Self-testing of a single quantum system from theory to experiment

Self-testing allows one to characterise quantum systems under minimal assumptions. However, existing schemes rely on quantum nonlocality and cannot be applied to systems that are not entangled. Here, we introduce a robust method that achieves self-testing of individual systems by taking advantage of contextuality. The scheme is based on the simplest contextuality witness for the simplest contextual quantum system—the Klyachko-Can-Binicioğlu-Shumovsky inequality for the qutrit. We establish a lower bound on the fidelity of the state and the measurements as a function of the value of the witness under a pragmatic assumption on the measurements. We apply the method in an experiment on a single trapped 40Ca+ using randomly chosen measurements and perfect detection efficiency. Using the observed statistics, we obtain an experimental demonstration of self-testing of a single quantum system

Late pulmonary metastases of renal cell carcinoma immediately after post-transplantation immunosuppressive treatment: a case report

Introduction We report a case of pulmonary metastatic recurrence of renal adenocarcinoma soon after radical nephrectomy that was followed by renal transplant and immunosuppressive medication. Increased risk of metastatic recurrence of renal cell carcinoma should be considered in the immediate post-transplant period when immunosuppressive medication is administered, even if nephrectomy had been performed many years earlier.Case presentation In 1986 the patient demonstrated renal insufficiency secondary to mesangial glomerulonephritis. In 1992 he underwent left side radical nephrectomy with histopathological diagnosis of clear cell adenocarcinoma. Mesangial glomerulonephritis in the remaining right kidney progressed to end-stage renal failure. In October 2000 he received a kidney transplant from a cadaver and commenced immunosuppressive medication. Two months later, several nodules were found in his lungs, which were identified as metastases from the primary renal tumor that had been removed with the diseased kidney 8 years earlier.Conclusion Recurrence of renal cell carcinoma metastases points to tumor dormancy and reflects a misbalance between effective tumor immune surveillance and immune escape. This case demonstrates that a state of tumor dormancy can be interrupted soon after administration of immunosuppressant medication.This work was partially supported by the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI 02/0175), the plan Andaluz de Investigacion, and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Red de centros de Cancer, Spain

SNP Array Karyotyping Allows for the Detection of Uniparental Disomy and Cryptic Chromosomal Abnormalities in MDS/MPD-U and MPD

We applied single nucleotide polymorphism arrays (SNP-A) to study karyotypic abnormalities in patients with atypical myeloproliferative syndromes (MPD), including myeloproliferative/myelodysplastic syndrome overlap both positive and negative for the JAK2 V617F mutation and secondary acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In typical MPD cases (N = 8), which served as a control group, those with a homozygous V617F mutation showed clear uniparental disomy (UPD) of 9p using SNP-A. Consistent with possible genomic instability, in 19/30 MDS/MPD-U patients, we found additional lesions not identified by metaphase cytogenetics. In addition to UPD9p, we also have detected UPD affecting other chromosomes, including 1 (2/30), 11 (4/30), 12 (1/30) and 22 (1/30). Transformation to AML was observed in 8/30 patients. In 5 V617F+ patients who progressed to AML, we show that SNP-A can allow for the detection of two modes of transformation: leukemic blasts evolving from either a wild-type jak2 precursor carrying other acquired chromosomal defects, or from a V617F+ mutant progenitor characterized by UPD9p. SNP-A-based detection of cryptic lesions in MDS/MPD-U may help explain the clinical heterogeneity of this disorder

Comparative transcriptome analyses indicate molecular homology of zebrafish swimbladder and mammalian lung

10.1371/journal.pone.0024019PLoS ONE68

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

Functional imaging using fluorine ((19)F) MR methods: basic concepts

Kidney-associated pathologies would greatly benefit from noninvasive and robust methods that can objectively quantify changes in renal function. In the past years there has been a growing incentive to develop new applications for fluorine ((19)F) MRI in biomedical research to study functional changes during disease states. (19)F MRI represents an instrumental tool for the quantification of exogenous (19)F substances in vivo. One of the major benefits of (19)F MRI is that fluorine in its organic form is absent in eukaryotic cells. Therefore, the introduction of exogenous (19)F signals in vivo will yield background-free images, thus providing highly selective detection with absolute specificity in vivo. Here we introduce the concept of (19)F MRI, describe existing challenges, especially those pertaining to signal sensitivity, and give an overview of preclinical applications to illustrate the utility and applicability of this technique for measuring renal function in animal models. This chapter is based upon work from the COST Action PARENCHIMA, a community-driven network funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) program of the European Union, which aims to improve the reproducibility and standardization of renal MRI biomarkers. This introduction chapter is complemented by two separate chapters describing the experimental procedure and data analysis

The gut microbiota of marine fish

The body of work relating to the gut microbiota of fish is dwarfed by that on humans and mammals. However, it is a field that has had historical interest and has grown significantly along with the expansion of the aquaculture industry and developments in microbiome research. Research is now moving quickly in this field. Much recent focus has been on nutritional manipulation and modification of the gut microbiota to meet the needs of fish farming, while trying to maintain host health and welfare. However, the diversity amongst fish means that baseline data from wild fish and a clear understanding of the role that specific gut microbiota play is still lacking. We review here the factors shaping marine fish gut microbiota and highlight gaps in the research

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics' resources: focus on curated databases

The SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (www.isb-sib.ch) provides world-class bioinformatics databases, software tools, services and training to the international life science community in academia and industry. These solutions allow life scientists to turn the exponentially growing amount of data into knowledge. Here, we provide an overview of SIB's resources and competence areas, with a strong focus on curated databases and SIB's most popular and widely used resources. In particular, SIB's Bioinformatics resource portal ExPASy features over 150 resources, including UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot, ENZYME, PROSITE, neXtProt, STRING, UniCarbKB, SugarBindDB, SwissRegulon, EPD, arrayMap, Bgee, SWISS-MODEL Repository, OMA, OrthoDB and other databases, which are briefly described in this article