Deterministic and time resolved thermo-magnetic switching in a nickel nanowire

[EN]Heating a ferromagnetic material is often perceived as detrimental for most applications. This is indeed the case for modern nano-scaled spintronic devices which are operated solely (at least ideally) by an electric current. Heat is a by-product of the current-driven operation and it deteriorates many functionalities of the device. A large scientific and technological effort is devoted these days to avoid heat in modern magnetic nano devices. Here we show that heat can be used to provide an additional and useful degree of freedom in the control of the local magnetization at the nanoscale. In a ferromagnetic nanowire, temperature is used to induce a magnetic switching through a perfectly deterministic mechanism. The nucleation of the magnetic domain walls that triggers the switching can be achieved at a field considerably smaller than the nucleation field and, importantly, the exact moment of the magnetic switching can be pre-determined with nanosecond precision by controlling the power delivered locally to the switching area. With the help of micromagnetic simulations and a theoretical model, we provide an accurate explanation of how this deterministic thermo-magnetic switching operates. The concepts described in this work may lead to an increased functionality in magnetic nano-devices based on magnetic domain walls.MAT2017-87072-C4-1-P,MAT2017-87072-C4-4-P and MAT2017-87072-C4-3-P from the Spanish government SA299P18 from the Junta de Castilla y Leon POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028676 from Portuguese FCT COMPETE 2020 (FEDER)

Fracture risk in type 2 diabetic patients: A clinical prediction tool based on a large population-based cohort

BACKGROUND: An increased fracture risk has been described as a complication of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Clinical prediction models for general population have a limited predictive accuracy for fractures in T2DM patients. The aim was to develop and validate a clinical prediction tool for the estimation of 5-year hip and major fracture risk in T2DM patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: A cohort of newly diagnosed T2DM patients (n = 51,143, aged 50-85, 57% men) was extracted from the Information System for the Development of Research in Primary Care (SIDIAP) database, containing computerized primary care records for >80% of the population of Catalonia, Spain (>6 million people). Patients were followed up from T2DM diagnosis until the earliest of death, transfer out, fracture, or end of study. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to model the 5-year risk of hip and major fracture. Calibration and discrimination were assessed. Hip and major fracture incidence rates were 1.84 [95%CI 1.64 to 2.05] and 7.12 [95%CI 6.72 to 7.53] per 1,000 person-years, respectively. Both hip and major fracture prediction models included age, sex, previous major fracture, statins use, and calcium/vitamin D supplements; previous ischemic heart disease was also included for hip fracture and stroke for major fracture. Discrimination (0.81 for hip and 0.72 for major fracture) and calibration plots support excellent internal validity. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed prediction models have good discrimination and calibration for the estimation of both hip and major fracture risk in incident T2DM patients. These tools incorporate key T2DM macrovascular complications generally available in primary care electronic medical records, as well as more generic fracture risk predictors. Future work will focus on validation of these models in external cohorts

High-Precision Photothermal Ablation using Biocompatible Palladium Nanoparticles and Laser Scanning Microscopy

Herein, we report a straightforward method for the scalable preparation of Pd nanoparticles (Pd-NPs) with reduced inherent cytotoxicity and high photothermal conversion capacity. These Pd-NPs are rapidly taken up by cells and able to kill labeled cancer cells upon short exposure to near-infrared (NIR) light. Following cell treatment with Pd-NPs, ablated areas were patterned with high precision by laser scanning microscopy, allowing one to perform cell migration assays with unprecedented accuracy. Using coherent Raman microscopy, cells containing Pd-NPs were simultaneously ablated and imaged. This novel methodology was combined with intravital imaging to mediate microablation of cancerous tissue in tumor xenografts in mice

Influence of Various Mulching Materials on Evapotranspiration, Root Distribution, Soil Moisture and Temperature

4 p.The authors have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 633962 for the project P4SB.Peer reviewe

In vitro intestinal co-culture cell model to evaluate intestinal absorption of edelfosine lipid nanoparticles

Nanotechnology is providing a new therapeutic paradigm by enhancing drug efficacy and preventing side-effects. Edelfosine is a synthetic ether lipid analogue of platelet activating factor with high antitumor activity. The encapsulation of this potent antitumor drug in lipid nanoparticles increases its oral bioavailability; moreover, it prevents the hemolytic and gastrointestinal side-effects of the free drug. The literature points towards lymphatic absorption of lipid nanoparticles after oral administration, and previous in vitro and in vivo studies stress the protection against toxicity that these nanosystems provide. The present study is intended to assess the permeability of lipid nanoparticles across the intestinal barrier. Caco-2 monoculture and Caco-2/Raji co-culture were used as in vitro models of enterocytes and Microfold cells respectively. Results showed that free drug is internalized and possibly metabolized in enterocytes. These results do not correlate with those observed in vivo when edelfosine-lipid nanoparticles were administered orally in mice, which suggests that the microfold model is not a good model to study the absorption of edelfosine-lipid nanoparticles across the intestinal barrier in vitro

Aislamiento de núcleos para citometría de flujo en plantas con alto contenido de compuestos mucilaginosos: un ejemplo en el género Viola L. (Violaceae)

Flow cytometry analysis has been widely applied in the determination of nuclear DNA content and ploidy level in many organisms. Despite being the most appropriate method for DNA content measurement, flow cytometry also presents some limitations. A fairly common, but little-studied problem is the effect on measurements of the presence of secondary metabolites. A good example is the genus Viola, which is composed of 525-600 species distributed worldwide. These species have proved to be problematic for flow cytometric analyses due to the release of extremely mucilaginous compounds into the nuclear suspension. In this work, the genome size of 13 species of Viola using flow cytometry are presented for the first time. Despite obtaining histograms with high coefficients of variation, we here present an optimized protocol to remove cytoplasmic compounds, particularly mucilaginous ones, from plant nuclei that pave the way for its application to estimate the genome size of other species exhibiting similar problems. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences between sections Viola and Melanium, and within each section (P < 0.001). Furthermore, statistically significant differences were not detected among samples of the same species.El análisis mediante citometría de flujo ha sido aplicado de modo general para determinar el contenido de ADN nuclear y el nivel de ploidía en muchos organismos. A pesar de ser el método más adecuado para medir la cantidad de ADN, esta técnica también presenta algunas limitaciones. Un problema bastante común, aunque poco estudiado, es el efecto de los metabolitos secundarios en los resultados obtenidos. Un ejemplo respecto a la presencia de estos compuestos se encuentra en el género Viola, compuesto por 525-600 especies distribuidas por todo el mundo. Las especies de este género ya han sido previamente descritas como problemáticas en los análisis de citometría de flujo debido a la presencia de compuestos extremadamente mucilaginosos en las suspensiones de núcleos. En el presente trabajo se analiza por primera vez el tamaño genómico de 13 especies del genero Viola mediante el empleo de citometría de flujo. A pesar de los altos valores mostrados en los coeficientes de variación de los histogramas, se presenta un protocolo optimizado para eliminar compuestos citoplasmáticos, y más concretamente mucilaginosos de las suspensiones nucleares, siendo de aplicación en la estimación del tamaño genómico de plantas con problemas similares. Los análisis estadísticos mostraron diferencias significativas entre las secciones Viola y Melanium, así como dentro de cada sección (P < 0,001). Además, no se encontraron diferencias significativas entre aquellas muestras pertenecientes a la misma especie

A novel antigen capture ELISA for the specific detection of IgG antibodies to elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus

BACKGROUND Elephants are classified as critically endangered animals by the International Union for Conservation of Species (IUCN). Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) poses a large threat to breeding programs of captive Asian elephants by causing fatal haemorrhagic disease. EEHV infection is detected by PCR in samples from both clinically ill and asymptomatic elephants with an active infection, whereas latent carriers can be distinguished exclusively via serological assays. To date, identification of latent carriers has been challenging, since there are no serological assays capable of detecting seropositive elephants. RESULTS Here we describe a novel ELISA that specifically detects EEHV antibodies circulating in Asian elephant plasma/serum. Approximately 80 % of PCR positive elephants display EEHV-specific antibodies. Monitoring three Asian elephant herds from European zoos revealed that the serostatus of elephants within a herd varied from non-detectable to high titers. The antibody titers showed typical herpes-like rise-and-fall patterns in time which occur in all seropositive animals in the herd more or less simultaneously. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that the developed ELISA is suitable to detect antibodies specific to EEHV. It allows study of EEHV seroprevalence in Asian elephants. Results confirm that EEHV prevalence among Asian elephants (whether captive-born or wild-caught) is high

Reuse Detector: improving the management of STT-RAM SLLCs

Various constraints of Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) are leading to consider new memory technologies as candidates for building on-chip shared last-level caches (SLLCs). Spin-Transfer Torque RAM (STT-RAM) is currently postulated as the prime contender due to its better energy efficiency, smaller die footprint and higher scalability. However, STT-RAM also exhibits some drawbacks, like slow and energy-hungry write operations that need to be mitigated before it can be used in SLLCs for the next generation of computers. In this work, we address these shortcomings by leveraging a new management mechanism for STT-RAM SLLCs. This approach is based on the previous observation that although the stream of references arriving at the SLLC of a Chip MultiProcessor (CMP) exhibits limited temporal locality, it does exhibit reuse locality, i.e. those blocks referenced several times manifest high probability of forthcoming reuse. As such, conventional STT-RAM SLLC management mechanisms, mainly focused on exploiting temporal locality, result in low efficient behavior. In this paper, we employ a cache management mechanism that selects the contents of the SLLC aimed to exploit reuse locality instead of temporal locality. Specifically, our proposal consists in the inclusion of a Reuse Detector (RD) between private cache levels and the STT-RAM SLLC. Its mission is to detect blocks that do not exhibit reuse, in order to avoid their insertion in the SLLC, hence reducing the number of write operations and the energy consumption in the STT-RAM. Our evaluation, using multiprogrammed workloads in quad-core, eight-core and 16-core systems, reveals that our scheme reports on average, energy reductions in the SLLC in the range of 37–30%, additional energy savings in the main memory in the range of 6–8% and performance improvements of 3% (quad-core), 7% (eight-core) and 14% (16-core) compared with an STT-RAM SLLC baseline where no RD is employed. More importantly, our approach outperforms DASCA, the state-of-the-art STT-RAM SLLC management, reporting—depending on the specific scenario and the kind of applications used—SLLC energy savings in the range of 4–11% higher than those of DASCA, delivering higher performance in the range of 1.5–14% and additional improvements in DRAM energy consumption in the range of 2–9% higher than DASCA.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft