Demonstration of Geometric Landau-Zener Interferometry in a Superconducting Qubit

Geometric quantum manipulation and Landau-Zener interferometry have been separately explored in many quantum systems. In this Letter, we combine these two approaches to study the dynamics of a superconducting phase qubit. We experimentally demonstrate Landau-Zener interferometry based on the pure geometric phases in this solid-state qubit. We observe the interference caused by a pure geometric phase accumulated in the evolution between two consecutive Landau-Zener transitions, while the dynamical phase is canceled out by a spin-echo pulse. The full controllability of the qubit state as a function of the intrinsically robust geometric phase provides a promising approach for quantum state manipulation.Comment: 5 pages + 3 pages supplemental Materia

Graphidessa jinfoensis, a new species of longhorned beetle (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Desmiphorini) from China

Graphidessa jinfoensis sp. nov. is described from Chongqing and Guizhou in Southwest China. The diagnostic morphological characters of the new species are described and illustrated in color plates. The distribution of all species of the genus Graphidessa Bates, 1884 is mapped and the key to all species of this genus is updated. The COI gene sequence of the new species is also provided

RIP1 autophosphorylation is promoted by mitochondrial ROS and is essential for RIP3 recruitment into necrosome

韩家淮教授课题组的这项研究揭示了活性氧簇（ROS）通过直接特异地氧化受体相互作用丝氨酸/苏氨酸激酶1（RIP1）上的三个关键的半胱氨酸，进而特异地增强RIP1在S161上的自磷酸化，从而促进坏死小体的形成和程序性细胞坏死的发生。证实了RIP1的激酶活性在程序性细胞坏死中的主要功能是自磷酸化S161，且S161就是人们长期寻找的RIP1上与坏死相关的功能性磷酸化位点。坏死小体的形成是程序性细胞坏死发生的必要复合物，而S161的磷酸化是RIP1有效募集RIP3形成有功能的坏死小体所必需的。由于ROS的产生依赖于坏死小体里的RIP3的功能，因此ROS介导了程序性坏死通路里的正反馈调控。研究阐明了ROS促进程序性细胞坏死的分子机制，回答了领域内长期存在的两个科学问题，对全面解析程序性坏死机制并协助疾病治疗具有重要意义。 张荧荧和苏晟为该论文的共同第一作者。该项研究得到了973计划和国家自然科学基金委员会重点和重大研究计划项目的经费支持。【Abstract】Necroptosis is a type of programmed cell death with great significance in many pathological processes. Tumour necrosis factor-a(TNF), a proinflammatory cytokine, is a prototypic trigger of necroptosis. It is known that mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) promote necroptosis, and that kinase activity of receptor interacting protein 1 (RIP1) is required for TNF-induced necroptosis. However, how ROS function and what RIP1 phosphorylates to promote necroptosis are largely unknown. Here we show that three crucial cysteines in RIP1 are required for sensing ROS, and ROS subsequently activates RIP1 autophosphorylation on serine residue 161 (S161). The major function of RIP1 kinase activity in TNF-induced necroptosis is to autophosphorylate S161. This specific phosphorylation then enables RIP1 to recruit RIP3 and form a functional necrosome, a central controller of necroptosis. Since ROS induction is known to require necrosomal RIP3, ROS therefore function in a positive feedback circuit that ensures effective induction of necroptosis.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91029304, 31420103910, 31330047 and 81630042), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program; 2015CB553800, 2013CB944903, 2014CB541804), the 111 Project (B12001), the National Science Foundation of China for Fostering Talents in Basic Research (J1310027)

2-HG通过上调RIP3启动子的甲基化水平抑制细胞坏死

文章简介在异柠檬酸脱氢酶1/2(IDH1/2)突变的细胞中,高浓度的2-羟基戊二酸(2-HG)通过抑制TET2的活性增强了DNA的甲基化。在本研究中,课题组发现2-HG可通过直接激活DNA甲基转移酶DNMT1的作用而促进RIP3启动子的国家基础研究计划基金(973 Program;2015CB553800,2013CB944903,2014CB541804);;国家自然科学基金项目(91029304,31420103910,31330047,81630042,81372702,81402285,31571473);;中央高校基本科研专项资金(20720140552,10120100002);;国家基础科学人才培养基金(Grant No.J1310027)的资

CDBA: a novel multi-branch feature fusion model for EEG-based emotion recognition

EEG-based emotion recognition through artificial intelligence is one of the major areas of biomedical and machine learning, which plays a key role in understanding brain activity and developing decision-making systems. However, the traditional EEG-based emotion recognition is a single feature input mode, which cannot obtain multiple feature information, and cannot meet the requirements of intelligent and high real-time brain computer interface. And because the EEG signal is nonlinear, the traditional methods of time domain or frequency domain are not suitable. In this paper, a CNN-DSC-Bi-LSTM-Attention (CDBA) model based on EEG signals for automatic emotion recognition is presented, which contains three feature-extracted channels. The normalized EEG signals are used as an input, the feature of which is extracted by multi-branching and then concatenated, and each channel feature weight is assigned through the attention mechanism layer. Finally, Softmax was used to classify EEG signals. To evaluate the performance of the proposed CDBA model, experiments were performed on SEED and DREAMER datasets, separately. The validation experimental results show that the proposed CDBA model is effective in classifying EEG emotions. For triple-category (positive, neutral and negative) and four-category (happiness, sadness, fear and neutrality), the classification accuracies were respectively 99.44% and 99.99% on SEED datasets. For five classification (Valence 1—Valence 5) on DREAMER datasets, the accuracy is 84.49%. To further verify and evaluate the model accuracy and credibility, the multi-classification experiments based on ten-fold cross-validation were conducted, the elevation indexes of which are all higher than other models. The results show that the multi-branch feature fusion deep learning model based on attention mechanism has strong fitting and generalization ability and can solve nonlinear modeling problems, so it is an effective emotion recognition method. Therefore, it is helpful to the diagnosis and treatment of nervous system diseases, and it is expected to be applied to emotion-based brain computer interface systems

Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an Adjunct Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Idiopathic Parkinson disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease that seriously hinders limb activities and affects patients’ lives. We performed a meta-analysis aiming to systematically review and quantitatively synthesize the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) as an adjunct therapy for clinical PD patients. Methods: An electronic search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Scientific Journals Database and Wanfang data to identify randomized trials evaluating TCM adjuvant therapy versus conventional treatment. The change from baseline of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale score (UPDRS) was used to estimate the effectiveness of the therapies. Results: Twenty-seven articles involving 2314 patients from 1999 to 2013 were included. Potentially marked improvements were shown in UPDRS I (SMD 0.68, 95%CI 0.38, 0.98), II (WMD 2.41, 95%CI 1.66, 2.62), III (WMD 2.45, 95%CI 2.03, 2.86), IV (WMD 0.32, 95%CI 0.15, 049) and I-IV total scores (WMD 6.18, 95%CI 5.06, 7.31) in patients with TCM plus dopamine replacement therapy (DRT) compared to DRT alone. Acupuncture add-on therapy was markedly beneficial for improving the UPDRS I–IV total score of PD patients (WMD 10.96, 95%CI 5.85, 16.07). However, TCM monotherapy did not improve the score. The effectiveness seemed to be more obvious in PD patients with longer adjunct durations. TCM adjuvant therapy was generally safe and well tolerated. Conclusions: Although the data were limited by methodological flaws in many studies, the evidence indicates the potential superiority of TCM as an alternative therapeutic for PD treatment and justifies further high-quality studies

Bilateral Implantation of Shear Stress Modifier in ApoE Knockout Mouse Induces Cognitive Impairment and Tau Abnormalities

Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) encompasses all causes of cerebrovascular disease that lead to cognitive decline, or overt dementia, atherosclerotic disease being the most common contributor. However, few rodent models that mimic the pathology of VCI replicated the clinical cerebrovascular atherosclerosis. Here we aimed to investigate the mechanism underlying VCI in an Apolipoprotein E knockout (ApoE-KO) mouse model fed with western style food with implantation of bilateral shear stress modifiers. We established a cognitive decline in spatial learning and memory developed in the bilateral modifier treated mice. Brain imaging and pathological examinations demonstrated reduced glucose intake and neuronal loss in hippocampus. Although no amyloid plaques or neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) were observed, tau pathology including hyperphosphorylation, paired helical filament formation and pathologic truncation were found at considerable higher extent in the bilateral modifier group 8 weeks post the procedure. In addition, gliosis and microglia activation were confirmed in corpus callosum (CC) and ventral striatum. Thus, this ApoE-KO mouse model faithfully replicates the stenosis of common carotid artery (CCA) and cognitive impairment following atherosclerotic deposition and global cerebral hypoperfusion. The close correlation of cognitive decline and tau pathology indicates the toxic tau species could be at least partially responsible for the neurodegenerative changes induced by the chronic hypoxia/ischemia

A catalytic hollow fibre membrane reactor for combined steam methane reforming and water gas shift reaction

A catalytic hollow fibre membrane reactor (CHFMR) was developed in this study for combined steam methane reforming (SMR) and water gas shift (WGS) reaction. This is achieved by incorporating a Ni/SBA-15 catalyst into a plurality of micro-channels with open entrance from inner surface of Al2O3 hollow fibres, followed by coating of a 3.3μm Pd membrane on the outer surface of the hollow fibre using an electroless plating method. In addition to systematic characterizations of each reactor component, i.e. Ni/SBA-15 catalyst, micro-structured ceramic hollow fibre and Pd separating layer, the effect of how the reactor was assembled or fabricated on the catalytic performance was evaluated. Electroless plating of the Pd membrane impaired the catalytic performance of the deposited Ni/SBA-15 catalyst. Also, the over-removal of hydrogen from the reaction zone was considered as the main reason for the deactivation of the Ni-based catalyst. Instead of mitigating such deactivation using "compensating" hydrogen, starting the reaction at higher temperatures was found more efficient in improving the reactor performance, due to a better match between hydrogen production (from the reaction) and hydrogen removal (from the Pd membrane). An effective methane conversion of approximately 53%, a CO2 selectivity of 94% and a H2 recovery of 43% can be achieved at 560°C. In order for a more significant "shift" phenomenon, alternative methodology of fabricating the reactor and more coke resistant catalysts are recommended