83 research outputs found
Unipolar Resistance Switching in Amorphous High-k dielectrics Based on Correlated Barrier Hopping Theory
We have proposed a kind of nonvolatile resistive switching memory based on
amorphous LaLuO3, which has already been established as a promising candidate
of high-k gate dielectric employed in transistors. Well-developed unipolar
switching behaviors in amorphous LaLuO3 make it suited for not only logic but
memory applications using the conventional semiconductor or the emerging
nano/CMOS architectures. The conduction transition between high- and low-
resistance states is attributed to the change in the separation between oxygen
vacancy sites in the light of the correlated barrier hopping theory. The mean
migration distances of vacancies responsible for the resistive switching are
demonstrated in nanoscale, which could account for the ultrafast programming
speed of 6 ns. The origin of the distributions in switching parameters in
oxides can be well understood according to the switching principle.
Furthermore, an approach has also been developed to make the operation voltages
predictable for the practical applications of resistive memories.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figure
A LiDAR-Inertial SLAM Tightly-Coupled with Dropout-Tolerant GNSS Fusion for Autonomous Mine Service Vehicles
Multi-modal sensor integration has become a crucial prerequisite for the
real-world navigation systems. Recent studies have reported successful
deployment of such system in many fields. However, it is still challenging for
navigation tasks in mine scenes due to satellite signal dropouts, degraded
perception, and observation degeneracy. To solve this problem, we propose a
LiDAR-inertial odometry method in this paper, utilizing both Kalman filter and
graph optimization. The front-end consists of multiple parallel running
LiDAR-inertial odometries, where the laser points, IMU, and wheel odometer
information are tightly fused in an error-state Kalman filter. Instead of the
commonly used feature points, we employ surface elements for registration. The
back-end construct a pose graph and jointly optimize the pose estimation
results from inertial, LiDAR odometry, and global navigation satellite system
(GNSS). Since the vehicle has a long operation time inside the tunnel, the
largely accumulated drift may be not fully by the GNSS measurements. We hereby
leverage a loop closure based re-initialization process to achieve full
alignment. In addition, the system robustness is improved through handling data
loss, stream consistency, and estimation error. The experimental results show
that our system has a good tolerance to the long-period degeneracy with the
cooperation different LiDARs and surfel registration, achieving meter-level
accuracy even for tens of minutes running during GNSS dropouts
A GPU-accelerated package for simulation of flow in nanoporous source rocks with many-body dissipative particle dynamics
Mesoscopic simulations of hydrocarbon flow in source shales are challenging,
in part due to the heterogeneous shale pores with sizes ranging from a few
nanometers to a few micrometers. Additionally, the sub-continuum fluid-fluid
and fluid-solid interactions in nano- to micro-scale shale pores, which are
physically and chemically sophisticated, must be captured. To address those
challenges, we present a GPU-accelerated package for simulation of flow in
nano- to micro-pore networks with a many-body dissipative particle dynamics
(mDPD) mesoscale model. Based on a fully distributed parallel paradigm, the
code offloads all intensive workloads on GPUs. Other advancements, such as
smart particle packing and no-slip boundary condition in complex pore
geometries, are also implemented for the construction and the simulation of the
realistic shale pores from 3D nanometer-resolution stack images. Our code is
validated for accuracy and compared against the CPU counterpart for speedup. In
our benchmark tests, the code delivers nearly perfect strong scaling and weak
scaling (with up to 512 million particles) on up to 512 K20X GPUs on Oak Ridge
National Laboratory's (ORNL) Titan supercomputer. Moreover, a single-GPU
benchmark on ORNL's SummitDev and IBM's AC922 suggests that the host-to-device
NVLink can boost performance over PCIe by a remarkable 40\%. Lastly, we
demonstrate, through a flow simulation in realistic shale pores, that the CPU
counterpart requires 840 Power9 cores to rival the performance delivered by our
package with four V100 GPUs on ORNL's Summit architecture. This simulation
package enables quick-turnaround and high-throughput mesoscopic numerical
simulations for investigating complex flow phenomena in nano- to micro-porous
rocks with realistic pore geometries
Topological triply-degenerate point with double Fermi arcs
Unconventional chiral particles have recently been predicted to appear in
certain three dimensional (3D) crystal structures containing three- or
more-fold linear band degeneracy points (BDPs). These BDPs carry topological
charges, but are distinct from the standard twofold Weyl points or fourfold
Dirac points, and cannot be described in terms of an emergent relativistic
field theory. Here, we report on the experimental observation of a topological
threefold BDP in a 3D phononic crystal. Using direct acoustic field mapping, we
demonstrate the existence of the threefold BDP in the bulk bandstructure, as
well as doubled Fermi arcs of surface states consistent with a topological
charge of 2. Another novel BDP, similar to a Dirac point but carrying nonzero
topological charge, is connected to the threefold BDP via the doubled Fermi
arcs. These findings pave the way to using these unconventional particles for
exploring new emergent physical phenomena
Development and validation of a risk score model for predicting autism based on pre- and perinatal factors
BackgroundThe use of pre- and perinatal risk factors as predictive factors may lower the age limit for reliable autism prediction. The objective of this study was to develop a clinical model based on these risk factors to predict autism.MethodsA stepwise logistic regression analysis was conducted to explore the relationships between 28 candidate risk factors and autism risk among 615 Han Chinese children with autism and 615 unrelated typically developing children. The significant factors were subsequently used to create a clinical risk score model. A chi-square automatic interaction detector (CHAID) decision tree was used to validate the selected predictors included in the model. The predictive performance of the model was evaluated by an independent cohort.ResultsFive factors (pregnancy influenza-like illness, pregnancy stressors, maternal allergic/autoimmune disease, cesarean section, and hypoxia) were found to be significantly associated with autism risk. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve indicated that the risk score model had good discrimination ability for autism, with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.711 (95% CI=0.679-0.744); in the external validation cohort, the model showed slightly worse but overall similar predictive performance. Further subgroup analysis indicated that a higher risk score was associated with more behavioral problems. The risk score also exhibited robustness in a subgroup analysis of patients with mild autism.ConclusionThis risk score model could lower the age limit for autism prediction with good discrimination performance, and it has unique advantages in clinical application
Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number Is Associated with Breast Cancer Risk
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number in peripheral blood is associated with increased risk of several cancers. However, data from prospective studies on mtDNA copy number and breast cancer risk are lacking. We evaluated the association between mtDNA copy number in peripheral blood and breast cancer risk in a nested case-control study of 183 breast cancer cases with pre-diagnostic blood samples and 529 individually matched controls among participants of the Singapore Chinese Health Study. The mtDNA copy number was measured using real time PCR. Conditional logistic regression analyses showed that there was an overall positive association between mtDNA copy number and breast cancer risk (Ptrend = 0.01). The elevated risk for higher mtDNA copy numbers was primarily seen for women with <3 years between blood draw and cancer diagnosis; ORs (95% CIs) for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th quintile of mtDNA copy number were 1.52 (0.61, 3.82), 2.52 (1.03, 6.12), 3.12 (1.31, 7.43), and 3.06 (1.25, 7.47), respectively, compared with the 1st quintile (Ptrend = 0.004). There was no association between mtDNA copy number and breast cancer risk among women who donated a blood sample ≥3 years before breast cancer diagnosis (Ptrend = 0.41). This study supports a prospective association between increased mtDNA copy number and breast cancer risk that is dependent on the time interval between blood collection and breast cancer diagnosis. Future studies are warranted to confirm these findings and to elucidate the biological role of mtDNA copy number in breast cancer risk. © 2013 Thyagarajan et al
Multiscale Shear Properties and Flow Performance of Milled Woody Biomass
One dominant challenge facing the development of biorefineries is achieving consistent system throughput with highly variant biomass feedstock quality and handling performance. Current handling unit operations are adapted from other sectors (primarily agriculture), where some simplifying assumptions about granular mechanics and flow performance do not translate well to a highly compressible and anisotropic material with nonlinear time- and stress-dependent properties. This work explores the shear and frictional properties of loblolly pine at multiple experimental test apparatus and particle scales to elucidate a property window that defines the shear behavior over a range of material attributes (particle size, size distribution, moisture content, etc.). In general, it was observed that the bulk internal friction and apparent cohesion depend strongly on both the stress state of the sample in granular shear testers and the overall particle size and distribution span. For equipment designed to characterize the quasi-static shear stress failure of bulk materials ranging from 50 to 1,000 ml in test volume, similar test results were observed for finely milled particles (50% passing size of 1.4 mm) with a narrow size distribution (span between 10 and 90% passing size of 0.9 mm), while stress chaining and over-torque issues persisted for the bench-scale test apparatus for larger particle sizes or widely dispersed sample sizes. Measurement of the anisotropic particle–particle friction ranged from coefficients of approximately 0.20 to 0.45 and resulted in significantly higher and more variable friction measurements for larger particle sizes and in perpendicular alignment orientations. To supplement these laboratory-scale properties, this work explores the flow of loblolly pine and Douglas fir through a pilot-scale wedge-shaped hopper and a screw feeder. For the gravity-driven hopper flow, the critical arching distance and mass discharge rate ranged from approximately 10 to 30 mm and 2 to 16 tons/hour, respectively, for both materials, where the arching distance depends strongly on the overall particle size and depends less on the hopper inclination angle. Comparatively, the auger feeder was found to be much more impacted by the size of the particles, where smaller particles had a more consistent and stable flow while consuming less power
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