Interaction Between Hot Carrier Aging and PBTI Degradation in nMOSFETs: Characterization, Modelling and Lifetime Prediction

Modelling of the interaction between Hot Carrier Aging (HCA) and Positive Bias Temperature Instability (PBTI) has been considered as one of the main challenges in nanoscale CMOS circuit design. Previous works were mainly based on separate HCA and PBTI instead of Interacted HCA-PBTI Degradation (IHPD). The key advance of this work is to develop a methodology that enables accurate modelling of IHPD through understanding the charging/discharging and generation kinetics of different types of defects during the interaction between HCA and PBTI. It is found that degradation during alternating HCA and PBTI stress cannot be modelled by independent HCI/PBTI. Different stress sequence, i.e. HCA-PBTI-HCA and PBTI-HCA-PBTI, lead to completely different degradation kinetics. Based on the Cyclic Anti-neutralization Model (CAM), for the first time, IHPD has been accurately modelled for both short and long channel devices. Complex degradation mechanisms and kinetics can be well explained by our model. Our results show that device lifetime can be underestimated by one decade without considering interaction

The use of hybrid cellular automaton models for improving cancer therapy, In Proceedings, Cellular Automata: 6th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI 2004, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, eds P.M.A. Sloot, B. Chopard, A.G. Hoekstra

The Hybrid Cellular Automata (HCA) modelling framework can be an efficient approach to a number of biological problems, particularly those which involve the integration of multiple spatial and temporal scales. As such, HCA may become a key modelling tool in the development of the so-called intergrative biology. In this paper, we first discuss HCA on a general level and then present results obtained when this approach was implemented in cancer research

Risk, commercialism and social purpose: Repositioning the English housing association sector

Originally seen as the ‘third arm’ of UK housing policy, the independent, not-for-profit housing association sector had long been seen as effective in ‘filling the gap’ where the state or market were unable to provide for households in need. Since the 1980s in particular, successive governments had viewed housing associations in favourable terms as efficient, semi-autonomous social businesses, capable of leveraging significant private funding. By 2015, in contrast, central government had come to perceive the sector as inefficient, bureaucratic and wasteful of public subsidy. Making use of institutional theory, this paper considers this paradigm shift and examines the organisational responses to an increasingly challenging operating environment. By focusing, in particular, on large London housing associations, the paper analyses their strategic decision-making to address the opportunities and threats presented. The paper argues that in facing an era of minimal subsidy, low security and high risk, the 2015 reforms represent a critical juncture for the sector. Housing organisations face a stark dilemma about whether to continue a strategy of ‘profit for purpose’ or to embrace an unambiguously commercial ethos. The article contends that the trajectory of decision-making (although not unidirectional) leads ultimately towards an increased exposure to risk and vulnerability to changes in the housing market. More fundamentally, the attempt to reconcile social and commercial logics is likely to have wider consequences for the legitimacy of the sector

'All at Sea': an Accusation of Piracy against William Herle in 1565

This article will concentrate—in case-study form—on a body of littlestudied and unpublished archival documents in the High Court of Admiralty (HCA) papers at the National Archives in London relating to the Elizabethan intelligencer William Herle (d. 1588). The HCA papers reveal the day-to-day workings of the administrative body responsible for the surveillance and legal process of England’s substantial coastline and home waters

α-Hexylcinnamaldehyde synergistically increases doxorubicin cytotoxicity towards human cancer cell lines

α-Hexylcinnamaldehyde (HCA), a compound derived from cinnamaldehyde, was evaluated for its potential chemosensitizing properties

Behavior and complications of hepatocellular adenoma during pregnancy and puerperium:a retrospective study and systematic review

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular adenomas (HCA) are benign liver tumors at risk of hemorrhage. The influence of pregnancy on HCA growth and potential bleeding remains unclear. This study investigates HCA-associated behavior and bleeding complications during or shortly after pregnancy. METHODS: (I) Single center retrospective cohort study of HCA during and after pregnancy (II) Systematic literature review. RESULTS: The retrospective study included 11 patients, of which 4 with HCA ≥5 cm. In only two patients HCA showed growth during pregnancy. In this local cohort, no HCA-related hemorrhages occurred during median follow-up of 34 months (interquartile range 19-58 months). The systematic review yielded 33 studies, totaling 90 patients with 99 pregnancies. Of 73 pregnancies without prior HCA-related intervention, 39 HCA remained stable (53.4%), 11 regressed (15.1%), and 23 (31.5%) progressed. Fifteen HCA-related hemorrhages occurred in HCA measuring 6.5-17.0 cm. Eight patients experienced bleeding during pregnancy, two during labor and five postpartum. CONCLUSION: Although hemorrhage of HCA during or shortly after pregnancy is rare and only reported in HCA ≥6.5 cm, it can be fatal. Pregnancy in women with HCA, regardless of size, warrant a close surveillance strategy. Observational studies on behavior and management of HCA ≥5 cm during and immediately after pregnancy are needed

Stabilization of human carbonic anhydrase by glucose as osmolyte

Human CA II (EC 4.2.1.1) is a zinc metalloenzyme which catalyzes the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate and hydrogen ions. At least 14 different carbonic anhydrase isoforms were isolated in higher vertebrates. These isozymes have diversified tissue distribution and subcellular positions and they exist in archaea, Eubacteria, animals and plants. Human CA II has a single polypeptide chain of 259 amino acid residues with a molecular mass of about 29 kDa. Organisms and cellular systems which have adapted to stresses such as high temperature, desiccation, and urea-concentrating environments have responded by concentrating particular organic solutes known as osmolytes. These osmolytes are believed to confer protection to enzyme and other macromolecular systems against such denaturing stresses. In this study, differential scanning alorimetric (DSC) experiments were performed on human carbonic anhydrase (HCA II) in the presence of varying concentrations of the glucose which induced considerable increases in the thermal unfolding transition temperature (Tm) for HCA II. DSC scan of HCA II in the presence of 5.4 M glucose shows the increases of melting point (Tm) up to 10 °C and also enhances the reversibility of thermal unfolded HCA II up to 20 %. The result of circular dichroism CD experiments indicates an increase of 5°C of Tm. Since CD experiment gives informations about secondary structure while DSC profiles show the stability of ertiary structure. The different Tm obtained from CD and DSC indicates the existence of irreversibility for HCA II

Myxoid hepatocellular adenoma, a rare variant of hepatocellular adenoma with distinct imaging features : a case report with immunohistochemical and molecular analysis and literature review

Preoperative imaging and histopathology, immunohistochemistry and molecular analysis after resection of 2 hepatocellular adenomas (HCAs) (20 and 2cm) in a 53-year-old female patient were performed. On imaging, the large lesion resembled a myxoid HCA, while the small lesion resembled a more conventional HCA with a small myxoid/fluid area. On microscopy, the large lesion showed cords and nests of hepatocytes embedded in abundant myxoid matrix, while the small lesion resembled a conventional HCA with small foci of myxoid change and serosities; both consistent with a myxoid HCA. Immunophenotyping and molecular subtyping excluded inflammatory HCA, CTNNB1 mutated HCA and sonic hedgehog HCA, and was consistent with HNF1A mutated HCA. The myxoid change as well as the serosities may allow imaging diagnosis of myxoid HCA. As fluid vacuoles can also be present in ASS1+HCA, sonic hedgehog HCA has to be considered in the differential diagnosis. (C) 2020 Les Auteurs. Publie par Elsevier Masson SAS

Design, synthesis and biological activity of selective hCAs inhibitors based on 2-(benzylsulfinyl)benzoic acid scaffold

A large library of derivatives based on the scaffold of 2-(benzylsulfinyl)benzoic acid were synthesised and tested as atypical inhibitors against four different isoforms of human carbonic anhydrase (hCA I, II, IX and XII, EC 4.2.1.1). The exploration of the chemical space around the main functional groups led to the discovery of selective hCA IX inhibitors in the micromolar/nanomolar range, thus establishing robust structure-activity relationships within this versatile scaffold. HPLC separation of some selected chiral compounds and biological evaluation of the corresponding enantiomers was performed along with molecular modelling studies on the most active derivatives