Enhanced Infection of Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells in a Mouse Model of Antibody-Induced Severe Dengue Disease

SummaryDengue virus (DENV) causes disease ranging from dengue fever (DF), a self-limited febrile illness, to the potentially lethal dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome (DHF/DSS). DHF/DSS usually occurs in patients who have acquired DENV-reactive antibodies prior to infection, either from a previous infection with a heterologous DENV serotype or from an immune mother. Hence, it has been hypothesized that subneutralizing levels of antibodies exacerbate disease, a phenomenon termed antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE). However, given the lack of suitable animal models for DENV infection, the mechanism of ADE and its contribution to pathology remain elusive. Here we demonstrate in mice that DENV-specific antibodies can sufficiently increase severity of disease so that a mostly nonlethal illness becomes a fatal disease resembling human DHF/DSS. Antibodies promote massive infection of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs), resulting in increased systemic levels of virus. Thus, a subprotective humoral response may, under some circumstances, have pathological consequences

Прогнозирование временного сопротивления разрыву малоуглеродистой низколегированной арматурной стали на основе системы частных регрессионных моделей

Предложен способ декомпозиции многофакторной регрессионной модели прогнозирования механических свойств арматурного проката. Обоснована система частных регрессионных моделей прогнозирования временного сопротивления разрыву арматурного проката. Показано, что полученные результаты хорошо согласуются с экспериментальными данными

Quantum recoil effects in finite-time disentanglement of two distinguishable atoms

Starting from the requirement of distinguishability of two atoms by their positions, it is shown that photon recoil has a strong influence on finite-time disentanglement and in some cases prevents its appearance. At near-field inter atomic distances well localized atoms, with maximally one atom being initially excited, may suffer disentanglement at a single finite time or even at a series of equidistant finite times, depending on their mean inter atomic distance and their initial electronic preparation.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review on august 2

Deconvolution of pro- and antiviral genomic responses in Zika virus-infected and bystander macrophages.

Genome-wide investigations of host-pathogen interactions are often limited by analyses of mixed populations of infected and uninfected cells, which lower sensitivity and accuracy. To overcome these obstacles and identify key mechanisms by which Zika virus (ZIKV) manipulates host responses, we developed a system that enables simultaneous characterization of genome-wide transcriptional and epigenetic changes in ZIKV-infected and neighboring uninfected primary human macrophages. We demonstrate that transcriptional responses in ZIKV-infected macrophages differed radically from those in uninfected neighbors and that studying the cell population as a whole produces misleading results. Notably, the uninfected population of macrophages exhibits the most rapid and extensive changes in gene expression, related to type I IFN signaling. In contrast, infected macrophages exhibit a delayed and attenuated transcriptional response distinguished by preferential expression of IFNB1 at late time points. Biochemical and genomic studies of infected macrophages indicate that ZIKV infection causes both a targeted defect in the type I IFN response due to degradation of STAT2 and reduces RNA polymerase II protein levels and DNA occupancy, particularly at genes required for macrophage identity. Simultaneous evaluation of transcriptomic and epigenetic features of infected and uninfected macrophages thereby reveals the coincident evolution of dominant proviral or antiviral mechanisms, respectively, that determine the outcome of ZIKV exposure

Structural Decomposition Analysis of CO2 Emission Reduction due to Energy Tax in Power Sector Planning

This study analyses the CO2 emission implications of considering energy tax in power sector planning for the case of Indonesia. There are four energy tax rates considered in this study i.e. US$0.5/MBtu, US$1.0/MBtu, US$2.0/MBtu and US$5/MBtu. Furthermore, this study also analyses the decomposition of the economy-wide CO2 emission changes due to the carbon tax rates by using an input-output model. The implications of energy tax on utility planning would bring the sytem more efficient because more energy efficient technology power plants, such as CCGT, would be selected, while in the case of environmental implications, CO2 emissions would be reduced. The results show that there is a significant change in the annual CO2 emissions if energy tax rate of US$5/MBtu is introduced. There are three major components that affect the total economy-wide change in CO2 emissions, i.e., fuel mix-, structural-, and final demand- effects. The results show that the fuel mix effect is found to be most influential in reducing the CO2 emission during the planning horizon under all of the energy tax rates considered and is followed by the final demandand structural-effects

Suppression of decoherence by bath ordering

The dynamics of two coupled spins-1/2 coupled to a spin-bath is studied as an extended model of the Tessieri-Wilkie Hamiltonian \cite{TWmodel}. The pair of spins served as an open subsystem were prepared in one of the Bell states and the bath consisted of some spins-1/2 is in a thermal equilibrium state from the very beginning. It is found that with the increasing the coupling strength of the bath spins, the bath forms a resonant antiferromagnetic order. The polarization correlation between the two spins of the subsystem and the concurrence are recovered in some extent to the isolated subsystem. This suppression of the subsystem decoherence may be used to control the quantum devices in practical applications.Comment: 32 pages, Chinese Physics (accepted

Moving Atom-Field Interaction: Correction to Casimir-Polder Effect from Coherent Back-action

The Casimir-Polder force is an attractive force between a polarizable atom and a conducting or dielectric boundary. Its original computation was in terms of the Lamb shift of the atomic ground state in an electromagnetic field (EMF) modified by boundary conditions along the wall and assuming a stationary atom. We calculate the corrections to this force due to a moving atom, demanding maximal preservation of entanglement generated by the moving atom-conducting wall system. We do this by using non-perturbative path integral techniques which allow for coherent back-action and thus can treat non-Markovian processes. We recompute the atom-wall force for a conducting boundary by allowing the bare atom-EMF ground state to evolve (or self-dress) into the interacting ground state. We find a clear distinction between the cases of stationary and adiabatic motions. Our result for the retardation correction for adiabatic motion is up to twice as much as that computed for stationary atoms. We give physical interpretations of both the stationary and adiabatic atom-wall forces in terms of alteration of the virtual photon cloud surrounding the atom by the wall and the Doppler effect.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, clarified discussions; to appear in Phys. Rev.

The Rotating-Wave Approximation: Consistency and Applicability from an Open Quantum System Analysis

We provide an in-depth and thorough treatment of the validity of the rotating-wave approximation (RWA) in an open quantum system. We find that when it is introduced after tracing out the environment, all timescales of the open system are correctly reproduced, but the details of the quantum state may not be. The RWA made before the trace is more problematic: it results in incorrect values for environmentally-induced shifts to system frequencies, and the resulting theory has no Markovian limit. We point out that great care must be taken when coupling two open systems together under the RWA. Though the RWA can yield a master equation of Lindblad form similar to what one might get in the Markovian limit with white noise, the master equation for the two coupled systems is not a simple combination of the master equation for each system, as is possible in the Markovian limit. Such a naive combination yields inaccurate dynamics. To obtain the correct master equation for the composite system a proper consideration of the non-Markovian dynamics is required.Comment: 17 pages, 0 figures

Moving Atom-Field Interactions: Quantum Motional Decoherence and Relaxation

The reduced dynamics of an atomic qubit coupled both to its own quantized center of mass motion through the spatial mode functions of the electromagnetic field, as well as the vacuum modes, is calculated in the influence functional formalism. The formalism chosen can describe the entangled non-Markovian evolution of the system with a full account of the coherent back-action of the environment on the qubit. We find a slight increase in the decoherence due to the quantized center of mass motion and give a condition on the mass and qubit resonant frequency for which the effect is important. In optically resonant alkali-metal atom systems, we find the effect to be negligibly small. The framework presented here can nevertheless be used for general considerations of the coherent evolution of qubits in moving atoms in an electromagnetic field.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure, minor change