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Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) of Tantalum/Tantalum Nitride (Ta/TaN) liner and barrier plays a crucial role in the copper-interconnecting part of semiconductor manufacturing, and this is used for the 130 nm–5nm technology node and beyond. This study focuses on the surface preparation and characterization of wire-arc spray directed energy deposition (DED) coating in the refurbishment process of PVD chamber kits. Spray coating adhesion strength is enhanced due to the pretreatment of the substrate with grit blasting, which creates a suitable surface texture, and the replacement of aluminum alloy as wire-arc spray DED coating material from pure aluminum (99.8%). However, it was experimentally found that using high adhesion strength coating chamber kits increases the probability of out-of-control (OOC) occurrences in the mid-stage of the kit lifetime, and the fundamental reasons may be attributed to the spiky surface morphology of wire-arc spray DED coating layers. Finite element analysis simulates stress distribution and identifies stress concentration regions within the multilayer Ta/TaN thin film using two surface morphologies with significantly different curvature radii of spray coatings. Differences in wire-arc spray DED processing parameters include a slower travel speed, a longer spray time, and a lower feed rate. It is numerically simulated and experimentally observed that coating surface morphology dramatically affects thin film delamination, which is the primary cause of particle defects. This study emphasizes the potential mechanisms for forming particle defects, improved uniformity in spray coatings, and increased surface curvature radius to minimize stress concentration.

In quadrotor control applications, achieving accurate trajectory following often relies on manipulating attitude changes. However, many existing studies in the literature overlook the significant influence of attitude transients in the design of position controllers for such cascaded systems. In this study, the design of a position controller based on the Analytic Integral Backstepping Control (AIBC) is proposed, which takes into account the impact of the transient attitude dynamics. The implementation of the algorithm depends on derivatives of the associated virtual control laws, which are typically approximated by numerical differentiation in the existing literature. However, in the presence of unavoidable measurement noise, this approximations can lead to serious control signal chatter in practical scenarios. To address this challenge, an analytical form for the derivative of the virtual control law is derived. This form decomposes the time-derivative virtual control law into two components: a disturbance-independent compensable component and a disturbance-dependent non-compensable component. Utilizing the compensable component, the algorithm effectively mitigates the control signal chatter arising from noise differentiation. The proposed AIBC shows improved position tracking and smoother control signals compared to the traditional two-loop control method, even when noise and disturbance are considered in the simulation simultaneously.

Background: Protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reinfection relies on immunity generated after primary infection. However, humoral immunity following primary infection with the Omicron variant is not well understood. Methods: We prospectively recruited children

Background: Occupational workers at altitudes are more prone to falls, leading to catastrophic outcomes. Acrophobia, height-related anxiety, and affected executive functions lead to postural instabilities, causing falls. This study investigated the effects of repeated virtual height exposure and training on cognitive processing and height-related anxiety. Methods: Twenty-eight healthy volunteers (age 20.48 ± 1.26 years; mass 69.52 ± 13.78 kg) were recruited and tested in seven virtual environments (VE) [ground (G), 2-story altitude (A1), 2-story edge (E1), 4-story altitude (A2), 4-story edge (E2), 6-story altitude (A3), and 6-story edge (E3)] over three days. At each VE, participants identified occupational hazards present in the VE and completed an Attitude Towards Heights Questionnaire (ATHQ) and a modified State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Questionnaire (mSTAIQ). The number of hazards identified and the ATHQ and mSTAIQ scores were analyzed using a 7 (VE; G, A1, A2, A3, E1, E2, E3) x 3 (DAY; DAY 1, DAY 2, DAY 3) factorial repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The participants identified the lowest number of hazards at A3 and E3 VEs and on DAY 1 compared to other VEs and DAYs. ATHQ scores were lowest at G, A1, and E1 VEs. Conclusion: Cognitive processing is negatively affected by virtual altitudes, while it improves with short-term training. The features of virtual reality, such as higher involvement, engagement, and reliability, make it a better training tool to be considered in ergonomic settings. The findings of this study will provide insights into cognitive dual-tasking at altitude and its challenges, which will aid in minimizing occupational falls.

Alzheimer’s disease is prevalent in persons with Down syndrome (DS) as early as their 30s and presents as decreased social interaction, coordination, and physical activity. Therefore, changing attitudes and beliefs about exercise is key to increasing motivation for physical activity especially in middle-age adults with DS. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of Assisted Cycle Therapy (ACT) on self-efficacy and exercise perception in middle-age adults with Down syndrome (DS) following an exercise intervention three times a week for 8 weeks. Twelve participants were in the ACT group in which a motor assisted their cycling to be performed at least 30% faster than voluntary cycling (VC), 10 participants were in the voluntary cycling group, and two participants were in the no cycling (NC) group. The results showed that both exercise groups (i.e., ACT and VC) improved in their self-efficacy after the 8-week intervention. In addition, exercise perception improved following ACT, but not VC or NC. Our results are discussed with respect to their future implications for exercise in the DS population. The results can be attributed to differences in effort required by each intervention group as well as the neurotrophic factors that occur when muscle contractions create synaptic connections resulting in improvement in cognition and feelings of satisfaction.

Abstract The pathogenesis of nephrotic syndrome is unclear. We conducted a nationwide population-based cohort study to examine the associations between preterm births and subsequent development of NS. NS was defined as ≥ 3 records with ICD-9-CM codes for NS in hospital admission or outpatient clinic visits. To avoid secondary nephrotic syndrome or nephritis with nephrotic range proteinuria, especially IgA nephropathy, we excluded patients with associated codes. A total of 78,651 preterm infants (gestational age

ObjectiveEarly detection of developmental delays relies on the accuracy of the caregivers' concerns of children's developmental problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the agreement between the caregivers' awareness of children's developmental problems and professional identification.MethodsCaregivers of 1,963 children (age range: 5–71 months; mean: 38.4 months) younger than 6 years old who were at risk of developmental delays and referred to the center for a comprehensive evaluation were enrolled in this study. Children were identified by a transdisciplinary team including a pediatric neurologist, a pediatric psychiatrist, two psychologists, two occupational therapists, two physical therapists, two speech therapists, a social worker, and a special instructor. A series of standardized developmental assessments were used to identify children with developmental delay. Retrospective chart reviews were conducted on all children to confirm specific developmental disorders.ResultsThe caregivers' initial concerns of cognitive, speech/language, emotional/behavioral, and motor and global development showed low agreement with the results of professional identification. The major disagreement was observed in the cognitive domain. Speech/language developmental concern was an important red-flag indicator of cognitive and emotional/behavioral developmental delays. The presence of intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was high in this study. When having caregivers' concerns about speech/language and emotional/behavioral development, the odds of children with autism spectrum disorder was 2.37 and 2.17 times greater than those without autism spectrum disorder, respectively. The presence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was significantly associated with concerns about cognitive and emotional/behavioral developmental delays. Child's age and mothers' level of education were significant indicators for detecting the child's developmental problems.ConclusionIt is recommended that assessing the cognitive developmental status is essential for all children in the identification process. Practitioners should not overlook caregivers' concern about speech/language and emotional/behavioral development. Transdisciplinary practitioners provide educational guidance to caregivers, especially in the domains of cognitive, speech/language, and emotional/behavioral development.

Paired box 2 (PAX2)-related disorder is an autosomal dominant genetic disorder associated with kidney and eye abnormalities and can result in end stage renal disease (ESRD). Despite reported low prevalence of PAX2 mutations, the prevalence of PAX2 related disorders may have been underestimated in past studies. With improved genetic sequencing techniques, more genetic abnormalities are being detected than ever before. Here, we report three patients from two families with PAX2 mutations identified within 1 year. Two patients were adults with chronic kidney disease and were followed for decades without correct diagnoses, including one with ESRD who had even undergone kidney transplant. The third patient was a neonate in whom PAX2-related disorder manifested as oligohydramnios, coloboma, and renal failure that progressed to ESRD within 1 year after birth. The phenotypes of PAX2 gene mutation were shown to be highly variable, even within the same family. Early detection promoted genetic counseling and guided clinical management. The appropriate time point for genetic study is an important issue. Clinicians must be more alert for PAX2 mutation when facing patients with congenital kidney and urinary tract anomalies, chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology, involvement of multiple systems, and/or a family history of renal disease.

For quadrotor control applications, it is necessary to rely on attitude angle changes to indirectly achieve the position trajectory tracking purpose. Several existing literature studies omit the non-negligible attitude transients in the position controller design for this kind of cascade system. The result leads to the position tracking performance not being as good as expected. In fact, the transient behavior of the attitude tracking response cannot be ignored. Therefore, the closed-loop stability of the attitude loop as well as the position tracking should be considered simultaneously. In this study, the flight controller design of the position and attitude control loops is presented based on an integral backstepping control algorithm. This control algorithm relies on the derivatives of the associated virtual control laws for implementation. Examining existing literature, the derivatives of the virtual control law are realized approximated by numerical differentiations. Nevertheless, in practical scenarios, the numerical differentiations will cause the chattering phenomenon of control signals in the presence of unavoidable measurement noise. The noise-induced control signals may further cause damage to the actuators or even diverge the system response. To address this issue, the analytic form for the derivative of the virtual control law is derived. The time derivative virtual control law is analyzed and split into the disturbance-independent compensable and disturbance-dependent non-compensable terms. By utilizing the compensable term, the control chattering due to the differentiation of the noise can be avoided significantly. The simulation results reveal that the proposed control algorithm has a better position tracking performance than the traditional dual-loop control scheme. Meanwhile, a relatively smooth control signal can be obtained for a realistic control algorithm realization. Simulations are provided to illustrate the position tracking issue of a quadrotor and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed compromised control scheme.

Emerging data indicate that acute kidney injury (AKI) may contribute to a worse prognosis in the infant population. Kidney replacement therapy (KRT) can be used to treat patients with AKI; however, this technique is challenging in patients in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) due to the low body weights and blood volumes in this population. Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is a potential modality since it is technically less challenging. However, PD has been associated with several disadvantages, including poor fluid status control, catheter-associated leakage, and peritonitis. Unfortunately, these complications can cause the temporary cessation of PD. Continuous kidney replacement therapy (CKRT) may represent a suitable alternative for PD. CKRT may be technically feasible in infants; however, little is known about the application of CKRT in neonates with low body weights. In this report, we discuss three cases of CKRT who were treated in the NICU at a tertiary medical center in southern Taiwan. We selected an adequate catheter diameter and achieved vascular access via an internal jugular vein or umbilical vein. The prescription of an appropriate dose of heparin was then used to prolong the circuit life of the CKRT. The maintenance of circuit durability in neonates with low body weight remains problematic. We hope that our experience can assist with the future clinical management of CKRT in neonates with low body weight.

Background/Purpose: The aims of this study were to determine the long-term associated factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression in a pediatric group with non-glomerular (non-GN) etiologies. Methods: Pediatric patients with a presumptive diagnosis of CKD were enrolled to this study. Recorded information included demographic and laboratory information. We included the patients with non-GN etiologies and investigated the factors including systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), proteinuria, and anemia status in association with reductions in the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). Results: A total of 308 children were enrolled and the mean duration of follow-up was 4.40 ± 3.53 years. Median baseline age was 5 years old and the males represented 55% of all patients. One-unit increased baseline systolic BP z-score was associated with 1.2 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (95% CI = −2 to −0.5) faster rate of eGFR decline. The presence of baseline proteinuria and anemia were also associated with 4.1 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (95% CI = −5.7 to −2.5) and 2.2 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (95% CI = −3.6 to −0.8) more rapid eGFR declination, respectively. Hypertension, anemia and proteinuria during the follow-up were also associated with 3.25 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (95% CI = −5.32 to −1.18), 4.34 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (95% CI = −7.25 to −1.43) and 4.97 ml/min per 1.73 m2 (95% CI = −8.23 to −1.71) more rapid eGFR declination, respectively. Conclusion: Elevated systolic BP, proteinuria, and anemia are independently associated with CKD progression in pediatric patients with non-GN etiologies. Keywords: Chronic kidney disease, Progression, Children, Congenital anomalies of the kidney and the urinary tract

In this study, we modified the previously proposed X2CT-GAN to build a 2Dto3D-GAN of the spine. This study also incorporated the radiologist’s perspective in the adjustment of input signals to prove the feasibility of the automatic production of three-dimensional (3D) structures of the spine from simulated bi-planar two-dimensional (2D) X-ray images. Data from 1012 computed tomography (CT) studies of 984 patients were retrospectively collected. We tested this model under different dataset sizes (333, 666, and 1012) with different bone signal conditions to observe the training performance. A 10-fold cross-validation and five metrics—Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) value, Jaccard similarity coefficient (JSC), overlap volume (OV), and structural similarity index (SSIM)—were applied for model evaluation. The optimal mean values for DSC, JSC, OV, SSIM_anteroposterior (AP), and SSIM_Lateral (Lat) were 0.8192, 0.6984, 0.8624, 0.9261, and 0.9242, respectively. There was a significant improvement in the training performance under empirically enhanced bone signal conditions and with increasing training dataset sizes. These results demonstrate the potential of the clinical implantation of GAN for automatic production of 3D spine images from 2D images. This prototype model can serve as a foundation in future studies applying transfer learning for the development of advanced medical diagnostic techniques.

The influence of exercise on brain function is an important topic, especially in persons with intellectual deficits. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of an acute bout of resistance training (RT) compared to assisted cycle therapy (ACT) and no training (NT) in adults with DS on cognitive function. Fourteen participants attended four sessions: a baseline assessment, an assisted cycling therapy (ACT) session, a resistance training (RT) session, and a session of no training (NT). In the RT session, the leg press, chest press, seated row, leg curl, shoulder press, and latissimus pulldown were performed. The ACT session consisted of 30 min of cycling and in NT session consisted of 20 min of board games. Inhibition was measured by the Erikson flanker task and cognitive planning was measured by the Tower of London test and both were administered prior to (pretest) and after each intervention (posttest). Our results showed that inhibition time improved more following RT and ACT than NT. There was also a significant difference between ACT and NT. For cognitive planning, improvements were seen following ACT and NT. In conclusion, an acute session of ACT demonstrated a significant trend towards improvements in executive functions in adults with DS which we interpreted using a model of neural changes and the cognitive stimulation hypothesis.

The purpose of this study was to examine factors affecting physical activity (PA) and sedentary pursuits of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) throughout the week, during weekdays, and on weekend days. Sixty-eight children with ASD aged 6-17 years participated in this study. An ActiGraph accelerometer and activity log were used to assess PA and sedentary pursuits. The findings were: (a) 6-8-year-old children with ASD demonstrating the highest level of overall PA throughout the week; (b) the weekends' PA of the group of 6-8-year-old children with ASD was significantly higher than 9-11-year-old, 12-14-year-old, and 15-17-year-old children with ASD; (c) the single-parented children with ASD showed significantly less PA level during weekend days compared with two-parented children with ASD; (d) the children with ASD having comorbidities demonstrated significantly more time in sedentary pursuits compared to those children without comorbidities; (e) age, household structure, and comorbidities were significant predictors in the overall PA, weekend PA, and weekend sedentary pursuits, respectively. Future programs or interventions are required to promote PA participation in children with ASD, especially for older children with ASD, based on their personal (i.e., age and comorbidities) and environmental (i.e., household structure) profile and day of the week.

Purpose: Physical inactivity is linked with several chronic diseases and poor academic outcomes. This study aimed to examine the effect an under-the-desk band would have on middle school students' physical activity level, and academic engagement. Methods: Two local middle school classrooms (n = 42, M = 20, F = 22) participated in the study, which was conducted over 14 weeks. Physical activity was measured with accelerometry, and academic engagement was assessed using momentary time sampling. Enrolled participants were provided an accelerometer to wear upon entering the classroom. The baseline period lasted for 36 days. During the intervention period, which lasted for the next 30 days, an under-the-desk band was provided to students to freely fidget at their desks. After the study, 13 participants (M = 5, F = 8) in Class A were included in final physical activity analysis, and the 6 participants (M = 3, F = 3) in Class B were included in the academic engagement analysis. Results: Class A had significant increases in percentage of sedentary time (MD = -12.91%, ES = .88) in addition to significant decreases in the percentage of light (MD = 8.82%, ES = .67), moderate (MD = 3.08%, ES = .84), and vigorous (MD = -.04%, ES = .63) physical activity time during the intervention period compared to the baseline period. No significant or meaningful changes occurred in academic engagement with the use of the under-the-desk band. Conclusions: This study high-lights the importance of finding appropriate methods to increase physical activity for adolescents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We combined carbon dioxide (CO2)-responsive cytosine-containing rhodamine 6G (Cy-R6G) as a hydrophobic anticancer agent with hydrogen-bonded cytosine-functionalized polyethylene glycol (Cy-PEG) as a hydrophilic supramolecular carrier to construct a CO2-responsive drug delivery system, with the aim of enhancing the responsiveness of the system to the tumor microenvironment and thus the overall effectiveness of anticancer therapy. Due to self-complementary hydrogen bonding interactions between cytosine units, Cy-R6G and Cy-PEG co-assemble in water to form spherical-like nanogels, with Cy-R6G effectively encapsulated within the nanogels. The nanogels exhibit several distinctive physical features, such as widely tunable nanogel size and drug loading capacity for Cy-R6G, intriguing fluorescence properties, high co-assembled structural stability in normal aqueous environments, enhanced anti-hemolytic characteristics, sensitive dual CO2/pH-responsive behavior, and precise and easily controllable CO2-induced release of Cy-R6G. Cytotoxicity assays clearly indicated that, due to the presence of cytosine receptors on the surface of cancer cells, Cy-R6G-loaded nanogels exert selective cytotoxicity against cancer cells in pristine culture medium, but do not affect the viability of normal cells. Surprisingly, in CO2-rich culture medium, Cy-R6G-loaded nanogels exhibit a further significant enhancement in cytotoxicity against cancer cells, and remain non-cytotoxic to normal cells. More importantly, a series of in vitro experiments demonstrated that compared to pristine culture medium, CO2-rich culture medium promotes more rapid selective internalization of Cy-R6G-loaded nanogels into cancer cells through cytosine-mediated macropinocytosis and thus accelerates the induction of apoptosis. Therefore, this newly developed system provides novel avenues for the development of highly effective CO2-responsive drug delivery systems with potent anticancer capabilities.