Mach-Zehnder Interferometric device for spin filtering in a GaAs/AlGaAs electron gas

A spin filtering device using quantum spin interference is theoretically proposed in a GaAs/AlGaAs electron gas that has both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings. The device achieves polarized electron currents by separating spin up and spin down components without a magnetic field gradient. We find two broad spin filtering regimes, one where the interferometer has symmetrical arms, where a small magnetic flux is needed to achieve spin separation, and the other with asymmetric arms where the change in path length renders an extra phase emulating the effects of a magnetic field. We identify operating points for the device where optimal electron polarization is achieved within value ranges found in a 2D electron gas. Both device setups apply for arbitrary incoming electron polarization and operate at broad energy ranges within the incoming electron band

High-Risk Corneal Graft Rejection in the Setting of Previous Corneal Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)-1 Infection

Acknowledgments The authors thank M. Robertson and R. Fordyce for technical support during the duration of the study. The work performed in Aberdeen was supported by grant from Action Medical Research UK (SP4328; London, England, UK), NHS Grampian Endowment grant (12/49; Aberdeen, Scotland, UK), and Saving Sight in Grampian (Charity No.SC002938; Aberdeen, Scotland, UK). The work performed in Pittsburgh was supported by a Fight for Sight Post-Doctoral Award (JEK; New York, NY, USA); unrestricted grants from the Western Pennsylvania Medical Eye Bank Foundation (Pittsburgh, PA, USA), Research to Prevent Blindness (New York, NY, USA), and the Eye and Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh (RLH; Pittsburgh, PA, USA); and National Institutes of Health Grants P30EY08098 (RLH; Bethesda, MD, USA) and EY10359 (RLH).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stereoselective synthesis of glycosides using (salen)Co catalysts as promoters

The use of (salen)Co catalysts as a new class of bench-stable stereoselective glycosylation promoters of trichloroacetimidate glycosyl donors at room temperature is described.</p

Two electron entanglement enhancement by an inelastic scattering process

In order to assess inelastic effects on two fermion entanglement production, we address an exactly solvable two-particle scattering problem where the target is an excitable scatterer. Useful entanglement, as measured by the two particle concurrence, is obtained from post-selection of oppositely scattered particle states. The $S$ matrix formalism is generalized in order to address non-unitary evolution in the propagating channels. We find the striking result that inelasticity can actually increase concurrence as compared to the elastic case by increasing the uncertainty of the single particle subspace. Concurrence zeros are controlled by either single particle resonance energies or total reflection conditions that ascertain precisely one of the electron states. Concurrence minima also occur and are controlled by entangled resonance situations were the electron becomes entangled with the scatterer, and thus does not give up full information of its state. In this model, exciting the scatterer can never fully destroy phase coherence due to an intrinsic limit to the probability of inelastic events.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev

Protein Activity of the Fusarium fujikuroi Rhodopsins CarO and OpsA and Their Relation to Fungus–Plant Interaction

Fungi possess diverse photosensory proteins that allow them to perceive different light wavelengths and to adapt to changing light conditions in their environment. The biological and physiological roles of the green light-sensing rhodopsins in fungi are not yet resolved. The rice plant pathogen Fusarium fujikuroi exhibits two different rhodopsins, CarO and OpsA. CarO was previously characterized as a light-driven proton pump. We further analyzed the pumping behavior of CarO by patch-clamp experiments. Our data show that CarO pumping activity is strongly augmented in the presence of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid and in sodium acetate, in a dose-dependent manner under slightly acidic conditions. By contrast, under these and other tested conditions, the Neurospora rhodopsin (NR)-like rhodopsin OpsA did not exhibit any pump activity. Basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) searches in the genomes of ascomycetes revealed the occurrence of rhodopsin-encoding genes mainly in phyto-associated or phytopathogenic fungi, suggesting a possible correlation of the presence of rhodopsins with fungal ecology. In accordance, rice plants infected with a CarO-deficient F. fujikuroi strain showed more severe bakanae symptoms than the reference strain, indicating a potential role of the CarO rhodopsin in the regulation of plant infection by this fungus.España Ministerio de Ciencia y tecnología BIO20010-15430Junta de Andalucía CTS-663

Derivative corrections to the Born-Infeld action through beta-function calculations in N=2 boundary superspace

We calculate the beta-functions for an open string sigma-model in the presence of a U(1) background. Passing to N=2 boundary superspace, in which the background is fully characterized by a scalar potential, significantly facilitates the calculation. Performing the calculation through three loops yields the equations of motion up to five derivatives on the fieldstrengths, which upon integration gives the bosonic sector of the effective action for a single D-brane in trivial bulk background fields through four derivatives and to all orders in alpha'. Finally, the present calculation shows that demanding ultra-violet finiteness of the non-linear sigma-model can be reformulated as the requirement that the background is a deformed stable holomorphic U(1) bundle.Comment: 25 pages, numerous figure

Cisplatin resistant spheroids model clinically relevant survival mechanisms in ovarian tumors

© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS 11 (2016): e0151089, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151089 .The majority of ovarian tumors eventually recur in a drug resistant form. Using cisplatin sensitive and resistant cell lines assembled into 3D spheroids we profiled gene expression and identified candidate mechanisms and biological pathways associated with cisplatin resistance. OVCAR-8 human ovarian carcinoma cells were exposed to sub-lethal concentrations of cisplatin to create a matched cisplatin-resistant cell line, OVCAR-8R. Genome-wide gene expression profiling of sensitive and resistant ovarian cancer spheroids identified 3,331 significantly differentially expressed probesets coding for 3,139 distinct protein-coding genes (Fc >2, FDR < 0.05) (S2 Table). Despite significant expression changes in some transporters including MDR1, cisplatin resistance was not associated with differences in intracellular cisplatin concentration. Cisplatin resistant cells were significantly enriched for a mesenchymal gene expression signature. OVCAR-8R resistance derived gene sets were significantly more biased to patients with shorter survival. From the most differentially expressed genes, we derived a 17-gene expression signature that identifies ovarian cancer patients with shorter overall survival in three independent datasets. We propose that the use of cisplatin resistant cell lines in 3D spheroid models is a viable approach to gain insight into resistance mechanisms relevant to ovarian tumors in patients. Our data support the emerging concept that ovarian cancers can acquire drug resistance through an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition.This work was funded by the NIH NCRR supplement grant P41 RR001395-27S1 (J.W.H.), NSF DBI-1005378 “REU Site: Biological Discovery in Woods Hole”, faculty startup funds from the Office of Research at Oklahoma State University (W.C.), and the Mary Kay Foundation (A.S.B.)

Circuit modeling of the transmissivity of stacked two-dimensional metallic meshes

This paper presents a simple analytical circuit-like model to study the transmission of electromagnetic waves through stacked twodimensional (2-D) conducting meshes. When possible the application of this methodology is very convenient since it provides a straightforward rationale to understand the physical mechanisms behind measured and computed transmission spectra of complex geometries. Also, the disposal of closed-form expressions for the circuit parameters makes the computation effort required by this approach almost negligible. The model is tested by proper comparison with previously obtained numerical and experimental results. The experimental results are explained in terms of the behavior of a finite number of strongly coupled Fabry-Pérot resonators. The number of transmission peaks within a transmission band is equal to the number of resonators. The approximate resonance frequencies of the first and last transmission peaks are obtained from the analysis of an infinite structure of periodically stacked resonators, along with the analytical expressions for the lower and upper limits of the pass-band based on the circuit model.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2007-65376, CSD2008- 00066Junta de Andalucía TIC-459

Perfect spin filtering device through a Mach Zehnder interferometer in GaAs/AlGaAs electron gas

Spin filtering through quantum spin interference is addressed exactly, in two dimensions, in a medium that has both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit couplings and an applied external magnetic field. The problem is addressed from the fully non-Abelian Gauge formulation. We propose an experimentally feasible electronic Mach Zehnder Interferometer and solve for the perfect spin filtering conditions. We find two broad solutions, one where filtering is achieved in the original incoming basis, that is purely a non-Abelian solution, and the other where one needs a tilted axis to observe the polarized output spinor. The latter solution is well approximated by an Abelianized approximation. Both solutions apply for arbitrary incoming polarization, and are only limited by the randomness of the incoming spinor state.Comment: published version, one figure adde