Two-level pipelined systolic array graphics engine

The authors report a VLSI design of an advanced systolic array graphics (SAG) engine built from pipelined functional units which can generate realistic images interactively for high-resolution displays. They introduce a structured frame store system as an environment for the advanced SAG engine and present the principles and architecture of the advanced SAG engine. They introduce pipelined functional units into this SAG engine to meet the performance requirements. This is done by a formal approach where the original systolic array is represented at bit level by a finite, vertex-weighted, edge-weighted, directed graph. Two architectures built from pipelined functional units are described. A prototype containing nine processing elements was fabricated in a 1.6-¿m CMOS technolog

Generalized Methodology for Array Processor Design of Real-time Systems

Many techniques and design tools have been developed for mapping algorithms to array processors. Linear mapping is usually used for regular algorithms. Large and complex problems are not regular by nature and regularization may cause a computational overhead which prevents the ability to meet real-time deadlines. In this paper, a systematic design methodology for mapping partially-regular as well as regular Dependence Graphs is presented. In this approach the set of all optimal solutions is generated under the given constraints. Due to nature of the problem and the tight timing constraints of real-time systems the set of alternative solutions is limited. An image processing example is discusse

Neuroprotective effect of renin angiotensin system blockers on experimentally induced Alzheimer’s disease in rats

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a major world-wide health problem. Much evidence points to a link between hypertension and AD. However, the exact effects of different antihypertensive drugs on AD need to be more assessed. The aim was to evaluate and compare the possible effects of perindopril, and candesartan on cognitive impairment, oxidative stress markers, and brain concentrations of amyloid beta-peptide (Aβ-P) in a rat model of induced dementia.Methods: Thirty-two adult male Wistar rats were distributed among 4 groups; (1) normal controls; (2) rats with dementia induced by intracerebroventricular administration of streptozotocin (ICV-STZ) and received no treatment; (3) ICV-STZ rats treated orally with perindopril for 3 weeks; and (4) ICV-STZ rats treated orally with candesartan for 3 weeks. The assessed parameters were spatial memory by Morris Water Maze test, brain tissue level of total antioxidant capacity (TAC), reduced glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxidation product (malondialdehyde [MDA]), and Aβ-P.Results: Both perindopril and candesartan attenuated STZ-induced memory impairment, caused a significant increase in TAC and GSH levels, reduced MDA levels, whereas only candesartan significantly reduced Aβ-P levels.Conclusions: This study reports that candesartan and perindopril can reverse the free radical induced damages and resultant memory defects, and may suggest candesartan as worthy drugs for prevention of Aβ-P deposition in this animal model of AD

Assessment of lacrimal glands in thyroid eye disease with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Purpose: To assess the lacrimal glands in patients with thyroid eye disease with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Material and methods: This study was carried out on 44 consecutive patients (17 males, 27 females, with mean age 36 years) with thyroid eye disease and 20 age- and sex-matched volunteers. They underwent diffusion-weighted MR imaging of the orbit. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the lacrimal glands were calculated and correlated with the clinical activity score (CAS). Results: The mean ADC of lacrimal glands in thyroid eye disease (1.73 × 10-3 mm2/s) was significantly higher (p = 0.001) than that of volunteers (1.52 × 10-3 mm2/s). The cutoff ADC value of lacrimal gland used for differentiation of thyroid eye disease from volunteers was 1.62 × 10–3 mm2/s with an area under the curve value of 0.95 and an accuracy of 96%. There was significant difference (p = 0.03) in the ADC of the lacrimal glands in patients with active (n = 24) and inactive (n = 20) disease. The cutoff ADC value of the lacrimal gland used to suspect active disease was 1.76 × 10-3 mm2/s with an area under the curve value of 0.80 and an accuracy of 82%. There was positive correlation between the ADC value of the lacrimal glands and CAS (r = 0.73, p = 0.001). Conclusions: The ADC of the lacrimal glands is a non-invasive imaging parameter that can be used for diagnosis of thyroid eye disease and to predict the active form of the disease

Target Detection in a Known Number of Intervals Based on Cooperative Search Technique

Finding hidden/lost targets in a broad region costs strenuous effort and takes a long time. From a practical view, it is convenient to analyze the available data to exclude some parts of the search region. This paper discusses the coordinated search technique of a one-dimensional problem with a search region consisting of several mutual intervals. In other words, if the lost target has a probability of existing in a bounded interval, then the successive bounded interval has a far-fetched probability. Moreover, the search domain is swept by two searchers moving in opposite directions, leading to three categories of target distribution truncations: commensurate, uneven, and symmetric. The truncated probability distributions are defined and applied based on the proposed classification to calculate the expected value of the elapsed time to find the hidden object. Furthermore, the optimization of the associated expected time values of various cases is investigated based on Newton's method. Several examples are presented to discuss the behavior of various distributions under each case of truncation. Also, the associated expected time values are calculated as their minimum values.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figure

Elastic Behavior of Corrugated Web Girders with Square Opening

في هذا البحث تمت الدراسة النظرية علي الکمرات اللوحية المعرجة ذاتالفتحة المربعة المعرضة لأحمال قص. وقد تم ذلک التحليل عن طريق استخدام برنامجالابکوس. حيث تم دراسة عدد من المتغيرات وذلک لبحث تأثير هذة المتغيرات عليمعامل انبعاح القص (����) . وشملت هذة المتغيرات ارتفاع الکمرة، عرض اللوح المعدنيالمسطح، عمق الکمرة، النسبة بين اللوح المعدني المسطح الي اللوح المعدنيالمائل،مکان وحجم الفتحة المربعة. وللتأکد من دقة النتائج في هذا البحث تم مقارنةبعض النتائج مع النظريات المتاحة والتي اظهرت توافقا جيدا في النتائج. وقد اظهرتالنتائج ان الزيادة في ارتفاع الکمرة يؤدي الي نقص في معامل انبعاج القص (����) .ايضا وجد ان التغير في عمق الکمرة اظهر تأثير واضح في معامل انبعاج القص (����) .بالاضافة وجد ان تأثير تغير مرکزية الفتحة کبيرة الابعاد في الاتحاة الافقي لا يملک تأثيرکبير علي معامل انبعاج القص (����) بينما في الفتحه ذات الابعاد الصغيرة لا يوجد تأثيرملحوظ علي معامل انبعاج القص (����) . علي الجانب الاخر وجد انة لايوجد تأثير فيمعامل انبعاج القص في حالة تغير مرکزية الفتحة في الاتجاة الرأسي. في نهاية البحثتم عرض منحنيات للحصول علي قيمة مقاومة انبعاج القص في حالة ��\u3c��≤�� وفي حالة ��\u3e�� مع اختلاف المرکزية في الاتجاة الافقي للفتحة وقد تم التوصية فيحالة (��\u3c��) علي التعامل مع الکمرة کأنها ليس بها فتحة وذلک للحصول علي معاملانبعاج القص (����) .ABSTRACT- This paper presents an elastic parametric study for the trapezoidal corrugated web with a square opening subjected to a shear load. A series of finite element (FE) analyses using the ABAQUS program is carried out to study the influence of square opening on trapezoidal corrugated webs. A parametric study is conducted in this paper to investigate the effect of key parameters on the shear buckling coefficient (���� ) including the height of the web, width of the flat fold, depth of corrugation, the ratio between the flat fold and inclined fold, eccentricity and size of the square opening. By using the finite element model, the eigenvalue buckling analysis is obtained and verified using theoretical models. The results have shown that the increase in the height of the web plate leads to a decrease in the value of the shear buckling coefficient ����. Also, it is found that the changing in the corrugated depth shown a clear influence on the shear buckling coefficient. Also, it is concluded that the effect of horizontal eccentricity in a big opening has a small influence on the shear buckling coefficient while in a small opening no changes are found in the shear buckling coefficient. On the other hand, it is found that there is no effect of changing the vertical eccentricity on the values of the shear buckling coefficient. Finally, design curves are proposed to obtain the shear buckling coefficient for ��\u3c��≤�� and ��\u3e�� with different values of horizontal eccentricity. Also, for (��\u3c��) it is recommended to determine the shear buckling coefficient according to a corrugated web without opening

Taxonomic revision of the cultivated species of Mimusops (Sapotaceae) in Egypt, with new records

During the process of updating horticultural records of this genus in Egypt, five problems were identified: lack of publications, lack of clarity between species, numerous errors of identifications, loss of earlier documented records of identity, as well as, the introduction and cultivation of new plants during the 19th Century added to the complexity of the problem. In this study, the taxonomic aspects of genus Mimusops, were thoroughly studied to identify the most reliable characters for taxon delimitation. Our assessment was based on morphological characters representing habit, leaves, petioles, flowering pedicels, buds, floral parts, fruit and seed. Fieldwork have revealed the presence of four species, of which Mimusops kummel and M. zeyheri are new records. The latter species is represented in Egypt by M. zeyheri var. laurifolia. This variety has been neglected by many authors. Additionally, Mimusops elengi L. was believed to be cultivated in Egypt, but no materials have been encountered that could confirm it. The specimens earlier identified as M. elengi actually belong either to M. kummel or to M. laurifolia. A detailed description of the genus and species with photographs, an identification key, and synonymy for each taxon are provided

Design of Integrated Microwave Frequency Synthesizer-Based Dielectric Sensor Systems

Dielectric sensors have several biomedical and industrial applications where they are used to characterize the permittivity of materials versus frequency. Characterization at RF/microwave frequencies is particularly useful since many chemicals/bio-materials show significant changes in this band. The potential system cost and size reduction possible motivates the development of fully integrated dielectric sensor systems on CMOS with high sensitivity for point-of-care medical diagnosis platforms and for lab-on-chip industrial sensors. Voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)-based dielectric sensors embed the sensing capacitor within the excitation VCO to allow for self-sustained measurement of the material under test (MUT)-induced frequency shift with simple and precise readout circuits. Despite their advantages, VCO-based sensors have several design challenges. First, low frequency noise and environmental variations limit their sensitivity. Also, these systems usually place the VCO in a frequency synthesizer to control the sample excitation frequency which reduces the resolution of the read-out circuitry. Finally, conventional VCO-based systems utilizing LC oscillators have limited tuning range, and can only characterize the real part of the permittivity of the MUT. This dissertation proposes several ideas to: 1) improve the sensitivity of the system by filtering the low frequency noise and enhance the resolution of the read-out circuitry, 2) improve the tuning range, and 3) enable complex dielectric characterization in VCO/synthesizer-based dielectric spectroscopy systems. The first prototype proposes a highly-sensitive CMOS-based sensing system for permittivity detection and mixture characterization of organic chemicals at microwave frequencies. The system determines permittivity by measuring the frequency difference between two VCOs; a sensor oscillator with an operating frequency that shifts with the change in tank capacitance due to exposure to the MUT and a reference oscillator insensitive to the MUT. This relative measurement approach improves sensor accuracy by tracking frequency drifts due to environmental variations. Embedding the sensor and reference VCOs in a fractional-N phase-locked loop (PLL) frequency synthesizer enables material characterization at a precise frequency and provides an efficient material-induced frequency shift read-out mechanism with a low-complexity bang-bang control loop that adjusts a fractional frequency divider. The majority of the PLL-based sensor system, except for an external fractional frequency divider, is implemented with a 90 nm CMOS prototype that consumes 22 mW when characterizing material near 10 GHz. Material-induced frequency shifts are detected at an accuracy level of 15 ppmrms and binary mixture characterization of organic chemicals yield maximum errors in permittivity of <1.5%. The second prototype proposes a fully-integrated sensing system for wideband complex dielectric detection of MUT. The system utilizes a ring oscillator-based PLL for wide tuning range and precise control of the sensor's excitation frequency. Characterization of both real and imaginary MUT permittivity is achieved by measuring the frequency difference between two VCOs: a sensing oscillator, with a frequency that varies with MUT-induced changes in capacitance and conductance of a delay-cells' sensing capacitor loads, and a MUT-insensitive reference oscillator that is controlled by an amplitude-locked loop (ALL). The fully integrated system is fabricated in 0.18 μm CMOS, and occupies 6.25 mm2 area. When tested with common organic chemicals (ε`r < 30), the system operates between 0.7-6 GHz and achieves 3.7% maximum permittivity error. Characterization is also performed with higher ε`r water-methanol mixtures and phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solutions, with 5.4% maximum permittivity error achieved over a 0.7-4.77 GHz range

Finite element modeling and behavior analysis of axially comprised circular dual tube columns filled with concrete

CFDST is an abbreviation that stands for concrete-filled columns that have a dual steel tube. In the past few years, there has been debate on the possibility of using these types of columns. As a consequence of this, the objective of this work is to develop and validate material modeling approaches that are considered to be suitable for use with concrete-filled columns (CFT) that have been exposed to axial compression loads. Using the ABAQUS program as the nonlinear finite element, the suggested models are evaluated by doing a comparison study with the experimental data. This analysis is carried out in order to validate the models. The models are supported by this investigation. In addition, parametric investigations are carried out in order to evaluate the influence that the different strengths of the concrete have on the axial behavior of circular CFDST stub columns. This is done so that a conclusion may be drawn on the significance of the influence