Large-scale SRAM-based IP lookup architectures using compact trie search structures

SRAM-based pipelined architectures for high-speed IP lookup using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) has recently attracted a great deal of attention from researchers. Due to the limited amount of on-chip memory and the number of I/O pins of FPGAs, compact data structures providing high memory efficiency are in great demand.     

CFD SIMULATION OF THE GAS-SOLID FLOW IN THE RISER OF A CIRCULATING FLUIDIZED BED WITH SECONDARY AIR INJECTION

A comprehensive investigation was carried out to study hydrodynamics aspects of secondary air injection in circulating fluidized beds. This article presents modeling and results of computational fluid dynamics simulations of gas-solid flow in the riser section of a laboratory-scale (ID = 0.23 m, height = 7.6 m) circulating fluidized bed with a radial secondary air injector. The gas-solid flow model is based on the two-fluid (Eulerian-Eulerian) approach, where both gas and solids phases are treated as interpenetrating continua. A granular kinetic theory model is used to describe the solids phase stresses. The simulation results are compared with measured pressure drop and axial particle velocity profiles; reasonable agreement is obtained. Qualitatively, excellent agreement is obtained in predicting the increase in solids volume fraction below secondary air ports, the accumulation of solids around the center of the riser due to momentum of secondary air jets, and the absence of the solids down-flow near the wall above the secondary air injection ports, which are the prominent features of secondary air injection observed in the experiments.     

Kinetics of non-congruent dissolution of E-glass fiber in saturated calcium hydroxide solution

The kinetics of non-congruent dissolution of long E-glass fiber in saturated calcium hydroxide solution has been investigated at 25°C in a closed reactor adopting the rotating disc method for the sample holder. The fiber dissolution rate (), measured from the relative loss weight of the fiber after selective dissolution of the attack layer in acetic acid, is a linear function of time, what implies an interfacial dissolution process. However, the kinetics does not stay regular for a long time due to local detachment of the attack layer. The comparison between = f (t) and ′ = f (t) curves, where ′ is the formation rate of the attack layer, shows that the formation of the layer does not only imply the deposit of a bad-crystalline hydrated calcium silicate but the nucleation and growth of solid calcium hydroxide and calcium carbonate resulting from the transfert, to the interface, of ions coming from the liquid phase. This phenomenon was precedently observed by some other authors in the case of glass-fiber reinforced cement matrix.     

一种考虑电压岛边界约束的多电压布图算法

多电压设计(multiple supply voltage,MSV)是降低SoC功耗的有效方法之一.为便于电压岛供电引脚的放置,提出了一种考虑电压岛边界约束的多电压布图算法.首先,基于切分树表示的布图解特点,提出一种边界检查算法快速确定所有模块的边界信息.其次,以优化功耗为目标采用改进动态规划方法进行多电压分配并构建电压岛.最后,以模拟退火算法作为搜索引擎对芯片的面积、线长和功耗进行协同优化.为减少SA迭代次数,采用了一个两阶段的降温策略.对GSRC电路的实验结果表明,该算法可获得满足边界约束的多电压布图,且和不考虑边界约束时相比,仅在功耗上平均增加5.2％.     

Improvements of the structural,thermal, and mechanical properties of structural adhesive with functionalized boron nitride nanoparticles

Investigations on the production and development of nanoparticle-reinforced polymer materials have been attracted attention by researchers. Various nanoparticles have been used to improve the mechanical, chemical, thermal, and physical properties of polymer matrix composites. Boron compounds come to the fore to improve the mechanical and thermal properties of polymers. In this study, mechanical, thermal, and structural properties of structural adhesive have been examined by adding nano hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) to epoxy matrix at different percentages (0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5%). For this purpose, nano h-BN particles were functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) to disperse the h-BN nanoparticles homogeneously in epoxy matrix and to form a strong bond at the matrix interface. Two-component structural epoxy adhesive was modified by using functionalized h-BN nanoparticles. The structural and thermal properties of the modified adhesives were investigated by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersion X-ray spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis techniques. Tensile test and dynamic mechanical analysis were performed to determine the mechanical properties of the adhesives. When the results obtained from analysis were examined, it was seen that the nano h-BN particles functionalized with APTES were homogeneously dispersed in the epoxy matrix and formed a strong bond. In addition that, it was concluded from the experimental results that the thermal and mechanical properties of adhesives were improved by adding functionalized nano h-BN particles into epoxy at different ratios.     

Eliciting positive user experiences with self-service kiosks: pursuing possibilities

Although the prominent concept of the last decade – user experience – maintains its significance in diverse disciplines, especially design, its focus has changed to eliciting positive user experiences by pursuing new possibilities for consumer products rather than by solely seeking solutions to existing problems. Designers continue to aim for rich user experiences with a variety of products, but have neglected self-service (interactive) kiosks. Hence, this paper, after giving a brief overview of the positive psychology literature, demonstrates the dimensions of positive user experiences with self-service kiosks through an empirical study conducted on coffee vending machines and automated tellers.     

Exploring the Belief Systems of Software Development Professionals

It is commonly accepted that an individual's beliefs and actions are based on his or her assessment and perceptions of the world. In order to determine what practices an individual is likely to follow at any given time, it is necessary to understand the individual's behavioral intention in a given circumstance. From an Information Technology perspective, a software development professional's belief systems are potentially the basis for the adoption and implementation of new and innovative work practices and processes. In this article, we explore the belief systems of software development professionals in order to understand the beliefs underlying intention and practice, and we seek answers about how they adopt or reject new and innovative software development processes and practices. The results point out a strong influence of past experiences, personality types, and repeated behavior on current software development processes and practices in industrial settings.     

Improved phase performance for rotman lens

Rotman lenses are used to obtain multiple beams from a single array. Although the beams produced by the feed antennas at focal points have no path length errors, the beams produced by feed antennas at off focal points may have large path length errors. These path length errors cause deterioration in the multiple beams. In this article, two novel methods are introduced to obtain feed curves which reduce the path length errors of off focal feed points significantly, compared with the commonly used circular and elliptical feed curves. The first method obtains feed curve points based on having zero path length error at three chosen points of the radiating array for each beam direction. The second method uses the particle swarm optimization method for obtaining optimum feed points for each beam direction. The results show that there is a very significant drop in the level of the maximum path length errors (in the order of about 1:4). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 23: 634–638, 2013.     

A greedy gradient-simulated annealing selection hyper-heuristic

Educational timetabling problem is a challenging real world problem which has been of interest to many researchers and practitioners. There are many variants of this problem which mainly require scheduling of events and resources under various constraints. In this study, a curriculum based course timetabling problem at Yeditepe University is described and an iterative selection hyper-heuristic is presented as a solution method. A selection hyper-heuristic as a high level methodology operates on the space formed by a fixed set of low level heuristics which operate directly on the space of solutions. The move acceptance and heuristic selection methods are the main components of a selection hyper-heuristic. The proposed hyper-heuristic in this study combines a simulated annealing move acceptance method with a learning heuristic selection method and manages a set of low level constraint oriented heuristics. A key goal in hyper-heuristic research is to build low cost methods which are general and can be reused on unseen problem instances as well as other problem domains desirably with no additional human expert intervention. Hence, the proposed method is additionally applied to a high school timetabling problem, as well as six other problem domains from a hyper-heuristic benchmark to test its level of generality. The empirical results show that our easy-to-implement hyper-heuristic is effective in solving the Yeditepe course timetabling problem. Moreover, being sufficiently general, it delivers a reasonable performance across different problem domains.