414 research outputs found
Phase Measurement of Resonant Two-Photon Ionization in Helium
We study resonant two-color two-photon ionization of Helium via the 1s3p 1P1
state. The first color is the 15th harmonic of a tunable titanium sapphire
laser, while the second color is the fundamental laser radiation. Our method
uses phase-locked high-order harmonics to determine the {\it phase} of the
two-photon process by interferometry. The measurement of the two-photon
ionization phase variation as a function of detuning from the resonance and
intensity of the dressing field allows us to determine the intensity dependence
of the transition energy.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, under consideratio
Theory of attosecond delays in laser-assisted photoionization
We study the temporal aspects of laser-assisted extreme ultraviolet (XUV)
photoionization using attosecond pulses of harmonic radiation. The aim of this
paper is to establish the general form of the phase of the relevant transition
amplitudes and to make the connection with the time-delays that have been
recently measured in experiments. We find that the overall phase contains two
distinct types of contributions: one is expressed in terms of the phase-shifts
of the photoelectron continuum wavefunction while the other is linked to
continuum--continuum transitions induced by the infrared (IR) laser probe. Our
formalism applies to both kinds of measurements reported so far, namely the
ones using attosecond pulse trains of XUV harmonics and the others based on the
use of isolated attosecond pulses (streaking). The connection between the
phases and the time-delays is established with the help of finite difference
approximations to the energy derivatives of the phases. This makes clear that
the observed time-delays is a sum of two components: a one-photon Wigner-like
delay and an universal delay that originates from the probing process itself.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, special issue 'Attosecond spectroscopy' Chem.
Phy
Probing single-photon ionization on the attosecond time scale
We study photoionization of argon atoms excited by attosecond pulses using an
interferometric measurement technique. We measure the difference in time delays
between electrons emitted from the and from the shell, at
different excitation energies ranging from 32 to 42 eV. The determination of
single photoemission time delays requires to take into account the measurement
process, involving the interaction with a probing infrared field. This
contribution can be estimated using an universal formula and is found to
account for a substantial fraction of the measured delay.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, under consideratio
Photoelectron Angular Distributions for Two-photon Ionization of Helium by Ultrashort Extreme Ultraviolet Free Electron Laser Pulses
Phase-shift differences and amplitude ratios of the outgoing and
continuum wave packets generated by two-photon ionization of helium atoms are
determined from the photoelectron angular distributions obtained using velocity
map imaging. Helium atoms are ionized with ultrashort extreme-ultraviolet
free-electron laser pulses with a photon energy of 20.3, 21.3, 23.0, and 24.3
eV, produced by the SPring-8 Compact SASE Source test accelerator. The measured
values of the phase-shift differences are distinct from scattering phase-shift
differences when the photon energy is tuned to an excited level or Rydberg
manifold. The difference stems from the competition between resonant and
non-resonant paths in two-photon ionization by ultrashort pulses. Since the
competition can be controlled in principle by the pulse shape, the present
results illustrate a new way to tailor the continuum wave packet.Comment: 5 pages, 1 table, 3 figure
Attosecond dynamics of light-induced resonant hole transfer in high-order-harmonic generation
No Evidence for Disease History as a Risk Factor for Narcolepsy after A(H1N1)pdm09 Vaccination
OBJECTIVES: To investigate disease history before A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccination as a risk factor for narcolepsy.METHODS: Case-control study in Sweden. Cases included persons referred for a Multiple Sleep Latency Test between 2009 and 2010, identified through diagnostic sleep centres and confirmed through independent review of medical charts. Controls, selected from the total population register, were matched to cases on age, gender, MSLT-referral date and county of residence. Disease history (prescriptions and diagnoses) and vaccination history was collected through telephone interviews and population-based healthcare registers. Conditional logistic regression was used to investigate disease history before A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccination as a risk-factor for narcolepsy.RESULTS: In total, 72 narcolepsy cases and 251 controls were included (range 3-69 years mean19-years). Risk of narcolepsy was increased in individuals with a disease history of nervous system disorders (OR range = 3.6-8.8) and mental and behavioural disorders (OR = 3.8, 95% CI 1.6-8.8) before referral. In a second analysis of vaccinated individuals only, nearly all initial associations were no longer statistically significant and effect sizes were smaller (OR range = 1.3-2.6). A significant effect for antibiotics (OR = 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.8) and a marginally significant effect for nervous system disorders was observed. In a third case-only analysis, comparing cases referred before vaccination to those referred after; prescriptions for nervous system disorders (OR = 26.0 95% CI 4.0-170.2) and ADHD (OR = 35.3 95% CI 3.4-369.9) were statistically significant during the vaccination period, suggesting initial associations were due to confounding by indication.CONCLUSION: The findings of this study do not support disease history before A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccination as a risk factor for narcolepsy
Effect of B-type natriuretic peptide-guided treatment of chronic heart failure on total mortality and hospitalization: an individual patient meta-analysis
Aims Natriuretic peptide-guided (NP-guided) treatment of heart failure has been tested against standard clinically guided care in multiple studies, but findings have been limited by study size. We sought to perform an individual patient data meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of NP-guided treatment of heart failure on all-cause mortality. Methods and results Eligible randomized clinical trials were identified from searches of Medline and EMBASE databases and the Cochrane Clinical Trials Register. The primary pre-specified outcome, all-cause mortality was tested using a Cox proportional hazards regression model that included study of origin, age (45%) as covariates. Secondary endpoints included heart failure or cardiovascular hospitalization. Of 11 eligible studies, 9 provided individual patient data and 2 aggregate data. For the primary endpoint individual data from 2000 patients were included, 994 randomized to clinically guided care and 1006 to NP-guided care. All-cause mortality was significantly reduced by NP-guided treatment [hazard ratio = 0.62 (0.45-0.86); P = 0.004] with no heterogeneity between studies or interaction with LVEF. The survival benefit from NP-guided therapy was seen in younger (<75 years) patients [0.62 (0.45-0.85); P = 0.004] but not older (≥75 years) patients [0.98 (0.75-1.27); P = 0.96]. Hospitalization due to heart failure [0.80 (0.67-0.94); P = 0.009] or cardiovascular disease [0.82 (0.67-0.99); P = 0.048] was significantly lower in NP-guided patients with no heterogeneity between studies and no interaction with age or LVEF. Conclusion Natriuretic peptide-guided treatment of heart failure reduces all-cause mortality in patients aged <75 years and overall reduces heart failure and cardiovascular hospitalizatio
Interpreting Attoclock Measurements of Tunnelling Times
Resolving in time the dynamics of light absorption by atoms and molecules,
and the electronic rearrangement this induces, is among the most challenging
goals of attosecond spectroscopy. The attoclock is an elegant approach to this
problem, which encodes ionization times in the strong-field regime. However,
the accurate reconstruction of these times from experimental data presents a
formidable theoretical challenge. Here, we solve this problem by combining
analytical theory with ab-initio numerical simulations. We apply our theory to
numerical attoclock experiments on the hydrogen atom to extract ionization time
delays and analyse their nature. Strong field ionization is often viewed as
optical tunnelling through the barrier created by the field and the core
potential. We show that, in the hydrogen atom, optical tunnelling is
instantaneous. By calibrating the attoclock using the hydrogen atom, our method
opens the way to identify possible delays associated with multielectron
dynamics during strong-field ionization.Comment: 33 pages, 10 figures, 3 appendixe
Drug-resistant genotypes and multi-clonality in Plasmodium falciparum analysed by direct genome sequencing from peripheral blood of malaria patients.
Naturally acquired blood-stage infections of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum typically harbour multiple haploid clones. The apparent number of clones observed in any single infection depends on the diversity of the polymorphic markers used for the analysis, and the relative abundance of rare clones, which frequently fail to be detected among PCR products derived from numerically dominant clones. However, minority clones are of clinical interest as they may harbour genes conferring drug resistance, leading to enhanced survival after treatment and the possibility of subsequent therapeutic failure. We deployed new generation sequencing to derive genome data for five non-propagated parasite isolates taken directly from 4 different patients treated for clinical malaria in a UK hospital. Analysis of depth of coverage and length of sequence intervals between paired reads identified both previously described and novel gene deletions and amplifications. Full-length sequence data was extracted for 6 loci considered to be under selection by antimalarial drugs, and both known and previously unknown amino acid substitutions were identified. Full mitochondrial genomes were extracted from the sequencing data for each isolate, and these are compared against a panel of polymorphic sites derived from published or unpublished but publicly available data. Finally, genome-wide analysis of clone multiplicity was performed, and the number of infecting parasite clones estimated for each isolate. Each patient harboured at least 3 clones of P. falciparum by this analysis, consistent with results obtained with conventional PCR analysis of polymorphic merozoite antigen loci. We conclude that genome sequencing of peripheral blood P. falciparum taken directly from malaria patients provides high quality data useful for drug resistance studies, genomic structural analyses and population genetics, and also robustly represents clonal multiplicity
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