Non-Arrhenius conduction due to the interface-trap-induced disorder in X-doped amorphous InXZnO thin-film transistors

Thin film transistors, with channels composed of In-X-Zn oxides, IXZO, with X dopants: Ga, Sb, Be, Mg, Ag, Ca, Al, Ni, and Cu, were fabricated and their I-V characteristics were taken at selected temperatures in the 77K<T<300K range. The low field mobility, mu, and the interface defect density, Nst were extracted from the characteristics for each of the studied IXZOs. At higher T the mobility follows the Arrhenius law with an upward distortion, increasing as T was lowered, gradually transforming into the exp [-(T0/T)1/4] variation. We showed that mu(T, Nst) follows mu0exp[-Eaeff(T,Nst)/kT], with T-dependent effective activation energy Eaeff(T, Nst) accounts for the data, revealing a linear correlation between Eaeff and Nst at higher T. Temperature variation of Eaeff(T, Nst) was evaluated using a model assuming a random distribution of conduction mobility edge Ec values in the oxides, stemming from spatial fluctuations induced by disorder in the interface traps distribution. For a Gaussian distribution of Ec, the activation energy Eaeff(T, Nst) varies linearly with 1/T, which accounts satisfactorily for the data obtained on all the studied IXZOs. The model also shows that Eaeff(T, Nst) is a linear function of Nst at a fixed T, which explains the exponential decrease of mu with NST

Impact of dopant species on the interfacial trap density and mobility in amorphous In-X-Zn-O solution-processed thin-film transistors

Alloying of In/Zn oxides with various X atoms stabilizes the IXZO structures but generates electron traps in the compounds, degrading the electron mobility. To assess whether the latter is linked to the oxygen affinity or the ionic radius, of the X element, several IXZO samples are synthesized by the sol-gel process, with a large number (14) of X elements. The IXZOs are characterized by XPS, SIMS, DRX, and UV-spectroscopy and used for fabricating thin film transistors. Channel mobility and the interface defect density NST, extracted from the TFT electrical characteristics and low frequency noise, followed an increasing trend and the values of mobility and NST are linked by an exponential relation. The highest mobility (8.5 cm2/Vs) is obtained in In-Ga-Zn-O, and slightly lower value for Sb and Sn-doped IXZOs, with NST is about 2E12 cm2/eV, close to that of the In-Zn-O reference TFT. This is explained by a higher electronegativity of Ga, Sb, and Sn than Zn and In, their ionic radius values being close to that of In and Zn. Consequently, Ga, Sb, and Sn induce weaker perturbations of In-O and Zn-O sequences in the sol-gel process, than the X elements having lower electronegativity and different ionic radius. The TFTs with X = Ca, Al, Ni and Cu exhibited the lowest mobility and NST > 1E13 cm2/eV, most likely because of metallic or oxide clusters formation

Continuation-Passing C: compiling threads to events through continuations

In this paper, we introduce Continuation Passing C (CPC), a programming language for concurrent systems in which native and cooperative threads are unified and presented to the programmer as a single abstraction. The CPC compiler uses a compilation technique, based on the CPS transform, that yields efficient code and an extremely lightweight representation for contexts. We provide a proof of the correctness of our compilation scheme. We show in particular that lambda-lifting, a common compilation technique for functional languages, is also correct in an imperative language like C, under some conditions enforced by the CPC compiler. The current CPC compiler is mature enough to write substantial programs such as Hekate, a highly concurrent BitTorrent seeder. Our benchmark results show that CPC is as efficient, while using significantly less space, as the most efficient thread libraries available.Comment: Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation (2012). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1202.324

Scaling of the Conductivity with Temperature and Uniaxial Stress in Si:B at the Metal-Insulator Transition

Using uniaxial stress to tune Si:B through the metal-insulator transition we find the conductivity at low temperatures shows an excellent fit to scaling with temperature and stress on both sides of the transition. The scaling functions yield the conductivity in the metallic and insulating phases, and allow a reliable determination of the temperature dependence in the critical regions on both sides of the transition

Conductivity of Metallic Si:B near the Metal-Insulator Transition: Comparison between Unstressed and Uniaxially Stressed Samples

The low-temperature dc conductivities of barely metallic samples of p-type Si:B are compared for a series of samples with different dopant concentrations, n, in the absence of stress (cubic symmetry), and for a single sample driven from the metallic into the insulating phase by uniaxial compression, S. For all values of temperature and stress, the conductivity of the stressed sample collapses onto a single universal scaling curve. The scaling fit indicates that the conductivity of si:B is proportional to the square-root of T in the critical range. Our data yield a critical conductivity exponent of 1.6, considerably larger than the value reported in earlier experiments where the transition was crossed by varying the dopant concentration. The larger exponent is based on data in a narrow range of stress near the critical value within which scaling holds. We show explicitly that the temperature dependences of the conductivity of stressed and unstressed Si:B are different, suggesting that a direct comparison of the critical behavior and critical exponents for stress- tuned and concentration-tuned transitions may not be warranted

p-type delta-doped layers in silicon: structural and electronic properties

We report on the properties of p-type delta-doped layers prepared in molecular beam epitaxy-Si by growth interruption and evaporation of elemental B. Secondary-ion mass spectrometry measurements at several primary ion energies have been used to show that the full width at half maximum is ~2 nm. Hall measurements confirm that the layers are completely activated at 300 K with a mobility of 30±5 cm2/V s for a carrier density of (9±2)×1012 cm−2. At temperatures below 70 K nonmetallic behavior is observed which we have attributed to conduction between impurity states. It is concluded that the critical acceptor separation for the Mott metal-insulator transition in this system is significantly less than the value found in uniformly doped Si:B

Protein crystals in adenovirus type 5-infected cells: requirements for intranuclear crystallogenesis, structural and functional analysis

Intranuclear crystalline inclusions have been observed in the nucleus of epithelial cells infected with Adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) at late steps of the virus life cycle. Using immuno-electron microscopy and confocal microscopy of cells infected with various Ad5 recombinants modified in their penton base or fiber domains, we found that these inclusions represented crystals of penton capsomers, the heteromeric capsid protein formed of penton base and fiber subunits. The occurrence of protein crystals within the nucleus of infected cells required the integrity of the fiber knob and part of the shaft domain. In the knob domain, the region overlapping residues 489–492 in the FG loop was found to be essential for crystal formation. In the shaft, a large deletion of repeats 4 to 16 had no detrimental effect on crystal inclusions, whereas deletion of repeats 8 to 21 abolished crystal formation without altering the level of fiber protein expression. This suggested a crucial role of the five penultimate repeats in the crystallisation process. Chimeric pentons made of Ad5 penton base and fiber domains from different serotypes were analyzed with respect to crystal formation. No crystal was found when fiber consisted of shaft (S) from Ad5 and knob (K) from Ad3 (heterotypic S5-K3 fiber), but occurred with homotypic S3K3 fiber. However, less regular crystals were observed with homotypic S35-K35 fiber. TB5, a monoclonal antibody directed against the Ad5 fiber knob was found by immunofluorescence microscopy to react with high efficiency with the intranuclear protein crystals in situ. Data obtained with Ad fiber mutants indicated that the absence of crystalline inclusions correlated with a lower infectivity and/or lower yields of virus progeny, suggesting that the protein crystals might be involved in virion assembly. Thus, we propose that TB5 staining of Ad-infected 293 cells can be used as a prognostic assay for the viability and productivity of fiber-modified Ad5 vectors

Pre-Existing Adenovirus Immunity Modifies a Complex Mixed Th1 and Th2 Cytokine Response to an Ad5/HIV-1 Vaccine Candidate in Humans

The results of the recent Step Study highlight a need to clarify the effects of pre-existing natural immunity to a vaccine vector on vaccine-induced T-cell responses. To investigate this interaction, we examined the relationship between pre-existing Ad5 immunity and T-cell cytokine response profiles in healthy, HIV-uninfected recipients of MRKAd5 HIV-1 gag vaccine (HVTN 050, ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT00849732). Participants were grouped by baseline Ad5 neutralizing antibody titer as either Ad5-seronegative (titer ≤18; n = 36) or Ad5-seropositive (titer >200; n = 34). Samples from vaccine recipients were analyzed for immune responses to either HIV-1 Gag peptide pools or Ad5 empty vector using an ex vivo assay that measures thirty cytokines in the absence of long-term culture. The overall profiles of cytokine responses to Gag and Ad5 had similar combinations of induced Th1- and Th2-type cytokines, including IFN-γ, IL-2, TNF-α, IP-10, IL-13, and IL-10, although the Ad5-specific responses were uniformly higher than the Gag-specific responses (p<0.0001 for 9 out of 11 significantly expressed analytes). At the peak response time point, PBMC from Ad5-seronegative vaccinees secreted significantly more IP-10 in response to Gag (p = 0.008), and significantly more IP-10 (p = 0.0009), IL-2 (p = 0.006) and IL-10 (p = 0.05) in response to Ad5 empty vector than PBMC from Ad5-seropositive vaccinees. Additionally, similar responses to the Ad5 vector prior to vaccination were observed in almost all subjects, regardless of Ad5 neutralizing antibody status, and the levels of secreted IFN-γ, IL-10, IL-1Ra and GM-CSF were blunted following vaccination. The cytokine response profile of Gag-specific T cells mirrored the Ad5-specific response present in all subjects before vaccination, and included a number of Th1- and Th2-associated cytokines not routinely assessed in current vaccine trials, such as IP-10, IL-10, IL-13, and GM-CSF. Together, these results suggest that vector-specific humoral responses may reduce vaccine-induced T-cell responses by previously undetected mechanisms

The Salivary Secretome of the Tsetse Fly Glossina pallidipes (Diptera: Glossinidae) Infected by Salivary Gland Hypertrophy Virus

Tsetse fly (Diptera; Glossinidae) transmits two devastating diseases to farmers (human African Trypanosomiasis; HAT) and their livestock (Animal African Trypanosomiasis; AAT) in 37 sub-Saharan African countries. During the rainy seasons, vast areas of fertile, arable land remain uncultivated as farmers flee their homes due to the presence of tsetse. Available drugs against trypanosomiasis are ineffective and difficult to administer. Control of the tsetse vector by Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) has been effective. This method involves repeated release of sterilized males into wild tsetse populations, which compete with wild type males for females. Upon mating, there is no offspring, leading to reduction in tsetse populations and thus relief from trypanosomiasis. The SIT method requires large-scale tsetse rearing to produce sterile males. However, tsetse colony productivity is hampered by infections with the salivary gland hypertrophy virus, which is transmitted via saliva as flies take blood meals during membrane feeding and often leads to colony collapse. Here, we investigated the salivary gland secretome proteins of virus-infected tsetse to broaden our understanding of virus infection, transmission and pathology. By this approach, we obtain insight in tsetse-hytrosavirus interactions and identified potential candidate proteins as targets for developing biotechnological strategies to control viral infections in tsetse colonies