100 research outputs found
A parametric study
Based on both static (extended Köhler) and dynamic modelling, we investigate
the influence of temperature,humidity, HNO3 initial concentration, as well as
of the particle concentration, on the efficiency of HNO3-mediated laser-
induced condensation. This mechanism is most efficient for low temperatures,
high HNO3 concentration, and relative humidities. It is, however, still active
up to 30 °C, down to 70% relative humidity, and below the ppm level of HNO3.
Furthermore, lower particle concentration minimizing the depletion of both
HNO3 and water vapor is more favourable to particle growth
Saturation of the filament density of ultrashort intense laser pulses in air
We experimentally and numerically characterize multiple filamentation of laser pulses with incident intensities of a few TW/cm2. Propagating 100TW laser pulses over 42m in air, we observe a new propagation regime where the filament density saturates. As also evidenced by numerical simulations in the same intensity range, the total number of filaments is governed by geometric constraints and mutual interactions among filaments rather than by the available power in the bea
Multijoule scaling of laser-induced condensation in air
Using 100 TW laser pulses, we demonstrate that laser-induced nanometric
particle generation in air increases much faster than the beam-averaged
incident intensity. This increase is due to a contribution from the photon
bath, which adds up with the previously identified one from the filaments and
becomes dominant above 550 GW/cm2. It appears related to ozone formation via
multiphotondissociation of the oxygen molecules and demonstrates the critical
need for further increasing the laser energy in view of macroscopic effects in
laser-induced condensation
Angular Dependences of Third Harmonic Generation from Microdroplets
We present experimental and theoretical results for the angular dependence of
third harmonic generation (THG) of water droplets in the micrometer range (size
parameter ). The THG signal in - and -polarization obtained
with ultrashort laser pulses is compared with a recently developed nonlinear
extension of classical Mie theory including multipoles of order .
Both theory and experiment yield over a wide range of size parameters
remarkably stable intensity maxima close to the forward and backward direction
at ``magic angles''. In contrast to linear Mie scattering, both are of
comparable intensity.Comment: 4 pages, RevTeX, 3 figures available on request from
[email protected], submitted to PR
Ultrashort filaments of light in weakly-ionized, optically-transparent media
Modern laser sources nowadays deliver ultrashort light pulses reaching few
cycles in duration, high energies beyond the Joule level and peak powers
exceeding several terawatt (TW). When such pulses propagate through
optically-transparent media, they first self-focus in space and grow in
intensity, until they generate a tenuous plasma by photo-ionization. For free
electron densities and beam intensities below their breakdown limits, these
pulses evolve as self-guided objects, resulting from successive equilibria
between the Kerr focusing process, the chromatic dispersion of the medium, and
the defocusing action of the electron plasma. Discovered one decade ago, this
self-channeling mechanism reveals a new physics, widely extending the frontiers
of nonlinear optics. Implications include long-distance propagation of TW beams
in the atmosphere, supercontinuum emission, pulse shortening as well as
high-order harmonic generation. This review presents the landmarks of the
10-odd-year progress in this field. Particular emphasis is laid to the
theoretical modeling of the propagation equations, whose physical ingredients
are discussed from numerical simulations. Differences between femtosecond
pulses propagating in gaseous or condensed materials are underlined. Attention
is also paid to the multifilamentation instability of broad, powerful beams,
breaking up the energy distribution into small-scale cells along the optical
path. The robustness of the resulting filaments in adverse weathers, their
large conical emission exploited for multipollutant remote sensing, nonlinear
spectroscopy, and the possibility to guide electric discharges in air are
finally addressed on the basis of experimental results.Comment: 50 pages, 38 figure
Analysis of copy number variation in men with non-obstructive azoospermia
BACKGROUND: Recent findings demonstrate that single nucleotide variants can cause non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). In contrast, copy number variants (CNVs) were only analysed in few studies in infertile men. Some have reported a higher prevalence of CNVs in infertile versus fertile men. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to elucidate if CNVs are associated with NOA. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed array-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) in 37 men with meiotic arrest, 194 men with Sertoli cell-only phenotype, and 21 control men. We filtered our data for deletions affecting genes and prioritized the affected genes according to a literature search. Prevalence of CNVs was compared between all groups. Exome data of 2,030 men were screened to detect further genetic variants in prioritized genes. Modelling was performed for the protein encoded by the novel candidate gene TEKT5 and we stained for TEKT5 in human testicular tissue. RESULTS: We determined the cause of infertility in two individuals with homozygous deletions of SYCE1 and in one individual with a heterozygous deletion of SYCE1 combined with a likely pathogenic missense variant on the second allele. We detected heterozygous deletions affecting MLH3, EIF2B2, SLX4, CLPP and TEKT5, in one subject each. CNVs were not detected more frequently in infertile men compared with controls. DISCUSSION: While SYCE1 and MLH3 encode known meiosis-specific proteins, much less is known about the proteins encoded by the other identified candidate genes, warranting further analyses. We were able to identify the cause of infertility in one out of the 231 infertile men by aCGH and in two men by using exome sequencing data. CONCLUSION: As aCGH and exome sequencing are both expensive methods, combining both in a clinical routine is not an effective strategy. Instead, using CNV calling from exome data has recently become more precise, potentially making aCGH dispensable
Discovery of potential causative mutations in human coding and noncoding genome with the interactive software BasePlayer
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is routinely applied in life sciences and clinical practice, but interpretation of the massive quantities of genomic data produced has become a critical challenge. The genome-wide mutation analyses enabled by NGS have had a revolutionary impact in revealing the predisposing and driving DNA alterations behind a multitude of disorders. The workflow to identify causative mutations from NGS data, for example in cancer and rare diseases, commonly involves phases such as quality filtering, case-control comparison, genome annotation, and visual validation, which require multiple processing steps and usage of various tools and scripts. To this end, we have introduced an interactive and user-friendly multi-platform-compatible software, BasePlayer, which allows scientists, regardless of bioinformatics training, to carry out variant analysis in disease genetics settings. A genome-wide scan of regulatory regions for mutation clusters can be carried out with a desktop computer in -10 min with a dataset of 3 million somatic variants in 200 whole-genome-sequenced (WGS) cancers.Peer reviewe
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