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Pharmacokinetics and residues of oxolinic acid (OXO) in serum, muscle, liver, and kidney were measured in orange-spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides, snubnose pompano Trachinotus blochii and giant seaperch Lates calcarifer. Fish were treated with OXO after a single-dose trial (60 mg/kg) by oral gavages and repeat-doses of 60 mg/kg of body weight once daily in feed for five consecutive days. Analysis of OXO kinetic profiles, when determined by HPLC provided elimination half-life in muscle were 131, 26, and 85 h for 26-27 °C orange-spotted grouper, snubnose pompano, and giant seaperch, respectively. Depletion studies were conducted the time for OXO concentrations to fall below 0.1 µg/g (the current tolerance set by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) among fish species establishing an adequate depletion period). The mean tissue OXO concentration in the edible portion was below maximum residue level (MRL) of snubnose pompano at 6 d postdosing, for orange-spotted grouper and giant seaperch, at 10 d postdosing, respectively. When possible, depletion data were fitted to a one-compartment pharmacokinetic model. For all test species, the longest withdrawal period of 9 days in snubnose pompano and 15 days in orange-spotted grouper and giant seaperch were calculated because of a safety span (corresponds to 50% of the time point when at which residues fall below the MRL added to the depletion time). These results suggest withdrawal times with reference to human consumption of treated fish, to establish policy guidelines and basic principles regarding the use of OXO for fish-farming, and to fish-farmers for the proper handling to ensure safe fish that the consumer will not be at risk.

Museum studies, is the study of museums, museum curation, and how and why museums developed into their institutional role in education and culture through scientific, social, political and other related forces. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the application trends of the international literature related to museum studies on the SCIE, SSCI, and AHCI databases between 1995 and 2014 using a bibliometric technique and citation analysis. The results of this study reveal that influences of the literature related to museum studies on other subject areas continue to expand. Considering the publication of major countries, subject areas, journal and institutions, the results also discussed that the future trend through analysing most cited articles. Moreover, 12 core journal lists are identified by Bradford’s law.

Through silicon via (TSV) is the critical structure for three dimensional (3D) integration, which provides vertical interconnection between stacking dies. In TSV structure, large coefficient differences of thermal expansion exist between silicon substrate, dielectric material, and filled metal. Due to the large thermal mismatch, the high thermal stress occurring at the interface of different materials would result in delamination. Therefore, thermal-mechanical reliability is a key issue for 3D integration. In this study, we investigated the thermal-mechanical stress distribution of TSV under the condition of the accelerated thermal cycling loading by finite element analysis based on a 3D model of TSV structure. Due to the thermal expansion, that the TSV structure squeezed the surface area between TSVs at a high temperature resulted in compressive stresses at the surface area between TSVs. Therefore, a proper distance between the stress-sensitive device and the TSV should be kept. The stress analysis shows that the maximum thermal stress occurs in the outside region of TSV interface and in the annular region of TSV at a high temperature and at a low temperature, respectively. This study helps to obtain a clear thermal stress distribution of TSV and possible failure regions can be determined.

Background and Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the potency and molecular mechanism of action of YM155, a first-in-class survivin inhibitor that is currently under phase I/II clinical investigations, in various drug-resistant breast cancers including the oestrogen receptor positive (ER+) tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer and the caspase-3-deficient breast cancer. Experimental Approach The potency of YM155 in SK-BR-3, MDA-MB-231, MCF7 and its tamoxifen-resistant sublines, TamR6, TamR7, TamR8, TamC3 and TamC6, were determined by MTT assay. Western blot analysis, flow cytometric analysis, reverse transcription-PCR, fluorescent microscopy and comet assay were used to determine the molecular mechanism of action of YM155 in different breast cancer cell lines. Key Results YM155 was equally potent towards the parental ER+/caspase-3-deficient MCF7 breast cancer cells and its tamoxifen-resistant sublines in vitro. The ER−/HER2+ SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells and the triple-negative/caspase-3-expressing metastatic aggressive MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were also sensitive to YM155 with IC50 values in the low nanomolar range. Targeting survivin by YM155 modulated autophagy, induced autophagy-dependent caspase-7 activation and autophagy-dependent DNA damage in breast cancer cells. Interestingly, YM155 also induced XIAP degradation and the degradation of XIAP might play an important role in YM155-induced autophagy in breast cancer cells. Conclusions and Implications YM155 is a potent survivin inhibitor that has potential for the management of various breast cancer subtypes regardless of the expression of ER, HER2 and caspase-3. Importantly, this study provides new insights into YM155's molecular mechanism of action and therapeutic potential in the treatment of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

We investigate how the co-existence of two types of customers, price-takers, and bargainers, influences the pricing decisions in a supply chain. We consider a stylized supply chain that includes one manufacturer and one retailer, and we characterize the optimal prices of the retailer and the manufacturer. We further discuss the effects of the fraction of the bargainers in the customer population and the relative bargaining power of the bargainers on these optimal prices. Our results show that, given the wholesale price, the lowest price at which the retailer is willing to sell (ie, cut-off price) increases with the relative bargaining power of the bargainers. Both posted and cut-off prices increase in the fraction of the bargainers in the customer population. Moreover, depending on the type of negotiation cost, the variations of both prices will vary. In equilibrium, both posted and cut-off prices do not monotonically increase with the fraction of the bargainers in the customer population. When the maximum reservation price of the customers is low, and/or the negotiation costs are high, and/or the relationship between the bargainer's negotiation cost and reservation price is high, the retailer may reduce both posted and cut-off prices as the fraction of the bargainers increases.

This study presents nitride-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with inverted pyramid sidewalls by chemical wet etching nitride epitaxial layers and investigates the chemical wet etching mechanism of inverted pyramid sidewalls. It is well known that chemical etching solutions such as KOH, H2SO4 and H3PO4 ,t o selectively etch the N-face GaN but not the Ga-face GaN. In this study, the N-face GaN was exposed around the chip by laser scribing at the GaN/sapphire interface. These channels provided paths for the chemical etchant to flow and allow the etching solution to further contact with and etch the exposed bottom N-face GaN. Chemical etching of the chip sidewalls formed the inverted hexagonal pyramid shape with {10 1 1} facets. Findings show that inverted pyramid sidewalls enhance 20 mA LED output power by 27% for LEDs, with chemical etching of the chip sidewalls for 4 min, compared to the conventional LED. The larger LED output power is attributed to increased light extraction efficiency by inverted pyramid sidewalls.

ZnO nanowires were grown on a-plane GaN templates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) without employing a catalyst. The a-plane GaN templates were pre-deposited on an r-plane sapphire substrate by metal-organic CVD. The resulting ZnO nanowires grow in angles off- related to the GaN basal plane. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra showed that the ZnO layer was grown with a heteroepitaxial relationship of (110) ZnO ||(110) GaN . Photoluminescence spectra measured at 17 K exhibited near-band-edge emission at 372 nm with a full width at half maximum of 10 nm. The growth mechanism on a-GaN was the Volmer-Weber (VW) mode and differed from the Stranski-Krastanow (SK) mode observed for growth on c-GaN. This difference results from the higher interfacial free-energy on the a-plane between ZnO and GaN than that on the c-plane orientation.

In this study, the numerical and experimental demonstrations for the enhancement of light-extraction efficiency in nitride-based LEDs with randomly inverted pyramid sidewalls (IPSs) by chemical etching of the chip edge are presented. With 20 mA injection current, it was found that forward voltages were 3.69 and 3.75 V while output powers were 7.07 and 8.95 mW for the conventional LED and inverted pyramid sidewall LED, respectively. The larger LED output power is attributed to the increased light-extraction efficiency by IPSs.

This study demonstrates a pure c -plane AlGaN epilayer grown on a γ-LiAlO 2 (1 0 0) (LAO) substrate with an AlN nucleation layer grown at a relatively low temperature (LT-AlN) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The AlGaN film forms polycrystalline film with m - and c -plane when the nucleation layer grows at a temperature ranging from 660 to 680 °C. However, a pure c -plane AlGaN film with an Al content of approximately 20% can be obtained by increasing the LT-AlN nucleation layer growth temperature to 700 °C. This is because the nuclei density of AlN increases as the growth temperature increases, and a higher nuclei density of AlN deposited on LAO substrate helps prevent the deposition of m -plane AlGaN. Therefore, high-quality and crack-free AlGaN films can be obtained with a (0 0 0 2) ω-rocking curve FWHM of 547 arcsec and surface roughness of 0.79 nm (root-mean-square) using a 700-°C-grown LT-AlN nucleation layer.

Unintentionally doped GaN with conventional single low-temperature (LT) AlN buffer layer and with double Mg x N y /AlN buffer layers both were prepared. It was found that we could reduce defect density and thus improve crystal quality of the GaN by using double Mg x N y /AlN buffer layers. GaN with double Mg x N y /AlN buffer layers reveals an asymmetrical reflection (1 0 2) and (0 0 2) with a smaller full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), and a higher mobility, lower background concentration and lower etching pit density (EPD) than the GaN with the LT-AlN buffer layer.

Indium nitride (InN) dots grown on sapphires by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with an In0.08Ga0.92N intermediate layer were demonstrated. Inserting an In0.08Ga0.92N layer between InN and GaN reduced the average size of InN dots, increased the density of InN dots, and prevented the formation of polycrystalline InN or metallic indium. Furthermore, blue shift of the photoluminescence spectrum of InN dots can be identified when inserting an In0.08Ga0.92N intermediate layer, likely because the InN dots with an In0.08Ga0.92N intermediate layer are markedly smaller than InN dots without an In0.08Ga0.92N intermediate layer, indicating the size quantization effect in the dots.

The study on the vertical and horizontal spot vibration welding of Inconel 690 alloy was carried out to observe the dendrite morphologies and estimate the temperature gradient G and growth rate R under different vibration conditions. The purpose is to further understand the mechanism of microstructure changes under vibration. Based on different temperature distributions along vertical and horizontal directions in the centre of a melting pool, it is found that vertical and horizontal vibrations induce the divergence of the nucleates site and grain growth rate then affect the grain morphologies. Vertical vibration welding creates a coarse dendrite structure with sturdy secondary and tertiary dendrite arms, and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) profile of this structure shows a strong (200) peak. Horizontal vibration welding results in grain refinement and a relatively disordered structure, which is reflected by its low XRD intensity. The study shows that vibration affects the weld structure by improving n...

The nonwetting phenomenon that occurs when a liquid drop is pressed against a solid wall held at a sufficiently lower temperature, is analyzed numerically. An interstitial gas film, induced by thermocapillary convection, separates the drop from the wall, forming a self-lubricating system. The temperature differences and wall distances were probed to evaluate their nonwetting effect. The results indicate that increasing the temperature difference or decreasing the wall distance can enhance the wetting suppression, whether with silicone-oil or water. The thermocapillary nonwetting phenomenon using 5 cSt silicone-oil droplet is more apparent than that obtained with water when the wall distance is small enough, because the capillary number of silicone oil is much larger than that of water. Alternately, when a cold liquid drop is moved towards a hot wall, the thermocapillary flow encourages the occurrence of wetting.

A numerical simulation of isothermal wetting suppression in the presence of shear is considered during which wetting may be prevented when a drop approaches a moving wall. Air is driven into the passage between the solid and liquid surfaces by viscous action, preventing wetting. Silicone-oil and water drops are investigated for different wall velocities and wall distances. The droplet dimples at the upstream side and bulges at the downstream side when nonwetting occurs. The free-surface deformation can be enlarged by either increasing the wall velocity or decreasing the wall distance. The low-viscosity silicone-oil used in these calculations is much more sensitive to shear wetting suppression than is water, because the Weber number of the silicone-oil is larger than that of water. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) prepared on both patterned and conventional sapphire substrates were fabricated. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images show the micro surface roughness could be observed only from the LEDs prepared on patterned substrates. It was also found that electroluminescence (EL) intensity of LEDs grown on patterned sapphire substrate was about 50% larger than that prepared on conventional sapphire substrates. Reliability of LEDs grown on patterned sapphire substrates was also found to be better. (© 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Large size (i.e. 1 mm × 1 mm) high power nitride-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) with Ni/Au and Ni/indium tin oxide (ITO) p-contacts were fabricated. It was found that the 200 mA forward voltage was 3.19 and 3.3 V for the power LEDs with Ni/Au and Ni/ITO p-contacts, respectively. On the other hand, although the 200 mA output power was only 11.59 mW for the power LED with Ni/Au p-contact, the 200 mA output power could reach 16.52 mW for the power LED with Ni/ITO p-contact. Such a significant increase could be attributed to the more transparent nature of Ni/ITO, as compared to Ni/Au. Preliminary life test also indicates that power LEDs with Ni/ITO p-contact are at least as reliable as power LEDs with Ni/Au p-contact.

Nitride-based blue LEDs prepared on both patterned and conventional sapphire substrates were both fabricated. It was found that although the EL peak positions of these two LEDs were about the same, the EL intensity of LED grown on patterned sapphire substrate was about 35% larger. The maximum output power of LED grown on patterned sapphire substrate also occurred at higher injection current. The reliability of LED grown on patterned sapphire substrate was also found to be better. There improvements could all be attributed to the reduced dislocation density in the LEDs grown on patterned sapphire substrates.

The optical and electrical properties of indium tin oxide (ITO)(60 nm), Ni(3.5 nm)/ITO(60 nm) and Ni(5 nm)/Au(5 nm) films were studied. It was found that the normalized transmittance of ITO and Ni/ITO films could reach 98.2% and 86.6% at 470 nm, which was much larger than that of the Ni/Au film. It was also found that both Ni/ITO and Ni/Au could form good ohmic contact on top of p-GaN. In contrast, ITO on p-GaN was electrically poor and non-ohmic. Nitride-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with these three p-contact layers were also fabricated. It was found that the LED forward voltage was 3.65, 3.26 and 3.24 V for the LEDs with ITO, Ni/ITO and Ni/Au p-contact layer, respectively. With a 20 mA current injection, it was also found that measured output power was 7.50, 6.59 and 5.26 mW for the LEDs with ITO, Ni/ITO and Ni/Au p-contact layer, respectively. Although the LED with ITO p-contact could provide the largest output intensity, its lifetime was the shortest due to severe heating effect.

The aim of this study was to determine the potency and molecular mechanism of action of YM155, a first-in-class survivin inhibitor that is currently under phase I/II clinical investigations, in various drug-resistant breast cancers including the oestrogen receptor positive (ER(+) ) tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer and the caspase-3-deficient breast cancer.The potency of YM155 in SK-BR-3, MDA-MB-231, MCF7 and its tamoxifen-resistant sublines, TamR6, TamR7, TamR8, TamC3 and TamC6, were determined by MTT assay. Western blot analysis, flow cytometric analysis, reverse transcription-PCR, fluorescent microscopy and comet assay were used to determine the molecular mechanism of action of YM155 in different breast cancer cell lines.YM155 was equally potent towards the parental ER(+) /caspase-3-deficient MCF7 breast cancer cells and its tamoxifen-resistant sublines in vitro. The ER(-) /HER2(+) SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells and the triple-negative/caspase-3-expressing metastatic aggressive MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells were also sensitive to YM155 with IC50 values in the low nanomolar range. Targeting survivin by YM155 modulated autophagy, induced autophagy-dependent caspase-7 activation and autophagy-dependent DNA damage in breast cancer cells. Interestingly, YM155 also induced XIAP degradation and the degradation of XIAP might play an important role in YM155-induced autophagy in breast cancer cells.YM155 is a potent survivin inhibitor that has potential for the management of various breast cancer subtypes regardless of the expression of ER, HER2 and caspase-3. Importantly, this study provides new insights into YM155's molecular mechanism of action and therapeutic potential in the treatment of tamoxifen-resistant breast cancer.

We demonstrated the formation of GaN-based nanorod (NR) structure by using self-assemble Ni nanoislands as the etching mask. It was found that crystal quality of the GaN epilayer prepared on an NR GaN template was significantly better than that prepared with a conventional low-temperature GaN nucleation layer. With the NR GaN template, it was found that 20-mA light-emitting diode (LED) output power can be enhanced by 39.8%, as compared to the conventional LED.

This investigation presents nitride-based near ultraviolet (n-UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) with a meshed p-GaN layer. With 20 mA injection current, it was found that forward voltages were 3.29, 3.31 and 3.39 V while output powers were 7.5, 9.0 and 10.6 mW for the planar indium-tinoxide (ITO) LED, mesh ITO LED and meshed p-GaN LED, respectively. The larger LED output power is attributed to increased light extraction efficiency. It was also found that we could use such a meshed p-GaN layer to achieve reliable nitride-based n-UV LEDs. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The resource recovery of autofluff (auto shredder residue) is of increasing importance as incineration and land filling become much more expensive and the acceptance of these methods is decreasing. Thus, the main purpose of this work was to investigate the feasibility of the autofluff liquefaction. The liquefaction process involves contacting the autofluff wastes with hot motor oil to recover valuable oil products Experimentally, liquefaction of autofluff in hot used motor oil generated approximately 70.9% of oils, and 2.0% of noncondensible gases and 27.1% of nonliquefible solid residues. Proton NMR and FTIR spectroscopic data reveal the structural changes of oils that occur during autofluff liquefaction. The cuts of the condensate produced from the autofluff liquefaction into weighted boiling fraction are primarily light naphtha and heavy gas oil Light naphtha is the main constituents of gasoline. Heavy gas oil may be re‐refined into lighter products or sold as a low grade fuel oil.

We have performed Photoreflectance (PR), Raman Scattering (RS), and Photoluminescence (PL) experiments to characterize the In 0.52 Al 0.48 As surface exposed to plasma by a gas mixture of CH 4 /H 2 /Ar, PR spectra indicate that RIE (plasma) causes defects such as nonradiative recombination centers, scattering centers, and defects leading to the decrease of signal intensity, broaden line width and red shift of the transitions by increasing the rf power. In the Raman scattering study, RIE causes defects against InAs-like and AlAs-like LO modes vibration. As the rf power increased, the maximum of two LO modes shifts towards lower frequency and the line shape becomes increasingly asymmetric. Also, the intensity degrades gradually by disorder and point defects with increasing rf power. The PL transition energies show a red-shift with increasing the rf power. In addition, the spectral feature broadens, and the intensity decreases with rf power higher than 200 W. The consistence of the PL, PR, and RS results indicate that these three methods can be used as sensitive probes to evaluate the near surface damage of the epilayer.

With the substantial growth of mobile phone users, mobile commerce (m-commerce) has been predicated to become a powerful tool in electronic commerce. To achieve success in m-commerce, companies must first understand consumer behaviors toward m-commerce adoption. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive review of the information system (IS) literature related to consumer perspectives of m-commerce, integrate research findings across studies in order to enhance the knowledge of consumer behavior regarding m-commerce adoption, and provide a clear direction for further discussion. An integrative framework based on finding according to a coherent and comprehensive review related studies in m-commerce field was proposed. This integrative framework proposed system quality, information quality, service quality, and bizware characteristics as critical factors that influence consumer behaviors toward adopting m-commerce through the perceptions of easy of use, usefulness, risk, and convenience.

Frequency-dependent characteristics of shielded junction discontinuities between coplanar type transmission lines, specifically coplanar waveguide (CPW) and finline, are analyzed by the mode-matching technique. The effect of finite metallization thickness is also incorporated in the analysis for the first time. Scattering parameters of finline step discontinuity are compared with existing data to confirm the accuracy of the approach. Numerical results for finline step discontinuity, shielded CPW step discontinuity and CPW-finline transition are presented. >

In this study, III-nitride solar cells with multi-quantum well (MQW) absorption layer were grown on sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The effect of different quantum well (QW) arrangement on optoelectronic characteristics of III-nitrides photovoltaic cells was investigated. It was found that the upper quantum well (QW) layer will dominate electroluminescence (EL) emission mechanism and the electrical characteristics of solar cell. The advantage of modulating the short-circuit current density (JSC) and open-circuit voltage (VOC) can be obtained by different arrangement of blue and green QW in MQW absorption layer. The optimum electrical characteristics of solar cell with a JSC of 0.30 mA/cm2, a VOC up to 1.51 V, fill factor (FF) as high as 0.601, and a series resistance (RS) of 9 Ω can be obtained by using MQW absorption layer. (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

We have prepared bulk p-AlInGaN layers and light emitting diodes (LEDs) with p-AlInGaN surface layers by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). It was found that surfaces of the LEDs with p-AlInGaN layers were rough with high density of hexagonal pits. It was also found that pit width and pit density depend on the growth temperature of the p-AlInGaN layer. Furthermore, it was found that we can achieve 62% enhancement in output intensity from the LED with 820°C p-AlInGaN cap layer without increasing the LED operation voltage.

An impedance boundary condition model is incorporated in the spectral domain formulation to calculate the transmission characteristics of a microstrip line with a lossy conducting strip. Subsectional rectangular pulse functions are used as the basis functions for the surface current distribution because of the finite conductivity of the conducting strip. The approach has the advantage of being more flexible without assuming the edge condition of the surface current distribution and is numerically efficient. Numerical results on the phase and attenuation constants of a superconducting microstrip line are computed for a comparison. >

Tracheal bronchus is a rarely found congenital bronchial anomaly. It usually originates from the right lateral wall of the trachea at the level2 cm above the tracheal bifurcation. The patients usually are asymptomatic, but some may experience recurrent pneumonia, chronic bronchitis, or bronchiectasis. It is very rare for a malignant tumor to grow from this aberrant bronchus. There are only four cases of lung cancer developing from the tracheal bronchus reported in the world literature, and we present a fifth case.

The co-design of power and signal integrity issues on a quad flat non-lead (QFN) package is described. A novel decoupling capacitor is achieved by separating the die pad and footprint, coating a solder mask on the footprint and connecting the footprint to the printed circuit board power plane through a via. Large capacitance between power (footprint) and ground (die pad) resulted from the thin mask and large die pad lowering the input impedance of the power delivery network without parasitic effects at low frequency. A power bridge and a ground bridge are introduced to substitute the wire bond to decrease the inductance and hence the impedance magnitude up to 30%, thus enhancing the power integrity at high frequency. A modified design called hybrid power/ground exhibits great signal integrity by providing good reference for signals. The thermal dissipation is also better than the first design through direct contact of the die pad and the footprint ground regions. The overall design demonstrates excellent broadband performance for signal and power integrity.

We demonstrate evidence for geometric modes which cannot be explained by the multi-bouncing fundamental Gaussian beam (MBFGB) model. First, we show that a single-frequency VW mode profile always has a bright-centered interference pattern according to the MBFGB model but becomes a dark-centered profile by varying the off-axial pump position. Second, the multi-frequency geometric modes cannot be interpreted by the MBFGB model but can be explained by wave representation. Third, a knife can break a narrow-N mode even when the knife does not hinder any of its expected multi-bouncing beams, which reveals the existence of higher order modes. Our simulations match very well with experiments.

In this study, we introduce a method combining the inductively coupled plasma and wet etching process with SiO 2 microspheres to fabricate the nanoinverted pyramid (NIP) structures of a GaN template. GaN epitaxial layers and GaN-based multiple quantum well light emitting diode (LED) structures with a conventional single GaN buffer and an NIP GaN template were proposed and fabricated. The NIP GaN template can significantly reduce dislocation density and thus improve the crystal quality of the GaN epitaxial layers. By using an NIP GaN template, we can enhance LED output power by 32%.

In this paper, the optimum shallow trench isolation, together with Ni silicide technology, is introduced to implement the strained-Si negative-metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (nMOSFETs) and shows well-behaved characteristics using the 0.18 μm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process. It is found that the strained-Si nMOSFET provides a strong enhancement (up to 75%) in long-channel mobility when compared to a Si control device. The increased mobility behavior is translated into a 70% higher driving current for the large-area devices (W X L = 10 X 10 μm) and a 51% higher driving current for device pattern down to W X L = 0.3 X 0.18 μm. Significant pattern effects for strained-Si devices with NiSi is observed, which is the result of the formation of nonuniform Ni silicide at the source/drain region and is responsible for the increased source/drain resistance and off-state leakage.

A finite-difference time-domain method, combined with thin-wire and thin-slot algorithms, which is used to analyse a metamaterial based on periodic mushroom structures, is proposed. This proposed method is suitable for analysing problems involving large structures with fine structural details. Several composite right/left handed (CRLH) metamaterial mushroom-based structures are investigated. A 19 × 8 flat lens and a parabolic lens structure composed of 410 unit mushroom cells are investigated and they demonstrate negative-refractive-index characteristics while operating in the LH region. The simulation and measurement results of one- and two-dimensional CRLH mushroom-based structures are compared. The periodic analysis for mushroom structures is also introduced. Only a single unit mushroom cell is required to present the phenomena of infinite periodicity with periodic boundary conditions.

Resonance noise, or power/ground bounce noise, between the power and ground planes of high-speed circuit packages is one of the main concerns of signal integrity or power integrity issues. A novel time-domain approach is proposed to extract the equivalent circuit models of power/ground planes by time-domain reflection and time-domain transmission waveforms. The extracted model can accurately predict the resonance behaviour of power/ground planes over a wide frequency range. These models can be efficiently incorporated into the HSPICE simulator for the consideration of power/ground bouncing noise in high-speed circuits.