Phase transitions in the anchored organic bilayers of long-chain alkylammonium lead iodides (CnH2n+1NH3)(2)PbI4; n=12, 16, 18

The single perovskite slab alkylammonium lead iodides (CnH2n+1NH3)(2)PbI4, n = 12, 16, 18, display two phase transitions, just above room temperature, associated with changes in the alkylammonium chains. We have followed these two phase transitions using scanning calorimetry, X-ray powder diffraction, and IR and Raman spectroscopies. We find the first phase transition to be associated with symmetry changes arising from a dynamic rotational disordering of the ammonium headgroup of the chain whereas the second transition, the melting of the chains in two dimensions, is characterized by an increased conformational disorder of the methylene units of the alkyl chains. We examine these phase transitions in light of the interesting optical properties of these materials, as well as the relevance of these systems as models for phase transitions in lipid bilayers.

Low correlation interleaved QAM sequences

A low correlation interleaved QAM sequence family is presented here. In a CDMA setting, these sequences have the ability to transport a large amount of data as well as enable variable-rate signaling on the reverse link. The new interleaved selected family INQ has period N, normalized maximum correlation parameter thetasmacrmax bounded above by lsim a radicN, where a ranges from 1.17 in the 16-QAM case to 1.99 for large M2-QAM, where M = 2m, m ges 2. Each user is enabled to transfer m + 1 bits of data per period of the spreading sequence. These constructions have the lowest known value of maximum correlation of any sequence family with the same alphabet.

Pruned Universal Symbol Sequences for LZW based Language identification

We present a improved language modeling technique for Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) based LID scheme. The previous approach to LID using LZW algorithm prepares the language pattern table using LZW algorithm. Because of the sequential nature of the LZW algorithm, several language specific patterns of the language were missing in the pattern table. To overcome this, we build a universal pattern table, which contains all patterns of different length. For each language it's corresponding language specific pattern table is constructed by retaining the patterns of the universal table whose frequency of appearance in the training data is above the threshold.This approach reduces the classification score (Compression Ratio [LZW-CR] or the weighted discriminant score[LZW-WDS]) for non native languages and increases the LID performance considerably.

Beta-structure of polypeptides in non-aqueous solutions. II. Side-chain orientation

The specific side-chain orientations of the phenyl group in the polypeptides poly-S-benzyl-L-cysteine, poly-S-carbobenzoxy-L-cysteine and poly-O-carbobenzoxy-L-serine in the beta-structure have been studied by spectral measurements in solutions. All the three polypeptides exhibit aromatic CD bands, indicating the asymmetric placement of the side-chain phenyl rings when the polypeptide backbone takes up the antiparallel beta-structure. Supporting evidence for this is derived from n.m.r. spectra of the polypeptides, which show upfield shift of the phenyl protons due to the stacking of the aromatic rings. Molecular model building studies reveal the stacking of alternate phenyl groups along the polypeptide chain.

Revisiting the Mechanism of the Triosephosphate Isomerase Reaction: The Role of the Fully Conserved Glutamic Acid 97 Residue

An analysis of 503 available triosephosphate isomerase sequences revealed nine fully conserved residues. Of these, four residues-K12, H95, E97 and E165-are capable of proton transfer and are all arrayed around the dihydroxyacetone phosphate substrate in the three-dimensional structure. Specific roles have been assigned to the residues K12, H95 and E165, but the nature of the involvement of E97 has not been established. Kinetic and structural characterization is reported for the E97Q and E97D mutants of Plasmodium falciparum triosephosphate isomerase (Pf TIM). A 4000-fold reduction in k(cat) is observed for E97Q, whereas the E97D mutant shows a 100-fold reduction. The control mutant, E165A, which lacks the key catalytic base, shows an approximately 9000-fold drop in activity. The integrity of the overall fold and stability of the dimeric structure have been demonstrated by biophysical studies. Crystal structures of E97Q and E97D mutants have been determined at 2.0 angstrom resolution. In the case of the isosteric replacement of glutamic acid by glutamine in the E97Q mutant a large conformational change for the critical K12 side chain is observed, corresponding to a trans-to-gauche transition about the C gamma-C delta (chi(3)) bond. In the E97D mutant, the K12 side chain maintains the wild-type orientation, but the hydrogen bond between K12 and D97 is lost. The results are interpreted as a direct role for E97 in the catalytic proton transfer cycle. The proposed mechanism eliminates the need to invoke the formation of the energetically unfavourable imidazolate anion at H95, a key feature of the classical mechanism.

Conformational studies of the phosphazenyl side chain in cyclophosphazenes. Part 3. Crystal and molecular structure of N3P3Cl4(NEt2)(NPPh3)

The crystal structure of N3P3Cl4(NEt2)(NPPh3) has been determined. The crystals are orthorhombic, space group Pbca, with a= 8.208(1), b= 21.890(1), c= 31.722(2)Å, Z= 8, and m.p. = 146.5 °C. The structure was solved by direct methods and refined to a final R value of 0.045 for 2 025 independent reflections. The analysis reveals significant variations in the ring P–N bond lengths. The two nitrogenous substituents, NPPh3 and NEt2, reside on the same phosphorus atom. The latter, NEt2, has an almost exact type II conformation (the plane NC2 almost perpendicular to the local NPN plane)(the first observed for a dialkylamino-group in cyclophosphazenes), the former, NPPh3, deviates from type II towards type III (in type III the plane Pring–N–Pexo makes an angle of ca. 45° with the local N–P–N ring plane). The present structure is compared with others of triphenylphosphazenyl-cyclophosphazenes and the conformation of the NPPh3 substituent and its electron supply in the ground and perturbed states are discussed.

Sequences for Phase-Encoded Optical CDMA

In phase-encoded optical CDMA (OCDMA) spreading is achieved by encoding the phase of signal spectrum. Here, a mathematical model for the output signal of a phase-encoded OCDMA system is first derived. This is shown to lead to a performance metric for the design of spreading sequences for asynchronous transmission. Generalized bent functions are used to construct a family of efficient phase-encoding sequences. It is shown how M-ary modulation of these spreading sequences is possible. The problem of designing efficient phaseencoded sequences is then related to the problem of minimizing PMEPR (peak-to-mean envelope power ratio) in an OFDM communication system.

Optimality of orthogonal sequences with multi-dimensional signaling

The sum capacity on a symbol-synchronous CDMA system having processing gain N and supporting K power constrained users is achieved by employing any set of N orthogonal sequences if a few users are allowed to signal along multiple dimensions. Analogously, the minimum received power (energy-per-chip) on the symbolsynchronous CDMA system supporting K users that demand specified data rates is attained by employing any set of N orthogonal sequences. At most (N - 1) users need to be split and if there are no oversized users, these split users need to signal only in two dimensions each. These results show that sum capacity or minimum sum power can be achieved with minimal downlink signaling.

Spreading Sequences for Asynchronous Spectrally Phase Encoded Optical CDMA

In phase encoding optical CDMA (OCDMA) the spreading is achieved by encoding the phase of signal spectrum. In this paper we first derive a mathematical model for the output of phase encoding OCDMA systems. Based on this model we introduce a metric to design spreading sequences for asynchronous transmission. Then we connect the phase encoding sequence design problem to OFDM PMEPR (peak to mean envelope power ratio) problem. Using this connection we conclude that designing sequences with good properties for samples of timing delay guarantees that the same sequence to be good for all timing delays. Finally using generalized bent function we manage to construct a family of sequences which are good for asynchronous phase encoding OCDMA systems and using these sequences we introduce an M-ary modulation scheme for phase encoding OCDMA

Novel Switching Sequences for a Space-Vector-Modulated Three-Level Inverter

A three-level inverter produces six active vectors, each of normalized magnitudes 1, 0.866, and 0.5, besides a zero vector. The vectors of relative length 0.5 are termed pivot vectors.The three nearest voltage vectors are usually used to synthesize the reference vector. In most continuous pulsewidth-modulation(PWM) schemes, the switching sequence begins from a pivot vector and ends with the same pivot vector. Thus, the pivot vector is applied twice in a subcycle or half-carrier cycle. This paper proposes and investigates alternative switching sequences, which use the pivot vector only once but employ one of the other two vectors twice within the subcycle. The total harmonic distortion(THD) in the fundamental line current pertaining to these novel sequences is studied theoretically as well as experimentally over the whole range of modulation. Compared with centered space vector PWM, two of the proposed sequences lead to reduced THD at high modulation indices at a given average switching frequency.

Investigating Diproline Segments in Proteins: Occurrences, Conformation and Classification

The covalent linkage between the side-chain and the backbone nitrogen atom of proline leads to the formation of the five-membered pyrrolidine ring and hence restriction of the backbone torsional angle phi to values of -60 degrees +/- 30 degrees for the L-proline. Diproline segments constitute a chain fragment with considerably reduced conformational choices. In the current study, the conformational states for the diproline segment ((L)Pro-(L)Pro) found in proteins has been investigated with an emphasis on the cis and trans states for the Pro-Pro peptide bond. The occurrence of diproline segments in turns and other secondary structures has been studied and compared to that of Xaa-Pro-Yaa segments in proteins which gives us a better understanding on the restriction imposed on other residues by the diproline segment and the single proline residue. The study indicates that P(II)-P(II) and P(II)-alpha are the most favorable conformational states for the diproline segment. The analysis on Xaa-Pro-Yaa sequences reveals that the XaaPro peptide bond exists preferably as the trans conformer rather than the cis conformer. The present study may lead to a better understanding of the behavior of proline occurring in diproline segments which can facilitate various designed diproline-based synthetic templates for biological and structural studies. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 97: 54-64, 2012.

Improving Superscalar Instruction Dispatch And Issue By Exploiting Dynamic Code Sequences

Superscalar processors currently have the potential to fetch multiple basic blocks per cycle by employing one of several recently proposed instruction fetch mechanisms. However, this increased fetch bandwidth cannot be exploited unless pipeline stages further downstream correspondingly improve. In particular,register renaming a large number of instructions per cycle is diDcult. A large instruction window, needed to receive multiple basic blocks per cycle, will slow down dependence resolution and instruction issue. This paper addresses these and related issues by proposing (i) partitioning of the instruction window into multiple blocks, each holding a dynamic code sequence; (ii) logical partitioning of the registerjle into a global file and several local jles, the latter holding registers local to a dynamic code sequence; (iii) the dynamic recording and reuse of register renaming information for registers local to a dynamic code sequence. Performance studies show these mechanisms improve performance over traditional superscalar processors by factors ranging from 1.5 to a little over 3 for the SPEC Integer programs. Next, it is observed that several of the loops in the benchmarks display vector-like behavior during execution, even if the static loop bodies are likely complex for compile-time vectorization. A dynamic loop vectorization mechanism that builds on top of the above mechanisms is briefly outlined. The mechanism vectorizes up to 60% of the dynamic instructions for some programs, albeit the average number of iterations per loop is quite small.

A mostly-digital analog scan-out chain for low bandwidth voltage measurement for analog IP test

A method of precise measurement of on-chip analog voltages in a mostly-digital manner, with minimal overhead, is presented. A pair of clock signals is routed to the node of an analog voltage. This analog voltage controls the delay between this pair of clock signals, which is then measured in an all-digital manner using the technique of sub-sampling. This sub-sampling technique, having measurement time and accuracy trade-off, is well suited for low bandwidth signals. This concept is validated by designing delay cells, using current starved inverters in UMC 130nm CMOS process. Sub-mV accuracy is demonstrated for a measurement time of few seconds.