Towards Energy-Efficient and Reliable Computing: From Highly-Scaled CMOS Devices to Resistive Memories

The continuous increase in transistor density based on Moore\u27s Law has led us to highly scaled Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. These transistor-based process technologies offer improved density as well as a reduction in nominal supply voltage. An analysis regarding different aspects of 45nm and 15nm technologies, such as power consumption and cell area to compare these two technologies is proposed on an IEEE 754 Single Precision Floating-Point Unit implementation. Based on the results, using the 15nm technology offers 4-times less energy and 3-fold smaller footprint. New challenges also arise, such as relative proportion of leakage power in standby mode that can be addressed by post-CMOS technologies. Spin-Transfer Torque Random Access Memory (STT-MRAM) has been explored as a post-CMOS technology for embedded and data storage applications seeking non-volatility, near-zero standby energy, and high density. Towards attaining these objectives for practical implementations, various techniques to mitigate the specific reliability challenges associated with STT-MRAM elements are surveyed, classified, and assessed herein. Cost and suitability metrics assessed include the area of nanomagmetic and CMOS components per bit, access time and complexity, Sense Margin (SM), and energy or power consumption costs versus resiliency benefits. In an attempt to further improve the Process Variation (PV) immunity of the Sense Amplifiers (SAs), a new SA has been introduced called Adaptive Sense Amplifier (ASA). ASA can benefit from low Bit Error Rate (BER) and low Energy Delay Product (EDP) by combining the properties of two of the commonly used SAs, Pre-Charge Sense Amplifier (PCSA) and Separated Pre-Charge Sense Amplifier (SPCSA). ASA can operate in either PCSA or SPCSA mode based on the requirements of the circuit such as energy efficiency or reliability. Then, ASA is utilized to propose a novel approach to actually leverage the PV in Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) arrays using Self-Organized Sub-bank (SOS) design. SOS engages the preferred SA alternative based on the intrinsic as-built behavior of the resistive sensing timing margin to reduce the latency and power consumption while maintaining acceptable access time

Robust Image Recognition Based on a New Supervised Kernel Subspace Learning Method

Fecha de lectura de Tesis Doctoral: 13 de septiembre 2019Image recognition is a term for computer technologies that can recognize certain people, objects or other targeted subjects through the use of algorithms and machine learning concepts. Face recognition is one of the most popular techniques to achieve the goal of figuring out the identity of a person. This study has been conducted to develop a new non-linear subspace learning method named “supervised kernel locality-based discriminant neighborhood embedding,” which performs data classification by learning an optimum embedded subspace from a principal high dimensional space. In this approach, not only is a nonlinear and complex variation of face images effectively represented using nonlinear kernel mapping, but local structure information of data from the same class and discriminant information from distinct classes are also simultaneously preserved to further improve final classification performance. Moreover, to evaluate the robustness of the proposed method, it was compared with several well-known pattern recognition methods through comprehensive experiments with six publicly accessible datasets. In this research, we particularly focus on face recognition however, two other types of databases rather than face databases are also applied to well investigate the implementation of our algorithm. Experimental results reveal that our method consistently outperforms its competitors across a wide range of dimensionality on all the datasets. SKLDNE method has reached 100 percent of recognition rate for Tn=17 on the Sheffield, 9 on the Yale, 8 on the ORL, 7 on the Finger vein and 11on the Finger Knuckle respectively, while the results are much lower for other methods. This demonstrates the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method

Design of a Drug Delivery System through the Gastrointestinal Tract

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) afflicts an estimated 5.3 million individuals and is the sixth leading cause of death in America. The drug delivery method of interest is an orally administered sustained-release delivery system that addresses the needs of the associated patient population. By augmenting drug delivery with a higher effective payload per dose compared to current methods, drug efficacy and bioavailability would improve. This will result in a decrease of the overall cost for medication as a greater percentage of the administered drug will be viable. This design addresses the release of AD drug from the drug delivery system at the small intestine. The design specifications are uniqueness and novelty, cost, ease of use, compatibility, toxicity, shelf life, and pH sensitivity. This design features the utilization of a pH sensitive hydrogel composed of PEGDA and PMMA-co-MMA that will encapsulate the drug through the GI tract and respond appropriately to stimuli in the small intestine to release its content in an appropriate manner. This prevents the release of drug in acidic environments like the stomach where it will be degraded. From experimental studies, the hydrogel drug delivery system was found to be effective. Drug release kinetics using fluorescent dyes indicated that the release was greatest in the pH environment that simulated that found in the small intestines whereas the release was the lowest in very acidic pH levels simulating the acidity of the stomach.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1076/thumbnail.jp

A Multimodal Analysis of Differences Between TV Commercials and Press Advertisements: A Discoursal Study of Persuasion-Seeking Strategies in the Mass Media

This study reports the findings of a multimodal analysis seeking to find the differences between TV commercials and newspapers advertisements in the application of strategies which make those ads more and more persuasive. Regarding such strategies effort is made to find out which ones are more convincing and appealing to their receivers. The tools used in this study involved 40 tape-recorded TV commercials and 40 ads taken from two Iranian newspapers, Tehran Times and Iran Daily which are published in English as well as the American magazine of Newsweek. The persuasion techniques of each medium were first specified separately and then compared with the techniques used by the others. The main finding of the study was that strategies applied by producers of TV commercials are much more persuasive and impressive than those used by suppliers of advertisements in the press.Key words: Multimodal analysis; TV commercials; Press advertisements; Persuasio

The Role of Traumatic Experiences and Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies in Predicting High-risk Behaviors among Adolescents

Introduction: The goal of the present study was to investigate adolescents’ tendency to engage in high-risk behaviors based on traumatic life experiences and adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. Method: A descriptive/correlational design was used. The participants included 220 adolescents (154 girls and 66 boys) who were selected among high-school students in Shiraz, using a convenience sampling method. The Traumatic Experiences Checklist (TEC), the Iranian Adolescents Risk-taking Scale (IARS), and the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire (CERQ) were used collect data. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, and regression analysis. Results: According to the results, among traumatic experiences, only emotional abuse (P<0. 001), and among maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies, only rumination (P<0. 001) had a significant effect on high-risk behaviors. In addition, no significant relationship was found between adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and tendency to engage in high-risk behaviors. Conclusion: The results suggest that providing training on emotion regulation can help students select adaptive emotion regulation strategies in coping with high-risk situations. Declaration of Interest: None.