Respiratory Function and Information Processing Speed in Coal Power Plant Workers: Moderating Effects of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior.

Background: In occupational settings like coal power plants, impaired respiratory function and cognitive performance can pose significant risks to worker safety and productivity. This study aimed to investigate the associations between respiratory muscle strength and information processing speed in coal power plant workers, and to explore whether these associations are moderated by physical activity and sedentary behavior.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 171 coal power plant workers.

Backpropagating modes of surface polaritons on a cross-negative interface.

We show that backpropagating modes of surface polaritons can exist at the interface between two semi-infinite cross-negative media, one with negative permittivity (epsilon less than 0) and the other with negative permeability (micro less than 0). These single-interface modes that propagate along the surface of a cross-negative interface are physically of interest, since the single-negative requirements imposed on the material parameters can easily be achieved at terahertz and potentially optical frequencies by scaling the dimension of artificially structured planar materials. Conditions for material parameters that support a backpropagating mode of the surface polaritons are obtained by considering dispersion relation and energy flow density transported by surface polaritons and confirmed numerically by simulation of surface polariton propagation resonantly excited at a cross-negative interface by attenuated total reflection.

Arbitrary structuring of two-dimensional photonic crystals by use of phase-only Fourier gratings.

The computer-generated holography technique is applied to the structuring of two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals with inherently embedded arbitrary defects. The technique uses phase-only Fourier gratings as a generator of spot arrays in the focal plane, such that a single exposure produces a 2D array of focused spots with desired defects or modifications in the lattice structure. We demonstrate several types of large-area 2D lattice structures with square, hexagonal, or hybrid lattices embedded with point and (or) line defects.

Resonant coupling of surface plasmons to radiation modes by use of dielectric gratings.

Efficient outcoupling of surface-plasma waves to radiation modes by use of dielectric diffraction gratings on a flat metallic surface is discussed. The dielectric gratings, which have a surface-relief structure with only several tens of nanometers in peak-to-trough height on a flat metal surface, can efficiently extract radiation modes propagating in free space from the surface-plasmon modes. An outcoupling efficiency of 50% is estimated with the rigorous coupled-wave diffraction theory, and it is confirmed by the experiment.