The study of non-Hermitian systems with parity-time (PT) symmetry is a rapidly developing frontier. Realized in recent experiments, PT-symmetric classical optical systems with balanced gain and loss ...hold great promise for future applications. Here we report the experimental realization of passive PT-symmetric quantum dynamics for single photons by temporally alternating photon losses in the quantum walk interferometers. The ability to impose PT symmetry allows us to realize and investigate Floquet topological phases driven by PT-symmetric quantum walks. We observe topological edge states between regions with different bulk topological properties and confirm the robustness of these edge states with respect to PT-symmetry-preserving perturbations and PT-symmetry-breaking static disorder. Our results contribute towards the realization of quantum mechanical PT-synthetic devices and suggest exciting possibilities for the exploration of the topological properties of non-Hermitian systems using discrete-time quantum walks.
Anaerobic co-digestion of concentrated pig manure (PM) with grass silage (GS) at five different PM to GS volatile solid (VS) ratios of 1:0, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3 and 0:1 was evaluated by examining operation ...stability and methane (CH
4) production potentials. The highest specific CH
4 yields were 304.2 and 302.8
ml CH
4/g VS at PM to GS ratios of 3:1 and 1:1, respectively. The digestion systems failed at the ratio of 0:1. The lag phase lasted 29.5, 28.1, 24.6 and 21.3
days at the ratios of 1:0, 3:1, 1:1 and 1:3, respectively. The daily methane yield was linearly correlated with the acetic acid concentration, indicating methane production was probably associated with acetoclastic methanogenesis. The hydrolysis constant linearly decreased with increasing the fraction of GS in the feedstock. This study recommends applying the PM to GS ratio of 1:1 in practice due to a high specific methane yield and a short lag phase.
Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the new Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI) classification system correlates with important ...clinical outcomes for limb salvage and wound healing. Methods A total of 201 consecutive patients with threatened limbs treated from 2010 to 2011 in an academic medical center were analyzed. These patients were stratified into clinical stages 1 to 4 on the basis of the SVS WIfI classification. The SVS objective performance goals of major amputation, 1-year amputation-free survival (AFS) rate, and wound healing time (WHT) according to WIfI clinical stages were compared. Results The mean age was 58 years (79% male, 93% with diabetes). Forty-two patients required major amputation (21%); 159 (78%) had limb salvage. The amputation group had a significantly higher prevalence of advanced stage 4 patients ( P < .001), whereas the limb salvage group presented predominantly as stages 1 to 3. Patients in clinical stages 3 and 4 had a significantly higher incidence of amputation ( P < .001), decreased AFS ( P < .001), and delayed WHT ( P < .002) compared with those in stages 1 and 2. Among patients presenting with stage 3, primarily as a result of wound and ischemia grades, revascularization resulted in accelerated WHT ( P = .008). Conclusions These data support the underlying concept of the SVS WIfI, that an appropriate classification system correlates with important clinical outcomes for limb salvage and wound healing. As the clinical stage progresses, the risk of major amputation increases, 1-year AFS declines, and WHT is prolonged. We further demonstrated benefit of revascularization to improve WHT in selected patients, especially those in stage 3. Future efforts are warranted to incorporate the SVS WIfI classification into clinical decision-making algorithms in conjunction with a comorbidity index and anatomic classification.
•Increased food waste addition did not affect digestate dewaterability and biosafety.•Decreasing HRT from 41 to 21 days increased digestate dewaterability.•Decreasing HRT from 41 to 21 days did not ...significantly affect digestate biosafety.•Varying HRT and substrate composition slightly affected microbial communities.•Syntrophic acetate oxidizing bacteria increased in abundance as HRT decreased.
This study assessed the effect of varying pig manure (PM)/food waste (FW) mixing ratio and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on methane yields, digestate dewaterability, enteric indicator bacteria and microbial communities during anaerobic co-digestion. Three 10 L digesters were operated at 39 °C, each with a PM/FW feedstock composition of 85%/15%, 63%/37% and 40%/60% (volatile solids basis). While the PM/FW ratio was different among reactors, the organic loading rate applied was equal, and increased stepwise with reducing HRT. The effects of three different HRTs were studied: 41, 29, and 21 days. Increasing the proportion of FW in the feedstock significantly increased methane yields, but had no significant effect on counts of enteric indicator bacteria in the digestate or specific resistance to filtration, suggesting that varying the PM/FW feedstock composition at the mixing ratios studied should not have major consequences for digestate disposal. Decreasing HRT significantly increased volumetric methane yields, increased digestate volatile solids concentrations and increased the proportion of particles >500 µm in the digestate, indicating that decreasing HRT to 21 days reduced methane conversion efficiency High throughput 16S rRNA sequencing data revealed that microbial communities were just slightly affected by changes in digester operating conditions. These results would provide information useful when optimizing the start-up and operation of biogas plants treating these substrates.
ABSTRACT
Fluorosis can induce oxidative stress through leading to reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. Selenium (Se) can eliminate ROS by direct and indirect manners. In this study, therefore, ...we investigated the possible protective effects of sodium selenite (SS) and selenomethionine (Se-Met) on fluorine (F)-induced oxidative stress in broilers. A total of 720 1-day-old Lingnan Yellow broilers were allotted to 4 groups (6 replicates of 30 birds each group) and fed with basal diet (control group), 800 mg/kg F (high F group), 800 mg/kg F+0.15 mg Se/kg as SS (SS group), or Se-Met (Se-Met group), respectively. The experiment lasted 50 d. High F group significantly decreased (P < 0.05) the average daily gain (ADG) and feed efficiency (FE) in comparison with control group. The contents of ROS, malondialdehyde, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, protein carbonyl, and cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinases 3 in serum, liver, and kidney were higher (P < 0.05) in high F group than those in control group. Compared with control group, the decreased (P < 0.05) activities of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and cytoplasmic thioredoxin reductase (TrxR1) as well as contents of selenoprotein P (SelP), total protein (TP), and B-cell lymphoma-2 in serum and tissues were observed in high F group. Moreover, the pathological lesions of liver and kidney in high F group were more than those in control group. However, supplementation with SS and Se-Met could improve ADG and FE, increase SelP and TP concentrations, elevate GSH-Px and TrxR1 activities, minimize the changes of oxidative stress and apoptosis parameters as well as ultrastructure of liver and kidney, whereas the effects of Se-Met were better than those of SS. The results indicated that excess F could result in growth inhibition of broilers through inducing oxidative stress and subsequently caused oxidative damage to biological macromolecules and soft tissues as well as apoptosis, whereas dietary SS and Se-Met supplementation could antagonize high F induced growth retardation by inhibiting oxidative stress and a mechanism of apoptosis regulation and the impact was more with Se-Met.
We demonstrate a quantum walk with time-dependent coin bias. With this technique we realize an experimental single-photon one-dimensional quantum walk with a linearly ramped time-dependent coin flip ...operation and thereby demonstrate two periodic revivals of the walker distribution. In our beam-displacer interferometer, the walk corresponds to movement between discretely separated transverse modes of the field serving as lattice sites, and the time-dependent coin flip is effected by implementing a different angle between the optical axis of half-wave plate and the light propagation at each step. Each of the quantum-walk steps required to realize a revival comprises two sequential orthogonal coin-flip operators, with one coin having constant bias and the other coin having a time-dependent ramped coin bias, followed by a conditional translation of the walker.
Missing in metastasis (MIM) is abundantly expressed in hematopoietic cells. Here we characterized the impact of MIM deficiency on murine bone marrow (BM) cells. Although MIM(-/-) cells proliferated ...similarly to wild type (WT), they exhibited stronger response to chemokine stromal-derived factor 1 (SDF-1), increase in surface expression of CXCR4, impaired CXCR4 internalization and constitutive activation of Rac, Cdc42 and p38. Transplantation of MIM(-/-) BM cells into lethally irradiated mice showed enhanced homing to BM, which was abolished when mice were pretreated with a p38 antagonist. Interestingly, MIM(-/-) BM cells, including hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), showed two- to fivefold increase in mobilization into the peripheral blood upon treatment with AMD3100. In vitro, MIM(-/-) leukocytes were susceptible to AMD3100 and maintained increased response to AMD3100 for mobilization even after transfer into WT mice. MIM(-/-) mice had also a higher level of SDF-1 in the circulation. Our data highlighted an unprecedented role of MIM in the homeostasis of BM cells, including HSPCs, through modulation of the CXCR4/SDF-1 axis and interactions of BM leukocytes with their microenvironments.
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