Intensify the application of ZnO-based nanodevices in humid environment: O2/H2 plasma suppressed the spontaneous reaction of amorphous ZnO nanowires

In this work, we have demonstrated that amorphous ZnO nanobranches (a-ZnO NBs) could spontaneously react from the crystalline ZnO NWs (c-ZnO NWs) at specific humid environment. The spontaneous reaction mechanism and result can be analyzed by humidity controlling and optical microscope (OM)/scanning electron microscope (SEM)/Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM)/transmission electron microscopy (TEM) system. We can make the c-ZnO NWs spontaneous reaction happen at different humid environments and suppress the a-ZnO NBs spontaneous reaction by oxygen/hydrogen plasma surface passivation. The hydrogen plasma surface treatment also can improve the UV sensing sensitivity more than twofold. This work provides the mechanism and methods of the a-ZnO NBs spontaneous growth and offers the passivation treatment for strengthening and enhancing ZnO-based nanodevice application in humid environment and UV light detection, respectively.     

Rejection of Surface Background in Thermal Detectors

A challenging aspect of the next generation detector for rare events searches (i.e. neutrinoless double beta decay and dark matter searches) is the reduction of the background in the region of interest that can mimic the expected signals. In the field of thermal detectors, which have a leading role in rare events searches thanks to their excellent energy resolution and to the wide choice of absorber materials, the background coming from surface contaminations is frequently dominant. A background surface rejection detector is a scintillation-based approach for tagging this type of background. We discuss the innovative application of this technique in non-scintillating thermal detectors. We will report on the performances of the prototype bolometric detector, realized to prove the feasibility of this new technique.     

Fabrication of Pb1‐xSnxTe/PbTe heterojunctions by liquid phase epitaxy

Abstract

Pb_1‐x Sn _x Te epitaxial layers were successfully grown on PbTe substrates by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) technique. The compositions and surface morphology of the epitaxial Pb_1‐x Sn _x Te layers were controlled in the LPE growth, and p‐Pb_1‐x Sn _x Te/n‐PbTe heterodiodes with a good junction‐perfection factor were made.     

On the interfacing between QEMU and SystemC for virtual platform construction: Using DMA as a case

In this paper, we present an interface for the hardware modeled in SystemC to access those modeled in QEMU on a QEMU and SystemC-based virtual platform. By using QEMU as the instruction-accurate instruction set simulator (IA-ISS) and its capability to run a full-fledged operating system such as Linux, the virtual platform with the proposed interface can be used to facilitate the co-design of hardware models and device drivers at the early stage of Electronic System Level (ESL) design flow. In other words, by using such a virtual platform, the hardware models and associated device drivers can be cross verified while they are being developed so that malfunctions in the hardware models or the device drivers can be easily detected. Moreover, the virtual platform with the proposed interface is capable of providing statistics of instructions executed, memory accessed, and I/O performed at the instruction-accurate level—thus not only making it easy to evaluate the performance of the hardware models but also making it possible for design space exploration.     

High Cytoplasmic Expression of Krüppel-like Factor 4 Is an Independent Prognostic Factor of Better Survival in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world. Hepatocarcinogenesis is complex, with an extraordinary molecular heterogeneity. Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) plays an important role in cell proliferation and differentiation, and it can function as a tumor suppressor or an oncoprotein, depending on tissue type. The role of KLF4 in HCC remains controversial. The aim of this study was to explore the clinical significance of KLF4 expression in HCC. The study included 205 patients with surgical resection. We performed immunostaining for KLF4 and Ki-67 to investigate the correlations of the clinicopathological parameters of HCC and to examine the proliferative index. KLF4 staining was observed in the cytoplasm of non-tumorous hepatocytes and tumor cells. We subdivided the immunohistological staining results for KLF4 into low expression (Staining 0 and 1+) and high expression (Staining 2+ and 3+) subgroups. The expression of KLF4 was significantly correlated with tumor differentiation (p = 0.001). The Ki-67 proliferative index was significantly lower in well-differentiated HCCs (0.781% ± 1.02% vs. 2.16% ± 3.14%, p = 0.012), but not significantly different between low-KLF4 expression and high-KLF4 expression (1.87% ± 2.93% vs. 2.51% ± 3.28%, p = 0.32). Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that a high expression of KLF4 was significantly correlated with a longer disease-specific survival (p = 0.019). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that high KLF4 expression was an independent predictor of a better disease-specific survival (p = 0.017; hazard ratio = 0.398; 95% confidence interval: 0.19–0.85). High cytoplasmic expression of KLF4 was associated with better disease-specific survival and was an independently favorable prognostic factor in hepatocellular carcinoma. These promising results suggest that KLF4 may play an anti-oncogenic role in hepatocarcinogenesis.     

Polarity Effect in a Sn3Ag0.5Cu/Bismuth Telluride Thermoelectric System

This study investigates electromigration in Bi₂Te₃ thermoelectric (TE) material systems and the effectiveness of the diffusion barrier under current. The Peltier effect on the interfacial reaction was decoupled from the effect of electromigration. After connecting p- and n-type Bi₂Te₃ to Sn3Ag0.5Cu (SAC305) solders, different current densities were applied at varying temperatures. The Bi₂Te₃ samples were fabricated by the spark plasma sintering technique, and an electroless nickel-phosphorous (Ni-P) layer was deposited at the solder/TE interfaces. The experimental results confirm the importance of the Ni diffusion barrier in joint reliability. Intermetallic compound layers (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ and NiTe formed at the solder/Ni-P and Ni-P/substrate interfaces, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the mechanism of NiTe and (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ compound growth was dominated by the Peltier effect at high current density. When the current density was low, the growth of NiTe was affected by electromigration but the changes of thickness for (Cu,Ni)₆Sn₅ were not obvious.     

Computation Controllable Mode Decision and Motion Estimation for Scalable Video Coding

This paper proposes an efficient computation‐aware mode decision and search point (SP) allocation algorithm for spatial and quality scalabilities in Scalable Video Coding. In our proposal, a linear model is derived to allocate the computation for macroblocks in enhancement layers by using the rate distortion costs of the base layer. In addition, an adaptive SP decision algorithm is proposed to decide the number of SPs for motion estimation under the constraint of the allocated computation. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm allocates the computation resource efficiently and outperforms other works in rate distortion performance under the same computational availability constraint.     

A developed competitive immunoassay based on impedance measurements for methamphetamine detection

In this study, an electro-microchip was successfully used to detect the impedance signals of various methamphetamine (MET) concentrations based on the developed competitive immunoassay method. MET is a commonly used drug often abused by drug addicts and can cause irregular behavior; therefore, MET concentration detection is important for quantitative analysis. In this study, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were introduced into an electro-microchip through the specific binding of antibodies, thus constructing a bridge between two electrodes and allowing electrons to move between them. The decreasing impedance value can be easily measured with a commercial LCR meter. According to the collected measurements, a significant difference was observed in impedance signals after 13?min when MET concentrations were reduced. Additionally, a clear, distinguished impedance (a steep slope for both impedance and MET concentration) in the frequency effect (100?Hz?C1?MHz) was observed at 100?Hz. When the concentration of the anti-MET antibody?Ccolloidal gold conjugates was diluted 100×, the detectable limit for MET concentration was 1?ng/mL with 0.5???g/mL of BSA?CMET conjugate. Therefore, the developed electro-microchip is advantageous because it is effective with small sample volumes (30???L), is a form of rapid quantitative measurement, and works with smaller detectable concentrations than other existing commercial detection products which have the best limit of detection of 100?ng/mL.