Nearing 30 years since its introduction, 3D printing technology is set to revolutionize research and teaching laboratories. This feature encompasses the history of 3D printing, reviews various ...printing methods, and presents current applications. The authors offer an appraisal of the future direction and impact this technology will have on laboratory settings as 3D printers become more accessible.
Dominating finite-range interactions in many-body systems can lead to intriguing self-ordered phases of matter. For quantum magnets, Ising models with power-law interactions are among the most ...elementary systems that support such phases. These models can be implemented by laser coupling ensembles of ultracold atoms to Rydberg states. Here, we report on the experimental preparation of crystalline ground states of such spin systems. We observe a magnetization staircase as a function of the system size and show directly the emergence of crystalline states with vanishing susceptibility. Our results demonstrate the precise control of Rydberg many-body systems and may enable future studies of phase transitions and quantum correlations in interacting quantum magnets.
Migraine can be regarded as a conserved, adaptive response that occurs in genetically predisposed individuals with a mismatch between the brain's energy reserve and workload. Given the high ...prevalence of migraine, genotypes associated with the condition seem likely to have conferred an evolutionary advantage. Technological advances have enabled the examination of different aspects of cerebral metabolism in patients with migraine, and complementary animal research has highlighted possible metabolic mechanisms in migraine pathophysiology. An increasing amount of evidence - much of it clinical - suggests that migraine is a response to cerebral energy deficiency or oxidative stress levels that exceed antioxidant capacity and that the attack itself helps to restore brain energy homeostasis and reduces harmful oxidative stress levels. Greater understanding of metabolism in migraine offers novel therapeutic opportunities. In this Review, we describe the evidence for abnormalities in energy metabolism and mitochondrial function in migraine, with a focus on clinical data (including neuroimaging, biochemical, genetic and therapeutic studies), and consider the relationship of these abnormalities with the abnormal sensory processing and cerebral hyper-responsivity observed in migraine. We discuss experimental data to consider potential mechanisms by which metabolic abnormalities could generate attacks. Finally, we highlight potential treatments that target cerebral metabolism, such as nutraceuticals, ketone bodies and dietary interventions.
In this study, data from a point-prevalence survey of health care–associated infections in U.S. hospitals in 2015 were compared with survey data from 2011. Areas for improvement are suggested.
Interference is fundamental to wave dynamics and quantum mechanics. The quantum wave properties of particles are exploited in metrology using atom interferometers, allowing for high-precision inertia ...measurements. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art time standard is based on an interferometric technique known as Ramsey spectroscopy. However, the precision of an interferometer is limited by classical statistics owing to the finite number of atoms used to deduce the quantity of interest. Here we show experimentally that the classical precision limit can be surpassed using nonlinear atom interferometry with a Bose-Einstein condensate. Controlled interactions between the atoms lead to non-classical entangled states within the interferometer; this represents an alternative approach to the use of non-classical input states. Extending quantum interferometry to the regime of large atom number, we find that phase sensitivity is enhanced by 15 per cent relative to that in an ideal classical measurement. Our nonlinear atomic beam splitter follows the 'one-axis-twisting' scheme and implements interaction control using a narrow Feshbach resonance. We perform noise tomography of the quantum state within the interferometer and detect coherent spin squeezing with a squeezing factor of -8.2 dB (refs 11-15). The results provide information on the many-particle quantum state, and imply the entanglement of 170 atoms.
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protects the central nervous system (CNS) and analyzing CSF aids the diagnosis of CNS diseases, but our understanding of CSF leukocytes remains superficial. Here, using ...single cell transcriptomics, we identify a specific location-associated composition and transcriptome of CSF leukocytes. Multiple sclerosis (MS) - an autoimmune disease of the CNS - increases transcriptional diversity in blood, but increases cell type diversity in CSF including a higher abundance of cytotoxic phenotype T helper cells. An analytical approach, named cell set enrichment analysis (CSEA) identifies a cluster-independent increase of follicular (TFH) cells potentially driving the known expansion of B lineage cells in the CSF in MS. In mice, TFH cells accordingly promote B cell infiltration into the CNS and the severity of MS animal models. Immune mechanisms in MS are thus highly compartmentalized and indicate ongoing local T/B cell interaction.
Quantum phases of matter are characterized by the underlying correlations of the many-body system. Although this is typically captured by a local order parameter, it has been shown that a broad class ...of many-body systems possesses a hidden nonlocal order. In the case of bosonic Mott insulators, the ground state properties are governed by quantum fluctuations in the form of correlated particle-hole pairs that lead to the emergence of a nonlocal string order in one dimension. By using high-resolution imaging of low-dimensional quantum gases in an optical lattice, we directly detect these pairs with single-site and single-particle sensitivity and observe string order in the one-dimensional case.
To determine the role of the NLRP3 inflammasome by using the selective NLRP3 inhibitor MCC950 in patients with NLRP3 low penetrance variants and clinical symptoms suggestive for an autoinflammatory ...syndrome including central nervous system (CNS) involvement.
Nineteen symptomatic patients with low penetrance NLRP3 variants (Q703K n = 17, V198M n = 2) recruited between 2011 and 2017 were included in this monocentric study. A functional inflammasome activation assay was performed in patients in comparison to healthy controls (HC), including the determination of interleukin-1beta (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor-necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) secretion in the presence of the NLRP3 selective small-molecule inhibitor MCC950. Detailed clinical features were assessed and anti-IL-1 treatment response was determined.
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with low penetrance NLRP3 variants displayed enhanced IL-1β levels following inflammasome activation compared to HC. Furthermore, IL-1β release was NLRP3-dependent as it was blocked by MCC950. The production of IL-6 and TNF-α was also increased in patients with low penetrance NLRP3 variants. Clinically, they presented with a heterogenous spectrum of neurological manifestations, while cranial nerve inflammation was the most common feature. Overall inflammasome activation did not correlate with disease severity. Eight of ten treated patients responded to anti IL-1 treatment, however a complete response was only documented in four patients.
PBMC of several patients with NLRP3 low penetrance variants and CNS manifestation showed increased NLRP3-specific IL-1β release upon stimulation and elevated NLRP3-independent IL-6 and TNF-α levels as those were not suppressed by MCC950. Our data suggest that beside the possible causal involvement of the NLRP3 inflammasome additional, yet unidentified genetic or environmental factors may contribute to the multi-organ inflammation in our patients and explain the partial response to IL-1 targeting therapies.
Historically, the completeness of quantum theory has been questioned using the concept of bipartite continuous-variable entanglement. The non-classical correlations (entanglement) between the two ...subsystems imply that the observables of one subsystem are determined by the measurement choice on the other, regardless of the distance between the subsystems. Nowadays, continuous-variable entanglement is regarded as an essential resource, allowing for quantum enhanced measurement resolution, the realization of quantum teleportation and quantum memories, or the demonstration of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox. These applications rely on techniques to manipulate and detect coherences of quantum fields, the quadratures. Whereas in optics coherent homodyne detection of quadratures is a standard technique, for massive particles a corresponding method was missing. Here we report the realization of an atomic analogue to homodyne detection for the measurement of matter-wave quadratures. The application of this technique to a quantum state produced by spin-changing collisions in a Bose-Einstein condensate reveals continuous-variable entanglement, as well as the twin-atom character of the state. Our results provide a rare example of continuous-variable entanglement of massive particles. The direct detection of atomic quadratures has applications not only in experimental quantum atom optics, but also for the measurement of fields in many-body systems of massive particles.
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