Serum human hepatocyte growth factor (hHGF) is elevated in patients with metastatic gastric carcinoma

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a stromally derived protein growth factor that modulates epithelial cell proliferation and motility. HGF may therefore be involved in tumor progression. METHODOLOGY: We measured the immunoreactive (ir)-HGF concentration in the sera of 56 patients with human gastric carcinoma, using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and evaluated its association with clinical and histopathologic factors. Clinical stages were classified in accordance with The General Rules for TNM Classification (International Union Against Cancer). RESULTS: The serum hHGF concentrations from patients with gastric carcinoma significantly increased with increasing pathologic tumor grades. Also, there were significantly higher concentrations in patients with nodal metastasis compared to patients without metastasis. The serum hHGF concentrations in patients with liver metastasis were significantly higher than in patients without liver metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: These data show that the serum hHGF concentration is elevated in gastric carcinoma patients with liver and nodal metastasis. In multivariate analysis, the serum hHGF concentration was found to be the most important independent factor in predicting overall survival. Thus, the current results suggest that HGF may be important in the progression and metastasis of gastric carcinoma.     

Low-barrier-height epitaxial Ge-GaAs mixer diodes

Using a thin Ge-GaAs structure, barrier height lowering of 0.2?0.3 eV has been attained. These X-band diodes have a noise figure of 6.0?6.5 dB at 0.75?1.0 mW of local-oscillator power. The diodes have superior power-handling capability with Pt-Ti-Mo-Au metallisation.     

Lattice mismatched InGaAs on silicon photodetectors grown by molecular beam epitaxy

In_0.5Ga_0.5As on silicon photodetectors, including three types of interdigitated-finger devices as well as linear photoconductors, were fabricated and measured. The InGaAs/Si structure was grown by molecular beam epitaxy and utilized a 100 Å GaAs intervening nucleation layer between the silicon substrate and the InGaAs layers, step-graded In_xGa_1?xAs layers, and an in-situ grown 40 Å thick GaAs surface layer, which substantially enhanced the metal-semiconductor barrier height (Φ_b = 0.67 V) for the InGaAs. Schottky diodes fabricated independently of the photodetectors had nearly ideal characteristics with an ideality factor (n) of 1.02 and a reverse breakdown voltage of 40 V. The interdigitated Schottky photodetectors showed dark currents between <3nA and 54 μA at a 3 V bias and initial photoresponse rise times in the range of 600 to 725 ps, comparable to similar InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors grown lattice matched on InP. The photoconductors fabricated in the same material had rise times in the range of 575 to 1300 ps, thus being slightly slower, and had dark currents of 7 to 80 mA. The responsivity of the photoconductors was typically greater than that of the diodes by a factor of five to fifteen. The results show potential for monolithic integration of InGaAs photodetectors on silicon substrates.     

Thermal stability of heterojunction interfaces in GaAs/AlGaAsstructures

Reports on the preliminary study of the stability of GaAs/AlGaAs interfaces under thermal stressing up to 1000°C in an optical furnace. The interfaces are studied using RBS and SIMS techniques and they confirm that no observable degradation occurs up to 900°C. At 1000°C diffusion of aluminium from the AlGaAs layer into the GaAs occurs but this is at a very low level     

Subsurface burnout mechanisms in gallium arsenide (GAAS) electronic devices

This paper reviews the present knowledge on subsurface burnout mechanisms in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) electronic devices. The results of the work should assist in the creation of more reliable devices with greater radiation hardness.     

Interaction of sodium dodecyl sulfate and of non-ionic detergents with S-carboxyamidomethyl-k-casein

Sodium dodecyl sulfate binds to S-carboxyamidomethyl-k-casein in a highly cooperative manner at a concentration near the critical micelle concentration, showing a strong dependence on ionic strength. The maximum number of sodium dodecyl sulfate molecules bound is attained above the critical micelle concentration, and is very close to the micelle aggregation number in the absence of protein. The binding sites on the protein for sodium dodecyl sulfate are localized mainly on para-k-casein part, which is a hydrophobic fragment of k-casein produced by rennin attack. The mode of the action of sodium dodecyl sulfate on S-carboxyamidomethyl-k-casein resembles that of several integral membrane proteins, rather than of water soluble proteins. On considering possible situations, it is suggested that the unusual interaction of S-carboxyamidomethyl-k-casein with sodium dodecyl sulfate is responsible for an anomalous migration of reduced k-casein observed in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Further, the suggestion was made by the binding studies of sodium dodecyl sulfate and non-ionic detergents that the sites which were involved in self-association of S-carboxyamidomethyl-k-casein participated in the binding sites of detergents.     

Laser Annealed and Thermal Annealed Refractory Ohmic Contacts to GaAs

Ohmic contacts to n-type GaAs have been developed for high-temperature device applications up to 300°C. Refractory metallizations were used with epitaxial Ge layers to form the contacts TiW/Ge/GaAs, Ta/Ge/GaAs, Mo/Ge/GaAs, and Ni/Ge/GaAs. Contacts with high dose Si or Se ion implantation (1012 to 1014/cm2) of the Ge/GaAs interface were also investigated. The purpose of this work was to develop refractory ohmic contacts with low specific-contact resistance (~10-6 ?cm2 on 1 x 1017cm-3GaAs) which are free of imperfections, resulting in a uniform n+ doping layer. The contacts were fabricated on epitaxial GaAs layers (n = 2 x 1016 to 2 x 1017 cm-3) grown on n+ ( 2 x 1018 cm-3) or semi-insulating GaAs (at strates. Ohmic contact was formed by both thermal annealing ( at temperatures up to 700°C) and laser annealing (pulsed Ruby). Examination of the Ge/GaAs interface revealed Ge migration into GaAs to form an n+layer. Under optimum laser anneal conditions, the specific contact resistance was in the range 1-5 x 10-6 ?-cm2 (on 2 x 1017cm-3GaAs). Thermally annealed TiW/Ge had a contact resitivity of 1 x 10-6 ? cm2 on 1 x 1017 cm-3 GaAs under optimum anneal conditions. The contacts also showed improved thermal stability over conventional Ni/AuGe contacts at temperatures above 300°C.     

Conditionals,Counterfactuals, and Rational Reasoning: An Experimental Study on Basic Principles

We present a unified approach for investigating rational reasoning about basic argument forms involving indicative conditionals, counterfactuals, and basic quantified statements within coherence-based probability logic. After introducing the rationality framework, we present an interactive view on the relation between normative and empirical work. Then, we report a new experiment which shows that people interpret indicative conditionals and counterfactuals by coherent conditional probability assertions and negate conditionals by negating their consequents. The data support the conditional probability interpretation of conditionals and the narrow-scope reading of the negation of conditionals. Finally, we argue that coherent conditional probabilities are important for probabilistic analyses of conditionals, nonmonotonic reasoning, quantified statements, and paradoxes.