Monolithic mass sensor fabricated using a conventional technology with attogram resolution in air conditions

Premi a l'excel·lència investigadora. Àmbit de les Ciències Tecnològiques. 2008Monolithic mass sensors for ultrasensitive mass detection in air conditions have been fabricated using a conventional 0.35 μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process. The mass sensors are based on electrostatically excited submicrometer scale cantilevers integrated with CMOS electronics. The devices have been calibrated obtaining an experimental sensitivity of 6×10−11 g/cm2 Hz equivalent to 0.9 ag/Hz for locally deposited mass. Results from time-resolved mass measurements are also presented. An evaluation of the mass resolution have been performed obtaining a value of 2.4×10−17 g in air conditions, resulting in an improvement of these devices from previous works in terms of sensitivity, resolution, and fabrication process complexity

VHF band-pass filter based on a single CMOS-MEMS doubleended tuning fork resonator

AbstractThis paper presents a single Double-Ended Tuning Fork (DETF) MEMS resonator-based band-pass filter fabricated on a commercial standard CMOS technology. The accurate design of this resonator demonstrates the ability to perform filtering without the need of coupling multiple resonators. The main characteristic is to define the out-of-phase mode resonance frequency of the DETF smaller than the in-phase mode frequency. The electrical characterization shows that this stand-alone band-pass filter presents a 44.4MHz central frequency with a 0.6% bandwidth in air

Aristotelian Essentialism: Essence in the Age of Evolution

The advent of contemporary evolutionary theory ushered in the eventual decline of Aristotelian Essentialism (Æ) – for it is widely assumed that essence does not, and cannot have any proper place in the age of evolution. This paper argues that this assumption is a mistake: if Æ can be suitably evolved, it need not face extinction. In it, I claim that if that theory’s fundamental ontology consists of dispositional properties, and if its characteristic metaphysical machinery is interpreted within the framework of contemporary evolutionary developmental biology, an evolved essentialism is available. The reformulated theory of Æ offered in this paper not only fails to fall prey to the typical collection of criticisms, but is also independently both theoretically and empirically plausible. The paper contends that, properly understood, essence belongs in the age of evolution

Comparing inequalities in the labour market from a segmentation perspective

Production of INCASI Project H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015 GA 691004The purpose of this chapter is to carry out a comparative analysis of labour markets in Europe and Latin America from the perspective of segmentation in order to explain the processes of social inequality that arise in the workplace, in light of recent trends in global socio-economic changes. The chapter proposes two main objectives. The first is to perform a comparative descriptive analysis of the main features of labour markets among 60 European and Latin American countries. The second objective is to propose a model of comparative analysis of labour inequality from the theoretical perspective of the segmentation of the labour market and structural heterogeneity. We will focus our analysis by selecting two countries, Spain and Argentina, which both underwent a late development of capitalism. The following general hypothesis is formulated: Spain and Argentina, having clearly differentiated features in economic structure, level of development, institutional frameworks and socio-historical processes, show common dynamics in the structuring of the capitalist labour market between a primary and secondary segment. Using equivalent databases on the workforce a typology of segmentation of employment is constructed that show, in addition to the specificities of each country, the similarities in the structuring of the labour market

The ontology of organisms: Mechanistic modules or patterned processes?

Though the realm of biology has long been under the philosophical rule of the mechanistic magisterium, recent years have seen a surprisingly steady rise in the usurping prowess of process ontology. According to its proponents, theoretical advances in the contemporary science of evo-devo have afforded that ontology a particularly powerful claim to the throne: in that increasingly empirically confirmed discipline, emergently autonomous, higher-order entities are the reigning explanantia. If we are to accept the election of evo-devo as our best conceptualisation of the biological realm with metaphysical rigour, must we depose our mechanistic ontology for failing to properly “carve at the joints” of organisms? In this paper, I challenge the legitimacy of that claim: not only can the theoretical benefits offered by a process ontology be had without it, they cannot be sufficiently grounded without the metaphysical underpinning of the very mechanisms which processes purport to replace. The biological realm, I argue, remains one best understood as under the governance of mechanistic principles

Gene switching rate determines response to extrinsic perturbations in the self-activation transcriptional network motif

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