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Extracellular matrix proteins are associated with metabolically healthy adipose tissue and regulate inflammation, fibrosis, angiogenesis, and subsequent metabolic deterioration. In this study, we demonstrated that transforming growth factor-beta (TGFBI), an extracellular matrix (ECM) component, plays an important role in adipose metabolism and browning during high-fat diet-induced obesity. TGFBI KO mice were resistant to adipose tissue hypertrophy, liver steatosis, and insulin resistance. Furthermore, adipose tissue from TGFBI KO mice presented a large population of CD11b+ macrophages, which control adipokine secretion through paracrine mechanisms. Mechanistically, we showed that inhibiting TGFBI-stimulated release of adipsin by Notch-1-dependent signaling resulted in adipocytes browning. TGFBI was physiologically bound to Notch-1 and stimulated its activation in adipocytes. Our findings revealed a novel protective effect of TGFBI deficiency in obesity that is realized via the activation of the Notch-1 signaling pathway.

Background: A polystyrene phantom was developed following the guidance of the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) for gamma knife (GK) quality assurance. Its performance was assessed by measuring the absorbed dose rate to water and dose distributions. Methods: The phantom was made of polystyrene, which has an electron density (1.0156) similar to that of water. The phantom included one outer phantom and four inner phantoms. Two inner phantoms held PTW T31010 and Exradin A16 ion chambers. One inner phantom held a film in the XY plane of the Leksell coordinate system, and another inner phantom held a film in the YZ or ZX planes. The absorbed dose rate to water and beam profiles of the machine-specific reference (msr) field, namely, the 16 mm collimator field of a GK PerfexionTM or IconTM, were measured at seven GK sites. The measured results were compared to those of an IAEA-recommended solid water (SW) phantom. Results: The radius of the polystyrene phantom was determined to be 7.88 cm by converting the electron density of the plastic, considering a water depth of 8 g/cm2. The absorbed dose rates to water measured in both phantoms differed from the treatment planning program by less than 1.1%. Before msr correction, the PTW T31010 dose rates (PTW Freiberg GmbH, New York, NY, USA) in the polystyrene phantom were 0.70 (0.29)% higher on average than those in the SW phantom. The Exradin A16 (Standard Imaging, Middleton, WI, USA) dose rates were 0.76 (0.32)% higher in the polystyrene phantom. After msr correction factors were applied, there were no statistically significant differences in the A16 dose rates measured in the two phantoms; however, the T31010 dose rates were 0.72 (0.29)% higher in the polystyrene phantom. When the full widths at half maximum and penumbras of the msr field were compared, no significant differences between the two phantoms were observed, except for the penumbra in the Y-axis. However, the difference in the penumbra was smaller than variations among different sites. Conclusion: A polystyrene phantom developed for gamma knife dosimetry showed dosimetric performance comparable to that of a commercial SW phantom. In addition to its cost effectiveness, the polystyrene phantom removes air space around the detector. Additional simulations of the msr correction factors of the polystyrene phantom should be performed.

We consider the unambiguous discrimination of multipartite quantum states and provide an upper bound for the maximum success probability of optimal local discrimination. We also provide a necessary and sufficient condition to realize the upper bound. We further establish a necessary and sufficient condition for this upper bound to be saturated. Finally, we illustrate our results using examples in multidimensional multipartite quantum systems., Comment: 12 pages, no figure

Protein nanocages have attracted considerable attention in various fields of nanomedicine due to their intrinsic properties, including biocompatibility, biodegradability, high structural stability, and ease of modification of their surfaces and inner cavities. In vaccine development, these protein nanocages are suited for efficient targeting to and retention in the lymph nodes and can enhance immunogenicity through various mechanisms, including excellent uptake by antigen-presenting cells and crosslinking with multiple B cell receptors. This review highlights the superiority of protein nanocages as antigen delivery carriers based on their physiological and immunological properties such as biodistribution, immunogenicity, stability, and multifunctionality. With a focus on design, we discuss the utilization and efficacy of protein nanocages such as virus-like particles, caged proteins, and artificial caged proteins against cancer and infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In addition, we summarize available knowledge on the protein nanocages that are currently used in clinical trials and provide a general outlook on conventional distribution techniques and hurdles faced, particularly for therapeutic cancer vaccines.

Sn is the one of the materials that can be used for next generation extreme ultraviolet (EUV) mask material having a high absorption coefficient and, for the fabrication of the next generation EUV mask, a precise etching of Sn is required. In this study, the atomic layer etching (ALE) process was performed for the precise etch thickness control and low damage etching of Sn by the formation SnHxCly compounds on the Sn surface using with H and Cl radicals during the adsorption step and by the removal of the compound using Ar+ ions with a controlled energy during the desorption step. Through this process, optimized ALE conditions with different H/Cl radical combinations that can etch Sn at ∼2.6 Å cycle−1 were identified with a high etch selectivity over Ru which can be used as the capping layer of the EUV mask. In addition, it was confirmed that not only the Sn but also Ru showed almost no physical and chemical damage during the Sn ALE process.

Phase change random access memory (PCRAM) is one of the most industrially applicable memory devices because of its advantages such as non-volatility, high speed, scalability, and low power consumption. Ovonic threshold switch (OTS) materials are used in selector devices in PCRAM circuits and are generally composed of chalcogenide compounds. In this study, etch characteristics of OTS material composed of Ge-As-Te has been investigated using reactive ion etching (RIE) by hydrogen-based gases such as H2, CH4, NH3, etc. Among the investigated hydrogen-based plasmas, NH3 showed the highest etch rate due to the high vapor pressures of the hydrides of the OTS material, but the formation of nitride compound and the increased roughness were observed on the OTS surface. In the case of CH4 plasma, due to the carbon on the OTS surface, a polymer layer was deposited. Even though H2 showed the better surface smoothness due to the no surface residues or compounds on OTS surface related to carbon or nitrogen, the etch rates were lower than NH3. In this presentation, the effects of various hydrogen-based gases on the etch characteristics of OTS material will be discussed in details.

Cheon-Sa Bridge (Section I), completed and opened traffic in 2019, is a FCM (free cantilever method)-anchored hybrid two-pylon cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 510 m. A distinct feature of t...

In order to etch CoFeB and MgO constituting the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) layer of magnetic random access memory, rf-biased reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) with a H2:NH3 gas mixture was introduced and the etching characteristics were investigated. The H2:NH3 gas mixture of 8:1 was used for rf-biased RIBE because the etch selectivity is increased with H2 percentage in the H2:NH3 gas mixture while the etch rates of MTJ materials are the highest between 2:1 and 1:1 ratio of H2:NH3 due to the synergy effect of H2 and NH3 in the etching of MTJ materials. When a high rf power was applied to the substrate (high rf-biasing) during RIBE, even though etch rates of MTJ materials were increased, the etch selectivities of MTJ materials over hard mask materials were decreased possibly due to the high physical sputtering effect. However, when small rf-biasing was added to the substrate during RIBE, improved etch characteristics such as higher etch selectivity of MTJ over the top electrode (TE) material, improved etch anisotropy of the MTJ pattern masked with TE, and a thinner sidewall residue on the MTJ pattern could be observed. The improvement in etch characteristics by the addition of small rf-biasing during RIBE is believed to be related to the increased chemical etching effect through H2/NH3 gas dissociation and the increased H/NH ratio in the plasma generated just above the substrate without increasing the physical sputtering effect. Specifically, for the substrate located on the insulating substrate holder, the charging of the substrate could be removed without using an electron emitting neutralizer by supplying electrons from the plasma generated by rf-biasing during RIBE.

Chemical-reaction optimization not only increases the yield of chemical processes but also reduces impurities and improves the performance of the resulting products, contributing to important innovations in various industries. This paper presents a novel barycentric kernel for chemical-reaction optimization using Bayesian optimization (BO), a powerful machine-learning method designed to optimize costly black-box functions. The barycentric kernel is specifically tailored as a positive definite kernel for Gaussian-process surrogate models in BO, ensuring stability in logarithmic and differential operations while effectively mapping concentration space for solving optimization problems. We conducted comprehensive experiments comparing the proposed barycentric kernel with other widely used kernels, such as the radial basis function (RBF) kernel, across six benchmark functions in concentration space and three Hartmann functions in Euclidean space. The results demonstrated the barycentric kernel’s stable convergence and superior performance in these optimization scenarios. Furthermore, the paper highlights the importance of accurately parameterizing chemical concentrations to prevent BO from searching for infeasible solutions. Initially designed for chemical reactions, the versatile barycentric kernel shows promising potential for a wide range of optimization problems, including those requiring a meaningful distance metric between mixtures.

We consider multipartite quantum state discrimination and show that the minimum-error discrimination by separable measurements is closely related to the concept of entanglement witness. Based on the properties of entanglement witness, we establish some necessary and/or sufficient conditions on minimum-error discrimination by separable measurements. We also provide some conditions on the upper bound of the maximum success probability over all possible separable measurements. Our results are illustrated by examples of multidimensional multipartite quantum states. Finally, we provide a systematic way in terms of the entanglement witness to construct multipartite quantum state ensembles showing nonlocality in state discrimination., Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2212.10799

In semiconductor manufacturing, detecting defect patterns is important because they are directly related to the root causes of failures in the wafer process. The rapid advancement of the integrated circuit technology has recently led to more frequent occurrences of mixed-type defect patterns, wherein two or more defect patterns simultaneously occur in a wafer bin map. The detection of these mixed patterns is more difficult than that of single patterns. To detect these mixed patterns, binary relevance approaches based on convolutional neural networks have been proposed. However, as the manufacturing process has been advanced and integrated, various failure types are newly detected, thus the number of single models can be continuously increased following the diversification of defect types. Therefore, we propose an effective framework for detecting mixed-type patterns in which a simple single model, called the single shot detector, is employed. By applying the proposed model to the WM-811K dataset, we show that our framework outperforms existing CNN-based methods and also provides defect location information.

Apoptosis plays an essential role in the pathophysiologic processes of rheumatoid arthritis. A molecular probe that allows spatiotemporal observation of apoptosis in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo concomitantly would be useful to monitoring or predicting pathophysiologic stages. In this study we investigated whether cyclic apoptosis-targeting peptide-1 (CApoPep-1) can be used as an apoptosis imaging probe in inflammatory arthritis. We tested the utility of CApoPep-1 for detecting apoptotic immune cells in vitro and ex vivo using flow cytometry and immunofluorescence. The feasibility of visualizing and quantifying apoptosis using this probe was evaluated in a murine collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) model, especially after treatment. CApoPep-1 peptide may successfully replace Annexin V for in vitro and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay for ex vivo in the measurement of apoptotic cells, thus function as a sensitive probe enough to be used clinically. In vivo imaging in CIA mice revealed that CApoPep-1 had 42.9 times higher fluorescence intensity than Annexin V for apoptosis quantification. Furthermore, it may be used as an imaging probe for early detection of apoptotic response in situ after treatment. The CApoPep-1 signal was mostly co-localized with the TUNEL signal (69.6% of TUNEL+ cells) in defined cell populations in joint tissues of CIA mice. These results demonstrate that CApoPep-1 is sufficiently sensitive to be used as an apoptosis imaging probe for multipurpose applications which could detect the same target across in vitro, in vivo, to ex vivo in inflammatory arthritis.

Cancer immunotherapy (CI) represented by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) presents a new paradigm for cancer treatment. However, the types of cancer that attain a therapeutic benefit from ICIs are limited, and the efficacy of these treatments does not meet expectations. To date, research on ICIs has mainly focused on identifying biomarkers and patient characteristics that can enhance the therapeutic effect on tumors. However, studies on combinational strategies for CI are being actively conducted to overcome the resistance to ICI treatment. Moreover, it has been confirmed that dramatic anticancer effects are achieved through "neoadjuvant" immunotherapy with ICIs in treatment-naïve cancer patients; consequently, it has become necessary to consider how to best apply cancer immunotherapies for patients, even with respect to their tumor stages. In this review, we sought to discuss the right timing of ICI treatment in consideration of the progression of cancer with a changing tumor-immune microenvironment. Furthermore, we investigated which types of combinational treatments and their corresponding sequences of administration could optimize the therapeutic effect of ICIs to expand the applicable target of ICIs and increase their therapeutic efficacy. Finally, we discussed several delivery pathways and methods that can maximize the effect of ICIs.

In a previous paper, Rahmani introduced a new family of p-Bernoulli numbers and polynomials by means of the Gauss hypergeometric function. Motivated by this paper and as a degenerate version of those numbers and polynomials, we introduce the generalized degenerate Bernoulli numbers and polynomials again by using the Gauss hypergeometric function. In addition, we introduce the degenerate type Eulerian numbers as a degenerate version of Eulerian numbers. For the generalized degenerate Bernoulli numbers, we express them in terms of the degenerate Stirling numbers of the second kind, of the degenerate type Eulerian numbers, of the degenerate $p$-Stirling numbers of the second kind and of an integral on the unit interval. As to the generalized degenerate Bernoulli polynomials, we represent them in terms of the degenerate Stirling polynomials of the second kind., 11 pages

Unnecessary surgery could be prevented through continuity of care (COC). The present study aimed to investigate the relationships between COC, surgery and cost associated with chronic shoulder pain. We used the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service national patient sample (HIRA-NPS) in 2017. A total of 1717 patients were included. Bice–Boxerman Continuity of Care Index was used as the indicator for measuring the COC. Occurrence of surgery, associated costs, and direct medical costs were analysed. Logistic regression, a two-part model with recycled predictions and generalized linear model with gamma distribution were used. The majority of patients were 40–65 years old (high COC: 68.4%; low COC: 64.4%). The odds ratio (OR) for surgery was 0.41 in the high-COC group compared to the low COC group (95% CI, 0.20 to 0.84). Direct medical cost was 14.09% (95% CI, 8.12% to 19.66%) and 58.00% lower in surgery cost (95% CI, 57.95 to 58.05) in the high-COC group. Interaction with COC and shoulder impingement syndrome was significant lower in direct medical cost (15.05% [95% CI, 1.81% to 26.51%]). High COC was associated with low medical cost in patients diagnosed with chronic shoulder pain.

In the last five years, towing to increasing demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), researchers have actively analyzed and conducted studies on the sloshing phenomenon. However, there are limitations in the 1:1 model experimental method for LNG tanks installed in actual vessels. This study verified the validity of the average pressure prediction according to the scale ratio of a prismatic LNG tank that was developed through a correlation analysis between the sloshing analysis and model test. We then presented an average pressure prediction for the tank of a full-scale vessel. In addition, to ensure the safety of the tank, this study investigated the degree of cumulative fatigue damage that could be caused by cyclic loading through a fatigue analysis.

Non-invasive tracking of T-cells may help to predict the patient responsiveness and therapeutic outcome. Herein, we developed bioorthogonal T-cell labeling and tracking strategy using bioorthogonal click chemistry. First, ovalbumin (OVA) antigen-specific cytotoxic T-cells (CTLs) were incubated with N-azidoacetyl-D-mannosamine-tetraacylated (Ac4ManNAz) for incorporating azide ( N3) groups on the surface of CTLs via metabolic glycoengineering. Subsequently, azide groups on the CTLs were chemically labeled with near infrared fluorescence (NIRF) dye, Cy5.5, conjugated dibenzylcyclooctyne (DBCO-Cy5.5) via bioorthogonal click chemistry, resulting in Cy5.5-labeled CTLs (Cy5.5-CTLs). The labeling efficiency of Cy5.5-CTLs could be readily controlled by changing concentrations of Ac4ManNAz and DBCO-Cy5.5 in cultured cells. Importantly, Cy5.5-CTLs presented the strong NIRF signals in vitro and they showed no significant changes in the functional properties, such as cell viability, proliferation, and antigen-specific cytolytic activity. In ovalbumin (OVA)-expressing E.G-7 tumor-bearing immune-deficient mice, intravenously injected Cy5.5-CTLs were clearly observed at targeted solid tumors via non-invasive NIRF imaging. Moreover, tumor growth inhibition of E.G-7 tumors was closely correlated with the intensity of NIRF signals from Cy5.5-CTLs at tumors after 2–3 days post-injection. The Cy5.5-CTLs showed different therapeutic responses in E.G-7 tumor-bearing immune-competent mice, in which they were divided by their tumor growth efficacy as ‘high therapeutic response (TR (+))’ and ‘low therapeutic response (TR (-))’. These different therapeutic responses of Cy5.5-CTLs were highly correlated with the NIRF signals of Cy5.5-CTLs at targeted tumor tissues in the early stage. Therefore, non-invasive tracking of T-cells can be able to predict and elicit therapeutic responses in the adoptive T-cell therapy.

The aim of this paper is to study the Poisson random variables in relation to the Lah-Bell polynomials and the degenerate binomial and degenerate Poisson random variables in connection with the degenerate Lah-Bell polynomials. Among other things, we show that the rising factorial moments of the degenerate Poisson random variable with parameter α \alpha are given by the degenerate Lah-Bell polynomials evaluated at α \alpha . We also show that the probability-generating function of the degenerate Poisson random variable is equal to the generating function of the degenerate Lah-Bell polynomials. Also, we show similar results for the Poisson random variables. Here the n n th Lah-Bell number counts the number of ways a set of n n elements can be partitioned into non-empty linearly ordered subsets, the Lah-Bell polynomials are natural extensions of the Lah-Bell numbers and the degenerate Lah-Bell polynomials are degenerate versions of the Lah-Bell polynomials.

The degenerate Stirling numbers of the second kind and of the first kind, which are respectively degenerate versions of the Stirling numbers of the second kind and of the first kind, appear frequently when we study various degenerate versions of some special numbers and polynomials. The aim of this paper is to consider the r-truncated degenerate Stirling numbers of the second kind, which reduce to the degenerate Stirling numbers of the second for r = 1, and to investigate their explicit expressions, some properties and related identities, in connection with several other degenerate special numbers and polynomials., 12 pages

Solid cancers are composed of malignant cells and their surrounding matrix components. Hypoxia plays a critical role in shaping the tumor microenvironment that contributes to cancer progression and treatment failure. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are one of the most prominent components of the tumor microenvironment. CAFs are highly sensitive to hypoxia and participates in the crosstalk with cancer cells. Hypoxic CAFs modulate several mechanisms that induce cancer malignancy, such as extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling, immune evasion, metabolic reprogramming, angiogenesis, metastasis, and drug resistance. Key signaling molecules regulating CAFs in hypoxia include transforming growth factor (TGF-β) and hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs). In this article, we summarize the mechanisms underlying the hypoxic regulation of CAFs and how hypoxic CAFs affect cancer development and progression. We also discuss the potential therapeutic strategies focused on targeting CAFs in the hypoxic tumor microenvironment.

It is well known that the maximal success probability of the binary quantum communication can be improved by using a sub-Poissonian non-standard coherent state as an information carrier. In the present article, we consider the quantum communication with $N$-ary phase shift keying ($N$-PSK) signal for an arbitrary positive integer $N>1$. By using non-standard coherent state, we analytically provide the maximal success probability of the quantum communication with $N$-PSK. Unlike the binary case, we show that even super-Poissonianity of non-standard coherent state can improve the maximal success probability of $N$-PSK quantum communication., 8 pages, 4 figures

Dowling showed that the Whitney numbers of the first kind and of the second kind satisfy Stirling number-like relations. Recently, Kim-Kim introduced the degenerate r-Whitney numbers of the first kind and of the second kind, as degenerate versions and further generalizations of the Whitney numbers of both kinds. The normal ordering of an integral power of the number operator in terms of boson operators is expressed with the help of the Stirling numbers of the second kind. In this paper, it is noted that the normal ordering of a certain quantity involving the number operator is expressed in terms of the degenerate r-Whitney numbers of the second kind. We derive some properties, recurrence relations, orthogonality relations and several identities on those numbers from such normal ordering. In addition, we consider the degenerate r-Dowling polynomials as a natural extension of the degenerate r-Whitney numbers of the second kind and investigate their properties., 16 pqges

Precise and selective removal of silicon nitride (SiNx) over silicon oxide (SiOy) in a oxide/nitride stack is crucial for a current three dimensional NOT-AND type flash memory fabrication process. In this study, fast and selective isotropic etching of SiNx over SiOy has been investigated using a ClF3/H2 remote plasma in an inductively coupled plasma system. The SiNx etch rate over 80 nm/min with the etch selectivity (SiNx over SiOy) of ~ 130 was observed under a ClF3 remote plasma at a room temperature. Furthermore, the addition of H2 to the ClF3 resulted in an increase of etching selectivity over 200 while lowering the etch rate of both oxide and nitride due to the reduction of F radicals in the plasma. The time dependent-etch characteristics of ClF3, ClF3 & H2 remote plasma showed little loading effect during the etching of silicon nitride on oxide/nitride stack wafer with similar etch rate with that of blank nitride wafer.