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The field of nanotechnology is predicted to lead to breakthroughs in many industrial fields. However, inadequate capability for mass production is a large hurdle in the advancement of this industry. To overcome the shortfall in production of nanotechnological devices, we designed a cylindrical nano mold used in the roll-to-roll process with a large surface area to improve production efficiency. The nano structure was fabricated using the UV-based phase shift edge lithography process and duplicated onto a metal plate. The nano patterned metal plate was rolled onto a cylindrical core to complete the cylindrical nano mold. We confirmed the processing ability of the mold by experimentally conducting the nano imprinting process and analyzing the results.

Transparent electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding films have gained considerable attention for the commercialization of the 5G wireless technology based on electromagnetic waves in the GHz range. In this study, transparent EMI shielding films with embedded metal meshes on a 100 μm thick polyethylene terephthalate film for EMI shielding were fabricated using ultraviolet imprinting and Ag paste filling techniques. The various EMI shielding film types were fabricated by varying the width, aperture size, and height of the mesh electrode to evaluate the efficiency of the EMI shielding according to the incident electromagnetic wave frequency and morphology of the mesh metallic electrodes. The results indicate that the EMI shielding efficiency (SE) increased with a decrease in the aperture size of the metal mesh electrodes and an increase in their height. The average EMI SE values of the fabricated film in the 0.5–18 GHz range reached 48.3 dB and 59.6 dB at a light transmittance of approximately 90% and 77%, respectively. The fabricated EMI shielding films can be used for various applications, such as communications, aerospace, medical equipment, and military.

Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is highly effective in preventing disease progression of rabies when used in timely and appropriate manner. The key treatment for PEP is infiltration of rabies immune globulin (RIG) into lesion site after bite exposure, besides wound care and vaccination. Unfortunately, however, RIG is expensive and its supply is limited. Currently, several anti-rabies virus monoclonal antibody (mAb) products are under development as alternatives to RIG, and two recently received regulatory approval in India. In this study, fully human mAbs that recognize different rabies virus glycoprotein conformational antigenic site (II and III) were created from peripheral blood mononuclear cells of heathy vaccinated subjects. These mAbs neutralized a diverse range of lyssavirus types. As at least two anti-rabies virus mAbs are recommended for use in human PEP to ensure broad coverage against diverse lyssaviruses and to minimize possible escape variants, two most potent mAbs, NP-19-9 and 11B6, were selected to be used as cocktail treatment. These two mAbs were broadly reactive to different types of lyssaviruses isolates, and were shown to have no interference with each other. These results suggest that NP-19-9 and 11B6 are potent candidates to be used for PEP, suggesting further studies involving clinical studies in human.

Transparent heaters have attracted significant attention in recent years because of their wide range of potential applications, including defogging and defrosting windshields, thermochromic smart windows, and wearable heating devices. This paper presents a comparison of the performances of a transparent heater with nanomesh electrodes and that with micromesh electrodes. Both transparent heaters exhibit excellent basic characteristics, with an optical transmittance of more than 90%, and sheet resistance of less than 2 Ω/□. From the thermal response time tests, we observed a shorter thermal response time of 30 s for the nanomesh heater. This is because the heater must warm the transparent area; hence, the smaller transparent area of the nanomesh is more advantageous for a transparent heater. Furthermore, the nanomesh transparent heater exhibited excellent heating stability and performance at various sizes. The promising results of this study can facilitate significant and practical applications of transparent heaters, such as windshields for vehicles.

Screen printing has various industrial applications owing to its simple process and low production cost. With advancement in electronic devices, the demand for fine electrode patterns is gradually increasing. In this study, a novel method for fabricating a hybrid fine metal mask (HFMM) was developed to enable the screen printing of fine electrode patterns. The HFMM was designed to combine the advantages of the conventional screen mask and metal stencils; it was fabricated through photolithography and the electroforming process. The HFMM comprised three parts: a stencil, a bridge, and an anti-sticking feature. A conductive ink, which was passed through the stencil feature, was deposited on the substrate and the bridge feature helped increase the mechanical rigidity of the HFMM. The anti-sticking feature was fabricated for the easy separation of the HFMM from the substrate during the printing process. In this study, the printing feasibility of HFMM to the screen printing process was tested to fabricate fine electrodes with a line width of approximately 10 μm, and the printing and electrical properties of the electrodes were evaluated. The screen printing process with HFMM could be applied to fabricate various functional electrodes, such as stretchable and transparent electrodes.

This study reports on the fabrication process of a nanomesh-shaped nickel mold by using phase shift lithography. We also present its application to a transparent electrode film for a touch screen panel. A suitable gap between the checkerboard- shaped patterns on a photomask was chosen to obtain the nickel mold with a mesh-shaped pattern connected to each other. A nanomesh-type trench pattern was transferred from the nickel mold onto a polyethylene terephthalate film through the imprinting lithography process with ultraviolet light. The nanomesh- embedded electrode pattern was fabricated by filling the nanotrench with Ag paste. The light transmittance and sheet and line resistance of the nanomesh-type transparent conducting electrode film were evaluated. The TCE film was then applied to a 7 in. touch sensor module.

A cost-effective process for producing high-performance Ag-paste-based flexible transparent nanomesh electrodes (FTNEs) was developed by optimizing their linewidth, pitch, and height. These nanomesh electrodes, with a linewidth of several hundred nanometers and a pitch of 10-200 μm on a PET substrate, achieved wide ranges of transmittance (83.1%-98.8%) and sheet resistance (1.2-30.9 Ω/sq) and a figure of merit (992-1619) superior to those of indium tin oxide and silver nanowire (AgNW) electrodes. Our evaluation of their flexibility (testing up to 50 000 cycles) and their electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness verifies the applicability of these FTNEs to various flexible optoelectronic devices.

Glomerular epithelial cells (GECs) are known to play a key role in maintaining the structure and function of the glomerulus. GEC injury induced by hyperglycemia is present in early-stage diabetic nephropathy (DN), which is the most common cause of renal failure. In an attempt to identify target proteins involved in the pathogenesis of GEC injury at early DN, we performed the proteomic analysis using primary cultures of GECs, prepared from the dissected rat glomeruli. The protein expression profiles in the two-dimensional electrophoresis gels were compared between GECs treated for three days with normal glucose (5 mM) and those with high glucose (30 mM) concentrations. These concentrations correspond to blood glucose concentrations under normoglycemia and hyperglycemia, respectively. Proteins with differential expression levels were identified using ESI-Q-TOF tandem mass spectrometry. The primary GECs cultured in hyperglycemic conditions showed cellular hypertrophy and increased production of reactive oxygen species, both of which reflect the GEC injury. Our proteomic analysis identified eight proteins with differential expression profiles, depending on glucose concentrations. Among them, we selected ATP synthase β subunit and enolase 2 that are related to energy metabolism and are down-regulated under hyperglycemia, and confirmed that hyperglycemia decreased the expression levels of ATP synthase β subunit and enolase 2 proteins by western blotting analysis. Hyperglycemia may impair mitochondrial function and alter glycolysis in GECs by down-regulating the expression of ATP synthase β subunit and enolase 2. The present study may provide a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of GEC injury in early DN.

The preparation of plasma membrane (PM) proteome samples is seriously difficult and time-consuming, owing to their profound hydrophobicity and low abundance. We have developed an efficient PM sample preparation method using Ultracentrifugation with Percoll and an aqueous two-phase extraction. The developed method was rapid (3 h) and provided high purities (26-fold of cell lysate) with a high yield (2.6% of whole cell lysate proteins). This method is especially useful for PM proteome studies using 2D gel electrophoresis.

Because of the intriguing electrical and mechanical properties of carbon nanowires, many researchers exploit them by incorporating them in many applications such as field emitter and sensors. Despites the many advantages of carbon nanowires, they are not widely used in real applications because of the difficulty in positioning them at the desired location, even though many methods have been attempted to achieve this goal. Here we show that we can grow carbon nanowires by corona-discharge-assisted thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD). A chrome/nickel bilayer was used as the electrode to generate the corona discharge. Additionally, nickel acted as the catalyst to initiate carbon growth and chrome acted as the structural support. C2H4 gas flow was introduced into the growth tube as the carbon source at a certain growth temperature. Experiments were conducted to grow the carbon nanowires horizontally and vertically.

Despite the numerous advantages of a glass, difficulty of the fabrication, especially 3D fabrication, is still an obstacle. Here, we show a novel method to fabricate Pyrex glass in a simple and precise way. Combining conventional MEMS processes and a heat and electric field treatment, the Pyrex glass etching is realized by aluminum substitution for boron. Maximum depth and etching rate are influenced by temperature, applied voltage and aluminum thickness. By applying a range of voltages to different spot patterns or varying the thickness of the aluminum pattern, we were able to control the depth on a single substrate.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a serious kidney complication of diabetes, and constitutes the leading cause of end-stage renal disease. The earliest clinical evidence of DN is microalbuminuria, a term which refers to the appearance of small but abnormal amounts of albumin in the urine. However, screening methods for DN, such as biomarker assays, are yet to be developed for type 2 DN. In the present study, in an attempt to identify the biomarkers for initial diagnoses of type 2 DN, the protein profiles of human sera collected from 30 microalbuminuric type 2 diabetic patients were compared with those collected from 30 normoalbuminuric type 2 diabetic patients, via 2-DE. As a result, a total of 18 spots were determined to have different protein levels in the microalbuminuric patients. Twelve spots had lower protein levels of approximately 50%, and the other six had higher levels of approximately 100-300% as compared to the spots of normoalbuminuric patients. These spots were identified with ESI-Q-TOF (ESI-quadrupole-TOF) MS. Among the identified proteins, vitamin D-binding protein (DBP) and pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) were verified by Western blotting. The results of this study indicate that the DBP may be employed as diagnostic and monitoring biomarkers of type 2 DN, contingent on further study into the matter.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a renal disease which develops as a consequence of diabetes mellitus. Microalbuminuria is the earliest clinical sign of DN. There are no specific diagnostic biomarkers for type 2 diabetics with nephropathy other than microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria. However, microalbuminuria does not constitute a sole independent indicator for type 2 diabetics with nephropathy, and thus, another screening method, such as a biomarker assay, is required in order to diagnose it more correctly. Therefore, we have utilized two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) to identify human serum protein markers for the more specific and accurate prediction of progressive nephropathy in type 2 diabetes patients, via comparisons of the serum proteome in three experimental groups: type 2 diabetes patients without microalbuminuria (DM, n = 30), with microalbuminuria (MA, n = 29), and with chronic renal failure (CRF, n = 31). As a result, proteins which were differentially expressed with statistical significance (p < 0.05) in MA and CRF groups as compared to those in DM group were selected and identified by ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS. Among these identified proteins, two proteins which might be useful as diagnostic biomarkers of type 2 diabetics with nephropathy were verified by Western blotting: extracellular glutathione peroxidase (eGPx) and apolipoprotein (ApoE) were found to exhibit a progressive reduction in MA and CRF groups. Notably, eGPx was further verified by ELISA using DM (n = 100) and MA (n = 96) patient samples. Collectively, our results show that the two proteins identified in this study may constitute potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of type 2 diabetics with nephropathy.

We anticipate the development of new real time biological active point (BAP) systems based on skin impedance, since this measurement method has the superior characteristics of noninvasiveness and easy operation. In this paper, we report on the three electrode measure method that has the advantage of measuring the impedance of the BAPs under the skin. This system easily measured the potential difference between the measurement electrodes and reference electrodes. The BAPs have lower impedance at all frequencies and their reactance is much smaller than that of the surrounding skin. The characteristic frequencies of BAPs are about 20-30HZ higher than that of the surrounding skin. This technology analyzed accurately and objectively the reactance and characteristic frequency of BAPs.

In this work, we present an extended gate field effect transistor (EGFET)-based biosensor integrated with a silicon micro-fluidic channel for the electronic detection of streptavidin–biotin protein complexes. The connection between the EGFET and microfluidic system could be achieved with the proposed device, as it offers isolation between the device and solution, compatibility with the integrated circuit (IC) technology and, is applicable to the micro total analysis system (μ-TAS). The device was fabricated on the basis of semiconductor IC fabrication and micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) technology. Au was used as the extended gate metal to form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) with thiol. The bindings of the SAM, streptavidin and biotin were detected by measuring the electrical characteristics of the FET device. We also verified the interactions among the SAM, streptavidin, and biotin by using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measurements. Furthermore, atomic force microscopy (AFM) images of the bio-layers formed on the Au electrode were taken in a solution in order to determine the presence of protein biomolecules with the proposed configuration.

Atomic force microscope (AFM) has become a common tool for the structural and physical studies of biological macromolecules, mainly because it provides the ability to perform experiments with samples in a buffer solution. In this study, structure of proteins and nucleic acids has been studied in their physiological environment that allows native intermolecular complexes to be formed. Cr and Au were deposited on p-Si (100) substrate by thermal evaporation method in sequence with the thickness of and , respectively, since Au is adequate for immobilizing biomolecules by forming a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) with semiconductor-based biosensors. The SAM, streptavidin and biotin interacted each other with their specific binding energy and their adsorption was analyzed using the Bio-AFM both in a solution and under air environment. A silicon nitride tip was used as a contact tip of Bio-AFM measurement in a solution and an antimony doped silicon tip as a tapping tip under air environment. Actual morphology could also be obtained by 3-dimensional AFM images. The length and agglomerate size of biomolecules was measured in stages. Furthermore, (average of surface roughness) and (mean square of surface roughness) and surface density for the adsorbed surface were also calculated from the AFM image.

Current post-exposure prophylaxis for rabies virus infection has several limitations in terms of supply, cost, safety, and efficacy. Attempts to replace human or equine rabies immune globulins (HRIG or ERIG) have been made by several companies and institutes. We developed potent monoclonal antibodies to neutralize a broad spectrum of rabies viruses by screening hybridomas received from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Two kinds of chimeric human antibodies (chimeric #7 and #17) were constructed by cloning the variable regions from selected hybridomas and the constant region of a human antibody. Two antibodies were bound to antigenic site III and I/IV, respectively, and were able to neutralize 51 field isolates of rabies virus that were isolated at different times and places such as Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Australia. These two antibodies neutralize rabies viruses with high efficacy in an in vivo test using Syrian hamster and mouse models and show low risk for adverse immunogenicity.

Glomerular epithelial cells (GECs) are known to play a key role in maintaining the structure and function of the glomerulus. GEC injury induced by hyperglycemia is present in early-stage diabetic nephropathy (DN), which is the most common cause of renal failure. In an attempt to identify target proteins involved in the pathogenesis of GEC injury at early DN, we performed the proteomic analysis using primary cultures of GECs, prepared from the dissected rat glomeruli. The protein expression profiles in the two-dimensional electrophoresis gels were compared between GECs treated for three days with normal glucose (5 mM) and those with high glucose (30 mM) concentrations. These concentrations correspond to blood glucose concentrations under normoglycemia and hyperglycemia, respectively. Proteins with differential expression levels were identified using ESI-Q-TOF tandem mass spectrometry. The primary GECs cultured in hyperglycemic conditions showed cellular hypertrophy and increased production of reactive oxygen species, both of which reflect the GEC injury. Our proteomic analysis identified eight proteins with differential expression profiles, depending on glucose concentrations. Among them, we selected ATP synthase β subunit and enolase 2 that are related to energy metabolism and are down-regulated under hyperglycemia, and confirmed that hyperglycemia decreased the expression levels of ATP synthase β subunit and enolase 2 proteins by western blotting analysis. Hyperglycemia may impair mitochondrial function and alter glycolysis in GECs by down-regulating the expression of ATP synthase β subunit and enolase 2. The present study may provide a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms of GEC injury in early DN.

To identify potential prognostic or diagnostic marker tear proteins for early diabetic retinopathy (DR) and to investigate the pathogenesis of this disease using proteomics techniques.The tear proteins expressed in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus without the retinopathy symptoms, nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy and healthy volunteers were analyzed by 2-DE. The differentially expressed proteins in patients were identified by ESI-Q-TOF and confirmed by Western blotting.Proteins which were differentially expressed with statistical significance (P0.05) in two diabetic groups as compared to those in healthy group were selected and identified by ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS. Among these proteins, three proteins (LCN-1, HSP27 and B2M) were found to exhibit a progressive reduction in two disease groups. The expression levels of which might be useful as diagnostic biomarkers of DR were verified by Western blottingProteomic analysis using tear is a novel approach that can provide insight into possible biomarker and the pathogenesis of early DR.

To monitor increases or decreases in cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related proteins that will be released from the deposits or plaque on the inner wall of blood vessels.Protein profiles of sera from healthy subjects and CVD patients were determined via 2-DE. Differentially expressed spots in CVD patients were identified by ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS. Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4), ceruloplasmin, and hemopexin were confirmed by Western blotting and RBP4 was further verified by ELISA.Approximately, 400 spots were detected in each gel via comparisons of the serum proteome. Among these spots, 19 spots were selected and identified by ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS (P0.05). The expression levels of RBP4 and ceruloplasmin were higher in CVD patients by Western blotting. The level of immunoreactive RBP4 in CVD patients was higher than that in healthy subjects.The three proteins identified in the present study may constitute potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of CVD in patients.

In this paper, the carbon nanowires grown between the microgap by corona discharge assisted thermal CVD is discussed. The experiments have been done in three different temperatures, 500, 600 and 700degC. At 700degC, because of too high local temperature, the electrodes are damaged and the carbon nanowires grow very densely and extend over the gap between the electrodes. By using this method, it is able to lower the growth temperature which enables to widen the materials used as the electrodes and the applications. This method can be used to fabrication the nanowire sensor.

Since their discovery in 1991, Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are known to have unique electrical, mechanical and thermal properties and have been used at many applications. For using at applications, the manipulation of the CNTs is very important. Recently, Dielectrophoresis has attracted much interest for CNTs alignment and deposition on a desirable location, but all the work have been done on plane electrodes. In this work, We propose a novel fabrication method of carbon nanotube bridge in V-groove channel using dielectrophoresis. Compared to the case using plane electrode, this method has several advantages. The electrodes in V-groove channel provide high and parallel electric field and eliminate nonspecific CNTs deposition so that efficiency of CNTs alignment increases. V-groove channel was fabricated on silicon wafer by TMAH bulk etching. The gold electrodes were deposited in V-groove channel. To prepare the SWNTs suspension, SWNTs were dispersed in DI water with 0.1 wt% sodium dodecyl sulfate by sonication. A drop of suspension was introduced onto the electrodes and ac voltage was applied. When SWNTs alignment on a electrodes in V-groove is compared with that on a plane electrodes, SWNTs were aligned to electric field direction and formed SWNTs bundle bridges cross V-groove channel. These carbon nanotube bridges have diameter of 0.5-2 mum and length of 5~20 mum. We think that this phenomenon was happened by 3D electric field in V-groove channel. Because these bridges had regular shape and wide contact areas, these bridges can have uniform electric properties and lower contact resistance, but the phenomenon need a further theoretically studies. SWNTs bridges can be used in various sensors. Because sensor bridges were away from surface, effects of surface reduced and signal to noise ratio increased. High surface areas of SWNTs bridges can improve sensitivity of sensors, and embedded SWNTs bridges in microchannel can be easily used at various microfluidic applications without additional work.

To study the change in hepatic stellate cell (HSC) function under diabetic conditions, we cultured rat HSC in the presence of 5 and 30 mM glucose, which correspond to blood glucose concentrations during the early and late stages of diabetes, respectively. The differentially expressed HSC proteins were analyzed using 2-DE and ESI-Q-TOF MS/MS and confirmed with Western blotting. The changed protein expression will provide greater understanding of glycolysis in HSC at the high concentration of glucose.

The limitations of conventional glass etching methods are a bottleneck in the further development of glass as a substrate, which is critically important in micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems. In this paper, we describe a new wet etching method for Pyrex glass using a metal etchant. An aluminum pattern is deposited on the Pyrex and then subjected to thermal and electrostatically induced interdiffusion to form an aluminum-rich layer of controllable thickness in the glass, which can then be etched with an aluminum etchant. Because the underlying glass acts as an etch stop, no etching mask is required and the etching depth is effectively controlled by the electric field strength. This method can be used for fabricating glass nanochannels and nanodepth structures, and also in processes incompatible with hydrogen fluoride.