Generic low-latency NoC router architecture for FPGA computing systems

A novel cost-effective and low-latency wormhole router for packet-switched NoC designs, tailored for FPGA, is presented. This has been designed to be scalable at system level to fully exploit the characteristics and constraints of FPGA based systems, rather than custom ASIC technology. A key feature is that it achieves a low packet propagation latency of only two cycles per hop including both router pipeline delay and link traversal delay - a significant enhancement over existing FPGA designs - whilst being very competitive in terms of performance and hardware complexity. It can also be configured in various network topologies including 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D. Detailed design-space exploration has been carried for a range of scaling parameters, with the results of various design trade-offs being presented and discussed. By taking advantage of abundant buildin reconfigurable logic and routing resources, we have been able to create a new scalable on-chip FPGA based router that exhibits high dimensionality and connectivity. The architecture proposed can be easily migrated across many FPGA families to provide flexible, robust and cost-effective NoC solutions suitable for the implementation of high-performance FPGA computing systems. © 2011 IEEE.

Horizontal Descemet's membrane break due to birth trauma

We report an unusual case of horizontal corneal Descemet's membrane break due to birth trauma. The patient had a difficult birth with trauma to her right eye and poor vision. However unlike the reports in literature, which describe these breaks to have a characteristic vertical or vertically oblique orientation in birth trauma, the breaks in our patient were horizontal. No other cause was found for these Descemet's breaks.

Amniotic membrane transplantation for ocular surface reconstruction

Aims - To evaluate the efficacy of amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) for ocular surface reconstruction. Methods - 10 consecutive patients who underwent AMT were included. The indications were: group A, cases with persistent epithelial defect after corneal abscess (n = 1), radiation (n = 1), or chemical burn (n = 3); group B, cases with epithelial defect and severe stromal thinning and impending or recent perforation, due to chemical burn (two patients, three eyes) or corneal abscess (n = 2); group C, to promote corneal epithelium healing and prevent scarring after symblepharon surgery with extensive corneo-conjunctival adhesion (n = 1). Under sterile conditions amniotic membrane was prepared from a fresh placenta of a seronegative pregnant woman and stored at -70°C. This technique involved the use of amniotic membrane to cover the entire cornea and perilimbal area in groups A and B, and the epithelial defect only in group C. Results - The cornea healed satisfactorily in four of five patients in group A, but the epithelial defect recurred in one of these patients. After AMT three patients underwent limbal transplantation and one penetrating keratoplasty and cataract extraction. In group B amniotic membrane transplantation was not helpful, and all cases underwent an urgent tectonic corneal graft. Surgery successfully released the symblepharon, promoted epithelialisation and prevented adhesions in the case of group C. Conclusion - AMT was effective to promote corneal healing in patients with persistent epithelial defect, and appeared to be helpful after surgery to release corneo-conjunctival adhesion. Most surgery for further surface rehabilitation. Amniotic membrane used as a patch was not effective to prevent tectonic corneal graft in cases with severe stromal thinning and impending or recent perforation.

A Superfamily of Actin-Binding Proteins at the Actin-Membrane Nexus of Higher Plants

Complex animals use a wide variety of adaptor proteins to produce specialized sites of interaction between actin and membranes. Plants do not have these protein families, yet actin-membrane interactions within plant cells are critical for the positioning of subcellular compartments, for coordinating intercellular communication, and for membrane deformation [1]. Novel factors are therefore likely to provide interfaces at actin-membrane contacts in plants, but their identity has remained obscure. Here we identify the plantspecific Networked (NET) superfamily of actin-binding proteins, members of which localize to the actin cytoskeleton and specify different membrane compartments. The founding member of the NET superfamily, NET1A, is anchored at the plasma membrane and predominates at cell junctions, the plasmodesmata. NET1A binds directly to actin filaments via a novel actin-binding domain that defines a superfamily of thirteen Arabidopsis proteins divided into four distinct phylogenetic clades. Members of other clades identify interactions at the tonoplast, nuclear membrane, and pollen tube plasma membrane, emphasizing the role of this superfamily in mediating actin-membrane interactions.

Arabidopsis Rab-E GTPases exhibit a novel interaction with a plasma-membrane phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase

Rab GTPases of the Arabidopsis Rab-E subclass are related to mammalian Rab8 and are implicated in membrane trafficking from the Golgi to the plasma membrane. Using a yeast two-hybrid assay, Arabidopsis phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase 2 (PtdIns(4)P 5-kinase 2; also known as PIP5K2), was shown to interact with all five members of the Rab-E subclass but not with other Rab subclasses residing at the Golgi or trans-Golgi network. Interactions in yeast and in vitro were strongest with RAB-E1d[Q74L] and weakest with the RAB-E1d[S29N] suggesting that PIP5K2 interacts with the GTP-bound form. PIP5K2 exhibited kinase activity towards phosphatidylinositol phosphates with a free 5-hydroxyl group, consistent with PtdIns(4)P 5-kinase activity and this activity was stimulated by Rab binding. Rab-E proteins interacted with PIP5K2 via its membrane occupancy and recognition nexus (MORN) domain which is missing from animal and fungal PtdIns(4)P 5-kinases. In plant cells, GFP:PIP5K2 accumulated at the plasma membrane and caused YFP:RAB-E1d to relocate there from its usual position at the Golgi. GFP:PIP5K2 was rapidly turned over by proteasomal activity in planta, and overexpression of YFP:PIP5K2 caused pleiotropic growth abnormalities in transgenic Arabidopsis. We propose that plant cells exhibit a novel interaction in which PIP5K2 binds GTP-bound Rab-E proteins, which may stimulate temporally or spatially localized PtdIns(4,5)P(2) production at the plasma membrane.

Swarm scheduling approaches for work-flow applications with security constraints in distributed data-intensive computing environments

The scheduling problem in distributed data-intensive computing environments has become an active research topic due to the tremendous growth in grid and cloud computing environments. As an innovative distributed intelligent paradigm, swarm intelligence provides a novel approach to solving these potentially intractable problems. In this paper, we formulate the scheduling problem for work-flow applications with security constraints in distributed data-intensive computing environments and present a novel security constraint model. Several meta-heuristic adaptations to the particle swarm optimization algorithm are introduced to deal with the formulation of efficient schedules. A variable neighborhood particle swarm optimization algorithm is compared with a multi-start particle swarm optimization and multi-start genetic algorithm. Experimental results illustrate that population based meta-heuristics approaches usually provide a good balance between global exploration and local exploitation and their feasibility and effectiveness for scheduling work-flow applications. © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.