6,464 research outputs found
A rocket-borne airglow photometer
The design of a rocket-borne photometer to measure the airglow emission of ionized molecular nitrogen in the 391.4 nm band is presented. This airglow is a well known and often observed phenomenon of auroras, where the principal source of ionization is energetic electrons. It is believed that at some midlatitude locations energetic electrons are also a source of nighttime ionization in the E region of the ionosphere. If this is so, then significant levels of 391.4 nm airglow should be present. The intensity of this airglow will be measured in a rocket payload which also contains instrumentation to measured in a rocket payload which also contains instrumentation to measure energetic electron differential flux and the ambient electron density. An intercomparison of the 3 experiments in a nightime launch will allow a test of the importance of energetic electrons as a nighttime source of ionization in the upper E region
Optimal control of Rydberg lattice gases
We present optimal control protocols to prepare different many-body quantum
states of Rydberg atoms in optical lattices. Specifically, we show how to
prepare highly ordered many-body ground states, GHZ states as well as some
superposition of symmetric excitation number Fock states, that inherit the
translational symmetry from the Hamiltonian, within sufficiently short
excitation times minimizing detrimental decoherence effects. For the GHZ
states, we propose a two-step detection protocol to experimentally verify the
optimal preparation of the target state based only on standard measurement
techniques. Realistic experimental constraints and imperfections are taken into
account by our optimization procedure making it applicable to ongoing
experiments.Comment: Accepted versio
Wave trains, self-oscillations and synchronization in discrete media
We study wave propagation in networks of coupled cells which can behave as
excitable or self-oscillatory media. For excitable media, an asymptotic
construction of wave trains is presented. This construction predicts their
shape and speed, as well as the critical coupling and the critical separation
of time scales for propagation failure. It describes stable wave train
generation by repeated firing at a boundary. In self-oscillatory media, wave
trains persist but synchronization phenomena arise. An equation describing the
evolution of the oscillator phases is derived.Comment: to appear in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomen
Edge Contours
The accuracy with which a computer vision system is able to identify objects in an image is heavily dependent upon the accuracy of the low level processes that identify which points lie on the edges of an object. In order to remove noise and fine texture from an image, it is usually smoothed before edge detection is performed. This smoothing causes edges to be displaced from their actual location in the image. Knowledge about the changes that occur with different degrees of smoothing (scales) and the physical conditions that cause these changes is essential to proper interpretation of the results obtained. In this work the amount of delocalization and the magnitude of the response to the Normalized Gradient of Gaussian operator are analyzed as a function of σ, the standard deviation of the Gaussian. As a result of this analysis it was determined that edge points could be characterized as to slope, contrast, and proximity to other edges. The analysis is also used to define the size that the neighborhood of an edge point must be in order to assure its containing the delocalized edge point at another scale when σ is known.
Given this theoretical background, an algorithm was developed to obtain sequential lists of edge points. This used multiple scales in order to achieve the superior localization and detection of weak edges possible with smaller scales combined with the noise suppression of the larger scales. The edge contours obtained with this method are significantly better than those achieved with a single scale. A second algorithm was developed to allow sets of edge contour points to be represented as active contours so that interaction with a higher level process is possible. This higher level process could do such things as determine where corners or discontinuities could appear. The algorithm developed here allows hard constraints and represents a significant improvement in speed over previous algorithms allowing hard constraints, being linear rather than cubic
Synchronization of Coupled Boolean Phase Oscillators
We design, characterize, and couple Boolean phase oscillators that include
state-dependent feedback delay. The state-dependent delay allows us to realize
an adjustable coupling strength, even though only Boolean signals are
exchanged. Specifically, increasing the coupling strength via the range of
state-dependent delay leads to larger locking ranges in uni- and bi-directional
coupling of oscillators in both experiment and numerical simulation with a
piecewise switching model. In the unidirectional coupling scheme, we unveil
asymmetric triangular-shaped locking regions (Arnold tongues) that appear at
multiples of the natural frequency of the oscillators. This extends
observations of a single locking region reported in previous studies. In the
bidirectional coupling scheme, we map out a symmetric locking region in the
parameter space of frequency detuning and coupling strength. Because of large
scalability of our setup, our observations constitute a first step towards
realizing large-scale networks of coupled oscillators to address fundamental
questions on the dynamical properties of networks in a new experimental
setting.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure
SERCA is critical to control the Bowditch effect in the heart
The Bowditch effect or staircase phenomenon is the increment or reduction of contractile force when heart rate increases, defined as either a positive or negative staircase. The healthy and failing human heart both show positive or negative staircase, respectively, but the causes of these distinct cardiac responses are unclear. Different experimental approaches indicate that while the level of Ca2+ in the sarcoplasmic reticulum is critical, the molecular mechanisms are unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Drosophila melanogaster shows a negative staircase which is associated to a slight but significant frequency-dependent acceleration of relaxation (FDAR) at the highest stimulation frequencies tested. We further showed that the type of staircase is oppositely modified by two distinct SERCA mutations. The dominant conditional mutation SERCAA617T induced positive staircase and arrhythmia, while SERCAE442K accentuated the negative staircase of wild type. At the stimulation frequencies tested, no significant FDAR could be appreciated in mutant flies. The present results provide evidence that two individual mutations directly modify the type of staircase occurring within the heart and suggest an important role of SERCA in regulating the Bowditch effect.Fil: Balcazar, Dario Emmanuel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Regge, MarÃa Victoria. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Santalla, Manuela. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Behrensmeyer, Anna Kay. Universität Osnabrück;Fil: Achimón, Fernanda. Universität Osnabrück;Fil: Mattiazzi, Ramona Alicia. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Ferrero, Paola Viviana. Universidad Nacional de La Plata; Argentin
An experimental effort to improve the Nimbus high resolution infrared radiometer Final report, 1 May 1964 - 15 Feb. 1965
Electronics modifications and improved detector cooling for Nimbus high resolution infrared radiomete
Spatially Coupled Codes and Optical Fiber Communications: An Ideal Match?
In this paper, we highlight the class of spatially coupled codes and discuss
their applicability to long-haul and submarine optical communication systems.
We first demonstrate how to optimize irregular spatially coupled LDPC codes for
their use in optical communications with limited decoding hardware complexity
and then present simulation results with an FPGA-based decoder where we show
that very low error rates can be achieved and that conventional block-based
LDPC codes can be outperformed. In the second part of the paper, we focus on
the combination of spatially coupled LDPC codes with different demodulators and
detectors, important for future systems with adaptive modulation and for
varying channel characteristics. We demonstrate that SC codes can be employed
as universal, channel-agnostic coding schemes.Comment: Invited paper to be presented in the special session on "Signal
Processing, Coding, and Information Theory for Optical Communications" at
IEEE SPAWC 201
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