Quantum electron self-interaction in a strong laser field

The quantum state of an electron in a strong laser field is altered if the interaction of the electron with its own electromagnetic field is taken into account. Starting from the Schwinger-Dirac equation, we determine the states of an electron in a plane-wave field with inclusion, at leading order, of its electromagnetic self-interaction. On the one hand, the electron states show a pure quantum contribution to the electron quasimomentum, conceptually different from the conventional classical one arising from the quiver motion of the electron. On the other hand, the electron self-interaction induces a distinct dynamics of the electron spin, whose effects are shown to be measurable in principle with available technology.     

Real-time digital holographic microscopy of multiple and arbitrarily oriented planes

Digital holographic microscopy is used to numerically refocus a recorded hologram at an arbitrary axial distance. However, as a straightforward property of coherent light fields, image reconstruction on an arbitrary tilted plane could be directly obtained by a rotation in k-space. We demonstrate that this property allows the real-time microscopic inspection of particle distribution over three mutually orthogonal planes at the same time. As a straightforward application we use the proposed technique for real-time monitoring of fluid flow over the three cross sections of a microfluidic channel.     

Ultrahigh sensitivity electric field detection with a liquid electro-optical film

In this Letter, an electro-optical probe configuration with polar molecule liquids as the sensing film is proposed to improve the voltage sensitivity. This method exhibited increases in intrinsic sensitivities better than 0.1 mV/√Hz, 2 orders of magnitude larger than the normal method using a GaAs probe in the same measurement system. Based on the mechanism of orientation polarization, the electro-optic coefficient was measured to be 250 pm/V by the Teng-Man method at a modulation field of 100 Hz. This technology will be promising in applications of low-frequency field detection.     

Absolute frequency spectroscopy of CO2 lines at around 2.09 μm by combined use of an Er:fiber comb and a Ho:YLF amplifier

The low-frequency tail of an octave-spanning supercontinuum (SC) generated by an Er:fiber comb is enhanced by a multipass Ho:YLF amplifier and used in a sum-frequency-generation scheme to obtain absolute referencing of a single-mode Tm-Ho:YAG laser tunable around 2.09 μm. By tuning the comb repetition frequency, the probing laser is scanned across the absorption lines of a CO(2) gas sample and highly accurate absorption profiles are measured. This approach can be readily scaled to any wavelength above ~2 μm.     

Structural and morphological dependence of carbon nanotube arrays on catalyst aggregation

Catalyst aggregation affects the growth of carbon nanotube (CNT) arrays in terms of tubular structures, waviness, entanglement, lengths, and growth density etc., which are important issues for application developments. We present a systematic correlation between the aggregation of catalyst on the SiO₂/Si substrate and the structure and morphology of CNT arrays. The thickness of the catalyst film has a direct effect on the areal density of the catalytic particles and then the alignment of the CNT array. Introducing alumina as buffer layer and annealing the catalyst film at low pressure are two effective approaches to downsize the catalyst particles and then the diameter, wall number of the CNTs. Both the size and areal density of the catalyst also change with the CNT growth in accordance with Ostwald ripening process, with the bottom of the CNT array varying from well-aligned to disordered and adhesion between catalyst particles and the substrate getting enhanced. Strategies including tuning the thickness of the catalyst film, changing buffer layer, controlling on the growth time and the system pressure were used to regulate the aggregation of the catalyst. CNT arrays from disordered to well-aligned, from multi-walled to few-walled and further to single-walled were reproducibly synthesized by chemical vapor deposition of acetylene.     

A method of whispered speech enhancement based on speech absence probability and modified mel-domain masking model

Whispered speech enhancement using auditory masking model in modified Meldomain and Speech Absence Probability(SAP)was proposed.In light of the phonation characteristic of whisper,we modify the Mel-frequency Scaling model.Whispered speech is filtered by the proposed model.Meanwhile,the value of masking threshold for each frequency band is dynamically determined by speech absence probability.Then whispered speech enhancement is conducted by adaptively rectifying the spectrum subtraction coefficients using different masking threshold values.Results of objective and subjective tests on the enhanced whispered signal show that compared with other methods;the proposed method can enhance whispered signal with better subjective auditory quality and less distortion by reducing the music noise and background noise under the masking threshold value.     

Mixing-induced spontaneous supersymmetry breaking

It is conjectured that flavor mixing furnishes a universal mechanism for the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry. The conjecture is proved explicitly for the mixing of two chiral N=1 supermultiplets and arguments for its general validity are given. That is an instance of the O?Raifeartaigh Lagrangian for which there is no tree-level nor perturbative breaking. Nonetheless, the dynamical breaking occurs due to the vacuum condensate, a mixing-induced nonperturbative effect that lifts the zero point energy.     

Differentiation between intra-axial metastatic tumor progression and radiation injury following fractionated radiation therapy or stereotactic radiosurgery using MR spectroscopy, perfusion MR imaging or volume progression modeling

Objective

To determine the accuracy of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), perfusion MR imaging (MRP), or volume modeling in distinguishing tumor progression from radiation injury following radiotherapy for brain metastasis.

Methods

Twenty-six patients with 33 intra-axial metastatic lesions who underwent MRS (n=41) with or without MRP (n=32) after cranial irradiation were retrospectively studied. The final diagnosis was based on histopathology (n=4) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) follow-up with clinical correlation (n=29). Cho/Cr (choline/creatinine), Cho/NAA (choline/N-acetylaspartate), Cho/nCho (choline/contralateral normal brain choline) ratios were retrospectively calculated for the multi-voxel MRS. Relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV), relative peak height (rPH) and percentage of signal-intensity recovery (PSR) were also retrospectively derived for the MRPs. Tumor volumes were determined using manual segmentation method and analyzed using different volume progression modeling. Different ratios or models were tested and plotted on the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), with their performances quantified as area under the ROC curve (AUC). MRI follow-up time was calculated from the date of initial radiotherapy until the last MRI or the last MRI before surgical diagnosis.

Results

Median MRI follow-up was 16 months (range: 2-33). Thirty percent of lesions (n=10) were determined to be radiation injury; 70% (n=23) were determined to be tumor progression. For the MRS, Cho/nCho had the best performance (AUC of 0.612), and Cho/nCho >1.2 had 33% sensitivity and 100% specificity in predicting tumor progression. For the MRP, rCBV had the best performance (AUC of 0.802), and rCBV >2 had 56% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The best volume model was percent increase (AUC of 0.891); 65% tumor volume increase had 100% sensitivity and 80% specificity.

Conclusion

Cho/nCho of MRS, rCBV of MRP, and percent increase of MRI volume modeling provide the best discrimination of intra-axial metastatic tumor progression from radiation injury for their respective modalities. Cho/nCho and rCBV appear to have high specificities but low sensitivities. In contrast, percent volume increase of 65% can be a highly sensitive and moderately specific predictor for tumor progression after radiotherapy. Future incorporation of 65% volume increase as a pretest selection criterion may compensate for the low sensitivities of MRS and MRP.