210 research outputs found
Experimental and analytical tools for evaluation of Stirling engine rod seal behavior
The first year of a two year experimental and analytical program is reported. The program is directed at the elastohydrodynamic behavior of sliding elastomeric rod seals for the Stirling engine. During the year, experimental and analytical tools were developed for evaluating seal leakage, seal friction, and the fluid film thickness at the seal/cylinder interface
Measurement of rod seal lubrication for Stirling engine
The elastohydrodynamic behavior of sliding elastomeric seals for the Stirling engine, was analyzed using an experimental apparatus to determine the instantaneous oil film thickness throughout the cyclic reciprocating motion. Tests were conducted on two commercial elastomeric seals: a "T" seal (76 mm O.D. and 3.8 mm between backing rings) and an "O" ring (76 mm O.D. and 5.3 mm diameter). Testing conditions included seal durometers of 70 and 90, sliding velocities of 0.8, 2.0, and 3.6 m/s, and no pressure gradient across the seal. Both acrylic and aluminum cylinders were used. Measured oil film thickness profiles were compared to results of the elastohydrodynamic analysis. The comparison shows an overall qualitative agreement. Friction and oil leakage measurements were also made at these sliding speeds. The fluid used was a typical synthetic base automotive lubricant. It is concluded that this first time experimental analytical comparison for oil film thickness indicates the need for some improvements in the analytical model and in the experimental technique
Simulating open quantum systems: from many-body interactions to stabilizer pumping
In a recent experiment, Barreiro et al. demonstrated the fundamental building
blocks of an open-system quantum simulator with trapped ions [Nature 470, 486
(2011)]. Using up to five ions, single- and multi-qubit entangling gate
operations were combined with optical pumping in stroboscopic sequences. This
enabled the implementation of both coherent many-body dynamics as well as
dissipative processes by controlling the coupling of the system to an
artificial, suitably tailored environment. This engineering was illustrated by
the dissipative preparation of entangled two- and four-qubit states, the
simulation of coherent four-body spin interactions and the quantum
non-demolition measurement of a multi-qubit stabilizer operator. In the present
paper, we present the theoretical framework of this gate-based ("digital")
simulation approach for open-system dynamics with trapped ions. In addition, we
discuss how within this simulation approach minimal instances of spin models of
interest in the context of topological quantum computing and condensed matter
physics can be realized in state-of-the-art linear ion-trap quantum computing
architectures. We outline concrete simulation schemes for Kitaev's toric code
Hamiltonian and a recently suggested color code model. The presented simulation
protocols can be adapted to scalable and two-dimensional ion-trap
architectures, which are currently under development.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, submitted to NJP Focus on Topological Quantum
Computatio
Generating coherence and entanglement with a finite-size atomic ensemble in a ring cavity
We propose a model to study the coherence and entanglement resulting from the
interaction of a finite-size atomic ensemble with degenerate
counter-propagating field modes of a high-Q ring cavity. Our approach applies
to an arbitrary number of atoms N and includes the spatial variation of the
field throughout the ensemble. We report several new interesting aspects of
coherence and entangled behavior that emerge when the size of the atomic
ensemble is not taken to the thermodynamic limit of N>>1. Under such
conditions, it is found that the counter-propagating cavity modes, although in
the thermodynamic limit are mutually incoherent and exhibit no one-photon
interference, the modes can, however, be made mutually coherent and exhibit
interference after interacting with a finite-size atomic ensemble. It is also
found that the spatial redistribution of the atoms over a finite size results
in nonorthogonality of the collective bosonic modes. This nonorthogonality
leads to the super-bunching effect that the correlations of photons of the
individual cavity modes and of different modes are stronger than those of a
thermal field. However, we find that the correlations are not strong enough to
violate the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and to produce squeezing and entanglement
between the modes. Therefore, we investigate the spectral distributions of the
logarithmic negativity and the variances of the output fields. These functions
determine squeezing and entanglement properties of the output cavity fields and
can be measured by a homodyne technique. We find that the entanglement is
redistributed over several components of the spectrum and the finite-size
effect is to concentrate the entanglement at the zero-frequency component of
the spectrum.Comment: Published versio
Association studies of up to 1.2 million individuals yield new insights into the genetic etiology of tobacco and alcohol use.
Tobacco and alcohol use are leading causes of mortality that influence risk for many complex diseases and disorders1. They are heritable2,3 and etiologically related4,5 behaviors that have been resistant to gene discovery efforts6-11. In sample sizes up to 1.2 million individuals, we discovered 566 genetic variants in 406 loci associated with multiple stages of tobacco use (initiation, cessation, and heaviness) as well as alcohol use, with 150 loci evidencing pleiotropic association. Smoking phenotypes were positively genetically correlated with many health conditions, whereas alcohol use was negatively correlated with these conditions, such that increased genetic risk for alcohol use is associated with lower disease risk. We report evidence for the involvement of many systems in tobacco and alcohol use, including genes involved in nicotinic, dopaminergic, and glutamatergic neurotransmission. The results provide a solid starting point to evaluate the effects of these loci in model organisms and more precise substance use measures
Genome-wide association study of lifetime cannabis use based on a large meta-analytic sample of 32330 subjects from the International Cannabis Consortium
Cannabis is the most widely produced and consumed illicit psychoactive substance worldwide. Occasional cannabis use can progress to frequent use, abuse and dependence with all known adverse physical, psychological and social consequences. Individual differences in cannabis initiation are heritable (40-48%). The International Cannabis Consortium was established with the aim to identify genetic risk variants of cannabis use. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data of 13 cohorts (N=32 330) and four replication samples (N=5627). In addition, we performed a gene-based test of association, estimated single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability and explored the genetic correlation between lifetime cannabis use and cigarette use using LD score regression. No individual SNPs reached genome-wide significance. Nonetheless, gene-based tests identified four genes significantly associated with lifetime cannabis use: NCAM1, CADM2, SCOC and KCNT2. Previous studies reported associations of NCAM1 with cigarette smoking and other substance use, and those of CADM2 with body mass index, processing speed and autism disorders, which are phenotypes previously reported to be associated with cannabis use. Furthermore, we showed that, combined across the genome, all common SNPs explained 13-20% (P<0.001) of the liability of lifetime cannabis use. Finally, there was a strong genetic correlation (rg=0.83; P=1.85 × 10(-8)) between lifetime cannabis use and lifetime cigarette smoking implying that the SNP effect sizes of the two traits are highly correlated. This is the largest meta-analysis of cannabis GWA studies to date, revealing important new insights into the genetic pathways of lifetime cannabis use. Future functional studies should explore the impact of the identified genes on the biological mechanisms of cannabis use.</p
HLA-Identical Sibling Allogeneic Transplants versus Chemotherapy in Acute Myelogenous Leukemia with t(8;21) in First Complete Remission: Collaborative Study between the German AML Intergroup and CIBMTR
AbstractWe studied the role of HLA-matched sibling hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) in treating t(8;21) acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in first remission. Outcomes of 118 patients receiving HCT and reported to the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research were compared with 132 similar patients receiving chemotherapy selected from 8 German AML Intergroup multicenter trials. Characteristics of the cohorts were similar except that chemotherapy recipients were significantly older. To adjust for time to treatment bias, outcomes were compared using left-truncated Cox regression models. Transplants were associated with higher treatment-related mortality (TRM; relative risk [RR] 6.76, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.95-15.45, P < .001), lower relapse (RR 0.47, 95% CI 0.25-0.85, P = .01), and similar relapse-free survival (P = .2). Loss of sex chromosomes (LOS) in addition to t(8;21) had a negative impact on overall survival (OS) in patients receiving chemotherapy. Patients without LOS experienced shorter survival after HCT comparing to chemotherapy (RR 3.05, P = .02), whereas patients with LOS had similar survival regardless of postremission therapy. In both cohorts, white blood cell count (WBC) at diagnosis >25 × 109/L was associated with a higher relapse risk (RR = 2.09, P = .03), lower relapse-free (RR = 1.9, P = .008), and OS (RR = 1.91, P = .01). In this cohort of patients with t(8;21) AML, HCT did not improve OS, because reduction of relapse was offset by high TRM. In the group without LOS, survival after chemotherapy was far superior to HCT. These results suggest that patients with t(8;21) AML without poor prognostic factors have higher rates of survival after chemotherapy as a post remission therapy compared to HCT
Genome-wide association study of lifetime cannabis use based on a large meta-analytic sample of 32330 subjects from the International Cannabis Consortium
Cannabis is the most widely produced and consumed illicit psychoactive substance worldwide. Occasional cannabis use can progress to frequent use, abuse and dependence with all known adverse physical, psychological and social consequences. Individual differences in cannabis initiation are heritable (40-48%). The International Cannabis Consortium was established with the aim to identify genetic risk variants of cannabis use. We conducted a meta-analysis of genome-wide association data of 13 cohorts (N=32 330) and four replication samples (N=5627). In addition, we performed a gene-based test of association, estimated single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability and explored the genetic correlation between lifetime cannabis use and cigarette use using LD score regression. No individual SNPs reached genome-wide significance. Nonetheless, gene-based tests identified four genes significantly associated with lifetime cannabis use: NCAM1, CADM2, SCOC and KCNT2. Previous studies reported associations of NCAM1 with cigarette smoking and other substance use, and those of CADM2 with body mass index, processing speed and autism disorders, which are phenotypes previously reported to be associated with cannabis use. Furthermore, we showed that, combined across the genome, all common SNPs explained 13-20% (P<0.001) of the liability of lifetime cannabis use. Finally, there was a strong genetic correlation (rg=0.83; P=1.85 × 10(-8)) between lifetime cannabis use and lifetime cigarette smoking implying that the SNP effect sizes of the two traits are highly correlated. This is the largest meta-analysis of cannabis GWA studies to date, revealing important new insights into the genetic pathways of lifetime cannabis use. Future functional studies should explore the impact of the identified genes on the biological mechanisms of cannabis use
Dissipative and Non-dissipative Single-Qubit Channels: Dynamics and Geometry
Single-qubit channels are studied under two broad classes: amplitude damping
channels and generalized depolarizing channels. A canonical derivation of the
Kraus representation of the former, via the Choi isomorphism is presented for
the general case of a system's interaction with a squeezed thermal bath. This
isomorphism is also used to characterize the difference in the geometry and
rank of these channel classes. Under the isomorphism, the degree of decoherence
is quantified according to the mixedness or separability of the Choi matrix.
Whereas the latter channels form a 3-simplex, the former channels do not form a
convex set as seen from an ab initio perspective. Further, where the rank of
generalized depolarizing channels can be any positive integer upto 4, that of
amplitude damping ones is either 2 or 4. Various channel performance parameters
are used to bring out the different influences of temperature and squeezing in
dissipative channels. In particular, a noise range is identified where the
distinguishability of states improves inspite of increasing decoherence due to
environmental squeezing.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
[3H]Adenine is a suitable radioligand for the labeling of G protein-coupled adenine receptors but shows high affinity to bacterial contaminations in buffer solutions
[3H]Adenine has previously been used to label the newly discovered G protein-coupled murine adenine receptors. Recent reports have questioned the suitability of [3H]adenine for adenine receptor binding studies because of curious results, e.g. high specific binding even in the absence of mammalian protein. In this study, we showed that specific [3H]adenine binding to various mammalian membrane preparations increased linearly with protein concentration. Furthermore, we found that Tris-buffer solutions typically used for radioligand binding studies (50 mM, pH 7.4) that have not been freshly prepared but stored at 4°C for some time may contain bacterial contaminations that exhibit high affinity binding for [3H]adenine. Specific binding is abolished by heating the contaminated buffer or filtering it through 0.2-μm filters. Three different, aerobic, gram-negative bacteria were isolated from a contaminated buffer solution and identified as Achromobacter xylosoxidans, A. denitrificans, and Acinetobacter lwoffii. A. xylosoxidans, a common bacterium that can cause nosocomial infections, showed a particularly high affinity for [3H]adenine in the low nanomolar range. Structure–activity relationships revealed that hypoxanthine also bound with high affinity to A. xylosoxidans, whereas other nucleobases (uracil, xanthine) and nucleosides (adenosine, uridine) did not. The nature of the labeled site in bacteria is not known, but preliminary results indicate that it may be a high-affinity purine transporter. We conclude that [3H]adenine is a well-suitable radioligand for adenine receptor binding studies but that bacterial contamination of the employed buffer solutions must be avoided
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