Controlling germanium CMP selectivity through slurry mediation by surface active agents

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.New developments and device performance requirements in microelectronics industry add to the challenges in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process. One of the recently introduced materials to semiconductor manufacturing is germanium which enables improved device performance through better channel mobility in shallow trench isolation (STI) applications for advanced circuits. This paper focuses on controlling germanium/silica selectivity for advanced STI CMP applications through slurry modification by surface active agents. Surface adsorption characteristics of cationic and anionic surfactants on germanium and silica wafers are analyzed in order to control selectivity as well as the defectivity performance of the CMP applications. The effects of surfactant charge and concentration (up to self-assembly) are studied in terms of slurry stability, material removal rates and surface defectivity. Surface charge manipulation by the surfactant adsorption on the germanium surface is presented as the main criteria on the selection of the proper surfactant/oxidizer systems for CMP. The outlined correlations are systematically presented to highlight slurry modification criteria for the desired selectivity results. Consequently, the paper evaluates the slurry selectivity control and improvement criteria for the new materials introduced to microelectronics applications with CMP requirement by evaluating the germanium silica system as a model application.European Commissio

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Temporal and spatial analysis of the 2014-2015 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa

West Africa is currently witnessing the most extensive Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak so far recorded. Until now, there have been 27,013 reported cases and 11,134 deaths. The origin of the virus is thought to have been a zoonotic transmission from a bat to a two-year-old boy in December 2013 (ref. 2). From this index case the virus was spread by human-to-human contact throughout Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, the origin of the particular virus in each country and time of transmission is not known and currently relies on epidemiological analysis, which may be unreliable owing to the difficulties of obtaining patient information. Here we trace the genetic evolution of EBOV in the current outbreak that has resulted in multiple lineages. Deep sequencing of 179 patient samples processed by the European Mobile Laboratory, the first diagnostics unit to be deployed to the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea, reveals an epidemiological and evolutionary history of the epidemic from March 2014 to January 2015. Analysis of EBOV genome evolution has also benefited from a similar sequencing effort of patient samples from Sierra Leone. Our results confirm that the EBOV from Guinea moved into Sierra Leone, most likely in April or early May. The viruses of the Guinea/Sierra Leone lineage mixed around June/July 2014. Viral sequences covering August, September and October 2014 indicate that this lineage evolved independently within Guinea. These data can be used in conjunction with epidemiological information to test retrospectively the effectiveness of control measures, and provides an unprecedented window into the evolution of an ongoing viral haemorrhagic fever outbreak.status: publishe

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

An Old - Fashioned Tree

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp-copyright/3120/thumbnail.jp

Smart Energy in Haushalten: Technologien, Geschäftsmodelle, Akzeptanz und Wirtschaftlichkeit

Die Digitalisierung des deutschen Energiesystems wird als eine wichtige Voraussetzung für dasGelingen der Energiewende gesehen. Insbesondere im Bereich der Elektrizitätsversorgung kannDigitalisierung die Flexibilitätspotenziale, z. B. für das Verteilnetz, steigern. Dafür sollen klassischeEnergietechnologien (der Erzeugung, Speicherung und Verbraucher) mit Informations- undKommunikationstechnologien (IKT) oder „Internet-of-Things“-Technologien (IoT) zusammenspielen.Auf diese Weise wandelt sich das Energieversorgungssystem beispielsweise im Elektrizitätsbereichvon ei

Smart Energy in Haushalten : Technologien, Geschäftsmodelle, Akzeptanz und Wirtschaftlichkeit

Die Digitalisierung des deutschen Energiesystems wird als eine wichtige Voraussetzung für das Gelingen der Energiewende gesehen. Insbesondere im Bereich der Elektrizitätsversorgung kann Digitalisierung die Flexibilitätspotenziale, z. B. für das Verteilnetz, steigern. Dafür sollen klassische Energietechnologien (der Erzeugung, Speicherung und Verbraucher) mit Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) oder "Internet-of-Things"-Technologien (IoT) zusammenspielen. Auf diese Weise wandelt sich das Energieversorgungssystem beispielsweise im Elektrizitätsbereich von einem unidirektionalen Netz zu einem bidirektionalen Netzwerk, ein sogenanntes Smart Grid. Sowohl Energie als auch energiebezogene Informationen können zwischen Verbrauchern, Netzbetreibern sowie zwischen Energieerzeugungsanlagen und Energiespeichern ausgetauscht werden. In diesem Zusammenhang entwickeln Unternehmen innovative smarte Produkte und Dienstleistungen für private Haushalte, z. B. Smart Home Systeme, Energiemanagementsysteme, Smart Meter, intelligente Beleuchtungssysteme oder sie bieten digitale Dienstleistungen wie z. B. die datenbasierte Fernwartung von Photovoltaik-Anlagen an