Pre-silicon verification is an essential part of integrated circuit design to capture functional design errors. Complex simulation, emulation and formal verification tools are used in a virtual environment before the device is manufactured in silicon. However, as the design complexity increases and the design cycle becomes shorter for fast time-to-market, design errors are more likely to escape from the pre-silicon verification and functional bugs are found during the actual operation. Since manufacturing test primarily focuses on the physical defects, post-silicon validation is the final gatekeeper to capture these escaped design bugs. Consequently, post-silicon validation has become a critical path in shortening the development cycle of System-On-Chip(SoC) design. A major challenge in post-silicon validation is the limited observability of internal states caused by the limited storage capacity available for silicon debugging. Since a post-silicon validation operates on a fabricated chip, recording the values of each and every internal signals is not possible. Due to this limitation of post-silicon validation, acquiring the circuit's internal behavior with the limited available resources is a very challenging task in post-silicon validation. There are two main categories to expand the observability: trace and scan signal based approaches. Real time system response during silicon debug can be acquired using a trace signal based technique; however due to the limited space for the trace buffer, the selection of the trace signals is very critical in maximizing the observability of the internal states. The scan based approach provides high observability and requires no additional design overhead; however the designers cannot acquire the real time system response since the circuit operation has to be stopped to transfer the internal states. Recent research has shown that observability can be enhanced if trace and scan signals can be efficiently combined together, compared to the other debugging scenarios where only trace signals are monitored. This dissertation proposes an enhanced and systematic algorithm for the efficient combination of trace and scan signals using restorability values to maximize the observability of internal circuit states. In order to achieve this goal, we first introduce a technique to calculate restorability values accurately by considering both local and global connectivity of the circuit. Based on these restorability values, the dynamic trace signal selection algorithm is proposed to provide a higher number of restored states regardless of the incoming test vectors. Instead of using total restorability values, we separate 0 and 1 restorability values to differentiate the different circuit responses to the different incoming test vectors. Also, the two groups of trace signals can be selected dynamically based on the characteristics of the incoming test vectors to minimize the performance degradation with respect to the different incoming test vectors. Second, we propose a new algorithm to find the optimal number of trace signals, when trace and scan signals are combined together for better observability. Our technique utilizes restorability values and finds the optimal number of trace signals so that the remaining space of trace buffer can be utilized for the scan signals. Observability can be enhanced further with data compression technique. Since the entries of the dictionary are determined from the golden simulation, a high compression ratio can be achieved with little extra hardware overhead. Experimental results on benchmark circuits and a real industry design show that the proposed technique provides a higher number of restored states compared to the existing techniques. / text

We measure inelastic cross sections for atomic thorium (Th) and molecular thorium monoxide (ThO) in collisions with $^3$He at temperatures near 1 K. We determine the Zeeman relaxation cross section for Th ($^3$F$_2$) to be $\sim 2 \times 10^{-17}$~cm$^{-2}$ at 800~mK. We study electronic inelastic processes in Th ($^3$P$_0$) and find no quenching even after $10^6$ collisions at 800~mK. We measure the vibrational quenching cross section for ThO~(X,~$\nu=1$) to be $(7.9 \pm 2.7) \times 10^{-19}$~cm$^{-2}$ at 800~mK. Finally, we observe indirect evidence for ThO (X, $\nu=0$)--$^3$He van der Waals complex formation, and measure the 3-body recombination rate constant to be $\Gamma_3 = (8 \pm 2) \times 10^{-33}$~cm$^6$s$^{-1}$ at 2.4~K. The stability of the ground Th ($^3$F$_2$) state, metastable Th ($^3$P$_0$) state, and vibrational excited ThO (X, $\nu=1$) state provides data on anisotropic interactions in new systems and opens up the possibility for further studies and experiments, including trapping. / Physics

As urban municipalities grow, local governments are tasked with balancing the economic, political, social, and environmental needs of their communities in an effort to develop sustainable urban planning policies. This thesis uses the City of Red Deer as a single case study to examine a municipality's vision of urban sustainability within the context of ecological planning and protection. Concepts of ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity protection, and enhanced water quality were reviewed with research on riparian management, landscape level planning, and ecological protection to provide a lens for reviewing Red Deer's land protection framework. Ultimately, this research provides policy recommendations for development setbacks and land preservation strategies which could greatly contribute to the long-term sustainability of the community. Although this research focuses on the City of Red Deer, the policy recommendations can be applied to similar municipalities and landscapes across the nation.

Network-on-Chip (NoC) is a de facto inter-core communication infrastructure for future Chip Multiprocessors (CMPs). NoC should be designed to provide both low latency and high bandwidth considering limited on-chip power and area budgets. The use of a high density and low leakage memory, Spin-Torque Transfer Magnetic RAM (STT-MRAM), in NoC routers has been proposed as it increases network throughput by providing more buffer capacities with the same die footprint. However, the inevitable use of SRAM to hide the long write latencies of STT-MRAM sacrifices buffer area and also wastes significant leakage and dynamic power in migrating flits between the disparate memories. In this thesis, the first NoC router designs that use only STT-MRAM is proposed. This allows for a much larger buffer space with the least power consumptions. To overcome the multi-cycle writes, a multi-banked STT-MRAM buffer is employed, which is a logically divided virtual channel where every incoming flit is seamlessly pipelined to each bank alternately every clock cycle simple latches inside the router links. Our STT-MRAM has aggressively reduced retention time, resulting in a significant reduction in latency and power overheads of write operations. We observe flit losses in our STT-MRAM buffer, and propose cost-efficient dynamic buffer refresh schemes to minimize unnecessary refreshes with minimum hardware overheads. Simulation results show that our STT-MRAM NoC router enhances the throughput by 21.6% and achieves 61% savings in dynamic power and 18% savings in total router power, respectively compared to a conventional SRAM based NoC router of same area.

No description available.

Riparian buffers along stream margins have been widely adopted as a management strategy to mitigate the adverse effects of plantation forestry on stream ecosystems. However, the efficacy of these riparian buffers can be jeopardised by variations in width, length, and vegetation which can range from native and exotic scrub (including bracken, gorse, broom and blackberry) to remnant beech forest. This thesis investigates the influence of riparian vegetation age and composition, on stream ecosystems within exotic pine plantations. Initially, a survey of 50 streams within pine forests of various ages and riparian composition was conducted at sites from mid-Canterbury to Hanmer Springs over the summer of 2004-2005. Additionally, terrestrial subsidies were compared between young pine, mature pine and indigenous forest streams to ascertain differences or similarities between vegetation types. A range of physico-chemical and biological characteristics were recorded, while vegetative age and composition with catchment, riparian buffer and reach scales were determined using GIS. Forestry activities were found to vary temporarily and tended to adversely impact upon streams where riparian buffers were narrow and lacked indigenous vegetation. Stream instability and sedimentation were consistently higher in catchments lacking indigenous riparian vegetation, and more markedly so in recently harvested catchments compared with more mature forests. Streams dominated by pine forests had finer substrates with higher water temperatures and levels of turbidity, while those dominated by indigenous forest had coarser substrates, higher flows and dissolved oxygen levels, and less in-stream debris. Benthic community composition was similar among sites, although taxonomic richness, EPT diversity, and invertebrate abundances were enhanced by indigenous riparian vegetation.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Washington State University, May 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 19, 2009). "School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science." Includes bibliographical references (p. 117-125).

Thesis (M.Sc.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Agricultural grasslands have replaced native Midwestern prairies in the form of pasture, idle cropland and conservation fields. The condition of these cover types directly and indirectly influences the distribution, variety and productivity of avian populations within these landscapes. CP33 habitat buffers are an incentive-based conservation practice specifically designed to increase upland bird habitat and productivity. Landowners are encouraged to remove row crops from production and return them to early successional grassland habitat along the margin of agricultural fields. However, buffers exhibit a high perimeter-to-area ratio, which may increase negative edge effects, thereby creating sink populations. During the 2013 and 2014 breeding seasons, I assessed grassland bird response to CP33 habitat buffers in southern Illinois. Focal species included the northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus), dickcissel (Spiza americana), eastern meadowlark (Sturnella magna), field sparrow (Spizella pusilla), indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea), and red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). I used a hierarchical multiscale framework to examine the influence of habitat variables at multiple scales on avian abundance, species richness, and occupancy. I also used this same framework, and logistic exposure modeling, to examine daily survival rates of nests found within CP33 habitat buffers. Multiscale occupancy and logistic exposure models consistently performed better than single-scale models for focal bird species; however, relative importance of local variables and landscape variables differed considerably among focal species. Nest survival rate was not strongly affected by edge effects or edge type. Microhabitat variables were much more influential in predicting nest survival. In my study area, CP33 habitat buffers are unlikely to support source populations for most of the focal grassland bird species I studied. To increase nest survival rates within established CP33 habitat buffers, managers should focus on microhabitat vegetation characteristics. To increase bird occupancy of CP33 habitat buffers in southern Illinois, managers should increase the size of CP33 habitat buffers within a landscape having adequate grassland cover. However, managers should not consider CP33 habitat buffers a panacea for most grassland avian species.