Experimental investigation of a coherent quantum measurement of the degree of polarization of a single mode light beam

A novel method for the direct measurement of the degree of polarization is described. It is one of the first practical implementations of a coherent quantum measurement, the projection on the singlet state. Our first results demonstrate the successful operation of the method. However, due to the nonlinear crystals used presently, its application is limited to spectral widths larger than ~8nm.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Journal of Modern Optic

Patient and doctor perspectives on HIV screening in the emergency department: A prospective cross-sectional study.

The emergency department (ED) is mentioned specifically in the Swiss HIV testing recommendations as a site at which patients can benefit from expanded HIV testing to optimise early HIV diagnosis. At our centre, where local HIV seroprevalence is 0.2-0.4%, 1% of all patients presenting to the ED are tested for HIV. Barriers to HIV testing, from the patient and doctor perspective, and patient acceptability of rapid HIV testing were examined in this study. Between October 2014 and May 2015, 100 discrete patient-doctor encounter pairs undertook a survey in the ED of Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland. Patients completed a questionnaire on HIV risk factors and were offered free rapid HIV testing (INSTI™). For every patient included, the treating doctor was asked if HIV testing had 1) been indicated according to the national testing recommendations, 2) mentioned, and 3) offered during the consultation. Of 100 patients, 30 had indications for HIV testing through risk factors or a suggestive presenting complaint (PC). Fifty patients accepted rapid testing; no test was reactive. Of 50 patients declining testing, 82% considered themselves not at risk or had recently tested negative and 16% wished to focus on their PC. ED doctors identified 20 patients with testing indications, mentioned testing to nine and offered testing to six. The main reason for doctors not mentioning or not offering testing was the wish to focus on the PC. Patients and doctors at our ED share the testing barrier of wishing to focus on the PC. Rapid HIV testing offered in parallel to the patient-doctor consultation increased the testing rate from 6% (offered by doctors) to 50%. Introducing this service would enable testing of patients not offered tests by their doctors and reduce missed opportunities for early HIV diagnosis

Perspective des patients et des médecins à l'égard du dépistage VIH aux urgences: Une étude prospective transversale

Background Many barriers to HIV testing in the emergency department (ED) have been described. At our centre, 1% of all patients seen are tested for HIV against a local HIV seroprevalence of 0.4%. This study explored patient- and physician-led barriers and acceptability of rapid HIV testing. Methods Between October 2014 and May 2015, 100 patient-physician pairs were interviewed in the ED of Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland. Prior to the study, ED physicians attended training seminars on the national HIV testing recommendations and the practice of testing. Patients completed a questionnaire on HIV risk factors and were offered free rapid HIV testing (INSTI). For every patient included, the treating physician was asked if HIV testing had been indicated according to the national testing recommendations, mentioned, or offered during the consultation. Results: Of 100 patients, 30 had indications for HIV testing through having risk factors or a suggestive presenting complaint. Seventeen patients wished to be tested during their ED consultation but none raised the subject when not mentioned by the physician. Fifty patients accepted rapid testing, regardless of risk profile; no test was reactive. Of 50 patients declining testing, 82% considered themselves not at risk or had recently tested negative and 16% wished to focus on their presenting complaint. Twenty physicians identified patients with testing indications and six offered testing. The main reason for not mentioning or offering testing was the wish to focus on the presenting complaint. Conclusion: Patients and physicians at our ED share the testing barrier of wishing to focus on the presenting complaint. Rapid HIV testing offered in parallel to the patient-physician consultation increased the testing rate from 6% to 50%. Introducing this service would enable testing of patients with presentations clinically unrelated to HIV and optimise early (presymptomatic) HIV diagnosis

Viscoelastic material behaviour of PBT-GF30 under thermo-mechanical cyclic loading

Abstract This paper deals with the simulation of the behaviour of a short glass fibre reinforced polybutylene terephthalate (PBT-GF30) under thermo-mechanical cyclic loading. Thermo-mechanical fatigue (TMF) tests, consisting of thermal cycling with a superimposed constant strain, have been carried out in the temperature ranges of -40 °C to 120 °C and -40 °C to 40 °C, applying different mean strain values. The main goal of the work is to model the stress trend during TMF cycles and assess the performance of a linear viscoelastic material model. A linear viscoelastic model has been implemented in ABAQUS 6.9-1 by means of Prony series, using the UTRS subroutine to model the time-temperature shift. The stress-time trend during TMF tests is discussed, comparing the simulated versus the experimental stress results. In particular, the maximum and minimum values within each cycle are considered, in order to evaluate the performance of the material model. Linear viscoelastic simulations show good agreement between experimental tests and FE analysis, both for plain and notched specimen

Development and analysis of a multi-node dynamic model for the simulation of stratified thermal energy storage

To overcome non-programmability issues that limit the market penetration of renewable energies, the use of thermal energy storage has become more and more significant in several applications where there is a need for decoupling between energy supply and demand. The aim of this paper is to present a multi-node physics-based model for the simulation of stratified thermal energy storage, which allows the required level of detail in temperature vertical distribution to be varied simply by choosing the number of nodes and their relative dimensions. Thanks to the chosen causality structure, this model can be implemented into a library of components for the dynamic simulation of smart energy systems. Hence, unlike most of the solutions proposed in the literature, thermal energy storage can be considered not only as a stand-alone component, but also as an important part of a more complex system. Moreover, the model behavior has been analyzed with reference to the experimental results from the literature. The results make it possible to conclude that the model is able to accurately predict the temperature distribution within a stratified storage tank typically used in a district heating network with limitations when dealing with small storage volumes and high flow rates