Study on a metal-insulator-silicon hydrogen sensor with LaTiON as gate insulator

In this paper, by using a metal-insulator- semiconductor Schottky-diode structure, we examined the electrical and hydrogen-sensing properties of radio frequency sputtered LaTiON thin films that had been annealed at four different temperatures (450 °C, 550 °C, 650 °C, and 750 °C). Characterization of their morphological surface indicates that their average surface roughness decreases from 0.108 to 0.090 nm with increasing annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction shows the growths of La and Ti are in the 1 0 0 direction, i.e., in parallel to the Si substrate. Analysis of measured electrical characteristics indicates that thermionic emission is the dominant mechanism at low temperatures (from RT to 150 °C), while Poole-Frenkel emission plays an important role at high temperatures (above 150 °C) in the electrical conduction. Results suggest that the sample annealed at 650 °C has the most promising hydrogen-sensing performance (better current-voltage characteristics, higher sensitivity of 2.0 at 100 °C) among the four samples. © 2001-2012 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Investigation of WO3/ZnO thin-film heterojunction-based Schottky diodes for H2 gas sensing

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Developing novel anti-fibrotic therapeutics to modulate post-surgical wound healing in Glaucoma: big potential for small molecules

Ocular fibrosis leads to significant visual impairment and blindness in millions of people worldwide, and is one of the largest areas of unmet need in clinical ophthalmology. The antimetabolites, mitomycin C and 5-fluorouracil, are the current gold standards used primarily to prevent fibrosis after glaucoma surgery, but have potentially blinding complications like tissue damage, breakdown, and infection. This review thus focuses on the development of new classes of small molecule therapeutics to prevent post-surgical fibrosis in the eye, especially in the context of glaucoma filtration surgery. We discuss recent advances and innovations in ophthalmic wound healing research, including antibodies, RNA interference, gene therapy, nanoparticles, liposomes, dendrimers, proteoglycans, and small molecule inhibitors. We also review the challenges involved in terms of drug delivery, duration of action, and potential toxicity of new anti-fibrotic agents in the eye

A study on hydrogen adsorption of Metal-Insulator-Silicon sensor with La2O3 as gate insulator

A new Metal-Insulator-Silicon (MIS) Schottky-diode hydrogen sensor with La203 as gate insulator was fabricated. Its hydrogen-sensing properties were studied from room temperature (RT) to 200°C. Results showed that the device had excellent hydrogen-sensing performance below about 250°C. Furthermore, hydrogen reaction kinetics was confirmed for the sample. The response time extracted from its hydrogen adsorption transient behavior was around 4.5 s at 150°C, while a hydrogen adsorption activation energy of 10.9 kcal/mol was obtained for the sensor.published_or_final_versionThe 2010 IEEE International Conference of Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits (EDSSC 2010), Hong Kong, China, 15-17 December 2010. In IEEE EDSSC Proceedings, 2010, p. 1-

Personalized Medicine in Ocular Fibrosis: Myth or Future Biomarkers

SIGNIFICANCE: Fibrosis-related events play a part in the pathogenesis or failure of treatment of virtually all the blinding diseases around the world, and also account for over 40% of all deaths. It is well established that the eye and other tissues of some group of patients, for example Afro-Caribbean people, scar worse than others. However, there is a current lack of reliable biomarkers to stratify the risk of scarring and postsurgical fibrosis in the eye. RECENT ADVANCES: Recent studies using genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, clinical phenotyping, and high-resolution in vivo imaging techniques have revealed potential novel biomarkers to identify and stratify patients at risk of scarring in different fibrotic eye diseases. CRITICAL ISSUES: Most of the studies, to date, have been done in animals or small cohorts of patients and future research is needed to validate these results in large longitudinal human studies. Detailed clinical phenotyping and effective biobanking of patient tissues will also be critical for future biomarker research in ocular fibrosis. FUTURE DIRECTIONS: The ability to predict the risk of scarring and to tailor the antifibrotic treatment regimen to each individual patient will be an extremely useful tool clinically to prevent undertreating, or exposing patients to unnecessary treatments with potential side effects. An exciting future prospect will be to use new advances in genotyping, namely next-generation whole genome sequencing like RNA-Seq, to develop a customized gene chip in ocular fibrosis. Successful translation of future biomarkers to benefit patient care will also ultimately require a strong collaboration between academics, pharmaceutical, and biotech companies

A study on metal-insulator-silicon hydrogen sensor with La2O3 as gate insulator

A new MIS Schottky-diode hydrogen sensor with La2O3 as gate insulator was fabricated. Its hydrogen-sensing properties were studied from room temperature (RT) to 300oC. Results showed that the device had excellent hydrogen-sensing performance below about 250oC.published_or_final_versio

Pneumococcal Serotype-Specific Antibodies Persist through Early Childhood after Infant Immunization: Follow-Up from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: In a previous UK multi-center randomized study 278 children received three doses of 7-valent (PCV-7) or 13- valent (PCV-13) pneumococcal conjugate vaccine at 2, 4 and 12 months of age. At 13 months of age, most of these children had pneumococcal serotype-specific IgG concentrations $0.35 mg/ml and opsonophagocytic assay (OPA) titers$8. Methods: Children who had participated in the original study were enrolled again at 3.5 years of age. Persistence of immunity following infant immunization with either PCV-7 or PCV-13 and the immune response to a PCV-13 booster at preschool age were investigated. Results: In total, 108 children were followed-up to the age of 3.5 years and received a PCV-13 booster at this age. At least 76% of children who received PCV-7 or PCV-13 in infancy retained serotype-specific IgG concentrations $0.35 mg/ml against each of 5/7 shared serotypes. For serotypes 4 and 18C, persistence was lower at 22–42$0.35 mg/ml against each of 4/6 of the additional PCV-13 serotypes; for serotypes 1 and 3 this proportion was 45% and 52%. In the PCV-7 group these percentages were significantly lower for serotypes 1, 5 and 7F. A pre-school PCV-13 booster was highly immunogenic and resulted in low rates of local and systemic adverse effects. Conclusion: Despite some decline in antibody from 13 months of age, these data suggest that a majority of pre-school children maintain protective serotype-specific antibody concentrations following conjugate vaccination at 2, 4 and 12 months of age. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT0109547

On the voltage dependence of sensitivity for Schottky-type gas sensor

published_or_final_versio

Efficient white and red light emission from GaN/tris-(8-hydroxyquinolato) aluminum/platinum(II) meso-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin hybrid light-emitting diodes

A study based on the analysis of white and red light emitted from GaN light-emitting diodes was presented. The enhancement in the light emission efficiency was brought about by the employing of an aluminum based hybrid material, tris-(8-hydroxyquinolato) aluminum. The luminescence conversion (LC) efficiency of the LEDs were observed to be 3.3% for white LC-LED and 4.0% for red LC-LED, respectively.published_or_final_versio

Threshold-voltage instability of polymer thin-film transistor under gate-bias and drain-bias stresses

Polymer thin-film transistors (PTFTs) based on MEH-PPV semiconductor are fabricated by spin-coating process and characterized. Gate-bias and drain-bias stress effects at room temperature are observed in the devices. The saturation current decreases and the threshold voltage shifts toward negative direction upon the gate-bias stress. However, the saturation current increases and the threshold voltage shifts toward positive direction upon the drain-bias stress. For variable bias stress conditions, carrier mobility is almost unchanged. The results suggest that the origin of threshold-voltage shift upon negative gate-bias stress is predominantly associated with holes trapped within the SiO 2 gate dielectric or at the SiO 2/Si interface due to hotcarrier emission under high gate-bias stress, while time-dependent charge trapping into the deep trap states in the channel region is responsible for the drain-bias stress effect in the PTFTs. © 2008 IEEE.published_or_final_versio