This study aimed to investigate the diverse clinical manifestations and simple early biomarkers predicting mortality of COVID-19 patients admitted to the emergency department (ED). A total of 710 patients with COVID-19 were enrolled from 6,896 patients presenting to the ED between January 2022 and March 2022. During the study period, a total of 478 patients tested positive for COVID-19, among whom 222 (46.4%) presented with extrapulmonary manifestations of COVID-19; 49 (10.3%) patients displayed gastrointestinal manifestations, followed by neurological (n = 41; 8.6%) and cardiac manifestations (n = 31; 6.5%). In total, 54 (11.3%) patients died. A Cox proportional hazards model revealed that old age, acute kidney injury at presentation, increased total leukocyte counts, low platelet counts, decreased albumin levels, and increased LDH levels were the independent predictors of mortality. The albumin levels exhibited the highest area under the curve in receiver operating characteristic analysis, with a value of 0.860 (95% confidence interval, 0.796–0.875). The study showed the diverse clinical presentations and simple-to-measure prognostic markers in COVID-19 patients presenting to the ED. Serum albumin levels can serve as a novel and simple early biomarker to identify COVID-19 patients at high risk of death.

Nitrogen (N) and boron (B) codoped diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were prepared on silicon oxide substrates by RF magnetron sputtering to optimize the electrical conductivity and hardness of DLC film. The electrical conductivity and hardness of the N–B codoped DLC films were controlled simultaneously by varying N2 flow rate with fixed B target power and varying B target power with fixed N2flow rate. The electrical resistivity of the B-doped DLC films showed a cup-shaped relationship with B target power and a U-shaped relationship with the N–B codoped DLC film. However, hardness of the B-doped DLC films showed a decreasing behavior but it was maintained almost constant for the N–B codoped DLC film. These particular electrical and hardness behaviors of the N–B codoped DLC films could be explained by a neutralization effect of N and B codoping.

This paper summarizes the recent standardization activities in the field of robotics by ISO (International Organization for Standardization), IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), OMG (Object Management Group), and other organizations. While the standards in industrial robots have been mainly developed by ISO, the standards on the emerging service robots are initiated by many organizations. One of the goals of this paper is to coordinate the efforts among these groups so that more effective standardization activity can be executed. Standardization in the emerging service robots will eventually promote the proliferation of service robot markets in the near future.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate fish guild compositions and national river health using a multi-metric model of the Korean index of biological integrity using fishes (K-IBIF) in four major Korean watersheds along with water chemistry and habitat quality. Tolerant and omnivore fish species dominated all the watersheds, and the proportions of tolerance guilds and trophic guilds reflected water chemistry and habitat quality. The number of sensitive species and insectivore species had negative correlations (r < −0.42, P < 0.01) with chemical water quality (biological oxygen demand (BOD)), while tolerant species and omnivore species had positive correlation (r > 0.27, P < 0.05) with BOD values. Physical habit conditions, based on qualitative habitat evaluation index (QHEI) model, indicated a “good” condition (mean = 68.9; range = 45–105) in three watersheds, except for the Yeongsan River watershed. Values of QHEI were significantly correlated (R2 > 0.4, P < 0.01) with nitrogen and phosphorus levels in all watersheds, suggesting that habitat degradation is associated with eutrophication. Model values of K-IBIF in the watersheds averaged 18.2, indicating a “fair” condition, and about 37% of all observations in K-IBIF model values were judged as a “poor” health condition, indicating severe health impairment. Overall, our data suggest that degradation of the river health was due to a combined effect of chemical pollution and physical habitat modifications. This research provides valuable information on Korean river conservation and restoration in the future.

The ZnO TFTs have attracted much attention as key component for flexible displays because they can be fabricated on plastic substrates at low temperature and exhibit good electrical performance. However, the ZnO films are polycrystalline with grain boundaries even if formed at room temperature, which deteriorate the uniformity of TFT characteristics. A few research groups have reported high performance amorphous indium-gallium-zinc oxide TFTs to solve the native problem of nonuniformity of ZnO TFTs. However, there are few researches on the process parameter effects on the variation of a-IGZO TFT characteristics. In this study, we focus on the effect of the source/drain overlap length on threshold voltage(VT) of a-IZO TFTs with differentiating channel deposition method. The experimental structures for this work are bottom-gated TFTs with a-IGZO channel that were deposited by RF and DC magnetron sputtering on glass. RF and DC sputtering were carried out by magnetron power density of (1.4 W/cm2)/ (2.0 W/cm2) in Ar/O2 gas ratio of (65/35)/(72/28), and the entire gas pressure were 5.0 mTorr and 3.4 mTorr. The width/length(um/um) of device was split to 10/7,10/10,10/30,10/50. Each of the patterns has seven source/drain overlap length: -3um,-2um,-1um,0um,1um,2um,3um. We extracted VT of RF and DC through the VG-ID curve. There are significant VT difference in both RF and DC according to the overlap length: VT of DC(RF) is 1.31(0.74)V at W/L=10/50 and 10.21(5.74)V at W/L=10/30. VT increases definitely where less than 1um overlap length and short channel TFT is more influenced by overlap length, which is more severe in RF group. We calculated total channel resistance (RT) from VD-ID curve. RT of devices with the positive overlap can be expressed by RT, Postive=Rch+Rc. Here, Rch is net channel resistance which becomes smaller when channel length decreases and Rc is contact resistance. RT with negative overlap, is RT, Negative=Rch+Rc+Roffset. Roffset is offset resistance formed by negative overlap and can be extracted by subtracting RT, Postive from total RT, Negative. The RT of DC(RF) at offset channel length of-1um,-2um,and-3um is 4.43105(2.7 106)cm, 1.17 106(3.48 106)cm, and 1.46 106(4.73 106)cm, respectively(W/L=10/10um) RF group which shows inferior electrical characteristics such as lower mobility and larger subthreshold slope to DC, have larger Roffset than the DC. This implies that the devices require a bit of positive source/drain overlap length for uniform VT especially when the channel resistance is high. But Overlap region causes difficulties in the device area to be miniaturized. In summary, as the source/drain overlap length decreases to negative value, the threshold voltage of a-IGZO TFTs increases sharply and these tendency strongly depends on a-IZO film quality, which means the overlap length is very important control parameter of a-IGZO TFTs for the uniform threshold voltage especially when the channel resistance is high

a-IGZO TFT is a promising candidate device for an alternative to poly-Si TFTs or a-Si TFTs, because they provide better uniformity in terms of their important device parameters, including the threshold voltage and mobility due to their amorphous phase, and a high mobility (>10 cm2/Vs) is attainable with these devices even in the amorphous phase. Recently, a-IGZO TFTs have been extensively studied by various groups. However, there is little report on interface and bulk effect on device performances and reliability as separately. For investigating the interface and bulk effect, we fabricated two a-IGZO thin film transistors with different channel deposition conditions, RF and DC magnetron sputtering. Specific conditions of RF and DC sputtering are described as follows; magnetron power density of 1.4 W/cm2/2.0 W/cm2 in Ar/O2 gas ratio of (65/35)/(72/28), and the entire gas pressure was 5.0 mTorr and 3.4 mTorr, respectively.In order to characterize the channel quality, C-V curve was measured with various frequencies of (10KHz˜1MHz). RF sputtered channel has higher frequency dependency compared to DC sputtered channel. It means that RF sputtered channel has higher bulk traps in channel compared to DC sputtered channel.

Device performance was characterized through the ID-VG measurement. Electrical parameters of RF and DC sputtered devices are VT=3.5/2.7V, on-off ratio=105/08, SS=2/0.4 V/decade, and uFE= 5/11 cm2/V-s, respectively. It is thus clear that the device performance of DC sputtered device is more superior to RF sputtered device. Therefore, it can be said that the poor device performance of RF device is ascribed to insufficient channel quality, as mentioned in C-V curve.

For reliability study, we measured PBTI and ID-VG hysteresis with normalized gate stress bias and high temperature hot chuck system. Through the unchanged field effect mobility during the stress and relaxation time, and nearly recovered VT and subthreshold slope (SS) after long relaxation time, we were able to know that pre-existed trap was main factor of reliability degradation. Moreover, SS degradation during stress time is more severe in RF device than DC device. It is also proving that RF channel characteristic is worse than DC channel. In high temperature, leakage current increments of RF device were more severe than DC device. This also indicates that bulk traps of RF device in channel region are larger than that of DC device. VT shift of DC sputtered device for PBT stress and hysteresis was higher than that of RF sputtered device. As well known, PBTI is closely related to insulator bulk traps, which shows that channel deposition conditions affect insulator trap characteristics. In summary, device performance of a-IGZO deposited by DC sputtering is better than RF sputtering, which is because DC sputtering improves channel quality of a-IGZO. However, VT shift of DC sputtered device are worse than RF sputtering, which may be related with high magnetron power density.

Cu alloy has been suggested to enhance reliabilites in future technology. To evaluate the effects of alloying elements on electrical and mechanical reliabilities, Mg and Ru were chosen as alloying elements. Because alloying elements to Cu should not increase resistivity over comparable value to pure Cu, the resistivity of pure Cu, Cu-0.7at%Mg alloy and Cu-2.2at%Ru alloy was compared. Time dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) under bias-temperature stress (BTS) tests were accomplished to evaluate the effect of alloying elements on dielectric reliability. The standard four point bending experiments were conducted to measure critical interfacial adhesion energy of conducting metal to SiO2. The relationship of the effect of alloying elements on reliabilities to distribution of alloying elements was analyzed using Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES). Our results show alloying Mg to Cu can enhance reliability by forming self-passivating layer on its surface and interface while Ru does not.

BaIn2S4, BaIn2S4:Ho3+, BaIn2S4:Er3+, BaIn2S4:Tm3+, BaIn2Se4, BaIn2Se4:Ho3+, BaIn2Se4:Er3+, and BaIn2Se4:Tm3+ single crystals were grown by the chemical transport reaction method. The optical energy gap of the single crystals was found to be 3.057, 2.987, 2.967, 2.907, 2.625, 2.545, 2.515, and 2.415 eV, respectively, at 11 K. The temperature dependence of the optical energy gap was well fitted by the Varshni equation. Broad emission peaks were observed in the photoluminescence spectra of the single crystals. They were assigned to donor–acceptor pair recombination. Sharp emission peaks were observed in the doped single crystals. They were attributed to be due to radiation recombination between the Stark levels of the Ho3+, Er3+, and Tm3+ ions sited in C1 symmetry.

The Far-ultraviolet IMaging Spectrograph (FIMS) is a small spectrograph optimized for the observations of diffuse hot interstellar medium in far-ultraviolet wavebands (900–1150Å and 1335–1750Å). The instrument is expected to be sensitive to emission line fluxes an order of magnitude fainter than any previous missions. FIMS is currently under development and is scheduled for launch in 2002.

Surface roughness of ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) was measured by AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) and the existence of spikes was verified. Then OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) devices made from those substrates were fabricated and their electrical properties were measured with an I-V measurement system. There is considerable difference in the reverse leakage current of OLEDs depending on the surface roughness of the substrate. We observed a good correlation of reverse leakage current with Rpv (Peak-to-Valley roughness), but the correlations between reverse leakage current and Ra (Average roughness) and Rrms (Root-Mean-Square roughness) are not as good.

We fabricated InAs self-assembled quantum dots (QDs) on strained layer using molecular beam epitaxy. The strained layer consisted of InAs/GaAs superlattice(SL) and GaAs barrier layer on (001) GaAs substrate. Through controlling thickness of the strained layer, we formed two-dimensional alignments of QDs on misfit dislocation arrays along <110> directions made by strained layer. The increase of the strained layer thickness resulted in a stronger alignment of QDs, which were observed by atomic force microscopy studies. The aligned QDs were confirmed to confine carriers well and have different size distributions by photoluminescence measurement.

MgxZn1-xSi: Ho3+, MgxZn1-xSe: Er3+, and MgxZn1-xSe: Tm3+ single crystals were grown by the closed-tube sublimation method. The single crystals crystallized into a zincblende structure at the composition x = 0.11 and a wurtzite structure at the composition x = 0.25, 0.32, and 0.41. The trivalent ions (Ho3+, Er3+, and Tm3+) of the rare-earth elements Ho, Er, and Tm site in Td and C3v symmetries in the single crystals with zincblende and wurtzite structures, respectively. Sharp emission peaks appeared in the photoluminescence spectra of the single crystals. These emission peaks are identified to originate from the radiation recombination between the energy levels of the trivalent ions sited in Td and C3v symmetries.

Pure tetravalent nickel in γ-type cobalt substituted nickel oxyhydroxide, Ni0.70Co0.30O2K0.30(H2O)0.42, could be obtained by the “chimie douce” reaction. The presence of tetravalent nickel is confirmed by comparing the Ni K-edge XANES spectrum of the sample with those of reference compounds having various nickel valency and similar layer structure. The Co K-edge XANES spectrum indicates that the trivalent cobalt remains unchanged regardless of the nickel valency. The structural modification during chimie douce reaction observed from XRD patterns and the result of iodometric titration are consistent with the Ni and Co K-edge XANES data.

Thin films of CdS were prepared from an solution containing Cd(Ac)2, NH4OH, NH4Ac and (NH2)2CS for solar cells. Growth rate of CdS films was increased with increasing temperature of reactive solution and with decreasing concentration of NH4OH. Optical transmittances were more than 60% independent with temperature and concentrations and was changed with thickness of CdS films. Grown films mostly showed the presence of polycrystallines with mixed cubic and hexagonal phases, but showed the hexagonal preferred phases in some growth condition. The resistivities of CdS were decreased by doping boron from 104 to 101 order(Ω - cm) and the critical amount of dopant was 5 × 10− .mol %

The microstructural variation and the interdiffusion of Pt (80 nm)/Ti (70 nm)/SiO2/Si during annealing in O2 were investigated using Auger electron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. While the as-deposited and 400 °C annealed samples showed well-defined layer structures without any significant interfacial reaction, the degree of oxidation remarkably increased with increasing temperature above 500 °C. The PtTi alloy phase with Pmma structure (AuCd type) was observed from the 500 °C annealed sample. Drastic interdiffusion occurring above 600 °C changed the Pt/Ti bilayer into a very entangled structure. Some TiO2 phases were exposed to the ambient between Pt hillocks. In addition, a small amount of Pt-silicide was found near the TiOx/SiO2 interface.

Phenomena and solving methods for damage of Sb-doped SbO2 thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering have been investigated by observing in the main the positional difference of film electrical resistivity. A ring plate mask was used to disperse the energetic particles and sputtering parameters were controlled such a manner that effects by the parameters were compensated each other. By the control, positional differences in resistivity and XRD patterns of the films could be reduced to a minimum value; The films became nearly uniform ones.

We prepared CdS thin films from a solution containing cadmium acetate, thiourea, ammonia, and ammonium acetate. We varied fabrication conditions such as the concentrations of reactants, reaction temperature, and heat treatment, to investigate the changes in structural and optical properties of the film. Effects of substrate on the properties were also investigated.

The effects of SF6 and NF3 gas plasma treatments, and succesive rapid thermal anneal (RTA) treatment for the recovery of modified silicon surface due to CHF3/C2F6 plasma have been investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). XPS analyses have revealed that NF3 and SF6 plasma treatments are effective for the removal of residue layer. SIMS results show that penetrated impurities in the contaminated silicon substrate reduce through the additional RTA treatment. The effects of NF3, SF6 plasmas, and additional RTA treatments for the recovery of reactive ion etched silicon surface has been also studied by measuring the electrical performance of the silicon devices.

Silylation and dry development are the key processes of DESIRE, one of the surface imaging techniques in submicron lithography. The present work was carried out to achieve the improvement of develoment rate and anisotropic resist profile, and to characterize the silylated and dry developed resist. The dependence of silylation on the exposure dose and the presilylation baking temperature was investigated by using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The higher dose UV-irradiation results the thicker silylated layer in the dyed resist. The dry development of photoresisl patterns was processed newly by using the plasma of O2/He RIE plasma. It is particularly emphasized to obtain to optimize the RIE process, so that some improvements, i.e., vertical resist profiles with the high anisotropy, good selectivity, and the development rate of 0.4 μm/min were achieved. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic study indicated that Si in the silylated and dry developed resist was present with the chemical binding states of SiO2 on surface, and SiO. SiC and very small amount of SiO2 in near-Surface region (at about 5 nm depth).