Adhesion of copper to UV photo-oxidized Kapton and Upilex-S polyimide surfaces

Polyimides (PIs), like Kapton® and Upilex-S®, are often used as electrical insulation between levels of circuitry in the manufacture of electronic components. Excellent adhesion between the Cu conductor and the dielectric material is essential in the construction of these microsystem devices. Polyimide, Kapton® HN500 (PMDA-ODA), and Upilex-S® (BPDA-PDA) were exposed to 185/254 nm radiation in the presence of oxygen at atmospheric pressure. Surface modification of the PI surface was investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (TOFSIMS). Copper was sputter-coated onto the modified PI surface. To monitor adhesion, tape tests were applied to the Cu/PI substrate. SEM micrographs revealed some changes with Upilex-S while did not show any significant differences in surface morphology following photo-oxidation for Kapton HN. With long treatment times, XPS results showed cohesive failure occurring within the modified PI and not at the PI-Cu interface. Coupling the more microscopic view of the surface by TOFSIMS with the results of XPS, that samples a depth of ca. 2- 10 nm, suggest adhesion failure occurs at a thickness ≤10 nm. There was good practical adhesion between Cu and the modified PI surface. Adhesion test results showed that cohesive failure occurred quicker within Upilex-S than Kapton HN samples

Efficient MRF Energy Propagation for Video Segmentation via Bilateral Filters

Segmentation of an object from a video is a challenging task in multimedia applications. Depending on the application, automatic or interactive methods are desired; however, regardless of the application type, efficient computation of video object segmentation is crucial for time-critical applications; specifically, mobile and interactive applications require near real-time efficiencies. In this paper, we address the problem of video segmentation from the perspective of efficiency. We initially redefine the problem of video object segmentation as the propagation of MRF energies along the temporal domain. For this purpose, a novel and efficient method is proposed to propagate MRF energies throughout the frames via bilateral filters without using any global texture, color or shape model. Recently presented bi-exponential filter is utilized for efficiency, whereas a novel technique is also developed to dynamically solve graph-cuts for varying, non-lattice graphs in general linear filtering scenario. These improvements are experimented for both automatic and interactive video segmentation scenarios. Moreover, in addition to the efficiency, segmentation quality is also tested both quantitatively and qualitatively. Indeed, for some challenging examples, significant time efficiency is observed without loss of segmentation quality.Comment: Multimedia, IEEE Transactions on (Volume:16, Issue: 5, Aug. 2014

Polymer Inclusion Membrane From Aqueous Solution

In the present work, the transport of Zn(II) metal ion from an aqueous nitrate solution of different metal ions through a polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) containing calix[4]resorcinarene derivative used as a carrier were investigated. Zn(II)metal ion showing high permeability were transported through PIMs prepared from cellulose triacetate (CTA) as a polymeric support material and 2-NPOE as a plasticizer. Total Zn(II) concentration was determined with an Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS) in the acceptor phase. The prepared PIM and supported liquid membrane (SLM) were characterized by using Scanning Electron Microscopy(SEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) techniques. The effects of membrane composition, effects of type of plasticizer in the membrane, effects of carrier concentration, and the thickness of the membranes were examined in the facilitated transport experiments of Zn(II) ion through PIM. We compared the performance of SLM experiments under the optimum conditions identified by the PIM studies. Higher permeability coefficient values for Zn(II) was found for SLM, while lower values were ascertained for PIM. The kinetic parameters which have been calculated as the constant rate (k), permeability coefficient (P), flux (J) and diffusion coefficient (D)

Immunotherapy in Glioblastoma: Current Approaches and Future Perspectives

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor. Despite multimodality treatment with surgical resection, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and tumor treating fields, recurrence is universal, median observed survival is low at 8 months and 5-year overall survival is poor at 7%. Immunotherapy aims to generate a tumor-specific immune response to selectively eliminate tumor cells. In treatment of GBM, immunotherapy approaches including use of checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-Cell therapy, vaccine-based approaches, viral vector therapies, and cytokine-based treatment has been studied. While there have been no major breakthroughs to date and broad implementation of immunotherapy for GBM remains elusive, multiple studies are underway. In this review, we discuss immunotherapy approaches to GBM with an emphasis on molecularly informed approaches

Current Status and Challenges of Oncolytic Virotherapy for the Treatment of Glioblastoma

Despite decades of research and numerous clinical trials, the prognosis of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma (GBM) remains dire with median observed survival at 8 months. There is a critical need for novel treatments for GBM, which is the most common malignant primary brain tumor. Major advances in cancer therapeutics such as immune checkpoint inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy have not yet led to improved outcomes for GBM. Conventional therapy of surgery followed by chemoradiation with or without tumor treating fields remains the standard of care. One of the many approaches to GBM therapy currently being explored is viral therapies. These typically work by selectively lysing target neoplastic cells, called oncolysis, or by the targeted delivery of a therapeutic transgene via a viral vector. In this review, we discuss the underlying mechanisms of action and describe both recent and current human clinical trials using these viruses with an emphasis on promising viral therapeutics that may ultimately break the field’s current stagnant paradigm

INTERACTIVE 2D-3D IMAGE CONVERSION FOR MOBILE DEVICES

We propose a complete still image based 2D-3D mobile conversion system for touch screen use. The system consists of interactive segmentation followed by 3D rendering. The interactive segmentation is conducted dynamically by color Gaussian mixture model updates and dynamic-iterative graph-cut. A coloring gesture is used to guide the way and entertain the user during the process. Output of the image segmentation is then fed to the 3D rendering stage of the system. For rendering stage, two novel improvements are proposed to handle holes resulting from depth image based rendering process. These improvements are also expected to enhance the 3D perception. These two methods are subjectively tested and their results are presented

A Rare And Overlooked Mechanical Complication Of Partial Nephrectomy: Accelerated Hypertension Due To Renal Artery Stenosis

Secondary hypertension accounts for 5% to 10% of all hypertensive cases, and renal artery stenosis is one of the most common causes of secondary hypertension. Although atherosclerotic vascular disease and fibromuscular dysplasia are the leading causes of renal artery stenosis, there are other, rare etiologies, such as vasculitis and trauma. A partial nephrectomy is the standard of care treatment option for early stage renal carcinoma patients. Traumatic renal artery stenosis can occur during this surgical intervention, though it is a very rare adverse event, and only a few case reports have been reported in the literature. This report is the description of successful percutaneous treatment of accelerated hypertension secondary to traumatic renal artery stenosis after a partial nephrectomy.WoSScopu

The effect of carbamazepine treatment on serum leptin levels

Patients with epilepsy may manifest metabolic adverse effects throughout the course of their management with antiepileptic drugs. Leptin is a hormone that plays a major role in the regulation of feeding and energy expenditure. Leptin has been expected to form a link to weight gain in epilepsy with the use of some antiepileptic drugs. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of carbamazepine on body weight and serum leptin levels