A novel adaptive logarithmic digital pixel sensor

A major problem associated with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor and charge couple device imagers is their limited dynamic range (DR), typically 60-70 dB. This falls far short of covering the wide illumination ranges found in natural scenes (typically 120-140 dB). Biological retinas are known to feature adaptive, logarithmic-type responses enabling them to cover a very wide DR, without compromising the resolution. This letter presents a novel way to realize such an adaptive logarithmic response by combining a digital time domain vision sensor and a simple adaptive digital quantizer. This letter presents the theory and experimental results for an adaptive logarithmic response sensor featuring over 100-dB DR.     

Generalised cerebral atrophy following temporal lobectomy for intractable epilepsy associated with mesial temporal sclerosis

Studies of post-operative imaging data have mainly concentrated on brain atrophy following radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. We have investigated the effect of conventional surgery on the unresected brain tissue based on the comparison of magnetic resonance images acquired pre- and post-operatively in 13 subjects with a history of mesio-temporal epilepsy. The pre- and post-operative scans were co-registered prior to volumetric analysis. The total brain volume (TBV) was calculated by semi-automated segmentation, and the total volume loss was the difference between the post-operative and pre-operative TBV. The total volume of resection was determined by manual delineation in the post-operative scan. The atrophy volume in the post-operative scan was calculated as the difference between the total volume loss and the resection volume. In 6 cases, there was generalised cerebral atrophy of the order 4-5% of the total brain volume. In addition to the automated volumetric technique, the images were assessed by two expert neuroradiologists. There was complete correspondence between their assessment and the automated technique. The causes and significance of this phenomenon are unknown but it requires further investigation as it may be related to seizure control and neuropsychological changes following epilepsy surgery.     

Synthesis and Structures of 3,5-disubstituted 1,2,4-triazole Head Units and Incorporation of 3,5-dibenzoyl-1,2,4-triazolate into New [2 + 2] Schiff-Base Macrocyclic Complexes

The synthesis and characterization of sodium 3,5-diacetyl-1,2,4-triazolate (4 ^Me ) and sodium 3,5-dibenzoyl-1,2,4-triazolate (4 ^Ph ), both of which can be used as head unit building blocks in Schiff-base reactions, are reported. The crystal structures of sodium 3,5-diacetyl-1,2,4-triazolate, as [4 ^Me (H₂O)]_∞, and sodium 3,5-dibenzoyl-1,2,4-triazolate, as [4 ^Ph (CH₃OH)₂]₂, have been determined. The former is a helical polymer whilst the latter is a methanol-bridged dimer. The lead(II) templated cyclization reaction of sodium 3,5-dibenzoyl-1,2,4-triazolate (4 ^Ph ) with 1,3-diaminopropane or 1,4-diaminobutane, respectively, leads to the formation of two new [2 + 2] Schiff-base macrocycles as their lead(II) complexes, [Pb₂ L ^3Ph (μ-OH)]ClO₄ (5) and [Pb₂ L ^4Ph (μ-OH)]ClO₄ (6), respectively. Transmetallation of 5 with nickel(II) ions yields a novel, structurally characterized, dinickel(II) macrocyclic complex, [Ni₂ L ^3Ph (NCS)₂] (7), which features double triazolate bridging of the two five-coordinate nickel(II) ions.     

Observation of electromigration at low temperature

Electromigration and mean time-to-failure were investigated for unglassed thin Al stripes over the temperature range of 223 K to 347 K. Thermal effects are minimized by sinking heat from the linestrip through the substrate to a miniature cryogenic refrigerator. This test technique allows the investigation of structure and current interactions while suppressing the effects of an added temperature factor. The circuit was stressed by direct current densities greater than 4×10⁶ A/cm². Electromigration damage was induced in a test stripe at temperatures near 0°C. For the temperature range of 347 K to 267 K, an activation energy of 0.30 eV was calculated, indicating that surface migration is the dominant failure mechanism. For temperatures between 267 K and 223 K, a calculated activation energy of 0.12 eV suggests a different failure mechanism, which was subsequently identified as stripe separation from the substrate     

PWM digital pixel sensor based on asynchronous self-resetting scheme

In this letter, a pulse-width modulated digital pixel sensor is presented along with its inherent advantages such as low power consumption and wide operating range. The pixel, which comprises an analog processor and an 8-bit memory cell, operates in an asynchronous self-resetting mode. In contrast to most CMOS image sensors, in our approach, the photocurrent signal is encoded as a pulse-width signal, and converted to an 8-bit digital code using a Gray counter. The dynamic range of the pixel can be adapted by simply modulating the clock frequency of the counter. To test the operation of the proposed pixel architecture, an image sensor array has been designed and fabricated in a 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, where each pixel occupies an area of 45/spl times/45 /spl mu/m/sup 2/. Here, the operation of the sensor is demonstrated through experimental results.     

An uncharged amine in the transition state of the ribosomal peptidyl transfer reaction

The ribosome has an active site comprised of RNA that catalyzes peptide bond formation. To understand how RNA promotes this reaction requires a detailed understanding of the chemical transition state. Here, we report the Br?nsted coefficient of the alpha-amino nucleophile with a series of puromycin derivatives. Both 50S subunit- and 70S ribosome-catalyzed reactions displayed linear free-energy relationships with slopes close to zero under conditions where chemistry is rate limiting. These results indicate that, at the transition state, the nucleophile is neutral in the ribosome-catalyzed reaction, in contrast to the substantial positive charge reported for typical uncatalyzed aminolysis reactions. This suggests that the ribosomal transition state involves deprotonation to a degree commensurate with nitrogen-carbon bond formation. Such a transition state is significantly different from that of uncatalyzed aminolysis reactions in solution.     

Computer-aided drug discovery research at a global contract research organization

Computer-aided drug discovery started at Albany Molecular Research, Inc in 1997. Over nearly 20 years the role of cheminformatics and computational chemistry has grown throughout the pharmaceutical industry and at AMRI. This paper will describe the infrastructure and roles of CADD throughout drug discovery and some of the lessons learned regarding the success of several methods. Various contributions provided by computational chemistry and cheminformatics in chemical library design, hit triage, hit-to-lead and lead optimization are discussed. Some frequently used computational chemistry techniques are described. The ways in which they may contribute to discovery projects are presented based on a few examples from recent publications.     

The Gaussian Generalized Born model: application to small molecules

This work presents a Generalized Born model for the computation of the electrostatic component of solvation energies which is based on volume integration. An analytic masking function is introduced to remove Coulombic singularities. This approach leads to analytic formulae for the computation of Born radii, which are differentiable to arbitrary order, and computationally straightforward to implement.     

Unexpected Self‐Sorting Self‐Assembly Formation of a [4:4] Sulfate:Ligand Cage from a Preorganized Tripodal Urea Ligand

The design and synthesis of tripodal ligands 1 – 3 based upon the N‐methyl‐1,3,5‐benzenetricarboxamide platform appended with three aryl urea arms is reported. This ligand platform gives rise to highly preorganized structures and is ideally suited for binding SO₄^2? and H₂PO₄^? ions through multiple hydrogen‐bonding interactions. The solid‐state crystal structures of 1 – 3 with SO₄^2? show the encapsulation of a single anion within a cage structure, whereas the crystal structure of 1 with H₂PO₄^? showed that two anions are encapsulated. We further demonstrate that ligand 4 , based on the same platform but consisting of two bis‐urea moieties and a single ammonium moiety, also recognizes SO₄^2? to form a self‐assembled capsule with [4:4] SO₄^2?: 4 stoichiometry in which the anions are clustered within a cavity formed by the four ligands. This is the first example of a self‐sorting self‐assembled capsule where four tetrahedrally arranged SO₄^2? ions are embedded within a hydrophobic cavity.