A node-wise analysis of the uterine muscle networks for pregnancy monitoring

The recent past years have seen a noticeable increase of interest in the correlation analysis of electrohysterographic (EHG) signals in the perspective of improving the pregnancy monitoring. Here we propose a new approach based on the functional connectivity between multichannel (4x4 matrix) EHG signals recorded from the women abdomen. The proposed pipeline includes i) the computation of the statistical couplings between the multichannel EHG signals, ii) the characterization of the connectivity matrices, computed by using the imaginary part of the coherence, based on the graph-theory analysis and iii) the use of these measures for pregnancy monitoring. The method was evaluated on a dataset of EHGs, in order to track the correlation between EHGs collected by each electrode of the matrix (called node-wise analysis) and follow their evolution along weeks before labor. Results showed that the strength of each node significantly increases from pregnancy to labor. Electrodes located on the median vertical axis of the uterus seemed to be the more discriminant. We speculate that the network-based analysis can be a very promising tool to improve pregnancy monitoring.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in the IEEE EMBC conferanc

A Positive Future for Double-Negative Metamaterials

Metamaterials (MTMs), which are formed by embedding inclusions and material components in host media to achieve composite media that may be engineered to have qualitatively new physically realizable response functions that do not occur or may not be easily available in nature, have raised a great deal of interest in recent years. In this paper, we highlight a large variety of the physical effects associated with double- and single-negative MTMs and some of their very interesting potential applications. The potential ability to engineer materials with desired electric and magnetic properties to achieve unusual physical effects offers a great deal of excitement and promise to the scientific and engineering community. While some of the applications we will discuss have already come to fruition, there are many more yet to be explored

Antenna radiation in the presence of a chiral sphere

The radiation emitted by electromagnetic sources placed both inside and outside of a homogeneous sphere of chiral media is studied using an exact formulation. For both cases, dyadic Green’s functions are found in terms of spherical vector wave functions. The radiated fields and radiation resistance are examined for a dipole located at the center of the chiral sphere. For this case, it is shown that by choosing the sphere’s size and material parameters properly, purely circular polarization can be achieved in the far field. It is also demonstrated that the radiation resistance of the dipole can be increased

Methodology for the Industry Estimates in the 2007 R&D Satellite Account

This paper is part of a series that provides the details behind the Bureau of Economic Analysis's (BEA) satellite account on research and development (R&D) activity. It describes the data and experimental methodology used to create the GDP-by-Industry component of the satellite account for thirteen R&D-intensive industries and an aggregation of all other for-profit industries.

FDTD analysis of the tunneling and growing exponential in a pair of epsilon-negative and mu-negative slabs

Pairing together material slabs with opposite signs for the real parts of their constitutive parameters has been shown to lead to interesting and unconventional properties that are not otherwise observable for single slabs. One such case was demonstrated analytically for the conjugate (i.e., complementary) pairing of infinite planar slabs of epsilon-negative (ENG) and mu-negative (MNG) media [A. Alu, and N. Engheta, IEEE Trans. Antennas Prop., 51, 2558 (2003)]. There it was shown that when these two slabs are juxtaposed and excited by an incident plane wave, resonance, complete tunneling, total transparency and reconstruction of evanescent waves may occur in the steady-state regime under a monochromatic excitation, even though each of the two slabs by itself is essentially opaque to the incoming radiation. This may lead to virtual imagers with sub-wavelength resolution and other anomalous phenomena overcoming the physical limit of diffraction. Here we explore how a transient sinusoidal signal that starts at t = 0 interacts with such an ENG-MNG pair of finite size using an FDTD technique. Multiple reflections and transmissions at each interface are shown to build up to the eventual steady state response of the pair, and during this process one can observe how the growing exponential phenomenon may actually occur inside this bilayer.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys Rev

The Lick-Carnegie Exoplanet Survey: A Saturn-Mass Planet in the Habitable Zone of the Nearby M4V Star HIP 57050

Precision radial velocities from Keck/HIRES reveal a Saturn-mass planet orbiting the nearby M4V star HIP 57050. The planet has a minimum mass of 0.3 Jupiter-mass, an orbital period of 41.4 days, and an orbital eccentricity of 0.31. V-band photometry reveals a clear stellar rotation signature of the host star with a period of 98 days, well separated from the period of the radial velocity variations and reinforcing a Keplerian origin for the observed velocity variations. The orbital period of this planet corresponds to an orbit in the habitable zone of HIP 57050, with an expected planetary temperature of approximately 230 K. The star has a metallicity of [Fe/H] = 0.32+/-0.06 dex, of order twice solar and among the highest metallicity stars in the immediate solar neighborhood. This newly discovered planet provides further support that the well-known planet-metallicity correlation for F, G, and K stars also extends down into the M-dwarf regime. The a priori geometric probability for transits of this planet is only about 1%. However, the expected eclipse depth is ~7%, considerably larger than that yet observed for any transiting planet. Though long on the odds, such a transit is worth pursuing as it would allow for high quality studies of the atmosphere via transmission spectroscopy with HST. At the expected planetary effective temperature, the atmosphere may contain water clouds.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, to appear in the May 20 issue of ApJ

Finite-difference time-domain analysis of the tunneling and growing exponential in a pair of ε-negative and µ-negative slabs

Pairing together planar material slabs with opposite signs for the real parts of their constitutive parameters has been shown to lead in the steady-state regime to interesting and unconventional properties that are not otherwise observable for single slabs, such as resonance, anomalous tunneling, transparency, and subwavelength imaging through the reconstruction of evanescent waves [A. Alù and N. Engheta, IEEE Trans. Antennas Prop. 51, 2558 (2003)]. The mechanics of the phenomenon, however, and in particular how the steady-state resonant response is reached, has not been explored. Here we analyze how a transient sinusoidal signal that starts at t = 0 interacts with such a complementary pair of finite size using a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. Multiple reflections and transmissions at each interface are shown to build up to the eventual steady-state response of the pair, and during this process one can observe how the “growing exponential” phenomenon may actually occur inside this bilayer. As with any resonant phenomena, the time response of this effect depends on the Q of the system, which is related to the geometrical and electrical parameters of the bilayer. Transparency to finite beams and reconstruction of the subwavelength details of an image are shown in the transient and steady-state response of the setup through one-dimensional and two-dimensional FDTD simulations

Electromagnetic Waves in Faraday Chiral Media

Plane wave propagation in two kinds of Faraday chiral media, where Faraday rotation is combined with optical activity, is studied to examine methods of controlling chirality. The two types of media studied are magnetically biased chiroplasmas and chiroferrites. For propagation along the biasing magnetic field, four wavenumbers and two wave impedances are found which are dependent on the strength of the biasing field. Dispersion diagrams for the chiroplasma case are plotted. Propagation at the plasma frequency of the chiroplasma is also investigated