MALDI MSI Reveals the Spatial Distribution of Protein Markers in Tracheobronchial Lymph Nodes and Lung of Pigs after Respiratory Infection

Respiratory infections are a real threat for humans, and therefore the pig model is of interest for studies. As one of a case for studies, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP) caused infections and still worries many pig breeders around the world. To better understand the influence of pathogenic effect of APP on a respiratory system—lungs and tracheobronchial lymph nodes (TBLN), we aimed to employ matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-TOF MSI). In this study, six pigs were intranasally infected by APP and two were used as non-infected control, and 48 cryosections have been obtained. MALDI-TOF MSI and immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to study spatial distribution of infectious markers, especially interleukins, in cryosections of porcine tissues of lungs (necrotic area, marginal zone) and tracheobronchial lymph nodes (TBLN) from pigs infected by APP. CD163, interleukin 1β (IL-1β) and a protegrin-4 precursor were successfully detected based on their tryptic fragments. CD163 and IL-1β were confirmed also by IHC. The protegrin-4 precursor was identified by MALDI-TOF/TOF directly on the tissue cryosections. CD163, IL-1β and protegrin-4 precursor were all significantly (p < 0.001) more expressed in necrotic areas of lungs infected by APP than in marginal zone, TBLN and in control lungs.     

Evolution of Classical and Quantum States in the Groupoid Picture of Quantum Mechanics

The evolution of states of the composition of classical and quantum systems in the groupoid formalism for physical theories introduced recently is discussed. It is shown that the notion of a classical system, in the sense of Birkhoff and von Neumann, is equivalent, in the case of systems with a countable number of outputs, to a totally disconnected groupoid with Abelian von Neumann algebra. The impossibility of evolving a separable state of a composite system made up of a classical and a quantum one into an entangled state by means of a unitary evolution is proven in accordance with Raggio’s theorem, which is extended to include a new family of separable states corresponding to the composition of a system with a totally disconnected space of outcomes and a quantum one.     

基于平面度的燃料电池电化学性能模拟

 固体氧化物燃料电池的翘曲会影响电极-盖板界面的接触情况，从而影响电化学性能，对相关制造工艺提出了很大的挑战．为了分析燃料电池平面度对放电过程的影响，揭示其潜在的风险，我们建立了两个基于有限元法的仿真模型，对考虑平面度缺陷的燃料电池封装和放电进行分析．在对固体氧化物燃料电池进行平面度测量的基础上，首先建立了具有真实燃料电池翘曲特性的几何模型，分析封装过程中接触压力的分布情况．然后将接触电阻的仿真结果导入到三维多物理场耦合模型中，模拟具有平面度缺陷的燃料电池电化学性能．计算结果展示了燃料电池两侧封装过程中接触压力的分布情况．通过对比有接触电阻和无接触电阻的燃料电池电流密度，分析了电池与盖板的接触对放电过程的影响．结果表明，燃料电池的凹陷面较难达到满意的接触状态，需要比凸起面更大的封装压力．燃料电池表面接触电阻的变化将引起电流传导路径的变化，产生局部高电流或低电流．这项工作强调了在燃料电池中保持均匀分布的接触电阻的重要性，为今后的优化工作奠定了基础．     

Information percolation and cutoff for the random‐cluster model

We consider the random‐cluster model (RCM) on with parameters p∈(0,1) and q ≥ 1. This is a generalization of the standard bond percolation (with edges open independently with probability p) which is biased by a factor q raised to the number of connected components. We study the well‐known Fortuin‐Kasteleyn (FK)‐dynamics on this model where the update at an edge depends on the global geometry of the system unlike the Glauber heat‐bath dynamics for spin systems, and prove that for all small enough p (depending on the dimension) and any q>1, the FK‐dynamics exhibits the cutoff phenomenon at with a window size , where λ_∞ is the large n limit of the spectral gap of the process. Our proof extends the information percolation framework of Lubetzky and Sly to the RCM and also relies on the arguments of Blanca and Sinclair who proved a sharp mixing time bound for the planar version. A key aspect of our proof is the analysis of the effect of a sequence of dependent (across time) Bernoulli percolations extracted from the graphical construction of the dynamics, on how information propagates.     

Analysis of a micro–macro acceleration method with minimum relative entropy moment matching

We analyse convergence of a micro–macro acceleration method for the simulation of stochastic differential equations with time-scale separation. The method alternates short bursts of path simulations with the extrapolation of macroscopic state variables forward in time. After extrapolation, a new microscopic state is constructed, consistent with the extrapolated macroscopic state, that minimises the perturbation caused by the extrapolation in a relative entropy sense. We study local errors and numerical stability of the method to prove its convergence to the full microscopic dynamics when the extrapolation time step tends to zero and the number of macroscopic state variables tends to infinity.     

Synthesis and characterization of VO–vanillin complex immobilized on MCM-41 and its facile catalytic application in the sulfoxidation reaction,and synthesis of 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-ones and disulfides in green media

In this work, a vanillin complex is immobilized onto MCM-41 and characterized by FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and BET techniques. This supported Schiff base complex was found to be an efficient and recoverable catalyst for the chemoselective oxidation of sulfides into sulfoxides and thiols into their corresponding disulfides (using hydrogen peroxide as a green oxidant) and also a suitable catalyst for the preparation of 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives in water at 90°C. Using this protocol, we show that a variety of disulfides, sulfoxides, and 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives can be synthesized in green conditions. The catalyst can be recovered and recycled for further reactions without appreciable loss of catalytic performance.     

Advantage of Quantum Theory over Nonclassical Models of Communication

Quantum correlations provide dramatic advantage over the corresponding classical resources in several communication tasks. However, a broad class of probabilistic theories exists that attributes greater success than quantum theory in many of these tasks by allowing supra-quantum correlations in “space-like” and/or “time-like” paradigms. In this letter, a communication task involving three spatially separated parties is proposed where one party (verifier) aims to verify whether the bit strings possessed by the other two parties (terminals) are equal or not. This task is called authentication with limited communication, the restrictions on communication being: i) the terminals cannot communicate with each other, but (ii) each of them can communicate with the verifier through single use of channels with limited capacity. Manifestly, classical resources are not sufficient for perfect success of this task. Moreover, it is also not possible to perform this task with certainty in several nonclassical theories although they might possess stronger “space-like” and/or “time-like” correlations. Surprisingly, quantum resources can achieve the perfect winning strategy. The proposed task thus stands apart from all previously known communication tasks as it exhibits quantum advantage over other nonclassical strategies.