Powerline Communication System-on-Chip in 180 nm Harsh Environment SOI Technology

Broadband powerline communication systems using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) can utilize existing power lines to transmit data packets alongside power distribution. Recent standards focus towards high speed multi-media in-house streaming. With improvements towards robustness and throughput new standards increase the speed and reliability of in-house powerline systems. A very different approach is the use of powerline communication systems in a deep drilling environment where temperatures of more than 150°C and pressure levels up to 30 000 psi are present. Typical applications in this environment usually do not require more than several kbit/ys per node and are more reliant on a stable and continuous connection. Here, a powerline communication system can reduce the amount of wiring needed and increase communication robustness significantly. This work provides a harsh environment suitable, reliable and standard compliant communication ASIC that is manufactured in XFAB 180 nm Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) technology allowing operating temperatures of up to 175°C. The die size is 5.25 mm x 5.25 mm and contains a complete Homeplug 1.0 communication stack with an environment for boot, interfacing and debugging. The data rate is as high as 6.1 Mbit/s using the fastest transmission mode and reaches the theoretical maximum of 0.55 Mbit/s in the robust OFDM (ROBO) mode which is of particular interest for harsh environment applications. To the best of the authors knowledge, this is the first OFDM-based powerline communication ASIC which is particularly designed for harsh environment.© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works

Measurement of serum C-reactive protein concentration for discriminating between suppurative arthritis and osteoarthritis in dogs

Background: In a dog with joint pain, it is important to determine whether it has suppurative joint disease, characterized by exudation of neutrophils in the synovial fluid, or not, as this affects choice of diagnostic tests and treatments. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether measurement of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) concentration could be used to discriminate between dogs with suppurative arthritis and osteoarthritis (OA). Furthermore, the concentrations of serum and synovial fluid interleukin (IL) 6 concentrations were measured in dogs with joint disease and in healthy dogs, and were correlated to serum CRP concentrations. Methods: Dogs with joint pain were enrolled prospectively and were classified to have suppurative arthritis or OA based on synovial fluid analysis and radiographic/arthroscopic findings. Healthy Beagles were enrolled as a comparative group. CRP and IL-6 concentrations were measured with canine-specific immunoassays. The performance of CRP concentration in discriminating between dogs with suppurative arthritis and OA was evaluated using a previously established clinical decision limit for CRP (20 mg/l), and by receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve and logistic regression analysis. Comparisons of CRP and IL-6 concentrations between groups were performed using t-tests, and correlations by Spearman rank correlation coefficients. Results: Samples were obtained from 31 dogs with suppurative arthritis, 34 dogs with OA, and 17 healthy dogs. Sixty-two out of 65 dogs with joint disease were correctly classified using the clinical decision limit for CRP. Evaluation of ROC curve and regression analysis indicated that serum CRP concentrations could discriminate between suppurative arthritis and OA. Dogs with suppurative arthritis had higher serum CRP and serum and synovial fluid IL-6 concentrations compared to dogs with OA (p < 0.001). Dogs with OA had higher synovial fluid IL-6 concentrations (p < 0.001), but not higher serum CRP (p = 0.29) or serum IL-6 (p = 0.07) concentrations, compared to healthy dogs. There was a positive correlation between synovial fluid IL-6 and serum CRP concentrations (r(s) = 0.733, p < 0.001), and between serum IL-6 and serum CRP concentrations (r(s) = 0.729, p < 0.001). Conclusion: CRP concentration was found to discriminate well between dogs with suppurative arthritis and OA