Large-format platinum silicide microwave kinetic inductance detectors for optical to near-IR astronomy.

We have fabricated and characterized 10,000 and 20,440 pixel Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID) arrays for the Dark-speckle Near-IR Energy-resolved Superconducting Spectrophotometer (DARKNESS) and the MKID Exoplanet Camera (MEC). These instruments are designed to sit behind adaptive optics systems with the goal of directly imaging exoplanets in a 800-1400 nm band. Previous large optical and near-IR MKID arrays were fabricated using substoichiometric titanium nitride (TiN) on a silicon substrate. These arrays, however, suffered from severe non-uniformities in the TiN critical temperature, causing resonances to shift away from their designed values and lowering usable detector yield. We have begun fabricating DARKNESS and MEC arrays using platinum silicide (PtSi) on sapphire instead of TiN. Not only do these arrays have much higher uniformity than the TiN arrays, resulting in higher pixel yields, they have demonstrated better spectral resolution than TiN MKIDs of similar design. PtSi MKIDs also do not display the hot pixel effects seen when illuminating TiN on silicon MKIDs with photons with wavelengths shorter than 1 µm.

Single-photon detection in the mid-infrared up to 10 µm wavelength using tungsten silicide superconducting nanowire detectors.

We developed superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors based on tungsten silicide, which show saturated internal detection efficiency up to a wavelength of 10 µm. These detectors are promising for applications in the mid-infrared requiring sub-nanosecond timing, ultra-high gain stability, low dark counts, and high efficiency, such as chemical sensing, LIDAR, dark matter searches, and exoplanet spectroscopy.

Transtornos do humor em enfermaria de clínica médica e validaçäo de escala de medida (HAD) de ansiedade e depressäo / Mood disorders among medical in-patients: a validation study of the hospital anxiety and depression scale (HAD)

Para estimar a prevalência de transtornos do humor, foram utilizadas a entrevista estruturada, "Clinical Interview Schedule" (CIS-R), e a escala "Hospital Anxiety and Depression" (HAD) em 78 pacientes internados em uma enfermaria geral de adultos (43 homens e 35 mulheres, média de idade = 43,2 anos). Foi encontrada prevalência instantânea de 39 por cento de transtornos do humor. Dezesseis (20,5 por cento) pacientes preencheram critérios para ansiedade, a maioria dos casos sendo de gravidade leve. Vinte e seis (33 por cento) casos de depressäo foram detectados, 7 dos quais de gravdade moderada. Observa uma combinaçäo de sintomas de preocupaçäo, depressäo, ansiedade e insônia. A HAD mostrou-se de fácil compreensäo pelos pacientes. As subescalas de ansiedade e de depressäo tiveram consistência interna de 0,68 e 0,77, respectivamente. A correlaçäo dos itens com as respectivas subescalas sugere que essas possuem validades convergentes, näo discriminantes. Com ponto de corte 8/9, a sensibilidade e a especificidade foram 93,7 por cento e 72,6 por cento, para ansiedade, e 84,6 por cento e 90,3 por cento, para depressäo. Na prática clínica, a utilizaçäo da HAD poderia auxiliar na detecçäo de casos de transtornos do humor que necessitam de tratamento