Automatic ultrastructure segmentation of reconstructed cryoEM maps of icosahedral viruses.

We present an automatic algorithm to segment all the local and global asymmetric units of a three-dimensional density map of icosahedral viruses. This approach is readily applicable to the structural analysis of a broad range of virus structures that are reconstructed using cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) technique. Our algorithm includes three major steps operating on the three dimensional density map: the detection of critical points of the volumetric density function, the detection of global and local symmetry axes, and, finally, the boundary segmentation of all the asymmetric units. We demonstrate the efficacy of our algorithm and report our results on several experimental volumetric datasets, consisting of both reconstructed cryo-EM molecular density maps taken from the European Bioinformatics Institute archive, as well our own synthetically generated (blurred) maps calculated from X-ray resolution molecular structural data taken from the Protein Data Bank.     

Analysis of ATSC field test results in Taiwan

Field tests of the transmission performance of the ATSC DTV system have been conducted in Taiwan. The test results as well as comparisons against the NTSC system performance are reported and analyzed. From the measured results the reception characteristics of the DTV can be deduced and can provide guidelines for television stations to design the transmission system, schedule equipment deployment, plan service coverage areas, and improve the reception quality of the digital signal     

Investigation of the initial stage of borating tantalum

The results of investigation of initial stage of the tantalum borating as well as the effect of oxygen and hydrogen on it are presented. The scheme of the initial stage of tantalum boron saturation is proposed.     

External heat transfer in infiltrated granular beds. Experimental study

Experimental data was obtained on external heat transfer in infiltrated granular beds of coarse particles. It was determined that calcualtions with the proposed model agree satisfactorily with the experimental results.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 919–923, December, 1988.     

Characteristics of tunneling and impact ionization in ZnS:Mn-based thin-film electroluminescent structures

A method for measuring the characteristics of tunneling and impact ionization in thin-film electroluminescent emitters is suggested. This method makes it possible to find time dependences of the space-charge layer thickness near the anode and the length of the impact ionization region, to determine more exactly the time dependence of the field in the potential barrier at the cathode interface, the maximum depth of the surface states from which electron tunneling occurs, the minimum thickness of the barrier, and the electron tunneling probability, as well as the impact ionization rate for the deep centers related to structural defects of the phosphor layer.     

Detection of failure sites by focused ion beam and nano-probing in the interconnect of three-dimensional stacked circuit structures

Focused ion beam (FIB) and nano-probing were applied for failure analysis of three-dimensional stacked circuits with copper through-silicon-vias between the stacked chips. The failure analysis was done after high temperature storage and thermal cycling tests. Passive voltage contrast in FIB allowed to pinpoint the open sites. FIB cross-sections showed the presence of opens at the bottom of the copper vias. The failure cause was suspected to be an interlayer particle, which was confirmed by optical profilometry. Nano-probing was used on another sample to pinpoint the failure location through the measurement of the local resistance within the daisy chains. The failure was traced out to be related with surface contamination.