FPGA Based Hardware Co-Simulation of an Area and Power Efficient FIR Filter for Wireless Communication Systems

“In this paper FPGA based hardware co-simulation of an area and power efficient FIR filter for wireless communication systems is presented. The implementation is based on distributed arithmetic (DA) which substitutes multiply-and-accumulate operations with look up table (LUT) accesses. Parallel Distributed arithmetic (PDA) look up table approach is used to implement an FIR Filter taking optimal advantage of the look up table structure of FPGA using VHDL. The proposed design is hardware co-simulated using System Generator10.1, synthesized with Xilinx ISE 10.1 software, and implemented on Virtex-4 based xc4vlx25-10ff668 target device. Results show that the proposed design operates at 17.5 MHz throughput and consumes 0.468W power with considerable reduction in required resources to implement the design as compared to Coregen and add/shift based design styles. Due to this reduction in required resources the proposed design can also be implemented on Spartan-3 FPGA device to provide cost effective solution for DSP and wireless communication applications.

Myomectomy for uterine preservation and fertility

Background: Leiomyomas are benign monoclonal smooth muscle tumors that are characterized by cellular mutations, growth factor dysfunction, and abnormalities in the extracellular matrix. The objective of this study was to analyse the patient selection, feasibility, complications and the outcomes of myomectomies done for uterine preservation and fertility.Methods: Out of 606 myomectomies performed over 23 years at a tertiary care endoscopy centre, retrospective analysis of 358 cases of laparoscopic myomectomy (LM) and 96 cases of abdominal myomectomy (AM) was done.Results: Myomectomies were done for symptomatic women who wanted to preserve their uterus either to improve fertility or pregnancy outcome. Sizes of myomas tackled by myomectomy ranged from 1 cm to 20 cms. The largest number removed by laparoscopy was 19. 9 out of 358 cases scheduled for LM were converted to AM. 6 patients had repeat myomectomy of myomas. About 0.44% had STUMP and 0.44% had leiomyosarcoma on HPE. Only 10/199 or 5% of patients who wanted to preserve their uterus had subsequent hysterectomies. 95% were satisfied with good symptom relief. 40.1% in LM and 37% in AM group conceived.Conclusions: Majority of the cases were successfully done by laparoscopy. With increasing experience more cases with bigger and multiple myomas could be tackled by laparoscopy. 10.3% in LM and 45.9% in AM were 10 cms-20 cms. The main method of retrieval was morcellation. There were no major complications. Both the methods were found to be safe, feasible and provided good result. With increasing experience bigger and multiple myomas could be tacked by LM, which has several advantages over AM

COMPARATIVE STUDY OF YELLOW-BILLED BABBLER (TURDOIDES AFFINIS) FEATHERS REVEALS UNIFORMITY IN THEIR MICROSTRUCTURES AMONG INDIVIDUALS

Though a few in numbers, investigations on feather microstructures from the early 20th century till date, have contributed immensely to various fields such as phylogeny, palaeontology, archaeology, wildlife forensic, biomechanics and so on. However, existing studies on feather micro-structures of birds endemic to the India/Indian sub-continent are few in number and limited in their scope. Also, no study has ever been conducted to compare feather microstructures of different individuals of a species from India. To address this issue, a comparative feather microstructure study of three individuals of Turdoides affinis, a passerine endemic to the Indian sub-continent was done. Select microstructure parameters for five different types of feathers were studied in detail. The molecular sexing method was used to elucidate the sex of T. affinis individuals for gender based differences if any. Results of the study identified that two of T. affinis individuals were female whereas one of them was male. Morphometrically, tail contour was the longest (9.63±0.76 cm) and bristle were the shortest (1.00±0.07 cm) feather. Semiplume had the longest barb length (1.73±0.04 cm) and shortest barbs (0.16±0.01 cm) were present in bristles. Subpennaceous barbs and knob-shaped villi, characteristic of members of the Passeriformes family, was also observed in all three individuals. This study records no significant difference in feather characteristics amongst the three T. affinis individuals irrespective of the differences in their sex and size. Systematically documented feather micro-characteristics of T. affinis in this study could be used as a species identification tool and would provide baseline data for the feather catalogue of Indian bird species being compiled at SACON

Religiosity, Religious Coping and Distress Among Outpatients with Psychosis in Singapore

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of religious coping and explore the association between religious coping, religiosity, and distress symptoms amongst 364 outpatients diagnosed with psychosis in Singapore. Positive and Negative Religious Coping (PRC and NRC), religiosity (measuring the constructs of Organised Religious Activity (ORA), Non-Organised Religious Activity (NORA), and Intrinsic Religiosity (IR)) and severity of distress symptoms (depression, anxiety and stress) were self-reported by the participants. The majority of participants (68.9%) reported religion to be important in coping with their illness. Additionally, multiple linear regression analyses found that NRC was significantly associated with higher symptoms of distress. In contrast, ORA was significantly associated with lower anxiety symptom scores. Overall, the study indicates the importance of religion in coping with psychosis and the potential value in incorporating religious interventions in mental health care

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic