Recent Trends and Perspectives on Defect-Oriented Testing

Electronics employed in modern safety-critical systems require severe qualification during the manufacturing process and in the field, to prevent fault effects from manifesting themselves as critical failures during mission operations. Traditional fault models are not sufficient anymore to guarantee the required quality levels for chips utilized in mission-critical applications. The research community and industry have been investigating new test approaches such as device-aware test, cell-aware test, path-delay test, and even test methodologies based on the analysis of manufacturing data to move the scope from OPPM to OPPB. This special session presents four contributions, from academic researchers and industry professionals, to enable better chip quality. We present results on various activities towards this objective, including device-aware test, software-based self-test, and memory test

Active-site and membrane topology of the DD-peptidase/penicillin-binding protein no. 6 of Enterococcus hirae (Streptococcus faecium) A.T.C.C. 9790.

The membrane-bound 43,000-Mr penicillin-binding protein no. 6 (PBP6) of Enterococcus hirae consists of a 30,000-Mr DD-peptidase/penicillin-binding domain and a approximately 130-residue C-terminal appendage. Removal of this appendage by trypsin proteolysis has no marked effect on the catalytic activity and penicillin-binding capacity of the PBP. Anchorage of the PBP in the membrane appears to be mediated by a short 15-20-residue stretch at the C-terminal end of the appendage. The sequence of the 50-residue N-terminal region of the PBP shows high degree of homology with the sequences of the corresponding regions of the PBPs5 of Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis. On this basis the active-site serine residue occurs at position 35 in the enterococcal PBP

Occurrence of D-alanyl-(D)-meso-diaminopimelic acid and meso-diaminopimelyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid interpeptide linkages in the peptidoglycan of Mycobacteria

Cross-linking between peptide units in the wall peptidoglycan of Mycobacterium smegmatis 21732 ATCC is mediated through D-alanyl-(D)-meso-diaminopimelic acid and meso-diaminopimelyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid linkages occurring in a ratio of about 2:1. The occurrence of D-alanyl-(D)-meso-diaminopimelic acid linkages was established by the action of the Streptomyces albus G DD-carboxypeptidase. The occurrence of meso-diaminopimelyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid linkages was established by isolation from partial acid hydro-lysates and characterization by mass spectrometric analyses of the dipeptide meso-diaminopimelyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid and the tripeptide meso-diaminopimelyl-meso-diaminopimelyl-meso-diaminopimelic acid. meso-Diaminopimelyl-meso-diami-nopimelic acid interpeptide linkages also occur in the wall peptidoglycan of M. tuberculosis BCG Pasteur strain

Cognitive rehabilitation of the updating sub-component of working memory in schizophrenia: a case study.

Working memory problems have been identified as a core cognitive deficit in schizophrenia. In this paper, we present the results of a cognitive rehabilitation programme (Duval & Coyette, 2005) administered to a schizophrenia patient, and specifically designed to improve the updating sub-component of working memory. The original feature of this programme was that it involved two types of updating exercises: cognitive and ecological. The purpose was to enable the patient to acquire cognitive strategies that alleviate the mental load of the central executive and to transfer them to daily life. The specificity and efficacy of the programme were assessed with multiple (cognitive, ecological and non-target) baseline measurements. In addition, several questionnaires were administered to assess the effect of the programme on subjective cognitive complaints affecting daily life, psychiatric symptoms and self-esteem. The results demonstrated the efficacy of the rehabilitation programme on the updating function and the generalisation of these beneficial effects to daily life. A significant decrease in both subjective cognitive complaints and psychiatric symptoms was also observed. However, the patient's self-esteem did not improve