[Vittoria mio core = Voiton oot saava]

Soitinnus: lauluääni (tenori), orkesteri.

Thermal-Aware Networked Many-Core Systems

Advancements in IC processing technology has led to the innovation and growth happening in the consumer electronics sector and the evolution of the IT infrastructure supporting this exponential growth. One of the most difficult obstacles to this growth is the removal of large amount of heatgenerated by the processing and communicating nodes on the system. The scaling down of technology and the increase in power density is posing a direct and consequential effect on the rise in temperature. This has resulted in the increase in cooling budgets, and affects both the life-time reliability and performance of the system. Hence, reducing on-chip temperatures has become a major design concern for modern microprocessors. This dissertation addresses the thermal challenges at different levels for both 2D planer and 3D stacked systems. It proposes a self-timed thermal monitoring strategy based on the liberal use of on-chip thermal sensors. This makes use of noise variation tolerant and leakage current based thermal sensing for monitoring purposes. In order to study thermal management issues from early design stages, accurate thermal modeling and analysis at design time is essential. In this regard, spatial temperature profile of the global Cu nanowire for on-chip interconnects has been analyzed. It presents a 3D thermal model of a multicore system in order to investigate the effects of hotspots and the placement of silicon die layers, on the thermal performance of a modern ip-chip package. For a 3D stacked system, the primary design goal is to maximise the performance within the given power and thermal envelopes. Hence, a thermally efficient routing strategy for 3D NoC-Bus hybrid architectures has been proposed to mitigate on-chip temperatures by herding most of the switching activity to the die which is closer to heat sink. Finally, an exploration of various thermal-aware placement approaches for both the 2D and 3D stacked systems has been presented. Various thermal models have been developed and thermal control metrics have been extracted. An efficient thermal-aware application mapping algorithm for a 2D NoC has been presented. It has been shown that the proposed mapping algorithm reduces the effective area reeling under high temperatures when compared to the state of the art.

Fedora Commons as core repository of the EU legislation

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Automobiili- ja maantiekartta ynnä Shell-bensiiniasemat Automobil- och landsvägskarta jämte Shell-bensinstationer

1 kartta seitsemällätoista lehdellä :, vär. ;, 20 x 22,5 cm +, 1:1000000

Bovine serum albumin potentiates caffeine- or ATP-induced tension in human skinned skeletal muscle fibers

Human skinned muscle fibers were used to investigate the effects of bovine serum albumin (BSA) on the tension/pCa relationship and on the functional properties of the Ca2+-release channel of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR). In both fast- and slow-type fibers, identified by their tension response to pSr 5.0, BSA (0.7-15 µM) had no effect on the Ca2+ affinity of the contractile proteins and elicited no tension per se in Ca2+-loaded fibers. In contrast, BSA (>1.0 µM) potentiated the caffeine-induced tension in Ca2+-loaded fibers, this effect being more intense in slow-type fibers. Thus, BSA reduced the threshold caffeine concentration required for eliciting detectable tension, and increased the amplitude, the rate of rise and the area under the curve of caffeine-induced tension. BSA also potentiated the tension elicited in Ca2+-loaded fibers by low-Mgv solutions containing 1.0 mM free ATP. These results suggest that BSA modulates the response of the human skeletal muscle SR Ca2+-release channel to activators such as caffeine and ATP.

Serodiagnosis of Helicobacter pylori infection by Cobas Core ELISA in adults from Minas Gerais, Brazil

We evaluated the accuracy of a 2nd generation ELISA to detect Helicobacter pylori infection in adults from a developing country in view of variations in sensitivity and specificity reported for different populations. We studied 97 non-consecutive patients who underwent endoscopy for evaluation of dispeptic symptoms. The presence of H. pylori was determined in antral biopsy specimens by culture, by the preformed urease test and in carbolfuchsin-stained smears. Patients were considered to be H. pylori positive if at least two of the three tests presented a positive result or if the culture was positive, and negative if the three tests were negative. Sixty-five adults (31 with peptic ulcer) were H. pylori positive and 32 adults were H. pylori negative. Antibodies were detected by Cobas Core anti-H. pylori EIA in 62 of 65 H. pylori-positive adults and in none of the negative adults. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of the test were 95.4, 100, 100 and 91.4%, respectively. The Cobas Core anti-H. pylori EIA presented high sensitivity and specificity when employed for a population in Brazil, permitting the use of the test both to confirm the clinical diagnosis and to perform epidemiologic surveys.

Impaired regeneration of dystrophin-deficient muscle fibers is caused by exhaustion of myogenic cells

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is one of the most devastating myopathies. Muscle fibers undergo necrosis and lose their ability to regenerate, and this may be related to increased interstitial fibrosis or the exhaustion of satellite cells. In this study, we used mdx mice, an animal model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to assess whether muscle fibers lose their ability to regenerate after repeated cycles of degeneration-regeneration and to establish the role of interstitial fibrosis or exhaustion of satellite cells in this process. Repeated degenerative-regenerative cycles were induced by the injection of bupivacaine (33 mg/kg), a myotoxic agent. Bupivacaine was injected weekly into the right tibialis anterior muscle of male, 8-week-old mdx (N = 20) and C57Bl/10 (control, N = 10) mice for 20 and 50 weeks. Three weeks after the last injection, the mice were killed and the proportion of regenerated fibers was counted and reported as a fibrosis index. Twenty weekly bupivacaine injections did not change the ability of mdx muscle to regenerate. However, after 50 weekly bupivacaine injections, there was a significant decrease in the regenerative response. There was no correlation between the inability to regenerate and the increase in interstitial fibrosis. These results show that after prolonged repeated cycles of degeneration-regeneration, mdx muscle loses its ability to regenerate because of the exhaustion of satellite cells, rather than because of an increase in interstitial fibrosis. This finding may be relevant to cell and gene therapy in the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Collagens and proteoglycans of the corneal extracellular matrix

The cornea is a curved and transparent structure that provides the initial focusing of a light image into the eye. It consists of a central stroma that constitutes 90% of the corneal depth, covered anteriorly with epithelium and posteriorly with endothelium. Its transparency is the result of the regular spacing of collagen fibers with remarkably uniform diameter and interfibrillar space. Corneal collagen is composed of heterotypic fibrils consisting of type I and type V collagen molecules. The cornea also contains unusually high amounts of type VI collagen, which form microfibrillar structures, FACIT collagens (XII and XIV), and other nonfibrillar collagens (XIII and XVIII). FACIT collagens and other molecules, such as leucine-rich repeat proteoglycans, play important roles in modifying the structure and function of collagen fibrils.Proteoglycans are macromolecules composed of a protein core with covalently linked glycosaminoglycan side chains. Four leucine-rich repeat proteoglycans are present in the extracellular matrix of corneal stroma: decorin, lumican, mimecan and keratocan. The first is a dermatan sulfate proteoglycan, and the other three are keratan sulfate proteoglycans. Experimental evidence indicates that the keratan sulfate proteoglycans are involved in the regulation of collagen fibril diameter, and dermatan sulfate proteoglycan participates in the control of interfibrillar spacing and in the lamellar adhesion properties of corneal collagens. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans are minor components of the cornea, and are synthesized mainly by epithelial cells. The effect of injuries on proteoglycan synthesis is discussed.

Agent-based management systems for many-core platforms : rigorous design and efficient implementation

Due to various advantages such as flexibility, scalability and updatability, software intensive systems are increasingly embedded in everyday life. The constantly growing number of functions executed by these systems requires a high level of performance from the underlying platform. The main approach to incrementing performance has been the increase of operating frequency of a chip. However, this has led to the problem of power dissipation, which has shifted the focus of research to parallel and distributed computing. Parallel many-core platforms can provide the required level of computational power along with low power consumption. On the one hand, this enables parallel execution of highly intensive applications. With their computational power, these platforms are likely to be used in various application domains: from home use electronics (e.g., video processing) to complex critical control systems. On the other hand, the utilization of the resources has to be efficient in terms of performance and power consumption. However, the high level of on-chip integration results in the increase of the probability of various faults and creation of hotspots leading to thermal problems. Additionally, radiation, which is frequent in space but becomes an issue also at the ground level, can cause transient faults. This can eventually induce a faulty execution of applications. Therefore, it is crucial to develop methods that enable efficient as well as resilient execution of applications. The main objective of the thesis is to propose an approach to design agentbased systems for many-core platforms in a rigorous manner. When designing such a system, we explore and integrate various dynamic reconfiguration mechanisms into agents functionality. The use of these mechanisms enhances resilience of the underlying platform whilst maintaining performance at an acceptable level. The design of the system proceeds according to a formal refinement approach which allows us to ensure correct behaviour of the system with respect to postulated properties. To enable analysis of the proposed system in terms of area overhead as well as performance, we explore an approach, where the developed rigorous models are transformed into a high-level implementation language. Specifically, we investigate methods for deriving fault-free implementations from these models into, e.g., a hardware description language, namely VHDL.

Changes in types of muscle fibers induced by transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the diaphragm of rats

The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of transcutaneous electrical diaphragmatic stimulation (TEDS) on different types of diaphragm muscle fibers. Male Wistar rats (8-12 weeks old) were divided into 2 experimental groups (N = 8 in each group): 1) control, 2) animals submitted to TEDS [frequency = 50 Hz; T ON/T OFF (contraction/relaxation time) = 2/2 s; pulse duration = 0.4 ms, intensity = 5 mA with a 1 mA increase every 3 min for 20 min] for 7 days. After completing this treatment period, the I, IIA, IIB, and IID diaphragm muscle fibers were identified using the mATPase technique. Statistical analysis consisted of the normality, homoscedasticity and t-tests (P < 0.05). There was a 19.6% (P < 0.05) reduction in the number of type I fibers and a 49.7% increase (P < 0.05) in type IID fibers in the TEDS group compared with the control group. An important result of the present study was that electrical stimulation with surface electrodes was efficient in altering the distribution of fibers in diaphragm muscle. This therapeutic resource could be used in the treatment of respiratory muscle alterations.

Three days of intermittent stretching after muscle disuse alters the proteins involved in force transmission in muscle fibers in weanling rats

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of intermittent passive manual stretching on various proteins involved in force transmission in skeletal muscle. Female Wistar weanling rats were randomly assigned to 5 groups: 2 control groups containing 21- and 30-day-old rats that received neither immobilization nor stretching, and 3 test groups that received 1) passive stretching over 3 days, 2) immobilization for 7 days and then passive stretching over 3 days, or 3) immobilization for 7 days. Maximal plantar flexion in the right hind limb was imposed, and the stretching protocol of 10 repetitions of 30 s stretches was applied. The soleus muscles were harvested and processed for HE and picrosirius staining; immunohistochemical analysis of collagen types I, III, IV, desmin, and vimentin; and immunofluorescence labeling of dystrophin and CD68. The numbers of desmin- and vimentin-positive cells were significantly decreased compared with those in the control following immobilization, regardless of whether stretching was applied (P<0.05). In addition, the semi-quantitative analysis showed that collagen type I was increased and type IV was decreased in the immobilized animals, regardless of whether the stretching protocol was applied. In conclusion, the largest changes in response to stretching were observed in muscles that had been previously immobilized, and the stretching protocol applied here did not mitigate the immobilization-induced muscle changes. Muscle disuse adversely affected several proteins involved in the transmission of forces between the intracellular and extracellular compartments. Thus, the 3-day rehabilitation period tested here did not provide sufficient time for the muscles to recover from the disuse maladaptations in animals undergoing postnatal development.

EXTRACTION OF OIL FROM PRESSED PALM OIL (Elaes guineensis) FIBERS USING SUPERCRITICAL CO2

Residual fibers from palm oil production are a good source of carotene, since they contain more than 5% of the original oil, with about 5000 ppm of carotenoids. As carotenoids are thermosensitive molecules, supercritical CO2 can be used for oil recovery, because this technique employs low temperatures. In this work results of oil extraction experiments from pressed palm oil fibers are shown. Fibers were from AGROPALMA, an industry which is located in Tailândia (Pará, Brazil). Extractions were carried out at 200, 250 and 300 bar and at temperatures of 45 and 55oC. Oil was analyzed by UV/vis spectrophotometry for total carotene determination. Results showed a large increase in extraction rate from 200 to 250 bar and a small variation from 250 to 300 bar. The total amount of carotenes did not increase in the course of extraction at 300 bar, but it showed a large increase at 200 and at 250 bar. Free fatty acids are present in amounts larger than those found in commercial oils.