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Through-silicon via (TSV) has been used for 3-dimentional integrated circuits. Mechanical stresses in Cu and Si around the TSV were measured using synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction. ...The hydrostatic stress in Cu TSV went from high tensile of 234MPa in the as-fabricated state, to −196MPa (compressive) during thermal annealing (in situ measurement), to 167MPa in the post-annealed state. Due to this stress, the keep-away distance in Si was determined to be about 17μm. Our results suggest that Cu stress may lead to reliability as well as integration issues, while Si stress may lead to device performance concerns.
The new era of nanotechnology has produced advanced nanomaterials applicable to various fields of medicine, including diagnostic bio-imaging, chemotherapy, targeted drug delivery, and biosensors. ...Various materials are formed into nanoparticles, such as gold nanomaterials, carbon quantum dots, and liposomes. The nanomaterials have been functionalized and widely used because they are biocompatible and easy to design and prepare. This review mainly focuses on nanomaterials responsive to the external stimuli used in drug-delivery systems. To overcome the drawbacks of conventional therapeutics to a tumor, the dual- and multi-responsive behaviors of nanoparticles have been harnessed to improve efficiency from a drug delivery point of view. Issues and future research related to these nanomaterial-based stimuli sensitivities and the scope of stimuli-responsive systems for nanomedicine applications are discussed.
In this review, we describe dielectric properties of biological tissues and liquids in the context of terahertz (THz) biophotonics. We discuss a model of the THz dielectric permittivity of water and ...water-containing media, which yields analysis of the relaxation and damped resonant molecules modes. We briefly describe modern techniques of THz spectroscopy and imaging employed in biophotonics with a strong emphasize on a THz time-domain spectroscopy. Furthermore, we consider the methods of sub-wavelength resolution THz imaging and the problem of THz wave delivery to hard to access tissues and internal organs. We consider the THz dielectric properties of biological solutions and liquids. Although strong absorption by water molecules prevents THz-waves from penetration of hydrated tissues and probing biological molecules in aqueous solutions, we discuss approaches for overcoming these drawbacks – novel techniques of freezing and temporal dehydration by application of hyperosmotic agents which have a potential for cancer detection. We review recent applications of THz technology in diagnosis of malignancies and aiding histology paying particular attention to the origin of contrast observed between healthy and pathological tissues. We consider recent applications of THz reflectometry in sensing the thinning dynamics of human pre-corneal tear film. Modern modalities of THz imaging, which relies on the concepts of multi-spectral and multi-temporal domains and employing the principles of color vision, phase analysis and tomography are discussed. Novel methods of THz spectra analysis based on machine learning, pattern recognition, chemical imaging and the revealing of the spatial distribution of various substances in a tissue, are analyzed. Advanced thermal model describing biological object irradiated by THz waves and phantoms mimicking the optical properties of tissues at THz frequencies are presented. Finally, application of the high-resolution THz spectroscopy in analytic chemistry, biology and medicine are described.
Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic cancer in the United States, and its incidence is rising. Although there have been significant recent advances in our understanding of endometrial ...cancer biology, many aspects of treatment remain mired in controversy, including the role of surgical lymph node assessment and the selection of patients for adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy. For the subset of women with microsatellite‐instable, metastatic disease, anti– programmed cell death protein 1 immunotherapy (pembrolizumab) is now approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and numerous trials are attempting to build on this early success.
Low-dose organochlorine (OC) pesticides have recently been associated with type 2 diabetes in several non-Asian general populations. As there is currently epidemic type 2 diabetes in Asia, we ...investigated the associations between OC pesticides and type 2 diabetes in Koreans. Among subjects who participated in a community-based health survey, we randomly selected 40 diabetic patients and 40 normal controls. Ten OC pesticides (beta-hexachlorocyclohexane, hexachlorobenzene, heptachlor epoxide, p,p′-DDE, p,p′-DDD, p,p′-DDT, o,p′-DDT, oxychlordane, trans-nonachlor, and mirex) detectable in ≥
70% of controls were analyzed in relation to diabetes. Most OC pesticides showed strong associations with type 2 diabetes after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, alcohol consumption, and cigarette smoking. Compared with subjects in the lowest tertile of each OC pesticide, adjusted odds ratios (ORs) in the 3rd tertile ranged from 3.1 (95% CI 0.8–12.1) for heptachlor epoxide to 26.0 (95% CI 1.3–517.4) for oxychlordane. In the case of chemicals belonging to the DDT family, adjusted ORs in the 3rd tertile were in the range of 10.6 (95% CI 1.3–84.9) for p,p′-DDT to 12.7 (95% CI 1.9–83.7) for p,p′-DDE. In this exploratory study with small sample, low-dose background exposure to OC pesticides was strongly associated with prevalent type 2 diabetes in Koreans even though absolute concentrations of OC pesticides were no higher than in other populations. Asians may be more susceptible to adverse effects of OC pesticides than other races.
A novel concept for integrating visible light communications (VLC) with three‐dimensional indoor positioning is presented. A VLC link based on transmitter and receiver characteristics using ...experimental measurements was modelled. Proposed is a three‐dimensional positioning algorithm using received signal strength indication, which changes based on the angle and distance of the location based service. To reduce inter‐cell interference, the transmitter's location code was sent using different subcarriers. A demonstration shows that the proposed algorithm can obtain a user's position, including height, accurately and without inter‐cell interference.
Aims
Salivary amylase gene (AMY1) copy number variations (CNVs) correlate directly with salivary amylase activity and serum amylase levels. Previously, individuals with high AMY1 CNVs exhibited low ...postprandial glucose levels and postprandial early insulin surge, suggesting that high AMY1 gene copy numbers may play a role in lowering the risk of insulin resistance.
Methods
We verified the relationship between AMY1 CNVs and homeostatic model assessment–insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) in a cohort of 1257 Korean men aged 20–65 years who visited two medical centres for regular health check‐ups, and in subgroups of current smokers and regular alcohol drinkers. Individuals with fasting plasma glucose levels > 10.0 mmol/l, HbA1c ≥ 64 mmol/mol (8.0%) or who used oral hypoglycaemic agents or insulin were excluded.
Results
AMY1 CNVs correlated negatively with HOMA‐IR even after adjusting for covariates (e.g. BMI, systolic blood pressure, triacylglycerol, alcohol consumption, smoking and physical activity). When the participants were divided according to current smoking and alcohol consumption habits, negative correlations between AMY1 CNVs and HOMA‐IR were more evident among non‐smokers and regular drinkers and were non‐significant among smokers and non‐regular drinkers.
Conclusions
Low AMY1 CNVs correlated with high insulin resistance in asymptomatic Korean men, and such a relationship presented differently according to the status of smoking and alcohol consumption.
What's new?
Our study is the first to show the direct relationship between AMY1 copy numbers and homeostatic model assessment–insulin resistance (HOMA‐IR) in healthy Korean men.
The negative correlation was consistent and significant in the subgroup of non‐smokers and regular alcohol drinkers, but not significant in the subgroup of smokers and non‐regular drinkers.
This provides an additional clue suggesting some kind of mechanism through which salivary amylase acts on insulin sensitivity, although its role has been somewhat underestimated so far.
•Features to predict a company’s bankruptcy have highly skewed distributions.•A Box–Cox transformation is a powerful technique to remove skewness of data.•Machine learning algorithms are more ...suitable for bankruptcy prediction than statistical models.•By combining feature’s importance, we can understand the model.
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Bankruptcy prediction problem has been intensively studied over the past decades. From traditional statistical models to state of the art machine learning models, various predictive models are developed and applied to various datasets. However, models that use machine learning are not used in the field of business, for two main reasons. First, the prediction accuracy does not far exceed the statistical models and second, the results are not interpretable. In this study, we focused on solving the skewness which is a characteristic of financial data. By solving this problem, we obtained 17% average improvement in AUC over existing models. To address the second shortcoming, we analyze the importance of features identified by the XGBoost model. The interpretation of the model differs among categories of data. Our bankruptcy prediction model has high predictive accuracy with clear explanations and is therefore directly applicable to the industry.
This Letter presents a novel H-shaped conducting wall structure that effectively suppresses the mutual coupling between two closely spaced microstrip antennas (MSAs). The wall consists of an H-shaped ...copper strip printed on a dielectric substrate, and a row of periodic vias through which the strip is connected to a ground plane. The wall is inserted between the MSAs and surrounds half the periphery of each antenna. Measurements of a prototype show that the high isolation of about 51 dB is achieved between two MSAs separated by the edge-to-edge distance of 0.052 λ0 at 5.2 GHz. The proposed structure greatly improves the isolation without causing any significant degradation of the antenna bandwidth, gain, or front-to-back ratio, unlike other isolation structures based on resonators or defected ground structures.
Summary
We evaluated the effect of pre‐operative serratus anterior plane block on postoperative pain and opioid consumption after thoracoscopic surgery. We randomly allocated 89 participants to block ...with 30 ml ropivacaine 0.375% (n = 44), or no block without placebo or sham procedure (n = 45). We analysed results from 42 participants in each group. Serratus anterior plane block reduced mean (SD) remifentanil dose during surgery, 0.12 (0.06) mg.h−1 vs. 0.16 (0.06) mg.h−1, p = 0.016, and reduced mean (SD) fentanyl consumption in the first 24 postoperative hours, 3.8 (1.9) μg.kg−1 vs. 5.7 (1.6) μg.kg−1, p = 0.000004. Block also reduced the worst median (IQR range) pain scores reported in the first 24 postoperative hours: 6 (5–7 3–10) vs. 7 (6–7 3–10), p = 0.027. Block decreased dissatisfaction with pain management, categorised as ‘highly unsatisfactory’, ‘unsatisfactory’, ‘neutral’, ‘satisfactory’ or ‘highly satisfactory’: 1/2/21/18/0 vs. 1/14/15/11/1, p = 0.0038. There were no differences in the rates of nausea, vomiting, dizziness or length of hospital stay. Serratus anterior plane block may be used to reduce pain and opioid use after thoracoscopic lung surgery.
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