High spectral purity Kerr frequency comb radio frequency photonic oscillator.

Femtosecond laser-based generation of radio frequency signals has produced astonishing improvements in achievable spectral purity, one of the basic features characterizing the performance of an radio frequency oscillator. Kerr frequency combs hold promise for transforming these lab-scale oscillators to chip-scale level. In this work we demonstrate a miniature 10 GHz radio frequency photonic oscillator characterized with phase noise better than -60 dBc Hz(-1) at 10 Hz, -90 dBc Hz(-1) at 100 Hz and -170 dBc Hz(-1) at 10 MHz. The frequency stability of this device, as represented by Allan deviation measurements, is at the level of 10(-10) at 1-100 s integration time-orders of magnitude better than existing radio frequency photonic devices of similar size, weight and power consumption.

Ultralow noise miniature external cavity semiconductor laser.

Advanced applications in optical metrology demand improved lasers with high spectral purity, in form factors that are small and insensitive to environmental perturbations. While laboratory-scale lasers with extraordinarily high stability and low noise have been reported, all-integrated chip-scale devices with sub-100 Hz linewidth have not been previously demonstrated. Lasers integrated with optical microresonators as external cavities have the potential for substantial reduction of noise. However, stability and spectral purity improvements of these lasers have only been validated with rack-mounted support equipment, assembled with fibre lasers to marginally improve their noise performance. In this work we report on a realization of a heterogeneously integrated, chip-scale semiconductor laser featuring 30-Hz integral linewidth as well as sub-Hz instantaneous linewidth.

Stabilization of a Kerr frequency comb oscillator.

We study stability and spectral purity of a microresonator-based Kerr frequency comb oscillator experimentally and observe a correlation between the frequency of the continuous wave laser pumping the nonlinear resonator and the repetition frequency of the comb. This correlation is used in a proof-of-principle demonstration of a Kerr frequency comb stabilized with an optical transition of 87Rb.

Voltage-controlled photonic oscillator.

We report the development and demonstration of an X-band voltage-controlled photonic oscillator based on a whispering gallery mode resonator made of an electro-optic crystalline material. The oscillator has good spectral purity and wide, agile, linear tunability. We have modified the existing theoretical model of the opto-electronic oscillator to describe the performance of our tunable oscillator and have found a good agreement between the theoretical predictions and the measurement results. We show that the device is promising for higher-frequency applications where high-performance tunable oscillators with wide tunability do not exist.

Inhibition of pheromone biosynthesis in Helicoverpa armigera by pheromonostatic peptides.

Male insect accessory glands contain factors that are transferred during mating to the female, some inducing post-mating behavior, including the cessation of pheromone production, non-receptivity and the initiation of oviposition. One such factor is the Drosophila melanogaster sex-peptide (DrmSP). A pheromone suppression peptide, termed HezPSP, was identified in the moth Helicoverpa zea, isolated by HPLC and the active peak sequenced, but the activity of the synthesized peptide has not been reported to date. HezPSP bears no sequence homology to DrmSP. However, both peptides contain a disulfide bridge separated by an equal number, but dissimilar, amino acids. We herein report on the pheromonostatic activity of HezPSP partial peptides in the moth Helicoverpa armigera.

Broader, flatter optical spectra of passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers for a wavelength-division multiplexing source.

Using the time domain master equation for a complex electric-field pulse envelope, we find analytical results for the optical spectra of passively mode-locked semiconductor lasers. The analysis includes the effect of optical nonlinearity of semiconductor lasers, which is characterized by a slow saturable amplifier and absorber. Group velocity dispersion, bandwidth limiting, and self-phase modulation were considered as well. The FWHM of the spectrum profile was found to have a strong dependence on group velocity dispersion and self-phase modulation. For large absolute values of the chirp parameter, the optical spectra result in equispaced continuous wave frequencies, a large fraction of which have equal power.

Retardation and reduction of pulse distortion by group-velocity dispersion through pulse shaping.

We show that a reduction in the pulse distortion caused by chromatic dispersion can be achieved through pulse shaping. We argue that a simple binary phase mask in the Fourier plane of the laser spectrum can improve the transmission of short pulses in a dispersive channel through reduced broadening. The argument was tested experimentally, and a good agreement was found with the theory.

p53Val135 temperature sensitive mutant suppresses growth of human breast cancer cells.

One common step in the malignant progression of a wide variety of human cancers seems to be inactivation of the p53 gene, via point mutation or deletion or both; or overexpression of mutated protein with dominant transforming activity. This study shows a suppressive effect of wild type p53 on the growth of human breast cancer cells. Introduction of wild type p53 versus mutant into five human breast cancer cell lines containing mutant p53 resulted in a marked reduction in colony formation. Two of these were transfected with human wt p53 expression vectors and the other three were infected with retroviruses packaging human wt p53, both showing similar reduction in the number of surviving colonies, suggesting a role for wt p53 in suppression of breast cancer cell growth. Direct evidence for growth suppression was obtained by introduction of the temperature sensitive p53Val135 into Hs578T human breast cancer cells containing a mutant p53. This murine mutant allele p53Val135 functions as an oncogene at 37 degrees C as a tumor suppressor at 32 degrees C. The cell line generated was strongly growth inhibited at the restrictive temperature (31.5 degrees C), at which temperature the suppressor form is expressed. This inhibition of proliferation was reversible upon a temperature upshift. Analysis of the cell cycle distribution shows these growth suppressed cells to be inhibited in the G1 phase of the cell cycle. Thus wt p53 may have an important role in breast cancer tumorigenesis.

Infrared thermographic imaging in the detection of sympathetic dysfunction in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the clinical utility of infrared thermography in the detection of sympathetic dysautonomia in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome. The patients exhibited anterior knee pain, radiographic evidence of patella alta and the clinical signs and symptoms of patellofemoral pain syndrome. DESIGN: A case control study was carried out with two groups of patients: patients with anterior knee pain, and patients with no knee pain as a control SETTING: Private practice. PATIENTS: Group 1 consisted of 30 patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome. Group 2 consisted of 40 control patients with no history or presence of knee pain. Control patients were consecutively selected, and the knee pain patients were consecutively selected from a population-based sample. OUTCOME MEASURE: Infrared thermography scans were obtained on the knee pain patients and control patients to determine the sensitivity and specificity of infrared thermography for detecting patellofemoral pain syndrome. RESULTS: Twenty-nine of the 30 knee pain patients in group 1 had patellar thermal asymmetry from right to left sides (sensitivity 97%). Thirty-six of the 40 control patients exhibited thermal symmetry from right to left sides (specificity 90%). The incidence of patellar thermal asymmetry was found to be statistically significant when tested by chi 2 analysis (p less than .001). CONCLUSION: Infrared thermography appears to be a useful, noninvasive diagnostic test in the diagnosis and management of patellofemoral pain syndrome. The high incidence of patellar thermal asymmetry and dysautonomia at the patella in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome implicates somatosympathetic mediation in this disorder. This may be helpful in understanding the evolution of patellofemoral disorders.

Thermographic imaging of pathoneurophysiology due to cervical disc herniation.

A patient suffering from cervical disc herniation as noted by magnetic resonance imaging was tested for presence of nerve irritation using infrared telethermography. The thermal findings and asymmetries observed followed a dermatomal pattern of hypothermia and decreased thermal emission. The neurophysiological information derived from the thermographic examination may be helpful in the diagnosis and management of cervical disc herniations encountered in clinical practice.

Wild-type p53 can inhibit oncogene-mediated focus formation.

Mutant forms of the p53 cellular tumor antigen elicit neoplastic transformation in vitro. Recent evidence indicated that loss of normal p53 expression is a frequent event in certain types of tumors, raising the possibility that such loss provides transformed cells with a selective growth advantage. Thus, it was conceivable that the mutants might contribute to transformation by abrogating normal p53 function. We therefore studied the effect of plasmids encoding wild-type (wt) p53 on the ability of primary rat embryo fibroblasts to be transformed by a combination of mutant p53 and ras. It was found that wt p53 plasmids indeed caused a marked reduction in the number of transformed foci. Furthermore, wt p53 plasmids also suppressed the induction of transformed foci by combinations of bona fide oncogenes, such as myc plus ras or adenovirus E1A plus ras. On the other hand, plasmids carrying mutations in the p53 coding region totally failed to inhibit oncogene-mediated focus induction and often even slightly stimulated it. Hence, such mutations completely abolished the activity of wt p53 that is responsible for the "suppressor" effect. The latter fact is of special interest, since similar mutations in p53 are often observed in human and rodent tumors. The inhibitory effect of p53 was most pronounced when early-passage cells were used as targets, whereas established cell lines were less sensitive. These data support the notions that wt p53 expression may be restrictive to neoplastic progression and that p53 inactivation may play a crucial role in tumorigenesis.

Meth A fibrosarcoma cells express two transforming mutant p53 species.

Expression plasmids directing the synthesis of various forms of the p53 cellular tumor antigen were compared with respect to their biological activities. All plasmids encoding wild type p53, derived from two different cDNA libraries, had absolutely no detectable activity when assayed for transformation of primary rat embryo fibroblasts in collaboration with Ha-ras. In contrast, p53 variants carrying point mutations in the protein coding region exhibited at least some transforming activity. Most notably, this was true for both types of mutant p53 cDNA clones isolated from Meth A cells. The data indicate that these cells, derived from a chemically-induced tumor, carry two independently mutated p53 alleles, each encoding a transformationally activated protein. This may imply that the mutations in the p53 gene played a role in the development of the Meth A tumor. Finally, cells overexpressing a transfected mutant p53 exhibit a physical complex between this exogenous p53 and its endogenous counterpart, possibly resulting in the stabilization of the latter.