Mechanical Durability of Flexible Printed Circuit Boards Containing Thin Coverlays Fabricated with Poly(Amide-Imide-Urethane)/Epoxy Interpenetrating Networks.

Because electronics are becoming flexible, the demand for techniques to manufacture thin flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs) has increased. Conventional FPCBs are fabricated by attaching a coverlay film (41 μm) onto copper patterns/polyimide (PI) film to produce the structure of coverlay/Cu patterns/PI film. Given that the conventional coverlay consists of two layers of polyimide film and adhesive, its thickness must be reduced to generate thinner FPCBs.

Successful control of norovirus outbreak in a pediatric ward with multi-bed rooms.

Background: Norovirus outbreaks in health care facilities are difficult to prevent and control.

Methods: We describe a norovirus outbreak that occurred in a single pediatric ward with multi-bed rooms.

Results: The outbreak began with 4 clustered cases with acute diarrhea in a pediatric ward between December 22 and 25, 2017.

Bio-Inspired Distributed Transmission Power Control Considering QoS Fairness in Wireless Body Area Sensor Networks.

Recently, the development of wireless body area sensor network (WBASN) has accelerated due to the rapid development of wireless technology. In the WBASN environment, many WBASNs coexist where communication ranges overlap with each other, resulting in the possibility of interference. Although nodes in a WBASN typically operate at a low power level, to avoid adversely affecting the human body, high transmission rates may be required to support some applications.

Crack-induced Ag nanowire networks for transparent, stretchable, and highly sensitive strain sensors.

Crack-based strain sensor systems have been known for its high sensitivity, but suffer from the small fracture strain of the thin metal films employed in the sensor which results in its negligible stretchability. Herein, we fabricated a transparent (>90% at 550 nm wavelength), stretchable (up to 100%), and sensitive (gauge factor (GF) of 30 at 100% strain) strain gauge by depositing an encapsulated crack-induced Ag nanowire (AgNW) network on a hydroxylated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) film. Stretching the encapsulated AgNWs/PDMS resulted in the formation of a percolation network of nanowire ligaments with abundant percolation paths.

Effect of Ag nanowire addition into nanoparticle paste on the conductivity of Ag patterns printed by gravure offset method.

This paper focuses on the effect of Ag nanowire addition into a commercial Ag nanopaste and the printability evaluation of the mixed paste by the gravure offset printing methodology. Ag nanowires were synthesized by a modified polyol method, and a small amount of them was added into a commercial metallic paste based on Ag nanoparticles of 50 nm in diameter. Two annealing temperatures were selected for comparison, and electrical conductivity was measured by four point probe method.

Tunable assembly of hydrophobic and cationic charged Fe3O4/SiO2 colloids.

The hydrophobic and cationic Fe3O4/SiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by coating the Fe3O4 nanoparticles with silica followed by the silanization reaction. The monodisperse nanoparticles were separated under magnetic forces and characterized by FE-SEM and FT-IR. Interestingly, the hydrophobic and cationic NPs were well dispersed in polar solvents (ethanol and propylene carbonate) and a nonpolar solvent (chloroform).

Enhanced light extraction from organic light emitting diodes by micrometer-sized buckles.

The simple ways for creating buckled structures to enhance the light extraction from OLED devices have been investigated. The buckling instability was observed when the ITO was deposited on the polymer-coated glass by sputtering. The textured surface of the ITO layer after buckling was characterized by an atomic force microscopy.

Ultra-thin and smooth transparent electrode for flexible and leakage-free organic light-emitting diodes.

A smooth, ultra-flexible, and transparent electrode was developed from silver nanowires (AgNWs) embedded in a colorless polyimide (cPI) by utilizing an inverted film-processing method. The resulting AgNW-cPI composite electrode had a transparency of >80%, a low sheet resistance of 8 Ω/□, and ultra-smooth surfaces comparable to glass. Leveraging the robust mechanical properties and flexibility of cPI, the thickness of the composite film was reduced to less than 10 μm, which is conducive to extreme flexibility.

Prepubertal unilateral gynecomastia in the absence of endocrine abnormalities.

Gynecomastia is defined as the excessive development of breast tissue in males, which can occur as unilateral or bilateral. Although the overall prevalence of gynecomastia is 40%-65%, the prepubertal unilateral gynecomastia in the absence of endocrine abnormalities is unusual, with only a few case reports in literature. Idiopathic gynecomastia in prepuberty is benign but a diagnosis of exclusion.

The global transcriptional effects of the human papillomavirus E6 protein in cervical carcinoma cell lines are mediated by the E6AP ubiquitin ligase.

The function of the human papillomavirus (HPV) E6 protein that is most clearly linked to carcinogenesis is the targeted degradation of p53, which is dependent on the E6AP ubiquitin ligase. Additional functions have been attributed to E6, including the stimulation of telomerase activity and the targeted degradation of other cellular proteins, but in most cases it is unclear whether these activities are also E6AP dependent. While E6 clearly influences the transcriptional program of HPV-positive cell lines through the inactivation of p53, it has been shown that at least a subset of its p53-independent functions are also reflected in the transcriptional program.

The role of HPV oncoproteins and cellular factors in maintenance of hTERT expression in cervical carcinoma cells.

Objective: E6 and E7 oncoproteins of high risk type HPV modulate activities of host components in cell cycle regulation. Many of these factors are also involved in the regulation of telomerase activity or the expression of hTERT, the catalytic subunit. Transcription of E6 and E7 is inhibited by the papillomavirus E2 protein, and ectopic expression of E2 in HeLa cells has been shown to cause activation of the p53-growth inhibitory pathway and downregulation of the hTERT gene.

Transition to an irreversible state of senescence in HeLa cells arrested by repression of HPV E6 and E7 genes.

Inhibition of human papillomavirus (HPV) E6 and E7 transcription by means of the E2 protein of bovine papillomavirus 1 (BPV1) has been shown to induce acute growth arrest in HPV-positive cervical carcinoma cells. This state of arrest is marked by the expression of senescence phenotypes including SA beta-Gal activity and lipofuscin accumulation. In this study, we examined the reversibility of these phenotypes by exogenously expressing the E6 and E7 genes into HeLa cells growth-arrested by the depletion of E6/E7.

Induction of senescence-like state and suppression of telomerase activity through inhibition of HPV E6/E7 gene expression in cells immortalized by HPV16 DNA.

The E6 and E7 oncoproteins of human papillomavirus (HPV) play a major role in the development of cervical carcinoma. In this study, a recombinant adenovirus that expresses the bovine papillomavirus (BPV) E2, which has been shown to inhibit HPV early gene expression, was delivered to two HPV-immortalized cell lines as well as CaSki, a cervical carcinoma cell line. We tested whether the carcinoma and the immortal cells were equally affected by the expression of BPV E2.