Comparator design automation in SEAS

The authors describe the development and realization of a synthesis program for CMOS comparators. It was constructed by following the SEAS framework for analog circuit design automation. An example of modeling and synthesis is shown. Using this program, a number of comparators were synthesized, and they were tested by using SPICE simulations. All comparators generated performed well above their design specifications. This shows that the SEAS concept is also applicable to the synthesis of nonlinear circuits

Ryanodine receptors contribute to the induction of nociceptive input-evoked long-term potentiation in the rat spinal cord slice

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Our previous study demonstrated that nitric oxide (NO) contributes to long-term potentiation (LTP) of C-fiber-evoked field potentials by tetanic stimulation of the sciatic nerve in the spinal cord <it>in vivo</it>. Ryanodine receptor (RyR) is a downstream target for NO. The present study further explored the role of RyR in synaptic plasticity of the spinal pain pathway.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By means of field potential recordings in the adult male rat <it>in vivo</it>, we showed that RyR antagonist reduced LTP of C-fiber-evoked responses in the spinal dorsal horn by tetanic stimulation of the sciatic nerve. Using spinal cord slice preparations and field potential recordings from superficial dorsal horn, high frequency stimulation of Lissauer's tract (LT) stably induced LTP of field excitatory postsynaptic potentials (fEPSPs). Perfusion of RyR antagonists blocked the induction of LT stimulation-evoked spinal LTP, while Ins(1,4,5)P3 receptor (IP₃R) antagonist had no significant effect on LTP induction. Moreover, activation of RyRs by caffeine without high frequency stimulation induced a long-term potentiation in the presence of bicuculline methiodide and strychnine. Further, in patch-clamp recordings from superficial dorsal horn neurons, activation of RyRs resulted in a large increase in the frequency of miniature EPSCs (mEPSCs). Immunohistochemical study showed that RyRs were expressed in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons. Likewise, calcium imaging in small DRG neurons illustrated that activation of RyRs elevated [Ca²⁺]_iin small DRG neurons.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These data indicate that activation of presynaptic RyRs play a crucial role in the induction of LTP in the spinal pain pathway, probably through enhancement of transmitter release.</p

The latest spreading periods of the south china sea: new constraints from macrostructure analysis of IODP expedition 349 cores and geophysical data

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2019. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research-Solid Earth 124 (2019): 9980– 9998, doi:10.1029/2019JB017584.Macrostructures preserved in deformed rocks are essential for the understanding of their evolution, especially when the deformation is weak and hard to discriminate in regional scale or purely through geophysical data. In order to resolve the inconsistency between NS trending fracture zones and NE oriented spreading fabrics of the South China Sea during the latest spreading stage, we analyzed macrostructures identifiable from the basalt and consolidated sediment samples of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Sites U1431 and U1433. These two sites are close to the East and Southwest relict spreading ridges and provide critical information on the latest spreading stages. The structures in the basalt of both sites suggest two dominant orientations of NS and NE. At U1431, sediments show mainly WNW trending slickensides, different from that of basalt. At U1433, no structures were found in postspreading sediment. Thus, NE and NS trending structures in basalt are most possibly formed by seafloor spreading. Crosscutting relationship suggests that NE trending structures formed first, followed by NS and finally WNW trending structures. These observations are consistent with geophysical features. Magnetic anomalies and ocean bottom seismometer velocity suggest that the latest relict ridge of the East Subbasin coincides with the EW trending seamount chain. Located between the relict ridges of East and Southwest Subbasins, NS trending Zhongnan‐Liyue Fracture Zone had acted as the latest transform fault. Based on the above evidences, we proposed that the South China Sea may have experienced a short period of NS oriented spreading after earlier SE spreading. These results resolve the previous inconsistencies.We appreciate Anne Replumaz and other anonymous reviewers for the constructive suggestions, which improve this paper to a great extent. This research was supported by Guangdong NSF research team project (2017A030312002), K. C. Wong Education Foundation (GJTD‐2018‐13), the IODP‐China Foundation, the NSFC Projects (91628301, 41376027, 41576070, 41576068, 41430962, 41674069, 91528302, and 20153410), U.S. National Science Foundation through Grant EAR‐1250444, the Guangdong Province Foundation (41576068), and the Joint Foundation of the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Guangdong Province (U1301233). Fucheng Li is thanked for helping with the earthquake epicenter figure for the study area. All the sample photos can be accessed via web address (http://www.iodp.tamu.edu). The archive halves of samples are kept in the Kochi repository. The paleomag data will be published by Xixi Zhao separately. All the other geophysical data have been published; for example, the multichannel seismic could be referenced to Li et al. (2015a), and the gravity data and magnetic anomaly data are from Sandwell et al. (2014) and Ishihara and Kisimoto (1996).2020-02-2

Identification of induced polarization of submarine hydrocarbons in marine controllable source electromagnetic exploration

The identification of hydrocarbons buried on the seafloor is highly dependent on geophysical exploration capabilities. Seismic exploration has been an important tool in providing information on submarine stratigraphy before offshore drilling, but it is a challenge to identify the nature and saturation of the fluid in the structure by seismic exploration. Of all the physical properties, electrical parameters are the most sensitive to the fluids in the reservoir and would be able to be combined with seismic data to improve the identification of hydrocarbons at depth. However, the marine controlled-source electromagnetic method usually only considers the effect of electromagnetic induction and ignores the induced polarization (IP) effects. The IP effects can occur in the stratum where the reservoir is located due to a variety of factors, so considering the IP effects will make the modeling more reasonable and thus give more accurate results when interpreting and processing the data. We have used the integral equation method for modeling, adopted the scattering and superposition methods to calculate the dyadic Green’s function required in the study, replaced the real resistivity with a complex resistivity that takes into account the IP effects, investigated the response patterns of different ion polarization models, and analyzed the influence patterns of various model parameters. These investigations will provide important contributions to the study of submarine hydrocarbon detection. The field data also show the amplitude, and phase response results of polarizability show that it gradually increases from the offset

Unsupervised Text Topic-Related Gene Extraction for Large Unbalanced Datasets

There is a common notion that traditional unsupervised feature extraction algorithms follow the assumption that the distribution of the different clusters in a dataset is balanced. However, feature selection is guided by the calculation of similarities among features when topic keywords are extracted from a large number of unmarked, unbalanced text datasets. As a result, the selected features cannot truly reflect the information of the original data set, which thus affects the subsequent performance of classifiers. To solve this problem, a new method of extracting unsupervised text topic-related genes is proposed in this paper. Firstly, a sample cluster group is obtained by factor analysis and a density peak algorithm, based on which the dataset is marked. Then, considering the influence of the unbalanced distribution of sample clusters on feature selection, the CHI statistical matrix feature selection method, which combines average local density and information entropy together, is used to strengthen the features of low-density small-sample clusters. Finally, a related gene extraction method based on the exploration of high-order relevance in multidimensional statistical data is described, which uses independent component analysis to enhance the generalisability of the selected features. In this way, unsupervised text topic-related genes can be extracted from large unbalanced datasets. The results of experiments suggest that the proposed method of extracting unsupervised text topic-related genes is better than existing methods in extracting text subject terms from low-density small-sample clusters, and has higher prematurity and feature dimension-reduction ability

Functional building blocks for scalable multipartite entanglement in optical lattices

Featuring excellent coherence and operated parallelly, ultracold atoms in optical lattices form a competitive candidate for quantum computation. For this, a massive number of parallel entangled atom pairs have been realized in superlattices. However, the more formidable challenge is to scale-up and detect multipartite entanglement due to the lack of manipulations over local atomic spins in retro-reflected bichromatic superlattices. Here we developed a new architecture based on a cross-angle spin-dependent superlattice for implementing layers of quantum gates over moderately-separated atoms incorporated with a quantum gas microscope for single-atom manipulation. We created and verified functional building blocks for scalable multipartite entanglement by connecting Bell pairs to one-dimensional 10-atom chains and two-dimensional plaquettes of $2\times4$ atoms. This offers a new platform towards scalable quantum computation and simulation

The LAMOST Survey of Background Quasars in the Vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum Galaxies -- II. Results from the Commissioning Observations and the Pilot Surveys

We present new quasars discovered in the vicinity of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies with the LAMOST during the 2010 and 2011 observational seasons. Quasar candidates are selected based on the available SDSS, KPNO 4 m telescope, XSTPS optical, and WISE near infrared photometric data. We present 509 new quasars discovered in a stripe of ~135 sq. deg from M31 to M33 along the Giant Stellar Stream in the 2011 pilot survey datasets, and also 17 new quasars discovered in an area of ~100 sq. deg that covers the central region and the southeastern halo of M31 in the 2010 commissioning datasets. These 526 new quasars have i magnitudes ranging from 15.5 to 20.0, redshifts from 0.1 to 3.2. They represent a significant increase of the number of identified quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33. There are now 26, 62 and 139 known quasars in this region of the sky with i magnitudes brighter than 17.0, 17.5 and 18.0 respectively, of which 5, 20 and 75 are newly-discovered. These bright quasars provide an invaluable collection with which to probe the kinematics and chemistry of the ISM/IGM in the Local Group of galaxies. A total of 93 quasars are now known with locations within 2.5 deg of M31, of which 73 are newly discovered. Tens of quasars are now known to be located behind the Giant Stellar Stream, and hundreds behind the extended halo and its associated substructures of M31. The much enlarged sample of known quasars in the vicinity of M31 and M33 can potentially be utilized to construct a perfect astrometric reference frame to measure the minute PMs of M31 and M33, along with the PMs of substructures associated with the Local Group of galaxies. Those PMs are some of the most fundamental properties of the Local Group.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, AJ accepte

Which Is the Most Suitable Classification for Colorectal Cancer, Log Odds, the Number or the Ratio of Positive Lymph Nodes?

Objective: The aim of the current study was to investigate which is the most suitable classification for colorectal cancer, log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) classification or the classifications based on the number of positive lymph nodes (pN) and positive lymph node ratio(LNR) in a Chinese single institutional population. Design: Clinicopathologic and prognostic data of 1297 patients with colorectal cancer were retrospectively studied. The log-rank statistics, Cox’s proportional hazards model, the Nagelkerke R 2 index and a Harrell’s C statistic were used. Results: Univariate and three-step multivariate analyses identified that LNR was a significant prognostic factor and LNR classification was superior to both the pN and LODDS classifications. Moreover, the results of the Nagelkerke R 2 index (0.130) and a Harrell’s C statistic (0.707) of LNR showed that LNR and LODDS classifications were similar and LNR was a little better than the other two classifications. Furthermore, for patients in each LNR classification, prognosis was homologous between those in different pN or LODDS classifications. However, for patients in pN1a, pN1b, LODDS2 and LODDS3 classifications, significant differences in survival were observed among patients in different LNR classifications. Conclusions: For patients with colorectal cancer, the LNR classification is more suitable than pN and LODDS classification