A Functional Verification Methodology Based on Parameter Domains for Efficient Input Stimuli Generation and Coverage Modeling

Modern Integrated Circuit (IC) design is characterized by a strong trend of Intellectual Property (IP) core integration into complex system-on-chip (SOC) architectures. These cores require thorough verification of their functionality to avoid erroneous behavior in the final device. Formal verification methods are capable of detecting any design bug. However, due to state explosion, their use remains limited to small circuits. Alternatively, simulation-based verification can explore hardware descriptions of any size, although the corresponding stimulus generation, as well as functional coverage definition, must be carefully planned to guarantee its efficacy. In general, static input space optimization methodologies have shown better efficiency and results than, for instance, Coverage Directed Verification (CDV) techniques, although they act on different facets of the monitored system and are not exclusive. This work presents a constrained-random simulation-based functional verification methodology where, on the basis of the Parameter Domains (PD) formalism, irrelevant and invalid test case scenarios are removed from the input space. To this purpose, a tool to automatically generate PD-based stimuli sources was developed. Additionally, we have developed a second tool to generate functional coverage models that fit exactly to the PD-based input space. Both the input stimuli and coverage model enhancements, resulted in a notable testbench efficiency increase, if compared to testbenches with traditional stimulation and coverage scenarios: 22% simulation time reduction when generating stimuli with our PD-based stimuli sources (still with a conventional coverage model), and 56% simulation time reduction when combining our stimuli sources with their corresponding, automatically generated, coverage models.

Biomarkers of selenium status in the amazonian context: Blood, urine and sequential hair segments

Selenium (Se) is an essential element and deficit or excess of dietary Se is associated with health disorders. Relatively elevated Se levels have been reported in the Brazilian Amazon, where there are also important annual variations in the availability of different foods. The present study was conducted among six riparian communities of the Tapajos River to evaluate seasonal variations in blood and sequential hair cm Se concentrations, and to examine the relationships between Se in blood and hair, and blood and urine. Two cross-sectional studies were conducted, at the descending water (DWS, n = 259) and the rising water (RWS, n = 137) seasons, with repeated measures for a subgroup (n = 112). Blood Se (B-Se), hair Se (H-Se) and urine Se (U-Se) were determined. Match-paired analyses were used for seasonal comparisons and the method of best fit was used to describe the relationships between biomarkers. B-Se levels presented a very large range (142-2447 mu g/l) with no overall seasonal variation (median 284 and 292 mu g/l, respectively). Sequential analysis of 13 cm hair strands showed significant variations over time: Se concentrations at the DWS were significantly lower compared with the rising water season (medians: 0.7 and 0.9 mu g/g; ranges: 0.2-4.3 mu g/g and 0.2-5.4 mu g/g, respectively). At both seasons, the relationships between B-Se and H-Se were linear and highly significant (r(2) = 67.9 and 63.6, respectively), while the relationship between B-Se and U-Se was best described by a sigmoid curve. Gender, age, education and smoking did not influence Se status or biomarker relationships. Variations in H-Se suggest that there may be seasonal availability of Se sources in local food. For populations presenting a large range and/or elevated Se exposure, sequential analyses of H-Se may provide a good reflection of variations in Se status.

Pedagogical work and the 'cult of the body': Considering the role of HPE in the context of the 'new public health'

Physical education, now often explicitly identified with health in contemporary school curricula, continues to be implicated in the (re)production of the 'cult of the body'. We argue that HPE is a form of health promotion that attempts to 'make' healthy citizens of young people in the context of the 'risk society'. In our view there is still work to be done in understanding how and why physical education (as HPE) continues to be implicated in the reproduction of values associated with the cult of body. We are keen to understand why HPE continues to be ineffective in helping young people gain some measure of analytic and embodied 'distance' from the problematic aspects of the cult of the body. This paper offers an analysis of this enduring issue by using some contemporary analytic discourses including 'governmentality', 'risk society' and the 'new public health'.

Perceptions of a media campaign: The role of social identity and the changing intergroup context

This study examined the effects of political identity and the changing intergroup context on communication perceptions during an election campaign. Perceptions of media bias and of campaign impact on self and others were assessed before and after the election. The responses of politically aligned voters reflected their membership in a dominant or subordinate group preelection and in a losing or winning group postelection. Dominant group members were initially less biased in their views of the campaign and its impact but sought to blame their party's loss on media bias and on the gullibility of political out-group members and voters in general. Subordinate group members initially showed strong in-group-serving biases but were less critical of the media and the electorate after their party had won. Results highlight the dynamic, intergroup, nature of media perceptions.

Associative priming in color naming: Interference and facilitation

In Experiment 1, color-naming interference for target stimuli following associated primes was greater in a group making a lexical decision to the prime than in a group reading the prime silently. High-frequency targets were responded to more quickly than low-frequency targets. In Experiment 2, with subjects naming the prime, there was evidence of associative interference when the prime and the target were grouped temporally but not when the intertrial interval was comparable with the prime-target interval. Associative primes presented at a short (120-msec) prime-target stimulus onset asynchrony facilitated color naming in Experiment 3. Taken together, the results suggest that the effect of faster processing of the base word in a color-naming task is facilitatory and that color-naming priming interference arises when associative prime processing increases conflict between word and color responses by enhancing phonological or articulatory activation of the base word.

Referral to post-acute care following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the Australian context

The study aimed to describe the types of care allocated at the end of acute care to people diagnosed with TBI and to identify the factors associated with variations in referral to care. A retrospective analysis of medical records of 61 patients was conducted based on a sample from two hospitals. While 60.7% of the study sample were referred to formal rehabilitation care, this was primarily non-inpatient rehabilitation care (32.8%). Discriminant analysis was used to determine medical and non-medical predictors of referral. Results indicated that place of treatment and age contribute to group differences and were significant in separating the inpatient rehabilitation group from the non-inpatient and no rehabilitation groups. Review by a rehabilitation physician was associated with referral to inpatient rehabilitation but was not adequate to explain referral to non-inpatient rehabilitation. An in-depth exploration of post-acute referral is warranted to improve policy and practice in relation to continuity of care following TBI.

Context-free and context-sensitive dynamics in recurrent neural networks

Continuous-valued recurrent neural networks can learn mechanisms for processing context-free languages. The dynamics of such networks is usually based on damped oscillation around fixed points in state space and requires that the dynamical components are arranged in certain ways. It is shown that qualitatively similar dynamics with similar constraints hold for a(n)b(n)c(n), a context-sensitive language. The additional difficulty with a(n)b(n)c(n), compared with the context-free language a(n)b(n), consists of 'counting up' and 'counting down' letters simultaneously. The network solution is to oscillate in two principal dimensions, one for counting up and one for counting down. This study focuses on the dynamics employed by the sequential cascaded network, in contrast to the simple recurrent network, and the use of backpropagation through time. Found solutions generalize well beyond training data, however, learning is not reliable. The contribution of this study lies in demonstrating how the dynamics in recurrent neural networks that process context-free languages can also be employed in processing some context-sensitive languages (traditionally thought of as requiring additional computation resources). This continuity of mechanism between language classes contributes to our understanding of neural networks in modelling language learning and processing.

Anesthesia alarms in context: An observational study

This paper surveys current work on the design of alarms for anesthesia environments and notes some of the problems arising from the need to interpret alarms in context. Anesthetists' responses to audible alarms in the operating room were observed across four types of surgical procedure (laparoscopic, arthroscopic, cardiac, and intracranial) and across three phases of a procedure (induction, maintenance, and emergence). Alarms were classified as (a) requiring a corrective response, (b) being the intended result of a decision, (c) being ignored as a nuisance alarm, or (d) functioning as a reminder. Results revealed strong effects of the type of procedure and phase of procedure on the number and rate of audible alarms. Some alarms were relatively confined to specific phases; others were seen across phases, and responses differed according to phase. These results were interpreted in light of their significance for the development of effective alarm systems. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of alarm systems that are more informative and more sensitive to operative context than are current systems.

A context noise model of episodic word recognition

Item noise models of recognition assert that interference at retrieval is generated by the words from the study list. Context noise models of recognition assert that interference at retrieval is generated by the contexts in which the test word has appeared. The authors introduce the bind cue decide model of episodic memory, a Bayesian context noise model, and demonstrate how it can account for data from the item noise and dual-processing approaches to recognition memory. From the item noise perspective, list strength and list length effects, the mirror effect for word frequency and concreteness, and the effects of the similarity of other words in a list are considered. From the dual-processing perspective, process dissociation data on the effects of length, temporal separation of lists, strength, and diagnosticity of context are examined. The authors conclude that the context noise approach to recognition is a viable alternative to existing approaches.

Content and context of monocular regions determine perceived depth in random dot, unpaired background and phantom stereograms

Perceived depth was measured for three-types of stereograms with the colour/texture of half-occluded (monocular) regions either similar to or dissimilar to that of binocular regions or background. In a two-panel random dot stereogram the monocular region was filled with texture either similar or different to the far panel or left blank. In unpaired background stereograms the monocular region either matched the background or was different in colour or texture and in phantom stereograms the monocular region matched the partially occluded object or was a different colour or texture. In all three cases depth was considerably impaired when the monocular texture did not match either the background or the more distant surface. The content and context of monocular regions as well as their position are important in determining their role as occlusion cues and thus in three-dimensional layout. We compare coincidence and accidental view accounts of these effects. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Discriminating between task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimuli - The effects on autonomic orienting and secondary task reaction time

The effect that the difficulty of the discrimination between task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimuli has on the relationship between skin conductance orienting and secondary task reaction time (RT) was examined. Participants (N = 72) counted the number of longer-than-usual presentations of one shape (task-relevant) and ignored presentations of another shape (task-irrelevant). The difficulty of discriminating between the two shapes varied across three groups (low, medium, and high difficulty). Simultaneous with the primary counting task, participants performed a secondary RT task to acoustic probes presented 50, 150, and 2000 ms following shape onset. Skin conductance orienting was larger, and secondary RT at the 2000 ms probe position was slower during task-relevant shapes than during task-irrelevant shapes in the low-difficulty group. This difference declined as the discrimination difficulty was increased, such that there was no difference in the high-difficulty group. Secondary RT was slower during task-irrelevant shapes than during task-relevant shapes only in the medium-difficulty group-and only at the 150 ms probe position in the first half of the experiment. The close relationship between autonomic orienting and secondary RT at the 2000 ms probe position suggests that orienting reflects the resource allocation that results from the number of matching features between a stimulus input and a mental representation primed as significant.

Can I have your attention please: Repressors and enhanced P3 to emotional stimuli

In four experiments ERPs to emotional (negative and positive) and neutral stimuli were examined as a function of participants’ trait anxiety and repressivedefensiveness. The experiments investigated the time course of attentional bias in the processing of such stimuli. Pictures of angry, happy, and neutral faces were used in two of the experiments and pictures ofmutilated, happy, and neutral faces were used in the others. ERP’s to emotional and neutral stimuli were recorded from parietal, temporal, and frontal sites. Analysis of the P3 component indicated that the peak magnitude of the P3 at the parietal and temporal sites reflected an interactive function of trait anxiety and defensiveness. Repressors (low reported anxiety, high defensiveness) showed a consistent pattern of greater P3 magnitude at the parietal and temporal sites for emotional faces (angry, happy, and mutilated) than did high-anxious and low-anxious participants. Participants did not differ in P3 magnitude when ERPs to neutral stimuli were investigated (e.g., a fixation cross). The findings indicate that Repressors dedicate greater processing resources to emotional material, as compared to neutral material, than either the high-anxious or low-anxious individuals. Results of the four experiments are discussed within the theoretical framework of Derakshan and Eysenck (1998). The importance of understanding the role of differences in information processing, in the experience and avoidance of emotional information, as a function of trait anxiety and defensiveness is emphasized.