Tailoring optical fields emitted by nanometric sources

Here we study a simple way of controlling the emitted fields of sub-wavelength nanometric sources. The system consists of arrays of nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in optical active media. The key concept is the careful tuning of NP's damping factors, which changes the eigenmode's decay rates of the whole array. This, at long time, leads to a locking of relative phases and frequencies of individual localized-surfaces-plasmons (LSPs) and, thus, controlls the emitted field. The amplitude of the LSP's oscillations can be kept constant by embedding the system in optical active media. In the case of full loss compensation, this implies that, not only the relative phases, but also the amplitudes of the LSPs remain fixed, leading us, additionally, to interpret the process as a new example of synchronization. The proposed approach can be used as a general way of controlling and designing the electromagnetic fields emitted by nanometric sources, which can find applications in optoelectronic, nanoscale lithography and probing microscopy

Child Witnesses and the Confrontation Clause

After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Crawford v. Washington that a criminal defendant’s right to confront the witnesses against him is violated by the admission of testimonial hearsay that has not been cross-examined, lower courts have overturned convictions in which hearsay from children was admitted after child witnesses were either unwilling or unable to testify. A review of social scientific evidence regarding the dynamics of child sexual abuse suggests a means for facilitating the fair receipt of children’s evidence. Courts should hold that defendants have forfeited their confrontation rights if they exploited a child’s vulnerabilities such that they could reasonably anticipate that the child would be unavailable to testify. Exploitation includes choosing victims on the basis of their filial dependency, their vulnerability, or their immaturity, as well as taking actions that create or accentuate those vulnerabilities

The Loschmidt Echo as a robust decoherence quantifier for many-body systems

We employ the Loschmidt Echo, i.e. the signal recovered after the reversal of an evolution, to identify and quantify the processes contributing to decoherence. This procedure, which has been extensively used in single particle physics, is here employed in a spin ladder. The isolated chains have 1/2 spins with XY interaction and their excitations would sustain a one-body like propagation. One of them constitutes the controlled system S whose reversible dynamics is degraded by the weak coupling with the uncontrolled second chain, i.e. the environment E. The perturbative SE coupling is swept through arbitrary combinations of XY and Ising like interactions, that contain the standard Heisenberg and dipolar ones. Different time regimes are identified for the Loschmidt Echo dynamics in this perturbative configuration. In particular, the exponential decay scales as a Fermi golden rule, where the contributions of the different SE terms are individually evaluated and analyzed. Comparisons with previous analytical and numerical evaluations of decoherence based on the attenuation of specific interferences, show that the Loschmidt Echo is an advantageous decoherence quantifier at any time, regardless of the S internal dynamics.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Non-Markovian decay and dynamics of decoherence in private and public environments

We study the decay process in an open system, emphasizing on the relevance of the environment's spectral structure. Non-Markovian effects are included to quantitatively analyze the degradation rate of the coherent evolution. The way in which a two level system is coupled to different environments is specifically addressed: multiple connections to a single bath (public environment)or single connections to multiple baths (private environments). We numerically evaluate the decay rate of a local excitation by using the Survival Probability and the Loschmidt Echo. These rates are compared to analytical results obtained from the standard Fermi Golden Rule (FGR) in Wide Band Approximation, and a Self-Consistent evaluation that accounts for the bath's memory in cases where an exact analytical solution is possible. We observe that the correlations appearing in a public bath introduce further deviations from the FGR as compared with a private bath.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review

Thermal, electric and durability characterization of supercaps for energy back-up of automotive ECU

A new generation of mechatronic devices, such as the E-latch for door closure, is introduced in the automotive field to replace mechanical systems with electro-actuated parts with embedded electronic control unit (ECU) connected to the main vehicle network. Due to severe automotive safety-critical requirements an energy back-up solution is proposed, based on supercaps and boost converter, to ensure E-latch operation even in case of main battery failure. An in-depth thermal, electrical and durability characterization of the supercaps proves the suitability of the energy back-up unit for automotive applications

Comparison of anti-inflammatory and clinical effects of beclomethasone dipropionate and salmeterol in moderate asthma

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Comparison between Airway Responses to High versus Low Molecular Weight Compounds in Occupational Asthma

Occupational asthma (OA) is a heterogeneous disease, and the characteristics of the sensitizer responsible for OA may induce different clinical, functional, and biological manifestations. We examined the characteristics of 74 patients with OA induced by low molecular weight compounds (LMWC) or by high molecular weight compounds (HMWC) and diagnosed by specific inhalation challenge (SIC). Patients with OA induced by LMWC had a longer occupational exposure before the beginning of symptoms, a lower sputum eosinophilia, and a higher prevalence of late airway response (LAR), in comparison with patients with OA induced by HMWC. Pulmonary function tended to be poorer and atopy tended to be less frequent in LMWC-induced OA than in HMWC-induced OA. These data confirm and extend previous observations showing that the characteristics of the specific sensitizer inducing OA may determine different clinical, functional, and biological features, probably related to the difference pathogenetic mechanisms underlying these different types of OA

Zebrafish patient-derived xenografts identify chemo-response in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients

It is increasingly evident the necessity of new predictive tools for the treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in a personalized manner. We present a co-clinical trial testing the predic-tiveness of zPDX (zebrafish patient-derived xenograft) for assessing if patients could benefit from a therapeutic strategy (ClinicalTrials.gov: XenoZ, NCT03668418). zPDX are generated xenografting tumor tissues in zebrafish embryos. zPDX were exposed to chemotherapy regimens commonly used. We considered a zPDX a responder (R) when a decrease ≥50% in the relative tumor area was reported; otherwise, we considered them a non-responder (NR). Patients were classified as Responder if their own zPDX was classified as an R for the chemotherapy scheme she/he received an adjuvant treatment; otherwise, we considered them a Non-Responder. We compared the cancer recurrence rate at 1 year after surgery and the disease-free survival (DFS) of patients of both groups. We reported a statistically significant higher recurrence rate in the Non-Responder group: 66.7% vs. 14.3% (p = 0.036), anticipating relapse/no relapse within 1 year after surgery in 12/16 patients. The mean DFS was longer in the R-group than the NR-group, even if not statistically significant: 19.2 months vs. 12.7 months, (p = 0.123). The proposed strategy could potentially improve preclinical evaluation of treatment modalities and may enable prospective therapeutic selection in everyday clinical practice