Quantum and Classical Phases in Optomechanics

The control of quantum systems requires the ability to change and read-out the phase of a system. The non-commutativity of canonical conjugate operators can induce phases on quantum systems, which can be employed for implementing phase gates and for precision measurements. Here we study the phase acquired by a radiation field after its radiation pressure interaction with a mechanical oscillator, and compare the classical and quantum contributions. The classical description can reproduce the nonlinearity induced by the mechanical oscillator and the loss of correlations between mechanics and optical field at certain interaction times. Such features alone are therefore insufficient for probing the quantum nature of the interaction. Our results thus isolate genuine quantum contributions of the optomechanical interaction that could be probed in current experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

A fast and less expensive test to determine permeability-related parameters on well’s drilled cuttings.

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Large-scale automated identification of mouse brain cells in confocal light sheet microscopy images

Motivation: Recently, confocal light sheet microscopy has enabled high-throughput acquisition of whole mouse brain 3D images at the micron scale resolution. This poses the unprecedented challenge of creating accurate digital maps of the whole set of cells in a brain. Results: We introduce a fast and scalable algorithm for fully automated cell identification. We obtained the whole digital map of Purkinje cells in mouse cerebellum consisting of a set of 3D cell center coordinates. The method is accurate and we estimated an F(1) measure of 0.96 using 56 representative volumes, totaling 1.09 GVoxel and containing 4138 manually annotated soma centers. Availability and implementation: Source code and its documentation are available at http://bcfind.dinfo.unifi.it/. The whole pipeline of methods is implemented in Python and makes use of Pylearn2 and modified parts of Scikit-learn. Brain images are available on request. Contact: [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online

Bioresorbable ureteral stents from natural origin polymers

In this work, stents were produced from natural originpolysaccharides. Alginate, gellan gum, and a blend ofthese with gelatin were used to produce hollow tube (stents)following a combination of templated gelation and criticalpoint carbon dioxide drying. Morphological analysis of thesurface of the stents was carried out by scanning electronmicroscopy. Indwelling time, encrustation, and stability ofthe stents in artificial urine solution was carried out up to 60days of immersion. In vitro studies carried out with simulatedurine demonstrated that the tubes present a high fluid uptakeability, about 1000%. Despite this, the materials are able tomaintain their shape and do not present an extensive swellingbehavior. The bioresorption profile was observed to behighly dependent on the composition of the stent and it canbe tuned. Complete dissolution of the materials may occurbetween 14 and 60 days. Additionally, no encrustation wasobserved within the tested timeframe. The ability to resistbacterial adherence was evaluated with Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and two Gram-negatives Escherichia coliDH5 alpha and Klebsiella oxytoca. For K. oxytoca, no differenceswere observed in comparison with a commercialstent (BiosoftVR duo, Porges), although, for S. aureus alltested compositions had a higher inhibition of bacterialadhesion compared to the commercial stents. In case ofE. coli, the addition of gelatin to the formulations reducedthe bacterial adhesion in a highly significant manner comparedto the commercial stents. The stents produced by thedeveloped technology fulfill the requirements for ureteralstents and will contribute in the development of biocompatible and bioresorbable urinary stents.Contract grant sponsor: the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013); contract grant number: REGPOT-CT2012-316331POLARIS Contract grant sponsor: Novel smart and biomimetic materials for innovative regenerative medicine approaches”; contract grant number: RL1 – ABMR – NORTE-01-0124-FEDER-000016; North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Contract grant sponsor: FCT post-doc; contract grant numbers: SFRH/BPD/39333/2007, SFRH/BPD/90533/20

Caloric restriction rescues yeast cells from alpha-synuclein toxicity through autophagic control of proteostasis

α-Synuclein (SNCA) is a presynaptic protein that is associated with the pathophysiology of synucleinopathies, including Parkinson's disease. SNCA is a naturally aggregation-prone protein, which may be degraded by the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and by lysosomal degradation pathways. Besides being a target of the proteolytic systems, SNCA can also alter the function of these pathways further, contributing to the progression of neurodegeneration. Deterioration of UPS and autophagy activities with aging further aggravates this toxic cycle. Caloric restriction (CR) is still the most effective non-genetic intervention promoting lifespan extension. It is known that CR-mediated lifespan extension is linked to the regulation of proteolytic systems, but the mechanisms underlying CR rescue of SNCA toxicity remain poorly understood. This study shows that CR balances UPS and autophagy activities during aging. CR enhances UPS activity, reversing the decline of the UPS activity promoted by SNCA, and keeps autophagy at homeostatic levels. Maintenance of autophagy at homeostatic levels appears to be relevant for UPS activity and for the mechanism underlying rescue of cells from SNCA-mediated toxicity by CR.BSM and HP are supported by fellowships from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) (SFRH/BPD/90533/2012 and SFRH/BD/133087/2017, respectively).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Measuring forest fragmentation using multitemporal remotely sensed data: three decades of change in the Dry Chaco

We introduce an approach based on remotely sensed data to summarize forest fragmentation over time, which specifically accounts for the interdependencies between landscape composition and configuration changes. The proposed method consists of five steps: i) multitemporal landscape sampling, ii) calculation of selected landscape pattern indices, iii) statistical comparison, iv) construction of sampled-based relationship spaces, and v) trajectory analysis. To show how the proposed method works in practice we examined the multitemporal fragmentation of the Arid Chaco forest in central Argentina during the period 1979-2010 using forest maps derived from Landsat images. As shown by our results, the approach provides a consistent framework for the interpretation of landscape structural changes over time.Fil: Carranza, María Laura. Università degli Studi del Molise; ItaliaFil: Frate, Ludovico. Università degli Studi del Molise; ItaliaFil: Acosta, Alicia T. R.. Università degli Studi di Roma; ItaliaFil: Hoyos, Laura Emilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); ArgentinaFil: Ricotta, Carlo. Universidad de Roma; ItaliaFil: Cabido, Marcelo Ruben. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (p); Argentin

Schur complement inequalities for covariance matrices and monogamy of quantum correlations

We derive fundamental constraints for the Schur complement of positive matrices, which provide an operator strengthening to recently established information inequalities for quantum covariance matrices, including strong subadditivity. This allows us to prove general results on the monogamy of entanglement and steering quantifiers in continuous variable systems with an arbitrary number of modes per party. A powerful hierarchical relation for correlation measures based on the log-determinant of covariance matrices is further established for all Gaussian states, which has no counterpart among quantities based on the conventional von Neumann entropy

Quantum theory: the role of microsystems and macrosystems

We stress the notion of statistical experiment, which is mandatory for quantum mechanics, and recall Ludwig's foundation of quantum mechanics, which provides the most general framework to deal with statistical experiments giving evidence for particles. In this approach particles appear as interaction carriers between preparation and registration apparatuses. We further briefly point out the more modern and versatile formalism of quantum theory, stressing the relevance of probabilistic concepts in its formulation. At last we discuss the role of macrosystems, focusing on quantum field theory for their description and introducing for them objective state parameters.Comment: 12 pages. For special issue of J.Phys.A, "The Quantum Universe", on the occasion of 70th birthday of Professor Giancarlo Ghirard