China's Rapid Urbanization YANG, X. JIN
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
10/2013, Volume:
342, Issue:
6156
Journal Article
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal cancers known worldwide, and its prognosis is poor in most patients. Exosomes are nanosized extracellular vesicles, which are released from various ...cell types. They are involved in cellular communication. The diagnosis and treatment of PC were improved substantially with exosomes. In this study, we isolated PC‐derived exosomes and investigated their proteomic profile. Then, we conducted bioinformatic analysis on proteomic data. Differential ultracentrifugation was performed to isolate exosomes from human serum samples and four PC cell lines. Transmission electron microscopy and Western blot analysis were used to characterize the isolated exosomes. Liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry was conducted to identify the proteome of serum exosomes. Proteomic analysis demonstrated that all the serum exosomes were derived from three cohorts of human subjects; these serum exosomes contained a total of 655 proteins, out of which 315 proteins overlapped with ExoCarta database. Gene oncology and kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes analyses provided the functional annotation of the proteome. Interestingly, 18 or 14 proteins were upregulated and 11 or 14 proteins were downregulated in serum exosomes derived from patients with PC as compared with in serum exosomes derived from healthy volunteers or from pancreatitis patients respectively. Annexin A11, a calcium‐dependent phospholipid‐binding protein, was expressed in a PC cell line (CFPAC‐1)‐derived exosomes and in tumor tissues of patients with PC, respectively. Our data provided a basic foundation for further studies on the protein composition of PC‐derived exosomes and its involvement in PC biology.
Entangling Macroscopic Diamonds at Room Temperature Lee, K. C.; Sprague, M. R.; Sussman, B. J. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
12/2011, Volume:
334, Issue:
6060
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Quantum entanglement in the motion of macroscopic solid bodies has implications both for quantum technologies and foundational studies of the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds. ...Entanglement is usually fragile in room-temperature solids, owing to strong interactions both internally and with the noisy environment. We generated motional entanglement between vibrational states of two spatially separated, millimeter-sized diamonds at room temperature. By measuring strong nonclassical correlations between Raman-scattered photons, we showed that the quantum state of the diamonds has positive concurrence with 98% probability. Our results show that entanglement can persist in the classical context of moving macroscopic solids in ambient conditions.
We outline the need to, and provide a guide on how to, conduct a meta‐analysis on one's own studies within a manuscript. Although conducting a “mini meta” within one's manuscript has been argued for ...in the past, this practice is still relatively rare and adoption is slow. We believe two deterrents are responsible. First, researchers may not think that it is legitimate to do a meta‐analysis on a small number of studies. Second, researchers may think a meta‐analysis is too complicated to do without expert knowledge or guidance. We dispel these two misconceptions by (1) offering arguments on why researchers should be encouraged to do mini metas, (2) citing previous articles that have conducted such analyses to good effect, and (3) providing a user‐friendly guide on calculating some meta‐analytic procedures that are appropriate when there are only a few studies. We provide formulas for calculating effect sizes and converting effect sizes from one metric to another (e.g., from Cohen's d to r), as well as annotated Excel spreadsheets and a step‐by‐step guide on how to conduct a simple meta‐analysis. A series of related studies can be strengthened and better understood if accompanied by a mini meta‐analysis.
A Nationwide Nitrogen Deposition Monitoring Network (NNDMN) containing 43 monitoring sites was established in China to measure gaseous NH3, NO2, and HNO3 and particulate NH4+ and NO3− in air and/or ...precipitation from 2010 to 2014. Wet/bulk deposition fluxes of Nr species were collected by precipitation gauge method and measured by continuous-flow analyzer; dry deposition fluxes were estimated using airborne concentration measurements and inferential models. Our observations reveal large spatial variations of atmospheric Nr concentrations and dry and wet/bulk Nr deposition. On a national basis, the annual average concentrations (1.3–47.0 μg N m−3) and dry plus wet/bulk deposition fluxes (2.9–83.3 kg N ha−1 yr−1) of inorganic Nr species are ranked by land use as urban > rural > background sites and by regions as north China > southeast China > southwest China > northeast China > northwest China > Tibetan Plateau, reflecting the impact of anthropogenic Nr emission. Average dry and wet/bulk N deposition fluxes were 20.6 ± 11.2 (mean ± standard deviation) and 19.3 ± 9.2 kg N ha−1 yr−1 across China, with reduced N deposition dominating both dry and wet/bulk deposition. Our results suggest atmospheric dry N deposition is equally important to wet/bulk N deposition at the national scale. Therefore, both deposition forms should be included when considering the impacts of N deposition on environment and ecosystem health.
Remarkable advancements in coherence and control fidelity have been achieved in recent years with cryogenic solid-state qubits. Nonetheless, thermalizing such devices to their milliKelvin ...environments has remained a long-standing fundamental and technical challenge. In this context, we present a systematic study of the first-excited-state population in a 3D transmon superconducting qubit mounted in a dilution refrigerator with a variable temperature. Using a modified version of the protocol developed by Geerlings et al., we observe the excited-state population to be consistent with a Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution, i.e., a qubit in thermal equilibrium with the refrigerator, over the temperature range 35-150 mK. Below 35 mK, the excited-state population saturates at approximately 0.1%. We verified this result using a flux qubit with ten times stronger coupling to its readout resonator. We conclude that these qubits have effective temperature T(eff)=35 mK. Assuming T(eff) is due solely to hot quasiparticles, the inferred qubit lifetime is 108 μs and in plausible agreement with the measured 80 μs.
Single photons are a vital resource for optical quantum information processing. Efficient and deterministic single photon sources do not yet exist, however. To date, experimental demonstrations of ...quantum processing primitives have been implemented using nondeterministic sources combined with heralding and/or postselection. Unfortunately, even for eight photons, the data rates are already so low as to make most experiments impracticable. It is well known that quantum memories, capable of storing photons until they are needed, are a potential solution to this "scaling catastrophe." Here, we analyze in detail the benefits of quantum memories for producing multiphoton states, showing how the production rates can be enhanced by many orders of magnitude. We identify the quantity ηB as the most important figure of merit in this connection, where η and B are the efficiency and time-bandwidth product of the memories, respectively.
Magnetotransport properties have been investigated for epitaxial thin films of B20-type MnSi grown on Si(111) substrates. Lorentz transmission electron microscopy images clearly point to the robust ...formation of Skyrmions over a wide temperature-magnetic field region. New features distinct from those reported previously for MnSi are observed for epitaxial films: a shorter (nearly half) period of the spin helix and Skyrmions, and a topological Hall effect anomaly consisting in ∼2.2 times enhancement of the amplitude and in the opposite sign with respect to bulk samples.
Synovial abnormalities have been observed at multiple stages of osteoarthritis (OA). Increasing evidence suggests that it may play an important role in the OA pathological process. Many assessment ...systems using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasound have been established to detect synovial inflammation in OA. These have been used to inform the current investigation of OA disease phenotypes and progression and can be utilised in the future for clinical trials developing potential treatments. This narrative review aims to illustrate the importance of synovial tissue in OA and provide an overview of imaging assessments and possible therapies targeting synovial abnormalities.
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