The smooth muscle cell directly drives the contraction of the vascular wall and hence regulates the size of the blood vessel lumen. We review here the current understanding of the molecular ...mechanisms by which agonists, therapeutics, and diseases regulate contractility of the vascular smooth muscle cell and we place this within the context of whole body function. We also discuss the implications for personalized medicine and highlight specific potential target molecules that may provide opportunities for the future development of new therapeutics to regulate vascular function.
Two-dimensional (2D) materials are not expected to be metals at low temperature owing to electron localization1. Consistent with this, pioneering studies on thin lms reported only superconducting and ...insulating ground states, with a direct transition between the two as a function of disorder or magnetic eld26. However, more recent works have revealed the presence of an intermediate quantum metallic state occupying a substantial region of the phase diagram710, whose nature is intensely debated1117. Here, we observe such a state in the disorder-free limit of a crystalline 2D superconductor, produced by mechanical co-lamination of NbSe2 in an inert atmosphere. Under a small perpendicular magnetic eld, we induce a transition from superconductor to the quantum metal. We nd a unique power-law scaling with eld in this phase, which is consistent with the Bose-metal model where metallic behaviour arises from strong phase uctuations caused by the magnetic field1114.
Security in quantum cryptography is continuously challenged by inventive attacks targeting the real components of a cryptographic set-up, and duly restored by new countermeasures to foil them. Owing ...to their high sensitivity and complex design, detectors are the most frequently attacked components. It was recently shown that two-photon interference from independent light sources can be used to remove any vulnerability from detectors. This new form of detection-safe quantum key distribution (QKD), termed measurement-device-independent (MDI), has been experimentally demonstrated but with modest key rates. Here, we introduce a new pulsed laser seeding technique to obtain high-visibility interference from gain-switched lasers and thereby perform MDI-QKD with unprecedented key rates in excess of 1 megabit per second in the finite-size regime. This represents a two to six orders of magnitude improvement over existing implementations and supports the new scheme as a practical resource for secure quantum communications.
We recently reported that ZBTB7A is a bona fide transcription repressor of key glycolytic genes and its downregulation in human cancer contributes to tumor metabolism. As reduced expression of ZBTB7A ...is found only in a subset of human cancers, we explored alternative mechanisms of its inactivation by mining human cancer genome databases. We discovered recurrent somatic mutations of ZBTB7A in multiple types of human cancers with a marked enrichment of mutations within the zinc finger domain. Functional characterization of the mutants demonstrated that mutations within the zinc finger region of ZBTB7A invariably resulted in loss of function. As a consequence, the glycolytic genes were markedly upregulated in cancer cells harboring ZBTB7A zinc finger mutation, leading to increased glycolysis and proliferation. Our study uncovers the loss-of-function mutation in ZBTB7A as a novel mechanism causing elevated glycolysis in human cancer, which carries important therapeutic implication.
We present the first experimental evidence supported by simulations of kinetic effects launched in the interpenetration layer between the laser-driven hohlraum plasma bubbles and the corona plasma of ...the compressed pellet at the Shenguang-III prototype laser facility. Solid plastic capsules were coated with carbon-deuterium layers; as the implosion neutron yield is quenched, DD fusion yield from the corona plasma provides a direct measure of the kinetic effects inside the hohlraum. An anomalous large energy spread of the DD neutron signal (∼282 keV) and anomalous scaling of the neutron yield with the thickness of the carbon-deuterium layers cannot be explained by the hydrodynamic mechanisms. Instead, these results can be attributed to kinetic shocks that arise in the hohlraum-wall-ablator interpenetration region, which result in efficient acceleration of the deuterons (∼28.8 J, 0.45% of the total input laser energy). These studies provide novel insight into the interactions and dynamics of a vacuum hohlraum and near-vacuum hohlraum.
Materials that crystallize in diamond-related lattices, with Si and GaAs as their prime examples, are at the foundation of modern electronics. Simultaneously, inversion asymmetries in their crystal ...structure and relativistic spinorbit coupling led to discoveries of non-equilibrium spin-polarization phenomena that are now extensively explored as an electrical means for manipulating magnetic moments in a variety of spintronic structures. Current research of these relativistic spinorbit torques focuses primarily on magnetic transition-metal multilayers. The low-temperature diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As, in which spinorbit torques were initially discovered, has so far remained the only example showing the phenomenon among bulk non-centrosymmetric ferromagnets. Here we present a general framework, based on the complete set of crystallographic point groups, for identifying the potential presence and symmetry of spinorbit torques in non-centrosymmetric crystals. Among the candidate room-temperature ferromagnets we chose to use NiMnSb, which is a member of the broad family of magnetic Heusler compounds. By performing all-electrical ferromagnetic resonance measurements in single-crystal epilayers of NiMnSb we detect room-temperature spinorbit torques generated by eective elds of the expected symmetry and of a magnitude consistent with our ab initio calculations.
This study systematically reviews prospective and retrospective cohort studies evaluating the risk of hip fracture following stroke. Stroke survivors are at high risk of hip fracture and had a ...1.5-fold increased risk compared to stroke-free men and women of the same age. Hip fracture often occurs in ageing and female stroke patients. We performed a meta-analysis to summarize evidence from prospective and retrospective cohort studies about the risk of hip fracture following stroke. We identified English and non-English publications in MEDLINE and EMBASE using stroke and fracture as keywords to 31 December 2015. The data of the incidence of hip fracture were extracted to calculate raw incident rate in stroke survivors as well as risk of hip fractures in strokes comparing populations using a random-effects model. Subgroup analyses were performed to identify the potential influence of some factors. Six prospective and seven retrospective cohort studies were included, involving 512,214 stroke patients with 22,559 hip fractures. The pooled prevalence of hip fractures was 4.87 % (95 % CI, 4.05 to 5.68 %) in stoke patients. We conducted subgroup analysis according to sex, age, duration of follow-up, study design, and region, which showed that female (vs. male) stroke patients older than 70 years (vs. those less than 70 years) and duration of follow-up more than 2 years (vs. those less than 2 years) have higher proportions of hip fractures. Four studies showed that stroke patients had a significantly higher risk of hip fracture compared with the general population, while the other study had a non-significant higher risk. The overall prevalence of hip fracture was 3.28 % (3431 of 104,646) in stroke patients and 2.83 % (36,493 of 1,287,726) in general population, respectively, and the unadjusted combined relative risk of hip fracture was 1.54 (95 % CI, 1.06–2.25). Hip fractures often occur in ageing and female stroke patients.
The vector charmoniumlike state Y(4220) was reported recently in the cross sections of e+e−→π+π−hc, ωχc0, π+π−J/ψ, and D0D*−π++c.c. measured by the BESIII experiment. A combined fit is performed to ...the cross sections of these four final states to measure the resonant parameters of the Y(4220). We determine a mass M=(4219.6±3.3±5.1) MeV/c2 and a total width Γ=(56.0±3.6±6.9) MeV for the Y(4220), where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second ones systematic. We determine the lower limit of its leptonic decay width of around 30 eV, which can be compared with the theoretical expectations of different models. We also estimate its partial decay width to ππJ/ψ in different scenarios. This information is essential for the understanding of the nature of this state.
The development of quantum networks will be paramount towards practical and secure telecommunications. These networks will need to sign and distribute information between many parties with ...information-theoretic security, requiring both quantum digital signatures (QDS) and quantum key distribution (QKD). Here, we introduce and experimentally realise a quantum network architecture, where the nodes are fully connected using a minimum amount of physical links. The central node of the network can act either as a totally untrusted relay, connecting the end users via the recently introduced measurement-device-independent (MDI)-QKD, or as a trusted recipient directly communicating with the end users via QKD. Using this network, we perform a proof-of-principle demonstration of QDS mediated by MDI-QKD. For that, we devised an efficient protocol to distil multiple signatures from the same block of data, thus reducing the statistical fluctuations in the sample and greatly enhancing the final QDS rate in the finite-size scenario.
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•A repetitive laser processing strategy with several variables is well designed.•The functionally graded NiTi alloy with three-dimensional size is manufactured.•The graded ...functionality as continuous increase in recoverable strain is obtained.•The microstructure gradient shows evolution of phase constitution and defects.•The graded functionality results from the swift of deformation mechanisms.
The introduction of graded functionality to NiTi shape memory alloy is being pursued to widen martensitic transformation intervals, enhance the controllability and further promote their widespread application as smart components. However, it is far away to obtain bulk graded NiTi alloy using current methods. In this work, a repetitive laser processing strategy was designed and employed to manufacture functionally graded NiTi alloy. The highest martensitic transformation interval was measured to be 126.7 ± 0.4 °C. The graded functionality was confirmed to display as the continuous increase in mechanical recoverable strain with regard to the applied strain. Furthermore, the graded functionality is independent upon the processing parameters and loading conditions. The microstructure gradient was characterized with the increased grain size and increased amount of B19′ phase, as well as the variation of interior defects along the gradient direction. This is exactly because of the microstructure gradient that causes the dependence of fracture mechanism on the loading condition. The graded functionality was finally analyzed to derive from swift of deformation mechanisms between the detwinning process of pre-existing B19′ variants and the stress-induced martensitic B19′ phase transformation. This work indeed provides a novel and effective approach to manufacture three-dimensional graded NiTi alloy, which could undertake complex structure design thereby catering to desired functional performance in various areas.
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