Analysis of removal and decomposition pathways of Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide (VHP) for aircraft decontamination operation

In response to possible terrorist attacks and epidemic/pandemic diseases, there is a need for efficient infection control and sanitization of airliners. Use of vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) is a promising method to achieve the goal. However, the impact of disposed VHP on atmospheric environment after decontamination operation needs to be fully understood to avoid any detrimental consequence caused by airliner decontamination. This paper analyzed the removal and decomposition pathways of VHP in the atmosphere, including physical and chemical pathways. Absorption by water droplets in atmosphere and photolytic decay mechanisms have been investigated. The results show that the uptake to water droplets in the air appears to be a major pathway for the removal of VHP

Induction chemotherapy for squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity: A cumulative meta-analysis

Induction chemotherapy (ICT) is a controversial treatment for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Despite numerous randomized controlled trials (RCTs), a majority do not have enough statistical power alone to conclude ICT’s treatment value among oral squamous carcinoma patients (OSCC) since many addressed HNSCC as one entity instead of by specific subtypes. By performing a systematic review and cumulative meta-analysis, we aim to determine the benefits of ICT in OSCC therapy. A literature search identified for RCTs comparing OSCC patients who received ICT against those without. Log-hazard ratio, and relative risk were used for comparison. Heterogeneity was determined using the I2 statistic package. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), followed by disease-free survival (DFS), locoregional recurrence (LRR) and distant metastasis (DM) as secondary endpoints. RESULTS: 27 randomized trials were included for analysis (n = 2872 patients). The shortest median follow-up was 15 months whereas the longest was 11.5 years. ICT does not improve OS (HR = 0.947, 95% CI 0.85–1.05, p = 0.318), DFS (RR = 1.05, 95% CI 0.92–1.21, p = 0.462) and DM (RR = 0.626, CI 95% 0.361–1.086, p = 0.096) compared to locoregional treatment alone. However, there was a significant improvement to LRR (RR = 0.778, 95% CI 0.622–0.972, p = 0.027). There is no evidence ICT improves survival outcomes for OSCC patients. However, ICT reduces locoregional recurrence of OSCC, which may need further verification.preprin

Review of noise sources in magnetic tunnel junction sensors

Invited Oral Presentation: M-13This journal issue contain selected papers from the Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference 2010Noise problem limits the sensitivity of magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensors for ultra-low magnetic field applications. Noise analysis not only helps in finding ways to eliminate noise disturbances but also essential for understanding the electronic and magnetic properties of MTJs. These approaches provide insight for optimizing the design of MTJ sensors before fabrication. This paper reviews the noise sources in MTJ sensors reported in recent years. Both the origins and mathematical derivations of the noise sources are presented, illustrating how different factors affecting the performance of MTJ sensors. A brief outlook of challenges in the future is also given. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

A magnetically shielded instrument for magnetoresistance and noise characterizations of magnetic tunnel junction sensors

A magnetically shielded setup was developed for characterizing magnetoresistance (MR) and noise properties of magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) sensors. A mu-metal shielding is installed to avoid the interference of external magnetic disturbance. Both MR curves and noise power spectra of MTJ sensors can be obtained for further data analysis. Moreover, a hard-axis magnetic field can be applied to eliminate the hysteresis and the linear field response of MTJ sensors can be measured. The preliminary measurement results on MTJ sensors are presented to illustrate the characterization capabilities of this setup. © 2010 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2010 IEEE International Conference of Electronic Devices and Solid-State Circuits (EDSSC), Hong Kong, 15-17 December 2010. In Proceedings of EDSSC, 2010, p. 1-

Magnetic tunnel junction sensors with conetic alloy

Poster Session - F. Storage Applications and Others: PF-12This journal issue contain selected papers of APDSC'10Al 2O 3 magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) sensors were fabricated with Conetic alloy Ni 77Fe 14Cu 5Mo 4 deposited as the free layer and pinned layer for its soft magnetic properties. It was observed that the Al 2O 3 MTJ sensors with Conetic exhibited relatively small easy-axis coercivity. Tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and noise measurements were carried out to characterize the sensors. TMR of 9.5% and Hooge parameter of 3.825 × 10 -7μm 2 were achieved without any hard-axis field. Hard-axis bias field was applied to eliminate the hysteresis and improve the linear field response of the MTJ sensor. The hysteresis was removed by applying an external magnetic field along the hard axis at 8 Oe and the sensor sensitivity was 0.4 %/Oe within a linear region at room temperature. The relationship between the Hooge parameter and hard-axis field was also investigated and the result demonstrated that the 1/f noise can be suppressed by an optimized hard-axis bias field. This work shows that it is feasible to use Conetic alloy as the soft magnetic layers in MTJ sensors for its small coercivity, and a hard-axis bias field can be used to linearize the sensor response and suppress the 1/f noise. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe Asia-Pacific Data Storage Conference (APDSC'10), Hualien, Taiwan, 27-29 October 2010. In IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, 2011, v. 47 n. 3, p. 714-71

Stenting in small coronary arteries: initial experience with the Gianturco-roubin II stent

published_or_final_versio

Template-free synthesis of Nd0.1Bi0.9FeO3 nanotubes with large inner diameter and wasp-waisted hysteresis loop

published_or_final_versio

Electrophysiological Mechanisms of Brugada Syndrome: Insights from Pre-clinical and Clinical Studies.

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Frontiers via https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2016.00467Brugada syndrome (BrS), is a primary electrical disorder predisposing affected individuals to sudden cardiac death via the development of ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation (VT/VF). Originally, BrS was linked to mutations in the SCN5A, which encodes for the cardiac Na+ channel. To date, variants in 19 genes have been implicated in this condition, with 11, 5, 3, and 1 genes affecting the Na+, K+, Ca2+, and funny currents, respectively. Diagnosis of BrS is based on ECG criteria of coved- or saddle-shaped ST segment elevation and/or T-wave inversion with or without drug challenge. Three hypotheses based on abnormal depolarization, abnormal repolarization, and current-load-mismatch have been put forward to explain the electrophysiological mechanisms responsible for BrS. Evidence from computational modeling, pre-clinical, and clinical studies illustrates that molecular abnormalities found in BrS lead to alterations in excitation wavelength (λ), which ultimately elevates arrhythmic risk. A major challenge for clinicians in managing this condition is the difficulty in predicting the subset of patients who will suffer from life-threatening VT/VF. Several repolarization risk markers have been used thus far, but these neglect the contributions of conduction abnormalities in the form of slowing and dispersion. Indices incorporating both repolarization and conduction and based on the concept of λ have recently been proposed. These may have better predictive values than the existing markers.GT received a BBSRC Doctoral CASE Studentship at the University of Cambridge and thanks the Croucher Foundation of Hong Kong for the support of his Clinical Assistant Professorship. YC is supported by the ESRC for her Ph.D. studies at the University of Cambridge. BY received funding from the Research Grant Council of Hong Kong for his research

Inference of gene-phenotype associations via protein-protein interaction and orthology

published_or_final_versio

Covering Problems for Partial Words and for Indeterminate Strings

We consider the problem of computing a shortest solid cover of an indeterminate string. An indeterminate string may contain non-solid symbols, each of which specifies a subset of the alphabet that could be present at the corresponding position. We also consider covering partial words, which are a special case of indeterminate strings where each non-solid symbol is a don't care symbol. We prove that indeterminate string covering problem and partial word covering problem are NP-complete for binary alphabet and show that both problems are fixed-parameter tractable with respect to $k$, the number of non-solid symbols. For the indeterminate string covering problem we obtain a $2^{O(k \log k)} + n k^{O(1)}$-time algorithm. For the partial word covering problem we obtain a $2^{O(\sqrt{k}\log k)} + nk^{O(1)}$-time algorithm. We prove that, unless the Exponential Time Hypothesis is false, no $2^{o(\sqrt{k})} n^{O(1)}$-time solution exists for either problem, which shows that our algorithm for this case is close to optimal. We also present an algorithm for both problems which is feasible in practice.Comment: full version (simplified and corrected); preliminary version appeared at ISAAC 2014; 14 pages, 4 figure