Communication centric platforms for future high data intensive applications

The notion of platform based design is considered as a viable solution to boost the design productivity by favouring reuse design methodology. With the scaling down of device feature size and scaling up of design complexity, throughput limitations, signal integrity and signal latency are becoming a bottleneck in future communication centric System-on-Chip (SoC) design. This has given birth to communication centric platform based designs. Development of heterogeneous multi-core architectures has caused the on-chip communication medium tailored for a specific application domain to deal with multidomain traffic patterns. This makes the current application specific communication centric platforms unsuitable for future SoC architectures. The work presented in this thesis, endeavours to explore the current communication media to establish the expectations from future on-chip interconnects. A novel communication centric platform based design flow is proposed, which consists of four communication centric platforms that are based on shared global bus, hierarchical bus, crossbars and a novel hybrid communication medium. Developed with a smart platform controller, the platforms support Open Core Protocol (OCP) socket standard, allowing cores to integrate in a plug and play fashion without the need to reprogram the pre-verified platforms. This drastically reduces the design time of SoC architectures. Each communication centric platform has different throughput, area and power characteristics, thus, depending on the design constraints, processing cores can be integrated to the most appropriate communication platform to realise the desired SoC architecture. A novel hybrid communication medium is also developed in this thesis, which combines the advantages of two different types of communication media in a single SoC architecture. The hybrid communication medium consists of crossbar matrix and shared bus medium . Simulation results and implementation of WiMAX receiver as a real-life example shows a 65% increase in data throughput than shared bus based communication medium, 13% decrease in area and 11% decrease in power than crossbar based communication medium. In order to automate the generation of SoC architectures with optimised communication architectures, a tool called SOCCAD (SoC Communication architecture development) is developed. Components needed for the realisation of the given application can be selected from the tool’s in-built library. Offering an optimised communication centric placement, the tool generates the complete SystemC code for the system with different interconnect architectures, along with its power and area characteristics. The generated SystemC code can be used for quick simulation and coupled with efficient test benches can be used for quick verification. Network-on-Chip (NoC) is considered as a solution to the communication bottleneck in future SoC architectures with data throughput requirements of over 10GB/s. It aims to provide low power, efficient link utilisation, reduced data contention and reduced area on silicon. Current on-chip networks, developed with fixed architectural parameters, do not utilise the available resources efficiently. To increase this efficiency, a novel dynamically reconfigurable NoC (drNoC) is developed in this thesis. The proposed drNoC reconfigures itself in terms of switching, routing and packet size with the changing communication requirements of the system at run time, thus utilising the maximum available channel bandwidth. In order to increase the applicability of drNoC, the network interface is designed to support OCP socket standard. This makes drNoC a highly reuseable communication framework, qualifying it as a communication centric platform for high data intensive SoC architectures. Simulation results show a 32% increase in data throughput and 22-35% decrease in network delay when compared with a traditional NoC with fixed parameters

System-Level Modelling of Heterogeneous System-on-Chip Architectures Targeting Multi-Standard Wireless Applications

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The Effects of Patients' and Care-Givers' Knowledge, Attitude, & Practice (KAP) on Quality of Life Among Thalassemia Major Patients' in Damascus-Syrian Arab Republic

Background: Thalassemia is the most common autosomal abnormality in Syria. Its complications have an important effect on education; time off school; sport; difference from friends/ siblings; social interactions; and stigmatization. Knowledge of factors associated with quality of life in thalassemia patients is necessary for forming appropriate clinical programs, social support, and improving treatment outcomes. Purpose: The study was to assess the effects of Patients' and Care-givers' Knowledge, Attitude, & Practice (KAP) with Quality of Life among Thalassemia Major Patients' in Syria. Methods: Cross-sectional descriptive analytical design was conducted at the national thalassemia center in Damascus. WHOQOL-BREF and a questionnaire developed by the researcher were used to measure the participants’ knowledge, attitudes and practices of thalassemia. Results: Total of 238 thalassemia patients participated in the study. A statistical significance was found regarding improvement of skill and knowledge scores among caregivers and thalassemia patients before and after receiving the teaching guide from 12.52±1.77 to 14.07±1.01, t=11.447, p=0.000 and from 34.12±4.50 to 37.43±4.61, t=-8.58, p= .000 respectively. Stigmatization was significantly noticed among families caring for thalassemic patients. There were a significant differences in the mean score regarding nutritional status before and after teaching guide paired t test= 12.11, p= 0.000. A statistical significance was found in females regarding social domain p=0.04. However, mean scores for overall quality of life were better in females rather than males, but these mean scores were statistically insignificant p>0.05. A statistical significant difference in ferritin levels and patient’s age was found. Results also revealed that no statistical significant differences was observed between overall quality of life of the four domains in relation to the two treatment groups (subcutaneous vs oral) and age groups. Conclusion: Thalassemia is a socio-economic problem. The most efficient way to reduce risks of having affected patients is by increasing the knowledge through training of parents regarding the disease. Our findings highlighted that there was lack in patients’ knowledge and skills regarding the disease, but a remarkable improvement in both knowledge and performance was found after patients received the teaching guide, which lead to an increase in overall patient's quality of life

Efficacy of exogenous application of 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) on growth and yield of mungbean (Vigna radiata L.)

The growth and yield promotion of mungbean in response to the use of 2, 4-Dichlorophenoxy acetic acid (2, 4-D) was investigated through a pot study which was arranged in the wire house of Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad. The study was comprised of five treatments and three replications (control, 0.2 ppm 2, 4-D, 0.5 ppm 2, 4-D, 0.8 ppm 2, 4-D, and 1 ppm 2, 4-D). The suggested dose of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) was applied at the amount of 20, 60 and 25 kg ha-1 added as Urea, DAP and SOP, respectively at sowing time. The data regarding growth (plant height, root and shoot length, root and shoot fresh and dry weight, and total biomass), yield (grain weight, number of grains plant-1) and NPK analysis in plants and soil was recorded and statistically analyzed. The response of exogenous application of 2, 4-D was significant at all levels in improving the performance of all the growth parameters and yield as compared to untreated control treatment. Maximum performance of all the parameters was recorded at 0.8 ppm application of 2, 4-D. As the concentration of 2, 4-D increased the development of plants also showed positive effect but up to 0.8 ppm application after that it started to decrease which showed that at higher concentrations 2, 4-D acts as growth retardant

Enthralling the impact of engineered nanoparticles on soil microbiome: A concentric approach towards environmental risks and cogitation.

Nanotechnology is an avant-garde field of scientific research that revolutionizes technological advancements in the present world. It is a cutting-edge scientific approach that has undoubtedly a plethora of functions in controlling environmental pollutants for the welfare of the ecosystem. However, their unprecedented utilization and hysterical release led to a huge threat to the soil microbiome. Nanoparticles(NPs) hamper physicochemical properties of soil along with microbial metabolic activities within rhizospheric soils.Here in this review shed light on concentric aspects of NP-biosynthesis, types, toxicity mechanisms, accumulation within the ecosystem. However, the accrual of tiny NPs into the soil system has dramatically influenced rhizospheric activities in terms of soil properties and biogeochemical cycles. We have focussed on mechanistic pathways engrossed by microbes to deal with NPs.Also, we have elaborated the fate and behavior of NPs within soils. Besides, a piece of very scarce information on NPs-toxicity towards environment and rhizosphere communities is available. Therefore, the present review highlights ecological perspectives of nanotechnology and solutions to such implications. We have comprehend certain strategies such as avant-garde engineering methods, sustainable procedures for NP synthesis along with vatious regulatory actions to manage NP within environment. Moreover, we have devised risk management sustainable and novel strategies to utilize it in a rationalized and integrated manner. With this background, we can develop a comprehensive plan about NPs with novel insights to understand the resistance and toxicity mechanisms of NPs towards microbes. Henceforth, the orientation towards these issues would enhance the understanding of researchers for proper recommendation and promotion of nanotechnology in an optimized and sustainable manner

Salt stress effects on some morphological and physiological characteristics of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.)

Salinity is worldwide problem that limits the growth and productivity of all vegetations and it is going toincreasing day by day. The objective of the investigation was to study the response of okra (Abelmoschus esculentusL.) in terms of morphological and physiological characteristics under salt stress conditions. Okra seeds of cultivarChinese Red were grown in plastic pots having fine sand as growth medium. After 30 days of germination, theplants were subjected to salt stress under control, 25, 50, and 75 mM NaCl. Increasing salinity caused a decrease ofgermination percentage, shoot and root length, plant height, pod weight, pod length, photosynthesis rate, andstomatal conductance. The Na+ and Cl- accumulation were correlated with a decline in concentration of K+ inleaves and roots. Under salinity, a high concentrations of Na+ and Cl- were noted in both leave and roots portions

The Feasibility of Fingerprick Autologous Blood (FAB) As a Novel Treatment for Severe Dry Eye Disease (DED): Protocol for a Randomised Controlled Trial

Introduction: Patients with severe dry eye disease often have limited treatment options with standard non-surgical management focused on the use of artificial tears for lubrication and anti-inflammatory drugs. However, artificial tears do not address the extraordinary complexity of human tears. Crudely, human tears with its vast constituents is essentially filtered blood. Blood and several blood-derived products including autologous serum, have been studied as tears substitutes. This study proposes to test the use of whole, fresh, autologous blood obtained from a fingerprick for treatment of severe dry eye disease. Methods and Analysis: The research team at the two participating sites will approach patients with severe dry eye disease for this study. Recruitment will take place over 12 months and we expect to recruit 60 patients in total. The primary outcome of this feasibility study is to estimate the proportion of eligible patients approached who consent to and comply with study procedures including treatment regimen and completion of required questionnaires. The secondary outcome measures, although not powered for in this feasibility, include corneal inflammation (assessed by Oxford Corneal Staining Guide), patient pain and symptoms scores (assessed by Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) score), and objective signs of dry eye disease as indicated by visual acuity (assessed by Schirmer’s test, tear breakup time, lower and/or upper tear meniscus height measurement). Other secondary outcomes include patients’ quality of life (assessed using the validated EQ-5D-5L questionnaire), cost to the NHS and patient (assessed via use of NHS services and privately purchased over the counter treatment related to dry eyes disease) and safety measure of pressure within the eye (assessed by intra ocular pressure (IOP) score). Ethics and Dissemination: This trial is ongoing and received a favourable research ethics opinion from the East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee (REC reference: 17/EE/0508). The results of this study will be published in a suitable peer-review journal and also presented at international ophthalmic conferences. This will also be shared with the study participants as well as with relevant patient groups and charities. Trial Registration Number: NCT0339543