Verification of analog circuits in power-down mode

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Eletrotécnica e Computadores

Investigation of Novel Circuits Involved in Virgin Female Receptivity of Drosophila melanogaster

Courtship is a behavior that allows the display of fitness of one sex to the other and gates possible subsequent mating. This behavior is crucial for reproduction and has strong innate components in all animals. Courtship in Drosophila melanogaster consists of a series of highly stereotyped actions that the male performs towards the female. He sings with vibrations of the wings, touches and licks her abdomen, while she evaluates the information presented to her.(...)

Constraint solving over multi-valued logics - application to digital circuits

Due to usage conditions, hazardous environments or intentional causes, physical and virtual systems are subject to faults in their components, which may affect their overall behaviour. In a ‘black-box’ agent modelled by a set of propositional logic rules, in which just a subset of components is externally visible, such faults may only be recognised by examining some output function of the agent. A (fault-free) model of the agent’s system provides the expected output given some input. If the real output differs from that predicted output, then the system is faulty. However, some faults may only become apparent in the system output when appropriate inputs are given. A number of problems regarding both testing and diagnosis thus arise, such as testing a fault, testing the whole system, finding possible faults and differentiating them to locate the correct one. The corresponding optimisation problems of finding solutions that require minimum resources are also very relevant in industry, as is minimal diagnosis. In this dissertation we use a well established set of benchmark circuits to address such diagnostic related problems and propose and develop models with different logics that we formalise and generalise as much as possible. We also prove that all techniques generalise to agents and to multiple faults. The developed multi-valued logics extend the usual Boolean logic (suitable for faultfree models) by encoding values with some dependency (usually on faults). Such logics thus allow modelling an arbitrary number of diagnostic theories. Each problem is subsequently solved with CLP solvers that we implement and discuss, together with a new efficient search technique that we present. We compare our results with other approaches such as SAT (that require substantial duplication of circuits), showing the effectiveness of constraints over multi-valued logics, and also the adequacy of a general set constraint solver (with special inferences over set functions such as cardinality) on other problems. In addition, for an optimisation problem, we integrate local search with a constructive approach (branch-and-bound) using a variety of logics to improve an existing efficient tool based on SAT and ILP.

Digitally programmable delay-locked-loop with adaptive charge pump current for UWB radar system

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e Computadores

Influence of commercially available polyimide and formation conditions on the performance and structure of asymmetric polyimide organic solvent nanofiltration membranes

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Química e Bioquímica

Uncovering the role of IFNAR1 in Experimental Cerebral malaria

Dissertation presented the Ph.D degree in Biology

A multiplying-by-two CMOS amplifier for high-speed ADCs based on parametric amplification

15th International Conference on Mixed Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, pp. 177 – 180, Poznan, Polónia

Parametric analog signal amplification applied to nanoscale cmos wireless digital transceivers

Thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Electrical and Computer Engineering by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa,Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Novos circuitos regulatórios de controlo espacio-temporal do desenvolvimento em bacillus subtilis

RESUMO: A esporulação em Bacillus subtilis é controlada por uma cascata de factores sigma da polimerase do RNA. F e E controlam os estágios precoces do desenvolvimento no pré-esporo e na célula mãe, respectivamente. Numa fase intermédia da diferenciação, quando a célula mãe acaba por envolver o pré-esporo, F é substituído por G e E é substituído por K. Vários mecanismos asseguram que a actividade dos diferentes factores sigma seja confinada a uma janela temporal precisa na célula adequada. Neste estudo, investigámos a função de um factor anti-G, designado por CsfB. Mostramos que para além da sua função de inibição da actividade do factor G em células pré-divisionais, CsfB é também necessário na célula mãe num estágio tardio do desenvolvimento. Mostramos que a expressão de csfB é activada na célula mãe a partir de um promotor dependente de K. Contudo, demonstramos que CsfB interage directamente com E e não com K, e que CsfB é suficiente para inibir a actividade transcricional dependente de E em células vegetativas de B. subtilis. Propomos que CsfB contribui para reduzir o período dependente de E, na linha de expressão genética da célula mãe, desse modo reduzindo a sobreposição entre os regulões E e K e aumentado a fidelidade do processo de desenvolvimento. Uma segunda proteína, YabK, partilha semelhança estrutural com CsfB. YabK é produzida no pré-esporo sob o comando de F, e é necessária para a esporulação. YabK contribui para a transição F/G no programa genético do pré-esporo, porque uma mutação que torna F sensível a CsfB ultrapassa parcialmente a função de YabK na esporulação. No entanto, YabK e CsfB funcionam por mecanismos diferentes, uma vez que YabK não liga directamente a F.---------ABSTRACT: Gene expression during spore development in Bacillus subtilis is governed by a cascade of RNA polymerase sigma factors. F and E control the early stages of development in the forespore and in the mother cell, respectively. At an intermediate stage in the differentiation process, when the larger mother cell finishes engulfment of the smaller forespore, F is replaced by G and E is replaced by K. Several mechanisms ensure the proper timing of activation of the cell type-specific sigma factors. Here, we have investigated the funtion of an anti-sigma G factor, called CsfB. We show here that in addition to its role in inhibiting G in pre-divisional cells, CsfB is also required in the mother cell at a late stage in development. We show that the expression of csfB is activated in the mother cell from a K-specific promoter. However, we demonstrate that CsfB binds directly to E but not to K in a yeast two-hybrid assay, and that CsfB is sufficient to inhibit E-dependent transcriptional activity in vegetative cells of B. subtilis. We posit that CsfB contributes to shutting off the early, E-controlled period in the mother cell line of gene expression, thus reducing the overlap between deployment of the E and K regulons and increasing the fidelity of the developmental process. A second protein, YabK, shares structural similarity with CsfB. YabK is produced in the forespore under F control, and is required for efficient sporulation. YabK contributes to the transition from the F- to the G-dependent period of gene expression, because a mutation that renders F sensitive to CsfB partially bypasses the need for YabK. Yet, YabK and CsfB must function in the control of sigma factor activity by different mechanisms because YabK does not bind directly to F.

Reference-free high-speed cmos pipeline analog-to-digital converters

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering of the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Non-gyrator type active inductors

Modern CMOS radio frequency (RF) Receivers have enabled efficient and increasing applications. The main requirement is to have system in a single chip, in order to minimize area and cost. For the purpose it is required the development of inductorless circuits for the key blocks of an RF receiver. Examples of this key blocks are RC oscillators, RF band pass filters, and Low Noise Amplifiers. The present dissertation presents an inductorless wideband MOSFET-only RF Non-Gyrator Type of Active Inductors with low area, low cost, and very low power, capable of covering the whole WMTS, and ISM, band and intended for biomedical applications. The proposed circuit is based on a floating capacitor connected between two controlled current sources. The first current source, which is controlled by the circuit input voltage, has two objectives: supply current to the capacitor (

Water treatments in semi-closed cooling circuits and their impact on the quality of effluents discharged by CERN

Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, Gestão de Sistemas Ambientais

Water treatments in semi-closed cooling circuits and their impact on the quality of effluents discharged by CERN

Mestrado integrado em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil: Gestão de Sistemas Ambientais

Novel techniques for the design and practical realization of switched-capacitor circuits in deep-submicron CMOS technologies

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Application of OSN in membrane cascade for purification of the API Amoxicillin

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Química e Bioquímica