Thin Titanium Oxide Films Obtained By Rtp And By Sputtering

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)In this paper, two methods to obtain titanium oxide (TiO2) thin films are compared. In the first method metallic titanium (Ti) is deposited by sputtering and then oxidized by rapid thermal process (RTP) in an oxygen atmosphere to form the TiO2 thin films. The second method consists in TiO2 deposition by reactive sputtering. Structural characterization of the prepared samples shows the rutile crystal structure for both films, but TiO2 thin film deposited by sputtering also presented anatase crystal structure. Capacitors were fabricated and the electrical characterization of TiO2 films realized in order to determine which method forms the best dielectric film, defined by high dielectric constant value (high-k), lower charge density (Q0/q) and flat-band voltage (VFB) around -0.9V.FAPESP; São Paulo Research FoundationFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Bunjongpru, W., Sungthong, A., Porntheeraphat, S., Rayanasukha, Y., Pankiew, A., Jeamsaksiri, W., Srisuwan, A., Nukeaw, J., Very low drift and high sensitivity of nanocrystal-TiO2 sensing membrane on pH-ISFET fabricated by CMOS compatible process (2013) Appl. Surf Sci., 267, pp. 206-211. , FebChou, J.-C., Yang, H.-Y., Chen, C.-W., Glucose biosensor of ruthenium-doped TiO2 sensing electrode by co-sputtering system (2010) Microelectron. Reliab., 50 (5), pp. 753-756. , MayBarros, A.D., (2013) Developement of TiOx and ZnO Thin Films for ISFET and SAW Devices, , PhD Thesis, School of Electrical and Compuer Engineering, University of Camp in asSouza, J.F., Moreira, M.A., Doi, I., Diniz, A.I., Tatsch, P.J., Gonçalves, J.L., Preparation and characterization of high-k aluminium nitride (A1N) thin film for sensor and integrated circuits applications (2012) Phys. Status Solidi, 9 (6), pp. 1454-1457. , JunOkuya, M., Nakade, K., Kaneko, S., Porous TiO2 thin films synthesized by a spray pyrolysis deposition (SPD) technique and their application to dye-sensitized solar cells (2002) Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells, 70, pp. 425-435Oja, I., Chemical solution deposition of thin TiO2 -anatase films for dielectric applications (2004) Materials Ins Electronics, 5, pp. 341-344Yu, J., Zhao, X., Zhao, Q., Photocatalytic activity of nanometer TiO2 thin films prepared by the sol - gel method (2001) Materials Chemistry and Physsics, 69, pp. 25-29Barros, A.D., Albertin, K.F., Miyoshi, J., Doi, I., Diniz, J.A., Thin titanium oxide films deposited by e-beam evaporation with additional rapid thermal oxidation and annealing for ISFET applications (2010) Microelectron. Eng., 87 (3), pp. 443-446. , MarLai, C.-S., Lu, T.-F., Yang, C.-M., Lin, Y.-C., Pijanowska, D.G., Jaroszewicz, B., Body effect minimization using single layer structure for pH-ISFET applications (2010) Sensors and Actuators B Chem., 143 (2), pp. 494-499. , JanHenson, W.K., Ahmed, K.Z., Vogel, E.M., Hauser, J.R., Wortman, J.J., Venables, R.D., Xu, M., Venables, D., Estimating oxide thickness of tunnel oxides down to 1.4 nm using conventional capacitance-voltage measurements on MOS capacitors (1999) IEEE Electron Device Lett., 20 (4), pp. 179-181. , AprHauser, J.R., Ahmed, K., Characterization of ultra-thin oxides using electrical C-V and I-V measurements (1998) 1998 Int. Conf. Charact. Metrol. ULSI Technol., 235 (1998), pp. 235-239Chou, J.-C., Liao, L.P., Study on pH at the point of zero charge of TiO2 pH ion-sensitive field effect transistor made by the sputtering method (2005) Thin Solid Films, 476 (1), pp. 157-161. , AprKadoshima, M., Hiratani, M., Shimamoto, Y., Torii, K., Miki, H., Rutile-type TiO2 thin film for high-k gate insulator (2003) Thin Solid Films, 424, pp. 224-228Frank, M.M., Kim, S., Brown, S.L., Bruley, J., Copel, M., Hopstaken, M., Chudzik, M., Narayanan, V., Scaling the MOSFET gate dielectric: From high-k to higher-k? (2009) Microelectron. Eng., 86 (7-9), pp. 1603-1608. , JulKim, S., Brown, S.L., Rossnagel, S.M., Bruley, J., Copel, M., Hopstaken, M.J.P., Narayanan, V., Frank, M.M., Oxygen migration in TiO2 based higher-k gate stacks (2010) J Appl. Phys., 107 (5), p. 05410

Detection system of magnetic nanoparticles in biological tissues by Magnetoencephalography

Magnetic nanoparticles are useful for a wide range of applications from data storage to medical imaging. Their unique features (controllable size in the nanoscale range, possibility to be coated with biological molecules, response to the application of a magnetic field...) make the development of a variety of medical applications possible, both for diagnosis and therapy [1-3]. On the other hand, Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a non-invasive functional imaging technique that enables the description of the temporal and spatial patterns of brain activity in resting conditions or related to different basic cognitive processes, by detecting the weak magnetic fields generated by currents in the neurons [4,5]. The detection of the weak magnetic fields depends on gradiometer detection coils coupled to a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID). However, MEG systems are not currently being used for the detection of MNPs in biological tissues. A system to newly detect Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs) in the brain and in biological tissues will be described. The method uses a commercial Magnetoencephalograph (MEG) and opens new possibilities to extend the use of MEG systems to new applications for both diagnosis and therapy of medical diseases, different from its common use in neurological diagnosis. To test the validity of the system, in this work, we will show its ability to detect MNPs in biological tissues and their possible use in diagnosis of cerebral brain microinjurie

Clinical value of next generation sequencing of plasma cell-free DNA in gastrointestinal stromal tumors

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) initiation and evolution is commonly framed by KIT/PDGFRA oncogenic activation, and in later stages by the polyclonal expansion of resistant subpopulations harboring KIT secondary mutations after the onset of imatinib resistance. Thus, circulating tumor (ct)DNA determination is expected to be an informative non-invasive dynamic biomarker in GIST patients. We performed amplicon-based next-generation sequencing (NGS) across 60 clinically relevant genes in 37 plasma samples from 18 GIST patients collected prospectively. ctDNA alterations were compared with NGS of matched tumor tissue samples (obtained either simultaneously or at the time of diagnosis) and cross-validated with droplet digital PCR (ddPCR). We were able to identify cfDNA mutations in five out of 18 patients had detectable in at least one timepoint. Overall, NGS sensitivity for detection of cell-free (cf)DNA mutations in plasma was 28.6%, showing high concordance with ddPCR confirmation. We found that GIST had relatively low ctDNA shedding, and mutations were at low allele frequencies. ctDNA was detected only in GIST patients with advanced disease after imatinib failure, predicting tumor dynamics in serial monitoring. KIT secondary mutations were the only mechanism of resistance found across 10 imatinib-resistant GIST patients progressing to sunitinib or regorafenib. ctDNA evaluation with amplicon-based NGS detects KIT primary and secondary mutations in metastatic GIST patients, particularly after imatinib progression. GIST exhibits low ctDNA shedding, but ctDNA monitoring, when positive, reflects tumor dynamics

EventPointer 3.0: flexible and accurate splicing analysis that includes studying the differential usage of protein-domains

Alternative splicing (AS) plays a key role in cancer: all its hallmarks have been associated with different mechanisms of abnormal AS. The improvement of the human transcriptome annotation and the availability of fast and accurate software to estimate isoform concentrations has boosted the analysis of transcriptome profiling from RNA-seq. The statistical analysis of AS is a challenging problem not yet fully solved. We have included in EventPointer (EP), a Bioconductor package, a novel statistical method that can use the bootstrap of the pseudoaligners. We compared it with other state-of-the-art algorithms to analyze AS. Its performance is outstanding for shallow sequencing conditions. The statistical framework is very flexible since it is based on design and contrast matrices. EP now includes a convenient tool to find the primers to validate the discoveries using PCR. We also added a statistical module to study alteration in protein domain related to AS. Applying it to 9514 patients from TCGA and TARGET in 19 different tumor types resulted in two conclusions: i) aberrant alternative splicing alters the relative presence of Protein domains and, ii) the number of enriched domains is strongly correlated with the age of the patients

The satisfactory growth and development at 2 years of age of the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards cohort support its appropriateness for constructing international standards.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization recommends that human growth should be monitored with the use of international standards. However, in obstetric practice, we continue to monitor fetal growth using numerous local charts or equations that are based on different populations for each body structure. Consistent with World Health Organization recommendations, the INTERGROWTH-21st Project has produced the first set of international standards to date pregnancies; to monitor fetal growth, estimated fetal weight, Doppler measures, and brain structures; to measure uterine growth, maternal nutrition, newborn infant size, and body composition; and to assess the postnatal growth of preterm babies. All these standards are based on the same healthy pregnancy cohort. Recognizing the importance of demonstrating that, postnatally, this cohort still adhered to the World Health Organization prescriptive approach, we followed their growth and development to the key milestone of 2 years of age. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the babies in the INTERGROWTH-21st Project maintained optimal growth and development in childhood. STUDY DESIGN: In the Infant Follow-up Study of the INTERGROWTH-21st Project, we evaluated postnatal growth, nutrition, morbidity, and motor development up to 2 years of age in the children who contributed data to the construction of the international fetal growth, newborn infant size and body composition at birth, and preterm postnatal growth standards. Clinical care, feeding practices, anthropometric measures, and assessment of morbidity were standardized across study sites and documented at 1 and 2 years of age. Weight, length, and head circumference age- and sex-specific z-scores and percentiles and motor development milestones were estimated with the use of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards and World Health Organization milestone distributions, respectively. For the preterm infants, corrected age was used. Variance components analysis was used to estimate the percentage variability among individuals within a study site compared with that among study sites. RESULTS: There were 3711 eligible singleton live births; 3042 children (82%) were evaluated at 2 years of age. There were no substantive differences between the included group and the lost-to-follow up group. Infant mortality rate was 3 per 1000; neonatal mortality rate was 1.6 per 1000. At the 2-year visit, the children included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Fetal Growth Standards were at the 49th percentile for length, 50th percentile for head circumference, and 58th percentile for weight of the World Health Organization Child Growth Standards. Similar results were seen for the preterm subgroup that was included in the INTERGROWTH-21st Preterm Postnatal Growth Standards. The cohort overlapped between the 3rd and 97th percentiles of the World Health Organization motor development milestones. We estimated that the variance among study sites explains only 5.5% of the total variability in the length of the children between birth and 2 years of age, although the variance among individuals within a study site explains 42.9% (ie, 8 times the amount explained by the variation among sites). An increase of 8.9 cm in adult height over mean parental height is estimated to occur in the cohort from low-middle income countries, provided that children continue to have adequate health, environmental, and nutritional conditions. CONCLUSION: The cohort enrolled in the INTERGROWTH-21st standards remained healthy with adequate growth and motor development up to 2 years of age, which supports its appropriateness for the construction of international fetal and preterm postnatal growth standards

Dendritic cell deficiencies persist seven months after SARS-CoV-2 infection

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 infection induces an exacerbated inflammation driven by innate immunity components. Dendritic cells (DCs) play a key role in the defense against viral infections, for instance plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), have the capacity to produce vast amounts of interferon-alpha (IFN-α). In COVID-19 there is a deficit in DC numbers and IFN-α production, which has been associated with disease severity. In this work, we described that in addition to the DC deficiency, several DC activation and homing markers were altered in acute COVID-19 patients, which were associated with multiple inflammatory markers. Remarkably, previously hospitalized and nonhospitalized patients remained with decreased numbers of CD1c+ myeloid DCs and pDCs seven months after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Moreover, the expression of DC markers such as CD86 and CD4 were only restored in previously nonhospitalized patients, while no restoration of integrin β7 and indoleamine 2,3-dyoxigenase (IDO) levels were observed. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the immunological sequelae of COVID-19