Measurement of Electrophysiological Signals In Vitro Using High-Performance Organic Electrochemical Transistors

Biological environments use ions in charge transport for information transmission. The properties of mixed electronic and ionic conductivity in organic materials make them ideal candidates to transduce physiological information into electronically processable signals. A device proven to be highly successful in measuring such information is the organic electrochemical transistor (OECT). Previous electrophysiological measurements performed using OECTs show superior signal-to-noise ratios than electrodes at low frequencies. Subsequent development has significantly improved critical performance parameters such as transconductance and response time. Here, interdigitated-electrode OECTs are fabricated on flexible substrates, with one such state-of-the-art device achieving a peak transconductance of 139 mS with a 138 µs response time. The devices are implemented into an array with interconnects suitable for micro-electrocorticographic application and eight architecture variations are compared. The two best-performing arrays are subject to the full electrophysiological spectrum using prerecorded signals. With frequency filtering, kHz-scale frequencies with 10 µV-scale voltages are resolved. This is supported by a novel quantification of the noise, which compares the gate voltage input and drain current output. These results demonstrate that high-performance OECTs can resolve the full electrophysiological spectrum and suggest that superior signal-to-noise ratios could be achieved in high frequency measurements of multiunit activity.     

Macrophage Immunomodulation Through New Polymers that Recapitulate Functional Effects of Itaconate as a Power House of Innate Immunity

Itaconate (ITA) is an emerging powerhouse of innate immunity with therapeutic potential that is limited in its ability to be administered in a soluble form. A library of polyester materials that incorporate ITA into polymer backbones resulting in materials with inherent immunoregulatory behavior is developed. Harnessing hydrolytic degradation release from polyester backbones, ITA polymers result in the mechanism specific immunoregulatory properties on macrophage polarization in vitro. In a functional assay, the polymer-released ITA inhibits bacterial growth on acetate. Translation to an in vivo model of biomaterial associated inflammation, intraperitoneal injection of ITA polymers demonstrate a rapid resolution of inflammation in comparison to a control polymer silicone, demonstrating the value of sustained biomimetic presentation of ITA.     

Social Support and Social Strain Among Husbands and Wives: A Multilevel Analysis.

In response to recent calls in the literature for within-person examinations of social support processes over time, this study explores the relationships of spousal support, spousal strain, and well-being among husbands and wives, both within the same day and across days. Eighty-three couples were interviewed and completed a structured diary twice daily for 1 week. The results of multilevel hierarchical modeling suggest that both spousal support and spousal strain made significant, independent contributions to concurrent negative affect, although only spousal support was a significant predictor of next-day negative affect. Spousal strain interacted with spousal support to predict next-day negative affect. Direct and moderating effects of perceived marital adjustment on negative affect were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Normal-incidence InAs self-assembled quantum-dot infrared photodetectors with a high detectivity

An InAs/AlGaAs quantum-dot infrared photodetector based on bound-to-bound intraband transitions in undoped InAs quantum dots is reported. AlGaAs blocking layers were employed to achieve low dark current. The photoresponse peaked at 6.2 /spl mu/m. At 77 K and -0.7 V bias, the responsivity was 14 mA/W and the detectivity, D*, was 10/sup 10/ cm/spl middot/Hz/sup 1/2//W.     

Scarring trachoma is associated with polymorphism in the tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) gene promoter and with elevated TNF-alpha levels in tear fluid

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) may play a central role in the disease pathogenesis which occurs as a consequence of chlamydial infection. To investigate the importance of TNF-alpha gene promoter polymorphisms and TNF-alpha levels in tear fluid in scarring trachoma, a large matched-pair case-control study was performed in The Gambia. The -308A allele was present in a higher proportion of patients (28.4%) than controls (18.4%), with an increasing association for homozygotes (chi2 for trend, P = 0.032; allele frequency, 0.163 in patients and 0.099 in controls; chi2, P = 0.025). For the -238A allele, the association was similar but not significant. The disease association was highly significant when the number of either -308A or -238A sites in an individual was considered (P = 0.003). TNF-alpha promoter alleles are tightly linked to some HLA class I and II alleles, but multivariate analysis confirmed that the disease associations were independent of HLA, although a class I allele, A*6802, is also associated with disease. TNF-alpha was more frequently detected in tear samples from patients (27.6%) than from controls (15.9%), increasingly so for higher levels of detectable TNF-alpha (P = 0.015). Among patients, detectable TNF-alpha in tears was highly associated with the presence of ocular chlamydial infection (P < 0.001). The results indicate that TNF-alpha plays a major role in the tissue damage and scarring which occurs as a consequence of Chlamydia trachomatis infection.     

Pegylated peptides. V. Carboxy-terminal PEGylated analogs of growth hormone-releasing factor (GRF) display enhanced duration of biological activity in vivo

In the present study, human growth hormone-releasing factor (hGRF) and analogs were successfully pegylated at the carboxy-terminus using a novel solid- and solution-phase strategy. Following synthesis, these pegylated hGRF analogs were evaluated for in vitro and in vivo biological activity. Specifically, hGRF (1-29)-NH2, [Ala15]-hGRF (1-29)-NH2, [desNH2Tyr1, D-Ala2, Ala15]-hGRF(1-29)-NH2 and [His1, Val2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27]-hGRF(1-32)-OH were each C-terminally extended using a Gly-Gly-Cys-NH2 spacer (previously demonstrated not to alter intrinsic biological activity), and then monopegylated via coupling to an activated dithiopyridyl-PEG reagent. PEG moieties of 750, 2000, 5000 or 10,000 molecular weight (MW) were examined to determine the effect of polymer weight on activity. Initial biological evaluations in vitro revealed that all C-terminally pegylated hGRF analogs retained high growth hormone (GH)-releasing potencies, regardless of the MW of PEG polymer employed. Two of these pegylated hGRF analogs, [desNH2Tyr1, D-Ala2, Ala15]-hGRF (1-29)-Gly-Gly-Cys(NH2)-S-Nle-PEG5000 and [His1, Val2, Gln8, Ala15, Leu27]-hGRF(1-32)-Gly-Cys(NH2)-S-Nle-PEG5000, were subsequently evaluated in both pig and mouse models and found to be highly potent (in vivo potency range = 12-55-fold that of native hGRF). Relative to their non-pegylated counterparts, these two pegylated hGRF analogs exhibited enhanced duration of activity.     

GUIDELINES FOR DESIGNING EIS INTERFACES Meeting Executives' Information Needs

For users of an executive information system (EIS), the EIS interface is the system and is crucial to the EIS's success. These guidelines for designing EIS interfaces are based on studies of actual EIS interfaces that meet the unique information needs of executives.     

Adherence to pharmacologic management of hypertension

Adherence to pharmacologic therapy of hypertension is low (in the range of 50-70%) and has important implications both for blood pressure control and cardiovascular complications. Based on a review of the literature using the levels of evidence grading technique, determinants of adherence to the pharmacologic therapy of hypertension have been assessed. Additionally, interventions to improve compliance were evaluated. Patient-centred, health care provider-centred and drug-specific factors have all been shown to affect adherence rates. We conclude that the extent of adherence to pharmacologic therapy is modifiable. Measurable improvements in adherence can be obtained from simplified medication regimens and a combination of behaviour strategies, including the tailoring of pill-taking to patients' daily habits and rituals, the advocacy of self-monitoring of pills and blood pressure, and the institution of reward systems.     

A study on charge reduction in HfO/sub 2/ gate stacks

Charge in metal-organic chemical vapor deposition-grown HfO/sub 2/ gate stacks has been systematically studied using nMOS capacitors. It is found that, for these films, the charge in the stack is mainly concentrated at the interfaces between the layers and is negative at the HfO/sub 2//interfacial layer (IL) interface and positive at the Si/IL interface. In general, the calculated charge densities at both interfaces are of order 10/sup 12/ cm/sup -2/. A forming gas anneal (FGA) reduces both interface charge greatly. The FGA can also significantly reduce the hysteresis and interface state density. The effects of post deposition anneal at various temperatures and under various ambients have also been studied. It is found that a high-temperature dilute oxidizing ambient anneal followed by an FGA reduces the charge at both interfaces.     

Luminescence from praseodymium doped AlN thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering and the effect of material structure and thermal annealing on the luminescence

Thin films of Praseodymium doped AlN are deposited on silicon (111) substrates at 77 K and 950 K by rf magnetron sputtering method. About 500–1000 nm thick films are grown at 100–200 watts RF power and 5–8 mTorr nitrogen, using a metal target of Al with Pr. X-rays diffraction results show that films deposited at 77 K are amorphous and those deposited at 950 K are crystalline. Cathodoluminescence studies are performed at room temperature and luminescence peaks are observed in a wide range from ultraviolet to infrared region. The most intense peak is obtained in green at 526 nm from amorphous films as a result from ³P₁→³H₅ transition. In crystalline films the intense peak was obtain in red at 648 nm as a result from ³P₀→³F₂ transition. Films are thermally activated at 1300 K for half an hour in a nitrogen atmosphere. Thermal activation enhances the intensity of luminescence. Two peaks at 488 nm and 505 nm merged after thermal activation, giving rise to a single peak at 495 nm.