Native and Biotechnologically Engineered Plant Proteases with Industrial Applications

Proteases occupy the most relevant position among industrial enzymes. Plant proteases have been used in medicine, detergent manufacturing, and food science for many years, but their production is diminishing in favor of those of microbial origin because lower production costs. Papain, bromelain, and ficin are the most frequently employed plant proteases, although new proteases with new and more appealing physicochemical properties for industry are still emerging. DNA technology and genetic engineering shall play, without a doubt, an important role for the production of these proteases at the industrial level. The present review focuses on the applications of traditional plant proteases as well as new proteases discovered during the last 20 years, some of which have already been genetically engineered either to increase production or to strengthen some of their physicochemical properties. The review also refers to the protease classification, action pattern, and main characteristics.     

Finite element simulations of static and sliding contact between a human fingertip and textured surfaces

This paper presents a mechanics study of the variations with position and time of stresses within the dermis and epidermis of a human fingertip when it is loaded and slid over textured surfaces. Its purpose is to examine how fingerprints interact with surface texture to cause stress variations in tune with the sensitivities of Meissner and Pacinian corpuscles through which humans in part interpret tactile sensations. A two-dimensional multilayer elastic finite element model of a fingertip has been created for this purpose. Results show that fingertip’s epidermal ridges have little effect on stress distribution within the fingertip in static loading but significantly increase stress oscillations during sliding over a textured surface. Oscillation frequencies from the sliding simulations are in ranges that should stimulate a fingertip’s Meissner and Pacinian corpuscle nerve endings.     

A risk management approach to safety assessment of trenchless technologies for culvert rehabilitation

Proper functioning of culverts is not only critical to protecting the transportation system from flooding but also critical to maintaining the expected service life of the overall transportation system. During the service life of culverts, they deteriorate due to many reasons such as corrosion caused by road salt, blockage by debris and sediment, poor construction techniques, etc. Trenchless technologies have been used by several State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) to rehabilitate deteriorated drainage structures without disrupting the traffic and within a relatively short span of time. These technologies provide many benefits in terms of cost, time, quality, and expected service life. However, the safety aspects of these techniques have not been discussed and documented in detail probably due to the complexity and the lack of safety standards and specifications directly associated with the techniques. This paper discusses the application of a risk assessment framework to assess potential safety issues of currently available trenchless technologies for culvert rehabilitation. The findings of the study will provide additional information to improve the decision making process in selecting and planning culvert rehabilitation projects.     

Simulation Techniques for the Manufacturing Test of MCMs

Simulation techniques used in the Manufacturing Test SIMulator(MTSIM) are described. MTSIM is a Concurrent Engineering tool used tosimulate the manufacturing test andrepair aspects of boards and MCMs from design concept through manufacturing release. MTSIM helps designers select assemblyprocess, specify Design For Test (DFT) features, select board testcoverage, specify ASIC defect level goals, establish productfeasibility, and predict manufacturing quality and cost goals. A newyield model for boards and MCMs which accounts for theclustering of solder defects is introduced and used topredict the yield at each test step. In addition, MTSIMestimates the average number of defects per board detected at eachtest step, and estimates costs incurred in test execution, faultisolation and repair. MTSIM models were validated withhigh performance assemblies at Hewlett-Packard (HP).     

Research issues in developing compact pulsed power for high peak power applications on mobile platforms

Pulsed power is a technology that is suited to drive electrical loads requiring very large power pulses in short bursts (high-peak power). Certain applications require technology that can be deployed in small spaces under stressful environments, e.g., on a ship, vehicle, or aircraft. In 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) launched a long-range (five-year) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) to study fundamental issues for compact pulsed power. This research program is endeavoring to: 1) introduce new materials for use in pulsed power systems; 2) examine alternative topologies for compact pulse generation; 3) study pulsed power switches, including pseudospark switches; and 4) investigate the basic physics related to the generation of pulsed power, such as the behavior of liquid dielectrics under intense electric field conditions. Furthermore, the integration of all of these building blocks is impacted by system architecture (how things are put together). This paper reviews the advances put forth to date by the researchers in this program and will assess the potential impact for future development of compact pulsed power systems.     

Complete Monte Carlo RF analysis of “real”short-channel compound FET's

A comprehensive RF analysis technique based on ensemble Monte Carlo (EMC) simulation of compound FET's with realistic device geometry is presented. Y-parameters are obtained through Fourier transformation of the EMC transients in response to small changes in the terminal voltages. The terminal currents are statistically enhanced and filtered to allow for reliable y-parameters extraction. Improved analytic procedure for extracting the intrinsic device small-signal circuit components is described. As a result, stable y-parameters and reliable circuit components can he extracted for the whole range of device operation voltages. Parasitic components like contact and gate resistances are included in the y-parameters at a post processing stage to facilitate the forecast of the performance figures of merit of real devices. The developed RF technique has been applied in the EMC simulation of pseudomorphic HEMT's (pHEMT's) fabricated at the Glasgow Nanoelectronics Research Center. Good agreement has been achieved between the simulated and measured small-signal circuit components and performance figures of merit     

Considerations for Synchronization in Body Area Networks for Human Activity Monitoring

In this paper, we highlight considerations for synchronization issues in body area networks. Requirements for the synchronization accuracy in body area networks depend on the application at hand. Synchronization may be needed for power management, sample ordering, calculation of stimulus responses and for sensor fusion. This paper provides a theoretical exercise to help understand the accuracy required for typical human motion sensing. It gives an overview of various synchronisation strategies used and implemented in prototype systems. Lessons learnt from practical implementations using Bluetooth, an IEEE 802.15.4 proprietary network and Nanonet are presented to illustrate the principles involved. The discussion provides some considerations and the requirements for typical WBAN applications.     

On energy‐efficient aggregation routing and scheduling in IEEE 802.15.4‐based wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks, continued operation of battery‐powered devices plays a crucial role particularly in remote deployment. The lifetime of a wireless sensor is primarily dependent upon battery capacity and energy efficiency. In this paper, reduction of the energy consumption of heterogeneous devices with different power and range characteristics is introduced in the context of duty scheduling, dynamic adjustment of transmission ranges, and the effects of IEEE 802.15.4‐based data aggregation routing. Energy consumption in cluster‐based networks is modeled as a mixed‐integer linear and nonlinear programming problem, an NP‐hard problem. The objective function provides a basis by which total energy consumption is reduced. Heuristics are proposed for cluster construction (Average Energy Consumption and the Maximum Number of Source Nodes) and data aggregation routing (Cluster‐based Data Aggregation Routing) such that total energy consumption is minimized. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of balancing cluster size with dynamic transmission range. The heuristics outperform other modified existing algorithms by an average of 15.65% for cluster head assignment, by an average of 22.1% for duty cycle scheduling, and by up to 18.6% for data aggregation routing heuristics. A comparison of dynamic and fixed transmission ranges for IEEE 802.15.4‐based wireless sensor networks is also provided. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparative Assessment of Adaptive Body-Bias SOI Pass-Transistor Logic

A very low voltage transconductor for video frequency range applications and compatible with standard CMOS technology is described. In the proposed transconductor, except the DC level shifter circuit (DCLS), the whole transconductor uses the main supply voltage [which can be as low as 1.5 V in a standard 0.6 μm CMOS technology] while the DCLS uses a simple charge-pump circuit as its supply voltage and has a very low current consumption. In addition, proper common-mode sense and charge-pump circuits are developed for this low-voltage application. Meanwhile, some techniques to improve the frequency response, linearity, and noise performance of the proposed transconductor are described. In a standard 0.6 μm CMOS technology and single 1.5 V supply, simulations show that the proposed transconductor futures a THD of −50 dB for 1.4 V_pp and 10 MHz input signal and −60 dB for 1.4 V_pp and 1 MHz signal where the threshold voltage of MOS transistors could be as high as 1 V. Based on the proposed transconductor, a lowpass filter with 700 kHz to 8 MHz programmable cutoff frequency and a bandpass 10.7 MHz second order filter were implemented. Armin Tajalli received the B.Sc. from Sharif University of Technology (SUT), Tehran, Iran, in 1997, and M.Sc. from Tehran Polytechnic University, Tehran, Iran, in 1999. From 1998 he has joint Emad Co. as a senior design engineer were he has worked on several industrial and R&D projects on analog and mixed-mode ICs. He received the award of the Best Design Engineer from Emad Co., 2001, the Kharazmi Award of Industrial Research and Development, Iran, 2002, and Presidential Award of the Best Iranian Researchers, in 2003. He is now working toward his PhD degree at SUT. His current interests are design of high speed circuits for telecommunication systems. Mojtaba Atarodi received the B.S.E.E. from Amir Kabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic) in 1985, and M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California, Irvine, in 1987. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California (USC) on the subject of analog IC design in 1993. From 1993 to 1996 he worked with Linear Technology Corporation as a senior analog design engineer. Since then, he has been consulting with different IC companies. He is currently a visiting professor at Sharif University of Technology. He has published more than 30 technical papers in the area of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuit design as well as analog CAD tools.