A High-speed and Low Power Electrical Link Transceiver

On-chip wires will present increasing latency and energy problems as VLSI technologies continue to scale. Interconnects have an RC-limited bandwidth approximately proportional to the area of the metal cross section and inversely proportional to the squared length. To overcome RC-limited channels, an energy-efficient on-chip transceiver is presented that contains a hybrid transmitter, a current-sense receiver, and self-testing blocks. The main goal of this research is having a relatively low-power transceiver, which can be used as an on-chip communication system. By adding a pre-emphasis circuit in the transmitter, pre-cursor inter-symbol interference can be canceled. A hybrid transmitter which combines voltage-mode pre-emphasis with a current-mode main driver is used. This structure can save pre-emphasis current, and leads to reduced power dissipation especially in the static situation. A current-sense amplifier is implemented with a cross-coupled stage and an active inductor equalizer at the receiver, in order to boost the data rate while maintaining good energy efficiency. An offset cancelation circuit is incorporated to make a robust comparator for the receiver. According to simulation results, the transceiver has low power consumption with 1.2 V, 130 nm CMOS technology. The performance shows that it operates at 8 Gb/s over a 5 mm and 19 dB loss differential channel. The overall dynamic power consumption is 2.05 mW, without the PRBS generator/checker. Therefore, this transceiver has high data rate and low power consumption

Defect electrocatalytic mechanism: concept, topological structure and perspective

Carbon-based materials have been attracting intense interest for electrocatalysis due to their various merits, such as abundance, low cost, high conductivity and tunable molecular structures. However, to date, the electrochemical activities of these electrocatalysts are mainly attributed to different active dopants (e.g. N, B, P or S), leading to a common concept that heteroatom doping is essential for carbon-based electrocatalysts. Recently, we presented a new concept where the specific topological defects could activate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and developed a facile method to create such unique defects. Subsequent research has extended this new mechanism to other reactions, such as the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER) and confirmed that heteroatom doping is not essential but that these defects can serve as actives sites for electrochemical reactions. This new theory then creates a new research direction in electrocatalysis. In this short review, we summarise the origin and presentation of the defect mechanism concept, the possible topological defect structures that are effective for electrochemical reactions, the formation of desirable defects, the challenges in the synthesis and characterization of typical defects and future research directions on the electrochemical defect mechanism

Signature of Large Extra Dimensions from Z boson pair production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

We study the Z boson pair production mediated by the Kaluza-Klein (KK) graviton in large extra dimensions (LED) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We use the partial wave unitarity to discuss the constraints on the process energy scale in order to give a self-consistent calculation. We find that the LED contributions can enhance the Z boson pair production cross sections significantly when the fundamental scale $M_S$ of the large extra dimensions is up to several TeV. We also show that the kinematic distributions of the LED signals are greatly different from the standard model ones and the LHC can probe the $M_S$ values up to $4.3\sim 5.6$ TeV at $3\sigma$ level depending on the number of the extra dimensions.Comment: Revised version, published in Phys. Rev.

Transcriptome analysis of Rpl11-deficient zebrafish model of Diamond-Blackfan Anemia

AbstractTo comprehensively reflect the roles of Rpl11 on the transcriptome of zebrafish model of Diamond-Blackfan Anemia (DBA), we performed whole-genome transcriptome sequencing on the Illumina Hi-Seq 2000 sequencing platform. Two different transcriptomes of zebrafish Rpl11-deficient and control Morpholino (Mo) embryos were collected and analyzed. The experimental design and methods, including sample preparation, RNA-Seq data evaluation and treatment, were described in details so that representative high-throughput sequencing data were acquired for assessing the actual impacts of Rpl11 on zebrafish embryos. We provided the accession number GSE51326 for easy access to the database

Trojan Horse nanotheranostics with dual transformability and multifunctionality for highly effective cancer treatment.

Nanotheranostics with integrated diagnostic and therapeutic functions show exciting potentials towards precision nanomedicine. However, targeted delivery of nanotheranostics is hindered by several biological barriers. Here, we report the development of a dual size/charge- transformable, Trojan-Horse nanoparticle (pPhD NP) for delivery of ultra-small, full active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) nanotheranostics with integrated dual-modal imaging and trimodal therapeutic functions. pPhD NPs exhibit ideal size and charge for drug transportation. In tumour microenvironment, pPhD NPs responsively transform to full API nanotheranostics with ultra-small size and higher surface charge, which dramatically facilitate the tumour penetration and cell internalisation. pPhD NPs enable visualisation of biodistribution by near-infrared fluorescence imaging, tumour accumulation and therapeutic effect by magnetic resonance imaging. Moreover, the synergistic photothermal-, photodynamic- and chemo-therapies achieve a 100% complete cure rate on both subcutaneous and orthotopic oral cancer models. This nanoplatform with powerful delivery efficiency and versatile theranostic functions shows enormous potentials to improve cancer treatment

Catalytically enhanced hydrogen sorption in Mg-MgH2 by coupling vanadium-based catalyst and carbon nanotubes

Mg (MgH2)-based composites, using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and pre-synthesized vanadium-based complex (VCat) as the catalysts, were prepared by high-energy ball milling technique. The synergistic effect of coupling CNTs and VCat in MgH2 was observed for an ultra-fast absorption rate of 6.50 wt. % of hydrogen per minute and 6.50 wt. % of hydrogen release in 10 min at 200 °C and 300 °C, respectively. The temperature programmed desorption (TPD) results reveal that coupling VCat and CNTs reduces both peak and onset temperatures by more than 60 °C and 114 °C, respectively. In addition, the presence of both VCat and CNTs reduces the enthalpy and entropy of desorption of about 7 kJ/mol H2 and 11 J/mol H2·K, respectively, as compared to those of the commercial MgH2, which ascribe to the decrease of desorption temperature. From the study of the effect of CNTs milling time, it is shown that partially destroyed CNTs (shorter milling time) are better to enhance the hydrogen sorption performance

Scalable and controllable synthesis of atomic metal electrocatalysts assisted by an egg-box in alginate

Herein, a general strategy is developed to synthesize atomic metal catalysts using sustainable and earth-abundant sodium alginate (Na-Alg), a common seaweed extract, as a precursor. The “egg-box” structure in Na-Alg after ion-exchange with metal cations (Zn2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, etc.) is the key to achieve a scalable and controllable synthesis of highly dispersed atomic metals. For instance, atomic Co, Ni and Cu have been successfully synthesized using this method. As a representative, the as-synthesized atomically dispersed Co on reduced graphene oxide (A-Co/r-GO) can reach a maximum metal loading of 3.6 wt%, showing outstanding catalytic activity and stability for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) with a half-wave potential (E1/2) of 0.842 V vs. RHE that is more positive than that of 20 wt% Pt/C (0.827 V vs. RHE) in alkaline solutions. The A-Co/r-GO catalyzed zinc-air batteries (ZABs) outperform Pt/C-based ZABs in the aspects of discharge voltage and specific zinc capacity, and can work robustly for more than 250 h with negligible voltage loss with refueling the Zn anode and KOH electrolyte periodically. This work opens up a new strategy for a general, practical and scalable synthesis of atomic metal catalysts at very low cost.No Full Tex

Urgently reveal longly hidden toxicant in a familiar fabrication process of biomass-derived environment carbon material

Biomass-derived N-doped carbon (BNC) is an important environmental material and widely used in the fields of water purification and soil remediation. However, the toxicant in the commonly used synthesis process of BNC materials have been largely ignored. Herein, we firstly report the presence of a highly toxic by-product (KCN) in the activation process of BNC materials consequential of the carbothermal reduction reaction. Because this carbothermal reduction reaction also regulates the N-doping and pore development of BNC materials, the KCN content directly relates with the properties of BNC material properties. Accordingly, a high KCN content (∽ 611 mg) can occur in the production process of per g BNC material with high specific surface area (∽ 3600 m2/g). Because the application performance of BNC material is determined by the surface area and available N doping, therefore, production of a BNC material with high performance entails high risk. Undoubtedly, this study proves a completely new risk recognition on a familiar synthesis process of biomass-based material. And, strict protective device should be taken in fabrication process of biomass-derived carbon material