Abnormal Silicon Etching Behaviors in Nanometer-Sized Channels.

Modern semiconductor fabrication is challenged by difficulties in overcoming physical and chemical constraints. A major challenge is the wet etching of dummy gate silicon, which involves the removal of materials inside confined spaces of a few nanometers. These chemical processes are significantly different in the nanoscale and bulk. Previously, electrical double-layer formation, bubble entrapment, poor wettability, and insoluble intermediate precipitation have been proposed. However, the exact suppression mechanisms remain unclear due to the lack of direct observation methods. Herein, we investigate limiting factors for the etching kinetics of silicon with tetramethylammonium hydroxide at the nanoscale by using liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy, three-dimensional electron tomography, and first-principles calculations. We reveal suppressed chemical reactions, unstripping phenomena, and stochastic etching behaviors that have never been observed on a macroscopic scale. We expect that solutions can be suggested from this comprehensive insight into the scale-dependent limiting factors of fabrication.

Outcomes of surgery for coarctation of the aorta based on a new classification system.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate early- and long-term outcomes of the surgical treatment for coarctation of the aorta based on a new classification system. METHODS: A retrospective clinical review of 111 patients with coarctation of the aorta who underwent surgery (March 2011 to August 2020) was performed. We categorised coarctation of the aorta into type I, with all three head vessels tightly packed; type II, with the left subclavian artery separated from the two other head vessels; and type III, with all three head vessels separated from one another. Each type included subtype a, with a short isthmic portion, and subtype b, with a long isthmic portion. RESULTS: The median patient age and weight at operation were 8 (range, 1-1490) days and 3.2 (range, 1.9-18.5) kg, respectively. Extended end-to-end anastomosis was performed via sternotomy in 54, via thoracotomy in 12, end-to-side anastomosis in 31, autologous main pulmonary artery patch augmentation in 12, and modified end-to-end anastomosis combined with subclavian artery flap aortoplasty in two patients. There was one (0.9%) case of early mortality and 12 (10.8%) cases of post-operative complications. Two (1.8%) late deaths occurred during follow-up. Five (4.5%) patients underwent balloon dilatation and three (2.7%) underwent reoperation for restenosis of coarctation of the aorta. All patients with type Ia (21 patients, 18.9%) underwent extended end-to-end anastomosis via sternotomy or thoracotomy. CONCLUSIONS: According to the early and late outcomes observed in this study, surgical treatment of coarctation of the aorta using the new classification system could be safe and low risk.

Local Scheduling in KubeEdge-Based Edge Computing Environment.

KubeEdge is an open-source platform that orchestrates containerized Internet of Things (IoT) application services in IoT edge computing environments. Based on Kubernetes, it supports heterogeneous IoT device protocols on edge nodes and provides various functions necessary to build edge computing infrastructure, such as network management between cloud and edge nodes. However, the resulting cloud-based systems are subject to several limitations. In this study, we evaluated the performance of KubeEdge in terms of the computational resource distribution and delay between edge nodes. We found that forwarding traffic between edge nodes degrades the throughput of clusters and causes service delay in edge computing environments. Based on these results, we proposed a local scheduling scheme that handles user traffic locally at each edge node. The performance evaluation results revealed that local scheduling outperforms the existing load-balancing algorithm in the edge computing environment.

Edge/Fog Computing Technologies for IoT Infrastructure II.

The prevalence of smart devices and cloud computing has led to an explosion in the amount of data generated by IoT devices [...].

Coronary artery spasm due to acute myocarditis in an adolescent: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Myocarditis refers to the inflammation of the myocardium caused by infection or autoimmune disease that may or may not present with clinical manifestations, such as gastrointestinal symptoms, dyspnea, chest pain, or sudden death. Although myocarditis and coronary artery vasospasm may mimic ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) with normal coronary arteries on angiography, acute myocarditis rarely causes coronary artery spasm. Here, we report a case of coronary artery spasm with reversible electrocardiographic changes mimicking STEMI in an adolescent with acute myocarditis. CASE PRESENTATION: A 15-year-old boy present with sudden-onset repeated chest pain following a 3-day history of flu-like illness. Cardiac biomarkers were significantly elevated. Electrocardiography showed ST-segment elevation in the absence of detectable vasospasm on coronary angiography. These findings were consistent with the diagnosis of coronary artery spasm secondary to acute myocarditis. Treatment with immunoglobulin for 2 days improved his condition. The patient was discharged on the 12th day with complete resolution of symptoms and normalization of electrocardiogram findings. CONCLUSIONS: We reported a case of coronary artery spasm due to acute myocarditis. This study highlights the importance of considering coronary artery spasm due to acute myocarditis as a differential diagnosis in patients presenting with signs of STEMI as these diseases have different medical management strategies.

Load-Balancing of Kubernetes-Based Edge Computing Infrastructure Using Resource Adaptive Proxy.

Kubernetes (K8s) is expected to be a key container orchestration tool for edge computing infrastructures owing to its various features for supporting container deployment and dynamic resource management. For example, its horizontal pod autoscaling feature provides service availability and scalability by increasing the number of replicas. kube-proxy provides traffic load-balancing between replicas by distributing client requests equally to all pods (replicas) of an application in a K8s cluster. However, this approach can result in long delays when requests are forwarded to remote workers, especially in edge computing environments where worker nodes are geographically dispersed. Moreover, if the receiving worker is overloaded, the request-processing delay can increase significantly. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes an enhanced load balancer called resource adaptive proxy (RAP). RAP periodically monitors the resource status of each pod and the network status among worker nodes to aid in load-balancing decisions. Furthermore, it preferentially handles requests locally to the maximum extent possible. If the local worker node is overloaded, RAP forwards its requests to the best node in the cluster while considering resource availability. Our experimental results demonstrated that RAP could significantly improve throughput and reduce request latency compared with the default load-balancing mechanism of K8s.

Sensory Interaction and Balancing Ability Evaluation of the Elderly Using a Simplified Force Plate System.

The Wii balance board (WBB) is a simplified force plate system used to evaluate the balancing ability of the elderly via a sensory interaction task to confirm a significant standing balance index. The accuracy of this system has been verified in previous studies. In this study, an instrumented and modified clinical test of sensory interaction on balance (i-mCTSIB) was performed on 84 elderly subjects, and the variables for center of pressure (CoP) were calculated using WBB for each task condition. The results indicate that the visual condition has a significant effect on the sway proprioceptive sensory variables with a foam condition as their complexity increases. In addition, the correlation between the variable and Berg Balance Scale was not confirmed since CTSIB is a sensory interaction on balance ability. Therefore, WBB can be used to evaluate balancing ability based on sensory interactions consisting of the surface condition.

Balanced Leader Distribution Algorithm in Kubernetes Clusters.

Container-based virtualization is becoming a de facto way to build and deploy applications because of its simplicity and convenience. Kubernetes is a well-known open-source project that provides an orchestration platform for containerized applications. An application in Kubernetes can contain multiple replicas to achieve high scalability and availability. Stateless applications have no requirement for persistent storage; however, stateful applications require persistent storage for each replica. Therefore, stateful applications usually require a strong consistency of data among replicas. To achieve this, the application often relies on a leader, which is responsible for maintaining consistency and coordinating tasks among replicas. This leads to a problem that the leader often has heavy loads due to its inherent design. In a Kubernetes cluster, having the leaders of multiple applications concentrated in a specific node may become a bottleneck within the system. In this paper, we propose a leader election algorithm that overcomes the bottleneck problem by evenly distributing the leaders throughout nodes in the cluster. We also conduct experiments to prove the correctness and effectiveness of our leader election algorithm compared with a default algorithm in Kubernetes.

Edge/Fog Computing Technologies for IoT Infrastructure.

The prevalence of smart devices and cloud computing has led to an explosion in the amount of data generated by IoT devices [...].

Fast and Robust Time Synchronization with Median Kalman Filtering for Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks.

Time synchronization is an important issue in ad-hoc networks for reliable information exchange. The algorithms for time synchronization in ad-hoc networks are largely categorized into two types. One is based on a selection of a reference node, and the other is based on a consensus among neighbor nodes. These two types of methods are targeting static environments. However, synchronization errors among nodes increase sharply when nodes move or when incorrect synchronization information is exchanged due to the failure of some nodes. In this paper, we propose a synchronization technique for mobile ad-hoc networks, which considers both the mobility of nodes and the abnormal behaviors of malicious or failed nodes. Specifically, synchronization information extracted from a median of the time information of the neighbor nodes is quickly disseminated. This information effectively excludes the outliers, which adversely affect the synchronization of the networks. In addition, Kalman filtering is applied to reduce the synchronization error occurring in the transmission and reception of time information. The simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme has a fast synchronization convergence speed and low synchronization error compared to conventional algorithms.

Acupuncture inhibits neuroinflammation and gut microbial dysbiosis in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

Growing evidences show that gut microbiota is associated with the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) and the gut-brain axis can be promising target for the development of the therapeutic strategies for PD. Acupuncture has been used to improve brain functions and inflammation in neurological disorders such as PD, and to recover the gastrointestinal dysfunctions in various gastrointestinal disorders. Thus, we investigated whether acupuncture could improve Parkinsonism and gut microbial dysbiosis induced by 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. First, we observed that acupuncture treatment at acupoints GB34 and ST36 could improve motor functions and comorbid anxiety in PD mice. Next, we found that acupuncture increased the levels of dopaminergic fibers and neurons in the striatum and the substantia nigra, respectively. Acupuncture also restored the overexpression of microglia and astrocyte as well as conversion of Bax and Bcl-2 expression in both the striatum and the substantia nigra, indicating that inflammatory responses and apoptosis were blocked by acupuncture. Additionally, via 16S rRNA sequence analysis, we observed that the relative abundance of 18 genera were changed in acupuncture-treated mice compared to the PD mice. Of them, Butyricimonas, Holdemania, Frisingicoccus, Gracilibacter, Phocea, and Aestuariispira showed significant correlations with anxiety as well as motor functions. Furthermore, the predicted functional analyses showed that acupuncture restored the physiology functions such as glutathione metabolism, methane metabolism, and PD pathway. In conclusion, we suggest that the effects of acupuncture on the enhanced motor function and the protection of the dopaminergic neurons may be associated with the regulation of the gut microbial dysbiosis and thus the inhibition of the neuroinflammation in the PD mice.

Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks: Protocols and Applications.

Wireless sensor networks are penetrating our daily lives, and they are starting to be deployed even in an industrial environment. The research on such industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) considers more stringent requirements of robustness, reliability, and timeliness in each network layer. This Special Issue presents the recent research result on industrial wireless sensor networks. Each paper in the special issue has unique contributions in the advancements of industrial wireless sensor network research and we expect each paper to promote the relevant research and the deployment of IWSNs.

Breaking Down the Compatibility Problem in Smart Homes: A Dynamically Updatable Gateway Platform.

Smart home is one of the most promising applications of the Internet of Things. Although there have been studies about this technology in recent years, the adoption rate of smart homes is still low. One of the largest barriers is technological fragmentation within the smart home ecosystem. Currently, there are many protocols used in a connected home, increasing the confusion of consumers when choosing a product for their house. One possible solution for this fragmentation is to make a gateway to handle the diverse protocols as a central hub in the home. However, this solution brings about another issue for manufacturers: compatibility. Because of the various smart devices on the market, supporting all possible devices in one gateway is also an enormous challenge. In this paper, we propose a software architecture for a gateway in a smart home system to solve the compatibility problem. By creating a mechanism to dynamically download and update a device profile from a server, the gateway can easily handle new devices. Moreover, the proposed gateway also supports unified control over heterogeneous networks. We implemented a prototype to prove the feasibility of the proposed gateway architecture and evaluated its performance from the viewpoint of message execution time over heterogeneous networks, as well as the latency for device profile downloads and updates, and the overhead needed for handling unknown commands.

Distributed Node Scheduling with Adjustable Weight Factor for Ad-hoc Networks.

In this paper, a novel distributed scheduling scheme for an ad-hoc network is proposed. Specifically, the throughput and the delay of packets with different importance are flexibly adjusted by quantifying the importance as weight factors. In this scheme, each node is equipped with two queues, one for packets with high importance and the other for packets with low importance. The proposed scheduling scheme consists of two procedures: intra-node slot reallocation and inter-node reallocation. In the intra-node slot reallocation, self-fairness is adopted as a key metric, which is a composite of the quantified weight factors and traffic loads. This intra-node slot reallocation improves the throughput and the delay performance. Subsequently, through an inter-node reallocation algorithm adopted from LocalVoting (slot exchange among queues having the same importance), the fairness of traffics with the same importance is enhanced. Thorough simulations were conducted under various traffic load and weight factor settings. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can adjust packet delivery performance according to a predefined weight factor. Moreover, compared with conventional algorithms, the proposed algorithm achieves better performance in throughput and delay. The low average delay while attaining the high throughput ensures the excellent performance of the proposed algorithm.

Horizontal Pod Autoscaling in Kubernetes for Elastic Container Orchestration.

Kubernetes, an open-source container orchestration platform, enables high availability and scalability through diverse autoscaling mechanisms such as Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA), Vertical Pod Autoscaler and Cluster Autoscaler. Amongst them, HPA helps provide seamless service by dynamically scaling up and down the number of resource units, called pods, without having to restart the whole system. Kubernetes monitors default Resource Metrics including CPU and memory usage of host machines and their pods. On the other hand, Custom Metrics, provided by external software such as Prometheus, are customizable to monitor a wide collection of metrics. In this paper, we investigate HPA through diverse experiments to provide critical knowledge on its operational behaviors. We also discuss the essential difference between Kubernetes Resource Metrics (KRM) and Prometheus Custom Metrics (PCM) and how they affect HPA's performance. Lastly, we provide deeper insights and lessons on how to optimize the performance of HPA for researchers, developers, and system administrators working with Kubernetes in the future.

Performance Analysis of Time Synchronization Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks.

The time synchronization protocol is indispensable in various applications of wireless sensor networks, such as scheduling, monitoring, and tracking. Numerous protocols and algorithms have been proposed in recent decades, and many of them provide micro-scale resolutions. However, designing and implementing a time synchronization protocol in a practical wireless network is very challenging compared to implementation in a wired network; this is because its performance can be deteriorated significantly by many factors, including hardware quality, message delay jitter, ambient environment, and network topology. In this study, we measure the performance of the Flooding Time Synchronization Protocol (FTSP) and Gradient Time Synchronization Protocol (GTSP) in terms of practical network conditions, such as message delay jitter, synchronization period, network topology, and packet loss. This study provides insights into the operation and optimization of time synchronization protocols. In addition, the performance evaluation identifies that FTSP is highly affected by message delay jitter due to error accumulation over multi-hops. We demonstrate that the proposed extended version of the FTSP (E-FTSP) alleviates the effect of message delay jitter and enhances the overall performance of FTSP in terms of error, time, and other factors.

Spontaneous Marangoni Mixing of Miscible Liquids at a Liquid-Liquid-Air Contact Line.

We investigate the flow patterns created when a liquid drop contacts a reservoir liquid, which has implications on various physicochemical and biochemical reactions including mixing in microfluidic systems. The localized vortical flow spontaneously triggered by the difference of surface tension between the two liquids is studied, which is thus termed the Marangoni vortex. To quantitatively investigate the strength of vortices, we performed particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments by varying the surface tension difference, the gap of the flow cell, the density and viscosity of the reservoir liquid, and the size of the drop. A scaling law that balances the interfacial energy of the system with the kinetic energy of the vortical flows allows us to understand the functional dependence of the Marangoni vortex strength on various experimental parameters.

COVID-19 severity detection using chest X-ray segmentation and deep learning.

COVID-19 has resulted in a significant global impact on health, the economy, education, and daily life. The disease can range from mild to severe, with individuals over 65 or those with underlying medical conditions being more susceptible to severe illness. Early testing and isolation are vital due to the virus's variable incubation period. Chest radiographs (CXR) have gained importance as a diagnostic tool due to their efficiency and reduced radiation exposure compared to CT scans. However, the sensitivity of CXR in detecting COVID-19 may be lower. This paper introduces a deep learning framework for accurate COVID-19 classification and severity prediction using CXR images. U-Net is used for lung segmentation, achieving a precision of 0.9924. Classification is performed using a Convulation-capsule network, with high true positive rates of 86% for COVID-19, 93% for pneumonia, and 85% for normal cases. Severity assessment employs ResNet50, VGG-16, and DenseNet201, with DenseNet201 showing superior accuracy. Empirical results, validated with 95% confidence intervals, confirm the framework's reliability and robustness. This integration of advanced deep learning techniques with radiological imaging enhances early detection and severity assessment, improving patient management and resource allocation in clinical settings.

Overcoming copper-induced conversion reactions in nickel disulphide anodes for sodium-ion batteries.

Employing copper (Cu) as an anode current collector for metal sulphides is perceived as a general strategy to achieve stable cycle performance in sodium-ion batteries, despite the compatibility of the aluminium current collector with sodium at low voltages. The capacity retention is attributed to the formation of copper sulphide with the slow corrosion of the current collector during cycling which is not ideal. Conventional reports on metal sulphides demonstrate excellent electrochemical performances using excessive carbon coatings/additives, reducing the overall energy density of the cells and making it difficult to understand the underlying side reaction with Cu. In this report, the negative influence of the Cu current collector is demonstrated with in-house synthesised, scalable NiS2 nanoparticles without any carbon coating as opposed to previous works on NiS2 anodes. Ex situ TEM and XPS experiments revealed the formation of Cu2S, further to which various current collectors were employed for NiS2 anode to rule out the parasitic reaction and to understand the true performance of the material. Overall, this study proposes the utilisation of carbon-coated aluminium foil (C/Al) as a suitable current collector for high active material content NiS2 anodes and metal sulphides in general with minimal carbon contents as it remains completely inert during the cycling process. Using a C/Al current collector, the NiS2 anode exhibits stable cycling performance for 5000 cycles at 50 A g-1, maintaining a capacity of 238 mA h g-1 with a capacity decay rate of 8.47 × 10-3% per cycle.

Phlebosclerotic Colitis in a Healthy Young Female with Long-term Herbal Medicine Use.

Phlebosclerotic colitis is a rare form of intestinal ischemia. It is caused by calcified peripheral mesenteric veins and a thickened colonic wall. These characteristic findings can be identified on CT and colonoscopy. A 37-year-old female with a history of long-term herbal medicine use presented with acute lower abdominal pain and vomiting of sudden onset. Colonoscopic findings showed dark-blue discolored edematous mucosa and multiple ulcers from the ascending colon to the sigmoid colon. Abdominal CT findings showed diffuse thickening of the colonic wall and calcifications of the peripheral mesenteric veins from the ascending colon to the sigmoid colon. Based on these findings, the patient was diagnosed with phlebosclerotic colitis. We report this rare case of phlebosclerotic colitis in a healthy young female patient with a history of long-term herbal medicine use and include a review of the relevant literature.