GERO: a general SCA-based readout ASIC for micro-pattern gas detectors with configurable storage depth and on-chip digitizer

The paper presents GEneral ReadOut (GERO), a general readout ASIC based on a switched capacitor array for micro-pattern gas detectors. It aims at providing general readout electronics for low-to-medium event-rate gas detectors with high sampling frequency, configurable storage depth, and data digitalization. The first prototype GERO chip integrates 16 channels and was fabricated using a 0.18-lm CMOS process. Each channel consists of a sampling array working in a ping-pong mode, a storage array with a 1024-cell depth, and 32 Wilkinson analog-todigital converters. The detailed design and test results are presented in the paper.

Improved performance of back-gate MoS2 transistors by NH3-plasma treating high-k gate dielectrics

NH3-plasma treatment is used to improve the quality of the gate dielectric and interface. Al2O3 is adopted as a buffer layer between HfO2 and MoS2 to decrease the interface-state density. Four groups of MOS capacitors and back-gate transistors with different gate dielectrics are fabricated and their C–V and I–V characteristics are compared. It is found that the Al2O3/HfO2 back-gate transistor with NH3-plasma treatment shows the best electrical performance: high on–off current ratio of 1.53 × 107, higher field-effect mobility of 26.51 cm2/V·s, and lower subthreshold swing of 145 m V/dec.These are attributed to the improvements of the gate dielectric and interface qualities by the NH3-plasma treatment and the addition of Al2O3 as a buffer layer.

Nutritional geometry framework of sucrose taste in Drosophila

Dietary protein(P)and carbohydrate(C)have a major impact on the sweet taste sensation.However,it remains unclear whether the balance of P and C influences the sweet taste sensitivity.Here,we use the nutritional geometry framework(NGF)to address the interaction of protein and carbohydrates on sweet taste using Drosophila as a model.Our results reveal that high-protein,low-carbohydrate(HPLC)diets sensitize to sweet taste and low-protein,high-carbohydrate(LPHC)diets desensitize sweet taste in both male and female flies.We further investigate the underlying mechanisms of the effects of two diets on sweet taste using RNA sequencing.When compared to the LPHC diet,the m RNA expression of genes involved in the metabolism of glycine,serine,and threonine is significantly upregulated in the HPLC diet group,suggesting these amino acids may mediate sweet taste perception.We further find that sweet sensitization occurs in flies fed with the LPHC diet supplemented with serine and threonine.Our study demonstrates that sucrose taste sensitivity is affected by the balance of dietary protein and carbohydrates possibly through changes in serine and threonine.

Augmented Lagrangian Methods for Convex Matrix Optimization Problems

In this paper,we provide some gentle introductions to the recent advance in augmented Lagrangian methods for solving large-scale convex matrix optimization problems(cMOP).Specifically,we reviewed two types of sufficient conditions for ensuring the quadratic growth conditions of a class of constrained convex matrix optimization problems regularized by nonsmooth spectral functions.Under a mild quadratic growth condition on the dual of cMOP,we further discussed the R-superlinear convergence of the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker(KKT)residuals of the sequence generated by the augmented Lagrangian methods(ALM)for solving convex matrix optimization problems.Implementation details of the ALM for solving core convex matrix optimization problems are also provided.