HSPC117 deficiency in cloned embryos causes placental abnormality and fetal death

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has been successfully used in many species to produce live cloned offspring, albeit with low efficiency. The low frequency of successful development has usually been ascribed to incomplete or inappropriate reprogramming of the transferred nuclear genome. Elucidating the genetic differences between normal fertilized and cloned embryos is key to understand the low efficiency of SCNT. Here, we show that expression of HSPC117, which encodes a hypothetical protein of unknown function, was absent or very low in cloned mouse blastocysts. To investigate the role of HSPC117 in embryo development, we knocked-down this gene in normal fertilized embryos using RNA interference. We assessed the post-implantation survival of HSPC117 knock-down embryos at 3 stages: E9 (prior to placenta formation); E12 (after the placenta was fully functional) and E19 (post-natal). Our results show that, although siRNA-treated in vivo fertilized/produced (IVP) embryos could develop to the blastocyst stage and implanted without any difference from control embryos, the knock-down embryos showed substantial fetal death, accompanied by placental blood clotting, at E12. Furthermore, comparison of HSPC117 expression in placentas of nuclear transfer (NT), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and IVP embryos confirmed that HSPC117 deficiency correlates well with failures in embryo development: all NT embryos with a fetus, as well as IVP and ICSI embryos, had normal placental HSPC117 expression while those NT embryos showing reduced or no expression of HSPC117 failed to form a fetus. In conclusion, we show that HSPC117 is an important gene for post-implantation development of embryos, and that HSPC117 deficiency leads to fetal abnormalities after implantation, especially following placental formation. We suggest that defects in HSPC117 expression may be an important contributing factor to loss of cloned NT embryos in vivo. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Noiseless method for checking the Peres separability criterion by local operations and classical communication

We present a method for checking the Peres separability criterion in an arbitrary bipartite quantum state rho(AB) within local operations and classical communication scenario. The method does not require noise operation which is needed in making the partial transposition map physically implementable. The main task for the two observers, Alice and Bob, is to measure some specific functions of the partial transposed matrix. With these functions, they can determine the eigenvalues of rho(T)(AB)(B), among which the minimum serves as an entanglement witness.

Method for measuring two-qubit entanglement of formation by local operations and classical communication

We present a parametrically efficient method for measuring the entanglement of formation E-f in an arbitrarily given unknown two-qubit state rho(AB) by local operations and classical communication. The two observers, Alice and Bob, first perform some local operations on their composite systems separately, by which the desired global quantum states can be prepared. Then they estimate seven functions via two modified local quantum networks supplemented a classical communication. After obtaining these functions, Alice and Bob can determine the concurrence C and the entanglement of formation E-f.

质子滴线附近的β缓发质子衰变

简要回顾了我们小组在 1996~2004 年中发表的有关质子滴线附近β缓发质子衰变的实验结果, 即运用氦喷嘴快速带传输系统 +“p-γ”符合方法, 在稀土区质子滴线附近首次观测了 9种新核素的β缓发质子衰变, 在 A= 90 核区的 N = Z线附近获得了 5 种核素的β缓发质子衰变的新数据. 同时着重补充了一些重要的实验技术细节. 汇总了这 14 种核素的半衰期、自旋、宇称、形变以及生成反应截面的实验结果, 并与流行的核模型理论预言进行了系统的对比讨论. 从中看出:(ⅰ) Mo, Rh 以及“等待点”核 Ru 和 Pd 半衰期的实验值比近期 M?ller 等 85 92 89 93人的宏观-微观理论预言值长 5~10 倍, 因而明显地影响天体 rp-过程的核素丰度;(ⅱ) 实验指认的质子滴线核 Ho 和 Pm 的自旋和宇称, 与流行理论预言不符, 142 128但用 Woods-Saxon-Strutinsky 方法计算得到的位能面可以解释自旋和宇称的实验值; (ⅲ) 实验估计的 9 种稀土核的生成截面比通用的 Alice和 HIVAP 程序的计算值要小 1～2 个数量级.