bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Introduction
Authors: Skotnicki Andrew
Published: January 2023

There is a social psychological and, often, personal sense of dismay, trepidation, and irritation among the general population when confronted by persons of low status with acute psychological distress or by those with a radical political message. At the same time, detention facilities in nations such as Great Britain and the United States are more and more filled with representatives of these populations.
1
Authors: Skotnicki Andrew
Published: January 2023

The first chapter will address a series of issues essential to the analytical task of probing the mental illness/jailhouse betrothal. It will first trace the radically disparate ways the phenomenon of insanity has been understood over the course of time, discussing biblical, classical, and other pre-modern arrangements with “psychosis” before turning its attention to the decisive shift to forcible institutionalization beginning with the transition to capitalist economies after the demise of feudalism and the rise of mercantilism. It will also provide a similar brief overview of the history of psychiatry since the changes within that discipline have moved through similar alteration, not only regarding the legitimacy of metaphysical inspiration, but also in the diminution of Freudian, Jungian, and other methodologies respectful of the role of the unconscious. In their place, there has been a marked emphasis on a strictly materialist, biological rendering of questionable cerebral functioning, accompanied by a virtual monopoly of medical and juridical discretion in deciding who and who is not capable of functioning outside the barbed wire confines of the local detention facility.
Chasing the Mafia
Authors: Sergi Anna
Published: January 2023

The ‘ndrangheta – the Calabrian region of Italy’s mafia – is one of wealthiest and most powerful criminal organisations today. It is considered Italy’s most powerful mafia; it’s not only the main object of concern for anti-mafia units in Italy, but also joint investigative teams in Europe and beyond. Combining autobiography, travel ethnography, memoir, academic rigour and investigative journalism, this book provides a global outlook to the ‘ndrangheta, taking the reader to small villages and locations in Italy and abroad to Australia, Canada, United States and even Argentina.
Wine, Cannabis And Ancestors: Rural Australia
Authors: Sergi Anna
Published: January 2023

‘Calabrian painted plaster statue of the Lady of Loreto mounted on a carved wooden stand with concealed wheels, topped with an arch of electric light bulbs, decorated with plastic flowers. Holy card depicting the original statue in Platì Catholic community.’ ‘Where is this statue again?’, I asked my friend Marie, with whom I was sharing the trip from Sydney to Griffith. ‘The Italian Museum, we’ll get there tomorrow, right after you finish your meeting.’ One of my first times driving in Australia, and I am not a confident driver. ‘This is going to be interesting’, I had told myself that morning; it was 6 August 2017. I was nervous, I recall. I don’t know how to easily do some things many people do, like rent a car and drive. I always feel slightly anxious. I had to take lessons back in London because I hadn’t driven for a long time and the idea of going cross-country down under for a good six- or seven-hour drive was not a comfortable thought. We had taken Marie’s car; we were going to split the driving time. And we had booked a room for two nights, which had not been an easy thing, either. ‘Your surname, you know, your surname here in Australia … you know, right?’ I had been asked that question by an agent of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), in Melbourne, in 2015, my first trip down under. ‘It might be better if you don’t book under your own name, and even better if you book somewhere at the edge of the city, a chain hotel, maybe, the Quest?’ – had been the comment of another AFP agent prior to my trip in 2017.
Introduction
Authors: Martin Paul , Saille Stevienna de , Liddiard Kirsty , Pearce Warren
Published: January 2023

Cutting across disciplines from science and technology studies to the arts and humanities, this thought-provoking collection engages with key issues of social exclusion, inequality, power and knowledge in the context of COVID-19. The authors use the crisis as a lens to explore the contours of contemporary societies and lay bare the ways in which orthodox conceptions of the human condition can benefit a privileged few. Highlighting the lived experiences of marginalized groups from around the world, this is a boundary-spanning critical intervention to ongoing debates about the pandemic. It presents new ways of thinking in public policy, culture and the economy, and points the way forward to a more equitable and inclusive human future.
The Role of Everyday Visuals in ‘Knowing Humans’ During COVID-19
Authors: Røstvik Camilla Mørk , Kennedy Helen , Aiello Giorgia , Anderson C.W.
Published: January 2023

Abstract and Keywords to be supplied.
Riding the Waves: Reckoning and Strategic Adjustments
Authors: Aucante Yohann
Published: January 2023

The slower resurgence of contaminations in the autumn of 2020 seemed to give credit to the Swedish approach and showed a temporary return to grace in international media. While the experts still enjoyed a high level of trust, some cracks started to appear with inquiries into the failure to protect vulnerable elderly populations. The idea that democracy and political responsibility had been undermined by excessive trust in expertise and bureaucracy became more widely discussed. Some unusual criticism was even voiced in Norway and Denmark and, with the return of the virus, there were indications of a strategy shift with stricter measures and new pandemic legislation by the end of 2020. Nevertheless, it all took place in the same pragmatic and calm fashion that had characterized the management of the epidemic so far. Although still criticized for its higher mortality compared to its neighbours, Sweden carried on with a vaccine roll out in 2021, escaping most controversies in this respect until the implementation of a vaccine pass. The crisis is not over and further consequences are to be expected from the inquiries into the national strategy and its potential failures.
Revisiting Rengger’s Anti-Pelagianism
Authors: O’Sullivan Noël
Published: January 2023

According to Nicholas Rengger, the study of modern political theory and international relations is divided between two conflicting views. He terms the more optimistic ‘Pelagian’ and the more sceptical ‘anti-Pelagian’. It will be suggested that although Rengger succeeds in clarifying the assumptions underlying Pelagianism, he is less successful in identifying a coherent form of non-realist anti-Pelagianism. In this chapter we examine in particular the version of non-realist anti-Pelagianism he claimed to find in Oakeshott. We argue that though Rengger’s reading of Oakeshott is more accurate and illuminating than others’ in the field, his reliance on him exposes Rengger’s own anti-Pelagian project to the charge of succumbing to the ‘faint but bewitching glow of ideal theory’ of which he accuses modern idealists and rationalists. Rengger’s project, we conclude, might have been more coherent if he had instead linked it to a theory of prudence and the contemporary debate about the political.
Poetics and Politics: Rengger, Weber, and the Virtuosi of Religion
Authors: Valk John-Harmen
Published: January 2023

This chapter explores Nicholas Rengger’s notion of the anti-Pelagian imagination with respect to Max Weber’s thought, which Rengger’s published work rarely engages. It traces affinities with Weber’s diagnosis of rationalization and the loss of an ethic of brotherliness in modernity. Rengger’s wish to situate mercy and charity at the heart of human existence meets its limits, however, in the face of his delineation between theory and practice. The chapter thus problematizes Rengger’s insistence on a staunch distinction between theory and practice, and between poetics and politics more specifically. With appeal to insights from Paul Ricoeur, Talal Asad and Charles Taylor, it argues for the need to recognize the important influence of the poetic, world-disclosive force of the lives of exemplary figures like Weber’s virtuosi of religion upon politics, and this to sustain the sort of politics of limits and the centrality of mercy and charity that Rengger himself so values.
Mapping the Multiple Vulnerabilities of Domestic Workers During COVID-19: Reflections from India
Authors: Hussain Sabiha
Published: January 2023

The pandemic has changed the lives of everyone, especially those working in the informal sector, including women domestic workers. They have been among the workers most affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. In India, they were the first to face the threat of dismissal from jobs during the pandemic, as they were not covered under any labour law. The onset of travel restrictions not only impacted their livelihood and income security but also their overall health. Moreover, crowded homes, substance abuse, limited access to services and no access to formal support further aggravated their vulnerabilities. The present study aimed to map the multiple vulnerabilities in terms of loss of livelihood, health consequences and domestic violence faced by domestic workers during COVID-19, their coping mechanisms, and the role of the state in providing support. This study is both qualitative and quantitative in nature comprising of 100 respondents aged 18–45 years, from Delhi/National Capital Region (NCR), undertaken through purposive sampling. An interview schedule and in-depth case study method was used. The analysis is descriptive with some narratives.
TEN The Virus and the Violence: Reflections on ‘Anti-Asian’ Hate and Racist Maskaphobia 1
Authors: Fu Mengzhu
Published: January 2023

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed a surge in overt and covert racist violence targeting East and Southeast Asian diasporic communities transnationally. This has taken a range of forms, from assaults on elders, to the shooting of Asian massage parlour workers, to maskaphobia – a term coined by Yinxuan Huang (Young, 2020) describing public assaults against masked Asians. The dominant framing of such events has been ‘hate crimes’, illustrated in the popular hashtag #StopAsianHate. This chapter analyses the reporting of ‘anti-Asian’ racism focusing in the Greater Toronto Area in conversation with international events and social media discourses. Weaving personal memories, storytelling, histories of anti-Asian racism on Canada-occupied Turtle Island, and academic/activist analysis, this chapter critically engages with maskaphobia and responses to ‘anti-Asian’ racism. Drawing on Haritaworn’s (2015) argument that ‘hate’ and ‘crime’ individualize and pathologize systemic violence, Thobani’s (2007) analysis of Canadian citizenship, and Lawrence and Dua’s (2005) articulation of settler of colour complicity, this chapter argues that carceral solutions and settler colonial nationalism inevitably empower white supremacist systems and centre settler colonial modes of belonging. Instead, Asian alignment and solidarity with movements for prison abolition and Indigenous decolonization are offered as alternative methods of seeking safety and collective liberation.
Challenges to Ending the Road
Authors: Riggs William
Published: January 2023

Chapter 8 lays out on the challenges to creating more vibrant street including the urgent need to connect dialogues on streets to those on housing. This includes dialogue on residential self-selection, gentrification and displacement. It discusses potential housing interventions that can support the transition to safer and more bicycle and pedestrian-oriented streets.
Introduction
Authors: Aubrey Thomas
Published: January 2023

Liberal ideology, which is associated with the principles of freedom and equality, is increasingly under attack across liberal democracies. Concentrations of wealth and power through time pose a grave threat to liberal values as noted by Hume and de Tocqueville. Neither contemporary neoliberalism predicated on market outcomes, nor social liberalism based on redistribution, has been able to sustain a liberal order. The last time liberalism was under attack in the 1930s, the idea to disperse public and private power developed into a potential alternative strand of liberal thought. These ideas, however, remain largely obscure in the non-German speaking world. The lack of an empirical framework was also a weakness in this approach to public policy that has likely hindered its application to the broader public policy debate. The chapter concludes by explaining the structure of the book.
Immigration Detention in Australia
Authors: Peterie Michelle
Published: January 2023

This chapter provides the backdrop for this book by locating Australia’s immigration detention system in its political and historical context. It describes the vilification and politicization of people seeking asylum in Australia, the evolution of Australia’s controversial policy of indefinite mandatory detention, and the emergence of Australia’s refugee and asylum seeker support/advocacy/activism movement.
Reverberating Harms
Authors: Peterie Michelle
Published: January 2023

This chapter documents the collateral impacts of immigration detention on centre visitors in Australia. It notes that many visitors derive benefits from their visitation relationships, but also highlights the traumatizing dimensions of the visitation experience. Visiting immigration detention, this chapter shows, involves witnessing trauma. It also involves a painful experience of secondary prisonization as visitors are targeted by a broader scheme of deprivation and frustration within detention facilities. The visitation experience is thus characterized by emotions of powerlessness and ontological disruption that at times feed into visitor attrition – thus serving to isolate detainees and further breed despair. Visitor strategies for enduring and maintaining resilience in the context of (secondary) trauma are described.
Screening for mild anomalous trichromacy using the Ishihara plates test
Authors: Somers Lucy P. , Bosten Jenny M.
Published: January 2023

The Ishihara plates test is one of the most established and widely used means of identifying color vision deficiencies. However, literature examining the effectiveness of the Ishihara plates test has identified weaknesses, particularly when screening for milder anomalous trichromacy. We constructed a model of the chromatic signals expected to contribute to false negative readings by calculating, for particular anomalous trichromatic observers, the differences in chromaticity between the ground and pseudoisochromatic portions of plates. Predicted signals from five plates were compared for seven editions of the Ishihara plates test, for six observers with three severities of anomalous trichromacy, under eight illuminants. We found significant effects of variation in all of these factors other than edition on the predicted color signals available to read the plates. The impact of edition was tested behaviorally with 35 observers with color vision deficiency and 26 normal trichromats, which corroborated the minimal effect of edition predicted by the model. We found a significant negative relationship between predicted color signals for anomalous trichromats and behavioral false negative plate readings (ρ=−0.46, p=0.005 for deuteranomals, ρ=−0.42, p=0.01 for protanomals), suggesting that residual observer-specific color signals in portions of plates designed to be isochromatic may be contributing to false negative readings, and validating our modeling approach.
Wave–particle duality in tripartite systems
Authors: Marrou J. P. , Montenegro La Torre C. , Jara M. , De Zela F.
Published: January 2023

Quantum objects, sometimes called quantons, often display a characteristic feature referred to as wave–particle duality (WPD). Lately, this and other quantum traits have been subjected to intensive research, mainly motivated by the development of quantum information science. As a consequence, the scopes of some concepts have been extended, and it has been realized that they are not in the exclusive domain of quantum physics. This is particularly clear in optics, where qubits may show up as Jones vectors and WPD has its counterpart as wave–ray duality. WPD was originally addressed by focusing on a single qubit, which was afterwards supplemented with a second one playing the role of a path-marker in an interferometer setup. Fringe contrast, a sign of wave-like behavior, was proved to be diminished in connection with the effectiveness of the marker, the inducer of particle-like behavior. Going from bipartite to tripartite states is a natural and necessary step towards better understanding of WPD. This step is what we have accomplished in this work. We report some constraints ruling WPD for tripartite systems, as well as their experimental display with single photons.
Light scattering of a uniform uniaxial anisotropic sphere by an on-axis high-order Bessel vortex beam
Authors: Li Zheng Jun , Yang Xiao Jin , Qu Tan , Li Hai Ying , Wu Zhen Sen
Published: January 2023

Analytical solutions to the scattering of a uniform uniaxial
anisotropic sphere illuminated by an on-axis high-order Bessel vortex
beam (HOBVB) are investigated. Using the vector wave theory, the
expansion coefficients of the incident HOBVB in terms of the spherical
vector wave functions (SVWFs) are obtained. According to the
orthogonality of the associated Legendre function and exponential
function, more concise expressions of the expansion coefficients are
derived. It can reinterpret the incident HOBVB faster compared with
the expansion coefficients of double integral forms. The internal
fields of a uniform uniaxial anisotropic sphere are proposed in the
integrating form of the SVWFs by introducing the Fourier transform.
The differences of scattering characteristics of a uniaxial
anisotropic sphere illuminated by a zero-order Bessel beam, Gaussian
beam, and HOBVB are exhibited. Influences of the topological charge,
conical angle, and particle size parameters on the angle distributions
of the radar cross section are analyzed in detail. The scattering and
extinction efficiencies varied with the particle radius, conical
angle, permeability, and dielectric anisotropy are also discussed. The
results provide insights into the scattering and light–matter
interactions and may find important applications in optical
propagation and optical micromanipulation of biological and
anisotropic complex particles.
Diagnosis of ultrafast surface dynamics of thin foil targets irradiated by intense laser pulses
Authors: Bae L. J. , Kang G. B. , Kim M. , Lee G. S. , Sohn J. H. , Nam C. H. , Cho B. I.
Published: January 2023

The temporal modulation of an electron bunch train accelerated from a foil target irradiated by an intense laser pulse is studied by measuring the coherent transition radiation (CTR) from the rear surface of a target. We experimentally obtained CTR spectra from a 1 µm thick foil target irradiated at a maximum intensity of 6.5 × 1019 W/cm2. Spectral redshifts of the emitted radiation corresponding to increases in laser intensity were observed. These measurements were compared with the theoretical calculation of CTR spectra considering ultrafast surface dynamics, such as plasma surface oscillation and relativistically induced transparency. Plasma surface oscillations induce a spectral redshift, while relativistic transparency causes a spectral blueshift. Both effects are required to find reasonable agreement with the experiment over the entire range of laser intensities.
Correlated twin-photon generation in a silicon nitride loaded thin film PPLN waveguide
Authors: Henry Antoine , Barral David , Zaquine Isabelle , Boes Andreas , Mitchell Arnan , Belabas Nadia , Bencheikh Kamel
Published: January 2023

Photon-pair sources based on thin film lithium niobate on insulator technology have a great potential for integrated optical quantum information processing. We report on such a source of correlated twin-photon pairs generated by spontaneous parametric down conversion in a silicon nitride (SiN) rib loaded thin film periodically poled lithium niobate (LN) waveguide. The generated correlated photon pairs have a wavelength centred at 1560 nm compatible with present telecom infrastructure, a large bandwidth (21 THz) and a brightness of ∼2.5 × 105 pairs/s/mW/GHz. Using the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect, we have also shown heralded single photon emission, achieving an autocorrelation

g
H

(
2
)

(
0
)
≃

0.04

.
Ultrastrong coupling in Super Yellow polymer microcavities and development of highly efficient polariton light-emitting diodes and light-emitting transistors
Authors: Chang Jui-Fen , Zheng Yu-Chen , Chiang Chi-Yu , Huang Chen-Kang , Jaing Cheng-Chung
Published: January 2023

We present detailed studies on exciton-photon coupling and polariton emission based on a poly(1,4-phenylenevinylene) copolymer, Super Yellow (SY), in a series of optical microcavities and optoelectronic devices, including light-emitting diode (LED) and light-emitting transistor (LET). We show that sufficiently thick SY microcavities can generate ultrastrong coupling with Rabi splitting energies exceeding 1 eV and exhibit spectrally narrow, nearly angle-independent photoluminescence following lower polariton (LP) mode dispersion. When the microcavity is designed with matched LP low-energy state and exciton emission peak for radiative pumping, the conversion efficiency from exciton to polariton emission can reach up to 80%. By introducing appropriate injection layers in a SY microcavity and optimizing the cavity design, we further demonstrate a high-performance ultrastrongly coupled SY LED with weakly dispersive electroluminescence along LP mode and a maximum external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 2.8%. Finally, we realize an ultrastrongly coupled LET based on vertical integration of a high-mobility ZnO transistor and a SY LED in a microcavity, which enables a large switching ratio, uniform emission in the ZnO pattern, and LP mode emission with a maximum EQE of 2.4%. This vertical LET addresses the difficulties of achieving high emission performance and precisely defining the emission area in typical planar LETs, and opens up the possibility of applying various strongly coupled emitters for advanced polariton devices and high-resolution applications.
Gain characteristics of stimulated Brillouin scattering in fused silica
Authors: Chen Bin , Bai Zhenxu , Hun Xuanning , Wang Jianping , Cui Can , Qi Yaoyao , Yan Bingzheng , Ding Jie , Wang Kun , Wang Yulei , Lu Zhiwei
Published: January 2023

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) is a non-linear process which has the capacity to improve the beam quality and pulse characteristics of laser beams. In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally study the process of SBS in fused silica. In particular, we examine the energy reflection and pulse compression of input laser pulses as functions of focus position, pump energy and beam diameter. We utilized coupled wave equations and a distributed noise model to simulate the reflected energy and time waveform under different gain parameters. An experimental system is constructed and used to qualify the numerical simulations. The results reveal that the threshold for the SBS process and the energy reflectivity significantly change with laser focus position under the same pump and focusing parameters. Ultimately, the gain characteristics of the SBS material is the primary factor that influences the SBS output. This work presented here offers insight into the operation of short-length solid-state SBS lasers and serves as a basis for the design and optimization of such systems.
High-order mode waveguide amplifier with high mode extinction ratio written in an Er3+-doped phosphate glass
Authors: Sun Xiangyu , Wang YuYing , Zhong Lijing , Chen Daoyuan , Xu Beibei , Ma Zhijun , Liu Xiaofeng , Barillaro Giuseppe , Chen Zhi , Qiu Jianrong
Published: January 2023

Inscription of fiber-compatible active waveguides in high-gain glass, followed by direct interconnection with few-mode fibers, is one of the most promising solutions for all-optical mode-division multiplexing. In this work, based on the femtosecond laser writing technique, we propose a general fabrication scheme for inscribing high-order mode waveguides in glass, by carefully tailoring the cross-section of the waveguides to match the mode intensity distribution via an improved multi-scan approach. Specifically, we design and fabricate two kinds of waveguides, namely, LP01-mode waveguide and LP11-mode waveguide in a highly Er3+-doped phosphate glass, enabling the insertion loss of the waveguides to be as low as 1.88 dB, and the mode extraction factor of the LP11-mode waveguide up to ∼24 dB. Importantly, we have successfully achieved optical amplification of the waveguides, with an on-off gain as high as 3.52 dB. This novel high-order mode waveguide amplifier has broad application prospects in monolithic on-chip integrated photonic light sources and optical interconnection with few-mode fiber and/or silicon-based waveguide.
Studies of the transition between amplified spontaneous emission and optical lasing in ultrahigh-Q polymeric micro-pedestals
Authors: Reynoso-de la Cruz H. M. , Rosas-Román I. , Ramos-Ortiz G. , Mendoza B. S. , Ortiz-Ricardo E. , Gutiérrez-Juárez G. , Castro-Beltrán R.
Published: January 2023

In this work, we demonstrate the properties of Rhodamine B-doped polymeric cylindrical microlasers to perform either as gain amplification devices through amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) or as optical lasing gain devices. A study based on different %wt concentrations of microcavity families with distinct geometrical features demonstrates the characteristic dependence on either gain amplification phenomena. Principal component analysis (PCA) discriminates the relationship between the main ASE and lasing properties and the geometrical aspects of the cavity families. ASE and optical lasing thresholds were found, respectively, as low as 0.2 μJcm−2 and 0.1 μJcm−2 passing the best-reported microlaser performances in literature for cylindrical cavities, even in comparison with those based on 2D patterns. Moreover, our microlasers showed ultrahigh Q-factor of ∼3 × 106, and for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, a visible emission comb constituted by above a hundred peaks at 40 μJcm−2 with a registered free spectral range (FSR) of 0.25 nm corroborated through the whispery gallery mode (WGM) theory.
Simultaneous measurement of trace dimethyl methyl phosphate and temperature using all fiber Michaelson interferometer cascaded FBG
Authors: Chen Yuhao , Li Cheng , Yang Xiaozhan
Published: January 2023

All fiber Michaelson interferometer cascaded fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor for simultaneous measurement of trace dimethyl methyl phosphate and temperature is proposed. One end of the four-core fiber (FCF) is spliced with a multimode fiber (MMF), the other end is flattened and evaporated with silver film to enhance reflection, and the Michelson interference structure is formed. The grating is engraved in the single-mode fiber (SMF) core and spliced with MMF, then the Michelson interference cascaded FBG, FBG-MMF-FCF sensor is obtained. The sensing film, MnCo2O4 is coated on the surface of FCF, and the structure, elemental composition and morphology of MnCo2O4 were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The sensitivity and the detection limit of DMMP are 86.44 dB/ppm and 0.1767 ppb, respectively. The response/recovery time is about 14/10 s. the temperature sensitivity can be compensated and calculated as 0.069 nm/°C. The sensor has good selectivity and stability, and has a good application prospect in high sensitivity detection of trace DMMP vapor.
Electrically tuned active metasurface towards metasurface-integrated liquid crystal on silicon (meta-LCoS) devices
Authors: Chang Xin , Pivnenko Mike , Shrestha Pawan , Wu Weijie , Zhang Wenhan , Chu Daping
Published: January 2023

Active metasurfaces add a new dimension to static metasurfaces by introducing tunability, and this has received enormous attention from industry. Although various mechanisms have been proposed over the past few years in literature, solutions with good practicality are limited. Liquid crystal (LC)-based active metasurface is one of the most promising approaches due to the well-established LC industry. In this paper, an electrically tunable active metasurface was proposed and experimentally demonstrated using photoaligned nematic LC. The good quality of the LC photoalignment on the metasurface was demonstrated. Tunable transmission was obtained for telecommunication C band and the modulation depth in transmission amplitude of 94% was realized for 1530 nm. Sub-millisecond response time was achieved at operating a temperature of 60°C. The progress made here presents the potential of LC-based active metasurfaces for fast-switching photonic devices at optical communication wavelengths. More importantly, this work lays the foundations for the next-generation liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) devices that are integrated with metasurfaces (meta-LCoS).
Fabrication-tolerant directional couplers on thin-film lithium niobate
Authors: Huang Pucheng , Chen Kaixuan , Liu Liu
Published: January 2023

Directional couplers (DCs) are essential components in integrated photonics. A symmetric DC with a large fabrication tolerance on thin-film lithium niobate is demonstrated here. The principle is based on the beat length compensation of the opposite trend of width and gap fabrication errors in the DC. The tolerance is greater than ±100 nm for an optimized structure. The experimental results support the simulated ones. The principle can be applied to DC-based devices, such as 3-dB couplers and waveguide array couplers with a high yield.
Optoelectronic properties of black silicon fabricated by femtosecond laser in ambient air: exploring a large parameter space
Authors: Radfar Behrad , Chen Kexun , Setälä Olli E. , Vähänissi Ville , Savin Hele , Liu Xiaolong
Published: January 2023

We study the surface morphology, optical absorption (400–1100 nm), and carrier lifetime of black silicon fabricated by femtosecond (fs) laser in air. We explore a large laser parameter space, for which we adopt a single parameter ξ to describe the cumulative fluence delivered to the sample. We also study the laser-oxidized surface layer by measuring its photoluminescence spectra and comparing its effect on the aforementioned properties. Our study in a broad range of ξ is instructive in choosing laser parameters when targeting different applications.
Heterogeneous integration of a GaN-based photonic integrated circuit with an Si-based transimpedance amplifier
Authors: Ma X. , Cheung Y. F. , Lyu H. , Choi H. W.
Published: January 2023

The heterogeneous integration of a GaN-based photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and an Si-based transimpedance amplifier (TIA) is demonstrated in this work. The monolithic GaN PIC, fabricated from a GaN-on-Si light-emitting diode (LED) wafer, comprises LEDs whose optical outputs are coupled to photodetectors (PD) through suspended waveguides. The PIC chip is mounted onto a printed circuit board together with a TIA chip and two filter chip capacitors, occupying a compact footprint. The components are interconnected directly using wire-bonds to minimize signal delays and attenuation. The integrated system achieves rise and fall times of 2.21 and 2.10 ns, respectively, a transmission delay of 3.54 ns, and a bandwidth exceeding 390 MHz. Transmission of a pseudorandom binary sequence-3 (PRBS-3) signal across the integrated system is also demonstrated at the data transmission rate of 280 Mbit/s with a clearly resolved open eye diagram.
Speckle autocorrelation separation for multi-target scattering imaging
Authors: lu da , Yuliu Feng , Peng Xiang , He Wenqi
Published: January 2023

Imaging through scattering media remains a big challenge in optics while the single-shot non-invasive speckle autocorrelation technique (SAT) is well-known as a promising way to handle it. However, it usually cannot recover a large-scale target or multiple isolated small ones due to the limited effective range of the optical memory effect (OME). In this paper, we propose a multi-target scattering imaging scheme by combining the traditional SA algorithm with a Deep Learning (DL) strategy. The basic idea is to extract each autocorrelation component of every target from the autocorrelation result of a mixed speckle using a suitable DL method. Once we get all the expected autocorrelation components, a typical phase retrieval algorithm (PRA) could be applied to reveal the shapes of all those corresponding small targets. In our experimental demonstration, up to five isolated targets are successfully recovered.
Metasurface-Tunable Lasing Polarizations in Microcavity
Authors: CHEN YU-CHENG , HUANG SHIH-HSIU , Qiao Zhen , Wu Pin Chieh , Yuan Zhiyi
Published: January 2023

Manipulating polarization states of microlasers is essentially important in many emerging optical and biological applications. Strategies have been focused on using external optical elements or surface nanostructure to control the polarization state of laser emission. Here we introduce a fundamentally new strategy for manipulation of laser polarization based on metasurface through round trips of photons confined inside an active optical cavity. The role of intracavity metasurface and light-meta-atoms interactions were investigated under a stimulated emission process in a microcavity. Taking advantage of strong optical feedback produced by the Fabry-Perot optofluidic microcavity, light-meta-atoms interactions will be enlarged, resulting in polarized lasing emission with high purity and controllability. Depending on the metasurface structural orientation, the polarization state of a lasing emission can be actively modulated as highly circularly polarized, linearly polarized, or elliptically polarized at source within microcavity. This study provides a new insight into fundamental laser physics, opening new possibilities by bridging metasurface into microlasers.
The enterovirus genome can be translated in an IRES-independent manner that requires the initiation factors eIF2A/eIF2D
Authors: Kim Hyejeong , Aponte-Diaz David , Sotoudegan Mohamad S. , Shengjuler Djoshkun , Arnold Jamie J. , Cameron Craig E.
Published: January 2023

RNA recombination in positive-strand RNA viruses is a molecular-genetic process, which permits the greatest evolution of the genome and may be essential to stabilizing the genome from the deleterious consequences of accumulated mutations. Enteroviruses represent a useful system to elucidate the details of this process. On the biochemical level, it is known that RNA recombination is catalyzed by the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase using a template-switching mechanism. For this mechanism to function in cells, the recombining genomes must be located in the same subcellular compartment. How a viral genome is trafficked to the site of genome replication and recombination, which is membrane associated and isolated from the cytoplasm, is not known. We hypothesized that genome translation was essential for colocalization of genomes for recombination. We show that complete inactivation of internal ribosome entry site (IRES)-mediated translation of a donor enteroviral genome enhanced recombination instead of impairing it. Recombination did not occur by a nonreplicative mechanism. Rather, sufficient translation of the nonstructural region of the genome occurred to support subsequent steps required for recombination. The noncanonical translation initiation factors, eIF2A and eIF2D, were required for IRES-independent translation. Our results support an eIF2A/eIF2D-dependent mechanism under conditions in which the eIF2-dependent mechanism is inactive. Detection of an IRES-independent mechanism for translation of the enterovirus genome provides an explanation for a variety of debated observations, including nonreplicative recombination and persistence of enteroviral RNA lacking an IRES. The existence of an eIF2A/eIF2D-dependent mechanism in enteroviruses predicts the existence of similar mechanisms in other viruses.
Phylogenomic analysis of Wolbachia genomes from the Darwin Tree of Life biodiversity genomics project
Authors: Vancaester Emmelien , Blaxter Mark
Published: January 2023

The Darwin Tree of Life (DToL) project aims to sequence all described terrestrial and aquatic eukaryotic species found in Britain and Ireland. Reference genome sequences are generated from single individuals for each target species. In addition to the target genome, sequenced samples often contain genetic material from microbiomes, endosymbionts, parasites, and other cobionts. Wolbachia endosymbiotic bacteria are found in a diversity of terrestrial arthropods and nematodes, with supergroups A and B the most common in insects. We identified and assembled 110 complete Wolbachia genomes from 93 host species spanning 92 families by filtering data from 368 insect species generated by the DToL project. From 15 infected species, we assembled more than one Wolbachia genome, including cases where individuals carried simultaneous supergroup A and B infections. Different insect orders had distinct patterns of infection, with Lepidopteran hosts mostly infected with supergroup B, while infections in Diptera and Hymenoptera were dominated by A-type Wolbachia. Other than these large-scale order-level associations, host and Wolbachia phylogenies revealed no (or very limited) cophylogeny. This points to the occurrence of frequent host switching events, including between insect orders, in the evolutionary history of the Wolbachia pandemic. While supergroup A and B genomes had distinct GC% and GC skew, and B genomes had a larger core gene set and tended to be longer, it was the abundance of copies of bacteriophage WO who was a strong determinant of Wolbachia genome size. Mining raw genome data generated for reference genome assemblies is a robust way of identifying and analysing cobiont genomes and giving greater ecological context for their hosts.
Harnessing Wolbachia cytoplasmic incompatibility alleles for confined gene drive: A modeling study
Authors: Li Jiahe , Champer Jackson
Published: January 2023

Wolbachia are maternally-inherited bacteria, which can spread rapidly in populations by manipulating reproduction. cifA and cifB are genes found in Wolbachia phage that are responsible for cytoplasmic incompatibility, the most common type of Wolbachia reproductive interference. In this phenomenon, no viable offspring are produced when a male with both cifA and cifB (or just cifB in some systems) mates with a female lacking cifA. Utilizing this feature, we propose new types of toxin-antidote gene drives that can be constructed with only these two genes in an insect genome, instead of the whole Wolbachia bacteria. By using both mathematical and simulation models, we found that a drive containing cifA and cifB together creates a confined drive with a moderate to high introduction threshold. When introduced separately, they act as a self-limiting drive. We observed that the performance of these drives is substantially influenced by various ecological parameters and drive characteristics. Extending our models to continuous space, we found that the drive individual release distribution has a critical impact on drive persistence. Our results suggest that these new types of drives based on Wolbachia transgenes are safe and flexible candidates for genetic modification of populations.
Evidence of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia
Authors: Vicario Carmelo Mario , Scavone Vito , Lucifora Chiara , Falzone Alessandra , Pioggia Giovanni , Gangemi Sebastiano , Craparo Giuseppe , Martino Gabriella
Published: January 2023

Evidence suggests that incidental modulation of affective states affects the ability to keep track of time. Alexithymia represents an ideal condition to further address the emotion-time processing link, as it refers to a trait characterized by a deficit of affective processing. 31 healthy participants completed an online version of the TAS-20 scale, which measures alexithymia, and a time reproduction task of visual stimuli related to positive (i.e., happiness) and negative (i.e., anger) facial expressions. Results documented a positive correlation between TAS-20 score and the variability in reproducing sub-second durations of the anger expression stimuli We also found an overestimation of sub-second durations of non-affective expressions in borderline/alexithymic participants. Finally, in line with the literature, we confirmed the overall tendency to overestimate the duration of anger expression stimuli. These findings, which can be interpreted in terms of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia, expand previous investigations linking this personality trait with abnormal processing of negative emotions. The evidence that alexithymia predicts the reproduction variability of sub-second durations of negative affective stimuli corroborates previous neuroimaging studies documenting cerebellar deficits in these individuals.
Lived experience of young people with epilepsy in Bahir Dar city government hospitals, Ethiopia, a qualitative interview study
Authors: Ayele Kokeb , Wondiye Habtamu , Bogale Eyob Ketema
Published: January 2023

Background

Epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder, which is characterized by persistent derangement of the nervous system due to an abrupt excessive discharge of the group of neurons from the cerebrum. For developing young people with epilepsy coping with the challenges of living with epilepsy and adjusting normative tasks associated with adolescence is stressful in all domains of the lives of young people with epilepsy. But in Ethiopia, published literature regarding the lived experience of young people with epilepsy is lacking.

Objectives

This study aims to explore lived experience of young people with epilepsy.

Methods

A qualitative interview study was conducted in Bahir Dar city government specialized and referral Hospitals, from February to April, 2021. Using the rule of saturation, a total of 11 study participants (age 12–24) were selected using hetrogenious types of purposive sampling technique. The data were collected through semi structured interviews technique with the aid of audio recorder. Semi-structured interview guide and observation checklist for care context in health facilities were used. The collected data was transcribed word by word and translated conceptually. The Data were analyzed using thematic approach. The credibility, dependability, Conformability and transferability of the study were assured using different techniques such as peer debriefing, member checking; audit Trail, thick description and purposeful sampling. Atlas- ti version7 software was used to facilitate data analysis.

Results

The participants’ narratives revealed two main themes: ‘experiences due epilepsy’ and ‘coping strategies to wards epilepsy’. Experience due to epilepsy’ was described by young people with epilepsy in terms of psychosocial, physical, economical and health care related experiences. They described coping strategies towards epilepsy in terms of finding support from family and society as well as religious institutions and other traditions as copping strategy.

Conclusion

Even though young people with epilepsy had suffered a lot of hurtful experiences, they reported coping strategies towards epilepsy that include support from various sources. These types of findings have implications for social work interventions for young people living with epilepsy.
Stimulus-induced narrow-band gamma oscillations in humans can be recorded using open-hardware low-cost EEG amplifier
Authors: Pattisapu Srividya , Ray Supratim
Published: January 2023

Stimulus-induced narrow-band gamma oscillations (30–70 Hz) in human electro-encephalograph (EEG) have been linked to attentional and memory mechanisms and are abnormal in mental health conditions such as autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s Disease. However, since the absolute power in EEG decreases rapidly with increasing frequency following a “1/f” power law, and the gamma band includes line noise frequency, these oscillations are highly susceptible to instrument noise. Previous studies that recorded stimulus-induced gamma oscillations used expensive research-grade EEG amplifiers to address this issue. While low-cost EEG amplifiers have become popular in Brain Computer Interface applications that mainly rely on low-frequency oscillations (< 30 Hz) or steady-state-visually-evoked-potentials, whether they can also be used to measure stimulus-induced gamma oscillations is unknown. We recorded EEG signals using a low-cost, open-source amplifier (OpenBCI) and a traditional, research-grade amplifier (Brain Products GmbH), both connected to the OpenBCI cap, in male (N = 6) and female (N = 5) subjects (22–29 years) while they viewed full-screen static gratings that are known to induce two distinct gamma oscillations: slow and fast gamma, in a subset of subjects. While the EEG signals from OpenBCI were considerably noisier, we found that out of the seven subjects who showed a gamma response in Brain Products recordings, six showed a gamma response in OpenBCI as well. In spite of the noise in the OpenBCI setup, the spectral and temporal profiles of these responses in alpha (8–13 Hz) and gamma bands were highly correlated between OpenBCI and Brain Products recordings. These results suggest that low-cost amplifiers can potentially be used in stimulus-induced gamma response detection.
Optimization and application of non-native Phragmites australis transcriptome assemblies
Authors: Tao Feng , Fan Chuanzhu , Liu Yimin , Sivakumar Subashini , Kowalski Kurt P. , Golenberg Edward M.
Published: January 2023

Phragmites australis (common reed) has a cosmopolitan distribution and has been suggested as a model organism for the study of invasive plant species. In North America, the non-native subspecies (ssp. australis) is widely distributed across the contiguous 48 states in the United States and large parts of Canada. Even though millions of dollars are spent annually on Phragmites management, insufficient knowledge of P. australis impeded the efficiency of management. To solve this problem, transcriptomic information generated from multiple types of tissue could be a valuable resource for future studies. Here, we constructed forty-nine P. australis transcriptomes assemblies via different assembly tools and multiple parameter settings. The optimal transcriptome assembly for functional annotation and downstream analyses was selected among these transcriptome assemblies by comprehensive assessments. For a total of 422,589 transcripts assembled in this transcriptome assembly, 319,046 transcripts (75.5%) have at least one functional annotation. Within the transcriptome assembly, we further identified 1,495 transcripts showing tissue-specific expression pattern, 10,828 putative transcription factors, and 72,165 candidates for simple sequence repeats markers. The identification and analyses of predicted transcripts related to herbicide- and salinity-resistant genes were shown as two applications of the transcriptomic information to facilitate further research on P. australis. Transcriptome assembly and selection would be important for the transcriptome annotation. With this optimal transcriptome assembly and all relative information from downstream analyses, we have helped to establish foundations for future studies on the mechanisms underlying the invasiveness of non-native P. australis subspecies.