Large-area, wide-angle, spectrally selective plasmonic absorber

A simple metamaterial-based wide-angle plasmonic absorber is introduced, fabricated, and experimentally characterized using angle-resolved infrared spectroscopy. The metamaterials are prepared by nano-imprint lithography, an attractive low-cost technology for making large-area samples. The matching of the metamaterial's impedance to that of vacuum is responsible for the observed spectrally selective "perfect" absorption of infrared light. The impedance is theoretically calculated in the single-resonance approximation, and the responsible resonance is identified as a short-range surface plasmon. The spectral position of the absorption peak (which is as high as 95%) is experimentally shown to be controlled by the metamaterial's dimensions. The persistence of "perfect" absorption with variable metamaterial parameters is theoretically explained. The wide-angle nature of the absorber can be utilized for sub-diffraction-scale infrared pixels exhibiting spectrally selective absorption/emissivity.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Identification of Leishmania Mexicana Mexicana in the State of São Paulo, Brazil

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Where are commodity crops certified, and what does it mean for conservation and poverty alleviation?

Voluntary sustainability standards have expanded dramatically over the last decade. In the agricultural sector, such standards aim to ensure environmentally and socially sustainable production of a variety of commodity crops. However, little is known about where agricultural certification operates and whether certified lands are best located for conserving the world's most important biodiversity and benefiting the most vulnerable producers. To examine these questions we developed the first global map of commodity crop certification, synthesizing data from over one million farms to reveal the distribution of certification in unprecedented detail. It highlights both geographical clusters of certification as well as spatial bias in the location of certification with respect to environmental, livelihood and physical variables. Excluding organic certification, for which spatial data were not available, most certification of commodity crops is in tropical regions. Certification appears to be concentrated in areas important for biodiversity conservation, but not in those areas most in need of poverty alleviation, although there were exceptions to each of these patterns. We argue that the impact of sustainability standards could be increased by identifying places where it would be most beneficial to strengthen, consolidate, and expand certification. To achieve this, standards organizations will need to undertake more rigorous collection of spatial data, and more detailed analysis of their existing reach and impacts, with attention to potential trade-offs between different objectives. Efforts to promote spatial prioritization will require new partnerships to align specific conservation aims with the interests and capabilities of farmers

Suppression of quantum oscillations and the dependence on site energies in electronic excitation transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson trimer

Energy transfer in the photosynthetic complex of the Green Sulfur Bacteria known as the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex is studied theoretically taking all three subunits (monomers) of the FMO trimer and the recently found eighth bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecule into account. We find that in all considered cases there is very little transfer between the monomers. Since it is believed that the eighth BChl is located near the main light harvesting antenna we look at the differences in transfer between the situation when BChl 8 is initially excited and the usually considered case when BChl 1 or 6 is initially excited. We find strong differences in the transfer dynamics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. When the excited state dynamics is initialized at site eight of the FMO complex, we see a slow exponential-like decay of the excitation. This is in contrast to the oscillations and a relatively fast transfer that occurs when only seven sites or initialization at sites 1 and 6 is considered. Additionally we show that differences in the values of the electronic transition energies found in the literature lead to a large difference in the transfer dynamics

First Observation of the Rare Decay Mode K-long -> e+ e-

In an experiment designed to search for and study very rare two-body decay modes of the K-long, we have observed four examples of the decay K-long -> e+ e-, where the expected background is 0.17+-0.10 events. This observation translates into a branching fraction of 8.7^{+5.7}_{-4.1} X 10^{-12}, consistent with recent theoretical predictions. This result represents by far the smallest branching fraction yet measured in particle physics.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

The role of nitric oxide in pulmonary arteriolar and left heart ventricle hypertrophy in chickens at sea level and exposed to high altitude hypoxia.

El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar los valores de nitritos y nitratos, metabolitos estables del óxido nítrico (ON), y su correlación con el grado de hipertrofia arteriolar pulmonar en aves sometidas a hipoxia ambiental. Se emplearon 135 aves machos de la línea Cobb-Vantres, nacidos a nivel del mar. De estas, 120 fueron divididos en dos grupos: 60 aves criadas a nivel del mar (NM) y 60 aves criadas en altura a 3320 msnm (A), en tanto que las 15 aves restantes fueron sacrificadas al primer día de edad. Quince aves seleccionadas al azar de cada grupo fueron sacrificadas a los 10, 20, 30 y 40 días de edad. Se determinó el peso corporal (PC), hematocrito (Ht), nitritos y nitratos, relación capa muscular/diámetro arteriolar pulmonar (CM/DA), relación peso del ventrículo derecho/ peso total del ventrículo (VD/VT), y relación peso ventrículo derecho/peso corporal (VD/PC). El PC fue mayor a NM que en A (p<0.05), mientras que el Ht fue mayor en A que a NM (p<0.05). Los niveles de nitritos y nitratos a NM fueron similares en todas las edades, mientras que en A se observó una disminución a los 20 días y un aumento a los 30 días (p<0.05). En ambos grupos se observó un proceso de muscularización de las arteriolas pulmonares con la edad. Las relaciones VD/VT y VD/PC mostraron una hipertrofia ventricular derecha en las aves sometidas a hipoxia. Se encontró una correlación significativa entre los niveles de nitritos y nitratos en los diferentes tiempos de exposición a la hipoxia con las relaciones CM/DA, VD/VT y VD/PC. Se concluye que las variaciones en la producción del ON afecta el desarrollo de la musculatura lisa de las arteriolas pulmonares, produciendo una hipertrofia cardiaca derecha como mecanismo compensatorio.The aim of this study was to determine the nitrites and nitrates concentration, stable metabolites of NO, and its correlation with the degree of pulmonary arteriole hypertrophy in chickens raised at environmental hypoxia. A total of 135 Cobb-Vantres male chickens, born at sea level were used. Of this, 60 chicks raised at sea level (SL), and 60 at high altitude (A), 3230 m above sea level; while the remaining 15 birds were slaughtered at 1 day of age. Fifteen 15 chicks per group were randomly selected and slaughtered at 10, 20, 30 and 40 days of age. It was determined body weight (BW), hematocrite (Ht), nitrites and nitrates, muscular wall/arteriolar diameter (CM/DA) ratio, right ventricle weight/total ventricle weight ratio (RV/TV), and right ventricle weight/body weight ratio (RV/BW) ratio. BW was greater at SL than at A (p< 0.05), whereas Ht was greater in A than at SL (p< 0.05). The nitrites and nitrates levels at SL were similar at all ages, whereas at A decreased at 20 days and increased at 30 days (p< 0.05). A process of muscularization in the pulmonary arterioles was observed in relation to age in both groups. The RV/TV and RV/BW ratios showed a right cardiac hypertrophy in chickens raised under hypoxia. There was a significant correlation between levels of nitrites and nitrates at different times of exposition to hypoxia with MW/AD, RV/TV and RV/BW ratios. It is concluded that variations in the production of NO directly affect the proliferation of smooth muscle of pulmonary arterioles conducing to a compensatory right cardiac hypertrophy

Second Generation Leptoquark Search in p\bar{p} Collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV

We report on a search for second generation leptoquarks with the D\O\ detector at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ collider at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV. This search is based on 12.7 pb$^{-1}$ of data. Second generation leptoquarks are assumed to be produced in pairs and to decay into a muon and quark with branching ratio $\beta$ or to neutrino and quark with branching ratio $(1-\beta)$. We obtain cross section times branching ratio limits as a function of leptoquark mass and set a lower limit on the leptoquark mass of 111 GeV/c$^{2}$ for $\beta = 1$ and 89 GeV/c$^{2}$ for $\beta = 0.5$ at the 95%\ confidence level.Comment: 18 pages, FERMILAB-PUB-95/185-