Metamaterial Radiation from Attenuated Total Reflection at Terahertz Frequencies

The focus of this research was to explore the behavior of two-dimensional planar metamaterials or metafilms and understand the various excitation schemes for application of metafilms to Terahertz-Attenuated Total Reflection spectroscopy (THz-ATR). A standard THz time domain spectroscopy system based on photoconductive switches was modified to implement the ATR technique. Finite metamaterial arrays with varying singly- split ring resonator sizes were excited in the Kretschmann ATR configuration using finite sized terahertz beams. Numerical approaches using commercial software were looked into to explain the experimental observations. Various theoretical models were used to explain the observed phenomena. The ATR measurements showed an unexpected strengthening of the resonance when the metafilm sample was illuminated near the edge. This phenomenon referred to in this study as "the anomalous edge enhancement" was observed strongly in metafilms with closely spaced rings. A re-radiation signal was observed across the total internal reflection barrier where no signal is expected. It consisted of two peaks one at the fundamental metamaterial resonance and the second peak was due to the periodicity of the metafilm array. The anomalous behavior seen in the ATR measurements is attributed to the edge currents at the boundary of the metafilm array giving rise to this re-radiation signal. Results from analytic treatments based on Floquet method and method of moments were able to qualitatively model the measurements. The observed re-radiation signal is a potential loss mechanism that could impact observations from commonly used transmission measurements on metamaterials.Electrical Engineerin

Expression and Rhythmic Modulation of Circulating MicroRNAs Targeting the Clock Gene Bmal1 in Mice

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) interact with 3′ untranslated region (UTR) elements of target genes to regulate mRNA stability or translation and thus play a role in regulating many different biological processes, including circadian rhythms. However, specific miRNAs mediating the regulation of essential clock genes remain largely unknown. Because vesicles containing membrane-bound miRNAs are present in the circulatory system, we examined miRNAs predicted to target the clock gene, Bmal1, for evidence of rhythmic fluctuations in circulating levels and modulatory effects on the 3′ UTR activity of Bmal1. A number of miRNAs with Bmal1 as a predicted target were expressed in the serum of mice exposed to LD 12∶12 and of these miRNAs, miR-152 and miR-494 but not miR-142-3p were marked by diurnal oscillations with bimodal peaks in expression occurring near the middle of the day and 8 or 12 hr later during the night. Co-transfection of pre-miR over-expression constructs for miR-494 and miR-142-3p in HEK293 cells had significant effects in repressing luciferase-reported Bmal1 3′ UTR activity by as much as 60%, suggesting that these miRNAs may function as post-transcriptional modulators of Bmal1. In conjunction with previous studies implicating miRNAs as extracellular regulatory signals, our results suggest that circulating miRNAs may play a role in the regulation of the molecular clockworks in peripheral circadian oscillators