A Novel Photonic Material for Designing Arbitrarily Shaped Waveguides in Two Dimensions

We investigate numerically optical properties of novel two-dimensional photonic materials where parallel dielectric rods are randomly placed with the restriction that the distance between rods is larger than a certain value. A large complete photonic gap (PG) is found when rods have sufficient density and dielectric contrast. Our result shows that neither long-range nor short-range order is an essential prerequisite to the formation of PGs. A universal principle is proposed for designing arbitrarily shaped waveguides, where waveguides are fenced with side walls of periodic rods and surrounded by the novel photonic materials. We observe highly efficient transmission of light for various waveguides. Due to structural uniformity, the novel photonic materials are best suited for filling up the outer region of waveguides of arbitrary shape and dimension comparable with the wavelength.Comment: 4 figure

The renal lesions that develop in neonatal mice during angiotensin inhibition mimic obstructive nephropathy

The renal lesions that develop in neonatal mice during angiotensin inhibition mimic obstructive nephropathy.BackgroundInhibition of angiotensin action, pharmacologically or genetically, during the neonatal period leads to renal anomalies involving hypoplastic papilla and dilated calyx. Recently, we documented that angiotensinogen (Agt -/-) or angiotensin type 1 receptor nullizygotes (Agtr1 -/-) do not develop renal pelvis nor ureteral peristaltic movement, both of which are essential for isolating the kidney from the high downstream ureteral pressure. We therefore examined whether these renal anomalies could be characterized as “obstructive” nephropathy.MethodsAgtr1 -/- neonatal mice were compared with wild-type neonates, the latter subjected to surgical complete unilateral ureteral ligation (UUO), by analyzing morphometrical, immunohistochemical, and molecular indices. Agtr1 -/- mice were also subjected to a complete UUO and were compared with wild-type UUO mice by quantitative analysis. To assess the function of the urinary tract, baseline pelvic and ureteral pressures were measured.ResultsThe structural anomalies were qualitatively indistinguishable between the Agtr1 -/- without surgical obstruction versus the wild type with complete UUO. Thus, in both kidneys, the calyx was enlarged, whereas the papilla was atrophic; tubulointerstitial cells underwent proliferation and also apoptosis. Both were also characterized by interstitial macrophage infiltration and fibrosis, and within the local lesion, transforming growth factor-β1, platelet-derived growth factor-A, and insulin-like growth factor-1 were up-regulated, whereas epidermal growth factor was down-regulated. Moreover, quantitative differences that exist between mutant kidneys without surgical obstruction and wild-type kidneys with surgical UUO were abolished when both underwent the same complete surgical UUO. The hydraulic baseline pressure was always lower in the pelvis than that in the ureter in the wild type, whereas this pressure gradient was reversed in the mutant.ConclusionThe abnormal kidney structure that develops in neonates during angiotensin inhibition is attributed largely to “functional obstruction” of the urinary tract caused by the defective development of peristaltic machinery

Isotropic photonic band gap and anisotropic structures in transmission spectra of two-dimensional 5-fold and 8-fold symmetric quasiperiodic photonic crystals

We measured and calculated transmission spectra of two-dimensional quasiperiodic photonic crystals (PCs) based on a 5-fold (Penrose) or 8-fold (octagonal) symmetric quasiperiodic pattern. The photonic crystal consisted of dielectric cylindrical rods in air placed normal to the basal plane on vertices of tiles composing the quasiperiodic pattern. An isotropic photonic band gap (PBG) appeared in the TM mode, where electric fields were parallel to the rods, even when the real part of a dielectric constant of the rod was as small as 2.4. An isotropic PBG-like dip was seen in tiny Penrose and octagonal PCs with only 6 and 9 rods, respectively. These results indicate that local multiple light scattering within the tiny PC plays an important role in the PBG formation. Besides the isotropic PBG, we found dips depending on the incident angle of the light. This is the first report of anisotropic structures clearly observed in transmission spectra of quasiperiodic PCs. Based on rod-number and rod-arrangement dependence, it is thought that the shapes and positions of the anisotropic dips are determined by global multiple light scattering covering the whole system. In contrast to the isotropic PBG due to local light scattering, we could not find any PBGs due to global light scattering even though we studied transmission spectra of a huge Penrose PC with 466 rods.Comment: One tex file for manuscript and 12 PNG files for figures consisting of Fig.1a-d, 2,3, ...

Improvement of responsivity of Unified Power Flow Controller in digital control system

The Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) can flexibly manage power flow and maintain line voltage. The UPFC consists of two inverters in parallel side and series side. In parallel side, the reactive power can be compensated to improve the power factor. In series side, the voltage drop can be compensated to maintain proper line voltage. It is necessary for the operation in both sides to output the current and the voltage quickly and accurately. As the method for the UPFC control, the deadbeat control is applied. The deadbeat control is able to realize a quick response of the current and voltage control for only a sampling period compared with the general PI control. A principle and simulation results are presented in this paper.2013 International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems, ICEMS 2013; Busan; South Korea; 26 October 2013 through 29 October 201

A powerful tool for measuring Higgs boson associated Lepton Flavour Violation

In models with extended Higgs sectors, Higgs-boson-mediated Lepton Flavour Violation (LFV) can naturally appear. We study the physics potential of an electron-photon collider %as an option of the International Linear Collider on searching LFV processes $e^-\gamma\to\ell^-\varphi (\ell=\mu,\tau; \varphi=H, A)$ where $H$ and $A$ are extra CP even and odd Higgs bosons, respectively, in the minimal supersymmetric standard model and the effective two Higgs doublet model. The production cross section can be significantly large for the maximal allowed values of the LFV coupling constants under the current experimental data. Present experimental upper bounds on the effective LFV coupling constants would be considerably improved by searching these processes, which would be better than MEG and COMET experiments and also those at LHCb and SuperKEKB. Moreover, one can separately measure chirality of effective LFV coupling constants via these processes by selecting electron polarizations.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, version accepted for publication in Physics Letters

Artemisinin exposure at the ring or trophozoite stage impacts <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> sexual conversion differently.

--- - Malaria transmission is dependent on the formation of gametocytes in the human blood. The sexual conversion rate, the proportion of asexual parasites that convert into gametocytes at each multiplication cycle, is variable and reflects the relative parasite investment between transmission and maintaining the infection. The impact of environmental factors such as drugs on sexual conversion rates is not well understood. We developed a robust assay using gametocyte-reporter parasite lines to accurately measure the impact of drugs on sexual conversion rates, independently from their gametocytocidal activity. We found that exposure to subcurative doses of the frontline antimalarial drug dihydroartemisinin (DHA) at the trophozoite stage resulted in a ~ fourfold increase in sexual conversion. In contrast, no increase was observed when ring stages were exposed or in cultures in which sexual conversion was stimulated by choline depletion. Our results reveal a complex relationship between antimalarial drugs and sexual conversion, with potential public health implications

N-acetyltaurine and Acetylcarnitine Production for the Mitochondrial Acetyl-CoA Regulation in Skeletal Muscles during Endurance Exercises

During endurance exercises, a large amount of mitochondrial acetyl-CoA is produced in skeletal muscles from lipids, and the excess acetyl-CoA suppresses the metabolic flux from glycolysis to the TCA cycle. This study evaluated the hypothesis that taurine and carnitine act as a buffer of the acetyl moiety of mitochondrial acetyl-CoA derived from the short- and long-chain fatty acids of skeletal muscles during endurance exercises. In human subjects, the serum concentrations of acetylated forms of taurine (NAT) and carnitine (ACT), which are the metabolites of acetyl-CoA buffering, significantly increased after a full marathon. In the culture medium of primary human skeletal muscle cells, NAT and ACT concentrations significantly increased when they were cultured with taurine and acetate or with carnitine and palmitic acid, respectively. The increase in the mitochondrial acetyl-CoA/free CoA ratio induced by acetate and palmitic acid was suppressed by taurine and carnitine, respectively. Elevations of NAT and ACT in the blood of humans during endurance exercises might serve the buffering of the acetyl-moiety in mitochondria by taurine and carnitine, respectively. The results suggest that blood levels of NAT and ACT indicate energy production status from fatty acids in the skeletal muscles of humans undergoing endurance exercise