Automating IEEE 1500 Core Test—An EDA Perspective

Editor's note:Standardized design and test practices enable automation. This article describes a methodology and corresponding tool set that combines automated support for IEEE Std 1500 and test data compression in one.—Erik Jan Marinissen, IMEC     

SRAM dynamic stability estimation using MPFP and its applications

In this paper, an accurate approach for estimating the dynamic stability of static random access memory (SRAM) is proposed. The conventional methods of SRAM stability estimation suffer from two major drawbacks: (1) using static failure criteria, such as SNM, which does not capture the transient and dynamic behavior of SRAM operation, and (2) using quasi-Monte-Carlo simulation, which approximates the failure distribution, resulting in large errors at the tails where the desired failure probabilities exist. These drawbacks are eliminated by employing accurate simulation-based dynamic failure criteria along with a new distribution-independent, Most-probable-failure-point search technique for accurate probability calculation. Compared to previously published techniques, the proposed dynamic stability technique offers orders of magnitude improvement in accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed dynamic stability technique enables the correct evaluation of stability in real operation conditions and for different dynamic circuit techniques, such as dynamic write back, where the conventional methods are not applicable.     

PALATABILITY AND VISUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF HAMS AND LOIN CHOPS FROM SWINE TREATED WITH RACTOPAMINE HYDROCHLORIDE

This study was designed to evaluate the visual and palatability characteristics of boneless cured hams and fresh loin chops from pigs fed diets containing 0, 5, 10 or 20 ppm of the phenethanolamine, ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC). Sixty pigs were blocked by starting weight and randomly assigned to pens (four pigs/pen) within each of three blocks. Treatments were then randomly assigned to pens (six pens of the 0–ppm level and three pens each for the 5, 10 and 20 ppm RAC levels). Animals were slaughtered by weight block after approximately 48 days on trial. Fresh pork hams and loin sections (10–14th rib) were removed from the right side of the carcasses for subsequent analysis. Boneless hams were manufactured using commercial curing procedures. RAC had no effect (P > 0.05) on visual or palatability attributes of ham slices or boneless loin chops. Moisture content of the longissimus muscle from RAC treatments was lower (P < 0.05) than controls; however, this difference was small. These results indicate that RAC had no affect on the visual or palatability characteristics of boneless cured and smoked hams or fresh boneless pork loin chops.     

Nutrient Losses Due to Scarification of Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.) Cotyledons

Outer layers of cotyledons of pigeonpea cultivar C 11 were successively scarified using a Tangential Abrasive Dehulling Device (TADD). Scarification for 0; 2, 4, 8, and 12 min resulted in the removal of 0, 6.7, 12.7, 25.3, and 36.9%, respectively, of powder fractions. The cotyledons and powder fractions at each level of scarification were analyzed for chemical composition, including minerals and trace elements, protein fractions, amino acid composition, and trypsin inhibitor acitivity (TIA). Protein, soluble sugars and ash of the dhal fraction (scarified cotyledons) decreased with increasing scarification time, while starch content increased. Considerable amounts of calcium (about 20%) and iron (about 30%) were removed by scarification for 4 min, but the process did not adversely affect protein quality in terms of amino acids. Trypsin inhibitors were not removed substantially by scarification.     

Effect of cholesterol removal on the granulation behaviour of low‐cholesterol ghee

Grain formation is one of the critical attributes affecting consumer acceptability of ghee. It was observed that both control ghee and low‐cholesterol ghee had grains of 0.236 ± 0.006 and 0.250 ± 0.002 mm size after incubation at 29 °C for 24 h, respectively. The maximum grain yield was 63 ± 2.60% and 68 ± 1.15% at 26 °C in control and low‐cholesterol ghee, respectively. Ghee grains in both the cases were stable over a temperature range of 25° to 36 °C. Time taken by both the samples for onset of nucleation was 50 min. The study revealed that cholesterol removal did not affect the crystallisation behaviour.     

OPTICAL ASSESSMENT OF CORN OIL DETERIORATION DURING FRYING

The ultraviolet (UV), visible and near-infrared (NIR) absorption changes in corn oil were measured during processes simulating deep fat frying. Corn oil, maintained at 185C, was exposed to various treatments with nitrogen, air, water injection, air with water injection, and steam. Autoxidation due to a combination of air and high temperature in the simulated frying trials caused visible absorption changes between 400 and 580 nm as the oil deteriorated similar to those observed in potato frying experiments. These absorption changes were found to be associated with changes in an ultraviolet absorption band with a maximum near 270 nm. Second-derivative calibration equations developed at various visible and NIR absorption wavelengths successfully predicted the percentage of total polar materials (%TPM) which accumulated in the corn oil during simulated trials of autoxidation (R values from 0.93 to 0.98). Using spectral data from repetitive potato frying experiments, the predicted %TPM calculated with these equations correlated well with kinematic viscosity measurements (R values from 086 to 0.97).     

Trajectory control of a PUMA robot arm by inversion and servocompensation

Based on invertibility and functional reproducibility, an approach to the control of the PUMA arm with six rotational degrees of freedom is presented. The control system has two important features: (i) the ability for fast, precise trajectory tracking; and (ii) robustness to uncertainty in the system, such as variable payload, inertia, etc. The control law derived using invertibility gives decoupled, independently controlled responses in each joint angle using torquers. For robustness, a first-order servocompensator is designed for each decoupled inner loop driven by the joint angle error. For smooth joint angle responses, a command generator is constructed that produces the reference trajectories to be tracked. Simulation results are presented to show that rapid, accurate trajectory following is achieved in the closed-loop system in spite of large payload uncertainty.     

The estimation of atmospheric corrections to one-channel (11 μ m) data from the AVHRR; simulation using AVHRR/ 2

It has been established that the sea-surface brightness temperatures Tb₄ in the 11 μ m channel and T_b4in the 12 μ m channel of the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR/ 2) are linearly related to a good degree of accuracy, i.e. T_b5= α+ β T_b4 Using AVHRR/ 2 data for various dates and from different parts of the world's oceans, the parameters a and 0 have been determined. The above relation may then be used for simulating T_b5 for those cases for which only Tb4 is available (e.g. for the AVHRR on TIROS-N, NOAA-6, NOAA-8, etc.). The brightness temperature TM and pseudo-brightness temperature T_b5 then enable one to use the split-window technique for estimating atmospherically-corrected sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) from the 11μ m channel data alone. Such an atmospheric correction technique should be a possibility because the 11μ m channel of the AVHRR on the various satellites in question are almost identical

This technique has been used with two split-window algorithms for correcting the data from the 11μ m channel of the AVHRR instrument on the TIROS-N satellite obtained off south-western Portugal. One of the algorithms gives ‘ skin’ temperatures and the other algorithm gives bulk temperatures. The resulting SSTs for twelve dates from 15 June 1979 to 14 June 1980 have been compared with sea-surface (skin) temperatures which were obtained with airborne radiometer data obtained on the same dates.     

TrkB Receptor Signalling: Implications in Neurodegenerative,Psychiatric and Proliferative Disorders

The Trk family of receptors play a wide variety of roles in physiological and disease processes in both neuronal and non-neuronal tissues. Amongst these the TrkB receptor in particular has attracted major attention due to its critical role in signalling for brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT3) and neurotrophin-4 (NT4). TrkB signalling is indispensable for the survival, development and synaptic plasticity of several subtypes of neurons in the nervous system. Substantial evidence has emerged over the last decade about the involvement of aberrant TrkB signalling and its compromise in various neuropsychiatric and degenerative conditions. Unusual changes in TrkB signalling pathway have also been observed and implicated in a range of cancers. Variations in TrkB pathway have been observed in obesity and hyperphagia related disorders as well. Both BDNF and TrkB have been shown to play critical roles in the survival of retinal ganglion cells in the retina. The ability to specifically modulate TrkB signalling can be critical in various pathological scenarios associated with this pathway. In this review, we discuss the mechanisms underlying TrkB signalling, disease implications and explore plausible ameliorative or preventive approaches.     

Non-financial barriers to combined heat and power in the United States - A qualitative study

The economic viability of new energy technologies is held as a central tenet to their future deployment; conventional wisdom posits economically rational decision-makers will readily invest in proven low-risk and affordable technologies. But what happens when this is not true. This paper examines the non-financial barriers facing economically viable Combined Heat and Power (CHP) projects. CHP is a mature and lower carbon technology that efficiently uses waste heat from thermal electricity generation; CHP can also provide flexibility services to help integrate variable renewable resources. CHP is low risk and many industrialized countries, particularly those in colder climates in Northern Europe and Russia, generate as much as 50% of their electricity and heat needs from CHP, but United States deployment remains low and investment hurdle rates high. While lower U.S. energy costs make some projects un-economic, many economically-viable CHP projects are stalled or killed by non-financial barriers. To better understand why financially viable CHP projects are not getting built, developers, owners and operators, regulators, and other stakeholders of this technology were interviewed and three major barriers emerged a) the business model of the electrical utility b) negative subjective impressions and c) challenges in allocating the risks and benefits.