Ultra-broadband wavelength-swept Tm-doped fiber laser using wavelength-combined gain stages

A wavelength-swept thulium-doped fiber laser system employing two parallel cavities with two different fiber gain stages is reported. The fiber gain stages were tailored to provide emission in complementary bands with external wavelength-dependent feedback cavities sharing a common rotating polygon mirror for wavelength scanning. The wavelength-swept laser outputs from the fiber gain elements were spectrally combined by means of a dichroic mirror and yielded over 500 mW of output with a scanning range from ~1740 nm to ~2070 nm for a scanning frequency of ~340 Hz

Distinct high-T transitions in underdoped Ba1−x_{1-x}Kx_{x}Fe2_{2}As2_{2}

In contrast to the simultaneous structural and magnetic first order phase transition $T_{0}$ previously reported, our detailed investigation on an underdoped Ba$_{0.84}$K$_{0.16}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ single crystal unambiguously revealed that the transitions are not concomitant. The tetragonal ($\tau$: I4/mmm) - orthorhombic ($\vartheta$: Fmmm) structural transition occurs at $T_{S}\simeq$ 110 K, followed by an adjacent antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition at $T_{N}\simeq$ 102 K. Hysteresis and coexistence of the $\tau$ and $\vartheta$ phases over a finite temperature range observed in our NMR experiments confirm the first order character of the structural transition and provide evidence that both $T_{S}$ and $T_{N}$ are strongly correlated. Our data also show that superconductivity (SC) develops in the $\vartheta$ phase below $T_{c}$ = 20 K and coexists with long range AFM. This new observation, $T_{S}\neq T_{N}$, firmly establishes another similarity between the hole-doped BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ via K substitution and the electron-doped iron-arsenide superconductors.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Elastic cavitation, tube hollowing, and differential growth in plants and biological tissues

Elastic cavitation is a well-known physical process by which elastic materials under stress can open cavities. Usually, cavitation is induced by applied loads on the elastic body. However, growing materials may generate stresses in the absence of applied loads and could induce cavity opening. Here, we demonstrate the possibility of spontaneous growth-induced cavitation in elastic materials and consider the implications of this phenomenon to biological tissues and in particular to the problem of schizogenous aerenchyma formation

Osmoregulation by the Broad-Snouted Caiman, "Caiman latirostris", in Estuarine Habitat in Southern Brazil

The broad-snouted caiman Caiman latirostris, of South America mostly frequents freshwater but occurs also in estuaries. Nothing of substance is known of its osmoregulatory physiology but, in the light of accumulating evidence that alligatorids lack specialised adaptations for life in hyperosmotic waters, we anticipated its physiology would be more similar to that of Alligator mississippiensis than the euryhaline Crocodylus porosus, which has both lingual salt glands and a more complex renal:cloacal system. This proved to be the case. Caiman captured in estuaries of the Ilha do Cardoso in southern Brazil were effective hypoosmotic osmoregulators in salinities of 0-24 ppt (seawater = 35 ppt). Plasma osmolarity, sodium and chloride were similar to those in other crocodilians and not influenced by salinity. Plasma urea was low and did not vary with salinity. We found no evidence of lingual or other salt glands. Urinary electrolyte concentrations varied considerably with salinity and in ways reminiscent of A. mississippiensis but very different from C. porosus. Ca. latirostris dehydrated in seawater more rapidly than C. porosus and had substantially higher integumental permeability to water. Caiman did not drink seawater but rehydrated rapidly when returned to freshwater (FW). We found small caiman (< 500 g) only in very low salinities (< 3 ppt) and larger caiman closer to the sea. We postulate that medium to large Ca. latirostris can take advantage of the feeding opportunities presented by the estuarine mangal despite lacking the physiological specialisations of crocodylids. Two individuals which we re-sighted by chance had traveled at least 600m in 2-3 days, showing that every caiman we captured or saw was within easy reach of FW. Most likely their habitation of the estuary and its mangal is achieved through a combination of low surface area:volume ratio, relatively impermeable skin, and periodic access to FW

Low thrust propulsion in a coplanar circular restricted four body problem

This paper formulates a circular restricted four body problem (CRFBP), where the three primaries are set in the stable Lagrangian equilateral triangle configuration and the fourth body is massless. The analysis of this autonomous coplanar CRFBP is undertaken, which identies eight natural equilibria; four of which are close to the smaller body, two stable and two unstable, when considering the primaries to be the Sun and two smaller bodies of the solar system. Following this, the model incorporates `near term' low-thrust propulsion capabilities to generate surfaces of articial equilibrium points close to the smaller primary, both in and out of the plane containing the celestial bodies. A stability analysis of these points is carried out and a stable subset of them is identied. Throughout the analysis the Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid-Spacecraft system is used, for conceivable masses of a hypothetical asteroid set at the libration point L4. It is shown that eight bounded orbits exist, which can be maintained with a constant thrust less than 1:5 10&#x100000;4N for a 1000kg spacecraft. This illustrates that, by exploiting low-thrust technologies, it would be possible to maintain an observation point more than 66% closer to the asteroid than that of a stable natural equilibrium point. The analysis then focusses on a major Jupiter Trojan: the 624-Hektor asteroid. The thrust required to enable close asteroid observation is determined in the simplied CRFBP model. Finally, a numerical simulation of the real Sun-Jupiter-624 Hektor-Spacecraft is undertaken, which tests the validity of the stability analysis of the simplied model

Enabling High-Power SmallSats with Advanced Thermal Management

High-power Small Satellites have the potential to provide new and advanced capabilities; however, significant challenges prevent wide-spread use. Of these, thermal management of high-heat loads is significant. Although advances in thermal acquisition, transport, and storage are available; thermal dissipation technologies for high-power systems are lacking. Several design concepts are presented focused on high-efficiency, lightweight deployable radiating technologies. Analysis showed that realistic deployable radiator designs offer 220% more thermal dissipation than body-mounted radiator designs, which directly correlates to the same amount of increase in feasible total bus power. Using deployable radiators, a nominal 6U Small Satellite can realistically dissipate around 200 W

Coronostoma claireae n. sp. (Nematoda: Rhabditida: Oxyuridomorpha: Coronostomatidae) from the Indigenous Milliped Narceus gordanus (Chamberlain, 1943) (Diplopoda: Spirobolida) in Ocala National Forest, Florida

Twenty-four individuals of Narceus gordanus (Diplopoda: Spirobolidae) were collected in Ocala National Forest, FL, between November 2013 and July 2014. Each specimen was dissected to extract the intestine, which was removed and examined for parasitic nematodes. Coronostoma claireae n. sp. was collected from the hindgut and midgut of 10 specimens, and its morphology was examined with brightfield, differential interference contrast, phase contrast, and scanning electron microscopy. This species is separated from other Coronostoma spp. by the following characteristics: body length less than 3 mm; head sense organs pit-like; first annule long, extending past middle of corpus, width similar to that of second annule; basal bulb pyriform; eggs larger than 60 3 50 mm. This species is the first North American record for the genus Coronostoma, which is removed from Thelastomatoidea: Thelastomatidae and reassigned to Coronostomatidae on the basis of presumed apomorphies. A key is provided for known Coronostoma spp. The superfamily Coronostomatoidea is re-established for Coronostomatidae and Traklosiidae

Folding and unfolding phylogenetic trees and networks

Phylogenetic networks are rooted, labelled directed acyclic graphs which are commonly used to represent reticulate evolution. There is a close relationship between phylogenetic networks and multi-labelled trees (MUL-trees). Indeed, any phylogenetic network $N$ can be "unfolded" to obtain a MUL-tree $U(N)$ and, conversely, a MUL-tree $T$ can in certain circumstances be "folded" to obtain a phylogenetic network $F(T)$ that exhibits $T$. In this paper, we study properties of the operations $U$ and $F$ in more detail. In particular, we introduce the class of stable networks, phylogenetic networks $N$ for which $F(U(N))$ is isomorphic to $N$, characterise such networks, and show that they are related to the well-known class of tree-sibling networks.We also explore how the concept of displaying a tree in a network $N$ can be related to displaying the tree in the MUL-tree $U(N)$. To do this, we develop a phylogenetic analogue of graph fibrations. This allows us to view $U(N)$ as the analogue of the universal cover of a digraph, and to establish a close connection between displaying trees in $U(N)$ and reconcilingphylogenetic trees with networks

Recognizing Treelike k-Dissimilarities

A k-dissimilarity D on a finite set X, |X| >= k, is a map from the set of size k subsets of X to the real numbers. Such maps naturally arise from edge-weighted trees T with leaf-set X: Given a subset Y of X of size k, D(Y) is defined to be the total length of the smallest subtree of T with leaf-set Y . In case k = 2, it is well-known that 2-dissimilarities arising in this way can be characterized by the so-called "4-point condition". However, in case k > 2 Pachter and Speyer recently posed the following question: Given an arbitrary k-dissimilarity, how do we test whether this map comes from a tree? In this paper, we provide an answer to this question, showing that for k >= 3 a k-dissimilarity on a set X arises from a tree if and only if its restriction to every 2k-element subset of X arises from some tree, and that 2k is the least possible subset size to ensure that this is the case. As a corollary, we show that there exists a polynomial-time algorithm to determine when a k-dissimilarity arises from a tree. We also give a 6-point condition for determining when a 3-dissimilarity arises from a tree, that is similar to the aforementioned 4-point condition.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure