An Evaluation of the application of partial evaluation on color lookup table implementations

A number of SRAM-based field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) allow for partial reconfiguration, allowing a part of the device to be reconfigured while the rest of the device continues operating. Partial evaluation, or instance-specific design, allows a design to be optimized to a specific set of inputs. When combined with partial reconfiguration, the reconfigurable module can be reinstantiated based on the inputs to be processed and improve the performance of the design. This thesis explores the effects, particularly the performance vs flexibility tradeoff, of using partial evaluation on the color look-up tables (CLUTs) of a color-space conversion module implemented on an FPGA. This thesis examines the impact of implementing the CLUTs as distributed RAMs, distributed ROMs, and block ROMs, as well as examining the effects of initializing block RAMs

DETC2005-85234 PERFORMANCE COMPARISONS OF TIMING TECHNIQUES IN A NON-REAL-TIME ENVIRONMENT

ABSTRACT General INTRODUCTION Data acquisition and control applications have traditionally relied on special-purpose hardware such as DSPs, FPGAs and ASICs to meet their deterministic timing needs. For many data acquisition and control applications, however, the timing requirements can easily be met by general-purpose computers whose clock frequencies have pushed into the gigahertz range and whose low cost makes them an attractive alternative to specialpurpose devices. For demanding applications, a real-time operating system must be used so that task completion deadlines can be guaranteed. For less demanding applications, general-purpose operating systems such as Microsoft Windows or Linux can be used. Regardless of the choice of operating system, generalpurpose computers still suffer from inherent non-determinis

The EIIIA domain from astrocyte-derived fibronectin mediates proliferation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells following CNS demyelination.

Central nervous system remyelination by oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) ultimately fails in the majority of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions. Remyelination benefits from transient expression of factors that promote migration and proliferation of OPCs, which may include fibronectin (Fn). Fn is present in demyelinated lesions in two major forms; plasma Fn (pFn), deposited following blood-brain barrier disruption, and cellular Fn, synthesized by resident glial cells and containing alternatively spliced domains EIIIA and EIIIB. Here, we investigated the distinctive roles that astrocyte-derived Fn (aFn) and pFn play in remyelination. We used an inducible Cre-lox recombination strategy to selectively remove pFn, aFn or both from mice, and examined the impact on remyelination of toxin-induced demyelinated lesions of spinal cord white matter. This approach revealed that astrocytes are a major source of Fn in demyelinated lesions. Furthermore, following aFn conditional knockout, the number of OPCs recruited to the demyelinated lesion decreased significantly, whereas OPC numbers were unaltered following pFn conditional knockout. However, remyelination completed normally following conditional knockout of aFn and pFn. Both the EIIIA and EIIIB domains of aFn were expressed following demyelination, and in vitro assays demonstrated that the EIIIA domain of aFn mediates proliferation of OPCs, but not migration. Therefore, although the EIIIA domain from aFn mediates OPC proliferation, aFn is not essential for successful remyelination. Since previous findings indicated that astrocyte-derived Fn aggregates in chronic MS lesions inhibit remyelination, aFn removal may benefit therapeutic strategies to promote remyelination in MS.JMJS is recipient of a Junior Scientific Masterclass MD/PhD fellowship from the University Medical Center Groningen. This work was supported by grants from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO, WB, VIDI and Aspasia), the Dutch MS Research Foundation (‘Stichting MS Research’, WB, JMJS, DH), the UK MS Society (CZ, RJMF), and the Research School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences (BCN, JMJS). Parts of this study were performed at the UMCG Microscopy and Imaging Center (UMIC), which is supported by NWO grants 40-00506-98-9021 and 175-010-2009-023.This is the final version of the article. It was first published by Wiley at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/glia.2274

Cuprizone demyelination of the corpus callosum in mice correlates with altered social interaction and impaired bilateral sensorimotor coordination

For studies of remyelination in demyelinating diseases, the cuprizone model of CC (corpus callosum) demyelination has experimental advantages that include overall size, proximity to neural stem cells of the subventricular zone, and correlation with a lesion predilection site in multiple sclerosis. In addition, cuprizone treatment can be ended to allow more direct analysis of remyelination than with viral or autoimmune models. However, CC demyelination lacks a useful functional correlate in rodents for longitudinal analysis throughout the course of demyelination and remyelination. In the present study, we tested two distinct behavioural measurements in mice fed 0.2% cuprizone. Running on a ‘complex' wheel with varied rung intervals requires integration between cerebral hemispheres for rapid bilateral sensorimotor coordination. Maximum running velocity on the ‘complex' wheel decreased during acute (6 week) and chronic (12 week) cuprizone demyelination. Running velocity on the complex wheel distinguished treated (for 6 weeks) from non-treated mice, even after a 6-week recovery period for spontaneous remyelination. A second behavioural assessment was a resident–intruder test of social interaction. The frequency of interactive behaviours increased among resident mice after acute or chronic demyelination. Differences in both sensorimotor coordination and social interaction correlated with demonstrated CC demyelination. The wheel assay is applicable for longitudinal studies. The resident–intruder assay provides a complementary assessment of a distinct modality at a specific time point. These behavioural measurements are sufficiently robust for small cohorts as a non-invasive assessment of demyelination to facilitate analysis of subsequent remyelination. These measurements may also identify CC involvement in other mouse models of central nervous system injuries and disorders

Magnetospheric studies: a requirement for addressing interdisciplinary mysteries in the Ice Giant systems

Uranus and Neptune are the least-explored planets in our Solar System. This paper summarizes mysteries about these incredibly intriguing planets and their environments spurred by our limited observations from Voyager 2 and Earth-based systems. Several of these observations are either inconsistent with our current understanding built from exploring other planetary systems, or indicate such unique characteristics of these Ice Giants that they leave us with more questions than answers. This paper specifically focuses on the value of all aspects of magnetospheric measurements, from the radiation belt structure to plasma dynamics to coupling to the solar wind, through a future mission to either of these planets. Such measurements have large interdisciplinary value, as demonstrated by the large number of mysteries discussed in this paper that cover other non-magnetospheric disciplines, including planetary interiors, atmospheres, rings, and moons

Histological correlation of diffusional kurtosis and white matter modeling metrics in cuprizone-induced corpus callosum demyelination

The cuprizone mouse model is well established for studying the processes of both demyelination and remyelination in the corpus callosum, and it has been utilized together with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate myelin and axonal pathology. Although some underlying morphological mechanisms contributing to the changes in diffusion tensor (DT) metrics have been identified, the understanding of specific associations between histology and diffusion measures remains limited. Diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) is an extension of DTI that provides metrics of diffusional non-Gaussianity, for which an associated white matter modeling (WMM) method has been developed. The main goal of the present study was to quantitatively assess the relationships between diffusion measures and histological measures in the mouse model of cuprizone-induced corpus callosum demyelination. The diffusional kurtosis (DK) and WMM metrics were found to provide additional information that enhances the sensitivity to detect the morphological heterogeneity in the chronic phase of the disease process in the rostral segment of the corpus callosum. Specifically, in the rostral segment, axonal water fraction (d = 2.6; p < 0.0001), radial kurtosis (d = 2.0; p = 0.001) and mean kurtosis (d = 1.5; p = 0.005) showed the most sensitivity between groups with respect to yielding statistically significant p values and high Cohen's d values. These results demonstrate the ability of DK and WMM metrics to detect white mater changes and inflammatory processes associated with cuprizone-induced demyelination. They also validate, in part, the application of these new WMM metrics for studying neurological diseases, as well as helping to elucidate their biophysical meaning.postprin

Passwords and Authentication

Computer security has been an issue since the first inception of the UNIX opearting system. Passwords were the first method of authentication, but are no longer the only method. Now there exist other methods including smartcards, voice, or biometrics, and they allow authentication against more than just the local computer or the local network and internet, such as databases and other applications. Password storage and authentication methods are increasingly important, yet most current implementations of storage are very weak, especially since one implementation of Windows passwords is optionally reversible

An Analysis of a Tandem Queueing System for Flow Control in Computer Networks

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 14-16, 1978 / Hyatt House Hotel, Los Angeles, CaliforniaA tandem queueing system with constant service times and threshold control is modeled and analyzed in this paper. The input to the first queue is controlled by the buffer occupancy of the second queue. When the second queue has more than No customers, the input to the first queue will be rejected. The input to the second queue consists of the output from the first queue and an external input which is assumed to be Poisson distributed. The behavior of such a queueing system is analyzed and portrayed in graphs. The threshold control rejects input traffic to the first queue and avoids congestion at the second queue. As a result, the delay for an arrival to be serviced by both of the queues is much lower than the case without threshold control. As N₀ increases, the system behavior approaches the case of the system without threshold control. Such a queueing model is motivated by congestion control in a computer network. An example is given to illustrate the applications.International Foundation for TelemeteringProceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection