Spatial analysis of air pollution and cancer incidence rates in Haifa Bay, Israel

The Israel National Cancer Registry reported in 2001 that cancer incidence rates in the Haifa area are roughly 20% above the national average. Since Haifa has been the major industrial center in Israel since 1930, concern has been raised that the elevated cancer rates may be associated with historically high air pollution levels. This work tests whether persistent spatial patterns of metrics of chronic exposure to air pollutants are associated with the observed patterns of cancer incidence rates. Risk metrics of chronic exposure to PM₁₀, emitted both by industry and traffic, and to SO₂, a marker of industrial emissions, was developed. Ward-based maps of standardized incidence rates of three prevalent cancers: Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, lung cancer and bladder cancer were also produced. Global clustering tests were employed to filter out those cancers that show sufficiently random spatial distribution to have a nil probability of being related to the spatial non-random risk maps. A Bayesian method was employed to assess possible associations between the morbidity and risk patterns, accounting for the ward-based socioeconomic status ranking. Lung cancer in males and bladder cancer in both genders showed non-random spatial patterns. No significant associations between the SO₂-based risk maps and any of the cancers were found. Lung cancer in males was found to be associated with PM₁₀, with the relative risk associated with an increase of 1 μg/m³ of PM₁₀ being 12%. Special consideration of wards with expected rates < 1 improved the results by decreasing the variance of the spatially correlated residual log-relative risk.     

Two-beam nonlinear Kerr effect to stabilize laser frequency with sub-Doppler resolution

Avoiding laser frequency drifts is a key issue in many atomic physics experiments. Several techniques have been developed to lock the laser frequency using sub-Doppler dispersive atomic lineshapes as error signals in a feedback loop. We propose here a two-beam technique that uses nonlinear properties of an atomic vapor around sharp resonances to produce sub-Doppler dispersivelike lineshapes that can be used as error signals. Our simple and robust technique has the advantage of not needing either modulation or magnetic fields.     

Large anisotropic conductance and band gap fluctuations in nearly round-shape bismuth nanoparticles

Unlike their bulk counterpart, nanoparticles often show spontaneous fluctuations in their crystal structure at constant temperature [Iijima, S.; Ichihashi T. Phys. Rev. Lett.1985, 56, 616; Ajayan, P. M.; Marks L. D. Phys. Rev. Lett.1988, 60, 585; Ben-David, T.; Lereah, Y.; Deutscher, G.; Penisson, J. M.; Bourret, A.; Korman, R.; Cheyssac, P. Phys. Rev. Lett.1997, 78, 2585]. This phenomenon takes place whenever the net gain in the surface energy of the particles outweighs the energy cost of internal strain. The configurational space is then densely populated due to shallow free-energy barriers between structural local minima. Here we report that in the case of bismuth (Bi) nanoparticles (BiNPs), given the high anisotropy of the mass tensor of their charge carriers, structural fluctuations result in substantial dynamic changes in their electronic and conductance properties. Transmission electron microscopy is used to probe the stochastic dynamic structural fluctuations of selected BiNPs. The related fluctuations in the electronic band structure and conductance properties are studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy and are shown to be temperature dependent. Continuous probing of the conductance of individual BiNPs reveals corresponding dynamic fluctuations (as high as 1 eV) in their apparent band gap. At 80 K, upon freezing of structural fluctuations, conductance anisotropy in BiNPs is detected as band gap variations as a function of tip position above individual particles. BiNPs offer a unique system to explore anisotropy in zero-dimension conductors as well as the dynamic nature of nanoparticles.     

On loss probabilities in presence of redundant packets with random drop

The purpose of this paper is to study the loss probabilities of messages in an M/M/1/K queueing system where in addition to losses due to buffer overflow there are also random losses in the incoming and outgoing links. We focus on the influence of adding redundant packets to the messages (as in error correction coding, e.g. Reed–Solomon code, etc.). In the first part we use multi-dimensional probability generating functions for solving the recursions which generalize those introduced by Cidon et al. [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 39 (1) (1993) 98] for computing the loss probabilities and derive analytical formulae for a special case. In the second part of the paper we use combinatorial arguments and Ballot theorem results to alternatively obtain the loss probabilities. The analytical results allow us to investigate when does adding redundancy decrease the loss probabilities.     

Delay Optimal Scheduling in a Two-Hop Vehicular Relay Network

We study a scheduling problem in a wireless network where vehicles are used as store-and-forward relays, a situation that might arise, for example, in practical rural communication networks. A fixed source node wants to transfer a file to a fixed destination node, located beyond its communication range. In the absence of any infrastructure connecting the two nodes, we consider the possibility of communication using vehicles passing by. Vehicles arrive at the source node at renewal instants and are known to travel towards the destination node with average speed v sampled from a given probability distribution. The source node communicates data packets (or fragments) of the file to the destination node using these vehicles as relays. We assume that the vehicles communicate with the source node and the destination node only, and hence, every packet communication involves two hops. In this setup, we study the source node’s sequential decision problem of transferring packets of the file to vehicles as they pass by, with the objective of minimizing delay in the network. We study both the finite file size case and the infinite file size case. In the finite file size case, we aim to minimize the expected file transfer delay, i.e., expected value of the maximum of the packet sojourn times. In the infinite file size case, we study the average packet delay minimization problem as well as the optimal tradeoff achievable between the average queueing delay at the source node buffer and the average transit delay in the relay vehicle.     

Data retention reliability model of NROM nonvolatile memory products

Post cycling data retention reliability model of NROM devices is presented. The degradation rate of the threshold voltage of cycled cells is shown to be a multiplication of three functions: 1) bit density; 2) endurance; and 3) storage time and temperature. The functions are fitted to experimental results of products of three technology nodes. The retention loss is interpreted in terms of thermally activated lateral migration of trapped holes in the ONO layer. The holes' migration quenches the electrons' field over the channel of the device, degrading its threshold voltage. The migration process is presented as a dispersive transport process. Saturation of the retention loss is demonstrated at threshold voltage levels well above the neutral state of the device. From the retention loss function we derive a time-to-failure formula and an expression for the thermal acceleration factor of NROM products useful for determining stress conditions for accelerated reliability tests.     

25th Anniversary Article: Ordered Polymer Structures for the Engineering of Photons and Phonons

The engineering of optical and acoustic material functionalities via construction of ordered local and global architectures on various length scales commensurate with and well below the characteristic length scales of photons and phonons in the material is an indispensable and powerful means to develop novel materials. In the current mature status of photonics, polymers hold a pivotal role in various application areas such as light‐emission, sensing, energy, and displays, with exclusive advantages despite their relatively low dielectric constants. Moreover, in the nascent field of phononics, polymers are expected to be a superior material platform due to the ability for readily fabricated complex polymer structures possessing a wide range of mechanical behaviors, complete phononic bandgaps, and resonant architectures. In this review, polymer‐centric photonic and phononic crystals and metamaterials are highlighted, and basic concepts, fabrication techniques, selected functional polymers, applications, and emerging ideas are introduced.