Simultaneous slack budgeting and retiming for synchronous circuits optimization

Abstract- With the challenges of growing functionality and scaling chip size, the possible performance improvements should be considered in the earlier IC design stages, which gives more freedom to the later optimization. Potential slack as an effective metric of possible performance improvements is considered in this work which, as far as we known, is the first work that maximizes the potential slack by retiming for synchronous sequential circuit. A simultaneous slack budgeting and incremental retiming algorithm is proposed for maximizing potential slack. The overall slack budget is optimized by relocating the FFs iteratively with the MIS-based slack estimation. Compared with the potential slack of a well-known min-period retiming, our algorithm improves potential slack averagely 19.6 % without degrading the circuit performance in reasonable runtime. Furthermore, at the expense of a small amount of timing performance, 0.52 % and 2.08%, the potential slack is increased averagely by 19.89 % and 28.16 % separately, which give a hint of the tradeoff between the timing performance and the slack budget.

Synthesis of Silver Nanowires with Reduced Diameters Using Benzoin-Derived Radicals to Make Transparent Conductors with High Transparency and Low Haze.

Reducing the diameter of silver nanowires has been proven to be an effective way to improve their optoelectronic performance by lessening light attenuation. The state-of-the-art silver nanowires are typically around 20 nm in diameter. Herein we report a modified polyol synthesis of silver nanowires with average diameters as thin as 13 nm and aspect ratios up to 3000. The success of this synthesis is based on the employment of benzoin-derived radicals in the polyol approach and does not require high-pressure conditions. The strong reducing power of radicals allows the reduction of silver precursors to occur at relatively low temperatures, wherein the lateral growth of silver nanowires is restrained because of efficient surface passivation. The optoelectronic performance of as-prepared 13 nm silver nanowires presents a sheet resistance of 28 Ω sq-1 at a transmittance of 95% with a haze factor of ∼1.2%, comparable to that of commercial indium tin oxide (ITO)

An H5N1 M2e-based multiple antigenic peptide vaccine confers heterosubtypic protection from lethal infection with pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus

Background. A 2009 global influenza pandemic caused by a novel swine-origin H1N1 influenza A virus has posted an increasing threat of a potential pandemic by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus, driving us to develop an influenza vaccine which confers cross-protection against both H5N1 and H1N1 viruses. Previously, we have shown that a tetra-branched multiple antigenic peptide (MAP) vaccine based on the extracellular domain of M2 protein (M2e) from H5N1 virus (H5N1-M2e-MAP) induced strong immune responses and cross-protection against different clades of HPAI H5N1 viruses. In this report, we investigated whether such M2e-MAP presenting the H5N1-M2e consensus sequence can afford heterosubtypic protection from lethal challenge with the pandemic 2009 H1N1 virus. Results. Our results demonstrated that H5N1-M2e-MAP plus Freund's or aluminum adjuvant induced strong cross-reactive IgG antibody responses against M2e of the pandemic H1N1 virus which contains one amino acid variation with M2e of H5N1 at position 13. These cross-reactive antibodies may maintain for 6 months and bounced back quickly to the previous high level after the 2nd boost administered 2 weeks before virus challenge. H5N1-M2e-MAP could afford heterosubtypic protection against lethal challenge with pandemic H1N1 virus, showing significant decrease of viral replications and obvious alleviation of histopathological damages in the challenged mouse lungs. 100% and 80% of the H5N1-M2e-MAP-vaccinated mice with Freund's and aluminum adjuvant, respectively, survived the lethal challenge with pandemic H1N1 virus. Conclusions. Our results suggest that H5N1-M2e-MAP has a great potential to prevent the threat from re-emergence of pandemic H1N1 influenza and possible novel influenza pandemic due to the reassortment of HPAI H5N1 virus with the 2009 swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus. © 2010 Zhao et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Whey protein mouth drying influenced by thermal denaturation

Whey proteins are becoming an increasingly popular functional food ingredient. There are, however, sensory properties associated with whey protein beverages that may hinder the consumption of quantities sufficient to gain the desired nutritional benefits. One such property is mouth drying. The influence of protein structure on the mouthfeel properties of milk proteins has been previously reported. This paper investigates the effect of thermal denaturation of whey proteins on physicochemical properties (viscosity, particle size, zeta-potential, pH), and relates this to the observed sensory properties measured by qualitative descriptive analysis and sequential profiling. Mouthcoating, drying and chalky attributes built up over repeated consumption, with higher intensities for samples subjected to longer heating times (p < 0.05). Viscosity, pH, and zeta-potential were found to be similar for all samples, however particle size increased with longer heating times. As the pH of all samples was close to neutral, this implies that neither the precipitation of whey proteins at low pH, nor their acidity, as reported in previous literature, can be the drying mechanisms in this case. The increase in mouth drying with increased heating time suggests that protein denaturation is a contributing factor and a possible mucoadhesive mechanism is discussed

Surface properties of glass micropipettes and their effect on biological studies

In this paper, an investigation on surface properties of glass micropipettes and their effect on biological applications is reported. Pipettes were pulled under different pulling conditions and the effect of each pulling parameter was analyzed. SEM stereoscopic technique was used to reveal the surface roughness properties of pipette tip and pipette inner wall in 3D. More than 20 pipettes were reconstructed. Pipette heads were split open using focused ion beam (FIB) milling for access to the inner walls. It is found that surface roughness parameters are strongly related on the tip size. Bigger pipettes have higher average surface roughness and lower developed interfacial area ratio. Furthermore, the autocorrelation of roughness model of the inner surface shows that the inner surface does not have any tendency of orientation and is not affected by pulling direction. To investigate the effect of surface roughness properties on biological applications, patch-clamping tests were carried out by conventional and FIB-polished pipettes. The results of the experiments show that polished pipettes make significantly better seals. The results of this work are of important reference value for achieving pipettes with desired surface properties and can be used to explain biological phenomenon such as giga-seal formation

The effect of thermal denaturation on physiochemical and sensory properties of whey protein

The effects of denaturation of reconstituted (10% w/v in deionised water) whey protein concentrate (80% protein) on physiochemical and sensory properties were studied. A native sample (WPC00) was compared to samples heated at 70 degrees Celcius for 5, 10 and 20 min (WPC05, WPC10, and WPC20). pH; absorbance of 680nm wavelength light; particle size in the upper, lower, and bulk of sensory samples; zeta potential; and rheology were studied. Qualitative descriptive analysis was carried out using 12 trained panelists scoring in duplicate using a consensus vocabulary of 34 attributes. Sequential profiling was carried out with 9 trained panelists scoring in duplicate. Samples were presented as 8 aliquots and scored during consumption, 30s after consumption, and 60s after consumption

A Novel Remote Sensing Index for Extracting Impervious Surface Distribution from Landsat 8 OLI Imagery

The area of urban impervious surfaces is one of the most important indicators for determining the level of urbanisation and the quality of the environment and is rapidly increasing with the acceleration of urbanisation in developing countries. This paper proposes a novel remote sensing index based on the coastal band and normalised difference vegetation index for extracting impervious surface distribution from Landsat 8 multispectral remote sensing imagery. The index was validated using three images covering urban areas of China and was compared with five other typical index methods for the extraction of impervious surface distribution, namely, the normalised difference built-up index, index-based built-up index, normalised difference impervious surface index, normalised difference impervious index, and combinational built-up index. The results showed that the novel index provided higher accuracy and effectively distinguished impervious surfaces from bare soil, and the average values of the recall, precision, and F1 score for the three images were 95%, 91%, and 93%, respectively. The novel index provides better applicability in the extraction of urban impervious surface distribution from Landsat 8 multispectral remote sensing imagery

Development of a Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion Extraction Combined with UPLC/Q-TOF-MS for Determination of Phenolics and Terpenoids from the Euphorbia fischeriana

A method based on a simplified extraction by matrix solid phase dispersion (MSPD) followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with the quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC/Q-TOF-MS) determination is validated for analysis of two phenolics and three terpenoids in Euphorbia fischeriana. The optimized experimental parameters of MSPD including dispersing sorbent (silica gel), ratio of sample to dispersing sorbent (1:2), elution solvent (water–ethanol: 30–70) and volume of the elution solvent (10 mL) were examined and set down. The highest extraction yields of chromatogram information and the five compounds were obtained under the optimized conditions. A total of 25 constituents have been identified and five components have been quantified from Euphorbia fischeriana. A linear relationship (r2 ≥ 0.9964) between the concentrations and the peak areas of the mixed standard substances were revealed. The average recovery was between 92.4% and 103.2% with RSD values less than 3.45% (n = 5). The extraction yields of two phenolics and three terpenoids obtained by the MSPD were higher than those of traditional reflux and sonication extraction with reduced requirement on sample, solvent and time. In addition, the optimized method will be applied for analyzing terpenoids in other Chinese herbal medicine samples