A community effort in SARS-CoV-2 drug discovery.

peer reviewedThe COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a substantial threat to human lives and is likely to do so for years to come. Despite the availability of vaccines, searching for efficient small-molecule drugs that are widely available, including in low- and middle-income countries, is an ongoing challenge. In this work, we report the results of an open science community effort, the "Billion molecules against Covid-19 challenge", to identify small-molecule inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 or relevant human receptors. Participating teams used a wide variety of computational methods to screen a minimum of 1 billion virtual molecules against 6 protein targets. Overall, 31 teams participated, and they suggested a total of 639,024 molecules, which were subsequently ranked to find 'consensus compounds'. The organizing team coordinated with various contract research organizations (CROs) and collaborating institutions to synthesize and test 878 compounds for biological activity against proteases (Nsp5, Nsp3, TMPRSS2), nucleocapsid N, RdRP (only the Nsp12 domain), and (alpha) spike protein S. Overall, 27 compounds with weak inhibition/binding were experimentally identified by binding-, cleavage-, and/or viral suppression assays and are presented here. Open science approaches such as the one presented here contribute to the knowledge base of future drug discovery efforts in finding better SARS-CoV-2 treatments.R-AGR-3826 - COVID19-14715687-CovScreen (01/06/2020 - 31/01/2021) - GLAAB Enric

Effect of nonmagnetic spacer on hot-electron transport in the spin-valve transistor

The effect of the nonmagnetic (NM) spacer on hot-electron transport in the spin-valve transistor (SVT) is reported. Au, Cu and Ta have been used in the nonmagnetic spacer of the Ni80Fe20/NM/Co spin-valve base. Devices with Cu show 1.5 times higher output current than those with Au at comparable magnetic sensitivity. Structures with Ta spacer show a reduction in the magnetocurrent (MC) from 300% to 9% while the transfer ratio is reduced by three orders of magnitude compared to devices with Au and Cu. The collector current of the spin-valve transistor with Cu spacer increases linearly with emitter current, and a collector current of 64 uA is achieved

Magnetic tunnel transistor with a silicon hot-electron emitter

We report on a modified magnetic tunnel transistor having a silicon tunnel emitter. The device has the structure Si/Al2O3 /base/Si with a spin-valve metal base, a Schottky barrier collector, but a silicon emitter separated from the base by a thin tunnel oxide. The energy of the hot electrons injected from the Si emitter into the base can be tuned by the emitter bias, which drops partly over the Si depletion region. Compared to a magnetic tunnel transistor with a metal emitter, the voltage drop over the thin tunnel oxide is reduced, enabling stable device operation at higher biasing conditions. We fabricated devices with a magnetocurrent up to 166% and a steeply enhanced transfer ratio reaching 6 10-4 at an emitter current of 200 mA

Spin-valve transistors with high magnetocurrent and 40 μA output current

The electrical characteristics of silicon-based spin-valve transistors are reported, focusing on how the output current and magnetocurrent depend on the magnitude of the emitter current. Transistors with a different combination of Schottky barriers ~Si/Au and Si/Cu! were used. The collector current rapidly increases with emitter current, without significant loss of magnetocurrent. Spin-valve transistors with magnetocurrent around 400% and high output current up to 40 mA are obtained

Nanoscale magnetic hysteresis of Ni80Fe20/Au/Co trilayers using ballistic electron magnetic microscopy

Ballistic electron magnetic microscopy is used to study spin-dependent hot-electron transport and local magnetic switching of ferromagnetic thin films grown on a Au/Si(100) collector. For Ni80Fe20 films, the collector current is a factor of 2 larger than for Co, consistent with the shorter hot-electron attenuation length of Co. For Ni80Fe20/Au/Co spin valves, the collector current is reduced by a factor of 5 when the relative magnetization of the ferromagnetic layers changes from parallel to antiparallel. By sweeping the applied magnetic field, we obtain nanoscale hysteresis loops, where the hot electrons are collected from an area of about 10 nm

Supplementary Material for: Processes of Emotion Idioms Comprehension of Turkish-Speaking People with Wernice's Aphasia

Introduction: Idioms are commonly used in everyday language to convey emotions figuratively. The ability to comprehend and use idioms that incorporate emotional elements is crucial for effective communication in daily life, particularly among people with aphasia (PwA). Despite the interest in understanding the process of emotion idiom comprehension in PwA, limited information is available in the literature. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the process of emotion idiom comprehension in people with Wernice's aphasia (PwWA) and compare it with that of neurotypical individuals. Methods: Sixty idioms were selected based on their syntactic and semantic features, and participants evaluated their imageability. Sixteen idioms were chosen for the study and two types of tasks were prepared: written idiom-picture matching and written idiom-written text matching. These tasks were administered to two groups: 11 PwWA and 11 neurotypical individuals. The results were analysed in terms of task performance, response type, syntactic and semantic features, and emotional content. Results: The emotion idiom comprehension scores of PwWA group were significantly lower than those of the neurotypical participants. PwWA had greater difficulty with the written idiom-picture matching task and tended to rely on the literal meanings of the idioms. There were differences in the semantic features between the two groups. Among the emotional idioms, PwWA showed significant differences in the types of emotions they were able to comprehend. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that regardless of the syntactic content of idioms, PwWA's ability to comprehend emotion idioms is impaired, and they tend to interpret them more literally. This study provides a useful method for assessing emotional idiom comprehension in PwA

Epitaxial diodes of a half-metallic ferromagnet on an oxide semiconductor

We report on the fabrication and electrical characterization of epitaxial Schottky diodes of a half-metallic ferromagnet on an oxide semiconductor. La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 thin films are grown by pulsed laser deposition on niobium-doped SrTiO3 semiconductor substrates with two doping concentrations and a TiO2 surface termination. The current across the diodes is dominated by thermionic emission and shows high rectification and low reverse bias leakage. At room temperature, the Schottky barrier height is 0.95 eV (0.65 eV) and the ideality factor is 1.08 (1.18) for the diodes with a low (high) doped semiconductor. With decreasing temperature the Schottky barrier height decreases and the ideality factor increases.