Spatially varying chemical phase formation on silicon nano ripple by low energy mixed ions bombardment

We report mixed (CO+ and N2+) ion beam induced spatially varying chemical phases formation on Si (100) surface in nanometer length scale. Simultaneous bombardment of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen like three reactive ions leads to well-defined ripple development and spatially varying periodic chemical phases formation. Post bombardment chemical changes of Si surface are investigated by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and spatially resolved periodic variation of chemical phases are confirmed by Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS). The thickness of ion modified amorphous layer, estimated by Monte Carlo Simulation (SRIM), is in excellent agreement with the cross-sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy measurements. The formation of such periodic nanoscale ripple having multiple chemical phases at different parts is explained in terms of chemical instability, local ion flux variation and difference in sputtering yield. Potential applications of such newly developed nano material are also addressed.

Polymer-based self-assembled photonic crystals to tune the light transport and emission

The advent of photonic crystals has materialized the idea of taming the flow of light which has revolutionized the photonics technology. Photonic crystals are constructed by the periodic variation of...

Investigation of the Timing and Spectral Properties of an Ultraluminous X-Ray Pulsar NGC 7793 P13

We perform both timing and spectral analyses using the archival X-ray data taken with Swift, XMM-Newton, NICER, and NuSTAR from 2016 to 2020 to study an ultraluminous pulsar, NGC 7793 P13, that showed a long period of super-Eddington accretion. We use the Rayleigh test to investigate the pulsation at different epochs, and confirm the variation of the pulse profile with finite Gaussian mixture modeling and a two-sample Kuiper test. Taking into account the periodic variation of the spin periods caused by the orbital Doppler effect, we further determine an orbital period of ∼65 days and show that no significant correlation can be detected between the orbital phase and the pulsed fraction. The pulsed spectrum of NGC 7793 P13 in the 0.5–20 keV range can be simply described using a power law with a high-energy exponential cutoff, while the broadband phase-averaged spectrum of the same energy range requires two additional components to account for the contribution of a thermal accretion disk and the Comptonization photons scattered into the hard X-rays. We find that NGC 7793 P13 stayed in the hard ultraluminous state and the pulsed spectrum was relatively soft when the source was faint at the end of 2019. Moreover, an absorption feature close to 1.3 keV is marginally detected from the pulsed spectra and it is possibly associated with a cyclotron resonant scattering feature.

Interpretation and Dynamics of the Lotka–Volterra Model in the Description of a Three-Level Laser

In this work, the Lotka–Volterra equations where applied to laser physics to describe population inversion and the number of emitted photons. Given that predation and stimulated emissions are analogous processes, two rate equations where obtained by finding suitable parameter transformations for a three-level laser. This resulted in a set of differential equations which are isomorphic to several laser models under accurate parameter identification. Furthermore, the steady state provided two critical points: one where light amplification stops and another where continuous-wave operation is achieved. Lyapunov’s first method of stability yielded the conditions for the convergence to the continuous-wave point, whereas a Lyapunov potential provided its stability regions. Finally, the Q-Switching technique was modeled by introducing a periodic variation of the quality Q of the cavity. This resulted in the transformation of the asymptotically stable fixed point into a limit cycle in the phase space.

Spatiotemporal Variability of Weather Extremes Over Eastern India: Evidences of Ascertained Long Term Trend Persistence and Effective Global Climate Controls

The present study acknowledged climate variability induced periodic variation in localized extreme weather event occurrences under diverse agro eco-regions of Eastern Himalayas of India during past five decades. The widespread rise in warm nights (TN90p; 0.31-1.67 days year-1), reduced daily rainfall intensity (SDII) and changes in other weather extremes viz. temperature and precipitation extremes signified clear signals on regional atmospheric warming across eastern India. The agro-ecological regions under extended Bramhaputra valley and coastal belts of south Bengal experienced the most persistent shifts in temperature extremes, while the upper Himalayan range extended from North Bengal to Arunachal Pradesh experienced the steepest decline in average daily rainfall intensity and other absolute quantitative estimates of precipitation extremes over past five decades. Together with El Niño and La Niña events, large scale global atmospheric circulations particularly expansion of warmer Pacific Warm Pool (PWP) and changes in Atlantic Meridional Mode (AMM) contributed the periodic dynamics in weather extreme occurrences from monthly to annual time scale over eastern India. Our findings will be useful for better understanding of regional climatology, designing and successful implantation of location-specific suitable agricultural policies towards climate change adaptation in near future.

Analysis of light-wave nonstaticity in the coherent state

The characteristics of nonstatic quantum light waves in the coherent state in a static environment is investigated. It is shown that the shape of the wave varies periodically as a manifestation of its peculiar properties of nonstaticity like the case of the Fock-state analysis for a nonstatic wave. A belly occurs in the graphic of wave evolution whenever the wave is maximally displaced in the quadrature space, whereas a node takes place every time the wave passes the equilibrium point during its oscillation. In this way, a belly and a node appear in turn successively. Whereas this change of wave profile is accompanied by the periodic variation of electric and magnetic energies, the total energy is conserved. The fluctuations of quadratures also vary in a regular manner according to the wave transformation in time. While the resultant time-varying uncertainty product is always larger than (or, at least, equal to) its quantum-mechanically allowed minimal value ($$\hbar /2$$ ħ / 2 ), it is smallest whenever the wave constitutes a belly or a node. The mechanism underlying the abnormal features of nonstatic light waves demonstrated here can be interpreted by the rotation of the squeezed-shape contour of the Wigner distribution function in phase space.

ELANE Neutropenia Beyond the Classification into Cyclic Neutropenia and Severe Congenital Neutropenia: The Inconstant Time Clock

Introduction: ELANE neutropenia represents the cause of 25-30% of the cases of congenital neutropenia. Classically, its appears in the literature as in OMIM, under two distinct entities: Severe congenital neutropenia (SCN) and cyclic neutropenia (CyN). The delineation between the 2 entities is the "cyclicity" i.e. the periodic variation of the absolute neutrophils count (ANC), also called a 21-day time clock 1. However, it is extremely difficult to obtain enough sequential complete blood counts (CBC) at the onset of the disease, during an enough length period, while the patient is not experiencing a severe infection or receiving GCSF therapy. The purpose of our study is to analyze the ANC periodicity at the onset of the disease, prior to the initiation of GCSF in a cohort of patients with ELANE neutropenia. Methods : Available data from the patients, with ELANE class 4 and 5 variants, enrolled in the French Severe Chronic Neutropenia Registry, were analysed. The final diagnostic of CyN and SCN was performed considering all the follow up period (median 16.7 years) and based on the presence of recurrent periodic variation of ANC in the absence of GCSF therapy. CyN was defined as multiple documented ANCs >500 cells/mm 3 , with intermittent ANC variation (n=49), while SCN is defined as ANC persistently <500 cells/mm 3 (n=94). In case of irregularity (i.e. not a regular periodic pattern during all the follow up), the classification takes in consideration the majority of the follow up. A comprehensive analysis of the infectious profile is available elsewhere 2. We were focused here on the diagnostic period (roughly the 2 first months since the diagnosis). We have analysed the initial blood count of the patients and cast the patients by categories if at least 4 ANCs can be evaluated. ANC oscillations defined 4 groups: Group 1: oscillation of ANC values above and below 500 ANC/mm 3 for at least 2 cycles lead to consider the patient as Cyclic; Group 2: clear oscillation of ANC values above and below 200 ANC/mm 3 (but ever<500 ANC/mm 3) for at least 2 cycles; Group 3: no oscillation of ANC values whose level are ever below 500 ANC/mm 3; Group 4: Early GCSF treatment. Results : Among the 143 patients enrolled in this study (Table 1), 137 have at least 4 CBC evaluable during the diagnosis period, including 30 who have been treated almost front line after diagnosis of neutropenia by GCSF hampering evaluation of periodicity. Such patients were all initially considered as SCN. Among the 67 finally classified as SCN, 28 (27.38%) showed an oscillation pattern (group 1), 14 (15.48%) showed minor oscillations (group 2), while 25 (30.95%) had a persistent and severe neutropenia (group 3). Among the 40 CyN, 1 have showed minor oscillations (group 2) below 500/mm 3, while 3 had a persistent and severe neutropenia (group 3). Globally, 32 /107 patients were miss- classified at diagnosis compare to the final diagnosis. Additional data shows that many health indicators could not be deducted from the initial classification like the infections rate, the use of GCSF, the death rate, the sequels rate. Conclusions: Periodic variation of ANC despite being the criteria to define the sub type of ELANE neutropenia is difficult to evaluate at the initial presentation of the disease. In addition, cyclicity is not a permanent feature in ELANE neutropenia, some patients being cyclic only for a certain time in their life span. It results a high rate of miss classification if we compare the initial diagnostic period and all the medical history of the patients. Noteworthy, the rate of several severe complications is not so clearly different between diagnosis sub categories. We propose to consider ELANE neutropenia as a unique disease characterized by a clinical spectrum ranging from more severe forms (corresponding to SCN) to milder forms, the latter often characterized at onset by ANC fluctuations. In addition, some intermediate severity forms could be characterized by minor oscillations. References 1 Horwitz M, Benson KF, Person RE, Aprikyan AG, Dale DC. Mutations in ELA2, encoding neutrophil elastase, define a 21-day biological clock in cyclic haematopoiesis. Nat.Genet. 1999;23:433-436. 2 Rotulo GA, Plat G, Beaupain B et al. Recurrent bacterial infections, but not fungal infections, characterise patients with ELANE-related neutropenia: a French Severe Chronic Neutropenia Registry study. Br J Haematol. 2021 doi: 10.1111/bjh.17695 Figure 1 Figure 1. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Impacts of Urbanization on Extreme Regional Precipitation Events

Urbanization significantly impacts regional precipitation. In this study, using the city of Xi’an in China as a study area, we analyze the variation in land use and the characteristics of the variation in extreme precipitation events and discuss the response of urbanization to extreme precipitation. The main conclusions drawn are as follows. (1) The construction land area of the study area rapidly expanded in size from 80.76 km2 in 1984 to 400.3 km2 in 2018. The transfer of land use mainly occurred as the transfer from farmland to other types of land use. The urban land use intensity continues to increase. (2) The intensities and different frequency indices of extreme precipitations both show an increasing trend. In addition, the former exhibits periodic alternation with a dominant frequency of 21 years during the flood season, and both the fluctuation amplitude and maximum value of the periodic variation increase with time. (3) The urbanization in the study area has a significant impact on Rx1h and Rx2h precipitations, but little impact on the intensity of long-duration precipitation. Hence, urbanization significantly increases the intensity of extreme precipitation. After the 2000s, the urban building area, rainfall frequency, and rainfall intensity growth trends are highly consistent.

Accuracy Evaluation of Ionospheric Delay from Multi-Scale Reference Networks and Its Augmentation to PPP during Low Solar Activity

The Precise Point Positioning (PPP) with fast integer ambiguity resolution (PPP-RTK) is feasible only if the solution is augmented with precise ionospheric parameters. The vertical ionospheric delays together with the receiver hardware biases, are estimated simultaneously based on the uncombined PPP model. The performance of the ionospheric delays was evaluated and applied in the PPP-RTK demonstration during the low solar activity period. The processing was supported by precise products provided by Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ) and also by real-time products provided by the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). Since GFZ provides only precise orbits and clocks, other products needed for ambiguity resolution, such as phase biases, were estimated at the Geodetic Observatory Pecny (GOP). When ambiguity parameters were resolved as integer values in the GPS-only solution, the initial convergence period was reduced from 30 and 20 min to 24 and 13 min when using CNES and GFZ/GOP products, respectively. The accuracy of ionospheric delays derived from the ambiguity fixed PPP, and the CODE global ionosphere map were then assessed. Comparison of ambiguity fixed ionospheric delay obtained at two collocated stations indicated the accuracy of 0.15 TECU for different scenarios with more than 60% improvement compared to the ambiguity float PPP. However, a daily periodic variation can be observed from the multi-day short-baseline ionospheric residuals. The accuracy of the interpolated ionospheric delay from global maps revealed a dependency on the location of the stations, ranging from 1 to 3 TECU. Precise ionospheric delays derived from the EUREF permanent network with an inter-station distance larger than 73 km were selected for ionospheric modeling at the user location. Results indicated that the PPP ambiguity resolution could be achieved within three minutes. After enlarging the inter-station distance to 209 km, ambiguity resolution could also be achieved within several minutes.