Effects of maternal influenza vaccination on adverse birth outcomes: A systematic review and Bayesian meta-analysis.

BackgroundAlthough pregnant women are a priority group for influenza vaccination, its effect on birth outcomes has long been debated. Numerous observational studies and a few randomized controlled studies have been conducted, with inconsistent results.ObjectivesTo evaluate the association of influenza vaccination in pregnancy with adverse birth outcomes.Data sourceThe Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched.Study eligibility criteriaThis analysis included randomized placebo-controlled studies, cohort studies, and case-control studies, in which inactivated influenza vaccination was given during pregnancy and fetal adverse birth outcomes were assessed.Participants & interventionWomen who received inactivated influenza vaccine during pregnancy and their offspring.Study appraisal and synthesisTwo independent reviewers and a third reviewer collaborated in study selection and data extraction. A Bayesian 3-level random-effects model was utilized to assess the impact of maternal influenza vaccination on birth outcomes, which were presented as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% credible interval (CrIs). Bayesian outcome probabilities (P) of an ORResultsAmong the 6,249 identified publications, 48 studies were eligible for the meta-analysis, including 2 randomized controlled trials, 41 cohort studies, and 5 case-control studies. The risk of none of the following adverse birth outcomes decreased significantly: preterm birth (OR = 0.945, 95% CrI: 0.736-1.345, P = 73.3%), low birth weight (OR = 0.928, 95% CrI: 0.432-2.112, P = 76.7%), small for gestational age (OR = 0.971, 95% CrI: 0.249-4.217,P = 63.3%), congenital malformation (OR = 1.026, 95% CrI: 0.687-1.600, P = 38.0%), and fetal death (OR = 0.942, 95% CrI: 0.560-1.954, P = 61.6%). Summary estimates including only cohort studies showed significantly decreased risks for preterm birth, small for gestational age and fetal death. However, after adjusting for season at the time of vaccination and countries' income level, only fetal death remained significant.ConclusionThis Bayesian meta-analysis did not find a protective effect of maternal influenza vaccination against adverse birth outcomes, as reported in previous studies. In fact, our results showed evidence of null associations between maternal influenza vaccination and adverse birth outcomes

Influence of tensile-strain-induced oxygen deficiency on metal-insulator transitions in NdNiO3−δ epitaxial thin films

We report direct evidence that oxygen vacancies affect the structural and electrical parameters in tensile-strained NdNiO3-delta epitaxial thin films by elaborately adjusting the amount of oxygen deficiency (delta) with changing growth temperature T-D. The modulation in tensile strain and T-D tended to increase oxygen deficiency (delta) in NdNiO3-delta thin films; this process relieves tensile strain of the thin film by oxygen vacancy incorporation. The oxygen deficiency is directly correlated with unit-cell volume and the metal-insulator transition temperature (T-MI), i.e., resulting in the increase of both unit-cell volume and metal-insulator transition temperature as oxygen vacancies are incorporated. Our study suggests that the intrinsic defect sensitively influences both structural and electronic properties, and provides useful knobs for tailoring correlation-induced properties in complex oxides.1

Non-volatile ferroelectric control of room-temperature electrical transport in perovskite oxide semiconductor La:BaSnO3

Complex oxide heterostructures composed of oxide semiconductor thin films and ferroelectric single crystals have attracted substantial interest due to the electrically switchable channel resistance by the polarization reversal of ferroelectrics. Here we achieve reversible and non-volatile modulation of room-temperature (RT) resistance in epitaxial La-doped BaSnO3 (LBSO) transparent oxide layers by exploiting the ferroelectric field effect of (001)-oriented Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3PbTiO3 (PMNPT) single-crystal substrates. Using "all-perovskite" heterostructures, the sheet resistance of the LBSO thin films could be reversibly modified upon polarization switching; as a result, the non-volatile sheet resistance was modulated by up to similar to 70% at RT. Such heterostructures that combine materials with dissimilar functionality provide scientific insights into the charge-mediated physics of perovskite stannate systems coupled to ferroelectric polarization, and show technological potential for non-volatile electronic devices based on new transparent oxide semiconductors.11sciescopu

Comparisons of exacerbations and mortality among regular inhaled therapies for patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis.

BackgroundAlthough exacerbation and mortality are the most important clinical outcomes of stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the drug classes that are the most efficacious in reducing exacerbation and mortality among all possible inhaled drugs have not been determined.Methods and findingsWe performed a systematic review (SR) and Bayesian network meta-analysis (NMA). We searched Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, ClinicalTrials.gov, the European Union Clinical Trials Register, and the official websites of pharmaceutical companies (from inception to July 9, 2019). The eligibility criteria were as follows: (1) parallel-design randomized controlled trials (RCTs); (2) adults with stable COPD; (3) comparisons among long-acting muscarinic antagonists (LAMAs), long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs), inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs), combined treatment (ICS/LAMA/LABA, LAMA/LABA, or ICS/LABA), or a placebo; and (4) study duration ≥ 12 weeks. This study was prospectively registered in International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO; CRD42017069087). In total, 219 trials involving 228,710 patients were included. Compared with placebo, all drug classes significantly reduced the total exacerbations and moderate to severe exacerbations. ICS/LAMA/LABA was the most efficacious treatment for reducing the exacerbation risk (odds ratio [OR] = 0.57; 95% credible interval [CrI] 0.50-0.64; posterior probability of OR > 1 [P(OR > 1)] 1] = 0.004; and OR = 0.86, 95% CrI 0.76-0.98, P[OR > 1] = 0.015, respectively). The results minimally changed, even in various sensitivity and covariate-adjusted meta-regression analyses. ICS/LAMA/LABA tended to lower the risk of cardiovascular mortality but did not show significant results. ICS/LAMA/LABA increased the probability of pneumonia (OR for triple therapy = 1.56; 95% CrI 1.19-2.03; P[OR > 1] = 1.000). The main limitation is that there were few RCTs including only less symptomatic patients or patients at a low risk.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that triple therapy can potentially be the best option for stable COPD patients in terms of reducing exacerbation and all-cause mortality

Bidirectional Non-Filamentary RRAM as an Analog Neuromorphic Synapse, Part I: Al/Mo/Pr_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ Material Improvements and Device Measurements

We report on material improvements to non-filamentary RRAM devices based on Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 by introducing an MoOx buffer layer together with a reactive Al electrode, and on device measurements designed to help gauge the performance of these devices as bidirectional analog synapses for on-chip acceleration of the backpropagation algorithm. Previous Al/PCMO devices exhibited degraded LRS retention due to the low activation energy for oxidation of the Al electrode, and Mo/PCMO devices showed low conductance contrast. To control the redox reaction at the metal/PCMO interface, we introduce a 4-nm interfacial layer of conducting MoOx as an oxygen buffer layer. Due to the controlled redox reaction within this Al/Mo/PCMO device, we observed improvements in both retention and conductance on/off ratio. We confirm bidirectional analog synapse characteristics and measure “jump-tables” suitable for large scale neural network simulations that attempt to capture complex and stochastic device behavior [see companion paper]. Finally, switching energy measurements are shown, illustrating a path for future device research toward smaller devices, shorter pulses and lower programming voltages

Pulsed laser deposition of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 thin film on cobalt ferrite nano-seed layered Pt(111)/Si substrate: effect of oxygen pressure

The effect of oxygen pressure during pulsed laser deposition of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 (PZT) thin films on CoFe2O4 nano-seed layered Pt(111)/Si substrate was investigated. The PZT film deposited at oxygen pressure lower than 25 mTorr is identified as both perovskite and pyrochlore phases and the films deposited at high oxygen pressure (50-100 mTorr) show the single-phase perovskite PZT that has a perfect (111)-orientation. In addition, the film deposited at P-O2 of 50 mTorr has a uniform surface morphology, whereas the film deposited at P-O2 of 100 mTorr has a non-uniform surface morphology and more incompacted columnar cross-section microstructure. The polarization of film deposited at 100 mTorr is higher than that deposited at 50 mTorr, but shift of the hysteresis loop along the electrical field axis in the film deposited at P-O2 of 100 mTorr is larger than that of the film deposited at P-O2 of 50 mTorr.X1122sciescopu

Accelerating Machine Learning with Non-Volatile Memory: exploring device and circuit tradeoffs

Large arrays of the same nonvolatile memories (NVM) being developed for Storage-Class Memory (SCM) such as Phase Change Memory (PCM) and Resistance RAM (ReRAM) - can also be used in non-Von Neumann neuromorphic computational schemes, with device conductance serving as synaptic "weight." This allows the all-important multiply-accumulate operation within these algorithms to be performed efficiently at the weight data. In contrast to other groups working on Spike-Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP), we have been exploring the use of NVM and other inherently-analog devices for Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) trained with the backpropagation algorithm. We recently showed a large-scale (165,000 two-PCM synapses) hardware-software demo (IEDM 2014, [1], [2]) and analyzed the potential speed and power advantages over GPU-based training (IEDM 2015, [3]). In this paper, we extend this work in several useful directions. We assess the impact of undesired, time-varying conductance change, including drift in PCM and leakage of analog CMOS capacitors. We investigate the use of non-filamentary, bidirectional ReRAM devices based on PrCaMnO, with an eye to developing material variants that provide suitably linear conductance change. And finally, we explore tradeoffs in designing peripheral circuitry, balancing simplicity and area-efficiency against the impact on ANN performance

Kirigami-inspired gas sensors for strain-insensitive operation

Wearable electronics for the Internet of Things (IoT) have spurred interest in optimizing stretchable substrates, electrodes, and sensing materials. Specifically, wearable gas sensors are valuable for real-time monitoring of hazardous chemicals. For wearable gas sensors, a stable operation under mechanical deformation is required. Here, we introduce strain-insensitive Kirigami-structured gas sensors decorated with titanium dioxide (TiO2) functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for NO2 sensing. The Kirigami-shaped substrate is used to ensure mechanical stability when stretched. The developed device shows only a 1.3 % change in base resistance under 80 % strain. In addition, the impact of electro-thermal properties at various strain levels is analyzed to aid the understanding of the device's performance. The CNT-TiO2 composite induced alterations in p-n heterojunctions, improving the measurement sensitivity by approximately 250 % compared to a bare CNT sensor. Additionally, the sensors exhibited a 10-fold faster desorption rate due to the enhanced photocatalytic effect of TiO2 under UV exposure. Remarkably, the Kirigami-structured gas sensors maintained stable and repetitive sensing operation even under 80 % strain, which would be enough to be used in various wearable applications

Effects of Offset Pixel Aperture Width on the Performances of Monochrome CMOS Image Sensors for Depth Extraction

This paper presents the effects of offset pixel aperture width on the performance of monochrome (MONO) CMOS image sensors (CISs) for a three-dimensional image sensor. Using a technique to integrate the offset pixel aperture (OPA) inside each pixel, the depth information can be acquired using a disparity from OPA patterns. The OPA is classified into two pattern types: Left-offset pixel aperture (LOPA) and right-offset pixel aperture (ROPA). These OPAs are divided into odd and even rows and integrated in a pixel array. To analyze the correlation between the OPA width and the sensor characteristics, experiments were conducted by configuring the test elements group (TEG) regions. The OPA width of the TEG region for the measurement varied in the range of 0.3–0.5 μm. As the aperture width decreased, the disparity of the image increased, while the sensitivity decreased. It is possible to acquire depth information by the disparity obtained from the proposed MONO CIS using the OPA technique without an external light source. Therefore, the proposed MONO CIS with OPA could easily be applied to miniaturized devices. The proposed MONO CIS was designed and manufactured using the 0.11 μm CIS process