Toward the Stable Optical Trapping of a Droplet with Counter Laser Beams under Microgravity

To identify the optimum conditions for the optical trapping of a droplet under microgravity, we theoretically analyzed the efficiency of trapping with counter laser beams. We found that the distance between the two foci is an important parameter for obtaining stable trapping conditions. We also performed an optical trapping experiment with counter laser beams under microgravity. The experimental results correspond well to the theoretical prediction

Optical Levitation of a Droplet under Linear Increase of Gravitational Acceleration

Optical levitation of a liquid droplet in gas phase was investigated under timedependent change of the gravitational acceleration with specific flight pattern of an airplane. Through multiple trials under linear increase of effective gravitational acceleration, we performed the experiment of ptical trapping of a droplet from 0.3g_0 to 0.9g_0, where g_0 = 9.8 m/s^2. During such change of the effective gravitational acceleration, the trapping position on a droplet with the radius of 14 μm was found to be lowered by ca. 100 μm. The essential feature of the change of the trapping position is reproduced by a theoretical calculation under the framework of ray optics. As far as we know, the present study is the first report on optical levitation under time-dependent gravitational change

Unsteady Aerodynamic Analysis of a Bird-Damaged Turbofan

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106438/1/AIAA2013-1773.pd

CuInSe2 thin films produced by rf sputtering in Ar/H2 atmospheres

Structural, compositional, optical, and electrical properties of CuInSe2thin filmsgrown by rf reactive sputtering from a Se excess target in Ar/H2 atmospheres are presented. The addition of H2 to the sputtering atmospheres allows the control of stoichiometry of films giving rise to remarkable changes in the film properties. Variation of substrate temperature causes changes in film composition because of the variation of hydrogen reactivity at the substrate. Measurements of resistivity at variable temperatures indicate a hopping conduction mechanism through gap states for films grown at low temperature (100–250 °C), the existence of three acceptor levels at about 0.046, 0.098, and 0.144 eV above valence band for films grown at intermediate temperature (250–350 °C), and a pseudometallic behavior for film grown at high temperatures (350–450 °C). Chalcopyrite polycrystalline thin films of CuInSe2 with an average grain size of 1 μm, an optical gap of 1.01 eV, and resistivities from 10− 1 to 103 Ω cm can be obtained by adding 1.5% of H2 to the sputtering atmosphere and by varying the substrate temperature from 300 to 400 °C

Influence of oxygen-coordination number on the electronic structure of single-layer La-based cuprates

We present an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the single-layer T*-type structured cuprate SmLa$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ with unique five-fold pyramidal oxygen coordination. Upon varying oxygen content, T*-SmLa$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ evolved from a Mott-insulating to a metallic state where the Luttinger sum rule breaks down under the assumption of a large hole-like Fermi surface. This is in contrast with the known doping evolution of the structural isomer La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ with six-fold octahedral coordination. In addition, quantitatively characterized Fermi surface suggests that the empirical $T_\mathrm{c}$ rule for octahedral oxygen-coordination systems does not apply to T*-SmLa$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. The present results highlight unique properties of the T*-type cuprates possibly rooted in its oxygen coordination, and necessitate thorough investigation with careful evaluation of disorder effects.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Consensus on the assessment of systemic sclerosis–associated primary heart involvement: World Scleroderma Foundation/Heart Failure Association guidance on screening, diagnosis, and follow-up assessment

INTRODUCTION: Heart involvement is a common problem in systemic sclerosis. Recently, a definition of systemic sclerosis primary heart involvement had been proposed. Our aim was to establish consensus guidance on the screening, diagnosis and follow-up of systemic sclerosis primary heart involvement patients. METHODS: A systematic literature review was performed to investigate the tests used to evaluate heart involvement in systemic sclerosis. The extracted data were categorized into relevant domains (conventional radiology, electrocardiography, echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, laboratory, and others) and presented to experts and one patient research partner, who discussed the data and added their opinion. This led to the formulation of overarching principles and guidance statements, then reviewed and voted on for agreement. Consensus was attained when the mean agreement was ⩾7/10 and of ⩾70% of voters. RESULTS: Among 2650 publications, 168 met eligibility criteria; the data extracted were discussed over three meetings. Seven overarching principles and 10 guidance points were created, revised and voted on. The consensus highlighted the importance of patient counseling, differential diagnosis and multidisciplinary team management, as well as defining screening and diagnostic approaches. The initial core evaluation should integrate history, physical examination, rest electrocardiography, trans-thoracic echocardiography and standard serum cardiac biomarkers. Further investigations should be individually tailored and decided through a multidisciplinary management. The overall mean agreement was 9.1/10, with mean 93% of experts voting above 7/10. CONCLUSION: This consensus-based guidance on screening, diagnosis and follow-up of systemic sclerosis primary heart involvement provides a foundation for standard of care and future feasibility studies that are ongoing to support its application in clinical practice

Primary systemic sclerosis heart involvement: A systematic literature review and preliminary data-driven, consensus-based WSF/HFA definition

Introduction: Primary heart involvement in systemic sclerosis may cause morpho-functional and electrical cardiac abnormalities and is a common cause of death. The absence of a clear definition of primary heart involvement in systemic sclerosis limits our understanding and ability to focus on clinical research. We aimed to create an expert consensus definition for primary heart involvement in systemic sclerosis. Methods: A systematic literature review of cardiac involvement and manifestations in systemic sclerosis was conducted to inform an international and multi-disciplinary task force. In addition, the nominal group technique was used to derive a definition that was then subject to voting. A total of 16 clinical cases were evaluated to test face validity, feasibility, reliability and criterion validity of the newly created definition. Results: In total, 171 publications met eligibility criteria. Using the nominal group technique, experts added their opinion, provided statements to consider and ranked them to create the consensus definition, which received 100% agreement on face validity. A median 60(5–300) seconds was taken for the feasibility on a single case. Inter-rater agreement was moderate (mKappa (95% CI) = 0.56 (0.46–1.00) for the first round and 0.55 (0.44–1.00) for the second round) and intra-rater agreement was good (mKappa (95% CI) = 0.77 (0.47–1.00)). Criterion validity showed a 78 (73–84)% correctness versus gold standard. Conclusion: A preliminary primary heart involvement in systemic sclerosis consensus-based definition was created and partially validated, for use in future clinical research

Large-Scale Cortical Dynamics of Sleep Slow Waves

Slow waves constitute the main signature of sleep in the electroencephalogram (EEG). They reflect alternating periods of neuronal hyperpolarization and depolarization in cortical networks. While recent findings have demonstrated their functional role in shaping and strengthening neuronal networks, a large-scale characterization of these two processes remains elusive in the human brain. In this study, by using simultaneous scalp EEG and intracranial recordings in 10 epileptic subjects, we examined the dynamics of hyperpolarization and depolarization waves over a large extent of the human cortex. We report that both hyperpolarization and depolarization processes can occur with two different characteristic time durations which are consistent across all subjects. For both hyperpolarization and depolarization waves, their average speed over the cortex was estimated to be approximately 1 m/s. Finally, we characterized their propagation pathways by studying the preferential trajectories between most involved intracranial contacts. For both waves, although single events could begin in almost all investigated sites across the entire cortex, we found that the majority of the preferential starting locations were located in frontal regions of the brain while they had a tendency to end in posterior and temporal regions

Neuronal Shot Noise and Brownian 1/f21/f^2 Behavior in the Local Field Potential

We demonstrate that human electrophysiological recordings of the local field potential (LFP) from intracranial electrodes, acquired from a variety of cerebral regions, show a ubiquitous $1/f^2$ scaling within the power spectrum. We develop a quantitative model that treats the generation of these fields in an analogous way to that of electronic shot noise, and use this model to specifically address the cause of this $1/f^2$ Brownian noise. The model gives way to two analytically tractable solutions, both displaying Brownian noise: 1) uncorrelated cells that display sharp initial activity, whose extracellular fields slowly decay and 2) rapidly firing, temporally correlated cells that generate UP-DOWN states