Process damage-free damascene metal gate technology for gentle integration of epitaxially grown high-k

This paper presents the first successful attempt to integrate crystalline high-k gate dielectrics into a virtually damage-free damascene metal gate process. Process details as well as initial electrical characterization results on fully functional gate Gd₂O₃ dielectric MOSFETs with equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) down to 1.9 nm are discussed and compared with devices with rare-earth gate dielectrics fabricated previously in a conventional CMOS process.     

面向高带宽图形应用的GDDR5

尽管GDDR3目前占据高端PC图形市场大约90%的份额,但到了2011年,该细分市场的主流存储器技术将是GDDR5。GDDR5的目标是成为下一个主导图形DRAM标准,并将把图形应用的存储器带宽提升至新的高度。据Mercury     

Study of the pyroelectric behavior of BaTi<Subscript>1−<Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>Sn<Subscript><Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> piezo-ceramics

In this work, the thermal square wave method at single-frequency (TSWM) was applied to functionally graded BaTi_1−x Sn _x O₃ samples with a tin gradient of 0.075 ≤ x ≤ 0.15. The samples were fabricated by sintering of bi-, tri- and tetramorph green bodies. The polarization at the back side with a higher tin content was in opposite direction to the polarization of the surface with a lower tin content. This was attributed to the appearance of a space charge layer. The determined depth profiles of the pyroelectric coefficient illustrate the appearance of a nearly constant polarization in the region of lower tin concentration of tri- and tetramorph samples. The pyroelectric coefficient profiles were in good agreement with the averaged over sample thickness pyroelectric coefficient obtained separately by the quasistatic method.     

Composite versus single sampling of spent irrigation water to assess the microbiological status of sprouting mung bean beds

BACKGROUND: Spent irrigation water testing has been recommended in sprouted seed production to detect the presence of pathogens. However, because of the heterogeneous distribution of contamination within batches of sprouted seed, taking single samples of spent irrigation water may return false‐negative results. The following evaluated whether spent irrigation water collected from multiple points provided a more representative assessment of the microbiological status of the sprouting mung bean bed compared to when single samples were taken. RESULTS: Generic Escherichia coli or Aeromonas was recovered in one and 10 of the 160 sprout samples taken from 32 sprouting mung bean batches, respectively. Composite spent irrigation water samples tested positive for generic E. coli on 19 occasions compared to 12 when single samples were taken. Mesophilic Aeromonas was detected in 13 composite spent irrigation water samples which compared to eight single samples. The prevalence of either target bacterium in composite spent irrigation water samples was not significantly (P > 0.05) different compared to when a single sample was collected. CONCLUSIONS: Sampling spent irrigation water from multiple points under sprouting mung bean beds does not significantly increase the probability of detecting contamination, if present. The findings of the study should be considered when devising sampling plans for spent irrigation water testing in bean sprout production. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Characterization of toxin production of coagulase-negative staphylococci isolated from food and starter cultures

In this study a comprehensive analysis of toxin production of food associated coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) was investigated. The strains belong to the following staphylococcal species, Staphylococcus carnosus, Staphylococcus condimenti, Staphylococcus equorum, Staphylococcus piscifermentans, Staphylococcus succinus, and Staphylococcus xylosus, which were isolated from fermented food and starter cultures. A collection of 330 strains were analyzed with respect to their hemolytic activity. 59% of the strains exhibited weak to moderate hemolytic activity with human blood and 34% with sheep blood after 48 h incubation. A selection of 35 strains were tested by immunoblot analysis for their ability to produce toxins, such as the most common staphylococcal enterotoxins (SEs), the toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST-1), and the exfoliative toxin A (ETA). 18 of the 35 strains produced at least one of the toxins with the SED and SEH being the most common. These indicate that the use of CNS in food production demands a safety evaluation.     

Investigation on the effect of curvature on forming limit prediction for aluminium sheet alloys

The investigation of bendability of sheet metal alloys is of great importance for the evaluation of process robustness in production of hemmed sheet metal assemblies. Furthermore, material cracks due to bending can also occur at deep drawing operations. This contribution focuses on the experimental determination of material’s formability at deep drawing, the characterisation of bendability especially for hemming operations and the determination of formability under combined deep drawing and bending loads, respectively.     

Modeling and optimizing of strategic and tactical production planning in the automotive industry under uncertainty

This work considers the strategic flexibility and capacity planning under uncertain demands in production networks of automobile manufacturers. We present a deterministic and a stochastic model, which extend existing approaches, especially by an anticipation scheme for tactical workforce planning. This scheme is compared to an extended formulation of the deterministic model, which incorporates workforce planning via detailed shift models. The stochastic model is efficiently solved by an accelerated decomposition approach. The solution approach is integrated into a decision support system, which calculates minimum-cost product allocations and capacity plans. Our numerical results show that, in spite of the considerably increased complexity, our approach can efficiently handle hundreds of scenarios. Finally, we present an industrial case study.     

Morphology and constitution of the compound layer formed on nitrided Fe–4wt.%V alloy

The microstructure of the compound (“white”) layer formed on the surface of Fe–4wt.%V alloy, by nitriding in a gas mixture of ammonia and hydrogen at 580 °C, has been investigated by employing light and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and electron probe microanalysis. The compound layer is dominantly composed of γ^|-Fe₄N nitride. Quantitative analysis of the composition data demonstrated that V is present in the compound layer as VN precipitates, i.e. V is not taken up significantly in (Fe, V) nitrides. A mechanism for compound-layer formation has been proposed.

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Seamless Integration of Databases in VR for Constructing Virtual Environments

An approach for authoring virtual environments within the virtual environments themselves is presented, integrating a database containing arbitrary components that are used to construct the 3D scene. The issues important to a seamless integration of the database, such as multimedia data storage and database linkage are discussed, with the focus on the human-computer interaction component. A concept for a 3D database interface is described for query, presentation and usage of query results in the virtual environment. Finally, an implementation of the concept using VRML and Java is presented.     

Articular cartilage superficial zone protein (SZP) is homologous to megakaryocyte stimulating factor precursor and Is a multifunctional proteoglycan with potential growth-promoting, cytoprotective, and lubricating properties in cartilage metabolism

We have performed cDNA sequencing and homology analyses to elucidate the complete amino acid composition for a superficial zone protein (SZP) from human and bovine cartilage which has previously been shown to be a proteoglycan specifically synthesized by chondrocytes located at the surface of bovine articular cartilage and also some synovial lining cells. The results of this study indicate that cartilage SZP is homologous with a glycoprotein first described as the precursor protein of a megakaryocyte stimulating factor (MSF). Sequence comparisons and analyses indicate that (i) the amino acid composition of SZP is highly conserved between bovine and human species, (ii) SZP contains structural motifs at the N- and C-termini which are similar to those found in vitronectin and which may impart cell-proliferative and matrix-binding properties to the molecule, and (iii) SZP contains large and small mucin-like repeat domains composed of the sequences KEPAPTTT/P (76-78 repeats) and XXTTTX (6-8 repeats), respectively, which occur within a large central region of approximately 940 amino acids. The mucin-like domains are likely to be substituted with O-linked oligosaccharides which would impart lubricating properties to SZP which in part accumulates at the articular cartilage-synovial fluid interface. Additionally, we have shown that interleukin-1 inhibits the biosynthesis of chondrocyte SZP, while TGF-beta and IGF-1 increase its biosynthesis, and that in pathological (osteoarthritic) human articular cartilage SZP mRNA can be expressed as an alternatively spliced variant lacking exons 4 and 5 which encode a potential heparin binding domain. The occurrence of different SZP alternative splice variants and the differential expression of SZP in the presence of cytokines and growth factors suggest that SZP may play an important cytoprotective role by preventing cellular adhesion to the articular cartilage surface in normal cartilage metabolism. Modifications to the structure of SZP, coupled with inhibition of SZP synthesis during inflammation, may account for the attachment and invasion of pannus observed in inflammatory joint diseases.