Engineering the passband shape of coupled-cavity filters for low loss and/or narrow bandwidth.

Emerging applications of photonic integrated circuits are calling for extremely narrowband and/or low-insertion-loss bandpass filters. Both properties are limited by cavity losses or intrinsic quality factors. However, the choice of inter-cavity and bus couplings establishes trade-offs between these two properties and the passband shape, which have been little explored.

EEG spectral slope: A reliable indicator for continuous evaluation of consciousness levels during propofol anesthesia.

The level of consciousness undergoes continuous alterations during anesthesia. Prior to the onset of propofol-induced complete unconsciousness, degraded levels of behavioral responsiveness can be observed. However, a reliable index to monitor altered consciousness levels during anesthesia has not been sufficiently investigated.

Free energy cost to assemble superlattices of polymer-grafted nanoparticles.

Mesoparticles consisting of a hard core and a soft corona like polymer-grafted nanoparticles (PGNPs) can assemble into various superlattice structures, in which each mesoparticle assumes the shape of the corresponding Wigner-Seitz (or Voronoi) cell. Conventional wisdom often perceives the stability of these superlattices in a mean-field view of surface area minimization or corona entropy maximization, which lacks molecular interpretation. We develop a simulation method to calculate the free energy cost to deform spherical PGNPs into Wigner-Seitz polyhedra, which are then relaxed in a certain crystalline superlattice.

Regulation of Female Germline Specification via Small RNA Mobility in Arabidopsis.

In the ovules of most sexually reproducing plants, one hypodermal cell differentiates into a megaspore mother cell (MMC), which gives rise to the female germline. -acting small interfering RNAs known as tasiR-ARFs have been suggested to act non-cell-autonomously to prevent the formation of multiple MMCs by repressing () expression in Arabidopsis (), but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here, we examined tasiR-ARF-related intercellular regulatory mechanisms.