The relationship between Vitamin A and Vitamin E levels and neonatal morbidities.

OBJECTIVE: In the neonatal period, diseases such as respiratory distress syndrome, necrotizing enterocolitis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy of prematurity, intraventricular hemorrhage, patent ductus arteriosus hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and hyperbilirubinemia are frequently seen, despite being differently affected by the gestational age. This study aims to examine the relationship between morbidities in the neonatal period and serum vitamin A and vitamin E levels. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this prospective cohort study, patients who were treated and followed up in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit between August 2020 and September 2021 were evaluated. RESULTS: 381 patients, 202 male (53%) and 179 female (47%), were included in the study. The mean birth weight was 2642.13±835.91 g (minimum 480 g, maximum 4285 g) and the mean gestational week was 35.3±3.8 (minimum 24 weeks, maximum 42 weeks). The weight of 332 patients (87.2%) was above 1500 g in whom there was a significant increase in respiratory distress, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and hyperbilirubinemia correlated with a decrease in the vitamin E levels (p=0.001, 0.02, and 0.001, respectively). In infants over 32 weeks of age, there was a significant increase in respiratory distress, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and hyperbilirubinemia correlated with a decrease in the vitamin E levels (p=0.001, 0.02, and 0.001, respectively). No significant relationship was found between vitamin A levels and neonatal morbidities regardless of the birth weight or gestational age. CONCLUSIONS: We believe that our study may provide convenience to pediatricians and neonatologists in terms of the relationship between vitamin A and E levels and neonatal morbidities in neonates.

Quantum-dot-spin single-photon interface.

Using background-free detection of spin-state-dependent resonance fluorescence from a single-electron charged quantum dot with an efficiency of 0.1%, we realize a classical single spin-photon interface where the detection of a scattered photon with 300 ps time resolution projects the quantum dot spin to a definite spin eigenstate with fidelity exceeding 99%. The bunching of resonantly scattered photons reveals information about electron spin dynamics. High-fidelity fast spin-state initialization heralded by a single photon enables the realization of quantum information processing tasks such as nondeterministic distant spin entanglement. Given that we could suppress the measurement backaction to well below the natural spin-flip rate, realization of a quantum nondemolition measurement of a single spin could be achieved by increasing the fluorescence collection efficiency by a factor exceeding 10 using a photonic nanostructure.

Measurement of a heavy-hole hyperfine interaction in InGaAs quantum dots using resonance fluorescence.

We measure the strength and the sign of hyperfine interaction of a heavy hole with nuclear spins in single self-assembled quantum dots. Our experiments utilize the locking of a quantum dot resonance to an incident laser frequency to generate nuclear spin polarization. By monitoring the resulting Overhauser shift of optical transitions that are split either by electron or exciton Zeeman energy with respect to the locked transition using resonance fluorescence, we find that the ratio of the heavy-hole and electron hyperfine interactions is -0.09 ± 0.02 in three quantum dots. Since hyperfine interactions constitute the principal decoherence source for spin qubits, we expect our results to be important for efforts aimed at using heavy-hole spins in quantum information processing.

Strong extinction of a far-field laser beam by a single quantum dot.

Through the utilization of index-matched GaAs immersion lens techniques, we demonstrate a record extinction (12%) of a far-field focused laser beam by a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot. This contrast level enables us to report for the first time resonant laser transmission spectroscopy on a single InAs/GaAs quantum dot without the need for phase-sensitive lock-in detection.

Effect of age on speech recognition in noise and on contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission suppression.

INTRODUCTION: We aimed to study the influence of age, in normal hearing individuals, on: the masking level difference test, the speech recognition in noise test, the transient evoked otoacoustic emissions test, and the contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission suppression test. We also aimed to research the effect of age when using these tests to evaluate the central auditory nervous system. METHODS: Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission suppression were measured in all subjects. Subjects also underwent masking level difference and speech recognition in noise tests. RESULTS: We found a decrease in transient evoked otoacoustic emission amplitudes, speech recognition in noise scores and hearing thresholds with age. We also found that higher masking level difference values were associated with lower speech recognition in noise scores and contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission suppression values. CONCLUSION: We conclude that decreasing speech recognition in noise scores are associated with decreasing contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission supression values. This effect may be related to medial efferent system dysfunction.