Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第14614号 / 工博第3082号 / 新制||工||1459(附属図書館) / 26966 / UT51-2009-D326 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科精密工学専攻 / (主査)教授 井手 亜里, 教授 木村 健二, 教授 藤田 静雄 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Artificial neural networks have shown great potential and have attracted much research interest. One problem faced when simulating such networks is speed. As the number of neurons increases, the time to simulate and train a network increases dramatically. This makes it difficult to simulate and train a large-scale network system without the support of a high-performance computer system. The solution we present is a "real" parallel system - using a parallel machine to simulate neural networks which are intrinsically parallel applications. SpiNNaker is a scalable massively-parallel computing system under development with the aim of building a general-purpose platform for the parallel simulation of large-scale neural systems. This research investigates how to model large-scale neural networks efficiently on such a parallel machine. While providing increased overall computational power, a parallel architecture introduces a new problem - the increased communication reduces the speedup gains. Modeling schemes, which take into account communication, processing, and storage requirements, are investigated to solve this problem. Since modeling schemes are application-dependent, two different types of neural network are examined - spiking neural networks with spike-time dependent plasticity, and the parallel distributed processing model with the backpropagation learning rule. Different modeling schemes are developed and evaluated for the two types of neural network. The research shows the feasibility of the approach as well as the performance of SpiNNaker as a general-purpose platform for the simulation of neural networks. The linear scalability shown in this architecture provides a path to the further development of parallel solutions for the simulation of extremely large-scale neural networks.

A channel model is a mathematical or conceptual representation employed to describe the behavior and characteristics of a communication channel through which signal or data can be transferred from the transmitter (Tx) to the receiver (Rx) or between two transceivers. In wireless communication, the channel model represents the wireless medium with parameters like pathloss, impulse response, and multipath effects. A2A channel poses various challenges when UAVs operate at a higher altitude greater than 1000 ft (305 m). This thesis involves experiments having a range of altitudes from 20 m to 2 km and distances between two transceivers from 5 m to 3 km. This thesis aims to introduce A2A channel by considering and analyzing inherent channel characteristics such as pathloss in terms of line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS), multipath fading, delay spread, and power delay profile (PDP). These characteristics depend on frequency, altitude of transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx), distance between two transceivers, antenna properties, paths taken by the signals, and obstacles. Pathloss, RMS delay spread, and power delay profile have been discussed with the simulated graphs by varying the distances and altitudes. These channel characteristics have been analyzed for different conditions like varying building heights of the city, changing building material, and also changing both building height and material at the same time. Two empirical models, the EL model and the CI model, have been presented along with simulations. Simulation results using mmWave frequency have been shown. The simulations have been performed by Wireless Insite software.

Yes / Materials-binding peptides offer promising routes to the production of tailored Pd nanomaterials in aqueous media, enabling the optimization of catalytic properties. However, the atomic-scale details needed to make these advances are relatively scarce and challenging to obtain. Molecular simulations can provide key insights into the structure of peptides adsorbed at the aqueous Pd interface, provided that the force-field can appropriately capture the relevant bio-interface interactions. Here, we introduce and apply a new polarizable force field, PdP-CHARMM, for the simulation of biomolecule–Pd binding under aqueous conditions. PdP-CHARMM was parametrized with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, using a process compatible with similar polarizable force-fields created for Ag and Au surfaces, ultimately enabling a direct comparison of peptide binding modes across these metal substrates. As part of our process for developing PdP-CHARMM, we provide an extensive study of the performance of ten different dispersion-inclusive DFT functionals in recovering biomolecule–Pd(111) binding. We use the functional with best all-round performance to create PdP-CHARMM.We then employ PdP-CHARMM and metadynamics simulations to estimate the adsorption free energy for a range of amino acids at the aqueous Pd(111) interface. Our findings suggest that only His and Met favor direct contact with the Pd substrate, which we attribute to a remarkably robust interfacial solvation layering. Replica-exchange with solute tempering molecular dynamics simulations of two experimentally-identified Pd-binding peptides also indicate surface contact to be chiefly mediated by His and Met residues at aqueous Pd(111). Adsorption of these two peptides was also predicted for the Au(111) interface, revealing distinct differences in both the solvation structure and modes of peptide adsorption at the Au and Pd interfaces. We propose that this sharp contrast in peptide binding is largely due to the differences in interfacial solvent structuring. / Air Force Office for Scientfi c Research (Grant #FA9550-12-1-0226)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2549.pdf: 1057736 bytes, checksum: bf104a9547b6525d934ddc0ae55c2387 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-02 / The exchange of knowledge and optimization of resources optimism are increasingly needed necessaries for companies´ Product Delevopment Process (PDP). The Product Quality Advanced Planning (APQP) is a structured method, contained in Norm ISO/TS 16:949:2002, which aims to define and execute the actions required for a PDP in order to ensure that the product satisfies the customer. It´s greatest contribution is to facilitate communication among all people and activities. Although the APQP has been used primarily by the automotive industry, the possibility to apply this method for the white goods industry is considered, mainly due to this industry has been precursor of many methods, such as lean production. Furthermore, the search for a developing standardized products method could facilitate the work of automotive and white goods suppliers. The lean production has also contributed to the optimization of resources and administrative proceedings in these industries. Thus, this standardized method could include the use of some lean production tools. The aim of this work is to characterize the use of APQP in white goods and automotive industries suppliers and more specifically, to evaluate the possible failures in these suppliers product development process, and to discuss the importance of tools in each step of APQP and the application of these to white goods industry. The hypotheses were made concerning the possible simplification of this standard method, the integration of areas, the knowledge obtained in the implementation of APQP and facilities of lean production and six sigma for the implementation of APQP. The chosen method for this work was the description of five case studies made in companies of the electro electronic and chemical fields, which are suppliers of both industries cited. In these companies a representative of the automotive and one of white goods industry were interviewed. The research finds that it´s possible to use the APQP method in the white goods as well as it shows white goods companies which have already requested it to suppliers. It also describes the PDPs of each company, highlights the major failures in the methods used and describes an overview of the automotive and white goods industries PDPs. A proposal to APQP application with some lean production tools is presented in the final chapters. / A troca de conhecimento e a otimização dos recursos são cada vez mais necessárias para o Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP) em empresas. O Planejamento Avançado da Qualidade do Produto (APQP) é um método estruturado, contido na Norma ISO/TS 16:949:2002, que busca definir e executar as ações necessárias para um PDP, a fim de assegurar que um produto satisfaça o cliente. Sua maior contribuição se dá no sentido de facilitar a comunicação entre todas as pessoas e atividades. Apesar de o APQP ter sido utilizado primeiramente pela indústria automotiva, considera-se a possibilidade de utilização deste para a indústria de linha branca, devido principalmente à primeira indústria ter sido precursora de diversas ferramentas, como a produção enxuta. Além disto, a busca por um método de desenvolvimento de produtos padronizados poderia facilitar o trabalho em fornecedores das indústrias automotiva e de linha branca. A produção enxuta também tem contribuído para a otimização dos recursos de processo e administrativos nestas indústrias. Assim, este método padronizado poderia contemplar a utilização de algumas ferramentas da produção enxuta. O objetivo deste trabalho é caracterizar a utilização do APQP em fornecedores dos setores de linha branca e automotivo e mais especificamente, avaliar as possíveis falhas no processo de desenvolvimento de produtos destes fornecedores, além de discutir a importância das ferramentas disponíveis em cada etapa do APQP e a aplicação destas para a linha branca. As hipóteses construídas são relacionadas com a possível simplificação deste método padrão, a integração das áreas, o conhecimento adquirido na aplicação do APQP e a facilidade das ferramentas da produção enxuta e seis sigma para a implantação do APQP. O método escolhido para a realização deste trabalho foi a relização de cinco estudos de casos feitos em empresas do setor eletroeletrônico e químico, que fornecem para ambas as indústrias citadas. Nestas empresas, foram entrevistados um representante do setor automotivo e um da linha branca. A pesquisa conclui ser possível a utilização do método APQP para a linha branca, inclusive relata montadoras da linha branca que já o solicitam aos fornecedores. Também descreve os PDPs de cada empresa, enfatiza as principais falhas nos métodos utilizados e descreve uma visão geral do PDP do setor automotivo e do setor de linha branca. Uma proposta de utilização do APQP com algumas ferramentas da produção enxuta é apresentada nos capítulos finais.

Thesis (MEd )--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an interpretive formative evaluation of a Professional Development Programme in Environmental Education. The specific aim of the study was to evaluate the extent to which the programme has enabled professional development of teachers; the degree to which the processes of this specific Professional Development Programme (PDP) has enabled implementation and the nature and the amount of take- up of the PDP processes. The data for this research were generated through semi structured interviews, focus group discussions and observations of teachers‘ projects. Thematic analysis was used as a method of data analysis. Constructivist, formative evaluation informed the epistemology and ontological perspectives that guided data analysis and interpretation and discussions that were made in this research. Data indicate that professional development programmes involving various stakeholders need to be well controlled and co-ordinated. Communication and motivation need to be integrated into the PD programme by the leadership. The Professional Development Programme was done in isolation and lacked a deep epistemological and ontological grounding, showing minimal research in the process therefore, the communication and motivation need to be integrated into the PD programme by the leadership. Department of Education officials indicated that they were not involved in the planning stage and fulfilled more of a management and co-ordination role. They were not able to monitor the process because they were not informed or assisted to develop a monitoring tool and besides their workload prohibited them from doing so. Teachers reflected various dimensions of take-up from the programme but they were not able to realize the action project (except in two schools). Teachers expressed difficulties in implementing the programme because of full schedules and curriculum commitments in school programmes. This research has presented the sentiments of the respondents (participants) in this PDP and has come to the conclusion that this Professional Development Programme has potential and improving aspects of it (see chapter 6) will go a long way towards improving the sustainability of this programme, and improving the quality of teachers that are trained in this kind of programme and even beyond. The PDP has enabled professional development in many ways (See chapter 4 on take-up). However, monitoring and implementation came out clear as those aspects of professional development in the programme that require much attention if the programme is to improve and become more sustainable. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis behels 'n verklarende, formatiewe evaluering van 'n Professionele ontwikkelingsprogram in Omgewingsonderwys. Die hoofdoel van die studie was om die mate waarin die program onderwysers in staat gestel het om professioneel te ontwikkel, te evalueer insluitende die mate waarin die prosesse van die spesifieke Professionele Ontwikkelings Program(POP), implementering in staat gestel het, asook die aard en hoeveelheid opnames van die POP-prosesse. Die data van die navorsing is verkry deur semi gestruktureerde onderhoude, fokusgroep besprekings en waarnemings van onderwysers se projekte. Tematiese analise is as metode van die data analise gebruik. Konstruktivistiese-, formatiewe evaluering het die Epistemologiese en Ontologiese perspektiewe bekend gestel wat data analise en interpretasies en besprekings wat tydens die navorsing gemaak is, gelei het. Data dui daarop dat Professionele ontwikkelingsprogramme wat verskeie belanghebbendes insluit, goed beheer en gekoördineer moet wees. Kommunikasie en motivering moet ingesluit word in die POP-program deur die leiers. Die Professionele ontwikkelingsprogram is in isolasie uitgevoer en het 'n aansienlike gebrek aan Epistemologiese en Ontologiese begronding gewys wat minimale navorsing in die proses getoon het. Kurrikulum Adviseurs het aangedui dat hulle nie betrokke was vanaf die beplanningstadium nie en dat hulle ‘n bestuur en koördineringsrol vertolk het. Hulle was nie in staat gewees om die proses te monitor nie, aangesien hulle nie ingelig of gehelp is in die ontwikkeling van 'n moniteringsinstrument nie, wyl hul werklading hulle ook verhoed het om dit te doen. Onderwysers het verskeie dimensies van opnames vanuit die program getoon maar kon nie die aksie projek laat realiseer nie (behalwe in twee skole). Onderwysers het probleme in die implementering van die program getoon weens vol programme en kurrikulum verpligtinge binne die skool programme. Hierdie navorsing het deur om die sentimente van die respondente (deelnemers) in die POP te vertoon, tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat hierdie professionele ontwikkelingsprogram die vermoë het en met die verbetering van sekere aspekte daarvan (sien hoofstuk 6), ver sal gaan in die verbetering van volhoubaarheid van die program, en deur die verbetering van die huidige onderwysers se kwaliteit wat opgelei is in hierdie program. Die POP het in baie opsigte professionele ontwikkeling tot gevolg gehad (sien hoofstuk 4 oor opnames). Nietemin het monitering en implementering duidelik na vore gekom as professionele ontwikkelings aspekte,wat indien nie genoegsame aandag verkry, die program geweldig kan laat misluk.

Visual processing is the earliest core process required to support a normal reading system. However, little attention has been given to its role in any of the existing cognitive/computational models of reading. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to create a large-scale model of reading, which can generate phonology and semantics from print. Building such a model will allow for the exploration of a number of theoretically important cognitive phenomena in both normal and impaired reading including: font and size invariance; letter confusability; length effects; and pure alexic reading patterns. To achieve this goal, there are a number of important sub-goals that need to be achieved: (1) to develop a visual processing component which is capable of recognising letters in different fonts and sizes; (2) to produce a model that can develop useful intermediate (orthographic) representations as a consequence of learning; (3) to develop a set of semantic representations compact enough to allow efficient learning but that can still capture realistic semantic similarity relationships; (4) to integrate all the components together into a large-scale recurrent reading model; and (5) to extend the model to support picture naming, and to explore whether damage to the visual system can produce symptoms similar to those found in PA patients. Chapter 2 started by developing a simple feedforward network for letter recognition. The model was trained with letters in various transformations, which allowed the model to learn to deal with size and shape invariance problems as well as accounting for letter confusability effects and generalising to previously unseen letters. The model achieved this by extracting key features from visual input which could be used to support accurate letter recognition. Chapter 3 incorporated the letter recognition component developed in Chapter 2 into a word reading model. The reading model was trained on the mappings between print and phonology, with the orthographic representations which learn to emerge over training. The model could support accurate nonword naming and simulated the length by lexicality interaction observed in normal reading. A system of semantic representations was developed in Chapter 4 by using co-occurrence statistics to generate semantic codes that preserved realistic similarity relationships. Chapter 5 integrated all the components developed in the previous chapters together into a large-scale recurrent reading model. Finally, Chapter 6 extended the reading model to perform object recognition along with the reading task. When the model's visual system was damaged it was able to simulate the abnormal length effect typically seen in PA patients. The damaged model also showed impaired reaction times in object naming and preserved sensitivity to lexical/semantic variables in reading. The picture naming performance was modulated by visual complexity. In summary, the results highlight the importance of incorporating visual information into computational models of single word reading, and suggest that doing so will enable the exploration of a wide range of effects that were previously inaccessible to these types of connectionist models.

Thesis (B.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1981. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Richard Michael Heller. / B.S.

Depuis plusieurs années, le positionnement de terminal mobile reçoit un intérêt particulièrement grand. La motivation principale pour le développement de système de positionnement mobile provient essentiellement d'une nécessité imposée par le service E-911 de l'U.S FCC. Bien qu'au départ ils ont été utilisés pour les besoins des systèmes de sécurité d'urgence, aujourd'hui ils trouvent des applications dans de nombreux domaine tel que les systèmes cellulaires. Il existe de nombreux algorithmes développés pour le problème de localisation MT. Les méthodes traditionnelles de localisation géométrique sont conçues pour fonctionner sous les conditions de line-of-sight (LoS). Cependant, les conditions LoS pourrait ne pas être toujours présentes entre la station de base (BS) et le MT. Par conséquent, les techniques de localisation basée sur fingerprinting qui sont également l'objet de cette thèse attire l'attention en raison de leur capacité à travailler aussi en multi trajet et dans des environnements non-line-of-sight (NLoS). Dans cette thèse, nous introduisons de nouveaux algorithmes de fingerprinting, à savoir l'algorithme de power delay Doppler profile-fingerprinting (PDDP-F) qui exploite la mobilité du MT. Le but est d'augmenter la précision de localisation en utilisant la dimension Doppler. Nous étudions également les performances de localisation des algorithmes power delay profile-fingerprinting (PDP-F) et PDDP-F via la dérivation des bornes de Cramer-Rao (CRBs). L'impact de la géométrie du réseau est également étudié. Un autre sujet nous nous occupons est l'analyse de la probabilité d'erreur par paires (PEP) pour les méthodes PDP-F. Le PEP est une notion bien connue dans les communications numériques, et nous l'importons dans le domaine de la localisation pour dériver la probabilité de prendre une décision en faveur d'une mauvaise position. Le dernier sujet sur lequel nous avons travaillé est le suivi adaptatif de l'environ MT en utilisant un filtre de Kalman. Différents modèles de mobilité sont comparés en termes de leurs erreurs de prédiction de position.

This thesis work primarily focuses on the applicability of sub-threshold source coupled logic (STSCL) for building digital circuits and systems that run at very low voltage and promise to provide desirable performance with excellent energy savings. Sectors like bio-engineering and smart sensors require the energy consumption to be effectively very low for long battery life. Alongside meeting the ultra-low power specification, the system must also be reliable, robust, and perform well under harsh conditions. In this thesis work, logic gates are designed and analyzed, using STSCL. These gates are further used for implementation of digital subsystems in small-sized smart dust sensors which would operate at very low supply voltages and consume extremely low power. For understanding the performance of STSCL with respect to ultra-low power and energy; a seven-stage ring oscillator, a 4-by-4 array multiplier, a fifth-order FIR filter and finally a fifty-fifth-order FIR filter were designed. The subcircuits and systems have been simulated for different supply voltages, scaling down to 0.2 V, at different temperature values (-20oC and 70oC) in both 45 nm and 65 nm process technologies. The chosen architectures for the FIR filters and array multiplier were conventional and essentially taken from traditional CMOS-based designs. The simulated results are studied, analyzed and compared with same CMOS-based digital circuits. The results show on the advantage of STSCL-based digital systems over CMOS. Simulation results provide an energy consumption of 1.1388 nJ for a fifty-fifth-order FIR filter, at low temperatures (-20oC), using STSCL logic, which is comparatively less than for the corresponding CMOS logic implementation.