Benchmarking bacterial taxonomic classification using nanopore metagenomics data of several mock communities.

Taxonomic classification is crucial in identifying organisms within diverse microbial communities when using metagenomics shotgun sequencing. While second-generation Illumina sequencing still dominates, third-generation nanopore sequencing promises improved classification through longer reads. However, extensive benchmarking studies on nanopore data are lacking.

Tsallis Entropy and Mutability to Characterize Seismic Sequences: The Case of 2007-2014 Northern Chile Earthquakes.

Seismic data have improved in quality and quantity over the past few decades, enabling better statistical analysis. Statistical physics has proposed new ways to deal with these data to focus the attention on specific matters. The present paper combines these two progressions to find indicators that can help in the definition of areas where seismic risk is developing.

Usefulness of a low-cost simulation model for teaching internal manual aortic compression. A survey-based mannequin evaluation.

Objective: To evaluate the users' opinion on internal manual aortic compression (IMAC) training, using a low-cost simulation model.

Methods: An educational strategy was designed to teach IMAC, which included: (1) guided reading of educational material and viewing an explanatory video of IMAC; (2) an introductory lecture with the anatomical considerations, documentation of the cessation of femoral arterial flow during IMAC, and real clinical cases in which this procedure was used; and (3) simulated practice of IMAC with a new low-cost manikin. The educational strategy was applied during three postpartum hemorrhage workshops in three Latin American countries and the opinions of the participants were measured with a survey.

Soil Pore Network Complexity Changes Induced by Wetting and Drying Cycles-A Study Using X-ray Microtomography and 3D Multifractal Analyses.

Soils are dynamic and complex systems in their natural state, which are subjected to profound changes due to management. Additionally, agricultural soils are continuously exposed to wetting and drying (W-D) cycles, which can cause modifications in the complexity of their pores. Thus, we explore how successive W-D cycles can affect the pore network of an Oxisol under contrasting managements (conventional tillage-CT, minimum tillage-MT, no tillage-NT, and secondary forest-F).

Thick BaTiO Epitaxial Films Integrated on Si by RF Sputtering for Electro-Optic Modulators in Si Photonics.

Thick epitaxial BaTiO films ranging from 120 nm to 1 μm were grown by off-axis RF magnetron sputtering on SrTiO-templated silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrates for use in electro-optic applications, where such large thicknesses are necessary. The films are of high quality, rivaling those grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) in crystalline quality, but can be grown 10 times faster. Extraction of lattice parameters from geometric phase analysis of atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy images revealed how the in-plane and out-of-plane lattice spacings of sputtered BaTiO changes as a function of layer position within a thick film.

Earthquakes and entropy: Characterization of occurrence of earthquakes in southern Spain and Alboran Sea.

We propose the use of entropy, H, as an indicator of the equilibrium state of a seismically active region (seismic system). The relationship between an increase in H and the occurrence of a great earthquake in a study area can be predicted by acknowledging the irreversible transition of a system. From this point of view, the seismic system evolves from an unstable initial state (due to external stresses) to another, where the stresses have dropped after the earthquake occurred.

Significant hospitalization cost savings to the payer with a pharmacist-led mobile health intervention to improve medication safety in kidney transplant recipients.

This was an economic analysis of a 12-month, parallel arm, randomized controlled trial in adult kidney recipients 6 to 36 months posttransplant (NCT03247322). All participants received usual posttransplant care, while the intervention arm received supplemental clinical pharmacist-led medication therapy monitoring and management, via a smartphone-enabled mHealth app, integrated with risk-based televisits. Hospitalization charges were captured from the study institution accounts payable and non-study institution hospitalization charges were estimated using multiple imputation.

Impact of a pharmacist-led, mHealth-based intervention on tacrolimus trough variability in kidney transplant recipients: A report from the TRANSAFE Rx randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: Nonadherence is a leading cause of death-censored allograft loss in kidney transplant recipients. Strong associations have tied tacrolimus intrapatient variability (IPV) to degree of nonadherence and high tacrolimus IPV to clinical endpoints such as rejection and allograft loss. Nonadherence is a dynamic, complex problem best targeted by multidimensional interventions, including mobile health (mHealth) technologies.

Azole resistance among clinical isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus in Lima-Peru.

Azole resistance among Aspergillus fumigatus isolates, which is mainly related to mutations in the cyp51A gene, is a concern because it is rising, worldwide disseminated, and associated with treatment failure and death. Data on azole resistance of aspergillus from Latin American countries is very scarce and do not exist for Peru. Two hundred and seven Aspergillus clinical isolates collected prospectively underwent mycology and molecular testing for specie identification, and 143 isolates were confirmed as A.

Delimitation of the upstream region of NFKBIA gene associated with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis using candidate Tag-SNPs in Peruvian HTLV-1 infected individuals.

In Peru, it is estimated that about 150 000-400 000 people carry the Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1). Only 10% of HTLV-1 carries develop complications related to HTLV-1. HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a chronic disabling inflammatory disease affecting the spinal cord.

Pharmacist-Led, Technology-Assisted Study to Improve Medication Safety, Cardiovascular Risk Factor Control, and Racial Disparities in Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Introduction: Health disparities in African-American (AA) kidney transplant recipients compared with non-AA recipients are well established. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk control is a significant mediator of this disparity.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of improved medication safety, CVD risk control, and racial disparities in kidney transplant recipients.

Quantifying soil carbon stocks and humification through spectroscopic methods: A scoping assessment in EMBU-Kenya.

A soil carbon assessment was performed comparing agricultural cropping systems with natural vegetation along a sampling transect spanning different agro-ecologies on the eastern foot slopes of Mount Kenya in Embu county, 125 km from Nairobi, Kenya. The aim was to determine differences in soil carbon stocks and carbon recalcitrance and relate these to soil textural class, altitude, climatic parameters and land use. Soils from main agricultural systems as tea, coffee and maize-based intercropping, as well as from natural vegetation cover were sampled in triplicates, in five layers from 0 to 30 cm in depth and processed for total carbon analysis.

Quantum Confinement in Oxide Heterostructures: Room-Temperature Intersubband Absorption in SrTiO/LaAlO Multiple Quantum Wells.

The Si-compatibility of perovskite heterostructures offers the intriguing possibility of producing oxide-based quantum well (QW) optoelectronic devices for use in Si photonics. While the SrTiO/LaAlO (STO/LAO) system has been studied extensively in the hopes of using the interfacial two-dimensional electron gas in Si-integrated electronics, the potential to exploit its giant 2.4 eV conduction band offset in oxide-based QW optoelectronic devices has so far been largely ignored.

Large positive linear magnetoresistance in the two-dimensional t electron gas at the EuO/SrTiO interface.

The development of novel nano-oxide spintronic devices would benefit greatly from interfacing with emergent phenomena at oxide interfaces. In this paper, we integrate highly spin-split ferromagnetic semiconductor EuO onto perovskite SrTiO (001). A careful deposition of Eu metal by molecular beam epitaxy results in EuO growth via oxygen out-diffusion from SrTiO.

High sensitivity 8-color flow cytometry assay for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria granulocyte and monocyte detections.

Flow cytometry is the gold standard in diagnosis of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH) by detecting the absence of glycol-phosphatidyl inositol (GPI)-linked protein expression on granulocyte and monocyte surfaces. However, the current assays are not optimized and require improvement, particularly in reducing background fluorescence and optimizing sensitivity and specificity. With more fluorochromes available and with advances in instrument engineering, rare populations may be identified with high sensitivity.

Multi-layered NiO/NbO/NiO fast drift-free threshold switch with high I/I ratio for selector application.

NbO has the potential for a variety of electronic applications due to its electrically induced insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) characteristic. In this study, we find that the IMT behavior of NbO follows the field-induced nucleation by investigating the delay time dependency at various voltages and temperatures. Based on the investigation, we reveal that the origin of leakage current in NbO is partly due to insufficient Schottky barrier height originating from interface defects between the electrodes and NbO layer.

Zintl layer formation during perovskite atomic layer deposition on Ge (001).

Using in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, reflection high-energy electron diffraction, and density functional theory, we analyzed the surface core level shifts and surface structure during the initial growth of ABO perovskites on Ge (001) by atomic layer deposition, where A = Ba, Sr and B = Ti, Hf, Zr. We find that the initial dosing of the barium- or strontium-bis(triisopropylcyclopentadienyl) precursors on a clean Ge surface produces a surface phase that has the same chemical and structural properties as the 0.5-monolayer Ba Zintl layer formed when depositing Ba by molecular beam epitaxy.

Multifractal Downscaling of Rainfall Using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in the Andes Plateau.

In this paper, a multifractal downscaling technique is applied to adequately transformed and lag corrected normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in order to obtain daily estimates of rainfall in an area of the Peruvian Andean high plateau. This downscaling procedure is temporal in nature since the original NDVI information is provided at an irregular temporal sampling period between 8 and 11 days, and the desired final scale is 1 day. The spatial resolution of approximately 1 km remains the same throughout the downscaling process.

A Low-Leakage Epitaxial High-κ Gate Oxide for Germanium Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Devices.

Germanium (Ge)-based metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors are a promising candidate for high performance, low power electronics at the 7 nm technology node and beyond. However, the availability of high quality gate oxide/Ge interfaces that provide low leakage current density and equivalent oxide thickness (EOT), robust scalability, and acceptable interface state density (D(it)) has emerged as one of the most challenging hurdles in the development of such devices. Here we demonstrate and present detailed electrical characterization of a high-κ epitaxial oxide gate stack based on crystalline SrHfO3 grown on Ge (001) by atomic layer deposition.

Carrier density modulation in a germanium heterostructure by ferroelectric switching.

The development of non-volatile logic through direct coupling of spontaneous ferroelectric polarization with semiconductor charge carriers is nontrivial, with many issues, including epitaxial ferroelectric growth, demonstration of ferroelectric switching and measurable semiconductor modulation. Here we report a true ferroelectric field effect-carrier density modulation in an underlying Ge(001) substrate by switching of the ferroelectric polarization in epitaxial c-axis-oriented BaTiO3 grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Using the density functional theory, we demonstrate that switching of BaTiO3 polarization results in a large electric potential change in Ge.

A silicon-based photocathode for water reduction with an epitaxial SrTiO3 protection layer and a nanostructured catalyst.

The rapidly increasing global demand for energy combined with the environmental impact of fossil fuels has spurred the search for alternative sources of clean energy. One promising approach is to convert solar energy into hydrogen fuel using photoelectrochemical cells. However, the semiconducting photoelectrodes used in these cells typically have low efficiencies and/or stabilities.

Highly controllable and stable quantized conductance and resistive switching mechanism in single-crystal TiO2 resistive memory on silicon.

TiO2 is being widely explored as an active resistive switching (RS) material for resistive random access memory. We report a detailed analysis of the RS characteristics of single-crystal anatase-TiO2 thin films epitaxially grown on silicon by atomic layer deposition. We demonstrate that although the valence change mechanism is responsible for the observed RS, single-crystal anatase-TiO2 thin films show electrical characteristics that are very different from the usual switching behaviors observed for polycrystalline or amorphous TiO2 and instead very similar to those found in electrochemical metallization memory.

Switching of ferroelectric polarization in epitaxial BaTiO₃ films on silicon without a conducting bottom electrode.

Epitaxial growth of SrTiO₃ on silicon by molecular beam epitaxy has opened up the route to the integration of functional complex oxides on a silicon platform. Chief among them is ferroelectric functionality using perovskite oxides such as BaTiO₃. However, it has remained a challenge to achieve ferroelectricity in epitaxial BaTiO₃ films with a polarization pointing perpendicular to the silicon substrate without a conducting bottom electrode.

Exceptional oxidation activity with size-controlled supported gold clusters of low atomicity.

The catalytic activity of gold depends on particle size, with the reactivity increasing as the particle diameter decreases. However, investigations into behaviour in the subnanometre regime (where gold exists as small clusters of a few atoms) began only recently with advances in synthesis and characterization techniques. Here we report an easy method to prepare isolated gold atoms supported on functionalized carbon nanotubes and their performance in the oxidation of thiophenol with O2.

Mediastinal mass and pericardial tamponade in a renal transplant recipient: A rare case of nocardia infection.

Patient: Female, 30 FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Nocardiosis Symptoms: Cardiac tamponade • cough • dyspnea • hoarseness • mediastinal mass • pericardial effusion • short of breath

Medication: - Clinical Procedure: - Specialty: Transplantology.

Objective: Rare disease.

Background: Nocardia infections can complicate solid organ transplantation.