EffiTest: Efficient Delay Test and Statistical Prediction for Configuring Post-silicon Tunable Buffers

At nanometer manufacturing technology nodes, process variations significantly affect circuit performance. To combat them, post- silicon clock tuning buffers can be deployed to balance timing bud- gets of critical paths for each individual chip after manufacturing. The challenge of this method is that path delays should be mea- sured for each chip to configure the tuning buffers properly. Current methods for this delay measurement rely on path-wise frequency stepping. This strategy, however, requires too much time from ex- pensive testers. In this paper, we propose an efficient delay test framework (EffiTest) to solve the post-silicon testing problem by aligning path delays using the already-existing tuning buffers in the circuit. In addition, we only test representative paths and the delays of other paths are estimated by statistical delay prediction. Exper- imental results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the number of frequency stepping iterations by more than 94% with only a slight yield loss.Comment: ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC), June 201

Coexisting Innominate Vein Compression Syndrome and May-Thurner Syndrome

AbstractInnominate vein compression syndrome and May-Thurner syndrome (also called iliac vein compression syndrome) are venous compression syndromes caused by normal anatomic structures. Here, we present a case in which these two conditions were found in the same patient using multidetector row computed tomography. This case is significant for two reasons: (1) it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first case study in the literature to report coexisting innominate vein compression syndrome and May-Thurner syndrome; and (2) it shows that multidetector row computed tomography has powerful diagnostic ability for venous diseases

Thermodynamical Properties and Quasi-localized Energy of the Stringy Dyonic Black Hole Solution

In this article, we calculate the heat flux passing through the horizon $. {\bf TS}|_{r_h}$ and the difference of energy between the Einstein and M{\o}ller prescription within the region ${\cal M}$, in which is the region between outer horizon ${\cal H}_+$ and inner horizon ${\cal H}_-$, for the modified GHS solution, KLOPP solution and CLH solution. The formula . E_{\rm Einstein}|_{\cal M} = . E_{\rm M{\o}ller}|_{\cal M} - \sum_{\partial {\cal M}} {\bf TS}$ is obeyed for the mGHS solution and the KLOPP solution, but not for the CLH solution. Also, we suggest a RN-like stringy dyonic black hole solution, which comes from the KLOPP solution under a dual transformation, and its thermodynamical properties are the same as the KLOPP solution

Metamaterials: optical activity without chirality

We report that the classical phenomenon of optical activity, which is traditionally associated with chirality (helicity) of organic molecules, proteins, and inorganic structures, can be observed in artificial planar media which exhibit neither 3D nor 2D chirality. We observe the effect in the microwave and optical parts of the spectrum at oblique incidence to regular arrays of nonchiral subwavelength metamolecules in the form of strong circular dichroism and birefringence indistinguishable from those of chiral three-dimensional media

A Bayesian measurement error model for two-channel cell-based RNAi data with replicates

RNA interference (RNAi) is an endogenous cellular process in which small double-stranded RNAs lead to the destruction of mRNAs with complementary nucleoside sequence. With the production of RNAi libraries, large-scale RNAi screening in human cells can be conducted to identify unknown genes involved in a biological pathway. One challenge researchers face is how to deal with the multiple testing issue and the related false positive rate (FDR) and false negative rate (FNR). This paper proposes a Bayesian hierarchical measurement error model for the analysis of data from a two-channel RNAi high-throughput experiment with replicates, in which both the activity of a particular biological pathway and cell viability are monitored and the goal is to identify short hair-pin RNAs (shRNAs) that affect the pathway activity without affecting cell activity. Simulation studies demonstrate the flexibility and robustness of the Bayesian method and the benefits of having replicates in the experiment. This method is illustrated through analyzing the data from a RNAi high-throughput screening that searches for cellular factors affecting HCV replication without affecting cell viability; comparisons of the results from this HCV study and some of those reported in the literature are included.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/11-AOAS496 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

SEISMIC CAPACITY EVALUATION OF BRIDGES WITH SCOURED GROUP PILE FOUNDATIONS

ABSTRACT For the sake of steep river beds and heavy rain in typhoon season, scoured bridges are very popular in Taiwan. In this situation, seismic capacity of scoured bridges may be lowered significantly. In this study, nonlinear static lateral force analyses are conducted to bridges with different extent of scouring of group pile foundations using properly assigned plastic hinges properties. Capacity spectrum method is used then to assess the seismic capacity for bridges with and without scouring. After the analysis for several commonly used bridges with different degree of scouring, this study find that when scouring depth is deep enough, the plastic hinges will formed at the top of the piles instead of at the bottom of the columns as we expected in the design. Since the total base shear and ductility for bridges with scoured foundations are much smaller than that of the bridges without scouring, so the seismic capacity of bridges with scoured group pile foundations are becomes lower and lower as the depth of scouring are getting deeper and deeper

A new type of optical activity in a toroidal metamaterial

We demonstrate experimentally and numerically the first ever observation of optical activity in a chiral metamaterial that is underpinned by the exotic resonant combination of an electric quadrupole and the elusive toroidal dipole