NSGA-II-Based Design Space Exploration for Energy and Throughput Aware Multicore Architectures

Multicore architectures are mainstream due to ever increasing demand of throughput by modern applications. However, the suboptimal utilization of available resources in these architectures may imply an inevitable energy overhead. This energy overhead can only be avoided if the multicore systems support reconfiguration of available resources as per application demand. To achieve the target objectives (i.e., Energy efficiency with Throughput maximization) in multicore systems, many decision variables need to be optimized or analyzed to find the better trade-off. Heuristic-based approaches are aimed to provide a good-enough solution instead of a lengthy exhaustive search. This paper presents an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA)-based approach, i.e., Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II). Three decision variables, i.e., number of cores, cache size and frequency are used to find best solution. The proposed approach is validated over a set of parallel benchmarks using a cycle accurate simulator. The results show a significant amount of energy saving along with minimal impact on the throughput of the system.     

The manufacture and performance of diodes made in dielectricallyisolated silicon substrates containing buried metallic layers

Results are reported on the performance of diffused p⁺n diode structures manufactured on a novel silicon-on-metal-on-insulator (SMI) substrate. This substrate consists of a thin single crystal silicon layer on top of a tungsten disilicide covered oxidized silicon wafer. The diodes show excellent characteristics with an exponential current-voltage (I-V) relationship over nine orders of magnitude and an ideality factor of 1.005, under forward bias conditions. The reverse leakage current is low with a minority carrier lifetime of typically 500 μs. The diodes show no evidence of stress induced defects or degraded performance due to W migration during processing. The SMI substrate is therefore shown to be compatible with standard manufacturing processes     

Understanding the Time and Frequency Varying Characteristics of a Multipath Wireless Channel

Designing a spectrally efficient wireless channel requires a comprehensive understanding of its time and frequency varying characteristics, making it a stochastic medium of communication. These characteristics become more challenging to cater at the receiving terminal in a multipath transmission. This is because of the fading effect and Doppler shift of the transmitted frequency, specifically in cellular mobile radio systems and vehicle to vehicle communications. This paper presents the modeling, simulation, and then characterization of a cellular mobile radio multipath channel over its time and frequency varying fading gain. For this purpose, a discrete-time Finite Impulse Response (FIR) type filter of such a channel is designed, modeled, and simulated using time and frequency varying characteristics of the received signal. The simulated channel response is further analyzed in terms of coherence bandwidth, coherence time, delay spread, Doppler spread, and symbol time.

     

Regional Flood Frequency Analysis in Tunisia: Identification of Regional Distributions

Best-fit distributions of floods in Tunisia are determined based on L-moment diagram and statistical tests. GEV and GLO distributions provided the best fit to seven and three regions of Tunisia respectively. In each homogeneous region, hierarchical approaches and regression models were developed for gauged and ungauged watersheds. The first two parameters of the distributions (GEV and GLO) were estimated from measured data while the third parameter was represented by the regional average value weighted by the record length of all stations in the region. The obtained parameters were correlated to the catchment size. Quantiles obtained by the proposed models were compared with those obtained using local conventional models. Statistical tests showed that the proposed models provided a much better agreement with observed floods than any of the conventional methods generally used in Tunisia.     

An infobutton for Web 2.0 clinical discussions: the knowledge linkage framework

This paper aims to develop an infobutton to automatically retrieve published papers corresponding to a topic-specific online clinical discussion. The knowledge linkages infobutton is designed to supplement online clinical conversations with pertinent medical literature from Pubmed. The project involves three distinct steps: 1) Clinical messages around a specific problem are grouped together into a thread. 2) These threads are processed using Metamap to link the conversations to keywords from the MeSH lexicon. 3) These keywords are used in a novel search strategy to retrieve a set of papers from Pubmed, which are then returned to the user. A pilot study using the messages from 2007 and 2008, was conducted to compare the knowledge linkage search strategy to a vector space model and extended Boolean model. The knowledge linkage model proved to be significantly better in terms of precision ( p = 0.013 and 0.003, respectively) and recall ( p = 0.351 and 0.013). Pertinent papers were returned to over 55% of the threads. This approach has demonstrated how clinicians can supplement their peer communications with evidence based research. Future work should focus on how to improve the threading and keyword-mapping strategies.     

Autonomous terrain-following for unmanned air vehicles

This paper presents an integrated guidance and control design scheme for an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), and its flight test results. The paper focuses on the longitudinal control and guidance aspects, with particular emphasis on the terrain-following problem. An introduction to the mission, and the terrain-following problem is given first. Waypoints for climb and descent are defined. Computation of the reference trajectory in the vertical plane is discussed, including a terrain-following (TF) algorithm for real-time calculation of climb/descent points and altitudes. The algorithm is particularly suited for online computation and is therefore useful for autonomous flight. The algorithm computes the height at which the vehicle should fly so that a specified clearance from the underlying terrain is always maintained, while ensuring that the vehicle’s rate of climb and rate of descent constraints are not violated. The output of the terrain-following algorithm is used to construct a smooth reference trajectory for the vehicle to track. The design of a robust controller for altitude tracking and stability augmentation of the vehicle is then presented. The controller uses elevators for pitch control in the inner loop, while the reference pitch commands are generated by the outer altitude control loop. The controller tracks the reference trajectory computed by the terrain-following algorithm. The design of an electromechanical actuator for actuating the control surfaces of the vehicle during flight is also discussed. The entire guidance and control scheme is implemented on an actual experimental vehicle and flight test results are presented and discussed.     

Reinforcement effect of nanodiamond on properties of epoxy matrix

Epoxy/nanocrystalline diamond nanocomposites composites were prepared by dispersing ultrasonically, 0.4, 0.7, 1.0, and 4.0 wt% acid‐treated nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) powder in epoxy matrix. Fourier infrared spectroscopy was utilized to study the moieties attached to the nanodiamond particles. The trace elements present in NCD powder before and after acid treatment were analyzed by ion beam techniques. Thermomechanical properties of the nanocomposites showed that incorporation of low content (0.4 wt%) of nanodiamond powder into epoxy matrix enhanced the storage modulus, loss modulus, and hardness by ∼68, ∼55, and ∼86%, respectively, over neat epoxy. By increasing the concentration of modified NCD to 0.7 wt% resulted in lower values of hardness and thermomechanical properties but still remain higher than neat epoxy. An increasing trend in properties was again observed at 4 wt% concentration of modified nanofiller. The glass transition temperature was up shifted to ∼110°C over neat epoxy. The mechanisms responsible for enhanced properties of epoxy matrix are also discussed in detail. POLYM. COMPOS., 34:811–818, 2013. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Hypothesis: myelodysplastic syndromes may have a viral etiology

The autonomic nervous system plays a significant role in liver physiology and pathology. The aim of the present study was to investigate peptidergic nerve fibres in the liver of patients with malignant gastrointestinal tumors that are not metastasizing in this organ. Using light and electron microscopic immunohistochemistry, somatostatin (SOM)-, neuropeptide Y (NPY)-, substance P (SP)- and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-immunoreactive (IR) nerve fibres (NF) were detected in the portal tract and perisinusoidally. Histologically, the liver showed dilated sinusoids, filled with lymphoid cells, and scarcely marked perisinusoidal fibrosis. Neuropeptide-IR NF were found in close contact with hepatic sinusoids. Numerous IR varicosities were detected in the sinusoidal wall. We discuss the origin and role of these NF in the liver. Probable quantitative changes in peptidergic NF ensue the inflammatory reaction in sinusoids in malignant gastrointestinal tumors. This could also reflect the increased exposure of the liver to toxic substances in the portal blood flow.     

KIL-BLAST: diversity and multiplexing trade-off for layered space-time architectures with channel estimation error

A novel LST architecture that outperforms the performance of V-BLAST, in the presence of channel estimation errors at the receiver, is proposed. Multiplexing gain is traded-off by transmitting known symbols from one of the transmit antennas, which allows an enhancement in diversity due to an improved interference suppression.