CMOS array design automation techniques

The design considerations and the circuit development for a 4096-bit CMOS SOS ROM chip, the ATL078 are described. Organization of the ATL078 is 512 words by 8 bits. The ROM was designed to be programmable either at the metal mask level or by a directed laser beam after processing. The development of a 4K CMOS SOS ROM fills a void left by available ROM chip types, and makes the design of a totally major high speed system more realizable

Experimental study of main rotor tip geometry and tail rotor interactions in hover. Volume 1. Text and figures

A model scale hover test was conducted in the Sikorsky Aircraft Model rotor hover Facility to identify and quantify the impact of the tail rotor on the demonstrated advantages of advanced geometry tip configurations. The test was conducted using the Basic Model Test Rig and two scaled main rotor systems, one representing a 1/5.727 scale UH-60A BLACK HAWK and the others a 1/4.71 scale S-76. Eight alternate rotor tip configurations were tested, 3 on the BLACK HAWK rotor and 6 on the S-76 rotor. Four of these tips were then selected for testing in close proximity to an operating tail rotor (operating in both tractor and pusher modes) to determine if the performance advantages that could be obtained from the use of advanced geometry tips in a main rotor only environment would still exist in the more complex flow field involving a tail rotor. The test showed that overall the tail rotor effects on the advanced tip configurations tested are not substantially different from the effects on conventional tips

Improved nanopatterning for YBCO nanowires approaching the depairing current

An improved nanopatterning procedure has been developed to obtain YBCO nanowires with cross sections as small as 50x50 nm^2, protected by an Au capping layer. To probe the effective role of the Au protecting layer, we have measured the current-voltage characteristics and the resistive transition in temperature of the nanowires. Critical current densities up to 10^8 A/cm^2 have been achieved at T=4.2 K, approaching the theoretical depairing current limit. The resistance, measured as a function of temperature close to Tc, has been fitted with a thermal activated phase slip model, including the effect of the gold layer. The extracted values of the superconducting coherence length and of the London penetration depth give current densities consistent with the measured ones. These results cannot be achieved with same nanowires, without the Au capping layer.Comment: ASC 2012 conference contributio

Probing the evolution of molecular cloud structure: From quiescence to birth

Aims: We derive the probability density functions (PDFs) of column density for a complete sample of prominent molecular cloud complexes closer than 200 pc. Methods: We derive near-infrared dust extinction maps for 23 molecular cloud complexes, using the "nicest" colour excess mapping technique and data from the 2MASS archive. The extinction maps are then used to examine the column density PDFs in the clouds. Results: The column density PDFs of most molecular clouds are well-fitted by log-normal functions at low column densities (0.5 mag < A_v < 3-5 mag). However, at higher column densities prominent, power-law-like wings are common. In particular, we identify a trend among the PDFs: active star-forming clouds always have prominent non-log-normal wings. In contrast, clouds without active star formation resemble log-normals over the whole observed column density range, or show only low excess of higher column densities. This trend is also reflected in the cumulative PDFs, showing that the fraction of high column density material is significantly larger in star-forming clouds. These observations are in agreement with an evolutionary trend where turbulent motions are the main cloud-shaping mechanism for quiescent clouds, but the density enhancements induced by them quickly become dominated by gravity (and other mechanisms) which is strongly reflected by the shape of the column density PDFs. The dominant role of the turbulence is restricted to the very early stages of molecular cloud evolution, comparable to the onset of active star formation in the clouds.Comment: 7 pages, 11 figures, accepted to A&A Letter

Immunoperoxidase labelling of previously stained tissue sections: application in oral histopathology

We have investigated by the avidin-biotin peroxidase technique a wide variety of recognized cellular antigens in paraffin sections of both normal and pathological material which have been previously stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The intensity of peroxidase reaction was adequate to permit the diagnosis and the background of the immunoreaction minimal. This technique therefore, appears useful either for retrospective analysis of cellular antigens or when limited unstained material is available.Nous avons étudié, au moyen de l’immunoperoxydase, la présence de nombreux marqueurs cellulaires sur des coupes en paraffine de tissus normaux et pathologiques, colorés préalablement avec l’hématoxylineéosine.L’intensité de la réaction était tout à fait adéquate pour permettre le diagnostic avec un moindre background. Cette technique apparaît donc très utile pour des analyses rétrospectives de certains antigènes cellulaires, ou lorsque le matériel enrobé en paraffine est disponible en quantité limitée

CMOS array design automation techniques

A low cost, quick turnaround technique for generating custom metal oxide semiconductor arrays using the standard cell approach was developed, implemented, tested and validated. Basic cell design topology and guidelines are defined based on an extensive analysis that includes circuit, layout, process, array topology and required performance considerations particularly high circuit speed

Finite temperature effective field theory and two-band superfluidity in Fermi gases

We develop a description of fermionic superfluids in terms of an effective field theory for the pairing order parameter. Our effective field theory improves on the existing Ginzburg - Landau theory for superfluid Fermi gases in that it is not restricted to temperatures close to the critical temperature. This is achieved by taking into account long-range fluctuations to all orders. The results of the present effective field theory compare well with the results obtained in the framework of the Bogoliubov - de Gennes method. The advantage of an effective field theory over Bogoliubov - de Gennes calculations is that much less computation time is required. In the second part of the paper, we extend the effective field theory to the case of a two-band superfluid. The present theory allows us to reveal the presence of two healing lengths in the two-band superfluids, to analyze the finite-temperature vortex structure in the BEC-BCS crossover, and to obtain the ground state parameters and spectra of collective excitations. For the Leggett mode our treatment provides an interpretation of the observation of this mode in two-band superconductors.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures. In the published version [EPJB 88, 122 (2015)], there is a misprint in expressions (20) and (21). There must be "E_k" instead of "\xi_k" in the arguments of the functions "f_n" in those two formulae. In the present version, this misprint is correcte

Mass reservoirs surrounding massive infrared dark clouds: A view by near-infrared dust extinction

Context: Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) harbor progenitors of high-mass stars. Little is known of the parental molecular clouds of the IRDCs. Aims: We demonstrate the feasibility of the near-infrared (NIR) dust extinction mapping in tracing the parental molecular clouds of IRDCs at the distances of D = 2.5 - 8 kpc. Methods: We derive NIR extinction maps for 10 prominent IRDC complexes using a color-excess mapping technique and NIR data from the UKIDSS/Galactic Plane Survey. We compare the resulting maps to the 13CO emission line data, to the 8 \mu m dust opacity data, and to the millimeter dust emission data. We derive distances for the clouds by comparing the observed NIR source densities to the Besancon stellar distribution model and compare them to the kinematic distance estimates. Results: The NIR extinction maps provide a view to the IRDC complexes over the dynamical range of Av = 2 - 40 mag, in spatial resolution of 30". The NIR extinction data correlate well with the 13CO data and probe a similar gas component, but also extend to higher column densities. The NIR data reveal a wealth of extended structures surrounding the dense gas traced by the 8 \mu m shadowing features and sub-mm dust emission, showing that the clouds contain typically > 10 times more mass than traced by those tracers. The IRDC complexes of our sample contain relatively high amount of high-column density material, and their cumulative column density distributions resemble active nearby star-forming clouds like Orion rather than less active clouds like California. Conclusions: NIR dust extinction data provide a new powerful tool to probe the mass distribution of the parental molecular clouds of IRDCs up to the distances of D = 8 kpc. This encourages for deeper NIR observations of IRDCs, because the sensitivity and resolution of the data can be directly enhanced with dedicated observations.Comment: 22 pages, 24 figures, accepted to A&A. A version with full resolution figures can be downloaded from http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/homes/jtkainul/NexusI/NexusI_v1.pd

Clear sky fraction above Indonesia: an analysis for astronomical site selection

We report a study of cloud cover over Indonesia based on meteorological satellite data, spanning over the past 15 years (from 1996 to 2010) in order to be able to select a new astronomical site capable to host a multi-wavelength astronomical observatory. High spatial resolution of meteorological satellite data acquired from {\it Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 5} ({\it GMS 5}), {\it Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 9} ({\it GOES 9}), and {\it Multi-functional Transport Satellite-1R} ({\it MTSAT-1R}) are used to derive yearly average clear fractions over the regions of Indonesia. This parameter is determined from temperature measurement of the IR3 channel (water vapor, 6.7 $\mu$m) for high altitude clouds (cirrus) and from the IR1 channel (10.7 $\mu$m) for lower altitude clouds. Accordingly, an algorithm is developed to detect the corresponding clouds. The results of this study are then adopted to select the best possible sites in Indonesia to be analysed further by performing in situ measurements planned for the coming years. The results suggest that regions of East Nusa Tenggara, located in south-eastern part of Indonesia, are the most promising candidates for such an astronomical site. Yearly clear sky fraction of this regions may reach better than 70 per cent with an uncertainty of 10 per cent.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, and 4 table