Development of FPGA controlled diagnostics on the MAST fusion reactor

Field Programmable Gate Array technology (FPGA) is very useful for implementing high performance digital signal processing algorithms, data acquisition and real-time control on nuclear fusion devices. This thesis presents the work done using FPGAs to develop powerful diagnostics. This has been achieved by developing embedded Linux and running it on the FPGA to enhance diagnostic capabilities such as remote management, PLC communications over the ModBus protocol and UDP based ethernet streaming. A closed loop real-time feedback prototype has been developed for combining laser beams onto a single beam path, for improving overall repetition rates of Thomson Scattering systems used for plasma electron temperature and density radial profile measurements. A controllable frequency sweep generator is used to drive the Toroidal Alfven Eigenmode (TAE) antenna system and results are presented indicating successful TAE resonance detection. A fast data acquisition system has been developed for the Electron Bernstein Wave (EBW) Synthetic Aperture Microwave Imaging system and an active probing microwave source where the FPGA clock rate has been pushed to the maximum. Propagation delays on the order of 2 nanoseconds in the FPGA have been finely tuned with careful placement of FPGA logic using a custom logic placement tool. Intensity interferometry results are presented on the EBW system with a suggestion for phase insensitive pitch angle measurement

The first educational exodus : a narrative of 1965

Thesis (S.B. in History)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-71).Histories of Boston's school desegregation crisis have focused on the legal and political struggles that preceded the Garrity decision, which, in 1974, enforced citywide school integration. It is necessary to discern and evaluate the viewpoints of black and white parents in the greater Boston area in the years before court-mandated integration. This thesis examines the black community's efforts to assure higher quality education for their children through public protests and self-help actions. It also explores the responses of urban and suburban white residents to this rising civil rights challenge. Black parents created Operation Exodus, a grassroots movement aimed at enrolling Roxbury children in other Boston schools, in response to the Boston School Committee's reluctance to build better schools and integrate existing schools. Led by a group of prominent black activists, Exodus members found allies within and beyond Roxbury. From 1965-1970, Exodus rallied the black community to not only demand better education, but also to develop more effective social agencies in Roxbury. The movement eventually inspired similar programs, such as METCO, in the suburbs. Although the Exodus movement was eventually superseded by national efforts to integrate Boston's schools, it played a key role in shaping public opinion about school desegregation and publicizing the failures of the Boston school system.by Billy Huang.S.B.in Histor

Who\u27s accessing emergency food services?

Introduction: Last year, Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf provided 1,260,517 pounds of food to over 11,000 people each month via groceries, hot meals and home delivery, supplying an average of almost 40% of food for families. CEFS seeks to improve their services and offerings by better understanding the demographics, food preference, and needs of the clients they serve. Our goal was to collect demographic and utilization data to identify areas where CEFS could enhance services and improve client access to healthful food.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1208/thumbnail.jp

Public Health Implications of Evictions: Modeling the Costs for Landlords, Tenants, and Society

In the United States, more than 13% of renters experience a formal or informal eviction in their lifetime. Forced moves contribute to a decline in job status, mental and physical health, material possessions, safety, social networks, housing aid, and neighborhood stability. Previous research has explored the risk factors, causes, and costs to those burdened by evictions. However, the costs of evictions incurred by all stakeholders involved in the process of evictions and homelessness remain largely unexplored. The homeownership rate in New Haven is less than 30%, and more than 52% of households are ‘cost-burdened,’ meaning more than 30% of income “is spent on housing costs associated with owning or renting a home.” Thus, this project set out to analyze the contributing burdens of costs within New Haven, Connecticut.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1016/thumbnail.jp

Maternal experience-dependent cortical plasticity in mice is circuit- and stimulus-specific and requires MECP2

ABSTRACT The neurodevelopmental disorder Rett syndrome is caused by mutations in the gene Mecp2 . Misexpression of the protein MECP2 is thought to contribute to neuropathology by causing dysregulation of plasticity. Female heterozygous Mecp2 mutants ( Mecp2 het ) failed to acquire a learned maternal retrieval behavior when exposed to pups, an effect linked to disruption of parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory interneurons (PV+) in the auditory cortex. However, the consequences of dysregulated PV+ networks during early maternal experience for auditory cortical sensory activity are unknown. Here we show that maternal experience in wild-type adult female mice ( Mecp2 wt ) triggers suppression of PV+ auditory responses. We also observe concomitant disinhibition of auditory responses in deep-layer pyramidal neurons that is selective for behaviorally-relevant pup vocalizations. These neurons also exhibit sharpened tuning for pup vocalizations following maternal experience. All of these neuronal changes are abolished in Mecp2 het , yet a genetic manipulation of GABAergic networks that restores accurate retrieval behavior in Mecp2 het also restores maternal experience-dependent plasticity of PV+. Our data are consistent with a growing body of evidence that cortical networks are particularly vulnerable to mutations of Mecp2 in PV+ neurons

Short paper: a look at smartphone permission models

ABSTRACT Many smartphone operating systems implement strong sandboxing for 3rd party application software. As part of this sandboxing, they feature a permission system, which conveys to users what sensitive resources an application will access and allows users to grant or deny permission to access those resources. In this paper we survey the permission systems of several popular smartphone operating systems and taxonomize them by the amount of control they give users, the amount of information they convey to users and the level of interactivity they require from users. We discuss the problem of permission overdeclaration and devise a set of goals that security researchers should aim for, as well as propose directions through which we hope the research community can attain those goals

MECP2 regulates cortical plasticity underlying a learned behavior in adult female mice

Neurodevelopmental disorders begin with the emergence of inappropriate synaptic connectivity early in life, yet how the sustained disruption of experience-dependent plasticity aggravates symptoms in adulthood is unclear. Here we used pup retrieval learning to assay adult cortical plasticity in a female mouse model of Rett syndrome (MeCP2het). We show that auditory cortical plasticity and retrieval learning are impaired in MeCP2het. Specifically, normal MECP2 expression in the adult auditory cortex is required for efficient retrieval learning. In wild-type mice, cohabitation with a mother and her pups triggered transient changes to auditory cortical inhibitory networks, including elevated levels of the GABA-synthesizing enzyme GAD67. However, MeCP2het further exhibited increased expression of parvalbumin (PV) and perineuronal nets (PNNs), events thought to suppress plasticity at the closure of critical periods and in adult learning. Averting these events with genetic and pharmacological manipulations of the GABAergic network restored retrieval behavior. We propose that adult retrieval learning triggers a transient episode of inhibitory plasticity in the auditory cortex that is dysregulated in MeCP2het. This window of heightened sensitivity to social sensory cues reveals a role of MeCP2 mutations in facilitating adult plasticity that is distinct from their effects on early development

Mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake by the voltage-dependent anion channel 2 regulates cardiac rhythmicity.

Tightly regulated Ca(2+) homeostasis is a prerequisite for proper cardiac function. To dissect the regulatory network of cardiac Ca(2+) handling, we performed a chemical suppressor screen on zebrafish tremblor embryos, which suffer from Ca(2+) extrusion defects. Efsevin was identified based on its potent activity to restore coordinated contractions in tremblor. We show that efsevin binds to VDAC2, potentiates mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake and accelerates the transfer of Ca(2+) from intracellular stores into mitochondria. In cardiomyocytes, efsevin restricts the temporal and spatial boundaries of Ca(2+) sparks and thereby inhibits Ca(2+) overload-induced erratic Ca(2+) waves and irregular contractions. We further show that overexpression of VDAC2 recapitulates the suppressive effect of efsevin on tremblor embryos whereas VDAC2 deficiency attenuates efsevin\u27s rescue effect and that VDAC2 functions synergistically with MCU to suppress cardiac fibrillation in tremblor. Together, these findings demonstrate a critical modulatory role for VDAC2-dependent mitochondrial Ca(2+) uptake in the regulation of cardiac rhythmicity