 ) is mutated in 20–30% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Loss of LKB1-adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling confers sensitivity to metabolic inhibition or stress-induced mitochondrial insults. We tested the hypothesis that loss of LKB1 sensitizes NSCLC cells to energetic stress induced by treatment with erlotinib. LKB1-deficient cells exhibited enhanced sensitivity to erlotinib in vitro and in vivo that was associated with alterations in energy metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction. Loss of LKB1 expression altered the cellular response to erlotinib treatment, resulting in impaired ATP homeostasis and an increase in reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, erlotinib selectively blocked mammalian target of rapamycin signaling, inhibited cell growth and activated apoptosis in LKB1-deficient cells. Erlotinib treatment also induced AMPK activation despite loss of LKB1 expression, which was partially reduced by the application of a calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase kinase 2 inhibitor (STO-609) or calcium chelator (BAPTA-AM). These findings may have significant implications for the design of novel NSCLC treatments that target dysregulated metabolic and signaling pathways in LKB1-deficient tumors.

Notch signaling is a highly conserved pathway important for normal embryonic development and cancer. We previously demonstrated a role for Notch3 in lung cancer pathogenesis. Notch3 inhibition resulted in tumor apoptosis and growth suppression. In vitro , these effects were enhanced when the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) pathway was also inhibited, suggesting significant cross-talk between the two pathways. How Notch3 and epidermal growth factor receptor–mitogen-activated protein kinase (EGFR–MAPK) pathways cooperate in modulating apoptosis is not yet known. In this study, we provide evidence that Notch3 regulates Bim, a BH-3-only protein, via MAPK signaling. Furthermore, loss of Bim expression prevents tumor apoptosis induced by Notch3 inhibition. Using γ-secretase inhibitor and erlotinib in a xenograft model, Bim induction and tumor inhibition were observed to be enhanced compared with either agent alone, consistent with our previous observation of significant synergism between Notch and EGFR–ras–MAPK signaling. Thus, our data support the hypothesis that Notch3 not only has a crucial role in lung cancer through regulating apoptosis, but also cooperates with the EGFR–MAPK pathway in modulating Bim.

Study designThis is a retrospective case–control study.ObjectivesTo identify predictors of lower extremity (LE) long bone fracture-related amputation in persons with traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI).SettingUS Veterans Health Administration facilities (2005–2015).MethodsFracture-amputation sets in Veterans with tSCI were considered for inclusion if medical coding indicated a LE amputation within 365 days following an incident LE fracture. The authors adjudicated each fracture-amputation set by electronic health record review. Controls with incident LE fracture and no subsequent amputation were matched 1:1 with fracture-amputation sets on site and date of fracture (±30 days). Multivariable conditional logistic regression determined odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for potential predictors (motor-complete injury; diabetes mellitus (DM); peripheral vascular disease (PVD); smoking; primary (within 30 days) nonsurgical fracture management; pressure injury and/or infection), controlling for age and race.ResultsForty fracture-amputation sets from 37 Veterans with LE amputations and 40 unique controls were identified. DM (OR = 26; 95% CI, 1.7–382), PVD (OR = 30; 95% CI, 2.5–371), and primary nonsurgical management (OR = 40; 95% CI, 1.5–1,116) were independent predictors of LE fracture-related amputation.ConclusionsEarly and aggressive strategies to prevent DM and PVD in tSCI are needed, as these comorbidities are associated with increased odds of LE fracture-related amputation. Nonsurgical fracture management increased the odds of LE amputation by at least 50%. Further large, prospective studies of fracture management in tSCI are needed to confirm our findings. Physicians and patients should consider the potential increased risk of amputation associated with non-operative management of LE fractures in shared decision making.

An innovative technique to access the nuclear matrix elements entering the expression of the life time of the double beta decay by relevant cross sections of double charge exchange reactions is proposed. The basic point is the coincidence of the initial and final state wave-functions in the two classes of processes and the similarity of the transition operators, which in both cases present a superposition of Fermi, Gamow-Teller and rank-two tensor components with a relevant implicit momentum transfer. First pioneering experimental results obtained at the INFN-LNS laboratory for the 40Ca(18O,18Ne)40Ar reaction at 270 MeV, give encouraging indication on the capability of the proposed technique to access relevant quantitative information. A key aspect of the project is the use of the K800 Superconducting Cyclotron (CS) for the acceleration of the required high resolution and low emittance heavy- ion beams and of the MAGNEX large acceptance magnetic spectrometer for the detection of the ejectiles. The use of the high-order trajectory reconstruction technique, implemented in MAGNEX, allows to reach the high mass, angular and energy resolution required even at very low cross section. The LNS set-up is today an ideal one for this research even in a worldwide perspective. However a main limitation on the beam current delivered by the accelerator and the maximum rate accepted by the MAGNEX focal plane detector must be sensibly overcome in order to systematically provide accurate numbers to the neutrino physics community in all the studied cases. The upgrade of the LNS facilities in this view is part of this project.

The 12 C( 18 O, 16 O) 14 C and 13 C( 18 O, 16 O) 15 C reactions have been explored at 84MeV incident energy and the ejectiles have been detected at forward angles by the MAGNEX spectrometer. Thanks to the peculiarities of MAGNEX and to the ray-reconstruction technique, high-resolution spectra up to 22MeV excitation energy and high-quality cross-section angular distributions have been obtained. In the region above the two-neutron emission threshold, unknown wide structures have been observed in both the 14 C and 15 C residual nuclei. A detailed analysis of such resonances identifies them as the long-searched Giant Pairing Vibration. These data represent the first experimental signature of it.

Two-neutron and two-proton transfer reactions have been analyzed in the present work. These kind of transfer reactions is an excellent tool to get insights into the short-range correlations on nucleons in a nuclear state. The direct and sequential two-particle transfer mechanisms, for which the valence particles can be transferred, were compared one with other to probe the populated nuclear states. Large-scale shell model calculations were performed to obtained the spectroscopic amplitudes for one and two valence particles.

Transfer is an excellent tool to get insights into the short-range correlations on nucleons in a nuclear state. Within the context of direct reactions, the double charge exchange reactions have recently gained attention once their matrix elements might be associated with the double-beta decay rates. This class of reaction can occur from two completely distinctive mechanisms. They can take place by nucleons exchange or driven by mesons exchange between the projectile and target nuclei. Once the double charge exchange driven by multi-nucleon or mesons exchanges can compete with each other, it is crucial to analyze the contribution of the multi-nucleon transfer in this type of reaction to verify its relevance on the measured cross sections.

The low-energy 19 F(p, α ) 16 O reaction has significant implications for nuclear astrophysics. The 19 F(p, α ) 16 O reaction occurs via three channels: (p, α 0 ), (p, α π ), and (p, α γ ). At lower temperatures, below 0.15 GK, the (p, α 0 ) channel is the dominant contributor of the reaction. The 19 F(p, α 0 ) 16 O reaction cross section in the energy range of 400–900 keV was studied in this work. Recent data in the literature reveals a roughly 1.4 increase compared to prior findings reported in the NACRE (Nuclear Astrophysics Compilation of REactions) compilation. Therefore, we present new additional result of the study published in EPJA [ 22 ] employing a silicon strip detector array (LHASA - Large High-resolution Array of Silicon for Astrophysics). The anguar distributions, the reaction cross sections and the astrophysical S-factors of the (p, α 0 ) channel were obtained through this experiment. Our findings resolve the discrepancies that exist between the two previously available data sets in the literature.

The 19 F(p, α ) 16 O reaction is of paramount importance for understanding the fluorine abundance in the outer layers of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and it might also play a role in hydrogen-deficient post-AGB star nucleosynthesis. Theoretical models overestimate F abundances in AGB stars with respect to the observed values, thus calling for further investigation of the reactions involved in the fluorine nucleosynthesis. In the last years, new direct and indirect measurements improved significantly the knowledge of the 19 F(p, α 0 ) 16 O cross section at deeply sub-Coulomb energies (below 0.8 MeV). Those data are larger by a factor of about 1.4 with respect to the previous data reported in the NACRE compilation in the energy region 0.6–0.8 MeV. In order to solve these discrepancies, here we present a new direct experiment performed using a silicon strip detector array (LHASA – Large High-resolution Array of Silicon for Astrophysics). Our results clearly confirm the trend of the latest experimental data in the energy region of interest, pointing towards a larger S-factor value than the one reported in the NACRE compilation.