Factors influencing consumption of traditional diets: stakeholder views regarding sago consumption among the indigenous peoples of West Papua.

Background: The indigenous people living in the province of West Papua may experience potential food insecurity, in part attributable to increased local adoption of, and reliance on, imported foods such as rice. At the same time, the consumption of sago, a traditional local food, is lower than other types of carbohydrate foods such as wheat and cassava. Various factors may act as influential drivers of local diets and related agricultural practices, such as local socio-economic and agronomic factors, as well as cultural practices which in turn may be influenced by the attitudes and opinions of stakeholders with interests in the supply chain.

Public Perceptions Regarding Genomic Technologies Applied to Breeding Farm Animals: A Qualitative Study.

The societal acceptability of different applications of genomic technologies to animal production systems will determine whether their innovation trajectories will reach the commercialisation stage. Importantly, technological implementation and commercialisation trajectories, regulation, and policy development need to take account of public priorities and attitudes. More effective co-production practices will ensure the application of genomic technologies to animals aligns with public priorities and are acceptable to society.

A hybrid organic-inorganic polariton LED.

Polaritons are quasi-particles composed of a superposition of excitons and photons that can be created within a strongly coupled optical microcavity. Here, we describe a structure in which a strongly coupled microcavity containing an organic semiconductor is coupled to a second microcavity containing a series of weakly coupled inorganic quantum wells. We show that optical hybridisation occurs between the optical modes of the two cavities, creating a delocalised polaritonic state.

Asymmetric transfer of CO across a broken sea surface.

Most estimates of the climatically-important transfer of atmospheric gases into, and out of, the ocean assume that the ocean surface is unbroken by breaking waves. However the trapping of bubbles of atmospheric gases in the ocean by breaking waves introduces an asymmetry in this flux. This asymmetry occurs as a bias towards injecting gas into the ocean where it dissolves, and against the evasion/exsolution of previously-dissolved gas coming out of solution from the oceans and eventually reaching the atmosphere.

Strong coupling in a microcavity containing β-carotene.

We have fabricated an open-cavity microcavity structure containing a thin film of the biologically-derived molecule β-carotene. We show that the β-carotene absorption can be described in terms of a series of Lorentzian functions that approximate the 0-0, 0-1, 0-2, 0-3 and 0-4 electronic and vibronic transitions. On placing this molecular material into a microcavity, we obtain anti-crossing between the cavity mode and the 0-1 vibronic transition, however other electronic and vibronic transitions remain in the intermediate or weak-coupling regime due to their lower oscillator strength and broader linewidth.

Strong Exciton-Photon Coupling in a Nanographene Filled Microcavity.

Dibenzo[hi,st]ovalene (DBOV)-a quasi-zero-dimensional "nanographene"-displays strong, narrow, and well-defined optical-absorption transitions at room temperature. On placing a DBOV-doped polymer film into an optical microcavity, we demonstrate strong coupling of the 0 → 0' electronic transition to a confined cavity mode, with a coupling energy of 126 meV. Photoluminescence measurements indicate that the polariton population is distributed at energies approximately coincident with the emission of the DBOV, indicating a polariton population via an optical pumping mechanism.

A Nanophotonic Structure Containing Living Photosynthetic Bacteria.

Photosynthetic organisms rely on a series of self-assembled nanostructures with tuned electronic energy levels in order to transport energy from where it is collected by photon absorption, to reaction centers where the energy is used to drive chemical reactions. In the photosynthetic bacteria Chlorobaculum tepidum, a member of the green sulfur bacteria family, light is absorbed by large antenna complexes called chlorosomes to create an exciton. The exciton is transferred to a protein baseplate attached to the chlorosome, before migrating through the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex to the reaction center.

Electrically tunable organic-inorganic hybrid polaritons with monolayer WS.

Exciton-polaritons are quasiparticles consisting of a linear superposition of photonic and excitonic states, offering potential for nonlinear optical devices. The excitonic component of the polariton provides a finite Coulomb scattering cross section, such that the different types of exciton found in organic materials (Frenkel) and inorganic materials (Wannier-Mott) produce polaritons with different interparticle interaction strength. A hybrid polariton state with distinct excitons provides a potential technological route towards in situ control of nonlinear behaviour.

Lévy Defects in Matrix-Immobilized J Aggregates: Tracing Intra-and Intersegmental Exciton Relaxation.

One-dimensional J aggregates present narrow and intense absorption and emission spectra that are interesting for photonics applications. Matrix immobilization of the aggregates, as required for most device architectures, has recently been shown to induce a non-Gaussian (Lévy type) defect distribution with heavy tails, expected to influence exciton relaxation. Here we perform two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) in one-dimensional J aggregates of the cyanine dye TDBC, immobilized in a gel matrix, and we quantitatively model 2DES maps by nonlinear optimization coupled to quantum mechanical calculations of the transient excitonic response.

Strong Exciton-Photon Coupling with Colloidal Nanoplatelets in an Open Microcavity.

Colloidal semiconductor nanoplatelets exhibit quantum size effects due to their thickness of only a few monolayers, together with strong optical band-edge transitions facilitated by large lateral extensions. In this article, we demonstrate room temperature strong coupling of the light and heavy hole exciton transitions of CdSe nanoplatelets with the photonic modes of an open planar microcavity. Vacuum Rabi splittings of 66 ± 1 meV and 58 ± 1 meV are observed for the heavy and light hole excitons, respectively, together with a polariton-mediated hybridization of both transitions.

Plasmonic gold nanodiscs fabricated into a photonic-crystal nanocavity.

We fabricate and characterise an optical structure consisting of a photonic crystal L3 nanocavity containing two gold nanodisks placed close to a field antinode. We use finite difference time domain (FDTD) modelling to show that the optical properties of the nanocavity are sensitive to the physical separation between the gold nanodisks, and that at reduced separation, the q-factor of a cavity mode polarised parallel to the dimer long-axis is reduced, indicating coupling between the cavity mode and a localised plasmon. Preliminary experimental measurements indeed indicate a damping of the cavity mode in the presence of the dimer; a result consistent with the FDTD modelling.

Topographic control of open-access microcavities at the nanometer scale.

Open-access optical microcavities are emerging as an original tool for light-matter studies thanks to their intrinsic tunability and the direct access to the maximum of the electric field along with their small mode volume. In this article, we present recent developments in the fabrication of such devices demonstrating topographic control of the micromirrors at the nanometer scale as well as a high degree of reproducibility. Our method takes into account the template shape as well as the effect of the dielectric mirror growth.

Strong coupling between chlorosomes of photosynthetic bacteria and a confined optical cavity mode.

Strong exciton-photon coupling is the result of a reversible exchange of energy between an excited state and a confined optical field. This results in the formation of polariton states that have energies different from the exciton and photon. We demonstrate strong exciton-photon coupling between light-harvesting complexes and a confined optical mode within a metallic optical microcavity.

Polariton-mediated energy transfer between organic dyes in a strongly coupled optical microcavity.

Strongly coupled optical microcavities containing different exciton states permit the creation of hybrid-polariton modes that can be described in terms of a linear admixture of cavity-photon and the constituent excitons. Such hybrid states have been predicted to have optical properties that are different from their constituent parts, making them a test bed for the exploration of light-matter coupling. Here, we use strong coupling in an optical microcavity to mix the electronic transitions of two J-aggregated molecular dyes and use both non-resonant photoluminescence emission and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy to show that hybrid-polariton states act as an efficient and ultrafast energy-transfer pathway between the two exciton states.

Competition between substrate-mediated π-π stacking and surface-mediated T(g) depression in ultrathin conjugated polymer films.

We report surface and interface effects in dynamics and chain conformation in the thin film of conjugated polymer PCDTBT. To probe dynamic anomalies, we measure the glass transition temperature (T(g)) of PCDTBT films as a function of thickness, and find that there is a significant depression in T(g) for films less than 100 nm thick; a result qualitatively similar to that observed in many other polymer film systems. However, for films less than 40 nm, the T(g) converges to a constant value of 20 K below its bulk value.

The role of cardiac disease parameters in predicting the results of Holter monitoring in patients with acute ischaemic stroke.

There is limited evidence supporting the routine use of Holter monitoring (HM) in patients with acute ischaemic stroke. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic yield of HM and determine whether any cardiac disease parameter(s) would permit more focused targeting of HM. We performed a retrospective evaluation of HM in patients with acute ischaemic stroke admitted to our hospital over a one-year period to assess diagnostic yield and whether certain cardiac disease parameters were correlated with HM results.

The effect of nearby bubbles on array gain.

The coherent processing of signals from multiple hydrophones in an array offers improvements in angular resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. When the array is steered in a particular direction, the signals arriving from that direction are added in phase, and any signals arriving from other directions are not. Array gain (AG) is a measure of how much the signal arriving from the steering direction is amplified relative to signals arriving from all other directions.

A characterization of the Raman modes in a J-aggregate-forming dye: a comparison between theory and experiment.

J-Aggregates are a class of organic molecules that possess several interesting characteristics that make them attractive for a range of organic-based optoelectronic devices. We present experimental and computer-simulation studies of the Raman-active vibrational modes in the J-aggregate-forming dye 5,6-dichloro-2-[[5,6-dichloro-1-ethyl-3-(4-sulfobutyl)benzimidazol-2-ylidene]propenyl]-1-ethyl-3-(4-sulfobutyl)benzimidazolium hydroxide, sodium salt, inner salt. The molecular monomer and dimer are analyzed computationally and the Raman mode energies extracted.

The lifestyle of our kids (LOOK) project: outline of methods.

This methods paper outlines the overall design of a community-based multidisciplinary longitudinal study with the intent to stimulate interest and communication from scientists and practitioners studying the role of physical activity in preventive medicine. In adults, lack of regular exercise is a major risk factor in the development of chronic degenerative diseases and is a major contributor to obesity, and now we have evidence that many of our children are not sufficiently active to prevent early symptoms of chronic disease. The lifestyle of our kids (LOOK) study investigates how early physical activity contributes to health and development, utilizing a longitudinal design and a cohort of eight hundred and thirty 7-8-year-old (grade 2) school children followed to age 11-12 years (grade 6), their average family income being very close to that of Australia.