Systematic characterization of Cl2 reactive ion etchingfor improved ohmics in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

Pre-metal-deposition reactive ion etching (RIE) was performed on an Al_0.3Ga_0.7N/AlN/GaN heterostructure in order to improve the metal-to-semiconductor contact resistance. An optimum AlGaN thickness for minimizing contact resistance was determined. An initial decrease in contact resistance with etching time was explained in terms of removal of an oxide surface layer and/or by an increase in tunnelling current with the decrease of the AlGaN thickness. The presence of a dissimilar surface layer was confirmed by an initial nonuniform etch depth rate. An increase in contact resistance for deeper etches was experienced. The increase was related to depletion of the two-dimensional (2-D) electron gas (2-DEG) under the ohmics. Etch depths were measured by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The contact resistance decreased from about 0.45 Ωmm for unetched ohmics to a minimum of 0.27 Ωmm for 70 Å etched ohmics. The initial thickness of the AlGaN layer was 250 Å. The decrease in contact resistance, without excessive complications on device processing, supports RIE etching as a viable solution to improve ohmic contact resistance in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs     

Optical imaging of anatomical maps derived from magnetic resonanceimages using time-independent optical sources

Presents a model suitable for computing images of absorption cross sections of thick tissue structures illuminated at near infrared (NIR) wavelengths from tomographic projection data. Image reconstruction is accomplished by solving a system of linear equations derived from transport theory. Reconstruction results using different algebraic solvers are shown for anatomical maps of the breast, derived from magnetic resonance imaging data, containing two simulated pathologies, in which case qualitatively good reconstructions were obtained. Evaluation of magnetic resonance (MR) data to optimize NIR optical tomographic imaging methods and to assess the feasibility of a combined MR-optical measurement scheme is discussed     

A mechanistic analysis of the correlation between overall strength and indentation hardness in discontinuously reinforced aluminum

It is well established that the indentation hardness of metallic alloys shows a reasonable correlation with their yield strength or ultimate strength. Experiments illustrate that such a unique correlation is nonexistent for discontinuously reinforced metal matrix composites, even when the indentation size is much greater than the reinforcement size. For aluminum alloys reinforced with silicon carbide particles, the same composite yield strength and tensile strength with different reinforcement fractions do not lead to similar hardness, or vice versa. Finite element analyses are carried out to rationalize the experimental findings. The modeling utilizes a two-dimensional plane-strain formulation. Discrete particles are included in the material model, and the overall stress-strain response and the indentation response are numerically simulated. The results confirm the lack of unique correspondence between the composite hardness and strength. The alteration of local heterogeneity in the composite is found to affect the indentation response. Effects of the geometrical arrangement of particles and thermal residual stresses on the indentation response are also investigated numerically.     

Application of asymptotic waveform evaluation to eigenmode expansion method for analysis of simultaneous switching noise in printed circuit boards (PCBs)

In this paper, the asymptotic waveform evaluation (AWE) technique is first applied to the conventional eigenmode expansion method for characterizing a power/ground (P/G) plane pair and analyzing the simultaneous switching noise on such plane pairs for printed circuit boards or multichip modules. The application of AWE avoids a large number of iterations in computing the impedance frequency response of a P/G plane pair structure and greatly reduces the computation time. Meanwhile, to obtain an accurate solution in an entire frequency range, we employ the complex frequency hopping technique which can help select multiple expansion points. In addition, the proposed approach can also be used to characterize the P/G plane pair structures with irregular shapes. Three examples demonstrate its high efficiency and good accuracy.     

增强大学生职业规划效果的宏观对策

针对目前大学生职业规划效果不佳的现状，分析了导致大学生职业规划效果不佳的原因，提出了增强大学生职业规划效果的宏观对策。     

A segmentation-based lossless image coding method forhigh-resolution medical image compression

Lossless compression techniques are essential in archival and communication of medical images. Here, a new segmentation-based lossless image coding (SLIC) method is proposed, which is based on a simple but efficient region growing procedure. The embedded region growing procedure produces an adaptive scanning pattern for the image with the help of a very-few-bits-needed discontinuity index map. Along with this scanning pattern, an error image data part with a very small dynamic range is generated. Both the error image data and the discontinuity index map data parts are then encoded by the Joint Bi-level Image Experts Group (JBIG) method. The SLIC method resulted in, on the average, lossless compression to about 1.6 b/pixel from 8 b, and to about 2.9 b/pixel from 10 b with a database of ten high-resolution digitized chest and breast images. In comparison with direct coding by JBIG, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), hierarchical interpolation (HINT), and two-dimensional Burg prediction plus Huffman error coding methods, the SLIC method performed better by 4% to 28% on the database used     

High-resolution analysis of T-cell receptor beta-chain repertoires using DNA heteroduplex tracking: generally stable, clonal CD8+ expansions in all healthy young adults

Harringtonine (HT), an anticancer drug with high chemotherapeutic efficiency to human chronic granulocytic/myelomonocytic leukemia, has been reported to rapidly induce apoptosis in HL-60 cells in a wide scope/range of dosage by investigators from our lab and others. In the present studies, by using video enhancement contrast (VEC) microscopy, we dynamically analyzed changes in intracellular calcium distribution in a single HL-60 cell over the period from the initiation of apoptosis to the obvious appearance of chromatin condensation. The results from this paper demonstrated the striking distinction of intracellular calcium distribution at different time points after treatment with HT. Before treatment in normal HL-60 cells the highest [Ca2+]i accumulation was observed in the peri-nuclear area and the lowest was observed in the nucleus; after treatment with 1 microg/ml HT for 30 min intracellular calcium diffused all over the cell compartments, while intranuclear calcium increased comparatively and significantly. The phenomenon of intranuclear calcium accumulation was further confirmed by using laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM). In addition, co-localization of the highest calcium region with condensed chromatin in apoptotic HL-60 cells was also observed by LSCM. Our results suggest that two sequential alterations of intracellular calcium distribution occurred in apoptotic HL-60 cells induced by HT, i.e. (a) accumulation of calcium in the nucleus and (b) regionalization in a specific nuclear region.