3,935 research outputs found
Correlations in optically-controlled quantum emitters
We address the problem of optically controlling and quantifying the
dissipative dynamics of quantum and classical correlations in a set-up of
individual quantum emitters under external laser excitation. We show that both
types of correlations, the former measured by the quantum discord, are present
in the system's evolution even though the emitters may exhibit an early stage
disentanglement. In the absence of external laser pumping,we demonstrate
analytically, for a set of suitable initial states, that there is an entropy
bound for which quantum discord and entanglement of the emitters are always
greater than classical correlations, thus disproving an early conjecture that
classical correlations are greater than quantum correlations. Furthermore, we
show that quantum correlations can also be greater than classical correlations
when the system is driven by a laser field. For scenarios where the emitters'
quantum correlations are below their classical counterparts, an optimization of
the evolution of the quantum correlations can be carried out by appropriately
tailoring the amplitude of the laser field and the emitters' dipole-dipole
interaction. We stress the importance of using the entanglement of formation,
rather than the concurrence, as the entanglement measure, since the latter can
grow beyond the total correlations and thus give incorrect results on the
actual system's degree of entanglement.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, this version contains minor modifications; to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Quantum Mutual Information Capacity for High Dimensional Entangled States
High dimensional Hilbert spaces used for quantum communication channels offer
the possibility of large data transmission capabilities. We propose a method of
characterizing the channel capacity of an entangled photonic state in high
dimensional position and momentum bases. We use this method to measure the
channel capacity of a parametric downconversion state, achieving a channel
capacity over 7 bits/photon in either the position or momentum basis, by
measuring in up to 576 dimensions per detector. The channel violated an
entropic separability bound, suggesting the performance cannot be replicated
classically.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure
Diagnostic markers for germ cell neoplasms: from placental-like alkaline phosphatase to micro-RNAs
This concise review summarises tissue and serum markers useful for differential diagnosis of germ cell tumours (GCT), with focus on the most common testicular GCT (TGCT). GCT are characterised by phenotypic heterogeneity due to largely retained embryonic pluripotency and aberrant somatic differentiation. TGCT that occur in young men are divided into two main types, seminoma and nonseminoma, both derived from a pre-invasive germ cell neoplasia in situ (GCNIS), which originates from transformed foetal gonocytes. In severely dysgenetic gonads, a GCNIS-resembling lesion is called gonadoblastoma. GCT occur rarely in young children (infantile GCT) in whom the pathogenesis is different (no GCNIS/gonadoblastoma stage) but the histopathological features are similar to the adult GCT. The rare spermatocytic tumour of older men is derived from post-pubertal spermatogonia that clonally expand due to gain-of function mutations in survival-promoting genes (e.g. FGFR3, HRAS), thus this tumour has a different expression profile than GCNIS-derived TGCT.
Clinically most informative immunohistochemical markers for GCT, except teratoma, are genes expressed in primordial germ cells/gonocytes and embryonic pluripotency-related factors, such as placental-like alkaline phosphatase (PLAP), OCT4 (POU5F1), NANOG, AP-2Îł (TFAP2C) and LIN28, which are not expressed in normal adult germ cells. Some of these markers can also be used for immunocytochemistry to detect GCNIS or incipient tumours in semen samples.
Gene expression in GCT is regulated in part by DNA and histone modifications, and the epigenetic profile of these tumours is characterised by genome-wide demethylation, except nonseminomas. In addition, a recently discovered mechanism of post-genomic gene expression regulation involves small non-coding RNAs, predominantly micro-RNA (miR). Testicular GCT display micro-RNA profiles similar to embryonic stem cells. Targeted miRNA-based blood tests for miR-371-3 and miR-367 clusters are currently under development and hold a great promise for the future. In some patients miR-based tests may be even more sensitive than the classical serum tumour markers, β -chorio-gonadotrophin (β-hCG), α-fetoprotein (AFP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), which are currently used in the clinic.
In summary, research advances have provided clinicians with a panel of molecular markers, which allow specific diagnosis of various subtypes of GCT and are very useful for early detection at the precursor stage and for monitoring of patients during the follow-up
Quantum Correlations in Two-Boson Wavefunctions
We present the Schmidt decomposition for arbitrary wavefunctions of two
indistinguishable bosons, extending the recent studies of entanglement or
quantum correlations for two fermion systems [J. Schliemann et al., Phys. Rev.
B {\bf 63}, 085311 (2001) and quant-ph/0012094]. We point out that the von
Neumann entropy of the reduced single particle density matrix remains to be a
good entanglement measure for two identical particles.Comment: in press at Phys. Rev.
Multi-elemental speciation analysis of barley genotypes diering in tolerance to cadmium toxicity using SEC-ICP-MS and ESI-TOF-MS
Plants respond to Cd exposure by synthesizing heavy-metal-binding oligopeptides, called phytochelatins (PCs). These peptides reduce the activity of Cd2+ ions in the plant tissues by forming Cd chelates. The main objective of the present work was to develop an analytical technique, which allowed identication of the most prominent Cd species in plant tissue by SEC-ICP-MS and ESI-TOF-MS. An integrated part of the method development was to test the hypothesis that dierential Cd tolerance between two barley genotypes was linked to dierences in Cd speciation. Only one fraction of Cd species, ranging from 7001800 Da, was detected in the shoots of both genotypes. In the roots, two additional fractions ranging from 29004600 and 670015 000 Da were found. The Cd-rich SEC fractions were heart-cut, de-salted and demetallized using reversed-phase chromatography (RPC), followed by ESI-MS-TOF to identify the ligands. Three dierent families of PCs, viz. (gGlu-Cys)n-Gly (PCn), (gGlu-Cys)n-Ser (iso-PCn) and Cys-(gGlu-Cys)n-Gly (des-gGlu-PCn), the last lacking the N-terminal amino acid, were identied. The PCs induced by Cd toxicity also bound several essential trace elements in plants, including Zn, Cu, and Ni, whereas no Mn species were detected. Zn, Cu and Ni-species were distributed between the 7001800 Da and 670015 000 Da fractions, whereas only Cd species were found in the 29004600 Da fraction dominated by PC3 ligands. Although the total tissue concentration of Cd was similar for the two species, the tolerant barley genotype synthesized signicantly more CdPC3 species with a high Cd specicity than the intolerant genotype, clearly indicating a correlation between Cd tolerance and the CdPC speciation
The first record of a homeotic wing pattern aberration in an Australian butterfly from a specimen of Papilio aegeus ormenus Guérin-Méneville, 1830 (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae)
A specimen of Papilio aegeus ormenus with a forewing/hindwing pattern homeosis is described from Mer Island, Torres Strait, Queensland, Australia. This represents the first record of a butterfly specimen with wing pattern homeosis from Australia
- …