KAPow: A System Identification Approach to Online Per-Module Power Estimation in FPGA Designs

In a modern FPGA system-on-chip design, it is often insufficient to simply assess the total power consumption of the entire circuit by design-time estimation or runtime power rail measurement. Instead, to make better runtime decisions, it is desirable to understand the power consumed by each individual module in the system. In this work, we combine boardlevel power measurements with register-level activity counting to build an online model that produces a breakdown of power consumption within the design. Online model refinement avoids the need for a time-consuming characterisation stage and also allows the model to track long-term changes to operating conditions. Our flow is named KAPow, a (loose) acronym for ‘K’ounting Activity for Power estimation, which we show to be accurate, with per-module power estimates as close to ±5mW of true measurements, and to have low overheads. We also demonstrate an application example in which a permodule power breakdown can be used to determine an efficient mapping of tasks to modules and reduce system-wide power consumption by over 8%

Necrotizing meningoencephalitis in atypical dog breeds: a case series and literature review.

BackgroundCanine necrotizing meningoencephalitis (NME) is a fatal, noninfectious inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. NME has been reported only in a small number of dog breeds, which has led to the presumption that it is a breed-restricted disorder.Hypothesis/objectivesOur objective was to describe histopathologically confirmed NME in dog breeds in which the condition has not been reported previously and to provide preliminary evidence that NME affects a wider spectrum of dog breeds than previously reported.AnimalsFour dogs with NME.MethodsArchives from 3 institutions and from 1 author's (BS) collection were reviewed to identify histopathologically confirmed cases of NME in breeds in which the disease has not been reported previously. Age, sex, breed, survival from onset of clinical signs, and histopathologic findings were evaluated.ResultsNecrotizing meningoencephalitis was identified in 4 small dog breeds (Papillon, Shih Tzu, Coton de Tulear, and Brussels Griffon). Median age at clinical evaluation was 2.5 years. Histopathologic abnormalities included 2 or more of the following: lymphoplasmacytic or histiocytic meningoencephalitis or encephalitis, moderate-to-severe cerebrocortical necrosis, variable involvement of other anatomic locations within the brain (cerebellum, brainstem), and absence of detectable infectious agents.Conclusions and clinical importanceUntil now, NME has only been described in 5 small dog breeds. We document an additional 4 small breeds previously not shown to develop NME. Our cases further illustrate that NME is not a breed-restricted disorder and should be considered in the differential diagnosis for dogs with signalment and clinical signs consistent with inflammatory brain disease

KAPow: high-accuracy, low-overhead online per-module power estimation for FPGA designs

In an FPGA system-on-chip design, it is often insufficient to merely assess the power consumption of the entire circuit by compile-time estimation or runtime power measurement. Instead, to make better decisions, one must understand the power consumed by each module in the system. In this work, we combine measurements of register-level switching activity and system-level power to build an adaptive online model that produces live breakdowns of power consumption within the design. Online model refinement avoids time-consuming characterisation while also allowing the model to track long-term operating condition changes. Central to our method is an automated flow that selects signals predicted to be indicative of high power consumption, instrumenting them for monitoring. We named this technique KAPow, for 'K'ounting Activity for Power estimation, which we show to be accurate and to have low overheads across a range of representative benchmarks. We also propose a strategy allowing for the identification and subsequent elimination of counters found to be of low significance at runtime, reducing algorithmic complexity without sacrificing significant accuracy. Finally, we demonstrate an application example in which a module-level power breakdown can be used to determine an efficient mapping of tasks to modules and reduce system-wide power consumption by up to 7%

Sorafenib dose escalation is not uniformly associated with blood pressure elevations in normotensive patients with advanced malignancies.

Hypertension after treatment with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor inhibitors is associated with superior treatment outcomes for advanced cancer patients. To determine whether increased sorafenib doses cause incremental increases in blood pressure (BP), we measured 12-h ambulatory BP in 41 normotensive advanced solid tumor patients in a randomized dose-escalation study. After 7 days' treatment (400 mg b.i.d.), mean diastolic BP (DBP) increased in both study groups. After dose escalation, group A (400 mg t.i.d.) had marginally significant further increase in 12-h mean DBP (P = 0.053), but group B (600 mg b.i.d.) did not achieve statistically significant increases (P = 0.25). Within groups, individuals varied in BP response to sorafenib dose escalation, but these differences did not correlate with changes in steady-state plasma sorafenib concentrations. These findings in normotensive patients suggest BP is a complex pharmacodynamic biomarker of VEGF inhibition. Patients have intrinsic differences in sensitivity to sorafenib's BP-elevating effects

The Effect of Electrode Configuration on the Unipolar His-Bundle Electrogram

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75654/1/j.1540-8159.1989.tb06148.x.pd

Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins are related to lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase enzymes

Fat storage-inducing transmembrane (FIT or FITM) proteins have been implicated in the partitioning of triacylglycerol to lipid droplets and the budding of lipid droplets from the ER. At the molecular level, the sole relevant interaction is that FITMs directly bind to triacyglycerol and diacylglycerol, but how they function at the molecular level is not known.Saccharomyces cerevisiaehas two FITM homologues: Scs3p and Yft2p. Scs3p was initially identified because deletion leads to inositol auxotrophy, with an unusual sensitivity to addition of choline. This strongly suggests a role for Scs3p in phospholipid biosynthesis. Looking at the FITM family as widely as possible, we found that FITMs are widespread throughout eukaryotes, indicating presence in the last eukaryotic common ancestor. Protein alignments also showed that FITM sequences contain the active site of lipid phosphatase/phosphotransferase (LPT) enzymes. This large family transfers phosphate-containing headgroups either between lipids or in exchange for water. We confirmed the prediction that FITMs are related to LPTs by showing that single amino-acid substitutions in the presumptive catalytic site prevented their ability to rescue growth of the mutants on low inositol/high choline media when over-expressed. The substitutions also prevented rescue of other phenotypes associated with loss of FITM in yeast, including mistargeting of Opi1p, defective ER morphology, and aberrant lipid droplet budding. These results suggest that Scs3p, Yft2p and FITMs in general are LPT enzymes involved in an as yet unknown critical step in phospholipid metabolism

DRAM-3 modulates autophagy and promotes cell survival in the absence of glucose

Macroautophagy is a membrane-trafficking process that delivers cytoplasmic constituents to lysosomes for degradation. The process operates under basal conditions as a mechanism to turnover damaged or misfolded proteins and organelles. As a result, it has a major role in preserving cellular integrity and viability. In addition to this basal function, macroautophagy can also be modulated in response to various forms of cellular stress, and the rate and cargoes of macroautophagy can be tailored to facilitate appropriate cellular responses in particular situations. The macroautophagy machinery is regulated by a group of evolutionarily conserved autophagy-related (ATG) proteins and by several other autophagy regulators, which either have tissue-restricted expression or operate in specific contexts. We report here the characterization of a novel autophagy regulator that we have termed DRAM-3 due to its significant homology to damage-regulated autophagy modulator (DRAM-1). DRAM-3 is expressed in a broad spectrum of normal tissues and tumor cells, but different from DRAM-1, DRAM-3 is not induced by p53 or DNA-damaging agents. Immunofluorescence studies revealed that DRAM-3 localizes to lysosomes/autolysosomes, endosomes and the plasma membrane, but not the endoplasmic reticulum, phagophores, autophagosomes or Golgi, indicating significant overlap with DRAM-1 localization and with organelles associated with macroautophagy. In this regard, we further proceed to show that DRAM-3 expression causes accumulation of autophagosomes under basal conditions and enhances autophagic flux. Reciprocally, CRISPR/Cas9-mediated disruption of DRAM-3 impairs autophagic flux confirming that DRAM-3 is a modulator of macroautophagy. As macroautophagy can be cytoprotective under starvation conditions, we also tested whether DRAM-3 could promote survival on nutrient deprivation. This revealed that DRAM-3 can repress cell death and promote long-term clonogenic survival of cells grown in the absence of glucose. Interestingly, however, this effect is macroautophagy-independent. In summary, these findings constitute the primary characterization of DRAM-3 as a modulator of both macroautophagy and cell survival under starvation conditions

Voltage, throughput, power, reliability, and multicore scaling

This article studies the interplay between the performance, energy, and reliability (PER) of parallel-computing systems. It describes methods supporting the meaningful cross-platform analysis of this interplay. These methods lead to the PER software tool, which helps designers analyze, compare, and explore these properties

Strong Water Absorption in the Dayside Emission Spectrum of the Planet HD 189733b

Recent observations of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b did not reveal the presence of water in the emission spectrum of the planet. Yet models of such 'Hot Jupiter' planets predict an abundance of atmospheric water vapour. Validating and constraining these models is crucial for understanding the physics and chemistry of planetary atmospheres in extreme environments. Indications of the presence of water in the atmosphere of HD 189733b have recently been found in transmission spectra, where the planet's atmosphere selectively absorbs the light of the parent star, and in broadband photometry. Here we report on the detection of strong water absorption in a high signal-to-noise, mid-infrared emission spectrum of the planet itself. We find both a strong downturn in the flux ratio below 10 microns and discrete spectral features that are characteristic of strong absorption by water vapour. The differences between these and previous observations are significant and admit the possibility that predicted planetary-scale dynamical weather structures might alter the emission spectrum over time. Models that match the observed spectrum and the broadband photometry suggest that heat distribution from the dayside to the night side is weak. Reconciling this with the high night side temperature will require a better understanding of atmospheric circulation or possible additional energy sources.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, published in Natur

Bystander responses to a violent incident in an immersive virtual environment

Under what conditions will a bystander intervene to try to stop a violent attack by one person on another? It is generally believed that the greater the size of the crowd of bystanders, the less the chance that any of them will intervene. A complementary model is that social identity is critical as an explanatory variable. For example, when the bystander shares common social identity with the victim the probability of intervention is enhanced, other things being equal. However, it is generally not possible to study such hypotheses experimentally for practical and ethical reasons. Here we show that an experiment that depicts a violent incident at life-size in immersive virtual reality lends support to the social identity explanation. 40 male supporters of Arsenal Football Club in England were recruited for a two-factor between-groups experiment: the victim was either an Arsenal supporter or not (in-group/out-group), and looked towards the participant for help or not during the confrontation. The response variables were the numbers of verbal and physical interventions by the participant during the violent argument. The number of physical interventions had a significantly greater mean in the ingroup condition compared to the out-group. The more that participants perceived that the Victim was looking to them for help the greater the number of interventions in the in-group but not in the out-group. These results are supported by standard statistical analysis of variance, with more detailed findings obtained by a symbolic regression procedure based on genetic programming. Verbal interventions made during their experience, and analysis of post-experiment interview data suggest that in-group members were more prone to confrontational intervention compared to the out-group who were more prone to make statements to try to diffuse the situation