474 research outputs found
Phospholipid metabolism by phagocytic cells. Phospholipases A2 associated with rabbit polymorphonuclear leukocyte granules
Polymorphonuclear leukocytes obtained from sterile peritoneal exudates in rabbits contain two phospholipid-splitting activities (phosphatidylacylhydrolases EC 3.1.1.4), one most active at pH 5.5 and the other between pH 7.2 and 9.0. Hydrolysis of phospholipid was demonstrated using Escherichia coli labeled during growth with [1-(14)C]oleate and then autoclaved to inactivate E. coli phospholipases and to increase the accessibility of the microbial phospholipid substrates. The acid and alkaline phospholipase activities are both membrane bound, calcium dependent, and heat stable, and they appear to be specific for the 2-acyl position of phospholipids. Evidence was also obtained suggesting that the E. coli envelope phospholipids with oleate in position 2 are more readily degraded than those with palmitate. The two activities are associated with azurophilic as well as specific granules (obtained by zonal centrifugation) and with phagosomes (isolated after ingestion of paraffin particles by the granulocytes). Phospholipase A activities at pH 5.5 and pH 7.5 degrade the two major phospholipids of E. coli, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylglycerol, to the same extent, but the phospholipase activity at acid pH does not hydrolyze micellar dispersions of phosphatidylethanolamine. By contrast, phospholipase A(2) activity at pH 7.5 degrades both types of phosphatidylethanolamine substrates. Heparin and chondroitin sulfate inhibit phospholipase activity at pH 5.5 but have little effect on activity at pH 7.5. All detergents tested inhibited phospholipase activity, and both activities are inhibited by reaction products, free fatty acid and lysophosphatidylethanolamine. This product inhibition is only partially prevented by addition of albumin. Supernatant fractions of granulocyte homogenates contain a heat-labile inhibitor of granule phospholipase activity at pH 7.5. Boiling the fraction not only removes the inhibition but actually results in stimulation of hydrolysis at pH 7.5 as well as pH 5.5. These granule-associated phospholipase A activities of polymorphonuclear leukocytes differ in several of their properties from granule or lysosomal phospholipases of other phagocytic cells
All-Optical Switching Using the Quantum Zeno Effect and Two-Photon Absorption
We have previously shown that the quantum Zeno effect can be used to
implement quantum logic gates for quantum computing applications, where the
Zeno effect was produced using a strong two-photon absorbing medium. Here we
show that the Zeno effect can also be used to implement classical logic gates
whose inputs and outputs are high-intensity fields (coherent states). The
operation of the devices can be understood using a quasi-static analysis, and
their switching times are calculated using a dynamic approach. The two-photon
absorption coefficient of rubidium vapor is shown to allow operation of these
devices at relatively low power levels.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Sensitivity of entangled photon holes to loss and amplification
Energy-time entangled photon holes are shown to be relatively insensitive to
photon loss due to absorption by atoms whose coherence times are longer than
the time delays typically employed in nonlocal interferometry (a fraction of a
nanosecond). Roughly speaking, the excited atoms do not retain any significant
"which-path" information regarding the time at which a photon was absorbed.
High-intensity entangled photon holes can also be amplified under similar
conditions. Decoherence does occur from losses at beam splitters, and these
results show that photon loss cannot always be adequately modeled using a
sequence of beam splitters. These properties of entangled photon holes may be
useful in quantum communications systems where the range of the system is
limited by photon loss.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure
Investigation of a single-photon source based on quantum interference
We report on an experimental investigation of a single-photon source based on
a quantum interference effect first demonstrated by Koashi, Matsuoka, and
Hirano [Phys. Rev. A 53, 3621 (1996)]. For certain types of measurement-based
quantum information processing applications this technique may be useful as a
high rate, but random, source of single photons.Comment: Submitted to the New J. Phys. Focus Issue on "Measurement-based
quantum information processing
Time-bin entangled photon holes
The general concept of entangled photon holes is based on a correlated
absence of photon pairs in an otherwise constant optical background. Here we
consider the specialized case when this background is confined to two
well-defined time bins, which allows the formation of time-bin entangled photon
holes. We show that when the typical coherent state background is replaced by a
true single-photon (Fock state) background, the basic time-bin entangled
photon-hole state becomes equivalent to one of the time-bin entangled
photon-pair states. We experimentally demonstrate these ideas using a
parametric down-conversion photon-pair source, linear optics, and
post-selection to violate a Bell inequality with time-bin entangled photon
holes.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
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