13 research outputs found
Observation of bright polariton solitons in a semiconductor microcavity
Microcavity polaritons are composite half-light half-matter quasi-particles,
which have recently been demonstrated to exhibit rich physical properties, such
as non-equilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation, parametric scattering and
superfluidity. At the same time, polaritons have some important advantages over
photons for information processing applications, since their excitonic
component leads to weaker diffraction and stronger inter-particle interactions,
implying, respectively, tighter localization and lower powers for nonlinear
functionality. Here we present the first experimental observations of bright
polariton solitons in a strongly coupled semiconductor microcavity. The
polariton solitons are shown to be non-diffracting high density wavepackets,
that are strongly localised in real space with a corresponding broad spectrum
in momentum space. Unlike solitons known in other matter-wave systems such as
Bose condensed ultracold atomic gases, they are non-equilibrium and rely on a
balance between losses and external pumping. Microcavity polariton solitons are
excited on picosecond timescales, and thus have significant benefits for
ultrafast switching and transfer of information over their light only
counterparts, semiconductor cavity lasers (VCSELs), which have only nanosecond
response time
A Meta-Analysis of Probiotic Efficacy for Gastrointestinal Diseases
Background: Meta-analyses on the effects of probiotics on specific gastrointestinal diseases have generally shown positive effects on disease prevention and treatment; however, the relative efficacy of probiotic use for treatment and prevention across different gastrointestinal diseases, with differing etiology and mechanisms of action, has not been addressed. Methods/Principal Findings: We included randomized controlled trials in humans that used a specified probiotic in the treatment or prevention of Pouchitis, Infectious diarrhea, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Helicobacter pylori, Clostridium difficile Disease, Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea, Traveler’s Diarrhea, or Necrotizing Enterocolitis. Random effects models were used to evaluate efficacy as pooled relative risks across the eight diseases as well as across probiotic species, single vs. multiple species, patient ages, dosages, and length of treatment. Probiotics had a positive significant effect across all eight gastrointestinal diseases with a relative risk of 0.58 (95 % (CI) 0.51–0.65). Six of the eight diseases: Pouchitis, Infectious diarrhea, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Helicobacter pylori, Clostridium difficile Disease, and Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea, showed positive significant effects. Traveler’s Diarrhea and Necrotizing Enterocolitis did not show significant effects of probiotcs. Of the 11 species and species mixtures, all showed positive significant effects except for Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, and Bifidobacterium infantis. Across all diseases and probiotic species, positive significant effects of probiotics were observed for all age groups, single vs. multiple species, and treatment lengths