High-precision large dynamic-range (DR) current-sensing front-ends are widely used in biomedical applications, such as patch-clamp, molecular concentration detection, and gene sequencing. The new gene sequencers require low-noise analog front-ends capable of sensing large DR current (>100 dB) down to sub-pA-level. At this level of precision, oversampled data converters are usually used. However, given the limited oversampling ratio in high throughput applications, it is very challenging to achieve a sub-pA-level sensitivity and >100dB DR within the limited area and energy budgets [1]. In [2], a 140dB DR is achieved using a multi-bit delta-sigma modulator (DSM), but the power consumption is over 1mW and the current sensitivity is limited to 6.3pA. An hourglass ADC achieving a 100fA sensitivity and 140dB DR is presented in [3], but is limited by conversion rate and relatively high power consumption (295μW). For a 100Hz bandwidth, its noise floor increases to 18pA.
This paper wishes to use the epigraphical record of Amastris to discuss how a sympolity founded in the Hellenistic period continued to evolve and develop additional diversity and dynamics in the Roman period. I will first discuss how literary sources describe the early history of Amastris as an integrative and cooperative space in Hellenistic northern Anatolia, then move to epigraphical sources and discuss how this trend likely continued to evolve as Amastris came under Roman rule. An important caveat must be raised beforehand. While this paper wishes to suggest that some trends such as the integrative and cooperative aspects of this locale can indeed be observed and described, the materials used for the description – both the literary tradition and the epigraphic sources – can only provide minimalist impressions of large socio-political trends, if even these at all. What I hope to achieve, despite such reservations, is to establish some baselines that can be used for asking further questions at a regional level, where additional evidence can be used to discuss integrative and cooperative dynamics across different cities.
In face of the critical endurance issue, for the first time we take a holistic perspective to co-optimize the ferroelectric materials and interlayer in FeFET. Compared to the common HZO based gate stack, the novel combination of Hf0.95 Al0.05 O2+Al2 O3 enhances the endurance to $\gt 5 \times 10 ^9$ cycles while maintaining a retention > 10 years. In-depth analysis based on DFT and DQSCV reveal the reduction of interlayer electric field and interface charge trapping as the mechanism of optimization. We also develop a distributed interface trap model to correlate different trapping dynamics with the interlayer property in each device. This work pushes forward the understanding and development of high endurance strategy for FeFET.
Gladiatorial spectacles became an integral part of the Roman experience in the second century CE. Texts such as the Martyrdom of Polycarp (6-19) help illucidate the details of gladiation in Smyrna and the medical treatises of Galen (13.599; 18B. 567) discuss flesh wounds suffered at Pergamon. A considerable amount of inscriptions that offer skeletal information and its spread in the Greek-speaking part of the Roman empire (Robert 1971; Mann 2011). What is less clear is how spectacles were actually arranged, who attended and participated.
This paper wishes to take a closer look at the two questions through the lens of Lucian's tale of a gladiatorial duel in Toxaris or On Friendship. Toxaris is Lucian's Scythian persona who claimed to have been saved by a friend called Sisinnes. The two of them found their possessions stolen at Amastris, and Sisinnes volunteered to fight at a local gladiatorial event for money and won a large sum that more than recuperated their losses. Lucian’s clear fondness for Amastris elsewhere and his vignette here suggests an attempt to create resonance with an Amastrian audience, whom he addresses at the end of the story ( Luc. Tox. 60; Cumont 1903: 274 fn. 5; Kokolakis 1958: 335-343). This paper would like to suggest that Lucian’s narrative provides us with a version of what his knowledgeable Amastrian audience would have expected a gladiatorial spectacle to be like, as well as how local variations may have been a separate driver of gladiation's popularity in different Anatolian localities.
Bibliography
Cumont, F. 1903. "Gladiateurs et Acteurs dans le Pont." Festschrift Zu Otto Hirschfelds Sechzigsten Geburtstage. Nabu Press.
Kokolakis, M. 1958. "Gladiatorial Games and Animal-Baiting in Lucian." Platon 10: 328-349.
Mann, C. 2011. "Um keinen Kranz, um das Leben kämpfen wir!" Gladiatoren im Osten des Römischen Reiches und die Frage der Romanisierung. Berlin, Verlag Antike.
Robert, L. Les gladiateurs dans l'orient Grec. Amsterdam, Adolf Hakkert.
The compression of three-dimensional sound field signals has always been a very important issue. Recently, an Independent Component Analysis (ICA) based Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA) compression method introduces blind source separation to solve the shortcomings of discontinuity between frames in the existing Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) based methods. However, ICA is weak to model the reverberant environment, and its target is not to recover original signal. In this work, we replace ICA with autoencoder to further improve the above method’s ability to cope with reverberation conditions and ensure the unanimous optimization both in separation and recovery by reconstruction loss. We constructed a dataset with simulated and recorded signals, and verified the effectiveness of our method through objective and subjective experiments.