2,223 research outputs found
Direct generation of photon triplets using cascaded photon-pair sources
Non-classical states of light, such as entangled photon pairs and number
states, are essential for fundamental tests of quantum mechanics and optical
quantum technologies. The most widespread technique for creating these quantum
resources is the spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) of laser light
into photon pairs. Conservation of energy and momentum in this process, known
as phase-matching, gives rise to strong correlations which are used to produce
two-photon entanglement in various degrees of freedom. It has been a
longstanding goal of the quantum optics community to realise a source that can
produce analogous correlations in photon triplets, but of the many approaches
considered, none have been technically feasible. In this paper we report the
observation of photon triplets generated by cascaded down-conversion. Here each
triplet originates from a single pump photon, and therefore quantum
correlations will extend over all three photons in a way not achievable with
independently created photon pairs. We expect our photon-triplet source to open
up new avenues of quantum optics and become an important tool in quantum
technologies. Our source will allow experimental interrogation of novel quantum
correlations, the post-selection free generation of tripartite entanglement
without post- selection and the generation of heralded entangled-photon pairs
suitable for linear optical quantum computing. Two of the triplet photons have
a wavelength matched for optimal transmission in optical fibres, ideally suited
for three-party quantum communication. Furthermore, our results open
interesting regimes of non-linear optics, as we observe spontaneous
down-conversion pumped by single photons, an interaction also highly relevant
to optical quantum computing.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; accepted by Natur
Diversifying search in bee algorithms for numerical optimisation
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018. Swarm intelligence offers useful instruments for developing collective behaviours to solve complex, ill-structured and large-scale problems. Efficiency in collective behaviours depends on how to harmonise the individual contributions so that a complementary collective effort can be achieved to offer a useful solution. The harmonisation helps blend diversification and intensification suitably towards efficient collective behaviours. In this study, two renown honeybees-inspired algorithms were analysed with respect to the balance of diversification and intensification and a hybrid algorithm is proposed to improve the efficiency accordingly. The proposed hybrid algorithm was tested with solving well-known highly dimensional numerical optimisation (benchmark) problems. Consequently, the proposed hybrid algorithm has demonstrated outperforming the two original bee algorithms in solving hard numerical optimisation benchmarks
Large introns in relation to alternative splicing and gene evolution: a case study of Drosophila bruno-3
Background:
Alternative splicing (AS) of maturing mRNA can generate structurally and functionally distinct transcripts from the same gene. Recent bioinformatic analyses of available genome databases inferred a positive correlation between intron length and AS. To study the interplay between intron length and AS empirically and in more detail, we analyzed the diversity of alternatively spliced transcripts (ASTs) in the Drosophila RNA-binding Bruno-3 (Bru-3) gene. This gene was known to encode thirteen exons separated by introns of diverse sizes, ranging from 71 to 41,973 nucleotides in D. melanogaster. Although Bru-3's structure is expected to be conducive to AS, only two ASTs of this gene were previously described.
Results:
Cloning of RT-PCR products of the entire ORF from four species representing three diverged Drosophila lineages provided an evolutionary perspective, high sensitivity, and long-range contiguity of splice choices currently unattainable by high-throughput methods. Consequently, we identified three new exons, a new exon fragment and thirty-three previously unknown ASTs of Bru-3. All exon-skipping events in the gene were mapped to the exons surrounded by introns of at least 800 nucleotides, whereas exons split by introns of less than 250 nucleotides were always spliced contiguously in mRNA. Cases of exon loss and creation during Bru-3 evolution in Drosophila were also localized within large introns. Notably, we identified a true de novo exon gain: exon 8 was created along the lineage of the obscura group from intronic sequence between cryptic splice sites conserved among all Drosophila species surveyed. Exon 8 was included in mature mRNA by the species representing all the major branches of the obscura group. To our knowledge, the origin of exon 8 is the first documented case of exonization of intronic sequence outside vertebrates.
Conclusion:
We found that large introns can promote AS via exon-skipping and exon turnover during evolution likely due to frequent errors in their removal from maturing mRNA. Large introns could be a reservoir of genetic diversity, because they have a greater number of mutable sites than short introns. Taken together, gene structure can constrain and/or promote gene evolution
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First measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters using neutrinos and antineutrinos by NOvA.
The NOvA experiment has seen a 4.4Ï signal of Îœ[over ÂŻ]_{e} appearance in a 2 GeV Îœ[over ÂŻ]_{ÎŒ} beam at a distance of 810 km. Using 12.33Ă10^{20} protons on target delivered to the Fermilab NuMI neutrino beamline, the experiment recorded 27 Îœ[over ÂŻ]_{ÎŒ}âÎœ[over ÂŻ]_{e} candidates with a background of 10.3 and 102 Îœ[over ÂŻ]_{ÎŒ}âÎœ[over ÂŻ]_{ÎŒ} candidates. This new antineutrino data are combined with neutrino data to measure the parameters |Îm_{32}^{2}|=2.48_{-0.06}^{+0.11}Ă10^{-3}ââeV^{2}/c^{4} and sin^{2}Ξ_{23} in the ranges from (0.53-0.60) and (0.45-0.48) in the normal neutrino mass hierarchy. The data exclude most values near ÎŽ_{CP}=Ï/2 for the inverted mass hierarchy by more than 3Ï and favor the normal neutrino mass hierarchy by 1.9Ï and Ξ_{23} values in the upper octant by 1.6Ï
Fifteen new risk loci for coronary artery disease highlight arterial-wall-specific mechanisms
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Although 58 genomic regions have been associated with CAD thus far, most of the heritability is unexplained, indicating that additional susceptibility loci await identification. An efficient discovery strategy may be larger-scale evaluation of promising associations suggested by genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Hence, we genotyped 56,309 participants using a targeted gene array derived from earlier GWAS results and performed meta-analysis of results with 194,427 participants previously genotyped, totaling 88,192 CAD cases and 162,544 controls. We identified 25 new SNP-CAD associations (P < 5 Ă 10(-8), in fixed-effects meta-analysis) from 15 genomic regions, including SNPs in or near genes involved in cellular adhesion, leukocyte migration and atherosclerosis (PECAM1, rs1867624), coagulation and inflammation (PROCR, rs867186 (p.Ser219Gly)) and vascular smooth muscle cell differentiation (LMOD1, rs2820315). Correlation of these regions with cell-type-specific gene expression and plasma protein levels sheds light on potential disease mechanisms
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Observation of seasonal variation of atmospheric multiple-muon events in the NOvA Near Detector
Using two years of data from the NOvA Near Detector at Fermilab, we report a seasonal variation of cosmic ray induced multiple-muon (NÎŒâ„2) event rates which has an opposite phase to the seasonal variation in the atmospheric temperature. The strength of the seasonal multiple-muon variation is shown to increase as a function of the muon multiplicity. However, no significant dependence of the strength of the seasonal variation of the multiple-muon variation is seen as a function of the muon zenith angle, or the spatial or angular separation between the correlated muons
Inhibition of NOS- like activity in maize alters the expression of genes involved in H2O2 scavenging and glycine betaine biosynthesis
Nitric oxide synthase-like activity contributes to the production of nitric oxide in plants, which controls
plant responses to stress. This study investigates if changes in ascorbate peroxidase enzymatic
activity and glycine betaine content in response to inhibition of nitric oxide synthase-like activity are
associated with transcriptional regulation by analyzing transcript levels of genes (betaine aldehyde
dehydrogenase) involved in glycine betaine biosynthesis and those encoding antioxidant enzymes
(ascorbate peroxidase and catalase) in leaves of maize seedlings treated with an inhibitor of nitric
oxide synthase-like activity. In seedlings treated with a nitric oxide synthase inhibitor, transcript levels
of betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase were decreased. In plants treated with the nitric oxide synthase
inhibitor, the transcript levels of ascorbate peroxidase-encoding genes were down-regulated. We thus
conclude that inhibition of nitric oxide synthase-like activity suppresses the expression of ascorbate
peroxidase and betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase genes in maize leaves. Furthermore, catalase activity
was suppressed in leaves of plants treated with nitric oxide synthase inhibitor; and this corresponded
with the suppression of the expression of catalase genes. We further conclude that inhibition of nitric
oxide synthase-like activity, which suppresses ascorbate peroxidase and catalase enzymatic activities,
results in increased H2O2 content
Subsequent chemotherapy reverses acquired tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance and restores response to tyrosine kinase inhibitor in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) can develop acquired resistance to epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) erlotinib and gefitinib. Here, we report the successful treatment with alternating chemotherapy and TKIs of two cases of advanced NSCLC who developed resistance to TKI.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>Two patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC were treated with palliative chemotherapy followed by erlotinib/gefitinib. When TKI therapy failed, two cycles of chemotherapy were provided, which were followed by re-challenge with erlotinib or gefitinib.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>NSCLC patients with acquired TKI resistance should be managed aggressively whenever possible. Subsequent chemotherapy and target treatment is one of the reasonable choices for those with an initial dramatic clinical response with erlotinib/gefitinib treatment. Further studies are warranted to substantiate the association of erlotinib /gefitinib treatment with the efficacy of NSCLC patients with acquired TKI failure.</p
Study of the reaction e^{+}e^{-} -->J/psi\pi^{+}\pi^{-} via initial-state radiation at BaBar
We study the process with
initial-state-radiation events produced at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy
collider. The data were recorded with the BaBar detector at center-of-mass
energies 10.58 and 10.54 GeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 454
. We investigate the mass
distribution in the region from 3.5 to 5.5 . Below 3.7
the signal dominates, and above 4
there is a significant peak due to the Y(4260). A fit to
the data in the range 3.74 -- 5.50 yields a mass value
(stat) (syst) and a width value (stat)(syst) for this state. We do not
confirm the report from the Belle collaboration of a broad structure at 4.01
. In addition, we investigate the system
which results from Y(4260) decay
Improved Measurements of Partial Rate Asymmetry in B -> h h Decays
We report improved measurements of the partial rate asymmetry (Acp) in B -> h
h decays with 140fb^-1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB
e+e- collider. Here h stands for a charged or neutral pion or kaon and in total
five decay modes are included: K-+ pi+-, K0s pi-+, K-+ pi0, pi-+ pi0 and K0s
pi0. The flavor of the last decay mode is determined from the accompanying B
meson. Using a data sample 4.7 times larger than that of our previous
measurement, we find Acp(K-+ pi+-) -0.088+-0.035+-0.013, 2.4 sigma from zero.
Results for other decay modes are also presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur
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