Electron and trap dynamics in As-ion-implanted and annealed GaAs

The ultrafast dynamics of As-ion-implanted and annealed GaAs is investigated using transmission pump–probe measurements.Carrier recombination time was found to increase from 4 to 40 ps with increasing annealing temperature. At lower annealing temperatures, the transmitted optical signal is dominated by induced absorption and at higher annealing temperatures this effect is replaced by induced transparency.This work was supported in part by the EC INCOCOPERNICUS project ‘‘DUO—devices for ultrafast optoelectronics’’ and the Lithuanian Science and Study Foundation

Self-Guided Intense Laser Pulse Propagation in Air

We report on observation of self-guiding of picosecond laser pulses in air that produces large-scale self-phase modulation. The converging picosecond laser beam produced a confined filament over 3 m of propagation with the whitelight spectrum

Žmogaus genetinio privatumo ir genomo apsaugos teisiniai ir etiniai aspektai

Genetics is a biomedical science that investigates heredity, variability, occurrence of genetic diseases and their prevention. Genetic science has many fields of science, which deal with different genetic processes, methods, aspects and fields of application. The genetic research in Europe related to the individual as the main subject of the research is exposed to a wide range of ethical and legal issues. From the developments in genetic science other sciences have evolved, thanks to which the modern world is able to protect the genetic information of data, and to receive the sanction while ignoring the laws of such data. However, many problems still persist in the field of protection of personal genetic information, such as regulatory standards, the inviolability of an individual, the assurance of freedom and privacy of information. This manuscript attempts to reveal the main aspects of genetic human data protection, to research conduct regulations, ethics and issues related to the protection of individuals, such as protection of privacy, discrimination, confidentiality, etc. The article mainly focuses on the Conventions and Protocols elaborated by the Council of Europe because of its role in bioethics and focus on human rights. The author examined the documents such as the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning Biomedical Research, Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and others. Genetic discrimination is strictly forbidden by international conventions and declarations, which means that discrimination on the grounds of personal genetic information (diseases, abnormalities) is not possible in all areas, including employment and insurance. However, individuals face some problems in getting a job due to the publicity and information disclosure to their employers, or in increasing the amount of insurance premiums. However, the disclosure of genetic information may have relevant, statutory consequences and the victims may apply to court for defending these rights. It is essential to protect genetic rights, as any form of discrimination against a person on the grounds of their genetic heritage is prohibited and intervention in the health field or disclosure of such information is only possible after the person concerned has given their free and informed consent.Straipsnyje teisiniu, medicininiu bei etiniu aspektais analizuojama žmogaus genetinių duomenų apsaugos samprata. Atskleidžiant nevienareikšmiškai traktuojamus bei vertinamus Europos teisės dokumentus formuluojami aspektai, akcentuojantys genetinės diskriminacijos bei piktnaudžiavimo genetiniais duomenimis darbinėje, draudimo bei mokslinių tyrimų sferose, prevencijos svarbą

CommonAccent: Exploring Large Acoustic Pretrained Models for Accent Classification Based on Common Voice

Despite the recent advancements in Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), the recognition of accented speech still remains a dominant problem. In order to create more inclusive ASR systems, research has shown that the integration of accent information, as part of a larger ASR framework, can lead to the mitigation of accented speech errors. We address multilingual accent classification through the ECAPA-TDNN and Wav2Vec 2.0/XLSR architectures which have been proven to perform well on a variety of speech-related downstream tasks. We introduce a simple-to-follow recipe aligned to the SpeechBrain toolkit for accent classification based on Common Voice 7.0 (English) and Common Voice 11.0 (Italian, German, and Spanish). Furthermore, we establish new state-of-the-art for English accent classification with as high as 95% accuracy. We also study the internal categorization of the Wav2Vev 2.0 embeddings through t-SNE, noting that there is a level of clustering based on phonological similarity. (Our recipe is open-source in the SpeechBrain toolkit, see: https://github.com/speechbrain/speechbrain/tree/develop/recipes)Comment: To appear in Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH 202

Impact of Cosmobiological Factors on Chromosomal Anomalies Rates - Ethical Consideration

CC BY 4.0Backround: In recent years, there is an increasing number of data supporting the relation between lunar cycle and alterations in human body. For instance, it has been proved that hospitalized spontaneous abortions are significantly associated with the lunar cycle . Given that the most common cause of spontaneous abortion is chromosomal abnormalities of the embryo, we presumed that the lunar cycle could influence the occurrence of chromosomal diseases. From the point of bioethics it is a question if it is applicable to talk with patients about possible impact of cosmobiological factors on their case of chromosomal anomaly. Patients and Methods: We have selected 52 patients, who were bearing a fetus with a prenatally diagnosed chromosomal disorder, which included Down, Turner, Klinefelter, Patau and Edward syndromes. The control group (n=92) consisted of families, that were prenatally tested for chromosomal abnormalities and the results were negative. Then we gathered and analyzed information from patients' medical histories about various factors, which could have predisposed chromosomal disorders: age of both progenitors, consumption of medications during pregnancy, number of miscarriages, number of abortions, cases of genetic disorders in relatives, lunar phase on the day of conception. Results: Lunar phases at the time of conception in the test group distributed as following: new Moon 32.7 percent, first quarter 25.0 percent, full Moon 28.8 percent, third quarter 13.5 percent. In the control group lunar phases distributed as following: new Moon 29.3 percent, first quarter 27.2 percent, full Moon 26.1 percent, third quarter 17.4 percent. There was observed no statistically significant difference between test and control groups (p>0.05). OR for conception with chromosomal anomalies were increased in July (2.7(CI 95% 1.5-4.9) and December (3.2 (CI 95% 1.5-5.2) (p<0.05). OR showed decreased risk for chromosomal anomalies during conception at January (0.3 (CI 95% 0.1-0.7) , April (0.5 (CI 95% 0.2-0.7) and June 0.5 (CI 95% 0.2-0.8) (p<0.05). Conclusions: Our study showed there were no associations between lunar phase at the time of conception with the rates of chromosomal mutations. Conception in July and December increases the risk of chromosomal anomalies during conception. In contrast conception in January, April and June decreases chromosomal anomalies rates

Karstinės denudacijos intensyvumas ir klimato kaita – Lietuvos atvejis

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Parametric amplification via superconducting contacts in a Ka band niobium pillbox cavity

Superconducting parametric amplifiers are commonly fabricated using planar transmission lines with a non-linear inductance provided by either Josephson junctions or the intrinsic kinetic inductance of the thin film. However, Banys et al. [1] reported non-linear behaviour in a niobium pillbox cavity, hypothesising that below Tc, the pair iris-bulk resonator would act as a superconducting contact surface exploiting a Josephson-like non-linearity. This work investigates this effect further by applying Keysight Technologies' Advanced Design System (ADS) to simulate the cavity using an equivalent circuit model that includes a user defined Josephson inductance component. The simulations show that for a resonance centred at nu0 = 30.649 GHz, when two tones (pump and signal) are injected into the cavity, mixing and parametric gain occur. The maximum achievable gain is explored when the resonator is taken to its bifurcation energy. These results are compared to cryogenic measurements where the pump and signal are provided by a Vector Network Analyzer

Parametric amplification via superconducting contacts in a Ka band niobium pillbox cavity

Superconducting parametric amplifiers are commonly fabricated using planar transmission lines with a non-linear inductance provided by either Josephson junctions or the intrinsic kinetic inductance of the thin film. However, Banys et al. [1] reported non-linear behaviour in a niobium pillbox cavity, hypothesising that below Tc, the pair iris-bulk resonator would act as a superconducting contact surface exploiting a Josephson-like non-linearity. This work investigates this effect further by applying Keysight Technologies' Advanced Design System (ADS) to simulate the cavity using an equivalent circuit model that includes a user defined Josephson inductance component. The simulations show that for a resonance centred at nu0 = 30.649 GHz, when two tones (pump and signal) are injected into the cavity, mixing and parametric gain occur. The maximum achievable gain is explored when the resonator is taken to its bifurcation energy. These results are compared to cryogenic measurements where the pump and signal are provided by a Vector Network Analyzer

Millimetre Wave Kinetic Inductance Parametric Amplification using Ridge Gap Waveguide

We present the design and simulation methodology of a superconducting ridge-gap waveguide (RGWG) as a potential basis for mm-wave kinetic inductance travelling wave parametric amplifiers (KI-TWPAs). A superconducting RGWG was designed using Ansys HFSS to support a quasi-TEM mode of transmission over a bandwidth of 20 to 120 GHz with its internal dimensions optimised for integration with W-band rectangular waveguide. A design of an impedance loaded travelling wave structure incorporating periodic perturbations of the ridge was described. A method to simulate the nonlinear kinetic inductance via user-defined components in Keysight's ADS was outlined, which yielded the power dependent S-parameters and parametric signal gain. A RGWG with a 30 nm NbTiN coating and 5 um conductor spacing, corresponding to a kinetic inductance fraction $\alpha \sim 60\%$ was used for the description of a KI-TWPA with 900 perturbations equivalent to a physical length 25 cm that achieved more than 10 dB of signal gain over a 75--110 GHz bandwidth via 4-wave mixing (4WM).Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the 19th International Workshop on Low Temperature Detectors (LTD19) Proceeding