Piezoelectrically transduced high-Q silica micro resonators,"

ABSTRACT In this paper, we report on high-performance piezoelectric-on-silica micromechanical resonators for integrated timing applications. Fused silica is used as the resonator structural material for its excellent material properties, and thin film aluminum nitride is used as the piezoelectric transduction layer. A silica resonator is demonstrated with a high quality factor (Q U ~25,841), low motional impedance (R m ~350 ȍ), and good power handling capability. The measured fuQ product of this resonator is the highest amongst reported micromachined silica/fused quartz resonators

Microstructures and mechanical properties of micro friction stir welding (μFSW) of 6061-T4 aluminum alloy

Micro friction stir welding (μFSW) was successfully performed to join the ultra-thin 6061-T4 sheet with the thickness of 0.5 mm. The optimum plunging depth of 0.05 mm was obtained and reduction ratio was lower than 0.2%. Based on better dynamic flow induced by the triflat pin, the good surface appearance at the wider process window was obtained, while the grain size at the nugget zone was finer than that by the taper pin. Increasing welding speed caused that tensile property increased firstly and then decreased with high welding speed than 500 mm/min. The maximum values of tensile strength and elongation of the μFSW joint using the triflat pin reached 220.3 MPa and 11.7%, which were 91.9% and 54.4% of base material, respectively. Keywords: Micro friction stir welding, Ultra-thin sheet, 6061-T4 alloy, Microstructure, Mechanical propert

Transcription profiles of oocytes during maturation and embryos during preimplantation development in vivo in the goat

© 2020 CSIRO. RNA sequencing performed on goat matured oocytes and preimplantation embryos generated in vivo enabled us to define the transcriptome for goat preimplantation embryo development. The largest proportion of changes in gene expression in goat was found at the 16-cell stage, not as previously defined at the 8-cell stage, and is later than in other mammalian species. In all, 6482 genes were identified to be significantly differentially expressed across all consecutive developmental stage comparisons, and the important signalling pathways involved in each development transition were determined. In addition, we identified genes that appear to be transcribed only at a specific stage of development. Using weighted gene coexpression network analysis, we found nine stage-specific modules of coexpressed genes that represent the corresponding stage of development. Furthermore, we identified conserved key members (or hub genes) of the goat transcriptional networks. Their association with other embryo genes suggests that they may have important regulatory roles in embryo development. Our cross-mammalian species transcriptomic comparisons demonstrate both conserved and goat-specific features of preimplantation development

Graft-Versus-Host Disease-Free Antitumoral Signature After Allogeneic Donor Lymphocyte Injection Identified by Proteomics and Systems Biology

PURPOSE: As a tumor immunotherapy, allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation with subsequent donor lymphocyte injection (DLI) aims to induce the graft-versus-tumor (GVT) effect but often also leads to acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Plasma tests that can predict the likelihood of GVT without GVHD are still needed. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We first used an intact-protein analysis system to profile the plasma proteome post-DLI of patients who experienced GVT and acute GVHD for comparison with the proteome of patients who experienced GVT without GVHD in a training set. Our novel six-step systems biology analysis involved removing common proteins and GVHD-specific proteins, creating a protein-protein interaction network, calculating relevance and penalty scores, and visualizing candidate biomarkers in gene networks. We then performed a second proteomics experiment in a validation set of patients who experienced GVT without acute GVHD after DLI for comparison with the proteome of patients before DLI. We next combined the two experiments to define a biologically relevant signature of GVT without GVHD. An independent experiment with single-cell profiling in tumor antigen-activated T cells from a patient with post-hematopoietic cell transplantation relapse was performed. RESULTS: The approach provided a list of 46 proteins in the training set, and 30 proteins in the validation set were associated with GVT without GVHD. The combination of the two experiments defined a unique 61-protein signature of GVT without GVHD. Finally, the single-cell profiling in activated T cells found 43 of the 61 genes. Novel markers, such as RPL23, ILF2, CD58, and CRTAM, were identified and could be extended to other antitumoral responses. CONCLUSION: Our multiomic analysis provides, to our knowledge, the first human plasma signature for GVT without GVHD. Risk stratification on the basis of this signature would allow for customized treatment plans