Spontaneous damage to DNA as a result of deamination, oxidation and depurination is greatly accelerated at high temperatures. Hyperthermophilic microorganisms constantly exposed to temperatures exceeding 80 degrees C are endowed with powerful DNA repair mechanisms to maintain genome stability. Of particular interest is the processing of DNA lesions during replication, which can result in fixed ...

We previously reported that lagging-strand genes accumulate mutations faster than those encoded on the leading strand in Bacillus subtilis. Although we proposed that orientation-specific encounters between replication and transcription underlie this phenomenon, the mechanism leading to the increased mutagenesis of lagging-strand genes remained unknown. Here, we report that the transcription-dep...

Programming mechanisms in floating-gate non-volatile (EEPROM) standard-CMOS memories are briefly reviewed. A methodology to optimize the programming time in poly1-poly2 Fowler-Nordheim based structures is proposed. From design constraints, the optimum number of bumps and bootstrap capacitance value are obtained to maximize the programming speed for a given programming voltage.

The ability to control the timing and order of release of different therapeutic drugs will play a pivotal role in improving patient care and simplifying treatment regimes in the clinic. The controlled sequential release of a broad range of small and macromolecules from thin film coatings offers a simple way to provide complex localized dosing in vivo. Here we show that it is possible to take ad...

In this work, two high-voltage charge pumps are introduced. In order to minimize the area of the pumping capacitors, which dominates the overall area of the charge pump, high density capacitors have been utilized. Nonetheless, these high density capacitors suffer from low breakdown voltage which is not compatible with the targeted high voltage application. To circumvent the breakdown limitation...

The fixed-fixed plate test problem. The plate undergoes a maximum of 2 µm of deflection, which corresponds to a pull-in of a switch fabricated in the Poly1 layer in MUMPs. Geometric nonlinearity (large deflections and rotations) is accounted for in the simulations. (a) Length = 400 µm, width = 40 µm, thickness = 2 µm, pressure =-5*10-9 N/µm 2 , Young's Modulus = 0.136 GPa, Poisson's ratio = 0.2...

BACKGROUND Polymer surface-modified inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) provide a multifunctional platform for assisting gene delivery. Rational structure design for enhancing colloidal stability and cellular uptake is an important strategy in the development of safe and highly efficient gene vectors. RESULTS Heterogeneous Au-coated Fe3O4 (Fe3O4@Au) NPs capped by polyethylene glycol-b-poly1-(3-amin...

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of catalyst doping on the performance of MgCl2. EtOH/TiCl4 catalyst system. In this regard, a series of undoped as well as FeCl3-doped catalysts was prepared and employed in 1-hexene polymerization. A modified catalyst containing 10 wt. % of FeCl3 dopant demonstrated the highest activity, with 32% activity increase compared to unmodified one, amon...

This paper presents the results of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) Young's modulus and step height round robin experiment, completed in April 2009, which compares Young's modulus and step height measurement results at a number of laboratories. The purpose of the round robin was to provide data for the precision and bias statements of two \ related Semiconductor Equipment and Materials I...