Propagating wave packets and quantized currents in coherently driven polariton superfluids

We study the properties of propagating polariton wave packets and their connection to the stability of doubly charged vortices. Wave-packet propagation and related photoluminescence spectra exhibit a rich behavior dependent on the excitation regime. We show that, because of the nonquadratic polariton dispersion, doubly charged vortices are stable only when initiated in wave packets propagating at small velocities. Vortices propagating at larger velocities, or those imprinted directly into the polariton optical parametric oscillator signal and idler, are unstable to splitting.     

Parametric excitation of traveling waves in a circular non-dispersive medium

This paper discusses a special type of propagating waves created by parametric excitation in a circular taught string. The string, being a non-dispersive medium propagates deformations in a similar manner to electromagnetic waves in vacuum, both have simple wavelength–frequency relationship that play an important role here. Nonlinear equations are derived under the assumption of finite deformations, whose solution produces a square-wave like, limited-amplitude, traveling wave. Closed-form expressions are obtained for the parametric excitation characteristics of the nonlinear system and the steady-state traveling waves are described by a generalized eigenvalue problem. The latter relates the nonlinear elongation of the neutral axis to the participating wavelengths forming the propagating wave. Detailed numerical simulations are provided to validate the solution and to illustrate graphically the waveforms. It is shown that propagating sinusoidal parametric excitation gives rise to various square-wave like deformation shapes which a unique phenomenon is arising in non-dispersive media.     

Influence of cardiac tissue anisotropy on re-entrant activation in computational models of ventricular fibrillation

The aim of this study was to establish the role played by anisotropic diffusion in (i) the number of filaments and epicardial phase singularities that sustain ventricular fibrillation in the heart, (ii) the lifetimes of filaments and phase singularities, and (iii) the creation and annihilation dynamics of filaments and phase singularities. A simplified monodomain model of cardiac tissue was used, with membrane excitation described by a simplified 3-variable model. The model was configured so that a single re-entrant wave was unstable, and fragmented into multiple re-entrant waves. Re-entry was then initiated in tissue slabs with varying anisotropy ratio. The main findings of this computational study are: (i) anisotropy ratio influenced the number of filaments sustaining simulated ventricular fibrillation, with more filaments present in simulations with smaller values of transverse diffusion coefficient, (ii) each re-entrant filament was associated with around 0.9 phase singularities on the surface of the slab geometry, (iii) phase singularities were longer lived than filaments, and (iv) the creation and annihilation of filaments and phase singularities were linear functions of the number of filaments and phase singularities, and these relationships were independent of the anisotropy ratio. This study underscores the important role played by tissue anisotropy in cardiac ventricular fibrillation.     

Enhanced self-termination of re-entrant arrhythmias as a pharmacological strategy for antiarrhythmic action

Ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation are potentially lethal cardiac arrhythmias generated by high frequency, irregular spatio-temporal electrical activity. Re-entrant propagation has been demonstrated as a mechanism generating these arrhythmias in computational and in vitro animal models of these arrhythmias. Re-entry can be idealised in homogenous isotropic virtual cardiac tissues as spiral and scroll wave solutions of reaction-diffusion equations. A spiral wave in a bounded medium can be terminated if its core reaches a boundary. Ventricular tachyarrhythmias in patients are sometimes observed to spontaneously self-terminate. One possible mechanism for self-termination of a spiral wave is meander of its core to an inexcitable boundary. We have previously proposed the hypothesis that the spatial extent of meander of a re-entrant wave in the heart can be directly related to its probability of self-termination, and so inversely related to its lethality. Meander in two-dimensional virtual ventricular tissues based on the Oxsoft family of cell models, with membrane excitation parameters simulating the inherited long Q-T syndromes has been shown to be consistent with this hypothesis: the largest meander is seen in the syndrome with the lowest probability of death per arrhythmic episode. Here we extend our previous results to virtual tissues based on the Luo-Rudy family of models. Consistent with our hypothesis, for both families of models, whose different ionic mechanisms produce different patterns of meander, the LQT virtual tissue with the larger meander simulates the syndrome with the lower probability of death per episode. Further, we search the parameter space of the repolarizing currents to find their conductance parameter values that give increased meander of spiral waves. These parameters may provide targets for antiarrhythmic drugs designed to act by increasing the likelihood of self-termination of re-entrant arrhythmias. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.     

随机的长程关联对耦合细胞体系中钙信号传导的作用

利用Euler数值积分的方法,研究了随机的长程关联对耦合细胞体系中钙信号传播的影响,发现当细 胞链中第一个单元受到外界刺激的作用时,由此而引起的钙点火活动会进一步激发其邻近的细胞,在随机连接的 作用下,钙信号就会在整个链中向下传递.结果表明,在该体系中加上少量的随机连接不仅能够极大地增强细胞 之间钙信号的传播能力,而且,适量的这种连接也可以使整个体系的钙离子振荡的有序性得到加强.这些现象表 明,细胞之间的随机扩散联系可能在帮助生物体系进行信息传递的过程中起着十分重要的作用.     

Plasmon mechanism of light transmission through a metal film or a plasma layer

It is shown that a smooth metal film (or a plasma layer) can be made transparent for an electromagnetic wave when two identical subwavelength diffraction gratings are placed on both sides of the film. The electromagnetic wave transmission through the metal film is caused by excitation of evanescent surface waves (plasmons) and their transformation into propagating waves at the gratings. A model which is developed analytically shows that the problem of the wave transmission is physically equivalent to the problem of excitation of two coupled resonators of evanescent waves which are formed at the two film surfaces.     

Suppressing arrhythmias in cardiac models using overdrive pacing and calcium channel blockers

Recent findings indicate that ventricular fibrillation might arise from spiral wave chaos. Our objective in this computational study was to investigate wave interactions in excitable media and to explore the feasibility of using overdrive pacing to suppress spiral wave chaos. This work is based on the finding that in excitable media, propagating waves with the highest excitation frequency eventually overtake all other waves. We analyzed the effects of low-amplitude, high-frequency pacing in one-dimensional and two-dimensional networks of coupled, excitable cells governed by the Luo-Rudy model. In the one-dimensional cardiac model, we found narrow high-frequency regions of 1:1 synchronization between the input stimulus and the system's response. The frequencies in this region were higher than the intrinsic spiral wave frequency of cardiac tissue. When we paced the two-dimensional cardiac model with frequencies from this region, we found that spiral wave chaos could, in some cases, be suppressed. When we coupled the overdrive pacing with calcium channel blockers, we found that spiral wave chaos could be suppressed in all cases. These findings suggest that low-amplitude, high-frequency overdrive pacing, in combination with calcium channel inhibitors (e.g., class II or class IV antiarrhythmic drugs), may be useful for eliminating fibrillation. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.     

心脏磁场分布电流源重构及其精度分析

用测量到的心脏磁场信号重构其电流源是一种无创揭示心脏电活动的方法. 心脏电活动的时空信息可视化, 将有助于心脏功能的研究和心脏疾病诊断. 本文通过仿真实验研究了一种减时窗波束形成器对分布时变电流源的重构能力, 以及源重构结果与心室兴奋传播的关系. 采用元胞自动机模拟心室的兴奋传播, 产生分布随时间变化的电流源, 并用边界元法构建了一个心脏-躯干模型, 模拟体电导的作用. 仿真结果表明, 这种减时窗波束形成器能够重构分布时变电流源, 并达到较好的精度. 将该方法和无穷大均匀介质导联矩阵用于一例正常人的心脏磁场信号分析, 其结果可以反映心室兴奋传播的基本特征. 关键词： 心磁图 源重构 边界元 波束形成器     

Particle Simulation of Electrostatic Waves Driven by an Electron Beam

A one-dimensional electrostatic particle-in-cell simulation is performed to study electrostatic wave excitation due to an electron beam in a plasma system. The excited fundamental and harmonic waves are analyzed with the fast Fourier transformation and the wavelet transformation. The second harmonic is suggested to be generated by wave-wave coupling during the nonlinear evolution, which involves forward propagating and backward propagating Langmuir waves. Furthermore, the background electrons may be heated and accelerated by the electrostatic waves.     

Electrical excitation of surface plasmons

We exploit a plasmon mediated two-step momentum down-conversion scheme to convert low-energy tunneling electrons into propagating photons. Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) propagating along an extended gold nanowire are excited on one end by low-energy electron tunneling and are then converted to free-propagating photons at the other end. The separation of excitation and outcoupling proves that tunneling electrons excite gap plasmons that subsequently couple to propagating plasmons. Our work shows that electron tunneling provides a nonoptical, voltage-controlled, and low-energy pathway for launching SPPs in nanostructures, such as plasmonic waveguides.     

Surface plasmon mediated near-field imaging and optical addressing in nanoscience

We present an overview of recent progress in "plasmonics". We focus our study on the observation and excitation of surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) with optical near-field microscopy. We discuss in particular recent applications of photon scanning tunnelling microscope (PSTM) for imaging of SPP propagating in metal and dielectric wave guides. We show how near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) can be used to optically and actively address remote nano objects such as quantum dots. Additionally we compare results obtained with near-field microcopy to those obtained with other optical far-field methods of analysis such as leakage radiation microscopy (LRM).     

一次人工触发闪电上行正先导的传输特征

利用山东一次人工触发闪电的高速摄像和30 m, 60 m和480 m的同步电场测量, 清晰显示了人工触发闪电上行正先导的传输特征.上行正先导头部光强相对较强, 二维发展速度变化波动较大并呈现明显不规则性,表明上行正先导发展具有明显的梯级特征. 在先导开始阶段从340 m到705 m高度之间上行正先导平均发展速度为9.8×10⁴ m/s,起始速度是 3.8×10⁴ m/s,局部速度总体上随高度呈现增加趋势.电场变化在近距离产生有规律的梯级状 变化,记录到的28个梯级相邻梯级间隔变化从14 μs 到 39 μs,几何平均值为25.1 μs. 估计的先导梯级长度分布在0.9 m到3.7 m,几何平均值为1.7 m.先导电场变化由慢的正向梯级状变化和 脉冲变化组成,结合光学和电场变化测量结果,得出正先导头部通道发生弯曲可使其电场变化的梯级特征减弱 或消失;正负先导梯级形成机制可能类似,均由其先导头部前端的双向流光发展而来.     

Stationary spectroscopy of biotissues in vivo: Fluorescent studies of some pathological states

The stationary spectra of autofluorescence, along with the reflection coefficient at the wavelength of excitation, are measured in vivo for some stomach tissues in the case of different pathological states (dysplasia, superficial gastritis, and cancer) using a nitrogen laser as the source of excitation (λ_rad=337.1 nm). The fluorescence spectra obtained are decomposed into Gaussian-Lorentzian components. It is found that, in development of dysplasia and tumor processes, at least seven groups of fluorophores can be distinguished that form the entire emission spectrum. The ratio between the fluorescence intensities of flavins and NAD(P)H is determined and the degree of respiratory activity of cells estimated for the states considered. The quantum yields of fluorescence of the biotissues under investigation are estimated.     

The cascade model for multiple-pair creation in strong fields

Using computational quantum field theory we study the spontaneous breakdown process of the matter vacuum triggered by a strong external force field. We focus on the time scales that determine the creation of multiple electron-positron pair states. We show how the Pauli exclusion principle affects the creation probabilities of states with more than one pair. In the long time limit the evolution of these probabilities can be approximated by a simple cascade model. This model predicts a consecutive excitation from states with lower number of particles to those with a higher number of particles.     

A Particle-in-Cell Simulation Study on Harmonic Waves Excited by Electron Beams in Unmagnetized Plasmas

The excitation of harmonic waves by an electron beam is studied with electrostatic simulations.The results suggest that the harmonic waves are excited during the linear stage of the simulation and are developed in the nonlinear stage.First,the Langmuir waves(LWs)are excited by the beam electrons.Then the coupling of the forward propagating LWs and beam modes will excite the second harmonic waves.The third harmonic waves will be produced if the lower velocity side of the beam still has a positive velocity gradient.The beam velocity decreases at the same time,which provides the energy for wave excitation.We find that it is difficult to excite the harmonic waves with the increase of the thermal velocity of the beam electrons.The beam electrons will be heated after waves are excited,and then the part of the forward propagating LWs will turn into electron acoustic waves under the condition with a large enough intensity of beam electrons.Moreover,the action of ions hardly affects the formation of harmonic waves.     

Parametric instabilities in magnetized bi-ion and dusty plasmas

The excitation of low frequency modes of oscillations in a magnetized bi-ion or dusty plasma with parametric pumping of the magnetic field is analysed. The equation of motion governing the perturbed plasma is derived and parametrically excited transverse modes propagating along the magnetic field are found. With multiple ion species or charged dust present, a number of different circularly polarized modes can be excited. The stability of these modes is investigated as a function of the plasma parameters. The modulational instabilities of large amplitude normal modes, modified by the extra ion species or dust and propagating along the magnetic field, are also investigated Article presented at the International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology, 9–14 December 2002, Bangalore, India.     

Sonodynamic therapy--a review of the synergistic effects of drugs and ultrasound

Sonodynamic therapy, the ultrasound dependent enhancement of cytotoxic activities of certain compounds (sonosensitizers) in studies with cells in vitro and in tumor bearing animals, is reviewed. The attractive features of this modality for cancer treatment emerges from the ability to focus the ultrasound energy on malignancy sites buried deep in tissues and to locally activate a preloaded sonosensitizer. Possible mechanisms of sonodynamic therapy include generation of sonosensitizer derived radicals which initiate chain peroxidation of membrane lipids via peroxyl and/or alkoxyl radicals, the physical destabilization of the cell membrane by the sonosensitizer thereby rendering the cell more susceptible to shear forces or ultrasound enhanced drug transport across the cell membrane (sonoporation). Evidence against the role of singlet oxygen in sonodynamic therapy is discussed. The mechanism of sonodynamic therapy is probably not governed by a universal mechanism, but may be influenced by multiple factors including the nature of the biological model, the sonosensitizer and the ultrasound parameters. The current review emphasizes the effect of ultrasound induced free radicals in sonodynamic therapy.     

In Situ Self-Assembly of Quantum Dots at the Plasma Membrane Mediates Energy Transfer-Based Activation of Channelrhodopsin

The use of nanoparticle (NP) bioconjugates to control the activity of membrane ion channels has recently emerged as a new paradigm for the activation of electrically excitable cells. An NP-based strategy is reported for the specific activation of channelrhodopsin C1V1 (ChR-C1V1) expressed in the plasma membrane of HEK 293T/17 cells. Hydrophilic CdSe/ZnS core–shell semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are self-assembled to the exofacial face of recombinantly expressed ChR-C1V1 by metal affinity-driven interaction of the QD ZnS shell with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag displayed on ChR-C1V1. This configuration enables the Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based excitation and activation of the 11-cis-retinal moiety of ChR-C1V1 using the QD as a light harvesting transducer/energy donor. It is shown that the specific laser-induced opening of the ChR-C1V1 channel wherein the photoexcited QD (405 nm excitation, 530 nm emission) iteratively activates ChR-C1V1 channels as confirmed using the voltage-sensitive dye (VSD) bis-(1,3-diethylthiobarbituric acid)trimethine oxonol (DiSBAC ₂ (3)). In the absence of the QD transducer, excitation of ChR-C1V1-expressing cells at 405 nm results in no activation of ChR-C1V1. The results demonstrate the ability to controllably interface QDs with living cells for the activation of ChR membrane proteins and detail a new NP-bioconjugate hybrid system for the specific activation of ion channels.     

Remodelling of cellular excitation (reaction) and intercellular coupling (diffusion) by chronic atrial fibrillation represented by a reaction-diffusion system

Human atrial tissue is an excitable system, in which myocytes are excitable elements, and cell-to-cell electrotonic interactions are via diffusive interactions of cell membrane potentials. We developed a family of excitable system models for human atrium at cellular, tissue and anatomical levels for both normal and chronic atrial fibrillation (AF) conditions. The effects of AF-induced remodelling of cell membrane ionic channels (reaction kinetics) and intercellular gap junctional coupling (diffusion) on atrial excitability, conduction of excitation waves and dynamics of re-entrant excitation waves are quantified. Both ionic channel and gap junctional coupling remodelling have rate dependent effects on atrial propagation. Membrane channel conductance remodelling allows the propagation of activity at higher rates than those sustained in normal tissue or in tissue with gap junctional remodelling alone. Membrane channel conductance remodelling is essential for the propagation of activity at rates higher than 300/min as seen in AF. Spatially heterogeneous gap junction coupling remodelling increased the risk of conduction block, an essential factor for the genesis of re-entry. In 2D and 3D anatomical models, the dynamical behaviours of re-entrant excitation waves are also altered by membrane channel modelling. This study provides insights to understand the pro-arrhythmic effects of AF-induced reaction and diffusion remodelling in atrial tissue.