The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics system: enabling high-contrast imaging on solar-system scales

The Subaru Coronagraphic Extreme Adaptive Optics (SCExAO) instrument is a multipurpose high-contrast imaging platform designed for the discovery and detailed characterization of exoplanetary systems and serves as a testbed for high-contrast imaging technologies for ELTs. It is a multi-band instrument which makes use of light from 600 to 2500nm allowing for coronagraphic direct exoplanet imaging of the inner 3 lambda/D from the stellar host. Wavefront sensing and control are key to the operation of SCExAO. A partial correction of low-order modes is provided by Subaru's facility adaptive optics system with the final correction, including high-order modes, implemented downstream by a combination of a visible pyramid wavefront sensor and a 2000-element deformable mirror. The well corrected NIR (y-K bands) wavefronts can then be injected into any of the available coronagraphs, including but not limited to the phase induced amplitude apodization and the vector vortex coronagraphs, both of which offer an inner working angle as low as 1 lambda/D. Non-common path, low-order aberrations are sensed with a coronagraphic low-order wavefront sensor in the infrared (IR). Low noise, high frame rate, NIR detectors allow for active speckle nulling and coherent differential imaging, while the HAWAII 2RG detector in the HiCIAO imager and/or the CHARIS integral field spectrograph (from mid 2016) can take deeper exposures and/or perform angular, spectral and polarimetric differential imaging. Science in the visible is provided by two interferometric modules: VAMPIRES and FIRST, which enable sub-diffraction limited imaging in the visible region with polarimetric and spectroscopic capabilities respectively. We describe the instrument in detail and present preliminary results both on-sky and in the laboratory.Comment: Accepted for publication, 20 pages, 10 figure

Anomalous electric conductions in KSbO3-type metallic rhenium oxides

Single crystals of KSbO3-type rhenium oxides, La4Re6O$19, Pb6Re6O19, Sr2Re3O9 and Bi3Re3O11, were synthesized by a hydrothermal method. Their crystal structures can be regarded as a network of three-dimensional orthogonal-dimer lattice of edge-shared ReO6 octahedra. All of them exhibit small magnitude of Pauli paramagnetism, indicating metallic electronic states without strong electron correlations. The resistivity of these rhenates, except Bi3Re3O11, have a temperature dependence of$rho(T)=\rho_{0}+AT^{n}$$(n \approx 1.6)$ in a wide temperature range between 5 K and 300 K, which is extraordinary for three-dimensional metals without strong electron correlations. The resistivity of Bi3Re3O11 shows an anomaly around at 50 K, where the magnetic susceptibility also detects a deviation from ordinary Pauli paramagnetism.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. J. Phys. Soc. Japan, in pres

High thyrotropin is critical for cardiac electrical remodeling and arrhythmia vulnerability in hypothyroidism

Background: Hypothyroidism, the most common endocrine disease, induces cardiac electrical remodeling that creates a substrate for ventricular arrhythmias. Recent studies report that high thyrotropin (TSH) levels are related to cardiac electrical abnormalities and increased mortality rates. The aim of the present work was to investigate the direct effects of TSH on the heart and its possible causative role in the increased incidence of arrhythmia in hypothyroidism. Methods: A new rat model of central hypothyroidism (low TSH levels) was created and characterized together with the classical propylthiouracil-induced primary hypothyroidism model (high TSH levels). Electrocardiograms were recorded in vivo, and ionic currents were recorded from isolated ventricular myocytes in vitro by the patch-clamp technique. Protein and mRNA were measured by Western blot and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in rat and human cardiac myocytes. Adult human action potentials were simulated in silico to incorporate the experimentally observed changes. Results: Both primary and central hypothyroidism models increased the L-type Ca2+ current (ICa-L) and decreased the ultra-rapid delayed rectifier K+ current (IKur) densities. However, only primary but not central hypothyroidism showed electrocardiographic repolarization abnormalities and increased ventricular arrhythmia incidence during caffeine/dobutamine challenge. These changes were paralleled by a decrease in the density of the transient outward K+ current (Ito) in cardiomyocytes from animals with primary but not central hypothyroidism. In vitro treatment with TSH for 24 hours enhanced isoproterenol-induced spontaneous activity in control ventricular cells and diminished Ito density in cardiomyocytes from control and central but not primary hypothyroidism animals. In human myocytes, TSH decreased the expression of KCND3 and KCNQ1, Ito, and the delayed rectifier K+ current (IKs) encoding proteins in a protein kinase A–dependent way. Transposing the changes produced by hypothyroidism and TSH to a computer model of human ventricular action potential resulted in enhanced occurrence of early afterdepolarizations and arrhythmia mostly in primary hypothyroidism, especially under b-adrenergic stimulation. Conclusions: The results suggest that suppression of repolarizing K+ currents by TSH underlies most of the electrical remodeling observed in hypothyroidism. This work demonstrates that the activation of the TSHreceptor/protein kinase A pathway in the heart is responsible for the cardiac electrical remodeling and arrhythmia generation seen in hypothyroidism.Fil: Fernandez Ruocco, Maria Julieta. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani"; ArgentinaFil: Gallego, Monica. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Rodriguez de Yurre, Ainhoa. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; Brasil. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Zayas Arrabal, Julian. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Echeazarra, Leyre. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Alquiza, Amaia. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Fernández López, Victor. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Rodriguez Robledo, Juan M.. Universidad del País Vasco; EspañaFil: Brito, Oscar. Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia; BrasilFil: Schleier, Ygor. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Sepúlveda, Marisa Noemí. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani"; ArgentinaFil: Oshiyama, Natalia F.. University of Campinas. Center for Biomedical Engineering; BrasilFil: Vila Petroff, Martin Gerarde. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares "Dr. Horacio Eugenio Cingolani"; ArgentinaFil: Bassani, Rosana A.. University of Campinas. Center for Biomedical Engineering; BrasilFil: Medei, Emiliano H.. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Casis, Oscar. Universidad del País Vasco; Españ

Density-functional study of hydrogen chemisorption on vicinal Si(001) surfaces

Relaxed atomic geometries and chemisorption energies have been calculated for the dissociative adsorption of molecular hydrogen on vicinal Si(001) surfaces. We employ density-functional theory, together with a pseudopotential for Si, and apply the generalized gradient approximation by Perdew and Wang to the exchange-correlation functional. We find the double-atomic-height rebonded D_B step, which is known to be stable on the clean surface, to remain stable on partially hydrogen-covered surfaces. The H atoms preferentially bind to the Si atoms at the rebonded step edge, with a chemisorption energy difference with respect to the terrace sites of >sim 0.1 eV. A surface with rebonded single atomic height S_A and S_B steps gives very similar results. The interaction between H-Si-Si-H mono-hydride units is shown to be unimportant for the calculation of the step-edge hydrogen-occupation. Our results confirm the interpretation and results of the recent H_2 adsorption experiments on vicinal Si surfaces by Raschke and Hoefer described in the preceding paper.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B. Other related publications can be found at http://www.rz-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Management technology for health: classification of medical and hospital equipment

CNPQ – CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOThis paper presents a method for ranking and classification of medical equipment according to three maintenance indicators: NCC (number of corrective maintenance per year); TMC (total maintenance time per year, divided by the median of the maintenance time for the specific maintenance group) and $MC (maintenance cost, expressed as the total cost divided by 6$MC are calculated to establish 3 classes (A, B and C). A is compatible with newer equipment and considered better than the other classes. These classes are then considered as standards to classify each equipment. A given equipment is ranked A if it is A for all indicators, C if it is ranked C for at least one indicator, and otherwise it is B. One-way analysis of variance revealed that indicators vary with age (in most cases, increase), for different equipment types (ventilator, physiologic monitor and infusion pump). As an application, the 75 ventilators from the medical area of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) were analyzed. Data were obtained from the database of the Centro de Engenharia Biomédica at UNICAMP. Equipment ranked as C had an average age of 10 years. About 42% of the equipments ranked B were above 9 years old. However, one of the ventilators ranked C was only 3 years old. It was concluded that the proposed indicators and classification are helpful to detect unexpected behavior and can be applied to both management and data mining concerning the performance of the medical equipment. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.18829833CNPQ – CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOCNPQ – CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICOsem informação4. Latin American Congress on Biomedical EngineeringThis paper presents a method for ranking and classification of medical equipment according to three mainte-nance indicators: NCC (number of corrective maintenance per year); TMC (total maintenance time per year, divided by the median of the maintenance time for the specific maintenance group) and $MC (maintenance cost, expressed as the total cost divided by 6$MC are calculated to establish 3 classes (A , B and C). A is compatible with newer equipment and considered better than the other classes. These classes are then considered as stan-dards to classify each equipment. A given equipment is ranked A if it is A for all indicators, C if it is ranked C for at least one indicator, and otherwise it is B. One-way analysis of variance revealed that indicators vary with age (in most cases, increase), for different equipment types (ventilator, physiologic monitor and infusion pump). As an application, the 75 ventilators from the medical area of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) were analyzed. Data were obtained from the database of the Centro de Engenharia Biomédica at UNICAMP. Equipment ranked as C had an average age of 10 years. About 42% of the equipments ranked B were above 9 years old. However, one of the ventilators ranked C was only 3 years old. It was concluded that the proposed indicators and classification are helpful to detect unexpected behavior and can be applied to both management and data mining concern-ing the performance of the medical equipmen