The vertical metal insulator semiconductor tunnel transistor: A proposed Fowler-Nordheim tunneling device

We propose a new field-effect transistor, the vertical metal insulator semiconductor tunnel transistor (VMISTT) which operates using gate modulation of the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling current through a metal insulator semiconductor (M-I-S) diode. The VMISTT has significant advantages over the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor in device scaling. In order to allow room-temperature operation of the VMISTT, the tunnel oxide has to be optimized for the metal-to-insulator barrier height and the current-voltage characteristics. We have grown TiO2 layers as the tunnel insulator by oxidizing 7 and 10 nm thick Ti metal films vacuum-evaporated on silicon substrates, and characterized the films by current-voltage and capacitance-voltage techniques. The quality of the oxide films showed variations, depending on the oxidation temperatures in the range of 450-550 degrees C. Fowler-Nordheim tunneling was observed at low temperatures at bias voltage of 2 V and above and a barrier height of approximately 0.4 eV was calculated. Leakage currents present were due Schottky-barrier emission at room-temperature, and hopping at liquid nitrogen temperature

SILAC-based phosphoproteomics reveals an inhibitory role of KSR1 in p53 transcriptional activity via modulation of DBC1

BACKGROUND We have previously identified kinase suppressor of ras-1 (KSR1) as a potential regulatory gene in breast cancer. KSR1, originally described as a novel protein kinase, has a role in activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases. Emerging evidence has shown that KSR1 may have dual functions as an active kinase as well as a scaffold facilitating multiprotein complex assembly. Although efforts have been made to study the role of KSR1 in certain tumour types, its involvement in breast cancer remains unknown. METHODS A quantitative mass spectrometry analysis using stable isotope labelling of amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) was implemented to identify KSR1-regulated phosphoproteins in breast cancer. In vitro luciferase assays, co-immunoprecipitation as well as western blotting experiments were performed to further study the function of KSR1 in breast cancer. RESULTS Of significance, proteomic analysis reveals that KSR1 overexpression decreases deleted in breast cancer-1 (DBC1) phosphorylation. Furthermore, we show that KSR1 decreases the transcriptional activity of p53 by reducing the phosphorylation of DBC1, which leads to a reduced interaction of DBC1 with sirtuin-1 (SIRT1); this in turn enables SIRT1 to deacetylate p53. CONCLUSION Our findings integrate KSR1 into a network involving DBC1 and SIRT1, which results in the regulation of p53 acetylation and its transcriptional activity

Development of Photonic Crystal Fiber Based Gas/ Chemical Sensors

The development of highly-sensitive and miniaturized sensors that capable of real-time analytes detection is highly desirable. Nowadays, toxic or colorless gas detection, air pollution monitoring, harmful chemical, pressure, strain, humidity, and temperature sensors based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) are increasing rapidly due to its compact structure, fast response and efficient light controlling capabilities. The propagating light through the PCF can be controlled by varying the structural parameters and core-cladding materials, as a result, evanescent field can be enhanced significantly which is the main component of the PCF based gas/chemical sensors. The aim of this chapter is to (1) describe the principle operation of PCF based gas/ chemical sensors, (2) discuss the important PCF properties for optical sensors, (3) extensively discuss the different types of microstructured optical fiber based gas/ chemical sensors, (4) study the effects of different core-cladding shapes, and fiber background materials on sensing performance, and (5) highlight the main challenges of PCF based gas/ chemical sensors and possible solutions

LMTK3 confers chemo-resistance in breast cancer

Lemur tyrosine kinase 3 (LMTK3) is an oncogenic kinase that is involved in different types of cancer (breast, lung, gastric, colorectal) and biological processes including proliferation, invasion, migration, chromatin remodeling as well as innate and acquired endocrine resistance. However, the role of LMTK3 in response to cytotoxic chemotherapy has not been investigated thus far. Using both 2D and 3D tissue culture models, we found that overexpression of LMTK3 decreased the sensitivity of breast cancer cell lines to cytotoxic (doxorubicin) treatment. In a mouse model we showed that ectopic overexpression of LMTK3 decreases the efficacy of doxorubicin in reducing tumor growth. Interestingly, breast cancer cells overexpressing LMTK3 delayed the generation of double strand breaks (DSBs) after exposure to doxorubicin, as measured by the formation of γH2AX foci. This effect was at least partly mediated by decreased activity of ataxia-telangiectasia mutated kinase (ATM) as indicated by its reduced phosphorylation levels. In addition, our RNA-seq analyses showed that doxorubicin differentially regulated the expression of over 700 genes depending on LMTK3 protein expression levels. Furthermore, these genes were found to promote DNA repair, cell viability and tumorigenesis processes / pathways in LMTK3-overexpressing MCF7 cells. In human cancers, immunohistochemistry staining of LMTK3 in pre- and postchemotherapy breast tumor pairs from four separate clinical cohorts revealed a significant increase of LMTK3 following both doxorubicin and docetaxel based chemotherapy. In aggregate, our findings show for the first time a contribution of LMTK3 in cytotoxic drug resistance in breast cancer

Development and Evaluation of a Positive Youth Development Course for University Students in Hong Kong

With higher education, university graduates are important elements of the labor force in knowledge-based economies. With reference to the mental health and developmental problems in university students, there is a need to review university's role in nurturing holistic development of students. Based on the positive youth development approach, it is argued that promoting intrapersonal competencies is an important strategy to facilitate holistic development of young people in Hong Kong. In The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a course entitled Tomorrow's Leader focusing on positive youth development constructs to promote student well-being will be offered on a compulsory basis starting from 2012/13 academic year under the new undergraduate curriculum structure. The proposed course was piloted in 2010/11 school year. Different evaluation strategies, including objective outcome evaluation, subjective outcome evaluation, process evaluation, and qualitative evaluation, are being carried out to evaluate the developed course. Preliminary evaluation findings based on the piloting experience in 2010/11 academic year are presented in this paper

Empirical Bayes accomodation of batch-effects in microarray data using identical replicate reference samples: application to RNA expression profiling of blood from Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Non-biological experimental error routinely occurs in microarray data collected in different batches. It is often impossible to compare groups of samples from independent experiments because batch effects confound true gene expression differences. Existing methods can correct for batch effects only when samples from all biological groups are represented in every batch.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this report we describe a generalized empirical Bayes approach to correct for cross-experimental batch effects, allowing direct comparisons of gene expression between biological groups from independent experiments. The proposed experimental design uses identical reference samples in each batch in every experiment. These reference samples are from the same tissue as the experimental samples. This design with tissue matched reference samples allows a gene-by-gene correction to be performed using fewer arrays than currently available methods. We examine the effects of non-biological variation within a single experiment and between experiments.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Batch correction has a significant impact on which genes are identified as differentially regulated. Using this method, gene expression in the blood of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is shown to differ for hundreds of genes when compared to controls. The numbers of specific genes differ depending upon whether between experiment and/or between batch corrections are performed.</p

Performance Analysis in Mesh Network-on-Chip Topology by using Multilevel Network Partitioning

The increasing complexity of System-on-Chips (SoCs) has resulted in the bottlenecking of the system due to scalability problems in the bus system. This leads to the decrement of the performance of future SoCs with more complex circuitries inside them. Network-on-Chips (NoCs) was proposed as one of the solutions to overcome these issues especially regarding the communication between Intellectual Properties (IP) in a chip. The fundamentals in designing NoC include the selection of network topologies, and hence performance optimization is needed to ensure the full advantage of networking is taken. Therefore, multi-level Network Partitioning techniques are proposed to obtain the optimal design of networks based on its performance. The performance of a network is measured by its throughput, average queue size, waiting time and data loss. This technique is applied in a case study using MPEG-4 video application with four famous partitioning algorithms (Linear, Spectral, Tailor-Made and Kerninghan-Lin). Experimental results show that second level of spectral partitioning gives the best performance compared to another network partitioning

A Digital Revival of Oriental Studies

The Digital Orientalist est une revue numérique à la fois multidisciplinaire et internationale qui publie des courts articles sur l’utilisation des méthodes numériques et des technologies d’information dans les études orientales. Elle contient des articles sur les divers sujets écrits par les chercheurs, étudiants et bibliothécaires de différents pays. Les études islamiques, les études japonaises et asiatiques, l’archéologie, l’informatique, la cartographie numérique, les études africaines et les études indiennes sont parmi ces sujets. Cet article vise à expliquer la raison d’être de la revue ainsi que la façon dont la revue utilise le terme « orientaliste ». Il fait valoir l’importance de l’utilisation des nouvelles technologies d’information dans la recherche et l’enseignement des études orientales.The Digital Orientalist is a multidisciplinary and international online magazine that publishes short articles on using information technologies and digital humanities methods in Oriental Studies disciplines. It consists of the articles on a variety of topics written by scholars, students and librarians from different countries. These topics include but not limited to Islamic Studies, Japanese and East Asian Studies, Archaeology, Information Science, Digital Cartography, African Studies and Indian Studies. This article aims to explain the Digital Orientalist’s raison d’être as well as the way it uses the term “Orientalist”. It highlights the importance of the new technologies and digital humanities in research and teaching of Oriental Studies

Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based Intelligent Management System for Home Appliances

This project reviews the implementation of FPGA-based system design on common home appliances in order to achieve energy efficient usage on the appliances. There are many existed method on this subject in the real world. One common method is using the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to control the motor speed of the home appliances. In this project, an energy saving home automation was designed using the Quartus II software. The design included a security system, curtain controller, lighting controller and a PWM generator. Security system provides protection to the house. Curtain controller and lighting controller were designed to save electricity and at the same time maintain the house in the bright condition. PWM generator was designed to optimize the air-conditioner and thermostat usage and thus save energy. Not only this system has energy saving feature but it also provide security to the users. At the end of this project, the design has successfully implemented and tested using FLEX10k chip on LP2900 board. The real implementation on hardware has not been done yet but theoretically it is proven that the designed system can save electricity