Analysis of Degradation of Electromigration Reliability of Au-Al and OPM Wire Bonded Contacts at 250 °C Using Resistance Monitoring Method.

The ongoing trend towards miniaturization and increased packaging density has exacerbated the reliability problem of Au-Al heterogeneous metal bonding structures in high-temperature environments, where extreme temperatures and high current pose a serious challenge. In order to address this issue, the present study aims to investigate the electromigration reliability of Au-Al bonding by comparing the conventional heterogeneous contacts with OPM structures, which are homogeneous contacts. A novel bonding layout was developed to precisely detect the resistance and obtain stage changes in electromigration. The experimental results demonstrated that the relative resistance shift of Au-Al bonding at 250 °C was 98.7%, while CrAu and NiPdAu OPM structures exhibited only 46.1% and 2.93% shifts, which suggests that the reliability of OPM structures was improved by a factor of 2.14 and 33.6, respectively. The degradation of Au-Al bonding was attributed to the large cracks observed at the bonding interface and lateral consumption of Al elements. In contrast, OPM structures only exhibited tiny voids and maintained a better bonding state overall, indicating that homogeneous metal contacts have better immunity to electromigration. Furthermore, this study also observed the polarity effect of electromigration and analyzed the impact of NiPdAu thickness on reliability. Overall, this research provides a novel approach and an insightful theoretical reference for addressing the bottleneck of high-temperature electromigration reliability in high-temperature sensor packaging.

Establishment of matrix metalloproteinase 3 time-resolved immunoassay and some potential clinical applications.

AIM: To develop a highly sensitive time-resolved fluorescence immunoassay (TRFIA) for the detection of serum matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3) and to assess MMP-3's clinical value in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).st. METHODS: MMP-3 levels were established using the double antibody sandwich technique. The MMP-3 TRFIA technique was developed and optimized, and its linearity, sensitivity, accuracy, specificity, and recovery were assessed. Then, serum concentrations in healthy individuals and patients with CRC were determined by MMP-3 TRFIA. RESULTS: The linear range of MMP-3 TRFIA was 0.73-500 ng/mL. MMP-3 TRFIA had an intra-batch precision range of 2.16%-7.10% percent and an inter-batch precision range of 3.99%-11.21%. MMP-3, tumor-associated trypsinogen 2, and AFP had no cross reaction.The recovery is between 90% and 110%, and had no serum interference. Patients with CRC had serum MMP-3 levels (73.95 ± 78.43 ng/mL) that were considerably higher than those of healthy individuals (21.45 ± 11.12 ng/mL), and those with metastasis had serum MMP-3 levels (95.89 ± 76.21 ng/mL) that were considerably higher than those of patients without metastasis (52.74 ± 47.25 ng/mL). CONCLUSIONS: A highly sensitive MMP-3 TRFIA assay was successfully developed, and serum MMP-3 may be associated with CRC invasion and metastasis. Therefore, MMP-3 can be used in the auxiliary diagnosis of CRC.

The impact of public health events on green economy efficiency in the context of environmental regulation.

Public health crises have become one of the greatest threats to sustainable global economic development. It is therefore important to explore the impact of public health events on green economic efficiency. However, few studies have specifically examined the relationship between public health security and green economic efficiency. Based on the relevant data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2019, this paper explores the impact of public health on green economic efficiency by establishing a four-stage SBM-DEA model to construct green economic efficiency indicators and using a panel model. A moderating effect model is established to explore the moderating effect of environmental regulation on the impact of public health on green economic efficiency. In addition, this paper examines the heterogeneity of public health impact on green economic efficiency in terms of geographic location, carbon pilot, and transportation level. It is found that, first, public health events have a significant hindering effect on green economic efficiency. Second, environmental regulation has a significant moderating effect on the impact of public health events on green economic efficiency. Third, the impact of public health events on green economic efficiency changes from hindering to facilitating as the intensity of environmental regulation increases. Fourth, the impact of public health events on green economic efficiency is heterogeneous in terms of geographic location, carbon pilot, and transportation level. The above studies have implications for how to balance economic development and environmental protection in case of a public safety event.

Knockdown of LINC00467 contributed to Axitinib sensitivity in hepatocellular carcinoma through miR-509-3p/PDGFRA axis.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common histological class of primary liver cancer with dismal prognosis. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are increasingly documented as participators in cancers. Present study aimed to explore the role of long intergenic nonprotein-coding RNA 467 (LINC00467) in HCC. LINC00467 was upregulated in HCC samples in TCGA database, and was confirmed to be elevated in HCC cell lines. Functionally, LINC00467 depletion impeded proliferation and invasion, induced apoptosis, and promoted cellular sensitivity to Axitinib in HCC. Mechanistically, LINC00467 performed as a sponge of microRNA (miR)-509-3p and upregulated the expression of platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRA) in HCC cells. In conclusion, our study illustrated that LINC00467 promoted proliferation and invasion, impedes apoptosis, and contributed to Axitinib resistance of hepatocellular carcinoma through miR-509-3p/PDGFRA, indicating LINC00467 as a promising biological target for HCC treatment.

Diagnostic values of thyroglobulin in lymph node fine-needle aspiration washout: a systematic review and meta-analysis diagnostic values of FNA-Tg.

Thyroglobulin measurement in the needle washout after fine-needle aspiration (FNA-Tg) served as an important measurement for suspicious recurrent or metastatic lesions. We conducted a pooled analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of FNA-Tg and searched electronic databases for original articles in English from 1993 through 2017. Finally, a total of 22 studies containing 2,670 lymph nodes (LNs) that enrolled participants with suspicious neck LNs during thyroid nodule workup or papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) follow-up were included. In our analysis, the overall pooled sensitivity for FNA-Tg was 0.91 (95%CI: 0.87-0.93), specificity was 0.94 (95% CI: 0.91-0.96). Meta regression revealed that the cutoff value and status of serum Tg were sources of heterogeneity for sensitivity, and the cutoff value was source of heterogeneity for specificity. Additionally, the cutoff value and status of serum Tg were sources of heterogeneity in the joint model. Subgroup analysis about cut-off value showed that the choice of 1 ng/mL had highest sensitivity, 40 ng/mL had highest specificity. At last, we arrived at the conclusion that FNA-Tg measurement had high specificity and sensitivity in the early detection of LNs metastases from PTC by our meta-analysis. The technique was simple and could be recommended to apply in any FNA facility, especially when LN were small-sized. Significantly, a better standardization of criteria for FNA-Tg detection and cutoff value was required to provide useful data and to improve management of PTC patients in the future.

Corrigendum to "Clinicopathological Characteristics and Prognosis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Naturally Menopausal Women with Various Durations of Premenarche, Reproductive Periods, and Postmenopausal Stages".

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2017/5702716.].

Clinicopathological Characteristics and Prognosis of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in Naturally Menopausal Women with Various Durations of Premenarche, Reproductive Periods, and Postmenopausal Stages.

Background. Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) exhibits a higher incidence in women. Due to various ages at menarche and menopause, estrogen levels vary, which may account for the differences in the occurrence, development, and prognosis of female patients with PTC. Objective. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between various durations in different estrogen levels and PTC and to provide important information to guide clinical management and treatment of this disease. Methods. First, we selected naturally menopausal female study subjects diagnosed with PTC at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital from 2007 to 2012 and then compared the differences in clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis among subjects with various lengths of premenarche, reproductive periods, and postmenopausal stages. Results. We found that all patients showed a significantly higher incidence of tumor multicentricity and intrathyroidal dissemination as the time after menopause increased. Additionally, women with shorter (<30) or longer (>38) reproductive lives had increased recurrence rates of PTC. Conclusions. In this study, we did not find any relationship of self-reported menarche and menopausal ages with the prognosis of PTC patients. More importantly, natural postmenopausal PTC patients with shorter or longer reproductive life, compared to the normal groups, had a higher rate of cancer recurrence and the patients with these characteristics could be recommended a more aggressive surgical treatment.