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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that play fundamental roles in diverse biological and pathological processes by targeting the expression of specific genes. Here, we identified 38 methylation-associated miRNAs, the expression of which could be epigenetically restored by cotreatment with 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine and trichostatin A. Among these 38 miRNAs, we further analyzed miR-34b, miR-127-3p, miR-129-3p and miR-409 because CpG islands are predicted adjacent to them. The methylation-silenced expression of these miRNAs could be reactivated in gastric cancer cells by treatment with demethylating drugs in a time-dependent manner. Analysis of the methylation status of these miRNAs showed that the upstream CpG-rich regions of mir-34b and mir-129-2 are frequently methylated in gastric cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues, and their methylation status correlated inversely with their expression patterns. The expression of miR-34b and miR-129-3p was downregulated by DNA hypermethylation in primary gastric cancers, and the low expression was associated with poor clinicopathological features. In summary, our study shows that tumor-specific methylation silences miR-34b and miR-129 in gastric cancer cells.

This study explores a series of optical, thermal, and structural properties based on 60P 2 O 5 ―30ZnO―10Al 2 O 3 (60P) glasses that doped with varied rare earth (RE) elements Yb 2 O 3 and P 2 O 5 components replaced by SiO 2 . It was found that the glasses density decrease with SiO 2 concentration added to replace P 2 O 5 , whereas they increase with increased concentration of Yb 3+ -doped. Moreover, the glasses transition temperature, softening temperature, and refractive index increase with Yb 3+ concentrations added, whereas the thermal expansion coefficient decreases. For the 60P glasses, 7 mol% Yb 2 O 3 doped has the maximum fiuorescence which is suppressed when Yb 2 O 3 is doped up to 9 mol%. In addition, maximum lifetime was found to be 2.68 ms at an optimal Yb 3+ -doping at 1 mol% for 53P 2 O 5 ―7SiO 2 ―30ZnO―10Al 2 O 3 glass.

The unipolar resistive switching (URS) properties were investigated for NiO thin film prepared by thermal oxidation of the deposited Ni layer on Pt substrate. The turn-on voltage (Vset) shows apparent variation, at which switching from a high-resistance state (off) to a low-resistance state (on) occurs. The formation and rupture of a conducting channel are commonly proposed to explain the bistable conduction states, so called the filament model. The Vset polarity and instability are discussed in the light of the filament model and the results agree with the p-type carriers known in NiO film. Current-voltage data of the on-state conduction in full-log scale follow the ohmic behavior and the temperature dependence shows the relatively stable essence. The off-state current displays space-charge limited (SCL) relation at higher field and reveals a positive temperature dependence. The dominance of the off-state conduction for resistance swtich effect is emphasized and analyzed using the impedance spectroscopy.

SiO2thin films were fabricated as resistive layers of Cu/SiO2/Pt devices to investigate resistive switching properties. A thermal annealing was performed to allow for the diffusion of Cu ions into the SiO2thin films, leading to the formation of Cu-doped SiO2layers. Occurrence probabilities of the resistive switching and initial resistance-states of the devices were influenced by SiO2thickness, which was dependent on the Cu diffusion status within the SiO2layer. The resistive switching behaviors were characterized by the voltage sweeping mode and the current sweeping mode. The current sweeping mode provided a desired compliance current to well control the resistive switching from the high resistance-state to the low resistance-state (SET). Therefore, the large RESET (from the low resistance-state to the high resistance-state) current was not inherent in the device, due to poor control of the compliance current by the voltage sweeping mode. The current sweeping mode is a simple method to characterize the RESET current.

CuxO and SiO2thin films were deposited using a radio-frequency magnetron sputter on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates to form SiO2/CuxO/Pt and CuxO/Pt structures. The current-voltage characteristics were measured by DC voltage sweeping using a tungsten (W) probe. The two structures needed a large voltage to initiate the first resistive switching; this sweep was called the forming process. Afterwards, the resistances of the two structures could be switched reversibly between the low-resistance-state (LRS) and high-resistance-state (HRS) by applying a DC voltage. The conduction mechanisms of the LRS and the HRS were dominated by Ohmic conduction. Structures with non-destructive readout characteristics and long retention time were suitable for use in non-volatile memory. The difference between resistive switching in W-probe/SiO2/CuxO/Pt and W-probe/CuxO/Pt structures was investigated. The additional SiO2layer decreased the switching voltages and currents; this should be due to the presence of pinholes within the SiO2layer. The influence of SiO2thickness on the resistive switching characteristics was also investigated. The switching voltages and currents, except the forming voltage, decreased as the thickness of SiO2decreased. The conducting filament model with a thermochemical reaction was suggested to best explain the resistive switching behavior that was observed.

Dielectric, Optical properties and microstructures of Mg(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3 thin films prepared by sol-gel method on n-type Si(100) substrates at different annealing temperatures have been investigated. The selected-area diffraction pattern showed that the deposited films exhibited a polycrystalline microstructure. All films exhibited Mg(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3 peaks orientation perpendicular to the substrate surface and the grain size with the increase in the annealing temperature. A dielectric constant of 7.4 and an optical bandgap of 3.7 were obtained for the prepared films.

Effect of thermal treatments on the structural and electrical properties of the chemical bath deposition derived Ti-doped ZnO thin films are studied. XRD results show that the annealed Ti-doped ZnO films with wurtzite structure are randomly oriented. Crystallite structure, carrier concentration, resistivity and mobility are found to be dependent on the treatment temperature. At a treatment temperature of 100°C, the Ti-doped ZnO film possesses a carrier concentration of 2.5×1020cm-3, a resistivity of 2.8×10-3Ω-cm, and a mobility of 12 cm2/Vs.

Electrical properties and microstructures of Mg(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3 thin films prepared by sol-gel method on n-type Si(100) substrates at different annealing temperatures have been investigated. The diffraction pattern showed that the deposited films exhibited a polycrystalline microstructure. All films exhibited Mg(Zr0.05Ti0.95)O3 peaks orientation perpendicular to the substrate surface and the grain size with the increase in the annealing temperature. A low leakage current density of 1.1×10-4 A/cm2, a dielectric constant of 9.4 and an optical bandgap of 3.6 were obtained for the prepared films. It may find application in dynamic random access memories and wireless communication devices.

A low-temperature controllable chemical bath deposition (CBD) method was demonstrated to prepare ZnO nanorod arrays. Our deposition technique includes the seeding and subsequent main CBD growth. The uniform growth ZnO nanorod arrays on the condensed ZnO seeding layer could be controlled by changing the processing parameters. Experiment results reveal that the ZnO nanorod arrays prepared under 0.03-0.05 M concentration with reaction temperature of 95 °C demonstrate the well-aligned orientation and optimum optical properties with high aspect ratio of ~21. The n-ZnO/p-NiO heterojunction electrode shows excellent rectifying behavior with extremely low leakage current. After the sensitization with N719, it is found that the degree of orientation and aspect ratio value play critical roles in the photovoltaic properties of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SS-DSSCs).

In this article, a design of planar circularly polarized slot antenna is presented. The proposed antenna has a simple structure consisting of a modified circle-like slot ground plane, T-shaped structure act as a tuning stub of the antenna, placed at the opposite side of the feed. The parametric analysis of the antenna is done by the available electromagnetic solver HFSS. The proposed antenna is developed, and its measured characteristics are in good agreement with the simulated results. From experimental results, the antenna can generate two bands centered at about 1.59 and 3.78 GHz to cover the global position system and the 3.5-GHz WiMAX band. Good return loss and radiation pattern characteristics are obtained over the two operation bands. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:488–491, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25780

In this paper, we investigated electrical properties and microstructures of ZrTiO 4 (ZrO 2 –TiO 2 ) thin films prepared by the sol–gel method on ITO substrates at different annealing temperatures. All films exhibited ZrTiO 4 (1 1 1) and (1 0 1) orientations perpendicular to the substrate surface, and the grain size increased with increase in the annealing temperature. A low leakage current density of 2.06 × 10 −6 A/cm 2 was obtained for the prepared films. Considering the primary memory switching behavior of ZrTiO 4 , ReRAM based on ZrTiO 4 shows promise for future nonvolatile memory applications.

The field-emission electrical properties of hydrothermally synthesized zinc-oxide nanowires grown on SiO2–Si substrate are reported. Vertically aligned single-crystalline emitters with distinct length L and diameter D are realized by controlling the assisted growth of porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates. Field-emission measurement revealed that these field emitters exhibited controllable turn-on field Eto and the field enhancement factor β. Sample with feature size of L = 500 nm and D = 80 nm was prepared and then used as a basis for examining the size effect. Lower Eto and higher β were observed consistently for increasing the aspect ratio L/D. The enhanced properties of Eto = 1.48 V/μm and β up to 6100 are achieved for L/D = 53 (L = 1600 nm and D = 30 nm). Optimal characterizing parameters of Eto and β will be reached while pursuing extreme L/D practically. Factors such as the geometric limit of AAO template manufacture and the filling efficiency of ZnO into AAO pores will exert influence on the size-dependent effect.

Effect of thermal treatments on the structural and electrical properties of the chemical bath deposition derived Ti-doped ZnO thin films are studied. XRD results show that the annealed Ti-doped ZnO films with wurtzite structure are randomly oriented. Crystallite structure, carrier concentration, resistivity and mobility are found to be dependent on the treatment temperature. At a treatment temperature of 100°C, the Ti-doped ZnO film possesses a carrier concentration of 1.3×1020 cm-3, a resistivity of 3×10-3 Ω-cm, and a mobility of 15 cm2/Vs.

High quality ZnO nanorod arrays were synthesized by a two-step chemical bath deposition (CBD) on an ITO substrate. Our synthesis method is a two-step process: seeding and subsequent growth. The CBD was carried out in zinc acetate solution at 95 °C for 1 h, followed by thermal treatment at different temperatures. The structural and the optical properties of ZnO were investigated by X-ray diffraction, the scanning electron microscopy, and the optical transmission spectroscopy. The XRD results showed that the CBD ZnO nanorods have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with flat-tops as seen in SEM morphologies. The diameter of ZnO nanorods was found to be in the range 380–450 nm and the length was up to 1.3 μm depending on the thermal-treatment temperature. An average optical transmittance of more than 90% was obtained in the wavelength range 400–800 nm for the thermal temperature of 400 °C, where the length/diameter ratio reached a maximum value of 3.08. The ZnO branched nanorods fabricated by this two-step CBD at low temperature exhibited great crystal quality, leading to excellent electrical properties ( ρ =3.2×10 −3 Ω cm) and high carrier mobility ( μ =40.4 cm 2 /V sec). Moreover, the current–voltage ( I – V ) characteristics of n-ZnO/p-NiO heterojunction electrode indicated that this nanostructure was rectifying in nature with low turn-on voltage and great rectification slope.

The (Ba 0.6 ,Sr 0.4 )TiO 3 (BST) thin films were deposited on the Pt bottom electrode (Pt/Ti/SiO 2 /Si) by radio frequency magnetron sputter. After that, a 100 nm-thick Pt thin film was deposited by electron beam evaporator as the top electrode to form metal/insulator/metal (MIM) structure. The capacitance-voltage characteristics were recorded to study the voltage-controlled capacitance. The frequency dispersion was found in the measurements of capacitance and loss tangent. The reason should be the parasitic effect of series resistance and parasitic inductance. The simulations of the four-element modified model were performed to evaluate the influences of the measurement frequency and parasitic resistance on the electrical measurement. The simulation results indicate that the capacitance and loss tangent increase with increasing the measurement frequency. The tunability slightly increases with increasing measurement frequency while the figure of merit seriously degrades with increasing measurement frequen...

This paper examines the electrical properties of V-doped SrZrO3 sputtered films showing bistable on/off resistive switching. The temperature dependence of dc sweep I-V data in the range of 25–100°C implies the prominent role played by the off-state conduction in determining the R-switch ratio. The defects in off-state are investigated via Frenkel-Poole relation and the associated trap energy extraction. It is found that the oxygen vacancies are the possible major defects in off-state and are verified by the treatment of N2 and O2 annealing ambience hereafter. The nearly unchanged currents suggest the relatively more stable nature in on-state, which is consistent with the following findings: 1) the frequently observed I-V jiggle during on to off switching, 2) successful forming only found for sweep direction to on-state, 3) the better thermal disturbance immunity by longer retention for on-state, 4) the shorter pulse width needed to on-state switching for electric pulse induced resistance (EPIR) effect.

CeO2 ceramics with ZnO additions (1 and 2 wt%) were prepared with conventional solid-state route have been investigated. Doping with ZnO (up to 1 wt%) can effectively promote the densification of CeO2 ceramics at low sintering temperature. At 1550 oC, CeO2 ceramics with 1 wt% ZnO addition possesses a dielectric constant ( ε r) of 23.2, a Q×f value of 53000 GHz and a temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf) of –47 ppm/oC.

Various perovskite structure electroceramic thin films have been studied for semiconductor memory applications. The high permittivity and ferroelectric remanent polarization properties of these materials give the promise of a new generation of advanced dynamic and/or nonvolatile memory devices. The recent study indicates that perovskite oxide showing bistable resistance switching behavior is a highly promising candidate for nonvolatile semiconductor device, the so-called resistance random access memory (RRAM). RRAMs exhibit sufficiently fast switching capability and low operation voltages as compared with flash memory, and bring about the current upsurge in research. This paper summarizes the fabrication and characterization of these potential materials, and provides a broad view of the current status and future trends for perovskite oxides-based RRAMs. The associated conduction mechanisms are also discussed with specific examples from recent literature.

A powerful method for the phase retardation measurement of a reflective liquid crystal cell is presented. The proposed method is based on the heterodyne interferometer theory for probing cell parameters. Due to common-path optical arrangement, a fast measurement with high accuracy and sensitivity was possible. Both theoretical analysis and experimental procedures are presented. The experimental results agree well with that obtained theoretically.

We have investigated putative single amino-acid InDel variants with human ESTs. Examination of the formation process for single amino-acid InDel variants indicates a possible splicing mechanism in addition to the genomic insertion/deletion events as would be expected. The wobble-splicing transcripts were often generated around the intron-exon boundaries by selecting an alternative neighboring splice signal sequence, in particular the tandem agNAG or GTNgt sequence at the splice-acceptor or -donor site, thus creating single amino-acid InDel isoforms. Another category of variants was identified with one altered amino-acid plus one amino-acid InDel, under divergent coding-frame usage. We demonstrate that such minute distance of splice site choice generates an even greater level of transcriptome diversity, and suggest that non-functional synonymous or intronic SNPs could be converted to functionally significant InDel alterations through this process. This subtle alteration in mRNA and protein-coding sequence may elicit a great impact upon human genome and proteome diversity.

A short-term flight scheduling model for air express carriers is developed to determine suitable routes and flight schedules with the objective of minimizing operating costs, subject to related operating constraints. The model is formulated as an integer multiple commodity network flow problem solved using mathematical programming. For evaluation, a case study is used based on the operating data from a major international air express carrier.

Modern biomedical research greatly benefits from large-scale genome-sequencing projects ranging from studies of viruses, bacteria, and yeast to multicellular organisms, likeCaenorhabditis elegans. Comparative genomic studies offer a vast array of prospects for identification and functional annotation of human ortholog genes. We presented a novel comparative proteomic approach for assembling human gene contigs and assisting gene discovery. TheC. elegansproteome was used as an alignment template to assist in novel human gene identification from human EST nucleotide databases. Among the available 18,452C. elegansprotein sequences, our results indicate that at least 83% (15,344 sequences) ofC. elegansproteome has human homologous genes, with 7,954 records ofC. elegansproteins matching known human gene transcripts. Only 11% or less ofC. elegansproteome contains nematode-specific genes. We found that the remaining 7,390 sequences might lead to discoveries of novel human genes, and over 150 putative full-length human gene transcripts were assembled upon further database analyses.[The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the GenBank data library under accession nos.AF132936–AF132973,AF151799–AF151909, andAF152097.]

A novel cDNA clone was identified through yeast two-hybrid experiments. Following cross-examination between the cDNA clones, EST clones, and the cosmid clone, we could digitally assemble a new zinc finger transcription factor gene. This predicted gene has a cDNA size of about 1960 bp and is translated into a 487-amino-acid protein. According to database analysis, this gene contains three C2H2 zinc finger motifs and is highly related to human PLZF (promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger protein). The full-length coding region of the gene was isolated, and its sequences were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Interestingly, one splicing variant lacking exon III was also identified. Northern blot analysis revealed that this gene is mainly expressed in human testis. In conclusion, we have identified a new member of the PLZF zinc finger protein family, the testis zinc finger protein (TZFP), which is mainly expressed in testis tissue.

Zinc telluride (ZnTe) compound is one of the attractive elements of the II–VI group also having wide range of applications such as switching devices, light-emitting diode, solar cells and photodetectors. In this paper, the microstructure and electrical properties of znic telluride thin films were studied by using thermal-furnace evaporation with emphasis on the effects of argon pressure and deposition temperature. Crystallinity, mobility, carrier concentration and sheet resistance are shown to be dependent on the argon pressure and deposition temperature. The grain size was increased with increasing the annealing temperature and decreasing the argon pressure. The highest carrier concentration of 1.9×10 16 cm -3 , the lowest sheet resistance of 3180 Ω/ and the largest mobility of 5.1×10 3 cm 2 V -1 S -1 are presented at an argon pressure of 100°sccm and a deposition temperature of 580°C, respectively.

A planar octagon monopole UWB band-notched antenna is proposed and experimentally studied. It consists of an octagon patch with a modifed U-shaped notched, which intends to obtain frequency notched for WiMAX. The proposed antenna operates from 1.93 GHz to 11 GHz for return loss of less than -10dB with 5.26-6.4 GHz notched. The notch frequency of the proposed antenna can be adjusted by controlling the location of slot. The measured results are in reasonably good agreement with the simulated results. Details of the proposed antenna design and simulation results for UWB operations are presented and discussed.

Aluminum nitride has been acknowledged as an important industrial material because of its unique combination of high thermal conductivity and high electrical resistivity. Although there have been several excellent reviews on the synthesis of aluminum nitride, little has been mentioned on the combustion synthesis of AlN. In this work, the combustion synthesis methods for synthesis of AlN are reviewed and classified according to the phases involved in the reaction, the types of reactants (and additives) used and the design principles for the synthesis processes. Problems critical to combustion synthesis of AlN to obtain products with high product yields and low impurity contents are summarized and discussed.

The influences of Nd donors and Al 2 O 3 SiO 2 TiO 2 (AST) sintering aids on the electrical properties of (Ba,Sr)TiO 3 materials have been investigated. The room-temperature resistivity and the temperature coefficient of the anomalous resistivity rise were used to characterize the performance of the samples. From derivations based on the Heywang-Jonker barrier model, both characterizing parameters are expected to increase as a result of higher acceptor-state density at the grain boundary. The surface acceptor density, whose value was extracted from the slope in the Arrhenius plot of resistivity versus 1/( Tϵ m ), where ϵ m is the measured permittivity and T the absolute temperature, was found to decrease with the Nd content and increase with the AST dopant. A satisfactory interpretation of the observed variations in resistivity-temperature curves caused by additions of various dopants was thus obtained in the light of the resultant acceptor state density.

A Ni (200 nm)/CuxO (7 nm)/SiO2 (20 nm)/W structure is fabricated in order to investigate its resistive memory properties. The resistance of the Ni/CuxO/SiO2/W structure can be reversibly switched between a high-resistance state and a low-resistance state (LRS) by applied voltages in different polarities. According to the switching behavior, the results of cyclic voltammetry, and the positive temperature coefficient of the LRS resistance, the switching mechanism is dominated by the electrochemical reaction with Cu conducting filaments. This Ni/CuxO/SiO2/W structure lacks an active electrode, but still has the characteristics of an electrochemical resistive memory. The CuxO layer provides Cu ions to form Cu conducting filaments during resistive switching. The Ni/CuxO/SiO2/W structure can also be operated in a vaporless environment, which overcomes the ambient issue for the traditional Cu/SiO2/W structure. The Ni/CuxO/SiO2/W structure exhibits reliable resistive switching and a lower ambient effect, and can ...

A planar octagon monopole antenna for ultrawideband(UWB) application is proposed and experimentally studied. The proposed antenna has wide impedance bandwidth from 2.8 GHz to more than 10.7 GHz with better than -10 dB return loss. The design is demonstrated assuming FR4 substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 4.4 and thickness of 1.6 mm. The size of the antenna is 40 mm×50 mm. Details of the proposed antenna design and simulation results for UWB operations are presented and discussed.

E26 transformation-specific sequence (ETS)-2 is a transcriptional modulator located on chromosome 21, alterations in its expression have been implicated with a reduced incidence of solid tumors in Down syndrome patients. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are thought to participate in diverse biological functions; however, the regulation of miRNAs is not well characterized. Recently, we reported that miR-196b is highly expressed in gastric cancers. Herein, we demonstrate that miR-196b expression was significantly repressed by ETS2 during gastric cancer oncogenesis. We demonstrate that knockdown of endogenous ETS2 expression increases miR-196b expression. A genomic region between −751 and −824 bp upstream of the miR-196b transcriptional start site was found to be critical for the repression activity. This putative regulatory promoter region contains three potential ETS2-binding motifs. Mutations within the ETS2 binding sites blocked the repression activity of ETS2. Furthermore, knockdown of ETS2 or overexpression of miR-196b significantly induced migration and invasion in gastric cancer cells. In addition, alterations in ETS2 and miR-196b expression in gastric cancer cell lines affected the expression of epithelial–mesenchymal transition-related genes. The levels of vimentin, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 and MMP9 were drastically induced, but levels of E-cadherin were decreased in shETS2- or miR-196b-transfected cells. Our data indicate that ETS2 plays a key role in controlling the expression of miR-196b, and miR-196b may mediate the tumor suppressor effects of ETS2. We demonstrated that miR-196b was transcriptionally regulated by ETS2 and there was an inverse expression profile between miR-196b and ETS2 in clinical samples. This finding could be beneficial for the development of effective cancer diagnostic and alternative therapeutic strategies.

AC electrical properties of positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTCR) ceramics of composition Ba/sub 0.347/Pb/sub 0.65/La/sub 0.003/Ca/sub 0.005/Ti/sub 0.995/O/sub 3/ with Curie point T/sub c//spl ap/380/spl deg/C were studied. A combined imaginary impedance/modulus plot was adopted to identify the appropriate equivalent circuit. Analysis of such circuit modified with a frequency dependent capacitor C/sub n/ gives satisfactory interpretation of the commonly observed inclined semicircle in the complex impedance plane. The exponent n, which is extracted from the depression angle and suggested to be associated with the "loss" degree of the material, shows a temperature dependence similar to that of a useful parameter extracted from the AC conductivity-frequency measurements. Both are ascribed to the conduction characteristics of the grain boundary, whose resistivity anomaly is the main contribution to PTCR jump. The validity of the present methodology is assessed not only by fitting well the observed non-ideality of real AC response, but also by confirming the Curie-Weiss behavior of the calculated grain boundary capacitance, which is the essence of well-accepted barrier theory (Heywang-Jonker model) proposed to explain the PTCR effect. >

Carcinogenesis of the stomach involves multiple steps including genetic mutation or epigenetic alteration of tumor suppressor genes or oncogenes. Recently, tumor suppressive miRNAs have been shown to be deregulated by aberrant hypermethylation during gastric cancer progression. In this study, we demonstrate that three independent genetic loci encoding for miR-9 (miR-9-1, miR-9-2 and miR-9-3) are simultaneously modified by DNA methylation in gastric cancer cells. Methylation-mediated silencing of these three miR-9 genes can be reactivated in gastric cancer cells through 5-Aza-dC treatment. Subsequent analysis of the expression levels of miR-9 showed that it was significantly down-regulated in gastric cancers compared with adjacent normal tissues (P value < 0.005). A similar tendency toward a tumor-specific DNA methylation pattern was shown for miR-9-1, miR-9-2 and miR-9-3 in 72 primary human gastric cancer specimens. Ectopic expression of miR-9 inhibited cell proliferation, migration and invasion, suggesting its tumor suppressive potential in gastric cancer progression.

A capacitance-coupled bandpass filter is designed using miniaturized microstrip interdigital hairpin resonator. The full-wave simulator IE3D is used to design the compact hairpin resonator, and to calculate the coupling coefficient of the basic coupling strictures. The response of the fabricated filters using Al 2 O 3 (e r = 9.7, Q×f = 350000 GHz) dielectric substrate are designed at a center frequency of 2.4 GHz. The compact size and the performance of this class of filter have been demonstrated.

Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the only lagomorph animal of which the genome has been sequenced. Establishing a rabbit miRNA resource will benefit subsequent functional genomic studies in mammals. We have generated small RNA sequence reads with SOLiD and Solexa platforms to identify rabbit miRNAs, where we identified 464 pre-miRNAs and 886 mature miRNAs. The brain and heart miRNA libraries were used for further in-depth analysis of isomiR distributions. There are several intriguing findings. First, several rabbit pre-miRNAs form highly conserved clusters. Second, there is a preference in selecting one strand as mature miRNA, resulting in an arm selection preference. Third, we analyzed the isomiR expression and validated the expression of isomiR types in different rabbit tissues. Moreover, we further performed additional small RNA libraries and defined miRNAs differentially expressed between brain and heart. We conclude also that isomiR distribution profiles could vary between brain and heart tissues.

Background Un-MAppable Reads Solution (UMARS) is a user-friendly web service focusing on retrieving valuable information from sequence reads that cannot be mapped back to reference genomes. Recently, next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology has emerged as a powerful tool for generating high-throughput sequencing data and has been applied to many kinds of biological research. In a typical analysis, adaptor-trimmed NGS reads were first mapped back to reference sequences, including genomes or transcripts. However, a fraction of NGS reads failed to be mapped back to the reference sequences. Such un-mappable reads are usually imputed to sequencing errors and discarded without further consideration. Methods We are investigating possible biological relevance and possible sources of un-mappable reads. Therefore, we developed UMARS to scan for virus genomic fragments or exon-exon junctions of novel alternative splicing isoforms from un-mappable reads. For mapping un-mappable reads, we first collected viral genomes and sequences of exon-exon junctions. Then, we constructed UMARS pipeline as an automatic alignment interface. Results By demonstrating the results of two UMARS alignment cases, we show the applicability of UMARS. We first showed that the expected EBV genomic fragments can be detected by UMARS. Second, we also detected exon-exon junctions from un-mappable reads. Further experimental validation also ensured the authenticity of the UMARS pipeline. The UMARS service is freely available to the academic community and can be accessed via http://musk.ibms.sinica.edu.tw/UMARS/. Conclusions In this study, we have shown that some un-mappable reads are not caused by sequencing errors. They can originate from viral infection or transcript splicing. Our UMARS pipeline provides another way to examine and recycle the un-mappable reads that are commonly discarded as garbage.

The electrical properties of high‐Curie‐point positive temperature coefficient of resistance ceramics of composition Ba0.497Pb0.5La0.003Ca0.005Ti0.995O3 prepared from commercial BaTiO3 powder were studied. The acceptor‐state energy and acceptor‐state density were determined from the calculated ρmax vs Tmax plot, where ρmax and Tmax are the resistivity and temperature corresponding to the maximum in resistivity. These two parameters, combined with the effect of nonvanishing spontaneous polarization below the Curie point, were treated quantitatively to demonstrate the dependence of measured resistivity ρdc on the measured permittivity em. The obtained values of potential barrier height and acceptor‐state density based on the procedure above were found to be in excellent agreement with those extracted from the slope in the Arrhenius plots of resistivity versus 1/(Tem), where T is the absolute temperature. Also, the deviation of the measured dielectric constant em from the Curie–Weiss law’s prediction was exp...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short noncoding RNAs that play important roles in cellular processes and disease pathogenesis via the control of specific targeted gene expression. The miR-196s miRNA is encoded at three paralogous loci in three HOX clusters and acts as an oncogenic miRNA in cancer progression. Recent studies have demonstrated that the expression of miR-196b increases cell proliferation and survival in leukemic cells. Here, we used a sequential methylation analysis to reveal that the methylation status correlated well with miR-196b expression in different cell lines. Treatment with the demethylating drug 5-Aza-dC reactivated miR-196b transcription in methylation-silenced cells. Using in vitro methylation approach, we further provide evidences that promoter hypermethylation represses miR-196b transcriptional activation tightly in human cancer cell lines. We also demonstrate that the expression of miR-196b is significantly elevated in gastric cancer and that hypomethylation status of miR-196b CpG islands frequently is observed in primary gastric tumors. Our results provide important information on miR-196s regulation and demonstrate that abnormal DNA hypomethylation induces overexpression of miR-196b in gastric cancer. V C 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Three bits per cell NAND Flash Memory Technology for 30nm and beyond has been successfully developed with floating gate technology. Tight natural Vth distribution, wide program/erase window, and good cell reliability such as program disturb, endurance and data retention are obtained. 8 level Vth distributions are successfully demonstrated.

A floating gate NAND flash memory technology for 30 nm and beyond has been successfully developed. Wide program/erase window, tight natural threshold voltage (Vth) distribution, and good cell reliabilities such as program disturb, program/erase endurance and data retention are successfully demonstrated, which are essential to realize super MLC.

Amis is the largest aboriginal population in Taiwan. The previous dermatoglyphic studies of the Amis only reported limited data. In this study, we collected and analyzed the dermatoglyphs of 200 Amis individuals, and we reported a wide range of dermatoglyphic variables including total finger ridge count, a–b ridge count, atd angle, axial triradius percent distance, and frequencies of fingerprint pattern, palmar thenar pattern, palmar interdigital pattern, and simian line. This study is the first comprehensive dermatoglyphic research of Amis since 1960s, and its dermatoglyphic data will be useful for future research in anthropology, genetics and medicine.

By the 1970s, a number of dermatoglyphic studies of Taiwan aborigines (Gaoshan nationality) had been published, however in each only a few dermatoglyphic variables were addressed. Since that time, little new research has been conducted. In this study, we collected and analyzed the dermatoglyphs of 100 individuals of Kavalan, a Taiwan aboriginal population, and we reported a wide range of dermatoglyphic variables including total finger ridge count (TFRC), a-b total ridge count (a-b RC), atd angle and axial triradius percent distance (tPD), and frequencies of fingerprint pattern, palmar thenar pattern, palmar interdigital pattern, palmar hypothenar pattern, and simian line. This study is the first comprehensive dermatoglyphic research of any Taiwan aboriginal population.

Impurity-free quantum well disordering has been used for the wavelength tuning of strained InGaAsP/InP multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures. By implementing different kinds of dielectric caps, damage enhanced and thermally induced quantum well intermixing were carried out for the bandgap engineering of the MQW after wafer growth. Two different combinations of the dielectric capping were selected for extended-cavity laser fabrication to evaluate the effects of quantum well disordering.

The influence of high-temperature (>870 °C) rapid-thermal-annealing (RTA) induced cracks on the laser performancefabricated with GaAs-A1GaAs quantum-well microstructures is reported. The effects were examined and characterized after quantum-well intermixing within an epitaxial structure capped by eitherSi02 or SrF2 layers. The results show clearly that the density of surface cracks strongly depend on theatomic interdffusion between the well and the barrier layers, and on the quality of the dielectric caps as well. In addition to the detailed analysis ofthe cracking effects on the laserperformance, an effective way of reducing the density ofRTA-induced cracks was also exploredfor the dielectrics grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition under a low-stressed condition. Index terms: Surface cracks, quantum well disordering, dielectric caps, rapid thermal annealing. 1. Introduction Several techniques have been used to control the bandgap of epitaxial microstructures [1,2]. Such control isvitally important in monolithic integration for producing optoelectronic or photonic integrated circuits [3 -5].

We have used degenerated PCR primers designed according to the consensus kinase motifs in order to amplify expressed protein tyrosine kinase molecules from human gastric cancers. From such kinase expression profiles, we have identified more than fifty different tyrosine and serine/threonine kinases from two matched pairs of gastric cancer tissue and normal mucosa. In previous studies, we have shown the clinical significance of two tyrosine kinases identified in gastric cancer, tie-1 and mkk4.In this report, we further investigate the protein expression of the whole axl receptor tyrosine-kinase family (axl/ufo, nyk/mer and sky/rse) by immunohistochemistry and their clinicopathological associations.On examination of 96 patients specimens, expression of the axl kinase family alone showed no statistical significance with respect to the patients' survivaL However, the combination of nyk/mer expression with axl/ufo expression correlated inversely with the patients' prognosis result.This finding indicates that a co-operative relationship exists between axllufo and nyk/mer protein kinases and this seems to play an important role in gastric cancer progression and metastasis.

In this paper, a 20-nm SiOx thin film was deposited on a Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. A Cu top electrode was deposited to form a Cu/SiOx/Pt device. The device was reversibly switched between a low-resistance state and a high-resistance state using DC voltage sweeping. Because of its bipolar switching behavior and the device structure, the switching mechanism can be explained by the formation and rupture of Cu filaments within the SiOx layer. An Argon (Ar) plasma treatment was used to modify the SiOx layer, which stabilized the resistive switching and, thus, improved the switching dispersion. The Ar plasma treatment caused ion bombardment, which increased the Cu diffusion coefficient within the SiOx layer, thus decreasing the operating voltage. In addition, various level of bombardment within the SiOx film caused partial damage of the SiOx film, which influenced the switching dispersion. The Ar-treated device in the 20-s plasma treatment demonstrated favorable memory properties, including a long retention time, nondestructive readout, and high resistance ratio, indicating that it could be viably applied in next-generation nonvolatile memory devices.

Drosophila melanogaster serves as a useful model organism for functional genomic studies, and its genome project was recently completed. We previously described a comparative-gene-identification approach to assist human ortholog gene identification that involves applying an entire proteome as an alignment template. Analysis of the available 14 100 Drosophila protein sequences revealed that 37% of them (5228 sequences) might lead to discoveries of novel human genes. Upon further database interrogations, we found several putative full-length human gene transcripts, including the human crooked neck ( crn ) gene. Based on sequence gap-closure experiments using reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction as well as bioinformatic analysis, we found that the assembled human cDNA contig of crooked neck gene was at least 3903 base pairs in length with alternative splicing variations which encoded mainly for a 687-amino-acid residue protein. The human crooked neck gene was located on chromosome 20 with at least 15 exons. The unique features of the 16 copies of the tetratrico peptide repeat (TPR) motif were conserved in the yeast, fly and human crooked neck orthologous proteins, which were important for spliceosome assembly in cells.