The electrical properties of an aluminum oxide (Al2O3) metal-oxide-semiconductor gate stack with a GeO2 interfacial layer were investigated, showing very low interface state density (D-it), 1.4 x 10(11) cm(-2) eV(-1). By synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy, the conduction and the valence band offsets of GeO2 with respect to Ge were estimated to be 1.2 +/- 0.3 and 3.6 +/- 0.1 eV, which are sufficiently high to suppress gate leakage. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3259407]“
“Background: PD0332991 in vitro Keratinocytes

at wound margins undergo partial epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). Based on previous in vitro and ex vivo findings, Slug (Snai2), a transcriptional regulator of EMT in development, may play an important role in this process.

Objectives:

This study was designed to validate an in vivo role for Slug in wound healing.

Methods: Excisional wounds in Slug null and wild type mice were examined histologically at 6,24, 48, and 72 h after wounding; reepithelialization was measured and immunohistochemistry for keratins 8, 10, 14, and 6 and E-cadherin was performed. In 20 Slug null and 20 wild type mice exposed three times weekly to two minimal erythemal doses of UVR, the development of non-healing cutaneous ulcers was documented. Ulcers were examined histologically and by immunohistochemistry.

Results: The reepithelialization component of excisional BMS-777607 wound healing was reduced 1.7-fold and expression of the Slug target genes keratin 8 and E-cadherin was increased at wound margins in Slug null compared to wild type mice. In contrast, no

differences in expression of keratins 10 or 14 or in markers of proliferation K6 and Ki-67 were observed. Forty per cent of Slug null mice but no wild type mice developed non-healing cutaneous ulcers in response to chronic UVR. Keratinocytes at ulcer margins expressed high levels of keratin 8 and retained E-cadherin expression, thus resembling excisional wounds.

Conclusion: Slug is an important modulator of successful wound repair in adult check details tissue and maybe critical for maintaining epidermal integrity in response to chronic injury. (C) 2009 Japanese Society for Investigative Dermatology. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Results are reported of a systematic atomic-scale computational analysis of strain relaxation mechanisms and the associated defect dynamics in nanometer-scale thin or ultrathin Cu films that are subjected to a broad range of biaxial tensile strains. The films contain pre-existing voids and the film planes are oriented normal to the [1 (1) over bar0] crystallographic direction. The analysis is based on isothermal-isostrain molecular-dynamics simulations according to an embedded-atom-method parameterization for Cu and employing multimillion-atom slab supercells.