Photoreforming of food waste into value-added products over visible-light-absorbing catalysts

Food and mixed wastes are converted into H2 and organics over CdS and carbon nitride photocatalysts.</p

Sing to me, baby: Infants show neural tracking and rhythmic movements to live and dynamic maternal singing

Infant-directed singing has unique acoustic characteristics that may allow even very young infants to respond to the rhythms carried through the caregiver’s voice. The goal of this study was to examine neural and movement responses to live and dynamic maternal singing in 7-month-old infants and their relation to linguistic development. In total, 60 mother-infant dyads were observed during two singing conditions (playsong and lullaby). In Study 1 (n = 30), we measured infant EEG and used an encoding approach utilizing ridge regressions to measure neural tracking. In Study 2 (n =40), we coded infant rhythmic movements. In both studies, we assessed children’s vocabulary when they were 20 months old. In Study 1, we found above-threshold neural tracking of maternal singing, with superior tracking of lullabies than playsongs. We also found that the acoustic features of infant-directed singing modulated tracking. In Study 2, infants showed more rhythmic movement to playsongs than lullabies. Importantly, neural coordination (Study 1) and rhythmic movement (Study 2) to playsongs were positively related to infants’ expressive vocabulary at 20 months. These results highlight the importance of infants’ brain and movement coordination to their caregiver’s musical presentations, potentially as a function of musical variability

Understanding Immobilized Molecular Catalysts for Fuel-Forming Reactions through UV/Vis Spectroelectrochemistry

Molecular catalysis of fuel-forming half reactions such as proton and CO$_2$ reduction is a key area of study for achieving electrical-to-chemical energy storage and solar fuel synthesis. Immobilization of these molecular catalysts on electrode surfaces often results in high turnover numbers and selectivities, even under the challenging conditions of an aqueous environment. This Perspective considers how the combination of electrochemistry and electronic spectroscopy can be used to characterize catalytic processes $\textit{in operando}$, explaining the observed performance and therefore guiding the design principles for the next generation of material/molecule hybrid electrodes and devices. Numerous immobilization strategies and electrode materials are already available, of which wide band gap metal oxides offer transparency to visible light and are therefore ideal for spectroelectrochemical characterization. Spectroscopic analysis of emerging catalytic metal−organic framework and polymer films is also discussed.EPSRC, Christian Doppler Research Association (Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and the National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development

Integrated water resources management as a new approach to water security

Access to safe water is a worldwide problem facing three quarters of a billion people every day. The problem of access to water is not primarily due to an overall scarcity of water, but rather the unequal geographical and seasonal distribution of the water resources. The key issue at stake here is, how to make water available. The new approach presented by international institutions for improving water access is Integrated Water Resource Management. This chapter questions this new approach and highlights the depoliticizing implications

Self-Shielded Topological Receiver Protectors

Receiver protectors (RPs) shield sensitive electronics from high-power incoming signals that might damage them. Typical RP schemes range from simple fusing and PIN diodes to superconducting circuits and plasma cells-each having a variety of drawbacks ranging from unacceptable system downtime and self-destruction to significant insertion losses and power consumption. Here, we theoretically propose and experimentally demonstrate a unique self-shielding RP based on a coupled-resonator microwave waveguide, with a topological defect being inductively coupled to a diode. This RP utilizes a charge-conjugation-(C) symmetric resonant-defect mode that is robust against disorder and demonstrates high transmittance at low incident powers. When the incident power exceeds a critical value, a self-induced resonant trapping effect occurs, leading to a dramatic suppression of transmittance and a simultaneous increase of the reflectance close to unity. The proposed RP device is self-protected from overheating and electrical breakdown and can be utilized in radars, reflection altimeters, and a broad range of communication systems

Statics and dynamics of single DNA molecules confined in nanochannels

The successful design of nanofluidic devices for the manipulation of biopolymers requires an understanding of how the predictions of soft condensed matter physics scale with device dimensions. Here we present measurements of DNA extended in nanochannels and show that below a critical width roughly twice the persistence length there is a crossover in the polymer physics