Strongly-Driven One-Atom Laser and Decoherence Monitoring

We propose the implementation of a strongly-driven one-atom laser, based on the off-resonant interaction of a three-level atom in $\Lambda$-configuration with a single cavity mode and three laser fields. We show that the system can be described equivalently by a two-level atom resonantly coupled to the cavity and driven by a strong effective coherent field. The effective dynamics can be solved exactly, including a thermal field bath, allowing an analytical description of field statistics and entanglement properties. We also show the possible generation of Schr\"odinger cat states for the whole atom-field system and for the field alone after atomic measurement. We propose a way to monitor the system decoherence by measuring atomic population. Finally, we confirm the validity of our model through numerical solutions.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures Accepted in Phys. Rev.

Flavor Physics in the Randall-Sundrum Model: I. Theoretical Setup and Electroweak Precision Tests

A complete discussion of tree-level flavor-changing effects in the Randall-Sundrum (RS) model with brane-localized Higgs sector and bulk gauge and matter fields is presented. The bulk equations of motion for the gauge and fermion fields, supplemented by boundary conditions taking into account the couplings to the Higgs sector, are solved exactly. For gauge fields the Kaluza-Klein (KK) decomposition is performed in a covariant R_xi gauge. For fermions the mixing between different generations is included in a completely general way. The hierarchies observed in the fermion spectrum and the quark mixing matrix are explained naturally in terms of anarchic five-dimensional Yukawa matrices and wave-function overlap integrals. Detailed studies of the flavor-changing couplings of the Higgs boson and of gauge bosons and their KK excitations are performed, including in particular the couplings of the standard W and Z bosons. A careful analysis of electroweak precision observables including the S and T parameters and the Zbb couplings shows that the simplest RS model containing only Standard Model particles and their KK excitations is consistent with all experimental bounds for a KK scale as low as a few TeV, if one allows for a heavy Higgs boson and/or for an ultra-violet cutoff below the Planck scale. The study of flavor-changing effects includes analyses of the non-unitarity of the quark mixing matrix, anomalous right-handed couplings of the W bosons, tree-level flavor-changing neutral current couplings of the Z and Higgs bosons, the rare decays t-->c(u)+Z and t-->c(u)+h, and the flavor mixing among KK fermions. The results obtained in this work form the basis for general calculations of flavor-changing processes in the RS model and its extensions.Comment: 70 pages, 12 figures. v2: Incorrect treatment of phases in zero-mode approximation corrected, and discussion of electroweak precision tests modified. v3: Additional minor modifications and typos corrected; version published in JHE

Estimating Parasitism of Colorado Potato Beetle Eggs, \u3ci\u3eLeptinotarsa Decemlineata\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), by \u3ci\u3eEdovum Puttleri\u3c/i\u3e (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae)

A computer simulation was used to evaluate methods for estimating parasitism of Colorado potato beetle egg mass populations by Edovum puttleri. The algorithm incorporated the specific attack behavior of E. puttleri, and a development time for parasitized egg masses of ca. 2.9 times that of healthy egg masses. Of the methods compared, a modification of Southwood\u27s graphical technique was found to be most accurate in relation to the true parasitism derived from the algorithm. A regression equation is presented to correct the error in this method at high levels of parasitism. A second simulation was used to test the accuracy of this correcter where in a jacknife procedure was used to generate a mean and variance for estimates of parasitism

A distributed scenario-based stochastic MPC for fault-tolerant microgrid energy management

This paper proposes a fault-tolerant energy management algorithm for microgrid systems composed of several agents. The method stems from the necessity to design an algorithm that takes explicitly into account the possibility of faults and their consequences to avoid solutions which are excessively conservative. A tree of possible fault scenarios is built in a completely distributed way by all the agents of the network; then the resulting optimization problem is solved through a distributed algorithm which not only does not require a high computational power for each agent, but keeps also private all local data and decision variables. The effectiveness of the proposed method is proved through simulation results

Solvable model of a strongly-driven micromaser

We study the dynamics of a micromaser where the pumping atoms are strongly driven by a resonant classical field during their transit through the cavity mode. We derive a master equation for this strongly-driven micromaser, involving the contributions of the unitary atom-field interactions and the dissipative effects of a thermal bath. We find analytical solutions for the temporal evolution and the steady-state of this system by means of phase-space techniques, providing an unusual solvable model of an open quantum system, including pumping and decoherence. We derive closed expressions for all relevant expectation values, describing the statistics of the cavity field and the detected atomic levels. The transient regime shows the build-up of mixtures of mesoscopic fields evolving towards a superpoissonian steady-state field that, nevertheless, yields atomic correlations that exhibit stronger nonclassical features than the conventional micromaser.Comment: 9 pages, 16 figures. Submitted for publicatio

Indirect tests of the Randall-Sundrum model

I present phenomenological implications of the Randall-Sundrum model for indirect searches, specifically a selection of flavor observables and Higgs-related collider searches. I review the interplay of constraints from CP violation in flavor physics, possible effects in rare decays, and model-specific protection mechanisms. Deviations in the Higgs couplings to fermions and, at one-loop, to gluons are unexpectedly strong and lead to strong modifications in Higgs searches.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; Talk given at Discrete '10: Symposium on Prospects in the Physics of Discrete Symmetries, Rome, Italy, 6-11 Dec 201

Executive functions and body weight at different ages: a preliminary study

Recently, researchers have focused their attention on the role of cognitive processes on eating habits and body weight changes. Few studies have examined the relationship between the first stages of overweight and executive functions (EFs), excluding obesity conditions. This study is aimed to detect the involvement of the EFs and their predictive role on body mass index (BMI) in a sample of healthy individuals from childhood to young adulthood with a cross-sectional design. One-hundred and sixty-six healthy students were recruited from different Italian public schools: 46 children (age range: 7–11), 50 adolescents (age range: 15–18), 70 young adults (age range: 19–30). BMI was used to evaluate body weight and different EFs tasks were used to assess the EFs domains of inhibition, updating and shifting. After adjusting BMI for age, a hierarchical multiple linear regression was carried out for each EFs task. Pearson’s r correlations were reported for each of the age subgroups. Motor disinhibition was associated with greater BMI in the overall sample. Higher BMI was related to poorer set-shifting in adolescence and poorer motor inhibition in young adulthood, but higher BMI was not associated with EFs in childhood. Differences in the development of EFs over time may influence weight changes over time through different responses to food and eating behavior

Remoção de DQO, nitrogênio e sólidos de reator de lodos ativados no pós-tratamento de dejetos de suínos.

Projeto/Plano de Ação: 02.07.60.700-0

Pressure-flow breath representation eases asynchrony identification in mechanically ventilated patients

Breathing asynchronies are mismatches between the requests of mechanically ventilated subjects and the support provided by mechanical ventilators. The most widespread technique in identifying these pathological conditions is the visual analysis of the intra-tracheal pressure and flow time-trends. This work considers a recently introduced pressure-flow representation technique and investigates whether it can help nurses in the early detection of anomalies that can represent asynchronies. Twenty subjects—ten Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses and ten persons inexperienced in medical practice—were asked to find asynchronies in 200 breaths pre-labeled by three experts. The new representation increases significantly the detection capability of the subjects—average sensitivity soared from 0.622 to 0.905—while decreasing the classification time—from 1107.0 to 567.1 s on average—at the price of a not statistically significant rise in the number of wrong identifications—specificity average descended from 0.589 to 0.52. Moreover, the differences in experience between the nurse group and the inexperienced group do not affect the sensitivity, specificity, or classification times. The pressure-flow diagram significantly increases sensitivity and decreases the response time of early asynchrony detection performed by nurses. Moreover, the data suggest that operator experience does not affect the identification results. This outcome leads us to believe that, in emergency contexts with a shortage of nurses, intensive care nurses can be supplemented, for the sole identification of possible respiratory asynchronies, by inexperienced staff

Resilient Distributed MPC Algorithm for Microgrid Energy Management under Uncertainties

This paper proposes a resilient distributed energy management algorithm able to cope with different types of faults in a DC microgrid system. A distributed optimization method allows to solve the energy management problem without sharing any private data with the network and reducing the computational cost for each agent, with respect to the centralised case. A distributed MPC scheme based on distributed optimization is used to cope with uncertainty that characterizes the microgrid operation. In order to be resilient to faults that limit the amount of power available to consumers, we propose to adaptively store an amount of power in the storage systems to support the loads. A soft constraint on the minimum energy stored in each battery is introduced for feasibility and to cope with persistent faults. The effectiveness of the method is proved by extensive simulation results considering faults on three types of components: renewable generator, distribution grid and communication network