Activatable Photosensitizers: Agents for Selective Photodynamic Therapy

Recent developments in the design of bifunctional and activatable photosensitizers rejuvenate the aging field of photodynamic sensitization and photodynamic therapy. While systematic studies have uncovered new dyes that can serve as potential photosensitizers, the most promising results have come from studies aimed at gaining precise control over the location and rate of cytotoxic singlet oxygen generation. As a consequence, higher selectivities and efficiencies in photodynamic treatment protocols are now within reach. This feature article highlights the variety of approaches that have been pursued to improve photodynamic therapy and to transform simple photosensitizers into smarter theranostic agents.     

Biomimetic Nanomaterial Strategies for Virus Targeting: Antiviral Therapies and Vaccines

The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic highlights the importance of developing effective virus targeting strategies to treat and prevent viral infections. Since virus particles are nanoscale entities, nanomaterial design strategies are ideally suited to create advanced materials that can interact with and mimic virus particles. In this progress report, the latest advances in biomimetic nanomaterials are critically discussed for combating viral infections, including in the areas of nanomaterial-enhanced viral replication inhibitors, biomimetic virus particle capture schemes, and nanoparticle vaccines. Particular focus is placed on nanomaterial design concepts and material innovations that can be readily developed to thwart future viral threats. Pertinent nanomaterial examples from the COVID-19 situation are also covered along with discussion of human clinical trial efforts underway that might lead to next-generation antiviral therapies and vaccines.     

Intercell Interference Coordination Using Threshold-Based Region Decisions

IMT-Advanced mobile communication systems make it possible for any devices to access high-speed networks anytime and anywhere. To meet the needs of IMT-Advanced systems, cellular systems must solve the problem of intercell interference caused by frequency reuse. Intercell interference problems become severe when orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission, which is a key technology for 4G communication systems, is used in a cellular system. In this paper, a zone-based intercell interference coordination (ICIC) scheme with high flexibility and low cost is proposed, and its performance is evaluated through multicell system-level simulations carried out according to the simplified 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Long Term Evolution (LTE) system parameters. In the proposed algorithm, each cell is divided into several regions based on threshold values. Each region reuses frequencies in different ways, and the regions have different maximum transmit (TX) powers according to the interference environment. Even though the proposed scheme can be implemented with low complexity by using only the existing user equipment (UE) measurement, simulation results have confirmed that it provides significant improvements in geometry distribution.     

Polymer‐Stabilized Chromonic Liquid‐Crystalline Polarizer

Robust coatable polarizer is fabricated by the self‐assembly of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals and subsequent photo‐polymerizing processes. Their molecular packing structures and optical behaviors are investigated by the combined techniques of microscopy, scattering and spectroscopy. To stabilize the oriented Sunset Yellow FCF (H‐SY) films and to minimize the possible defects generated during and after the coating, acrylic acid (AA) is added to the H‐SY/H₂O solution and photo‐polymerized. Utilizing cross‐polarized optical microscopy, phase behaviors of the H‐SY/H₂O/AA solution are monitored by varying the compositions and temperatures of the solution. Based on the experimental results of two‐dimensional wide angle X‐ray diffraction and selected area electron diffraction, the H‐SY crystalline unit cell is determined to be a monoclinic structure with the dimensions of a = 1.70 nm, b = 1.78 nm, c = 0.68 nm, α = β = 90.0° and γ = 84.5°. The molecular arrangements in the oriented H‐SY films were further confirmed by polarized Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy. The polymer‐stabilized H‐SY films show good mechanical and chemical stabilities with a high polarizability. Additionally, patterned polarizers are fabricated by applying a photo‐mask during the photo‐polymerization of AA, which may open new doors for practical applications in electro‐optic devices.     

Comparative Study of ENIG and ENEPIG as Surface Finishes for a Sn-Ag-Cu Solder Joint

Interfacial reactions and joint reliability of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder with two different surface finishes, electroless nickel-immersion gold (ENIG) and electroless nickel-electroless palladium-immersion gold (ENEPIG), were evaluated during a reflow process. We first compared the interfacial reactions of the two solder joints and also successfully revealed a connection between the interfacial reaction behavior and mechanical reliability. The Sn-Ag-Cu/ENIG joint exhibited a higher intermetallic compound (IMC) growth rate and a higher consumption rate of the Ni(P) layer than the Sn-Ag-Cu/ENEPIG joint. The presence of the Pd layer in the ENEPIG suppressed the growth of the interfacial IMC layer and the consumption of the Ni(P) layer, resulting in the superior interfacial stability of the solder joint. The shear test results show that the ENIG joint fractured along the interface, exhibiting indications of brittle failure possibly due to the brittle IMC layer. In contrast, the failure of the ENEPIG joint only went through the bulk solder, supporting the idea that the interface is mechanically reliable. The results from this study confirm that the Sn-Ag-Cu/ENEPIG solder joint is mechanically robust and, thus, the combination is a viable option for a Pb-free package system.     

Evolution of Annealing Twins in Sputtered Cu Films

The Monte Carlo Potts model with n-fold method was used to simulate grain structure evolution in thin Cu films according to energetic competition principles. Surface/interface, grain boundary, and strain energy factors were applied to determine grain growth and crystallographic texture evolution as a function of film thickness. Furthermore, annealing twins were simulated through specific criteria that arbitrarily insert twin grains into the structure through grain boundary energy considerations. Four different types of microstructures were observed experimentally and simulated by the Monte Carlo technique.     

A multicarrier CDMA system with adaptive subchannel allocation forforward links

Multicarrier transmission schemes have been introduced into code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems to gain advantages for high data rate transmission. One of the methods is to transmit identical narrowband direct-sequence (DS) waveforms in parallel over a number of subchannels using frequency diversity. In this paper, we propose a multicarrier CDMA system with an adaptive subchannel allocation method for forward links. In the proposed system, instead of identical DS waveforms being transmitted over a number of subchannels in parallel, each user's DS waveform is transmitted over the user's favourite subchannel which has the largest fading amplitude among all the subchannels. We analyze the performance characteristics of the system when orthogonal and random signature sequences are used. The proposed system is shown to have performance gain over the conventional multicarrier CDMA system. We also investigate how the performance is influenced when the signal is not perfectly allocated into the best subchannel     

Computer-aided diagnosis of solid breast nodules: use of an artificial neural network based on multiple sonographic features

A computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) algorithm identifying breast nodule malignancy using multiple ultrasonography (US) features and artificial neural network (ANN) classifier was developed from a database of 584 histologically confirmed cases containing 300 benign and 284 malignant breast nodules. The features determining whether a breast nodule is benign or malignant were extracted from US images through digital image processing with a relatively simple segmentation algorithm applied to the manually preselected region of interest. An ANN then distinguished malignant nodules in US images based on five morphological features representing the shape, edge characteristics, and darkness of a nodule. The structure of ANN was selected using k-fold cross-validation method with k = 10. The ANN trained with randomly selected half of breast nodule images showed the normalized area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.95. With the trained ANN, 53.3% of biopsies on benign nodules can be avoided with 99.3% sensitivity. Performance of the developed classifier was reexamined with new US mass images in the generalized patient population of total 266 (167 benign and 99 malignant) cases. The developed CAD algorithm has the potential to increase the specificity of US for characterization of breast lesions.     

End-to-end framework for 4-D broadcasting based on MPEG-V standard

Advances in media technologies brought so-called 4-D movies to your neighbour. The 4-D movies represent movies (preferably in 3-D) with additional sensory effects such as motion chairs and wind effects. We present an end-to-end framework to provide sensory effects for home theaters based on MPEG-V standard. The key technologies of the 4-D broadcasting framework, required to provide sensory effect through home theaters consist of creating sensory effects synchronized with audiovisual contents, delivering the sensory effects with content to home theater devices, recognizing home devices for rendering sensory effects, and rendering contents through home theater system with connected sensory devices in a synchronized way. This paper proposes end-to-end technology required, in addition to the conventional broadcasting framework, based on international standard of MPEG-V, specifically Part 2 to describe capabilities of the home sensory devices, Part 3 to provide contents with sensory effects, and Part 5 to command the sensory devices among other parts of MPEG-V standard.     

Ultrathin Sticker‐Type ZnO Thin Film Transistors Formed by Transfer Printing via Topological Confinement of Water‐Soluble Sacrificial Polymer in Dimple Structure

To create ultrathin sticker‐type electronic devices that can be attached to unconventional substrates, it is highly desirable to develop printable membrane‐type electronics on a handling substrate and then transfer the printing to a target surface. A facile method is presented for high‐efficiency transfer printing by controlling the interfacial adhesion between a handling substrate and an ultrathin substrate in a systematic manner under mild conditions. A water‐soluble sacrificial polymer layer is employed on a dimpled handling substrate, which enables the topological confinement of the polymer residue inside and near the dimples during the etching and drying processes to reduce the interfacial adhesion gently, creating a high yield of transfer printing in a deterministic manner. As an example of an electronic device that was created using this method, a highly flexible sticker‐type ZnO thin film transistor was successfully developed with a thickness of 13 μm including a printable ultrathin substrate, which can be attached to various substrates, such as paper, plastic, and stickers.