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Blood glucose level monitoring is of great importance, especially for subjects experiencing type 1 diabetes. Accurate monitoring of their blood glucose level prevents dangerous and life-threatening situations that might be experienced by those subjects. In addition, precise monitoring of blood glucose levels over long periods of time helps establishing knowledge about the daily mealtime routine which aids the medical staff to monitor subjects and properly intervene in hazardous cases such as hypo- or hyperglycemia. Establishing such knowledge will play a potential role when designing proper treatment intervention plan. In this research, we present a complete IoT framework, starting from hardware acquisition system to data analysis approaches that gives a hand for medical staff when long periods of blood glucose monitoring are essential for subjects. Also, this framework is validated with real-time data collection from 7 subjects over 10 successive days with temporal resolution of 5 minutes allowing for near real-time monitoring and analysis. Our results show the precisely estimated daily mealtime routines for 4 subjects out of the 7 with discard of 3 subjects due to huge data loss mainly. The daily mealtime routines for the 4 subjects are found to be matching to have a pattern of 4 periods of blood glucose level changes corresponding to the breakfast around 8 AM, the lunch around 5 PM, the dinner around 8 PM, and finally a within-day snack around 12 PM. The research shows the potential of IoT ecosystem in support for medically related studies.

The Coulomb Blockade Thermometer (CBT) is a primary thermometer for cryogenic temperatures, with demonstrated operation from below 1 mK up to 60 K. Its performance as a primary thermometer has been verified at temperatures from 20 mK to 200 mK at uncertainty level below 1 % (k = 2). In a new project, our aim is to extend the metrologically verified temperature range of the primary CBT up to 25 K. We also demonstrate close-to-ideal operation of a CBT with only two tunnel junctions when the device is embedded in a low-impedance environment., Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, 2020 Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements (CPEM), Denver (Aurora), CO, USA, 2020

In contrast to the Landau paradigm, a metal-insulator transition (MIT), driven purely by competition between itinerance and localization and unaccompanied by any conventional (e.g, magnetic) order-disorder instabilities, admits no obvious local order parameter. Here, we present a detailed analysis of the quantum criticality in magneto-transport data on the alloy Nb$_{1-x}$Ti$_{x}$N across a Ti-doping-driven a MIT. We demonstrate, for the first time, clear and novel quantum criticality reflected in the full conductivity tensor across the MIT. Wide ranging, comprehensive accord with recent theoretical predictions strongly suggests that these unanticipated findings are representative of a continuous MIT of the band-splitting type, rather than a conventional Anderson disorder or a "pure" correlation-driven first-order Mott type., Comment: 5 pages, 3 fugures

It is now well known that the properties of the disordered s wave superconductors can deviate significantly from the prediction of standard Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. By measuring the temperature dependence of the resonance frequency, $f_0$, of microwave resonators made from disordered NbTiN and TiN thin films, at low temperatures, below half of the superconducting critical temperature, $T_c$, Driessen et al. \cite{driessen2012PRL} demonstrated that $f_0$ vanishes faster than predicted from the BCS theory. Here, we report on the temperature dependence of $f_0$ of microwave resonators made from disordered NbN thin films at higher temperatures--- typically from 0.4 to 0.8$T_c$. In this temperature range, we demonstrate that $f_0$ vanishes slower than predicted from the BCS theory. We discuss the possible role of electronic inhomogeneity and possibility of appearing a pseudogap-like feature. We also discuss the possibility of a faster downturn of the superfluid density, $n_s$, near $T_c$, resembling a Berezinski--Kosterlitz--Thoules (BKT) type transition.

We report on the superconducting properties of Nb$_{1-x}$Ti$_x$N thin films of thickness $\sim$ 10 nm, with different Ti fraction $x$ in the range $ 0 \leq x \leq 0.5$, deposited by high temperature chemical vapor deposition. In this parameter range, we observe that the superconducting critical temperature ($T_c$) increases with $x$. Our analysis, in accordance with both McMillan's and Finkelstein's theories, shows that disorder-enhanced Coulomb interaction decreases with $x$, leading to an increase of $T_c$., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

We present a new process for fabricating vertical NbN-MgO-NbN Josephson junctions using self-aligned silicon nitride spacers. It allows for a wide range of junction areas from 0.02 um^2 to several 100 um^2. At the same time, it is suited for the implementation of complex microwave circuits with transmission line impedances ranging from < 1 Ohm to > 1 kOhm. The constituent thin films and the finished junctions are characterized. The latter are shown to have high gap voltages (> 4 mV) and low sub-gap leakage currents., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables

Nature sets fundamental limits regarding how accurate the amplification of analog signals may be. For instance, a linear amplifier unavoidably adds some noise which amounts to half a photon at best. While for most applications much higher noise levels are acceptable, the readout of microwave quantum systems, such as spin or superconducting qubits, requires noise as close as possible to this ultimate limit. To date, it is approached only by parametric amplifiers exploiting non-linearities in superconducting circuits and driven by a strong microwave pump tone. However, this microwave drive makes them much more difficult to implement and operate than conventional DC powered amplifiers, which so far suffer from much higher noise. Here we present the first experimental proof that a simple DC-powered setup allows for amplification close to the quantum limit. Our amplification scheme is based on the stimulated microwave photon emission accompanying inelastic Cooper pair tunneling through a DC-biased Josephson junction, with the key to low noise lying in a well defined auxiliary idler mode, in analogy to parametric amplifiers., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures

Niobium nitride (NbN) is widely used in high-frequency superconducting electronics circuits because it has one of the highest superconducting transition temperatures ($T_c$ $\sim$ 16.5 K) and largest gap among conventional superconductors. In its thin-film form, the $T_c$ of NbN is very sensitive to growth conditions and it still remains a challenge to grow NbN thin film (below 50 nm) with high $T_c$. Here, we report on the superconducting properties of NbN thin films grown by high-temperature chemical vapor deposition (HTCVD). Transport measurements reveal significantly lower disorder than previously reported, characterized by a Ioffe-Regel ($k_F$$\ell$) parameter of $\sim$ 14. Accordingly we observe $T_c$ $\sim$ 17.06 K (point of 50% of normal state resistance), the highest value reported so far for films of thickness below 50 nm, indicating that HTCVD could be particularly useful for growing high quality NbN thin films.