Built-in self-test for phase-locked loops

An effective built-in self-test (BIST) structure of a phase-locked loop (PLL) in digital applications is presented in this paper. The proposed BIST structure can identify possible faults in any block such as the phase detector, charge pump, loop filter, voltage-controlled oscillator and divide-by-N of the PLL. The key advantage of this approach is that it uses all existing blocks in PLL for measuring and testing, reducing the chip area overhead. Restated, the proposed approach does not alter any existing analog circuits. Rather, the proposed approach only adds some small circuits to the PLL and requires a slight modification of the digital part. The final test outputs are digital values which can increase the reliability of the proposed BIST structure. Physical chip design and fault simulation results indicate the characteristics of the proposed BIST structure, namely, high fault coverage (97.2%) and low area overhead (2.78%).     

Modelling diagnosis of heavy metal (copper) transport in an estuary

A vertical (laterally-averaged) two-dimensional heavy metal transport model was developed to simulate the fluxes of copper in the Danshuei River estuarine system. The toxic model was incorporated into the hydrodynamic, the salt transport and the sediment transport modules. The model has been validated with observed time series data of water surface elevation, current, salinity, and suspended sediment concentrations in 2001 and 2002. An exponential relationship was established to relate variation in partition coefficient of copper to salinity and suspended sediment concentrations in the Danshuei River estuary. Comparisons of the total, dissolved, and particulate copper concentrations calculated by the numerical model and field data along the Danshuei River-Tahan Stream show good agreement. It is noteworthy that the model requires a point source of total copper with the strength of 250 kg/day to account for the observed persistently high total copper concentration near Hsin-Hai Bridge in the Tahan Stream, about 24 km upriver from the river mouth. The huge garbage dump site near the Hsin-Hai Bridge is likely the source of heavy metal pollution. The validated model was then applied to investigate the tidally averaged salinity distributions, residual circulation, suspended sediment, and total copper concentrations under low flow condition. The residual circulation is characterized by the upriver movement of denser saline water in the lower layer and the downriver movement of fresher water in the upper layer. The circulation pattern is driven by the longitudinal gradient of salinity distribution. The residual circulation occurs in the deep channel of Kuan-Du Bridge and Taipei Bridge. Under low flow condition, the limits of salt intrusion are located at Hsin-Hai Bridge. The tidally-averaged sediment concentration distribution exhibits a local maximum concentration around the null point in the Danshuei River-Tahan Stream. A local maximum of total copper concentration, which is nearly as high as that near the point source, occurs around the null point, which is potentially a hot spot of heavy metal accumulation.     

Synergic effect of benzotriazole and chloride ion on Cu passivation in a phosphate electrochemical mechanical planarization electrolyte

In this study, the effect of chloride ion (Cl⁻) in phosphate electrolytes of pH 2 containing benzotriazole (BTAH) developed for use in electrochemical mechanical planarization (ECMP) was investigated at various anodic potentials. According to D.C. and A.C. electrochemical analyses, the inhibition effect of the BTAH passive film formed in phosphate electrolyte containing both BTAH and Cl⁻ was superior to that formed in phosphate electrolytes containing BTAH alone, even at high anodic potential. The effective window for BTAH passivation reached ∼1.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl nearly three times that of the ∼0.5 V vs. Ag/AgCl recorded for electrolyte containing BTAH alone. According to analyses conducted by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS), the thickness of the passive film grown from the BTAH-only electrolyte at 0.3 V vs. Ag/AgCl was ∼52 ± 7 nm and ∼55 nm, respectively. As for the passive film grown from the BTAH and Cl⁻ electrolyte, the thickness increased to ∼104 ± 18 nm and ∼106 nm, respectively. The mechanism for the enhanced inhibition capability was that the passive film grown from the BTAH and Cl⁻ electrolyte was thicker compared to that formed from the BTAH-only electrolyte due to the incorporation of Cl⁻ into the BTAH passive film. The ECMP polishing results also demonstrated an obvious step height reduction of ∼1000 nm in a patterned structure for only 60 s polishing at a high potential of 1.0 V vs. Ag/AgCl under a low downward pressure (∼0.5 psi). Subsequently, this study proposes that the control of Cl⁻ in a phosphate ECMP electrolyte of pH 2 may be useful in enhancing the passivation capability of BTAH passive film, thus expanding the operating potential window.     

面向动态订单的产品BOM模型构建与求解方法研究

为了快速响应客户订单定制要求,提出了一种面向动态订单的产品BOM模型构建方法。该方法首先根据客户性能需求与零部件实例的关系,设计了相关度矩阵,计算出理想的产品零部件;其次根据主要需求参数,从数据库中检索出可选配置产品;最后利用效用函数,求解出与客户订单需求相似度最大的产品。该模型的实际应用表明,它不仅能快速配置出订单型BOM,还有利于提高产品设计的效率和质量。     

Paper-based tuberculosis diagnostic devices with colorimetric gold nanoparticles

Abstract

A colorimetric sensing strategy employing gold nanoparticles and a paper assay platform has been developed for tuberculosis diagnosis. Unmodified gold nanoparticles and single-stranded detection oligonucleotides are used to achieve rapid diagnosis without complicated and time-consuming thiolated or other surface-modified probe preparation processes. To eliminate the use of sophisticated equipment for data analysis, the color variance for multiple detection results was simultaneously collected and concentrated on cellulose paper with the data readout transmitted for cloud computing via a smartphone. The results show that the 2.6 nM tuberculosis mycobacterium target sequences extracted from patients can easily be detected, and the turnaround time after the human DNA is extracted from clinical samples was approximately 1 h.     

输电网接线图增量自动成图算法

输电线网接线图自动成图算法是一个非常复杂的全局优化问题.它涉及到厂站位置的自动布局和输电线路自动规划两个方面.本文给出了解决该问题的一种具体思路和算法,将该问题划分为3个部分:首先,利用力导向算法对厂站位置进行初始布局,采用模拟退火算法进行迭代计算,通过并发技术实现引力、斥力系数进行选择,得到代价最小的初始厂站初始布局.其次,利用A^*算法对输电线路进行线路规划,构建了一个线路走向的代价模型,通过代价模型规范线路走向,得到美观的线路布局.最后,对布局结果评价反馈再布局,将常见的几种布局缺陷通过程序的方式进行消缺,减少人工干预.同时,本文还对历史线路和新增线路做了处理,使得算法可以实现在不改变历史厂站线路布局的情况下,对新增厂站线路进行布局规划.通过实验显示,该方法得到的图形结果满足线路规划美观,布局合理,交叉少,拐角少等优点.     

Site-directed mutagenesis improves the thermostability of a recombinant Picrophilus torridus trehalose synthase and efficiency for the production of trehalose from sweet potato starch

A new recombinant Picrophilus torridus TSase (PTTS) has the catalytic ability for the conversion of maltose to trehalose by intramolecular transglucosylation. For industrial applications, the high thermostability of the enzyme would be the most important property for reducing the microbial contamination and lower the production cost. Therefore, in this study, we substituted ten selected proline residues of PTTS which differ from two well-known thermostable TSases. Interestingly, we found that the N503 mutant type, namely N503P-PTTS, showed about 39% higher relative activity than that of the wild type at 65 °C for 120 min. The trehalose yield of mutant N503P-PTTS was 1.3-fold higher than that of the wild type with sweet potato starch as substrate at 50 °C for 4 h. This suggests that the proline site substitution technology used in this study is useful for altering enzyme properties and catalytic efficiency for possible industrial applications.     

小波神经网络在教育网格下行流量预测中的应用

准确预测教育资源网格的下行流量有助于网格的负载均衡和信息安全管理。小波神经网络适合于对具有随机性和不确定性特征的网格下行流量进行建模和非线性预测。针对一般小波神经网络预测模型存在收敛速度较慢,误差较大,稳定性较差等不足,在基于梯度下降法的网络权值和参数修正方案中增加了动量项,同时,提出了一种对预测的中间结果引入随机样本替换机制的改进算法。实验结果表明,该算法能有效降低网络训练的收敛时间,提高网络预测的准确性和稳定性。     

Exploring how inter-organizational relational benefits affect information sharing in supply chains

This research explores how inter-organizational relationship interacts with factors affecting the development and implementation of information sharing. On the basis of the resource-based view and relational risk perspective, we developed a model which comprises three research hypotheses with three constructs, including relational benefits, relational risk, and information sharing. The constructs are measured by well-supported measures in the literature. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze survey data collected from 528 manufacturing firms that were among the top 1,000 Taiwanese manufacturing firms of 2011 listed by Business Weekly. The results of the empirical study suggest that relational benefits are critical in ensuring information sharing and mitigate relational risk in the process. The findings of the study provide useful insights into how supply chain members can reinforce their relational benefits and mitigate probable risks so as to improve their collaborative behaviors and in turn enhance information sharing for the supply chain as a whole.