The complex work of designing new ASICs today and the increasing costs of time to market (TTM) delays are putting high responsibility on the research and development teams to make fault free designs. The main purpose of implementing a static rule checking tool in the design flow today is to find errors and bugs in the hardware definition language (HDL) code as fast and soon as possible. The sooner you find a bug in the design, the shorter the turnaround time becomes, and thereby both time and money will be saved. There are a couple of tools in the market that performs static HDL analysis and they vary in both price and functionality. In this project mainly Atrenta Spyglass was evaluated but similar tools were also evaluated for comparison purpose. The purpose of this master thesis was to evaluate the need of implementing a rule checking tool in the design flow at the Digital ASIC department PDU Base Station development in Kista, who also was the commissioner for this project. Based on the findings in this project it is recommended that a static rule checking tool is introduced in the design flow at the ASIC department. However, in order to determine which of the different tools the following pointers should be regarded: • If the tool is only going to be used as for lint checks (elementary structure and code checks) on RTL, then the implementation of Mentors Design Checker is advised. • If the tool is going to be used for more sophisticated structural checks, clock tree/reset tree propagation, code checks, basic constraints checks, basic Clock Domain Crossings (CDC) checks, then Synopsys LEDA is advised. • If the tool is going to be used as for advanced structural checks, extensive clock tree/reset tree propagation, code checks, constraints checks, functional Design For Test (DFT) checks (as testmode signal propagation) and functional CDC checks on RTL as well as on netlist level, then Atrenta Spyglass is advised. The areas regarding checks that could be of interest for Ericsson is believed to be regular lint checks for RTL (naming, code and basic structure), clock/reset tree propagation (netlist and RTL), constraints and functional DFT checks (netlist and RTL).

Introduction: H1N1 flu (swine flu) first emerged in mid-April 2009, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was a lead U.S. federal agency responding to the disease, the first pandemic in more than 40 years. Aim: The purpose of this program evaluation is to assess CDC’s Web-based outreach for the first part of the H1N1 flu pandemic (April to July 2009). Evaluation focuses on the seven CDC Web sites used for H1N1 flu outreach: H1N1 Flu (English and Spanish), CDC.gov, CDC en Español, CDC Partners, CDC Seasonal Flu, and MMWR. Methods: The evaluation assessed Web use and users through data collected by the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) and specific Web statistics gathered through Omniture SiteCatalyst. Discussion: People have been using the internet to collect health information since the early days of popular usage. During the early H1N1 flu emergency, CDC used seven different Web sites to reach out to its users, who are primarily public health professionals, healthcare providers and consumers. Most users cite one of four reasons for visiting CDC’s Web sites: health information for my work, health information for myself, health information for patient or client, and health information for someone else. Between April and July, a clear majority of users visited the Web site for H1N1 flu information (from a high of 58% in May to a low of 35% in July). CDC.gov has received ACSI satisfaction scores of 80 (considered a top performer) or higher since the first quarter of 2007; the overall site satisfaction score of 82 during the first quarter of 2009 was bested by the H1N1-specific satisfaction score of 84 from mid-April to the end of June. Traffic to the site increased enormously during the early H1N1 flu emergency, from approximately 45 million page views per month in February and March 2009 to more than 98.2 million page views in April 2009. Recommendations: Those working on CDC.gov H1N1 flu-related content should continue trying to anticipate and meet user needs by expanding Web content, partnering with external organizations to share key information through syndication and information placement, and enhancing translation capabilities.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Virginia, 2007. / Title from title page. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online through Digital Dissertations.

Class of 2014 Abstract / Specific Aims: The purpose of this study was to assess pharmacists’, pharmacy technicians’, and pharmacy interns’ knowledge of current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) immunization guidelines for pregnant women. Methods: Questionnaires administered to volunteers during the Arizona Pharmacy Association (AzPA) 2013 Annual Convention and Trade Show collected data showing the volunteers’ level of knowledge about current immunization guidelines; data on professional roles (pharmacist, pharmacy intern, or pharmacy technician), years in practice, current immunization certification status and activity, and practice setting were also collected. Main Results: Questionnaires were completed by 112 volunteers, including 48 pharmacists, 25 pharmacy technicians, and 39 pharmacy interns. The overall percentage of correct answers from all participants was 33%. Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy interns had correct answer percentages of 41%, 16%, and 34%, respectively. Pharmacy practitioners who were state certified to perform immunizations performed statistically significantly better than the non-certified group (44.2% correct versus 33% correct, P=0.012). Practitioners who work at a practice site that provides immunizations were compared with practitioners who do not, with results trending toward statistical significance, but falling just short (45.7% correct versus 36% correct, P=0.054). Conclusion: The general level of knowledge about CDC immunization guidelines appears to be inadequate among the volunteer group of pharmacy practitioners, possibly leading to missed opportunities for needed immunizations.

One of the key requirements in the design of wireless sensor nodes and miniature biomedical devices is energy efficiency. For a sensor node, which is a sensor and readout circuit, to survive on limited energy sources such as a battery or harvested energy, its energy consumption should be minimized. Capacitive sensors are candidates for use in energy-constrained applications, as they do not consume static power and can be used in a wide range of applications to measure different physical, chemical or biological quantities. However, the energy consumption is dominated by the capacitive interface circuit, i.e. the capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC). Several energy-efficient CDC architectures are introduced in this dissertation to meet the demand for high resolution and energy efficiency in smart capacitive sensors. First, we propose an energy-efficient CDC based on a differential successive-approximation data converter. The proposed differential CDC employs an energy-efficient operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) based on an inverter. A wide capacitance range with fine absolute resolution is implemented in the proposed coarse-fine DAC architecture which saves 89% of silicon area. The proposed CDC achieves an energy efficiency figure-of-merit (FOM) of 45.8fJ/step, which is the best reported energy efficiency to date. Second, we propose an energy efficient CDC for high-precision capacitive resolution by using oversampling and noise shaping. The proposed CDC achieves 150 aF absolute resolution and an energy efficiency FOM of 187fJ/conversion-step which outperforms state of the art high-precision differential CDCs. In the third and last part, we propose an in-vitro cancer diagnostic biosensor-CMOS platform for low-power, rapid detection, and low cost. The introduced platform is the first to demonstrate the ability to screen and quantify the spermidine/spermine N1 acetyltransferase (SSAT) enzyme which reveals the presence of early-stage cancer, on the surface of a capacitive biosensor. This platform, which is a biosensor combined with a highly energy-efficient digital CDC, is implemented and fabricated in a CMOS technology and can sense and convert the capacitance value from the biosensor to a digital word in an energy efficient way. The platform achieves an ultra-low power consumption: four orders of magnitude less than the state-of-the-art biosensor-CMOS platforms.

Introduction: Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody used to treat hematological malignancies. The antibody depletes CD20+ B cells via cytotoxic immune mechanisms, such as complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC), which is mainly induced by natural killer (NK) cells. Rituximab is mostly well-tolerated but has been reported to induce the release of large amounts of cytokines in blood, thus causing systemic inflammatory response. Aim: To study rituximab-induced B cell depletion and cytokine release in blood from healthy volunteers and how this was affected by Fc modified versions of the antibody. Methods and materials: Fresh blood from healthy donors (n=3) was incubated with rituximab and Fc modified versions that influence the antibody’s target functions, namely ADCC and CDC, for 4 hours in a blood loop system. Results were measured using multicolor flow cytometry, except for cytokine release in plasma which was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results: Of all treatments, rituximab wild type (WT) showed superior B cell depletion than Fc mutant rituximab. The C1q knock-out variant (rituximab-P331S) and the variant with improved affinity to Fc receptor CD16 (rituximab-GASDALIE) did not differ in depletion. A cytokine release was not detected with the treatments, however, a cytokine stimulation in NK cells was observed. Rituximab-GASDALIE had the most prominent cytokine stimulation and CD107a (marker of NK cell functional activity) expression on NK cells. Rituximab-WT and rituximab-P331S had a minor and similar cytokine stimulation and CD107a expression between each other. Rituximab-IgG2 had minimal B cell depletion, CD107a expression and cytokine stimulation. Conclusions: Rituximab depleted B cells without inducing measurable cytokine release for healthy individuals. Among the treatments, Fc mutant rituximab seem to induce less B cell depletion. Moreover, rituximab-GASDALIE appear to elicit an enhanced NK cell activation. Further studies should include more donors as supplement and the results should be interpreted as complementary data to future data analyzed by performing the loop experiment using blood from patients.

Magister Chirurgiae Dentium (MChD) / This study was undertaken to examine the preventive dental and medical attendance behaviour of mothers of young children. The 'Theory of Reasoned Action' used to predict intention to visit the dentist and the doctor, failed to account for more than 11% of the variance in dental behaviour and 9t in the variance in medical behaviour in all the subjects. However, on assessing these behaviours for the 2 different age groups, for the younger age group, the prediction improved to 19% for the dental intention in terms of the total attitude and subjective norm score, and to 45% and 34% respectively for the individual attitudes and subjective norms. In the older age group, the prediction improved to 20% for the dental intention in terms of the total attitude and subjective norm score, and to 39% and 30% respectively for the individual attitude and subjective norms. This finding is further supported by factor analysis of the data, whereby using a principal components analysis structure, other patterns to the data were found which indicates that preventive dental and medical behaviour is a complex behavioural category, consisting of more than one action. Two dimensionso of affect accounted for 59% of dental attitudinal data and 57.9% of the dental subjective norm data, whereas three dimensions of affect accounted for 64.5% of the medical attitudinal data and 64.8% of the medical subjective norm data. The mothers had positive attitudes to both the two dental and three medical actions highlighted by the principal components analysis. The younger mothers showed stronger attitudes associated with the treatment outcome action, whereas the older mothers showed a more positive preventive orientation by the dental data. Although two-thirds of the young mothers received dental advice from the health visitors, they were highly selective on what information to accept and put into effect. An indication here is that health messages including dental health are perceived differently by the 2 age groups even though they are from the same social class group. This finding holds in important implications for the method, approach and content of dental heath of education. In terms of the medical data, the three actions highlighted, indicated that while a health directed behaviour, in terms of a healthy outcome e.g. normal growth is important, an expectation as well as a more emotional, love and tender care factor were also implicated. A healthy baby may however not be the only factor of importance to the mother, but also the mechanisms of achieving such a state of health, matters not only in terms of the convenience but also, greatly depend on the love and level of care the mother gives the child. This aspect may even be more accentuated in one parent families, in which especially the young mother is under enormous socia-economic pressure to take up employment, foresaking time she would otherwise have spend with the child. The effect of subjective norms on preventive health behaviour shows evidence of a 'inner cicle' or 'kinship' as reference group to the mother, which mediates between and modifies the influence of the health profession in as far as compliance with health care is expected from the mother. It therefore appears that in the lower social classes, there exists an intricate social network, exercising an important effect on the way of life of the mother, and since this network may be one of the few supports she has, its influence will be exerted in various dimensions of the mothers' life including health. There appears to be a hidden pathway or code of conduct, defined by these social norms and to which the mother feels she owes her allegiance. The level of communality between the social networks and preventive dental behaviour should be further investigated. This study has clearly indicated that some of the dental and medical attitudes and subjective norms under consideration, has a marked independent yet related effect on preventive health behaviour whereas other attitudes and subjective norms acted independently or sometimes not at all. The dental health educator, must therefore determine for each community and individual which action is the most appropiate target for behavioural change. Furthermore, this study has shown that if beliefs are to be modified, referents to support such a behaviour change, must therefore be appropiate to attaining this objective. since preventive medical and dental behaviour consists of various actions, the application of the Azjen and Fishbein model, should be to a specific action of the behaviour, which assumes importance in the target community, important others. associated with Baric (20) has emphasised the role of the family as an important influence on attitude and behaviour, while Boothroyd- Broóks (39) has pointed to the contribution of society as important mediators in secular life. The results from this study would tend to support the views of Suchman(193), Baric(20) and Boothroyd-Brooks(39) that, kinship, family and social norms were important in the development of behaviour but, to sustain such a behaviour, a deeper understanding is required of the social forces operative through the social network, which shapes the mothers' health behaviour into action. be this medical or dental attendance for herself or for that of her children.

This thesis is part of a project at Bombardier’s Object Controller System. This system acts as a communication interface for several sub-systems that control the railway traffic. Therefore, part of the safety and availability of railway transportation is dependent on the performance and reliability of this system especially the digital communication system that handles the board-to-board communication. Thus, Bombardier has implemented new high-speed LVDS channels to use instead of the implemented RS-485 channels to improve the board-to-board communication performance in the Object Controller System but they lack a transceiver. This thesis work explores possible transceiver solutions that achieve Bombardier requirements. Reusability is very important for Bombardier for safety compliance and certification. Therefore, the investigation was carried out by looking into what is currently implemented and then was carried on by looking into transceivers that used in highspeed communication and check their suitability and compliance for the FPGA and the requirements. This exploration results in three experiments for different transceiver architecture. The first experiment exploits the currently implemented transceiver architecture and it is not suitable for high-speed data rate due to a limitation in the buffer. The second experiment overcomes the buffer limitation by using a clock domain crossing buffer and results in a 100-time faster system. The third experiment aimed to achieve a higher data rate by using a clock and data recovery transceiver and results in a promising solution but needs some enhancements. For testing, a verification methodology following the one-way stress test architecture has been developed using VHDL for simulation and for in-chip testing and the results were verified using ChipScope logic analyzer from Xilinx. In addition, a thermal test for the solution from the second experiment has been performed. / Denna avhandling är en del av ett projekt på Bombardiers Object Controller System. Detta system fungerar som ett kommunikationsgränssnitt för flera delsystem som styr järnvägstrafiken. Därför är en del av säkerheten och tillgängligheten av järnvägstransporten beroende av systemets prestanda och tillförlitlighet, särskilt det digitala kommunikationssystemet som hanterar kommunikationen ombord. Bombardier har sålunda implementerat nya höghastighets LVDS-kanaler för att använda istället för de implementerade RS-485-kanalerna för att förbättra kommunikationsprestandan ombord i objektkontrollen, men de saknar en transceiver. Denna avhandling arbetar med att undersöka möjliga transceiverlösningar som uppnår Bombardier-krav. Återanvändbarhet är mycket viktigt för Bombardier för säkerhetsöverensstämmelse och certifiering. Undersökningen genomfördes därför genom att undersöka vad som för närvarande implementeras och sedan genomföras genom att titta på transceivers som används i höghastighetskommunikation och kontrollera deras lämplighet och överensstämmelse för FPGA och kraven. Denna undersökning resulterar i tre experiment för olika transceiverarkitektur. Det första experimentet utnyttjar den nuvarande implementerade transceiverarkitekturen. Den är inte lämplig för höghastighetsdatakommunikation på grund av en begränsning i bufferten. Det andra experimentet övervinns buffertbegränsningen genom att använda en klockdomänöverföringsbuffert vilket resulterar i ett 100-timmars snabbare system. Det tredje experimentet syftade till att uppnå en högre datahastighet genom att använda en klockoch dataåterställningstransceiver vilket resulterar i en lovande lösning men behöver vissa förbättringar. För testning har en verifieringsmetod som följer envägsstresstestarkitekturen utvecklats med hjälp av VHDL för simulering och för inchip-testning. Resultaten verifierades med hjälp av ChipScope logic analyzer från Xilinx. Dessutom har ett termiskt test för lösningen från det andra experimentet utförts.

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Introdução: As diversas armadilhas apresentam rendimento diferenciado na captura, havendo a necessidade de buscar instrumentos que amostrem porções representativas das populações de mosquitos. Levanta-se a hipótese de que as armadilhas Mosquito Magnet Independence e CDC com CO2+Lurex3 sejam mais eficazes na captura de culicídeos do que a armadilha CDC luminosa. Objetivos: Avaliar a eficácia das armadilhas Mosquito Magnet Independence e CDC+CO2+Lurex3, em relação à CDC-luminosa, para a captura de culicídeos adultos em área agrícola na Fazenda Experimental em Pariquera-Açu, Vale do Ribeira, São Paulo, Brasil. Material e Métodos: Capturas mensais, das 15h00 às 21h00, por meio do delineamento em quadrado latino 3X3, no período de dezembro/2010 a novembro/2011. Perfis de diversidade de Rényi e índices de riqueza, dominância, diversidade, equabilidade e similaridade foram estimados para cada armadilha para compará-las. Resultados: Capturou-se 6.055 de 70 espécies e 12 gêneros. A CDC-luminosa amostrou 990 indivíduos de 42 espécies e 10 gêneros,a CDC+CO2+lurex31.419 indivíduos em 41 espécies e 10 gêneros e a Mosquito Magnet 3151 indivíduos de 46 espécies e 11 gêneros. A riqueza, pelo índice de Margalef e Perfil de Rényi, não apresentou diferença estatística para nenhuma armadilha no período dez/mai. A Mosquito Magnet obteve maior rendimento na mensuração da diversidade, segundos os índices de Shannon e Simpson, observados no perfil de Rényi. A dominância, pelo índice de Berger-Parker isolado,foi maior na Mosquito Magnet do que nas demais, nos dois períodos de capturas. O perfil de Rényi não apontou diferença significante para dominância. Índice de Pielou não mostrou significância em relação à CDC-luminosa para nenhuma das armadilhas nos dois períodos avaliados. Índices de Jaccard e Sorensen apontaram maior similaridade na composição de espécies entre a Mosquito Magnet e CDC+CO2+lurex3. Conclusões: A Mosquito Magnet Independence e CDC+CO2+Lurex3 apresentaram rendimento semelhante, nos meses mais frios e secos do ano. A utilização dessas armadilhas para a captura de determinados táxons pode ser importante ponto na estratégia de vigilância de espécies vetoras. Estudos com maior esforço amostral devem ser realizados para avaliar o rendimento das armadilhas Mosquito Magnet Independence e CDC+CO2 +lurex3 em áreas de ambiente alterado de Floresta Atlântica. / Introduction: The several traps have different performance in sampling mosquitoes,with the need to seek that capture representative portions of mosquito population. Formulate the hypothesis that the Mosquito Magnet trap and CDC+CO2+lurex3 are more effective in catching mosquitoes than the CDC light trap. Objectives: To evaluate the effectiveness the Mosquito Magnet Independence and CDC+CO2+lurex3 in relation to CDC light trap, to catching adult mosquitoes in the agricultural area at the Experimental Station in Pariquera-Açu, Vale do Ribeira, São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: Monthly captures, from 03:00pm-09:00pm, through the 3X3 Latin square from the December 2010 to November 2011. Rényi diversity profiles and indexes of the richness, dominance, diversity, evenness and similarity were estimated for each trap to compare them. Results: Were captured 6055 mosquitoes of the 70 species and 12 genera. CDC light traps sampled 990 specimens of 42 species and 10 genera, the CDC+CO2+lurex3 sampled 1419 specimens in 41 species and 10 genera and 3151 specimens were captured in the Mosquito Magnet belonging to 46 species and 11 genera. The richness, by the Margalef index on profile Rényi, showed no statistical difference for any trap in the period Dez/Mai. The Mosquito Magnet trap obtained higher yield in the measurement of diversity, according indexes of Shannon and Simpson, seen in profile Rényi. The dominance, by Berger-Parker index isolated, was higher in the Mosquito Magnet than in the other traps in both periods of captures. The profile Rényi showed no significant difference for dominance. Pielou index was not significant in relation to CDC light trap for any of the periods. Jaccard and Sorensen indexes showed greater similarity in composition of species between the CDC+CO2+lurex3 and Mosquito Magnet. Conclusions: The Mosquito Magnet Independence and CDC+CO2+ Lurex3 showed similar performance in colder and drier months of the year. The use of these traps to capture certain taxa can be important point in the surveillance approach vector species. Studies with greater sampling effort should be made to evaluate the performance of the Mosquito Magnet Independence and CDC+CO +lurex3 traps changed environment in areas of Atlantic Forest.