A readout IC for an uncooled microbolometer infrared FPA with on-chip self-heating compensation in 0.35 μm CMOS

This paper describes a readout integrated circuit architecture for an infrared focal plane array intended for infrared network-attached video cameras in surveillance applications. The focal plane array consists of 352 × 288 uncooled thin-film microbolometer detectors with a pitch of 25 μm, enabling ambient temperature operation. The circuit features a low-noise readout path, detector resistance mismatch correction and a non-linear ramped current pulse scheme for the electrical biasing of the detectors in order to relax the dynamic range requirement of amplifiers and the ADC in the readout channel, imposed by detector process variation and self-heating during readout. The design is implemented in a 0.35-μm standard CMOS process and two versions of a smaller 32 × 32-pixel test chip have been fabricated and measured for evaluation. The latest test chip achieves a dynamic range of 97 dB and an input-referred RMS noise voltage of 6.4 μV yielding an estimated NETD value of 26 mK with f/1 optics. At a frame rate of 60 FPS the chip dissipates 170 mW of power from a 3.4 V supply.     

Classification of semantic relations between nominals

The NLP community has shown a renewed interest in deeper semantic analyses, among them automatic recognition of semantic relations in text. We present the development and evaluation of a semantic analysis task: automatic recognition of relations between pairs of nominals in a sentence. The task was part of SemEval-2007, the fourth edition of the semantic evaluation event previously known as SensEval. Apart from the observations we have made, the long-lasting effect of this task may be a framework for comparing approaches to the task. We introduce the problem of recognizing relations between nominals, and in particular the process of drafting and refining the definitions of the semantic relations. We show how we created the training and test data, list and briefly describe the 15 participating systems, discuss the results, and conclude with the lessons learned in the course of this exercise.     

Ovarian teratoma (case report)

Case-history of an accidentally detected teratoma, during X-ray examination because of back pain in a 44-year-old female patient. The teratoma contained a premolar and hair.     

Conductivity enhancement in carbon nanocone adhesive by electric field induced formation of aligned assemblies

We show how an alternating electric field can be used to assemble carbon nanocones (CNCs) and align these assemblies into microscopic wires in a commercial two-component adhesive. The wires form continuous pathways that may electrically connect the alignment electrodes, which leads to directional conductivity (～10(-3) S/m) on a macroscopic scale. This procedure leads to conductivity enhancement of at least 2-3 orders of magnitude in the case where the CNC fraction (～0.2 vol %) is 1 order of magnitude below the percolation threshold (～2 vol %). The alignment and conductivity are maintained on curing that joins the alignment electrodes permanently together. If the aligned CNC wires are damaged before curing, they can be realigned by an extended alignment period. This concept has implications in areas such as electronic packaging technology.     

Peritoneal clearance and peritoneal transfer of oxalic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 during continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis

The peritoneal clearance and peritoneal transfer of oxalic acid, vitamin C, and vitamin B6 in 32 patients during continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) using peritoneal dialysis solutions containing 1.5% or 2.5% glucose were examined. The plasma level of oxalic acid was significantly elevated in all patients, plasma vitamin C was in the normal range or in the upper margin of the normal range, and plasma vitamin B6 was in the normal range. The peritoneal clearance of oxalic acid was significantly lower, and the peritoneal clearance of vitamin B6 was the lowest in comparison to the peritoneal clearance of urea. With the exception of vitamin B6, the peritoneal clearance and peritoneal transfer of the examined parameters increased using the dialysis solution containing 2.5% glucose. We found direct relationships between the plasma levels of oxalic acid and creatinine as well as plasma vitamin C and between the peritoneal transfer of oxalic acid and the peritoneal transfer of vitamin C as well as vitamin B6. The significant hyperoxalemia of our patients was found to persist despite the relatively high peritoneal transfer of oxalic acid during CAPD. These results suggest that CAPD is not a method effective enough for permanent reduction of the plasma levels of oxalic acid.     

Performance characteristics of a packing with boundary layer turbulizers Part 1. Pressure drop and loading point

A novel design of a honeycomb packing with turbulizers in the region of the boundary layer (Turbo-Pack) has been designed and investigated. The presence of turbulizers is shown to decrease the pressure drop per mass transfer unit in cases of both gas-film and liquid-film controlled mass transfer. A comparison of the best packings known so far from the literature shows that, regarding such an important parameter as pressure drop per mass transfer unit, the novel packing has significant advantages. On the basis of experimental data obtained by studying 11 different packing designs in liquids of various viscosity, equations for determining the performance characteristics of the novel packing are obtained. In the first part of this work, the data on packing design, pressure drop and loading point are presented.     

On Coordinate Transformations for Summation-by-Parts Operators

High order finite difference methods obeying a summation-by-parts (SBP) rule are developed for equidistant grids. With curvilinear grids, a coordinate transformation operator that does not destroy the SBP property must be used. We show that it is impossible to construct such an operator without decreasing the order of accuracy of the method.     

Performance characteristics of a packing with boundary layer turbulizers. IV. Gas-film controlled masstransfer

The gas-film controlled mass-transfer rate in a honeycomb packing, with stamped groove turbulizers (Turbo-Pack) which affect the region of the boundary layer, has been studied. An equation for determining the mass-transfer coefficient as a function of gas velocity and the geometrical dimensions of the packing has been derived. It is found that the effect of the height of packing blocks is far less than that forecast by Zhavoronkov's equation which was derived for packings with a much higher wall thickness. Comparison of experimental data relevant to the novel design with reference packings cited in the literature shows that as far as its low values of pressure drop per mass transfer unit are concerned the Turbo-Pack packing is superior to all other known packings.