Improved facial feature fitting for model based coding and animation

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Back-end of line compatible transistors for hybrid CMOS applications

The low-temperature back-end of line (BEOL) compatible transparent amorphous oxide semiconductor (TAOS) TFTs and poly-Si TFTs are the suitable platforms for three-dimensional (3D) integration hybrid CMOS technologies. The n-channel amorphous indium tungsten oxide (a-IWO) ultra-thin-film transistors (UTFTs) have been successfully fabricated and demonstrated in the category of indium oxide based thin film transistors (TFTs). We have scaled down thickness of a-IWO channel to 4nm. The proposed a-IWO UTFTs with low operation voltages exhibit good electrical characteristics: near ideal subthreshold swing (S.S.) ~ 63mV/dec., high field-effect mobility (FE) ~ 25.3 cm2/V-s. In addition, we also have fabricated the novel less metal contamination Ni-induced lateral crystallization (LC-NILC) p-channel poly-Si TFTs. The matched electrical characteristics of n-channel and p-channel devices with low operation voltage and low IOFF are exhibiting the promising candidate for future hybrid CMOS applications

Tri-layer self-aligned structure indium gallium zinc oxide thin film transistor with optical synaptic plasticity

Since the 1950s, computer computing has been governed by the von Neumann architecture, which allows data to be transmitted across the processor and memory for computation. Nowadays, the demand for large amounts of information transmission has limited the processing speed by the memory bandwidth and generated higher power consumption. The Human brain can perform high-speed operation, store and calculate as one, so the human neuromorphic computation is the next-generation architecture to solve the “von Neumann bottleneck” [1- 2]. In this work, we have successfully developed tri-layer self-aligned structure indium gallium oxide (IGZO) thinfilm transistors (TFTs) with optical-synaptic plasticity. The channel conductance of IGZO TFTs would be modulated after the pulse voltage input from gate electrode. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

GAP-type low-temperature polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors for light sensing photo-transistor application

Recently, ultra-high resolution with biometric recognitions such as fingerprint sensing has been a major trend throughout the whole display industry. In order to meet the needs of high screen ratio, high sensitivity to read out, low temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin film transistor (TFT) is considered one of the candidates for sensing application. Unlike photodiode, LTPS photo-transistor structured as transistor makes it possible to sensing under different region (off-state or on state) with relatively small sensing area. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Characterizations of XpsE protein of the Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris type II secretion apparatus : 1. Analytical ultracentrifugation analysis of quaternary structure, 2. RP-HPLC analysis of protein-bound adenine nucleotides

十字花科黑腐病菌中第二型分泌機制由 12 個蛋白所組成，XpsE 蛋白為成員之一。XpsE 蛋白位於細胞質中，共有 567 個胺基酸。與其他第二型分泌系統中的同源蛋白 (GspE) 胺基酸序列比對，歸類屬於 ”GspE-VirB11 NTPase” 一大家族，具有核苷酸結合區域，推測可能有 ATPase 酵素活性。本論文第一部分中利用分析式超高速離心 (analytical ultracentrifugation) 實驗偵測 XpsE 蛋白的沉降係數，結果顯示 XpsE 蛋白在試管內呈現單倍體、雙倍體、三倍體、四倍體、五倍體與六倍體的四級結構，其中單倍體佔總量的一半。若以分子篩管柱層析分析由 XpsE 的 N 端第 1~152 個胺基酸組成的，XpsEN 蛋白，在沒有 His6-tag 的情況下 XpsEN 蛋白是以單倍體型式存在。但是，若是融合有 His6-tag 的 hXpsEN 蛋白能夠以多倍體與單倍體的型式共同存在。暗示 hXpsEN 蛋白可能因 N 端具有 His6-tag 而形成多倍體的條件。本論文第二部分利用核苷酸萃取與高效能液相逆向層析分析結合於 XpsE 蛋白上的核苷酸。結果顯示，XpsE 蛋白上可能結合有微量的 AMP、ADP 與 ATP 核苷酸。The type II secretion apparatus of Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestri is constituted of 12 proteins components. One of them XpsE is a cytoplasmic protein composed of 567 amino acid residues. Sequence alignment of XpsE protein and its homologues of other type II secretion systems (GspE) revealed that they belong to a “GspE-VirB11 NTPase” superfamily. All members of the protein family posses nucleotide-binding motifs, and proposed to be putative ATPases. In the first part of this study, I determined sedimentation coefficient of XpsE protein by using analytical ultracentrifugation. The results showed that XpsE appears as monomer, dimer, trimer, tetramer, pentamer and hexamer in vitro. Half of them are monomeric. Gel filtration analysis of the XpsEN protein, which is constituted of the N-terminal 1~152 residues of XpsE, indicated that untagged XpsEN exists as solely monomer. In contrast, His6-tagged hXpsEN appeared as monomer and multimer. This observation suggests that multimerization of hXpsEN may be due to its N-terminal His6-tag. In the second part, by using nucleotide extraction followed by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), I analyzed the XpsE-bound adenine nucleotides. Minute amounts of AMP, ADP and ATP were detectable in XpsE-bound state.中文摘要．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．I 英文摘要．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．II 縮寫表．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．III 前言．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．1 材料與方法．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．11 結果．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．25 討論．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．35 參考文獻．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．40 圖表．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．44 附錄．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．．5

Penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose suppresses prostate cancer bone metastasis

根據97年衛生署統計癌症主要死亡原因，前列腺癌(又稱攝護腺癌)由民國75年的第15位跳升至第7位。在西方國家，前列腺癌甚至為男性死亡原因的前兩名。前列腺癌在施以荷爾蒙療法治療後，復發的前列腺癌產生了對荷爾蒙療法的抵抗性，形成非荷爾蒙依賴型的前列腺癌。此病灶的特性是極度具侵犯性，常常會轉移到身體的其他組織或器官，造成器官衰竭而死亡。骨骼是前列腺癌轉移的眾多目標器官之一，骨細胞分泌上皮生長因子刺激前列腺癌細胞分泌 MMP-9，幫助前列腺癌細胞骨轉移。本研究以體外轉移試驗檢查，發現中草藥萃取物 penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose，簡稱 5GG (圖一)， 能抑制非荷爾蒙依賴型前列腺癌細胞株 (Prostate cancer 3, PC3) 的骨轉移。實驗結果顯示，5GG 藥物藉由抑制前列腺癌細胞中的 MMP-9 mRNA，進而影響其蛋白質表現來達到減少前列腺癌細胞轉移能力。藉由藥物的作用，確認了JNK 調控 NFκB 扮演 MMP-9 的轉錄因子。然而藥物 5GG 在上皮生長因子的刺激下，能夠幫助上皮生長因子受體被 proteasome 降解。確認了 5GG 藥物在前列腺癌細胞中透過 EGFR/JNK/NFκB 路徑抑制 MMP-9 蛋白質表現。動物實驗也證明了，藥物 5GG 能夠抑制前列腺癌細胞的生長與蝕骨現象。另一方面，利用二維電泳與基質輔助雷射脫附游離飛行時間質譜儀，分析藥物 5GG 作用於上皮生長因子的前列腺癌細胞中的蛋白質表現，在十四個表現差異的蛋白中含有 eIF3i。由實驗結果顯示，若是利用 eIF3i shRNA 減少前列腺癌細胞中的 eIF3i 的蛋白質表現，能夠使前列腺癌細胞失去轉移能力。由西方墨點法與 real-time PCR 結果得知，5GG 藥物能夠抑制前列腺癌細胞中 eIF3i 的蛋白質表現，但是影響 eIF3i mRNA 的表現比較小。本論文推論 eIF3i 的蛋白質合成受到 5GG 藥物作用的影響。藉由加入信息傳遞路徑抑制劑，進一步確認幫助蛋白質合成的 PI3K/Akt/mTOR 能影響 eIF3i 蛋白質的生成。綜合以上結果，藥物 5GG 是一個值得開發成為治療前列腺癌細胞骨轉移的藥物。Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in men in the United States. Most prostate cancer initially remained sensitive to androgen for therapeutic treatment, however, prostate cancer eventually loses its dependence on androgens and progresses to an androgen-independent state that was more malignant. The prostate cancer cells may metastasize from the prostate to other parts of the body, particularly the bones. Epidermal growth factor (EGF) generated from bone tissue contributes to prostate cancer metastasis through stimulating matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) secretions from prostate cancer cells. In this study, in vitro invasion assay was performed by incubating penta-O-galloyl-β-D-glucose (5GG). The anti-invasive and cytotoxic effects of 5GG were found and evaluated on the human androgen-independent prostate cancer PC-3 cell line by MTT assays and Western blot analyses. 5GG inhibited the EGF-induced cell invasiveness and MMP-9 expression in a dose- and time dependent manner by reducing the MMP-9 transcriptional activity. To explore the mechanisms for the 5GG-mediated regulation of MMP-9, we further examined the effects of 5GG on transcription factors, including NF-κB, AP-1, and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activities. The results showed that 5GG suppressed the EGF-induced NF-κB nuclear translocation and also abrogated the EGF-induced activation of c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), an upstream modulator of NF-κB. Moreover, we showed that 5GG reduced EGFR expression through the proteasome pathway. These results suggest that 5GG may exert at least part of its anti-invasive effect in androgen-independent prostate cancer by controlling MMP-9 expression through the suppression of the EGFR/JNK pathway. 5GG suppresses invasion and tumorigenesis in nude mice treatment with intratibia injection of PC-3 cells. We also utilized the 2D-PAGE and MALDI-TOF to analyze the effect of 5GG treated with EGF-induced human prostate cancer. EIF3i is one of 14 proteins been identified by proteomic analysis. By transfection of eIF3i shRNA, we observed the decreased protein expression of eIF3i associated with poor invasion ability in EGF-induced prostate cancer. 5GG could reduce the eIF3i protein expression of EGF-induced prostate cancer cell through PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway. These in vitro and in vivo results suggest that 5GG may be a therapeutic candidate for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.謝誌 ............................................................................................................................. 4 中文摘要 ..................................................................................................................... 6 英文摘要 ..................................................................................................................... 8 第一章 緒論 ............................................................................................................. 12 (一)、前列腺癌 (prostate cancer) 與骨轉移 (bone metastasis) .......................... 12 (二)、上皮生長因子 (epidermal growth factor，簡稱 EGF) 與前列腺癌細胞骨轉移的關係 ............................................................................................................... 14 (三)、基質金屬蛋白酵素 (matrix metalloproteinases, MMPs) 與前列腺癌細胞骨轉移的關係 ............................................................................................................... 15 (四)、第三真核起始因子 (eukaryotic initiation factor 3, EIF3) 與癌症的關係.. 19 (五)、中草藥萃取物 5GG (penta-O-galloyl-beta-D-glucose) ………………..…. 21 第二章 材料與方法 ................................................................................................. 23 (一)、材料 (materials) ............................................................................................ 23 (二)、方法 (methods) ............................................................................................. 24 第三章 實驗結果 ..................................................................................................... 35 (一)、藥物 5GG抑制雄激素不依賴 (androgen-independent ) 的前列腺癌細胞株 PC3 轉移 (invasion) ........................................................................................... 35 (二)、藥物 5GG對於前列腺癌細胞株 PC3 的低毒性 ..................................... 35 (三)、藥物 5GG抑制前列腺癌細胞株中 MMP-9 表現 ................................... 36 (四)、藥物 5GG 負向調控因上皮生長因子誘導的 NF-κB 入核轉位 (nuclear translocation) .............................................................................................................. 37 (五)、藥物 5GG 抑制前列腺癌細胞上皮因子誘導 JNK2 磷酸化的表現 ..... 38 (六)、藥物 5GG 抑制上皮生長因子誘導的上皮生長因子受體 (EGFR) 磷酸化與表現量 ................................................................................................................... 40 (七)、蛋白質降解酶 (proteasome) 參與了 5GG 藥物作用所調控的上皮生長因子受體降解 ............................................................................................................... 41 (八)、上皮生長因子受體與 JNK1/2 蛋白參與了 5GG 藥物影響前列腺癌細胞中 MMP-9 表現的負調控 ...................................................................................... 42 (九)、動物實驗中 5GG 藥物能抑制腫瘤轉移 (invasion) 與腫瘤新生 (tumorigenesis) ........................................................................................................... 43 (十)、利用蛋白質體學分析藥物 5GG 抑制上皮生長因子誘導前列腺癌細胞 ............................................................................................................................... 43 (十一)、藥物 5GG 抑制抑制上皮生長因子誘導前列腺癌細胞中 eIF3i 的表現 ............................................................................................................................... 44 (十二)、降低 eIF3i 蛋白質抑制前列腺癌細胞轉移 .......................................... 45 (十三)、藥物 5GG 對前列腺癌細胞中 eIF3i mRNA 表現的影響不明顯 ...... 45 (十四)、PI3K/JNK/p38 參與 5GG 藥物調控 eIF3i 的表現 ............................ 46 (十五)、藥物 5GG 透過 PI3K/Akt/mTOR 信息傳遞路徑調控前列腺癌細胞上皮因子誘導的 eIF3i 表現 ...................................................................................... 46 第四章 討論 ............................................................................................................. 48 圖表 ........................................................................................................................... 54 參考文獻 ................................................................................................................... 70 論文發表 ................................................................................................................... 8

Numerical Analysis of Oxygen-Related Defects in Amorphous In-W-O Nanosheet Thin-Film Transistor

The integration of 4 nm thick amorphous indium tungsten oxide (a-IWO) and a hafnium oxide (HfO2) high-κ gate dielectric has been demonstrated previously as one of promising amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS) thin-film transistors (TFTs). In this study, the more positive threshold voltage shift (∆VTH) and reduced ION were observed when increasing the oxygen ratio during a-IWO deposition. Through simple material measurements and Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) analysis, the distinct correlation between different chemical species and the corresponding bulk and interface density of states (DOS) parameters were systematically deduced, validating the proposed physical mechanisms with a quantum model for a-IWO nanosheet TFT. The effects of oxygen flow on oxygen interstitial (Oi) defects were numerically proved for modulating bulk dopant concentration Nd and interface density of Gaussian acceptor trap NGA at the front channel, significantly dominating the transfer characteristics of a-IWO TFT. Furthermore, based on the studies of density functional theory (DFT) for the correlation between formation energy Ef of Oi defect and Fermi level (EF) position, we propose a numerical methodology for monitoring the possible concentration distribution of Oi as a function of a bias condition for AOS TFTs

Application of Time-Lapse Ion Exchange Resin Sachets (TIERS) for Detecting Illegal Effluent Discharge in Mixed Industrial and Agricultural Areas, Taiwan

Many factories were built and scattered around the farmlands in Taiwan due to inappropriate land use planning. Illegal effluent discharge of high concentration of metals from the nearby factories has been threatening the farmlands, causing damages to agricultural production, food safety, and human health. Sampling was mostly responsible for monitoring the water quality of the agricultural environment; however, the analysis is of high cost and time consuming. Due to uneasy controlled environmental factors (i.e., illegal effluents) and time-consuming and expensive traditional analysis techniques (i.e., atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)), we develop a fast-screening method, which is the combination of ion exchange resins and the portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to identify the source of contaminants in a mixed industrial and agricultural area in Taoyuan County, Taiwan. The time-lapse ion exchange resin sachet (TIERS) is a non-woven bag that is filled with resins and placed in the irrigation channels for continuously absorbing the metal and trace elements in water. The standardization ratios of Cu/Sr and Zn/Sr were calculated as the pollutant indicators for fast-screening the highly polluted sites of exceedance probability of 2.27% in the monitoring area. The TIERS is verified to detect the metal and trace element concentration in an efficient and sufficient way

One digit interruption: the altered force patterns during functionally cylindrical grasping tasks in patients with trigger digits.

Most trigger digit (TD) patients complain that they have problems using their hand in daily or occupational tasks due to single or multiple digits being affected. Unfortunately, clinicians do not know much about how this disease affects the subtle force coordination among digits during manipulation. Thus, this study examined the differences in force patterns during cylindrical grasp between TD and healthy subjects. Forty-two TD patients with single digit involvement were included and sorted into four groups based on the involved digits, including thumb, index, middle and ring fingers. Twelve healthy subjects volunteered as healthy controls. Two testing tasks, holding and drinking, were performed by natural grasping with minimal forces. The relations between the force of the thumb and each finger were examined by Pearson correlation coefficients. The force amount and contribution of each digit were compared between healthy controls and each TD group by the independent t test. The results showed all TD groups demonstrated altered correlation patterns of the thumb relative to each finger. Larger forces and higher contributions of the index finger were found during holding by patients with index finger involved, and also during drinking by patients with affected thumb and with affected middle finger. Although no triggering symptom occurred during grasping, the patients showed altered force patterns which may be related to the role of the affected digit in natural grasping function. In conclusion, even if only one digit was affected, the subtle force coordination of all the digits was altered during simple tasks among the TD patients. This study provides the information for the future studies to further comprehend the possible injuries secondary to the altered finger coordination and also to adopt suitable treatment strategies