A Nd:YVO4 crystal was pumped directly into the emitting level by a laser diode at 914 nm for the first time to our knowledge. We achieved an output power of 11.5 W at 1064 nm for an absorbed pump power of 14.6 W, corresponding to an optical efficiency of 78.7%. We demonstrated that thermal effects are very weak, in agreement with the low quantum defect of only 14.1%.

Feeding, a vital behavior in animals, is modulated depending on internal and external factors. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, the feeding organ called the pharynx ingests food by pumping driven by the pharyngeal muscles. Here we report that optical silencing of the body wall muscles, which drive the locomotory movement of worms, affects pumping. In worms expressing the Arch proton pump...

Oscillatory pumping tests-in which flow is varied in a periodic fashion-provide a method for understanding aquifer heterogeneity that is complementary to strategies such as slug testing and constant-rate pumping tests. During oscillatory testing, pressure data collected at non-pumping wells can be processed to extract metrics, such as signal amplitude and phase lag, from a time series. These me...