Background Light Levels Research Articles

Progress and challenges in the design of ITER's polarimetric Thomson scattering diagnostic system.

Polarimetric Thomson scattering (PTS) is a technique that allows for accurate measurements of electron temperature (Te) in very hot plasmas (Te > 10 keV, a condition expected to be regularly achieved in ITER). Under such conditions, the spectral region spanned by the TS spectrum is large and extends to low wavelengths, where the transmission of the collection optics decreases, available detectors are less efficient, and the high level of plasma background light perturbs the measurements. This work presents the recent developments in the design of a PTS system for ITER, along with the challenges posed by the complex machine design. The system performance is assessed for an updated geometry (with respect to previous publication), showing that, with a scattering angle θscat = 167°, the expected signal is strongly reduced. Potential alternatives are analyzed: (1) a system employing a different laser injection position, allowing for a more favorable scattering angle and (2) a recently proposed dual-polarization laser pulse technique. The latter is evaluated for the possible ITER geometry, again showing that a more favorable scattering angle is needed for a robust performance.

Influence of Far-Red Intensity during the Seedling Stage on Biomass Production and Photomorphogenic Characteristics in Leafy Greens under Sole-Source Lighting

It has been well documented that far-red radiation (FR; 700–799 nm) elicits a shade-avoidance/shade-tolerance response across a wide range of plant species. Most sole-source lighting is relatively low in FR compared to sunlight (i.e., 2% vs. 20% of photons, respectively, integrated between 400 and 799 nm). The objective of this experiment was to determine if the photomorphogenic response to FR is a useful strategy during the seedling stage to promote leaf expansion in the hopes that subsequently transplanted seedlings would increase radiation capture resulting in higher harvestable biomass. Lettuce (cv. ‘Rex’, ‘Red Oak’, and ‘Green Grand Rapids’) seedlings were exposed to 5, 10, 20, or 30 µmol·m−2·s−1 of supplemental FR for a duration of 10 d in a growth chamber for 20 h daily. During this stage, all seedlings received background light levels of 195 µmol·m−2·s−1 PAR light from white LEDs for 20 h daily. Seedlings were transplanted into a nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponic system in a separate growth chamber with LED fixtures that supplied white light at 295 µmol·m−2·s−1 for 16 h daily (DLI = 17 mol·m−2·d−1) until they were harvested at 35 d from seeding. At transplant, fresh weight, leaf area, and plant height were significantly greater for all cultivars exposed to 30 µmol·m−2·s−1 of supplemental FR radiation compared to the 5 µmol·m−2·s−1 control. Fresh weight increased by an average of 35% under 30 µmol·m−2·s−1 FR. Mature plant dry biomass increased by 14% when seedlings were exposed to 30 µmol·m−2·s−1 of supplemental FR radiation. Increasing far-red radiation consistently increased plant growth at the seedling stage, but these increases were generally overcome by maturation.

SKYSURF: Constraints on Zodiacal Light and Extragalactic Background Light through Panchromatic HST All-sky Surface-brightness Measurements: II. First Limits on Diffuse Light at 1.25, 1.4, and 1.6 μm

We present the first results from the HST Archival Legacy project “SKYSURF.” As described in Windhorst et al., SKYSURF utilizes the large HST archive to study the diffuse UV, optical, and near-IR backgrounds and foregrounds in detail. Here, we utilize SKYSURF’s first sky-surface-brightness measurements to constrain the level of near-IR diffuse Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) in three near-IR filters (F125W, F140W, and F160W). This is done by comparing our preliminary sky measurements of >30,000 images to zodiacal light models, carefully selecting the darkest images to avoid contamination from stray light. Our sky-surface-brightness measurements have been verified to an accuracy of better than 1%, which when combined with systematic errors associated with HST, results in sky-brightness uncertainties of ∼ 2%–4% ≃ 0.005 MJy sr−1 in each image. When compared to the Kelsall et al. zodiacal model, an isotropic diffuse background of ∼30 nW m−2 sr−1 remains, whereas using the Wright zodiacal model results in no discernible diffuse background. Based primarily on uncertainties in the foreground model subtraction, we present limits on the amount of diffuse EBL of 29, 40, and 29 nW m−2 sr−1, for F125W, F140W, and F160W, respectively. While this light is generally isotropic, our modeling at this point does not distinguish between a cosmological origin or a solar system origin (such as a dim, diffuse, spherical cloud of cometary dust).

Calcium-permeable AMPA receptors on AII amacrine cells mediate sustained signaling in the On-pathway of the primate retina.

Midget and parasol ganglion cells (GCs) represent the major output channels from the primate eye to the brain. On-type midget and parasol GCs exhibit a higher background spike rate and thus can respond more linearly to contrast changes than their Off-type counterparts. Here, we show that a calcium-permeable AMPA receptor (CP-AMPAR) antagonist blocks background spiking and sustained light-evoked firing in On-type GCs while preserving transient light responses. These effects are selective for On-GCs and are occluded by a gap-junction blocker suggesting involvement of AII amacrine cells (AII-ACs). Direct recordings from AII-ACs, cobalt uptake experiments, and analyses of transcriptomic data confirm that CP-AMPARs are expressed by primate AII-ACs. Overall, our data demonstrate that under some background light levels, CP-AMPARs at the rod bipolar to AII-AC synapse drive sustained signaling in On-type GCs and thus contribute to the more linear contrast signaling of the primate On- versus Off-pathway.

Modelling efficient BB84 with applications for medium-range, terrestrial free-space QKD

Terrestrial free-space (FS) quantum key distribution (QKD) is ideally suited for deployment in dense urban environments. The transition from laboratory to commercial deployment, however, raises a number of important engineering and deployment issues. Here, we investigate these issues for efficient BB84 using a weak coherent pulse-decoy state protocol. We calculate expected key lengths for different environmental conditions and when the scope for optimisation of protocol parameters is restricted due to practical considerations. In particular, we find that for a fixed receiver basis choice probability, it can be advantageous to allow the transmitter to have a different basis choice probability depending on varying channel loss and background light levels. Finally, we examine the effects of pulse intensity uncertainty finding that they can dramatically reduce the key length. These results can be used to determine the loss budget for the FS optics of a QKD systems and assist in their design.

Dynamic real-time subtraction of stray-light and background for multiphoton imaging.

We introduce a new approach to reduce uncorrelated background signals from fluorescence imaging data, using real-time subtraction of background light. This approach takes advantage of the short fluorescence lifetime of most popular fluorescent activity reporters, and the low duty-cycle of ultrafast lasers. By synchronizing excitation and recording, laser-induced multiphoton fluorescence can be discriminated from background light levels with each laser pulse. We demonstrate the ability of our method to – in real-time – remove image artifacts that in a conventional imaging setup lead to clipping of the signal. In other words, our method enables imaging under conditions that in a conventional setup would yield corrupted data from which no accurate information can be extracted. This is advantageous in experimental setups requiring additional light sources for applications such as optogenetic stimulation.

A fast muon tagger method for Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) will be the next major observatory for Very High Energy gamma-ray astronomy. Its optical throughput calibration relies on muon Cherenkov rings. This work is aimed at developing a fast and efficient muon tagger at the camera level for the CTA telescopes. A novel technique to tag muons using the capabilities of silicon photomultiplier Compact High-Energy Camera CHEC-S, one of the design options for the camera of the small size telescopes, has been developed, studying and comparing different algorithms such as circle fitting with the Taubin method, machine learning using a neural network and simple pixel counting. Their performance in terms of efficiency and computation speed was investigated using simulations with varying levels of night sky background light. The application of the best performing method to the large size telescope camera has also been studied, to improve the speed of the muon preselection.

Influence of Background Spectral Distribution on Perceptions of Discomfort Glare

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The advent of light-emitting diode (LED) technology for automotive lighting allows flexibility of the spectral distribution of forward headlighting systems, while meeting current requirements for “white” illumination. As vehicle headlights have become whiter (with more short-wavelength light output) over the past several decades, their potential impacts on visual discomfort for oncoming and preceding drivers have been hotly debated. It is known that a greater proportion of short-wavelength energy increases discomfort glare, and that increasing the background light level (e.g., through roadway lighting) will decrease perceptions of discomfort. More recently it has been demonstrated that the visual system exhibits enhanced short-wavelength sensitivity for perceptions of scene brightness. As a result, roads illuminated by light sources with higher correlated color temperatures (CCTs) will be judged as appearing to be brighter than those illuminated to the same light level by sources with lower CCTs. The present laboratory study was conducted to identify whether the increased scene brightness of a road illuminated with greater short-wavelength light helps to mitigate discomfort glare more than the same scene illuminated to the same light level, but with less short-wavelength light. The results indicate that the spectral distribution of the background plays little role in the degree to which it lessens discomfort glare. The implications of these results for vehicle and road lighting practices are discussed.</div></div>

ProMAD: semiquantitative densitometric measurement of protein microarrays

BackgroundProtein microarrays are a versatile and widely used tool for analyzing complex protein mixtures. Membrane arrays utilize antibodies which are captured on a membrane to specifically immobilize several proteins of interest at once. Using detection antibodies, the bound protein-antibody-complex is converted into visual signals, which can be quantified using densitometry. The reliability of such densitometric assessments depends on a variety of factors, not only sample preparation and the choice of acquisition device but also the selected analysis software and the algorithms used for readout and processing data. Currently available software packages use a single image of a membrane at an optimal exposure time selected for that specific experimental framework. This selection is based on a user’s best guess and is subject to inter-user variability or the acquisition device algorithm. With modern image acquisition systems proving the capacity to collect signal development over time, this information can be used to improve densitometric measurements. Here we introduce proMAD, a toolkit for protein microarray analysis providing a novel systemic approach for the quantification of membrane arrays based on the kinetics of the analytical reaction.ResultsBriefly, our toolkit ensures an exact membrane alignment, utilizing basic computer vision techniques. It also provides a stable method to estimate the background light level. Finally, we model the light production over time, utilizing the knowledge about the reaction kinetics of the underlying horseradish peroxidase-based signal detection method.ConclusionproMAD incorporates the reaction kinetics of the enzyme to model the signal development over time for each membrane creating an individual, self-referencing concept. Variations of membranes within a given experimental set up can be accounted for, allowing for a better comparison of such. While the open-source library can be implemented in existing workflows and used for highly user-tailored analytic setups, the web application, on the other hand, provides easy platform-independent access to the core algorithm to a wide range of researchers. proMAD’s inherent flexibility has the potential to cover a wide range of use-cases and enables the automation of data analytic tasks.

Grating couplers fabricated by e-beam lithography for long-range surface plasmon waveguides embedded in a fluoropolymer.

Long-range surface plasmon polariton waveguides consisting of Au stripes integrated with input and output grating couplers embedded in thick Cytop claddings are proposed and demonstrated experimentally. Under the right conditions, grating couplers enable broadside (top) coupling with good efficiency while producing a low level of background light. The scheme does not require high-quality input and output edge facets, and it simplifies optical alignments. We demonstrate coupling using a cleaved bow-tie fiber and a lensed fiber, and we determine the grating coupling efficiencies in both cases over a broad operating wavelength range. The lensed fiber produces a better overlap with the long-range surface plasmon mode of interest and thus results in a better coupling efficiency with essentially no background light as observed on an infrared camera. The measurements are compared with theoretical results obtained using a realistic model of the structures, including out-of-plane curvature in the grating profile resulting from our fabrication process. The coupling scheme along with the surface plasmon waveguides hold strong potential for biosensing applications.

S-cone photoreceptors in the primate retina are functionally distinct from L and M cones

Daylight vision starts with signals in three classes of cone photoreceptors sensitive to short (S), middle (M), and long (L) wavelengths. Psychophysical studies show that perceptual sensitivity to rapidly varying inputs differs for signals originating in S cones versus L and M cones; notably, S-cone signals appear perceptually delayed relative to L- and M-cone signals. These differences could originate in the cones themselves or in the post-cone circuitry. To determine if the cones could contribute to these and related perceptual phenomena, we compared the light responses of primate S, M, and L cones. We found that S cones generate slower light responses than L and M cones, show much smaller changes in response kinetics as background-light levels increase, and are noisier than L and M cones. It will be important to incorporate these differences into descriptions of how cone signaling shapes human visual perception.

The population mean pupil response to melanopsin stimulation is reliable across sessions and background light levels

The population mean pupil response to melanopsin stimulation is reliable across sessions and background light levels

Dopamine D1 receptor activation contributes to light-adapted changes in retinal inhibition to rod bipolar cells.

Dopamine modulation of retinal signaling has been shown to be an important part of retinal adaptation to increased background light levels, but the role of dopamine modulation of retinal inhibition is not clear. We previously showed that light adaptation causes a large reduction in inhibition to rod bipolar cells, potentially to match the decrease in excitation after rod saturation. In this study, we determined how dopamine D1 receptors in the inner retina contribute to this modulation. We found that D1 receptor activation significantly decreased the magnitude of inhibitory light responses from rod bipolar cells, whereas D1 receptor blockade during light adaptation partially prevented this decline. To determine what mechanisms were involved in the modulation of inhibitory light responses, we measured the effect of D1 receptor activation on spontaneous currents and currents evoked from electrically stimulating amacrine cell inputs to rod bipolar cells. D1 receptor activation decreased the frequency of spontaneous inhibition with no change in event amplitudes, suggesting a presynaptic change in amacrine cell activity in agreement with previous reports that rod bipolar cells lack D1 receptors. Additionally, we found that D1 receptor activation reduced the amplitude of electrically evoked responses, showing that D1 receptors can modulate amacrine cells directly. Our results suggest that D1 receptor activation can replicate a large portion but not all of the effects of light adaptation, likely by modulating release from amacrine cells onto rod bipolar cells. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We demonstrated a new aspect of dopaminergic signaling that is involved in mediating light adaptation of retinal inhibition. This D1 receptor-dependent mechanism likely acts through receptors located directly on amacrine cells, in addition to its potential role in modulating the strength of serial inhibition between amacrine cells. Our results also suggest that another D2/D4 receptor-dependent or dopamine-independent mechanism must also be involved in light adaptation of inhibition to rod bipolar cells.

Pulsed time‐of‐flight pixel with on‐chip 20 klux background light suppression in standard CMOS technology

SummaryA novel time‐of‐flight pixel designed in 0.18‐μm standard CMOS technology with an indirect pulsed technique is presented. This design is capable of operating in ambients with high levels of background light, since a novel in‐pixel background suppression circuit makes it robust up to 20 klux of ambient light. In addition to this, the pixel incorporates an adaptive number of accumulations circuit that selects the optimum number of accumulations for each situation at pixel level, avoiding saturation even under high illumination conditions.

Performance of the MAGIC telescopes under moonlight

MAGIC, a system of two imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes, achieves its best performance under dark conditions, i.e. in absence of moonlight or twilight. Since operating the telescopes only during dark time would severely limit the duty cycle, observations are also performed when the Moon is present in the sky. Here we develop a dedicated Moon-adapted analysis to characterize the performance of MAGIC under moonlight. We evaluate energy threshold, angular resolution and sensitivity of MAGIC under different background light levels, based on Crab Nebula observations and tuned Monte Carlo simulations. This study includes observations taken under non-standard hardware configurations, such as reducing the camera photomultiplier tubes gain by a factor ∼ 1.7 (reduced HV settings) with respect to standard settings (nominal HV) or using UV-pass filters to strongly reduce the amount of moonlight reaching the cameras of the telescopes. The Crab Nebula spectrum is correctly reconstructed in all the studied illumination levels, that reach up to 30 times brighter than under dark conditions. The main effect of moonlight is an increase in the analysis energy threshold and in the systematic uncertainties on the flux normalization. The sensitivity degradation is constrained to be below 10%, within 15–30% and between 60 and 80% for nominal HV, reduced HV and UV-pass filter observations, respectively. No worsening of the angular resolution was found. Thanks to observations during moonlight, the maximal duty cycle of MAGIC can be increased from ∼ 18%, under dark nights only, to up to ∼ 40% in total with only moderate performance degradation.

Asymmetries in the motional Stark effect emission on the DIII-D tokamak

Spectrometer measurements and filter upgrades to a motional Stark effect polarimeter measuring the outer half-radius of the DIII-D tokamak helped to identify asymmetries in the polarization angle of Stark-split emission. The measured polarization angle of the π components differs and is not orthogonal to the σ component. These differences persist over a range of densities and with low levels of background light. It is suggested that the difference in the polarization angle between components is from a change in the ellipticity of the emitted light across the Stark components coupled with imperfect polarization preservation from an in-vessel mirror.

Dopamine modulation of rod pathway signaling by suppression of GABAC feedback to rod-driven depolarizing bipolar cells.

Reducing signal gain in the highly sensitive rod pathway prevents saturation as background light levels increase, allowing the dark-adapted retina to encode stimuli over a range of background luminances. Dopamine release is increased during light adaptation and is generally accepted to suppress rod signaling in light-adapted retinas. However, recent research has suggested that dopamine, acting through D1 receptors, could additionally produce a sensitization of the rod pathway in dim light conditions via gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type C receptors. Here, we evaluated the overall activity of the depolarizing bipolar cell (DBC) population in vivo to ensure the integrity of long-distance network interactions by quantifying the b-wave of the electroretinogram in mice. We showed that dopamine, acting through D1 receptors, reduced the amplitude and sensitivity of rod-driven DBCs during light adaptation by suppressing GABA type A receptor-mediated serial inhibition onto rod DBC GABA type C receptors. Block of D1 receptors did not suppress rod-driven DBC sensitivity when GABAA -mediated serial inhibition was blocked by gabazine, suggesting that the reduction in rod-driven DBC sensitivity in the absence of D1 receptors was due to disinhibition of serial inhibitory GABAergic circuitry rather than a direct facilitatory effect on GABA release onto rod-driven DBC GABA type C receptors. Finally, the large population of GABAergic A17 wide-field amacrine cells known to maintain reciprocal inhibition with rod DBCs could be excluded from the proposed disinhibitory circuit after treatment with 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine.

Photometry-based estimation of the total number of stars in the Universe.

A novel photometry-based estimation of the total number of stars in the Universe is presented. The estimation method is based on the energy conservation law and actual measurements of the extragalactic background light levels. By assuming that every radiated photon is kept within the Universe volume, i.e., by approximating the Universe as an integrating cavity without losses, the total number of stars in the Universe of about 6×10²² has been obtained.

Red and blue light effects on morphology and flowering of Petunia × hybrida

To investigate the effects of R and B in environments with different FR levels, Petunia×hybrida ‘Tidal wave’ were grown in a greenhouse during early spring (March) and late spring (May) under plastic film transmitting (+FR) and not transmitting far-red light (−FR) in combination with R and B light emitting diodes (LED) as supplementary light placed underneath the films. The main objective of the study was to test the effect of R (600–700nm, peak 660) and B light (400–500nm, peak 450) on morphology and flowering in a FR-deficient greenhouse environment compared with an environment with FR light in different seasons. R light reduced shoot elongation and resulted in more compact plants in both seasons and the combination of –FR and R light resulted in the most compact plants without much delay in flowering. By contrast, the effect of B light was dependent on the natural background light level and the presence of FR light. In early spring when the natural irradiance was low (1.35molm−2h−1), B light promoted stem elongation, caused a more upright shoot orientation, increased plant height and promoted flowering compared to control and R light, whereas in late spring, when the natural irradiance was higher (2.33molm−2h−1), the effect of B light in a FR-deficient environment was not significantly different from R light in the response to stem elongation and flowering.

High speed video evidence for localised discharge cascades during plasma electrolytic oxidation

Information is presented from high speed video imaging of the free surface of coatings being grown on aluminium substrates by PEO processing. The exposure time during image capture ranged down to 5.5μs, while the linear spatial resolution of the images ranged upwards from about 12μm. The area being viewed was about 2.4mm2, which was taken to be representative of the substrate area as a whole (~129mm2). PEO processing was carried out at 50Hz AC. The periods over which image sequences were captured was about 100ms, covering several cycles of variation of the applied potential. This operation was repeated periodically while the coating thickness increased from a few microns to several tens of microns. During the imaging periods, it was typically observed that tens or hundreds of individual discharges were occurring, all of them readily distinguishable from the background light levels. Their duration was of the order of several tens of microseconds. It was noticeable that they tended to occur in “cascades” at particular locations, each sequence comprising tens or hundreds of individual discharges, with an “incubation” period between them of the order of several hundreds of microseconds. It seems likely that they all occurred during the positive (anodic) half-cycle, while the applied voltage was sufficiently high. An individual cascade tended to persist (at the same location) over several voltage cycles. As the coating became thicker, these characteristics broadly persisted, although individual discharges became longer-lived and more energetic. An attempt is made to relate these observations to the overall picture of how coating growth takes place during PEO processing, and also to the overall energy consumption.