Investigation of the Genetic Interactions between Hippo Signaling Pathway and Drosophila C-terminal Src kinase (dCsk)

The focus of my research revolved around the intersection between the Hippo tumor suppressor pathway and the Src oncogenic pathway. Both pathways control tissue and organ size during development by regulating cell proliferation, cell death, cell migration, and cell adhesion. Aberrant functions in either pathway are often detected in human cancers and correlate with poor prognosis. The Drosophila C-terminal Src kinase (dCsk) is a genetic modifier of warts (wts), a tumor-suppressor gene in the Hippo pathway, and interacts with the Src oncogene. Reduction in dCsk expression and the consequent activation of Src are reported in hepatocellular and colorectal tumors. Previous studies show that dCsk regulates cell proliferation and tissue size during development. Given the similarity in the loss-of-function phenotypes of dCsk and wts, we investigated the interactions of dCsk with the Hippo pathway components. We tested if loss of dCsk resulted in changes in activity levels of Hippo pathway target Yki, and if dCsk and Hippo pathway genes genetically interact. We found multiple lines of evidence suggesting that loss of dCsk using RNAi mediated elimination of dCsk in large patches of cells causes overgrowth due to increased proliferation, due to increased Yki activity. The effects of loss of dCsk are cell autonomous, and our results of epistasis experiments of dCsk and Hippo pathway components place dCsk between Dachs and Zyx that function downstream of Fat in the Hippo network. Hence we concluded that dCsk regulates growth via the Hippo signaling pathway

Solution-Processed Vertically Stacked Complementary Organic Circuits with Inkjet-Printed Routing

The fabrication and measurements of solution‐processed vertically stacked complementary organic field‐effect transistors (FETs) with a high static noise margin (SNM) are reported. In the device structure, a bottom‐gate p‐type organic FET (PFET) is vertically integrated on a top‐gate n‐type organic FET (NFET) with the gate shared in‐between. A new strategy has been proposed to maximize the SNM by matching the driving strengths of the PFET and the NFET by independently adjusting the dielectric capacitance of each type of transistor. Using ideally balanced inverters with the transistor‐on‐transistor structure, the first examples of universal logic gates by inkjet‐printed routing are demonstrated. It is believed that this work can be extended to large‐scale complementary integrated circuits with a high transistor density, simpler routing path, and high yield.1196Ysciescopu

Solution-Processed Vertically Stacked Complementary Organic Circuits with Inkjet-Printed Routing

The fabrication and measurements of solution-processed vertically stacked complementary organic field-effect transistors (FETs) with a high static noise margin (SNM) are reported. In the device structure, a bottom-gate p-type organic FET (PFET) is vertically integrated on a top-gate n-type organic FET (NFET) with the gate shared in-between. A new strategy has been proposed to maximize the SNM by matching the driving strengths of the PFET and the NFET by independently adjusting the dielectric capacitance of each type of transistor. Using ideally balanced inverters with the transistor-on-transistor structure, the first examples of universal logic gates by inkjet-printed routing are demonstrated. It is believed that this work can be extended to large-scale complementary integrated circuits with a high transistor density, simpler routing path, and high yield

Printed 5-V organic operational amplifiers for various signal processing

The important concept of printable functional materials is about to cause a paradigm shift that we will be able to fabricate electronic devices by printing methods in air at room temperature. One of the promising applications of the printed electronics is a disposable electronic patch sensing system which can monitor the health conditions without any restraint. Operational amplifiers (OPAs) are an essential component for such sensing system, since an OPA enables a wide variety of signal processing. Here we demonstrate printed OPAs based on complementary organic semiconductor technology. They can be operated with a standard safe power source of 5 V with a minimal power consumption of 150 nW, and used as amplifiers, a variety of mathematical operators, signal converters, and oscillators. The printed micropower organic OPAs with the low voltage operation and the high versatility will open up the disposable electronic patch sensing system in near future

Intelligent upper-limb exoskeleton using deep learning to predict human intention for sensory-feedback augmentation

The age and stroke-associated decline in musculoskeletal strength degrades the ability to perform daily human tasks using the upper extremities. Although there are a few examples of exoskeletons, they need manual operations due to the absence of sensor feedback and no intention prediction of movements. Here, we introduce an intelligent upper-limb exoskeleton system that uses cloud-based deep learning to predict human intention for strength augmentation. The embedded soft wearable sensors provide sensory feedback by collecting real-time muscle signals, which are simultaneously computed to determine the user's intended movement. The cloud-based deep-learning predicts four upper-limb joint motions with an average accuracy of 96.2% at a 200-250 millisecond response rate, suggesting that the exoskeleton operates just by human intention. In addition, an array of soft pneumatics assists the intended movements by providing 897 newton of force and 78.7 millimeter of displacement at maximum. Collectively, the intent-driven exoskeleton can augment human strength by 5.15 times on average compared to the unassisted exoskeleton. This report demonstrates an exoskeleton robot that augments the upper-limb joint movements by human intention based on a machine-learning cloud computing and sensory feedback.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, Submitted for possible publicatio

High performance carbon nanotubes thin film transistors by selective ferric chloride doping

Single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT) have been a significant research topic as active layers for thin film transistors (TFTs) due to their high charge carrier mobility beyond that of crystalline silicon. In this study, we report an effective approach to achieve a very high field-effect mobility and on/off ratio for solution processed semiconducting SWNT TFTs, by selective doping through contact with a thin ferric chloride (FeCl3) dopant layer. The semiconducting layer is formed by a double spin coating of the highly purified (>99%) high pressure carbon mono oxide (HiPCO) SWNT sorted by wrapping of poly (3-dodecylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3DDT). In order to achieve effective hole injection from the top Au source electrode without increasing the off-state drain current, less purified (98-99%) SWNTs produced by the plasma discharge process sorted by wrapping of poly (9,9-di-n-dodecylfluorene) (PFDD) are formed on the top of HiPCO film. Significantly improved TFT performance is achieved by the insertion of a few nanometers of a FeCl3 dopant layer at the semiconductor-contact interface. A significant high hole field-effect of 48.35 +/- 3.11 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1) (bare: 6.18 +/- 0.87 cm(2)V(-1)s(-1)) with a reasonable on/off current ratio of 10(5), and low off current of similar to 80 pA, are obtained by controlling the concentration of FeCl3 dopant (thickness = 1.5 nm) at the contact. Mobility is improved further at 2.5 nm thickness of the FeCl3 dopant layer resulting in a hole mobility of 177 +/- 13.2 cm(2) V(-1)s(-1), an on/off ratio of 7.4 x 10(3), and off state current of 1.2 x 10(-9) A

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

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