Photonics has long been used to study non-solid materials such as liquids, gases and plasmas, but these fluidic media have traditionally not comprised a functional part of the photonic device or ...system. The emerging field of optofluidics seeks to create new ways of uniting solid and non-solid materials in a single photonic system whose optical properties are typically defined by the fluidic component. This Review summarizes the current state of optofluidics from a photonics perspective. First, we describe a new class of photonic elements based on the combination of fluidic media and integrated optical structures. We then discuss the applications of optofluidic principles to particle sensing and manipulation in fluids, and finally assess current challenges and potential directions for future developments.
Polaritons are widely investigated quasiparticles with fundamental and technological significance due to their unique properties. They have been studied most extensively in semiconductors when ...photons interact with various elementary excitations. However, other strongly coupled excitations demonstrate similar dynamics. Specifically, when magnon and phonon modes are coupled, a hybridized magnon-phonon quasiparticle can form. Here, we report on the direct observation of coupled magnon-phonon dynamics within a single thin nickel nanomagnet. We develop an analytic description to model the dynamics in two dimensions, enabling us to isolate the parameters influencing the frequency splitting. Furthermore, we demonstrate tuning of the magnon-phonon interaction into the strong coupling regime via the orientation of the applied magnetic field.
The advent of single-molecule probing techniques has revolutionized the biomedical and life science fields and has spurred the development of a new class of labs-on-chip based on powerful biosensors. ...Nanopores represent one of the most recent and most promising single molecule sensing paradigms that is seeing increased chip-scale integration for improved convenience and performance. Due to their physical structure, nanopores are highly sensitive, require low sample volume, and offer label-free, amplification-free, high-throughput real-time detection and identification of biomolecules. Over the last 25 years, nanopores have been extensively employed to detect a variety of biomolecules with a growing range of applicatons ranging from nucleic acid sequencing to ultrasensitive diagnostics to single-molecule biophysics. Nanopores, in particular those in solid-state membranes, also have the potential for integration with other technologies such as optics, plasmonics, microfluidics, and optofluidics to perform more complex tasks for an ever-expanding demand. A number of breakthrough results using integrated nanopore platforms have already been reported, and more can be expected as nanopores remain the focus of innovative research and are finding their way into commercial instruments. This review provides an overview of different aspects and challenges of nanopore technology with a focus on chip-scale integration of solid-state nanopores for biosensing and bioanalytical applications.
Nanopores are powerful single molecule sensors that have a wide range of applications from single molecule biophysics to medical diagnostics. This review covers all aspects of nanopore sensor integration into increasingly complex lab-on-chip systems.
Particular in service and b-to-b-sectors, employees’ brand commitment is a prerequisite for building a strong brand. While many areas of interest within the field of internal branding have been ...tested by empirical studies, knowledge of internally oriented brand ambassador programs (BAPs) is predominately anecdotal. The aim of this article is to identify BAPs’ success factors by first defining the corresponding term, followed by a BAP framework based on the literature, using 25 success factors in six categories. A longitudinal case study from the service industry tested the practical application of the framework, while the results of the case study were used to adapt the model. The findings show that a BAP is not an isolated instrument of internal brand management, but that its impact depends on important background factors such as brand orientation, brand management and C-level support. Overall, the updated BAP success factor model contains 31 factors. The research supports the planning and implementation of BAPs, as well as the monitoring of ongoing and the reflection of completed BAPs.
Integrated optofluidic devices have become subjects of high interest for rapid biosensor devices due to their unique ability to combine the fluidic processing of small volumes of microfluidics with ...the analysis capabilities of photonic structures. By integrating dynamically reconfigurable optofluidic lasers on-chip, complex coupling can be eliminated while further increasing the capabilities of sensors to detect an increasing number of target biomarkers. Here, we report a polydimethylsiloxane-based device with two on-chip fluidic distributed feedback (DFB) laser cavities that are integrated with an orthogonal analyte channel for multiplexed fluorescence excitation. One DFB grating is filled with 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-methyl-6-(4-dimethylaminostyryl)-4H-pyran dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide. The second grating is filled with rhodamine 6G dissolved in a diluted ethylene glycol solution. We present characterization of both lasers through analysis of the lasing spectra for spectral narrowing along with a power series to observe threshold behavior. We then demonstrate simultaneous detection of two different fluorescent microbeads as a proof of concept for scalable, single biomarker analysis using on-chip optofluidic lasers.
Brand scholars have devoted attention to different brand management schools, and recently, the co-creative school has been much in focus of brand research. This study aims to explore whether the ...brand schools distinguished in research are also perceived by brand practitioners, and if a turn towards co-creative paradigms is discernible there. In particular, four thematic complexes are used to narrow the field under examination: relevance of brand school taxonomies for managers, their knowledge about the co-creative school, ideas about a changing role for internal brand management, and their engagements to keep up with recent developments in branding theory. A qualitative study of 20 marketing professionals was undertaken to explore the issues. The results generally support other findings on existing theory-practise gaps. The data indicate that there is no awareness about different brand management schools within the group of managers. The co-creative school has not been appreciated by professionals, accordingly. However, internal brand management is seen as a field of pivotal relevance. Regarding their individual lifelong learning, brand managers do not report any systematic initiatives to connect to brand theory or research; managers do neither have any expectations about learning from current brand research. Implications for further research and management are discussed.
An underdog brand is a brand with humble resources that competes with passion and determination against competitors that dominate a market. Numerous anecdotal examples and a few research articles of ...underdog brands exist, yet the understanding of what an underdog brand is and how brands can use the underdog effect is still limited. Considering the relevance of underdog brand management for practice, the purpose of our article is to distill the components of the concepts "underdog brand" and "the underdog effect" and to propose a conceptual framework to guide underdog brand management. To achieve this goal, we undertook a systematic review of the extant literature that resulted in (1) a clear and demarking definition of the term underdog brand, (2) an analysis of the usefulness of the underdog effect and (3) a reference frame we termed "the underdog brand management framework". By doing so, we helped to overcome the research gap in the field of underdog brand management. To validate our findings, we tested the framework against a case study of a successful underdog brand. Our analysis resulted in a robust model that could inspire and guide practitioners who are in charge of underdog brands.
Over the past decades, the luxury sector has been constantly growing; consequently, luxury products have attracted the interest of many scholars. Nevertheless, only recently research has been started ...to investigate possible relations between luxury and activities in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. This development was overdue: as luxury products often act as industry models, a shift towards sustainable luxury can pave the way for more sustainable mass products on a broad scope as well. Thus, a profound understanding of the mechanisms behind the successful combination of luxury and sustainability can provide insights for both enhancing individual firm success and achieving a shift towards more sustainable products, which is desirable from a societal perspective. To foster this research stream, the present paper provides a systematic literature review on luxury and sustainability in a broader sense, which, based on an inductive approach, identifies the various areas covered by existing research. This allows critical reflection of what is still missing in the ongoing discussions and shows where priorities within research have been set. We identify several major blind spots within extant research and discuss possible further research paths to close them.
Simultaneous PET and MR imaging is a promising new technique allowing the fusion of functional (PET) and anatomic/functional (MR) information. In the thoracic-abdominal regions, respiratory motion is ...a major challenge leading to reduced quantitative and qualitative image accuracy. Correction methodologies include the use of gated frames that lead to low signal-to-noise ratio considering the associated low statistics. More advanced correction approaches, previously developed for PET/CT imaging, consist of either registering all the reconstructed gated frames to the reference frame or incorporating motion parameters into the iterative reconstruction process to produce a single motion-compensated PET image. The goal of this work was to compare these two—previously implemented in PET/CT—correction approaches within the context of PET/MR motion correction for oncology applications using clinical 4-dimensional PET/MR acquisitions. Two different correction approaches were evaluated comparing the incorporation of elastic transformations extracted from 4-dimensional MR imaging datasets during PET list-mode image reconstruction to a postreconstruction image-based approach.
Eleven patient datasets acquired on a PET/MR system were used. T1-weighted 4D MR images were registered to the end-expiration image using a nonrigid B-spline registration algorithm to derive deformation matrices accounting for respiratory motion. The derived matrices were subsequently incorporated within a PET image reconstruction of the original emission list-mode data (reconstruction space RS method). The corrected images were compared with those produced by applying the deformation matrices in the image space (IS method) followed by summing the realigned gated frames, as well as with uncorrected motion-averaged images.
Both correction techniques led to significant improvement in accounting for respiratory motion artifacts when compared with uncorrected motion-averaged images. These improvements included signal-to-noise ratio (mean increase of 28.0% and 24.2% for the RS and IS methods, respectively), lesion size (reduction of 60.4% and 47.9%, respectively), lesion contrast (increase of 70.1% and 57.2%, respectively), and lesion position (changes of 60.9% and 46.7%, respectively).
Our results demonstrate significant respiratory motion compensation using both methods, with superior results from a 4D PET RS approach.
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