Strange Metallic Behaviour and the Thermodynamics of Charged Dilatonic Black Holes

We review a recent holographic analysis arXiv:1005.4690 of charged black holes with scalar hair in view of their applications to the cuprate high temperature superconductors. We show in particular that these black holes show an interesting phase structure including critical behaviour at zero temperature or charge, describe both conductors and insulators (including holographic Mott-like insulators), generically have no residual entropy and exhibit experimentally observed scaling relations between electronic entropy, specific heat and (linear) DC resistivity. Transport properties are discussed in the companion contribution to these proceedings.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, to appear in "Proceedings of the XVIth European Workshop on String Theory", Madrid, June 2010, to be published in Fortsch. Phy

Non-Relativistic Superstring Theories

We construct a supersymmetric version of the ``critical'' non-relativistic bosonic string theory\cite{Kim:2007hb} with its manifest global symmetry. We introduce the anticommuting $bc$ CFT which is the super partner of the $\beta\gamma$ CFT. The conformal weights of the $b$ and $c$ fields are both 1/2. The action of the fermionic sector can be transformed into that of the relativistic superstring theory. We explicitly quantize the theory with manifest SO(8) symmetry and find that the spectrum is similar to that of Type IIB superstring theory. There is one notable difference: the fermions are non-chiral. We further consider ``noncritical'' generalizations of the supersymmetric theory using the superspace formulation. There is an infinite range of possible string theories similar to the supercritical string theories. We comment on the connection between the critical non-relativistic string theory and the lightlike Linear Dilaton theory.Comment: Typos corrected, references added. A version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Supersymmetric Jarlskog Invariants: the Neutrino Sector

We generalize the notion of the Jarlskog invariant to supersymmetric models with right--handed neutrinos. This allows us to formulate basis--independent necessary and sufficient conditions for CP conservation in such models.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

QED corrections to isospin-related decay rates of charged and neutral B mesons

We estimate the isospin-violating QED radiative corrections to the charged-to-neutral ratios of the decay rates for B^+ and B^0 in non-leptonic B meson decays. In particular, these corrections are potentially important for precision measurement of the charged-to-neutral production ratio of B meson in e^+e^- annihilation. We calculate explicitly the QED corrections to the ratios of two different types of decay rates \Gamma(B^+ \to J/\psi K^+)/\Gamma(B^0 \to J/\psi K^0) and \Gamma(B^+ \to D^+_S \bar{D^0})/\Gamma(B^0 \to D^+_S D^-) taking into account the form factors of the mesons based on the vector meson dominance model, and compare them with the results obtained for the point-like mesons.Comment: 7 pages, 9 eps figure

Ferromagnetism in (In,Mn)As Diluted Magnetic Semiconductor Thin Films Grown by Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy

In1-xMnxAs diluted magnetic semiconductor (DMS) thin films have been grown using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Tricarbonyl(methylcyclopentadienyl)manganese was used as the Mn source. Nominally single-phase, epitaxial films were achieved with Mn content as high as x=0.14 using growth temperatures Tg>475 C. For lower growth temperatures and higher Mn concentrations, nanometer scale MnAs precipitates were detected within the In1-xMnxAs matrix. Magnetic properties of the films were investigated using a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. Room-temperature ferromagnetic order was observed in a sample with x=0.1. Magnetization measurements indicated a Curie temperature of 333 K and a room-temperature saturation magnetization of 49 emu/cm^3. The remnant magnetization and the coercive field were small, with values of 10 emu/cm^3 and 400 Oe, respectively. A mechanism for this high-temperature ferromagnetism is discussed in light of the recent theory based on the formation of small clusters of a few magnetic atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in JVST

Gender-based differences in letters of recommendation written for ophthalmology residency applicants.

BACKGROUND:To determine whether gender-based differences may be present in letters of recommendation written for ophthalmology residency applicants. METHODS:All applications submitted through SF Match to the UCLA Stein Eye Institute Residency Training Program from the 2017-2018 application cycle were analyzed using validated text analysis software (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Austin, TX)). The main outcome measures were differences in language use in letters of recommendation by gender of applicant. RESULTS:Of 440 applicants, 254 (58%) were male and 186 (42%) were female. The two gender groups had similar United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 scores, undergraduate grade point averages (uGPA's), proportions of underrepresented minority (URM) applicants and Gold Humanism Honor Society members, numbers of academic and service activities listed, and gender distributions of their letter writers (all P values > 0.05). However, letters written for male applicants were determined to use more "authentic" words than those written for female applicants (mean difference, 0.800; 95% CI, 0.001-1.590; P = 0.047). Letters written for male applicants also contained more "leisure" words (mean difference, 0.056; 95% CI, 0.008-0.104; P = 0.023) and fewer "feel" words (mean difference, 0.033; 95% CI, 0.001-0.065; P = 0.041) and "biological processes" words (mean difference, 0.157; 95% CI, 0.017-0.297; P = 0.028). CONCLUSIONS:There were gender differences detected in recommendation letters in ophthalmology consistent with prior studies from other fields. Awareness of these differences may improve residency selection processes

Critical currents for vortex defect motion in superconducting arrays

We study numerically the motion of vortices in two-dimensional arrays of resistively shunted Josephson junctions. An extra vortex is created in the ground states by introducing novel boundary conditions and made mobile by applying external currents. We then measure critical currents and the corresponding pinning energy barriers to vortex motion, which in the unfrustrated case agree well with previous theoretical and experimental findings. In the fully frustrated case our results also give good agreement with experimental ones, in sharp contrast with the existing theoretical prediction. A physical explanation is provided in relation with the vortex motion observed in simulations.Comment: To appear in Physical Review

Transcription activator like effector (TALE)-directed piggyBac transposition in human cells.

Insertional therapies have shown great potential for combating genetic disease and safer methods would undoubtedly broaden the variety of possible illness that can be treated. A major challenge that remains is reducing the risk of insertional mutagenesis due to random insertion by both viral and non-viral vectors. Targetable nucleases are capable of inducing double-stranded breaks to enhance homologous recombination for the introduction of transgenes at specific sequences. However, off-target DNA cleavages at unknown sites can lead to mutations that are difficult to detect. Alternatively, the piggyBac transposase is able perform all of the steps required for integration; therefore, cells confirmed to contain a single copy of a targeted transposon, for which its location is known, are likely to be devoid of aberrant genomic modifications. We aimed to retarget transposon insertions by comparing a series of novel hyperactive piggyBac constructs tethered to a custom transcription activator like effector DNA-binding domain designed to bind the first intron of the human CCR5 gene. Multiple targeting strategies were evaluated using combinations of both plasmid-DNA and transposase-protein relocalization to the target sequence. We demonstrated user-defined directed transposition to the CCR5 genomic safe harbor and isolated single-copy clones harboring targeted integrations