集成电路电磁适应性的时钟信号调制

电磁干扰(EMI)是瞬时功能故障的主要来源之一,原因是电源供电线上的噪声注入引起了VDD和GND的额定值的波动.介绍了一种新的方法来增强片上系统(SoC)关于电源和接地电压瞬变时的信号完整性,并且这种方法完全符合IEC 61000-4-29 标准.其基本思想是设计和IEC 61000-4-29兼容的集成电路,通过局部和动态地将时钟占空比去适应传播延迟的变化和扰动的逻辑路径.当无法满足时,该方法导致暂时把集成电路的工作频率减小到满足该标准的最小值.根据异常电网活动,时钟占空比调制(CDCM)是通过使用正和/或负边沿时钟展宽逻辑(CSL)块来实现的.基于这个概念,在尽可能保持时钟高速频率的同时,数字电路对于电源供电线上波动的耐受性将会更强.该方法可被视作一种在线提供动态自适应同步的监视技术.通过SPICE模拟,实验结果表明此方法的有效性.     

Second-Order Cybernetic Analysis to Re-construct Farmers’ Rationale When Regulating Milk Production

This paper presents an activity and knowledge analysis using second-order cybernetics for analysing human activities in social-ecological systems. We do this with the case of smallholder farmers producing milk in Nakuru County, Kenya. The analysis is based on farmers′ actions and the knowledge behind their actions. Using this approach, we analysed how smallholder farmers regulate milk production and how they influence milk quality. Farmers influence milk quality with their routine and problem-solving management actions. The knowledge behind these actions can be represented as rules. We found that Routine Control Rules that influence milk quality aim to (i) minimize contamination (ii) maintain udder health, and (iii) preserve milk. Problem-Solving Control Rules aim to deal with disturbances associated with (i) market imperfection (ii) microbiological contamination (iii) disease, and (iv) unfavourable milk composition. The approach revealed key restrictions and disturbance factors influencing milk quality in smallholder dairy systems. It also allowed for co-identification of best practices and entry points for contextualized innovations, i.e. innovations that fit into the respective production context. The co-analysis led to changes in farmers’ practices, as it fostered the co-development of milk quality standards to be applied at the community level as preparation for collective marketing activities. When emphasis is placed on finding restrictions and developing innovations, the approach can be further applied to other land-use systems.     

Small-molecule inhibitors of the AAA+ ATPase motor cytoplasmic dynein

The conversion of chemical energy into mechanical force by AAA+ (ATPases associated with diverse cellular activities) ATPases is integral to cellular processes, including DNA replication, protein unfolding, cargo transport and membrane fusion. The AAA+ ATPase motor cytoplasmic dynein regulates ciliary trafficking, mitotic spindle formation and organelle transport, and dissecting its precise functions has been challenging because of its rapid timescale of action and the lack of cell-permeable, chemical modulators. Here we describe the discovery of ciliobrevins, the first specific small-molecule antagonists of cytoplasmic dynein. Ciliobrevins perturb protein trafficking within the primary cilium, leading to their malformation and Hedgehog signalling blockade. Ciliobrevins also prevent spindle pole focusing, kinetochore-microtubule attachment, melanosome aggregation and peroxisome motility in cultured cells. We further demonstrate the ability of ciliobrevins to block dynein-dependent microtubule gliding and ATPase activity in vitro. Ciliobrevins therefore will be useful reagents for studying cellular processes that require this microtubule motor and may guide the development of additional AAA+ ATPase superfamily inhibitors.     

Reconfigurable self-assembly through chiral control of interfacial tension

From determining the optical properties of simple molecular crystals to establishing the preferred handedness in highly complex vertebrates, molecular chirality profoundly influences the structural, mechanical and optical properties of both synthetic and biological matter on macroscopic length scales. In soft materials such as amphiphilic lipids and liquid crystals, the competition between local chiral interactions and global constraints imposed by the geometry of the self-assembled structures leads to frustration and the assembly of unique materials. An example of particular interest is smectic liquid crystals, where the two-dimensional layered geometry cannot support twist and chirality is consequently expelled to the edges in a manner analogous to the expulsion of a magnetic field from superconductors. Here we demonstrate a consequence of this geometric frustration that leads to a new design principle for the assembly of chiral molecules. Using a model system of colloidal membranes, we show that molecular chirality can control the interfacial tension, an important property of multi-component mixtures. This suggests an analogy between chiral twist, which is expelled to the edges of two-dimensional membranes, and amphiphilic surfactants, which are expelled to oil-water interfaces. As with surfactants, chiral control of interfacial tension drives the formation of many polymorphic assemblages such as twisted ribbons with linear and circular topologies, starfish membranes, and double and triple helices. Tuning molecular chirality in situ allows dynamical control of line tension, which powers polymorphic transitions between various chiral structures. These findings outline a general strategy for the assembly of reconfigurable chiral materials that can easily be moved, stretched, attached to one another and transformed between multiple conformational states, thus allowing precise assembly and nanosculpting of highly dynamical and designable materials with complex topologies.     

Coral reef diversity refutes the neutral theory of biodiversity

The global decline of coral reefs highlights the need to understand the mechanisms that regulate community structure and sustain biodiversity in these systems. The neutral theory, which assumes that individuals are demographically identical regardless of species, seeks to explain ubiquitous features of community structure and biodiversity patterns. Here we present a test of neutral-theory predictions with the use of an extensive species-level data set of Indo-Pacific coral communities. We show that coral assemblages differ markedly from neutral-model predictions for patterns of community similarity and the relative abundance of species. Within local communities, neutral models do not fit relative abundance distributions as well as the classical log-normal distribution. Relative abundances of species across local communities also differ markedly from neutral-theory predictions: coral communities exhibit community similarity values that are far more variable, and lower on average, than the neutral theory can produce. Empirical community similarities deviate from the neutral model in a direction opposite to that predicted in previous critiques of the neutral theory. Instead, our results support spatio-temporal environmental stochasticity as a major driver of diversity patterns on coral reefs.     

The effect of exogenous conjugated bilirubin on the urinary excretion of unconjugated14C-bilirubin by the Gunn rat

Resumen La inyección de bilirrubina conjugada a ratas Gunn con ligadura coledociana, produce un aumento de la excreción urinaria de bilirrubina C¹⁴ exógena o de la endógena sintetizada a partir de la inyección de ALA-C¹⁴ en dichos animales. Dicho aumento fue probado por la cristalización de la bilirrubina radioactiva de muestras de orina y por la radioactividad presente en el azopigmento A separado por cromatografía sobre papel. El aumento de pigmento I, demostrado en el suero por partitión química y en la orina por columna cromatográfica de fase inversa, permiten suponer la formación de un complejo de bilirrubina no conjugada radioactiva y de bilirrubina conjugada, como mecanismo del pasaje mencionado.

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This work was supported by grants from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, República Argentina, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md., USA and Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social de la Provincia de Santa Fe, República Argentina.