In this study, an abnormal two-stage degradation of low-temperature polycrystalline-silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistors (TFTs) on a polyimide flexible substrate after hot carrier stress was ...investigated. The degradation mechanism was divided into two stages. In the first stage, the increases in capacitance in the off region and transconductance are caused by impact ionization induced electron trapping into the gate insulator (GI) at the drain edge. Furthermore, the threshold voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text{V}_{\text {th}} </tex-math></inline-formula>) shift in the positive direction is caused by electrons flowing back to the source side and trapping into the buffer that induces source barrier lowing. The second stage of degradation, including a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text{V}_{\text {th}} </tex-math></inline-formula> shift in the negative direction and a decrease in the transconductance is caused by Joule heating induced negative bias temperature instability (NBTI). Furthermore, NBTI hardly occurs behind the pinch off in the channel and fixed oxide charge does not compensate the trapped electron at drain side which is induced in the first stage.
The Mi-2/nucleosome remodeling and deacetylase (NuRD) complex play a role in silencing gene expression. CHD4, the core component of the NuRD complex, which cooperates with histone deacetylase in ...reducing tumor suppressor genes (TSGs). To dissect the mechanisms underlying cancer promotion, we clarify the role of CHD4 in cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor protein p21. Here, our data indicates that CHD4 deficiency impairs the recruitments of HDAC1 to the p21 promoter. ~ 300bp proximal promoter region is responsible for CHD4-HDAC1 axis-mediated p21 transcriptional activity. For identifying the role of anti-cancer drug response, knockdown of p21 overcomes cisplatin and poly-(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor-mediated growth suppression in CHD4-depleted cells. Consistent with in vitro data, tissue of patients and bioinformatics approach also showed positive correlation between CHD4 and p21. Overall, our findings not only identify that CHD4 deficiency preferentially impairs cell survival via increasing the level of p21, but also establishes targeting CHD4 as a potential therapeutic implication in BRCA-proficient breast cancer treatment.
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•An epigenetic mechanism for p21WAF1 is proposed in breast cancer.•The mechanism relies on the CHD4-HDAC1 axis in controlling p21 transcripts.•CHD4 deficiency sensitizes cells to cisplatin and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor in reducing cell survival.•Targeting CHD4 should provide a strategy in the development of anti-cancer agents in BRCA-proficient breast cancer.
A null-space free method with the FFT-based matrix–vector multiplications was proposed to solve the Maxwell equations that model the three-dimensional photonic crystals. The most time-consuming parts ...of this method were the FFT-based matrix–vector multiplications. In this article, we propose new mathematical formulas to compute the FFT-based matrix–vector multiplications and derive highly efficient algorithms on top of the NVIDIA GPU architecture. The resulting algorithms are approximately two- to threefold faster than the previous algorithms. We have successfully used a single NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPU to solve a set of generalized eigenvalue problems of 5,184,000 dimensions in 17 to 22 seconds for each problem. Furthermore, we ported the codes to a GPU cluster and achieved near linear scalability. To our knowledge, these GPU implementations of the proposed algorithms are the fastest implementations. The schemes can be applied to simulate a three-dimensional photonic crystal with all 14 Bravais lattices. These highly efficient schemes and codes raise possibilities for large-scale and near real-time numerical simulations for novel physical discoveries and engineering applications of photonic crystals.
This work studies the effect of the location of the light shielding (LS) layer on negative bias illumination stress (NBIS) instability in self-aligned top-gate amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide ...thin-film transistors (SA-TG a-InGaZnO TFTs). Although the NBIS instability can be mitigated by introducing a fully covered LS layer, it causes an unwanted parasitic capacitance, as evidenced by capacitance-voltage (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{C} </tex-math></inline-formula>-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">{V} </tex-math></inline-formula>) measurements. An alternative solution, in which the device that is partially covered by the LS layer at the source side, is proposed to optimize the tradeoff. This study suggests that an LS layer could be adopted in the SA-TG configuration, as it is versatile in different structural designs, depending on the requirement of targeted applications.
A solid-state semiconductor battery with the n-type WO3/silica-coated TiO2 core–shell nanoparticles/p-type NiO laminated structure for the rechargeable device has been developed. The electricity ...storage layer comprises poly-acrylonitrile mixed with core–shell nanoparticles containing n-type TiO2 particles coated with an insulating SiO2 shell. The average diameter size of nanoparticles was determined from 20 to 50 nm by a high-resolution transmission electron microscope and the relative atomic weight percentage of the Si on the coated TiO2 nanoparticles had been qualitatively determined by the energy dispersive spectrometer. The silica-coated TiO2 nanoparticles in the composite were assigned to the mixed phases of Anatase and Rutile by XRD analysis. Furthermore, photoluminescence analysis has verified the energy levels present in the bandgap of the silica-coated TiO2 core–shell nanoparticles. The device exhibits a constant-current discharge capacity of 0.16 mA h at a discharge voltage of 2.46 V. The energy density of the charging layer has been estimated to 12.3 Wh/kg. Finally, a mechanism of the solid-state semiconductor battery has also been proposed.
In this study, an advanced supercritical fluid (SCF) technique that is suitable for materials and electronic devices with low temperature (80 °C) and high pressure (4000 psi) is proposed for a ...ZnO-based resistive random access memory (RRAM). After an SCF treatment, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirms that the concentration of oxygen ions increases in the zinc oxide thin film. Moreover, electrical measurements confirm that the treated ZnO-based random access memory exhibits a lower forming voltage, lower set voltage, and higher ratio of high and low resistance states compared with a device without treatment. Next, the carrier transport mechanism is investigated by fitting the current-voltage curves. Finally, physical models are introduced to illustrate the extra oxygen ions that create better memory characteristics in the random access memory device after the SCF treatment. This significant SCF technique increases the content of oxygen ions without altering the original element ratio and maintains a simple device structure. Thus, the technique shows potential for feasible material improvement capable of effective real applications in the near future.
Endometriosis is a hormone-associated disease which has been considered as the precursor for certain types of ovarian cancer. In recent years, emerging evidence demonstrated potent roles of lncRNA in ...regulating cancer development. Since endometriosis shares several features with cancer, we investigated the possible involvement of cancer-related lncRNAs in endometriosis, including UCA1, GAS5 and PTENP1. By using massARRAY system, we investigated certain genetic variations in cancer-related lncRNAs that can change the thermo-stability, leading to up-regulation or down-regulation of those lncRNAs. Our data indicated three risk genetic haplotypes in UCA1 which can stabilize the RNA structure and increase the susceptibility of endometriosis. Of note, such alterations were found to be associated with long-term pain and infertility in patients. It has been known that UCA1 can function as a ceRNA to sponge and inhibit miRNAs, resulting in loss-of-control on downstream target genes. Gene network analyses revealed fatty acid metabolism and mitochondria beta-oxidation as the major pathways associated with altered UCA1 expression in endometriosis patients. Our study thus provides evidence to highlight functional/epigenetic roles of UCA1 in endometriosis development via regulating fatty acid metabolism in women.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Keratin intermediate filament (IF) is one component of cellular architectures, which provides necessary mechanical support to conquer environmental stresses. Recent findings reveal its involvement in ...mechano-transduction and the associated stem cell reprogramming, suggesting the possible roles in cancer development. Here, we report t(12;17)(q13.13;q21.2) chromosomal rearrangement as the most common fusion event in OSCC, resulting in a variety of inter-keratin fusions. Junction site mapping verified 9 in-frame K6-K14 variants, three of which were correlated with lymph node invasion, late tumor stages (T3/T4) and shorter disease-free survival times. When expressed in OSCC cells, those fusion variants disturbed wild-type K14 organization through direct interaction or aggregate formation, leading to perinuclear structure loss and nuclear deformation. Protein array analyses showed the ability of K6-K14 variant 7 (K6-K14/V7) to upregulate TGF-β and G-CSF signaling, which contributed to cell stemness, drug tolerance, and cell aggressiveness. Notably, K6-K14/V7-expressing cells easily adapted to a soft 3-D culture condition in vitro and formed larger, less differentiated tumors in vivo. In addition to the anti-mechanical-stress activity, our data uncover oncogenic functionality of novel keratin filaments caused by gene fusions during OSCC development.
Chibby is an antagonist of β-catenin and is considered a potential tumor suppressor protein, but the role of Chibby in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been characterized. The expression ...patterns of Chibby and β-catenin in HCC specimens and paired adjacent noncancerous tissues were measured by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. The correlations between Chibby expression and clinicopathological parameters were analyzed. Then the biological functions of Chibby were analyzed in vitro. The Chibby protein was significantly downexpressed in human primary HCC tissues compared to that in matched adjacent normal liver tissue and is a risk factor for HCC recurrence and shorter survival. Furthermore, we found that in HCC tissues the high expression of β-catenin with low expression of Chibby in the nuclei was an independent predictor for disease-free survival (DFS) (
= 0.012) and overall survival (OS) (
= 0.005). Subsequent genetic manipulation in vitro studies revealed that Chibby knockdown induced the expression of β-catenin and C-myc, cyclin D1 protein, which promoted cell proliferation and invasiveness. In contrast, overexpression of Chibby decreased β-catenin expression and inhibited the cell proliferation and invasiveness. Our results suggest that low expression of Chibby was associated with advanced tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and poor differentiation. Furthermore, the combination of Chibby and β-catenin can predict poor prognosis in patients with HCC. Chibby inhibited HCC progression by blocking β-catenin signaling in vitro. Chibby is a biomarker and may be a potential therapeutic target for HCC.
Cardiovascular physiological responses involving hypoxemia in low temperature environments at high altitude have yet to be adequately investigated. This study aims to demonstrate the health effects ...of hypoxemia and temperature changes in cardiovascular functions (CVFs) by comparing intra-individual differences as participants ascend from low (298 m, 21.9 °C) to high altitude (2729 m, 9.5 °C). CVFs were assessed by measuring the arterial pressure waveform according to cuff sphygmomanometer of an oscillometric blood pressure (BP) device. The mean ages of participants in winter and summer were 43.6 and 41.2 years, respectively. The intra-individual brachial systolic, diastolic BP, heart rate, and cardiac output of participants significantly increased, as participants climbed uphill from low to high altitude forest. Following the altitude increase from 298 m to 2729 m, with the atmosphere gradually reducing by 0.24 atm, the measured average SpO2 of participants showed a significant reduction from 98.1% to 81.2%. Using mixed effects model, it is evident that in winter, the differences in altitude affects CVFs by significantly increases the systolic BP, heart rate, left ventricular dP/dt max and cardiac output. This study provides evidence that cardiovascular workload increased significantly among acute high-altitude travelers as they ascend from low to high altitude, particularly in winter.
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