446 research outputs found
T Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma 1A is essential for mouse epidermal keratinocytes proliferation promoted by insulin-like growth factor 1
T Cell Leukemia/Lymphoma 1A is expressed during B-cell differentiation and, when overexpressed, acts as an oncogene in mouse (Tcl1a) and human (TCL1A) B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) and T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL). Furthermore, in the murine system Tcl1a is expressed in the ovary, testis and in pre-implantation embryos, where it plays an important role in blastomere proliferation and in embryonic stem cell (ESC) proliferation and self-renewal. We have also observed that Tcl1-/-adult mice exhibit alopecia and deep ulcerations. This finding has led us to investigate the role of TCL1 in mouse skin and hair follicles. We have found that TCL1 is expressed in the proliferative structure (i.e.The secondary hair germ) and in the stem cell niche (i.e.The bulge) of the hair follicle during regeneration phase and it is constitutively expressed in the basal layer of epidermis where it is required for the correct proliferative-differentiation program of the keratinocytes (KCs). Taking advantage of the murine models we have generated, including the Tcl1-/-and the K14-TCL1 transgenic mouse, we have analysed the function of TCL1 in mouse KCs and the molecular pathways involved. We provide evidence that in the epidermal compartment TCL1 has a role in the regulation of KC proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In particular, the colony-forming efficiency (CFE) and the insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1)-induced proliferation are dramatically impaired, while apoptosis is increased, in KCs from Tcl1-/-mice when compared to WT. Moreover, the expression of differentiation markers such as cytokeratin 6 (KRT6), filaggrin (FLG) and involucrin (IVL) are profoundly altered in mutant mice (Tcl1-/-). Importantly, by over-expressing TCL1A in basal KCs of the K14-TCL1 transgenic mouse model, we observed a significant rescue of cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of the mutant phenotype. Finally, we found TCL1 to act, at least in part, via increasing phospho-ERK1/2 and decreasing phospho-P38 MAPK. Hence, our data demonstrate that regulated levels of Tcl1a are necessary for the correct proliferation and differentiation of the interfollicular KC
Instability and entanglement of the ground state of the Dicke model
Using tools of quantum information theory we show that the ground state of
the Dicke model exhibits an infinite sequence of instabilities
(quantum-phase-like transitions). These transitions are characterized by abrupt
changes of the bi-partite entanglement between atoms at critical values
of the atom-field coupling parameter and are accompanied by
discontinuities of the first derivative of the energy of the ground state. We
show that in a weak-coupling limit () the
Coffman-Kundu-Wootters (CKW) inequalities are saturated which proves that for
these values of the coupling no intrinsic multipartite entanglement (neither
among the atoms nor between the atoms and the field) is generated by the
atom-field interaction. We analyze also the atom-field entanglement and we show
that in the strong-coupling limit the field is entangled with the atoms so that
the von Neumann entropy of the atomic sample (that serves as a measure of the
atom-field entanglement) takes the value . The entangling
interaction with atoms leads to a highly sub-Poissonian photon statistics of
the field mode.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
An investigation on the impact of natural language on conversational recommendations
In this paper, we investigate the combination of Virtual Assistants and Conversational Recommender Systems (CoRSs) by designing and implementing a framework named ConveRSE, for building chatbots that can recommend items from different domains and interact with the user through natural language. An user experiment was carried out to understand how natural language influences both the cost of interaction and recommendation accuracy of a CoRS. Experimental results show that natural language can indeed improve user experience, but some critical aspects of the interaction should be mitigated appropriately
Collective atomic effects in resonance fluorescence
We suggest that the statistical properties of the scattered radiation in resonance-fluorescence experiments may be affected significantly by the existence of atomic correlations. The scattered light spectrum from two- and three-atom collective systems has been calculated and compared with the one-atom spectrum. The differences are quite significant for weak fields, but become less pronounced as the intensity of the driving field is increased. In addition, we have calculated the scattered intensity correlation function for collectively interacting systems, and found that its behavior is very different from that of the single-atom intensity correlation function, both for weak and strong incident fields. The implications of our findings for the observation of photon antibunching are also discussed
Fokker-Planck equation approach to optical bistability in the bad-cavity limit
In the general framework of the system size expansion of Van Kampen and Kubo, we consider the Fokker-Planck equation for a model of absorptive bistability in the bad-cavity limit. The physical system is described by the reduced atomic density operators after adiabatic elimination of the cavity field variables. Mapping of the master equation into c-number form according to the normal-ordering mapping scheme yields known results for the atomic fluctuations and correlation functions; however, it also leads to a Fokker-Planck equation with a non-positive-definite diffusion matrix. The symmetrical-order-mapping scheme eliminates this difficulty. The leading contribution to the system size expansion yields a Fokker-Planck equation for the symmetrical-ordered density function having a positive-definite diffusion matrix. The atomic expectation values and fluctuations previously derived from the quantum Langevin equations emerge naturally from this Fokker-Planck equation
Optical bistability: a self-consistent analysis of fluctuations and the spectrum of scattered light
The main purpose of this paper is to study the behavior of the atomic fluctuations and the spectrum of the light transmitted by an absorptive bistable device. To this end we develop an approximation scheme based on the so-called system-size expansion and apply it to the quantum-mechanical Langevin equations for the atomic fluctuation operators. The Bonifacio-Lugiato mean-field equations for bistability are derived from the lowest-order approximation to the system-size expansion, while the atomic correlation functions result from the next-higher-order expansion. The calculated spectrum of the transmitted light exhibits line narrowing near the bistable thresholds, discontinuous formation of sidebands along the high-transmission branch of the device, and hysteresis effects
A comparison of services for intent and entity recognition for conversational recommender systems
Conversational Recommender Systems (CoRSs) are becoming increasingly popular. However, designing and developing a CoRS is a challenging task since it requires multi-disciplinary skills. Even though several third-party services are available for supporting the creation of a CoRS, a comparative study of these platforms for the specific recommendation task is not available yet. In this work, we focus our attention on two crucial steps of the Conversational Recommendation (CoR) process, namely Intent and Entity Recognition. We compared four of the most popular services, both commercial and open source. Furthermore, we proposed two custom-made solutions for Entity Recognition, whose aim is to overcome the limitations of the other services. Results are very interesting and give a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of each solution
Quantum analysis of optical bistability and spectrum of fluctuations
We discuss the approach to equilibrium and the fluctuations of a bistable system under dynamical conditions such that the field variables can be eliminated adiabatically. The atomic system evolves under the action of the coherent pumping of an external field and of collective and incoherent relaxation processes. The competition between pumping and relaxation effects causes the atomic steady-state configurations to depend discontinuously on the strength of the driving field. We derive an explicit expression for the spectrum of the forward-scattered light, which exhibits hysteresis and a discontinuous dependence on the driving-field amplitude
Absorption spectrum of optically bistable systems
The quantum-mechanical theory of optical bistability developed in an earlier paper is generalized to calculate the absorption spectrum (gain coefficient) of an optically bistable system in the presence of a weak probe field. The behavior of the gain coefficient on the cooperative branch and the single-atom branch is analyzed in detail
Lamellar and «club-shaped» corpuscular nerve endings in human gingival mucosa. A light and electron microscopic study
A study on the presence of corpuscular nerve endings in human gingival mucosa was performed using both light and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) techniques. Both round and oval lamellar corpuscles were detected by light microscopy. They were located either subepithelially, close to the basement membrane, or within the papillae, deeply invaginated into the overlying epithelium. TEM techniques showed convoluted structures with unmyelinated fibre arborizations leading to an afferent fibre supported by the so called lamellar cells. The presence of blood vessels, collagenous fibrils, desmosome-like junctions, cytoplasmic organelles, as well as the similarity with some previously described mechanoreceptors, suggested the role of such corpuscular nerve endings in transmitting a nervous impulse induced by mechanical stimulation. Other simpler structures were also observed and named «club-shaped» corpuscles: they could support the more complex ones in responding to the strengths and the movements directly influencing the gingival mucosa.La prĂ©sence de terminaisons nerveuses corpusculaires dans la muqueuse gingivale humaine a Ă©tĂ© observĂ©e tant en microscopie optique quâen microscopie Ă©lectronique Ă transmission. En microscopie optique on a remarquĂ© des corpuscules lamellaires ronds et ovalaires, qui Ă©taient localisĂ©s tant au dessous de lâĂ©pithĂ©lium, tout prĂšs de la membrane basale, quâau dedans des papilles, profondĂ©ment insĂ©rĂ©s dans lâĂ©pithĂ©lium.En microscopie Ă©lectronique on a observĂ© des structures convolutĂ©es pourvues dâarborisations de fibres nerveuses sans myĂ©line qui vont se rĂ©unir dans une fibre affĂ©rente supportĂ©e par des cellules dites lamellaires. La prĂ©sence de vaisseaux, de fibrilles collagĂšnes, de jonctions telles que desmoses, dâinclusions cytoplasmiques autant que la ressemblance avec quelques mĂ©canorĂ©cepteurs dĂ©crits en littĂ©rature, suggĂ©rait un rĂŽle de ces terminaisons nerveuses corpusculaires en envoyant un impulse nerveux induit par une stimulation mĂ©canique. On a aussi observĂ© des corpuscules plus simples appelĂ©s «club-shaped» qui pourraient supporter les plus complexes dans la rĂ©ponse aux forces et aux mouvements qui influencent directement la muqueuse gingivale
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