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BACKGROUND: There are no comparative data on pathological predictors at diagnosis, between African Caribbean and Caucasian men with prostate cancer (PCa), in equal-access centers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the grade groups of an African Caribbean cohort, newly diagnosed with PCa on prostate biopsy, compared with a Caucasian French Metropolitan cohort. METHODS: A retrospective, a comparative study was conducted between 2008 and 2016 between the University Hospital of Martinique in the French Caribbean West Indies, and the Saint Joseph Hospital in Paris. Clinical, biological, and pathological data were collected at diagnosis. The primary outcome was the grade groups for Gleason score; the secondary outcome was the PCa detection rate. Multivariate analysis was performed using linear regression. RESULTS: Of the 1880 consecutive prostate biopsy performed in the African Caribbean cohort, 945 had a diagnosis of PCa (50.3%) and 500 of 945 in the French cohort (33.8%). African Caribbean patients were older (mean 68.5 vs 67.5 years; P = .028), had worse clinical stage (13.2% vs 5.2% cT3-4; P

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders, characterized by recurrent seizures, resulting from abnormally synchronized episodic neuronal discharges. Around 70 million people worldwide are suffering from epilepsy. The available antiepileptic medications are capable of controlling seizures in around 60–70% of patients, while the rest remain refractory. Poor seizure control is often associated with neuro-psychiatric comorbidities, mainly including memory impairment, depression, psychosis, neurodegeneration, motor impairment, neuroendocrine dysfunction, etc., resulting in poor prognosis. Effective treatment relies on early and correct detection of epileptic foci. Although there are currently a few well-established diagnostic techniques for epilepsy, they lack accuracy and cannot be applied to patients who are unsupportive or harbor metallic implants. Since a single test result from one of these techniques does not provide complete information about the epileptic foci, it is necessary to develop novel diagnostic tools. Herein, we provide a comprehensive overview of the current diagnostic tools of epilepsy, including electroencephalography (EEG) as well as structural and functional neuroimaging. We further discuss recent trends and advances in the diagnosis of epilepsy that will enable more effective diagnosis and clinical management of patients. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

We compare results from the Polyakov linear-sigma model (PLSM) in optimized perturbation theory (OPT) with the mean-field approximation (MFA). At finite temperatures and chemical potentials, the chiral condensates and the decofinement order parameters, the thermodynamic pressure, the pseudo-critical temperatures, the subtracted condensates, the second- and high-order moments of various conserved charges (cumulants) obtained in MFA are compared with OPT and also confronted to available lattice QCD simulations. We conclude that when moving from lower- to higher-order moments of various quantum charges, OPT becomes more closer to QCD., 15 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, submitted to PRC

The state-of-the-art electronics technology has been an integral part of modern advances. The prevalent rise of the mobile device and computational technology in the age of information technology offers exciting applications that are attributed to sophisticated, enormously reliable, and most mature CMOS-based electronics. We are accustomed to high performance, cost-effective, multifunctional, and energy-efficient scaled electronics. However, they are rigid, bulky, and brittle. The convolution of flexibility and stretchability in electronics for emerging Internet of Everything application can unleash smart application horizon in unexplored areas, such as robotics, healthcare, smart cities, transport, and entertainment systems. While flexible and stretchable device themes are being remarkably chased, the realization of the fully compliant electronic system is unaddressed. Integration of data processing, storage, communication, and energy management devices complements a compliant system. Here, a comprehensive review is presented on necessity and design criteria for freeform (physically flexible and stretchable) compliant high-performance CMOS electronic systems.

Resume But Analyser les indications de prostatectomie radicale et de curage ganglionnaire retenue en RCP au cours des 12 dernieres annees dans un centre chirurgical hospitalo-universitaire francilien afin d’evaluer leur adequation vis-a-vis des recommandations de bonnes pratiques clinique concomitamment en vigueur. Methode >Il s'agit d'une etude retrospective monocentrique des donnees collectees prospectivement entre 2007 et 2019. Nous avons realise une analyse des caracteristiques clinique et pathologiques prises en compte en RCP pour la decision de traitement et comparaison de leur evolution au cours de 4 periodes de 3 ans correspondant aux actualisations des recommandations de bonnes pratiques clinique. Resultats Deux mille quatre-vingt-huit patients consecutifs traites par prostatectomie totale entre le 16/03/2007 et le 17/03/2019 ont ete inclus. La proportion de patients classes a risque faible, intermediaire ou haut selon D’Amico, a ete de 13,2 %, 80,8 % et 6,0 % respectivement. Une augmentation de frequence du traitement chirurgical radical des cancers de haut risque a ete observee. Parallelement, une diminution de frequence des prostatectomies pour traiter des cancers de faible risque a ete constate. Conclusion Les indications de prostatectomie totale et de curage ganglionnaire ont evolue en adequation avec les recommandations de bonnes pratiques cliniques prises en consideration en reunion de concertation pluridisciplinaire d’onco-urologie. Niveau de preuve 3.

To analyze the indications of radical prostatectomy and lymph node dissection retained during the last 12 years in an academic surgical center in the Paris region in order to ensure their adequacy in relation to the current clinical guidelines.Monocentric retrospective study of prospectively collected data, between 2007 and 2019. Analysis of the clinical and pathological characteristics which were taken into account during multidisciplinary meeting discussion for the treatment decision, and comparison of their evolution over the four 3-year period corresponding to the clinical guideline updates.Two thousand eighty-eight consecutive patients treated by radical prostatectomy between 16/03/2007 and 17/03/2019 were included. The proportion of patients classified as low, intermediate or high risk according to D'Amico system was 13.2%, 80.8% and 6.0% respectively. An increase in the frequency of surgical treatment of high-risk cancers has been observed. At the same time, there has been a decrease in the frequency of prostatectomies to treat low-risk cancers.The indications for radical prostatectomy and lymph node dissection have evolved in line with the current clinical guidelines which were taken into consideration in a onco-urological multidisciplinary meeting.3.

The SU($3$) Polyakov linear-sigma model (PLSM) in mean-field approximation is utilized in analyzing the chiral condensates $\sigma_u$, $\sigma_d$, $\sigma_s$ and the deconfinement order parameters $\phi$, $\bar{\phi}$, at finite isospin asymmetry. The bulk thermodynamics including pressure density, interaction measure, susceptibility, and second-order correlations with baryon, strange and electric charge quantum numbers are studied in thermal and dense medium. The PLSM results are confronted to the available lattice QCD calculations. The excellent agreement obtained strengthens the reliability of fixing the PLSM parameters and therefore supports further predictions even beyond the scope of the lattice QCD numerical applicability. From the QCD phase structure at finite isospin chemical potential ($\mu_I$), a novel expression for the explicit symmetry breaking term $h_3$ is introduced, we find that the pseudo-critical temperatures decrease with the increase in $\mu_I$. We conclude that the QCD phase structure in ($T_\chi$-$\mu_I$) plane seems to extend the one in ($T_\chi$-$\mu_B$) plane., Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures and 1 table, accepted for publication in IJMPA

pH-sensing materials and configurations are rapidly evolving toward exciting new applications, especially those in biomedical applications. In this review, we highlight rapid progress in electrochemical pH sensors over the past decade (2008-2018) with an emphasis on key considerations, such as materials selection, system configurations, and testing protocols. In addition to recent progress in optical pH sensors, our main focus in this review is on electromechanical pH sensors due to their significant advances, especially in biomedical applications. We summarize developments of electrochemical pH sensors that by virtue of their optimized material chemistries (from metal oxides to polymers) and geometrical features (from thin films to quantum dots) enable their adoption in biomedical applications. We further present an overview of necessary sensing standards and protocols. Standards ensure the establishment of consistent protocols, facilitating collective understanding of results and building on the current state. Furthermore, they enable objective benchmarking of various pH-sensing reports, materials, and systems, which is critical for the overall progression and development of the field. Additionally, we list critical issues in recent literary reporting and suggest various methods for objective benchmarking. pH regulation in the human body and state-of-the-art pH sensors (from ex vivo to in vivo) are compared for suitability in biomedical applications. We conclude our review by (i) identifying challenges that need to be overcome in electrochemical pH sensing and (ii) providing an outlook on future research along with insights, in which the integration of various pH sensors with advanced electronics can provide a new platform for the development of novel technologies for disease diagnostics and prevention.

We present a comprehensive electrical performance assessment of hafnium silicate (HfSiO x ) high- $\kappa $ dielectric and titanium-nitride (TiN) metal-gate-integrated FinFET-based complementary-metal-oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) on flexible silicon on insulator. The devices were fabricated using the state-of-the-art CMOS technology and then transformed into flexible form by using a CMOS-compatible maskless deep reactive-ion etching technique. Mechanical out-of-plane stresses (compressive and tensile) were applied along and across the transistor channel lengths through a bending range of 0.5–5 cm radii for n-type and p-type FinFETs. Electrical measurements were carried out before and after bending, and all the bending measurements were taken in the actual flexed (bent) state to avoid relaxation and stress recovery. Global stress from substrate bending affects the devices in different ways compared with the well-studied uniaxial/biaxial localized strain. The global stress is dependent on the type of channel charge carriers, the orientation of the bending axis, and the physical gate length of the device. We, therefore, outline useful insights on the design strategies of flexible FinFETs in future free-form electronic applications.

Wearable electronics need miniaturized, safe, and flexible power sources. Lithium-ion battery is a strong candidate as high performance flexible battery. The development of flexible materials for battery electrodes suffers from the limited material choices. In this paper, we present integration strategy to rationally design materials and processes to report flexible inorganic lithium-ion microbattery with no restrictions on the materials used. The battery shows an enhanced normalized capacity of 147 μAh/cm2 when bent.

Nearly sixty years back when Jack Kilby built the first integrated circuit (IC), it was also the beginning of today's advanced and matured complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology whose arts and science of miniaturization has enabled Moore's Law to double up the number of devices in a given area in every two years. It has also been possible because CMOS technology has consistently adopted new materials and processes. High performance (data processing speed in computational devices), energy efficiency (for portable devices) and ultra-large-scale-integration (ULSI) density - all these features have been added to every major technology generation in additive manner. As we go forward and embrace Internet of Everything (IoE) where people, process, device and data are going to be seamlessly connected, we may want to ask ourselves a few fundamental questions about the future of CMOS electronics, enabling role of CMOS technology, potential benefits and application opportunities. Physically flexible electronics are increasingly getting attention as a critical and impactful expansion area for the general area of electronics. Many exciting demonstrations have been made to point out to its powerful prospect. Due to the paradox that traditional crystalline materials based electronics are useful in data management but they are naturally rigid and bulky, most of the researchers have resorted to two strategies: (i) non-silicon based fully flexible system with limited functionality and (ii) hybrid flexible electronic system with off-the-shelf ICs for data management. We do not consider this paradox is fundamental and a block-by-block approach using traditional CMOS technology can allow us to build fully flexible CMOS electronic systems [Fig. 1].

Objectifs Les patients originaires d’Afrique subsaharienne ont une incidence et une mortalite par cancer de prostate plus eleve que les hommes caucasiens. L’objectif de cette etude etait d’evaluer les resultats anatomopathologiques d’une cohorte afro-antillaise diagnostiquee d’un cancer de prostate sur biopsies de prostate, et de les comparer a une cohorte de France metropolitaine a majorite caucasienne. Methodes Une etude retrospective comparative bicentrique a ete realisee entre un centre Martiniquais et un centre Parisien entre 2008 et 2016. Les donnees cliniques, biologiques et pathologiques etaient recueillies au diagnostic. Les biopsies etaient realisees selon le schema standard de 12 prelevements systematises. Le critere de jugement principal etait la classification de la societe internationale de pathologie urologique (ISUP) pour le score de Gleason. Le critere de jugement secondaire etait le taux de detection du cancer de prostate par les biopsies. Toutes les biopsies ont ete relues par le meme anatomopathologiste. Une analyse multivariee a ete realisee par regression lineaire. Resultats Sur les 1880 patients ayant beneficie de biopsies de prostate dans la cohorte afro-caribeenne, 945 ont eu un diagnostic de cancer de la prostate (50,3 %), et 500 patients sur 945 dans la cohorte metropolitaine (33,8 %). Les patients afro-antillais etaient plus âges (moyenne : 68,5 ans vs 67,5 ans, p = 0,028), avaient un stade clinique plus eleve (13,2 % vs 5,2 % cT3-4, p Tableau 1 , Tableau 2 et Fig. 1 ). Conclusion Les patients afro-antillais ne presentaient pas de resultats anatomopathologiques plus defavorable au diagnostic que les patients metropolitains, apres analyse multivariee. Les patients afro-antillais atteints de cancer de prostate pourraient s’attendre au meme pronostic que les patients caucasiens, au meme stade de la maladie, dans des centres presentant des conditions equivalentes d’acces aux soins.

Solid-state memory is an essential component of the digital age. With advancements in healthcare technology and the Internet of Things (IoT), the demand for ultra-dense, ultra-low-power memory is increasing. In this review, we present a comprehensive perspective on the most notable approaches to the fabrication of physically flexible memory devices. With the future goal of replacing traditional mechanical hard disks with solid-state storage devices, a fully flexible electronic system will need two basic devices: transistors and nonvolatile memory. Transistors are used for logic operations and gating memory arrays, while nonvolatile memory (NVM) devices are required for storing information in the main memory and cache storage. Since the highest density of transistors and storage structures is manifested in memories, the focus of this review is flexible NVM. Flexible NVM components are discussed in terms of their functionality, performance metrics, and reliability aspects, all of which are critical components for NVM technology to be part of mainstream consumer electronics, IoT, and advanced healthcare devices. Finally, flexible NVMs are benchmarked and future prospects are provided., Electronics Journal, http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/4/3/424

We report on the electrical study of high dielectric constant insulator and metal gate metal oxide semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) on a flexible ultra-thin $(25~\mu{\rm m})$ silicon fabric which is peeled off using a CMOS compatible process from a standard bulk mono-crystalline silicon substrate. A lifetime projection is extracted using statistical analysis of the ramping voltage $({\rm V}_{\rm ramp})$ breakdown and time dependent dielectric breakdown data. The obtained flexible MOSCAPs operational voltages satisfying the 10 years lifetime benchmark are compared to those of the control MOSCAPs, which are not peeled off from the silicon wafer.

We show the effectiveness of wavy channel architecture for thin film transistor application for increased output current. This specific architecture allows increased width of the device by adopting a corrugated shape of the substrate without any further real estate penalty. The performance improvement is attributed not only to the increased transistor width, but also to enhanced applied electric field in the channel due to the wavy architecture.

Los tumores de las vias excretoras superiores (TVES) son tumores raros que representan del 5 al 10% de los carcinomas uroteliales. La incidencia anual estimada en los paises occidentales se situa alrededor de dos nuevos casos al ano por 100.000 habitantes. La historia natural y las etiologias de los TVES difieren levemente de las del cancer de vejiga. Por ejemplo, el 60% de los TVES son infiltrantes, frente al 15% de la vejiga. Los TVES pueden aparecer tras una intoxicacion cronica por fenacetina, acido aristoloquico (originando nefropatia por hierbas chinas o por la harina de trigo en los Balcanes) o en el marco de sindromes hereditarios como el sindrome de Lynch (cancer colorrectal hereditario no poliposico [HNPCC]). Los factores sugestivos de un posible tumor, incluidos en el sindrome de Lynch, son la edad inferior a 60 anos, antecedentes familiares de cancer y un antecedente personal de otro cancer ligado a un HNPCC (colorrectal, endometrio). Los TVES pueden clasificarse en funcion de su localizacion: cavidades pielocaliciales y ureter. Ademas del grado y estadio, la localizacion parece desempenar un papel en el pronostico lo que permite adaptar el tratamiento. La nefroureterectomia total continua siendo el tratamiento de eleccion en las lesiones localizadas, pero los tratamientos conservadores endoscopicos o por reseccion segmentaria pueden ser en ocasiones considerados en determinadas indicaciones bien definidas. Recientes investigaciones permiten que progrese el conocimiento de los TVES, y tanto los datos de investigacion fundamental, clinica, como las nuevas opciones de tratamiento permiten ampliar el arsenal terapeutico.

Objectives: the aim of the current study was to assess the effect of a β2-adrenoceptor agonist; namely salbutamol, on hyperalgesic as well as nerve dysfunction components of diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Material and methods: the present study was conducted on 60 male Wistar albino rats divided into six groups. Groups I and II were normal control rats injected by a single i.p. injection of normal saline and received 2% gum acacia (Group I) or salbutamol (Group II) for six weeks, starting one week following saline injection. Groups III–VI: rats that were rendered diabetic by a single i.p. injection of STZ and received either 2% gum acacia, salbutamol, salbutamol and propranolol or salbutamol and atenolol, respectively daily orally for six weeks, starting one week following STZ injection. Results: vehicle-treated diabetic rats exhibited: significant sciatic nerve dysfunction in the form of significantly prolonged distal latency and significantly decreased maximum peak and peak to peak amplitude of compound muscular action potential, significant thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia evidenced by significant decrease in hot plate latency, tail-flick latency and vocalization threshold, respectively. Salbutamol administration improved nerve dysfunction as well as thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia. These effects of salbutamol are most likely mediated by β2-adrenoceptors evidenced by significant abolishment of salbutamol effects after administration of the non-selective rather than the selective beta blockers; propranolol and atenolol, respectively. Conclusions: chronic administration of salbutamol could ameliorate DPN, an effect which is most likely mediated by β2-adrenoceptors.

The advantages associated with neuromorphic computation are rich areas of complex research. We address the fabrication challenge of building neuromorphic devices on structurally foldable platform with high integration density. We present a CMOS compatible fabrication process to demonstrate for the first time memristive devices fabricated on bulk monocrystalline silicon (100) which is next transformed into a flexible thin sheet of silicon fabric with all the pre-fabricated devices. This process preserves the ultra-high integration density advantage unachievable on other flexible substrates. In addition, the memristive devices are of the size of a motor neuron and the flexible/folded architectural form factor is critical to match brain cortex's folded pattern for ultra-compact design.

With the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), flexible high-performance nanoscale electronics are more desired. At the moment, FinFET is the most advanced transistor architecture used in the state-of-the-art microprocessors. Therefore, we show a soft-etch based substrate thinning process to transform silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based nanoscale FinFET into flexible FinFET and then conduct comprehensive electrical characterization under various bending conditions to understand its electrical performance. Our study shows that back-etch based substrate thinning process is gentler than traditional abrasive back-grinding process; it can attain ultraflexibility and the electrical characteristics of the flexible nanoscale FinFET show no performance degradation compared to its rigid bulk counterpart indicating its readiness to be used for flexible high-performance electronics.

Increased output current while maintaining low power consumption in thin-film transistors (TFTs) is essential for future generation large-area high-resolution displays. Here, we show wavy channel (WC) architecture in TFT that allows the expansion of the transistor width in the direction perpendicular to the substrate through integrating continuous fin features on the underlying substrate. This architecture enables expanding the TFT width without consuming any additional chip area, thus enabling increased performance while maintaining the real estate integrity. The experimental WCTFTs show a linear increase in output current as a function of number of fins per device resulting in 3.5× increase in output current when compared with planar counterparts that consume the same chip area. The new architecture also allows tuning the threshold voltage as a function of the number of fin features included in the device, as threshold voltage linearly decreased from 6.8 V for planar device to 2.6 V for WC devices with 32 fins. This makes the new architecture more power efficient as lower operation voltages could be used for WC devices compared with planar counterparts. It was also found that field effect mobility linearly increases with the number of fins included in the device, showing almost 1.8× enhancements in the field effect mobility than that of the planar counterparts. This can be attributed to higher electric field in the channel due to the fin architecture and threshold voltage shift.

In today's traditional electronics such as in computers or in mobile phones, billions of high-performance, ultra-low-power devices are neatly integrated in extremely compact areas on rigid and brittle but low-cost bulk monocrystalline silicon (100) wafers. Ninety percent of global electronics are made up of silicon. Therefore, we have developed a generic low-cost regenerative batch fabrication process to transform such wafers full of devices into thin (5 μm), mechanically flexible, optically semitransparent silicon fabric with devices, then recycling the remaining wafer to generate multiple silicon fabric with chips and devices, ensuring low-cost and optimal utilization of the whole substrate. We show monocrystalline, amorphous, and polycrystalline silicon and silicon dioxide fabric, all from low-cost bulk silicon (100) wafers with the semiconductor industry's most advanced high-κ/metal gate stack based high-performance, ultra-low-power capacitors, field effect transistors, energy harvesters, and storage to emphasize the effectiveness and versatility of this process to transform traditional electronics into flexible and semitransparent ones for multipurpose applications.

We demonstrate a new thin film transistor (TFT) architecture that allows expansion of the device width using continuous fin features – termed as wavy channel (WC) architecture. This architecture allows expansion of transistor width in a direction perpendicular to the substrate, thus not consuming extra chip area, achieving area efficiency. The devices have shown for a 13% increase in the device width resulting in a maximum 2.5× increase in ‘ON’ current value of the WCTFT, when compared to planar devices consuming the same chip area, while using atomic layer deposition based zinc oxide (ZnO) as the channel material. The WCTFT devices also maintain similar ‘OFF’ current value, ∼100 pA, when compared to planar devices, thus not compromising on power consumption for performance which usually happens with larger width devices. This work offers an interesting opportunity to use WCTFTs as backplane circuitry for large-area high-resolution display applications. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

We report the inherent increase in capacitance per unit planar area of state-of-the art high-κ integrated metal/insulator/metal capacitors (MIMCAPs) fabricated on flexible silicon fabric with release-first process. We methodically study and show that our approach to transform bulk silicon (100) into a flexible fabric adds an inherent advantage of enabling higher integration density dynamic random access memory (DRAM) on the same chip area. Our approach is to release an ultra-thin silicon (100) fabric (25 µm thick) from the bulk silicon wafer, then build MIMCAPs using sputtered aluminium electrodes and successive atomic layer depositions (ALD) without break-ing the vacuum of a high-κ aluminium oxide sandwiched between two tantalum nitride layers. This result shows that we can obtain flexible electronics on silicon without sacrificing the high density integration aspects and also utilize the non-planar geometry associated with fabrication process to obtain a higher integration density compared to bulk silicon integration due to an increased normalized capacitance per unit planar area. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Implementation of memory on bendable substrates is an important step toward a complete and fully developed notion of mechanically flexible computational systems. In this paper, we have demonstrated a simple fabrication flow to build metal-insulator-metal capacitors, key components of dynamic random access memory, on a mechanically flexible silicon (100) fabric. We rely on standard microfabrication processes to release a thin sheet of bendable silicon (area: 18 cm2 and thickness: 25 μm) in an inexpensive and reliable way. On such platform, we fabricated and characterized the devices showing mechanical robustness (minimum bending radius of 10 mm at an applied strain of 83.33% and nominal strain of 0.125%) and consistent electrical behavior regardless of the applied mechanical stress. Furthermore, and for the first time, we performed a reliability study suggesting no significant difference in performance and showing an improvement in lifetime projections.

Several lines of evidence point to the association of vitamin D deficiency with the different components of metabolic syndrome. Yet, the effect of vitamin D supplementation on metabolic syndrome is not clearly elucidated. Herein, we tested the hypothesis that administration of vitamin D, either alone or in combination of metformin can improve metabolic and structural derangements associated with metabolic syndrome. Fifty wistar rats were randomly assigned to serve either as normal control (10 rats) or metabolic syndrome rats, by feeding them with a standard or a high fat diet (HFD), respectively. Metabolic syndrome rats were further assigned to receive either vehicle, Metformin (100mg/Kg orally), vitamin D (6ng/Kg SC.) or both, daily for 8 weeks. Body weight, blood pressure, serum glucose, insulin, insulin resistance, lipid profile, oxidative stress, serum uric acid and Ca+2 were assessed at the end of the study. Histopathological examination of hepatic, renal and cardiac tissues were also performed. Treatment with vitamin D was associated with a significant improvement of the key features of metabolic syndrome namely obesity, hypertension and dyslipidaemia with a neutral effect on Ca+2 level. When combined with metformin, most of the other metabolic abnormalities were ameliorated. Furthermore, a significant attenuation of the associated hepatic steatosis was observed with vitamin D as well as vitamin D/metformin combination. In conclusion, vitamin D can improve hypertension, metabolic and structural abnormalities induced by HFD, and it provides additional benefits when combined with metformin. Therefore, vitamin D could represent a feasible therapeutic option for prevention of metabolic syndrome.

We report short circuit current (Jsc) enhancement in crystalline silicon (C-Si) photovoltaic (PV) using low-cost Ohmic contact engineering by integration of Nickel mono-silicide (NiSi) for back contact metallization as an alternative to the status quo of using expensive screen printed silver (Ag). We show 2.6 mA/cm2 enhancement in the short circuit current (J sc ) and 1.2 % increment in the efficiency by improving the current collection due to the low specific contact resistance of the NiSi on the heavily Boron (B) doped Silicon (Si) interface.

The acceleration of ultra high energy cosmic rays is conjectured to occur through various interactions with the electromagnetic fields in different astrophysical objects, like magnetic matter clumps, besides the well-known shock and stochastic Fermi mechanisms. It is apparent that the latter are not depending on the particle's charge, quantitatively. Based on this model, a considerable portion of the dynamics, that derives a charged particle parallel to a magnetic field $\mathbf{B}$ and under the influence of a force $\mathbf{F}$, is assumed to be composed of an acceleration by a non-magnetic force $\mathbf{F}_{\parallel}$ and a gyromotion along $\mathbf{B}$ direction, plus drifts in the direction of $\mathbf{F}_{\perp}$. The model and its formalism are introduced. Various examples for drift motions and accelerating forces are suggested. The formalism is given in a non-relativistic version. Obviously, the translation into the relativistic version is standard. In a forthcoming work, a quantitative estimation of the energy gained by charged cosmic rays in various astrophysical objects will be evaluated., 9 pages, 2 EPS figures

Objectifs La maladie de Lapeyronie touche jusqu’a 9 % de la population masculine. Elle se manifeste par des douleurs et une deformation de la verge en erection. Les traitements medicamenteux apportent un faible benefice et les traitements chirurgicaux presentent des effets secondaires non negligeables. Depuis 1996, la lithotritie extracorporelle (lec) est utilisee comme alternative therapeutique non invasive et justifie d’evaluer ses resultats avec les nouveaux lithotripteurs de contact. Methodes De janvier 2017 a avril 2018, nous avons teste prospectivement 2 lithotripteurs de contact successivement : urogold [44 patients : groupe 1 (g1)] puis dornier [34 patients : groupe 2 (g2)] selon 2 schemas therapeutiques distincts. Les criteres d’exclusions etaient : une taille de plaque > 4 cm, un retrecissement circonferentiel ou un antecedent de lec. L’âge median etait respectivement de 58 et 64 ans dans g1 et g2. Selon les recommandations du fabriquant, g1 recevait une seance unique de 3000 impacts et g2 recevait 4 seances de 4000 impacts. Nous avons analyse l’impact du traitement sur la douleur (evaluee par l’echelle visuelle analogique) et l’angulation de la verge en erection. Resultats Dans g1 : 25/44 patients (57 %) presentaient une douleur avant la lec et dans g2 : 14/34 (41 %). Une disparition complete a ete observee chez 18 patients (72 %) du g1 et 12 (86 %) du g2. Une diminution de la douleur a ete constatee pour 5 patients (20 %) de g1 et 1 (7 %) de g2. Une deformation significative prelec existait chez 36 patients de g1 (82 %) et 28 de g2 (82 %). Les proportions de patients avec une angulation de 10 a 40°, 40 a 70° et > 70° etaient de 48 %, 25 % et 9 % pour g1 et 29 %, 35 % et 17 % pour g2. Dans g1 et g2 respectivement : 12 (33 %) et 13 patients (46 %) presentaient une correction de 20° ; 8 (22 %) et 8 (29 %) presentaient une correction de 20 a 40°. Conclusion La lec est un traitement alternatif, non invasif, de la maladie de Lapeyronie, dont le benefice reste discute. Dans cette etude, qui n’avait pas pour but de comparer deux lithotripteurs, > 2/3 des patients presentaient une disparition complete de la douleur et > 50 % presentaient une amelioration d’angulation. Il reste a standardiser le schema therapeutique et realiser une etude comparant les lithotripteurs.

Free form (physically flexible and stretchable) electronics can be used for applications which are unexplored today due to the rigid and brittle nature of the state-of-the-art electronics. Therefore, we show integration strategy to rationally design materials, processes and devices to transform advanced complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics into flexible and stretchable one while retaining their high performance, energy efficiency, ultra-large-scale-integration (ULSI) density, reliability and performance over cost benefit to expand its applications for wearable, implantable and Internet-of-Everything electronics.

Future wearable electronics require not only flexibility but also preservation of the perks associated with today's high-performance, traditional silicon electronics. In this work we demonstrate a state-of-the-art fin-shaped field-effect transistor (FinFET)-based, out-of-plane strain sensor on flexible silicon through transforming the bulk device in a transfer-less process. The device preserves the functionality and high performance associated with its bulk, inflexible state. Furthermore, gate leakage current shows sufficient dependence on the value of the applied out-of-plane strain that enables permits use of the flexible device as a switching device as well as a strain sensor.

Commercialization of wearable electronics requires miniaturized, flexible power sources. Lithium ion battery is a strong candidate as the next generation high performance flexible battery. The development of flexible materials for battery electrodes suffers from the limited material choices. In this work, we present a flexible inorganic lithium-ion battery with no restrictions on the materials used. The battery showed an enhanced normalized capacity of 146 µAh/cm2.

We report out-of-plane strain effect on silicon based flexible FinFET, with sub 20 nm wide fins and hafnium silicate based high-κ gate dielectric. Since ultra-thin inorganic solid state substrates become flexible with reduced thickness, flexing induced strain does not enhance performance. However, detrimental effects arise as the devices are subject to various out-of-plane stresses (compressive and tensile) along the channel length.

The ability to incorporate rigid but high-performance nanoscale nonplanar complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics with curvilinear, irregular, or asymmetric shapes and surfaces is an arduous but timely challenge in enabling the production of wearable electronics with an in situ information-processing ability in the digital world. Therefore, we are demonstrating a soft-material enabled double-transfer-based process to integrate flexible, silicon-based, nanoscale, nonplanar, fin-shaped field effect transistors (FinFETs) and planar metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) on various asymmetric surfaces to study their compatibility and enhanced applicability in various emerging fields. FinFET devices feature sub-20 nm dimensions and state-of-the-art, high-κ/metal gate stacks, showing no performance alteration after the transfer process. A further analysis of the transferred MOSFET devices, featuring 1 μm gate length, exhibits an ION value of nearly 70 μA/μm (VDS = 2 V, VGS = 2 V) and a low subthreshold swing of around 90 mV/dec, proving that a soft interfacial material can act both as a strong adhesion/interposing layer between devices and final substrate as well as a means to reduce strain, which ultimately helps maintain the device's performance with insignificant deterioration even at a high bending state.

M.M.H conceptualized and directed the study. D.S. carried out the experiment. A.T.K. assisted in visualization. A.M.H. worked on the mechanics. M.T.G. carried out the FEA modeling. The authors thank John Belk, Technical Fellow, Boeing Research and Development for the useful discussion to materialize this research work. This publication was based upon work supported by Boeing Company under Award No. 2014-091-1. D.S. is also thankful to Dr. Venkatesh Singaravelu who supported to carry out the PPMS data with Quantum Design instrument at Advanced Nanofabrication & Imaging Core Facility Lab, KAUST.

Electronic system components have thousands of individual field effect transistors (FETs) interconnected executing dedicated functions. Assembly yield of >80% will guarantee system failure since a single interconnect failure will result in undesired performance. Hence, a paradigm shift is needed in the self-assembly or integration of state-of-the-art integrated circuits (ICs) for a physically compliant system. Traditionally, most ICs share same geometry with only variations in dimensions and packaging. Here, a generic manufacturable method of converting state-of-the-art complementary metal oxide semiconductor-based ICs into modular Lego-electronics is shown with unique geometry that is physically identifiable to ease manufacturing and enhance throughput. Various geometries at the backside of the silicon die and on the destination site having the same geometry with relaxed dimension (up to 50 µm extra) allow targeted site binding like DNA assembly. Different geometries, angles, and heights for different modules provide a unique identity to each of the ICs. A two-level geometric combination presented here helps in maintaining the uniqueness of individual module to assemble at exact matching site like a perfect lock-and-key model. The assembled ICs offer uncompromised electrical performance, higher yield, and fabrication ease. In future, this method can further be expanded for fluidic assisted self-assembly.