32,423 research outputs found
Management of germ cell tumors in children: Approaches to cure
The introduction of cisplatinum chemotherapy and current advances in the surgical treatment have resulted in a dramatic improvement of the prognosis of children with malignant germ cell tumors (GCT). Cisplatinum chemotherapy generally results in sufficient systemic tumor control, but local relapses may still occur in patients who did not receive adequate local treatment. Therefore, the therapeutic consideration must take into account age, primary site of the tumor, and its histology. In gonadal tumors, there is a high chance of primary complete resection since these tumors tend to be encapsulated, and particularly testicular GCT are often detected at a low tumor stage. In contrast, a primary complete resection may be impossible in large nongonadal tumors such as sacrococcygeal or mediastinal GCT. In these tumors, a neoadjuvant or pre-operative chemotherapy after clinical diagnosis by imaging and evaluation of tumor markers significantly facilitates complete resection on delayed surgery. In addition, the impact of chemotherapy on local tumor control may be enhanced by locoregional hyperthermia. In most intracranial GCT complete resection is impossible and may be associated with significant morbidity. Nevertheless, biopsy is essential for diagnosis in nonsecreting tumors. In intracranial GCT, radiotherapy significantly contributes to local tumor control, and doses are stratified according to histology. These general considerations have been integrated into national and international cooperative treatment protocols. In most current protocols, treatment is stratified according to an initial risk assessment that includes the parameters age, site, histology, stage, completeness of resection and the tumor markers alpha(1)-fetoprotein (AFP) and human choriogonadotropin (beta-HCG). With such modern protocols overall cure rates above 80% can be achieved. Moreover, the previously high-risk groups may now expect a favorable prognosis with this risk-adapted treatment, whereas an increasing number of low-risk patients are treated expectantly or with significantly reduced chemotherapy. As current biologic studies reveal distinct genetic patterns in childhood GCT, it can be expected that further combined clinical and genetic studies will be valuable for risk assessment of childhood GCT
Entangled states of trapped ions allow measuring the magnetic field gradient of a single atomic spin
Using trapped ions in an entangled state we propose detecting a magnetic
dipole of a single atom at distance of a few m. This requires a
measurement of the magnetic field gradient at a level of about 10
Tesla/m. We discuss applications e.g. in determining a wide variation of
ionic magnetic moments, for investigating the magnetic substructure of ions
with a level structure not accessible for optical cooling and detection,and for
studying exotic or rare ions, and molecular ions. The scheme may also be used
for measureing spin imbalances of neutral atoms or atomic ensembles trapped by
optical dipole forces. As the proposed method relies on techniques well
established in ion trap quantum information processing it is within reach of
current technology.Comment: 4 pages, 2 fi
Zeno Dynamics in Quantum Statistical Mechanics
We study the quantum Zeno effect in quantum statistical mechanics within the
operator algebraic framework. We formulate a condition for the appearance of
the effect in W*-dynamical systems, in terms of the short-time behaviour of the
dynamics. Examples of quantum spin systems show that this condition can be
effectively applied to quantum statistical mechanical models. Further, we
derive an explicit form of the Zeno generator, and use it to construct Gibbs
equilibrium states for the Zeno dynamics. As a concrete example, we consider
the X-Y model, for which we show that a frequent measurement at a microscopic
level, e.g. a single lattice site, can produce a macroscopic effect in changing
the global equilibrium.Comment: 15 pages, AMSLaTeX; typos corrected, references updated and added,
acknowledgements added, style polished; revised version contains corrections
from published corrigend
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Identification and characterization of a novel extracellular matrix protein nephronectin that is associated with integrin alpha8beta1 in the embryonic kidney.
The epithelial-mesenchymal interactions required for kidney organogenesis are disrupted in mice lacking the integrin alpha8beta1. None of this integrin's known ligands, however, appears to account for this phenotype. To identify a more relevant ligand, a soluble integrin alpha8beta1 heterodimer fused to alkaline phosphatase (AP) has been used to probe blots and cDNA libraries. In newborn mouse kidney extracts, alpha8beta1-AP detects a novel ligand of 70-90 kD. This protein, named nephronectin, is an extracellular matrix protein with five EGF-like repeats, a mucin region containing a RGD sequence, and a COOH-terminal MAM domain. Integrin alpha8beta1 and several additional RGD-binding integrins bind nephronectin. Nephronectin mRNA is expressed in the ureteric bud epithelium, whereas alpha8beta1 is expressed in the metanephric mesenchyme. Nephronectin is localized in the extracellular matrix in the same distribution as the ligand detected by alpha8beta1-AP and forms a complex with alpha8beta1 in vivo. Thus, these results strongly suggest that nephronectin is a relevant ligand mediating alpha8beta1 function in the kidney. Nephronectin is expressed at numerous sites outside the kidney, so it may also have wider roles in development. The approaches used here should be generally useful for characterizing the interactions of novel extracellular matrix proteins identified through genomic sequencing projects
Design Space Exploration for Frequency Synchronization of BPSK/QPSK Bursts
Frequency synchronisation is a vital part of every inner receiver for wireless communication. In this paper we present different implementation alternatives for non data aided frequency estimation of BPSK/QPSK bursts with respect to implementation complexity and communications performance. Results with regard to different quantization levels, varying burstlengths, frequency offsets and modulation indices for different signal to noise ratios are presented. Implementation results are based on XILINX Virtex II Pro FPGA devices
Spin-wave spectra of a kagome stripe
We study ground state degeneracy and spin-wave excitations in a 1D version of
a Kagome antiferromagnet -- a Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a Kagome stripe. We
show that for nearest-neighbor interaction, the classical ground state is
infinitely degenerate. For any spin configuration from the degenerate set, the
classical spin-wave spectrum contains, in addition to Goldstone modes, a branch
of zero energy excitations, and a zero mode in another branch. We demonstrate
that the interactions beyond nearest neighbors lift the degeneracy, eliminate a
zero mode, and give a finite dispersion to formerly zero-energy branch, leaving
only Goldstone modes as zero-energy excitations.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Europhys. Let
Imprinted Zac1 in neural stem cells.
Neural stem cells (NSCs) and imprinted genes play an important role in brain development. On historical grounds, these two determinants have been largely studied independently of each other. Recent evidence suggests, however, that NSCs can reset select genomic imprints to prevent precocious depletion of the stem cell reservoir. Moreover, imprinted genes like the transcriptional regulator Zac1 can fine tune neuronal vs astroglial differentiation of NSCs. Zac1 binds in a sequence-specific manner to pro-neuronal and imprinted genes to confer transcriptional regulation and furthermore coregulates members of the p53-family in NSCs. At the genome scale, Zac1 is a central hub of an imprinted gene network comprising genes with an important role for NSC quiescence, proliferation and differentiation. Overall, transcriptional, epigenomic, and genomic mechanisms seem to coordinate the functional relationships of NSCs and imprinted genes from development to maturation, and possibly aging
Quantum gate in the decoherence-free subspace of trapped ion qubits
We propose a geometric phase gate in a decoherence-free subspace with trapped
ions. The quantum information is encoded in the Zeeman sublevels of the
ground-state and two physical qubits to make up one logical qubit with ultra
long coherence time. Single- and two-qubit operations together with the
transport and splitting of linear ion crystals allow for a robust and
decoherence-free scalable quantum processor. For the ease of the phase gate
realization we employ one Raman laser field on four ions simultaneously, i.e.
no tight focus for addressing. The decoherence-free subspace is left neither
during gate operations nor during the transport of quantum information.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
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