Active Times for Acoustic Metamaterials

Initially proposed to achieve strong noise isolation levels beyond the mass-density law, acoustic metamaterials (AMMs) have now overturned the conventional views in all aspects of sound propagation and manipulation. In fact, within the last two decades, these artificial materials have enabled improved control over the propagation of sound waves by allowing one to engineer macroscopic effective properties well beyond what is naturally available. In this review, we first trace the development of passive AMMs from their initial realizations based on locally resonant structures to their more advanced versions, like space-coiling, holey and labyrinthine metamaterials, Willis materials, and subwavelength crystalline metamaterials, highlighting their basic working principles and applications. We then survey more recent research topics, including non-Hermitian, non-reciprocal, and topological acoustic metamaterials. Altogether, this paper provides a comprehensive overview of research on acoustic metamaterials, and highlights prominent future directions in the field, including topological and active metamaterials

Acoustic Analogues of High-Index Optical Waveguide Devices

High index optical waveguide devices such as slab waveguides, strip waveguides and fibers play extremely important roles in a wide range of modern applications including telecommunications, sensing, lasing, interferometry, and resonant amplification. Yet, transposing these advantageous applications from optics to acoustics remains a fundamental practical challenge, since most materials exhibit refractive indices lower than that of air for sound waves. Here, we demonstrate the relevance of acoustic metamaterials for tackling this pivotal problem. More specifically, we consider a metamaterial built from subwavelength air-filled acoustic pipes engineered to effectively exhibit a higher refractive index than homogenous air. We show that such medium can be employed to realize acoustic equivalents of dielectric slab or strip waveguides, and optical fibers. Unlike conventional acoustic pipes, our guiding approach allows the waveguide to remain open to the external medium, which opens an abundance of new opportunities in noise management, medical imaging, underwater communication systems, and sensing

Doppler-Based Acoustic Gyrator

Non-reciprocal phase shifters have been attracting a great deal of attention due to their important applications in filtering, isolation, modulation, and mode locking. Here, we demonstrate a non-reciprocal acoustic phase shifter using a simple acoustic waveguide. We show, both analytically and numerically, that when the fluid within the waveguide is biased by a time-independent velocity, the sound waves travelling in forward and backward directions experience different amounts of phase shifts. We further show that the differential phase shift between the forward and backward waves can be conveniently adjusted by changing the imparted bias velocity. Setting the corresponding differential phase shift to 180 degrees, we then realize an acoustic gyrator, which is of paramount importance not only for the network realization of two port components, but also as the building block for the construction of different non-reciprocal devices like isolators and circulators

Topological wave insulators: a review

Originally discovered in condensed matter systems, topological insulators (TIs) have been ubiquitously extended to various fields of classical wave physics including photonics, phononics, acoustics, mechanics, and microwaves. In the bulk, like any other insulator, electronic TIs exhibit an excessively high resistance to the flow of mobile charges, prohibiting metallic conduction. On their surface, however, they support one-way conductive states with inherent protection against certain types of disorder and defects, defying the common physical wisdom of electronic transport in presence of impurities. When transposed to classical waves, TIs open a wealth of exciting engineering-oriented applications, such as robust routing, lasing, signal processing, switching, etc., with unprecedented robustness against various classes of defects. In this article, we first review the basic concept of topological order applied to classical waves, starting from the simple one-dimensional example of the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) model. We then move on to two-dimensional wave TIs, discussing classical wave analogues of Chern, quantum Hall, spin-Hall, Valley-Hall, and Floquet TIs. Finally, we review the most recent developments in the field, including Weyl and nodal semimetals, higher-order topological insulators, and self-induced non-linear topological states

Tunable broadband terahertz polarizer using graphene-metal hybrid metasurface

We demonstrate an electrically tunable polarizer for terahertz (THz) frequency electromagnetic waves formed from a hybrid graphene-metal metasurface. Broadband (>3 THz) polarization-dependent modulation of THz transmission is demonstrated as a function of the graphene conductivity for various wire grid geometries, each tuned by gating using an overlaid ion gel. We show a strong enhancement of modulation (up to ∼17 times) compared to graphene wire grids in the frequency range of 0.2–2.5 THz upon introduction of the metallic elements. Theoretical calculations, considering both plasmonic coupling and Drude absorption, are in good agreement with our experimental findings

Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In an era of shifting global agendas and expanded emphasis on non-communicable diseases and injuries along with communicable diseases, sound evidence on trends by cause at the national level is essential. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) provides a systematic scientific assessment of published, publicly available, and contributed data on incidence, prevalence, and mortality for a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive list of diseases and injuries. Methods: GBD estimates incidence, prevalence, mortality, years of life lost (YLLs), years lived with disability (YLDs), and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to 369 diseases and injuries, for two sexes, and for 204 countries and territories. Input data were extracted from censuses, household surveys, civil registration and vital statistics, disease registries, health service use, air pollution monitors, satellite imaging, disease notifications, and other sources. Cause-specific death rates and cause fractions were calculated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model and spatiotemporal Gaussian process regression. Cause-specific deaths were adjusted to match the total all-cause deaths calculated as part of the GBD population, fertility, and mortality estimates. Deaths were multiplied by standard life expectancy at each age to calculate YLLs. A Bayesian meta-regression modelling tool, DisMod-MR 2.1, was used to ensure consistency between incidence, prevalence, remission, excess mortality, and cause-specific mortality for most causes. Prevalence estimates were multiplied by disability weights for mutually exclusive sequelae of diseases and injuries to calculate YLDs. We considered results in the context of the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a composite indicator of income per capita, years of schooling, and fertility rate in females younger than 25 years. Uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated for every metric using the 25th and 975th ordered 1000 draw values of the posterior distribution. Findings: Global health has steadily improved over the past 30 years as measured by age-standardised DALY rates. After taking into account population growth and ageing, the absolute number of DALYs has remained stable. Since 2010, the pace of decline in global age-standardised DALY rates has accelerated in age groups younger than 50 years compared with the 1990–2010 time period, with the greatest annualised rate of decline occurring in the 0–9-year age group. Six infectious diseases were among the top ten causes of DALYs in children younger than 10 years in 2019: lower respiratory infections (ranked second), diarrhoeal diseases (third), malaria (fifth), meningitis (sixth), whooping cough (ninth), and sexually transmitted infections (which, in this age group, is fully accounted for by congenital syphilis; ranked tenth). In adolescents aged 10–24 years, three injury causes were among the top causes of DALYs: road injuries (ranked first), self-harm (third), and interpersonal violence (fifth). Five of the causes that were in the top ten for ages 10–24 years were also in the top ten in the 25–49-year age group: road injuries (ranked first), HIV/AIDS (second), low back pain (fourth), headache disorders (fifth), and depressive disorders (sixth). In 2019, ischaemic heart disease and stroke were the top-ranked causes of DALYs in both the 50–74-year and 75-years-and-older age groups. Since 1990, there has been a marked shift towards a greater proportion of burden due to YLDs from non-communicable diseases and injuries. In 2019, there were 11 countries where non-communicable disease and injury YLDs constituted more than half of all disease burden. Decreases in age-standardised DALY rates have accelerated over the past decade in countries at the lower end of the SDI range, while improvements have started to stagnate or even reverse in countries with higher SDI. Interpretation: As disability becomes an increasingly large component of disease burden and a larger component of health expenditure, greater research and developm nt investment is needed to identify new, more effective intervention strategies. With a rapidly ageing global population, the demands on health services to deal with disabling outcomes, which increase with age, will require policy makers to anticipate these changes. The mix of universal and more geographically specific influences on health reinforces the need for regular reporting on population health in detail and by underlying cause to help decision makers to identify success stories of disease control to emulate, as well as opportunities to improve. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 licens