Development of computerized data acquisition system for science experiments

Nowadays, students are losing their interest in science subject. This is because they do not able to apply theory on the science experiment while they are still using old and conventional method to conduct a science experiment that might bring a lot of uncertainties in the actual word. The current available data acquisition systems in the market are costly installation fee and stiff learning curve that leads to the inconvenience to conduct an experiment or analyze the result would be unwanted by the students. The objective of this project here is to implement a data acquisition system, which is user-friendly and low cost. Through this project, a data acquisition system is designed. Waterproof temperature sensor, velocity detector, voltage/current detector are used to carry out certain science experiments. With the standalone monitoring system, users can view the result and analyze on the liquid crystal display. The users also can read the result on a give website address as long as the Arduino Mega is connected to a computer. The use of Arduino Mega with Ethernet shield coupled together will help in accomplished the web site for the database in this project. Here the user has to enter a password, which must register before, and this read from the system for clarification and verification purpose. By storing the database online, the user can read his result in a more efficient way. This project has been extensively tested in one of the science experiments. Experimental results have shown a result accuracy of 90% in this project by compared to conventional method. From this project, a better way to conduct science experiment is built and this work would illustrate the advantages of saving the time for better experiment results while doing the experiment

SEPARATING INSTRUCTION FETCHES FROM MEMORY ACCESSES : ILAR (INSTRUCTION LINE ASSOCIATIVE REGISTERS)

Due to the growing mismatch between processor performance and memory latency, many dynamic mechanisms which are “invisible” to the user have been proposed: for example, trace caches and automatic pre-fetch units. However, these dynamic mechanisms have become inadequate due to implicit memory accesses that have become so expensive. On the other hand, compiler-visible mechanisms like SWAR (SIMD Within A Register) and LARs (Line Associative Registers) are potentially more effective at improving data access performance. This thesis investigates applying the same ideas to improve instruction access. ILAR (Instruction LARs) store instructions in wide registers. Instruction blocks are explicitly loaded into ILAR, using block compression to enhance memory bandwidth. The control flow of the program then refers to instructions directly by their position within an ILAR, rather than by lengthy memory addresses. Because instructions are accessed directly from within registers, there is no implicit instruction fetch from memory. This thesis proposes an instruction set architecture for ILAR, investigates a mechanism to load ILAR using the best available block compression algorithm and also develop hardware descriptions for both ILAR and a conventional memory cache model so that performance comparisons could be made on the instruction fetch stage

Molecular Determinants of Fetal Tolerance and the Transition to Adult Immunity

The perinatal immune system is highly tolerogenic and is phenotypically and functionally distinct from the adult immune system. This tolerogenic nature is a double-edged sword for newborns. While it is beneficial to prevent excessive inflammation against the vast array of foreign antigens encountered after birth, it also causes a lack of immune responses to life-threatening infections. My dissertation research aims to investigate the mechanisms by which perinatal T cells contribute to immune tolerance in infants. A deeper understanding of the nature of the perinatal immune system will provide pivotal knowledge to develop safe and effective strategies to protect infants from infection and to establish immune homeostasis with commensal microbes. Using umbilical cord blood (UCB) T cells as a model to study perinatal immunity, we found that antigen receptor stimulation of T cells in UCB leads to the development of Foxp3+ T cells in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell subsets. These UCB-derived Foxp3+ T cells are phenotypically and epigenetically distinct from canonical thymus-derived Tregs (tTregs) in adults, but they carry immune regulatory functions in vitro and in vivo. The development of Foxp3+ T cells requires CD36hi monocytes. Adult blood contains a group of lymphocytes that inhibits monocyte-induced Foxp3+ T cell development, showing how perinatal blood differs from adult blood. Foxp3+ T cell development also requires IL-2. Alcohol, which is known to cause immunological defects, reduces the expression of CD25, a component of the high affinity IL-2 receptor, and blocks Foxp3+ T cell development. The result suggests that immunological dysfunctions found among infants born from alcoholic mothers may be in part due to the impaired development of these Foxp3+ T cells during their fetal life. To further elucidate the mechanisms that contribute to perinatal immunological tolerance, we investigated the expression of Helios, another transcription factor known to be expressed by tTregs along with Foxp3. We found that Helios is expressed significantly more frequently by UCB and neonatal peripheral blood T cells than adult T cells. Similar results were observed in mice. The expression frequency decreased rapidly after birth. The data suggested that T cells from fetal/perinatal origin express Helios. Indeed, we found that most gut-associated T cells, which are known to originate from the fetal thymus, express Helios in the fetus and maintained Helios expression throughout adulthood. Additionally, human T cells that matured in mice that received UCB hematopoietic stem cells also express Helios. Gene knockout of Helios in UCB T cells showed a significant increase in expression of multiple effector cytokines, suggesting that one of Helios\u27 functions is to suppress effector cytokine production by activated T cells. Together, these data demonstrated multiple mechanisms by which T cells can contribute to immune tolerance in neonates. First, the perinatal peripheral environment promotes T cells to differentiate into a unique group of Foxp3+ T cells that carry suppressive functions. Second, perinatal T cells express high levels of Helios, which suppress activated T cells to produce effector cytokines. Together, both intrinsic (Helios) and extrinsic (CD36hi monocytes) mechanisms promote the tolerogenic nature of the perinatal immune system

Regional Integration and Inclusive Development: Lessons from ASEAN Experience

The current economic crisis has lent extra urgency to ASEAN’s efforts at economic integration and raising its attractiveness for trade and investment. This process gained momentum in the 1990s and has made much progress, as reflected in the emergence of a wide range of extra- and intra-regional agreements. However, the effectiveness of this network of arrangements in stimulating trade and investment depends on not just the characteristics of each arrangement but how well they complement each other. This paper addresses these two areas by examining and evaluating past and present initiatives individually and collectively. Findings suggest that the fundamental impeding issues have endured over the years: lack of political will, ASEAN-style consensus-reliant negotiation, and insufficient management in implementing and harmonising of initiatives. Recommendations include agreement design innovation and focus on shared concerns to overcome lack of will, role expansion of the secretariat to monitor implementation through issuance of score cards, and establishment of specialised bodies such as sub-committees and working groups to enhance implementation and dispute settlement.ASEAN, Economic Integration, Development, Trade

Examining the Impact of Source-product Congruence and Sponsorship Disclosure on the Communicative Effectiveness of Instagram Influencers

Guided by the Persuasion Knowledge Model and the Attribution Theory, this study investigates the perceived source expertise-product attribute congruence and sponsorship disclosure as pertinent factors affecting the communicative effectiveness of influencers. Instagram, with an immense influencer market value projected at USD2.3 billion in 2020, was chosen as the platform context. The study utilised a 2 (source expertise) x2 (product category) x2 (sponsorship disclosure) experiment to examine the roles of source-product congruence and sponsorship disclosure in affecting consumers' perception of extrinsic and intrinsic source motives, consumer resistance and ultimately, advertising effectiveness. Results revealed that the presence of a sponsorship disclosure generated stronger perceptions of extrinsic source motives but did not impact consumer resistance and advertising effectiveness, indicating that the activation of consumers' conceptual persuasion knowledge may not necessarily affect attitudinal persuasion knowledge. Source-product congruence, on the other hand, had main impacts on intrinsic motives, consumer resistance and ad effectiveness. In addition, hierarchical multiple regressions found that source-product congruence triggers a multi-stage process where consumers' perception of intrinsic source motives mediates consumer resistance which subsequently, mediates the relationship between source-product congruence and ad effectiveness

An operator-asymptotic approach to periodic homogenization for equations of linearized elasticity

We present an operator-asymptotic approach to the problem of homogenization of periodic composite media in the setting of three-dimensional linearized elasticity. This is based on a uniform approximation with respect to the inverse wavelength $|\chi|$ for the solution to the resolvent problem when written as a superposition of elementary plane waves with wave vector (``quasimomentum") $\chi$. We develop an asymptotic procedure in powers of $|\chi|$, combined with a new uniform version of the classical Korn inequality. As a consequence, we obtain $L^2\to L^2$, $L^2\to H^1$, and higher-order $L^2\to L^2$ norm-resolvent estimates in $\mathbb{R}^3$. The $L^2 \to H^1$ and higher-order $L^2 \to L^2$ correctors emerge naturally from the asymptotic procedure, and the former is shown to coincide with the classical formulae.Comment: 50 pages, 1 figur