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Static recommendation methods like collaborative filtering suffer from the inherent limitation of performing real-time personalization for cold-start users. Online recommendation, e.g., multi-armed bandit approach, addresses this limitation by interactively exploring user preference online and pursuing the explorationexploitation (EE) trade-off. However, existing bandit-based methods model recommendation actions homogeneously. Specifically, they only consider the items as the arms, being incapable of handling the item attributes, which naturally provide interpretable information of user's current demands and can effectively filter out undesired items. In this work, we consider the conversational recommendation for cold-start users, where a system can both ask the attributes from and recommend items to a user interactively. This important scenario was studied in a recent work [54]. However, it employs a hand-crafted function to decide when to ask attributes or make recommendations. Such separate modeling of attributes and items makes the effectiveness of the system highly rely on the choice of the hand-crafted function, thus introducing fragility to the system. To address this limitation, we seamlessly unify attributes and items in the same arm space and achieve their EE trade-offs automatically using the framework of Thompson Sampling. Our Conversational Thompson Sampling (ConTS) model holistically solves all questions in conversational recommendation by choosing the arm with the maximal reward to play. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets show that ConTS outperforms the state-of-the-art methods Conversational UCB (ConUCB) [54] and Estimation--Action--Reflection model [27] in both metrics of success rate and average number of conversation turns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the tunneling electroresistance (TER) of ferroelectric tunnel junctions [Pt/BaTiO3(BTO)/SrTiO3(STO)/Pt]. It is found that the TER of Pt/BTO/STO/Pt junctions can be greatly increased with increasing thickness of STO layers. The underlying physics of this giant TER is the switchable two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at a nonpolar BTO/STO interface induced by the ferroelectric polarization. Our calculations show that when the ferroelectric polarization is pointing from BTO to STO, a 2DEG forms at the interface and acts as bridge for electrons to tunnel through the junctions. Nevertheless, there is no 2DEG at the interface under the opposite direction of the ferroelectric polarization, which results in a large tunnel resistance. More importantly, this ferroelectrically switchable 2DEG leads to a low resistance area product for Pt/BTO/STO/Pt junctions, which offers good compatibility with other components in an integrated circuit and is highly desired for industrial applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By combining density functional theory and nonequilibrium Green's function, we study the electronic and transport properties of monolayer black phosphorus nanoribbons (PNRs). First, we investigate the band gap of PNRs and its modulation by the ribbon width and an external transverse electric field. Our calculations indicate a giant Stark effect in PNRs, which can switch on transport channels of semiconducting PNRs under low bias, inducing an insulator-metal transition. Next, we study the transport channels in PNRs via the calculations of the current density and local electron transmission pathway. In contrast to graphene and MoS2 nanoribbons, the carrier transport channels under low bias are mainly located in the interior of both armchair and zigzag PNRs, and immune to a small amount of edge defects. Last, a device of the PNR-based dual-gate field-effect transistor, with high on/off ratio of 10³, is proposed based on the giant electric-field tuning effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By first-principles analysis, we investigate the effect of thermal annealing on structural stability of CoFeB/MgO(thin)/CoFeB magnetic tunnel junctions. The calculated phonon dispersion indicates that Mg3B2O6 (kotoite) is a stable spacer after annealing due to B diffusion into MgO. The calculated tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of CoFe/kotoite/CoFe is 210%, which is in good agreement with the available experimental value and 2 orders of magnitude lower than the predicted values of CoFe/MgO/CoFe junctions. The physics of this more realistic TMR value is the change in symmetry from C4v of MgO to C2v of kotoite. Such symmetry reduction induces scattering and weakens the tunneling transmission of the Δ1-like Bloch states. Our calculations also reveal that the tunneling transmission is sensitive to the electrode/spacer interfacial chemical bonding. Residual boron, localized at the interface due to insufficient annealing temperature, can further reduce the TMR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ETS2 is a downstream effector of the RAS/RAF/ERK pathway, which plays a critical role in the development of malignant tumor. However, the clinical impact of ETS2 expression in AML remains unknown.Methods: In this study, we evaluated the prognostic significance of ETS2 expression using two relatively large cohorts of AML patients.Results: In the first cohort, compared to low expression of ETS2 (ETS2 low), high expression of ETS2 (ETS2 high) showed significant shorter OS, EFS and RFS in the current treatments including the allogeneic HCT group (n = 72) and the chemotherapy group (n = 100). Notably, among ETS2 high patients, those received allogeneic HCT had longer OS, EFS and RFS than those with chemotherapy alone (allogeneic HCT, n = 39 vs. chemotherapy, n = 47), but treatment modules play insignificant role in the survival of ETS2 low patients (allogeneic HCT, n = 33 vs. chemotherapy, n = 53). Moreover, gene/microRNA expression data provides insights into the biological changes associated with varying ETS2 expression levels in AML. The prognostic value of ETS2 was further validated in the second AML cohort (n = 329).Conclusions: Our results indicate that ETS2 high is a poor prognostic factor in AML and may guide treatment decisions towards allogeneic HCT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perovskite La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) films grown on different substrates were investigated by an angle resolved broadband ferromagnetic resonance technique. All films exhibited a four-fold magnetocrystalline anisotropy, which is in accord with the crystal structure. Moreover, a perpendicular uniaxial anisotropy changed from the (001)pc easy plane to the [001]pc easy direction when the strain of LSMO films varies from tensile to compressive. The ultra-low magnetic damping constant of 5.2x10-4 was obtained for a 44.6nm LSMO film on an NdGaO3 (110) substrate. The breathing Fermi surface model in which the damping constant is proportional to the density of states at Fermi energy is the dominant mechanism for the intrinsic magnetic relaxation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid hollow microspheres are fabricated successfully from double emulsions stabilized by single-component amphiphilic silica nanoparticles, which were formed and partially modified in situat the interface of water-in-oil emulsions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing density functional theory combined with the non-equilibrium Greenʼs function formalism, we systematically investigate the structural, magnetic and magnetoelectric properties of the Co2FeAl(CFA)/MgO interface, as well as the spin-dependent transport characteristics of the CFA/MgO/CFA perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs). We find that the structure of the CFA/MgO interface with the oxygen-top FeAl termination has high thermal stability, which is protected by the thermodynamic equilibrium limit. Furthermore, this structure is found to have perpendicular magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA). Giant electric-field-assisted modifications of this interfacial MCA through magnetoelectric coupling are demonstrated with an MCA coefficient of up to 10−7 erg V−1 cm. In addition, our non-collinear spin transport calculations of the CFA/MgO/CFA p-MTJ predict a good magnetoresistance performance of the device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]