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Transistor random threshold voltage variations due to process fluctuations seriously affects the stability of Static Random Access Memory (SRAM). In this paper, a SRAM bit transistors threshold voltage $({Vth})$ deviation monitoring scheme and system is proposed. This scheme ingeniously achieves on-chip measurement of all transistors threshold voltages without altering compact SRAM bit array layout. Control signal strategies and Transistor ${Vth}$ Determination Circuit (TVDC) for different types of Devices Under Test (DUTs) have been proposed. The system is implemented using a 65 nm CMOS process with a core area of 0.01875mm2. Through Monte Carlo analysis, the Weighted Average (WA) difference of the proposed scheme and the direct measurement method is not more than 10mV, and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) difference is not more than 3mV. This system can also effectively detect the cell position of the transistor threshold voltage mismatch simulated by modifying the substrate voltage. For SRAM arrays of different scales, the method proposed in this paper has area efficiency and flexible reconfigurability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally automotive industry is going through a critical transition from gasoline vehicle to electric and hybrid electric vehicle. These changes have challenged industry with completely different vehicle driveline architecture. These systems have more electro-mechanical components which need to be critically designed for the vibration, thermal, structural and shock related requirements. Design for vibration endurance has been a major requirement and robust matured design of these systems may take several design iterations. Finite element models give us freedom to simulate and analyze design performance before actual prototype building. Simulation results can be predicted more accurately if model fidelity is strong enough. To have strong model fidelity, modal test data correlation is an important step towards robust design. In this paper, study on Test-FE model correlation has been performed for an electro-mechanical assembly using Modal Assurance Criterion. During the entire correlation study, it was assumed that the DUT was undamaged and entire focus of the work was towards improving FE model fidelity. But obtained results pointed the inconsistency between the FE model and test results at a specific region which later has been captured as a defect in the DUT. The results of this paper can help in identifying anomalies in actual product samples and in taking decision on testing other samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new generation of communication devices operating in higher frequency bands is constantly pushing the complexity of field measurements for electromagnetic compliance and the design of field probes. These compliance are to be met for both electric and magnetic fields, of which if one set is available, the other can be estimated computationally using source reconstruction algorithms. The main objective of this paper is to refine the dipole-based source reconstruction algorithms using surface equivalence principle. Compared to earlier works, the algorithm is based on a novel way of placing a single dipole per point tangentially to a fictitious surface based on surface equivalence theorem instead of multiple orthogonal dipoles per point. The numerical results are compared with the state-of-art to demonstrate the effectiveness in obtaining accurate fields and locating the regions of the Device Under Test responsible for overshooting the interference limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: CKS2 (CDC28 Protein Kinase Regulatory Subunit 2) is a gene that encodes CKS2 protein that has been characterized as a binding partner of the catalytic subunit of the cyclin‐dependent kinases. However, its expression profile and regulatory effects in tongue squamous cell carcinoma has not yet been explored. Methods: Bioinformatic analysis was conducted using bulk‐seq data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and single‐cell RNA‐seq data from GSE103322. SCC9 and CAL27 cells were used as in vitro cell models for cellular and molecular studies. Results: CKS2 expression was significantly upregulated in tongue squamous cell carcinoma tissues (N = 128) compared with adjacent normal tissues (N = 13). Its upregulation was associated with significantly shorter disease‐specific survival and progression‐free survival. Cellular status estimation in tumor cells indicated that CKS2 expression was moderately and positively correlated with cell‐cycle progression. CKS2 inhibition in SCC9 and CAL27 cells resulted in decreased proliferation, weakened colony formation capability, and cell‐cycle arrest at the G2/M phase. Immunofluorescence staining and co‐Immunoprecipitation (co‐IP) assay confirmed co‐localization and interaction between CKS2 and DUTPase. CKS2 knockdown did not alter DUTPase expression but reduced its nuclear distribution. Both CKS2 and DUT expression were moderately correlated with their gene‐level copy number. Conclusion: CKS2 expression is associated with unfavorable survival of patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma. Inhibiting its expression could reduce tongue squamous cell carcinoma cell growth and induce G2/M arrest. CKS2 may interact with DUTPase and regulate its nuclear localization. Gene‐level copy amplification might be an important mechanism of upregulated CKS2 and DUT in the tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Aluminum-based DUT MOFs were exploited for the cycloaddition reaction of CO 2 and epoxide. • Highly porous DUT-5 exhibited better catalytic conversion of epichlorohydrin than DUT-4. • The mechanism for the DUT-5/TBAB mediated cycloaddition reaction has been investigated using the DFT theory. • The energy barrier for the ECH ring opening in the presence of DUT-5/TBAB is 15.14 kcal/mol. Two aluminum-based DUT (Dresden University of Technology) metal organic frameworks were synthesized, and their structural and chemical properties were exploited for the cycloaddition reaction of CO 2 and epoxide under solvent-free condition. Both the catalysts have the same supramolecular architecture but different ligands. DUT-5 (Al(OH)(bpdc), bpdc = 4,4′-biphenyldicarboxylate) has a higher number of acidic and basic sites and larger BET surface area and specific pore volume compared with DUT-4 (Al(OH)(ndc), ndc = 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylate). The highly porous DUT-5 exhibited better catalytic conversion of epichlorohydrin (ECH) than DUT-4, with >99 % selectivity in the presence of tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB). Short linkered MIL-53 (MIL = Materials Institute Lavoisier) (Al(OH)(bdc), bdc = 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate) exhibited lower ECH conversion compared with DUT-4 and DUT-5, even though all the catalysts possessed the same crystal structure. DUT catalyst could be recycled at least five times without any noticeable loss in the ECH conversion. In addition, the mechanism for the DUT-5/TBAB mediated cycloaddition of CO 2 to ECH, affording the five‐membered ECH carbonate, has been investigated in detail using the density functional theory. The energy barrier for the ECH ring opening in the presence of DUT-5/TBAB (15.14 kcal/mol) is significantly lower than those of un-catalyzed (61.96 kcal/mol) and TBAB-catalyzed (39.60 kcal/mol) reactions, clearly showing the vital role of the Al3+/Br− bifunctional catalyst system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, antimicrobial activity of traditionally produced fig and mulberry vinegar was examined. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of vinegar samples against eight microorganisms including Bacillus subtilis, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus and Pediococcus acidilactici were determined. Both types of vinegar exhibited inhibitive effect on all test microorganisms. The MIC values of fig and mulberry vinegar were determined as ranging between 0.39-12.5% and 3.12-12.5% (v/v), respectively. The most sensitive bacteria to fig vinegar was B. subtilis while S. typhimurium was the most sensitive one to mulberry vinegar. After neutralization of vinegar, bactericidal effect was observed only in fig vinegar sample, which had higher total phenolic content than mulberry vinegar. These results indicated the potential of home-made vinegars as antimicrobial substance that could be used as functional food ingredients and as food supplements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper presents an intrusive FPGA-in-the-loop (FIL) debugging methodology by using a rule-based inference system. In this methodology, a cycle-accurate lossless debugging system with unlimited trace window can be used to carry out debugging of an embedded design using FPGA-in-the-loop. Moreover, the approach can perform a runtime correspondence analysis between the HDL debugging data and a golden reference generated through a high level model, or through a behavioral, post-synthesis or post-implementation simulation results to speed up the debugging process. Furthermore, in the absence of a golden reference, the methodology can analyze the received debugging data and generate a golden reference on its own through pattern extraction from the received debugging data to speed up the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study which examines the morphological properties of silver nanoparticles, with the reducing mulberry (Morus nigra) leaf extracts, silver nanoparticles were obtained from their saline solution. The formation kinetics of silver nanoparticles in leaf extract-AgNO3 mixtures were determined with time-dependent UV-Vis spectra, and the size distribution of nanoparticles were determined with particle size analyzer and electron microscope. The absorbance spectra of the Dut-AgNO3 mixtures show surface Plasmon resonance peaks increasing with time, related to nanoparticle sizes at 425 nm. The locations of the surface Plasmon resonance peaks are not affected by AgNO3 concentration, but the concentration of extract is shifted to red. The size of the nanoparticles ranges from 10 to 40 nm, with a distribution similar to a poison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes an improved dipole-based source reconstruction method for PCB inside shielding enclosures. This method applies the surface equivalence principle in conjunction with Babinet's principle for replacing the PCB and the slots of the shielding enclosures with the equivalent surface dipoles. The tangential electric fields are measured on a spherical surface around the shielded PCB structure in the propagating near field region. The unknown dipole coefficients are obtained by solving the inverse problem iteratively and then used to estimate the radiated emissions. The advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require field measurements in the reactive near field region and identifies the areas of the PCBs responsible for radiated emissions. The numerical results provide similar error performance to the discussed state of art techniques. The effect of noise in the estimation is also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uracil misincorporation during DNA replication is a major cell toxic event, of which cancer cells overcome by activating the dUTPase enzyme. The DUT gene is the only known dUTPase in human. Despite reports on common upregulations in cancers, the role of DUT in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains largely undetermined. In this study, we investigated the mechanism underlying DUT biology in HCC and tumor susceptibility to drug targeting dUTPase. Overexpression of DUT was found in 42% of HCC tumors and correlated with advanced stage HCC. Knockout of DUT in HCC cell lines showed suppressed proliferation through cell cycle arrest and a spontaneous induction of DNA damage. A protective effect from oxidative stress was also demonstrated in both knockout and overexpression DUT assays. Transcriptome analysis highlighted the NF-κB survival signaling as the downstream effector pathway of DUT in overriding oxidative stress-induced cell death. Interestingly, stably expressed DUT in liver progenitor organoids conferred drug resistance to TKI Sorafenib. Targeting dUTPase activity by TAS-114, could potentiate suppression of HCC growth that synergized with Sorafenib for better treatment sensitivity. In conclusion, upregulated DUT represents a nucleotide metabolic weakness and therapeutic opportunity in HCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achillea millefolium L., Crataegus monogyna subsp. monogyna Jacq., Rubus discolor L., Salvia multicaulis Vahl., Morus alba L. and Pistacia terebinthus L. plants are consumed for some medicinal or nutritional purposes. The chemical composition, vitamins, sterols and fatty acid contents of these plants were presented in this study. Vitamin and sterol contents were high in A. millefolium flowers in comparison to leaves and seed. Vitamins E, K, and total sterol levels in C. monogyna subsp. monogyna fruit were higher than leaves and flower. For R. discolor fruit; vitamin and sterol contents were higher than leaves, flower and unripe fruit. For S. multicaulis, vitamin content was higher in leaves and the sterol content was higher in seed than other extracts. α-Tocopherol, vitamins K, D and total sterol levels in M. alba fruit were higher than leaves and unripe fruit. In P. terebinthus, retinol and α-tocopherol levels were higher in leaves, vitamins D, K, sterol levels were higher in flower than other extracts. The present study indicates that these plants can be a good natural source of fatty acids, vitamins and sterols. This study is first report about the phytochemical properties ofR. discolor, and S. multicaulis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achillea millefolium L., Crataegus monogyna subsp. monogyna Jacq., Rubus discolor L., Salvia multicaulis Vahl., Morus alba L. and Pistacia terebinthus L. plants are consumed for some medicinal or nutritional purposes. The chemical composition, vitamins, sterols and fatty acid contents of these plants were presented in this study. Vitamin and sterol contents were high in A. millefolium flowers in comparison to leaves and seed. Vitamins E, K, and total sterol levels in C. monogyna subsp. monogyna fruit were higher than leaves and flower. For R. discolor fruit; vitamin and sterol contents were higher than leaves, flower and unripe fruit. For S. multicaulis, vitamin content was higher in leaves and the sterol content was higher in seed than other extracts. α-Tocopherol, vitamins K, D and total sterol levels in M. alba fruit were higher than leaves and unripe fruit. In P. terebinthus, retinol and α-tocopherol levels were higher in leaves, vitamins D, K, sterol levels were higher in flower than other extracts. The present study indicates that these plants can be a good natural source of fatty acids, vitamins and sterols. This study is first report about the phytochemical properties of R. discolor, and S. multicaulis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and simulates the Ultra Wideband (UWB) Ten-Port Reflectometer (TPR). It is based on the concept of well-known sixport structure so that numbers of measuring ports are increased to eight in order to improve reliability and accuracy as well. This article presents UWB (2 GHz to 12 GHz) reflectometer using Rectangular Waveguide (RWG). It is proved that increasing numbers of measuring ports leads to improving accuracy and reliability of structure so that each port with corresponding port help to make wideband reflectometer as well as having reliable and robust structure. This prototype of ten-port reflectometer is simulated by Agilent ADS and using RWG that has more bandwidth, less loss and high Q-factor than other common transmission lines, say microstrip, SIW and CPW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated GUI testing consists of simulating user events and validating the changes in the GUI in order to determine if an Android application meets specifications. Traditional record-replay testing tools mainly focus on facilitating the test case writing process but not the replay and verification process. The accuracy of testing tools degrades significantly when the device under test (DUT) is under heavy load. In order to improve the accuracy, our previous work, SPAG, uses event batching and smart wait function to eliminate the uncertainty of the replay process and adopts GUI layout information to verify the testing results. SPAG maintains an accuracy of up to 99.5 percent and outperforms existing methods. In this work, we propose smart phone automated GUI testing tool with camera (SPAG-C), an extension of SPAG, to test an Android hardware device. Our goal is to further reduce the time required to record test cases and increase reusability of the test oracle without compromising test accuracy. In the record stage, SPAG captures screenshots from device's frame buffer and writes verification commands into the test case. Unlike SPAG, SPAG-C captures the screenshots from an external camera instead of frame buffer. In the replay stage, SPAG-C automatically performs image comparison while SPAG simply performs a string comparison to verify the test results. In order to make SPAG-C reusable for different devices and to allow bettersynchronization at the time of capturing images, we develop a new architecture that uses an external camera and Web services to decouple the test oracle. Our experiments show that recording a test case using SPAG-C's automatic verification is as fast as SPAG's but more accurate. Moreover, SPAG-C is 50 to 75 percent faster than SPAG in achieving the same test accuracy. With reusability, SPAG-C reduces the testing time from days to hours for heterogeneous devices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Anthocyanins are natural pigments widely distributed in nature. Anthocyanin pigment molecules are a subclass of flavonoids. They are responsible for the red, purple, and blue colors observed in many flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Fruits and berries are the main sources of anthocyanins in nature. Anthocyanins are thought to contribute to the nutritive value of fruits and berries due to their antioxidative, anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-angiogenic properties. Anthocyanins can also improve the nutritional value of processed foods by preventing the oxidation of lipids and proteins. As such, identification of agents that can affect the stability of anthocyanins and the protective effect of anthocyanins is very important. In the present study anthocyanin pigment was extracted from 3 different berries (Morus nigra L., Morus alba var. nigra, and Fragaria L.). After soaking and wetting in ethanol (1% acidified), the extracted anthocyanin pigments were exposed to 3 different concentrations of ascorbic acid (AA) (10%, 25%, and 50%) and H2O2 (9.31, 18.61, and 27.92 mmol/L). Six groups of anthocyanin solutions were refrigerated and kept in darkness for 63 days, and every 3 weeks anthocyanin absorbance was recorded at 526 nm. AA absorbance decreased relative to the blank in all the treated samples. These results indicate the destructive effect of AA on anthocyanins. In the samples treated with H2O2 anthocyanin degradation increased and the intensity of color decreased as the concentration of H2O2 increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dut mutants of Escherichia coli fail to hydrolyze dUTP and thus incorporate uracil into their DNA, suffering from chromosomal fragmentation. The postulated mechanism for the double-strand DNA breaks is clustered uracil excision, which requires high density of DNA-uracils. However, we did not find enough uracil residues or excision nicks in the DNA of dut mutants to account for clustered uracil excision. Using a dut recBC(Ts) mutant of E.coli to inquire into the mechanism of uracil-triggered chromosomal fragmentation, we show that this fragmentation requires DNA replication and, in turn, inhibits replication of the chromosomal terminus. As a result, origin-containing sub-chromosomal fragments accumulate in dut recBC conditions, indicating preferential demise of replication bubbles. We propose that the basic mechanism of the uracil-triggered chromosomal fragmentation is replication fork collapse at uracil-excision nicks. Possible explanations for the low level terminus fragmentation are also considered. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The first ever demonstration of a viable contactless radio frequency (RF) probing technique at elevated temperatures is presented. The design utilises an inverted microstrip design for the probe, which is suspended over and placed in close proximity to the input/output microstrip lines of the device under test to couple signals in and out. To demonstrate the efficacy of the contactless RF probing technique, three example circuits, namely, a microstrip spurline bandstop filter, a microstrip pin diode series switch and a monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifier mounted on a microstrip line were designed, fabricated and performance measured against temperature up to 200°C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]