Inhibited spontaneous emission of quantum dots observed in a 3D photonic band gap

We present time-resolved emission experiments of semiconductor quantum dots in silicon 3D inverse-woodpile photonic band gap crystals. A systematic study is made of crystals with a range of pore radii to tune the band gap relative to the emission frequency. The decay rates averaged over all dipole orientations are inhibited by a factor of 10 in the photonic band gap and enhanced up to 2? outside the gap, in agreement with theory. We discuss the effects of spatial inhomogeneity, nonradiative decay, and transition dipole orientations on the observed inhibition in the band gap.Comment: 5 figures, update author lis

A Support Vector Machine Based Approach for Predicting the Risk of Freshwater Disease Emergence in England

Disease emergence, in the last decades, has had increasingly disproportionate impacts on aquatic freshwater biodiversity. Here, we developed a new model based on Support Vector Machines (SVM) for predicting the risk of freshwater fish disease emergence in England. Following a rigorous training process and simulations, the proposed SVM model was validated and reported high accuracy rates for predicting the risk of freshwater fish disease emergence in England. Our findings suggest that the disease monitoring strategy employed in England could be successful at preventing disease emergence in certain parts of England, as areas in which there were high fish introductions were not correlated with high disease emergence (which was to be expected from the literature). We further tested our model’s predictions with actual disease emergence data using Chi-Square tests and test of Mutual Information. The results identified areas that require further attention and resource allocation to curb future freshwater disease emergence successfully

Multi-channel recordings reveal age-related differences in the sleep of juvenile and adult zebra finches

Abstract Despite their phylogenetic differences and distinct pallial structures, mammals and birds show similar electroencephalography (EEG) traces during sleep, consisting of distinct rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and slow wave sleep (SWS) stages. Studies in human and a limited number of other mammalian species show that this organization of sleep into interleaving stages undergoes radical changes during lifetime. Do these age-dependent variations in sleep patterns also occur in the avian brain? Does vocal learning have an effect on sleep patterns in birds? To answer these questions, we recorded multi-channel sleep EEG from juvenile and adult zebra finches for several nights. Whereas adults spent more time in SWS and REM sleep, juveniles spent more time in intermediate sleep (IS). The amount of IS was significantly larger in male juveniles engaged in vocal learning compared to female juveniles, which suggests that IS could be important for vocal learning. In addition, we observed that functional connectivity increased rapidly during maturation of young juveniles, and was stable or declined at older ages. Synchronous activity during sleep was larger for recording sites in the left hemisphere for both juveniles and adults, and generally intra-hemispheric synchrony was larger than inter-hemispheric synchrony during sleep. A graph theory analysis revealed that in adults, highly correlated EEG activity tended to be distributed across fewer networks that were spread across a wider area of the brain, whereas in juveniles, highly correlated EEG activity was distributed across more numerous, albeit smaller, networks in the brain. Overall, our results reveal that significant changes occur in the neural signatures of sleep during maturation in an avian brain

Investigation on polycarbonate nanomembrane production based on alpha particles irradiation

Track-etched membranes were prepared in the Dosimetry Laboratory of Agricultural, Medical and Industrial Research School by exposing polycarbonate (PC) films with a thickness of about 20 μm to alpha particles emitted from 241Am followed by chemical etching in sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at different temperatures and solution concentrations. The PC films were prepared using the method of chemical solving, forming and drying in a vacuum oven. The etching rate of PC was related to the concentration of etching solution, etching temperature and time. Therefore, a series of track-etched membranes were produced using different etching parameters. The relation between the etching rate and the etching parameters were established from experimental data and can be used to control the average pore sizes of the PC track-etched membrane. The pore sizes and their structures were studied by an optical microscope (OM) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the obtained results indicated that the pores across the PC films are cylindrically shaped

Fetal Sex and Preterm Birth.

Rates of preterm birth vary between different populations and ethnic groups. Epidemiologic studies have suggested that the incidence of preterm birth is also higher in pregnancies carrying a male fetus; the male:female difference is greater in earlier preterm pregnancy. Placental or chorion trophoblast cells from pregnancies with a male fetus produced more pro-inflammatory TNFα in response to LPS stimulation and less anti-inflammatory IL-10 and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) than cells from pregnancies with a female fetus, more prostaglandin synthase (PTGS-2) and less prostaglandin dehydrogenase (PGDH). These results suggest that in the presence of a male fetus the trophoblast has the potential to generate a more pro-inflammatory environment. Maturation of the fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and expression of placental genes, particularly 11β hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-2 are also expressed in a sex dependent manner, consistent with the sex-biasing influences on gene networks. Sex differences in these activities may affect clinical outcomes of pre- and post-dates pregnancies and fetal/newborn wellbeing. These factors need consideration in studies of placental function and in the development of personalized strategies for the diagnosis of preterm labor and postnatal healt

Big Data and Energy Security: Impacts on Private Companies, National Economies and Societies

The importance of energy security for the successful functioning of private companies, national economies, and the overall society cannot be underestimated. Energy is a critical infrastructure for any modern society, and its reliable functioning is essential for all economic sectors and for the well-being of everybody. Uncertainty in terms of the availability of information, namely reliable data to make predictions and to plan for investment as well as for other actions of stakeholders in the energy markets is one of the factors with the highest influence on energy security. This uncertainty can be connected with many factors, such as the availability of reliable data or actions of stakeholders themselves. For example, the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed negative impacts of uncertainty on decision-making processes and markets. At the time point when the market participants started to receive real-time information about the situation, the energy markets began to ease. This is one scenario where Big Data can be used to amplify information to various stakeholders to prevent panic and to ensure market stability and security of supply. Considering the novelty of this topic, our methodology is based on the meta-analysis of existing studies in the area of impacts of energy security on private companies, the national economy, and society. The results show that, in a fast-paced digital world characterized by technological advances, the use of Big Data technology provides a unique niche point to close this gap in information disparity by levering the use of unconventional data sources to integrate technologies, stakeholders, and markets to promote energy security and market stability. The potential of Big Data technology is yet to be fully utilized. Big Data can handle large data sets characterized by volume, variety, velocity, value, and complexity. Our conclusion is that the challenge for energy markets is to leverage this technology to mine available socioeconomic, political, geographic, and environmental data responsibly and to provide indicators that predict future global supply and demand. This information is crucial for energy security and ensuring global economic prosperit