A high speed CCSDS encoder for space applications

This paper reports a VLSI implementation of the CCSDS standard Reed Solomon encoder circuit for the Space Station. The 1.0 micron double metal CMOS chip is 5.9 mm by 3.6 mm, contains 48,000 transistors, operates at a sustained data rate of 320 Mbits/s, and executes 2,560 Mops. The chip features a pin selectable interleave depth of 1 to 8. Block lengths of up to 255 bytes, as well as shortened codes, are supported. The control circuitry uses register cells which are immune to Single Event Upset. In addition, the CMOS process used is reported to be tolerant of over 1 Mrad total dose radiation

On the decomposition of synchronous state mechines using sequence invariant state machines

This paper presents a few techniques for the decomposition of Synchronous State Machines of medium to large sizes into smaller component machines. The methods are based on the nature of the transitions and sequences of states in the machine and on the number and variety of inputs to the machine. The results of the decomposition, and of using the Sequence Invariant State Machine (SISM) Design Technique for generating the component machines, include great ease and quickness in the design and implementation processes. Furthermore, there is increased flexibility in making modifications to the original design leading to negligible re-design time

Simultaneous Heat and Mass Transfer Accompanied by Phase Change in Porous

Introduction Transport processes in porous media have been the subject of extensive investigations due to the applicability of such studies in a variety of problems, such as geothermal operations, soil hydrology, nuclear waste disposal, drying technology, and energy conservation. A very important area in the field of energy conservation is the effect of condensation on the performance of high-porosity insulation materials. A typical insulation material consists of a solid matrix, a gas phase which itself consists of air and water vapor, and a very small amount of adsorbed liquid water. When the insulation matrix is exposed to environments of different temperature and humidity, diffusion and bulk convection of the air, vapor, and liquid occur. In addition, air infiltration due to small differences in total pressure across the insulation matrix augments this transport process. Condensation occurs at any point in the insulation where the water vapor concentration becomes greater than the saturation concentration corresponding to the temperature at that point. As the condensation takes place the latent heat of vaporization is released which acts as a heat source for the heat transfer process. The condensation also creates a liquid phase which may be pendular or mobile due to the capillary action and gravity. In summary, the complete problem is a combined mass, momentum, and energy transfer in a porous medium containing a multiphase mixture of air, vapor, and water in the void space. The general aspects of combined transport in porous media It is crucial to gain a fundamental understanding of the conditions which promote condensation, as condensation will significantly affect energy transfer across the insulation matrix. This in turn greatly influences the R value of the insulation. Furthermore, condensation directly affects the physical integrity of the insulation and its deterioration. A more thorough knowledge of the condensation process in an insulation material will allow better predictions of the condensation rates and the qualitative effects of the controlling parameters. In addition, an understanding of the condensation process will ultimately help in establishing the design locations for the vapor barriers

Network Structures and Dynamics Of Early Dementia Events Recorded in Primary Care Electronic Health Records

Background: Identifying early signs of heterogeneous conditions like dementia is challenging. We used electronic health records (EHR) and data-driven methods in order to represent prodromal dementia as a dynamic temporal network of healthcare events and move beyond reductionist representations of complex syndromes. / Methods: We used UK primary care EHR data from Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) through the CALIBER resource and identified patients with a dementia diagnosis. We constructed a weighted, undirected network. We calculated centrality measures of the network and compared three community detection algorithms, Louvain, InfoMAP and Walktrap. Distinctive temporal communities of events in two year windows were derived, and we explored community membership, interactions and dynamics using evaluation measures including Jaccard distance, modularity, Rand Index and Normalised Mutual Information. / Results: We analysed data from 89,102 patients, where nodes (n=816) were connected to edges (n=392,345) based on the frequency with which two features were recorded in the same time window. Across the whole prodrome, repeated cardiovascular medications accounted for 22% of the network edges, followed by repeated central nervous system medications, accounting for 5% of edges. Cardiovascular conditions had the highest eigen centrality (influence on the entire network structure) and QRISK2 and malignant neoplasms had the greatest betweenness centrality (bridge between events). Louvin had the highest modularity and clustered the temporal network into six communities: The largest community was enriched for respiratory diseases (late-prodrome) and circulatory conditions (mid). Community 2 was enriched for musculoskeletal conditions (late), and Community 3 for administrative events (early) and nervous system conditions (late). In the early prodrome, there were more transitions between communities, however from 10 years to diagnosis, most events occurred within communities. / Conclusion: By understanding the interdependencies of conditions and associated medications across a disease network, we can deepen our understanding of prodromal dementia and create an accurate phenotype of the earliest stages of cognitive decline

Asynchronous sequential circuit design using pass transistor iterative logic arrays

The iterative logic array (ILA) is introduced as a new architecture for asynchronous sequential circuits. This is the first ILA architecture for sequential circuits reported in the literature. The ILA architecture produces a very regular circuit structure. Moreover, it is immune to both 1-1 and 0-0 crossovers and is free of hazards. This paper also presents a new critical race free STT state assignment which produces a simple form of design equations that greatly simplifies the ILA realizations

Fractional Quantum Hall Effect and vortex lattices

It is demonstrated that all observed fractions at moderate Landau level fillings for the quantum Hall effect can be obtained without recourse to the phenomenological concept of composite fermions. The possibility to have the special topologically nontrivial many-electron wave functions is considered. Their group classification indicates the special values of of electron density in the ground states separated by a gap from excited states

Breastfeeding, breast milk and viruses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is seemingly consistent and compelling evidence that there is no association between breastfeeding and breast cancer. An assumption follows that milk borne viruses cannot be associated with human breast cancer.</p> <p>We challenge this evidence because past breastfeeding studies did not determine "exposure" of newborn infants to colostrum and breast milk.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a prospective review of 100 consecutive births of infants in the same centre to determine the proportion of newborn infants who were "exposed" to colostrum or breast milk, as distinct from being fully breast fed. We also report a review of the breastfeeding practices of mothers of over 87,000 newborn infants in the Australian State of New South Wales.</p> <p>This study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). Approval 05063, 29 September 2005.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Virtually all (97 of 100) newborn infants in this centre were "exposed" to colostrum or breast milk whether or not they were fully breast fed. Between 82.2% to 98.7% of 87,000 newborn infants were "exposed" to colostrum or breast milk.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In some Western communities there is near universal exposure of new born infants to colostrum and breast milk. Accordingly it is possible for the transmission of human milk borne viruses. This is contrary to the widespread assumption that human milk borne viruses cannot be associated with breast cancer.</p

Automated ILA design for synchronous sequential circuits

An iterative logic array (ILA) architecture for synchronous sequential circuits is presented. This technique utilizes linear algebra to produce the design equations. The ILA realization of synchronous sequential logic can be fully automated with a computer program. A programmable design procedure is proposed to fullfill the design task and layout generation. A software algorithm in the C language has been developed and tested to generate 1 micron CMOS layouts using the Hewlett-Packard FUNGEN module generator shell