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Background Dasiglucagon, a next‐generation, ready‐to‐use aqueous glucagon analog formulation, has been developed to treat severe hypoglycemia in individuals with diabetes. Objective The aim of this trial was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of dasiglucagon in pediatric individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1DM). Participants were children and adolescents (6–17 years) with T1DM. Methods In this randomized double‐blind trial, 42 participants were randomly allocated (2:1:1) to a single subcutaneous (SC) injection of dasiglucagon (0.6 mg), placebo, or reconstituted glucagon (GlucaGen; dosed per label) during insulin‐induced hypoglycemia. The primary endpoint was time to plasma glucose (PG) recovery (first PG increase ≥20 mg/dL after treatment initiation without rescue intravenous glucose). The primary comparison was dasiglucagon vs. placebo; glucagon acted as a reference. Results The median time (95% confidence interval) to PG recovery following SC injection was 10 min (8–12) for dasiglucagon vs. 30 min (20 to –) for placebo (P

We report the structural and optical properties of Nd:YAB (NdxY1−x Al3(BO3)4)-nanoparticle-doped PDMS elastomer films for random lasing (RL) applications. Nanoparticles with Nd ratios of x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0 were prepared and then incorporated into the PDMS elastomer to control the optical gain density and scattering center content over a wide range. The morphology and thermal stability of the elastomer composites were studied. A systematic investigation of the lasing wavelength, threshold, and linewidth of the laser was carried out by tailoring the concentration and optical gain of the scattering centers. The minimum threshold and linewidth were found to be 0.13 mJ and 0.8 nm for x = 1 and 0.8. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the RL intensity was easily tuned by controlling the degree of mechanical stretching, with strain reaching up to 300%. A strong, repeatable lasing spectrum over ~ 50 cycles of applied strain was observed, which demonstrates the high reproducibility and robustness of the RL. In consideration for biomedical applications that require long-term RL stability, we studied the intensity fluctuation of the RL emission, and confirmed that it followed Lévy-like statistics. Our work highlights the importance of using rare-earth doped nanoparticles with polymers for RL applications.

Dasiglucagon is a next-generation glucagon analogue that is stable in aqueous formulation. This dedicated immunogenicity trial to support use as rescue treatment for severe hypoglycemia was conducted to evaluate the immunogenicity of repeated subcutaneous doses of dasiglucagon in subjects with type 1 diabetes. A total of 112 subjects were randomized 1:1 to receive three subcutaneous weekly doses of either 0.6 mg dasiglucagon or 1.0 mg recombinant glucagon (GlucaGen

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the efficacy of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) for orthodontic pain control. Materials and Methods: This spilt-mouth randomized controlled clinical trial was performed on 44 mandibular first molars of 22 orthodontic patients at the Orthodontics Department of Shahid Beheshti Dental University. Elastomeric separators were placed at the mesial and distal of mandibular right and left first molars by separating pliers. Randomly, LIPUS was used at one side for 7 min and the same device with 0-degree intensity was used as sham for the other side on the facial skin. The same procedure was repeated after 24 h. Patients recorded their level of pain at 1, 6, and 24 h, and also on days 2 to 7 after, using a visual analog scale (VAS). Results: The effect of type of treatment (P=0.019), time of assessment (P

In the new generation of blood velocimeter systems, considerable attention has been paid to atomic magnetometers due to their high resolution and high sensitivity for detection of magnetic tracers. Passing the magnetic tracers adjacent to the atomic magnetometer produces a spike-like signal, the shape of which depends on the position of the tracer, as well as its velocity and orientation. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of abrupt variations in the instantaneous velocity of the magnetic tracer on the magnetometer response compare to constant velocity. Modeling the magnetic tracer as a dipole moment indicated that the velocity dependence of the magnetic field and local magnetic field gradient associated with moving magnetic tracer cause the spike-like signal to go out of symmetry in the case of variable velocity. Based on the experimental results, any instantaneous variation in tracer velocity leads to shrinkage in the signal width. The behavior has been studied for both magnetic microwire with variable instantaneous velocity and magnetic droplets in stenosis artery phantom. In addition, the position of the tracer could be detected by following the shrinkage behavior which may occur on the peak, valley, or both. These advantageous outcomes can be applied for high sensitivity diagnosis of arterial stenosis.

Spin to pseudo-spin conversion by which the non-equilibrium normal sublattice pseudo-spin polarization could be achieved by magnetic field has been proposed in graphene. Calculations have been performed within the Kubo approach for both pure and disordered graphene including vertex corrections of impurities. Results indicate that the normal magnetic field $$B_z$$ B z produces pseudo-spin polarization in graphene regardless of whether the contribution of vertex corrections has been taken into account or not. This is because of non-vanishing correlation between the $$\sigma _z$$ σ z and $$\tau _z$$ τ z provided by the co-existence of extrinsic Rashba and intrinsic spin–orbit interactions which combines normal spin and pseudo-spin. For the case of pure graphene, valley-symmetric spin to pseudo-spin response function is obtained. Meanwhile, by taking into account the vertex corrections of impurities the obtained response function is weakened by several orders of magnitude with non-identical contributions of different valleys. This valley-asymmetry originates from the inversion symmetry breaking generated by the scattering matrix. Finally, spin to pseudo-spin conversion in graphene could be realized as a practical technique for both generation and manipulation of normal sublattice pseudo-spin polarization by an accessible magnetic field in a easy way. This novel proposed effect not only offers the opportunity to selective manipulation of carrier densities on different sublattice but also could be employed in data transfer technology. The normal pseudo-spin polarization which manifests it self as electron population imbalance of different sublattices can be detected by optical spectroscopy measurements.

Surgical correction is considered in women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse (POP). There is an expected increase in the prevalence of surgical correction due to an aging population within the United States. Individuals with previous colorectal surgery present a unique challenge considering the changes in pelvic anatomy. This case discusses the challenges of posterior colporrhaphy in a patient with previous, remote J-pouch surgery. In traditional posterior colporrhaphy, randomized controlled trials have not shown any benefit of graft augmentation (Maher, 2016). However, the utilization of a biologic graft to improve anatomical correction is discussed in this unique case. Short term anatomical success was obtained without immediate complications in the postoperative period. In a patient with a history of ulcerative colitis with colorectal resection and a J-pouch, surgery can be challenging due to alterations of pelvic anatomy. Modification of the standard surgical approach may be required to achieve success.

Measurement of extremely weak magnetic fields in double-resonance atomic magnetometers based on resonant optical excitation has been an active area of research in recent years. Magnetometer sensitivity can be improved via detection of higher harmonics of the magnetic resonance, a resonance which has a maximum sensitivity under conditions where the ratio of the amplitude to the line-width of the resonance signal is maximized. Based on the Bloch theorem, we analyze the time evolution of the spin polarization corresponding to each harmonic component of the resonance signal and measure this progression experimentally. Our results revealed that there is an optimal harmonic number for achieving the highest sensitivity. We have shown that the longitudinal and transverse relaxation times of spin polarization can manipulate the harmonics with the best sensitivity while the excitation frequency is detuned from the Larmor frequency.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of LPRF, placed in extraction sockets, on orthodontic tooth movement (OTM). Materials and Methods: Thirty extraction sockets from eight patients (five males, three females, with a mean age of 17.37 years; range 12–25 years) requiring extraction of first premolars based on their orthodontic treatment plan participated in this split-mouth clinical trial. In one randomly selected quadrant of each jaw, the extraction socket was preserved as the experimental group by immediate placement of LPRF in the extraction socket. The other quadrant served as the control group for secondary healing. Immediately, the teeth adjacent to the defects were pulled together by a NiTi closed-coil spring with constant force. A piece of 0.016 × 0.022-inch stainless steel wire was used as the main arch wire. The amount of OTM was measured on the study casts at eight time points with 2-week intervals for 3 months. Analysis of random effect model was performed for the purpose of comparison between the experimental and control groups. Results: According to the random effect model, a statistically significant difference was found between the experimental and control group in rate of OTM (P = 0.006). Conclusion: According to the results, application of LPRF, as an interdisciplinary approach combining orthodontics and surgery, may accelerate OTM, particularly in extraction cases.

Distributed feedback Raman fiber lasers with $\pi $ -phase-shifted uniform gratings are modeled and simulated in the steady state, to optimize their performance. Using the parameters of realistic devices, it is found that the position change of the $\pi $ -phase-shift in a constant-strength uniform grating has a significant impact on the laser performance including right and left-hand-side output power and emission frequency, and linewidth. Also, it is shown that the optimum phase-shift position to maximize the laser uni-directionality is dependent on pump power and fiber loss value. A new design approach based on an engineered $\pi $ -phase-shifted step-like-strength uniform grating is presented demonstrating that even for a high-loss fiber (0.1 dB/m), the laser power and linewidth can be efficiently increased and decreased by ~25% and ~15%, respectively, for the same total device length and pumping condition, just by the proper choices of the phase-shift position and two coupling coefficients.

Many efforts have been devoted to the developments of atomic magnetometers for achieving the high sensitivity required in biomagnetic applications. To reach the high sensitivity, many types of atomic magnetometers have been introduced for optimization of the creation and relaxation rates of atomic spin polarization. In this paper, regards to sensitivity optimization techniques in the Mx configuration, we have proposed a novelty approach for synchronization of the spin precession in the Bell-Bloom magnetometers. We have utilized the phenomenological Bloch equations to simulate the spin dynamics when modulation of pumping light and radio frequency magnetic field were both used for atomic spin synchronization. Our results showed that the synchronization process, improved the magnetometer sensitivity respect to the classical configurations.

Optically pumped atomic magnetometers have found widespread application in biomagnetic studies. Most of the studies utilize MX gradiometers as sensitive and simple arrangements. One the sensitivity improvement methods in the MX configurations is detection of magnetic resonance at higher harmonics due to nonlinear precession of spin polarization. To enhance the harmonic components, we have proposed square wave RF magnetic fields with various duty cycles as substitute for sinusoidal fields. Our results revealed that detection of the 5th harmonic of a 10% duty cycle square wave magnetic field, improved the magnetometer sensitivity by a factor of 4.5 respect to the first harmonic which could be a reliable option to generate high sensitivity MX magnetometers in the MCG applications.

Remote and non-invasive tracking of a moving magnetic object based on an atomic magnetometer has been developed recently. The sensitivity of atomic magnetometers is limited by mechanisms that relax the spin precession of alkali atoms. Meanwhile, some of these mechanisms such as magnetic field gradient are applicable in magnetic object tracking. Correspondingly, we have illustrated a way of operating an Mx atomic magnetometer to measure the magnetic field and its gradient simultaneously for a moving magnetic microwire, which resulted in recording a spike-like signal. We described the dependency of the signal on the position, velocity, and direction of the microwire. According to the results, the measurement of the inhomogeneous local magnetic field gradient opens new ways for obtaining the direction of the velocity of magnetic objects accessible in cells with large sizes. Furthermore, the accuracy of the velocimetry was found as 40 µm/s which could be an important means for assessing the microvascular blood flow.

We present theoretical investigations including simulations and statistical analyses on the fluctuations of the temporal output power in a Brillouin erbium-doped fiber laser. The generation of even Stokes waves up to the 5th order is considered by solving coupled-mode equations including SBS and Kerr nonlinearities. It is demonstrated that by increasing the EDFA pump power and generating a few orders of Stokes waves in such a laser, there are strong power fluctuations and rogue events are expected. Transition from Gaussian-like to levy-like regime is described as the power is increased from threshold resulting in the initial Stokes wave generation to well beyond threshold generating 5 effective even Stokes waves. Accordingly, phase portraits confirm increasing fluctuations as a function of the power. It is also shown that at the SBS lasing threshold, the output signals have the maximum correlation over replicas in round trips, nevertheless by enhancing the power, the correlation diminishes, which results in a full symmetry breaking and the system radiates in a chaotic manner and exhibits random laser behavior.

Highly sensitive atomic magnetometers use optically detected magnetic resonance of atomic spins to measure extremely weak magnetic field changes. The magnetometer sensitivity is directly proportional to the ratio of intensity to line-shape of the resonance signal. To obtain narrower resonance signal, we implemented harmonic detection of magnetic resonance method in M x configuration. The nonlinear spin polarization dynamics in detection of the higher harmonics were employed in phenomenological Bloch equations. The measured and simulated harmonic components of the resonance signals in frequency domain yielded significantly narrower line-width accompanying much improved sensitivity. Our results confirm the sensitivity improvement by a factor of two in optical atomic magnetometer via second harmonic signal which can open a new insight in the weak magnetic field measurement system design.

An optimal cooling rate is a critical factor affecting the survival of biological cells during cryopreservation. In this paper, a system for on-board cooling-rate-controlled cryopreservation under low-temperature (-80 °C) environments is developed with disposable, biocompatible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) storage chambers on top of localized heaters on printed circuit boards. The assembly allows the storage chambers to be removed from the temperature-controlled board and transferred from a −80 °C freezer to a liquid nitrogen tank for long-term cryopreservation. The use of PDMS enables the insertion of a syringe needle for loading samples, and during freezing, seeding extracellular ice formation. The PDMS storage chambers were fabricated using a polymethyl methacrylate mold made using a laser cutting machine. For each device, a copper thin film was deposited on a fiberglass epoxy substrate using electroless plating, and patterned using photolithography techniques into a micro-serpentine shape. The copper film functioned simultaneously as a resistive heating element and a temperature sensor with a proportional-integral-derivative feedback control program embedded in a microcontroller to semi-actively control the transient temperature profiles during the freezing process for multiple samples with different cooling rate requirements. The results show that the proposed devices are able to maintain a stable cooling rate down to 1 °C/min, which covers the optimal range for some mammalian cell types with low cell membrane permeability, for which low cooling rates are required. A heat transfer simulation was established to model transient and spatial temperature profiles of the device during freezing. Preliminary biological tests on yeast cells and their survival rates after on-board cryopreservation suggest that the prototype device can be a low-cost, reliable, and convenient tool for laboratory use in cryopreservation.

We propose a technique to design highly-efficient and -unidirectional DFB Raman fiber lasers based on the engineering of the grating’s coupling coefficient including a π-phase shift position in the fiber. For this purpose, first the ideal intra-cavity signal powers for different pump power levels are determined for given fiber lengths. Then, the sum and difference between the counter-propagating wave intensities at each small segment within fiber lengths are calculated resulting in determining the ideal grating’s coupling functions for co- and contra-directional-pumping. The steady-state behavior of the laser using realistic parameters is finally simulated for modified coupling functions considering the Kerr nonlinearity. For a 10 W co-directional-pumped, ∼1 m long single-mode super-efficient DFB, a ∼50% increase in the laser efficiency, more than 44 dB reduction in contra-directional lasing power, ∼15 times drop in the peak power of intra-cavity signal and ∼38% decrease in the unused-pump power are found, compared to those in a standard DFB with the same coupling-length product. Although an enhanced nonlinear refractive index due to thermal gradient reduces the output power of such lasers, it is shown that the super-efficient laser presents a better performance than the standard one, under such conditions.

We show for the first time power fluctuations from temporal interference considering correlation over replicas and investigate experimentally and theoretically that the output of a Brillouin fiber laser has the signature of a random lasing.

Ferromagnet/two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (FM/2D-TMDCs) have drawn great attention due to their potential impact in electronics, optoelectronics, and spintronics. However, their fabrication technology is very limited especially when manufacturing of a FM-metal/TMDC-semiconductor element is a purpose. Here, we report a successful demonstration of a NiFe (Py)/2D-TMDC (MoS2) metal/semiconductor bilayer device with a systematic study of its electronic transport and magneto-optical response. The MoS2 with a thickness of 50 nm is grown through electrodeposition technique on a sputter deposited 40 nm Py layer. I-V characterization ultimately demonstrates a Schottky response due to presence of a barrier formed at the interface. Magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) represents a significant amplification as the MoS2 cap-layer formed an optical cavity. In addition, the coercive field of Py/MoS2 bilayer shows a decrease w.r.t. that of the Py layer because of proximity coupling formed at the interface. This study demonstrates not only a successful fabrication of FM-metal/TMDC-semiconductor contact, but also an optical path enhancement due to presence of the TMDC layers for optical and magneto-optical applications.

A highly-sensitive magneto-optical Faraday sensor was miniaturized, including Bi-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi: YIG) thin films. The magnetic field over the surface of the cracked steel was measured by using this sensor. The results demonstrated that this sensor could illustrate the micro-cracks on the surface and subsurface of the sample and was a proper candidate for Magnetic Flux Leakage method. In addition, the possibility of the crack and micro-crack detection was evaluated by utilizing a magneto-optical miniaturized sensor. The experimental setup encompassed miniaturized optical setup, Bi: YIG thin films, and some samples with different cracks and micro-cracks. The results of the present study revealed that the sensor can focus on the sample up to 1 μm and its output represented good sensitivity to the crack parameters. This technique can be proficient to high resolution and miniaturized magneto-optical sensor since it can find the cracks and micro-cracks on the sample surface for application in magnetic flux leakage test industry.

Graphene oxide (GO) layers have shown to be fascinating elements for application in high performance sensors. They can be applied in multi-disciplinary designs based on surface selective sensing mechanisms. One immediate application of such surface sensitive elements is implementing of GO layer in magnetoimpedance (MI) sensors to improve their multi-functionality. In this paper, deposition of GO on the surface of Co-based amorphous ribbons (Co68.15Fe4.35Si12.5B15) is performed using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method to evaluate the MI response. MI ratio increased from 271% (bare ribbon) up to 281% and 301% EPD GO deposited within 4 and 8 min, respectively. Similar experiment for the ribbon drop coated with GO was carried out while no enhancement in MI response was seen. Vertical growth of GO on the surface of the ribbon in EPD and drop coated layers observed by topographical measurements. We explained the difference between the MI responses based on layers verticality and surface coverage. UV–Visible absorption and Raman spectroscopy were used to study the nature of GO. Gaining a high surface area of GO along with their biocompatible and anticorrosive properties atop the MI sensors can open pathways towards increasing applications of surface selective and high sensitive MI sensors.

Ultrafast all optical magnetic switching in plasmonic nanostructures based on the inverse Faraday effect recently has been proposed as a possible route towards magnetic data storage media with very fast writing speed. We have been examined inverse Faraday effect in three different kind of plasmonic nanostructures with Fourier modal method. Our modeling results predict significant enhancement of inverse Faraday effect around all major types of plasmonic nanostructures for a circularly polarized incident light due to surface plasmon polariton propagation near the interface of the metal–dielectric and nonzero value of inverse Faraday effect in this structures even with a linearly polarized excitation unlike the inverse Faraday effect in uniform bulk materials. Also the results show that the field distribution can be varied by changing light wavelength and angle of incidence which opens a possibility to locally control field distribution. Consequently, to affect locally the medium induced magnetization via the inverse Faraday effect and for practical applications in data storage and data processing and also sensing applications can be used widely.

π-shifted distributed feedback (DFB) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) Raman lasers have been demonstrated in the last few years [1, 2] and many attempts at optimisation have been made using theoretical calculations [3]. However, due to the limitations of resolution of the coupled-mode equations, theoretical optimisation has been limited to a few case studies. By using a simple approximation, we demonstrate here in a detailed study, all possible cases for Raman generation in DFB lasers. DFB emission is approximated as single-frequency and solved in the Fourier Domain. The pump depletion equation is solved separately with an initial approximation of the fields which is then adjusted iteratively to fit the calculated fields until a solution is found. The control parameters during fabrication are the FBG coupling strength (lac), its length and the value and position of the phase shift. Other parameters more difficult to control also include losses and non-linear coefficient. All these parameters have been varied to determine the threshold and slope efficiency of DFB lasers in typical high NA silica fiber. These calculations have been corroborated with complete resolution of the coupled-mode equations as previously reported in the literature.

Metal-oxide memristors are one of the most important sets of memristors for use as the future memory and computing elements. In this context, developing novel methods for producing metal/metal-oxide thin film heterostructures is demanded. Here, we use a 354 nm pulsed laser for treatment of a thin (40 nm) Ni80Fe20 (Permalloy, Py) layer and observe its memristive characteristics. The laser treatment (LT) resulted in oxidation of the surface of the Py layer and therefore forming a uniform Py/Py-oxide heterostructure. The oxygen vacancy formation and rupture for memristivity mechanism is evidenced by I-V measurement of two samples with different oxide thicknesses. The sample with lower thickness of oxidized Py shows lower voltage threshold and higher ON/OFF ratio. Results show that LT method can be used for producing functional thin memristive layers from metallic materials.

We examined the effect of light illumination on the magneto-electric behavior of the BiFeO 3 thin film which deposited onto BaTiO 3 piezoelectric layer by the aid of pulsed laser deposition technique. The ferroelectric polarization of the sample has been measured under electric field bias and illumination of different power of laser diode with a center wavelength of 406 nm in the presence of magnetic field. The photo-magnetic assisted ferroelectric polarization of the sample has been observed when the sample illuminated with light under magnetic field. Our results show the linear dependence of this answer with the power of light. This effect can possibly open a research development in photoassisted ferroelectric behavior properties for next generation devices.

We experimentally and theoretically investigate how to control Stokes waves generated by stimulated Brillouin scattering. A proper change of two pump powers results in increasing the number of Stokes waves, useful for sensitivity enhancement of distributed sensors.

Optical ridge waveguide using calcium barium niobate (CBN) on silicon substrate for the first time is designed, fabricated and characterized for future integrated electro-optic devices. To obtain single-mode propagation, the CBN thin strip is designed to be surrounded by thick silicon dioxide layer forming a ridge waveguide. Deposition of CBN film on profiled silicon dioxide introduces spatial separation which solves the CBN etching problem. Fabrication, edge polishing and near-field mode profile measurement of the waveguide are carried out. The measurement is in good agreement with the simulation and an exact loss as low as 2.15dB/cm was obtained for the fabricated waveguide.

We propose a novel magneto-optical waveguide configuration consisting of coupled-resonator magneto-optical waveguides to obtain enhanced transmission and Faraday rotation. We show theoretically that such a configuration can enhanced the localization of light and as a result, enhanced Faraday rotation and transmittance simultaneously. The calculations revealed that required optical isolator performance, transmittance 95%, Faraday rotation angle 22.81 degree and large amount of magneto-optical figure of merit, can be fulfilled with our optimized waveguide. Since our investigation showed that the use of optimized one dimensional coupled resonator magneto-optical waveguide with a rotation of half of 45 degree would make it possible to assemble low loss magneto-optical isolators.

We investigated the adjustability and enhancement of magneto-optical Faraday rotation in one-dimensional magneto photonic crystal. The Faraday rotation can be adjusted through optical contrast ratio engineering in the resonator structure via equivalent layers theory. Also, simultaneous enhancement of the transmission magnitude and Faraday rotation of the structure can be obtained by optimizing the optical contrast ratio-magnetic defect layer thickness product. In a special design of magneto photonic crystal which consists of SiO 2 and Ta 2 O 5 as the basic element of the resonator and Bi substituted yttrium iron garnet as the defect magnetic layer, by changing the optical contrast ratio from 1.43 to 1.09, the Faraday rotation can be adjusted from −3.35 to −0.74 deg in 65 nm wide range of wavelength. Finally, in the case which the optical contrast ratio optimized at 1.22 and the thickness of magnetic defect layer changed to one quarter of design wavelength, dramatic simultaneous enhancement of Faraday rotation and transmission magnitude can be obtained succesfully (the Faraday rotation and transmittance have their maximum value, −11.77 deg, and 99.67%).

The physical properties of magnetic amorphous alloys can be improved by using different annealing processes. In this paper, for annealing purposes, different driving currents were flowed through Co-based magnetic amorphous ribbons at different ambient air pressures between 5 × 10 −5 mbar and 10 3 mbar. The magnetoimpedance effect in the annealed samples was studied at a frequency interval between 250 kHz and 10 MHz. Magnetic properties and microstructures of samples were investigated by means of alternative gradient force magnetometers and X-ray diffraction. Regarding the giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) effect, annealing at different ambient pressures with the same current can lead to various responses. For annealing at higher pressures such as in air, higher current is necessary for crystallization of samples which results in the development of greater transverse magnetic anisotropy.

For the single-pass and double-pass wavelength converters based on cascaded sum and difference frequency generation in quasi-phase matched lithium niobate waveguide, we present the criteria for a choice of the waveguide length and the assignment of pump powers to achieve the desired efficiency, ripple and bandwidth with a large pump wavelength difference of 75 nm. It is found that using the double-pass structure with a 95% reflectivity for the sum frequency wave, the mean efficiency is increased at least 5 dB compared to that of the single-pass one with the same length and input pump powers and the bandwidth is large enough to cover the entire conventional telecommunications C-band and long-wavelength L-band. To flatten the excessive response fluctuation of the double-pass scheme, we propose tuning one of the pumps to longer wavelengths incurring a small penalty of a slight reduction in the mean efficiency which can be compensated by increasing the input pump powers. We also show that to achieve the same amount of flatness, double-pass converters have a smaller efficiency penalty compared to the single-pass converters.

Objectives: Evaluation of the effectiveness of a school-based oral health promotion intervention on preadolescents' gingival health. Methods: A community trial designed for a 3-month intervention study in a representative sample of 9-year-olds (n = 457) in 16 schools in Tehran, Iran. The schools were randomly assigned to three intervention groups and one control group, each group comprising two boys' and two girls' schools. The first group of children (n = 115) received intervention via class work, solving a set of puzzles containing oral health messages, under supervision of their health counsellor. The second group (n = 114), intervention via parents, included an oral health education leaflet and a brushing diary for supervising the child's tooth-brushing; the third group (n = 111) received a combination of both these interventions. The control group (n = 117) had no intervention. Effects of the intervention were assessed as changes in dental plaque and gingival bleeding. Improvements in gingival health were recorded when half of the index teeth with plaque at baseline became clean (acceptable oral hygiene) or when all index teeth with bleeding at baseline became healthy (healthy gingiva). Statistical analysis included chi square, anova, t-test, Number Needed to Treat (NNT) and generalized estimating equations (GEE). Results: At baseline, none of the children were free of plaque and all except for three boys had bleeding. After the trial, acceptable oral hygiene was more frequent in the parental-aid (P < 0.001) and the combined groups (P < 0.05), and healthy gingiva in both groups (P < 0.001) in comparison with the control group. Outcomes in the class- work group did not differ from those in the control group. The GEE models confirmed a strong intervention effect on healthy gingiva in both groups where parents were involved: parental-aid group (OR = 7.7, 95% CI: 2.2-27.7) and combined group (OR = 6.6, 95% CI: 2.0-22.1). In all intervention groups more girls than boys achieved healthy gingiva (OR = 2.5-2.6). Parents' education showed no impact on the outcome. Conclusions: When a school-based oral health intervention involves parents it may result in a significant improvement in the gingival health of preadolescents with poor gingival health at baseline.

Novel engineered step-chirped gratings (SCG) for broadband frequency doublers based on quasi-phase matched second harmonic generation with and without singly pump-resonance in lithium niobate waveguides have been theoretically modeled and simulated taking pump depletion into account, for the first time to our knowledge. It is shown that apodized SCGs flatten the conversion bandwidth which can be improved extensively with apodization ratio. Also, it is demonstrated numerically for an ASCG that by means of singly pump-resonant waveguide, the conversion efficiency of quasi-continuous waves shown with the envelope of responses increases substantially especially for low loss. The optimized values of back facet reflectivity and input power to achieve the maximum efficiency, for several waveguide loss parameters have also been calculated. Furthermore, the ASCG structure may provide a more convenient method for fabrication and poling as it increases the chirp period and duty cycle.

We present a highly precise method for measuring the atomic number density of metallic vapor with the aid of spectral Faraday rotation measurements. By using the Rb spectral Faraday rotations at different temperatures and magnetic fields, we achieve the atomic vapor density of Rb. Our results show good agreement between the measured and the calculated atomic number density of Rb vapor.

Single-frequency laser sources have found a great number of applications, but are difficult to implement and suffer from poor robustness, poor quality (linewidth and stability), and are generally expensive to fabricate. One solution for a cheaper and simpler single-frequency source is a π-phase-shifted distributed feedback (DFB) fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based laser. Typically, such a laser usually uses a fiber with rare-earth dopants as an active medium for gain. However, its operating wavelength is limited to the emission bandwidth of the rare-earth dopant in the fiber. A proposed solution to overcome this limitation is to use Raman gain. Raman DFB fiber lasers have been successfully demonstrated, and a few simulations have been undertaken and reported. However, a thorough study of parameters and careful optimization has not been reported due to the long computation time and difficulty in the fabrication of long FBGs with known parameters. We demonstrate here, with the aid of a fast but exact method, a detailed optimization study on phase-shifted Raman DFB fiber lasers. These theoretical results are compared with the experimental operation of many fabricated FBGs thanks to a newly developed fabrication technique for the replication of FBGs. We show that fabricated lasers have poor performance compared to simulations of ideal lasers. We also show that the difference in performance is due to the high internal optical intensity induced nonlinear thermal gradient along the FBG.

We experimentally demonstrate the possibility of tuning the frequency of a laser pulse via the use of an Airy pulse-seeded soliton self-frequency shift. The intrinsically asymmetric nature of Airy pulses, typically featured by either leading or trailing oscillatory tails (relatively to the main lobe), is revealed through the nonlinear generation of both a primary and a secondary Raman soliton self-frequency shift, a phenomenon which is driven by the soliton fission processes. The resulting frequency shift can be carefully controlled by using time-reversed Airy pulses or, alternatively, by applying an offset to the cubic phase modulation used to generate the pulses. When compared with the use of conventional chirped Gaussian pulses, our technique brings about unique advantages in terms of both efficient frequency tuning and feasibility, along with the generation and control of multicolor Raman solitons with enhanced tunability. Our theoretical analysis agrees well with our experimental observations.

There are various annealing techniques to influence the magnetic anisotropy of amorphous soft magnetic alloys, applicable for magnetic sensing elements. Laser irradiation of amorphous magnetic ribbons is a kind of annealing method to affect their magnetic moment orientations and consequently change their magnetic anisotropy and magnetoimpedance effect. In this paper, we have studied the role of magnetic anisotropy in the magnetoimpedance effect of laser annealed amorphous ribbons. In our theoretical study, we took into account the variations of magnetic anisotropy constants of local magnetic moments after annealing process. We showed that the flatten magnetoimpedance response which was observed in the experiments can be justified by averaging different local anisotropies induced by laser processing.

The techniques used to produce magnetic sensors encompass many aspects of physics and electronics and are going to develop with each passing year. In this paper, we introduce a double core giant magnetoimpedance sensor. The sensing elements are provided by heat treating the FeCuNbSiB (Finemet) ribbons at 560 °C for 1 h to achieve a high magnetic permeability associated with the nanostructured state. Sensor cores are exposed to a dc current bias in order to provide asymmetric giant magnetoimpedance (AGMI) behavior. The sensor detects both direction and amplitude of the magnetic field with a sensibility of 2 mV/Oe.

Amorphous magnetic thin films have been deposited onto BK-7 substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique. The source material irradiated by the laser was a pack of amorphous ribbons of composition Fe78Si9B13. The structural properties of thin films were investigated and a large number of droplets were observed in the magnetic layers. Electric current passing through the films causes significant deformation of droplets and consequently changes the magnetic thin films characteristics. Magnetic properties evolution after electrical processing was investigated using magneto-optical Kerr effect.

Amorphous Fe-based ribbons of the composition Fe73.5Si13.5B9Nb3Cu1 have been nanocrystallized using conventional heat treatment at 550 °C for 60 min. Nanostructured ribbons have been irradiated using pulsed Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm). To investigate the pinning effect, different energies have been used to illuminate the ribbons. Pinning behavior has been studied using magnetoimpedance data. It has been shown that an increase in laser beam energy makes the pinning centers more effective.

Copper bromide laser has been used for annealing magnetic Co 68.25 Fe 4.5 Si 12.25 B 15 amorphous ribbons in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. Magnetoimpedance (MI) effect of ribbons has been measured to investigate the annealing effect on the structural changes of magnetic ribbons. A combination of magnetic field and laser annealing has caused a local structural change and has introduced an excess anisotropy.

We experimentally demonstrate tunable dual channel broadcasting of a signal over the C-band for wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks. This is based on cascaded χ(2) nonlinear mixing processes in a specially engineered, 20-mm-long step-chirped periodically poled lithium niobate with a broad 28-nm second harmonic (SH) bandwidth in the 1.55-μm spectral range. A 10-GHz picosecond mode-locked laser was used as a signal along with a CW pump to generate two pulsed idlers, which are simultaneously tuned across the C-band by detuning of the pump wavelength within the broad SH bandwidth. Variable-input, variable-output scheme of tuned idlers is successfully achieved by tuning the signal wavelength. Pump or signal wavelength tuning of ~10 nm results in the idlers spreading across 30 nm in the C-band.

Summary Background The use of monthly recombinant factor XIII (rFXIII) recently demonstrated favorable safety and efficacy for congenital FXIII A-subunit deficiency patients aged ≥ 6 years (mentor™1 trial), although the pharmacokinetics (PK) were not fully evaluated. Objectives To comprehensively evaluate the steady-state PK of rFXIII in patients aged ≥ 6 years with congenital FXIII A-subunit deficiency. Patients/methods mentor™2 is an ongoing, multinational safety and efficacy trial in which patients are receiving monthly rFXIII (35 IU kg−1) for ≥ 52 weeks. For this 28-day PK analysis, blood samples were collected immediately predosing, and 1 h, 2 h, 3, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days postdosing. FXIII activity was measured and PK parameters were calculated using non-compartmental analysis, without prior baseline adjustment. Information regarding adverse events and bleeding was collected at each visit. Antibody assessments were performed predosing and at day 28. Results PK analysis in 23 patients revealed first-order elimination of rFXIII with a geometric mean half-life of 13.6 days. Mean FXIII activity was > 0.1 IU mL−1 throughout the 28-day period, with a geometric mean peak activity of 0.87 IU mL−1 and trough of 0.16 IU mL−1. The geometric mean clearance was 0.15 mL h−1 kg−1. No bleeding episodes occurred during the PK session, and no anti-rFXIII antibodies were detected. Peak and trough FXIII activities were constant over time, compared with previous activities (≥ 10 rFXIII doses) in the same patients. Conclusions Clearance of rFXIII is unaffected over time, and monthly prophylaxis with 35 IU kg−1 rFXIII provides FXIII activity > 0.1 IU mL−1 throughout the dosing interval in patients with congenital FXIII A-subunit deficiency.

Congenital factor XIII (FXIII) deficiency is a rare bleeding disorder, which in its severe form is associated with a significant bleeding phenotype, requiring regular prophylactic therapy. A recently developed recombinant FXIII (rFXIII) has demonstrated safety and efficacy in children aged ≥6 years and adults (mentor1 trial). This article describes the mentor4 trial, which has assessed the pharmacokinetics (PK) and safety of rFXIII in younger children (1 to

To evaluate the effect of tolterodine on early storage symptoms following transurethral resection of the prostate. Materials and Methods: Seventy patients over 55 years of age who underwent transurethral resection of the prostate owing to benign prostatic hyperplasia were randomly assigned to receive either 2 mg of tolterodine twice daily (treatment group) or matched placebo during a 1-month study period. Before and 1 month after the procedure, they were asked to complete the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) questionnaire and quality of life subscale to assess their symptoms. Also, analgesic use and adverse drug events were determined at follow-up. Results: Of 70 allocated patients, 64 patients (91.4%), including 33 in the treatment group and 31 in the placebo group, completed the study. The mean age of the patients was 67 years. None of the patients’ basic clinical characteristics were significantly different. At the end of the follow-up period, the total IPSS and quality of life score had significantly improved in the patients receiving tolterodine compared with those receiving placebo (p=0.001 and p=0.036, respectively). The treatment group compared with placebo demonstrated significant improvements in frequency and urgency but not in nocturia. The amount of consumed painkiller was also significantly lower in the tolterodine group than in the placebo group (p=0.0001). The rate of side effects was not significantly different between the groups. Conclusions: Administering 2 mg of tolterodine twice daily is an effective and well-tolerated regimen to relieve early storage symptoms, quality of life, and the amount of analgesic consumption following transurethral resection of the prostate

We experimentally demonstrate tunable multiple-idler wavelength broadcasting of a signal to selective channels for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). This is based on cascaded χ(2) nonlinear mixing process in a novel multiple-QPM 10-mm-long periodically poled LiNbO3 having an aperiodic domain in the center. The idlers' spacing is varied utilizing detuning of the pump wavelength within the SHG bandwidth. The temperature-assisted tuning of QPM pump wavelengths allows shifting the idlers together to different set of WDM channels. Our experimental results indicate that an overall idler wavelength shift of less than 10 nm realized by selecting pump wavelengths via temperature tuning, is sufficient to cover up to 40 WDM channels for multiple idlers broadcasting.

Tunable multiple-idler broadcasting of a signal to selective WDM channels is demonstrated utilizing temperature-assisted tuning of QPM pump wavelengths based on cascaded nonlinear mixing in bulk PPLN with an aperiodic domain in the center.

High-efficiency ultra-broadband wavelength converters based on double-pass quasi-phase-matched cascaded sum and difference frequency generation including engineered chirped gratings in lossy lithium niobate waveguides are numerically investigated and compared to the single-pass counterparts, assuming a large twin-pump wavelength difference of 75 nm. Instead of uniform gratings, few-section chirped gratings with the same length, but with a small constant period change among sections with uniform gratings, are proposed to flatten the response and increase the mean efficiency by finding the common critical period shift and minimum number of sections for both single-pass and double-pass schemes whilst for the latter the efficiency is remarkably higher in a low-loss waveguide. It is also verified that for the same waveguide length and power, the efficiency enhancement expected due to the use of the double-pass scheme instead of the single-pass one, is finally lost if the waveguide loss increases above a certain value. For the double-pass scheme, the criteria for the design of the low-loss waveguide length, and the assignment of power in the pumps to achieve the desired efficiency, bandwidth and ripple are presented for the optimum 3-section chirped-gratings-based devices. Efficient conversions with flattop bandwidths > 84 nm for lengths < 3 cm can be obtained.