Progress on Carbon Nanotube BEOL Interconnects

This article is a review of the current progress and results obtained in the European H2020 CONNECT project. Amongst all the research on carbon nanotube interconnects, those discussed here cover 1) process & growth of carbon nanotube interconnects compatible with back-end-of-line integration, 2) modeling and simulation from atomistic to circuit-level bench-marking and performance prediction, and 3) characterization and electrical measurements. We provide an overview of the current advancements on carbon nanotube interconnects and also regarding the prospects for designing energy efficient integrated circuits. Each selected category is presented in an accessible manner aiming to serve as a review and informative cornerstone on carbon nanotube interconnects

Introduction to the French GEOTRACES North Atlantic Transect (GA01): GEOVIDE cruise

The GEOVIDE cruise, a collaborative project within the framework of the international GEOTRACES programme, was conducted along the French-led section in the North Atlantic Ocean (Section GA01), between 15 May and 30 June 2014. In this special issue (https://www.biogeosciences.net/special_issue900.html), results from GEOVIDE, including physical oceanography and trace element and isotope cyclings, are presented among 18 articles. Here, the scientific context, project objectives, and scientific strategy of GEOVIDE are provided, along with an overview of the main results from the articles published in the special issue

The 226Ra–Ba relationship in the North Atlantic during GEOTRACES-GA01

International audienceWe report detailed sections of radium-226 (226 Ra, T 1/2 = 1602 years) activities and barium (Ba) concentrations determined in the North Atlantic (Portugal-Greenland-Canada) in the framework of the international GEO-TRACES program (GA01 section-GEOVIDE project, May-July 2014). Dissolved 226 Ra and Ba are strongly correlated along the section, a pattern that may reflect their similar chemical behavior. Because 226 Ra and Ba have been widely used as tracers of water masses and ocean mixing, we investigated their behavior more thoroughly in this crucial region for thermohaline circulation, taking advantage of the contrasting biogeochemical patterns existing along the GA01 section. We used an optimum multiparameter (OMP) analysis to distinguish the relative importance of physical transport (water mass mixing) from nonconservative processes (sedimentary, river or hydrothermal inputs, uptake by particles and dissolved-particulate dynamics) on the 226 Ra and Ba distributions in the North Atlantic. Results show that the measured 226 Ra and Ba concentrations can be explained by conservative mixing for 58 and 65 % of the samples, respectively , notably at intermediate depth, away from the ocean interfaces. 226 Ra and Ba can thus be considered conservative tracers of water mass transport in the ocean interior on the space scales considered here, namely, on the order of a few thousand kilometers. However, regions in which 226 Ra and Ba displayed nonconservative behavior and in some cases de-coupled behaviors were also identified, mostly at the ocean boundaries (seafloor, continental margins and surface waters). Elevated 226 Ra and Ba concentrations found in deep-water in the West European Basin suggest that lower Northeast Atlantic Deep Water (NEADWl) accumulates 226 Ra and Ba from sediment diffusion and/or particle dissolution during transport. In the upper 1500 m of the West European Basin, deficiencies in 226 Ra and Ba are likely explained by their incorporation in planktonic calcareous and siliceous shells, or in barite (BaSO 4) by substitution or adsorption mechanisms. Finally, because Ba and 226 Ra display different source terms (mostly deep-sea sediments for 226 Ra and rivers for Ba), strong decoupling between 226 Ra and Ba were observed at the land-ocean boundaries. This is especially true in the shallow stations near the coasts of Greenland and Newfoundland where high 226Ra ∕ Ba ratios at depth reflect the diffusion of 226Ra from sediment and low 226Ra ∕ Ba ratios in the upper water column reflect the input of Ba associated with meteoric waters

Arabidopsis SGS2 and SGS3 genes are required for posttranscriptional gene silencing and natural virus resistance

International audienc

Editorial TVLSI Positioning - Continuing and Accelerating an Upward Trajectory

I. VLSI Systems: A Glance Into The Last Decades Since their inception in 1970s, VLSI systems have enabled several new technological capabilities and made them accessible to an unceasingly wider range of users, reaching a scale that has been exponentially increasing over the decades [1] (see Fig. 1). Relentless integration of more complex systems has driven such remarkable evolution, as made possible by the inexorable miniaturization. As shown in Fig. 1, more functionality has been crammed in a consistently smaller form factor, as exemplified by the physical volume shrinking of computers by 100 X/decade [2], [3]. At the same time, the energy per task has been decreasing at 10-100 X/decade, as shown in Fig. 2, for several systems and system-on-chip subsystems [4]. This allowed packing more capabilities into the same power envelope, as generally observed in the electronic systems, even before the advent of the integrated circuit [5]