Power-Efficient and Highly Scalable Parallel Graph Sampling using FPGAs

Energy efficiency is a crucial problem in data centers where big data is generally represented by directed or undirected graphs. Analysis of this big data graph is challenging due to volume and velocity of the data as well as irregular memory access patterns. Graph sampling is one of the most effective ways to reduce the size of graph while maintaining crucial characteristics. In this paper we present design and implementation of an FPGA based graph sampling method which is both time- and energy-efficient. This is in contrast to existing parallel approaches which include memory-distributed clusters, multicore and GPUs. Our strategy utilizes a novel graph data structure, that we call COPRA that allows time- and memory-efficient representation of graphs suitable for reconfigurable hardware such as FPGAs. Our experiments show that our proposed techniques are 2x faster and 3x more energy efficient as compared to serial CPU version of the algorithm. We further show that our proposed techniques give comparable speedups to GPU and multi-threaded CPU architecture while energy consumption is 10x less than GPU and 2x less than CPU

Elizabeth Bishop and the Baroque: a study in spatial constructs

This thesis explores Elizabeth Bishop's ways of seeing things, spaces and other art forms as ever-changing spatial patterns in seventeenth-century Baroque art. This Baroque optic gives her poetry the illusion of movement through non-linear perspectives of liminality and depth in her visual field. Keeping this style of perception in view, this study demonstrates how Bishop's creative process and self-representation are informed by her consciousness of seventeenth-century spatiality in conjunction with its renewal in the twentieth-century discussions on the Baroque as a style of modernity. In literary studies, the connection of Bishop's visual poetics to early-modern and modern artists and art forms has often been understood as ways to sensuously perceive geography and history. This study synthesises Bishop's dispersed visual interests with her fondness for the spatial constructs perceivable in seventeenth-century Baroque art. Bishop's affinity with varied spatial patterns of the Baroque art derives from her consciousness of Counter-Reformation art, seventeenth-century mathematics and cosmic designs, as well as her fondness for George Herbert's and John Donne's awareness of the plurality of universe in which they expand and contract the scales of their spiritual and secular love. This can be seen in Bishop's representation of her poetic space structured like a rhizome, as a universe of infinite folds, as a painterly landscape, and a geometrical ellipse and its rhetorical ellipsis, and in her fascination for the denotative meaning of the term Baroque - an imperfect pearl. This thesis argues that Bishop's consistent engagement with the Baroque - as a recurrent style of art, and not just a fixed period in history - defines the expanse of her modest form of contemporary baroque poetry

High Performance Embedded Solutions for Memory and Compute Intense Applications

In recent years, the use of application-specific architectures has gained popularity in implementing embedded solutions to many real-time and compute intense tasks due mainly to the performance and power limitations associated with high-end processor based systems. Considering their superior performance at lower energy requirements, such targeted solutions have found applications in a number of domains including mobile devices, Big-Data processing in Data centers, Computer Network Security, Medical Imaging and Internet of Things (IoT). Considering this tremendous potential in diverse range of applications, this thesis targets development of efficient solutions for various memory and compute-intense applications. We specifically target FPGAs as the computing platform considering the power-efficiency and the enormous design space associated with the platform due to its inherent flexibility. The hardware solutions proposed as part of this thesis have shown improved performance at reduced power compared with existing solutions. First, we propose a memory-optimized and power-efficient architecture to accelerate the memory and compute intense re-gridding process in Non-uniform Fast Fourier Transform (NuFFT). NuFFT is widely used for image reconstruction in a variety of applications like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Re-gridding step is known to be the most time-consuming task (88 – 90 %) in the computation of NuFFT. Second, a hardware efficient architecture for Gauss-Jordan based matrix inversion has been proposed that minimizes the floating-point computation resources compared with existing solutions. Matrix inversion is a central task in many real-time applications including Compressive Sensing based image reconstruction, Cryptography and MIMO-OFDM systems. Third, we propose a novel architecture for computing Burrows Wheeler Transform (BWT) that is based on better utilization of FPGA resources to achieve high-performance. BWT, initially developed for data-compression, has found applications in many real-time applications like Compressed String Matching, Computer Vision, Test Data Compression and Channel coding. Finally, a highly pipelined and scalable architecture for median filtering has also been proposed. Median filter and its variants are widely used for noise suppression in image processing

A Quantitative Analysis of Language Crisis and National Identity in Naya Pakistan

Pakistan is linguistically and culturally a diverse nation. Urdu is the national language, but still not the official language of Pakistan. English continues to be the official language, the language of elites, the language of opportunities, and much more. Therefore, the division of Urdu and English has never been so neat, and it still appears to be so. This research paper is another effort to shed light on the persisting crisis of language and national identity, perpetuated by the vague division of Urdu and English in the socio-political and academic sectors of Naya Pakistan. In order to revisit this issue, a quantitative research was conducted through a questionnaire. The sample population was 50 students from the University of the Punjab, Lahore. The study shows the immovable existence of linguistic and cultural crises in the country. It is this crisis, which is affecting the youth‟s competency in Urdu language as well. Moreover, the study finds a desire for linguistic conformity through a “monolithic linguistic” pattern (Haque, 1983, p. 6) in order to preserve the ideological beliefs of the indigenous languages in Naya Pakistan. But, in order to do this, there is a need to accept the multilingualism of our society and establish concrete roles of Urdu as the national and official language and English, along with regional languages, as a subject. In this way, polarization of indigenous languages can be reduced, as they will have their own space in terms of being spoken as mother tongue and taught as subjects in academia

Disseminated Coccidioidomycosis Presenting as Carcinomatosis Peritonei and Intestinal Coccidioidomycosis in a Patient with HIV

Coccidioidomycosis (CM) is a fungal infection endemic in southwestern regions of the United States, northwestern regions of Mexico, and some areas of Brazil and Argentina. Clinical presentation varies depending on the extent of the infection and the immune status of the host. The most common presentation ranges from flu-like symptoms to self-limiting pneumonia. Extrapulmonary presentations are uncommon and may involve the meninges, skin, and bone. Gastrointestinal and peritoneal involvement is extremely rare. Here we report a case of disseminated CM presenting as carcinomatosis peritonei as an AIDS-defining illness in a young male

The @transactions of the Linnean Society of London / Botany

A fuzzy logic based active contour model for medical image segmentation is proposed. Image local features are incorporated in active contour model. Fuzzy logic is used to assign weights to pixels. Higher weights are assigned to pixels having less entropy and local variance whereas Lower weights are assigned to pixels having high entropy and local variance. Simulation results show the improvement in segmentation results in terms of efficiency and accuracy

Baluchimyinae, a new ctenodactyloid rodent subfamily from the Miocene of Baluchistan. American Museum novitates ; no. 2841

58 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 53-58)."Rodents from early Miocene deposits near Dera Bugti, Baluchistan, Pakistan, represent an endemic radiation of ctenodactyloids in the Indian subcontinent. The Bugti small mammal fauna contrasts sharply with other known middle Cenozoic faunas, but most taxa can be referred to the Chapattimyidae, a family known previously from Eocene deposits of the Indian subcontinent. Four new genera, Baluchimys, Lindsaya, Lophibaluchia, and Hodsahibia are placed in the new subfamily Baluchimyinae. The Baluchimyinae and the new genus Fallomus are placed in the redefined Chapattimyidae. An additional, rare element in the Bugti fauna, Downsimys margolisi new genus and species, is named without referral to family, but affinities may lie with chapattimyids or cylindrodontids. A single large tooth resembles specimens from Qujing, Yunnan, China, that are referred to the yuomyid Dianomys. The Bugti fauna must be considered in formulating hypotheses of relationships of higher rodent taxa and in biogeographic reconstructions. The fauna indicates that the Chapattimyidae are a diverse South Asian clade that is closely related to the northern Yuomyidae and Ctenodactylidae. All three families are classified in the superfamily Ctenodactyloidea and are derived in their hystricomorphy with respect to the early Asiatic rodent Cocomys. Some evidence supports relationship of Baluchimyinae with African Thryonomyoidea. Evolution of Chapattimyidae and other ctenodactyloids is characterized by vicariant events in which different groups radiated to the south and to the north of the Tethys/Himalayas. If Chapattimyidae are close to Thryonomyoidea, then this establishes a record of Eocene rodents in the northern hemisphere of the Old World that could lie near the origin of African hystricognaths on the one hand and South American Caviomorpha on the other. This scenario then implies monophyly of most African, Asian, and South American hystricomorphous rodents. However, unless baluchimyines or late Paleogene Asiatic relatives prove to have hystricognathous jaws, this interpretation requires that hystricognathy arose independently in Oligocene African and South American groups"--P. 2

MRI and PET Image Fusion Using Fuzzy Logic and Image Local Features

An image fusion technique for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) using local features and fuzzy logic is presented. The aim of proposed technique is to maximally combine useful information present in MRI and PET images. Image local features are extracted and combined with fuzzy logic to compute weights for each pixel. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme produces significantly better results compared to state-of-art schemes