267 research outputs found
Microwave spectroscopy and Zeeman effect of cesium Rydberg transitions
We report on high-resolution microwave spectroscopy of cesium Rydberg
transitions in a cold atomic gas. Atoms
laser-cooled and trapped in a magnetic-optical trap are prepared in the
Rydberg state using a two-photon laser excitation scheme. A microwave field
transmitted into the chamber with a microwave horn drives the Rydberg
transitions, which are probed via state selective field ionization. Varying
duration and power of the microwave pulse, we observe Fourier side-band spectra
as well as damped, on-resonant Rabi oscillations with pulse areas up to
. Furthermore, we investigate the Zeeman effect of the clearly
resolved fine-structure levels in fields up to 120~mG, where the
transition into displays a thee-peak Zeeman pattern, while
shows a two-peak pattern. Our theoretical models explain all
observed spectral characteristics, showing good agreement with the experiment.
Our measurements provide a pathway for the study of high-angular-momentum
Rydberg states, initialization and coherent manipulation of such states,
Rydberg-atom macrodimers, and other Rydberg-atom interactions. Furthermore, the
presented methods are suitable for calibration of microwave radiation as well
as for nulling and calibration of DC magnetic fields in experimental chambers
for cold atoms
Binge Ethanol Exposure Causes Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress, Oxidative Stress and Tissue Injury in the Pancreas
Alcohol abuse is associated with both acute and chronic pancreatitis. Repeated episodes of acute pancreatitis or pancreatic injury may result in chronic pancreatitis. We investigated ethanol-induced pancreatic injury using a mouse model of binge ethanol exposure. Male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to ethanol intragastrically (5 g/kg, 25% ethanol w/v) daily for 10 days. Binge ethanol exposure caused pathological changes in pancreas demonstrated by tissue edema, acinar atrophy and moderate fibrosis. Ethanol caused both apoptotic and necrotic cell death which was demonstrated by the increase in active caspase-3, caspase-8, cleaved PARP, cleaved CK-18 and the secretion of high mobility group protein B1 (HMGB1). Ethanol altered the function of the pancreas which was indicated by altered levels of alpha-amylase, glucose and insulin. Ethanol exposure stimulated cell proliferation in the acini, suggesting an acinar regeneration. Ethanol caused pancreatic inflammation which was indicated by the induction of TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6, MCP-1 and CCR2, and the increase of CD68 positive macrophages in the pancreas. Ethanol-induced endoplasmic reticulum stress was demonstrated by a significant increase in ATF6, CHOP, and the phosphorylation of PERK and eiF-2alpha. In addition, ethanol increased protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation and the expression of iNOS, indicating oxidative stress. Therefore, this paradigm of binge ethanol exposure caused a spectrum of tissue injury and cellular stress to the pancreas, offering a good model to study alcoholic pancreatitis
Permutation-invariant Feature Restructuring for Correlation-aware Image Set-based Recognition
We consider the problem of comparing the similarity of image sets with
variable-quantity, quality and un-ordered heterogeneous images. We use feature
restructuring to exploit the correlations of both innerinter-set images.
Specifically, the residual self-attention can effectively restructure the
features using the other features within a set to emphasize the discriminative
images and eliminate the redundancy. Then, a sparse/collaborative
learning-based dependency-guided representation scheme reconstructs the probe
features conditional to the gallery features in order to adaptively align the
two sets. This enables our framework to be compatible with both verification
and open-set identification. We show that the parametric self-attention network
and non-parametric dictionary learning can be trained end-to-end by a unified
alternative optimization scheme, and that the full framework is
permutation-invariant. In the numerical experiments we conducted, our method
achieves top performance on competitive image set/video-based face recognition
and person re-identification benchmarks.Comment: Accepted to ICCV 201
Study on Spinnability of PP/PU Blends and Preparation of PP/PU Bi-component Melt Blown Nonwovens
Melt blown polymer blends offers a good way to combine two polymers in the same fiber generating nonwovens with new and novel properties. In this study, polypropylene (PP) and polyurethane (PU) were blended to prepare PP/PU bicomponent melt blown nonwovens. The spinnability of PP/PU composites was investigated and PP/PU bi-component nonwovens with compositions of 95/5, 90/10, 80/20 and 70/30 were prepared by using the melt blowing technique. The melt blown fibers exhibited a ‘sea-island’ structure with PP as the continuous phase and PU as the dispersed phase. When the content of PU in the blend was above 40 %, PP/PU melt blown nonwovens could not be produced due to fiber breaking. For PP/PU (90/10) nonwovens, it was found that the average fiber diameter decreased with increasing die to collector (DCD) and elevated hot air pressure
A van der Waals pn heterojunction with organic/inorganic semiconductors
van der Waals (vdW) heterojunctions formed by two-dimensional (2D) materials
have attracted tremendous attention due to their excellent electrical/optical
properties and device applications. However, current 2D heterojunctions are
largely limited to atomic crystals, and hybrid organic/inorganic structures are
rarely explored. Here, we fabricate hybrid 2D heterostructures with p-type
dioctylbenzothienobenzothiophene (C8-BTBT) and n-type MoS2. We find that
few-layer C8-BTBT molecular crystals can be grown on monolayer MoS2 by vdW
epitaxy, with pristine interface and controllable thickness down to monolayer.
The operation of the C8-BTBT/MoS2 vertical heterojunction devices is highly
tunable by bias and gate voltages between three different regimes: interfacial
recombination, tunneling and blocking. The pn junction shows diode-like
behavior with rectifying ratio up to 105 at the room temperature. Our devices
also exhibit photovoltaic responses with power conversion efficiency of 0.31%
and photoresponsivity of 22mA/W. With wide material combinations, such hybrid
2D structures will offer possibilities for opto-electronic devices that are not
possible from individual constituents.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
Minocycline Protects Developing Brain Against Ethanol-Induced Damage
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are caused by ethanol exposure during the pregnancy and is the leading cause of mental retardation. Ethanol exposure during the development results in the loss of neurons in the developing brain, which may underlie many neurobehavioral deficits associated with FASD. It is important to understand the mechanisms underlying ethanol-induced neuronal loss and develop appropriate therapeutic strategies. One of the potential mechanisms involves neuroimmune activation. Using a third trimester equivalent mouse model of ethanol exposure, we demonstrated that ethanol induced a wide-spread neuroapoptosis, microglial activation, and neuroinflammation in C57BL/6 mice. Minocycline is an antibiotic that inhibits microglial activation and alleviates neuroinflammation. We tested the hypothesis that minocycline may protect neurons ethanol-induced neuron death by inhibiting microglial activation and neuroinflammation. We showed that minocycline significantly inhibited ethanol-induced caspase-3 activation, microglial activation, and the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines. In contrast, minocycline reversed ethanol inhibition of anti-inflammatory cytokines. Minocycline blocked ethanol-induced activation of GSK3β, a key mediator of neuroinflammation and microglial activation in the developing brain. Consistent with the in vivo observations, minocycline inhibited ethanol-induced the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines and activation of GSK3β in a microglia cell line (SIM-9). GSK3β inhibitor eliminated ethanol activation of pro-inflammatory cytokines in SIM-9 cells. Co-cultures of cortical neurons and SIM-9 microglia cells sensitized neurons to alcohol-induced neuronal death. Minocycline protected neurons against ethanol-induced neuronal death in neurons/microglia co-cultures. Together, these results suggest that minocycline may ameliorate ethanol neurotoxicity in the developing by alleviating GSK3β-mediated neuroinflammation
Genetic immunization with Hantavirus vaccine combining expression of G2 glycoprotein and fused interleukin-2
In this research, we developed a novel chimeric HTNV-IL-2-G2 DNA vaccine plasmid by genetically linking IL-2 gene to the G2 segment DNA and tested whether it could be a candidate vaccine. Chimeric gene was first expressed in eukaryotic expression system pcDNA3.1 (+). The HTNV-IL-2-G2 expressed a 72 kDa fusion protein in COS-7 cells. Meanwhile, the fusion protein kept the activity of its parental proteins. Furthermore, BALB/c mice were vaccinated by the chimeric gene. ELISA, cell microculture neutralization test in vitro were used to detect the humoral immune response in immunized BALB/c mice. Lymphocyte proliferation assay was used to detect the cellular immune response.- The results showed that the chimeric gene could simultaneously evoke specific antibody against G2 glycoprotein and IL-2. And the immunized mice of every group elicited neutralizing antibodies with different titers. Lymphocyte proliferation assay results showed that the stimulation indexes of splenocytes of chimeric gene to G2 and IL-2 were significantly higher than that of other groups. Our results suggest that IL-2-based HTNV G2 DNA can induce both humoral and cellular immune response specific for HTNV G2 and can be a candidate DNA vaccine for HTNV infection
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