Enhanced thermoelectric figure of merit in vertical graphene junctions

In this work, we investigate thermoelectric properties of junctions consisting of two partially overlapped graphene sheets coupled to each other in the cross-plane direction. It is shown that because of the weak van-der Waals interactions between graphene layers, the phonon conductance in these junctions is strongly reduced, compared to that of single graphene layer structures, while their electrical performance is weakly affected. By exploiting this effect, we demonstrate that the thermoelectric figure of merit can reach values higher than 1 at room temperature in junctions made of gapped graphene materials, for instance, graphene nanoribbons and graphene nanomeshes. The dependence of thermoelectric properties on the junction length is also discussed. This theoretical study hence suggests an efficient way to enhance thermoelectric efficiency of graphene devices.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitte

Variations in Gonadosomatic Index, Gonadal Development and Spawning Induction of Spotted Scat Scatophagus argus (Linnaeus, 1766)

This study evaluated variations in gonadosomatic index (GSI), gonadal development stages, and hormonal spawning induction of Scatophagus argus in captivity. Male and female fish were cultured separately in net cages in Tam Giang lagoon, Central Vietnam, from January to December 2020. Five fish of each sex were randomly sampled monthly. Gonads were collected, GSI determined, and subsequently prepared for histology. Gamete quality was assessed with a light microscope. Spawning was hormonally induced with different doses of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and luteinizing hormone-release hormone (LHRH-A2). Gonadal development started to increase in March, peaking in July. The peak spawning period of the fish was from June to August, displaying the highest GSI value, sperm motility, and oocyte diameter. Only female GSI fluctuated significantly month-by-month (P<0.05). Histological examination indicated that S. argus is a multiple-spawner. Application of LHRH-A2 (70 µg/kg) stimulated spawning and resulted in better latency periods, fertilization, and hatching rates

Improving Peer Feedback Prediction: The Sentence Level is Right

Recent research aims to automatically pre-dict whether peer feedback is of high qual-ity, e.g. suggests solutions to identified problems. While prior studies have fo-cused on peer review of papers, simi-lar issues arise when reviewing diagrams and other artifacts. In addition, previous studies have not carefully examined how the level of prediction granularity impacts both accuracy and educational utility. In this paper we develop models for predict-ing the quality of peer feedback regard-ing argument diagrams. We propose to perform prediction at the sentence level, even though the educational task is to la-bel feedback at a multi-sentential com-ment level. We first introduce a corpus annotated at a sentence level granularity, then build comment prediction models us-ing this corpus. Our results show that ag-gregating sentence prediction outputs to label comments not only outperforms ap-proaches that directly train on comment annotations, but also provides useful infor-mation for enhancing peer review systems with new functionality.

Patient-Specific iPSC-Derived RPE for Modeling of Retinal Diseases

Inherited retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, are the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. Currently, treatments for these conditions are limited. Recently, considerable attention has been given to the possibility of using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a treatment for these conditions. iPSCs reprogrammed from adult somatic cells offer the possibility of generating patient-specific cell lines in vitro. In this review, we will discuss the current literature pertaining to iPSC modeling of retinal disease, gene therapy of iPSC-derived retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cells, and retinal transplantation. We will focus on the use of iPSCs created from patients with inherited eye diseases for testing the efficacy of gene or drug-based therapies, elucidating previously unknown mechanisms and pathways of disease, and as a source of autologous cells for cell replacement

Morphological characteristics and genetic diversity of <em>Terapon jarbua</em> (Forrskäl, 1775) in Central, Vietnam

Many environmental factors affect the morphology of migratory fish species, such as salinity, water flow rate, and temperature. However, studies on changes in fish morphology under environmental variations from salt water to brackish water are still limited in many fish species, especially in *Terapon jarbua*. This study aims to investigate the differences in the morphological parameters of *T. jarbua* between the coastal sea (seawater) and lagoon (brackish water); and between male and female fish based on a landmark morphological approach. Additionally, the genetic diversity of *T. jarbua* populations in Central Vietnam was elucidated using the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtDNA COI) sequence as a molecular marker. The analytical results indicated no sexual dimorphism in the *T. jarbua* population, yet conformational differences exist between the two studied aquatic species. The analysis of 42 mtDNA COI sequences collected from Central Vietnam identified 13 haplotypes with medium genetic diversity and low genetic differentiation between the Tam Giang lagoon and Thua Thien Hue coastal (Fst = 0.028) and not significant (p = 0.126). Most haplotypes obtained are present in reference populations, indicating a high genetic exchange between populations. We proposed that the *T. jarbua* population in Central Vietnam has a stable connection with neighboring populations (China, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan)

Chatbot for Creating and Consuming Podcasts via Short Messaging Service (SMS)

Podcast creation can be a complicated undertaking that involves the use of audio equipment to record and process content. Furthermore, a podcast creator needs to work with a provider to host and distribute podcast content. Moreover, podcast creators must rely on listeners having a podcatcher application to discover and listen to the podcast. This disclosure describes a chatbot that enables users to create and consume podcasts easily from any device, including low capability mobile devices. Users can create or consume podcasts by interacting with the chatbot via Short Messaging Service (SMS) or other text-based chat interface. The techniques enable podcast creation and consumption from devices that lack Internet connectivity