Aurrion (United States)

Expansive soils pose significant geotechnical challenges due to their time-dependent swelling behaviour, which can cause severe infrastructure damage. The ability to predict swell potential accurately is vital for effective designs and risk mitigation. This study combines constitutive modelling with machine learning to enhance the predictive capability of swell behaviour in expansive clays. The constitutive swell model introduced by Liu et al. was evaluated by experimental one-dimensional swell tests, demonstrating its ability to accurately predict time-dependent swelling behaviour under varying surcharge pressures (SPs). A data-driven decision tree (DT) framework was created to relate key swelling parameters of Liu et al. model to fundamental soil index properties such as moisture content, SP, and plasticity index to improve predictive accuracy. Based on these measurable index properties, the model successfully captured the final swell potential of clay samples. Independent validation using literature datasets demonstrated high accuracy, with R2 > 0.97 for predicting final swell potential. The proposed DT framework provides geotechnical engineers with a practical tool to assess final swell potential based on fundamental soil index properties, aiding in better infrastructure design and mitigating the risks associated with shrink-swell behaviour.

We demonstrate InP-based high power modified uni-traveling carrier photodiodes heterogeneously integrated on silicon on diamond (SOD) waveguides. These photodiodes reach 20 nA dark current at -5 V bias voltage. A 50 μm long device exhibits an internal responsivity of 1.07 A/W. The bandwidths of the devices with 14×25 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , 14×50 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , 14×100 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> and 14×150 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> area are 22 GHz, 16 GHz, 10 GHz and 7 GHz, respectively. The maximum output RF powers of the 14×100 μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> photodiode are 15.3 dBm at 10 GHz and 19.8 dBm at 1 GHz. The maximum DC dissipated power at 1 GHz is 0.8 W. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of III-V photodiodes integrated into a SOD architecture.

In this paper, we review recent results on hybrid silicon mode-locked lasers with a focus on low phase noise optical pulse generation. Taking a high level design approach to lowering phase noise, we show the need for long on-chip optical delay lines for mode-locked lasers to reach and overcome material limits. Key results include demonstration of the longest (cavity length 9 cm) integrated on-chip mode locked laser, 14 dB reduction of Lorentzian noise on a 20 GHz radio-frequency (RF) signal, and greater than 55 dB optical supermode noise suppression using harmonically mode locked long cavity laser, 10 GHz passively mode locked laser with 15 kHz linewidth using on-chip all optical feedback stabilization.

We present results from two hybrid silicon mode-locked lasers, each with a 2 GHz cavity and one with an intra-cavity ring resonator filter. We compare the performance of the two lasers with respect to the harmonic mode-locking behavior at 20 GHz, i.e., the tenth harmonic. The filter based laser design passively mode-locked at 20 GHz with an electrical spur mode suppression >45 dB. Furthermore, an optical supermode suppression of 55 dB and an RF linewidth of 52 kHz was also observed. Hybrid mode-locking the laser without the filter required 10 dBm input microwave power for 25 dB (electrical) spur mode suppression as opposed to the design with the filter showing >45 dB suppression at 0 dBm input power.

We present data on the design and performance analysis of phase shifted distributed feedback (DFB) lasers on the hybrid silicon platform. The lasing wavelength for various input currents and temperatures, for devices with standard quarter-wavelength, 60 μm and 120 μm-long phase shift are compared for mode stability and output power. The pros and cons of including a large phase shift region in the grating design are analyzed.

Endpoint immunoglobulin G (IgG) titers and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) activities were identical between mice immunized via the intramuscular and epidermal (gene gun) routes with 100 and 1 micrograms, respectively, of an influenza virus nucleoprotein (NP) expression vector. However, examination of the relative levels of two IgG subclasses demonstrated that muscle inoculation resulted in predominantly IgG2a responses, whereas gene gun immunization yielded a preponderance of IgG1 antibodies. Inasmuch as these data suggested that muscle inoculation and gene gun delivery elicited Th1-like and Th2-like responses, respectively, gamma interferon release profiles from antigen-stimulated splenocytes were remarkably similar between these groups. Interleukin-4 (IL-4) production assays, on the other hand, revealed qualitative differences that could be correlated with the divergent IgG subclass data. Waning gamma interferon production in gene gun-immunized animals was countered by a marked increase in IL-4 production following the third immunization, as was the case in control animals immunized with inactivated influenza virus formulated with Freund's adjuvant. In contrast, significant levels of IL-4 production were not observed in the intramuscular DNA inoculation group, despite similar decreases in gamma interferon production with increasing immunizations. These data show that intramuscular inoculation leads to Th1-like responses due to elevated IgG2a levels, production of gamma interferon, CTL activity, and lack of IL-4. However, gene gun responses are more difficult to categorize because of the presence of significant gamma interferon and CTL activity on the one hand and elevated IgG1 antibodies and increasing IL-4 production with successive immunizations on the other. In addition, there was a lack of correlation between IgG isotype ratios and cytokine production in all of the NP DNA-immunized animals, in that IgG subclass ratios remained fixed while cytokine production patterns fluctuated with successive immunizations. These data are consistent with the idea that the types of responses elicited following DNA immunization. are dependent on both the identity of the antigen and the route of DNA administration.