Information and Efficiency in the Nervous System-A Synthesis

In systems biology, questions concerning the molecular and cellular makeup of an organism are of utmost importance, especially when trying to understand how unreliable components-like genetic circuits, biochemical cascades, and ion channels, among others-enable reliable and adaptive behaviour. The repertoire and speed of biological computations are limited by thermodynamic or metabolic constraints: an example can be found in neurons, where fluctuations in biophysical states limit the information they can encode-with almost 20-60% of the total energy allocated for the brain used for signalling purposes, either via action potentials or by synaptic transmission. Here, we consider the imperatives for neurons to optimise computational and metabolic efficiency, wherein benefits and costs trade-off against each other in the context of self-organised and adaptive behaviour. In particular, we try to link information theoretic (variational) and thermodynamic (Helmholtz) free-energy formulations of neuronal processing and show how they are related in a fundamental way through a complexity minimisation lemma.

Thermodynamics of NdRhO3 and phase relations in the system Nd-Rh-O

Phase equilibrium experiments indicate that NdRhO3 is the only ternary oxide in the system Nd-Rh-O at 1273 K; it has orthorhombically-distorted perovskite structure. By employing a solid-state electrochemical cell incorporating calcia-stabilized zirconia as the electrolyte, thermodynamic properties of NdRhO3 are determined. The standard Gibbs energy of formation of NdRhO3 from its component binary oxides in the temperature ranges from 900 to 1300 K can be expressed as: 1/2Rh(2)O(3) (ortho)+1/2Nd(2)O(3)(hex)=NdRhO3(ortho), Delta(f(o,x))G(0)/J mol(-1)( +/- 197) = - 66256+5.64 (T/K). The decomposition temperature of NdRhO3 computed from extrapolated thermodynamic data is 1803 (+/- 4) K in pure oxygen and 1692 (+/- 4) K in air at standard pressure. Oxygen partial pressure-composition diagram and three-dimensional chemical potential diagram at 1273 K are developed from thermodynamic data obtained in this study and auxiliary information from the literature. Equilibrium temperature-composition phase diagrams at constant oxygen partial pressures are also constructed. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Experimental assessment of concrete damage due to exposure to high temperature and efficacy of the repair system

The present study experimentally evaluates the performance of control (standard cylinder specimen), damaged (mechanical loading after thermal exposure) and repaired / retrofitted normal plain concrete cylinders using different repair schemes such as on use of FRP wraps, Geo-polymers, etc., to restore the capacity of damaged structural concrete elements. The control-companion specimen in the series provides the reference frame against which both, specimen damage levels were quantified and the benefits of a specimen repaired subsequent to damage were assessed.

Oxygen potentials and phase equilibria in the system Ca-Co-O and thermodynamic properties of Ca3Co2O6 and Ca3Co4O9.163

Oxygen potentials established by the equilibrium between three condensed phases, CaOss+CoOss+ Ca3Co2O6 and CoOss+Ca3Co2O6+Ca3CO3.93+O-alpha(9.36-delta), are measured as a function of temperature using solid-state electrochemical cells incorporating yttria-stabilized zirconia as the electrolyte and pure oxygen as the reference electrode. Cation non-stoichiometry and oxygen non-stoichiometry in Ca3Co3.93+alpha O9.36-delta are determined using different techniques under defined conditions. Decomposition temperatures and thermodynamic properties of Ca3Co2O6 and Ca3Co4O9.163 are calculated from the results. The standard entropy and enthalpy of formation of Ca3Co2O6 at 298.15 K are evaluated. Using thermodynamic data from this study and auxiliary information from the literature, phase diagram for the ternary system Ca-Co-O is computed. Isothermal sections at representative temperatures are displayed to demonstrate the evolution of phase relations with temperature. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Design and Testing of a Control System for Supply Side Electrical Load Management

India's energy demand is increasing rapidly with the intensive growth of economy. The electricity demand in India exceeded the availability, both in terms of base load energy and peak availability. The efficient use of energy source and its conversion and utilizations are the viable alternatives available to the utilities or industry. There are essentially two approaches to electrical energy management. First at the supply / utility end (Supply Side Management or SSM) and the other at the consumer end (Demand Side Management or DSM). This work is based on Supply Side Management (SSM) protocol and consists of design, fabrication and testing of a control device that will be able to automatically regulate the power flow to an individual consumer's premise. This control device can monitor the overuse of electricity (above the connected load or contracted demand) by the individual consumers. The present project work specially emphasizes on contract demand of every consumer and tries to reduce the use beyond the contract demand. This control unit design includes both software and hardware work and designed for 0.5 kW contract demand. The device is tested in laboratory and reveals its potential use in the field.

Universal anomalous dimensions at large spin and large twist

In this paper we consider anomalous dimensions of double trace operators at large spin (l) and large twist (tau) in CFTs in arbitrary dimensions (d >= 3). Using analytic conformal bootstrap methods, we show that the anomalous dimensions are universal in the limit l >> tau >> 1. In the course of the derivation, we extract an approximate closed form expression for the conformal blocks arising in the four point function of identical scalars in any dimension. We compare our results with two different calculations in holography and find perfect agreement.

Optimal reactive power dispatch based on voltage stability criteria in a large power system with AC/DC and FACTs devices

An algorithm for optimal allocation of reactive power in AC/DC system using FACTs devices, with an objective of improving the voltage profile and also voltage stability of the system has been presented. The technique attempts to utilize fully the reactive power sources in the system to improve the voltage stability and profile as well as meeting the reactive power requirements at the AC-DC terminals to facilitate the smooth operation of DC links. The method involves successive solution of steady-state power flows and optimization of reactive power control variables with Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) using linear programming technique. The proposed method has been tested on a real life equivalent 96-bus AC and a two terminal DC system under normal and contingency conditions.

Nonadiabatic charge pumping by oscillating potentials in one dimension: Results for infinite system and finite ring

We study charge pumping when a combination of static potentials and potentials oscillating with a time period T is applied in a one-dimensional system of noninteracting electrons. We consider both an infinite system using the Dirac equation in the continuum approximation and a periodic ring with a finite number of sites using the tight-binding model. The infinite system is taken to be coupled to reservoirs on the two sides which are at the same chemical potential and temperature. We consider a model in which oscillating potentials help the electrons to access a transmission resonance produced by the static potentials and show that nonadiabatic pumping violates the simple sin phi rule which is obeyed by adiabatic two-site pumping. For the ring, we do not introduce any reservoirs, and we present a method for calculating the current averaged over an infinite time using the time evolution operator U(T) assuming a purely Hamiltonian evolution. We analytically show that the averaged current is zero if the Hamiltonian is real and time-reversal invariant. Numerical studies indicate another interesting result, namely, that the integrated current is zero for any time dependence of the potential if it is applied to only one site. Finally we study the effects of pumping at two sites on a ring at resonant and nonresonant frequencies, and show that the pumped current has different dependences on the pumping amplitude in the two cases.

A Scalable High Throughput Firewall in FPGA

High end network security applications demand high speed operation and large rule set support. Packet classification is the core functionality that demands high throughput in such applications. This paper proposes a packet classification architecture to meet such high throughput. We have implemented a Firewall with this architecture in reconflgurable hardware. We propose an extension to Distributed Crossproducting of Field Labels (DCFL) technique to achieve scalable and high performance architecture. The implemented Firewall takes advantage of inherent structure and redundancy of rule set by using our DCFL Extended (DCFLE) algorithm. The use of DCFLE algorithm results in both speed and area improvement when it is implemented in hardware. Although we restrict ourselves to standard 5-tuple matching, the architecture supports additional fields. High throughput classification invariably uses Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) for prefix matching, though TCAM fares poorly in terms of area and power efficiency. Use of TCAM for port range matching is expensive, as the range to prefix conversion results in large number of prefixes leading to storage inefficiency. Extended TCAM (ETCAM) is fast and the most storage efficient solution for range matching. We present for the first time a reconfigurable hardware implementation of ETCAM. We have implemented our Firewall as an embedded system on Virtex-II Pro FPGA based platform, running Linux with the packet classification in hardware. The Firewall was tested in real time with 1 Gbps Ethernet link and 128 sample rules. The packet classification hardware uses a quarter of logic resources and slightly over one third of memory resources of XC2VP30 FPGA. It achieves a maximum classification throughput of 50 million packet/s corresponding to 16 Gbps link rate for the worst case packet size. The Firewall rule update involves only memory re-initialization in software without any hardware change.

A Scalable High Throughput Firewall in FPGA

High end network security applications demand high speed operation and large rule set support. Packet classification is the core functionality that demands high throughput in such applications. This paper proposes a packet classification architecture to meet such high throughput. We have Implemented a Firewall with this architecture in reconfigurable hardware. We propose an extension to Distributed Crossproducting of Field Labels (DCFL) technique to achieve scalable and high performance architecture. The implemented Firewall takes advantage of inherent structure and redundancy of rule set by using, our DCFL Extended (DCFLE) algorithm. The use of DCFLE algorithm results In both speed and area Improvement when It is Implemented in hardware. Although we restrict ourselves to standard 5-tuple matching, the architecture supports additional fields.High throughput classification Invariably uses Ternary Content Addressable Memory (TCAM) for prefix matching, though TCAM fares poorly In terms of area and power efficiency. Use of TCAM for port range matching is expensive, as the range to prefix conversion results in large number of prefixes leading to storage inefficiency. Extended TCAM (ETCAM) is fast and the most storage efficient solution for range matching. We present for the first time a reconfigurable hardware Implementation of ETCAM. We have implemented our Firewall as an embedded system on Virtex-II Pro FPGA based platform, running Linux with the packet classification in hardware. The Firewall was tested in real time with 1 Gbps Ethernet link and 128 sample rules. The packet classification hardware uses a quarter of logic resources and slightly over one third of memory resources of XC2VP30 FPGA. It achieves a maximum classification throughput of 50 million packet/s corresponding to 16 Gbps link rate for file worst case packet size. The Firewall rule update Involves only memory re-initialiization in software without any hardware change.

Large negative magnetoresistance and metal-insulator transition observed in MnO/C composite coatings grown on ceramic alumina by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

MnO/C composite coatings were grown by the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition process on ceramic alumina in argon ambient. Characterization by various techniques confirms that these coatings are homogeneous composites comprising nanometer-sized MnO particles embedded in a matrix of nanometer-sized graphite. Components of the MnO/C composite coating crystalline disordered, but are electrically quite conductive. Resistance vs. temperature measurements show that coating resistance increases exponentially from a few hundred ohms at room temperature to a few megaohms at 30 K. Logarithmic plots of reduced activation energy vs. temperature show that the coating material undergoes a metal-insulator transition. The reduced activation energy exponent for the film under zero magnetic field was 2.1, which is unusually high, implying that conduction is suppressed at much faster rate than the Mott or the Efros-Shklovskii hopping mechanism. Magnetoconductance us. magnetic field plots obtained at various temperatures show a high magnetoconductance (similar to 28.8%) at 100 K, which is unusually large for a disordered system, wherein magnetoresistance is attributed typically to weak localization. A plausible explanation for the unusual behavior observed in the carbonaceous disordered composite material is proposed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Polymorphs, Pseudopolymorphs, and Co-Crystals of Orcinol: Exploring the Structural Landscape with High Throughput Crystallography

An extensive search of the structural landscape of orcinol, 5-methyl-1,3-dihydroxybenzene, has been carried out with high throughput techniques. Polymorphs, pseudopolymorphs (solvates), and co-crystals are described. Several packing modes driven by O-H center dot center dot center dot N hydrogen bonds were identified for the orcinol N-base co-crystals and their hydrates. In these several structural variations, the OH group conformations in the orcinol molecule were found to depend on the choice of co-formers and the crystallization conditions employed. The structural landscape of a molecule is properly described by a sufficiently large number of related crystal structures, and high throughput crystallization followed by rapid structure determinations enables one to access these structures efficiently. Any understanding of this landscape would enable the crystal engineer to reasonably anticipate crystal structures of benzene-1,3-diol co-crystals with N-bases.

A System-C based Micro architectural Exploration Framework for Latency, Power and Performance Trade-offs of On-Chip Interconnection

We describe a System-C based framework we are developing, to explore the impact of various architectural and microarchitectural level parameters of the on-chip interconnection network elements on its power and performance. The framework enables one to choose from a variety of architectural options like topology, routing policy, etc., as well as allows experimentation with various microarchitectural options for the individual links like length, wire width, pitch, pipelining, supply voltage and frequency. The framework also supports a flexible traffic generation and communication model. We provide preliminary results of using this framework to study the power, latency and throughput of a 4x4 multi-core processing array using mesh, torus and folded torus, for two different communication patterns of dense and sparse linear algebra. The traffic consists of both Request-Response messages (mimicing cache accesses)and One-Way messages. We find that the average latency can be reduced by increasing the pipeline depth, as it enables higher link frequencies. We also find that there exists an optimum degree of pipelining which minimizes energy-delay product.

Modeling the vulnerability of an urban groundwater system due to the combined impacts of climate change and management scenarios

Climate change impact on a groundwater-dependent small urban town has been investigated in the semiarid hard rock aquifer in southern India. A distributed groundwater model was used to simulate the groundwater levels in the study region for the projected future rainfall (2012-32) obtained from a general circulation model (GCM) to estimate the impacts of climate change and management practices on groundwater system. Management practices were based on the human-induced changes on the urban infrastructure such as reduced recharge from the lakes, reduced recharge from water and wastewater utility due to an operational and functioning underground drainage system, and additional water extracted by the water utility for domestic purposes. An assessment of impacts on the groundwater levels was carried out by calibrating a groundwater model using comprehensive data gathered during the period 2008-11 and then simulating the future groundwater level changes using rainfall from six GCMs Institute of Numerical Mathematics Coupled Model, version 3.0 (INM-CM. 3.0); L'Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace Coupled Model, version 4 (IPSL-CM4); Model for Interdisciplinary Research on Climate, version 3.2 (MIROC3.2); ECHAM and the global Hamburg Ocean Primitive Equation (ECHO-G); Hadley Centre Coupled Model, version 3 (HadCM3); and Hadley Centre Global Environment Model, version 1 (HadGEM1)] that were found to show good correlation to the historical rainfall in the study area. The model results for the present condition indicate that the annual average discharge (sum of pumping and natural groundwater outflow) was marginally or moderately higher at various locations than the recharge and further the recharge is aided from the recharge from the lakes. Model simulations showed that groundwater levels were vulnerable to the GCM rainfall and a scenario of moderate reduction in recharge from lakes. Hence, it is important to sustain the induced recharge from lakes by ensuring that sufficient runoff water flows to these lakes.

STOKES' SYSTEM IN A DOMAIN WITH OSCILLATING BOUNDARY: HOMOGENIZATION AND ERROR ANALYSIS OF AN INTERIOR OPTIMAL CONTROL PROBLEM

Homogenization and error analysis of an optimal interior control problem in the framework of Stokes' system, on a domain with rapidly oscillating boundary, are the subject matters of this article. We consider a three dimensional domain constituted of a parallelepiped with a large number of rectangular cylinders at the top of it. An interior control is applied in a proper subdomain of the parallelepiped, away from the oscillating volume. We consider two types of functionals, namely a functional involving the L-2-norm of the state variable and another one involving its H-1-norm. The asymptotic analysis of optimality systems for both cases, when the cross sectional area of the rectangular cylinders tends to zero, is done here. Our major contribution is to derive error estimates for the state, the co-state and the associated pressures, in appropriate functional spaces.