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Supplementary figure 2: CLA is expressed by tumoral T cells and Tregs in cSCCs.

Supplementary figure 4: cSCC blood vessels express e-selectin.

Supplementary figure 6: Comparison of FOXP3+ Treg frequencies between well differentiated cSCCs (G1) and moderately or poorly differentiated cSCCs (G2-3).

Supplementary figure 5: Tumoral Treg suppression of anti-CD3 induced tumoral effector T cell proliferation can be inhibited by anti-OX40.

Supplementary figure 1: Characterization of the cSCC immune infiltrate demonstrates the presence of tumoral Tregs.

supplemental figure legend

Supplementary figure 3: Blood vessels are located in the peritumoral areas of cSCCs.

Purpose: Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the most common human cancer with metastatic potential. Despite T cells accumulating around cSCCs, these tumors continue to grow and persist. To investigate reasons for failure of T cells to mount a protective response in cSCC, we focused on regulatory T cells (Tregs) as this suppressive population is well represented among the infiltrating lymphocytes.Experimental Design: Flow cytometry was conducted on cSCC lymphocytes and in vitro functional assays were performed using sorted tumoral T cells. Lymphocyte subsets in primary cSCCs were quantified immunohistochemically.Results: FOXP3+ Tregs were more frequent in cSCCs than in peripheral blood (P < 0.0001, n = 86 tumors). Tumoral Tregs suppressed proliferation of tumoral effector CD4+ (P = 0.005, n = 10 tumors) and CD8+ T cells (P = 0.043, n = 9 tumors) and inhibited IFNγ secretion by tumoral effector T cells (P = 0.0186, n = 11 tumors). The costimulatory molecule OX40 was expressed predominantly on tumoral Tregs (P < 0.0001, n = 15 tumors) and triggering OX40 with an agonist anti-OX40 antibody overcame the suppression exerted by Tregs, leading to increased tumoral effector CD4+ lymphocyte proliferation (P = 0.0098, n = 10 tumors). Tregs and OX40+ lymphocytes were more abundant in primary cSCCs that metastasized than in primary cSCCs that had not metastasized (n = 48 and n = 49 tumors, respectively).Conclusions: Tregs in cSCCs suppress effector T-cell responses and are associated with subsequent metastasis, suggesting a key role for Tregs in cSCC development and progression. OX40 agonism reversed the suppressive effects of Tregs in vitro, suggesting that targeting OX40 could benefit the subset of cSCC patients at high risk of metastasis. Clin Cancer Res; 22(16); 4236–48. ©2016 AACR.

This paper presents a direct wireless battery charging system. The output current of the series-series compensated wireless power transfer (SS-WPT) system is used as a current source, and the output voltage of AC-DC converter controls the current source. Therefore, the proposed wireless battery charging system needs no battery charging circuit carrying out charging profiles, and can solve space constraints and thermal problem in many battery applications. In addition, the proposed wireless battery charging system can implement easily most other charging profiles. In this paper, the proposed wireless battery charging system is implemented and the feasibility is verified experimentally according to constant-current constant-voltage charging profile.

This paper presents a theoretical analysis, an optimal design method, and experimental results for a wireless power transfer (WPT) system with an intermediate coil. The analytical expression of the dc voltage transfer function is presented and discussed. In a two-coil WPT system, which has low coupling coefficient, the intermediate coil boosts the apparent self-inductance and magnetizing inductance of the primary side at around the resonance frequency of the intermediate coil, so that the apparent coupling coefficient is compensated. The coupling coefficient makes the system efficiency increase and induces bifurcation phenomenon. From the analysis, this paper proposes an optimal design method using the second resonance frequency operation with the bifurcation phenomenon and presents design procedure for high efficiency. A prototype of the WPT system with the intermediate coil is implemented and experimented to verify the validity of the analysis and the proposed design method. The prototype operates at 100 kHz switching frequency and has an air gap between primary and secondary side of 200 mm. An overall system efficiency of 95.57% has been achieved at 6.6 kW of output power.

New phase-shift pulse width modulation (PWM) converters with a wide zero voltage switching (ZVS) range for the slim sustain power module of over 63-in plasma display panel (PDP) are proposed in this paper. Each proposed converter is composed of two symmetric half-bridge converters (TSHBCs) that are placed in parallel on the primary side and are driven in a phase shifting manner. Two power transformers are connected in series on the secondary side. All the switches in the proposed converters can be turned on with ZVS under all load conditions, while the conduction loss caused by the assistant current source extending the ZVS range can be minimized. Moreover, because the turns ratio of the transformers can be designed to be better than that of the counterparts, the voltage stress across the secondary rectifier diode and the primary conduction loss can be reduced. A low-profile design is also achieved due to the use of the two small-sized transformers, which results in a slim power supply. In this paper, the circuit configurations, operation principle, relevant analysis results, and design example of the proposed converters are presented. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed converters can achieve a significant improvement in the efficiency for a prototype converter realized with the specification of 80-in PDP sustain power module (320-385 Vdc input, 205 Vdc/5 A output).

This paper presents a new standby structure where a forward converter is integrated with a dc-dc phase-shift full-bridge (PSFB) converter for server power supplies. While a typical standby structure consists of an independent flyback converter, the proposed standby structure is integrated with one leg of the dc-dc PSFB converter. Its main advantages are that the voltage across a standby switch is clamped at the link voltage across the link capacitor and that the standby switch achieves zero-voltage switching over entire load range. The validity of the proposed standby structure is confirmed by the experimental results from 12 V/58 A for the dc-dc output prototype and 11.5 V/1.5 A for the standby output prototype.

Purpose: Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the most common human cancer with metastatic potential. Despite T cells accumulating around cSCCs, these tumors continue to grow and persist. To investigate reasons for failure of T cells to mount a protective response in cSCC, we focused on regulatory T cells (Tregs) as this suppressive population is well represented among the infiltrating lymphocytes. Experimental Design: Flow cytometry was conducted on cSCC lymphocytes and in vitro functional assays were performed using sorted tumoral T cells. Lymphocyte subsets in primary cSCCs were quantified immunohistochemically. Results: FOXP3+ Tregs were more frequent in cSCCs than in peripheral blood (P < 0.0001, n = 86 tumors). Tumoral Tregs suppressed proliferation of tumoral effector CD4+ (P = 0.005, n = 10 tumors) and CD8+ T cells (P = 0.043, n = 9 tumors) and inhibited IFNγ secretion by tumoral effector T cells (P = 0.0186, n = 11 tumors). The costimulatory molecule OX40 was expressed predominantly on tumoral Tregs (P < 0.0001, n = 15 tumors) and triggering OX40 with an agonist anti-OX40 antibody overcame the suppression exerted by Tregs, leading to increased tumoral effector CD4+ lymphocyte proliferation (P = 0.0098, n = 10 tumors). Tregs and OX40+ lymphocytes were more abundant in primary cSCCs that metastasized than in primary cSCCs that had not metastasized (n = 48 and n = 49 tumors, respectively). Conclusions: Tregs in cSCCs suppress effector T-cell responses and are associated with subsequent metastasis, suggesting a key role for Tregs in cSCC development and progression. OX40 agonism reversed the suppressive effects of Tregs in vitro, suggesting that targeting OX40 could benefit the subset of cSCC patients at high risk of metastasis. Clin Cancer Res; 22(16); 4236–48. ©2016 AACR.

This paper proposes a novel system for smart bridge sensors that enables power and information data to be transferred simultaneously. For power transfer, the proposed system uses a half-bridge converter including a series-series compensator, and it provides power to the sensors through the concrete structure. For data transmission, the proposed system detects physical information of the smart bridge by sensing the voltage variation of the resonant capacitor in the transmitter. The proposed system thereby can reduce management cost of the smart bridge by using a wireless power transfer system for rechargeable batteries and eliminating the communication module for data transmission. A prototype system is validated by experiments. The efficiency is 43.6% with a distance of 300 mm and data transmission is properly conducted with a 1500bps data rate.

This paper proposes a new interleaved buck converter (IBC) having low switching losses and improved step-down conversion ratio, which is suitable for the applications where the input voltage is high and the operating duty is below 50%. It is similar to the conventional IBC, but two active switches are connected in series and a coupling capacitor is employed in the power path, such as Cuk, Sepic, and Zeta converters. The proposed IBC shows that since the voltage stress across all the active switches is half of the input voltage before turn-on or after turn-off when the operating duty is below 50%, the capacitive discharging and switching losses can be reduced considerably. This allows the proposed IBC to have higher efficiency and operate with higher switching frequency. In addition, the proposed IBC has a higher step-down conversion ratio and a smaller output current ripple compared with a conventional IBC. The features, operation principles, and relevant analysis results of the proposed IBC are presented in this paper. The validity of this study is confirmed by the experimental results of prototype converters with 150-200 V input, 24 V/10 A output.

The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene encodes for a seven-pass transmembrane receptor primarily expressed on melanocytes and melanoma cells. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, also termed variants) in MC1R frequently cause red hair, fair skin and are associated with melanoma and keratinocyte-derived skin cancer development. Activation of wild-type (WT) MC1R in skin assists cutaneous photoprotection whereas reduced MC1R signalling, seen with MC1R variants, impairs ultraviolet radiation (UVR)-protective responses. As ancestral humans migrated out of Africa, the evolutionary advantage of MC1R variants may have related to improved cutaneous vitamin D synthesis and higher birthweight reported with certain MC1R variants. Reduced photoprotection secondary to MC1R dysfunction involves pigmentary and non-pigmentary mechanisms (reduced DNA repair, effects on cell proliferation and possibly immunological parameters), leading to clonal expansion of mutated cells within skin and subsequent carcinogenesis. Recent investigations suggest an association between MC1R genotype and vitiligo, with preliminary evidence that a MC1R agonist, [Nle4-D-Phe7]-alpha-MSH, in combination with UVB, assists repigmentation. Future development of compounds to correct defective MC1R responses secondary to MC1R variants could result in photoprotective benefits for fair-skinned individuals and reduce their skin cancer risk.

This paper presents a theoretical analysis, an optimal design method and experimental results for a wireless power transfer (WPT) system with an intermediate coil. The analytical expression of the DC voltage transfer function is presented and discussed. In a two coil WPT system, which has low coupling coefficient, the intermediate coil boosts the self-inductance and magnetizing inductance of the primary side at around the resonance frequency of the intermediate coil, so that the coupling coefficient is compensated. The coupling coefficient makes the system efficiency increase and induces bi-furcation phenomenon. From the analysis, this paper proposes an optimal design method using the second resonance frequency operation with the bi-furcation phenomenon and presents design procedure for high efficiency. A prototype of the WPT system with the intermediate coil is implemented and experimented to verify the validity of the analysis and the proposed design method. The prototype operates at 100 kHz switching frequency and has an air gap between primary and secondary side of 200mm. An overall system efficiency of 95.57% has been achieved at 6.6kW of output power.

Recently, resonance phenomenon in wireless power transfer (WPT) is widely used to deliver power to a load over relatively large air gap via magnetic coupling. Since many reactive components in WPT system are contributed to the resonance phenomenon, there are many resonant frequencies. Theses resonant frequencies have different and distinguishing features. For this reason, the analysis of the resonant tank at various resonant frequencies is required to understand WPT system more easily. Therefore, in this paper, three resonant frequencies in series-series compensated WPT (SS-WPT) system are defined. And then, this paper is aiming to present the features of SS-WPT system in the major two of the three resonant frequencies. The analysis is supported with experimental results.

The charging characteristics of non-radiative wireless power link (NWPL) have been well unknown. This paper shows that series-series (SS) compensated NWPL system behaves as a constant current power supply when the inverter operates at the resonant frequency of self-inductance and resonant capacitors.

In the lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicle applications, the charge equalizer is required to enhance life time and guarantee safety. For efficient charge equalization, a cell voltage sensing module should be used. However, the cost of the sensing module is relatively high. Thus, to achieve higher equalization performance without the cell voltage sensing module, a new automatic charge equalizer based on regulated voltage source is proposed. A fast regulated voltage source with average voltage of the batteries is implemented by a bidirectional dc-dc converter. The charge equalization can be automatically achieved by periodic connections between battery cells and regulated voltage source without the sensing module. The high equalization performance can be obtained by proposed reference voltage modulation and advanced skip mode. The operational principles and design considerations of the proposed equalizer are presented and equalization performance is verified by the prototype with 7Ah lithium-ion batteries.

This paper presents high-efficiency standby forward converter integrated with the DC/DC Phase-Shift Full Bridge (PSFB) converter. By sharing one leg of DC/DC PSFB converter, the proposed converter features low-voltage stress, no snubber and zero-voltage switching (ZVS) over the entire load range. Thus, the proposed converter has high-efficiency, especially under half load condition. Furthermore, by using forward-type transformer instead of flyback-type transformer in the same proposed structure, the proposed standby forward converter has low freewheeling current and higher efficiency. Experimental results of 700W prototype for server power supply system will be shown to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed converter.

In rechargeable batteries such as lithium-ion, the charge equalization circuit is necessary to enhance life time and guarantee safety. For fast charge equalization, the equalization current is increased as increase of battery capacity, and thus the burden of power semiconductors is increased. Therefore this paper proposes new selective charge equalization circuit with small number of power semiconductors. In the proposed charge equalizer, power diode of transformer secondary side is eliminated and power MOSFET of transformer secondary side is controlled by an auxiliary transformer. By using current unbalance caused by effective voltage mismatching, the charge equalization can be achieved without current blocking switches. In this paper, the operational principle of the proposed equalizer is presented and principle of current unbalance is analyzed. To confirm the validity of the proposed scheme, a prototype of 8 lithium-ion batteries is implemented and experimental results are presented.