Predators marked with chemical cues from one prey have increased attack success on another prey species

1. To reduce the risk of being eaten by predators, prey alter their morphology or behaviour. This response can be tuned to the current danger if chemical or other cues associated with predators inform the prey about the risks involved. 2. It is well known that various prey species discriminate between chemical cues from predators that fed on conspecific prey and those that fed on heterospecific prey, and react stronger to the first. It is therefore expected that generalist predators are more successful in capturing a given prey species when they are contaminated with chemical cues from another prey species instead of cues from the same prey species. 3. Here, a generalist predatory mite was studied that feeds on thrips larvae as well as on whitefly eggs and crawlers. Mites were marked with cues (i.e. body fluids) of one of these two prey species and were subsequently offered thrips larva. 4. Predators marked with thrips cues killed significantly fewer thrips than predators marked with whitefly cues, even though the predator's tendency to attack was the same. In addition, more thrips larvae sought refuge in the presence of a predatory mite marked with thrips cues instead of whitefly cues. 5. This suggests that generalist predators may experience improved attack success when switching prey species.R.v.M. received a scholarship of the Technology Foundation (STW Project 7180). G.B. received a fellowship from the OECD. E.A.F. received a fellowship from Fundació Caixa Castelló-Bancaixa (E-2011-09

Use of Hydrogen Molybdenum Bronze in Vacuum‐Deposited Perovskite Solar Cells

Herein, the dehydration of a hydrogen molybdenum bronze (HYMoO3), converting it to molybdenum oxide (MoOX), is explored toward the development of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) for the first time. H0.11MoO3 bronze is synthesized, characterized, and deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) under different concentrations and annealing conditions for in situ conversion into MoOX with appropriate oxygen vacancies. Vacuum‐deposited PSCs are fabricated using the as‐produced MoOX hole injection layers, achieving a power conversion efficiency of 17.3% (average) for the optimal device. The latter has its stability and reproducibility tested, proving the robustness and affordability of the developed hole transport layer in PSCs

Spherical silicon photonic microcavities: From amorphous to polycrystalline

[EN] Shaping silicon as a spherical object is not an obvious task, especially when the object size is in the micrometer range. This has the important consequence of transforming bare silicon material in a microcavity, so it is able to confine light efficiently. Here, we have explored the inside volume of such microcavities, both in their amorphous and in their polycrystalline versions. The synthesis method, which is based on chemical vapor deposition, causes amorphous microspheres to have a high content of hydrogen that produces an onionlike distributed porous core when the microspheres are crystallized by a fast annealing regime. This substantially influences the resonant modes. However, a slow crystallization regime does not yield pores, and produces higher-quality-factor resonances that could be fitted to the Mie theory. This allows the establishment of a procedure for obtaining size calibration standards with relative errors of the order of 0.1%.This work was supported by Projects ENE2013-49987-EXP, MAT2012-35040, and MAT2015-69669-P of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and Project PROMETEOII/2014/026 of the Regional Valencian Government. The authors greatly acknowledge the Electron Microscopy Service of the UPV for their valuable help in the structural characterization of the microspheres.Fenollosa Esteve, R.; Garín Escrivá, M.; Meseguer Rico, FJ. (2016). Spherical silicon photonic microcavities: From amorphous to polycrystalline. Physical review B: Condensed matter and materials physics. 93(23):235307-1-235307-8. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.235307S235307-1235307-8932

All silicon waveguide spherical microcavity coupler device

[EN] This paper was published in OPTICS EXPRESS and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of OSA. The paper can be found at the following URL on the OSA website: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1364/OE.19.003185. Systematic or multiple reproduction or distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means is prohibited and is subject to penalties under lawA coupler based on silicon spherical microcavities coupled to silicon waveguides for telecom wavelengths is presented. The light scattered by the microcavity is detected and analyzed as a function of the wavelength. The transmittance signal through the waveguide is strongly attenuated (up to 25 dB) at wavelengths corresponding to the Mie resonances of the microcavity. The coupling between the microcavity and the waveguide is experimentally demonstrated and theoretically modeled with the help of FDTD calculations. © 2011 Optical Society of America.The authors wish to acknowledge financial support from projects FIS2009-07812; Consolider Nanolight.es 2007/0046 and Nº 1841; the Spanish Education and Science Ministry, TEC2008- 06145; the Generalitat Valenciana, project PROMETEO/2008/092 and PROMETEO/2010/043; and project Apoyo a la investigación 2009 from Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, nº reg. 4325. E. Xifré-Pérez acknowledges the financial support from the program Juan de la Cierva (Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia). J. D. Doménech acknowledges the FPI research grant BES-2009-018381. Finally we thank Prof. J. Garcia de Abajo for providing us with the MESME theoretical program we have used in the calculation of electric field intensity distribution of the Mie modes.Xifre Perez, E.; Doménech Gómez, JD.; Fenollosa Esteve, R.; Muñoz Muñoz, P.; Capmany Francoy, J.; Meseguer Rico, FJ. (2011). All silicon waveguide spherical microcavity coupler device. Optics Express. 19(4):3185-3192. https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.19.003185S31853192194Cai, M., Painter, O., Vahala, K. J., & Sercel, P. C. (2000). Fiber-coupled microsphere laser. Optics Letters, 25(19), 1430. doi:10.1364/ol.25.001430Knight, J. C., Dubreuil, N., Sandoghdar, V., Hare, J., Lefèvre-Seguin, V., Raimond, J. M., & Haroche, S. (1995). Mapping whispering-gallery modes in microspheres with a near-field probe. Optics Letters, 20(14), 1515. doi:10.1364/ol.20.001515Lefèvre-Seguin, V., & Haroche, S. (1997). Towards cavity-QED experiments with silica microspheres. Materials Science and Engineering: B, 48(1-2), 53-58. doi:10.1016/s0921-5107(97)00080-9Gorodetsky, M. L., Savchenkov, A. A., & Ilchenko, V. S. (1996). Ultimate Q of optical microsphere resonators. Optics Letters, 21(7), 453. doi:10.1364/ol.21.000453Vernooy, D. W., Ilchenko, V. S., Mabuchi, H., Streed, E. W., & Kimble, H. J. (1998). High-Q measurements of fused-silica microspheres in the near infrared. Optics Letters, 23(4), 247. doi:10.1364/ol.23.000247Vahala, K. J. (2003). Optical microcavities. Nature, 424(6950), 839-846. doi:10.1038/nature01939Serpengüzel, A., & Demir, A. (2008). Silicon microspheres for near-IR communication applications. Semiconductor Science and Technology, 23(6), 064009. doi:10.1088/0268-1242/23/6/064009Broaddus, D. H., Foster, M. A., Agha, I. H., Robinson, J. T., Lipson, M., & Gaeta, A. L. (2009). Silicon-waveguide-coupled high-Q chalcogenide microspheres. Optics Express, 17(8), 5998. doi:10.1364/oe.17.005998Yilmaz, Y. O., Demir, A., Kurt, A., & Serpenguzel, A. (2005). Optical channel dropping with a silicon microsphere. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 17(8), 1662-1664. doi:10.1109/lpt.2005.850896Almeida, V. R., Barrios, C. A., Panepucci, R. R., & Lipson, M. (2004). All-optical control of light on a silicon chip. Nature, 431(7012), 1081-1084. doi:10.1038/nature02921Noda, S., Chutinan, A., & Imada, M. (2000). Trapping and emission of photons by a single defect in a photonic bandgap structure. Nature, 407(6804), 608-610. doi:10.1038/35036532Fenollosa, R., Meseguer, F., & Tymczenko, M. (2008). Silicon Colloids: From Microcavities to Photonic Sponges. Advanced Materials, 20(1), 95-98. doi:10.1002/adma.200701589Xifré-Pérez, E., García de Abajo, F. J., Fenollosa, R., & Meseguer, F. (2009). Photonic Binding in Silicon-Colloid Microcavities. Physical Review Letters, 103(10). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.103.103902Conwell, P. R., Barber, P. W., & Rushforth, C. K. (1984). Resonant spectra of dielectric spheres. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 1(1), 62. doi:10.1364/josaa.1.000062García de Abajo, F. J. (1999). Multiple scattering of radiation in clusters of dielectrics. Physical Review B, 60(8), 6086-6102. doi:10.1103/physrevb.60.6086Laine, J.-P., Tapalian, C., Little, B., & Haus, H. (2001). Acceleration sensor based on high-Q optical microsphere resonator and pedestal antiresonant reflecting waveguide coupler. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 93(1), 1-7. doi:10.1016/s0924-4247(01)00636-7Panitchob, Y., Murugan, G. S., Zervas, M. N., Horak, P., Berneschi, S., Pelli, S., … Wilkinson, J. S. (2008). Whispering gallery mode spectra of channel waveguide coupled Microspheres. Optics Express, 16(15), 11066. doi:10.1364/oe.16.011066Taillaert, D., Van Laere, F., Ayre, M., Bogaerts, W., Van Thourhout, D., Bienstman, P., & Baets, R. (2006). Grating Couplers for Coupling between Optical Fibers and Nanophotonic Waveguides. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 45(8A), 6071-6077. doi:10.1143/jjap.45.6071Mukaiyama, T., Takeda, K., Miyazaki, H., Jimba, Y., & Kuwata-Gonokami, M. (1999). Tight-Binding Photonic Molecule Modes of Resonant Bispheres. Physical Review Letters, 82(23), 4623-4626. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.82.4623Smith, D. D., Chang, H., & Fuller, K. A. (2003). Whispering-gallery mode splitting in coupled microresonators. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 20(9), 1967. doi:10.1364/josab.20.00196

In situ size sorting in CVD synthesis of Si microspheres

[EN] Silicon microspheres produced in gas-phase by hot-wall CVD offer unique quality in terms of sphericity, surface smoothness, and size. However, the spheres produced are polydisperse in size, which typically range from 0.5 mu m to 5 mu m. In this work we show through experiments and calculations that thermophoretic forces arising from strong temperature gradients inside the reactor volume effectively sort the particles in size along the reactor. These temperature gradients are shown to be produced by a convective gas flow. The results prove that it is possible to select the particle size by collecting them in a particular reactor region, opening new possibilities towards the production by CVD of size-controlled high-quality silicon microspheres.The authors acknowledge financial support from the following projects: ENE2013-49984-EXP, MAT2012-35040, MAT2015-69669-P and ESP2014-54256-C4-2-R of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO), and PROMETEOII/2014/026 of the Regional Valencian Government.Garín Escrivá, M.; Fenollosa Esteve, R.; Kowalski, L. (2016). In situ size sorting in CVD synthesis of Si microspheres. Scientific Reports. 6:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep38719S110

Small dielectric spheres with high Refractive index as new multifunctional elements for optical devices

The future of ultra-fast optical communication systems is inevitably connected with progress in optical circuits and nanoantennas. One of the key points of this progress is the creation of elementary components of optical devices with scattering diagrams tailored for redirecting the incident light in a desired manner. Here we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that a small, simple, spatially homogeneous dielectric subwavelength sphere with a high refractive index and low losses (as some semiconductors in the visible or near infrared region) exhibits properties allowing to utilize it as a new multifunctional element for the mentioned devices. This can be achieved by taking advantage of the coherent effects between dipolar and multipolar modes, which produce anomalous scattering effects. The effects open a new way to control the directionality of the scattered light. The directional tuning can be obtained in a practical way just by a change in the frequency of the incident wave, and/or by a well-chosen diameter of the sphere. Dielectric nanoparticles with the required optical properties in the VIS-NIR may be now readily fabricated. These particles could be an efficient alternative to the widely discussed scattering units with a more complicated design.This research was partly supported by MICINN (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) through project FIS2013-45854-P and by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation through grant 14.Z50.31.0034

Metal on metal hip resurfacing versus uncemented custom total hip replacement - early results

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>There is no current consensus on the most appropriate prosthesis for treating symptomatic osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip in young, active patients. Modern metal on metal hip resurfacing arthroplasty (HR) has gained popularity as it is theoretically more stable, bone conserving and easier to revise than total hip arthroplasty. Early results of metal on metal resurfacing have been encouraging. We have compared two well matched cohorts of patients with regard to function, pain relief and patient satisfaction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This prospective study compares 2 cohorts of young, active patients treated with hip resurfacing (137 patients, 141 hips) and custom uncemented (CADCAM) stems (134 patients, 141 hips). All procedures were performed by a single surgeon. Outcome measures included Oxford, WOMAC and Harris hip scores as well as an activity score. Statistical analysis was performed using the unpaired student's t-test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One hundred and thirty four and 137 patients were included in the hip replacement and resurfacing groups respectively. The mean age of these patients was 54.6 years. The mean duration of follow up for the hip resurfacing group was 19.2 months compared to 13.4 months for the total hip replacement group.</p> <p>Pre operative oxford, Harris and WOMAC scores in the THA group were 41.1, 46.4 and 50.9 respectively while the post operative scores were 14.8, 95.8 and 5.0. In the HR group, pre- operative scores were 37.0, 54.1 and 45.9 respectively compared to 15.0, 96.8 and 6.1 post operatively. The degree of improvement was similar in both groups.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There was no significant clinical difference between the patients treated with hip resurfacing and total hip arthroplasty in the short term.</p

A standard protocol to report discrete stage-structured demographic information

Stage-based demographic methods, such as matrix population models (MPMs), are powerful tools used to address a broad range of fundamental questions in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation science. Accordingly, MPMs now exist for over 3000 species worldwide. These data are being digitised as an ongoing process and periodically released into two large open-access online repositories: the COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database and the COMADRE Animal Matrix Database. During the last decade, data archiving and curation of COMPADRE and COMADRE, and subsequent comparative research, have revealed pronounced variation in how MPMs are parameterized and reported. Here, we summarise current issues related to the parameterisation and reporting of MPMs that arise most frequently and outline how they affect MPM construction, analysis, and interpretation. To quantify variation in how MPMs are reported, we present results from a survey identifying key aspects of MPMs that are frequently unreported in manuscripts. We then screen COMPADRE and COMADRE to quantify how often key pieces of information are omitted from manuscripts using MPMs. Over 80% of surveyed researchers (n = 60) state a clear benefit to adopting more standardised methodologies for reporting MPMs. Furthermore, over 85% of the 300 MPMs assessed from COMPADRE and COMADRE omitted one or more elements that are key to their accurate interpretation. Based on these insights, we identify fundamental issues that can arise from MPM construction and communication and provide suggestions to improve clarity, reproducibility and future research utilising MPMs and their required metadata. To fortify reproducibility and empower researchers to take full advantage of their demographic data, we introduce a standardised protocol to present MPMs in publications. This standard is linked to www.compa dre-db.org, so that authors wishing to archive their MPMs can do so prior to submission of publications, following examples from other open-access repositories such as DRYAD, Figshare and Zenodo. Combining and standardising MPMs parameterized from populations around the globe and across the tree of life opens up powerful research opportunities in evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation research. However, this potential can only be fully realised by adopting standardised methods to ensure reproducibility

A standard protocol to report discrete stage‐structured demographic information

Stage-based demographic methods, such as matrix population models (MPMs), are powerful tools used to address a broad range of fundamental questions in ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation science. Accordingly, MPMs now exist for over 3000 species worldwide. These data are being digitised as an ongoing process and periodically released into two large open-access online repositories: the COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database and the COMADRE Animal Matrix Database. During the last decade, data archiving and curation of COMPADRE and COMADRE, and subsequent comparative research, have revealed pronounced variation in how MPMs are parameterized and reported. Here, we summarise current issues related to the parameterisation and reporting of MPMs that arise most frequently and outline how they affect MPM construction, analysis, and interpretation. To quantify variation in how MPMs are reported, we present results from a survey identifying key aspects of MPMs that are frequently unreported in manuscripts. We then screen COMPADRE and COMADRE to quantify how often key pieces of information are omitted from manuscripts using MPMs. Over 80% of surveyed researchers (n = 60) state a clear benefit to adopting more standardised methodologies for reporting MPMs. Furthermore, over 85% of the 300 MPMs assessed from COMPADRE and COMADRE omitted one or more elements that are key to their accurate interpretation. Based on these insights, we identify fundamental issues that can arise from MPM construction and communication and provide suggestions to improve clarity, reproducibility and future research utilising MPMs and their required metadata. To fortify reproducibility and empower researchers to take full advantage of their demographic data, we introduce a standardised protocol to present MPMs in publications. This standard is linked to www.compadre-db.org, so that authors wishing to archive their MPMs can do so prior to submission of publications, following examples from other open-access repositories such as DRYAD, Figshare and Zenodo. Combining and standardising MPMs parameterized from populations around the globe and across the tree of life opens up powerful research opportunities in evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation research. However, this potential can only be fully realised by adopting standardised methods to ensure reproducibility