Unpolarized states and hidden polarization

We capitalize on a multipolar expansion of the polarisation density matrix, in which multipoles appear as successive moments of the Stokes variables. When all the multipoles up to a given order $K$ vanish, we can properly say that the state is $K$th-order unpolarized, as it lacks of polarization information to that order. First-order unpolarized states coincide with the corresponding classical ones, whereas unpolarized to any order tally with the quantum notion of fully invariant states. In between these two extreme cases, there is a rich variety of situations that are explored here. The existence of \textit{hidden} polarisation emerges in a natural way in this context.Comment: 7 pages, 3 eps-color figures. Submitted to PRA. Comments welcome

Orbital angular momentum from marginals of quadrature distributions

We set forth a method to analyze the orbital angular momentum of a light field. Instead of using the canonical formalism for the conjugate pair angle-angular momentum, we model this latter variable by the superposition of two independent harmonic oscillators along two orthogonal axes. By describing each oscillator by a standard Wigner function, we derive, via a consistent change of variables, a comprehensive picture of the orbital angular momentum. We compare with previous approaches and show how this method works in some relevant examples.Comment: 7 pages, 2 color figure

On the Detection of CMB B-modes from Ground at Low Frequency

The primordial CMB $B$-mode search is on the spotlight of the scientific community due to the large amount of cosmological information that is encoded in the primeval signal. However, the detection of this signal is challenging from the data analysis point of view, due to the relative low amplitude compared to the foregrounds, the lensing contamination coming from the leakage of $E$-modes, and the instrumental noise. Here, we studied the viability of the detection of the primordial polarization $B$-mode with a ground-based telescope operating in the microwave low-frequency regime (i.e., from 10GHz-120GHz) in a handful of different scenarios: i. the instrument's channels distribution and noise, ii. the tensor-to-scalar ratio ($r$) detectability considering different possible $r$ values and degrees of delensing, iii. the effect of including a possible source of polarized anomalous microwave emission (AME), iv. the strengths and weaknesses of different observational strategies and, v. the atmospheric and systematic noise impact on the recovery. We focused mainly on the removal of galactic foregrounds as well as noise contamination by applying a full-parametric pixel-based maximum likelihood component separation technique. Moreover, we developed a numerical methodology to estimate the residuals power spectrum left after component separation, which allow us to mitigate possible biases introduced in the primordial $B$-mode power spectrum reconstruction. Among many other results, we found that this sort of experiment is capable of detecting Starobinsky's $r$ even when no delensing is performed or, a possible polarized AME contribution is taken into account. Besides, we showed that this experiment is a powerful complement to other on-ground or satellite missions, such as LiteBIRD, since it can help significantly with the low-frequency foregrounds characterization.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figures, submitted to JCA

Environmental & flight control system architecture optimization from a family concept design perspective

One method an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) can apply to reduce development and manufacturing costs is family concept design: each product family member is designed for a different design point, but a significant amount of components is shared among the family members. In this case, a trade-off exists between member performance and commonality. In the design of complex systems, often many different architectures are possible, and the design space is too large to explore exhaustively. In this work, we present an application of a new architecture optimization method to the design of a family of passenger transport jets, with a focus on the sizing of the Environmental Control System (ECS) and Flight Control System (FCS). The architecture design space is modeled using the Architecture Design Space Graph (ADSG), a novel method for constructing model-based system architecture optimization problems. Decisions are extracted and the multi-objective optimization problem is automatically formulated. Objectives used are commonality, representing acquisition costs, and fuel burn, representing a part of operation costs. These metrics are evaluated using a cross-organizational collaborative multidisciplinary analysis toolchain, and the resulting Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) problem is solved using a multi-objective evolutionary optimization algorithm. The results show that the trade-off between commonality and fuel burn is only present above a certain commonality level

Tiotropium Respimat® add-on therapy to inhaled corticosteroids in patients with symptomatic asthma improves clinical outcomes regardless of baseline characteristics

BACKGROUND: Despite currently available therapies and detailed treatment guidelines, many patients with asthma remain symptomatic. Tiotropium delivered by the soft mist inhaler Respimat®, as add-on therapy to medium-dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), has been shown to improve lung function and asthma control in patients with symptomatic moderate asthma. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the efficacy of tiotropium Respimat® in asthma differs by patients' study baseline characteristics. METHODS: Two replicate Phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group studies (MezzoTinA-asthma®; NCT01172808 and NCT01172821) of once-daily tiotropium Respimat 5 μg and 2.5 μg add-on to ICS were conducted in patients with symptomatic asthma despite treatment with medium-dose ICS with or without additional controllers. Subgroup analyses of peak forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), trough FEV1, risk of severe asthma exacerbation and Asthma Control Questionnaire responder rate were performed to determine whether results were influenced by patients' baseline characteristics. RESULTS: In this analysis, 523 patients received placebo while 517 and 519 patients received the 5 μg and 2.5 μg dose of tiotropium Respimat, respectively. The magnitude of the improvements in lung function and asthma control, as well as the reduced risk of severe exacerbation with both doses of tiotropium Respimat versus placebo, was independent of a broad range of baseline characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Once-daily tiotropium Respimat as add-on to ICS is a beneficial treatment option for patients with asthma who remain symptomatic despite at least medium-dose ICS, regardless of baseline characteristics

Differences in Linear Epitopes of Ara h 9 Recognition in Peanut Allergic and Tolerant, Peach Allergic Patients

BackgroundPeanut-allergic patients from the Mediterranean region are predominantly sensitized to the lipid transfer protein (LTP) Ara h 9, and the peach LTP Pru p 3 seems to be the primary sensitizer. However, LTP sensitization in peanut allergy is not a predictive marker for clinically relevant symptoms.ObjectiveWe aimed to identify sequential epitopes of IgE and IgG4 from Pru p 3 and Ara h 9 in peach-allergic patients sensitized to peanuts. We also sought to determine the differences in IgE and IgG4 binding between patients who had developed peanut allergy and those tolerating peanuts.MethodsA total of 46 peach-allergic patients sensitized to peanuts were selected. A total of 35 patients were allergic to peanuts (peanut-allergic group) and 11 were tolerant to peanuts (peanut-tolerant group). We measured sIgE and sIgG4 in peanut, peach, and their recombinant allergen (Ara h 1, Ara h 2, Ara h 3, Ara h 8, and Ara h 9) with fluorescence enzyme immunoassay. We examined the IgE and IgG4 binding to sequential epitopes using a peptide microarray corresponding to linear sequences of the LTPs Ara h 9 and Pru p 3 with a library of overlapping peptides with a length of 20 amino acids (aa) and an offset of 3 aa.ResultsThe frequency and the intensity of IgE recognition of Ara h 9 and Pru p 3 peptides were higher in the peanut-tolerant group than in the peanut-allergic group. We found four Ara h 9 peptides (p4, p14, p21, and p25) and four Pru p 3 peptides (p1, p3, p21, and p24) with a significantly elevated IgE recognition in peanut-tolerant patients. Only one peptide of Ara h 9 (p4) recognized by IgG4 was significantly elevated in the peanut-tolerant group. The IgG4/IgE ratio of Ara h 9 peptide 4 was significantly higher in peanut-tolerant patients than in peanut-allergic patients, while no significant differences were observed in the IgG4/IgE ratio of this peptide in Pru p 3.ConclusionAlthough we found significant differences in IgE and IgG4 recognition of Ara h 9 and Pru p 3 between peanut-tolerant and peanut-allergic patients (all of whom were allergic to peach), polyclonal IgE peptide recognition of both LTPs was observed in peach-allergic patients tolerating peanuts. However, the IgG4 blocking antibodies against Ara h 9 peptide 4 could provide an explanation for the absence of clinical reactivity in peanut-tolerant peach-allergic patients. Further studies are needed to validate the usefulness of IgG4 antibodies against Ara h 9 peptide 4 for peanut allergy diagnosis

Yellow Fever in Africa: Estimating the Burden of Disease and Impact of Mass Vaccination from Outbreak and Serological Data

Background:Yellow fever is a vector-borne disease affecting humans and non-human primates in tropical areas of Africa and South America. While eradication is not feasible due to the wildlife reservoir, large scale vaccination activities in Africa during the 1940s to 1960s reduced yellow fever incidence for several decades. However, after a period of low vaccination coverage, yellow fever has resurged in the continent. Since 2006 there has been substantial funding for large preventive mass vaccination campaigns in the most affected countries in Africa to curb the rising burden of disease and control future outbreaks. Contemporary estimates of the yellow fever disease burden are lacking, and the present study aimed to update the previous estimates on the basis of more recent yellow fever occurrence data and improved estimation methods.Methods and Findings:Generalised linear regression models were fitted to a dataset of the locations of yellow fever outbreaks within the last 25 years to estimate the probability of outbreak reports across the endemic zone. Environmental variables and indicators for the surveillance quality in the affected countries were used as covariates. By comparing probabilities of outbreak reports estimated in the regression with the force of infection estimated for a limited set of locations for which serological surveys were available, the detection probability per case and the force of infection were estimated across the endemic zone.The yellow fever burden in Africa was estimated for the year 2013 as 130,000 (95% CI 51,000-380,000) cases with fever and jaundice or haemorrhage including 78,000 (95% CI 19,000-180,000) deaths, taking into account the current level of vaccination coverage. The impact of the recent mass vaccination campaigns was assessed by evaluating the difference between the estimates obtained for the current vaccination coverage and for a hypothetical scenario excluding these vaccination campaigns. Vaccination campaigns were estimated to have reduced the number of cases and deaths by 27% (95% CI 22%-31%) across the region, achieving up to an 82% reduction in countries targeted by these campaigns. A limitation of our study is the high level of uncertainty in our estimates arising from the sparseness of data available from both surveillance and serological surveys.Conclusions:With the estimation method presented here, spatial estimates of transmission intensity can be combined with vaccination coverage levels to evaluate the impact of past or proposed vaccination campaigns, thereby helping to allocate resources efficiently for yellow fever control. This method has been used by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance) to estimate the potential impact of future vaccination campaigns.Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary