Monolithic master oscillator power amplifier at 1.58 µm for lidar measurements

Nowadays the interest in high power semiconductor devices is growing for applications such as telemetry, lidar system or free space communications. Indeed semiconductor devices can be an alternative to solid state lasers because they are more compact and less power consuming. These characteristics are very important for constrained and/or low power supply environment such as airplanes or satellites. Lots of work has been done in the 800-1200 nm range for integrated and free space Master Oscillator Power Amplifier (MOPA) [1]-[3]. At 1.5 ?m, the only commercially available MOPA is from QPC [4]: the fibred output power is about 700 mW and the optical linewidth is 500 kHz. In this paper, we first report on the simulations we have done to determine the appropriate vertical structure and architecture for a good MOPA at 1.58 ?m (section II). Then we describe the fabrication of the devices (section III). Finally we report on the optical and electrical measurements we have done for various devices (section IV).

Amination of enzymes to improve biocatalyst performance: coupling genetic modification and physicochemical tools

Improvement of the features of an enzyme is in many instances a pre-requisite for the industrial implementation of these exceedingly interesting biocatalysts. To reach this goal, the researcher may utilize different tools. For example, amination of the enzyme surface produces an alteration of the isoelectric point of the protein along with its chemical reactivity (primary amino groups are the most widely used to obtain the reaction of the enzyme with surfaces, chemical modifiers, etc.) and even its “in vivo” behavior. This review will show some examples of chemical (mainly modifying the carboxylic groups using the carbodiimide route), physical (using polycationic polymers like polyethyleneimine) and genetic amination of the enzyme surface. Special emphasis will be put on cases where the amination is performed to improve subsequent protein modifications. Thus, amination has been used to increase the intensity of the enzyme/support multipoint covalent attachment, to improve the interaction with cation exchanger supports or polymers, or to promote the formation of crosslinkings (both intra-molecular and in the production of crosslinked enzyme aggregates). In other cases, amination has been used to directly modulate the enzyme properties (both in immobilized or free form). Amination of the enzyme surface may also pursue other goals not related to biocatalysis. For example, it has been used to improve the raising of antibodies against different compounds (both increasing the number of haptamers per enzyme and the immunogenicity of the composite) or the ability to penetrate cell membranes. Thus, amination may be a very powerful tool to improve the use of enzymes and proteins in many different areas and a great expansion of its usage may be expected in the near future.

Will income inequality cause a middle-income trap in Asia? Bruegel Working Paper 2013/06, 10 October 2013

The Asian economy is expected to realise favourable growth during the first half of this century, but there is no guarantee. There is a discussion about a ‘middle-income trap’, which refers to a country that has realised rapid growth to become a middle-income country but is unable to grow further. A middle-income trap could occur not only if there is a delay in shifting the economy toward a productivity-driven structure, but also if there is a worsening of income distribution.We consider this in line with the theories of development economics and through a quantitative analysis. The relationship between income inequality and the trap can be explained by the Kuznets hypothesis and the basic-needs approach. Our quantitative analysis supports the Kuznets hypothesis, and indicates that,although a low-income country can accelerate its economic growth with the worsening of income distribution as an engine, a middle income country would experience a decreasing growth rate if it fails to narrow the income gap between the top and bottom income groups. The results also show that the basic-needs approach is also applicable in practice, and imply that the improvement of access to secondary education is important. A sensitivity analysis for three Asian upper-middle-income countries(China, Malaysia and Thailand) also shows that the situation related to a middle-income trap is worse than average in China and Malaysia. These two countries, according to the result of the sensitivity analysis, should urgently improve access to secondary education and should implement income redistribution measures to develop high-tech industries, before their demographic dividends expire. Income redistribution includes the narrowing of rural urban income disparities, benefits to low-income individuals, direct income transfers, vouchers or free provision of education and health-care, and so on, but none of these are simple to implement.

The Great Lakes frontier; an epic of the Old Northwest.

Bibliography: p. 416-423.

The complete works of Henry George ...

On cover: Complete works of Henry George. Fels fund. Library edition ...

The complete works of Henry George.

On cover: Complete works of Henry George.

Deoxycytidine glyoxal:Lesion induction and evidence of repair following vitamin C supplementation in vivo

Oxidative DNA damage is postulated to be involved in carcinogenesis, and as a consequence, dietary antioxidants have received much interest. A recent report indicates that vitamin C facilitates the decomposition of hydroperoxides in vitro, generating reactive aldehydes. We present evidence for the in vivo generation of glyoxal, an established product of lipid peroxidation, glucose/ascorbate autoxidation, or free radical attack of deoxyribose, following supplementation of volunteers with 400 mg/d vitamin C. Utilizing a monoclonal antibody to a deoxycytidine-glyoxal adduct (gdC), we measured DNA lesion levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Supplementation resulted in significant (p = .001) increases in gdC levels at weeks 11, 16, and 21, with corresponding increases in plasma malondialdehyde levels and, coupled with previous findings, is strongly suggestive of a pro-oxidative effect. However, continued supplementation revealed a highly significant (p = .0001) reduction in gdC levels. Simultaneous analysis of cyclobutane thymine dimers revealed no increase upon supplementation but, as with gdC, levels decreased. Although no single mechanism is identified, our data demonstrate a pro-oxidant event in the generation of reactive aldehydes following vitamin C supplementation in vivo. These results are also consistent with our hypothesis for a role of vitamin C in an adaptive/repair response and indicate that nucleotide excision repair specifically may be affected. © 2003 Elsevier Science Inc.

Modeling and optimization of cascaded erbium and holmium doped fluoride fiber lasers

Numerical modeling of cascade erbium-doped and holmium-doped fluoride fiber lasers is presented. Fiber lengths were optimized for cascade lasers that had fixed or free-running wavelengths using all known spectroscopic parameters. The performance of the cascade laser was tested against dopant concentration, energy transfer process, heat generation, output coupling, and pump schemes. The results suggest that the slope efficiencies and thresholds for both transitions increase with increasing Ho3+ or Er3+ concentration with the slope efficiency stabilizing after 1 mol% rare earth doping. The heat generation in the Ho3+-based system is lower compared to the Er 3+-based system at low dopant concentration as a result of the lower rates of multiphonon relaxation. Decreasing the output coupling for the upper (∼3 μm) transition decreases the threshold of the lower transition and the upper transition benefits from decreasing the output coupling for the lower transition for both cascade systems. The highest slope efficiency was achieved under counter-propagating pump conditions. Saturation of the output power occurs at comparatively higher pump power with dilute Er3+ doping compared with heavier doping. Overall, we show that the cascade Ho3+ -doped fluoride laser is the best candidate for high power output because of its higher slope efficiency and lower temperature excursion of the core and no saturation of the output. © 2013 IEEE.

Town and Countryside in early modern Hungary The Case of Sopron, c. 1500-1800

The town of Sopron (Ödenburg) is situated near the western border of Hungary at the junction of major routes of commerce, no further than 70 km from Vienna. As early as in 1291 the town had become a chartered town or free royal town, which meant the most fully-fledged municipial autonomy in this period. The town was subordinated only to the king and could represent itself in parliament from 1445. The surrounding seigniorial towns and villages often lodged an appeal with the Town Court due to its wide legal autonomy. The inhabitants of seigniorial towns and the villagers could have been under the necessity of going to the town, and the legal proceedings they experienced in Sopron may have meant a model pattern for them. The seigniorial town (oppidum) is a settlement under the landlord's authority, with limited legal privileges, concentrated mostly on agricultural production and on the exchange of products of its immediate hinterland. Sopron as a county town was gradually becoming significant during the early modern period. The county (megye) was not only the unit of administration in Hungary, but that of the autonomy of nobility, too. The importance of Sopron as a county town attracted many noblemen dwelling in Sopron county to the town. The county was one of the most densely populated in the 15-18th c., at the beginning of the 18th c., for example, the density was 32 person/km2 and it rose more than 40 p/km2 by the end of the century. The population of Sopron was approximately 3500-3700 in the middle of the 15th c., and due to the decline during the later decades some 3000 persons lived in the town in the early 16th c. According to the first national census the population of Sopron was 12600 in 1784-87. These data place Sopron at the high level of Hungarian urban hierarchy in this period. This paper will explore two significant aspects of the relation between the town and its countryside: the problems of mutual economic dependence and the role of Sopron as a centre of culture.

Armed Groups and Violence in Paraguay

Armed violence in Paraguay is not a recent phenomenon. During the second half of the XX Century, Paraguay saw the rise of a larger number of underground, revolutionary movements that sought the overthrow of the Alfredo Stroessner’s (1954-1989) government. From among those movements emerged the Partido Patria Libre (or, Free Fatherland, also known for its acronym PPL), made up of a two branches: one legal and the other one, operational. The latter was based on people’s power, as represented by “Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo” (or, the Paraguayan People’s Army, with acronym EPP). After EPP broke with PPL in March 2008, this Marxist-oriented revolutionary project, which was apparently oriented to put an end to the social, political and economic inequalities in Paraguay, began to carry out markedly criminal activities, which included bank robberies, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorist attacks and armed confrontations. Its strategies and modus operandi utilized by the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC). Paraguay features a farm sector in a state of crisis, in which cattle-ranchers, peasants and agro-exporting companies live in a constant strife. The Paraguayan Departments that are the most affected by this situation are Concepciόn, San Pedro, Canindeyú y Caazapá, which also suffer from a weak government presence. This deficiency has made these departments ripe for drug-trafficking activity by Brazilian groups such as Primer Comando Capital (i.e., First Capital command), also PCC and Comando Vermelho, (i.e., The Red Command). That is why many peasants, now recruited by EPP, have joined the drug-trafficking business and that, not only as marihuana growers but as “campanas” (i.e., early warning sentinels) for the organization. This helps shape their attitudes for their future involvement in all areas of drug-trafficking. Paraguayan society is the result of social inequity and inequality, such as those resulting from a lack of opportunity. Although Paraguay has successfully recovered from the last world economic crisis, economic growth, by itself, does not ensure an improvement in the quality of life. As long as such economic and social gaps persist and the government fails to enact the policies that would result in a more just society and toward EPP neutralization or containment, the latter is bound to grow stronger. In this context, the situation in Paraguay calls for more research into the EPP phenomenon. It would also seem necessary for Paraguay to promote an open national debate that includes all sectors of society in order to raise consciousness and to induce society to take actual steps to eliminate the EPP, as well as any other group that might arise in the immediate future. EPP has strong connections with the Frente Patriόtico Manuel Rodríguez in Chile and other armed groups and peasant movements in other countries of this region. Although most governments in the region are aware that the armed struggle is not a solution to current problems, it might be worth it to hold a regional debate about armed or insurgent groups in Latin American to seek common strategies and cooperation on dealing with them since the expansion of these armed groups is a problem for all.

The production effect: the role of attentional resources

The production effect is the benefit in memory found for produced (i.e., read aloud) words relative to words read silently. It is proposed that the production effect occurs as a result of the enhanced distinctiveness associated with the produced items. The current research investigated whether attentional resources are required to encode and/or retrieve the distinctive information associated with the produced words. The literature suggests that the encoding of this distinctive information occurs automatically, but at test, purposeful attention is required to retrieve this distinctive information. To test this, participants read words aloud and silently, under either full or divided attention. Participants then completed either a recognition (Experiment 1) or free recall (Experiment 2) memory test under either full or divided attention. The findings show that when attention is divided at encoding, the benefit for aloud words remains for both recognition and free recall. When attention is divided at test, however, the benefit for aloud words remains for recognition but is absent for free recall. Overall, these results suggest that the distinctive information associated with produced words is encoded automatically, but it may not be accessible at test under attentionally demanding conditions.

Experimental measurements of the collisional absorption of XUV radiation in warm dense aluminium

The collisional (or free-free) absorption of soft x rays in warm dense aluminium remains an unsolved problem. Competing descriptions of the process exist, two of which we compare to our experimental data here. One of these is based on a weak scattering model, another uses a corrected classical approach. These two models show distinctly different behaviors with temperature. Here we describe experimental evidence for the absorption of 26-eV photons in solid density warm aluminium (Te≈1 eV). Radiative x-ray heating from palladium-coated CH foils was used to create the warm dense aluminium samples and a laser-driven high-harmonic beam from an argon gas jet provided the probe. The results indicate little or no change in absorption upon heating. This behavior is in agreement with the prediction of the corrected classical approach, although there is not agreement in absolute absorption value. Verifying the correct absorption mechanism is decisive in providing a better understanding of the complex behavior of the warm dense state.

Interventions to Promote Follow-up After Trabeculectomy Surgery in Rural Southern China: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance:

Follow-up after trabeculectomy surgery is important to surgical success, but little is known about the effect of interventions on improving follow-up in low-resource areas.

Objective:

To examine whether text message reminders and free eye medications improve follow-up after trabeculectomy in rural southern China.

Design, Setting, and Participants:

This randomized clinical trial studied 222 consecutive patients undergoing trabeculectomy from October 1, 2014, through November 31, 2015, at 4 rural hospitals in Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces, China. Data from the intention-to-treat population were analyzed.

Interventions:

Patients undergoing trabeculectomy were randomized (1:1) to receive text message reminders 3 days before appointments at 1 and 2 weeks and 1 month after surgery and free topical corticosteroid medication (US$5.30) at each visit or to standard follow-up without reminders or free medication.

Main Outcomes and Measure:

Follow-up at 1 month postoperatively.

Results:

Among 222 eligible patients, 13 (5.9%) refused and 209 (94.1%) were enrolled, with 106 (50.7%) randomized to the intervention group (mean [SD] age, 64.4 [12.7] years; 56 women [52.8%]) and 103 (49.3%) to the control group (mean [SD] age, 63.0 [12.7] years; 53 women [51.5%]). A total of 6 patients (2.9%) were unavailable for follow-up. Attendance at 1 month for the intervention group (59 of 102 [57.8%]) was significantly higher than for the control group (34 of 101 [33.7%]) (unadjusted relative risk [RR], 1.72; 95% CI, 1.13-2.63; P = .01). Factors associated with 1-month attendance in multiple regression models included intervention group membership (RR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.08-2.53; P = .02) and being told to return for suture removal (RR, 1.80; 95% CI, 1.06-3.06; P = .03). One-month attendance among controls not told about suture removal was 3 of 31 (9.7%), whereas it was 44 of 68 (64.7%) among the intervention group with suture removal (unadjusted RR, 6.69; 95% CI, 2.08-21.6; P = .001).

Conclusions and Relevance:

In this setting, low-cost interventions may significantly improve postoperative follow-up after glaucoma surgery, a potential opportunity for interventions known to improve surgical success.

Adiponectin and insulin in grey seals during suckling and fasting: relationship with nutritional state and body mass during nursing in mothers and pups

Animals that fast during breeding and/or development, such as phocids, must regulate energy balance carefully to maximize reproductive fitness and survival probability. Adiponectin, produced by adipose tissue, contributes to metabolic regulation by modulating sensitivity to insulin, increasing fatty acid oxidation by liver and muscle, and promoting adipogenesis and lipid storage in fat tissue. We tested the hypotheses that (1) circulating adiponectin, insulin, or relative adiponectin gene expression is related to nutritional state, body mass, and mass gain in wild gray seal pups; (2) plasma adiponectin or insulin is related to maternal lactation duration, body mass, percentage milk fat, or free fatty acid (FFA) concentration; and (3) plasma adiponectin and insulin are correlated with circulating FFA in females and pups. In pups, plasma adiponectin decreased during suckling (linear mixed-effects model [LME]: T = 4.49; P < 0.001) and the early postweaning fast (LME: T = 3.39; P = 0.004). In contrast, their blubber adiponectin gene expression was higher during the early postweaning fast than early in suckling (LME: T = 2.11; P = 0.046). Insulin levels were significantly higher in early (LME: T = 3.52; P = 0.004) and late (LME: T = 6.99; P < 0.001) suckling than in fasting and, given the effect of nutritional state, were also positively related to body mass (LME: T = 3.58; P = 0.004). Adiponectin and insulin levels did not change during lactation and were unrelated to milk FFA or percentage milk fat in adult females. Our data suggest that adiponectin, in conjunction with insulin, may facilitate fat storage in seals and is likely to be particularly important in the development of blubber reserves in pups.

Delayed presentation of blunt duodenal injuries in children. Case report and review of literature

Background. Duodenal injuries are rare in children and classically present following a fall over the handle bar. Retroperitoneal location of the duodenum may lead to delay in diagnosis, and missed injuries are associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Case report. A 5-year-old child was admitted to the National Trauma Center, in Tirana (Albania), 28 hours after a Motor Vehicle Crash (MVC), complaining of mild abdominal pain. He was febrile (39°C) and had a white blood cells count of 18,000 mm3. On physical exam he had mild tenderness. Plain abdominal X-rays and Focused Abdominal Sonography for Trauma (FAST) were negative for free air or free fluid. The CT scan of the abdomen demonstrated free air and fluid in the retroperitoneal space. At laparatomy, a perforation of the second portion of the duodenum was found. A single layer suture repair of the duodenum with wide drainage was performed. The patient was discharged from the hospital tolerating oral feeding 8 days later. Conclusion. Duodenal injuries in children are rare. Most duodenal hematomas are managed non-operatively. This is a case of MCV with delayed presentation that was treated surgically for perforation successfully.