Development of optical links with 850 nm multi-mode vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) has advanced to 25 Gbps in speed. For applications in high-energy experiments, the transceivers ...are required to be tolerant in radiation and particle fields. We report on prototyping of a miniature transmitter named MTx+, which is developed for high speed transmission with the dual-channel laser driver LOCld65 and 850 nm VCSELs packaged in TOSA format. The LOCld65 is fabricated in the TSMC 65 nm process and is packaged in the QFN-40 for assembly. The MTx+ modules and test kits were first made with PCB and components qualified for 10 Gbps applications, and were tested for achieving 14 Gbps. The data transfer rate of the MTx+ module is investigated further for the speed of up to 25 Gbps. The LOCld65 is examined with post-layout simulation and the module design upgraded with components including the TOSA qualified for 25 Gbps applications. The PCB material is replaced by the Panasonic MEGTRON6. The revised MTx+ is tested at 25 Gbps and the eye-diagram shows a mask margin of 22%.
Atomic layer plasma treatment (ALPT) enhances the corrosion protection of the ZrO2 film prepared by thermal-driven ALD mode (TALD-ZrO2) and further reduces the corrosion rate of MgCa alloy by more ...than an order of magnitude. The ALPT effect significantly increases the crystallinity and reduces the oxygen defects of TALD-ZrO2 film. The ALPT time of 30 s has the most increase in the polarization resistance of TALD-ZrO2 film, from 1.8kΩ·cm2 to 74.7kΩ·cm2. The enhancement of corrosion resistance of TALD-ZrO2 film caused by the 30s-ALPT is equivalent to the thickness effect of increasing the thickness from 200 cycles to 300 cycles. ALPT technique is considered as a potential and feasible method to prepare TALD-ZrO2 films with high film quality and excellent corrosion protection.
•ALPT effectively enhances the corrosion protection performance of TALD-ZrO2 film on Mg-Ca alloy.•Clarify that ALPT technique effectively improves the quality of the TALD-ZrO2 films.•30s-ALPT greatly enhances the polarization resistance from 1.8kΩ·cm2 to 74.7kΩ·cm2.•Clarify that ALPT significantly improves the long-term protection performance of TALD-ZrO2 film on Mg-Ca alloy.
Knee pain caused by osteoarthritis (OA) is commonly seen in geriatric patients. Patients with knee OA are often complicated with joint pain, soreness, and weakness. The injection of autologous ...platelet rich plasma (aPRP) has been proven to be effective in treating mild knee OA. The effect of injecting aPRP in treating moderate to severe degrees of knee OA remains controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of aPRP in treating patients with at least grade 2 on the Kellgren and Lawrence system for the classification of knee OA using a proteomic approach and clinical evaluation tool of Lequesne index. Musculoskeletal ultrasound was used for accurate needle placement into the knee joint, and to the perimeniscal soft tissue for the injection of aPRP. Three monthly aPRP injections were performed. Group 1 patients received intra-articular (IA) injection only, while group 2 received simultaneous IA and pes anserinus aPRP injections. After two monthly aPRP injections, both groups revealed significant drops in average SF total protein concentrations, and increases in the protein concentrations associated with chelation and anti-aging (eg/transthyretin, matrilin, and complement). However, it is group 2 that revealed significant decreases in the protein concentrations associated with inflammation (eg/immunoglobulin and apolipoprotein), and improved knee functional status. SF appeared to become less susceptible to degeneration after aPRP injections in group 2. As a result, at least 2 monthly injection of IA aPRP in conjunction with accurate injection of aPRP to the perimeniscal soft tissue structure such as the pes anserinus may be a viable option in treating patients with moderate to severe degrees of knee OA.
•Evaluate the effectiveness of autologous platelet rich plasma (aPRP) in treating moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis (OA)•Multiple monthly injection of aPRP is effective in treating patients with moderate to severe degrees of knee OA.•But the treatment must combine intra-articular and perimeniscal soft tissue aPRP injections.•Proteins associated with inflammation decreased significantly after aPRP injections.•Proteins associated with anti-aging and chelation increased significantly after aPRP injections.
Initially, a set of guidelines for the use of ultrasound contrast agents was published in 2004 dealing only with liver applications. A second edition of the guidelines in 2008 reflected changes in ...the available contrast agents and updated the guidelines for the liver, as well as implementing some non-liver applications. Time has moved on, and the need for international guidelines on the use of CEUS in the liver has become apparent. The present document describes the third iteration of recommendations for the hepatic use of contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) using contrast specific imaging techniques. This joint WFUMB-EFSUMB initiative has implicated experts from major leading ultrasound societies worldwide. These liver CEUS guidelines are simultaneously published in the official journals of both organizing federations (i.e., Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology for WFUMB and Ultraschall in der Medizin/European Journal of Ultrasound for EFSUMB). These guidelines and recommendations provide general advice on the use of all currently clinically available ultrasound contrast agents (UCA). They are intended to create standard protocols for the use and administration of UCA in liver applications on an international basis and improve the management of patients worldwide.
Both neurocognitive deficits and schizophrenia are highly heritable. Genetic overlap between neurocognitive deficits and schizophrenia has been observed in both the general population and in the ...clinical samples. This study aimed to examine if the polygenic architecture of susceptibility to schizophrenia modified neurocognitive performance in schizophrenia patients. Schizophrenia polygenic risk scores (PRSs) were first derived from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) on schizophrenia, and then the scores were calculated in our independent sample of 1130 schizophrenia trios, who had PsychChip data and were part of the Schizophrenia Families from Taiwan project. Pseudocontrols generated from the nontransmitted parental alleles of the parents in these trios were compared with alleles in schizophrenia patients in assessing the replicability of PGC‐derived susceptibility variants. Schizophrenia PRS at the P‐value threshold (PT) of 0.1 explained 0.2% in the variance of disease status in this Han‐Taiwanese samples, and the score itself had a P‐value 0.05 for the association test with the disorder. Each patient underwent neurocognitive evaluation on sustained attention using the continuous performance test and executive function using the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. We applied a structural equation model to construct the neurocognitive latent variable estimated from multiple measured indices in these 2 tests, and then tested the association between the PRS and the neurocognitive latent variable. Higher schizophrenia PRS generated at the PT of 0.1 was significantly associated with poorer neurocognitive performance with explained variance 0.5%. Our findings indicated that schizophrenia susceptibility variants modify the neurocognitive performance in schizophrenia patients.
Schizophrenia PRS at threshold 0.1 was associated with poorer neurocognitive performance (R2 = 0.5%).
Do People's World Views Matter? The Why and How Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Lam, Ben C. P; Wu, Wesley C. H ...
Journal of personality and social psychology,
05/2016, Letnik:
110, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Over the past decades, personality and social psychologists have extensively investigated the role of self-views in individual functioning. Research on world views, however, has been less well ...studied due to overly specific conceptualizations, and little research about how and why they impact life outcomes. To answer why and how world views matter, we conducted 7 studies to examine the functions, antecedents, and consequences of generalized beliefs about the world, operationalized as social axioms (Leung et al., 2002). This research focused on 2 axiom factors, namely, social cynicism and reward for application. These axioms were found to explain individual differences in self-views over and above personality traits in Hong Kong and U.S. samples (Study 1) and to explain cultural differences in self-views in addition to self-construals among Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, East Asian Canadians, and European Canadians (Study 2). Endorsement of social axioms by participants, their parents, and close friends was collected from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Canada to infer parental and peer influences on world views (Study 3). World views affected psychological well-being through the mediation of positive self-views across 3 age groups, including children, adolescents, and young adults (Study 4) and over time (Study 5). The mediation of negative self-views was through comparative self-criticism rather than internalized self-criticism (Study 6). Holistic thinking moderated the effect of social cynicism on self-views and psychological well-being (Study 7). These results converge to show that world views as a distal force and self-views as a proximal force matter in people's subjective evaluation of their lives.
Discoveries and timing of pulsars in M62 Vleeschower, L; Corongiu, A; Stappers, B W ...
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
04/2024, Letnik:
530, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
ABSTRACT
Using MeerKAT, we have discovered three new millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in the bulge globular cluster M62: M62H, M62I, and M62J. All three are in binary systems, which means all ten known ...pulsars in the cluster are in binaries. M62H has a planetary-mass companion with a median mass Mc, med ∼ 3 MJ and a mean density of ρ ∼ 11 g cm−3. M62I has an orbital period of 0.51 d and a Mc, med ∼ 0.15 M⊙. Neither of these low-mass systems exhibit eclipses. M62J has only been detected in the two Ultra High Frequency band (816 MHz) observations with a flux density S816 = 0.08 mJy. The non-detection in the L-band (1284 MHz) indicates it has a relatively steep spectrum (β < −3.1). We also present 23-yr-long timing solutions obtained using data from the Parkes ‘Murriyang’, Effelsberg, and MeerKAT telescopes for the six previously known pulsars. For all these pulsars, we measured the second spin-period derivatives and the rate of change of orbital period caused by the gravitational field of the cluster, and their proper motions. From these measurements, we conclude that the pulsars’ maximum accelerations are consistent with the maximum cluster acceleration assuming a core-collapsed mass distribution. Studies of the eclipses of the redback M62B and the black widow M62E at four and two different frequency bands, respectively, reveal a frequency dependence with longer and asymmetric eclipses at lower frequencies. The presence of only binary MSPs in this cluster challenges models which suggest that the MSP population of core-collapsed clusters should be dominated by isolated MSPs.
Gold nanorods were attached to the gene of enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP) for the remote control of gene expression in living cells. The UV−vis spectroscopy, electrophoresis, and ...transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to study the optical and structural properties of the EGFP DNA and gold nanorod (EGFP−GNR) conjugates before and after femto-second near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. Upon NIR irradiation, the gold nanorods of EGFP−GNR conjugates underwent shape transformation that resulted in the release of EGFP DNA. When EGFP−GNR conjugates were delivered to cultured HeLa cells, induced GFP expression was specifically observed in cells that were locally exposed to NIR irradiation. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of using gold nanorods and NIR irradiation as means of remote control of gene expression in specific cells. This approach has potential applications in biological and medical studies.
Abstract
The incorporation of interface passivation structures in ultrathin Cu(In,Ga)Se
2
based solar cells is shown. The fabrication used an industry scalable lithography technique—nanoimprint ...lithography (NIL)—for a 15 × 15 cm
2
dielectric layer patterning. Devices with a NIL nanopatterned dielectric layer are benchmarked against electron-beam lithography (EBL) patterning, using rigid substrates. The NIL patterned device shows similar performance to the EBL patterned device.The impact of the lithographic processes in the rigid solar cells’ performance were evaluated via X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and through a Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator. The device on stainless-steel showed a slightly lower performance than the rigid approach, due to additional challenges of processing steel substrates, even though scanning transmission electron microscopy did not show clear evidence of impurity diffusion. Notwithstanding, time-resolved photoluminescence results strongly suggested elemental diffusion from the flexible substrate. Nevertheless, bending tests on the stainless-steel device demonstrated the mechanical stability of the CIGS-based device.
Summary
Background
Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is the most common autoimmune bullous disease. Whether there is an increased risk for subsequent BP among patients with cancer is still unclear.
Objectives
...To evaluate the risk for subsequent BP in patients with cancer.
Methods
This nationwide population‐based cohort study was based on data obtained from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database between 2000 and 2011. A total of 36 838 patients with cancer and 147 352 age‐, sex‐ and index‐date‐matched controls were recruited. The hazard ratio (HR) of subsequent BP in the patients with cancer was analysed using a Fine–Gray competing risk regression model with mortality as the competing event.
Results
The incidence of BP per 100 000 person‐years was 17·2 in the patients with cancer and 19·8 in the controls; therefore, the crude incidence rate ratio was 0·87 95% confidence interval (CI) 0·53–1·36. The HR of subsequent BP in the patients with cancer was 0·47 (95% CI 0·23–0·94) using the Fine‐Gray competing risk regression model. Age (HR 1·05, 95% CI 1·03–1·07), diabetes mellitus (HR 1·69, 95% CI 1·10–2·59) and cerebrovascular disease (HR 2·14, 95% CI 1·36–3·34) were independent risk factors for BP.
Conclusions
The incidence of BP in patients with cancer was not higher than in the control group. Cancer is not a risk factor for BP.
What's already known about this topic?
Patients with cerebrovascular or neurological diseases (e.g. dementia, Parkinson disease) have a higher risk of bullous pemphigoid (BP) development.
Whether cancer is a risk factor for BP remains controversial.
What does this study add?
In this population‐based study, there was no increased risk for BP in patients with cancer.
Age, diabetes mellitus and cerebrovascular disease were independent risk factors for BP.
Respond to this article
Linked Comment: Hammers and König. Br J Dermatol 2019; 180:451–452.
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