We demonstrate the reversible mapping of a coherent state of light with a mean photon number (-)n approximately equal to 1.1 to and from the hyperfine states of an atom trapped within the mode of a ...high-finesse optical cavity. The coherence of the basic processes is verified by mapping the atomic state back onto a field state in a way that depends on the phase of the original coherent state. Our experiment represents an important step toward the realization of cavity QED-based quantum networks, wherein coherent transfer of quantum states enables the distribution of quantum information across the network.
Abstract
Males in many species engage in physical combat over access to mates, and sexual selection has led to the evolution of weapons to enhance contest performance. The size of these ...often-elaborate structures is known to be exquisitely sensitive to nutrition. However, we know very little about the degree to which nutrition affects other attributes of animal weapons that can be crucial to fighting. In this study, we investigated the impact of natural dietary variation on weapon structural integrity in a fighting insect, Narnia femorata (Hemiptera: Coreidae). Males in this species display their enlarged, spiny hind legs to other males, and these legs serve as weapons in aggressive physical contests where they are used to strike and squeeze opponents. N. femorata feeds on the fruit of prickly pear cactus and sets up territories on this plant. In North Central Florida the prickly pear Opuntia mesacantha ssp. lata blooms and begins to produce fruits in April and May. N. femorata has multiple, overlapping generations while the green fruits slowly ripen over the next several months. We examined insects reaching adulthood at two nearby time points in this range, June and July, to test the influence of the nutrition provided by ripening green cactus fruit on weapon size and its ability to resist puncture. We also raised insects on cactus with red, ripe fruit for comparison. We found a striking effect of cactus fruit phenology on weapons. Insects raised with the more mature green fruit (those in the second cohort) had 71% larger weapon area and 4.4 times greater puncture resistance than those raised on the early green fruit (those in the first cohort). In contrast, insects raised on red, ripe fruit were moderate in size, had high puncture resistance, and they changed little phenotypically from the first to second cohort. Increased structural integrity of the hind femur weapon was associated with the increased body size that came with better nutrition. This pattern highlights that cuticle thickness increased or its material properties changed when weapons were larger. Importantly, effects of nutrition on puncture resistance also transcended size. Insects of the same size had greater structural integrity if they received superior nutrition. Sexually selected weapons are often used as visual signals to conspecifics before fights, and this work hints that the size of the weapons may be a poor signal of weapon performance when nutrition is variable.
We report results from the first search for sterile neutrinos mixing with active neutrinos through a reduction in the rate of neutral-current interactions over a baseline of 810 km between the NOvA ...detectors. Analyzing a 14-kton detector equivalent exposure of 6.05×1020 protons-on-target in the NuMI beam at Fermilab, we observe 95 neutral-current candidates at the Far Detector compared with 83.5±9.7(stat)±9.4(syst) events predicted assuming mixing only occurs between active neutrino species. No evidence for νμ→νs transitions is found. Interpreting these results within a 3+1 model, we place constraints on the mixing angles θ24<20.8° and θ34<31.2° at the 90% C.L. for 0.05 eV2≤Δm412≤0.5 eV2, the range of mass splittings that produce no significant oscillations over the Near Detector baseline.
Double umbilical cord blood transplantation (dUCBT), developed as a strategy to treat large number of patients with hematologic malignancies, frequently leads to the long-term establishment of a new ...hematopoietic system maintained by cells derived from a single umbilical cord blood unit. However, predicting which unit will predominate has remained elusive. This retrospective study examined the risk factor associated with unit predominance in 262 patients with hematologic malignancies who underwent dUCBT with subsequent hematopoietic recovery and complete chimerism between 2001 and 2009. Dual chimerism was detected at day 21-28, with subsequent single chimerism in 97% of the cases by day +100 and beyond. Risk factors included nucleated cell dose, CD34+ and CD3+ cell dose, colony-forming units-granulocyte macrophage dose, donor-recipient HLA match, sex and ABO match, order of infusion and cell viability. In the myeloablative setting, CD3+ cell dose was the only factor associated with unit predominance (odds ratio (OR) 4.4, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.8-10.6; P<0.01), but in the non-myeloablative setting, CD3+ cell dose (OR 2.1, 95%CI 1.0-4.2; P=0.05) and HLA match (OR 3.4, 95%CI 1.0-11.4; P=0.05) were independent factors associated with unit predominance. Taken together, these findings suggest that immune reactivity has a role in unit predominance, and should be considered during graft selection and graft manipulation.
Gonadal failure is a health and quality-of-life concern in hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) survivors. While ovarian dysfunction is nearly universal following myeloablative (MA) conditioning, the ...risk is unclear after reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC). Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonists decrease ovarian failure rates following conventional chemotherapy, but little is known about its effectiveness with HCT. We investigated the impact of leuprolide on ovarian function after MA conditioning and monitored ovarian function after RIC in this descriptive pilot study. Post-menarchal females <50 years undergoing HCT with adequate baseline ovarian function (follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) level <40 mIU/mL and normal menstruation) were eligible. Prior to MA conditioning, leuprolide was administered. Those undergoing RIC were observed. FSH was measured at various time points. Seventeen women aged 12-45 years were evaluated (7 in the intervention group and 10 in the observation group). Compared to the historical high rate of ovarian failure after MA conditioning, 3 of 7 evaluable Lupron recipients had ovarian failure at a median of 703 days post transplant. Ovarian failure occurred in 1 of 10 recipients of RIC at a median follow-up of 901 days. In conclusion, leuprolide may protect ovarian function after MA conditioning. Additionally, RIC with cyclophosphamide, fludarabine and low-dose TBI has a low risk of ovarian failure.
Opioid neurotransmission has a key role in mediating reward-related behaviours. Opioid receptor (OR) antagonists, such as naltrexone (NTX), can attenuate the behaviour-reinforcing effects of primary ...(food) and secondary rewards. GSK1521498 is a novel OR ligand, which behaves as an inverse agonist at the μ-OR sub-type. In a sample of healthy volunteers, we used (11)C-carfentanil positron emission tomography to measure the OR occupancy and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure activation of brain reward centres by palatable food stimuli before and after single oral doses of GSK1521498 (range, 0.4-100 mg) or NTX (range, 2-50 mg). GSK1521498 had high affinity for human brain ORs (GSK1521498 effective concentration 50 = 7.10 ng ml(-1)) and there was a direct relationship between receptor occupancy (RO) and plasma concentrations of GSK1521498. However, for both NTX and its principal active metabolite in humans, 6-β-NTX, this relationship was indirect. GSK1521498, but not NTX, significantly attenuated the fMRI activation of the amygdala by a palatable food stimulus. We thus have shown how the pharmacological properties of OR antagonists can be characterised directly in humans by a novel integration of molecular and functional neuroimaging techniques. GSK1521498 was differentiated from NTX in terms of its pharmacokinetics, target affinity, plasma concentration-RO relationships and pharmacodynamic effects on food reward processing in the brain. Pharmacological differentiation of these molecules suggests that they may have different therapeutic profiles for treatment of overeating and other disorders of compulsive consumption.
Background: Studies in animals have suggested that calcium may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer. However, results from epidemiologic studies of intake of calcium or dairy foods and colorectal ...cancer risk have been inconclusive. Methods: We pooled the primary data from 10 cohort studies in five countries that assessed usual dietary intake by using a validated food frequency questionnaire at baseline. For most studies, follow-up was extended beyond that in the original publication. The studies included 534 536 individuals, among whom 4992 incident cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed between 6 and 16 years of follow-up. Pooled multivariable relative risks for categories of milk intake and quintiles of calcium intake and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: Milk intake was related to a reduced risk of colorectal cancer. Compared with the lowest category of intake (<70 g/day), relative risks of colorectal cancer for increasing categories (70–174, 175–249, and ≥250 g/day) of milk intake were 0.94 (95% CI = 0.86 to 1.02), 0.88 (95% CI = 0.81 to 0.96), and 0.85 (95% CI = 0.78 to 0.94), respectively (Ptrend<.001). Calcium intake was also inversely related to the risk of colorectal cancer. The relative risk for the highest versus the lowest quintile of intake was 0.86 (95% CI = 0.78 to 0.95; Ptrend = .02) for dietary calcium and 0.78 (95% CI = 0.69 to 0.88; Ptrend<.001) for total calcium (combining dietary and supplemental sources). These results were consistent across studies and sex. The inverse association for milk was limited to cancers of the distal colon (Ptrend<.001) and rectum (Ptrend = .02). Conclusion: Higher consumption of milk and calcium is associated with a lower risk of colorectal cancer.
Accretion disks around neutron stars regularly undergo sudden strong irradiation by Type-I X-ray bursts powered by unstable thermonuclear burning on the stellar surface. We investigate the impact on ...the disk during one of the first X-ray burst observations with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) on the International Space Station. The burst is seen from Aql X-1 during the hard spectral state. In addition to thermal emission from the neutron star, the burst spectrum exhibits an excess of soft X-ray photons below 1 keV, where NICER's sensitivity peaks. We interpret the excess as a combination of reprocessing by the strongly photoionized disk and enhancement of the pre-burst persistent flux, possibly due to Poynting-Robertson drag or coronal reprocessing. This is the first such detection for a short sub-Eddington burst. As these bursts are observed frequently, NICER will be able to study how X-ray bursts affect the disk and corona for a range of accreting neutron star systems and disk states.
Background: Several large studies of obesity and colorectal cancer risk have found no association among women but a reasonably consistent positive association among men. In women, a positive ...association that is stronger among, or limited to, those who are premenopausal has been suggested by studies that stratified analyses by age, although no previous study has examined the association by menopausal status. Methods: We used proportional hazards analyses to estimate hazard ratios relating obesity to colorectal cancer risk among 89 835 women aged 40–59 years at recruitment into the Canadian National Breast Screening Study, a multicentre randomised controlled trial of mammography screening for breast cancer. During an average 10.6 years of follow up (936 433 person years), a total of 527 women were diagnosed with incident colorectal cancer (363 colon and 164 rectal). Results: We found that obesity (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2) was associated with an approximately twofold increased risk of colorectal cancer among women who were premenopausal at baseline (hazard ratio 1.88, 95% confidence interval 1.24–2.86). There was no association among postmenopausal women (p for interaction=0.01), and there was only a weak positive association in the entire cohort. Conclusions: Our data suggest that obesity is associated with a twofold increased risk of colorectal cancer in premenopausal women but is not associated with altered risk in postmenopausal women. Effect modification by menopausal status may better explain the inconsistent or weak findings in previous studies than the presumed lack of an association among women.
Localization to the ground state of axial motion is demonstrated for a single, trapped atom strongly coupled to the field of a high finesse optical resonator. The axial atomic motion is cooled by way ...of coherent Raman transitions on the red vibrational sideband. An efficient state detection scheme enabled by strong coupling in cavity QED is used to record the Raman spectrum, from which the state of atomic motion is inferred. We find that the lowest vibrational level of the axial potential with zero-point energy variant Planck's over 2 h omega a/2kB = 13 microK is occupied with probability P0 approximately 0.95.
PDF
