Biomedical subjects

R Meucci

Publications and source records attributed to R Meucci.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Noise-enhanced synchronization of homoclinic chaos in a CO2 laser.

Many chaotic oscillators have rather coherent phase dynamics but strong fluctuation in the amplitudes. Conversely, homoclinic chaos is characterized by quite regular spikes but strong fluctuation in their time intervals. We study the effects of noise on the synchronization of homoclinic chaos to a weak periodic signal and demonstrate numerically and experimentally in a CO2 laser system that noise enhances synchronization of homoclinic chaos. The system exhibits both conventional resonance versus driving frequency and stochastic resonance with respect to noise intensity.

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PubMed2003

Information encoding in homoclinic chaotic systems.

We present a simple method for real-time encoding of information in the interspike intervals of a homoclinic chaotic system. The method has been experimentally tested on a CO2 laser with feedback displaying Sil'nikov chaos and synchronized with an external pulsed signal. Information is encoded by the length of the temporal intervals between consecutive pulses of the external signal. This length is varied each time a new pulse is generated.

Carbon Dioxide↗

PubMed2003

Controlling transient dynamics to communicate with homoclinic chaos.

A control that stabilizes the transient dynamics of a homoclinic chaotic laser is used to encode discrete sources of information. The controlled trajectory is a complex spiking signal that has a constrained interspike interval, and therefore, the ratio of information transmitted is approximately constant. We also show that the controlled signal that encodes the source contains more information than the source. This property is advantageously used to correct possible errors in the transmission, or to increase the ratio of information per transmitted spike.

Carbon Dioxide↗

PubMed2003

Factors influencing pricking pain threshold using a CO2 laser.

The purpose of this study was the evaluation of the best experimental conditions in healthy subjects for the measurement of the minimal thermal energy density E1 which induced pricking pain on the volar surface of the left forearm by means of CO2 laser pulses. E1 was measured on a well-defined area, using laser pulses of different durations and constant power P. The dependence of E1 on the stimulus power P, the size A of the radiated area and the surface temperature T(e) were explored. In the first part of the study, these relations were obtained using a computer program, from the calculated spatio-temporal distribution of the skin temperature during, and following, a laser pulse which caused pricking pain. The second part studied a set of subsequent measurements carried out on a group of five healthy trained subjects and agreed only in part with the calculated data. We found that the measurement error on E(t) was less than 10% with P between 1.5 and 3 W, and A between 0.15 and 0.25 cm2, respectively. The influence of sensitization and adaptation phenomena on the measured data was also explored. We also show a rhythmic annual change of T(e) and E1.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Experimental characterization of the transition to phase synchronization of chaotic CO2 laser systems.

We investigate the transition route to phase synchronization in a chaotic laser with external modulation. Such a transition is characterized by the presence of a regime of periodic phase synchronization, in which phase slips occur with maximal coherence in the phase difference between output signal and external modulation. We provide the first experimental evidence of such a regime and demonstrate that it occurs at the crossover point between two different scaling laws of the intermittent-type behavior of phase slips.

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PubMed2002

Chaotic function generator: complex dynamics and its control in a loss-modulated Nd:YAG laser.

The complex dynamics resulting from electronic feedback of a laser's intensity are explored and characterized. Distinct stable and chaotic regimes can be elicited from the laser by tuning the bias of the feedback loop. An additional branch of the feedback loop, containing a derivative filter, provides access to new kinds of dynamics, including a more gradual transition to chaos. The whole feedback network together allows the laser dynamics to be selected from among a wide range of chaotic wave forms distinguished by statistical or spectral information. In other words, this laser system can be used as a tunable generator of chaotic functions.

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PubMed2002

Delayed self-synchronization in homoclinic chaos.

The chaotic spike train of a homoclinic dynamical system is self-synchronized by applying a time-delayed correction proportional to the laser output intensity. Due to the sensitive nature of the homoclinic chaos to external perturbations, stabilization of very long-periodic orbits is possible. On these orbits, the dynamics appears chaotic over a finite time, but then it repeats with a recurrence time that is slightly longer than the delay time. The effect, called delayed self-synchronization, displays analogies with neurodynamic events that occur in the buildup of long-term memories.

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PubMed2002

Autonomous bursting in a homoclinic system.

The output of a dynamical system in a regime of homoclinic chaos transforms from a continuous train of irregularly spaced spikes to clusters of regularly spaced spikes with quiescent periods in between (bursting), provided a low frequency portion of the output is fed back. We provide experimental evidence of such an autonomous bursting by a CO2 laser with feedback. The phenomena here presented are extremely robust against noise and display qualitative analogies with bursting phenomena in neurons.

Action Potentials↗

PubMed2001

Identifying physical properties of a CO2 laser by dynamical modeling of measured time series.

We estimate internal parameters of a Q-switched CO2 laser by fitting trajectories of the four-level model to measured scalar time series. The four-level model is a five-dimensional nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations. A multiple shooting technique is used to construct the unobserved time courses of the population densities and to reveal the dependence of the parameters on the excitation current. For excitations barely above the laser threshold large pulse variations are identified as an effect of small variations of the pump parameter.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2001

Synchronization of homoclinic chaos.

Homoclinic chaos is characterized by regular geometric orbits occurring at erratic times. Phase synchronization at the average repetition frequency is achieved by a tiny periodic modulation of a control parameter. An experiment has been carried on a CO(2) laser with feedback, set in a parameter range where homoclinic chaos occurs. Any offset of the modulation frequency from the average induces phase slips over long times. Perfect phase synchronization is recovered by slow changes of the modulation frequency based upon the sign and amplitude of the slip rate. Satellite synchronization regimes are also realized, with variable numbers of homoclinic spikes per period of the modulation.

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PubMed2000

Discrete homoclinic orbits in a laser with feedback

We provide experimental evidence of the discrete character of homoclinic chaos in a laser with feedback. We show that the narrow chaotic windows are distributed exponentially as a function of a control parameter. The number of consecutive chaotic regions corresponds to the number of loops around the saddle focus responsible for Shilnikov chaos. The characterization of homoclinic chaos is also done through the return map of the return times at a suitable reference point.

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PubMed1999

Stabilization of unstable fixed points in the dynamics of a laser with feedback.

We report theoretical and experimental results on the stabilization of unstable steady states in a CO2 laser with feedback. Periodic and chaotic oscillations have been suppressed by means of a control loop consisting of a high-pass filter, known as washout filter. Although the filter characteristics are determined on the basis of linear analysis, taking into account the problem of robustness with respect to parameter changes, the present control strategy provides a large attractive domain in the phase space.

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PubMed1996