Development Of An 8-Bit Fpga-Based Asynchronous Risc Pipelined Processor For Data Encryption

Microprocessors are widely used in various applications. One of the application is in the area of data security where data are encrypted and decrypted before and after transfer via communication channel. The microprocessor design can be categorized into two types, which are synchronous and asynchronous processors. The asynchronous processor may offer better speed improvement because it is self-timed where a control circuit will generate enable signals for all instruction executions based on the request and acknowledgement signals. Unlike the asynchronous design, synchronous design requires global clock. The clock must be long enough to accommodate the worst-case delay. In this work, an 8-bit asynchronous processor is designed based on a synchronous RISC pipe lined processor architecture. The synchronous processor consists of three stages. They are instruction fetch stage, instruction decode stage and execution stage. The reduce instruction set computer (RISC) architecture is used to minimize the instruction and to perform specific operation. To design the asynchronous processor, an asynchronous control circuit is added to synchronous design. The asynchronous control circuit is designed based on handshake protocol. Both the synchronous and asynchronous designs are applied fully using VHDL. The MAX+PLUS II is used as the simulation tools to design and for design verification. The UP1 education board that contains the FLEX10K chip is used to observe the hardware operation. The asynchronous processor was successfully designed with higher million instructions per second (MIPS) and higher operation frequency as compared to synchronous processor. The asynchronous processor has 10.772 MIPS and operated under frequency of 11. 16MHz. The asynchronous processor design consumed 63% of the total logic cells in FLEX10K chip. The processor fits in FLEX10K and provides extra spaces for future expansion

Design of Smart IoT Health and Social Distancing Monitoring System

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies have started to work from home. As the pandemic recovers, companies slowly start to adapt to the situation by making the workers work from the office. This is an effort to reduce the risks of spreading diseases in the workplace during the endemic of COVID-19. An effective solution is urgently needed to reduce and control the transmission rate of COVID-19. This has motivated us to design an Internet of Things (IoT) Health and Social Distancing Monitoring System (IHDS). This system aims to support that initiative and introduce a system that can control the risks of infection among workers due to a worrying spike in the number of cases in the workplace. The proposed system monitors the health condition of the users and controls social distancing at the workplace by using IoT technology and machine learning. Extensive experiments were conducted to assess the performance of the proposed system. Four critical health metrics were closely monitored: body temperature, pulse rate, blood oxygen saturation, and cough detection, achieving impressive accuracy rates of 99.91%, 94.32%, 99%, and 80.5%, respectively. The proposed system initiates the assignment of red boxes to couples who are separated by less than 1 meter, while it designates green boxes for couples who maintain more than a 1-meter distance from each other

IoT-Based Indoor and Outdoor Self-Quarantine System for COVID-19 Patients

Even after two years since the declaration of the new virus Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19), the reported cases are still considerably high in many countries, including Malaysia. The health authorities cannot monitor the health condition and track the location of every home-monitored patient at once due to many confirmed cases in a day. In order to overcome the shortage of manpower, an Internet of Things (IoT)-based self-quarantine system with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking is proposed in this paper to monitor the health conditions of the Covid-19 patients and track their real-time location via mobile application. Biomedical sensors are used to measure health conditions such as temperature, pulse oximetry, and heart-rate monitor. In addition, the RFID readers are used to detect patients that intend to leave the quarantine area, and the GPS modules are used to track their actual geometrical location so that the authorities can take further action. The real-time data is automatically pushed to the cloud server for the authorities to remotely view the patient's health condition and location on the Google map using smart devices. Finally, a hardware prototype and a mobile application have been successfully developed in this project. The system is able to display the temperature, heartbeats, and blood oxygen saturation properly on a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. All these measured values, together with the information from RFID detection and GPS location tracking, can be viewed on a smartphone

Pre-heating Temperature Effect on Electrochromic Properties of TiO2 Thin Films

Smart windows represent a promising technology that enables the selective transmission of light and heat, and electrochromism technology is gaining interest in smart window applications. Electrochromic (EC) smart windows are the preferred choice for outdoor applications due to their ability to withstand high temperatures. Particularly, Tungsten Trioxide (WO3) is commonly used as an electrochromic layer in EC devices. Although Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) is a less expensive EC material compatible with optoelectronics applications (including solar cells), it has received little research attention. In the course of this study, the sol-gel spin coating method was utilised to deposit a thin film of TiO2 onto Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). This technique was chosen for its simplicity, affordability, and ease of coating thin films. The pre-heating temperature demonstrated a critical role in sol-gel fabrication, particularly in electrochromic applications. As the impact of the pre-heating temperature remains poorly understood, this study effectively investigated the effect of various pre-heating temperatures on the performance of TiO2-based electrochromic thin films. Moreover, this study effectively analysed the structural, optical, and EC properties of the TiO2 thin films pre-heated at different temperatures

Optical Propagation and Communication

Contains research summary and reports on four research projects.Maryland Procurement Office (Contract MDA 904-87-C-4044)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 87-18970)U.S. Army Research Office (Contract DAAL03-87-K-0117)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N0001 4-80-C-0941)U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F49620-87-C-0043

Optical Propagation and Communication

Contains an introduction and reports on four research projects.Maryland Procurement Office Contract MDA 904-87-C-4044National Science Foundation Grant ECS 87-18970U.S. Army Research Office - Durham Contract DAAL03-87-K-0117U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-89-J-1163U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Contract F49620-87-C-004

Optical Propagation and Communication

Contains research objectives and reports on six research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 85-09143)Maryland Procurement Office (Contract MDA 904-84-C-6037)Maryland Procurement Office (Contract MDA 904-87-C-4044)National Science Foundation (Grant ECS 84-15580)National Science Foundation (Grant INT-86-14329)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-87-G-0198)U.S. Army Research Office - Durham (Contract DAAG29-84-K-0095)U.S. Army Research Office - Durham (Contract DAALO3-87-K-0117)U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research (Contract N00014-80-C-0941_U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research (Contract F49620-87-C-0043

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat

Correction to: Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake

Prevalence, associated factors and outcomes of pressure injuries in adult intensive care unit patients: the DecubICUs study

Funder: European Society of Intensive Care Medicine; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100013347Funder: Flemish Society for Critical Care NursesAbstract: Purpose: Intensive care unit (ICU) patients are particularly susceptible to developing pressure injuries. Epidemiologic data is however unavailable. We aimed to provide an international picture of the extent of pressure injuries and factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries in adult ICU patients. Methods: International 1-day point-prevalence study; follow-up for outcome assessment until hospital discharge (maximum 12 weeks). Factors associated with ICU-acquired pressure injury and hospital mortality were assessed by generalised linear mixed-effects regression analysis. Results: Data from 13,254 patients in 1117 ICUs (90 countries) revealed 6747 pressure injuries; 3997 (59.2%) were ICU-acquired. Overall prevalence was 26.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 25.9–27.3). ICU-acquired prevalence was 16.2% (95% CI 15.6–16.8). Sacrum (37%) and heels (19.5%) were most affected. Factors independently associated with ICU-acquired pressure injuries were older age, male sex, being underweight, emergency surgery, higher Simplified Acute Physiology Score II, Braden score 3 days, comorbidities (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, immunodeficiency), organ support (renal replacement, mechanical ventilation on ICU admission), and being in a low or lower-middle income-economy. Gradually increasing associations with mortality were identified for increasing severity of pressure injury: stage I (odds ratio [OR] 1.5; 95% CI 1.2–1.8), stage II (OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.4–1.9), and stage III or worse (OR 2.8; 95% CI 2.3–3.3). Conclusion: Pressure injuries are common in adult ICU patients. ICU-acquired pressure injuries are associated with mainly intrinsic factors and mortality. Optimal care standards, increased awareness, appropriate resource allocation, and further research into optimal prevention are pivotal to tackle this important patient safety threat