FLASHES OF LIFE IN SIBU

Lu, Toh-Ming (2023). Flashes of life in Sibu, In: “Global Humanities and Liberal Arts”, Wang, Lawrence K. (Editor), Volume 2023, Number 2A, 2023(2A), February 2023; 99 pages, Lenox Institute Press, MA, USA. [email protected]; [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.17613/k9f1-y534 .............. ABSTRACT: This electronic book contains a collection of oil paintings that I did over the years. These are paintings based on my childhood memories. I was born in 1944 and grew up in a rural area in Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia. The pace of life was very slow. My parents had seven children. I was the oldest. Although life was tough, but we had lots of fun memories. We did not have an art class in our school. So I did not have a chance to learn drawing or painting. I only learn painting by myself when I became a faculty in the US. Over the years, I did many paintings based on what I remember. Except for the first painting (showering at the jetty) which I imagine, all the paintings are from my memories. They are more or less chronicle

Me and the Helpless Universe

Lu, Toh-Ming (2023). Me and the helpless universe, In: “Global Humanities and Liberal Arts”, Wang, Lawrence K. (Editor) , Volume 2023, Number 3A, 2023(3A), March 2023; 40 pages, Lenox Institute Press, MA, USA. [email protected]; [email protected]. ...............ABSTRACT: This electronic book contains a collection of oil paintings that I did over the years on my connection with the world surrounding me and my understanding of the universe. My curiosity of the nature of the universe has been the main driving force for me to pursue physics in an attempt to understand what it is, how it was formed and where does it go. My perception of the universe evolved as I get older. In my grade school time, I thought the universe was flat. Later, I learned that the Earth was not the center of the universe. The Earth is one of the planets in the planetary system. Then you have Milky Way, Andromeda, etc. Later, I learned the Big Bang Theory and the concept of a finite universe. And more recently, the dark energy, dark matter, and the accelerated expansion of the universe. I also imagine the future of the universe based on my understanding of physics, including the concept of entropy...........KEYWORDS: Big Bang, expansion, dark matter, dark energy...........ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: I thank Astrophysicist, Professor Chun Ming Leung and Cosmologist, Professor Ethan Brown for valuable discussions and suggestion

SARAWAK: MY HOMELAND

Lu, Toh-Ming (2023). Sarawak: my homeland. In: "Global Humanities and Liberal Arts", Wang, Lawrence K. (Editor). Volume 2023, Number 7, 2023(7), July 25, 2023, 19 pages. Lenox Institute Press, Massachusetts, USA. [email protected]; [email protected]; https://doi.org/10.17613/cxt3-xm50 ; ....... ABSTRACT: This electronic book describes recent history and events that occurred in Sarawak, my homeland. The story began in 1841 when Sir James Brooke, a British soldier and adventurer became the first Rajah (king) of Sarawak. When he died in 1868, his nephew, Charles Brooke took over his position and became the second Rajah of Sarawak. Charles Brooke signed an agreement with a Chinese leader, Wong Nai Siong to recruit a total of 1118 Chinese immigrants to the city of Sibu, Sarawak. When Charles Brooke passed away in 1917, his youngest son, Vyner Brooke, took over his position as the Third (and last) Rajah of Sarawak. During the Japanese occupation (1941-1945) Vyner and his family were in Sydney. After the war, in 1946 he returned to Sarawak and ceded Sarawak to the British government as a colony. 1963, Sarawak joined the Federation of Malaysia and became a state of Malaysia. ....... .. KEYWORDS: Sarawak, Borneo, Kalimandan, Sibu, White Rajah, James Brooke, Charles Brooke, Vyner Brooke, Wong Nai Siong, Chinese migration, World War II, Japanese occupation, Wallace Line, Nusantara, Lan-fang Republic, Brunei, Sabah, British Colony, Federation of Malaysia, Niah Caves. Prehistoric human migration

Turmoil and Opportunities in Higher Education: The Road of an Academic Department at The Dawn of The 21st Century (Second Edition)

Lu, Toh-Ming (2023). Turmoil and opportunities in higher education: The road of an academic department at the dawn of the 21st century. (Second Edition). In: "Evolutionary Progress in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics", Wang, Lawrence K. and Tsao, Hung-ping (Editors). Volume 5, Number 2A, 5(2A), February 14, 2023, 233 pages. Lenox Institute Press, MA, USA. [email protected]; [email protected]. ISBN: 0-9675372-0-7. ........ ABSTRACT: At the turn of the 21th Century, American higher education underwent a turbulent time. The debate was on how teaching could be carried out effectively and how learning could be achieved successfully. The main reason for this turmoil was the arrival of the information technology. Knowledge can be found any time and place through the web. The role of professors was not just transfer of knowledge, but also on teaching students how to learn. “Student centered” learning became a key focus. During his tenure as the Physics Department Chair, Dr. Toh-Ming Lu has been a major driving force for education reform. This memoir describes insights into what he saw and felt as a Department Chair during this turbulent time and how the higher education institutions may excel in the new era of information age. The memoir was first published in the spring of 1999 after he stepped down as the Department Chairman

MY ROAD TO SEMICONDUCTOR RESEARCH

Lu, Toh-Ming (2023). My road to semiconductor research. In: "Evolutionary Progress in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics", Wang, Lawrence K. and Tsao, Hung-ping (Editors). Volume 5, Number 8A, 5(8A), August 1, 2023, 33 pages. Lenox Institute Press, MA, USA. [email protected]; [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.17613/71gt-h283 ..... ABSTRACT: This electronic book is a memoir recalling how I entered semiconductor research and how I got involved in the US semiconductor research consortium called “Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)”. In the late 1990’s I became the director of “Center for Advanced Interconnect Science and Technology” funded by SRC. The Center involved 15 universities, 30 faculty, and 40 graduate students doing advanced interconnect research. SRC member companies include Intel, IBM, AMD, TI, UMC (Taiwan), Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing (Singapore). The Center produced over 100 PhD students who later played leadership roles in semiconductor industry. In 2004, Novellus Systems, a major semiconductor manufacturing equipment company, donated a Cu deposition system to Fudan University in anticipation of future business in China. The company organized a workshop in Shanghai. I highlighted some of the activities. I also described some international students graduated from my group, in particular, the interesting and unusual educational and career paths of some Chinese graduate students, who eventually served semiconductor industry. Some future possibilities beyond the current Si technology are also briefly discussed

Fabrication and Imaging of Protein Crossover Structures

ABSTRACT Proteins often deform, dehydrate or otherwise denature when adsorbed or patterned directly onto an inorganic substrate, thus losing specificity and biofunctionality. One method used to maintain function is to pattern the protein of interest directly onto another underlying protein or polypeptide that acts as a buffer layer between the substrate and the desired protein. We have used microcontact printing (µcp) to cross-stamp orthogonal linear arrays of two different proteins (e.g., IgG, poly-lysine, protein A) onto glass substrates. This created three separate types of protein-substrate microenvironments, including crossover structures of protein one on protein two. We report preliminary fluorescent microscopy and scanning force microscopy characterization of these structures, including commonly encountered structural defects

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Metal-dielectric interfaces in gigascale electronics: thermal and electrical stability

Metal-dielectric interfaces are ubiquitous in modern electronics. As advanced gigascale electronic devices continue to shrink, the stability of these interfaces is becoming an increasingly important issue that has a profound impact on the operational reliability of these devices. In this book, the authors present the basic science underlying  the thermal and electrical stability of metal-dielectric interfaces and its relationship to the operation of advanced interconnect systems in gigascale electronics. Interface phenomena, including chemical reactions between metals and dielectrics, metallic-atom diffusion, and ion drift, are discussed based on fundamental physical and chemical principles. Schematic diagrams are provided throughout the book to illustrate  interface phenomena and the principles that govern them. Metal-Dielectric Interfaces in Gigascale Electronics  provides a unifying approach to the diverse and sometimes contradictory test results that are reported in the literature on metal-dielectric interfaces. The goal is to provide readers with a clear account of the relationship between interface science and its applications in interconnect structures. The material presented here will also be of interest to those engaged in field-effect transistor and memristor device research, as well as university researchers and industrial scientists working in the areas of electronic materials processing, semiconductor manufacturing, memory chips, and IC design.   Presents a unified approach to understanding the diverse phenomena observed at metal-dielectric interfaces Features fundamental considerations in the physics and chemistry of metal-dielectric interactions Explores mechanisms of metal atom diffusion and metal ion drift in dielectrics Provides keys to understanding reliability in gigascale electronics Focuses on a dynamic area of current research that is a foundation of future interconnect systems, memristors, and solid-state electrolyte devices Presents a unified approach to understanding the diverse phenomena observed at metal-dielectric interface