We prospectively assessed the relationship between nodular gastritis and Helicobacter pylori infection. Of 1409 adults who underwent endoscopy for persistent dyspepsia between June 2004 and August 2005, 41 (2.9%) patients were diagnosed with nodular gastritis (11 [27%] men and 30 [73%] women). The mean age was 45.9 years. A control group of 65 patients without nodular gastritis was also evaluated. The prevalence of H. pylori infection was higher in patients with nodular gastritis than in controls (38/41 [93%] vs. 33/65 [51%]). Of 21 patients treated to eradicate H. pylori, the nodular gastritis pattern resolved or improved in 16 patients on subsequent endoscopy. This study suggests that a nodular pattern of the gastric mucosa on endocscopy is a good indicator for H. pylori infection in adults, with the high positive predictive value of 92.7%.

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In this letter, high-performance single-crystal-like nanowire poly-Si TFTs with simple spacer patterning technique were demonstrated and characterized. Due to the nanoscale dimension formed by spacer patterning technique, each nanowire is easily transformed within one crystalline grain of the standard sequential-lateral-solidification (SLS) poly-Si film with the regularly arranged grains and thus performed with a single-crystallike device channel. Due to the high-crystallinity channel, together with the tri-gated structure, the fabricated devices revealed good device integrity of high field-effect mobility of 477 cm(2)/V . s and good ON/OFF current ratio of 1.07 x 10(8)

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The nitrogen ambient encapsulation (NAE) technique is introduced to improve the reliability issue for the amorphous InGaZnO (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors under positive gate bias stress (PGBS). For the NAE devices, the threshold voltage (Vth) shift is significantly decreased from 1.88 to 0.09 V and the reduction of saturation drain current is improved from 15.75 to 5.61 μA as compared to the bare a-IGZO counterparts after PGBS. These improvements are attributed to the suppression of negatively charged oxygen adsorption on the a-IGZO backsurface and thereby well maintain the channel potential of NAE devices, which in turn sustain the Vth during PGBS.

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Pd nanocrystals (NCs) are successfully embedded in a TaN/SiO 2 /HfAlO/Si structure. The initial memory window increases at a higher rate with increasing fabrication temperature of Pd NCs compared with the linear variation of Pd NC density, which is related to the thermally induced neutral traps in the HfAlO film around Pd NCs. After manufacturing a TaN/SiO 2 /Pd NCs/HfAlO/Si/Al structure, the subsequent N 2 plasma treatment is conducted at 300 C for 3 min. The number of leakage current paths in the SiO 2 blocking layer adjacent to TaN is clearly reduced, but that of leakage current paths in SiO 2 /HfAlO around Pd NCs is slightly increased owing to the thermal stress. The thermally induced neutral traps in the HfAlO film around the Pd NCs can be passivated by nitrogen atoms, which leads to the improvement of the final memory window for the Pd NC samples fabricated at 600-700 C. However, the intrinsic traps in the HfAlO film play an important role in memory characteristic and the final memory window is reduced by thermal densification for the Pd NC samples fabricated at 500 C.