Back-end of line compatible transistors for hybrid CMOS applications

The low-temperature back-end of line (BEOL) compatible transparent amorphous oxide semiconductor (TAOS) TFTs and poly-Si TFTs are the suitable platforms for three-dimensional (3D) integration hybrid CMOS technologies. The n-channel amorphous indium tungsten oxide (a-IWO) ultra-thin-film transistors (UTFTs) have been successfully fabricated and demonstrated in the category of indium oxide based thin film transistors (TFTs). We have scaled down thickness of a-IWO channel to 4nm. The proposed a-IWO UTFTs with low operation voltages exhibit good electrical characteristics: near ideal subthreshold swing (S.S.) ~ 63mV/dec., high field-effect mobility (FE) ~ 25.3 cm2/V-s. In addition, we also have fabricated the novel less metal contamination Ni-induced lateral crystallization (LC-NILC) p-channel poly-Si TFTs. The matched electrical characteristics of n-channel and p-channel devices with low operation voltage and low IOFF are exhibiting the promising candidate for future hybrid CMOS applications

Kondo QED: The Kondo effect and photon trapping in a two-impurity Anderson model ultra-strongly coupled to light

The Kondo effect is one of the most studied examples of strongly correlated quantum many-body physics. Another type of strongly correlated physics that has only recently been explored in detail (and become experimentally accessible) is that of ultrastrong coupling between light and matter. Here, we study a system which we denote as "Kondo QED") that combines both phenomena, consisting of a two-impurity Anderson model ultra-strongly coupled to a single-mode cavity. While presented as an abstract model, it is relevant for a range of future hybrid cavity-QED systems. Using the hierarchical equations of motion approach we show that the ultrastrong coupling of cavity photons to the electronic states (impurity) noticeably suppresses the electronic Kondo resonance due to the destruction of many-body correlations of the Kondo cloud. We observe this transfer of correlations from the Kondo cloud to the cavity by computing the entropy and mutual information of the impurity-cavity subsystems. In addition, in the weak lead-coupling limit and at zero-bias, the model exhibits a ground-state photon accumulation effect originating entirely from counter-rotating terms in the impurity-cavity interaction. Interestingly, in the strong lead-coupling limit, this accumulation is ``Kondo-enhanced'' by new transition paths opening when increasing the hybridization to the leads. This suggests a new mechanism for the generation of real photons from virtual states. We further show that the suppression of the Kondo effect is stable under broadening of the cavity resonance as a consequence of the interaction to an external bosonic continuum. Our findings pave the way for the simultaneous control of both the Kondo QED effect and a photon accumulation effect using the ultrastrong coupling of light and matter.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, 2 table

Dementia Assessment Using Mandarin Speech with an Attention-based Speech Recognition Encoder

Dementia diagnosis requires a series of different testing methods, which is complex and time-consuming. Early detection of dementia is crucial as it can prevent further deterioration of the condition. This paper utilizes a speech recognition model to construct a dementia assessment system tailored for Mandarin speakers during the picture description task. By training an attention-based speech recognition model on voice data closely resembling real-world scenarios, we have significantly enhanced the model's recognition capabilities. Subsequently, we extracted the encoder from the speech recognition model and added a linear layer for dementia assessment. We collected Mandarin speech data from 99 subjects and acquired their clinical assessments from a local hospital. We achieved an accuracy of 92.04% in Alzheimer's disease detection and a mean absolute error of 9% in clinical dementia rating score prediction.Comment: submitted to IEEE ICASSP 202

DNA Binding and Degradation by the HNH Protein ColE7

The bacterial toxin ColE7 bears an HNH motif which has been identified in hundreds of prokaryotic and eukaryotic endonucleases, involved in DNA homing, restriction, repair, or chromosome degradation. The crystal structure of the nuclease domain of ColE7 in complex with a duplex DNA has been determined at 2.5 Å resolution. The HNH motif is bound at the minor groove primarily to DNA phosphate groups at and beyond the 3′ side of the scissile phosphate, with little interaction with ribose groups and bases. This result provides a structural basis for sugar- and sequence-independent DNA recognition and the inhibition mechanism by inhibitor Im7, which blocks the substrate binding site but not the active site. Structural comparison shows that two families of endonucleases bind and bend DNA in a similar way to that of the HNH ColE7, indicating that endonucleases containing a “ββα-metal” fold of active site possess a universal mode for protein-DNA interactions

Design and synthesis of 6,7-methylenedioxy-4-substituted phenylquinolin-2(1H)-one derivatives as novel anticancer agents that induce apoptosis with cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase

Novel 6,7-methylenedioxy-4-substituted phenylquinolin-2-one derivatives 12a–n were designed and prepared through an intramolecular cyclization reaction and evaluated for in vitro anticancer activity. Among the synthesized compounds, 6,7-methylenedioxy-4-(2,4-dimethoxyphenyl)quinolin-2(1H)-one (12e) displayed potent cytotoxicity against several different tumor cell lines at a sub-micromolar level. Furthermore, results of fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis suggested that 12e induced cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase accompanied by apoptosis in HL-60 and H460 cells. This action was confirmed by Hoechst staining and caspase-3 activation. Due to their easy synthesis and remarkable biological activities, 4-phenylquinolin-2(1H)-one analogs (4-PQs) are promising new anticancer leads based on the quinoline scaffold. Accordingly, compound 12e was identified as a new lead compound that merits further optimization and development as an anticancer candidate

Heom.jl: An efficient Julia framework for hierarchical equations of motion in open quantum systems

We introduce an open-source software package called "Heom.jl", a Julia framework to integrate the hierarchical equations of motion (HEOM) for the reduced dynamics of a system simultaneously coupled to multiple bosonic and fermionic environments. Heom.jl features a collection of methods to compute bosonic and fermionic spectra, stationary states, and the full dynamics in the extended space of all auxiliary density operators (ADOs). The required handling of the ADOs multi-indexes is achieved through a user-friendly interface. We exemplify the functionalities of the package by analyzing a single impurity interacting with two fermionic reservoirs (Anderson model), and an ultra-strongly coupled charge-cavity system interacting with one bosonic and two fermionic reservoirs. Heom.jl allows for an order of magnitude speedup in the construction of the HEOM Liouvillian superoperator, solving dynamics and stationary states for all ADOs, with respect to the corresponding method in the Quantum Toolbox in Python (QuTiP), upon which this package is founded.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 4 table

Risk factors and clinical significance of bacteremia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa resistant only to carbapenems

Background/purposeCarbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections have been a challenge and issue in hospital settings. However, the clinical impact of P. aeruginosa blood isolates resistant only to carbapenems has never been discussed previously.MethodsTo assess the risk factors and clinical significance of bacteremia caused by carbapenem resistance only P. aeruginosa (CROPA), a 6-year retrospective case–control study was conducted. The CROPA strains were defined as isolates susceptible to ciprofloxacin, antipseudomonal penicillins and cephalosporins, and aminoglycosides but resistant to one antipseudomonal carbapenem (imipenem or meropenem) or both. The controls were selected among patients with bacteremia due to P. aeruginosa susceptible to all above classes of antipseudomonal antibiotics, which was defined as all-susceptible P. aeruginosa.ResultsTwenty-five patients had at least one blood culture positive for CROPA, and 50 controls had all-susceptible P. aeruginosa bacteremia. CROPA bacteremia had a high 30-day mortality rate (72.0%), as compared to 26.0% for the controls (p < 0.001). Through multivariate analysis, carbapenem exposure was the only risk factor for developing CROPA bacteremia (p = 0.002). A comparison between the surviving and deceased patients with CROPA bacteremia showed that nine (50%) of those who died, but none of the survivors, received carbapenems as the initial empirical therapy (p = 0.027).ConclusionCarbapenem exposure was associated with emergence of CROPA infections. Repeated carbapenem use in such patients might increase rates of inappropriate initial empirical treatment and mortality. Prudent carbapenem use is important to reduce the emergence of CROPA