Entangled two atoms through different couplings and the thermal noise

The entanglement of two atoms is studied when the two atoms are coupled to a single-mode thermal field with different couplings. The different couplings of two atoms are in favor of entanglement preparation: it not only makes the case of absence entanglement with same coupling appear entanglement, but also enhances the entanglement with the increasing of the relative difference of two couplings. We also show that the diversity of coupling can improved the critical temperature. If the optical cavity is leaky during the time evolution, the dissipative thermal environment is benefit to produce the entanglement.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Capturing, sharing and analysing biophysical data from protein engineering and protein characterization studies

Large amounts of data are being generated annually on the connection between the sequence, structure and function of proteins using site-directed mutagenesis, protein design and directed evolution techniques. These data provide the fundamental building blocks for our understanding of protein function, molecular biology and living organisms in general. However, much experimental data are never deposited in databases and is thus ‘lost’ in journal publications or in PhD theses. At the same time theoretical scientists are in need of large amounts of experimental data for benchmarking and calibrating novel predictive algorithms, and theoretical progress is therefore often hampered by the lack of suitable data to validate or disprove a theoretical assumption. We present PEAT (Protein Engineering Analysis Tool), an application that integrates data deposition, storage and analysis for researchers carrying out protein engineering projects or biophysical characterization of proteins. PEAT contains modules for DNA sequence manipulation, primer design, fitting of biophysical characterization data (enzyme kinetics, circular dichroism spectroscopy, NMR titration data, etc.), and facilitates sharing of experimental data and analyses for a typical university-based research group. PEAT is freely available to academic researchers at http://enzyme.ucd.ie/PEAT

Paradigms in multiple sclerosis: time for a change, time for a unifying concept

It has recently been suggested that, rather than being an autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis (MS) is an example of a neurocristopathy, a pathological process resulting from a faulty development of the neural crest. Whilst several characteristics of the disease suggest a neurocristopathy, other aetiological factors require consideration, including hygiene-related factors that alter the immune responses to common pathogens resulting in an eclipse of immune reactivity that could protect against MS, the possible role of human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) in pathogenesis and autoimmune phenomena, HLA polymorphism, vitamin D levels before and after birth and immune repair mechanisms. A postulated aetiological factor in MS, associated with altered vitamin D metabolism and abnormal HERV expression, is a long-lasting disturbed redox regulation in the biosynthesis of a melanoma-like melanin pigment. Although intensive further studies on melanin pigments in nerve tissue in MS are required, the known properties of a pathological form of such pigments in melanoma could explain a number of observations in MS, including the impact of light, UV-light, and vitamin D, and could explain the clinical manifestations of MS on the basis of an oscillating process of oxidative charge and discharge of the pigments and a threshold phenomenon with a change of the quasi-catalytic function of the pigment from destroying reactive oxygen radicals or species to transforming them to more harmful long-persisting highly reactive species. Taken together with the consequences of an adaptive process in partly demyelinated neurons, resulting in an increase in number of mitochondria, and the impact of stressful life events, these conditions are necessary and sufficient to explain the disease process of MS with its spatial (plaques) and temporal (attacks and remissions) characteristics. This suggested unifying concept of the pathogenesis of MS may open perspectives for prevention, diagnosis and therapy. In particular, prevention may be achieved by vaccinating against Epstein-Barr virus in early childhood

Review of risk factors for human echinococcosis prevalence on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China: a prospective for control options

Objective: Echinococcosis is a major parasitic zoonosis of public health importance in western China. In 2004, the Chinese Ministry of Health estimated that 380,000 people had the disease in the region. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is highly co-endemic with both alveolar echinococcosis (AE) and cystic echinococcosis (CE). In the past years, the Chinese government has been increasing the financial support to control the diseases in this region. Therefore, it is very important to identify the significant risk factors of the diseases by reviewing studies done in the region in the past decade to help policymakers design appropriate control strategies. Review: Selection criteria for which literature to review were firstly defined. Medline, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), and Google Scholar were systematically searched for literature published between January 2000 and July 2011. Significant risk factors found by single factor and/or multiple factors analysis were listed, counted, and summarized. Literature was examined to check the comparability of the data; age and sex specific prevalence with same data structures were merged and used for further analysis. A variety of assumed social, economical, behavioral, and ecological risk factors were studied on the Plateau. Those most at risk were Tibetan herdsmen, the old and female in particular. By analyzing merged comparable data, it was found that females had a significant higher prevalence, and a positive linearity relationship existed between echinococcosis prevalence and increasing age. In terms of behavioral risk factors, playing with dogs was mostly correlated with CE and/or AE prevalence. In terms of hygiene, employing ground water as the drinking water source was significantly correlated with CE and AE prevalence. For definitive hosts, dog related factors were most frequently identified with prevalence of CE or/and AE; fox was a potential risk factor for AE prevalence only. Overgrazing and deforestation were significant for AE prevalence only. Conclusion: Tibetan herdsmen communities were at the highest risk of echinococcosis prevalence and should be the focus of echinococcosis control. Deworming both owned and stray dogs should be a major measure for controlling echinococcosis; treatment of wild definitive hosts should also be considered for AE endemic areas. Health education activities should be in concert with the local people's education backgrounds and languages in order to be able to improve behaviors. Further researches are needed to clarify the importance of wild hosts for AE/CE prevalence, the extent and range of the impacts of ecologic changes (overgrazing and deforestation) on the AE prevalence, and risk factors in Tibet

LabKey Server: An open source platform for scientific data integration, analysis and collaboration

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Broad-based collaborations are becoming increasingly common among disease researchers. For example, the Global HIV Enterprise has united cross-disciplinary consortia to speed progress towards HIV vaccines through coordinated research across the boundaries of institutions, continents and specialties. New, end-to-end software tools for data and specimen management are necessary to achieve the ambitious goals of such alliances. These tools must enable researchers to organize and integrate heterogeneous data early in the discovery process, standardize processes, gain new insights into pooled data and collaborate securely.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To meet these needs, we enhanced the LabKey Server platform, formerly known as CPAS. This freely available, open source software is maintained by professional engineers who use commercially proven practices for software development and maintenance. Recent enhancements support: (i) Submitting specimens requests across collaborating organizations (ii) Graphically defining new experimental data types, metadata and wizards for data collection (iii) Transitioning experimental results from a multiplicity of spreadsheets to custom tables in a shared database (iv) Securely organizing, integrating, analyzing, visualizing and sharing diverse data types, from clinical records to specimens to complex assays (v) Interacting dynamically with external data sources (vi) Tracking study participants and cohorts over time (vii) Developing custom interfaces using client libraries (viii) Authoring custom visualizations in a built-in R scripting environment.</p> <p>Diverse research organizations have adopted and adapted LabKey Server, including consortia within the Global HIV Enterprise. Atlas is an installation of LabKey Server that has been tailored to serve these consortia. It is in production use and demonstrates the core capabilities of LabKey Server. Atlas now has over 2,800 active user accounts originating from approximately 36 countries and 350 organizations. It tracks roughly 27,000 assay runs, 860,000 specimen vials and 1,300,000 vial transfers.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Sharing data, analysis tools and infrastructure can speed the efforts of large research consortia by enhancing efficiency and enabling new insights. The Atlas installation of LabKey Server demonstrates the utility of the LabKey platform for collaborative research. Stable, supported builds of LabKey Server are freely available for download at <url>http://www.labkey.org</url>. Documentation and source code are available under the Apache License 2.0.</p

Chinonin, a novel drug against cardiomyocyte apoptosis induced by hypoxia and reoxygenation

The inhibitory effects of Chinonin, a natural antioxidant extracted from a Chinese medicine, on apoptotic and necrotic cell death of cardiomyocytes in hypoxia-reoxygenation process were observed in this study. The possible mechanisms of Chinonin on scavenging reactive oxygen species and regulating apoptotic related genes bcl-2 and p53 were also investigated. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes were subjected to 24-h hypoxia and 4-h reoxygenation. Cell death was evaluated by DNA electrophoresis on agarose gel, cell death ELISA and annexin-V-FLUOS/propidium iodide (PI) double staining cytometry. Hypoxia caused the increase of apoptotic rates and the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), while reoxygenation not only further increased the apoptotic rates and leakage of LDH, but also induced necrosis of cardiomyocytes. In addition, hypoxia increased the levels of NO2 -/NO3 - and thiobarbituric acid reacted substances (TBARS), while reoxygenation decreased NO2 -/NO3 -, but further increased TBARS in the cultured media. Moreover, hypoxia up-regulated the expression levels of bcl-2 and p53 proteins, while reoxygenation down-regulated bcl-2 and further up-regulated p53. Chinonin significantly decreased the rates of apoptotic and necrotic cardiomyocytes, and inhibited the leakage of LDH. It also diminished NO2 -/NO3 - and TBARS, down-regulated the expression level of p53 protein, and up-regulated bcl-2 protein, respectively. The results suggest that Chinonin has preventive effects against apoptotic and necrotic cell death and its protective mechanisms are related to the antioxidant properties of scavenging nitric oxide and oxygen free radicals, and the modulating effects on the expression levels of bcl-2 and p53 proteins. Copyright (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.link_to_subscribed_fulltex