Synaptic Resistor Circuits Based on Al Oxide and Ti Silicide for Concurrent Learning and Signal Processing in Artificial Intelligence Systems.

Neurobiological circuits containing synapses can process signals while learning concurrently in real time. Before an artificial neural network (ANN) can execute a signal-processing program, it must first be programmed by humans or trained with respect to a large and defined data set during learning processes, resulting in significant latency, high power consumption, and poor adaptability to unpredictable changing environments. In this work, a crossbar circuit of synaptic resistors (synstors) is reported, each synstor integrating a Si channel with an Al oxide memory layer and Ti silicide Schottky contacts.

Analysis of microplastics released from plastic take-out food containers based on thermal properties and morphology study.

Plastic take-out food containers may release microplastics (MPs) into food and pose a potential risk to food safety and human health. Here, after being subjected to hot water treatment, MPs released from three types of plastic food containers (polypropylene, PP; polyethylene, PE; expanded polystyrene, EPS) were identified by micro-Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that the size of released MPs ranged from 0.

Migration of mineral oil hydrocarbons from food contact papers into food simulants and extraction from their raw materials.

To determine the occurrence of mineral oil hydrocarbons (MOH) in food contact papers in China, and to investigate the potential sources of MOH contamination, a total of 159 food contact papers and raw materials were analysed by off-line solid-phase extraction-gas chromatography flame ionisation detection (SPE-GC-FID) and a GC-MS method. The migration of MOH from food contact papers into Tenax, olive oil or 50% ethanol under the worst foreseeable conditions of use was determined. The results indicated that the occurrence of MOH in China is of a potential health risk concerning the migration of mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) which were detected in 82.

Expression of N-Terminal Cysteine Aβ and Conjugation to Generate Fluorescent and Biotinylated Aβ.

Fluorescent derivatives of the β-amyloid peptides (Aβ) are valuable tools for studying the interactions of Aβ with cells. Facile access to labeled expressed Aβ offers the promise of Aβ with greater sequence and stereochemical integrity, without impurities from amino acid deletion and epimerization. Here, we report methods for the expression of Aβ with an N-terminal cysteine residue, Aβ, and its conjugation to generate Aβ bearing fluorophores or biotin.

A Reusable CNT-Supported Single-Atom Iron Catalyst for the Highly Efficient Synthesis of C-N Bonds.

C-N bond formation is regarded as a very useful and fundamental reaction for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing molecules in both organic and pharmaceutical chemistry. Noble-metal and homogeneous catalysts have frequently been used for C-N bond formation, however, these catalysts have a number of disadvantages, such as high cost, toxicity, and low atom economy. In this work, a low-toxic and cheap iron complex (iron ethylene-1,2-diamine) has been loaded onto carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to prepare a heterogeneous single-atom catalyst (SAC) named Fe-N /CNTs.

Collective topo-epitaxy in the self-assembly of a 3D quantum dot superlattice.

Epitaxially fused colloidal quantum dot (QD) superlattices (epi-SLs) may enable a new class of semiconductors that combine the size-tunable photophysics of QDs with bulk-like electronic performance, but progress is hindered by a poor understanding of epi-SL formation and surface chemistry. Here we use X-ray scattering and correlative electron imaging and diffraction of individual SL grains to determine the formation mechanism of three-dimensional PbSe QD epi-SL films. We show that the epi-SL forms from a rhombohedrally distorted body centred cubic parent SL via a phase transition in which the QDs translate with minimal rotation (~10°) and epitaxially fuse across their {100} facets in three dimensions.

Ciliotherapy: Remote Control of Primary Cilia Movement and Function by Magnetic Nanoparticles.

Patients with polycystic kidney disease (PKD) are characterized with uncontrolled hypertension. Hypertension in PKD is a ciliopathy, an abnormal function and/or structure of primary cilia. Primary cilia are cellular organelles with chemo and mechanosensory roles.

Personalized Nanotherapy by Specifically Targeting Cell Organelles To Improve Vascular Hypertension.

Ciliopathies caused by abnormal function of primary cilia include expanding spectrum of kidney, liver, and cardiovascular disorders. There is currently no treatment available for patients with cilia dysfunction. Therefore, we generated and compared two different (metal and polymer) cilia-targeted nanoparticle drug delivery systems (CTNDDS), CT-DAu-NPs and CT-PLGA-NPs, for the first time.

Proximity effects across oxide-interfaces of superconductor-insulator-ferromagnet hybrid heterostructure.

A case study of electron tunneling or charge-transfer-driven orbital ordering in superconductor (SC)-ferromagnet (FM) interfaces has been conducted in heteroepitaxial YBaCuO(YBCO)/LaSrMnO(LSMO) multilayers interleaved with and without an insulating SrTiO(STO) layer between YBCO and LSMO. X-ray magnetic circular dichroism experiments revealed anti-parallel alignment of Mn magnetic moments and induced Cu magnetic moments in a YBCO/LSMO multilayer. As compared to an isolated LSMO layer, the YBCO/LSMO multilayer displayed a (50%) weaker Mn magnetic signal, which is related to the usual proximity effect.

Publisher Correction: Atomic-scale engineering of ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interfaces of epitaxial perovskite films for functional properties.

A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML version of this paper. The error has been fixed in the paper.

Atomic-scale engineering of ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interfaces of epitaxial perovskite films for functional properties.

Besides epitaxial mismatch that can be accommodated by lattice distortions and/or octahedral rotations, ferroelectric-ferromagnetic interfaces are affected by symmetry mismatch and subsequent magnetic ordering. Here, we have investigated La Sr MnO (LSMO) samples with varying underlying unit cells (uc) of BaTiO (BTO) layer on (001) and (110) oriented substrates in order to elucidate the role of symmetry mismatch. Lattice mismatch for 3 uc of BTO and symmetry mismatch for 10 uc of BTO, both associated with local MnO octahedral distortions of the (001) LSMO within the first few uc, are revealed by scanning transmission electron microscopy.

Self-assembled Cubic Boron Nitride Nanodots.

One of the low-dimensional Boron Nitride (BN) forms, namely, cubic-BN (c-BN) nanodots (NDs), offers a variety of novel opportunities in battery, biology, deep ultraviolet light emitting diodes, sensors, filters, and other optoelectronic applications. To date, the attempts towards producing c-BN NDs were mainly performed under extreme high-temperature/high-pressure conditions and resulted in c-BN NDs with micrometer sizes, mixture of different BN phases, and containing process-related impurities/contaminants. To enhance device performance for those applications by taking advantage of size effect, pure, sub-100 nm c-BN NDs are necessary.

In-situ epitaxial growth of graphene/h-BN van der Waals heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy.

Van der Waals materials have received a great deal of attention for their exceptional layered structures and exotic properties, which can open up various device applications in nanoelectronics. However, in situ epitaxial growth of dissimilar van der Waals materials remains challenging. Here we demonstrate a solution for fabricating van der Waals heterostructures.

Enhanced oxidation-resistant Cu-Ni core-shell nanowires: controllable one-pot synthesis and solution processing to transparent flexible heaters.

Coating nickel onto copper nanowires (Cu NWs) by one-pot synthesis is an efficient approach to improving the oxidation resistance of the nanowires. Because Ni is much less conductive than Cu, it is of great importance to understand the relationship between the thickness of the Ni coating layer and the properties of NWs. Here we demonstrate one-pot synthesis of Cu-Ni core-shell NWs with a tunable Ni thickness by simply varying the Cu and Ni mole ratio in the precursor.

Mapping motion of antiferromagnetic interfacial uncompensated magnetic moment in exchange-biased bilayers.

In this work, disordered-IrMn3/insulating-Y3Fe5O12 exchange-biased bilayers are studied. The behavior of the net magnetic moment ΔmAFM in the antiferromagnet is directly probed by anomalous and planar Hall effects, and anisotropic magnetoresistance. The ΔmAFM is proved to come from the interfacial uncompensated magnetic moment.

Multimode resistive switching in single ZnO nanoisland system.

Resistive memory has attracted a great deal of attention as an alternative to contemporary flash memory. Here we demonstrate an interesting phenomenon that multimode resistive switching, i.e.

A full-scale house fly (Diptera: Muscidae) larvae bioconversion system for value-added swine manure reduction.

Manure produced from confined animal farms can threaten public and environmental health if not managed properly. Herein, a full-scale commercial bioconversion operation in DeQing County, China for value-added swine manure reduction using house fly, Musca domestica L., larvae is reported.

Swine manure vermicomposting via housefly larvae (Musca domestica): the dynamics of biochemical and microbial features.

Improper handling of animal manure generated from concentrated swine operations greatly deteriorates water ecosystems. In this study, a full-scale vermireactor using housefly larvae (Musca domestica) was designed to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of swine manure reduction, and to explore the associated biochemical-biological mechanisms. The one-week larvae vermireactor resulted in a total weight reduction rate of 106±17 kg/(m(3) d) and moisture reduction of 80.

Resistive switching in single epitaxial ZnO nanoislands.

Resistive memory is one of the most promising candidates for next-generation nonvolatile memory technology due to its variety of advantages, such as simple structure and low-power consumption. Bipolar resistive switching behavior was observed in epitaxial ZnO nanoislands with base diameters and heights ranging around 30 and 40 nm, respectively. All four different states (initial, electroformed, ON, and OFF) of the nanoscale resistive memories were measured by conductive atomic force microscopy immediately after the voltage sweeping was performed.

SQSTM1 mutations in familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Background: The SQSTM1 gene encodes p62, a major pathologic protein involved in neurodegeneration.

Objective: To examine whether SQSTM1 mutations contribute to familial and sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Design: Case-control study.

Pressure-induced amorphization in silicon caused by the impact of electrosprayed nanodroplets.

This Letter describes the shock-induced amorphization of single-crystal Si bombarded by nanodroplets. At impact velocities of several kilometers per second, the projectiles trigger strong compression pulses lasting tens of picoseconds. The phase transition, confirmed via transmission electron microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction, takes place when the projectile's stagnation pressure is approximately 15 GPa.

Complex ZnO nanotree arrays with tunable top, stem and branch structures.

Hierarchical tree-, mushroom- and cockscomb-like ZnO arrays with increasing branching order and complexities have been grown in situ on cheap zinc plates by a simple hydrothermal oxidation approach. Their morphology, crystal structure and orientation relationship are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and cross-sectional high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The wurtzite ZnO arrays, growing mainly in the [0001] direction, show a special orientation relationship between the stem and the branch as well as a novel stem-branch boundary which might be attributed to the least mismatch between [symbol: see text] and (0002) lattice planes.

Shape-enhanced photocatalytic activity of single-crystalline anatase TiO(2) (101) nanobelts.

Particle size is generally considered to be the primary factor in the design of nanocrystal photocatalysts, because the reduction of particle size increases the number of active sites. However, the benefit from the size reduction can be canceled by a higher electron-hole recombination rate due to the confined space in sphere-shaped nanoparticles. Here we report a mechanistic study on a novel nanobelt structure that overcomes the drawback of sphere-shaped nanoparticles.

[Study of serum thyroid hormone levels changes in perioperation patients accepted coronary artery bypass grafts].

Objective: To clarify the change of serum thyroid hormone levels during perioperation period of coronary artery bypass grafts (CABG).

Methods: The levels of serum thyroid hormones (TT(3), TT(4), FT(3), FT(4), TSH, rT(3)) were measured by chemical-luminal and RIA in 62 patients at certain time in perioperation period, as well as 30 normal volunteers on a fasting basis. SPSS 10.