Understanding the saturation power of Josephson Parametric Amplifiers made from SQUIDs arrays

We report on the implementation and detailed modelling of a Josephson Parametric Amplifier (JPA) made from an array of eighty Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs), forming a non-linear quarter-wave resonator. This device was fabricated using a very simple single step fabrication process. It shows a large bandwidth (45 MHz), an operating frequency tunable between 5.9 GHz and 6.8 GHz and a large input saturation power (-117 dBm) when biased to obtain 20 dB of gain. Despite the length of the SQUID array being comparable to the wavelength, we present a model based on an effective non-linear LC series resonator that quantitatively describes these figures of merit without fitting parameters. Our work illustrates the advantage of using array-based JPA since a single-SQUID device showing the same bandwidth and resonant frequency would display a saturation power 15 dB lower.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, Appendices include

Antibody profiling for the prognosis and diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in patients, compared with healthy subjects

Background: Multiple sclerosis is considered as an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that is the main cause of disability in young adults around the world. The purpose of this study was to determine changes in antibodies in the prognosis of multiple sclerosis, and the use of antibody against aquaporin 4 for the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.Materials and Methods: In this case - control study, 21 patients with a definite diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and 21 healthy subjects were selected as the study population.  Blood and urine samples were collected, and nephelometry technique was used to assess the presence or absence of IgG, IgM and IgA in serum and urine samples. ELISA method for measuring of antibodies against aquaporin 4 was used.Results: There was no major difference in  the mean of the total IgM  in the case and control groups , but the mean IgA and IgG levels in the control group were  evidently higher than in the case group.  It was releaved that IgA, RBC and Hb mean differences between the two groups are statistically significant.  Parallel with an increase in IgG, the probability of disease exacerbation was increased by 0.22, whereas with increasing ages, the probability of disease exacerbation was 15.0. There was also a positive and significant relationship between the average level of antibodies, IgG and IgM with the degree of illness However, the relationship between the mean serum IgA level and the degree of illness was inverse. It also became clear that antibodies against AQP-4 in serum and urine of patients with different degrees of illness showed no significant difference.  The difference between the mean of antibodies against AQP in the serum of patients with mild and moderate MS was 54.1, but in mild and severe MS   it was 53.3.Conclusion: The findings of this research suggest that serum antibody levels are directly related to the disease levels and can be used as a prognostic factor. Accordingly, it appears that the use of antibodies against aquaporin-4 in serum and urine for the diagnosis of this disease   can be considered as a reliable approach

Evaluation of allergy and eosinophilia level in peripheral blood of patients with cardiovascular diseases

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of deaths in Iran and other developing countries. The risk factors for cardiovascular diseases are divided into two categories; the variable risk factors and the non-variable risk factors. Many recent studies evaluated the relationship between higher eosinophilia and allergy levels with the incidence, progress and severity of cardiovascular diseases, but the exact correlation between these two still remains  unknown. The current study was designed to assess the relationship between allergic responses and eosinophilia amongst patients with cardiovascular diseases in Ilam province, in comparison with healthy individuals.Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, we enrolled 59 cardiovascular patients and 55 healthy individuals without any history of allergy and parasitic infections. A questionnaire including questions about demographic data, family history of heart disease, history of diabetes, hyperlipidemia, physical activity, smoking, stress, dietary fat consumption, salt intake, allergies to certain substances, history of parasitic disease and history of hypertension was completed. The blood was taken from each participant and CBC and IgE titer were measured.Results: There was a significant relationship for the variables such as the family history of cardiovascular disease (P<0.001), diabetes (P<0.003), hyperlipidemia (P<0.0001), high blood pressure (P<0.0001) and physical activity (P<0.0001) between the case and the control groups. The mean IgE titer in case group was 95.3±71 and 62.44±49 in control group. The mean eosinophilia level in peripheral blood was 3.95±1.057 in case and 1.53±0.57 in control group. The difference between the IgE and eosinophilia levels in the case and the control groups was statistically significant (P<0.0001).Conclusion: Based on our results, it can be concluded the increase in levels of IgE and eosinophilia can be considered by cardiologists as a reliable diagnostic tool for predicting cardiovascular diseases

Survey of the association between polymorphisms of CTLA-4 exon 1 49 A/G genes with rheumatoid arthritis in Iran

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), which suppresses T cell proliferation, is a promising candidate for the susceptibility genes to rheumatic arthritis diseases (RA). This study aims to examine the association between the polymorphisms of the CTLA-4 exon 1(+ 49) genes with RA in the Qazvin city of Iran population. The polymerase chain reaction of genomic DNArestriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) was applied to genotype the CTLA-4 exon 1(+ 49) polymorphisms in 105 RA patients and 90 control subjects. Laboratory diagnostic tests were also measured for RA and control groups. Our results did not demonstrate a significant difference in allele and genotype frequencies of the CTLA-4 exon 1(+ 49) between RA patients and the control group (p < .0001). There was no significant difference in age at onset, CRP, RF value in patients with RA according to the CTLA-4 polymorphisms; just anti-CCP showed a significant difference. Our data declared that polymorphisms of CTLA-4 exon 1(+ 49) genes are not correlated with RA susceptibility and its clinical and paraclinical manifestations

Assessment of gastric caused by Helicobacter pylori and pathologic elements correlation with -511 IL1-β and -308 TNF-α polymorphisms in gastritis patients

Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori) is the main reason for gastric disorders including gastric lymphoma, ulcer disease, gastric carcinoma (GC), and chronic atrophic gastritis. H.pylori has two more significant virulence factors named cagA and vacA. Some host cytokines polymorphisms (Interleukin (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α)) may contribute to H. pylori-related diseases. In the present study, we investigated the association of H. pylori gastritis and its pathogenic genes as well as the association of IL-1β and TNF-α polymorphisms in patients with gastritis. We collected gastric biopsy samples from patients with gastritis. After extracting DNA from biopsy specimens infected with H. pylori, cagA + and vacA + were detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). To genotyping TNF-α polymorphism at position − 308 and IL-1β polymorphism at position − 511, PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was performed. Our study indicated that IL-1β-511 polymorphism, unlike TNF-α-308 polymorphism (P = 0.030), did not show a significant relationship between patients infected with H. pylori (p = 0.219). Also, our results indicated that alleles C and T of polymorphism of IL-1β-511 and alleles G of TNFα-308 were not significantly correlated with cagA status among patients infected with H. pylori (p = 0.793, p = 0.674, p = 0.179, respectively) unlike allele A of TNFα − 308 (p = 0.016

A tunable Josephson platform to explore many-body quantum optics in circuit-QED

Coupling an isolated emitter to a single mode of the electromagnetic field is now routinely achieved and well understood. Current efforts aim to explore the coherent dynamics of emitters coupled to several electromagnetic modes (EM). freedom. Recently, ultrastrong coupling to a transmission line has been achieved where the emitter resonance broadens to a significant fraction of its frequency. In this work we gain significantly improved control over this regime. We do so by combining the simplicity of a transmon qubit and a bespoke EM environment with a high density of discrete modes, hosted inside a superconducting metamaterial. This produces a unique device in which the hybridisation between the qubit and up to 10 environmental modes can be monitored directly. Moreover the frequency and broadening of the qubit resonance can be tuned independently of each other in situ. We experimentally demonstrate that our device combines this tunability with ultrastrong coupling and a qubit nonlinearity comparable to the other relevant energy scales in the system. We also develop a quantitative theoretical description that does not contain any phenomenological parameters and that accurately takes into account vacuum fluctuations of our large scale quantum circuit in the regime of ultrastrong coupling and intermediate non-linearity. The demonstration of this new platform combined with a quantitative modelling brings closer the prospect of experimentally studying many-body effects in quantum optics. A limitation of the current device is the intermediate nonlinearity of the qubit. Pushing it further will induce fully developed many-body effects, such as a giant Lamb shift or nonclassical states of multimode optical fields. Observing such effects would establish interesting links between quantum optics and the physics of quantum impurities.Comment: Main paper and Supplementary Information combined in one file. List of the modifications in the final version: new abstract and introduction, comparison to RWA treatment, more precise capacitance mode

The Association of Methylation Status and Expression Level of MyoD1 with DNMT1 Expression Level in Breast Cancer Patients

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. The methylation status of MyoD1, a tumor suppressor gene, is enrolled in various cancers, i.e., BC. Various studies showed the impact of MyoD1 epigenetic dysregulation in BC. This study aimed to investigate the methylation status and expression level of MyoD1 in BC patients and its association with the expression of DNMT1. Materials and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 30 cases (pathology-confirmed ductal carcinoma) and 18 controls (fibroadenoma and fibrocystic masses), referred to Velayat Hospital, Qazvin, Iran. The expression of the MyoD1 and DNMT1 and the promoter methylation of the MyoD1 were evaluated in tissue blocks of BC patient masses using qRT-PCR and MS-PCR assays, respectively. SPSS 24.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: The MyoD1 promoter is hypermethylated in BC patients compared to controls (p =0.001). The expression level of MyoD1 in BC patients was significantly reduced compared to controls (fold change =0.13, p =0.042). In addition, in BC patients, the reduced expression level of MyoD1 was significantly associated with methylation of the MyoD1 promoter (p =0.001). There is no significant difference between the expression level of DNMT1 in BC patients and controls (p =0.197). A significant association is found between the expression of DNMT1 and the methylation status of the MyoD1 promoter (p =0.038). Discussion: The expression level of MyoD1 is affected by the methylation status of the promoter of this gene. Moreover, the expression level and methylation status of MyoD1 are correlated with clinical parameters

Fabrication and characterization of aluminum SQUID transmission lines

We report on the fabrication and characterization of 50 Ohms, flux-tunable, low-loss, SQUID-based transmission lines. The fabrication process relies on the deposition of a thin dielectric layer (few tens of nanometers) via Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) on top of a SQUID array, the whole structure is then covered by a non-superconducting metallic top ground plane. We present experimental results from five different samples. We systematically characterize their microscopic parameters by measuring the propagating phase in these structures. We also investigate losses and discriminate conductor from dielectric losses. This fabrication method offers several advantages. First, the SQUID array fabrication does not rely on a Niobium tri-layer process but on a simpler double angle evaporation technique. Second, ALD provides high quality dielectric leading to low-loss devices. Further, the SQUID array fabrication is based on a standard, all-aluminum process, allowing direct integration with superconducting qubits. Moreover, our devices are in-situ flux tunable, allowing mitigation of incertitude inherent to any fabrication process. Finally, the unit cell being a single SQUID (no extra ground capacitance is needed), it is straightforward to modulate the size of the unit cell periodically, allowing band-engineering. This fabrication process can be directly applied to traveling wave parametric amplifiers.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, Appendixe