Synchronous control of dual-channel all-optical multi-state switching

We have experimentally observed optical multistabilities (OMs) simultaneously on both the signal and generated Stokes fields in an optical ring cavity with a coherently-prepared multilevel atomic medium. The two observed OMs, which are governed by different physical processes, are coupled via the multilevel atomic medium and exhibit similar threshold behaviors. By modulating the cavity input (signal) field with positive or negative pulses, dual-channel all-optical multi-state switching has been realized and synchronously controlled, which can be useful for increasing communication and computation capacities

Cloning and expression of first gene for biodegrading microcystins by Sphingopyxis sp. USTB-05

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs) in natural waters are a growing environmental problem worldwide because microcystins (MCs) produced by cyanobacteria are potent hepatotoxins and tumor promoters. MCs are resistant against physical and chemical factors. Thus, biodegradation is the most efficient method for removing MCs, and a number of bacterial strains, especially genus _Sphingomonas_, have been isolated for biodegrading MCs. Although the pathway, enzyme, and gene for biodegrading MCs by _Sphingomonas sp._ have been widely identified recently, no gene concerned with the biodegradation of MCs has been successfully cloned and expressed. In this study, we show that the first and most important gene of mlrA, containing 1,008 bp nucleotides in length, in the biodegradation pathway of MCs by _Sphingopyxis sp._ USTB-05, which encodes an enzyme MlrA containing 336 amino acid residues, is firstly cloned and expressed in _E. coli_ DH5α, with a cloning vector of pGEM-T easy and an expression vector of pGEX-4T-1. The encoded and expressed enzyme MlrA is responsible for cleaving the target peptide bond between 3-amino-9-methoxy-2,6,8-trimethyl-10-phenyl-deca-4,6-dienoic acid (Adda) and Arg in the cyclic structure of microcystin-RR （MC-RR）and microcystin-LR（MC-LR), two typical and toxic types of MCs. Linear MC-RR and MC-LR are produced as the first products. These findings are important in constructing a new genetic bacterial strain for the efficient removal of MCs from the important water supplies and resolving the controversy on the biodegradation pathway of different types of MCs by genus _Sphingomonas_

BcB_{c} →{\to} BPBP, BVBV decays with the QCD factorization approach

We studied the nonleptonic $B_{c}$ ${\to}$ $BP$, $BV$ decay with the QCD factorization approach. It is found that the Cabibbo favored processes of $B_{c}$ ${\to}$ $B_{s}{\pi}$, $B_{s}{\rho}$, $B_{u}\bar{K}$ are the promising decay channels with branching ratio larger than 1\%, which should be observed earlier by the LHCb Collaboration.Comment: 15 pages, revtex4, version appeared in Advances in High Energy Physic