Distillation of Entanglement between Distant Systems by Repeated Measurements on Entanglement Mediator

A recently proposed purification method, in which the Zeno-like measurements of a subsystem can bring about a distillation of another subsystem in interaction with the former, is utilized to yield entangled states between distant systems. It is shown that the measurements of a two-level system locally interacting with other two spatially separated not coupled subsystems, can distill entangled states from the latter irrespectively of the initial states of the two subsystems.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures; the version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

FAPlus/FNPlus blood culture bottles

Background : The comparison of the performance of FAPlus/FNPlus bottles and combination of SA/SN and FA/FN bottles is not yet reported. Methods : We used human blood samples to investigate microorganism detection rates and the time to positivity (TTP) in a before-vs.-after study (a combination of SA/SN and FA/FN bottles from September 2012 to August 2013 vs. FAPlus/FNPlus bottles from September 2013 to August 2014). Results : The microorganism detection rate was significantly higher in the later period than in the earlier period (11.2% vs. 9.6%, P < 0.001), particularly for Enterococcus and Streptococcus species, nonfermentative Gram-negative bacilli, and Helicobacter cinaedi. TTP for pathogens was longer when FAPlus/FNPlus bottles were used than when a combination of SA/SN and FA/FN bottles was used (14.9 vs. 13.3 h, P = 0.014), particularly, in the case of Gram-negative bacilli including Escherichia coli. Conclusion : The microorganism detection rate was improved with the use of FAPlus/FNPlus bottles compared with the combination of SA/SN and FA/FN bottles ; however, FAPlus/FNPlus bottles seemed to be inferior to SA/SN and FA/FN bottles in terms of TTP

Critical Point Mutations for Hepatitis C Virus NS3 Proteinase

AbstractThe hepatitis C virus NS3 proteinase plays an essential role in processing of HCV nonstructural precursor polyprotein. To detect its processing activity, we developed a simpletrans-cleavage assay. Two recombinant plasmids expressing the NS3 proteinase region and a chimeric substrate polyprotein containing the NS5A/5B cleavage site between maltose binding protein and protein A were co-introduced intoEscherichia colicells. The proteinase processed the substrate at the single site during their polyprotein expression. Deletion analysis indicated that the functionally minimal domain of the NS3 proteinase was composed of 146 amino acids, 1059 to 1204. We isolated several cDNA clones encoding the functional domain of the NS3 proteinase from the sera of patients chronically infected with HCV and determined their proteinase activity by thistrans-cleavage assay. Both active and inactive clones existed in the same patients. Comparative sequence analyses of these clones suggested that certain point mutations seemed to be related to the loss of proteolytic activity. This was confirmed by back mutation experiments. Among the critical mutations, Pro-1168 to Thr and Arg-1135 to Gly were intriguing. These amino acids, which are situated near the oxyanion hole, seem to be essential for maintaining the conformation of the active center of the NS3 proteinase

The 3-D kinematics of water masers around the semiregular variable RT Virginis

We report observations of water masers around the semiregular variable RT Virginis (RT Vir), which have been made with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) at five epochs, each separated by three weeks of time. We detected about 60 maser features at each epoch. Overall, 61 features, detected at least twice, were tracked by their radial velocities and proper motions. The 3-D maser kinematics exhibited a circumstellar envelope that is expanding roughly spherically with a velocity of about 8 km/s. Asymmetries in both the spatial and velocity distributions of the maser features were found in the envelope, but less significant than that found in other semiregular variables. Systematic radial-velocity drifts of individual maser features were found with amplitudes of <= 2 km/s/yr. For one maser feature, we found a quadratic position shift with time along a straight line on the sky. This apparent motion indicates an acceleration with an amplitude of 33 km/s/yr, implying the passage of a shock wave driven by the stellar pulsation of RT Vir. The acceleration motion is likely seen only on the sky plane because of a large velocity gradient formed in the accelerating maser region. We estimated the distance to RT Vir to be about 220 pc on the basis of both the statistical parallax and model-fitting methods for the maser kinematics.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures. Accepted to appear in the Astrophysical Journa

Electroreduction of O_2 to H_2O at Unusually Positive Potentials Catalyzed by the Simplest of the Cobalt Porphyrins

Simple cobalt porphine, adsorbed on graphite electrodes, catalyzes the direct reduction of O_2 to H_2O, while most other monomeric cobalt porphyrins do not. The surprising behavior of cobalt porphine suggests possible new strategies for the design of electrocatalysts for the reduction of O_2 to H_2O using structurally similar but more oxidation-resistant analogs

Electroreduction of O_2 to H_2O at Unusually Positive Potentials Catalyzed by the Simplest of the Cobalt Porphyrins

Simple cobalt porphine, adsorbed on graphite electrodes, catalyzes the direct reduction of O_2 to H_2O, while most other monomeric cobalt porphyrins do not. The surprising behavior of cobalt porphine suggests possible new strategies for the design of electrocatalysts for the reduction of O_2 to H_2O using structurally similar but more oxidation-resistant analogs

A case of giant cavernous hemangioma of the liver complicated by intravascular coagulopathy.

A case of liver hemangioma complicated by intravascular coagulopathy is presented because of the rarity of the association. Hemangioma of the liver was suspected by palpation of the liver tumor, scintigraphy and x-ray examination, and confirmed by selective hepatic arteriography in combination with exploratory laparotomy. Intravascular coagulopathy was established by demonstrating secondary fibrinolysis and consumption of platelets and coagulation factors. Unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia due to micro-angiopathic hemolytic anemia was also present. The clinical course of the clotting abnormalities was basically a chronic one with an occasional acute or subacute defibrination process associated with further enlargement of the hepatic tumor. These provide sufficient evidence that the intravascular coagulopathy was closely related with the hemangioma in the liver. Neither ligation of a presumed nutritional artery of the hemangioma nor radiation therapy caused any demonstrable reduction in the tumor size.</p