Isotropic Signal Research Articles

Au Nanorings/TiO2 NPs@MXene-Based Metasurfaces with a Magnetic Mirror-Modulated ECL Strategy for Extracellular Vesicle Detection.

A metasurface as an artificial electromagnetic structure can concentrate optical energy into nanometric volumes to strongly enhance the light-matter interaction, which has been becoming a powerful platform for optical sensing, nonlinear effects, and quantum optics. Herein, we developed a novel hybrid plasmonic-dielectric metasurface consisting of Au nanorings (Au NRs) and TiO2 nanoparticles derived from MXene (TiO2 NPs@MXene). The hybrid metasurface simultaneously benefited from the high near-field enhancement effect of plasmonic materials and the low loss of dielectric materials. Furthermore, the optical modulation efficiency of the hybrid metasurface can be regulated by a magnetic mirror configuration. The magnetic mirror acted like a mirror, confining the electrons to a limited region and increasing the density of the surface plasmon. Moreover, the electrochemiluminescence (ECL) of the Cu2BDC metal-organic framework (Cu2BDC-MOF) served as a light source for the Au NRs/TiO2 NPs@MXene metasurface. Due to the exceptional light manipulation capability of the hybrid metasurface and the coordination of the magnetic mirror, the isotropic ECL signal can be dynamically amplified and converted into polarized emission. Finally, a metasurface-regulated ECL (MECL)-based biosensor with a dual-positive membrane protein recognition strategy was developed for the accurate identification of gastric cancer-derived extracellular vesicles. The novel MECL research opened up a new route in the realization of dynamically tunable metasurfaces for optical sensing and novel nanophotonic devices.

Investigation of biological activity of oxindole semicarbazones based copper (II) complexes: Synthesis, antimicrobial activities and molecular modelling

Copper (II) acetate reacted with 2-oxindole semicarbazone (2-Hoxsc, H1L), 3-methyl 2-oxindole semicarbazone (3-MeHoxsc, H2L) and 6-Chloro-2-oxindole semicarbazone (6-ClHoxsc, H3L) in 1:2 (M:L) molar ratio to form complexes of general formula, [Cu(L2)] (1L, 1; 2L 2; 3L 3. Stoichiometric ratio of complexes was established using UV–Vis spectroscopy. All the complexes were characterised by the CHN analysis, IR, ESR spectroscopy and Mass spectrometry. From the ESR spectrum, g values obtained (g‖ = 2.20; g⊥ = 2.05) for complex 2 confirms axial symmetry for this complex, whereas a broad isotropic signal in 1 and 3 (giso = 2.060, 1; 2.057, 3) indicates extensive exchange coupling. All the synthesized compounds (ligands and complexes) complexes were examined for their anti-tubercular activity against M. tuberculosis H37RV strain. Compounds were also tested for their anti-bacterial (B. subtilis, K. pneumonia) and antifungal (C. auris, C. albicans) activities. Biological investigations revealed that the antimicrobial activities (anti-TB, antibacterial and antifungal) of ligands get improved on complexation with Cu (II) due to formation of chelate ring, which can make the ligand a more powerful biological agent. Complex 3 has shown excellent anti-TB (MIC = 1.6 g/ml) and antibacterial (ZOI = 26 mm at 5 mg/mL) activities. Strong binding of complex 3 was observed (Kb = 24.22 × 105 M−1) with Human Serum Albumin (HSA) using fluorescence spectroscopy. Molecular modelling of complex 3 was also done with the active site of amino acid of M. tuberculosis enoyl reductase. The minimal binding energy of −10.1 kcal/mol indicated significant intermolecular interaction between M. tuberculosis enoyl reductase and complex 3 and is in well agreement with experimental data.

Ultrafast x-ray scattering and electronic coherence at avoided crossings: complete isotropic signals

Nonadiabatic transitions at conical intersections and avoided crossings play a pivotal role in shaping the outcomes of photochemical reactions. Using the photodissociation of LiF as a model, this theoretical study explores the application of gas phase nonresonant ultrafast x-ray scattering to map nonadiabatic transitions at an avoided crossing, utilizing the part of the scattering signal that probes electronic coherence directly. The presented scattering signals are rotationally averaged and calculated from two- rather than one-electron (transition) densities, which inherently accounts for all possible electronic transitions driven by the x-ray photon. This approach provides quantitative predictions of the experimental signals, thereby facilitating future experimental endeavors to observe nonadiabatic effects and coherent electron dynamics with ultrafast x-ray scattering.

Using a multistate mapping approach to surface hopping to predict the ultrafast electron diffraction signal of gas-phase cyclobutanone.

Using the recently developed multistate mapping approach to surface hopping (multistate MASH) method combined with SA(3)-CASSCF(12,12)/aug-cc-pVDZ electronic structure calculations, the gas-phase isotropic ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) of cyclobutanone is predicted and analyzed. After excitation into the n-3s Rydberg state (S2), cyclobutanone can relax through two S2/S1 conical intersections, one characterized by compression of the CO bond and the other by dissociation of the α-CC bond. Subsequent transfer into the ground state (S0) is then achieved via two additional S1/S0 conical intersections that lead to three reaction pathways: α ring-opening, ethene/ketene production, and CO liberation. The isotropic gas-phase UED signal is predicted from the multistate MASH simulations, allowing for a direct comparison to the experimental data. This work, which is a contribution to the cyclobutanone prediction challenge, facilitates the identification of the main photoproducts in the UED signal and thereby emphasizes the importance of dynamics simulations for the interpretation of ultrafast experiments.

Axionic defects in the CMB: birefringence and gravitational waves

The evidence for a non-vanishing isotropic cosmic birefringence in recent analyses of the CMB data provides a tantalizing hint for new physics. Domain wall (DW) networks have recently been shown to generate an isotropic birefringence signal in the ballpark of the measured value when coupled to photons. In this work, we explore the axionic defects hypothesis in more detail and extending previous results to annihilating and late-forming networks, and by pointing out other smoking-gun signatures of the network in the CMB spectrum such as the anisotropic birefringent spectrum and B-modes. We also argue that the presence of cosmic strings in the network does not hinder a large isotropic birefringence signal because of an intrinsic environmental contribution coming from low redshifts thus leaving open the possibility that axionic defects can explain the signal. Regarding the remaining CMB signatures, with the help of dedicated 3D numerical simulations of DW networks, that we took as a proxy for the axionic defects, we show how the anisotropic birefringence spectrum combined with a tomographic approach can be used to infer the formation and annihilation time of the network. From the numerical simulations, we also computed the spectrum of gravitational waves (GWs) generated by the network in the post-recombination epoch and use previous searches for stochastic GW backgrounds in the CMB to derive for the first time a bound on the tension and abundance of networks with DWs that annihilate after recombination. Our bounds extend to the case where the network survives until the present time and improve over previous bounds by roughly one order of magnitude. Finally, we show the interesting prospects for detecting B-modes of DW origin with future CMB experiments.

Effect of film morphology on circular dichroism of low-dimensional chiral hybrid perovskites.

Chiral hybrid lead halide perovskites show interesting chiral optoelectronic properties. The extent of chirality is often estimated by their circular dichroism (CD) response. Here, we show that the CD data depend strongly on film morphology. Four of the six chiral hybrid lead halide films prepared, 2D (R- and S-MBA)2PbI4 and 1D (R- and S-MBA)PbI3 (MBA: methylbenzylammonium), form homogenous non-textured films and show an isotropic CD signal. In contrast, the other two samples, 1D (R- and S-MBA)PbBr3, form textured films, showing uncorrelated CD signals from different parts of the film. Therefore, the role of film morphology needs to be verified before designing and comparing the chiroptic and chiral optoelectronic properties of hybrid perovskites.

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Galactic Dust Structure and the Cosmic PAH Background in Cross-correlation with WISE

We present a cross-correlation analysis between resolution total intensity and polarization observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) at 150 and 220 GHz and 15″ mid-infrared photometry from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) over 107 12.°5 × 12.°5 patches of sky. We detect a spatially isotropic signal in the WISE×ACT TT cross-power spectrum at 30σ significance that we interpret as the correlation between the cosmic infrared background at ACT frequencies and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission from galaxies in WISE, i.e., the cosmic PAH background. Within the Milky Way, the Galactic dust TT spectra are generally well described by power laws in ℓ over the range 103 < ℓ < 104, but there is evidence both for variability in the power-law index and for non-power-law behavior in some regions. We measure a positive correlation between WISE total intensity and ACT E-mode polarization at 1000 < ℓ ≲ 6000 at >3σ in each of 35 distinct ∼100 deg2 regions of the sky, suggesting that alignment between Galactic density structures and the local magnetic field persists to subparsec physical scales in these regions. The distribution of TE amplitudes in this ℓ range across all 107 regions is biased to positive values, while there is no evidence for such a bias in the TB spectra. This work constitutes the highest-ℓ measurements of the Galactic dust TE spectrum to date and indicates that cross-correlation with high-resolution mid-infrared measurements of dust emission is a promising tool for constraining the spatial statistics of dust emission at millimeter wavelengths.

Further results on maximal ratio combining under correlated noise for multi-carrier underwater acoustic communication using vector sensors

In the isotropic marine ambient noise field, the pressure and particle velocity signal processing based on the maximal ratio combining (MRC) algorithm can effectively improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the underwater acoustic (UWA) communication using acoustic vector sensors (VS). However, the assumption of isotropic ambient noise is not always valid, especially when combined with VS manufacturing errors, which increase the correlation between pressure and velocity branches for the noise and reduce MRC performance. Therefore, a correlation coefficient weighted MRC (CCW-MRC) method is proposed to achieve the optimal combination under correlated noise. And we derive the optimal weighting factors and apply the CCW-MRC method to the multi-carrier M-ary Frequency Shift Keying (MFSK) based UWA communication system with the single acoustic VS. Simulation and the field trial results demonstrate that the proposed CCW-MRC method can improve the received SNR by 2-3 dB compared with the traditional MRC in the multicarrier MFSK based UWA communication system using the single acoustic VS.

An intracellular isotropic diffusion signal is positively associated with pubertal development in white matter

Puberty is a key event in adolescent development that involves significant, hormone-driven changes to many aspects of physiology including the brain. Understanding how the brain responds during this time period is important for evaluating neuronal developments that affect mental health throughout adolescence and the adult lifespan. This study examines diffusion MRI scans from the cross-sectional ABCD Study baseline cohort, a large multi-site study containing thousands of participants, to describe the relationship between pubertal development and brain microstructure. Using advanced, 3-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution methods, this study is able to describe multiple tissue compartments beyond only white matter (WM) axonal qualities. After controlling for age, sex, brain volume, subject handedness, scanning site, and sibling relationships, we observe a positive relationship between an isotropic, intracellular diffusion signal fraction and pubertal development across a majority of regions of interest (ROIs) in the WM skeleton. We also observe regional effects from an intracellular anisotropic signal fraction compartment and extracellular isotropic free water-like compartment in several ROIs. This cross-sectional work suggests that changes in pubertal status are associated with a complex response from brain tissue that cannot be completely described by traditional methods focusing only on WM axonal properties.

Disentangling sub-GeV dark matter from the diffuse supernova neutrino background using Hyper-Kamiokande

The upcoming Hyper-Kamiokande (HyperK) experiment is expected to detect the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB). This requires to ponder all possible sources of background. Sub-GeV dark matter (DM) which annihilates into neutrinos is a potential background that has not been considered so far. We simulate DSNB and DM signals, as well as backgrounds in the HyperK detector. We find that DM-induced neutrinos could indeed alter the extraction of the correct values of the parameters of interest for DSNB physics. Since the DSNB is an isotropic signal, and DM originates primarily from the Galactic centre, we show that this effect could be alleviated with an on-off analysis.

Asymmetric Heterodimer-Regulated Surface Plasmon Coupling ECL Polarization Strategy for MiRNA-182 Detection.

In this work, a novel plasmonic heterodimer with controllable hot spot was designed and applied to regulate surface plasmon coupling electrochemiluminescence (SPC-ECL) polarization sensing system. The heterodimer nanostructure consisted of individual Au-Ag core-shell nanocubes (Au@Ag NC) and Au nanospheres (Au NS), which were precisely assembled by thiol-DNA and biotin-streptavidin. The asymmetric nanostructure can significantly modulate the ECL intensity and emission polarization angle based on the synergy of the surface plasmon coupling (SPC) effect and the lightning rod effect with extraordinary field enhancement in the hot spot region. As a result, the isotropic ECL signal of zinc-doped nitrogen dots (Zn-N dots) was regulated in the directional emission. Furthermore, the SPC-ECL biosensor was successfully applied to detect miRNA-182 in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tissues. The research on the established relationship between ECL polarization analysis and plasmonic heterodimers can provide a new pathway for the development of ECL sensing platforms.

Bismuth Nano-Nest/Ti3CN Quantum Dot-Based Surface Plasmon Coupling Electrochemiluminescence Sensor for Ascites miRNA-421 Detection.

In this study, a novel surface plasmon-coupled electrochemiluminescence (SPC-ECL) biosensor was developed based on bismuth nano-nest and Ti3CN quantum dots (Ti3CN QDs). First, MXene derivative QDs (Ti3CN QDs) with excellent luminescence performance were prepared as the ECL luminescent. The N doping in Ti3CN QDs can effectively improve the luminescence performance and catalytic activity. Therefore, the luminescence performance of QDs has been effectively improved. Furthermore, the bismuth nano-nest structure with a strong localized surface plasmon resonance effect has been designed as the sensing interface via the electrochemical deposition method. It was worth noticed that the morphology of bismuth nanomaterials can be controlled effectively on the electrode surface by the step potential method. Due to the abundant surface plasmon hot spots generated between the bismuth nano-nests, the isotropic ECL signal of Ti3CN QDs can be not only significantly enhanced by 5.8 times but also converted into polarized emission. Finally, the bismuth nano-nest/Ti3CN QD-based SPC-ECL sensor was used to quantify miRNA-421 in the range of 1 fM to 10 nM. The biosensor has been successfully used for miRNA in ascites samples from gastric cancer patients, which indicated that the SPC-ECL sensor developed in this study has great potential for clinical analysis.

Vibrational relaxation by methylated xanthines in solution: Insights from 2D IR spectroscopy and calculations.

Two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy, infrared pump-infrared probe spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations were used to study vibrational relaxation by ring and carbonyl stretching modes in a series of methylated xanthine derivatives in acetonitrile and deuterium oxide (heavy water). Isotropic signals from the excited symmetric and asymmetric carbonyl stretch modes decay biexponentially in both solvents. Coherent energy transfer between the symmetric and asymmetric carbonyl stretching modes gives rise to a quantum beat in the time-dependent anisotropy signals. The damping time of the coherent oscillation agrees with the fast decay component of the carbonyl bleach recovery signals, indicating that this time constant reflects intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) to other solute modes. Despite their similar frequencies, the excited ring modes decay monoexponentially with a time constant that matches the slow decay component of the carbonyl modes. The slow decay times, which are faster in heavy water than in acetonitrile, approximately match the ones observed in previous UV pump-IR probe measurements on the same compounds. The slow component is assigned to intermolecular energy transfer to solvent bath modes from low-frequency solute modes, which are populated by IVR and are anharmonically coupled to the carbonyl and ring stretch modes. 2D IR measurements indicate that the carbonyl stretching modes are weakly coupled to the delocalized ring modes, resulting in slow exchange that cannot explain the common solvent-dependence. IVR is suggested to occur at different rates for the carbonyl vs ring modes due to differences in mode-specific couplings and not to differences in the density of accessible states.

Fiber direction estimation using constrained spherical deconvolution based on multi-model response function

Constrained spherical deconvolution can quantify white matter fiber orientation distribution information from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data. But this method is only applicable to single shell diffusion magnetic resonance imaging data and will provide wrong fiber orientation information in white matter tissue which contains isotropic diffusion signals. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a constrained spherical deconvolution method based on multi-model response function. Multi-shell data can improve the stability of fiber orientation, and multi-model response function can attenuate isotropic diffusion signals in white matter, providing more accurate fiber orientation information. Synthetic data and real brain data from public database were used to verify the effectiveness of this algorithm. The results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can attenuate isotropic diffusion signals in white matter and overcome the influence of partial volume effect on fiber direction estimation, thus estimate fiber direction more accurately. The reconstructed fiber direction distribution is stable, the false peaks are less, and the recognition ability of cross fiber is stronger, which lays a foundation for the further research of fiber bundle tracking technology.

Synthesis of Epitaxial Structures with Two-Dimensional Si Layers Embedded in a CaF2 Dielectric Matrix

The possibility of fabricating two-dimensional Si layers on a CaF2/Si(111) film by molecular beam epitaxy is studied. The growth conditions, under which the regions of two-dimensional Si layers are formed, are found. Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies have shown that regions of two-dimensional Si layers are formed in epitaxial structures prepared by the deposition of one to three biatomic Si layers on the CaF2/Si(111) film surface at a temperature of 550°С. The Raman spectra of these structures exhibit a narrow peak at 418 cm–1, which is due to light scattering on vibrations of Si atoms in the plane of a two-dimensional Si layer intercalated with calcium. The EPR spectra of multilayer structures with regions of two-dimensional Si layers embedded in CaF2 demonstrate an isotropic signal with an asymmetric Dyson shape and the g-factor g = 1.9992 under illumination. Consequently, this signal can be attributed to photoinduced conduction electrons in extended two-dimensional Si islands. These results may be useful for understanding the mechanisms of the formation of two-dimensional materials on CaF2/Si(111) substrates.

Honey bees find the shortest path: a collective flow-mediated approach

Honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are social insects that makes frequent use of volatile pheromone signals to collectively navigate unpredictable and unknown environments. Ants have been shown to effectively use pheromone trails to find the shortest path between two points, the nest and the food source. The ant pheromone trails are accomplished by depositing pheromones which are then diffused passively, creating isotropic (i.e., non-directional and axi-symmetric) signals. In this study, we report the first instance of the honey bees’ ability to solve the shortest path problem to localize the queen and aggregate around her by using a collective flow-mediated scenting strategy. In this strategy, individual bees not only emit pheromones but also fan their wings to actively direct the flow of the signals, providing colony members with directional messages to the queen’s location. We use computer vision and deep learning approaches to perform automatic and accurate image analysis. As a result, we quantify the number of bees in the short and long paths, and show that the short path is frequented by significantly more bees over time. We also reconstruct attractive surfaces using the positions and directions of scenting bees, and show that this surface is more “attractive” along the short path and around the queen as scenting bees send out directional messages and the swarm makes their way to the queen. Overall, we show that honey bees can effectively use the collective scenting behavior to overcome local and volatile pheromone communication and find the shortest path to the queen.

Supporting Evidence for a Galactic Lyα Background from Cassini UVIS Data

Cassini UVIS interplanetary hydrogen Lyα measurements from 2003 to 2004, obtained from a heliospheric downwind to sidewind location on approach to Saturn and during the first Saturn orbit, are presented and fit by a heliospheric hot density model with solar illumination. Adding the recently proposed 43 ± 3 Rayleigh (R) isotropic galactic hydrogen Lyα signal derived from New Horizons data improves our model’s ability to fit the observed Cassini “27 day” signal modulations from both upwind and downwind directions. Our modeling of the UVIS data favors a galactic Lyα background of ∼40–100R over a model with no significant galactic background.

Temperature-induced phase transition and tunable luminescence properties of Ce3+-Mn2+-Zr4+ tri-doped LaPO4 phosphor

Tunable blue-white-orange emitting LaPO4:Ce3+/Mn2+/Zr4+ (LPCMZ) phosphors have been synthesized by co-precipitation followed by calcination. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows the phase transition from hexagonal to monoclinic between 600 and 700 °C, accompanied by the increase of average nanocrystallites size from 8 to 64 nm. The Raman measurements revealed the vibrational modes associated with the LPCMZ crystalline phases, where the band positions and the full width at half maximum values depend on the structural parameters and nanocrystals size. For low-temperature calcination of 500 °C, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed nanoclusters composed of thinner nanoneedles, which developed into a rod-like self-assembly shape for higher calcination temperatures at around 900 °C. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy reveals a broad isotropic EPR signal, assigned to agglomerated/clustered Mn2+ ions, which are dispersed only at high temperatures above 900 °C. The photoluminescence spectra recorded under UV-excitation of Ce3+ ions showed the Mn2+ green/red (546, 630 nm) emissions due to an energy transfer (ET) between Ce3+ and Mn2+. Depending on the calcination temperature, the Mn2+ emission color can be finely adjusted from blue to white and orange.

Bi-dimensional Variational Mode Decomposition for Surface Texture Analysis

In surface metrology, filtration is one of the key operations which is used to decompose the components of the surface and extract a scale-limited surface for further assessment. Although many types of filters have been proposed and some of them have been standardized in ISO16610 serials, the classic surface topography filters often inherit the mode mixing and boundary distortion problems that may lead to surface texture verification failures. This study proposes a new filter algorithm for the surface texture analysis, and it is based on the extended bi-dimensional variational mode decomposition (BVMD), named EBVMD. BVMD is widely used in the field of image processing and it is probably first-time to be used in the field of surface texture analysis. It consists of three steps. Firstly, a coarse-grained parallel genetic algorithm is applied in the devised model to select of optimal penalty factor and decomposition number of the bi-dimensional variational mode, and the best set of modes is gained. Secondly, the instantaneous wavelength value of each mode is obtained by calculating the corresponding isotropic monogenic signals. Finally, the scale-limited surface is extracted by the mean instantaneous wavelength. Experiments are conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed filter on areal surface texture feature extraction with the mode aliasing and shape distortion phenomenon remedies. The experimental results show that the mean square error of roughness reconstructed by the proposed filter compared with the benchmarking values is 6.37×10-5, and owing to high flexibility in practice, the devised EBVMD provides a promising solution to achieve a high accuracy and efficiency filter.

Effects of Multi-Shell Free Water Correction on Glioma Characterization.

Diffusion MRI is a useful tool to investigate the microstructure of brain tumors. However, the presence of fast diffusing isotropic signals originating from non-restricted edematous fluids, within and surrounding tumors, may obscure estimation of the underlying tissue characteristics, complicating the radiological interpretation and quantitative evaluation of diffusion MRI. A multi-shell regularized free water (FW) elimination model was therefore applied to separate free water from tissue-related diffusion components from the diffusion MRI of 26 treatment-naïve glioma patients. We then investigated the diagnostic value of the derived measures of FW maps as well as FW-corrected tensor-derived maps of fractional anisotropy (FA). Presumed necrotic tumor regions display greater mean and variance of FW content than other parts of the tumor. On average, the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) for the classification of necrotic and enhancing tumor volumes increased by 5% in corrected data compared to non-corrected data. FW elimination shifts the FA distribution in non-enhancing tumor parts toward higher values and significantly increases its entropy (p ≤ 0.003), whereas skewness is decreased (p ≤ 0.004). Kurtosis is significantly decreased (p < 0.001) in high-grade tumors. In conclusion, eliminating FW contributions improved quantitative estimations of FA, which helps to disentangle the cancer heterogeneity.