Characteristics of a plasma information variable in phenomenology-based,statistically-tuned virtual metrology to predict silicon dioxide etching depth

A phenomenology-based virtual metrology (VM) for monitoring SiO₂ etching depth was proposed by Park (2015). It achieved high prediction accuracy by introducing newly developed plasma information (PI) variables as designated inputs, called PI-VM. The PI variables represent the state of the plasma, the sheath, and the target during the process. We investigate how a PI variable can help to improve prediction accuracy of VM and how it plays a special role in the statistical selection. We choose only PI_EEDF among the three PI variables to focus on the investigation. The PI_EEDF is determined from the ratio of line-intensities of optical emission spectroscopy. We apply Pearson's correlation filter (PCF), principal component analysis (PCA), and stepwise variable selection (SVS) as statistical selection methods on the variables set including PI_EEDF or not. Multilinear regression is used to model the VM. This study reveals that PI_EEDF variable is a good variable in terms of independence from other input variables and explanatory power for an output variable. Especially, VM using SVS method applied to variable sets including PI_EEDF achieves the highest accuracy, comparable to Park's PI-VM. This study shows that PI_EEDF variable is particularly useful for monitoring of the fine variations in semiconductor manufacturing process and it also extends the utilization of OES sensor data.     

The passivity of titanium—part III: characterization of the anodic oxide film

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The kinetic parameters of the formation of the anodic titanium oxide film on Ti in 0.5 M H2SO4 have been determined using potentiostatic...     

Chemical mimetics of the N-degron pathway alleviate systemic inflammation by activating mitophagy and immunometabolic remodeling

The Arg/N-degron pathway, which is involved in the degradation of proteins bearing an N-terminal signal peptide, is connected to p62/SQSTM1-mediated autophagy. However, the impact of the molecular link between the N-degron and autophagy pathways is largely unknown in the context of systemic inflammation. Here, we show that chemical mimetics of the N-degron Nt-Arg pathway (p62 ligands) decreased mortality in sepsis and inhibited pathological inflammation by activating mitophagy and immunometabolic remodeling. The p62 ligands alleviated systemic inflammation in a mouse model of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced septic shock and in the cecal ligation and puncture model of sepsis. In macrophages, the p62 ligand attenuated the production of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in response to various innate immune stimuli. Mechanistically, the p62 ligand augmented LPS-induced mitophagy and inhibited the production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in macrophages. The p62 ligand-mediated anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and mitophagy-activating effects depended on p62. In parallel, the p62 ligand significantly downregulated the LPS-induced upregulation of aerobic glycolysis and lactate production. Together, our findings demonstrate that p62 ligands play a critical role in the regulation of inflammatory responses by orchestrating mitophagy and immunometabolic remodeling.Subject terms: Sepsis, Mitophagy     

A Rho Kinase (ROCK) Inhibitor,Y-27632, Inhibits the Dissociation-Induced Cell Death of Salivary Gland Stem Cells

Salivary gland stem cells (SGSCs) are potential cell sources for the treatment of salivary gland diseases. The control of cell survival is an essential factor for applying stem cells to regenerative medicine or stem cell-based research. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the ROCK inhibitor Y-27632 on the survival of SGSCs and its underlying mechanisms. SGSCs were isolated from mouse submandibular glands and cultured in suspension. Treatment with Y-27632 restored the viability of SGSCs that was significantly decreased during isolation and the subsequent culture. Y-27632 upregulated the expression of anti-apoptotic protein BCL-2 in SGSCs and, in the apoptosis assay, significantly reduced apoptotic and necrotic cell populations. Matrigel was used to mimic the extracellular environment of an intact salivary gland. The expression of genes regulating apoptosis and the ROCK signaling pathway was significantly reduced when SGSCs were embedded in Matrigel. SGSCs cultured in Matrigel and treated with Y-27632 showed no difference in the total numbers of spheroids and expression levels of apoptosis-regulating genes. Matrigel-embedded SGSCs treated with Y-27632 increased the number of spheroids with budding structures and the expression of acinar cell-specific marker AQP5. We demonstrate the protective effects of Y-27632 against dissociation-induced apoptosis of SGSCs during their culture in vitro.     

Passivity of titanium,part IV: reversible oxygen vacancy generation/annihilation

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - A simplified Point Defect Model incorporating reversible oxygen vacancy generation/annihilation at the metal/film interface has been used to investigate...     

Effects of the polyamide molecular structure on the performance of reverse osmosis membranes

Thin-film composite reverse osmosis membranes of polyamides were prepared by interfacial polymerization. Various benzenediamines and poly(aminostyrene) were interfacially reacted with various acyl chlorides to prepare a skin layer of composite membranes. Among the membranes prepared from the structural isomeric monomers of benzenediamines and acyl chlorides, i.e., the same chemical composition but different in the position of functional groups on the aromatic ring, the membrane with the best salt rejection was obtained when the reacting groups forming amide are located at the same position on the aromatic ring. Membranes prepared by interfacially reacting various diamines with trimesoyl chloride revealed that the salt rejection depends on the linear chain structure of polyamides and network formed by crosslinking. Membranes obtained by interfacial polymerization of poly(aminostyrene) with trimesoyl chloride showed higher water flux but lower salt rejection than those obtained by interfacial polymerization of various benzenediamines with trimesoyl chloride. Membranes obtained here showed the typical trade-off behavior between salt rejection and water flux. However, membranes prepared by interfacially reacting trimesoyl chloride with a mixture of poly(aminostyrene) and m-phenylenediamine or a mixture of poly(aminostyrene), m-phenylenediamine, and diaminobenzoic acid showed a performance advantage over usual membranes, i.e., a large positive deviation from the usual trade-off trend. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 36 : 1821–1830, 1998     

The square root Diffie–Hellman problem

Many cryptographic schemes are based on computationally hard problems. The computational Diffie–Hellman problem is the most well-known hard problem and there are many variants of it. Two of them are the square Diffie–Hellman problem and the square root Diffie–Hellman problem. There have been no known reductions from one problem to the other in either direction. In this paper we show that these two problems are polynomial time equivalent under a certain condition. However, this condition is weak, and almost all of the parameters of cryptographic schemes satisfy this condition. Therefore, our reductions are valid for almost all cryptographic schemes.     

Structural Control of Hierarchically‐Ordered TiO2 Films by Water for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

A facile way of controlling the structure of TiO₂ by changing the amount of water to improve the efficiency of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is reported. Hierarchically ordered TiO₂ films with high porosity and good interconnectivity are synthesized in a well‐defined morphological confinement arising from a one‐step self‐assembly of preformed TiO₂ (pre‐TiO₂) nanocrystals and a graft copolymer, namely poly(vinyl chloride)‐g‐poly(oxyethylene methacrylate). The polymer–solvent interactions in solution, which are tuned by the amount of water, are shown to be a decisive factor in determining TiO₂ morphology and device performance. Systematic control of wall and pore size is achieved and enables the bifunctionality of excellent light scattering properties and easy electron transport through the film. These properties are characterized by reflectance spectroscopy, incident photon‐to‐electron conversion efficiency, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analyses. The TiO₂ photoanode that is prepared with a higher water ratio, [pre‐TiO₂]:[H₂O]=1:0.3, shows a larger surface area, greater light scattering, and better electron transport, which result in a high efficiency (7.7 %) DSSC with a solid polymerized ionic liquid. This efficiency is much greater than that of commercially available TiO₂ paste (4.0 %).     

Ruthenium Radioisotopes as Contaminants in Eluates from 99Mo-99mTc Generators

The measurement of the ¹⁰⁶Ru content in ^99mTc eluates from ⁹⁹Mo-^99mTc generators is difficult because of the proximity of the ¹⁰³Ru and ¹⁰⁶Ru gamma-ray spectral peaks and the low ¹⁰⁶Ru content. ¹⁰⁶Ru causes a relatively high whole-body dose, similarly as known contaminants ⁶⁰Co, ¹³⁴Cs, ¹⁴⁰Ba and some others. Assuming that ruthenium is eliminated from the body with the biological half-life 7.3 days (according to ICRP) the additional absorbed dose caused by ¹⁰⁶Ru does not exceed, with regard to the low content of this nuclide, the dose due to ¹⁰³Ru. The results are given of the preliminary experiment in animals with the aim to determine the biological behaviour of ruthenium radioisotopes after the administration of the ^99mTc eluate containing these contaminants.