Hospitalizations related to respiratory viral infections during the 2017/18 season in the Valencia Region of Spain

Objectives To describe the impact and severity of hospitalizations related to respiratory viral infections using data from weeks 2017-37 to 2018-19 in the Valencia Region of Spain. Methods All consenting admitted patients were included in the study if they were non-institutionalized, residents in any of the participating hospitals' catchment areas, not discharged from a previous hospital admission within 30 days, had an influenza-like illness (ILI, only for patients ≥5 years old) and were hospitalized within 7 days of the onset of symptoms. Demographic and clinical information was collected by interviewing and/or from clinical records. Swabs were tested by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), metapneumovirus, parainfluenza, rhinovirus/enterovirus, adenovirus, coronavirus and bocavirus. Hospitalization incidence rates were calculated by virus and age. Severity was explored through Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission, death in hospital, mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and the length of hospitalization. Results The hospitalization incidence rates related to respiratory viral infections were 1062.89, 31.38, 36.12 and 434.64 per 100,000 in patients <5, 5 to <18, 18 to <65 and ≥65 years old (y.o.), respectively. The incidence rates were especially high in children <1 y.o. and in adults ≥85 y.o.: 3311.94 and 1044.77 per 100,000, respectively. The highest rates were detected for influenza, rhinovirus/enterovirus and RSV: 63.11, 40.20 and 25.81 per 100,000, respectively. Among infected patients, 2% were admitted to the ICU, 4% needed mechanical ventilation and 4% died in hospital. No differences in severity were detected among viruses. The median length of hospitalization among infected patients was 5 days (Interquartile Range, IQR: 3-8 days). Conclusions Respiratory viral infections affected mainly young children and elderly people. Influenza, rhinovirus/enterovirus and RSV were the most commonly detected infections. No differences in severity were detected between the assessed viruses.Medicin

Femtosecond parabolic pulse shaping in normally dispersive optical fibers

Formation of parabolic pulses at femtosecond time scale by means of passive nonlinear reshaping in normally dispersive optical fibers is analyzed. Two approaches are examined and compared: the parabolic waveform formation in transient propagation regime and parabolic waveform formation in the steady-state propagation regime. It is found that both approaches could produce parabolic pulses as short as few hundred femtoseconds applying commercially available fibers, specially designed all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber and modern femtosecond lasers for pumping. The ranges of parameters providing parabolic pulse formation at the femtosecond time scale are found depending on the initial pulse duration, chirp and energy. Applicability of different fibers for femtosecond pulse shaping is analyzed. Recommendation for shortest parabolic pulse formation is made based on the analysis presented

Supercontinuum generation at 800 nm in all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber

We have numerically investigated the supercontinuum generation and pulse compression in a specially designed all-normal dispersion photonic crystal fiber with a flat-top dispersion curve, pumped by typical pulses from state of the art Ti:Sapphire lasers at 800 nm. The optimal combination of pump pulse parameters for a given fiber was found, which provides a wide octave-spanning spectrum with superb spectral flatness (a drop in spectral intensity of ~1.7 dB). With regard to the pulse compression for these spectra, multiple-cycle pulses (~8 fs) can be obtained with the use of a simple quadratic compressor and nearly single-cycle pulses (3.3 fs) can be obtained with the application of full phase compensation. The impact of pump pulse wavelength-shifting relative to the top of the dispersion curve on the generated SC and pulse compression was also investigated. The optimal pump pulse wavelength range was found to be 750nm < \u1d706\u1d45d < 850nm, where the distortions of pulse shape are quite small (< -3.3 dB). The influences of realistic fiber fabrication errors on the SC generation and pulse compression were investigated systematically. We propose that the spectral shape distortions generated by fiber fabrication errors can be significantly attenuated by properly manipulating the pump

Wavelength-codified fiber laser hydrogen detector

We report a scheme for an optical hydrogen detector that codifies the information in wavelength. The system is based on an erbium-doped fiber laser with two coupled cavities and a Palladium-coated tapered fiber within one of the laser cavities. The tapered fiber acts as the hydrogen-sensing element. When the sensing element is exposed to a hydrogen atmosphere, its attenuation decreases changing the cavity losses. This change leads the system to switch lasing from the wavelength of the auxiliary cavity to the characteristic wavelength of the cavity which contains the sensing element. The detection level can be shifted by adjusting the reflective elements of the cavity containing the sensing element

All Polarization-maintaining Passively Mode-locked Ytterbium-doped Fiber Lasers, Behavior under Two Different Cavity Configurations

In this work, we review our recent investigations on the behavior of a polarization-maintaining passively mode-locked ytterbium-doped laser in two different cavity configurations, namely: fiber-ring (FR) and Fabry-Perot (FP). Opposed to standard configurations that rely on the use of strong filtering within the cavity by including an ad hoc component with this purpose, here the filtering action is solely performed by the spectral overlapping of the different components within the fiber lasers. We found that the lack of a specific filter within the cavity does not deteriorate the performance as compared with previous works. We also report the changes in the output light pulses when the net dispersion of the cavity was varied. Additionally, different lengths of an ad hoc anomalous polarization-maintaining (PM) photonic crystal fiber (PCF) were used as intracavity dispersion compensator, to shift the operation of the laser from net-normal to the net-anomalous regime. The shortest output light pulses [6 ps (FR) and 8 ps (FP)] were obtained when the net-cavity dispersion approached zero. Since the obtained light pulses were far to be transform-limited, we also discuss the possibility of out-of-cavity recompression by using the same PM-PCF mentioned above. After recompression, pulse widths of 3 ps were obtained, limited by the available length of PM PCF

Temperature independence of birefringence and group velocity dispersion in photonic crystal fibres

Experimental results are presented for the dependence of the dispersion and the birefringence of a highly birefringent photonic crystal fibre with temperature. It is shown that, unlike conventional optical fibres, where temperature induces stress regions between the different materials present in their structure, photonic crystal fibres exhibit no dependence with temperature of these optical properties owing to the single material nature of their structures

The CARMENES search for exoplanets around M dwarfs: Nine new double-line spectroscopic binary stars

Context. The CARMENES spectrograph is surveying ~300 M dwarf stars in search for exoplanets. Among the target stars, spectroscopic binary systems have been discovered, which can be used to measure fundamental properties of stars. Aims. Using spectroscopic observations, we determine the orbital and physical properties of nine new double-line spectroscopic binary systems by analysing their radial velocity curves. Methods. We use two-dimensional cross-correlation techniques to derive the radial velocities of the targets, which are then employed to determine the orbital properties. Photometric data from the literature are also analysed to search for possible eclipses and to measure stellar variability, which can yield rotation periods. Results. Out of the 342 stars selected for the CARMENES survey, 9 have been found to be double-line spectroscopic binaries, with periods ranging from 1.13 to ~8000 days and orbits with eccentricities up to 0.54. We provide empirical orbital properties and minimum masses for the sample of spectroscopic binaries. Absolute masses are also estimated from mass-luminosity calibrations, ranging between ~0.1 and ~0.6 Msol . Conclusions. These new binary systems increase the number of double-line M dwarf binary systems with known orbital parameters by 15%, and they have lower mass ratios on average.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 17 pages, 4 figure

Dissipative soliton resonance in a full polarization-maintaining fiber ring laser at different values of dispersion

We investigated the dissipative solitons resonance in an ytterbium-doped fiber ring laser in which all the elements are polarization maintaining (PM). A semiconductor saturable absorber mirror was used as a mode-locker. The cavity included a normal dispersion single-mode fiber (SMF) and an anomalous dispersion photonic crystal fiber. The change of the length of the PM SMF allows the variation of the net-normal dispersion of the cavity in the range from 0.022 ps2 to 0.262 ps2. As the absolute value of the net-normal dispersion increases from 0.022 ps2 to 0.21 ps2, a square-shaped single pulse transformed to a single right-angle trapezoid-shaped pulse, and, at the dispersion of 0.262 ps2, to multiple right-angle trapezoid-shaped pulses, per round-trip