Current Search: tolerance (x)
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Title
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A COMPETITIVE RECONFIGURATION APPROACH TO AUTONOMOUS FAULT HANDLING USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS.
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Creator
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Zhang, Kening, DeMara, Ronald F, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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In this dissertation, a novel self-repair approach based on Consensus Based Evaluation (CBE) for autonomous repair of SRAM-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is developed, evaluated, and refined. An initial population of functionally identical (same input-output behavior), yet physically distinct (alternative design or place-and-route realization) FPGA configurations is produced at design time. During run-time, the CBE approach ranks these alternative configurations after evaluating...
Show moreIn this dissertation, a novel self-repair approach based on Consensus Based Evaluation (CBE) for autonomous repair of SRAM-based Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is developed, evaluated, and refined. An initial population of functionally identical (same input-output behavior), yet physically distinct (alternative design or place-and-route realization) FPGA configurations is produced at design time. During run-time, the CBE approach ranks these alternative configurations after evaluating their discrepancy relative to the consensus formed by the population. Through runtime competition, faults in the logical resources become occluded from the visibility of subsequent FPGA operations. Meanwhile, offspring formed through crossover and mutation of faulty and viable configurations are selected at a controlled re-introduction rate for evaluation and refurbishment. Refurbishments are evolved in-situ, with online real-time input-based performance evaluation, enhancing system availability and sustainability, creating an Organic Embedded System (OES). A fault tolerance model called N Modular Redundancy with Standby (NMRSB) is developed which combines the two popular fault tolerance techniques of NMR and Standby fault tolerance in order to facilitate the CBE approach. This dissertation develops two of instances of the NMRSB system Triple Modular Redundancy with Standby (TMRSB) and Duplex with Standby (DSB). A hypothetical Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA model demonstrates their viability for various applications including a 3-bit x 3-bit multiplier, and the MCNC91 benchmark circuits. Experiments conducted on the model iii evaluate the performance of three new genetic operators and demonstrate progress towards a completely self-contained single-chip implementation so that the FPGA can refurbish itself without requiring a PC host to execute the Genetic Algorithm. This dissertation presents results from the simulations of multiple applications with a CBE model implemented in the C++ programming language. Starting with an initial population of 20 and 30 viable configurations for TMRSB and DSB respectively, a single stuck-at fault is introduced in the logic resources. Fault refurbishment experiments are conducted under supervision of CBE using a fitness state evaluation function based on competing outputs, fitness adjustment, and different level threshold. The device remains online throughout the process by which a complete repair is realized with Hamming Distance and Bitweight voting schemes. The results indicate a Hamming Distance TMRSB approach can prevent the most pervasive fault impacts and realize complete refurbishment. Experimental results also show that the Autonomic Layer demonstrates 100% faulty component isolation for both Functional Elements (FEs) and Autonomous Elements (AEs) with randomly injected single and multiple faults. Using logic circuits from the MCNC-91 benchmark set, availability during repair phases averaged 75.05%, 82.21%, and 65.21% for the z4ml, cm85a, and cm138a circuits respectively under stated conditions. In addition to simulation, the proposed OES architecture synthesized from HDL was prototyped on a Xilinx Virtex II Pro FPGA device supporting partial reconfiguration to demonstrate the feasibility for intrinsic regeneration of the selected circuit.
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Date Issued
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2008
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Identifier
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CFE0002280, ucf:47849
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002280
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Title
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A Theory of Cultural Tolerance: Evidence from Former Soviet States.
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Creator
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Boulibekova, Ajara, Ash, Konstantin, Powell, Jonathan, Hamann, Kerstin, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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The prevention of ethnic conflict has been examined and debated upon within the Political Science community; studies involving economic standing, government structure, and historical background have been credited with reducing or preventing ethnic conflict. In the years leading up to the demise of the Soviet Union ethnic conflict was felt heavily throughout the Socialist Republics. After the fall of the U.S.S.R. scholars were certain that ethnic conflict would arise in Kazakhstan but alas it...
Show moreThe prevention of ethnic conflict has been examined and debated upon within the Political Science community; studies involving economic standing, government structure, and historical background have been credited with reducing or preventing ethnic conflict. In the years leading up to the demise of the Soviet Union ethnic conflict was felt heavily throughout the Socialist Republics. After the fall of the U.S.S.R. scholars were certain that ethnic conflict would arise in Kazakhstan but alas it did not, while other post-Soviet states, such as Moldova and Russia, had experienced ethnic conflict. What prevents ethnic conflict from occurring in one state but not the other? This thesis proposes that state efforts to promote cultural tolerance reduce the likelihood of ethnic conflict occurrence. State efforts to promote cultural tolerance include: language recognition, parliamentary reserved seats, constitutional protection, and inclusive citizenship laws. This theory is tested via a large-N regression time series cross sectional model including all of the former Soviet states, examining state-minority group dyads. Relevant factors such as oil, and group level economic inequality are also controlled for. The results reveal that inclusive citizenship laws have a positive significant effect on ethnic conflict, while language recognition seems to have a negative significant effect on ethnic conflict.
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Date Issued
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2018
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Identifier
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CFE0006978, ucf:51657
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006978
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Title
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SUSTAINABLE FAULT-HANDLING OF RECONFIGURABLE LOGIC USING THROUGHPUT-DRIVEN ASSESSMENT.
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Creator
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Sharma, Carthik, DeMara, Ronald, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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A sustainable Evolvable Hardware (EH) system is developed for SRAM-based reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) using outlier detection and group testing-based assessment principles. The fault diagnosis methods presented herein leverage throughput-driven, relative fitness assessment to maintain resource viability autonomously. Group testing-based techniques are developed for adaptive input-driven fault isolation in FPGAs, without the need for exhaustive testing or coding-based...
Show moreA sustainable Evolvable Hardware (EH) system is developed for SRAM-based reconfigurable Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) using outlier detection and group testing-based assessment principles. The fault diagnosis methods presented herein leverage throughput-driven, relative fitness assessment to maintain resource viability autonomously. Group testing-based techniques are developed for adaptive input-driven fault isolation in FPGAs, without the need for exhaustive testing or coding-based evaluation. The techniques maintain the device operational, and when possible generate validated outputs throughout the repair process. Adaptive fault isolation methods based on discrepancy-enabled pair-wise comparisons are developed. By observing the discrepancy characteristics of multiple Concurrent Error Detection (CED) configurations, a method for robust detection of faults is developed based on pairwise parallel evaluation using Discrepancy Mirror logic. The results from the analytical FPGA model are demonstrated via a self-healing, self-organizing evolvable hardware system. Reconfigurability of the SRAM-based FPGA is leveraged to identify logic resource faults which are successively excluded by group testing using alternate device configurations. This simplifies the system architect's role to definition of functionality using a high-level Hardware Description Language (HDL) and system-level performance versus availability operating point. System availability, throughput, and mean time to isolate faults are monitored and maintained using an Observer-Controller model. Results are demonstrated using a Data Encryption Standard (DES) core that occupies approximately 305 FPGA slices on a Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGA. With a single simulated stuck-at-fault, the system identifies a completely validated replacement configuration within three to five positive tests. The approach demonstrates a readily-implemented yet robust organic hardware application framework featuring a high degree of autonomous self-control.
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Date Issued
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2008
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Identifier
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CFE0002329, ucf:47813
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002329
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Title
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UNDERSTANDING THE INVASION OF FLORIDA'S INTERTIDAL CRASSOSTREA VIRGINICA REEFS BY NON-NATIVE MARINE INVERTEBRATE SPECIES.
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Creator
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Nash, Ethan, Walters, Linda, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Predicting the locations of new biological invasions has become a high priority for biologists as well as trying to predict if newly introduced species will become damaging to native ecosystems. Reefs of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida have been highly disturbed in recent years resulting in dead reefs (piles of dead, disarticulated shells) some of which have been restored. I conducted oyster reef surveys for non-native invertebrates to determine if...
Show morePredicting the locations of new biological invasions has become a high priority for biologists as well as trying to predict if newly introduced species will become damaging to native ecosystems. Reefs of the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica in Mosquito Lagoon, Florida have been highly disturbed in recent years resulting in dead reefs (piles of dead, disarticulated shells) some of which have been restored. I conducted oyster reef surveys for non-native invertebrates to determine if disturbance on these oyster reefs might assist invasion by two species, Mytella charruana and Perna viridis, recently introduced to the southeastern coast of the United States. Next, I investigated if M. charruana's temperature and aerial exposure tolerance limits may allow for it to establish permanently on intertidal oyster reefs. Temperature and aerial exposure tolerance experiments were conducted and oyster reef temperatures were collected. Oyster reef surveys could not predict if reef disturbance is assisting in the invasion process because only two non-native individuals (P.viridis) were found, one on a restored reef and one on a natural (reference) reef. Tolerance experiments showed that some Mytella charruana survived even after 7 days of 8° C temperatures if the mussels are exposed to air for 4 hours or less per day. Mytella charruana had near 0% survival after 4 hours of 44° C. However, only disturbed reefs reached this temperature in the field. It is likely that M. charruana could survive in the low intertidal zone on restored or reference reefs. This information is important for understanding the introduction of M. charruana in Mosquito Lagoon and also provides a data set of temperature tolerances for better understanding of whether the species might be able to invade other areas.
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Date Issued
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2011
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Identifier
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CFE0003593, ucf:48889
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003593
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Title
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MARRIAGE FOR SOME: EXPLAINING THE VARIATION IN GAY RIGHTS AND MARRIAGE POLICY AND OPINION AMONG STATES AND INDIVIDUALS.
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Creator
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Billman, Jeffrey, Pollock, Philip, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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This research aims to answer a simple question: Why are some individuals, and some states, more willing to extend protections to same-sex couples than are others? Drawing from the literature, I perform a battery of quantitative tests on variables most commonly associated with gay rights and gay marriage policy development: liberalism, education, age, religiosity, authoritarianism, tolerance, urbanization, and moral traditionalism. While I find that all of these variables have a relationship...
Show moreThis research aims to answer a simple question: Why are some individuals, and some states, more willing to extend protections to same-sex couples than are others? Drawing from the literature, I perform a battery of quantitative tests on variables most commonly associated with gay rights and gay marriage policy development: liberalism, education, age, religiosity, authoritarianism, tolerance, urbanization, and moral traditionalism. While I find that all of these variables have a relationship with gay rights and gay marriage opinion, I argue that those associated with religiosity have the strongest pull. However, religiosity does not act alone; moral traditionalism, age, and ideology play particularly robust roles as well. In conclusion, I contend that the data show a strong likelihood for the continued liberalization of gay rights and gay marriage policy into the foreseeable future.
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Date Issued
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2010
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Identifier
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CFE0003020, ucf:48352
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003020
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Title
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ZERO TOLERANCE FOR SOME:THE ROLE OF RACE IN ZERO TOLERANCE EXCLUSIONARY DISCIPLINE.
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Creator
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Bejarano, Meghan, Ford, Jason, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Within the last few decades, zero tolerance policies and exclusionary discipline have become the standard way in which schools manage student behavior. These policies, namely suspension and expulsion have been shown to have negative impacts on the lives of students who are punished with them. Educationally, the removal of students from the classroom hurts their chances of achieving academic success. Furthermore, these policies have been linked with an increase in the presence of law...
Show moreWithin the last few decades, zero tolerance policies and exclusionary discipline have become the standard way in which schools manage student behavior. These policies, namely suspension and expulsion have been shown to have negative impacts on the lives of students who are punished with them. Educationally, the removal of students from the classroom hurts their chances of achieving academic success. Furthermore, these policies have been linked with an increase in the presence of law enforcement on school campuses, which results in the arrest of students, burdening them with expensive and serious legal battles. This research examines whether nonwhite students are more likely to be sanctioned by this form of discipline. A nationally representative sample of middle and high school students is used to estimate four logistic regression models, with exclusionary discipline as the dependent variable and race as the primary independent variable. The analysis shows that nonwhite students are more likely to suspended or expelled than white students - even when student behavior is the same. This research adds to the existing body of research on exclusionary discipline and provides a nationally generalizable study to support the claim the nonwhite students are at an increased risk to be sanctioned by zero tolerance policies.
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Date Issued
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2014
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Identifier
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CFH0004643, ucf:45276
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004643
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Title
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EXPRESSION OF HETEROLOGOUS PROTEINS IN TRANSGENIC TOBACCO CHLOROPLASTS TO PRODUCE A BIOPHARMACEUTICAL AND BIOPOLYMER.
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Creator
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Devine, Andrew, Daniell, Henry, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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The chloroplast has been demonstrated to be an ideal compartment to accumulate certain proteins or their biosynthetic products that would be harmful if they were accumulated in the cytoplasm. Hyper-expression of foreign proteins in chloroplast transgenics has accumulated up to 46% total soluble protein, this is possible due to the ~100 chloroplast genomes per chloroplast and ~100 chloroplasts per cell which can therefore, contain up to 10,000 copies of the transgene. Maternal gene inheritance...
Show moreThe chloroplast has been demonstrated to be an ideal compartment to accumulate certain proteins or their biosynthetic products that would be harmful if they were accumulated in the cytoplasm. Hyper-expression of foreign proteins in chloroplast transgenics has accumulated up to 46% total soluble protein, this is possible due to the ~100 chloroplast genomes per chloroplast and ~100 chloroplasts per cell which can therefore, contain up to 10,000 copies of the transgene. Maternal gene inheritance of plastids in most crop plants results in natural gene containment. Chloroplast transformation also eliminates positional effects that are frequently observed with nuclear transformation and no gene silencing has been observed so far at the level of transcription or translation. Consequently, independent chloroplast transgenic lines have very similar levels of foreign gene expression and there is no need to screen hundreds of transgenic events. The chloroplast genome has also been used in molecular farming to express human therapeutic proteins, vaccines for human or animal use and biomaterials. In this study we have produced a Nicotiana tabacum cv. petit Havana chloroplast transgenic line that expresses a cholera toxin B subunit (from Vibrio Cholerae)-human proinsulin (a,b and c chain) fusion protein, designated CTB-Pris. The pLD-PW vector contains the CTB-Pris gene cloned into the universal chloroplast transformation vector pLD-ctv in which the 16S rRNA promoter drives the aadA gene selectable marker, which confers resistance to spectinomycin; the psbA 5' untranslated region (UTR) which enhances translation of CTB-Pris in the presence of light and the psbA 3'UTR confers transcript stability. The trnI and trnA homologous flanking sequences facilitated site-specific integration of transgenes into the tobacco chloroplast genome. Site-specific integration was demonstrated by PCR and Southern blot analysis with probes for CTB-Pris. Western Blot analysis has demonstrated the presence of abundant CTB-Pris in transgenic plants with both CTB polyclonal and proinsulin monoclonal antibodies. Southern blot analysis has also confirmed that homoplasmy had been achieved in the T0 generation. The expression levels for CTB-Proinsulin varied between 270ìg/100mg to 364.8ìg/100mg of plant tissue which equates to ~30% total soluble protein. In the second study the E. coli ubiC gene that codes for chorismate pyruvate-lyase (CPL) was integrated in the tobacco chloroplast genome under the control of the light-regulated psbA 5' untranslated region. CPL catalyzes the direct conversion of chorismate an important branch point intermediate in the shikimate pathway that is exclusively synthesized in plastids to pHBA and pyruvate. pHBA is the major monomer in liquid crystal polymers (LCPs). These thermotropic polyesters have excellent properties, including high strength/stiffness, low melt viscosity, property retention at elevated temperatures, environmental resistance and low gas permeability. The leaf content of pHBA glucose conjugates in fully mature T1 plants exposed to continuous light (total pooled material) varied between 13-18% DW, while the oldest leaves had levels as high as 26.5% DW. The highest CPL enzyme activity observed in total leaf material was 50,783 pkat/mg of protein, which is equivalent to ~35% of the total soluble protein. Animal studies in the Daniell lab, suggest that the CTB-Proinsulin producing plants suppress insulitis and clinical symptoms of diabetes in NOD mice. These observations demonstrate the versatility of chloroplast gene expression for production of biopharmaceuticals and biopolymers.
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Date Issued
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2006
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Identifier
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CFE0001056, ucf:46794
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001056
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Title
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A SUSTAINABLE AUTONOMIC ARCHITECTURE FOR ORGANICALLY RECONFIGURABLE COMPUTING SYSTEMS.
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Creator
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Oreifej, Rashad, DeMara, Ronald, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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A Sustainable Autonomic Architecture for Organically Reconfigurable Computing System based on SRAM Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is proposed, modeled analytically, simulated, prototyped, and measured. Low-level organic elements are analyzed and designed to achieve novel self-monitoring, self-diagnosis, and self-repair organic properties. The prototype of a 2-D spatial gradient Sobel video edge-detection organic system use-case developed on a XC4VSX35 Xilinx Virtex-4 Video Starter Kit...
Show moreA Sustainable Autonomic Architecture for Organically Reconfigurable Computing System based on SRAM Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is proposed, modeled analytically, simulated, prototyped, and measured. Low-level organic elements are analyzed and designed to achieve novel self-monitoring, self-diagnosis, and self-repair organic properties. The prototype of a 2-D spatial gradient Sobel video edge-detection organic system use-case developed on a XC4VSX35 Xilinx Virtex-4 Video Starter Kit is presented. Experimental results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed architecture and provide the infrastructure to quantify the performance and overcome fault-handling limitations. Dynamic online autonomous functionality restoration after a malfunction or functionality shift due to changing requirements is achieved at a fine granularity by exploiting dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (PR) techniques. A Genetic Algorithm (GA)-based hardware/software platform for intrinsic evolvable hardware is designed and evaluated for digital circuit repair using a variety of well-accepted benchmarks. Dynamic bitstream compilation for enhanced mutation and crossover operators is achieved by directly manipulating the bitstream using a layered toolset. Experimental results on the edge-detector organic system prototype have shown complete organic online refurbishment after a hard fault. In contrast to previous toolsets requiring many milliseconds or seconds, an average of 0.47 microseconds is required to perform the genetic mutation, 4.2 microseconds to perform the single point conventional crossover, 3.1 microseconds to perform Partial Match Crossover (PMX) as well as Order Crossover (OX), 2.8 microseconds to perform Cycle Crossover (CX), and 1.1 milliseconds for one input pattern intrinsic evaluation. These represent a performance advantage of three orders of magnitude over the JBITS software framework and more than seven orders of magnitude over the Xilinx design flow. Combinatorial Group Testing (CGT) technique was combined with the conventional GA in what is called CGT-pruned GA to reduce repair time and increase system availability. Results have shown up to 37.6% convergence advantage using the pruned technique. Lastly, a quantitative stochastic sustainability model for reparable systems is formulated to evaluate the Sustainability of FPGA-based reparable systems. This model computes at design-time the resources required for refurbishment to meet mission availability and lifetime requirements in a given fault-susceptible missions. By applying this model to MCNC benchmark circuits and the Sobel Edge-Detector in a realistic space mission use-case on Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA, we demonstrate a comprehensive model encompassing the inter-relationships between system sustainability and fault rates, utilized, and redundant hardware resources, repair policy parameters and decaying reparability.
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Date Issued
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2011
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Identifier
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CFE0003969, ucf:48661
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003969
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Title
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The Effect of Repeated Sprint Training in Hypoxia and Beta-Alanine Supplementation On Exercise Performance.
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Creator
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Wang, Ran, Hoffman, Jay, Fukuda, David, Stout, Jeffrey, Kang, Jie, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the synergistic effects of repeated sprint training in hypoxia (RSH) and beta-alanine supplementation on performance in recreationally active men. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: hypoxia + beta-alanine (HB, n = 10), hypoxia + placebo (HP, n = 9), normoxia + beta-alanine (NB, n = 11) and normoxia + placebo (NP, n = 8). All participants completed a total of 8 training sessions (each consisting of 3 sets of 5...
Show moreThe primary objective of this study was to evaluate the synergistic effects of repeated sprint training in hypoxia (RSH) and beta-alanine supplementation on performance in recreationally active men. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the following groups: hypoxia + beta-alanine (HB, n = 10), hypoxia + placebo (HP, n = 9), normoxia + beta-alanine (NB, n = 11) and normoxia + placebo (NP, n = 8). All participants completed a total of 8 training sessions (each consisting of 3 sets of 5 (&)#215; 10-s sprints at a resistance of 7.5% of body mass, with 20-s rest intervals between sprints) over 4 weeks on a cycle ergometer either in hypoxia (Oxygen fraction: FiO2 = 14.2%) or normoxia (FiO2 = 20.9%). Participants were instructed to consume a daily dosage of 6.4g (two 800 mg tablets ingested 4 times per day at 3-4 hour intervals) of either beta-alanine or placebo. Changes in performance in a graded exercise test (GXT), repeated sprint test (RST) and 3-min all-out test (3MT) were examined before and after 28-days of training and supplementation. Aerobic performance was measured by maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), peak power output (PPO). Exercise intolerance was assessed from critical power (CP), oxygen consumption (VO2RCP) and power output (PRCP) at respiratory compensation point. Exercise capacity was measured by total work (TW) during 3MT. Anaerobic capacity was evaluated via anaerobic working capacity (AWC), heart rate response to RST (RST_HR60) and lactate responses to RST (RST_La) and 3MT (3MT_La). Repeated sprint performance was estimated through average power output of the last sprint (RST_AP5) and all sprints (RST_AP). No between-group differences were observed for training volume or supplementation compliance. Anthropometric and hematological measures remain unchanged before and after intervention in all groups. A main effect of altitude was shown for VO2RCP, PRCP, RST_AP5, RST_HR60, and TW, with post-intervention values in the hypoxia groups significantly (p (<) 0.05) higher (lower for RST_HR60) than the normoxia groups. A main effect of beta-alanine was detected in AWC, with post-intervention values in the beta-alanine groups being significantly (p (<) 0.05) higher than the placebo groups. Results of this investigation demonstrated that RSH and beta-alanine benefit performance from different perspectives. RSH improved aerobic performance, exercise tolerance, cardiovascular recovery and exercise capacity, while beta-alanine supplementation maintained anaerobic working capacity in recreationally-trained men during the four-week repeated sprint training intervention.
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Date Issued
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2017
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Identifier
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CFE0006961, ucf:51633
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006961
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Title
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bio-inspired attitude control of micro air vehicles using rich information from airflow sensors.
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Creator
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Shen, He, Xu, Yunjun, Lin, Kuo-Chi, Kauffman, Jeffrey, An, Linan, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Biological phenomena found in nature can be learned and customized to obtain innovative engineering solutions. In recent years, biologists found that birds and bats use their mechanoreceptors to sense the airflow information and use this information directly to achieve their agile flight performance. Inspired by this phenomenon, an attitude control system for micro air vehicles using rich amount of airflow sensor information is proposed, designed and tested. The dissertation discusses our...
Show moreBiological phenomena found in nature can be learned and customized to obtain innovative engineering solutions. In recent years, biologists found that birds and bats use their mechanoreceptors to sense the airflow information and use this information directly to achieve their agile flight performance. Inspired by this phenomenon, an attitude control system for micro air vehicles using rich amount of airflow sensor information is proposed, designed and tested. The dissertation discusses our research findings on this topic. First, we quantified the errors between the calculated and measured lift and moment profiles using a limited number of micro pressure sensors over a straight wing. Then, we designed a robust pitching controller using 20 micro pressure sensors and tested the closed-loop performance in a simulated environment. Additionally, a straight wing was designed for the pressure sensor based pitching control with twelve pressure sensors, which was then tested in our low-speed wind tunnel. The closed-loop pitching control system can track the commanded angle of attack with a rising time around two seconds and an overshoot around 10%. Third, we extended the idea to the three-axis attitude control scenarios, where both of the pressure and shear stress information are considered in the simulation. Finally, a fault tolerant controller with a guaranteed asymptotically stability is proposed to deal with sensor failures and calculation errors. The results show that the proposed fault tolerant controller is robust, adaptive, and can guarantee an asymptotically stable performance even in case that 50% of the airflow sensors fail in flight.
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Date Issued
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2014
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Identifier
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CFE0005711, ucf:50150
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005711
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Title
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STRESS AND PERFORMANCE IN UNCERTAINTY-AVOIDING INDIVIDUALS: AN INTRODUCTORY LITERATURE REVIEW.
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Creator
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Stowers, Kimberly, Salas, Eduardo, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Uncertainty avoidance as a cultural construct has been known to affect worker stress and performance in organizations, but a review of these findings has not been done up until this point. In effort to clarify the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and stress and performance, a comprehensive literature search was performed. Findings from articles on this topic have been presented. In addition, organizational practices for accommodating uncertainty avoidance and other cultural...
Show moreUncertainty avoidance as a cultural construct has been known to affect worker stress and performance in organizations, but a review of these findings has not been done up until this point. In effort to clarify the relationship between uncertainty avoidance and stress and performance, a comprehensive literature search was performed. Findings from articles on this topic have been presented. In addition, organizational practices for accommodating uncertainty avoidance and other cultural dimensions have been explored. This review shows that uncertainty avoidance appears to be linked to higher stress, while its relationship to performance appears to depend on other factors. Best practices for accommodating uncertainty avoidance tend to include enhanced communication and structure. Ideas for future research on this topic are discussed.
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Date Issued
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2013
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Identifier
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CFH0004450, ucf:45125
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0004450
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Title
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Issues of Crime and School Safety: Zero Tolerance Policies and Children with Disabilities.
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Creator
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Henson, Melissa, Cook, Ida, Grauerholz, Elizabeth, Gay, David, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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In the aftermath of school shootings, safety in educational institutions became a national concern. The Zero Tolerance policy was designed to remove students who posed serious and or imminent threat to the school environment. It was hoped that the institution of this policy would allow schools to better police student behaviors through the use of tough disciplinary actions, and to ensure a safer learning environment for all. However, one of the latent consequences of establishing a broad set...
Show moreIn the aftermath of school shootings, safety in educational institutions became a national concern. The Zero Tolerance policy was designed to remove students who posed serious and or imminent threat to the school environment. It was hoped that the institution of this policy would allow schools to better police student behaviors through the use of tough disciplinary actions, and to ensure a safer learning environment for all. However, one of the latent consequences of establishing a broad set of directives was to result in the differential treatment of some minority groups such as special education students. To date, there exists little research that tests the efficacy of the zero tolerance approach in reducing school violence or its effect upon special education students who exhibit unique and separate characteristics from the general student body. Some of the behaviors that are beyond their control can impede their learning, but are even more often seen as falling under the guidelines of the zero tolerance policy, which in turn subjects this group to a number of disciplinary actions previously not utilized to address their specific needs.To address the potential impact this policy has on students with learning and emotional behavioral disorders this study analyzes data from a sample comprising of 2,736 total schools, reported over 4 different time periods, 1999-2008 originally collected by the School Survey on Crime and Safety. This study examines the relationship between various school characteristics, the proportion of special education students in a school, and the use of the disciplinary actions as a means of controlling behaviors that could be undesired but may not pose a serious threat to the educational institution. The results indicate that presence of students identified as (")special education students(") was strongly related to the number of disruptive behaviors reported. The increased frequency of those reported behaviors was also found to be significantly related to the use of suspension and expulsions as disciplinary actions in a school. Further multiple regression analysis yielded data demonstrating the nature of the relationships between the presence of special education students in a school, the frequency of disruptive behaviors reported, and the increased use of disciplinary actions.
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Date Issued
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2012
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Identifier
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CFE0004190, ucf:49031
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004190
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Title
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Temperament, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance as related correlates of psychological symptoms.
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Creator
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Pearte, Catherine, Negy, Charles, Renk, Kimberly, Bedwell, Jeffrey, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Researchers have postulated that those with difficult temperament are at risk for difficulties with regulating emotions, are less tolerant of distressing stimuli, have characteristic difficulty coping with distress, and are (at some periods of development) more apt to experience clinically significant psychological symptoms. This study used exploratory factor analyses and structural equation modeling to compose and test a model that explained how emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and...
Show moreResearchers have postulated that those with difficult temperament are at risk for difficulties with regulating emotions, are less tolerant of distressing stimuli, have characteristic difficulty coping with distress, and are (at some periods of development) more apt to experience clinically significant psychological symptoms. This study used exploratory factor analyses and structural equation modeling to compose and test a model that explained how emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and coping skills interact to explain how certain temperament features translate into psychological symptoms. Because those with difficult temperament were thought to be at a unique risk for psychological maladjustment, mean-based criterion were used to identify those with relatively difficult, typical, or easy temperament and then test whether the degree of between-group differences on study variables was statistically significant. Results of correlational and EFA analyses suggested that there were statistically significant differences between constructs that were correlated highly (i.e., distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and emotion dysregulation). Results of SEM analyses indicated that the relationship between difficult temperament and psychological maladjustment was explained partially by the way in which emotion regulation, emotion dysregulation, distress tolerance, and coping skills interact, with the strength of each mediating variable differing considerably. There were also differences in the power of the relationship between variables when correlational power was considered alone rather than in the context of the larger measurement and structural models. Future directions and implications are discussed.
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Date Issued
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2015
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Identifier
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CFE0005686, ucf:50120
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005686
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Title
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AN ADAPTIVE MODULAR REDUNDANCY TECHNIQUE TO SELF-REGULATE AVAILABILITY, AREA, AND ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN MISSION-CRITICAL APPLICATIONS.
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Creator
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Al-Haddad, Rawad, DeMara, Ronald, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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As reconfigurable devices' capacities and the complexity of applications that use them increase, the need for self-reliance of deployed systems becomes increasingly prominent. A Sustainable Modular Adaptive Redundancy Technique (SMART) composed of a dual-layered organic system is proposed, analyzed, implemented, and experimentally evaluated. SMART relies upon a variety of self-regulating properties to control availability, energy consumption, and area used, in dynamically-changing...
Show moreAs reconfigurable devices' capacities and the complexity of applications that use them increase, the need for self-reliance of deployed systems becomes increasingly prominent. A Sustainable Modular Adaptive Redundancy Technique (SMART) composed of a dual-layered organic system is proposed, analyzed, implemented, and experimentally evaluated. SMART relies upon a variety of self-regulating properties to control availability, energy consumption, and area used, in dynamically-changing environments that require high degree of adaptation. The hardware layer is implemented on a Xilinx Virtex-4 Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to provide self-repair using a novel approach called a Reconfigurable Adaptive Redundancy System (RARS). The software layer supervises the organic activities within the FPGA and extends the self-healing capabilities through application-independent, intrinsic, evolutionary repair techniques to leverage the benefits of dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (PR). A SMART prototype is evaluated using a Sobel edge detection application. This prototype is shown to provide sustainability for stressful occurrences of transient and permanent fault injection procedures while still reducing energy consumption and area requirements. An Organic Genetic Algorithm (OGA) technique is shown capable of consistently repairing hard faults while maintaining correct edge detector outputs, by exploiting spatial redundancy in the reconfigurable hardware. A Monte Carlo driven Continuous Markov Time Chains (CTMC) simulation is conducted to compare SMART's availability to industry-standard Triple Modular Technique (TMR) techniques. Based on nine use cases, parameterized with realistic fault and repair rates acquired from publically available sources, the results indicate that availability is significantly enhanced by the adoption of fast repair techniques targeting aging-related hard-faults. Under harsh environments, SMART is shown to improve system availability from 36.02% with lengthy repair techniques to 98.84% with fast ones. This value increases to "five nines" (99.9998%) under relatively more favorable conditions. Lastly, SMART is compared to twenty eight standard TMR benchmarks that are generated by the widely-accepted BL-TMR tools. Results show that in seven out of nine use cases, SMART is the recommended technique, with power savings ranging from 22% to 29%, and area savings ranging from 17% to 24%, while still maintaining the same level of availability.
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Date Issued
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2011
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Identifier
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CFE0003993, ucf:48660
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003993
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Title
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Design Disjunction for Resilient Reconfigurable Hardware.
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Creator
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Alzahrani, Ahmad, DeMara, Ronald, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Lin, Mingjie, Wang, Jun, Turgut, Damla, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Contemporary reconfigurable hardware devices have the capability to achieve high performance, powerefficiency, and adaptability required to meet a wide range of design goals. With scaling challenges facing current complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), new concepts and methodologies supportingefficient adaptation to handle reliability issues are becoming increasingly prominent. Reconfigurable hardware and their ability to realize self-organization features are expected to play a key...
Show moreContemporary reconfigurable hardware devices have the capability to achieve high performance, powerefficiency, and adaptability required to meet a wide range of design goals. With scaling challenges facing current complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), new concepts and methodologies supportingefficient adaptation to handle reliability issues are becoming increasingly prominent. Reconfigurable hardware and their ability to realize self-organization features are expected to play a key role in designingfuture dependable hardware architectures. However, the exponential increase in density and complexity of current commercial SRAM-based field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has escalated the overheadassociated with dynamic runtime design adaptation. Traditionally, static modular redundancy techniques areconsidered to surmount this limitation; however, they can incur substantial overheads in both area andpower requirements. To achieve a better trade-off among performance, area, power, and reliability, thisresearch proposes design-time approaches that enable fine selection of redundancy level based on target reliability goals and autonomous adaptation to runtime demands. To achieve this goal, three studies were conducted:First, a graph and set theoretic approach, named Hypergraph-Cover Diversity (HCD), is introduced as a preemptive design technique to shift the dominant costs of resiliency to design-time. In particular, union-freehypergraphs are exploited to partition the reconfigurable resources pool into highly separable subsets ofresources, each of which can be utilized by the same synthesized application netlist. The diverseimplementations provide reconfiguration-based resilience throughout the system lifetime while avoiding thesignificant overheads associated with runtime placement and routing phases. Evaluation on a Motion-JPEGimage compression core using a Xilinx 7-series-based FPGA hardware platform has demonstrated thepotential of the proposed FT method to achieve 37.5% area saving and up to 66% reduction in powerconsumption compared to the frequently-used TMR scheme while providing superior fault tolerance.Second, Design Disjunction based on non-adaptive group testing is developed to realize a low-overheadfault tolerant system capable of handling self-testing and self-recovery using runtime partial reconfiguration.Reconfiguration is guided by resource grouping procedures which employ non-linear measurements given by the constructive property of f-disjunctness to extend runtime resilience to a large fault space and realize a favorable range of tradeoffs. Disjunct designs are created using the mosaic convergence algorithmdeveloped such that at least one configuration in the library evades any occurrence of up to d resource faults, where d is lower-bounded by f. Experimental results for a set of MCNC and ISCAS benchmarks havedemonstrated f-diagnosability at the individual slice level with average isolation resolution of 96.4% (94.4%) for f=1 (f=2) while incurring an average critical path delay impact of only 1.49% and area cost roughly comparable to conventional 2-MR approaches. Finally, the proposed Design Disjunction method is evaluated as a design-time method to improve timing yield in the presence of large random within-die (WID) process variations for application with a moderately high production capacity.
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Date Issued
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2015
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Identifier
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CFE0006250, ucf:51086
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006250
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Title
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Autonomous Recovery of Reconfigurable Logic Devices using Priority Escalation of Slack.
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Creator
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Imran, Syednaveed, DeMara, Ronald, Mikhael, Wasfy, Lin, Mingjie, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Geiger, Christopher, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices offer a suitable platform for survivable hardware architectures in mission-critical systems. In this dissertation, active dynamic redundancy-based fault-handling techniques are proposed which exploit the dynamic partial reconfiguration capability of SRAM-based FPGAs. Self-adaptation is realized by employing reconfiguration in detection, diagnosis, and recovery phases.To extend these concepts to semiconductor aging and process variation in the deep...
Show moreField Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices offer a suitable platform for survivable hardware architectures in mission-critical systems. In this dissertation, active dynamic redundancy-based fault-handling techniques are proposed which exploit the dynamic partial reconfiguration capability of SRAM-based FPGAs. Self-adaptation is realized by employing reconfiguration in detection, diagnosis, and recovery phases.To extend these concepts to semiconductor aging and process variation in the deep submicron era, resilient adaptable processing systems are sought to maintain quality and throughput requirements despite the vulnerabilities of the underlying computational devices. A new approach to autonomous fault-handling which addresses these goals is developed using only a uniplex hardware arrangement. It operates by observing a health metric to achieve Fault Demotion using Reconfigurable Slack (FaDReS). Here an autonomous fault isolation scheme is employed which neither requires test vectors nor suspends the computational throughput, but instead observes the value of a health metric based on runtime input. The deterministic flow of the fault isolation scheme guarantees success in a bounded number of reconfigurations of the FPGA fabric.FaDReS is then extended to the Priority Using Resource Escalation (PURE) online redundancy scheme which considers fault-isolation latency and throughput trade-offs under a dynamic spare arrangement. While deep-submicron designs introduce new challenges, use of adaptive techniques are seen to provide several promising avenues for improving resilience. The scheme developed is demonstrated by hardware design of various signal processing circuits and their implementation on a Xilinx Virtex-4 FPGA device. These include a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) core, Motion Estimation (ME) engine, Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) blocks in addition to MCNC benchmark circuits. A significant reduction in power consumption is achieved ranging from 83% for low motion-activity scenes to 12.5% for high motion activity video scenes in a novel ME engine configuration. For a typical benchmark video sequence, PURE is shown to maintain a PSNR baseline near 32dB. The diagnosability, reconfiguration latency, and resource overhead of each approach is analyzed. Compared to previous alternatives, PURE maintains a PSNR within a difference of 4.02dB to 6.67dB from the fault-free baseline by escalating healthy resources to higher-priority signal processing functions. The results indicate the benefits of priority-aware resiliency over conventional redundancy approaches in terms of fault-recovery, power consumption, and resource-area requirements. Together, these provide a broad range of strategies to achieve autonomous recovery of reconfigurable logic devices under a variety of constraints, operating conditions, and optimization criteria.
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Date Issued
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2013
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Identifier
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CFE0005006, ucf:50005
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005006
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Title
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INVESTIGATION OF PS-PVD AND EB-PVD THERMAL BARRIER COATINGS OVER LIFETIME USING SYNCHROTRON X-RAY DIFFRACTION.
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Creator
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Northam, Matthew, Raghavan, Seetha, Ghosh, Ranajay, Vaidyanathan, Raj, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Extreme operating temperatures within the turbine section of jet engines require sophisticated methods of cooling and material protection. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) achieve this through a ceramic coating applied to a substrate material (nickel-based superalloy). Electron-beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) is the industry standard coating used on jet engines. By tailoring the microstructure of an emerging deposition method, Plasma-spray physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD), similar...
Show moreExtreme operating temperatures within the turbine section of jet engines require sophisticated methods of cooling and material protection. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) achieve this through a ceramic coating applied to a substrate material (nickel-based superalloy). Electron-beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) is the industry standard coating used on jet engines. By tailoring the microstructure of an emerging deposition method, Plasma-spray physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD), similar microstructures to that of EB-PVD coatings can be fabricated, allowing the benefits of strain tolerance to be obtained while improving coating deposition times. This work investigates the strain through depth of uncycled and cycled samples using these coating techniques with synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD). In the TGO, room temperature XRD measurements indicated samples of both deposition methods showed similar in-plane compressive stresses after 300 and 600 thermal cycles. In-situ XRD measurements indicated similar high-temperature in-plane and out-of-plane stress in the TGO and no spallation after 600 thermal cycles for both coatings. Tensile in-plane residual stresses were found in the YSZ uncycled PS-PVD samples, similar to APS coatings. PS-PVD samples showed in most cases, higher compressive residual in-plane stress at the YSZ/TGO interface. These results provide valuable insight for optimizing the PS-PVD processing parameters to obtain strain compliance similar to that of EB-PVD. Additionally, external cooling methods used for thermal management in jet engine turbines were investigated. In this work, an additively manufactured lattice structure providing transpiration cooling holes is designed and residual strains are measured within an AM transpiration cooling sample using XRD. Strains within the lattice structure were found to have greater variation than that of the AM solid wall. These results provide valuable insight into the viability of implementing an AM lattice structure in turbine blades for the use of transpiration cooling.
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Date Issued
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2019
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Identifier
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CFE0007844, ucf:52830
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007844
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Title
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Adaptive Architectural Strategies for Resilient Energy-Aware Computing.
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Creator
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Ashraf, Rizwan, DeMara, Ronald, Lin, Mingjie, Wang, Jun, Jha, Sumit, Johnson, Mark, University of Central Florida
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Abstract / Description
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Reconfigurable logic or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices have the ability to dynamically adapt the computational circuit based on user-specified or operating-condition requirements. Such hardware platforms are utilized in this dissertation to develop adaptive techniques for achieving reliable and sustainable operation while autonomously meeting these requirements. In particular, the properties of resource uniformity and in-field reconfiguration via on-chip processors are exploited...
Show moreReconfigurable logic or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) devices have the ability to dynamically adapt the computational circuit based on user-specified or operating-condition requirements. Such hardware platforms are utilized in this dissertation to develop adaptive techniques for achieving reliable and sustainable operation while autonomously meeting these requirements. In particular, the properties of resource uniformity and in-field reconfiguration via on-chip processors are exploited to implement Evolvable Hardware (EHW). EHW utilize genetic algorithms to realize logic circuits at runtime, as directed by the objective function. However, the size of problems solved using EHW as compared with traditional approaches has been limited to relatively compact circuits. This is due to the increase in complexity of the genetic algorithm with increase in circuit size. To address this research challenge of scalability, the Netlist-Driven Evolutionary Refurbishment (NDER) technique was designed and implemented herein to enable on-the-fly permanent fault mitigation in FPGA circuits. NDER has been shown to achieve refurbishment of relatively large sized benchmark circuits as compared to related works. Additionally, Design Diversity (DD) techniques which are used to aid such evolutionary refurbishment techniques are also proposed and the efficacy of various DD techniques is quantified and evaluated.Similarly, there exists a growing need for adaptable logic datapaths in custom-designed nanometer-scale ICs, for ensuring operational reliability in the presence of Process, Voltage, and Temperature (PVT) and, transistor-aging variations owing to decreased feature sizes for electronic devices. Without such adaptability, excessive design guardbands are required to maintain the desired integration and performance levels. To address these challenges, the circuit-level technique of Self-Recovery Enabled Logic (SREL) was designed herein. At design-time, vulnerable portions of the circuit identified using conventional Electronic Design Automation tools are replicated to provide post-fabrication adaptability via intelligent techniques. In-situ timing sensors are utilized in a feedback loop to activate suitable datapaths based on current conditions that optimize performance and energy consumption. Primarily, SREL is able to mitigate the timing degradations caused due to transistor aging effects in sub-micron devices by reducing the stress induced on active elements by utilizing power-gating. As a result, fewer guardbands need to be included to achieve comparable performance levels which leads to considerable energy savings over the operational lifetime.The need for energy-efficient operation in current computing systems has given rise to Near-Threshold Computing as opposed to the conventional approach of operating devices at nominal voltage. In particular, the goal of exascale computing initiative in High Performance Computing (HPC) is to achieve 1 EFLOPS under the power budget of 20MW. However, it comes at the cost of increased reliability concerns, such as the increase in performance variations and soft errors. This has given rise to increased resiliency requirements for HPC applications in terms of ensuring functionality within given error thresholds while operating at lower voltages. My dissertation research devised techniques and tools to quantify the effects of radiation-induced transient faults in distributed applications on large-scale systems. A combination of compiler-level code transformation and instrumentation are employed for runtime monitoring to assess the speed and depth of application state corruption as a result of fault injection. Finally, fault propagation models are derived for each HPC application that can be used to estimate the number of corrupted memory locations at runtime. Additionally, the tradeoffs between performance and vulnerability and the causal relations between compiler optimization and application vulnerability are investigated.
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Date Issued
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2015
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Identifier
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CFE0006206, ucf:52889
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Format
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Document (PDF)
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PURL
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http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006206