Transparent conducting oxides for active hybrid metamaterial devices

We present here a study of the combined nonlinear response of plasmonic antenna—transparent conducting oxide hybrids for activation of metamaterial devices. Nanoantenna layers consisting of randomly positioned gold nanodisk dimers are fabricated using hole-mask lithography. The nanoantenna layers are covered with a 20 nm thin layer of transparent conducting oxide (TCO). We investigate the response of atomic layer deposited aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) next to indium–tin oxide (ITO) produced using sputter coating. We show that our results are in agreement with the hypothesis of fast electron-mediated cooling, facilitated by the Ohmic interface between the gold nanodisks and the TCO substrate, which appears a universal mechanism for providing a new hybrid functionality to active metamaterial device

Efecto de la aplicación de biosólidos sobre la calidad del suelo: evolución temporal de suelo degradado, Región de La Araucanía, Chile

En suelo Inceptisol de la región de la Araucanía, de condición degradado, se determinó la evolución temporal en propiedades del suelo posterior a un evento de aplicación de biosólido. En el sitio de estudio se establecieron dos zonas de muestreo: zona sin aplicación de biosólidos y zona con aplicación de biosólidos, evaluándose parámetros químicos, físicos y biológicos a los 17, 210, 365 y 510 días de aplicado el biosólido. Los resultados muestran cambios relevantes en la calidad de suelo trascurridos 1.4 años desde la aplicación, particularmente en relación al aumento sostenido en el contenido de fósforo, respiración edáfica e infiltración

Design and evaluation of a unique RT-qPCR assay for diagnostic quality control assessment that is applicable to pathogen detection in three species of salmonid fish

BACKGROUND: The detection of pathogens at early stages of infection is a key point for disease control in aquaculture. Therefore, accurate diagnostic procedures are a must. Real-time PCR has been a mainstay in diagnostics over the years due to its speed, specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility and throughput; as such, real-time PCR is a target for improvement. Nevertheless, to validate a novel diagnostic tool, correct setup of the assay, including proper endogenous controls to evaluate the quantity and quality of the samples and to detect possible sample degradation, is compulsory. This work aims to design a unique RT-qPCR assay for pathogen detection in the three salmonid species reared in Chile. The assay uses elongation factor 1 alpha as the single endogenous control, thus avoiding the need for multiple endogenous controls, as well as multiple validations and non-comparable quality control parameters. RESULTS: The in vivo and in vitro analyses of samples from Salmo salar, Oncorhynchus mykiss and Oncorhynchus kisutch showed that when primers were accurately selected to target conserved regions of the elongation factor 1 alpha (ELF1α) gene, a single novel RT-qPCR assay yielding similar and reproducible Ct values between the three species could be designed. The opposite occurred when an assay originally designed for Salmo salar was tested in samples from the two species of the genus Oncorhynchus. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we report the design and evaluation of an accurate trans-species RT-qPCR assay that uses the elongation factor 1 alpha (ELF1α) gene as an endogenous control and is applicable for diagnostic purposes in samples obtained from the three salmonid species reared in Chile

A small vocabulary database of ultrasound image sequences of vocal tract dynamics

This paper presents a new database consisting of concurrent articulatory and acoustic speech data. The articulatory data correspond to ultrasound videos of the vocal tract dynamics, which allow the visualization of the tongue upper contour during the speech production process. Acoustic data is composed of 30 short sentences that were acquired by a directional cardioid microphone. This database includes data from 17 young subjects (8 male and 9 female) from the Santander region in Colombia, who reported not having any speech pathology

Solution and Asymptotic Behavior for a Nonlocal Coupled System of Reaction-Diffusion

This paper concerns with existence, uniqueness and asymptotic behavior of the solutions for a nonlocal coupled system of reaction-diffusion. We prove the existence and uniqueness of weak solutions by the Faedo-Galerkin method and exponential decay of solutions by the classic energy method. We improve the results obtained by Chipot-Lovato and Menezes for coupled systems. A numerical scheme is presented

A new class of semiclassical wave function uniformizations

We present a new semiclassical technique which relies on replacing complicated classical manifold structure with simpler manifolds, which are then evaluated by the usual semiclassical rules. Under circumstances where the original manifold structure gives poor or useless results semiclassically the replacement manifolds can yield remarkable accuracy. We give several working examples to illustrate the theory presented here.Comment: 12 pages (incl. 12 figures

Intact Polar brGDGTs in Arctic Lake Catchments: Implications for Lipid Sources and Paleoclimate Applications

Paleotemperature histories derived from lake sediment archives provide valuable context for modern and future climate changes. Branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (brGDGT) lipids are a valuable tool in such pursuits due to their empirical correlation with temperature and near ubiquity in nature. However, the relative contributions of terrestrial and lacustrine sources of brGDGTs to lake sediments is site-dependent and difficult to constrain. Here, we explored the potential for intact brGDGTs—the complete lipids with polar head groups (HGs) still attached—to provide insight into the sources of brGDGTs on the landscape and their contributions to the sedimentary record in a set of Arctic lakes. We measured core and intact brGDGTs in soils, surface and downcore sediments, water filtrates, and sediment traps across five lake catchments in the Eastern Canadian Arctic, with an emphasis on Lake Qaupat (QPT), Baffin Island. Soils were dominated by brGDGTs with a monoglycosyl (1G) HG, while lacustrine samples contained more phosphohexose (PH) brGDGTs, providing evidence for in situ brGDGT production in both settings. Core- and PH-brGDGT-IIIa were more abundant in sediments than in the soils or water column, implying an additional post-depositional source of brGDGTs. A hierarchical clustering analysis indicated that core brGDGTs in Lake QPT sediments were largely lacustrine in origin, while 1G-brGDGTs were primarily soil-derived. Additionally, we found evidence for preservation of intact brGDGTs—especially 1G-brGDGTs—downcore on thousand-year timespans, though in situ production deeper in the sediment column cannot be ruled out. Finally, we explored the possibility of reconstructing 1G-brGDGT-derived soil temperatures and core-brGDGT-derived lake temperatures in tandem from sedimentary archives

Chaos and Noise in a Truncated Toda Potential

Results are reported from a numerical investigation of orbits in a truncated Toda potential which is perturbed by weak friction and noise. Two significant conclusions are shown to emerge: (1) Despite other nontrivial behaviour, configuration, velocity, and energy space moments associated with these perturbations exhibit a simple scaling in the amplitude of the friction and noise. (2) Even very weak friction and noise can induce an extrinsic diffusion through cantori on a time scale much shorter than that associated with intrinsic diffusion in the unperturbed system.Comment: 10 pages uuencoded PostScript (figures included), (A trivial mathematical error leading to an erroneous conclusion is corrected

Investigating the long-term evolution of subtropical ozone profiles applying ground-based FTIR spectrometry

This study investigates the long-term evolution of subtropical ozone profile time series (1999–2010) obtained from ground-based FTIR (Fourier Transform InfraRed) spectrometry at the Izaña Observatory ozone super-site. Different ozone retrieval strategies are examined, analysing the influence of an additional temperature retrieval and different constraints. The theoretical assessment reveals that the FTIR system is able to resolve four independent ozone layers with a precision of better than 6% in the troposphere and of better than 3% in the lower, middle and upper stratosphere. This total error includes the smoothing error, which dominates the random error budget. Furthermore, we estimate that the measurement noise as well as uncertainties in the applied atmospheric temperature profiles and instrumental line shape are leading error sources. We show that a simultaneous temperature retrieval can significantly reduce the total random errors and that a regular determination of the instrumental line shape is important for producing a consistent long-term dataset. These theoretical precision estimates are empirically confirmed by daily intercomparisons with Electro Chemical Cell (ECC) sonde profiles. In order to empirically document the long-term stability of the FTIR ozone profile data we compare the linear trends and seasonal cycles as obtained from the FTIR and ECC time series. Concerning seasonality, in winter both techniques observe stratospheric ozone profiles that are typical middle latitude profiles (low tropopause, low ozone maximum concentrations) and in summer/autumn profiles that are typical tropical profiles (high tropopause, high maximum concentrations). The linear trends estimated from the FTIR and the ECC datasets agree within their error bars. For the FTIR time series, we observe a significant negative trend in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere of about −0.2%yr−1 and a significant positive trend in the middle and upper stratosphere of about +0.3%yr−1 and +0.4%yr−1, respectively. Identifying such small trends is a difficult task for any measurement technique. In this context, super-sites applying different techniques are very important for the detection of reliable ozone trends