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Low temperature Carbon Nano-tubes (CNTs) growth technology is developed in this work with the insert of Al (Aluminum) between Ni (Nickel) and Ti (Titanium) as the reactant. The optimized Al thicknesses are also investigated. CNTs growth at the low temperature below 400 °C is the key factor for the back end of line compatible process integration. In this work, we grow the CNTs by thermal chemical vapor deposition process at 350 and 400 °C. The low ratio of peak ID/IG in Raman spectra and scanning electron microscope images proves the CNTs material quality. On the other hand, the high thermal conductivity (k) value of ∼50 W m − 1 K − 1 is also demonstrated. Both high material quality and k value on our low temperature grown CNTs show promising opportunities for the integration of semiconductor three dimensional packages and power-via related applications.

The botanical origins of Chinese drug materials in yams were examined among eighteen cultivarities/ species of Dioscorea by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). DNA isolated from fresh leaves were used as a template in polymerase chain reactions (P CR) using thirty random decamer primers. Eighteen primers produced 237 polymorphic RAPD markers, which were scored for all the line s studied. Four primers including OPP-04, OPP-15, OPAP-04 and OPAP-10, could distinguish all tested samples. Genetic distances an d similarities among eighteen cultivarities/species were calculated, and a cluster analysis was used to generate a dendrogram showin g a phylogenetic relationship. The studied Dioscorea species could be divided into five subgroups by phylogenetic analysis. Genetic distance and similarity analysis showed that line 70W37 was distantly related to 70W47, and line 70W41 was closely related to 70W59. RAPD te chnique could be successfully applied for the rapid identification and differentiation of Dioscorea species.

Q fever (QF) is a worldwide zoonosis associated with outbreaks. Only a few nationwide studies regarding the surveillance and epidemiology of human QF have been reported. Although QF is endemic in Taiwan, a nationwide database investigation of the epidemiology and characteristics of QF and its associations with scrub typhus (ST), murine typhus (MT) and leptospirosis (LS) has never been reported. We analysed nationwide databases of suspected QF, ST, MT and LS cases from October 2007 to December 2014 obtained from the Centers for Disease Control, Taiwan. A total of 468 (4.2%) QF cases were identified among 11 109 suspected QF cases. QF cases were mainly distributed in the southern and Kaohsiung-Pingtung regions but rarely in the eastern region. Compared to non-QF cases, QF cases had significantly higher percentages of males (88.7 versus 66.2%) and high-risk occupations (farming, animal husbandry or veterinary medicine) (16.2 versus 10.5%). But the percentages of specific animal contact, including cattle (0.6 versus 0.8%) and goats (0.9 versus 1.0%), were low in both. The majority of suspected QF cases (89.4%) were simultaneously suspected with ST, MT or LS, and the combinations of suspected diseases differed between regions. The number of suspected QF cases from the eastern region decreased since 2009, which was not observed in other regions. A total of 1420 (12.8%) cases had confirmed diseases, including QF (453, 4.1%), QF+ST (7, 0.06%), QF+MT (4, 0.04%), QF+LS (4, 0.04%), MT (186, 1.7%), ST (545, 4.9%), ST+LS (11, 0.1%) and LS (210, 1.9%). Compared to cases of unknown disease, QF cases had larger percentages of high-risk occupations (16.2 versus 9.6%) but similar histories of animal contact (29.8 versus 25.1%). QF is an endemic disease in southern Taiwan. It is difficult to differentiate QF from ST, MT or LS only by high-risk occupations and history of animal contact, and co-infection of QF with these diseases should be considered.

The typical characteristics of ultra-thin Zr doped in HfO 2 as gate stack is demonstrated. The 1T memory window of P/E retention is 0.67V for 5nm and 1.52V for 7nm after extrapolated 10 years with V P /E=± 4.8V, and >109 cycles of read endurance. It is promising to use ultra-thin FE-HZO as the guidelines for 1T memory applications.

Si-based photonic crystal device such as solar cells have been developed and attract lots of attention. Whether what kind of different structures are used, two key problems are needed to investigate. One is the improvement of the optic-electric (or electric-optic) transformation efficiency. Another is the capability to modulate the light-emitting and detection wavelength for various industrial applications. The wavelength of the light emission and detection can also be further adjusted by changing the material band-gap. In this work, we develop the periodic nanoscale surface textured solar cells. The characteristics of top thin film textured solar cells is developed and estimated to see if the structure is worthy to be scaled from the modern micrometer (um) level down to the nanometer (nm) level continuously. The process of nm-scale textured Si optoelectronic device used in this work is fully comparable to the modern CMOS industry. Optimal Ge concentration in SiGe-based solar cells has been investigated qualitatively by the systemic experiments. With the appropriate addition of Ge to a SiGe-based solar cell, the short current density (Isc) is successfully increased without affecting the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and then the overall efficiency is successfully improved about 4 % than the nanoscale surface textured Si solar cell.

A capacitive sensor is demonstrated as the key component of a wearable breath monitoring system. Its capacitance varies proportional to the pressure acting on it with high linearity and wide working range. All of the components of the sensor, including conductors, insulator, and conductive wires, are textile materials and are thus as soft as ordinary clothes; therefore, the sensor is also washable and durable. By installing one sensor on the chest and another on the lower abdomen, thoracic and abdominal breathing can be detected independently with little crosstalk. Driven by a low-power NE556 oscillator, the capacitances of both sensors can be detected digitally and then transmitted by a Bluetooth low-energy wireless communication module to a smartphone. Thus, a wearable breath monitoring system is implemented to provide continuous and real time breath signal monitoring without mobility constraints.

Hollow circular cylinders are widely used as pressure vessels, for example, in the nuclear and chemical industries. In this study, stress intensity factors for axial cracks in hollow cylinders subjected to thermal shock are determined by using the thermal weight function method. The thermal weight function is a universal function for a given cracked body and can be obtained from any arbitrary mechanical loading system. The thermal weight function may be though of as Green`s function for the stress intensity factor of cracked bodies subject to thermal loadings. Once the thermal weight function for a cracked body is determined, the stress intensity factor for any arbitrary distributed thermal loading can be simply and efficiently evaluated through the integration of the product of the temperature and the correspondent thermal weight function. A numerical boundary element method for the determination of thermal weight functions for axial cracks in hollow cylinders is used in this study to evaluate the transient stress intensity factor. As a demonstration, some examples of axial cracks in hollow cylinders subjected to thermal shock are solved by using the thermal weight function method, and the results are compared with available results in the published literature.

The objective was to develop a high-throughput method of identifying sex in both Coturnix chinensis and Gallus gallus, which would be useful for biomedical research and hatcheries. Because chromo-helicase-DNA binding protein (CHD)-based Griffiths P2/P8 primers do not produce polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products with distinguishable sex-specific curves in melting curve analysis (MCA), these primers are unsuitable for high throughput application in either species. Conserved regions were identified by basic local alignment search tool (BLAST) analyses of cloned CHD-Z and CHD-W genes of C. chinensis. Based on sequence alignment, a female-specific CHD-W primer (W-cot-F1) and a female/male (or CHD-W/CHD-Z)-common primer (ZW-cot-F1) were redesigned for use in combination with the Griffiths P2 primer for MCA-based PCR reaction. In C. chinensis and G. gallus, W-cot-F1/P2 and ZW-cot-F1/P2 had amplicon lengths of 315/318 and 114 base pairs and melting temperatures (Tm) of approximately 79.5 °C to 80 °C and approximately 78.5 °C to 79°C, respectively. Thus, MCA distinguished sex based on two distinct Tm peaks in females versus only one Tm peak in males. The MCA-based real-time PCR combined with the proposed primer redesign provided a high-throughput method of identifying sex in C. chinensis and G. gallus.

Improvements in workplace, working posture, and discomfort need to be justified in terms of improvements in performance. Previously, a visual inspection task has been investigated. The objective of the current study was to demonstrate the interactions between workplace, work duration, discomfort, working posture, as well as performance in a 2-h typing task. Three levels of keyboard heights were used to change working posture (e.g. joint angles and postural shifts), and thus presumably discomfort (e.g. rating of perceived discomfort and body part discomfort), and performance (e.g. typing speed, error rate and error correction rate). The results indicated that the hypothesized posture-comfort-performance interrelationships were partially supported. Keyboard height had effects on working posture adopted. As in previous studies, the rate of postural shift was a good indication of discomfort in a VDT task. Discomfort and postural shift rate had adverse effects on performance (e.g. error rate). However, these effects on error rate may not be strong.

Trench structure is designed and used to release process induced stress, resulting from the different material thermal expansion coefficients, in three-dimensional integral circuits (3DICs). The stress in the designed trench structure is measured by atomic force microscope Raman technique experimentally, and simulated by the full process simulation model. With the help of this simulation model, the optimized trench structure near the copper-filled TSV is designed and reported. The experimental data demonstrate that the tensile stress near the TSV can be reduced from 600 MPa to 150 MPa and the corresponding keep-out zone (KOZ) can also be decreased ~4 times with the designed trench structure having a depth of 10 µm and spacing distance of 8 µm to the TSV. This work provides one potential solution to release process induced stress for real application of 3DICs.

Tetramethylpyrazine, an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase, has been widely used for treatment of cardiovascular diseases in China. Here, we investigate the effects of tetramethylpyrazine on hypotension, vascular hyporeactivity to norepinephrine (NE), release of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha) and nitric oxide (NO) in a rat model of circulatory shock induced by bacterial endotoxin (E. coli lipopolysaccharide, LPS). Male Wistar-Kyoto rats were anesthetized and instrumented for the measurement of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). Injection of LPS (10 mg/kg, i.v.) resulted in a fall in MAP and an increase of HR. In contrast, animals pretreated with tetramethylpyrazine (10 micrograms/kg, i.p. at 30 min prior to LPS) maintained a significantly higher MAP, but tachycardia was further enhanced at 60 min and 120 min when compared to rats given only LPS (LPS-rats). The pressor effect of NE (1 microgram/kg, i.v.) was also significantly reduced after treatment of rats with LPS. Similarly, the thoracic aorta obtained from rats after in vivo studies showed a significant reduction in the contractile responses elicited by NE (1 microM). Pretreatment of LPS-rats with tetramethylpyrazine partially, but significantly, prevented this LPS-induced hyporeactivity to NE in vivo and ex vivo. The injection of LPS resulted in a significant increase in the plasma TNF alpha level at 60 min, whereas the effect of LPS on the plasma nitrate (an indicator of NO formation) level increased in a time-dependent manner. This increment of both TNF alpha and nitrate levels induced by LPS was significantly reduced in LPS-rats pretreated with tetramethylpyrazine. The early hypotension caused by LPS was slightly, but significantly, prevented by pretreatment with tetramethylpyrazine, suggesting that tetramethylpyrazine affects the endothelial constitutive NOS (eNOS). This was examined by the effect of tetramethylpyrazine on acetylcholine (ACh, 1 microM)-induced relaxation in rats treated with tetramethylpyrazine for 4 h. However, tetramethylpyrazine had no significant effects on the ACh-induced relaxation, indicating that tetramethylpyrazine does not affect the activity of eNOS. Thus, tetramethylpyrazine attenuates the early hypotension and the delayed circulatory failure caused by endotoxin in the rat. These effects may be due to inhibition of the release of circulation factors and TNF alpha, which usually reveal synergism upon the induction of iNOS.

With the optimized raised source/drain (S/D) structure to avoid the current crowding effect and the heavily in situ Si-doped (1.5 × 1019 cm−3) in the S/D region with the implant-free process, we demonstrate the outstanding on-state performance and ultra-low S/D resistance (RSD) of 220 Ω µm in indium gallium arsenide (In0.53Ga0.47As) quantum-well (QW) metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). A device with gate length (Lg) = 1 µm exhibits saturation drain current (ID,sat) = 3.1 × 10−4 A µm−1 and peak transconductance (gm) = 866 µS µm−1. The optimized raised S/D thickness to balance the trade-off between the current crowding effect and the intrinsic resistance increase is investigated. On the other hand, the implant-free and gate-last process with low thermal budget process also lead to high-quality high-κ gate stack and the possibility of integration.

In this work, we demonstrate the ultra-low contact resistivity of 6.7 × 10−9 Ω/cm2 by inserting 0.6 nm ZnO between Al and indium gallium arsenide (Si: 1.5 × 1019 cm−3). The metal-insulator-semiconductor tunneling diode with 0.6 nm ZnO exhibits nearly zero (0.03 eV) barrier height. We apply this contact structure on the source/drain of implant-free In0.53Ga0.47As quantum-well metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors. The excellent on-state performance such as saturation drain current of 3 × 10−4 A/μm and peak transconductance of 1250 μS/μm is obtained which is attributed to the ultra-low source/drain resistance of 190 Ω μm.

Change in renal cortex echogenicity relative to the adjacent liver, from neonates to adults, was determined by using ultrasonography in ninety-nine cases. The kidney/liver echogenicity ratio in neonates was 0.96 +/- 0.10, decreasing with maturation to an approximate adult level (0.66 +/- 0.05) by two years of age. The kidney/liver echogenicity ratio (Y) was constructed by regression analysis on the equation Y = 0.9309-0.1201X (X = age in years) for age less than two years.

The SiGe quantum well (QW) tunneling diodes with different Si cap thickness are designed in this work to investigate the detailed mechanism of light emission for the metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) light-emitting diode (LED). At the accumulation (negative) gate bias, the electrons tunnel from the metal gate to the SiGe QW semiconductor substrate (p-type). Meanwhile, the negative gate bias also attracts holes in the interface of insulator and SiGe QW semiconductor and then the tunneling electrons can recombine with holes to emit the infrared. LEDs with different Si/SiGe/Si structure are used to investigate the light-emission mechanism and prove that the region of infrared emission is mainly from the interface of the insulator and semiconductor, not from the neutral region in the semiconductor substrate. The accurate energy band and carrier concentration in the SiGe QW structure with operated bias are also simulated and compared it with the experimental data. It shows that the concentrations of the tunn...

A total of 29 cases were enrolled in this study and divided randomly into Group I (traditional epinephrine injection) and Group II (terbutaline nebulizer inhalation). If patients did not respond well to the initial therapy. a crossover therapeutic regimen was assigned and their pulmonary function, peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) was measured every 10 minutes for half an hour. Both groups of patients revealed significant improvement post initial treatment P less than 0.0001). Within group difference was analysis by Wilcoxon signed rank test. All subgroups at 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes were compared in terms of their baseline pulmonary function, epinephrine group P value showed 0.0059, 0.0038, 0.0025; and terbutaline nebulizer inhalation group P value showed as 0.0007. 0.0003, 0.0003 respectively. An analysis of the group with an initial PEFR below 40% of the normal predicted or the more severely ill childhood acute asthmatic patients, the ten minutes post-treatment PEFR value of the epinephrine group showed P = 0.059; a significant P value of 0.0038 was noted for the terbutaline inhalation group, but both group P value was less than 0.05 at 20.30 minutes post-treatment, respectively. Between-group difference was analysed by Mann Whitney U test. Although all time interval mean data showed higher for the terbutaline inhalation group, statistically it showed P greater than 0.05. The above data suggest terbutaline inhalation therapy at the dosage noted will have early onset of action and better early clinical improvement than the traditional epinephrine injection regimen. There seemed to be no difference in degree of improvement between the two regimens. Observation of crossover treatment found a 50% re-response rate in both group of of patients who did not respond well to their initial regimen, and post crossover treatment PEFR all showed statistically significant improvement. However, still there was no significant difference between the two groups. This suggests that the terbutaline nebulizer inhalation method can not totally replace the more traditional method of acute asthma management, and emphasizes that a crossover therapeutic regimen should be kept in mind because the re-response rate is still encouraging. According to the variance analysis, the most important factor influencing the final outcome was the degree of severity of the initial asthmatic attack. The lower in initial PEFR value. The worse the clinical response. Other factors like age, sex, duration of asthma (year) and time interval between onset to arrival at the emergency room, showed as neither significant nor important.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

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