5,988 research outputs found
Pulsatile microvascular blood flow imaging by short-time Fourier transform analysis of ultrafast laser holographic interferometry
We report on wide-field imaging of pulsatile microvascular blood flow in the
exposed cerebral cortex of a mouse by holographic interferometry. We recorded
interferograms of laser light backscattered by the tissue, beating against an
off-axis reference beam with a 50 kHz framerate camera. Videos of local Doppler
contrasts were rendered numerically by Fresnel transformation and short-time
Fourier transform analysis. This approach enabled instantaneous imaging of
pulsatile blood flow contrasts in superficial blood vessels over 256 x 256
pixels with a spatial resolution of 10 microns and a temporal resolution of 20
ms.Comment: 4 page
Changes in quercetin and kaempferol concentrations during broccoli head ontogeny in three broccoli cultivars
Three broccoli cultivars – spear broccoli ‘Emperor’, crown broccoli ‘Marathon’ and violet broccoli ‘Viola’ – were harvested during head ontogeny from start of head development until over maturity stage (five stages) in three different years. The aglycones quercetin and kaempferol were analysed at optimised conditions of acid hydrolysis by HPLC. Heads of over maturity stage had the highest contents of quercetin and kaempferol. However, the genotype fundamentally determined the quantity and course of the increase in flavonols. Mini broccoli, as a new trend to market vegetables, has lower content of flavonols than the commercial stage, which indicates a reduction in health potentials. Harvesting broccoli heads of over maturity stage should be used as raw material, e.g. for the design of new functional foods
Mobile nudges and financial incentives to improve coverage of timely neonatal vaccination in rural areas (GEVaP trial): a 3-armed cluster randomized controlled trial in Northern Ghana
BACKGROUND: Despite progress in vaccination coverage, timeliness of childhood vaccination remains a challenge in many settings. We aimed to assess if mobile phone-based reminders and incentives to health workers and caregivers could increase timely neonatal vaccination in a rural, low-resource setting. METHODS: We conducted an open-label cluster randomized controlled 1:1:1 trial with three arms in 15 communities in Northern Ghana. Communities were randomized to 1) a voice call reminder intervention; 2) a community health volunteer (CHV) intervention with incentivized rewards; 3) control. In the voice call reminder arm, a study staff member made voice calls to mothers shortly after birth to encourage vaccination and provide personalized information about available vaccination services. In the incentive arm, CHVs promoted infant vaccination and informed women with recent births about available vaccination opportunities. Both CHVs and women were provided small monetary incentives for on-time early infant vaccination in this arm, delivered using mobile phone-based banking applications. No study activities were conducted in control communities. A population-based survey compared vaccination coverage across arms in the pre-intervention and intervention periods. The primary endpoint was completion of at least one dose of Polio vaccine within 14 days of life and BCG vaccination within 28 days of life. RESULTS: Six-hundred ninety births were identified; 106, 88, and 88 from pre-intervention and 150, 135, and 123 in the intervention period, in the control, voice call reminder and CHV incentive arms, respectively. In adjusted intent-to-treat analysis, voice call reminders were associated with 10.5 percentage point (95% CI: 4.0, 17.1) higher coverage of on-time vaccination, while mobile phone-based incentives were associated with 49.5 percentage point (95% CI: 26.4, 72.5) higher coverage. CONCLUSION: Community-based interventions using mobile phone technologies can improve timely early vaccination coverage. A CHV approach with incentives to community workers and caregivers was a more effective strategy than voice call reminders. The impact of vaccination "nudges" via voice calls may be constrained in settings where network coverage and phone ownership are limited. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT03797950
Oblique frozen modes in periodic layered media
We study the classical scattering problem of a plane electromagnetic wave
incident on the surface of semi-infinite periodic stratified media
incorporating anisotropic dielectric layers with special oblique orientation of
the anisotropy axes. We demonstrate that an obliquely incident light, upon
entering the periodic slab, gets converted into an abnormal grazing mode with
huge amplitude and zero normal component of the group velocity. This mode
cannot be represented as a superposition of extended and evanescent
contributions. Instead, it is related to a general (non-Bloch) Floquet
eigenmode with the amplitude diverging linearly with the distance from the slab
boundary. Remarkably, the slab reflectivity in such a situation can be very
low, which means an almost 100% conversion of the incident light into the
axially frozen mode with the electromagnetic energy density exceeding that of
the incident wave by several orders of magnitude. The effect can be realized at
any desirable frequency, including optical and UV frequency range. The only
essential physical requirement is the presence of dielectric layers with proper
oblique orientation of the anisotropy axes. Some practical aspects of this
phenomenon are considered.Comment: text and 9 figure
Multi-mode mediated exchange coupling in cavity QED
Microwave cavities with high quality factors enable coherent coupling of
distant quantum systems. Virtual photons lead to a transverse exchange
interaction between qubits, when they are non-resonant with the cavity but
resonant with each other. We experimentally probe the inverse scaling of the
inter-qubit coupling with the detuning from a cavity mode and its
proportionality to the qubit-cavity interaction strength. We demonstrate that
the enhanced coupling at higher frequencies is mediated by multiple
higher-harmonic cavity modes. Moreover, in the case of resonant qubits, the
symmetry properties of the system lead to an allowed two-photon transition to
the doubly excited qubit state and the formation of a dark state.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure
Vortex Structure Around a Magnetic Dot in Planar Superconductors
The problem of the giant vortex state around a magnetic dot which is embedded
in a superconducting film is investigated. The full non-linear, self-consistent
Ginzburg-Landau equations are solved numerically in order to calculate the free
energy, the order parameter of the host superconductor, the internal magnetic
field due to the supercurrents, the corresponding current density, the
magnetization probed in the vicinity of the dot, and the normal electron
density as a function of the various parameters of the system. We find that, as
we increase the magnetic moment of the dot, higher flux quanta vortex states
become energetically more favorable, as they can better compete with the
external magnetic field via the Meissner effect. In addition to that, they
progressively become closer to each other in energy with direct experimental
consequences, i.e. physical quantities like magnetization may fluctuate when
measured, for example, as a function of a uniform external magnetic field.Comment: text 21 pages (REVTEX), 8 figures available upon reques
X-ray Signatures of an Ionized Reprocessor in the Seyfert galaxy Ton S 180
We discuss the hard X-ray properties of the Seyfert galaxy Ton S 180, based
upon the analysis of ASCA data. We find the X-ray flux varied by a factor ~2 on
a time scale of a few thousand seconds. The source showed significantly higher
amplitude of variability in the 0.5-2 keV band than in the 2-10 keV band. The
continuum is adequately parameterized as a Gamma ~ 2.5 power-law across the
0.6--10 keV band . We confirm the recent discovery of an emission line of high
equivalent width, due to Fe K-shell emission from highly-ionized material.
These ASCA data show the Fe line profile to be broad and asymmetric and
tentatively suggest it is stronger during the X-ray flares, consistent with an
origin from the inner parts of an accretion disk. The X-ray spectrum is complex
below 2 keV, possibly due to emission from a blend of soft X-ray lines, which
would support the existence of an ionized reprocessor, most likely due to a
relatively high accretion rate in this source.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures. LaTeX with encapsulated postscript. To appear in
the Astrophysical Journa
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