Electrical performance of amorphous IGZO thin-film transistor on cellulose nanopaper substrate

Plastics are commonly used as substrates for flexible electronics today, but they cause significant impact to the environment. Paper has been considered as an alternative owing to their low cost, flexibility, biodegradability and recyclability. However, paper substrates are vulnerable to high temperature and/or wet processes. Therefore, most reported on-paper electronics were fabricated by using printing processes, transfer processes, and/or shadow-masking deposition techniques. In this work, amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) were demonstrated on cellulose nanopaper substrates via a photolithography-compatible direct-fabrication method. The paper substrate was formed by drop-casting suspension containing cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals on a rigid carrier substrate. A buffer layer consisting of parylene, SiNx, SiO2 and Al2O3 was then deposited to protect the paper substrate against processing gases and chemicals. To avoid deterioration of the cellulose nanopaper substrate, a low-temperature process of £ 150°C was developed. Fig. 1(a) shows the micrograph of a-IGZO TFTs made on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The channel width and length are 60 μm and 30 μm, respectively. Figs. 1(b), (c), and (d) illustrate the transfer characteristics, output characteristics and linear field-effect mobility as a function gate voltage of an a-IGZO TFT fabricated on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The on-paper TFT exhibits a field-effect mobility mobility of 4.23 cm2V-1s-1, on/off current ratio of 2.17× 107, threshold voltage of 4.35 V and subthreshold swing of 0.695 V/dec. The result paves a way toward large-area-compatible and scalable flexible green electronics productions. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Ruptured Aortic Aneurysm Presenting as a Stridor

SummaryStridor is an abnormal, high-pitched, whining breathing sound caused by a blockage in the throat or larynx that is usually heard in children. We describe an unusual case of an 81-year-old man brought to our emergency department with sudden onset of dyspnea and shortness of breath. Stridor could be heard without a stethoscope. We found a huge mass over the left upper chest on chest radiography, suggesting an aortic aneurysm. We believed that these symptoms were caused by a huge thoracic aortic aneurysm with trachea/bronchi compression. Chest computed tomography confirmed the diagnosis

Accuracy of hysteroscopic biopsy, compared to dilation and curettage, as a predictor of final pathology in patients with endometrial cancer

AbstractObjectiveTo compare the methods of transcervical resectoscopy versus dilation and curettage (D&C) for endometrial biopsy and to compare these methods for the percentage of histological upgrades at the final posthysterectomy pathology findings in endometrial cancer.Materials and methodsWe retrospectively reviewed 253 cases of uterine cancer diagnosed from May 1995 to January 2014. Included in the study were patients who received transcervical resectoscopy (TCR) or D&C biopsy as the diagnostic method and underwent laparoscopic staging at our institution. The International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO) grade in the pathological report of the biopsy and final hysterectomy were recorded. The extrauterine risk was stratified using the initial FIGO grade and depth of myometrium invasion. It was compared to the actual risk using final pathological findings.ResultsWe identified 203 cases of endometrial cancer; 18 (8.9%) patients had a higher histological grade at the final hysterectomy. Among the 203 patients, 76 patients underwent TCR biopsy and 127 underwent D&C biopsy. The histological grade was upgraded in two (2.6%) patients in the TCR group. Three (3.9%) patients had positive peritoneal washings. In the D&C group, 16 (12.6%) patients with three (2.4%) positive peritoneal washings were upgraded.ConclusionTranscervical resectoscopy could provide more precise grading information, compared to D&C (2.6% vs. 12.6%). Doctors could therefore make a more accurate staging plan, based on the preoperative risk evaluation

CFTR Mutation Analysis of a Caucasian Father with Congenital Bilateral Absence of Vas Deferens, a Taiwanese Mother, and Twins Resulting from ICSI Procedure

Cystic fibrosis (CF), caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, is one of the most common autosomal recessive diseases in Caucasians. We screened for the CFTR gene mutation in a Caucasian father with congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD), a Taiwanese mother, and twins resulting from an intracytoplasmic single sperm injection (ICSI) procedure. DNA fragments that showed abnormal banding patterns on temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis analysis followed by analysis of DNA sequence was used. The Caucasian father with CBAVD had ΔF508 and p.L375F mutations. The two children were heterozygous for the ΔF508 and p.L375F mutations, respectively. Mutation analysis of the CFTR gene should always be recommended for infertile couples seeking ICSI. The possibility of the children resulting from ICSI being a victim or carrier of CBAVD or CF, especially when the father is Caucasian with CBAVD, should be discussed during genetic counseling

Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in Taiwan

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged recently as a major cause of health care-associated infections due to the extent of its antimicrobial resistance and its propensity to cause nosocomial infectious outbreaks. Carbapenems have been used to treat multidrug-resistant A. baumannii infections. However, the incidences of carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii are rising in Taiwan and many other countries. Clonal spread of cabapenem-resistant A. baumannii via intra-hospitals or inter-hospitals has been reported; their resistance phenotype is mainly due to the acquisition of oxacillin-hydrolyzing-β-lactamase (OXA) genes. The rapid emergence and increase of imipenem resistance in A. baumannii in different areas of Taiwan is contributed to by a variety of mechanisms. The finding of different resistant gene determinants could not explain the phenotypic variation in drug susceptibility. More researches would be required to solve the gaps from resistant genes to phenotypic dynamics by functional genomic studies via the products of genome using high throughput analytic technologies

Crystal structure of the Alcanivorax borkumensis YdaH transporter reveals an unusual topology

The potential of the folic acid biosynthesis pathway as a target for the development of antibiotics has been clinically validated. However, many pathogens have developed resistance to these antibiotics, prompting a re-evaluation of potential drug targets within the pathway. The ydaH gene of Alcanivorax borkumensis encodes an integral membrane protein of the AbgT family of transporters for which no structural information was available. Here we report the crystal structure of A. borkumensis YdaH, revealing a dimeric molecule with an architecture distinct from other families of transporters. YdaH is a bowl-shaped dimer with a solvent-filled basin extending from the cytoplasm to halfway across the membrane bilayer. Each subunit of the transporter contains nine transmembrane helices and two hairpins that suggest a plausible pathway for substrate transport. Further analyses also suggest that YdaH could act as an antibiotic efflux pump and mediate bacterial resistance to sulfonamide antimetabolite drugs

Committed Private Information Retrieval

A private information retrieval (PIR) scheme allows a client to retrieve a data item $x_i$ among $n$ items $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n$ from $k$ servers, without revealing what $i$ is even when $t < k$ servers collude and try to learn $i$. Such a PIR scheme is said to be $t$-private. A PIR scheme is $v$-verifiable if the client can verify the correctness of the retrieved $x_i$ even when $v \leq k$ servers collude and try to fool the client by sending manipulated data. Most of the previous works in the literature on PIR assumed that $v < k$, leaving the case of all-colluding servers open. We propose a generic construction that combines a linear map commitment (LMC) and an arbitrary linear PIR scheme to produce a $k$-verifiable PIR scheme, termed a committed PIR scheme. Such a scheme guarantees that even in the worst scenario, when all servers are under the control of an attacker, although the privacy is unavoidably lost, the client won't be fooled into accepting an incorrect $x_i$. We demonstrate the practicality of our proposal by implementing the committed PIR schemes based on the Lai-Malavolta LMC and three well-known PIR schemes using the GMP library and blst, the current fastest C library for elliptic curve pairings.Comment: Accepted at ESORICS 202