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PURPOSE To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of immediate manual meibomian gland expression (MGX) after LipiFlow thermal pulsation (TearScience Inc, Morrisville, NC) for obstructive meibomian gland dysfunction and to compare the LipiFlow only and MGX after LipiFlow. METHODS Patients who underwent immediate manual MGX after LipiFlow or who received only LipiFlow treatment were included. Thirty eyes from 15 patients were enrolled in each group. All patients underwent 3 treatments at monthly intervals. All patients were followed up for 6 months after treatment. All patients were examined before and at 3 and 6 months after treatment. Examinations included the Ocular Surface Disease Index score, noninvasive tear film breakup time (NIBUT), lipid layer thickness (LLT), corneal and conjunctival staining, and tear meniscus height. RESULTS The Ocular Surface Disease Index scores improved in both groups during the follow-up periods (P = 0.001 and P = 0.001). In the LipiFlow-only group, the NIBUT and LLT significantly improved at 3 months (P < 0.001 and P = 0.006) but deteriorated at 6 months. In the MGX after LipiFlow group, the NIBUT and LLT improved at 3 months (P < 0.001 and P < 0.001), and this improvement was maintained at 6 months. The improvement of NIBUT at 3 months was greater in the MGX after LipiFlow group (3.24 ± 1.16 to 9.25 ± 1.36 s) than in the LipiFlow-only group (3.78 ± 1.75 to 7.18 ± 2.70 s), and the improvements of the LLT at 6 months were greater in the MGX after LipiFlow group (30.27 ± 10.74 to 46.93 ± 20.81 μm) than in the LipiFlow-only group (34.70 ± 10.79 to 38.73 ± 14.70 μm). CONCLUSIONS Both LipiFlow only and MGX after LipiFlow were clinically effective for obstructive meibomian gland dysfunction. However, the efficacy and persistence of treatment were greater in patients who received MGX after LipiFlow.

Purpose To compare the protective effects of cyclosporine A emulsion (Restasis: 0.05% cyclosporine A) (CsAE) and cyclosporine A cationic emulsion (Ikervis: 0.1% cyclosporine A) (CsACE) on cellular inflammation, apoptosis, proliferation, and survival in an in vitro dry eye model. Methods The concentration of CsA in CsAE and CsACE was verified using a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry system. Human corneal epithelial cells were subjected to desiccation stress. Human corneal epithelial cells were incubated with or without 3 groups of cyclosporine A medium (CsAE 1:50, CsACE 1:50, and CsACE 1:100). p-NF-κB p65, p-IκBα, Bax, Bcl-xL, p-Erk1/2, and p-Akt levels were determined using Western blots, and TNF-α levels were quantified using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results The CsA concentration of CsACE 1:100 was nearly the same as that of CsAE 1:50. Compared with CsAE 1:50 (0.78 ± 0.19 fold), the p-NF-κB p65 level was further reduced in CsACE 1:50 (0.38 ± 1.20 fold) and 1:100 (0.29 ± 0.11 fold) as well as p-IκBα. Levels of TNF-α were also lower in CsACE 1:50 and 1:100 than in CsAE 1:50. Induction of the apoptotic protein Bax was significantly decreased in CsACE 1:50 and 1:100 compared with CsAE 1:50, whereas that of the antiapoptotic protein Bcl-xL was increased in CsACE 1:50 and 1:100. p-ERK1/2 and p-Akt levels were higher in CsACE 1:50 and 1:100 than in CsAE 1:50. Conclusions CsACE had more potent anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic effects than CsAE in a transwell desiccation stress model. CsACE also enhanced proliferation and survival factors under desiccation stress compared with CsAE in this in vitro dry eye model.

Highly flexible and compressible porous polyurethane (PU) structures have effectively been applied in capacitive pressure sensors because of the good elastic properties of the PU structures. However, PU porous structure-based pressure sensors have been limited in practical applications owing to their low durability during pressure cycling. Herein, we report a flexible pressure sensor based on a three-dimensional porous structure with notable durability at a compressive pressure of 500 kPa facilitated by the use of a shape memory polymer (SMP). The SMP porous structure was fabricated using a sugar templating process and capillary effect. The use of the SMP resulted in the maintenance of the sensing performance for 100 cycles at 500 kPa, the SMP can restore its original shape within 30 s of heating at 80 °C. The pressure sensor based on the SMP exhibited a higher sensitivity of 0.0223 kPa−1 than a typical PU-based sensor and displayed excellent sensing performance in terms of stability, response time, and hysteresis. Additionally, the proposed sensor was used to detect shoe insole pressures in real time and exhibited remarkable durability and motion differentiation.

In recent times, polymer-based flexible pressure sensors have been attracting a lot of attention because of their various applications. A highly sensitive and flexible sensor is suggested, capable of being attached to the human body, based on a three-dimensional dielectric elastomeric structure of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and microsphere composite. This sensor has maximal porosity due to macropores created by sacrificial layer grains and micropores generated by microspheres pre-mixed with PDMS, allowing it to operate at a wider pressure range (~150 kPa) while maintaining a sensitivity (of 0.124 kPa&minus, 1 in a range of 0~ 15 kPa) better than in previous studies. The maximized pores can cause deformation in the structure, allowing for the detection of small changes in pressure. In addition to exhibiting a fast rise time (~167 ms) and fall time (~117 ms), as well as excellent reproducibility, the fabricated pressure sensor exhibits reliability in its response to repeated mechanical stimuli (2.5 kPa, 1,000 cycles). As an application, we develop a wearable device for monitoring repeated tiny motions, such as the pulse on the human neck and swallowing at the Adam&rsquo, s apple. This sensory device is also used to detect movements in the index finger and to monitor an insole system in real-time.

Thick biological tissues give rise to not only the multiple scattering of incoming light waves, but also the aberrations of remaining signal waves. The challenge for existing optical microscopy methods to overcome both problems simultaneously has limited sub-micron spatial resolution imaging to shallow depths. Here we present an optical coherence imaging method that can identify aberrations of waves incident to and reflected from the samples separately, and eliminate such aberrations even in the presence of multiple light scattering. The proposed method records the time-gated complex-field maps of backscattered waves over various illumination channels, and performs a closed-loop optimization of signal waves for both forward and phase-conjugation processes. We demonstrated the enhancement of the Strehl ratio by more than 500 times, an order of magnitude or more improvement over conventional adaptive optics, and achieved a spatial resolution of 600 nm up to an imaging depth of seven scattering mean free paths., Optical imaging deep in biological tissue is difficult due to multiple scattering and specimen induced aberrations of both the incident and reflected light. Here, Kang et al. develop an adaptive closed-loop algorithm to correct tissue aberrations in the presence of multiple scattering for deep tissue imaging.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most widely used host cell lines for the commercial production of therapeutic proteins including Fc-fusion proteins. During the culture of recombinant CHO (rCHO) cells, host cell proteins (HCPs), secreted from viable cells and released from dead cells, accumulate extracellularly, potentially impairing product quality. In this study, the HCPs that accumulated extracellularly in batch and fed-batch cultures of Fc-fusion protein-producing rCHO cell lines (DG-Fc and DUKX-Fc) were identified and quantified using nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), followed by gene ontology and functional analysis. When the proteome database of Cricetulus griseus was used as a reference to identify the HCPs, more HCPs were identified for DG-Fc (1632 HCPs in batch culture and 1733 HCPs in fed-batch culture) than for DUKX-Fc (1114 HCPs in batch culture and 1002 HCPs in fed-batch culture). Clustering analysis of HCPs, which were classified into four clusters according to their concentration profiles during culture, showed that the concentration profiles of HCPs affecting the quality of Fc-fusion proteins correlated with changes in Fc-fusion protein quality. Taken together, the dataset of HCPs obtained in this study using the two different rCHO cell lines provides insights into the determination of appropriate target proteins to be removed during the culture and purification steps so as to ensure good Fc-fusion protein quality. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2267-2278. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The mechanical properties of copper foils electroplated with (200) and (220) preferred orientations and thicknesses of 8–24 μm were assessed at various temperatures. It was found that the yield strength and elastic modulus both decrease with increasing temperature to 150 °C, and that the greater susceptibility of a columnar structure to defects makes it more sensitive to temperature than an equiaxed structure. Thus, for a given grain size, a columnar structure has a lower yield strength. A modified Hall-Petch relation was subsequently developed to take into account the effect of micro-structure on material strength by introducing a structure factor (S) : σy = σ0 + kd− 1/2 + S. As the slope (k) of this equation is constant, it can be used for copper thin films of any thickness, provided they are at room temperature and above the micro-level in scale. This structure factor concept, however, is only valid at room temperature. In the modified Hall-Petch relation, the new variable related to the equiaxed and columnar structures in the copper thin films was abstracted from the Hall-Petch relation. Then, if the materials are the same, the k value and the σ0 value are constant regardless of the scale, and the relationship between the grain size and the yield strength can be shown by only changing the structure factor.

Purpose To evaluate and compare the predictability and safety of immediate small-incision lenticule extraction, also known as SMILE, after suction loss during the procedure with those of uneventful small-incision lenticule extraction. Setting Nunemiso Eye Center, Seoul, South Korea. Design Retrospective case series. Methods Patients who had immediate small-incision lenticule extraction using reapplied suction (study group) or uneventful small-incision lenticule extraction (control group) for myopia or myopic astigmatism were included. All patients were followed for at least 12 months. Demographic as well as visual and refractive outcomes were compared between the 2 groups. Results Twenty-three eyes were enrolled in the study group and 48 eyes in the control group. The overall cumulative incidence of suction loss was 0.2% (28 of 11 762 eyes). Twenty-two eyes (96%) in the study group had unchanged or improved decimal Snellen corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA). At 12 months, the mean uncorrected distance visual acuity, CDVA, and manifest refraction defocus equivalent in the study group and control group were 0.99 ± 0.17 (SD), 1.11 ± 0.14, 0.75 ± 0.50 diopters (D), and 1.25 ± 0.22 D, 1.26 ± 0.21 D, 0.35 ± 0.26 D, respectively (P = .000, P = .007, and P = .000, respectively). The correlation between the achieved and the attempted spherical equivalent refraction was slightly better in the control group (R2 = 0.972) than in the study group (R2 = 0.933). Conclusions Immediate small-incision lenticule extraction using reapplied suction resulted in safe and clinically predictable long-term outcomes. However, predictability was lower for immediate than for uneventful small-incision lenticule extraction.

Energy harvesting, especially for powering low-power internet-of-things (IoT) devices, is gaining attention in recent years. Triboelectric nanogenerators have been studied to improve the output by applying a structure that can concentrate electrons on the surface of the generator materials. For enhancing the triboelectrification output, we herein focused on the power output line. A method for increasing the amount of electrons on the power lead by potential difference and their acceleration was studied. A rod was shaken by external vibrations, the accumulated charges were discharged in a manner similar to that of a lightning rod. Micro plasma was generated when the rod made contact with the mating micro-cracked surface innumerable times. The micro-cracked surface was fabricated with a diamond tip moving horizontally to the surface. As the resistance of the micro plasma was close to zero, the amount of electron movement was instantaneously accelerated. This type of triboelectric generator can be fabricated in the form of an electric box. By using this triboelectric power amplifier, voltage can be amplified 2 to 3 times, and the current can be amplified 10 to 15 times, thus, enhanced energy harvesting efficiency is attained.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how topical nerve growth factor (NGF) attenuates streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic cataracts in vivo. Rats were randomly divided into three groups, including the normal control rat group, STZ-induced diabetic cataract rat group (DM group), and STZ-induced diabetic cataract rat group treated with 200 μg/mL recombinant rat β-NGF (DM + NGF group). Cataract formation was evaluated by portable slit lamp biomicroscopy following pupil dilation at 8 weeks. The expression levels of NGF, aldose reductase (AR), and Na+/K+-ATPase in the lens epithelial cells (LECs) of the three groups were measured in the presence or absence of topical NGF. TUNEL-positive LECs were quantified to determine if hyperglycemia caused LEC apoptosis. At 8 weeks, the mean cataract score in the control group was significantly lower than that in DM and DM + NGF groups, and the score in the DM + NGF group was significantly lower than that in the DM group. At the equatorial zone and anterior central zone of lens, NGF and Na+/K+-ATPase expression levels were significantly decreased in the DM group; however, they were partially restored in the DM + NGF group. At the equatorial zone and anterior central zone of lens, AR expression and TUNEL-positive apoptotic LECs were significantly increased in the DM group compared with the control group, however, they were significantly decreased in the DM + NGF group. In conclusion, topical NGF could delay the progression of diabetic cataracts by attenuating polyol pathway activation and increasing Na+/K+-ATPase protein levels.

When designing a hand caliber with a high-temperature, high-pressure internal fluid transport pipe, reliability, safe use, and performance must be considered. Reliability refers to the stress caused by thermo-mechanical load, safe use refers to the low-temperature burns that might occur upon contact, and high-temperature burns caused by gas leakage occurring in the cylinder gap, and performance refers to projectile velocity. In this study, numerical simulation methods for heat transfer, structure analysis, and gas leakage are proposed so that solutions can be designed to account for the above three criteria. Furthermore, a hand-caliber design guide is presented. For heat transfer and structural analysis, mesh size, the transient convective heat transfer coefficient, and boundary conditions are described. Regarding gas leakage, methods reflecting projectile motion and determination of the molecular weight of the propellant are described. As a result, a designed hand caliber will have a high reliability, because the thermo-mechanical stress is lower than the yield stress. There will be little risk of low-temperature burns, but there will be a high temperature-burn risk, owing to gas leakage in the cylinder gap. The larger the cylinder-gap size, the greater the gas leakage and the smaller projectile velocity. The presented numerical simulation method can be applied to evaluate various aspects of other structures that require high-temperature, high-pressure fluid-transport pipes.

Epidural blood patch (EBP) has been shown to be an effective treatment option for spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH). We investigated whether response to the EBP was related to the distance of the injection site from the leakage site in patients with SIH.We reviewed patients with SIH who underwent EBP at a single hospital. Patients were assigned to group R (response after EBP) or group N (no response after EBP). We then analyzed the demographics, clinical characteristics, leakage site, leakage length, EBP injection level and distance from leakage site, and injected EBP volume.Sixty-two patients were included in the analysis. The overall response rate to EBP was 59.7% (37 patients). The leakage length and injection distance from the leakage site did not differ between the two groups. Age, gender, body mass index, leakage site, and EBP volume did not differ significantly between the two groups.The clinical effect of EBP in SIH was not affected by leakage length or injection distance to leakage site. Further large studies must be conducted to investigate the efficacy of targeted EBP for SIH.

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intracameral injection of bisulfite-containing phenylephrine on rabbit corneal endothelium cells in rabbits. METHODS Fifteen eyes of 15 New Zealand white rabbits were divided into 3 groups. Five eyes from each group were injected with 0.5% (0.5 mL, 0.05% bisulfite, group 1), 1.0% bisulfite-containing phenylephrine (0.5 mL, 0.1% bisulfite, group 2), or an equal volume of balanced salt solution as a control (group 3). Specular microscopy, corneal pachymetry, and a slit-lamp examination were used to evaluate corneal endothelial cell loss and other complications before injection, and at 1 hour and 1 week after injection. For morphological studies, corneal buttons were excised at 1 week and stained with alizarin red and trypan blue. Optical microscopy was used to examine 1 cornea from each of the 3 groups. RESULTS Within each group, there were no changes in specular microscopy and corneal pachymetry findings over the 1-week duration of the study. Although all groups showed the presence of several giant cells in the endothelium, the hexagonal shape of the corneal endothelium was morphologically preserved, and no abnormal endothelial cells were observed. CONCLUSIONS Intracameral injection of bisulfite-containing phenylephrine (up to 1.0%) does not affect endothelial cell viability or morphology of the rabbit cornea.

We present the case of a 37-year-old man with posterior polymorphic corneal dystrophy who had small-incision lenticule extraction surgery to correct myopic refractive errors. The subjective refraction was −2.62 in the right eye and −2.50 −0.25 × 80 in the left eye. Slitlamp biomicroscopy revealed a band-like lesion in the corneal endothelium of the right eye. The endothelial cell count was 1745 cells/mm 2 in the right eye and 2945 cells/mm 2 in the left eye. Small-incision lenticule extraction was performed to correct the myopic refractive errors in both eyes. Twelve months after surgery, the uncorrected distance visual acuity in both eyes was 20/20 and the posterior polymorphic corneal dystrophy lesion had not progressed. The case suggests that small-incision lenticule extraction surgery can be performed successfully and safely in patients with posterior polymorphic corneal dystrophy. Financial Disclosure None of the authors has a financial or proprietary interest in any material or method mentioned.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of combination treatment using surgical reduction technique and 532-nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser treatment for the removal of oculodermal melanocytosis.We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients who underwent combination treatment using surgical reduction and 532-nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser for the removal of ocular pigmentation in oculodermal melanocytosis at Asan Medical Center (Seoul, Korea) between January 2009 and January 2013. The safety and cosmetic efficacy of this new surgical strategy were assessed by both patients and observers.Fifty eyes of 47 patients with oculodermal melanocytosis were enrolled. Ocular pigmentation was successfully reduced in all patients, and all patients were satisfied with the cosmetic results at the last visit. Preoperative and postoperative corrected visual acuity, keratometry, and refractive errors did not significantly differ. Postoperative intraocular pressure was significantly reduced (mean change, 2.33 ± 3.54 mm Hg; P = 0.03) at 1 month after surgery. During the follow-up period, no serious adverse events developed other than conjunctival neovascularization and conjunctival inclusion cyst in 5 eyes, respectively.Combination treatment for oculodermal melanocytosis removal seems to be cosmetically satisfactory and safe. This study suggested that combination treatment using surgical technique and 532-nm Q-switched Nd:YAG laser may be helpful for the removal of oculodermal melanocytosis.

Flip-chip assembly has been widely adapted to various electronic devices due to advantages, such as miniaturization of electronic devices and high density integration. The chip-on-flex (COF) package used in this paper is a flip-chip package with an anisotropic conductive adhesive flim (ACF) interconnection and shows flexible features and reduced thickness compared with chip-on-board (COB) packages. All electronic packages experience temperature variation during service conditions and under environmental changes. Under temperature variation, stresses emerge due to the differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion among components. In order to evaluate the thermomechanical reliability of a COF package, a thermal cycling (TC) test was conducted. A moire experiment using Twyman/Green interferometry was performed to observe the warpage behavior of the package under a TC condition. Through the experiment, the rate of change of chip warpage with respect to temperature (dw/dT) as a parameter of the thermal damage model was obtained. A finite element analysis (FEA) was also performed to calculate the maximum shear stress at the ACF layer as another parameter of the model. From the experiment and FEA results, the thermal damage model can accurately represent the TC life of the COF package. However, based on observations of different warpage behavior of the COF package compared with a COB package from the moire experiment, a modified thermal damage model that can predict the TC life of both packages more accurately was proposed.

This paper proposes a collision avoidance behavior model for crowd simulation based on psychological findings of human behaviors such as gaze movement angle (GMA), side stepping, gait motion, and personal reaction bubble to have better results in crowd simulation. By calculating the GMA between agents, collision can be predicted and avoided without knowing the exact trajectories of the agents. The proposed model consists of four phases: (1) GMA-based collision prediction for mid/long range by using speed-variant information process space, (2) collision avoidance steering, (3) gait-based locomotion generation, and (4) space keeping based on personal reaction bubble. The effectiveness of the proposed speed-variant information process space was tested on various types of agent flows with different densities. The total loss of kinetic energy accumulated during an agent's movement and the ratio of the length of the path actually traveled to the length of the original path are used as key metrics to figure out the features between the different types of flows. Finally, examples of tuning the parameters with well-known fundamental diagrams are presented. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Genetic engineering approaches to inhibit cell death in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell cultures have been limited primarily to anti-apoptosis engineering. Recently, autophagy has received attention as a new anti-cell death engineering target in addition to apoptosis. In order to achieve a more efficient protection of cells from the stressful culture conditions, the simultaneous targeting of anti-apoptosis and pro-autophagy in CHO cells (DG44) was attempted by co-overexpressing an anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, and a key regulator of autophagy pathway, Beclin-1, respectively. Co-overexpression of Bcl-2 and Beclin-1 exhibited a longer culture period as well as higher viability during serum-free suspension culture, compared with the control (without co-overexpression of Bcl-2 and Beclin-1) and Bcl-2 overexpression only. In addition to the efficient inhibition of apoptosis by Bcl-2 overexpression, Beclin-1 overexpression successfully induced the increase in the autophagic marker protein, LC3-II, and autophagosome formation with the decrease in mTOR activity. Co-immunoprecipitation and qRT-PCR experiments revealed that the enforced expression of Beclin-1 increased Ulk1 expression and level of free-Beclin-1 that did not bind to the Bcl-2 despite the Bcl-2 overexpression. Under other stressful culture conditions such as treatment with sodium butyrate and hyperosmolality, co-overexpression of Bcl-2 and Beclin-1 also protected the cells from cell death more efficiently than Bcl-2 overexpression only, implying the potential of autophagy induction. Taken together, the data obtained here provide the evidence that pro-autophagy engineering together with anti-apoptosis engineering yields a synergistic effect and successfully enhances the anti-cell death engineering of CHO cells.

Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells are the most widely used host cell lines for the commercial production of therapeutic proteins including Fc-fusion proteins. During the culture of recombinant CHO (rCHO) cells, host cell proteins (HCPs), secreted from viable cells and released from dead cells, accumulate extracellularly, potentially impairing product quality. In this study, the HCPs that accumulated extracellularly in batch and fed-batch cultures of Fc-fusion protein-producing rCHO cell lines (DG-Fc and DUKX-Fc) were identified and quantified using nanoflow liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), followed by gene ontology and functional analysis. When the proteome database of Cricetulus griseus was used as a reference to identify the HCPs, more HCPs were identified for DG-Fc (1632 HCPs in batch culture and 1733 HCPs in fed-batch culture) than for DUKX-Fc (1114 HCPs in batch culture and 1002 HCPs in fed-batch culture). Clustering analysis of HCPs, which were classified into four clusters according to their concentration profiles during culture, showed that the concentration profiles of HCPs affecting the quality of Fc-fusion proteins correlated with changes in Fc-fusion protein quality. Taken together, the dataset of HCPs obtained in this study using the two different rCHO cell lines provides insights into the determination of appropriate target proteins to be removed during the culture and purification steps so as to ensure good Fc-fusion protein quality. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 2267-2278. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this work, thermal cycling (T/C) reliability of anisotropic conductive film (ACF) flip chip assemblies having various chip and substrate thicknesses for thin chip-on-board (COB) packages were investigated. In order to analyze T/C reliability, shear strains of six flip chip assemblies were calculated using Suhir’s model. In addition, correlation of shear strain with die warpage was attempted. The thicknesses of the chips used were 180 μm and 480 μm. The thicknesses of the substrates were 120, 550, and 980 μm. Thus, six combinations of flip chip assemblies were prepared for the T/C reliability test. During the T/C reliability test, the 180 μm thick chip assemblies showed more stable contact resistance changes than the 480 μm thick chip assemblies did for all three substrates. The 550 μm thick substrate assemblies, which had the lowest CTE among three substrates, showed the best T/C reliability performance for a given chip thickness. In order to investigate what the T/C reliability performance results from, die warpages of six assemblies were measured using Twyman–Green interferometry. In addition, shear strains of the flip chip assemblies were calculated using measured material properties of ACF and substrates through Suhir’s 2-D model. T/C reliability of the flip chip assemblies was independent of die warpages; it was, however, in proportion to calculated shear strain. The result was closely related with material properties of the substrates. The T/C reliability of the ACF flip chip assemblies was concluded to be dominatingly dependent on the induced shear strains of ACF layers.

The oxidation of metal microparticles (MPs) in a polymer film yields a mesoporous highly-deformable composite polymer for enhancing performance and creating a gapless structure of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). This is a one-step scalable synthesis for developing large-scale, cost-effective, and light-weight mesoporous polymer composites. We demonstrate mesoporous aluminum oxide (Al2O3) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites with a nano-flake structure on the surface of Al2O3 MPs in pores. The porosity of mesoporous Al2O3-PDMS films reaches 71.35% as the concentration of Al MPs increases to 15%. As a result, the film capacitance is enhanced 1.8 times, and TENG output performance is 6.67-times greater at 33.3 kPa and 4 Hz. The pressure sensitivity of 6.71 V/kPa and 0.18 &mu, A/kPa is determined under the pressure range of 5.5&ndash, 33.3 kPa. Based on these structures, we apply mesoporous Al2O3-PDMS film to a gapless TENG structure and obtain a linear pressure sensitivity of 1.00 V/kPa and 0.02 &mu, A/kPa, respectively. Finally, we demonstrate self-powered safety cushion sensors for monitoring human sitting position by using gapless TENGs, which are developed with a large-scale and highly-deformable mesoporous Al2O3-PDMS film with dimensions of 6 &times, 5 pixels (33 &times, 27 cm2).

A primary factor of anisotropic conductive film (ACF) package failure is delamination between the chip and the adhesive at the edge of the chip. This delamination is mainly affected by the thermal shear strain at the edge of the chip. This shear strain was measured on various electronic ACF package specimens by micro-Moire interferometry with a phase shifting method. In order to find the effect of moisture, the reliability performance of an adhesive flip-chip in the moisture environment was investigated. The failure modes were found to be interfacial delamination and bump/pad opening which may eventually lead to total loss of electrical contact. Different geometric size specimens in terms of interconnections were discussed in the context of the significance of mismatch in coefficient of moisture expansion (CME) between the adhesive and other components in the package, which induces hygroscopic swelling stress. The effect of moisture diffusion in the package and the CME mismatch were also evaluated by using the Moire interferometry. From Moire measurement results, we could also obtain the stress intensity factor K. Through an analysis of deformations induced by thermal and moisture environments, a damage model for an adhesive flip-chip package is proposed.

The protein kinase Snf1 is a major component of the glucose derepression pathway in yeast and a regulator of gene expression for the cell wall degrading enzyme (CWDE) in some plant pathogenic fungi. To address the molecular function of Snf1 in Magnaporthe oryzae, which causes the rice blast disease, MoSNF1 was cloned and functionally characterized using gene knock-out strategies. MoSNF1 functionally complemented the growth defect of the yeast snf1 mutant on a non-fermenting carbon source. However, the growth rate of the Deltamosnf1 mutant on various carbon sources was reduced independent of glucose, and the expression of the CWDE genes in the mutant was induced during derepressing condition like the wild type. The pre-penetration stage including conidial germination and appressorium formation of the Deltamosnf1 was largely impaired, and the pathogenicity of the Deltamosnf1 was significantly reduced. Most strikingly, the Deltamosnf1 mutant produced only a few conidia and had a high frequency of abnormally shaped conidia compared to the wild type. Our results suggest that MoSNF1 is a functional homolog of yeast Snf1, but its contribution to sporulation, vegetative growth and pathogenicity is critical in M. oryzae.

Nonconductive films (NCFs) are one of the polymer interconnect materials for flip-chip interconnection. NCFs containing no conductive particles play several roles such as adhesion, insulation, and underfilling at the same time. The most important issue of NCF flip-chip-on-board (FCOB) assemblies is thermal cycling reliability. Thermomechanical properties of cured NCFs, such as glass transition temperature (Tg), storage modulus (E'), and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), significantly affect the thermal cycling reliability of NCF FCOB assemblies. In this paper, the improvement of thermomechanical properties of NCFs was investigated by controlling the number of functional groups of NCF resins. To compare the reliability of conventional and modified NCF FCOB assemblies after thermal cycling test, electrical analysis and scanning acoustic microscopy investigation were performed. Thermal deformations of NCF FCOB assemblies under thermal cycling environment were also investigated, and quantitatively compared using high sensitivity Twyman-Green interferometry and portable engineering Moire interferometry. According to these results, the functional groups of NCFs have significant effects on thermomechanical properties of cured NCFs, thermal deformation, and thermal cycling reliability of NCF-bonded FCOB assemblies. As a result, the functionality modified NCF FCOB assemblies showed significantly enhanced reliability compared conventional NCFs in thermal cycling test.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) developed guidelines in May 1999 for the evacuation analysis of Ro-Ro passenger ships to prevent loss of life in maritime accidents. However, IMO considered these guidelines only as an interim measure and allocated 3 years for their improvement and further development as very limited experience and data were available. In this paper, the requirements of the IMO and current research regarding ship evacuation are reviewed. In addition, applicable evacuation models are presented as well as several experimental methods of obtaining the data of human behavior in regard to listing and the dynamic effect of waves on a ship are evaluated. Recommendations on further issues are discussed at the end.

This paper is mainly concerned with the digital manufacturing technologies in the context of the shipbuilding industry. New concepts such as digital shipbuilding, virtual shipyard, and simulation‐based design (SBD) will be explored. After reviewing the digital shipbuilding, a case study will be presented using the virtual assembly simulation system for shipbuilding (VASSS), a simulation based tool, to evaluate block erection sequence taking account of shipyard facilities, operational efficiency and equipment replacement time.

This paper describes two new 4∶1 multiplexer (MUX) architectures for high speed and low power graphic memory interface. One is based on the conventional one-stage 4∶1 multiplexer and the other is based on the mixed (with tree and one-stage structure) 4∶1 multiplexer. Main idea is cascoding one more clock control device in current mode logic (CML) implementation of 4∶1 MUX. This added input clock control level plays the same role of AND operation at the output of conventional 4∶1 MUX. With this idea, power consumption is drastically decreased about 67% and also 83% respectively, compared to conventional ones, without a loss of speed. The simulation results show that 10Gb/s 4∶1 MUXs in proposed architecture consume the current of 1.25mA, 1.9mA respectively, at the supply voltage of 1.8V and have over 280mV of eye openings with 0.18µm CMOS technology.