Optical parametric amplification of femtosecond pulses tunable from the blue to the infrared with microjoule energies

A white-light continuum is used to seed a two-stage optical parametric amplifier pumped by the second harmonic of a regeneratively amplified Ti:sapphire laser system operating at 824 nm. Microjoule energies are achieved in the signal branch, which is tunable from 472 to 785 nm. Near-transform-limited sub-200-fs pulses are attainable over the vast majority of the tuning range.     

Performance limitations of a free-space optical communication satellite network owing to vibrations: heterodyne detection

Free-space optical communication between satellites in a distributed network can permit high data rates of communication between different places on Earth. To establish optical communication between any two satellites requires that the line of sight of their optics be aligned during the entire communication time. Because of the large distance between the satellites and the alignment accuracy required, the pointing from one satellite to another is complicated because of vibrations of the pointing system caused by two fundamental stochastic mechanisms: tracking noise created by the electro-optic tracker and vibrations derived from mechanical components. Vibration of the transmitter beam in the receiver plane causes a decrease in the received optical power. Vibrations of the receiver telescope relative to the received beam decrease the heterodyne mixing efficiency. These two factors increase the bit-error rate of a coherent detection network. We derive simple mathematical models of the network bit-error rate versus the system parameters and the transmitter and receiver vibration statistics. An example of a practical optical heterodyne free-space satellite optical communication network is presented. From this research it is clear that even low-amplitude vibration of the satellite-pointing systems dramatically decreases network performance.     

Imaging through scattering media by the use of an analytical model of perturbation amplitudes in the time domain

A method of generating images through highly scattering media is presented that involves comparing measurements of the time-dependent intensity of transmitted light with an analytical model describing the sensitivity of that intensity on localized changes in optical properties. A least-squares fitting procedure is employed to derive the amplitudes of the measurement perturbations caused by embedded absorbers and scatterers located along a line of sight between the source and detector. Images are presented of a highly scattering, solid plastic phantom with optical properties closely matched to those of human breast tissue at near-infrared wavelengths. The phantom is a 54-mm-thick slab, containing four small cylinders of contrasting scatter and absorption. Results show that embedded absorbers can be distinguished from embedded scatterers, and that the diffusion perturbation amplitude provides inherently greater spatial resolution than the absorption perturbation amplitude.     

Presence of mind: a reaction to Thomas Sheridan's "Further musings on the psychophysics of presence."

An operator's sense of remote presence during teleoperation or use of virtual environment interfaces is analyzed as to what characteristics it should have to qualify it as an explanatory scientific construct. But the implicit goal of designing virtual environment interfaces to maximize presence is itself questioned in a second section in which examples of human-machine interfaces beneficially designed to avoid a strong sense of egocentric presence are cited. In conclusion, it is argued that the design of a teleoperation or virtual environment system should generally focus on the efficient communication of causal interaction. In this view the sense of presence, that is of actually being at the simulated or remote workplace, is an epiphenomena of secondary importance for design.     

Patient safety in outpatient surgery: the viewpoint of the healthcare providers

The objective of this study is to understand the viewpoint of healthcare providers with regard to patient safety in outpatient surgery settings. Two methods were used to gather data from the healthcare providers: (1) questionnaire with open-ended questions about six predefined stages of the patient care process; (2) survey with closed questions. With the first method, the main quality and safety of care issues concerned communication to patients, coordination of reports and forms, patient and staff time pressures and standards of care. The first two stages of the outpatient surgery process, i.e. patient work-up prior to day of surgery and patient admission and preparation on the day of surgery, yielded many more comments than the other four stages. The results of the structured questionnaire show that, overall, the healthcare providers report high quality of care provided by themselves (98%) and their surgery centre (96%). With regard to patient safety (i.e. cancellations of surgeries, patient safety problems and serious mistakes), there was a clear difference in perceptions reported by the physicians vs. the nurses and other staff. Nurses and other staff were more likely to report patient safety problems than physicians. The combination of qualitative data from the initial questionnaire and the quantitative data from the structured questionnaire provides a rather complete view of the outpatient surgery staff perceptions of quality and safety of care. This research highlights the importance of getting input from the healthcare providers regarding the quality and safety of care rather than relying only on traditional measures about patient outcomes.     

A theory of mode of action of azolylalkylquinolines as DNA binding agents using automated flexible ligand docking

Azolylalkylquinolines (AAQs) are a family of quinolines with varying degrees of cytotoxic activity (comparable or moderately superior to adriamycin in some cases) developed in the past decade in our group where their exact mode of action is still unclear. In this study the most probable DNA binding mode of AAQs was investigated employing a novel flexible ligand docking approach by using AutoDock 3.0. Forty-nine AAQs with known experimental inhibitory activity were docked onto d(CGCAAATTTGCG)(2), d(CGATCG)(2) and d(CGCG)(2) oligonucleotides retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (PDB IDs: 102D, 1D12 and 1D32, respectively) as the representatives of the three plausible models of interactions between chemotherapeutic agents and DNA (groove binding, groove binding plus intercalation and bisintercalation, respectively). Good correlation (r(2)=0.64) between calculated binding energies and experimental inhibitory activities was obtained using groove binding plus intercalation model for phenyl-azolylalkylquinoline (PAAQ) series. Our findings show that the most probable mode of action of PAAQs as DNA binding agents is via intercalation of quinolinic moiety between CG base pairs with linker chain and azole moiety binding to the minor groove.