1,554 research outputs found
Formation and Repair of Tobacco Carcinogen-Derived Bulky DNA Adducts
DNA adducts play a central role in chemical carcinogenesis. The analysis of formation and repair of smoking-related DNA adducts remains particularly challenging as both smokers and nonsmokers exposed to smoke are repetitively under attack from complex mixtures of carcinogens such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and N-nitrosamines. The bulky DNA adducts, which usually have complex structure, are particularly important because of their biological relevance. Several known cellular DNA repair pathways have been known to operate in human cells on specific types of bulky DNA adducts, for example, nucleotide excision repair, base excision repair, and direct reversal involving O6-alkylguanine DNA alkyltransferase or AlkB homologs. Understanding the mechanisms of adduct formation and repair processes is critical for the assessment of cancer risk resulting from exposure to cigarette smoke, and ultimately for developing strategies of cancer prevention. This paper highlights the recent progress made in the areas concerning formation and repair of bulky DNA adducts in the context of tobacco carcinogen-associated genotoxic and carcinogenic effects
Security proof of differential phase shift quantum key distribution in the noiseless case
Differential phase shift quantum key distribution systems have a high
potential for achieving high speed key generation. However, its unconditional
security proof is still missing, even though it has been proposed for many
years. Here, we prove its security against collective attacks with a weak
coherent light source in the noiseless case (i.e. no bit error). The only
assumptions are that quantum theory is correct, the devices are perfect and
trusted and the key size is infinite. Our proof works on threshold detectors.
We compute the lower bound of the secret key generation rate using the
information-theoretical security proof method. Our final result shows that the
lower bound of the secret key generation rate per pulse is linearly
proportional to the channel transmission probability if Bob's detection counts
obey the binomial distribution.Comment: Published version, 13 pages, 4 figures, minor changes, references
added, acknowledgement adde
Systematic Analysis of Impact of Sampling Regions and Storage Methods on Fecal Gut Microbiome and Metabolome Profiles.
The contribution of human gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota and metabolites to host health has recently become much clearer. However, many confounding factors can influence the accuracy of gut microbiome and metabolome studies, resulting in inconsistencies in published results. In this study, we systematically investigated the effects of fecal sampling regions and storage and retrieval conditions on gut microbiome and metabolite profiles from three healthy children. Our analysis indicated that compared to homogenized and snap-frozen samples (standard control [SC]), different sampling regions did not affect microbial community alpha diversity, while a total of 22 of 176 identified metabolites varied significantly across different sampling regions. In contrast, storage conditions significantly influenced the microbiome and metabolome. Short-term room temperature storage had a minimal effect on the microbiome and metabolome profiles. Sample storage in RNALater showed a significant level of variation in both microbiome and metabolome profiles, independent of the storage or retrieval conditions. The effect of RNALater on the metabolome was stronger than the effect on the microbiome, and individual variability between study participants outweighed the effect of RNALater on the microbiome. We conclude that homogenizing stool samples was critical for metabolomic analysis but not necessary for microbiome analysis. Short-term room temperature storage had a minimal effect on the microbiome and metabolome profiles and is recommended for short-term fecal sample storage. In addition, our study indicates that the use of RNALater as a storage medium of stool samples for microbial and metabolomic analyses is not recommended.IMPORTANCE The gastrointestinal microbiome and metabolome can provide a new angle to understand the development of health and disease. Stool samples are most frequently used for large-scale cohort studies. Standardized procedures for stool sample handling and storage can be a determining factor for performing microbiome or metabolome studies. In this study, we focused on the effects of stool sampling regions and stool sample storage conditions on variations in the gut microbiome composition and metabolome profile
Enhancement of quantum correlations for the system of cavity QED by applying bang-bang pulses
We propose a scheme of increasing quantum correlations for the cavity quantum
electrodynamics system consisting of two noninteracting two-level atoms each
locally interacting with its own quantized field mode by bang-bang pulses. We
investigate the influence of the bang-bang pulses on the dynamics of quantum
discord, entanglement, quantum mutual information and classical correlation
between the two atoms. It is shown that the amount of quantum discord and
entanglement of the two atoms can be improved by applying the bang-bang pulses.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
2-[(2-Hydroxy-4-methoxybenzylidene)azaniumyl]benzoate monohydrate
In the title compound, C15H13NO4·H2O, the Schiff base exists in a zwitterionic form and a bifurcated intramolecular N—H⋯(O,O) hydrogen bond generates two S(6) rings. The dihedral angle between the two benzene rings is 25.8 (2)°. The crystal structure is stabilized by intermolecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds
Deep Learning the Effects of Photon Sensors on the Event Reconstruction Performance in an Antineutrino Detector
We provide a fast approach incorporating the usage of deep learning for
evaluating the effects of photon sensors in an antineutrino detector on the
event reconstruction performance therein. This work is an attempt to harness
the power of deep learning for detector designing and upgrade planning. Using
the Daya Bay detector as a benchmark case and the vertex reconstruction
performance as the objective for the deep neural network, we find that the
photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) have different relative importance to the vertex
reconstruction. More importantly, the vertex position resolutions for the Daya
Bay detector follow approximately a multi-exponential relationship with respect
to the number of PMTs and hence, the coverage. This could also assist in
deciding on the merits of installing additional PMTs for future detector plans.
The approach could easily be used with other objectives in place of vertex
reconstruction
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