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Bioinspired piezoelectric nanogenerators based on phage nanopillars are inceptively demonstrated, and the electrical power from phage nanopillars holds promise for the development of implantable and wearable electronics.

Embedding tunable quantum emitters in a photonic bandgap structure enables control of dissipative and dispersive interactions between emitters and their photonic bath. Operation in the transmission band, outside the gap, allows for studying waveguide quantum electrodynamics in the slow-light regime. Alternatively, tuning the emitter into the bandgap results in finite-range emitter–emitter interactions via bound photonic states. Here, we couple a transmon qubit to a superconducting metamaterial with a deep sub-wavelength lattice constant (λ/60). The metamaterial is formed by periodically loading a transmission line with compact, low-loss, low-disorder lumped-element microwave resonators. Tuning the qubit frequency in the vicinity of a band-edge with a group index of ng = 450, we observe an anomalous Lamb shift of −28 MHz accompanied by a 24-fold enhancement in the qubit lifetime. In addition, we demonstrate selective enhancement and inhibition of spontaneous emission of different transmon transitions, which provide simultaneous access to short-lived radiatively damped and long-lived metastable qubit states.

We propose a superconducting electrical circuit that simulates a quadratic optomechanical system. A capacitor placed between two transmission-line (TL) resonators acts like a semi-transparent membrane, and a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) that terminates a TL resonator behaves like a movable mirror. Combining these circuit elements, it is possible to simulate a quadratic optomechanical coupling whose coupling strength is determined by the coupling capacitance and the tunable bias flux through the SQUIDs. Estimates using realistic parameters suggest that an improvement in the coupling strength could be realized, to five orders of magnitude from what has been observed in membrane-in-the-middle cavity optomechanical systems. This leads to the possibility of achieving the strong-coupling regime of quadratic optomechanics.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure

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Moisture content influences physiological characteristics of microbes and physical structure of solid matrices during composting of animal manure. If moisture content is maintained at a proper level, aerobic microorganisms show more active oxygen consumption during composting due to increased microbial activity. In this study, optimum moisture levels for composting of two bedding materials (sawdust, rice hull) and two different mixtures of bedding and beef manure (BS, Beef cattle manure+sawdust; BR, Beef cattle manure+rice hull) were determined based on oxygen uptake rate measured by a pressure sensor method. A broad range of oxygen uptake rates (0.3 to 33.3 mg O2/g VS d) were monitored as a function of moisture level and composting feedstock type. The maximum oxygen consumption of each material was observed near the saturated condition, which ranged from 75% to 98% of water holding capacity. The optimum moisture content of BS and BR were 70% and 57% on a wet basis, respectively. Although BS’s optimum moisture content was near saturated state, its free air space kept a favorable level (above 30%) for aerobic composting due to the sawdust’s coarse particle size and bulking effect.

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