Modulation of the cellular response by the administration of probiotic bacteria may be an effective strategy for preventing or inhibiting tumour growth. We orally pre-inoculated mice with probiotics Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM (La) for 14 d. Subcutaneous dorsal-flank tumours and segmental orthotopic colon cancers were implanted into mice using CT-26 murine colon adenocarcinoma cells. On day 28 after tumour initiation, the lamina propria of the colon, mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and spleen were harvested and purified for flow cytometry and mRNA analyses. We demonstrated that La pre-inoculation reduced tumour volume growth by 50·3 %, compared with untreated mice at 28 d after tumour implants (2465·5 (sem 1290·4) v. 4950·9 (sem 1689·3) mm3, P < 0·001). Inoculation with La reduced the severity of colonic carcinogenesis caused by CT-26 cells, such as level of colonic involvement and structural abnormality of epithelial/crypt damage. Moreover, La enhanced apoptosis of CT-26 cells both in dorsal-flank tumour and segmental orthotopic colon cancer, and the mean counts of apoptotic body were higher in mice pre-inoculated with La (P < 0·05) compared with untreated mice. La pre-inoculation down-regulated the CXCR4 mRNA expressions in the colon, MLN and extra-intestinal tissue, compared with untreated mice (P < 0·05). In addition, La pre-inoculation reduced the mean fluorescence index of MHC class I (H-2Dd, -Kd and -Ld) in flow cytometry analysis. Taken together, these findings suggest that probiotics La may play a role in attenuating tumour growth during CT-26 cell carcinogenesis. The down-regulated expression of CXCR4 mRNA and MHC class I, as well as increasing apoptosis in tumour tissue, indicated that La may be associated with modulating the cellular response triggered by colon carcinogenesis.

The present study examines the prevalence and characteristics of vegetarians in the Taiwanese elderly. We analysed data from the Elderly Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (1999–2000), which used a multi-staged, stratified, clustered probability sampling design. Community-dwelling elderly (n 1071), aged 65 years and older, were included. Sociodemographic, anthropometric, lifestyle and metabolic variables, and eating habits were obtained through household interviews and health examinations. Nutrient intake was assessed using a 24 h dietary recall. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to examine factors significantly and independently associated with vegetarian status and to estimate the OR of the hypertension and the metabolic syndrome (MS) for vegetarians compared with omnivores. About 25 % of the Taiwanese elderly persons were vegetarians. Systolic pressure (OR 1·01, 95 % CI 1, 1·02, P = 0·038), female sex (OR 5·02, 95 % CI 3·11, 8·1, P < 0·001), smoking status (P = 0·034; current smoker (OR 0·45, 95 % CI 0·24, 0·85, P = 0·014)) and regular exercise (OR 1·87, 95 % CI 1·37, 2·56, P < 0·001) were independently associated with vegetarian status among Taiwanese elderly persons. Vegetarians consumed significantly lower daily total energy (P < 0·001), lower cholesterol (P = 0·002), a higher percentage of fat as PUFA (P = 0·022), higher Ca (P < 0·001) and higher crude fibres (P = 0·041) compared with omnivores. Between the two vegetarian diets, ovo- or lacto-vegetarian diets contained more beneficial micronutrients, such as K, Ca and Mg, and higher crude fibres than vegan diets (all P < 0·05). The likelihood of having hypertension and the MS was not significantly different between vegetarians and omnivores as examined by sex- or multivariate-adjusted logistic regression.

We report that the high crystalline and high efficiency green emission semipolar {101̅1} InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) grown on the {101̅1} facets of GaN nanopyramid arrays by selective area epitaxy. Clear and sharp interfaces of the semipolar {101̅1} InGaN/GaN MQWs was observed by transmission electron microscopy images. As comparing with (0001) MQWs, the internal electric field of {101̅1} MQWs was remarkably reduced from 1.7 MV/cm to 0.5 MV/cm, and the room temperature (RT) internal quantum efficiency (IQE) at green emission was enhanced by about 80%. This greatly enhancement of IQE is due to suppress the polarization effect in the {101̅1} MQWs which shorten the radiative recombination to compete with nonradiative recombination at RT. These results evince that the {101̅1} planes are promising for solving the efficiency green gap of III-nitride light emitters.

SnTe is the most common compound formed at the bismuth telluride/metal soldered junction of thermoelectric modules. It affects the mechanical and electrical properties of the soldered junction. In the study we investigate the growth of SnTe compound during reaction between molten Sn–3.5Ag solder and tellurium at 250 °C. We found that the growth of SnTe is suppressed by Ag–Te bilayer compounds that block further reaction between liquid Sn and Te. With increasing reaction time, the SnTe morphology becomes rough as a result of coarsening of SnTe grains. The growth of SnTe grains follows the conservative ripening kinetics with the mean particle size proportional to one-third power of reaction time.

The crystallinity of the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) film was known to influence the solar cell efficiency greatly. Also hydrogen was found to play a critical role in controlling the crystallinity. Instead of employing conventional plasma deposition techniques, this work focused on using catalytic chemical vapor deposition (Cat-CVD) to study the effect of hydrogen dilution and the filament-to-substrate distance on the crystallinity, deposition rate, microstructure factor and electrical property of the μc-Si:H film. We found that the substrate material and structure can affect the crystallinity of the μc-Si:H film and the incubation effect. Comparing bare glass, TCO-coated glass, a-Si:H-coated glass and μc-Si:H-coated glass, the microcrystalline phase grows the fastest onto μc-Si:H surface, but the slowest onto a-Si:H surface. Surprisingly, the template effect lasted for more than a thousand atomic layers of silicon.

Let $A={{({{a}_{j,k}})}_{j,k\ge 1}}$ be a non-negative matrix. In this paper, we characterize those $A$ for which ${{\left\| A \right\|}_{E,F}}$ are determined by their actions on decreasing sequences, where $E$ and $F$ are suitable normed Riesz spaces of sequences. In particular, our results can apply to the following spaces: ${{\ell }_{p}}$, $d(w,p)$, and ${{\ell }_{p}}(w)$. The results established here generalize ones given by Bennett; Chen, Luor, and Ou; Jameson; and Jameson and Lashkaripour.

Intercalated or exfoliated nanocomposites were composed by the novolac cured epoxy and one of three different kinds of layered silicates, such as montmorillonite (PK-802), saponite (Semecton-SA) and nontronite (PK-805). The bi-functional modifiers (PI/BEN or MI/BEN) with different ratio, which contained one of the promoters (2-phenylimidazole, PI and 2-methylimidazole, MI) of epoxy and benzalkonium chloride (BEN), were intercalated into the gallery regions of pure clays at the same time and followed by a crosslinking reaction. The properties of novolac cured epoxy/clay nanocomposites were characterized by wild-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXRD), thermal analysis (TGA/DSC), coefficiency of thermal expansion (TMA), mechanical properties (DMA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). According to the measurement, these novolac cured epoxy-clay nanocomposites have shown the significant improvement in the thermal, mechanical and barrier properties.

A multilevel metal interconnect with air-gap has been developed to reduce RC delay time for quick turn-around-time foundry manufacturing. The air-gap method has been successfully applied to 0.25 νm foundry technology. Measurements on ring oscillators confirm that the smallest delay time is indeed achieved with the air-gap method, compared with that using either conventional high-density-plasma (HDP) oxide or low-dielectric-constant spin-on-glass (SOG). In addition, we have also developed fitting equations for the delay time, thus provide a handy method for predicting the RC delay time. The oscillator delay time is also found to be critically dependent on not only the size, but also the position of the air-gap. Best delay time reduction is obtained when the air-gap is positioned in extended both above and below the metal lines to effectively reduce the fringing capacitance.

Breakdown characteristics of ultra-thin gate oxides caused by plasma charging were studied in this work. It is observed that as oxide thickness is scaled down to 4 nm, some traditional monitor parameters may lose their sensitivity for detecting oxide degradation induced by plasma charging damage, due to insignificant trap generation. Even the gate leakage current, although sensitive for 4 nm oxide, may no longer be sensitive enough for even thinner oxide (e.g., 2.6 nm), due to the existence of large tunneling current. Moreover, several soft-breakdown events were found to occur in ultrathin oxide before the final onset of a catastrophic hard-breakdown. Finally, an equivalent local oxide thickness is calculated using local oxide thinning model to estimate the stepwise increase of gate current after soft-breakdown event.