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Wavefront shaping enables the targeted delivery of coherent light into random-scattering media, such as biological tissue, by the constructive interference of scattered waves. However, broadband waves have short coherence times, weakening the interference effect. Here we introduce a broadband deposition matrix that identifies a single input wavefront that maximizes the broadband energy delivered to an extended target deep inside a diffusive system. We experimentally demonstrate that long-range spatial and spectral correlations result in sixfold energy enhancement for targets containing 1,700 speckle grains and located at a depth of up to ten transport mean free paths, even when the coherence time is an order of magnitude shorter than the diffusion dwell time of light in the scattering sample. In the broadband (fast decoherence) limit, enhancement of energy delivery to extended targets becomes nearly independent of the target depth and dissipation. Our experiments, numerical simulations and analytic theory establish the fundamental limit for broadband energy delivery deep into a diffusive system, which has important consequences for practical applications. Owing to spectral long-range correlation, broadband energy can be delivered to extended targets deep inside a multiple-scattering system, greatly broadening the scope of controlling wave transport in disordered systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human mobility networks can reveal insights into resilience phenomena, such as population response to, impacts on, and recovery from crises. The majority of human mobility network resilience characterizations, however, focus mainly on macroscopic network properties; little is known about variation in measured resilience characteristics (i.e., the extent of impact and recovery duration) across macroscopic, substructure (motif), and microscopic mobility scales. To address this gap, in this study, we examine the human mobility network in eight parishes in Louisiana (USA) impacted by the 2021 Hurricane Ida. We constructed human mobility networks using location-based data and examined three sets of measures: (1) macroscopic measures, such as network density, giant component size, and modularity; (2) substructure measures, such as motif distribution; and (3) microscopic mobility measures, such as the radius of gyration and average travel distance. To determine the extent of impact and duration of recovery, for each measure, we established the baseline values and examined the fluctuation of measures during the perturbation caused by Hurricane Ida. The results reveal the variation of impact extent and recovery duration obtained from different sets of measures at different scales. Macroscopic measures, such as giant components, tend to recover more quickly than substructure and microscopic measures. In fact, microscopic measures tend to recover more slowly than measures in other scales. These findings suggest that resilience characteristics in human mobility networks are scale-variant, and thus, a single measure at a particular scale may not be representative of the perturbation impacts and recovery duration in the network as a whole. These results spotlight the need to use measures at different scales to properly characterize resilience in human mobility networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formyl peptide receptor-like 1 inhibitor protein (FLIPr) is an immune evasion protein produced by Staphylococcus aureus, and FLIPr is a potential vaccine candidate for reducing Staphylococcus aureus virulence and biofilm formation. We produced recombinant lipidated FLIPr (rLF) to increase the immunogenicity of FLIPr and showed that rLF alone elicited potent anti-FLIPr antibody responses to overcome the FLIPr-mediated inhibition of phagocytosis. In addition, rLF has potent immunostimulatory properties. We demonstrated that rLF is an effective adjuvant. When an antigen is formulated with rLF, it can induce long-lasting antigen-specific immune responses and enhance mucosal and systemic antibody responses as well as broad-spectrum T-cell responses in mice. These findings support further exploration of rLF in the clinic as an adjuvant for various vaccine types with extra benefits to abolish FLIPr-mediated immunosuppressive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dual-resonant scanning multiphoton (DRSM) microscope incorporating a tunable acoustic gradient index of refraction lens with a resonant mirror is developed for high-speed volumetric imaging. In the proposed microscope, the pulse train signal of a femtosecond laser is used to trigger an embedded field programmable gate array to sample the multiphoton excited fluorescence signal at the rate of one pixel per laser pulse. It is shown that a frame rate of around 8000 Hz can be obtained in the x–z plane for an image region with a size of 256 × 80 pixels. Moreover, a volumetric imaging rate of over 30 Hz can be obtained for a large image volume of 343 × 343 × 120 μm3 with an image size of 256 × 256 × 80 voxels. Moreover, a volumetric imaging rate of over 30 Hz can be obtained for a large image volume of 256 × 256 × 80 voxels, which represents 343 × 343 × 120 μm3 in field-of-view. The rapid volumetric imaging rate eliminates the aliasing effect for observed temporal frequencies lower than 15 Hz. The practical feasibility of the DRSM microscope is demonstrated by observing the mushroom bodies of a drosophila brain and performing 3D dynamic observations of moving 10-μm fluorescent beads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The areas where dengue virus (DENV) is endemic have expanded rapidly, driven in part by the global spread of Aedes species, which act as disease vectors. DENV replicates in the mosquito midgut and is disseminated to the mosquito's salivary glands for amplification. Thus, blocking virus infection or replication in the tissues of the mosquito may be a viable strategy for reducing the incidence of DENV transmission to humans. Here we used the mariner Mos1 transposase to create an Aedes aegypti line that expresses virus-specific miRNA hairpins capable of blocking DENV replication. These microRNA are driven by the blood-meal-inducible carboxypeptidase A promoter or by the polyubiquitin promoter. The transgenic mosquitoes exhibited significantly lower infection rates and viral titers for most DENV serotypes 7 days after receiving an infectious blood meal. The treatment was also effective at day 14 post infection after a second blood meal had been administered. In viral transmission assay, we found there was significantly reduced transmission in these lines. These transgenic mosquitoes were effective in silencing most of the DENV genome; such an approach may be employed to control a dengue fever epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engineering simulation accelerates the development of reliable and repeatable design processes in various domains. However, the computing resource consumption is dramatically raised in the whole development processes. Making the most of these simulation data becomes more and more important in modern industrial product design. In the present study, we proposed a workflow comprised of a series of machine learning algorithms (mainly deep neuron networks) to be an alternative to the numerical simulation. We have applied the workflow to the field of dental implant design process. The process is based on a complex, time-dependent, multi-physical biomechanical theory, known as mechano-regulatory method. It has been used to evaluate the performance of dental implants and to assess the tissue recovery after the oral surgery procedures. We provided a deep learning network (DLN) with calibrated simulation data that came from different simulation conditions with experimental verification. The DLN achieves nearly exact result of simulated bone healing history around implants. The correlation of the predicted essential physical properties of surrounding bones (e.g. strain and fluid velocity) and performance indexes of implants (e.g. bone area and bone-implant contact) were greater than 0.980 and 0.947, respectively. The testing AUC values for the classification of each tissue phenotype were ranging from 0.90 to 0.99. The DLN reduced hours of simulation time to seconds. Moreover, our DLN is explainable via Deep Taylor decomposition, suggesting that the transverse fluid velocity, upper and lower parts of dental implants are the keys that influence bone healing and the distribution of tissue phenotypes the most. Many examples of commercial dental implants with designs which follow these design strategies can be found. This work demonstrates that DLN with proper network design is capable to replace complex, time-dependent, multi-physical models/theories, as well as to reveal the underlying features without prior professional knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) may generate the non-integer targets for integer-valued inputs and outputs of decision-making units (DMUs). To derive the convincing projections, integer-valued DEA has attracted much attention. Given the integrality restriction, Du et al. (Eur J Oper Res 218(1):186–192, 2012) proposed the super-efficiency approach consisting of additive integer-valued and additive super-efficiency integer-valued models for the differentiation of efficient DMUs, thereby raising the discriminatory power. This paper extends their approach to develop a simpler but stricter version, which we refer to as the unified additive super-efficiency model. The newly-developed model has three advantages. First, the slacks of input excess, input saving, output shortage and output surplus can be directly computed in a single program to obtain the efficiencies of inefficient DMUs and super-efficiencies of efficient DMUs. Secondly, it suggests the strongly Pareto-efficient projections for efficient DMUs. Finally, the identified super-efficiencies allow for the property of continuity. A comparison of the proposed model, with Du et al.'s (2012) and standard additive super-efficiency approaches is discussed using a numerical example. In addition, the applicability of the proposed model is illustrated by a data set covering 13 bus companies operating in the municipal bus system of Taichung. Our work not only provides managerial insights into the primary sources of inefficiency and super-efficiency but also contributes to the current understanding of how super-efficiency would be effectively and accurately measured in the presence of integer-valued data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transmission eigenchannels are building blocks of coherent wave transport in diffusive media, and selective excitation of individual eigenchannels can lead to diverse transport behaviour. An essential yet poorly understood property is the transverse spatial profile of each eigenchannel, which is relevant for the associated energy density and critical for coupling light into and out of it. Here, we discover that the transmission eigenchannels of a disordered slab possess exponentially localized incident and outgoing profiles, even in the diffusive regime far from Anderson localization. Such transverse localization arises from a combination of reciprocity, local coupling of spatial modes and non-local correlations of scattered waves. Experimentally, we observe signatures of such localization even with finite illumination area. The transverse localization of high-transmission channels enhances optical energy densities inside turbid media, which will be important for light–matter interactions and imaging applications. Transverse localization of transmission eigenchannels is discovered in random optical media even in the diffusive regime of propagation far from Anderson localization. These findings will have significant impact on imaging and the control of light–matter interactions in scattering systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The pressure on brand firms in the electronics industry to improve the labor conditions of their workers in their global production networks is increasing. Given the significance of mitigating the impacts of production on labor, this study used the new development method of social life cycle impact assessment (SLCIA) for conducting labor impact assessment. An illustrative example in an integrated circuit (IC) packaging company is presented to demonstrate the assessment of the impacts and the identification of the potential for improvement of labor practices among three factories. Methods: SLCIA method was proposed based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines that were reviewed in our previous work, Part 1 (in a previous article): Methodology. The proposed method was used to assess the impacts of operations on labor in the three factories of an IC packaging company. Nineteen indicators of labor-stakeholders were used to collect data from factories and organizations in 2012. The obtained values from these three factories were translated into social impact scores that ranged from 1 to 5. The score of each indicator was multiplied by the weights of each indicator, and a final score of labor situations was generated to identify the hotspots of labor impacts and to identify the factory with better labor performance. Results and discussion: The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed SLCIA method in assessing the labor impacts in the electronics industry. Among three factories of IC packaging, factory C was ranked as having the lowest social impact on labor with a higher performance, followed by factories B and A. In addition, the results show that four indicators, 'lacking labor union,' 'did not hire a sufficient number of disabled employees,' 'overtime work that exceeded the legal limit,' and 'excessive number of dispatched workers,' were recognized as the main social impacts on labor in IC packaging production. Conclusions: The SLCA technique was used to assess the impacts of the production processes of three IC packaging factories on the labor conditions of their factory workers. The proposed method shed light on the significant impacts of such processes. The proposed model demonstrated its potential advantage by systematically and effectively identifying the labor impact hotspots, which could assist managers in devising strategies that could improve the labor situations within their organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to develop a new framework of social life cycle impact assessment (SLCIA) method based on the United Nations Environment Program/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (UNEP/SETAC) Guidelines for analyzing the social impact in Taiwan, particularly in the electronics industry. Methods: After reviewing the literature on social life cycle assessment (SLCA), we analyzed existing case studies and developed SLCIA methods based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines. We thereafter identified stakeholders, subcategories, and indicators in accordance with the current status of SLCA case studies and opinions from ten experts in the Taiwanese electronics industry. Both quantitative and semi-quantitative indicators were subsequently proposed to assess the social impact of workers in the Taiwanese electronics sector. Each indicator was given the score of 1 to 5 by classifying the social impact percentage of nine scales. To formulate an analytic framework for SLCIA, the weighting values of each subcategory and indicator were determined using the consistent fuzzy preference relations (CFPR) method. Results and discussion: Seven subcategories and 19 qualitative and quantitative indicators of worker stakeholders for the electronics sector were identified based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines. A score of 1 to 5 is assigned to each quantitative indicator by classifying the social impact percentage of nine scales. The data obtained from companies for each quantitative indicator were subsequently transformed into social impact percentage in terms of the statistical data on social situations at the country or industry level. With regard to semi-quantitative indicators, three implementation levels of management efforts on social performance within five elements were identified. The CFPR method was then employed to determine the weights of each indicator by ten experts. Results indicated that preventing forced work practices, protecting children from having to work, and providing minimum and fair wages for workers are the three most important indicators for assessing social impact. Conclusions: A new SLCIA method that incorporates both quantitative and semi-quantitative indicators was proposed for assessing social impact in the electronics sector in Taiwan. Nine quantitative indicators can be easily organized using available social data from government statistics as performance reference points (PRPs) to determine the social impact exerted by companies. The relative weights were determined to allow for an impact assessment and thus solve the limitation of their currently assumed equal weights. The proposed framework is examined to analyze the social impact of three production sites for semiconductor packaging and manufacturing in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dirac cone underlies many unique electronic properties of graphene and topological insulators, and its band structure-two conical bands touching at a single point-has also been realized for photons in waveguide arrays, atoms in optical lattices, and through accidental degeneracy. Deformation of the Dirac cone often reveals intriguing properties; an example is the quantum Hall effect, where a constant magnetic field breaks the Dirac cone into isolated Landau levels. A seemingly unrelated phenomenon is the exceptional point, also known as the parity-time symmetry breaking point, where two resonances coincide in both their positions and widths. Exceptional points lead to counter-intuitive phenomena such as loss-induced transparency, unidirectional transmission or reflection, and lasers with reversed pump dependence or single-mode operation. Dirac cones and exceptional points are connected: it was theoretically suggested that certain non-Hermitian perturbations can deform a Dirac cone and spawn a ring of exceptional points. Here we experimentally demonstrate such an 'exceptional ring' in a photonic crystal slab. Angle-resolved reflection measurements of the photonic crystal slab reveal that the peaks of reflectivity follow the conical band structure of a Dirac cone resulting from accidental degeneracy, whereas the complex eigenvalues of the system are deformed into a two-dimensional flat band enclosed by an exceptional ring. This deformation arises from the dissimilar radiation rates of dipole and quadrupole resonances, which play a role analogous to the loss and gain in parity-time symmetric systems. Our results indicate that the radiation existing in any open system can fundamentally alter its physical properties in ways previously expected only in the presence of material loss and gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptation to climate change has been recognized as very important in developing countries that face the greatest threats from global warming. In proposing various adaptation approaches, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change required nations to prepare adaptation plans of action. However, the areas of priority in climate change adaptation have not been considered. This study has developed a new prioritization methodology for climate change adaptation in developing countries. Five categories and 25 approaches in climate change adaptation were adopted through a thorough and detailed analysis of pertinent literature related to the National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) in the Gambia. A fuzzy analytic hierarchy process-based questionnaire survey was designed and presented to 12 experts chosen from the committee members of the Gambia's NAPA. The survey was made to determine the relative importance of the strategies for climate change adaptation. The results indicate that the five most important adaptation categories are health (0.223), forestry (0.213), water (0.210), food (0.181), and energy (0.174), with health as the number one priority in climate change adaptation. Further findings show that the prioritization order of the adaptation approaches to climate change in the Gambia is as follows: 'Health education,' 'public sensitization,' 'water supply infrastructure development,' 'microfinance,' and 'infrastructure and technology enhancement.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correction to: I Scientific Reports i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-03229-4, published online 13 December 2021 The original version of this Article contained an error in the spelling of the author Anna-Bella Failloux which was incorrectly given as Anna-Bella Failoux. These authors contributed equally: Wei-Liang Liu and Chia-Wei Hsu. Author Correction: Transgenic refractory Aedes aegypti lines are resistant to multiple serotypes of dengue virus. [Extracted from the article]

The ability to confine light is important both scientifically and technologically. Many light confinement methods exist, but they all achieve confinement with materials or systems that forbid outgoing waves. These systems can be implemented by metallic mirrors, by photonic band-gap materials, by highly disordered media (Anderson localization) and, for a subset of outgoing waves, by translational symmetry (total internal reflection) or by rotational or reflection symmetry. Exceptions to these examples exist only in theoretical proposals. Here we predict and show experimentally that light can be perfectly confined in a patterned dielectric slab, even though outgoing waves are allowed in the surrounding medium. Technically, this is an observation of an 'embedded eigenvalue'-namely, a bound state in a continuum of radiation modes-that is not due to symmetry incompatibility. Such a bound state can exist stably in a general class of geometries in which all of its radiation amplitudes vanish simultaneously as a result of destructive interference. This method to trap electromagnetic waves is also applicable to electronic and mechanical waves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-range correlations play an essential role in wave transport through disordered media, but have rarely been studied in other complex systems. Here we discover spatio-temporal intensity correlations for an optical pulse propagating through a multimode fiber with strong random mode coupling. Positive long-range correlation arises from multiple scattering in fiber mode space and depends on the statistical distribution of arrival times. By optimizing the incident wavefront of a pulse, we maximize the power transmitted at a selected time, and such control is significantly enhanced by the long-range spatio-temporal correlation. We provide an explicit relation between the correlation and the power enhancement, which agrees with experimental results. Our work shows that multimode fibers provide a fertile ground for studying complex wave phenomena. The strong spatio-temporal correlation can be employed for efficient power delivery at a well-defined time. Long-range correlations play a role in wave transport through disordered media but have rarely been studied in other systems. Here, the authors discover long-range spatio-temporal correlations in multimode fibers with strong random mode mixing, revealing the possibility of utilizing such correlations for effective pulse delivery through the fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-range correlations play an essential role in wave transport through disordered media, but have rarely been studied in other complex systems. Here we discover spatio-temporal intensity correlations for an optical pulse propagating through a multimode fiber with strong random mode coupling. Positive long-range correlation arises from multiple scattering in fiber mode space and depends on the statistical distribution of arrival times. By optimizing the incident wavefront of a pulse, we maximize the power transmitted at a selected time, and such control is significantly enhanced by the long-range spatio-temporal correlation. We provide an explicit relation between the correlation and the power enhancement, which agrees with experimental results. Our work shows that multimode fibers provide a fertile ground for studying complex wave phenomena. The strong spatio-temporal correlation can be employed for efficient power delivery at a well-defined time. Long-range correlations play a role in wave transport through disordered media but have rarely been studied in other systems. Here, the authors discover long-range spatio-temporal correlations in multimode fibers with strong random mode mixing, revealing the possibility of utilizing such correlations for effective pulse delivery through the fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of Bretschneider's histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate (HTK) cardioplegia solution represented a major advancement in cardiac surgery, offering significant myocardial protection. However, metabolic changes induced by this additive in the whole body have not been systematically investigated. Using an untargeted mass spectrometry-based method to deeply explore the urine metabolome, we sought to provide a holistic and systematic view of metabolic perturbations occurred in patients receiving HTK. Prospective urine samples were collected from 100 patients who had undergone cardiac surgery, and metabolomic changes were profiled using a high-performance chemical isotope labeling liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method. A total of 14,642 peak pairs or metabolites were quantified using differential 13C-/12C-dansyl labeling LC-MS, which targets the amine/phenol submetabolome from urine specimens. We identified 223 metabolites that showed significant concentration change (fold change > 5) and assembled several potential metabolic pathway maps derived from these dysregulated metabolites. Our data indicated upregulated histidine metabolism with subsequently increased glutamine/glutamate metabolism, altered purine and pyrimidine metabolism, and enhanced vitamin B6 metabolism in patients receiving HTK. Our findings provide solid evidence that HTK solution causes significant perturbations in several metabolic pathways and establish a basis for further study of key mechanisms underlying its organ-protective or potential harmful effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical solutions of Maxwell's equations are indispensable for nanophotonics and electromagnetics but are constrained when it comes to large systems, especially multi-channel ones such as disordered media, aperiodic metasurfaces and densely packed photonic circuits where the many inputs require many large-scale simulations. Conventionally, before extracting the quantities of interest, Maxwell's equations are first solved on every element of a discretization basis set that contains much more information than is typically needed. Furthermore, such simulations are often performed one input at a time, which can be slow and repetitive. Here we propose to bypass the full-basis solutions and directly compute the quantities of interest while also eliminating the repetition over inputs. We do so by augmenting the Maxwell operator with all the input source profiles and all the output projection profiles, followed by a single partial factorization that yields the entire generalized scattering matrix via the Schur complement, with no approximation beyond discretization. This method applies to any linear partial differential equation. Benchmarks show that this approach is 1,000-30,000,000 times faster than existing methods for two-dimensional systems with about 10,000,000 variables. As examples, we demonstrate simulations of entangled photon backscattering from disorder and high-numerical-aperture metalenses that are thousands of wavelengths wide., (© 2022. The Author(s).)