A 65 nm Single-Chip Application and Dual-Mode Baseband Processor With Partial Clock Activation and IP-MMU

Supporting both WCDMA with HSDPA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE, the 9.3 times 9.3 mm² SoC fabricated in triple-Vth 65 nm CMOS, has three CPU cores and 20 separate power domains. Unused power domains can be powered down to reduce the leakage power. Partial clock activation scheme especially focused on music playback scene dynamically stops a PLL and clock trees when not necessary and reduces power consumption from 33.6 mW to 19.6 mW. IP-MMU translates virtual address to physical address for 18 hardware-IPs and virtual address space can be allocated when necessary and can be freed after its operation, reducing external memory by 43 MB. Video performance of D1 (720 times 520) size with 30 frames per second for MPEG/AVC decoding and encoding can be achieved under mixed virtual and physical address usage.     

Role of intracellular calcium in modification of mu and delta opioid receptor-mediated antinociception by diabetes in mice

We examined the effects of calcium modulators on mu and delta opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception in both diabetic and nondiabetic mice. In nondiabetic mice, intracerebroventricular (i.c. v.) pretreatment with calcium and thapsigargin, which increase intracellular calcium, reduced [D-Ala2,N-MePhe4,Gly-ol5]-enkephalin (DAMGO)-induced antinociception by shifting its dose-response curve to the right. However, in diabetic mice i.c.v. pretreatment with calcium and thapsigargin did not affect DAMGO-induced antinociception. In contrast i.c.v. administration of agents that decrease intracellular calcium, such as EGTA and ryanodine, enhanced DAMGO-induced antinociception in both diabetic and nondiabetic mice. In contrast with DAMGO i.c.v. pretreatment with calcium and thapsigargin enhanced (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception in nondiabetic mice by shifting its dose-response curve to the left. However, (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception in diabetic mice was not affected by pretreatment with calcium or thapsigargin. Moreover i.c. v. pretreatment with EGTA, but not with ryanodine, reduced (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception in nondiabetic mice. In diabetic mice i.c.v. pretreatment with both EGTA and ryanodine reduced (-)-TAN67-induced antinociception. These results suggest that cytosolic calcium has different effects on mu and delta opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception. Further, these results suggest that the modification of mu and delta opioid receptor agonist-induced antinociception by diabetes in mice may be due to increased levels of intracellular calcium.     

Multihormone-producing islet cell tumor of the pancreas associated with somatostatin-immunoreactive amyloid: immunohistochemical and immunoelectron microscopic studies

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between high but nondiabetic blood glucose levels and the risk of death from all causes, coronary heart disease (CHD), cardiovascular disease, and neoplasms. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We studied the 20-year mortality of non-diabetic, working men, age 44-55 years, in three European cohorts known as the Whitehall Study (n = 10,025), the Paris Prospective Study (n = 6,629), and the Helsinki Policeman Study (n = 631). These men were identified by their 2-h glucose levels following an oral glucose tolerance test and by the absence of a prior diagnosis of diabetes. As the protocol for the oral glucose tolerance test and methods for measuring glucose differed between studies, mortality was analyzed according to the percentiles of the 2-h and fasting glucose distributions, using the Cox's proportional hazards model. RESULTS: Men in the upper 20% of the 2-h glucose distributions and those in the upper 2.5% for fasting glucose had a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality in comparison with men in the lower 80% of these distributions, with age-adjusted hazard ratios of 1.6 (95% CI 1.4-1.9) and 2.0 (1.6-2.6) for the upper 2.5%. For death from cardiovascular and CHD, men in the upper 2.5% of the 2-h and fasting glucose distributions were at higher risk, with age-adjusted hazard ratios for CHD of 1.8 (1.4-2.4) and 2.7 (1.7-4.4), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: If early intervention aimed at lowering blood glucose concentrations can be shown to reduce mortality, it may be justified to lower the levels of both 2-h and fasting glucose, which define diabetes.     

A criterion for low-stress brittle fracture of notched specimens based on combined micro- and macro fracture mechanics—1

Based on the combined micro- and macro fracture mechanics, the two requisites necessary for the crack propagation, that is, the energy unstable requisite and the critical local stress requisite, are derived for the low-stress brittle fracture of notched specimens. Thus the fracture criterion was obtained. The criterion is compared with the experimental data, such as on the relationships between the fracture stress or the fracture toughness and the grain size diameter, the crack length, the notch tip radius or the yield stress. The good agreement is obtained.     

Mobility calculation of two-dimensional electron gas in GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructure at 4.2 K

Electron concentration and undoped AlGaAs spacer thickness dependencies of the mobility of a two-dimensional electron gas in a GaAs/AlGaAs single heterostructure are calculated at 4.2 K. The results predict extremely high electron mobility in this structure and agree quite well with very recent experimental data.     

Analysis of Polarization Splitters Composed of Multilayer Thin-Film Waveguides Using the Beam-Propagation Method Based on Yee's Mesh

Multilayer thin-film waveguides (MTFWs) are analyzed using the beam-propagation method based on Yee's mesh. The birefringence properties of the MTFW are demonstrated by the eigenmode analysis based on the imaginary-distance procedure. Taking advantage of the birefringence, a polarization splitter composed of two parallel MTFWs is proposed. Calculation shows that a short device length of 270 mum is obtainable with crosstalks of -33.5 dB for the quasi-transverse-electric mode and -20.7 dB for the quasi-transverse-magnetic mode. A crossing-type polarization splitter is also developed, and the device length is further reduced to 120 mum.     

Generation of high-repetition-rate WDM pulse trains from anarrayed-waveguide grating

We present what we believe to be the first demonstration of femtosecond pulse train generation from an arrayed-waveguide grating. Terahertz-rate bursts of femtosecond pulses are produced with the rate determined by the arrayed-waveguide delay spacing     

Polyamine detection system for high-performance liquid chromatography involving enzymatic and chemiluminescent reactions

We have developed a new specific detection system for polyamines, separated by high-performance liquid chromatography, to replace the usual o-phthalaldehyde (OPA) postlabeling method. This system utilizes a chemiluminescent reaction to determine the amount of hydrogen peroxide generated through the enzymatic oxidation of polyamines. With this method, as little as 5 pmol of putrescine could be accurately determined (S/N = 4), and linearity between the amount of this polyamine and the relative chemiluminescence intensity was observed up to 500 pmol. In the cases of cadaverine, spermidine, and spermine, the linearity continued to 1 nmol. The within-assay coefficients of variation for these four polyamines ranged between 0.97% and 2.03%. As compared with the OPA method, the new method is highly specific for polyamines due to the high specificity of the enzyme used. Another advantage of the new method is the direct determination of polyamines in urine samples that contain various compounds that interfere with the OPA method.     

A new perspective on the characterization of materials for a-Si:H solar cells

A study has been carried out on a-Si:H solar cell materials fabricated under a wide range of deposition conditions in different laboratories. The results on both thin films and corresponding Schottky barrier cell structures demonstrate that analysis and characterization based solely on the neutral dangling bonds are clearly inadequate. Contributions of charged defects to the properties of a-Si:H, their effect on light-induced changes are identified together with the limitations of methods commonly used to characterize the solar cell properties and stability of a-Si:H materials. Self-consistent fitting of a wide range of results on films and Schottky barrier cell structures is obtained with a gap state distribution in which charged defects are included.