Quantum state transmission in a cavity array via two-photon exchange

The dynamical behavior of a coupled cavity array is investigated when each cavity contains a three-level atom. For the uniform and staggered intercavity hopping, the whole system Hamiltonian can be analytically diagonalized in the subspace of single-atom excitation. The quantum state transfer along the cavities is analyzed in detail for distinct regimes of parameters, and some interesting phenomena including binary transmission, selective localization of the excitation population are revealed. We demonstrate that the uniform coupling is more suitable for the quantum state transfer. It is shown that the initial state of polariton located in the first cavity is crucial to the transmission fidelity, and the local entanglement depresses the state transfer probability. Exploiting the metastable state, the distance of the quantum state transfer can be much longer than that of Jaynes-Cummings-Hubbard model. A higher transmission probability and longer distance can be achieved by employing a class of initial encodings and final decodings.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. to appear in Phys. Rev.

Effect of ω-3 Fatty Acid on Gastrointestinal Motility after Abdominal Operation in Rats

Objective. To investigate whether ω-3 fatty acid could stimulate gastrointestinal motility after abdominal operation. Method. Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 group (normal saline group, intralipid group, and ω-3 fatty acid group, n = 18/group) after partial caecectomy and gastrostomosis, each group was divided into 3 groups (POD1, POD3, and POD6, n = 6/group). Serum gastrin (GAS), motilin (MTL), interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tissue necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), gastric emptying rate, and small bowel propulsion rate were measured. Results. On POD 3, gastric emptying rate and small bowel propulsion rate in ω-3 fatty acid group were higher than those in normal saline group and intralipid group. Serum GAS and MTL levels in ω-3 fatty acid group were higher than those in normal saline group, but serum IL-1, IL-6, TNF-α, and COX-2 levels were lower than those in normal saline group and intralipid group. Conclusion. ω-3 fatty acid could accelerate the recovery of gastrointestinal mobility after abdominal operation in rats, mainly by relieving postoperative inflammation

Modulating Linker Composition of Haptens Resulted in Improved Immunoassay for Histamine.

Histamine (HA) is an important food contaminant generated during food fermentation or spoilage. However, an immunoassay for direct (derivatization free) determination of HA has rarely been reported due to its small size to induce the desired antibodies by its current hapten-protein conjugates. In this work, despite violating the classical hapten design criteria which recommend introducing a linear aliphatic (phenyl free) linker into the immunizing hapten, a novel haptens, HA-245 designed and synthesized with a phenyl-contained linker, exhibited significantly enhanced immunological properties. Thus, a quality-improved monoclonal antibody (Mab) against HA was elicited by its hapten-carrier conjugates. Then, as the linear aliphatic linker contained haptens, Hapten B was used as linker-heterologous coating haptens to eliminate the recognition of linker antibodies. Indirect competitive ELISA (ic-ELISA) was developed with a 50% inhibition concentration (IC50) of 0.21 mg/L and a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.06 mg/L in buffer solution. The average recoveries of HA from spiked food samples for this ic-ELISA ranged from 84.1% and 108.5%, and the analysis results agreed well with those of referenced LC-MS/MS. This investigation not only realized derivatization-free immunoassay for HA, but also provided a valuable guidance for hapten design and development of immunoassay for small molecules

Optimal Codon Identities in Bacteria: Implications from the Conflicting Results of Two Different Methods

A correlation method was recently adopted to identify selection-favored ‘optimal’ codons from 675 bacterial genomes. Surprisingly, the identities of these optimal codons were found to track the bacterial GC content, leading to a conclusion that selection would generally shape the codon usages to the same direction as the overall mutation does. Raising several concerns, here we report a thorough comparative study on 203 well-selected bacterial species, which strongly suggest that the previous conclusion is likely an illusion. Firstly, the previous study did not preclude species that are suffering weak or no selection pressures on their codon usages. For these species, as showed in this study, the optimal codon identities are prone to be incorrect and follow GC content. Secondly, the previous study only adopted the correlation method, without considering another method to test the reliability of inferred optimal codons. Actually by definition, optimal codons can also be identified by simply comparing codon usages between high- and low-expression genes. After using both methods to identify optimal codons for the selected species, we obtained highly conflicting results, suggesting at least one method is misleading. Further we found a critical problem of correlation method at the step of calculating gene bias level. Due to a failure of accurately defining the background mutation, the problem would result in wrong optimal codon identities. In other words, partial mutational effects on codon choices were mistakenly regarded as selective influences, leading to incorrect and biased optimal codon identities. Finally, considering the translational dynamics, optimal codons identified by comparison method can be well-explained by tRNA compositions, whereas optimal codons identified by correlation method can not be. For all above reasons, we conclude that real optimal codons actually do not track the genomic GC content, and correlation method is misleading in identifying optimal codons and better be avoided

Manufacture, observation, and test of membranes with locatable single pores

A method for generating single pores down to 0.1 μm diameter in the center of a large circular foil is described, based on nuclear tracks. The foil is framed by a tension ring which enables one to handle the foils in a well‐defined precise way. The single pore has a lateral displacement of ±0.1 mm with respect to the tension ring center. The foils used are polycarbonate of the type Makrofol and have thicknesses between 2 and 10 μm. For calibration of the single pore diameters, multiple nuclear tracks between 0.1 and 3.5 μm diameter are etched and observed by microscopy. The microscopic observations are compared with gas‐flow measurements, using two alternative methods: multiple holes are tested under viscous flow conditions of N2 gas at normal temperature and pressure; single holes are tested under collisionless flow conditions of 4He gas at liquid‐nitrogen temperature, using a capacitance method.Peer reviewe

ATP-Responsive and Near-Infrared-Emissive Nanocarriers for Anticancer Drug Delivery and Real-Time Imaging

Stimuli-responsive and imaging-guided drug delivery systems hold vast promise for enhancement of therapeutic efficacy. Here we report an adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP)-responsive and near-infrared (NIR)-emissive conjugated polymer-based nanocarrier for the controlled release of anticancer drugs and real-time imaging. We demonstrate that the conjugated polymeric nanocarriers functionalized with phenylboronic acid tags on surface as binding sites for ATP could be converted to the water-soluble conjugated polyelectrolytes in an ATP-rich environment, which promotes the disassembly of the drug carrier and subsequent release of the cargo. In vivo studies validate that this formulation exhibits promising capability for inhibition of tumor growth. We also evaluate the metabolism process by monitoring the fluorescence signal of the conjugated polymer through the in vivo NIR imaging

Physics perspectives of heavy-ion collisions at very high energy

Heavy-ion collisions at very high colliding energies are expected to produce a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at the highest temperature obtainable in a laboratory setting. Experimental studies of these reactions can provide an unprecedented range of information on properties of the QGP at high temperatures. We report theoretical investigations of the physics perspectives of heavy-ion collisions at a future high-energy collider. These include initial parton production, collective expansion of the dense medium, jet quenching, heavy-quark transport, dissociation and regeneration of quarkonia, photon and dilepton production. We illustrate the potential of future experimental studies of the initial particle production and formation of QGP at the highest temperature to provide constraints on properties of strongly interaction matter.Comment: 35 pages in Latex, 29 figure