bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of electromagnetically induced transparency based on quantum memory of squeezed state of light
Authors: Deng Rui-Jie  , Yan Zhi-Hui  , Jia Xiao-Jun  ,   State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Opto-Electronics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China;,   Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, China
Published: December 2020

Quantum memory of light is not only the building block of constructing large-scale quantum computer, but also the kernel component of quantum repeater for quantum networks, which makes long distance quantum communication come true. Due to the inevitable optical losses, squeezed vacuum generated from optical parametric amplifier becomes squeezed thermal state of light, which is no longer the minimum uncertainty state. Therefore quantum memory of squeezed thermal state of optical field is the key step towards the implementation of quantum internet. Atomic ensemble is one of ideal quantum memory media, as a result of high optical depth and good atomic coherence. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is one of mature approaches to quantum state mapping between non-classical optical fields and atomic spin waves. In atomic ensembles, the EIT can on-demand map quantum state between quadratures of light and spin waves of atomic ensemble, i.e., controlled quantum memory. Here the condition of quantum memory for squeezed thermal state of light is investigated according to the fidelity benchmark of quantum memory. The fidelity benchmark of quantum memory is the maximum fidelity which can be reached by classical methods, and it is quantum memory if the memory fidelity is higher than the fidelity benchmark of quantum memory. By numerically calculating the fidelity benchmark of quantum memory for different kinds of squeezed thermal states of light and the dependence of memory fidelity on the memory efficiency, we obtain the minimum memory efficiency which can realize quantum memory for squeezed thermal state of light. The quantum memory can be easily obtained by increasing squeezing parameter r. The thermal state fluctuation is sensitive to the realization of quantum memory. The required minimum memory efficiency is lower, when smaller thermal state fluctuation is employed in experiment by reducing the optical losses in optical parametric amplifier. On the other hand, quantum memory fidelity benchmark is high for small squeezing parameter and large optical depth, which requires high memory efficiency. And atomic memory efficiency can be increased by utilizing optical cavity to enhance the interaction between light and atom or atomic ensemble with high optical depth. For example, the fidelity benchmark is 0.80, when squeezing parameter r is 0.35 and thermal state fluctuation is 2.38 dB. Thus quantum memory can be realized if the memory efficiency is larger than 4.34%. Our work can provide the direct reference for experimental design of continuous variable quantum memory, quantum repeater, and quantum computer based on atomic ensembles.
Optical fiber SPR sensing demodulation algorithm based on all-phase filters
Authors: Cao Yu-Zhen  , Ma Jin-Ying  , Liu Kun  , Huang Xiang-Dong  , Jiang Jun-Feng  , Wang Tao  , Xue Meng  , Liu Tie-Gen  ,   School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China;,   Key Laboratory of Opto-electronics Information Technology, EMC, Tianjin 300072, China;,   School of Electronics Information Engineering, Tianjin 300072, China
Published: December 2020

Aiming at the urgent requirements for refractive index detection in the biological sample detection area, an all-fiber surface plasmon resonance (SPR) system is established in this paper. And the SPR characteristic wavelength demodulation algorithm is proposed for this system based on all-phase filter technique. According to the system simulation, the refractive index sensing sensitivity of the fiber SPR sensor can be calculated theoretically. By using the all-phase filter technique, the characteristic wavelength of the fiber SPR sensor can be extracted, and the theoretically analytical expression of the all-phase filter can be obtained. The experimental results show that the refractive index sensing sensitivity and the detection resolution of the fiber SPR sensor are 1640.4 nm/RIU and 7.3610-4 RIU respectively by using this algorithm. Compared with the traditional methods, our algorithm can improve the detection precision and the anti-light-disturbance performance and reduce the costs as well.
Full-vectorial analysis of a silicon-based multimode interference mode-order converter for slot waveguide nanowires
Authors: Xiao Jin-Biao  , Wang Deng-Feng  ,   School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Published: December 2020

Recently, silicon-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have attracted considerable interest due to the advantages of high index contrast and complementary metal oxide semiconductor compatible process. Furthermore, to meet the ever-growing bandwidth requirements for data center and supercomputing, several multiplexing on-chip technologies by using silicon PICs are proposed. Among them, the mode division multiplexing (MDM) is widely recognized to be important, where mode-order converters (MOCs) are fundamental building blocks. In addition, slot waveguides can efficiently confine the light in low-index regions, thus forming various kinds of novel photonic devices. In this paper, a compact 12 multimode interference (MMI) mode-order converter (MOC) for silicon-based slot nanowires is proposed, where straight waveguides, as the input/output channels, are connected to a quadratic-tapered multimode waveguide via linear-tapered waveguides. A full-vectorial finite-difference frequency-domain method is used to analyze the modal characteristics of the used silicon-based vertical slot waveguides; from this, quasi-TM mode is chosen as an input optical signal since its field distribution is strongly confined in the slot, i. e., the electric field strength is greatly enhanced in the vertical slot, and with the increase of the width of the slot waveguide, it can support higher-order quasi-TM modes. Compared with the beating length of rectangular MMI structure, the beating length of quadratic-tapered MMI structure can be effectively reduced with transmission loss lowering. From the imaging position of the guided-mode in MMI region via self-imagining effect, the length of quadratic-tapered MMI structure can be determined accurately where first-order and fundamental quasi-TM modes are outputs, respectively, from wider and narrower channels. A three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method is utilized to assess the performance of the proposed MOC, where the insertion loss and crosstalk are analyzed in detail. The results show that an MOC with an MMI section of 35 m2 is achieved to be an insertion loss and a crosstalk of~0.35 dB and~-16.9 dB, respectively, at a wavelength of 1.55 m by carefully optimizing the key structural parameters. Moreover, the fabrication deviation of the proposed device is also analyzed in detail and the performance is evaluated, where insertion loss and the contrast are considered. To demonstrate the transmission characteristics of the proposed MOC, the evolution of the excited fundamental quasi-TM mode through the MOC is also presented. Numerical results show that the presented MOC realizes the desired function, converting the fundamental quasi-TM mode into first-order one with reasonable performance. We remark that the present MOC has a good potential application in MDM system to improve the capacity of the silicon-based on-chip transmission system.
Study on the influence factors of the concentration of heavy metals by spectrophotometry
Authors: Bi Wei-Hong  , Chen Jun-Gang  , Zhang Sheng  , Yu Teng-Fei  , Zhang Yan-Jun  , Hou Xu-Tao  ,   School of Information Science and Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao 066004, China;,   Productivity Promotion Center of Hebei Province, Shijiazhuang 050021, China
Published: December 2020

This paper analyzes the simultaneous measurement method for the higher content soluble heavy metal elements of Cd2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, and Ni2+ which are heavy pollution in coastal and river water, demonstrates the properties of corresponding characteristic spectrum and absorbance of the four elements, establishes the mathematical model to function the concentration and total absorbance at the characteristic wavelength when the four elements dependent each other. We focus on effects of different situation of pH, temperature, time chromogenic dose on the metal ion concentration simultaneous measurement and summarize the experimental law.
Polarization-maintaining microfiber-based evanescent-wave sensors
Authors: Li Jie  , Li Meng-Meng  , Sun Li-Peng  , Fan Peng-Cheng  , Ran Yang  , Jin Long  , Guan Bai-Ou  ,   Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
Published: December 2020

In recent years, polarization-maintaining (PM) microfibers have attracted much research attention mostly due to their ultra-high birefringence and large evanescent field effect. This article starts from introduction of the structures, fabrication methods, and mode characteristics of PM microfibers. Different previously-implemented PM microfiber sensors have been presented. The two polarization modes may have different responses on changes of external parameters for PM microfiber, which allows fabrication of polarization-related devices, such as interferometers or gratings. Some sensing characteristics, such as extremely-high refractive index sensitivity and/or temperature-independent response, have been demonstrated. The sensing applications including detection of refractive index, humidity, magnetic field and specific DNA molecular have been described in detail. This article should be helpful for future development of PM micro/nano fibers and the related sensors.
Acoustic emission localization technique based on fiber Bragg grating sensing network and signal feature reconstruction
Authors: Zhang Fa-Ye  , Jiang Ming-Shun  , Sui Qing-Mei  , Lü Shan-Shan  , Shan Jia  ,   School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Published: December 2020

Based on the analysis of the propagation mechanism of acoustic emission stress waves caused by impact excitation on aluminum alloy plates, The geometrical model of steel ball impacted aluminum alloy plate was built by ABAQUS software, and the stress wave propagation process is simulated and analyzed. The stress wave propagation process is simulated and analyzed and an acoustic emission sensing system based on the principle of edge filtering is constructed. The acoustic emission stress waves were collected to establish the acoustic emission region localization model. The localization method of acoustic emission region based on diffusion mapping and support vector machine is proposed and verified experimentally. Multiple acoustic emission localization experiments were performed on an aluminum alloy plate of 300 mm300 mm2 mm, which was divided into 36 test area. The results show that the localization accuracy is 30 mm30 mm and the positioning accuracy was 97.5%, while consuming 0.781 s. The study provides an effective method for acoustic emission localization.
Airy fiber: waveguides array coupling based light beam control method
Authors: Zhao Hao-Yu  , Deng Hong-Chang  , Yuan Li-Bo  ,   Photonics Research Center, Guilin University of Electronics Technology, Guilin 541004, China;,   Key Laboratory of In-Fiber Integrated Optics, Ministry of Education, College of Science, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, China
Published: December 2020

Recently, Airy beam as a kind of non-diffracting beam, has attracted a great deal of attention due to its unique properties to have propagation-invariant intensity profile, remain transverse accelerating and exhibit self-healing features. Therefore, Airy beams have found many potential applications, such as optical micro-manipulation, imaging technology, surface plasmon polaritons and laser micromachining. Airy optical fiber as a kind of waveguide device can be applied for the Airy beam generation, carry out the exploration of new Airy fiber and expand the Airy beam application range, has important practical significance. In this paper, we give an systematical introduction from the view of the Airy beam working principle, Airy fiber structure design, Airy fiber beam generated internal mechanism, Airy beam wavelength response characteristics, and Airy fiber applications.
Numerical investigation on the plasma acceleration of the inductive pulsed plasma thruster
Authors: Cheng Yu-Guo  , Xia Guang-Qing  ,   PLA 91550 Unit 91 Element, Dalian 116023, China;,   State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
Published: December 2020

The pulsed inductive discharge ionizes the neutral gas and accelerates the plasma efficiently, and is accompanied by complicated phenomena during the discharge process. In order to study the transient flow field characteristics and the variations of the main flow parameters (e.g., velocity, density, pressure, etc.) with the magnetic induction intensity of the inductive pulsed plasma, the two-dimensional axisymmetric unsteady magnetohydrodynamic numerical model is introduced by employing the hyperbolic divergence cleaning method. The plasma is excited by the single pulse energy varying in the sine waveform with a period of 10 s, and the flow field of the peak magnetic induction intensity ranging from 0.1 T to 0.55 T, is calculated. The results show that the high density and speed region gradually moves forward and away from the coil, leaving the low density and speed plasma behind, meanwhile, the high temperature region is near the coil throughoutthe discharge, and the inductive magnetic field leads in the phase, compared with the flow parameters, which indicates the effective permeation of the pulsed energy into the neutral gas and the plasma. As the input single pulse energy increases, the maximum axial velocity of the plasma increases and the time at which the flow velocity reaches a peak value moves up. The current sheets of the same direction, which are located on the surface of the induction coil at the beginning, appear as the discharge initiates and moves forward with the influenced flow domain expanding as the process goes on, and an opposite sign current sheet grows when the time passes through the first quarter of the sine period, which is also near the surface of the coil and heats the low-density plasma and the neutral gas. The opposite direction current sheets slow down the velocity of the plasmoid. Due to the nonlinear property of the coil-plasma interaction, the acceleration efficiency of the induction coil improves irregularly as the magnetic induction intensity increases, which grows slowly at a low level, and when the intensity reaches a certain critical value, for the configuration studied in this work the particular value is 0.45 T, the acceleration efficiency increases significantly, indicating that a larger part of the pulsed energy is converted into the plasma kinetic energy.
Substitutions of dual-ion Al3+/Mo6+ for Zr4+/V5+ in ZrV2O7 for realizing near-zero thermal expansion
Authors: Yuan Bao-He  , Cao Wen-Si  , Ge Xiang-Hong  , Cheng Yong-Guang  , Liu Xian-Sheng  , Liang Er-Jun  ,   North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou 450011, China;,   College of Science, Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450007, China;,   College of Science, Center of Analysis and Testing of Henan Institute of Engineering, Zhengzhou 451191, China;,   Henan Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Materials, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China;,   School of Physical Science and Engineering and Key Laboratory of Materials Physics of Ministry of Education of China, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, China
Published: December 2020

Zr1-xAlxV2-xMoxO7 (0 x 0.9) is developed by the solid state method, and the near-zero thermal expansion is realized by adjusting the quantity of substitution of Al3+/Mo6+ for Zr4+/V5+ in ZrV2O7. For smaller x values (x 0.3), the samples remain the same cubic structure as that of ZrV2O7. The Coulomb interaction between (Al/Zr)- and (Mo/V)+ increases gradually with increasing the quantity of dual-ion substitution of Al3+/Mo6+ for Zr4+/V5+ in ZrV2O7, which reduces the fraction of the distortionless cubic structure in the sample. For x 0.7, the cubic structures could not be found. For Zr0.5Al0.5V1.5Mo0.5O7, near-zero thermal expansion is obtained in a temperature range from 425 to 750 K (-0.3910-6 K-1). The mechanism of low thermal expansion of Zr0.5Al0.5V1.5Mo0.5O7 could relate to the distortion of crystal structure due to partial substitution of Al3+/Mo6+ for Zr4+/V5+ in ZrV2O7 and the effect of the substitution on the unsubstituted lattice.
Novel lateral double-diffused MOSFET with vertical assisted deplete-substrate layer
Authors: Zhao Yi-Han  , Duan Bao-Xing  , Yuan Song  , Lü Jian-Mei  , Mei Yang  ,   Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Wide Band-Gap Semiconductor Materials and Devices, School of Microelectronics, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China
Published: December 2020

Lateral double-diffused MOSFETs (LDMOS) are widely used in high voltage integrate circuits and smart power integrate circuits because of their lateral channels and their electrodes located on the surface of the device, thereby facilitating integration with other low-voltage circuits and devices, and they have become the core technology of the second electronic revolution.
In order to optimize the breakdown characteristics and the performance of the LDMOS, in this paper, a novel LDMOS is proposed with the vertical assisted deplete-substrate layer (ADSL) on the basis of traditional LDMOS structure. The new ADSL layer makes the vertical depletion region below the drain expand to substrate excessively, thus introduces a new electric field peak at the bottom of the ADSL layer by using the electric field modulation effect, so that the vertical electric field is optimized. The ISE simulation results show that when the lengths of the drift region of ADSL LDMOS and traditional LDMOS are both 70 m, the breakdown voltage is increased from 462 V to 897 V, improved by about 94%. Also, the figure-of-merit (FOM) is upgraded from 0.55 MW/cm2 to 1.24 MW/cm2, increased by 125%. Therefore, the new structure ADSL LDMOS has a great improvement in device performance compared with that of the traditional LDMOS.
Moreover, authors have studied the ADSL LDMOS from three parts, all of these confirm that the new structure has a great potential application in power device. Firstly, through the lateral surface electric field distributions and vertical electric filed distributions of conventional LDMOS and ADSL LDMOS, a new electric field peak at the bottom of the ADSL is introduced in the vertical direction. Secondly, the mechanism for the new structure can present a deeper understanding through the ADSL LDMOS concentration and structural parameter optimization process. The FOM is optimized when the drift region concentration and ADSL concentration are 1.81015 cm-3 and 6.51015 cm-3, respectively, and it can reach a best value when the ADSL length is 40 m. Thirdly, the ADSL layer is further partitioned and optimized. On the basis of the new structure, the breakdown voltage is increased to 938 V when the new structure is based on the dual partition, and in the triple partition the breakdown voltage reaches 947 V. In this paper, through simulations, the detailed analyses of the proposed new structure of the mechanism and its performance are conducted, and the breaking of the breakdown characteristics of silicon-based devices is of special significance for developing the lateral power devices.
Application of moving cut data-wavelet transformation analysis in dynamic structure mutation testing
Authors: Sun Dong-Yong  , Zhang Hong-Bo  , Wang Yi-Min  ,   Key Laboratory of Subsurface Hydrology and Ecological Effect in Arid Region of Ministry of Education, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Chang'an University, Xi'an 710054, China;,   Key Laboratory of Northwest Water Resources and Environment Ecology of MOE, Institude of Water Resources and Hydro-electric Engineering, Xi'an University of Technology, Xi'an 710048, China
Published: December 2020

The scaling exponent is an effective nonlinear dynamic index, which can be used to detect the dynamic structure mutations of the correlation time series by the moving cut a fixed window technology. The immediacy and accuracy of scaling exponent is very important for detecting the series change points, however, some of the existing scale index calculation methods (such as rescaled range analysis and rescaled variance analysis) take none of these into account. Wavelet transform analysis can quickly decompose the sequence on different scales, and then the scaling index can be calculated by analyzing the scaling relation of wavelet coefficients on different scales, which has the characteristics of fast calculation speed and good convergence and memory saving. By moving cut window technology, in the present paper we put forward a new method, i. e., the moving cut data-wavelet transformation for detecting a series of dynamic structure mutations. The principle is that the removal of the data has little effect on the estimation of the scaling exponents of the correlation time series with the same dynamical properties. In order to test the performance of the method, first of all, the dynamic structure mutation analyses of linear ideal time series and nonlinear ideal time series are carried out by selecting different moving cut fixed windows. The test results show that the method can quickly and accurately detect the dynamic structure change points and intervals both in linear time series and nonlinear time series, besides, its calculation speed is obviously better than the moving cut data-rescaled range analysis and the moving cut data-rescaled variance analysis. It has strong stability, and depends less on the moving cut window length, which will have some advantages in the large data processing. At the same time, in order to detect the influence of noise on the method, the linear and nonlinear ideal time series are added to the white Gaussian noise (SNR=20, 25, 30 dB), respectively, and the results show that the method has a strong anti-noise ability with different moving cut window lengths, can still quickly and accurately detect the mutation point or interval in different noise additions. Finally, the method is used to detect the dynamic structure mutation of measured daily maximum temperature data of Foping station in Wei basin, the experimental results indicate that the mutation interval is consistent with the abrupt change in 1970's on a global scale, which further verifies the validity of the method.
Research on retarding potential analyzer aboard China seismo-electromagnetic satellite
Authors: Zheng Xiang-Zhi  , Zhang Ai-Bing  , Guan Yi-Bing  , Liu Chao  , Wang Wen-Jing  , Tian Zheng  , Kong Ling-Gao  , Sun Yue-Qiang  ,   National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;,   Beijing Key Laboratory of Space Environment Exploration, Beijing 100190, China;,   University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Published: December 2020

China seismoelectromagnetic satellite (CSES) is the first space-based platform of three-dimensional earthquake monitoring system in china. Plasma analyzing package (PAP) is one of scientific payloads aboard on CSES, which is the first application to the field of Chinese satellite. The main scientific objective of PAP is to measure ion density, ion temperature, ion composition and ion drift velocities (parallel and perpendicular to the direction of the satellite flight on orbit), and ion density fluctuation in the ionosphere. The PAP payload is composed of four parts, including retarding potential analyzer (RPA), ion drift meter, ion capture meter, and metal plate. The RPA is used to test ion density, ion temperature, ion composition and ion drift velocity (parallel to the direction of the satellite flight on orbit).
The detailed design process of the sensor of RPA is described in this paper. The grid of RPA sensor is made of Beryllium copper, plated with gold to ensure uniform surface work function, and to prevent space atomic oxygen from eroding. The design value of the transmission rate of grid is 82.64%1.4%, with taking into account the Debye length on the orbit of satellite. And the total transmission rate of multilayer grid for RPA is verified by SIMON simulation experiment. To ensure the accuracy of RPA, the radii of sensor window and sensor collector are designed to be 20 mm and 50 mm respectively, and the height of sensor is 20 mm. The sweeping voltage ranges from -2 V to 20 V. And the step of sweeping voltage is adjustable between 0.056 and. 179 V.
In this paper electronic design of RPA is also discussed. The electronic box is composed of preamplifier circuit, digital logical circuit, satellite interface circuit, etc. The sweeping voltage and the signal acquisition are controlled by field-programmable gate array. The design of three measurement ranges in digital logical circuit improves RPA measurement accuracy, which is better than 1.3% in the full range.
In addition, the method of testing the plasma environment and the testing results are introduced. The plasma environment test of the RPA payload is carried out in INAF-IAPS. The performance of ion density measurement is validated by testing different ion densities in a vacuum tank, through changing three different distances between RPA and the plasma source. And the ion drift velocity measurement is verified by testing three different ion energies of the plasma source. Furthermore, the RPA test data are consistent with the test data from the INAF-IAPS reference RPA. The experimental results show that the detector has good performances and will contribute much to monitoring the space plasma parameters.
Preparation and properties of multi-effect potassium sodium niobate based transparent ferroelectric ceramics
Authors: Liu Yong , Xu Zhi-Jun , Fan Li-Qun , Yi Wen-Tao , Yan Chun-Yan , Ma Jie , Wang Kun-Peng ,   College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Zaozhuang University, Zaozhuang 277160, China,   School of Environmental and Material Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, China,   Kirchhoff Institute of Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg 69120, Germany
Published: December 2020

Traditional transparent materials, including glasses and polymers, are chemically unstable and mechanically weak. Single crystals of some inorganic materials are also optically transparent, which are more stable than glasses and polymers. The fabrication of crystals, however, is relatively slow. Fortunately, transparent ceramics emerge as a promising candidate. Transparent ferroelectric ceramic is a kind of transparent ceramic with electro-optic effect, which also has excellent characteristics of conventional ceramics with excellent mechanical properties, resistance to high temperature, resistance against corrosion, and high hardness. Lead based transparent ferroelectric ceramic dominates this field for many years due to its superior electro-optic effect. Owing to the high toxicity of lead oxide, however, its development is significantly hampered. Therefore, it is greatly urgent to develop the lead-free transparent ferroelectric ceramics with excellent properties to replace the traditional lead based ceramics. In this paper, (K0.5Na0.5)0.94–3xLi0.06LaxNb0.95Ta0.05O3 (KNLTN-Lax; x = 0, 0.01, 0.015, 0.02) lead-free transparent ferroelectric materials are fabricated by the conventional solid state reaction method and ordinary sintering process. The dependence of microstructure, phase structure, optical transmittance and electrical properties of the ceramic on composition are systemically investigated. The transparent ferroelectric ceramic with relaxor-behavior is obtained at x = 0.02. The optical transmittance of the ceramic near infrared region is as high as 60%. Meanwhile, the electrical properties of the ceramic at x = 0.01 still maintains a relatively high level (d33 = 110 pC/N, kp = 0.267). In addition, the Curie temperature for each of all the samples is higher than 400 ℃. These results suggest that this material might be a novel and promising lead-free material that could be used in a large variety of electro-optical devices.
Cardiac endothelial cells maintain open chromatin and expression of cardiomyocyte myofibrillar genes
Authors: Yucel Nora , Axsom Jessie , Yang Yifan , Li Li , Rhoades Joshua H , Arany Zoltan
Published: December 2020

Endothelial cells (ECs) are widely heterogenous depending on tissue and vascular localization. Jambusaria et al. recently demonstrated that ECs in various tissues surprisingly possess mRNA signatures of their underlying parenchyma. The mechanism underlying this observation remains unexplained, and could include mRNA contamination during cell isolation, in vivo mRNA paracrine transfer from parenchymal cells to ECs, or cell-autonomous expression of these mRNAs in ECs. Here, we use a combination of bulk RNASeq, single-cell RNASeq datasets, in situ mRNA hybridization, and most importantly ATAC-Seq of FACS-isolated nuclei, to show that cardiac ECs actively express cardiomyocyte myofibril (CMF) genes and have open chromatin at CMF gene promoters. These open chromatin sites are enriched for sites targeted by cardiac transcription factors, and closed upon expansion of ECs in culture. Together, these data demonstrate unambiguously that the expression of CMF genes in ECs is cell-autonomous, and not simply a result of technical contamination or paracrine transfers of mRNAs, and indicate that local cues in the heart in vivo unexpectedly maintain fully open chromatin in ECs at genes previously thought limited to cardiomyocytes.
Influence of Tourism Seasonality and Financial Ratios on Hotels’ Exit Risk
Authors: Xie Jinghua , Zhang Dengjun
Published: December 2020

A large body of research has documented the impact of tourism seasonality on hotels’ operational and financial performance, further affecting hotels’ competitive advantage and survival probabilities. Several studies have included the seasonality measures in the models to evaluate hotels’ exit risk. However, the empirical findings are ambiguous, probably because the overall seasonality and different measures were used in those studies. Against this background, this study explores the impact of tourism seasonality on hotel firms’ exit risk, by controlling for financial ratios, the main factors influencing the exit risk, and using two measures of tourism seasonality by market segment, namely, the leisure, business, and conference tourism. The primary hypotheses are: (1) The different seasonal patterns of tourism demand in the market segments mitigate the impact of the overall seasonality on hotels’ exit risk, and (2) Seasonality measures of various tourism segments affect the exit risk in different manners. The case study is the Norwegian hotel industry with 4,622 hotel-years in the period between 2008 and 2018. The empirical results suggest the failure to reject the hypotheses, regardless of the measures of tourism seasonality, indicating the robustness of our findings.
Folklore, Ethnology and Beyond, from the 14th SIEF Congress in Santiago de Compostela
Authors:   Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Novik Alexander , Sedakova Irina ,   Institute for Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Published: December 2020

The article focuses on the main trends in development of ethnology, folklore and cultural anthropology as represented at the 14th congress of International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF). The Congress’ main theme Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World attracted scholars of many adjacent disciplines like sociology, history, economics and politics. The modern turn from rural studies and folklore genres towards gender, body, migration, identity investigations is typical to most scholars all over the world. Still, the traditional culture, its structure and language serve as the grounding for the newly appearing rituals and texts, they are in the core of the fundamental research. The Congress exhibited various forms of academic activity, such as key lectures, presentations in thematic panels or round tables, video-club, meetings of the working groups and prize awards. Young scholars are very welcome at this event where they can learn methodology and history of the fields, take part in the competitions, present their own research.
Four Glances at the Feast of the Assumption: The Holiday through Space and Time
Authors:   Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius, Lithuania, Šaknys Žilvytis
Published: December 2020

In my article, I attempt to track the ritual year in different social and cultural settings. The Feast of the Assumption was chosen for this research as a traditional religious holiday in Lithuania. Various chronological periods and localities of the feast are under investigation: celebrations in the 19th to the first half of the 20th centuries; the Assumption as a Lithuanian national holiday in 1929 in Kaunas; the Feast as a Lithuanian holiday specifically celebrated in Punsk (North Poland) since 1967; and finally, as a non-working day in Vilnius and Vilnius environments since 2000. The comparison of these versions, forms, and meanings of the Assumption leads to the conclusion that even a religious holiday can embody different values in different sociocultural surroundings, ranging from religious, national, and ethnic significance, to simply an excuse for a day off from work.
Neighbourhood and Sociocultural Values in the Lithuanian Ritual Year
Authors:   Department of Ethnology and Anthropology, Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius, Lithuania, Paukštytė-Šaknienė Rasa
Published: December 2020

Research into the community customs in the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century in villages, towns, and cities near Vilnius allowed to distinguish two types of neighbourhoods: distant (official) and close (informal) ones. The first one was determined by territorial proximity, the second is revealed in more than just territory. The former is exposed also as a group formed around common interests, people, who are free to choose to spend leisure time or celebrate special occasions together. The festive communication results in sort of a ritual year of the neighbours, covering the common neighbours’ celebrations of life cycle as well as calendric cycle festivals and holidays. A close neighbourhood based on spending leisure time and celebrating together in some cases determines certain differences between neighbours of different religions. I’ll look at this process analyzing different types of settlements, showing the development of neighbourhood relations during the last 60 years.
Using Law School Faculty Author Profiles to Promote Impact: The U.S. News & World Report Saga Continues
Authors: Symulevich Allison N.
Published: December 2020

INTRODUCTION: When U.S. News & World Report announced that it would rank law schools’ scholarly impact, U.S. News asked law schools to work with HeinOnline, a legal database, to ensure the accuracy of the database-created faculty author profiles because they would be using Hein’s database to gather citation metrics to measure scholarly impact. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM: This practice article describes a project at UNC Chapel Hill in the law library to ensure that their faculty publications were included in HeinOnline’s database and that HeinOnline Author Profiles were accurate. This case study helps librarians tackling either similar law library projects or similar projects throughout academia as metrics gathering for scholarly impact in a variety of manners, including educational rankings, becomes more prevalent. NEXT STEPS: Following this project, Hein contacted UNC to inform the law library they had identified an additional 119 articles for faculty members not previously attached to UNC faculty Hein Author Profiles. Some implications from this project are unclear and changing methodology, scalability issues, authority control concerns, lack of capturing interdisciplinary works, and an increased workload for librarians. Librarians, especially Scholarly Communications Librarians, are well equipped to promote our faculty’s scholarship by understanding the methodology of these educational ranking systems and by connecting our faculty and their research to the database tools of our field. This article represents just one field, but the implications apply more broadly.
Registered report: investigating a preference for certainty in conversation among autistic adults compared to dyslexic adults and the general population
Authors: Wilson Alexander C. , Bishop Dorothy V.M.
Published: December 2020

Social communication difficulties are a diagnostic feature in autism. These difficulties are sometimes attributed, at least in part, to impaired ability in making inferences about what other people mean. In this registered report, we test a competing hypothesis that the communication profile of adults on the autism spectrum can be more strongly characterised by reduced confidence in making inferences in the face of uncertain information. We will test this hypothesis by comparing the performance of 100 autistic and 100 non-autistic adults on a test of implied meaning, using a test of grammaticality judgements as a control task. We hypothesise that autistic adults will report substantially lower confidence, allowing for differences in accuracy, than non-autistic adults on the test of implied meaning compared to the grammaticality test. In addition, we hypothesise that reduced confidence in drawing inferences will relate to the cognitive trait Intolerance of Uncertainty and self-reported social communication challenges. Finally, we will conduct exploratory analysis to assess the specificity of the communication profile of the autistic adults by comparing their performance to that of dyslexic adults, who might also be expected to experience challenges with language and communication.
Convict cichlid parents that stay with the same mate develop unique and consistent divisions of roles
Authors: Snekser Jennifer L. , Itzkowitz Murray
Published: December 2020

Previous studies, largely on avian species, have suggested that pairs that are permanently monogamous and have biparental care develop a coordination over time that enhances offspring survival. If this is the case, we predicted that a parent involved in biparental care would develop a pattern of biparental care specific to a particular mate and remain consistent in that pattern over time but would lose this pattern if it were to change mates. We tested this prediction with the convict cichlid fish (Amatitlania nigrofasciata) which has biparental care that is both complex and flexible. In this species, each parent can perform all parental roles but typically shows a division of labor in which males typically defend against offspring predators while the female typically provides direct care to the offspring. At various times, the parents briefly switch roles. Our experiments revealed that pairs that remained together for two consecutive broods were more consistent in their parental behaviors, including time they spent near the intruder and in the nest compared to pairs that were comprised of individuals that had previously mated with other partners. Also individuals that remained with the same partner were also more consistent as a parental unit, maintaining their sex-specific roles of males defending aggressively against an intruder and females spending more time directly caring for young. While our experiment clearly support our prediction that individuals do develop unique coordination with specific individuals, convict cichlids in nature appear to be largely serially monogamous in which they mate only once before changing partners. Thus, it is likely this coordination may be available in many species that have biparental care but become adaptive when repeated matings become common.
Trends in summer presence of fin whales in the Western Mediterranean Sea Region: new insights from a long-term monitoring program
Authors: Tepsich Paola , Schettino Ilaria , Atzori Fabrizio , Azzolin Marta , Campana Ilaria , Carosso Lara , Cominelli Simone , Crosti Roberto , David Léa , Di-Méglio Nathalie , Frau Francesca , Gregorietti Martina , Mazzucato Veronica , Monaco Clara , Moulins Aurelie , Paraboschi Miriam , Pellegrino Giuliana , Rosso Massimiliano , Roul Marine , Saintignan Sébastien , Arcangeli Antonella
Published: December 2020

Background

The Mediterranean subpopulation of fin whaleBalaenoptera physalus(Linnaeus, 1758) has recently been listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of threatened species. The species is also listed as species in need of strict protection under the Habitat Directive and is one of the indicators for the assessment of Good Environmental Status under the MSFD. Reference values on population abundance and trends are needed in order to set the threshold values and to assess the conservation status of the population.

Methods

Yearly summer monitoring using ferries as platform of opportunity was performed since 2008 within the framework of the FLT Med Network. Data were collected along several fixed transects crossing the Western Mediterranean basin and the Adriatic and Ionian region. Species presence, expressed by density recorded along the sampled transects, was inspected for assessing interannual variability together with group size. Generalized Additive Models were used to describe density trends over a 11 years’ period (2008–2018). A spatial multi-scale approach was used to highlight intra-basin differences in species presence and distribution during the years.

Results

Summer presence of fin whales in the western Mediterranean area showed a strong interannual variability, characterized by the alternance of rich and poor years. Small and large groups of fin whales were sighted only during rich years, confirming the favorable feeding condition influencing species presence. Trends highlighted by the GAM can be summarized as positive from 2008 to 2013, and slightly negative from 2014 to 2018. The sub-areas analysis showed a similar pattern, but with a more stable trend during the second period in the Pelagos Sanctuary sub-area, and a negative one in the other two sub-areas. Our findings further confirm the need for an integrated approach foreseeing both, large scale surveys and yearly monitoring at different spatial scales to correct and interpret the basin wide abundance estimates, and to correlate spatial and temporal trends with the ecological and anthropogenic drivers.
O sonho acabou?
Authors: Pereira Filho Evadio , Moreno Añez Miguel Eduardo
Published: December 2020

Tomando por base a teoria do prazer do consumidor, o artigo examina o efeito da resolução de problemas e das interações interpessoais sobre o prazer do turista em episódios de reclamações. Um método misto é usado neste estudo. Primeiro, aplica-se análise de conteúdo para transformar o teor das mensagens em categorias quantificáveis e preestabelecidas pela literatura. Esses dados servem de insumo para a etapa subsequente, em que equações estruturais baseadas em mínimos quadrados parciais (PLS) são utilizadas, tomando dois grupos distintos. Um grupo é formado por reclamações ocorridas antes do COVID-19, e o outro composto por queixas emitidas durante a pandemia. É avaliado se a configuração fatorial e os coeficientes estruturais permanecem inalterados de um grupo para outro. São examinados 502 atos de reclamação contra agências de turismo. Dentre os resultados, um deles se destaca. O elemento humano é um fator-chave na formação de experiências prazerosas durante a pandemia. Agências de turismo precisam treinar seus funcionários para responderem apropriadamente as demandas desse período. Em épocas de contingências, o turista busca mais do que a real solução do caso e espera ser bem atendido pelos funcionários da linha de frente. Comportamentos futuros de turistas podem depender desse desempenho.
Efeitos da pandemia do COVID-19 sobre o turismo em Fernando de Noronha ao longo do primeiro semestre de 2020
Authors: Paixão Wilma , Cordeiro Itamar , Körössy Nathália
Published: December 2020

O Coronavírus COVID-19 desencadeou uma crise global sem precedentes. Os efeitos da pandemia foram (e ainda são) sentidos em todos os setores da economia. Particularmente no turismo, o que se viu foi uma quase total paralização de suas operações a partir de março que mudou as boas perspectivas que o setor apresentava no início de 2020. O presente estudo objetivou analisar as repercussões desta crise em Fernando de Noronha (Pernambuco), estimando as alterações provocadas na visitação e na arrecadação. Para tanto, foram analisados dados obtidos em fontes oficiais nacionais e internacionais relativos ao período de janeiro a junho de 2020. Os resultados evidenciam a inércia do poder público quanto à adoção de providências nos primeiros momentos da pandemia no arquipélago. Além disso, foi identificada uma queda de mais de 35% na arrecadação em comparação aos primeiros seis meses de 2019. Observou-se ainda que o arquipélago está longe de arrecadar os valores previstos, o que pode repercutir na prestação de serviços básicos à população.
Comparative Study of Commercial Starter and Gum-producing Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Palm-sap on Yoghurt
Authors: Governor Oniovosa Leonard Adamu- , Okolie Peter Nwabueze , Ikegwu Emmanuel Mmmaduabuchi , Obeten Ifedinma Henrietta , Abiona Christiana Oluwatoyin , Uzochukwu Sylvia Veronica Ajagugha
Published: December 2020

Yoghurt remains a fermented milk of choice globally but its desirability is limited by quality attributes and syneresis. In this study, the effect of using exopolysaccharide (EPS) producing starter cultures and EPS on the quality attribute of yoghurt produced from cow milk was examined. Two starter cultures of EPS-producing LAB were used singly and in combination in three treatments portions (YEPSLa, Lactobacillus acidophilus yoghurt; YEPSLs, Leuconostoc suionicum; YEPSLa + YEPSLs, Lactobacillus acidophilus and Leuconostoc suionicum); Yxg, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. Bulgaricus to produced yoghurt while reference yoghurt (RY) was obtained from the market and refrigerated stored at 4oC. Sensory, proximate composition, textural, rheological properties and whey separation were carried out after 1 and 28 days only, while physicochemical and microbiological were analyzed after 1, 7, 14 and 28 days. No significant difference (p ˂0.05) between RY (8.60 ± 0.60), (7.21±0.10) and YEPSLa + YEPSLs (8.54 ± 0.71), (7.25 ± 0.21) in overall acceptability for day 1 and 28. Moisture (82.45 ± 0.12 - 81.31 ± 0.06%), fat (3.46 ± 0.01 - 3.42 ± 0.03%) and carbohydrate (13.05 ± 0.11 to 12.51 ± 0.10%) contents decreased while total solids (17.57 ± 0.12 - 17.97 ± 0.12%), ash (0.56 ± 0.02 - 0.57 ± 0.02%) and protein (3.74 ± 0.01 - 4.30%) contents increased respectively across the yoghurts. The result showed that the highest cohesiveness and syneresis was observed in YEPSLa + YEPSLs (27.52 ± 0.63) and commercial yoghurt (29.10 ± 0.31), the lowest in Yxg (16.71 ± 0.21) and YEPSLa + YEPSLs (21.50 ± 0.51). The highest viscosity was observed in YEPSLa + YEPSLs across the rotation speeds.  The pH and titratable acid ranged (4.28 – 4.50; 0.90 – 1.41) while the total bacteria colony count (5.5×108 – 11.0×108cfu/ml) during 28 days storage period. Overall, EPS produced by EPS-producing LAB both In-vitro and In-vivo improve texture, mouthfeel, viscosity and reduce syneresis in yoghurt. Combine cultures of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Leuconostoc suionicum and their EPSs competed favourably with conventional starter, and other stabilizing agents in cow milk yoghurt.