Thermal management of the through silicon vias in 3-D integrated circuits

The through silicon via technology is a promising and preferred way to realize the reliable interconnection for 3-D integrated circuit integration. However, its size and the property of the filled-materials are two factors affecting the thermal behavior of the integrated circuits. In this paper, we design 3-D integrated circuits with different through silicon via models and analyze the effect of different material-filled through silicon vias, aspect ratio and thermal conductivity of the dielectric on the steady-state temperature profiles. The results presented in this paper are expected to aid in the development of thermal design guidelines for through silicon vias in 3-D integrated circuits

Mutation of SLC35D3 causes metabolic syndrome by impairing dopamine signaling in striatal D1 neurons

We thank Dr. Ya-Qin Feng from Shanxi Medical University, Dr. Tian-Yun Gao from Nanjing University and Dr. Yan-Hong Xue from Institute of Biophysics (CAS) for technical assistance in this study. We are very thankful to Drs. Richard T. Swank and Xiao-Jiang Li for their critical reading of this manuscript and invaluable advice. Funding: This work was partially supported by grants from National Basic Research Program of China (2013CB530605; 2014CB942803), from National Natural Science Foundation of China 1230046; 31071252; 81101182) and from Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-EW-R-05, KJZD-EW-L08). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Ultrafast Laser Ablation, Intrinsic Threshold, and Nanopatterning of Monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide

Laser direct writing is an attractive method for patterning 2D materials without contamination. Literature shows that the femtosecond ablation threshold of graphene across substrates varies by an order of magnitude. Some attribute it to the thermal coupling to the substrates, but it remains by and large an open question. For the first time the effect of substrates on femtosecond ablation of 2D materials is studied using MoS$_{2}$ as an example. We show unambiguously that femtosecond ablation of MoS$_{2}$ is an adiabatic process with negligible heat transfer to the substrates. The observed threshold variation is due to the etalon effect which was not identified before for the laser ablation of 2D materials. Subsequently, an intrinsic ablation threshold is proposed as a true threshold parameter for 2D materials. Additionally, we demonstrate for the first time femtosecond laser patterning of monolayer MoS$_{2}$ with sub-micron resolution and mm/s speed. Moreover, engineered substrates are shown to enhance the ablation efficiency, enabling patterning with low-power femtosecond oscillators. Finally, a zero-thickness approximation is introduced to predict the field enhancement with simple analytical expressions. Our work clarifies the role of substrates on ablation and firmly establishes femtosecond laser ablation as a viable route to pattern 2D materials

Study of pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of liposomal brucine for dermal administration

Bai-Can Yang1, Zhi-Feng Chu1, Sha Zhu1, Li-Jun Wang1, Yu-Hong Feng1, Feng-Hua Li1, Chang-Sheng Liu2, Yuan Yuan21Pharmacy Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, and Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials of Ministry of Education, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, People’s Republic of ChinaObjective: To evaluate the pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution of liposomal brucine (LB) for dermal application.Methods: Pharmacokinetics and tissue distribution were studied by in vivo animal testing. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the concentration of brucine in rats’ skin, plasma and various tissues.Results: After dermal administration, LB was absorbed rapidly in the skin and could be detected after 0.5 hours. After 36 hours, levels were too low to be detected. In plasma, levels were also too low to be detected after 36 hours. The concentration of LB reached 50% of the maximum in all tissues except the brain, peaking after 1.5 hours but still detectable after 12 hours.Conclusion: The concentration of LB was high in skin at the application site. LB was quickly absorbed into tissues through the blood circulation and widely distributed throughout the whole body. There was no obvious toxicity and LB did not readily accumulate in tissues and organs. It showed local potency but low overall systemic toxicity.Keywords: liposomal brucine, dermal administration, pharmacokinetics, tissue distributio

The novel synthesized 2-(3-(methylamino)phenyl)-6-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)quinolin-4-one (Smh-3) compound induces G2/M phase arrest and mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic cell death through inhibition of CDK1 and AKT activity in HL-60 human leukemia cells

2-Phenyl-4-quinolone series compounds have exhibited growth inhibitory influence on several human cancer cell lines. In this study, we investigated the effects of 2-(3-(methylamino)phenyl)-6-(pyrrolidin-1-yl)quinolin-4-one (Smh-3) on viability, cell cycle and apoptotic cell death which occurred in different leukemia cell lines (HL-60, U937 and K562) in a dose- and time-dependent manner, but which did not obviously impair the viability of normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro. The approximate IC50 was 103.26 ± 4.59 nM for a 48 h treatment in HL-60 cells. Cell cycle analysis showed that 100 nM Smh-3 induced signi-ficant G2/M arrest in examined cells. Within 0, 12, 24 and 48 h of treatment, Smh-3 inhibited CDK1 activity and decreased protein levels of CDK1, cyclin A and cyclin B. Smh-3-induced chromatin condensation and DNA fragmentation were determined by DAPI and TUNEL staining. Cell apoptosis was significantly reduced after pretreatment with a pan-caspase inhibitor (Z-VAD-fmk) and results indicated that Smh-3-induced apoptosis was mainly mediated by activation of the caspase cascade in HL-60 cells. Results from colorimetric assays and Western blot analysis indicated that activities of caspase-9, -7 and -3 were promoted in Smh-3-treated HL-60 cells during cell apoptosis. Smh-3-induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells was accompanied by an apparent increase in ROS production, and protein levels of cytosolic cytochrome c, apoptotic protease activating factor-1 (Apaf-1) and apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF). Strikingly, Smh-3 induced apoptosis in HL-60 cells by simultaneously suppressing protein levels of AKT, p-AKT, p-mTOR and p-BAD and inducing BAD protein levels. Taken together, we conclude that Smh-3 acts against leukemia cells in vitro via G2/M phase arrest, down-regulation of AKT activity and induction of mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathways

One for Multiple: Physics-informed Synthetic Data Boosts Generalizable Deep Learning for Fast MRI Reconstruction

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a principal radiological modality that provides radiation-free, abundant, and diverse information about the whole human body for medical diagnosis, but suffers from prolonged scan time. The scan time can be significantly reduced through k-space undersampling but the introduced artifacts need to be removed in image reconstruction. Although deep learning (DL) has emerged as a powerful tool for image reconstruction in fast MRI, its potential in multiple imaging scenarios remains largely untapped. This is because not only collecting large-scale and diverse realistic training data is generally costly and privacy-restricted, but also existing DL methods are hard to handle the practically inevitable mismatch between training and target data. Here, we present a Physics-Informed Synthetic data learning framework for Fast MRI, called PISF, which is the first to enable generalizable DL for multi-scenario MRI reconstruction using solely one trained model. For a 2D image, the reconstruction is separated into many 1D basic problems and starts with the 1D data synthesis, to facilitate generalization. We demonstrate that training DL models on synthetic data, integrated with enhanced learning techniques, can achieve comparable or even better in vivo MRI reconstruction compared to models trained on a matched realistic dataset, reducing the demand for real-world MRI data by up to 96%. Moreover, our PISF shows impressive generalizability in multi-vendor multi-center imaging. Its excellent adaptability to patients has been verified through 10 experienced doctors' evaluations. PISF provides a feasible and cost-effective way to markedly boost the widespread usage of DL in various fast MRI applications, while freeing from the intractable ethical and practical considerations of in vivo human data acquisitions.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl