Beaming effect from increased-index photonic crystal waveguides

We study the beaming effect of light for the case of increased-index photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides, formed through the omission of low-dielectric media in the waveguide region. We employ the finite-difference time-domain numerical method for characterizing the beaming effect and determining the mechanisms of loss and the overall efficiency of the directional emission. We find that, while this type of PhC waveguides is capable of producing a highly collimated emission as was demonstrated experimentally, the inherent characteristics of the structure result in a restrictively low efficiency in the coupling of light into the collimated beam of light.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Applied Physics

Tunable split-ring resonators for nonlinear negative-index metamaterials

We study experimentally the dynamic tunability and self-induced nonlinearity of split-ring resonators incorporating variable capacitance diodes. We demonstrate that the eigenfrequencies of the resonators can be tuned over a wide frequency range, and significantly, we show that the self-induced nonlinear effects observed in the varactor-loaded split-ring resonator structures can appear at relatively low power levels.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Scattering of electromagnetic waves in metamaterial superlattices

The authors study experimentally both transmission and reflection of microwave radiation from metamaterialsuperlattices created by layers of periodically arranged wires and split-ring resonators. The authors measure the dependence of the metamaterial resonance on the spatial period of the superlattice and demonstrate resonance broadening and splitting for the binary metamaterial structures.The authors acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council and thank Ekmel Ozbay for providing additional details of the experimental results published earlier by his group

Tamm states and nonlinear surface modes in photonic crystals

We predict the existence of surface gap modes, known as Tamm states for electronic systems, in truncated photonic crystals formed by two types of dielectric rods. We investigate the energy threshold, dispersion, and modal symmetries of the surface modes, and also demonstrate the existence and tunability of nonlinear Tamm states in binary photonic crystals with nonlinear response.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Optics Communication

Deep CCD Surface Photometry of Galaxy Clusters I: Methods and Initial Studies of Intracluster Starlight

We report the initial results of a deep imaging survey of galaxy clusters. The primary goals of this survey are to quantify the amount of intracluster light as a function of cluster properties, and to quantify the frequency of tidal debris. We outline the techniques needed to perform such a survey, and we report findings for the first two galaxy clusters in the survey: Abell 1413, and MKW 7 . These clusters vary greatly in richness and structure. We show that our surface photometry reliably reaches to a surface brightness of \mu_v = 26.5 mags per arcsec. We find that both clusters show clear excesses over a best-fitting r^{1/4} profile: this was expected for Abell 1413, but not for MKW 7. Both clusters also show evidence of tidal debris in the form of plumes and arc-like structures, but no long tidal arcs were detected. We also find that the central cD galaxy in Abell 1413 is flattened at large radii, with an ellipticity of $\approx 0.8$, the largest measured ellipticity of any cD galaxy to date.Comment: 58 pages, 24 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Version has extremely low resolution figures to comply with 650k limit. High resolution version is available at http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/johnf/icl1.ps.gz Obtaining high resolution version is strongly reccomende

A comprehensive map of insulator elements for the Drosophila genome.

Insulators are DNA sequences that control the interactions among genomic regulatory elements and act as chromatin boundaries. A thorough understanding of their location and function is necessary to address the complexities of metazoan gene regulation. We studied by ChIP-chip the genome-wide binding sites of 6 insulator-associated proteins-dCTCF, CP190, BEAF-32, Su(Hw), Mod(mdg4), and GAF-to obtain the first comprehensive map of insulator elements in Drosophila embryos. We identify over 14,000 putative insulators, including all classically defined insulators. We find two major classes of insulators defined by dCTCF/CP190/BEAF-32 and Su(Hw), respectively. Distributional analyses of insulators revealed that particular sub-classes of insulator elements are excluded between cis-regulatory elements and their target promoters; divide differentially expressed, alternative, and divergent promoters; act as chromatin boundaries; are associated with chromosomal breakpoints among species; and are embedded within active chromatin domains. Together, these results provide a map demarcating the boundaries of gene regulatory units and a framework for understanding insulator function during the development and evolution of Drosophila

A Comprehensive Map of Insulator Elements for the <i>Drosophila</i> Genome

Insulators are DNA sequences that control the interactions among genomic regulatory elements and act as chromatin boundaries. A thorough understanding of their location and function is necessary to address the complexities of metazoan gene regulation. We studied by ChIP–chip the genome-wide binding sites of 6 insulator-associated proteins—dCTCF, CP190, BEAF-32, Su(Hw), Mod(mdg4), and GAF—to obtain the first comprehensive map of insulator elements in Drosophila embryos. We identify over 14,000 putative insulators, including all classically defined insulators. We find two major classes of insulators defined by dCTCF/CP190/BEAF-32 and Su(Hw), respectively. Distributional analyses of insulators revealed that particular sub-classes of insulator elements are excluded between cis-regulatory elements and their target promoters; divide differentially expressed, alternative, and divergent promoters; act as chromatin boundaries; are associated with chromosomal breakpoints among species; and are embedded within active chromatin domains. Together, these results provide a map demarcating the boundaries of gene regulatory units and a framework for understanding insulator function during the development and evolution of Drosophila.</p

Closed-Form Bayesian Inferences for the Logit Model via Polynomial Expansions

Articles in Marketing and choice literatures have demonstrated the need for incorporating person-level heterogeneity into behavioral models (e.g., logit models for multiple binary outcomes as studied here). However, the logit likelihood extended with a population distribution of heterogeneity doesn't yield closed-form inferences, and therefore numerical integration techniques are relied upon (e.g., MCMC methods). We present here an alternative, closed-form Bayesian inferences for the logit model, which we obtain by approximating the logit likelihood via a polynomial expansion, and then positing a distribution of heterogeneity from a flexible family that is now conjugate and integrable. For problems where the response coefficients are independent, choosing the Gamma distribution leads to rapidly convergent closed-form expansions; if there are correlations among the coefficients one can still obtain rapidly convergent closed-form expansions by positing a distribution of heterogeneity from a Multivariate Gamma distribution. The solution then comes from the moment generating function of the Multivariate Gamma distribution or in general from the multivariate heterogeneity distribution assumed. Closed-form Bayesian inferences, derivatives (useful for elasticity calculations), population distribution parameter estimates (useful for summarization) and starting values (useful for complicated algorithms) are hence directly available. Two simulation studies demonstrate the efficacy of our approach.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures, corrected some typos. Appears in Quantitative Marketing and Economics vol 4 (2006), no. 2, 173--20