Switchable 3D Photonic Crystals Based on the Insulator-to-Metal Transition in VO.

Photonic crystals (PhCs) are optical structures characterized by the spatial modulation of the dielectric function, which results in the formation of a photonic band gap (PBG) in the frequency spectrum. This PBG blocks the propagation of light, enabling filtering, confinement, and manipulation of light. Most of the research in this field has concentrated on static PhCs, which have fixed structural and material parameters, leading to a constant PBG.

Crosstalk between G-Quadruplexes and Dnmt3a-Mediated Methylation of the Oncogene Promoter.

The methylation of cytosines at CpG sites in DNA, carried out de novo by DNA methyltransferase Dnmt3a, is a basic epigenetic modification involved in gene regulation and genome stability. Aberrant CpG methylation in gene promoters leads to oncogenesis. In oncogene promoters, CpG sites often colocalize with guanine-rich sequences capable of folding into G-quadruplexes (G4s).

Iridium-Based Selective Emitters for Thermophotovoltaic Applications.

The long-term operation of refractory-metal-based metamaterials is crucial for applications such as thermophotovoltaics. The metamaterials based on refractory metals like W, Mo, Ta, Nb, and Re fail primarily by oxidation. Here, the use of the noble metal Ir is proposed, which is stable to oxidation and has optical properties comparable to gold.

A new species of Scolytus Geoffroy (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) from Yunnan, China.

Scolytus unicornis, a new species of Scolytus Geoffroy from Yunnan, China, is described and illustrated. Three DNA barcoding sequences (COI, 28S, CAD) of this species are provided. The new species is distinguished from other Asian Scolytus species by the longitudinal wrinkles on the frons only in the area below the eyes, a large median spine situated in the middle of the ventrite 2 base, and female frons with a slightly raised blunt tubercle above the epistoma.

Quantum Control of Atom-Ion Charge Exchange via Light-Induced Conical Intersections.

Conical intersections are crossing points or lines between two or more adiabatic electronic potential energy surfaces in the multidimensional coordinate space of colliding atoms and molecules. Conical intersections and corresponding nonadiabatic coupling can greatly affect molecular dynamics and chemical properties. In this paper, we predict significant or measurable nonadiabatic effects in an ultracold atom-ion charge-exchange reaction in the presence of laser-induced conical intersections (LICIs).

Synopsis of the Neotropical Premnobiina (Coleoptera: Curculonidae: Scolytinae: Ipini) with descriptions of new species, new synonymy and keys to species.

One new species of Neotropical Premnobius Eichhoff is described: P. brownei Atkinson & Flechtmann from Brazil. The presence of the related genus Premnophilus Browne is confirmed from South America and six new species are described: P.

Role of Dietary Inclusion of Phytobiotics and Mineral Adsorbent Combination on Dairy Cows' Milk Production, Nutrient Digestibility, Nitrogen Utilization, and Biochemical Parameters.

Our research purpose was to study the effect of the inclusion of a combination of phytobiotics in the form of dry grits (FG) and a mineral adsorbent from the heat-treated mineral shungite (TMS) on milk productivity, nutrient digestibility, and biochemical parameters of the Suksun dairy cows. A total of 80 dry-hardy cows of the Suksun breed were divided into four groups (20 heads each), balanced primarily by breed, age, body weight, body condition score, and indicators of milk yield for the previous lactation. The selected cows were with an average live body weight of 512.

First Results of the Implementation of the Doppler Backscattering Diagnostic for the Investigation of the Transition to H-Mode in the Spherical Tokamak Globus-M2.

This paper presents the first results of a study of the LH transition on the new spherical Globus-M2 tokamak using the Doppler backscattering (DBS) diagnostic. New data characterizing the H-mode of discharges with higher values of the plasma parameters, such as magnetic field B up to 0.9 T and plasma current I up to 450 kA, were collected and analyzed.

Quantum chemical modeling of the thermodynamics of the formation of Au(III), Pd(II), and Pt(II) chloride complexes.

Quantitative prediction of physical properties of liquids and equilibrium constants is important for many applications. Computational methods based on either explicit or implicit solvent models can be used to approximate thermodynamics of complexation. A practical method for calculating the stability constant of d chlorocomplexes (PdCl, PtCl, AuCl) in aqueous solution has been developed by using DFT and DLPNO-CCSD with the SMD solvation model and 100 unique explicit water molecules.

Impact of ligand deformation on the P,T-violation effects in the YbOH molecule.

Ytterbium monohydroxide is a promising molecule in the search for new physics. It is well known that levels of opposite parity, separated by energy split, the so-called l-doublets, define the experimental electric field strength required for molecule polarization. In addition, in our previous paper [Phys.

Are mirror-symmetric objects of special importance for 3D shape perception? A reply to Sawada and Pizlo (2022).

Yu, Todd, and Petrov (2021) and Yu, Petrov, and Todd (2021) investigated failures of shape constancy that occur when objects are viewed stereoscopically at different distances. Although this result has been reported previously with simple objects such as pyramids or cylinders, we examined more complex objects with bilateral symmetry to test the claim by Li, Sawada, Shi, Kwon, and Pizlo (2011) that the perception of those objects is veridical. Sawada and Pizlo (2022) offer several criticisms of our experiments, but they seem to suggest that the concept of shape is defined by what is computable by their model.

The many facets of shape.

Shape is an interesting property of objects because it is used in ordinary discourse in ways that seem to have little connection to how it is typically defined in mathematics. The present article describes how the concept of shape can be grounded within Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry and also to human perception. It considers the formal methods that have been proposed for measuring the differences among shapes and how the performance of those methods compares with shape difference thresholds of human observers.

Rovibrational structure of the ytterbium monohydroxide molecule and the P,T-violation searches.

The spectrum of triatomic molecules with close rovibrational opposite parity levels is sensitive to the P,T-odd effects. This makes them a convenient platform for the experimental search of a new physics. Among the promising candidates, one may distinguish YbOH as a non-radioactive compound with a heavy atom.

Bilateral Symmetry Has No Effect on Stereoscopic Shape Judgments.

A single experiment is reported that measured the apparent stereoscopic shapes of symmetric and asymmetric objects at different viewing distances. The symmetric stimuli were specifically designed to satisfy the minimal conditions for computing veridical shape from symmetry. That is to say, they depicted complex, bilaterally symmetric, plane-faced polyhedra whose symmetry planes were oriented at an angle of 45° relative to the line of sight.

A new genus and two new species of Tarsonemidae (Acari: Heterostigmata) associated with bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) from Peru.

A new genus and species, Unguitarsonemus paradoxus n. gen., n.

Failures of stereoscopic shape constancy over changes of viewing distance and size for bilaterally symmetric polyhedra.

Two shape matching experiments examined the effects of viewing distance and object size on observers' judgments of 3D metric shape under binocular viewing. Unlike previous studies on this topic, the stimuli were specifically designed to satisfy the minimal conditions for computing veridical shape from symmetry. Concretely, the stimuli were complex, mirror-symmetric polyhedra whose symmetry planes were oriented at an angle of 45o relative to the line of sight in a shape-matching task.

TD-DFT assessment of UV-vis spectra palladium and platinum complexes with thiols and disulfides.

Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and spectrophotometric methods were used for speciation analysis in systems disulfides (cystine, cystamine, homocystine, 3,3-dithiodipropionic acid) - [PdCl] or [PtCl]. We use the M06-2X and CAM-B3LYP density functionals with Def2-SVP basis set to reproduce the experimental UV-vis spectra; the polarized continuum solvation model (PCM) was fitted to take into account solvation effects of the medium (water). Used methods have shown the good agrees with the experiment - theoretical values of transition energies differ from real parameters within ±0.

Influence of Alumina Addition on the Optical Properties and the Thermal Stability of Titania Thin Films and Inverse Opals Produced by Atomic Layer Deposition.

TiO thin films deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at low temperatures (<100 °C) are, in general, amorphous and exhibit a smaller refractive index in comparison to their crystalline counterparts. Nonetheless, low-temperature ALD is needed when the substrates or templates are based on polymeric materials, as the deposition has to be performed below their glass transition or melting temperatures. This is the case for photonic crystals generated via ALD infiltration of self-assembled polystyrene templates.

Tailoring Disorder and Quality of Photonic Glass Templates for Structural Coloration by Particle Charge Interactions.

To obtain high-quality homogeneous photonic glass-based structural color films over large areas, it is essential to precisely control the degree of disorder of the spherical particles used and reduce the crack density within the films as much as possible. To tailor the disorder and quality of photonic glasses, a heteroaggregation-based process was developed by employing two oppositely charged equal-sized polystyrene (PS) particle types. The influence of the particle size ratio on the extent of heteroaggregation in the suspension mixes is investigated and correlated with both the morphology and the resultant optical properties of the films.

Interaction of Rare-Earth Metals and Some Perfluorinated β-Diketones.

In this work, we demonstrate the fundamental relationships between stability constants and periodic, acid-base, and structural parameters for complexes of some 1,3-diketones. The four analogues of hexafluoroacetylacetone-2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone, 2-furoyltrifluoroacetone, benzoyltrifluoroacetone, and 2-naphthyltrifluoroacetone-have been studied as chelating ligands for 16 rare-earth metals (Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) in aqueous solutions. Systems have been investigated spectrophotometrically using a multiwave nonlinear least-squares regression algorithm for data processing.

Structural degradation of tungsten sandwiched in hafnia layers determined by in-situ XRD up to 1520 °C.

The high-temperature stability of thermal emitters is one of the critical properties of thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems to obtain high radiative power and conversion efficiencies. W and HfO are ideal due to their high melting points and low vapor pressures. At high temperatures and given vacuum conditions, W is prone to oxidation resulting in instantaneous sublimation of volatile W oxides.

Non-steady-state photo-EMF in β-GaO crystals at λ = 457 nm.

The non-steady-state photoelectromotive force is excited in a monoclinic gallium oxide crystal at wavelength λ = 457 nm. The crystal grown in an oxygen atmosphere is insulating and highly transparent for a visible light, nevertheless, the formation of dynamic space-charge gratings and observation of the photo-EMF signal is achieved without application of any electric field to the sample. The dependencies of the signal amplitude on the frequency of phase modulation, light intensity, spatial frequency and light polarization are measured.

Effects of conical intersections on hyperfine quenching of hydroxyl OH in collision with an ultracold Sr atom.

The effect of conical intersections (CIs) on electronic relaxation, transitions from excited states to ground states, is well studied, but their influence on hyperfine quenching in a reactant molecule is not known. Here, we report on ultracold collision dynamics of the hydroxyl free-radical OH with Sr atoms leading to quenching of OH hyperfine states. Our quantum-mechanical calculations of this process reveal that quenching is efficient due to anomalous molecular dynamics in the vicinity of the conical intersection at collinear geometry.

Photon-mediated charge exchange reactions between K atoms and Ca ions in a hybrid trap.

We present experimental evidence of charge exchange between laser-cooled potassium K atoms and calcium Ca ions in a hybrid atom-ion trap and give quantitative theoretical explanations for the observations. The K atoms and Ca ions are held in a magneto-optical (MOT) and a linear Paul trap, respectively. Fluorescence detection and high resolution time of flight mass spectra for both species are used to determine the remaining number of Ca ions, the increasing number of K ions, and K number density as functions of time.

Surface templated inverse photonic glass for saturated blue structural color.

To substitute conventional pigments, which often are toxic or suffer from fading in ultraviolet light, non-iridescent structural colors should demonstrate high spectral selectivity, while being also mechanically stable. However, conventional photonic glass (PhG) shows low color saturation due to the gradual transition in the reflection spectrum and low mechanical stability due to weak interparticle attachment. Here, a PhG with sharp spectral transition in comparison with the conventional full sphere PhG is designed by a conformal coating via atomic layer deposition (ALD) onto an organic PhG template.