Narrow‐bandgap n‐type polymers with high electron mobility are urgently demanded for the development of all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs). Here, two regioregular narrow‐bandgap polymer acceptors, ...L15 and MBTI, with two electron‐deficient segments are synthesized by copolymerizing two dibrominated fused‐ring electron acceptors (FREA) with distannylated aromatic imide, respectively. Taking full advantage of the FREA and the imide, both polymer acceptors show narrow bandgap and high electron mobility. Benefiting from the more extended absorption, better backbone ordering, and higher electron mobility than those of its regiorandom analog, the L15‐based all‐PSC yields a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.2% when blended with the polymer donor PM6. More importantly, MBTI incorporating a benzothiophene‐core FREA segment shows relatively higher frontier molecular orbital levels than L15, forming a cascade‐like energy level alignment with L15 and PM6. Based on this, ternary all‐PSCs are designed where MBTI is introduced as a guest into the PM6:L15 host system. Thanks to further optimal blend morphology and more balanced charge transport, the PCE is improved up to 16.2%, which is among the highest values for all‐PSCs. The results demonstrate that combining an FREA and an aromatic imide to construct regioregular narrow‐bandgap polymer acceptors provides an effective approach to fabricate highly efficient all‐PSCs.
A regioregular narrow‐bandgap n‐type polymer, L15, is synthesized, showing higher electron mobility and larger absorption coefficient compared to its random analog. When applied as an electron acceptor in all‐polymer solar cells (all‐PSCs), L15 yields outstanding efficiencies of 15.2% and 16.2% in binary and ternary all‐PSCs, respectively.
Background
With improved short-term surgical outcomes, laparoscopic distal gastrectomy has rapidly gained popularity. However, the safety and feasibility of laparoscopic total gastrectomy (LTG) has ...not yet been proven due to the difficulty of the technique. This single-arm prospective multi-center study was conducted to evaluate the use of LTG for clinical stage I gastric cancer.
Methods
Between October 2012 and January 2014, 170 patients with pathologically proven, clinical stage I gastric adenocarcinoma located at the proximal stomach were enrolled. Twenty-two experienced surgeons from 19 institutions participated in this clinical trial. The primary end point was the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality at postoperative 30 days. The severity of postoperative complications was categorized according to Clavien–Dindo classification, and the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality was compared with that in a historical control.
Results
Of the enrolled patients, 160 met criteria for inclusion in the full analysis set. Postoperative morbidity and mortality rates reached 20.6% (33/160) and 0.6% (1/160), respectively. Fifteen patients (9.4%) had grade III or higher complications, and three reoperations (1.9%) were performed. The incidence of morbidity after LTG in this trial did not significantly differ from that reported in a previous study for open total gastrectomy (18%).
Conclusions
LTG performed by experienced surgeons showed acceptable postoperative morbidity and mortality for patients with clinical stage I gastric cancer.
Intra Coding of the HEVC Standard Lainema, J.; Bossen, F.; Woo-Jin Han ...
IEEE transactions on circuits and systems for video technology,
12/2012, Letnik:
22, Številka:
12
Journal Article
Recenzirano
This paper provides an overview of the intra coding techniques in the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard being developed by the Joint Collaborative Team on Video Coding (JCT-VC). The intra ...coding framework of HEVC follows that of traditional hybrid codecs and is built on spatial sample prediction followed by transform coding and postprocessing steps. Novel features contributing to the increased compression efficiency include a quadtree-based variable block size coding structure, block-size agnostic angular and planar prediction, adaptive pre- and postfiltering, and prediction direction-based transform coefficient scanning. This paper discusses the design principles applied during the development of the new intra coding methods and analyzes the compression performance of the individual tools. Computational complexity of the introduced intra prediction algorithms is analyzed both by deriving operational cycle counts and benchmarking an optimized implementation. Using objective metrics, the bitrate reduction provided by the HEVC intra coding over the H.264/advanced video coding reference is reported to be 22% on average and up to 36%. Significant subjective picture quality improvements are also reported when comparing the resulting pictures at fixed bitrate.
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is currently being prepared as the newest video coding standard of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group and the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group. The main goal ...of the HEVC standardization effort is to enable significantly improved compression performance relative to existing standards-in the range of 50% bit-rate reduction for equal perceptual video quality. This paper provides an overview of the technical features and characteristics of the HEVC standard.
Spiking neural network has attracted much attention due to its efficient learning and recognition capability. Herein, a leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) neuron is implemented using conventional silicon ...fabrication on 4F2 footprint. A vertical n-p-n back-to-back diode with floating p-base region, referred as biristor, functions as the LIF neuron. A static current drive results in closed loop feedback in the biristor, exhibiting output voltage oscillation due to periodic charging and discharging in the floating p-base. The LIF rate linearly increases with the drive current. A spiking frequency of up to a few kHz is verified.
Adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery improves survival of patients with stage II–III, resectable gastric cancer. However, the overall survival benefit observed after adjuvant chemotherapy is moderate, ...suggesting that not all patients with resectable gastric cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy benefit from it. We aimed to develop and validate a predictive test for adjuvant chemotherapy response in patients with resectable, stage II–III gastric cancer.
In this multi-cohort, retrospective study, we developed through a multi-step strategy a predictive test consisting of two rule-based classifier algorithms with predictive value for adjuvant chemotherapy response and prognosis. Exploratory bioinformatics analyses identified biologically relevant candidate genes in gastric cancer transcriptome datasets. In the discovery analysis, a four-gene, real-time RT-PCR assay was developed and analytically validated in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumour tissues from an internal cohort of 307 patients with stage II–III gastric cancer treated at the Yonsei Cancer Center with D2 gastrectomy plus adjuvant fluorouracil-based chemotherapy (n=193) or surgery alone (n=114). The same internal cohort was used to evaluate the prognostic and chemotherapy response predictive value of the single patient classifier genes using associations with 5-year overall survival. The results were validated with a subset (n=625) of FFPE tumour samples from an independent cohort of patients treated in the CLASSIC trial (NCT00411229), who received D2 gastrectomy plus capecitabine and oxaliplatin chemotherapy (n=323) or surgery alone (n=302). The primary endpoint was 5-year overall survival.
We identified four classifier genes related to relevant gastric cancer features (GZMB, WARS, SFRP4, and CDX1) that formed the single patient classifier assay. In the validation cohort, the prognostic single patient classifier (based on the expression of GZMB, WARS, and SFRP4) identified 79 (13%) of 625 patients as low risk, 296 (47%) as intermediate risk, and 250 (40%) as high risk, and 5-year overall survival for these groups was 83·2% (95% CI 75·2–92·0), 74·8% (69·9–80·1), and 66·0% (60·1–72·4), respectively (p=0·012). The predictive single patient classifier (based on the expression of GZMB, WARS, and CDX1) assigned 281 (45%) of 625 patients in the validation cohort to the chemotherapy-benefit group and 344 (55%) to the no-benefit group. In the predicted chemotherapy-benefit group, 5-year overall survival was significantly improved in those patients who had received adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery compared with those who received surgery only (80% 95% CI 73·5–87·1 vs 64·5% 56·8–73·3; univariate hazard ratio 0·47 95% CI 0·30–0·75, p=0·0015), whereas no such improvement in 5-year overall survival was observed in the no-benefit group (72·9% 66·5–79·9 in patients who received chemotherapy plus surgery vs 72·5% 65·8–79·9 in patients who only had surgery; 0·93 0·62–1·38, p=0·71). The predictive single patient classifier groups (chemotherapy benefit vs no-benefit) could predict adjuvant chemotherapy benefit in terms of 5-year overall survival in the validation cohort (pinteraction=0·036 in univariate analysis). Similar results were obtained in the internal evaluation cohort.
The single patient classifiers validated in this study provide clinically important prognostic information independent of standard risk-stratification methods and predicted chemotherapy response after surgery in two independent cohorts of patients with resectable, stage II–III gastric cancer. The single patient classifiers could complement TNM staging to optimise decision making in patients with resectable gastric cancer who are eligible for adjuvant chemotherapy after surgery. Further validation of these results in prospective studies is warranted.
Ministry of ICT and Future Planning; Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy; and Ministry of Health and Welfare.
This paper proposes an online identification method that can accurately estimate the stator resistance and dq-axis stator inductances for the effective model-based sensorless control of interior ...permanent magnet synchronous motors (IPMSMs). The proposed affine projection algorithms are uniquely designed in the estimated rotating γ-δ frame to precisely identify the parameters mentioned above. The two time-scale approaches are employed in the affine projection algorithms to estimate the three electrical parameters. Despite the electrical parameter variations due to the temperature change and magnetic saturation during operation, the rich enough data are provided to the affine projection algorithms in the discrete-time domain to accurately retrieve the updated parameters. These correctly estimated parameters are adapted to the extended back electromotive force observer for the sensorless control of IPMSM drives. Hence, the adaptation of online updated parameters makes the observer stable and robust to parameter variations as compared to the conventional observer without updated parameters. The MATLAB/Simulink-based simulation results and experimental results via a prototype IPMSM test-bed having TMS320F28335 DSP are given to verify the accurate convergence of the estimated parameters, which results into a stable sensorless control system under various operating conditions.
Among the main bacteria implicated in the pathology of periodontal disease, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) is well known for causing loss of periodontal attachment and systemic disease. ...Recent studies have suggested that secreted extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) from several bacteria may be important in periodontitis, although their role is unclear. Emerging evidence indicates that exRNAs circulate in nanosized bilayered and membranous extracellular vesicles (EVs) known as outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) in gram‐negative bacteria. In this study, we analyzed the small RNA expression profiles in activated human macrophage‐like cells (U937) infected with OMVs from Aa and investigated whether these cells can harbor exRNAs of bacterial origin that have been loaded into the host RNA‐induced silencing complex, thus regulating host target transcripts. Our results provide evidence for the cytoplasmic delivery and activity of microbial EV‐derived small exRNAs in host gene regulation. The production of TNF‐α was promoted by exRNAs via the TLR‐8 and NF‐κB signaling pathways. Numerous studies have linked periodontal disease to neuroinflammatory diseases but without elucidating specific mechanisms for the connection. We show here that intracardiac injection of Aa OMVs in mice showed successful delivery to the brain after crossing the blood‐brain barrier, the exRNA cargos increasing expression of TNF‐α in the mouse brain. The current study indicates that host gene regulation by microRNAs originating from OMVs of the periodontal pathogen Aa is a novel mechanism for host gene regulation and that the transfer of OMV exRNAs to the brain may cause neuroinflammatory diseases like Alzheimer's.—Han, E.‐C., Choi, S.‐Y., Lee, Y., Park, J.‐W., Hong S.‐H., Lee, H.‐J. Extracellular RNAs in periodontopathogenic outer membrane vesicles promote TNF‐α production in human macrophages and cross the blood‐brain barrier in mice. FASEB J. 33, 13412–13422 (2019). www.fasebj.org
Experimental demonstration of resistive neural networks has been the recent focus of hardware implementation of neuromorphic computing. Capacitive neural networks, which call for novel building ...blocks, provide an alternative physical embodiment of neural networks featuring a lower static power and a better emulation of neural functionalities. Here, we develop neuro-transistors by integrating dynamic pseudo-memcapacitors as the gates of transistors to produce electronic analogs of the soma and axon of a neuron, with "leaky integrate-and-fire" dynamics augmented by a signal gain on the output. Paired with non-volatile pseudo-memcapacitive synapses, a Hebbian-like learning mechanism is implemented in a capacitive switching network, leading to the observed associative learning. A prototypical fully integrated capacitive neural network is built and used to classify inputs of signals.
n‐Type organic mixed ionic–electronic conductors (OMIECs) with high electron mobility are scarce and highly challenging to develop. As a result, the figure‐of‐merit (µC*) of n‐type organic ...electrochemical transistors (OECTs) lags far behind the p‐type analogs, restraining the development of OECT‐based low‐power complementary circuits and biosensors. Here, two n‐type donor–acceptor (D–A) polymers based on fused bithiophene imide dimer f‐BTI2 as the acceptor unit and thienylene–vinylene–thienylene (TVT) as the donor co‐unit are reported. The cyanation of TVT enables polymer f‐BTI2g‐TVTCN with simultaneously enhanced ion‐uptake ability, film structural order, and charge‐transport property. As a result, it is able to obtain a high volumetric capacitance (C*) of 170 ± 22 F cm−3 and a record OECT electron mobility (μe,OECT) of 0.24 cm2 V−1 s−1 for f‐BTI2g‐TVTCN, subsequently achieving a state‐of‐the‐art µC* of 41.3 F cm−1 V−1 s−1 and geometry‐normalized transconductance (gm,norm) of 12.8 S cm−1 in n‐type accumulation‐mode OECTs. In contrast, only a moderate µC* of 1.50 F cm−1 V−1 s−1 is measured for the non‐cyanated polymer f‐BTI2g‐TVT. These remarkable results demonstrate the great power of cyano functionalization of polymer semiconductors in developing n‐type OMIECs with substantial electron mobility in aqueous environment for high‐performance n‐type OECTs.
Cyano functionalization of thienylene–vinylene–thienylene donor unit in n‐type polymer f‐BTI2g‐TVTCN leads to simultaneously enhanced ion‐uptake ability, film structural order, and charge‐transport property compared to its non‐cyanated analogue, subsequently enabling a record‐high μe,OECT of 0.24 cm2 V−1 s−1 and µC* of 41.3 F cm−1 V−1 s−1 in n‐type OECTs.
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