In vitro short-term response of human erythrocytes to implant materials used in maxillo-facial rigid internal fixation

A number of retinal proteins are phosphorylated by a variety of kinases, resulting in well-known regulatory effects. The identity and role of corresponding phosphatases is less clear. We simultaneously measured the activity of serine/ threonine protein phosphatases type 1, 2A and 2C in bovine retinae. The enzymes were classified according to substrate specificity, divalent cation requirement and the effect of phosphatase subtype-specific inhibitors. The total- and specific activity of phosphatase type 2A was prevalent. Type 2C was 10-fold less abundant. 80% of type 1 and 50% of type 2A and type 2C, respectively, were soluble. An economic purification scheme was developed. We demonstrated the presence of phosphatase isozymes 2Calpha and 2Cbeta in bovine rod outer segments by enzymatic analysis as well as immunological techniques. The results suggest a yet unknown role of phosphatase type 2C in phototransduction. On the other hand, the immense amount of protein phosphatases found to be soluble - therefore not associated with rod outer segment membranes - points towards participation of these enzymes in the process of visual transduction not considered thus far.     

Design,estimation and experimental validation of optical Polarization Mode Dispersion Compensator in 40 Gbit/s NRZ and RZ optical systems

Polarization Mode Dispersion (PMD) compensation has been a matter of investigation of several papers in literature. The proposed solutions belong basically to two large families: electronic compensators and optical compensators. Both PMD compensator schemes have advantages and disadvantages: electronic PMD compensators are usually simple to include in line-terminal, potentially low-cost, very fast, and FEC compatible but their development is strongly dependent on IC technology capability that at this time allows device developments up to the 10 Gbit/s bit rates area. Furthermore, they are strongly dependent on modulation formats, and they can operate only on a single channel. Conversely, optical compensators are independent of bit rate and modulation format and potentially they can compensate more channels simultaneously; their major drawbacks are the longer response time and the complexity in the feedback signal process within the control algorithm. In this paper we consider an optical Polarization Mode Dispersion Compensator (PMDC) that is simple to realize and easy to include at limited costs in each EDFA module (distributed compensation) as well as a single-stage front-end compensator. Numerical analysis of the PMDC and experimental results confirm the utility of the PMDC proposed and its capability in compensating DGD larger than 20 ps in NRZ and RZ 40 Gbit/s optical systems.     

A Mixed Signal Fuzzy Controller Using Current Mode Circuits

A mixed analog-digital fuzzy logic inference processor chip, designed in a 0.35-μm CMOS technology, is presented. The analog fuzzy engine is based on a novel current-mode CMOS circuit used for the implementation of fuzzy partition membership functions. The architecture consists of a 3 inputs—1 output analog fuzzy engine, internal digital registers to store the parameters of the fuzzy controller, and a digital subsystem that allows the programmability of the fuzzy controller via an I ² C interface. The architecture, circuits, and some Cadence Spectre simulations are presented.     

On the Identification and Analysis of Saccadic Eye Movements?A Quantitative Study of the Processing Procedures

A set of quantitative data about signal processing effects on the evaluation of amplitude, duration, and peak-velocity of single saccadic eye movements, as well as on the evaluation of the coefficients of amplitude-peak velocity and amplitude-duration characteristics of a family of saccades, is given. The following aspects of signal processing are theoretically discussed, experimentally supported, and summarized by normative graphs: 1) the analog low-pass filtering applied to the recorded eye movement; 2) its sampling and digitization; 3) the low-pass filtering applied to the digitized signal; 4) the algorithm used to compute the eye velocity; 5) the criteria adopted to determine the beginning and the ending points of the saccades; and 6) the laws used to fit the saccadic characteristics. According to the theoretical and experimental results obtained, some general operating rules and optimal setups for each of the most common experimental situations are proposed, with the aim of standardizing saccade analysis for both researchers and clinicians.     

Observation and assignment of large offset farinfrared laser lines in CH3OH optically pumped by a CO2waveguide laser

Four new FIR laser lines at 62.98, 48.77, 224.53, and 190.65 μm are reported from CH3OH, optically pumped by the 10R34 and 9R10 lines of a waveguide CO2laser. Measurements performed by several techniques confirm that the pump offsets are outside the tuning range of conventional CO2lasers. Two of the lines are assigned as highJtransitions within the torsional ground state of the CO stretch.     

Experimental Study of an Adding Interferometer at Millimeter Waves

In order to study an original detection architecture for future cosmology experiments based on wide band adding interferometry, we have tested a single baseline bench instrument based on commercial components. The instrument has been characterized in the laboratory with a wide band power detection setup. A method which allows us to reconstruct the complete transfer function of the interferometer has been developed and validated with measurements. This scheme is useful to propagate the spurious effects of each component till the output of the detector.     

Path integral study of the 4He wetting transition

The ⁴ He wetting transition on a Cs surface is for the first time studied by Path Integral Monte Carlo simulation. Numerical results for a system of 64 ⁴ He atoms are qualitatively consistent with a wetting transition at a temperature T 2 K.     

An Integrated CAD Methodology for Yield Enhancement of VLSI CMOS Circuits Including Statistical Device Variations

In this paper a novel CAD methodology for yield enhancement of VLSI CMOS circuits including random device variations is presented. The methodology is based on a preliminary characterization of the technological process by means of specific test chips for accurate mismatch modeling. To this purpose, a very accurate position-dependent parameter mismatch model has been formulated and extracted. Finally a CAD tool implementing this model has been developed. The tool is fully integrated in an environment of existing commercial tools and it has been experimented in the STMicroelectronics Flash Memory CAD Group.As an example of application, a bandgap reference circuit has been considered and the results obtained from simulations have been compared with experimental data. Furthermore, the methodology has been applied to the read path of a complex Flash Memory produced by STMicroelectronics, consisting of about 16,000 MOSFETs. Measurements of electrical performances have confirmed the validity of the methodology, and the accuracy of both the mismatch model and the simulation flow.     

An automatic procedure for the synthesis and optimization of very low-frequency Gm–C integrators

Fully integrated low frequency filters are critical cells that should be carefully designed in order to avoid excessive area occupation. In this work we propose an automatic procedure capable of optimizing the design of G_m?CC integrators, which constitute the basis of a wide class of G_m?CC filters. The optimization target is minimizing the cell area with constraints on input range and low frequency noise. Lower and upper bounds can be fixed to most quantities and design parameters in order to avoid solutions that are not compatible with the physical limitations of the process. The program has been developed within the MATLAB^? platform, exploiting the optimization toolbox. The effect of several important design parameters on the optimization of low frequency integrators has been investigated using the proposed routine. The strong interaction between noise and low frequency constraints has been demonstrated, showing the impressive impact of strict noise specifications on the occupied area. The actual effectiveness of parameters such as the current division factor or approaches such as flicker noise rejection by means of chopper modulation has been investigated. Examples of integrator synthesis, performed using the proposed procedure configured with the parameters of a commercial CMOS process, are presented. The consistence between the characteristics of the cells and the initial specifications has been checked using electrical simulations showing a maximum discrepancy with the initial specifications of nearly 80%. A semi-manual method to refine the synthesized cells and improve the accuracy is proposed.