Experimental Test of Quantum Jarzynski Equality with a Trapped Ion System

The past two decades witnessed important developments in the field of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics. Among these developments, the Jarzynski equality, being a milestone following the landmark work of Clausius and Kelvin, stands out. The Jarzynski equality relates the free energy difference between two equilibrium states and the work done on the system through far from equilibrium processes. While experimental tests of the equality have been performed in classical regime, the verification of the quantum Jarzynski equality has not yet been fully demonstrated due to experimental challenges. Here, we report an experimental test of the quantum Jarzynski equality with a single \Yb ion trapped in a harmonic potential. We perform projective measurements to obtain phonon distributions of the initial thermal state. Following that we apply the laser induced force on the projected energy eigenstate, and find transition probabilities to final energy eigenstates after the work is done. By varying the speed of applying the force from equilibrium to far-from equilibrium regime, we verified the quantum Jarzynski equality in an isolated system.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

2,4-Dichloro-6-[2-meth­oxy-4-(prop-2-en-1-yl)phen­oxy]-1,3,5-triazine

The title compound, C13H11Cl2N3O2, was obtained by the reaction of eugenol and cyanuric chloride. The dihedral angle between the benzene and triazine rings is 87.56 (4)°. Two C atoms of the allyl group are disordered over two sites in a 0.72 (2):0.28 (2) ratio

Separation of Pb2+ from Mg2+ by modified sugarcane bagasse under batch and column conditions: Effect of initial concentration ratio

AbstractEffect of initial concentration ratio C0Mg:C0Pb on separation of Pb2+ from Mg2+ by the modified sugarcane bagasse was carried out under batch and column conditions. For comparison, the adsorption performance of the modified SCB (sugarcane bagasse) for Pb2+ in one component system was studied under the two conditions. Amount of Pb2+ and Mg2+ adsorbed on the column in the binary system was calculated through the elution curves. Results showed that the adsorption capacity of Pb2+ qePb decreased while that of Mg2+ qeMg increases with the increase of C0Mg:C0Pb, and good linear relationships between C0Mg:C0Pb and qeMg/qePb were obtained under both conditions. According to the linear equations, mass ratio of metal ions adsorbed on the modified SCB was calculated. It was observed that mass ratio was higher than 95% for Pb2+ at C0Mg:C0Pb<0.022 while for Mg2+ at C0Mg:C0Pb>10.01 under batch condition. Under the column condition, high mass ratio (>95%) for Pb2+ and Mg2+ was obtained at C0Mg:C0Pb<1.24 and C0Mg:C0Pb>585.5, respectively. The above results showed that modified SCB could be used to separate Pb2+ and Mg2+ when C0Mg:C0Pb<1.24 (Pb2+ adsorbed selectively) or C0Mg:C0Pb>10.01 (Mg2+ adsorbed selectively). These findings would provide theoretical guidance for separation of metal ions

Early Blockade of TLRs MyD88-Dependent Pathway May Reduce Secondary Spinal Cord Injury in the Rats

To determine the role of toll-like receptors (TLRs) myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) dependent pathway in the spinal cord secondary injury, compression injury was made at T8 segment of the spinal cord in adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Shown by RT-PCR, TLR4 mRNA in the spinal cord was quickly elevated after compression injury. Intramedullary injection of MyD88 inhibitory peptide (MIP) resulted in significant improvement in locomotor function recovery at various time points after surgery. Meanwhile, injury area, p38 phosphorylation, and proinflammation cytokines in the injured spinal cord were significantly reduced in MIP-treated animals, compared with control peptide (CP) group. These data suggest that TLRs MyD88-dependent pathway may play an important role in the development of secondary spinal cord injury, and inhibition of this pathway at early time after primary injury could effectively protect cells from inflammation and apoptosis and therefore improve the functional recovery

An efficient and rapid method to detect and verify natural antisense transcripts of animal genes

AbstractHigh-throughput sequencing has identified a large number of sense-antisense transcriptional pairs, which indicates that these genes were transcribed from both directions. Recent reports have demonstrated that many antisense RNAs, especially lncRNA (long non-coding RNA), can interact with the sense RNA by forming an RNA duplex. Many methods, such as RNA-sequencing, Northern blotting, RNase protection assays and strand-specific PCR, can be used to detect the antisense transcript and gene transcriptional orientation. However, the applications of these methods have been constrained, to some extent, because of the high cost, difficult operation or inaccuracy, especially regarding the analysis of substantial amounts of data. Thus, we developed an easy method to detect and validate these complicated RNAs. We primarily took advantage of the strand specificity of RT-PCR and the single-strand specificity of S1 endonuclease to analyze sense and antisense transcripts. Four known genes, including mouse β-actin and Tsix (Xist antisense RNA), chicken LXN (latexin) and GFM1 (G elongation factor, mitochondrial 1), were used to establish the method. These four genes were well studied and transcribed from positive strand, negative strand or both strands of DNA, respectively, which represented all possible cases. The results indicated that the method can easily distinguish sense, antisense and sense-antisense transcriptional pairs. In addition, it can be used to verify the results of high-throughput sequencing, as well as to analyze the regulatory mechanisms between RNAs. This method can improve the accuracy of detection and can be mainly used in analyzing single gene and was low cost

Mucin Production and Mucous Cell Metaplasia in Otitis Media

Otitis media (OM) with mucoid effusion, characterized by mucous cell metaplasia/hyperplasia in the middle ear cleft and thick fluid accumulation in the middle ear cavity, is a subtype of OM which frequently leads to chronic OM in young children. Multiple factors are involved in the developmental process of OM with mucoid effusion, especially disorders of mucin production resulting from middle ear bacterial infection and Eustachian tube dysfunction. In this review, we will focus on several aspects of this disorder by analyzing the cellular and molecular events such as mucin production and mucous cell differentiation in the middle ear mucosa with OM. In addition, infectious agents, mucin production triggers, and relevant signaling pathways will be discussed