Measurement of Two-Qubit States by a Two-Island Single Electron Transistor

We solve the master equations of two charged qubits measured by a single-electron transistor (SET) consisted of two islands. We show that in the sequential tunneling regime the SET current can be used for reading out results of quantum calculations and providing evidences of two-qubit entanglement, especially when the interaction between the two qubits is weak

Crystal structure of dichlorido(4,11-dimethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazabicyclo[6.6.2]hexadecane)iron(III) hexafluoridophosphate

The title compound, [FeCl₂(C₁₄H₃₀N₄)]PF₆, contains Fe³⁺ coordinated by the four nitro­gen atoms of an ethyl­ene cross-bridged cyclam macrocycle and two cis chloride ligands in a distorted octa­hedral environment. In contrast to other similar compounds this is a monomer. Inter­molecular C-H...Cl inter­actions exist in the structure between the complex ions. Comparison with the mononuclear Fe²⁺ complex of the same ligand shows that the smaller Fe³⁺ ion is more fully engulfed by the cavity of the bicyclic ligand. Comparison with the μ-oxido dinuclear complex of an unsubstituted ligand of the same size demonstrates that the methyl groups of 4,11-dimethyl-1,4,8,11-tetra­aza­bicyclo­[6.6.2]hexa­decane prevent dimerization upon oxidation

Antibody subclass and glycosylation shift following effective TB treatment

With an estimated 25% of the global population infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of death by infectious diseases. Humoral immunity following TB treatment is largely uncharacterized, and antibody profiling could provide insights into disease resolution. Here we focused on the distinctive TB-specific serum antibody features in active TB disease (ATB) and compared them with latent TB infection (LTBI) or treated ATB (txATB). As expected, di-galactosylated glycan structures (lacking sialic acid) found on IgG-Fc differentiated LTBI from ATB, but also discriminated txATB from ATB. Moreover, TB-specific IgG4 emerged as a novel antibody feature that correlated with active disease, elevated in ATB, but significantly diminished after therapy. These findings highlight 2 novel TB-specific antibody changes that track with the resolution of TB and may provide key insights to guide TB therapy.Immunogenetics and cellular immunology of bacterial infectious disease

Immediate versus deferred initiation of androgen deprivation therapy in prostate cancer patients with PSA-only relapse. An observational follow-up study

BackgroundThe optimal timing to start androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in prostate cancer patients with rising prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as the only sign of relapse is unknown.MethodsWe identified men with prostate cancer in the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavour (CaPSURE) study who would have been eligible (⩽ cT3aN0M0, primary radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy, PSA relapse as the only evidence of recurrence) for a randomised trial comparing 'immediate' versus 'deferred' ADT initiation. We emulated such trial by assigning patients to the 'immediate' strategy if they initiated ADT within 3 months of PSA relapse and to the 'deferred' strategy if they initiated ADT when they presented with metastasis, symptoms or a short PSA doubling time. We censored patients when they deviated from the assigned strategy and adjusted for this censoring via inverse probability weighting.ResultsOf 2096 eligible patients (median age 69, interquartile range 63-75 years), 88% were white, 35% had a Gleason score ⩾ 7, 69% were treated with radical prostatectomy and 31% received radiotherapy only as primary treatment. The mean time from primary treatment to PSA relapse was 37.4 (standard deviation [SD] 34.2) months. Mean follow-up from primary treatment was 91.4 (SD 48.4) months. The adjusted mortality hazard ratio for immediate versus deferred ADT was 0.91 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.52-1.60), which would be translated into a similar 5-year survival (difference between groups: -2.0% (95% CI: -10.0 to 5.9%).ConclusionOur analysis suggests that prostate cancer patients undergoing immediate ADT initiation within three months after PSA-only relapse had similar survival to those who deferred ADT initiation within 3 months after clinical progression

Ecological Invasion, Roughened Fronts, and a Competitor's Extreme Advance: Integrating Stochastic Spatial-Growth Models

Both community ecology and conservation biology seek further understanding of factors governing the advance of an invasive species. We model biological invasion as an individual-based, stochastic process on a two-dimensional landscape. An ecologically superior invader and a resident species compete for space preemptively. Our general model includes the basic contact process and a variant of the Eden model as special cases. We employ the concept of a "roughened" front to quantify effects of discreteness and stochasticity on invasion; we emphasize the probability distribution of the front-runner's relative position. That is, we analyze the location of the most advanced invader as the extreme deviation about the front's mean position. We find that a class of models with different assumptions about neighborhood interactions exhibit universal characteristics. That is, key features of the invasion dynamics span a class of models, independently of locally detailed demographic rules. Our results integrate theories of invasive spatial growth and generate novel hypotheses linking habitat or landscape size (length of the invading front) to invasion velocity, and to the relative position of the most advanced invader.Comment: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com/content/8528v8563r7u2742

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)