Porous photonic crystal external cavity laser biosensor

We report the design, fabrication, and testing of a photonic crystal (PhC) biosensor structure that incorporates a porous high refractive index TiO2 dielectric film that enables immobilization of capture proteins within an enhanced surface-area volume that spatially overlaps with the regions of resonant electromagnetic fields where biomolecular binding can produce the greatest shifts in photonic crystal resonant wavelength. Despite the nanoscale porosity of the sensor structure, the PhC slab exhibits narrowband and high efficiency resonant reflection, enabling the structure to serve as a wavelength tunable element of an external cavity laser. In the context of sensing small molecule interactions with much larger immobilized proteins, we demonstrate that the porous structure provides 3.7x larger biosensor signals than an equivalent nonporous structure, while the external cavity laser (ECL) detection method provides capability for sensing picometer-scale shifts in the PhC resonant wavelength caused by small molecule binding. The porous ECL achieves a record high figure of merit for label-free optical biosensors

Nanoantenna-Microcavity Hybrids with Highly Cooperative Plasmonic-Photonic Coupling

Nanoantennas offer the ultimate spatial control over light by concentrating optical energy well below the diffraction limit, whereas their quality factor (Q) is constrained by large radiative and dissipative losses. Dielectric microcavities, on the other hand, are capable of generating a high Q-factor through an extended photon storage time but have a diffraction-limited optical mode volume. Here we bridge the two worlds, by studying an exemplary hybrid system integrating plasmonic gold nanorods acting as nanoantennas with an on-resonance dielectric photonic crystal (PC) slab acting as a low-loss microcavity and, more importantly, by synergistically combining their advantages to produce a much stronger local field enhancement than that of the separate entities. To achieve this synergy between the two polar opposite types of nanophotonic resonant elements, we show that it is crucial to coordinate both the dissipative loss of the nanoantenna and the Q-factor of the low-loss cavity. In comparison to the antenna-cavity coupling approach using a Fabry-Perot resonator, which has proved successful for resonant amplification of the antenna's local field intensity, we theoretically and experimentally show that coupling to a modest-Q PC guided resonance can produce a greater amplification by at least an order of magnitude. The synergistic nanoantenna-microcavity hybrid strategy opens new opportunities for further enhancing nanoscale light-matter interactions to benefit numerous areas such as nonlinear optics, nanolasers, plasmonic hot carrier technology, and surface-enhanced Raman and infrared absorption spectroscopies.Comment: Revised version after acceptanc

The global catalogue of microorganisms 10K type strain sequencing project: closing the genomic gaps for the validly published prokaryotic and fungi species

Genomic information is essential for taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional studies to comprehensively decipher the characteristics of microorganisms, to explore microbiomes through metagenomics, and to answer fundamental questions of nature and human life. However, large gaps remain in the available genomic sequencing information published for bacterial and archaeal species, and the gaps are even larger for fungal type strains. The Global Catalogue of Microorganisms (GCM) leads an internationally coordinated effort to sequence type strains and close gaps in the genomic maps of microbes. Hence, the GCM aims to promote research by deep-mining genomic data.This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant XDA19050301), the Bureau of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grants 153211KYSB20160029 and 153211KYSB20150010), the National Key Research Program of China (grants 2017YFC1201202, 2016YFC1201303, and 2016YFC0901702), the 13th Five-year Informatization Plan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant XXH13506), and the National Science Foundation for Young Scientists of China (grant 31701157).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Crowdsourcing hypothesis tests: Making transparent how design choices shape research results

To what extent are research results influenced by subjective decisions that scientists make as they design studies? Fifteen research teams independently designed studies to answer fiveoriginal research questions related to moral judgments, negotiations, and implicit cognition. Participants from two separate large samples (total N > 15,000) were then randomly assigned to complete one version of each study. Effect sizes varied dramatically across different sets of materials designed to test the same hypothesis: materials from different teams renderedstatistically significant effects in opposite directions for four out of five hypotheses, with the narrowest range in estimates being d = -0.37 to +0.26. Meta-analysis and a Bayesian perspective on the results revealed overall support for two hypotheses, and a lack of support for three hypotheses. Overall, practically none of the variability in effect sizes was attributable to the skill of the research team in designing materials, while considerable variability was attributable to the hypothesis being tested. In a forecasting survey, predictions of other scientists were significantly correlated with study results, both across and within hypotheses. Crowdsourced testing of research hypotheses helps reveal the true consistency of empirical support for a scientific claim.</div

Dramatic uneven urbanization of large cities throughout the world in recent decades

Urban development has dramatically increased in recent decades. Analyzing 841 large cities throughout the world for the period from 2001 to 2018, the authors disclosed uneven features of global urbanization in terms of urban expansion, population growth, and greening at different economic levels

Actions, impact creation, and communication in sustainable business renewal:White paper

Anthropogenic environmental problems, such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss, not only put pressure on nature and humans, but also on economies. Solving these grand challenges and advancing the sustainability transition requires actions from multiple actors, including companies. There is increasing public and policy pressure on companies to take action for sustainability and to comply with environmental policy goals and regulations.In addition to taking action and complying with sustainability targets, companies face more stringent regulations on sustainability reporting. Sustainability reporting is one of the key instruments in communicating sustainability-related activities of companies. However, currently the format of reporting does not reveal the actual impacts of sustainability efforts nor help consumers in making informed choices.This white paper presents key findings from a jointly funded public research project, Actions for Sustainable Business Renewal, and provides tools and guidance for decision-makers to gain a deeper understanding of the microfoundations of sustainability activities, impact creation, reporting, business models, and consumer expectations. Based on these findings and information, the paper also provides actionable information in the form of recommendations to decision-makers. To conclude, for companies to have positive and effective sustainability impacts, they need to focus more on their 1) core actions, 2) impact creation, and 3) communication. In other words, to ensure sustainable business renewal, companies need to strengthen the sustainability of their core activities and measure and communicate the impacts of these activities more thoroughly and transparently

Identification of Phase-Separation-Protein-Related Function Based on Gene Ontology by Using Machine Learning Methods

Phase-separation proteins (PSPs) are a class of proteins that play a role in the process of liquid–liquid phase separation, which is a mechanism that mediates the formation of membranelle compartments in cells. Identifying phase separation proteins and their associated function could provide insights into cellular biology and the development of diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. Here, PSPs and non-PSPs that have been experimentally validated in earlier studies were gathered as positive and negative samples. Each protein’s corresponding Gene Ontology (GO) terms were extracted and used to create a 24,907-dimensional binary vector. The purpose was to extract essential GO terms that can describe essential functions of PSPs and build efficient classifiers to identify PSPs with these GO terms at the same time. To this end, the incremental feature selection computational framework and an integrated feature analysis scheme, containing categorical boosting, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, light gradient-boosting machine, extreme gradient boosting, and permutation feature importance, were used to build efficient classifiers and identify GO terms with classification-related importance. A set of random forest (RF) classifiers with F1 scores over 0.960 were established to distinguish PSPs from non-PSPs. A number of GO terms that are crucial for distinguishing between PSPs and non-PSPs were found, including GO:0003723, which is related to a biological process involving RNA binding; GO:0016020, which is related to membrane formation; and GO:0045202, which is related to the function of synapses. This study offered recommendations for future research aimed at determining the functional roles of PSPs in cellular processes by developing efficient RF classifiers and identifying the representative GO terms related to PSPs

Relative Similarity Programming Model for Uncertain Multiple Attribute Decision-Making Objects and Its Application

This paper is concerned with the uncertain multiattribute decision-making (UMADM) of which the attribute value is triangular fuzzy number. Firstly, the max-relative similarity degree and min-relative similarity degree of alternative decision-making objects are given based on the relative similarity degree of triangular fuzzy number, the advantage relation theories to comparative relative similarity degree of triangular fuzzy number are proposed, and some good properties, relations, and conclusions are derived. Secondly, in order to determine the attribute weight vector, a triangular fuzzy number-based decision-making object relative similarity programming model is established with the help of maximizing possibility degree algorithm rules in the cooperative game theory. Subsequently, by aggregating the comparison overall relative similarity degree values of all decision-making objects, we could pick over and sort the set of alternative objects and gather a new model algorithm for the relative similarity programming of triangular fuzzy number-based multiple attribute decision-making alternatives. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the feasibility and practicability of the model algorithm presented in this paper