Towards a large-scale quantum simulator on diamond surface at room temperature

Strongly-correlated quantum many-body systems exhibits a variety of exotic phases with long-range quantum correlations, such as spin liquids and supersolids. Despite the rapid increase in computational power of modern computers, the numerical simulation of these complex systems becomes intractable even for a few dozens of particles. Feynman's idea of quantum simulators offers an innovative way to bypass this computational barrier. However, the proposed realizations of such devices either require very low temperatures (ultracold gases in optical lattices, trapped ions, superconducting devices) and considerable technological effort, or are extremely hard to scale in practice (NMR, linear optics). In this work, we propose a new architecture for a scalable quantum simulator that can operate at room temperature. It consists of strongly-interacting nuclear spins attached to the diamond surface by its direct chemical treatment, or by means of a functionalized graphene sheet. The initialization, control and read-out of this quantum simulator can be accomplished with nitrogen-vacancy centers implanted in diamond. The system can be engineered to simulate a wide variety of interesting strongly-correlated models with long-range dipole-dipole interactions. Due to the superior coherence time of nuclear spins and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, our proposal offers new opportunities towards large-scale quantum simulation at room temperatures

Symptomatic reactions, clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction associated with upper cervical chiropractic care: A prospective, multicenter, cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Observational studies have previously shown that adverse events following manipulation to the neck and/or back are relatively common, although these reactions tend to be mild in intensity and self-limiting. However, no prospective study has examined the incidence of adverse reactions following spinal adjustments using upper cervical techniques, and the impact of this care on clinical outcomes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Consecutive new patients from the offices of 83 chiropractors were recruited for this practice-based study. Clinical outcome measures included 1) Neck pain disability index (100-point scale), 2) Oswestry back pain index (100-point scale), 3) 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS) for neck, headache, midback, and low back pain, 4) treatment satisfaction, and 5) Symptomatic Reactions (SR). Data were collected at baseline, and after approximately 2 weeks of care. A patient reaching sub-clinical status for pain and disability was defined as a follow-up score <3 NRS and <10%, respectively. A SR is defined as a new complaint not present at baseline or a worsening of the presenting complaint by >30% based on an 11-point numeric rating scale occurring <24 hours after any upper cervical procedure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 1,090 patients completed the study having 4,920 (4.5 per patient) office visits requiring 2,653 (2.4 per patient) upper cervical adjustments over 17 days. Three hundred thirty- eight (31.0%) patients had SRs meeting the accepted definition. Intense SR (NRS ≥8) occurred in 56 patients (5.1%). Outcome assessments were significantly improved for neck pain and disability, headache, mid-back pain, as well as lower back pain and disability (<it>p </it><0.001) following care with a high level (mean = 9.1/10) of patient satisfaction. The 83 chiropractors administered >5 million career upper cervical adjustments without a reported incidence of serious adverse event.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Upper cervical chiropractic care may have a fairly common occurrence of mild intensity SRs short in duration (<24 hours), and rarely severe in intensity; however, outcome assessments were significantly improved with less than 3 weeks of care with a high level of patient satisfaction. Although our findings need to be confirmed in subsequent randomized studies for definitive risk-benefit assessment, the preliminary data shows that the benefits of upper cervical chiropractic care may outweigh the potential risks.</p

Benign mammary epithelial cells enhance the transformed phenotype of human breast cancer cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent research has yielded a wealth of data underscoring the key role of the cancer microenvironment, especially immune and stromal cells, in the progression of cancer and the development of metastases. However, the role of adjacent benign epithelial cells, which provide initial cell-cell contacts with cancer cells, in tumor progression has not been thoroughly examined. In this report we addressed the question whether benign MECs alter the transformed phenotype of human breast cancer cells.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We used both <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo </it>co-cultivation approaches, whereby we mixed GFP-tagged MCF-10A cells (G2B-10A), as a model of benign mammary epithelial cells (MECs), and RFP-tagged MDA-MB-231-TIAS cells (R2-T1AS), as a model of breast cancer cells.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The <it>in vitro </it>studies showed that G2B-10A cells increase the colony formation of R2-T1AS cells in both soft agar and clonogenicity assays. Conditioned media derived from G2B-10A cells enhanced colony formation of R2-T1AS cells, whereas prior paraformaldehyde (PFA) fixation of G2B-10A cells abrogated this enhancement effect. Moreover, two other models of benign MECs, MCF-12A and HuMECs, also enhanced R2-T1AS colony growth in soft agar and clonogenicity assays. These data reveal that factors secreted by benign MECs are responsible for the observed enhancement of the R2-T1AS transformed phenotype. To determine whether G2B-10A cells enhance the tumorigenic growth of co-injected R2-T1AS cells <it>in vivo</it>, we used the nude mouse xenograft assay. Co-injecting R2-T1AS cells with G2B-10A cells ± PFA-fixation, revealed that G2B-10A cells promoted a ~3-fold increase in tumor growth, irrespective of PFA pre-treatment. These results indicate that soluble factors secreted by G2B-10A cells play a less important role in promoting R2-T1AS tumorigenesis <it>in vivo</it>, and that additional components are operative in the nude mouse xenograft assay. Finally, using array analysis, we found that both live and PFA-fixed G2B-10A cells induced R2-T1AS cells to secrete specific cytokines (IL-6 and GM-CSF), suggesting that cell-cell contact activates R2-T1AS cells.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Taken together, these data shift our understanding of adjacent benign epithelial cells in the cancer process, from passive, noncontributory cells to an active and tumor-promoting vicinal cell population that may have significant effects early, when benign cells outnumber malignant cells.</p

Giant regular polyhedra from calixarene carboxylates and uranyl

Self-assembly of large multi-component systems is a common strategy for the bottom-up construction of discrete, well-defined, nanoscopic-sized cages. Icosahedral or pseudospherical viral capsids, built up from hundreds of identical proteins, constitute typical examples of the complexity attained by biological self-assembly. Chemical versions of the so-called 5 Platonic regular or 13 Archimedean semi-regular polyhedra are usually assembled combining molecular platforms with metals with commensurate coordination spheres. Here we report novel, self-assembled cages, using the conical-shaped carboxylic acid derivatives of calix[4]arene and calix[5]arene as ligands, and the uranyl cation UO22+ as a metallic counterpart, which coordinates with three carboxylates at the equatorial plane, giving rise to hexagonal bipyramidal architectures. As a result, octahedral and icosahedral anionic metallocages of nanoscopic dimensions are formed with an unusually small number of components

Mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics: limitations and recommendations for future progress with particular focus on nutrition research

Mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, because of their sensitivity and selectivity, have become methods of choice to characterize the human metabolome and MS-based metabolomics is increasingly used to characterize the complex metabolic effects of nutrients or foods. However progress is still hampered by many unsolved problems and most notably the lack of well established and standardized methods or procedures, and the difficulties still met in the identification of the metabolites influenced by a given nutritional intervention. The purpose of this paper is to review the main obstacles limiting progress and to make recommendations to overcome them. Propositions are made to improve the mode of collection and preparation of biological samples, the coverage and quality of mass spectrometry analyses, the extraction and exploitation of the raw data, the identification of the metabolites and the biological interpretation of the results

Mavoglurant in Fragile X Syndrome:Results of two open-label, extension trials in adults and adolescents

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common monogenic cause of inherited intellectual and developmental disabilities. Mavoglurant, a selective metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype-5 antagonist, has shown positive neuronal and behavioral effects in preclinical studies, but failed to demonstrate any behavioral benefits in two 12-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase IIb studies in adults and adolescents with FXS. Here we report the long-term safety (primary endpoint) and efficacy (secondary endpoint) results of the open-label extensions. Adolescent (n = 119, aged 12-19 years) and adult (n = 148, aged 18-45 years) participants received up to 100 mg bid mavoglurant for up to 34 months. Both extension studies were terminated prematurely due to lack of proven efficacy in the core studies. Mavoglurant was well tolerated with no new safety signal. Five percent of adults and 16.9 percent of adolescents discontinued treatment due to adverse events. Gradual and consistent behavioral improvements as measured by the ABC-C &lt;sub&gt;FX&lt;/sub&gt; scale were observed, which were numerically superior to those seen in the placebo arm of the core studies. These two extension studies confirm the long-term safety of mavoglurant in FXS, but further investigations are required to determine whether and under which conditions the significant preclinical results obtained with mGluR5 inhibition can translate to humans

An Antimicrobial Peptide Regulates Tumor-Associated Macrophage Trafficking via the Chemokine Receptor CCR2, a Model for Tumorigenesis

Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) constitute a significant part of infiltrating inflammatory cells that are frequently correlated with progression and poor prognosis of a variety of cancers. Tumor cell-produced human β-defensin-3 (hBD-3) has been associated with TAM trafficking in oral cancer; however, its involvement in tumor-related inflammatory processes remains largely unknown., applying a cross-desensitization strategy of CCR2 and its pharmacological inhibitor (RS102895), respectively, was also carried out. outcome and demonstrates the importance of the innate immune system in the development of tumors

Nutraceutical therapies for atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting large and medium arteries and is considered to be a major underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Although the development of pharmacotherapies to treat CVD has contributed to a decline in cardiac mortality in the past few decades, CVD is estimated to be the cause of one-third of deaths globally. Nutraceuticals are natural nutritional compounds that are beneficial for the prevention or treatment of disease and, therefore, are a possible therapeutic avenue for the treatment of atherosclerosis. The purpose of this Review is to highlight potential nutraceuticals for use as antiatherogenic therapies with evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, the current evidence from observational and randomized clinical studies into the role of nutraceuticals in preventing atherosclerosis in humans will also be discussed