BACKGROUND Reconstruction of large-size abdominal wall defect (AWDs) is a huge challenge faced in current surgical practice. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of biodegradable poly-p-dioxanone (PDO) mesh for reconstructing large-size AWDs in an experimental canine model. METHODS Eighteen experimental canines were randomly and equally divided into three groups, n...

Hot-carrier-induced degradation of partially depleted SOI CMOSFETs was investigated with respect to body-contact (BC-SOI) and floating-body (FB-SOI) for channel lengths ranging from 0.25 down to 0.1 m with 2 nm gate oxide. It is found that the valence-band electron tunneling is the main factor of device degradation for the SOI CMOSFET. In the FB-SOI nMOSFET, both the floating body effect (FBE) ...

Despite advances over the last two decades in the capacity to predict the evolution of the El Niño–southern oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon and advances in understanding of the relationship between ENSO and climate, there has been little use of climate predictions for water resources management in the tropics. As part of an effort to develop such a prediction scheme, the ENSO influences on stream...

A cohort of 2270 white women, aged 40-69 years at baseline, were followed for an average of 8.5 years in the Lipid Research Clinics Program Follow-up Study. There were 44 deaths due to cardiovascular disease among the 1677 nonusers of estrogens and six cardiovascular disease deaths among the 593 estrogen users. The age-adjusted relative risk (RR) of cardiovascular disease deaths in users compar...

A 0.25m, four-layer-metal, 1.5-V, 600-MHz, fully depleted (FD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS 64-bit ALPHA1 microprocessor integrating 9.66 million transistors on a 209-mm silicon die has been developed leveraging the existing bulk design. FD-SOI technology is used because it has better immunity for dynamic leakage current than partially depleted SOI in highspeed dynamic circuits without body ...

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is a large-scale climatic phenomenon modulating ocean-atmosphere variability on decadal time scales. While precipitation and river flow variability in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) catchments are sensitive to PDO phases, the extent to which the PDO influences coral reefs is poorly understood. Here, six Porites coral cores were used to produce a composite rec...

Mutations in two genes affect the formation of the boundary between midbrain and hindbrain (MHB): no isthmus (noi) and acerebellar (ace). noi mutant embryos lack the MHB constriction, the cerebellum and optic tectum, as well as the pronephric duct. Analysis of noi mutant embryos with neuron-specific antibodies shows that the MHB region and the dorsal and ventral midbrain are absent or abnormal,...

During the development of the zebrafish nervous system both noi, a zebrafish pax2 homolog, and ace, a zebrafish fgf8 homolog, are required for development of the midbrain and cerebellum. Here we describe a dominant mutation, aussicht (aus), in which the expression of noi and ace is upregulated. In aus mutant embryos, ace is upregulated at many sites in the embryo, while noi expression is only u...