Probe‐Based Electro‐Oxidative Lithography of OTS SAMs Deposited onto Transparent ITO Substrates

Transparent conductive oxides like indium tin oxide (ITO) play a pivotal role in a wide range of innovative applications, such as new generations of solar cells. In many of these applications the tailoring of surface properties on the nanometer scale represents a highly desirable target. The local oxidation of self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) using a scanning probe is a promising technique to achieve surface modifications on the nanometer scale. So far, electro‐oxidative lithography of SAMs has been reported mainly on Si wafers while there are no previous reports on transparent oxides. Here, we report the oxidative lithography of n‐octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) SAM deposited onto an ITO layer. A local overoxidation of the substrate is observed while the simultaneously occurring monolayer oxidation is indirectly confirmed by the site‐selective deposition of silver nanoparticles onto electro‐oxidized areas. The process of lithography is compared to that on OTS‐Si substrates and its mechanism is systematically investigated by means of scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM).     

Exact design of continuous-time sigma-delta modulators with multiple feedback DACs

A technique for the exact design of the noise transfer function of Continuous-Time (CT) Sigma-Delta modulators with arbitrary and multiple DAC responses and real op-amps is here presented. The approach, that presupposes linear behavior of active blocks, produces a CT modulator with the same noise shaping as its Discrete-Time counterpart. The method operates entirely in the time domain and accounts for non-idealities of real implementations such as finite gain and bandwidth of integrators. The procedure can be effectively implemented with circuit simulators to allow the exact design with transistor level blocks. A design example on a third-order scheme confirms the effectiveness of the method.     

Control of acidity development on solid sulfur due to bacterial action

The global production of sulfur, which is currently obtained almost exclusively as an involuntary byproduct of the oil and gas industry, is exceeding the market demand so that long term storage or even definitive disposal of elemental sulfur is often needed to handle production surplus. The storage of large quantities of elemental sulfur calls for solidifying liquid sulfur in huge blocks, hundred meters wide on each side and as high as 20 meters. Sulfur, in presence of water and air, can be oxidized to sulfuric acid by a ubiquitous microorganism: Thiobacillus. On large blocks, this natural phenomenon may lead to soil and water acidification. Research projects have addressed suppression of Thiobacilli activity to prevent acidification, but no industrial applications have been reported. This work describes the inhibition of sulfur biological oxidation attainable by exposing sulfur to a high ionic strength environment. The bacteriostatic action is produced by contacting sulfur with a solution of an inorganic salt, such as sodium chloride, having an ionic strength similar to sea water. Possible ways to exploit the inhibitory effect to prevent the generation of acidity from sulfur storage blocks are suggested.     

跻身第三代半导体市场ST助力全球碳中和

随着第三代半导体的工艺越来越成熟和稳定,应用在工业和电动汽车上的产品也变得多样化.作为半导体行业中的佼佼者,意法半导体同样重视第三代半导体带来的优势作用,推出了有关氮化镓(GaN)和碳化硅(SiC)的一系列产品,有力地推动了第三代半导体在电动汽车和工业领域上的应用发展.     

Lactoferrin Inhibition of the Complex Formation between ACE2 Receptor and SARS CoV-2 Recognition Binding Domain

The present investigation focuses on the analysis of the interactions among human lactoferrin (LF), SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor in order to assess possible mutual interactions that could provide a molecular basis of the reported preventative effect of lactoferrin against CoV-2 infection. In particular, kinetic and thermodynamic parameters for the pairwise interactions among the three proteins were measured via two independent techniques, biolayer interferometry and latex nanoparticle-enhanced turbidimetry. The results obtained clearly indicate that LF is able to bind the ACE2 receptor ectodomain with significantly high affinity, whereas no binding to the RBD was observed up to the maximum “physiological” lactoferrin concentration range. Lactoferrin, above 1 µM concentration, thus appears to directly interfere with RBD–ACE2 binding, bringing about a measurable, up to 300-fold increase of the K_D value relative to RBD–ACE2 complex formation.     

Adipose Tissue Secretion Pattern Influences β-Cell Wellness in the Transition from Obesity to Type 2 Diabetes

The dysregulation of the β-cell functional mass, which is a reduction in the number of β-cells and their ability to secure adequate insulin secretion, represents a key mechanistic factor leading to the onset of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Obesity is recognised as a leading cause of β-cell loss and dysfunction and a risk factor for T2D. The natural history of β-cell failure in obesity-induced T2D can be divided into three steps: (1) β-cell compensatory hyperplasia and insulin hypersecretion, (2) insulin secretory dysfunction, and (3) loss of β-cell mass. Adipose tissue (AT) secretes many hormones/cytokines (adipokines) and fatty acids that can directly influence β-cell function and viability. As this secretory pattern is altered in obese and diabetic patients, it is expected that the cross-talk between AT and pancreatic β-cells could drive the maintenance of the β-cell integrity under physiological conditions and contribute to the reduction in the β-cell functional mass in a dysmetabolic state. In the current review, we summarise the evidence of the ability of the AT secretome to influence each step of β-cell failure, and attempt to draw a timeline of the alterations in the adipokine secretion pattern in the transition from obesity to T2D that reflects the progressive deterioration of the β-cell functional mass.     

New version of PLNoise: a package for exact numerical simulation of power-law noises

In a recent paper I have introduced a package for the exact simulation of power-law noises and other colored noises [E. Milotti, Comput. Phys. Comm. 175 (2006) 212]: in particular, the algorithm generates 1/fα noises with 0<α?2. Here I extend the algorithm to generate 1/fα noises with 2<α?4 (black noises). The method is exact in the sense that it produces a sampled process with a theoretically guaranteed range-limited power-law spectrum for any arbitrary sequence of sampling intervals, i.e. the sampling times may be unevenly spaced.

Program summary

Title of program: PLNoiseCatalogue identifier:ADXV_v2_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/ADXV_v2_0.htmlLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University of Belfast, N. IrelandProgramming language used: ANSI CComputer: Any computer with an ANSI C compiler: the package has been tested with gcc version 3.2.3 on Red Hat Linux 3.2.3-52 and gcc version 4.0.0 and 4.0.1 on Apple Mac OS X-10.4Operating system: All operating systems capable of running an ANSI C compilerRAM: The code of the test program is very compact (about 60 Kbytes), but the program works with list management and allocates memory dynamically; in a typical run with average list length 2⋅¹⁰⁴, the RAM taken by the list is 200 KbytesExternal routines: The package needs external routines to generate uniform and exponential deviates. The implementation described here uses the random number generation library ranlib freely available from Netlib [B.W. Brown, J. Lovato, K. Russell: ranlib, available from Netlib, http://www.netlib.org/random/index.html, select the C version ranlib.c], but it has also been successfully tested with the random number routines in Numerical Recipes [W.H. Press, S.A. Teulkolsky, W.T. Vetterling, B.P. Flannery, Numerical Recipes in C: The Art of Scientific Computing, second ed., Cambridge Univ. Press., Cambridge, 1992, pp. 274-290]. Notice that ranlib requires a pair of routines from the linear algebra package LINPACK, and that the distribution of ranlib includes the C source of these routines, in case LINPACK is not installed on the target machine.No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.:2975No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.:194 588Distribution format:tar.gzCatalogue identifier of previous version: ADXV_v1_0Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 175 (2006) 212Does the new version supersede the previous version?: YesNature of problem: Exact generation of different types of colored noise.Solution method: Random superposition of relaxation processes [E. Milotti, Phys. Rev. E 72 (2005) 056701], possibly followed by an integration step to produce noise with spectral index >2.Reasons for the new version: Extension to 1/fα noises with spectral index 2<α?4: the new version generates both noises with spectral with spectral index 0<α?2 and with 2<α?4.Summary of revisions: Although the overall structure remains the same, one routine has been added and several changes have been made throughout the code to include the new integration step.Unusual features: The algorithm is theoretically guaranteed to be exact, and unlike all other existing generators it can generate samples with uneven spacing.Additional comments: The program requires an initialization step; for some parameter sets this may become rather heavy.Running time: Running time varies widely with different input parameters, however in a test run like the one in Section 3 in the long write-up, the generation routine took on average about 75 μs for each sample.     

Artificial Cilia–Bridging the Gap with Nature

Human ingenuity has found a multitude of ways to manipulate fluids across different applications. However, the fundamentals of fluid propulsion change when moving from the macro- to the microscale. Viscous forces dominate inertial forces rendering successful methods at the macroscale ineffective for microscale fluid propulsion. Nature however has found a solution; microscopic active organelles protruding from cells that feature intricate beating patterns: cilia. Cilia succeed in propelling fluids at small dimensions; hence they have served as a source of inspiration for microfluidic applications. Mimicking biological cilia however remains challenging due to their small size and the required kinematic complexity. Recent advances have pushed artificial cilia technology forward, yet discrepancies with natural cilia still exists. This study identifies this gap by analyzing artificial cilia technology and benchmarking them to natural cilia, to pinpoint the remaining design and manufacturing challenges that lay at the basis of the disparity with nature.     

Wild salmon authenticity can be predicted by 1H‐NMR spectroscopy

The combination of ¹H NMR fingerprinting of muscle lipids from fresh and processed (frozen, canned and smoked) Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) with supervised multivariate analysis was applied to differentiate wild and farmed fish. Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) allowed classification of samples according to the wild and farmed status with a 100% correct classification. The discrimination is mainly based on the higher content in oleic and linoleic acid in farmed fish.