Triple resonant four-wavemixing boosts the yield of continuous coherent VUV generation

Continuous-wave coherent radiation in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)wavelength region at 121 nm will be essential for future laser-cooling of trapped antihydrogen [1]. Cold antihydrogen will enable both tests of the fundamental symmetry between matter and antimatter at unprecedented experimental precision [2] and also experiments in antimatter gravity [3]. Another fascinating application of narrowband continuous laser radiation in the VUV is quantum information processing using single trapped ions in Rydberg-states [4, 5]. Here we describe highly efficient continuous four-wave mixing in the VUV by using three different fundamental wavelengths with a sophisticated choice of detunings to resonances of the nonlinear medium. Up to 6 microwatts of vacuum ultraviolet radiation at 121 nm can be generated which corresponds to an increase of three orders of magnitude in efficiency.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Bull Int Stat Inst

Over the last 100 years, a large number of distributions has been proposed for the modeling of size phenomena, notably the size distribution of personal incomes (see, for example, Kleiber and Kotz, 2003). The most widely known of these models are the Pareto and the lognormal distributions; however, both are known to be not flexible enough for the modeling of income data. Here we consider a generalization of the lognormal distribution for which the available literature is mainly in Italian

Cluster-decay of hot 56^{56}Ni∗^* formed in 32^{32}S+24^{24}Mg reaction

The decay of $^{56}Ni^*$, formed in $^{32}S+^{24}Mg$ reaction at the incident energies $E_{cm}$=51.6 and 60.5 MeV, is calculated as a cluster decay process within the Preformed Cluster-decay Model (PCM) of Gupta et al. re-formulated for hot compound systems. The observed deformed shapes of the exit channel fragments are simulated by introducing the neck-length parameter at the scission configuration, which nearly coincides the $^{56}Ni$ saddle configuration. This is the only parameter of the model, which though is also defined in terms of the binding energy of the hot compound system and the ground-state binding energies of the various emitted fragments. The calculated s-wave cross sections for nuclear shapes with outgoing fragments separated within nuclear proximity limit (here $\sim$0.3 fm) can be compared with the experimental data, and the TKEs are found to be in reasonably good agreement with experiments for the angular momentum effects added in the sticking limit for the moment of inertia. Also, some light particle production (other than the statistical evaporation residue, not treated here) is predicted at these energies and, interestingly, $^4He$, which belongs to evaporation residue, is found missing as a dynamical cluster-decay fragment.Comment: 13 Pages, 12 figure

A cross sectional study of water quality from dental unit water lines in dental practices in the West of Scotland

OBJECTIVE: To determine the microbiological quality of water from dental units in a general practice setting and current practice for disinfection of units. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study of the water quality from 40 dental units in 39 general practices and a questionnaire of the disinfection protocols used in those practices. SETTING: NHS practices in primarydental care. SUBJECTS: Thirty-nine general practices from the West of Scotland. METHODS: Water samples were collected on two separate occasions from dental units and analysed for microbiological quality by the total viable count (TVC) method. Water specimens were collected from the triple syringe, high speed outlet, cup filler and surgery tap. Each participating practitioner was asked to complete a questionnaire. Results Microbial contamination was highest from the high speed outlet followed by the triple syringe and cup filler. On average, the TVC counts from the high speed water lines at 37 degrees C and for the high speed lines, triple syringe and cup filler at 22 degrees C were significantly higher than that from the control tap water specimens. The study included units from 11 different manufacturers with ages ranging from under one year to over eight years. The age of the dental unit analysed did not appear to influence the level of microbial contamination. Five of the practices surveyed used disinfectants to clean the dental units but these had no significant effect on the microbiological quality of the water. The majority of dental units (25 out of 40) were never flushed with water between patients. A number of different non-sterile irrigants were used for surgical procedures. CONCLUSION: The microbiological quality of water from dental units in general dental practice is poor compared with that from drinking water sources. Suitable sterile irrigants should be used for surgical procedures in dental practice. Further work is required for pragmatic decontamination regimens of dental unit water lines in a general dental practice setting

Flexible structure control laboratory development and technology demonstration

An experimental structure is described which was constructed to demonstrate and validate recent emerging technologies in the active control and identification of large flexible space structures. The configuration consists of a large, 20 foot diameter antenna-like flexible structure in the horizontal plane with a gimballed central hub, a flexible feed-boom assembly hanging from the hub, and 12 flexible ribs radiating outward. Fourteen electrodynamic force actuators mounted to the hub and to the individual ribs provide the means to excite the structure and exert control forces. Thirty permanently mounted sensors, including optical encoders and analog induction devices provide measurements of structural response at widely distributed points. An experimental remote optical sensor provides sixteen additional sensing channels. A computer samples the sensors, computes the control updates and sends commands to the actuators in real time, while simultaneously displaying selected outputs on a graphics terminal and saving them in memory. Several control experiments were conducted thus far and are documented. These include implementation of distributed parameter system control, model reference adaptive control, and static shape control. These experiments have demonstrated the successful implementation of state-of-the-art control approaches using actual hardware

The Origin of Transverse Flow at the SPS

We study the transverse expansion in central Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN SPS. Strong collective motion of hadrons can be created. This flow is mainly due to meson baryon rescattering. It allows to study the angular distribution of intermediate mass meson baryon interactions.Comment: submitted to Phys. Lett.

Can Bedside Ultrasound Inferior Vena Cava Measurements Accurately Diagnose Congestive Heart Failure in the Emergency Department? A Clin-IQ

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis of CHF in patients presenting to the emergency department with undifferentiated dyspnea would allow clinicians to begin appropriate treatment more promptly. Current guidelines recommend B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels for more accurate diagnosis of CHF in dyspneic patients. Although BNP levels are relatively inexpensive, the test is not usually performed at bedside and results may take up to an hour or more. BNP also may have a “gray zone” in which the values can neither confirm nor rule out CHF. BNP has a reported sensitivity of 87% and specificity of 74% at a cutoff of 400 pg/ml. Studies investigating bedside ultrasound inferior vena cava (IVC) measurements for identifying CHF report a specificity of 84% to 96% and sensitivity values ranging from 37% to 93%, depending on the study. Given that ultrasound IVC measurements are performed at bedside and results are available rapidly, it is reasonable to evaluate whether ultrasound IVC measurements obtained by appropriately trained emergency department clinicians, alone or in combination with BNP, may increase diagnostic accuracy of CHF