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The TOPAS Monte Carlo (MC) system is used in radiation therapy and medical imaging research, having played a significant role in making Monte Carlo simulations widely available for proton therapy related research. While TOPAS provides detailed simulations of patient scale properties, the fundamental unit of the biological response to radiation is a cell. Thus, our goal was to develop TOPAS-nBio, an extension of TOPAS dedicated to advance understanding of radiobiological effects at the (sub-)cellular, (i.e., the cellular and sub-cellular) scale. TOPAS-nBio was designed as a set of open source classes that extends TOPAS to model radiobiological experiments. TOPAS-nBio is based on and extends Geant4-DNA, which extends the Geant4 toolkit, the basis of TOPAS, to include very low-energy interactions of particles down to vibrational energies, explicitly simulates every particle interaction (i.e., without using condensed histories) and propagates radiolysis products. To further facilitate the use of TOPAS-nBio, a graphical user interface was developed. TOPAS-nBio offers full track-structure Monte Carlo simulations, integration of chemical reactions within the first millisecond, an extensive catalogue of specialized cell geometries as well as sub-cellular structures such as DNA and mitochondria, and interfaces to mechanistic models of DNA repair kinetics. We compared TOPAS-nBio simulations to measured and published data of energy deposition patterns and chemical reaction rates (G values). Our simulations agreed well within the experimental uncertainties. Additionally, we expanded the chemical reactions and species provided in Geant4-DNA and developed a new method based on independent reaction times (IRT), including a total of 72 reactions classified into 6 types between neutral and charged species. Chemical stage simulations using IRT were a factor of 145 faster than with step-by-step tracking. Finally, we applied the geometric/chemical modeling to obtain initial yields of double-strand breaks (DSBs) in DNA fibers for proton irradiations of 3 and 50 MeV and compared the effect of including chemical reactions on the number and complexity of DSB induction. Over half of the DSBs were found to include chemical reactions with approximately 5% of DSBs caused only by chemical reactions. In conclusion, the TOPAS-nBio extension to the TOPAS MC application offers access to accurate and detailed multiscale simulations, from a macroscopic description of the radiation field to microscopic description of biological outcome for selected cells. TOPAS-nBio offers detailed physics and chemistry simulations of radiobiological experiments on cells simulating the initially induced damage and links to models of DNA repair kinetics.

Some Bravais lattices have a particular geometry that can slow down the motion of Bloch electrons by pre-localization due to the band-structure properties. Another known source of electronic localization in solids is the Coulomb repulsion in partially filled d or f orbitals, which leads to the formation of local magnetic moments. The combination of these two effects is usually considered of little relevance to strongly correlated materials. Here we show that it represents, instead, the underlying physical mechanism in two of the most important ferromagnets: nickel and iron. In nickel, the van Hove singularity has an unexpected impact on the magnetism. As a result, the electron–electron scattering rate is linear in temperature, in violation of the conventional Landau theory of metals. This is true even at Earth’s core pressures, at which iron is instead a good Fermi liquid. The importance of nickel in models of geomagnetism may have therefore to be reconsidered. A first principles understanding of the origins of the Earth's magnetic field requires the study of iron and nickel at high temperatures and pressures. Here, the authors find anomalies in the electronic properties of nickel and iron-nickel alloys, which may be important for the physics of geomagnetism.

Controlled in-plane rotation of the magnetic easy axis in manganite heterostructures by tailoring the interface oxygen network could allow the development of correlated oxide-based magnetic tunnelling junctions with non-collinear magnetization, with possible practical applications as miniaturized high-switching-speed magnetic random access memory (MRAM) devices. Here, we demonstrate how to manipulate magnetic and electronic anisotropic properties in manganite heterostructures by engineering the oxygen network on the unit-cell level. The strong oxygen octahedral coupling is found to transfer the octahedral rotation, present in the NdGaO 3 (NGO) substrate, to the La 2/3 Sr 1/3 MnO 3 (LSMO) film in the interface region. This causes an unexpected realignment of the magnetic easy axis along the short axis of the LSMO unit cell as well as the presence of a giant anisotropic transport in these ultrathin LSMO films. As a result we possess control of the lateral magnetic and electronic anisotropies by atomic-scale design of the oxygen octahedral rotation. Strong oxygen octahedral coupling is found to transfer the octahedral rotation between NdGaO 3 and La 2/3 Sr 1/3 MnO 3 , allowing manipulation of the heterostructures’ magnetic and electronic anisotropic properties by engineering the oxygen network.

Current theoretical studies of electronic correlations in transition metal oxides typically only account for the local repulsion between d-electrons even if oxygen ligand p-states are an explicit part of the effective Hamiltonian. Interatomic interactions such as \\({{U}_{pd}}\\) between d- and (ligand) p-electrons, as well as the local interaction between p-electrons, are neglected. Often, the relative d–p orbital splitting has to be adjusted ‘ad hoc’ on the basis of the experimental evidence. By applying the merger of local density approximation and dynamical mean field theory to the prototypical case of the three-band Emery dp model for the cuprates, we demonstrate that, without any ‘ad hoc’ adjustment of the orbital splitting, the charge transfer insulating state is stabilized by the interatomic interaction \\({{U}_{pd}}\\). Our study hence shows how to improve realistic material calculations that explicitly include the p-orbitals.

The properties of condensed matter are determined by single-particle and collective excitations and their mutual interactions. These quantum-mechanical excitations are characterized by an energy, E , and a momentum, ℏ k , which are related through their dispersion, E k . The coupling of excitations may lead to abrupt changes (kinks) in the slope of the dispersion. Kinks thus carry important information about the internal degrees of freedom of a many-body system and their effective interaction. Here, we report a novel, purely electronic mechanism leading to kinks, which is not related to any coupling of excitations. Namely, kinks are predicted for any strongly correlated metal whose spectral function shows a three-peak structure with well-separated Hubbard subbands and a central peak, as observed, for example, in transition-metal oxides. These kinks can appear at energies as high as a few hundred millielectron volts, as found in recent spectroscopy experiments on high-temperature superconductors 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and other transition-metal oxides 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 . Our theory determines not only the position of the kinks but also the range of validity of Fermi-liquid theory.

Animal husbandry conditions, including rodent diet, constitute an example highlighting the importance of reporting experimental variables to enhance scientific rigor. In the present study, we examine the effects of three common rodent diets including two chows (Purina 5015 and Teklad 2019) and one purified ingredient diet (AIN-76A) on growth anthropometrics (body weight), behavior (nest building, actigraphy, passive avoidance) and blood biomarkers (ketones, glucose, amino acid profiles) in male and female C57BL/6J mice. We find increased body weight in response to the chows compared to purified ingredient diet albeit selectively in male mice. We did not find significantly altered behavior in female or male wild type C57BL/6J mice. However, amino acid profiles changed as an effect of sex and diet. These data contribute to a growing body of knowledge indicating that rodent diet impacts experimental outcomes and needs to be considered in study design and reporting.

Newborn screening for 21-hydroxylase deficiency (21OHD), the most common form of congenital adrenal hyperplasia, has been performed routinely in the United States and other countries for over 20 years. Screening provides the opportunity for early detection and treatment of patients with 21OHD, preventing salt-wasting crisis during the first weeks of life. However, current first-tier screening methodologies lack specificity, leading to a large number of false positive cases, and adequate sensitivity to detect all cases of classic 21OHD that would benefit from treatment. This review summarizes the pathology of 21OHD and also the key stages of fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis development and adrenal steroidogenesis that contribute to limitations in screening accuracy. Factors leading to both false positive and false negative results are highlighted, along with specimen collection best practices used by laboratories in the United States and worldwide. This comprehensive review provides context and insight into the limitations of newborn screening for 21OHD for laboratorians, primary care physicians, and endocrinologists.

V 2 O 3 is the prototype system for the Mott transition, one of the most fundamental phenomena of electronic correlation. Temperature, doping or pressure induce a metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) between a paramagnetic metal (PM) and a paramagnetic insulator. This or related MITs have a high technological potential, among others, for intelligent windows and field effect transistors. However the spatial scale on which such transitions develop is not known in spite of their importance for research and applications. Here we unveil for the first time the MIT in Cr-doped V 2 O 3 with submicron lateral resolution: with decreasing temperature, microscopic domains become metallic and coexist with an insulating background. This explains why the associated PM phase is actually a poor metal. The phase separation can be associated with a thermodynamic instability near the transition. This instability is reduced by pressure, that promotes a genuine Mott transition to an eventually homogeneous metallic state. The spatial scale over which metal–insulator transitions happen is not known, despite the importance of this phenomenon in basic and applied research. The authors show that in chromium-doped V 2 O 3 , with decreasing temperature, microscopic metallic domains coexist with an insulating background.

Current theoretical studies of electronic correlations in transition metal oxides typically only account for the local repulsion between d-electrons even if oxygen ligand p-states are an explicit part of the effective Hamiltonian. Interatomic interactions such as between d- and (ligand) p-electrons, as well as the local interaction between p-electrons, are neglected. Often, the relative d-p orbital splitting has to be adjusted 'ad hoc' on the basis of the experimental evidence. By applying the merger of local density approximation and dynamical mean field theory to the prototypical case of the three-band Emery dp model for the cuprates, we demonstrate that, without any 'ad hoc' adjustment of the orbital splitting, the charge transfer insulating state is stabilized by the interatomic interaction . Our study hence shows how to improve realistic material calculations that explicitly include the p-orbitals.

Wisconsin’s newborn screening program implemented second-tier testing on specimens with elevated propionylcarnitine (C3) to aid in the identification of newborns with propionic and methylmalonic acidemias. The differential diagnosis for elevated C3 also includes acquired vitamin B12 deficiency, which is currently categorized as a false positive screen. The goal of this study was to summarize screening data and evaluate their effectiveness at establishing diagnoses and categorizing false positive cases. All Wisconsin newborns born between 2013 and 2019 with a positive first-tier screen for C3 were included in this study. For each case the first- and second-tier newborn screening data and confirmatory test results were compiled. The clinical determination for each case was reviewed and categorized into groups: inborn error of metabolism, maternal B12 deficiency, infant B12 deficiency, and false positive. A review of the screening data showed a significant overlap in the concentration of biomarkers for newborns with genetic versus acquired disease. Additionally, a review of confirmatory test results showed incomplete ascertainment of maternal vitamin B12 status. The Wisconsin newborn screening program recommended a confirmatory testing algorithm to aid in the diagnosis of inborn errors of metabolism and acquired vitamin B12 deficiency.