A Platform-Based Taxonomy for ESL Design

This article presents a taxonomy for ESL tools and methodologies that combines UC Berkeley's platform-based design terminologies with Dan Gajski's Y-chart work. This is timely and necessary because in the ESL world we seem to be building tools without first establishing an appropriate design flow or methodology, thereby creating a lot of confusion. This taxonomy can help stem the tide of confusion.     

High-speed digital color imaging pyrometry

Temperature measurements of high-explosive and combustion processes are difficult to obtain due to the speed and environment of the events. To overcome these challenges, we have characterized and calibrated a digital high-speed color camera that may be used to measure the temperature of such events. A two-color ratio method is used to calculate a temperature using the color filter array raw image data and a graybody assumption. If the raw image data are not available, temperatures may be calculated from the processed images or movies, depending on proper analysis of the digital color imaging pipeline. We analyze three transformations within the pipeline (demosaicing, white balance, and gamma correction) to determine their effect on the calculated temperature. Using this technique with a Phantom color camera, we have measured the temperature of exploded C-4 charges. The surface temperature of the resulting fireball was found to rapidly increase after detonation, and subsequently decayed to a constant value of approximately 1980 K.     

Calmodulin regulation of Ca2+ entry in Jurkat T cells

BACKGROUND: The authors have previously demonstrated abnormalities in glucose and insulin metabolism in nondiabetic black American (BA) adults versus white American (WA) adults. Whether similar glucoregulatory alterations extend to BA adolescents remain unknown. In addition, obesity, a known risk factor for insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, occurs in a greater proportion of BA adults and children when compared to WA. The objective of the present study was to examine the differential effects of obesity on glucose homeostasis in BA and WA adolescents. METHODS: We examined glucose homeostasis in BA and WA adolescents using oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT), and [6,6-2H2]-glucose infusion. The study consisted of four age-, sex-, and pubertal stage-matched groups: 15 lean BA, 29 lean WA, 7 obese BA, and 9 obese WA. RESULTS: Both obese groups had significantly increased insulin and C-peptide area under the curve (AUC) during OGTT and IVGTT when compared to their same-race lean counterparts. During OGTT, obese BA demonstrated greater insulin and C-peptide when compared to obese WA. During IVGTT, first- and second-phase insulin were significantly greater in obese BA versus obese WA. CONCLUSION: In summary, BA adolescents demonstrated insulin resistance which is markedly exaggerated in the face of obesity when compared to WA adolescents, implying a differential impact for obesity on glucose homeostasis that is unique to the obese BA adolescent group. In conclusion, there is a need for early aggressive weight management in obese BA adolescents.     

Monolithically integrated optical channel monitor for DWDM transmission systems

The design, fabrication, and performance of an InP-based monolithically integrated optical power monitor are presented. It contains 44 wavelength channels separated by 100 GHz and demonstrates record small footprint size. The device's major components, which include the echelle diffractive grating demultiplexer, passive waveguide circuitry and single-mode vertically integrated waveguide PIN photodetectors, are characterized and discussed as generic building blocks of InP-based planar lightwave technology for DWDM.     

Zippering: Managing intermittent connectivity in DIANA

This paper describes an approach for handling intermittent connectivity between mobile clients and networkresident applications, which we call zippering. When the client connects with the application, communication between the client and the application is synchronous. When the client intermittently connects with the application, communication becomes asynchronous. The DIANA (DeviceIndependent, Asynchronous Network Access) approach allows the client to perform a variety of operations while disconnected. Finally, when the client reconnects with the application, the operations performed independently on the client are replayed to the application in the order they were originally done. Zippering allows the user at the client to fix errors detected during reconciliation and continues the transaction gracefully instead of aborting the whole transaction when errors are detected.     

High-dose edatrexate with oral leucovorin rescue: a phase I and clinical pharmacological study in adults with advanced cancer

Our objective was to determine the maximum tolerated dose and toxicity of i.v. edatrexate with p.o. leucovorin. Thirty-one adults with advanced solid tumors received edatrexate as a 2-h infusion, once a week for 3 weeks, recycled every 28 days. p.o. leucovorin (10 mg/m2, every 6 h for 10 doses) began 24 h later. All had urinary alkalinization and p.o. hydration. Nine dosage levels ranging from 120 to 3750 mg/m2 were explored. Fatigue, epistaxis, nausea/emesis, mucositis, rash, myalgias, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and transient elevations of serum aspartate transferase were observed. Leukoencephalopathy with clinical manifestations occurred in two patients (one had prior cranial irradiation). Pharmacokinetic studies carried out at the 120- and 1080-mg/m2 dose levels revealed no significant difference in the elimination half-life at the two dose levels studied and no significant intrapatient variability between day 1 and day 8 edatrexate administration. Serum edatrexate levels measured using a dihydrofolate reductase inhibition assay correlated with those by high-performance liquid chromatography. Three major and two minor antitumor responses occurred. The maximum tolerated dose was 3750 mg/m2, with grade 3 or 4 leukopenia (one patient), stomatitis (one patient), and leukoencephalopathy (one patient). Because of the occurrence of leukoencephalopathy, further study of high-dose edatrexate with leucovorin rescue is not recommended.     

Microstrip Yagi array antenna for mobile satellite vehicleapplication

A novel antenna structure formed by combining the Yagi-Uda array concept and the microstrip radiator technique is discussed. This antenna, called the microstrip Yagi array, has been developed for the mobile satellite (MSAT) system as a low-profile, low-cost, and mechanically steered medium-gain land-vehicle antenna. With the antenna's active patches (driven elements) and parasitic patches (reflector and director elements) located on the same horizontal plane, the main beam of the array can be tilted, by the effect of mutual coupling, in the elevation direction providing optimal coverage for users in the continental United States. Because the parasitic patches are not connected to any of the lossy RF power distributing circuit the antenna is an efficient radiating system. With the complete monopulse beamforming and power distributing circuits etched on a single thin stripline board underneath the microstrip Yagi array, the overall L -band antenna system has achieved a very low profile for vehicle rooftop mounting, as well as a low manufacturing cost. Experimental results demonstrate the performance of this antenna     

Single-mode vertical integration of p-i-n photodetectors with optical waveguides for monitoring in WDM transmission systems

A new InP-based waveguide photodetector utilizing single-mode vertical integration of a p-i-n structure atop of a low-loss optical waveguide is reported. Over all states of polarization, in a spectral range across the C-band, the device exhibits high on-chip responsivities of /spl sim/1.1 A/W, which remains nearly constant at a reverse bias above 5 V and optical powers up to 1 mW. If integrated within the output channels of a planar demultiplexer, it enables a very compact optical spectral analyzer to be realized.     

Emissivity of discretized diffusion problems

The numerical modeling of radiative transfer by the diffusion approximation can produce artificially damped radiation propagation if spatial cells are too optically thick. In this paper, we investigate this nonphysical behavior at external problem boundaries by examining the emissivity of the discretized diffusion approximation. We demonstrate that the standard cell-centered discretization produces an emissivity that is too low for optically thick cells, a situation that leads to the lack of radiation propagation. We then present a modified boundary condition that yields an accurate emissivity regardless of cell size. This modified boundary condition can be used with a deterministic calculation or as part of a hybrid transport-diffusion method for increasing the efficiency of Monte Carlo simulations. We also discuss the range of applicability, as a function of cell size and material properties, when this modified boundary condition is employed in a hybrid technique. With a set of numerical calculations, we demonstrate the accuracy and usefulness of this modified boundary condition.