Floating-gate memories based on two-dimensional van der Waal (2D vdW) heterostructures play an important role in the development of next-generation information technology. The diversity of 2D vdW ...materials and their heterostructures provides flexibility in the design of novel storage architectures. However, 2D InSe/ h -BN/GaSe heterostructures are rarely reported in the field of tunable non-volatile memories, probably due to the quality limitation of materials and complex interfaces from stackings. Herein, a floating-gate 2D InSe/ h -BN/GaSe memory with high performance and atmosphere stability is demonstrated. It exhibits both a large ON/OFF current ratio of ∼10 5 and a good extinction ratio of ∼10 3 , with an estimated maximum storage capacity of 5.1 × 10 12 cm −2 . Moreover, the storage performance can be regulated by optimizing the thickness of the insulating h -BN layer. Different device configurations have been explored to validate the working mechanism. Furthermore, a simulation of biological synaptic behavior is achieved on the same prototype device. The enhanced non-volatile characteristics enable the exploration of the integrated 2D memory and potential multifunctionality.
Background
The microbiome associations of food protein‐induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES) are understudied. We sought to prospectively define the clinical features of FPIES in a birth cohort, and ...investigate for the evidence of gut dysbiosis.
Methods
We identified children diagnosed with FPIES in the Gastrointestinal Microbiome and Allergic Proctocolitis Study, a healthy infant cohort. Children were assessed and stools were collected at each well child visit. The clinical features of the children with FPIES were summarized. Stool microbiome was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing comparing children with and without FPIES.
Results
Of the 874 children followed up for 3 years, 8 FPIES cases (4 male) were identified, yielding a cumulative incidence of 0.92%. The most common triggers were oat and rice (n = 3, each) followed by milk (n = 2). The children with FPIES were more likely to have family history of food allergy (50% vs. 15.9% among unaffected, p = .03). The average age of disease presentation was 6 months old. During the first 6 months of life, stool from children with FPIES contained significantly less Bifidobacterium adolescentis, but more pathobionts, including Bacteroides spp. (especially Bacteroides fragilis), Holdemania spp., Lachnobacterium spp., and Acinetobacter lwoffii. The short‐chain fatty acid (SCFA)‐producing Bifidobacterium shunt was expressed significantly less in the stool from FPIES children.
Conclusions
In this cohort, the cumulative incidence over the 3‐year study period was 0.92%. During the first 6 months of life, children with FPIES had evidence of dysbiosis and SCFA production pathway was expressed less in their stool, which may play an important role in the pathogenesis of FPIES.
The incidence of FPIES in 3 years in a healthy birth cohort was 0.92%. The average age of disease presentation was 6 months. The most common FPIES triggers are oat and rice, followed by cow's milk. Dysbiosis, more pathobionts and less commensal bacteria were noted since birth from the stools of FPIES children.Abbreviations: FPIES, food protein‐induced enterocolitis syndrome; LDA, linear discriminant analysis; SCFAs, short chain fatty acid
Full-power converters are used in battery energy storage systems (BESS) because of their simple structure, high efficiency and relatively low cost. However, cell-to-cell variation, including ...capacity, state of charge (SOC), and internal resistance, will decrease the available capacity of serially connected battery packs, thereby negatively affecting the energy utilization rate (EUTR) of BESS. This article proposes a novel BESS scheme that combines a modular converter with partial power conversion architecture to make a modular partial power converter (MPPC) that addresses the issue. The MPPC consists of input-serial and output-paralleled (ISOP) isolated phase-shift full-bridge (PSFB) sub-modules. It processes only the serial compensation power, about 1/3 of the full power. Consequently, the MPPC shrinks the converter capacity, which can reduce the cost and power loss. Furthermore, this article develops a BESS model considering cell-to-cell variations to analyze the energy storage capability of the MPPC-BESS compared with the existing full-power BESS. To test the model, we run a simulation using parameter values from 100 real retired batteries. Our simulation results show that the MPPC can significantly alleviate the reduction of EUTR as the voltage level increase. Finally, we construct a 36V/720W MPPC-BESS prototype with two battery packs and PSFB sub-modules to verify the bidirectional operating stability and energy storage capability.
Mitochondrial damage is an important cause of heart dysfunction after severe burn injury. However, the pathophysiological process remains unclear. This study aims to examine the mitochondrial ...dynamics in the heart and the role of μ-calpain, a cysteine protease, in this scenario. Rats were subjected to severe burn injury treatment, and the calpain inhibitor MDL28170 was administered intravenously 1 h before or after burn injury. Rats in the burn group displayed weakened heart performance and decreased mean arterial pressure, which was accompanied by a diminishment of mitochondrial function. The animals also exhibited higher levels of calpain in mitochondria, as reflected by immunofluorescence staining and activity tests. In contrast, treatment with MDL28170 before any severe burn diminished these responses to a severe burn. Burn injury decreased the abundance of mitochondria and resulted in a lower percentage of small mitochondria and a higher percentage of large mitochondria. Furthermore, burn injury caused an increase in the fission protein DRP1 in the mitochondria and a decrease in the inner membrane fusion protein OPA1. Similarly, these alterations were also blocked by MDL28170. Of note, inhibition of calpain yielded the emergence of more elongated mitochondria along with membrane invagination in the middle of the longitude, which is an indicator of the fission process. Finally, MDL28170, administered 1 h after burn injury, preserved mitochondrial function and heart performance, and increased the survival rate. Overall, these results provided the first evidence that mitochondrial recruitment of calpain confers heart dysfunction after severe burn injury, which involves aberrant mitochondrial dynamics.
Very recently, twisted graphene bilayers (TGBs) around the first magic angle θ ≈ 1 . 1 ∘ have attracted much attention for the realization of exotic quantum states, such as correlated insulator ...behavior and unconventional superconductivity. Here we elaborately study a series of TGBs around the first magic angle engineered by heterostrain, where each layer is strained independently. Our experiment indicates that a moderate heterostrain enables the structural evolution from the small-angle TGB (θ ∼ 1.5°) to the strained magic-angle TGB (θ ∼ 1.1°), exhibiting the characteristic low-energy flat bands. The heterostrain can even drive the system into highly strained tiny-angle TGBs (θ ≪ 1.1 °) with large deformed tetragonal superlattices, where a unique network of topological helical edge states emerges. Furthermore, the predicted domain wall modes, which are strongly localized and result in a hexagon-triangle-mixed frustrated lattice derived from the Kagome lattice, are observed in the strained tiny-angle TGBs.
Pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a rare event with severe sequelae. Although the survival to hospital-discharge (STHD) rate has improved from 2-6% to 17.6-40.2%, only 1-4% of OHCA ...survivors have a good neurological outcome. This study investigated the characteristics of case management before and after admittance to the emergency department (ED) associated with outcomes of pediatric OHCA in an ED. This was a retrospective study of data collected from our ED resuscitation room logbooks dating from 2005 to 2016. All records of children under 18 years old with OHCA were reviewed. Outcomes of interest included sustained return of spontaneous circulation (SROSC), STHD, and neurological outcomes. From the 12-year study period, 152 patients were included. Pediatric OHCA commonly affects males (55.3%, n = 84) and infants younger than 1 year of age (47.4%, n = 72) at home (76.3%, n = 116). Most triggers of pediatric OHCA were respiratory in nature (53.2%, n = 81). Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) (29.6%, n = 45), unknown medical causes (25%, n = 38), and trauma (10.5%, n = 16) were the main causes of pediatric OHCA. Sixty-two initial cardiac rhythms at the scene were obtained, most of which were asystole and pulseless electrical activity (PEA) (93.5%, n/all: 58/62). Upon ED arrival, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was continued for 32.66 ± 20.71 min in the ED and 34.9% (n = 53) gained SROSC. Among them, 13.8% (n = 21) achieved STHD and 4.6% (n = 7) had a favorable neurological outcome. In multivariate analyses, fewer ED epinephrine doses (p < 0.05), witness of OHCA (p = 0.001), and shorter ED CPR duration (p = 0.007) were factors that increased the rate of SROSC at the ED. A longer emergency medical service (EMS) scene interval (p = 0.047) and shorter ED CPR interval (p = 0.047) improved STHD.
Copper and zinc are essential micronutrients, whose imbalance may be involved in the development and progression of cancer. However, the role of copper and/or zinc imbalance in the prognosis of ...hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is currently unclear. Our objective was to investigate the association between serum levels of copper, zinc and their ratio (copper/zinc) at diagnosis with HCC survival. We included 989 patients with incident HCC in this prospective cohort study, who were enrolled in the Guangdong Liver Cancer Cohort (GLCC) study within 30 days of diagnosis between September 2013 and February 2017. Serum copper and zinc were measured using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Primary outcomes were liver cancer‐specific survival (LCSS) and overall survival (OS). Cox proportional hazards models were used to calculate the multivariable hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Higher serum copper levels were strongly associated with worse LCSS (Q4 vs. Q1: HR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.22–2.86; p < 0.01 for trend) and OS (Q4 vs. Q1: HR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.36–3.11; p < 0.01 for trend). The calculated copper/zinc ratio was positively associated with LCSS (Q4 vs. Q1: HR = 1.31, 95% CI: 0.89–1.92; P = 0.04 for trend) and OS (Q4 vs. Q1: HR = 1.43, 95% CI: 0.99–2.08; P = 0.01 for trend). No overall associations were observed between serum zinc levels and LCSS or OS in the entire cohort. The results suggest that higher serum copper and copper in relation to zinc levels (i.e., higher copper/zinc ratio) may be associated with worse HCC survival, but serum zinc levels may be not associated with HCC survival.
What's new?
Copper and zinc are essential micronutrients whose imbalance may be involved in development and progression of cancer. Currently, the role of copper and/or zinc imbalance in the prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) however remains unclear. The authors examine for the first time whether serum levels of copper, zinc, and their ratios are associated with survival in a large prospective cohort of newly diagnosed patients. The findings suggest that higher copper levels and copper/zinc ratios are associated with worse survival, but serum zinc levels are not associated with HCC survival. The results may have important implications for the prognosis of HCC.
A unique design of a hexagonal boron nitride (h‐BN)/HfO2 dielectric heterostructure stack is demonstrated, with few‐layer h‐BN to alleviate the surface optical phonon scattering, followed by high‐κ ...HfO2 deposition to suppress Coulombic impurity scattering so that high‐performance top‐gated two‐dimensional semiconductor transistors are achieved. Furthermore, this dielectric stack can also be extended to GaN‐based transistors to enhance their performance.
For modular multilevel dc/dc converter (MDC) with conventional modulation strategies, the inductor current ripple will increase if dc/dc units' input voltages and/or output references are unbalanced. ...In this article, a current ripple mitigation strategy is proposed for MDC battery energy storage system, which is based on harmonic model for ripple analysis using the Fourier series. By varying the duties and phase-shifted angles simultaneously, multiple current harmonics are eliminated. Moreover, in order to freely adjust batteries' current under the condition of duties is calculated by ripple suppressing method in every modulation process, the control period is divided into several intervals and variables in each interval are separate. Through constraining every unit's average duty of all intervals, battery current is dominated under distribution scheme while achieving the goal of ripple mitigation. Experimental result on a four-unit MDC is presented to verify the feasibility and effectivity of the proposed modulation method.
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