229 research outputs found
Nonprofit Business Plan Development: From Vision, Mission and Values to Implementation
Describes steps for nonprofit planning, with sections that cover organizational assessment, vision and mission statements, goal-setting, and plan implementation
Human Desmocollin 1 (Dsc1) Is an Autoantigen for the Subcorneal Pustular Dermatosis Type of IgA Pemphigus
IgA pemphigus showing IgA anti-keratinocyte cell surface autoantibodies is divided into subcorneal pustular dermatosis (SPD) and intraepidermal neutrophilic IgA dermatosis (IEN) types. We previously showed by immunoblotting that IgA from some IgA pemphigus patients reacted with bovine desmocollins (Dsc), but not human Dsc. To determine the antigen for IgA pemphigus, we focused on conformation-dependent epitopes of Dsc, because sera of patients with classical pemphigus recognize conformation-sensitive epitopes of desmogleins. We constructed mammalian expression vectors containing the entire coding sequences of human Dsc1, Dsc2, and Dsc3 and transiently transfected them into COS7 cells by lipofection. Immunofluorescence of COS7 cells transfected with single human Dscs showed that IgA antibodies of all six SPD-type IgA pemphigus cases reacted with the surface of cells expressing Dsc1, but not with cells expressing Dsc2 or Dsc3. In contrast, none of seven IEN-type IgA pemphigus cases reacted with cells transfected with any Dscs. These results convincingly indicate that human Dsc1 is an autoantigen for SPD-type IgA pemphigus, suggesting the possibility of an important role for Dsc1 in the pathogenesis of this disease. This study shows that a Dsc can be an autoimmune target in human skin disease
Optimization of quantum noise in space gravitational-wave antenna DECIGO with optical-spring quantum locking considering mixture of vacuum fluctuations in homodyne detection
Quantum locking using optical spring and homodyne detection has been devised
to reduce quantum noise that limits the sensitivity of DECIGO, a space-based
gravitational wave antenna in the frequency band around 0.1 Hz for detection of
primordial gravitational waves. The reduction in the upper limit of energy
density from to
, as inferred from recent observations, necessitates
improved sensitivity in DECIGO to meet its primary science goals. To accurately
evaluate the effectiveness of this method, this paper considers a detection
mechanism that takes into account the influence of vacuum fluctuations on
homodyne detection. In addition, an advanced signal processing method is
devised to efficiently utilize signals from each photodetector, and design
parameters for this configuration are optimized for the quantum noise. Our
results show that this method is effective in reducing quantum noise, despite
the detrimental impact of vacuum fluctuations on its sensitivity.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure
Improvement of the target sensitivity in DECIGO by optimizing its parameters for quantum noise including the effect of diffraction loss
DECIGO is the future Japanese gravitational wave detector in outer space. We
previously set the default design parameters to provide a good target
sensitivity to detect the primordial gravitational waves (GWs). However, the
updated upper limit of the primordial GWs by the Planck observations motivated
us for further optimization of the target sensitivity. Previously, we had not
considered optical diffraction loss due to the very long cavity length. In this
paper, we optimize various DECIGO parameters by maximizing the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR), for the primordial GWs to quantum noise including the effects of
diffraction loss. We evaluated the power spectrum density for one cluster in
DECIGO utilizing the quantum noise of one differential Fabry-Perot
interferometer. Then we calculated the SNR by correlating two clusters in the
same position. We performed the optimization for two cases: the constant
mirror-thickness case and the constant mirror-mass case. As a result, we
obtained the SNR dependence on the mirror radius, which also determines various
DECIGO parameters. This result is the first step toward optimizing the DECIGO
design by considering the practical constraints on the mirror dimension and
implementing other noise sources.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure
First-step experiment in developing optical-spring quantum locking for DECIGO: sensitivity optimization for simulated quantum noise by completing the square
DECi-hertz Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (DECIGO) is a future
mission for a space-borne laser interferometer. DECIGO has 1,000-km-long arm
cavities mainly to detect the primordial gravitational waves (PGW) at lower
frequencies around 0.1 Hz. Observations in the electromagnetic spectrum have
lowered the bounds on the upper limit of PGW energy density (). As a result, DECIGO's target sensitivity, which
is mainly limited by quantum noise, needs further improvement. To maximize the
feasibility of detection while constrained by DECIGO's large diffraction loss,
a quantum locking technique with an optical spring was theoretically proposed
to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the PGW. In this paper, we
experimentally verify one key element of the optical-spring quantum locking:
sensitivity optimization by completing the square of multiple detector outputs.
This experiment is operated on a simplified tabletop optical setup with
classical noise simulating quantum noise. We succeed in getting the best of the
sensitivities with two different laser powers by the square completion method.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure
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