Localized dielectric breakdown (BD) was studied by electrically stressing the system using conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM), which constitutes a means to directly and simultaneously observe localized dielectric failure as a function

of stress time and surface morphology with nanoscale lateral resolution. AFM and scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) were used to monitor defects and the morphological and capacitive uniformities of the SiO2, respectively, while capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements were used to evaluate the presence of charges and traps in the oxide layers. The BD kinetics was evaluated by fitting the experimental failure ratios as a function of the stress time to the failure probability described by Weibull statistics, in turn allowing a distinction to be made between defect-induced (extrinsic) and intrinsic dielectric BD events. The results give useful information about how morphological SRT2104 molecular weight features at the 3C-SiC surface as well as trapped charges influence the BD generation in

thermally grown oxides on this polytype. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3525806]“
“The relationship of inhibitory quotient (IQ) with the virologic response to specific inhibitors of human hepatitis C virus (HCV) and the best method to correct for serum protein binding in calculating IQ have not been addressed. A common method is to determine a fold shift by comparing the EC(50) values determined in cell culture in the absence and presence of human serum (fold shift in Selleck KPT-8602 EC(50)), but this method has a number of disadvantages. In the present study, the fold shifts in drug concentrations between 100% human plasma (HP) and C59 Wnt mw cell culture medium (CCM) were directly measured using a modified comparative equilibrium dialysis (CED) assay for three HCV protease inhibitors (PIs) and for a novel HCV inhibitor GS-9132. The fold shift values in drug

concentration between the HP and CCM (CED ratio) were similar to 1 for SCH-503034, VX-950 and GS-9132 and 13 for BILN-2061. These values were similar to 3-10-fold lower than the fold shift values calculated from the EC(50) assay for all inhibitors except BILN-2061. Using the CED values, a consistent pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic relationship was observed for the four HCV inhibitors analysed. Specifically, an approximate 1 log(10) reduction in HCV RNA was achieved with an IQ close to 1, while 2-3 and greater log(10) reductions in HCV RNA were achieved with IQ values of 3-5 and greater, respectively. Thus, use of CED to define IQ provides a predictive and quantitative approach for the assessment of the in vivo potency of HCV PIs and GS-9132. This method provides a framework for the evaluation of other classes of drugs that are bound by serum proteins but require the presence of serum for in vitro evaluation.