Performance analysis techniques for multi-soft-core and many-soft-core systems

Multi-soft-core systems are a viable and interesting solution for embedded systems that need a particular tradeoff between performance, flexibility and development speed. As the growing capacity allows it, many-soft-cores are also expected to have relevance to future embedded systems. As a consequence, parallel programming methods and tools will be necessarily embraced as a part of the full system development process. Performance analysis is an important part of the development process for parallel applications. It is usually mandatory when you want to get a desired performance or to verify that the system is meeting some real-time constraints. One of the usual techniques used by the HPC community is the postmortem analysis of application traces. However, this is not easily transported to the embedded systems based on FPGA due to the resource limitations of the platforms. We propose several techniques and some hardware architectural support to be able to generate traces on multiprocessor systems based on FPGAs and use them to optimize the performance of the running applications

Arquitectura wormhole per a una NoC 2D-Mesh

Aquest projecte presenta la implementació d'un disseny, i la seva posterior síntesi en una FPGA, d'una arquitectura de tipus wormhole packet switching per a una infraestructura de NetWork-On-Chip amb una topologia 2D-Mesh. Agafant un router circuit switching com a punt de partida, s'han especificat els mòduls en Verilog per tal d'obtenir l'arquitectura wormhole desitjada. Dissenyar la màquina de control per governar els flits que conformen els paquets dins la NoC,i afegir les cues a la sortida del router (outuput queuing) són els punts principals d'aquest treball. A més, com a punt final s'han comparat ambdues arquitectures de router en termes de costos en àrea i en memòria i se n'han obtingut diverses conclusions i resultats experimentals.Este proyecto presenta la implementación de un diseño, y su posterior síntesis en una FPGA, de una arquitectura de tipo wormhole packet switching para una infraestructura de Network-On-Chip con una topología 2D-Mesh. Tomando un router circuit switching como punto de partida, se han especificado los módulos en Verilog para obtener la arquitectura deseada. Diseñar la máquina de control que gobierna los flits que conforman los paquetes dentro de la NoC, y añadir las colas de salida del router (output queuing) son los puntos principales de este trabajo. Además, como punto final se han comparado ambas arquitecturas del router en términos de costos en área y en memoria obteniendo varias conclusiones y resultados experimentales.This project presents the implementation and synthesis in a FPGA of a wormhole packet switching architecture design for a NetWork-On-Chip structure with 2D-Mesh topology. Taking a circuit switching router as a starting point, the modules have been specified in Verilog in order to achieve the wormhole architecture. The main points of this work are to design the control machine that controls the flits conforming the packets within the NoC, and to include the output queue of the router. Finally, both router architectures have been compared in area and memory costs and some conclusions and experimental outcomes have been drawn

QoS-Driven Reconfigurable Parallel Computing for NoC-Based Clustered MPSoCs

Reconfigurable parallel computing is required to provide high-performance embedded computing, hide hardware complexity, boost software development, and manage multiple workloads when multiple applications are running simultaneously on the emerging network-on-chip (NoC)-based multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoCs) platforms. In these type of systems, the overall system performance may be affected due to congestion, and therefore parallel programming stacks must be assisted by quality-of-service (QoS) support to meet application requirements and to deal with application dynamism. In this paper, we present a hardware-software QoS-driven reconfigurable parallel computing framework, i.e., the NoC services, the runtime QoS middleware API and our ocMPI library and its tracing support which has been tailored for a distributed-shared memory ARM clustered NoC-based MPSoC platform. The experimental results show the efficiency of our software stack under a broad range of parallel kernels and benchmarks, in terms of low-latency interprocess communication, good application scalability, and most important, they demonstrate the ability to enable runtime reconfiguration to manage workloads in message-passing parallel applications

Structural and Functional Brain Correlates of Cognitive Impairment in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Introduction Cognitive impairment in the euthymic phase is a well-established finding in bipolar disorder. However, its brain structural and/or functional correlates are uncertain. Methods Thirty-three euthymic bipolar patients with preserved memory and executive function and 28 euthymic bipolar patients with significant memory and/or executive impairment, as defined using two test batteries, the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) and the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS), plus 28 healthy controls underwent structural MRI using voxel-based morphometry (VBM). Twenty-seven of the cognitively preserved patients, 23 of the cognitively impaired patients and 28 controls also underwent fMRI during performance of the n-back working memory task. Results No clusters of grey or white matter volume difference were found between the two patient groups. During n-back performance, the cognitively impaired patients showed hypoactiva- tion compared to the cognitively preserved patients in a circumscribed region in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Both patient groups showed failure of de-activation in the medial frontal cortex compared to the healthy controls. Conclusions Cognitive impairment in euthymic bipolar patients appears from this study to be unrelated to structural brain abnormality, but there was some evidence for an association with altered prefrontal function

Brain structural changes in schizoaffective disorder compared to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

Brain structural changes in schizoaffective disorder, and how far they resemble those seen in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, have only been studied to a limited extent. Forty-five patients meeting - and criteria for schizoaffective disorder, groups of patients with 45 matched schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and 45 matched healthy controls were examined using voxel-based morphometry (). Analyses comparing each patient group with the healthy control subjects found that the patients with schizoaffective disorder and the patients with schizophrenia showed widespread and overlapping areas of significant volume reduction, but the patients with bipolar disorder did not. A subsequent analysis compared the combined group of patients with the controls followed by extraction of clusters. In regions where the patients differed significantly from the controls, no significant differences in mean volume between patients with schizoaffective disorder and patients with schizophrenia in any of five regions of volume reduction were found, but mean volumes in the patients with bipolar disorder were significantly smaller in three of five. The findings provide evidence that, in terms of structural gray matter brain abnormality, schizoaffective disorder resembles schizophrenia more than bipolar disorder

Jardins per a la salut

Facultat de Farmàcia, Universitat de Barcelona. Ensenyament: Grau de Farmàcia. Assignatura: Botànica farmacèutica. Curs: 2014-2015. Coordinadors: Joan Simon, Cèsar Blanché i Maria Bosch.Els materials que aquí es presenten són el recull de les fitxes botàniques de 128 espècies presents en el Jardí Ferran Soldevila de l’Edifici Històric de la UB. Els treballs han estat realitzats manera individual per part dels estudiants dels grups M-3 i T-1 de l’assignatura Botànica Farmacèutica durant els mesos de febrer a maig del curs 2014-15 com a resultat final del Projecte d’Innovació Docent «Jardins per a la salut: aprenentatge servei a Botànica farmacèutica» (codi 2014PID-UB/054). Tots els treballs s’han dut a terme a través de la plataforma de GoogleDocs i han estat tutoritzats pels professors de l’assignatura. L’objectiu principal de l’activitat ha estat fomentar l’aprenentatge autònom i col·laboratiu en Botànica farmacèutica. També s’ha pretès motivar els estudiants a través del retorn de part del seu esforç a la societat a través d’una experiència d’Aprenentatge-Servei, deixant disponible finalment el treball dels estudiants per a poder ser consultable a través d’una Web pública amb la possibilitat de poder-ho fer in-situ en el propi jardí mitjançant codis QR amb un smartphone

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Search for new particles in events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A search is presented for new particles produced at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV, using events with energetic jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb(-1), collected in 2017-2018 with the CMS detector. Machine learning techniques are used to define separate categories for events with narrow jets from initial-state radiation and events with large-radius jets consistent with a hadronic decay of a W or Z boson. A statistical combination is made with an earlier search based on a data sample of 36 fb(-1), collected in 2016. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the standard model background expectation determined from control samples in data. The results are interpreted in terms of limits on the branching fraction of an invisible decay of the Higgs boson, as well as constraints on simplified models of dark matter, on first-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying to quarks and neutrinos, and on models with large extra dimensions. Several of the new limits, specifically for spin-1 dark matter mediators, pseudoscalar mediators, colored mediators, and leptoquarks, are the most restrictive to date.Peer reviewe

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV

Measurement of the W gamma Production Cross Section in Proton-Proton Collisions at root s=13 TeV and Constraints on Effective Field Theory Coefficients

A fiducial cross section for W gamma production in proton-proton collisions is measured at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 137 fb(-1) of data collected using the CMS detector at the LHC. The W -> e nu and mu nu decay modes are used in a maximum-likelihood fit to the lepton-photon invariant mass distribution to extract the combined cross section. The measured cross section is compared with theoretical expectations at next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics. In addition, 95% confidence level intervals are reported for anomalous triple-gauge couplings within the framework of effective field theory.Peer reviewe