Diffraction-contrast imaging of cold atoms

We consider the inverse problem of in-line holography, applied to minimally-destructive imaging of cold atom clouds. Absorption imaging near-resonance provides a simple, but destructive measurement of atom column density. Imaging off resonance greatly reduces heating, and sequential images may be taken. Under the conditions required for off-resonant imaging, the generally-intractable inverse problem may be linearized. A minimally-destructive, quantitative and high-resolution image of the atom cloud column density is then retrieved from a single diffraction pattern.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures v2: minor changes in response to referee reports, mostly additional experimental detail v3: revisions to figure 3: added trace and changed image. Minor text and referencing changes. Accepted by Phys Rev A (Rapid Commun

Addressing the Global Tragedy of Needless Pain: Rethinking the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

The lack of medical availability of effective pain medication is an enduring and expanding global health calamity. Despite important medical advances, pain remains severely under-treated worldwide, particularly in developing countries. This article contributes to the discussion of this global health crisis by considering international legal and institutional mechanisms to promote wider accessibility to critical narcotic drugs for pain relief

DNA demethylation by ROS1a in rice vegetative cells promotes methylation in sperm.

Epigenetic reprogramming is required for proper regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic organisms. In Arabidopsis, active DNA demethylation is crucial for seed viability, pollen function, and successful reproduction. The DEMETER (DME) DNA glycosylase initiates localized DNA demethylation in vegetative and central cells, so-called companion cells that are adjacent to sperm and egg gametes, respectively. In rice, the central cell genome displays local DNA hypomethylation, suggesting that active DNA demethylation also occurs in rice; however, the enzyme responsible for this process is unknown. One candidate is the rice REPRESSOR OF SILENCING 1a (ROS1a) gene, which is related to DME and is essential for rice seed viability and pollen function. Here, we report genome-wide analyses of DNA methylation in wild-type and ros1a mutant sperm and vegetative cells. We find that the rice vegetative cell genome is locally hypomethylated compared with sperm by a process that requires ROS1a activity. We show that many ROS1a target sequences in the vegetative cell are hypomethylated in the rice central cell, suggesting that ROS1a also demethylates the central cell genome. Similar to Arabidopsis, we show that sperm non-CG methylation is indirectly promoted by DNA demethylation in the vegetative cell. These results reveal that DNA glycosylase-mediated DNA demethylation processes are conserved in Arabidopsis and rice, plant species that diverged 150 million years ago. Finally, although global non-CG methylation levels of sperm and egg differ, the maternal and paternal embryo genomes show similar non-CG methylation levels, suggesting that rice gamete genomes undergo dynamic DNA methylation reprogramming after cell fusion

Relative intensity squeezing by four-wave mixing with loss: an analytic model and experimental diagnostic

Four-wave mixing near resonance in an atomic vapor can produce relative intensity squeezed light suitable for precision measurements beyond the shot-noise limit. We develop an analytic distributed gain/loss model to describe the competition of mixing and absorption through the non-linear medium. Using a novel matrix calculus, we present closed-form expressions for the degree of relative intensity squeezing produced by this system. We use these theoretical results to analyze experimentally measured squeezing from a $^{85}$Rb vapor and demonstrate the analytic model's utility as an experimental diagnostic.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Anharmonic Decay of Vibrational States in Amorphous Silicon

Anharmonic decay rates are calculated for a realistic atomic model of amorphous silicon. The results show that the vibrational states decay on picosecond timescales and follow the two-mode density of states, similar to crystalline silicon, but somewhat faster. Surprisingly little change occurs for localized states. These results disagree with a recent experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 4 Postscript figure

Coping with Pediatric Chronic Illness: Efficacy, Moderators and Mediators of a Psychosocial Group Intervention for Children and Parents

Schuengel, C. [Promotor]Last, B.F. [Promotor]Willemen, A.M. [Copromotor]Grootenhuis, M.A. [Copromotor

Photoproduction of eta meson within a coupled-channels K-matrix approach

We investigate photoproduction of eta mesons off protons and neutrons within a coupled-channels effective-Lagrangian method which is based on the K-matrix approach. The two-body final channels included are pi-N, eta-N, phi-N, rho-N, gamma-N, K-Lambda, and K-Sigma. Non-resonant meson-baryon interactions are included in the model via nucleon intermediate states in the s- and u-channels, meson exchanges in the t-channel amplitude and the u-channel resonances. The nucleon resonances S_{11}(1535), S_{11}(1650), S_{31}(1620), P_{11}(1440), P_{11}(1710), P_{13}(1720), P_{33}(1232), P_{33}(1600), D_{13}(1520), D_{13}(1700), and D_{33}(1700) are included explicitly in calculations. Our model describes simultaneously the available data as well on total and differential cross sections as on beam and target asymmetries. This holds for the p(gamma,eta)p reaction for photon energies ranging from very close to threshold to up to 3 GeV. The polarization observables show strong sensitivity to resonances that otherwise contribute only weakly to the total cross section. It is found that the pronounced bump-like structure seen in the excitation function of the n(gamma,eta)n cross section at gamma energies around 1 GeV, can be explained by the interference effects of S_{11}, P_{11} and P_{13} resonance contributions.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figures, one new figure added, discussions revised, version to appear in Phys. Rev.