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Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the correspondence between infinitely wide networks and Gaussian processes. Despite the effectiveness and elegance of the current neural network Gaussian process theory, to the best of our knowledge, all the neural network Gaussian processes (NNGPs) are essentially induced by increasing width. However, in the era of deep learning, what concerns us more regarding a neural network is its depth as well as how depth impacts the behaviors of a network. Inspired by a width-depth symmetry consideration, we use a shortcut network to show that increasing the depth of a neural network can also give rise to a Gaussian process, which is a valuable addition to the existing theory and contributes to revealing the true picture of deep learning. Beyond the proposed Gaussian process by depth, we theoretically characterize its uniform tightness property and the smallest eigenvalue of the Gaussian process kernel. These characterizations can not only enhance our understanding of the proposed depth-induced Gaussian process but also pave the way for future applications. Lastly, we examine the performance of the proposed Gaussian process by regression experiments on two benchmark datasets.

Neural network models generally involve two important components, i.e., network architecture and neuron model. Although there are abundant studies about network architectures, only a few neuron models have been developed, such as the MP neuron model developed in 1943 and the spiking neuron model developed in the 1950s. Recently, a new bio-plausible neuron model, flexible transmitter (FT) model (Zhang and Zhou, 2021), has been proposed. It exhibits promising behaviors, particularly on temporal–spatial signals, even when simply embedded into the common feedforward network architecture. This article attempts to understand the properties of the FT network (FTNet) theoretically. Under mild assumptions, we show that: 1) FTNet is a universal approximator; 2) the approximation complexity of FTNet can be exponentially smaller than those of commonly used real-valued neural networks with feedforward/recurrent architectures and is of the same order in the worst case; and 3) any local minimum of FTNet is the global minimum, implying that it is possible to identify global minima by local search algorithms.

Fulminant myocarditis is an acute diffuse inflammatory disease of myocardium. It is characterized by acute onset, rapid progress and high risk of death. Its pathogenesis involves excessive immune activation of the innate immune system and formation of inflammatory storm. According to China’s practical experience, the adoption of the “life support-based comprehensive treatment regimen” (with mechanical circulation support and immunomodulation therapy as the core) can significantly improve the survival rate and long-term prognosis. Special emphasis is placed on very early identification,very early diagnosis,very early prediction and very early treatment.

Over 170 years after the infamous Irish Potato Famine, potato late blight (PLB) caused by Phytophthora infestansremains the single most devastating disease of global potato production, causing up to 10 billion USD in yield loss and management costs. Through decades of research, growers and agronomists in the field as well as laboratory scientists have made significant progress in understanding the molecular pathogenesis process of this critical pathosystem and effective management strategies to control PLB. Yet, the need to feed an ever-increasing global population under changing climate demands continued improvement in efficient and sustainable PLB management schemes that can be implemented across a broad economic spectrum. In this review, we briefly summarize the current understanding of the molecular interaction between P. infestansand its host plants, highlight the current integrated pest management strategy to control PLB on local and continental scales, and discuss the potential of further improvement of sustainable PLB control through genetic enhancement of crop resistance and emerging crop protection technologies.

Drug therapies for acute lung injury (ALI) are far from satisfactory, primarily because drugs cannot specifically target the lungs. Direct delivery of drugs to the deep alveolar regions by inhalation administration is crucial for the treatment of ALI. However, conventional inhalable carriers such as lactose and mannitol are generally inactive. Therefore, the use of a novel pharmacologically active carrier for pulmonary delivery may produce synergetic effects in treating ALI. Considering the pathophysiological environment of ALI, which typically featured excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) and acute inflammation, we synthesized a novel kind of biodegradable and ROS-sensitive cross-linked covalent cyclodextrin frameworks (OC-COF) with uniform inhalable particle size to treat ALI. OC-COF was devised to incorporate H2O2-scavenging peroxalate ester linkages, which could hydrolyze and eliminate ROS generated in inflammatory sites. Ligustrazine (LIG), an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory natural compound, was loaded into OC-COF and evaluated as a dry powder inhaler (LIG@OC-COF) in vitroand in vivo, showing favorable aerodynamic properties and prominent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacities for the synergistic effects of OC-COF and LIG. In ALI rats, inhalation of LIG@OC-COF with a one-fifth LIG dose significantly alleviated the inflammation, oxidant stress, and lung damage. Western blot analysis demonstrated that LIG@OC-COF protected the lungs by regulating the Nrf2/NF-κB signaling pathway. In summary, this study provides a novel ROS-responsive material as an inhalable particulate carrier for the improved treatment of ALI and other medical conditions.

In the present work, the solubility data of silymarin (SM) in pure supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) and SCCO2with added cosolvent was measured at temperatures ranging from 308 to 338 K and pressures from 8 to 22 MPa. The experimental data were fit with three semi-empirical density-based models (Chrastil, Bartle and Mendez-Santiago and Teja models) and a back-propagation artificial neural networks (BPANN) model.

Plant height is one of the most important traits in soybean. The semi-dwarf soybean cultivars could improve the ability of lodging resistance to obtain higher yield. To broaden the dwarfism germplasm resources in soybean, 44 dwarf mutants were identified from a gamma rays mutagenized M2population. Two of these mutants, Gmdwf1(Glycine max dwarf 1) and Gmdwf2(Glycine max dwarf 2), were investigated in this study. Genetic analysis showed that both mutants were inherited in a recessive manner and their mutated regions were delimited to a 2.610-Mb region on chromosome 1 by preliminary mapping. Further fine mapping study proved that the two mutants had a common deletion region of 1.552 Mb in the target region, which was located in a novel locus site without being reported previously. The dwarfism of Gmdwf1could not be rescued by gibberellin (GA) and brassinolide (BR) treatments, which indicated that the biosynthesis of these hormones was not deficient in Gmdwf1.

We introduce a more flexible optogenetics-based mapping system attached on a stereo microscope, which offers automatic light stimulation to individual regions of interest in the cortex that expresses light-activated channelrhodopsin-2 in vivo. Combining simultaneous recording of electromyography from specific forelimb muscles, we demonstrate that this system offers much better efficiency and precision in mapping distinct domains for controlling limb muscles in the mouse motor cortex. Furthermore, the compact and modular design of the system also yields a simple and flexible implementation to different commercial stereo microscopes, and thus could be widely used among laboratories.

The La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 (x=0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3) were prepared by combining sol-gel method and high temperature sintering. The effects of Sr doping content on the structure and morphologies of the La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 finally sintered at 1050°C/1250°C were investigated based on the analyses of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results show that the La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 exhibit single perovskite phase and the change of Sr doping content can result in phase structure transition. The La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 samples are rhombohedra structure in the range of 0.15≤x≤0.3. When x is no more than 0.1, the La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 samples sintered at 1050°C present distorted cubic structure. The microstructure of La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 sintered at 1050°C for 5h becomes more and more looser and its grains tend to refinement with the increase of Sr doping content when x is no less than 0.05. Increasing the final sintering temperature can improve the density and promote the grain growth of La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3. In order to gain a dense microstructure, the final sintering temperature of La0.7SrxCa0.3-xMnO3 should be higher than 1050°C and should be suitably increased with the increase of Sr doping content.

The La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 (x=0, 0.05 and 0.15) compounds were synthesized by combining sol-gel method and high temperature sintering. The effects of Sr doping content on the microstructure, metal-insulator transition and magnetoresistance (MR) of the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 were investigated. The results show that the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 exhibit single perovskite phase and the change of Sr doping content can result in phase structure transition. The La0.8Sr0.15Ca0.05MnO3 is rhombohedra structure and the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3 shows distorted cubic structure when x is no more than 0.05. Increasing Sr doping content causes the degeneration of microstructure homogeneity and density and the decrease of average grain size of the La0.8SrxCa0.2-xMnO3, which can be attributed to the weakening of atomic diffusion during the sintering process. The metal-insulator transition temperature (TMI) of the compounds increases with the decrease of Sr doping content due to the improvement of microstructure. The La0.8Sr0.15Ca0.05MnO3 has the highest MR peak value, which is about 95%. The La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 has the highest room temperature MR, which is about 28%. Moreover, the magnetoresistance of the La0.8Ca0.2MnO3 is very stable between 125~300K.

The La0.7M0.3MnO3 (M=Ca, Sr) were synthesized by combining sol-gel technique and solid state sintering method. The evolutions of phase structure and micro-morphologies of the La0.7M0.3MnO3 with final sintering temperature (950-1250°C) were investigated. The results show that the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 compounds exhibit single perovskite phase with cubic structure and the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 compounds exhibit single perovskite phase with rhombohedra structure. The final sintering temperature has no obvious effect on the phase structure of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3. However, the density and grain size of La0.7M0.3MnO3 (M=Ca, Sr) increase with the increase of the final sintering temperature. Moreover, the micro-morphologies of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 are more sensitive to final sintering temperature compared with that of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3. When sintering temperature is no less than 1150°C, the La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 has hardly any pore. After sintering at no less than 1250°C, the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 becomes dense.

Double-perovskites Y1-xCaxBaCo2O5+δ (YCBC,x = 0.1-0.5) were synthesized with a auto ignition process and were assessed as cathode materials for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCx) based on Sm0.2Ce0.8O1.9 (SDC) electrolyte. X-ray diffraction confirms that there are some undesired peaks in YCBC0.1 and YCBC0.5, while the YCBC (x = 0.2-0.4) retains single phase with tetragonal structure. The YCBC materials exhibit chemical compatibility with SDC electrolyte up to a temperature of 1100℃. The conductivity of the samples decreases with increasing Ca content, and the maximum conductivity of YCBC is 506 Scm-1 for x = 0.2 sample. The increased doping of Ca deteriorates the area-specific resistances of YCBC (x = 0.2-0.4) cathodes. The Rp values of YCBC cathodes at x = 0.2,0.3 and 0.4 on the SDC electrolyte are 0.26, 0.53 and 1.19Ωcm2 at 650℃, respectively. This study suggests that YCBC0.2 can be potential candidates for utilization as IT-SOFCs cathode.

Poly hexamethylene adipamide (PA66) nanocomposite fibers were prepared by using PA66 and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanc (POSS). Rheological behavior, mechanical and thermal properties were characterized. Rheological study showed that a small amount of POSS can improve the flowing property and reduce PA66 viscosity. The onset decomposition temperature was improved with the addition of POSS as indicated by TGA analysis. Nearly all the mechanical properties were found to be increased with the adding of POSS. However, it was seen that higher POSS loading would not improve fiber performance due to serious of agglomeration.

Silk fibroin film (SFF) has good mechanical property, cells compatibility and biodegradability, and was widely used in the biomedical area as controlling materials. In this work, silk fibroin (SF) was obtained from cocoons. It was dissolved in distilled water to form 5 % and 8 % (W/V) SF solution, which was used to prepare 0.5 %, 1.0 % and 2 % (W/V) sulfadiazine sodium (SD) solution. Five layers of SFF was prepared with salivation method, dried under 37 ℃, and annealed with 90 % (V/V) methanol. The structure information was analyzed by FT-IR and SEM, SD release in PBS (0.2 mol/L, pH 7.4) and PBS containing 2 U/ml trypsin at 37 ℃ was measured. The FT-IR spectra showed that more β-sheet was formed after annealed by methanol; a lot of pores were in the SFF and SD was embedded in SFF through analyzing the image of SEM. The release speed from SFF made by 5 % SF solution was faster than that from SFF made by 8 % SF solution. As for SFF containing different concentration of SD, the release rate improved with the increase of concentration of SD, however, the time of reaching the maximum were approximate. In PBS with trypsin, the time of reaching the maximum accumulative release was one hour earlier compared with in the PBS. Therefore, we draw a conclusion that the SFF incorporating SD has good properties and it has the feasibility to be used as artificial skin for burned patients.

ABSTRACTFloral zygomorphy is proved to have evolved many times independently from actinomorphy, exhibiting two kinds of asymmetry, dorsoventral (DV) and organ internal (IN) asymmetry, in flowering plants. Multiple underlying regulators are involved in establishing the complex flowering mechanism during plant development. To understand how genes control the floral dorsoventral asymmetry in soybean, we isolated and analyzed the role of two different copies of CYC-like genes in Glycine max. It was demonstrated that CYClike genes, GmTCP1 and GmTCP2, encoded the TCP transcription factors that were specifically expressed in the dorsal region of floral meristem. However, the two copies were proved to be functionally divergent during petal development, and by altering the expression of CYC-like genes in transgenic soybean, similar to CYC and DICH, it was found that CYC-like genes had dorsalizing activity. The expression pattern of transgenic plants indicated that the GmTCP2 gene could specifically regulate downstream target genes such as RAD-like and DIV-like genes in the dorsal, lateral and the ventral petals. The relative expression of CUC1 and CUC2 varied in the three different kinds of petals: it was high in the dorsal petals, but low in the ventral petals. At the same time, the expression level of GmTCP1 and GmTCP2 was equally very low. In addition, the study of transgenic Arabidopsis showed that GmTCP2 could play a significant role in cell division during the whole development of plants.

Thermal stability can reflect the thermal degradation speed of polymers during the melt processing. In this paper, we used Kissinger, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa and Coats-Redfern method to study the kinetics of non-isothermal degradation of PFA. The thermal degradation activation energy obtained from the Kissinger method, Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method and Coats-Redfern method is 228.5 kJ/mol, 213.9 kJ/mol and 237.4 kJ/mol respectively. The Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method indicates the thermal degradation reaction PFA is a secondary reaction.

The impact performance of PE can be greatly enhanced by the use of functionalized conch powder, while maintaining high tensile strength thus giving this study high potentiality for its practical applications. The conch powder was treated by titanate coupling agent NDZ-201 before use and the influence of different proportions of conch powder on the mechanical properties of PE/conch powder composite is discussed in this article. The impact strength has a maximum value of 63.4kJ/m2 and the frictional loss records a minimum of 4.27×10-1mm3/(Nm)-1 and 42.2% lower than that of pure PE.

The paper studied the change of the coal characteristics based on the influence of lignite naturally oxidated in air. The original lignite and lignite naturally oxidated under different time were analyzed by the FTIR technology. The reason that metamorphism of lignite was vulnerable by oxygen was analyzed from the side of coal molecular structure. It indicates that lignite of a low rank coal easily oxidated is mainly because lignite has more active groups in coal molecular such as methyl, methylene, hydroxyl, aromatic ether, oxygen button and ether key. In lignite molecular, side chains of aromatic ring structure unit is firstly oxidized. The bridge button or side chains of coal molecular structure unit are easily oxidized at the same time with the structure of the bridge between units fracturing oxidation. Number of aromatic hydrocarbons remains stable after oxidation. General trend of cycloparafin hydrocarbon as well as aliphatic hydrocarbon are gradually reduced over the oxidized time.

Capillary rheometer was used to conduct preliminary study on the rheological behavior of SKYPEL thermoplastic polyester elastomer (TPEE). SKYPEL TPEE is a kind of non-Newtonian fluid and displays typical shear thinning behavior. Non-Newtonian index of the three samples varies from 0.69 to 0.77. With increasing temperature, the structure viscosity of the sample decreased and among them G172D is the smallest one under the same temperature.

The civil aircraft’s manufacturing process is complicated because of its complex structure and various parts in need. The stability and high efficiency of the based supply network decides the coordination ability among departments and the development cycle completion date. Now it’s very urgent to study the robustness of the collaborative supply network. This paper optimized and designed the robustness of the civil aircraft supply network, first with the project evaluation and review technique (PERT) we set a supply network model; then optimized the critical path to make the system functions remain constant, and the civil aircraft supply network robustness got optimized

Civil aircraft is a complex product to manufacture, and the collaborative supply network consist of grades suppliers plays an important part in the progress of development. Due to the interferences from every kind of uncertainties to the network, it’s necessary to find out the critical supply path which decides the completion date for the network going well. This paper first sets the supply network model based on the hierarchical structure of civil aircraft, and then uses Dijkstra and ant colony optimization (ACO) searching for the critical path respectively, in the last the two methods are compared in order to prove performance and superiority.

Hydraulic system is the core driving power of hydraulic support, and its performance directly affects the use of hydraulic support. The content of chloride ion in hydraulic transmission medium is one of the important reasons for the working failure of hydraulic support. Nowadays our country mainly uses the simply treated mine water as fluid in the hydraulic support system. In order to ensure hydraulic support can work safely and reliably underground, this study selected two representative kinds of mine fields in Huainan coal mine area, focusing on the analysis of the various factors which influence the introduction of chloride ion in the transmission medium of hydraulic support, and exploring the solution. The experimental results showed that different crude mine water and different water treatment processes were the main factors of introducing chloride ion. The study has important guiding significance of safely using Electro-hydraulic Control System in hydraulic support and achieving high productivity and high efficiency of the fully mechanized working face.

In this paper, the Huainan No.1 Sewage treatment plant's dehydrated sewage sludge and the power plant fly ash have been taken as the main raw materials and clay as the cementing agent to prepare lightweight ceramsite. Using the single-factor experiment to screen roasting craft, the optimal conditions are obtained as follows: the clay content is approximately 15%, sludge content 35-40%, preheating temperature 350-400?.The preheating time is 15-20mins, roasting temperature 1150-1200?, roasting time 15-20mins. The product’s loose density is 710-750kg/m3, particle density 1305-1380kg/m3, compressive strength 13.2-15.2MPa, bibulous rate 12.4-18.1%, particle shape factor 1.3-1.4, specific surface area 5.68-6.01m2/g. The performance index can meet the national standard requirements for fly ash ceramsite in the light collection aggregate. This lightweight ceramsite may serve as the water treatment material, the building material and the thermal insulation material and so on. This research had not only solved the problems of contamination caused by sludge and solid wastes like fly ash, but also brought certain economic and environmental benefits.

Water treatment ceramic particles were prepared using dewatered life sludge in Huainan No.1 Sewage treatment plant and power plant fly ash as main materials and clay as the bond. Through the L9 (43) orthogonal test, we obtained the best conditions of the preparing process. The product can be used as water treatment packing ceramic particles and simulated adsorption experiment with the wastewater including Pb2 + was conducted. The results indicate that ceramic particles (used as wastewater treatment filler) bibulous rate is 25.0%, the loose density is 690kg/m3, the particle density is 1240kg/m3, specific surface area is 5.997m2/g, the compressive strength is 9.40MPa and the adsorptive performance is excellent. The toxic metal leaching experimental result shows that the concentration of toxic heavy metals in leaching solution is in the range of GB specification and the performance of product is stable which will not cause second pollution.

the paper analyzes reason for the higher uncertainty in the planeness measurement of wood-working machine tools by leveling ruler with adjustable gauge block; proposes a new design idea of new adjustable gauge block and its measuring performance and calibration requirements; and analyzes its uncertainty of measurement.

Through woodworking four-side planer vibration test, this article studies its dynamic characteristics and dynamic response to identify the vibration magnitudes law of each feed roll shafts of the four-side feed beam; then finds the natural frequency and damping ratio of the feed beam and lathe bed; obtains the mathematical model of feed roll shaft vibration magnitude changing with the feed rate U under different process thicknesses. The analysis of feeding quantity and the rationality of lathe bed from the perspective of vibration design supplies the designs and operation staff with reference data.

With the rapid development of Internet, Internet addiction has become a social issue of common concern. The different kinds of software have emerged to prevent Internet addiction. This paper analyzes and compares those software. A good prevention software should be good information filtering, to identify different kinds of content, web site, can be used to monitor and control the computer, not conflict with the anti-virus software or firewall, and not introduce other new vulnerabilities, not accounting for more memory and more network resources.

The effect of microstructure on transport properties of nano-polycrystalline La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-δ films, which were prepared by DC magnetron sputtering at various working pressures and followed by air annealing at 973K for 1h, has been investigated. The result indicates that the change of working pressure can change the microstructure, metal-insulator transition temperature (TIM) and peak resistance but does not change the transport mechanism for the films. The vacancy defects have an important effect on the transport properties of the films. Higher working pressure tends to decrease the density of vacancy defects. Low vacancy defects account for the high TIM and low resistance of the films. In the region of T > TIM, the charge carriers are moving in variable range hopping mode. The behavior of resistance decreasing with the increasing of temperature at low temperature (T<23K) can be explained on the basis of thermal excitation tunneling effect. The minimum resistance results from the combined effect of the tunneling effect and intrinsic metallic transport characteristic of the films.

Wood cell images are observed by the In-Situ SEM plays a very important role in wood structure. Because of the nature of cell image, automatic segmentation for wood cell image becomes one difficult question. According to the characteristics of image of anatomical structure of wood based on image processing theory, the theory and method of binarization algorithm for image of anatomical structure of wood is presented. The machine vision detecting of edge tracing of wood cell is processed to the binarized wood image. Use this method to dissected Yunnan ormosia and Manchurian ash image of anatomical structure of wood cell, this study provides the theory base for feature abstraction and pattern recognization for the further study on image of anatomical structure of wood

Potassium is an essential element for plant, and high-affinity K+ uptake system plays a crucial role in potassium absorption and transportation. Here we report the isolation and characterization of a HKT1 homolog from C3 halophyte Suaeda salsa (L.) (SsHKT1), particularly under low K+ treatment. The SsHKT1 cDNA was 2033 nucleotides long including 1650 bp ORF for a 550 amino acids peptide and a predicted molecular mass of 63.0 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence of SsHKT1 was 39-64% identical to other plant HKT-like sequences. A SsHKT1-specific antibody was prepared and reacted with a 63.0 kDa protein from S. salsa plasma membrane. Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis showed that SsHKT1 was mainly expressed in leaf tissues and to a lesser extent, in root tissues. Amounts of SsHKT1 transcript were developmentally controlled and significantly up-regulated by K+ deprivation and NaCl treatment. The results suggested that SsHKT1 might play an important role in ion homeostasis and salt tolerance of S. salsa.

Polycrystal samples of La1-xSrxMnO3 (x=0.2, 0.3) have been synthesized using a sol-gel method. The effect of sintering process on the sample microstructure and Sr doping on the magnetoresistance for La1-xSrxMnO3 have been investigated. The results show that the increase of sintering temperature and time can promote the crystallization of samples and reduce the content of impurity. The additive of Sr makes Mn ion in materials relatively compact, and this causes the distorted deformation of the materials structure. The magnetoresistance (MR) changes with the Sr doping. When x=0.2, the maximum MR% of sample is about 43% and keep about 40% between 10~150K. At room temperature, the MR% will decrease to about 6.5%. When x=0.3, the order magnetoresistance (OMR) effect occures above the room temperature.

32/28nm BEOL Cu CMP process with ultra low k scheme is investigated in the different aspects. Firstly the barrier metal (BM) slurry selection with proper selectivity is the most critical part to reduce topography. The topography can be minimized by precisely control BM slurry’s selectivity. Secondly, the layout design, such as pattern density, line and space width, has significant impact on WID variation. The test results show more topography correction at more dense Cu line for thinner line where BM polishing is the dominate factor. While for fat line, it shows less topography correction at more dense Cu line, since Cu clearance polishing dominates the final topography. Next k value shift evaluation with different barrier metal slurry, cleaning chemicals and post CMP thermal treatment conditions is also studied. The results indicate that although k value shift occurs during polishing, proper chemicals clean and post thermal treatment can restore parts even the whole of k shift. In addition, the removal of moisture and chemical penetrated into ultra low k film is the key of k value shift and reliabilities improvement.

ILD0 CMP and Al CMP plays important roles to form high k metal gate in the gate last approach for 32nm technology and beyond. It requires very tight control for the gate height and the surface topography. The gate height uniformity improvement, the dishing/erosion reduction and defect reduction are the key aspects for ILD0 CMP and Al CMP process development. Firstly, the polishing strategies and slurry selection are the most critical part. Several types of SiN slurries for ILD0 CMP process are evaluated. The impacts of SiN slurry's selectivity on dishing and poly thickness control are studied. The pros and cons of different CMP techniques, such as fixed abrasive CMP and slurry CMP for ILD0 CMP will be elaborated as well. Secondly, the pattern design and the design rules have significant impact on gate CMP process performance. The gate height and topography performance for different feature sizes and pattern densities are described and the dummy rule setup strategies are explored in this paper. Next, defect (Al pitts, scratches, particles, residues and as such) is another major challenge to a successful gate CMP process. The mechanism for the formation of the various types of defects is discussed and approaches for defect reduction are explored. In addition, the interation among the STI CMP, ILD0 CMP and Al CMP processes is discussed. Lastly, various process control and gate height monitor methods are compared and discussed in this paper.