Active Terahertz Chiral Metamaterials Based on Phase Transition of Vanadium Dioxide (VO).

Compared with natural materials, chiral metamaterials have been demonstrated with orders of magnitude stronger chiroptical response, which provides the basis for applications such as ultracompact polarization components and plasmonic-enhanced biosensing. Terahertz chiral metamaterials that allow dynamic polarization control of terahertz waves are of great practical interest, but remain extremely rare. Here, we show that hybrid metamaterials integrated with vanadium dioxide (VO) exhibiting phase transition can enable dynamically tunable chiroptical responses at terahertz frequencies.

Characterising the online weapons trafficking on cryptomarkets.

Weapons related webpages from nine cryptomarkets were manually duplicated in February 2016. Information about the listings (i.e.

Medium shapes the microbial community of water filters with implications for effluent quality.

Little is known about the forces that determine the assembly of diverse bacterial communities inhabiting drinking water treatment filters and how this affects drinking water quality. Two contrasting ecological theories can help to understand how natural microbial communities assemble; niche theory and neutral theory, where environmental deterministic factors or stochastic factors predominate respectively. This study investigates the development of the microbial community on two common contrasting filter materials (quartz sand and granular activated carbon-GAC), to elucidate the main factors governing their assembly, through the evaluation of environmental (i.

Efficient Cross-talk Reduction of Nanophotonic Circuits Enabled by Fabrication Friendly Periodic Silicon Strip Arrays.

Reduction of the crosstalk between adjacent photonic components has been regarded as one of the most effective, yet most challenging approaches for increasing the packing density of photonic integrated circuits. Recently, extensive efforts have been devoted to this field, leading to a number of elaborate designs, such as waveguide supperlattice and nanophotonic cloaking, among others. Here we develop a simple and efficient crosstalk reduction approach for silicon-based nanophotonic circuits by introducing a periodic array of silicon strips between adjacent waveguides.

Blood glucose concentrations in prehospital trauma patients with traumatic shock: A retrospective analysis.

Background: Deranged glucose metabolism after moderate to severe trauma with either high or low concentrations of blood glucose is associated with poorer outcome. Data on prehospital blood glucose concentrations and trauma are scarce.

Objectives: The primary aim was to describe the relationship between traumatic shock and prehospital blood glucose concentrations.

Preserving Spin States upon Reflection: Linear and Nonlinear Responses of a Chiral Meta-Mirror.

Conventional metallic mirrors flip the spin of a circularly polarized wave upon normal incidence by inverting the direction of the propagation vector. Altering or maintaining the spin state of light waves carrying data is a critical need to be met at the brink of photonic information processing. In this work, we report a chiral metamaterial mirror that strongly absorbs a circularly polarized wave of one spin state and reflects that of the opposite spin in a manner conserving the circular polarization.

Surgery for Herniated Lumbar Disc in Daily Tobacco Smokers: A Multicenter Observational Study.

Objective: To compare clinical outcomes at 1 year following single-level lumbar microdiscectomy in daily tobacco smokers and nonsmokers.

Methods: Data were collected through the Norwegian Registry for Spine Surgery. The primary endpoint was a change in the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) at 1 year.

Mechanisms of distinct activated carbon and biochar amendment effects on petroleum vapour biofiltration in soil.

We studied the effects of two percent by weight activated carbon versus biochar amendments in 93 cm long sand columns on the biofiltration of petroleum vapours released by a non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) source. Activated carbon greatly enhanced, whereas biochar slightly reduced, the biofiltration of volatile petroleum hydrocarbons (VPHs) over 430 days. Sorbent amendment benefitted the VPH biofiltration by retarding breakthrough during the biodegradation lag phase.

Conformal metasurface-coated dielectric waveguides for highly confined broadband optical activity with simultaneous low-visibility and reduced crosstalk.

The ability to achieve simultaneous control over the various electromagnetic properties of dielectric waveguides, including mode confinement, polarization, scattering signature, and crosstalk, which are critical to system miniaturization, diversity in functionality, and non-invasive integration, has been a highly sought after yet elusive goal. Currently existing methods, which rely on three-dimensional artificial cores or claddings and/or structural chirality, provide efficient paths for obtaining either highly confined modes, optical activity, or a low-scattering signature, but at the expense of increased propagation loss, form factor and weight. Here, by tailoring the unique anisotropy and exploiting the inter-cell coupling of metasurface coatings, we report a unified approach for simultaneously controlling the diverse optical properties of dielectric waveguides.

Multi-element, multi-frequency lens transformations enabled by optical wavefront matching.

Transformation optics (TO) has brought forth a renewed interest in gradient-index (GRIN) optics due to its ability to allow arbitrary geometries to electromagnetically mimic the behaviors of more conventional structures via a spatially-inhomogeneous refractive index profile. While quasi-conformal transformation optics (qTO) has seen great success at microwave and RF frequencies, it is inherently limited to single frequency transformations: an immediate shortcoming for designs in the optical regime. Also, achieving desirable solutions from multi-element transformations is difficult for qTO.

Evaluation of strategies to minimize ecotoxic side-effects of sorbent-based sediment remediation.

Background: In situ sorbent amendment for persistent organic pollutant sequestration in sediment has over the past 15 years steadily progressed from bench-scale trials to full-scale remediation applications. Hindering a wider technology uptake are, however, concerns about ecotoxic side-effects of the most commonly used sorbent, activated carbon, on sensitive, sediment dwelling organisms like Lumbriculus variegatus. Using River Tyne sediment polluted with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and L.

Association of 16 priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with humic acid and humin fractions in a peat soil and implications for their long-term retention.

To elucidate the environmental fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) once released into soil, sixteen humic acids (HAs) and one humin (HM) fractions were sequentially extracted from a peat soil, and sixteen priority PAHs in these humic substances (HSs) were analyzed. It was found that the total concentration of 16 PAHs (∑16PAHs) increased evidently from HA1 to HA16, and then dramatically reached the highest value in HM. The trend of ∑16PAHs in HAs relates to surface carbon and C-H/C-C contents, the bulk aliphatic carbon content and aliphaticity, as well as the condensation enhancement of carbon domains, which were derived from elemental composition, XPS, C NMR, as well as thermal analyses.

Hybrid Resonators and Highly Tunable Terahertz Metamaterials Enabled by Vanadium Dioxide (VO).

Hybrid metamaterials that exhibit reconfigurable responses under external stimulus, such as electric fields and light radiation, have only recently been demonstrated by combining active media with patterned metallic structures. Nevertheless, hybrid terahertz (THz) metamaterials whose spectral performance can be dynamically tuned over a large scale remain rare. Compared with most active media (for instance, silicon) that provide limited activity, vanadium dioxide (VO), which exhibits an insulator-to-metal transition, has been recently explored to facilitate dynamically tunable metamaterials.

Organic Carbon Amendments for Enhanced Biological Attenuation of Trace Organic Contaminants in Biochar-Amended Stormwater Biofilters.

This study sought to evaluate how dissolved organic carbon (DOC) affects attenuation of trace organic contaminants (TOrCs) in biochar-amended stormwater biofilters. It was hypothesized that (1) DOC-augmented runoff would demonstrate enhanced TOrC biodegradation and (2) biochar-amended sand bearing DOC-cultivated biofilms would achieve enhanced TOrC attenuation due to sorptive retention and biodegradation. Microcosm and column experiments were conducted utilizing actual runoff, DOC from straw and compost, and a suite of TOrCs.

Criteria for failure and worsening after surgery for lumbar disc herniation: a multicenter observational study based on data from the Norwegian Registry for Spine Surgery.

Purpose: In clinical decision-making, it is crucial to discuss the probability of adverse outcomes with the patient. A large proportion of the outcomes are difficult to classify as either failure or success. Consequently, cutoff values in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for "failure" and "worsening" are likely to be different from those of "non-success".

webKnossos: efficient online 3D data annotation for connectomics.

We report webKnossos, an in-browser annotation tool for 3D electron microscopic data. webKnossos provides flight mode, a single-view egocentric reconstruction method enabling trained annotator crowds to reconstruct at a speed of 1.5 ± 0.

Compact, Highly Efficient, and Fully Flexible Circularly Polarized Antenna Enabled by Silver Nanowires for Wireless Body-Area Networks.

A compact and flexible circularly polarized (CP) wearable antenna is introduced for wireless body-area network systems at the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band, which is implemented by employing a low-loss composite of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and silver nanowires (AgNWs). The circularly polarized radiation is enabled by placing a planar linearly polarized loop monopole above a finite anisotropic artificial ground plane.

Efficient Wideband Numerical Simulations for Nanostructures Employing a Drude-Critical Points (DCP) Dispersive Model.

A highly efficient numerical approach for simulating the wideband optical response of nano-architectures comprised of Drude-Critical Points (DCP) media (e.g., gold and silver) is proposed and validated through comparing with commercial computational software.

Retinal vessel metrics: normative data and their use in systemic hypertension: results from the Gutenberg Health Study.

Purpose Of Review: In-vivo measurement of retinal vascular calibers may be used as a tool to study the pathophysiology and clinical status of the microvasculature of the retina. The aim of this study was to generate normative data for retinal vessel parameters, and to evaluate the clinical relevance in systemic hypertension.

Methods: Fundus photographs from 4309 participants of the Gutenberg Health Study were assessed using the 'retinal vessel analyzer' software (IMEDOS).

Early Changes of the Cortical Micro-Channel System in the Bare Area of the Joints of Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Objective: To characterize the specific structural properties of the erosion-prone bare area of the human joint, and to search for early microstructural changes in this region during rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: In the initial part of the study, human cadaveric hand joints were examined for exact localization of the bare area of the metacarpal heads, followed by detection of cortical micro-channels (CoMiCs) in this region by high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) and, after anatomic dissection, validation of the presence of CoMiCs by micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). In the second part of the study, the number and distribution of CoMiCs were analyzed in 107 RA patients compared to 105 healthy individuals of similar age and sex distribution.

Triplex-hybridizing bioconjugated gold nanoparticles for specific Y-chromosome sequence targeting of bull spermatozoa.

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are widely used in biomedical applications for drug targeting and bioimaging. This often neccesitates their functionalization with biomolecules carrying a defined biological function, yielding gold nanoparticle bioconjugates. The utilization of triplex-forming oligonucleotides (TFOs) as ligands gives access to nanoconjugates as tools for specific DNA-related nanotargeting via triplex hybridization.

Pyrazolates advance cerium chemistry: a Ce/Ce redox equilibrium with benzoquinone.

Two stable cerium(iv) 3,5-dialkylpyrazolate complexes are presented, namely dimeric [Ce(Mepz)] (Mepz = 3,5-dimethylpyrazolate) and monomeric Ce(tBupz) (tBupz = 3,5-di-tert-butylpyrazolate) along with their trivalent counterparts [Ce(Mepz)] and [Ce(tBupz)]. All complexes were obtained from protonolysis reactions employing the silylamide precursors Ce[N(SiHMe)] and Ce[N(SiMe)]. Treatment of homoleptic Ce and Ce Mepz complexes with 1,4-hydroquinone (Hhq) or 1,4-benzoquinone (bq), respectively, ultimately gave the same trimetallic Ce species via a cerium redox equilibrium.

Establishment of a cohort for deep phenotyping of the immune response to influenza vaccination among elderly individuals recruited from the general population.

Elderly individuals have the highest burden of disease from influenza infection but also the lowest immune response to influenza vaccination. A better understanding of the host response to influenza vaccination in the elderly is therefore urgently needed. We conducted a biphasic prospective, population-based study from Dec.

Microbial fuel cells for inexpensive continuous in-situ monitoring of groundwater quality.

Online monitoring of groundwater quality in shallow wells to detect faecal or organic pollution could dramatically improve understanding of health risks in unplanned peri-urban settlements. Microbial fuel cells (MFC) are devices able to generate electricity from the organic matter content in faecal pollution making them suitable as biosensors. In this work, we evaluate the suitability of four microbial fuel cell systems placed in different regions of a groundwater well for the low-cost monitoring of a faecal pollution event.

Age-dependent regulation of GABA transmission by kappa opioid receptors in the basolateral amygdala of Sprague-Dawley rats.

Anxiety disorders are one of the most common and debilitating mental illnesses worldwide. Growing evidence indicates an age-dependent rise in the incidence of anxiety disorders from adolescence through adulthood, suggestive of underlying neurodevelopmental mechanisms. Kappa opioid receptors (KORs) are known to contribute to the development and expression of anxiety; however, the functional role of KORs in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), a brain structure critical in mediating anxiety, particularly across ontogeny, are unknown.