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Dynamic and steady-state aspects of wave propagation are deeply connected in lossless open systems ‎in which the scattering matrix is unitary. There is then an equivalence among the energy excited within ‎the medium through all channels, the Wigner time delay, which is the sum of dwell times in all ‎channels coupled to the medium, and the density of states. But these equivalences fall away in the ‎presence of material loss or gain. In this paper, we use microwave measurements, numerical ‎simulations, and theoretical analysis to discover the changing relationships among fundamental wave ‎properties with loss and gain, and their dependencemore »upon dimensionality and spectral overlap. We ‎begin with the demonstrations that the transmission time in random 1D media is equal to the density ‎of states even in the presence of ultrastrong absorption and that its ensemble average is independent ‎of the strengths of scattering and absorption. In contrast, the Wigner time becomes imaginary in the ‎presence of loss, with real and imaginary parts that fall with absorption. In multichannel media, the ‎transmission time remains equal to the density of states and is independent of the scattering strength ‎in unitary systems but falls with absorption to a degree that increases with the strengths of absorption ‎and scattering, and the number of channels coupled to the medium. We show that the relationships ‎between key propagation variables in non-Hermitian systems can be understood in terms of the ‎singularities of the phase of the determinant of the transmission matrix. The poles of the transmission ‎matrix are the same as those of the scattering matrix, but the transmission zeros are fundamentally ‎different. Whereas the zeros of the scattering matrix are the complex conjugates of the poles, the ‎transmission zeros are topological: in unitary systems they occur only singly on the real axis or as ‎conjugate pairs. We follow the evolution and statistics of zeros in the complex plane as random ‎samples are deformed. The sensitivity of the spacing of zeros in the complex plane with deformation ‎of the sample has a square-root singularity at a zero point at which two single zeros and a complex ‎pair interconvert. The transmission time is a sum of Lorentzian functions associated with poles and ‎zeros. The sum over poles is the density of states with an average that is independent of scattering ‎and dissipation. But the sum over zeros changes with loss, gain, scattering strength and the number of ‎channels in ways that make it possible to control ultranarrow spectral features in transmission and ‎transmission time. We show that the field, including the contribution of the still coherent incident ‎wave, is a sum over modal partial fractions with amplitudes that are independent of loss and gain. The ‎energy excited may be expressed in terms of the resonances of the medium and is equal to the dwell ‎time even in the presence of loss or gain.‎« less

Introduction Twitter represents a mainstream news source for the American public, offering a valuable vehicle for learning how citizens make sense of pandemic health threats like Covid-19. Masking as a risk mitigation measure became controversial in the US. The social amplifica- tion risk framework offers insight into how a risk event interacts with psychological, social, institutional, and cultural communication processes to shape Covid-19 risk perception. Methods Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 7,024 mask tweets reflecting 6,286 users between January 24 and July 7, 2020, to identify how citizens expressed Covid-19 risk per- ception over time. Descriptive statistics were computedmore »for (a) proportion of tweets using hyperlinks, (b) mentions, (c) hashtags, (d) questions, and (e) location. Results Six themes emerged regarding how mask tweets amplified and attenuated Covid-19 risk: (a) severity perceptions (18.0%) steadily increased across 5 months; (b) mask effectiveness debates (10.7%) persisted; (c) who is at risk (26.4%) peaked in April and May 2020; (d) mask guidelines (15.6%) peaked April 3, 2020, with federal guidelines; (e) political legitimiz- ing of Covid-19 risk (18.3%) steadily increased; and (f) mask behavior of others (31.6%) composed the largest discussion category and increased over time. Of tweets, 45% con- tained a hyperlink, 40% contained mentions, 33% contained hashtags, and 16.5% were expressed as a question. Conclusions Users ascribed many meanings to mask wearing in the social media information environ- ment revealing that COVID-19 risk was expressed in a more expanded range than objective risk. The simultaneous amplification and attenuation of COVID-19 risk perception on social media complicates public health messaging about mask wearing.« less

Transparent materials do not absorb light but have profound influence on the phase evolution of transmitted radiation. One consequence is chromatic dispersion, i.e., light of different frequencies travels at different velocities, causing ultrashort laser pulses to elongate in time while propagating. Here we experimentally demonstrate ultrathin nanostructured coatings that resolve this challenge: we tailor the dispersion of silicon nanopillar arrays such that they temporally reshape pulses upon transmission using slow light effects and act as ultrashort laser pulse compressors. The coatings induce anomalous group delay dispersion in the visible to near-infrared spectral region around 800 nm wavelength over an 80 nmmore »bandwidth. We characterize the arrays’ performance in the spectral domain via white light interferometry and directly demonstrate the temporal compression of femtosecond laser pulses. Applying these coatings to conventional optics renders them ultrashort pulse compatible and suitable for a wide range of applications.

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Multi- and hyperspectral imaging modalities encompass a growing number of spectral techniques that find many applications in geospatial, biomedical and machine vision fields. The rapidly increasing number of applications requires a convenient easy-to-navigate software that can be used by new and experienced users to analyze data, develop, apply, and deploy novel algorithms. Herein, we present our platform, IDCube that performs essential operations in hyperspectral data analysis to realize the full potential of spectral imaging. The strength of the software lies in its interactive features that enable the users to optimize parameters and obtain visual input for the user. The entiremore »software can be operated without any prior programming skills allowing interactive sessions of raw and processed data. IDCube Lite, a free version of the software described in the paper, has many benefits compared to existing packages and offers structural flexibility to discover new hidden features.« less

To accurately determine the reliability of SRAMs, we propose a method to estimate the wearout parameters of FEOL TDDB using on-line data collected during operations. Errors in estimating lifetime model parameters are determined as a function of time, which are based on the available failure sample size. Systematic errors are also computed due to uncertainty in estimation of temperature and supply voltage during operations, as well as uncertainty in process parameters and use conditions.