Emerging interconnects: a state-of-the-art review and emerging solutions

Aluminium was a primary material for interconnection in integrated circuits (ICs) since their inception. Later, copper was introduced as interconnect material which has better metallic conductivity and resistance to electromigration. As the aggressive technology scaling continues, the copper resistivity increased because of size effects, which causes increase in delay, power dissipation and electromigration. The need to reduce the resistor-capacitor??????? delay, dynamic power utilisation and the crosstalk commotion is as of now the fundamental main impetus behind the presentation of new materials. The purpose of this paper is to do a survey of interconnect material used in IC from introduction of ICs to till date. This paper studies and reviews new materials available for interconnect application which are optical interconnects, carbon nanotube (CNT), graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) and silicon nanowires which are alternatives to copper. While doing a survey of interconnect material, it is found that multiwalled CNTs, multilayer GNR and mixed CNT bundles are promising candidates and are ultimate choice that can strongly address the problems faced by copper but on integration basis copper would last for coming years.     

Performance comparison of CNFET- and CMOS-based 6T SRAM cell in deep submicron

This paper presents a performance comparison of a carbon nanotube-based field effect (CNFET)- and CMOS-based 6T SRAM cell at the 32 nm technology node. HSPICE simulations, carried out using Berkeley predictive technology model (BPTM), show that for a cell ratio and pull-up ratio of 1, CNFET-based 6T SRAM cell provides an improvement of 21% in read static noise margin (SNM) at VDD=0.4 V. The speed of CNFET cell is 1.84× that of CMOS cell. The standby leakage of CNFET cell is 84% less than CMOS cell. The process parameter variation results in 1.2% change in the read SNM of CNFET cell as compared with a wide variation of around 10.6% in CMOS cell.     

Determination of free phenolic acids and antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts obtained from fruits and leaves of Chenopodium album

In this study, determination of phenolic acids as well as investigation of antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts from the fruits and leaves of Chenopodium album is described. Extracts were subjected to acidic hydrolysis in order to obtain total free phenolic acids. However, some of phenolic acids were identified and quantified by HPLC-DAD. The results were confirmed by LC-MS equipped with MS-ESI. In addition, Folin–Ciocalteu method was applied to determine the total phenolic contents. The antioxidant activity of C. album extracts was examined by using DPPH and hydroxyl radical-scavenging activity assays. Results revealed that the leaves extract exhibits better performance in antioxidant assays and in the higher total phenolic contents (3066 mg of GAE/100 g) when compared to fruits extract (1385 mg of GAE/100 g). From these results it has been revealed that the methanolic extracts of C. album from fruits and leaves have great potential as a source for natural health products.     

Practices, Perceptions and Avenues of Net-Based Promotions

Net as a medium is endowed with unique characteristics that has assisted the growth of e-commerce and in turn increased use of net-based sales promotions. The paper examines the practices, perceptions of net users and avenues of consumer sales promotions through this medium. To gain insight into current practices, consumer sales promotion on general, specialised and e-commerce sites were studied. An online survey of 161 net users was carried out to examine perceptions of net-based promotions over ten dimensions. The most frequently promoted product categories across sites were apparel, airlines, and books. Price-off followed by free gift offer was the most commonly used type of promotions. The results of various ANOVA tests revealed that perceptions did not vary across type of promotions but varied across product categories. Based on these findings managerial implications are discussed.     

Corrosion performance of chemically polymerized poly(pyrrole-co-o-toluidine) coating on mild steel

The Poly(pyrrole-co-o-toluidine), (PY/OT) copolymer was prepared by chemically oxidative polymerization of pyrrole (Py) and o-toluidine (OT) in HCl aqueous medium. The copolymer was characterised by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) technique. The coating of PY/OT copolymer on 8-Hydroxyquinoline sulphonic acid (HQSA) pretreated mild steel surface was chemically deposited using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) as the solvent. The corrosion performance of the PY/OT copolymer coating on steel, both scribed and unscribed samples, was studied by conducting immersion tests and electrochemical tests which include free corrosion potential measurements and potentiodynamic polarization measurements. The above tests were conducted in different corrosive media which include 0.1 M HCl, 5% NaCl solution, artificial seawater and distilled water. The performance of coating in open atmosphere was also evaluated by conducting atmospheric exposure test. The results of different studies indicate that PY/OT copolymer coating may be considered as potential coating material for corrosion protection of mild steel in the above corrosive medium.     

Legal consequences for alcohol-impaired drivers injured in motor vehicle collisions: A systematic review

Background

The treatment of alcohol-impaired drivers injured in a motor vehicle collision (MVC) is a complex public health issue. We conducted a systematic review to describe the legal consequences for alcohol-impaired drivers injured in a MVC and taken to a hospital or trauma center. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase, and CINAHL databases from inception until August 2014. We included studies that reported legal consequences including charges or convictions of injured drivers taken to a hospital or trauma center after a MVC with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeding the legal limit.Results Twenty-six studies met inclusion criteria; twenty studies were conducted in the USA, five in Canada, and one in Sweden. All were cohort studies (23 retrospective, 3 prospective) and included 11,409 patients overall. A total of 5,127 drivers had a BAC exceeding the legal limit, with legal consequences reported in 4937 cases. The median overall DUI/DWI conviction rate was 13% (range 0–85%). The median percentage of drivers with a previous conviction on their record for driving under the influence (DUI) or driving while intoxicated (DWI) was 15.5% (range 6–40%). The median percentage of drivers convicted again for DUI/DWI during the study period was 3.5% (range 2–10%). Heterogeneity between study designs, legal jurisdictions, institutional procedures and policies for obtaining a legally admissible BAC measurement precluded a meta-analysis. Conclusions The majority of intoxicated drivers injured in MVCs and seen in the emergency department are never charged or convicted. A substantial proportion of injured intoxicated drivers had more than one conviction for DUI/DWI on their police record.