Deep Eutectic Solvent Pretreatment of Transgenic Biomass With Increased C6C1 Lignin Monomers.

The complex and heterogeneous polyphenolic structure of lignin confers recalcitrance to plant cell walls and challenges biomass processing for agroindustrial applications. Recently, significant efforts have been made to alter lignin composition to overcome its inherent intractability. In this work, to overcome technical difficulties related to biomass recalcitrance, we report an integrated strategy combining biomass genetic engineering with a pretreatment using a bio-derived deep eutectic solvent (DES). In particular, we employed biomass from an Arabidopsis line that expressed a bacterial hydroxycinnamoyl-CoA hydratase-lyase (HCHL) in lignifying tissues, which results in the accumulation of unusual C6C1 lignin monomers and a slight decrease in lignin molecular weight. The transgenic biomass was pretreated with renewable DES that can be synthesized from lignin-derived phenols. Biomass from the HCHL plant line containing C6C1 monomers showed increased pretreatment efficiency and released more fermentable sugars up to 34% compared to WT biomass. The enhanced biomass saccharification of the HCHL line is likely due to a reduction of lignin recalcitrance caused by the overproduction of C6C1 aromatics that act as degree of polymerization (DP) reducers and higher chemical reactivity of lignin structures with such C6C1 aromatics. Overall, our findings demonstrate that strategic plant genetic engineering, along with renewable DES pretreatment, could enable the development of sustainable biorefinery

Microscale out-of-plane anemometer

A microscale out-of-plane thermal sensor. A resistive heater is suspended over a substrate by supports raised with respect to the substrate to provide a clearance underneath the resistive heater for fluid flow. A preferred fabrication process for the thermal sensor uses surface micromachining and a three-dimensional assembly to raise the supports and lift the resistive heater over the substrate

Stabilization of multiple resistance levels by current-sweep in SiOx-based resistive switching memory

Using current-sweep measurements, the set process in SiOx-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) has been found to consist of multiple resistance-reduction steps. Variation in set behaviors was observed and attributed to different defect distributions in the resistance switching region. Physical mechanism of electroforming process is discussed, which further explains the observed variation of defect distributions. A compliance current study confirms that the achievable memory states of SiOx RRAM are determined by its set behavior. This finding provides additional insight on achieving multi-bit memory storage with SiOx RRAM. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.Microelectronics Research Cente

N=1N=1 supersymmetry and the three loop anomalous dimension for the chiral superfield

We calculate the three loop anomalous dimension for a general $N=1$ supersymmetric gauge theory. The result is used to probe the possible existence of renormalisation invariant relationships between the Yukawa and gauge couplings.Comment: 18 pages. Uses Harvmac. Revised version includes discussion of the special case of the Wess-Zumino mode

A Multi-Chamber System for Analyzing the Outgassing, Deposition, and Associated Optical Degradation Properties of Materials in a Vacuum

We report on the Camera Materials Test Chamber, a multi-vessel apparatus which analyzes the outgassing consequences of candidate materials for use in the vacuum cryostat of a new telescope camera. The system measures the outgassing products and rates of samples of materials at different temperatures, and collects films of outgassing products to measure the effects on light transmission in six optical bands. The design of the apparatus minimizes potential measurement errors introduced by background contamination.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures, published in RSI (minor edits made to match journal accepted version

Microfabricated pressure and shear stress sensors

A microfabricated pressure sensor. The pressure sensor comprises a raised diaphragm disposed on a substrate. The diaphragm is configured to bend in response to an applied pressure difference. A strain gauge of a conductive material is coupled to a surface of the raised diaphragm and to at least one of the substrate and a piece rigidly connected to the substrate

Electrostatic Modulation of the Electronic Properties of Dirac Semimetal Na3Bi

Large-area thin films of topological Dirac semimetal Na$_3$Bi are grown on amorphous SiO$_2$:Si substrates to realise a field-effect transistor with the doped Si acting as back gate. As-grown films show charge carrier mobilities exceeding 7,000 cm$^2$/Vs and carrier densities below 3 $\times$10$^{18}$ cm$^{-3}$, comparable to the best thin-film Na$_3$Bi. An ambipolar field effect and minimum conductivity are observed, characteristic of Dirac electronic systems. The results are quantitatively understood within a model of disorder-induced charge inhomogeneity in topological Dirac semimetals. Due to the inverted band structure, the hole mobility is significantly larger than the electron mobility in Na$_3$Bi, and when present, these holes dominate the transport properties.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures; minor corrections and revisions for readabilit

The I_CARRE Methodology: An Organized Approach to Selecting Web Design Software for Nonprofits

Choosing Web content management software from the myriad of choices available can be a critical decision any organization. However, this decision becomes an even greater concern for nonprofit organizations with limited IT resources, technical skills, and financial resources. In this paper, a methodology is introduced that describes a step-by-step approach to selecting Web design software for organizations with extremely limited resources. The proposed I_CARRE methodology was developed using an action research approach and introduces several fundamental project management concepts, as well as some widely available tools. The objective of the I_CARRE methodology is to provide a non- technical, common sense approach that requires only a basic understanding of the Internet and familiarity with personal computing terminology in order to be applied successfully. Moreover, a case study of a nonprofit organization provides an in-depth look at how the methodology was used to provide organizational value

Text encoders are performance bottlenecks in contrastive vision-language models

Performant vision-language (VL) models like CLIP represent captions using a single vector. How much information about language is lost in this bottleneck? We first curate CompPrompts, a set of increasingly compositional image captions that VL models should be able to capture (e.g., single object, to object+property, to multiple interacting objects). Then, we train text-only recovery probes that aim to reconstruct captions from single-vector text representations produced by several VL models. This approach doesn't require images, allowing us to test on a broader range of scenes compared to prior work. We find that: 1) CLIP's text encoder falls short on object relationships, attribute-object association, counting, and negations; 2) some text encoders work significantly better than others; and 3) text-only recovery performance predicts multi-modal matching performance on ControlledImCaps: a new evaluation benchmark we collect+release consisting of fine-grained compositional images+captions. Specifically -- our results suggest text-only recoverability is a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for modeling compositional factors in contrastive vision+language models. We release data+code

Discussion On Device Structures And Hermetic Encapsulation For SiOx Random Access Memory Operation In Air

An edge-free structure and hermetic encapsulation technique are presented that enable SiOx-based resistive random-access memory (RRAM) operation in air. A controlled etch study indicates that the switching filament is close to the SiOx surface in devices with an exposed SiOx edge. Electrical test of encapsulated, edge-free devices in 1 atmosphere air indicates stable switching characteristics, unlike devices with an edge. This work demonstrates that SiOx RRAM is able to operate in air with proper encapsulation and an edge-free structure. The resistive switching failure mechanism when operating in air is explained by the oxidation of hydrogen-complexed defects in the switching filament. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.National Science Foundation IIP-1127537Microelectronics Research Cente