Platform designer: An approach for modeling multiprocessor platforms based on SystemC

This paper[3.5pc] presents the Platform Designer (PD) framework, a set of SystemC based tools that provide support for modeling, simulation and analysis of multiprocessor SoC platforms (MPSoC), at different abstraction levels. PD provides mechanisms for interconnection specification, process synchronization and communication, thus allowing the modeling of a complete platform, in a unified environment. To do that it uses an extension of the ArchC ADL and acsys, a tool that enables the automatic generation of a SystemC simulator of the platform. The main advantages of this approach are twofold. First, designers have more flexibility since they can integrate and configure different processors to the platform, using a single environment. Second, it enables a faster design space exploration, given that it automatically generates SystemC simulators of whole platforms at distinct abstraction levels. A number of platform variations can be tried out with minor design changes, thus reducing design time. Experimental results show the suitability of the platform simulator for design space exploration. Real applications (with medium complexity) run in the platform in few minutes. Combined with the facility to generate platforms with minor changes, this feature allows an improvement of the design space exploration.     

Recovery of platinum, tin and indium from spent catalysts in chloride medium using strong basic anion exchange resins

This work describes a route for platinum recovery from spent commercial Pt and PtSnIn/Al₂O₃ catalysts using strong basic mesoporous and macroporous anion exchange resins (Cl⁻ form). The catalysts were leached with aqua regia (75 °C, 20-25 min). Platinum adsorption was influenced by the presence of other metals which form chlorocomplexes (tin, indium) and also base metals (aluminum). However, it was possible to overcome this fact by a sequential desorption procedure. Aluminum was selectively removed from the resins by elution with 3 mol L⁻¹ HCl. Platinum was desorbed passing 1 mol L⁻¹ Na₂S₂O₃ (pH 9). Tin was removed by elution with 0.1 mol L⁻¹ ascorbic acid. Indium was removed using 0.1 mol L⁻¹ EDTA as eluent. Desorption efficiency exceeded 99% for all metals. Metals were recovered in high yields (>98 wt%).     

Chitosan-gelatin/hydroxyapatite-based scaffold associated with mesenchymal stem cells differentiate into osteoblasts improves the surface of the bone lesion in mice C57BL/6J

Extensive injuries to bone tissue are still considered a significant clinical challenge; therefore, developing new bone tissue engineering (BTE) strategies is still necessary. This work aims to construct and characterize a chitosan-gelatin/hydroxyapatite-based (CG/H) scaffold to provide well-design support for mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) growth and differentiation to osteoblasts. First, the CG/H scaffolds are construct by freeze-drying. Then, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, water uptake, and degradation profiles evaluate the material's surface. In addition, the CG/H morphological, biochemical, and MSC adhesion processes and growth behavior are also assess, indicating reasonable adhesion rates to the surface, low material cytotoxicity, and excellent alkaline phosphatase activity compared to control on the cellular framework. Based on these results, we obtain a highly biocompatible scaffold and that can support osteoblast differentiation. Finally, the in vivo studies demonstrate the CG/H scaffold with MSC adhere is capable of differentiating into osteoblasts, and the application of this scaffold is able to significantly enhance the closure of the bone lesion. Therefore, the CG/H scaffold has potential clinical application for bone regeneration.     

Involving suppliers in product development in the United States andJapan: evidence for set-based concurrent engineering

Concurrent engineering (CE) involves a widely recognized revolution in the social organization of product development and a corresponding revolution in the underlying paradigm of design. We distinguish between two paradigms-point-based design and set-based design-and argue that effective, truly concurrent design requires shifting to a paradigm where design team members reason and communicate about sets of designs which we call “set-based concurrent engineering”. A survey of 92 Japanese and 119 US automotive parts suppliers who design their own products sought to quantify the pervasiveness and correlates of “set-based approaches”. The survey evidence indicates that set-based design communication is more prevalent among Japanese than among US parts suppliers, and is correlated with certain product development characteristics including years of experience with early involvement of suppliers in design, the degree of product-process design overlap, the degree to which subsystems are interdependent, and the use of quality function deployment (QFD)     

A conductivity equation for concentrated aqueous solutions

The effect of the viscosity medium change on the electrophoretic term of the conductivity equation has been evaluated for concentrated NaCl, NaClO₄, NaNO₃, NH₄Cl and NH₄NO₃ aqueous solutions. For NaCl and NH₄Cl systems a good agreement between the experimental results and the ones obtained through a proposed equation was obtained. In the case of NaNO₃ systems, where an appreciable association to ion pairs was found, the dissociation degree of the electrolytes, α, and the thermodynamic association constant of the NH₄NO₃ system were also calculated. The results of the NaClO₄-water system seem to confirm a previous hypothesis on the anomalous conductance of the ClO^?₄ ions in the field of high concentrations.     

Low Cost BIST for Static and Dynamic Testing of ADCs

This paper presents a low cost test method for the static and dynamic characterization of analog-to-digital converters. The method is suitable for implementation in a SoC environment, as a built-in self test (BIST) solution. In the proposed approach, noise is used as the test signal. Theory of operation and practical results demonstrating the effectiveness of the method for INL, DNL, THD and SINAD characterization are presented. The BIST surface overhead caused by the noise generator is only 7.4% of the ADC total area. The reduced number of data samples required allows a reduction of about 7.5× in test time, in comparison to the histogram method.Maria da Gloria Cataldi Flores was born in Santa Maria, Brazil, in 1978. She received the electrical engineering degree in 2000 from Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM) and the M.S. degree engineering in 2003 from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Since then, she has been working as a design engineer in an EAS Supply brazilian company. Her main research interests include mixed-signal and analog testing and digital signal processing.Marcelo Negreiros was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1969. He received the electrical engineering degree in 1992 and the M.S. degree engineering in 1994, both from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. Since then he was been working as an associate researcher in the Signal Processing Lab. (LaPSI) of the Electrical Engineering Department at UFRGS. Since 2000 he also works toward a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UFRGS. His main research interests include mixed-signal and analog testing and digital signal processing.Luigi Carro was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1962. He received the Electrical Engineering and the M.Sc. degrees from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, in 1985 and 1989, respectively. From 1989 to 1991 he worked at ST-Microelectronics, Agrate, Italy, in the R&D group. In 1996 he received the Ph.D. degree in the area of Computer Science from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. He is presently a lecturer at the Electrical Engineering Department of UFRGS, in charge of Digital Systems Design and Digital Signal processing disciplines at the graduate and undergraduate level. He is also a member of the Graduation Program in Computer Science of UFRGS, where he is responsible for courses in Embedded Systems, Digital Signal Processing, and VLSI Design. His primary research interests include mixed-signal design, digital signal processing, mixed-signal and analog testing, and fast system prototyping. He has published more than 90 technical papers in those topics and is the author of the book Digital Systems Design and Prototyping (in portuguese).Altamiro A Susin was born in Vacaria-RS, Brazil, in 1945. He received the Electrical Engineering and the MSc. degrees from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, in 1972 and 1977, respectively. Since 1968 he worked in the start up of Computer Centers of two local Universities. In 1981 he got his Dr. Eng degree from Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble-France. He is presently a lecturer at the Electrical Engineering Department of UFRGS, in charge of Digital Systems Design disciplines at the graduate and undergraduate level. He is also a member of the Graduation Program in Computer Science of UFRGS, where he is responsible by courses in VLSI Architecture and is also thesis director. His main research interests are Integrated Circuit Architecture, Embedded Systems, Signal Processing with more than 50 technical papers published in those domains. He is/was responsible for several R&D projects either funded with public and/or industry resources.Felipe Ricardo Clayton received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil, in 1986. He worked at CPqD (Brazilian PTT R&D Center) till 1996 designing analog and mixed signal circuits for telecom and automotive applications. From 1997 to the second half of 1998, he worked at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon, Portugal, under the guidance of Prof. Carlos Azeredo Leme on development of CMOS RF circuits. Since October 1998 he had worked for Motorola SPS. Now he is head of the Power Managment Group at Freescale.Cristiano Benevento received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, in 1997. He worked at Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Group until August 2000 as a Systems Engineer. He joined Motorola Semiconductor Product Sector in August 2000 as IC Designer for Power Management Group and is now at Freescale.     

2 MeV Si ion implantation damage in relaxed Si1−xGex

The damage produced by implanting, at room temperature, 3 μm thick relaxed Si_1−xGe_x layers with 2 MeV Si⁺ ions has been measured as a function of Ge content (x = 0.04, 0.13, 0.24 or 0.36) and Si dose in the dose range 10¹⁰–10¹⁵ cm⁻². The accumulation of damage with increasing dose has been studied as a function of Ge content by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, Optical Reflectivity Depth Profiling and Transmission Electron Microscopy and an increased damage efficiency in Si_1−xGe_x with increasing x is observed. The characteristics of implantation-induced defects have been investigated by Electron Paramagnetic Resonance. The results are discussed in the context of a model of the damage process in SiGe.     

Isolation,cloning, and characterization of the 2S albumin: A new allergen from hazelnut

Scope: 2S albumins are the major allergens involved in severe food allergy to nuts, seeds, and legumes. We aimed to isolate, clone, and express 2S albumin from hazelnut and determine its allergenicity. Methods: 2S albumin from hazelnut extract was purified using size exclusion chromatography and RP‐HPLC. After N‐terminal sequencing, degenerated and poly‐d(T) primers were used to clone the 2S albumin sequence from hazelnut cDNA. After expression in Escherichia coli and affinity purification, IgE reactivity was evaluated by Immunoblot/ImmunoCAP (inhibition) analyses using sera of nut‐allergic patients. Results: N‐terminal sequencing of a ～10 kDa peak from size exclusion chromatography/RP‐HPLC gave two sequences highly homologous to pecan 2S albumin, an 11 amino acid (aa) N‐terminal and a 10aa internal peptide. The obtained clone (441 bp) encoded a 147aa hazelnut 2S albumin consisting of a putative signal peptide (22 aa), a linker peptide (20 aa), and the mature protein sequence (105 aa). The latter was successfully expressed in E. coli. Both recombinant and natural 2S albumin demonstrated similar IgE reactivity in Immunoblot/ImmunoCAP (inhibition) analyses. Conclusion: We confirmed the postulated role of hazelnut 2S albumin as an allergen. The availability of recombinant molecules will allow establishing the importance of hazelnut 2S albumin for hazelnut allergy.     

Biodiesel compatibility with carbon steel and HDPE parts

Compatibility of the new environmentally-friendly alternative of diesel engine fuels, biodiesel, with storage and engine part materials, is still an open issue. In this work, the interaction between three fuels (petroleum diesel and two types of biodiesel — soybean and sunflower) and two materials (carbon steel and high density polyethylene) used in storage and automotive tanks, is analyzed in detail. A wide set of characterization techniques was used to evaluate the changes in both solid and fluid materials, as weight change measurement, optical, scanning electron and atomic force (AFM) microscopies, Raman and FTIR spectroscopies, and differential scanning calorimetry. The AFM technique allowed detecting surface roughness and morphology changes in the metallic material following the trends in the weight losses. In the case of polymeric material, weight gain by fluid absorption occurred, being detected by the spectroscopic techniques. The biodiesel fuels underwent some ageing however this phenomenon did not affect the interaction between the biodiesel fuels and the substrates. The petrodiesel, which did not age, caused more significant degradation of the substrates.