Testing for delay defects utilizing test data compression techniques

textAs technology shrinks new types of defects are being discovered and new fault models are being created for those defects. Transition delay and path delay fault models are two such models that have been created, but they still fall short in that they are unable to obtain a high test coverage of smaller delay defects; these defects can cause functional behavior to fail and also indicate potential reliability issues. The first part of this dissertation addresses these problems by presenting an enhanced timing-based delay fault testing technique that incorporates the use of standard delay ATPG, along with timing information gathered from standard static timing analysis. Utilizing delay fault patterns typically increases the test data volume by 3-5X when compared to stuck-at patterns. Combined with the increase in test data volume associated with the increase in gate count that typically accompanies the miniaturization of technology, this adds up to a very large increase in test data volume that directly affect test time and thus the manufacturing cost. The second part of this dissertation presents a technique for improving test compression and reducing test data volume by using multiple expansion ratios while determining the configuration of the scan chains for each of the expansion ratios using a dependency analysis procedure that accounts for structural dependencies as well as free variable dependencies to improve the probability of detecting faults. Finally, this dissertation addresses the problem of unknown values (X’s) in the output response data corrupting the data and degrading the performance of the output response compactor and thus the overall amount of test compression. Four techniques are presented that focus on handling response data with large percentages of X’s. The first uses X-canceling MISR architecture that is based on deterministically observing scan cells, and the second is a hybrid approach that combines a simple X-masking scheme with the X-canceling MISR for further gains in test compression. The third and fourth techniques revolve around reiterative LFSR X-masking, which take advantage of LFSR-encoded masks that can be reused for multiple scan slices in novel ways.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Investor trading behavior: empirical evidence from the Egyptian stock exchange

Using unique, intraday transactions data from Egypt, this study examines the extent to which past returns, over several intervals going back to up to six months of past returns, and the level of sophistication of the different investor types, determine the propensity of different investor groups to buy and sell. I adopted the buy ratio differences method to determine which investors adopt a momentum behavior and which investors adopt a contrarian behavior. I find that non-Arab foreign investors tend to be momentum investors, buying past winning stocks and selling past losers while domestic investors, especially individual investors, tend to exhibit contrarianism. The distinctions in behavior are, to a great extent, consistent across the five different past-return intervals

VirtualScan: a new compressed scan technology for test cost reduction

This work describes the VirtualScan technology for scan test cost reduction. Scan chains in a VirtualScan circuit are split into shorter ones and the gap between external scan ports and internal scan chains are bridged with a broadcaster and a compactor. Test patterns for a VirtualScan circuit are generated directly by one-pass VirtualScan ATPG, in which multi-capture clocking and maximum test compaction are supported. In addition, VirtualScan ATPG avoids unknown-value and aliasing effects algorithmically without adding any additional circuitry. The VirtualScan technology has achieved successful tape-outs of industrial chips and has been proven to be an efficient and easy-to-implement solution for scan test cost reduction.2004 International Conference on Test, 26-28 October 2004, Charlotte, NC, USA, US

Resistance to privatization in Egypt

In Economic Neoliberalism Became Almost Irrelevant, G.W. Kolodko states: New development policies are emerging after 10 years of experience with the transition process. Both theoreticians and policymakers are revising earlier theories about the market-state relationship, scrutinizing privatization processes, tackling deregulation arrangements with a fresh attitude, and attempting to deal with the far-reaching consequences of globalization (Kolodko, 1999). This research examines resistance to privatization in Egypt. It researches the reasons behind such resistance and the tactics of resistance as well. It also examines the different modes of resistance that exist in Egypt. Finally, it attempts to find out the effects of such resistance on privatization in order to prove that that local resistance to privatization may, in some cases, alter the outcomes. Secondly, in an attempt to find out the implications of resistance on the privatization track in Egypt, the research draws a comparison between two cases of Egyptian local resistance. The first case represents a model for the failure of privatization due to resistance and the other case represents a model for the success of privatization in the absence of strong resistance. The research shows how different combinations of reasons of resistance, tactics of resistance, and modes of resistance affect the impact of the resistance and its success or failure

A study of aerosol indirect effects for cumulus clouds on a global scale

Using case study approach my investigation on aerosol's effects on fair weather cumulus clouds shows that not only can aerosol reduce cloud droplet sizes like in the case of stratiform clouds, but also they can increase droplet sizes. Atmospheric water vapor loading explains nearly 70% of variations in the dependence of droplet size on aerosol loading for cases over Eastern United States. This finding withstands serious scrutinizing under different scenarios of artificial correlations. A further study on a global scale indicates that only two areas, Eastern US and coastal region of Southeast China, show increasing trend of droplet size with aerosol loading. Results from other regions agree well with findings from past studies further ruling out artificial correlation. Relationship between aerosol loading and cloud liquid water path differs significantly for marine stratocumulus clouds and continental cumuli. Two possible explanations for our findings are confirmed by state-of-the-art cloud resolving model simulations. Deep convective clouds properties are shown to obey a few universally observable relationships. Their cloud top ice particle sizes are positively correlated with their vertical height and they are significantly affected by topography; their optical depth distributions have signature shapes associated with individual regions; their brightness temperature distributions show agreement with the fixed anvil temperature hypothesis. A conceptual model is proposed to understand cloud hydrometeor evolution and is used to study aerosol's influence. Anthropogenic pollution and smoke are shown to decrease ice particle sizes by delaying coalescence process and prolonging condensational growth. As a result cloud glaciation height is increased that possibly leads to invigoration of cloud development. Dust particles are demonstrated to increase ice particle sizes probably by acting as giant condensation nuclei or ice nuclei. Ice particle size vertical structure is shown to have a significant latitudinal variation. Far reaching implications of our results are envisioned for climate studies

Licentious Topographies: Space and the Traumas of Colonial Subjectivity in Modern Egypt

This dissertation explores the history of the counterrevolutionary tradition that characterizes political dissidents as licentious and failed subjects. From a contemporary vantage point shaped by the predominance of this tradition in post 2011 Egyptian counterrevolutionary propaganda, this study provides a genealogy of this tradition that reveals its anchoring in Western philosophical-ideological interventions that trace themselves back to the ancient Greeks, in Western counterrevolutionary rhetoric that harks back to the French Revolution and is consolidated in the attacks on the Paris Commune, and in their deployment in colonial, anti-colonial, and postcolonial settings. Moving across the Egyptian, European, and colonial histories of these ideological and political traditions, this study charts various licentious topographies (the crowd, the political organization, the Satanist cult, the Orient) in which bad subjects are ensconced in accordance with the dominant ideologies of the State since the 19th century, and examines the figures, motifs, and topoi which constitute these bad subjects. In providing a history of the bad subject, the dissertation intervenes in the discussions surrounding subjectivity by positing that in addition to identifying with certain notions, ideals, and ideal images, proper subjectivity is also constituted through identifying against the bad egos and bad imagoes that constitute the bad subject. Paying special attention to the gendering and especially the racializing of the latter, the study exposes the subjective trauma effected by the colonial imposition of this ideological mode of identification

Harmonic Estimation Of Distorted Power Signals Using PSO – Adaline

In recent times, power system harmonics has got a great deal of interest by many Power system Engineers. It is primarily due to the fact that non-linear loads comprise an increasing portion of the total load for a typical industrial plant. This increase in proportion of non-linear load and due to increased use of semi-conductor based power processors by utility companies has detoriated the Power Quality. Harmonics are a mathematical way of describing distortion in voltage or current waveform. The term harmonic refers to a component of a waveform occurs at an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency. Several methods had been proposed, such as discrete Fourier transforms, least square error technique, Kalman filtering, adaptive notch filters etc; Unlike above techniques, which treat harmonic estimation as completely non-linear problem there are some other hybrid techniques like Genetic Algorithm (GA), LS-Adaline, LS-PSOPC which decompose the problem of harmonic estimation into linear and non-linear problem. The results of LS-PSOPC and LS-Adaline has most attractive features of compactness and fastness. . Our new proposed technique tries to reduce the pitfalls in the LS-PSOPC, LS-Adaline techniques. With new technique we tried to estimate the Amplitudes by Least square estimator, frequency of the signal by PSOPC and phases of the harmonics by Adaline technique using MATLAB program. Harmonic signals were estimated by using LS-PSOPC, PSOPC-Adaline. Errors in estimating the signal by both the techniques are calculated and compared with each other

Pseudo-functional testing: bridging the gap between manufacturing test and functional operation.

Yuan, Feng.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 60-65).Abstract also in Chinese.Abstract --- p.iAcknowledgement --- p.iiChapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Manufacturing Test --- p.1Chapter 1.1.1 --- Functional Testing vs. Structural Testing --- p.2Chapter 1.1.2 --- Fault Model --- p.3Chapter 1.1.3 --- Automatic Test Pattern Generation --- p.4Chapter 1.1.4 --- Design for Testability --- p.6Chapter 1.2 --- Pseudo-Functional Manufacturing Test --- p.13Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis Motivation and Organization --- p.16Chapter 2 --- On Systematic Illegal State Identification --- p.19Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.19Chapter 2.2 --- Preliminaries and Motivation --- p.20Chapter 2.3 --- What is the Root Cause of Illegal States? --- p.22Chapter 2.4 --- Illegal State Identification Flow --- p.26Chapter 2.5 --- Justification Scheme Construction --- p.30Chapter 2.6 --- Experimental Results --- p.34Chapter 2.7 --- Conclusion --- p.35Chapter 3 --- Compression-Aware Pseudo-Functional Testing --- p.36Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.36Chapter 3.2 --- Motivation --- p.38Chapter 3.3 --- Proposed Methodology --- p.40Chapter 3.4 --- Pattern Generation in Compression-Aware Pseudo-Functional Testing --- p.42Chapter 3.4.1 --- Circuit Pre-Processing --- p.42Chapter 3.4.2 --- Pseudo-Functional Random Pattern Generation with Multi-Launch Cycles --- p.43Chapter 3.4.3 --- Compressible Test Pattern Generation for Pseudo-Functional Testing --- p.45Chapter 3.5 --- Experimental Results --- p.52Chapter 3.5.1 --- Experimental Setup --- p.52Chapter 3.5.2 --- Results and Discussion --- p.54Chapter 3.6 --- Conclusion --- p.56Chapter 4 --- Conclusion and Future Work --- p.58Bibliography --- p.6

OBSERVING MINERAL DUST IN NORTHERN AFRICA, THE MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE: CURRENT CAPABILITIES AND CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF DUST SERVICES

Mineral dust produced by wind erosion of arid and semi-arid surfaces is a major component of atmospheric aerosol that affects climate, weather, ecosystems, and socio-economic sectors such as human health, transportation, solar energy, and air quality. Understanding these effects and ultimately improving the resilience of affected countries requires a reliable, dense, and diverse set of dust observations, fundamental for the development and the provision of skillful dust forecasts tailored products. The last decade has seen a notable improvement of dust observational capabilities in terms of considered parameters, geographical coverage, and delivery times, as well as of tailored products of interest to both the scientific community and the various end-users. Given this progress, here we review the current state of observational capabilities including in-situ, ground-based and satellite remote sensing observations, in Northern Africa, the Middle East and Europe for the provision of dust information considering the needs of various users. We also critically discuss observational gaps and related unresolved questions while providing suggestions for overcoming the current limitations. Our review aims to be a milestone for discussing dust observational gaps at a global level to address the needs of users, from research communities to nonscientific stakeholdersAuthors acknowledge dr Sangboom Ryoo of Korean Meteorological Administration in Seoul for his help and support.The research leading to these results has received funding from the COST ActionCA16202, supported by COST Association (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), from DustClim Project as part of ERA4CS, an ERA-NET initiated by JPI Climate, and funded by FORMAS (SE), DLR (DE), BMWFW (AT), IFD (DK), MINECO (ES), ANR (FR) with co-funding by the European Union (Grant 690462) and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research program for societal challenges – smart, green and integrated transport under grant agreement no.723986 (project EUNADICS-AV – European Natural Disaster Coordination and Information System for Aviation). L. Mona acknowledges the ACTRIS-IMP (Implementation project), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant no 871115) and the contribution of the ACTRIS-ITALIA JRU (CNR prot. n. 0067310/2017). S. Basart acknowledges CAMS-84 and CAMS2-82 (part of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services, CAMS) and the Spanish Jose Castillejo mobility programme (CAS18/0033). V. Amiridis acknowledges support from the European Research Council (grant no. 725698, D-TECT). A. Gkikas acknowledges support by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (H.F.R.I.) under the “2nd Call for H.F.R.I. Research Projects to support Post-Doctoral Researchers” (project acronym: ATLANTAS, project number: 544). S. Kazadzis acknowledges the ACTRIS-CH (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure–- Swiss contribution) funded by the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation, Switzerland. Work of P. Dagsson-Waldhauserova was partly funded by the Czech Science Foundation (HLD-CHANGE project, no. 20-06168Y). C. Pérez García-Pando acknowledges the long-term support from the AXA Research Fund, as well as the support received through the Ramón y Cajal programme (grant RYC-2015-18690) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 773051).B. Weinzierl acknowledges funding under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 640458, A‐LIFE).Peer Reviewed"Article signat per 26 autors/es: Lucia Mona, Vassilis Amiridis, Emilio Cuevas, Antonis Gkikas, Serena Trippetta, Sophie Vandenbussche, Angela Benedetti, Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova, Paola Formenti, Alexander Haefele, Stelios Kazadzis, Peter Knippertz, Benoit Laurent, Fabio Madonna, Slobodan Nickovic, Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos, Gelsomina Pappalardo, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Thomas Popp, Sergio Rodríguez, Andrea Sealy, Nobuo Sugimoto, Enric Terradellas, Ana Vukovic Vimic, Bernadette Weinzierl, and Sara Basart "Postprint (author's final draft