Multi-COBS: A Novel Algorithm for Byte Stuffing at High Throughput

Framing methods are used to break a data stream into packets in most digital communications. The use of a reserved symbol to denote the frame boundaries is a popular practice. This end-of-frame (EOF) marker should be removed from the packet content in a reversible manner. Many strategies, such as the bit and byte stuffing processes employed by high-level data link control (HDLC) and Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), or the Consistent Overhead Byte Stuffing (COBS), have been devised to perform this goal. These bit and byte stuffing algorithms remove the reserved EOF marker from the packet payload and replace it with some extra information that can be used to undo the action later. The amount of data added is called overhead and is a figure-of-merit of such algorithms, together with the encoding and decoding speed. Multi-COBS, a new byte stuffing algorithm, is presented in this paper. Multi-COBS provides concurrent encoding and decoding, resulting in a performance improvement of factor four or eight in common word-based digital architectures while delivering an average and worst-case overhead equivalent to the state-of-the-art. On the reference 28-nanometer field programmable gate array (FPGA) (Artix-7), Multi-COBS achieves a throughput of 6.6 Gbps, instead of 1.7 Gbps of COBS. Thanks to its parallel elaboration capability, Multi-COBS is ideal for digital systems built in programmable logic as well as modern computers

Recenti sviluppi nell'utilizzo della combustione ad ossigeno nelle stazioni di preriscaldo siviera e nei forni di riscaldo per acciaio

L’utilizzo di sistemi di combustione ossigeno-combustibile, una tecnologia di riferimento per numeroseapplicazioni nel settore siderurgico, non è stato largamente applicato nelle stazioni di preriscaldosiviera e nei forni di riscaldo per acciaio. Questo articolo illustra le ragioni che hanno limitato la penetrazionedelle tradizionali tecnologie ad ossigeno in questi settori e dimostra come l’applicazione dell’ossigeno puro,tramite sistemi di combustione diluita flameless e a doppio ossidante, sia in grado di superare questebarriere e di rispondere alle esigenze specifiche di entrambi i processi. I risultati delle applicazionidell’ossigeno nelle stazioni di riscaldo siviera hanno portato non solo ad una sensibile diminuzione dei costioperativi, ma anche ad una maggiore flessibilità nella gestione del processo, con un’influenza positiva subuona parte del ciclo di produzione dell’acciaio, dalla fase di fusione a quella di colata. I forni diriscaldo presentano invece necessità diverse secondo la taglia e la configurazione specifica. L’utilizzodell’ossigeno, in particolare come intervento di revamping su forni esistenti, può consentire, coninvestimenti limitati, significativi incrementi di produttività sui grandi forni continui, la diminuzionedei costi operativi sui forni batch ed una maggiore uniformità di temperatura nei forni da forgia

Inefficient skeletal muscle oxidative function flanks impaired motor neuron recruitment in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis during exercise

This study aimed to evaluate muscle oxidative function during exercise in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients (pALS) with non-invasive methods in order to assess if determinants of reduced exercise tolerance might match ALS clinical heterogeneity. 17 pALS, who were followed for 4 months, were compared with 13 healthy controls (CTRL). Exercise tolerance was assessed by an incremental exercise test on cycle ergometer measuring peak O2 uptake ([Formula: see text]O2peak), vastus lateralis oxidative function by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and breathing pattern ([Formula: see text]E peak). pALS displayed: (1) 44% lower [Formula: see text]O2peak vs. CTRL (p\u2009<\u20090.0001), paralleled by a 43% decreased peak skeletal muscle oxidative function (p\u2009<\u20090.01), with a linear regression between these two variables (r2\u2009=\u20090.64, p\u2009<\u20090.0001); (2) 46% reduced [Formula: see text]Epeak vs. CTRL (p\u2009<\u20090.0001), achieved by using an inefficient breathing pattern (increasing respiratory frequency) from the onset until the end of exercise. Inefficient skeletal muscle O2 function, when flanking the impaired motor units recruitment, is a major determinant of pALS clinical heterogeneity and working capacity exercise tolerance. CPET and NIRS are useful tools for detecting early stages of oxidative deficiency in skeletal muscles, disclosing individual impairments in the O2 transport and utilization chain

Understanding unequal ageing: towards a synthesis of intersectionality and life course analyses

Intersectionality has received an increasing amount of attention in health inequalities research in recent years. It suggests that treating social characteristics separately—mainly age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic position—does not match the reality that people simultaneously embody multiple characteristics and are therefore potentially subject to multiple forms of discrimination. Yet the intersectionality literature has paid very little attention to the nature of ageing or the life course, and gerontology has rarely incorporated insights from intersectionality. In this paper, we aim to illustrate how intersectionality might be synthesised with a life course perspective to deliver novel insights into unequal ageing, especially with respect to health. First we provide an overview of how intersectionality can be used in research on inequality, focusing on intersectional subgroups, discrimination, categorisation, and individual heterogeneity. We cover two key approaches—the use of interaction terms in conventional models and multilevel models which are particularly focussed on granular subgroup differences. In advancing a conceptual dialogue with the life course perspective, we discuss the concepts of roles, life stages, transitions, age/cohort, cumulative disadvantage/advantage, and trajectories. We conclude that the synergies between intersectionality and the life course hold exciting opportunities to bring new insights to unequal ageing and its attendant health inequalities

The emergence of health inequalities in early adulthood: evidence on timing and mechanisms from a West of Scotland cohort

Background Evidence is inconsistent as to whether or not there are health inequalities in adolescence according to socio-economic position (SEP) and whether or when they emerge in early adulthood. Despite the large health inequalities literature, few studies have simultaneously compared the relative importance of ?health selection? versus ?social causation? at this life-stage. This study followed a cohort through the youth-adult transition to: (1) determine whether, and if so, when, health inequalities became evident according to both class of origin and current SEP; (2) compare the importance of health selection and social causation mechanisms; and (3) investigate whether these phenomena vary by gender. Methods Data are from a West-of-Scotland cohort, surveyed five times between age 15 (in 1987, N=1,515, response=85%) and 36. Self-reported physical and mental health were obtained at each survey. SEP was based on parental occupational class at 15, a combination of own education or occupational status at 18 and own occupational class (with an additional non-employment category) at older ages. In respect of when inequalities emerged, we used the relative index of inequality to examine associations between both parental and own current SEP and health at each age. In respect of mechanisms, path models, including SEP and health at each age, investigated both inter and intra-generational paths from SEP to health (?causation?) and from health to SEP (?selection?). Analyses were conducted separately for physical and mental health, and stratified by gender. Results Associations between both physical and mental health and parental SEP were non-significant at every age. Inequalities according to own SEP emerged for physical health at 24 and for mental health at 30. There was no evidence of selection based on physical health, but some evidence of associations between mental health in early adulthood and later SEP (intra-generational selection). Paths indicated intra-generational (males) and inter-generational (females) social causation of physical health inequalities, and intra-generational (males and females) and inter-generational (females) social causation of mental health inequalities. Conclusions The results suggest complex and reciprocal relationships between SEP and health and highlight adolescence and early adulthood as a sensitive period for this process, impacting on future life-chances and health

Time-to-Digital Converter IP-Core for FPGA at State of the Art

The Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) structure poses several constraints that make the implementation of complex asynchronous circuits such as Time-Mode (TM) circuits almost unfeasible. In particular, in Programmable Logic (PL) devices, such as FPGAs, the operation of the logic is usually synchronous with the system clock. However, it can happen that a very high-performance specifications demands to abandon this paradigm and to follow an asynchronous implementative solution. The main driver forcing the use of programmable logic solutions instead of tailored Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), best suiting an asynchronous design, is the request coming from the research community and industrial RD of fast-prototyping at low Non Recursive Engineering (NRE) costs. For instance in the case of a high-resolved Time-to-Digital Converter (TDC), a signal clocked at some hundreds of MHz implemented in FPGA allows implementing a TDC with resolution at ns. If a higher resolution is required, the signal frequency cannot be increased further and one of the aces up the designer's sleeve is the propagation delay of the logic in order to quantize the time intervals by means of a so-called Tapped Delay-Line (TDL). This implementation of TDL-based TDC in FPGAs requires special attention by the designer both in making the best use of all available resources and in foreseeing how signals propagate inside these devices. In this paper, we investigate the implementation of a high-performance TDL-TDC addressed to 28-nm 7-Series Xilinx FPGA, taking into account the comparison between different technological nodes from 65-nm to 20-nm. In this context, the term high-performance means extended dynamic-range (up to 10.3 s), high-resolution and single-shot precision (up to 366 fs and 12 ps r.m.s respectively), low differential and integral non-linearity (up to 250 fs and 2.5 ps respectively), and multi-channel capability (up to 16)

Digital Instrument for Time Measurements: Small, Portable, High-Performance, Fully Programmable

We present a small, portable, plug-and-play time measurement instrument entirely based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Its performance is state-of-the-art in terms of the most recent Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) solutions of Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs), and all operating features are fully-programmable. The instrument offers an excellent cost-performance and is suitable for detector test and time correlation measurement applications. More generally, the instrument is very well suited for fast-prototyping of systems where time measures are involved, at low cost and design effort. All the features of the instrument can be easily accessed through either the Graphical User Interface (GUI) or directly from the software Application Programming Interface (API)