Constitutive upregulation of transcription factors underlies permissive bradyzoite differentiation in a natural isolate of Toxoplasma gondii

UNLABELLED: IMPORTANCE

Beating the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt and the Svetlichny games with Optimal States

We study the relation between the maximal violation of Svetlichny's inequality and the mixedness of quantum states and obtain the optimal state (i.e., maximally nonlocal mixed states, or MNMS, for each value of linear entropy) to beat the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt and the Svetlichny games. For the two-qubit and three-qubit MNMS, we showed that these states are also the most tolerant state against white noise, and thus serve as valuable quantum resources for such games. In particular, the quantum prediction of the MNMS decreases as the linear entropy increases, and then ceases to be nonlocal when the linear entropy reaches the critical points ${2}/{3}$ and ${9}/{14}$ for the two- and three-qubit cases, respectively. The MNMS are related to classical errors in experimental preparation of maximally entangled states.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures; minor changes; accepted in Physical Review

Synergistic effect of phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor and serum on migration of endotoxin-stimulated macrophages.

Macrophage migration is an essential step in host defense against infection and wound healing. Elevation of cAMP by inhibiting phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), enzymes that specifically degrade cAMP, is known to suppress various inflammatory responses in activated macrophages, but the role of PDE4 in macrophage migration is poorly understood. Here we show that the migration of Raw 264.7 macrophages stimulated with LPS was markedly and dose-dependently induced by the PDE4 inhibitor rolipram as assessed by scratch wound healing assay. Additionally, this response required the involvement of serum in the culture medium as serum starvation abrogated the effect. Further analysis revealed that rolipram and serum exhibited synergistic effect on the migration, and the influence of serum was independent of PDE4 mRNA expression in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Moreover, the enhanced migration by rolipram was mediated by activating cAMP/exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP (Epac) signaling, presumably via interaction with LPS/TLR4 signaling with the participation of unknown serum components. These results suggest that PDE4 inhibitors, together with serum components, may serve as positive regulators of macrophage recruitment for more efficient pathogen clearance and wound repair

Geometric phase for nonlinear coherent and squeezed state

The geometric phases for standard coherent states which are widely used in quantum optics have attracted a large amount of attention. Nevertheless, few physicists consider about the counterparts of non-linear coherent states, which are useful in the description of the motion of a trapped ion. In this paper, the non-unitary and non-cyclic geometric phases for two nonlinear coherent and one squeezed states are formulated respectively. Moreover, some of their common properties are discussed respectively, such as gauge invariance, non-locality and non-linear effects. The non-linear functions have dramatic impacts on the evolution of the corresponding geometric phases. They speed the evolution up or down. So this property may have application in controlling or measuring geometric phase. For the squeezed case, when the squeezed parameter r -> \infinity, the limiting value of the geometric phase is also determined by non-linear function at a given time and angular velocity. In addition, the geometric phases for standard coherent and squeezed states are obtained under a particular condition. When the time evolution undergoes a period, their corresponding cyclic geometric phases are achieved as well. And the distinction between the geometric phases of the two coherent states maybe regarded as a geometric criterion

Improved visible-light activities of nanocrystalline CdS by coupling with ultrafine NbN with lattice matching for hydrogen evolution

Metallic ultrafine NbN with lattice matching to nanocrystalline CdS could replace the expensive platinum for efficiently trapping photogenerated electrons, enhancing charge separation and then activating the preferentially adsorbed H_{2}O to produce H_{2}, mainly confirmed by Kelvin probe experiments, Mott–Schottky plots, amount of ˙OH produced, electrochemical experiments and density-functional-theory calculations