Cross-Layer Pathfinding for Off-Chip Interconnects

Off-chip interconnects for integrated circuits (ICs) today induce a diverse design space, spanning many different applications that require transmission of data at various bandwidths, latencies and link lengths. Off-chip interconnect design solutions are also variously sensitive to system performance, power and cost metrics, while also having a strong impact on these metrics. The costs associated with off-chip interconnects include die area, package (PKG) and printed circuit board (PCB) area, technology and bill of materials (BOM). Choices made regarding off-chip interconnects are fundamental to product definition, architecture, design implementation and technology enablement. Given their cross-layer impact, it is imperative that a cross-layer approach be employed to architect and analyze off-chip interconnects up front, so that a top-down design flow can comprehend the cross-layer impacts and correctly assess the system performance, power and cost tradeoffs for off-chip interconnects. Chip architects are not exposed to all the tradeoffs at the physical and circuit implementation or technology layers, and often lack the tools to accurately assess off-chip interconnects. Furthermore, the collaterals needed for a detailed analysis are often lacking when the chip is architected; these include circuit design and layout, PKG and PCB layout, and physical floorplan and implementation. To address the need for a framework that enables architects to assess the system-level impact of off-chip interconnects, this thesis presents power-area-timing (PAT) models for off-chip interconnects, optimization and planning tools with the appropriate abstraction using these PAT models, and die/PKG/PCB co-design methods that help expose the off-chip interconnect cross-layer metrics to the die/PKG/PCB design flows. Together, these models, tools and methods enable cross-layer optimization that allows for a top-down definition and exploration of the design space and helps converge on the correct off-chip interconnect implementation and technology choice. The tools presented cover off-chip memory interfaces for mobile and server products, silicon photonic interfaces, 2.5D silicon interposers and 3D through-silicon vias (TSVs). The goal of the cross-layer framework is to assess the key metrics of the interconnect (such as timing, latency, active/idle/sleep power, and area/cost) at an appropriate level of abstraction by being able to do this across layers of the design flow. In additional to signal interconnect, this thesis also explores the need for such cross-layer pathfinding for power distribution networks (PDN), where the system-on-chip (SoC) floorplan and pinmap must be optimized before the collateral layouts for PDN analysis are ready. Altogether, the developed cross-layer pathfinding methodology for off-chip interconnects enables more rapid and thorough exploration of a vast design space of off-chip parallel and serial links, inter-die and inter-chiplet links and silicon photonics. Such exploration will pave the way for off-chip interconnect technology enablement that is optimized for system needs. The basis of the framework can be extended to cover other interconnect technology as well, since it fundamentally relates to system-level metrics that are common to all off-chip interconnects

Cross-layer Soft Error Analysis and Mitigation at Nanoscale Technologies

This thesis addresses the challenge of soft error modeling and mitigation in nansoscale technology nodes and pushes the state-of-the-art forward by proposing novel modeling, analyze and mitigation techniques. The proposed soft error sensitivity analysis platform accurately models both error generation and propagation starting from a technology dependent device level simulations all the way to workload dependent application level analysis

Business Development of Digital Tenun Nusantara (Ditenun) Using Business Model Canvas and SWOT Analysis

DiTenun is a start-up engaged in traditional woven fabrics. The main product of DiTenun is the technology that can create woven motifs using artificial intelligence. In running the business, DiTenun is still experiencing stagnation in its development so that DiTenun continues to make efforts to develop its business. One of these efforts is to participate in the Kedaireka Matching Fund program offered by the Ministry of Education and Culture. This program requires DiTenun to cooperate with Batikta and Kaldera. To support this collaboration, it is necessary to know Dtenun business model's description to make the collaboration flow more focused. Therefore, this research aimed to discover the description of the DiTenun business model and its business collaboration. Canvas Business Model was used to determine the business strategy and was tested using SWOT planning method to evaluate the project's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats or business speculation. From the BMC (Canvas Business Model) that has been designed for weaving, the company are recommended to further develop it in the elements of several elements. On the key activities element, it can focus on building a community of weavers when marketing expansion is better at selling its products. On the key partner element, it can expand its partners to the ones who can make DiTenun more developed, both in terms of business and production. On key resource elements, they can further develop their technology so that they can produce more perfect motifs and can be much easier for weavers to understand. Another essential thing that DiTenun needs to pay attention to is participating in critical programs to help DiTenun expand its business. Keywords: ditenun, start-up, business model canvas, swot, business developmen

Evaluation of the Sublingual Route for Administration of Influenza H5N1 Virosomes in Combination with the Bacterial Second Messenger c-di-GMP

Avian influenza A H5N1 is a virus with pandemic potential. Mucosal vaccines are attractive as they have the potential to block viruses at the site of entry, thereby preventing both disease and further transmission. The intranasal route is safe for the administration of seasonal live-attenuated influenza vaccines, but may be less suitable for administration of pandemic vaccines. Research into novel mucosal routes is therefore needed. In this study, a murine model was used to compare sublingual administration with intranasal and intramuscular administration of influenza H5N1 virosomes (2 µg haemagglutinin; HA) in combination with the mucosal adjuvant (3′,5′)-cyclic dimeric guanylic acid (c-di-GMP). We found that sublingual immunisation effectively induced local and systemic H5N1-specific humoral and cellular immune responses but that the magnitude of response was lower than after intranasal administration. However, both the mucosal routes were superior to intramuscular immunisation for induction of local humoral and systemic cellular immune responses including high frequencies of splenic H5N1-specific multifunctional (IL-2+TNF-α+) CD4+ T cells. The c-di-GMP adjuvanted vaccine elicited systemic haemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibody responses (geometric mean titres ≥40) both when administered sublingually, intranasally and inramuscularly. In addition, salivary HI antibodies were elicited by mucosal, but not intramuscular vaccination. We conclude that the sublingual route is an attractive alternative for administration of pandemic influenza vaccines

Curcumin: A review of anti-cancer properties and therapeutic activity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a polyphenol derived from the Curcuma longa plant, commonly known as turmeric. Curcumin has been used extensively in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, as it is nontoxic and has a variety of therapeutic properties including anti-oxidant, analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antiseptic activity. More recently curcumin has been found to possess anti-cancer activities via its effect on a variety of biological pathways involved in mutagenesis, oncogene expression, cell cycle regulation, apoptosis, tumorigenesis and metastasis. Curcumin has shown anti-proliferative effect in multiple cancers, and is an inhibitor of the transcription factor NF-κB and downstream gene products (including c-myc, Bcl-2, COX-2, NOS, Cyclin D1, TNF-α, interleukins and MMP-9). In addition, curcumin affects a variety of growth factor receptors and cell adhesion molecules involved in tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and treatment protocols include disfiguring surgery, platinum-based chemotherapy and radiation, all of which may result in tremendous patient morbidity. As a result, there is significant interest in developing adjuvant chemotherapies to augment currently available treatment protocols, which may allow decreased side effects and toxicity without compromising therapeutic efficacy. Curcumin is one such potential candidate, and this review presents an overview of the current in vitro and in vivo data supporting its therapeutic activity in head and neck cancer as well as some of the challenges concerning its development as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent

Service composition based on SIP peer-to-peer networks

Today the telecommunication market is faced with the situation that customers are requesting for new telecommunication services, especially value added services. The concept of Next Generation Networks (NGN) seems to be a solution for this, so this concept finds its way into the telecommunication area. These customer expectations have emerged in the context of NGN and the associated migration of the telecommunication networks from traditional circuit-switched towards packet-switched networks. One fundamental aspect of the NGN concept is to outsource the intelligence of services from the switching plane onto separated Service Delivery Platforms using SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) to provide the required signalling functionality. Caused by this migration process towards NGN SIP has appeared as the major signalling protocol for IP (Internet Protocol) based NGN. This will lead in contrast to ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and IN (Intelligent Network) to significantly lower dependences among the network and services and enables to implement new services much easier and faster. In addition, further concepts from the IT (Information Technology) namely SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) have largely influenced the telecommunication sector forced by amalgamation of IT and telecommunications. The benefit of applying SOA in telecommunication services is the acceleration of service creation and delivery. Main features of the SOA are that services are reusable, discoverable combinable and independently accessible from any location. Integration of those features offers a broader flexibility and efficiency for varying demands on services. This thesis proposes a novel framework for service provisioning and composition in SIP-based peer-to-peer networks applying the principles of SOA. One key contribution of the framework is the approach to enable the provisioning and composition of services which is performed by applying SIP. Based on this, the framework provides a flexible and fast way to request the creation for composite services. Furthermore the framework enables to request and combine multimodal value-added services, which means that they are no longer limited regarding media types such as audio, video and text. The proposed framework has been validated by a prototype implementation

The role of curcumin in response to BPDE-induced DNA damage in human lung epithelial cells.

Long-term exposure to harmful carcinogens like benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) are linked to lung cancer. Benzo[a]pyrene diol epoxide (BPDE), the ultimate carcinogen produced by BaP bioactivation, is believed to play an important role in lung carcinogenesis. The tumor suppressor protein is p53 signals cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, and apoptosis in response to BPDE-induced damage. However, physiological exposure to BPDE fails to activate p53. Although the bioactive principle of turmeric spice, curcumin, shows promising effects against BPDE-induced carcinogenesis, its exact mode of action remains unclear. Therefore the aim of this dissertation was to investigate whether curcumin prevents BPDE-induced DNA damage by regulating p53-mediated cellular responses in A549/LXSN (p53+) and A549/E6 (p53-) cells. I hypothesize that curcumin may reduce BPDE-induced DNA damage by lowering the threshold of p53 activation, thereby inducing p53-mediated mechanisms. Curcumin pretreatment reduced BPDEDNA adducts in a p53-dependent manner. However, p53-regulated proteins XPC and DDB2 did not change with curcumin pretreatment and p53-expression. Curcumin pretreatment did not change the overall repair rate in p53+ cells. Curcumin pretreatment, p53-expression, and BPDE exposure did not significantly change glutathione-S-transferase (GST) levels or activity as well as glutathione (GSH) levels. Curcumin increased levels of p53, phosphorylated p53 at Ser15 (P-p53S15), and CDKN1A, but decreased phosphorylated retinoblastoma at Ser807/811 (P-pRbS807/811) in p53+ cells with lower BPDE exposure. Curcumin and BPDE increased and decreased PpRbS807/ 811, respectively, in p53- cells. BPDE induced S phase arrest in both cell lines. P53+ curcumin pretreated cells escaped S phase arrest earlier with 300 nM BPDE in contrast to BPDE treatment alone. Yet, curcumin did not change S phase arrest in p53+ cells treated with 50 or 100 nM BPDE. P53- cells did not escape S phase arrest 24 h after low (50 and 100 nM) BPDE exposures; p53- curcumin pretreated cells entered S phase arrest earlier. Phosphorylated CHK1 Ser345 (pCHKS345) levels, an indicator of S phase arrest, was higher in p53- cells than p53+ cells; curcumin increased pCHK1 Ser345. Curcumin also induced apoptosis earlier in p53- cells exposed to 300nM BPDE. Therefore, this dissertation shows that curcumin prevents BPDE-induced DNA damage by activating a host of mechanisms independent of p53 expression