Background: Nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NFE2L2, also known as Nrf2) is associated with cellular progression and chemotherapeutic resistance in some human cancers. We tested the relationship between Nrf2 expression and survival of patients with primary brain tumors (PBTs). Methods: In order to realize Nrf2 protein expression in gliomas, Western blot analysis was performed in normal brain tissue and U87MG, LN229, GBM8401 and U118MG glioma cell lines protein lysates. Then, U87MG, LN229, and GBM8401 mRNA were applied to performed quantitative RT-PCR for detect Nrf2 gene expression in glioma cell lines. At last, immunohistochemical analysis was used to determine the expression of Nrf2 in samples from 178 PBTs and 10 non-neoplastic brain tissues. Results: In these included in vitro studies, both Nrf2 protein and mRNA expression in all human glioma cell lines were higher than normal brain tissue. Similarly, on the viewpoint of immunohistochemistry, Nrf2 expression in gliomas were positively correlated with World Health Organization (WHO) grades. Additionally, compared with the expression of Nrf2 in non-neoplastic brain tissue, expression in meningiomas was of a stronger intensity and was present in a higher percentage of cells. Furthermore, scores were significantly higher in WHO grade II than in WHO grade I meningiomas. Finally, overall survival tended to be shorter in patients whose PBTs had higher expression of Nrf2, although the correlation was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Nrf2 overexpression positively correlated with WHO grade in gliomas and meningiomas. On the other hand, Nrf2 immunohistochemical stain could help pathologists to differentiate atypical meningiomas from benign tumors. Therefore, Nrf2 expression may be a useful biomarker to predict WHO grade and cellular behavior of PBTs.

Through harvesting energy by wireless charging and delivering data by wireless communication, this study proposes the concept of a wireless sensor enabled by wireless power (WPWS) and reports the fabrication of a prototype for functional tests. One WPWS node consists of wireless power module and sensor module with different chip-type sensors. Its main feature is the dual antenna structure. Following RFID system architecture, a power harvesting antenna was designed to gather power from a standard reader working in the 915 MHz band. Referring to the Modbus protocol, the other wireless communication antenna was integrated on a node to send sensor data in parallel. The dual antenna structure integrates both the advantages of an RFID system and a wireless sensor. Using a standard UHF RFID reader, WPWS can be enabled in a distributed area with a diameter up to 4 m. Working status is similar to that of a passive tag, except that a tag can only be queried statically, while the WPWS can send dynamic data from the sensors. The function is the same as a wireless sensor node. Different WPWSs equipped with temperature and humidity, optical and airflow velocity sensors are tested in this study. All sensors can send back detection data within 8 s. The accuracy is within 8% deviation compared with laboratory equipment. A wireless sensor network enabled by wireless power should be a totally wireless sensor network using WPWS. However, distributed WPWSs only can form a star topology, the simplest topology for constructing a sensor network. Because of shielding effects, it is difficult to apply other complex topologies. Despite this limitation, WPWS still can be used to extend sensor network applications in hazardous environments. Further research is needed to improve WPWS to realize a totally wireless sensor network.

Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films are promising materials for wide-spread applications due to their outstanding characteristics of chemical, physical, and highly smooth surface. Our present work aimed at the fabrication of high performance diamond-based UV detector. NCD films were prepared by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process, and then Au interdigital electrodes were deposited onto the surface of the as-grown NCD film by sputtering technique. Annealing procedures were conducted at various temperatures to obtain Ohmic contact of NCD/Au structure. The surface morphology, microstructure, and wettablity of the NCD films were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, atomic forced microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and water contact angle measurement, respectively. The electrical property and photoconductivity of the fabricated devices were tested for UV detection application. It was found that the NCD films possessed high sp³fraction of 68.6%, low surface roughness of 9.6 nm, and good hydrophobicity, as deposited under working pressure of 40 Torr. Also, the NCD/Au structure annealed at 500°C exhibited a good Ohmic contact characteristic, high detection efficiency, and fast response to UV irradiation in air ambient. The proposed study indeed demonstrates prospective applications of NCD films in UV detector, photocatalyst, solar cell, and so on.

This paper describes a new low-temperature process underlying the synthesis of highly transparent ultrananocrystalline diamond [UNCD] films by low-pressure and unheated microwave plasma jet-enhanced chemical vapor deposition with Ar-1%CH₄-10%H₂ gas chemistry. The unique low-pressure/low-temperature [LPLT] plasma jet-enhanced growth even with added H₂ and unheated substrates yields UNCD films similar to those prepared by plasma-enhanced growth without addition of H₂ and heating procedure. This is due to the focused plasma jet which effectively compensated for the sluggish kinetics associated with LPLT growth. The effects of pressure on UNCD film synthesis from the microwave plasma jet were systematically investigated. The results indicated that the substrate temperature, grain size, surface roughness, and sp ³ carbon content in the films decreased with decreasing pressure. The reason is due to the great reduction of H _α emission to lower the etching of sp ² carbon phase, resulting from the increase of mean free path with decreasing pressure. We have demonstrated that the transition from nanocrystalline (80 nm) to ultrananocrystalline (3 to 5 nm) diamond films grown via microwave Ar-1%CH₄-10%H₂ plasma jets could be controlled by changing the pressure from 100 to 30 Torr. The 250-nm-thick UNCD film was synthesized on glass substrates (glass transition temperature [T _g] 557°C) using the unique LPLT (30 Torr/460°C) microwave plasma jet, which produced UNCD films with a high sp ³ carbon content (95.65%) and offered high optical transmittance (approximately 86% at 700 nm).

This study intends to deposit high transmittance diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films on D263T glass substrate at room temperature via a diamond powder target using the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. Moreover, various process parameters were used to tune the properties of the thin films by using the Taguchi method. Experimental results show that the content of sp³bonded carbon decreases in accordance with the effect of the substrate temperature. In addition, the hardness of all as-deposited single-layer DLC films ranges from 13.2 to 22.5 GPa, and the RMS surface roughness was improved significantly with the decrease in sputtering pressure. The water repellent of the deposited DLC films improved significantly with the increase of the sp³content, and its contact angle was larger than that of the noncoated one by 1.45 times. Furthermore, the refraction index (n) of all as-deposited DLC films ranges from 1.95 to 2.1 atλ= 600 nm. These results demonstrate that the thickness increased as the reflectance increased. DLC film under an RF power of 150 W possesses high transmissive ability (>81%) and low average reflectance ability (<9.5%) in the visible wavelengths (atλ= 400–700 nm).