Rapid System Prototyping for High Performance Reconfigurable Computing

This paper proposes a soft-reconfigurable coarse grain platform, called J-platform, based on a very few types of computational cells, and shows how a range of advanced applications can be mapped for achieving high performance. Two very flexible cells are proposed that account for the versatility of the approach. These are the MA_PLUS, which is an enhanced Multiply-Add cell, and the UNL, a Universal NonLinear cell. These two cells, together, provide an unprecedented capability for coarse-grain reconfigurable computing, as discussed in the paper. Although the applications of the platform range from FIR filtering of images to large-scale inverse problems, the paper demonstrates mapping of two specific advanced problems, namely (1) Reconstruction of Computerized Tomography images from fan beam projections, and (2) Color Conversion of Video from the RGB to HSI domains. Speed-up by factors of 20 or more over today's work stations is estimated.     

Mechanoluminescence of Ca2MgSi2O7: Eu2+, Dy3+ Phosphor by Impulsive Deformation

Di-calcium magnesium silicate phosphor doped with Eu²⁺ and Dy³⁺ was prepared using solid state reaction technique under a reducing atmosphere. Prepared sample suffered an impulsive deformation with an impact of a piston for mechanoluminescence (ML) investigations. A temporal characteristic of ML of the phosphor was observed, which expressed single sharp peak with a long decaying section. In order to investigate about the luminescence centre responsible for ML peak, ML spectrum of the same phosphor was also observed. ML spectrum recorded shown similarity in shape as well as peak wavelength with Photoluminescence (PL) spectrum that verifies the existence of single emission centre due to the transition of Eu²⁺ ions i.e. transitions from any of the sublevels of 4f⁶5d¹ configuration to ⁸S_7/2 level of the 4f⁷ configuration. Decay rates for different impact velocities were also calculated using curve fitting technique. Time of ML peak and rate of decay did not change largely with respect to increasing impact velocity of the load and peak ML intensity varied linearly. Increasing impact velocity causes more number of Eu²⁺ ions to get excited to the higher energy level, subsequently de-excitation of more Eu²⁺ ions occurs. This gives rise to increase in ML intensity.     

Particle swarm optimization for determining shortest distance to voltage collapse

This paper describes an algorithm for computing shortest distance to voltage collapse or determination of CSNBP using PSO technique. A direction along CSNBP gives conservative results from voltage security view point. This information is useful to the operator to steer the system away from this point by taking corrective actions. The distance to a closest bifurcation is a minimum of the loadability given a slack bus or participation factors for increasing generation as the load increases. CSNBP determination has been formulated as an optimization problem to be used in PSO technique. PSO is a new evolutionary algorithm (EA) which is population based inspired by the social behavior of animals such as fish schooling and birds flocking. It can handle optimization problems with any complexity since mechanization is simple with few parameters to be tuned. The developed algorithm has been implemented on two standard test systems.     

Effect of atom transfer radical polymerization macroinitiator on properties of poly(meth)acrylate-based pentablock type of thermoplastic elastomers

We report well controlled synthesis of novel tri-component [polyisobutylene (PIB), poly(n-butyl acrylate) (PnBA) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)] pentablock copolymers (PMMA-b-PnBA-b-PIB-b-PnBA-b-PMMA) by Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization (ATRP) using PIB as a macroinitiator. The surface properties (hydrophobicity, in vitro oxidative stability and cellular interaction) and the bulk properties (phase separation and mechanical properties) of the PIB-containing pentablock copolymers were compared with PMMA-b-PnBA-b-PDMS-b-PnBA-b-PMMA (where PDMS = polydimethylsiloxane) and conventional PMMA-b-PnBA-b-PMMA copolymers synthesized by PDMS and PnBA macroinitiators respectively. It is revealed that type of ATRP macroinitiator (with low glass transition temperature) influences the properties of resultant pentablock copolymers in terms of phase separation, mechanical properties in vitro oxidative stability, cytocompatibility and cell proliferation. Pentablock copolymers synthesized by PIB macroinitiator exhibited superior overall properties compared to pentablock copolymers synthesized by PDMS macroinitiator and neat triblock copolymer synthesized by PnBA macroinitiator. Among the copolymers tested, one with composition PIB:PnBA:PMMA = 10:64:26 (w/w) exhibited best mechanical property, oxidative stability and cytocompatibility. The newly designed PIB-containing pentablock copolymer may be useful where softness, flexibility, processability and biostability/cytocompatibility are desired.     

NO● Represses the Oxygenation of Arachidonoyl PE by 15LOX/PEBP1: Mechanism and Role in Ferroptosis

We recently discovered an anti-ferroptotic mechanism inherent to M1 macrophages whereby high levels of NO^● suppressed ferroptosis via inhibition of hydroperoxy-eicosatetraenoyl-phosphatidylethanolamine (HpETE-PE) production by 15-lipoxygenase (15LOX) complexed with PE-binding protein 1 (PEBP1). However, the mechanism of NO^● interference with 15LOX/PEBP1 activity remained unclear. Here, we use a biochemical model of recombinant 15LOX-2 complexed with PEBP1, LC-MS redox lipidomics, and structure-based modeling and simulations to uncover the mechanism through which NO^● suppresses ETE-PE oxidation. Our study reveals that O₂ and NO^● use the same entry pores and channels connecting to 15LOX-2 catalytic site, resulting in a competition for the catalytic site. We identified residues that direct O₂ and NO^● to the catalytic site, as well as those stabilizing the esterified ETE-PE phospholipid tail. The functional significance of these residues is supported by in silico saturation mutagenesis. We detected nitrosylated PE species in a biochemical system consisting of 15LOX-2/PEBP1 and NO^● donor and in RAW264.7 M2 macrophages treated with ferroptosis-inducer RSL3 in the presence of NO^●, in further support of the ability of NO^● to diffuse to, and react at, the 15LOX-2 catalytic site. The results provide first insights into the molecular mechanism of repression of the ferroptotic Hp-ETE-PE production by NO^●.     

Chemically reactive solute transfer in a moving fluid over a moving surface

The distribution of a solute, undergoing a chemical reaction, between a moving surface and a moving stream is analyzed in this paper: uniform concentration at the boundary is assumed. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are first transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by a similarity transform, and then the ODEs are solved numerically by a shooting method. The obtained numerical results are compared with the known results in the literature in order to demonstrate the validity of the solutions. Furthermore, analytical results are provided for some parameter regimes. The effects of the governing parameters on the flow and chemical fields are examined. The numerical results indicate that dual solutions exist when the sheet and the free stream move in the opposite directions. These results are in agreement with Ishak et al. (Chem Eng J 148:63–67, 2009), where the results were obtained without chemical reaction. The concentration boundary layer thickness decreases with an increase in the Schmidt number and reaction rate parameter. Moreover, mass absorption at the plate is noted in the case of a constructive chemical reaction.     

Increased graphitization in electrospun single suspended carbon nanowires integrated with carbon-MEMS and carbon-NEMS platforms

Single suspended carbon nanowires (CNWs) integrated on carbon-MEMS (CMEMS) structures are fabricated by electrospinning of SU-8 photoresist followed by pyrolysis. These monolithic CNW-CMEMS structures enable fabrication of very high aspect ratio CNWs of predefined length. The CNWs thus fabricated display core-shell structures having a graphitic shell with a glassy carbon core. The electrical conductivity of these CNWs is increased by about 100% compared to glassy carbon as a result of enhanced graphitization. We suggest some tunable fabrication and pyrolysis parameters that may improve graphitization in the resulting CNWs, making them a good replacement for several carbon nanostructure-based devices.     

An effective scheme for image texture classification based on binary local structure pattern

Effectiveness of local binary pattern (LBP) features is well proven in the field of texture image classification and retrieval. This paper presents a more effective completed modeling of the LBP. The traditional LBP has a shortcoming that sometimes it may represent different structural patterns with same LBP code. In addition, LBP also lacks global information and is sensitive to noise. In this paper, the binary patterns generated using threshold as a summation of center pixel value and average local differences are proposed. The proposed local structure patterns (LSP) can more accurately classify different textural structures as they utilize both local and global information. The LSP can be combined with a simple LBP and center pixel pattern to give a completed local structure pattern (CLSP) to achieve higher classification accuracy. In order to make CLSP insensitive to noise, a robust local structure pattern (RLSP) is also proposed. The proposed scheme is tested over three representative texture databases viz. Outex, Curet, and UIUC. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can achieve higher classification accuracy while being more robust to noise.     

Electrical transport in doped and undoped polystyrene films in a cylindrical configuration

The steady state electrical conduction in films (about 30 μm thick) of polystyrene (PS) and of PS doped with acrylic acid (AA) was studied in the temperature range 35–115 °C. A mercury contact cylindrical electrode assembly was used in the conductivity measurements. Initially the conductivity decreases as a function of the dopant concentration but a higher concentrations it begins to increase with the dopant concentration. Different dopant concentrations were studied to attain an optimum doping concentration. The conduction behaviours for undoped and doped films were found to be different and a lowering of the activation energy due to doping with AA was also observed.