ALBERT

Description: Engineering quantum particle systems, such as quantum simulators and quantum cellular automata, relies on full coherent control of quantum paths at the single particle level. Here we present an atom interferometer operating with single trapped atoms, where single particle wave packets are controlled through spin-dependent potentials. The interferometer is constructed from a sequence of discrete operations based on a set of elementary building blocks, which permit composing arbitrary interferometer geometries in a digital manner. We use this modularity to devise a space-time analogue of the well-known spin echo technique, yielding insight into decoherence mechanisms. We also demonstrate mesoscopic delocalization of single atoms with a separation-to-localization ratio exceeding 500; this result suggests their utilization beyond quantum logic applications as nano-resolution quantum probes in precision measurements, being able to measure potential gradients with precision 5 × 10-4 in units of gravitational acceleration g.

Description: A fully flexible pH sensor using nanoporous ZnO on extended gate thin film transistor (EGTFT) fabricated on polymeric substrate is demonstrated. The sensor adopts the Low Temperature Polycrystalline Silicon (LTPS) TFT technology for the active device, since it allows excellent electrical characteristics and good stability and opens the way towards the possibility of exploiting CMOS architectures in the future. The nanoporous ZnO sensitive film, consisting of very thin (20 nm) crystalline ZnO walls with a large surface-to-volume ratio, was chemically deposited at 90 °C, allowing simple process integration with conventional TFT micro-fabrication processes compatible with wide range of polymeric substrates. The pH sensor showed a near-ideal Nernstian response (∼59 mV/pH), indicating an ideality factor α ∼ 1 according to the conventional site binding model. The present results can pave the way to advanced flexible sensing systems, where sensors and local signal conditioning circuits will be integrated on the same flexible substrate.

Description: Author(s): M. G. Tarallo, A. Alberti, N. Poli, M. L. Chiofalo, F.-Y. Wang, and G. M. Tino In this paper, we describe and compare different methods used for the accurate determination of forces acting on matter-wave packets in optical lattices. The quantum interference nature responsible for the production of both Bloch oscillations and coherent delocalization is investigated in detail. W... [Phys. Rev. A 86, 033615] Published Fri Sep 14, 2012

Description: Author(s): N. Poli, F.-Y. Wang, M. G. Tarallo, A. Alberti, M. Prevedelli, and G. M. Tino We report on a precision measurement of gravitational acceleration using ultracold strontium atoms confined in an amplitude-modulated vertical optical lattice. An uncertainty Δg/g≈10^{-7} is reached by measuring at the 5th harmonic of the Bloch frequency. The value obtained with this microscopic ... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 038501] Published Tue Jan 18, 2011

Description: Author(s): C. Cedzich, T. Rybár, A. H. Werner, A. Alberti, M. Genske, and R. F. Werner We study one-dimensional quantum walks in a homogenous electric field. The field is given by a phase which depends linearly on position and is applied after each step. The long time propagation properties of this system, such as revivals, ballistic expansion, and Anderson localization, depend very s... [Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 160601] Published Mon Oct 14, 2013

Description: We study the mechanisms of CH 3 NH 3 PbI 3 degradation and its transformation to PbI 2 by means of X-ray diffraction and the density functional theory. The experimental analysis shows that the material can degrade in both air and vacuum conditions, with humidity and temperature-annealing strongly accelerating such process. Based on ab initio calculations, we argue that even in the absence of humidity, a decomposition of the perovskite structure can take place through the statistical formation of molecular defects with a non-ionic character, whose volatility at surfaces should break the thermodynamic defect equilibria. We finally discuss the strategies that can limit such phenomenon and subsequently prolong the lifetime of the material.

Description: Light scattering from ZnO nanorods (NR) is investigated, modeled, and applied to a solar cell. ZnO NR (120–1300 nm long, 280–60 nm large), grown by low-cost chemical bath deposition at 90 °C, exhibit diffused-to-total transmitted light as high as 70% and 30% in the 400 and 1000 nm wavelength range, respectively. Data and scattering simulation show that ZnO NR length plays a crucial role in light diffusion effect. A transparent ZnO NR film grown on glass and placed on top of a 1  μ m thick c-Si solar cell is shown to enhance the light-current conversion efficiency for wavelengths longer than 600 nm.

Description: Coffee is a valuable beverage crop due to its characteristic flavor, aroma, and the stimulating effects of caffeine. We generated a high-quality draft genome of the species Coffea canephora, which displays a conserved chromosomal gene order among asterid angiosperms. Although it shows no sign of the whole-genome triplication identified in Solanaceae species such as tomato, the genome includes several species-specific gene family expansions, among them N-methyltransferases (NMTs) involved in caffeine production, defense-related genes, and alkaloid and flavonoid enzymes involved in secondary compound synthesis. Comparative analyses of caffeine NMTs demonstrate that these genes expanded through sequential tandem duplications independently of genes from cacao and tea, suggesting that caffeine in eudicots is of polyphyletic origin.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Denoeud, France -- Carretero-Paulet, Lorenzo -- Dereeper, Alexis -- Droc, Gaetan -- Guyot, Romain -- Pietrella, Marco -- Zheng, Chunfang -- Alberti, Adriana -- Anthony, Francois -- Aprea, Giuseppe -- Aury, Jean-Marc -- Bento, Pascal -- Bernard, Maria -- Bocs, Stephanie -- Campa, Claudine -- Cenci, Alberto -- Combes, Marie-Christine -- Crouzillat, Dominique -- Da Silva, Corinne -- Daddiego, Loretta -- De Bellis, Fabien -- Dussert, Stephane -- Garsmeur, Olivier -- Gayraud, Thomas -- Guignon, Valentin -- Jahn, Katharina -- Jamilloux, Veronique -- Joet, Thierry -- Labadie, Karine -- Lan, Tianying -- Leclercq, Julie -- Lepelley, Maud -- Leroy, Thierry -- Li, Lei-Ting -- Librado, Pablo -- Lopez, Loredana -- Munoz, Adriana -- Noel, Benjamin -- Pallavicini, Alberto -- Perrotta, Gaetano -- Poncet, Valerie -- Pot, David -- Priyono -- Rigoreau, Michel -- Rouard, Mathieu -- Rozas, Julio -- Tranchant-Dubreuil, Christine -- VanBuren, Robert -- Zhang, Qiong -- Andrade, Alan C -- Argout, Xavier -- Bertrand, Benoit -- de Kochko, Alexandre -- Graziosi, Giorgio -- Henry, Robert J -- Jayarama -- Ming, Ray -- Nagai, Chifumi -- Rounsley, Steve -- Sankoff, David -- Giuliano, Giovanni -- Albert, Victor A -- Wincker, Patrick -- Lashermes, Philippe -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2014 Sep 5;345(6201):1181-4. doi: 10.1126/science.1255274. Epub 2014 Sep 4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Genoscope, Institut de Genomique, BP5706, 91057 Evry, France. CNRS, UMR 8030, CP5706, Evry, France. Universite d'Evry, UMR 8030, CP5706, Evry, France. ; Department of Biological Sciences, 109 Cooke Hall, University at Buffalo (State University of New York), Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. ; Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), UMR Resistance des Plantes aux Bioagresseurs (RPB) [Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD), IRD, UM2)], BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. ; CIRAD, UMR Amelioration Genetique et Adaptation des Plantes Mediterraneennes et Tropicales (AGAP), F-34398 Montpellier, France. ; IRD, UMR Diversite Adaptation et Developpement des Plantes (CIRAD, IRD, UM2), BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. ; Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Development (ENEA) Casaccia Research Center, Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Roma, Italy. ; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa, 585 King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. ; Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Genoscope, Institut de Genomique, BP5706, 91057 Evry, France. ; Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), UMR Resistance des Plantes aux Bioagresseurs (RPB) [Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD), IRD, UM2)], BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. Bioversity International, Parc Scientifique Agropolis II, 34397 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. ; Nestle Research and Development Centre, 101 Avenue Gustave Eiffel, Notre-Dame-d'Oe, BP 49716, 37097 Tours Cedex 2, France. ; ENEA Trisaia Research Center, 75026 Rotondella, Italy. ; Bioversity International, Parc Scientifique Agropolis II, 34397 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. ; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa, 585 King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. Center for Biotechnology, Universitat Bielefeld, Universitatsstrasse 27, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany. AG Genominformatik, Technische Fakultat, Universitat Bielefeld, 33594 Bielefeld, Germany. ; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Unite de Recherches en Genomique-Info (UR INRA 1164), Centre de Recherche de Versailles, 78026 Versailles Cedex, France. ; Department of Biological Sciences, 109 Cooke Hall, University at Buffalo (State University of New York), Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. Department of Biology, Chongqing University of Science and Technology, 4000042 Chongqing, China. ; Department of Plant Biology, 148 Edward R. Madigan Laboratory, MC-051, 1201 West Gregory Drive, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. ; Departament de Genetica and Institut de Recerca de la Biodiversitat (IRBio), Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 643, Barcelona 08028, Spain. ; Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, Mathematics Building 084, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Ottawa, 800 King Edward Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada. ; Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via Licio Giorgieri 5, 34127 Trieste, Italy. ; Indonesian Coffee and Cocoa Institute, Jember, East Java, Indonesia. ; Laboratorio de Genetica Molecular, Nucleo de Biotecnologia (NTBio), Embrapa Recursos Geneticos e Biotecnologia, Final Av. W/5 Norte, Parque Estacao Biologia, Brasilia-DF 70770-917, Brazil. ; CIRAD, UMR RPB (CIRAD, IRD, UM2), BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. ; Department of Life Sciences, University of Trieste, Via Licio Giorgieri 5, 34127 Trieste, Italy. DNA Analytica Srl, Via Licio Giorgieri 5, 34127 Trieste, Italy. ; Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4072, Australia. ; Central Coffee Research Institute, Coffee Board, Coffee Research Station (Post) - 577 117 Chikmagalur District, Karnataka State, India. ; Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, Post Office Box 100, Kunia, HI 96759-0100, USA. ; BIO5 Institute, University of Arizona, 1657 Helen Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. ; Department of Biological Sciences, 109 Cooke Hall, University at Buffalo (State University of New York), Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. vaalbert@buffalo.edu pwincker@genoscope.cns.fr philippe.lashermes@ird.fr. ; Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, Genoscope, Institut de Genomique, BP5706, 91057 Evry, France. CNRS, UMR 8030, CP5706, Evry, France. Universite d'Evry, UMR 8030, CP5706, Evry, France. vaalbert@buffalo.edu pwincker@genoscope.cns.fr philippe.lashermes@ird.fr. ; Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), UMR Resistance des Plantes aux Bioagresseurs (RPB) [Centre de Cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement (CIRAD), IRD, UM2)], BP 64501, 34394 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. vaalbert@buffalo.edu pwincker@genoscope.cns.fr philippe.lashermes@ird.fr.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25190796" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Strong infrared photoluminescence in highly porous layers of large faceted Si crystalline nanoparticles Scientific Reports, Published online: 24 May 2016; doi:10.1038/srep25664

Description: Bananas (Musa spp.), including dessert and cooking types, are giant perennial monocotyledonous herbs of the order Zingiberales, a sister group to the well-studied Poales, which include cereals. Bananas are vital for food security in many tropical and subtropical countries and the most popular fruit in industrialized countries. The Musa domestication process started some 7,000 years ago in Southeast Asia. It involved hybridizations between diverse species and subspecies, fostered by human migrations, and selection of diploid and triploid seedless, parthenocarpic hybrids thereafter widely dispersed by vegetative propagation. Half of the current production relies on somaclones derived from a single triploid genotype (Cavendish). Pests and diseases have gradually become adapted, representing an imminent danger for global banana production. Here we describe the draft sequence of the 523-megabase genome of a Musa acuminata doubled-haploid genotype, providing a crucial stepping-stone for genetic improvement of banana. We detected three rounds of whole-genome duplications in the Musa lineage, independently of those previously described in the Poales lineage and the one we detected in the Arecales lineage. This first monocotyledon high-continuity whole-genome sequence reported outside Poales represents an essential bridge for comparative genome analysis in plants. As such, it clarifies commelinid-monocotyledon phylogenetic relationships, reveals Poaceae-specific features and has led to the discovery of conserved non-coding sequences predating monocotyledon-eudicotyledon divergence.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉D'Hont, Angelique -- Denoeud, France -- Aury, Jean-Marc -- Baurens, Franc-Christophe -- Carreel, Francoise -- Garsmeur, Olivier -- Noel, Benjamin -- Bocs, Stephanie -- Droc, Gaetan -- Rouard, Mathieu -- Da Silva, Corinne -- Jabbari, Kamel -- Cardi, Celine -- Poulain, Julie -- Souquet, Marlene -- Labadie, Karine -- Jourda, Cyril -- Lengelle, Juliette -- Rodier-Goud, Marguerite -- Alberti, Adriana -- Bernard, Maria -- Correa, Margot -- Ayyampalayam, Saravanaraj -- Mckain, Michael R -- Leebens-Mack, Jim -- Burgess, Diane -- Freeling, Mike -- Mbeguie-A-Mbeguie, Didier -- Chabannes, Matthieu -- Wicker, Thomas -- Panaud, Olivier -- Barbosa, Jose -- Hribova, Eva -- Heslop-Harrison, Pat -- Habas, Remy -- Rivallan, Ronan -- Francois, Philippe -- Poiron, Claire -- Kilian, Andrzej -- Burthia, Dheema -- Jenny, Christophe -- Bakry, Frederic -- Brown, Spencer -- Guignon, Valentin -- Kema, Gert -- Dita, Miguel -- Waalwijk, Cees -- Joseph, Steeve -- Dievart, Anne -- Jaillon, Olivier -- Leclercq, Julie -- Argout, Xavier -- Lyons, Eric -- Almeida, Ana -- Jeridi, Mouna -- Dolezel, Jaroslav -- Roux, Nicolas -- Risterucci, Ange-Marie -- Weissenbach, Jean -- Ruiz, Manuel -- Glaszmann, Jean-Christophe -- Quetier, Francis -- Yahiaoui, Nabila -- Wincker, Patrick -- England -- Nature. 2012 Aug 9;488(7410):213-7. doi: 10.1038/nature11241.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre de cooperation Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Developpement, UMR AGAP, F-34398 Montpellier, France. angelique.d'hont@cirad.fr〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22801500" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉