Self-healing Techniques for RF and mm-Wave Transmitters and Receivers

With continuing advances in CMOS technology, feature sizes of modern Silicon chip-sets have gone down drastically over the past decade. In addition to desktops and laptop processors, a vast majority of these chips are also being deployed in mobile communication devices like smart-phones and tablets, where multiple radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) must be integrated into one device to cater to a wide variety of applications such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, wireless charging, etc. While a small feature size enables higher integration levels leading to billions of transistors co-existing on a single chip, it also makes these Silicon ICs more susceptible to variations. A part of these variations can be attributed to the manufacturing process itself, particularly due to the stringent dimensional tolerances associated with the lithographic steps in modern processes. Additionally, RF or millimeter-wave communication chip-sets are subject to another type of variation caused by dynamic changes in the operating environment. Another bottleneck in the development of high performance RF/mm-wave Silicon ICs is the lack of accurate analog/high-frequency models in nanometer CMOS processes. This can be primarily attributed to the fact that most cutting edge processes are geared towards digital system implementation and as such there is little model-to-hardware correlation at RF frequencies.

All these issues have significantly degraded yield of high performance mm-wave and RF CMOS systems which often require multiple trial-and-error based Silicon validations, thereby incurring additional production costs. This dissertation proposes a low overhead technique which attempts to counter the detrimental effects of these variations, thereby improving both performance and yield of chips post fabrication in a systematic way. The key idea behind this approach is to dynamically sense the performance of the system, identify when a problem has occurred, and then actuate it back to its desired performance level through an intelligent on-chip optimization algorithm. We term this technique as self-healing drawing inspiration from nature's own way of healing the body against adverse environmental effects. To effectively demonstrate the efficacy of self-healing in CMOS systems, several representative examples are designed, fabricated, and measured against a variety of operating conditions.

We demonstrate a high-power mm-wave segmented power mixer array based transmitter architecture that is capable of generating high-speed and non-constant envelope modulations at higher efficiencies compared to existing conventional designs. We then incorporate several sensors and actuators into the design and demonstrate closed-loop healing against a wide variety of non-ideal operating conditions. We also demonstrate fully-integrated self-healing in the context of another mm-wave power amplifier, where measurements were performed across several chips, showing significant improvements in performance as well as reduced variability in the presence of process variations and load impedance mismatch, as well as catastrophic transistor failure. Finally, on the receiver side, a closed-loop self-healing phase synthesis scheme is demonstrated in conjunction with a wide-band voltage controlled oscillator to generate phase shifter local oscillator (LO) signals for a phased array receiver. The system is shown to heal against non-idealities in the LO signal generation and distribution, significantly reducing phase errors across a wide range of frequencies.

Establishing the C. elegans uterine seam cell (utse) as a novel model for studying cell behavior

The molecular inputs necessary for cell behavior are vital to our understanding of development and disease. Proper cell behavior is necessary for processes ranging from creating one’s face (neural crest migration) to spreading cancer from one tissue to another (invasive metastatic cancers). Identifying the genes and tissues involved in cell behavior not only increases our understanding of biology but also has the potential to create targeted therapies in diseases hallmarked by aberrant cell behavior.

A well-characterized model system is key to determining the molecular and spatial inputs necessary for cell behavior. In this work I present the C. elegans uterine seam cell (utse) as an ideal model for studying cell outgrowth and shape change. The utse is an H-shaped cell within the hermaphrodite uterus that functions in attaching the uterus to the body wall. Over L4 larval stage, the utse grows bidirectionally along the anterior-posterior axis, changing from an ellipsoidal shape to an elongated H-shape. Spatially, the utse requires the presence of the uterine toroid cells, sex muscles, and the anchor cell nucleus in order to properly grow outward. Several gene families are involved in utse development, including Trio, Nav, Rab GTPases, Arp2/3, as well as 54 other genes found from a candidate RNAi screen. The utse can be used as a model system for studying metastatic cancer. Meprin proteases are involved in promoting invasiveness of metastatic cancers and the meprin-likw genes nas-21, nas-22, and toh-1 act similarly within the utse. Studying nas-21 activity has also led to the discovery of novel upstream inhibitors and activators as well as targets of nas-21, some of which have been characterized to affect meprin activity. This illustrates that the utse can be used as an in vivo model for learning more about meprins, as well as various other proteins involved in metastasis.

Solar System Small-Body Demographics with the Palomar Transient Factory Survey

Observational studies of our solar system's small-body populations (asteroids and comets) offer insight into the history of our planetary system, as these minor planets represent the left-over building blocks from its formation. The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) survey began in 2009 as the latest wide-field sky-survey program to be conducted on the 1.2-meter Samuel Oschin telescope at Palomar Observatory. Though its main science program has been the discovery of high-energy extragalactic sources (such as supernovae), during its first five years PTF has collected nearly five million observations of over half a million unique solar system small bodies. This thesis begins to analyze this vast data set to address key population-level science topics, including: the detection rates of rare main-belt comets and small near-Earth asteroids, the spin and shape properties of asteroids as inferred from their lightcurves, the applicability of this visible light data to the interpretation of ultraviolet asteroid observations, and a comparison of the physical properties of main-belt and Jovian Trojan asteroids. Future sky-surveys would benefit from application of the analytical techniques presented herein, which include novel modeling methods and unique applications of machine-learning classification. The PTF asteroid small-body data produced in the course of this thesis work should remain a fertile source of solar system science and discovery for years to come.

Everybody Farts: Celebrating the Body and Refuting Medical Paternalism in Joyce's Ulysses

James Joyce’s Ulysses celebrates all facets of daily life in its refusal to censor raw human emotions and emissions. He adopts a critically medical perspective to portray this honest, unfiltered narrative. In doing so, he reveals the ineffectiveness of the physician-patient relationship due to doctors’ paternalistic attitudes that hinder nonjudgmental, open listening of this unfiltered narrative. His exploration of the doctor’s moral scrutiny, cultural prejudices, and authoritative estrangement from the patient underscore the importance in remembering that physicians and patients alike are ultimately just fellow human beings. Wryly, he drives this point to literal nausea, as his narrative proudly asserts the revulsive details of public health, digestion, and death. In his gritty ruminations on the human body’s material reality, Joyce mocks the physician’s highbrow paternalism by forcing him to identify with the farting, vomiting, decaying bodies around him. In celebrating the uncensored human narrative, Joyce challenges physician and patient alike to openly listen to the stories of others.

An investigation of the three-body reaction He^3(He^3, 2p)He^4

Reactions produced by the He³ bombardment of the He³ have been investigated for bombarding energies from 1 to 20 MeV using a tandem Van de Graaff accelerator. Proton spectra from the three-body reaction He³(He³, 2p)He⁴ have been measured with a counter telescope at 13 angles for 9 bombarding energies between 3 and 18 MeV. The results are compared with a model for the reaction which includes a strong p-He⁴ final-state interaction. Alpha-particle spectra have been obtained at 12 and 18 MeV for forward angles with a magnetic spectrometer. These spectra indicate a strongly forward-peaked mechanism involving the ¹S₀ p-p interaction in addition to the p-He⁴ interaction. Measurements of p-He⁴ and p-p coincidence spectra at 10 MeV confirm these features of the reaction mechanism. Deuteron spectra from the reaction of He³(He³, d)pHe³ have been measured at 18 MeV. A triton spectrum from the reaction He³(He³, t)3p at 20 MeV and 4⁰ is interpreted in terms of a sequential decay through an excited state of the alpha particle at 20.0 MeV. No effects are observed which would indicate an interaction in the residual (3p) system. Below 3 MeV the He³(He³, 2p)He⁴ reaction mechanism is observed to be changing and further measurements are suggested in view of the importance of this reaction in stellar interiors.

Of angels and demons: Virginia Woolfs homicidal legacy in Sylvia Plaths: The bell jar.

Esta dissertação é um estudo comparativo do legado vitoriano deixado para as escritoras do século XX, Virginia Woolf e Sylvia Plath. Primeiro discutem-se as agências controladoras do corpo feminino na era vitoriana e a formação de um ideal de feminilidade que chamamos de Anjo do Lar. Em seguida, discute-se como Virginia Woolf apreende essa imagem e a subverte, criando seu duplo, que chamamos de Demônio do Lar. Por fim, promovemos o diálogo entre Sylvia Plath e Virginia Woolf. Plath parece escrever aos moldes de Woolf, criando uma literatura de morte, feita para assassinar o Anjo do Lar. Usamos para tal estudo o conceito de écriture féminine, criado pelas francófonas Hélène Cixous, Luce Irigaray, e Julia Kristeva, entre outras, para traçar os paralelos entre um lugar para o feminino na escrita e a busca de uma tradição por Woolf. A abjeção de Kristeva, a dinâmica de poder entre alma e corpo de Foucault e o conceito de duplo de Otto Rank nos ajudarão, por fim, a entender como se dá a morte do Anjo na literatura, especificamente no romance A redoma de vidro (1963) de Sylvia Plath

Quando a magreza torna-se um ideal masculino: um estudo socioantropologico sobre a anorexia e a bulimia em homens

Esta dissertação pretende discutir o surgimento de casos de anorexia nervosa e bulimia nervosa em homens e sua relação com: a - as questões socioculturais ligadas ao culto à magreza e seus desdobramentos (como a noção de estilo de vida); e b - as discussões sobre masculinidades, experiências corporais e subjetivas desses sujeitos. Seu principal objetivo é compreender como estes transtornos alimentares, tidos como distúrbios de ordem psiquiátrica pela literatura biomédica, não estão restritos somente ao feminino, sugerindo também implicações ligadas ao processo de elaboração do saber médico, seus campos de pesquisa e atuação. A metodologia empregada foi a realização de entrevistas via MSN Messenger, com 20 homens entre 13 e 30 anos, que declaram passar ou ter passado por algum tipo de experiência envolvendo a anorexia e/ou bulimia.

The body social: an enactive approach to the self

This paper takes a new look at an old question: what is the human self? It offers a proposal for theorizing the self from an enactive perspective as an autonomous system that is constituted through interpersonal relations. It addresses a prevalent issue in the philosophy of cognitive science: the body-social problem. Embodied and social approaches to cognitive identity are in mutual tension. On the one hand, embodied cognitive science risks a new form of methodological individualism, implying a dichotomy not between the outside world of objects and the brain-bound individual but rather between body-bound individuals and the outside social world. On the other hand, approaches that emphasize the constitutive relevance of social interaction processes for cognitive identity run the risk of losing the individual in the interaction dynamics and of downplaying the role of embodiment. This paper adopts a middle way and outlines an enactive approach to individuation that is neither individualistic nor disembodied but integrates both approaches. Elaborating on Jonas' notion of needful freedom it outlines an enactive proposal to understanding the self as co-generated in interactions and relations with others. I argue that the human self is a social existence that is organized in terms of a back and forth between social distinction and participation processes. On this view, the body, rather than being identical with the social self, becomes its mediator

立方反射镜失调特性的研究

结合理想坐标系下立方镜镜面微小倾斜后其三个平面法线坐标，利用刚体微量转动的反射法线向量公式，获得非理想立方镜反射矩阵；为了研究在光斜入射时镜面倾斜对出射光方向的影响，利用立方镜绕顶点旋转等效于光斜入射的方法，计算出光束夹角δ与单一镜面偏差角ε和立方镜旋转角θ之间的关系式；对于理想情况下的立方镜，利用几何光学可以证明出射光与入射光不但平行，而且过顶点作任意截面交于两光线所得的两个交点关于顶点对称，从而计算出立方镜绕顶点以外任意轴旋转造成出射光束相对原出射光的偏移量与旋转角关系式，理论计算值与实验数据吻合得很

Cultura corporal: pesquisa com adolescentes do Centro Cultural Cartola (CCC) Rio de Janeiro

A definição mais plausível para esta pesquisa é aquela onde a adolescência se estabelece de acordo com a história de vida e o contexto sociocultural no qual o sujeito está inserido, que envolve, na transição para a fase adulta, transformações na mente, na personalidade, no comportamento e principalmente no corpo. O grupo das adolescentes pesquisadas encontra-se numa fase da vida de descobertas, mudanças (psicológicas identitárias e acima de tudo corporais) assim como todo e qualquer sujeito que encontra-se nessa fase da vida. Com a entrada na adolescência, ocorre a formação de grupos no qual as adolescentes vão se identificar. Cada grupo tem a sua marca, o seu estilo, e o corpo parece ser o grande tradutor dessa nova fase, os efeitos de comparação começam a surgir, o medo de não ser aceita pelo grupo faz com que a adolescente recorra a métodos que acredita ser eficazes na busca de um eu ideal e consequentemente um corpo ideal. Esta pesquisa discute as idealizações corporais das jovens encontradas durante a realização da pesquisa de campo, e as ligações que existem entre essa idealização e as constituições desse ideal sob a concepção do movimento corporal. A análise de dados se baseou em interpretações psicológicas acerca dos desenhos realizados pelas adolescentes. Visto que a Comunidade da Mangueira é um espaço multicultural (estilos de músicas, danças, esportes, entre outros), mas que em comum tem o corpo como o principal tradutor dessas vivências. A busca pelo corpo ideal está longe de ser integralmente satisfeito, sendo a cultura a grande responsável pela elaboração emocional, mental e principalmente corporal das adolescentes do grupo de Jazz do CCC. A aplicação da metodologia do Grupo Operativo teve como um dos objetivos desconstruir e reestruturar o imaginário das adolescentes o conceito de corpo ideal, que atualmente é visto de forma rígida e estereotipada pela sociedade contemporânea. Tal ferramenta foi muito útil no processo de desconstrução do conceito de corpo ideal por parte das meninas. As dinâmicas utilizadas tiveram como objetivos despertar novos olhares sobre o corpo, assim como criar situações onde as jovens pudessem buscar o melhor de si, mas sem fugir da própria realidade corporal.

Autopercepção do peso corporal e transtornos mentais comuns em funcionários de uma universidade no Rio de Janeiro: Estudo Pró-Saúde

Gênero, raça e transtornos mentais são variáveis importantes a serem consideradas em estudos que avaliam a autopercepção do peso corporal. Se, por um lado, a sociedade contemporânea se depara com um crescimento epidêmico do sobrepeso e da obesidade, por outro os paradigmas corporais construídos socialmente para homens e mulheres têm-se tornado com o passar dos anos mais rigorosos e inatingíveis, sendo relacionados não somente à saúde, mas também ao sucesso pessoal, profissional e afetivo. Desse modo, perceber-se fora desse padrão pode levar ao desenvolvimento de transtornos mentais comuns (TMC). Alguns grupos, entretanto, parecem ser menos vulneráveis a tais padrões como no caso de indivíduos da raça negra. No entanto, poucos estudos nacionais têm investigado essas questões. A presente tese avaliou a incidência de TMC segundo a autopercepção do peso corporal entre funcionários de uma universidade no Rio de Janeiro, assim como a concordância entre a autopercepção do peso corporal e o Índice de Massa Corporal (IMC) segundo raça nessa mesma população. O primeiro estudo avaliou dados da primeira onda de seguimento da coorte do estudo Pró-Saúde analisando através de modelos lineares generalizados os riscos relativos da associação entre o desenvolvimento de TMC e a autopercepção do peso corporal. O segundo avaliou a estrutura de concordância entre a autopercepção do peso corporal e o IMC segundo raça. Os resultados do primeiro artigo evidenciaram associação entre incidência de TMC e perceber-se acima do peso corporal (RR=1,42) no modelo ajustado por sexo. Na análise que avaliou a concordância entre o IMC e a autopercepção do peso corporal não foram observadas diferenças em relação à raça e a concordância variou de moderada a elevada em entre mulheres e homens, respectivamente.Em ambos os sexos, o padrão de concordância fora da diagonal principal indicou que categorias altas e baixas de IMC corresponderam às categorias extremas de percepção corporal. Entre as mulheres, entretanto, a concordância dentro da diagonal principal sugeriu um padrão de concordância possivelmente maior para as categorias extremas de autopercepção de peso e IMC. Não foram evidenciadas diferenças segundo raça, possivelmente, pelo fato das pressões sociais em relação à aquisição de peso ideal serem desenvolvidas, no Brasil, dentro de um contexto multiracial.

Analysis of Body Composition and Food Habits of Spanish Celiac Women

The purpose of the present work was both to analyze composition of Spanish celiac women and to study the food habits and gluten-free diet of these celiac patients, in order to determine whether they achieve a balanced and healthy diet as well as to highlight nutritional qualitative and/or quantitative differences. 54 adult celiac women (34 +/- 13 years) took part in the six-month study. Height, weight and body composition were measured. An analysis of energy consumption and of the macronutrient distribution of their diet was carried out. Their fulfillment of micronutrient intake recommendations was verified. Participants showed a Body Mass Index of 21.6 +/- 2.4 kg/m(2). Energy Intake was slightly lower than the Dietary Reference Intakes. Excessive protein apart from over-consumption of fat was observed. More than three quarters of participants consumed meat in excess. Carbohydrate consumption along with that of fiber was below recommended levels. Vitamin D, iron, and iodine had a low percentage of recommendation compliance. In general, participants followed the recommendations of dairy products and fruit intake whereas vegetable consumption was not enough for the vast majority. We conclude that although the diet of celiac women does not differ much from the diet of general population, some considerations, such as reducing fat and protein consumption and increasing fiber intake, must be taken into account.