Creation of a strongly dipolar gas of ultracold ground-state 23 Na87 Rb molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Mingyang; Zhu, Bing; Lu, Bo; Ye, Xin; Wang, Fudong; Wang, Dajun; Vexiau, Romain; Bouloufa-Maafa, Nadia; Quéméner, Goulven; Dulieu, Olivier

2016-05-01

We report on successful creation of an ultracold sample of ground-state 23 Na87 Rb molecules with a large effective electric dipole moment. Through a carefully designed two-photon Raman process, we have successfully transferred the magneto-associated Feshbach molecules to the singlet ground state with high efficiency, obtaining up to 8000 23 Na87 Rb molecules with peak number density over 1011 cm-3 in their absolute ground-state level. With an external electric field, we have induced an effective dipole moment over 1 Debye, making 23 Na87 Rb the most dipolar ultracold particle ever achieved. Contrary to the expectation, we observed a rather fast population loss even for 23 Na87 Rb in the absolute ground state with the bi-molecular exchange reaction energetically forbidden. The origin for the short lifetime and possible ways of mitigating it are currently under investigation. Our achievements pave the way toward investigation of ultracold bosonic molecules with strong dipolar interactions. This work is supported by the Hong Kong RGC CUHK404712 and the ANR/RGC Joint Research Scheme ACUHK403/13.

Three Body Recombination and Photoassociative Ultracold Collisions Studied Using Translational Energy

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-02-27

Sumission, or Preparation 1. "Multiple Scattering and the Density Distribution of a Cs MOT," R. Overstreet, P. Zabawa , J. Tallant, A. Schwettmann... Zabawa . J. Tallant, A. Schwettmann, J. Crawford, and J.P. Shaffer, DAMOP, Knoxville, TN, (2006). 6. "Ultracold Cs Rydberg Gas Dynamics," K.R

Ultracold Nonreactive Molecules in an Optical Lattice: Connecting Chemistry to Many-Body Physics.

PubMed

Doçaj, Andris; Wall, Michael L; Mukherjee, Rick; Hazzard, Kaden R A

2016-04-01

We derive effective lattice models for ultracold bosonic or fermionic nonreactive molecules (NRMs) in an optical lattice, analogous to the Hubbard model that describes ultracold atoms in a lattice. In stark contrast to the Hubbard model, which is commonly assumed to accurately describe NRMs, we find that the single on-site interaction parameter U is replaced by a multichannel interaction, whose properties we elucidate. Because this arises from complex short-range collisional physics, it requires no dipolar interactions and thus occurs even in the absence of an electric field or for homonuclear molecules. We find a crossover between coherent few-channel models and fully incoherent single-channel models as the lattice depth is increased. We show that the effective model parameters can be determined in lattice modulation experiments, which, consequently, measure molecular collision dynamics with a vastly sharper energy resolution than experiments in a free-space ultracold gas.

State-to-state chemistry for three-body recombination in an ultracold rubidium gas.

PubMed

Wolf, Joschka; Deiß, Markus; Krükow, Artjom; Tiemann, Eberhard; Ruzic, Brandon P; Wang, Yujun; D'Incao, José P; Julienne, Paul S; Denschlag, Johannes Hecker

2017-11-17

Experimental investigation of chemical reactions with full quantum state resolution for all reactants and products has been a long-term challenge. Here we prepare an ultracold few-body quantum state of reactants and demonstrate state-to-state chemistry for the recombination of three spin-polarized ultracold rubidium (Rb) atoms to form a weakly bound Rb 2 molecule. The measured product distribution covers about 90% of the final products, and we are able to discriminate between product states with a level splitting as small as 20 megahertz multiplied by Planck's constant. Furthermore, we formulate propensity rules for the distribution of products, and we develop a theoretical model that predicts many of our experimental observations. The scheme can readily be adapted to other species and opens a door to detailed investigations of inelastic or reactive processes. Copyright © 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Probing and Manipulating Ultracold Fermi Superfluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Lei

Ultracold Fermi gas is an exciting field benefiting from atomic physics, optical physics and condensed matter physics. It covers many aspects of quantum mechanics. Here I introduce some of my work during my graduate study. We proposed an optical spectroscopic method based on electromagnetically-induced transparency (EIT) as a generic probing tool that provides valuable insights into the nature of Fermi paring in ultracold Fermi gases of two hyperfine states. This technique has the capability of allowing spectroscopic response to be determined in a nearly non-destructive manner and the whole spectrum may be obtained by scanning the probe laser frequency faster than the lifetime of the sample without re-preparing the atomic sample repeatedly. Both quasiparticle picture and pseudogap picture are constructed to facilitate the physical explanation of the pairing signature in the EIT spectra. Motivated by the prospect of realizing a Fermi gas of 40K atoms with a synthetic non-Abelian gauge field, we investigated theoretically BEC-HCS crossover physics in the presence of a Rashba spin-orbit coupling in a system of two-component Fermi gas with and without a Zeeman field that breaks the population balance. A new bound state (Rashba pair) emerges because of the spin-orbit interaction. We studied the properties of Rashba pairs using a standard pair fluctuation theory. As the two-fold spin degeneracy is lifted by spin-orbit interaction, bound pairs with mixed singlet and triplet pairings (referred to as rashbons) emerge, leading to an anisotropic superfluid. We discussed in detail the experimental signatures for observing the condensation of Rashba pairs by calculating various physical observables which characterize the properties of the system and can be measured in experiment. The role of impurities as experimental probes in the detection of quantum material properties is well appreciated. Here we studied the effect of a single classical impurity in trapped ultracold Fermi

Ultracold molecule assembly with photonic crystals

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pérez-Ríos, Jesús; Kim, May E.; Hung, Chen-Lung

2017-12-01

Photoassociation (PA) is a powerful technique to synthesize molecules directly and continuously from cold and ultracold atoms into deeply bound molecular states. In freespace, however, PA efficiency is constrained by the number of spontaneous decay channels linking the initial excited molecular state to a sea of final (meta)stable rovibronic levels. Here, we propose a novel scheme based on molecules strongly coupled to a guided photonic mode in a photonic crystal waveguide that turns PA into a powerful tool for near deterministic formation of ultracold molecules in their ground rovibrational level. Our example shows a potential ground state molecule production efficiency > 90 % , and a saturation rate > {10}6 molecules per second. By combining state-of-the-art cold atomic and molecular physics with nanophotonic engineering, our scheme presents a novel experimental package for trapping, cooling, and optically manipulating ultracold molecules, thus opening up new possibilities in the direction of ultracold chemistry and quantum information.

Quantum Simulation of the Hubbard Model Using Ultra-Cold Atoms

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-11-01

explore phases that do not yet have analogous behavior in QCD . ..,.. Ultracold fennions in optical lattices . The evolution from BCS to BEC...trimer states. The three-component Fermi gas we have created will, when confined in an optical lattice , be an experimental realization of the SU(3...chromodynamics ( QCD ): the color superconducting phase and the formation of baryons. Our initial investigations have focused on understanding three-body

From ultracold Fermi Gases to Neutron Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salomon, Christophe

2012-02-01

Ultracold dilute atomic gases can be considered as model systems to address some pending problem in Many-Body physics that occur in condensed matter systems, nuclear physics, and astrophysics. We have developed a general method to probe with high precision the thermodynamics of locally homogeneous ultracold Bose and Fermi gases [1,2,3]. This method allows stringent tests of recent many-body theories. For attractive spin 1/2 fermions with tunable interaction (^6Li), we will show that the gas thermodynamic properties can continuously change from those of weakly interacting Cooper pairs described by Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory to those of strongly bound molecules undergoing Bose-Einstein condensation. First, we focus on the finite-temperature Equation of State (EoS) of the unpolarized unitary gas. Surprisingly, the low-temperature properties of the strongly interacting normal phase are well described by Fermi liquid theory [3] and we localize the superfluid phase transition. A detailed comparison with theories including recent Monte-Carlo calculations will be presented. Moving away from the unitary gas, the Lee-Huang-Yang and Lee-Yang beyond-mean-field corrections for low density bosonic and fermionic superfluids are quantitatively measured for the first time. Despite orders of magnitude difference in density and temperature, our equation of state can be used to describe low density neutron matter such as the outer shell of neutron stars. [4pt] [1] S. Nascimbène, N. Navon, K. Jiang, F. Chevy, and C. Salomon, Nature 463, 1057 (2010) [0pt] [2] N. Navon, S. Nascimbène, F. Chevy, and C. Salomon, Science 328, 729 (2010) [0pt] [3] S. Nascimbène, N. Navon, S. Pilati, F. Chevy, S. Giorgini, A. Georges, and C. Salomon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 215303 (2011)

Collisional Thermalization in Strongly Coupled Ultracold Neutral Plasmas

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-25

Beaumont, TX (4/16). “Studying Strongly Coupled Systems with Ultracold Plasmas," Department of Physics and Astronomy Colloquium, University of South...Alabama, Mobile, AL (11/15). “Collective Modes and Correlations in Strongly Coupled Ultracold Plasmas," Department of Physics and Astronomy

Dirac-, Rashba-, and Weyl-type spin-orbit couplings: Toward experimental realization in ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Bao-Zong; Lu, Yue-Hui; Sun, Wei; Chen, Shuai; Deng, Youjin; Liu, Xiong-Jun

2018-01-01

We propose a hierarchy set of minimal optical Raman lattice schemes to pave the way for experimental realization of high-dimensional spin-orbit (SO) couplings for ultracold atoms, including two-dimensional (2D) Dirac type, 2D Rashba type, and three-dimensional (3D) Weyl type. The proposed Dirac-type SO coupling exhibits precisely controllable high symmetry, for which a large topological phase region is predicted. The generation of 2D Rashba and 3D Weyl types requires that two sources of laser beams have distinct frequencies of factor 2 difference. Surprisingly, we find that 133Cs atoms provide an ideal candidate for the realization. A common and essential feature is of high controllability and absent of any fine-tuning in the realization, and the resulting SO coupled ultracold atoms have a long lifetime. In particular, a long-lived topological Bose gas of 2D Dirac SO coupling has been proved in the follow-up experiment. These schemes essentially improve over the current experimental accessibility and controllability, and open a realistic way to explore novel high-dimensional SO physics, particularly quantum many-body physics and quantum far-from-equilibrium dynamics with novel topology for ultracold atoms.

The geometric phase controls ultracold chemistry

DOE PAGES

Kendrick, B. K.; Hazra, Jisha; Balakrishnan, N.

2015-07-30

In this study, the geometric phase is shown to control the outcome of an ultracold chemical reaction. The control is a direct consequence of the sign change on the interference term between two scattering pathways (direct and looping), which contribute to the reactive collision process in the presence of a conical intersection (point of degeneracy between two Born–Oppenheimer electronic potential energy surfaces). The unique properties of the ultracold energy regime lead to an effective quantization of the scattering phase shift enabling maximum constructive or destructive interference between the two pathways. By taking the O + OH → H + Omore » 2 reaction as an illustrative example, it is shown that inclusion of the geometric phase modifies ultracold reaction rates by nearly two orders of magnitude. Interesting experimental control possibilities include the application of external electric and magnetic fields that might be used to exploit the geometric phase effect reported here and experimentally switch on or off the reactivity.« less

Understanding ultracold polar molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Julienne, Paul

2009-05-01

The successful production of a dense sample of ultracold ground state KRb polar molecules [1] opens the door to a new era of research with dipolar gases and lattices of such species. This feat was achieved by first associating a K and a Rb atom to make a weakly bound Feshbach molecule and then coherently transferring the population to the ground vibrational level of the molecule. This talk focuses on theoretical issues associated with making and using ultracold polar molecules, using KRb as an example [2]. Full understanding of this species and the processes by which it is made requires taking advantage of accurate molecular potentials [3], ab initio calculations [4], and the properties of the long-range potential. A highly accurate model is available for KRb for all bound states below the ground state separated atom limit and could be constructed for other species. The next step is to develop an understanding of the interactions between polar molecules, and their control in the ultracold domain. Understanding long-range interactions and threshold resonances will be crucial for future work. [1] K.-K. Ni, et al, Science 322, 231(2008). [2] P. S. Julienne, arXiv:0812:1233. [3] Pashov et al., Phys. Rev. A76, 022511 (2007). [4] S. Kotochigova, et al., arXiv:0901.1486.

The hormone response element mimic sequence of GAS5 lncRNA is sufficient to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells

PubMed Central

Pickard, Mark R.; Williams, Gwyn T.

2016-01-01

Growth arrest-specific 5 (GAS5) lncRNA promotes apoptosis, and its expression is down-regulated in breast cancer. GAS5 lncRNA is a decoy of glucocorticoid/related receptors; a stem-loop sequence constitutes the GAS5 hormone response element mimic (HREM), which is essential for the regulation of breast cancer cell apoptosis. This preclinical study aimed to determine if the GAS5 HREM sequence alone promotes the apoptosis of breast cancer cells. Nucleofection of hormone-sensitive and –insensitive breast cancer cell lines with a GAS5 HREM DNA oligonucleotide increased both basal and ultraviolet-C-induced apoptosis, and decreased culture viability and clonogenic growth, similar to GAS5 lncRNA. The HREM oligonucleotide demonstrated similar sequence specificity to the native HREM for its functional activity and had no effect on endogenous GAS5 lncRNA levels. Certain chemically modified HREM oligonucleotides, notably DNA and RNA phosphorothioates, retained pro-apoptotic. activity. Crucially the HREM oligonucleotide could overcome apoptosis resistance secondary to deficient endogenous GAS5 lncRNA levels. Thus, the GAS5 lncRNA HREM sequence alone is sufficient to induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells, including triple-negative breast cancer cells. These findings further suggest that emerging knowledge of structure/function relationships in the field of lncRNA biology can be exploited for the development of entirely novel, oligonucleotide mimic-based, cancer therapies. PMID:26862727

Shear viscosity in an anisotropic unitary Fermi gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Samanta, Rickmoy; Sharma, Rishi; Trivedi, Sandip P.

2017-11-01

We consider a system consisting of a strongly interacting, ultracold unitary Fermi gas under harmonic confinement. Our analysis suggests the possibility of experimentally studying, in this system, an anisotropic shear viscosity tensor driven by the anisotropy in the trapping potential. In particular, we suggest that this experimental setup could mimic some features of anisotropic geometries that have recently been studied for strongly coupled field theories which have a dual gravitational description. Results using the AdS/CFT (anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory correspondence) in these theories show that in systems with a background linear potential, certain viscosity components can be made much smaller than the entropy density, parametrically violating the bound proposed by Kovtun, Son, and Starinets (KSS). This intuition, along with results from a Boltzmann analysis that we perform, suggests that a violation of the KSS bound can perhaps occur in the unitary Fermi gas system when it is subjected to a suitable anisotropic trapping potential which may be approximated to be linear in a suitable range of parameters. We give a concrete proposal for an experimental setup where an anisotropic shear viscosity tensor may arise. In such situations, it may also be possible to observe a reduction in the spin-1 component of the shear viscosity from its lowest value observed so far in ultracold Fermi gases. In extreme anisotropic situations, the reduction may be enough to reduce the shear viscosity to entropy ratio below the proposed KSS bound, although this regime is difficult to analyze in a theoretically controlled manner.

Production, Manipulation, and Applications of Ultracold Polar Molecules

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-04-30

molecules, cooling, trapping, photoassociation, feshbach resonances, quantum simulation , ultracold collisions, ultracold chemistry, optical lattices...been a multitude of less predictable outcomes: special quantum information processing schemes, uses of entanglement such a spin-squeezing for better...field seeing states to high-field-seeking states (and back) at key points in the magnetic field. The molecules spontaneously emit photons as they are

Ultracold atoms and their applications (Scientific session of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 28 October 2015)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2016-02-01

A scientific session of the Physical Sciences Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), "Ultracold atoms and their applications", was held in the conference hall of the Lebedev Physical Institute, RAS, on 28 October 2015.The papers collected in this issue were written based on talks given at the session:(1) Vishnyakova G A, Golovizin A A, Kalganova E S, Tregubov D O, Khabarova K Yu (Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow; Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (State University), Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow region), Sorokin V N, Sukachev D D, Kolachevsky N N (Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) "Ultracold lanthanides: from optical clock to a quantum simulator"; (2) Barmashova T V, Martiyanov K A, Makhalov V B (Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod), Turlapov A V (Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod; Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod) "Fermi liquid to Bose condensate crossover in a two-dimensional ultracold gas experiment"; (3) Taichenachev A V, Yudin V I, Bagayev S N (Institute of Laser Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk; Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk) "Ultraprecise optical frequency standards based on ultracold atoms: state of the art and prospects"; (4) Ryabtsev I I, Beterov I I, Tretyakov D B, Entin V M, Yakshina E A (Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk; Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk) "Spectroscopy of cold rubidium Rydberg atoms for applications in quantum information". • Ultracold lanthanides: from optical clock to a quantum simulator, G A Vishnyakova, A A Golovizin, E S Kalganova, V N Sorokin, D D Sukachev, D O Tregubov, K Yu Khabarova, N N Kolachevsky Physics-Uspekhi, 2016, Volume 59, Number 2, Pages 168-173 • Fermi liquid-to-Bose condensate crossover in a two

Microwave ac Zeeman force for ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fancher, C. T.; Pyle, A. J.; Rotunno, A. P.; Aubin, S.

2018-04-01

We measure the ac Zeeman force on an ultracold gas of 87Rb due to a microwave magnetic field targeted to the 6.8 GHz hyperfine splitting of these atoms. An atom chip produces a microwave near field with a strong amplitude gradient, and we observe a force over three times the strength of gravity. Our measurements are consistent with a simple two-level theory for the ac Zeeman effect and demonstrate its resonant, bipolar, and spin-dependent nature. We observe that the dressed-atom eigenstates gradually mix over time and have mapped out this behavior as a function of magnetic field and detuning. We demonstrate the practical spin selectivity of the force by pushing or pulling a specific spin state while leaving other spin states unmoved.

Second-scale nuclear spin coherence time of ultracold 23Na40K molecules.

PubMed

Park, Jee Woo; Yan, Zoe Z; Loh, Huanqian; Will, Sebastian A; Zwierlein, Martin W

2017-07-28

Coherence, the stability of the relative phase between quantum states, is central to quantum mechanics and its applications. For ultracold dipolar molecules at sub-microkelvin temperatures, internal states with robust coherence are predicted to offer rich prospects for quantum many-body physics and quantum information processing. We report the observation of stable coherence between nuclear spin states of ultracold fermionic sodium-potassium (NaK) molecules in the singlet rovibrational ground state. Ramsey spectroscopy reveals coherence times on the scale of 1 second; this enables high-resolution spectroscopy of the molecular gas. Collisional shifts are shown to be absent down to the 100-millihertz level. This work opens the door to the use of molecules as a versatile quantum memory and for precision measurements on dipolar quantum matter. Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Nuclear-spin-independent short-range three-body physics in ultracold atoms.

PubMed

Gross, Noam; Shotan, Zav; Kokkelmans, Servaas; Khaykovich, Lev

2010-09-03

We investigate three-body recombination loss across a Feshbach resonance in a gas of ultracold 7Li atoms prepared in the absolute ground state and perform a comparison with previously reported results of a different nuclear-spin state [N. Gross, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 163202 (2009)]. We extend the previously reported universality in three-body recombination loss across a Feshbach resonance to the absolute ground state. We show that the positions and widths of recombination minima and Efimov resonances are identical for both states which indicates that the short-range physics is nuclear-spin independent.

Thermal effects in light scattering from ultracold bosons in an optical lattice

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lakomy, Kazimierz; Idziaszek, Zbigniew; Trippenbach, Marek

2009-10-15

We study the scattering of a weak and far-detuned light from a system of ultracold bosons in one-dimensional and three-dimensional optical lattices. We show the connection between angular distributions of the scattered light and statistical properties of a Bose gas in a periodic potential. The angular patterns are determined by the Fourier transform of the second-order correlation function, and thus they can be used to retrieve information on particle number fluctuations and correlations. We consider superfluid and Mott-insulator phases of the Bose gas in a lattice and we analyze in detail how the scattering depends on the system dimensionality, temperature,more » and atom-atom interactions.« less

Time-Dependent Wave Packet Dynamics Calculations of Cross Sections for Ultracold Scattering of Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Jiayu; Liu, Shu; Zhang, Dong H.; Krems, Roman V.

2018-04-01

Because the de Broglie wavelength of ultracold molecules is very large, the cross sections for collisions of molecules at ultracold temperatures are always computed by the time-independent quantum scattering approach. Here, we report the first accurate time-dependent wave packet dynamics calculation for reactive scattering of ultracold molecules. Wave packet dynamics calculations can be applied to molecular systems with more dimensions and provide real-time information on the process of bond rearrangement and/or energy exchange in molecular collisions. Our work thus makes possible the extension of rigorous quantum calculations of ultracold reaction properties to polyatomic molecules and adds a new powerful tool for the study of ultracold chemistry.

Time-Dependent Wave Packet Dynamics Calculations of Cross Sections for Ultracold Scattering of Molecules.

PubMed

Huang, Jiayu; Liu, Shu; Zhang, Dong H; Krems, Roman V

2018-04-06

Because the de Broglie wavelength of ultracold molecules is very large, the cross sections for collisions of molecules at ultracold temperatures are always computed by the time-independent quantum scattering approach. Here, we report the first accurate time-dependent wave packet dynamics calculation for reactive scattering of ultracold molecules. Wave packet dynamics calculations can be applied to molecular systems with more dimensions and provide real-time information on the process of bond rearrangement and/or energy exchange in molecular collisions. Our work thus makes possible the extension of rigorous quantum calculations of ultracold reaction properties to polyatomic molecules and adds a new powerful tool for the study of ultracold chemistry.

Reaching Higher Gamma in Ultracold Neutral Plasmas Through Disorder-Induced Heating Control

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-27

shielding ,” Phys. Rev. E 87, 033101 (2013) 4 Sequential ionization of ultracold plasma ions A simulation published in 2007 by Michael Murillo showed...AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2017-0031 Reaching higher Gamma in ultracold neutral plasmas through disorder-induced heating control Scott Bergeson BRIGHAM YOUNG...TYPE Final Report 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 01 June 2012 - 31 May 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Reaching higher Gamma in ultracold neutral plasmas

Plasma oscillations in spherical Gaussian shaped ultracold neutral plasma

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Tianxing; Lu, Ronghua, E-mail: lurh@siom.ac.cn; Guo, Li

2016-04-15

The collective plasma oscillations are investigated in ultracold neutral plasma with a non-uniform density profile. Instead of the plane configuration widely used, we derive the plasma oscillation equations with spherically symmetric distribution and Gaussian density profile. The damping of radial oscillation is found. The Tonks–Dattner resonances of the ultracold neutral plasma with an applied RF field are also calculated.

Complicated Genitourinary Tract Infections and Mimics.

PubMed

Yu, Michael; Robinson, Kathryn; Siegel, Cary; Menias, Christine

This article provides pictorial review of complicated upper and lower genitourinary infections and their mimics. Imaging features of upper urinary tract infections including uncomplicated acute pyelonephritis, xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis (XGPN), emphysematous pyelonephritis, perirenal abscess, and pyonephrosis are first reviewed and then followed by pictorial review of their mimics including contrast-associated nephrotoxicity, renal infarcts, malakoplakia, renal cell cancer, leukemia or lymphoma and Castleman's disease. Next, imaging features of lower urinary tract infections including cystitis, emphysematous cystitis, enterovesical, colovesical and vesicovaginal fistulas, Fournier gangrene, prostatitis, epididymitis, and orchitis are reviewed and then followed by pictorial review of their mimics including gas in the bladder and perineum related to instrumentation, radiation cystitis, bladder cancer, testicular torsion, testicular trauma, and testicular cancer and lymphoma. Recognizing imaging characteristics of complicated genitourinary infections and their mimics would allow clinicians to provide appropriate timely management. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

JILA BEC/Ultracold Atoms Homepage

Science.gov Websites

JILA BEC & Ultracold Atoms Bose Einstein Condensate Eric Cornell Cornell Group Debbie Jin Jin Group Jun Ye Ye Group Dana Anderson Anderson Group What is BEC? Easy BEC Machine Nobel BEC BibTek Papers

Control of Ultracold Photodissociation with Magnetic Fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDonald, M.; Majewska, I.; Lee, C.-H.; Kondov, S. S.; McGuyer, B. H.; Moszynski, R.; Zelevinsky, T.

2018-01-01

Photodissociation of a molecule produces a spatial distribution of photofragments determined by the molecular structure and the characteristics of the dissociating light. Performing this basic reaction at ultracold temperatures allows its quantum mechanical features to dominate. In this regime, weak applied fields can be used to control the reaction. Here, we photodissociate ultracold diatomic strontium in magnetic fields below 10 G and observe striking changes in photofragment angular distributions. The observations are in excellent agreement with a multichannel quantum chemistry model that includes nonadiabatic effects and predicts strong mixing of partial waves in the photofragment energy continuum. The experiment is enabled by precise quantum-state control of the molecules.

Photodissociation of ultracold diatomic strontium molecules with quantum state control.

PubMed

McDonald, M; McGuyer, B H; Apfelbeck, F; Lee, C-H; Majewska, I; Moszynski, R; Zelevinsky, T

2016-07-07

Chemical reactions at ultracold temperatures are expected to be dominated by quantum mechanical effects. Although progress towards ultracold chemistry has been made through atomic photoassociation, Feshbach resonances and bimolecular collisions, these approaches have been limited by imperfect quantum state selectivity. In particular, attaining complete control of the ground or excited continuum quantum states has remained a challenge. Here we achieve this control using photodissociation, an approach that encodes a wealth of information in the angular distribution of outgoing fragments. By photodissociating ultracold (88)Sr2 molecules with full control of the low-energy continuum, we access the quantum regime of ultracold chemistry, observing resonant and nonresonant barrier tunnelling, matter-wave interference of reaction products and forbidden reaction pathways. Our results illustrate the failure of the traditional quasiclassical model of photodissociation and instead are accurately described by a quantum mechanical model. The experimental ability to produce well-defined quantum continuum states at low energies will enable high-precision studies of long-range molecular potentials for which accurate quantum chemistry models are unavailable, and may serve as a source of entangled states and coherent matter waves for a wide range of experiments in quantum optics.

Non-destructive Faraday imaging of dynamically controlled ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gajdacz, Miroslav; Pedersen, Poul; Mørch, Troels; Hilliard, Andrew; Arlt, Jan; Sherson, Jacob

2013-05-01

We investigate non-destructive measurements of ultra-cold atomic clouds based on dark field imaging of spatially resolved Faraday rotation. In particular, we pursue applications to dynamically controlled ultracold atoms. The dependence of the Faraday signal on laser detuning, atomic density and temperature is characterized in a detailed comparison with theory. In particular the destructivity per measurement is extremely low and we illustrate this by imaging the same cloud up to 2000 times. The technique is applied to avoid the effect of shot-to-shot fluctuations in atom number calibration. Adding dynamic changes to system parameters, we demonstrate single-run vector magnetic field imaging and single-run spatial imaging of the system's dynamic behavior. The method can be implemented particularly easily in standard imaging systems by the insertion of an extra polarizing beam splitter. These results are steps towards quantum state engineering using feedback control of ultracold atoms.

Coherent all-optical control of ultracold atoms arrays in permanent magnetic traps.

PubMed

Abdelrahman, Ahmed; Mukai, Tetsuya; Häffner, Hartmut; Byrnes, Tim

2014-02-10

We propose a hybrid architecture for quantum information processing based on magnetically trapped ultracold atoms coupled via optical fields. The ultracold atoms, which can be either Bose-Einstein condensates or ensembles, are trapped in permanent magnetic traps and are placed in microcavities, connected by silica based waveguides on an atom chip structure. At each trapping center, the ultracold atoms form spin coherent states, serving as a quantum memory. An all-optical scheme is used to initialize, measure and perform a universal set of quantum gates on the single and two spin-coherent states where entanglement can be generated addressably between spatially separated trapped ultracold atoms. This allows for universal quantum operations on the spin coherent state quantum memories. We give detailed derivations of the composite cavity system mediated by a silica waveguide as well as the control scheme. Estimates for the necessary experimental conditions for a working hybrid device are given.

Mode-Locked Deceleration of Molecular Beams: Physics with Ultracold Molecules

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-02-07

AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2017-0035 Mode-Locked Deceleration of Molecular Beams: Physics with Ultracold Molecules Wesley Campbell UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA...REPORT TYPE Final 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) April 2013 - June 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE Mode-Locked Deceleration of Molecular Beams: Physics with...of Molecular Beams: Physics with Ultracold Molecules" P.I. Wesley C. Campbell Report Period: April 1, 2013- March 30, 2016 As a direct result of

The charge imbalance in ultracold plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Tianxing; Lu, Ronghua, E-mail: lurh@siom.ac.cn; Guo, Li

2016-09-15

Ultracold plasmas are regarded as quasineutral but not strictly neutral. The results of charge imbalance in the expansion of ultracold plasmas are reported. The calculations are performed by a full molecular-dynamics simulation. The details of the electron velocity distributions are calculated without the assumption of electron global thermal equilibrium and Boltzmann distribution. Spontaneous evolutions of the charge imbalance from the initial states with perfect neutrality are given in the simulations. The expansion of outer plasma slows down with the charge imbalance. The influences of plasma size and parameters on the charge imbalance are discussed. The radial profiles of electron temperaturemore » are given for the first time, and the self-similar expansion can still occur even if there is no global thermal equilibrium. The electron disorder induced heating is also found in the simulation.« less

Analytical Wave Functions for Ultracold Collisions.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavagnero, M. J.

1998-05-01

Secular perturbation theory of long-range interactions(M. J. Cavagnero, PRA 50) 2841, (1994). has been generalized to yield accurate wave functions for near threshold processes, including low-energy scattering processes of interest at ultracold temperatures. In particular, solutions of Schrödinger's equation have been obtained for motion in the combined r-6, r-8, and r-10 potentials appropriate for describing an utlracold collision of two neutral ground state atoms. Scattering lengths and effective ranges appropriate to such potentials are readily calculated at distances comparable to the LeRoy radius, where exchange forces can be neglected, thereby eliminating the need to integrate Schrödinger's equation to large internuclear distances. Our method yields accurate base pair solutions well beyond the energy range of effective range theories, making possible the application of multichannel quantum defect theory [MQDT] and R-matrix methods to the study of ultracold collisions.

Testing Lorentz and C P T invariance with ultracold neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martín-Ruiz, A.; Escobar, C. A.

2018-05-01

In this paper we investigate, within the standard model extension framework, the influence of Lorentz- and C P T -violating terms on gravitational quantum states of ultracold neutrons. Using a semiclassical wave packet, we derive the effective nonrelativistic Hamiltonian which describes the neutrons vertical motion by averaging the contributions from the perpendicular coordinates to the free falling axis. We compute the physical implications of the Lorentz- and C P T -violating terms on the spectra. The comparison of our results with those obtained in the GRANIT experiment leads to an upper bound for the symmetries-violation cμν n coefficients. We find that ultracold neutrons are sensitive to the ain and ein coefficients, which thus far are unbounded by experiments in the neutron sector. We propose two additional problems involving ultracold neutrons which could be relevant for improving our current bounds; namely, gravity-resonance spectroscopy and neutron whispering gallery wave.

Artificial Gauge Fields for Ultracold Neutral Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jimenez-Garcia, Karina

2013-05-01

Ultracold atoms are a versatile probe for physics at the core of the most intriguing and fascinating systems in the quantum world. Due to the high degree of experimental control offered by such systems, effective Hamiltonians can be designed and experimentally implemented on them. This unique feature makes ultracold atom systems ideal for quantum simulation of complex phenomena as important as high-temperature superconductivity, and recently of novel artificial gauge fields. Suitably designed artificial gauge fields allow neutral particles to experience synthetic- electric or magnetic fields; furthermore, their generalization to matrix valued gauge fields leads to spin-orbit coupling featuring unprecedented control in contrast to ordinary condensed matter systems, thus allowing the characterization of the underlying mechanism of phenomena such as the spin Hall effect and topological insulators. In this talk, I will present an overview of our experiments on quantum simulation with ultracold atom systems by focusing on the realization of light induced artificial gauge fields. We illuminate our Bose-Einstein condensates with a pair of far detuned ``Raman'' lasers, thus creating dressed states that are spin and momentum superpositions. We adiabatically load the atoms into the lowest energy dressed state, where they acquire an experimentally-tunable effective dispersion relation, i.e. we introduce gauge terms into the Hamiltonian. We control such light-induced gauge terms via the strength of the Raman coupling and the detuning from Raman resonance. Our experimental techniques for ultracold bosons have surpassed the apparent limitations imposed by their neutral charge, bosonic nature, and ultra-low energy and have allowed the observation of these new and exciting phenomena. Future work might allow the realization of the bosonic quantum Hall effect, of topological insulators and of systems supporting Majorana fermions using cold atoms. This work was partially supported by

Dipolar collisions of ultracold 23Na87Rb molecules.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Mingyang; Ye, Xin; He, Junyu; Quéméner, Goulven; González-Martínez, Maykel; Dulieu, Olivier; Wang, Dajun

2017-04-01

Although ultracold polar molecules have long been proposed as a primary candidate for investigating dipolar many body physics, many of their basic properties, like their collisions in external electric fields, are still largely unknown. In fact, despite the successful production of several new ultracold molecular species in the last two years, so far the only available dipolar collision data is still from JILA's fermionic 40K87Rb experiment in 2010. In this talk, we will describe our investigation on dipolar collisions of ultracold bosonic and chemically stable 23Na87Rb molecules which possess a large permanent electric dipole moment. With a moderate electric field, an effective dipole moment large enough to strongly couple higher partial waves into the collisions can be achieved. We will report the influence of this effect on the molecular collisions observed in our experiment. Our theoretical model for understanding these observations will also be presented. This work is supported by the Hong Kong RGC CUHK404712 and the ANR/RGC Joint Research Scheme ACUHK403/13.

Computational Modeling of Low-Density Ultracold Plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Witte, Craig

In this dissertation I describe a number of different computational investigations which I have undertaken during my time at Colorado State University. Perhaps the most significant of my accomplishments was the development of a general molecular dynamic model that simulates a wide variety of physical phenomena in ultracold plasmas (UCPs). This model formed the basis of most of the numerical investigations discussed in this thesis. The model utilized the massively parallel architecture of GPUs to achieve significant computing speed increases (up to 2 orders of magnitude) above traditional single core computing. This increased computing power allowed for each particle in an actual UCP experimental system to be explicitly modeled in simulations. By using this model, I was able to undertake a number of theoretical investigations into ultracold plasma systems. Chief among these was our lab's investigation of electron center-of-mass damping, in which the molecular dynamics model was an essential tool in interpreting the results of the experiment. Originally, it was assumed that this damping would solely be a function of electron-ion collisions. However, the model was able to identify an additional collisionless damping mechanism that was determined to be significant in the first iteration of our experiment. To mitigate this collisionless damping, the model was used to find a new parameter range where this mechanism was negligible. In this new parameter range, the model was an integral part in verifying the achievement of a record low measured UCP electron temperature of 1.57 +/- 0.28K and a record high electron strong coupling parameter, Gamma, of 0.35 +/-0.08$. Additionally, the model, along with experimental measurements, was used to verify the breakdown of the standard weak coupling approximation for Coulomb collisions. The general molecular dynamics model was also used in other contexts. These included the modeling of both the formation process of ultracold plasmas

Ultracold atoms in an optical lattice one millimeter from air

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jervis, Dylan; Edge, Graham; Trotzky, Stefan; McKay, David; Thywissen, Joseph

2013-05-01

Over the past decade, ultracold atoms in optical lattices have shown to be versatile systems able to realize canonical Hamiltonians of condensed matter. High-resolution in-situ imaging of ultracold clouds has furthermore enabled thermometry, equation of state measurements, direct measurement of fluctuations, and unprecedented control. We report on microscopy of ultracold bosons and fermions in a novel configuration where the atoms are harmonically trapped 800 microns away from a 200 micron-thick vacuum window. This window also serves as a retro-reflecting mirror for an optical lattice, into which the atoms can be loaded. Two additional transverse standing waves complete the three-dimensional lattice setup. In free space, we have shown that laser cooling with 405 nm light, on the open 4S1/2-5P3/2 transition, allows for temperatures below the Doppler temperature of the 4S1/2-4P3/2 cycling transition at 767 nm. Microscopy with 405 nm light furthermore reduces the diffraction limit of in-situ imaging.

Observation of Feshbach resonances between ultracold Na and Rb atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Fudong; Xiong, Dezhi; Li, Xiaoke; Wang, Dajun

2013-03-01

Absolute ground-state 23Na87Rb molecule has a large electric dipole moment of 3.3 Debye and its two body exchange chemical reaction is energetically forbidden at ultracold temperatures. It is thus a nice candidate for studying quantum gases with dipolar interactions. We have built an experiment setup to investigate ultracold collisions between Na and Rb atoms as a first step toward the production of ground state molecular samples. Ultracold mixtures are first obtained by evaporative cooling of Rb and sympathetic cooling of Na. They are then transferred to a crossed dipole trap and prepared in different spin combinations for Feshbach resonance study. Several resonances below 1000 G are observed with both atoms prepared in either | F = 1,mF = 1 > or | F = 1,mF = - 1 > hyperfine states. Most of them are within 30 G of predicted values§ based on potentials obtained by high quality molecular spectroscopy studies. This work is supported by RGC Hong Kong. § E. Tiemann, private communications

Ultracold Molecules in Optical Lattices: Efficient Production and Application to Molecular Clocks

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-03

near the intercombination- line threshold were measured for a variety of states, and explained by considering nonadiabatic effects ( Coriolis coupling) in...Moszynski, T. Zelevinsky. Nonadiabatic Effects in Ultracold Molecules via Anomalous Linear and Quadratic Zeeman Shifts, Physical Review Letters, (12...M. McDonald, G. Reinaudi, W. Skomorowski, R. Moszynski, T. Zelevinsky. Measurement of Nonadiabatic Effects in Ultracold Molecules via Anomalous

Bose and Fermi Gases of Ultracold Ytterbium in a Triangular Optical Lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thobe, Alexander; Doerscher, Soeren; Hundt, Bastian; Kochanke, Andre; Becker, Christoph; Sengstock, Klaus

2013-05-01

Quantum gases of alkaline-earth like atoms such as Calcium, Strontium and Ytterbium (Yb) open up exciting new possibilities for the study of many body physics in optical lattices, ranging from SU(N) symmetric spin Hamiltonians to the Kondo Lattice Model. Here, we present experimental studies of ultracold bosonic and fermionic Yb quantum gases. Unlike other experiments studying ultracold alkaline earth-like atoms, we have implemented a 2D-MOT instead of a Zeeman slower as a source of cold atoms. From the 2D-MOT, operating on the broad 1S0 -->1P1 transtition, the atoms are directly loaded into the 3D-MOT operating on a narrow intercombination line. The atoms are then evaporatively cooled to quantum degeneracy in a crossed optical dipole trap. With this setup we routinely produce BECs and degenerate Fermi gases of different Yb isotopes. Moreover, we present first results on spectroscopy of an interacting fermi gas on the ultranarrow 1S0 -->3P0 clock transition in a magic wavelength optical lattice. In future experiments, this spectroscopy will serve as a versatile tool for interaction sensing and selective addressing of atoms in a wavelength tunable, state dependent, triangular optical lattice, which we are currently implementing. This work is supported by DFG within SFB 925 and GrK 1355, as well as EU FETOpen (iSense).

Synthetic Spin-Orbit and Light Field Coupling in Ultra-cold Quantum Gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Lin

Ultra-cold quantum gases subjected to light-induced synthetic gauge potentials have become an emergent field of theoretical and experimental studies. Because of the novel application of two-photon Raman transitions, ultra-cold neutral atoms behave like charged particles in magnetic field. The Raman coupling naturally gives rise to an effective spin-orbit interaction which couples the atoms center-of-mass motion to its selected pseudo-spin degrees of freedom. Combined with unprecedented controllability of interactions, geometry, disorder strength, spectroscopy, and high resolution measurement of momentum distribution, etc., we are truly in an exciting era of fulfilling and going beyond Richard Feynman's vision. of realizing quantum simulators to better understand the quantum mechanical nature of the universe, manifested immensely in the ultra-cold regimes. In this dissertation, we present a collection of theoretical progresses made by the doctoral candidate and his colleagues and collaborators. From the past few years of work, we mainly address three aspects of the synthetic spin-orbit and light field induced coupling in ultracold quantum gases: a) The ground-state physics of singleparticle system, two-body bound states, and many-body systems, all of which are subjected to spin-orbit coupling originated from synthetic gauge potentials; b) The symmetry breaking, topological phase transition and quench dynamics, which are conveniently offered by the realized experimental setup; c) The proposal and implications of light field induced dynamical spin-orbit coupling for atoms inside optical cavity. Our work represents an important advancement of theoretical understanding to the active research frontier of ultra-cold atom physics with spin-orbit coupling.

Coherent Spectroscopy of Ultra-Cold Mercury for the UV to VUV

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-11-20

AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2015-0388 COHERENT SPECTROSCOPY OF ULTRA-COLD MERCURY FOR THE UV TO VUV R Jason Jones ARIZONA UNIV BOARD OF REGENTS TUCSON Final...TITLE AND SUBTITLE COHERENT SPECTROSCOPY OF ULTRA-COLD MERCURY FOR THE UV TO VUV 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT NUMBER FA9550-09-1-0563 5c. PROGRAM...NUMBER(S) 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Distribution A 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT Narrow UV transitions in atomic Hg can be utilized

Importance of geometric phase effects in ultracold chemistry

DOE PAGES

Hazra, Jisha; Kendrick, Brian K.; Balakrishnan, Naduvalath

2015-08-28

Here, it is demonstrated that the inclusion of the geometric phase has an important effect on ultracold chemical reaction rates. The effect appears in rotationally and vibrationally resolved integral cross sections as well as cross sections summed over all product quantum states. The effect arises from interference between scattering amplitudes of two reaction pathways: a direct path and a looping path that encircle the conical intersection between the two lowest adiabatic electronic potential energy surfaces. It is magnified when the two scattering amplitudes have comparable magnitude and they scatter into the same angular region which occurs in the isotropic scatteringmore » characteristic of the ultracold regime (s-wave scattering). Results are presented for the O + OH → H + O 2 reaction for total angular momentum quantum number J = 0–5. Large geometric phase effects occur for collision energies below 0.1 K, but the effect vanishes at higher energies when contributions from different partial waves are included. It is also qualitatively demonstrated that the geometric phase effect can be modulated by applying an external electric field allowing the possibility of quantum control of chemical reactions in the ultracold regime. In this case, the geometric phase plays the role of a “quantum switch” which can turn the reaction “on” or “off”.« less

Rydberg Molecules for Ion-Atom Scattering in the Ultracold Regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmid, T.; Veit, C.; Zuber, N.; Löw, R.; Pfau, T.; Tarana, M.; Tomza, M.

2018-04-01

We propose a novel experimental method to extend the investigation of ion-atom collisions from the so far studied cold, essentially classical regime to the ultracold, quantum regime. The key aspect of this method is the use of Rydberg molecules to initialize the ultracold ion-atom scattering event. We exemplify the proposed method with the lithium ion-atom system, for which we present simulations of how the initial Rydberg molecule wave function, freed by photoionization, evolves in the presence of the ion-atom scattering potential. We predict bounds for the ion-atom scattering length from ab initio calculations of the interaction potential. We demonstrate that, in the predicted bounds, the scattering length can be experimentally determined from the velocity of the scattered wave packet in the case of 6Li+ = 6Li and from the molecular ion fraction in the case of 7Li+ - 7Li. The proposed method to utilize Rydberg molecules for ultracold ion-atom scattering, here particularized for the lithium ion-atom system, is readily applicable to other ion-atom systems as well.

Symmetry and the geometric phase in ultracold hydrogen-exchange reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croft, J. F. E.; Hazra, J.; Balakrishnan, N.; Kendrick, B. K.

2017-08-01

Quantum reactive scattering calculations are reported for the ultracold hydrogen-exchange reaction and its non-reactive atom-exchange isotopic counterparts, proceeding from excited rotational states. It is shown that while the geometric phase (GP) does not necessarily control the reaction to all final states, one can always find final states where it does. For the isotopic counterpart reactions, these states can be used to make a measurement of the GP effect by separately measuring the even and odd symmetry contributions, which experimentally requires nuclear-spin final-state resolution. This follows from symmetry considerations that make the even and odd identical-particle exchange symmetry wavefunctions which include the GP locally equivalent to the opposite symmetry wavefunctions which do not. It is shown how this equivalence can be used to define a constant which quantifies the GP effect and can be obtained solely from experimentally observable rates. This equivalence reflects the important role that discrete symmetries play in ultracold chemistry and highlights the key role that ultracold reactions can play in understanding fundamental aspects of chemical reactivity more generally.

Rydberg Molecules for Ion-Atom Scattering in the Ultracold Regime.

PubMed

Schmid, T; Veit, C; Zuber, N; Löw, R; Pfau, T; Tarana, M; Tomza, M

2018-04-13

We propose a novel experimental method to extend the investigation of ion-atom collisions from the so far studied cold, essentially classical regime to the ultracold, quantum regime. The key aspect of this method is the use of Rydberg molecules to initialize the ultracold ion-atom scattering event. We exemplify the proposed method with the lithium ion-atom system, for which we present simulations of how the initial Rydberg molecule wave function, freed by photoionization, evolves in the presence of the ion-atom scattering potential. We predict bounds for the ion-atom scattering length from ab initio calculations of the interaction potential. We demonstrate that, in the predicted bounds, the scattering length can be experimentally determined from the velocity of the scattered wave packet in the case of ^{6}Li^{+}-^{6}Li and from the molecular ion fraction in the case of ^{7}Li^{+}-^{7}Li. The proposed method to utilize Rydberg molecules for ultracold ion-atom scattering, here particularized for the lithium ion-atom system, is readily applicable to other ion-atom systems as well.

Ultra-Cold Atoms on Optical Lattices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghosh, Parag

2009-01-01

The field of ultra-cold atoms, since the achievement of Bose-Einstein Condensation (Anderson et al., 1995; Davis et al., 1995; Bradley et al., 1995), have seen an immensely growing interest over the past decade. With the creation of optical lattices, new possibilities of studying some of the widely used models in condensed matter have opened up.…

Manufacturing a thin wire electrostatic trap for ultracold polar molecules.

PubMed

Kleinert, J; Haimberger, C; Zabawa, P J; Bigelow, N P

2007-11-01

We present a detailed description on how to build a thin wire electrostatic trap (TWIST) for ultracold polar molecules. It is the first design of an electrostatic trap that can be superimposed directly onto a magneto-optical trap (MOT). We can thus continuously produce ultracold polar molecules via photoassociation from a two species MOT and instantaneously trap them in the TWIST without the need for complex transfer schemes. Despite the spatial overlap of the TWIST and the MOT, the two traps can be operated and optimized completely independently due to the complementary nature of the utilized trapping mechanisms.

Preparation of Ultracold Atom Clouds at the Shot Noise Level.

PubMed

Gajdacz, M; Hilliard, A J; Kristensen, M A; Pedersen, P L; Klempt, C; Arlt, J J; Sherson, J F

2016-08-12

We prepare number stabilized ultracold atom clouds through the real-time analysis of nondestructive images and the application of feedback. In our experiments, the atom number N∼10^{6} is determined by high precision Faraday imaging with uncertainty ΔN below the shot noise level, i.e., ΔNultracold clouds can be prepared below the shot noise level.

Universal relations of an ultracold Fermi gas with arbitrary spin-orbit coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jie, Jianwen; Qi, Ran; Zhang, Peng

2018-05-01

We derive the universal relations for an ultracold two-component Fermi gas with a spin-orbit coupling (SOC) ∑α,β =x ,y ,zλα βσαpβ , where px ,y ,z and σx ,y ,z are the single-atom momentum and Pauli operators for pseudospin, respectively, and the SOC intensity λα β could take an arbitrary value. We consider the system with an s -wave short-range interspecies interaction, and ignore the SOC-induced modification for the value of the scattering length. Using the first-quantized approach developed by Tan [S. Tan, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 145302 (2011), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.145302], we obtain the short-range and high-momentum expansions for the one-body real-space correlation function and momentum distribution function, respectively. For our system these functions are a 2 ×2 matrix in the pseudospin basis. We find that the leading-order (1 /k4 ) behavior of the diagonal elements of the momentum distribution function, i.e., n↑↑(k ) and n↓↓(k ) , are not modified by the SOC. However, the SOC can significantly modify the large-k behaviors of the distribution difference δ n (k ) ≡n↑↑(k ) -n↓↓(k ) as well as the nondiagonal elements of the momentum distribution function, i.e., n↑↓(k ) and n↓↑(k ) . In the absence of the SOC, the leading order of δ n (k ) , n↑↓(k ) , and n↓↑(k ) is O (1 /k6) . When SOC appears, it can induce a term on the order of 1 /k5 for these elements. We further derive the adiabatic relation and the energy functional. Our results show that the SOC can induce an additional term in the energy functional, which describes the contribution from the SOC to the total energy. In addition, the form of the adiabatic relation for our system is not modified by the SOC. Our results are applicable for the systems with any type of single-atom trapping potential, which could be either diagonal or nondiagonal in the pseudospin basis.

Characterizing Feshbach resonances in ultracold scattering calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frye, Matthew D.; Hutson, Jeremy M.

2017-10-01

We describe procedures for converging on and characterizing zero-energy Feshbach resonances that appear in scattering lengths for ultracold atomic and molecular collisions as a function of an external field. The elastic procedure is appropriate for purely elastic scattering, where the scattering length is real and displays a true pole. The regularized scattering length procedure is appropriate when there is weak background inelasticity, so that the scattering length is complex and displays an oscillation rather than a pole, but the resonant scattering length ares is close to real. The fully complex procedure is appropriate when there is substantial background inelasticity and the real and imaginary parts of ares are required. We demonstrate these procedures for scattering of ultracold 85Rb in various initial states. All of them can converge on and provide full characterization of resonances, from initial guesses many thousands of widths away, using scattering calculations at only about ten values of the external field.

Inductively guided circuits for ultracold dressed atoms

PubMed Central

Sinuco-León, German A.; Burrows, Kathryn A.; Arnold, Aidan S.; Garraway, Barry M.

2014-01-01

Recent progress in optics, atomic physics and material science has paved the way to study quantum effects in ultracold atomic alkali gases confined to non-trivial geometries. Multiply connected traps for cold atoms can be prepared by combining inhomogeneous distributions of DC and radio-frequency electromagnetic fields with optical fields that require complex systems for frequency control and stabilization. Here we propose a flexible and robust scheme that creates closed quasi-one-dimensional guides for ultracold atoms through the ‘dressing’ of hyperfine sublevels of the atomic ground state, where the dressing field is spatially modulated by inductive effects over a micro-engineered conducting loop. Remarkably, for commonly used atomic species (for example, 7Li and 87Rb), the guide operation relies entirely on controlling static and low-frequency fields in the regimes of radio-frequency and microwave frequencies. This novel trapping scheme can be implemented with current technology for micro-fabrication and electronic control. PMID:25348163

Trapping of ultracold polar molecules with a thin-wire electrostatic trap.

PubMed

Kleinert, J; Haimberger, C; Zabawa, P J; Bigelow, N P

2007-10-05

We describe the realization of a dc electric-field trap for ultracold polar molecules, the thin-wire electrostatic trap (TWIST). The thin wires that form the electrodes of the TWIST allow us to superimpose the trap onto a magneto-optical trap (MOT). In our experiment, ultracold polar NaCs molecules in their electronic ground state are created in the MOT via photoassociation, achieving a continuous accumulation in the TWIST of molecules in low-field seeking states. Initial measurements show that the TWIST trap lifetime is limited only by the background pressure in the chamber.

Determination of the axial-vector weak coupling constant with ultracold neutrons.

PubMed

Liu, J; Mendenhall, M P; Holley, A T; Back, H O; Bowles, T J; Broussard, L J; Carr, R; Clayton, S; Currie, S; Filippone, B W; García, A; Geltenbort, P; Hickerson, K P; Hoagland, J; Hogan, G E; Hona, B; Ito, T M; Liu, C-Y; Makela, M; Mammei, R R; Martin, J W; Melconian, D; Morris, C L; Pattie, R W; Pérez Galván, A; Pitt, M L; Plaster, B; Ramsey, J C; Rios, R; Russell, R; Saunders, A; Seestrom, S J; Sondheim, W E; Tatar, E; Vogelaar, R B; VornDick, B; Wrede, C; Yan, H; Young, A R

2010-10-29

A precise measurement of the neutron decay β asymmetry A₀ has been carried out using polarized ultracold neutrons from the pulsed spallation ultracold neutron source at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center. Combining data obtained in 2008 and 2009, we report A₀ = -0.119 66±0.000 89{-0.001 40}{+0.001 23}, from which we determine the ratio of the axial-vector to vector weak coupling of the nucleon g{A}/g{V}=-1.275 90{-0.004 45}{+0.004 09}.

Particle statistics and lossy dynamics of ultracold atoms in optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yago Malo, J.; van Nieuwenburg, E. P. L.; Fischer, M. H.; Daley, A. J.

2018-05-01

Experimental control over ultracold quantum gases has made it possible to investigate low-dimensional systems of both bosonic and fermionic atoms. In closed one-dimensional systems there are many similarities in the dynamics of local quantities for spinless fermions and strongly interacting "hard-core" bosons, which on a lattice can be formalized via a Jordan-Wigner transformation. In this study, we analyze the similarities and differences for spinless fermions and hard-core bosons on a lattice in the presence of particle loss. The removal of a single fermion causes differences in local quantities compared with the bosonic case because of the different particle exchange symmetry in the two cases. We identify deterministic and probabilistic signatures of these dynamics in terms of local particle density, which could be measured in ongoing experiments with quantum gas microscopes.

High-resolution internal state control of ultracold 23Na87Rb molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guo, Mingyang; Ye, Xin; He, Junyu; Quéméner, Goulven; Wang, Dajun

2018-02-01

We report the full internal state control of ultracold 23Na87Rb molecules, including vibrational, rotational, and hyperfine degrees of freedom. Starting from a sample of weakly bound Feshbach molecules, we realize the creation of molecules in single hyperfine levels of both the rovibrational ground and excited states with a high-efficiency and high-resolution stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. This capability brings broad possibilities for investigating ultracold polar molecules with different chemical reactivities and interactions with a single molecular species. Moreover, starting from the rovibrational and hyperfine ground state, we achieve rotational and hyperfine control with one- and two-photon microwave spectroscopy to reach levels not accessible by the stimulated Raman transfer. The combination of these two techniques results in complete control over the internal state of ultracold polar molecules, which paves the way to study state-dependent molecular collisions and state-controlled chemical reactions.

Ultracold neutral plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyon, M.; Rolston, S. L.

2017-01-01

By photoionizing samples of laser-cooled atoms with laser light tuned just above the ionization limit, plasmas can be created with electron and ion temperatures below 10 K. These ultracold neutral plasmas have extended the temperature bounds of plasma physics by two orders of magnitude. Table-top experiments, using many of the tools from atomic physics, allow for the study of plasma phenomena in this new regime with independent control over the density and temperature of the plasma through the excitation process. Characteristic of these systems is an inhomogeneous density profile, inherited from the density distribution of the laser-cooled neutral atom sample. Most work has dealt with unconfined plasmas in vacuum, which expand outward at velocities of order 100 m/s, governed by electron pressure, and with lifetimes of order 100 μs, limited by stray electric fields. Using detection of charged particles and optical detection techniques, a wide variety of properties and phenomena have been observed, including expansion dynamics, collective excitations in both the electrons and ions, and collisional properties. Through three-body recombination collisions, the plasmas rapidly form Rydberg atoms, and clouds of cold Rydberg atoms have been observed to spontaneously avalanche ionize to form plasmas. Of particular interest is the possibility of the formation of strongly coupled plasmas, where Coulomb forces dominate thermal motion and correlations become important. The strongest impediment to strong coupling is disorder-induced heating, a process in which Coulomb energy from an initially disordered sample is converted into thermal energy. This restricts electrons to a weakly coupled regime and leaves the ions barely within the strongly coupled regime. This review will give an overview of the field of ultracold neutral plasmas, from its inception in 1999 to current work, including efforts to increase strong coupling and effects on plasma properties due to strong coupling.

The Coldest Place in the Universe: Probing the Ultra-cold Outflow and Dusty Disk in the Boomerang Nebula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahai, R.; Vlemmings, W. H. T.; Nyman, L.-Å.

2017-06-01

Our Cycle 0 ALMA observations confirmed that the Boomerang Nebula is the coldest known object in the universe, with a massive high-speed outflow that has cooled significantly below the cosmic background temperature. Our new CO 1-0 data reveal heretofore unseen distant regions of this ultra-cold outflow, out to ≳120,000 au. We find that in the ultra-cold outflow, the mass-loss rate (\\dot{M}) increases with radius, similar to its expansion velocity (V)—taking V\\propto r, we find \\dot{M}\\propto {r}0.9{--2.2}. The mass in the ultra-cold outflow is ≳ 3.3 M ⊙, and the Boomerang’s main-sequence progenitor mass is ≳ 4 M ⊙. Our high angular resolution (˜ 0\\buildrel{\\prime\\prime}\\over{.} 3) CO J = 3-2 map shows the inner bipolar nebula’s precise, highly collimated shape, and a dense central waist of size (FWHM) ˜1740 au × 275 au. The molecular gas and the dust as seen in scattered light via optical Hubble Space Telescope imaging show a detailed correspondence. The waist shows a compact core in thermal dust emission at 0.87-3.3 mm, which harbors (4{--}7)× {10}-4 M ⊙ of very large (˜millimeter-to-centimeter sized), cold (˜ 20{--}30 K) grains. The central waist (assuming its outer regions to be expanding) and fast bipolar outflow have expansion ages of ≲ 1925 {years} and ≤slant 1050 {years}: the “jet-lag” (I.e., torus age minus the fast-outflow age) in the Boomerang supports models in which the primary star interacts directly with a binary companion. We argue that this interaction resulted in a common-envelope configuration, while the Boomerang’s primary was an RGB or early-AGB star, with the companion finally merging into the primary’s core, and ejecting the primary’s envelope that now forms the ultra-cold outflow.

Ultracold Neutron Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martin, Jeffery

2016-09-01

The free neutron is an excellent laboratory for searches for physics beyond the standard model. Ultracold neutrons (UCN) are free neutrons that can be confined to material, magnetic, and gravitational traps. UCN are compelling for experiments requiring long observation times, high polarization, or low energies. The challenge of experiments has been to create enough UCN to reach the statistical precision required. Production techniques involving neutron interactions with condensed matter systems have resulted in some successes, and new UCN sources are being pursued worldwide to exploit higher UCN densities offered by these techniques. I will review the physics of how the UCN sources work, along with the present status of the world's efforts. research supported by NSERC, CFI, and CRC.

Geometric phase effects in ultracold chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hazra, Jisha; Naduvalath, Balakrishnan; Kendrick, Brian K.

2016-05-01

In molecules, the geometric phase, also known as Berry's phase, originates from the adiabatic transport of the electronic wavefunction when the nuclei follow a closed path encircling a conical intersection between two electronic potential energy surfaces. It is demonstrated that the inclusion of the geometric phase has an important effect on ultracold chemical reaction rates. The effect appears in rotationally and vibrationally resolved integral cross sections as well as cross sections summed over all product quantum states. It arises from interference between scattering amplitudes of two reaction pathways: a direct path and a looping path that encircle the conical intersection between the two lowest adiabatic electronic potential energy surfaces. Illustrative results are presented for the O+ OH --> H+ O2 reaction and for hydrogen exchange in H+ H2 and D+HD reactions. It is also qualitatively demonstrated that the geometric phase effect can be modulated by applying an external electric field allowing the possibility of quantum control of chemical reactions in the ultracold regime. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant PHY-1505557 (N.B.) and ARO MURI Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0476 (N.B.).

Understanding Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Ultracold Molecular Ions

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-06-06

Understanding Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Utracold Molecular Ions In the last five years, the study of ultracold...U.S. Army Research Office P.O. Box 12211 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 molecular ion, quantum chemistry, atom ion interaction...Molecular Ion-Neutral Atom Collisions for the Production of Utracold Molecular Ions Report Title In the last five years, the study of ultracold molecular

Total cross sections for ultracold neutrons scattered from gases

DOE PAGES

Seestrom, Susan Joyce; Adamek, Evan R.; Barlow, Dave; ...

2017-01-30

Here, we have followed up on our previous measurements of upscattering of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) from a series of gases by making measurements of total cross sections on the following gases hydrogen, ethane, methane, isobutene, n-butane, ethylene, water vapor, propane, neopentane, isopropyl alcohol, and 3He. The values of these cross sections are important for estimating the loss rate of trapped neutrons due to residual gas and are relevant to neutron lifetime measurements using UCNs. The effects of the UCN velocity and path-length distributions were accounted for in the analysis using a Monte Carlo transport code. Results are compared to ourmore » previous measurements and with the known absorption cross section for 3He scaled to our UCN energy. We find that the total cross sections for the hydrocarbon gases are reasonably described by a function linear in the number of hydrogen atoms in the molecule.« less

Research of fundamental interactions with use of ultracold neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serebrov, A. P.

2017-01-01

Use of ultracold neutrons (UCN) gives unique opportunities of a research of fundamental interactions in physics of elementary particles. Search of the electric dipole moment of a neutron (EDM) aims to test models of CP violation. Precise measurement of neutron lifetime is extremely important for cosmology and astrophysics. Considerable progress in these questions can be reached due to supersource of ultracold neutrons on the basis of superfluid helium which is under construction now in PNPI NRC KI. This source will allow us to increase density of ultracold neutrons approximately by 100 times in respect to the best UCN source at high flux reactor of Institute Laue-Langevin (Grenoble, France). Now the project and basic elements of the source are prepared, full-scale model of the source is tested, the scientific program is developed. Increase in accuracy of neutron EDM measurements by order of magnitude, down to level 10-27 -10-28 e cm is planned. It is highly important for physics of elementary particles. Accuracy of measurement of neutron lifetime can be increased by order of magnitude also. At last, at achievement of UCN density ˜ 103 - 104 cm-3, the experiment search for a neutron-antineutron oscillations using UCN will be possible. The present status of the project and its scientific program will be discussed.

Diffusion of Magnetized Binary Ionic Mixtures at Ultracold Plasma Conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vidal, Keith R.; Baalrud, Scott D.

2017-10-01

Ultracold plasma experiments offer an accessible means to test transport theories for strongly coupled systems. Application of an external magnetic field might further increase their utility by inhibiting heating mechanisms of ions and electrons and increasing the temperature at which strong coupling effects are observed. We present results focused on developing and validating a transport theory to describe binary ionic mixtures across a wide range of coupling and magnetization strengths relevant to ultracold plasma experiments. The transport theory is an extension of the Effective Potential Theory (EPT), which has been shown to accurately model correlation effects at these conditions, to include magnetization. We focus on diffusion as it can be measured in ultracold plasma experiments. Using EPT within the framework of the Chapman-Enskog expansion, the parallel and perpendicular self and interdiffusion coefficients for binary ionic mixtures with varying mass ratios are calculated and are compared to molecular dynamics simulations. The theory is found to accurately extend Braginskii-like transport to stronger coupling, but to break down when the magnetization strength becomes large enough that the typical gyroradius is smaller than the interaction scale length. This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Award Number FA9550-16-1-0221.

LASER APPLICATIONS AND OTHER TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS On control of kinematic parameters of ultracold neutrons in waveguides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivlin, Lev A.

2010-10-01

The possibility of controlling the kinematic parameters of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) is analysed by the example of a waveguide transfer and transformation of 2D images in ultracold neutrons and by the example of an increase in the concentration and deceleration/acceleration of ultracold neutrons during their transport in the waveguide with a variable cross section. The critical parameters of the problem are estimated, which indicates both consistency of the proposed approach and the emerging experimental limitations.

Tunneling and traversal of ultracold three-level atoms through vacuum-induced potentials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Badshah, Fazal; Irfan, Muhammad; Qamar, Shahid

2011-09-15

The passage of ultracold three-level atoms through the potential induced by the vacuum cavity mode is discussed using cascade atomic configuration. We study the tunneling or traversal time of the ultracold atoms via a bimodal high-Q cavity. It is found that the phase time, which may be considered as a measure for the time required to traverse the cavity, exhibits superclassical and subclassical behaviors. Further, the dark states and interference effects in cascade atomic configuration may influence the passage time of the atom through the cavity.

Vasculitis mimics.

PubMed

Molloy, Eamonn S; Langford, Carol A

2008-01-01

There are many disorders that may closely resemble the clinical, radiologic and/or pathologic features of the primary vasculitides. In this review, we focus on recently described and under-recognized syndromes that may mimic vasculitis. Hereditary causes of large-artery aneurysms such as Marfan's syndrome have long been recognized; recent years have seen a greater understanding of the genetics of Marfan's and other such disorders, including Loeys-Dietz syndrome and Ehler-Danlos syndrome type IV. Under-recognized mimics of medium-vessel vasculitis include segmental arterial mediolysis and Grange syndrome. A large number of entities can mimic small-vessel vasculitis. Recent descriptions of antibodies to human neutrophil elastase have provided insight into the occurrence of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in cocaine-induced midline destructive lesions. The differential diagnosis of cerebral vasculitis can be particularly difficult. Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndromes represent an important class of entities that can readily mimic cerebral vasculitis but have a very different management approach and outcome. The diagnosis of vasculitis requires careful assessment of all available clinical, laboratory, radiologic and pathologic information, and consideration of many competing differential diagnoses. Awareness of noninflammatory mimics of vasculitis is essential to avoid unnecessary and potentially harmful treatment with immunosuppressive agents.

Making a molecular gas in the quantum regime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, Kang-Kuen

2017-04-01

Ultracold molecules are exciting systems for a large range of scientific explorations including studies of novel phases of matter and precision measurement. In this talk, I will present a brief story of the first quantum gas of molecules, KRb, created under my PhD advisor, Deborah Jin, in 2008. A complete surprise was finding ultracold chemistry in such a system through measurements of reactant losses. In particular, long-range physics that determines KRb reactant collision rates, including van der Waals interactions, quantum statistics, and dipolar interactions, were studied extensively. However, the short-range behavior of these chemical reactions remains unknown. A legacy of her work is carried out in my lab at Harvard, where we are integrating physical chemistry tools with cold atom techniques to study ultracold chemistry with KRb molecules. In particular, we aim to elucidate the four-center reaction 2 KRb ->K2 + Rb2 by detecting the reaction products through ionization - both identify the product species and mapping out their complete quantum states.

Universality and chaoticity in ultracold K+KRb chemical reactions

DOE PAGES

Croft, J. F. E.; Makrides, C.; Li, M.; ...

2017-07-19

A fundamental question in the study of chemical reactions is how reactions proceed at a collision energy close to absolute zero. This question is no longer hypothetical: quantum degenerate gases of atoms and molecules can now be created at temperatures lower than a few tens of nanokelvin. Here we consider the benchmark ultracold reaction between, the most-celebrated ultracold molecule, KRb and K. We map out an accurate ab initio ground-state potential energy surface of the K 2Rb complex in full dimensionality and report numerically-exact quantum-mechanical reaction dynamics. The distribution of rotationally resolved rates is shown to be Poissonian. An analysismore » of the hyperspherical adiabatic potential curves explains this statistical character revealing a chaotic distribution for the short-range collision complex that plays a key role in governing the reaction outcome.« less

Collisions of ultracold 23Na87Rb molecules with controlled chemical reactivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Xin; Guo, Mingyang; He, Junyu; Wang, Dajun; Quemener, Goulven; Gonzalez-Martinez, Maykel; Dulieu, Oliver

2017-04-01

The recent successful creation of several ultracold absolute ground-state polar molecules without chemical reaction channel has opened a new playground for investigating the so far poorly understood collisions between them. On one hand, these collisions are indispensable for the exploration of dipolar physics, on the other hand, they are direct manifestations of the brand-new field of ultracold chemistry. Here, we report on the study on molecular collisions with ultracold ground-state 23Na87Rb molecules prepared by transferring weakly bound Feshbach molecules with STIRAP. By tuning the Raman laser wavelength to control the internal states, samples with distinctly different chemical reactivity and inelastic channels can be prepared. Surprisingly, we found that the trap loss of the non-reactive case is nearly identical to that of the reactive case. We also developed a model based on the collision complex formation mechanism. The comparison between experiment and theory will also be presented. This work was supported by the French ANR/Hong Kong RGC COPOMOL project (Grant No. A-CUHK403/13), the RGC General Research Fund (Grant No. CUHK14301815).

Strong Photoassociation in Ultracold Fermions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Li; Jamison, Alan; Rvachov, Timur; Ebadi, Sepher; Son, Hyungmok; Jiang, Yijun; Zwierlein, Martin; Ketterle, Wolfgang

2016-05-01

Despite many studies there are still open questions about strong photoassociation in ultracold gases. Photoassociation occurs only at short range and thus can be used as a tool to probe and control the two-body correlation function in an interacting many-body system and to engineer Hamiltonians using dissipation. We propose the possibility to slow down decoherence by photoassociation through the quantum Zeno effect. This can realized by shining strong photoassociation light on the superposition of the lowest two hyperfine states of Lithium 6. NSF, ARO-MURI, Samsung, NSERC.

Ultracold Chemical Reactions of a Single Rydberg Atom in a Dense Gas

DOE PAGES

Schlagmüller, Michael; Liebisch, Tara Cubel; Engel, Felix; ...

2016-08-10

Within a dense environment (ρ ≈ 10 14 atoms/cm 3) at ultracold temperatures (T < 1 μK), a single atom excited to a Rydberg state acts as a reaction center for surrounding neutral atoms. At these temperatures, almost all neutral atoms within the Rydberg orbit are bound to the Rydberg core and interact with the Rydberg atom. We have studied the reaction rate and products for nS 87Rb Rydberg states, and we mainly observe a state change of the Rydberg electron to a high orbital angular momentum l, with the released energy being converted into kinetic energy of the Rydberg atom. Unexpectedly, the measurements show a threshold behavior at n ≈ 100 for the inelastic collision time leading to increased lifetimes of the Rydberg state independent of the densities investigated. Even at very high densities (ρ ≈ 4.8 x 10 14 cm -3), the lifetime of a Rydberg atom exceeds 10 μs at n > 140 compared to 1 μs at n = 90. In addition, a second observed reaction mechanism, namely, Rbmore » $$+\\atop{2}$$ molecule formation, was studied. Both reaction products are equally probable for n = 40, but the fraction of Rb + 2 created drops to below 10% for n ≥ 90.« less

Coherent Multiple Light Scattering in Ultracold Atomic Rb

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kulatunga, Pasad; Sukenik, C. I.; Balik, Salim; Havey, M. D.; Kupriyanov, D. V.; Sokolov, I. M.

2003-05-01

Wave transport in mesoscopic systems can be strongly influenced by coherent multiple scattering,which can lead to novel magneto-optic, transmission, and backscattering effects of light in atomic vapors. Although related to traditional studies of radiation trapping, in ultracold vapors negligible frequency or phase redistribution takes place in the scattering, and high-order coherent light scattering occurs. Among other things, this leads to enhancement of the influence of otherwise small non-resonant terms in the scattering amplitudes. We report investigation of multiple coherent light scattering from ultracold Rb atoms confined in a magneto-optic trap (MOT). In experimental studies, measurements are made of the angular, spectral, and polarization-dependent coherent backscattering profile of a low-intensity probe beam tuned near the F = 3 - F' = 4 hyperfine transition. The influence of higher probe beam intensity is also studied. In a theoretical study of angular intensity enhancement of backscattered light, we consider scattering orders up to 10 and a realistic and asymmetric Gaussian atom distribution in the MOT. Supported by NSF, NATO, and RFBR.

Manipulation of ultracold Rb atoms using a single linearly chirped laser pulse.

PubMed

Collins, T A; Malinovskaya, S A

2012-06-15

At ultracold temperatures, atoms are free from thermal motion, which makes them ideal objects of investigations aiming to advance high-precision spectroscopy, metrology, quantum computation, producing Bose condensates, etc. The quantum state of ultracold atoms may be created and manipulated by making use of quantum control methods employing low-intensity pulses. We theoretically investigate population dynamics of ultracold Rb vapor induced by nanosecond linearly chirped pulses having kW/cm2 beam intensity and show a possibility of controllable population transfer between hyperfine (HpF) levels of 5(2)/S(1/2) state through Raman transitions. Satisfying the one-photon resonance condition with the lowest of the HpF states of 5(2)/P(1/2) or 5(2)/P(3/2) state allows us to enter the adiabatic region of population transfer at very low field intensities, such that corresponding Rabi frequencies are less than or equal to the HpF splitting. This methodology provides a robust way to create a specifically designed superposition state in Rb in the basis of HpF levels and perform state manipulation controllable on the picosecond-to-nanosecond time scale.

Three-dimensional imaging of the ultracold plasma formed in a supersonic molecular beam

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schulz-Weiling, Markus; Grant, Edward

Double-resonant excitation of nitric oxide in a seeded supersonic molecular beam forms a state-selected Rydberg gas that evolves to form an ultracold plasma. This plasma travels with the propagation of the molecular beam in z over a variable distance as great as 600 mm to strike an imaging detector, which records the charge distribution in the dimensions, x and y. The ω{sub 1} + ω{sub 2} laser crossed molecular beam excitation geometry convolutes the axial Gaussian distribution of NO in the molecular beam with the Gaussian intensity distribution of the perpendicularly aligned laser beam to create an ellipsoidal volume of Rydbergmore » gas. Detected images describe the evolution of this initial density as a function of selected Rydberg gas initial principal quantum number, n{sub 0}, ω{sub 1} laser pulse energy (linearly related to Rydberg gas density, ρ{sub 0}) and flight time. Low-density Rydberg gases of lower principal quantum number produce uniformly expanding, ellipsoidal charge-density distributions. Increase either of n{sub 0} or ρ{sub 0} breaks the ellipsoidal symmetry of plasma expansion. The volume bifurcates to form repelling plasma volumes. The velocity of separation depends on n{sub 0} and ρ{sub 0} in a way that scales uniformly with ρ{sub e}, the density of electrons formed in the core of the Rydberg gas by prompt Penning ionization. Conditions under which this electron gas drives expansion in the long axis dimension of the ellipsoid favours the formation of counter-propagating shock waves.« less

Velocity selection for ultracold atoms using mazer action in a bimodal cavity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irshad, Afshan; Qamar, Sajid; Qamar, Shahid

2010-01-01

In this paper, we discuss the velocity selection of ultracold three-level atoms in Λ configuration using a mazer. Our model is the same as discussed by Arun et al. [R. Arun, G.S. Agarwal, M.O. Scully, H. Walther, Phys. Rev. A 62 (2000) 023809] for mazer action in a bimodal cavity. We show that the initial Maxwellian velocity distribution of ultracold atoms can be narrowed due to the presence of resonances in the transmission through dressed-state potential. When the atoms are initially prepared in one of the two lower atomic states then significantly better velocity selectivity is obtained due to the presence of dark states.

Quasi-One-Dimensional Ultracold Fermi Gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Revelle, Melissa C.

Ultracold atoms have become an essential tool in studying condensed matter phenomena. The advantage of atomic physics experiments is that they provide an easily tunable system. This experiment uses the lowest two ground state hyperfine levels of fermionic lithium. Having two different states creates a pseudo-spin- 1/2 system and allows us to emulate electronic systems, such as superconductors and crystal lattices. In our experiment, we can control the ratio between these two states resulting in either a spin-balanced or a spin-imbalanced gas. Imposing an imbalance is analogous to applying a magnetic field to a superconductor which causes the electrons in the material to align to the field (thus breaking the electron pairs which cause superconductivity). This motivates us to understand the phases created when a spin-imbalance is created and the effect of changing the atomic interactions. In a 3D system, we find where superfluidity is suppressed throughout the BEC to BCS crossover. Using phase separation as a guide, we probe the dimensional crossover between 1D and 3D. The phase separation in 1D is inverted from that in 3D, which provides a unique characteristic to distinguish between the dimensions. By varying the tunneling between tubes and the atomic interactions in a 2D optical lattice, we control whether the system is 1D, 3D, or in between. Using the properties of a 3D gas as a guide, we directly observe when the gas has crossed over from being dominated by 1D-like behavior to 3D. In this way, we have found a universal value for the dimensional crossover. The 1D-3D crossover paves the way to search for the exotic FFLO (Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov) superconductor. While most superconductors do not coexist with magnetism, the FFLO phase requires large magnetic fields to support its pairing mechanism. Additionally, this phase is more likely to be found in lower dimensional systems. However, at low dimensions, the effect of temperature fluctuations on the phase

Holographic method for site-resolved detection of a 2D array of ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoffmann, Daniel Kai; Deissler, Benjamin; Limmer, Wolfgang; Hecker Denschlag, Johannes

2016-08-01

We propose a novel approach to site-resolved detection of a 2D gas of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. A near-resonant laser beam is coherently scattered by the atomic array, and after passing a lens its interference pattern is holographically recorded by superimposing it with a reference laser beam on a CCD chip. Fourier transformation of the recorded intensity pattern reconstructs the atomic distribution in the lattice with single-site resolution. The holographic detection method requires only about two hundred scattered photons per atom in order to achieve a high reconstruction fidelity of 99.9 %. Therefore, additional cooling during detection might not be necessary even for light atomic elements such as lithium. Furthermore, first investigations suggest that small aberrations of the lens can be post-corrected in imaging processing.

Potential Engineering of Fermi-Hubbard Systems using a Quantum Gas Microscope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ji, Geoffrey; Mazurenko, Anton; Chiu, Christie; Parsons, Maxwell; Kanász-Nagy, Márton; Schmidt, Richard; Grusdt, Fabian; Demler, Eugene; Greif, Daniel; Greiner, Markus

2017-04-01

Arbitrary control of optical potentials has emerged as an important tool in manipulating ultracold atomic systems, especially when combined with the single-site addressing afforded by quantum gas microscopy. Already, experiments have used digital micromirror devices (DMDs) to initialize and control ultracold atomic systems in the context of studying quantum walks, quantum thermalization, and many-body localization. Here, we report on progress in using a DMD located in the image plane of a quantum gas microscope to explore static and dynamic properties of a 2D Fermi-Hubbard system. By projecting a large, ring-shaped anti-confining potential, we demonstrate entropy redistribution and controlled doping of the system. Moreover, we use the DMD to prepare localized holes, which upon release interact with and disrupt the surrounding spin environment. These techniques pave the way for controlled investigations of dynamics in the low-temperature phases of the Hubbard model.

Floquet Engineering of Correlated Tunneling in the Bose-Hubbard Model with Ultracold Atoms.

PubMed

Meinert, F; Mark, M J; Lauber, K; Daley, A J; Nägerl, H-C

2016-05-20

We report on the experimental implementation of tunable occupation-dependent tunneling in a Bose-Hubbard system of ultracold atoms via time-periodic modulation of the on-site interaction energy. The tunneling rate is inferred from a time-resolved measurement of the lattice site occupation after a quantum quench. We demonstrate coherent control of the tunneling dynamics in the correlated many-body system, including full suppression of tunneling as predicted within the framework of Floquet theory. We find that the tunneling rate explicitly depends on the atom number difference in neighboring lattice sites. Our results may open up ways to realize artificial gauge fields that feature density dependence with ultracold atoms.

Observation of symmetry-protected topological band with ultracold fermions

PubMed Central

Song, Bo; Zhang, Long; He, Chengdong; Poon, Ting Fung Jeffrey; Hajiyev, Elnur; Zhang, Shanchao; Liu, Xiong-Jun; Jo, Gyu-Boong

2018-01-01

Symmetry plays a fundamental role in understanding complex quantum matter, particularly in classifying topological quantum phases, which have attracted great interests in the recent decade. An outstanding example is the time-reversal invariant topological insulator, a symmetry-protected topological (SPT) phase in the symplectic class of the Altland-Zirnbauer classification. We report the observation for ultracold atoms of a noninteracting SPT band in a one-dimensional optical lattice and study quench dynamics between topologically distinct regimes. The observed SPT band can be protected by a magnetic group and a nonlocal chiral symmetry, with the band topology being measured via Bloch states at symmetric momenta. The topology also resides in far-from-equilibrium spin dynamics, which are predicted and observed in experiment to exhibit qualitatively distinct behaviors in quenching to trivial and nontrivial regimes, revealing two fundamental types of spin-relaxation dynamics related to bulk topology. This work opens the way to expanding the scope of SPT physics with ultracold atoms and studying nonequilibrium quantum dynamics in these exotic systems. PMID:29492457

Atomtronics: Realizing the behavior of electronic components in ultracold atomic systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pepino, Ron

2007-06-01

Atomtronics focuses on creating an analogy of electronic devices and circuits with ultracold atoms. Such an analogy can come from the highly tunable band structure of ultracold neutral atoms trapped in optical lattices. Solely by tuning the parameters of the optical lattice, we demonstrate that conditions can be created that cause atoms in lattices to exhibit the same behavior as electrons moving through solid state media. We present our model and show how the atomtronic diode, field effect transistor, and bipolar junction transistor can all be realized. Our analogs of these fundamental components exhibit precisely-controlled atomic signal amplification, trimming, and switching (on/off) characteristics. In addition, the evolution of dynamics of the superfluid atomic currents within these systems is completely reversible. This implies a possible use of atomtronic systems in the development of quantum computational devices.

Expansion of an ultracold Rydberg plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forest, Gabriel T.; Li, Yin; Ward, Edwin D.; Goodsell, Anne L.; Tate, Duncan A.

2018-04-01

We report a systematic experimental and numerical study of the expansion of ultracold Rydberg plasmas. Specifically, we have measured the asymptotic expansion velocities, v0, of ultracold neutral plasmas (UNPs) which evolve from cold, dense samples of Rydberg rubidium atoms using ion time-of-flight spectroscopy. From this, we have obtained values for the effective initial plasma electron temperature, Te ,0=mionv02/kB (where mion is the Rb+ ion mass), as a function of the original Rydberg atom density and binding energy, Eb ,i. We have also simulated numerically the interaction of UNPs with a large reservoir of Rydberg atoms to obtain data to compare with our experimental results. We find that for Rydberg atom densities in the range 107-109 cm-3, for states with principal quantum number n >40 , Te ,0 is insensitive to the initial ionization mechanism which seeds the plasma. In addition, the quantity kBTe ,0 is strongly correlated with the fraction of atoms which ionize, and is in the range 0.6 ×| Eb ,i|≲ kBTe ,0≲2.5 ×|Eb ,i| . On the other hand, plasmas from Rydberg samples with n ≲40 evolve with no significant additional ionization of the remaining atoms once a threshold number of ions has been established. The dominant interaction between the plasma electrons and the Rydberg atoms is one in which the atoms are deexcited, a heating process for electrons that competes with adiabatic cooling to establish an equilibrium where Te ,0 is determined by their Coulomb coupling parameter, Γe˜0.01 .

Dark soliton pair of ultracold Fermi gases for a generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation model.

PubMed

Wang, Ying; Zhou, Yu; Zhou, Shuyu; Zhang, Yongsheng

2016-07-01

We present the theoretical investigation of dark soliton pair solutions for one-dimensional as well as three-dimensional generalized Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GGPE) which models the ultracold Fermi gas during Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer-Bose-Einstein condensates crossover. Without introducing any integrability constraint and via the self-similar approach, the three-dimensional solution of GGPE is derived based on the one-dimensional dark soliton pair solution, which is obtained through a modified F-expansion method combined with a coupled modulus-phase transformation technique. We discovered the oscillatory behavior of the dark soliton pair from the theoretical results obtained for the three-dimensional case. The calculated period agrees very well with the corresponding reported experimental result [Weller et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 130401 (2008)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.101.130401], demonstrating the applicability of the theoretical treatment presented in this work.

SU(3) Orbital Kondo Effect with Ultracold Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nishida, Yusuke

2013-09-01

We propose a simple but novel scheme to realize the Kondo effect with ultracold atoms. Our system consists of a Fermi sea of spinless fermions interacting with an impurity atom of different species which is confined by an isotropic potential. The interspecies attraction can be tuned with an s-wave Feshbach resonance so that the impurity atom and a spinless fermion form a bound dimer that occupies a threefold-degenerate p orbital of the confinement potential. Many-body scatterings of this dimer and surrounding spinless fermions occur with exchanging their angular momenta and thus exhibit the SU(3) orbital Kondo effect. The associated Kondo temperature has a universal leading exponent given by TK∝exp⁡[-π/(3apkF3)] that depends only on an effective p-wave scattering volume ap and a Fermi wave vector kF. We also elucidate a Kondo singlet formation at zero temperature and an anisotropic interdimer interaction mediated by surrounding spinless fermions. The Kondo effect thus realized in ultracold atom experiments may be observed as an increasing atom loss by lowering the temperature or with radio-frequency spectroscopy. Our scheme and its extension to a dense Kondo lattice will be useful to develop new insights into yet unresolved aspects of Kondo physics.

Above-threshold scattering about a Feshbach resonance for ultracold atoms in an optical collider.

PubMed

Horvath, Milena S J; Thomas, Ryan; Tiesinga, Eite; Deb, Amita B; Kjærgaard, Niels

2017-09-06

Ultracold atomic gases have realized numerous paradigms of condensed matter physics, where control over interactions has crucially been afforded by tunable Feshbach resonances. So far, the characterization of these Feshbach resonances has almost exclusively relied on experiments in the threshold regime near zero energy. Here, we use a laser-based collider to probe a narrow magnetic Feshbach resonance of rubidium above threshold. By measuring the overall atomic loss from colliding clouds as a function of magnetic field, we track the energy-dependent resonance position. At higher energy, our collider scheme broadens the loss feature, making the identification of the narrow resonance challenging. However, we observe that the collisions give rise to shifts in the center-of-mass positions of outgoing clouds. The shifts cross zero at the resonance and this allows us to accurately determine its location well above threshold. Our inferred resonance positions are in excellent agreement with theory.Studies on energy-dependent scattering of ultracold atoms were previously carried out near zero collision energies. Here, the authors observe a magnetic Feshbach resonance in ultracold Rb collisions for above-threshold energies and their method can also be used to detect higher partial wave resonances.

Frequency standards based on ultracold atoms in tests of general relativity, navigation and gravimetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khabarova, K. Yu.; Kudeyarov, K. S.; Kolachevsky, N. N.

2017-06-01

Research and development in the field of optical clocks based on ultracold atoms and ions have enabled the relative uncertainty in frequency to be reduced down to a few parts in 1018. The use of novel, precise frequency comparison methods opens up new possibilities for basic research (sensitive tests of general relativity, a search for a drift of fundamental constants and a search for ‘dark matter’) as well as for state-of-the-art navigation and gravimetry. We discuss the key methods that are used in creating precision clocks (including transportable clocks) based on ultracold atoms and ions and the feasibility of using them in resolving current relativistic gravimetry issues.

Interference, focusing and excitation of ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kandes, M. C.; Fahy, B. M.; Williams, S. R.; Tally, C. H., IV; Bromley, M. W. J.

2011-05-01

One of the pressing technological challenges in atomic physics is to go orders-of-magnitude beyond the limits of photon-based optics by harnessing the wave-nature of dilute clouds of ultracold atoms. We have developed parallelised algorithms to perform numerical calculations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in up to three dimensions and with up to three components to simulate Bose-Einstein condensates. A wide-ranging array of the physics associated with atom optics-based systems will be presented including BEC-based Sagnac interferometry in circular waveguides, the focusing of BECs using Laguerre-Gauss beams, and the interactions between BECs and Ince-Gaussian laser beams and their potential applications. One of the pressing technological challenges in atomic physics is to go orders-of-magnitude beyond the limits of photon-based optics by harnessing the wave-nature of dilute clouds of ultracold atoms. We have developed parallelised algorithms to perform numerical calculations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation in up to three dimensions and with up to three components to simulate Bose-Einstein condensates. A wide-ranging array of the physics associated with atom optics-based systems will be presented including BEC-based Sagnac interferometry in circular waveguides, the focusing of BECs using Laguerre-Gauss beams, and the interactions between BECs and Ince-Gaussian laser beams and their potential applications. Performed on computational resources via NSF grants PHY-0970127, CHE-0947087 and DMS-0923278.

Enzyme Mimics: Advances and Applications.

PubMed

Kuah, Evelyn; Toh, Seraphina; Yee, Jessica; Ma, Qian; Gao, Zhiqiang

2016-06-13

Enzyme mimics or artificial enzymes are a class of catalysts that have been actively pursued for decades and have heralded much interest as potentially viable alternatives to natural enzymes. Aside from having catalytic activities similar to their natural counterparts, enzyme mimics have the desired advantages of tunable structures and catalytic efficiencies, excellent tolerance to experimental conditions, lower cost, and purely synthetic routes to their preparation. Although still in the midst of development, impressive advances have already been made. Enzyme mimics have shown immense potential in the catalysis of a wide range of chemical and biological reactions, the development of chemical and biological sensing and anti-biofouling systems, and the production of pharmaceuticals and clean fuels. This Review concerns the development of various types of enzyme mimics, namely polymeric and dendrimeric, supramolecular, nanoparticulate and proteinic enzyme mimics, with an emphasis on their synthesis, catalytic properties and technical applications. It provides an introduction to enzyme mimics and a comprehensive summary of the advances and current standings of their applications, and seeks to inspire researchers to perfect the design and synthesis of enzyme mimics and to tailor their functionality for a much wider range of applications. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Transfer coefficients in ultracold strongly coupled plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bobrov, A. A.; Vorob'ev, V. S.; Zelener, B. V.

2018-03-01

We use both analytical and molecular dynamic methods for electron transfer coefficients in an ultracold plasma when its temperature is small and the coupling parameter characterizing the interaction of electrons and ions exceeds unity. For these conditions, we use the approach of nearest neighbor to determine the average electron (ion) diffusion coefficient and to calculate other electron transfer coefficients (viscosity and electrical and thermal conductivities). Molecular dynamics simulations produce electronic and ionic diffusion coefficients, confirming the reliability of these results. The results compare favorably with experimental and numerical data from earlier studies.

Observation of two-orbital spin-exchange interactions with ultracold SU(N)-symmetric fermions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scazza, F.; Hofrichter, C.; Höfer, M.; de Groot, P. C.; Bloch, I.; Fölling, S.

2014-10-01

Spin-exchanging interactions govern the properties of strongly correlated electron systems such as many magnetic materials. When orbital degrees of freedom are present, spin exchange between different orbitals often dominates, leading to the Kondo effect, heavy fermion behaviour or magnetic ordering. Ultracold ytterbium or alkaline-earth ensembles have attracted much recent interest as model systems for these effects, with two (meta-) stable electronic configurations representing independent orbitals. We report the observation of spin-exchanging contact interactions in a two-orbital SU(N)-symmetric quantum gas realized with fermionic 173Yb. We find strong inter-orbital spin exchange by spectroscopic characterization of all interaction channels and demonstrate SU(N = 6) symmetry within our measurement precision. The spin-exchange process is also directly observed through the dynamic equilibration of spin imbalances between ensembles in separate orbitals. The realization of an SU(N)-symmetric two-orbital Hubbard Hamiltonian opens the route to quantum simulations with extended symmetries and with orbital magnetic interactions, such as the Kondo lattice model.

Atom chip apparatus for experiments with ultracold rubidium and potassium gases

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ivory, M. K.; Ziltz, A. R.; Fancher, C. T.

2014-04-15

We present a dual chamber atom chip apparatus for generating ultracold {sup 87}Rb and {sup 39}K atomic gases. The apparatus produces quasi-pure Bose-Einstein condensates of 10{sup 4} {sup 87}Rb atoms in an atom chip trap that features a dimple and good optical access. We have also demonstrated production of ultracold {sup 39}K and subsequent loading into the chip trap. We describe the details of the dual chamber vacuum system, the cooling lasers, the magnetic trap, the multicoil magnetic transport system, the atom chip, and two optical dipole traps. Due in part to the use of light-induced atom desorption, the lasermore » cooling chamber features a sufficiently good vacuum to also support optical dipole trap-based experiments. The apparatus is well suited for studies of atom-surface forces, quantum pumping and transport experiments, atom interferometry, novel chip-based traps, and studies of one-dimensional many-body systems.« less

Trapping ultracold gases near cryogenic materials with rapid reconfigurability

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Naides, Matthew A.; Turner, Richard W.; Lai, Ruby A.

We demonstrate an atom chip trapping system that allows the placement and high-resolution imaging of ultracold atoms within microns from any ≲100 μm-thin, UHV-compatible material, while also allowing sample exchange with minimal experimental downtime. The sample is not connected to the atom chip, allowing rapid exchange without perturbing the atom chip or laser cooling apparatus. Exchange of the sample and retrapping of atoms has been performed within a week turnaround, limited only by chamber baking. Moreover, the decoupling of sample and atom chip provides the ability to independently tune the sample temperature and its position with respect to the trapped ultracoldmore » gas, which itself may remain in the focus of a high-resolution imaging system. As a first demonstration of this system, we have confined a 700-nK cloud of 8 × 10{sup 4} {sup 87}Rb atoms within 100 μm of a gold-mirrored 100-μm-thick silicon substrate. The substrate was cooled to 35 K without use of a heat shield, while the atom chip, 120 μm away, remained at room temperature. Atoms may be imaged and retrapped every 16 s, allowing rapid data collection.« less

Focus on strongly correlated quantum fluids: from ultracold quantum gases to QCD plasmas Focus on strongly correlated quantum fluids: from ultracold quantum gases to QCD plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adams, Allan; Carr, Lincoln D.; Schaefer, Thomas; Steinberg, Peter; Thomas, John E.

2013-04-01

The last few years have witnessed a dramatic convergence of three distinct lines of research concerned with different kinds of extreme quantum matter. Two of these involve new quantum fluids that can be studied in the laboratory, ultracold quantum gases and quantum chromodynamics (QCD) plasmas. Even though these systems involve vastly different energy scales, the physical properties of the two quantum fluids are remarkably similar. The third line of research is based on the discovery of a new theoretical tool for investigating the properties of extreme quantum matter, holographic dualties. The main goal of this focus issue is to foster communication and understanding between these three fields. We proceed to describe each in more detail. Ultracold quantum gases offer a new paradigm for the study of nonperturbative quantum many-body physics. With widely tunable interaction strength, spin composition, and temperature, using different hyperfine states one can model spin-1/2 fermions, spin-3/2 fermions, and many other spin structures of bosons, fermions, and mixtures thereof. Such systems have produced a revolution in the study of strongly interacting Fermi systems, for example in the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) to Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) crossover region, where a close collaboration between experimentalists and theorists—typical in this field—enabled ground-breaking studies in an area spanning several decades. Half-way through this crossover, when the scattering length characterizing low-energy collisions diverges, one obtains a unitary quantum gas, which is universal and scale invariant. The unitary gas has close parallels in the hydrodynamics of QCD plasmas, where the ratio of viscosity to entropy density is extremely low and comparable to the minimum viscosity conjecture, an important prediction of AdS/CFT (see below). Exciting developments in the thermodynamic and transport properties of strongly interacting Fermi gases are of broad

The BCS-BEC crossover: From ultra-cold Fermi gases to nuclear systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strinati, Giancarlo Calvanese; Pieri, Pierbiagio; Röpke, Gerd; Schuck, Peter; Urban, Michael

2018-04-01

This report addresses topics and questions of common interest in the fields of ultra-cold gases and nuclear physics in the context of the BCS-BEC crossover. By this crossover, the phenomena of Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superfluidity and Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), which share the same kind of spontaneous symmetry breaking, are smoothly connected through the progressive reduction of the size of the fermion pairs involved as the fundamental entities in both phenomena. This size ranges, from large values when Cooper pairs are strongly overlapping in the BCS limit of a weak inter-particle attraction, to small values when composite bosons are non-overlapping in the BEC limit of a strong inter-particle attraction, across the intermediate unitarity limit where the size of the pairs is comparable with the average inter-particle distance. The BCS-BEC crossover has recently been realized experimentally, and essentially in all of its aspects, with ultra-cold Fermi gases. This realization, in turn, has raised the interest of the nuclear physics community in the crossover problem, since it represents an unprecedented tool to test fundamental and unanswered questions of nuclear many-body theory. Here, we focus on the several aspects of the BCS-BEC crossover, which are of broad joint interest to both ultra-cold Fermi gases and nuclear matter, and which will likely help to solve in the future some open problems in nuclear physics (concerning, for instance, neutron stars). Similarities and differences occurring in ultra-cold Fermi gases and nuclear matter will then be emphasized, not only about the relative phenomenologies but also about the theoretical approaches to be used in the two contexts. Common to both contexts is the fact that at zero temperature the BCS-BEC crossover can be described at the mean-field level with reasonable accuracy. At finite temperature, on the other hand, inclusion of pairing fluctuations beyond mean field represents an essential ingredient

Ultracold Mixtures of Rubidium and Ytterbium for Open Quantum System Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herold, Creston David

Exquisite experimental control of quantum systems has led to sharp growth of basic quantum research in recent years. Controlling dissipation has been crucial in producing ultracold, trapped atomic samples. Recent theoretical work has suggested dissipation can be a useful tool for quantum state preparation. Controlling not only how a system interacts with a reservoir, but the ability to engineer the reservoir itself would be a powerful platform for open quantum system research. Toward this end, we have constructed an apparatus to study ultracold mixtures of rubidium (Rb) and ytterbium (Yb). We have developed a Rb-blind optical lattice at 423.018(7) nm, which will enable us to immerse a lattice of Yb atoms (the system) into a Rb BEC (superfluid reservoir). We have produced Bose-Einstein condensates of 170Yb and 174Yb, two of the five bosonic isotopes of Yb, which also has two fermionic isotopes. Flexible optical trapping of Rb and Yb was achieved with a two-color dipole trap of 532 and 1064 nm, and we observed thermalization in ultracold mixtures of Rb and Yb. Using the Rb-blind optical lattice, we measured very small light shifts of 87Rb BECs near the light shift zero-wavelengths adjacent the 6p electronic states, through a coherent series of lattice pulses. The positions of the zero-wavelengths are sensitive to the electric dipole matrix elements between the 5s and 6p states, and we made the first experimental measurement of their strength. By measuring a light shift, we were not sensitive to excited state branching ratios, and we achieved a precision better than 0.3%.

PENTrack - a versatile Monte Carlo tool for ultracold neutron sources and experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Picker, Ruediger; Chahal, Sanmeet; Christopher, Nicolas; Losekamm, Martin; Marcellin, James; Paul, Stephan; Schreyer, Wolfgang; Yapa, Pramodh

2016-09-01

Ultracold neutrons have energies in the hundred nano eV region. They can be stored in traps for hundreds of seconds. This makes them the ideal tool to study the neutron itself. Measurements of neutron decay correlations, lifetime or electric dipole moment are ideally suited for ultracold neutrons, as well as experiments probing the neutron's gravitational levels in the earth's field. We have developed a Monte Carlo simulation tool that can serve to design and optimize these experiments, and possibly correct results: PENTrack is a C++ based simulation code that tracks neutrons, protons and electrons or atoms, as well as their spins, in gravitational and electromagnetic fields. In addition wall interactions of neutrons due to strong interaction are modeled with a Fermi-potential formalism and take surface roughness into account. The presentation will introduce the physics behind the simulation and provide examples of its application.

Ultracold-atom quantum simulator for attosecond science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sala, Simon; Förster, Johann; Saenz, Alejandro

2017-01-01

A quantum simulator based on ultracold optically trapped atoms for simulating the physics of atoms and molecules in ultrashort intense laser fields is introduced. The slowing down by about 13 orders of magnitude allows one to watch in slow motion the tunneling and recollision processes that form the heart of attosecond science. The extreme flexibility of the simulator promises a deeper understanding of strong-field physics, especially for many-body systems beyond the reach of classical computers. The quantum simulator can experimentally straightforwardly be realized and is shown to recover the ionization characteristics of atoms in the different regimes of laser-matter interaction.

Ultracold atoms in strong synthetic magnetic fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ketterle, Wolfgang

2015-03-01

The Harper Hofstadter Hamiltonian describes charged particles in the lowest band of a lattice at high magnetic fields. This Hamiltonian can be realized with ultracold atoms using laser assisted tunneling which imprints the same phase into the wavefunction of neutral atoms as a magnetic field dose for electrons. I will describe our observation of a bosonic superfluid in a magnetic field with half a flux quantum per lattice unit cell, and discuss new possibilities for implementing spin-orbit coupling. Work done in collaboration with C.J. Kennedy, G.A. Siviloglou, H. Miyake, W.C. Burton, and Woo Chang Chung.

Ultra-cold 4He atom beams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mulders, N.; Wyatt, A. F. G.

1994-02-01

It has been shown that it is possible to create ultra-cold 4He atom beams, using a metal film heater covered with a superfluid helium film. The transient behaviour of the atom pulse can be improved significantly by shaping of the heater pulse. The leading edge of more energetic atoms can be suppressed nearly completely, leaving a core of mono-energetic atoms. The maximum number of atoms in the pulse is determined by the amount of helium in the superfluid film on the heater. This seriously limits the ranges of pulse width and energy over which this beam source can be operated. However, these can be increased significantly by using porous gold smoke heaters.

Possible Many-Body Localization in a Long-Lived Finite-Temperature Ultracold Quasineutral Molecular Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sous, John; Grant, Edward

2018-03-01

We argue that the quenched ultracold plasma presents an experimental platform for studying the quantum many-body physics of disordered systems in the long-time and finite energy-density limits. We consider an experiment that quenches a plasma of nitric oxide to an ultracold system of Rydberg molecules, ions, and electrons that exhibits a long-lived state of arrested relaxation. The qualitative features of this state fail to conform with classical models. Here, we develop a microscopic quantum description for the arrested phase based on an effective many-body spin Hamiltonian that includes both dipole-dipole and van der Waals interactions. This effective model appears to offer a way to envision the essential quantum disordered nonequilibrium physics of this system.

Two-dimensional Fermi gas in spin-dependent magnetic fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anzai, Takaaki; Nishida, Yusuke

Experimental techniques in ultracold atoms allow us to tune parameters of the system at will. In particular, synthetic magnetic fields have been created by using the atom-light coupling and, therefore, it is interesting to study what kinds of quantum phenomena appear in correlated ultracold atoms subjected to synthetic magnetic fields. In this work, we consider a two-dimensional Fermi gas with two spin states in spin-dependent magnetic fields which are assumed to be antiparallel for different spin states. By studying the ground-state phase diagram within the mean-field approximation, we find quantum spin Hall and superfluid phases separated by a second-order phase transition. We also show that there are regions where the superfluid gap parameter is proportional to the attractive coupling, which is in marked contrast to the usual exponential dependence. Moreover, we elucidate that the universality class of the phase transition belongs to that of the XY model at special points of the phase boundary, while it belongs to that of a dilute Bose gas anywhere else. International Research Center for Nanoscience and Quantum Physics, Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Measurement of optical Feshbach resonances in an ideal gas.

PubMed

Blatt, S; Nicholson, T L; Bloom, B J; Williams, J R; Thomsen, J W; Julienne, P S; Ye, J

2011-08-12

Using a narrow intercombination line in alkaline earth atoms to mitigate large inelastic losses, we explore the optical Feshbach resonance effect in an ultracold gas of bosonic (88)Sr. A systematic measurement of three resonances allows precise determinations of the optical Feshbach resonance strength and scaling law, in agreement with coupled-channel theory. Resonant enhancement of the complex scattering length leads to thermalization mediated by elastic and inelastic collisions in an otherwise ideal gas. Optical Feshbach resonance could be used to control atomic interactions with high spatial and temporal resolution.

A hybrid system of a membrane oscillator coupled to ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kampschulte, Tobias

2015-05-01

The control over micro- and nanomechanical oscillators has recently made impressive progress. First experiments demonstrated ground-state cooling and single-phonon control of high-frequency oscillators using cryogenic cooling and techniques of cavity optomechanics. Coupling engineered mechanical structures to microscopic quantum system with good coherence properties offers new possibilities for quantum control of mechanical vibrations, precision sensing and quantum-level signal transduction. Ultracold atoms are an attractive choice for such hybrid systems: Mechanical can either be coupled to the motional state of trapped atoms, which can routinely be ground-state cooled, or to the internal states, for which a toolbox of coherent manipulation and detection exists. Furthermore, atomic collective states with non-classical properties can be exploited to infer the mechanical motion with reduced quantum noise. Here we use trapped ultracold atoms to sympathetically cool the fundamental vibrational mode of a Si3N4 membrane. The coupling of membrane and atomic motion is mediated by laser light over a macroscopic distance and enhanced by an optical cavity around the membrane. The observed cooling of the membrane from room temperature to 650 +/- 230 mK shows that our hybrid mechanical-atomic system operates at a large cooperativity. Our scheme could provide ground-state cooling and quantum control of low-frequency oscillators such as levitated nanoparticles, in a regime where purely optomechanical techniques cannot reach the ground state. Furthermore, we will present a scheme where an optomechanical system is coupled to internal states of ultracold atoms. The mechanical motion is translated into a polarization rotation which drives Raman transitions between atomic ground states. Compared to the motional-state coupling, the new scheme enables to couple atoms to high-frequency structures such as optomechanical crystals.

High precision optical spectroscopy and quantum state selected photodissociation of ultracold 88Sr2 molecules in an optical lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDonald, Mickey Patrick

Over the past several decades, rapid progress has been made toward the accurate characterization and control of atoms, made possible largely by the development of narrow-linewidth lasers and techniques for trapping and cooling at ultracold temperatures. Extending this progress to molecules will have exciting implications for chemistry, condensed matter physics, and precision tests of physics beyond the Standard Model. These possibilities are all consequences of the richness of molecular structure, which is governed by physics substantially different from that characterizing atomic structure. This same richness of structure, however, increases the complexity of any molecular experiment manyfold over its atomic counterpart, magnifying the difficulty of everything from trapping and cooling to the comparison of theory with experiment. This thesis describes work performed over the past six years to establish the state of the art in manipulation and quantum control of ultracold molecules. Our molecules are produced via photoassociation of ultracold strontium atoms followed by spontaneous decay to a stable ground state. We describe a thorough set of measurements characterizing the rovibrational structure of very weakly bound (and therefore very large) 88Sr2 molecules from several different perspectives, including determinations of binding energies; linear, quadratic, and higher order Zeeman shifts; transition strengths between bound states; and lifetimes of narrow subradiant states. The physical intuition gained in these experiments applies generally to weakly bound diatomic molecules, and suggests extensive applications in precision measurement and metrology. In addition, we present a detailed analysis of the thermally broadened spectroscopic lineshape of molecules in a non-magic optical lattice trap, showing how such lineshapes can be used to directly determine the temperature of atoms or molecules in situ, addressing a long-standing problem in ultracold physics

Superfluidity and BCS-BEC crossover of ultracold atomic Fermi gases in mixed dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Leifeng; Chen, Qijin

Atomic Fermi gases have been under active investigation in the past decade. Here we study the superfluid and pairing phenomena of a two-component ultracold atomic Fermi gas in the presence of mixed dimensionality, in which one component is confined on a 1D optical lattice whereas the other is free in the 3D continuum. We assume a short-range pairing interaction and determine the superfluid transition temperature Tc and the phase diagram for the entire BCS-BEC crossover, using a pairing fluctuation theory which includes self-consistently the contributions of finite momentum pairs. We find that, as the lattice depth increases and the lattice spacing decreases, the behavior of Tc becomes very similar to that of a population imbalance Fermi gas in a simple 3D continuum. There is no superfluidity even at T = 0 below certain threshold of pairing strength in the BCS regime. Nonmonotonic Tc behavior and intermediate temperature superfluidity emerge, and for deep enough lattice, the Tc curve will split into two parts. Implications for experiment will be discussed. References: 1. Q.J. Chen, Ioan Kosztin, B. Janko, and K. Levin, Phys. Rev. B 59, 7083 (1999). 2. Chih-Chun Chien, Qijin Chen, Yan He, and K. Levin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 090402(2006). Work supported by NSF of China and the National Basic Research Program of China.

Self-diffusion and conductivity in an ultracold strongly coupled plasma: Calculation by the method of molecular dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zelener, B. B.; Zelener, B. V.; Manykin, E. A.; Bronin, S. Ya; Bobrov, A. A.; Khikhlukha, D. R.

2018-01-01

We present results of calculations by the method of molecular dynamics of self-diffusion and conductivity of electron and ion components of ultracold plasma in a comparison with available theoretical and experimental data. For the ion self-diffusion coefficient, good agreement was obtained with experiments on ultracold plasma. The results of the calculation of self-diffusion also agree well with other calculations performed for the same values of the coupling parameter, but at high temperatures. The difference in the results of the conductivity calculations on the basis of the current autocorrelation function and on the basis of the diffusion coefficient is discussed.

Ultracold collisions between Rb atoms and a Sr+ ion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meir, Ziv; Sikorsky, Tomas; Ben-Shlomi, Ruti; Dallal, Yehonatan; Ozeri, Roee

2015-05-01

In last decade, a novel field emerged, in which ultracold atoms and ions in overlapping traps are brought into interaction. In contrast to the short ranged atom-atom interaction which scales as r-6, atom-ion potential persists for hundreds of μm's due to its lower power-law scaling - r-4. Inelastic collisions between the consistuents lead to spin and charge transfer and also to molecule formation. Elastic collisions control the energy transfer between the ion and the atoms. The study of collisions at the μK range has thus far been impeded by the effect of the ion's micromotion which limited collision energy to mK scale. Unraveling this limit will allow to investigate few partial wave and even S-wave collisions. Our system is capable of trapping Sr+ ions and Rb and Sr atoms and cooling them to their quantum ground state. Atoms and ions are trapped and cooled in separate chambers. Then, the atoms are transported using an optical conveyer belt to overlap the ions. In contrast to other experiments in this field where the atoms are used to sympathetic cool the ion, our system is also capable of ground state cooling the ion before immersing it into the atom cloud. By this method, we would be able to explore heating and cooling dynamics in the ultracold regime.

Quantum Engineering of Strongly Correlated Matter with Ultracold Fermi Gases

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-05-01

aim at realizing model systems of strongly correlated, disordered electrons using ultracold fermionic atoms stored in an optical "crystal". The general...theme is to study high-temperature superfluids, Fermi liquids ("metals") and insulators in the presence of disordered impurities whose influence on...Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Education (PECASE). In this program, we aim at realizing model systems of strongly correlated, disordered

Myositis Mimics.

PubMed

Michelle, E Harlan; Mammen, Andrew L

2015-10-01

Patients with autoimmune myositis typically present with muscle weakness, elevated serum levels of muscle enzymes, and abnormal muscle biopsies. However, patients with other acquired myopathies or genetic muscle diseases may have remarkably similar presentations. Making the correct diagnosis of another muscle disease can prevent these patients from being exposed to the risks of immunosuppressive medications, which benefit those with myositis, but not those with other types of muscle disease. Here, we review some of the most common acquired and inherited muscle diseases that can mimic autoimmune myositis, including inclusion body myositis, limb girdle muscular dystrophies, metabolic myopathies, mitochondrial myopathies, and endocrine myopathies. We emphasize aspects of the medical history, physical exam, laboratory evaluation, and muscle biopsy analysis that can help clinicians distinguish myositis mimics from true autoimmune myositis.

Parametric Cooling of Ultracold Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boguslawski, Matthew; Bharath, H. M.; Barrios, Maryrose; Chapman, Michael

2017-04-01

An oscillator is characterized by a restoring force which determines the natural frequency at which oscillations occur. The amplitude and phase-noise of these oscillations can be amplified or squeezed by modulating the magnitude of this force (e.g. the stiffness of the spring) at twice the natural frequency. This is parametric excitation; a long-studied phenomena in both the classical and quantum regimes. Parametric cooling, or the parametric squeezing of thermo-mechanical noise in oscillators has been studied in micro-mechanical oscillators and trapped ions. We study parametric cooling in ultracold atoms. This method shows a modest reduction of the variance of atomic momenta, and can be easily employed with pre-existing controls in many experiments. Parametric cooling is comparable to delta-kicked cooling, sharing similar limitations. We expect this cooling to find utility in microgravity experiments where the experiment duration is limited by atomic free expansion.

The contact of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mukherjee, Biswaroop; Patel, Parth; Yan, Zhenjie; Fletcher, Richard; Struck, Julian; Zwierlein, Martin

2017-04-01

The contact is a fundamental quantity that measures the strength of short-range correlations in quantum gases. As one of its most important implications, it provides a link between the microscopic two-particle correlation function at small distance and the macroscopic thermodynamic properties of the gas. In particular, pairing and superfluidity in a unitary Fermi gas can be expected to leave its mark in behavior of the contact. Here we present measurements on the temperature dependence of the contact of a unitary Fermi gas across the superfluid transition. By trapping ultracold 6Li atoms in a potential that is homogeneous in two directions and harmonic in the third, we obtain radiofrequency spectra of the homogeneous gas at a high signal-to-noise ratio. We compare our data to existing, but often mutually excluding theoretical calculations for the strongly interacting Fermi gas.

An experimental toolbox for the generation of cold and ultracold polar molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeppenfeld, Martin; Gantner, Thomas; Glöckner, Rosa; Ibrügger, Martin; Koller, Manuel; Prehn, Alexander; Wu, Xing; Chervenkov, Sotir; Rempe, Gerhard

2017-01-01

Cold and ultracold molecules enable fascinating applications in quantum science. We present our toolbox of techniques to generate the required molecule ensembles, including buffergas cooling, centrifuge deceleration and optoelectrical Sisyphus cooling. We obtain excellent control over both the motional and internal molecular degrees of freedom, allowing us to aim at various applications.

Necrotizing fasciitis and its mimics: what radiologists need to know.

PubMed

Chaudhry, Ammar A; Baker, Kevin S; Gould, Elaine S; Gupta, Rajarsi

2015-01-01

The purpose of this article is to review the imaging features of necrotizing fasciitis and its potential mimics. Key imaging features are emphasized to enable accurate and efficient interpretation of variables that are essential in appropriate management. Necrotizing fasciitis is a medical emergency with potential lethal outcome. Dissecting gas along fascial planes in the absence of penetrating trauma (including iatrogenic) is essentially pathognomonic. However, the lack of soft-tissue emphysema does not exclude the diagnosis. Mimics of necrotizing fasciitis include nonnecrotizing fasciitis (eosinophilic, paraneoplastic, inflammatory (lupus myofasciitis, Churg-Strauss, nodular, or proliferative), myositis, neoplasm, myonecrosis, inflammatory myopathy, and compartment syndrome. Necrotizing fasciitis is a clinical diagnosis, and imaging can reveal nonspecific or negative findings (particularly during the early course of disease). One should be familiar with salient clinical and imaging findings of necrotizing fasciitis to facilitate a more rapid and accurate diagnosis and be aware that its diagnosis necessitates immediate discussion with the referring physician.

Validating the TeleStroke Mimic Score: A Prediction Rule for Identifying Stroke Mimics Evaluated Over Telestroke Networks.

PubMed

Ali, Syed F; Hubert, Gordian J; Switzer, Jeffrey A; Majersik, Jennifer J; Backhaus, Roland; Shepard, L Wylie; Vedala, Kishore; Schwamm, Lee H

2018-03-01

Up to 30% of acute stroke evaluations are deemed stroke mimics, and these are common in telestroke as well. We recently published a risk prediction score for use during telestroke encounters to differentiate stroke mimics from ischemic cerebrovascular disease derived and validated in the Partners TeleStroke Network. Using data from 3 distinct US and European telestroke networks, we sought to externally validate the TeleStroke Mimic (TM) score in a broader population. We evaluated the TM score in 1930 telestroke consults from the University of Utah, Georgia Regents University, and the German TeleMedical Project for Integrative Stroke Care Network. We report the area under the curve in receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis with 95% confidence interval for our previously derived TM score in which lower TM scores correspond with a higher likelihood of being a stroke mimic. Based on final diagnosis at the end of the telestroke consultation, there were 630 of 1930 (32.6%) stroke mimics in the external validation cohort. All 6 variables included in the score were significantly different between patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease versus stroke mimics. The TM score performed well (area under curve, 0.72; 95% confidence interval, 0.70-0.73; P <0.001), similar to our prior external validation in the Partners National Telestroke Network. The TM score's ability to predict the presence of a stroke mimic during telestroke consultation in these diverse cohorts was similar to its performance in our original cohort. Predictive decision-support tools like the TM score may help highlight key clinical differences between mimics and patients with stroke during complex, time-critical telestroke evaluations. © 2018 American Heart Association, Inc.

Proton cooling in ultracold low-density electron gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bobrov, A. A.; Bronin, S. Y.; Manykin, E. A.; Zelener, B. B.; Zelener, B. V.; Khikhlukha, D. R.

2015-11-01

A sole proton energy loss processes in an electron gas and the dependence of these processes on temperature and magnetic field are studied using molecular dynamics techniques in present work. It appears that for electron temperatures less than 100 K many body collisions affect the proton energy loss and these collisions must be taken into account. The influence of a strong magnetic field on the relaxation processes is also considered in this work. Calculations were performed for electron densities 10 cm-3, magnetic field 1-3 Tesla, electron temperatures 10-50 K, initial proton energies 100-10000 K.

Nodal Topological Phases in s-wave Superfluid of Ultracold Fermionic Gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Bei-Bing; Yang, Xiao-Sen

2018-02-01

The gapless Weyl superfluid has been widely studied in the three-dimensional ultracold fermionic superfluid. In contrast to Weyl superfluid, there exists another kind of gapless superfluid with topologically protected nodal lines, which can be regarded as the superfluid counterpart of nodal line semimetal in the condensed matter physics, just as Weyl superfluid with Weyl semimetal. In this paper we study the ground states of the cold fermionic gases in cubic optical lattices with one-dimensional spin-orbit coupling and transverse Zeeman field and map out the topological phase diagram of the system. We demonstrate that in addition to a fully gapped topologically trivial phase, some different nodal line superfluid phases appear when the Zeeman field is adjusted. The presence of topologically stable nodal lines implies the dispersionless zero-energy flat band in a finite region of the surface Brillouin zone. Experimentally these nodal line superfluid states can be detected via the momentum-resolved radio-frequency spectroscopy. The nodal line topological superfluid provide fertile grounds for exploring exotic quantum matters in the context of ultracold atoms. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 11547047 and 11504143

Quantum levitation of nanoparticles seen with ultracold neutrons

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nesvizhevsky, V. V., E-mail: nesvizhevsky@ill.eu; Voronin, A. Yu.; Lambrecht, A.

2013-09-15

Analyzing new experiments with ultracold neutrons (UCNs) we show that physical adsorption of nanoparticles/nanodroplets, levitating in high-excited states in a deep and broad potential well formed by van der Waals/Casimir-Polder (vdW/CP) forces results in new effects on a cross-road of the fields of fundamental interactions, neutron, surface and nanoparticle physics. Accounting for the interaction of UCNs with nanoparticles explains a recently discovered intriguing so-called 'small heating' of UCNs in traps. It might be relevant to the striking conflict of the neutron lifetime experiments with smallest reported uncertainties by adding false effects there.

Work on the physics of ultracold atoms in Russia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kolachevsky, N. N.; Taichenachev, A. V.

2018-05-01

In December 2017, the regular All-Russian Conference 'Physics of Ultracold Atoms' was held. Several tens of Russian scientists from major scientific centres of the country, as well as a number of leading foreign scientists took part in the Conference. The Conference topics covered a wide range of urgent problems: quantum metrology, quantum gases, waves of matter, spectroscopy, quantum computing, and laser cooling. This issue of Quantum Electronics publishes the papers reported at the conference and selected for the Journal by the Organising committee.

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving.

PubMed

Li, Jiaming; de Melo, Leonardo F; Luo, Le

2017-03-30

We present a cooling method for a cold Fermi gas by parametrically driving atomic motions in a crossed-beam optical dipole trap (ODT). Our method employs the anharmonicity of the ODT, in which the hotter atoms at the edge of the trap feel the anharmonic components of the trapping potential, while the colder atoms in the center of the trap feel the harmonic one. By modulating the trap depth with frequencies that are resonant with the anharmonic components, we selectively excite the hotter atoms out of the trap while keeping the colder atoms in the trap, generating parametric cooling. This experimental protocol starts with a magneto-optical trap (MOT) that is loaded by a Zeeman slower. The precooled atoms in the MOT are then transferred to an ODT, and a bias magnetic field is applied to create an interacting Fermi gas. We then lower the trapping potential to prepare a cold Fermi gas near the degenerate temperature. After that, we sweep the magnetic field to the noninteracting regime of the Fermi gas, in which the parametric cooling can be manifested by modulating the intensity of the optical trapping beams. We find that the parametric cooling effect strongly depends on the modulation frequencies and amplitudes. With the optimized frequency and amplitude, we measure the dependence of the cloud energy on the modulation time. We observe that the cloud energy is changed in an anisotropic way, where the energy of the axial direction is significantly reduced by parametric driving. The cooling effect is limited to the axial direction because the dominant anharmonicity of the crossed-beam ODT is along the axial direction. Finally, we propose to extend this protocol for the trapping potentials of large anharmonicity in all directions, which provides a promising scheme for cooling quantum gases using external driving.

Effects of mode profile on tunneling and traversal of ultracold atoms through vacuum-induced potentials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Badshah, Fazal; Irfan, Muhammad; Qamar, Sajid; Qamar, Shahid

2016-04-01

We consider the resonant interaction of an ultracold two-level atom with an electromagnetic field inside a high-Q micromaser cavity. In particular, we study the tunneling and traversal of ultracold atoms through vacuum-induced potentials for secant hyperbolic square and sinusoidal cavity mode functions. The phase time which may be considered as an appropriate measure of the time required for the atoms to cross the cavity, significantly modifies with the change of cavity mode profile. For example, switching between the sub and superclassical behaviors in phase time can occur due to the mode function. Similarly, negative phase time appears for the transmission of the two-level atoms in both excited and ground states for secant hyperbolic square mode function which is in contrast to the mesa mode case.

DNA mimic proteins: functions, structures, and bioinformatic analysis.

PubMed

Wang, Hao-Ching; Ho, Chun-Han; Hsu, Kai-Cheng; Yang, Jinn-Moon; Wang, Andrew H-J

2014-05-13

DNA mimic proteins have DNA-like negative surface charge distributions, and they function by occupying the DNA binding sites of DNA binding proteins to prevent these sites from being accessed by DNA. DNA mimic proteins control the activities of a variety of DNA binding proteins and are involved in a wide range of cellular mechanisms such as chromatin assembly, DNA repair, transcription regulation, and gene recombination. However, the sequences and structures of DNA mimic proteins are diverse, making them difficult to predict by bioinformatic search. To date, only a few DNA mimic proteins have been reported. These DNA mimics were not found by searching for functional motifs in their sequences but were revealed only by structural analysis of their charge distribution. This review highlights the biological roles and structures of 16 reported DNA mimic proteins. We also discuss approaches that might be used to discover new DNA mimic proteins.

Artificial Enzymes with Thiazolium and Imidazolium Coenzyme Mimics

PubMed Central

Zhao, Huanyu; Foss, Frank W.; Breslow, Ronald

2009-01-01

Hydrophobic thiazolium and imidazolium coenzyme mimics in the presence of modified-polyethylenimine enzyme mimics catalyze the benzoin condensation 2300–3300 times faster than the coenzyme mimics alone. Polycationic enzyme mimics provide not only a hydrophobic binding domain for coenzyme and substrate, but also electrostatic stabilization of anionic species that arise along the reaction pathway of the benzoin condensation. PMID:18763766

Program of Fundamental-Interaction Research for the Ultracold-Neutron Source at the the WWR-M Reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serebrov, A. P.

2018-03-01

The use of ultracold neutrons opens unique possibilities for studying fundamental interactions in particles physics. Searches for the neutron electric dipole moment are aimed at testing models of CP violation. A precise measurement of the neutron lifetime is of paramount importance for cosmology and astrophysics. Considerable advances in these realms can be made with the aid of a new ultracold-neutron (UCN) supersource presently under construction at Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute. With this source, it would be possible to obtain an UCN density approximately 100 times as high as that at currently the best UCN source at the high-flux reactor of the Institute Laue-Langevin (ILL, Grenoble, France). To date, the design and basic elements of the source have been prepared, tests of a full-scale source model have been performed, and the research program has been developed. It is planned to improve accuracy in measuring the neutron electric dipole moment by one order of magnitude to a level of 10-27 to 10-28 e cm. This is of crucial importance for particle physics. The accuracy in measuring the neutron lifetime can also be improved by one order of magnitude. Finally, experiments that would seek neutron-antineutron oscillations by employing ultracold neutrons will become possible upon reaching an UCN density of 103 to 104 cm-3. The current status of the source and the proposed research program are discussed.

Probing and characterizing the growth of a crystal of ultracold bosons and light

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ostermann, S.; Piazza, F.; Ritsch, H.

2017-12-01

The non-linear coupled particle light dynamics of an ultracold gas in the field of two independent counter-propagating laser beams can lead to the dynamical formation of a self-ordered lattice structure as presented in (2016) Phys. Rev. X 6 021026. Here we present new numerical studies on experimentally observable signatures to monitor the growth and properties of such a crystal in real time. While, at least theoretically, optimal non-destructive observation of the growth dynamics and the hallmarks of the crystalline phase can be performed by analyzing scattered light, monitoring the evolution of the particle’s momentum distribution via time-of-flight probing is an experimentally more accessible choice. In this work we show that both approaches allow us to unambiguously distinguish the crystal from independent collective scattering as it occurs in matter wave super-radiance. As a clear crystallization signature, we identify spatial locking between the two emerging standing laser waves, together creating the crystal potential. For sufficiently large systems, the system allows reversible adiabatic ramping into the crystalline phase as an alternative to a quench across the phase transition and growth from fluctuations.

A hydrogen leak-tight, transparent cryogenic sample container for ultracold-neutron transmission measurements

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Döge, Stefan; Hingerl, Jürgen

2018-03-01

The improvement of the number of extractable ultracold neutrons (UCNs) from converters based on solid deuterium (sD2) crystals requires a good understanding of the UCN transport and how the crystal's morphology influences its transparency to the UCNs. Measurements of the UCN transmission through cryogenic liquids and solids of interest, such as hydrogen (H2) and deuterium (D2), require sample containers with thin, highly polished and optically transparent windows and a well defined sample thickness. One of the most difficult sealing problems is that of light gases like hydrogen and helium at low temperatures against high vacuum. Here we report on the design of a sample container with two 1 mm thin amorphous silica windows cold-welded to aluminum clamps using indium wire gaskets, in order to form a simple, reusable, and hydrogen-tight cryogenic seal. The container meets the above-mentioned requirements and withstands up to 2 bar hydrogen gas pressure against isolation vacuum in the range of 10-5 to 10-7 mbar at temperatures down to 4.5 K. Additionally, photographs of the crystallization process are shown and discussed.

Quantum Reactive Scattering of Ultracold K+KRb Reaction: Universality and Chaotic Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croft, J. F. E.; Makrides, C.; Li, M.; Petrov, A.; Kendrick, B. K.; Balakrishnan, N.; Kotochigova, S.

2017-04-01

A fundamental question in the study of chemical reactions is how reactions proceed at a collision energy close to absolute zero. This question is no longer hypothetical: quantum degenerate gases of atoms and molecules can now be created at temperatures lower than a few tens of nanoKelvin. In this talk, we discuss the benchmark ultracold reaction between, the most-celebrated ultracold molecule, KRb and K. We report numerically exact quantum-mechanical calculations of the K+KRb reaction on an accurate ab initio ground state potential energy surface of the K2Rb system and compare our results with available experimental data and predictions of universal models. The role of non-additive three-body contributions to the interaction potential is examined and is found to be small for the total reaction rates. However, the rotationally resolved rate coefficients are shown to be sensitive to the short-range interaction potential and follow a Poissonian distribution. This work was supported in part by NSF Grants PHY-1505557 (N.B.), PHY-1619788 (S.K.), ARO MURI Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0476 (N.B. & S.K.), and DOE LDRD Grant No. 20170221ER (B.K.).

Photodissociation of quantum state-selected diatomic molecules yields new insight into ultracold chemistry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDonald, Mickey; McGuyer, Bart H.; Lee, Chih-Hsi; Apfelbeck, Florian; Zelevinsky, Tanya

2016-05-01

When a molecule is subjected to a sufficiently energetic photon it can break apart into fragments through a process called ``photodissociation''. For over 70 years this simple chemical reaction has served as a vital experimental tool for acquiring information about molecular structure, since the character of the photodissociative transition can be inferred by measuring the 3D photofragment angular distribution (PAD). While theoretical understanding of this process has gradually evolved from classical considerations to a fully quantum approach, experiments to date have not yet revealed the full quantum nature of this process. In my talk I will describe recent experiments involving the photodissociation of ultracold, optical lattice-trapped, and fully quantum state-resolved 88Sr2 molecules. Optical absorption images of the PADs produced in these experiments reveal features which are inherently quantum mechanical in nature, such as matter-wave interference between output channels, and are sensitive to the quantum statistics of the molecular wavefunctions. The results of these experiments cannot be predicted using quasiclassical methods. Instead, we describe our results with a fully quantum mechanical model yielding new intuition about ultracold chemistry.

Mimic Carbonic Anhydrase Using Metal-Organic Frameworks for CO2 Capture and Conversion.

PubMed

Jin, Chaonan; Zhang, Sainan; Zhang, Zhenjie; Chen, Yao

2018-02-19

Carbonic anhydrase (CA) is a zinc-containing metalloprotein, in which the Zn active center plays the key role to transform CO 2 into carbonate. Inspired by nature, herein we used metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) to mimic CA for CO 2 conversion, on the basis of the structural similarity between the Zn coordination in MOFs and CA active center. The biomimetic activity of MOFs was investigated by detecting the hydrolysis of para-nitrophenyl acetate, which is a model reaction used to evaluate CA activity. The biomimetic materials (e.g., CFA-1) showed good catalytic activity, and excellent reusability, and solvent and thermal stability, which is very important for practical applications. In addition, ZIF-100 and CFA-1 were used to mimic CA to convert CO 2 gas, and exhibited good efficiency on CO 2 conversion compared with those of other porous materials (e.g., MCM-41, active carbon). This biomimetic study revealed a novel CO 2 treatment method. Instead of simply using MOFs to absorb CO 2 , ZIF-100 and CFA-1 were used to mimic CA for in situ CO 2 conversion, which provides a new prospect in the biological and industrial applications of MOFs.

Emergence of kinetic behavior in streaming ultracold neutral plasmas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McQuillen, P.; Castro, J.; Bradshaw, S. J.

2015-04-15

We create streaming ultracold neutral plasmas by tailoring the photoionizing laser beam that creates the plasma. By varying the electron temperature, we control the relative velocity of the streaming populations, and, in conjunction with variation of the plasma density, this controls the ion collisionality of the colliding streams. Laser-induced fluorescence is used to map the spatially resolved density and velocity distribution function for the ions. We identify the lack of local thermal equilibrium and distinct populations of interpenetrating, counter-streaming ions as signatures of kinetic behavior. Experimental data are compared with results from a one-dimensional, two-fluid numerical simulation.

Preparation of a pure molecular quantum gas.

PubMed

Herbig, Jens; Kraemer, Tobias; Mark, Michael; Weber, Tino; Chin, Cheng; Nägerl, Hanns-Christoph; Grimm, Rudolf

2003-09-12

An ultracold molecular quantum gas is created by application of a magnetic field sweep across a Feshbach resonance to a Bose-Einstein condensate of cesium atoms. The ability to separate the molecules from the atoms permits direct imaging of the pure molecular sample. Magnetic levitation enables study of the dynamics of the ensemble on extended time scales. We measured ultralow expansion energies in the range of a few nanokelvin for a sample of 3000 molecules. Our observations are consistent with the presence of a macroscopic molecular matter wave.

Analysis of the Alkali Metal Diatomic Spectra; Using molecular beams and ultracold molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jin-Tae

2014-12-01

This ebook illustrates the complementarity of molecular beam (MB) spectra and ultracold molecule (UM) spectra in unraveling the complex electronic spectra of diatomic alkali metal molecules, using KRb as a prime example. Researchers interested in molecular spectroscopy, whether physicist, chemist, or engineer, may find this ebook helpful and may be able to apply similar ideas to their molecules of interest.

Precursor of superfluidity in a strongly interacting Fermi gas with negative effective range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tajima, Hiroyuki

2018-04-01

We investigate theoretically the effects of pairing fluctuations in an ultracold Fermi gas near a Feshbach resonance with a negative effective range. By employing a many-body T -matrix theory with a coupled fermion-boson model, we show that the single-particle density of states exhibits the so-called pseudogap phenomenon, which is a precursor of superfluidity induced by strong pairing fluctuations. We clarify the region where strong pairing fluctuations play a crucial role in single-particle properties, from the broad-resonance region to the narrow-resonance limit at the divergent two-body scattering length. We also extrapolate the effects of pairing fluctuations to the positive-effective-range region from our results near the narrow Feshbach resonance. Results shown in this paper are relevant to the connection between ultracold Fermi gases and low-density neutron matter from the viewpoint of finite-effective-range corrections.

Ultracold Realization of AntiFerromagenteic Order

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrestha, Uttam

2011-03-01

We investigate numerically the experimental feasibility of observing the antiferromagnetic (AF) order in the bosonic mixtures of rubidium (87 Rb) and potassium (41 K) in a two-dimensional optical lattice with external trapping potential. Within the mean-field approximation we have found the ground states which, for a specific range of parameters such as inter-species interactions and lattice height, interpolate from phase separation to the AF order. For the moderate lattice heights the coexistence of the Mott and AF phase is possible for rubidium atoms while the potassium atoms remain superfluid with overlapped AF phase. In our view there has not been any study on AF order in two-component systems when one component remains in the superfluid phase while the other is in the Mott phase. Therefore, this observation may provide a novel regime for studying quantum magnetism in ultracold systems. This work was supported by the EU Contract EU STREP NAMEQUAM.

Measurement of Ultracold Neutrons Produced by Using Doppler-shifted Bragg Reflection at a Pulsed-neutron Source

DOE R&D Accomplishments Database

Brun, T. O.; Carpenter, J. M.; Krohn, V. E.; Ringo, G. R.; Cronin, J. W.; Dombeck, T. W.; Lynn, J. W.; Werner, S. A.

1979-01-01

Ultracold neutrons (UCN) have been produced at the Argonne pulsed-neutron source by the Doppler shift of 400-m/s neutrons Bragg reflected from a moving crystal. The peak density of UCN produced at the crystal exceeds 0.1 n/cm{sup 3}.

Spontaneous evolution of rydberg atoms into an ultracold plasma

PubMed

Robinson; Tolra; Noel; Gallagher; Pillet

2000-11-20

We have observed the spontaneous evolution of a dense sample of Rydberg atoms into an ultracold plasma, in spite of the fact that each of the atoms may initially be bound by up to 100 cm(-1). When the atoms are initially bound by 70 cm(-1), this evolution occurs when most of the atoms are translationally cold, <1 mK, but a small fraction, approximately 1%, is at room temperature. Ionizing collisions between hot and cold Rydberg atoms and blackbody photoionization produce an essentially stationary cloud of cold ions, which traps electrons produced later. The trapped electrons rapidly collisionally ionize the remaining cold Rydberg atoms to form a cold plasma.

Legionnaire's Disease and its Mimics: A Clinical Perspective.

PubMed

Cunha, Burke A; Cunha, Cheston B

2017-03-01

Whenever the cardinal manifestations of a disorder occur in similar disorders, there is potential for a disease mimic. Legionnaire's disease has protean manifestations and has the potential to mimic or be mimicked by other community acquired pneumonias (CAPs). In CAPs caused by other than Legionella species, the more characteristic features in common with legionnaire's disease the more difficult the diagnostic conundrum. In hospitalized adults with CAP, legionnaire's disease may mimic influenza or other viral pneumonias. Of the bacterial causes of CAP, psittacosis and Q fever, but not tularemia, are frequent mimics of legionnaire's disease. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Calorimetry of a Bose–Einstein-condensed photon gas

PubMed Central

Damm, Tobias; Schmitt, Julian; Liang, Qi; Dung, David; Vewinger, Frank; Weitz, Martin; Klaers, Jan

2016-01-01

Phase transitions, as the condensation of a gas to a liquid, are often revealed by a discontinuous behaviour of thermodynamic quantities. For liquid helium, for example, a divergence of the specific heat signals the transition from the normal fluid to the superfluid state. Apart from liquid helium, determining the specific heat of a Bose gas has proven to be a challenging task, for example, for ultracold atomic Bose gases. Here we examine the thermodynamic behaviour of a trapped two-dimensional photon gas, a system that allows us to spectroscopically determine the specific heat and the entropy of a nearly ideal Bose gas from the classical high temperature to the Bose-condensed quantum regime. The critical behaviour at the phase transition is clearly revealed by a cusp singularity of the specific heat. Regarded as a test of quantum statistical mechanics, our results demonstrate a quantitative agreement with its predictions at the microscopic level. PMID:27090978

Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments.

PubMed

Rvachov, Timur M; Son, Hyungmok; Sommer, Ariel T; Ebadi, Sepehr; Park, Juliana J; Zwierlein, Martin W; Ketterle, Wolfgang; Jamison, Alan O

2017-10-06

We create fermionic dipolar ^{23}Na^{6}Li molecules in their triplet ground state from an ultracold mixture of ^{23}Na and ^{6}Li. Using magnetoassociation across a narrow Feshbach resonance followed by a two-photon stimulated Raman adiabatic passage to the triplet ground state, we produce 3×10^{4} ground state molecules in a spin-polarized state. We observe a lifetime of 4.6 s in an isolated molecular sample, approaching the p-wave universal rate limit. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy of the triplet state was used to determine the hyperfine structure of this previously unobserved molecular state.

Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rvachov, Timur M.; Son, Hyungmok; Sommer, Ariel T.; Ebadi, Sepehr; Park, Juliana J.; Zwierlein, Martin W.; Ketterle, Wolfgang; Jamison, Alan O.

2017-10-01

We create fermionic dipolar 23Na 6Li molecules in their triplet ground state from an ultracold mixture of 23Na and 6Li. Using magnetoassociation across a narrow Feshbach resonance followed by a two-photon stimulated Raman adiabatic passage to the triplet ground state, we produce 3 ×1 04 ground state molecules in a spin-polarized state. We observe a lifetime of 4.6 s in an isolated molecular sample, approaching the p -wave universal rate limit. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy of the triplet state was used to determine the hyperfine structure of this previously unobserved molecular state.

Localization in momentum space of ultracold atoms in incommensurate lattices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Larcher, M.; Dalfovo, F.; Modugno, M.

2011-01-15

We characterize the disorder-induced localization in momentum space for ultracold atoms in one-dimensional incommensurate lattices, according to the dual Aubry-Andre model. For low disorder the system is localized in momentum space, and the momentum distribution exhibits time-periodic oscillations of the relative intensity of its components. The behavior of these oscillations is explained by means of a simple three-mode approximation. We predict their frequency and visibility by using typical parameters of feasible experiments. Above the transition the system diffuses in momentum space, and the oscillations vanish when averaged over different realizations, offering a clear signature of the transition.

Reexpression of Prior Stroke Symptoms in Adults: When is a Mimic a Mimic?

PubMed

Siegler, James E; George, Alexander J; Martin-Schild, Sheryl

2017-09-01

A "stroke mimic" refers to any clinical condition that causes neurological symptoms clinically indistinguishable from a cerebral lesion that affects a vascular distribution, but is not caused by ischemia. One subtype of stroke mimic, termed stroke reexpression, is a form of mimicry in which previously recovered or improved stroke symptoms recur in the setting of a neurological disturbance (seizure, hypoperfusion state) or a systemic disturbance (toxic, metabolic, infectious). Many reports of stroke reexpression exist in the literature and are well known to clinicians, but there has been no consensus regarding terminology that has been published to date. The purpose of this review is to summarize several examples of stroke reexpression and propose simple, useful criteria for this clinical condition.

Spin relaxation in ultracold collisions of molecular radicals with alkali-metal atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tscherbul, Timur; Klos, Jacek; Zukowski, Piotr

2016-05-01

We present accurate quantum scattering calculations of spin relaxation in ultracold collisions of alkali-metal atoms and polar 2 Σ molecules CaH, SrF, and SrOH. The calculations employ state-of-the-art ab initio interaction potentials and a rigorous quantum theory of atom-molecule collisions in a magnetic field based on the total angular momentum representation. We will further discuss the relevance of the results to atom-molecule sympathetic cooling experiments in a magnetic trap.

Analytical results for the time-dependent current density distribution of expanding ultracold gases after a sudden change of the confining potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boumaza, R.; Bencheikh, K.

2017-12-01

Using the so-called operator product expansion to lowest order, we extend the work in Campbell et al (2015 Phys. Rev. Lett 114 125302) by deriving a simple analytical expression for the long-time asymptotic one-body reduced density matrix during free expansion for a one-dimensional system of bosons with large atom number interacting through a repulsive delta potential initially confined by a potential well. This density matrix allows direct access to the momentum distribution and also to the mass current density. For initially confining power-law potentials we give explicit expressions, in the limits of very weak and very strong interaction, for the current density distributions during the free expansion. In the second part of the work we consider the expansion of ultracold gas from a confining harmonic trap to another harmonic trap with a different frequency. For the case of a quantum impenetrable gas of bosons (a Tonks-Girardeau gas) with a given atom number, we present an exact analytical expression for the mass current distribution (mass transport) after release from one harmonic trap to another harmonic trap. It is shown that, for a harmonically quenched Tonks-Girardeau gas, the current distribution is a suitable collective observable and under the weak quench regime, it exhibits oscillations at the same frequencies as those recently predicted for the peak momentum distribution in the breathing mode. The analysis is extended to other possible quenched systems.

MIMIC Methods for Assessing Differential Item Functioning in Polytomous Items

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Wen-Chung; Shih, Ching-Lin

2010-01-01

Three multiple indicators-multiple causes (MIMIC) methods, namely, the standard MIMIC method (M-ST), the MIMIC method with scale purification (M-SP), and the MIMIC method with a pure anchor (M-PA), were developed to assess differential item functioning (DIF) in polytomous items. In a series of simulations, it appeared that all three methods…

Magnetic-field gradiometer based on ultracold collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wasak, Tomasz; Jachymski, Krzysztof; Calarco, Tommaso; Negretti, Antonio

2018-05-01

We present a detailed analysis of the usefulness of ultracold atomic collisions for sensing the strength of an external magnetic field as well as its spatial gradient. The core idea of the sensor, which we recently proposed in Jachymski et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 013401 (2018), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.013401], is to probe the transmission of the atoms through a set of quasi-one-dimensional waveguides that contain an impurity. Magnetic-field-dependent interactions between the incoming atoms and the impurity naturally lead to narrow resonances that can act as sensitive field probes since they strongly affect the transmission. We illustrate our findings with concrete examples of experimental relevance, demonstrating that for large atom fluences N a sensitivity of the order of 1 nT/√{N } for the field strength and 100 nT/(mm √{N }) for the gradient can be reached with our scheme.

Ultracold collisions between spin-orbit-coupled dipoles: General formalism and universality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jia; Hougaard, Christiaan R.; Mulkerin, Brendan C.; Liu, Xia-Ji

2018-04-01

A theoretical study of the low-energy scattering properties of two aligned identical bosonic and fermionic dipoles in the presence of isotropic spin-orbit coupling is presented. A general treatment of particles with arbitrary (pseudo)spin is given in the framework of multichannel scattering. At ultracold temperatures and away from shape resonances or closed-channel dominated resonances, the cross section can be well described within the Born approximation to within corrections due to the s -wave scattering. We compare our findings with numerical calculations and find excellent agreement.

Evaluation of commercial nickel-phosphorus coating for ultracold neutron guides using a pinhole bottling method

DOE PAGES

Pattie. Jr., Robert Wayne; Adamek, Evan Robert; Brenner, Thomas; ...

2017-08-10

We report on the evaluation of commercial electroless nickel phosphorus (NiP) coatings for ultracold neutron (UCN) transport and storage. The material potential of 50μm thick NiP coatings on stainless steel and aluminum substrates was measured to be V F=213(5.2)neV using the time-of-flight spectrometer ASTERIX at the Lujan Center. The loss per bounce probability was measured in pinhole bottling experiments carried out at ultracold neutron sources at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and the Institut Laue-Langevin. For these tests a new guide coupling design was used to minimize gaps between the guide sections. The observed UCN loss in the bottle wasmore » interpreted in terms of an energy independent effective loss per bounce, which is the appropriate model when gaps in the system and upscattering are the dominate loss mechanisms, yielding a loss per bounce of 1.3(1)×10 –4. In conclusion, we also present a detailed discussion of the pinhole bottling methodology and an energy dependent analysis of the experimental results.« less

Evaluation of commercial nickel-phosphorus coating for ultracold neutron guides using a pinhole bottling method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pattie, R. W.; Adamek, E. R.; Brenner, T.; Brandt, A.; Broussard, L. J.; Callahan, N. B.; Clayton, S. M.; Cude-Woods, C.; Currie, S. A.; Geltenbort, P.; Ito, T. M.; Lauer, T.; Liu, C. Y.; Majewski, J.; Makela, M.; Masuda, Y.; Morris, C. L.; Ramsey, J. C.; Salvat, D. J.; Saunders, A.; Schroffenegger, J.; Tang, Z.; Wei, W.; Wang, Z.; Watkins, E.; Young, A. R.; Zeck, B. A.

2017-11-01

We report on the evaluation of commercial electroless nickel phosphorus (NiP) coatings for ultracold neutron (UCN) transport and storage. The material potential of 50 μm thick NiP coatings on stainless steel and aluminum substrates was measured to be VF = 213(5 . 2) neV using the time-of-flight spectrometer ASTERIX at the Lujan Center. The loss per bounce probability was measured in pinhole bottling experiments carried out at ultracold neutron sources at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and the Institut Laue-Langevin. For these tests a new guide coupling design was used to minimize gaps between the guide sections. The observed UCN loss in the bottle was interpreted in terms of an energy independent effective loss per bounce, which is the appropriate model when gaps in the system and upscattering are the dominate loss mechanisms, yielding a loss per bounce of 1 . 3(1) × 10-4. We also present a detailed discussion of the pinhole bottling methodology and an energy dependent analysis of the experimental results.

Evaluation of commercial nickel-phosphorus coating for ultracold neutron guides using a pinhole bottling method

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pattie. Jr., Robert Wayne; Adamek, Evan Robert; Brenner, Thomas

We report on the evaluation of commercial electroless nickel phosphorus (NiP) coatings for ultracold neutron (UCN) transport and storage. The material potential of 50μm thick NiP coatings on stainless steel and aluminum substrates was measured to be V F=213(5.2)neV using the time-of-flight spectrometer ASTERIX at the Lujan Center. The loss per bounce probability was measured in pinhole bottling experiments carried out at ultracold neutron sources at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center and the Institut Laue-Langevin. For these tests a new guide coupling design was used to minimize gaps between the guide sections. The observed UCN loss in the bottle wasmore » interpreted in terms of an energy independent effective loss per bounce, which is the appropriate model when gaps in the system and upscattering are the dominate loss mechanisms, yielding a loss per bounce of 1.3(1)×10 –4. In conclusion, we also present a detailed discussion of the pinhole bottling methodology and an energy dependent analysis of the experimental results.« less

Quantum measurement-induced antiferromagnetic order and density modulations in ultracold Fermi gases in optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mazzucchi, Gabriel; Caballero-Benitez, Santiago F.; Mekhov, Igor B.

2016-08-01

Ultracold atomic systems offer a unique tool for understanding behavior of matter in the quantum degenerate regime, promising studies of a vast range of phenomena covering many disciplines from condensed matter to quantum information and particle physics. Coupling these systems to quantized light fields opens further possibilities of observing delicate effects typical of quantum optics in the context of strongly correlated systems. Measurement backaction is one of the most funda- mental manifestations of quantum mechanics and it is at the core of many famous quantum optics experiments. Here we show that quantum backaction of weak measurement can be used for tailoring long-range correlations of ultracold fermions, realizing quantum states with spatial modulations of the density and magnetization, thus overcoming usual requirement for a strong interatomic interactions. We propose detection schemes for implementing antiferromagnetic states and density waves. We demonstrate that such long-range correlations cannot be realized with local addressing, and they are a consequence of the competition between global but spatially structured backaction of weak quantum measurement and unitary dynamics of fermions.

Stroke mimic diagnoses presenting to a hyperacute stroke unit.

PubMed

Dawson, Ang; Cloud, Geoffrey C; Pereira, Anthony C; Moynihan, Barry J

2016-10-01

Stroke services have been centralised in several countries in recent years. Diagnosing acute stroke is challenging and a high proportion of patients admitted to stroke units are diagnosed as a non-stroke condition (stroke mimics). This study aims to describe the stroke mimic patient group, including their impact on stroke services. We analysed routine clinical data from 2,305 consecutive admissions to a stroke unit at St George's Hospital, London. Mimic groupings were derived from 335 individual codes into 17 groupings. From 2,305 admissions, 555 stroke mimic diagnoses were identified (24.2%) and 72% of stroke mimics had at least one stroke risk factor. Common mimic diagnoses were headache, seizure and syncope. Medically unexplained symptoms and decompensation of underlying conditions were also common. Median length of stay was 1 day; a diagnosis of dementia (p=0.028) or needing MRI (p=0.006) was associated with a longer stay. Despite emergency department assessment by specialist clinicians and computed tomography brain, one in four suspected stroke patients admitted to hospital had a non-stroke diagnosis. Stroke mimics represent a heterogeneous patient group with significant impacts on stroke services. Co-location of stroke and acute neurology services may offer advantages where service reorganisation is being considered. © Royal College of Physicians 2016. All rights reserved.

Sensitive fluorescence on-off probes for the fast detection of a chemical warfare agent mimic.

PubMed

Khan, Muhammad Shar Jhahan; Wang, Ya-Wen; Senge, Mathias O; Peng, Yu

2018-01-15

Two highly sensitive probes bearing a nucleophilic imine moiety have been utilized for the selective detection of chemical warfare agent (CWA) mimics. Diethyl chlorophosphate (DCP) was used as mimic CWAs. Both iminocoumarin-benzothiazole-based probes not only demonstrated a remarkable fluorescence ON-OFF response and good recognition, but also exhibited fast response times (10s) along with color changes upon addition of DCP. Limits of detection for the two sensors 1 and 2 were calculated as 0.065μM and 0.21μM, respectively, which are much lower than most other reported probes. These two probes not only show high sensitivity and selectivity in solution, but can also be applied for the recognition of DCP in the gas state, with significant color changes easily observed by the naked eye. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

MOCVD Process Technology for Affordable, High-Yield, High-Performance MESFET Structures. MIMIC Phase 3

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-01-26

by an optical pyrometer that views the inside of the susceptor through a sapphire light pipe. The gas delivery system is of standard commercial design ...of the operating conditions for MESFET growth. 2.2.2 Modifications to the Apparatus for MIMIC Spire designed and installed a bell jar capable of...withstanding, without water cooling, the 500 to 1 100’C temperatures needed for MOCVD growth. The bell jar features a flow disrupter of proprietary design

Experimental Observation of One-Dimensional Superradiance Lattices in Ultracold Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Liangchao; Wang, Pengjun; Meng, Zengming; Huang, Lianghui; Cai, Han; Wang, Da-Wei; Zhu, Shi-Yao; Zhang, Jing

2018-05-01

We measure the superradiant emission in a one-dimensional (1D) superradiance lattice (SL) in ultracold atoms. Resonantly excited to a superradiant state, the atoms are further coupled to other collectively excited states, which form a 1D SL. The directional emission of one of the superradiant excited states in the 1D SL is measured. The emission spectra depend on the band structure, which can be controlled by the frequency and intensity of the coupling laser fields. This work provides a platform for investigating the collective Lamb shift of resonantly excited superradiant states in Bose-Einstein condensates and paves the way for realizing higher dimensional superradiance lattices.

SO(3) "Nuclear Physics" with ultracold Gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rico, E.; Dalmonte, M.; Zoller, P.; Banerjee, D.; Bögli, M.; Stebler, P.; Wiese, U.-J.

2018-06-01

An ab initio calculation of nuclear physics from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the fundamental SU(3) gauge theory of the strong interaction, remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we discuss the emergence of key elements of nuclear physics using an SO(3) lattice gauge theory as a toy model for QCD. We show that this model is accessible to state-of-the-art quantum simulation experiments with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. First, we demonstrate that our model shares characteristic many-body features with QCD, such as the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry, its restoration at finite baryon density, as well as the existence of few-body bound states. Then we show that in the one-dimensional case, the dynamics in the gauge invariant sector can be encoded as a spin S = 3/2 Heisenberg model, i.e., as quantum magnetism, which has a natural realization with bosonic mixtures in optical lattices, and thus sheds light on the connection between non-Abelian gauge theories and quantum magnetism.

Ultracold molecules for the masses: Evaporative cooling and magneto-optical trapping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stuhl, B. K.

While cold molecule experiments are rapidly moving towards their promised benefits of precision spectroscopy, controllable chemistry, and novel condensed phases, heretofore the field has been greatly limited by a lack of methods to cool and compress chemically diverse species to temperatures below ten millikelvin. While in atomic physics these needs are fulfilled by laser cooling, magneto-optical trapping, and evaporative cooling, until now none of these techniques have been applicable to molecules. In this thesis, two major breakthroughs are reported. The first is the observation of evaporative cooling in magnetically trapped hydroxyl (OH) radicals, which potentially opens a path all the way to Bose-Einstein condensation of dipolar radicals, as well as allowing cold- and ultracold-chemistry studies of fundamental reaction mechanisms. Through the combination of an extremely high gradient magnetic quadrupole trap and the use of the OH Λ-doublet transition to enable highly selective forced evaporation, cooling by an order of magnitude in temperature was achieved and yielded a final temperature no higher than 5mK. The second breakthrough is the successful application of laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping to molecules. Motivated by a proposal in this thesis, laser cooling of molecules is now known to be technically feasible in a select but substantial pool of diatomic molecules. The demonstration of not only Doppler cooling but also two-dimensional magneto-optical trapping in yttrium (II) oxide, YO, is expected to enable rapid growth in the availability of ultracold molecules—just as the invention of the atomic magneto-optical trap stimulated atomic physics twenty-five years ago.

Charge transfer in ultracold gases via Feshbach resonances

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gacesa, Marko; Côté, Robin

2017-06-01

We investigate the prospects of using magnetic Feshbach resonance to control charge exchange in ultracold collisions of heteroisotopic combinations of atoms and ions of the same element. The proposed treatment, readily applicable to alkali or alkaline-earth metals, is illustrated on cold collisions of +9Be and 10Be. Feshbach resonances are characterized by quantum scattering calculations in a coupled-channel formalism that includes non-Born-Oppenheimer terms originating from the nuclear kinetic operator. Near a resonance predicted at 322 G, we find the charge exchange rate coefficient to rise from practically zero to values greater than 10-12cm3 /s. Our results suggest controllable charge exchange processes between different isotopes of suitable atom-ion pairs, with potential applications to quantum systems engineered to study charge diffusion in trapped cold atom-ion mixtures and emulate many-body physics.

Ultracold bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice chain: Newton's cradle and Bose enhancement effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ji-Guo; Yang, Shi-Jie

2017-05-01

We study a model to realize the long-distance correlated tunneling of ultracold bosons in a one-dimensional optical lattice chain. The model reveals the behavior of a quantum Newton's cradle, which is the perfect transfer between two macroscopic quantum states. Due to the Bose enhancement effect, we find that the resonantly tunneling through a Mott domain is greatly enhanced.

Conjugate gradient minimisation approach to generating holographic traps for ultracold atoms.

PubMed

Harte, Tiffany; Bruce, Graham D; Keeling, Jonathan; Cassettari, Donatella

2014-11-03

Direct minimisation of a cost function can in principle provide a versatile and highly controllable route to computational hologram generation. Here we show that the careful design of cost functions, combined with numerically efficient conjugate gradient minimisation, establishes a practical method for the generation of holograms for a wide range of target light distributions. This results in a guided optimisation process, with a crucial advantage illustrated by the ability to circumvent optical vortex formation during hologram calculation. We demonstrate the implementation of the conjugate gradient method for both discrete and continuous intensity distributions and discuss its applicability to optical trapping of ultracold atoms.

A prestorage method to measure neutron transmission of ultracold neutron guides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blau, B.; Daum, M.; Fertl, M.; Geltenbort, P.; Göltl, L.; Henneck, R.; Kirch, K.; Knecht, A.; Lauss, B.; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P.; Zsigmond, G.

2016-01-01

There are worldwide efforts to search for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Precision experiments using ultracold neutrons (UCN) require very high intensities of UCN. Efficient transport of UCN from the production volume to the experiment is therefore of great importance. We have developed a method using prestored UCN in order to quantify UCN transmission in tubular guides. This method simulates the final installation at the Paul Scherrer Institute's UCN source where neutrons are stored in an intermediate storage vessel serving three experimental ports. This method allowed us to qualify UCN guides for their intended use and compare their properties.

A web-based data visualization tool for the MIMIC-II database.

PubMed

Lee, Joon; Ribey, Evan; Wallace, James R

2016-02-04

Although MIMIC-II, a public intensive care database, has been recognized as an invaluable resource for many medical researchers worldwide, becoming a proficient MIMIC-II researcher requires knowledge of SQL programming and an understanding of the MIMIC-II database schema. These are challenging requirements especially for health researchers and clinicians who may have limited computer proficiency. In order to overcome this challenge, our objective was to create an interactive, web-based MIMIC-II data visualization tool that first-time MIMIC-II users can easily use to explore the database. The tool offers two main features: Explore and Compare. The Explore feature enables the user to select a patient cohort within MIMIC-II and visualize the distributions of various administrative, demographic, and clinical variables within the selected cohort. The Compare feature enables the user to select two patient cohorts and visually compare them with respect to a variety of variables. The tool is also helpful to experienced MIMIC-II researchers who can use it to substantially accelerate the cumbersome and time-consuming steps of writing SQL queries and manually visualizing extracted data. Any interested researcher can use the MIMIC-II data visualization tool for free to quickly and conveniently conduct a preliminary investigation on MIMIC-II with a few mouse clicks. Researchers can also use the tool to learn the characteristics of the MIMIC-II patients. Since it is still impossible to conduct multivariable regression inside the tool, future work includes adding analytics capabilities. Also, the next version of the tool will aim to utilize MIMIC-III which contains more data.

Role of Feshbach resonances in enhancing the production of deeply bound ultracold LiRb molecules with laser pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gacesa, Marko; Ghosal, Subhas; Côté, Robin

2010-03-01

We investigate the possibility of forming deeply bound LiRb molecules in a two-color photoassociation experiment. Ultracold ^6Li and ^87Rb atoms colliding in the vicinity of a magnetic Feshbach resonance are photoassociated into an excited electronic state. A wavepacket is then formed by exciting a few vibrational levels of the excited state and allowed to propagate. We calculate the time-dependent overlaps between the wave packet and the lowest vibrational levels of the ground state. After the optimal overlap is obtained we use the second laser pulse to dump the wave packet and efficiently populate the deeply bound ro-vibrational levels of ^6Li^87Rb in the ground state. The resulting combination of Feshbach-optimized photoassociation (FOPA) with the time-dependent pump-dump approach will produce a large number of stable ultracold molecules in the ground state. This technique is general and applicable to other systems.

Open-access MIMIC-II database for intensive care research.

PubMed

Lee, Joon; Scott, Daniel J; Villarroel, Mauricio; Clifford, Gari D; Saeed, Mohammed; Mark, Roger G

2011-01-01

The critical state of intensive care unit (ICU) patients demands close monitoring, and as a result a large volume of multi-parameter data is collected continuously. This represents a unique opportunity for researchers interested in clinical data mining. We sought to foster a more transparent and efficient intensive care research community by building a publicly available ICU database, namely Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II (MIMIC-II). The data harnessed in MIMIC-II were collected from the ICUs of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from 2001 to 2008 and represent 26,870 adult hospital admissions (version 2.6). MIMIC-II consists of two major components: clinical data and physiological waveforms. The clinical data, which include patient demographics, intravenous medication drip rates, and laboratory test results, were organized into a relational database. The physiological waveforms, including 125 Hz signals recorded at bedside and corresponding vital signs, were stored in an open-source format. MIMIC-II data were also deidentified in order to remove protected health information. Any interested researcher can gain access to MIMIC-II free of charge after signing a data use agreement and completing human subjects training. MIMIC-II can support a wide variety of research studies, ranging from the development of clinical decision support algorithms to retrospective clinical studies. We anticipate that MIMIC-II will be an invaluable resource for intensive care research by stimulating fair comparisons among different studies.

Losses and depolarization of ultracold neutrons on neutron guide and storage materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bondar, V.; Chesnevskaya, S.; Daum, M.; Franke, B.; Geltenbort, P.; Göltl, L.; Gutsmiedl, E.; Karch, J.; Kasprzak, M.; Kessler, G.; Kirch, K.; Koch, H.-C.; Kraft, A.; Lauer, T.; Lauss, B.; Pierre, E.; Pignol, G.; Reggiani, D.; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P.; Sobolev, Yu.; Zechlau, T.; Zsigmond, G.

2017-09-01

At Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) and Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), we have measured the losses and depolarization probabilities of ultracold neutrons on various materials: (i) nickel-molybdenum alloys with weight percentages of 82/18, 85/15, 88/12, 91/9, and 94/6 and natural nickel Ni100, (ii) nickel-vanadium NiV93/7, (iii) copper, and (iv) deuterated polystyrene (dPS). For the different samples, storage-time constants up to ˜460 s were obtained at room temperature. The corresponding loss parameters for ultracold neutrons, η , varied between 1.0 ×10-4 and 2.2 ×10-4 . All η values are in agreement with theory except for dPS, where anomalous losses at room temperature were established with four standard deviations. The depolarization probabilities per wall collision β measured with unprecedented sensitivity varied between 0.7 ×10-6 and 9.0 ×10-6 . Our depolarization result for copper differs from other experiments by 4.4 and 15.8 standard deviations. The β values of the paramagnetic NiMo alloys over molybdenum content show an increase of β with increasing Mo content. This is in disagreement with expectations from literature. Finally, ferromagnetic behavior of NiMo alloys at room temperature was found for molybdenum contents of 6.5 at.% or less and paramagnetic behavior for more than 8.7 at.%. This may contribute to solving an ambiguity in literature.

Novel Metal Ion Based Estrogen Mimics for Molecular Imaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rajagopalan, Raghavan

The overall objective of the SBIR Phase I proposal is to prepare and evaluate a new class of {sup 99m}Tc or {sup 94m}Tc containing estrogen-like small molecules ('estrogen mimics') for SPECT or PET molecular imaging of estrogen receptor positive (ER+) tumors. In this approach, the metal ion is integrated into the estrone skeleton by isosteric substitution of a carbon atom in the steroidal structure to give new class of mimics that are topologically similar to the native estrogen (Fig. 1). Although both N{sub 2}S{sub 2} and N{sub 3}S mimics 1 and 2 were considered as target structures, molecular modeling studymore » revealed that the presence of the acetyl group at position-15 in the N{sub 3}S mimic 2 causes steric hinderance toward binding of 2 to SHBG. Therefore, initial efforts were directed at the synthesis and evaluation of the N{sub 2}S{sub 2} mimic 1.« less

Nicholas Metropolis Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Work in Computational Physics: Quantum many-body physics of ultracold molecules in optical lattices: models and simulation methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wall, Michael

2014-03-01

Experimental progress in generating and manipulating synthetic quantum systems, such as ultracold atoms and molecules in optical lattices, has revolutionized our understanding of quantum many-body phenomena and posed new challenges for modern numerical techniques. Ultracold molecules, in particular, feature long-range dipole-dipole interactions and a complex and selectively accessible internal structure of rotational and hyperfine states, leading to many-body models with long range interactions and many internal degrees of freedom. Additionally, the many-body physics of ultracold molecules is often probed far from equilibrium, and so algorithms which simulate quantum many-body dynamics are essential. Numerical methods which are to have significant impact in the design and understanding of such synthetic quantum materials must be able to adapt to a variety of different interactions, physical degrees of freedom, and out-of-equilibrium dynamical protocols. Matrix product state (MPS)-based methods, such as the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG), have become the de facto standard for strongly interacting low-dimensional systems. Moreover, the flexibility of MPS-based methods makes them ideally suited both to generic, open source implementation as well as to studies of the quantum many-body dynamics of ultracold molecules. After introducing MPSs and variational algorithms using MPSs generally, I will discuss my own research using MPSs for many-body dynamics of long-range interacting systems. In addition, I will describe two open source implementations of MPS-based algorithms in which I was involved, as well as educational materials designed to help undergraduates and graduates perform research in computational quantum many-body physics using a variety of numerical methods including exact diagonalization and static and dynamic variational MPS methods. Finally, I will mention present research on ultracold molecules in optical lattices, such as the exploration of

Nonadiabatic effects in ultracold molecules via anomalous linear and quadratic Zeeman shifts.

PubMed

McGuyer, B H; Osborn, C B; McDonald, M; Reinaudi, G; Skomorowski, W; Moszynski, R; Zelevinsky, T

2013-12-13

Anomalously large linear and quadratic Zeeman shifts are measured for weakly bound ultracold 88Sr2 molecules near the intercombination-line asymptote. Nonadiabatic Coriolis coupling and the nature of long-range molecular potentials explain how this effect arises and scales roughly cubically with the size of the molecule. The linear shifts yield nonadiabatic mixing angles of the molecular states. The quadratic shifts are sensitive to nearby opposite f-parity states and exhibit fourth-order corrections, providing a stringent test of a state-of-the-art ab initio model.

Universality and chaotic dynamics in reactive scattering of ultracold KRb molecules with K atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Ming; Makrides, Constantinos; Petrov, Alexander; Kotochigova, Svetlana; Croft, James F. E.; Balakrishnan, Naduvalath; Kendrick, Brian K.

2017-04-01

We study the benchmark reaction between the most-celebrated ultracold polar molecule, KRb, with an ultracold K atom. For the first time we map out an accurate ab initio ground potential energy surface of the K2Rb complex in full dimensionality and performed a numerically exact quantum-mechanical calculation of reaction dynamics based on coupled-channels approach in hyperspherical coordinates. An analysis of the adiabatic hyperspherical potentials reveals a chaotic distribution for the short-range complex that plays a key role in governing the reaction outcome. The equivalent distribution for a lighter collisional system with a smaller density of states (here the Li2Yb trimer) only shows random behavior. We find an extreme sensitivity of our chaotic system to a small perturbation associated with the weak non-additive three-body potential contribution that does not affect the total reaction rate coefficient but leads to a significant change in the rotational distribution in the product molecule. In both cases the distribution of these rates is random or Poissonian. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant PHY-1505557 (N.B.) and PHY-1619788 (S.K.), ARO MURI Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0476 (N.B. & S.K.), and DOE LDRD Grant No. 20170221ER (B.K.).

Process mining in oncology using the MIMIC-III dataset

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prima Kurniati, Angelina; Hall, Geoff; Hogg, David; Johnson, Owen

2018-03-01

Process mining is a data analytics approach to discover and analyse process models based on the real activities captured in information systems. There is a growing body of literature on process mining in healthcare, including oncology, the study of cancer. In earlier work we found 37 peer-reviewed papers describing process mining research in oncology with a regular complaint being the limited availability and accessibility of datasets with suitable information for process mining. Publicly available datasets are one option and this paper describes the potential to use MIMIC-III, for process mining in oncology. MIMIC-III is a large open access dataset of de-identified patient records. There are 134 publications listed as using the MIMIC dataset, but none of them have used process mining. The MIMIC-III dataset has 16 event tables which are potentially useful for process mining and this paper demonstrates the opportunities to use MIMIC-III for process mining in oncology. Our research applied the L* lifecycle method to provide a worked example showing how process mining can be used to analyse cancer pathways. The results and data quality limitations are discussed along with opportunities for further work and reflection on the value of MIMIC-III for reproducible process mining research.

Hybrid mimics and hybrid vigor in Arabidopsis

PubMed Central

Wang, Li; Greaves, Ian K.; Groszmann, Michael; Wu, Li Min; Dennis, Elizabeth S.; Peacock, W. James

2015-01-01

F1 hybrids can outperform their parents in yield and vegetative biomass, features of hybrid vigor that form the basis of the hybrid seed industry. The yield advantage of the F1 is lost in the F2 and subsequent generations. In Arabidopsis, from F2 plants that have a F1-like phenotype, we have by recurrent selection produced pure breeding F5/F6 lines, hybrid mimics, in which the characteristics of the F1 hybrid are stabilized. These hybrid mimic lines, like the F1 hybrid, have larger leaves than the parent plant, and the leaves have increased photosynthetic cell numbers, and in some lines, increased size of cells, suggesting an increased supply of photosynthate. A comparison of the differentially expressed genes in the F1 hybrid with those of eight hybrid mimic lines identified metabolic pathways altered in both; these pathways include down-regulation of defense response pathways and altered abiotic response pathways. F6 hybrid mimic lines are mostly homozygous at each locus in the genome and yet retain the large F1-like phenotype. Many alleles in the F6 plants, when they are homozygous, have expression levels different to the level in the parent. We consider this altered expression to be a consequence of transregulation of genes from one parent by genes from the other parent. Transregulation could also arise from epigenetic modifications in the F1. The pure breeding hybrid mimics have been valuable in probing the mechanisms of hybrid vigor and may also prove to be useful hybrid vigor equivalents in agriculture. PMID:26283378

Compact Laser System for Field Deployable Ultracold Atom Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pino, Juan; Luey, Ben; Anderson, Mike

2013-05-01

As ultracold atom sensors begin to see their way to the field, there is a growing need for small, accurate, and robust laser systems to cool and manipulate atoms for sensing applications such as magnetometers, gravimeters, atomic clocks and inertial sensing. In this poster we present a laser system for Rb, roughly the size of a paperback novel, capable of generating and controlling light sufficient for the most complicated of cold atom sensors. The system includes >100dB of non-mechanical, optical shuttering, the ability to create short, microsecond pulses, a Demux stage to port light onto different optical paths, and an atomically referenced, frequency agile laser source. We will present data to support the system, its Size Weight and Power (SWaP) requirements, as well as laser stability and performance. funded under DARPA

Improved Noninterferometric Test of Collapse Models Using Ultracold Cantilevers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vinante, A.; Mezzena, R.; Falferi, P.; Carlesso, M.; Bassi, A.

2017-09-01

Spontaneous collapse models predict that a weak force noise acts on any mechanical system, as a consequence of the collapse of the wave function. Significant upper limits on the collapse rate have been recently inferred from precision mechanical experiments, such as ultracold cantilevers and the space mission LISA Pathfinder. Here, we report new results from an experiment based on a high-Q cantilever cooled to millikelvin temperatures, which is potentially able to improve the current bounds on the continuous spontaneous localization (CSL) model by 1 order of magnitude. High accuracy measurements of the cantilever thermal fluctuations reveal a nonthermal force noise of unknown origin. This excess noise is compatible with the CSL heating predicted by Adler. Several physical mechanisms able to explain the observed noise have been ruled out.

The frequency, characteristics and aetiology of stroke mimic presentations: a narrative review.

PubMed

McClelland, Graham; Rodgers, Helen; Flynn, Darren; Price, Christopher I

2018-05-01

A significant proportion of patients with acute stroke symptoms have an alternative 'mimic' diagnosis. A narrative review was carried out to explore the frequency, characteristics and aetiology of stroke mimics. Prehospital and thrombolysis-treated patients were described separately. Overall, 9972 studies were identified from the initial search and 79 studies were included with a median stroke mimic rate of 19% (range: 1-64%). The prehospital median was 27% (range: 4-43%) and the thrombolysis median 10% (range: 1-25%). Seizures, migraines and psychiatric disorders are the most frequently reported causes of stroke mimics. Several characteristics are consistently associated with stroke mimics; however, they do not fully exclude the possibility of stroke. Nineteen per cent of suspected stroke patients had a mimic condition. Stroke mimics were more common with younger age and female sex. The range of mimic diagnoses, a lack of clear differentiating characteristics and the short treatment window for ischaemic stroke create challenges for early identification.

Lattice-Assisted Spectroscopy: A Generalized Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Ultracold Atoms.

PubMed

Kantian, A; Schollwöck, U; Giamarchi, T

2015-10-16

We propose a scheme to measure the frequency-resolved local particle and hole spectra of any optical lattice-confined system of correlated ultracold atoms that offers single-site addressing and imaging, which is now an experimental reality. Combining perturbation theory and time-dependent density matrix renormalization group simulations, we quantitatively test and validate this approach of lattice-assisted spectroscopy on several one-dimensional example systems, such as the superfluid and Mott insulator, with and without a parabolic trap, and finally on edge states of the bosonic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. We highlight extensions of our basic scheme to obtain an even wider variety of interesting and important frequency resolved spectra.

The bound states of ultracold KRb molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Julienne, Paul; Hanna, Thomas

2009-03-01

Recently ultracold vibrational ground state ^40K^87Rb polar molecules have been made using magnetoassociation of two cold atoms to a weakly bound Feshbach molecule, followed by a two-color optical STIRAP process to transfer molecules to the molecular ground state [1]. We have used accurate potential energy curves for the singlet and triplet states of the KRb molecule [2] with coupled channels calculations to calculate all of the bound states of the ^40K^87Rb molecule as a function of magnetic field from the cold atom collision threshold to the v=0 ground state. We have also developed approximate models for understanding the changing properties of the molecular bound states as binding energy increases. Some overall conclusions from these calculations will be presented. [1] K.-K. Ni, S. Ospelkaus, M. H. G. de Miranda, A. Peer, B. Neyenhuis, J. J. Zirbel, S. Kotochigova, P. S. Julienne, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, Science, 2008, 322, 231--235. [2] A. Pashov, O. Docenko, M. Tamanis, R. Ferber, H. Kn"ockel, and E. Tiemann, Phys. Rev. A, 2007, 76, 022511.

Geographic variation in mimetic precision among different species of coral snake mimics.

PubMed

Akcali, C K; Pfennig, D W

2017-07-01

Batesian mimicry is widespread, but whether and why different species of mimics vary geographically in resemblance to their model is unclear. We characterized geographic variation in mimetic precision among four Batesian mimics of coral snakes. Each mimic occurs where its model is abundant (i.e. in 'deep sympatry'), rare (i.e. at the sympatry/allopatry boundary or 'edge sympatry') and absent (i.e. in allopatry). Geographic variation in mimetic precision was qualitatively different among these mimics. In one mimic, the most precise individuals occurred in edge sympatry; in another, they occurred in deep sympatry; in the third, they occurred in allopatry; and in the fourth, precise mimics were not concentrated anywhere throughout their range. Mimicry was less precise in allopatry than in sympatry in only two mimics. We present several nonmutually exclusive hypotheses for these patterns. Generally, examining geographic variation in mimetic precision - within and among different mimics - offers novel insights into the causes and consequences of mimicry. © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2017 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Formation of ultracold molecules induced by a high-power single frequency fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes Passagem, Henry; Colin-Rodriguez, Ricardo; Ventura da Silva, Paulo; Bouloufa-Maafa, Nadia; Dulieu, Olivier; Marcassa, Luis

2017-04-01

Photoassociation of a pair of ultracold atoms is a quite simple and rapid approach for cold molecule formation. The main limitation of PA is that the latter step is incoherent, so that the population of the created molecules is spread over many vibrational levels with weak or moderate binding energies. If the excited electronic molecular state exhibits a peculiar feature at short internuclear distance like a potential barrier or an avoided crossing, the population of deeply-bound ground state levels may be significantly enhanced. In this work, the influence of a high-power single frequency fiber laser on the formation of ultracold 85Rb2 molecules is investigated as a function of its frequency (in the 1062-1070 nm range) in a magneto optical trap. We found evidence for the formation of ground state 85Rb2 molecules in low vibrational levels (v <= 20) with a maximal rate of 104 s-1, induced by short-range photoassociation by the fiber laser followed by spontaneous emission. When this laser is used to set up a dipole trap, we measure an atomic loss rate at a wavelength far from the PA resonances only 4 times smaller than the one observed at a PA resonance wavelength. This work may have important consequences for atom trapping using lasers around 1060 nm. This work is supported by Grants 2013/02816-8 and 2014/24479-6, Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

Geometric phase effects in ultracold collisions of H/D with rotationally excited HD

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kendrick, Brian K.; Croft, James F. E.; Hazra, Jisha; Balakrishnan, N.

2017-04-01

Quantum reactive scattering calculations for the H/D + HD(v = 4 , j = 1 , 2) -> H/D + HD(v', j') and H + H2(v = 4 , j = 1 , 2) -> H + H2(v', j') exchange reactions are presented for the ground electronic state of H3. A numerically exact three-dimensional time-independent scattering method based on hyperspherical coordinates is used to compute rotationally resolved reaction cross sections and non-thermal rate coefficients for collision energies between 1 μK and 100 K . The geometric (Berry) phase associated with the D3h conical intersection in H3 is included using a U(1) vector (gauge) potential approach. It is shown that the geometric phase leads to a significant (up to three orders of magnitude) enhancement or suppression of the ultracold reaction rate coefficients depending upon whether the interference between the reaction pathways encircling the conical intersection is constructive or destructive. The nature of the interference is governed by a newly discovered mechanism which leads to an effective quantization of the ultracold scattering phase shifts. Interesting behavior due to rotational excitation of the HD and H2 is observed which might be exploited by experimentalists to control the reaction outcome. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant PHY-1505557 (N.B.) and ARO MURI Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0476 (N.B.), and DOE LDRD Grant No. 20170221ER (B.K.).

First measurement of the neutron beta asymmetry with ultracold neutrons.

PubMed

Pattie, R W; Anaya, J; Back, H O; Boissevain, J G; Bowles, T J; Broussard, L J; Carr, R; Clark, D J; Currie, S; Du, S; Filippone, B W; Geltenbort, P; García, A; Hawari, A; Hickerson, K P; Hill, R; Hino, M; Hoedl, S A; Hogan, G E; Holley, A T; Ito, T M; Kawai, T; Kirch, K; Kitagaki, S; Lamoreaux, S K; Liu, C-Y; Liu, J; Makela, M; Mammei, R R; Martin, J W; Melconian, D; Meier, N; Mendenhall, M P; Morris, C L; Mortensen, R; Pichlmaier, A; Pitt, M L; Plaster, B; Ramsey, J C; Rios, R; Sabourov, K; Sallaska, A L; Saunders, A; Schmid, R; Seestrom, S; Servicky, C; Sjue, S K L; Smith, D; Sondheim, W E; Tatar, E; Teasdale, W; Terai, C; Tipton, B; Utsuro, M; Vogelaar, R B; Wehring, B W; Xu, Y P; Young, A R; Yuan, J

2009-01-09

We report the first measurement of an angular correlation parameter in neutron beta decay using polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN). We utilize UCN with energies below about 200 neV, which we guide and store for approximately 30 s in a Cu decay volume. The interaction of the neutron magnetic dipole moment with a static 7 T field external to the decay volume provides a 420 neV potential energy barrier to the spin state parallel to the field, polarizing the UCN before they pass through an adiabatic fast passage spin flipper and enter a decay volume, situated within a 1 T field in a 2x2pi solenoidal spectrometer. We determine a value for the beta-asymmetry parameter A_{0}=-0.1138+/-0.0046+/-0.0021.

The MCUCN simulation code for ultracold neutron physics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zsigmond, G.

2018-02-01

Ultracold neutrons (UCN) have very low kinetic energies 0-300 neV, thereby can be stored in specific material or magnetic confinements for many hundreds of seconds. This makes them a very useful tool in probing fundamental symmetries of nature (for instance charge-parity violation by neutron electric dipole moment experiments) and contributing important parameters for the Big Bang nucleosynthesis (neutron lifetime measurements). Improved precision experiments are in construction at new and planned UCN sources around the world. MC simulations play an important role in the optimization of such systems with a large number of parameters, but also in the estimation of systematic effects, in benchmarking of analysis codes, or as part of the analysis. The MCUCN code written at PSI has been extensively used for the optimization of the UCN source optics and in the optimization and analysis of (test) experiments within the nEDM project based at PSI. In this paper we present the main features of MCUCN and interesting benchmark and application examples.

Geometric phase effects in ultracold hydrogen exchange reactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Naduvalath, Balakrishnan; Croft, James F. E.; Hazra, Jisha; Kendrick, Brian K.

2017-04-01

Electronically non-adiabatic effects play an important role in many chemical reactions. The geometric phase, also known as the Berry's phase, arises from the adiabatic transport of the electronic wave function around a conical intersection between two electronic potential energy surfaces. It is shown that in ultracold collisions of H and D atoms with vibrationally excited HD, inclusion of the geometric phase leads to constructive and destructive interferences between non-reactive and exchange components of the wave function. This results in strong enhancement or suppression of reactivity depending on the final rovibrational levels of the scattered HD molecules. The effect is illustrated for non-rotating and rotationally excited HD molecules in the v = 4 vibrational level for which the H+HD and D+HD reactions occur through a barrierless path. This work was supported in part by NSF Grant PHY-1505557 (N.B.), ARO MURI Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0476 (N.B.), and DOE LDRD Grant No. 20170221ER (B.K.).

Accessing the public MIMIC-II intensive care relational database for clinical research.

PubMed

Scott, Daniel J; Lee, Joon; Silva, Ikaro; Park, Shinhyuk; Moody, George B; Celi, Leo A; Mark, Roger G

2013-01-10

The Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II (MIMIC-II) database is a free, public resource for intensive care research. The database was officially released in 2006, and has attracted a growing number of researchers in academia and industry. We present the two major software tools that facilitate accessing the relational database: the web-based QueryBuilder and a downloadable virtual machine (VM) image. QueryBuilder and the MIMIC-II VM have been developed successfully and are freely available to MIMIC-II users. Simple example SQL queries and the resulting data are presented. Clinical studies pertaining to acute kidney injury and prediction of fluid requirements in the intensive care unit are shown as typical examples of research performed with MIMIC-II. In addition, MIMIC-II has also provided data for annual PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenges, including the 2012 Challenge "Predicting mortality of ICU Patients". QueryBuilder is a web-based tool that provides easy access to MIMIC-II. For more computationally intensive queries, one can locally install a complete copy of MIMIC-II in a VM. Both publicly available tools provide the MIMIC-II research community with convenient querying interfaces and complement the value of the MIMIC-II relational database.

Accessing the public MIMIC-II intensive care relational database for clinical research

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II (MIMIC-II) database is a free, public resource for intensive care research. The database was officially released in 2006, and has attracted a growing number of researchers in academia and industry. We present the two major software tools that facilitate accessing the relational database: the web-based QueryBuilder and a downloadable virtual machine (VM) image. Results QueryBuilder and the MIMIC-II VM have been developed successfully and are freely available to MIMIC-II users. Simple example SQL queries and the resulting data are presented. Clinical studies pertaining to acute kidney injury and prediction of fluid requirements in the intensive care unit are shown as typical examples of research performed with MIMIC-II. In addition, MIMIC-II has also provided data for annual PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenges, including the 2012 Challenge “Predicting mortality of ICU Patients”. Conclusions QueryBuilder is a web-based tool that provides easy access to MIMIC-II. For more computationally intensive queries, one can locally install a complete copy of MIMIC-II in a VM. Both publicly available tools provide the MIMIC-II research community with convenient querying interfaces and complement the value of the MIMIC-II relational database. PMID:23302652

Towards fundamental understanding of ultracold KRb

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kotochigova, Svetlana

2009-05-01

The recent formation of ultracold KRb molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground state [1] has created great promise for study of collective phenomena that rely on the long-range interactions between polar molecules. Here we discuss the theoretical analysis of various essential properties of the KRb molecules [2] that accompanied these experimental advances. This analysis is based on multi-channel bound-state calculations of both ground and excited electronic states. We have found that the theoretical hyperfine and Zeeman mixed X^1&+circ; and a^3&+circ; vibrational structure shows excellent agreement with the experimentally observed structure. In addition, multi-channel calculations of the rovibrational structure of the excited state potentials have allowed us to find the optimal transitions to the lowest v=0 vibrational levels. Finally, we examine the dynamic polarizability of vibrationally cold KRb molecules as a function of laser frequency. Based on this knowledge, laser frequencies can be selected to minimize decoherence from loss of molecules due to spontaneous or laser-induced transitions. [1] K.-K. Ni, S. Ospelkaus, M. H. G. de Miranda, A. Peer, B. Neyenhuis, J. J. Zirbel, S. Kotochigova, P. S. Julienne, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, Science 322, 231 (2008). [2] S. Kotochigova, E. Tiesinga, and P. S. Julienne, submitted to New J. Phys. (2009).

Inhibition of duck hepatitis B virus replication by mimic peptides in vitro

PubMed Central

JIA, HONGYU; LIU, CHANGHONG; YANG, YING; ZHU, HAIHONG; CHEN, FENG; LIU, JIHONG; ZHOU, LINFU

2015-01-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of specific mimic peptides targeting duck hepatitis B virus polymerase (DHBVP) on duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) replication in primary duck hepatocytes. Phage display technology (PDT) was used to screen for mimic peptides specifically targeting DHBVP and the associated coding sequences were determined using DNA sequencing. The selected mimic peptides were then used to treat primary duck hepatocytes infected with DHBV in vitro. Infected hepatocytes expressing the mimic peptides intracellularly were also prepared. The cells were divided into mimic peptide groups (EXP groups), an entecavir-treated group (positive control) and a negative control group. The medium was changed every 48 h. Following a 10-day incubation, the cell supernatants were collected. DHBV-DNA in the cellular nucleus, cytoplasm and culture supernatant was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Eight mimic peptides were selected following three PDT screening rounds for investigation in the DHBV-infected primary duck hepatocytes. The qPCR results showed that following direct treatment with mimic peptide 2 or 7, intracellular expression of mimic peptide 2 or 7, or treatment with entecavir, the DHBV-DNA levels in the culture supernatant and cytoplasm of duck hepatocytes were significantly lower than those in the negative control (P<0.05). The cytoplasmic DHBV-DNA content of the cells treated with mimic peptide 7 was lower than that in the other groups (P<0.05). In addition, the DHBV-DNA content of the nuclear fractions following the intracellular expression of mimic peptide 7 was significantly lower than that in the other groups (P<0.05). Mimic peptides specifically targeting DHBVP, administered directly or expressed intracellularly, can significantly inhibit DHBV replication in vitro. PMID:26640539

Inhibition of duck hepatitis B virus replication by mimic peptides in vitro.

PubMed

Jia, Hongyu; Liu, Changhong; Yang, Ying; Zhu, Haihong; Chen, Feng; Liu, Jihong; Zhou, Linfu

2015-11-01

The aim of the present study was to investigate the inhibitory effect of specific mimic peptides targeting duck hepatitis B virus polymerase (DHBVP) on duck hepatitis B virus (DHBV) replication in primary duck hepatocytes. Phage display technology (PDT) was used to screen for mimic peptides specifically targeting DHBVP and the associated coding sequences were determined using DNA sequencing. The selected mimic peptides were then used to treat primary duck hepatocytes infected with DHBV in vitro. Infected hepatocytes expressing the mimic peptides intracellularly were also prepared. The cells were divided into mimic peptide groups (EXP groups), an entecavir-treated group (positive control) and a negative control group. The medium was changed every 48 h. Following a 10-day incubation, the cell supernatants were collected. DHBV-DNA in the cellular nucleus, cytoplasm and culture supernatant was analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Eight mimic peptides were selected following three PDT screening rounds for investigation in the DHBV-infected primary duck hepatocytes. The qPCR results showed that following direct treatment with mimic peptide 2 or 7, intracellular expression of mimic peptide 2 or 7, or treatment with entecavir, the DHBV-DNA levels in the culture supernatant and cytoplasm of duck hepatocytes were significantly lower than those in the negative control (P<0.05). The cytoplasmic DHBV-DNA content of the cells treated with mimic peptide 7 was lower than that in the other groups (P<0.05). In addition, the DHBV-DNA content of the nuclear fractions following the intracellular expression of mimic peptide 7 was significantly lower than that in the other groups (P<0.05). Mimic peptides specifically targeting DHBVP, administered directly or expressed intracellularly, can significantly inhibit DHBV replication in vitro .

The Mediated MIMIC Model for Understanding the Underlying Mechanism of DIF

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Ying; Shao, Can; Lathrop, Quinn N.

2016-01-01

Due to its flexibility, the multiple-indicator, multiple-causes (MIMIC) model has become an increasingly popular method for the detection of differential item functioning (DIF). In this article, we propose the mediated MIMIC model method to uncover the underlying mechanism of DIF. This method extends the usual MIMIC model by including one variable…

The MIMIC Method with Scale Purification for Detecting Differential Item Functioning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Wen-Chung; Shih, Ching-Lin; Yang, Chih-Chien

2009-01-01

This study implements a scale purification procedure onto the standard MIMIC method for differential item functioning (DIF) detection and assesses its performance through a series of simulations. It is found that the MIMIC method with scale purification (denoted as M-SP) outperforms the standard MIMIC method (denoted as M-ST) in controlling…

Evaluating minimalist mimics by exploring key orientations on secondary structures (EKOS).

PubMed

Xin, Dongyue; Ko, Eunhwa; Perez, Lisa M; Ioerger, Thomas R; Burgess, Kevin

2013-11-28

Peptide mimics that display amino acid side-chains on semi-rigid scaffolds (not peptide polyamides) can be referred to as minimalist mimics. Accessible conformations of these scaffolds may overlay with secondary structures giving, for example, "minimalist helical mimics". It is difficult for researchers who want to apply minimalist mimics to decide which one to use because there is no widely accepted protocol for calibrating how closely these compounds mimic secondary structures. Moreover, it is also difficult for potential practitioners to evaluate which ideal minimalist helical mimics are preferred for a particular set of side-chains. For instance, what mimic presents i, i + 4, i + 7 side-chains in orientations that best resemble an ideal α-helix, and is a different mimic required for a i, i + 3, i + 7 helical combination? This article describes a protocol for fitting each member of an array of accessible scaffold conformations on secondary structures. The protocol involves: (i) use quenched molecular dynamics (QMD) to generate an ensemble consisting of hundreds of accessible, low energy conformers of the mimics; (ii) representation of each of these as a set of Cα and Cβ coordinates corresponding to three amino acid side-chains displayed by the scaffolds; (iii) similar representation of each combination of three side-chains in each ideal secondary structure as a set of Cα and Cβ coordinates corresponding to three amino acid side-chains displayed by the scaffolds; and, (iv) overlay Cα and Cβ coordinates of all the conformers on all the sets of side-chain "triads" in the ideal secondary structures and express the goodness of fit in terms of root mean squared deviation (RMSD, Å) for each overlay. We refer to this process as Exploring Key Orientations on Secondary structures (EKOS). Application of this procedure reveals the relative bias of a scaffold to overlay on different secondary structures, the "side-chain correspondences" (e.g. i, i + 4, i + 7 or i, i

A Host-Produced Autoinducer-2 Mimic Activates Bacterial Quorum Sensing.

PubMed

Ismail, Anisa S; Valastyan, Julie S; Bassler, Bonnie L

2016-04-13

Host-microbial symbioses are vital to health; nonetheless, little is known about the role crosskingdom signaling plays in these relationships. In a process called quorum sensing, bacteria communicate with one another using extracellular signal molecules called autoinducers. One autoinducer, AI-2, is proposed to promote interspecies bacterial communication, including in the mammalian gut. We show that mammalian epithelia produce an AI-2 mimic activity in response to bacteria or tight-junction disruption. This AI-2 mimic is detected by the bacterial AI-2 receptor, LuxP/LsrB, and can activate quorum-sensing-controlled gene expression, including in the enteric pathogen Salmonella typhimurium. AI-2 mimic activity is induced when epithelia are directly or indirectly exposed to bacteria, suggesting that a secreted bacterial component(s) stimulates its production. Mutagenesis revealed genes required for bacteria to both detect and stimulate production of the AI-2 mimic. These findings uncover a potential role for the mammalian AI-2 mimic in fostering crosskingdom signaling and host-bacterial symbioses. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pump-probe study of the formation of rubidium molecules by ultrafast photoassociation of ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCabe, David J.; England, Duncan G.; Martay, Hugo E. L.; Friedman, Melissa E.; Petrovic, Jovana; Dimova, Emiliya; Chatel, Béatrice; Walmsley, Ian A.

2009-09-01

An experimental pump-probe study of the photoassociative creation of translationally ultracold rubidium molecules is presented together with numerical simulations of the process. The formation of loosely bound excited-state dimers is observed as a first step toward a fully coherent pump-dump approach to the stabilization of Rb2 into its lowest ground vibrational states. The population that contributes to the pump-probe process is characterized and found to be distinct from a background population of preassociated molecules.

Veselago lensing with ultracold atoms in an optical lattice.

PubMed

Leder, Martin; Grossert, Christopher; Weitz, Martin

2014-01-01

Veselago pointed out that electromagnetic wave theory allows for materials with a negative index of refraction, in which most known optical phenomena would be reversed. A slab of such a material can focus light by negative refraction, an imaging technique strikingly different from conventional positive refractive index optics, where curved surfaces bend the rays to form an image of an object. Here we demonstrate Veselago lensing for matter waves, using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. A relativistic, that is, photon-like, dispersion relation for rubidium atoms is realized with a bichromatic optical lattice potential. We rely on a Raman π-pulse technique to transfer atoms between two different branches of the dispersion relation, resulting in a focusing that is completely analogous to the effect described by Veselago for light waves. Future prospects of the demonstrated effects include novel sub-de Broglie wavelength imaging applications.

Rotational Effects of Nanoparticles for Cooling down Ultracold Neutrons

PubMed Central

Tu, Xiaoqing; Sun, Guangai; Gong, Jian; Liu, Lijuan; Ren, Yong; Gao, Penglin; Wang, Wenzhao; Yan, H.

2017-01-01

Due to quantum coherence, nanoparticles have very large cross sections when scattering with very cold or Ultracold Neutrons (UCN). By calculating the scattering cross section quantum mechanically at first, then treating the nanoparticles as classical objects when including the rotational effects, we can derive the associated energy transfer. We find that rotational effects could play an important role in slowing down UCN. In consequence, the slowing down efficiency can be improved by as much as ~40%. Since thermalization of neutrons with the moderator requires typically hundreds of collisions between them, a ~40% increase of the efficiency per collision could have a significant effect. Other possible applications, such as neutrons scattering with nano shells and magnetic particles,and reducing the systematics induced by the geometric phase effect using nanoparticles in the neutron Electric Dipole Moment (nEDM), are also discussed in this paper. PMID:28294116

High-precision multiband spectroscopy of ultracold fermions in a nonseparable optical lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fläschner, Nick; Tarnowski, Matthias; Rem, Benno S.; Vogel, Dominik; Sengstock, Klaus; Weitenberg, Christof

2018-05-01

Spectroscopic tools are fundamental for the understanding of complex quantum systems. Here, we demonstrate high-precision multiband spectroscopy in a graphenelike lattice using ultracold fermionic atoms. From the measured band structure, we characterize the underlying lattice potential with a relative error of 1.2 ×10-3 . Such a precise characterization of complex lattice potentials is an important step towards precision measurements of quantum many-body systems. Furthermore, we explain the excitation strengths into different bands with a model and experimentally study their dependency on the symmetry of the perturbation operator. This insight suggests the excitation strengths as a suitable observable for interaction effects on the eigenstates.

Ultracold Anions for High-Precision Antihydrogen Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cerchiari, G.; Kellerbauer, A.; Safronova, M. S.; Safronova, U. I.; Yzombard, P.

2018-03-01

Experiments with antihydrogen (H ¯) for a study of matter-antimatter symmetry and antimatter gravity require ultracold H ¯ to reach ultimate precision. A promising path towards antiatoms much colder than a few kelvin involves the precooling of antiprotons by laser-cooled anions. Because of the weak binding of the valence electron in anions—dominated by polarization and correlation effects—only few candidate systems with suitable transitions exist. We report on a combination of experimental and theoretical studies to fully determine the relevant binding energies, transition rates, and branching ratios of the most promising candidate La- . Using combined transverse and collinear laser spectroscopy, we determined the resonant frequency of the laser cooling transition to be ν =96.592 713 (91 ) THz and its transition rate to be A =4.90 (50 )×104 s-1 . Using a novel high-precision theoretical treatment of La- we calculated yet unmeasured energy levels, transition rates, branching ratios, and lifetimes to complement experimental information on the laser cooling cycle of La- . The new data establish the suitability of La- for laser cooling and show that the cooling transition is significantly stronger than suggested by a previous theoretical study.

Creation of Rydberg Polarons in a Bose Gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Richard

2017-04-01

In this talk we review the theory of various types of Bose polarons that can be realized in ultracold atomic systems. We then report the spectroscopic observation of Rydberg polarons in a Bose gas which is in excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. This novel type of polaron is created by excitation of Rydberg atoms in a strontium Bose-Einstein condensate and it is distinguished by the occupation of a large number bound molecular states. The cross-over from few-body bound molecular oligomers to many-body polaron features is described with a functional determinant theory that solves an extended Froehlich Hamiltonian for an impurity in a Bose gas. The detailed analysis of the red-detuned tail of the excitation spectrum describes the contribution from the region of highest density in the condensate and provides a clear signature of Rydberg polarons. This work has been performed in collaboration with groups at Rice University, Harvard University, and the TU Vienna.

In vitro enzyme-mimic activity and in vivo therapeutic potential of HSJ-0017, a novel Mn porphyrin-based antioxidant enzyme mimic.

PubMed

Li, Bao-qiu; Dong, Xin; Li, Na; Gao, Ji-you; Yuan, Qiang; Fang, Shi-hong; Gong, Xian-chang; Wang, Shu-juan; Wang, Feng-shan

2014-10-01

Manganese (III) 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis [3-(2-(2-methoxy)-ethoxy) ethoxy] phenyl porphyrin chloride, designated HSJ-0017, is a novel antioxidant enzyme mimic. The aim of the present study was to investigate the enzyme-mimic activity and the therapeutic potential of HSJ-0017 in free radical-related diseases. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimic activity was measured by the nitroblue tetrazolium chloride monohydrate reduction assay. Catalase (CAT) mimic activity was measured based on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. The antitumor, radioprotective and chemoprotective effects of HSJ-0017 were evaluated in H22 or S180 tumor-bearing Kunming mice. The anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective effects were, respectively, evaluated in histamine-induced edema model and CCl4-induced hepatic damage model in Wistar rats. HSJ-0017 over a concentration range of 0.001-10 µmol/L significantly inhibited the generation of superoxide anion. Significant hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity was observed when the concentration of HSJ-0017 was higher than 0.01 µmol/L. HSJ-0017 at a dose of 3.0 mg/kg exhibited significant antitumor effect on S180 tumor xenografts, whereas no significant antitumor effect was observed in H22 tumor xenografts. HSJ-0017 at a dose of 3.0 mg/kg enhanced the antitumor effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and reduced their toxicity. However, HSJ-0017 counteracted the antitumor effects of radiotherapy when administered simultaneously with radiotherapy. HSJ-0017 showed significant anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective effects. Our results demonstrate that HSJ-0017 exhibits antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, radioprotective, chemoprotective, and hepatoprotective effects. It is a potent dual SOD/CAT mimic. © 2014 by the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.

Passenger strand loading in overexpression experiments using microRNA mimics.

PubMed

Søkilde, Rolf; Newie, Inga; Persson, Helena; Borg, Åke; Rovira, Carlos

2015-01-01

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of gene function and manipulation of miRNAs is a central component of basic research. Modulation of gene expression by miRNA gain-of-function can be based on different approaches including transfection with miRNA mimics; artificial, chemically modified miRNA-like small RNAs. These molecules are intended to mimic the function of a miRNA guide strand while bypassing the maturation steps of endogenous miRNAs. Due to easy accessibility through commercial providers this approach has gained popularity, and accuracy is often assumed without prior independent testing. Our in silico analysis of over-represented sequence motifs in microarray expression data and sequencing of AGO-associated small RNAs indicate, however, that miRNA mimics may be associated with considerable side-effects due to the unwanted activity of the miRNA mimic complementary strand.

Geometric phase effects in the ultracold D + HD $$ \\rightarrow $$ D + HD and D + HD $$\\leftrightarrow $$ H + D 2 reactions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kendrick, Brian Kent; Hazra, Jisha; Balakrishnan, Naduvaluth

The results of accurate quantum reactive scattering calculations for the D + HD(v = 4, j = 0)more » $$\\to $$ D + HD($$v^{\\prime} $$, $$j^{\\prime} $$), D + HD(v = 4, j = 0) $$\\to $$ H + D2($$v^{\\prime} $$, $$j^{\\prime} $$) and H + D2(v = 4, j = 0) $$\\to $$ D + HD($$v^{\\prime} $$, $$j^{\\prime} $$) reactions are presented for collision energies between $$1\\,\\mu {\\rm{K}}$$ and $$100\\,{\\rm{K}}$$. The ab initio BKMP2 PES for the ground electronic state of H3 is used and all values of total angular momentum between $J=0-4$ are included. The general vector potential approach is used to include the geometric phase. The rotationally resolved, vibrationally resolved, and total reaction rate coefficients are reported as a function of collision energy. Rotationally resolved differential cross sections are also reported as a function of collision energy and scattering angle. Large geometric phase effects appear in the ultracold reaction rate coefficients which result in a significant enhancement or suppression of the rate coefficient (up to 3 orders of magnitude) relative to calculations which ignore the geometric phase. The results are interpreted using a new quantum interference mechanism which is unique to ultracold collisions. Significant effects of the geometric phase also appear in the rotationally resolved differential cross sections which lead to a very different oscillatory structure in both energy and scattering angle. Several shape resonances occur in the 1–$$10\\,{\\rm{K}}$$ energy range and the geometric phase is shown to significantly alter the predicted resonance spectrum. The geometric phase effects and ultracold rate coefficients depend sensitively on the nuclear spin. Furthermore, experimentalists may be able to control the reaction by the selection of a particular nuclear spin state.« less

Geometric phase effects in the ultracold D + HD $$ \\rightarrow $$ D + HD and D + HD $$\\leftrightarrow $$ H + D 2 reactions

DOE PAGES

Kendrick, Brian Kent; Hazra, Jisha; Balakrishnan, Naduvaluth

2016-12-15

The results of accurate quantum reactive scattering calculations for the D + HD(v = 4, j = 0)more » $$\\to $$ D + HD($$v^{\\prime} $$, $$j^{\\prime} $$), D + HD(v = 4, j = 0) $$\\to $$ H + D2($$v^{\\prime} $$, $$j^{\\prime} $$) and H + D2(v = 4, j = 0) $$\\to $$ D + HD($$v^{\\prime} $$, $$j^{\\prime} $$) reactions are presented for collision energies between $$1\\,\\mu {\\rm{K}}$$ and $$100\\,{\\rm{K}}$$. The ab initio BKMP2 PES for the ground electronic state of H3 is used and all values of total angular momentum between $J=0-4$ are included. The general vector potential approach is used to include the geometric phase. The rotationally resolved, vibrationally resolved, and total reaction rate coefficients are reported as a function of collision energy. Rotationally resolved differential cross sections are also reported as a function of collision energy and scattering angle. Large geometric phase effects appear in the ultracold reaction rate coefficients which result in a significant enhancement or suppression of the rate coefficient (up to 3 orders of magnitude) relative to calculations which ignore the geometric phase. The results are interpreted using a new quantum interference mechanism which is unique to ultracold collisions. Significant effects of the geometric phase also appear in the rotationally resolved differential cross sections which lead to a very different oscillatory structure in both energy and scattering angle. Several shape resonances occur in the 1–$$10\\,{\\rm{K}}$$ energy range and the geometric phase is shown to significantly alter the predicted resonance spectrum. The geometric phase effects and ultracold rate coefficients depend sensitively on the nuclear spin. Furthermore, experimentalists may be able to control the reaction by the selection of a particular nuclear spin state.« less

The Mediated MIMIC Model for Understanding the Underlying Mechanism of DIF.

PubMed

Cheng, Ying; Shao, Can; Lathrop, Quinn N

2016-02-01

Due to its flexibility, the multiple-indicator, multiple-causes (MIMIC) model has become an increasingly popular method for the detection of differential item functioning (DIF). In this article, we propose the mediated MIMIC model method to uncover the underlying mechanism of DIF. This method extends the usual MIMIC model by including one variable or multiple variables that may completely or partially mediate the DIF effect. If complete mediation effect is found, the DIF effect is fully accounted for. Through our simulation study, we find that the mediated MIMIC model is very successful in detecting the mediation effect that completely or partially accounts for DIF, while keeping the Type I error rate well controlled for both balanced and unbalanced sample sizes between focal and reference groups. Because it is successful in detecting such mediation effects, the mediated MIMIC model may help explain DIF and give guidance in the revision of a DIF item.

The Mediated MIMIC Model for Understanding the Underlying Mechanism of DIF

PubMed Central

Cheng, Ying; Shao, Can; Lathrop, Quinn N.

2015-01-01

Due to its flexibility, the multiple-indicator, multiple-causes (MIMIC) model has become an increasingly popular method for the detection of differential item functioning (DIF). In this article, we propose the mediated MIMIC model method to uncover the underlying mechanism of DIF. This method extends the usual MIMIC model by including one variable or multiple variables that may completely or partially mediate the DIF effect. If complete mediation effect is found, the DIF effect is fully accounted for. Through our simulation study, we find that the mediated MIMIC model is very successful in detecting the mediation effect that completely or partially accounts for DIF, while keeping the Type I error rate well controlled for both balanced and unbalanced sample sizes between focal and reference groups. Because it is successful in detecting such mediation effects, the mediated MIMIC model may help explain DIF and give guidance in the revision of a DIF item.

High precision optical spectroscopy and quantum state selected photodissociation of ultracold 88Sr2 molecules in an optical lattice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McDonald, Mickey

2017-04-01

Over the past several decades, rapid progress has been made toward the accurate characterization and control of atoms, epitomized by the ever-increasing accuracy and precision of optical atomic lattice clocks. Extending this progress to molecules will have exciting implications for chemistry, condensed matter physics, and precision tests of physics beyond the Standard Model. My thesis describes work performed over the past six years to establish the state of the art in manipulation and quantum control of ultracold molecules. We describe a thorough set of measurements characterizing the rovibrational structure of weakly bound 88Sr2 molecules from several different perspectives, including determinations of binding energies; linear, quadratic, and higher order Zeeman shifts; transition strengths between bound states; and lifetimes of narrow subradiant states. Finally, we discuss measurements of photofragment angular distributions produced by photodissociation of molecules in single quantum states, leading to an exploration of quantum-state-resolved ultracold chemistry. The images of exploding photofragments produced in these studies exhibit dramatic interference effects and strongly violate semiclassical predictions, instead requiring a fully quantum mechanical description.

Direct weak localization signature with ultracold atoms: the CBS revival

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Josse, Vincent

2016-05-01

Ultracold atomic systems in presence of disorder have attracted a lot of interest over the past decade, in particular to study the physics of Anderson localization (AL) in a renewed perspective. Landmark experiments have been demonstrated, in 1D and 3D geometries. However many challenges remain and new ideas have emerged, as for instance the search for original signatures of Anderson localization in momentum space. Here I will describe our progresses along that line where a weak localization effect has been directly observed, i.e. the Coherent Backscattering (CBS) phenomenon. In particular I will report on the recent observation of suppression and revival of CBS when a controlled dephasing kick is applied to the system. This observation demonstrates a novel and general method, introduced by T. Micklitz and coworkers, to study probe phase coherence in disordered systems by manipulating time reversal symmetry.

Quantum simulation of ultrafast dynamics using trapped ultracold atoms.

PubMed

Senaratne, Ruwan; Rajagopal, Shankari V; Shimasaki, Toshihiko; Dotti, Peter E; Fujiwara, Kurt M; Singh, Kevin; Geiger, Zachary A; Weld, David M

2018-05-25

Ultrafast electronic dynamics are typically studied using pulsed lasers. Here we demonstrate a complementary experimental approach: quantum simulation of ultrafast dynamics using trapped ultracold atoms. Counter-intuitively, this technique emulates some of the fastest processes in atomic physics with some of the slowest, leading to a temporal magnification factor of up to 12 orders of magnitude. In these experiments, time-varying forces on neutral atoms in the ground state of a tunable optical trap emulate the electric fields of a pulsed laser acting on bound charged particles. We demonstrate the correspondence with ultrafast science by a sequence of experiments: nonlinear spectroscopy of a many-body bound state, control of the excitation spectrum by potential shaping, observation of sub-cycle unbinding dynamics during strong few-cycle pulses, and direct measurement of carrier-envelope phase dependence of the response to an ultrafast-equivalent pulse. These results establish cold-atom quantum simulation as a complementary tool for studying ultrafast dynamics.

Gene-specific cell labeling using MiMIC transposons

PubMed Central

Gnerer, Joshua P.; Venken, Koen J. T.; Dierick, Herman A.

2015-01-01

Binary expression systems such as GAL4/UAS, LexA/LexAop and QF/QUAS have greatly enhanced the power of Drosophila as a model organism by allowing spatio-temporal manipulation of gene function as well as cell and neural circuit function. Tissue-specific expression of these heterologous transcription factors relies on random transposon integration near enhancers or promoters that drive the binary transcription factor embedded in the transposon. Alternatively, gene-specific promoter elements are directly fused to the binary factor within the transposon followed by random or site-specific integration. However, such insertions do not consistently recapitulate endogenous expression. We used Minos-Mediated Integration Cassette (MiMIC) transposons to convert host loci into reliable gene-specific binary effectors. MiMIC transposons allow recombinase-mediated cassette exchange to modify the transposon content. We developed novel exchange cassettes to convert coding intronic MiMIC insertions into gene-specific binary factor protein-traps. In addition, we expanded the set of binary factor exchange cassettes available for non-coding intronic MiMIC insertions. We show that binary factor conversions of different insertions in the same locus have indistinguishable expression patterns, suggesting that they reliably reflect endogenous gene expression. We show the efficacy and broad applicability of these new tools by dissecting the cellular expression patterns of the Drosophila serotonin receptor gene family. PMID:25712101

Functional Cellular Mimics for the Spatiotemporal Control of Multiple Enzymatic Cascade Reactions.

PubMed

Liu, Xiaoling; Formanek, Petr; Voit, Brigitte; Appelhans, Dietmar

2017-12-18

Next-generation therapeutic approaches are expected to rely on the engineering of biomimetic cellular systems that can mimic specific cellular functions. Herein, we demonstrate a highly effective route for constructing structural and functional eukaryotic cell mimics by loading pH-sensitive polymersomes as membrane-associated and free-floating organelle mimics inside the multifunctional cell membrane. Metabolism mimicry has been validated by performing successive enzymatic cascade reactions spatially separated at specific sites of cell mimics in the presence and absence of extracellular organelle mimics. These enzymatic reactions take place in a highly controllable, reproducible, efficient, and successive manner. Our biomimetic approach to material design for establishing functional principles brings considerable enrichment to the fields of biomedicine, biocatalysis, biotechnology, and systems biology. © 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Tunable spin-orbit coupling for ultracold atoms in two-dimensional optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grusdt, Fabian; Li, Tracy; Bloch, Immanuel; Demler, Eugene

2017-06-01

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is at the heart of many exotic band structures and can give rise to many-body states with topological order. Here we present a general scheme based on a combination of microwave driving and lattice shaking for the realization of two-dimensional SOC with ultracold atoms in systems with inversion symmetry. We show that the strengths of Rashba and Dresselhaus SOC can be independently tuned in a spin-dependent square lattice. More generally, our method can be used to open gaps between different spin states without breaking time-reversal symmetry. We demonstrate that this allows for the realization of topological insulators with nontrivial spin textures closely related to the Kane-Mele model.

Repulsive atomic gas in a harmonic trap on the border of itinerant ferromagnetism.

PubMed

Conduit, G J; Simons, B D

2009-11-13

Alongside superfluidity, itinerant (Stoner) ferromagnetism remains one of the most well-characterized phases of correlated Fermi systems. A recent experiment has reported the first evidence for novel phase behavior on the repulsive side of the Feshbach resonance in a two-component ultracold Fermi gas. By adapting recent theoretical studies to the atomic trap geometry, we show that an adiabatic ferromagnetic transition would take place at a weaker interaction strength than is observed in experiment. This discrepancy motivates a simple nonequilibrium theory that takes account of the dynamics of magnetic defects and three-body losses. The formalism developed displays good quantitative agreement with experiment.

Artist's Rendering of Multiple Whirlpools in a Sodium Gas Cloud

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2003-01-01

This image depicts the formation of multiple whirlpools in a sodium gas cloud. Scientists who cooled the cloud and made it spin created the whirlpools in a Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory, as part of NASA-funded research. This process is similar to a phenomenon called starquakes that appear as glitches in the rotation of pulsars in space. MIT's Wolgang Ketterle and his colleagues, who conducted the research under a grant from the Biological and Physical Research Program through NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., cooled the sodium gas to less than one millionth of a degree above absolute zero (-273 Celsius or -460 Fahrenheit). At such extreme cold, the gas cloud converts to a peculiar form of matter called Bose-Einstein condensate, as predicted by Albert Einstein and Satyendra Bose of India in 1927. No physical container can hold such ultra-cold matter, so Ketterle's team used magnets to keep the cloud in place. They then used a laser beam to make the gas cloud spin, a process Ketterle compares to stroking a ping-pong ball with a feather until it starts spirning. The spinning sodium gas cloud, whose volume was one- millionth of a cubic centimeter, much smaller than a raindrop, developed a regular pattern of more than 100 whirlpools.

Analytical solutions for the dynamics of two trapped interacting ultracold atoms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Idziaszek, Zbigniew; Calarco, Tommaso; CNR-INFM BEC Center, I-38050 Povo

2006-08-15

We discuss exact solutions of the Schroedinger equation for the system of two ultracold atoms confined in an axially symmetric harmonic potential. We investigate different geometries of the trapping potential, in particular we study the properties of eigenenergies and eigenfunctions for quasi-one-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional traps. We show that the quasi-one-dimensional and the quasi-two-dimensional regimes for two atoms can be already realized in the traps with moderately large (or small) ratios of the trapping frequencies in the axial and the transverse directions. Finally, we apply our theory to Feshbach resonances for trapped atoms. Introducing in our description an energy-dependent scattering lengthmore » we calculate analytically the eigenenergies for two trapped atoms in the presence of a Feshbach resonance.« less

Continued Analysis of the NIST Neutron Lifetime Measurement Using Ultracold Neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huffer, Craig; Huffman, P. R.; Schelhammer, K. W.; Dewey, M. S.; Huber, M. G.; Hughes, P. P.; Mumm, H. P.; Thompson, A. K.; Coakley, K.; Yue, A. T.; O'Shaughnessy, C. M.; Yang, L.

2013-10-01

The neutron lifetime is an important parameter for constraining the Standard Model and providing input for Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. The current disagreement in the most recent generation of lifetime experiments suggests unknown or underestimated systematics and motivates the need for alternative measurement methods as well as additional investigations into potential systematics. Our measurement was performed using magnetically trapped Ultracold Neutrons in a 3.1 T Ioffe type trap configuration. The decay rate of the neutron population is recorded in real time by monitoring visible light resulting from beta decay. Data collected in late 2010 and early 2011 is being analyzed and systematic effects are being investigated. An overview of our current work on the analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and systematic effects will be provided. This work was supported by the NSF and NIST.

A Backscattering Enhanced Microwave Canopy Scattering Model Based On MIMICS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shen, X.; Hong, Y.; Qin, Q.; Chen, S.; Grout, T.

2010-12-01

For modeling microwave scattering of vegetated areas, several microwave canopy scattering models, based on the vectorized radiative transfer equation (VRT) that use different solving techniques, have been proposed in the past three decades. As an iterative solution of VRT at low orders, the Michigan Microwave Canopy Scattering Model (MIMICS) gives an analytical expression for calculating scattering as long as the volume scattering is not too strong. The most important usage of such models is to predict scattering in the backscattering direction. Unfortunately, the simplified assumption of MIMICS is that the scattering between the ground and trunk layers only includes the specular reflection. As a result, MIMICS includes a dominant coherent term which vanishes in the backscattering direction because this term contains a delta function factor of zero in this direction. This assumption needs reconsideration for accurately calculating the backscattering. In the framework of MIMICS, any incoherent terms that involve surface scattering factors must at least undergo surface scattering twice and volume scattering once. Therefore, these incoherent terms are usually very weak. On the other hand, due to the phenomenon of backscattering enhancement, the surface scattering in the backscattering direction is very strong compared to most other directions. Considering the facts discussed above, it is reasonable to add a surface backscattering term to the last equation of the boundary conditions of MIMICS. More terms appear in the final result including a backscattering coherent term which enhances the backscattering. The modified model is compared with the original MIMICS (version 1.0) using JPL/AIRSAR data from NASA Campaign Soil Moisture Experimental 2003 (SMEX03) and Washita92. Significant improvement is observed.

Ultracold Anions for High-Precision Antihydrogen Experiments.

PubMed

Cerchiari, G; Kellerbauer, A; Safronova, M S; Safronova, U I; Yzombard, P

2018-03-30

Experiments with antihydrogen (H[over ¯]) for a study of matter-antimatter symmetry and antimatter gravity require ultracold H[over ¯] to reach ultimate precision. A promising path towards antiatoms much colder than a few kelvin involves the precooling of antiprotons by laser-cooled anions. Because of the weak binding of the valence electron in anions-dominated by polarization and correlation effects-only few candidate systems with suitable transitions exist. We report on a combination of experimental and theoretical studies to fully determine the relevant binding energies, transition rates, and branching ratios of the most promising candidate La^{-}. Using combined transverse and collinear laser spectroscopy, we determined the resonant frequency of the laser cooling transition to be ν=96.592 713(91)  THz and its transition rate to be A=4.90(50)×10^{4}  s^{-1}. Using a novel high-precision theoretical treatment of La^{-} we calculated yet unmeasured energy levels, transition rates, branching ratios, and lifetimes to complement experimental information on the laser cooling cycle of La^{-}. The new data establish the suitability of La^{-} for laser cooling and show that the cooling transition is significantly stronger than suggested by a previous theoretical study.

Superfluid-ferromagnet-superfluid junction and the {pi} phase in a superfluid Fermi gas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kashimura, Takashi; Tsuchiya, Shunji; CREST

2010-09-15

We investigate the possibility of a superfluid-ferromagnet-superfluid (SFS) junction in a superfluid Fermi gas. To examine this possibility in a simple manner, we consider an attractive Hubbard model at T=0 within the mean-field theory. When a potential barrier is embedded in a superfluid Fermi gas with population imbalance (N{sub {up_arrow}}>N{sub {down_arrow}}, where N{sub {sigma}} is the number of atoms with pseudospin {sigma}= {up_arrow}, {down_arrow}), this barrier is shown to be magnetized in the sense that excess {up_arrow}-spin atoms are localized around it. The resulting superfluid Fermi gas is spatially divided into two by this ferromagnet, so that one obtains amore » junction similar to the superconductor-ferromagnet-superconductor junction discussed in superconductivity. Indeed, we show that the so-called {pi} phase, which is a typical phenomenon in the SFS junction, is realized, where the superfluid order parameter changes its sign across the junction. Our results would be useful for the study of magnetic effects on fermion superfluidity using an ultracold Fermi gas.« less

Experimental observation and determination of the laser-induced frequency shift of hyperfine levels of ultracold polar molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Wenliang; Wang, Xiaofeng; Wu, Jizhou; Su, Xingliang; Wang, Shen; Sovkov, Vladimir B.; Ma, Jie; Xiao, Liantuan; Jia, Suotang

2017-08-01

We report on the experimental observation and quantitative determination of the laser-induced frequency shift (LIFS) of the ultracold polar molecules formed by photoassociation (PA). The experiments are performed by detecting a series of double PA spectra with a molecular hyperfine structure, which are induced by two PA lasers with a precise and adjustable frequency reference. We find that the LIFS of the molecular hyperfine levels shows a linear dependence on PA laser intensity.

Gene-specific cell labeling using MiMIC transposons.

PubMed

Gnerer, Joshua P; Venken, Koen J T; Dierick, Herman A

2015-04-30

Binary expression systems such as GAL4/UAS, LexA/LexAop and QF/QUAS have greatly enhanced the power of Drosophila as a model organism by allowing spatio-temporal manipulation of gene function as well as cell and neural circuit function. Tissue-specific expression of these heterologous transcription factors relies on random transposon integration near enhancers or promoters that drive the binary transcription factor embedded in the transposon. Alternatively, gene-specific promoter elements are directly fused to the binary factor within the transposon followed by random or site-specific integration. However, such insertions do not consistently recapitulate endogenous expression. We used Minos-Mediated Integration Cassette (MiMIC) transposons to convert host loci into reliable gene-specific binary effectors. MiMIC transposons allow recombinase-mediated cassette exchange to modify the transposon content. We developed novel exchange cassettes to convert coding intronic MiMIC insertions into gene-specific binary factor protein-traps. In addition, we expanded the set of binary factor exchange cassettes available for non-coding intronic MiMIC insertions. We show that binary factor conversions of different insertions in the same locus have indistinguishable expression patterns, suggesting that they reliably reflect endogenous gene expression. We show the efficacy and broad applicability of these new tools by dissecting the cellular expression patterns of the Drosophila serotonin receptor gene family. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Control system high-precision laser to obtain the ensemble of ultracold ions Th3+

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Florentsev, V. V.; Zhdamirov, V. Yu; Rodko, I. I.; Borodulya, N. A.; Biryukov, A. P.

2018-01-01

One of key problems of nuclear standard frequency development is preparation assembly of ultracold thorium ions in Pauli trap. In this case semiconductive frequency-stabilized lasers with external resonator on frequencies 690 nm, 984 nm, and 1088 nm are used for excitation of corresponding electronic dipole and quadrupole cooling transitions for Th3+ ions. In the paper the results of development and creation of unified laser module, which is able to be used as base for full-featured system designed for laser cooling of Th3+ ions, are presented. The module is able to fine-tune necessary wavelength with accuracy ±5 nm.

Histologic Mimics of Basal Cell Carcinoma.

PubMed

Stanoszek, Lauren M; Wang, Grace Y; Harms, Paul W

2017-11-01

- Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common human malignant neoplasm and is a frequently encountered diagnosis in dermatopathology. Although BCC may be locally destructive, it rarely metastasizes. Many diagnostic entities display morphologic and immunophenotypic overlap with BCC, including nonneoplastic processes, such as follicular induction over dermatofibroma; benign follicular tumors, such as trichoblastoma, trichoepithelioma, or basaloid follicular hamartoma; and malignant tumors, such as sebaceous carcinoma or Merkel cell carcinoma. Thus, misdiagnosis has significant potential to result in overtreatment or undertreatment. - To review key features distinguishing BCC from histologic mimics, including current evidence regarding immunohistochemical markers useful for that distinction. - Review of pertinent literature on BCC immunohistochemistry and differential diagnosis. - In most cases, BCC can be reliably diagnosed by histopathologic features. Immunohistochemistry may provide useful ancillary data in certain cases. Awareness of potential mimics is critical to avoid misdiagnosis and resulting inappropriate management.

Molecular spectroscopy for producing ultracold ground-state NaRb molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Dajun; Guo, Mingyang; Zhu, Bing; Lu, Bo; Ye, Xin; Wang, Fudong; Vexiau, Romain; Bouloufa-Maafa, Nadia; Quéméner, Goulven; Dulieu, Olivier

2016-05-01

Recently, we have successfully created an ultracold sample of absolute ground-state NaRb molecules by two-photon Raman transfer of weakly bound Feshbach molecules. Here we will present the detailed spectroscopic investigations on both the excited and the rovibrational ground states for finding the two-photon path. For the excited state, we focus on the A1Σ+ /b3 Π singlet and triplet admixture. We discovered an anomalously strong coupling between the Ω =0+ and 0- components which renders efficient population transfer possible. In the ground state, the pure nuclear hyperfine levels have been clearly resolved, which allows us to create molecules in the absolute ground state directly with Raman transfer. This work is jointly supported by Agence Nationale de la Recherche (#ANR-13- IS04-0004-01) and Hong Kong Research Grant Council (#A-CUHK403/13) through the COPOMOL project.

Strong photoassociation in a degenerate fermi gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rvachov, Timur; Jamison, Alan; Jing, Li; Son, Hyungmok; Ebadi, Sepehr; Jiang, Yijun; Zwierlein, Martin; Ketterle, Wolfgang

2016-05-01

Despite many studies there remain open questions about strong photoassociation in ultracold gases. We study the effects of strong photoassociation in ultracold fermions. Photoassociation occurs only at short range and thus can be used as a tool to probe and control the two-body correlation function in an interacting many-body system. We study the effects of strong photoassociation in 6 Li, the onset of saturation, and its effects on spin polarized and interacting spin-mixtures. This work was funded by the NSF, ARO-MURI, SAMSUNG, and NSERC.

Systematic Assessment of Strategies for Lung-targeted Delivery of MicroRNA Mimics

PubMed Central

Schlosser, Kenny; Taha, Mohamad; Stewart, Duncan J.

2018-01-01

There is considerable interest in the use of synthetic miRNA mimics (or inhibitors) as potential therapeutic agents in pulmonary vascular disease; however, the optimal delivery method to achieve high efficiency, selective lung targeting has not been determined. Here, we sought to investigate the relative merits of different lung-targeted strategies for delivering miRNA mimics in rats. Methods: Tissue levels of a synthetic miRNA mimic, cel-miR-39-3p (0.5 nmol in 50 µL invivofectamine/PBS vehicle) were compared in male rats (n=3 rats/method) after delivery by commonly used lung-targeting strategies including intratracheal liquid instillation (IT-L), intratracheal aerosolization with (IT-AV) or without ventilator assistance (IT-A), intranasal liquid instillation (IN-L) and intranasal aerosolization (IN-A). Intravenous (IV; via jugular vein), intraperitoneal (IP) and subcutaneous (SC) delivery served as controls. Relative levels of cel-miR-39 were quantified by RT-qPCR. Results: At 2 h post delivery, IT-L showed the highest lung mimic level, which was significantly higher than levels achieved by all other methods (from ~10- to 10,000-fold, p<0.05). Mimic levels remained detectable in the lung 24 h after delivery, but were 10- to 100-fold lower. The intrapulmonary distribution of cel-miR-39 was comparable when delivered as either a liquid or aerosol, with evidence of mimic distribution to both the left and right lung lobes and penetration to distal regions. All lung-targeted strategies showed lung-selective mimic uptake, with mimic levels 10- to 100-fold lower in heart and 100- to 10,000-fold lower in liver, kidney and spleen. In contrast, IV, SC and IP routes showed comparable or higher mimic levels in non-pulmonary tissues. Conclusions: miRNA uptake in the lungs differed markedly by up to 4 orders of magnitude, demonstrating that the choice of delivery strategy could have a significant impact on potential therapeutic outcomes in preclinical investigations of mi

Evaluating minimalist mimics by exploring key orientations on secondary structures (EKOS)☟

PubMed Central

Xin, Dongyue; Ko, Eunhwa; Perez, Lisa M.; Ioerger, Thomas R.; Burgess, Kevin

2013-01-01

Peptide mimics that display amino acid side-chains on semi-rigid scaffolds (not peptide polyamides) can be referred to as minimalist mimics. Accessible conformations of these scaffolds may overlay with secondary structures giving, for example, “minimalist helical mimics”. It is difficult for researchers who want to apply minimalist mimics to decide which one to use because there is no widely accepted protocol for calibrating how closely these compounds mimic secondary structures. Moreover, it is also difficult for potential practitioners to evaluate which ideal minimalist helical mimics are preferred for a particular set of side-chains. For instance, what mimic presents i, i+4, i+7 side-chains in orientations that best resemble an ideal α-helix, and is a different mimic required for a i, i+3, i+7 helical combination? This article describes a protocol for fitting each member of an array of accessible scaffold conformations on secondary structures. The protocol involves: (i) use quenched molecular dynamics (QMD) to generate an ensemble consisting of hundreds of accessible, low energy conformers of the mimics; (ii) representation of each of these as a set of Cα and Cβ coordinates corresponding to three amino acid side-chains displayed by the scaffolds;(iii) similar representation of each combination of three side-chains in each ideal secondary structure as a set of Cα and Cβ coordinates corresponding to three amino acid side-chains displayed by the scaffolds; and, (iv) overlay Cα and Cβ coordinates of all the conformers on all the sets of side-chain “triads” in the ideal secondary structures and express the goodness of fit in terms of root mean squared deviation (RMSD, Å) for each overlay. We refer to this process as Exploring Key Orientations on Secondary structures (EKOS). Application of this procedure reveals the relative bias of a scaffold to overlay on different secondary structures, the “side-chain correspondences” (eg i, i+4, i+7 or i, i+3

Tough Ceramic Mimics Mother of Pearl

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ritchie, Robert

2008-12-05

Berkeley Lab scientists have mimicked the structure of mother of pearl to create what may well be the toughest ceramic ever produced. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-releases/2008/12/05/scientists-create-tough-ceramic-that-mimics-mother-of-pearl/

Tough Ceramic Mimics Mother of Pearl

ScienceCinema

Ritchie, Robert

2017-12-12

Berkeley Lab scientists have mimicked the structure of mother of pearl to create what may well be the toughest ceramic ever produced. http://newscenter.lbl.gov/press-releases/2008/12/05/scientists-create-tough-ceramic-that-mimics-mother-of-pearl/

[Discussion of the implementation of MIMIC database in emergency medical study].

PubMed

Li, Kaiyuan; Feng, Cong; Jia, Lijing; Chen, Li; Pan, Fei; Li, Tanshi

2018-05-01

To introduce Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) database and elaborate the approach of critically emergent research with big data based on the feature of MIMIC and updated studies both domestic and overseas, we put forward the feasibility and necessity of introducing medical big data to research in emergency. Then we discuss the role of MIMIC database in emergency clinical study, as well as the principles and key notes of experimental design and implementation under the medical big data circumstance. The implementation of MIMIC database in emergency medical research provides a brand new field for the early diagnosis, risk warning and prognosis of critical illness, however there are also limitations. To meet the era of big data, emergency medical database which is in accordance with our national condition is needed, which will provide new energy to the development of emergency medicine.

High-fidelity cluster state generation for ultracold atoms in an optical lattice.

PubMed

Inaba, Kensuke; Tokunaga, Yuuki; Tamaki, Kiyoshi; Igeta, Kazuhiro; Yamashita, Makoto

2014-03-21

We propose a method for generating high-fidelity multipartite spin entanglement of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice in a short operation time with a scalable manner, which is suitable for measurement-based quantum computation. To perform the desired operations based on the perturbative spin-spin interactions, we propose to actively utilize the extra degrees of freedom (DOFs) usually neglected in the perturbative treatment but included in the Hubbard Hamiltonian of atoms, such as, (pseudo-)charge and orbital DOFs. Our method simultaneously achieves high fidelity, short operation time, and scalability by overcoming the following fundamental problem: enhancing the interaction strength for shortening the operation time breaks the perturbative condition of the interaction and inevitably induces unwanted correlations among the spin and extra DOFs.

Ultracold few fermionic atoms in needle-shaped double wells: spin chains and resonating spin clusters from microscopic Hamiltonians emulated via antiferromagnetic Heisenberg and t-J models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yannouleas, Constantine; Brandt, Benedikt B.; Landman, Uzi

2016-07-01

Advances with trapped ultracold atoms intensified interest in simulating complex physical phenomena, including quantum magnetism and transitions from itinerant to non-itinerant behavior. Here we show formation of antiferromagnetic ground states of few ultracold fermionic atoms in single and double well (DW) traps, through microscopic Hamiltonian exact diagonalization for two DW arrangements: (i) two linearly oriented one-dimensional, 1D, wells, and (ii) two coupled parallel wells, forming a trap of two-dimensional, 2D, nature. The spectra and spin-resolved conditional probabilities reveal for both cases, under strong repulsion, atomic spatial localization at extemporaneously created sites, forming quantum molecular magnetic structures with non-itinerant character. These findings usher future theoretical and experimental explorations into the highly correlated behavior of ultracold strongly repelling fermionic atoms in higher dimensions, beyond the fermionization physics that is strictly applicable only in the 1D case. The results for four atoms are well described with finite Heisenberg spin-chain and cluster models. The numerical simulations of three fermionic atoms in symmetric DWs reveal the emergent appearance of coupled resonating 2D Heisenberg clusters, whose emulation requires the use of a t-J-like model, akin to that used in investigations of high T c superconductivity. The highly entangled states discovered in the microscopic and model calculations of controllably detuned, asymmetric, DWs suggest three-cold-atom DW quantum computing qubits.

Dissipative preparation of squeezed states with ultracold atomic gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, Gentaro; Caballar, Roland Cristopher F.; Diehl, Sebastian; Mäkelä, Harri; Oberthaler, Markus

2014-05-01

We present a dissipative quantum state preparation scheme for the creation of phase- and number-squeezed states. It utilizes ultracold atoms in a double-well configuration immersed in a background BEC acting as a dissipative quantum reservoir. We derive a master equation starting from microscopic physics, and show that squeezing develops on a time scale proportional to 1 / N , where N is the number of particles in the double well. This scaling, caused by bosonic enhancement, allows us to make the time scale for the creation of squeezed states very short. Effects of the dephasing which limits the lifetime of the squeezed states can be avoided by stroboscopically switching the driving off and on. We show that this approach leads to robust stationary squeezed states. We also provide the necessary ingredients for a potential experimental implementation. NRF (No. 2012R1A1A2008028), MPS, Korea MEST, FWF (No. F4006-N16), Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation, Emil Aaltonen Foundation, Academy of Finland (No. 251748).

Progress Towards Laser Cooling of an Ultracold Neutral Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langin, Thomas; Gorman, Grant; Chen, Zhitao; Chow, Kyle; Killian, Thomas

2017-04-01

We report on progress towards laser-cooling of the ion component of an ultracold neutral plasma (UNP) consisting of 88Sr+. The goal of the experiment is to increase the value of the ion Coulomb Coupling Parameter, Γi, which is the ratio of the average nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction energy to the ion kinetic energy. Currently, Γi is limited to 3 in most UNP systems. We have developed a new photoionization pathway for plasma creation that starts with atoms in a magnetic trap. This allows us to create much larger plasmas (upwards of 109 atoms with a width of 4 mm). This greatly reduces the plasma expansion rate, giving more time for laser cooling. We have also installed lasers for optically pumping atoms out of dark states that are populated during laser cooling. We will discuss these new systems, along with the results of our first attempts at laser-cooling. Supported by NSF and DoE (PHY-0714603), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-12-1-0267), and the Shell Foundation.

Engineering hydrogels as extracellular matrix mimics

PubMed Central

Geckil, Hikmet; Xu, Feng; Zhang, Xiaohui; Moon, SangJun

2010-01-01

Extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex cellular environment consisting of proteins, proteoglycans, and other soluble molecules. ECM provides structural support to mammalian cells and a regulatory milieu with a variety of important cell functions, including assembling cells into various tissues and organs, regulating growth and cell–cell communication. Developing a tailored in vitro cell culture environment that mimics the intricate and organized nanoscale meshwork of native ECM is desirable. Recent studies have shown the potential of hydrogels to mimic native ECM. Such an engineered native-like ECM is more likely to provide cells with rational cues for diagnostic and therapeutic studies. The research for novel biomaterials has led to an extension of the scope and techniques used to fabricate biomimetic hydrogel scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. In this article, we detail the progress of the current state-of-the-art engineering methods to create cell-encapsulating hydrogel tissue constructs as well as their applications in in vitro models in biomedicine. PMID:20394538

Traumatic aortic injury: CT findings, mimics, and therapeutic options

PubMed Central

Lantz, Eric J.; Johnson, C. Michael; Young, Philip M.

2014-01-01

Objective Traumatic aortic injury (TAI) is rare, but frequently lethal. However, with prompt diagnosis, patients can undergo life-saving open or endovascular repair. Unfortunately, because these injuries are relatively rare, subtle forms of these injuries may be missed, and normal variants may mimic TAI leading to misdiagnosis. Conclusions We will discuss computed tomography findings of typical injury patterns of traumatic aortic injuries as well as treatment options, diagnostic pitfalls and injury mimics. These are highlighted with clinical case examples. PMID:25009793

A Salmonella nanoparticle mimic overcomes multidrug resistance in tumours.

PubMed

Mercado-Lubo, Regino; Zhang, Yuanwei; Zhao, Liang; Rossi, Kyle; Wu, Xiang; Zou, Yekui; Castillo, Antonio; Leonard, Jack; Bortell, Rita; Greiner, Dale L; Shultz, Leonard D; Han, Gang; McCormick, Beth A

2016-07-25

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium is a food-borne pathogen that also selectively grows in tumours and functionally decreases P-glycoprotein (P-gp), a multidrug resistance transporter. Here we report that the Salmonella type III secretion effector, SipA, is responsible for P-gp modulation through a pathway involving caspase-3. Mimicking the ability of Salmonella to reverse multidrug resistance, we constructed a gold nanoparticle system packaged with a SipA corona, and found this bacterial mimic not only accumulates in tumours but also reduces P-gp at a SipA dose significantly lower than free SipA. Moreover, the Salmonella nanoparticle mimic suppresses tumour growth with a concomitant reduction in P-gp when used with an existing chemotherapeutic drug (that is, doxorubicin). On the basis of our finding that the SipA Salmonella effector is fundamental for functionally decreasing P-gp, we engineered a nanoparticle mimic that both overcomes multidrug resistance in cancer cells and increases tumour sensitivity to conventional chemotherapeutics.

Measurement of the Neutron Lifetime with Ultra-cold Neutrons Stored in a Magneto-gravitational Trap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ezhov, V. F.; Andreev, A. Z.; Ban, G.; Bazarov, B. A.; Geltenbort, P.; Glushkov, A. G.; Knyazkov, V. A.; Kovrizhnykh, N. A.; Krygin, G. B.; Naviliat-Cuncic, O.; Ryabov, V. L.

2018-05-01

We report a measurement of the neutron lifetime using ultra-cold neutrons stored in a magneto-gravitational trap made of permanent magnets. Neutrons surviving in the trap after fixed storage times have been counted and the trap losses have continuously been monitored during storage by detecting neutrons leaking from the trap. The value of the neutron lifetime resulting from this measurement is τ n = (878.3 ± 1.6stat ± 1.0syst) s. A unique feature of this experiment is the monitoring of leaking neutrons providing a robust control of the main systematic loss.

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy mimics: role of cardiovascular magnetic resonance

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is commonly used in patients with suspected arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) based on ECG, echocardiogram and Holter. However, various diseases may present with clinical characteristics resembling ARVC causing diagnostic dilemmas. The aim of this study was to explore the role of CMR in the differential diagnosis of patients with suspected ARVC. Methods 657 CMR referrals suspicious for ARVC in a single tertiary referral centre were analysed. Standardized CMR imaging protocols for ARVC were performed. Potential ARVC mimics were grouped into: 1) displacement of the heart, 2) right ventricular overload, and 3) non ARVC-like cardiac scarring. For each, a judgment of clinical impact was made. Results Twenty patients (3.0%) fulfilled imaging ARVC criteria. Thirty (4.6%) had a potential ARVC mimic, of which 25 (3.8%) were considered clinically important: cardiac displacement (n=17), RV overload (n=7) and non-ARVC like myocardial scarring (n=4). One patient had two mimics; one patient had dual pathology with important mimic and ARVC. RV overload and scarring conditions were always thought clinically important whilst the importance of cardiac displacement depended on the degree of displacement from severe (partial absence of pericardium) to epiphenomenon (minor kyphoscoliosis). Conclusions Some patients referred for CMR with suspected ARVC fulfil ARVC imaging criteria (3%) but more have otherwise unrecognised diseases (4.6%) mimicking potentially ARVC. Clinical assessment should reflect this, emphasising the assessment and/or exclusion of potential mimics in parallel with the detection of ARVC major and minor criteria. PMID:23398958

MicroRNA-30c Mimic Mitigates Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis in Mice*

PubMed Central

Irani, Sara; Pan, Xiaoyue; Peck, Bailey C. E.; Iqbal, Jahangir; Sethupathy, Praveen; Hussain, M. Mahmood

2016-01-01

High plasma cholesterol levels are a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. Plasma cholesterol can be reduced by inhibiting lipoprotein production; however, this is associated with steatosis. Previously we showed that lentivirally mediated hepatic expression of microRNA-30c (miR-30c) reduced hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis in mice without causing hepatosteatosis. Because viral therapy would be formidable, we examined whether a miR-30c mimic can be used to mitigate hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis without inducing steatosis. Delivery of a miR-30c mimic to the liver diminished diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in C57BL/6J mice. Reductions in plasma cholesterol levels were significantly correlated with increases in hepatic miR-30c levels. Long term dose escalation studies showed that miR-30c mimic caused sustained reductions in plasma cholesterol with no obvious side effects. Furthermore, miR-30c mimic significantly reduced hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis in Apoe−/− mice. Mechanistic studies showed that miR-30c mimic had no effect on LDL clearance but reduced lipoprotein production by down-regulating microsomal triglyceride transfer protein expression. MiR-30c had no effect on fatty acid oxidation but reduced lipid synthesis. Additionally, whole transcriptome analysis revealed that miR-30c mimic significantly down-regulated hepatic lipid synthesis pathways. Therefore, miR-30c lowers plasma cholesterol and mitigates atherosclerosis by reducing microsomal triglyceride transfer protein expression and lipoprotein production and avoids steatosis by diminishing lipid syntheses. It mitigates atherosclerosis most likely by reducing lipoprotein production and plasma cholesterol. These findings establish that increasing hepatic miR-30c levels is a viable treatment option for reducing hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. PMID:27365390

Enhancement of ultracold molecule formation by local control in the nanosecond regime

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Carini, J. L.; Kallush, S.; Kosloff, R.

2015-02-01

We describe quantum simulations of ultracold 87Rb 2 molecule formation using photoassociation (PA) with nanosecond-time-scale pulses of frequency chirped light. In particular, we compare the case of a linear chirp to one where the frequency evolution is optimized by local control (LC) of the phase, and find that LC can provide a significant enhancement. The resulting optimal frequency evolution corresponds to a rapid jump from the PA absorption resonance to a downward transition to a bound level of the lowest triplet state. We also consider the case of two frequencies and investigate interference effects. The assumed chirp parameters should bemore » achievable with nanosecond pulse shaping techniques and are predicted to provide a significant enhancement over recent experiments with linear chirps.« less

Gas Debris Disks: A New Way to Produce Dust Patterns

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuchner, Marc J.

2012-01-01

Debris disks like those around Fomalhaut and Beta Pictoris show striking dust patterns often attributed to planets. But adding a bit of gas to our models of these disks--too little to detect-could alter this interpretation. Small amounts of gas lead to new dynamical instabilities that may mimic the narrow eccentric rings and other structures planets would create in a gas-free disk. rll discuss these phenomena and whether or not we can still use dust patterns as indicators of hidden exoplanets.

Itinerant ferromagnetism in an interacting Fermi gas with mass imbalance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

von Keyserlingk, C. W.; Conduit, G. J.

2011-05-01

We study the emergence of itinerant ferromagnetism in an ultracold atomic gas with a variable mass ratio between the up- and down-spin species. Mass imbalance breaks the SU(2) spin symmetry, leading to a modified Stoner criterion. We first elucidate the phase behavior in both the grand canonical and canonical ensembles. Second, we apply the formalism to a harmonic trap to demonstrate how a mass imbalance delivers unique experimental signatures of ferromagnetism. These could help future experiments to better identify the putative ferromagnetic state. Furthermore, we highlight how a mass imbalance suppresses the three-body loss processes that handicap the formation of a ferromagnetic state. Finally, we study the time-dependent formation of the ferromagnetic phase following a quench in the interaction strength.

MicroRNA-30c Mimic Mitigates Hypercholesterolemia and Atherosclerosis in Mice.

PubMed

Irani, Sara; Pan, Xiaoyue; Peck, Bailey C E; Iqbal, Jahangir; Sethupathy, Praveen; Hussain, M Mahmood

2016-08-26

High plasma cholesterol levels are a major risk factor for atherosclerosis. Plasma cholesterol can be reduced by inhibiting lipoprotein production; however, this is associated with steatosis. Previously we showed that lentivirally mediated hepatic expression of microRNA-30c (miR-30c) reduced hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis in mice without causing hepatosteatosis. Because viral therapy would be formidable, we examined whether a miR-30c mimic can be used to mitigate hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis without inducing steatosis. Delivery of a miR-30c mimic to the liver diminished diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in C57BL/6J mice. Reductions in plasma cholesterol levels were significantly correlated with increases in hepatic miR-30c levels. Long term dose escalation studies showed that miR-30c mimic caused sustained reductions in plasma cholesterol with no obvious side effects. Furthermore, miR-30c mimic significantly reduced hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis in Apoe(-/-) mice. Mechanistic studies showed that miR-30c mimic had no effect on LDL clearance but reduced lipoprotein production by down-regulating microsomal triglyceride transfer protein expression. MiR-30c had no effect on fatty acid oxidation but reduced lipid synthesis. Additionally, whole transcriptome analysis revealed that miR-30c mimic significantly down-regulated hepatic lipid synthesis pathways. Therefore, miR-30c lowers plasma cholesterol and mitigates atherosclerosis by reducing microsomal triglyceride transfer protein expression and lipoprotein production and avoids steatosis by diminishing lipid syntheses. It mitigates atherosclerosis most likely by reducing lipoprotein production and plasma cholesterol. These findings establish that increasing hepatic miR-30c levels is a viable treatment option for reducing hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis. © 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.

Heating of trapped ultracold atoms by collapse dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laloë, Franck; Mullin, William J.; Pearle, Philip

2014-11-01

The continuous spontaneous localization (CSL) theory alters the Schrödinger equation. It describes wave-function collapse as a dynamical process instead of an ill-defined postulate, thereby providing macroscopic uniqueness and solving the so-called measurement problem of standard quantum theory. CSL contains a parameter λ giving the collapse rate of an isolated nucleon in a superposition of two spatially separated states and, more generally, characterizing the collapse time for any physical situation. CSL is experimentally testable, since it predicts some behavior different from that predicted by standard quantum theory. One example is the narrowing of wave functions, which results in energy imparted to particles. Here we consider energy given to trapped ultracold atoms. Since these are the coldest samples under experimental investigation, it is worth inquiring how they are affected by the CSL heating mechanism. We examine the CSL heating of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in contact with its thermal cloud. Of course, other mechanisms also provide heat and also particle loss. From varied data on optically trapped cesium BECs, we present an energy audit for known heating and loss mechanisms. The result provides an upper limit on CSL heating and thereby an upper limit on the parameter λ . We obtain λ ≲1 (±1 ) ×10-7 s-1.

Manganese superoxide dismutase, MnSOD and its mimics.

PubMed

Miriyala, Sumitra; Spasojevic, Ivan; Tovmasyan, Artak; Salvemini, Daniela; Vujaskovic, Zeljko; St Clair, Daret; Batinic-Haberle, Ines

2012-05-01

Increased understanding of the role of mitochondria under physiological and pathological conditions parallels increased exploration of synthetic and natural compounds able to mimic MnSOD - endogenous mitochondrial antioxidant defense essential for the existence of virtually all aerobic organisms from bacteria to humans. This review describes most successful mitochondrially-targeted redox-active compounds, Mn porphyrins and MitoQ(10) in detail, and briefly addresses several other compounds that are either catalysts of O(2)(-) dismutation, or its non-catalytic scavengers, and that reportedly attenuate mitochondrial dysfunction. While not a true catalyst (SOD mimic) of O(2)(-) dismutation, MitoQ(10) oxidizes O(2)(-) to O(2) with a high rate constant. In vivo it is readily reduced to quinol, MitoQH(2), which in turn reduces ONOO(-) to NO(2), producing semiquinone radical that subsequently dismutes to MitoQ(10) and MitoQH(2), completing the "catalytic" cycle. In MitoQ(10), the redox-active unit was coupled via 10-carbon atom alkyl chain to monocationic triphenylphosphonium ion in order to reach the mitochondria. Mn porphyrin-based SOD mimics, however, were designed so that their multiple cationic charge and alkyl chains determine both their remarkable SOD potency and carry them into the mitochondria. Several animal efficacy studies such as skin carcinogenesis and UVB-mediated mtDNA damage, and subcellular distribution studies of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mouse heart provided unambiguous evidence that Mn porphyrins mimic the site and action of MnSOD, which in turn contributes to their efficacy in numerous in vitro and in vivo models of oxidative stress. Within a class of Mn porphyrins, lipophilic analogs are particularly effective for treating central nervous system injuries where mitochondria play key role. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Antioxidants and Antioxidant Treatment in Disease. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Mimics and chameleons in motor neurone disease

PubMed Central

Turner, Martin R; Talbot, Kevin

2013-01-01

The progression of motor neurone disease (MND) is currently irreversible, and the grave implications of diagnosis naturally fuels concern among neurologists over missing a potential mimic disorder. There is no diagnostic test for MND but in reality there are few plausible mimics in routine clinical practice. In the presence of a progressive pure motor disorder, signs such as florid fasciculations, bilateral tongue wasting, the ‘split hand’, head drop, emotionality, and cognitive or behavioural impairment carry high positive predictive value. MND is clinically heterogeneous, however, with some important chameleon-like presentations and considerable variation in clinical course. Lack of confidence about the scope of such variation, or an approach to diagnosis emphasising investigations over clinical common sense, has the potential to exacerbate diagnostic delay in MND and impede timely planning of the care which is essential to maximising quality of life. PMID:23616620

Superfluid Fermi atomic gas as a quantum simulator for the study of the neutron-star equation of state in the low-density region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Wyk, Pieter; Tajima, Hiroyuki; Inotani, Daisuke; Ohnishi, Akira; Ohashi, Yoji

2018-01-01

We propose a theoretical idea to use an ultracold Fermi gas as a quantum simulator for the study of the low-density region of a neutron-star interior. Our idea is different from the standard quantum simulator that heads for perfect replication of another system, such as the Hubbard model discussed in high-Tc cuprates. Instead, we use the similarity between two systems and theoretically make up for the difference between them. That is, (1) we first show that the strong-coupling theory developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink (NSR) can quantitatively explain the recent experiment on the equation of state (EoS) in a 6Li superfluid Fermi gas in the BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) unitary limit far below the superfluid phase-transition temperature Tc. This region is considered to be very similar to the low-density region (crust regime) of a neutron star (where a nearly unitary s -wave neutron superfluid is expected). (2) We then theoretically compensate the difference that, while the effective range reff is negligibly small in a superfluid 6Li Fermi gas, it cannot be ignored (reff=2.7 fm) in a neutron star, by extending the NSR theory to include effects of reff. The calculated EoS when reff=2.7 fm is shown to agree well with the previous neutron-star EoS in the low-density region predicted in nuclear physics. Our idea indicates that an ultracold atomic gas may more flexibly be used as a quantum simulator for the study of other complicated quantum many-body systems, when we use not only the experimental high tunability, but also the recent theoretical development in this field. Since it is difficult to directly observe a neutron-star interior, our idea would provide a useful approach to the exploration for this mysterious astronomical object.

Biological Mimics: A New Paradigm in the Detection of Toxic Compounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monty, Chelsea Nicole

2009-01-01

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new idea: using biological mimics in the detection of toxic compounds. Biological mimics imitate the active site of a given enzyme or have catalytic chemistry similar to enzymes and can be used in place of biological molecules to provide longer stability and simpler operation. In the following text the…

Ultrastable, Zerodur-based optical benches for quantum gas experiments.

PubMed

Duncker, Hannes; Hellmig, Ortwin; Wenzlawski, André; Grote, Alexander; Rafipoor, Amir Jones; Rafipoor, Mona; Sengstock, Klaus; Windpassinger, Patrick

2014-07-10

Operating ultracold quantum gas experiments outside of a laboratory environment has so far been a challenging goal, largely due to the lack of sufficiently stable optical systems. In order to increase the thermal stability of free-space laser systems, the application of nonstandard materials such as glass ceramics is required. Here, we report on Zerodur-based optical systems which include single-mode fiber couplers consisting of multiple components jointed by light-curing adhesives. The thermal stability is thoroughly investigated, revealing excellent fiber-coupling efficiencies between 0.85 and 0.92 in the temperature range from 17°C to 36°C. In conjunction with successfully performed vibration tests, these findings qualify our highly compact systems for atom interferometry experiments aboard a sounding rocket as well as various other quantum information and sensing applications.

Design and characterization of ebolavirus GP prehairpin intermediate mimics as drug targets

PubMed Central

Clinton, Tracy R; Weinstock, Matthew T; Jacobsen, Michael T; Szabo-Fresnais, Nicolas; Pandya, Maya J; Whitby, Frank G; Herbert, Andrew S; Prugar, Laura I; McKinnon, Rena; Hill, Christopher P; Welch, Brett D; Dye, John M; Eckert, Debra M; Kay, Michael S

2015-01-01

Ebolaviruses are highly lethal filoviruses that cause hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates. With no approved treatments or preventatives, the development of an anti-ebolavirus therapy to protect against natural infections and potential weaponization is an urgent global health need. Here, we describe the design, biophysical characterization, and validation of peptide mimics of the ebolavirus N-trimer, a highly conserved region of the GP2 fusion protein, to be used as targets to develop broad-spectrum inhibitors of ebolavirus entry. The N-trimer region of GP2 is 90% identical across all ebolavirus species and forms a critical part of the prehairpin intermediate that is exposed during viral entry. Specifically, we fused designed coiled coils to the N-trimer to present it as a soluble trimeric coiled coil as it appears during membrane fusion. Circular dichroism, sedimentation equilibrium, and X-ray crystallography analyses reveal the helical, trimeric structure of the designed N-trimer mimic targets. Surface plasmon resonance studies validate that the N-trimer mimic binds its native ligand, the C-peptide region of GP2. The longest N-trimer mimic also inhibits virus entry, thereby confirming binding of the C-peptide region during viral entry and the presence of a vulnerable prehairpin intermediate. Using phage display as a model system, we validate the suitability of the N-trimer mimics as drug screening targets. Finally, we describe the foundational work to use the N-trimer mimics as targets in mirror-image phage display, which will be used to identify d-peptide inhibitors of ebolavirus entry. PMID:25287718

Design and characterization of ebolavirus GP prehairpin intermediate mimics as drug targets.

PubMed

Clinton, Tracy R; Weinstock, Matthew T; Jacobsen, Michael T; Szabo-Fresnais, Nicolas; Pandya, Maya J; Whitby, Frank G; Herbert, Andrew S; Prugar, Laura I; McKinnon, Rena; Hill, Christopher P; Welch, Brett D; Dye, John M; Eckert, Debra M; Kay, Michael S

2015-04-01

Ebolaviruses are highly lethal filoviruses that cause hemorrhagic fever in humans and nonhuman primates. With no approved treatments or preventatives, the development of an anti-ebolavirus therapy to protect against natural infections and potential weaponization is an urgent global health need. Here, we describe the design, biophysical characterization, and validation of peptide mimics of the ebolavirus N-trimer, a highly conserved region of the GP2 fusion protein, to be used as targets to develop broad-spectrum inhibitors of ebolavirus entry. The N-trimer region of GP2 is 90% identical across all ebolavirus species and forms a critical part of the prehairpin intermediate that is exposed during viral entry. Specifically, we fused designed coiled coils to the N-trimer to present it as a soluble trimeric coiled coil as it appears during membrane fusion. Circular dichroism, sedimentation equilibrium, and X-ray crystallography analyses reveal the helical, trimeric structure of the designed N-trimer mimic targets. Surface plasmon resonance studies validate that the N-trimer mimic binds its native ligand, the C-peptide region of GP2. The longest N-trimer mimic also inhibits virus entry, thereby confirming binding of the C-peptide region during viral entry and the presence of a vulnerable prehairpin intermediate. Using phage display as a model system, we validate the suitability of the N-trimer mimics as drug screening targets. Finally, we describe the foundational work to use the N-trimer mimics as targets in mirror-image phage display, which will be used to identify D-peptide inhibitors of ebolavirus entry. © 2014 The Protein Society.

Prospects for quantum computing with an array of ultracold polar paramagnetic molecules.

PubMed

Karra, Mallikarjun; Sharma, Ketan; Friedrich, Bretislav; Kais, Sabre; Herschbach, Dudley

2016-03-07

Arrays of trapped ultracold molecules represent a promising platform for implementing a universal quantum computer. DeMille [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 067901 (2002)] has detailed a prototype design based on Stark states of polar (1)Σ molecules as qubits. Herein, we consider an array of polar (2)Σ molecules which are, in addition, inherently paramagnetic and whose Hund's case (b) free-rotor pair-eigenstates are Bell states. We show that by subjecting the array to combinations of concurrent homogeneous and inhomogeneous electric and magnetic fields, the entanglement of the array's Stark and Zeeman states can be tuned and the qubit sites addressed. Two schemes for implementing an optically controlled CNOT gate are proposed and their feasibility discussed in the face of the broadening of spectral lines due to dipole-dipole coupling and the inhomogeneity of the electric and magnetic fields.

Actinide Sputtering Induced by Fission with Ultra-cold Neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venuti, Michael; Shi, Tan; Fellers, Deion; Morris, Christopher; Makela, Mark

2017-09-01

Understanding the effects of actinide sputtering due to nuclear fission is important for a wide range of applications, including nuclear fuel storage, space science, and national defense. A new program at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center uses ultracold neutrons (UCN) to induce fission in actinides such as uranium and plutonium. By controlling the energy of UCN, it is possible to induce fission at the sample surface within a well-defined depth. It is therefore an ideal tool for studying the effects of fission-induced sputtering as a function of interaction depth. Since the mechanism for fission-induced surface damage is not well understood, especially for samples with a surface oxide layer, this work has the potential to separate the various damage mechanisms proposed in previous works. During the irradiation with UCN, fission events are monitored by coincidence counting between prompt gamma rays using NaI detectors. Alpha spectroscopy of the ejected actinide material is performed in a custom-built ionization chamber to determine the amount of sputtered material. Actinide samples with various sample properties and surface conditions are irradiated and analyzed. In this presentation, we will discuss our experimental setup and present the preliminary results.

Malware Mimics for Network Security Assessment

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

Master’s Thesis 4 . TITLE AND SUBTITLE Malware Mimics for Network Security Assessment 6. AUTHOR(S) Taff, William R and Salevski, Paul M. 5...Communication Protocol .......................41 viii 4 . Graphical User Interface for MM-Server .......43 C. BUILDING THE TEST PLATFORM...Extension ...............71 2. More Advanced Modules ........................72 3. Increase Scale of Test Bed ...................73 4 . Security

Momentum distribution functions in ensembles: the inequivalence of microcannonical and canonical ensembles in a finite ultracold system.

PubMed

Wang, Pei; Xianlong, Gao; Li, Haibin

2013-08-01

It is demonstrated in many thermodynamic textbooks that the equivalence of the different ensembles is achieved in the thermodynamic limit. In this present work we discuss the inequivalence of microcanonical and canonical ensembles in a finite ultracold system at low energies. We calculate the microcanonical momentum distribution function (MDF) in a system of identical fermions (bosons). We find that the microcanonical MDF deviates from the canonical one, which is the Fermi-Dirac (Bose-Einstein) function, in a finite system at low energies where the single-particle density of states and its inverse are finite.

Target mimics: an embedded layer of microRNA-involved gene regulatory networks in plants.

PubMed

Meng, Yijun; Shao, Chaogang; Wang, Huizhong; Jin, Yongfeng

2012-05-21

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an essential role in gene regulation in plants. At the same time, the expression of miRNA genes is also tightly controlled. Recently, a novel mechanism called "target mimicry" was discovered, providing another layer for modulating miRNA activities. However, except for the artificial target mimics manipulated for functional studies on certain miRNA genes, only one example, IPS1 (Induced by Phosphate Starvation 1)-miR399 was experimentally confirmed in planta. To date, few analyses for comprehensive identification of natural target mimics have been performed in plants. Thus, limited evidences are available to provide detailed information for interrogating the questionable issue whether target mimicry was widespread in planta, and implicated in certain biological processes. In this study, genome-wide computational prediction of endogenous miRNA mimics was performed in Arabidopsis and rice, and dozens of target mimics were identified. In contrast to a recent report, the densities of target mimic sites were found to be much higher within the untranslated regions (UTRs) when compared to those within the coding sequences (CDSs) in both plants. Some novel sequence characteristics were observed for the miRNAs that were potentially regulated by the target mimics. GO (Gene Ontology) term enrichment analysis revealed some functional insights into the predicted mimics. After degradome sequencing data-based identification of miRNA targets, the regulatory networks constituted by target mimics, miRNAs and their downstream targets were constructed, and some intriguing subnetworks were further exploited. These results together suggest that target mimicry may be widely implicated in regulating miRNA activities in planta, and we hope this study could expand the current understanding of miRNA-involved regulatory networks.

Self-Assembly of Multi-nanozymes to Mimic an Intracellular Antioxidant Defense System.

PubMed

Huang, Yanyan; Liu, Zhen; Liu, Chaoqun; Ju, Enguo; Zhang, Yan; Ren, Jinsong; Qu, Xiaogang

2016-06-01

In this work, for the first time, we constructed a novel multi-nanozymes cooperative platform to mimic intracellular antioxidant enzyme-based defense system. V2 O5 nanowire served as a glutathione peroxidase (GPx) mimic while MnO2 nanoparticle was used to mimic superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT). Dopamine was used as a linker to achieve the assembling of the nanomaterials. The obtained V2 O5 @pDA@MnO2 nanocomposite could serve as one multi-nanozyme model to mimic intracellular antioxidant enzyme-based defense procedure in which, for example SOD, CAT, and GPx co-participate. In addition, through assembling with dopamine, the hybrid nanocomposites provided synergistic antioxidative effect. Importantly, both in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrated that our biocompatible system exhibited excellent intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) removal ability to protect cell components against oxidative stress, showing its potential application in inflammation therapy. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Fast, High-Precision Optical Polarization Synthesizer for Ultracold-Atom Experiments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robens, Carsten; Brakhane, Stefan; Alt, Wolfgang; Meschede, Dieter; Zopes, Jonathan; Alberti, Andrea

2018-03-01

We present a technique for the precision synthesis of arbitrary polarization states of light with a high modulation bandwidth. Our approach consists of superimposing two laser light fields with the same wavelength, but with opposite circular polarizations, where the phase and the amplitude of each light field are individually controlled. We find that the polarization-synthesized beam reaches a degree of polarization of 99.99%, which is mainly limited by static spatial variations of the polarization state over the beam profile. We also find that the depolarization caused by temporal fluctuations of the polarization state is about 2 orders of magnitude smaller. In a recent work, Robens et al. [Low-Entropy States of Neutral Atoms in Polarization-Synthesized Optical Lattices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 065302 (2017), 10.1103/PhysRevLett.118.065302] demonstrated an application of the polarization synthesizer to create two independently controllable optical lattices which trap atoms depending on their internal spin state. We use ultracold atoms in polarization-synthesized optical lattices to give an independent, in situ demonstration of the performance of the polarization synthesizer.

Efficient photoassociation of ultracold cesium atoms with picosecond pulse laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hai, Yang; Hu, Xue-Jin; Li, Jing-Lun; Cong, Shu-Lin

2017-08-01

We investigate theoretically the formation of ultracold Cs2 molecules via photoassociation (PA) with three kinds of pulses (the Gaussian pulse, the asymmetric shaped laser pulse SL1 with a large rising time and a small falling time and the asymmetric shaped laser pulse SL2 with a small rising time and a large falling time). For the three kinds of pulses, the final population on vibrational levels from v‧ = 120 to 175 of the excited state displays a regular oscillation change with pulse width and interaction strength, and a high PA efficiency can be achieved with optimised parameters. The PA efficiency in the excited state steered by the SL1-pulse (SL2-pulse) train with optimised parameters which is composed of four SL1 (SL2) pulses is 1.74 times as much as that by the single SL1 (SL2) pulse due to the population accumulation effect. Moreover, a dump laser is employed to transfer the excited molecules from the excited state to the vibrational level v″ = 12 of the ground state to obtain stable molecules.

Development of novel miR-129 mimics with enhanced efficacy to eliminate chemoresistant colon cancer stem cells

PubMed Central

Ju, Jingfang

2018-01-01

Background Resistance to 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) based chemotherapy is the major reason for failure of treating patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Materials and methods In this study, we developed a novel miR-129 mimic with potent efficacy in eliminating resistant colon cancer stem cells both in vitro and in vivo. We integrated 5-FU into miR-129 by replacing Uracil (U) to generate 5-FU-miR-129 mimics (Mimic-1). Results Mimic-1 is a strong therapeutic candidate with a number of unique features. Mimic-1 can be delivered to cancer cells without any transfection reagents (e.g. lipids, viral vector, nanoparticles). Mimic-1 is more potent at inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing cell cycle arrest at G1 phase than native miR-129 and the other mimics tested, while retaining target specificity. Mimic-1 prevents colon cancer metastasis in vivo without toxicity. Conclusion This represents a significant advancement in the development of a nontoxic and highly potent miRNA based cancer therapeutics and establishes a foundation for further developing Mimic-1 as a novel anti-cancer therapeutic for treating colorectal cancer. PMID:29507661

Formation of ultracold molecules induced by a high-power single-frequency fiber laser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernandes Passagem, Henry; Colín-Rodríguez, Ricardo; Ventura da Silva, Paulo Cesar; Bouloufa-Maafa, Nadia; Dulieu, Olivier; Marcassa, Luis Gustavo

2017-02-01

The influence of a high-power single-frequency fiber laser on the formation of ultracold 85Rb2 molecules is investigated as a function of its frequency (in the 1062-1070 nm range) in a magneto-optical trap. We find evidence for the formation of ground-state 85Rb2 molecules in low vibrational levels (v≤slant 20) with a maximal rate of 104 s-1, induced by short-range photoassociation by the fiber laser followed by spontaneous emission. When this laser is used to set up a dipole trap, we measure an atomic loss rate at a wavelength far from the PA resonances, only four times smaller than that observed at a PA resonance wavelength. This work may have important consequences for atom trapping using lasers around the conventional 1064 nm wavelength.

Single-shot imaging of trapped Fermi gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gajda, Mariusz; Mostowski, Jan; Sowiński, Tomasz; Załuska-Kotur, Magdalena

2016-07-01

Recently developed techniques allow for simultaneous measurements of the positions of all ultra-cold atoms in a trap with high resolution. Each such single-shot experiment detects one element of the quantum ensemble formed by the cloud of atoms. Repeated single-shot measurements can be used to determine all correlations between particle positions as opposed to standard measurements that determine particle density or two-particle correlations only. In this paper we discuss the possible outcomes of such single-shot measurements in the case of cloud of ultra-cold noninteracting Fermi atoms. We show that the Pauli exclusion principle alone leads to correlations between particle positions that originate from unexpected spatial structures formed by the atoms.

Scaffold optimization in discontinuous epitope containing protein mimics of gp120 using smart libraries.

PubMed

Mulder, Gwenn E; Quarles van Ufford, H Linda C; van Ameijde, Jeroen; Brouwer, Arwin J; Kruijtzer, John A W; Liskamp, Rob M J

2013-04-28

A diversity of protein surface discontinuous epitope mimics is now rapidly and efficiently accessible. Despite the important role of protein-protein interactions involving discontinuous epitopes in a wide range of diseases, mimicry of discontinuous epitopes using peptide-based molecules remains a major challenge. Using copper(I) catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), we have developed a general and efficient method for the synthesis of collections of discontinuous epitope mimics. Up to three different cyclic peptides, representing discontinuous epitopes in HIV-gp120, were conjugated to a selection of scaffold molecules. Variation of the scaffold molecule, optimization of the ring size of the cyclic peptides and screening of the resulting libraries for successful protein mimics led to an HIV gp120 mimic with an IC50 value of 1.7 μM. The approach described here provides rapid and highly reproducible access to clean, smart libraries of very complex bio-molecular constructs representing protein mimics for use as synthetic vaccines and beyond.

Antibacterial Peptidomimetics: Polymeric Synthetic Mimics of Antimicrobial Peptides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lienkamp, Karen; Madkour, Ahmad E.; Tew, Gregory N.

Polymer-based peptidomimetics, or proteinomimetics, are a relatively young and dynamic field of research. The ability to successfully mimic the biochemical activity of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) has been demonstrated by several groups. This has been accomplished by careful tuning of the molecule's hydrophobicity and charge density. At the same time, many important questions remain to be answered, including the role of backbone rigidity, details of membrane insertion, and the role of curvature in the self-assemblies between these novel peptidemimetics and phospholipids. As the biological properties of polymeric synthetic mimics of AMPs (SMAMPs) result from the interplay of many parameters, it is not yet possible to predict the exact properties of such molecules from their mere chemical structure. However, as demonstrated here, the effect of certain design features such as charge and hydrophobicity on the properties across a polymer series is understood. Compared to the mechanistic specifics that are known about the interactions of AMPs or small antibacterial molecules with membranes and cells, relatively little is known concerning the interaction of polymeric SMAMPs with membranes. Beyond SMAMPs, numerous opportunities exist and protein transduction domain mimics are an active area of research in the Tew laboratory. These two examples, one quite new and the other studied for almost a decade, demonstrate that it is possible to teach synthetic polymers to behave like peptides, despite their lack of sequence specificity and secondary structure.

Superoxide Dismutase Mimics: Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Therapeutic Potential

PubMed Central

Rebouças, Júlio S.; Spasojević, Ivan

2010-01-01

Abstract Oxidative stress has become widely viewed as an underlying condition in a number of diseases, such as ischemia–reperfusion disorders, central nervous system disorders, cardiovascular conditions, cancer, and diabetes. Thus, natural and synthetic antioxidants have been actively sought. Superoxide dismutase is a first line of defense against oxidative stress under physiological and pathological conditions. Therefore, the development of therapeutics aimed at mimicking superoxide dismutase was a natural maneuver. Metalloporphyrins, as well as Mn cyclic polyamines, Mn salen derivatives and nitroxides were all originally developed as SOD mimics. The same thermodynamic and electrostatic properties that make them potent SOD mimics may allow them to reduce other reactive species such as peroxynitrite, peroxynitrite-derived CO3·−, peroxyl radical, and less efficiently H2O2. By doing so SOD mimics can decrease both primary and secondary oxidative events, the latter arising from the inhibition of cellular transcriptional activity. To better judge the therapeutic potential and the advantage of one over the other type of compound, comparative studies of different classes of drugs in the same cellular and/or animal models are needed. We here provide a comprehensive overview of the chemical properties and some in vivo effects observed with various classes of compounds with a special emphasis on porphyrin-based compounds. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 13, 877–918. PMID:20095865

Solitonic excitations in collisions of superfluid nuclei a qualitatively new phenomenon distinct from the Josephson effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sekizawa, Kazuyuki; Wlazłowski, Gabriel; Magierski, Piotr

2017-11-01

Recently, we have reported a novel role of pairing in low-energy heavy ion reactions at energies above the Coulomb barrier, which may have a detectable impact on reaction outcomes, such as the kinetic energy of fragments and the fusion cross section [arXiv:1611.10261, arXiv:1702.00069]. The phenomenon mimics the one studied experimentally with ultracold atomic gases, where two clouds of fermionic superfluids with different phases of the pairing fields are forced to merge, inducing various excitation modes of the pairing field. Although it originates from the phase difference of the pairing fields, the physics behind it is markedly different from the so-called Josephson effect. In this short contribution, we will briefly outline the results discussed in our recent papers and explain relations with the field of ultracold atomic gases.

Itinerant ferromagnetism in an interacting Fermi gas with mass imbalance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Keyserlingk, C. W. von; Conduit, G. J.; Physics Department, Ben Gurion University, Beer Sheva 84105

2011-05-15

We study the emergence of itinerant ferromagnetism in an ultracold atomic gas with a variable mass ratio between the up- and down-spin species. Mass imbalance breaks the SU(2) spin symmetry, leading to a modified Stoner criterion. We first elucidate the phase behavior in both the grand canonical and canonical ensembles. Second, we apply the formalism to a harmonic trap to demonstrate how a mass imbalance delivers unique experimental signatures of ferromagnetism. These could help future experiments to better identify the putative ferromagnetic state. Furthermore, we highlight how a mass imbalance suppresses the three-body loss processes that handicap the formation ofmore » a ferromagnetic state. Finally, we study the time-dependent formation of the ferromagnetic phase following a quench in the interaction strength.« less

Internal state control of a dense sample of ultracold 23Na87Rb molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Xin; Guo, Mingyang; He, Junyu; Wang, Dajun; Quemener, Goulven; Gonzalez-Martinez, Maykel; Dulieu, Oliver

2017-04-01

We report the optimized production of ultracold 23Na87Rb molecules with completely controlled population distribution among internal states. Starting from a sample of 104 weakly bound Feshbach molecules, we achieved a hyperfine-structure-resolved STIRAP transfer to the ground state with an efficiency up to 95%. By tuning the frequency difference between the Raman lasers and applying an additional microwave signal, we realized the preparation of NaRb samples in different vibrational, rotational, and hyperfine levels. Based on this achievement, some results on molecular collisions with a range of possible loss channels will also be reported. This work was supported by the French ANR/Hong Kong RGC COPOMOL project (Grant No. A-CUHK403/13), the RGC General Research Fund (Grant No. CUHK14301815).

The evolution of a Müllerian mimic in a spatially distributed community.

PubMed

Joron, Mathieu; Iwasa, Yoh

2005-11-07

Strong positive density-dependence should lead to a loss of diversity, but warning-colour and Müllerian mimicry systems show extraordinary levels of diversity. Here, we propose an analytical model to explore the dynamics of two forms of a Müllerian mimic in a heterogeneous environment with two alternative model species. Two connected populations of a dimorphic, chemically defended mimic are allowed to evolve and disperse. The proportions of the respective model species vary spatially. We use a nonlinear approximation of Müller's number-dependent equations to model a situation where the mortality for either form of the mimic decreases hyberbolically when its local density increases. A first non-spatial analysis confirms that the positive density-dependence makes coexistence of mimetic forms unstable in a single isolated patch, but shows that mimicry of the rarer model can be stable once established. The two-patch analysis shows that when models have different abundance in different places, local mimetic diversity in the mimic is maintained only if spatial heterogeneity is strong, or, more interestingly, if the mimic is not too strongly distasteful. Therefore, mildly toxic species can become polymorphic in a wider range of ecological settings. Spatial dynamics thus reveal a region of Müllerian polymorphism separating classical Batesian polymorphism and Müllerian monomorphism along the mimic's palatability spectrum. Such polymorphism-palatability relationship in a spatial environment provides a parsimonious hypothesis accounting for the observed Müllerian polymorphism that does not require quasi-Batesian dynamics. While the stability of coexistence depends on all factors, only the migration rate and strength of selection appear to affect the level of diversity at the polymorphic equilibrium. Local adaptation is predicted in most polymorphic cases. These results are in very good accordance with recent empirical findings on the polymorphic butterflies Heliconius

Forbidden 2P–nP and 2P–nF transitions in the energy spectrum of ultracold Rydberg lithium-7 atoms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zelener, B. B., E-mail: bobozel@mail.ru; Saakyan, S. A.; Sautenkov, V. A.

2016-04-15

Forbidden 2P–nP and 2P–nF transitions in the ranges of the principal quantum number n = 42–114 and n = 38–48 have been detected in the optical spectra of ultracold highly excited lithium-7 atoms. The presence of forbidden transitions is due to induced external electric fields. The quantum defects and ionization energy obtained in various experiments and predicted theoretically have been discussed.

Effects of distance from models on the fitness of floral mimics.

PubMed

Duffy, K J; Johnson, S D

2017-05-01

Rewardless plants can attract pollinators by mimicking floral traits of rewarding heterospecific plants. This should result in the pollination success of floral mimics being dependent on the relative abundance of their models, as pollinator abundance and conditioning on model signals should be higher in the vicinity of the models. However, the attraction of pollinators to signals of the models may be partially innate, such that spatial isolation of mimics from model species may not strongly affect pollination success of mimics. We tested whether pollination rates and fruit set of the rewardless orchid Disa pulchra were influenced by proximity and abundance of its rewarding model species, Watsonia lepida. Pollination success of the orchid increased with proximity to the model species, while fruit set of the orchid increased with local abundance of the model species. Orchids that were experimentally translocated outside the model population experienced reduced pollinaria removal and increased pollinator-mediated self-pollination. These results confirm predictions that the pollination success of floral mimics should be dependent on the proximity and abundance of model taxa, and thus highlight the importance of ecological facilitation among species involved in mimicry systems. © 2017 German Botanical Society and The Royal Botanical Society of the Netherlands.

Enzyme-Triggered Defined Protein Nanoarrays: Efficient Light-Harvesting Systems to Mimic Chloroplasts.

PubMed

Zhao, Linlu; Zou, Haoyang; Zhang, Hao; Sun, Hongcheng; Wang, Tingting; Pan, Tiezheng; Li, Xiumei; Bai, Yushi; Qiao, Shanpeng; Luo, Quan; Xu, Jiayun; Hou, Chunxi; Liu, Junqiu

2017-01-24

The elegance and efficiency by which chloroplasts harvest solar energy and conduct energy transfer have been a source of inspiration for chemists to mimic such process. However, precise manipulation to obtain orderly arranged antenna chromophores in constructing artificial chloroplast mimics was a great challenge, especially from the structural similarity and bioaffinity standpoints. Here we reported a design strategy that combined covalent and noncovalent interactions to prepare a protein-based light-harvesting system to mimic chloroplasts. Cricoid stable protein one (SP1) was utilized as a building block model. Under enzyme-triggered covalent protein assembly, mutant SP1 with tyrosine (Tyr) residues at the designated sites can couple together to form nanostructures. Through controlling the Tyr sites on the protein surface, we can manipulate the assembly orientation to respectively generate 1D nanotubes and 2D nanosheets. The excellent stability endowed the self-assembled protein architectures with promising applications. We further integrated quantum dots (QDs) possessing optical and electronic properties with the 2D nanosheets to fabricate chloroplast mimics. By attaching different sized QDs as donor and acceptor chromophores to the negatively charged surface of SP1-based protein nanosheets via electrostatic interactions, we successfully developed an artificial light-harvesting system. The assembled protein nanosheets structurally resembled the natural thylakoids, and the QDs can achieve pronounced FRET phenomenon just like the chlorophylls. Therefore, the coassembled system was meaningful to explore the photosynthetic process in vitro, as it was designed to mimic the natural chloroplast.

Universality and Quantum Criticality of the One-Dimensional Spinor Bose Gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

PâÅ£u, Ovidiu I.; Klümper, Andreas; Foerster, Angela

2018-06-01

We investigate the universal thermodynamics of the two-component one-dimensional Bose gas with contact interactions in the vicinity of the quantum critical point separating the vacuum and the ferromagnetic liquid regime. We find that the quantum critical region belongs to the universality class of the spin-degenerate impenetrable particle gas which, surprisingly, is very different from the single-component case and identify its boundaries with the peaks of the specific heat. In addition, we show that the compressibility Wilson ratio, which quantifies the relative strength of thermal and quantum fluctuations, serves as a good discriminator of the quantum regimes near the quantum critical point. Remarkably, in the Tonks-Girardeau regime, the universal contact develops a pronounced minimum, reflected in a counterintuitive narrowing of the momentum distribution as we increase the temperature. This momentum reconstruction, also present at low and intermediate momenta, signals the transition from the ferromagnetic to the spin-incoherent Luttinger liquid phase and can be detected in current experiments with ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices.

Actinide Sputtering Induced by Fission with Ultra-cold Neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Tan; Venuti, Michael; Fellers, Deion; Martin, Sean; Morris, Chris; Makela, Mark

2017-09-01

Understanding the effects of actinide sputtering due to nuclear fission is important for a wide range of applications, including nuclear fuel storage, space science, and national defense. A new program at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center uses ultracold neutrons (UCN) to induce fission in actinides such as uranium and plutonium. By controlling the UCN energy, it is possible to induce fission at the sample surface within a well-defined depth. It is therefore an ideal tool for studying the effects of fission-induced sputtering as a function of interaction depth. Since the mechanism for fission-induced surface damage is not well understood, this work has the potential to deconvolve the various damage mechanisms. During the irradiation with UCN, NaI detectors are used to monitor the fission events and were calibrated by monitoring fission fragments with an organic scintillator. Alpha spectroscopy of the ejected actinide material is performed in an ion chamber to determine the amount of sputtered material. Actinide samples with various sample properties and surface conditions are irradiated and analyzed. In this talk, I will discuss our experimental setup and present the preliminary results from the testing of multiple samples. This work has been supported by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Seaborg Summer Research Fellowship.

Localized Magnetic Moments with Tunable Spin Exchange in a Gas of Ultracold Fermions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Riegger, L.; Darkwah Oppong, N.; Höfer, M.; Fernandes, D. R.; Bloch, I.; Fölling, S.

2018-04-01

We report on the experimental realization of a state-dependent lattice for a two-orbital fermionic quantum gas with strong interorbital spin exchange. In our state-dependent lattice, the ground and metastable excited electronic states of 173Yb take the roles of itinerant and localized magnetic moments, respectively. Repulsive on-site interactions in conjunction with the tunnel mobility lead to spin exchange between mobile and localized particles, modeling the coupling term in the well-known Kondo Hamiltonian. In addition, we find that this exchange process can be tuned resonantly by varying the on-site confinement. We attribute this to a resonant coupling to center-of-mass excited bound states of one interorbital scattering channel.

MiMIC: a highly versatile transposon insertion resource for engineering Drosophila melanogaster genes

PubMed Central

Venken, Koen J. T.; Schulze, Karen L.; Haelterman, Nele A.; Pan, Hongling; He, Yuchun; Evans-Holm, Martha; Carlson, Joseph W.; Levis, Robert W.; Spradling, Allan C.; Hoskins, Roger A.; Bellen, Hugo J.

2011-01-01

We demonstrate the versatility of a collection of insertions of the transposon Minos mediated integration cassette (MiMIC), in Drosophila melanogaster. MiMIC contains a gene-trap cassette and the yellow+ marker flanked by two inverted bacteriophage ΦC31 attP sites. MiMIC integrates almost at random in the genome to create sites for DNA manipulation. The attP sites allow the replacement of the intervening sequence of the transposon with any other sequence through recombinase mediated cassette exchange (RMCE). We can revert insertions that function as gene traps and cause mutant phenotypes to wild type by RMCE and modify insertions to control GAL4 or QF overexpression systems or perform lineage analysis using the Flp system. Insertions within coding introns can be exchanged with protein-tag cassettes to create fusion proteins to follow protein expression and perform biochemical experiments. The applications of MiMIC vastly extend the Drosophila melanogaster toolkit. PMID:21985007

The ability of lizards to identify an artificial Batesian mimic.

PubMed

Beneš, Josef; Veselý, Petr

2017-08-01

Birds are usually considered the main predators shaping the evolution of aposematic signals and mimicry. Nevertheless, some lizards also represent predominately visually oriented predators, so they may also play an important role in the evolution of aposematism. Despite this fact, experimental evidence regarding the responses of lizards to aposematic prey is very poor compared to such evidence in birds. Lizards possess very similar sensory and cognitive abilities to those of birds and their response to aposematic prey may thus be affected by very similar processes. We investigated the reactions of a lizard, the Gran Canaria skink (Chalcides sexlineatus), to an aposematic prey and its artificial Batesian mimic. Further, we attempted to ascertain whether the lizard's food experience has any effect on its ability to recognise an artificial Batesian mimic, by using two groups of predators differing in their prior experience with the prey from which the mimic was fabricated. The red firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus) was used as an aposematic model, and the Guyana spotted roach (Blaptica dubia) as the palatable prey from which the mimic was fabricated. The appearance of the roach was modified by a paper sticker placed on its back. The skinks showed a strong aversion towards the model firebug. They also avoided attacking the cockroaches with the firebug pattern sticker. This suggests that a visual rather than a chemical signal is responsible for this aversion. The protection provided by the firebug sticker was even effective when the skinks were familiar with unmodified cockroaches (previous food experience). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Interaction quenched ultracold few-boson ensembles in periodically driven lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistakidis, Simeon; Schmelcher, Peter; Theory Group of Fundamental Processes in Quantum Physics Team

2017-04-01

The out-of-equilibrium dynamics of interaction quenched finite ultracold bosonic ensembles in periodically driven one-dimensional optical lattices is investigated. It is shown that periodic driving enforces the bosons in the outer wells of the finite lattice to exhibit out-of-phase dipole-like modes, while in the central well the atomic cloud experiences a local breathing mode. The dynamical behavior is investigated with varying driving frequency, revealing a resonant-like behavior of the intra-well dynamics. An interaction quench in the periodically driven lattice gives rise to admixtures of different excitations in the outer wells, an enhanced breathing in the center and an amplification of the tunneling dynamics. We observe then multiple resonances between the inter- and intra-well dynamics at different quench amplitudes, with the position of the resonances being tunable via the driving frequency. Our results pave the way for future investigations on the use of combined driving protocols in order to excite different inter- and intra-well modes and to subsequently control them. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the SFB 925 ``Light induced dynamics and control of correlated quantum systems''.

Cylindrical and spherical Akhmediev breather and freak waves in ultracold neutral plasmas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Tantawy, S. A.; El-Awady, E. I.

2018-01-01

The properties of cylindrical and spherical ion-acoustic breathers Akhmediev breather and freak waves in strongly coupled ultracold neutral plasmas (UNPs), whose constituents are inertial strongly coupled ions and weakly coupled Maxwellian electrons, are investigated numerically. Using the derivative expansion method, the basic set of fluid equations is reduced to a nonplanar (cylindrical and spherical)/modified nonlinear Schrödinger equation (mNLSE). The analytical solutions of the mNLSE were not possible until now, so their numerical solutions are obtained using the finite difference scheme with the help of the Dirichlet boundary conditions. Moreover, the criteria for the existence and propagation of breathers are discussed in detail. The geometrical effects due to the cylindrical and spherical geometries on the breather profile are studied numerically. It is found that the propagation of the ion-acoustic breathers in one-dimensional planar and nonplanar geometries is very different. Finally, our results may help to manipulate matter breathers experimentally in UNPs.

Observation of topological states in an optical Raman lattice with ultracold fermions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Bo; He, Chengdong; Zhang, Long; Poon, Ting Fung Jeffrey; Hajiyev, Elnur; Ren, Zejian; Seo, Bojeong; Zhang, Shanchao; Liu, Xiong-Jun; Jo, Gyu-Boong

2017-04-01

The spin-orbit coupling with cold atoms, especially in optical lattices, provides a versatile platform to investigate the intriguing topological matters. In this talk, we will present the realization of one-dimensional spin-dependent lattice dressed by the periodic Raman field. Ultracold 173Yb fermions loaded into an optical Raman lattice reveal non-trivial spin textures due to the band topology, by which we measured topological invariants and determined a topological phase transition. In addition, we explored the non-equilibrium quench dynamics between the topological and the trivial states by suddenly changing the band topology of the optical Raman lattice. The optical Raman lattice demonstrated here opens a new avenue to study the spin-orbit coupling physics and furthermore to realize novel quantum matters such as symmetry-protected topological states. Funded by Croucher Foundation and Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong (Project ECS26300014, GRF16300215, GRF16311516, and Croucher Innovation Grants); MOST (Grant No. 2016YFA0301604) and NSFC (No. 11574008).

Faraday spectroscopy of ultracold atoms guided in hollow core optical fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fatemi, Fredrik; Pechkis, Joseph

2013-05-01

We have performed spatially and temporally resolved magnetometry using Faraday spectroscopy of ultracold rubidium atoms confined in hollow core optical fibers. We first guide 105 Rb atoms into a 3-cm-long, 100-micron-core hollow fiber using blue-detuned hollow waveguide modes. Inside the fiber, the atoms are exposed to an optical pumping pulse, and the Larmor precession is monitored by the polarization rotation of a probe laser beam detuned by 50 GHz. The intense guide beams can perturb the detected Larmor precession frequencies, but we show that by confining the atoms to the intensity null of higher order blue-detuned hollow modes, these perturbations are reduced by over 95% compared to red-detuned guides. By adjusting the guide beam detuning and polarization, the deleterious effects of both photon scattering and frequency shifts can be suppressed such that multiple magnetic field measurements with sensitivity of 30 nT per sampling pulse can be obtained throughout the length of the fiber in a single loading cycle. Work supported by ONR and DARPA.

Observation of Resonant Effects in Ultracold Collisions between Heteronuclear Feshbach Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Xin; Wang, Fudong; Zhu, Bing; Guo, Mingyang; Lu, Bo; Wang, Dajun

2016-05-01

Magnetic field dependent dimer-dimer collisional losses are studied with ultracold 23 Na87 Rb Feshbach molecules. By ramping the magnetic field across the 347.8 G inter-species Feshbach resonance and removing residual atoms with a magnetic field gradient, ~ 8000 pure NaRb Feshbach molecules with a temperature below 1 μK are produced. By holding the pure molecule sample in a crossed optical dipole trap and measuring the time-dependent loss curves under different magnetic fields near the Feshbach resonance, the dimer-dimer loss rates with respect to the atomic scattering length a are mapped out. We observe a resonant feature at around a = 600a0 and a rising tail at above a = 1600a0 . This behavior resembles previous theoretical works on homonuclear Feshbach molecule, where resonant effects between dimer-dimer collisions tied to tetramer bound states were predicted. Our work shows the possibility of exploring four-body physics within a heteronuclear system. We are supported by Hong Kong RGC General Research Fund no. CUHK403813.

Testing Measurement Invariance Using MIMIC: Likelihood Ratio Test with a Critical Value Adjustment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Eun Sook; Yoon, Myeongsun; Lee, Taehun

2012-01-01

Multiple-indicators multiple-causes (MIMIC) modeling is often used to test a latent group mean difference while assuming the equivalence of factor loadings and intercepts over groups. However, this study demonstrated that MIMIC was insensitive to the presence of factor loading noninvariance, which implies that factor loading invariance should be…

Extensive preclinical investigation of polymersomal formulation of doxorubicin versus Doxil-mimic formulation.

PubMed

Alibolandi, Mona; Abnous, Khalil; Mohammadi, Marzieh; Hadizadeh, Farzin; Sadeghi, Fatemeh; Taghavi, Sahar; Jaafari, Mahmoud Reza; Ramezani, Mohammad

2017-10-28

Due to the severe cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin, its usage is limited. This shortcoming could be overcome by modifying pharmacokinetics of the drugs via preparation of various nanoplatforms. Doxil, a well-known FDA-approved nanoplatform of doxorubicin as antineoplastic agent, is frequently used in clinics in order to reduce cardiotoxicity of doxorubicin. Since Doxil shows some shortcomings in clinics including hand and food syndrome and very slow release pattern thus, there is a demand for the development and preparation of new doxorubicin nanoformulation with fewer side effects. The new formulation of the doxorubicin, synthesized previously by our group was extensively examined in the current study. This new formulation is doxorubicin encapsulated in PEG-PLGA polymersomes (PolyDOX). The main aim of the study was to compare the distribution and treatment efficacy of a new doxorubicin-polymersomal formulation (PolyDOX) with regular liposomal formulation (Doxil-mimic) in murine colon adenocarcinoma model. Additionally, the pathological, hematological changes, pharmacodynamics, biodistribution, tolerated dose and survival rate in vivo were evaluated and compared. Murine colon cancer model was induced by subcutaneous inoculation of BALB/c mice with C26 cells. Afterwards, either Doxil-mimic or PolyDOX was administered intravenously. The obtained results from biodistribution study showed a remarkable difference in the distribution of drugs in murine organs. In this regard, Doxil-mimic exhibited prolonged (48h) presence within liver tissues while PolyDOX preferentially accumulate in tumor and the presence in liver 48h post-treatment was significantly lower than that of Doxil-mimic. Obtained results demonstrated comparable final length of life for mice receiving either Doxil-mimic or PolyDOX formulations whereas tolerated dose of mice receiving Doxil-mimic was remarkably higher than those receiving PolyDOX. Therapeutic efficacy of formulation in term of tumor growth rate

Shape-based approach for the estimation of individual facial mimics in craniofacial surgery planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gladilin, Evgeny; Zachow, Stefan; Deuflhard, Peter; Hege, Hans-Christian

2002-05-01

Besides the static soft tissue prediction, the estimation of basic facial emotion expressions is another important criterion for the evaluation of craniofacial surgery planning. For a realistic simulation of facial mimics, an adequate biomechanical model of soft tissue including the mimic musculature is needed. In this work, we present an approach for the modeling of arbitrarily shaped muscles and the estimation of basic individual facial mimics, which is based on the geometrical model derived from the individual tomographic data and the general finite element modeling of soft tissue biomechanics.

Realization of the manipulation of ultracold atoms with a reconfigurable nanomagnetic system of domain walls.

PubMed

West, Adam D; Weatherill, Kevin J; Hayward, Thomas J; Fry, Paul W; Schrefl, Thomas; Gibbs, Mike R J; Adams, Charles S; Allwood, Dan A; Hughes, Ifan G

2012-08-08

Planar magnetic nanowires have been vital to the development of spintronic technology. They provide an unparalleled combination of magnetic reconfigurability, controllability, and scalability, which has helped to realize such applications as racetrack memory and novel logic gates. Microfabricated atom optics benefit from all of these properties, and we present the first demonstration of the amalgamation of spintronic technology with ultracold atoms. A magnetic interaction is exhibited through the reflection of a cloud of (87)Rb atoms at a temperature of 10 μK, from a 2 mm × 2 mm array of nanomagnetic domain walls. In turn, the incident atoms approach the array at heights of the order of 100 nm and are thus used to probe magnetic fields at this distance.

Characterization and mapping of complementary lesion-mimic genes lm1 and lm2 in common wheat.

PubMed

Yao, Qin; Zhou, Ronghua; Fu, Tihua; Wu, Weiren; Zhu, Zhendong; Li, Aili; Jia, Jizeng

2009-10-01

A lesion-mimic phenotype appeared in a segregating population of common wheat cross Yanzhan 1/Zaosui 30. The parents had non-lesion normal phenotypes. Shading treatment and histochemical analyses showed that the lesions were caused by light-dependent cell death and were not associated with pathogens. Studies over two cropping seasons showed that some lines with more highly expressed lesion-mimic phenotypes exhibited significantly lower grain yields than those with the normal phenotype, but there were no significant effects in the lines with weakly expressed lesion-mimic phenotypes. Among yield traits, one-thousand grain weight was the most affected by lesion-mimic phenotypes. Genetic analysis indicated that this was a novel type of lesion mimic, which was caused by interaction of recessive genes derived from each parent. The lm1 (lesion mimic 1) locus from Zaosui 30 was flanked by microsatellite markers Xwmc674 and Xbarc133/Xbarc147 on chromosome 3BS, at genetic distances of 1.2 and 3.8 cM, respectively, whereas lm2 from Yanzhan 1 was mapped between microsatellite markers Xgwm513 and Xksum154 on chromosome 4BL, at genetic distances of 1.5 and 3 cM, respectively. The linked microsatellite makers identified in this study might be useful for evaluating whether potential parents with normal phenotype are carriers of lesion-mimic alleles.

Antimicrobial Effects of Novel Triple Antibiotic Paste-Mimic Scaffolds on Actinomyces naeslundii Biofilm.

PubMed

Albuquerque, Maria T P; Ryan, Stuart J; Münchow, Eliseu A; Kamocka, Maria M; Gregory, Richard L; Valera, Marcia C; Bottino, Marco C

2015-08-01

Actinomyces naeslundii has been recovered from traumatized permanent teeth diagnosed with necrotic pulps. In this work, a triple antibiotic paste (TAP)-mimic scaffold is proposed as a drug-delivery strategy to eliminate A. naeslundii dentin biofilm. Metronidazole, ciprofloxacin, and minocycline were added to a polydioxanone (PDS) polymer solution and spun into fibrous scaffolds. Fiber morphology, mechanical properties, and drug release were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy, microtensile testing, and high-performance liquid chromatography, respectively. Human dentin specimens (4 × 4 × 1 mm(3), n = 4/group) were inoculated with A. naeslundii (ATCC 43146) for 7 days for biofilm formation. The infected dentin specimens were exposed to TAP-mimic scaffolds, TAP solution (positive control), and pure PDS (drug-free scaffold). Dentin infected (7-day biofilm) specimens were used for comparison (negative control). Confocal laser scanning microscopy was done to determine bacterial viability. Scaffolds displayed a submicron mean fiber diameter (PDS = 689 ± 312 nm and TAP-mimic = 718 ± 125 nm). Overall, TAP-mimic scaffolds showed significantly (P ≤ .040) lower mechanical properties than PDS. Within the first 24 hours, a burst release for all drugs was seen. A sustained maintenance of metronidazole and ciprofloxacin was observed over 4 weeks, but not for minocycline. Confocal laser scanning microscopy demonstrated complete elimination of all viable bacteria exposed to the TAP solution. Meanwhile, TAP-mimic scaffolds led to a significant (P < .05) reduction in the percentage of viable bacteria compared with the negative control and PDS. Our findings suggest that TAP-mimic scaffolds hold significant potential in the eradication/elimination of bacterial biofilm, a critical step in regenerative endodontics. Copyright © 2015 American Association of Endodontists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

MIMIC II: a massive temporal ICU patient database to support research in intelligent patient monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saeed, M.; Lieu, C.; Raber, G.; Mark, R. G.

2002-01-01

Development and evaluation of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) decision-support systems would be greatly facilitated by the availability of a large-scale ICU patient database. Following our previous efforts with the MIMIC (Multi-parameter Intelligent Monitoring for Intensive Care) Database, we have leveraged advances in networking and storage technologies to develop a far more massive temporal database, MIMIC II. MIMIC II is an ongoing effort: data is continuously and prospectively archived from all ICU patients in our hospital. MIMIC II now consists of over 800 ICU patient records including over 120 gigabytes of data and is growing. A customized archiving system was used to store continuously up to four waveforms and 30 different parameters from ICU patient monitors. An integrated user-friendly relational database was developed for browsing of patients' clinical information (lab results, fluid balance, medications, nurses' progress notes). Based upon its unprecedented size and scope, MIMIC II will prove to be an important resource for intelligent patient monitoring research, and will support efforts in medical data mining and knowledge-discovery.

An approach to spin-resolved molecular gas microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Covey, Jacob P.; De Marco, Luigi; Acevedo, Óscar L.; Rey, Ana Maria; Ye, Jun

2018-04-01

Ultracold polar molecules are an ideal platform for studying many-body physics with long-range dipolar interactions. Experiments in this field have progressed enormously, and several groups are pursuing advanced apparatus for manipulation of molecules with electric fields as well as single-atom-resolved in situ detection. Such detection has become ubiquitous for atoms in optical lattices and tweezer arrays, but has yet to be demonstrated for ultracold polar molecules. Here we present a proposal for the implementation of site-resolved microscopy for polar molecules, and specifically discuss a technique for spin-resolved molecular detection. We use numerical simulation of spin dynamics of lattice-confined polar molecules to show how such a scheme would be of utility in a spin-diffusion experiment.

Touch the Page and Mimic Me: Evaluation of a Talking-Pen Learning Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Odakura, Abigail

2013-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the talking-pen device called the Mimic Me, an educational technology product of a large English conversation school in Japan, as an educational learning tool. The product will be reviewed in terms of its developmental appropriateness for the target audience based on current research. Although the Mimic Me…

Explosives mimic for testing, training, and monitoring

DOEpatents

Reynolds, John G.; Durban, Matthew M.; Gash, Alexander E.; Grapes, Michael D.; Kelley, Ryan S.; Sullivan, Kyle T.

2018-02-13

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is used to make mimics for explosives. The process uses mixtures of explosives and matrices commonly used in AM. The explosives are formulated into a mixture with the matrix and printed using AM techniques and equipment. The explosive concentrations are kept less than 10% by wt. of the mixture to conform to requirements of shipping and handling.

Specific heat and effects of strong pairing fluctuations in a superfluid Fermi atom gas in the BCS-BEC crossover region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Wyk, Pieter; Inotani, Daisuke; Ohashi, Yoji

2018-03-01

We theoretically investigate the specific heat at constant volume C V in the BCS(Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC(Bose-Einstein-condensation)-crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas, below the superfluid phase transition temperature T c. Within the strong-coupling framework developed by Nozières and Schmitt-Rink, we show that the temperature dependence of C V drastically changes as one passes through the crossover region, and is sensitive to strong fluctuations in the Cooper channel near the unitarity limit. We also compare our results to a recent experiment on a 6Li unitary Fermi gas. Since fluctuation effects are a crucial key in the BCS-BEC-crossover phenomenon, our results would be helpful in considering how the fermionic BCS superfluid changes into BEC with increasing the interaction strength, from the viewpoint of specific heat.

Site-Resolved Imaging with the Fermi Gas Microscope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huber, Florian Gerhard

The recent development of quantum gas microscopy for bosonic rubidium atoms trapped in optical lattices has made it possible to study local structure and correlations in quantum many-body systems. Quantum gas microscopes are a perfect platform to perform quantum simulation of condensed matter systems, offering unprecedented control over both internal and external degrees of freedom at a single-site level. In this thesis, this technique is extended to fermionic particles, paving the way to fermionic quantum simulation, which emulate electrons in real solids. Our implementation uses lithium, the lightest atom amenable to laser cooling. The absolute timescales of dynamics in optical lattices are inversely proportional to the mass. Therefore, experiments are more than six times faster than for the only other fermionic alkali atom, potassium, and more then fourteen times faster than an equivalent rubidium experiment. Scattering and collecting a sufficient number of photons with our high-resolution imaging system requires continuous cooling of the atoms during the fluorescence imaging. The lack of a resolved excited hyperfine structure on the D2 line of lithium prevents efficient conventional sub-Doppler cooling. To address this challenge we have applied a Raman sideband cooling scheme and achieved the first site-resolved imaging of ultracold fermions in an optical lattice.

Structural and dynamical properties of recombining ultracold neutral plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tiwari, Sanat Kumar; Shaffer, Nathaniel R.; Baalrud, Scott D.

2017-10-01

An ultracold plasma (UCP) is an evolving collection of free charges and bound charges (Rydberg atoms). Over time, bound species concentration increases due to recombination. We present the structural and dynamical properties of an evolving UCP using classical molecular dynamics simulation. Coulomb collapse is avoided using a repulsive core with the attractive Coulomb potential. The repulsive core size controls the concentration of bound states, as it determines the depth of the potential well between opposite charges. We vary the repulsive core size to emulate the quasi-static state of plasma at different time during the evolution. Binary, chain and ring-like bound states are observed in the simulation carried out at different coupling strengths and repulsive core size. The effect of bound states can be seen as molecular peaks in the radial distribution function (RDF). The thermodynamic properties associated with the free charges can be analyzed from RDF by separating free from bound states. These bound states also change the dynamical properties of the plasma. The electron velocity auto-correlation displays oscillations due to the orbital motion in bound states. These bound states act like a neutral species, damping electron plasmon modes and broadening the ion acoustic mode. This work is supported by AFOSR Grant Number FA9550-16-1-0221. It used computational resources by XSEDE, which is supported by NSF Grant Number ACI-1053575.

MOCVD process technology for affordable, high-yield, high-performance MESFET structures. Phase 3: MIMIC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1993-01-01

Under the MIMIC Program, Spire has pursued improvements in the manufacturing of low cost, high quality gallium arsenide MOCVD wafers for advanced MIMIC FET applications. As a demonstration of such improvements, Spire was tasked to supply MOCVD wafers for comparison to MBE wafers in the fabrication of millimeter and microwave integrated circuits. In this, the final technical report for Spire's two-year MIMIC contract, we report the results of our work. The main objectives of Spire's MIMIC Phase 3 Program, as outlined in the Statement of Work, were as follows: Optimize the MOCVD growth conditions for the best possible electrical and morphological gallium arsenide. Optimization should include substrate and source qualification as well as determination of the optimum reactor growth conditions; Perform all work on 75 millimeter diameter wafers, using a reactor capable of at least three wafers per run; and Evaluate epitaxial layers using electrical, optical, and morphological tests to obtain thickness, carrier concentration, and mobility data across wafers.

Negative-Mass Instability of the Spin and Motion of an Atomic Gas Driven by Optical Cavity Backaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Jonathan; Gerber, Justin A.; Dowd, Emma; Stamper-Kurn, Dan M.

2018-01-01

We realize a spin-orbit interaction between the collective spin precession and center-of-mass motion of a trapped ultracold atomic gas, mediated by spin- and position-dependent dispersive coupling to a driven optical cavity. The collective spin, precessing near its highest-energy state in an applied magnetic field, can be approximated as a negative-mass harmonic oscillator. When the Larmor precession and mechanical motion are nearly resonant, cavity mediated coupling leads to a negative-mass instability, driving exponential growth of a correlated mode of the hybrid system. We observe this growth imprinted on modulations of the cavity field and estimate the full covariance of the resulting two-mode state by observing its transient decay during subsequent free evolution.

Simple Biological Systems for Assessing the Activity of Superoxide Dismutase Mimics

PubMed Central

Tovmasyan, Artak; Reboucas, Julio S.

2014-01-01

Abstract Significance: Half a century of research provided unambiguous proof that superoxide and species derived from it—reactive oxygen species (ROS)—play a central role in many diseases and degenerative processes. This stimulated the search for pharmaceutical agents that are capable of preventing oxidative damage, and methods of assessing their therapeutic potential. Recent Advances: The limitations of superoxide dismutase (SOD) as a therapeutic tool directed attention to small molecules, SOD mimics, that are capable of catalytically scavenging superoxide. Several groups of compounds, based on either metal complexes, including metalloporphyrins, metallocorroles, Mn(II) cyclic polyamines, and Mn(III) salen derivatives, or non-metal based compounds, such as fullerenes, nitrones, and nitroxides, have been developed and studied in vitro and in vivo. Very few entered clinical trials. Critical Issues and Future Directions: Development of SOD mimics requires in-depth understanding of their mechanisms of biological action. Elucidation of both molecular features, essential for efficient ROS-scavenging in vivo, and factors limiting the potential side effects requires biologically relevant and, at the same time, relatively simple testing systems. This review discuses the advantages and limitations of genetically engineered SOD-deficient unicellular organisms, Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae as tools for investigating the efficacy and mechanisms of biological actions of SOD mimics. These simple systems allow the scrutiny of the minimal requirements for a functional SOD mimic: the association of a high catalytic activity for superoxide dismutation, low toxicity, and an efficient cellular uptake/biodistribution. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 20, 2416–2436. PMID:23964890

Quenching of para-H{sub 2} with an ultracold antihydrogen atom H{sub 1s}

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sultanov, Renat A.; Guster, Dennis; Adhikari, Sadhan K.

2010-02-15

In this work we report the results of calculation for quantum-mechanical rotational transitions in molecular hydrogen, H{sub 2}, induced by an ultracold ground-state antihydrogen atom H{sub 1s}. The calculations are accomplished using a nonreactive close-coupling quantum-mechanical approach. The H{sub 2} molecule is treated as a rigid rotor. The total elastic-scattering cross section {sigma}{sub el}({epsilon}) at energy {epsilon}, state-resolved rotational transition cross sections {sigma}{sub jj}{sup '}({epsilon}) between states j and j{sup '}, and corresponding thermal rate coefficients k{sub jj}{sup '}(T) are computed in the temperature range 0.004 K < or approx. T < or approx. 4 K. Satisfactory agreement with othermore » calculations (variational) has been obtained for {sigma}{sub el}({epsilon}).« less

Position-sensitive detection of ultracold neutrons with an imaging camera and its implications to spectroscopy

DOE PAGES

Wei, Wanchun; Broussard, Leah J.; Hoffbauer, Mark Arles; ...

2016-05-16

Position-sensitive detection of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) is demonstrated using an imaging charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. A spatial resolution less than 15μm has been achieved, which is equivalent to a UCN energy resolution below 2 pico-electron-volts through the relation δE=m 0gδx. Here, the symbols δE, δx, m 0 and g are the energy resolution, the spatial resolution, the neutron rest mass and the gravitational acceleration, respectively. A multilayer surface convertor described previously is used to capture UCNs and then emits visible light for CCD imaging. Particle identification and noise rejection are discussed through the use of light intensity profile analysis. Asmore » a result, this method allows different types of UCN spectroscopy and other applications.« less

Position-sensitive detection of ultracold neutrons with an imaging camera and its implications to spectroscopy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wei, Wanchun; Broussard, Leah J.; Hoffbauer, Mark Arles

Position-sensitive detection of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) is demonstrated using an imaging charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. A spatial resolution less than 15μm has been achieved, which is equivalent to a UCN energy resolution below 2 pico-electron-volts through the relation δE=m 0gδx. Here, the symbols δE, δx, m 0 and g are the energy resolution, the spatial resolution, the neutron rest mass and the gravitational acceleration, respectively. A multilayer surface convertor described previously is used to capture UCNs and then emits visible light for CCD imaging. Particle identification and noise rejection are discussed through the use of light intensity profile analysis. Asmore » a result, this method allows different types of UCN spectroscopy and other applications.« less

Observation of cooperative Mie scattering from an ultracold atomic cloud

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bender, H.; Stehle, C.; Slama, S.

Scattering of light at a distribution of scatterers is an intrinsically cooperative process, which means that the scattering rate and the angular distribution of the scattered light are essentially governed by bulk properties of the distribution, such as its size, shape, and density, although local disorder and density fluctuations may have an important impact on the cooperativity. Via measurements of the radiation pressure force exerted by a far-detuned laser beam on a very small and dense cloud of ultracold atoms, we are able to identify the respective roles of superradiant acceleration of the scattering rate and of Mie scattering inmore » the cooperative process. They lead, respectively, to a suppression or an enhancement of the radiation pressure force. We observe a maximum in the radiation pressure force as a function of the phase shift induced in the incident laser beam by the cloud's refractive index. The maximum marks the borderline of the validity of the Rayleigh-Debye-Gans approximation from a regime, where Mie scattering is more complex. Our observations thus help to clarify the intricate relationship between Rayleigh scattering of light at a coarse-grained ensemble of individual scatterers and Mie scattering at the bulk density distribution.« less

Photoassociation of ultracold LiRb molecules with short pulses near a Feshbach resonance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gacesa, Marko; Ghosal, Subhas; Byrd, Jason; Côté, Robin

2014-05-01

Ultracold diatomic molecules prepared in the lowest ro-vibrational state are a required first step in many experimental studies aimed at investigating the properties of cold quantum matter. We propose a novel approach to produce such molecules in a two-color photoassociation experiment with short pulses performed near a Feshbach resonance. Specifically, we report the results of a theoretical investigation of formation of 6Li87Rb molecules in a magnetic field. We show that the molecular formation rate can be significantly increased if the pump step is performed near a magnetic Feshbach resonance due to the strong coupling between the energetically open and closed hyperfine states. In addition, the dependence of the nodal structure of the total wave function on the magnetic field allows for enhanced control over the shape and position of the wave packet. The proposed approach is applicable to different systems that have accessible Feshbach resonances. Partially supported by ARO(MG), DOE(SG), AFOFR(JB), NSF(RC).

Studying topology and dynamical phase transitions with ultracold quantum gases in optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sengstock, Klaus

Topological properties lie at the heart of many fascinating phenomena in solid-state systems such as quantum Hall systems or Chern insulators. The topology of the bands can be captured by the distribution of Berry curvature, which describes the geometry of the eigenstates across the Brillouin zone. Using fermionic ultracold atoms in a hexagonal optical lattice, we engineered the Berry curvature of the Bloch bands using resonant driving and show a full momentum-resolved state tomography from which we obtain the Berry curvature and Chern number. Furthermore, we study the time-evolution of the many-body wavefunction after a sudden quench of the lattce parameters and observe the appearance, movement, and annihilation of vortices in reciprocal space. We identify their number as a dynamical topological order parameter, which suddenly changes its value at critical times. Our measurements constitute the first observation of a so called dynamical topological phase transition`, which we show to be a fruitful concept for the understanding of quantum dynamics far from equilibrium

Selective chromo-fluorogenic detection of DFP (a Sarin and Soman mimic) and DCNP (a Tabun mimic) with a unique probe based on a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dye.

PubMed

Barba-Bon, Andrea; Costero, Ana M; Gil, Salvador; Martínez-Máñez, Ramón; Sancenón, Félix

2014-11-21

A novel colorimetric probe (P4) for the selective differential detection of DFP (a Sarin and Soman mimic) and DCNP (a Tabun mimic) was prepared. Probe P4 contains three reactive sites; i.e. (i) a nucleophilic phenol group able to undergo phosphorylation with nerve gases, (ii) a carbonyl group as a reactive site for cyanide; and (iii) a triisopropylsilyl (TIPS) protecting group that is known to react with fluoride. The reaction of P4 with DCNP in acetonitrile resulted in both the phosphorylation of the phenoxy group and the release of cyanide, which was able to react with the carbonyl group of P4 to produce a colour modulation from pink to orange. In contrast, phosphorylation of P4 with DFP in acetonitrile released fluoride that hydrolysed the TIPS group in P4 to yield a colour change from pink to blue. Probe P4 was able to discriminate between DFP and DCNP with remarkable sensitivity; limits of detection of 0.36 and 0.40 ppm for DCNP and DFP, respectively, were calculated. Besides, no interference from other organophosphorous derivatives or with presence of acid was observed. The sensing behaviour of P4 was also retained when incorporated into silica gel plates or onto polyethylene oxide membranes, which allowed the development of simple test strips for the colorimetric detection of DCNP and DFP in the vapour phase. P4 is the first probe capable of colorimetrically differentiating between a Tabun mimic (DCNP) and a Sarin and Soman mimic (DFP).

Reproducing a Prospective Clinical Study as a Computational Retrospective Study in MIMIC-II.

PubMed

Kury, Fabrício S P; Huser, Vojtech; Cimino, James J

2015-01-01

In this paper we sought to reproduce, as a computational retrospective study in an EHR database (MIMIC-II), a recent large prospective clinical study: the 2013 publication, by the Japanese Association for Acute Medicine (JAAM), about disseminated intravascular coagulation, in the journal Critical Care (PMID: 23787004). We designed in SQL and Java a set of electronic phenotypes that reproduced the study's data sampling, and used R to perform the same statistical inference procedures. All produced source code is available online at https://github.com/fabkury/paamia2015. Our program identified 2,257 eligible patients in MIMIC-II, and the results remarkably agreed with the prospective study. A minority of the needed data elements was not found in MIMIC-II, and statistically significant inferences were possible in the majority of the cases.

Creation of ultracold molecules within the lifetime scale by direct implementation of an optical frequency comb

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Gengyuan; Malinovskaya, S. A.

2018-06-01

A method is proposed to create molecules in the ultracold state from the Feshbach molecules by stepwise adiabatic passage using an optical frequency comb without losses due to decoherence. An emphasis is made on the impact of the vibrational state manifold on controllability of the coherent dynamics by including five excited states into the model. The results are compared with recently reported results on a three-level ? system. Sinusoidal modulation across an individual pulse in the pulse train is applied, leading to the creation of a quasi-dark state, which minimizes population of the transitional, vibrational state manifold, and efficiently mitigates decoherence in the system. The parity of the temporal chirp is shown to be an important factor in designing population dynamics in the system.

Ultracold Atoms in a Square Lattice with Spin-Orbit Coupling: Charge Order, Superfluidity, and Topological Signatures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosenberg, Peter; Shi, Hao; Zhang, Shiwei

2017-12-01

We present an ab initio, numerically exact study of attractive fermions in square lattices with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. The ground state of this system is a supersolid, with coexisting charge and superfluid order. The superfluid is composed of both singlet and triplet pairs induced by spin-orbit coupling. We perform large-scale calculations using the auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo method to provide the first full, quantitative description of the charge, spin, and pairing properties of the system. In addition to characterizing the exotic physics, our results will serve as essential high-accuracy benchmarks for the intense theoretical and especially experimental efforts in ultracold atoms to realize and understand an expanding variety of quantum Hall and topological superconductor systems.

Control dynamics of interaction quenched ultracold bosons in periodically driven lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistakidis, Simeon; Schmelcher, Peter; Group of Fundamental Processes in Quantum Physics Team

2016-05-01

The out-of-equilibrium dynamics of ultracold bosons following an interaction quench upon a periodically driven optical lattice is investigated. It is shown that an interaction quench triggers the inter-well tunneling dynamics, while for the intra-well dynamics breathing and cradle-like processes can be generated. In particular, the occurrence of a resonance between the cradle and tunneling modes is revealed. On the other hand, the employed periodic driving enforces the bosons in the mirror wells to oscillate out-of-phase and to exhibit a dipole mode, while in the central well the cloud experiences a breathing mode. The dynamical behaviour of the system is investigated with respect to the driving frequency revealing a resonant behaviour of the intra-well dynamics. To drive the system in a highly non-equilibrium state an interaction quench upon the driving is performed giving rise to admixtures of excitations in the outer wells, an enhanced breathing in the center and an amplification of the tunneling dynamics. As a result of the quench the system experiences multiple resonances between the inter- and intra-well dynamics at different quench amplitudes. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SFB 925 ``Light induced dynamics and control of correlated quantum systems''.

Experimental apparatus for overlapping a ground-state cooled ion with ultracold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meir, Ziv; Sikorsky, Tomas; Ben-shlomi, Ruti; Akerman, Nitzan; Pinkas, Meirav; Dallal, Yehonatan; Ozeri, Roee

2018-03-01

Experimental realizations of charged ions and neutral atoms in overlapping traps are gaining increasing interest due to their wide research application ranging from chemistry at the quantum level to quantum simulations of solid state systems. In this paper, we describe our experimental system in which we overlap a single ground-state cooled ion trapped in a linear Paul trap with a cloud of ultracold atoms such that both constituents are in the ?K regime. Excess micromotion (EMM) currently limits atom-ion interaction energy to the mK energy scale and above. We demonstrate spectroscopy methods and compensation techniques which characterize and reduce the ion's parasitic EMM energy to the ?K regime even for ion crystals of several ions. We further give a substantial review on the non-equilibrium dynamics which governs atom-ion systems. The non-equilibrium dynamics is manifested by a power law distribution of the ion's energy. We also give an overview on the coherent and non-coherent thermometry tools which can be used to characterize the ion's energy distribution after single to many atom-ion collisions.

Trapped ultracold molecular ions: candidates for an optical molecular clock for a fundamental physics mission in space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roth, B.; Koelemeij, J.; Daerr, H.; Ernsting, I.; Jorgensen, S.; Okhapkin, M.; Wicht, A.; Nevsky, A.; Schiller, S.

2017-11-01

Narrow ro-vibrational transitions in ultracold molecules are excellent candidates for frequency references in the near-IR to visible spectral domain and interesting systems for fundamental tests of physics, in particular for a satellite test of the gravitational redshift of clocks. We have performed laser spectroscopy of several ro-vibrational overtone transitions υ = 0 → υ = 4 in HD+ ions at around 1.4 μm. 1+1 REMPD was used as a detection method, followed by measurement of the number of remaining molecules. The molecular ions were stored in a linear radiofrequency trap and cooled to millikelvin temperatures, by sympathetic cooling using laser-cooled Be+ ions simultaneously stored in the same trap.

Microwave and millimeter wave monolithic integrated circuits (MIMIC) program. MIMIC briefs: Summaries of phase 3 technology support programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kramer, Warner

1993-01-01

This publication contains technical and contractual summaries of the MIMIC program's Phase 3 technology support programs. Each project description includes a discussion of the objectives of the effort, the approach pursued, and recent progress. Also identified are the performing organization(s), principal investigator and/or other key personnel, contract number, program funding and duration, and program monitor/COTR. Concluding the document is a directory of the personnel associated with these projects, from whom more information may be requested.

A high-field adiabatic fast passage ultracold neutron spin flipper for the UCNA experiment.

PubMed

Holley, A T; Broussard, L J; Davis, J L; Hickerson, K; Ito, T M; Liu, C-Y; Lyles, J T M; Makela, M; Mammei, R R; Mendenhall, M P; Morris, C L; Mortensen, R; Pattie, R W; Rios, R; Saunders, A; Young, A R

2012-07-01

The UCNA collaboration is making a precision measurement of the β asymmetry (A) in free neutron decay using polarized ultracold neutrons (UCN). A critical component of this experiment is an adiabatic fast passage neutron spin flipper capable of efficient operation in ambient magnetic fields on the order of 1 T. The requirement that it operate in a high field necessitated the construction of a free neutron spin flipper based, for the first time, on a birdcage resonator. The design, construction, and initial testing of this spin flipper prior to its use in the first measurement of A with UCN during the 2007 run cycle of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center's 800 MeV proton accelerator is detailed. These studies determined the flipping efficiency of the device, averaged over the UCN spectrum present at the location of the spin flipper, to be ̅ε=0.9985(4).

Simulations Of Laser Cooling In An Ultracold Neutral Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langin, Thomas; Strickler, Trevor; Pohl, Thomas; Vrinceanu, Daniel; Killian, Thomas

2016-05-01

Ultracold neutral plasmas (UNPs) generated by photoionization of laser-cooled, magneto-optically trapped neutral gases, are useful systems for studying strongly coupled plasmas. Coupling is parameterized by Γi, the ratio of the average nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction energy to the ion kinetic energy. For typical UNPs, Γi is currently limited to ~ 3 . For alkaline earth ions, higher Γi can be achieved by laser-cooling. Using Molecular Dynamics and a quantum trajectories approach, we have simulated laser-cooling of Sr+ ions interacting through a Yukawa potential. The simulations include re-pumping from two long-lived D-states, and are conducted at experimentally achievable parameters (density n = 2 e+14 m-3, size σ0 = 4 mm, Te = 19 K). Laser-cooling is shown to both reduce the temperature by a factor of 2 over relevant timescales (tens of μ s) and slow the electron thermal-pressure driven radial expansion of the UNP. We also discuss the unique aspects of laser-cooling in a highly collisional system; in particular, the effect of collisions on dark state formation due to the coupling of the P3/2 state to both the S1/2 (via the cooling transition) and the D5/2 (via a re-pump transition) states. Supported by NSF and DoE, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the NDSEG Program, and NIH NCRR S10RR02950, an IBM SUR Award in partnership with CISCO, Qlogic and Adaptive Computing.

Correlations and enlarged superconducting phase of t -J⊥ chains of ultracold molecules on optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manmana, Salvatore R.; Möller, Marcel; Gezzi, Riccardo; Hazzard, Kaden R. A.

2017-10-01

We compute physical properties across the phase diagram of the t -J⊥ chain with long-range dipolar interactions, which describe ultracold polar molecules on optical lattices. Our results obtained by the density-matrix renormalization group indicate that superconductivity is enhanced when the Ising component Jz of the spin-spin interaction and the charge component V are tuned to zero and even further by the long-range dipolar interactions. At low densities, a substantially larger spin gap is obtained. We provide evidence that long-range interactions lead to algebraically decaying correlation functions despite the presence of a gap. Although this has recently been observed in other long-range interacting spin and fermion models, the correlations in our case have the peculiar property of having a small and continuously varying exponent. We construct simple analytic models and arguments to understand the most salient features.

Influence of gas injection on viscous and viscoelastic properties of Xanthan gum.

PubMed

Bobade, Veena; Cheetham, Madalyn; Hashim, Jamal; Eshtiaghi, Nicky

2018-05-01

Xanthan gum is widely used as a model fluid for sludge to mimic the rheological behaviour under various conditions including impact of gas injection in sludge. However, there is no study to show the influence of gas injection on rheological properties of xanthan gum specifically at the concentrations at which it is used as a model fluid for sludge with solids concentration above 2%. In this paper, the rheological properties of aqueous xanthan gum solutions at different concentrations were measured over a range of gas injection flow rates. The effect of gas injection on both the flow and viscoelastic behaviour of Xanthan gum (using two different methods - a creep test and a time sweep test) was evaluated. The viscosity curve of different solid concentrations of digested sludge and waste activated sludge were compared with different solid concentrations of Xanthan gum and the results showed that Xanthan gum can mimic the flow behaviour of sludge in flow regime. The results in linear viscoelastic regime showed that increasing gas flow rate increases storage modulus (G'), indicating an increase in the intermolecular associations within the material structure leading to an increase in material strength and solid behaviour. Similarly, in creep test an increase in the gas flow rate decreased strain%, signifying that the material has become more resistant to flow. Both observed behaviour is opposite to what occurs in sludge under similar conditions. The results of both the creep test and the time sweep test indicated that choosing Xanthan gum aqueous solution as a transparent model fluid for sludge in viscoelastic regime under similar conditions involving gas injection in a concentration range studied is not feasible. However Xanthan gum can be used as a model material for sludge in flow regime; because it shows a similar behaviour to sludge. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Gibberellic and kaurenoic hybrid strigolactone mimics for seed germination of parasitic weeds.

PubMed

Pereira, Rondinelle G; Cala, Antonio; Fernández-Aparicio, Mónica; Molinillo, José Mg; Boaventura, Maria Ad; Macías, Francisco A

2017-12-01

Parasitic weeds are widespread and cause significant losses in important crops. Their germination requires the detection of crop-derived molecules such as strigolactones. Strigolactone mimics are germination-inducing molecules with the potential to apply a suicidal germination strategy for seed bank control of parasitic weeds. The D-ring, which is instrumental in the germination process of seeds of parasitic weeds, was attached to gibberellin (GA 3 ) and kaurenoic acid as the scaffold. It was shown that indeed strigolactone mimics prepared from GA 3 and kaurenoic acid are active as stimulants when a D-ring is present; some of the mimics are as active as GR24. The starting molecules were plant hormones that had previous growth-regulating activity in other organisms and the products showed enhanced activity towards parasitic weeds. The information generated may contribute to a better understanding of the germination biochemistry of the weed species used. Further research is required in this area but it is clear that the results are promising. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Dimer formation of perylene: An ultracold spectroscopic and computational study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Birer, Ö.; Yurtsever, E.

2015-10-01

The electronic spectra of perylene inside helium nanodroplets recorded by the depletion method are presented. The results show two broad peaks in addition to sharp monomer vibronic transitions due to dimer formation. In order to understand the details of the spectra, first the dimer formation is studied by DFT and SCS-MP2 calculations and then the electronic spectra are calculated at the minima of the potential energy surface (PES). Theoretical calculations show that there are two low-lying energetically degenerate dimer structures; namely a parallel displaced one and a rotated stacked one. PES around these minima is very flat with a number of local minima at higher energies which at the experimental temperatures cannot be populated. Even though thermodynamically these two structures are equally populated, dynamical considerations point out that in helium droplet the parallel displaced geometry is encouraged by the natural alignment of the molecules due to the acquired angular momentum following the pick-up process. The calculated spectrum of the parallel displaced geometry predicts the positions of the dimer transitions within 30 nm of the experimental spectrum. Furthermore, the difference between the two dimer transitions is accurately predicted to be about 25 nm while the experimental difference was about 20 nm. Such a small difference could only be detected due to the ultracold conditions helium nanodroplets provided.

Geometric phase effects in the ultracold H + H 2 reaction

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kendrick, Brian Kent; Hazra, Jisha; Balakrishnan, N.

2016-10-27

The H 3 system has served as a prototype for geometric phase (GP) effects in bimolecular chemical reactions for over three decades. Despite a large number of theoretical and experimental efforts, no conclusive evidence of GP effects in the integral cross section or reaction rate has been presented until recently. Here we report a more detailed account of GP effects in the H + H 2(v = 4, j = 0) → H + H 2(v', j') (para-para) reaction rate coefficients for temperatures between 1 μK (8.6 × 10 –11 eV) and 100 K (8.6 × 10 –3 eV). Themore » GP effect is found to persist in both vibrationally resolved and total rate coefficients for collision energies up to about 10 K. The GP effect also appears in rotationally resolved differential cross sections leading to a very different oscillatory structure in both energy and scattering angle. It is shown to suppress a prominent shape resonance near 1 K and enhance a shape resonance near 8 K, providing new experimentally verifiable signatures of the GP effect in the fundamental hydrogen exchange reaction. As a result, the GP effect in the D + D 2 and T + T 2 reactions is also examined in the ultracold limit and its sensitivity to the potential energy surface is explored.« less

Oxidoreductase mimic activity of natural pyrrhotite

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibáñez de Aldecoa, A. L.; Velasco, F.; Menor-Salván, C.

2012-09-01

The theory of the chemo-autotrophic origin of life, also called the "iron-sulfur world hypothesis", proposes that the system FeS/FeS2 present in the primitive Earth crust gave the reductive power necessary to conduct the first protometabolic redox reactions. Some experimental studies demonstrated the redox activity of the FeS/SH2 system, but none of them used natural FeS. Here, we show that the iron sulfide mineral pyrrhotite is able to mimic the redox activity of the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase, which reversibly reduces the pyruvate in lactate, under prebiotic conditions with pyrite formation.

Observation of Gravitationally Induced Vertical Striation of Polarized Ultracold Neutrons by Spin-Echo Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Afach, S.; Ayres, N. J.; Ban, G.; Bison, G.; Bodek, K.; Chowdhuri, Z.; Daum, M.; Fertl, M.; Franke, B.; Griffith, W. C.; Grujić, Z. D.; Harris, P. G.; Heil, W.; Hélaine, V.; Kasprzak, M.; Kermaidic, Y.; Kirch, K.; Knowles, P.; Koch, H.-C.; Komposch, S.; Kozela, A.; Krempel, J.; Lauss, B.; Lefort, T.; Lemière, Y.; Mtchedlishvili, A.; Musgrave, M.; Naviliat-Cuncic, O.; Pendlebury, J. M.; Piegsa, F. M.; Pignol, G.; Plonka-Spehr, C.; Prashanth, P. N.; Quéméner, G.; Rawlik, M.; Rebreyend, D.; Ries, D.; Roccia, S.; Rozpedzik, D.; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P.; Severijns, N.; Thorne, J. A.; Weis, A.; Wursten, E.; Wyszynski, G.; Zejma, J.; Zenner, J.; Zsigmond, G.

2015-10-01

We describe a spin-echo method for ultracold neutrons (UCNs) confined in a precession chamber and exposed to a |B0|=1 μ T magnetic field. We have demonstrated that the analysis of UCN spin-echo resonance signals in combination with knowledge of the ambient magnetic field provides an excellent method by which to reconstruct the energy spectrum of a confined ensemble of neutrons. The method takes advantage of the relative dephasing of spins arising from a gravitationally induced striation of stored UCNs of different energies, and also permits an improved determination of the vertical magnetic-field gradient with an exceptional accuracy of 1.1 pT /cm . This novel combination of a well-known nuclear resonance method and gravitationally induced vertical striation is unique in the realm of nuclear and particle physics and should prove to be invaluable for the assessment of systematic effects in precision experiments such as searches for an electric dipole moment of the neutron or the measurement of the neutron lifetime.

Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome Mimics a Conduction Disease

PubMed Central

Marrakchi, S.; Kammoun, I.; Kachboura, S.

2014-01-01

Background. It is important to recognise Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome in electrocardiograms (ECG), as it may mimic ischaemic heart disease, ventricular hypertrophy, and bundle branch block. Recognising WPW syndrome allows for risk stratification, the identification of associated conditions, and the institution of appropriate management. Objective. The present case showed that electrophysiological study is indicated in patients with abnormal ECG and syncope. Case Report. A 40-year-old man with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was presented to emergency with syncope. A baseline ECG was a complete right branch block and posterior left hemiblock. He was admitted to the cardiac care unit for pacemaker implantation. The atypical figure of complete right branch block and posterior left hemiblock was thought to be a “false positive” of conduction abnormality. But the long anterograde refractory period of the both accessory pathway and atrioventricular conduction may cause difficulty in diagnosing Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, Conclusion. A Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome may mimic a conduction disease. No reliable algorithm exists for making an ECG diagnosis of a preexcitation syndrome with conduction disorders. This can lead to diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas in the context of syncope. PMID:25114686

Wolff-Parkinson-white syndrome mimics a conduction disease.

PubMed

Marrakchi, S; Kammoun, I; Kachboura, S

2014-01-01

Background. It is important to recognise Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome in electrocardiograms (ECG), as it may mimic ischaemic heart disease, ventricular hypertrophy, and bundle branch block. Recognising WPW syndrome allows for risk stratification, the identification of associated conditions, and the institution of appropriate management. Objective. The present case showed that electrophysiological study is indicated in patients with abnormal ECG and syncope. Case Report. A 40-year-old man with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was presented to emergency with syncope. A baseline ECG was a complete right branch block and posterior left hemiblock. He was admitted to the cardiac care unit for pacemaker implantation. The atypical figure of complete right branch block and posterior left hemiblock was thought to be a "false positive" of conduction abnormality. But the long anterograde refractory period of the both accessory pathway and atrioventricular conduction may cause difficulty in diagnosing Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, Conclusion. A Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome may mimic a conduction disease. No reliable algorithm exists for making an ECG diagnosis of a preexcitation syndrome with conduction disorders. This can lead to diagnostic and therapeutic dilemmas in the context of syncope.

Imaging Review of Skeletal Tumors of the Pelvis Malignant Tumors and Tumor Mimics

PubMed Central

Girish, Gandikota; Finlay, Karen; Fessell, David; Pai, Deepa; Dong, Qian; Jamadar, David

2012-01-01

Malignant lesions of the pelvis are not uncommon and need to be differentiated from benign lesions and tumor mimics. Appearances are sometimes nonspecific leading to consideration of a broad differential diagnosis. Clinical history, anatomic location, and imaging characterization can help narrow the differential diagnosis. The focus of this paper is to demonstrate the imaging features and the role of plain films, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging for detecting and characterizing malignant osseous pelvic lesions and their common mimics. PMID:22593667

High-fidelity in vivo replication of DNA base shape mimics without Watson–Crick hydrogen bonds

PubMed Central

Delaney, James C.; Henderson, Paul T.; Helquist, Sandra A.; Morales, Juan C.; Essigmann, John M.; Kool, Eric T.

2003-01-01

We report studies testing the importance of Watson–Crick hydrogen bonding, base-pair geometry, and steric effects during DNA replication in living bacterial cells. Nonpolar DNA base shape mimics of thymine and adenine (abbreviated F and Q, respectively) were introduced into Escherichia coli by insertion into a phage genome followed by transfection of the vector into bacteria. Genetic assays showed that these two base mimics were bypassed with moderate to high efficiency in the cells and with very high efficiency under damage-response (SOS induction) conditions. Under both sets of conditions, the T-shape mimic (F) encoded genetic information in the bacteria as if it were thymine, directing incorporation of adenine opposite it with high fidelity. Similarly, the A mimic (Q) directed incorporation of thymine opposite itself with high fidelity. The data establish that Watson–Crick hydrogen bonding is not necessary for high-fidelity replication of a base pair in vivo. The results suggest that recognition of DNA base shape alone serves as the most powerful determinant of fidelity during transfer of genetic information in a living organism. PMID:12676985

Retention of robot-assisted surgical skills in urological surgeons acquired using Mimic dV-Trainer.

PubMed

Teishima, Jun; Hattori, Minoru; Inoue, Shogo; Ikeda, Kenichiro; Hieda, Keisuke; Ohara, Shinya; Egi, Hiroyuki; Ohdan, Hideki; Matsubara, Akio

2014-07-01

We assess the retention of robot-assisted surgical skills among urologic surgeons. The robot-assisted surgery skills of 20 urologic surgeons were assessed using a Mimic dV-Trainer program (Mimic Technologies, Inc., Seattle, WA) consisting of 6 tasks. These 20 surgeons had no previous experience either using the Mimic dV-Trainer or acting as the main surgeon in robot-assisted surgery. The surgeons completed the program 4 times in a row; after 1 year, they completed it again for a fifth time. Performance scores were recorded using the Mimic dV-Trainer's built-in algorithm. For all 6 tasks, there were significant improvements to the scores in the fourth trials compared with those in the first trials. The scores in the fifth trials did not significantly decline compared with those in the fourth trials. There was no significant difference between the fifth trial scores of surgeons with laparoscopic surgery skills/experience and those without. Our results indicate that fundamental robot-assisted surgical skills can be retained in the long-term after they are acquired.

The Effect of Small Sample Size on Measurement Equivalence of Psychometric Questionnaires in MIMIC Model: A Simulation Study.

PubMed

Jamali, Jamshid; Ayatollahi, Seyyed Mohammad Taghi; Jafari, Peyman

2017-01-01

Evaluating measurement equivalence (also known as differential item functioning (DIF)) is an important part of the process of validating psychometric questionnaires. This study aimed at evaluating the multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model for DIF detection when latent construct distribution is nonnormal and the focal group sample size is small. In this simulation-based study, Type I error rates and power of MIMIC model for detecting uniform-DIF were investigated under different combinations of reference to focal group sample size ratio, magnitude of the uniform-DIF effect, scale length, the number of response categories, and latent trait distribution. Moderate and high skewness in the latent trait distribution led to a decrease of 0.33% and 0.47% power of MIMIC model for detecting uniform-DIF, respectively. The findings indicated that, by increasing the scale length, the number of response categories and magnitude DIF improved the power of MIMIC model, by 3.47%, 4.83%, and 20.35%, respectively; it also decreased Type I error of MIMIC approach by 2.81%, 5.66%, and 0.04%, respectively. This study revealed that power of MIMIC model was at an acceptable level when latent trait distributions were skewed. However, empirical Type I error rate was slightly greater than nominal significance level. Consequently, the MIMIC was recommended for detection of uniform-DIF when latent construct distribution is nonnormal and the focal group sample size is small.

The Effect of Small Sample Size on Measurement Equivalence of Psychometric Questionnaires in MIMIC Model: A Simulation Study

PubMed Central

Jafari, Peyman

2017-01-01

Evaluating measurement equivalence (also known as differential item functioning (DIF)) is an important part of the process of validating psychometric questionnaires. This study aimed at evaluating the multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) model for DIF detection when latent construct distribution is nonnormal and the focal group sample size is small. In this simulation-based study, Type I error rates and power of MIMIC model for detecting uniform-DIF were investigated under different combinations of reference to focal group sample size ratio, magnitude of the uniform-DIF effect, scale length, the number of response categories, and latent trait distribution. Moderate and high skewness in the latent trait distribution led to a decrease of 0.33% and 0.47% power of MIMIC model for detecting uniform-DIF, respectively. The findings indicated that, by increasing the scale length, the number of response categories and magnitude DIF improved the power of MIMIC model, by 3.47%, 4.83%, and 20.35%, respectively; it also decreased Type I error of MIMIC approach by 2.81%, 5.66%, and 0.04%, respectively. This study revealed that power of MIMIC model was at an acceptable level when latent trait distributions were skewed. However, empirical Type I error rate was slightly greater than nominal significance level. Consequently, the MIMIC was recommended for detection of uniform-DIF when latent construct distribution is nonnormal and the focal group sample size is small. PMID:28713828

Inflationary preheating dynamics with two-species condensates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zache, T. V.; Kasper, V.; Berges, J.

2017-06-01

We investigate both analytically and numerically a two-component ultracold atom system in one spatial dimension. The model features a tachyonic instability, which incorporates characteristic aspects of the mechanisms for particle production in early universe inflaton models. We establish a direct correspondence between measurable macroscopic growth rates for occupation numbers of the ultracold Bose gas and the underlying microscopic processes in terms of Feynman loop diagrams. We analyze several existing ultracold atom setups featuring dynamical instabilities and propose optimized protocols for their experimental realization. We demonstrate that relevant dynamical processes can be enhanced using a seeding procedure for unstable modes and clarify the role of initial quantum fluctuations and the generation of a nonlinear secondary stage for the amplification of modes.

Oxidative Stress Facilitates IFN-γ-Induced Mimic Extracellular Trap Cell Death in A549 Lung Epithelial Cancer Cells.

PubMed

Lin, Chiou-Feng; Chen, Chia-Ling; Chien, Shun-Yi; Tseng, Po-Chun; Wang, Yu-Chih; Tsai, Tsung-Ting

2016-01-01

We previously demonstrated that IFN-γ induces an autophagy-regulated mimic extracellular trap cell death (ETosis) in A549 human lung cancer cells. Regarding reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in ETosis, this study investigated the role of oxidative stress. After IFN-γ stimulation, a necrosis-like cell death mimic ETosis occurred accompanied by the inhibition of cell growth, aberrant nuclear staining, and nucleosome release. ROS were generated in a time-dependent manner with an increase in NADPH oxidase component protein expression. STAT1-mediated IFN regulatory factor-1 activation was essential for upregulating ROS production. By genetically silencing p47phox, IFN-γ-induced ROS and mimic ETosis were significantly attenuated. This mechanistic study indicated that ROS may mediate DNA damage followed by histone H3 citrullination. Furthermore, ROS promoted IFN-γ-induced mimic ETosis in cooperation with autophagy. These findings further demonstrate that ROS regulates IFN-γ-induced mimic ETosis in lung epithelial malignancy.

Oxidative Stress Facilitates IFN-γ-Induced Mimic Extracellular Trap Cell Death in A549 Lung Epithelial Cancer Cells

PubMed Central

Lin, Chiou-Feng; Chen, Chia-Ling; Chien, Shun-Yi; Tseng, Po-Chun; Wang, Yu-Chih; Tsai, Tsung-Ting

2016-01-01

We previously demonstrated that IFN-γ induces an autophagy-regulated mimic extracellular trap cell death (ETosis) in A549 human lung cancer cells. Regarding reactive oxygen species (ROS) are involved in ETosis, this study investigated the role of oxidative stress. After IFN-γ stimulation, a necrosis-like cell death mimic ETosis occurred accompanied by the inhibition of cell growth, aberrant nuclear staining, and nucleosome release. ROS were generated in a time-dependent manner with an increase in NADPH oxidase component protein expression. STAT1-mediated IFN regulatory factor-1 activation was essential for upregulating ROS production. By genetically silencing p47phox, IFN-γ-induced ROS and mimic ETosis were significantly attenuated. This mechanistic study indicated that ROS may mediate DNA damage followed by histone H3 citrullination. Furthermore, ROS promoted IFN-γ-induced mimic ETosis in cooperation with autophagy. These findings further demonstrate that ROS regulates IFN-γ-induced mimic ETosis in lung epithelial malignancy. PMID:27575372

Spontaneous magnetization and anomalous Hall effect in an emergent Dice lattice

PubMed Central

Dutta, Omjyoti; Przysiężna, Anna; Zakrzewski, Jakub

2015-01-01

Ultracold atoms in optical lattices serve as a tool to model different physical phenomena appearing originally in condensed matter. To study magnetic phenomena one needs to engineer synthetic fields as atoms are neutral. Appropriately shaped optical potentials force atoms to mimic charged particles moving in a given field. We present the realization of artificial gauge fields for the observation of anomalous Hall effect. Two species of attractively interacting ultracold fermions are considered to be trapped in a shaken two dimensional triangular lattice. A combination of interaction induced tunneling and shaking can result in an emergent Dice lattice. In such a lattice the staggered synthetic magnetic flux appears and it can be controlled with external parameters. The obtained synthetic fields are non-Abelian. Depending on the tuning of the staggered flux we can obtain either anomalous Hall effect or its quantized version. Our results are reminiscent of Anomalous Hall conductivity in spin-orbit coupled ferromagnets. PMID:26057635

Characterizing the Noble Gas Isotopic Composition of the Barnett Shale and Strawn Group and Constraining the Source of Stray Gas in the Trinity Aquifer, North-Central Texas.

PubMed

Wen, Tao; Castro, M Clara; Nicot, Jean-Philippe; Hall, Chris M; Pinti, Daniele L; Mickler, Patrick; Darvari, Roxana; Larson, Toti

2017-06-06

This study presents the complete set of stable noble gases for Barnett Shale and Strawn Group production gas together with stray flowing gas in the Trinity Aquifer, Texas. It places new constraints on the source of this stray gas and further shows that Barnett and Strawn gas have distinct crustal and atmospheric noble gas signatures, allowing clear identification of these two sources. Like stray gas, Strawn gas is significantly more enriched in crustal 4 He*, 21 Ne*, and 40 Ar* than Barnett gas. The similarity of Strawn and stray gas crustal noble gas signatures suggests that the Strawn is the source of stray gas in the Trinity Aquifer. Atmospheric 22 Ne/ 36 Ar ratios of stray gas mimic also that of Strawn, further reinforcing the notion that the source of stray gas in this aquifer is the Strawn. While noble gas signatures of Strawn and stray gas are consistent with a single-stage water degassing model, a two-stage oil modified groundwater exsolution fractionation model is required to explain the light atmospheric noble gas signature of Barnett Shale production gas. These distinct Strawn and Barnett noble gas signatures are likely the reflection of distinct evolution histories with Strawn gas being possibly older than that of Barnett Shale.

Synergistic Effect of MiR-146a Mimic and Cetuximab on Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

PubMed Central

Huang, Suning; Rong, Minhua; Dang, Yiwu

2014-01-01

Previously, we found that the expression of microRNA-146a (miR-146a) was downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues compared to the adjacent noncancerous hepatic tissues. In the current study, we have explored the in vitro effect of miR-146a on the malignant phenotypes of HCC cells. MiR-146a mimic could suppress cell growth and increase cellular apoptosis in HCC cell lines HepG2, HepB3, and SNU449, as assessed by spectrophotometry, fluorimetry, and fluorescence microscopy, respectively. Furthermore, western blot showed that miR-146a mimic downregulated EGFR, ERK1/2, and stat5 signalings. These effects were less potent compared to that of a siRNA targeting EGFR, a known target gene of miR-146a. Moreover, miR-146a mimic could enhance the cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction impact of various EGFR targeting agents. The most potent combination was miR-146a mimic with cetuximab, presenting a synergistic effect. In conclusion, miR-146a plays a vital role in the cell growth and apoptosis of HCC cells and inducing miR-146a level might be a critical targeted molecular therapy strategy for HCC. PMID:24895573

Synergistic effect of MiR-146a mimic and cetuximab on hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

PubMed

Huang, Suning; He, Rongquan; Rong, Minhua; Dang, Yiwu; Chen, Gang

2014-01-01

Previously, we found that the expression of microRNA-146a (miR-146a) was downregulated in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues compared to the adjacent noncancerous hepatic tissues. In the current study, we have explored the in vitro effect of miR-146a on the malignant phenotypes of HCC cells. MiR-146a mimic could suppress cell growth and increase cellular apoptosis in HCC cell lines HepG2, HepB3, and SNU449, as assessed by spectrophotometry, fluorimetry, and fluorescence microscopy, respectively. Furthermore, western blot showed that miR-146a mimic downregulated EGFR, ERK1/2, and stat5 signalings. These effects were less potent compared to that of a siRNA targeting EGFR, a known target gene of miR-146a. Moreover, miR-146a mimic could enhance the cell growth inhibition and apoptosis induction impact of various EGFR targeting agents. The most potent combination was miR-146a mimic with cetuximab, presenting a synergistic effect. In conclusion, miR-146a plays a vital role in the cell growth and apoptosis of HCC cells and inducing miR-146a level might be a critical targeted molecular therapy strategy for HCC.

Artificial cell mimics as simplified models for the study of cell biology.

PubMed

Salehi-Reyhani, Ali; Ces, Oscar; Elani, Yuval

2017-07-01

Living cells are hugely complex chemical systems composed of a milieu of distinct chemical species (including DNA, proteins, lipids, and metabolites) interconnected with one another through a vast web of interactions: this complexity renders the study of cell biology in a quantitative and systematic manner a difficult task. There has been an increasing drive towards the utilization of artificial cells as cell mimics to alleviate this, a development that has been aided by recent advances in artificial cell construction. Cell mimics are simplified cell-like structures, composed from the bottom-up with precisely defined and tunable compositions. They allow specific facets of cell biology to be studied in isolation, in a simplified environment where control of variables can be achieved without interference from a living and responsive cell. This mini-review outlines the core principles of this approach and surveys recent key investigations that use cell mimics to address a wide range of biological questions. It will also place the field in the context of emerging trends, discuss the associated limitations, and outline future directions of the field. Impact statement Recent years have seen an increasing drive to construct cell mimics and use them as simplified experimental models to replicate and understand biological phenomena in a well-defined and controlled system. By summarizing the advances in this burgeoning field, and using case studies as a basis for discussion on the limitations and future directions of this approach, it is hoped that this minireview will spur others in the experimental biology community to use artificial cells as simplified models with which to probe biological systems.

Construction of Large-Volume Tissue Mimics with 3D Functional Vascular Networks

PubMed Central

Kang, Tae-Yun; Hong, Jung Min; Jung, Jin Woo; Kang, Hyun-Wook; Cho, Dong-Woo

2016-01-01

We used indirect stereolithography (SL) to form inner-layered fluidic networks in a porous scaffold by introducing a hydrogel barrier on the luminal surface, then seeded the networks separately with human umbilical vein endothelial cells and human lung fibroblasts to form a tissue mimic containing vascular networks. The artificial vascular networks provided channels for oxygen transport, thus reducing the hypoxic volume and preventing cell death. The endothelium of the vascular networks significantly retarded the occlusion of channels during whole-blood circulation. The tissue mimics have the potential to be used as an in vitro platform to examine the physiologic and pathologic phenomena through vascular architecture. PMID:27228079

De Novo Design of Protein Mimics of B-DNA

PubMed Central

Yüksel, Deniz; Bianco, Piero R.; Kumar, Krishna

2015-01-01

Structural mimicry of DNA is utilized in nature as a strategy to evade molecular defences mounted by host organisms. One such example is the protein Ocr – the first translation product to be expressed as the bacteriophage T7 infects E. coli. The structure of Ocr reveals an intricate and deliberate arrangement of negative charges that endows it with the ability to mimic ∼24 base pair stretches of B–DNA. This uncanny resemblance to DNA enables Ocr to compete in binding the type I restriction modification (R/M) system, and neutralizes the threat of hydrolytic cleavage of viral genomic material. Here, we report the de novo design and biophysical characterization of DNA mimicking peptides, and describe the inhibitory action of the designed helical bundles on a type I R/M enzyme, EcoR124I. This work validates the use of charge patterning as a design principle for creation of protein mimics of DNA, and serves as a starting point for development of therapeutic peptide inhibitors against human pathogens that employ molecular camouflage as part of their invasion stratagem. PMID:26568416

Cannabinoid mimics in chocolate utilized as an argument in court.

PubMed

Tytgat, J; Van Boven, M; Daenens, P

2000-01-01

A case is presented involving chocolate cannabinoid mimics which have been utilized in court by the defendant's lawyer in order to clear the accused of smoking and dealing in marijuana after he was found positive for cannabis in a routine urine immunoassay screening test. The argumentation in this case was that the accused had supposedly eaten a massive amount of chocolate which contained anandamide-related lipids. These lipids inhibit anandamide hydrolysis in the brain, act as cannabinoid mimics and, according to the lawyer, were the cause of the positive cannabinoid test. To investigate this in detail, we synthesized N-oleoyl- and N-linoleoylethanolamide and spiked these compounds together with N-arachidonoylethanolamide in urine for immunological investigations. None of the samples were found positive, indicating that no cross-reactivity occurs with cannabinoids. As a result, the lawyer's claim could be refuted and the accused was convicted.

miR-370 mimic inhibits replication of Japanese encephalitis virus in glioblastoma cells.

PubMed

Li, Wenjuan; Cheng, Peng; Nie, Shangdan; Cui, Wen

2016-01-01

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is one of the most severe viral infections of the central nervous system. No effective treatment for JE currently exists, because its pathogenesis remains largely unknown. The present study was designed to screen the potential microRNAs (miRNAs) involved in JE. Glioblastoma cells were collected, after being infected with the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). Total miRNAs were extracted and analyzed using an miRNA chip. One of the most severely affected miRNAs was selected, and the role of miR-370 in JEV infection was investigated. Cell viability and apoptosis of the host cells were evaluated. JEV replication was detected via analysis of gene E expression. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to determine the levels of endogenous miR-370 and expression of innate immunity-related genes. Following JEV infection, 114 miRNAs were affected, as evidenced by the miRNA chip. Among them, 30 miRNAs were upregulated and 84 were downregulated. The changes observed in five miRNAs were confirmed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. One of the significantly downregulated miRNAs was miR-370. Therefore, miR-370 mimic was transfected into the cells, following which the levels of endogenous miR-370 were significantly elevated. Concurrently, JEV replication was significantly reduced 24 hours after transfection of miR-370 mimic. Functionally, miR-370 mimic mitigated both JEV-induced apoptosis and the inhibition of host cell proliferation. Following JEV infection, interferon-β and nuclear factor-kappa B were upregulated, whereas miR-370 mimic prevented the upregulation of the genes induced by JEV infection. The present study demonstrated that miR-370 expression in host cells is downregulated following JEV infection, which further mediates innate immunity-related gene expression. Taken together, miR-370 mimic might be useful to prevent viral replication and infection-induced host cell injury.

The MIMIC Code Repository: enabling reproducibility in critical care research.

PubMed

Johnson, Alistair Ew; Stone, David J; Celi, Leo A; Pollard, Tom J

2018-01-01

Lack of reproducibility in medical studies is a barrier to the generation of a robust knowledge base to support clinical decision-making. In this paper we outline the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) Code Repository, a centralized code base for generating reproducible studies on an openly available critical care dataset. Code is provided to load the data into a relational structure, create extractions of the data, and reproduce entire analysis plans including research studies. Concepts extracted include severity of illness scores, comorbid status, administrative definitions of sepsis, physiologic criteria for sepsis, organ failure scores, treatment administration, and more. Executable documents are used for tutorials and reproduce published studies end-to-end, providing a template for future researchers to replicate. The repository's issue tracker enables community discussion about the data and concepts, allowing users to collaboratively improve the resource. The centralized repository provides a platform for users of the data to interact directly with the data generators, facilitating greater understanding of the data. It also provides a location for the community to collaborate on necessary concepts for research progress and share them with a larger audience. Consistent application of the same code for underlying concepts is a key step in ensuring that research studies on the MIMIC database are comparable and reproducible. By providing open source code alongside the freely accessible MIMIC-III database, we enable end-to-end reproducible analysis of electronic health records. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Microfluidics in the Undergraduate Laboratory: Device Fabrication and an Experiment to Mimic Intravascular Gas Embolism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jablonski, Erin L.; Vogel, Brandon M.; Cavanagh, Daniel P.; Beers, Kathryn L.

2010-01-01

A method to fabricate microfluidic devices and an experimental protocol to model intravascular gas embolism for undergraduate laboratories are presented. The fabrication process details how to produce masters on glass slides; these masters serve as molds to pattern channels in an elastomeric polymer that can be adhered to a substrate, resulting in…

Probing topology by "heating": Quantized circular dichroism in ultracold atoms.

PubMed

Tran, Duc Thanh; Dauphin, Alexandre; Grushin, Adolfo G; Zoller, Peter; Goldman, Nathan

2017-08-01

We reveal an intriguing manifestation of topology, which appears in the depletion rate of topological states of matter in response to an external drive. This phenomenon is presented by analyzing the response of a generic two-dimensional (2D) Chern insulator subjected to a circular time-periodic perturbation. Because of the system's chiral nature, the depletion rate is shown to depend on the orientation of the circular shake; taking the difference between the rates obtained from two opposite orientations of the drive, and integrating over a proper drive-frequency range, provides a direct measure of the topological Chern number (ν) of the populated band: This "differential integrated rate" is directly related to the strength of the driving field through the quantized coefficient η 0 = ν/ ℏ 2 , where h = 2π ℏ is Planck's constant. Contrary to the integer quantum Hall effect, this quantized response is found to be nonlinear with respect to the strength of the driving field, and it explicitly involves interband transitions. We investigate the possibility of probing this phenomenon in ultracold gases and highlight the crucial role played by edge states in this effect. We extend our results to 3D lattices, establishing a link between depletion rates and the nonlinear photogalvanic effect predicted for Weyl semimetals. The quantized circular dichroism revealed in this work designates depletion rate measurements as a universal probe for topological order in quantum matter.

Adimensional theory of shielding in ultracold collisions of dipolar rotors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

González-Martínez, Maykel L.; Bohn, John L.; Quéméner, Goulven

2017-09-01

We investigate the electric field shielding of ultracold collisions of dipolar rotors, initially in their first rotational excited state, using an adimensional approach. We establish a map of good and bad candidates for efficient evaporative cooling based on this shielding mechanism, by presenting the ratio of elastic over quenching processes as a function of a rescaled rotational constant B ˜=B /sE3 and a rescaled electric field F ˜=d F /B . B ,d ,F ,andsE 3 are respectively the rotational constant, the full electric dipole moment of the molecules, the applied electric field, and a characteristic dipole-dipole energy. We identify two groups of bi-alkali-metal dipolar molecules. The first group, including RbCs, NaK, KCs, LiK, NaRb, LiRb, NaCs, and LiCs, is favorable with a ratio over 1000 at collision energies equal to (or even higher than) their characteristic dipolar energy. The second group, including LiNa and KRb, is not favorable. More generally, for molecules well described by Hund's case b, our adimensional study provides the conditions of efficient evaporative cooling. The range of appropriate rescaled rotational constant and rescaled field is approximately B ˜≥108 and 3.25 ≤F ˜≤3.8 , with a maximum ratio reached for F ˜≃3.4 for a given B ˜. We also discuss the importance of the electronic van der Waals interaction on the adimensional character of our study.

Face, content and concurrent validity of the Mimic® dV-Trainer for robot-assisted endoscopic surgery: a prospective study.

PubMed

Egi, H; Hattori, M; Tokunaga, M; Suzuki, T; Kawaguchi, K; Sawada, H; Ohdan, H

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine whether any correlation exists between the performance of the Mimic® dV-Trainer (Mimic Technologies, Seattle, Wash., USA) and the da Vinci Surgical System (Intuitive Surgical, Sunnyvale, Calif., USA). Twelve participants were recruited, ranging from residents to consultants. We used four training tasks, consisting of 'Pick and Place', 'Peg Board', 'Thread the Rings' and 'Suture Sponge', from the software program of the Mimic dV-Trainer. The performance of the participants was recorded and measured. Additionally, we prepared the same tasks for the da Vinci Surgical System. All participants completed the tasks using the da Vinci Surgical System and were assessed according to time, the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skill checklist and the global rating score for endoscopic suturing assessed by two independent blinded observers. After performing these tasks, the participants completed a questionnaire that evaluated the Mimic dV-Trainer's face and content validity. The final results for each participant for the Mimic dV-Trainer and the da Vinci Surgical System were compared. All participants ranked the Mimic dV-Trainer as a realistic training platform that is useful for residency training. There was a significant relationship between the Mimic dV-Trainer and the da Vinci Surgical System in all four tasks. We verified the reliability of the assessment of the checklist and the global rating scores for endoscopic suturing assessed by the two blinded observers using Cronbach's alpha test (r = 0.803, 0.891). We evaluated the concurrent validity of the Mimic dV-Trainer and the da Vinci Surgical System. Our results suggest the possibility that training using the Mimic dV-Trainer may therefore be able to improve the operator's performance during live robot-assisted surgery. © 2013 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Glutathione peroxidase mimic ebselen improves glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in murine islets.

PubMed

Wang, Xinhui; Yun, Jun-Won; Lei, Xin Gen

2014-01-10

Glutathione peroxidase (GPX) mimic ebselen and superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimic copper diisopropylsalicylate (CuDIPs) were used to rescue impaired glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS) in islets of GPX1 and(or) SOD1-knockout mice. Ebselen improved GSIS in islets of all four tested genotypes. The rescue in the GPX1 knockout resulted from a coordinated transcriptional regulation of four key GSIS regulators and was mediated by the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC-1α)-mediated signaling pathways. In contrast, CuDIPs improved GSIS only in the SOD1 knockout and suppressed gene expression of the PGC-1α pathway. Islets from the GPX1 and(or) SOD1 knockout mice provided metabolically controlled intracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide conditions for the present study to avoid confounding effects. Bioinformatics analyses of gene promoters and expression profiles guided the search for upstream signaling pathways to link the ebselen-initiated H2O2 scavenging to downstream key events of GSIS. The RNA interference was applied to prove PGC-1α as the main mediator for that link. Our study revealed a novel metabolic use and clinical potential of ebselen in rescuing GSIS in the GPX1-deficient islets and mice, along with distinct differences between the GPX and SOD mimics in this regard. These findings highlight the necessities and opportunities of discretional applications of various antioxidant enzyme mimics in treating insulin secretion disorders. REBOUND TRACK: This work was rejected during standard peer review and rescued by Rebound Peer Review (Antioxid Redox Signal 16: 293-296, 2012) with the following serving as open reviewers: Regina Brigelius-Flohe, Vadim Gladyshev, Dexing Hou, and Holger Steinbrenner.

A sensitive colorimetric aptasensor based on trivalent peroxidase-mimic DNAzyme and magnetic nanoparticles.

PubMed

Liu, Shuwen; Xu, Naihan; Tan, Chunyan; Fang, Wei; Tan, Ying; Jiang, Yuyang

2018-08-14

In this study, a novel colorimetric aptasensor was prepared by coupling trivalent peroxidase-mimic DNAzyme and magnetic nanoparticles for highly sensitive and selective detection of target proteins. A three G-quadruplex (G4) DNA-hemin complex was employed as the trivalent peroxidase-mimic DNAzyme, in which hemin assisted the G4-DNA to fold into a catalytic conformation and act as an enzyme. The design of the aptasensor includes magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), complementary DNA (cDNA) modified with biotin, and a label-free single strand DNA (ssDNA) including the aptamer and trivalent peroxidase-mimic DNAzyme. The trivalent DNAzyme, which has the highest catalytic activity among multivalent DNAzymes, catalyzed the H 2 O 2 -mediated oxidation of ABTS. The colorless ABTS was oxidized to produce a blue-green product that can be clearly distinguished by the naked eye. The aptamer and trivalent peroxidase-mimic DNAzyme promote the specificity and sensitivity of this detection method, which can be generalized for other targets by simply replacing the corresponding aptamers. To demonstrate the feasible use of the aptasensor for target detection, a well-known tumor biomarker MUC1 was evaluated as the model target. The limits of detection were determined to be 5.08 and 5.60 nM in a linear range of 50-1000 nM in a buffer solution and 10% serum system, respectively. This colorimetric and label-free aptasensor with excellent sensitivity and strong anti-interference ability has potential application in disease diagnoses, prognosis tracking, and therapeutic evaluation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Topological phase transition in the quench dynamics of a one-dimensional Fermi gas with spin-orbit coupling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Pei; Yi, Wei; Xianlong, Gao

2015-01-01

We study the quench dynamics of a one-dimensional ultracold Fermi gas with synthetic spin-orbit coupling. At equilibrium, the ground state of the system can undergo a topological phase transition and become a topological superfluid with Majorana edge states. As the interaction is quenched near the topological phase boundary, we identify an interesting dynamical phase transition of the quenched state in the long-time limit, characterized by an abrupt change of the pairing gap at a critical quenched interaction strength. We further demonstrate the topological nature of this dynamical phase transition from edge-state analysis of the quenched states. Our findings provide interesting clues for the understanding of topological phase transitions in dynamical processes, and can be useful for the dynamical detection of Majorana edge states in corresponding systems.

Tiny Device Mimics Human Lung Function

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McDonald, Rebecca; Harris, Jennifer; Nath, Pulak

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing a miniature, tissue-engineered artificial lung that mimics the response of the human lung to drugs, toxins and other agents. “We breathe in and out thousands of times every day. And while we have control over what we eat or drink, we don’t always have control over what we breathe in,” said Jennifer Harris of Biosecurity and Public Health at Los Alamos, "and so we’re making this miniature lung to be able to test on actual human cells whether something in the environment, or a drug, is toxic or harmful to us." Nicknamedmore » “PuLMo” for Pulmonary Lung Model (Pulmo is also the Latin word for "lung")the device consists of two major parts, the bronchiolar unit and the alveolar unit—just like the human lung. The units are primarily made from various polymers and are connected by a microfluidic “circuit board” that manages fluid and air flow. “When we build our lung, we not only take into account the aspects of different cell types, the tissues that are involved, we also take into account that a lung is supposed to breathe, so PuLMo actually breathes,” said Pulak Nath of Applied Modern Physics, who leads engineering efforts for the project. The most exciting application of PuLMo is a potentially revolutionary improvement in the reliability of drug-toxicity assessments and the prediction of new pharmaceutical success in humans, according to Harris. The PuLMo may also be designed to mimic lung disease conditions, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma, and may be used to study lung air-flow dynamics to better understand the mechanisms of toxins and drug delivery and the effects of smoking, particularly the less-understood effects of e-cigarettes.« less

MRI-based finite element modeling of facial mimics: a case study on the paired zygomaticus major muscles.

PubMed

Fan, Ang-Xiao; Dakpé, Stéphanie; Dao, Tien Tuan; Pouletaut, Philippe; Rachik, Mohamed; Ho Ba Tho, Marie Christine

2017-07-01

Finite element simulation of facial mimics provides objective indicators about soft tissue functions for improving diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of facial disorders. There is a lack of in vivo experimental data for model development and validation. In this study, the contribution of the paired Zygomaticus Major (ZM) muscle contraction on the facial mimics was investigated using in vivo experimental data derived from MRI. Maximal relative differences of 7.7% and 37% were noted between MRI-based measurements and numerical outcomes for ZM and skin deformation behaviors respectively. This study opens a new direction to simulate facial mimics with in vivo data.

IFN-γ Induces Mimic Extracellular Trap Cell Death in Lung Epithelial Cells Through Autophagy-Regulated DNA Damage.

PubMed

Lin, Chiou-Feng; Chien, Shun-Yi; Chen, Chia-Ling; Hsieh, Chia-Yuan; Tseng, Po-Chun; Wang, Yu-Chih

2016-02-01

Treatment of interferon-γ (IFN-γ) causes cell growth inhibition and cytotoxicity in lung epithelial malignancies. Regarding the induction of autophagy related to IFN-γ signaling, this study investigated the link between autophagy and IFN-γ cytotoxicity. In A549 human lung cancer cells, IFN-γ treatment induced concurrent apoptotic and nonapoptotic events. Unexpectedly, the nonapoptotic cells present mimic extracellular trap cell death (ETosis), which was regulated by caspase-3 and by autophagy induction through immunity-related GTPase family M protein 1 and activating transcription factor 6. Furthermore, IFN-γ signaling controlled mimic ETosis through a mechanism involving an autophagy- and Fas-associated protein with death domain-controlled caspase-8/-3 activation. Following caspase-mediated lamin degradation, IFN-γ caused DNA damage-associated ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3-related protein (ATR)/ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM)-regulated mimic ETosis. Upon ATR/ATM signaling, peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 (PAD4)-mediated histone 3 citrullination promoted mimic ETosis. Such IFN-γ-induced effects were defective in PC14PE6/AS2 human lung cancer cells, which were unsusceptible to IFN-γ-induced autophagy. Due to autophagy-based caspase cascade activation, IFN-γ triggers unconventional caspase-mediated DNA damage, followed by ATR/ATM-regulated PAD4-mediated histone citrullination during mimic ETosis in lung epithelial malignancy.

Instructions to mimic improve facial emotion recognition in people with sub-clinical autism traits.

PubMed

Lewis, Michael B; Dunn, Emily

2017-11-01

People tend to mimic the facial expression of others. It has been suggested that this helps provide social glue between affiliated people but it could also aid recognition of emotions through embodied cognition. The degree of facial mimicry, however, varies between individuals and is limited in people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC). The present study sought to investigate the effect of promoting facial mimicry during a facial-emotion-recognition test. In two experiments, participants without an ASC diagnosis had their autism quotient (AQ) measured. Following a baseline test, they did an emotion-recognition test again but half of the participants were asked to mimic the target face they saw prior to making their responses. Mimicry improved emotion recognition, and further analysis revealed that the largest improvement was for participants who had higher scores on the autism traits. In fact, recognition performance was best overall for people who had high AQ scores but also received the instruction to mimic. Implications for people with ASC are explored.

Mode-coupling of interaction quenched ultracold bosons in periodically driven lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mistakidis, Simeon; Schmelcher, Peter

2016-05-01

The out-of-equilibrium dynamics of interaction quenched finite ultracold bosonic ensembles in periodically driven one-dimensional optical lattices is investigated. As a first attempt a brief analysis of the dynamics caused exclusively by the periodically driven lattice is presented and the induced low-lying modes are introduced. It is shown that the periodic driving enforces the bosons in the outer wells to exhibit out-of-phase dipole-like modes, while in the central well the cloud experiences a local-breathing mode. The dynamical behavior of the system is investigated with respect to the driving frequency, revealing a resonant-like behavior of the intra-well dynamics. Subsequently, we drive the system to a highly non-equilibrium state by performing an interaction quench upon the periodically driven lattice. This protocol gives rise to admixtures of excitations in the outer wells, an enhanced breathing in the center and an amplification of the tunneling dynamics. As a result (of the quench) the system experiences multiple resonances between the inter- and intra-well dynamics at different quench amplitudes. Finally, our study reveals that the position of the resonances can be adjusted e.g. via the driving frequency or the atom number manifesting their many-body nature. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the SFB 925 ``Light induced dynamics and control of correlated quantum systems''.

Kinetic Energy Oscillations during Disorder Induced Heating in an Ultracold Plasma

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langin, Thomas; McQuillen, Patrick; Strickler, Trevor; Pohl, Thomas; Killian, Thomas

2015-05-01

Ultracold neutral plasmas of strontium are generated by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms at temperature TMOT ~ 10 mK and density n ~1016 m-3 in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). After photoionization, the ions heat to ~ 1 K by a mechanism known as Disorder Induced Heating (DIH). During DIH kinetic energy oscillations (KEO) occur at a frequency ~ 2ωpi , where ωpi is the plasma frequency, indicating coupling to collective modes of the plasma. Electron screening also comes into play by changing the interaction from a Coulomb to a Yukawa interaction. Although DIH has been previously studied, improved measurements combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations allow us to probe new aspects. We demonstrate a measurement of the damping of the KEO due to electron screening which agrees with the MD simulations. We show that the MD simulations can be used to fit experimental DIH curves for plasma density n, resulting in very accurate density measurements. Finally, we discuss how ion temperature measurements are affected by the non-thermal distribution of the ions during the early stages of DIH. This work was supported by the United States National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy (PHY-0714603), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550- 12-1-0267), the Shell Foundation, and the Department of Defense (NDSEG Fellowship)

Characterizing Strokes and Stroke Mimics Transported by Helicopter Emergency Medical Services.

PubMed

Sequeira, Denisse; Martin-Gill, Christian; Kesinger, Matthew R; Thompson, Laura R; Jovin, Tudor G; Massaro, Lori M; Guyette, Francis X

2016-01-01

Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the United States with most of these patients being transported by emergency medical services. These providers are the first medical point of contact and must be able to rapidly and accurately identify stroke and transport these patients to the appropriate facilities for treatment. There are many conditions that have similar presentations to stroke and can be mistakenly identified as potential strokes, thereby affecting the initial prehospital triage. A retrospective observational study examined patients with suspected strokes transported to a single comprehensive stroke center (CSC) by a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) agency from 2007 through 2013. Final diagnosis was extracted from the Get with the Guidelines (GWTG) database and hospital discharge diagnosis for those not included in the database. Frequencies of discharge diagnosis were calculated and then stratified into interfacility vs. scene transfers. In this study 6,243 patients were transported: 3,376 patients were screened as potential strokes, of which 2,527 had a final diagnosis of stroke (2,242 ischemic stroke and 285 transient ischemic attack), 166 had intracranial hemorrhage, and 655 were stroke mimics. Stroke mimics were more common among scene transfers (223, 32%) than among interfacility transfers (432, 16%). In our study approximately 20% of potential stroke patients transported via HEMS were mimics. Identifying the need for CSC resources can be an important factor in creating a prehospital triage tool to facilitate patient transport to an appropriate health care facility.

Electric manipulation of ultracold polar ^40K^87Rb molecules in a magnetic field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quéméner, Goulven; Bohn, John

2009-05-01

Ultracold fermionic polar molecules of ^40K^87Rb in their absolute rovibronic ground state (v=0,n=0,^1σ) have been created recently [1] in a magnetic trap and open new perspectives to create fermionic degenerate gases of polar molecules. To achieve this goal, it is very important to understand the collisional properties of such molecules under magnetic and electric fields. In our presentation, we investigate ground state fermionic ^40K^87Rb + ^40K^87Rb collisions in the presence of a magnetic field and explore the possibility to control these collisions when an electric field is applied. We will explore the main physical processes that can lead to such manipulation. This problem is complicated by the Zeeman and Stark splitting of all levels of the polar molecules and by the possibility of forming ^40K2 + ^87Rb2 chemical products. 1 - K.-K. Ni, S. Ospelkaus, M. H. G. de Miranda, A. Pe'er, B. Neyenhuis, J. J. Zirbel, S. Kotochigova, P. S. Julienne, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye, Science 322, 231 (2008).

Observation of Gravitationally Induced Vertical Striation of Polarized Ultracold Neutrons by Spin-Echo Spectroscopy.

PubMed

Afach, S; Ayres, N J; Ban, G; Bison, G; Bodek, K; Chowdhuri, Z; Daum, M; Fertl, M; Franke, B; Griffith, W C; Grujić, Z D; Harris, P G; Heil, W; Hélaine, V; Kasprzak, M; Kermaidic, Y; Kirch, K; Knowles, P; Koch, H-C; Komposch, S; Kozela, A; Krempel, J; Lauss, B; Lefort, T; Lemière, Y; Mtchedlishvili, A; Musgrave, M; Naviliat-Cuncic, O; Pendlebury, J M; Piegsa, F M; Pignol, G; Plonka-Spehr, C; Prashanth, P N; Quéméner, G; Rawlik, M; Rebreyend, D; Ries, D; Roccia, S; Rozpedzik, D; Schmidt-Wellenburg, P; Severijns, N; Thorne, J A; Weis, A; Wursten, E; Wyszynski, G; Zejma, J; Zenner, J; Zsigmond, G

2015-10-16

We describe a spin-echo method for ultracold neutrons (UCNs) confined in a precession chamber and exposed to a |B0|=1  μT magnetic field. We have demonstrated that the analysis of UCN spin-echo resonance signals in combination with knowledge of the ambient magnetic field provides an excellent method by which to reconstruct the energy spectrum of a confined ensemble of neutrons. The method takes advantage of the relative dephasing of spins arising from a gravitationally induced striation of stored UCNs of different energies, and also permits an improved determination of the vertical magnetic-field gradient with an exceptional accuracy of 1.1  pT/cm. This novel combination of a well-known nuclear resonance method and gravitationally induced vertical striation is unique in the realm of nuclear and particle physics and should prove to be invaluable for the assessment of systematic effects in precision experiments such as searches for an electric dipole moment of the neutron or the measurement of the neutron lifetime.

Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes: Mimics of Biological Ion Channels.

PubMed

Amiri, Hasti; Shepard, Kenneth L; Nuckolls, Colin; Hernández Sánchez, Raúl

2017-02-08

Here we report on the ion conductance through individual, small diameter single-walled carbon nanotubes. We find that they are mimics of ion channels found in natural systems. We explore the factors governing the ion selectivity and permeation through single-walled carbon nanotubes by considering an electrostatic mechanism built around a simplified version of the Gouy-Chapman theory. We find that the single-walled carbon nanotubes preferentially transported cations and that the cation permeability is size-dependent. The ionic conductance increases as the absolute hydration enthalpy decreases for monovalent cations with similar solid-state radii, hydrated radii, and bulk mobility. Charge screening experiments using either the addition of cationic or anionic polymers, divalent metal cations, or changes in pH reveal the enormous impact of the negatively charged carboxylates at the entrance of the single-walled carbon nanotubes. These observations were modeled in the low-to-medium concentration range (0.1-2.0 M) by an electrostatic mechanism that mimics the behavior observed in many biological ion channel-forming proteins. Moreover, multi-ion conduction in the high concentration range (>2.0 M) further reinforces the similarity between single-walled carbon nanotubes and protein ion channels.

Observation of Spin Polarons in a Tunable Fermi Liquid of Ultracold Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zwierlein, Martin

2009-05-01

We have observed spin polarons, dressed spin down impurities in a spin up Fermi sea of ultracold atoms via tomographic RF spectroscopy. Feshbach resonances allow to freely tune the interactions between the two spin states involved. A single spin down atom immersed in a Fermi sea of spin up atoms can do one of two things: For strong attraction, it can form a molecule with exactly one spin up partner, but for weaker interaction it will spread its attraction and surround itself with a collection of majority atoms. This spin down atom dressed with a spin up cloud constitutes the spin- or Fermi polaron. We have observed a striking spectroscopic signature of this quasi-particle for various interaction strengths, a narrow peak in the spin down spectrum that emerges above a broad background. The spectra allow us to directly measure the polaron energy and the quasi-particle residue Z. The polarons are found to be only weakly interacting with each other, and can thus be identified with the quasi-particles of Landau's Fermi liquid theory. At a critical interaction strength, we observe a transition from spin one-half polarons to spin zero molecules. At this point the Fermi liquid undergoes a phase transition into a superfluid Bose liquid.

Reverse-Bumpy-Ball-Type-Nanoreactor-Loaded Nylon Membranes as Peroxidase-Mimic Membrane Reactors for a Colorimetric Assay for H₂O₂.

PubMed

Tong, Ying; Jiao, Xiangyu; Yang, Hankun; Wen, Yongqiang; Su, Lei; Zhang, Xueji

2016-04-01

Herein we report for the first time fabrication of reverse bumpy ball (RBB)-type-nanoreactor-based flexible peroxidase-mimic membrane reactors (MRs). The RBB-type nanoreactors with gold nanoparticles embedded in the inner walls of carbon shells were loaded on nylon membranes through a facile filtration approach. The as-prepared flexible catalytic membrane was studied as a peroxidase-mimic MR. It was found that the obtained peroxidase-mimic MR could exhibit several advantages over natural enzymes, such as facile and good recyclability, long-term stability and easy storage. Moreover, the RBB NS-modified nylon MRs as a peroxidase mimic provide a useful colorimetric assay for H₂O₂.

MicroRNA-122 mimic transfection contributes to apoptosis in HepG2 cells.

PubMed

Huang, Hongyan; Zhu, Yueyong; Li, Shaoyang

2015-11-01

There is currently a requirement for effective treatment strategies for human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a leading cause of cancer‑associated mortality. MicroRNA-122 (miR-122), a repressor of the endogenous apoptosis regulator Bcl‑w, is frequently downregulated in HCC. Thus, it is hypothesized that the activation of miR‑122 may induce selective hepatocellular apoptosis via caspase activation in a model of HCC. In the present study, an miR‑122 mimic transfection was performed in HepG2 cells, and used to investigate the role and therapeutic potential of miR‑122 in the regulation of HCC‑derived cell lines. The apoptotic rates of HepG2 cells were significantly increased following miR‑122 mimic transfection. Reverse transcription‑polymerase chain reaction analysis revealed that Bcl‑w mRNA was significantly reduced, while the mRNA levels of caspase‑9 and caspase‑3 were markedly increased. The immunocytochemistry results supported the mRNA trends. Collectively, the present results suggest that endogenous miR‑122 contributes to HepG2 apoptosis and that transfection of mimic miR‑122 normalizes apoptotic levels in a model of HCC.

Widespread long noncoding RNAs as endogenous target mimics for microRNAs in plants.

PubMed

Wu, Hua-Jun; Wang, Zhi-Min; Wang, Meng; Wang, Xiu-Jie

2013-04-01

Target mimicry is a recently identified regulatory mechanism for microRNA (miRNA) functions in plants in which the decoy RNAs bind to miRNAs via complementary sequences and therefore block the interaction between miRNAs and their authentic targets. Both endogenous decoy RNAs (miRNA target mimics) and engineered artificial RNAs can induce target mimicry effects. Yet until now, only the Induced by Phosphate Starvation1 RNA has been proven to be a functional endogenous microRNA target mimic (eTM). In this work, we developed a computational method and systematically identified intergenic or noncoding gene-originated eTMs for 20 conserved miRNAs in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa). The predicted miRNA binding sites were well conserved among eTMs of the same miRNA, whereas sequences outside of the binding sites varied a lot. We proved that the eTMs of miR160 and miR166 are functional target mimics and identified their roles in the regulation of plant development. The effectiveness of eTMs for three other miRNAs was also confirmed by transient agroinfiltration assay.

Probing the critical exponent of the superfluid fraction in a strongly interacting Fermi gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Hui; Liu, Xia-Ji

2013-11-01

We theoretically investigate the critical behavior of a second-sound mode in a harmonically trapped ultracold atomic Fermi gas with resonant interactions. Near the superfluid phase transition with critical temperature Tc, the frequency or the sound velocity of the second-sound mode crucially depends on the critical exponent β of the superfluid fraction. In an isotropic harmonic trap, we predict that the mode frequency diverges like (1-T/Tc)β-1/2 when β<1/2. In a highly elongated trap, the speed of the second sound reduces by a factor of 1/2β+1 from that in a homogeneous three-dimensional superfluid. Our prediction could readily be tested by measurements of second-sound wave propagation in a setup, such as that exploited by Sidorenkov [Nature (London)NATUAS0028-083610.1038/nature12136 498, 78 (2013)] for resonantly interacting lithium-6 atoms, once the experimental precision is improved.

Systemic delivery of a miR34a mimic as a potential therapeutic for liver cancer.

PubMed

Daige, Christopher L; Wiggins, Jason F; Priddy, Leslie; Nelligan-Davis, Terri; Zhao, Jane; Brown, David

2014-10-01

miR34a is a tumor-suppressor miRNA that functions within the p53 pathway to regulate cell-cycle progression and apoptosis. With apparent roles in metastasis and cancer stem cell development, miR34a provides an interesting opportunity for therapeutic development. A mimic of miR34a was complexed with an amphoteric liposomal formulation and tested in two different orthotopic models of liver cancer. Systemic dosing of the formulated miR34a mimic increased the levels of miR34a in tumors by approximately 1,000-fold and caused statistically significant decreases in the mRNA levels of several miR34a targets. The administration of the formulated miR34a mimic caused significant tumor growth inhibition in both models of liver cancer, and tumor regression was observed in more than one third of the animals. The antitumor activity was observed in the absence of any immunostimulatory effects or dose-limiting toxicities. Accumulation of the formulated miR34a mimic was also noted in the spleen, lung, and kidney, suggesting the potential for therapeutic use in other cancers. ©2014 American Association for Cancer Research.

Visualizing the BEC-BCS crossover in a two-dimensional Fermi gas: Pairing gaps and dynamical response functions from ab initio computations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vitali, Ettore; Shi, Hao; Qin, Mingpu; Zhang, Shiwei

2017-12-01

Experiments with ultracold atoms provide a highly controllable laboratory setting with many unique opportunities for precision exploration of quantum many-body phenomena. The nature of such systems, with strong interaction and quantum entanglement, makes reliable theoretical calculations challenging. Especially difficult are excitation and dynamical properties, which are often the most directly relevant to experiment. We carry out exact numerical calculations, by Monte Carlo sampling of imaginary-time propagation of Slater determinants, to compute the pairing gap in the two-dimensional Fermi gas from first principles. Applying state-of-the-art analytic continuation techniques, we obtain the spectral function and the density and spin structure factors providing unique tools to visualize the BEC-BCS crossover. These quantities will allow for a direct comparison with experiments.

Apparatus investigates geological aspects of gas hydrates

USGS Publications Warehouse

Booth, J.S.; Winters, W.J.; Dillon, William P.

1999-01-01

The US Geological Survey (USGS), in response to potential geohazards, energy resource potential, and climate issues associated with marine gas hydrates, has developed a laboratory research system that permits hydrate genesis and dissociation under deep-sea conditions, employing user-selected sediment types and pore fluids.The apparatus, GHASTI (gas hydrate and sediment test laboratory instrument), provides a means to link field studies and theory and serves as a tool to improve gas hydrate recognition and assessment, using remote sensing techniques.GHASTLI's use was proven in an exploration well project led by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Japanese National Oil Corp., collaborating with Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. and the USGS. The site was in the Mackenzie Delta region of the Northwest Territories (Mallik 2L-38 drillsite).From tests on natural methane hydrate-bearing sand recovered at about 1,000 m subsurface, the in situ quantity of hydrate was estimated from acoustic properties, and a substantial increase in shear strength due to the presence of the hydrate was measured.1 2GHASTI can mimic a wide range of geologic settings and processes. Initial goals involve improved recognition and mapping of gas hydrate-bearing sediments, understanding factors that control the occurrence and concentration of gas hydrates, knowledge of hydrate's significance to slope failure and foundation problems, and analysis of gas hydrate's potential use as an energy resource.

Quantification of therapeutic miRNA mimics in whole blood from nonhuman primates.

PubMed

Kelnar, Kevin; Peltier, Heidi J; Leatherbury, Neil; Stoudemire, Jay; Bader, Andreas G

2014-02-04

MRX34, a microRNA (miRNA)-based therapy for cancer, has recently entered clinical trials as the first clinical candidate in its class. It is a liposomal nanoparticle loaded with a synthetic mimic of the tumor suppressor miRNA miR-34a as the active pharmaceutical ingredient. To understand the pharmacokinetic properties of the drug and to rationalize an optimal dosing regimen in the clinic, a method is needed to quantitatively detect the miRNA mimic. Here, we report the development and qualification of a quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay in support of pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic assessments in the nonhuman primate. Detection and quantification were performed on total ribonucleic acid (RNA) isolated from whole blood. The qualified range of the standard curve spans 6 orders of magnitude from 2.5 × 10(-7) to 2.5 × 10(-1) ng per reverse transcription (RT) reaction, corresponding to an estimated blood concentration from 6.2 × 10(-5) to 6.2 × 10(1) ng/mL. Our results demonstrate that endogenous as well as the exogenous miR-34a can be accurately and precisely quantified. The assay was used to establish the pharmacokinetic profile of MRX34, showing a favorable residence time and exposure of the miRNA mimic in whole blood from nonhuman primates.

Fast and Efficient Drosophila melanogaster Gene Knock-Ins Using MiMIC Transposons

PubMed Central

Vilain, Sven; Vanhauwaert, Roeland; Maes, Ine; Schoovaerts, Nils; Zhou, Lujia; Soukup, Sandra; da Cunha, Raquel; Lauwers, Elsa; Fiers, Mark; Verstreken, Patrik

2014-01-01

Modern molecular genetics studies necessitate the manipulation of genes in their endogenous locus, but most of the current methodologies require an inefficient donor-dependent homologous recombination step to locally modify the genome. Here we describe a methodology to efficiently generate Drosophila knock-in alleles by capitalizing on the availability of numerous genomic MiMIC transposon insertions carrying recombinogenic attP sites. Our methodology entails the efficient PhiC31-mediated integration of a recombination cassette flanked by unique I-SceI and/or I-CreI restriction enzyme sites into an attP-site. These restriction enzyme sites allow for double-strand break−mediated removal of unwanted flanking transposon sequences, while leaving the desired genomic modifications or recombination cassettes. As a proof-of-principle, we mutated LRRK, tau, and sky by using different MiMIC elements. We replaced 6 kb of genomic DNA encompassing the tau locus and 35 kb encompassing the sky locus with a recombination cassette that permits easy integration of DNA at these loci and we also generated a functional LRRKHA knock in allele. Given that ~92% of the Drosophila genes are located within the vicinity (<35 kb) of a MiMIC element, our methodology enables the efficient manipulation of nearly every locus in the fruit fly genome without the need for inefficient donor-dependent homologous recombination events. PMID:25298537

Fast and efficient Drosophila melanogaster gene knock-ins using MiMIC transposons.

PubMed

Vilain, Sven; Vanhauwaert, Roeland; Maes, Ine; Schoovaerts, Nils; Zhou, Lujia; Soukup, Sandra; da Cunha, Raquel; Lauwers, Elsa; Fiers, Mark; Verstreken, Patrik

2014-10-08

Modern molecular genetics studies necessitate the manipulation of genes in their endogenous locus, but most of the current methodologies require an inefficient donor-dependent homologous recombination step to locally modify the genome. Here we describe a methodology to efficiently generate Drosophila knock-in alleles by capitalizing on the availability of numerous genomic MiMIC transposon insertions carrying recombinogenic attP sites. Our methodology entails the efficient PhiC31-mediated integration of a recombination cassette flanked by unique I-SceI and/or I-CreI restriction enzyme sites into an attP-site. These restriction enzyme sites allow for double-strand break-mediated removal of unwanted flanking transposon sequences, while leaving the desired genomic modifications or recombination cassettes. As a proof-of-principle, we mutated LRRK, tau, and sky by using different MiMIC elements. We replaced 6 kb of genomic DNA encompassing the tau locus and 35 kb encompassing the sky locus with a recombination cassette that permits easy integration of DNA at these loci and we also generated a functional LRRK(HA) knock in allele. Given that ~92% of the Drosophila genes are located within the vicinity (<35 kb) of a MiMIC element, our methodology enables the efficient manipulation of nearly every locus in the fruit fly genome without the need for inefficient donor-dependent homologous recombination events. Copyright © 2014 Vilain et al.

Natural Products and Their Mimics as Targets of Opportunity for Discovery

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Diverse structural types of natural products and their mimics have served as targets of opportunity in our laboratory to inspire the discovery and development of new methods and strategies to assemble polyfunctional and polycyclic molecular architectures. Furthermore, our efforts toward identifying novel compounds having useful biological properties led to the creation of new targets, many of which posed synthetic challenges that required the invention of new methodology. In this Perspective, selected examples of how we have exploited a diverse range of natural products and their mimics to create, explore, and solve a variety of problems in chemistry and biology will be discussed. The journey was not without its twists and turns, but the unexpected often led to new revelations and insights. Indeed, in our recent excursion into applications of synthetic organic chemistry to neuroscience, avoiding the more-traveled paths was richly rewarding. PMID:28738152

The encapsulation of cell-free transcription and translation machinery in vesicles for the construction of cellular mimics.

PubMed

Spencer, Amy C; Torre, Paola; Mansy, Sheref S

2013-10-21

As interest shifts from individual molecules to systems of molecules, an increasing number of laboratories have sought to build from the bottom up cellular mimics that better represent the complexity of cellular life. To date there are a number of paths that could be taken to build compartmentalized cellular mimics, including the exploitation of water-in-oil emulsions, microfluidic devices, and vesicles. Each of the available options has specific advantages and disadvantages. For example, water-in-oil emulsions give high encapsulation efficiency but do not mimic well the permeability barrier of living cells. The primary advantage of the methods described herein is that they are all easy and cheap to implement. Transcription-translation machinery is encapsulated inside of phospholipid vesicles through a process that exploits common instrumentation, such as a centrifugal evaporator and an extruder. Reactions are monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy. The protocols can be adapted for recombinant protein expression, the construction of cellular mimics, the exploration of the minimum requirements for cellular life, or the assembly of genetic circuitry.

The Encapsulation of Cell-free Transcription and Translation Machinery in Vesicles for the Construction of Cellular Mimics

PubMed Central

Spencer, Amy C.; Torre, Paola; Mansy, Sheref S.

2013-01-01

As interest shifts from individual molecules to systems of molecules, an increasing number of laboratories have sought to build from the bottom up cellular mimics that better represent the complexity of cellular life. To date there are a number of paths that could be taken to build compartmentalized cellular mimics, including the exploitation of water-in-oil emulsions, microfluidic devices, and vesicles. Each of the available options has specific advantages and disadvantages. For example, water-in-oil emulsions give high encapsulation efficiency but do not mimic well the permeability barrier of living cells. The primary advantage of the methods described herein is that they are all easy and cheap to implement. Transcription-translation machinery is encapsulated inside of phospholipid vesicles through a process that exploits common instrumentation, such as a centrifugal evaporator and an extruder. Reactions are monitored by fluorescence spectroscopy. The protocols can be adapted for recombinant protein expression, the construction of cellular mimics, the exploration of the minimum requirements for cellular life, or the assembly of genetic circuitry. PMID:24192867

Quantum Gas Microscope for Fermionic Atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Okan, Melih; Cheuk, Lawrence; Nichols, Matthew; Lawrence, Katherine; Zhang, Hao; Zwierlein, Martin

2016-05-01

Strongly interacting fermions define the properties of complex matter throughout nature, from atomic nuclei and modern solid state materials to neutron stars. Ultracold atomic Fermi gases have emerged as a pristine platform for the study of many-fermion systems. In this poster we demonstrate the realization of a quantum gas microscope for fermionic 40 K atoms trapped in an optical lattice and the recent experiments which allows one to probe strongly correlated fermions at the single atom level. We combine 3D Raman sideband cooling with high- resolution optics to simultaneously cool and image individual atoms with single lattice site resolution at a detection fidelity above 95%. The imaging process leaves the atoms predominantly in the 3D motional ground state of their respective lattice sites, inviting the implementation of a Maxwell's demon to assemble low-entropy many-body states. Single-site resolved imaging of fermions enables the direct observation of magnetic order, time resolved measurements of the spread of particle correlations, and the detection of many-fermion entanglement. NSF, AFOSR-PECASE, AFOSR-MURI on Exotic Phases of Matter, ARO-MURI on Atomtronics, ONR, a Grant from the Army Research Office with funding from the DARPA OLE program, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

Molecular Dynamics Studies of Proton Transport in Hydrogenase and Hydrogenase Mimics.

PubMed

Ginovska, B; Raugei, S; Shaw, W J

2016-01-01

There is extensive interest in hydrogenases based on their ability to rapidly and efficiently interconvert H2 with protons and electrons, and their (typically) superior function relative to molecular mimics. Understanding the function of enzymes is one approach to implementing design features to make better catalysts and is an approach we have implemented in our work. In this review, we will discuss our efforts to develop design principles from enzymes, with specific focus on proton transport. We will also present computational studies of the mimics we have investigated with similar methodologies. We will discuss the mechanisms used by small scaffolds on molecular mimics which in many cases are surprisingly similar to those used by nature, while in other cases, computational analysis allowed us to reveal an unexpected role. Computational methods provide one of the best ways, and in some cases, the only way, to gain insight into the mechanistic details of enzymes. In this review, we illustrate the general computational strategy we used to study the proton pathway of [FeFe]-hydrogenase, and the similar strategy to investigate small molecules. We present the main results we obtained and how our computational work stimulated or worked in concert with experimental investigations. We also focus on estimation of errors and convergence of properties in the simulations. These studies demonstrate the powerful results that can be obtained by the close pairing of experimental and theoretical approaches. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Battelle, operator of PNNL, under Contract No: DE-AC05-76RL01830 with US DoE.

Discovery sequence and the nature of low permeability gas accumulations

USGS Publications Warehouse

Attanasi, E.D.

2005-01-01

There is an ongoing discussion regarding the geologic nature of accumulations that host gas in low-permeability sandstone environments. This note examines the discovery sequence of the accumulations in low permeability sandstone plays that were classified as continuous-type by the U.S. Geological Survey for the 1995 National Oil and Gas Assessment. It compares the statistical character of historical discovery sequences of accumulations associated with continuous-type sandstone gas plays to those of conventional plays. The seven sandstone plays with sufficient data exhibit declining size with sequence order, on average, and in three of the seven the trend is statistically significant. Simulation experiments show that both a skewed endowment size distribution and a discovery process that mimics sampling proportional to size are necessary to generate a discovery sequence that consistently produces a statistically significant negative size order relationship. The empirical findings suggest that discovery sequence could be used to constrain assessed gas in untested areas. The plays examined represent 134 of the 265 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas assessed in undeveloped areas of continuous-type gas plays in low permeability sandstone environments reported in the 1995 National Assessment. ?? 2005 International Association for Mathematical Geology.

Quantum-Fluctuation-Driven Crossover from a Dilute Bose-Einstein Condensate to a Macrodroplet in a Dipolar Quantum Fluid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chomaz, L.; Baier, S.; Petter, D.; Mark, M. J.; Wächtler, F.; Santos, L.; Ferlaino, F.

2016-10-01

In a joint experimental and theoretical effort, we report on the formation of a macrodroplet state in an ultracold bosonic gas of erbium atoms with strong dipolar interactions. By precise tuning of the s -wave scattering length below the so-called dipolar length, we observe a smooth crossover of the ground state from a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate to a dense macrodroplet state of more than 2 ×104 atoms . Based on the study of collective excitations and loss features, we prove that quantum fluctuations stabilize the ultracold gas far beyond the instability threshold imposed by mean-field interactions. Finally, we perform expansion measurements, showing that although self-bound solutions are prevented by losses, the interplay between quantum stabilization and losses results in a minimal time-of-flight expansion velocity at a finite scattering length.

Antibacterial TAP-mimic electrospun polymer scaffold: effects on P. gingivalis-infected dentin biofilm.

PubMed

Albuquerque, Maria Tereza P; Evans, Joshua D; Gregory, Richard L; Valera, Marcia C; Bottino, Marco C

2016-03-01

This study sought to investigate, in vitro, the effects of a recently developed triple antibiotic paste (TAP)-mimic polymer nanofibrous scaffold against Porphyromonas gingivalis-infected dentin biofilm. Dentin specimens (4 × 4 × 1 mm(3)) were prepared from human canines. The specimens were sterilized, inoculated with P. gingivalis (ATCC 33277), and incubated for 1 week to allow for biofilm formation. Infected dentin specimens were exposed for 3 days to the following treatments: antibiotic-free polydioxanone scaffold (PDS, control), PDS + 25 wt% TAP [25 mg of each antibiotic (metronidazole, ciprofloxacin, and minocycline) per mL of the PDS polymer solution], or a saturated TAP-based solution (50 mg of each antibiotic per mL of saline solution). In order to serve as the negative control, infected dentin specimens were left untreated (bacteria only). To determine the antimicrobial efficacy of the TAP-mimic scaffold, a colony-forming unit (CFU) per milliliter (n = 10/group) measurement was performed. Furthermore, additional specimens (n = 2/group) were prepared to qualitatively study biofilm inhibition via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Statistics were performed, and significance was set at the 5% level. Both the TAP-mimic scaffold and the positive control (TAP solution) led to complete bacterial elimination, differing statistically (p < 0.05) from the negative control group (bacteria only). No statistical differences were observed for CFU per milliliter data between antibiotic-free scaffolds (2.7 log10 CFU/mL) and the negative control (5.9 log10 CFU/mL). The obtained data revealed significant antimicrobial properties of the novel PDS-based TAP-mimic scaffold against an established P. gingivalis-infected dentin biofilm. Collectively, the data suggest that the proposed nanofibrous scaffold might be used as an alternative to the advocated clinical gold standard (i.e., TAP) for intracanal disinfection prior to regenerative endodontics.

Knockdown of Rice microRNA166 by Short Tandem Target Mimic (STTM).

PubMed

Teotia, Sachin; Zhang, Dabing; Tang, Guiliang

2017-01-01

Small RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs), are abundant in plants and play key roles in controlling plant development and physiology. miRNAs regulate the expression of the target genes involved in key plant processes. Due to functional redundancy among miRNA family members in plants, an ideal approach to silence the expression of all members simultaneously, for their functional characterization, is desirable. Target mimic (TM) was the first approach to achieve this goal. Short tandem target mimic (STTM) is a potent approach complementing TM for silencing miRNAs in plants. STTMs have been successfully used in dicots to block miRNA functions. Here, we describe in detail the protocol for designing STTM construct to block miRNA functions in rice. Such approach can be applied to silence miRNAs in other monocots as well.

Tiny Device Mimics Human Lung Function

ScienceCinema

McDonald, Rebecca; Harris, Jennifer; Nath, Pulak

2018-01-16

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory are developing a miniature, tissue-engineered artificial lung that mimics the response of the human lung to drugs, toxins and other agents. “We breathe in and out thousands of times every day. And while we have control over what we eat or drink, we don’t always have control over what we breathe in,” said Jennifer Harris of Biosecurity and Public Health at Los Alamos, "and so we’re making this miniature lung to be able to test on actual human cells whether something in the environment, or a drug, is toxic or harmful to us." Nicknamed “PuLMo” for Pulmonary Lung Model (Pulmo is also the Latin word for "lung")the device consists of two major parts, the bronchiolar unit and the alveolar unit—just like the human lung. The units are primarily made from various polymers and are connected by a microfluidic “circuit board” that manages fluid and air flow. “When we build our lung, we not only take into account the aspects of different cell types, the tissues that are involved, we also take into account that a lung is supposed to breathe, so PuLMo actually breathes,” said Pulak Nath of Applied Modern Physics, who leads engineering efforts for the project. The most exciting application of PuLMo is a potentially revolutionary improvement in the reliability of drug-toxicity assessments and the prediction of new pharmaceutical success in humans, according to Harris. The PuLMo may also be designed to mimic lung disease conditions, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma, and may be used to study lung air-flow dynamics to better understand the mechanisms of toxins and drug delivery and the effects of smoking, particularly the less-understood effects of e-cigarettes.

Novel β-amyloid aggregation inhibitors possessing a turn mimic.

PubMed

Hamada, Yoshio; Miyamoto, Naoko; Kiso, Yoshiaki

2015-04-01

Amyloid β peptide, the main component of senile plaques found in the brain of Alzheimer disease (AD) patients, is a molecular target for AD therapeutic intervention. A number of potential AD therapeutics have been reported, including inhibitors of β-secretase, γ-secretase, and Aβ aggregation, and anti-amyloid agents, such as neprilysin, insulin degrading enzyme (IDE), and Aβ antibodies. Recently, we reported potent small-sized β-secretase (BACE1) inhibitors, which could serve as anti-AD drugs. However AD is a progressive disorder, where dementia symptoms gradually worsen over several decades, and therefore may require many years to get cured. One possible way to achieve a greater therapeutic effect is through simultaneous administration of multiple drugs, similar to those used in Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) used to treat AIDS. In order to overcome AD, we took a drug discovery approach to evaluate, novel β-amyloid aggregation inhibitors. Previously, we reported that a tong-type compound possessing a turn mimic as the inhibitor of HIV-1 protease dimerization. Oligomerized amyloid β peptides contain a turn structure within the molecule. Here, we designed and synthesized novel β-amyloid aggregation inhibitors with a turn-mimic template, based on the turn conformer of the oligomerized amyloid β peptides. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The immune impact of mimic endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy and appendectomy on rabbits of acute appendicitis.

PubMed

Liu, Suqin; Pei, Fenghua; Wang, Xinhong; Li, Deliang; Zhao, Lixia; Song, Yanyan; Chen, Zhendong; Liu, Bingrong

2017-09-12

This study was conducted to evaluate the immune impact of mimic endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy and appendectomy on rabbits of acute suppurative appendicitis and to determine whether TLR4/MYD88/NF-κB signaling pathway was activated in this process. 48 rabbits were assigned into 4 groups: group I, the mimic endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy group; group II, the appendectomy group; group III, the model group; and group IV, the blank group. White blood cells decreased, while levels of C-reactive protein, tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, interleukin-4, and interleukin-10 increased on the 2 nd day in group I and II. IgA in feces decreased at 2 weeks, while fecal microbiota changed at 2 and 4 weeks after appendectomy. CD8 + cells in appendix of group I increased within 8 weeks. Upregulated expression of TLR4, MYD88, and nuclear NF-κB were detected on the 2 nd day in group I and II. Mimic endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy and appendectomy are effective ways for acute suppurative appendicitis. Mimic endoscopic retrograde appendicitis therapy was more preferable due to its advantage in maintaining intestinal immune function. TLR4/MYD88/NF-κB signaling pathway was activated in acute phase of appendicitis.

Probing topology by “heating”: Quantized circular dichroism in ultracold atoms

PubMed Central

Tran, Duc Thanh; Dauphin, Alexandre; Grushin, Adolfo G.; Zoller, Peter; Goldman, Nathan

2017-01-01

We reveal an intriguing manifestation of topology, which appears in the depletion rate of topological states of matter in response to an external drive. This phenomenon is presented by analyzing the response of a generic two-dimensional (2D) Chern insulator subjected to a circular time-periodic perturbation. Because of the system’s chiral nature, the depletion rate is shown to depend on the orientation of the circular shake; taking the difference between the rates obtained from two opposite orientations of the drive, and integrating over a proper drive-frequency range, provides a direct measure of the topological Chern number (ν) of the populated band: This “differential integrated rate” is directly related to the strength of the driving field through the quantized coefficient η0 = ν/ℏ2, where h = 2π ℏ is Planck’s constant. Contrary to the integer quantum Hall effect, this quantized response is found to be nonlinear with respect to the strength of the driving field, and it explicitly involves interband transitions. We investigate the possibility of probing this phenomenon in ultracold gases and highlight the crucial role played by edge states in this effect. We extend our results to 3D lattices, establishing a link between depletion rates and the nonlinear photogalvanic effect predicted for Weyl semimetals. The quantized circular dichroism revealed in this work designates depletion rate measurements as a universal probe for topological order in quantum matter. PMID:28835930

Interaction-induced conducting-non-conducting transition of ultra-cold atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chien, Chih-Chun; Gruss, Daniel; Di Ventra, Massimiliano; Zwolak, Michael

2013-06-01

The study of time-dependent, many-body transport phenomena is increasingly within reach of ultra-cold atom experiments. We show that the introduction of spatially inhomogeneous interactions, e.g., generated by optically controlled collisions, induce negative differential conductance in the transport of atoms in one-dimensional optical lattices. Specifically, we simulate the dynamics of interacting fermionic atoms via a micro-canonical transport formalism within both a mean-field and a higher-order approximation, as well as with a time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). For weakly repulsive interactions, a quasi-steady-state atomic current develops that is similar to the situation occurring for electronic systems subject to an external voltage bias. At the mean-field level, we find that this atomic current is robust against the details of how the interaction is switched on. Further, a conducting-non-conducting transition exists when the interaction imbalance exceeds some threshold from both our approximate and time-dependent DMRG simulations. This transition is preceded by the atomic equivalent of negative differential conductivity observed in transport across solid-state structures.

Soliton Trains Induced by Adaptive Shaping with Periodic Traps in Four-Level Ultracold Atom Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Djouom Tchenkoue, M. L.; Welakuh Mbangheku, D.; Dikandé, Alain M.

2017-06-01

It is well known that an optical trap can be imprinted by a light field in an ultracold-atom system embedded in an optical cavity, and driven by three different coherent fields. Of the three fields coexisting in the optical cavity there is an intense control field that induces a giant Kerr nonlinearity via electromagnetically-induced transparency, and another field that creates a periodic optical grating of strength proportional to the square of the associated Rabi frequency. In this work elliptic-soliton solutions to the nonlinear equation governing the propagation of the probe field are considered, with emphasis on the possible generation of optical soliton trains forming a discrete spectrum with well defined quantum numbers. The problem is treated assuming two distinct types of periodic optical gratings and taking into account the negative and positive signs of detunings (detuning above or below resonance). Results predict that the competition between the self-phase and cross-phase modulation nonlinearities gives rise to a rich family of temporal soliton train modes characterized by distinct quantum numbers.

Spatial shaping for generating arbitrary optical dipole traps for ultracold degenerate gases

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Jeffrey G., E-mail: jglee@umd.edu; Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742; Hill, W. T., E-mail: wth@umd.edu

2014-10-15

We present two spatial-shaping approaches – phase and amplitude – for creating two-dimensional optical dipole potentials for ultracold neutral atoms. When combined with an attractive or repulsive Gaussian sheet formed by an astigmatically focused beam, atoms are trapped in three dimensions resulting in planar confinement with an arbitrary network of potentials – a free-space atom chip. The first approach utilizes an adaptation of the generalized phase-contrast technique to convert a phase structure embedded in a beam after traversing a phase mask, to an identical intensity profile in the image plane. Phase masks, and a requisite phase-contrast filter, can be chemicallymore » etched into optical material (e.g., fused silica) or implemented with spatial light modulators; etching provides the highest quality while spatial light modulators enable prototyping and realtime structure modification. This approach was demonstrated on an ensemble of thermal atoms. Amplitude shaping is possible when the potential structure is made as an opaque mask in the path of a dipole trap beam, followed by imaging the shadow onto the plane of the atoms. While much more lossy, this very simple and inexpensive approach can produce dipole potentials suitable for containing degenerate gases. High-quality amplitude masks can be produced with standard photolithography techniques. Amplitude shaping was demonstrated on a Bose-Einstein condensate.« less

Pattern Differences of Small Hand Muscle Atrophy in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Mimic Disorders.

PubMed

Fang, Jia; Liu, Ming-Sheng; Guan, Yu-Zhou; Du, Hua; Li, Ben-Hong; Cui, Bo; Ding, Qing-Yun; Cui, Li-Ying

2016-04-05

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and some mimic disorders, such as distal-type cervical spondylotic amyotrophy (CSA), Hirayama disease (HD), and spinobulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) may present with intrinsic hand muscle atrophy. This study aimed to investigate different patterns of small hand muscle involvement in ALS and some mimic disorders. We compared the abductor digiti minimi/abductor pollicis brevis (ADM/APB) compound muscle action potential (CMAP) ratios between 200 ALS patients, 95 patients with distal-type CSA, 88 HD patients, 43 SBMA patients, and 150 normal controls. The ADM/APB CMAP amplitude ratio was significantly higher in the ALS patients (P < 0.001) than that in the normal controls. The ADM/APB CMAP amplitude ratio was significantly reduced in the patients with distal-type CSA (P < 0.001) and the HD patients (P < 0.001) compared with that in the normal controls. The patients with distal-type CSA had significantly lower APB CMAP amplitude than the HD patients (P = 0.004). The ADM/APB CMAP amplitude ratio was significantly lower in the HD patients (P < 0.001) than that in the patients with distal-type CSA. The ADM/APB CMAP amplitude ratio of the SBMA patients was similar to that of the normal controls (P = 0.862). An absent APB CMAP and an abnormally high ADM/APB CMAP amplitude ratio (≥4.5) were observed exclusively in the ALS patients. The different patterns of small hand muscle atrophy between the ALS patients and the patients with mimic disorders presumably reflect distinct pathophysiological mechanisms underlying different disorders, and may aid in distinguishing between ALS and mimic disorders.

Photoemission spectrum and effect of inhomogeneous pairing fluctuations in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tsuchiya, Shunji; Ohashi, Yoji; CREST

2010-09-15

We investigate the photoemission-type spectrum in a cold Fermi gas which was recently measured by the JILA group [Stewart et al., Nature (London) 454, 744 (2008)]. This quantity gives us very useful information about single-particle properties in the BCS-BEC crossover. In this paper, including pairing fluctuations within a T-matrix theory, as well as effects of a harmonic trap within the local density approximation, we show that spatially inhomogeneous pairing fluctuations due to the trap potential are an important key to understanding the observed spectrum. In the crossover region, while strong pairing fluctuations lead to the so-called pseudogap phenomenon in themore » trap center, such strong-coupling effects are found to be weak around the edge of the gas. Our results including this effect are shown to agree well with the recent photoemission data of the JILA group.« less

Measuring the dynamic structure factor of a quantum gas undergoing a structural phase transition

PubMed Central

Landig, Renate; Brennecke, Ferdinand; Mottl, Rafael; Donner, Tobias; Esslinger, Tilman

2015-01-01

The dynamic structure factor is a central quantity describing the physics of quantum many-body systems, capturing structure and collective excitations of a material. In condensed matter, it can be measured via inelastic neutron scattering, which is an energy-resolving probe for the density fluctuations. In ultracold atoms, a similar approach could so far not be applied because of the diluteness of the system. Here we report on a direct, real-time and nondestructive measurement of the dynamic structure factor of a quantum gas exhibiting cavity-mediated long-range interactions. The technique relies on inelastic scattering of photons, stimulated by the enhanced vacuum field inside a high finesse optical cavity. We extract the density fluctuations, their energy and lifetime while the system undergoes a structural phase transition. We observe an occupation of the relevant quasi-particle mode on the level of a few excitations, and provide a theoretical description of this dissipative quantum many-body system. PMID:25944151

Stochastic and equilibrium pictures of the ultracold Fano-Feshbach-resonance molecular conversion rate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamakoshi, Tomotake; Watanabe, Shinichi; Zhang, Chen; Greene, Chris H.

2013-05-01

The ultracold molecular conversion rate occurring in an adiabatic ramp through a Fano-Feshbach resonance is studied and compared in two statistical models. One model, the so-called stochastic phase-space sampling (SPSS) [Hodby , Phys. Rev. Lett.PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.94.120402 94, 120402 (2005)] evaluates the overlap of two atomic distributions in phase space by sampling atomic pairs according to a phase-space criterion. The other model, the chemical equilibrium theory (ChET) [Watabe and Nikuni, Phys. Rev. APLRAAN1050-294710.1103/PhysRevA.77.013616 77, 013616 (2008)] considers atomic and molecular distributions in the limit of the chemical and thermal equilibrium. The present study applies SPSS and ChET to a prototypical system of K+K→ K2 in all the symmetry combinations, namely Fermi-Fermi, Bose-Bose, and Bose-Fermi cases. To examine implications of the phase-space criterion for SPSS, the behavior of molecular conversion is analyzed using four distinct geometrical constraints. Our comparison of the results of SPSS with those of ChET shows that while they appear similar in most situations, the two models give rise to rather dissimilar behaviors when the presence of a Bose-Einstein condensate strongly affects the molecule formation.

Synthetic miR-145 Mimic Enhances the Cytotoxic Effect of the Antiangiogenic Drug Sunitinib in Glioblastoma.

PubMed

Liu, Hongwei; Liu, Zhixiong; Jiang, Bing; Huo, Lei; Liu, Jinfang; Lu, Jingchen

2015-06-01

Although aggressive therapeutic regimen has been applied in the treatment of Glioblastoma (GBM), the prognosis of patients with GBM remains poor. Preclinical studies have demonstrated the efficacy of Suntinib in GBM both in vitro and in vivo. In this study, we showed that the cytotoxicity was enhanced by transfection with miR-145 mimic. In addition, we suggested that the enhanced cytotoxicity of Sunitinib by miR-145 mimic was mediated by inhibition of both P-gp and Bcrp.

ALMA Observations of Gas-rich Galaxies in z ˜ 1.6 Galaxy Clusters: Evidence for Higher Gas Fractions in High-density Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noble, A. G.; McDonald, M.; Muzzin, A.; Nantais, J.; Rudnick, G.; van Kampen, E.; Webb, T. M. A.; Wilson, G.; Yee, H. K. C.; Boone, K.; Cooper, M. C.; DeGroot, A.; Delahaye, A.; Demarco, R.; Foltz, R.; Hayden, B.; Lidman, C.; Manilla-Robles, A.; Perlmutter, S.

2017-06-01

We present ALMA CO (2-1) detections in 11 gas-rich cluster galaxies at z ˜ 1.6, constituting the largest sample of molecular gas measurements in z > 1.5 clusters to date. The observations span three galaxy clusters, derived from the Spitzer Adaptation of the Red-sequence Cluster Survey. We augment the >5σ detections of the CO (2-1) fluxes with multi-band photometry, yielding stellar masses and infrared-derived star formation rates, to place some of the first constraints on molecular gas properties in z ˜ 1.6 cluster environments. We measure sizable gas reservoirs of 0.5-2 × 1011 M ⊙ in these objects, with high gas fractions (f gas) and long depletion timescales (τ), averaging 62% and 1.4 Gyr, respectively. We compare our cluster galaxies to the scaling relations of the coeval field, in the context of how gas fractions and depletion timescales vary with respect to the star-forming main sequence. We find that our cluster galaxies lie systematically off the field scaling relations at z = 1.6 toward enhanced gas fractions, at a level of ˜4σ, but have consistent depletion timescales. Exploiting CO detections in lower-redshift clusters from the literature, we investigate the evolution of the gas fraction in cluster galaxies, finding it to mimic the strong rise with redshift in the field. We emphasize the utility of detecting abundant gas-rich galaxies in high-redshift clusters, deeming them as crucial laboratories for future statistical studies.

Antiproliferative efficacy of curcumin mimics through microtubule destabilization.

PubMed

Khwaja, Sadiya; Fatima, Kaneez; Hasanain, Mohammad; Behera, Chittaranjan; Kour, Avneet; Singh, Arjun; Luqman, Suaib; Sarkar, Jayanta; Chanda, Debabrata; Shanker, Karuna; Gupta, A K; Mondhe, D M; Negi, Arvind S

2018-05-10

Curcumin possesses an attractive chemical structure with highly conjugated diferuloylmethane core. Curcumin mimics have been designed and prepared with an additional bridged phenyl ring in conjugation. Fourteen diverse analogues were evaluated against a panel of human cancer cell lines. The best analogue of the series i.e. compound 6a exhibited potent cytotoxicity against A431, epidermoid carcinoma cell line (IC 50  = 1.5 μM) and DLD1, colorectal adenocarcinoma cell line (IC 50  = 6.9 μM). In tubulin kinetics experiment, compound 6a destabilized polymerisation process (IC 50  = 4.68 μM). In cell cycle analysis, compound 6a exerted G2/M phase arrest in A431 cells and induced apoptosis. In Ehrlich Ascites Carcinoma in Swiss-albino mice, compound 6a showed 78.6% tumour reduction at 80 mg/kg dose and 57% solid tumour reduction at 150 mg/kg dose. Further, in acute-oral toxicity experiment in rodent model, compound 6a was given in three different oral doses to Swiss albino mice. There were non-significant changes in various biochemical parameters and major body organs studied, including their absolute and relative weights. It was tolerable up to 300 mg/kg dose in Swiss-albino mice. The present study shows that the novel curcumin mimic 6a is a safe and efficacious anticancer compound. However, it needs to be optimized for better efficacy. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Topology, edge states, and zero-energy states of ultracold atoms in one-dimensional optical superlattices with alternating on-site potentials or hopping coefficients

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Yan; Wright, Kevin; Kouachi, Said; Chien, Chih-Chun

2018-02-01

One-dimensional superlattices with periodic spatial modulations of onsite potentials or tunneling coefficients can exhibit a variety of properties associated with topology or symmetry. Recent developments of ring-shaped optical lattices allow a systematic study of those properties in superlattices with or without boundaries. While superlattices with additional modulating parameters are shown to have quantized topological invariants in the augmented parameter space, we also found localized or zero-energy states associated with symmetries of the Hamiltonians. Probing those states in ultracold atoms is possible by utilizing recently proposed methods analyzing particle depletion or the local density of states. Moreover, we summarize feasible realizations of configurable optical superlattices using currently available techniques.

New strigolactone mimics: structure-activity relationship and mode of action as germinating stimulants for parasitic weeds.

PubMed

Zwanenburg, Binne; Nayak, Sandip K; Charnikhova, Tatsiana V; Bouwmeester, Harro J

2013-09-15

Strigolactones (SLs) are new plant hormones with varies important bio-functions. This Letter deals with germination of seeds of parasitic weeds. Natural SLs have a too complex structure for synthesis. Therefore, there is an active search for SL analogues and mimics with a simpler structure with retention of activity. SL analogues all contain the D-ring connected with an enone moiety through an enol ether unit. A new mechanism for the hydrolysis SL analogues involving bidentate bound water and an α,β-hydrolase with a Ser-His-Asp catalytic triad has been proposed. Newly discovered SL mimics only have the D-ring with an appropriate leaving group at C-5. A mode of action for SL mimics was proposed for which now supporting evidence is provided. As predicted an extra methyl group at C-4 of the D-ring blocks the germination of seeds of parasitic weeds. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diagnosis of Atopic Dermatitis: Mimics, Overlaps, and Complications

PubMed Central

Siegfried, Elaine C.; Hebert, Adelaide A.

2015-01-01

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common skin diseases affecting infants and children. A smaller subset of adults has persistent or new-onset AD. AD is characterized by pruritus, erythema, induration, and scale, but these features are also typical of several other conditions that can mimic, coexist with, or complicate AD. These include inflammatory skin conditions, infections, infestations, malignancies, genetic disorders, immunodeficiency disorders, nutritional disorders, graft-versus-host disease, and drug eruptions. Familiarity of the spectrum of these diseases and their distinguishing features is critical for correct and timely diagnosis and optimal treatment. PMID:26239454

Decidualized endometrioma during pregnancy: recognizing an imaging mimic of ovarian malignancy.

PubMed

Poder, Liina; Coakley, Fergus V; Rabban, Joseph T; Goldstein, Ruth B; Aziz, Seerat; Chen, Lee-may

2008-01-01

To present the ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging findings that may allow for a prospective diagnosis and expectant management of decidualized endometriomas because the rare occurrence of decidualization in the ectopic endometrial stroma of an endometrioma during pregnancy can mimic ovarian cancer at imaging. Smooth lobulated mural nodules with prominent internal vascularity were noted in an apparent right ovarian endometrioma on serial ultrasound studies in a 34-year-old woman at 12, 21, 27, and 30 weeks of gestation. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated the nodules to be strikingly similar in intensity and texture to the decidualized endometrium in the uterus on T2-weighted sequences. A provisional diagnosis of decidualized endometrioma allowed for expectant management with immediate postpartum resection and confirmation of the diagnosis. Decidualized endometrioma can mimic ovarian malignancy during pregnancy, but a prospective diagnosis may be possible when solid smoothly lobulated nodules with prominent internal vascularity within an endometrioma are seen from early in pregnancy, and the nodules demonstrate marked similarity in signal intensity and texture with the decidualized endometrium in the uterus at magnetic resonance imaging.

Quenching of internally 'hot' H2 and N2 gases by collisions with ultracold electrons: a computational 'experiment'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gianturco, F. A.

2008-11-01

Quantum mechanical methods are employed to obtain superelastic cross sections involving H2 and N2 molecules, in excited rotational states, colliding with electrons at the very low collision energies which are encountered in cold trap experiments. This computational analysis intends to explore the feasibility of cold electrons for the collisional quenching of molecular gases down to the nanokelvin regimes. The results are obtained using rigorous coupled-channel (CC) calculations in the laboratory frame of reference which allows one to correctly describe the cross section behaviour at ultralow energies. The results are analysed down to the ultracold region of validity of Wigner's law, where it is found that electron-driven collisions exhibit substantial efficiency for the quenching of rotational populations in molecular gases involving the title systems. This work is affectionately dedicated to Anna Giardini, a creative experimentalist and a long-time friend, on the occasion of her 'official' retirement.

Targeted delivery of microRNA 146b mimic to hepatocytes by lactosylated PDMAEMA nanoparticles for the treatment of NAFLD.

PubMed

He, Shuying; Guo, Weihong; Deng, Feihong; Chen, Kequan; Jiang, Yonghong; Dong, Minyu; Peng, Liang; Chen, Xueqing

2018-03-21

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common chronic liver diseases worldwide, and precision therapeutic will be a benefit for the NAFLD regression. In this study, we observed low microRNA 146 b (miR-146 b) expression in NAFLD mice model induced by methionine-choline-deficient diet (MCD) compared with control group. Furthermore, miR-146b -/- mice induced MCD exhibited severe liver steatosis and hepatitis. A bio-distribution study showed that novel Lactosylated PDMAEMA nanoparticles effectively targeted hepatocytes Lac-PDMAEMA. We coupled miR-146b mimic with Lac-PDMAEMA and then were administrated to NAFLD mice model, which could obviously alleviate the hepatic steatosis. Lac-PDMAEMA effectively delivered miR-146b mimic to hepatocytes with a ∼8-fold upregulation of miR-146b mimic targeting MyD88 and IRAK1, and in turn suppressed the expression of PPARγ. Meanwhile, TNF-α and IL-6 mRNA levels were decreased after administration of Lac-PDMAEMA/miR-146b mimic. So, we made a conclusion that targeted delivering miR-146b mimic to the hepatocytes by, coupling Lac-PDMAEMA nanoparticles could effectively alleviate the hepatic steatosis in NAFLD mice, which maybe bring a new and effective way to intervene and therapy the NAFLD.

Neutron lifetime measurements with a large gravitational trap for ultracold neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serebrov, A. P.; Kolomensky, E. A.; Fomin, A. K.; Krasnoshchekova, I. A.; Vassiljev, A. V.; Prudnikov, D. M.; Shoka, I. V.; Chechkin, A. V.; Chaikovskiy, M. E.; Varlamov, V. E.; Ivanov, S. N.; Pirozhkov, A. N.; Geltenbort, P.; Zimmer, O.; Jenke, T.; Van der Grinten, M.; Tucker, M.

2018-05-01

Neutron lifetime is one of the most important physical constants: it determines parameters of the weak interaction and predictions of primordial nucleosynthesis theory. There remains the unsolved problem of a 3.9σ discrepancy between measurements of this lifetime using neutrons in beams and those with stored ultracold neutrons (UCN). In our experiment we measure the lifetime of neutrons trapped by Earth's gravity in an open-topped vessel. Two configurations of the trap geometry are used to change the mean frequency of UCN collisions with the surfaces; this is achieved by plunging an additional surface into the trap without breaking the vacuum. The trap walls are coated with a hydrogen-less fluorine-containing polymer to reduce losses of UCN. The stability of this coating over multiple thermal cycles between 80 and 300 K was tested. At 80 K, the probability of UCN loss due to collisions with the trap walls is just 1.5% of the probability of β decay. The free neutron lifetime is determined by extrapolation to an infinitely large trap with zero collision frequency. The result of these measurements is τn=881.5 ±0 .7stat ±0 .6syst s which is consistent with the conventional value of 880.2 ± 1.0 s presented by the Particle Data Group. Future prospects for this experiment are in further cooling to 10 K, which will lead to an improved accuracy of measurement. In conclusion we present an analysis of currently available data on various measurements of the neutron lifetime.

Supradiaphragmatic ectopic liver: delayed traumatic hepatic hernia mimics pulmonary tumor.

PubMed

Huang, C-S; Hsu, W-H; Hsia, C-Y

2007-06-01

We present a rare case of a 63-year-old woman, the oldest one in the literature, with supradiaphragmatic ectopic liver that mimics a pulmonary nodule. The chest roentgenogram and chest computer tomography showed a lobulated tumor nearby the diaphragm. Pathological examination of the resected tumor disclosed only remarkable fatty liver change. Ectopic liver should be kept in mind to differentiate for the pulmonary tumor nearby the diaphragm.

Threshold singularities in a Fermi gas with attractive potential in one dimension

DOE PAGES

Schlottmann, P.; Zvyagin, A. A.

2015-01-15

We consider the one-dimensional gas of fermions with spin S interacting via an attractive δ-function potential using the Bethe Ansatz solution. In zero magnetic field the atoms form bound states of N=2S + 1 fermions, i.e. generalized Cooper states with each atom having a different spin component. For low energy excitations the system is a Luttinger liquid and is properly described by a conformal field theory with conformal charge c=1. The linear dispersion of a Luttinger liquid is asymptotically exact in the low-energy limit where the band curvature terms in the dispersion are irrelevant. For higher energy excitations, however, themore » spectral function displays deviations in the neighborhood of the single-particle (hole) energy, which can be described by an effective X-ray edge type model. Using the Bethe Ansatz solution we obtain expressions for the critical exponents for the single-particle (hole) Green’s function. This model can be relevant in the context of ultracold atoms with effective total spin S confined to an elongated optical trap.« less

Differential effects of lesion mimic mutants in barley on disease development by facultative pathogens

PubMed Central

McGrann, Graham R. D.; Steed, , Andrew; Burt, Christopher; Nicholson, Paul; Brown, James K. M.

2015-01-01

Lesion mimic mutants display spontaneous necrotic spots and chlorotic leaves as a result of mis-regulated cell death programmes. Typically these mutants have increased resistance to biotrophic pathogens but their response to facultative fungi that cause necrotrophic diseases is less well studied. The effect of altered cell death regulation on the development of disease caused by Ramularia collo-cygni, Fusarium culmorum and Oculimacula yallundae was explored using a collection of barley necrotic (nec) lesion mimic mutants. nec8 mutants displayed lower levels of all three diseases compared to nec9 mutants, which had increased R. collo-cygni but decreased F. culmorum disease symptoms. nec1 mutants reduced disease development caused by both R. collo-cygni and F. culmorum. The severity of the nec1-induced lesion mimic phenotype and F. culmorum symptom development was reduced by mutation of the negative cell death regulator MLO. The significant reduction in R. collo-cygni symptoms caused by nec1 was completely abolished in the presence of the mlo-5 allele and both symptoms and fungal biomass were greater than in the wild-type. These results indicate that physiological pathways involved in regulation of cell death interact with one another in their effects on different fungal pathogens. PMID:25873675

Fermi Gas Microscope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setiawan, Widagdo

Recent advances in using microscopes in ultracold atom experiment have allowed experimenters for the first time to directly observe and manipulate individual atoms in individual lattice sites. This technique enhances our capability to simulate strongly correlated systems such as Mott insulator and high temperature superconductivity. Currently, all ultracold atom experiments with high resolution imaging capability use bosonic atoms. In this thesis, I present our progress towards creating the fermionic version of the microscope experiment which is more suitable for simulating real condensed matter systems. Lithium is ideal due to the existence of both fermionic and bosonic isotopes, its light mass, which means faster experiment time scales that suppresses many sources of technical noise, and also due to the existence of a broad Feshbach resonance, which can be used to tune the inter-particle interaction strength over a wide range from attractive, non-interacting, and repulsive interactions. A high numerical aperture objective will be used to image and manipulate the atoms with single lattice site resolution. This setup should allow us to implement the Hubbard hamiltonian which could describe interesting quantum phases such as antiferromagnetism, d-wave superfluidity, and high temperature superconductivity. I will also discuss the feasibility of the Raman sideband cooling method for cooling the atoms during the imaging process. We have also developed a new electronic control system to control the sequence of the experiment. This electronic system is very scalable in order to keep up with the increasing complexity of atomic physics experiments. Furthermore, the system is also designed to be more precise in order to keep up with the faster time scale of lithium experiment.

Loading ultracold gases in topological Floquet bands: the fate of current and center-of-mass responses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dauphin, Alexandre; Tran, Duc-Thanh; Lewenstein, Maciej; Goldman, Nathan

2017-06-01

Topological band structures can be designed by subjecting lattice systems to time-periodic modulations, as was proposed for irradiated graphene, and recently demonstrated in two-dimensional (2D) ultracold gases and photonic crystals. However, changing the topological nature of Floquet Bloch bands from trivial to non-trivial, by progressively launching the time-modulation, is necessarily accompanied with gap-closing processes: this has important consequences for the loading of particles into a target Floquet band with non-trivial topology, and hence, on the subsequent measurements. In this work, we analyse how such loading sequences can be optimized in view of probing the topology of 2D Floquet bands through transport measurements. In particular, we demonstrate the robustness of center-of-mass responses, as compared to current responses, which present important irregularities due to an interplay between the micro-motion of the drive and inter-band interference effects. The results presented in this work illustrate how probing the center-of-mass displacement of atomic clouds offers a reliable method to detect the topology of Floquet bands, after realistic loading sequences.

Biomaterial delivery of morphogens to mimic the natural healing cascade in bone

PubMed Central

Mehta, Manav; Schmidt-Bleek, Katharina; Duda, Georg N; Mooney, David J

2012-01-01

Complications in treatment of large bone defects using bone grafting still remain. Our understanding of the endogenous bone regeneration cascade has inspired the exploration of a wide variety of growth factors (GFs) in an effort to mimic the natural signaling that controls bone healing. Biomaterial-based delivery of single exogenous GFs has shown therapeutic efficacy, and this likely relates to its ability to recruit and promote replication of cells involved in tissue development and the healing process. However, as the natural bone healing cascade involves the action of multiple factors, each acting in a specific spatiotemporal pattern, strategies aiming to mimic the critical aspects of this process will likely benefit from the usage of multiple therapeutic agents. This article reviews the current status of approaches to deliver single GFs, as well as ongoing efforts to develop sophisticated delivery platforms to deliver multiple lineage-directing morphogens (multiple GFs) during bone healing. PMID:22626978

Biomaterial delivery of morphogens to mimic the natural healing cascade in bone.

PubMed

Mehta, Manav; Schmidt-Bleek, Katharina; Duda, Georg N; Mooney, David J

2012-09-01

Complications in treatment of large bone defects using bone grafting still remain. Our understanding of the endogenous bone regeneration cascade has inspired the exploration of a wide variety of growth factors (GFs) in an effort to mimic the natural signaling that controls bone healing. Biomaterial-based delivery of single exogenous GFs has shown therapeutic efficacy, and this likely relates to its ability to recruit and promote replication of cells involved in tissue development and the healing process. However, as the natural bone healing cascade involves the action of multiple factors, each acting in a specific spatiotemporal pattern, strategies aiming to mimic the critical aspects of this process will likely benefit from the usage of multiple therapeutic agents. This article reviews the current status of approaches to deliver single GFs, as well as ongoing efforts to develop sophisticated delivery platforms to deliver multiple lineage-directing morphogens (multiple GFs) during bone healing. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Differential effects of sugar-mimic alkaloids in mulberry latex on sugar metabolism and disaccharidases of Eri and domesticated silkworms: enzymatic adaptation of Bombyx mori to mulberry defense.

PubMed

Hirayama, Chikara; Konno, Kotaro; Wasano, Naoya; Nakamura, Masatoshi

2007-12-01

Mulberry leaves (Morus spp.) exude latex rich in sugar-mimic alkaloids, 1,4-dideoxy-1,4-imino-d-arabinitol (d-AB1) and 1-deoxynojirimycin (DNJ), as a defense against herbivorous insects. Sugar-mimic alkaloids are inhibitors of sugar-metabolizing enzymes, and are toxic to the Eri silkworm, Samia ricini, a generalist herbivore, but not at all to the domesticated silkworm, Bombyx mori, a mulberry specialist. To address the phenomena, we fed both larvae diets containing different sugar sources (sucrose, glucose or none) with or without sugar-mimic alkaloids from mulberry latex. In S. ricini, addition of sugar-mimic alkaloids to the sucrose (the major sugar in mulberry leaves) diet reduced both growth and the absorption ratio of sugar, but it reduced neither in B. mori. The midgut soluble sucrase activity of S. ricini was low and inhibited by very low concentrations of sugar-mimic alkaloids (IC(50)=0.9-8.2microM), but that of B. mori was high and not inhibited even by very high concentrations (IC(50)>1000microM) of sugar-mimic alkaloids. In S. ricini, the addition of sugar-mimic alkaloids to the glucose diet still had considerable negative effects on growth, although it did not reduce the absorption ratio of glucose. The hemolymph of S. ricini fed sugar-mimic alkaloids contained sugar-mimic alkaloids. The trehalose concentration in the hemolymph increased significantly in S. ricini fed sugar-mimic alkaloids, but not in B. mori. The trehalase activities of S. ricini were lower and inhibited by lower concentrations of sugar-mimic alkaloids than those of B. mori. These results suggest that sugar-mimic alkaloids in mulberry latex exert toxicity to S. ricini larvae first by inhibiting midgut sucrase and digestion of sucrose, and secondly, after being absorbed into hemolymph, by inhibiting trehalase and utilization of trehalose, the major blood sugar. Further, our results reveal that B. mori larvae evolved enzymatic adaptation to mulberry defense by developing sucrase and

Representing life in the Earth system with soil microbial functional traits in the MIMICS model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wieder, W. R.; Grandy, A. S.; Kallenbach, C. M.; Taylor, P. G.; Bonan, G. B.

2015-06-01

Projecting biogeochemical responses to global environmental change requires multi-scaled perspectives that consider organismal diversity, ecosystem processes, and global fluxes. However, microbes, the drivers of soil organic matter decomposition and stabilization, remain notably absent from models used to project carbon (C) cycle-climate feedbacks. We used a microbial trait-based soil C model with two physiologically distinct microbial communities, and evaluate how this model represents soil C storage and response to perturbations. Drawing from the application of functional traits used to model other ecosystems, we incorporate copiotrophic and oligotrophic microbial functional groups in the MIcrobial-MIneral Carbon Stabilization (MIMICS) model; these functional groups are akin to "gleaner" vs. "opportunist" plankton in the ocean, or r- vs. K-strategists in plant and animal communities. Here we compare MIMICS to a conventional soil C model, DAYCENT (the daily time-step version of the CENTURY model), in cross-site comparisons of nitrogen (N) enrichment effects on soil C dynamics. MIMICS more accurately simulates C responses to N enrichment; moreover, it raises important hypotheses involving the roles of substrate availability, community-level enzyme induction, and microbial physiological responses in explaining various soil biogeochemical responses to N enrichment. In global-scale analyses, we show that MIMICS projects much slower rates of soil C accumulation than a conventional soil biogeochemistry in response to increasing C inputs with elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) - a finding that would reduce the size of the land C sink estimated by the Earth system. Our findings illustrate that tradeoffs between theory and utility can be overcome to develop soil biogeochemistry models that evaluate and advance our theoretical understanding of microbial dynamics and soil biogeochemical responses to environmental change.

Widespread Long Noncoding RNAs as Endogenous Target Mimics for MicroRNAs in Plants1[W

PubMed Central

Wu, Hua-Jun; Wang, Zhi-Min; Wang, Meng; Wang, Xiu-Jie

2013-01-01

Target mimicry is a recently identified regulatory mechanism for microRNA (miRNA) functions in plants in which the decoy RNAs bind to miRNAs via complementary sequences and therefore block the interaction between miRNAs and their authentic targets. Both endogenous decoy RNAs (miRNA target mimics) and engineered artificial RNAs can induce target mimicry effects. Yet until now, only the Induced by Phosphate Starvation1 RNA has been proven to be a functional endogenous microRNA target mimic (eTM). In this work, we developed a computational method and systematically identified intergenic or noncoding gene-originated eTMs for 20 conserved miRNAs in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa). The predicted miRNA binding sites were well conserved among eTMs of the same miRNA, whereas sequences outside of the binding sites varied a lot. We proved that the eTMs of miR160 and miR166 are functional target mimics and identified their roles in the regulation of plant development. The effectiveness of eTMs for three other miRNAs was also confirmed by transient agroinfiltration assay. PMID:23429259

Measurement of the Spatial Distribution of Ultracold Cesium Rydberg Atoms by Time-of-Flight Spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Jingkui; Zhang, Linjie; Zhang, Hao; Zhao, Jianming; Jia, Suotang

2015-09-01

We prepare nS (n = 49) cesium Rydberg atoms by two-photon excitation in a standard magnetooptical trap to obtain the spatial distribution of the Rydberg atoms by measuring the time-of-flight (TOF) spectra in the case of a low Rydberg density. We analyze the time evolution of the ultracold nS Rydberg atoms distribution by changing the delay time of the pulsed ionization field, defined as the duration from the moment of switching off the excitation lasers to the time of switching on the ionization field. TOF spectra of Rydberg atoms are observed as a function of the delay time and initial Rydberg atomic density. The corresponding full widths at half maximum (FWHMs) are obtained by fitting the spectra with a Gaussian profile. The FWHM decreases with increasing delay time at a relatively high Rydberg atom density (>5 × 107/cm3) because of the decreasing Coulomb interaction between released charges during their flight to the detector. The temperature of the cold atoms is deduced from the dependence of the TOF spectra on the delay time under the condition of low Rydberg atom density.

Quantum measurement-induced dynamics of many-body ultracold bosonic and fermionic systems in optical lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mazzucchi, Gabriel; Kozlowski, Wojciech; Caballero-Benitez, Santiago F.; Elliott, Thomas J.; Mekhov, Igor B.

2016-02-01

Trapping ultracold atoms in optical lattices enabled numerous breakthroughs uniting several disciplines. Coupling these systems to quantized light leads to a plethora of new phenomena and has opened up a new field of study. Here we introduce an unusual additional source of competition in a many-body strongly correlated system: We prove that quantum backaction of global measurement is able to efficiently compete with intrinsic short-range dynamics of an atomic system. The competition becomes possible due to the ability to change the spatial profile of a global measurement at a microscopic scale comparable to the lattice period without the need of single site addressing. In coherence with a general physical concept, where new competitions typically lead to new phenomena, we demonstrate nontrivial dynamical effects such as large-scale multimode oscillations, long-range entanglement, and correlated tunneling, as well as selective suppression and enhancement of dynamical processes beyond the projective limit of the quantum Zeno effect. We demonstrate both the breakup and protection of strongly interacting fermion pairs by measurement. Such a quantum optical approach introduces into many-body physics novel processes, objects, and methods of quantum engineering, including the design of many-body entangled environments for open systems.

MiR-26b Mimic Inhibits Glioma Proliferation In Vitro and In Vivo Suppressing COX-2 Expression.

PubMed

Chen, Zheng-Gang; Zheng, Chuan-Yi; Cai, Wang-Qing; Li, Da-Wei; Ye, Fu-Yue; Zhou, Jian; Wu, Ran; Yang, Kun

2017-08-11

Glioma is the most common malignant tumor of the nervous system. Studies have shown the microRNA (miR)-26b/cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 axis in the development and progression in many tumor cells. Our study aims to investigate the effect and mechanism of miR-26b/COX-2 axis in glioma. Decreased expression of miR-26b with increased level of COX-2 was found in glioma tissues compared with matched normal tissues. A strong negative correlation was observed between the level of miR-26b and COX-2 in 30 glioma tissues. The miR-26b was then overexpressed by transfecting miR-26b mimic into U-373 cells. The invasive cell number and wounld closing rate were reduced in U-373 cells transfected with miR-26b mimic. Besides, COX2 siRNA enhanced the effect of miR-26b mimic in suppressing the expression of p-ERK1 and p-JNK. Finally, the in vivo experiment revealed that miR-26b mimic transfection strongly reduced the tumor growth, tumor volume and the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2, MMP-9). Taken together, our research indicated a miR-26b/COX-2/ERK/JNK axis in regulating the motility of glioma in vitro and in vivo, providing a new sight for treatment of glioma.

Fluorescent discrimination between traces of chemical warfare agents and their mimics.

PubMed

Díaz de Greñu, Borja; Moreno, Daniel; Torroba, Tomás; Berg, Alexander; Gunnars, Johan; Nilsson, Tobias; Nyman, Rasmus; Persson, Milton; Pettersson, Johannes; Eklind, Ida; Wästerby, Pär

2014-03-19

An array of fluorogenic probes is able to discriminate between nerve agents, sarin, soman, tabun, VX and their mimics, in water or organic solvent, by qualitative fluorescence patterns and quantitative multivariate analysis, thus making the system suitable for the in-the-field detection of traces of chemical warfare agents as well as to differentiate between the real nerve agents and other related compounds.

Urinary bladder: normal appearance and mimics of malignancy at CT urography

PubMed Central

Sadow, Cheryl A.; Anik Sahni, V.; Silverman, Stuart G.

2011-01-01

Abstract The objective of this review article is to learn how to recognize anatomic variants and benign entities that mimic bladder cancer at computed tomography (CT) urography. Building on recent data that suggest that CT urography can be used to diagnose bladder cancer, recognition of anatomic variants and benign entities will help improve radiologists’ ability to diagnose bladder cancer. PMID:21771710

Daughters mimic sterile neutrinos (almost!) perfectly

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hasenkamp, Jasper, E-mail: Jasper.Hasenkamp@nyu.edu

Since only recently, cosmological observations are sensitive to hot dark matter (HDM) admixtures with sub-eV mass, m{sub hdm}{sup eff} < eV, that are not fully-thermalised, Δ N{sub eff} < 1. We argue that their almost automatic interpretation as a sterile neutrino species is neither from theoretical nor practical parsimony principles preferred over HDM formed by decay products (daughters) of an out-of-equilibrium particle decay. While daughters mimic sterile neutrinos in N{sub eff} and m{sub hdm}{sup eff}, there are opportunities to assess this possibility in likelihood analyses. Connecting cosmological parameters and moments of momentum distribution functions, we show that—also in the case of mass-degenerate daughters with indistinguishablemore » main physical effects—the mimicry breaks down when the next moment, the skewness, is considered. Predicted differences of order one in the root-mean-squares of absolute momenta are too small for current sensitivities.« less

Bell's palsy syndrome: mimics and chameleons.

PubMed

Fuller, Geraint; Morgan, Cathy

2016-12-01

In this article we will explore the mimics and chameleons of Bell's palsy and in addition argue that we should use the term 'Bell's palsy syndrome' to help guide clinical reasoning when thinking about patients with facial weakness. The diagnosis of Bell's palsy can usually be made on clinical grounds without the need for further investigations. This is because the diagnosis is not one of exclusion (despite this being commonly how it is described), a lower motor neurone facial weakness where all alternative causes have been eliminated, but rather a positive recognition of a clinical syndrome, with a number of exclusions, which are described below. This perhaps would be more accurately referred to a 'Bell's palsy syndrome'. Treatment with corticosteroids improves outcome; adding an antiviral probably reduces the rates of long-term complications. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Radio-Frequency-Controlled Cold Collisions and Universal Properties of Unitary Bose Gases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, Yijue

This thesis investigates two topics: ultracold atomic collisions in a radio-frequency field and universal properties of a degenerate unitary Bose gas. One interesting point of the unitary Bose gas is that the system has only one length scale, that is, the average interparticle distance. This single parameter determines all properties of the gas, which is called the universality of the system. We first introduce a renormalized contact interaction to extend the validity of the zero-range interaction to large scattering lengths. Then this renormalized interaction is applied to many-body theories to determined those universal relations of the system. From the few-body perspective, we discuss the scattering between atoms in a single-color radio-frequency field. Our motivation is proposing the radio-frequency field as an effective tool to control interactions between cold atoms. Such a technique may be useful in future experiments such as creating phase transitions in spinor condensates. We also discuss the formation of ultracold molecules using radio-freqency fields from a time-dependent approach.

Regional gas transport in the heterogeneous lung during oscillatory ventilation.

PubMed

Herrmann, Jacob; Tawhai, Merryn H; Kaczka, David W

2016-12-01

Regional ventilation in the injured lung is heterogeneous and frequency dependent, making it difficult to predict how an oscillatory flow waveform at a specified frequency will be distributed throughout the periphery. To predict the impact of mechanical heterogeneity on regional ventilation distribution and gas transport, we developed a computational model of distributed gas flow and CO 2 elimination during oscillatory ventilation from 0.1 to 30 Hz. The model consists of a three-dimensional airway network of a canine lung, with heterogeneous parenchymal tissues to mimic effects of gravity and injury. Model CO 2 elimination during single frequency oscillation was validated against previously published experimental data (Venegas JG, Hales CA, Strieder DJ, J Appl Physiol 60: 1025-1030, 1986). Simulations of gas transport demonstrated a critical transition in flow distribution at the resonant frequency, where the reactive components of mechanical impedance due to airway inertia and parenchymal elastance were equal. For frequencies above resonance, the distribution of ventilation became spatially clustered and frequency dependent. These results highlight the importance of oscillatory frequency in managing the regional distribution of ventilation and gas exchange in the heterogeneous lung. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Regional gas transport in the heterogeneous lung during oscillatory ventilation

PubMed Central

Herrmann, Jacob; Tawhai, Merryn H.

2016-01-01

Regional ventilation in the injured lung is heterogeneous and frequency dependent, making it difficult to predict how an oscillatory flow waveform at a specified frequency will be distributed throughout the periphery. To predict the impact of mechanical heterogeneity on regional ventilation distribution and gas transport, we developed a computational model of distributed gas flow and CO2 elimination during oscillatory ventilation from 0.1 to 30 Hz. The model consists of a three-dimensional airway network of a canine lung, with heterogeneous parenchymal tissues to mimic effects of gravity and injury. Model CO2 elimination during single frequency oscillation was validated against previously published experimental data (Venegas JG, Hales CA, Strieder DJ, J Appl Physiol 60: 1025–1030, 1986). Simulations of gas transport demonstrated a critical transition in flow distribution at the resonant frequency, where the reactive components of mechanical impedance due to airway inertia and parenchymal elastance were equal. For frequencies above resonance, the distribution of ventilation became spatially clustered and frequency dependent. These results highlight the importance of oscillatory frequency in managing the regional distribution of ventilation and gas exchange in the heterogeneous lung. PMID:27763872

Characterization and fine mapping of a light-dependent leaf lesion mimic mutant 1 in rice.

PubMed

Wang, Jing; Ye, Bangquan; Yin, Junjie; Yuan, Can; Zhou, Xiaogang; Li, Weitao; He, Min; Wang, Jichun; Chen, Weilan; Qin, Peng; Ma, Bintian; Wang, Yuping; Li, Shigui; Chen, Xuewei

2015-12-01

Plants that spontaneously produce lesion mimics or spots, without any signs of obvious adversity, such as pesticide and mechanical damage, or pathogen infection, are so-called lesion mimic mutants (lmms). In rice, many lmms exhibit enhanced resistance to pathogens, which provides a unique opportunity to uncover the molecular mechanism underlying lmms. We isolated a rice light-dependent leaf lesion mimic mutant 1 (llm1). Lesion spots appeared in the leaves of the llm1 mutant at the tillering stage. Furthermore, the mutant llm1 had similar agronomic traits to wild type rice. Trypan blue and diamiobenzidine staining analyses revealed that the lesion spot formation on the llm1 mutant was due to programmed cell death and reactive oxygen species. The chloroplasts were severely damaged in the llm1 mutant, suggesting that chloroplast damage was associated with the formation of lesion spots in llm1. More importantly, llm1 exhibited enhanced resistance to bacterial blight pathogens within increased expression of pathogenesis related genes (PRs). Using a map-based cloning approach, we delimited the LLM1 locus to a 121-kb interval between two simple sequence repeat markers, RM17470 and RM17473, on chromosome 4. We sequenced the candidate genes on the interval and found that a base mutation had substituted adenine phosphate for thymine in the last exon of LOC_Os04g52130, which led to an amino acid change (Asp(388) to Val) in the llm1 mutant. Our investigation showed that the putative coproporphyrinogen III oxidase (CPOX) encoded by LOC_Os04g52130 was produced by LLM1 and that amino acid Asp(388) was essential for CPOX function. Our study provides the basis for further investigations into the mechanism underlying lesion mimic initiation associated with LLM1. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Observation of photoassociation of ultracold sodium and cesium at the asymptote Na (3S1/2) + Cs (6P1/2)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Jizhou; Liu, Wenliang; Wang, Xiaofeng; Ma, Jie; Li, Dan; Sovkov, Vladimir B.; Xiao, Liantuan; Jia, Suotang

2018-05-01

We report on the production of ultracold heteronuclear NaCs* molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap through photoassociation. The electronically excited molecules are formed below the Na (3S1/2) + Cs (6P1/2) dissociation limit. 12 resonance lines are detected using trap-loss spectroscopy based on a highly sensitive modulation technique. The highest observed rovibrational level exhibits clear hyperfine structure, which is detected for the first time. This structure is simulated within a simplified model consisting of 4 coupled levels belonging to the initially unperturbed Hund's case "a" electronic states, which have been explored in our previous work that dealt with the Na (3S1/2) + Cs (6P3/2) asymptote [W. Liu et al., Phys. Rev. A 94, 032518 (2016)].

Equilibrium and Non-Equilibrium Condensation Phenomena in Tuneable 3D and 2D Bose Gases

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-04-01

condensed gas " which remains condensed above the expected critical temperature, and performed one of the first studies of the strongly-interacting "unitary...34 Bose gas . With the 2d harmonic trap we showed how the interaction-driven BKT phase is connected with purely statistical theory, and with the 3d...box trap we created the world’s first atomic BEC in a quasi-uniform potential. 15. SUBJECT TERMS EOARD, Bose gas , ultracold, condensation, equilibrium

Effects of model-mimic frequency on insect visitation and plant reproduction in a self-mimicry pollination system

PubMed Central

Oleques, Suiane Santos; Marciniak, Brisa; Ribeiro, José Ricardo I

2017-01-01

Abstract The proportion of mimics and models is a key parameter in mimetic systems. In monoecious plants with self-mimicry pollination systems, the mimic-model ratio is determined by the floral sex ratio. While an equal sex ratio (1:1) could provide the perfect balance between pollen donors and stigma surfaces able to receive the pollen, an unequal ratio could increase pollination by production of a greater number of rewarding, model flowers. The aim of the present study is to test the differences in visitation frequency and reproductive rates of different mimic and model flower arrays in order to assess the efficacy of the mimetic system in a Begonia cucullata population. The frequencies of visitors to groups of flowers with three distinctive sex ratio arrays (male-biased, female-biased and equal ratio) were compared using a Bayesian approach. The reproductive outcomes were compared in order to detect advantages of particular sex ratios. Low visitation frequency was recorded in all arrays. Pollinators showed similar behaviour regardless of sex ratio; they tended to avoid female, rewardless flowers. Pollination quality was highest in the equal sex ratio array. The current study shows that sex ratio plays a critical role in the pollination of B. cucullata and that the efficacy of the self-mimicry system appears to be doubtful. Visitation frequency may be associated with visual or chemical cues that allow pollinators to recognize models and mimics, regardless of their frequency in the population. PMID:29255587

Effects of model-mimic frequency on insect visitation and plant reproduction in a self-mimicry pollination system.

PubMed

de Avila, Rubem Samuel; Oleques, Suiane Santos; Marciniak, Brisa; Ribeiro, José Ricardo I

2017-11-01

The proportion of mimics and models is a key parameter in mimetic systems. In monoecious plants with self-mimicry pollination systems, the mimic-model ratio is determined by the floral sex ratio. While an equal sex ratio (1:1) could provide the perfect balance between pollen donors and stigma surfaces able to receive the pollen, an unequal ratio could increase pollination by production of a greater number of rewarding, model flowers. The aim of the present study is to test the differences in visitation frequency and reproductive rates of different mimic and model flower arrays in order to assess the efficacy of the mimetic system in a Begonia cucullata population. The frequencies of visitors to groups of flowers with three distinctive sex ratio arrays (male-biased, female-biased and equal ratio) were compared using a Bayesian approach. The reproductive outcomes were compared in order to detect advantages of particular sex ratios. Low visitation frequency was recorded in all arrays. Pollinators showed similar behaviour regardless of sex ratio; they tended to avoid female, rewardless flowers. Pollination quality was highest in the equal sex ratio array. The current study shows that sex ratio plays a critical role in the pollination of B. cucullata and that the efficacy of the self-mimicry system appears to be doubtful. Visitation frequency may be associated with visual or chemical cues that allow pollinators to recognize models and mimics, regardless of their frequency in the population.

Magnetic Tunnel Junction Mimics Stochastic Cortical Spiking Neurons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sengupta, Abhronil; Panda, Priyadarshini; Wijesinghe, Parami; Kim, Yusung; Roy, Kaushik

2016-07-01

Brain-inspired computing architectures attempt to mimic the computations performed in the neurons and the synapses in the human brain in order to achieve its efficiency in learning and cognitive tasks. In this work, we demonstrate the mapping of the probabilistic spiking nature of pyramidal neurons in the cortex to the stochastic switching behavior of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction in presence of thermal noise. We present results to illustrate the efficiency of neuromorphic systems based on such probabilistic neurons for pattern recognition tasks in presence of lateral inhibition and homeostasis. Such stochastic MTJ neurons can also potentially provide a direct mapping to the probabilistic computing elements in Belief Networks for performing regenerative tasks.

Synthesis and Functional Characterization of Novel Sialyl LewisX Mimic-Decorated Liposomes for E-selectin-Mediated Targeting to Inflamed Endothelial Cells.

PubMed

Chantarasrivong, Chanikarn; Ueki, Akiharu; Ohyama, Ryutaro; Unga, Johan; Nakamura, Shinya; Nakanishi, Isao; Higuchi, Yuriko; Kawakami, Shigeru; Ando, Hiromune; Imamura, Akihiro; Ishida, Hideharu; Yamashita, Fumiyoshi; Kiso, Makoto; Hashida, Mitsuru

2017-05-01

Sialyl LewisX (sLeX) is a natural ligand of E-selectin that is overexpressed by inflamed and tumor endothelium. Although sLeX is a potential ligand for drug targeting, synthesis of the tetrasaccharide is complicated with many reaction steps. In this study, structurally simplified novel sLeX analogues were designed and linked with 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-polyethylene glycol-2000 (DSPE-PEG) for E-selectin-mediated liposomal delivery. The sLeX structural simplification strategies include (1) replacement of the Gal-GlcNAc disaccharide unit with lactose to reduce many initial steps and (2) substitution of neuraminic acid with a negatively charged group, i.e., 3'-sulfo, 3'-carboxymethyl (3'-CM), or 3'-(1-carboxy)ethyl (3'-CE). While all the liposomes developed were similar in particle size and charge, the 3'-CE sLeX mimic liposome demonstrated the highest uptake in inflammatory cytokine-treated human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), being even more potent than native sLeX-decorated liposomes. Inhibition studies using antiselectin antibodies revealed that their uptake was mediated primarily by overexpressed E-selectin on inflamed HUVECs. Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to gain mechanistic insight into the E-selectin binding differences among native and mimic sLeX. The terminally branched methyl group of the 3'-CE sLeX mimic oriented and faced the bulk hydrophilic solution during E-selectin binding. Since this state is entropically unfavorable, the 3'-CE sLeX mimic molecule might be pushed toward the binding pocket of E-selectin by a hydrophobic effect, leading to a higher probability of hydrogen-bond formation than native sLeX and the 3'-CM sLeX mimic. This corresponded with the fact that the 3'-CE sLeX mimic liposome exhibited much greater uptake than the 3'-CM sLeX mimic liposome.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of paclitaxel-mimics possessing only the oxetane D-ring and side chain structures.

PubMed

Chen, Xing-Xiu; Gao, Feng; Wang, Qi; Huang, Xing; Wang, Dan

2014-01-01

Two spiro paclitaxel-mimics consisting only of an oxetane D-ring and a C-13 side chain were designed and synthesized on the basis of analysis of structure-activity relationships (SAR) of paclitaxel. In vitro microtubule-stabilizing and antiproliferative assays indicated a moderate weaker activity of the mimics than paclitaxel, but which still represented the first example of simplified paclitaxel analogues with significant anti-tumor biological activity. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pseudogap temperature and effects of a harmonic trap in the BCS-BEC crossover regime of an ultracold Fermi gas

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tsuchiya, Shunji; Research and Education Center for Natural Sciences, Keio University, 4-1-1 Hiyoshi, Kanagawa 223-8521; CREST

2011-10-15

We theoretically investigate excitation properties in the pseudogap regime of a trapped Fermi gas. Using a combined T-matrix theory with the local density approximation, we calculate strong-coupling corrections to single-particle local density of states (LDOS), as well as the single-particle local spectral weight (LSW). Starting from the superfluid phase transition temperature T{sub c}, we clarify how the pseudogap structures in these quantities disappear with increasing the temperature. As in the case of a uniform Fermi gas, LDOS and LSW give different pseudogap temperatures T{sup *} and T{sup **} at which the pseudogap structures in these quantities completely disappear. Determining T{supmore » *} and T{sup **} over the entire BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer)-BEC (Bose-Einstein condensation) crossover region, we identify the pseudogap regime in the phase diagram with respect to the temperature and the interaction strength. We also show that the so-called back-bending peak recently observed in the photoemission spectra by the JILA group may be explained as an effect of pseudogap phenomenon in the trap center. Since strong pairing fluctuations, spatial inhomogeneity, and finite temperatures are important keys in considering real cold Fermi gases, our results would be useful for clarifying normal-state properties of this strongly interacting Fermi system.« less

Metal-based superoxide dismutase and catalase mimics reduce oxidative stress biomarkers and extend life span of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

PubMed

Ribeiro, Thales de P; Fonseca, Fernanda L; de Carvalho, Mariana D C; Godinho, Rodrigo M da C; de Almeida, Fernando Pereira; Saint'Pierre, Tatiana D; Rey, Nicolás A; Fernandes, Christiane; Horn, Adolfo; Pereira, Marcos D

2017-01-15

Aging is a natural process characterized by several biological changes. In this context, oxidative stress appears as a key factor that leads cells and organisms to severe dysfunctions and diseases. To cope with reactive oxygen species and oxidative-related damage, there has been increased use of superoxide dismutase (SOD)/catalase (CAT) biomimetic compounds. Recently, we have shown that three metal-based compounds {[Fe(HPClNOL)Cl 2 ]NO 3 , [Cu(HPClNOL)(CH 3 CN)](ClO 4 ) 2 and Mn(HPClNOL)(Cl) 2 }, harboring in vitro SOD and/or CAT activities, were critical for protection of yeast cells against oxidative stress. In this work, treating Saccharomyces cerevisiae with these SOD/CAT mimics (25.0 µM/1 h), we highlight the pivotal role of these compounds to extend the life span of yeast during chronological aging. Evaluating lipid and protein oxidation of aged cells, it becomes evident that these mimics extend the life expectancy of yeast mainly due to the reduction in oxidative stress biomarkers. In addition, the treatment of yeast cells with these mimics regulated the amounts of lipid droplet occurrence, consistent with the requirement and protection of lipids for cell integrity during aging. Concerning SOD/CAT mimics uptake, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, we add new evidence that these complexes, besides being bioabsorbed by S. cerevisiae cells, can also affect metal homeostasis. Finally, our work presents a new application for these SOD/CAT mimics, which demonstrate a great potential to be employed as antiaging agents. Taken together, these promising results prompt future studies concerning the relevance of administration of these molecules against the emerging aging-related diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's. © 2017 The Author(s); published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society.

Live Cell Imaging Reveals Differential Modifications to Cytoplasmic Dynein Properties by Phospho- and Dephospho-mimic Mutations of the Intermediate Chain 2C S84

PubMed Central

Blasier, Kiev R.; Humsi, Michael K.; Ha, Junghoon; Ross, Mitchell W.; Smiley, W. Russell; Inamdar, Nirja A.; Mitchell, David J.; Lo, Kevin W.-H.; Pfister, K. Kevin

2014-01-01

Cytoplasmic dynein is a multi-subunit motor protein responsible for intracellular cargo transport toward microtubule minus ends. There are multiple isoforms of the dynein intermediate chain (DYNC1I, IC) which is encoded by two genes. One way to regulate cytoplasmic dynein is by IC phosphorylation. The IC-2C isoform is expressed in all cells and the functional significance of phosphorylation on IC-2C serine 84 was investigated using live cell imaging of fluorescent protein-tagged wild type IC-2C (WT) and phospho- and dephospho-mimic mutant isoforms in axonal transport model systems. Both mutations modulated dynein functional properties. The dephospho-mimic mutant IC-2C S84A had greater co-localization with mitochondria than IC-2C wild-type (WT) or the phospho-mimic mutant IC-2C S84D. The dephospho-mimic mutant IC-2C S84A was also more likely to be motile than the phospho-mimic mutant IC-2C S84D or IC-2C WT. In contrast, the phospho-mimic mutant IC-2C S84D mutant was more likely to move in the retrograde direction than was the IC-2C S84A mutant. The phospho-mimic IC-2C S84D was also as likely as IC-2C WT to co-localize with mitochondria. Both the S84D phospho- and S84A, dephospho-mimic mutants were found to be capable of microtubule minus end directed (retrograde) movement in axons. They were also observed to be passively transported in the anterograde direction. These data suggest that the IC-2C S84 has a role in modulating dynein properties. PMID:24798412

Measurement of the Neutron Beta Decay Lifetime using Magnetically Trapped Ultracold Neutrons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adamek, Evan Robert

The neutron lifetime is an important parameter in the Standard Model of particle physics, with influences on the electroweak interaction and on Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Measurements of this quantity in cold beam experiments and in experiments using ultracold neutrons (UCN) disagree; this discrepancy may indicate that these measurements possess unaccounted-for systematic errors. The UCNtau experiment at Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCe) utilizes an asymmetrical magneto-gravitational storage volume with an in-situ vanadium detector. This setup is designed to either avoid or control many of the weaknesses that reduce systematic precision in other UCN lifetime experiments. Controlling for the many measurable errors requires detailed calculation and simulation, aided, for example, by the Geant4 Monte Carlo particle transport toolkit, which has been used to create a high fidelity model of the UCNtau experiment for modeling UCN transport, storage, and detection. Through the course of running the experiment, improvements in knowledge of particle measurement have led to improvements to the transport and to the detectors used in various parts of the experiment. With the experimental setup optimized to account for the subtleties of the measurement, the 2014-2015 beam period at LANSCe generated 85 measurement runs from which we could calculate the storage lifetime. Careful analysis of the effects of background on the vanadium detector assembly allowed for elimination of undesired signal and allowed for the extraction of a preliminary value for the neutron lifetime and the determination of areas to improve for the following run cycle.

Utility of a tumor-mimic model for the evaluation of the accuracy of HIFU treatments. results of in vitro experiments in the liver.

PubMed

N'Djin, William Apoutou; Melodelima, David; Parmentier, Hubert; Chesnais, Sabrina; Rivoire, Michel; Chapelon, Jean Yves

2008-12-01

Presented in this article is a tumor-mimic model that allows the evaluation, before clinical trials, of the targeting accuracy of a high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) device for the treatment of the liver. The tumor-mimic models are made by injecting a warm solution that polymerizes in hepatic tissue and forms a 1 cm discrete lesion that is detectable by ultrasound imaging and gross pathology. First, the acoustical characteristics of the tumor-mimics model were measured in order to determine if this model could be used as a target for the evaluation of the accuracy of HIFU treatments without modifying HIFU lesions in terms of size, shape and homogeneity. On average (n = 10), the attenuation was 0.39 +/- 0.05 dB.cm(-1) at 1 MHz, the ultrasound propagation velocity was 1523 +/- 1 m.s(-1) and the acoustic impedance was 1.84 +/- 0.00 MRayls. Next, the tumor-mimic models were used in vitro in order to verify, at a preclinical stage, that lesions created by HIFU devices guided by ultrasound imaging are properly positioned in tissues. The HIFU device used in this study is a 256-element phased-array toroid transducer working at a frequency of 3 MHz with an integrated ultrasound imaging probe working at a frequency of 7.5 MHz. An initial series of in vitro experiments has shown that there is no significant difference in the dimensions of the HIFU lesions created in the liver with or without tumor-mimic models (p = 0.3049 and p = 0.8796 for the diameter and depth, respectively). A second in vitro study showed that HIFU treatments performed on five tumor-mimics with safety margins of at least 1 mm were properly positioned. The margins obtained were on average 9.3 +/- 2.7 mm (min. 3.0 - max. 20.0 mm). This article presents in vitro evidence that these tumor-mimics are identifiable by ultrasound imaging, they do not modify the geometry of HIFU lesions and, thus, they constitute a viable model of tumor-mimics indicated for HIFU therapy.

Synthesis, physicochemical characterization and biological evaluation of chitosan sulfate as heparan sulfate mimics.

PubMed

Doncel-Pérez, Ernesto; Aranaz, Inmaculada; Bastida, Agatha; Revuelta, Julia; Camacho, Celia; Acosta, Niuris; Garrido, Leoncio; Civera, Concepción; García-Junceda, Eduardo; Heras, Angeles; Fernández-Mayoralas, Alfonso

2018-07-01

Despite the relevant biological functions of heparan sulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycans, their limited availability and the chemical heterogeneity from natural sources hamper their use for biomedical applications. Chitosan sulfates (ChS) exhibit structural similarity to HSs and may mimic their biological functions. We prepared a variety of ChS with different degree of sulfation to evaluate their ability to mimic HS in protein binding and to promote neural cell division and differentiation. The structure of the products was characterized using various spectroscopic and analytical methods. The study of their interaction with different growth factors showed that ChS bound to the proteins similarly or even better than heparin. In cell cultures, a transition effect on cell number was observed as a function of ChS concentration. Differences in promoting the expression of the differentiation markers were also found depending on the degree of sulfation and modification in the chitosan. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantum gas microscopy of the interacting Harper-Hofstadter system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tai, M. Eric; Lukin, Alex; Preiss, Philipp; Rispoli, Matthew; Schittko, Robert; Kaufman, Adam; Greiner, Markus

2016-05-01

At the heart of many topological states is the underlying gauge field. One example of a gauge field is the magnetic field which causes the deflection of a moving charged particle. This behavior can be understood through the Aharonov-Bohm phase that a particle acquires upon traversing a closed path. Gauge fields give rise to novel states of matter that cannot be described with symmetry breaking. Instead, these states, e.g. fractional quantum Hall (FQH) states, are characterized by topological invariants, such as the Chern number. In this talk, we report on experimental results upon introducing a gauge field in a system of strongly-interacting ultracold Rb87 atoms confined to a 2D optical lattice. With single-site resolution afforded by a quantum gas microscope, we can prepare a fixed atom number and project hard walls. With an artificial gauge field, this quantum simulator realizes the Harper-Hofstadter Hamiltonian. We can independently control the two tunneling strengths as well as dynamically change the flux. This flexibility enables studies of topological phenomena from many perspectives, e.g. site-resolved images of edge currents. With the strong on-site interactions possible in our system, these experiments will pave the way to observing FQH-like states in a lattice.

The Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov state for ultracold fermions in lattice and harmonic potentials: a review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kinnunen, Jami J.; Baarsma, Jildou E.; Martikainen, Jani-Petri; Törmä, Päivi

2018-04-01

We review the concepts and the present state of theoretical studies of spin-imbalanced superfluidity, in particular the elusive Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state, in the context of ultracold quantum gases. The comprehensive presentation of the theoretical basis for the FFLO state that we provide is useful also for research on the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity in other physical systems. We focus on settings that have been predicted to be favourable for the FFLO state, such as optical lattices in various dimensions and spin–orbit coupled systems. These are also the most likely systems for near-future experimental observation of the FFLO state. Theoretical bounds, such as Bloch’s and Luttinger’s theorems, and experimentally important limitations, such as finite-size effects and trapping potentials, are considered. In addition, we provide a comprehensive review of the various ideas presented for the observation of the FFLO state. We conclude our review with an analysis of the open questions related to the FFLO state, such as its stability, superfluid density, collective modes and extending the FFLO superfluid concept to new types of lattice systems.

Approaches to efficient molecular catalyst systems for photochemical H2 production using [FeFe]-hydrogenase active site mimics.

PubMed

Wang, Mei; Chen, Lin; Li, Xueqiang; Sun, Licheng

2011-12-28

The research on structural and functional biomimics of the active site of [FeFe]-hydrogenases is in an attempt to elucidate the mechanisms of H(2)-evolution and uptake at the [FeFe]-hydrogenase active site, and to learn from Nature how to create highly efficient H(2)-production catalyst systems. Undoubtedly, it is a challenging, arduous, and long-term work. In this perspective, the progresses in approaches to photochemical H(2) production using mimics of the [FeFe]-hydrogenase active site as catalysts in the last three years are reviewed, with emphasis on adjustment of the redox potentials and hydrophilicity of the [FeFe]-hydrogenase active site mimics to make them efficient catalysts for H(2) production. With gradually increasing understanding of the chemistry of the [FeFe]-hydrogenases and their mimics, more bio-inspired proton reduction catalysts with significantly improved efficiency of H(2) production will be realized in the future. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011

A microbially derived tyrosine-sulfated peptide mimics a plant peptide hormone.

PubMed

Pruitt, Rory N; Joe, Anna; Zhang, Weiguo; Feng, Wei; Stewart, Valley; Schwessinger, Benjamin; Dinneny, José R; Ronald, Pamela C

2017-07-01

The biotrophic pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) produces a sulfated peptide named RaxX, which shares similarity to peptides in the PSY (plant peptide containing sulfated tyrosine) family. We hypothesize that RaxX mimics the growth-stimulating activity of PSY peptides. Root length was measured in Arabidopsis and rice treated with synthetic RaxX peptides. We also used comparative genomic analyses and reactive oxygen species burst assays to evaluate the activity of RaxX and PSY peptides. Here we found that a synthetic sulfated RaxX derivative comprising 13 residues (RaxX13-sY), highly conserved between RaxX and PSY, induces root growth in Arabidopsis and rice in a manner similar to that triggered by PSY. We identified residues that are required for activation of immunity mediated by the rice XA21 receptor but that are not essential for root growth induced by PSY. Finally, we showed that a Xanthomonas strain lacking raxX is impaired in virulence. These findings suggest that RaxX serves as a molecular mimic of PSY peptides to facilitate Xoo infection and that XA21 has evolved the ability to recognize and respond specifically to the microbial form of the peptide. © 2017 UT-Battelle LLC. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.

A microbially derived tyrosine-sulfated peptide mimics a plant peptide hormone

PubMed Central

Pruitt, Rory N.; Joe, Anna; Zhang, Weiguo; Feng, Wei; Stewart, Valley; Schwessinger, Benjamin; Dinneny, José R.; Ronald, Pamela C.

2018-01-01

Summary The biotrophic pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) produces a sulfated peptide named RaxX, which shares similarity to peptides in the PSY (plant peptide containing sulfated tyrosine) family. We hypothesize that RaxX mimics the growth-stimulating activity of PSY peptides.Root length was measured in Arabidopsis and rice treated with synthetic RaxX peptides. We also used comparative genomic analyses and reactive oxygen species burst assays to evaluate the activity of RaxX and PSY peptides.Here we found that a synthetic sulfated RaxX derivative comprising 13 residues (RaxX13-sY), highly conserved between RaxX and PSY, induces root growth in Arabidopsis and rice in a manner similar to that triggered by PSY. We identified residues that are required for activation of immunity mediated by the rice XA21 receptor but that are not essential for root growth induced by PSY. Finally, we showed that a Xanthomonas strain lacking raxX is impaired in virulence.These findings suggest that RaxX serves as a molecular mimic of PSY peptides to facilitate Xoo infection and that XA21 has evolved the ability to recognize and respond specifically to the microbial form of the peptide. PMID:28556915

In Vivo Evaluation of Lung Microwave Ablation in a Porcine Tumor Mimic Model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Planche, Olivier, E-mail: oli.hrp@gmail.com; Teriitehau, Christophe; Boudabous, Sana

2013-02-15

To evaluate the microwave ablation of created tumor mimics in the lung of a large animal model (pigs), with examination of the ablative synergy of multiple antennas. Fifty-six tumor-mimic models of various sizes were created in 15 pigs by using barium-enriched minced collected thigh muscle injected into the lung of the same animal. Tumors were ablated under fluoroscopic guidance by single-antenna and multiple-antenna microwaves. Thirty-five tumor models were treated in 11 pigs with a single antenna at 75 W for 15 min, with 15 measuring 20 mm in diameter, 10 measuring 30 mm, and 10 measuring 40 mm. Mean circularitymore » of the single-antenna ablation zones measured 0.64 {+-} 0.12, with a diameter of 35.7 {+-} 8.7 mm along the axis of the antenna and 32.7 {+-} 12.8 mm perpendicular to the feeding point. Multiple-antenna delivery of 75 W for 15 min caused intraprocedural death of 2 animals; modified protocol to 60 W for 10 min resulted in an ablation zone with a diameter of 43.0 {+-} 7.7 along the axis of the antenna and 54.8 {+-} 8.5 mm perpendicular to the feeding point; circularity was 0.70 {+-} 0.10. A single microwave antenna can create ablation zones large enough to cover lung tumor mimic models of {<=}4 cm with no heat sink effect from vessels of {<=}6 mm. Synergic use of 3 antennas allows ablation of larger volumes than single-antenna or radiofrequency ablation, but great caution must be taken when 3 antennas are used simultaneously in the lung in clinical practice.« less

Measurement of spin-flip probabilities for ultracold neutrons interacting with nickel phosphorus coated surfaces

DOE PAGES

Tang, Zhaowen; Adamek, Evan Robert; Brandt, Aaron; ...

2016-04-26

In this paper, we report a measurement of the spin-flip probabilities for ultracold neutrons interacting with surfaces coated with nickel phosphorus. For 50 μm thick nickel phosphorus coated on stainless steel, the spin-flip probability per bounce was found to be β NiP on SS = (3.3 +1.8, -5.6) X 10 -6. For 50 μm thick nickel phosphorus coated on aluminum, the spin-flip probability per bounce was found to be β NiP on Al = (3.6 +2.1, -5.9) X 10 -6. For the copper guide used as reference, the spin flip probability per bounce was found to be β Cu =more » (6.7 + 5.0, -2.5) X 10 -6. The results on the nickel phosphorus-coated surfaces may be interpreted as upper limits, yielding β NiP on SS < 6.2 X 10 -6 (90% C.L.) and β NiP on Al < 7.0 X 10 -6 (90% C.L.) for 50 μm thick nickel phosphorus coated on stainless steel and 50 μm thick nickel phosphorus coated on aluminum, respectively. Finally, nickel phosphorus coated stainless steel or aluminum provides a solution when low-cost, mechanically robust, and non-depolarizing UCN guides with a high Fermi potential are needed.« less

Malakoplakia mimics urinary bladder cancer: a case report.

PubMed

Ristić-Petrović, Ana; Stojnev, Slavica; Janković-Velicković, Ljubinka; Marjanović, Goran

2013-06-01

Malakoplakia is an unusual and very rare chronic inflammatory disease. In bladder especially it can mimic malignancy and lead to serious misdiagnosis. We presented a case of a middle-aged woman with persistent macrohematuria and cystoscopically polypoid bladder mass that resembled a neoplastic process. The final diagnosis was based on cystoscopic biopsy and microscopic findings of acidophilic, foamy histiocytes with the presence of Michaelis-Gutmann inclusions which are characteristic for diagnosis of malakoplakia. Immunohistochemistry confirmed diagnosis by demonstrating CD68-positive macrophages. Urinary bladder malakoplakia should be considered in patients with persistent urinary tract infections and tumor mass at cystoscopy. Early identification with prompt antibiotic treatment can be helpful in avoiding unnecessary surgical interventions and in preventing development of possible complications.

Sensitive electrochemical assaying of DNA methyltransferase activity based on mimic-hybridization chain reaction amplified strategy.

PubMed

Zhang, Linqun; Liu, Yuanjian; Li, Ying; Zhao, Yuewu; Wei, Wei; Liu, Songqin

2016-08-24

A mimic-hybridization chain reaction (mimic-HCR) amplified strategy was proposed for sensitive electrochemically detection of DNA methylation and methyltransferase (MTase) activity In the presence of methylated DNA, DNA-gold nanoparticles (DNA-AuNPs) were captured on the electrode by sandwich-type assembly. It then triggered mimic-HCR of two hairpin probes to produce many long double-helix chains for numerous hexaammineruthenium (III) chloride ([Ru(NH3)6](3+), RuHex) inserting. As a result, the signal for electrochemically detection of DNA MTase activity could be amplified. If DNA was non-methylated, however, the sandwich-type assembly would not form because the short double-stranded DNAs (dsDNA) on the Au electrode could be cleaved and digested by restriction endonuclease HpaII (HapII) and exonuclease III (Exo III), resulting in the signal decrement. Based on this, an electrochemical approach for detection of M.SssI MTase activity with high sensitivity was developed. The linear range for M.SssI MTase activity was from 0.05 U mL(-1) to 10 U mL(-1), with a detection limit down to 0.03 U mL(-1). Moreover, this detecting strategy held great promise as an easy-to-use and highly sensitive method for other MTase activity and inhibition detection by exchanging the corresponding DNA sequence. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Collection of Target Mimics for Comprehensive Analysis of MicroRNA Function in Arabidopsis thaliana

PubMed Central

Paz-Ares, Javier; Weigel, Detlef

2010-01-01

Many targets of plant microRNAs (miRNAs) are thought to play important roles in plant physiology and development. However, because plant miRNAs are typically encoded by medium-size gene families, it has often been difficult to assess their precise function. We report the generation of a large-scale collection of knockdowns for Arabidopsis thaliana miRNA families; this has been achieved using artificial miRNA target mimics, a recently developed technique fashioned on an endogenous mechanism of miRNA regulation. Morphological defects in the aerial part were observed for ∼20% of analyzed families, all of which are deeply conserved in land plants. In addition, we find that non-cleavable mimic sites can confer translational regulation in cis. Phenotypes of plants expressing target mimics directed against miRNAs involved in development were in several cases consistent with previous reports on plants expressing miRNA–resistant forms of individual target genes, indicating that a limited number of targets mediates most effects of these miRNAs. That less conserved miRNAs rarely had obvious effects on plant morphology suggests that most of them do not affect fundamental aspects of development. In addition to insight into modes of miRNA action, this study provides an important resource for the study of miRNA function in plants. PMID:20661442

Quantum Phase Transitions in the Bose Hubbard Model and in a Bose-Fermi Mixture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duchon, Eric Nicholas

Ultracold atomic gases may be the ultimate quantum simulator. These isolated systems have the lowest temperatures in the observable universe, and their properties and interactions can be precisely and accurately tuned across a full spectrum of behaviors, from few-body physics to highly-correlated many-body effects. The ability to impose potentials on and tune interactions within ultracold gases to mimic complex systems mean they could become a theorist's playground. One of their great strengths, however, is also one of the largest obstacles to this dream: isolation. This thesis touches on both of these themes. First, methods to characterize phases and quantum critical points, and to construct finite temperature phase diagrams using experimentally accessible observables in the Bose Hubbard model are discussed. Then, the transition from a weakly to a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture in the continuum is analyzed using zero temperature numerical techniques. Real materials can be emulated by ultracold atomic gases loaded into optical lattice potentials. We discuss the characteristics of a single boson species trapped in an optical lattice (described by the Bose Hubbard model) and the hallmarks of the quantum critical region that separates the superfluid and the Mott insulator ground states. We propose a method to map the quantum critical region using the single, experimentally accessible, local quantity R, the ratio of compressibility to local number fluctuations. The procedure to map a phase diagram with R is easily generalized to inhomogeneous systems and generic many-body Hamiltonians. We illustrate it here using quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the 2D Bose Hubbard model. Secondly, we investigate the transition from a degenerate Fermi gas weakly coupled to a Bose Einstein condensate to the strong coupling limit of composite boson-fermion molecules. We propose a variational wave function to investigate the ground state properties of such a Bose-Fermi mixture

A Simplified Approach to Encephalitis and Its Mimics: Key Clinical Decision Points in the Setting of Specific Imaging Abnormalities.

PubMed

McKnight, Colin D; Kelly, Aine M; Petrou, Myria; Nidecker, Anna E; Lorincz, Matthew T; Altaee, Duaa K; Gebarski, Stephen S; Foerster, Bradley

2017-06-01

Infectious encephalitis is a relatively common cause of morbidity and mortality. Treatment of infectious encephalitis with antiviral medication can be highly effective when administered promptly. Clinical mimics of encephalitis arise from a broad range of pathologic processes, including toxic, metabolic, neoplastic, autoimmune, and cardiovascular etiologies. These mimics need to be rapidly differentiated from infectious encephalitis to appropriately manage the correct etiology; however, the many overlapping signs of these various entities present a challenge to accurate diagnosis. A systematic approach that considers both the clinical manifestations and the imaging findings of infectious encephalitis and its mimics can contribute to more accurate and timely diagnosis. Following an institutional review board approval, a health insurance portability and accountability act (HIPAA)-compliant search of our institutional imaging database (teaching files) was conducted to generate a list of adult and pediatric patients who presented between January 1, 1995 and October 10, 2013 for imaging to evaluate possible cases of encephalitis. Pertinent medical records, including clinical notes as well as surgical and pathology reports, were reviewed and correlated with imaging findings. Clinical and imaging findings were combined to generate useful flowcharts designed to assist in distinguishing infectious encephalitis from its mimics. Key imaging features were reviewed and were placed in the context of the provided flowcharts. Four flowcharts were presented based on the primary anatomic site of imaging abnormality: group 1: temporal lobe; group 2: cerebral cortex; group 3: deep gray matter; and group 4: white matter. An approach that combines features on clinical presentation was then detailed. Imaging examples were used to demonstrate similarities and key differences. Early recognition of infectious encephalitis is critical, but can be quite complex due to diverse pathologies and

A novel nitrogen-dependent gene associates with the lesion mimic trait in wheat

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Lesion mimic (LM) refers to hypersensitive reaction-like (HRL) symptoms that appears on leaf tissue in the absence of plant pathogens. In a wheat line P7001, LM showed up on the leaves under the 0 g nitrogen (N) treatment, but disappeared when sufficient N was supplied, suggesting that LM is N-respo...

Early diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mimic syndromes: pros and cons of current clinical diagnostic criteria.

PubMed

Cortés-Vicente, Elena; Pradas, Jesús; Marín-Lahoz, Juan; De Luna, Noemi; Clarimón, Jordi; Turon-Sans, Janina; Gelpí, Ellen; Díaz-Manera, Jordi; Illa, Isabel; Rojas-Garcia, Ricard

2017-08-01

To describe the frequency and clinical characteristics of patients referred to a tertiary neuromuscular clinic as having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) but who were re-diagnosed as having an ALS mimic syndrome, and to identify the reasons that led to the revision of the diagnosis. We reviewed the final diagnosis of all patients prospectively registered in the Sant Pau-MND register from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2015. A detailed clinical evaluation and a clinically-guided electrophysiological study were performed at first evaluation. Twenty of 314 (6.4%) patients included were re-diagnosed as having a condition other than ALS, in 18 cases already at first evaluation. An alternative specific diagnosis was identified in 17 of those 20, consisting of a wide range of conditions. The main finding leading to an alternative diagnosis was the result of the electrophysiological study. Fifty per cent did not fulfil the El Escorial revised criteria (EECr) for ALS. The most common clinical phenotype at onset in patients with ALS mimic syndromes was progressive muscular atrophy (PMA). Misdiagnosing ALS is still a common problem. Early identification of ALS mimic syndromes is possible based on atypical clinical features and a clinically-guided electrophysiological study. Patients should be attended in specialised centres. The application of EECr helps to identify ALS misdiagnoses.

An iron-iron hydrogenase mimic with appended electron reservoir for efficient proton reduction in aqueous media

PubMed Central

Becker, René; Amirjalayer, Saeed; Li, Ping; Woutersen, Sander; Reek, Joost N. H.

2016-01-01

The transition from a fossil-based economy to a hydrogen-based economy requires cheap and abundant, yet stable and efficient, hydrogen production catalysts. Nature shows the potential of iron-based catalysts such as the iron-iron hydrogenase (H2ase) enzyme, which catalyzes hydrogen evolution at rates similar to platinum with low overpotential. However, existing synthetic H2ase mimics generally suffer from low efficiency and oxygen sensitivity and generally operate in organic solvents. We report on a synthetic H2ase mimic that contains a redox-active phosphole ligand as an electron reservoir, a feature that is also crucial for the working of the natural enzyme. Using a combination of (spectro)electrochemistry and time-resolved infrared spectroscopy, we elucidate the unique redox behavior of the catalyst. We find that the electron reservoir actively partakes in the reduction of protons and that its electron-rich redox states are stabilized through ligand protonation. In dilute sulfuric acid, the catalyst has a turnover frequency of 7.0 × 104 s−1 at an overpotential of 0.66 V. This catalyst is tolerant to the presence of oxygen, thereby paving the way for a new generation of synthetic H2ase mimics that combine the benefits of the enzyme with synthetic versatility and improved stability. PMID:26844297

Biomolecular Programming of Discrete Nanomaterials for Sensors, Templates and Mimics of Natural Nanoscale Assemblies

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-10-17

AFRL-AFOSR-VA-TR-2016-0343 BIOMOLECULAR PROGRAMMING OF DISCRETE NANOMATERIALS FOR SENSORS, TEMPLATES AND MIMICS OF NATURAL NANOSCALE ASSEMBLIES...Performance 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 01 Jun 2011 to 31 May 2016 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE BIOMOLECULAR PROGRAMMING OF DISCRETE NANOMATERIALS FOR SENSORS

Enhanced Optical and Electric Manipulation of a Quantum Gas of KRb Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Covey, Jacob P.

Polar molecules are an ideal platform for studying quantum information and quantum simulation due to their long-range dipolar interactions. However, they have many degrees of freedom at disparate energy scales and thus are difficult to cool. Ultracold KRb molecules near quantum degeneracy were first produced in 2008. Nevertheless, it was found that even when prepared in the absolute lowest state chemical reactions can make the gas unstable. During my PhD we worked to mitigate these limitations by loading molecules into an optical lattice where the tunneling rates, and thus the chemistry, can be exquisitely controlled. This setting allowed us to start using the rotational degree of freedom as a pseudo-spin, and paved the way for studying models of quantum magnetism, such as the t-J model and the XXZ model. Further, by allowing molecules of two "spin''-states to tunnel in the lattice, we were able to observe a continuous manifestion of the quantum Zeno effect, where increased mobility counterintuitively suppresses dissipation from inelastic collisions. In a deep lattice we observed dipolar spin-exchange interactions, and we were able to elucidate their truly many-body nature. These two sets of experiments informed us that the filling fraction of the molecules in the lattice was only 5-10%, and so we implemented a quantum synthesis approach where atomic insulators were used to maximize the number of sites with one K and one Rb, and then these "doublons'' were converted to molecules with a filling of 30%. Despite these successes, a number of tools such as high resolution detection and addressing as well as large, stable electric fields were unavailable. Also during my PhD I led efforts to design, build, test, and implement a new apparatus which provides access to these tools and more. We have successfully produced ultracold molecules in this new apparatus, and we are now applying AC and DC electric fields with in vacuum electrodes. This apparatus will allow us to study

A plant tendril mimic soft actuator with phototunable bending and chiral twisting motion modes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Meng; Lin, Bao-Ping; Yang, Hong

2016-12-01

In nature, plant tendrils can produce two fundamental motion modes, bending and chiral twisting (helical curling) distortions, under the stimuli of sunlight, humidity, wetting or other atmospheric conditions. To date, many artificial plant-like mechanical machines have been developed. Although some previously reported materials could realize bending or chiral twisting through tailoring the samples into various ribbons along different orientations, each single ribbon could execute only one deformation mode. The challenging task is how to endow one individual plant tendril mimic material with two different, fully tunable and reversible motion modes (bending and chiral twisting). Here we show a dual-layer, dual-composition polysiloxane-based liquid crystal soft actuator strategy to synthesize a plant tendril mimic material capable of performing two different three-dimensional reversible transformations (bending versus chiral twisting) through modulation of the wavelength band of light stimuli (ultraviolet versus near-infrared). This material has broad application prospects in biomimetic control devices.

A plant tendril mimic soft actuator with phototunable bending and chiral twisting motion modes.

PubMed

Wang, Meng; Lin, Bao-Ping; Yang, Hong

2016-12-22

In nature, plant tendrils can produce two fundamental motion modes, bending and chiral twisting (helical curling) distortions, under the stimuli of sunlight, humidity, wetting or other atmospheric conditions. To date, many artificial plant-like mechanical machines have been developed. Although some previously reported materials could realize bending or chiral twisting through tailoring the samples into various ribbons along different orientations, each single ribbon could execute only one deformation mode. The challenging task is how to endow one individual plant tendril mimic material with two different, fully tunable and reversible motion modes (bending and chiral twisting). Here we show a dual-layer, dual-composition polysiloxane-based liquid crystal soft actuator strategy to synthesize a plant tendril mimic material capable of performing two different three-dimensional reversible transformations (bending versus chiral twisting) through modulation of the wavelength band of light stimuli (ultraviolet versus near-infrared). This material has broad application prospects in biomimetic control devices.

The analysis of novel microRNA mimic sequences in cancer cells reveals lack of specificity in stem-loop RT-qPCR-based microRNA detection.

PubMed

Winata, Patrick; Williams, Marissa; McGowan, Eileen; Nassif, Najah; van Zandwijk, Nico; Reid, Glen

2017-11-17

MicroRNAs are frequently downregulated in cancer, and restoring expression has tumour suppressive activity in tumour cells. Our recent phase I clinical trial investigated microRNA-based therapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Treatment with TargomiRs, microRNA mimics with novel sequence packaged in EGFR antibody-targeted bacterial minicells, revealed clear signs of clinical activity. In order to detect delivery of microRNA mimics to tumour cells in future clinical trials, we tested hydrolysis probe-based assays specific for the sequence of the novel mimics in transfected mesothelioma cell lines using RT-qPCR. The custom assays efficiently and specifically amplified the consensus mimics. However, we found that these assays gave a signal when total RNA from untransfected and control mimic-transfected cells were used as templates. Further investigation revealed that the reverse transcription step using stem-loop primers appeared to introduce substantial non-specific amplification with either total RNA or synthetic RNA templates. This suggests that reverse transcription using stem-loop primers suffers from an intrinsic lack of specificity for the detection of highly similar microRNAs in the same family, especially when analysing total RNA. These results suggest that RT-qPCR is unlikely to be an effective means to detect delivery of microRNA mimic-based drugs to tumour cells in patients.

miR156a Mimic Represses the Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition of Human Nasopharyngeal Cancer Cells by Targeting Junctional Adhesion Molecule A.

PubMed

Tian, Yunhong; Cai, Longmei; Tian, Yunming; Tu, Yinuo; Qiu, Huizhi; Xie, Guofeng; Huang, Donglan; Zheng, Ronghui; Zhang, Weijun

2016-01-01

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been documented as having an important role in the development of cancer. Broccoli is very popular in large groups of the population and has anticancer properties. Junctional adhesion molecule A (JAMA) is preferentially concentrated at tight junctions and influences cell morphology and migration. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a developmental program associated with cancer progression and metastasis. In this study we aimed to investigate the role of miRNAs from broccoli in human nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC). We demonstrated that a total of 84 conserved miRNAs and 184 putative novel miRNAs were found in broccoli by sequencing technology. Among these, miR156a was expressed the most. In addition, synthetic miR156a mimic inhibited the EMT of NPC cells in vitro. Furthermore, it was confirmed that JAMA was the target of miR156a mimic as validated by 3' UTR luciferase reporter assays and western blotting. Knockdown of JAMA was consistent with the effects of miR156a mimic on the EMT of NPC, and the up-regulation of JAMA could partially restore EMT repressed by miR156a mimic. In conclusion, these results indicate that the miR156a mimic inhibits the EMT of NPC cells by targeting the 3' UTR of JAMA. These miRNA profiles of broccoli provide a fundamental basis for further research. Moreover, the discovery of miR156a may have clinical implications for the treatment of patients with NPC.

Formation of a stable mimic of ambient particulate matter containing viable infectious respiratory syncytial virus and its dry-deposition directly onto cell cultures.

PubMed

Cruz-Sanchez, Teresita M; Haddrell, Allen E; Hackett, Tillie L; Singhera, Gurpreet K; Marchant, David; Lekivetz, Ryan; Meredith, Anna; Horne, Derrick; Knight, Darryl A; van Eeden, Stephen F; Bai, Tony R; Hegele, Richard G; Dorscheid, Delbert R; Agnes, George R

2013-01-15

Epidemiological associations of worse respiratory outcomes from combined exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) and respiratory viral infection suggest possible interactions between PM and viruses. To characterize outcomes of such exposures, we developed an in vitro mimic of the in vivo event of exposure to PM contaminated with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Concentration of infectious RSV stocks and a particle levitation apparatus were the foundations of the methodology developed to generate specific numbers of PM mimics (PM(Mimics)) of known composition for dry, direct deposition onto airway epithelial cell cultures. Three types of PM(Mimics) were generated for this study: (i) carbon alone (P(C)), (ii) carbon and infectious RSV (P(C+RSV)), and (iii) aerosols consisting of RSV (A(RSV)). P(C+RSV) were stable in solution and harbored infectious RSV for up to 6 months. Unlike A(RSV) infection, P(C+RSV) infection was found to be dynamin dependent and to cause lysosomal rupture. Cells dosed with PM(Mimics) comprised of RSV (A(RSV)), carbon (P(C)), or RSV and carbon (P(C+RSV)) responded differentially as exemplified by the secretion patterns of IL-6 and IL-8. Upon infection, and prior to lung cell death due to viral infection, regression analysis of these two mediators in response to incubation with A(RSV), P(C), or P(C+RSV) yielded higher concentrations upon infection with the latter and at earlier time points than the other PM(Mimics). In conclusion, this experimental platform provides an approach to study the combined effects of PM-viral interactions and airway epithelial exposures in the pathogenesis of respiratory diseases involving inhalation of environmental agents.

TRANSGENERATIONAL EFFECTS OF A JUVENILE HORMONE MIMIC ON THE ESTUARINE MYSID, MYSIDOPSIS BAHIA (CRUSTACEA: MYSIDACEA)

EPA Science Inventory

Fenoxycarb is a juvenile hormone (JH) mimic used to control insect pests by interfering with reproductive and developmental processes mediated by JH. Crustaceans are ideal organisms to monitor environmental effects of these endocrine disruptors, since they are dominant aquatic ar...

The role of ultraviolet colour in the assessment of mimetic accuracy between Batesian mimics and their models: a case study using ant-mimicking spiders

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Corcobado, Guadalupe; Herberstein, Marie E.; Pekár, Stano

2016-12-01

The use of ultraviolet (UV) cues for intra- and inter-specific communication is common in many animal species. Still, the role of UV signals under some predator-prey contexts, such as Batesian mimicry, is not clear. Batesian mimicry is a defensive strategy by which a palatable species (the mimic) resembles an unpalatable or noxious species (the model) to avoid predation. This strategy has evolved independently in many different taxa that are predated by species capable of UV perception. Moreover, there is considerable variation in how accurately Batesian mimics resemble their models across species. Our aim was to investigate how UV colour contributed to mimetic accuracy using several ant-mimicking spider species as a case study. We measured the reflectance spectrum (300-700 nm) for several species of mimics and models, and we tested whether they differ in visible and UV colour. We modelled whether two different predators could discriminate between mimics and models using colour information. We found that generally, ant-mimicking spiders differed significantly from their ant models in UV colour and that information from the visible range of light cannot be extrapolated into the UV. Our modelling suggested that wasps should be able to discriminate between mimics and models combining information from visible and the UV light, whereas birds may not discriminate between them. Thus, we show that UV colour can influence mimic accuracy and we discuss its potential role in Batesian mimicry. We conclude that colour, especially in the UV range, should be taken into account when measuring mimetic accuracy.

New synthesis of a stereoisomeric mixture of methyl 12-trishomofarnesoate, a juvenile hormone mimic useful in sericulture by increasing silk production.

PubMed

Mori, Kenji

2017-01-01

A mixture of (E,Z)-isomers of methyl 12-trishomofarnesoate (methyl 3,7,11-trimethyl-2,6,10-pentadecatrienoate), a juvenile hormone mimic, was synthesized in nine steps (32.6% overall yield) by starting from only four commercially available materials: 2-hexanone, vinylmagnesium bromide, methyl acetoacetate and trimethyl phosphonoacetate. The mimic is useful in increasing the yield of silk by elongating the larval period of the silkworm, Bombyx mori (L.).

A Photoisomerizing Rhodopsin Mimic Observed at Atomic Resolution.

PubMed

Nosrati, Meisam; Berbasova, Tetyana; Vasileiou, Chrysoula; Borhan, Babak; Geiger, James H

2016-07-20

The members of the rhodopsin family of proteins are involved in many essential light-dependent processes in biology. Specific photoisomerization of the protein-bound retinylidene PSB at a specified wavelength range of light is at the heart of all of these systems. Nonetheless, it has been difficult to reproduce in an engineered system. We have developed rhodopsin mimics, using intracellular lipid binding protein family members as scaffolds, to study fundamental aspects of protein/chromophore interactions. Herein we describe a system that specifically isomerizes the retinylidene protonated Schiff base both thermally and photochemically. This isomerization has been characterized at atomic resolution by quantitatively interconverting the isomers in the crystal both thermally and photochemically. This event is accompanied by a large pKa change of the imine similar to the pKa changes observed in bacteriorhodopsin and visual opsins during isomerization.

Strategic Applications of Ultra-Cold Atoms

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-03-07

journals or in conference proceedings (N/A for none) 68.00Number of Papers published in peer-reviewed journals: Wolfgang Ketterle: New Frontiers with...Helmerson, V.S. Bagnato (American Institute of Physics, 2005) pp. 25-29. Wolfgang Ketterle: The Bose-Einstein Condensate- a Superfluid Gas of Coherent Atoms...Vuletic 0.10 No Wolfgang Ketterle 0.10 Yes David Pritchard 0.10 Yes Mara Prentiss 0.10 No 0.80FTE Equivalent: 8Total Number: Names of Under

Artificial synthetic Mn(IV)Ca-oxido complexes mimic the oxygen-evolving complex in photosystem II.

PubMed

Chen, Changhui; Zhang, Chunxi; Dong, Hongxing; Zhao, Jingquan

2015-03-14

A novel family of heteronuclear Mn(IV)Ca-oxido complexes containing Mn(IV)Ca-oxido cuboidal moieties and reactive water molecules on Ca(2+) have been synthesized and characterized to mimic the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of photosystem II (PSII) in nature.

Simultaneous Downregulation of MTHFR and COMT in Switchgrass Affects Plant Performance and Induces Lesion-Mimic Cell Death.

PubMed

Liu, Sijia; Fu, Chunxiang; Gou, Jiqing; Sun, Liang; Huhman, David; Zhang, Yunwei; Wang, Zeng-Yu

2017-01-01

Switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum ) has been developed into a model lignocellulosic bioenergy crop. Downregulation of caffeic acid O -methyltransferase (COMT), a key enzyme in lignin biosynthesis, has been shown to alter lignification and increase biofuel yield in switchgrass. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mediates C1 metabolism and provides methyl units consumed by COMT. It was predicted that co-silencing of MTHFR and COMT would impact lignification even more than either of the single genes. However, our results showed that strong downregulation of MTHFR in a COMT -deficient background led to altered plant growth and development, but no significant change in lignin content or composition was found when compared with COMT plants. Another unexpected finding was that the double MTHFR/COMT downregulated plants showed a novel lesion-mimic leaf phenotype. Molecular analyses revealed that the lesion-mimic phenotype was caused by the synergistic effect of MTHFR and COMT genes, with MTHFR playing a predominant role. Microarray analysis showed significant induction of genes related to oxidative and defense responses. The results demonstrated the lack of additive effects of MTHFR and COMT on lignification. Furthermore, this research revealed an unexpected role of the two genes in the modulation of lesion-mimic cell death as well as their synergistic effects on agronomic performance.

Simultaneous Downregulation of MTHFR and COMT in Switchgrass Affects Plant Performance and Induces Lesion-Mimic Cell Death

PubMed Central

Liu, Sijia; Fu, Chunxiang; Gou, Jiqing; Sun, Liang; Huhman, David; Zhang, Yunwei; Wang, Zeng-Yu

2017-01-01

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) has been developed into a model lignocellulosic bioenergy crop. Downregulation of caffeic acid O-methyltransferase (COMT), a key enzyme in lignin biosynthesis, has been shown to alter lignification and increase biofuel yield in switchgrass. Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) mediates C1 metabolism and provides methyl units consumed by COMT. It was predicted that co-silencing of MTHFR and COMT would impact lignification even more than either of the single genes. However, our results showed that strong downregulation of MTHFR in a COMT-deficient background led to altered plant growth and development, but no significant change in lignin content or composition was found when compared with COMT plants. Another unexpected finding was that the double MTHFR/COMT downregulated plants showed a novel lesion-mimic leaf phenotype. Molecular analyses revealed that the lesion-mimic phenotype was caused by the synergistic effect of MTHFR and COMT genes, with MTHFR playing a predominant role. Microarray analysis showed significant induction of genes related to oxidative and defense responses. The results demonstrated the lack of additive effects of MTHFR and COMT on lignification. Furthermore, this research revealed an unexpected role of the two genes in the modulation of lesion-mimic cell death as well as their synergistic effects on agronomic performance. PMID:28676804

Seismic imaging of gas hydrate reservoir heterogeneities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Jun-Wei

Natural gas hydrate, a type of inclusion compound or clathrate, are composed of gas molecules trapped within a cage of water molecules. The presence of gas hydrate has been confirmed by core samples recovered from boreholes. Interests in the distribution of natural gas hydrate stem from its potential as a future energy source, geohazard to drilling activities and their possible impact on climate change. However the current geophysical investigations of gas hydrate reservoirs are still too limited to fully resolve the location and the total amount of gas hydrate due to its complex nature of distribution. The goal of this thesis is twofold, i.e., to model (1) the heterogeneous gas hydrate reservoirs and (2) seismic wave propagation in the presence of heterogeneities in order to address the fundamental questions: where are the location and occurrence of gas hydrate and how much is stored in the sediments. Seismic scattering studies predict that certain heterogeneity scales and velocity contrasts will generate strong scattering and wave mode conversion. Vertical Seismic Profile (VSP) techniques can be used to calibrate seismic characterization of gas hydrate expressions on surface seismograms. To further explore the potential of VSP in detecting the heterogeneities, a wave equation based approach for P- and S-wave separation is developed. Tests on synthetic data as well as applications to field data suggest alternative acquisition geometries for VSP to enable wave mode separation. A new reservoir modeling technique based on random medium theory is developed to construct heterogeneous multi-variable models that mimic heterogeneities of hydrate-bearing sediments at the level of detail provided by borehole logging data. Using this new technique, I modeled the density, and P- and S-wave velocities in combination with a modified Biot-Gassmann theory and provided a first order estimate of the in situ volume of gas hydrate near the Mallik 5L-38 borehole. Our results suggest a

Single helically folded aromatic oligoamides that mimic the charge surface of double-stranded B-DNA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ziach, Krzysztof; Chollet, Céline; Parissi, Vincent; Prabhakaran, Panchami; Marchivie, Mathieu; Corvaglia, Valentina; Bose, Partha Pratim; Laxmi-Reddy, Katta; Godde, Frédéric; Schmitter, Jean-Marie; Chaignepain, Stéphane; Pourquier, Philippe; Huc, Ivan

2018-05-01

Numerous essential biomolecular processes require the recognition of DNA surface features by proteins. Molecules mimicking these features could potentially act as decoys and interfere with pharmacologically or therapeutically relevant protein-DNA interactions. Although naturally occurring DNA-mimicking proteins have been described, synthetic tunable molecules that mimic the charge surface of double-stranded DNA are not known. Here, we report the design, synthesis and structural characterization of aromatic oligoamides that fold into single helical conformations and display a double helical array of negatively charged residues in positions that match the phosphate moieties in B-DNA. These molecules were able to inhibit several enzymes possessing non-sequence-selective DNA-binding properties, including topoisomerase 1 and HIV-1 integrase, presumably through specific foldamer-protein interactions, whereas sequence-selective enzymes were not inhibited. Such modular and synthetically accessible DNA mimics provide a versatile platform to design novel inhibitors of protein-DNA interactions.

Evaluation of MIMIC-Model Methods for DIF Testing with Comparison to Two-Group Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woods, Carol M.

2009-01-01

Differential item functioning (DIF) occurs when an item on a test or questionnaire has different measurement properties for 1 group of people versus another, irrespective of mean differences on the construct. This study focuses on the use of multiple-indicator multiple-cause (MIMIC) structural equation models for DIF testing, parameterized as item…

Representing life in the Earth system with soil microbial functional traits in the MIMICS model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wieder, W. R.; Grandy, A. S.; Kallenbach, C. M.; Taylor, P. G.; Bonan, G. B.

2015-02-01

Projecting biogeochemical responses to global environmental change requires multi-scaled perspectives that consider organismal diversity, ecosystem processes and global fluxes. However, microbes, the drivers of soil organic matter decomposition and stabilization, remain notably absent from models used to project carbon cycle-climate feedbacks. We used a microbial trait-based soil carbon (C) model, with two physiologically distinct microbial communities to improve current estimates of soil C storage and their likely response to perturbations. Drawing from the application of functional traits used to model other ecosystems, we incorporate copiotrophic and oligotrophic microbial functional groups in the MIcrobial-MIneral Carbon Stabilization (MIMICS) model, which incorporates oligotrophic and copiotrophic functional groups, akin to "gleaner" vs. "opportunist" plankton in the ocean, or r vs. K strategists in plant and animals communities. Here we compare MIMICS to a conventional soil C model, DAYCENT, in cross-site comparisons of nitrogen (N) enrichment effects on soil C dynamics. MIMICS more accurately simulates C responses to N enrichment; moreover, it raises important hypotheses involving the roles of substrate availability, community-level enzyme induction, and microbial physiological responses in explaining various soil biogeochemical responses to N enrichment. In global-scale analyses, we show that current projections from Earth system models likely overestimate the strength of the land C sink in response to increasing C inputs with elevated carbon dioxide (CO2). Our findings illustrate that tradeoffs between theory and utility can be overcome to develop soil biogeochemistry models that evaluate and advance our theoretical understanding of microbial dynamics and soil biogeochemical responses to environmental change.

New synthesis of a stereoisomeric mixture of methyl 12-trishomofarnesoate, a juvenile hormone mimic useful in sericulture by increasing silk production

PubMed Central

MORI, Kenji

2017-01-01

A mixture of (E,Z)-isomers of methyl 12-trishomofarnesoate (methyl 3,7,11-trimethyl-2,6,10-pentadecatrienoate), a juvenile hormone mimic, was synthesized in nine steps (32.6% overall yield) by starting from only four commercially available materials: 2-hexanone, vinylmagnesium bromide, methyl acetoacetate and trimethyl phosphonoacetate. The mimic is useful in increasing the yield of silk by elongating the larval period of the silkworm, Bombyx mori (L.). PMID:29021513

The energy release and temperature field in the ultracold neutron source of the WWR-M reactor at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Serebrov, A. P., E-mail: serebrov@pnpi.spb.ru; Kislitsin, B. V.; Onegin, M. S.

2016-12-15

Results of calculations of energy releases and temperature fields in the ultracold neutron source under design at the WWR-M reactor are presented. It is shown that, with the reactor power of 18 MW, the power of energy release in the 40-L volume of the source with superfluid helium will amount to 28.5 W, while 356 W will be released in a liquid-deuterium premoderator. The lead shield between the reactor core and the source reduces the radiative heat release by an order of magnitude. A thermal power of 22 kW is released in it, which is removed by passage of water.more » The distribution of temperatures in all components of the vacuum structure is presented, and the temperature does not exceed 100°C at full reactor power. The calculations performed make it possible to go to design of the source.« less

Barnett Shale or Strawn Group: Identifying the Source of Stray Gas through Noble Gases in the Trinity Aquifer, North-Central Texas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wen, T.; Castro, M. C.; Nicot, J. P.; Hall, C. M.; Pinti, D. L.; Mickler, P. J.; Darvari, R.; Larson, T. E.

2017-12-01

The complete set of stable noble gases (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) is presented for Barnett Shale and Strawn Group production gas together with that of stray flowing gas present in the Trinity Aquifer, Texas. It places new constraints on the source of this stray gas and further shows that Barnett and Strawn gas have distinct crustal and atmospheric noble gas signatures, allowing clear identification of these two sources. Like Trinity Aquifer stray gas, Strawn gas is significantly more enriched in crustal 4He*, 21Ne*, and 40Ar* than Barnett gas. The similarity of Strawn and stray gas crustal noble gas signatures suggests that the Strawn is the source of stray gas in the Trinity Aquifer. Atmospheric 22Ne/36Ar ratios of stray gas mimic also that of Strawn, further reinforcing the notion that the source of stray gas in this aquifer is the Strawn. While noble gas signatures of Strawn and stray gas are consistent with a single-stage water degassing model, a two-stage oil modified groundwater exsolution fractionation model is required to explain the light atmospheric noble gas signature of Barnett Shale production gas. These distinct Strawn and Barnett noble gas signatures are likely the reflection of distinct evolution histories with Strawn gas being possibly older than that of Barnett Shale.

Four-year follow-up of transient ischemic attacks, strokes, and mimics: a retrospective transient ischemic attack clinic cohort study.

PubMed

Dutta, Dipankar; Bowen, Emily; Foy, Chris

2015-05-01

There is limited information on outcomes from rapid access transient ischemic attack (TIA) clinics. We present 4-year outcomes of TIAs, strokes, and mimics from a UK TIA clinic database. All patients referred between April 2010 and May 2012 were retrospectively identified and outcomes determined. End points were stroke, myocardial infarction, any vascular event (TIA, stroke, or myocardial infarction), and all-cause death. Data were analyzed by survival analysis. Of 1067 patients, 31.6% were TIAs, 18% strokes, and 50.4% mimics. Median assessment time was 4.5 days from onset and follow-up was for 34.9 months. Subsequent strokes occurred in 7.1% of patients with TIA, 10.9% of patients with stroke, and 2.0% of mimics at the end of follow-up. Stroke risk at 90 days was 1.3% for patients diagnosed as TIA or stroke. Compared with mimics, hazard ratios for subsequent stroke were 3.88 (1.90-7.91) for TIA and 5.84 (2.81-12.11) for stroke. Hazard ratio for any subsequent vascular event was 2.91 (1.97-4.30) for TIA and 2.83 (1.81-4.41) for stroke. Hazard ratio for death was 1.68 (1.10-2.56) for TIA and 2.19 (1.38-3.46) for stroke. Our results show a lower 90-day stroke incidence after TIA or minor stroke than in earlier studies, suggesting that rapid access daily TIA clinics may be having a significant effect on reducing strokes. © 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.

Synthetic Mimic of Antimicrobial Peptide with Nonmembrane-Disrupting Antibacterial Properties

PubMed Central

2008-01-01

Polyguanidinium oxanorbornene (PGON) was synthesized from norbornene monomers via ring-opening metathesis polymerization. This polymer was observed to be strongly antibacterial against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria as well as nonhemolytic against human red blood cells. Time-kill studies indicated that this polymer is lethal and not just bacteriostatic. In sharp contrast to previously reported SMAMPs (synthetic mimics of antimicrobial peptides), PGON did not disrupt membranes in vesicle-dye leakage assays and microscopy experiments. The unique biological properties of PGON, in same ways similar to cell-penetrating peptides, strongly encourage the examination of other novel guanidino containing macromolecules as powerful and selective antimicrobial agents. PMID:18850741

Determining phase diagrams of gas-liquid systems using a microfluidic PVT.

PubMed

Mostowfi, Farshid; Molla, Shahnawaz; Tabeling, Patrick

2012-11-07

A novel microfluidic device designed for analyzing phase diagrams of gas-liquid systems (PVT or pressure-volume-temperature measurements) is described. The method mimics the phase transition of a reservoir fluid as it travels through the wellbore from the formation to the surface. The device consists of a long serpentine microchannel etched in a silicon substrate. The local pressure inside the channel is measured using membrane-based optical pressure sensors positioned along the channel. Geometrical restrictions are placed along the microchannel in order to nucleate bubbles when nucleation conditions are met, thus preventing the development of a supersaturation state in the channel. We point out that a local equilibrium state between gas and liquid phases is achieved, which implies that equilibrium properties can be directly measured on the chip. We analyze different mixtures of hydrocarbon systems and, consistently with the preceding analysis, obtain excellent agreement between our technique and conventional measurements. From a practical viewpoint (important for the relevance of the technology), we observe that the measurement time of thermodynamic properties of gas-liquid systems is reduced from hours to minutes with the present device without compromising the measurement accuracy.

Universality of maximum-work efficiency of a cyclic heat engine based on a finite system of ultracold atoms.

PubMed

Ye, Zhuolin; Hu, Yingying; He, Jizhou; Wang, Jianhui

2017-07-24

We study the performance of a cyclic heat engine which uses a small system with a finite number of ultracold atoms as its working substance and works between two heat reservoirs at constant temperatures T h and T c (

Dynamical instability of a spin spiral in an interacting Fermi gas as a probe of the Stoner transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conduit, G. J.; Altman, E.

2010-10-01

We propose an experiment to probe ferromagnetic phenomena in an ultracold Fermi gas, while alleviating the sensitivity to three-body loss and competing many-body instabilities. The system is initialized in a small pitch spin spiral, which becomes unstable in the presence of repulsive interactions. To linear order the exponentially growing collective modes exhibit critical slowing down close to the Stoner transition point. Also, to this order, the dynamics are identical on the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic sides of the transition. However, we show that scattering off the exponentially growing modes qualitatively alters the collective mode structure. The critical slowing down is eliminated and in its place a new unstable branch develops at large wave vectors. Furthermore, long-wavelength instabilities are quenched on the paramagnetic side of the transition. We study the experimental observation of the instabilities, specifically addressing the trapping geometry and how phase-contrast imaging will reveal the emerging domain structure. These probes of the dynamical phenomena could allow experiments to detect the transition point and distinguish between the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic regimes.

Mimicking electrodeposition in the gas phase: a programmable concept for selected-area fabrication of multimaterial nanostructures.

PubMed

Cole, Jesse J; Lin, En-Chiang; Barry, Chad R; Jacobs, Heiko O

2010-05-21

An in situ gas-phase process that produces charged streams of Au, Si, TiO(2), ZnO, and Ge nanoparticles/clusters is reported together with a programmable concept for selected-area assembly/printing of more than one material type. The gas-phase process mimics solution electrodeposition whereby ions in the liquid phase are replaced with charged clusters in the gas phase. The pressure range in which the analogy applies is discussed and it is demonstrated that particles can be plated into pores vertically (minimum resolution 60 nm) or laterally to form low-resistivity (48 microOmega cm) interconnects. The process is applied to the formation of multimaterial nanoparticle films and sensors. The system works at atmospheric pressure and deposits material at room temperature onto electrically biased substrate regions. The combination of pumpless operation and parallel nozzle-free deposition provides a scalable tool for printable flexible electronics and the capability to mix and match materials.

Interatomic interaction effects on second-order momentum correlations and Hong-Ou-Mandel interference of double-well-trapped ultracold fermionic atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brandt, Benedikt B.; Yannouleas, Constantine; Landman, Uzi

2018-05-01

Identification and understanding of the evolution of interference patterns in two-particle momentum correlations as a function of the strength of interatomic interactions are important in explorations of the nature of quantum states of trapped particles. Together with the analysis of two-particle spatial correlations, they offer the prospect of uncovering fundamental symmetries and structure of correlated many-body states, as well as opening vistas into potential control and utilization of correlated quantum states as quantum-information resources. With the use of the second-order density matrix constructed via exact diagonalization of the microscopic Hamiltonian, and an analytic Hubbard-type model, we explore here the systematic evolution of characteristic interference patterns in the two-body momentum and spatial correlation maps of two entangled ultracold fermionic atoms in a double well, for the entire attractive- and repulsive-interaction range. We uncover quantum-statistics-governed bunching and antibunching, as well as interaction-dependent interference patterns, in the ground and excited states, and interpret our results in light of the Hong-Ou-Mandel interference physics, widely exploited in photon indistinguishability testing and quantum-information science.

Ultracold fermions in a one-dimensional bipartite optical lattice: Metal-insulator transitions driven by shaking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Liberto, M.; Malpetti, D.; Japaridze, G. I.; Morais Smith, C.

2014-08-01

We theoretically investigate the behavior of a system of fermionic atoms loaded in a bipartite one-dimensional optical lattice that is under the action of an external time-periodic driving force. By using Floquet theory, an effective model is derived. The bare hopping coefficients are renormalized by zeroth-order Bessel functions of the first kind with different arguments for the nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor hopping. The insulating behavior characterizing the system at half filling in the absence of driving is dynamically suppressed, and for particular values of the driving parameter the system becomes either a standard metal or an unconventional metal with four Fermi points. The existence of the four-Fermi-point metal relies on the fact that, as a consequence of the shaking procedure, the next-nearest-neighbor hopping coefficients become significant compared to the nearest-neighbor ones. We use the bosonization technique to investigate the effect of on-site Hubbard interactions on the four-Fermi-point metal-insulator phase transition. Attractive interactions are expected to enlarge the regime of parameters where the unconventional metallic phase arises, whereas repulsive interactions reduce it. This metallic phase is known to be a Luther-Emery liquid (spin-gapped metal) for both repulsive and attractive interactions, contrary to the usual Hubbard model, which exhibits a Mott-insulator phase for repulsive interactions. Ultracold fermions in driven one-dimensional bipartite optical lattices provide an interesting platform for the realization of this long-studied four-Fermi-point unconventional metal.

Distal muscle involvement in granulomatous myositis can mimic inclusion body myositis.

PubMed

Larue, Sandrine; Maisonobe, Thierry; Benveniste, Olivier; Chapelon-Abric, Catherine; Lidove, Olivier; Papo, Thomas; Eymard, Bruno; Dubourg, Odile

2011-06-01

The authors report on four patients aged over 50 with chronic myopathy suggestive of sporadic inclusion body myositis. They present progressive and selective weakness of the quadriceps femoris muscles. Asymmetrical and selective atrophy of the forearm muscles were noted in all, with more severe involvement of the flexors than the extensors. Biopsy revealed granulomatous myositis. Histological features of sporadic inclusion body myositis were lacking. Evidence for systemic sarcoidosis was found in one patient. Corticosteroid treatment was associated with a partial but significant improvement in two patients. Granulomatous myositis may mimic inclusion body myositis and may be steroid-responsive.

Structural Mimics of the [Fe]-Hydrogenase: A Complete Set for Group VIII Metals.

PubMed

Barik, Chandan Kr; Ganguly, Rakesh; Li, Yongxin; Leong, Weng Kee

2018-06-18

A set of structural mimics of the [Fe]-hydrogenase active site comprising all the group VIII metals, viz., [M(2-NHC(O)C 5 H 4 N)(CO) 2 (2-S-C 5 H 4 N)], has been synthesized. They exist as a mixture of isomers in solution, and the relative stability of the isomers depends on the nature of the metal and the substituent at the 6-position of the pyridine ligand.

Biocompatible Polymer Nanoformulation To Improve the Release and Safety of a Drug Mimic Molecule Detectable via ICP-MS.

PubMed

Ferrari, Raffaele; Talamini, Laura; Violatto, Martina Bruna; Giangregorio, Paola; Sponchioni, Mattia; Morbidelli, Massimo; Salmona, Mario; Bigini, Paolo; Moscatelli, Davide

2017-01-03

Fluorescent poly(ε-caprolactone)-based nanoparticles (NPs) have been synthesized and successfully loaded with a titanium organometallic compound as a mimic of a water-insoluble drug. The nature of this nanovector enabled us to combine the quantification of the metal in tissues after systemic administration in healthy immunocompetent mice by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) followed by the visualization of NPs in organ sections by confocal microscopy. This innovative method of nanodrug screening has enabled us to elucidate the crucial parameters of their kinetics. The organometallic compound is a good mimic of most anticancer drugs, and this approach is an interesting starting point to design the relevance of a broad range of nanoformulations in terms of safety and targeted delivery of the cargoes.