Magnon-mediated nonreciprocal microwave transmission based on quantum interference.

Nonreciprocity has always been a subject of interest and plays a key role in a variety of applications like signal processing and noise isolation. In this work, we propose a simple and feasible scheme to implement nonreciprocal microwave transmission in a high-quality-factor superconducting cavity with ferrimagnetic materials. We derive necessary requirements to create nonreciprocity in our system where a magnon mode and two microwave modes are coupled to each other, highlighting the adjustability of a static magnetic field controlled nonreciprocal transmission based on quantum interference between different transmission paths, which breaks time-reversal symmetry of the three-mode cavity magnonics system. The high light isolation adjusted within a range of different magnetic fields can be obtained by modulating the photon-magnon coupling strength. Due to the simplicity of the device and the system tunability, our results may facilitate potential applications for light magnetic sensing and coherent information processing.

Type of Necrosis Influences Prognosis in Hepatocellular Carcinoma After the First Transarterial Chemoembolization.

BACKGROUND Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common tumors. Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the first choice of treatment for intermediate HCC and an important treatment option for advanced HCC. This retrospective study compared the prognosis between patients showing coagulative necrosis and patients showing liquefactive necrosis after the first TACE procedure. MATERIAL AND METHODS We divided 171 patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) Stage B or C HCC into 2 groups; a coagulative necrosis group (79 patients) and a liquefactive necrosis group (92 patients). The coagulative and liquefactive necroses were identified by computed tomography after the first TACE procedure. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to identify the differences in the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) between the 2 groups, and the associated risk factors and safety of TACE were analyzed. RESULTS The median OS durations were 23.27±1.40 months and 8.83±2.15 months (P=0.004) and the median PFS durations were 9.33±0.96 months and 3.70±0.44 months (P=0.002) in the coagulative necrosis and liquefactive necrosis groups, respectively. Intrahepatic in situ progression, new intrahepatic metastasis, and extrahepatic progression occurred significantly earlier in the liquefactive necrosis group (P<0.05). Univariate analysis and multivariate analyses showed liquefactive necrosis was the main risk factor for OS. There was no significant difference in the hepatic function impairment or post-embolism syndrome after TACE. CONCLUSIONS After the first TACE procedure, the patients with liquefactive necrosis experienced recurrence and metastasis earlier and had a worse prognosis. Therefore, these patients should be considered for earlier administration of targeted therapies or immunotherapies after TACE.

[Inhibitory effect of compound cantharides capsule on the proliferation of xenografts of human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG(2)215 in mice].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the inhibitory effect of compound cantharides capsules on the proliferation of xenografts of human hepatocellular carcinoma HepG(2215) in mice and their mechanism of action. METHODS: One hundred healthy Balb/c mice (5-week old, male:female 1:1) were used in this study. Mouse models of human HepG(2215) hepatocarcinoma were established. The tumor-bearing mice were divided into five groups randomly. The control group A received daily intragastric administration of physiologic saline. The intervention groups B1, B2 and B3 were treated with compound cantharides capsule in a dose of 12.5 mg×kg(-1)×d(-1), 25 mg×kg(-1)×d(-1) and 37.5 mg×kg(-1)×d(-1), respectively, for 10 consecutive days. The group C had intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide (25 mg×kg(-1)×d(-1)) for 10 consecutive days. The mice were sacrificed after the completion of administration. The tumors were taken out, the tumor volume was measured, the inhibitory rate of body weight was calculated, and the serum AFP concentration and the level of HBV DNA were determined. The survival of each group mice was analyzed. The levels of mRNA expression of apoptosis-related genes were assayed by quantitative RT-PCR. Apoptosis in the tumor cells was assayed with TUNEL staining. Flow cytometry was used to detect the levels of CD3(+), CD19(+), CD4(+) and CD8(+), and microvessel density (MVD) of the tumors was assessed by immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: After completion of the treatment, the inhibition rate of tumor growth of the groups B1, B2 and B3 was 29.8%, 38.7% and 48.1%, respectively, and that of the group C was 52.4%, with a significant difference among the groups (P < 0.05). The median survival time of the groups A, B1, B2, B3 and C was (30.0 ± 3.2) days, (49.0 ± 5.1) days, (50.0 ± 5.2) days, (57.5 ± 6.5) days and (49.0 ± 4.7) days, respectively. The median survival time of the group B3 was significantly longer than that of other groups (P < 0.05). The serum AFP level in the groups A, B1, B2, B3 and C was (492.7 ± 48.5) ng/ml, (281.2 ± 25.6) ng/ml, (194.3 ± 18.7) ng/ml, (170.1 ± 15.8) ng/ml and (138.7 ± 12.5) ng/ml, respectively, indicating that it was significantly inhibited in the group C. The inhibition rate of HBV DNA replication of the groups B1, B2, B3 and C was (46.0 ± 5.1)%, (65.5 ± 6.9)%, (81.3 ± 7.8)% and (19.5 ± 2.1)%, respectively, showing that compound cantharides capsules inhibited HBV DNA replication in a dose-dependent manner. The apoptosis rate of the groups A, B1, B2, B3 and C was (0.27 ± 0.03)%, (7.18 ± 2.12)%, (9.17 ± 2.42)%, (11.27 ± 3.03)% and (5.44 ± 2.45)%, respectively, and that of the group B3 was significantly higher than that of the groups A, B1, B2 and C (P < 0.05). The expression level of bax mRNA was significantly higher than that of the group C (P < 0.05). The drug could significantly decrease the bcl-2 mRNA expression level, more remarkably along with the increasing dose of cantharides, and it was significantly lower than that in the group C (P < 0.05). The levels of CD4(+), CD8(+), CD3(+) and CD19(+) were significantly higher than that in the groups A and C (P < 0.05). The value of MVD of the group B3 was significantly lower that that of groups A and C (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Compound cantharides capsules may inhibit the replication of HBV DNA in HepG(2215) cells, inducing apoptosis in the tumor cells, enhancing the immune function to inhibit the growth of liver cancer cells in mice, and significantly prolong the median survival time of tumor-bearing mice.

[Investigation on Taenia sp. infection in Midu County of Yunnan Province].

The current status and species of Taenia sp. were investigated in Midu County by sedimentation method to examine eggs of Taenia sp. in stool, questionnairing as well as deworming by areca-pumpkin seeds in October-December, 2010. The infection rate of Taenia sp. was 15.7% (65/414). Among the positives, it was fairly high in the age groups of 40- and 50-, being 24% (21/85) and 26% (15/57), respectively. 26 cases with positive stool examination and 47 cases with a history of discharging proglottids were treated. Adult worms were collected from all 26 egg positive cases and 23 persons discharging proglottids. The highest number of adult worms expelled was 11 in a woman, 2 worms from another villager, but only one worm each from all other cases. 15 tapeworms with scolex and mature proglottids were examined and morphologically identified as T. asiatia. The high prevalence was related to the residents' dietetic habits (eg. eating raw pork and liver) , behaviour (eg. defecating in field) , and the egg-contaminated environment (eg. by untreated feces).

Slow vector optical solitons in a cold five-level hyper V-type atomic system.

A new scheme of five-level hyper V-type atomic system is proposed with the aim of generating slow temporal vector optical solitons. Two transitions in the five-level atomic medium independently interact with the two orthogonally polarized components of a low intensity linear-polarized pulsed probe field, while two other transitions are driven by control laser fields. We demonstrate that various distortion-free slow temporal vector optical solitons, such as bright-bright, bright-dark, dark-bright and dark-dark vector solitons, can be evolved from the probe field. Besides, we also show that the modified Hubbard model that includes the Manakov system may be realized by adjusting the corresponding self- (cross-) phase modulation and dispersion effects of this system.

N-qubitW state of spatially separated single molecule magnets.

A simple scheme is proposed to generate a N-qubit W state of spatiall separated single molecule magnets (SMM) in a cavity-fiber-cavity system. In the present scheme, the framework consisting of entangled qubits can be expediently designed according to our needs. By quantitatively discussing the case of N=4, we show that the effects of SMM's spontaneous decay and photon leakage out of fiber can be suppressed in our scheme due to the presence of virtual excited processes in SMM and fiber modes. Moreover, we also show that the present scheme is robust with respect to some deviations of experimental parameters, and as a result, the present investigation provides a research clue for realizing multi-partite entanglement between distant SMMs solid-state nanostructures, which may result in a substantial impact on the progress of multi-node quantum information network.

Scaling of geometric quantum discord close to a topological phase transition.

Quantum phase transition is one of the most interesting aspects in quantum many-body systems. Recently, geometric quantum discord has been introduced to signature the critical behavior of various quantum systems. However, it is well-known that topological quantum phase transition can not be described by the conventional Landau's symmetry breaking theory, and thus it is unknown that whether previous study can be applicable in this case. Here, we study the topological quantum phase transition in Kitaev's 1D p-wave spinless quantum wire model in terms of its ground state geometric quantum discord. The derivative of geometric quantum discord is nonanalytic at the critical point, in both zero temperature and finite temperature cases. The scaling behavior and the universality are verified numerically. Therefore, our results clearly show that all the key ingredients of the topological phase transition can be captured by the nearest neighbor and long-range geometric quantum discord.

[Effects of different treatment methods of housefly pupae for the reproduction of Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae Rondani].

It is an important way to massively rear parasitoid wasps by using appropriate methods to treat the wasps' hosts and preserve them for a long duration. Pachycrepoideus vindemmiae Rondani is a pupal parasitoid of several dipteral pests, being of significance for the biological control of the pests. In this paper, housefly pupae were frozen at -20 degrees C, cold storage-preserved at 6 degrees C, and CO2-asphyxiated for 1-, 3-, and 30 days, respectively, and some pupae were heat-killed and cold storage-preserved for 30 days, aimed to approach the effects of these treatment methods on the reproduction of P. vindemmiae on the pupae. The results showed that P. vindemmiae could reproduce on the pupae treated with the above-mentioned methods, and the tibia length of the offspring had less difference with that on the fresh pupae. However, the reproduction of P. vindemmiae on the pupae treated with the above-mentioned methods except frozen decreased with the increasing preserving duration of the pupae. At the prerequisite of preserving for 30 days, frozen pupae had the highest P. vindemmiae offspring reproduction, suggesting that P. vindemmiae could be massively reared when the housefly pupae were treated by frozen and cold storage-preserved.

Slow optical soliton pairs via electron spin coherence in a quantum well waveguide.

In this paper, we theoretically investigate the propagation properties of probe and mixing fields in a quantum well waveguide. This waveguide is driven by two strong control (pumping and coupling) fields and a weak probe field. Under appropriate parameters condition, the electron spin coherence can suppress the absorption and enhance the nonlinear susceptibilities of the probe (or mixing) field. This study reveals that probe (or mixing) field can form soliton pairs and propagate in the quantum well waveguide with slow group velocity. We also study the soliton collision and dynamics evolution. The results show that the propagation of soliton can be strongly modified by the electron spin coherence.