BACKGROUND A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) on patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) treated with peginterferon and ribavirin (pegIFN-α/RBV) identified a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on chromosome 19 (rs12979860) which was strongly associated with a sustained virological response (SVR). The aim of this study was twofold: to study the relationship between IL28B rs12979860 ...

Salmonella is, after Campylobacter, the most reported zoonotic pathogen in Europe. Pork meat is frequently incriminated in salmonellosis. However, asymptomatic carrying of Salmonella by pigs makes its detection difficult. Despite its tropical situation, pig industry of Reunion Island is also concerned by this public health burden. Our epidemiological study aims to identify the pathways of conta...

The properties of the NaxCoO2 class of materials are of interest from a number of viewpoints. These compounds are based on a triangular lattice of spin-1⁄2 ions—prototype RVB system— where a high thermoelectric-power Curie-Weiss metallic paramagnet is found for Na0.7CoO2, a charge ordered insulator at x=0.5, and a paramagnetic metal where superconductivity is induced in Na0.3CoO2 when it is int...

The *resonating valence bond. (RVB) state has been proposed as the basis for an explanation of high-temperature superconductivity. Recently, we have described the charge and spin excitations about this state, and have shown that they are solitons, precisely analogous to those found in polyacetylene. Since the charged solitons are + e bosons, it is natural to ask whether flux quantization will o...

In this paper we study in a large-S expansion effects of substituting spins by non-magnetic impurities in twoand threedimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnets in a weak magnetic field. In particular, we demonstrate a novel mechanism where magnetic moments are induced around non-magnetic impurities when magnetic field is present. As a result, Curie-type behaviour in magnetic susceptibility can be...

Three-dimensional magnetic ordering transitions are studied theoretically in strongly anisotropic quantum magnets. An external magnetic field can drive quasi-one-dimensional subsystems with a spin gap into a gapless regime, thus inducing long-range three-dimensional magnetic ordering due to weak residual magnetic coupling between the subsystems. Compounds with higher spin degrees of freedom, su...

High T, cuprates have a number of features that are anomalous from the point of view of the conventional theory of metals, i.e. the Fermi liquid theory. These include the high Tc itself, the linear resistivity in optimally doped cuprates, the "spin gap" phenomena, and antiferromagnetic fluctuations. Some of the basic features of the high T, phase diagram can be readily understood from slave bos...

PLASMA INDUCED DAMAGE TO Si AND SiGe DEVICES AND MATERIALS by Wei Zhong This thesis studied the plasma-induced damage to Si and strained Sii_„Ge,,, and the resulting change in device characteristics. The energetic particles (ions, electrons and photons) in plasma reactor present a potentially hostile environment for processing VLSI devices. An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) reactor was used t...

In the hole-doped, high-temperature superconducting cuprates, an intrinsic heterogeneity is found, from the early observations to recent data. Below optimum doping, the heterogeneity consists of dynamic metallic and, at low temperatures, superconducting regions in the form of clusters or stripes, which develop and decay as a function of time and location in the antiferromagnetic lattice. This b...

In this section we elaborate on various technical details of the pseudofermion functional renormalization group method, which we apply to map out the phase diagram of the KHM. As mentioned in the paper, we first express the spin operators in terms of pseudofermions, using the representation S = 1/2 ∑ αβ f † ασ μ αβfβ , (α, β =↑, ↓, μ = x, y, z) with fermionic operators f↑ and f↓ and Paulimatric...