Full counting statistics of ultrafast quantum transport

Quantum transport in the presence of time-dependent drives is dominated by quantum interference and many-body effects at low temperatures. For a periodic driving, the analysis of the full counting statistics revealed the elementary events that determine the statistical properties of the charge transport. As a result, the noise correlations display quantum oscillation as functions of the ratio of the voltage amplitude and the drive frequency reflecting the detailed shape of the drive. However, so far only continuous wave excitations were considered, but recently transport by few-cycle light pulses were investigated and the need for a statistical interpretation became eminent. We address the charge transfer generated by single- or few-cycle light pulses. The fingerprints of these time-dependent voltage pulses are imprinted in the full counting statistics of a coherent mesoscopic conductor at zero temperature. In addition, we identify the elementary processes that occur in the form of electron-hole pair creations, which can be investigated by the excess noise. We study the quantum oscillations in the differential noise induced by a wave packet consisting of an oscillating carrier modulated by a Gaussian- or a box-shaped envelope. As expected, the differential noise exhibits an oscillatory behavior with increasing amplitude. In particular, we find clear signature of the so-called carrier-envelope phase in the peak heights and positions of these quantum oscillations. More carrier cycles under the Gaussian envelope diminish the influence of the carrier-envelope phase, while this is not true for the box pulses, probably related to the abrupt onset. As the quantum oscillations are due to the energy-time uncertainty of the short pulses, our results pave the way to a description of the nonequilibrium electron transport in terms of a many-body Wigner function of the electronic system.Comment: 5 pages, submitted to APL Special Topic on "Electronic Noise - From Advanced Materials to Quantum Technologies

Validation of an FE model updating procedure for damage assessment using a modular laboratory experiment with a reversible damage mechanism

Systematic validation of a deterministic finite element (FE) model updating procedure for damage assessment using a self-developed modular laboratory experiment. The measurement data is made available in open-access form

Antimicrobial effects of inhaled sphingosine against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in isolated ventilated and perfused pig lungs

Background Ex-vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) is a save way to verify performance of donor lungs prior to implantation. A major problem of lung transplantation is a donor-to-recipient-transmission of bacterial cultures. Thus, a broadspectrum anti-infective treatment with sphingosine in EVLP might be a novel way to prevent such infections. Sphingosine inhalation might provide a reliable anti-infective treatment option in EVLP. Here, antimicrobial potency of inhalative sphingosine in an infection EVLP model was tested. Methods A 3-hour EVLP run using pig lungs was performed. Bacterial infection was initiated 1-hour before sphingosine inhalation. Biopsies were obtained 60 and 120 min after infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Aliquots of broncho-alveolar lavage (BAL) before and after inhalation of sphingosine were plated and counted, tissue samples were fixed in paraformaldehyde, embedded in paraffin and sectioned. Immunostainings were performed. Results Sphingosine inhalation in the setting of EVLP rapidly resulted in a 6-fold decrease of P. aeruginosa CFU in the lung (p = 0.016). We did not observe any negative side effects of sphingosine. Conclusion Inhalation of sphingosine induced a significant decrease of Pseudomonas aeruginosa at the epithelial layer of tracheal and bronchial cells. The inhalation has no local side effects in ex-vivo perfused and ventilated pig lungs

Decreasing Non–bladder-cancer Mortality After Radical Cystectomy

Life expectancy is increasing in many parts of the world. Using proportional hazard models for competing risks, we investigated whether this increase has changed outcomes after radical cystectomy in a sample of 1419 consecutive patients treated between 1993 and 2018. During the observation period, the mean age and the proportion of patients with American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status class 3 or 4 increased, whereas the proportion of patients with heart disease decreased. Competing mortality (causes other than bladder cancer) decreased in all subgroups (hazard ratios [HRs] per year ranged from 0.931 to 0.963) and after controlling for increasing age (HRs ranged from 1.018 to 1.081). In an optimal model resulting from an analysis including age (HR per year 1.048, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.027–1.070; p < 0.0001), comorbidity, tumor-related variables, body mass index, (neoadjuvant and adjuvant) chemotherapy and smoking status, the HR per increment for year of surgery was 0.928 (95% CI 0.886–0.973; p = 0.0019). The effect of year of surgery was greater than the decrease in competing mortality that may be expected with increasing life expectancy (4 yr for females, 6 yr for males). Patient summary: In a review of data for 1993–2018, we found that death from other causes after removal of the bladder (radical cystectomy) for bladder cancer decreased over time. This decreasing trend might increase the age limit at which bladder cancer patients can benefit from radical cystectomy in the future

Gender and Mortality after Radical Cystectomy: Competing Risk Analysis

Background: Data on the impact of gender on mortality after radical cystectomy is conflicting. We investigated a large single center sample with long-term follow-up in order to determine the relationship between gender and outcome. Patients and Methods: A total of 1,184 consecutive patients who underwent radical cystectomy for high risk superficial or muscle-invasive urothelial or undifferentiated bladder cancer between 1993 and 2015 were stratified by gender. Demographic data was compared using Mann-Whitney U test, chi-square test, or Fisher exact test. Cox proportional hazard models were used for the analysis of competing risks and logit models were used for the prediction of the receipt of adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Results: Female patients were older, healthier, less frequently current smokers and had more extravesical tumors. In the multivariate analyses, female gender was an independent predictor of (lower) non-bladder cancer (competing) mortality (hazards ratio [HR] 0.68, 95% CI 0.49–0.95, p = 0.0248) but no predictor of bladder cancer-specific mortality (HR in the full model 1.20, 95% CI 0.94–1.54, p = 0.15). Gender was no predictor of the receipt of adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Conclusions: Female gender was associated with an increased risk of extravesical disease but was no independent predictor of bladder cancer-specific mortality. Anatomical differences might be a plausible explanation for these observations