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Chemiluminescence immunoassays have been widely employed for diagnosing various diseases. However, because of the extremely low intensity chemiluminescence signals, highly sensitive transducers, such as photomultiplier tubes and image sensors with cooling devices, are required to overcome this drawback. In this study, a hypersensitive photosensor was developed based on cesium lead bromide (CsPbBr3) perovskite quantum dots (QDs) with sufficient high sensitivity for chemiluminescence immunoassays. First, CsPbBr3 QDs with a highly uniform size, that is, 5 nm, were synthesized under thermodynamic control to achieve a high size confinement effect. For the fabrication of the photosensor, MoS2 nanoflakes were used as an electron transfer layer and heat-treated at an optimum temperature. Additionally, a parylene-C film was used as a passivation layer to improve the physical stability and sensitivity of the photosensor. In particular, the trap states on the CsPbBr3 QDs were reduced by the passivation layer, and the sensitivity was increased. Finally, a photosensor based on CsPbBr3 QDs was employed in chemiluminescence immunoassays for the detection of human hepatitis B surface antigen, human immunodeficiency virus antibody, and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP, a cancer biomarker). When compared with the conventionally used equipment, the photosensor was determined to be feasible for application in chemiluminescence immunoassays.

Background/aim We investigated the clinical role of the molecular targets, APEX1 and Jagged-1, and the Apex1 - Jagged-1 cascade in gastric cancer cells. Materials and methods We used 6 human gastric cancer cell lines (SNU-1, SNU-5, SNU-16, NCI-N87, KATO- III and AGS), and demonstrated the chemosensitivity of APEX1 and Jagged-1 through the MTT assay and immunoblotting. Tumor growth was assayed following cisplatin and 5-FU treatment using a xenograft model injected with KATO-III cells. Moreover, gastric tumor samples from 9 patients, divided in 2 groups according to chemotherapy response, were examined by immunocytochemical (IHC) staining, and protein expression levels were scored. Results Following APEX1 knockdown, the MTT assay revealed that the IC50 of cisplatin and 5-FU in AGS cells was decreased approximately 7% and 15%, respectively, however, their decrease in chemoresistant KATO-III cells was decreased by approximately 21% and 67% for cisplatin and 5-FU, respectively. The tumor volume of KATO-III/sicontrol mice treated with cisplatin and 5-FU was affected less, compared with KATO-III/siAPEX1 mice treated with cisplatin and 5-FU. Also, the expression levels of APEX1, Jagged-1 and CD133, assayed by IHC staining, were higher in the chemorefractory group than in the chemoresponsive group. Conclusion Jagged-1-activated signaling by APEX1 plays a role in advanced gastric cancer.

Singularities of open systems, known as exceptional points (EPs), have been shown to exhibit increased sensitivities, but the observation of EPs has so far been limited to wavelength-scaled systems subject to the diffraction limit. Plasmons, the collective oscillations of free electrons coupled to photons, shrink the wavelength of light to electronic and molecular length scales. We propose a novel approach to EPs based on spatial symmetry breaking and report their observation in plasmonics at room temperature. The plasmonic EPs are based on the hybridization of detuned resonances in multilayered plasmonic structures to reach a critical complex coupling rate between nanoantenna arrays, resulting in the simultaneous coalescence of the resonances and loss rates. Their utility as sensors of anti-immunoglobulin G, the most abundant immunoglobulin isotype in human serum, is evaluated. Our work opens the way to a new class of nanoscale devices, sensors and imagers based on topological polaritonic effects. The hybridized modes of an asymmetric plasmonic dimer show avoided crossing of both the real and imaginary parts. This can lead to plasmonic exceptional points, which are used for biosensing with very high sensitivity.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) frequently invades the maxillary or mandibular bone, and this bone invasion is closely associated with poor prognosis and survival. Here, we show that CCL28 functions as a negative regulator of OSCC bone invasion. CCL28 inhibited invasion and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and its inhibition of EMT was characterized by induced E-cadherin expression and reduced nuclear localization of β-catenin in OSCC cells with detectable RUNX3 expression levels. CCL28 signaling via CCR10 increased retinoic acid receptor-β (RARβ) expression by reducing the interaction between RARα and HDAC1. In addition, CCL28 reduced RANKL production in OSCC and osteoblastic cells and blocked RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis in osteoclast precursors. Intraperitoneally administered CCL28 inhibited tumor growth and osteolysis in mouse calvaria and tibia inoculated with OSCC cells. RARβ expression was also increased in tumor tissues. In patients with OSCC, low CCL28, CCR10, and RARβ expression levels were highly correlated with bone invasion. Patients with OSCC who had higher expression of CCL28, CCR10, or RARβ had significantly better overall survival. These findings suggest that CCL28, CCR10, and RARβ are useful markers for the prediction and treatment of OSCC bone invasion. Furthermore, CCL28 upregulation in OSCC cells or CCL28 treatment can be a therapeutic strategy for OSCC bone invasion.

Clinical nurses have training needs related to the strategies for infection spread prevention. This study aimed to investigate the levels of importance of and performance in the various areas of care for communicable respiratory infections among clinical nurses and to determine the priority of educational needs. Hospitals in which a baseline survey could be conducted were considered, and nurses working in six hospitals that were designated as COVID-19 care centers in Korea were enrolled. The training needs for the care of patients with communicable respiratory infections were analyzed using Borich’s needs equation, and the locus for focus model. Among participants with prior COVID-19 patient care experience, according to Borich’s equation, the need score was the highest for “initial response to communicable respiratory infection”, followed by “management of aerosol-generating procedures in patients with communicable respiratory infection” and “reporting of patients with communicable respiratory infection and death of patient”. An item rated highly in both Borich’s equation and the locus for focus model among the participants with prior experience was “initial response to communicable respiratory infection”. Among participants without prior relevant experience, according to Borich’s equation, the need score was highest for “management of aerosol-generating procedures in patients with a communicable respiratory infection”, followed by “initial response to communicable respiratory infection” and “reporting of patients with communicable respiratory infection and death of patient”. None of the items were rated high in both Borich’s equation and the locus for focus model among participants without relevant prior experience.

The acute demise of stem cells following transplantation significantly compromises the efficacy of stem cell-based cell therapeutics for infarcted hearts. As the stem cells transplanted into the damaged heart are readily exposed to the hostile environment, it can be assumed that the acute death of the transplanted stem cells is also inflicted by the same environmental cues that caused massive death of the host cardiac cells. Pyroptosis, a highly inflammatory form of programmed cell death, has been added to the list of important cell death mechanisms in the damaged heart. However, unlike the well-established cell death mechanisms such as necrosis or apoptosis, the exact role and significance of pyroptosis in the acute death of transplanted stem cells have not been explored in depth. In the present study, we found that M1 macrophages mediate the pyroptosis in the ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injured hearts and identified miRNA-762 as an important regulator of interleukin 1β production and subsequent pyroptosis. Delivery of exogenous miRNA-762 prior to transplantation significantly increased the post-transplant survival of stem cells and also significantly ameliorated cardiac fibrosis and heart functions following I/R injury. Our data strongly suggest that suppressing pyroptosis can be an effective adjuvant strategy to enhance the efficacy of stem cell-based therapeutics for diseased hearts.

A capacitive biosensor based on vertically paired electrodes with controlled parasitic capacitance is presented to improve the sensitivity of capacitive measurement. The vertically paired electrodes were fabricated with a parylene film as a dielectric layer, with the distance between the electrodes less than hundreds of nanometer. The problem of parasitic capacitance owing to the electrode configuration was analyzed according to the superposed area of the electrode. In this work, two kinds of vertically paired electrodes were fabricated to control the parasitic capacitance—square-type and circular-type electrodes with different superimposed areas of 21.8 (100%) and 9.3 (42%) mm2 and the same electrode area of 9.4 × 10−5 mm2, respectively. The effect of superimposed area of the vertically paired electrodes on capacitive measurement was analyzed using the electrodes. The sensitivity of capacitive measurement was observed to increase with a decrease in superimposed electrode area and frequency. Further, the effect of parasitic capacitance was estimated by computer simulation of the sensitivity of impedance and capacitive measurement when 10% change in RS or CS occurred. The results showed that adsorption of proteins could be sensitively measured when the parasitic capacitance decreased. Finally, the effect of superimposed area of the vertically paired electrodes was measured from the interaction between antigens (human serum albumin, HSA) and immobilized antibodies (anti-HSA antibodies).

Purpose In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) printer-based manufacturing line and supporting system, which supports personalized/customized manufacturing for individual businesses or start-up companies, was studied to evaluate the practicality of using additive manufacturing for personalization/mass customization. Design/methodology/approach First, factory-as-a-service (FaaS) system, which provides factory as a service to customers, was proposed and designed to manufacture various products within a distributed manufacturing environment. This system includes 3D printer-based material extrusion processes, vapor machine/computer numerical control machines as post-processes and assembly and inspection processes with an automated material handling robot in the factory. Second, a virtualization module for the FaaS factory was developed using a simulation model interfaced with a cloud-based order and production-planning system and an internet-of-things-based control and monitoring system. This is part of the system for manufacturing operations, which is capable of dynamic scheduling in a distributed manufacturing environment. In addition, simulation-based virtual production was conducted to verify and evaluate the FaaS factory for the target production scenario. Main information of the simulation also has been identified and included in the virtualization module. Finally, the established system was applied in a sample production scenario to evaluate its practicality and efficiency. Findings Additive manufacturing is a reliable, feasible and applicable technology, and it can be a core element in smart manufacturing and the realization of personalization/mass customization. Originality/value Various studies on additive manufacturing have been conducted with regard to replacing the existing manufacturing methods or integrating with them, but these studies mostly focused on materials or types of additive manufacturing, with few advanced or applied studies on the establishment of a new manufacturing environment for personalization/mass customization.

Neurodegenerative disease is a brain disorder caused by the loss of structure and function of neurons that lowers the quality of human life. Apart from the limited potential for endogenous regeneration, stem cell-based therapies hold considerable promise for maintaining homeostatic tissue regeneration and enhancing plasticity. Despite many studies, there remains insufficient evidence for stem cell tracing and its correlation with endogenous neural cells in brain tissue with three-dimensional structures. Recent advancements in tissue optical clearing techniques have been developed to overcome the existing shortcomings of cross-sectional tissue analysis in thick and complex tissues. This review focuses on recent progress of stem cell treatments to improve neurodegenerative disease, and introduces tissue optical clearing techniques that can implement a three-dimensional image as a proof of concept. This review provides a more comprehensive understanding of stem cell tracing that will play an important role in evaluating therapeutic efficacy and cellular interrelationship for regeneration in neurodegenerative diseases.

Recently, reinforcement learning utilizing deep learning, called deep reinforcement learning, is being developed for discontinuous action space. It is shown that deep reinforcement learning has higher playing skills than those of human in the video game as Atari. The development of deep reinforcement learning for discontinuous action space, has been extended to the continuous action space as robot control area. The area of control deals with issues closely related to real world environment. However, deep reinforcement learning has limitations to solve control problems in the real world due to numerous trial-and-error based training. To address the limitations of learning in the real world, virtual world environments are used to emulate control problem in real world. In this paper, to solve a complex robot manipulation task, the learning robot manipulation based modular reward shaping is proposed. Since it is difficult to solve the complex task using only single primitive manipulation skill with a reward, it is required to combine various primitive manipulation skills with various rewards. In simulation results, it is shown that the combination of the reward functions affects to the robot manipulation performance.

This paper provides an experimental study of reinforcement learning on IoT devices using distilled knowledge, whose a teacher with a well-trained model transfers to a student with a new model to be trained. The experimental results show that the distilled knowledge is effective to a new model training on IoT devices.

Applying deep learning to symbolic planning is not straightforward because they differently internalize knowledge. One represents knowledge numerically while the other does symbolically. Hybrid methods that take strengths from both techniques will deliver better performance on automated planning. This paper presents a method to improve the performance of symbolic planning by applying LSTM recurrent networks to inferring the guidance knowledge for search tree node expansion. The networks learn sequential patterns across previous node expansions and generalizes the learned knowledge to predict promising actions and their probability scores at the present expansion step. The prediction consists with node cost estimation for heuristic search. A simple experiment vindicates the method of this research.

This paper addresses a continual lifelong learning problem that learns incremental multiple tasks in real-world environments. We overview and summarize representative approaches and categorization of the state-of-the-art in continual learning. Comparable scenarios, benchmark datasets, and baseline approaches for different continual scenarios introduced in this paper. We suggested a comparison of the differences and similarities with other machine learning methods. We also report real-world applications, especially robots and healthcare fields. We summarize current states and suggest future direction of continual learning problems.

Patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) bone invasion are surgically treated with bone resection, which results in severe physical and psychological damage. Here, we investigated the potential of fractalkine (CX3CL1), which is regulated by transforming growth factor (TGF-β), as a novel biomarker for correct prediction and early detection of OSCC-associated bone invasion. TGF-β knockdown and treatment with a TGF-β-neutralizing antibody decreased the level of fractalkine in the culture media of HSC-2 and YD10B OSCC cells. Treatment with a fractalkine-neutralizing antibody reduced TGF-β-stimulated invasion by HSC-2 and YD10B cells. Fractalkine treatment increased the viability, invasion, and uPA secretion of both OSCC cell lines. Furthermore, OSCC cell bone invasion was assessed following subcutaneous inoculation of wild-type or TGF-β knockdown OSCC cells in mouse calvaria. TGF-β knockdown prevented erosive bone invasion, reduced the number of osteoclasts at the tumor-bone interface, and downregulated fractalkine expression in mouse tumor tissues. Our results indicate that the production of fractalkine is stimulated by TGF-β and mediates TGF-β-induced cell invasion in several OSCC cell lines showing an erosive pattern of bone invasion. Fractalkine may be a useful predictive marker and therapeutic target for OSCC-induced bone destruction.

Planar structured interfaces, also known as metasurfaces, are continuously attracting interest owing to their ability to manipulate fundamental attributes of light, including angular momentum, phase, or polarization. However, chromatic aberration, limiting broadband operation, has remained a challenge for metasurfaces-based optical components and imagers. The limitation stems from the intrinsic dispersion of existing materials and design principles. Here we report and experimentally demonstrate polarization-independent fishnet-achromatic-metalenses with measured average efficiencies over 70% in the continuous band from the visible (640 nm) to the infrared (1200 nm). Results of the scalable platform are enabling for applications requiring broad bandwidth and high efficiency including energy harvesting, virtual reality and information processing devices, or medical imaging., Here the authors demonstrate all-dielectric fishnet-achromatic-metalenses from the visible to the near-infrared region. This metalens performs efficiently independent of polarization over about an octave from 640 nm to 1200 nm.

We have demonstrated the first plasmonic exceptional points (EPs) at subwavelength scale. The plasmonic EPs are based on the hybridization of detuned resonances in multilayered plasmonic crystals to reach a critical complex coupling rate between nanoantennas arrays, and, exhibit the dispersion of exceptional points around the non-Hermitian singularity and enhanced nanosensing was observed. The ability to drive plasmons to EPs lays the foundation to explore topological physics at small scales and to novel sensors and optoelectronic devices based on topological polaritonic effects

The present study translated the Vocal Tract Discomfort Scale (VTDS) into Korean (K-VTDS) and evaluated its reliability and validity.This was a prospective study.The VTDS was first translated into Korean and validated. One hundred and fifty-nine patients with voice disorders were divided into three different diagnostic groups (functional, structural, and neurologic voice disorder) and 131 vocally healthy adults were also included. All participants completed the K-VTDS and the Korean version of the Voice Handicap Index (K-VHI) and Korean versions of the Voice-Related Quality of Life (K-VRQOL). The internal consistency of the K-VTDS was analyzed through Cronbach's α coefficient. The VTDS score differences related to the diagnostic groups were assessed with t test and analysis of variance. We assessed the correlation between the K-VTDS, the K-VHI, and the K-VRQOL using Pearson's correlation analysis.High internal consistency and the test-retest reliability of the K-VTDS were found. The voice disorder group had significantly higher K-VTDS scores for the subscales and total scores than those in the healthy group (P0.001). The K-VTDS scores for the subscale of frequency and total scores were highest in the functional voice disorder group. We found a significant difference in frequency and total score of the K-VTDS between the functional voice disorder group and the structural voice disorder group (P0.05). We observed a strong positive correlation among the scores for the subscales of frequency and severity, and total scores in the K-VTDS. The K-VTDS showed moderate correlation with the K-VHI and the K-VRQOL.The K-VTDS is a reliable and valid instrument for voice assessment for voice disorders in Korean-speaking patients.

We propose a novel approach to EPs based on spatial symmetry breaking and report their observation in plasmonics at room temperature. The sensing of anti-Immunoglobulin G, the most common antibody found in blood circulation, is evaluated.

We propose a novel approach to EPs and report their first observation in plasmonics at room temperature. Enhanced sensing of anti-Immunoglobulin G (attomolar detection), the most common antibody found in blood circulation, is reported.

// Junhee Park 1, 2 , Hyun-Jeong Kim 2 , Ki Rim Kim 3 , Sun Kyoung Lee 2 , Hyungkeun Kim 2, 4 , Kwang-Kyun Park 1, 2, 4 , Won-Yoon Chung 1, 2, 4 1 Department of Dentistry, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea 2 Department of Oral Biology, Oral Cancer Research Institute, and BK21 PLUS Project, Yonsei University College of Dentistry, Seoul 120-752, Republic of Korea 3 Department of Dental Hygiene, Kyungpook National University, Sangju 742-711, Korea 4 Department of Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, Republic of Korea Correspondence to: Won-Yoon Chung, email: wychung@yuhs.ac Kwang-Kyun Park, email: biochelab@yuhs.ac Keywords: oral squamous cell carcinoma, bone invasion, runt-related transcription factor 3, transforming growth factor-β Received: October 08, 2015 Accepted: December 15, 2016 Published: December 21, 2016 ABSTRACT High recurrence and lower survival rates in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are associated with its bone invasion. We identified the oncogenic role of RUNX3 during bone invasion by OSCC. Tumor growth and the generation of osteolytic lesions were significantly inhibited in mice that were subcutaneously inoculated with RUNX3-knockdown human OSCC cells. RUNX3 knockdown enhanced TGF-β-induced growth arrest and inhibited OSCC cell migration and invasion in the absence or presence of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), a major growth factor abundant in the bone microenvironment. RUNX3 knockdown induced cell cycle arrest at the G1 and G2 phases and promoted G2 arrest by TGF-β in Ca9.22 OSCC cells. RUNX3 knockdown also inhibited both the basal and TGF-β-induced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition by increasing E-cadherin expression and suppressing the nuclear translocation of β-catenin. In addition, the expression and TGF-β-mediated induction of parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP), one of key osteolytic factors, was blocked in RUNX3-knockdown OSCC cells. Furthermore, treating human osteoblastic cells with conditioned medium derived from RUNX3-knockdown OSCC cells reduced the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappaB ligand (RANKL)/osteoprotegerin ratio compared with treatment with conditioned medium from RUNX3-expressing cells. These findings indicate that RUNX3 expression in OSCC cells contributes to their bone invasion and the resulting osteolysis by inducing their malignant behaviors and production of osteolytic factors. RUNX3 alone or in combination with TGF-β and PTHrP may be a useful predictive biomarker and therapeutic target for bone invasion by oral cancer.

Tonsillectomy is the most common type of surgical procedure performed in preschool children. Due to short period of hospitalization, mothers are expected to manage their children's care at home. However, they are rarely provided with sufficient information about postoperative management. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of providing caregivers with information on tonsillectomy care by smartphone text messaging in increasing their mothers' knowledge, reducing the anxiety, and improving the sick-role behavior of pediatric tonsillectomy patients.A sample of 61 pediatric patients and their mothers was recruited. Participants were randomly assigned into either the experimental group (n = 27) or the control group (n = 34). The control group was given information about the tonsillectomy by conventional textual and verbal means, whereas the experimental group received the same information in the form of 10 text messages during the period from hospitalization to their first follow-up visits.Results of mixed design, two-way analysis of variance indicated significant interaction effects between time points and groups for mothers' knowledge (F = 4.26, p = 0.043) and children's anxiety (F = 3.32; p = 0.037). Thus, the results do support the effectiveness of tonsillectomy education using smartphone text messaging in increasing mothers' knowledge and reducing children's anxiety.These results can be applied to preoperative and postoperative interventions for children not only for tonsillectomy but also for many other operations. The development of various educational programs using smartphone text messaging for postoperative patient management would also be valuable.

Background/aim Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common in the world and its prevalence is rapidly increasing. Jagged-1-activated Notch signaling by apurinic/apyrimidinic endodeoxyribonuclease 1 (APEX1) promotes CRC, and high expression of Jagged-1 is associated with poor prognosis. However, its clinical implication is unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical role of Jagged-1-activated Notch signaling by APEX1. Materials and methods The 5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl) 2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was used to evaluate the anti-cancer efficacy of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), oxaliplatin, and irinotecan. Tissue from CRC patients was analyzed to assess the clinical specificity of Jagged-1 activated by APEX1. Results The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) in cells co-expressing APEX1 and Jagged-1 cells was higher than that in cells expressing only APEX1. These results indicated that the simultaneous expression of APEX1 and Jagged-1 might be associated with chemoresistance toward 5-FU, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan. Analysis of tissue from CRC patients revealed that high expression of Jagged-1 was associated with a statistically significantly low response to chemotherapy. Conclusion Overexpression of Jagged-1 by APEX1 might serve as a predictor of response to chemotherapy and of poor prognosis, and moreover may be a therapeutic target for chemotherapy of advanced CRC.

Non-Hermitian singularities known as exceptional-points (EPs) have been shown to exhibit increased sensitivities but the observation of EPs has so far been limited to wavelength scaled systems subject to diffraction limit. We propose a novel approach to EPs and report their first observation in plasmonics at room temperature. The plasmonic EPs are based on the hybridization of resonances in multilayered plasmonic crystals to reach a critical complex coupling rate between nanoantennas arrays, and, resulting in the simultaneous coalescence of the resonances and loss rates. Because plasmons shrink the wavelength of light to make it compatible with biological relevant substances, enhanced sensing of anti-Immunoglobulin G, the most common antibody found in blood circulation, is observed at attomolar concentration. Our work opens the way to novel class of nanoscale devices, sensors, and imagers based on topological polaritonic effects.

We propose a passive plasmonic nanostructures operating at an exceptional point (EP), which get enhanced sensitivity with small external perturbation. EP plasmonic sensor will pave the way to highly sensitive plasmonic devices.

ABO genotyping is a molecular diagnostic technique important for transfusion and transplantation in medicine, and human identification in forensic science. Because ABO genotyping are labor intensive and time consuming, the genotyping cannot be firstly used to resolve the serological ABO discrepancy in blood bank. For rapid one-step ABO genotyping, we developed direct, real-time, allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and melting curve analysis (DRAM assay) without DNA preparation. In DRAM assay, we used a special PCR buffer for direct PCR, a rapid RBC lysis buffer, white blood cells as template without DNA preparation, allele-specific primers for discriminating three ABO alleles (261G/del, 796C/A, and 803G/C), and melting curve analysis as a detection method. There was 100% concordance among the results of ABO genotyping by the DRAM assay, serologic typing, PCR–RFLP and PCR-direct sequencing of 96 venous blood samples. We were able to reduce the number of manual steps to three and the hands-on time to 12 min, compared to seven steps and approximately 40 min for conventional ABO genotyping using allele-specific PCR with purified DNA and agarose gel electrophoresis. We have established and validated the DRAM assay for rapid and reliable one-step ABO genotyping in a closed system. The DRAM assay with an appropriate number of allele-specific primers could help in resolving ABO discrepancies and should be valuable in clinical laboratory and blood bank.

Although the fringe-field-switching (FFS) mode based on a two-domain (2D) electrode structure has been widely used for wide viewing angle in a liquid crystal display (LCD), it still suffers from color shift and asymmetric luminance distribution at off-axis. We propose a four-domain (4D) electrode structure for wide viewing angle characteristics in an FFS LCD. We demonstrate that the use of the 4D electrode structure instead of the 2D-chevron structure can reduce the off-axis color difference from 0.038 to 0.010 at a low gray level and from 0.019 to 0.002 at a mid-gray level. Moreover, the off-axis gamma distortion is reduced from 0.159 to 0.007.

Low-frequency driving of a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel to minimise power consumption has drawn much attention recently. In case an LCD panel is driven by a low-frequency fringe field, image flickering phenomenon is detected by the naked human eye when the sign of the applied electric field is reversed. We investigated the effect of electrode spacing on the image flickering phenomenon induced by the flexoelectric effect in a fringe-field-switching (FFS) liquid crystal cell. We found that the image flicker in an FFS cell under low-frequency driving can be eliminated in a simple manner by changing the electrode spacing.

This article proposes an adaptive operating scheme for a recloser based on classified detection of transient faults and permanent faults in a distribution system. Wavelet transform is used to classify whether a fault is transient or permanent in nature. The Haar mother wavelet of the current flowing in a neutral line has more rich harmonics than other mother wavelets, such as Daubechies, Symlets, Coiflets, and Biorthogonal, so the total harmonic distortion of the Haar mother wavelet is applied for estimating the instant of fault clearance and giving a signal for operating action to the recloser (reclosing). The various simulations according to the fault clearance time and fault type are performed using the Electromagnetic Transient Program to verify the proposed algorithm. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Today, the manufacturing industry is aiming to improve competitiveness through the convergence with cutting-edge ICT technologies in order to secure a new growth engine. Smart Manufacturing, which is the fourth revolution in the manufacturing industry and is also considered as a new paradigm, is the collection of cutting-edge technologies that support effective and accurate engineering decision-making in real time through the introduction of various ICT technologies and the convergence with the existing manufacturing technologies. This paper surveyed and analyzed various articles related to Smart Manufacturing, identified the past and present levels, and predicted the future. For these purposes, 1) the major key technologies related to Smart Manufacturing were identified through the analysis of the policies and technology roadmaps of Germany, the U.S., and Korea that have government-driven leading movements for Smart Manufacturing, 2) the related articles on the overall Smart Manufacturing concept, the key system structure, or each key technology were investigated, and, finally, 3) the Smart Manufacturing-related trends were identified and the future was predicted by conducting various analyses on the application areas and technology development levels that have been addressed in each article.

The liquid crystal alignment method using a UV-curable polymer has been reported for the zero pre-tilt angle of liquid crystals (see the paper by Oh in Optics Express, vol. 23, p. 1044, 2015). In this paper, we report the electro-optical characteristics and parameters related to the image quality of a fringe-field switching cell fabricated using the field-induced UV-alignment method as functions of the monomer concentration and the UV irradiation time. The results show that the field-induced UV-alignment method has a high potential for practical display applications.

Objective Hearing loss is a major side effect of cisplatin chemotherapy. Although cell death in cisplatin-induced ototoxicity is primarily caused by apoptosis, the exact mechanism behind the ototoxic effects of cisplatin is not fully understood. Autophagy is generally known as a pro-survival mechanism that protects cells under starvation or stress conditions. However, recent research has reported that autophagy plays a functional role in cell death also. This study aimed to investigate the role of autophagy in cisplatin-induced ototoxicity in an auditory cell line. Methods Cultured HEI-OC1 cells were exposed to 30 μM cisplatin for 48 h, and cell viability was tested using MTT assays. To evaluate whether autophagy serves to cell death after cisplatin exposure, western blotting and immunofluorescence staining for LC3-II were performed. Markers of two autophagy-related pathways, mTOR and class III PI3K, were also investigated. Results The formation of the autophagic protein LC3-II in response to 30 μM cisplatin increased with time. The early upregulation of autophagy exerted cytoprotective activity via the class III PI3K pathway. But later increase in autophagy induced cell death by suppressing the mTOR pathway. Conclusion Our results prove that autophagy could induce cell death during cisplatin-induced ototoxicity, and modulating the autophagic pathway might be another strategy against cisplatin-induced ototoxicity.

We present progress on the experimental observation of exceptional points (EPs) in passive plasmonic nanostructures. The system has EPs which are degeneracies in open wave systems where at least two energy levels and their corresponding eigenstates coalesce. They manifest themselves by the simultaneous degeneracy of both resonant frequencies and its linewidths. We consider a plasmonic system based on a multilayer plasmonic structure with structural offset [1, 2]. The realization of an EP via hybridized modes requires the control of at least two physical parameters. The two parameters used for the above system to reach an EP are the shift between bars and the periodicity.

Conventional optical components have been proposed to realize high-quality line focusing with uniform intensity distribution such as cylindrical lenses, segmented wedge-arrays, or a combination of prisms and spherical mirrors. Numerous factors such as the manufacturing tolerances or the need for precise alignment of conventional lenses cause wave front aberrations that impact the performance of optical systems. These aforementioned limitations affect the uniformity of the intensity distribution and the intercept factor of lenses. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an integrable planar dielectric cylindrical lens made of titanium dioxide for uniform line focusing and discuss the sensitivity of its performance to fabrication imperfections originating from non-ideal geometrical parameters. The lens has a numerical aperture of 0.247, an intercept factor of 0.85, and an efficiency of 79% at 800 nm.

Steering the beam of a wave source has been demonstrated using mechanical and non-mechanical techniques. While mechanical techniques are bulky and slow, non-mechanical techniques rely on breaking the symmetry of the refractive index profile either using asymmetric structure or injecting a non-uniform current. In this contribution, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrated a new type of topological steering of light sources in which the phase offset is provided by Floquet-Bloch phase in periodic structure. It was shown that in periodic structures, there exist singular states in the radiation region of the band diagram that exhibit diverging quality factor. Thus light sources can operate at these states with lower power threshold. The existence of these singular states are topologically protected, and their momentum are very sensitive to any small perturbations, which is used to control the steering angle. By uniformly controlling some parameters in the system, such as a physical dimension or injecting current uniformly, the beam of the light source steers. Our experimental demonstrations open new paradigm in the implementation of light steering with applications in data communications, bio imaging and sensing.

We propose a rectangular resonator sensor structure with butterfly MMI coupler using SOI. It consists of the rectangular resonator, total internal reflection (TIR) mirror, and the butterfly MMI coupler. The rectangular resonator is expected to be used as bio and chemical sensors because of the advantages of using MMI coupler and the absence of bending loss unlike ring resonators. The butterfly MMI coupler can miniaturize the device compared to conventional MMI by using a linear butterfly shape instead of a square in the MMI part. The width, height, and slab height of the rib type waveguide are designed to be 1.5 μm, 1.5 μm, and 0.9 μm, respectively. This structure is designed as a single mode. When designing a TIR mirror, we considered the Goos-Hanchen shift and critical angle. We designed 3:1 MMI coupler because rectangular resonator has no bending loss. The width of MMI is designed to be 4.5 μm and we optimize the length of the butterfly MMI coupler using finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for higher Q-factor. It has the equal performance with conventional MMI even though the length is reduced by 1/3. As a result of the simulation, Qfactor of rectangular resonator can be obtained as 7381.

In this paper, we propose temperature sensing method by using optical beating. When temperature changes, a peak wavelength of the sensing laser varies slightly. However, with limitation of the optical spectrum analyzer’s (OSA) spectral resolution (sub-nm), it is hard to measure the exact quantity of the wavelength variation. Therefore, we used electrical spectrum analyzer (ESA) and two lasers to obtain the wavelength shift. We used DFB-LD (distributed feedback laser diode) and TLS (tunable laser source) to get beating signal. Each of laser has 1550 nm of wavelength, -20 dBm of intensity and 108 of Q factor. We varied temperature by 0.1 °C from 17.4 °C to 18.4 °C using TEC (temperature controller). We observed 0.01 nm/°C of wavelength change through OSA and 9.5 GHz/°C of beating frequency change through ESA. With this result, we verified that we can measure relative temperature change with having ultra-fine resolution of 9.5×10-7 °C theoretically for the ESA resolution bandwidth of 1 kHz. This detecting ability can be applied to highly sensitive temperature sensor.

We propose a passive plasmonic nanostructures sensor operated at an exceptional point (EP), that fundamentally shift more than conventional resonances and will pave the way to highly sensitive plasmonic devices.

Background Adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs) offer potential as a therapeutic option for chronic discogenic low back pain (LBP) because of their immunomodulatory functions and capacity for cartilage differentiation. The goal of this study was to assess the safety and tolerability of a single intradiscal implantation of combined AT-MSCs and hyaluronic acid (HA) derivative in patients with chronic discogenic LBP. Methods We performed a single-arm phase I clinical trial with a 12-month follow-up and enrolled 10 eligible chronic LBP patients. Chronic LBP had lasted for more than 3 months with a minimum intensity of 4/10 on a visual analogue scale (VAS) and disability level ≥ 30% on the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). The 10 patients underwent a single intradiscal injection of combined HA derivative and AT-MSCs at a dose of 2 × 107 cells/disc (n = 5) or 4 × 107 cells/disc (n = 5). Safety and treatment outcomes were evaluated by assessing VAS, ODI, Short Form-36 (SF-36), and imaging (lumbar spine X-ray imaging and MRI) at regular intervals over 1 year. Results No patients were lost at any point during the 1-year clinical study. We observed no procedure or stem cell-related adverse events or serious adverse events during the 1-year follow-up period. VAS, ODI, and SF-36 scores significantly improved in both groups receiving both low (cases 2, 4, and 5) and high (cases 7, 8, and 9) cell doses, and did not differ significantly between the two groups. Among six patients who achieved significant improvement in VAS, ODI, and SF-36, three patients (cases 4, 8, and 9) were determined to have increased water content based on an increased apparent diffusion coefficient on diffusion MRI. Conclusions Combined implantation of AT-MSCs and HA derivative in chronic discogenic LBP is safe and tolerable. However, the efficacy of combined AT-MSCs and HA should be investigated in a randomized controlled trial in a larger population. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02338271 . Registered 7 January 2015.

We found that we can increase the transmittance of a liquid crystal (LC) cell by doping the alignment material with nanoparticles. We fabricated an LC cell using indium–tin–oxide glass substrates coated with SiO2-doped polyimide. We confirmed that the transmittance of LC cells fabricated using SiO2-doped polyimide was higher than that of LC cells fabricated using pure polyimide. To account for the increase of transmittance, we measured the order parameter of the fabricated LC cells and investigated the surface morphology of the alignment layer using atomic force microscopy.

We propose a reflective cholesteric liquid crystal cell with reduced color shift, using dichroic dyes. Color-shifted light is absorbed by dye molecules in the proposed dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (DDCLC) cell. We have shown that the color shift can be reduced by increasing the concentration of dye molecules in the proposed DDCLC cell.

We demonstrate a continuous-wave 460-nm com- pact visible laser module having a footprint of 75 mm × 25 mm × 25 mm. This blue light source is achieved through single-pass second harmonic generation with a distributed Bragg reflec- tor tapered diode laser as a single-frequency pump source at ∼920 nm in a periodically poled MgO-doped lithium niobate crystal with a planar waveguide. The compact blue laser module reached an optical output power of 286 mW with the highest optical conversion efficiency of 11.6% at room temperature. The power stability of the blue light from the laser module is measured at an output power of 268 mW with a variation of ±3.5% during a period of 1 h.

In case an LCD panel is driven by a low-frequency fringe field, image flickering phenomenon is detected by the naked human eye. We investigated the dependence on the electrode spacing of the image flickering phenomenon induced by the flexoelectric effect in an FFS LCD panel. We found that the image flicker in an FFS LCD panel under low-frequency driving can be eliminated in a simple manner by optimizing the electrode spacing.

We consider gold plasmonic nanorods in the infrared domain. Such elements are very anisotropic and only polarizable along their longer dimension. Varying the nanorod length from 150 to 500 nm changes the resonant frequency of the element, which allows us to tune the phase-shift provided to an incident plane wave which electric field is parallel to the long axis. On the contrary, the nanorod is transparent to an incoming plane wave with a polarization perpendicular to its main axis. In order to provide a 0 to 2pi phase shift, we chose to work in reflection with metasurfaces made of elements with random positions and orientation. We emphasize that the length of each nanorod is not random, but strongly depends on the position of the element. It is chosen accordingly so that the reflected phase shift follows a parabolic law. The focusing efficiency strongly depends on the density of nanorods but also of the dimensionality and of the symmetry of the metasurface. Using full wave simulations, we design ordered and random metalens and compare their characteristics. Unfortunately, simulating 2D large area metasurface is numerically challenging. Hence, we extract the transmission matrix parameters for single elements from our FDTD simulation, and model the metasurface as an array of two level atom scatterers Finally, we present an experimental realization of such random metalens. The latter is made with conventional top-down fabrication techniques and e-beam lithography. We will show that the resulting lens focus light on diffraction limited focal spots for the two polarizations.

Plasmonic/metamaterial sensors are being investigated for their high sensitivity, fast response time, and high accuracy. We propose, characterize and experimentally realize subwavelength bilayer metamaterial sensors operating in the near-infrared domain. We measure the figure-of-merit (FOM) and the bulk sensitivity (S) of the two fundamental hybridized modes and demonstrate both numerically and experimentally that the magnetic dipolar mode, degenerate with the electric quadrupolar mode, has higher sensitivity to a variation of the refractive index compared to the electric dipolar mode. In addition, the hybridized system exhibits a four fold increase in the FOM compared to a standard dipolar plasmonic system.