Cross-resonance (CR) gates have emerged as a promising scheme for fault-tolerant quantum computation with fixed-frequency qubits. We experimentally implement an entangling CR gate by using a ...microwave-only control in a tunable coupling superconducting circuit, where the tunable coupler provides extra degrees of freedom to verify optimal conditions for constructing a CR gate. By developing a three-qubit Hamiltonian tomography protocol, we systematically investigate the dependency of gate fidelities on spurious qubit interactions and present the first experimental approach to the evaluation of the perturbation impact arising from spectator qubits. Our results reveal that the spectator qubits lead to reductions in CR gate fidelity dependent on Z Z interactions and particular frequency detunings between spectator and gate qubits. The target spectator demonstrates a more serious impact than the control spectator under a standard echo pulse scheme, whereas the degradation of gate fidelity is observed up to 22.5% as both the spectators are present with a modest ZZ coupling to the computational qubits. Our experiments uncover an optimal CR operation regime, and the method we develop here can readily be applied to improving other kinds of two-qubit gates in large-scale quantum circuits.
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The super τ-charm facility (STCF) is an electron−positron collider proposed by the Chinese particle physics community. It is designed to operate in a center-of-mass energy range from 2 to 7 GeV with ...a peak luminosity of 0.5 × 10 35 cm −2·s −1 or higher. The STCF will produce a data sample about a factor of 100 larger than that of the present τ-charm factory - the BEPCII, providing a unique platform for exploring the asymmetry of matter-antimatter (charge-parity violation), in-depth studies of the internal structure of hadrons and the nature of non-perturbative strong interactions, as well as searching for exotic hadrons and physics beyond the Standard Model. The STCF project in China is under development with an extensive R&D program. This document presents the physics opportunities at the STCF, describes conceptual designs of the STCF detector system, and discusses future plans for detector R&D and physics case studies.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Purpose
Obesity is the main driving factor for comorbidities in Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) patients due to overeating behaviors. The gut microbiota has been implicated in the etiology of obesity and ...associated comorbidities. The purpose of the present study was to characterize the fecal microbiota in Chinese patients with PWS and compare it to that of patients with obesity as well as healthy controls.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional study with 35 PWS patients (PWS), 35 patients with obesity (OB), and 35 healthy controls (HC). Metagenomic sequencing was performed in stool samples.
Results
The composition of the fecal microbiota in PWS patients differed from that of participants in the OB and HC groups. It was characterized by increased
Akkermansia Eubacterium, Eubacterium rectale
, and
Roseburia intestinalis
and decreased
Parabacteroides
and
Phascolarctobacterium
. Additionally, the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was lower in PWS patients than in patients with obesity. Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that
Achromobacter
,
Acidiphilium
,
Xylophilus
, and
Frisingicoccus
were significantly negatively correlated with HOMA-IR.
Conclusion
The composition of the gut microbiota in Chinese PWS patients differed from that in patients with obesity, which might contribute to higher insulin sensitivity in PWS patients.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Highlights • Lixisenatide, a novel drug treatment for diabetes, shows neuroprotective effects. • Lixisenatide prevented the Aβ25–35 induced impairment in spatial learning. • The drug prevented the ...Aβ25–35 induced block of LTP in the hippocampus. • The drug inhibited the Aβ25–35 induced activation of glycogen synthase kinase 3β.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
We report the observation of new properties of primary cosmic rays He, C, and O measured in the rigidity (momentum/charge) range 2 GV to 3 TV with 90×10^{6} helium, 8.4×10^{6} carbon, and 7.0×10^{6} ...oxygen nuclei collected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) during the first five years of operation. Above 60 GV, these three spectra have identical rigidity dependence. They all deviate from a single power law above 200 GV and harden in an identical way.
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We report on the observation of new properties of secondary cosmic rays Li, Be, and B measured in the rigidity (momentum per unit charge) range 1.9 GV to 3.3 TV with a total of 5.4×10^{6} nuclei ...collected by AMS during the first five years of operation aboard the International Space Station. The Li and B fluxes have an identical rigidity dependence above 7 GV and all three fluxes have an identical rigidity dependence above 30 GV with the Li/Be flux ratio of 2.0±0.1. The three fluxes deviate from a single power law above 200 GV in an identical way. This behavior of secondary cosmic rays has also been observed in the AMS measurement of primary cosmic rays He, C, and O but the rigidity dependences of primary cosmic rays and of secondary cosmic rays are distinctly different. In particular, above 200 GV, the secondary cosmic rays harden more than the primary cosmic rays.
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Pretreatment of secondary effluents, containing relatively high concentrations of colloidal particles, suspended solids, dissolved organics and high level of biological activity, is required to ...reduce fouling of reverse osmosis (RO) membranes treating these effluents. Various indices are used to evaluate pretreatment efficacy. The effect of two different pretreatments for secondary effluent (BCMF - biofiltration, coagulation and microfiber filtration) vs. ultrafiltration (UF) were evaluated for their effect in reducing the fouling potential of the effluent as expressed by the indices of BOD (biofouling), TOC (organic and biofouling), and MFI0.45 (colloidal fouling). Actual RO fouling tests were conducted using identical RO flow cells at constant flux conditions. Fouled membrane autopsies were subsequently carried out at the end of each test run. The actual fouling based on real-time performance and post-operation autopsies were then correlated to the fouling indices.
The results showed that BCMF pretreatment significantly reduced the fouling potential as reflected in all three indices, but UF pretreatment process reduced BOD and MFI0.45 to a significantly greater extent. RO membranes were in general fouled more severely by BCMF treated effluents as reflected in increased transmembrane pressure (TMP). This correlated with BOD and MFI0.45 analyses of the treated effluents and with membrane autopsies at the end of the run. For both treatments, the calculated biofilm porosity dropped as the experiments were carried out for longer periods. As expected, the hydraulic resistance of the fouling layer was found to contribute significantly more to deterioration of RO performance than biofilm-enhanced osmotic pressure for both BCMF-RO and UF-RO.
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•Biofilter followed by string microfilter (BCMF) not as effective a pretreatment as UF.•MFI and BOD correlated with actual fouling of RO by tertiary wastewater for BCMF.•TOC correlated with actual fouling of RO by tertiary wastewater for UF.•Dominant contribution to TMP rise was increased hydraulic resistance of biofilm.•Biofilm porosity dropped with fouling experiment duration.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
To investigate the regulatory effect of long non-coding ribonucleic acid (lncRNA) FER1L4 on biological behaviors of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells, such as proliferation and ...invasion.
The expressions of FER1L4 were detected in 42 pairs of ESCC tissues and corresponding para-carcinoma tissues and 5 kinds of ESCC cell lines via quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Polyethyleneimine (PEI) and liposomes were used for FER1L4 expression or interference elimination assays, respectively. The proliferation and invasion of ESCC cells were detected via MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide), apoptosis assay, cell cycle assay, and transwell chamber.
Results of qRT-PCR showed that, compared with that in normal tissues, FER1L4 was lowly expressed in ESCC tissues. Overexpression of FER1L4 could inhibit cell proliferation and invasion, promote apoptosis and increase the cell cycle distribution in G0/G1 phase. Knockout of FER1L4 could promote the proliferation and invasion of ESCC cells, inhibit apoptosis and decrease the cell cycle distribution in G0/G1 phase.
FER1L4 is involved in the occurrence and development of ESCC and plays a key role as a tumor suppressor gene in ESCC.
Tumor metastasis is a hallmark of cancer. Metastatic cancer cells often reside in distal tissues and organs in their dormant state. Mechanisms underlying the pre-metastatic niche formation are poorly ...understood. Here we show that in a colorectal cancer (CRC) model, primary tumors release integrin beta-like 1 (ITGBL1)-rich extracellular vesicles (EVs) to the circulation to activate resident fibroblasts in remote organs. The activated fibroblasts induce the pre-metastatic niche formation and promote metastatic cancer growth by secreting pro-inflammatory cytokine, such as IL-6 and IL-8. Mechanistically, the primary CRC-derived ITGBL1-enriched EVs stimulate the TNFAIP3-mediated NF-κB signaling pathway to activate fibroblasts. Consequently, the activated fibroblasts produce high levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines to promote metastatic cancer growth. These findings uncover a tumor-stromal interaction in the metastatic tumor microenvironment and an intimate signaling communication between primary tumors and metastases through the ITGBL1-loaded EVs. Targeting the EVs-ITGBL1-CAFs-TNFAIP3-NF-κB signaling axis provides an attractive approach for treating metastatic diseases.
Quantum information scrambling has received tremendous attention owing to its key concept in the fields of quantum chaos and quantum gravity. Here, with exploiting a fully controllable ...superconducting quantum processor, we study the verified scrambling in a 1D spin chain by an analog superconducting quantum simulator with the signs and values of individual driving and coupling terms fully controllable. By engineering opposite Hamiltonians on two subsystems, we measure the temporal and spatial patterns of out-of-time ordered correlators (OTOC), with the Hamiltonian mismatch and the decoherence extracted quantitatively from the scrambling dynamics, providing a benchmarking tool for probing not only the spatial but the temporal patterns of scrambling dynamics in many-body systems. Our work demonstrates the superconducting system with strong controllability as a powerful quantum simulator.
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