Turnkey photonic flywheel in a microresonator-filtered laser.

Dissipative Kerr soliton (DKS) microcomb has emerged as an enabling technology that revolutionizes a wide range of applications in both basic science and technological innovation. Reliable turnkey operation with sub-optical-cycle and sub-femtosecond timing jitter is key to the success of many intriguing microcomb applications at the intersection of ultrafast optics and microwave electronics. Here we propose an approach and demonstrate the first turnkey Brillouin-DKS frequency comb to the best of our knowledge. Our microresonator-filtered laser design offers essential benefits, including phase insensitivity, self-healing capability, deterministic selection of the DKS state, and access to the ultralow noise comb state. The demonstrated turnkey Brillouin-DKS frequency comb achieves a fundamental comb linewidth of 100 mHz and DKS timing jitter of 1 femtosecond for averaging times up to 56 µs. The approach is universal and generalizable to various device platforms for user-friendly and field-deployable comb devices.

Complete Genome Sequence of Mycobacteriophage Joy99.

Joy99 is a siphoviral mycobacteriophage with a 59,837-base pair double-stranded DNA genome and is predicted to contain 97 protein-coding genes and a single tRNA gene. Joy99 was isolated in Saint Louis, MO, and annotated by students at Bluff Dale High School in community engagement with Tarleton State University.

Silicon Nanomembrane Filtration and Imaging for the Evaluation of Microplastic Entrainment along a Municipal Water Delivery Route.

To better understand the origin of microplastics in municipal drinking water, we evaluated 50 mL water samples from different stages of the City of Rochester's drinking water production and transport route, from Hemlock Lake to the University of Rochester. We directly filtered samples using silicon nitride nanomembrane filters with precisely patterned slit-shaped pores, capturing many of the smallest particulates (<20 µm) that could be absorbed by the human body. We employed machine learning algorithms to quantify the shapes and quantity of debris at different stages of the water transport process, while automatically segregating out fibrous structures from particulate. Particulate concentrations ranged from 13 to 720 particles/mL at different stages of the water transport process and fibrous pollution ranged from 0.4 to 8.3 fibers/mL. A subset of the debris (0.2-8.6%) stained positively with Nile red dye which identifies them as hydrophobic polymers. Further spectroscopic analysis also indicated the presence of many non-plastic particulates, including rust, silicates, and calcium scale. While water leaving the Hemlock Lake facility is mostly devoid of debris, transport through many miles of piping results in the entrainment of a significant amount of debris, including plastics, although in-route reservoirs and end-stage filtration serve to reduce these concentrations.

Complete Genome Sequence of Cluster O Mycobacterium smegmatis Bacteriophage Ryadel.

Mycobacteriophage Ryadel is a newly isolated cluster O Siphoviridae bacteriophage, characterized by an unusual prolate capsid, containing a 72,658-base-pair double-stranded DNA genome with 132 predicted protein-coding genes. Conserved among cluster O bacteriophages, the Ryadel genome contains 31 copies of a unique 17-bp sequence with dyad symmetry.