DDMF: An Efficient Decision Diagram Structure for Design Verification of Quantum Circuits under a Practical Restriction

Recently much attention has been paid to quantum circuit design to prepare for the future "quantum computation era." Like the conventional logic synthesis, it should be important to verify and analyze the functionalities of generated quantum circuits. For that purpose, we propose an efficient verification method for quantum circuits under a practical restriction. Thanks to the restriction, we can introduce an efficient verification scheme based on decision diagrams called Decision Diagrams for Matrix Functions (DDMFs). Then, we show analytically the advantages of our approach based on DDMFs over the previous verification techniques. In order to introduce DDMFs, we also introduce new concepts, quantum functions and matrix functions, which may also be interesting and useful on their own for designing quantum circuits.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, to appear IEICE Trans. Fundamentals, Vol. E91-A, No.1

TGF-β receptor kinase inhibitor enhances growth and integrity of embryonic stem cell–derived endothelial cells

Recent findings have shown that embryonic vascular progenitor cells are capable of differentiating into mural and endothelial cells. However, the molecular mechanisms that regulate their differentiation, proliferation, and endothelial sheet formation remain to be elucidated. Here, we show that members of the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β superfamily play important roles during differentiation of vascular progenitor cells derived from mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and from 8.5–days postcoitum embryos. TGF-β and activin inhibited proliferation and sheet formation of endothelial cells. Interestingly, SB-431542, a synthetic molecule that inhibits the kinases of receptors for TGF-β and activin, facilitated proliferation and sheet formation of ESC-derived endothelial cells. Moreover, SB-431542 up-regulated the expression of claudin-5, an endothelial specific component of tight junctions. These results suggest that endogenous TGF-β/activin signals play important roles in regulating vascular growth and permeability

Comprehensive gene expression analysis of 5\u27-end of mRNA identified novel intronic transcripts associated with hepatocellular carcinoma

金沢大学医薬保健研究域医学系To elucidate the molecular feature of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we performed 5\u27-end serial analysis of gene expression (5\u27SAGE), which allows genome-wide identification of transcription start sites in addition to quantification of mRNA transcripts. Three 5\u27SAGE libraries were generated from normal human liver (NL), non-B, non-C HCC tumor (T), and background non-tumor tissues (NT). We obtained 226,834 tags from these libraries and mapped them to the genomic sequences of a total of 8,410 genes using RefSeq database. We identified several novel transcripts specifically expressed in HCC including those mapped to the intronic regions. Among them, we confirmed the transcripts initiated from the introns of a gene encoding acyl-coenzyme A oxidase 2 (. ACOX2). The expression of these transcript variants were up-regulated in HCC and showed a different pattern compared with that of ordinary ACOX2 mRNA. The present results indicate that the transcription initiation of a subset of genes may be distinctively altered in HCC, which may suggest the utility of intronic RNAs as surrogate tumor markers. © 2010 Elsevier Inc

Üsküdar mesireleri

Taha Toros Arşivi, Dosya No: 63-Salacak-Üsküdarİstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (TR10/14/YEN/0033) İstanbul Development Agency (TR10/14/YEN/0033

Effect of amorphous silica nanoparticles on in vitro RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation in murine macrophages

Amorphous silica nanoparticles (nSP) have been used as a polishing agent and/or as a remineralization promoter for teeth in the oral care field. The present study investigates the effects of nSP on osteoclast differentiation and the relationship between particle size and these effects. Our results revealed that nSP exerted higher cytotoxicity in macrophage cells compared with submicron-sized silica particles. However, tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity and the number of osteoclast cells (TRAP-positive multinucleated cells) were not changed by nSP treatment in the presence of receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand (RANKL) at doses that did not induce cytotoxicity by silica particles. These results indicated that nSP did not cause differentiation of osteoclasts. Collectively, the results suggested that nanosilica exerts no effect on RANKL-induced osteoclast differentiation of RAW264.7 cells, although a detailed mechanistic examination of the nSP70-mediated cytotoxic effect is needed

Promotion of allergic immune responses by intranasally-administrated nanosilica particles in mice

With the increase in use of nanomaterials, there is growing concern regarding their potential health risks. However, few studies have assessed the role of the different physical characteristics of nanomaterials in allergic responses. Here, we examined whether intranasally administered silica particles of various sizes have the capacity to promote allergic immune responses in mice. We used nanosilica particles with diameters of 30 or 70 nm (nSP30 or nSP70, respectively), and conventional micro-sized silica particles with diameters of 300 or 1000 nm (nSP300 or mSP1000, respectively). Mice were intranasally exposed to ovalbumin (OVA) plus each silica particle, and the levels of OVA-specific antibodies (Abs) in the plasma were determined. Intranasal exposure to OVA plus smaller nanosilica particles tended to induce a higher level of OVA-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) E, IgG and IgG1 Abs than did exposure to OVA plus larger silica particles. Splenocytes from mice exposed to OVA plus nSP30 secreted higher levels of Th2-type cytokines than mice exposed to OVA alone. Taken together, these results indicate that nanosilica particles can induce allergen-specific Th2-type allergic immune responses in vivo. This study provides the foundations for the establishment of safe and effective forms of nanosilica particles

Angle-resolved photoemission study of MX-chain compound [Ni(chxn)2_2Br]Br2_2

We report on the results of angle-resolved photoemission experiments on a quasi-one-dimensional $MX$-chain compound [Ni(chxn)$_2$Br]Br$_2$ (chxn = 1$R$,2$R$-cyclohexanediamine), a one-dimensional Heisenberg system with $S=1/2$ and $J \sim 3600$ K, which shows a gigantic non-linear optical effect. A "band" having about 500 meV energy dispersion is found in the first half of the Brillouin zone $(0\le kb/\pi <1/2)$, but disappears at $kb / \pi \sim 1/2$. Two dispersive features, expected from the spin-charge separation, as have been observed in other quasi-one-dimensional systems like Sr$_2$CuO$_3$, are not detected. These characteristic features are well reproduced by the $d$-$p$ chain model calculations with a small charge-transfer energy $\Delta$ compared with that of one-dimensional Cu-O based compounds. We propose that this smaller $\Delta$ is the origin of the absence of clear spin- and charge-separation in the photoemission spectra and strong non-linear optical effect in [Ni(chxn)$_2$Br]Br$_2$.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure