Sterling Research Group (United States)

BackgroundAlmost 700 cases of human infection with avian influenza A/H7N9 have been reported since 2013. Pandemic preparedness strategies include H7N9 vaccine development.MethodsWe evaluated an inactivated H7N9 vaccine in an observer-blind study in healthy adults aged 18–64 years. Participants (420) were randomized to receive 1 of 4 AS03-adjuvanted vaccines (low or medium dose of hemagglutinin with AS03A or AS03B), one nonadjuvanted vaccine, or placebo. The coprimary immunogenicity objective determined whether adjuvanted vaccines elicited an immune response against the vaccine-homologous virus, 21 days after the second vaccine dose per US and European licensure criteria in the per-protocol cohort (n = 389).ResultsAll adjuvanted vaccines met regulatory acceptance criteria. In groups receiving adjuvanted formulations, seroconversion rates were ≥85.7%, seroprotection rates ≥91.1%, and geometric mean titers ≥92.9% versus 23.2%, 28.6%, and 17.2 for the nonadjuvanted vaccine. The AS03 adjuvant enhanced immune response at antigen-sparing doses. Injection site pain occurred more frequently with adjuvanted vaccines (in ≤98.3% of vaccinees) than with the nonadjuvanted vaccine (40.7%) or placebo (20.0%). None of the 20 serious adverse events reported were related to vaccination.ConclusionsTwo doses of AS03-adjuvanted H7N9 vaccine were well tolerated and induced a robust antibody response at antigen-sparing doses in healthy adults.Clinical Trials RegistrationNCT01999842.

Background. Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 viruses remain a threat to human health, with potential to become pandemic agents.Methods. This phase III, placebo-controlled, observer-blinded study evaluated the immunogenicity, cross-reactivity, safety, and lot consistency of 2 doses of oil-in-water (AS03A) adjuvanted H5N1 A/Indonesia/05/2005 (3.75 μg hemagglutinin antigen) prepandemic candidate vaccine in 4561 adults aged 18–91 years.Results. Humoral antibody responses in the H5N1 vaccine groups fulfilled US and European immunogenicity licensure criteria for pandemic vaccines in all age strata 21 days after the second dose. At 6 months after the administration of the primary dose, serum antibody seroconversion rates continued to fulfill licensure criteria. Neutralizing cross-clade immune responses were demonstrated against clade 1 A/Vietnam/1194/2004. Consistency was demonstrated for 3 consecutive H5N1 vaccine lots. Temporary injection-site pain was more frequent with H5N1 vaccine than placebo (89.3% and 70.7% in the 18–64 and ≥65 years strata vs 22.2% and 14.4% in the placebo groups). Unsolicited adverse event frequency, including medically attended and serious events, was similar between groups through day 364.Conclusions. In adults and elderly adults, AS03A-adjuvanted H5N1 candidate vaccine was highly immunogenic for A/Indonesia/05/2005, with cross-reactivity against A/Vietnam/1194/2004. Temporary injection site reactions were more frequent with H5N1 vaccine than placebo, although the H5N1 vaccine was well tolerated overall.Clinical Trials Registration. NCT00616928.

Reaction of phosphorus oxychloride with 2,6-dimethylpyridine N-oxide hydrochloride (1) gave a mixture of 2-(chloromethyl)-6-methylpyridine (2) and 4-chloro-2,6-dimethylpyridine (3). Treatment of this mixture with triethylamine converted 2 to the quaternary salt 4 which was separated by water extraction leaving 3 which was subsequently reacted with trimethylstannyl sodium to yield 2,6-dimethyl-4-(trimethylstannyl)pyridine (6).

SiC Schottky rectifiers with moderate breakdown voltages of ∼450 V and with either WSiX or Ni rectifying contacts were irradiated with Co-60 γ-rays to doses up to ∼315 Mrad. The Ni/SiC rectifiers show severe reaction of the contact after irradiation at the highest dose, badly degrading the forward current characteristics and increasing the on-state resistance by up to a factor of 6 after irradiation. By sharp contrast, the WSiX/SiC devices show little deterioration of the contact with the same conditions and changes in on-state resistance of <20%. The WSiX contacts appear promising for applications requiring improved contact stability.

Abstract 3‐Methylthiophene product: 3‐methylthiophene product: thiophene

MetaPRL is the latest system to come out of over twenty five years of research by the Cornell PRL group. While initially created at Cornell, MetaPRL is currently a collaborative project involving several universities in several countries. The MetaPRL system combines the properties of an interactive LCF-style tactic-based proof assistant, a logical framework, a logical programming environment, and a formal methods programming toolkit. MetaPRL is distributed under an open-source license and can be downloaded from http://metaprl.org/. This paper provides an overview of the system focusing on the features that did not exist in the previous generations of PRL systems.

The dc performance of dielectric overlap-terminated 4H-SiC Schottky rectifiers was simulated for different drift layer doping levels and dielectric thicknesses. The devices were then fabricated with different Schottky contact diameters and the dc results compared to the simulations. There was a strong dependence of reverse breakdown voltage on contact diameter (ϕ) ranging from for 100 μm ϕ to for 1000 μm. The reverse leakage current scaled with diode diameter, indicating that the surface contributions are dominant. The specific on-state resistance was close to the theoretical minimum, with a forward turn-on voltage of 2.14 V at The rectifiers were tested to maximum forward currents of 2 A. The contact resistivity of back-side Ni contacts annealed at 970°C was The yield of diodes with breakdown was over a quarter of a 2 in. diam wafer. © 2002 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

ABSTRACTWe report on non-contact and non-destructive spatially resolved characterization of traps and luminescence centers in vanadium-free semi-insulating 6H-SiC. Two optical techniques were employed: photoluminescence (PL) mapping and thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) imaging on SiC wafers. PL and TSL topography reveal inhomogeneity at the periphery regions of the wafers. Low-temperature PL spectra show broad bands with the maxima at 1.75eV and 1.2eV, including a sharp zero-phonon line at 1.344eV. The TSL glow curves at T>80K show different peaks in the visible and infrared bands. The luminescence spectrum of the 105K TSL peak replicates 1.75eV band, while the 120K peak corresponds to the 1.2eV band. Additionally, the high temperature TSL peak at 210K shows an excellent match with 1.344eV zero phonon line. The trap energies of different peaks are calculated. We discuss a model of complex defects composed of closely spaced electron (hole) trap and UD3 defect.