Mechanisms of the inhibition of reverse transcription by unmodified and modified antisense oligonucleotides

AbstractWe demonstrated that unmodified and modified (phosphorothioate) oligonucleotides prevent cDNA synthesis by AMV or HIV reverse transcriptases. Antisense oligonucleotide/RNA hybrids specifically arrest primer extension. The blockage involves the degradation of the RNA fragment bound to the antisense oligonucleotide by the reverse transcriptase-associated RNase H activity. However, the phosphorothioate oligomer inhibited polymerization by binding to the AMV RT rather than to the template RNA, whereas there was no competitive binding of the phosphorothioate oligomer on the HIV RT during reverse transcription

Challenges and Directions of Ultra Low Engergy Wireless Sensor Nodes for Biosignal Monitoring

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Analysis and Design of Power-Efficient H-Band CMOS Frequency Doubler Employing Gain Boosting and Harmonic Enhancing Techniques

This article presents a power-efficient frequency doubler employing gain boosting and harmonic-enhancing techniques. With a single transistor only, the gain boosting technique can reach the maximum achievable gain ( $G_{\mathrm {max}}$ ) by adding embedded passive components, thereby obtaining high voltage swings. Then, the transistor’s nonlinearity is essential, which is maximized by the harmonic transition scheme of the transistor operation along with high voltage swings. In addition, a harmonic reflector and a harmonic leakage canceller are employed for the second harmonic enhancement. The harmonic reflector prevents unwanted harmonic mixing by minimizing the incoming second harmonic current fed back to the input. The harmonic leakage canceller suppresses the leakage loss of the second harmonic current present at the output. Furthermore, thanks to a proposed dual-band output matching network, the output impedance is conjugately matched to achieve the $G_{\mathrm {max}}$ at the fundamental frequency while it is matched to extract the second harmonic output power simultaneously. To verify the proposed techniques, the prototype was designed as a single-stage circuit that does not require additional amplifying stages, which led to higher power efficiency and lower chip area. Implemented in a 65-nm CMOS process, the measurement results show a saturated output power of 0.9 dBm and 3-dB bandwidth of 26 GHz (237–263 GHz), respectively, while requiring a chip area of 0.071 mm2. Total power efficiency, including the effect of injected signal power, is 2.87 % while consuming only 37 mW dc power

Energy-efficient driving scheduling for heterogeneous electric vehicles with consideration of overtaking

Applying individual eco-driving methods within a group of electric vehicles (EVs) is usually restricted by a preceding vehicle because the optimal velocity is different by type of EV. Driving with the same velocity for different types of vehicles is not a fundamental solution because of inefficiency. Overtaking a preceding vehicle allows enhancement of the driving efficiency, though it should be used carefully because energy consumption by the overtaking depends greatly on given conditions: time constraint for overtaking, the distance between intersections, vehicle type, and overtaking scheme. This paper introduces a system-level framework for vehicle overtaking velocity planning and scheduling to maximize the total driving efficiency of all vehicles. The framework starts with an accurate EV powertrain modeling of various vehicle types and derives the optimal velocity and acceleration for overtaking. Simulation results show the energy-efficient velocity planning for overtaking that reduces a driving cost function related to energy and delay. The proposed overtaking framework achieves 15% driving cost savings compared with the conventional group driving

Visual Acuity Outcomes in Diseases Associated with Reduced Visual Acuity: An Analysis of the National Health Insurance Service Database in Korea

Visual acuity declines with age, and disease-related visual acuity changes vary. We evaluated factors affecting visual acuity and age-related visual acuity in diseases associated with reduced visual acuity such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy (DR). The Korean National Health Insurance Service 2015–2016 data were analyzed for age-related visual acuity changes and prevalence of diseases associated with reduced visual acuity. Among 993,062 participants, the prevalence rates of hypertension, DM, glaucoma, and DR were 27.0%, 15.1%, 13.8%, and 2.7%, respectively. Despite having the lowest prevalence, DR alone or DR with hypertension and glaucoma resulted in low visual acuity. Correlation analysis between disease frequency and mean age-related visual acuity revealed higher positive correlations in DR and hypertension than in DM and glaucoma, indicating lower visual acuity. Odds ratios for low visual acuity in cases including one disease such as hypertension, DM, glaucoma, and DR were 1.73, 1.23, 1.04, and 1.52, respectively. The prevalence and number of diseases associated with reduced visual acuity increased with age, and visual acuity decreased. The leading causes of vision loss were DR as a single disease and hypertension as a concomitant disease. Therefore, age-related vision management, through periodic eye examination and correction with age, should be performed along with management of diabetes and hypertension