Two-Way Protocol with Imperfect Devices

The security of a deterministic quantum scheme for communication, namely the LM05 [1], is studied in presence of a lossy channel under the assumption of imperfect generation and detection of single photons. It is shown that the scheme allows for a rate of distillable secure bits higher than that pertaining to BB84 [2]. We report on a first implementation of LM05 with weak pulses.     

造纸毛毯的发展与应用

本文拟就１９６３年至今我国造纸毛毯的生产和应用技术的发展和现状及造纸毛毯清洗系统的关键技术问题进行了综述，并就造纸毛毯的合理使用，使其发挥最佳功能提出了若干建议。     

Concomitant activation of MEK-1 and Rac-1 increases the proliferative potential of thyroid epithelial cells, without affecting their differentiation

Activating point mutations in the Ras oncogene occur in a large number of human tumors, especially of epithelial origin. In thyroid follicular cells, ectopic expression of oncogenic H-Ras results in growth factor-independent proliferation, loss of differentiation and tumor formation in nude mice. In fibroblasts concomitant activation of the MAP kinase cascade and the small GTPase Rac-1 leads to full malignant transformation. We have tested the effects of these key downstream mediators of Ras in thyroid epithelial cells, by stably expressing either a constitutively active form of MEK-1 (MEK(deltaN3/S218E/S222D)), a constitutively active form of Rac-1 (Val12-Rac), or both. While the activation of one molecule or the other results in a weak phenotype, concomitant activation of both MEK-1 and Rac-1 in thyroid cells leads to growth factor-independent proliferation, morphological transformation and anchorage-independent growth. However, in contrast to Ras-transformed thyroid cells, the ones expressing the constitutively active forms of MEK-1 and Rac-1 maintain their differentiate phenotype and fail to form tumors when injected into nude mice. Thus, in thyroid epithelial cells, concomitant activation of MEK-1 and Rac-1 can reproduce only a subset of the Ras-induced effects and is not sufficient to cause full malignant transformation. Significantly, Ras-mediated increased proliferation and loss of differentiation can be dissociated in these cells.     

Thermodynamics of inositol hexakisphosphate interaction with human oxyhemoglobin

The interaction of inositol hexakisphosphate (IHP) with oxygenated human adult hemoglobin (Hb) was investigated at 25 degreesC. The affinity of IHP for oxygenated Hb is strongly pH-dependent, and potentiometric measurements of proton uptake and release upon IHP addition have shown that over the range between pH 8.0 and pH 6.0 in oxygenated Hb there are three groups of residues that change their pKa values after IHP addition, likely because of their interaction with negative charges of the heterotropic effector. On the basis of previous calculations on the electrostatic properties of human Hb (Matthew, J. B., Hanania, G. I. H., and Gurd, F. R. N. (1979) Biochemistry 18, 1919-1928; Lee, A. W.-m., Karplus, M., Poyart, C., and Bursaux, E. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 1285-1301), two of these groups might be Val1beta and His143beta, which are located in the beta1beta2 dyad axis, where they have been also proposed to interact with 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, whereas the third group does not appear easily identifiable. Calorimetric measurements of the heat associated with IHP binding at different pH values over the same range indicate that IHP binding is mostly enthalpy-driven at pH < 7 and mostly entropy-driven at pH > 7.     

Necessary conditions for asymptotic tracking in nonlinear systems

In the literature, it has been shown that if a single-input single-output analytic nonlinear plant 1) has a well-defined relative degree and 2) is minimum-phase, it is possible to achieve asymptotic tracking for an open set of output trajectories containing the origin in C^N [0, ∞), the space of N-times continuously differentiable functions taking values in R. When either of these sufficient conditions is not met, various authors have investigated approximate analytic solutions, discontinuous solutions and solutions for restricted sets of trajectories. In this paper, it is shown that conditions 1) and 2) are necessary for the existence of an analytic compensator which yields asymptotic tracking for an open set of output trajectories. Analogous results are established for multi-input multi-output systems     

Macrophage-derived cytokines in the follicular fluids of women with infertility due to immunological causes. Elevated levels of interleukin 6 and low levels of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor

Myoclonus of the middle ear is a rare condition characterized by abnormal repetitive muscle contractions of the tympanic cavity. In this paper we describe what we believe is the first reported case of continuous high-frequency objective tinnitus caused by middle ear myoclonus. During exploratory tympanomastoidectomy it was hypothesized that a small dural arteriovenous malformation not identified on previous tests was the cause of the tinnitus. However, complete disappearance of the tinnitus during administration of curare for anesthesia led us to believe that the tinnitus might have been caused by myoclonus of the middle ear. Sectioning of the stapedius and tensor tympani tendons rendered the patient asymptomatic and confirmed the diagnosis of middle ear myoclonus. At follow-up of one year, the patient's quality of life had improved substantially; the tinnitus did not recur and she no longer had vertigo.     

Full expression of the exaggerated salt appetite of the spontaneously hypertensive rat requires a prenatal factor

1. The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) exhibits a lower bodyweight in utero and an exaggerated salt appetite post partum. To determine whether salt appetite is affected by the perinatal environment, we measured the salt appetite of embryo-cross-transferred SHR and Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats at maturity. 2. One-cell embryos were collected from the oviducts of donor rats and transferred into the oviducts of recipients through the infundibulum. The salt appetite of the resultant female offspring for 0.10 and 0.15 mol/L saline was measured at 20-30 weeks of age. 3. Salt intake of SHR gestated in WKY rats was significantly lower than that of SHR gestated in SHR, while that of WKY rats gestated in SHR was higher than that of WKY rats gestated in WKY rats. 4. Therefore, some maternal factor plays a role in the development of the exaggerated salt appetite of the SHR. This factor is also able to affect the later salt appetite of WKY rat offspring born to SHR surrogates.     

Synthesis and Properties of the Bi-Based Superconducting Powder Prepared by the Pechini Process

Bi-based superconductors are of great interest in high-temperature superconductors. We describe what is believed to be the first synthesis of these materials using the Pechini process, a low-temperature synthetic method that often yields inorganic oxide of excellent phase purity and well-controlled stoichiometry. Using this process, it has been possible to synthesize phase-pure Bi-2223 phase by calcining the appropriate polymeric precursors in air at 800°C for several hours. The superconductivity studies show that the Pechini-synthesized materials appear to offer high-quality performance.     

Synthesis and antitumor evaluation of 2,5-disubstituted-indazolo[4, 3-gh]isoquinolin-6(2H)-ones (9-aza-anthrapyrazoles)

The synthesis and antitumor evaluation of 2, 5-disubstituted-indazolo[4,3-gh]isoquinolin-6(2H)-ones (9-aza-APs) are described. The key intermediates in the synthesis are benz[g]isoquinoline-5,10-diones which are substituted at positions 6 and 9 with groups of different nucleofugacity for SNAr displacements. The initial displacement of fluoride by a substituted hydrazine leads to the pyrazole analogues. Substitution of the remaining leaving group by an amine or BOC-protected amines leads to the 9-aza-APs 12. These analogues were converted into their maleate or hydrochloride salts 13. In two cases, namely, 13x and 13z, sidearm buildup was also employed in the synthetic pathway. In vitro evaluation of 9-aza-APs against the human colon tumor cell line LoVo uncovered for most of the compounds a cytotoxic potency lower than that of DuP-941 or mitoxantrone and comparable to that of doxorubicin. Only analogues 13c, 13n, and 13ff were as cytotoxic as DuP-941. Interestingly, while DuP-941 was highly cross-resistant in the LoVo cell line resistant to doxorubicin (LoVo/Dx), the 9-aza-APs carrying a distal lipophilic tertiary amine moiety in both chains were capable of overcoming the MDR resistance induced in this cell line. The 9-aza-APs show outstanding in vivo antitumor activity against both systemic P388 murine leukemia and MX-1 human mammary carcinoma transplanted in nude mice. At their optimal dosages, congeners 13a-c, 13f, 13n, 13q, 13x, and 13dd were highly effective against P388 leukemia with T/C% of 200-381, while the T/C% value of DuP-941 was 147. In the MX-1 tumor model, 24 compounds elicited percentages of tumor weight inhibitions (TWI) ranging from 50% to 99%. Congeners 13d, 13k, 13l, 13x, 13z, and 13ee emerged as the most effective ones, with TWI% 96, simliar to that of DuP-941 (TWI% = 95). On the basis of their efficacy profile in additional experimental tumors and lack of cardiotoxicity in preclinical models, two congeners have surfaced as potential clinical candidates.