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ABSTRACT Understanding the functions of mitochondrial genomes is crucial for studies related to the evolution of genomes, phylogenomics, and species identification. For the first time, complete mitogenome of Potamalpheops sp. a non‐snapping shrimp has been successfully sequenced and characterized from Taiwan that belongs to the Decapoda order, Crustacea class, and Caridea infraorder. This study involved analysis of nucleotide composition, codon usage, gene ordering, evolutionary selection pressure, and comparative mitogenomics. The mitogenome of Potamalpheops sp. is 16,605 base pairs in length and consists of standard set of 37 genes found in metazoans. The gene rearrangements in the mitochondrial genome of this species shows extensive rearrangements comparing to the typical pattern found in pancrustaceans mitogenomes. Therefore, it could be concluded that gene rearrangements most likely happen only in the caridea infraorder. The current investigation discovered transposition of the tRNA and rRNA genes along with reversal in strands in the tRNAs. No other Alpheidae mitochondrial genome that has been investigated thus far has revealed this pattern. All 13 protein coding genes in the mitochondrial genomes of superfamily Alphoidea exhibited Ka/Ks values lower than 1, according to the ratios of nonsynonymous and synonymous substitutions rates. This suggests that a strong purifying selection had taken place. The maximum likelihood tree consisting of 46 mitogenomes of infraorder Caridea along with outgroups, revealed the existence of Potamalpheops sp. in the family Alpheidae and it formed a monophyletic group along with Palaemonoidea and Alpheoidea superfamily.

The largescale blackfish, Girella punctata (Gray, 1835), inhabits rocky substrates in the coastal waters of Japan and northeastern Taiwan. Despite its commercial significance, there is limited knowledge regarding its reproductive biology due to the sparse occurrence of broodstocks in its natural environment. This study investigated the reproductive performance and embryonic development of G. punctata, assesses its feeding preferences through controlled feeding trials, and evaluates the impact of various feed types on its growth performance. In total, 124 wild-caught G. punctata were reared for 3–4 years, and their reproductive performance was assessed in 2015 and 2016. Their egg production increased with a sudden water temperature change from 17 ℃ in 2015–22 ℃ and 2016. The total and daily average egg production weights were 3589.22 and 40.79 g, respectively, whereas the total and daily average fertilized egg production weights were 1630.72 and 18.59 g, respectively; moreover, the hatching rate was 42.61 %. During embryonic development, the eggs hatched 45 h post fertilization at 19 ℃. Newly hatched larvae were 2.26 ± 0.04 mm in length with a yolk sac of 1.09 ± 0.02 mm in length. The yolk sac was almost completely absorbed 3 days post hatch (dph), when the larvae grew to a length of 3.42 ± 0.06 mm. We found that fish meal with 40 % protein was the optimal G. punctata fish diet. The weight gain in juveniles fed Cladophora fascicularis ranged from 47 % to 52 %, which was significantly higher than that in those fed Hypnea charoides (p < 0.05). The present study provided a practical guideline on the conditions required for successful fertilization and early development of G. punctata embryos and other larval stages. This information should help ensure greater survival and a higher proportion of healthy G. punctata larvae for mariculture applications.

Beehorn snail (Clithon diadema), known for its vibrant colors, is threatened with extinction due to excessive field collection. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of different diets and salinity (0‰–35‰) on the gonadal development, capsule productivity, embryonic development, and larval survival and growth of C. diadema. Adult snails (shell length: 9.09 ± 0.87 mm) were fed diatoms, including pennate marine diatom (Nitzschia grossestriata), boat-shaped diatom algae (Navicula sp.) and Cylindrotheca sp., along with giant tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) commercial feed, sea lettuce (Ulva lactuca), or Cladophora fascicularis, while snail larvae (shell length: 154.85 ± 6.03 μm) were fed Isochrysis galbana or Chaetoceros muelleri. The diatom group outperformed commercial feed and U. lactuca groups. The highest capsule productivity, yielding 79–82 capsules in 4 weeks, occurred at 15‰-20‰ salinity for diatom-fed adults. Embryos thrived at 0‰ but didn't hatch; hatching required salinities above 0‰, highlighting saline necessity. In addition, acute salinity changes (0‰ to 30‰) can deform embryo. Embryonic development at 15‰–20‰ salinity lasted 13.56–14.33 days with 100% larval hatching. However, larvae hatched at >20‰ salinity exhibit improved the percentage of survival without feeding (longer median lethal times). I. galbana-fed larvae survived 68 days with a 75% rate, outlasting C. muelleri-fed larvae which perished within 28 days. I. galbana-fed larvae, raised for 68 days at 25‰ salinity, showed 100% survival, 44.44% metamorphosis, and a 3.1 times growth increase. Metamorphosis rates were highest at 25‰ salinity with I. galbana, exceeding the 20‰ group by 3.2 times. Mucus of C. diadema boosts larval metamorphosis to 50.00%, 9 times higher than without inducers. Based on previous results, we developed an artificial propagation and breeding method for C. diadema. Artificially propagating C. diadema in large quantities could reduce the need for wild harvesting, thereby mitigating negative ecological impacts from excessive collection.

This study investigated the impact of Galla chinensis (GC) powder as a dietary supplement on the immunity, growth, and pathogen resistance of white shrimp, Penaeus vannamei. An in vitro analysis demonstrated that GC inhibited Vibrio with no discernible impact on Lactobacillus. Following this, GC was tested for toxicity on white shrimp hemocytes. GC showed harmlessness to white shrimp hemocytes since cell viability was over 80% at all dosages. The immune response of hemocytes in white shrimp to diets containing varying concentrations of GC was evaluated in an in vivo experiment. Five feeding regimens were trialed for 28 days, which were designated as GC0.5, GC1, GC2.5, and GC5 (0, 0.5, 1, 2.5, and 5 g/kg, respectively). The enhanced total hemocytes, phenoloxidase, phagocytic activity, and production of superoxide anion in white shrimp on day 7 of the feeding trial by administering a supplementary GC diet significantly stimulated the nonspecific immunity of white shrimp. Additionally, dietary GC substantially increased the expression of related genes in white shrimp hemocytes in vivo, including Toll, Imd, antimicrobial peptides, antioxidant defenses, clotting protein, and heat shock protein. The challenge experiment was conducted to assess the disease resistance of white shrimp fed with GC. The shrimps were fed dietary GC for 7 days while being challenged with Vibrio parahaemolyticus. The shrimp exhibited a substantial variation in survival rate during the bacteria challenge experiment due to the activation of related genes and the enhancement of non-specific immunity. The mortality of white shrimp was substantially reduced by the supplementary GC at a concentration of 1 g/kg during the bacteria challenge. A final feeding trial was conducted to assess the effects of dietary GC on the growth performance of white shrimp. The continuous administration of dietary GC at a dose of 1 g/kg to shrimp for 56 days resulted in the highest enhancement in shrimp growth among all treatments. This was evidenced by significantly increased final body weight, weight gain, specific growth rate, and decreased feed conversion ratios. Dietary GC at a dosage of 1 g/kg has been suggested for use to enhance the growth performance of white shrimp and improve immunological responses, particularly nonspecific immunity and related gene expression, as well as resistance to Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

The health of the host is significantly influenced by the gut microbiota. Penaeus vannamei (white shrimp) is one of the most profitable aquaculture species globally. Synbiotics are typically used as a beneficial diet supplement for raising aquaculture species’ growth capacities and enhancing immunity against pathogenicity. However, the effects of synbiotics on the white shrimp intestinal microbiota remain poorly understood. In the present study, we targeted the V3–V4 region of 16S rRNA genes to analyze the effects of synbiotics on white shrimp gut microbiota. Dietary synbiotics, having Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Moringa oleifera leaf extract were added to the white shrimps’ feed in various proportions in the present study. In total, 490 operational taxonomic units yielding 23 phyla, 41 classes, 94 orders, 151 families, and 250 genera of microorganisms were obtained. The diet containing L. acidophilus at 1 × 107 CFU/g and M. oleifera at 2.5 g/kg led to an increase in the relative abundance of beneficial microorganisms through a significant decrease in the α diversity. Moreover, it upregulated several physiological pathways such as carbohydrate metabolism, signal transduction, lipid metabolism, nucleotide metabolism, amino acid metabolism, and environmental adaptation, which led to the upregulation of the AMPK, MAPK, P13K-Akt, lysosome, peroxisome, and ferroptosis signaling pathways; this enhanced growth and immunity in white shrimp. Whether a single species or a combination of different microorganisms improves growth and immunity remains unclear till now. Nevertheless, our results will facilitate further in-depth investigation into beneficial microbial communities for upliftment of white shrimp aquaculture.

Abstract Literacy is one of the most fundamental skills for people to access and navigate today’s digital environment. This work systematically studies the language literacy skills of online populations for more than 160 countries and regions across the world, including many low-resourced countries where official literacy data are particularly sparse. Leveraging public data on Facebook, we develop a population-level literacy estimate for the online population that is based on aggregated and de-identified public posts written by adult Facebook users globally, significantly improving both the coverage and resolution of existing literacy tracking data. We found that, on Facebook, women collectively show higher language literacy than men in many countries, but substantial gaps remain in Africa and Asia. Further, our analysis reveals a considerable regional gap within a country that is associated with multiple socio-technical inequalities, suggesting an “inequality paradox” – where the online language skill disparity interacts with offline socioeconomic inequalities in complex ways. These findings have implications for global women’s empowerment and socioeconomic inequalities.

The habitats of giant clams are undergoing environmental changes, and giant clam populations are declining. The present study was conducted to facilitate clam conservation. We conducted three 18-week trials to investigate the effects of nutrient, temperature, and salinity on the growth performance and survival rates (SRs) of juvenile Tridacna noae, adult Tridacna crocea, and subadult Tridacna derasa, respectively. Regarding nutrient sources, no significant differences were observed in shell length gain, specific growth rate, or SR between clams fed with Chaetoceros muelleri or commercial feed (hw nanotip) and those in a control group (juvenile phototrophs). Regarding temperature, clams cultivated at 27 °C exhibited significantly better growth performance and SR than did those cultivated at 19 °C or 31 °C (p < 0.05). By week 6, all clams in the 19 °C and 31 °C groups had died, indicating that suboptimal growth temperatures have severe adverse effects. Regarding salinity, clams cultivated at 34‰ exhibited significantly higher length gains and specific growth rates than did those cultivated at 20‰ or 25‰ (p < 0.05). SR was not significantly affected by salinity. Understanding how environmental factors affect giant clam populations may help researchers devise effective clam conservation strategies.

Background and Objective: Existing evidence indicates the potential benefits of electroencephalography neurofeedback (NFB) training for cognitive function. This study aims to comprehensively review all available evidence investigating the effectiveness of NFB on working memory (WM) and episodic memory (EM) in the elderly population. Material and Methods: A systematic search was conducted across five databases to identify clinical trials examining the impact of NFB on memory function in healthy elderly individuals or those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The co-primary outcomes focused on changes in WM and EM. Data synthesis was performed using a random-effects meta-analysis. Results: Fourteen clinical trials (n = 284) were included in the analysis. The findings revealed that NFB was associated with improved WM (k = 11, reported as Hedges’ g = 0.665, 95% confidence [CI] = 0.473 to 0.858, p < 0.001) and EM (k = 12, 0.595, 0.333 to 0.856, p < 0.001) in the elderly, with moderate effect sizes. Subgroup analyses demonstrated that NFB had a positive impact on both WM and EM, not only in the healthy population (WM: k = 7, 0.495, 0.213 to 0.778, p = 0.001; EM: k = 6, 0.729, 0.483 to 0.976, p < 0.001) but also in those with MCI (WM: k = 6, 0.812, 0.549 to 1.074, p < 0.001; EM: k = 6, 0.503, 0.088 to 0.919, p = 0.018). Additionally, sufficient training time (totaling more than 300 min) was associated with a significant improvement in WM (k = 6, 0.743, 0.510 to 0.976, p < 0.001) and EM (k = 7, 0.516, 0.156 to 0.876, p = 0.005); however, such benefits were not observed in groups with inadequate training time. Conclusions: The results suggest that NFB is associated with enhancement of both WM and EM in both healthy and MCI elderly individuals, particularly when adequate training time (exceeding 300 min) is provided. These findings underscore the potential of NFB in dementia prevention or rehabilitation.

Visual cryptography (VC) is a cryptographic technique that allows the encryption of a secret image into multiple shares. When the shares of a qualified subset are superimposed, the original secret image can be visually recovered. Region incremental visual cryptography (RIVC) is a class of visual cryptography; it encrypts a single image into a shared image with multiple levels of secrecy, and when decrypted, the secret image of each region can be gradually recovered. Traditional VC encrypts two black-and-white images, and its recovery method is equivalent to a logical OR operation. To obtain a better recognizability of the restored image, the XORoperator becomes a simple and efficient method of encryption and decryption. Because the XOR operation needs extra cost or equipment, if the equipment cannot be obtained, the scheme can be more flexible if the secret can still be restored by using OR decryption (superimpose). In this paper, we propose a novel RIVC that allows encoding multiple secret regions of a secret image into n random grids. Both the OR operation and the XOR operation can be used as operations during decryption. The proposed scheme is evaluated by simulation, and the experimental result shows its correctness, effectiveness and practicability.

A (k, n) visual cryptography (VCS) is used to build a system for secret sharing. The system divides a secret image (S) into n shares and recovers S by stacking shares bigger than or equal to k, while shares below k provide no information about S. The fundamental idea of VCS is that, rather than relying on mathematical or cryptographic skills, human vision can be used to decrypt the secret image. Typically, a Boolean OR operation can be used to indicate the stacking action in a VCS. The reconstructed secret image gradually darkens as more shares are stacked. However, this intractable issue can be overcome by designing an XOR-based VCS that uses the Boolean XOR operator rather than the OR operation. This indicates that by using the XOR-based VCS, higher image quality can be attained. Because the XOR operation requires the use of additional equipment, scholars consider that when no equipment is available, the traditional OR operation can still be used to reveal the secret images. That is, the secret image can be decrypted without a computing device by stacking enough shares, and if a lightweight computing device is available, a better-quality image can be produced via an XOR operation. In 2015, an RG-based (k, n) VCS to restore the secret image by using an OR or XOR operation was proposed. In this study, we improve the scheme and design a new (k, n) VCS, called (k, n) 2D_VCS to encrypt a secret image into n shares. The secret image can be recovered when k or more shares are gathered and stacked (OR operation) together or when an XOR procedure is utilized. Both the theoretical proof and experimental results show that the quality of the restored image obtained by our method is better than that of the previous methods.

The Taiwan Cancer Registry (TCR) is a nationwide population-based registry that collects the data of patients with newly diagnosed cancer from hospitals with ≥50 beds. TCR data are high quality in terms of completeness and timeliness. However, accuracy is also a crucial quality indicator. This study evaluated the accuracy rates of selected 55 major items in the long-form TCR data between 2014 and 2016 with 700 reported cases randomly selected from 25 long-form-reporting hospitals. We calculated the accuracy rates of the reported data by employing a reabstracted chart review. Among the 55 items, the accuracy rates of 38 (69%) were at least 95%, those of 10 (18%) were between 90% and 95%, those of 5 (9%) were between 85% and 90%, and the remaining 2 (4%) were between 80% and 85%. This demonstrates a high degree of accuracy in the TCR long-form data.

Malachite green (MG) residue in aquatic environments can adversely affect food chains. To solve this problem, many adsorbents have been developed to remove MG from aqueous solutions. These adsorbents exhibit benefits in different aspects such as low cost, nontoxicity, and environment friendliness. Zeolite, oyster shell powder (OSP), humic acid (HA), and Chloride dioxide (ClO2) are widely used agents for water purification, indicating their potential to remove MG from both freshwater and seawater. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry was performed as a valid analytical method for measuring MG and its metabolite leucomalachite green (LMG). The analysis examined linearity, specificity, accuracy, precision, and limit of quantification. We found that three agents—zeolite, OSP, and HA—have high affinity for MG and LMG in both freshwater and seawater because of their physicochemical properties; ClO2 exhibited even greater efficiency for MG and LMG degradation due to its oxidation capacity. The MG removal efficiency of zeolite, OSP and HA in freshwater was 100%, 87.52%, and 100%, respectively. In the MG-containing seawater, the removal efficiency of zeolite, OSP and HA was 95.24%, 6.57%, and 89.36%, respectively. The LMG removal efficiency of zeolite, OSP and HA in freshwater was 100%, 53.56%, and 100%, while in seawater, the LMG removal efficiency of zeolite, OSP and HA was 100%, 62.70%, and 84.65%, respectively. ClO2 treatments in both freshwater and seawater expressed 100% removal efficiency. The adsorption capacity of three water agents in MG-containing freshwater decreased in the order: zeolite = HA > OSP; in MG-containing seawater: zeolite > HA > OSP. Whereas the adsorption capacity of three water agents in LMG-containing freshwater decreased in the order: zeolite = HA > OSP; in LMG-containing seawater: zeolite > HA > OSP. In this study, four water treatment agents are reported to remove MG and LMG from freshwater and seawater, indicating their potential for reducing the amount of hazardous MG and LMG residue in aquatic environments.

Abstract This study reveals a shift of gun-related narratives created by two ideological groups during three high-profile mass shootings in the United States across the years from 2016 to 2018. It utilizes large-scale, longitudinal social media traces from over 155,000 ideology-identifiable Twitter users. The study design leveraged both the linguistic dictionary approach as well as thematic coding inspired by Narrative Policy Framework, which allows for statistical and qualitative comparison. We found several distinctive narrative characteristics between the two ideology groups in response to the shooting events—two groups differed by how they incorporated linguistic and narrative features in their tweets in terms of policy stance, attribution (how one believed to be the problem, the cause or blame, and the solution), the rhetoric employed, and emotion throughout the incidents. The findings suggest how shooting events may penetrate the public discursive processes that had been previously dominated by existing ideological references and may facilitate discussions beyond ideological identities. Overall, in the wake of mass shooting events, the tweets adhering to the majority policy stance within a camp declined, whereas the proportion of mixed or flipped stance tweets increased. Meanwhile, more tweets were observed to express causal reasoning of a held policy stance, and a different pattern in the use of rhetoric schemes, such as the decline of provocative ridicule, emerged. The shifting patterns in users’ narratives coincide with the two groups distinctive emotional response revealed in text. These findings offer insights into the opportunity to reconcile conflicts and the potential for creating civic technologies to improve the interpretability of linguistic and narrative signals and to support diverse narratives and framing.

Abstract Learning low-dimensional representations of graphs has facilitated the use of traditional machine learning techniques to solving classic network analysis tasks such as link prediction, node classification, community detection, etc. However, to date, the vast majority of these learning tasks are focused on traditional single-layer/unimodal networks and largely ignore the case of multiplex networks. A multiplex network is a suitable structure to model multi-dimensional real-world complex systems. It consists of multiple layers where each layer represents a different relationship among the network nodes. In this work, we propose MUNEM, a novel approach for learning a low-dimensional representation of a multiplex network using a triplet loss objective function. In our approach, we preserve the global structure of each layer, while at the same time fusing knowledge among different layers during the learning process. We evaluate the effectiveness of our proposed method by testing and comparing on real-world multiplex networks from different domains, such as collaboration network, protein-protein interaction network, online social network. Finally, in order to deliberately examine the effect of our model’s parameters we conduct extensive experiments on synthetic multiplex networks.

Abstract The diffusion of new information and communication technologies—social media in particular—has played a key role in social and political activism in recent decades. In this paper, we propose a theory-motivated, spatiotemporal learning approach, ActAttn, that leverages social movement theories and a deep learning framework to examine the relationship between protest events and their social and geographical contexts as reflected in social media discussions. To do so, we introduce a novel predictive framework that incorporates a new design of attentional networks, and which effectively learns the spatiotemporal structure of features. Our approach is not only capable of forecasting the occurrence of future protests, but also provides theory-relevant interpretations—it allows for interpreting what features, from which places, have significant contributions on the protest forecasting model, as well as how they make those contributions. Our experiment results from three movement events indicate that ActAttn achieves superior forecasting performance, with interesting comparisons across the three events that provide insights into these recent movements.

Present work demonstrates the vertically double stacked nanosheet (NS) p-channel polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) junctionless field-effect transistors (JL-FET) with tri-gate, omega-gate, and gate all around (GAA) structure. These structures offer more Weff per existing footprint and better parallel resistance, resulting in smaller total resistance. Also, the GAA stacked NS device shows superior electrical properties, including high Ion/Ioff ratio (> 108), steep subthreshold swing (SS) = 100 mV/dec, very low drain-induced-barrier-lowering (DIBL) = 0.127 mV/V and usually off at Vg = 0 V, owing to superior gate controllability. More, the 3D TCAD simulation has applied for analysis of physical characteristics of the proposed devices.

A low-voltage programmable gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet poly-Si thin-film transistor (TFT) nonvolatile memory (NVM), which uses band-to-band tunneling induced hot electron (BBHE) programming, is demonstrated. The BBHE method is extremely efficient for programming data in the p-type GAA nanosheet TFT NVM because the GAA nanosheet structure enhances the source-to-drain component of the electric field in its channel. Therefore, the enhanced electric field of the BBHE phenomenon creates energetic electrons that surmount the tunneling oxide barrier easily and pass shallow traps in the charge trapping layer of the GAA TFT NVM. Consequently, the p-type GAA TFT NVM achieves low-voltage programming bias and satisfactory data retention

As technology develops, the stacked nanosheet (NS) structure demonstrates promise for use in future technology nodes. This study demonstrated the excellent performance of stacked-NS channels with junctionless gate-all-around thin-film transistors and compared the electrical characteristics of single-NS and stacked-NS structures. The performance of the multi-gate and gate-all-around transistors was then further analyzed. The stacked gate-all-around thin-film transistor exhibited superior performance and excellent temperature design flexibility. In brief, the stacked gate-all-around structure for thin-film transistors structure has the potential to overcome the challenges associated with downscaling.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213891.].

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary natural feed supplement on the growth performance, non-specific responses, and disease resistance in Lates calcarifer. Three commercial products (A, B, and C) containing a basal probiotic mixture were tested. Product A contained a basal mixture of Paenibacillus sp., Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus (107 cfu/g for each probiotic); product B contained additional Lactobacillus plantarum (1010 cfu/g); and product C contained additional soybean peptides (500 g/kg) and garlic powder (1 g/kg). Each product was supplemented into subject diets at dosages of 1 or 2 g/kg (designated as the A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2 groups, respectively). Following an eight-week trial, growth parameters (specific growth rate and feed conversion ratio), non-specific immune responses (O2− production, phagocytic rate, and phagocytic index), and the results of a challenge test against Vibrio alginolyticus were evaluated. The results show that all probiotic supplement groups exhibited an improvement in growth performance compared to the control group (non-probiotic diet). In terms of non-specific immunity parameters, a significant improvement in O2− production was found in the C2 group, whereas significant improvements in phagocytic activity were found in all the B and C groups. The C2 group displayed optimal O2− production, phagocytic rate, and phagocytic index results. For the challenge test, the C groups showed higher Vibrio resistance than the other experimental groups and the control group. These results suggest that product C, given at dosages of 2 g/kg, may serve as a growth-promoting and immunostimulatory additive for the cultivation of Asian seabass.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging viral disease that has caused a global pandemic. Among emergency department (ED) patients, pediatric patient volume mostly and continuously decreased during the pandemic period. Decreased pediatric patient volume in a prolonged period could results in inadequate pediatric training of Emergency Medicine (EM) residents. We collected data regarding pediatric patients who were first seen by EM resident physicians between 1 February 2019, and 31 January 2021, which was divided into pre-epidemic and epidemic periods by 1 February 2020. A significant reduction in pediatric patients per hour (PPH) of EM residents was noted in the epidemic period (from 1.55 to 0.81, p < 0.001). The average patient number was reduced significantly in the classification of infection (from 9.50 to 4.00, p < 0.001), respiratory system (from 84.00 to 22.00, p < 0.001), gastrointestinal system (from 52.00 to 34.00, p = 0.007), otolaryngology (from 4.00 to 2.00, p = 0.022). Among the diagnoses of infectious disease, the most obvious drop was noted in the diagnosis of influenza and enterovirus infection. Reduced pediatric patient volume affected clinical exposure to pediatric EM training of EM residency. Changes in the proportion of pediatric diseases presented in the ED may induce inadequate experience with common and specific pediatric diseases.

This comprehensive study of the horizontally p-type stacked nanosheets inversion mode thinfilm transistor with gate-all-around (SNS-GAATFT) and multi-gate (SNS-TFT) structures. The stacked nanosheets device structure, fabrication, and electrical characteristics are analyzed. The SNS-GAATFT reveals better performance to multi-gate SNS-TFT. The proposed inversion mode SNS-TFT has properties of the easy process with low cost and compatible with all 3-D Si CMOS and AMOLED applications. Moreover, the SNS-GAATFT is suitable for future monolithic 3-D IC for 2015's ITRS technology roadmap for the year 2024-2030.

Abstract There has been growing interest in leveraging Web-based social and communication technologies for better crisis response. How might the Web platforms be used as an observatory to systematically understand the dynamics of the public’s attention during disaster events? And how could we monitor such attention in a cost-effective way? In this work, we propose an ‘attention shift network’ framework to systematically observe, measure, and analyze the dynamics of collective attention in response to real-world exogenous shocks such as disasters. Through tracing hashtags that appeared in Twitter users’ complete timeline around several violent terrorist attacks, we study the properties of network structures and reveal the temporal dynamics of the collective attention across multiple disasters. Further, to enable an efficient monitoring of the collective attention dynamics, we propose an effective stochastic sampling approach that accounts for the users’ hashtag adoption frequency, connectedness and diversity, as well as data variability. We conduct extensive experiments to show that the proposed sampling approach significantly outperforms several alternative methods in both retaining the network structures and preserving the information with a small set of sampling targets, suggesting the utility of the proposed method in various realistic settings.

Exposure to media coverage of mass violence has been shown to predict poorer mental health symptomology. However, it is unknown whether such media coverage can have ubiquitous effects on average community members, extending to biological and perceptual processes that underlie everyday decision making and behavior. Here, we used a repeated-measures design over the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings to track participants' self-reported distress, their eye blink startle reactivity while viewing images of the bombings, and their ability to perceptually distinguish armed from unarmed individuals in a behavioral shooting task. We leveraged a computational linguistics method in which we sampled news content from the sources our participants most commonly self-reported reading, and then quantified both the extent of news coverage about the marathon and the affective tone of that news coverage. Results revealed that participants experienced greater current distress, greater physiological reactivity to threats, and poorer perceptual sensitivity when recent news coverage of the marathon contained more affectively negative words. This is the first empirical work to examine relationships between the media's affective tone in its coverage of mass violence and individuals' threat perception and physiological threat reactivity.

Media exposure influences mental health symptomology in response to salient aversive events, like terrorist attacks, but little has been done to explore the impact of news coverage that varies more subtly in affective content. Here, we utilized an existing data set in which participants self-reported physical symptoms, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms, and completed a potentiated startle task assessing their physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli at three time points (waves) over a 9-month period. Using a computational linguistics approach, we then calculated an average ratio of words with positive vs. negative affective connotations for only articles from news sources to which each participant self-reported being exposed over the prior 2 weeks at each wave of data collection. As hypothesized, individuals exposed to news coverage with more negative affective tone over the prior 2 weeks reported significantly greater physical and depressive symptoms, and had significantly greater physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli.

We examine the social antecedents of contributing to campaigns, with a particular focus on the role of population density and social networking opportunities. Using 10 years of US campaign contribution data from the Federal Election Commission and a national survey of party leaders, we find that recruiting contributors is easier in a densely populated region, where the daily opportunity of individuals being exposed to the same information via their social networks is high. Furthermore, the effect of population density is heterogeneous with respect to mobility: if a region has substantial commuting outflow, the chance of being mobilized from the place of residence decreases, but the chance of mobilization in their place of work increases. This analysis also reveals differences between political parties. Democrats are more dependent on social networking in population dense areas. This difference in the importance of social networking opportunities present in geographical space helps explain macro-level patterns in party fundraising.

We propose the concept of the electrical junction in a junctionless (JL) field-effect-transistor (FET) to illustrate the transfer characteristics of the JL FET. In this work, nanowire (NW) junctionless poly-Si thin-film transistors are used to demonstrate this conception of the electrical junction. Though the dopant and the dosage of the source, of the drain, and of the channel are exactly the same in the JL FET, the transfer characteristics of the JL FET is similar to these of the conventional inversion-mode FET rather than these of a resistor, which is because of the electrical junction at the boundary of the gate and the drain in the JL FET. The electrical junction helps us to understand the JL FET, and also to explain the superior transfer characteristic of the JL FET with the gated raised S/D (Gout structure) which reveals low drain-induced-barrier-lowering (DIBL) and low breakdown voltage of ion impact ionization.

Developing technologies that support collaboration requires understanding how knowledge and expertise are shared and distributed among community members. We explore two forms of knowledge distribution structures, coordination and cooperation, that are central to successful collaboration. We propose a novel method for detecting the coordination of strategic communication among members of political communities. Our method identifies a “rapid semantic convergence,” a sudden burst in the use linguistic constructions by multiple individuals within a short time, as a signature of coordination. We apply our method to the public statements of U.S. Senators in the 112th U.S. Congress and construct coordination and cooperation networks among these individuals. We then compare aspects of these networks to other known properties of the Senators. Results indicate that the detected networks reflect underlying tendencies in the social relationships among Senators and reveal interesting differences in how the different parties coordinate communication.

Objective: This study was conducted to compare the efficacy of cryotop vitrification of human cleavage-stage embryos to that of conventional slow freezing of these embryos with respect to survival. A second objective was to compare the two cryopreservation techniques with respect to outcomes for a cohort of women. Materials and Methods: Cleavage-stage embryos from 102 patients were cryopreserved either by vitrification (57 patients) or by traditional slow freezing (45 patients). After thawing, rates of embryo survival, implantation, and clinical pregnancy were determined. Results: Survival of embryos was significantly higher with the vitrification procedure as compared to traditional slow freezing [287/298 (96.3%) vs. 294/446 (65.9%); p < 0.05). Rates of implantation and clinical pregnancy were also significantly higher using vitrification procedure as compared to the slow freezing procedure (24.3% vs. 7.1% and 35.6% vs. 15.6% respectively, p < 0.05). Conclusion: As compared to conventional slow freezing, cryopreservation of human cleavage-stage embryo using vitrification results in higher rates of embryo survival, implantation, and clinical pregnancy. Vitrification therefore represents the superior cryopreservation technique for cleavage-stage embryos.

"Media events" generate conditions of shared attention as many users simultaneously tune in with the dual screens of broadcast and social media to view and participate. We examine how collective patterns of user behavior under conditions of shared attention are distinct from other "bursts" of activity like breaking news events. Using 290 million tweets from a panel of 193,532 politically active Twitter users, we compare features of their behavior during eight major events during the 2012 U.S. presidential election to examine how patterns of social media use change during these media events compared to "typical" time and whether these changes are attributable to shifts in the behavior of the population as a whole or shifts from particular segments such as elites. Compared to baseline time periods, our findings reveal that media events not only generate large volumes of tweets, but they are also associated with (1) substantial declines in interpersonal communication, (2) more highly concentrated attention by replying to and retweeting particular users, and (3) elite users predominantly benefiting from this attention. These findings empirically demonstrate how bursts of activity on Twitter during media events significantly alter underlying social processes of interpersonal communication and social interaction. Because the behavior of large populations within socio-technical systems can change so dramatically, our findings suggest the need for further research about how social media responses to media events can be used to support collective sensemaking, to promote informed deliberation, and to remain resilient in the face of misinformation.

Yerba mate tea is known as one of the most popular nonalcoholic beverages favoured by South Americans due to its nutrition facts and medicinal properties. The processing of yerba mate tea is found to affect the properties of its final forms. This study presents an investigation into the effects of water sources on the dissolution of yerba mate extract powders. Comparisons were conducted between yerba mate teas prepared by dissolving yerba mate extract powders into tap water and deionized water. Topics to be explored in this work are the major compositions and antioxidant activities, including total phenol content, reducing power, DPPH scavenging activity, and ABTS+• scavenging capacity. It is indicated that there is little difference for antioxidant activities and major constituents of yerba mate teas between both water sources. However, a deeper color is seen in the tap water case, resulting from the reaction between tannic acid and ions. This research finding can be treated as a way to benefit the yerba mate tea processing for applications.

How is motion information that has been obtained through multiple viewing apertures integrated to form a global motion percept? We investigated the mechanisms of motion integration across apertures in two hemifields by presenting gratings through two rectangles (that form the dual barber poles) and recording the perceived direction of motion by human observers. To this end, we presented dual barber poles in conditions with various inter-component distances between the apertures and evaluated the degree to which the hemifield information was integrated by measuring the magnitude of the perceived barber pole illusion. Surprisingly, when the inter-component distance between the two apertures was short, the perceived direction of motion of the dual barber poles was similar to that of a single barber pole formed by the concatenation of the two component barber poles, indicating motion integration is achieved through a simple concatenation mechanism. We then presented dual barber poles in which the motion and contour properties of the two component barber poles differed to characterize the constraints underlying cross-hemifield integration. We found that integration is achieved only when phase, speed, wavelength, temporal frequency, and duty cycle are identical in the two barber poles, but can remain robust when the contrast of the two component barber poles differs substantially. We concluded that a motion stimulus presented in bilateral hemifields tends to be integrated to yield a global percept with a substantial tolerance for spatial distance and contrast difference.

This study investigates the effects of water solutions on the antioxidant content of green tea leaf extracts. Green teas prepared with tap water and distilled water were compared with respect to four antioxidant assays: total phenol content, reducing power, DMPD assay, and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity assay. The results indicate that green tea prepared with distilled water exhibits higher antioxidant activity than that made with tap water. The high performance liquid chromatography showed that major constituents of green tea were found in higher concentrations in tea made with distilled water than in that made with tap water. This could be due to less calcium fixation in leaves and small water clusters. Water solutions composed of less mineralisation are more effective in promoting the quality of green tea leaf extracts.

The individual movements of large numbers of people are important in many contexts, from urban planning to disease spreading. Datasets that capture human mobility are now available and many interesting features have been discovered, including the ultra-slow spatial growth of individual mobility. However, the detailed substructures and spatiotemporal flows of mobility--the sets and sequences of visited locations--have not been well studied. We show that individual mobility is dominated by small groups of frequently visited, dynamically close locations, forming primary "habitats" capturing typical daily activity, along with subsidiary habitats representing additional travel. These habitats do not correspond to typical contexts such as home or work. The temporal evolution of mobility within habitats, which constitutes most motion, is universal across habitats and exhibits scaling patterns both distinct from all previous observations and unpredicted by current models. The delay to enter subsidiary habitats is a primary factor in the spatiotemporal growth of human travel. Interestingly, habitats correlate with non-mobility dynamics such as communication activity, implying that habitats may influence processes such as information spreading and revealing new connections between human mobility and social networks.