Techniques for Frequency Synthesizer-Based Transmitters.

Internet of Things (IoT) devices are poised to be the largest market for the semiconductor industry. At the heart of a wireless IoT module is the radio and integral to any radio is the transmitter. Transmitters with low power consumption and small area are crucial to the ubiquity of IoT devices. The fairly simple modulation schemes used in IoT systems makes frequency synthesizer-based (also known as PLL-based) transmitters an ideal candidate for these devices. Because of the reduced number of analog blocks and the simple architecture, PLL-based transmitters lend themselves nicely to the highly integrated, low voltage nanometer digital CMOS processes of today. This thesis outlines techniques that not only reduce the power consumption and area, but also significantly improve the performance of PLL-based transmitters.PhDElectrical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/113385/1/mammad_1.pd

Nocturnal Enuresis and its Impact on Growth

Objective: Nocturnal enuresis is a common developmental-behavioral problem in children. The present study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of primary nocturnal enuresis and to determine its impact on physical growth of the first grade elementary school children. Material & Methods: This is a cross-sectional study carried out on 350 first-grade children (6 to 6.5 yr old) elementary schools in Gonabad through random stratified sampling. All children had primary nocturnal enuresis. A questionnaire containing demographic criteria and various factors that may play a role in bed-wetting was filled out; a digital scale and a non-expanding measuring tape were used to collect data. Diagnosis of enuresis considered nocturnal voiding twice a week for at least three consecutive months. Findings: The prevalence of primary nocturnal enuresis was 21% for boys and 14.9% for girls, and the overall prevalence was 17.5%. The average weight of enuretic children was lower than that of the non-affected ones. In addition, these children were in average shorter compared to those without enuresis. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that growth failure is a coexisting problem in children with primary nocturnal enuresis. Since enuresis and other stressful conditions in family can cause growth failure in children, the treatment of enuresis eliminating a stressful condition could be an effective measure in improving children's physical growth

Emergence of signs of neural cells after exposure of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells to fetal brain extract

Objective(s): Nowadays much effort is being invested in order to diagnose the mechanisms involved in neural differentiation. By clarifying this, making desired neural cells in vitro and applying them into diverse neurological disorders suffered from neural cell malfunctions could be a feasible choice. Thus, the present study assessed the capability of fetal brain extract (FBE) to induce rat bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) toward neural cells. Materials and Methods: For this purpose, BM-MSCs were collected from rats and cultured and their mesenchymal properties were confirmed. After exposure of the BM-MSCs to fetal brain extract, the cells were evaluated and harvested at days 3 and 7 after treatment. Results: The BM-MSCs that were exposed to FBE changed their appearance dramatically from spindle shape to cells with dendrite-like processes. Those neural like processes were absent in the control group. In addition, a neural specific marker, vimentin, was expressed significantly in the treatment group but not in the negative control group. Conclusion: This study presented the FBE as a natural neural differentiation agent, which probably has required factors for making neurons. In addition, vimentin overexpression was observed in the treated group which confirms neuron-like cell differentiation of BM-MSCs after induction

Expression Analysis of MALAT1, GAS5, SRA, and NEAT1 lncRNAs in Breast Cancer Tissues from Young Women and Women over 45 Years of Age

Breast cancer, as the most common cancer in women worldwide, represents about 30% of all cancers affecting women. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in the regulation of several biological processes, and their dysregulation in cancer has well been documented. To investigate possible age-dependent variations in expression profiles of lncRNAs, we evaluated the expression levels of four lncRNAs, i.e., MALAT1, GAS5, SRA, and NEAT1, in breast cancer (BC) samples obtained from younger (45 years) women. Tumor samples (n = 23) and 15 normal tissues were collected from BC patients. All tumor and normal samples were morphologically confirmed by a pathologist. RNA was extracted from the tissues and cDNAs were then synthesized. The lncRNA expression levels were evaluated by qRT-PCR. The changes in the expression levels were determined using the ΔΔCt method. Compared to normal tissues, BC tissues from both age groups (women under 45 years of age and women above 45 years of age) showed upregulation of MALAT1 (p = 0.003 and p = 0.0002), SRA (p = 0.005 and p = 0.0002), and NEAT1 (p = 0.010 and p = 0.0002) and downregulation of GAS5 (p = 0.0002 and p = 0.0005). Additionally, our analysis showed significant and direct correlation between the age and the expression levels of three of the four lncRNAs studied in this work. All four lncRNAs were overexpressed in both MDA-MB-231 and MCF7 cell lines (p = 0.1000). Our data show that MALAT1, GAS5, SRA, and NEAT1 lncRNAs are dysregulated in BC samples. However, except for MALAT1, the expression levels of all of these lncRNAs were significantly lower in cancers developed in younger cases, where poorer prognosis is suggested. Of note, GAS5 reduced expression has been documented to correlate with tumor progression. Keywords: breast cancer, lncRNAs, MALAT1, GAS5, SRA, NEAT1, age, Ira