A digital nervous system aiming toward personalized IoT healthcare.

Body area networks (BANs), cloud computing, and machine learning are platforms that can potentially enable advanced healthcare outside the hospital. By applying distributed sensors and drug delivery devices on/in our body and connecting to such communication and decision-making technology, a system for remote diagnostics and therapy is achieved with additional autoregulation capabilities. Challenges with such autarchic on-body healthcare schemes relate to integrity and safety, and interfacing and transduction of electronic signals into biochemical signals, and vice versa.

All-printed large-scale integrated circuits based on organic electrochemical transistors.

The communication outposts of the emerging Internet of Things are embodied by ordinary items, which desirably include all-printed flexible sensors, actuators, displays and akin organic electronic interface devices in combination with silicon-based digital signal processing and communication technologies. However, hybrid integration of smart electronic labels is partly hampered due to a lack of technology that (de)multiplex signals between silicon chips and printed electronic devices. Here, we report all-printed 4-to-7 decoders and seven-bit shift registers, including over 100 organic electrochemical transistors each, thus minimizing the number of terminals required to drive monolithically integrated all-printed electrochromic displays.

Solution of an elusive pigment crystal structure from a thin film: a combined X-ray diffraction and computational study.

Epindolidione, a hydrogen-bonded derivative of the organic semiconductor tetracene, is an organic pigment which has previously been used to produce stable OFETs with relatively high hole mobilities. Despite its use as an inkjet pigment and organic semiconductor, the crystal structure of epindolidione has proved elusive and is currently unknown. In this work, we report a crystal structure solution of epindolidione determined from vapor deposited thin films using a combined experimental and theoretical approach.

Adsorption, desorption, and film formation of quinacridone and its thermal cracking product indigo on clean and carbon-covered silicon dioxide surfaces.

The evaporation of quinacridone from a stainless steel Knudsen cell leads to the partial decomposition of this molecule in the cell, due to its comparably high sublimation temperature. At least one additional type of molecules, namely indigo, could be detected in the effusion flux. Thermal desorption spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy have been used to study the co-deposition of these molecules on sputter-cleaned and carbon-covered silicon dioxide surfaces.

Temperature and layer thickness dependent investigations on epindolidione organic thin-film transistors.

We report on performance evaluations as a function of layer thickness and substrate temperature for bottom-gate, bottom-gold contact epindolidione organic thin-film transistors on various gate dielectrics. Experiments were carried out under ultra-high vacuum conditions, enabling quasi-simultaneous electrical and surface analysis. Auger electron spectroscopy and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) were applied to characterize the quality of the substrate surface and the thermal stability of the organic films.

Optimizing pentacene thin-film transistor performance: Temperature and surface condition induced layer growth modification.

In this work we present electrical and surface analytical, as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies on temperature and surface condition induced pentacene layer growth modifications, leading to the selection of optimized deposition conditions and entailing performance improvements. We prepared p-silicon/silicon dioxide bottom-gate, gold bottom-contact transistor samples and evaluated the pentacene layer growth for three different surface conditions (sputtered, sputtered + carbon and unsputtered + carbon) at sample temperatures during deposition of 200 K, 300 K and 350 K. The AFM investigations focused on the gold contacts, the silicon dioxide channel region and the highly critical transition area.

Electrical in-situ characterisation of interface stabilised organic thin-film transistors.

We report on the electrical in-situ characterisation of organic thin film transistors under high vacuum conditions. Model devices in a bottom-gate/bottom-contact (coplanar) configuration are electrically characterised in-situ, monolayer by monolayer (ML), while the organic semiconductor (OSC) is evaporated by organic molecular beam epitaxy (OMBE). Thermal SiO with an optional polymer interface stabilisation layer serves as the gate dielectric and pentacene is chosen as the organic semiconductor.

preparation, electrical and surface analytical characterization of pentacene thin film transistors.

The fabrication of organic thin film transistors with highly reproducible characteristics presents a very challenging task. We have prepared and analyzed model pentacene thin film transistors under ultra-high vacuum conditions, employing surface analytical tools and methods. Intentionally contaminating the gold contacts and SiO channel area with carbon through repeated adsorption, dissociation, and desorption of pentacene proved to be very advantageous in the creation of devices with stable and reproducible parameters.

Clinical effects of electroconvulsive therapy in severe depression and concomitant changes in cerebral glucose metabolism--an exploratory study.

Objective: Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective mode of treatment--especially for severe depression and for depression refractory to pharmacotherapy, nevertheless the mode of action of ECT is far from being fully understood. This study assessed the effects of a series of ECT in depressive subjects on cerebral glucose metabolism measured by FDG-PET scans pre- and post-therapy in thus far the largest group of 12 patients.

Methods: Our analysis included careful repeated evaluation of clinical changes in mood and behaviour by standardised questionnaires, which allowed testing for a potential correlation between clinical and cerebral metabolic changes.

[Acute psychosis induced by a Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)-eradication treatment with amoxicillin, clarithromycin and pantoprazole].

A 42 year old male patient without previous psychiatric history developed 48 hours after he was placed on a helicobacter pylori eradication treatment with amoxicillin, clarithromycin and pantoprazole a brief psychosis accompanied by delusional beliefs, personality changes and disorientation. After discontinuation of the tripletherapie and administration of risperidone he recovered within 72 hours. The follow up of the patient two, twelve and seventy-two weeks after discharge showed that he remained euthymic and free of psychotic symptoms.

[Life crisis as a consequence of depression and anxiety].

The incidence of psychiatric disorders has significantly increased during the last years. Females are reported to experience major mental illness more often than men. Depending on the kind of psychiatric disorder the incidence in females is up to twice as high compared to men.