This brief presents an 8-GHz Octa-phase Error Corrector (OEC) employing a digital delay-locked loop (DLL) with a coprime phase comparison scheme. To alleviate timing constraint during the phase ...comparison, clock phases spaced in coprime to 8 is utilized, enabling up to a 64-Gb/s link operation. In particular, this brief applies 3T/8 spaced clock rather than T/8. In addition, by employing a clock-divided 5-bit selection scheme, a high-speed 8:2 multiplexer (MUX) operates seamlessly without glitches. To minimize a mismatch and calibration -induced jitter, a single shared phase comparator and a finite-state machine (FSM) for tracking the minimum total delay are employed. The test chip has been fabricated in the 40-nm CMOS technology in an active area of 0.0814 mm 2 . The core phase calibration loop consumes 10.8 mW at 8 GHz at a 0.9-V supply achieving a maximum residue phase error of 0.95 ps.
14
C is one of the most important radioactive isotopes in the nuclear industry. Laser spectroscopy is being considered as a convenient and rapid method for
14
CO
2
analysis. Here, we demonstrate ...off-axis integrated cavity output spectroscopy (OA-ICOS) for monitoring
14
CO
2
. The experiment is performed at the
14
CO
2
absorption line at 2203.657 cm
−1
in the mid-infrared region to obtain sufficient sensitivity. In the experiment, a resonator that consists of two mirrors with a reflectance of 99.6% is used. The linearity of OA-ICOS is investigated using CO
2
isotopologues’ signals. By applying the moving averaging filter, the interference noise is reduced, and the signal to noise ratio is improved by over 2.5 times.
Head and neck dermatitis (HND) is a refractory phenotype of atopic dermatitis (AD) and can be a therapeutic challenge due to lack of responsiveness to conventional treatments. Previous studies have ...suggested that the microbiome and fungiome may play a role in inducing HND, but the underlying pathogenic mechanisms remain unknown. This study aimed to determine the link between HND and fungiome and to examine the contribution of
.
To identify the effect of the sensitization status of
on HND, 312 patients diagnosed with AD were enrolled. To elucidate the mechanism underlying the effects of
, human keratinocytes and dermal endothelial cells were cultured with
and treated with Th2 cytokines. The downstream effects of various cytokines, including inflammation and angiogenesis, were investigated by real-time quantitative PCR. To identify the association between changes in lipid composition and
sensitization status, D-squame tape stripping was performed. Lipid composition was evaluated by focusing on ceramide species using liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry.
Increased sensitization to
was observed in patients with HND. Additionally, sensitization to
was associated with increased disease severity in these patients. IL-4 treated human keratinocytes cultured with
produced significantly more VEGF, VEGFR, IL-31, and IL-33. IL-4/
co-cultured dermal endothelial cells exhibited significantly elevated VEGFR, TGF-β, TNF-α, and IL-1β levels. Stratum corneum lipid analysis revealed decreased levels of esterified omega-hydroxyacyl-sphingosine, indicating skin barrier dysfunction in HND. Finally,
growth was inhibited by the addition of these ceramides to culture media, while the growth of other microbiota, including
, were not inhibited.
Under decreased levels of ceramide in AD patients with HND,
would proliferate, which may enhance pro-inflammatory cytokine levels, angiogenesis, and tissue remodeling. Thus, it plays a central role in the pathogenesis of HND in AD.
Chronic inflammation is fundamental for the induction of insulin resistance in the muscle tissue of vertebrates. Although several miRNAs are thought to be involved in the development of insulin ...resistance, the role of miRNAs in the association between inflammation and insulin resistance in muscle tissue is poorly understood. Herein, we investigated the aberrant expression of miRNAs by conducting miRNA microarray analysis of TNF-α-treated mouse C2C12 myotubes. We identified two miRNAs that were upregulated and six that were downregulated by a >1.5-fold change compared to normal cells. Among the findings, qRT-PCR analysis confirmed that miR-494 is consistently upregulated by TNF-α-induced inflammation. Overexpression of miR-494 in CHO(IR/IRS1) and C2C12 myoblasts suppressed insulin action by down-regulating phosphorylations of GSK-3α/β, AS160 and p70S6K, downstream of Akt. Moreover, overexpression of miR-494 did not regulate TNF-α-mediated inflammation . Among genes bearing the seed site for miR-494, RT-PCR analysis showed that the expression of Stxbp5, an inhibitor of glucose transport, was downregulated following miR-494 inhibition. In contrast, the expression of PTEN decreased in the cells analyzed, thus showing that both positive and negative regulators of insulin action may be simultaneously controlled by miR-494. To investigate the overall effect of miR-494 on insulin signaling, we performed a PCR array analysis containing 84 genes related to the insulin signaling pathway, and we observed that 25% of genes were downregulated (P<0.05) and 11% were upregulated (P<0.05). These results confirm that miR-494 might contribute to insulin sensitivity by positive and negative regulation of the expression of diverse genes. Of note, PCR array data showed downregulation of Slc2A4, a coding gene for Glut4. Altogether, the present study concludes that the upregulation of miR-494 expression by TNF-α-mediated inflammation exacerbates insulin resistance. Therefore, we suggest that miR-494 could prove an important target for the diagnosis and therapy of inflammation-mediated insulin resistance in muscle.
This study examined the effect of tuition fee control policy on universities’ financial management. Using data from 93 private universities in Korea from 2006 to 2015, we investigated the effect of ...tuition fees and government subsidies on labor cost, operating expenses, research expenses, and so on. Based on principal and agency theory, we used the analysis of average percentage change in expenditure and panel data analysis with the help of a Least Squares Dummy Variable (LSDV) model and polynomial regression. The results show that the increase rate of tuition fees decreased after 2011, with government subsidies increasing. The LSDV analysis indicates that universities increase labor costs, operating expenses, and student support fees, while there are no differences in research expenses, laboratory fees, and expenditures from investments and other assets. Polynomial regression reveals that, based on resources, universities behave differently in their spending. With these results, this study suggests a method to lessen information asymmetry and goal conflict, such as a performance-based research system and an incentive-based budget system in universities.
Purpose: This study aims to explore the distribution of work-life integration against COVID-19 and its Implications by analyzing remote work in Switzerland. Research design, data and methodology: The ...study performed literature review and descriptive analyses using various data such as perception surveys, statistics, and related documents. Results: The infectious disease was a turning point for many people in Switzerland by changing where and how people want to live. Since the COVID-19 crisis demonstrated that disease could be spread by proximity, negative perception about urban areas expanded, and rural areas are increasingly preferred due to fresh and clean air and a more ecological lifestyle. In addition, increased remote work, a change brought about by COVID-19, has subsequently led to changes in household habits and needs. Distance from work is no longer an important factor when someone chooses where to live. A trend is now emerging where households wanting to improve the quality of life leave the city center and move to the suburbs. Conclusions: Paradoxically, such trend accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis has an unintendedly positive impact on the distribution of work-life integration across society while providing more flexibility in terms of place and time management and lowering the burden on roads and infrastructure.
Hydrogels, hydrophilic and biocompatible polymeric networks, have been used for numerous biomedical applications because they have exhibited abilities to mimic features of extracellular matrix (ECM). ...In particular, the hydrogels engineered with electrospinning techniques have shown great performances in biomedical applications. Electrospinning techniques are to generate polymeric micro/nanofibers that can mimic geometries of natural ECM by drawing micro/nanofibers from polymer precursors with electrical forces, followed by structural stabilization of them. By exploiting the electrospinning techniques, the fibrous hydrogels have been fabricated and utilized as 2D/3D cell culture platforms, implantable scaffolds, and wound dressings. In addition, some hydrogels that respond to external stimuli have been used to develop biosensors. For comprehensive understanding, this review covers electrospinning processes, hydrogel precursors used for electrospinning, characteristics of fibrous hydrogels and specific biomedical applications of electrospun fibrous hydrogels and highlight their potential to promote use in biomedical applications.
A simple ice-templated self-assembly process is used to prepare a three-dimensional (3D) and vertically porous nanocomposite of layered vanadium phosphates (VOPO4) and graphene nanosheets with high ...surface area and high electrical conductivity. The resulting 3D VOPO4-graphene nanocomposite has a much higher capacitance of 527.9 F g(-1) at a current density of 0.5 A g(-1), compared with ~247 F g(-1) of simple 3D VOPO4, with solid cycling stability. The enhanced pseudocapacitive behavior mainly originates from vertically porous structures from directionally grown ice crystals and simultaneously inducing radial segregation and forming inter-stacked structures of VOPO4-graphene nanosheets. This VOPO4-graphene nanocomposite electrode exhibits high surface area, vertically porous structure to the separator, structural stability from interstacked structure and high electrical conductivity, which would provide the short diffusion paths of electrolyte ions and fast transportation of charges within the conductive frameworks. In addition, an asymmetric supercapacitor (ASC) is fabricated by using vertically porous VOPO4-graphene as the positive electrode and vertically porous 3D graphene as the negative electrode; it exhibits a wide cell voltage of 1.6 V and a largely enhanced energy density of 108 Wh kg(-1).
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