ObjectivePatients with renal failure suffer from symptoms caused by uraemic toxins, possibly of gut microbial origin, as deduced from studies in animals. The aim of the study is to characterise relationships between the intestinal microbiome composition, uraemic toxins and renal failure symptoms in human end-stage renal disease (ESRD).DesignCharacterisation of gut microbiome, serum and faecal metabolome and human phenotypes in a cohort of 223 patients with ESRD and 69 healthy controls. Multidimensional data integration to reveal links between these datasets and the use of chronic kidney disease (CKD) rodent models to test the effects of intestinal microbiome on toxin accumulation and disease severity.ResultsA group of microbial species enriched in ESRD correlates tightly to patient clinical variables and encode functions involved in toxin and secondary bile acids synthesis; the relative abundance of the microbial functions correlates with the serum or faecal concentrations of these metabolites. Microbiota from patients transplanted to renal injured germ-free mice or antibiotic-treated rats induce higher production of serum uraemic toxins and aggravated renal fibrosis and oxidative stress more than microbiota from controls. Two of the species, Eggerthella lenta and Fusobacterium nucleatum, increase uraemic toxins production and promote renal disease development in a CKD rat model. A probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis decreases abundance of these species, reduces levels of toxins and the severity of the disease in rats.ConclusionAberrant gut microbiota in patients with ESRD sculpts a detrimental metabolome aggravating clinical outcomes, suggesting that the gut microbiota will be a promising target for diminishing uraemic toxicity in those patients.Trial registration numberThis study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03010696).

We report on the observation of a helical Luttinger liquid in the edge of an InAs=GaSb quantum spin Hall insulator, which shows characteristic suppression of conductance at low temperature and low bias voltage. Moreover, the conductance shows power-law behavior as a function of temperature and bias voltage. The results underscore the strong electron-electron interaction effect in transport of InAs=GaSb edge states. Because of the fact that the Fermi velocity of the edge modes is controlled by gates, the Luttinger parameter can be fine tuned. Realization of a tunable Luttinger liquid offers a one-dimensional model system for future studies of predicted correlation effects. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.136804 PACS numbers: 71.10.Pm, 73.23.-b, 73.63.-b It is well known that electron-electron interactions play a more important role in one-dimensional (1D) electronic systems than in higher dimensional systems. In a 1D system, interactions cause electrons to behave in a strongly correlated way; so, under very general circumstances, 1D electron systems can be described by the TomonagaLuttinger liquid (LL) theory [1,2] instead of the meanfield Fermi liquid theory. A Luttinger parameter K characterizes the sign and the strength of the interactions: K < 1 for repulsion, K > 1 for attraction, and K ¼ 1 for the noninteracting case. Confirmations of LL have been examined in various materials, such as carbon nanotubes [3][4][5], semiconductor nanowires [6], and cleaved-edgeovergrowth 1D channels [7], as well as fractional quantum Hall edge states [8], respectively, for spinful or chiral Luttinger liquids. The experimental hallmarks of LL are a strongly suppressed tunneling conductance and a powerlaw dependence of the tunneling conductance on temperature and bias voltage [3][4][5]8]. In a weakly disordered spinful LL, transport experiments showed that the conductance reduces from the quantized value as the temperature is being decreased [6,7].The quantum spin Hall insulator (QSHI), also known as a two-dimensional (2D) topological insulator, is a topological state of matter supporting the helical edge states, which are counterpropagating, spin-momentum locked 1D modes protected by time reversal symmetry. It has recently attracted a lot of interest due to the peculiar helical edge properties and potential applications for quantum computation [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Experimentally, QSHI has been realized in HgTe quantum wells (QWs) [14] and in InAs=GaSb QWs [16][17][18]. In both cases, quantized conductance plateaus have been observed in devices with an edge length of several micrometers [14,18], implying ballistic transport in the edges. On the other hand, devices with longer edges have lower values of conductance [14,17,18], indicating certain backscattering processes occurred inside helical edges. In principle, single-particle elastic backscattering is forbidden in helical edges due to the protection of time reversal symmetry. Therefore, inelastic and/or multiparticle scattering should be the dominating sc...

Rechargeable lithium batteries have attracted great attention as next generation power systems for electric vehicles (EVs). Lithium ion batteries, lithium–sulfur batteries, and lithium–oxygen batteries are all suitable to be the power systems for next generation EVs, but their power densities and cycling performance still need to be improved to match the requirements of practical EVs. Thus, rational design and controllable synthesis of electrode materials with unique microstructure and outstanding electrochemical performance are crucially desired. Porous carbon‐based composites have many advantages for energy storage and conversion owing to their unique properties, including high electronic conductivity, high structural stability, high specific surface area, large pore volume for efficient electrolyte flux, and high reactive electrode materials with controllable size confined by porous carbon frameworks. Therefore, porous carbon composites exhibit excellent performance as electrode materials for lithium ion batteries, lithium–sulfur batteries, and lithium–oxygen batteries. In this review, we summarize research progress on porous carbon composites with enhanced performance for rechargeable lithium batteries. We present the detailed synthesis, physical and chemical properties, and the innovation and significance of porous carbon composites for lithium ion batteries, lithium–sulfur batteries, and lithium–oxygen batteries. Finally, we conclude the perspectives and critical challenges that need to be addressed for the commercialization of rechargeable lithium batteries.

Controlling the strength of interactions is essential for studying quantum phenomena emerging in systems of correlated fermions. We introduce a device geometry whereby magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene is placed in close proximity to a Bernal bilayer graphene, separated by a 3-nanometer-thick barrier. By using charge screening from the Bernal bilayer, the strength of electron-electron Coulomb interaction within the twisted bilayer can be continuously tuned. Transport measurements show that tuning Coulomb screening has opposite effects on the insulating and superconducting states: As Coulomb interaction is weakened by screening, the insulating states become less robust, whereas the stability of superconductivity at the optimal doping is enhanced. The results provide important constraints on theoretical models for understanding the mechanism of superconductivity in magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene.

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In this 12-year study, we documented a high burden of health conditions associated with WTC-exposure among FDNY EMS workers. These findings underscore the importance of continued monitoring and treatment of this workforce.

Smart meters are inherent components in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in the smart power grid. They are serving as the crucial interfaces through which the cyber, physical, and social domains of the smart grid can interact with each other. Due to the complicated interactions, smart meters may face a large variety of threats. In this paper, we exploit the colored Petri net to describe the information flows among units in a smart meter. Then, we propose a threat model for smart meters. Considering the constrained computation and storage resources of a smart meter, we present a collaborative intrusion detection mechanism against false data injection attack. The proposed scheme can work regardless of changes in a smart meter's software. Numerical results demonstrate the low cost and effectiveness of our proposed intrusion detection mechanism.Index Terms-Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), collaborative intrusion detection, colored Petri net, smart grid, smart meters, spying domain, threat model.

We report on a class of quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHIs) in strained-layer InAs/GaInSb quantum wells, in which the bulk gaps are enhanced up to fivefold as compared to the binary InAs/GaSb QSHI. Remarkably, with consequently increasing edge velocity, the edge conductance at zero and applied magnetic fields manifests time reversal symmetry-protected properties consistent with the Z_{2} topological insulator. The InAs/GaInSb bilayers offer a much sought-after platform for future studies and applications of the QSHI.