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Advanced maternal aging has become a worldwide public health issue contributing to female fertility decline. To provide a complete landscape of transcriptome and epigenetic changes during oocyte aging and maturation, we applied a parallel bimodal genomics approach to parallel transcriptome and methylome profiles of mouse oocytes at single-cell and single-base resolution. Age-associated gene expression changes were associated with defective spindle assembly and mitochondrial dysfunction. Parallel sequencing data suggested aged-related defects in mRNA degradation and methylome remodelling during oocyte maturation. Differentially methylated region in aged mature oocyte was associated with trimethylation of Histone H3 at Lysine 4. More importantly, RNA expression-based prediction model for assessing maturation and oocytes age. Taken together, our work provides a better understanding of molecular mechanisms during mouse oocyte aging, points a new direction of oocyte quality assessment and paves the way for developing novel treatments to improve oocyte quality. © 2022 The Authors

There is an increasing interest in peer interventions in the management of chronic conditions, but evidence on peer interventions for body weight is lacking. The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of peer interventions on body weight, energy intake, and physical activity in adults. Interventions delivered by peer (lay member that participants identify with) were included. We searched 14 databases. Outcomes were combined in the meta-analysis using the inverse variance random-effects model. From 2435 articles, 65 articles were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis (n = 15,673). Peer interventions resulted in significant reduction in weight (mean difference [MD] -1.05 kg; 95% confidence interval [CI] -1.68, -0.43; 95% prediction interval [PI] -3.25, 1.14; 28 studies; 7142 participants), BMI (MD -0.24 kg/m2 ; 95% CI -0.44, -0.04; 95% PI -0.92, 0.45; 25 studies; 6672 participants), waist circumference (MD -0.75 cm; 95% CI -1.29, -0.21; 95% PI -1.36, -0.14; 12 studies; 4280 participants), and significant increase in physical activity (SMD 0.20; 95% CI 0.09, 0.32; 95% PI -0.46, 0.86; 41 studies; 10,778 participants) with no significant effect on energy intake. This study suggests peer interventions are effective in reducing waist circumference, but further research is needed to confirm its effect on other obesity-related outcomes.

The research aims to identify the factors of traffic congestion in Penang Bridge.The factors which will be discussed are bad driver behavior, poor bridge structure, and increasing number of vehicles.Bad driver behaviors such as distraction are contributed to road accidents which will lead to traffic congestions. Poor bridge structure discussed here is merges road, which is when the number of lanes narrowed from three lanes to two lanes when reaching the exit on each side of the bridge. Lastly, statistically shows that the increased of vehicles in Penang does directly caused traffic congestions in Penang Bridge.

With BiCMOS technology, both BJT and MOS devices are available in building RF transceivers. To utilize these two devices in the front-end of systems, their noise characteristics have to be fully characterized and modeled. Once the received signals are down converted to the base band frequency range, CMOS devices are used in the digital signal processing. The fast switching digital signals can drive CMOS devices into non-quasi-static (NQS) state, resulting in a time delay in the output responses. To accurately model the digital system response, the NQS effect has to be included in the MOS model. The thesis covers the noise analysis of both BJT and MOS devices, as well as the NQS modeling of MOS transistors. A compact model for BJT noise analysis is developed taking into consideration the transmission line effect due to the lateral intrinsic base resistance combined with the capacitance along the emitter width. An empirical model is also formulated to give a design guideline on how to scale the spacer thickness, which determines the extrinsic base resistance, with the emitter width. Characterizations are done on MOS devices to investigate the impact of hot carriers on the noise performance. Furthermore, a robust NQS model is developed and implemented in a compact MOS model, with a view to precisely evaluating the timing behavior of the system.

In this paper, the short-channel effect in ultrathin body (UTB) SOI Flash memory cell induced by the floating-gate is investigated by a newly developed two-dimensional analytical model. A concept of effective natural length (A,ff) is introduced as a measure of the impact of the floating-gate on the scaling limit. Even though scaling the channel thickness can significantly reduce SCE in UTB MOSFETs, it becomes less effective in floating-gate device due to the floating polysilicon induced gate coupling. To minimize the floating-gate induced SCEs, the drain to floating-gate coupling has to be minimized.

dThe operation, biasing, and measured performances of the floating-body silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) MOSFET as a single-gate FET upconversion mixer are presented. Despite the floating-body effects of the SOS MOSFET, the upconversion RF mixer operation is feasible by utilizing the approximate square-law transfer characteristics of the SOS MOSFETs. With a drawn gate length L-min = 0.8 mum, the single-gate SOS MOSFET mixer gives an approximately 1.5-dB power conversion gain, an input-referred third-order intercept point (IP3) of 5 dBm while requiring a local oscillator (LO) power of 5.5 dBm with an RF bandwidth of 2 GHz and an IF bandwidth of 400 MHz. The current consumption is about 8 mA with a 3 V voltage supply. The realization of a high output bandwidth and high IF RF mixer is demonstrated to be possible with the floating-body SOS MOSFET.

The effects of spacer thickness on noise performance of a bipolar junction transistor with different emitter widths and operation frequencies are examined. The minimum noise figure (NFmin) derived from the Y-parameters as well as the base (r(B)) and emitter resistance (r(E)) obtained. from the device simulation is used as a measure of noise characteristics. Furthermore, the noise resistance (R-n), optimum source admittance (Y-sop), and the associated gain (G(A,assc)) are also given in this brief. To achieve the minimum value of NFmin, the spacer thickness should be targeted to an optimal value, and its value is frequency and geometry dependent.

In this paper, an improved hybrid-pi model with equivalent noise sources are proposed. Based on these models, a comparison with the results obtained with the conventional hybrid-a model is made.