Abstract
We present analysis of the light curves (LCs) of 77 hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe I) discovered during the Zwicky Transient Facility Phase I operation. We find that the ...majority (67%) of the sample can be fit equally well by both magnetar and ejecta–circumstellar medium (CSM) interaction plus
56
Ni decay models. This implies that LCs alone cannot unambiguously constrain the physical power sources for an SLSN I. However, 23% of the sample show inverted V-shape, steep-declining LCs or features of long rise and fast post-peak decay, which are better described by the CSM+Ni model. The remaining 10% of the sample favors the magnetar model. Moreover, our analysis shows that the LC undulations are quite common, with a fraction of 18%–44% in our gold sample. Among those strongly undulating events, about 62% of them are found to be CSM-favored, implying that the undulations tend to occur in the CSM-favored events. Undulations show a wide range in energy and duration, with median values (and 1
σ
errors) being as
1.7
%
−
0.7
%
+
1.5
%
E
rad
,
total
and
28.8
−
9.1
+
14.4
days, respectively. Our analysis of the undulation timescales suggests that intrinsic temporal variations of the central engine can explain half of the undulating events, while CSM interaction (CSI) can account for the majority of the sample. Finally, all of the well-observed He-rich SLSNe Ib either have strongly undulating LCs or the LCs are much better fit by the CSM+Ni model. These observations imply that their progenitor stars have not had enough time to lose all of the He-envelopes before supernova explosions, and H-poor CSM are likely to present in these events.
Elemental compositions of organic aerosol (OA) particles provide useful constraints on OA sources, chemical evolution, and effects. The Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass ...spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) is widely used to measure OA elemental composition. This study evaluates AMS measurements of atomic oxygen-to-carbon (O : C), hydrogen-to-carbon (H : C), and organic mass-to-organic carbon (OM : OC) ratios, and of carbon oxidation state (OS C) for a vastly expanded laboratory data set of multifunctional oxidized OA standards. For the expanded standard data set, the method introduced by Aiken et al. (2008), which uses experimentally measured ion intensities at all ions to determine elemental ratios (referred to here as "Aiken-Explicit"), reproduces known O : C and H : C ratio values within 20% (average absolute value of relative errors) and 12%, respectively. The more commonly used method, which uses empirically estimated H2O+ and CO+ ion intensities to avoid gas phase air interferences at these ions (referred to here as "Aiken-Ambient"), reproduces O : C and H : C of multifunctional oxidized species within 28 and 14% of known values. The values from the latter method are systematically biased low, however, with larger biases observed for alcohols and simple diacids. A detailed examination of the H2O+, CO+, and CO2+ fragments in the high-resolution mass spectra of the standard compounds indicates that the Aiken-Ambient method underestimates the CO+ and especially H2O+ produced from many oxidized species. Combined AMS-vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) ionization measurements indicate that these ions are produced by dehydration and decarboxylation on the AMS vaporizer (usually operated at 600 degree C). Thermal decomposition is observed to be efficient at vaporizer temperatures down to 200 degree C. These results are used together to develop an "Improved-Ambient" elemental analysis method for AMS spectra measured in air. The Improved-Ambient method uses specific ion fragments as markers to correct for molecular functionality-dependent systematic biases and reproduces known O : C (H : C) ratios of individual oxidized standards within 28% (13%) of the known molecular values. The error in Improved-Ambient O : C (H : C) values is smaller for theoretical standard mixtures of the oxidized organic standards, which are more representative of the complex mix of species present in ambient OA. For ambient OA, the Improved-Ambient method produces O : C (H : C) values that are 27% (11%) larger than previously published Aiken-Ambient values; a corresponding increase of 9% is observed for OM : OC values. These results imply that ambient OA has a higher relative oxygen content than previously estimated. The OS C values calculated for ambient OA by the two methods agree well, however (average relative difference of 0.06 OS C units). This indicates that OS C is a more robust metric of oxidation than O : C, likely since OS C is not affected by hydration or dehydration, either in the atmosphere or during analysis.
Electron inflow and outflow velocities during magnetic reconnection at and near the dayside magnetopause are measured using satellites from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. A case ...study is examined in detail, and three other events with similar behavior are shown, with one of them being a recently published electron‐only reconnection event in the magnetosheath. The measured inflow speeds of 200–400 km/s imply dimensionless reconnection rates of 0.05–0.25 when normalized to the relevant electron Alfvén speed, which are within the range of expectations. The outflow speeds are about 1.5–3 times the inflow speeds, which is consistent with theoretical predictions of the aspect ratio of the inner electron diffusion region. A reconnection rate of 0.04 ± 25% was obtained for the case study event using the reconnection electric field as compared to the 0.12 ± 20% rate determined from the inflow velocity.
Key Points
Electron inflow velocities are determined for reconnection at the magnetopause and in the magnetosheath
For four events inflow velocities of 200–400 km/s imply normalized reconnection rates of 0.05–0.25
Reconnection rates using electron inflow velocities (0.12) and the reconnection electric field (0.04) are compared for one event
Plain Language Summary
When the solar wind impacts the Earth's magnetosphere, an explosive energy conversion process called magnetic reconnection opens the door for solar wind energy to enter the magnetosphere by interconnection of the magnetic fields of the solar wind and of Earth. In this process, magnetic energy is converted to charged‐particle energy. Magnetic reconnection is fairly well understood at large scales and even down to the ion scale. However, the breaking and linking of field lines and the acceleration of electrons occur at much smaller scales, which are only recently being accessed by the NASA Magnetospheric Multiscale mission. This paper analyzes the speed at which electrons flow into and out of reconnection sites. The inflow speeds are crucial because they provide a measurement of the rate at which reconnection proceeds.
Qutrit Randomized Benchmarking Morvan, A.; Ramasesh, V. V.; Blok, M. S. ...
Physical review letters,
05/2021, Letnik:
126, Številka:
21
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Ternary quantum processors offer significant potential computational advantages over conventional qubit technologies, leveraging the encoding and processing of quantum information in qutrits ...(three-level systems). To evaluate and compare the performance of such emerging quantum hardware it is essential to have robust benchmarking methods suitable for a higher-dimensional Hilbert space. We demonstrate extensions of industry standard randomized benchmarking (RB) protocols, developed and used extensively for qubits, suitable for ternary quantum logic. Using a superconducting five-qutrit processor, we find an average single-qutrit process infidelity of 3.8×10−3. Through interleaved RB, we characterize a few relevant gates, and employ simultaneous RB to fully characterize crosstalk errors. Finally, we apply cycle benchmarking to a two-qutrit CSUM gate and obtain a two-qutrit process fidelity of 0.85. Our results present and demonstrate RB-based tools to characterize the performance of a qutrit processor, and a general approach to diagnose control errors in future qudit hardware.
Chronic inflammation has been associated with a variety of human cancers including prostate cancer. Interleukin-17 (IL-17) is a critical pro-inflammatory cytokine, which has been demonstrated to ...promote development of prostate cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer and pancreas cancer. IL-17 promotes prostate adenocarcinoma with a concurrent increase of matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP7) expression in mouse prostate. Whether MMP7 mediates IL-17's action and the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. We generated Mmp7 and Pten double knockout (KO) (Mmp7
) mouse model and demonstrated that MMP7 promotes prostate adenocarcinoma through induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in Pten-null mice. MMP7 disrupted E-cadherin/β-catenin complex to upregulate EMT transcription factors in mouse prostate tumors. IL-17 receptor C and Pten double KO mice recapitulated the weak EMT characteristics observed in Mmp7
mice. IL-17 induced MMP7 and EMT in human prostate cancer LNCaP, C4-2B and PC-3 cell lines, while small interfering RNA knockdown of MMP7 inhibited IL-17-induced EMT. Compound III, a selective MMP7 inhibitor, decreased development of invasive prostate cancer in Pten single KO mice. In human normal prostates and prostate tumors, IL-17 mRNA levels were positively correlated with MMP7 mRNA levels. These findings demonstrate that MMP7 mediates IL-17's function in promoting prostate carcinogenesis through induction of EMT, indicating IL-17-MMP7-EMT axis as a potential target for developing new strategies in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer.
Metastases remain the major cause of death from cancer. Recent molecular advances have highlighted the importance of metabolic alterations in cancer cells, including the Warburg effect that describes ...an increased glycolysis in cancer cells. However, how this altered metabolism contributes to tumour metastasis remains elusive. Here, we report that phosphorylation-induced activation of lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), an enzyme that catalyses the interconversion of pyruvate and lactate, promotes cancer cell invasion, anoikis resistance and tumour metastasis. We demonstrate that LDHA is phosphorylated at tyrosine 10 by upstream kinases, HER2 and Src. Targeting HER2 or Src attenuated LDH activity as well as invasive potential in head and neck cancer and breast cancer cells. Inhibition of LDH activity by small hairpin ribonucleic acid or expression of phospho-deficient LDHA Y10F sensitized the cancer cells to anoikis induction and resulted in attenuated cell invasion and elevated reactive oxygen species, whereas such phenotypes were reversed by its product lactate or antioxidant N-acetylcysteine, suggesting that Y10 phosphorylation-mediated LDHA activity promotes cancer cell invasion and anoikis resistance through redox homeostasis. In addition, LDHA knockdown or LDHA Y10F rescue expression in human cancer cells resulted in decreased tumour metastasis in xenograft mice. Furthermore, LDHA phosphorylation at Y10 positively correlated with progression of metastatic breast cancer in clinical patient tumour samples. Our findings demonstrate that LDHA phosphorylation and activation provide pro-invasive, anti-anoikis and pro-metastatic advantages to cancer cells, suggesting that Y10 phosphorylation of LDHA may represent a promising therapeutic target and a prognostic marker for metastatic human cancers.
Delivery of vaccine antigens to the dermis and/or epidermis of human skin (i.e. intradermal delivery) might be more efficient than injection into the muscle or subcutaneous tissue, thereby reducing ...the volumes of antigen. This is known as dose-sparing and has been demonstrated in clinical trials with some, but not all, vaccines. Dose-sparing could be beneficial to immunization programmes by potentially reducing the costs of purchase, distribution and storage of vaccines; increasing vaccine availability and effectiveness. The data obtained with intradermal delivery of some vaccines are encouraging and warrant further study and development; however significant gaps in knowledge and operational challenges such as reformulation, optimizing vaccine presentation and development of novel devices to aid intradermal vaccine delivery need to be addressed. Modelling of the costs and potential savings resulting from intradermal delivery should be done to provide realistic expectations of the potential benefits and to support cases for investment. Implementation and uptake of intradermal vaccine delivery requires further research and development, which depends upon collaboration between multiple stakeholders in the field of vaccination.
Most cancer patients die from metastasis. Recent studies have shown that gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) can slow down the migration/invasion speed of cancer cells and suppress metastasis. Since nuclear ...stiffness of the cell largely decreases cell migration, our hypothesis is that targeting AuNPs to the cell nucleus region could enhance nuclear stiffness, and therefore inhibit cell migration and invasion. Our results showed that upon nuclear targeting of AuNPs, the ovarian cancer cell motilities decrease significantly, compared with nontargeted AuNPs. Furthermore, using atomic force microscopy, we observed an enhanced cell nuclear stiffness. In order to understand the mechanism of cancer cell migration/invasion inhibition, the exact locations of the targeted AuNPs were clearly imaged using a high-resolution three-dimensional imaging microscope, which showed that the AuNPs were trapped at the nuclear membrane. In addition, we observed a greatly increased expression level of lamin A/C protein, which is located in the inner nuclear membrane and functions as a structural component of the nuclear lamina to enhance nuclear stiffness. We propose that the AuNPs that are trapped at the nuclear membrane both (1) add to the mechanical stiffness of the nucleus and (2) stimulate the overexpression of lamin A/C located around the nuclear membrane, thus increasing nuclear stiffness and slowing cancer cell migration and invasion.
Complex tissues contain multiple cell types that are hierarchically organized within morphologically and functionally distinct compartments. Construction of engineered tissues with optimized tissue ...architecture has been limited by tissue fabrication techniques, which do not enable versatile microscale organization of multiple cell types in tissues of size adequate for physiological studies and tissue therapies. Here we present an 'Intaglio-Void/Embed-Relief Topographic molding' method for microscale organization of many cell types, including induced pluripotent stem cell-derived progeny, within a variety of synthetic and natural extracellular matrices and across tissues of sizes appropriate for in vitro, pre-clinical, and clinical studies. We demonstrate that compartmental placement of non-parenchymal cells relative to primary or induced pluripotent stem cell-derived hepatocytes, compartment microstructure, and cellular composition modulate hepatic functions. Configurations found to sustain physiological function in vitro also result in survival and function in mice for at least 4 weeks, demonstrating the importance of architectural optimization before implantation.
Abstract
During the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Phase I operations, 78 hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe-I) were discovered in less than 3 yr, constituting the largest sample from a ...single survey. This paper (Paper I) presents the data, including the optical/UV light curves and classification spectra, while Paper II in this series will focus on the detailed analysis of the light curves and modeling. Our photometry is primarily taken by ZTF in the
g
,
r
, and
i
bands, and with additional data from other ground-based facilities and Swift. The events of our sample cover a redshift range of
z
= 0.06 − 0.67, with a median and 1
σ
error (16% and 84% percentiles) of
z
med
=
0.265
−
0.135
+
0.143
. The peak luminosity covers −22.8 mag ≤
M
g
,peak
≤ −19.8 mag, with a median value of
−
21.48
−
0.61
+
1.13
mag. The light curves evolve slowly with a mean rest-frame rise time of
t
rise
= 41.9 ± 17.8 days. The luminosity and timescale distributions suggest that low-luminosity SLSNe-I with a peak luminosity ∼−20 mag or extremely fast-rising events (<10 days) exist, but are rare. We confirm previous findings that slowly rising SLSNe-I also tend to fade slowly. The rest-frame color and temperature evolution show large scatters, suggesting that the SLSN-I population may have diverse spectral energy distributions. The peak rest-frame color shows a moderate correlation with the peak absolute magnitude, i.e., brighter SLSNe-I tend to have bluer colors. With optical and UV photometry, we construct the bolometric luminosity and derive a bolometric correction relation that is generally applicable for converting
g
,
r
-band photometry to the bolometric luminosity for SLSNe-I.