Efficient diode-pumped single-frequency erbium:ytterbium fibre laser

We report a 7.6-mW single-frequency fiber laser operating at 1545 nm, using for the first time an Er3+:Yb3+ doped fiber and a fiber grating output coupler. The laser did not exhibit self-pulsation, which is a typical problem in short three-level fiber lasers, and had a relative intensity noise (RIN) level below -145.5 dB/Hz at frequencies above 10 MHz. The linewidth of the laser was limited by the relaxation oscillation sidebands in the optical spectrum and was typically less than 1 MHz. <br/

Response of CdWO4 crystal scintillator for few MeV ions and low energy electrons

The response of a CdWO4 crystal scintillator to protons, alpha particles, Li, C, O and Ti ions with energies in the range 1 - 10 MeV was measured. The non-proportionality of CdWO4 for low energy electrons (4 - 110 keV) was studied with the Compton Coincidence Technique. The energy dependence of the quenching factors for ions and the relative light yield for low energy electrons was calculated using a semi-empirical approach. Pulse-shape discrimination ability between gamma quanta, protons, alpha particles and ions was investigated.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figs, accepted in Nucl. Instrum. Meth.

Quantum well devices for mode-locking fibre lasers

The generation of picosecond duration pulses in the 1.55 micron wavelength region is of considerable interest for applications related to telecommunications. In the 1.06 micron region, picosecond pulses are useful for spectroscopy and the electro-optic sampling of high speed integrated circuits [I]. Passive mode-locking of fibre lasers using multiple quantum well (MQW) material can provide optical pulses with picosecond durations in both these wavelength regions. The optical confinement and long lengths available, give doped fibre lasers high gain together with flexibility in physical configuration. The use of QWs with light incident perpendicular to the epitaxial layers, as passive saturable absorbers to mode-lock these lasers, is attractive because of their polarisation insensitivity and the wide range of wavelengths available. The semiconductor sample operating wavelength is governed by the materials, their compositions and dimensions used. In fibre, gain is provided in the 1.55 micron region by doping with Erbium whilst Neodymium is used for operation in the 1.06 micron region. By integrating the saturable absorber and laser-cavity end mirror into a single semiconductor device we have generated picosecond pulses in very simple cavity configurations

A retrospective evaluation of the impact of a dedicated obstetric and neonatal transport service on transport times within an urban setting

OBJECTIVE:To determine whether the establishment of a dedicated obstetric and neonatal flying squad resulted in improved performance within the setting of a major metropolitan area.DESIGN AND SETTING:The Cape Town metropolitan service of the Emergency Medical Services was selected for a retrospective review of the transit times for the newly implemented Flying Squad programme. Data were imported from the Computer Aided Dispatch programme. Dispatch, Response, Mean Transit and Total Pre-hospital times relating to the obstetric and neonatal incidents was analysed for 2005 and 2008. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement between 2005 and 2008 in all incidents evaluated. Flying Squad dispatch performance improved from 11.7% to 46.6% of all incidents dispatched within 4 min (p < 0.0001). Response time performance at the 15-min threshold did not demonstrate a statistically significant improvement (p = 0.4), although the improvement in the 30-min performance category was statistically significant in both maternity and neonatal incidents. Maternity incidents displayed the greatest improvement with the 30-min performance increasing from 30.3% to 72.9%. The analysis of the mean transit times demonstrated that neonatal transfers displayed the longest status time in all but one of the categories. Even so, the introduction of the Flying Squad programme resulted in a reduction in a total pre-hospital time from 177 to 128 min. CONCLUSION: The introduction of the Flying Squad programme has resulted in significant improvement in the transit times of both neonatal and obstetric patients. In spite of the severe resource constraints facing developing nations, the model employed offers significant gains

On positivity of Ehrhart polynomials

Ehrhart discovered that the function that counts the number of lattice points in dilations of an integral polytope is a polynomial. We call the coefficients of this polynomial Ehrhart coefficients, and say a polytope is Ehrhart positive if all Ehrhart coefficients are positive (which is not true for all integral polytopes). The main purpose of this article is to survey interesting families of polytopes that are known to be Ehrhart positive and discuss the reasons from which their Ehrhart positivity follows. We also include examples of polytopes that have negative Ehrhart coefficients and polytopes that are conjectured to be Ehrhart positive, as well as pose a few relevant questions.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures. To appear in in Recent Trends in Algebraic Combinatorics, a volume of the Association for Women in Mathematics Series, Springer International Publishin

Infuence of the year and HMW glutenin subunits on end-use quality predictors if bread wheat waxy lines

The effects of environment and the high molecular weight glutenins on some quality properties (sedimentation volume, % protein content, and starch pasting viscosity) of bread wheat mutant waxy lines were evaluated. Thirty-eight 100% amylose-free F 2 derived F 6 and F 7 lines were used. The results indicated that the environment did not influence sedimentation volume, mixograph parameters and starch viscosity parameters of waxy flour. Variation in the % protein content was determined mainly by the environment. The sedimentation volume and the mixograph peak development time were influenced by the variation at over expression of Bx7 and the mixograph peak development time was influenced by the Glu-D1 locus. One starch viscosity parameter, time to peak viscosity, was influenced by variation at the Glu-A1 locus. This parameter is significantly lower in the waxy lines than the parent line, which shows the influence of the waxy loci. No significant correlation was observed for sedimentation volume, mixograph parameters, protein content and viscosity parameters of waxy line

Universal Correlations in Pion-less EFT with the Resonating Group Model: Three and Four Nucleons

The Effective Field Theory "without pions" at next-to-leading order is used to analyze universal bound state and scattering properties of the 3- and 4-nucleon system. Results of a variety of phase shift equivalent nuclear potentials are presented for bound state properties of 3H and 4He, and for the singlet S-wave 3He-neutron scattering length a_0(3He-n). The calculations are performed with the Refined Resonating Group Method and include a full treatment of the Coulomb interaction and the leading-order 3-nucleon interaction. The results compare favorably with data and values from AV18(+UIX) model calculations. A new correlation between a_0(3He-n) and the 3H binding energy is found. Furthermore, we confirm at next-to-leading order the correlations, already found at leading-order, between the 3H binding energy and the 3H charge radius, and the Tjon line. With the 3H binding energy as input, we get predictions of the Effective Field Theory "without pions" at next-to-leading order for the root mean square charge radius of 3H of (1.6\pm 0.2) fm, for the 4He binding energy of (28\pm 2.5) MeV, and for Re(a_0(3He-n)) of (7.5\pm 0.6)fm. Including the Coulomb interaction, the splitting in binding energy between 3H and 3He is found to be (0.66\pm 0.03) MeV. The discrepancy to data of (0.10\mp 0.03) MeV is model independently attributed to higher order charge independence breaking interactions. We also demonstrate that different results for the same observable stem from higher order effects, and carefully assess that numerical uncertainties are negligible. Our results demonstrate the convergence and usefulness of the pion-less theory at next-to-leading order in the 4He channel. We conclude that no 4-nucleon interaction is needed to renormalize the theory at next-to-leading order in the 4-nucleon sector.Comment: 24 pages revtex4, including 8 figures as .eps files embedded with includegraphicx, leading-order results added, calculations include the LO three-nucleon interaction explicitly, comment on Wigner bound added, minor modification