7,797 research outputs found
Synchronization and Characterization of an Ultra-Short Laser for Photoemission and Electron-Beam Diagnostics Studies at a Radio Frequency Photoinjector
A commercially-available titanium-sapphire laser system has recently been
installed at the Fermilab A0 photoinjector laboratory in support of
photoemission and electron beam diagnostics studies. The laser system is
synchronized to both the 1.3-GHz master oscillator and a 1-Hz signal use to
trigger the radiofrequency system and instrumentation acquisition. The
synchronization scheme and performance are detailed. Long-term temporal and
intensity drifts are identified and actively suppressed to within 1 ps and
1.5%, respectively. Measurement and optimization of the laser's temporal
profile are accomplished using frequency-resolved optical gating.Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, Preprint submitted to Elsevie
JamLab: Augmenting Sensornet Testbeds with Realistic and Controlled Interference Generation
Radio interference drastically affects the performance of sensor-net communications, leading to packet loss and reduced energy-efficiency. As an increasing number of wireless devices operates on the same ISM frequencies, there is a strong need for understanding and debugging the performance of existing sensornet protocols under interference. Doing so requires a low-cost flexible testbed infrastructure that allows the repeatable generation of a wide range of interference patterns. Unfortunately, to date, existing sensornet testbeds lack such capabilities, and do not permit to study easily the coexistence problems between devices sharing the same frequencies. This paper addresses the current lack of such an infrastructure by using off-the-shelf sensor motes to record and playback interference patterns as well as to generate customizable and repeat-able interference in real-time. We propose and develop JamLab: a low-cost infrastructure to augment existing sensornet testbeds with accurate interference generation while limiting the overhead to a simple upload of the appropriate software. We explain how we tackle the hardware limitations and get an accurate measurement and regeneration of interference, and we experimentally evaluate the accuracy of JamLab with respect to time, space, and intensity. We further use JamLab to characterize the impact of interference on sensornet MAC protocols
Desynchronization: Synthesis of asynchronous circuits from synchronous specifications
Asynchronous implementation techniques, which measure logic delays at run time and activate registers accordingly, are inherently more robust than their synchronous counterparts, which estimate worst-case delays at design time, and constrain the clock cycle accordingly. De-synchronization is a new paradigm to automate the design of asynchronous circuits from synchronous specifications, thus permitting widespread adoption of asynchronicity, without requiring special design skills or tools. In this paper, we first of all study different protocols for de-synchronization and formally prove their correctness, using techniques originally developed for distributed deployment of synchronous language specifications. We also provide a taxonomy of existing protocols for asynchronous latch controllers, covering in particular the four-phase handshake protocols devised in the literature for micro-pipelines. We then propose a new controller which exhibits provably maximal concurrency, and analyze the performance of desynchronized circuits with respect to the original synchronous optimized implementation. We finally prove the feasibility and effectiveness of our approach, by showing its application to a set of real designs, including a complete implementation of the DLX microprocessor architectur
Robust circadian clocks from coupled protein modification and transcription-translation cycles
The cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus uses both a protein
phosphorylation cycle and a transcription-translation cycle to generate
circadian rhythms that are highly robust against biochemical noise. We use
stochastic simulations to analyze how these cycles interact to generate stable
rhythms in growing, dividing cells. We find that a protein phosphorylation
cycle by itself is robust when protein turnover is low. For high decay or
dilution rates (and co mpensating synthesis rate), however, the
phosphorylation-based oscillator loses its integrity. Circadian rhythms thus
cannot be generated with a phosphorylation cycle alone when the growth rate,
and consequently the rate of protein dilution, is high enough; in practice, a
purely post-translational clock ceases to function well when the cell doubling
time drops below the 24 hour clock period. At higher growth rates, a
transcription-translation cycle becomes essential for generating robust
circadian rhythms. Interestingly, while a transcription-translation cycle is
necessary to sustain a phosphorylation cycle at high growth rates, a
phosphorylation cycle can dramatically enhance the robustness of a
transcription-translation cycle at lower protein decay or dilution rates. Our
analysis thus predicts that both cycles are required to generate robust
circadian rhythms over the full range of growth conditions.Comment: main text: 7 pages including 5 figures, supplementary information: 13
pages including 9 figure
Complex and unexpected dynamics in simple genetic regulatory networks
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
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