Supply Current Modeling and Analysis of Deep Sub-Micron Cmos Circuits

Continued technology scaling has introduced many new challenges in VLSI design. Instantaneous switching of the gates yields high current flow through them that causes large voltage drop at the supply lines. Such high instantaneous currents and voltage drop cause reliability and performance degradation. Reliability is an issue as high magnitude of current can cause electromigration, whereas, voltage drop can slow down the circuit performance. Therefore, designing power supply lines emphasizes the need of computing maximum current through them. However, the development of digital integrated circuits in short design cycle requires accurate and fast timing and power simulation. Unfortunately, simulators that employ device modeling methods, such as HSPICE are prohibitively slow for large designs. Therefore, methods which can produce good maximum current estimates in short times are critical. In this work a compact model has been developed for maximum current estimation that speeds up the computation by orders of magnitude over the commercial tools

Parallel Multi-core Verilog HDL Simulation

In the era of multi-core computing, the push for creating true parallel applications that can run on individual CPUs is on the rise. Application of parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) to hardware design verification looks promising, given the complexity of today’s hardware designs. Unfortunately, the challenges imposed by lack of inherent parallelism, suboptimal design partitioning, synchronization and communication overhead, and load balancing, render this approach largely ineffective. This thesis presents three techniques for accelerating simulation at three levels of abstraction namely, RTL, functional gate-level (zero-delay) and gate-level timing. We review contemporary solutions and then propose new ways of speeding up simulation at the three levels of abstraction. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches on several industrial hardware designs

Comparison of Ex-Situ and In-Situ Transesterification for the Production of Microbial Biodiesel

Microbial biodiesel is converted from microbial lipids via transesterification process. Most microbial biodiesel studies are focusing on the use of microalgal lipids as feedstock. Apart from using microalgae for lipid biosynthesis, lipids can also be extracted from other oleaginous microorganisms like fungi and yeast. However, there are gaps in the studies of lipid production from filamentous fungi, especially in-situ transesterification process. The aim of this project is to compare in-situ with the ex-situ transesterification of fungal biomass from Aspergillus oryzae. In ex-situ transesterification, two methods of lipid extraction, the Soxhlet extraction and the Bligh and Dyer extraction, were performed. For in-situ transesterification, two methods using different catalysts were investigated. Base-catalyzed in-situ transesterification of fungal biomass resulted on the highest Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) yield. The base-catalyzed in-situ transesterification was further optimized via Central Composite Design (CCD) of Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The parameters investigated were the catalyst loading, methanol to biomass ratio and reaction time. The optimization showed that the highest FAME yield was at 25.1% (w/w) with 10 minutes reaction time, 5% catalyst and 360:1 of the ratio of the methanol to biomass. Based on Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), the model was found to be significant according to the value of “Prob >F” of 0.0028. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Rationale and design of the GUIDE-IT study: Guiding Evidence Based Therapy Using Biomarker Intensified Treatment in Heart Failure.

OBJECTIVES: The GUIDE-IT (Guiding Evidence Based Therapy Using Biomarker Intensified Treatment in Heart Failure) study is designed to determine the safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of a strategy of adjusting therapy with the goal of achieving and maintaining a target N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level of BACKGROUND: Elevations in natriuretic peptide (NP) levels provide key prognostic information in patients with HF. Therapies proven to improve outcomes in patients with HF are generally associated with decreasing levels of NPs, and observational data show that decreases in NP levels over time are associated with favorable outcomes. Results from smaller prospective, randomized studies of this strategy thus far have been mixed, and current guidelines do not recommend serial measurement of NP levels to guide therapy in patients with HF. METHODS: GUIDE-IT is a prospective, randomized, controlled, unblinded, multicenter clinical trial designed to randomize approximately 1,100 high-risk subjects with systolic HF (left ventricular ejection fraction ≤40%) to either usual care (optimized guideline-recommended therapy) or a strategy of adjusting therapy with the goal of achieving and maintaining a target NT-proBNP level of CONCLUSIONS: The GUIDE-IT study is designed to definitively assess the effects of an NP-guided strategy in high-risk patients with systolic HF on clinically relevant endpoints of mortality, hospitalization, quality of life, and medical resource use. (Guiding Evidence Based Therapy Using Biomarker Intensified Treatment in Heart Failure [GUIDE-IT]; NCT01685840)

Fertility Levels, Trends and Differentials in Pakistan: Evidence from the Population, Labour Force and Migration Survey 1979-80

The objectives of the present report are two fold: (1) to analyse in some detail the fertility data collected in "Population, Labour Force and Migration" (PLM) Survey of 1979; and (2) to compare its findings, wherever necessary, with those of PFS (particularly for current fertility) and other surveys. The report is organized into eight sections, Section 2 is a brief review of earlier fertility levels and trends. Discussion of the PLM Survey and its methodology finds its place in section 3. In Section 4, we have discussed the current parity (children ever born to women at the time of the survey ) by age, marriage duration and age at marriage, as well as differentials in current parity. Early, marital fertility is discussed in section 5. The next two sections provide brief accounts of current fertility. In order to structure our analysis we have identified the women either through their birth cohorts ( current age ) or their marriage cohorts ( years since first marriage ). Realizing that the two fundamental aspects of a woman's chlld bearing life - the number of children she has had and the tempo of her having had them - cannot be fully separated as the results based on one type of measure do not always correspond to those obtained through another. We have, therefore, presented a brief synthesis of various findings in the concluding section

Fertility Levels, Trends and Differentials in Pakistan: Evidence from the Population, Labour Force and Migration Survey 1979-80

The objectives of the present report are two fold: (1) to analyse in some detail the fertility data collected in "Population, Labour Force and Migration" (PLM) Survey of 1979; and (2) to compare its findings, wherever necessary, with those of PFS (particularly for current fertility) and other surveys. The report is organized into eight sections, Section 2 is a brief review of earlier fertility levels and trends. Discussion of the PLM Survey and its methodology finds its place in section 3. In Section 4, we have discussed the current parity (children ever born to women at the time of the survey ) by age, marriage duration and age at marriage, as well as differentials in current parity. Early, marital fertility is discussed in section 5. The next two sections provide brief accounts of current fertility. In order to structure our analysis we have identified the women either through their birth cohorts ( current age ) or their marriage cohorts ( years since first marriage ). Realizing that the two fundamental aspects of a woman's chlld bearing life - the number of children she has had and the tempo of her having had them - cannot be fully separated as the results based on one type of measure do not always correspond to those obtained through another. We have, therefore, presented a brief synthesis of various findings in the concluding section

Challenges facing early career academic cardiologists

Early career academic cardiologists currently face unprecedented challenges that threaten a highly valued career path. A team consisting of early career professionals and senior leadership members of American College of Cardiology completed this white paper to inform the cardiovascular medicine profession regarding the plight of early career cardiologists and to suggest possible solutions. This paper includes: 1) definition of categories of early career academic cardiologists; 2) general challenges to all categories and specific challenges to each category; 3) obstacles as identified by a survey of current early career members of the American College of Cardiology; 4) major reasons for the failure of physician-scientists to receive funding from National Institute of Health/National Heart Lung and Blood Institute career development grants; 5) potential solutions; and 6) a call to action with specific recommendations

Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) and Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) Conceptual Design Report Volume 2: The Physics Program for DUNE at LBNF

The Physics Program for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Fermilab Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) is described