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By using integrated lumped elements based on through-silicon via (TSV) technology, a 3-D low-pass filter (LPF) with ultracompact size and ultrawide stopband is proposed. The 3-D magnetic coupling is enhanced between microsize spiral inductors to increase the mutual inductance and improve the high-frequency performance. A coaxial TSV with enhanced capacitance in high resistivity silicon (HRS) is utilized both as capacitor and as a vertical interconnection without any overhead in area and routing. The 3-D nature of the proposed filter yields a miniaturized size of 0.2 x 0.10 mm². The LPF is analyzed with equivalent circuit model and validated with the well-matched S-parameters obtained by finite element method simulation and measurement. With -3-dB cutoff frequency at 2.6 GHz, the LPF exhibits an insertion loss below 1 dB, a reflection loss over 17 dB in the passband, and a suppression level over 20 dB from 5.28 up to 40 GHz in the stopband.

A balanced substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) bandpass filter (BPF) is designed and fabricated based on through-quartz-via (TQV) technologies in this article. Sixth-order filtering response centered at 41.4 GHz with equal source and load termination is achieved by the transformation of the Chebyshev polynomial. By exploiting cross-coupled resonators, the 3-dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) achieves 12.1%, and the out-of-band rejection is better than 30 dB with frequencies up to $2f_{0}$ . High CM suppression can be achieved up to $2.2f_{0}$ with the help of two slots on the bottom metal layer. Based on the theory of the proposed SIW BPF, asymmetric diplexer with different resonance orders for two channels is studied with high isolation and wide stopband. The mixed dual-mode (TE101 and TE301) and single-mode (TE101) junction resonators provide a transition between the input port and two channels. Diplexer with lower and upper channels centered at 20.2 and 37.5 GHz, respectively, is fabricated and measured to verify the proposed structure, which exhibits high isolation better than 40 dB over the whole band and a wide stopband up to $3f_{0}$ of the lower channel. Measured results are in good agreement with the simulations.

Concrete encased CFST (CECFST) column is a composite member consisted of outer encased concrete and inner CFST. Currently, a cast-in-place connection between a CECFST column and a reinforcement concrete beam is generally employed in engineering practice due to the outer encased concrete hinders the application of assembled connection, and the steel beam is usually connected to the CECFST column by on-site welding. In this paper, a novel on-site assembled connection between a CECFST column and a steel beam was proposed. In considering various material models and complex contacts, a FE model for this type of joint was established and verified. Further, parametric analyses of the assembled connections to concrete encased CFST columns were conducted to analyze the structural behavior. More importantly, an extended component model was developed to cover the feature of CECFST column focusing on the initial stiffness and moment resistance of the assembled connection. The load transfer mechanism for bolt in tension and beam flange in compression were considered in the modelling for evaluating the stiffness and strength of column wall in tension and in compression, respectively. The numerical results from the parametric analyses coincided well with the predicted results. The numerical and analytical results declared that this novel assembled connection between the CECFST column and steel beam performed favorable structural behavior and could be employed in assembled structures with CECFST columns.

This paper proposes a substrate integrated waveguide bandpass filter (SIW BPF), exploiting the through-dielectric via (TDV)-based 3-D integrated circuit (3-D IC) technology. The SIW BPF is designed on the dielectric cavity that is etched on the traditional low-resistivity silicon (LRSi) in a 3-D IC system, acting as the insulating material between through-silicon via plugs and LRSi. This construction can reduce prominent eddy current losses in LRSi and coupling losses among TDV plugs for the millimeter-wave application. Benzocyclobutene and glass are chosen as the dielectric cavity due to the low dielectric constant and loss tangent. The detailed design procedure beginning from the normalized Chebyshev low-pass filter to the final optimized SIW BPF is presented. The filter having a 12.5% fractional bandwidth is centered at 159.67 GHz. The return losses and insertion loss across the passband are about −10 and −1.5 dB, respectively. Numerical analysis of the advanced design system and full-wave simulation results of Ansoft’s HFSS show a good agreement.

BACKGROUND: ISR remains the major adverse outcome after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). MicroRNAs have been demonstrated to be associated with coronary plaque and stable in the blood and can be used as biomarkers/predictors. This study aimed to investigate whether circulating microRNAs could predict in-stent restenosis (ISR). METHODS: MicroRNA array was used to detect differently expressed microRNAs between 30 ISR patients and 30 non-ISR patients in the derivation cohort. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to validate the microRNA array results and to detect levels of target microRNAs in the validation cohort. All patients were followed up for at least 1 year, and major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) were recorded. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were applied to find factors associated with ISR. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to analyze the predictive ability of the microRNA score for ISR. RESULTS: MicroRNA array and qRT-PCR showed that miR-143, 145, 425, 208, and let-7g were differently expressed between ISR patients and non-ISR patients. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that lower levels of mir-143 (OR =2.36, 95% CI: 1.43–3.67) and mir-145 (OR =2.12, 95% CI: 1.56–3.48) were associated with ISR. MicroRNA scores differed statistically between ISR patients and non-ISR patients (49.18±2.05 vs. 52.10±2.41, P

In this paper, an ultra-compact low-pass filter (LPF) with wide stopband is proposed based on lumped L-C structure in through-silicon via-based 3-D stacked configuration. The spiral inductor (L), interdigital capacitor (C), and the proposed LPF are theoretically analyzed based on parasitic parameters and equivalent circuit models. To evaluate the characteristics, the proposed LPF is simulated by HFSS, fabricated with CMOS-process-compatible technology, and measured with de-embedding method. Simulation and measured results are in good agreement. Compared with the other literature, the proposed LPF has the most compact size of $0.028\lambda _{g }\times 0.017 \lambda _{g}$ . ( $\lambda _{g}$ is the guide wavelength at $f_{c}$ .) With the cutoff frequency at 10.05 GHz, the filter has an insertion loss of 0.14 dB and reflection loss over 13 dB from dc to 9 GHz in the passband. The suppression levels are better than 20 dB from 20.4 up to 40 GHz in the stopband.

A wideband equivalent-circuit model of coaxial-annular through-silicon vias (TSVs) for three-dimensional (3-D) integrated circuits is proposed in this paper. Rigorous closed-form formulas for the resistance and inductance of coaxial-annular TSVs are derived by computing the longitudinal electrical field in Cu and the longitudinal magnetic vector potentials in ${\rm{SiO}}_{2}$ and Si substrate with Bessel functions. The equivalent-circuit model can appropriately capture the skin effect in Cu as well as eddy-current effect in Si substrate. The proposed model is verified using 3-D full-wave field solver high frequency simulator structure, showing that it can yields highly accurate results up to 100 GHz.

A diagonal steel-shape memory alloy bracing device is proposed for seismic retrofitting of vulnerable building frame structure. Superelastic shape memory alloy bar is put in series with steel bars in the bracing. The device makes use of the loading plateau of superelastic shape memory alloy to limit the tensile force of diagonal bracing. A precast soft-storey building frame in Australia was selected for a case study. A numerical model of the frame was developed and validated with the results from full-scale pull-down field tests. Nonlinear time history analysis was then conducted to evaluate the seismic performance of the frame with different retrofitting strategies. The result shows that the diagonal steel-shape memory alloy bracing can reduce the displacement demand on the soft-storey frame. Meanwhile, the level of tensile force of steel-shape memory alloy bracing can be controlled by the force plateau of the shape memory alloy bar, which is recommended to be 20% of the yielding force of the steel bar. The lower tensile force demand could alleviate the force demand at the associated support connections.

In this article, an application of superelastic shape memory alloy strands for improving the seismic performance of unbonded prestressed reinforced concrete bridge column is proposed. In the reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel-shape memory alloy strands, superelastic shape memory alloy strands are put in series with unbonded steel strands, and the loading plateau of shape memory alloy is exploited to limit the increase in the axial load of column under an earthquake. Quasi-static analysis and seismic analysis were conducted to compare the seismic performance of conventional reinforced concrete column, reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel strands, and the proposed reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel-shape memory alloy strands. Result shows that reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel-shape memory alloy strands has larger ultimate displacement capacity than reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel strands in the quasi-static analysis. In the seismic analysis, reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel-shape memory alloy strands suffers from smaller earthquake residual displacement than reinforced concrete column and reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel strands. Furthermore, parametric analysis was carried out to investigate the effects of unbonded steel strand ratio, prestressing force ratio, bonded longitudinal reinforcement ratio, and maximum tensile force ratio (area of shape memory alloy strands) on the ultimate displacement and quasi-static residual displacement of reinforced concrete column with unbonded prestressing steel-shape memory alloy strands. Results show that increasing the prestressing force ratio and the maximum tensile force ratio within certain ranges can improve the self-centering capability of column. Increasing the area of bonded longitudinal reinforcement and unbonded steel strand ratio results in larger residual displacement.

Continued reduction in transistor size can improve the performance of silicon integrated circuits (ICs). However, as Moore's Law approaches physical limits, high-performance growth in silicon ICs becomes unsustainable, due to challenges of scaling, energy efficiency, and memory limitations. The ultra-thin layers, diverse band structures, unique electronic properties, and silicon compatible processes of two-dimensional (2D) materials create the potential to consistently drive advanced performance in ICs. This review presents the potential of fusing 2D materials with silicon ICs to minimize the challenges in silicon ICs, and to create technologies beyond the von Neumann architecture. It discusses the killer applications for 2D materials in logic and memory devices to ease scaling, energy efficiency bottlenecks, and memory dilemmas encountered in silicon ICs. The fusion of 2D materials allows the creation of all-in-one perception, memory and computation technologies beyond the von Neumann architecture to enhance system efficiency and remove computing power bottlenecks. Progress on the 2D ICs demonstration is summarized, as well as the technical hurdles it faces in terms of wafer-scale heterostructure growth, transfer, and compatible integration with silicon ICs. Finally, the promising pathways and obstacles to the technological advances in ICs due to the integration of 2D materials with silicon is presented. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

By utilizing coaxial through-silicon via (TSV) technology, compact L C low-pass filters (LPFs) are proposed. Firstly, several capacitors based on coaxial TSV are investigated, in detail, by means of analytic calculation, finite element method (FEM) simulation, and measurement. Secondly, a formula for the inductance of coaxial TSV-based spiral inductors is proposed and verified by FEM simulations and measurements. Finally, based on the investigation of TSV-based capacitors and inductors, an analytical model of the proposed L C LPFs based on 2 × 4 , 2 × 5 , 2 × 6, and 2 × 7 coaxial TSV arrays is proposed, and the equivalent circuit model and the finite element method (FEM) model are established in ADS and HFSS, respectively. The LPFs are fabricated and verified through measurements. In the proposed LPFs, coaxial TSVs are used as capacitors and inductors simultaneously, which leads to a more compact size. The parasitic capacitance of the inductors can, helpfully, induce a notch point for the proposed LPFs in stopband and improve the roll-off rate.

This paper presents an effective loop impedance extraction method and a model of a signal through-silicon via (TSV) surrounded by multiground TSVs. According to this method, the effective coupling substrate capacitances of multiground TSVs with different numbers and placements are calculated. Based on the calculated values of the resistance-inductance-capacitance-conductance (RLCG) parameters, the equivalent circuit and a two-port network model are established. The S -parameters of the model are validated by the simulated and measured results. Then, the effect of different patterns of ground TSVs on the central signal and coupling capacitance are discussed. Note that the hexagon pattern proposed in this paper can save the occupied area prominently without damaging the signal integrity.

Objectives: Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a leading cause of sudden cardiac death. So far, only 127 mutations of Titin(TTN) have been reported in patients with different phenotypes such as isolated cardiomyopathies, purely skeletal muscle phenotypes or complex overlapping disorders of muscles. Methods: We applied whole-exome sequencing (WES) to investigate cardiomyopathy patients and a cardiomyopathy-related gene-filtering strategy was used to analyze the disease-causing mutations. Sanger sequencing was applied to confirm the mutation cosegregation in the affected families. Results: A nonsense mutation (c.12325C>T/p.R4109X) and a missense mutation (c.17755G>C/p.G5919R) of TTN were identified in 2 Chinese DCM families, respectively. Both mutations were cosegregated in all affected members of both families. The nonsense mutation is predicted to result in a truncated TTN protein and the missense mutation leads to a substitution of glycine by arginine. Both variants may cause the structure changes of titin protein. Conclusions: We employed WES to detect the mutations of DCM patients and identified 2 novel mutations. Our study expands the spectrum of TTN mutations and offers accurate genetic testing information for DCM patients who are still clinically negative.

Unbonded prestressed reinforced concrete column (UBPRC column) has become an attractive approach in the field of bridge seismic design due to its superior self-centering behavior. Unbonded prestressing bar in a UBPRC column functions as a self-centering element and longitudinal mild reinforcement functions as an energy dissipator. Quasi-static cyclic test was carried out in this study to compare the seismic performance of reinforced concrete column (RC column), UBPRC column and fully prestressed concrete column (FPC column). The result shows that the UBPRC column has higher post-yield stiffness and smaller quasi-static residual displacement, but lower energy dissipation capability than the RC column. The FPC column suffers from the least quasi-static residual displacement, but has the lowest energy dissipation capability, the least ultimate displacement and the most severe prestress loss. The quasi-static residual displacement and residual crack width of the UBPRC column are around 66% and 73% of those of the RC column, respectively. The failure patterns of the RC column and the UBPRC column are similar, while the failure pattern of the FPC column is similar to that of a rocking column. The self-centering behavior of the three columns was analyzed and quantified using a self-centering index, which can be recommended for use in the seismic design of bridge columns.

Based on the TSV technology, a compact passive resonator utilizing spiral inductor and coaxial TSV capacitor is proposed. And the compact stack configuration integrates the whole resonator in a microsize as small as 75μm×75μm. Furthermore, the adopted spiral inductor, coaxial TSV capacitor and resonator are characterized with equivalent circuit model. The transmission parameters from equivalent circuit models and HFSS simulation are matched very well. The proposed resonator exhibits an insertion loss below 1.0dB and a return loss over −20 dB at the center frequency of 2.7GHz in the passband. And the −3dB bandwidth of resonant peak in the resonant frequency span are within the range from 1.4GHz to 5.2GHz, which demonstrates the superior characteristic of the resonator.

The polymer-cavity through-silicon vias (TSVs) on low resistivity silicon (LRSi) are proposed in this letter to reduce the conductive substrate losses for microwave applications, due to that the coupling loss of conventional LRSi is considerable in high speed three-dimensional integrated circuits (3-D ICs). The accurate wideband equivalent circuit model and simplified π-model are derived based on the physical design parameters, which are established by the ADS software. Well agreements between the proposed models and 3D full-wave EM field simulation of Ansoft's HFSS are shown with the operating frequencies up to 20 GHz.

Keep-out-zone (KOZ) is a conservative way to prevent any devices/cells from being impacted by the through-silicon via (TSV)-induced stress. In this paper, an effective approach was proposed of reducing the KOZ induced by coaxial TSV, by using the structure of coaxial-annular TSV, without decreasing the electrical performance of coaxial TSV. The analytical model was developed appropriate for the thermal stress induced by both coaxial and coaxial-annular TSVs, and was verified by the finite element method. The KOZs induced by coaxial and coaxial-annular TSVs were compared in detail, and the effects of Cu plasticity, TSV material, TSV size, and inner metal plating ratio of coaxial-annular TSV were also studied. The electrical characteristics of different TSVs were compared by employing ANSYS' HFSS, and a feasible fabrication process for coaxial-annular TSV was suggested. It could be concluded that: 1) a 1.6-μm (22.2%) drop of KOZ for coaxial-annular TSV could be reached as compared with that of coaxial TSV; 2) coaxialannular TSV was proved to offer the same superior signal integrity with coaxial TSV, improving S21 by about 93% at 5 GHz and 60% at 20 GHz compared with ordinary cylindrical and annular TSVs; and 3) the coaxial-annular TSV is realizable.

Shanghai Tower is a 632 m high super tall building adopting innovative steel-concrete hybrid mega frame-core tube-outrigger lateral structural system. Since both of the height and irregularity of Shanghai Tower are far beyond the current Chinese design code provision, non-prescriptive performance-based seismic design (PBSD) approach is required to employ in the seismic design of this super tall building. The general PBSD methodologies of code-exceeding tall buildings are briefly introduced at first. According to PBSD principles of code-exceeding tall buildings, the seismic performance objectives are selected for Shanghai Tower. The design criteria for structural components and systems consistent with the performance objectives are established. The elasto-plastic time-history analysis of the structure under frequent, basic and rare earthquakes, respectively, is carried out with the aid of ABAQUS program. Seven sets of ground motions are selected as the input motions. The detailed numerical simulation results, such as the structural dynamic characteristics, the displacement responses, the base shear, the overturning moment, and the damage conditions, are presented. The structural analysis results indicate that the structure can meet the predetermined performance objectives with relatively large safety margin.

In this paper, closed-form expression for the parasitic capacitance of tapered TSV (T-TSV) considering metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) effect is proposed by solving two-dimensional (2D) Poisson's equation. ANSYS Q3D Extractor is employed to verify the proposed model for the slope wall angle of 75^o, 80^o, 85^o and 90^o. It is shown that error is less than ~5%. The capacitance characterization of copper T-TSV is studied in detail, by taking slope wall angle of 80^o for instance. The results show that the capacitance of T-TSV acts as that of MOS device in changing the bias voltage; the increases of the bottom radius of T-TSV (from 1 to [email protected]), dielectric liner thickness (from 0.1 to [email protected]), liner dielectric constant (from 1 to 5), T-TSV height (from 10 to [email protected]) and acceptor concentration (from 1x10^1^5 to 5x10^1^5cm^-^3) cause increase of T-TSV capacitance by about 25fF, -12fF, 12fF, 210fF and 12fF, respectively. Finally, the condition for T-TSV simplified to cylindrical TSV is obtained.

Micro-grid can absorb the distributed power effectively, reduce loss, and improve power supply reliability. In order to assess micro-grid reliability quantitatively, the random natures of distributed power output are analyzed firstly in this paper. Wind power and photovoltaic Markov model are set up. And the power smoothing of energy storage is considered. Then the corresponding reliability evaluation process was given. And lastly, this paper realizes the micro-grid running states analysis and reliability assessment based on the analytic method. In addition, the new reliability indexes for micro-grid are proposed in the paper. Finally, example proves the efficiency of the above model and method. The results show that distributed power Markov model has a timing sequence and makes the assessment can better reflect the practical operation of micro-grid. It's significant for improving the reliability and economy of micro-grid operation.

Based upon the analysis of the former paper, this paper suggest that present problems existing in China's relevant laws and regulations, the difficulties in constructing China's maritime performing party system, the strategy in constructing maritime performing party in China. The writer focused on the strategies of establishing maritime performing party in China, and analyzed the problems which needed to pay attention. Finally, in the writer's view, China does not need to take part in the Convention, and can establish the maritime performing system by amending China Maritime Code.

"United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partly by Sea" was passed in July 3, 2008. on September 23, 2009 signing ceremony was held in Rotterdam. The system of maritime performing party is a special system in the transport convention, and constitutes an integral part of the Convention. Maritime performing party system is not the first system which brings in the carrier's independent contractor, but it is the most comprehensive and thorough one. It unified the duty of carrier's independent contractor in the maritime segment, and it is also an important progress in the developing process of international maritime legal system. There are some differences between the maritime performing party and China's current related system, i.e, the port maritime performing party and the intermediate performing party are included in the maritime performing party, and they can enjoy the carrier's exception clause and limitation of liability.

In order to fulfill post-earthquake operational requirements, in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in developing self-centering structural systems, where self-centering elements are used with combinations of energy dissipation elements in parallel. It was demonstrated experimentally and numerically that such systems exhibit robust flag-shape hysteretic behavior under seismic load. A new performance index for evaluating self-centering behavior of the bridge column is developed in this paper based on the flag-shape hysteresis and the index can be obtained conveniently. Parametric analysis was carried out to investigate the effects of different parameters on the seismic response of a SDOF system. The results show that the residual displacement decreases as the new performance index increases and the residual displacement is negligible when the performance index [Formula: see text] exceeds unity (1.0). Furthermore, parametric analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of design parameters on the self-centering behavior of an unbonded pre-stresed reinforced concrete column (UBPS column). The design parameters include the prestressing force, the bonded longitudinal reinforcement ratio and the area of unbonded strands. Results show that either increasing the prestressing force or decreasing the amount of longitudinal reinforcement can result in smaller residual displacement and a higher value of the new index.

The self-centering capability of columns after earthquakes is a focused topic of current seismic research. Present indices of self-centering capability of columns mainly rely on the relative values of the self-centering force offered by elastic elements and energy dissipation force offered by elastoplastic elements. These indices demand simple and clear relations among elements, so it is difficult to extend them to realistic structures. This paper simplifies a concrete column with unbonded prestressing strands into a single degree of freedom model in which a bilinear elastic spring and a bilinear elastoplastic spring are in parallel. A practical performance index of the self-centering capability is put forward. It takes into account the contribution of post-yield stiffness of the elastoplastic spring to self-centering capability. The index can be obtained by analyzing force-displacement hysteresis of the column. Through theoretical analysis and numerical calculation, the relation between the new index and static residual displacement of self-centering structures is built. This paper adopts the new self-centering index and the static residual displacement to measure the self-centering capability of a single degree of freedom system. The result shows that increasing the restoring force and post-yield stiffness of elastoplastic elements, decreasing the energy dissipation force are beneficial to the self-centering capability of the system.

Characteristic impedance of Through Silicon Via (TSV) differs from the transmission lines' in high speed three-dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs), resulting in signal reflection and degrading the signal quality. We add a capacitance to the connection of TSV and interconnects to reduce the TSV-induced signal reflection in multilevel interconnect structures for frequencies up to gigascale. Simulation result indicates that the signal reflection can be weakened obviously from -3 dB to -25 dB with the help of matching capacitance, using S-parameter analysis in the technology of 65 nm node. For different circuits, we can choose appropriate matching capacitance to minimize the signal reflection according to the circuit parameters.

In this paper, closed-form expression of the parasitic capacitance of the tapered Through-Silicon Via (TSV) is proposed, which also cover the cylindrical TSV when the slop wall angle is 90°. The comparison between the results of Ansoft Q3D verification and Matlab calculation are made. It shows that the root mean square error is less than 6.10%, over a wide range of the bottom radius and the height of tapered TSV, and the oxide thickness, therefore, the expression presented proves to be accurate.

In this paper, ground-signal-ground type through-silicon vias (TSVs) exploiting air gaps as insulation layers are designed, analyzed and simulated for applications in millimeter wave. The compact wideband equivalent-circuit model and passive elements (RLGC) parameters based on the physical parameters are presented with the frequency up to 100 GHz. The parasitic capacitance of TSVs can be approximated as the dielectric capacitance of air gaps when the thickness of air gaps is greater than 0.75 μm. Therefore, the applied voltage of TSVs only needs to achieve the flatband voltage, and there is no need to indicate the threshold voltage. This is due to the small permittivity of air gaps. The proposed model shows good agreement with the simulation results of ADS and Ansoft's HFSS over a wide frequency range.

One of the reasons why the human resources accounting is difficult to be implemented is the measurement of human assets. The introduction of the fair value into the measurement of human assets value accounting can effectively eliminate the uncertainly problems of human resources value measurement on the estimates of future time value stream. The value of human assets measured by the fair value can avoid the measurement differences and the difficult-to-operate difficulties caused by the diversification and the complication of measurement models in different theories, which can simplify the human resources accounting and increase the practical feasibility.

To improve the depth estimation precision at the object edges, a novel depth estimation method is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, based on the depth characteristics of the object edges, the pixels in the image are firstly classified into three categories, and then the corresponding smoothness cost functions are derived. With the modified smoothness cost functions, the depth value at the object edges with high quality can be obtained using the proposed depth estimation method. Compared with the existing depth estimation methods for the free-viewpoint television (FTV) system, the experimental results have shown that the proposed method can greatly improve the depth estimation precision for the object edges and guarantee the correctness of the edges in the synthesized virtual view at the receiver of the FTV system.

Depth information acquisition is one of the key technologies of FTV (Free View Television) system. To obtain accurate depth information, an improved depth estimation method is proposed. For each pixel in the reference view and current view, gradients between current pixel and its eight neighboring pixels as well as the average value of the nine pixels' luminance are computed. To increase depth accuracy especially in areas around depth edges, these gradients and average luminance are combined to compute average luminance-gradient matching errors (ALGME). Both motion information of current frame and depth information of the previous frame are used as a constraint to preserve temporal consistency of the depth map. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method can preserve depth edge and temporal consistency of depth map effectively.

This review aims to describe changes in breastfeeding and summarise the breastfeeding rates, duration and reasons of discontinuing 'any breastfeeding' or 'exclusive breastfeeding' in P.R. China. Breastfeeding rates in China fell during the 1970s when the use of breast milk substitutes became widespread, and reached the lowest point in the 1980s. As a result many efforts were introduced to promote breastfeeding. The breastfeeding rate in China started to increase in the 1990s, and since the mid-1990s 'any breastfeeding' rates in the majority of cities and provinces, including minority areas, have been above 80% at four months. But most cities and provinces did not reach the national target of 'exclusive breastfeeding' of 80%. The 'exclusive breastfeeding' rates in minority areas were relatively lower than comparable inland provinces. The mean duration of 'any breastfeeding' in the majority of cities or provinces was between seven and nine months. The common reasons for ceasing breastfeeding, or introducing water or other infant food before four months, were perceived breast milk insufficiency, mother going to work, maternal and child illness and breast problems. Incorrect traditional perceptions have a strong adverse influence on 'exclusive breastfeeding' in less developed areas or rural areas. China is a huge country, geographically and in population size, and there is considerable ethnic diversity. Therefore breastfeeding rates in different parts of China can vary considerably.

Along with the popularization of computers, especially the wide use of Internet, malicious code in recent years has presented a serious threat to our world. In this paper, through the analysis against the suspicious behaviors of vicious program by function calls, we present an approach of malware detection which is based on analysis and distilling of representative characteristic and systemic description of the suspicious behaviors indicated by the sequences of APIs called under Windows. Based on function calls and control flow analysis, according to the identification of suspicious behavior, the technique implements a strategy of detection from malicious binary executables.

Background There have been considerable changes in breastfeeding practices in China over the past forty years. However China is a very large country, and breastfeeding rates in different parts of China vary considerably. The objective of this paper is to identify and compare breastfeeding types and rates between 1994–1996 and 2003–2004 in Shihezi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, PR China. Methods In 1994–1996, a study of breastfeeding (n = 2197) was undertaken in Shihezi, Xinjiang, PR China. A decade later in 2003–2004, a longitudinal study (n = 545) of infant feeding practices was undertaken in the same area. Results The 'any breastfeeding' rates at 1, 4 and 6 months were 94%, 82% and 78% respectively in the early 1990s. A decade later, breastfeeding at 1 month was lower, but rates at 4 and 6 months remained the same. In 2004 the 'full breastfeeding' rate at one month was significantly higher (57%) than a decade earlier (38%), but after 3 months there was a rapid decline. This reflected a shift in the way complementary foods are introduced: the initial introduction was later, but by a higher proportion of mothers. Conclusion The rate of breastfeeding at one month is significantly lower in 2003–2004 when compared to 1994–1996. The 'full breastfeeding' rates were initially higher, but after 3 months were then lower. The Chinese national breastfeeding targets were not reached in either period of the study. These studies show the need to further promote full or exclusive breastfeeding and further longitudinal studies are necessary to provide the detailed knowledge about risk factors required for health promotion programs.

The through silicon via (TSV) technology has proven to be the critical enabler to realize a three-dimensional (3D) gigscale system with higher performance but shorter interconnect length. However, the received digital signal after transmission through a TSV channel, composed of redistribution layers (RDLs), TSVs, and bumps, is degraded at a high data-rate due to the non-idealities of the channel. We propose the Chebyshev multisection transformers to reduce the signal reflection of TSV channel when operating frequency goes up to 20 GHz, by which signal reflection coefficient (S11) and signal transmission coefficient (S21) are improved remarkably by 150% and 73.3%, respectively. Both the time delay and power dissipation are also reduced by 4% and 13.3%, respectively. The resistance-inductance-conductance-capacitance (RLGC) elements of the TSV channel are iterated from scattering (S)-parameters, and the proposed method of weakening the signal reflection is verified using high frequency simulator structure (HFSS) simulation software by Ansoft.

Accurate analytical models for the strain and stress in silicon induced by annular Through-silicon-via (TSV) are proposed. Finite element method (FEM) is used for the model verification. It is shown that errors for the strain and stress models are respectively less than 6.6% and 6.8% for various metal and dielectric materials. Based on the analytical model of stress, keep-out-zones (KOZs) are also evaluated for pMOS and nMOS, as the stress is parallel and perpendicular to transistor channel. Annular TSVs with various materials induce KOZs of less than 6.6μm. W exhibits the best thermo-mechanical performance with KOZ=0.

A texture video-assisted motion vector predictor for depth map coding is proposed in this letter. Based on the analyses of motion similarity between texture videos and their corresponding depth maps, the proposed approach uses the motion vectors of texture videos and the median predictor jointly to determine the optimal predicted motion vector for depth map coding by employing a rate-distortion (R-D) criterion. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with the median predictor utilized in H.264/AVC, the proposed method can save the maximum and average bit rate as high as 4.89% and 3.68%, respectively, while guaranteeing the quality of synthesized virtual views.

Background There are few studies on trends in injury death rates in China during the recent decades of tremendous change in this society. This paper examined trends in injury mortality rates among women aged 15 years or older in Macheng City from 1984-2008. Methods Data on injury deaths in women from 1984 to 2008 were obtained from the Death Registry System in Macheng City. Injuries were classified using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), 9th and 10th editions. Results The average overall injury death rate of women aged 15 or older was 87.6/100,000 in Macheng City from 1984-2008. Injuries were the leading cause of death for women aged 15-44 and the fourth cause of death for all women during this period. The all-cause injury mortality rate decreased from 149.01 per 100,000 population in 1984 to 32.90 per 100,000 population in 2008 for women. Road traffic injury (RTI) was the only injury for which the mortality rate increased dramatically from 1984 (1.35 per 100,000) to 2008 (4.63 per 100,000). For all age groups, suicide was the leading cause of injury death. For women aged 15 to 64, RTI and drowning were the second and third leading causes of injury deaths, respectively. Conclusions The injury mortality rate for women aged 15 years or older decreased by 77.92% from 1984-2008. In contrast, RTI deaths increased sharply in the 2000s compared with the 1980s. Although the suicide rate decreased dramatically, it was still the leading cause of injury death for women. Research is needed to identify risk factors contributing to the increase in RTI and decrease in suicides.