Most general purpose processors (GPP) and application specific processors (ASP) use the floating-point arithmetic due to its wide and precise number system. However, the floating-point operations require complex processes such as alignment, normalization and rounding. To reduce the overhead, fused floating-point arithmetic units are introduced. In this dissertation, improved architectures for three fused floating-point arithmetic units are proposed: 1) Fused floating-point add-subtract unit, 2) Fused floating-point two-term dot product unit, and 3) Fused floating-point three-term adder. Also, the three fused floating-point units are implemented for both single and double precision and evaluated in terms of the area, power consumption, latency and throughput. To improve the performance of the fused floating-point add-subtract unit, a new alignment scheme, fast rounding, two dual-path algorithms and pipelining are applied. The improved fused floating-point two-term dot product unit applies several optimizations: a new alignment scheme, early normalization and fast rounding, four-input leading zero anticipation (LZA), dual-path algorithm and pipelining. The proposed fused floating-point three-term adder applies a new exponent compare and significand alignment scheme, double reduction, early normalization and fast rounding, three-input LZA and pipelining to improve the performance. / text

It is of nearly universal acceptance that one of the pillars of American economic success over the course of the 20th century was the rapid development of infrastructure. Transportation infrastructure has been of particular importance in the rise of the United States and attributed to the spread of an increasingly mobile culture. Americans undoubtedly enjoy traveling, and the ability to do so with relative ease is of immense value to many. In Texas, the majority of economic activity takes place within what is colloquially known as the “Texas Triangle”, an area bounded by the large metropolitan areas of Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and San Antonio. Intensive population growth in Texas, anchored by the triangle, has led to increasing road congestion on many routes, especially along Interstates 35 and 10. This congestion, and the wasted time and money that comes with it, are of increasing concern to the future economic vitality of the state. The Texas Triangle is also served by extensive aviation links via major airports in the major metropolitan areas, as well as smaller airports in other parts of the region. These flights, operated by American Airlines, Continental Airlines, and Southwest Airlines are frequent, but emit large amounts of greenhouse gases that contribute to ground level pollution and possibly climate change. High-speed rail has been considered by many to be a superior environmental option for intercity routes with lengths inherent to the Texas Triangle. However, given the fact that Texas is the top emitter of carbon dioxide in the U.S. and relies on an energy mix that is primarily fossil fuel powered; would a potential high-speed rail in Texas outperform the current air system environmentally, given similar passenger miles traveled? This report examines the environmental emissions of high-speed rail and compares it to the environmental emissions of our current aviation system, taking into account a life-cycle perspective. / text

At a time where almost 1.75 billion people around the world use the Internet on a regular basis, optical communication over optical fibers that is used in long distance and high demand applications has to be capable of providing higher communication speed and re-liability. In recent years, strong demand is driving the dense wavelength division multip-lexing network upgrade from 10 Gb/s per channel to more spectrally-efficient 40 Gb/s or 100 Gb/s per wavelength channel, and beyond. The 100 Gb/s Ethernet is currently under standardization, and in a couple of years 1 Tb/s Ethernet is going to be standardized as well for different applications, such as the local area networks (LANs) and the wide area networks (WANs). The major concern about such high data rates is the degradation in the signal quality due to linear and non-linear impairments, in particular polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and intrachannel nonlinearities. Moreover, the higher speed transceivers are expensive, so the alternative approaches of achieving the required rates is preferably done using commercially available components operating at lower speeds.In this dissertation, different LDPC-coded modulation techniques are presented to offer a higher spectral efficiency and/or power efficiency, in addition to offering aggregate rates that can go up to 1Tb/s per wavelength. These modulation formats are based on the bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) and include: (i) three-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation using hybrid direct and coherent detection, (ii) multidimensional LDPC-coded modulation, (iii) subcarrier-multiplexed four-dimensional LDPC-coded modulation, (iv) hybrid subcarrier/amplitude/phase/polarization LDPC-coded modulation, and (v) iterative polar quantization based LDPC-coded modulation.

Concrete structures may be subjected to dynamic loading during their service life. Understanding the dynamic properties of concrete structures is becoming critical because of the increased concern about the dynamic loading of both civilian and military structures, and especially, the recent increase in terrorist attacks on structures. Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is known to exhibit superior performance in its post-peak energy absorption capacity, (i.e., toughness) under flexural and tensile loading. However, the behavior of fiber reinforced concrete under compressive impact has not previously been investigated. In the present research, the response of fiber reinforced concrete was investigated over the full strain rate regime, from static loading to high strain rate loading, and finally to impact loading. The compressive toughness of FRC under static loading was studied using an existing Japanese standard (JSCE SF-5). Then, a test method for FRC under compressive impact loading was developed, involving the use of a high speed video camera system to measure the deformation of FRC cylinders under compressive impact. The strain rate sensitivity of FRC in both flexure and compression was also fully investigated. FRC was found to have higher strengths under impact loading (both flexural and compressive) than under static loading. The compressive toughness under impact loading increased due to the high peak load and the high strain capacity. FRC under flexural impact loading showed a greater strength improvement than under static flexure. FRC displays a much higher Dynamic Improvement Factor (DIF) under flexural impact than under compressive impact. It gave an overall higher performance under impact than under static loading. It also exhibited a higher strain rate sensitivity than plain concrete in both compression and flexure. Damage analysis, in terms of loss of strain energy, was carried out based on damage mechanics principles. Damage was found to increase with increasing strain rate. A new constitutive model was proposed to account for the relationship between DIF (Comp) and strain rate and the data derived from the model were found to be consistent with the experimental results.

The objective of the research in this dissertation is to demonstrate the viability of using silicon-germanium (SiGe) bipolar/complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technologies in novel high-speed, high-performance wireless and wireline applications. These applications include self-healing integrated systems, W-Band phased array radar systems, and multi-gigabit wireline transceiver systems. The contributions from this research are summarized below: 1. Design of a wideband 8-18 GHz signal source with the best reported tuning range and die area combination for self-healing applications [95]. 2. Design of a robust, multi-band 8-10/ 16-20 GHz signal source with amplitude-locking for self-healing applications. A figure-of-merit (FoM) is proposed that combines tuning range and die area, and this work achieves the best FoM compared with state-of-the art [51]. 3. First ever reported on-die healing of image-rejection ratio of an 8-18 GHz mixer integrated with the multi-band test signal source [52], [96]. 4. Design of a 94 GHz differential Colpitts oscillator with 14% tuning range that spans 86-99 GHz for phased-array radar systems. 5. Identification of technology platform related bottlenecks in multi-gigabit wireline systems. A novel study of linearity of switching transistors in a current-mode logic (CML) gate. 6. A novel FoM that can be used to predict large-signal CML delay using small-signal Y-parameter techniques [97].

Building a new infrastructure facility requires a significant amount of time and expense. This is particularly true for investments in transportation for their longstanding and great degree of impact on society. The scope of time and money involved does not mean, however, we only focus on the economies of scale and may ignore other aspects of the built environment. To this extent, how can we achieve a more balanced perspective in infrastructure decision-making? In addition, what aspects should be considered when making more sustainable decisions about transportation investments? These two questions are the foundations of this study. This dissertation shares its process in part with a previous research project – Texas Urban Triangle (TUT). Although the TUT research generated diverse variables and created possible implementations of spatial decision support system (SDSS), the methodology still demands improvement. The current method has been developed to create suitable routes but is not designed to rank or make comparisons. This is admittedly one of the biggest shortfalls in the general SDSS approach, but is also where I see as an opportunity to make alternative interpretation more comprehensive and effective. The main purpose of this dissertation is to develop a Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) that will lead to more balanced decision-making in transportation investment and optimize the most sustainable high-speed rail (HSR) route. The decision support system developed here explicitly elaborates the advantages and disadvantages of a transportation corridor in three particular perspectives: construction (fixed costs); operation (maintenance costs); and externalities (social and environmental costs), with a specific focus on environmental externalities. Considering more environmental features in rail routing will offset short-term economic losses and creates more sustainable environments in long-term infrastructure planning.

Concrete structures may be subjected to dynamic loading during their service life. Understanding the dynamic properties of concrete structures is becoming critical because of the increased concern about the dynamic loading of both civilian and military structures, and especially, the recent increase in terrorist attacks on structures. Fiber reinforced concrete (FRC) is known to exhibit superior performance in its post-peak energy absorption capacity, (i.e., toughness) under flexural and tensile loading. However, the behavior of fiber reinforced concrete under compressive impact has not previously been investigated. In the present research, the response of fiber reinforced concrete was investigated over the full strain rate regime, from static loading to high strain rate loading, and finally to impact loading. The compressive toughness of FRC under static loading was studied using an existing Japanese standard (JSCE SF-5). Then, a test method for FRC under compressive impact loading was developed, involving the use of a high speed video camera system to measure the deformation of FRC cylinders under compressive impact. The strain rate sensitivity of FRC in both flexure and compression was also fully investigated. FRC was found to have higher strengths under impact loading (both flexural and compressive) than under static loading. The compressive toughness under impact loading increased due to the high peak load and the high strain capacity. FRC under flexural impact loading showed a greater strength improvement than under static flexure. FRC displays a much higher Dynamic Improvement Factor (DIF) under flexural impact than under compressive impact. It gave an overall higher performance under impact than under static loading. It also exhibited a higher strain rate sensitivity than plain concrete in both compression and flexure. Damage analysis, in terms of loss of strain energy, was carried out based on damage mechanics principles. Damage was found to increase with increasing strain rate. A new constitutive model was proposed to account for the relationship between DIF (Comp) and strain rate and the data derived from the model were found to be consistent with the experimental results.

Σκοπός της παρούσας διατριβής είναι η παρουσίαση και μελέτη των τεχνικογεωλογικών συνθηκών κατά τη διάνοιξη των σηράγγων Πλάτανου και Τράπεζας της Σ.Γ.Υ.Τ. Κιάτου – Αίγιου, ενώ δίνεται έμφαση στο τμήμα της εισόδου της σήραγγας Πλατάνου που βρίσκεται εντός ζώνης ενεργής κατολίσθησης. Ειδικότερα γίνεται εκτενής ανάλυση στο συστηματικά οργανωμένο πρόγραμμα γεωτεχνικής και δομητικής παρακολούθησης της κατασκευής, που περιλαμβάνει : 1. Αυτοματοποιημένο Σύστημα Παρακολούθησης 2. Χωροσταθμικές Ακίδες 3. Οπτικοί στόχοι εντός σήραγγας 4. Εκτασιόμετρα 3 ράβδων 5. Κλισιόμετρα 6. Κύτταρα φορτίου αγκυρίου 7. Πιεζόμετρα Η εγκατάσταση των παραπάνω οργάνων αποσκοπεί στη διενέργεια μετρήσεων υψηλής ακρίβειας, ώστε να είναι δυνατή η έγκυρη και έγκαιρη εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων σχετικά με την επάρκεια και την αποτελεσματικότητα των μέτρων προσωρινής υποστήριξης. Με βάση την επεξεργασία των στοιχείων, που συγκεντρώθηκαν από τη διάνοιξη του συνολικού μήκους της σήραγγας Πλατάνου στο τμήμα της εισόδου αυτής (περίπου 300μ από την είσοδο αυτής, εντός της ζώνης κατολίσθησης), όπου και εφαρμόστηκαν οι προσαρμοσμένες κατηγορίες εκσκαφής και σύμφωνα με τις επί τόπου μετρήσεις, επιτεύχθηκαν οι ακόλουθοι κύριοι στόχοι: • Αποφυγή ανάπτυξης υψηλών συγκλίσεων στο κέλυφος της προσωρινής. • Περιορισμός των επιφανειακών καθιζήσεων στο οικισμό άνωθεν της σήραγγας. • Προπορεία της εκσκαφής της άνω ημιδιατομής και αξιολόγηση της συμπεριφοράς της βραχόμαζας και της αποτελεσματικότητας των μέτρων υποστήριξης, ώστε εφόσον απαιτηθεί να υπάρχει δυνατότητα έγκαιρης τροποποίησης των μέτρων υποστήριξης της Β’ φάσης. • Ανάσχεση προβλημάτων επάρκειας των κατηγοριών εκσκαφής της οριστικής μελέτης καθώς και οριακών συντελεστών ασφαλείας. / The purpose of this thesis is the presentation and study of technical geological conditions during the opening of tunnels of Platanos and Trapezas of the high speed railway Kiato - Aigion, emphasizing on the entrance of the tunnel Platanos located within an active landslide zone. In particular, extensive analysis is given to the systematically organized program of geotechnical and construction monitoring of building activity, including: 1. Automated Monitoring System 2. Space determining Spikes 3. Optical targets in the tunnel 4. Ektasiometra 3 bars 5. Gradiometers 6. Anchor load cells 7. Piezometer The installation of these instruments is designed to perform high precision measurements in order to obtain accurate and timely conclusions on the adequacy and effectiveness of the tunnel’s temporary support. Based on data processing, collected from the opening of the total length of the tunnel Platanos in this part of the entrance (about 300m from the entrance within the landslide zone), where custom excavation categories were applied according to the in situ measurements, obtained the following main objectives: • Avoid high growth convergence in temporary support. • Reduction of surface subsidence in the village above the tunnel. • Advance the excavation of the upper semi section and evaluation of rock mass behavior and the effectiveness of support measures, in order if necessary to be able to timely amend the measures to support the second phase. • Averting adequacy problems of digging categories of the final design and marginal safety factors.

Orientador: Carlos Alberto de Souza Costa / Banca: Elisa Maria Aparecida Giro / Banca: Marcelo Ferrarezi de Andrade / Banca: Marcelo Giannini / Banca: André Luiz Fraga Briso / Resumo: O objetivo da presente pesquisa foi avaliar comparativamente, através de análise histopatológica, as respostas de polpas humanas após confecção de cavidades de classe I, utilizando-se turbina de alta velocidade ou sistema laser de Er:YAG. Pré-molares inferiores hígidos recomendados para extração devido ao tratamento ortodôntico foram selecionados, sendo que os pares de dentes pertencentes aos mesmos pacientes foram aleatoriamente divididos de acordo com os seguintes grupos experimentais (n=6): Grupo 1 - alta velocidade; e Grupo 2 - laser de Er:YAG. As cavidades com profundidade média de 2,5mm tiveram a parede pulpar forrada com material biocompatível, sendo então restauradas com resina composta e sistema adesivo. No Grupo 3 (controle), os dentes não receberam qualquer tipo de tratamento. Quinze dias após a confecção e restauração das cavidades, os dentes foram extraídos, fixados em formalina tamponada, descalcificados em solução de Morse e processados em laboratório para inclusão em parafina. Cortes histológicos com 6μm de espessura foram corados com H/E, Tricrômico de Masson e pela técnica de Brown & Brenn e então avaliados em microscopia de luz. Para o Grupo 1 (alta velocidade), 5 dentes não apresentavam reação inflamatória, porém 3 deles exibiam discreta ruptura da camada de odontoblastos com degeneração hidrópica destas células pulpares. Em apenas 1 espécime, cuja espessura de dentina remanescente (EDR) entre o assoalho da cavidade e a polpa coronária era de 214μm, foi observado significante degeneração de odontoblastos, associado à ampla área de hialinização da matriz extracelular. Neste Grupo 1, as cavidades profundas apresentavam, em média, EDR de 909,5μm. Para o Grupo 2 (laser), exposição acidental da polpa ocorreu em 1 espécime, o qual foi descartado do experimento. / Abstract: The aim of this in vivo study was to evaluate and to compare the histopathological response of human pulps after cavity preparation by using high speed or Er:YAG laser systems. Sound premolars were selected and randomly divided into two experimental groups (n = 6) as following: Group 1: High speed; and Group 2: Er:YAG Laser. Class I cavities, 2.5mm deep, were prepared and their pulpal walls were lined with a biocompatible dental material. The cavities were restored with adhesive system and composite resin. Intact premolars were used in Group 3 (control). Fifteen days after the clinical procedures of cavity preparation, the teeth were extracted, fixed in 10% formalin, decalcified in Morse solution, and processed for paraffin embedding. The histological sections, 6μm thick, were stained with H/E, Masson's trichrome and Brown & Brenn technique and evaluated in light microscope. In Group 1 (High Speed), 5 specimens did not present inflammatory reaction. However, 3 of them exhibited odontoblast layer disruption as well as hydropic degeneration of these pulp cells. In only 1 specimen, which presented remaining dentin thickness (RDT) between the cavity floor and the coronary pulp of 214μm, notable odontoblast degeneration associated with hyaline alteration of the extracellular matrix was observed. In this Group 1 the mean of the RDT was 909.5μm. In Group 2 (Er:YAG Laser), unexpected pulp exposure occurred in 1 specimen, which was took out of the experiment. Four specimens exhibited normal histological characteristics of the pulp tissue. Only 1 specimen (RDT = 413μm) showed moderate tissue disorganization characterized by odontoblast layer disruption. The odontoblast cells exhibited hydropic degeneration. In this Group 2 the mean of the RDT was 935.2μm. / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:27:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-05-17Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:31:02Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 assis_clf_me_ilha.pdf: 4160188 bytes, checksum: af661727a1b0c2791d68616863a3adb8 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a influência das condições de fresamento na formação de cavaco, microestrutura, dureza e rugosidade da peça. Foi ensaiado um aço baixo carbono 0,15%C com dois tamanhos de grão distintos. Para ambos os materiais da peça, empregou-se 8 condições de usinagem variando a velocidade de corte, o avanço da ferramenta e a profundidade de usinagem visando à aplicação da Análise de Variância (ANOVA), dando-se destaque à usinagem considerada como alta velocidade de corte e convencional. Os ensaios de fresamento de topo concordante a seco foram conduzidos em um centro de usinagem CNC de 11 kW de potência e rotação do eixo-árvore de 7.500 rpm. Utilizou-se ferramenta de diâmetro 25 mm com dois insertos de metal duro revestidos com Al2O3. Os resultados apontam para uma influência dos parâmetros de corte sobre todas as variáveis de resposta, exceto a macrodureza. Velocidades de corte e profundidades de usinagem maiores causaram deformação da microestrutura do material “como recebido” próxima à superfície fresada. Os mesmos parâmetros governaram o aumento da microdureza superficial e da profundidade da camada endurecida. O material com grãos ultrafinos não apresentou deformação da microestrutura próxima à superfície fresada nem aumento de microdureza superficial. A velocidade de corte influiu apenas na profundidade da camada endurecida. A rugosidade foi inversa e diretamente influenciada pela velocidade de corte e avanço da ferramenta, respectivamente, sendo dependente também do tamanho de grão do material da peça. Os mesmos parâmetros de corte influíram de forma significativa no ângulo de deformação da microestrutura dos cavacos, cuja classificação foi dependente do material e das condições de usinagem. / This work deals with the influence of milling conditions on chip formation, microstructure, hardness and roughness of workpiece. A 0.15%C low carbon steel with two different grain sizes was milled. For both workpiece materials eight milling conditions were employed where cutting speed, tool feed and depth of cut varied and combined aiming at Analysis of Variance application. The machining conditions considered as High-Speed Cutting (HSC) and Conventional were focused. The milling tests considering down-milling and dry conditions were carried out in a CNC machining center with 11 kW power and 7,500 rpm spindle rotation. A 25 mm diameter endmill with two inserts coated of Al2O3 was used. The results indicated the cutting parameters influenced on all output variables except the macrohardness. Greater cutting speed and depth of cut caused deformation of workpiece microstructure with 10.8 um grain size near milled surface. The same parameters governed the increase of surface microhardness and hardened layer depth. Refined grain material did neither present deformation of microstructure near milled surface nor increase of microhardness. The cutting speed influenced only on depth of hardened layer. Roughness was inverse and directly influenced by cutting speed and tool feed, respectively, and dependent on grain size of workpiece material. These parameters also influenced on deformation angle of chip microstructure which were classified as continuous for 10.8 um grain size and segmented for the ultrafine grain, in this case just for some milling conditions.