Browsing by Author "Chen, Peng"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Non-Hermitian Magnon-Photon Interference in an Atomic Ensemble
    (APS, 2019-06) Wen, Rong; Zou, Chang-Ling; Zhu, Xinyu; Chen, Peng; Ou, Z. Y.; Chen, J. F.; Zhang, Weiping; Physics, School of Science
    The interference of photons in a lossy beam splitter (BS) exhibits anticoalescence, which is surprising for bosons. Such a non-Hermitian system involving open quantum dynamics is of particular interest for quantum information processing and metrology. The Hermiticity of photonic devices is generally fixed according to the material, but is controllable at the interface of photons and atomic systems. Here, we demonstrate a tunable non-Hermitian BS for the interference between traveling photonic and localized magnonic modes. The crossover from a Hermitian to a non-Hermitian magnon-photon BS is achieved by controlling the coherent and incoherent interaction mediated by the excited levels of atoms, which is reconfigurable via the detuning of a control laser. A correlated interference pattern between the photons and magnons is demonstrated by such a non-Hermitian BS. Our system has the potential to operate with photons and magnons at the single-quanta level, and it provides a versatile quantum interface for studying the non-Hermitian quantum physics and parity-time symmetry.
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    Targeted inhibition of Wnt signaling with a Clostridioides difficile toxin B fragment suppresses breast cancer tumor growth
    (Public Library of Science, 2023-11-09) He, Aina; Tian, Songhai; Kopper, Oded; Horan, Daniel J.; Chen, Peng; Bronson, Roderick T.; Sheng, Ren; Wu, Hao; Sui, Lufei; Zhou, Kun; Tao, Liang; Wu, Quan; Huang, Yujing; Shen, Zan; Han, Sen; Chen, Xueqing; Chen, Hong; He, Xi; Robling, Alexander G.; Jin, Rongsheng; Clevers, Hans; Xiang, Dongxi; Li, Zhe; Dong, Min; Anatomy, Cell Biology and Physiology, School of Medicine
    Wnt signaling pathways are transmitted via 10 homologous frizzled receptors (FZD1-10) in humans. Reagents broadly inhibiting Wnt signaling pathways reduce growth and metastasis of many tumors, but their therapeutic development has been hampered by the side effect. Inhibitors targeting specific Wnt-FZD pair(s) enriched in cancer cells may reduce side effect, but the therapeutic effect of narrow-spectrum Wnt-FZD inhibitors remains to be established in vivo. Here, we developed a fragment of C. difficile toxin B (TcdBFBD), which recognizes and inhibits a subclass of FZDs, FZD1/2/7, and examined whether targeting this FZD subgroup may offer therapeutic benefits for treating breast cancer models in mice. Utilizing 2 basal-like and 1 luminal-like breast cancer models, we found that TcdBFBD reduces tumor-initiating cells and attenuates growth of basal-like mammary tumor organoids and xenografted tumors, without damaging Wnt-sensitive tissues such as bones in vivo. Furthermore, FZD1/2/7-positive cells are enriched in chemotherapy-resistant cells in both basal-like and luminal mammary tumors treated with cisplatin, and TcdBFBD synergizes strongly with cisplatin in inhibiting both tumor types. These data demonstrate the therapeutic value of narrow-spectrum Wnt signaling inhibitor in treating breast cancers.
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    The vulnerability of ecosystem structure in the semi-arid area revealed by the functional trait networks
    (Elsevier, 2022-06) Gao, Dexin; Wang, Shuai; Wei, Fangli; Wu, Xutong; Zhou, Sha; Wang, Lixin; Li, Zidong; Chen, Peng; Fu, Bojie; Earth and Environmental Sciences, School of Science
    The ecosystems were characterized by complex, nonlinear interactions determined by different plant functional traits. The characteristics of the multiple relationships between ecosystem functional traits affected the vulnerability to drought. A three-level network analysis on instead of the network metrics, relationships among inter-components, and essential traits was conducted in dryland ecosystems of China. The new network of functional traits included leaf, root, and biomass components was constructed to simulate different aridity conditions. Results show that the multiple relationships of functional traits that co-regulated ecosystem biomass differ along an aridity gradient. The highest network modularity and degree centrality were observed in the semi-arid ecosystems indicating low integration and high sensitivity of semi-arid ecosystems (269% and 23.7% higher than in dry sub-humid site, and 142% and 51.1% higher than arid sites). The leaf quantity strongly affected the connection between functional traits at the semi-arid zone. The semi-arid areawas found to have relatively low resistance to environmental change because of low integration and high sensitivity of the ecosystem structure at that site. An increase of degree centrality of the root traits and trade-off relationships between roots and leaves indicated greater allocation of resources by vecgetation to underground components by the arid ecosystems to increase water absorption. The study reveals the complex relationships between leaf, root, and biomass components, and the essential traits of the ecosystem. It enhanced understanding of the vulnerability of semi-arid ecosystems to environmental change.
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    Threshold of vapour–pressure deficit constraint on light use efficiency varied with soil water content
    (Wiley, 2022-07) Gao, Dexin; Wang, Shuai; Li, Zidong; Wei, Fangli; Chen, Peng; Song, Shuang; Wang, Yaping; Wang, Lixin; Fu, Bojie; Earth Sciences, School of Science
    Understanding the constraints on light-use efficiency (LUE) induced by high evaporative water demand (vapour–pressure deficit; VPD) and soil water stress (soil moisture content; SMC) is crucial for understanding and simulating vegetation productivity, particularly in the arid and semi-arid regions. However, the relative impacts of VPD and SMC on LUE are unclear, as we lack a mechanistic understanding of impacts and their interactions. In this study, we quantified the relative roles of VPD and SMC in limiting LUE and analysed the interactions among VPD, SMC and LUE using data from CO2 and water flux stations and weather stations along a climatic gradient in the Heihe River Basin, China. We found a threshold of VPD constraint on LUE; above the threshold, LUE decreased at only 3.6% to 23.1% of the rate below the threshold. As SMC decreased, however, the VPD threshold increased, and the reduction of LUE caused by VPD decreased significantly, which is more than half of that in moister regions. Therefore, both VPD and SMC played essential roles in LUE limitation caused by water stress. A threshold also existed for heat flux and the correlation between SMC and LUE; the strength of the correlation first decreased and then increased with increasing VPD. Our results clarified the relative impacts of VPD and SMC on LUE, and can improve simulation and prediction of plant productivity.