Chiral Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Metallic Nanowires

Chiral surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) can be generated by linearly polarized light incident at the end of a nanowire, exciting a coherent superposition of three specific nanowire waveguide modes. Images of chiral SPPs on individual nanowires obtained from quantum dot fluorescence excited by the SPP evanescent field reveal the chirality predicted in our theoretical model. The handedness and spatial extent of the helical periods of the chiral SPPs depend on the input polarization angle and nanowire diameter as well as the dielectric environment. Chirality is preserved in the free-space output wave, making a metallic nanowire a broad bandwidth subwavelength source of circular polarized photons.Comment: 4 figure

The value of “diaphragmatic relaxing incision” for the durability of the crural repair in patients with paraesophageal hernia: a double blind randomized clinical trial

BackgroundSurgical repair of paraesophageal hernias (PEHs) is burdened with high recurrence rates, and hitherto various techniques explored to enforce the traditional crural repair have not been successful. The hiatal reconstruction in PEH is exposed to significant tension, which may be minimized by adding a diaphragmatic relaxing incision to enhance the durability of the crural repair.Patients and methodsAll individuals undergoing elective laparoscopic repair of a large PEH, irrespective of age, were considered eligible. PEHs were classified into types II–IV. The preoperative work-up program included multidetector computed tomography and symptom assessment questionnaires, which will be repeated during the postoperative follow-up. Patients were randomly divided into a control group with crural repair alone and an intervention group with the addition of a left-sided diaphragmatic relaxing incision at the edge of the upper pole of the spleen. The diaphragmatic defect was then covered by a synthetic mesh.ResultsThe primary endpoint of this trial was the rate of anatomical PEH recurrence at 1 year. Secondary endpoints included symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux disease, dysphagia, odynophagia, gas bloat, regurgitation, chest pain, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, postprandial pain, cardiovascular and pulmonary symptoms, and patient satisfaction in the immediate postoperative course (3 months) and at 1 year. Postoperative complications, morbidity, and disease burden were recorded for each patient. This was a double-blind study, meaning that the operation report was filed in a locked archive to keep the patient, staff, and clinical assessors blinded to the study group allocation. Blinding must not be broken during the follow-up unless required by any emergencies in the clinical management of the patient. Likewise, the patients must not be informed about the details of the operation.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov, identification number NCT04179578

Sustainable Phosphorus Loadings from Effective and Cost-Effective Phosphorus Management Around the Baltic Sea

Nutrient over-enrichment of the Baltic Sea, accompanied by intensified algal blooms and decreasing water clarity, has aroused widespread concern in the surrounding countries during the last four decades. This work has used a well-tested dynamic mass-balance model to investigate which decrease in total phosphorus loading would be required to meet the environmental goal to restore the trophic state in the Baltic Sea to pre-1960s levels. Furthermore, the extent to which various abatement options may decrease the phosphorus loading in a cost-effective manner has been studied. Upgrading urban sewage treatment in the catchment could, alone or in combination with banning phosphates in detergents, be sufficient to meet the set environmental goal, at an estimated annual basin-wide cost of 0.21–0.43 billion euro. Such a plan would potentially decrease the total phosphorus loading to the Baltic Sea with 6,650–10,200 tonnes per year

Coupling of plasmonic nanoparticles to their environments in the context of van der Waals-Casimir interactions

We present experiments in which the interaction of a single gold nanoparticle with glass substrates or with another gold particle can be tuned by in-situ control of their separations using scanning probe technology. We record the plasmon resonances of the coupled systems as a function of the polarization of the incident field and the particle position. The distinct spectral changes of the scattered light from the particle pair are in good agreement with the outcome of finite difference time-domain (FDTD) calculations. We believe our experimental technique holds promise for the investigation of the van der Waals-Casimir type interactions between nanoscopic neutral bodies.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

An Operational Definition of a Statistically Meaningful Trend

Linear trend analysis of time series is standard procedure in many scientific disciplines. If the number of data is large, a trend may be statistically significant even if data are scattered far from the trend line. This study introduces and tests a quality criterion for time trends referred to as statistical meaningfulness, which is a stricter quality criterion for trends than high statistical significance. The time series is divided into intervals and interval mean values are calculated. Thereafter, r2 and p values are calculated from regressions concerning time and interval mean values. If r2≥0.65 at p≤0.05 in any of these regressions, then the trend is regarded as statistically meaningful. Out of ten investigated time series from different scientific disciplines, five displayed statistically meaningful trends. A Microsoft Excel application (add-in) was developed which can perform statistical meaningfulness tests and which may increase the operationality of the test. The presented method for distinguishing statistically meaningful trends should be reasonably uncomplicated for researchers with basic statistics skills and may thus be useful for determining which trends are worth analysing further, for instance with respect to causal factors. The method can also be used for determining which segments of a time trend may be particularly worthwhile to focus on

The importance of sedimenting organic matter, relative to oxygen and temperature, in structuring lake profundal macroinvertebrate assemblages

We quantified the role of a main food resource, sedimenting organic matter (SOM), relative to oxygen (DO) and temperature (TEMP) in structuring profundal macroinvertebrate assemblages in boreal lakes. SOM from 26 basins of 11 Finnish lakes was analysed for quantity (sedimentation rates), quality (C:N:P stoichiometry) and origin (carbon stable isotopes, d13C). Hypolimnetic oxygen and temperature were measured from each site during summer stratification. Partial canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and partial regression analyses were used to quantify contributions of SOM, DO and TEMP to community composition and three macroinvertebrate metrics. The results suggested a major contribution of SOM in regulating the community composition and total biomass. Oxygen best explained the Shannon diversity, whereas TEMP had largest contribution to the variation of Benthic Quality Index. Community composition was most strongly related to d13C of SOM. Based on additional d13C and stoichiometric analyses of chironomid taxa, marked differences were apparent in their utilization of SOM and body stoichiometry; taxa characteristic of oligotrophic conditions exhibited higher C:N ratios and lower C:P and N:P ratios compared to the species typical of eutrophic lakes. The results highlight the role of SOM in regulating benthic communities and the distributions of individual species, particularly in oligotrophic systems

How do MNC R&D laboratory roles affect employee international assignments?

Research and development (R&D) employees are important human resources for multinational corporations (MNCs) as they are the driving force behind the advancement of innovative ideas and products. International assignments of these employees can be a unique way to upgrade their expertise; allowing them to effectively recombine their unique human resources to progress existing knowledge and advance new ones. This study aims to investigate the effect of the roles of R&D laboratories in which these employees work on the international assignments they undertake. We categorise R&D laboratory roles into those of the support laboratory, the locally integrated laboratory and the internationally interdependent laboratory. Based on the theory of resource recombinations, we hypothesise that R&D employees in support laboratories are not likely to assume international assignments, whereas those in locally integrated and internationally interdependent laboratories are likely to assume international assignments. The empirical evidence, which draws from research conducted on 559 professionals in 66 MNC subsidiaries based in Greece, provides support to our hypotheses. The resource recombinations theory that extends the resource based view can effectively illuminate the international assignment field. Also, research may provide more emphasis on the close work context of R&D scientists rather than analyse their demographic characteristics, the latter being the focus of scholarly practice hitherto