Microwaves can kill malaria parasites non-thermally.

Malaria, which infected more than 240 million people and killed around six hundred thousand only in 2021, has reclaimed territory after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Together with parasite resistance and a not-yet-optimal vaccine, the need for new approaches has become critical. While earlier, limited, studies have suggested that malaria parasites are affected by electromagnetic energy, the outcomes of this affectation vary and there has not been a study that looks into the mechanism of action behind these responses.

Spatial and temporal domain filtering for underwater lidar.

Combined spatial and temporal processing techniques are presented to enhance optical ranging in underwater environments. The performance of underwater light detection and ranging (lidar) is often limited by scattering. Previous work has demonstrated that both hybrid lidar-radar, which temporally modulates the amplitude of light, and optical spatial coherence filtering, which spatially modulates the phase of light, have independently reduced the effects of scattering, improving performance.

Enhanced underwater ranging using an optical vortex.

An optical vortex is used to enhance the ranging accuracy of an underwater pulsed laser ranging system. An experiment is conducted whereby an underwater object is illuminated by a pulsed Gaussian beam, and both the object-reflected and scattered light are passed through a diffractive spiral phase plate prior to being imaged at the receiver. An optical vortex is formed from the spatially coherent non-scattered component of the return, providing an effective way to discriminate the desired objected reflected light from the spatially incoherent scatter.

Focused apodized forked grating coupler.

The forked grating coupler (FGC) is an optical vortex interface for silicon photonics. Using the structure of a Bragg grating coupler with a calculated forked hologram, the FGC couples optical vortex modes into confined waveguide modes of a photonic integrated circuit. Design methodologies are given, as well as measured performance data from fabricated devices.

Independent component analysis for enhancement of an FMCW optical ranging technique in turbid waters.

Optical detection and ranging in turbid waters are challenged by the effects of absorption and scattering. In particular, backscatter creates a clutter return, which can mask the presence of weak underwater targets. This work explores the use of independent component analysis (ICA), a statistical signal processing approach, to recover weak targets from strong backscatter in turbid waters using a frequency-modulated continuous-wave optical rangefinder.

A pacemaker powered by an implantable biofuel cell operating under conditions mimicking the human blood circulatory system--battery not included.

Biocatalytic electrodes made of buckypaper were modified with PQQ-dependent glucose dehydrogenase on the anode and with laccase on the cathode and were assembled in a flow biofuel cell filled with serum solution mimicking the human blood circulatory system. The biofuel cell generated an open circuitry voltage, Voc, of ca. 470 mV and a short circuitry current, Isc, of ca.