Development of outbred CD1 mouse colonies with distinct standardized gut microbiota profiles for use in complex microbiota targeted studies.

Studies indicate that the gut microbiota (GM) can significantly influence both local and systemic host physiologic processes. With rising concern for optimization of experimental reproducibility and translatability, it is essential to consider the GM in study design. However, GM profiles can vary between rodent producers making consistency between models challenging. To circumvent this, we developed outbred CD1 mouse colonies with stable, complex GM profiles that can be used as donors for a variety of GM transfer techniques including rederivation, co-housing, cross-foster, and fecal microbiota transfer (FMT). CD1 embryos were surgically transferred into CD1 or C57BL/6 surrogate dams that varied by GM composition and complexity to establish four separate mouse colonies harboring GM profiles representative of contemporary mouse producers. Using targeted 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, subsequent female offspring were found to have similar GM profiles to surrogate dams. Furthermore, breeding colonies of CD1 mice with distinct GM profiles were maintained for nine generations, demonstrating GM stability within these colonies. To confirm GM stability, we shipped cohorts of these four colonies to collaborating institutions and found no significant variation in GM composition. These mice are an invaluable experimental resource that can be used to investigate GM effects on mouse model phenotype

Expertise Shapes Multimodal Imagery for Wine

Although taste and smell seem hard to imagine, some people nevertheless report vivid imagery in these sensory modalities. We investigate whether experts are better able to imagine smells and tastes because they have learned the ability, or whether they are better imaginers in the first place, and so become experts. To test this, we first compared a group of wine experts to yoked novices using a battery of questionnaires. We show for the first time that experts report greater vividness of wine imagery, with no difference in vividness across sensory modalities. In contrast, novices had more vivid color imagery than taste or odor imagery for wines. Experts and novices did not differ on other vividness of imagery measures, suggesting a domain-specific effect of expertise. Critically, in a second study, we followed a group of students commencing a wine course and a group of matched control participants. Students and controls did not differ before the course, but after the wine course students reported more vivid wine imagery. We provide evidence that expertise improves imagery, exemplifying the extent of plasticity of cognition underlying the chemical senses

Relation between geometric phases of entangled bi-partite systems and their subsystems

This paper focuses on the geometric phase of entangled states of bi-partite systems under bi-local unitary evolution. We investigate the relation between the geometric phase of the system and those of the subsystems. It is shown that (1) the geometric phase of cyclic entangled states with non-degenerate eigenvalues can always be decomposed into a sum of weighted non-modular pure state phases pertaining to the separable components of the Schmidt decomposition, though the same cannot be said in the non-cyclic case, and (2) the geometric phase of the mixed state of one subsystem is generally different from that of the entangled state even by keeping the other subsystem fixed, but the two phases are the same when the evolution operator satisfies conditions where each component in the Schmidt decomposition is parallel transported

Electron spin resonance of nitrogen-vacancy centers in optically trapped nanodiamonds

Using an optical tweezers apparatus, we demonstrate three-dimensional control of nanodiamonds in solution with simultaneous readout of ground-state electron-spin resonance (ESR) transitions in an ensemble of diamond nitrogen-vacancy (NV) color centers. Despite the motion and random orientation of NV centers suspended in the optical trap, we observe distinct peaks in the measured ESR spectra qualitatively similar to the same measurement in bulk. Accounting for the random dynamics, we model the ESR spectra observed in an externally applied magnetic field to enable d.c. magnetometry in solution. We estimate the d.c. magnetic field sensitivity based on variations in ESR line shapes to be ~50 microTesla/Hz^1/2. This technique may provide a pathway for spin-based magnetic, electric, and thermal sensing in fluidic environments and biophysical systems inaccessible to existing scanning probe techniques.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures for manuscript and supporting informatio

Identifying the mechanisms underpinning recognition of structured sequences of action

© 2012 The Experimental Psychology SocietyWe present three experiments to identify the specific information sources that skilled participants use to make recognition judgements when presented with dynamic, structured stimuli. A group of less skilled participants acted as controls. In all experiments, participants were presented with filmed stimuli containing structured action sequences. In a subsequent recognition phase, participants were presented with new and previously seen stimuli and were required to make judgements as to whether or not each sequence had been presented earlier (or were edited versions of earlier sequences). In Experiment 1, skilled participants demonstrated superior sensitivity in recognition when viewing dynamic clips compared with static images and clips where the frames were presented in a nonsequential, randomized manner, implicating the importance of motion information when identifying familiar or unfamiliar sequences. In Experiment 2, we presented normal and mirror-reversed sequences in order to distort access to absolute motion information. Skilled participants demonstrated superior recognition sensitivity, but no significant differences were observed across viewing conditions, leading to the suggestion that skilled participants are more likely to extract relative rather than absolute motion when making such judgements. In Experiment 3, we manipulated relative motion information by occluding several display features for the duration of each film sequence. A significant decrement in performance was reported when centrally located features were occluded compared to those located in more peripheral positions. Findings indicate that skilled participants are particularly sensitive to relative motion information when attempting to identify familiarity in dynamic, visual displays involving interaction between numerous features

Optical state engineering, quantum communication, and robustness of entanglement promiscuity in three-mode Gaussian states

We present a novel, detailed study on the usefulness of three-mode Gaussian states states for realistic processing of continuous-variable quantum information, with a particular emphasis on the possibilities opened up by their genuine tripartite entanglement. We describe practical schemes to engineer several classes of pure and mixed three-mode states that stand out for their informational and/or entanglement properties. In particular, we introduce a simple procedure -- based on passive optical elements -- to produce pure three-mode Gaussian states with {\em arbitrary} entanglement structure (upon availability of an initial two-mode squeezed state). We analyze in depth the properties of distributed entanglement and the origin of its sharing structure, showing that the promiscuity of entanglement sharing is a feature peculiar to symmetric Gaussian states that survives even in the presence of significant degrees of mixedness and decoherence. Next, we discuss the suitability of the considered tripartite entangled states to the implementation of quantum information and communication protocols with continuous variables. This will lead to a feasible experimental proposal to test the promiscuous sharing of continuous-variable tripartite entanglement, in terms of the optimal fidelity of teleportation networks with Gaussian resources. We finally focus on the application of three-mode states to symmetric and asymmetric telecloning, and single out the structural properties of the optimal Gaussian resources for the latter protocol in different settings. Our analysis aims to lay the basis for a practical quantum communication with continuous variables beyond the bipartite scenario.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures (some low-res due to size constraints), IOP style; (v2) improved and reorganized, accepted for publication in New Journal of Physic

Natural Rolling Responses of a Delta Wing in Transonic and Subsonic Flows

The unsteady, three-dimensional, full Navier-Stokes (NS) equations and the Euler equations of rigid-body dynamics are sequentially solved to simulate the natural rolling response of slender delta wings of zero thickness at moderate to high angles of attack, to transonic and subsonic flows. The governing equations of fluid flow and dynamics of the present multi-disciplinary problem are solved using the time-accurate solution of the NS equations with the implicit, upwind, Roe flux-difference splitting, finite-volume scheme and a four-stage Runge-Kutta scheme, respectively. The main focus is to analyze the effect of Mach number and angle of attack on the leading edge vortices and their breakdown, the resultant rolling motion, and overall aerodynamic response of the wing. Three cases demonstrate the natural response of a 65 deg swept, cropped delta wing in a transonic flow with breakdown of the leading edge vortices and an 80 deg swept delta wing in a subsonic flow undergoing either damped or self-excited limit-cycle rolling oscillations as a function of angle of attack. Comparisons with an experimental investigation completes this study, validating the analysis and illustrating the complex details afforded by computational investigations

Mutually unbiased bases: tomography of spin states and star-product scheme

Mutually unbiased bases (MUBs) are considered within the framework of a generic star-product scheme. We rederive that a full set of MUBs is adequate for a spin tomography, i.e. knowledge of all probabilities to find a system in each MUB-state is enough for a state reconstruction. Extending the ideas of the tomographic-probability representation and the star-product scheme to MUB-tomography, dequantizer and quantizer operators for MUB-symbols of spin states and operators are introduced, ordinary and dual star-product kernels are found. Since MUB-projectors are to obey specific rules of the star-product scheme, we reveal the Lie algebraic structure of MUB-projectors and derive new relations on triple- and four-products of MUB-projectors. Example of qubits is considered in detail. MUB-tomography by means of Stern-Gerlach apparatus is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 1 table, partially presented at the 17th Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics (CEWQO'2010), June 6-11, 2010, St. Andrews, Scotland, U

Capturing and testing perceptual-cognitive expertise: A comparison of stationary and movement response methods

Numerous methods have been used to study expertise and performance. In the present article, we compare the cognitive thought processes of skilled soccer players when responding to film-based simulations of defensive situations involving two different experimental conditions. Participants either remained stationary in a seated position (n = 10) or were allowed to move (n = 10) in response to life-size film sequences of 11 versus 11 open-play soccer situations viewed from a player’s perspective. Response accuracy and retrospective verbal reports of thinking were collected across the two task conditions. In the movement-based response group, participants generated a greater number of verbal report statements, including a higher proportion of evaluation, prediction, and action planning statements, than did participants in the stationary group. Findings suggest that the processing strategies employed during performance differ depending on the nature of the response required of participants. Implications for behavioral methods and experimental design are discussed