To minimize leakage currents resulting from the thinning of the insulator in the gate stack of field effect transistors, high-dielectric constant high-k metal oxides, and HfO2 in particular, are being implemented as a replacement for SiO2. To speed the rate of processing, it is desirable to etch the gate stack e.g., metal gate, antireflection layers, and dielectric in a single process while hav...

Seven stilbenes and one catechin were bioactivity-guidedly isolated from the rhizomes of Rheum palmatem. Their structures were identified as piceatannol(1), resveratrol(2), piceid(3), rhapontigenin(4), piceatannol-3'-O-β-D-glucopyranoside(5), rhaponticin(6), catechin(7) and desoxyrhapontigenin(8). Anti-monoamine oxidase (MAO) activities of compounds 1–8 were tested. Compounds 1 and 8 showed sig...

Calpains are intracellular cysteine proteases with important physiological functions. Up- or downregulation of their expression can be responsible for several diseases, therefore specific calpain inhibitors may be considered as promising candidates for drug discovery. In this paper we describe the synthesis and characterization of a new class of inhibitors derived from the analysis of amino aci...

Discriminating targets moving against a cluttered background is a huge challenge, let alone detecting a target as small as one or a few pixels and tracking it in flight. In the fly’s visual system, a class of specific neurons, called small target motion detectors (STMDs), have been identified as showing exquisite selectivity for small target motion. Some of the STMDs have also demonstrated dire...

A common goal in marketing research is to understand how one evaluates products that have been filtered through some type of screening or selection process. Typical examples include post-choice satisfaction ratings, certain free recall tasks, or the development of consideration sets followed by brand choice. In such situations, behavior is contingent not only on the alternatives being evaluated...

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are key regulators of cell physiology and control processes ranging from glucose homeostasis to contractility of the heart. A major mechanism for the desensitization of activated GPCRs is their phosphorylation by GPCR kinases (GRKs). Overexpression of GRK2 is strongly linked to heart failure, and GRK2 has long been considered a pharmaceutical target for the t...

For autonomous robots in dynamic environments mixed with human, it is vital to detect impending collision quickly and robustly. The biological visual systems evolved over millions of years may provide us efficient solutions for collision detection in complex environments. In the cockpit of locusts, two Lobula Giant Movement Detectors, i.e. LGMD1 and LGMD2, have been identified which respond to ...

Protein kinase D (PKD) has emerged as a potential therapeutic target in multiple pathological conditions, including cancer and heart diseases. Potent and selective small molecule inhibitors of PKD are valuable for dissecting PKD-mediated cellular signaling pathways and for therapeutic application. In this study, we evaluated a targeted library of 235 small organic kinase inhibitors for PKD1 inh...

the efficient detection of charged biomolecules by biosensor with appropriate semiconducting nanomaterials and with optimum device geometry has caught tremendous research interest in the present decade. here, the performance of various label-free electronic biosensors to detect bio-molecules is investigated by simulation technique. silicon nanowire sensor, nanosphere sensor and double gate fiel...

Complex cognitive behaviors, such as context-switching and rule-following, are thought to be supported by the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Neural activity in the PFC must thus be specialized to specific tasks while retaining flexibility. Nonlinear "mixed" selectivity is an important neurophysiological trait for enabling complex and context-dependent behaviors. Here we investigate (1) the extent to ...