153 research outputs found
Isolation of the first toxin from the scorpion Buthus occitanus israelis showing preference for Shaker potassium channels
AbstractWe have purified BoiTx1, the first toxin from the venom of the Israeli scorpion, Buthus occitanus israelis, and studied its activity and genomic organization. BoiTx1 is a 37 amino acid-long peptide contained six conserved cysteines, and is classified as an α-KTx3.10 toxin. The pharmacological effects of BoiTx1 were studied on various cloned K+ channels expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. BoiTx1 inhibited currents through Drosophila Shaker channels with an IC50 value of 3.5±0.5nM, yet had much lesser effect on its mammalian orthologs. Thus, BoiTx1 is the first member of the α-KTx3 family that preferentially affects insect potassium channels
Correcting quantum errors with the Zeno effect
In order to reduce errors, error correction codes (ECCs) need to be
implemented fast. They can correct the errors corresponding to the first few
orders in the Taylor expansion of the Hamiltonian of the interaction with the
environment. If implemented fast enough, the zeroth order error predominates
and the dominant effect is of error prevention by measurement (Zeno Effect)
rather than correction. In this ``Zeno Regime'', codes with less redundancy are
sufficient for protection. We describe such a simple scheme, which uses two
``noiseless'' qubits to protect a large number, , of information qubits from
noise from the environment. The ``noisless qubits'' can be realized by treating
them as logical qubits to be encoded by one of the previously introduced
encoding schemes.Comment: 11 page
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