Motivational, emotional and memorable dimensions of non-Muslim tourists’ halal food experiences

Purpose: This study aims to explore non-Muslim tourists’ general halal food preferences, motivations for tasting halal food during their recent trips, positive and negative emotions and memorable dimensions associated with their recent halal food experiences after returning from holiday. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected using the authors’ personal networks and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) using a questionnaire. An email containing a link to the questionnaire was sent to the authors’ personal networks and posted on MTurk in January 2021. Findings: Of the 311 non-Muslim respondents, more than half considered themselves as food neophiliacs and considered halal food experiences as imperative whilst travelling. However, tasting halal food was not a major travel motivation. Novelty and taste were the two main motivations for tasting halal food whilst at a tourism destination. Emotions elicited by halal food experiences focussed on “joy” and “love”. The proposed conceptual framework for memorable halal food experiences comprises several dimensions: taste, spending time with family and friends, novelty, quality and safety, hospitality, ambience (setting/servicescape) and experiencing others’ culture through food. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to explore non-Muslim tourists’ motives, emotions and memorable dimensions of halal food experiences

Persistently high HIV seroprevalence among adult tuberculosis patients at a tertiary care centre in Delhi

Background & Objective: This study was designed to estimate HIV seroprevalence among tuberculosis patients presenting to tertiary care centre in Delhi. Methods: Cross-sectional prevalence study among all patients presenting to the inpatient and outpatient departments of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and receiving anti-tuberculosis treatment from May 2003 to April 2005. Results: Of the 448 patients who presented to the TB clinic during the study period, 23 (5.1%) were previously tested HIV-positive. An additional 21 patients (4.6%) refused testing, and 30 (6.7%) were lost to follow up. Of the remaining 374 patients who consented to testing, 31 (8.3%) were found to be HIV-positive. Risk factors for HIV seropositivity included high-risk sexual behaviours (48% in HIV-TB co-infected vs. 6% in TB infected patients, P<0.001) and history of blood transfusion (23% vs. 5%; P=0.002). Interpretation & Conclusion: Previous studies from the same hospital published in 2000 and 2003 reported HIV seroprevalence among TB patients to be 0.4 and 9.4 per cent respectively. The current study documents a persistently high seropositivity among TB patients. These results emphasize the acute need for improved detection and treatment for HIV among TB patients in northern India

Taking a hard line with biotemplating: cobalt-doped magnetite magnetic nanoparticle arrays.

Rapid advancements made in technology, and the drive towards miniaturisation, means that we require reliable, sustainable and cost effective methods of manufacturing a wide range of nanomaterials. In this bioinspired study, we take advantage of millions of years of evolution, and adapt a biomineralisation protein for surface patterning of biotemplated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). We employ soft-lithographic micro-contact printing to pattern a recombinant version of the biomineralisation protein Mms6 (derived from the magnetotactic bacterium Magnetospirillum magneticum AMB-1). The Mms6 attaches to gold surfaces via a cysteine residue introduced into the N-terminal region. The surface bound protein biotemplates highly uniform MNPs of magnetite onto patterned surfaces during an aqueous mineralisation reaction (with a mean diameter of 90 ± 15 nm). The simple addition of 6% cobalt to the mineralisation reaction maintains the uniformity in grain size (with a mean diameter of 84 ± 14 nm), and results in the production of MNPs with a much higher coercivity (increased from ≈156 Oe to ≈377 Oe). Biotemplating magnetic nanoparticles on patterned surfaces could form a novel, environmentally friendly route for the production of bit-patterned media, potentially the next generation of ultra-high density magnetic data storage devices. This is a simple method to fine-tune the magnetic hardness of the surface biotemplated MNPs, and could easily be adapted to biotemplate a wide range of different nanomaterials on surfaces to create a range of biologically templated devices

Emulation of synaptic plasticity on cobalt-based synaptic transistor for neuromorphic computing

Neuromorphic computing (NC), which emulates neural activities of the human brain, is considered for the low-power implementation of artificial intelligence. Toward realizing NC, fabrication, and investigations of hardware elementssuch as synaptic devices and neuronsare crucial. Electrolyte gating has been widely used for conductance modulation by massive carrier injections and has proven to be an effective way of emulating biological synapses. Synaptic devices, in the form of synaptic transistors, have been studied using various materials. Despite the remarkable progress, the study of metallic channel-based synaptic transistors remains massively unexplored. Here, we demonstrated a three-terminal electrolyte gatingmodulated synaptic transistor based on a metallic cobalt thin film to emulate biological synapses. We have realized gating-controlled, non-volatile, and distinct multilevel conductance states in the proposed device. The essential synaptic functions demonstrating both short-term and long-term plasticity have been emulated in the synaptic device. A transition from short-term to long-term memory has been realized by tuning the gate pulse parameters, such as amplitude and duration. The crucial cognitive behavior, including learning, forgetting, and re-learning, has been emulated, showing a resemblance to the human brain. Beyond that, dynamic filtering behavior has been experimentally implemented in the synaptic device. These results provide an insight into the design of metallic channel-based synaptic transistors for NC.Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)Ministry of Education (MOE)National Research Foundation (NRF)Submitted/Accepted versionThe authors acknowledge the support from the CRP grant NRF-CRP21-2018-003 of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore. S.N.P. acknowledges the partial support from the Tier 2 grant MOE2019-T2-1-117 of the Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore. P.M. thanks the Ministry of Education (MoE), India, and the Pratiksha Trust for the financial support. X.R.W. acknowledges support from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) under its AME IRG grant (project no. A20E5c0094)

Synaptic plasticity investigation in permalloy based channel material for neuromorphic computing

Artificial synaptic devices capable of synchronized storing and processing of information are the critical building blocks of neuromorphic computing systems for the low-power implementation of artificial intelligence. Compared to the diverse synaptic device structures, the emerging electrolyte-gated synaptic transistors are promising for mimicking biological synapses owing to their analogous working mode. Despite the remarkable progress in electrolyte-gated synaptic transistors, the study of metallic channel-based synaptic devices remains vastly unexplored. Here, we report a three-terminal electrolyte-gated artificial synapse based on metallic permalloy as the active layer. Gating controlled, non-volatile, rewritable, and distinct multilevel conductance states have been achieved for analog computing. Representative synaptic behaviors such as excitatory postsynaptic conductance (EPSC), paired-pulse facilitation (PPF), spike amplitude-dependent plasticity (SADP), spike duration-dependent plasticity (SDDP), and long-term potentiation/depression (LTP/D) have been successfully simulated in the synaptic device. Furthermore, switching from short-term to long-term memory regimes has been demonstrated through repeated training. Benefitting from the short-term facilitation, the synaptic device can also act as a high-pass temporal filter for selective communication. This research highlights the great potential of metallic channel-based synaptic devices for future neuromorphic systems and augments the diversity of synaptic devices.Ministry of Education (MOE)National Research Foundation (NRF)Submitted/Accepted versionThe authors acknowledge the support from the CRP Grant NRF-CRP21-2018-0003 of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore. SNP acknowledges the partial support from the Tier 2 grant MOE2019-T2-1-117 of the Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore. PSAK acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education (MoE), India

A multilevel electrolyte-gated artificial synapse based on ruthenium-doped cobalt ferrite

Synaptic devices that emulate synchronized memory and processing are considered the core components of neuromorphic computing systems for the low-power implementation of artificial intelligence. In this regard, electrolyte-gated transistors (EGTs) have gained much scientific attention, having a similar working mechanism as the biological synapses. Moreover, compared to a traditional solid-state gate dielectric, the liquid dielectric has the key advantage of inducing extremely large modulation of carrier density while overcoming the problem of electric pinholes, that typically occurs when using large-area films gated through ultra-thin solid dielectrics. Herein we demonstrate a three-terminal synaptic transistor based on ruthenium-doped cobalt ferrite (CRFO) thin films by electrolyte gating. In the CRFO-based EGT, we have obtained multilevel non-volatile conductance states for analog computing and high-density storage. Furthermore, the proposed synaptic transistor exhibited essential synaptic behavior, including spike amplitude-dependent plasticity (SADP), spike duration-dependent plasticity (SDDP), long-term potentiation (LTP), and long-term depression (LTD) successfully by applying electrical pulses. This study can motivate the development of advanced neuromorphic devices that leverage simultaneous modulation of electrical and magnetic properties in the same device and show a new direction to synaptic electronics.Ministry of Education (MOE)National Research Foundation (NRF)Submitted/Accepted versionThe authors acknowledge the support from the CRP grant NRF-CRP21-2018-0003 of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore. SNP acknowledges the partial support from the Tier 2 Grant MOE2019-T2-1-117 of the Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore. PSAK acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education (MoE), India

Synaptic behavior of Fe₃O₄-based artificial synapse by electrolyte gating for neuromorphic computing

Neuromorphic computing (NC) is a crucial step toward realizing power-efficient artificial intelligence systems. Hardware implementation of NC is expected to overcome the challenges associated with the conventional von Neumann computer architecture. Synaptic devices that can emulate the rich functionalities of biological synapses are emerging. Out of several approaches, electrolyte-gated synaptic transistors have attracted enormous scientific interest owing to their similar working mechanism. Here, we report a three-terminal electrolyte-gated synaptic transistor based on Fe3O4 thin films, a half-metallic spinel ferrite. We have realized gate-controllable multilevel, non-volatile, and rewritable states for analog computing. Furthermore, we have emulated essential synaptic functions by applying electrical stimulus to the gate terminal of the synaptic device. This work provides a new candidate and a platform for spinel ferrite-based devices for future NC applications.Ministry of Education (MOE)National Research Foundation (NRF)Submitted/Accepted versionThe authors acknowledge the support from the CRP Grant No. NRF-CRP21-2018-0003 of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore. S.N.P. acknowledges the partial support from the Tier 2 Grant No. MOE2019-T2-1-117 of the Ministry of Education (MOE) Singapore. P.M. thanks the Ministry of Education (MoE), India, and the Pratiksha Trust, India, for the financial support. S.G.B. acknowledges INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship, DST, INDIA for the funding