Generation of thermofield double states and critical ground states with a quantum computer.

Finite-temperature phases of many-body quantum systems are fundamental to phenomena ranging from condensed-matter physics to cosmology, yet they are generally difficult to simulate. Using an ion trap quantum computer and protocols motivated by the quantum approximate optimization algorithm (QAOA), we generate nontrivial thermal quantum states of the transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) by preparing thermofield double states at a variety of temperatures. We also prepare the critical state of the TFIM at zero temperature using quantum-classical hybrid optimization. The entanglement structure of thermofield double and critical states plays a key role in the study of black holes, and our work simulates such nontrivial structures on a quantum computer. Moreover, we find that the variational quantum circuits exhibit noise thresholds above which the lowest-depth QAOA circuits provide the best results.

Rhabdomyolysis caused by the moderate CYP3A4 inhibitor fluconazole in a patient on stable atorvastatin therapy: a case report and literature review.

WHAT IS KNOWN AND OBJECTIVE: Rhabdomyolysis is a severe potential adverse drug reaction of statin therapy. We report a case of rhabdomyolysis due to drug-drug interaction (DDI) between atorvastatin and fluconazole and review the literature. CASE SUMMARY: A 70-year-old woman received atorvastatin for hyperlipidaemia without any problem for 4 years. When intravenous fluconazole was added for treating a fungal infection, rhabdomyolysis developed 2 weeks later. Removal of atorvastatin led to the resolution of her rhabdomyolysis. WHAT IS NEW AND CONCLUSION: Our case demonstrates that in some subjects even a moderate CYP3A4 inhibitor such as fluconazole may lead to rhabdomyolysis in subjects receiving a statin.

TIAF1 self-aggregation in peritumor capsule formation, spontaneous activation of SMAD-responsive promoter in p53-deficient environment, and cell death.

Self-aggregation of transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß)1-induced antiapoptotic factor (TIAF1) is known in the nondemented human hippocampus, and the aggregating process may lead to generation of amyloid ß (Aß) for causing neurodegeneration. Here, we determined that overexpressed TIAF1 exhibits as aggregates together with Smad4 and Aß in the cancer stroma and peritumor capsules of solid tumors. Also, TIAF1/Aß aggregates are shown on the interface between brain neural cells and the metastatic cancer cell mass. TIAF1 is upregulated in developing tumors, but may disappear in established metastatic cancer cells. Growing neuroblastoma cells on the extracellular matrices from other cancer cell types induced production of aggregated TIAF1 and Aß. In vitro induction of TIAF1 self-association upregulated the expression of tumor suppressors Smad4 and WW domain-containing oxidoreductase (WOX1 or WWOX), and WOX1 in turn increased the TIAF1 expression. TIAF1/Smad4 interaction further enhanced Aß formation. TIAF1 is known to suppress SMAD-regulated promoter activation. Intriguingly, without p53, self-aggregating TIAF1 spontaneously activated the SMAD-regulated promoter. TIAF1 was essential for p53-, WOX1- and dominant-negative JNK1-induced cell death. TIAF1, p53 and WOX1 acted synergistically in suppressing anchorage-independent growth, blocking cell migration and causing apoptosis. Together, TIAF1 shows an aggregation-dependent control of tumor progression and metastasis, and regulation of cell death.

Epidemiology, disease spectrum and economic burden of non-typhoidal Salmonella infections in Taiwan, 2006-2008.

The purpose of this study was to understand the seasonal, geographical and clinical characteristics of Taiwanese patients hospitalized for non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) infections and their economic burden. Hospital data obtained from the Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) database between 2006 and 2008 were analysed. Infants had the highest annual incidence of 525 cases/100 000 person-years. Elderly patients aged >70 years had the highest in-hospital mortality rate (2·6%). Most (82·6%) gastroenteritis occurred in children aged <10 years. Septicaemia, pneumonia, arthritis and osteomyelitis occurred mainly in patients aged >50 years. A median medical cost for NTS-associated hospitalizations was higher for patients with septicaemia than for those with gastroenteritis. Seasonal variation of NTS-associated hospitalizations was correlated with temperature in different areas of Taiwan. In summary, infants had a high incidence of NTS-associated hospitalizations. However, the elderly had a higher in-hospital mortality rate and more invasive NTS infections than children.

Time course quantification of spastic hypertonia following spinal hemisection in rats.

Progressive changes in the muscle tone and stretch reflex after spinal cord injury (SCI) provide insight into the time-course development of spasticity. This study quantified the time-course changes of hypertonia for rats following SCI of T8 hemisection. A miniature manual stretching device measured the reactive torque via a pair of pressure sensing balloons; the angular displacement was measured via an optoelectronic device. Various stretching frequencies were tested, specifically 1/3, 1/2, 1, 3/2 and 2 Hz. The reactive torque and angular displacement were used to derive the viscous and elastic components representing the viscosity and stiffness of the rat's ankle joint. The enhanced velocity-dependent properties of spasticity were observed in the SCI hemisection rats (n=9) but not in the controls (n=9). Time-course measurements from pre-surgery to 56 days following SCI showed that the muscle tone of the hemisection rats dropped immediately after spinal shock and then gradually increased to reach a peak around 21 days postinjury (P<0.01). The muscle tone remained at least 75% of the peak value up to the end of an 8 week observation period (P<0.05). The changes of muscle tone can also be verified from the electrophysiological evaluations of electromyography (EMG) (P<0.05). In addition to conventional BBB motor behavior score, our results provided time-course quantification of the biomechanical and electrophysiological properties of muscle tone from the onset of SCI. Such data are useful for investigating progressive recovery of spinal damage in animal model and for future objective assessment of improved treatment for SCI human subjects.

Convergence of the chiral expansion in two-flavor lattice QCD.

We test the convergence property of the chiral perturbation theory using a lattice QCD calculation of pion mass and decay constant with two dynamical quark flavors. The lattice calculation is performed using the overlap fermion formulation, which realizes exact chiral symmetry at finite lattice spacing. By comparing various expansion prescriptions, we find that the chiral expansion is well saturated at the next-to-leading order for pions lighter than approximately 450 MeV. Better convergence behavior is found, in particular, for a resummed expansion parameter xi, with which the lattice data in the pion mass region 290-750 MeV can be fitted well with the next-to-next-to-leading order formulas. We obtain the results in two-flavor QCD for the low energy constants l[over ]_{3} and l[over ]_{4} as well as the pion decay constant, the chiral condensate, and the average up and down quark mass.

Simultaneous midline laser glossectomy with palatopharyngeal surgery for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome.

We investigate the outcome of performing tongue base reduction surgery and palatopharyngeal surgery in a single stage to determine whether the same-stage midline laser glossectomy (MLG) with extended uvulopalatal flap (EUPF) for obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (OSAS) is a safe and effective procedure. Six male patients with a history of severe OSAS were recruited into the retrospective study. They were the first patients to undergo the MLG with EUPF procedure. Patients were identified to have retropalatal and hypopharyngeal sites of obstruction on the basis of fiberoptic endoscopy with Muller's manoeuvre and three-dimensional computerised tomography. No significant adverse events occurred. The follow-up polysomnography (6-month follow-up) revealed that the mean respiratory disturbance index from 50.7 to 11.6, snoring index from 230.9 to 137.3 and the minimal oxygen saturation from 76.3 to 88.8. This study confirms that the same-stage MLG with EUPF for OSAS is a safe and effective procedure.

Evaluation of the human nickel retention model with workplace data.

A previously developed dosimetry model of inhaled Ni compounds in the human lung has been expanded by incorporating three additional factors: (1) inhalability, (2) mixed breathing mode, and (3) clearance rate coefficient of a Ni compounds' mixture. Predicted lung burdens of Ni compounds from the expanded model for workers at different departments in a Ni refinery plant compared favorably with the reported data. Although many uncertainties remain, the present model represents a first step toward developing a more meaningful risk assessment tool that will allow for more accurate extrapolation of animal data to humans.

Modeling of deposition and clearance of inhaled Ni compounds in the human lung.

By extrapolation from the rat study, a mathematical model of deposition, clearance, and retention kinetics for inhaled Ni compounds (high-temperature (green) NiO, Ni(3)S(2), and NiSO(4). 6H(2)O) in the alveolar region of the human lung has been developed. For human deposition, an updated version of an earlier model (C. P. Yu and C. K. Diu, 1982, Am. Ind. Hyg. Assoc. J.) was used in this study. Because of the profound differences in physiological and ventilation conditions between humans and rats, humans were found to have a higher alveolar deposition fraction than rats when exposed to the same Ni compounds. However, when normalized to the lung weight, the deposition rate per gram of lung in humans is much smaller than in rats. In the development of a clearance model, a single-compartment model in the lung was used and a general assumption was made that the clearance of the insoluble and moderately soluble nickel compounds (high-temperature (green) NiO and Ni(3)S(2), respectively) depends highly on the volume of retained particles in the lungs. As for the highly soluble nickel compound (NiSO(4). 6H(2)O), the clearance rate coefficient was assumed to depend on the retained particle mass and total alveolar surface. These clearance rate coefficients were extrapolated from the rat data. The retention half-times for high temperature (green) NiO and Ni(3)S(2) particles in humans were found to be much longer than in rats, whereas the retention half-time for NiSO(4). 6H(2)O particles was about the same for both species. The lung burden results in humans for various exposure conditions are predicted and the equivalent exposure concentrations for humans which lead to the same lung burdens found in rats were calculated.

A dosimetry model of nickel compounds in the rat lung.

Experimental data from inhalation studies in rats were used to develop mathematical models of deposition, clearance, and retention kinetics for inhaled Ni compounds (high-temperature [green] NiO, Ni3S2, and NiSO4*6H2O) in the rat lung. For deposition, an updated version of an earlier model (Yu & Xu, 1986) was used in this study. Three major mechanisms of airway deposition-impaction, sedimentation, and diffusion-were considered in the deposition model. In the development of a clearance model, a single compartment model in the lung was used and a general assumption was made that the clearance of the insoluble and moderately soluble nickel compounds (high-temperature [green] NiO and Ni3S2, respectively) depends highly on the volume of retained particles in the lungs. For the highly soluble nickel compound (NiSO4 *6H2O), the clearance rate coefficient was assumed to depend on the retained particle mass and total alveolar surface. The retention half-time, however, was found to increase with the lung burden for high-temperature (green) NiO and NiSO4*6H2O particles but decrease with the lung burden for Ni3S2 particles.

The negative influence of endogenous opioid receptor activity on the differentiation of the rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells induced by nerve growth factor.

We determined the effect of naloxone and morphine on the differentiation of pheochromocytoma cell, the PC12 cells, induced by nerve growth factor (NGF). PC12 cells were grown in medium containing NGF with or without the addition of naloxone or morphine for up to 10-day treatments. NGF-induced morphological differentiation of PC12 cells was manifested by an increase in the percentage of differentiated cells and the average length of neurite per cell. Co-addition of morphine with NGF did not affect both parameters as compared to that of NGF alone. On the contrary, co-addition of naloxone with NGF significantly increased the percentage of differentiated cells, but did not affect the outgrowth of neurites. This effect of naloxone was reversed by the addition of morphine, suggesting that naloxone produced its effect by inhibiting the endogenous activity of opioid receptor. This study indicates a significant functional role of opioid receptor in NGF-induced differentiation of PC12 cells.

Constrained nonlinear optimization approaches to color-signal separation.

Separating a color signal into illumination and surface reflectance components is a fundamental issue in color reproduction and constancy. This can be carried out by minimizing the error in the least squares (LS) fit of the product of the illumination and the surface spectral reflectance to the actual color signal. When taking in account the physical realizability constraints on the surface reflectance and illumination, the feasible solutions to the nonlinear LS problem should satisfy a number of linear inequalities. Four distinct novel optimization algorithms are presented to employ these constraints to minimize the nonlinear LS fitting error. The first approach, which is based on Ritter's superlinear convergent method (Luengerger, 1980), provides a computationally superior algorithm to find the minimum solution to the nonlinear LS error problem subject to linear inequality constraints. Unfortunately, this gradient-like algorithm may sometimes be trapped at a local minimum or become unstable when the parameters involved in the algorithm are not tuned properly. The remaining three methods are based on the stable and promising global minimizer called simulated annealing. The annealing algorithm can always find the global minimum solution with probability one, but its convergence is slow. To tackle this, a cost-effective variable-separable formulation based on the concept of Golub and Pereyra (1973) is adopted to reduce the nonlinear LS problem to be a small-scale nonlinear LS problem. The computational efficiency can be further improved when the original Boltzman generating distribution of the classical annealing is replaced by the Cauchy distribution.