Coulomb blockade double-dot Aharonov-Bohm interferometer: giant fluctuations

Electron transport through two parallel quantum dots is a kind of solid-state realization of double-path interference. We demonstrate that the inter-dot Coulomb correlation and quantum coherence would result in strong current fluctuations with a divergent Fano factor at zero frequency. We also provide physical interpretation for this surprising result, which displays its generic feature and allows us to recover this phenomenon in more complicated systems.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Analysis of the transcriptome of Panax notoginseng root uncovers putative triterpene saponin-biosynthetic genes and genetic markers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Panax notoginseng </it>(Burk) F.H. Chen is important medicinal plant of the <it>Araliacease </it>family. Triterpene saponins are the bioactive constituents in <it>P. notoginseng</it>. However, available genomic information regarding this plant is limited. Moreover, details of triterpene saponin biosynthesis in the <it>Panax </it>species are largely unknown.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using the 454 pyrosequencing technology, a one-quarter GS FLX titanium run resulted in 188,185 reads with an average length of 410 bases for <it>P. notoginseng </it>root. These reads were processed and assembled by 454 GS <it>De Novo </it>Assembler software into 30,852 unique sequences. A total of 70.2% of unique sequences were annotated by Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) similarity searches against public sequence databases. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) assignment discovered 41 unique sequences representing 11 genes involved in triterpene saponin backbone biosynthesis in the 454-EST dataset. In particular, the transcript encoding dammarenediol synthase (DS), which is the first committed enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of major triterpene saponins, is highly expressed in the root of four-year-old <it>P. notoginseng</it>. It is worth emphasizing that the candidate cytochrome P450 (Pn02132 and Pn00158) and UDP-glycosyltransferase (Pn00082) gene most likely to be involved in hydroxylation or glycosylation of aglycones for triterpene saponin biosynthesis were discovered from 174 cytochrome P450s and 242 glycosyltransferases by phylogenetic analysis, respectively. Putative transcription factors were detected in 906 unique sequences, including Myb, homeobox, WRKY, basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH), and other family proteins. Additionally, a total of 2,772 simple sequence repeat (SSR) were identified from 2,361 unique sequences, of which, di-nucleotide motifs were the most abundant motif.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study is the first to present a large-scale EST dataset for <it>P. notoginseng </it>root acquired by next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology. The candidate genes involved in triterpene saponin biosynthesis, including the putative CYP450s and UGTs, were obtained in this study. Additionally, the identification of SSRs provided plenty of genetic makers for molecular breeding and genetics applications in this species. These data will provide information on gene discovery, transcriptional regulation and marker-assisted selection for <it>P. notoginseng</it>. The dataset establishes an important foundation for the study with the purpose of ensuring adequate drug resources for this species.</p

Proteomic profiling of eIF3a conditional knockout mice

Eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 subunit A (eIF3a) is the largest subunit of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3 (eIF3). eIF3a plays an integral role in protein biosynthesis, hence impacting the onset, development, and treatment of tumors. The proteins regulated by eIF3a are still being explored in vivo. In this study, a Cre-loxP system was used to generate eIF3a conditional knockout mice. Tandem mass tag (TMT) labeling with LC-MS/MS analysis was used to identify differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) in fat, lungs, skin, and spleen tissue of the eIF3a knockout mice and controls. Bioinformatics analysis was then used to explore the functions and molecular signaling pathways of these protein landscapes. It was observed that eIF3a is essential for life sustenance. Abnormal tissue pathology was found in the lungs, fat, skin, spleen, and thymus. In total, 588, 210, 324, and 944 DEPs were quantified in the lungs, fat, skin, and spleen, respectively, of the eIF3a knockout mice as compared to the control. The quantified differentially expressed proteins were tissue-specific, except for eight proteins shared by the four tissues. A broad range of functions for eIF3a, including cellular signaling pathway, immune response, metabolism, defense response, phagocytes, and DNA replication, has been revealed using bioinformatics analysis. Herein, several pathways related to oxidative stress in the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) database, including nitrogen metabolism, peroxisome, cytochrome P450 drug metabolism, pyruvate metabolism, PPAR signaling pathway, phospholipase D signaling pathway, B-cell receptor signaling pathway, ferroptosis, and focal adhesion, have been identified. Collectively, this study shows that eIF3a is an essential gene for sustaining life, and its downstream proteins are involved in diverse novel functions beyond mRNA translational regulation

Identification and characterization of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri during gonadal development

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) controls synthesis of sex steroid hormones through hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis in vertebrates. But in mollusks, research on neuroendocrine control of gonadal function, such as the function of GnRH during gonadal development is limited. In this study, we investigated the morphology and structure of the nerve ganglia of Zhikong scallop Chlamys farreri by physiological and histological observations. We also cloned the ORF and studied the expression patterns of GnRH in the scallop. Tissue expression analysis showed that GnRH was highly expressed in parietovisceral ganglion (PVG). The in situ hybridization result further confirmed that GnRH mRNA only distributed in some good-sized neurons in the posterior lobe (PL) and some pint-sized neurons in the lateral lobe (LL). In addition, by examining the expression of GnRH during gonadal development in ganglia, we found GnRH displayed higher expression in the female scallops, and showed significant high expression at the growing stage of female scallops in PVG. This study would contribute to gaining insight into the mechanism underlying reproduction regulation by GnRH in the scallop and help to provide a better understanding of reproductive neuroendocrine in mollusks

Enhancing China’s National Image Through Culture Festivals: A Case Study of China Culture Years in Europe

Since the mid-2000s, the PRC has increasingly focused on pursuing cultural diplomacy abroad to improve its national image and enhance cultural soft power. Although China’s cultural “Charm Offensive” has not gone unnoticed, a variety of specific activities have not been subject to research so far. This paper, therefore, attempts to fill this research gap by analyzing Chinese state-level cultural diplomacy through a comparative case study of three China Culture Year events held in France (2004), Italy (2010), and Germany (2012). These findings are subsequently compared to the China Culture Year in Australia (2012), thereby allowing the identification of spatial variations. I argue that the Chinese government applies a general approach of organizing the events abroad by making use of local institutions. At the same time, through the strategic selection of events, the festivals portray distinct national images that transmit particular narratives of self-presentation to the European audience and take into account country-specific preferences

What determines employment opportunity for college graduates in China after higher education reform?

Using the 2005 placement data from two separate colleges, this paper studies graduate job allocation in China after higher education reform. Other things being equal, graduates with better college GPA were more likely to be employed (in particular by high-pay foreign firms) in both colleges. Female advantage in GPA helped to produce a surprising gender employment gap favoring female graduates. Our empirical evidence does not support the three alternative hypotheses of such a gap. Even though the job-market returns to GPA might be higher for women, there is some weak evidence that the job-market preferred male graduates over their female peers with similar qualifications. Pre-college urban hukou status and a proxy of father's education had positive impacts on a graduate's educational and employment outcomes. There is no evidence that father's Communist Party membership mattered.Employment Graduate GPA

Cotton's Water Demand and Water-Saving Benefits under Drip Irrigation with Plastic Film Mulch

The primary purpose of this research was to give suitable irrigation program according to the growth period and water requirement. A cotton field experiment with mulched drip irrigation was conducted at the National Field Observation and Research Station for Oasis Farmland Ecosystem in Aksu of Xinjiang in 2008. Water balance method was adopted to study the water requirement and water consumption law of cotton under mulched drip irrigation in Tarim Irrigated Area. Statistical analysis of experimental data of irrigation indicates that the relationship between yield of cotton and irrigation presents a quadratic parabola. We fit the model of cotton water production on the basis of field experimental data of cotton. And the analysis on water saving Benefit of cotton under mulched drip irrigation was done. Results indicate that water requirements for the irrigated cotton are 543 mm in Tarim Irrigated Area. The water requirements of seedling stage is 252 mm, budding stage is 186 mm, bolling stage is 316 mm and wadding stage is 139 mm. the irrigation amount determines the spatial distribution of soil moisture and water consumption during cotton life cycle. However, water consumption at different growth stages was inconsistent with irrigation. Quantitatively, the water consumed by cotton decreases upon the increase of irrigation amount. From the perspective of water saving, the maximal water use efficiency can reach 3 091 m3/ha. But the highest cotton yield needs 3464 m3/ha irrigation water. In summary, compared to the conventional drip irrigation, a number of benefits in water saving and yield increase were observed when using plastic mulch. At the same amount of irrigation, the cotton yield with plastic mulch was 30.2% higher than conventional approaches, and the efficiency of water utilization increased by 30.2%. While at the same yield level, 29.3% water was saved by using plastic mulch, and the efficiency increased by 41.5%

GROUP INVERSES FOR MATRICES OVER A BEZOUT DOMAIN ∗

Abstract. Suppose R is a Bezout domain. In this paper, some necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the group inverse for square matrix over R are given, the conditions for the existence of the group inverse of products of matrices are studied, and the equivalent conditions for reverse order law of group inverse of product of matrices are obtained. Also the existence and the representation of the group inverse for a class 2 × 2 block matrices over R are studied, and some well known relative results are generalized. Key words. Bezout domain, Group inverse, Right R–module, Block matrix. AMS subject classifications. 15A09

Online/Offline MA-CP-ABE with Cryptographic Reverse Firewalls for IoT

Devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) usually use cloud storage and cloud computing to save storage and computing cost. Therefore, the efficient realization of one-to-many communication of data on the premise of ensuring the security of cloud storage data is a challenge. Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption (CP-ABE) can not only protect the security of data in the cloud and achieve one-to-many communication but also achieve fine-grained access control for data. However, the single-authority CP-ABE faces the crisis of single point of failure. In order to improve security, the Multi-Authority CP-ABE (MA-CP-ABE) is adopted. Although there are provably-secure MA-CP-ABE schemes, Edward Snowden’s research shows that provably-secure cryptographic schemes are vulnerable to backdoor attacks, resulting in secret disclosure, and thus threatening security. In addition, ABE requires huge computational overhead in key generation, encryption and decryption, which increase with the increase in the number of attributes and the complexity of the access structure, and there are a large number of resource-constrained devices in the IoT. To mitigate this issue, we construct the Online/Offline MA-CP-ABE with Cryptographic Reverse Firewalls (OO-MA-CP-ABE-CRFs) scheme. This scheme not only uses Cryptographic Reverse Firewall (CRF) to resist backdoor attacks but also uses online/offline key generation, online/offline encryption and outsourcing encryption technology to optimize the efficiency of the MA-CP-ABE scheme with reverse firewall, reducing the storage and computing cost of users. Finally, the security of the OO-MA-CP-ABE-CRFs scheme is proved, and the experimental results indicate that the scheme is efficient and practical

A Lattice-Based Homomorphic Proxy Re-Encryption Scheme with Strong Anti-Collusion for Cloud Computing

The homomorphic proxy re-encryption scheme combines the characteristics of a homomorphic encryption scheme and proxy re-encryption scheme. The proxy can not only convert a ciphertext of the delegator into a ciphertext of the delegatee, but also can homomorphically calculate the original ciphertext and re-encryption ciphertext belonging to the same user, so it is especially suitable for cloud computing. Yin et al. put forward the concept of a strong collusion attack on a proxy re-encryption scheme, and carried out a strong collusion attack on the scheme through an example. The existing homomorphic proxy re-encryption schemes use key switching algorithms to generate re-encryption keys, so it can not resist strong collusion attack. In this paper, we construct the first lattice-based homomorphic proxy re-encryption scheme with strong anti-collusion (HPRE-SAC). Firstly, algorithm TrapGen is used to generate an encryption key and trapdoor, then trapdoor sampling is used to generate a decryption key and re-encryption key, respectively. Finally, in order to ensure the homomorphism of ciphertext, a key switching algorithm is only used to generate the evaluation key. Compared with the existing homomorphic proxy re-encryption schemes, our HPRE-SAC scheme not only can resist strong collusion attacks, but also has smaller parameters