Bright, single helicity, high harmonics driven by mid-infrared bicircular laser fields

[EN]High-harmonic generation (HHG) is a unique tabletop light source with femtosecond-to-attosecond pulse duration and tailorable polarization and beam shape. Here, we use counter-rotating femtosecond laser pulses of 0.8 µm and 2.0 μm to extend the photon energy range of circularly polarized high-harmonics and also generate single-helicity HHG spectra. By driving HHG in helium, we produce circularly polarized soft x-ray harmonics beyond 170 eV—the highest photon energy of circularly polarized HHG achieved to date. In an Ar medium, dense spectra at photon energies well beyond the Cooper minimum are generated, with regions composed of a single helicity—consistent with the generation of a train of circularly polarized attosecond pulses. Finally, we show theoretically that circularly polarized HHG photon energies can extend beyond the carbon K edge, extending the range of molecular and materials systems that can be accessed using dynamic HHG chiral spectro-microscopiesDepartment of Energy BES (DE-FG02-99ER14982); Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-16-1-0121); National Science Foundation (DGE-1144083, DGE-1650115); European Research Council (8511201); Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (PID2019-106910GB-100); Junta de Castilla y León (SA287P18); Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC-2017-22745)

Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension and Hypercholesterolemia Among Insured Residents of New York City, 2004

Introduction: Health care access and sociodemographic characteristics may influence chronic disease management even among adults who have health insurance. The objective of this study was to examine awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, by health care access and sociodemographic characteristics, among insured adults in New York City. Methods: Using data from the 2004 New York City Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we investigated inequalities in the diagnosis and management of hypertension and hypercholesterolemia among insured adults aged 20 to 64 years (n = 1,334). We assessed differences in insurance type (public, private) and routine place of care (yes, no), by sociodemographic characteristics. Results: One in 10 participants with hypertension and 3 in 10 with hypercholesterolemia were unaware and untreated. Having a routine place of care was associated with treatment and control of hypertension and with awareness, treatment, and control of hypercholesterolemia, after adjusting for insurance type, age, sex, race/ethnicity, foreign birth, income, and education. Differences in systolic blood pressure and total cholesterol between people with versus without a routine place of care were 2 to 3 times the difference found between people with public versus private insurance. Few differences were associated with sociodemographic characteristics after adjusting for routine place of care and insurance type; however, male sex, younger age, Asian race, and foreign birth with short-term US residence reduced the odds of having a routine place of care. Neither income nor education predicted having a routine place of care. Conclusion: Sociodemographic characteristics may influence chronic disease management among the insured through health care access factors such as having a routine place of care

Bright, single helicity, high harmonics driven by mid-infrared bicircular laser fields

High-harmonic generation (HHG) is a unique tabletop light source with femtosecond-to-attosecond pulse duration and tailorable polarization and beam shape. Here, we use counter-rotating femtosecond laser pulses of 0.8 &micro;m and 2.0 &mu;m to extend the photon energy range of circularly polarized high-harmonics and also generate single-helicity HHG spectra. By driving HHG in helium, we produce circularly polarized soft x-ray harmonics beyond 170 eV&mdash;the highest photon energy of circularly polarized HHG achieved to date. In an Ar medium, dense spectra at photon energies well beyond the Cooper minimum are generated, with regions composed of a single helicity&mdash;consistent with the generation of a train of circularly polarized attosecond pulses. Finally, we show theoretically that circularly polarized HHG photon energies can extend beyond the carbon K edge, extending the range of molecular and materials systems that can be accessed using dynamic HHG chiral spectro-microscopies. &nbsp;</p

Development and Validation of Nomograms Predictive of Overall and Progression-Free Survival in Patients With Oropharyngeal Cancer

Purpose Treatment of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is evolving toward risk-based modification of therapeutic intensity, which requires patient-specific estimates of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). Methods To develop and validate nomograms for OS and PFS, we used a derivation cohort of 493 patients with OPSCC with known p16 tumor status (surrogate of human papillomavirus) and cigarette smoking history (pack-years) randomly assigned to clinical trials using platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (NRG Oncology Radiation Therapy Oncology Group [RTOG] 0129 and 0522). Nomograms were created from Cox models and internally validated by use of bootstrap and cross-validation. Model discrimination was measured by calibration plots and the concordance index. Nomograms were externally validated in a cohort of 153 patients with OPSCC randomly assigned to a third trial, NRG Oncology RTOG 9003. Results Both models included age, Zubrod performance status, pack-years, education, p16 status, and T and N stage; the OS model also included anemia and age × pack-years interaction; and the PFS model also included marital status, weight loss, and p16 × Zubrod interaction. Predictions correlated well with observed 2-year and 5-year outcomes. The uncorrected concordance index was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.72 to 0.80) for OS and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.66 to 0.74) for PFS, and bias-corrected indices were similar. In the validation set, OS and PFS models were well calibrated, and OS and PFS were significantly different across tertiles of nomogram scores (log-rank P = .003;\u3c .001). Conclusion The validated nomograms provided useful prediction of OS and PFS for patients with OPSCC treated with primary radiation-based therapy

Temporal and spectral multiplexing for EUV multibeam ptychography with a high harmonic light source

We demonstrate temporally multiplexed multibeam ptychography implemented for the first time in the EUV, by using a high harmonic based light source. This allows for simultaneous imaging of different sample areas, or of the same area at different times or incidence angles. Furthermore, we show that this technique is compatible with wavelength multiplexing for multibeam spectroscopic imaging, taking full advantage of the temporal and spectral characteristics of high harmonic light sources. This technique enables increased data throughput using a simple experimental implementation and with high photon efficiency. &nbsp;</p

Controlling the polarization and vortex charge of attosecond high-harmonic beams via simultaneous spin–orbit momentum conservation

[EN]Optical interactions are governed by both spin and angular momentum conservation laws, which serve as a tool for controlling light–matter interactions or elucidating electron dynamics and structure of complex systems. Here, we uncover a form of simultaneous spin and orbital angular momentum conservation and show, theoretically and experimentally, that this phenomenon allows for unprecedented control over the divergence and polarization of extreme-ultraviolet vortex beams. High harmonics with spin and orbital angular momenta are produced, opening a novel regime of angular momentum conservation that allows for manipulation of the polarization of attosecond pulses—from linear to circular—and for the generation of circularly polarized vortices with tailored orbital angular momentum, including harmonic vortices with the same topological charge as the driving laser beam. Our work paves the way to ultrafast studies of chiral systems using high-harmonic beams with designer spin and orbital angular momentum.The authors are thankful for useful and productive conversations with E. Pisanty, C. Durfee, D. Hickstein, S. Alperin and M. Siemens. H.C.K. and M.M.M. graciously acknowledge support from the Department of Energy BES Award No. DE-FG02–99ER14982 for the experimental implementation, as well as a MURI grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Award No. FA9550–16–1–0121 for the theory. J.L.E., N.J.B. and Q.L.N. acknowledge support from National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships (Grant No. DGE-1144083). C.H.-G., J.S.R. and L.P. acknowledge support from Junta de Castilla y León (SA046U16) and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (FIS2013–44174-P, FIS2016–75652-P). C.H.-G. acknowledges support from a 2017 Leonardo Grant for Researchers and Cultural Creators, BBVA Foundation. L.R. acknowledges support from Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (FPU16/02591). A.P. acknowledges support from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant, Agreement No. 702565. We thankfully acknowledge the computer resources at MareNostrum and the technical support provided by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (RES-AECT-2014–2–0085). This research made use of the high-performance computingresources of the Castilla y León Supercomputing Center (SCAYLE, www.scayle.es),financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Certain commercial instruments are identified to specify the experimental study adequately. This does not imply endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) or that the instruments are the best available for the purpose

Transcriptional Analysis of Murine Macrophages Infected with Different Toxoplasma Strains Identifies Novel Regulation of Host Signaling Pathways

Most isolates of Toxoplasma from Europe and North America fall into one of three genetically distinct clonal lineages, the type I, II and III lineages. However, in South America these strains are rarely isolated and instead a great variety of other strains are found. T. gondii strains differ widely in a number of phenotypes in mice, such as virulence, persistence, oral infectivity, migratory capacity, induction of cytokine expression and modulation of host gene expression. The outcome of toxoplasmosis in patients is also variable and we hypothesize that, besides host and environmental factors, the genotype of the parasite strain plays a major role. The molecular basis for these differences in pathogenesis, especially in strains other than the clonal lineages, remains largely unexplored. Macrophages play an essential role in the early immune response against T. gondii and are also the cell type preferentially infected in vivo. To determine if non-canonical Toxoplasma strains have unique interactions with the host cell, we infected murine macrophages with 29 different Toxoplasma strains, representing global diversity, and used RNA-sequencing to determine host and parasite transcriptomes. We identified large differences between strains in the expression level of known parasite effectors and large chromosomal structural variation in some strains. We also identified novel strain-specifically regulated host pathways, including the regulation of the type I interferon response by some atypical strains. IFNβ production by infected cells was associated with parasite killing, independent of interferon gamma activation, and dependent on endosomal Toll-like receptors in macrophages and the cytoplasmic receptor retinoic acid-inducible gene 1 (RIG-I) in fibroblasts.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (R01-AI080621)New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (Developmental Grant AIO57159)Pew Charitable Trusts (Biomedical Scholars Program)Robert A. Swanson Career Development awardThe Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc.Pre-Doctoral Grant in the Biological Sciences (5-T32-GM007287-33)Cleo and Paul Schimmel Foundatio

Population of Merging Compact Binaries Inferred Using Gravitational Waves through GWTC-3

We report on the population properties of compact binary mergers inferred from gravitational-wave observations of these systems during the first three LIGO-Virgo observing runs. The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog 3 (GWTC-3) contains signals consistent with three classes of binary mergers: binary black hole, binary neutron star, and neutron star-black hole mergers. We infer the binary neutron star merger rate to be between 10 and 1700 Gpc-3 yr-1 and the neutron star-black hole merger rate to be between 7.8 and 140 Gpc-3 yr-1, assuming a constant rate density in the comoving frame and taking the union of 90% credible intervals for methods used in this work. We infer the binary black hole merger rate, allowing for evolution with redshift, to be between 17.9 and 44 Gpc-3 yr-1 at a fiducial redshift (z=0.2). The rate of binary black hole mergers is observed to increase with redshift at a rate proportional to (1+z)κ with κ=2.9-1.8+1.7 for z≲1. Using both binary neutron star and neutron star-black hole binaries, we obtain a broad, relatively flat neutron star mass distribution extending from 1.2-0.2+0.1 to 2.0-0.3+0.3M⊙. We confidently determine that the merger rate as a function of mass sharply declines after the expected maximum neutron star mass, but cannot yet confirm or rule out the existence of a lower mass gap between neutron stars and black holes. We also find the binary black hole mass distribution has localized over- and underdensities relative to a power-law distribution, with peaks emerging at chirp masses of 8.3-0.5+0.3 and 27.9-1.8+1.9M⊙. While we continue to find that the mass distribution of a binary's more massive component strongly decreases as a function of primary mass, we observe no evidence of a strongly suppressed merger rate above approximately 60M⊙, which would indicate the presence of a upper mass gap. Observed black hole spins are small, with half of spin magnitudes below χi≈0.25. While the majority of spins are preferentially aligned with the orbital angular momentum, we infer evidence of antialigned spins among the binary population. We observe an increase in spin magnitude for systems with more unequal-mass ratio. We also observe evidence of misalignment of spins relative to the orbital angular momentum