171 research outputs found
Observation of prolonged coherence time of the collective spin wave of atomic ensemble in a paraffin coated Rb vapor cell
We report a prolonged coherence time of the collective spin wave of a thermal
87Rb atomic ensemble in a paraffin coated cell. The spin wave is prepared
through a stimulated Raman Process. The long coherence time time is achieved by
prolonging the lifetime of the spins with paraffin coating and minimize
dephasing with optimal experimental configuration. The observation of the long
time delayed-stimulated Stokes signal in the writing process suggests the
prolonged lifetime of the prepared spins; a direct measurement of the decay of
anti-Stokes signal in the reading process shows the coherence time is up to 300
us after minimizing dephasing. This is one hundred times longer than the
reported coherence time in the similar experiments in thermal atomic ensembles
based on the Duan-Lukin-Cirac-Zoller (DLCZ) and its improved protocols. This
prolonged coherence time sets the upper limit of the memory time in quantum
repeaters based on such protocols, which is crucial for the realization of
long-distance quantum communication. The previous reported fluorescence
background in the writing process due to collision in a sample cell with buffer
gas is also reduced in a cell without buffer gas.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys
We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and
Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational
seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m
telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present
509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along
the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new
quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region
and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526
new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to
3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars
in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in
this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0
respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars
provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and
chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars
are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly
discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant
Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated
substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity
of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric
reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of
substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some
of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AJ accepte
Genomic and oncogenic preference of HBV integration in hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) can integrate into the human genome, contributing to genomic instability and hepatocarcinogenesis. Here by conducting high-throughput viral integration detection and RNA sequencing, we identify 4,225 HBV integration events in tumour and adjacent non-tumour samples from 426 patients with HCC. We show that HBV is prone to integrate into rare fragile sites and functional genomic regions including CpG islands. We observe a distinct pattern in the preferential sites of HBV integration between tumour and non-tumour tissues. HBV insertional sites are significantly enriched in the proximity of telomeres in tumours. Recurrent HBV target genes are identified with few that overlap. The overall HBV integration frequency is much higher in tumour genomes of males than in females, with a significant enrichment of integration into chromosome 17. Furthermore, a cirrhosis-dependent HBV integration pattern is observed, affecting distinct targeted genes. Our data suggest that HBV integration has a high potential to drive oncogenic transformation
Profiling of the perturbed metabolomic state of mouse spleen during acute and chronic toxoplasmosis
Background
Toxoplasma gondii, a common opportunistic protozoan, is a leading cause of illness and mortality among immunosuppressed individuals and during congenital infections. Current therapeutic strategies for toxoplasmosis are not fully effective at curtailing disease progression in these cases. Given the parasite ability to influence host immunity and metabolism, understanding of the metabolic alterations in the hostâs immune organs during T. gondii infection may enhance the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that define the pathophysiology of T. gondii infection.
Methods
We investigated the global metabolic changes in the spleen of BALB/c mice at early and late stage of infection with T. gondii using LC-MS/MS-based metabolomics. Multivariate data analysis methods, principal components analysis (PCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), were used to identify metabolites that are influenced by T. gondii infection.
Results
Multivariate analyses clearly separated the metabolites of spleen of infected and control mice. A total of 132 differential metabolites were identified, 23 metabolites from acutely infected versus control mice and 109 metabolites from chronically infected versus control mice. Lipids, hormones, lactones, acids, peptides, antibiotics, alkaloids and natural toxins were the most influenced chemical groups. There were 12 shared differential metabolites between acutely infected versus control mice and chronically infected versus control mice, of which 4,4-Dimethyl-5alpha-cholesta-8,14,24-trien-3beta-ol was significantly upregulated and ubiquinone-8 was significantly downregulated. Major perturbed metabolic pathways included primary bile acid biosynthesis, steroid hormone biosynthesis, biotin metabolism, and steroid biosynthesis, with arachidonic acid metabolism being the most significantly impacted pathway. These metabolic changes suggest a multifactorial nature of the immunometabolic responses of mouse spleen to T. gondii infection.
Conclusions
This study demonstrated that T. gondii infection can cause significant metabolomic alterations in the spleen of infected mice. These findings provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms that underpin the pathogenesis of T. gondii infection
Corrigendum to: The TianQin project: current progress on science and technology
In the originally published version, this manuscript included an error related to indicating the corresponding author within the author list. This has now been corrected online to reflect the fact that author Jun Luo is the corresponding author of the article
Spatiotemporal transcriptomic atlas of mouse organogenesis using DNA nanoball-patterned arrays.
Spatially resolved transcriptomic technologies are promising tools to study complex biological processes such as mammalian embryogenesis. However, the imbalance between resolution, gene capture, and field of view of current methodologies precludes their systematic application to analyze relatively large and three-dimensional mid- and late-gestation embryos. Here, we combined DNA nanoball (DNB)-patterned arrays and in situ RNA capture to create spatial enhanced resolution omics-sequencing (Stereo-seq). We applied Stereo-seq to generate the mouse organogenesis spatiotemporal transcriptomic atlas (MOSTA), which maps with single-cell resolution and high sensitivity the kinetics and directionality of transcriptional variation during mouse organogenesis. We used this information to gain insight into the molecular basis of spatial cell heterogeneity and cell fate specification in developing tissues such as the dorsal midbrain. Our panoramic atlas will facilitate in-depth investigation of longstanding questions concerning normal and abnormal mammalian development.This work is part of the ââSpatioTemporal Omics Consortiumââ (STOC) paper package. A list of STOC members is available at: http://sto-consortium.org. We would
like to thank the MOTIC China Group, Rongqin Ke (Huaqiao University, Xiamen,
China), Jiazuan Ni (Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China), Wei Huang (Center
for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Shanghai, China), and Jonathan S. Weissman (Whitehead Institute,
Boston, USA) for their help. This work was supported by the grant of Top Ten
Foundamental Research Institutes of Shenzhen, the Shenzhen Key Laboratory
of Single-Cell Omics (ZDSYS20190902093613831), and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Genome Read and Write (2017B030301011); Longqi Liu
was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
(31900466) and Miguel A. Estebanâs laboratory at the Guangzhou Institutes of
Biomedicine and Health by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA16030502), National Natural Science Foundation of China (92068106), and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research
Foundation (2021B1515120075).S
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