High Mobility SiGe/Si n-Type Structures and Field Effect Transistors on Sapphire Substrates

SiGe/Si n-type modulation doped field effect transistors (MODFETs) fabricated on sapphire substrates have been characterized at microwave frequencies for the first time. The highest measured room temperature electron mobility is 1380 sq cm/V-sec at a carrier density of 1.8 x 10(exp 12)/sq cm for a MODFET structure, and 900 sq cm/V-sec at a carrier density of 1.3 x 10/sq cm for a phosphorus ion implanted sample. A two finger, 2 x 200 micron gate n-MODFET has a peak transconductance of 37 mS/mm at a drain to source voltage of 2.5 V and a transducer gain of 6.4 dB at 1 GHz

The democratic engagement of Britain's ethnic minorities

Democratic engagement is a multi-faceted phenomenon that embraces citizens' involvement with electoral politics, their participation in ‘conventional’ extra-parliamentary political activity, their satisfaction with democracy and trust in state institutions, and their rejection of the use of violence for political ends. Evidence from the 2010 BES and EMBES shows that there are important variations in patterns of democratic engagement across Britain's different ethnic-minority groups and across generations. Overall, ethnic-minority engagement is at a similar level to and moved by the same general factors that influence the political dispositions of whites. However, minority democratic engagement is also strongly affected by a set of distinctive ethnic-minority perceptions and experiences, associated particularly with discrimination and patterns of minority and majority cultural engagement. Second-generation minorities who grew up in Britain are less, rather than more, likely to be engaged

PWR Facility Dose Modeling Using MCNP5 and the CADIS/ADVANTG Variance-Reduction Methodology

The feasibility of modeling a pressurized-water-reactor (PWR) facility and calculating dose rates at all locations within the containment and adjoining structures using MCNP5 with mesh tallies is presented. Calculations of dose rates resulting from neutron and photon sources from the reactor (operating and shut down for various periods) and the spent fuel pool, as well as for the photon source from the primary coolant loop, were all of interest. Identification of the PWR facility, development of the MCNP-based model and automation of the run process, calculation of the various sources, and development of methods for visually examining mesh tally files and extracting dose rates were all a significant part of the project. Advanced variance reduction, which was required because of the size of the model and the large amount of shielding, was performed via the CADIS/ADVANTG approach. This methodology uses an automatically generated three-dimensional discrete ordinates model to calculate adjoint fluxes from which MCNP weight windows and source bias parameters are generated. Investigative calculations were performed using a simple block model and a simplified full-scale model of the PWR containment, in which the adjoint source was placed in various regions. In general, it was shown that placement of the adjoint source on the periphery of the model provided adequate results for regions reasonably close to the source (e.g., within the containment structure for the reactor source). A modification to the CADIS/ADVANTG methodology was also studied in which a global adjoint source is weighted by the reciprocal of the dose response calculated by an earlier forward discrete ordinates calculation. This method showed improved results over those using the standard CADIS/ADVANTG approach, and its further investigation is recommended for future efforts

Single-Dose Zoliflodacin (ETX0914) for Treatment of Urogenital Gonorrhea

BACKGROUND Antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae has prompted the development of new therapies. Zoliflodacin is a new antibiotic that inhibits DNA biosynthesis. In this multicenter, phase 2 trial, zoliflodacin was evaluated for the treatment of uncomplicated gonorrhea. METHODS We randomly assigned eligible men and women who had signs or symptoms of uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea or untreated urogenital gonorrhea or who had had sexual contact in the preceding 14 days with a person who had gonorrhea to receive a single oral dose of zoliflodacin (2 g or 3 g) or a single 500-mg intramuscular dose of ceftriaxone in a ratio of approximately 70:70:40. A test of cure occurred within 6±2 days after treatment, followed by a safety visit 31±2 days after treatment. The primary efficacy outcome measure was the proportion of urogenital microbiologic cure in the microbiologic intention-to-treat (micro-ITT) population. RESULTS From November 2014 through December 2015, a total of 179 participants (167 men and 12 women) were enrolled. Among the 141 participants in the micro-ITT population who could be evaluated, microbiologic cure at urogenital sites was documented in 55 of 57 (96%) who received 2 g of zoliflodacin, 54 of 56 (96%) who received 3 g of zoliflodacin, and 28 of 28 (100%) who received ceftriaxone. All rectal infections were cured in all 5 participants who received 2 g of zoliflodacin and all 7 who received 3 g, and in all 3 participants in the group that received ceftriaxone. Pharyngeal infections were cured in 4 of 8 participants (50%), 9 of 11 participants (82%), and 4 of 4 participants (100%) in the groups that received 2 g of zoliflodacin, 3 g of zoliflodacin, and ceftriaxone, respectively. A total of 84 adverse events were reported: 24 in the group that received 2 g of zoliflodacin, 37 in the group that received 3 g of zoliflodacin, and 23 in the group that received ceftriaxone. According to investigators, a total of 21 adverse events were thought to be related to zoliflodacin, and most such events were gastrointestinal. CONCLUSIONS The majority of uncomplicated urogenital and rectal gonococcal infections were successfully treated with oral zoliflodacin, but this agent was less efficacious in the treatment of pharyngeal infections

Antilymphoid antibody preconditioning and tacrolimus monotherapy for pediatric kidney transplantation

Objective: Heavy post-transplant immunosuppression may contribute to long-term immunosuppression dependence by subverting tolerogenic mechanisms; thus, we sought to determine if this undesirable consequence could be mitigated by pretransplant lymphoid depletion and minimalistic post-transplant monotherapy. Study design: Lymphoid depletion in 17 unselected pediatric recipients of live (n = 14) or deceased donor kidneys (n = 3) was accomplished with antithymocyte globulin (ATG) (n = 8) or alemtuzumab (n = 9). Tacrolimus was begun post-transplantation with subsequent lengthening of intervals between doses (spaced weaning). Maintenance immunosuppression, morbidity, graft function, and patient/graft survival were collated. Results: Steroids were added temporarily to treat rejection in two patients (both ATG subgroup) or to treat hemolytic anemia in two others. After 16 to 31 months (mean 22), patient and graft survival was 100% and 94%, respectively. The only graft loss was in a nonweaned noncompliant recipient. In the other 16, serum creatinine was 0.85 ± 0.35 mg/dL and creatinine clearance was 90.8 ± 22.1 mL/1.73 m2. All 16 patients are on monotherapy (15 tacrolimus, one sirolimus), and 14 receive every other day or 3 times per week doses. There were no wound or other infections. Two patients developed insulin-dependent diabetes. Conclusion: The strategy of lymphoid depletion and minimum post-transplant immunosuppression appears safe and effective for pediatric kidney recipients. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

TOM40 Mediates Mitochondrial Dysfunction Induced by α-Synuclein Accumulation in Parkinson's Disease.

Alpha-synuclein (α-Syn) accumulation/aggregation and mitochondrial dysfunction play prominent roles in the pathology of Parkinson's disease. We have previously shown that postmortem human dopaminergic neurons from PD brains accumulate high levels of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) deletions. We now addressed the question, whether alterations in a component of the mitochondrial import machinery -TOM40- might contribute to the mitochondrial dysfunction and damage in PD. For this purpose, we studied levels of TOM40, mtDNA deletions, oxidative damage, energy production, and complexes of the respiratory chain in brain homogenates as well as in single neurons, using laser-capture-microdissection in transgenic mice overexpressing human wildtype α-Syn. Additionally, we used lentivirus-mediated stereotactic delivery of a component of this import machinery into mouse brain as a novel therapeutic strategy. We report here that TOM40 is significantly reduced in the brain of PD patients and in α-Syn transgenic mice. TOM40 deficits were associated with increased mtDNA deletions and oxidative DNA damage, and with decreased energy production and altered levels of complex I proteins in α-Syn transgenic mice. Lentiviral-mediated overexpression of Tom40 in α-Syn-transgenic mice brains ameliorated energy deficits as well as oxidative burden. Our results suggest that alterations in the mitochondrial protein transport machinery might contribute to mitochondrial impairment in α-Synucleinopathies

Why do banks promise to pay par on demand?

We survey the theories of why banks promise to pay par on demand and examine evidence about the conditions under which banks have promised to pay the par value of deposits and banknotes on demand when holding only fractional reserves. The theoretical literature can be broadly divided into four strands: liquidity provision, asymmetric information, legal restrictions, and a medium of exchange. We assume that it is not zero cost to make a promise to redeem a liability at par value on demand. If so, then the conditions in the theories that result in par redemption are possible explanations of why banks promise to pay par on demand. If the explanation based on customers’ demand for liquidity is correct, payment of deposits at par will be promised when banks hold assets that are illiquid in the short run. If the asymmetric-information explanation based on the difficulty of valuing assets is correct, the marketability of banks’ assets determines whether banks promise to pay par. If the legal restrictions explanation of par redemption is correct, banks will not promise to pay par if they are not required to do so. If the transaction explanation is correct, banks will promise to pay par value only if the deposits are used in transactions. After the survey of the theoretical literature, we examine the history of banking in several countries in different eras: fourth-century Athens, medieval Italy, Japan, and free banking and money market mutual funds in the United States. We find that all of the theories can explain some of the observed banking arrangements, and none explain all of them

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

Observational constraints on the distribution, seasonality, and environmental predictors of North American boreal methane emissions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106685/1/GBC_20128_REVISED_suppinfo.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106685/2/gbc20128.pd