Robust entanglement generation by reservoir engineering

Following a recent proposal [C. Muschik et. al., Phys. Rev. A 83, 052312 (2011)], engineered dissipative processes have been used for the generation of stable entanglement between two macroscopic atomic ensembles at room temperature [H. Krauter et. al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 080503 (2011)]. This experiment included the preparation of entangled states which are continuously available during a time interval of one hour. Here, we present additional material, further-reaching data and an extension of the theory developed in [C. Muschik et. al., Phys. Rev. A 83, 052312 (2011)]. In particular, we show how the combination of the entangling dissipative mechanism with measurements can give rise to a substantial improvement of the generated entanglement in the presence of noise.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Physics B, special issue on "Quantum Memory

Entanglement generated by dissipation and steady state entanglement of two macroscopic objects

Entanglement is a striking feature of quantum mechanics and an essential ingredient in most applications in quantum information. Typically, coupling of a system to an environment inhibits entanglement, particularly in macroscopic systems. Here we report on an experiment, where dissipation continuously generates entanglement between two macroscopic objects. This is achieved by engineering the dissipation using laser- and magnetic fields, and leads to robust event-ready entanglement maintained for 0.04s at room temperature. Our system consists of two ensembles containing about 10^{12} atoms and separated by 0.5m coupled to the environment composed of the vacuum modes of the electromagnetic field. By combining the dissipative mechanism with a continuous measurement, steady state entanglement is continuously generated and observed for up to an hour.Comment: This is an update of the preprint from June 2010. It includes new results on the creation of steady state entanglement, which has been maintained up to one hou

Loss-of-activity-mutation in the cardiac chloride-bicarbonate exchanger AE3 causes short QT syndrome

Mutations in potassium and calcium channel genes have been associated with cardiac arrhythmias. Here, Jensen et al. show that an anion transporter chloride-bicarbonate exchanger AE3 is also responsible for the genetically-induced mechanism of cardiac arrhythmia, suggesting new therapeutic targets for this diseas

Metal-macrofauna interactions determine microbial community structure and function in copper contaminated sediments

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A novel class of microRNA-recognition elements that function only within open reading frames.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are well known to target 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs) in mRNAs, thereby silencing gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Multiple reports have also indicated the ability of miRNAs to target protein-coding sequences (CDS); however, miRNAs have been generally believed to function through similar mechanisms regardless of the locations of their sites of action. Here, we report a class of miRNA-recognition elements (MREs) that function exclusively in CDS regions. Through functional and mechanistic characterization of these 'unusual' MREs, we demonstrate that CDS-targeted miRNAs require extensive base-pairing at the 3' side rather than the 5' seed; cause gene silencing in an Argonaute-dependent but GW182-independent manner; and repress translation by inducing transient ribosome stalling instead of mRNA destabilization. These findings reveal distinct mechanisms and functional consequences of miRNAs that target CDS versus the 3' UTR and suggest that CDS-targeted miRNAs may use a translational quality-control-related mechanism to regulate translation in mammalian cells

Genome-wide association study of school grades identifies genetic overlap between language ability, psychopathology and creativity

Cognitive functions of individuals with psychiatric disorders differ from that of the general population. Such cognitive differences often manifest early in life as differential school performance and have a strong genetic basis. Here we measured genetic predictors of school performance in 30,982 individuals in English, Danish and mathematics via a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and studied their relationship with risk for six major psychiatric disorders. When decomposing the school performance into math and language-specific performances, we observed phenotypically and genetically a strong negative correlation between math performance and risk for most psychiatric disorders. But language performance correlated positively with risk for certain disorders, especially schizophrenia, which we replicate in an independent sample (n = 4547). We also found that the genetic variants relating to increased risk for schizophrenia and better language performance are overrepresented in individuals involved in creative professions (n = 2953) compared to the general population (n = 164,622). The findings together suggest that language ability, creativity and psychopathology might stem from overlapping genetic roots.Peer reviewe