764 research outputs found
High Density Mesoscopic Atom Clouds in a Holographic Atom Trap
We demonstrate the production of micron-sized high density atom clouds of
interest for meso- scopic quantum information processing. We evaporate atoms
from 60 microK, 3x10^14 atoms/cm^3 samples contained in a highly anisotropic
optical lattice formed by interfering di racted beams from a holographic phase
plate. After evaporating to 1 microK by lowering the con ning potential, in
less than a second the atom density reduces to 8x10^13 cm^- 3 at a phase space
density approaching unity. Adiabatic recompression of the atoms then increases
the density to levels in excess of 1x10^15 cm^-3. The resulting clouds are
typically 8 microns in the longest dimension. Such samples are small enough to
enable mesoscopic quantum manipulation using Rydberg blockade and have the high
densities required to investigate new collision phenomena.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Vascular miRâ181b controls tissue factorâdependent thrombogenicity and inflammation in type 2 diabetes
BACKGROUND:
Diabetes mellitus is characterized by chronic vascular inflammation leading to pathological expression of the thrombogenic full length (fl) tissue factor (TF) and its isoform alternatively-spliced (as) TF. Blood-borne TF promotes factor (F) Xa generation resulting in a pro-thrombotic state and cardiovascular complications. MicroRNA (miR)s impact gene expression on the post-transcriptional level and contribute to vascular homeostasis. Their distinct role in the control of the diabetes-related procoagulant state remains poorly understood.
METHODS:
In a cohort of patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes (nâ=â46) plasma levels of miR-181b were correlated with TF pathway activity and markers for vascular inflammation. In vitro, human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC)-1 and human monocytes (THP-1) were transfected with miR-181b or anti-miR-181b and exposed to tumor necrosis factor (TNF) α or lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Expression of TF isoforms, vascular adhesion molecule (VCAM) 1 and nuclear factor (NF) ÎșB nuclear translocation was assessed. Moreover, aortas, spleen, plasma, and bone marrow-derived macrophage (BMDM)s of mice carrying a deletion of the first miR-181b locus were analyzed with respect to TF expression and activity.
RESULTS:
In patients with type 2 diabetes, plasma miR-181b negatively correlated with the procoagulant state as evidenced by TF protein, TF activity, D-dimer levels as well as markers for vascular inflammation. In HMEC-1, miR-181b abrogated TNFα-induced expression of flTF, asTF, and VCAM1. These results were validated using the anti-miR-181b. Mechanistically, we confirmed a miR-181b-mediated inhibition of importin-α3 (KPNA4) leading to reduced nuclear translocation of the TF transcription factor NFÎșB. In THP-1, miR-181b reduced both TF isoforms and FXa generation in response to LPS due to targeting phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN), a principal inducer for TF in monocytes. Moreover, in miR-181-/- animals, we found that reduced levels of miR-181b were accompanied by increased TF, VCAM1, and KPNA4 expression in aortic tissue as well as increased TF and PTEN expression in spleen. Finally, BMDMs of miR-181-/- mice showed increased TF expression and FXa generation upon stimulation with LPS.
CONCLUSIONS:
miR-181b epigenetically controls the procoagulant state in diabetes. Reduced miR-181b levels contribute to increased thrombogenicity and may help to identify individuals at particular risk for thrombosis
All Optical Formation of an Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensate
We have created a Bose-Einstein condensate of 87Rb atoms directly in an
optical trap. We employ a quasi-electrostatic dipole force trap formed by two
crossed CO_2 laser beams. Loading directly from a sub-doppler laser-cooled
cloud of atoms results in initial phase space densities of ~1/200.
Evaporatively cooling through the BEC transition is achieved by lowering the
power in the trapping beams over ~ 2 s. The resulting condensates are F=1
spinors with 3.5 x 10^4 atoms distributed between the m_F = (-1,0,1) states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Fictitious Magnetic Resonance by Quasi-Electrostatic Field
We propose a new kind of spin manipulation method using a {\it fictitious}
magnetic field generated by a quasi-electrostatic field. The method can be
applicable to every atom with electron spins and has distinct advantages of
small photon scattering rate and local addressability. By using a
laser as a quasi-electrostatic field, we have experimentally demonstrated the
proposed method by observing the Rabi-oscillation of the ground state hyperfine
spin F=1 of the cold atoms and the Bose-Einstein condensate.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Cooling atoms in an optical trap by selective parametric excitation
We demonstrate the possibility of energy-selective removal of cold atoms from
a tight optical trap by means of parametric excitation of the trap vibrational
modes. Taking advantage of the anharmonicity of the trap potential, we
selectively remove the most energetic trapped atoms or excite those at the
bottom of the trap by tuning the parametric modulation frequency. This process,
which had been previously identified as a possible source of heating, also
appears to be a robust way for forcing evaporative cooling in anharmonic traps.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure
Evanescent-wave trapping and evaporative cooling of an atomic gas near two-dimensionality
A dense gas of cesium atoms at the crossover to two-dimensionality is
prepared in a highly anisotropic surface trap that is realized with two
evanescent light waves. Temperatures as low as 100nK are reached with 20.000
atoms at a phase-space density close to 0.1. The lowest quantum state in the
tightly confined direction is populated by more than 60%. The system offers
intriguing prospects for future experiments on degenerate quantum gases in two
dimensions
Very long storage times and evaporative cooling of cesium atoms in a quasi-electrostatic dipole trap
We have trapped cesium atoms over many minutes in the focus of a CO-laser
beam employing an extremely simple laser system. Collisional properties of the
unpolarized atoms in their electronic ground state are investigated. Inelastic
binary collisions changing the hyperfine state lead to trap loss which is
quantitatively analyzed. Elastic collisions result in evaporative cooling of
the trapped gas from 25 K to 10 K over a time scale of about 150 s.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Motional Squashed States
We show that by using a feedback loop it is possible to reduce the
fluctuations in one quadrature of the vibrational degree of freedom of a
trapped ion below the quantum limit. The stationary state is not a proper
squeezed state, but rather a ``squashed'' state, since the uncertainty in the
orthogonal quadrature, which is larger than the standard quantum limit, is
unaffected by the feedback action.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the special Issue "Quantum
Correlations and Fluctuations" of J. Opt.
Multiple micro-optical atom traps with a spherically aberrated laser beam
We report on the loading of atoms contained in a magneto-optic trap into
multiple optical traps formed within the focused beam of a CO_{2} laser. We
show that under certain circumstances it is possible to create a linear array
of dipole traps with well separated maxima. This is achieved by focusing the
laser beam through lenses uncorrected for spherical aberration. We demonstrate
that the separation between the micro-traps can be varied, a property which may
be useful in experiments which require the creation of entanglement between
atoms in different micro-traps. We suggest other experiments where an array of
these traps could be useful.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
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