Spin Seebeck effect from antiferromagnetic magnons and critical spin fluctuations in epitaxial FeF2 films

We report a longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (SSE) study in epitaxially grown FeF2(110) antiferromagnetic (AFM) thin films with strong uniaxial anisotropy over the temperature range of 3.8 - 250 K. Both the magnetic field- and temperature-dependent SSE signals below the N\'eel temperature (TN=70 K) of the FeF2 films are consistent with a theoretical model based on the excitations of AFM magnons without any net induced static magnetic moment. In addition to the characteristic low-temperature SSE peak associated with the AFM magnons, there is another SSE peak at TN which extends well into the paramagnetic phase. All the SSE data taken at different magnetic fields up to 12 T near and above the critical point TN follow the critical scaling law very well with the critical exponents for magnetic susceptibility of 3D Ising systems, which suggests that the AFM spin correlation is responsible for the observed SSE near TN

Transgenic Mice Convert Carbohydrates to Essential Fatty Acids

Transgenic mice (named “Omega mice”) were engineered to carry both optimized fat-1 and fat-2 genes from the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans and are capable of producing essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids from saturated fats or carbohydrates. When maintained on a high-saturated fat diet lacking essential fatty acids or a high-carbohydrate, no-fat diet, the Omega mice exhibit high tissue levels of both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, with a ratio of ∼1∶1. This study thus presents an innovative technology for the production of both omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids, as well as a new animal model for understanding the true impact of fat on human health

GaussCtrl: multi-view consistent text-driven 3D Gaussian splatting editing

We propose GaussCtrl, a text-driven method to edit a 3D scene reconstructed by the 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS). Our method first renders a collection of images by using the 3DGS and edits them by using a pre-trained 2D diffusion model (ControlNet) based on the input prompt, which is then used to optimise the 3D model. Our key contribution is multi-view consistent editing, which enables editing all images together instead of iteratively editing one image while updating the 3D model as in previous works. It leads to faster editing as well as higher visual quality. This is achieved by the two terms: (a) depth-conditioned editing that enforces geometric consistency across multi-view images by leveraging naturally consistent depth maps. (b) attention-based latent code alignment that unifies the appearance of edited images by conditioning their editing to several reference views through self and cross-view attention between images’ latent representations. Experiments demonstrate that our method achieves faster editing and better visual results than previous state-of-the-art methods. Project website: https://gaussctrl.active.vision

GaussCtrl: multi-view consistent text-driven 3D Gaussian splatting editing

We propose GaussCtrl, a text-driven method to edit a 3D scene reconstructed by the 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS). Our method first renders a collection of images by using the 3DGS and edits them by using a pre-trained 2D diffusion model (ControlNet) based on the input prompt, which is then used to optimise the 3D model. Our key contribution is multi-view consistent editing, which enables editing all images together instead of iteratively editing one image while updating the 3D model as in previous works. It leads to faster editing as well as higher visual quality. This is achieved by the two terms: (a) depth-conditioned editing that enforces geometric consistency across multi-view images by leveraging naturally consistent depth maps. (b) attention-based latent code alignment that unifies the appearance of edited images by conditioning their editing to several reference views through self and cross-view attention between images’ latent representations. Experiments demonstrate that our method achieves faster editing and better visual results than previous state-of-the-art methods. Project website: https://gaussctrl.active.vision

Spin Seebeck effect from antiferromagnetic magnons and critical spin fluctuations in epitaxial FeF2 films

We report a longitudinal spin Seebeck effect (SSE) study in epitaxially grown FeF2(110) antiferromagnetic (AFM) thin films with strong uniaxial anisotropy over the temperature range of 3.8 - 250 K. Both the magnetic field- and temperature-dependent SSE signals below the N\'eel temperature (TN=70 K) of the FeF2 films are consistent with a theoretical model based on the excitations of AFM magnons without any net induced static magnetic moment. In addition to the characteristic low-temperature SSE peak associated with the AFM magnons, there is another SSE peak at TN which extends well into the paramagnetic phase. All the SSE data taken at different magnetic fields up to 12 T near and above the critical point TN follow the critical scaling law very well with the critical exponents for magnetic susceptibility of 3D Ising systems, which suggests that the AFM spin correlation is responsible for the observed SSE near TN

Systematic Control of Strain-Induced Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy in Epitaxial Europium and Terbium Iron Garnets Thin Films

We show tunable strain-induced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) over a wide range of thicknesses in epitaxial ferrimagnetic insulator Eu3Fe5O12 (EuIG) and Tb3Fe5O12 (TbIG) thin films grown by pulsed-laser deposition on Gd3Ga5O12 with (001) and (111) orientations, respectively. The PMA field is determined by measuring the induced anomalous Hall loops in Pt deposited on the garnet films. Due to positive magnetostriction constants, compressive in-plane strain induces a PMA field as large as 32.9 kOe for 4 nm thick EuIG and 66.7 kOe for 5 nm thick TbIG at 300 K, and relaxes extremely slowly as the garnet film thickness increases. In bilayers consisting of Pt and EuIG or Pt and TbIG, robust PMA is revealed by squared anomalous Hall hysteresis loops in Pt, the magnitude of which appears to be only related to the net magnetic moment of iron sublattices. Furthermore, the magnetostriction constant is found to be 2.7x10^(-5) for EuIG and 1.35x10^(-5) for TbIG, comparable with the values for bulk crystals. Our results demonstrate a general approach of tailoring magnetic anisotropy of rare earth iron garnets by utilizing modulated strain via epitaxial growth

Sure-Step [intelligent walking aid]

Walkers offer support for the elderly to walk, they are often difficult to use in certain situations. For example, when walking uphill or downhill, the walker tends to roll in the respective directions, forcing the elderly to provide extra force in order to control the walker. Although a mechanical brake can be used to slow down and stop the walker, the brake usually results in an abrupt stop and may consequently cause injury to the user. Another problem is balancing the walker in uneven road conditions, such as on a sloped sidewalk. This is primarily due to the elderly not having the dexterity to balance themselves and keep the walker in control. Moving past convention, Incedonex will address these problems and modify the current wheeled walkers by adding an advanced automatic braking system to prevent the walkers from unwanted rolling backwards or forwards on sloped surfaces, as well as combining automatic balance control on uneven grounds for better maneuvering. In addition, when users are in an unfamiliar surrounding, such as a shopping center, where they are unaware of where washrooms or elevators are located, Incedonex provides a solution by incorporating a state-ofthe-art path planning navigating system embedded on the walkers to guide them to their destination. Together with these features and by providing a user-friendly interface, our product is the most advanced walker on the planet.&nbsp

Quantitative Virus-Associated RNA Detection to Monitor Oncolytic Adenovirus Replication

Oncolytic adenoviruses are in development as immunotherapeutic agents for solid tumors. Their efficacy is in part dependent on their ability to replicate in tumors. It is, however, difficult to obtain evidence for intratumoral oncolytic adenovirus replication if direct access to the tumor is not possible. Detection of systemic adenovirus DNA, which is sometimes used as a proxy, has limited value because it does not distinguish between the product of intratumoral replication and injected virus that did not replicate. Therefore, we investigated if detection of virus-associated RNA (VA RNA) by RT-qPCR on liquid biopsies could be used as an alternative. We found that VA RNA is expressed in adenovirus-infected cells in a replication-dependent manner and is secreted by these cells in association with extracellular vesicles. This allowed VA RNA detection in the peripheral blood of a preclinical in vivo model carrying adenovirus-injected human tumors and on liquid biopsies from a human clinical trial. Our results confirm that VA RNA detection in liquid biopsies can be used for minimally invasive assessment of oncolytic adenovirus replication in solid tumors in vivo.</p

Repurposing pyridoxamine for therapeutic intervention of intravascular cell-cell interactions in mouse models of sickle cell disease

Adherent neutrophils on vascular endothelium positively contribute to cell-cell aggregation and vaso-occlusion in sickle cell disease. In the present study, we demonstrated that pyridoxamine, a derivative of vitamin B6, might be a therapeutic agent to alleviate intravascular cell-cell aggregation in sickle cell disease. Using real-time intravital microscopy, we found that one oral administration of pyridoxamine dose-dependently increased the rolling influx of neutrophils and reduced neutrophil adhesion to endothelial cells in cremaster microvessels of sickle cell disease mice challenged with hypoxia-reoxygenation. Short-term treatment also mitigated neutrophil-endothelial cell and neutrophil-platelet interactions in the microvessels and improved the survival of sickle cell disease mice challenged with tumor necrosis factor-α. The inhibitory effects of pyridoxamine on intravascular cell-cell interactions were potentiated by co-treatment with hydroxyurea. We observed that long-term (5.5 months) oral treatment with pyridoxamine significantly diminished the adhesive function of neutrophils and platelets and down-regulated the expression of E-selectin and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 on the vascular endothelium in tumor necrosis factor-α-challenged sickle cell disease mice. Ex vivo studies revealed that the surface amount of αMβ2 integrin was significantly decreased in stimulated neutrophils isolated from sickle cell disease mice treated with pyridoxamine-containing water. Studies using platelets and neutrophils from sickle cell disease mice and patients suggested that treatment with pyridoxamine reduced the activation state of platelets and neutrophils. These results suggest that pyridoxamine may be a novel therapeutic and a supplement to hydroxyurea to prevent and treat vaco-occlusion events in sickle cell disease