Model of the optical emission of a driven semiconductor quantum dot: phonon-enhanced coherent scattering and off-resonant sideband narrowing

We study the crucial role played by the solid-state environment in determining the photon emission characteristics of a driven quantum dot. For resonant driving, we predict a phonon-enhancement of the coherently emitted radiation field with increasing driving strength, in stark contrast to the conventional expectation of a rapidly decreasing fraction of coherent emission with stronger driving. This surprising behaviour results from thermalisation of the dot with respect to the phonon bath, and leads to a nonstandard regime of resonance fluorescence in which significant coherent scattering and the Mollow triplet coexist. Off-resonance, we show that despite the phonon influence, narrowing of dot spectral sideband widths can occur in certain regimes, consistent with an experimental trend.Comment: Published version. 5 pages, 2 figures, plus 4 page supplement. Title changed, figure 1 revised, various edits and additions to the tex

Comment on "General Non-Markovian Dynamics of Open Quantum Systems"

The existence of a "non-Markovian dissipationless" regime, characterized by long lived oscillations, was recently reported for a class of quantum open systems (Zhang et al, PRL, 109, 170402, (2012)). It is claimed this could happen in the strong coupling regime, a surprising result which has attracted some attention. We show that this regime exists if and only if the total Hamiltonian is unbounded from below, casting serious doubts on the usefulness of this result

The Use of Non-natural Nucleotides to Probe Template-Independent DNA Synthesis

The vast majority of DNA polymerases use the complementary templating strand of DNA to guide each nucleotide incorporation. There are instances, however, in which polymerases can efficiently incorporate nucleotides in the absence of templating information. This process, known as translesion DNA synthesis, can alter the proper genetic code of an organism. To further elucidate the mechanism of template-independent DNA synthesis, we monitored the incorporation of various nucleotides at the “blunt-end” of duplex DNA by the high-fidelity bacteriophage T4 DNA polymerase. Although natural nucleotides are not incorporated at the blunt-end, a limited subset of non-natural indolyl analogues containing extensive π-electron surface areas are efficiently utilized by the T4 DNA polymerase. These analogues possess high binding affinities that are remarkably similar to those measured during incorporation opposite an abasic site. In contrast, the kpol values are significantly lower during blunt-end extension when compared to incorporation opposite an abasic site. These kinetic differences suggest that the single-stranded region of the DNA template plays an important role during polymerization through stacking interactions with downstream bases, interactions with key amino acid residues, or both. In addition, we demonstrate that terminal deoxynucleotide transferase, a template-independent enzyme, can efficiently incorporate many of these non-natural nucleotides. However, that this unique polymerase cannot extend large, bulky non-natural nucleotides suggests that elongation is limited by steric constraints imposed by structural features present within the polymerase. Regardless, the kinetic data obtained from using either DNA polymerase indicate that template-independent synthesis can occur without the contributions of hydrogen-bonding interactions and suggest that π-electron interactions play an important role in polymerization efficiency when templating information is not present

Intense molecular emission from the Lagoon nebula, M8

The discovery is reported of the second strongest source of mm and submm wavelength CO line emission, towards M8, the Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius. The ~31 M⊙ molecular core has dimensions ~0.2 x 0.3pc and is centred on the O7V star Herschel 36 (H36), near the Hourglass Nebula in the core of M8. Emission from the CO line wings extends to the north and south of the Hourglass, although a lack of near-IR H2 emission indicates that outflow activity is much less prominent than in many active star-formation regions, and suggests that the CO line wings may trace the expanding edge of a cavity around H36. The molecular line data are compared with new near-IR narrow-band, continuum-subtracted images in He I, H2, and H,+ (Brγ) lines and archival HST emission-line images in Hα, [O III], and [S II]. The optical and near-IR data are found to be broadly consistent with previous photo-ionisation models of the Hourglass, which is excited by H 36. However, there are variations in the He I/Brγ line ratio which are difficult to explain

A new Lower Silurian fossil locality in the northeastern Mascarene-Nerepis Belt, southern New Brunswick

A new fossil locality from the northeastern part of the Mascarene-Nerepis Belt, previously mapped as "Ordovician or Silurian", gives a precise Liandoverian C5 age. It occurs In a sedimentary sequence that underlies, and in part is laterally equivalent to, volcanic rocks of the Long Reach Formation. It establishes an approximate upper age limit to the Queen Brook Formation and is about the same age as the oldest fossiliferous rocks (Back Bay and Quoddy Formations) in the southwestern Mascarene-Nerepis Belt. RÉSUMÉ Un nouveau site fossilifère, daté avec précision com me Liandovérien C5, a été découvert dans la partie nord-est de la zone Mascarene-Nerepis autrefois cartographiée comme "Ordovicien ou Silurien". Le site fait partie d'une séquence de roches sédimentares qui sont récouvertes par des roches volcaniques appartenant à la Formation de Long Reach, et auxquelles elles sont également en partie équivalentes. Cette découverte précise la limite supérieure de L’âge de la Formation de Queen Brook et correspond à peu près à L’âge des plus anciennes roches fossilifères (Formations de Back Bay et de Quoddy) de la partie sud-ouest de la zone Mascarene-Nerepis. [Traduit par le journal

Language skills of profoundly deaf children who received cochlear implants under 12 months of age: a preliminary study

Conclusion. This study demonstrated that children who receive a cochlear implant below the age of 2 years obtain higher mean receptive and expressive language scores than children implanted over the age of 2 years. Objective. The purpose of this study was to compare the receptive and expressive language skills of children who received a cochlear implant before 1 year of age to the language skills of children who received an implant between 1 and 3 years of age. Subjects and methods. Standardized language measures, the Reynell Developmental Language Scale (RDLS) and the Preschool Language Scale (PLS), were used to assess the receptive and expressive language skills of 91 children who received an implant before their third birthday. Results. The mean receptive and expressive language scores for the RDLS and the PLS were slightly higher for the children who were implanted below the age of 2 years compared with the children who were implanted over 2 years old. For the PLS, both the receptive and expressive mean standard scores decreased with increasing age at implantation

The diversity of ice algal communities on the Greenland Ice Sheet as revealed by oligotyping

The Arctic is being disproportionally affected by climate change compared with other geographic locations, and is currently experiencing unprecedented melt rates. The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) can be regarded as the largest supraglacial ecosystem on Earth, and ice algae are the dominant primary producers on bare ice surfaces throughout the course of a melt season. Ice-algal-derived pigments cause a darkening of the ice surface, which in turn decreases albedo and increases melt rates. The important role of ice algae in changing melt rates has only recently been recognized, and we currently know little about their community compositions and functions. Here, we present the first analysis of ice algal communities across a 100 km transect on the GrIS by high-throughput sequencing and subsequent oligotyping of the most abundant taxa. Our data reveal an extremely low algal diversity with Ancylonema nordenskiöldii and a Mesotaenium species being by far the dominant taxa at all sites. We employed an oligotyping approach and revealed a hidden diversity not detectable by conventional clustering of operational taxonomic units and taxonomic classification. Oligotypes of the dominant taxa exhibit a site-specific distribution, which may be linked to differences in temperatures and subsequently the extent of the melting. Our results help to better understand the distribution patterns of ice algal communities that play a crucial role in the GrIS ecosystem