A Petri-Net-Based Scheduling Strategy for Dual-Arm Cluster Tools With Wafer Revisiting

International audienceThere are wafer fabrication processes in cluster tools that require wafer revisiting. The adoption of a swap strategy for such tools forms a 3-wafer cyclic (3-WC) period with three wafers completed in each period. It has been shown that, by such a scheduling strategy, the minimal cycle time cannot be reached for some cases. This raises a question of whether there is a scheduling method such that the performance can be improved. To answer this question, a dual-arm cluster tool with wafer revisiting is modeled by a Petri net. Based on the model, the dynamical behavior of the process is analyzed. Then, a 2-wafer cyclic (2-WC) scheduling strategy is revealed for the first time. Cycle time analysis is conducted for the proposed strategy to evaluate its performance. It shows that, for some cases, the performance obtained by a 2-WC schedule is better than that obtained by any existing 3-WC ones. Thus, they can be used to complement each other in scheduling dual-arm cluster tools with wafer revisiting. Illustrative examples are given

Evaluation of anti-smoking television advertising on tobacco control among urban community population in Chongqing, China

Background China is the largest producer and consumer of tobacco in the world. Considering the constantly growing urban proportion, persuasive tobacco control measures are important in urban communities. Television, as one of the most pervasive mass media, can be used for this purpose. Methods The anti-smoking advertisement was carried out in five different time slots per day from 15 May to 15 June in 2011 across 12 channels of Chongqing TV. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the main municipal areas of Chongqing. A questionnaire was administered in late June to 1,342 native residents aged 18–45, who were selected via street intercept survey. Results Respondents who recognized the advertisement (32.77 %) were more likely to know or believe that smoking cigarettes caused impotence than those who did not recognize the advertisement (26.11 %). According to 25.5 % of smokers, the anti-smoking TV advertising made them consider quitting smoking. However, females (51.7 %) were less likely to be affected by the advertisement to stop and think about quitting smoking compared to males (65.6 %) (OR = 0.517, 95 % CI [0.281–0.950]). In addition, respondents aged 26–35 years (67.4 %) were more likely to try to persuade others to quit smoking than those aged 18–25 years (36.3 %) (OR = 0.457, 95 % CI [0.215–0.974]). Furthermore, non-smokers (87.4 %) were more likely to find the advertisement relevant than smokers (74.8 %) (OR = 2.34, 95 % CI [1.19–4.61]). Conclusions This study showed that this advertisement did not show significant differences on smoking-related knowledge and attitude between non-smokers who had seen the ad and those who had not. Thus, this form may not be the right tool to facilitate change in non-smokers. The ad should instead be focused on the smoking population. Gender, smoking status, and age influenced the effect of anti-smoking TV advertising on the general population in China

Dielectric Breakdown in Chemical Vapor Deposited Hexagonal Boron Nitride

Insulating films are essential in multiple electronic devices because they can provide essential functionalities, such as capacitance effects and electrical fields. Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials have superb electronic, physical, chemical, thermal, and optical properties, and they can be effectively used to provide additional performances, such as flexibility and transparency. 2D layered insulators are called to be essential in future electronic devices, but their reliability, degradation kinetics, and dielectric breakdown (BD) process are still not understood. In this work, the dielectric breakdown process of multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) is analyzed on the nanoscale and on the device level, and the experimental results are studied via theoretical models. It is found that under electrical stress, local charge accumulation and charge trapping/detrapping are the onset mechanisms for dielectric BD formation. By means of conductive atomic force microscopy, the BD event was triggered at several locations on the surface of different dielectrics (SiO2, HfO2, Al2O3, multilayer h-BN, and monolayer h-BN); BD-induced hillocks rapidly appeared on the surface of all of them when the BD was reached, except in monolayer h-BN. The high thermal conductivity of h-BN combined with the one-atom-thick nature are genuine factors contributing to heat dissipation at the BD spot, which avoids self-accelerated and thermally driven catastrophic BD. These results point to monolayer h-BN as a sublime dielectric in terms of reliability, which may have important implications in future digital electronic devices.Fil: Jiang, Lanlan. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Shi, Yuanyuan. Soochow University; China. University of Stanford; Estados UnidosFil: Hui, Fei. Soochow University; China. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Tang, Kechao. University of Stanford; Estados UnidosFil: Wu, Qian. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Pan, Chengbin. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Jing, Xu. Soochow University; China. University of Texas at Austin; Estados UnidosFil: Uppal, Hasan. University of Manchester; Reino UnidoFil: Palumbo, Félix Roberto Mario. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lu, Guangyuan. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de ChinaFil: Wu, Tianru. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de ChinaFil: Wang, Haomin. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de ChinaFil: Villena, Marco A.. Soochow University; ChinaFil: Xie, Xiaoming. Chinese Academy of Sciences; República de China. ShanghaiTech University; ChinaFil: McIntyre, Paul C.. University of Stanford; Estados UnidosFil: Lanza, Mario. Soochow University; Chin

Clinical Application of Miniature Peroneal Perforation Flap for Free Grafting In Soft Fibers of Hand, Foot and Skin

Objective: To study the clinical application and effect of free transplantation of miniature peroneal perforation flap in soft and tissue defects of hand, foot and skin. Method: 28 patients with hand, foot, skin and soft tissue defects who were treated in hospital from May 2015 to May 2016 were selected as the subjects. The patients were randomly divided into group A as experimental group and group B as control group. Two groups of patients with treatment site microcirculation, postoperative recovery and sensory score were compared. Results: The microcirculation indexes of group A were significantly better than those of group B (P <0.05). The rate of recovery in group A was 92.86% and rate of recovery in group B was 71.43%, after treatment recovery in group A is significantly better than group B (P <0.05). Before and after treatment, the sensory scores of the two groups were not statistically significant (P> 0.05). The sensory score of group A was significantly higher than that of group B (P <0.05). Conclusion: The microperitoneal perforation flap dissection has a good clinical effect, which can effectively improve the postoperative recovery of patients with soft tissue defects of hand, foot and skin, improve the microcirculation index of the treatment site and improve the sensory score of the treatment site, should be widely used in clinical treatment

Single-pixel imaging based on deep learning

Single-pixel imaging can collect images at the wavelengths outside the reach of conventional focal plane array detectors. However, the limited image quality and lengthy computational times for iterative reconstruction still impede the practical application of single-pixel imaging. Recently, deep learning has been introduced into single-pixel imaging, which has attracted a lot of attention due to its exceptional reconstruction quality, fast reconstruction speed, and the potential to complete advanced sensing tasks without reconstructing images. Here, this advance is discussed and some opinions are offered. Firstly, based on the fundamental principles of single-pixel imaging and deep learning, the principles and algorithms of single-pixel imaging based on deep learning are described and analyzed. Subsequently, the implementation technologies of single-pixel imaging based on deep learning are reviewed. They are divided into super-resolution single-pixel imaging, single-pixel imaging through scattering media, photon-level single-pixel imaging, optical encryption based on single-pixel imaging, color single-pixel imaging, and image-free sensing according to diverse application fields. Finally, major challenges and corresponding feasible approaches are discussed, as well as more possible applications in the future

Thermal resistance effect on anomalous diffusion of molecules under confinement

Diffusion is generally faster at higher temperatures. Here, a counterintuitive behavior is observed in that the movement of long-chain molecules slows as the temperature increases under confinement. This report confirms that this anomalous diffusion is caused by the “thermal resistance effect,” in which the diffusion resistance of linear-chain molecules is equivalent to that with branched-chain configurations at high temperature. It then restrains the molecular transportation in the nanoscale channels, as further confirmed by zero length column experiments. This work enriches our understanding of the anomalous diffusion family and provides fundamental insights into the mechanism inside confined systems.This work is supported by the National NaturalScience Foundation of China (22032005, 21902180, 21802164, 21991092,21991090, 22002174 and 91645112), and the Natural Science Foundation ofHubei Province of China (2018CFA009), the Key Research Program of FrontierSciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (QYZDB-SSW-SLH026), and SinopecCorp. (417012-4). We are grateful to the Shenzhen Cloud Computing Centerfor their support in computing facilities.Peer reviewe