532 research outputs found
Lactobacillus Cell Surface Proteins Involved in Interaction with Mucus and Extracellular Matrix Components
The gut microbiota is a complex microbial ecosystem where bacteria, through mutual interactions, cooperate in maintaining of wellbeing and health. Lactobacilli are among the most important constituents of human and animal intestinal microbiota and include many probiotic strains. Their presence ensures protection from invasion of pathogens, as well as stimulation of the immune system and protection of the intestinal flora, often exerted through the ability to interact with mucus and extracellular matrix components. The main factors responsible for mediating adhesion of pathogens and commensals to the gut are cell surface proteins that recognize host targets, as mucus layer and extracellular matrix proteins. In the last years, several adhesins have been reported to be involved in lactobacilli–host interaction often miming the same mechanism used by pathogens
Theory of controlled quantum dynamics
We introduce a general formalism, based on the stochastic formulation of
quantum mechanics, to obtain localized quasi-classical wave packets as
dynamically controlled systems, for arbitrary anharmonic potentials. The
control is in general linear, and it amounts to introduce additional quadratic
and linear time-dependent terms to the given potential. In this way one can
construct for general systems either coherent packets moving with constant
dispersion, or dynamically squeezed packets whose spreading remains bounded for
all times. In the standard operatorial framework our scheme corresponds to a
suitable generalization of the displacement and scaling operators that generate
the coherent and squeezed states of the harmonic oscillator.Comment: LaTeX, A4wide, 28 pages, no figures. To appear in J. Phys. A: Math.
Gen., April 199
On entanglement in neutrino mixing and oscillations
We report on recent results about entanglement in the context of particle
mixing and oscillations. We study in detail single-particle entanglement
arising in two-flavor neutrino mixing. The analysis is performed first in the
context of Quantum Mechanics, and then for the case of Quantum Field Theory.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. Presented at "Symmetries in Science Symposium -
Bregenz 2009"
Characterization of the Mycobacterial MSMEG-3762/63 Efflux Pump in Mycobacterium smegmatis Drug Efflux
Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) represents a major health problem worldwide. Drug efflux and the activity of efflux transporters likely play important roles in the development of drug-tolerant and drug-resistant mycobacterial phenotypes. This study is focused on the action of a mycobacterial efflux pump as a mechanism of drug resistance. Previous studies demonstrated up-regulation of the TetR-like transcriptional regulator MSMEG_3765 in Mycobacterium smegmatis and its ortholog Rv1685c in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in acid-nitrosative stress conditions. MSMEG-3765 regulates the expression of the MSMEG_3762/63/65 operon, and of the orthologous region in Mtb (Rv1687c/86c/85c). MSMEG-3762 and Rv1687c are annotated as ATP-binding proteins, while MSMEG-3763 and Rv1686c are annotated as trans-membrane polypeptides, defining an ABC efflux pump in both M. smegmatis and Mtb. The two putative efflux systems share a high percentage of identity. To examine the role of the putative efflux system MSMEG-3762/63, we constructed and characterized a MSMEG-3763 deletion mutant in M. smegmatis (∆MSMEG_3763). By comparative analysis of wild type, knockout, and complemented strains, together with structural modeling and molecular docking bioinformatics analyses of the MSMEG-3763 trans-membrane protein, we define the protein complex MSMEG-3762/63 as an efflux pump. Moreover, we demonstrate involvement of this pump in biofilm development and in the extrusion of rifampicin and ciprofloxacin (CIP), antimicrobial drugs used in first- and second-line anti-TB therapies
Levy-Student Distributions for Halos in Accelerator Beams
We describe the transverse beam distribution in particle accelerators within
the controlled, stochastic dynamical scheme of the Stochastic Mechanics (SM)
which produces time reversal invariant diffusion processes. This leads to a
linearized theory summarized in a Shchr\"odinger--like (\Sl) equation. The
space charge effects have been introduced in a recent paper~\cite{prstab} by
coupling this \Sl equation with the Maxwell equations. We analyze the space
charge effects to understand how the dynamics produces the actual beam
distributions, and in particular we show how the stationary, self--consistent
solutions are related to the (external, and space--charge) potentials both when
we suppose that the external field is harmonic (\emph{constant focusing}), and
when we \emph{a priori} prescribe the shape of the stationary solution. We then
proceed to discuss a few new ideas~\cite{epac04} by introducing the generalized
Student distributions, namely non--Gaussian, L\'evy \emph{infinitely divisible}
(but not \emph{stable}) distributions. We will discuss this idea from two
different standpoints: (a) first by supposing that the stationary distribution
of our (Wiener powered) SM model is a Student distribution; (b) by supposing
that our model is based on a (non--Gaussian) L\'evy process whose increments
are Student distributed. We show that in the case (a) the longer tails of the
power decay of the Student laws, and in the case (b) the discontinuities of the
L\'evy--Student process can well account for the rare escape of particles from
the beam core, and hence for the formation of a halo in intense beams.Comment: revtex4, 18 pages, 12 figure
Interface pinning and slow ordering kinetics on infinitely ramified fractal structures
We investigate the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equation for a non
conserved order parameter on an infinitely ramified (deterministic) fractal
lattice employing two alternative methods: the auxiliary field approach and a
numerical method of integration of the equations of evolution. In the first
case the domain size evolves with time as , where is
the anomalous random walk exponent associated with the fractal and differs from
the normal value 2, which characterizes all Euclidean lattices. Such a power
law growth is identical to the one observed in the study of the spherical model
on the same lattice, but fails to describe the asymptotic behavior of the
numerical solutions of the TDGL equation for a scalar order parameter. In fact,
the simulations performed on a two dimensional Sierpinski Carpet indicate that,
after an initial stage dominated by a curvature reduction mechanism \`a la
Allen-Cahn, the system enters in a regime where the domain walls between
competing phases are pinned by lattice defects.
The lack of translational invariance determines a rough free energy
landscape, the existence of many metastable minima and the suppression of the
marginally stable modes, which in translationally invariant systems lead to
power law growth and self similar patterns. On fractal structures as the
temperature vanishes the evolution is frozen, since only thermally activated
processes can sustain the growth of pinned domains.Comment: 16 pages+14 figure
Multipartite entangled states in particle mixing
In the physics of flavor mixing, the flavor states are given by
superpositions of mass eigenstates. By using the occupation number to define a
multiqubit space, the flavor states can be interpreted as multipartite
mode-entangled states. By exploiting a suitable global measure of entanglement,
based on the entropies related to all possible bipartitions of the system, we
analyze the correlation properties of such states in the instances of three-
and four-flavor mixing. Depending on the mixing parameters, and, in particular,
on the values taken by the free phases, responsible for the CP-violation,
entanglement concentrates in preferred bipartitions. We quantify in detail the
amount and the distribution of entanglement in the physically relevant cases of
flavor mixing in quark and neutrino systems. By using the wave packet
description for localized particles, we use the global measure of entanglement,
suitably adapted for the instance of multipartite mixed states, to analyze the
decoherence induced by the free evolution dynamics on the quantum correlations
of stationary neutrino beams. We define a decoherence length as the distance
associated with the vanishing of the coherent interference effects among
massive neutrino states. We investigate the role of the CP-violating phase in
the decoherence process.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figure
Characterizing entanglement with global and marginal entropic measures
We qualify the entanglement of arbitrary mixed states of bipartite quantum
systems by comparing global and marginal mixednesses quantified by different
entropic measures. For systems of two qubits we discriminate the class of
maximally entangled states with fixed marginal mixednesses, and determine an
analytical upper bound relating the entanglement of formation to the marginal
linear entropies. This result partially generalizes to mixed states the
quantification of entaglement with marginal mixednesses holding for pure
states. We identify a class of entangled states that, for fixed marginals, are
globally more mixed than product states when measured by the linear entropy.
Such states cannot be discriminated by the majorization criterion.Comment: 6 pages, 5 color figures in low resolution due to oversizing
problems; to get the original high-resolution figures please contact the
authors. Minor changes, final versio
Minimum decoherence cat-like states in Gaussian noisy channels
We address the evolution of cat-like states in general Gaussian noisy
channels, by considering superpositions of coherent and squeezed-coherent
states coupled to an arbitrarily squeezed bath. The phase space dynamics is
solved and decoherence is studied keeping track of the purity of the evolving
state. The influence of the choice of the state and channel parameters on
purity is discussed and optimal working regimes that minimize the decoherence
rate are determined. In particular, we show that squeezing the bath to protect
a non squeezed cat state against decoherence is equivalent to orthogonally
squeezing the initial cat state while letting the bath be phase insensitive.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, references added, submitted to J. Opt.
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