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Objectives: This study examined a clinical case of a paralytic ileus patient diagnosed with Soeumin.Methods: The patient was treated with herbal medicine (Hyangsayangwi-tang, Baekhaogunja-tang, Palmulgunja-tang), infusion solution treatments, acupuncture, moxibustion, and rehabilitative therapy. Their effects were evaluated using the visual analog scale (VAS).Results: After receiving Korean medical treatment for 38 days, the VAS score for dyspepsia was reduced from 8 to 2, the VAS score for nausea and vomiting was reduced from 8 to 2, and the VAS score for abdominal pain was reduced from 7 to less than 1.Conclusions: Korean medicine could be effective in relieving the symptoms of paralytic Ileus.

BACKGROUND In South Korea, a few patients with low back pain (LBP) are currently being treated with a combination of traditional Korean medicine (KM) and Western medicine (WM). Although a recent research has reported results regarding patient satisfaction and exploratory effectiveness, evidence of comparative effectiveness still needs to be reviewed. The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of KM and WM collaborative treatment (CT) compared with that of sole treatment (ST) for patients with LBP in Korea. METHOD/DESIGN This multisite, prospective observational comparative effectiveness research study is part of a nationwide pilot project for KM and WM collaboration launched by the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare. The duration of the study is 8 weeks, and the target number of inclusion is 360 patients. Participants receive treatment according to their treatment plan, and a researcher conducts investigations thrice, every 4 weeks. In the final analysis, the merged data from the participants' questionnaire responses, hospital medical records, and administrative data, and Health Insurance Review and Assessment service data will be compared between the CT and ST groups. DISCUSSION This study will provide clinical and economic information about CT for LBP, which might be a milestone for establishing future polices about this collaboration in Korea. TRIAL REGISTRATION The study protocol has been registered with the Clinical Research Information Service (KCT0002827).

We have developed the world's first 65-inch UHD (also called 4K, 3840×2160) OLED TV with a coplanar-type IGZO(Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) TFTs. In this paper, we discuss our excellent WRGB panel designs and circuits to achieve the high frame frequency and the product reliability.

The thin and slim design of 65-inch UHD OLED TV is reviewed in this paper. With its outstanding image qualities in UHD resolution is noteworthy the thin and slim curved screen. Reverse bonding technology enables the slim bezel design. A thin and curved back plate holds the module in shape and dissipates heat effectively. The source printed-circuit-boards are fixed directly to the backside of module to realize the ultra-thinedge design of the 65-inch OLED TV.

Large aspect ratio plasma jets with sub-mm diameter are produced by a microwave coaxial resonator electrode. The jet length shows a sharp asymmetric dependence on the drive frequency: the plasma jet suddenly turns off below a critical frequency while the jet length slowly decreases above the frequency. A general mechanism is proposed to explain the asymmetry based on a universal feedback relation among the plasma impedance, the power coupling efficiency and the plasma dimension in resonator type electrodes. The input impedance of the resonator electrode changes depending on the plasma size formed in the electrode. The degree of the impedance mismatch between the electrode-plasma and the power source determines the power coupling efficiency and the resistive loss in the electrode which in turn affects the plasma size. The asymmetric dependence on the drive frequency is a consequence of the fact that the resonance frequency decreases for increasing plasma size. The feedback model shows a good agreement with the experimental measurements, providing essential information for the plasma control.

In this paper, we provide the best way to drive large-size OLED panel. This method compensates for variations in the on-current and threshold voltage by extracting the TFT characteristics of each pixel of the panel. It also compensates the time-dependent degradation characteristics of the TFT. From the extracted characteristics, corrected image-data are generated that is composed gain and offset. By driving in the data which is corrected, it is possible to improve the uniformity of brightness and increase the life-time of the panel. Consequently, 55-inch OLED TV was manufactured and commercialized. For the commercialization of large-size OLED TV, this driving method is very suitable and it will become an important.

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to report the clinical effect of herbal medicine on the patient considering chronic renal failure. The patient complained of hemiparesis, general weakness, anorexia, nausea and dizziness. Methods : According to the traditional Korean medicine syndrome differentiation, the patient was classified as Deficiency of Spleen Qi and prescribed Bojungikki-tang and Bojungikki-tang gamibang as well as acupuncture and moxibustion treatment. Changes of BUN, creatinine, VAS for genaral weakness, nausea, dizziness were compared before and after treatment for 2 weeks. Results : After treatment, the level of BUN and creatinine was decreased and main symptoms were improved. Conclusions : Herbal medicine Bojungikki-tang and Bojungikki-tang gamibang with acupuncture and moxibustion treatment would be efficient to the patient of chronic renal failure. Keyword : Chronic renal failure, Bojungikki-tang, Deficiency of spleen Qi, General weakness.

This paper proposes and implements an core transform architecture, which is one of the major processes in HEVC video compression standard. The proposed core transform architecture is implemented with only adders and shifters instead of area-consuming multipliers. Shifters in the proposed core transform architecture are implemented in wires and multiplexers, which significantly reduces chip area. Also, it can process from 4×4 to 16×16 blocks with common hardware by reusing processing elements. Designed core transform architecture in 0.13um technology can process a 16×16 block with 2-D transform in 130 cycles, and its gate count is 101,015 gates., {"references":["T. Wiegand, G. Sullivan, G. Bjontgaard, and A. Luthra, \"Overview of the H.264/AVC Video Coding Standard\", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 560-576, Jul. 2003.","G. Sullivan, J. Ohm, W. Han, and T. Wiegand, Overview of the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Standard\", IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 1649-1668, Dec. 2012.","A. Fuldseth, G. Bjøntegaard, and M. Budagavi, \"CE10: Core Transform Design for HEVC,\" JCTVC-G495, Nov. 2011.","J. Park, W. Nam, S. Han, and S. Lee, \"High Efficiency Video Coding(HEVC) 16x16 & 32x32 Inverse Transform IP Design for Large-Scale Displays\", Proceedings of International Technical Conference on Circuits/Systems, Computers, and Communications, pp. 153-155, Jun. 2011.","M. Budagavi, V. Sze, and M. Sadafale, \"Hardware analysis of transform and quantization,\" JCTVC-G132, Nov. 2011.","M. Budagavi and V. Sze, \"Unified Forward+Inverse Transform Architecture for HEVC\", Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, pp. 209-212, 2012.","J. Park, W. Nam, S. Han, and S. Lee, \"2-D Large Inverse Transform (16x16, 32x32) for HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding)\", Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 203-211, Jun. 2012."]}

In this paper, we suggest panel design schemes for large size OLED panel. With considerations on the reliability of oxide TFT, new pixel circuit is proposed to compensate threshold voltage shift of TFT and is designed in each WRGB sub-pixel. Also, the panel design concept for improving power supplying is explained. Low resistivity Cu metal is used to allow large panel current with uniformly supplying power voltage. 55-inch panel is successfully fabricated and demonstrated. Oxide TFT and white OLED with color layers are promising technologies for OLED TV.

World's first 55-inch OLED TV has been developed and recently launched mass production with excellent display image quality. We employ IGZO TFT backplane and white OLEDs with WRGB pixel design. Those technologies enable panel size scalability as well as mass production with lifetime reliability. For commercializing large-size OLED TV, the issues and challenges on panel design and driving, including LG Display's recent experience will be presented.

This paper proposes a 16×16 and 32×32 inverse transform architecture for HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding). HEVC large transform of 16×16 and 32×32 suffers from huge computational complexity. To resolve this problem, we proposed a new large inverse transform architecture based on hardware reuse. The processing element is optimized by exploiting fully recursive and regular butterfly structure. To achieve low area, the processing element is implemented by shifters and adders without multiplier. Implementation of the proposed 2-D inverse transform architecture in 0.18 ㎛ technology shows about 300 ㎒ frequency and 287 Kgates area, which can process 4K (3840×2160)@ 30 fps image.

Isolated bone marrow infection by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is extremely rare. Recently, we encountered a case of bone marrow Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection, which presented as a fever of unknown origin shortly after starting continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). The patient was diagnosed with MAC infection on the basis of PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis and sequencing of DNA obtained from bone marrow specimens. Although this was a case of severe MAC infection, there was no evidence of infection of other organs. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing dialysis can be considered immunodeficient; therefore, when these patients present with fever of unknown origin, opportunistic infections such as NTM infection should be considered in the differential diagnosis.

Renal transplantation has become a well-established, definitive , highly successful therapy for end stage renal disease and been increased in previous decades. Korean Network for Organ Sharing reports that renal transplantation has been performed over 800 cases per year during five years. Although graft survival after renal transplantation has increased with the development of numerous new immunosupressive agents, infectious complications remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in renal transplant recipients.Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major virus in organ transplant recipients and is associated with opportunistic superinfection with a range of different microorganisms including Pneumocystis jirovecii, fungi, gram negative bacterias. In this paper, we report a case of pneumonia caused by fungus, Pneumocystis jirovecii, CMV in patient with renal transplantation. Based on the strong suspicion of superinfection, we aggressively diagnosed by performing surgical method and successfully treated the condition. Patients with CMV pneumonitis may be predisposed to superinfection by other pathogen and is associated with high mortality. Therefore, if superinfection is suspected, prompt diagnosis involving invasive methods and early initiation of antiviral, antifungal therapy are essential to reduce the mortality.

A new poly-Si thin-film-transistor (TFT) current-mirror-active-matrix-organic-light-emitting-diode (AMOLED) pixel, which successfully compensates for the variation of the threshold voltage as well as mobility in the excimer laser annealed poly-Si TFT pixel, is designed and fabricated. The OLED current (IOLED) of the proposed pixel does not depend on the operating temperature. When the temperature of pixel is increased from 27 degC to 60 degC, the I OLED of the new pixel circuit composed of four TFTs and one capacitor increases only about 1.5%, while that of a conventional pixel composed of two TFTs and one capacitor increases about 37%. At room temperature, nonuniformity of the IOLED in the proposed circuit was also considerably suppressed at around 9%. We have successfully fabricated a 1.2-in AMOLED panel (96times96timesred green blue) to evaluate the performance of the proposed pixel. A troublesome residual image caused by the hysteresis phenomenon of the poly-Si TFT was almost eliminated in the proposed AMOLED panel as a result of current programming

We have investigated an origin of hysteresis of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film transistor (a-Si:H TFT) and analyzed an effect of hysteresis when a-Si:H TFT is a pixel element of active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED). When a-Si:H TFT is placed under different starting gate-voltages, such as 10 and 5 V, the measured transfer characteristics with 1 μA at VDS = 10 V shows that the gate-voltage shift of 0.15 V occurs due to the different quantities of trapped charge. When the step gate-voltage in the transfer curve is decreased from 0.5 to 0.05 V, the gate-voltage shift is decreased from 0.78 to 0.39 V due to the change of charge de-trapping rate. The measured OLED current in the widely used 2-TFT pixel shows that the gate-voltage of TFT in the previous frame can influence OLED current in the present frame by ±35% due to the change of interface trap density induced by different starting gate-voltages.

An L-shaped dual-gate device structure, which reduces kink current in polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs), has been proposed and fabricated. In the proposed device, the poly-Si TFTs have a lateral grain growth in channels such as TFTs fabricated by sequential lateral solidification (SLS) or CW laser crystallization. The current flow of dual TFTs is strongly affected by grain boundaries showing lateral grain growth. The L-shaped dual gate structure is employed for asymmetry between dual channels. One of the channels is located in a parallel direction of grain growth and the other is located vertically. It is verified by experiment that the proposed L-shaped dual-gate TFT reduced the kink current of poly-Si TFT and showed improved reliability by fixed current flow in the saturation mode.

We have proposed and successfully fabricated a new serial current mirror pixel design for an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode which consists of four polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) and one capacitor. The non uniformity of OLED current (IOLED) due to the nature of a poly-Si TFT is considerably suppressed. Our experimental results show that the non uniformity of IOLED due to threshold voltage and mobility variation is around 7% whereas that of IOLED is about 25% in the conventional 2-TFT pixel. When supply voltage decreases from 10 V to 9.5 V, the non uniformity of OLED current is suppressed to 2.2% whereas that of OLED current is 35% in the 2-TFT pixel. The proposed pixel can successfully compensate the variation of the electrical characteristics of the poly-Si TFTs as well as provide uniform OLED current despite the supply voltage drop.

High-aperture ratio pixel design employing polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) for active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) displays is proposed. The VDD supply line in each pixel is eliminated and the gate scan line is utilized as a VDD supply so that the pixel aperture ratio is increased considerably. The increased emission area achieves low current density through OLED, thus the troublesome OLED luminance degradation would be suppressed and the life-time of OLED materials may be increased. In order to implement the proposed pixel driving, a new fabrication process for the storage capacitor (CST) which uses indium–tin oxide (ITO) and the cathode layers is presented.

Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors (poly-Si TFTs) with an asymmetric dual-gate, consisting of a long-gate TFT and a short-gate TFT in series, suppress kink current and increase output resistance. The long-gate TFT operates in a linear regime and confines the total current flow by its current operation region. The entire device does not suffer from kinks in spite of a high drain bias. Experimental results show that an asymmetric design of the dual-gate structure improves kink-free characteristics compared with conventional single- and dual-gate TFTs. The hot-carrier stress reliability of the short-gate TFT is not severely degraded due to kink current suppression.

A new voltage‐scaled compensation pixel which employs 3 p‐type poly‐Si TFTs and 2 capacitors without additional control line has been proposed and verified. The proposed pixel does not employ the VTH memorizing and cancellation, but scales down the inevitable VTH variation of poly‐Si TFT. Also the troublesome narrow input range of VDATA is increased and the VDD supply voltage drop is suppressed. In our experimental results, the OLED current error is successfully compensated by easily controlling the proposed voltage scaling effects.

We fabricated a high-performance polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) by new excimer laser annealing (ELA) method employing floating active structure. The new simple ELA method produces large lateral grains exceeding 4 μm. A novel poly-Si TFT that exhibits very high mobility (μFE=331 cm2/V s) and low leakage current has been successfully fabricated by single laser irradiation on selectively floating a-Si layer. Uniform lateral grains have been obtained with wide ELA process window.

We report a new excimer laser annealing (ELA) method which increases the grain size of poly-Si film considerably by employing a selectively floating a-Si active layer structure. An air-gap, with low thermal conductivity, blocks the heat conduction to the underlying substrate in the floating a-Si region so that the lateral temperature gradient, which is responsible for a lateral grain growth, is successfully induced by the proposed simple air-gap structure. Our experimental result shows that large grains were grown in the lateral direction from the edge to the center of the floating active region. The large lateral grains exceeding 4 μm were successfully obtained with only one laser irradiation and uniform lateral grains have been grown with a wide laser annealing process window.

P-type low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistor (TFT) integrated driver circuits are proposed for low-cost chip-on-glass (COG) panel. In order to reduce the process cost of panel, gate driver employing level-shifter, shift register and DC–DC converter is integrated by p-type polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) TFTs. The gate drivers are composed of the level-up and level-down voltage shifters and the robust two-clock shift registers. The DC–DC converters are designed using diode-connected type charge pumps and regulators. The proposed p-type circuits were verified successfully by the simulations and the measurements.

A new simple analog buffer employing p-type low-temperature poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs) are proposed and fabricated for the integrated data driving circuits of AMLCD and AMOLED. The new analog buffer does not use any capacitors to store the threshold voltage of a poly-Si TFT, so that it could reduce the output offset by the subthreshold current of poly-Si TFT. The simulation and experimental result exhibit that the buffer output successfully charges the buffer load (/spl sim/20 pF) to the input value quickly by the boot-strapping. The measured output offset voltages are less than /spl plusmn/70 mV when the input varies from 1 to 10 V.

A new low-power inverter using only p-type poly-Si thin-film transistors for the driving circuits of active matrix liquid crystal displays and active matrix organic light-emitting diodes is proposed and fabricated. The proposed pMOS inverter using capacitive coupling and bootstrapping successfully eliminated the troublesome through current and exhibited a wide output swing from V/sub DD/ to V/sub SS/ without additional signals.

A new voltage-modulated active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) pixel design, which successfully compensates for the threshold voltage variations in poly-Si thin-film transitors (TFTs), is proposed, and verified by SPICE simulation and experiments. In order to compensate for variations in OLED current, the proposed pixel design employs a new voltage modulation scheme using diode connections.

A new active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) pixel design, composed of four polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistor (poly-Si TFT) and one capacitor, is proposed by employing a novel current scaling scheme. The simulation results, based on the measured characteristics of an OLED and poly-Si TFTs, show that the proposed pixel design would scale down the data current more effectively, so as to guarantee a lower charging time compared with the conventional current mirror structure, as well as successfully compensate the variation of the electrical characteristics of the poly-Si TFTs, such as the threshold voltage and mobility.

A new excimer laser annealing (ELA) process that uses a floating amorphous-Silicon (a-Si) thin film with a multichannel structure is proposed for high-performance poly-Si thin-film transistors (TFTs). The proposed ELA method produces two-dimensional (2-D) grain growth, which can result in a high-quality grain structure. The dual-gate structure was employed to eliminate the grain boundaries perpendicular to the current flow in the channel. A multichannel structure was adapted in order to arrange the grain boundary to be parallel to the current flow. The proposed poly-Si TFT exhibits high-performance electrical characteristics, which are a high mobility of 504 cm/sup 2//Vsec and a low subthreshold slope of 0.337 V/dec.

This letter reports a. new excimer laser annealing (ELA) method to produce large polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) lateral grains exceeding 4 /spl mu/m. A selectively floating amorphous silicon (a-Si) flint with a 50 nm-thick air-gap was irradiated by a single-pulse XeCl excimer laser and uniform lateral grains were grown due to the lateral thermal gradient caused by the low thermal conductivity of the air. A poly-Si thin-film transistor (TFT) with two high-quality 4.6 /spl mu/m-long lateral grains was fabricated by employing the proposed ELA and high field-effect mobility of 331 cm/sup 2//Vsec was obtained due to. the high-quality grain structure.

We have fabricated a novel poly-Si TFT integrated at the gate-data line-crossover structure without sacrificing the electrical characteristics. The aperture ratio of the panel was increased considerably because the TFT was located under the opaque metal line. In particular, we employed a low dielectric air-gap between the gate line and data lines, which reduced capacitance between the gate and data lines, enabling the signal delay of the data line to be significantly decreased. The fabricated TFT was successfully operated, and the proposed structure found to reduce the delay time by a factor of nine compared with conventionally constructed panel without air-bridges.

Correspondence to Do Hyoung Kim, M.D. Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, 102 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul 156-755, Korea Tel: +82-2-6299-3437, Fax: +82-2-6263-2184, E-mail: dhkim6489@hanmail.net Copyrightc 2015 The Korean Association of Internal Medicine This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 지방흡인술 시술과 관련된 횡문근융해증에 의한 급성 신손상 1예

We propose and fabricate highly efficient current scaling AMOLED panel employing excimer laser annealed poly-Si TFTs, which successfully compensate the non-uniformity of IOLED due to the grain boundaries and residual image caused by a hysteresis phenomenon in poly-Si TFT. The proposed 2.4 inch panel employing a new current mirror pixel circuit successfully reduces a nonuniformity of the luminance from 41% to 9.1%, and eliminates residual image, compared with conventional 2-TFT pixel array. The proposed pixel circuit can also increase the data current by 57% and decrease the pixel charging time by 21%, compared with a traditional current mirror pixel

An asymmetric dual gate poly-Si thin film transistors (TFTs), which is consist a long-gate TFT and a short-gate TFT, were fabricated in order to suppress the kink current and increase the reliability. The long-gate TFT operates in a linear regime and limits the total current flow by its current operation region. The asymmetric dual-gate does not exhibit from the kink current in a high drain bias due to the distribution of lateral electric field. The asymmetric dual-gate structure improves kink-free characteristics compared with conventional single and dual-gate TFTs. The hot-carrier stress reliability is successfully improved due to kink current suppression.

We propose a short channel gate overlapped lightly doped drain (GOLDD) poly-Si TFT employing 45° tilt implant for source and drain (S/D) regions without any additional ion doping or mask. Oblique-incident ELA activation is performed to activate both n+ S/D and n- LDD regions as well as cure junction defects. The proposed poly-Si TFT can suppress the anomalous leakage current, and exhibit the better reliability against the hot-carrier stress.

We have proposed a new excimer laser annealing method which employs a floating a-Si thin film structure and the effect of pre-patterning. The proposed ELA produces two-dimensional grain growth so that a high quality grain structure can be obtained. We have also fabricated poly-Si TFTs by adapting the proposed ELA method. The dual-gate structure is used for the elimination of grain boundaries in the channel. The proposed poly-Si TFT exhibits high performance electrical characteristics, e.g. a high mobility of 504 cm/sup 2//V sec and low subthreshold slope of 0.337 V/dec.

Incomplete recrystallized junction defects of self-aligned, excimer laser annealed polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) was investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). TEM observation and simulation result verify that the laser irradiation intensity decreased remarkably at the junction due to diffraction of laser beam at gate electrode edge. We proposed oblique-incidence excimer laser annealing method and successfully eliminated the residual junction defects.

We have successfully obtained large lateral grains with well-controlled grain boundary. The proposed excimer laser annealing (ELA) method produces 2-dimensionally controlled grain growth because the temperature gradient is induced in two directions. Along the channel direction, the floating active structure produces large thermal gradient due to very low thermal conductivity of the air-gap. Along the perpendicular direction to the channel, the surface tension effect also produces thermal gradient. The proposed ELA method can control the grain boundary perpendicular and parallel to current path with only one laser irradiation.

Residual ion implantation damage at source/drain junctions of excimer laser annealed polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) thin film transistor (TFT) was investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Cross-sectional TEM observation showed that XeCl excimer laser (λ=308 nm) energy decreased considerably at the source/drain junctions of top-gated poly-Si TFT due to laser beam diffraction at the gate electrode edges and that the silicon layer amorphized by ion implantation, was not completely annealed at the juncions. The HR-TEM observation showed severe lattice disorder at the junctions of poly-Si TFT.

A new self-aligned poly-Si TFT has been fabricated by employing a photoresist backside exposure technique. A pre-patterned aluminum (Al) layer on a-Si film not only induces the lateral grain growth (∼1.6 μm) in excimer laser crystallization but also implements the selfalignment of the gate region with the lateral grain region. Photoresist backside exposure through poly-Si film has been successfully performed because crystallized poly-Si has a fairly high UV transmittance. A self-aligned poly-Si TFT with a single grain boundary within the 2 μm channel was successfully fabricated and high on/off current ratio (∼107) was obtained.

Background/Aims For unknown reasons, caspase-1 -/- mice, protected against cisplatin-induced acute renal failure (ARF), are deficient in interleukin (IL)-1α. We thus asked whether IL-1α deficiency underlies the mechanism of protection against cisplatin-induced ARF in these mice. Methods Cisplatin (30 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally into wild-type C57BL/6 mice to produce a cisplatin-induced model of ARF. IL-1α was measured in control vehicle- and cisplatin-treated wild-type animals. We also examined whether IL-1α -/- mice were similarly protected against cisplatin-induced ARF. Additionally, infiltration of CD11b- and CD49b-positive cells, as markers of macrophages, natural killer, and natural killer T cells (pan-NK cells), was investigated in wild-type and IL-1α -/- mice. Results Compared with vehicle-treated mice, renal IL-1α increased in cisplatin-treated wild-type mice beginning on day 1. IL-1α -/- mice were shown to be protected against cisplatin-induced ARF. No significant difference in the infiltration of neutrophils or CD11b- and CD49b-positive cells were observed between wild-type and IL-1α -/- mice. Conclusions Mice deficient in IL-1α are protected against cisplatin-induced ARF. The lack of IL-1α may explain, at least in part, the protection against cisplatin-induced ARF observed in caspase-1 -/- mice. Investigation of the protective mechanism (s) in IL-1α -/- mice in cisplatin-induced ARF merits further study.

We report the improved AMOLED with a-Si TFT backplane based on our unique structure. Our new structure use the encapsulation glass as a substrate for OLED which enable us to achieve the high aperture ratio, large TFT area, high luminescence uniformity, and low anode resistance.

An active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display employing hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (TFT) prefers a cathode-contact structure rather than an anode-contact structure. In this paper, a normal top-emitting OLED (TOLED) employing cathode-contact structure has been proposed. The TOLED employing a thin Cr and a highly reflective AlNd alloy as an anode was fabricated. The current efficiency of AlNd alloy with 3 nm thick Cr as a hole-injection layer could be improved to a level of 6.3 cdA due to a highly reflective anode. In order to implement the normal TOLED structure, the cathode layer on top is separated as subpixels by negative photoresist separator. The AMOLED employing cathode-contact structure shows longer lifetime compared to that,employing anode-contact structure.

— P-type low-temperature (450°C) polycrystalline-silicon thin-film-transistor circuits for peripheral driver integration in active-matrix displays are proposed and verified. A low-voltage (5 V) driven poly-Si scan driver is designed by employing a level shifter and shift register. A source driver for six-bit digital interface is proposed, and the building blocks such as latch, DAC, and analog buffer are described. The latch samples and holds the digital bits (D and D') without an output voltage loss. A new source-follower type analog buffer is developed and exhibits a small offset deviation regardless of the VTH variation of the buffer TFT. The simulation and measurement results ensure that the proposed circuits were successfully designed for p-type panel integration.

— A novel active-matrix organic light-emitting-diode (AMOLED) display employing a new current-mirror pixel circuit, which requires four-poly-Si TFTs and one-capacitor and no additional signal lines, has been proposed and sucessfully fabricated. The experimental results show that a new current mirror can considerably compensate luminance non-uniformity and scale down a data current more than a conventional current-mirror circuit in order to reduce the pixel charging time and increase the minimum data current. Compared with a conventional two-TFT pixel, the luminance non-uniformity induced by the grain boundaries of poly-Si TFTs can be decreased considerably from 41% to 9.1%.

We have developed a 2.2-inch QQVGA AMOLED display using CW laser crystallized (CLC) poly-Si backplane. By using CW laser, the a-Si on glass could be crystallized into one dimensional single crystalline silicon as a result of sequential lateral crystallization (SLC) region. The SLC region was used as an active layer of AMOLED backplane. The p-channel poly-Si TFT on SLC region exhibited the field-effect mobility of 173 cm2 /Vs, gate voltage swing of 0.5 V/dec. and threshold voltage of − 4.1 V. The brightness uniformity of AMOLEDs with and without compensation circuits have been compared.

A new high-aperture ratio AMOLED pixel design scheme improving OLED life-time is proposed. The VDD supply line in each pixel is eliminated and the scan line supplies VDD to a pixel, thus a high-aperture ratio of emission area is considerably increased. The increased emission area achieves a lower current density through OLED, so that the OLED degradation would be suppressed and the life-time of OLED may be improved without varying the OLED materials. We also designed a storage capacitor employing the bank layer dielectric between ITO and cathode rather than typically used VDD line.