Four-level N-scheme crossover resonances in Rb saturation spectroscopy in magnetic fields

We perform saturated absorption spectroscopy on the D$\_2$ line for room temperature rubidium atoms immersed in magnetic fields within the 0.05-0.13 T range. At those medium-high field values the hyperfine structure in the excited state is broken by the Zeeman effect, while in the ground state hyperfine structure and Zeeman shifts are comparable. The observed spectra are composed by a large number of absorption lines. We identify them as saturated absorptions on two-level systems, on three-level systems in a V configuration and on four-level systems in a N or double-N configuration where two optical transitions not sharing a common level are coupled by spontaneous emission decays. We analyze the intensity of all those transitions within a unified simple theoretical model. We concentrate our attention on the double-N crossovers signals whose intensity is very large because of the symmetry in the branching ratios of the four levels. We point out that these structures, present in all alkali atoms at medium-high magnetic fields, have interesting properties for electromagnetically induced transparency and slow light applications.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review

Rubidium vapors in high magnetic fields

La spectroscopie optique des atomes simples permet une mesure très précise des propriétés atomiques et des perturbations extérieures, comme par exemple des champs électriques ou magnétiques appliqués. Le spectre Zeeman correspond à une signature du champ magnétique. Dans cette thèse nous présentons l'étude de la réponse du rubidium aux champs magnétiques intenses, dans le but d'utiliser celle-ci comme une sonde de champ magnétique dans l'intervalle de 0.1 T à 60 T. Ce travail a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet RUHMA (RUbidium Atoms in High MAgnetic fields). Notre étude ouvre la voie à la métrologie optique des champs intenses, en déterminant un champ magnétique grâce à la mesure d'une fréquence optique. Le principe de l'expérience consiste à comparer les spectres atomiques expérimentaux et les spectres théoriques calculés, afin d'obtenir la valeur de l'intensité du champ. Nous avons réalisé des premiers tests en champ magnétiques statiques, compris entre 0.06 T et 0.2 T. Dans ce régime, nous avons étudié en détails les effets dus à la structure particulière des niveaux d'énergie du système atomique: des configurations à trois ou quatre niveaux produisent des nouvelles résonances et influencent l'amplitude des signaux observés . Après cette phase préliminaire, le régime de champs intenses (entre 1 T et 60 T) a été exploré, en utilisant les bobines pulsées du Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses de Toulouse. L'une des tâches critiques de ce travail a été la miniaturisation du système expérimental, dans le but de satisfaire les contraintes imposées par une expérience en champ intense. Avec ce système nous avons pu étudier la métrologie des champs pulsés jusqu'à environ 58 T , ce qui est, à ce jour, le champ le plus intense auquel un gaz atomique n'a jamais été soumis. L'incertitude relative de notre méthode est de l'ordre de 10-4.Optical spectroscopy of simple atoms allows a very precise measurement of the atomic properties and of the external perturbations, as applied magnetic or electric fields. The Zeeman spectrum represents a magnetic field fingerprint. In this work we present our investigations about rubidium response to high magnetic fields in order to use it as magnetic field probe in the range 0.1 T - 60 T. This work was carried out in the framework of the RUHMA (RUbidium Atoms in High MAgnetic fields) project. Our investigation opens the path to magnetic field optical metrology, converting a magnetic field measurement into an optical frequency determination. The principle of the experiment is to compare experimental atomic spectra with computed theoretical spectra, in order to extract the value of the magnetic field strength. We performed our preliminary tests in static magnetic fields, ranging from 0.06 T to 0.2 T. In this framework we investigated in details some complex spectroscopic structures due to the multi-level nature of the atomic system. After this preliminary phase, the 1T-60T range have been investigated using the pulsed magnets of the Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses in Toulouse. We carried out an effort of miniaturization of the experimental setup in order to satisfy the constraints imposed by high magnetic field experiments. We performed metrology of pulsed magnetic field up to 58 T, which is the highest field an atomic gas has never been exposed. The accuracy of our method attained the level of 10-4

Pulsed high magnetic field measurement via a Rubidium vapor sensor

We present a new technique to measure pulsed magnetic fields based on the use of Rubidium in gas phase as a metrological standard. We have therefore developed an instrument based on laser inducing transitions at about 780~nm (D2 line) in a Rubidium gas contained in a mini-cell of 3~mm~x~3~mm cross section. To be able to insert such a cell in a standard high field pulsed magnet we have realized a fibred probe kept at a fixed temperature. Transition frequencies for both the $\pi$ (light polarization parallel to the magnetic field) and $\sigma$ (light polarization perpendicular to the magnetic field) configurations are measured by a commercial wavemeter. One innovation of our sensor is that in addition of monitoring the light transmitted by the Rb cell, which is usual, we also monitor the fluorescence emission of the gas sample from a very small volume with the advantage of reducing the impact of the field inhomogeneity on the field measurement. Our sensor has been tested up to about 58~T.Comment: Submitted to Review Scientific Instrument

On the Oligomeric State of DJ-1 Protein and Its Mutants Associated with Parkinson Disease A COMBINED COMPUTATIONAL AND IN VITRO STUDY

Mutations in the DJ-1 protein are present in patients suffering from familial Parkinson disease. Here we use computational methods and biological assays to investigate the relationship between DJ-1 missense mutations and the protein oligomeric state. Molecular dynamics calculations suggest that: (i) the structure of DJ-1 wild type (WT) in aqueous solution, in both oxidized and reduced forms, is similar to the crystal structure of the reduced form; (ii) the Parkinson disease-causing M26I variant is structurally similar to the WT, consistent with the experimental evidence showing the protein is a dimer as WT; (iii) R98Q is structurally similar to the WT, consistent with the fact that this is a physiological variant; and (iv) the L166P monomer rapidly evolves toward a conformation significantly different from WT, suggesting a change in its ability to oligomerize. Our combined computational and experimental approach is next used to identify a mutant (R28A) that, in contrast to L166P, destabilizes the dimer subunit-subunit interface without significantly changing secondary structure elements

an experimental protocol to support cognitive impairment diagnosis by using handwriting analysis

Abstract Nowadays diseases involving cognitive impairments affect millions of people worldwide, with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases being the most common ones. Because of the worldwide average lifespan increment, it is expected that their incidence will increase in the next few decades. Among the daily activities, handwriting is one of the first affected by cognitive impairments. For this reasons, researchers have also been investigating the analysis of handwriting alterations as diagnostic signs for this kind of diseases. In this paper we present an experimental protocol that we developed for the analysis of the handwriting dynamics of patients affected by cognitive impairments. The aim of this protocol is to build a large database that would allow to effectively train different classifier systems. We also detail the most common and effective features previously used in the literature to represent handwriting dynamics of the subjects affected by cognitive impairments

PapyRow: A Dataset of Row Images from Ancient Greek Papyri for Writers Identification

Papyrology is the discipline that studies texts written on ancient papyri. An important problem faced by papyrologists and, in general by paleographers, is to identify the writers, also known as scribes, who contributed to the drawing up of a manuscript. Traditionally, paleographers perform qualitative evaluations to distinguish the writers, and in recent years, these techniques have been combined with computer-based tools to automatically measure quantities such as height and width of letters, distances between characters, inclination angles, number and types of abbreviations, etc. Recently-emerged approaches in digital paleography combine powerful machine learning algorithms with high-quality digital images. Some of these approaches have been used for feature extraction, other to classify writers with machine learning algorithms or deep learning systems. However, traditional techniques require a preliminary feature engineering step that involves an expert in the field. For this reason, publishing a well-labeled dataset is always a challenge and a stimulus for the academic world as researchers can test their methods and then compare their results from the same starting point. In this paper, we propose a new dataset of handwriting on papyri for the task of writer identification. This dataset is derived directly from GRK-Papyri dataset and the samples are obtained with some enhancement image operation. This paper presents not only the details of the dataset but also the operation of resizing, rotation, background smoothing, and rows segmentation in order to overcome the difficulties posed by the image degradation of this dataset. It is prepared and made freely available for non-commercial research along with their confirmed ground-truth information related to the task of writer identification

Feature Selection as a Tool to Support the Diagnosis of Cognitive Impairments Through Handwriting Analysis

Cognitive Impairments are cognitive deficits that are greater than expected for a person of a given age and level of education, but which do not significantly interfere with the daily life of the people affected. They range from mild to severe and are seen as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, currently the most common neurodegenerative brain disorder worldwide. In a previous study, we presented an experimental protocol comprising different handwriting tasks to be carried out by patients and a healthy control group: the aim was to investigate whether the analysis of the handwriting could be used as a tool to support the diagnosis of this kind of impairment. In the study presented here, we used a well-known and widely-used feature selection approach to determine the most effective features for predicting the symptoms related to cognitive impairments via handwriting analysis. Our intention is to deepen the knowledge about the different cognitive functions affected by the onset of these diseases, as well as to improve the performance of the tools developed to support their diagnosis. The results showed that different sets of highly discriminant features, closely related to the cognitive skills impaired, were selected for the handwriting tasks making up the protocol, thus supporting our hypothesis that their use can be very helpful to support the diagnosis of cognitive impairment

Monitoring the Microseismicity through a Dense Seismic Array and a Similarity Search Detection Technique: Application to the Seismic Monitoring of Collalto Gas-Storage, North Italy

Seismic monitoring in areas where induced earthquakes could occur is a challenging topic for seismologists due to the generally very low signal to noise ratio. Therefore, the seismological community is devoting several efforts to the development of high-quality networks around the areas where fluid injection and storage and geothermal activities take place, also following the national induced seismicity monitoring guidelines. The use of advanced data mining strategies, such as template matching filters, auto-similarity search, and deep-learning approaches, has recently further fostered such monitoring, enhancing the seismic catalogs and lowering the magnitude of completeness of these areas. In this framework, we carried out an experiment where a small-aperture seismic array was installed within the dense seismic network used for monitoring the gas reservoir of Collalto, in North Italy. The continuous velocimetric data, acquired for 25 days, were analysed through the application of the optimized auto-similarity search technique FAST. The array was conceived as a cost-effective network, aimed at integrating, right above the gas storage site, the permanent high-resolution Collalto Seismic Network. The analysis allowed to detect micro-events down to magnitude Ml = −0.4 within a distance of ~15 km from the array. Our results confirmed that the system based on the array installation and the FAST data analysis might contribute to lowering the magnitude of completeness around the site of about 0.7 units

Brain Metastases from Ovarian Cancer: Current Evidence in Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prognosis

With this review, we provide the state of the art concerning brain metastases (BMs) from ovarian cancer (OC), a rare condition. Clinical, pathological, and molecular features, treatment options, and future perspectives are comprehensively discussed. Overall, a diagnosis of high-grade serous OC and an advanced disease stage are common features among patients who develop brain metastases. BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, as well as the expression of androgen receptors in the primary tumor, are emerging risk and prognostic factors which could allow one to identify categories of patients at greater risk of BMs, who could benefit from a tailored follow-up. Based on present data, a multidisciplinary approach combining surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy seem to be the best approach for patients with good performance status, although the median overall survival (<1 year) remains largely disappointing. Hopefully, novel therapeutic avenues are being explored, like PARP inhibitors and immunotherapy, based on our improved knowledge regarding tumor biology, but further investigation is warranted