RF Power Harvesting Rectenna

Sustainability is one of today\u27s primary engineering objectives. This principle involves system design that minimizes environmentally harmful energy emissions and resource consumption, and maximizes renewable energy practices [1]. Communication antennas transmit wireless signals that can be converted into usable energy. The Rectenna system described in this report, shown in Figure 1, was designed to accomplish this energy conversion, with -5dBm (316µW) minimum power at the rectifier input. Since typical ambient signal power is in the -70dBm (0.1nW) range, the proposed system could only convert passive, relatively high-power microwave band AC signals to DC. The Rectenna system was designed for 1.9GHz signal reception; however, the greatest ambient 1.9GHz signal power measured in Cal Poly’s Microwave Lab was in the -75dBm (31pW) to -70dBm (100pW) range, shown in Table 1. The team provided an external 1.9GHz source (-20dBm to 3dBm) to verify the design. An inset-fed microstrip patch is used as an energy harvesting antenna; the single patch was then arrayed into a 2x2 planar configuration. The designed patch antenna array has a 3dB larger gain, and 1% increased frequency bandwidth compared to the single patch. However, it is unable to harvest sufficient RF power for energy storage. When capturing multiple-source ambient RF signals, an omnidirectional antenna (captures energy in all directions) should be implemented, rather than a directional patch antenna array. The Greinacher rectifier [2] converts RF energy into usable DC power which is multiple times the input RF peak voltage. Simulations show the Greinacher rectifier output voltage is a function of the number of stages and peak input voltage. The antenna and rectifier are matched with |S11| less than -21dB and -5dB, respectively, at 1.9GHz to mitigate power losses. A high-efficiency Main Boost Converter (BQ25504) increases rectifier output DC voltage to 3.1V for charge storage on a capacitor (battery). A Self-Oscillating Boost Converter (SOBC) handles startup when the capacitor is initially discharged. A passive switching circuit was developed to enable source-free switching from the SOBC to the Main Boost Converter. The system yields 29% and 12% maximum power efficiency with -1dBm (794µW) and -5dBm (316µW) input power to the rectifier, respectively

Transient Expression of Tetrameric Recombinant Human Butyrylcholinesterase in Nicotiana benthamiana.

To optimize the expression, extraction and purification of plant-derived tetrameric recombinant human butyrylcholinesterase (prBChE), we describe the development and use of plant viral amplicon-based gene expression system; Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV) RNA-based overexpression vector (TRBO) to express enzymatically active FLAG-tagged plant made recombinant butyrylcholinesterase (rBChE) in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves using transient agroinfiltration. Two gene expression cassettes were designed to express the recombinant protein in either the ER or to the apoplastic compartment. Leaf homogenization was used to isolate ER-retained recombinant butyrylcholinesterase (prBChE-ER) while apoplast-targeted rBChE was isolated by either leaf homogenization (prBChE) or vacuum-extraction of apoplastic wash fluid (prBChE-AWF). rBChE from apoplast wash fluid had a higher specific activity but lower enzyme yield than leaf homogenate. To optimize the isolation and purification of total recombinant protein from leaf homogenates, an acidic extraction buffer was used. The acidic extraction buffer yielded >95% enzymatically active tetrameric rBChE as verified by Coomassie stained and native gel electrophoresis. Furthermore, when compared to human butyrylcholinesterase, the prBChE was found to be similar in terms of tetramerization and enzyme kinetics. The N-linked glycan profile of purified prBChE-ER was found to be mostly high mannose structures while the N-linked glycans on prBChE-AWF were primarily complex. The glycan profile of the prBChE leaf homogenates showed a mixture of high mannose, complex and paucimannose type N-glycans. These findings demonstrate the ability of plants to produce rBChE that is enzymatically active and whose oligomeric state is comparable to mammalian butyrylcholinesterase. The process of plant made rBChE tetramerization and strategies for improving its pharmacokinetics properties are also discussed

The Journal of Microelectronic Research 2005

https://scholarworks.rit.edu/meec_archive/1014/thumbnail.jp

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Pan-Cancer Analysis of lncRNA Regulation Supports Their Targeting of Cancer Genes in Each Tumor Context

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are commonly dys-regulated in tumors, but only a handful are known toplay pathophysiological roles in cancer. We inferredlncRNAs that dysregulate cancer pathways, onco-genes, and tumor suppressors (cancer genes) bymodeling their effects on the activity of transcriptionfactors, RNA-binding proteins, and microRNAs in5,185 TCGA tumors and 1,019 ENCODE assays.Our predictions included hundreds of candidateonco- and tumor-suppressor lncRNAs (cancerlncRNAs) whose somatic alterations account for thedysregulation of dozens of cancer genes and path-ways in each of 14 tumor contexts. To demonstrateproof of concept, we showed that perturbations tar-geting OIP5-AS1 (an inferred tumor suppressor) andTUG1 and WT1-AS (inferred onco-lncRNAs) dysre-gulated cancer genes and altered proliferation ofbreast and gynecologic cancer cells. Our analysis in-dicates that, although most lncRNAs are dysregu-lated in a tumor-specific manner, some, includingOIP5-AS1, TUG1, NEAT1, MEG3, and TSIX, synergis-tically dysregulate cancer pathways in multiple tumorcontexts

Pan-cancer Alterations of the MYC Oncogene and Its Proximal Network across the Cancer Genome Atlas

Although theMYConcogene has been implicated incancer, a systematic assessment of alterations ofMYC, related transcription factors, and co-regulatoryproteins, forming the proximal MYC network (PMN),across human cancers is lacking. Using computa-tional approaches, we define genomic and proteo-mic features associated with MYC and the PMNacross the 33 cancers of The Cancer Genome Atlas.Pan-cancer, 28% of all samples had at least one ofthe MYC paralogs amplified. In contrast, the MYCantagonists MGA and MNT were the most frequentlymutated or deleted members, proposing a roleas tumor suppressors.MYCalterations were mutu-ally exclusive withPIK3CA,PTEN,APC,orBRAFalterations, suggesting that MYC is a distinct onco-genic driver. Expression analysis revealed MYC-associated pathways in tumor subtypes, such asimmune response and growth factor signaling; chro-matin, translation, and DNA replication/repair wereconserved pan-cancer. This analysis reveals insightsinto MYC biology and is a reference for biomarkersand therapeutics for cancers with alterations ofMYC or the PMN

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin

Spatial Organization and Molecular Correlation of Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Using Deep Learning on Pathology Images

Beyond sample curation and basic pathologic characterization, the digitized H&E-stained images of TCGA samples remain underutilized. To highlight this resource, we present mappings of tumorinfiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) based on H&E images from 13 TCGA tumor types. These TIL maps are derived through computational staining using a convolutional neural network trained to classify patches of images. Affinity propagation revealed local spatial structure in TIL patterns and correlation with overall survival. TIL map structural patterns were grouped using standard histopathological parameters. These patterns are enriched in particular T cell subpopulations derived from molecular measures. TIL densities and spatial structure were differentially enriched among tumor types, immune subtypes, and tumor molecular subtypes, implying that spatial infiltrate state could reflect particular tumor cell aberration states. Obtaining spatial lymphocytic patterns linked to the rich genomic characterization of TCGA samples demonstrates one use for the TCGA image archives with insights into the tumor-immune microenvironment

Driver Fusions and Their Implications in the Development and Treatment of Human Cancers.

Gene fusions represent an important class of somatic alterations in cancer. We systematically investigated fusions in 9,624 tumors across 33 cancer types using multiple fusion calling tools. We identified a total of 25,664 fusions, with a 63% validation rate. Integration of gene expression, copy number, and fusion annotation data revealed that fusions involving oncogenes tend to exhibit increased expression, whereas fusions involving tumor suppressors have the opposite effect. For fusions involving kinases, we found 1,275 with an intact kinase domain, the proportion of which varied significantly across cancer types. Our study suggests that fusions drive the development of 16.5% of cancer cases and function as the sole driver in more than 1% of them. Finally, we identified druggable fusions involving genes such as TMPRSS2, RET, FGFR3, ALK, and ESR1 in 6.0% of cases, and we predicted immunogenic peptides, suggesting that fusions may provide leads for targeted drug and immune therapy