Assessing Air–Surface Exchange and Fate of Mercury in a Subtropical Forest Using a Novel Passive Exchange-Meter Device

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Integrating radio-over-fiber communication system and BOTDR sensor system

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate for the first time, the integration of a radio-over-fiber (RoF) communication system and a Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR) distributed sensor system using a single optical fiber link. In this proof-of-concept integrated system, the communication system is composed of three modulation formats of quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) and 64-QAM, which are modulated onto an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal. Whereas, the BOTDR sensor system is used for strain and/or temperature monitoring over the fiber distance with a spatial resolution of 5 m using a 25 km single-mode silica fiber. The error vector magnitude (EVM) is analyzed in three modulation formats in the presence of various BOTDR input pump powers. Using QPSK modulation, optimized 18 dBm sensing and 10 dBm data power, the measured EVM values with and without bandpass filter are 3.5% and 14.5%, respectively. The proposed system demonstrates a low temperature measurement error (±0.49 °C at the end of 25 km) and acceptable EVM values, which were within the 3GPP requirements. The proposed integrated system can be effectively applied for practical applications, which significantly reduces the fiber infrastructure cost by effective usage of a single optical fiber lin

Atmospheric Mercury Transfer to Peat Bogs Dominated by Gaseous Elemental Mercury Dry Deposition

Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) is the dominant form of mercury in the atmosphere. Its conversion into oxidized gaseous and particulate forms is thought to drive atmospheric mercury wet deposition to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, where it can be subsequently transformed into toxic methylmercury. The contribution of mercury dry deposition is however largely unconstrained. Here we examine mercury mass balance and mercury stable isotope composition in a peat bog ecosystem. We find that isotope signatures of living sphagnum moss (Δ199Hg = −0.11 ± 0.09‰, Δ200Hg = 0.03 ± 0.02‰, 1σ) and recently accumulated peat (Δ199Hg = −0.22 ± 0.06‰, Δ200Hg = 0.00 ± 0.04‰, 1σ) are characteristic of GEM (Δ199Hg = −0.17 ± 0.07‰, Δ200Hg = −0.05 ± 0.02‰, 1σ), and differs from wet deposition (Δ199Hg = 0.73 ± 0.15‰, Δ200Hg = 0.21 ± 0.04‰, 1σ). Sphagnum covered during three years by transparent and opaque surfaces, which eliminate wet deposition, continue to accumulate Hg. Sphagnum Hg isotope signatures indicate accumulation to take place by GEM dry deposition, and indicate little photochemical re-emission. We estimate that atmospheric mercury deposition to the peat bog surface is dominated by GEM dry deposition (79%) rather than wet deposition (21%). Consequently, peat deposits are potential records of past atmospheric GEM concentrations and isotopic composition

Acousto-Pi: An Opto-Acoustofluidic System using Surface Acoustic Waves controlled with Open Source Electronics for Integrated In-Field Diagnostics

Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are increasingly applied in life science, biology, and point-of-care applications due to their combined acoustofluidic sensing and actuating properties. Despite the advances in this field, there remain significant gaps in interfacing hardware and control strategies to facilitate system integration with high performance and low cost. In this work, we present a versatile, and digitally controlled acoustofluidic platform by demonstrating key functions for biological assays such as droplet transportation and mixing using a closed-loop feedback control with image recognition. Moreover, we integrate optical detection by demonstrating in-situ fluorescence sensing capabilities with a standard camera and digital filters, bypassing the need for expensive and complex optical setups. The Acousto-Pi setup is based on open-source Raspberry Pi hardware and 3D printed housing, and the SAW devices are fabricated with piezoelectric thin film on a metallic substrate. The platform enables the control of droplet position and speed for sample processing (mixing and dilution of samples), as well as the control of temperature based on acousto-heating, offering embedded processing capability. It can be operated remotely while recording the measurements in cloud databases towards integrated in-field diagnostic applications such as disease outbreak control, mass healthcare screening and food safety

Integrated label-free erbium-doped fiber laser biosensing system for detection of single cell Staphylococcus aureus

A critical challenge to realize ultra-high sensitivity with optical fiber interferometers for label free biosensing is to achieve high quality factors (Q-factor) in liquid. In this work a high Q-factor of 105, which significantly improves the detection resolution is described based on a structure of single mode -core-only -single mode fiber (SCS) with its multimode (or Mach-Zehnder) interference effect as a filter that is integrated into an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) system for excitation. In the case study, the section of core-only fiber is functionalized with porcine immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, which could selectively bind to bacterial pathogen of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). The developed microfiber-based biosensing platform called SCS-based EDFL biosensors can effectively detect concentrations of S. aureus from 10 to 105 CFU/mL, with a responsivity of 42.6 p.m./(CFU/mL) for the wavelength shift of the measured spectrum. The limit of detection (LoD) is estimated as 7.3 CFU/mL based on the measurement of S. aureus with minimum concentration of 10 CFU/mL. In addition, when a lower concentration of 1 CFU/mL is applied to the biosensor, a wavelength shift of 0.12 nm is observed in 10% of samples (1/10), indicating actual LoD of 1 CFU/mL for the proposed biosensor. Attributed to its good sensitivity, stability, reproducibility and specificity, the proposed EDFL based biosensing platform has great potentials for diagnostics

The Sihailongwan Maar Lake, northeastern China as a candidate Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene Series

Sihailongwan Maar Lake, located in Northeast China, is a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for demarcation of the Anthropocene. The lake’s varved sediments are formed by alternating allogenic atmospheric inputs and authigenic lake processes and store a record of environmental and human impacts at a continental-global scale. Varve counting and radiometric dating provided a precise annual-resolution sediment chronology for the site. Time series records of radioactive (239,240Pu, 129I and soot 14C), chemical (spheroidal carbonaceous particles, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, soot, heavy metals, δ13C, etc), physical (magnetic susceptibility and grayscale) and biological (environmental DNA) indicators all show rapid changes in the mid-20th century, coincident with clear lithological changes of the sediments. Statistical analyses of these proxies show a tipping point in 1954 CE. 239,240Pu activities follow a typical unimodal globally-distributed profile, and are proposed as the primary marker for the Anthropocene. A rapid increase in 239,240Pu activities at 88 mm depth in core SHLW21-Fr-13 (1953 CE) is synchronous with rapid changes of other anthropogenic proxies and the Great Acceleration, marking the onset of the Anthropocene. The results indicate that Sihailongwan Maar Lake is an ideal site for the Anthropocene GSSP

Performance analysis of Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR) employing wavelength diversity and passive depolarizer techniques

We propose and experimentally validate a wavelength diversity technique combined with a passive depolarizer to improve the performance of Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR). This technique enables the maximization of the launch pump power and suppresses the nonlinear effects, the latter of which limits the conventional BOTDR performance. As a result, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases, thus improving the measurement accuracy for strain and temperature. In addition, considering the complexity and expensive methods required for polarization noise suppression in BOTDR system, a simple, lowcost passive depolarizer is employed to reduce the polarization noise. The experimental results show that the SNR is improved by 4.85 dB, which corresponds to 174% improvement compared to a conventional BOTDR system

Performance Improvement of Brillouin Ring Laser based BOTDR System Employing a Wavelength Diversity Technique

In this paper, a wavelength diversity technique is employed in a Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry (BOTDR) using a Brillouin ring laser (BRL) as a local oscillator. In the wavelength diversity technique, multiple wavelengths are injected into the sensing fiber, while the peak power of each wavelength is set below the nonlinear threshold level. This technique significantly maximizes the overall launch pump power, without activating the non-negligible nonlinear effects, which overcomes the limitation of the conventional BOTDR system. The BRL, which is simple and cost-effective, that can be used to reduce the receiver bandwidth in the order of few MHz. In addition, a passive depolarizer is used to reduce the polarization noise. The proposed system is validated experimentally over a 50 km sensing fiber with a 5 m spatial resolution. The experimental results demonstrate a signal-to-noise ratio improvement of 5.1 dB, which corresponds to 180% improvement compared to a conventional BOTDR system

Collection of atmospheric gaseous mercury for stable isotope analysis using iodine- and chlorine-impregnated activated carbon traps

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