Measurements of Heavy Flavor and Di-electron Production at STAR

Heavy quarks are produced early in the relativistic heavy ion collisions, and provide an excellent probe into the hot and dense nuclear matter created at RHIC. In these proceedings, we will discuss recent STAR measurements of heavy flavor production, to investigate the heavy quark interaction with the medium. Electromagnetic probes, such as electrons, provide information on the various stages of the medium evolution without modification by final stage interactions. Di-electron production measurements by STAR will also be discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, proceedings for CPOD201

Measurement of the c-axis optical reflectance of AFe2_2As2_2 (A=Ba, Sr) single crystals: Evidence of different mechanisms for the formation of two energy gaps

We present the c-axis optical reflectance measurement on single crystals of BaFe$_2$As$_2$ and SrFe$_2$As$_2$, the parent compounds of FeAs based superconductors. Different from the ab-plane optical response where two distinct energy gaps were observed in the SDW state, only the smaller energy gap could be seen clearly for \textbf{E}$\parallel$c-axis. The very pronounced energy gap structure seen at a higher energy scale for \textbf{E}$\parallel$ab-plane is almost invisible. We propose a novel picture for the band structure evolution across the SDW transition and suggest different driving mechanisms for the formation of the two energy gaps.Comment: 4 page

Voltage dependent director of a homeotropic negative liquid crystal cell

Copyright © 2008 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 93 (2008) and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?APPLAB/93/031909/1Thin layers of obliquely (60° to normal) thermally evaporated SiOx lead to homeotropic alignment of a nematic liquid crystal (LC) having negative dielectric anisotropy. Under application of an ac voltage the director, as characterized by the fully leaky waveguide technique, is found to realign with a voltage controlled tilt along the evaporation direction. This behavior is in complete contrast with that of a LC having positive dielectric anisotropy and may have important implications for modern LC display technology

Association between reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with statin therapy and the risk of new-onset diabetes: a meta-analysis

A recent meta-analysis demonstrated that statin therapy was associated with a risk of diabetes. The present study investigated whether the relative reduction in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) was a good indicator of the risk of new-onset diabetes. We searched the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register, Lilacs, Food and Drug Administration, and European Medicines Agency databases for randomized controlled trials of statins. Fourteen trials were included in the study. Eight trials with target LDL-c levels ≤100 mg/dL (2.6 mmol/L) or LDL-c reductions of at least 30% were extracted separately. The results showed that the overall risk of incident diabetes increased by 11% (OR = 1.11; 95% CI 1.03–1.20). The group with intensive LDL-c-lowering statin had an 18% increase in the likelihood of developing diabetes (OR = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.10–1.28). Furthermore, the risks of incident diabetes were 13% (OR = 1.13; 95% CI 1.01–1.26) and 29% (OR = 1.29; 95% CI 1.13–1.47) in the subgroups with 30–40% and 40–50% reductions in LDL-c, respectively, suggesting that LDL-c reduction may provide a dynamic risk assessment parameter for new-onset diabetes. In conclusion, LDL-c reduction is positively related to the risk of new-onset diabetes. When LDL-c is reduced by more than 30% during lipid-lowering therapy, blood glucose monitoring is suggested to detect incident diabetes in high-risk populations

Association of Exposure to Particular Matter and Carotid Intima-Media Thickness: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Long time exposure to particular matter has been linked to myocardial infarction, stroke and blood pressure, but its association with atherosclerosis is not clear. This meta-analysis was aimed at assessing whether PM2.5 and PM10 have an effect on subclinical atherosclerosis measured by carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT). Methods: Pubmed, Ovid Medline, Embase and NICK between 1948 and 31 March 2015 were searched by combining the keywords about exposure to the outcome related words. The random-effects model was applied in computing the change of CIMT and their corresponding 95% confidence interval (95% CI). The effect of potential confounding factors was assessed by stratified analysis and the impact of traffic proximity was also estimated. Results: Among 56 identified studies, 11 articles satisfied the inclusion criteria. In overall analysis increments of 10 μg/m3 in PM2.5 and PM10 were associated with an increase of CIMT (16.79 μm; 95% CI, 4.95–28.63 μm and 4.13 μm; 95% CI, −5.79–14.04 μm, respectively). Results shown in subgroup analysis had reference value for comparing with those of the overall analysis. The impact of traffic proximity on CIMT was uncertain. Conclusions: Exposure to PM2.5 had a significant association with CIMT and for women the effect may be more obvious

172 fs, 24.3 kW peak power pulse generation from a Ho-doped fiber laser system

We demonstrate a high peak power femtosecond fiber laser system based on single-mode holmium (Ho) doped fibers. 833 fs, 27.7 MHz pulses at 2083.4 nm generated in a passively mode-locked Ho fiber laser are amplified and compressed to near transform-limited 172 fs, 7.2 nJ pulses with 24.3 kW peak power. We achieve this performance level by using soliton effect and high-order soliton compression. This is the first demonstration of sub-200 fs pulses, with peak power exceeding 10 kW from a Ho-doped single-mode fiber laser system without using bulk optics compressors.National Key R&D Program of China (2016YFA0401100); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (61605122, 61775146, 61504086); Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2016A030310049); Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (KQJSCX20160226194031, JCYJ20160428174445840, JCYJ20160427105041864, JSGG20150512162504354); EPSRC (EP/L016087/1); European Union’s 7th Framework Programme (631610); Academy of Finland (276376, 284548, 295777, 304666, 312297, 312551, 314810); TEKES (OPEC)

Three dimensionality of band structure and a large residual quasiparticle population in Ba0.67_{0.67}K0.33_{0.33}Fe2_2As2_2 as revealed by the c-axis polarized optical measurement

We report on a c-axis polarized optical measurement on a Ba$_{0.67}$K$_{0.33}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ single crystal. We find that the c-axis optical response is significantly different from that of high-T$_c$ cuprates. The experiments reveal an anisotropic three-dimensional optical response with the absence of the Josephson plasma edge in R($\omega$) in the superconducting state. Furthermore, different from the ab-plane optical response, a large residual quasiparticle population down to $T\sim\frac{1}{5}T_c$ was observed in the c-axis polarized reflectance measurement. We elaborate that there exist nodes for the superconducting gap in regions of the 3D Fermi surface that contribute dominantly to the c-axis optical conductivity.Comment: 4 figure