Browsing by Author "Yang, Y.-F."

Background: Broad-scale evidence has shown the significant association between ambient air pollutants and the development of tuberculosis (TB). However, the impact of air quality on the risk of TB in Taiwan is still poorly understood. Objective: To develop a probabilistic integrated population-level risk assessment approach for evaluating the contribution of ambient air pollution exposure to the risk of TB development among different regions of Taiwan. Materials and methods: A Bayesian-based probabilistic risk assessment model was implemented to link exposure concentrations of various air pollutants quantified in a probabilistic manner with the population-based exposure-response models developed by using an epidemiological investigation. Results: The increment of the risk of TB occurred in a region with a higher level of air pollution, indicating a strong relationship between ambient air pollution exposures and TB incidences. Carbon monoxide (CO) exposure showed the highest population attributable fraction (PAF), followed by nitrogen oxides (NOX) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposures. In a region with higher ambient air pollution, it is most likely (80% risk probability) that the contributions of CO exposure to development of TB were 1.6–12.2% (range of median PAFs), whereas NOX and NO2 exposures contributed 1.2–9.8% to developing TB. Conclusion: Our findings provide strong empirical support for the hypothesis and observations from the literature that poor air quality is highly likely to link aetiologically to the risk of TB. Therefore, substantial reductions in CO, NOX, and NO2 exposures are predicted to have health benefits to susceptible and latently infected individuals that provide complementary mitigation efforts in reducing the burden of TB. Considering that people continue to be exposed to both TB bacilli and ambient air pollutants, our approach can be applied for different countries/regions to identify which air pollutants contribute to a higher risk of TB in order to develop potential mitigation programs. ? 2019 Lin et al.

Photonic transistor memory has received increasing attention as next-generation optoelectronic devices for light fidelity (Li-Fi) application due to the attractive advantages of ultra-speed, high security, and low power consumption. However, most transistor-type photonic memories developed to date still rely on electrical bias for operation, imposing certain limits on data transmission efficiency and energy consumption. In this study, the dual manipulation of "photo-writing"and "photo-erasing"of a novel photonic transistor memory is successfully realized by cleverly utilizing the complementary light absorption between the photoactive material, n-type BPE-PTCDI, in the active channel and the hybrid floating gate, CH3NH3PbBr3/poly(2-vinylpyridine). The fabricated device not only can be operated under the full spectrum but also shows stable switching cycles of photo-writing (PW)-reading (R)-photo-erasing (PE)-reading (R) (PW-R-PE-R) with a high memory ratio of ?104, and the memory characteristics possess a stable long-term retention of >104 s. Notably, photo-erasing only requires 1 s light illumination. Due to the fully optical functionality, the rigid gate electrode is removed and a novel two-terminal flexible photonic memory is fabricated. The device not only exhibits stable electrical performance after 1000 bending cycles but also manifests a multilevel functional behavior, demonstrating a promising potential for the future development of photoactive electronic devices. ?

G-protein-coupled receptor kinase interacting protein 1 (GIT1) is participated in cell movement activation, which is a fundamental process during tissue development and cancer progression. GIT1/PIX forming a functional protein complex that contributes to Rac1/Cdc42 activation, resulting in increasing cell mobility. Although the importance of Rac1/Cdc42 activation is well documented in cancer aggressiveness, the clinical importance of GIT1 remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the clinical significance of GIT1 expression in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and also verified the importance of GIT1-Rac1/Cdc42 axis in stimulating NSCLC cell mobility. The result indicated higher GIT1 expression patients had significantly poorer prognoses in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with lower GIT1 expression patients. Higher GIT1 expression was an independent prognostic factor by multivariate analysis and associated with migration/invasion of NSCLC cells in transwell assay. In vivo studies indicated that GIT1 promotes metastasis of NSCLC cells. Finally, GIT1 was found to stimulate migration/invasion by altering the activity of Rac1/Cdc42 in NSCLC cells. Together, the GIT1 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC. GIT1 is critical for the invasiveness of NSCLC cells through stimulating the activity of Rac1/Cdc42.

P3HT, as one of the most important conjugated polymers, has been reported to possess low mobility and poor stretchability. In this study, two polythiophenes are prepared by attaching ester-substituted, biaxially extended conjugated side chains with backbones of 3-(thiophen-2-yl)-6-(thiophen-3-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-bithiophene (PDCTT2T) and 3-(thiophen-2-yl)-6-(thiophen-3-yl)thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-difluorobithiophene (PDCTT2T-F) and compared with their respective counterparts without the biaxially extended side chains (thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-bithiophene and thieno[3,2-b]thiophene-difluorobithiophene backbones for PDCTT and PDCTT-F). Through investigating mobility-stretchability properties of these four polymers, the synergetic effect of ester-substituted, biaxially extended conjugation and backbone fluorination is demonstrated to improve mobility-stretchability properties of polythiophenes, especially in a highly stretched state. On the one hand, the biaxially extended side chains implant a more amorphous structure and reinforce the intramolecular charge transfer between polymer backbones. On the other hand, the backbone fluorination confers to a rigidified polymer backbone, facilitating effective intrachain charge transport. As a result, PDCTT2T-F delivers superior mobility (0.20 cm2 V-1 s-1) to PDCTT-F (0.054 cm2 V-1 s-1) alongside 11 times higher mobility retention at a 100% strain. In addition, both PDCTT2T and PDCTT2T-F encouragingly retain decent mobility throughout 800 stretching-releasing cycles (at a 60% strain), outperforming their respective parent polymers without side-chain conjugation that show a one-order decrease in mobility. The results shown in this work signify an effective design strategy to fine-tune mobility-stretchability properties of polythiophenes. ? 2021 American Chemical Society.

Despite demonstrating higher photoluminescence quantum yield and better ambient and operational stability than organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites, all-inorganic perovskites encounter the problem of inferior film quality and interfacial electrical properties, which limits the resultant device performance. In this study, three polymers, P4a-c, bearing distinct pendant groups based on a similar conjugated group are synthesized and employed as an interlayer to modify the PEDOT:PSS/CsPbBr3 interface. Due to the pendant design, P4a-c possess deep-lying HOMO levels and high transparency across the visible range. The different structures of the pendant groups in P4a-c are shown to result in their different propensity in energy-level modulation and solid-state aggregation, which plays a non-trivial role in affecting the resulting device performance. Due to the more appropriate energy levels and better regulation of CsPbBr3 crystals, P4c with a polar bridge moiety is shown to better mediate the performance of the derived device. The P4c-mediated PeLED delivers six times enhanced luminance (Lmax, ?36?000 cd m-2) and 3.6 times enhanced external quantum efficiency (EQE, 2.16%) as compared to the control device (?6000 cd m-2, 0.60%). Notably, all the devices using P4a-c interlayers deliver a lower turn-on voltage than the control device, clearly revealing the positive role of P4a-c interlayers on diminishing the barrier across the associated interface to improve charge injection efficiency. This journal is ? the Partner Organisations.

Nervous necrosis virus (NNV) infection in susceptible grouper larvae has been reported to cause high mortalities, leading to great economic losses in aquaculture industry. Although the effects of NNV vaccines on grouper have been broadly investigated, vaccination strategies have not been fully established. To this end, we introduced the parsimonious epidemiological models that explored the assessment of key epidemiological parameters and how they changed when vaccinations showed the effects. We showed that the models capture the published cumulative mortality data accurately. We estimated a basic reproduction number R0?=?2.44 for NNV transmission in grouper larvae without vaccination. To effectively control NNV transmission by vaccination, a model for disease control was also generalized to attain the goals of controlled reproduction number less than 1. Our results indicated that at least 60% of grouper population needed to be immunized for ~75?min. Our data-driven modelling approach that links the transmission dynamics of NNV and vaccination strategies for grouper has the potential to support evidence-based planning and adaptation of integrated control measures. We encourage that the epidemiology-based framework introduced here can be further implemented for establishing effective vaccination and mitigation actions aimed at controlling diseases in fish farming practices. ? 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Photonic field-effect transistor (FET) memory devices offer unique advantages owing to their solution processability, low cost production, and their lightweight and structural flexibility. Despite the plethora of research demonstrated the photon based programming process, limited reports are available for photoinduced recovery mechanism in such devices. To investigate the influence of polymer electret design on photonic memory performance, poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO)–block–poly (vinylphenyl oxadiazole) (POXD) conjugated block copolymers were employed to a photonic FET memory with n-type semiconducting channel. The studied device exhibited bistable ON/OFF current states after electrical programming and photoinduced recovery (erasing) processes. The device operating mechanism was elaborated by comparing the device performance with respective electrets of PFO-b-POXD and PFO-b-polystyrene (PS) and PFO homopolymer. We found that PFO-b-POXD can efficiently generate photoexciton under UV illumination to neutralize the trapped hole, and assuage the hole trapping propensity of PFO segment, simultaneously. By optimizing the POXD content in the block copolymer, a decent memory ratio (ION/IOFF) of ~105 was achieved after 104 s, indicating its superior long-term stability and data discernibility. This research shows the judicious strategy to design polymer electret for photonic memory, and it opens up the possibility of developing photonic memory, human perception and futuristic communication systems using simple, convenient and reliable optoelectronic technique. ? 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Organic phototransistor memory has received significant attention owing to its solution processability and flexibility, and its high transmission speed and low energy consumption with light operation provide a promising future in ultrahigh-density data storage devices. In this study, TIPS-functionalized organic small molecules, 9,10-bis[(triisopropylsilyl)ethynyl]anthracene (TIPS-3), 5,12-bis((triisopropylsilyl)ethynyl)tetracene (TIPS-4), and 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl)pentacene (TIPS-5) were introduced and employed as the photogates, while polystyrene (PS) acted as the insulator in the floating gate electrets of phototransistor memory. The TIPS-functionalized structure enabled acenes to be solution-processable, and PS helped to trap charges efficiently. The devices were photowritten with different kinds of light and were electrically erased with a gate voltage of -60 V for 1 s. TIPS-4 exhibited the best memory performance and photoresponse with a stable current contrast of 105over 104s and a large shift in threshold voltage of 50 V to 450 nm light. The outstanding charge-trapping capability of TIPS-4 in the phototransistor memory was attributed to the favorable energy level alignment to the semiconducting layer. Notably, the significant photoresponse was ascribed to the singlet fission to triplet photodynamics of TIPS-4, which showed a delayed exciton lifetime providing enough time for charge transfer to the channel layer. The results of this study provide a design concept on organic small molecules in the floating gate electret. © 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.