julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Hybrid modular sensor systems: a new generation of electronic noses
2002-11-23

We present a new very flexible design of a sensor system for gas and odor analysis, which may easily be optimized for specific applications. The core part contains a digital bus system that connects individual sensor modules with a central processor. By using dedicated microcontrollers onboard the modules it is possible to use any kind of transduction principles ("hybrld system"), with typical numbers of individual sensor elements for each transducer in the order of 8. The measured sensor parameters are transmitted via a standard protocol on the digital bus system. Hence all types of modules are interchangeable. This allows an easy adaption of new technologies to new applications. The specifications of the interface are available to developers and researchers, thus offering them the possibility to introduce their own specific technologies for certain applications. The system allows combination of self-made sensors with commercial ones and testing of a growing range of other sensor technologies. It can thus be used as a benchmarking tool.
Interfacing online bibliographic databases with Z39.50
2002-11-23

Many online databases are available on the Internet, each one with its own access procedures and a special user interface and query language. The Z39.50 protocol standard offers a solution to this situation of diversity and lacking interoperability. However the majority of online databases do not yet support Z39.50. We describe a system that interfaces online bibliographic databases with Z39.50 clients, if the databases are accessible via TELNET and have a line-oriented interface. Our system thus acts as a gateway or middleware. One part of it is a Z39.50 server which can be accessed by every Z39.50 client. The client's requests are translated into commands of the database's query language, which are then sent to the database via TELNET. The results received from the database are analyzed, transformed into the appropriate Z39.50 protocol data units and sent back to the Z39.50 client. The system is highly configurable and can be adapted to the different features and parameters of online bibliographic databases.
A 36 cm/sup 2/ monolithic pn-CCD for X-ray detection on the XMM and ABRIXAS satellites
2002-11-23

X-ray sensitive CCDs with outstanding properties have been developed and produced at the MPI Halbleiterlabor. They are contributed to the focal plane instrumentation of two space missions: the European XMM and the German ABRIXAS satellites. These CCDs, which are presented, use exclusively pn-junctions on ultra-pure, high-ohmic silicon for all active components, in particular for the transfer electrodes and the on-chip readout circuitry. Full depletion of the detector chip, a homogeneous and thin entrance window and large pixel sizes can be realized by this technological concept. It results in low noise performance, spectroscopic energy resolution, high detection efficiency, radiation hardness and fast readout. With those properties the so-called pn-CCDs ideally match the requirements of the satellites, which are given by the specifics of their X-ray imaging optics as well as the intensity, energy range and dynamic behavior of the objects to be observed.
Analysis of T-cell responses to Aspergillus fumigatus antigens in healthy individuals and patients with hematologic malignancies
2002-11-26

Invasive aspergillosis has become a major cause of infection-related mortality in nonneutropenic patients after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). To assess the potential role ofAspergillus-specific T-cell responses for the successful control of invasive aspergillosis, lymphoproliferative responses toAspergillus fumigatus antigens were studied in healthy individuals, patients with evidence of invasive aspergillosis, and patients late after allogeneic SCT. In healthy individuals, a positive lymphoproliferative response was documented to cellular extracts of A fumigatus (14 of 16), the 88-kDa dipeptidylpeptidase (4 of 16), and the 90-kDa catalase (8 of 11). A predominant release of interferon γ (IFN-γ) in culture supernatants on stimulation with A fumigatus antigens was demonstrated in 13 of 17 healthy individuals, indicating a TH1 response. In patients with clinical evidence of invasive aspergillosis, a favorable response to antifungal therapy was found to correlate with a higher IFN-γ/interleukin 10 (IL-10) ratio in culture supernatants (n = 7; median ratio, IFN-γ/IL-10 = 1.0; range, 0.09-24.8) compared to 10 patients with progressive or stable disease (median ratio, IFN-γ/IL-10 = 0.1; range, 0.002-2.1; P = .04). Steroid treatment was found to suppressAspergillus-specific lymphoproliferation (P = .037) and release of IFN-γ in culture supernatants (P = .017). In contrast to cytomegalovirus- and tetanus toxoid–specific T-cell responses, Aspergillus-specific T-cell reconstitution late after allogeneic SCT was characterized by low stimulation indices and a low IFN-γ/IL-10 ratio. In addition, phosphoantigen-reactive Vγ9/Vδ2 T-cell clones from healthy individuals were found to produce significant amounts of tumor necrosis factor in response to A fumigatus antigens. In conclusion, these results further support the hypothesis that T cells contribute to the host defense against A fumigatus.
Expression of Ca2+‐activated BK channel mRNA and its splice variants in the rat cochlea
2002-11-26

Abstract Voltage‐activated K + channels are important for shaping the receptor potentials of cochlear hair cells. In particular, the functional maturation of inner hair cells in mice around the onset of hearing coincides with the expression of a large, fast K + conductance, probably mediated by Ca 2+ ‐activated K + (BK) channels. In hearing organs of lower vertebrates, frequency tuning depends on BK‐type K + channels with different kinetics. Kinetics are varied by alternative splicing of the channels' α subunits and combination with modulating β subunits. It is unclear whether similar mechanisms “fine tune” mammalian hair cells. We used various polymerase chain reaction (PCR) approaches to screen rat cochleae for splice variants of BK‐type α subunits. We isolated mainly minimal variants and only occasionally splice variants with additional inserts. We conclude that α subunits with different kinetics are not substantially used in the rat cochlea. However, we isolated six variants differing in their extreme C‐terminal sequences, which may be involved in the targeting of the channel protein. By using reverse transcriptase‐PCR, we demonstrated also the expression of transcripts for several β subunits. In situ hybridization experiments revealed strict coexpression of α with β1 transcripts. In inner hair cells, strong labeling emerged shortly before the onset of hearing. Labeling of outer hair cells appeared later and generally weaker. Thus, our molecular data confirm electrophysiological results that suggested that BK channels underlie the large K + conductance in inner hair cells of mammals. Extensive splicing of BK channel transcripts, however, does not seem to be used in mammalian hair cells as is done in lower vertebrates. J. Comp. Neurol. 455:198–209, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Illumination dependent refinement of multiresolution meshes
2002-11-27

State of the art multiresolution modeling allows to selectively refine a coarse mesh of an object on the visually important parts. In this way it is possible to render the geometry of a given object accurately with a minimum number of triangles. There are also approaches that use cones of normal vectors to perform illumination dependent selective refinement. This includes the correct rendering of highlights and transitions between lit and unlit areas of an object. The drawback of these approaches is that using only the normal cone for the detection gives only a very poor criteria to detect the problematic cases. Therefore, too much refinement has to be performed which in most cases prevents real time update rates between successive frames. The authors describe a new approach for better estimation of normal deviations between different levels of detail. This allows for accurate lighting with a minimum number of triangles.
Fully renormalized quasiparticle random-phase approximation fulfills Ikeda sum rule exactly
2002-11-27

The renormalized quasiparticle-RPA is reformulated for even-even nuclei using\\nrestrictions imposed by the commutativity of the phonon creation operator with\\nthe total particle number operator. This new version, Fully-Renormalized QRPA\\n(FR-QRPA), is free from the spurious low-energy solutions. Analytical proof is\\ngiven that the Ikeda sum rule is fullfiled within the FR-QRPA.\\n
Discretizations of axisymmetric systems
2002-11-27

In this paper we discuss stability properties of various discretizations for axisymmetric systems including the so called cartoon method which was proposed by Alcubierre, Brandt et.al. for the simulation of such systems on Cartesian grids. We show that within the context of the method of lines such discretizations tend to be unstable unless one takes care in the way individual singular terms are treated. Examples are given for the linear axisymmetric wave equation in flat space.
A scalable methodology for cost estimation in a transformational high-level design space exploration environment
2002-11-27

Objective of the methodology presented in this paper is to perform design space exploration on a high level of abstraction by applying high-level transformations. To realize a design loop which is close and settled on upper design levels, a high-level estimation step is integrated. In this paper, several estimation methodologies fixed on different states of the high-level synthesis process are examined with respect to their aptitude on controlling the transformational design space exploration process. Estimation heuristics for several design characteristics are derived and experimentally validated.
Object-oriented robot control framework
2002-11-27

Object-oriented frameworks are a promising new technology to improve software quality and reduce development costs. In contemporary software development frameworks play an increasingly important role. The subject of our paper is an object-oriented ready-to-use framework for robot control systems. With the robot control framework especially multitasking control systems can be developed. The framework covers robot control functionality like path planning as well as the control of peripheral devices. It supports standard control hardware such as workstations and PCs with standard operating systems. Furthermore the framework provides an interface for the development of new control software such as a numeric control. The robot control framework has a layered architecture. In order to develop a control system only flexible "hot spots" have to be hooked in the framework. Examples for these flexible aspects are the cycle period of the control loop or the kind of connection to the devices. All the other general robot control components are already part of the framework. Hence they are reused.
Verification by simulation comparison using interface synthesis
2002-11-27

One of the main tasks within the high-level synthesis (HLS) process is the verification problem to prove automatically the correctness of the synthesis results. Currently, the results are usually checked by simulation. In consequence, both the behavioral specification and the HLS results have to be simulated by the same set of test vectors. Due to the HLS and the inherent changes in the cycle-by-cycle behaviour, the synthesis results require an adaption of the initial test vector set. This reduces the advantage gained by using the automated HLS process. In order to decrease these simulation efforts, in this paper a new method is presented that enables the usage of the same simulation vectors at both abstraction levels and the execution of an automated simulation comparison.
Analysis of the XC6000 architecture for embedded system design
2002-11-27

Novel FPGA architectures combined with new implementation methods influence the widespread area of embedded system design. Current research results based on the Global Run Time Reconfiguration (RTR) method show improvements to the functional density of up to 500% in contrast to the widely used Compile Time Reconfiguration (CTR) method. In addition, the RTR method applied to a partial reconfigurable architecture, like Xilinx XC6000, promises further enhancements. This paper analyses different implementation methods in order to exploit the resources of specific FPGA architectures. The development of an ATM diagnostic monitor serves as a realistic application to analyse these methods. We will analyse the differences between the XC4000E/EX and XC6000 FPGA architecture, based on their use of the same CTR implementation method. Additionally: applying Local RTR to XC6000 leads to a further benefit of about 20% in contrast to the CTR method. The evaluation process is based on the FZI internal rapid prototyping environment, which is best suited for sophisticated ATM applications.
Virtual Java devices. Integration of fieldbus based systems in the Internet
2002-11-27

The authors introduce the concept of virtual Java devices to integrate fieldbus-based control systems on the Internet/Intranet. As a result, fieldbus systems are opened up for remote monitoring, remote maintenance and remote control applications using state-of-the-art Web technology. A virtual Java device reflects the behaviour of a single fieldbus node or even an aggregation of fieldbus nodes which build a system unit. Implementations of virtual Java devices are embedded in a modern middleware system that provides an infrastructure for the development of distributed systems with almost no additional programming effort on communication aspects. Their work is based on experiences with virtual Java device implementations for a fieldbus-based production cell which allow remote access for control applications and Web-based Java clients.
Cross-level hierarchical high-level synthesis
2002-11-27

This paper presents a new approach to cross-level hierarchical high-level synthesis. A methodology is presented, that supports the efficient synthesis of hierarchical specified systems while preserving the hierarchical structure. After synthesis of each subsystem, the determined component schedule and the synthesized RT-structure are added to its algorithmic specification. This provides an automatic selection of optimized complex components. Furthermore, the component schedule enables the sharing of unused subcomponents across different hierarchical levels of the design.
A Petri net based approach for performing the initial allocation in hardware/software codesign
2002-11-27

This work presents a method of hardware/software partitioning considering multiple software components. The proposed method uses Petri nets as a common formalism to perform quantitative and qualitative analysis. The use of Petri net permits one to use a specification nondependent partitioning method. As an intermediate format Petri net allows one to analyze properties of the specification and formally compute performance indices which are used in the partitioning process. This paper highlights methods of computing load balance, precedence relation degree and communication cost of behavioral description in order to perform the initial allocation along with partitioning. This paper is devoted to describing the initial allocation algorithm, although an overview of the general partitioning method is also presented.
Synchronization detection for multi-process hierarchical synthesis
2002-11-27

Complex system specifications are often hierarchically composed of several subsystems. Each subsystem contains one or more processes. In order to provide optimization across different levels of hierarchy, a synchronicity analysis of the concerned processes has to be performed during high-level synthesis. The first step is the generation of a condensed graph representation of the inter-process communication. This graph is then utilized to detect inter-process communication which can be used to represent synchronization points between two or more processes. A synchronization point represents the starting point of an interval in which the communicating processes run synchronously. This interval is limited by unbounded data-dependent loops, denoted as de-synchronization points. As a result, different processes can only share resources in such an interval.
CVF-coverification framework
2002-11-27

Nowadays hardware/software codesign is consolidated as a research area However there is a lack of formal verification approaches, which are specially suitable to hardware and software. In this paper we present our coverification framework CVF, which consists of a system able to verify partitioned HW/SW systems using temporal logic model checking as a verification technique.
Reconfigurable hardware as shared resource for parallel threads
2002-11-27

Approaches to use FPGAs as reconfigurable coprocessors so far always suffered from two problems. First, the hardware required for communication with the host processor occupied an unacceptable large part of the resources available on the FPGA and second, this communication was so slow that the gained acceleration came to naught. The new Xilinx XC6200 family aims to solve both of these problems. The chips are accessed via an SRAM interface, i.e. the host sees them as part of its memory. Besides the configuration bits, which determine logical behaviour and routing, all internal hip-hops of the XC6200 are accessible for reading as well as for writing. This ensures a high performance, since a 32 bit input or output value can be exchanged between the host and the coprocessor by a single load or store operation. In order to make use of the hardware features of the new Xilinx chip series in workstations and PCs easily, a system is presented which synthesizes hardware out of threads coded in C. The threads are part of the C-program running on the host processor. In this paper this system is referred as the Hardware Thread System (HTS). The run time environment required is called the Universal Coprocessor System (UCS). As hardware platform, a specially designed PCI card is used. Besides the reconfigurable coprocessor XC62xx, it consists of the controller (XC4013e) and buffer/data RAM. The RAM of the card can be mapped into the memory address space of the host; nontheless the controller can transfer data between reconfigurable coprocessor and buffer RAM without disturbing the host.
A system for cooperative work in the medical domain
2002-11-27

We present our implementation of a medical workstation providing computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) in the sense of teleradiology. Our workstation is a powerful tool and it is extensible to new functionalities. Due to its small protocol overhead it is also well-suited to low-bandwidth networks such as ISDN.
A co-synthesis approach based on symbolic reachability analysis
2002-11-27

In this paper we present a co-synthesis approach based on the state space reachability analysis of the system specification, which is captured using a partial order based model for concurrency. The partial order based model (POM) combines the concept of relations between events from event structures for the modeling of intercommunicating concurrent behaviors and the Chu space semantics for these relations in terms of logical formulas. The POM is used in our approach as an intermediate representation, which permits a concise symbolic representation, mainly for systems with high degree of parallelism, and an efficient BDD based implementation of analysis and synthesis algorithms. We introduce the partial order based model for concurrency and show how to use it in modeling at the system level. We present a symbolic representation for the model and its implementation using BDDs and we give reachability analysis algorithms that are applied to the estimation of performance and costs during the co-synthesis and to the formal verification of properties. Finally we describe our co-synthesis approach based on the formal model.
Prospects for Peltier cooling of the cuprate superconductors
2002-11-27

The figure of merit z of commercial Peltier modules has been measured to drop from z=2.3/spl times/10/sup -3/ K/sup -1/ with the warm end near 295 K to z=4/spl times/10/sup -4/ K/sup -1/ with the warm end at 80 K. Therefore, for reaching the superconducting temperature range even for the cuprates with the highest critical temperature T/sub c//spl ap/130 K, new thermoelectric materials with their maximum value of z around 150 K or lower must be developed. We present experimental results on p- and n-doped compounds of the family Bi/sub 2-x/Sb/sub x/Te/sub 3-y/Se/sub y/ showing improved values of z at 150 K and below. We have studied in particular the influence of sintering.
Visual support for combining algorithms via the Internet
2002-11-27

The system Progress facilitates the easy provision and usage of computational services via the Internet. Moreover it offers powerful value added services in this area. The concept of plans can be used to combine computational services located at different hosts to more powerful services. In this article, we demonstrate how this concept can be coupled with other Internet technologies like Java to achieve a visual programming environment for large-scale Internet programming.
Parallelization of volume visualization on computer networks
2002-11-27

Many algorithms in the field of scientific visualization require high computational capacity. In general, low-end machines are not capable of delivering sufficient performance to achieve interactivity. Even worse, to generate high quality images of large data sets, the necessary time is in the order of minutes. Besides algorithmic optimizations, parallelization is necessary to quicken the computation to enable some interactivity to comprehensively understand the volumetric data. In this paper we present the implementation of two visualization algorithms using PVM. To circumvent stall conditions and to guarantee a somehow continuous time per frame, we propose different scheduling schemes. Both algorithms are tested using the different strategies in a multi-user environment and in a dedicated network of workstations.
A comparing study of technology mapping for FPGA
2002-11-27

This paper investigates some design flows to obtain final designs on Xilinx XC4000 FPGAs. The examples generated by high level synthesis were mapped including placement and routing. This reveals that the common criteria of area optimal or delay-optimal circuits should be enlarged by routability and computing time.
Crystal Structure of OxyB, a Cytochrome P450 Implicated in an Oxidative Phenol Coupling Reaction during Vancomycin Biosynthesis
2002-11-28

Gene inactivation studies point to the involvement of OxyC in catalyzing the last oxidative phenol coupling reaction during glycopeptide antibiotic biosynthesis. Presently, the substrate and exact timing of the OxyC reaction are unknown. The substrate might be the bicyclic heptapeptide or a thioester derivative bound to a protein carrier domain. OxyC from the vancomycin producer Amycolatopsis orientalis was produced in Escherichia coli and crystallized, and its structure was determined to 1.9 A resolution. OxyC gave UV-visible spectra characteristic of a P450-like hemoprotein in the low spin ferric state. After reduction to the ferrous state by dithionite the CO-ligated form gave a 450-nm peak in a UV-difference spectrum. The addition of vancomycin aglycone to OxyC produced type I changes to the UV spectrum. OxyC exhibits the typical P450-fold, with the Cys ligand loop containing the signature sequence FGHGX-HXCLG and Cys-356 being the proximal axial thiolate ligand of the heme iron. The observation of a water molecule bound to the heme iron is consistent with the UV-visible spectra of OxyC indicating a low spin heme. A polyethylene glycol molecule occupying the active site might mimic the bicyclic heptapeptide substrate. Analysis of the structure of Oxy-proteins and other P450s indicates regions that might be involved in binding of the redox partner and possibly the protein carrier domain.