Macular Pigment Reflectometry: Developing Clinical Protocols, Comparison with Heterochromatic Flicker Photometry and Individual Carotenoid Levels

The study was designed to: (1) Analyze and create protocols of obtaining measurements using the Macular Pigment Reflectometry (MPR). (2) To assess the agreement of MPOD measurements obtained using the heterochromatic flicker photometry (MPS II) and MPR. (3) To obtain the lutein and zeaxanthin optical density obtained using the MPR in the central one-degree of the macula. The measurements were performed using the MPR and heterochromatic flicker photometry. The MPR measurements were performed twice without pupillary dilation and twice following pupillary dilation. The MPR measurements were performed for a 40-s period and the spectrometer signal was parsed at different time points: 10–20, 10–30, 10–40, 20–30, 20–40, and 30–40 s. The MPR analyzes the high-resolution spectrometer signal and calculates MPOD, lutein optical density and zeaxanthin optical density automatically. The MPR-MPOD data was compared with MPPS II-MPOD results. The MPR-MPOD values are highly correlated and in good agreement with the MPS II-MPOD. Of the various parsing of the data, the data 10–30 interval was the best at obtaining the MPOD, lutein, and zeaxanthin values (8–12% coefficient of repeatability). The lutein to zeaxanthin ratio in the central one-degree of the macula was 1:2.40. Dilation was not needed to obtain the MPOD values but provided better repeatability of lutein and zeaxanthin optical density. MPR generates MPOD measurements that is in good agreement with MPS II. The device can produce lutein and zeaxanthin optical density which is not available from other clinical devices.

IRIXS Spectrograph: an ultra high-resolution spectrometer for tender RIXS

The IRIXS Spectrograph represents a new design of an ultra-high-resolution resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) spectrometer that operates at the Ru L 3-edge (2840 eV). First proposed in the field of hard X-rays by Shvyd'ko [(2015), Phys. Rev. A, 91, 053817], the X-ray spectrograph uses a combination of laterally graded multilayer mirrors and collimating/dispersing Ge(111) crystals optics in a novel spectral imaging approach to overcome the energy resolution limitation of a traditional Rowland-type spectrometer [Gretarsson et al. (2020), J. Synchrotron Rad. 27, 538–544]. In combination with a dispersionless nested four-bounce high-resolution monochromator design that utilizes Si(111) and Al2O3(110) crystals, an overall energy resolution better than 35 meV full width at half-maximum has been achieved at the Ru L 3-edge, in excellent agreement with ray-tracing simulations.

Spectrometer Using superconductor MIxer Receiver (SUMIRE) for laboratory submillimeter spectroscopy

Recent spectroscopic observations by sensitive radio telescopes require accurate molecular spectral line frequencies to identify molecular species in a forest of lines detected. To measure rest frequencies of molecular spectral lines in the laboratory, an emission-type millimeter and submillimeter-wave spectrometer utilizing state-of-the-art radio-astronomical technologies is developed. The spectrometer is equipped with a 200 cm glass cylinder cell, a two-sideband (2SB) superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) receiver in the 230 GHz band, and wide-band auto-correlation digital spectrometers. By using the four 2.5 GHz digital spectrometers, a total instantaneous bandwidth of the 2SB SIS receiver of 8 GHz can be covered with a frequency resolution of 88.5 kHz. Spectroscopic measurements of CH3CN and HDO are carried out in the 230 GHz band so as to examine the frequency accuracy, stability, sensitivity, as well as the intensity calibration accuracy of our system. As for the result of CH3CN, we confirm that the frequency accuracy for lines detected with sufficient signal-to-noise ratio is better than 1 kHz, when the high-resolution spectrometer having a channel resolution of 17.7 kHz is used. In addition, we demonstrate the capability of this system by spectral scan measurement of CH3OH from 216 GHz to 264 GHz. We assign 242 transitions of CH3OH, 51 transitions of 13CH3OH, and 21 unidentified emission lines for 295 detected lines. Consequently, our spectrometer demonstrates sufficient sensitivity, spectral resolution, and frequency accuracy for in-situ experimental-based rest frequency measurements of spectral lines for various molecular species.

A coma-free super-high resolution optical spectrometer using 44 high dispersion sub-gratings

Unlike the single grating Czerny–Turner configuration spectrometers, a super-high spectral resolution optical spectrometer with zero coma aberration is first experimentally demonstrated by using a compound integrated diffraction grating module consisting of 44 high dispersion sub-gratings and a two-dimensional backside-illuminated charge-coupled device array photodetector. The demonstrated super-high resolution spectrometer gives 0.005 nm (5 pm) spectral resolution in ultra-violet range and 0.01 nm spectral resolution in the visible range, as well as a uniform efficiency of diffraction in a broad 200 nm to 1000 nm wavelength region. Our new zero-off-axis spectrometer configuration has the unique merit that enables it to be used for a wide range of spectral sensing and measurement applications.

Analytical capabilities of the Grand-2000 high-resolution spectrometer

The analytical characteristics of the new Grand-2000 high-resolution spectrometer with BLPP-4000 photodetectors were evaluated. The device was tested as part of the Grand-Potok complex, which consists of a spectrometer and an electric arc facility and is designed to analyze powder samples continuously brought into the plasma atomizer (free-burning arc in air). The characteristics of the new spectrometer were compared with those of the Grand spectrometer, which is widely employed in analytical laboratories. It is shown that the use of the Grand-2000 spectrometer to determine the concentration of elements in geological and industrial powder samples does not lead to an obvious improvement in the results. The threefold increase in the spectral resolution of the new spectrometer reduces spectral influences from interfering elements, but the relative systematic error both decreases and increases for different samples. This may indicate the influence of unaccounted-for factors, for example, non-optimal spectra processing algorithms for this device. The results obtained suggest good prospects for the use of the Grand-2000 spectrometer to determine the concentration of elements in samples with a complex spectrum, but they also indicate the need for further studies to determine the optimal parameters for processing spectra. In addition, the Grand-2000 spectrometer can be used to supplement and refine the existing database of the wavelengths of spectral lines.

Separador de fragmentos (F.R.S.) como herramienta para el análisis de reacciones nucleares a FAIR (FAcility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe)

Everyday science has had to resort to the construction of large facilities and instruments to carry out experiments that allow obtaining information so that it can be analyzed later. In nuclear physics, the creation of new facilities has been growing enormously since to study this area of physics it has been necessary to build accelerators, magnetic spectrometers and detectors in order to obtain experimental information of events on a microscopic scale. This article reviews the design and construction process of the SUPER-FRS (Super-Fragment Separator) magnetic high resolution spectrometer resulting from a great collaboration called FAIR in (Darmstadt) Germany in the GSI facilities with the In order to know the scientific motivation that led to build it, its technical design and work that has been done on it.