We investigate over a 12-year period the association between regional cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cardiovascular risk factors in a prospective cohort of healthy older adults (81.96 ± 3.82 year-old) from the Cognitive REServe and Clinical ENDOphenotype (CRESCENDO) study. Cardiovascular risk factors were measured over 12 years, and gray matter CBF was measured at the end of the study from high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging using arterial spin labeling. The association between cardiovascular risk factors, their long-term change, and CBF was assessed using multivariate linear regression models. Women were observed to have higher CBF than men (p < 0.05). Increased mean arterial pressure (MAP) over the 12-year period was correlated with a low cerebral blood flow (p < 0.05, R(2) = 0.21), whereas no association was detected between CBF and MAP at the time of imaging. High levels of glycemia tended to be associated with low cerebral blood flow values (p < 0.05). Age, alcohol consumption, smoking status, body mass index, history of cardiovascular disease, and hypertension were not associated with CBF. Our main result suggests that change in MAP is the most significant predictor of future CBF in older adults.

To validate the functional relevance of resting state networks (RSNs) by means of a comparison of resting state connectivity (RSC) between language regions elicited by direct cortical stimulation versus RSC between random regions; and to evaluate the accuracy of resting state fMRI in surgical planning by assessing the overlap between RSNs and intraoperative functional mapping results. Sensorimotor and language eloquent sites were identified by direct electrical cortical stimulation in 98 patients with a diffuse low-grade glioma. A seed to voxel analysis with inter-language stimulation point connectivity versus inter-random ROIs connectivity was performed (19 patients). An independant component analysis (ICA) was also applied to rsfMRI data. Language and sensorimotor components were selected over 20 independent components and compared to the corresponding stimulation points and resected cortex masks (31 and 90 patients, respectively). The significantly higher RSC between language seeds than between random seeds validated the functional relevance of RSC. ICA partly succeeded to distinguish eloquent versus surgically removable areas and may be possibly used as a complementary tool to intraoperative mapping.

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The effect of germanium (Ge) on n-type 4H-SiC is experimentally studied by electrical characterization of homoepitaxial layers grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Measurements show that electrical properties of epitaxial layers can be changed by intentional incorporation of germane (GeH4) gas during the deposition process. On the nanoscale, two-dimensional mappings acquired with conductive atomic force microscopy show preferential conductive paths on the surface of Gedoped samples, which are related to the presence of this isoelectronic impurity. Hall effect measurements confirm that also macroscopic electrical properties of n-type 4H-SiC are improved due to incorporation of Ge into SiC during CVD growth. In particular, despite equal free electron concentration, enhanced mobility in a wide temperature range is measured in Ge-doped samples as compared to a pure 4H-SiC layer. Based on our results from Hall effect measurements as well as admittance spectroscopy and deep level transient spectroscopy, it is speculated that Ge influences the generation and annealing of other point defects and thus helps to reduce the total concentration of defects

We report on the photoresponse of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors to the THz radiation of low (15 mW/cm(2)) and high (up to 40 kW/cm(2)) intensities. We show that the response can be described by the Dyakonov-Shur theory in the whole range of radiation intensity. At low intensities, the photoresponse is linear in radiation intensity. Under intense laser radiation, we observe a saturation at intensities >20 kW/cm(2). We explain our results by the change of the channel conductivity under the influence of strong THz field. This mechanism of photoresponse saturation, which is due to the mobility decrease in high ac electric field, should exist for any type of field effect transistor detectors.

Fabrication and experimental tests of materials and optics for Terahertz range used in field effect transistor detectors arrays are described. The method using diffractive optics, fabricated in 3D printing technology, was used for tests with GaN/AIGaN based FETs sub-THz detectors working in 300 GHz atmospheric window. The lens arrays focus energy exactly on the detectors and additionally reduce mutual detector crosstalk. Finally they improve detectors signal to noise ratio by more than one order of magnitude. Moreover such lens arrays are cost-effective, easy reproducible and thin elements.

Experimental and theoretical investigations of the influence of substrate thickness on the performance of Si field effect transistor terahertz detectors are presented.. We show that in the case of planar metal antennas a significant portion of incoming radiation, instead of being coupled to the transistors, may be coupled to the substrate leading to important responsivity losses..The ways of avoiding these losses are discussed.