The explosive growth of battery operated devices has made low-power design a priority in recent years. Moreover, embedded SRAM units have become an important block in modern SoCs. The increasing number of transistor count in the SRAM units and the surging leakage current of the MOS transistors in the scaled technologies have made the SRAM unit a power hungry block from both dynamic and static perspectives. Owing to high bitline voltage swing during write operation, the write power consumption is dominated the dynamic power consumption. The static power consumption is mainly due to the leakage current associated with the SRAM cells distributed in the array. Moreover, as supply voltage decreases to tackle the power consumption, the data stability of the SRAM cells have become a major concern in recent years. <br /><br /> To reduce the write power consumption, several schemes such as row based sense amplifying cell (SAC) and hierarchical bitline sense amplification (HBLSA) have been proposed. However, these schemes impose architectural limitations on the design in terms of the number of words on a row. Beside, the effectiveness of these methods is limited to the dynamic power consumption. Conventionally, reduction of the cell supply voltage and exploiting the body effect has been suggested to reduce the cell leakage current. However, variation of the supply voltage of the cell associates with a higher dynamic power consumption and reduced cell data stability. Conventionally qualified by Static Noise Margin (SNM), the ability of the cell to retain the data is reduced under a lower supply voltage conditions. <br /><br /> In this thesis, we revisit the concept of data stability from the dynamic perspective. A new criteria for the data stability of the SRAM cell is defined. The new criteria suggests that the access time and non-access time (recovery time) of the cell can influence the data stability in a SRAM cell. The speed vs. stability trade-off opens new opportunities for aggressive power reduction for low-power applications. Experimental results of a test chip implemented in a 130 <em>nm</em> CMOS technology confirmed the concept and opened a ground for introduction of a new operational mode for the SRAM cells. <br /><br /> We introduced a new architecture; Segmented Virtual Grounding (SVGND) to reduce the dynamic and static power reduction in SRAM units at the same time. Thanks to the new concept for the data stability in SRAM cells, we introduced the new operational mode of Accessed Retention Mode (AR-Mode) to the SRAM cell. In this mode, the accessed SRAM cell can retain the data, however, it does not discharge the bitline. The new architecture outperforms the recently reported low-power schemes in terms of dynamic power consumption, thanks to the exclusive discharge of the bitline and the cell virtual ground. In addition, the architecture reduces the leakage current significantly since it uses the back body biasing in both load and drive transistors. <br /><br /> A 40Kb SRAM unit based on SVGND architecture is implemented in a 130 <em>nm</em> CMOS technology. Experimental results exhibit a remarkable static and dynamic power reduction compared to the conventional and previously reported low-power schemes as expect from the simulation results.

The present study investigates the effects of cognitive inhibitory mechanisms and tendency to suppress thoughts on the frequency and intensity of traumatic intrusions within the trauma film paradigm. Non clinical participants&rsquo / response inhibition and proactive inhibition levels and tendency to suppress thoughts were measured prior to exposure to a trauma film. One week after seeing the trauma film, participants reported the frequency and intensity of trauma film related intrusions with an intrusion diary and Impact of Events Scale. No significant effect of response inhibition, proactive inhibition and thought suppression tendency was found on the frequency and intensity of trauma film related intrusions. Findings of the study are discussed.

Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία θα ασχοληθούμε με το πρόβλημα της αξιοπιστίας των κρυφών μνημών δεδομένων και εντολών πρώτου επιπέδου. Η υψηλή πυκνότητα ολοκλήρωσης και η υψηλή συχνότητα λειτουργίας των σύγχρονων ολοκληρωμένων κυκλωμάτων έχει οδηγήσει σε σημαντικά προβλήματα αξιοπιστίας, που οφείλονται είτε στην κατασκευή, είτε στη γήρανση των ολοκληρωμένων κυκλωμάτων. Στην παρούσα εργασία γίνεται αρχικά μια αποτίμηση της μείωσης της απόδοσης των κρυφών μνημών πρώτου επιπέδου όταν εμφανίζονται μόνιμα σφάλματα για διαφορετικές τεχνολογίες ολοκλήρωσης. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζεται μια νέα τεχνική αντιμετώπισης της επίδρασης των σφαλμάτων, η οποία βασίζεται στη πρόβλεψη της χωρικής τοπικότητας των μπλοκ μνήμης που εισάγονται στις κρυφές μνήμες πρώτου επιπέδου. Η αξιολόγηση της εν λόγω τεχνικής γίνεται με τη χρήση ενός εξομοιωτή σε επίπεδο αρχιτεκτονικής. / In this thesis we will work on the problem of reliability of first-level data and instruction cache memories. Technology scaling improvement is affecting the reliability of ICs due to increases in static and dynamic variations as well as wear out failures. First of all, in this work we try to estimate the impact of permanent faults in first level faulty caches. Then we propose a methodology to mitigate this negative impact of defective bits. Out methodology based on prediction of spatial locality of the incoming blocks to cache memory. Finally using cycle accurate simulation we showcase that our approach is able to offer significant benefits in cache performance.

<p>During the peak of apartheid, the South African Defence Force (SADF) killed close to a thousand Namibian exiles at Cassinga in southern Angola. This happened on May 4 1978. In recent years, Namibia commemorates this day, nationwide, in remembrance of those killed and disappeared following the Cassinga attack. During each Cassinga anniversary, survivors are modelled into &quot / living testimonies&quot / of the Cassinga massacre. Customarily, at every occasion marking this event, a survivor is delegated to unpack, on behalf of other survivors, &quot / memories of Cassinga&quot / so that the inexperienced audience understands what happened on that day. Besides &quot / survivors‟ testimonies, edited video footage showing, among others, wrecks in the camp, wounded victims laying in hospital beds, an open mass grave with dead bodies, SADF paratroopers purportedly marching in Cassinga is also screened for the audience to witness agony of that day. Interestingly, the way such presentations are constructed draw challenging questions. For example, how can the visual and oral presentations of the Cassinga violence epitomize actual memories of the Cassinga massacre? How is it possible that such presentations can generate a sense of remembrance against forgetfulness of those who did not experience that traumatic event? When I interviewed a number of survivors (2007 - 2010), they saw no analogy between testimony (visual or oral) and memory. They argued that memory unlike testimony is personal (solid, inexplicable and indescribable). Memory is a true picture of experiencing the Cassinga massacre and enduring pain and suffering over the years. In considering survivors' challenge to the visually and orally obscured realities of the Cassinga massacre, this study will use a more lateral and alternative approach. This is a method of attempting to interrogate, among other issues of this study, the understanding of Cassinga beyond the inexperienced economies of this event production. The study also explores the different agencies, mainly political, that fuel and exacerbate the victims' unending pathos. These invasive miseries are anchored, according to survivors, in the disrupted expectations / or forsaken human dignity of survivors and families of the missing victims, especially following Namibia‟s independence in 1990.</p>

Šiame darbe teoriškai nagrinėjamas vaizuotės ir tikrovės santykis stop kadro animacijoje, toliau santykio tarp vaizduotės ir tikrovės interpretaciją pateikiant muzikiniame stop kadro animaciniame klipe. Teorinėje darbo dalyje analizuojama vaizduotės samprata apibrėžiant ir atskiriant vaizduotės ir fantazijos sąvokas. Aptariama tikrovės sąvoka ir keliamas jos realumo klausimas. Taip pat aptariama daiktiškumo ir fenomenologijos svarba tikrovei. Analizuojami vaizduotės šaltiniai: prisiminimo reprezentacija ir dabarties motyvacija vaizduotei. / In this work imagination and reality relation in stop-motion animation is analyzed theoretically, in which later those insights will be reflected and interpreted in a stop-motion animation music clip. The theoretical part of this work, the conception of imagination, is analyzed by defining and distinguishing the concept of imagination and phantasy. It discusses the concept of reality. Also the importance of materiality and the phenomenology to reality is discussed. The source of imagination is analyzed: representation of memories and motivation of present to imagination.

This study focuses on the way in which Willem Boshoff aesthetically con-cretized the historical memories of Afrikaners and their influence on their notion of power and identity formation. For this purpose a selection was made of Boshoff’s language-based conceptual installations. During the colonial and apartheid eras South Africa had a long history, which was characterized by people in power who encountered other population groups from a vantage point of superiority implying subjection. This implied that the particular in-terests of the people in power were generalized across the whole of society and imposed on all population groups as generalized interests. Where the in-dividual interests did not correspond to the general interests of society in its totality, the interests of the individual were negated and ignored. It can there-fore be stated that the utopia of those in power became the proverbial hell of the other. The study emanates from Ricoeur’s plea for a critical and imaginative en-counter with history so that other perspectives on traumatic events can be developed. Such an approach creates the possibility of opening up the unreal-ized promises of the past for the present and leading to the future. It further proceeds from the assumption that if we are faithful to the past, we will also be faithful to “the more” of the past or that which transcends the past. My ap-proach is in line with that of Verbeeck, who – tying in with Ricoeur – ad-vocated an anachronistic encounter with and interpretation of history. What is meant by aesthetic concretization in this study is that Willem Boshoff conceptually expresses his artistic interpretation and visual manifestation of philosophical ideas on Afrikaners’ memories of power and identity. He makes real (real-ises) and gives shape to these philosophical ideas. For this purpose three dates in the historical narratives of Afrikaners were selected, which had an important impact on Afrikaners’ notions of power and identity formation: 31 May 1902 –The end of the Anglo-Boer War and the demise of the Boer Republics and the freedom of Afrikaners; 31 May 1961 – The formation of the Republic of South Africa under the leadership of the National Party, and 27 April 1994 – The first democratic elections in South Africa, and the Afrikaners’ total loss of power. The reading and interpretation of Boshoff’s installations were undertaken with-in the framework of Adorno’s dialectical distinction in his aesthetic theory be-tween the Inhalt and the Gehalt of works of art. Adorno regards everything that appears in the work of art, viz. everything that the artist gives form to, as Inhalt [content]. Gehalt, on the other hand, refers to the truth content of works of art, which according to him resides in the specific negation [German: bestimmte Negation] of the untruth of an inhuman society. For Adorno bestimmte Negation signifies a break both with that which exists [in other words a negation of the predominance of a false reality] and with the continuity between the present and the future [the salvation of the moment or element which holds promise of something, which goes beyond that which exists, and refers to something better]. In Adorno’s view works of art are tho-roughly historically determined. According to Adorno the history of society is sedimented in the material, the constellations and the form elements of works of art. What is meant by this is that the artistic material which an artist [in this study Boshoff] utilizes, is not only words, pigments, or rock, but is everything that is pre-formed by history that the artist uses. Because history sediments in the material and because the material of a work of art is taken from reality, but in a fragmented fashion, the work of art becomes a monad – that is auto-nomous and windowless, because the work of art, apparantly, has no links to or relationships with recognizable reality or with other works of art. I argue that the exposé of the memories of Afrikaners of cultural and political domination, with historical narratives as a source, and the influence of these on their visions of power and identity, offers a framework for the reading and interpretation of selected installations. In these selected installations, Boshoff offers immanent criticism of the above unequal power relations and con-comitant views of identity. Through striving for the harmonious and the good as ethical and aesthetic principles in his installations focused on social inter-action, he makes a contribution to the creation of a more humanitarian society. / Thesis (PhD (Art History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This study focuses on the way in which Willem Boshoff aesthetically con-cretized the historical memories of Afrikaners and their influence on their notion of power and identity formation. For this purpose a selection was made of Boshoff’s language-based conceptual installations. During the colonial and apartheid eras South Africa had a long history, which was characterized by people in power who encountered other population groups from a vantage point of superiority implying subjection. This implied that the particular in-terests of the people in power were generalized across the whole of society and imposed on all population groups as generalized interests. Where the in-dividual interests did not correspond to the general interests of society in its totality, the interests of the individual were negated and ignored. It can there-fore be stated that the utopia of those in power became the proverbial hell of the other. The study emanates from Ricoeur’s plea for a critical and imaginative en-counter with history so that other perspectives on traumatic events can be developed. Such an approach creates the possibility of opening up the unreal-ized promises of the past for the present and leading to the future. It further proceeds from the assumption that if we are faithful to the past, we will also be faithful to “the more” of the past or that which transcends the past. My ap-proach is in line with that of Verbeeck, who – tying in with Ricoeur – ad-vocated an anachronistic encounter with and interpretation of history. What is meant by aesthetic concretization in this study is that Willem Boshoff conceptually expresses his artistic interpretation and visual manifestation of philosophical ideas on Afrikaners’ memories of power and identity. He makes real (real-ises) and gives shape to these philosophical ideas. For this purpose three dates in the historical narratives of Afrikaners were selected, which had an important impact on Afrikaners’ notions of power and identity formation: 31 May 1902 –The end of the Anglo-Boer War and the demise of the Boer Republics and the freedom of Afrikaners; 31 May 1961 – The formation of the Republic of South Africa under the leadership of the National Party, and 27 April 1994 – The first democratic elections in South Africa, and the Afrikaners’ total loss of power. The reading and interpretation of Boshoff’s installations were undertaken with-in the framework of Adorno’s dialectical distinction in his aesthetic theory be-tween the Inhalt and the Gehalt of works of art. Adorno regards everything that appears in the work of art, viz. everything that the artist gives form to, as Inhalt [content]. Gehalt, on the other hand, refers to the truth content of works of art, which according to him resides in the specific negation [German: bestimmte Negation] of the untruth of an inhuman society. For Adorno bestimmte Negation signifies a break both with that which exists [in other words a negation of the predominance of a false reality] and with the continuity between the present and the future [the salvation of the moment or element which holds promise of something, which goes beyond that which exists, and refers to something better]. In Adorno’s view works of art are tho-roughly historically determined. According to Adorno the history of society is sedimented in the material, the constellations and the form elements of works of art. What is meant by this is that the artistic material which an artist [in this study Boshoff] utilizes, is not only words, pigments, or rock, but is everything that is pre-formed by history that the artist uses. Because history sediments in the material and because the material of a work of art is taken from reality, but in a fragmented fashion, the work of art becomes a monad – that is auto-nomous and windowless, because the work of art, apparantly, has no links to or relationships with recognizable reality or with other works of art. I argue that the exposé of the memories of Afrikaners of cultural and political domination, with historical narratives as a source, and the influence of these on their visions of power and identity, offers a framework for the reading and interpretation of selected installations. In these selected installations, Boshoff offers immanent criticism of the above unequal power relations and con-comitant views of identity. Through striving for the harmonious and the good as ethical and aesthetic principles in his installations focused on social inter-action, he makes a contribution to the creation of a more humanitarian society. / Thesis (PhD (Art History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Syftet med studien var att testa om det fanns åldersgruppsskillnader, könsskillnader, samt om ålder och kön hade interaktionseffekter när det gäller emotionell intelligens  och autobiografiskt minne mellan manliga (n=106) och kvinnliga (n=231)studenter på Örebro Universitet är från 18 till 45 år(n=299). Data samlades via emotionell intelligensens enkätformulär Andrew m.fl. (2010) och Waldfogel (1948) autobiografiska minnens test. Det fanns inga könsskillnader och åldersgruppsskillnader i total emotionell intelligens, men det fanns interaktion mellan kön och ålder det vill säga att ålder och kön hade effekter på varandra. Det fanns könsskillnader i totala autobiografiska minnen då flera kvinnor rapporterade autobiografiska minnen än män, men det fanns inga åldersgruppsskillnader. Ålder och kön hade inte effekter på varandra när det gäller autobiografiska minnen.  Det fanns inga skillnader mellan grupperna som rapporterade låg, medel och hög autobiografiskt minne och emotionell intelligens. / The purpose of this study was to test whether there were age differences, gender differences, and if the age and gender had interaction effect on each other when it comes to groups’ emotional intelligence and autobiographical memories. The participants were male (n = 106), women (n = 231) students at Örebro University who were from 18 to 45 years (n = 299). The students responded to emotional intelligence, short version of the Andrew et al. (2010) and Waldfogel (1948) autobiographical memories test. There were no gender differences and age differences in overall emotional intelligence, but there was an interaction between gender and age meaning that gender and age had effects on each other when it comes to students' emotional intelligences. There were gender differences in the overall autobiographical memories meaning that women reported several autobiographical memories than men in the study, but there were no age differences. Age and gender had no effects on each other in terms of autobiographical memories. There were no differences in autobiographical memories among those who reported low, medium and high emotional intelligence. There were no differences in emotional intelligence between those who reported low, medium and high autobiographical memories.

Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of flash memories as an emerging storage technology with wide applications in many important areas. Like magnetic recording and optimal recording, flash memories have their own distinct properties and usage environment, which introduce very interesting new challenges for data storage. They include accurate programming without overshooting, error correction, reliable writing data to flash memories under low-voltages and file recovery for flash memories. Solutions to these problems can significantly improve the longevity and performance of the storage systems based on flash memories. In this work, we explore several new data representation techniques for efficient and reliable data storage in flash memories. First, we present a new data representation scheme—rank modulation with multiplicity —to eliminate the overshooting and charge leakage problems for flash memories. Next, we study the Half-Wits — stochastic behavior of writing data to embedded flash memories at voltages lower than recommended by a microcontroller’s specifications—and propose three software- only algorithms that enable reliable storage at low voltages without modifying hard- ware, which can reduce energy consumption by 30%. Then, we address the file erasures recovery problem in flash memories. Instead of only using traditional error- correcting codes, we design a new content-assisted decoder (CAD) to recover text files. The new CAD can be combined with the existing error-correcting codes and the experiment results show CAD outperforms the traditional error-correcting codes.

Στον διαρκώς μεταβαλλόμενο τομέα της αρχιτεκτονικής των υπολογιστών, τα τελευταία 30 τουλάχιστον χρόνια οι αλλαγές έρχονται με εκθετικό ρυθμό. Οι κρυφές μνήμες αποτελούν πλέον το κέντρο του ενδιαφέροντος, αφού οι επεξεργαστές γίνονται ολοένα και ταχύτεροι, ολοένα και αποδοτικότεροι, αλλά τα κυκλώματα μνήμης αδυνατούν να τους ακολουθήσουν. Το επιστημονικό αυτό πεδίο στρέφεται πλέον σε έξυπνες λύσεις που έχουν ως στόχο την μείωση του κόστους επικοινωνίας μεταξύ των δύο υποσυστημάτων. Οι τρόποι διαχείρισης της κρυφής μνήμης αποτελούν έκφανση της πραγματικότητας αυτής και ένα από τα βασικότερα μέρη της είναι οι αλγόριθμοι αντικατάστασης. Η μελέτη εστιάζει στη σχέση ανάμεσα σε δύο, ήδη εφαρμοσμένων, νέων πολιτικών αντικατάστασης, καθώς και το βαθμό στον οποίο μπορεί να υπάρξει συγχώνευση τους σε μία καινούργια. Οι νέοι αλγόριθμοι που μελετάμε είναι ο αλγόριθμος αντικατάστασης IbRdPrediction (Instruction-based Reuse-Distance Prediction – Πρόβλεψης απόστασης επαναχρησιμοποίησης βασισμένης σε εντολή) και ο αλγόριθμος MLP-Aware (Memory level parallelism aware – επίγνωσης επιπέδου παραλληλισμού μνήμης). Εξετάζουμε κατά πόσο είναι δυνατόν να δημιουργηθεί ένας νέος μηχανισμός πρόβλεψης βασισμένος σε εντολη (instruction-based) που να λαμβάνει υπόψιν του τα χαρακτηριστικά του παραλληλισμού επιπέδου μνήμης (MLP) και κατα πόσο βελτιώνει τις ήδη υπάρχουσες τεχνικές ως προς την απόδοση του συστήματος. / In the continiously altering field of computer architecture, changes occur with exponential rate the last 30 years. Cache memories have become the pole of interest, as processors are growing all faster, all efficient, but memory circuits fail to follow them. The scientific community is now turning to clever solutions which aim to limit the two subsytem communication cost. Cache management consists the expression of this reality, and one of its most basic parts is cache replacement algorithms. The thesis focuses on the relation between two, already applied, recent replacement policies, and the degree in which their coalescence in a new policy can exist. We study the IbRdPrediction (Instruction-based Reuse-Distance Prediction) replacement algorithm and the MLP-Aware (Memory level parallelism aware) replacement algorithm. We thoroughly examine if it is possible to create a novel prediction mecahnism, based on instruction, that takes into account the MLP ((Memory level parallelism) characteristics, and how much it improves the existing techniques concerning system performance.