We report the fabrication of a photoresponsive organic field-effect transistor (OFET) based on a stable, n-type organic semiconductor (F 16 CuPc) and low-temperature processable polymer gate dielectric. The device exhibited a photoswitching speed of much less than 10 ms and a photosensitivity of 1.5 mA/W at low optical power. Under illumination, the device produced a current gain (I light /I dark ) of 22 at V G ) 4 V. The drain current increased gradually with an increase in the illumination intensity, resulting in typical output FET characteristics. The multifunctions (photodetection, photoswitching, signal amplification) achieved by the single device can ensure very promising material for future optoelectronic applications.

Highly stable, reproducible, photosensitive organic field-effect transistors based on an n-type organic material, copper hexadecafluorophthalocyanine, and two different polymeric gate dielectrics has been reported and their performances have been compared by evaluating the surface/interface properties. The devices produced a maximum photocurrent gain (I(light)/I(dark)) of 79 at V(G) = 7 V and showed the potentiality as multifunctional optoelectronic switching applications depending upon the external pulses. The switching time of the transistor upon irradiation of light pulse, i.e., the photoswitching time of the device, was measured to be approximately 10 ms. On the basis of optical or combination of optical and electrical pulses, the electronic/optoelectronic properties of the device can be tuned efficiently. The multifunctions achieved by the single device can ensure very promising material for high density RAM and other optoelectronic applications. Furthermore, as the device geometry in the present work is not limited to rigid substrate only, it will lead to the development of flexible organic optoelectronic switch compatible with plastic substrates.

In this paper, we propose a generative model which learns the relationship between language and human action in order to generate a human action sequence given a sentence describing human behavior. The proposed generative model is a generative adversarial network (GAN), which is based on the sequence to sequence (SEQ2SEQ) model. Using the proposed generative network, we can synthesize various actions for a robot or a virtual agent using a text encoder recurrent neural network (RNN) and an action decoder RNN. The proposed generative network is trained from 29,770 pairs of actions and sentence annotations extracted from MSR-Video-to-Text (MSR-VTT), a large-scale video dataset. We demonstrate that the network can generate human-like actions which can be transferred to a Baxter robot, such that the robot performs an action based on a provided sentence. Results show that the proposed generative network correctly models the relationship between language and action and can generate a diverse set of actions from the same sentence.

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We investigated the long-term performance of pentacene organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) passivated with a 200nm thick tetratetracontane (n-C44H90). The mobility of the passivated OTFTs in 50days was 0.143cm2∕Vs, which was almost the same as that (0.12cm2∕Vs) of OTFTs before passivation process. The performance of unpassivated OTFTs exponentially degraded and almost failed in 5days of exposure to an ambient condition. From the time dependence study for the performance of OTFTs, we found that the performance degradation mechanism of the two OTFTs is different and moisture is a more dominant factor for the performance degradation of the OTFTs.

Touch-screen technologies, which are at the forefront of a design revolution in user interfaces, are coming into the spotlight. Lately, capacitive-type touchscreens have been widely adopted in high-end mobile applications mainly because they offer multi-and soft-touch features together with higher durability and superior light transmittance over resistive-type touch-screens. Meanwhile, manufacturing costs have slowed down the adoption of this technology in lowend applications. Many display-module makers are trying to reduce system cost by merging the touch-screen panel (TSP) with the display panel [1]. At the same time, there is a desire for small-form-factor modules, which is driving an effort to reduce the number of components [2]. Hence in this paper we integrate 2 separate functions: a touch screen controller (TSC) and display driver IC (DDI), into a single chip. Figure 6.1.1 shows a comparison between a conventional touch-display system and an integrated one. The latter provides several advantages over the conventional one [3], which is composed of 3 parts: a layer of window glass, an overlay touch panel, and a display panel. Two or more ICs -TSC and DDI -are mounted on the flexible PCB and the bottom glass of the display panel. However, our integrated touch-display module is composed of only 2 parts: a layer of window glass and an integrated panel called an on-cell touch screen on which a touch grid is directly patterned by transparent electrodes such as indium tin oxide (ITO). The integrated system lowers the material and module-assembly costs while it reduces the manufacturing turn-around time and enables slimmer module design with better display quality.Although the integrated touch-display system has these advantages, there are a few technical hurdles to overcome. Figure 6.1.2 shows the pattern of sensing lines illustrated with various nearby capacitances, and vertical cross-sections of touch-display modules for the conventional module and the integrated one. The touch-sensing circuit measures the capacitances of the sensing line that are composed of the overlapped capacitance between the sensing line and the finger, known as a signal component, and horizontal-and vertical-parasitic capacitances, which are base components. In an on-cell TSP, the vertical parasitic capacitance between the sensing line and the display common electrode, which is a cathode in this case, is much larger than that of a conventional overlay-type since a gap between the 2 electrodes is smaller. This larger base component results in a reduced dynamic range allocated to the signal component. A reduced signal dynamic range means a reduced sensitivity in the sensor. Moreover, a larger parasitic capacitance between the sensing line and the cathode incurs more capacitive coupling of display noise to the sensing circuit. Another technical challenge is on integrating two chips into one. Large switching signals in the DDI block may interfere with the sensitive sensing circuit in the TSC block.To overcome the technical challenge due to la...

Background Patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) often develop scoliosis that progresses rapidly after loss of ambulation. Management of scoliosis is crucial because it affects both life expectancy and quality of life of patients with DMD. Spinal orthosis attempts to prevent or delay scoliosis using spinal support at three points of the controlling mechanism; the curve should be flattened by the pressure. Therefore, it is assumed that spine flexibility could be a significant influencing factor for the effectiveness of braces. Hence, we attempted to investigate the flexibility of scoliosis in non-ambulant patients with DMD. Methods We reviewed the medical records of 273 boys who were genetically identified as having DMD, and finally, 50 boys with serial records of radiographs after loss of ambulation were finally enrolled. And among them, only 31 patients developed scoliosis. Spine radiographs in sitting and supine positions were also reviewed to obtain Cobb angle, curve flexibility, and pelvic obliquity. Flexibilities (%) were calculated by the difference in angles between the sitting and supine positions divided by the angle at the sitting position, multiplied by 100. Results Among 31 boys who had scoliosis, all but 2 boys with curves went through a sequential course of 1) no scoliosis, 2) nonstructural scoliosis, when scoliosis was only measurable in the sitting position, and 3) structural scoliosis, when scoliosis was also detectable in the supine position. Flexibility decreased each year after detection of scoliosis in those who developed scoliosis the first year, from 75.5 ± 5.0% to 57.1 ± 10.5% and to 49.1 ± 10.0% (mean ± standard deviation). Spinal flexibility was significantly correlated with curve magnitude of scoliosis in both sitting and supine position ( p < 0.05, respectively). Conclusions There is a period of fully reducible curve in DMD patients at the initial stage of scoliosis. Afterward, as spinal curve progresses, flexibility decreases over time. To detect the scoliosis when the curve is fully reducible, scoliosis curve in DMD patients should be evaluated dynamically, including radiographs of at least in two different positions.

Although some intravenous drugs have been used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), no effective antiviral agents are currently available in the outpatient setting. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and adverse events of 14-day ciclesonide treatment vs. standard care for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. A randomized, open-label, multicenter clinical trial of ciclesonide inhalers was conducted in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Patients were enrolled within 3 days of diagnosis or within 7 days from symptom onset and randomly assigned to receive either ciclesonide (320 µg inhalation twice per day for 14 days) or standard care. The primary endpoint was the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) eradication rate on day 14 from study enrollment. Clinical status was assessed once daily, and serial nasopharyngeal viral load was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. There were 35 and 26 patients in the ciclesonide and standard care groups, respectively. The SARS-CoV-2 eradication rate at day 14 was significantly higher in the ciclesonide group (p = 0.021). In multivariate analysis, SARS-CoV-2 negative conversion within 14 days was 12 times more likely in the ciclesonide group (95% confidence interval, 1.187–125.240). Additionally, the clinical failure rate (high-flow nasal oxygen therapy or mechanical ventilation) was significantly lower in the ciclesonide group (p = 0.034). In conclusion, ciclesonide inhalation shortened SARS-CoV-2 viral shedding duration, and it may inhibit the progression to acute respiratory failure in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Clinical Trial Registration NCT04330586.