Integrated photonic qubit quantum computing on a superconducting chip

We study a quantum computing system using microwave photons in transmission line resonators on a superconducting chip as qubits. We show that all control necessary for quantum computing can be implemented by coupling to Josephson devices on the same chip, and take advantage of their strong inherent nonlinearities to realize qubit interactions. We analyze the gate error rate to demonstrate that our scheme is realistic even for Josephson devices with limited decoherence times. A conceptually innovative solution based on existing technologies, our scheme provides an integrated and scalable approach to the next key milestone for photonic qubit quantum computing.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Molecular characterization of KU70 and KU80 homologues and exploitation of a KU70-deficient mutant for improving gene deletion frequency in Rhodosporidium toruloides

10.1186/1471-2180-14-50BMC Microbiology141

The therapeutic use of quercetin in ophthalmology: recent applications

Quercetin is a natural flavonol antioxidant found in various plant sources and food samples. It is well known for its notable curative effects on the treatment of ophthalmic diseases due to various biological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-fibrosis activities. This review will discuss the latest developments in therapeutic quercetin for the treatment of keratoconus, Graves’ orbitopathy, ocular surface, cataracts, glaucoma, retinoblastoma, and other retinal diseases

Disruption of putrescine biosynthesis in shewanella oneidensis enhances biofilm cohesiveness and performance in Cr(VI) immobilization

Although biofilm-based bioprocesses have been increasingly used in various applications, the long-term robust and efficient biofilm performance remains one of the main bottlenecks. In this study, we demonstrated that biofilm cohesiveness and performance of Shewanella oneidensis can be enhanced through disrupting putrescine biosynthesis. Through random transposon mutagenesis library screening, one hyperadherent mutant strain, CP2-1-S1, exhibiting an enhanced capability in biofilm formation, was obtained. Comparative analysis of the performance of biofilms formed by S. oneidensis MR-1 wild type (WT) and CP2-1-S1 in removing dichromate (Cr2O72−), i.e., Cr(VI), from the aqueous phase showed that, compared with the WT biofilms, CP2-1-S1 biofilms displayed a substantially lower rate of cell detachment upon exposure to Cr(VI), suggesting a higher cohesiveness of the mutant biofilms. In addition, the amount of Cr(III) immobilized by CP2-1-S1 biofilms was much larger, indicating an enhanced performance in Cr(VI) bioremediation. We further showed that speF, a putrescine biosynthesis gene, was disrupted in CP2-1-S1 and that the biofilm phenotypes could be restored by both genetic and chemical complementations. Our results also demonstrated an important role of putrescine in mediating matrix disassembly in S. oneidensis biofilms.Published versio

Therapeutic applications of contact lens-based drug delivery systems in ophthalmic diseases

AbstractTraditional ophthalmic drugs, such as eye drops, gels and ointments, are accompanied by many problems, including low bioavailability and potential drug side effects. Innovative ophthalmic drug delivery systems have been proposed to overcome the limitations associated with traditional formulations. Recently, contact lens-based drug delivery systems have gained popularity owing to their advantages of sustained drug delivery, prolonged drug retention, improved bioavailability, and few drug side effects. Various methods have been successfully applied to drug-loaded contact lenses and prolonged the drug release time, such as chemical crosslinking, material embedding, molecular imprinting, colloidal nanoparticles, vitamin E modification, drug polymer film/coating, ion ligand polymerization systems, and supercritical fluid technology. Contact lens-based drug delivery systems play an important role in the treatment of multifarious ophthalmic diseases. This review discusses the latest developments in drug-loaded contact lenses for the treatment of ophthalmic diseases, including preparation methods, application in ophthalmic diseases and future prospects

Enhancing ultra-wideband THz fingerprint sensing of unpatterned 2D carbon-based nanomaterials

THz molecular fingerprint sensing is a promising non-destructive method to accurately detect ultra-thin carbon-based materials in the nanoscale. Due to their extremely low THz absorption, plasmonic metamaterials or all-dielectric metasurfaces have been adopted to enhance the light-matter interaction for detection. However, they cause considerable parasitic losses or complicated material processing on a patterned surface. Here, we propose a lithography-free all-dielectric sensor to enhance THz absorption via an evanescent wave, which can lead to high detecting performance by a coupled mode. In view of the molecular broadband features, we use a thickness-multiplexed scheme to boost the detection of fingerprint significantly. The enhancing factor for the minimum fluctuation of fingerprint feature points is up to 534. Our method drastically enhances the broadband fingerprint intensity of the ultra-thin nanoscale layer and make it comparable to that of a 700-times thick sample layer, measured with a regular approach. Our study paves the way for broadband THz fingerprint sensing of trace-amount analytes and will inspire many burgeoning THz detection applications on 2D or ultra-thin carbon-based nanomaterials.</p

Additional file 6: of Identification of novel genes in the carotenogenic and oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides through genome-wide insertional mutagenesis

Figure S3. T-DNA organizations in contructs used in this study. All binary vectors have the same pPZP200 backbone [84]. (A) pEC3Pxxx-HPT3. (B) pEC3GPD-GUS. LB: left border of T-DNA; RB: right border of T-DNA; Pxxx represents three glyceraldehydes-3-phosphate dehydrogenase promoters from A. nidulans (P gpdA ), U. maydis (P gpd ) and R. toruloides (P GPD1 ) and the tranlation elongation factor promoter from A. gossypii (P tef ). hpt-3: codon-optimized hygromycin resistance gene based on the codon usage bias in R. toruloides; GUS: E. coli β-glucuronidase gene; T 35S : terminator of cauliflower mosaic virus 35S gene; Tnos: terminator of A. tumefaciens nopaline synthase gene; T tef : terminator of A. gossypii translation elongation factor gene; T cyc1 : Terminator of S. cerevisiae iso-1-cytochrome C gene. The labeled restriction enzymes are unique cutting sites in the plasmid. (PDF 56 kb

Identification of novel genes in the carotenogenic and oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides through genome-wide insertional mutagenesis

Abstract Background Rhodotorula toruloides is an outstanding producer of lipids and carotenoids. Currently, information on the key metabolic pathways and their molecular basis of regulation remains scarce, severely limiting efforts to engineer it as an industrial host. Results We have adapted Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation (ATMT) as a gene-tagging tool for the identification of novel genes in R. toruloides. Multiple factors affecting transformation efficiency in several species in the Pucciniomycotina subphylum were optimized. The Agrobacterium transfer DNA (T-DNA) showed predominantly single-copy chromosomal integrations in R. toruloides, which were trackable by high efficiency thermal asymmetric interlaced PCR (hiTAIL-PCR). To demonstrate the application of random T-DNA insertions for strain improvement and gene hunting, 3 T-DNA insertional libraries were screened against cerulenin, nile red and tetrazolium violet respectively, resulting in the identification of 22 mutants with obvious phenotypes in fatty acid or lipid metabolism. Similarly, 5 carotenoid biosynthetic mutants were obtained through visual screening of the transformants. To further validate the gene tagging strategy, one of the carotenoid production mutants, RAM5, was analyzed in detail. The mutant had a T-DNA inserted at the putative phytoene desaturase gene CAR1. Deletion of CAR1 by homologous recombination led to a phenotype similar to RAM5 and it could be genetically complemented by re-introduction of the wild-type CAR1 genome sequence. Conclusions T-DNA insertional mutagenesis is an efficient forward genetic tool for gene discovery in R. toruloides and related oleaginous yeast species. It is also valuable for metabolic engineering in these hosts. Further analysis of the 27 mutants identified in this study should augment our knowledge of the lipid and carotenoid biosynthesis, which may be exploited for oil and isoprenoid metabolic engineering

Additional file 2: of Identification of novel genes in the carotenogenic and oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides through genome-wide insertional mutagenesis

Table S1. Locations of 61 T-DNA left border flanking sequences. (PDF 91 kb

Additional file 1: of Identification of novel genes in the carotenogenic and oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides through genome-wide insertional mutagenesis

Figure S1. Optimization of transformation conditions. Unless indicated otherwise, the same volume (100 μL) of R. toruloides strain ATCC 10657 and A. tumefaciens strain AGL1 harboring plasmid pRH201 were co-cultured on IM agar (pH 5.5 and Nylon N+ membrane) for two days, and subsequently selected on YPD agar medium (150 μg/mL hygromycin and 300 μg/mL cefotaxime) for 4 days. (A) The presence (+) and absence (−) of acetosyringone (100 μg/mL). (B) Co-culture time. (C) Volumetric ratio of fungi to Agrobacteria. 100 μL of fungal cells were co-cultured with 10 to 100 μL AGL1 (pRH201) on induction medium before selection. (D) Effect of various promoters for the expression of the synthetic hpt-3 gene. Um gpd1, Rt GPD1 and An gpdA represents the glyceraldehyde-3-phospohate dehydrogenase promoter of U. maydis (0.6 kb), R. toruloides (1.4 kb), and Aspergillus nidulans (0.8 kb), respectively. Ag tef represents the promoter of Ashbya gossypii translation elongation factor (245 bp). Transformation efficiency (TFE) was represented as the relative percentage value against the highest colony forming unit (CFU) observed in the trial. Biological triplicates were used and error bars represent the standard derivations. (PDF 85 kb