Reviews

Reviews: 1. Láng Benedek: Klaniczay Gábor – Pócs Éva (eds.): Witchcraft and Demonology in Hungary and Transylvania : Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic 2. Tamás Ildikó: Pócs Éva – Hesz Ágnes (eds.): Orvosistenektől a hortikulturális utópiáig. Tanulmányok a Kárpát-medence vonzáskörzetéből = From Gods of Medicine to Horticultural Utopias 3. Voigt Vilmos: Miskolczy Ambrus (ed.): Felvilágosodás és babonaság. Erdélyi néphiedelem-gyűjtés 1789-90-ben = Enlightenment and Superstitions. Collecting Folk Beliefs in Transylvania in 1789-1790 4. Kis-Halas Judit: Tóth G., Péter – Pakó László (eds.): Kolozsvári boszorkányperek 1564–1743 = Kolozsvár Witch Trials 1564–1743 és Tóth G., Péter – Brandl Gergely (eds.): Szegedi boszorkányperek 1726–1744 = Szeged Witch Trials 1726–1744 [összehasonlító ismertetés a két műről] 5. Tóth G. Péter: Bárth Dániel: A zombori ördögűző. Egy 18. századi ferences mentalitása = The Exorcist of Zombor: The Mentality of an Eighteenth-century Franciscan Friar 6. Vargyas Gábor: Balatonyi Judit: A gyimesi lakodalmak. Közös kultúra és különböző identitások? = Weddings in Gyimes. Common Culture, Dissimilar Identities

Electronic and optical properties of electromigrated molecular junctions

Electromigrated nanoscale junctions have proven very useful for studying electronic transport at the single-molecule scale. However, confirming that conduction is through precisely the molecule of interest and not some contaminant or metal nanoparticle has remained a persistent challenge, typically requiring a statistical analysis of many devices. We review how transport mechanisms in both purely electronic and optical measurements can be used to infer information about the nanoscale junction configuration. The electronic response to optical excitation is particularly revealing. We briefly discuss surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy on such junctions, and present new results showing that currents due to optical rectification can provide a means of estimating the local electric field at the junction due to illumination.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, invited paper for forthcoming special issue of Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. For other related papers, see http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~natelson/publications.htm

Dark-pulse propagation in optical fibers

We report measurements of the reshaping of 0.3-psec dark pulses due to their passage through 10 m of single-mode optical fiber. The measurements were performed as a function of intensity and the observed strong reshaping agrees qualitatively with the predictions of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation which suggest that we have observed the formation of dark-pulse solitons.Peer reviewedElectrical and Computer Engineerin

Land Cover and Land Use Change-Driven Dynamics of Soil Organic Carbon in North-East Slovakian Croplands and Grasslands Between 1970 and 2013

Soil organic carbon (SOC) in agricultural land forms part of the global terrestrial carbon cycle and it affects atmospheric carbon dioxide balance. SOC is sensitive to local agricultural management practices that sum up into regional SOC storage dynamics. Understanding regional carbon emission and sequestration trends is, therefore, important in formulating and implementing climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. In this study, the estimation of SOC stock and regional storage dynamics in the Ondavská Vrchovina region (North-Eastern Slovakia) cropland and grassland topsoil between 1970 and 2013 was performed with the RothC model and gridded spatial data on weather, initial SOC stock and historical land cover and land use changes. Initial SOC stock in the 0.3-m topsoil layer was estimated at 38.4 t ha−1 in 1970. The 2013 simulated value was 49.2 t ha−1, and the 1993–2013 simulated SOC stock values were within the measured data range. The total SOC storage in the study area, cropland and grassland areas, was 4.21 Mt in 1970 and 5.16 Mt in 2013, and this 0.95 Mt net SOC gain was attributed to interconversions of cropland and grassland areas between 1970 and 2013, which caused different organic carbon inputs to the soil during the simulation period with a strong effect on SOC stock temporal dynamics

Regional topsoil organic carbon content in the agricultural soils of Slovakia and its drivers, as revealed by the most recent national soil monitoring data

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a primary constituent of soil organic matter and plays an important role in the regulation of many soil processes, including greenhouse gas emissions. Recently, SOC also became an indicator for monitoring climate change mitigation policies in the agricultural sector. The availability of up-to-date SOC inventories is thus crucial in terms of supporting SOC–related actions at country or sub-country scales. Currently, the National Monitoring System of the Agricultural Soils of Slovakia (CMS-P), whose network of 318 monitoring sites was last surveyed in 2018, is the only available source of up-to-date topsoil SOC data for agricultural land in Slovakia. Although very useful at the national scale, the number of CMS-P observations it contains is too limited for much needed sub-national SOC inventories. We hypothesized that with the aid of well-chosen macro-scale drivers of topsoil SOC accumulation in agricultural land in Slovakia, and by mapping those drivers geographically, we could upscale the CMS-P observations and produce a regional estimate of topsoil SOC. Altitude, land cover, topsoil texture, and soil type were assumed to be the key factors controlling topsoil SOC accumulation in Slovakia, and based on these, the country was classified into 14 macro-scale geographical regions. Typical ranges and mid-class values of 0–30cm topsoil SOC concentrations (%) and stocks (t ha−1) were calculated for each macro-scale region from CMS-P data. The average topsoil SOC content in agricultural land was estimated to be 2.13% (72.9 t ha−1). The highest topsoil SOC stock (> 90 t ha−1) was estimated for the lowlands of Slovakia, and the lowest ( 65 t ha−1) being in LAU1 regions in the south-west, south-east, and north of Slovakia where arable land is most prevalent. Total SOC storage in 0–30cm topsoil of agricultural land in Slovakia was estimated at 118.39 Mt, with two-thirds of this amount stored in arable soils in 33 south-west, south-east, and south LAU1 administrative regions. As there is no alternative and up-to-date dataset on topsoil SOC content in Slovakia, the upscaling algorithm presented in this study is an important step toward utilizing CMS-P data for sub-national SOC inventories. It may also offer a new way of providing inputs to help predict future or alternative regional topsoil SOC accumulation trajectories in Slovakian agricultural land using process-based or statistical models

Florida\u27s Mystery Coral-Killer Identified

An unusual coral disease appeared on the Florida Reef Tract in June 1995. It was distinct in its microbiology, its pattern of tissue degradation, the species susceptible to it, and its regional distribution. Symptoms included a sharp line between healthy and diseased tissue, as occurs with other coral diseases, but the pathogen responsible for the new outbreak seemed more virulent, affected a wider variety of species, and destroyed tissue much more rapidly than these other \u27line\u27 or \u27band\u27 diseases. We have identified the pathogen responsible for this new disease as a new species of Sphingomonas

Néphit, vallás, mentalitás. Kéziratos és nyomtatott források, 16-19. század. Forrásfeltárás, -kiadás és kutatás = Folk belief, religion, mentality. Hand-written and printed sources, 16-19. centuries. Exploration, publication and study of sources

A kora újkor társadalmainak mentalitása, világképe, hiedelemrendszere: 1. Források feltárása, nyilvántartása és kiadása: Boszorkányperek dokumentumainak feltárása erdélyi, valamint felvidéki és magyarországi városokban: Összesen mintegy 400 új per birtokába jutottunk, kb 1500 oldal terjedelemben. A peranyag átírása, sajtó alá rendezése folyamatos: megjelent egy vármegyei és egy városi perdokumentumokat tartalmazó kötetünk. Magyarország területén használt varázskönyvek feltárása: elkészült egy kincskeresés szövegeit tartalmazó kötet. Magyarországi benedikciók és exorcizmusok kéziratos és nyomtatott forrásainak feltárása: egy kötet sajtó alatt. - A kora újkor református prédikációinak feltárása: megjelent egy babonaellenes és egy dohányzás-ellenes prédikációkat tartalmazó kötet. Kora újkori látomásszövegek feltárása és kiadása: megjelent egy 18. századi látomás-szövegeket tartalmazó kötet. 2. Kutatás folyt a következő témákban: A boszorkányüldözés historiográfiája, statisztikája, jogi háttere, társadalmi kontextusa, teológiai vonatkozásai, kezdetei és megszűnése; a mágia dekriminalizációja a magyar joggyakorlatban; a boszorkányság hiedelemrendszere; a varázskönyvek használata és használói; a prédikációk, mint az elit és népi kultúra kommunikációs csatornái; a prédikációk ördög-képzetei. E témákkal részt vettünk több fontos magyar és nemzetközi konferencián, szerveztünk is ilyenket. 12 kutató közel 100 tanulmánya illetve forráskiadványa készült el. | Mentality, world-view and belief-systems of the early modern communities: 1. Exploration, identifying and publishing sources: Exploring documents of witchcraft cases in cities in Transylvania, Slovakia and in Hungary. Altogether we have acquired the material of approximately 400 trials amounting to 1500 pages. We have continued transcribing the case material collected during the previous cycle and preparing it for print. We have published a volume containing trial material in the counties and one on that of the towns. Exploring handwritten and printed sources of benedictions and exorcisms in Hungary: a volume is in the press. Exploring Calvinist preachings of the early modern age: a volume of preachings against superstitions and another volume against smoking are published. Exploring and publishing visions-literature: we have published a book containing 18th century visions. 2. Research was carried out on the following subjects: The historiography and comprehensive statistics of witch-hunt; the legal background and social context of witch-hunt, the theological aspects, religious and clerical history of witch-hunts; the belief system of witchcraft; the use and the users of magic books; preachings as channels of communication between the elite and popular culture, concepts of the Satan in the Calvinist preachings. We have participated at several important Hungarian and international conferences, and we also organised two major and several minor conferences on these areas of research. In this area 12 researchers accomplished approximately 100 papers resp. books

Simultaneous optical pulse compression and wing reduction

We report the compression of picosecond optical pulses with a simultaneous reduction of the pulse wings by using a combination of both the self-phase modulation and nonlinear birefringence effects in a modified optical-fiber pulse compressor.Peer reviewedElectrical and Computer Engineerin

DNA-based Self-Assembly of Chiral Plasmonic Nanostructures with Tailored Optical Response

Surface plasmon resonances generated in metallic nanostructures can be utilized to tailor electromagnetic fields. The precise spatial arrangement of such structures can result in surprising optical properties that are not found in any naturally occurring material. Here, the designed activity emerges from collective effects of singular components equipped with limited individual functionality. Top-down fabrication of plasmonic materials with a predesigned optical response in the visible range by conventional lithographic methods has remained challenging due to their limited resolution, the complexity of scaling, and the difficulty to extend these techniques to three-dimensional architectures. Molecular self-assembly provides an alternative route to create such materials which is not bound by the above limitations. We demonstrate how the DNA origami method can be used to produce plasmonic materials with a tailored optical response at visible wavelengths. Harnessing the assembly power of 3D DNA origami, we arranged metal nanoparticles with a spatial accuracy of 2 nm into nanoscale helices. The helical structures assemble in solution in a massively parallel fashion and with near quantitative yields. As a designed optical response, we generated giant circular dichroism and optical rotary dispersion in the visible range that originates from the collective plasmon-plasmon interactions within the nanohelices. We also show that the optical response can be tuned through the visible spectrum by changing the composition of the metal nanoparticles. The observed effects are independent of the direction of the incident light and can be switched by design between left- and right-handed orientation. Our work demonstrates the production of complex bulk materials from precisely designed nanoscopic assemblies and highlights the potential of DNA self-assembly for the fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure