RED: A ReRAM-based Deconvolution Accelerator

Deconvolution has been widespread in neural networks. For example, it is essential for performing unsupervised learning in generative adversarial networks or constructing fully convolutional networks for semantic segmentation. Resistive RAM (ReRAM)-based processing-in-memory architecture has been widely explored in accelerating convolutional computation and demonstrates good performance. Performing deconvolution on existing ReRAM-based accelerator designs, however, suffers from long latency and high energy consumption because deconvolutional computation includes not only convolution but also extra add-on operations. To realize the more efficient execution for deconvolution, we analyze its computation requirement and propose a ReRAM-based accelerator design, namely, RED. More specific, RED integrates two orthogonal methods, the pixel-wise mapping scheme for reducing redundancy caused by zero-inserting operations and the zero-skipping data flow for increasing the computation parallelism and therefore improving performance. Experimental evaluations show that compared to the state-of-the-art ReRAM-based accelerator, RED can speed up operation 3.69x~1.15x and reduce 8%~88.36% energy consumption.Comment: 2019 Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE

Predicting College Student’ Use of E-Learning Systems: an Attempt to Extend Technology Acceptance Model

This study makes an attempt to extend technology acceptance model (TAM) and presents a respecified conceptual model to examine the factors associated with college students’ use of asynchronous e-learning systems. A web-based learning platform was employed to assist the learning of an undergraduate-level course, management information systems (MIS), in a well-known institute of technology in the southern part of Taiwan. A cross-sectional survey was conducted. The partial least squares method was applied to validate the reliability and validity of the measurement model and assess the proposed conceptual model in this study. The empirical results indicated that college students showed great readiness and positive intentions towards the use of such e-learning system for the professional courses and suggested potential benefits from its use in the long term. The findings of this study not only can proffer practical implications for on-line professional course learning and teaching in business education, but also may serve as instrumental guidelines for e-learning system to be designed effectively to improve students’ interests and motivations in virtual learning environments

Spatiotemporal Analysis of Groundwater Recharge Trends and Variability in Northern Taiwan

In this study, the base flow estimation method was used to assess long‐term changes of groundwater recharge in Northern Taiwan. The Mann‐Kendall test was used to examine the characteristics of the trends. This was followed by trend slope calculation and change‐point analysis. The annual groundwater recharge was found to exhibit a significant upward trend for the Fushan and Hengxi stations (Tamsui river basin). On the other hand, the Ximen Bridge station (Lanyang river basin) recorded a significant downward trend. Calculations showed that the rate of change for the Fengshan and Touqian river basins was small (less than 10%). However, that for the following stations was greater than 30%: Fushan, Hengxi, Ximen Bridge, and Niudou (also in the Lanyang river basin). The results of the change‐point analysis further indicated a significant change‐point for the annual recharge at Fushan, Hengxi, and Ximen Bridge stations in 1999, 1983, and 2001, respectively. The findings can be used for regional hydrological studies and as reference for water resource planning

Single deep ultraviolet light emission from boron nitride nanotube film

Light in deep ultraviolet DUV region has a wide range of applications and the demand for finding DUV light emitting materials at nanoscale is increasingly urgent as they are vital for building miniaturized optic and optoelectronic devices. We discover that boron nitride nanotubes BNNTs with a well-crystallized cylindrical multiwall structure and diameters smaller than 10 nm can have single DUV emission at 225 nm 5.51 eV. The measured BNNTs are grown on substrate in the form of a thin film. This study suggests that BNNTs may work as nanosized DUV light sources for various applications. © 20

First-principles method of propagation of tightly bound excitons: exciton band structure of LiF and verification with inelastic x-ray scattering

We propose a simple first-principles method to describe propagation of tightly bound excitons. By viewing the exciton as a composite object (an effective Frenkel exciton in Wannier orbitals), we define an exciton kinetic kernel to encapsulate the exciton propagation and decay for all binding energy. Applied to prototypical LiF, our approach produces three exciton bands, which we verified quantitatively via inelastic x-ray scattering. The proposed real-space picture is computationally inexpensive and thus enables study of the full exciton dynamics, even in the presence of surfaces and impurity scattering. It also provides intuitive understanding to facilitate practical exciton engineering in semiconductors, strongly correlated oxides, and their nanostructures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by PR

THE STUDY OF ENERGY LOSS FROM IMPACT ON A CURVED BALL OF GOLF SWINGS

Practicing and correcting positions and movements without understanding the principles were involved with the ball impact and subsequent flight path. This research was focused on the relationships between energy creation and loss when open and closed clubfaces were used to create a curved flight path of the ball. Based on the results of the experiments, the energy loss from different clubface angles was varied and caused different flight trajectories of the ball

Knowledge Sharing and Business Matching in Advertising and Public Relations Services Using Semantic Peer Technology

We develop semantic peer network aiming at knowledge sharing and business matching for the domain of advertisement and public relations. We top up a knowledge-based layer upon the peer to peer network to make it knowledge base peer. The knowledge base consists of ontology for the application domain and domain instances. We develop user services for resource sharing and business matching based on the knowledge-based layer. A trust management mechanism is built into the knowledge-based layer for making trustable resource sharing and business match making. Also we develop an RDF-based streaming mechanism for automatically pushing newly matched information to appropriate nodes. We made experiment to test the performance of search for the prototype system. The result shows that the addition of knowledge-based layer upon the peer-to-peer network would not result in the decrease of performance. We also investigate future work after the prototype researc