Multi-stage generation of extreme ultraviolet dispersive waves by tapering gas-filled hollow-core anti-resonant fibers

In this work, we numerically investigate an experimentally feasible design of a tapered Ne-filled hollow-core anti-resonant fiber and we report the generation of multiple dispersive waves (DWs) in the range 90-120 nm, well into the extreme ultraviolet (UV) region. The simulations assume an 800 nm pump pulse with 30 fs 10 $\mu$J pulse energy, launched into a 9 bar Ne-filled fiber with $34~\mu$m initial core diameter that is then tapered to a $10~\mu$m core diameter. The simulations were performed using a new model that provides a realistic description of both loss and dispersion of the resonant and anti-resonant spectral bands of the fiber, and also importantly includes the material loss of silica in the UV. We show that by first generating solitons that emit DWs in the far-UV region in the pre-taper section, optimization of the following taper structure can allow re-collision with the solitons and further up-conversion of the far-UV DWs to the extreme-UV with energies up to 190 nJ in the 90-120 nm range. This process provides a new way to generate light in the extreme-UV spectral range using relatively low gas pressure

Noise and spectral stability of deep-UV gas-filled fiber-based supercontinuum sources driven by ultrafast mid-IR pulses

Deep-UV (DUV) supercontinuum (SC) sources based on gas-filled hollow-core fibers constitute perhaps the most viable solution towards ultrafast, compact, and tunable lasers in the UV spectral region. Noise and spectral stability of such broadband sources are key parameters that define their true potential and suitability towards real-world applications. In order to investigate the spectral stability and noise levels in these fiber-based DUV sources, we generate an SC spectrum that extends from 180 nm (through phase-matched dispersive waves - DWs) to 4 {\mu}m by pumping an argon-filled hollow-core anti-resonant fiber at a wavelength of 2.45 {\mu}m. We characterize the long-term stability of the source over several days and the pulse-to-pulse relative intensity (RIN) noise of the strongest DW at 275 nm. The results indicate no sign of spectral degradation over 110 hours, but the RIN of the DW pulses at 275 nm is found to be as high as 33.3%. Numerical simulations were carried out to investigate the spectral distribution of the RIN and the results confirm the experimental measurements and that the poor noise performance is due to the RIN of the pump laser, which was hitherto not considered in numerical modelling of these sources. The results presented herein provide an important step towards an understanding of the noise mechanism underlying such complex light-gas nonlinear interactions and demonstrate the need for pump laser stabilization

Temperature-insensitive curvature sensor based on Bragg gratings written in strongly coupled multicore fiber

[EN] A novel temperature-insensitive optical curvature sensor has been proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is fabricated by inscribing fiber Bragg gratings with short lengths into a piece of strongly coupled multicore fiber (SCMCF) and spliced to the conventional single-mode fiber. Due to the two supermodes being supported by the SCMCF, two resonance peaks, along with a deep notch between them, were observed in the reflection spectrum. The experimental results show that the depth of the notch changes with the curvature with a sensitivity up to 15.9dB/m-1 in a lower curvature range. Besides, thanks to the unique property of the proposed sensor, the notch depth barely changes with temperature. Based on the intensity demodulation of the notch depth, the temperature-insensitive curvature sensor is achieved with the cross sensitivity between the temperature, and the curvature is as low as 0.001m-1/¿C.National Natural Science Foundation of China (62071395); the 111 Project (B18045); Sichuan Province Science and Technology Support Program (2020YJ0329); Universitat Politècnica de València (PAID-01-18); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (PGC2018-101997-B-I00, TEC2017-88029-R).Liu, Z.; Zheng, D.; Madrigal-Madrigal, J.; Villatoro, J.; Antonio-Lopez, JE.; Schülzgen, A.; Amezcua-Correa, R.... (2021). Temperature-insensitive curvature sensor based on Bragg gratings written in strongly coupled multicore fiber. Optics Letters. 46(16):3933-3936. https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.432889S39333936461

Sistema de enfoque basado en dos espejos elípticos y un espejo plano rotatorio para un radar a 300 GHz

A focusing system for a 300 GHz radar with two target distances (5m and 10m) is proposed, having 1cm resolution in both cases. The focusing system is based on a gaussian telescope scheme and it has been designed using gaussian beam quasi-optical propagation theory with a homemade Matlab analysis tool. It has been translated into a real focusing system based on two elliptical mirrors and a plane mirror in order to have scanning capabilities and validated using the commercial antenna software GRAS

Comparison of ex vivo expansion culture conditions of mesenchymal stem cells for human cell therapy

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells. Based on their properties, several clinical trials have been designed to explore their potential therapeutic effect. Fetal calf serum (FCS, commonly used for in vitro expansion) is an undesirable source of xenogeneic antigens and bears the risk of transmitting contaminations. As an alternative for FCS, platelet lysate (PL) and both autologous and allogeneic human serum have been proposed. The aim of this study is to compare the culture of bone marrow (BM)- derived MSCs in the presence of different serum supplements to determine the effect on cell growth, differentiation potential, and immunologic function

Deep-UV to Mid-IR Supercontinuum Generation driven by Mid-IR Ultrashort Pulses in a Gas-filled Hollow-core Fiber

Abstract Supercontinuum (SC) generation based on ultrashort pulse compression constitutes one of the most promising technologies towards ultra-wide bandwidth, high-brightness, and spatially coherent light sources for applications such as spectroscopy and microscopy. Here, multi-octave SC generation in a gas-filled hollow-core antiresonant fiber (HC-ARF) is reported spanning from 200 nm in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) to 4000 nm in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) having an output energy of 5 μJ. This was obtained by pumping at the center wavelength of the first anti-resonant transmission window (2460 nm) with ~100 fs pulses and an injected pulse energy of ~8 μJ. The mechanism behind the extreme spectral broadening relies upon intense soliton-plasma nonlinear dynamics which leads to efficient soliton self-compression and phase-matched dispersive wave (DW) emission in the DUV region. The strongest DW is observed at 275 nm which corresponds to the calculated phase-matching wavelength of the pump. Furthermore, the effect of changing the pump pulse energy and gas pressure on the nonlinear dynamics and their direct impact on SC generation was investigated. This work represents another step towards gas-filled fiber-based coherent sources, which is set to have a major impact on applications spanning from DUV to mid-IR

The RNA Polymerase II Factor RPAP1 Is Critical for Mediator-Driven Transcription and Cell Identity

The RNA polymerase II-associated protein 1 (RPAP1) is conserved across metazoa and required for stem cell differentiation in plants; however, very little is known about its mechanism of action or its role in mammalian cells. Here, we report that RPAP1 is essential for the expression of cell identity genes and for cell viability. Depletion of RPAP1 triggers cell de-differentiation, facilitates reprogramming toward pluripotency, and impairs differentiation. Mechanistically, we show that RPAP1 is essential for the interaction between RNA polymerase II (RNA Pol II) and Mediator, as well as for the recruitment of important regulators, such as the Mediator-specific RNA Pol II factor Gdown1 and the C-terminal domain (CTD) phosphatase RPAP2. In agreement, depletion of RPAP1 diminishes the loading of total and Ser5-phosphorylated RNA Pol II on many genes, with super-enhancer-driven genes among the most significantly downregulated. We conclude that Mediator/RPAP1/RNA Pol II is an ancient module, conserved from plants to mammals, critical for establishing and maintaining cell identity.We are grateful to Elisa Varela for assistance with morula and blastocyst fixa- tion. Work in the laboratory of M.S. is funded by the CNIO and the IRB and by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (SAF2013-48256-R), the European Research Co uncil (ERC-2014-AdG/66 9622), the Region al Government of Ma- drid co-funded by the Euro pean Social Fund (ReCaRe project), the Euro pean Union (RISK-IR project), the Botin Foundation and Banco Santander (Santander Universities Glo bal Division), the Ramon Areces Found ation, and the AXA Foundation. S.R. was funded by a contract from the Ramon y Cajal Program(RYC-2011-09242) and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy co- funded by the ERDF (SAF2013-49147- P and SAF2016-80874-PS

Desarrollo multidisciplinario en investigación y docencia del centro universitario UAEM Valle de México

DESARROLLO MULTIDISCIPLINARIO EN INVESTIGACIÓN Y DOCENCIA DEL CENTRO UNIVERSITARIO UAEM VALLE DE MÉXICOLa Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México ha evolucionado a través de sus 188 años de historia, dedicada a la educación, la investigación, la cultura y el deporte, como sus grandes ejes rectores, formadora de hombres y mujeres con un alto sentido humanista y ético, contribuyendo a lograr nuevas y mejores formas de existencia y convivencia social. Durante el proceso de desconcentración de la UAEM, se crearon las Unidades Académicas y Centros Universitarios para brindar el servicio de educación a más jóvenes en todo el Estado de México, este Centro Universitario fue uno de los primeros y a sus veinte años de existencia se está consolidando como uno de los mejores. Es en los últimos años que se ha venido impulsando la investigación al contar con cuerpos académicos, en formación y en consolidación, con infraestructura de primera tanto en equipo como en laboratorios especializados, con profesores de tiempo completo que participan en congresos, seminarios y presentan publicaciones en revistas indexadas. Por ello para celebrar esos veinte años de existencia de esta honorable institución, se planeó la compilación de esta obra que es parte del quehacer multidisciplinario en investigación y docencia como parte del Plan de Desarrollo 2013-2017, de esta administración. Esta obra reúne investigaciones tanto de profesores como de alumnos desde las diferentes ramas del saber en las que se inscriben sus siete licenciaturas, Actuaría, Administración, Contaduría, Derecho, Economía, Relaciones Económicas Internacionales e Informática Administrativa, tanto presencial como a distancia, así como sus tres ingenierías, Industrial, en Computación y Sistemas y Comunicaciones, así como gracias a la vinculación y colaboración académico – científica que se tiene con otras instituciones de educación superior a nivel nacional, como el Instituto Tecnológico de Orizaba, la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Universidad Politécnica de Victoria, el Instituto Politécnico Nacional entre otras. En el capítulo 1 se abordan seis temáticas diferentes de vanguardia en el área de las Ingenierías, en los capítulos 2 y 3 se incluyen temas de interés y gran relevancia en materia de ciencias sociales, política y economía. Se hace extensivo un reconocimiento para todos los que participaron tanto en la revisión de los trabajos, como en la compilación del producto final de este Libro intitulado “Desarrollo Multidisciplinario en Investigación y Docencia del Centro Universitario UAEM Valle de México”

GNSS 3D displacement field determination in Lorca (Murcia, Spain) subsidence area

Trabajo presentado en el AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting: Advancing Earth and Space Science, celebrado en San Francisco (Estados Unidos), del 12 al 16 de diciembre de 2016Land subsidence associated to the overexploitation of aquifers represents a common hazard impacting extensive areas worldwide. Recently, González and Fernández (20101) revealed that the Alto Guadalentín Basin, located in southern Spain, is affected by the highest subsidence rates measured in Europe (about 10 cm/yr) as a direct consequence of long-term aquifer exploitation. They used ERS and ENVISAT radar data spanning the 1992¿2007 period. They identify a delayed transient nonlinear compaction of the Alto Guadalentín aquifer due to the 1990¿1995 drought period. Bonì et al. (2015) extend the previous studies using advanced DInSAR techniques to process ALOS PALSAR (2007¿2010) and COSMO-SkyMed (2011¿2012) radar images. The combination of multi-sensor SAR images with different resolutions allows for a wider monitoring time span of 20 years (1992¿2012) over the Alto Guadalentín Basin. All regional studies of the area to date are based on satellite radar interferometry using just ascending or descending acquisitions, without any combination among them to obtain vertical and horizontal (E-W) components. It is important to obtain the 3D motion field in order to perform a correct interpretation of the observations, as well as an advanced model of the aquifer evolution, to be consider for sustainable management plans of groundwater resources and hazard assessments. With this objective, a GNSS network has been defined and two surveys have been carried out in November 2015 and July 2016. Despite the limited time interval covered by the surveys, the results allow us to obtain, for the first time, the regional 3D displacement field associated to the exploitation of the aquifer. These results, although in a preliminary form, confirm previous observations and suggest that the ad-hoc establishment of small GNSS networks represent a valuable technique for the spatio-temporal monitoring of the 3D displacement field of areas subjected to extensive groundwater extraction.Peer reviewe

Mesenchymal stem cells expanded in vitro with human serum for the treatment of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease: results of a phase I/II clinical trial

This trial evaluated the feasibility and efficacy of the infusion of mesenchymal stem cells expanded using human serum for the treatment of refractory acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease. Twenty-eight expansions were started. In 22, a minimum of more than 1 x 10⁶ mesenchymal stem cells/kg were obtained after a median of 26 days; this threshold was not obtained in the remaining cases. Ten patients received cells for the treatment of refractory or relapsed acute graft-versus-host disease and 8 for chronic disease. One patient treated for acute graft-versus-host disease obtained a complete response, 6 had a partial response and 3 did not respond. One of the chronic patients achieved complete remision, 3 a partial response, and 4 did not respond. The current study supports the use of this approach in less heavily treated patients for both acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease. The trial has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: identifier NCT00447460