Cholesterol and vascular disease. Study of pravastatin

Variations in lipid profile and incidence of vascular events were evaluated. Group 1 had a 29.3% reduction of total and a 38.3% reduction of LDL cholesterol as against reductions of 9% and 9.6% respectively in group 2. No significant difference was observed between the two groups as far as the vascular events considered were concerned. Pravastatin is an effective and safe drug. The lack of influence on the evolution of vascular disease would appear to be correlated to the small number of subjects studied and the short follow-up.     

Designing of a type-2 fuzzy logic filter for improving edge-preserving restoration of interlaced-to-progressive conversion

This paper focuses on recently advanced fuzzy models and the application of type-2 fuzzy sets in video deinterlacing. The final goal of the proposed deinterlacing algorithm is to exactly determine an unknown pixel value while preserving the edges and details of the image. To begin, we will discuss some artefacts of spatial, temporal, and spatio-temporal domain deinterlacing methods. In order to address the aforementioned issues, we adopted type-2 fuzzy sets concepts to design a weight evaluating approach. In the proposed method, the upper and lower fuzzy membership functions of the type-2 fuzzy logic filters are derived from the type-1 (or primary) fuzzy membership function. The weights from upper and lower membership functions are considered to be multiplied with the candidate deinterlaced pixels. Experimental results proved that the performance of the proposed method was superior, both objectively and subjectively to other different conventional deinterlacing methods. Moreover, the proposed method preserved the smoothness of the original image edges and produced a high-quality progressive image.     

Automated metrology system including VUV spectroscopic ellipsometry and X-ray reflectometry for 300 mm silicon microelectronics

Spectroscopic ellipsometry has long been recognized as the technique of choice to characterize thin films and multilayers. Instrumentation for the next generation of VUV lithography at 157 nm requires special optical setup since O₂ and H₂O are extremely absorbing below 190 nm. A new system has been developed which works into a purged glove box to reduce the oxygen and water contamination in the part per million range. Ellipsometric and photometric measurements vs. wavelength and angle of incidence can be performed. Grazing X-ray option has been added on the same instrument to provide a better picture of the analyzed samples. This paper presents in detail the new system with its two measurement methods, and includes experimental results gate dielectrics layers and high k dielectrics.     

An optical study of alumina films thermal evolution upon ammonia annealing

The physical and structural evolution of alumina films deposited by ALCVD annealed at high temperatures in N₂ has been studied.Low temperature post deposition treatments in NH₃ (PDN) have been performed to evaluate the impact of nitrogen incorporation in the alumina film on its thermal stability. Thermal evolution has been studied by deep UV spectroscopic ellipsometry and grazing X-ray reflectance techniques. AFM measurements were also performed to confirm and complete the ellipsometric and GXR analysis.The change of the crystalline structure was detected by ellipsometry by the different UV refractive index, while the GXR provided a unique thickness evaluation.It was therefore possible to determine the layer densification after the thermal treatment and the impact of the PDN on the transition temperature.     

Towards mechanistic models for activated sludge flocculation under different conditions based on inverse problems

Experimental data of Ca-induced activated sludge flocculation under different conditions of temperature and dissolved oxygen are investigated in order to model the influence of changing physical and chemical factors. However, current kernel structures for collision frequency and efficiency are unable to describe activated sludge flocculation data. Therefore, an earlier developed methodology based on an inverse problem is applied, yielding empirical models, to find out how flocculation is affected by these different environmental conditions. This contribution shows the useful application of inverse problems to improve the understanding of complex aggregation mechanisms.     

Metrology issues in thin ONO stacks measurements by spectroscopic ellipsometry and X-ray reflectivity

We performed X-ray reflectivity (XRR) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) analysis of several ONO stacks with different deposition conditions. TEM was also used as reference technique. In the energy range from 1.5 to 6.5 eV, SE analysis shows a correlation between bottom and top oxide thickness. The small electron density difference between Si and SiO₂ makes the SiO₂/Si interface determination difficult to estimate by XRR. By etch profiling we observed a relatively large extension of the oxide/nitride interfaces. Comparing the results of both techniques, we have observed major differences in thickness estimation. Most of these differences can be attributed to an estimation and weighting of the interfaces among the different techniques are considered in this paper.     

Intravenous propafenone: efficacy and safety in the conversion to sinus rhythm of recent onset atrial fibrillation--a single-blind placebo-controlled study

Normal right-handed subjects were required to make pitch comparisons of complex tones in which the fundamental frequency was either present or absent. In both conditions, tones were presented monaurally. An increase in left-ear superiority was observed in the response time measurements when the fundamental was absent. These findings support the notion that the right hemisphere possesses a special mechanism for pitch computation.     

LexO: an open-source system for managing OntoLex-Lemon resources

Language Resources and Evaluation - The adoption of Semantic Web technologies and the Linked Data paradigm has been driven by the need to ensure the construction of resources that are at the same...     

Learning Computer Networking on Open Paravirtual Laboratories

Learning practical information communication technology skills such as network configuration and security planning requires hands-on experience with a number of different devices which may be unavailable or too costly to provide, especially for institutions under tight budget constraints. This paper describes how a specific open software technology, paravirtualization, can be used to set up open source virtual networking labs (VNLs) easily and at virtually no cost. The paper highlights how paravirtual labs can be adopted jointly by partner organizations, e.g., when the institution hosting the virtual lab provides hands-on training and students' skill evaluation as a service to partner institutions overseas. A practical VNL implementation, the open virtual lab (OVL), is used to describe the added value that open source VNLs can give to e-Learning frameworks, achieving a level of students' performance comparable or better than the one obtained when students directly interact with physical networking equipment.