Timing Restriction Research Articles

Co-Design Dedicated System for Efficient Object Tracking Using Swarm Intelligence-Oriented Search Strategies

The template matching technique is one of the most applied methods to find patterns in images, in which a reduced-size image, called a target, is searched within another image that represents the overall environment. In this work, template matching is used via a co-design system. A hardware coprocessor is designed for the computationally demanding step of template matching, which is the calculation of the normalized cross-correlation coefficient. This computation allows invariance in the global brightness changes in the images, but it is computationally more expensive when using images of larger dimensions, or even sets of images. Furthermore, we investigate the performance of six different swarm intelligence techniques aiming to accelerate the target search process. To evaluate the proposed design, the processing time, the number of iterations, and the success rate were compared. The results show that it is possible to obtain approaches capable of processing video images at 30 frames per second with an acceptable average success rate for detecting the tracked target. The search strategies based on PSO, ABC, FFA, and CS are able to meet the processing time of 30 frame/s, yielding average accuracy rates above 80% for the pipelined co-design implementation. However, FWA, EHO, and BFOA could not achieve the required timing restriction, and they achieved an acceptance rate around 60%. Among all the investigated search strategies, the PSO provides the best performance, yielding an average processing time of 16.22 ms coupled with a 95% success rate.

The Effect of Diet on the Cardiac Circadian Clock in Mice: A Systematic Review.

Circadian rhythms play important roles in regulating physiological and behavioral processes. These are adjusted by environmental cues, such as diet, which acts by synchronizing or attenuating the circadian rhythms of peripheral clocks, such as the liver, intestine, pancreas, white and brown adipose tissue, lungs, kidneys, as well as the heart. Some studies point to the influence of diet composition, feeding timing, and dietary restriction on metabolic homeostasis and circadian rhythms at various levels. Therefore, this systematic review aimed to discuss studies addressing the effect of diet on the heart clock in animal models and, additionally, the chronodisruption of the clock and its relation to the development of cardiovascular disorders in the last 15 years. A search was conducted in the PubMed, Scopus, and Embase databases. The PRISMA guide was used to construct the article. Nineteen studies met all inclusion and exclusion criteria. In summary, these studies have linked the circadian clock to cardiovascular health and suggested that maintaining a robust circadian system may reduce the risks of cardiometabolic and cardiovascular diseases. The effect of time-of-day-dependent eating on the modulation of circadian rhythms of the cardiac clock and energy homeostasis is notable, among its deleterious effects predominantly in the sleep (light) phase and/or at the end of the active phase.

Understanding the Size of the Government Spending Multiplier: It's in the Sign

This paper argues that an important, yet overlooked, determinant of the government spending multiplier is the direction of the fiscal intervention. Regardless of whether we identify government spending shocks from (i) a narrative approach, or (ii) a timing restriction, we find that the contractionary multiplier- the multiplier associated with a negative shock to government spending- is above 1 and largest in times of economic slack. In contrast, the expansionary multiplier- the multiplier associated with a positive shock- is substantially below 1 regardless of the state of the cycle. These results help understand seemingly conflicting results in the literature. A simple theoretical model with incomplete financial markets and downward nominal wage rigidities can rationalize our findings.

Understanding the Size of the Government Spending Multiplier: It’s in the Sign

Abstract This article argues that an important, yet overlooked, determinant of the government spending multiplier is the direction of the fiscal intervention. Regardless of whether we identify government spending shocks from (1) a narrative approach or (2) a timing restriction, we find that the contractionary multiplier—the multiplier associated with a negative shock to government spending—is above 1 and largest in times of economic slack. In contrast, the expansionary multiplier—the multiplier associated with a positive shock—is substantially below 1 regardless of the state of the cycle. These results help understand seemingly conflicting results in the literature. A simple theoretical model with incomplete financial markets and downward nominal wage rigidities can rationalize our findings.

Understanding the Size of the Government Spending Multiplier: It's in the Sign

Abstract This article argues that an important, yet overlooked, determinant of the government spending multiplier is the direction of the fiscal intervention. Regardless of whether we identify government spending shocks from (1) a narrative approach or (2) a timing restriction, we find that the contractionary multiplier—the multiplier associated with a negative shock to government spending—is above 1 and largest in times of economic slack. In contrast, the expansionary multiplier—the multiplier associated with a positive shock—is substantially below 1 regardless of the state of the cycle. These results help understand seemingly conflicting results in the literature. A simple theoretical model with incomplete financial markets and downward nominal wage rigidities can rationalize our findings.

Temporomandibular joint dysfunction in Parkinson's Disease: an integrative literature review

ABSTRACT Temporomandibular joint dysfunction is a set of disorders involving the masticatory muscles, temporomandibular joint and associated structures. It is known that the progression of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease is an indication that these people are more prone to the development of this dysfunction. Thus, this study aims to investigate the signs and symptoms of temporomandibular dysfunction in people with Parkinson's disease. The search was performed in the databases: MEDLINE/ PubMed, LILACs, CINAHL, SCOPUS, Web of Science and PEDro, without timing or language restriction. Specific descriptors were used for each database and keywords, evaluated by the instruments: Critical Appraisal Skill Program and Agency for Health care and Research and Quality. A total of 4,209 articles were found but only 5 were included. After critical analysis of the methodology of the articles, one did not reach the minimum score required by the evaluation instruments, thus, it was excluded. The selected articles addressed, as signs and symptoms of temporomandibular joint dysfunction, the following: myofascial pain, bruxism, limitation of mouth opening, dislocation of the articular disc and asymmetry in the distribution of occlusal contacts. Further studies are needed in order to determine the relationship between cause and effect of the analyzed variables, so as to contribute to more specific and effective therapeutic interventions.

Understanding the Size of the Government Spending Multiplier: It's in the Sign

Despite intense scrutiny, estimates of the government spending multiplier remain highly uncertain, with values ranging from 0.5 to 2. While an increase in government spending is generally assumed to have the same (mirror-image) effect as a decrease in government spending, we show that relaxing this assumption is important to understand the effects of fiscal policy. Regardless of whether we identify government spending shocks from (i) a narrative approach, or (ii) a timing restriction, we find that the contractionary multiplier -- the multiplier associated with a negative shock to government spending -- is above 1, while the expansionary multiplier -- the multiplier associated with a positive shock -- is substantially below 1. The multiplier is largest in recessions, as found in previous studies, but only because the contractionary multiplier is largest in recessions. The expansionary multiplier is always below 1 and not larger in recessions. We argue that our results help understand the wide range of multiplier estimates found in the literature.

Timed encryption with application to deniable key exchange

In this paper, we propose a new notion of timed encryption, in which the encryption is secure within time t while it is completely insecure after some time T>t. We consider the setting where t and T are both polynomial (in the security parameter). This primitive seems useful in applications where some intermediate data needs to be private temporarily while later it is desired to be public. We propose two schemes for this. One is reasonably efficient in the random oracle model; the other is generic without a random oracle. To demonstrate its usefulness, we use it as a building block to construct a new deniable key exchange (KE) protocol. A deniable KE protocol is a protocol that allows two parties to securely agree on a secret while neither of them can prove to a third party the fact of communication. So an honest party can deny his participation in the communication. Our protocol is adaptively deniable and secret in the concurrent and non-eraser model that admits session state reveal attacks and eavesdropping attacks. Here a session state reveal attack in a non-eraser model means that a user does not erase his intermediate data (e.g., due to a system backup) and, when compromised, will hand it out faithfully to an adversary. An eavesdropping attack allows an adversary to eavesdrop transcripts between honest users, in which he is unaware of the randomness. As emphasized by Di Raimondo et al. [14] and Yao and Zhao [30], an eavesdropping attack is very serious toward breaking the deniability. Our protocol is the first to simultaneously achieve all of the above properties without random oracles. The only price we pay is a timing restriction on the protocol execution. However, this restriction is rather weak and is essentially to require a user to answer an incoming message as soon as possible, which can be satisfied by almost all protocols that are executed online.

Gasoline Price Cycles Under Discrete Time Pricing

We characterise petrol pricing dynamics in an unusual policy environment. A timing restriction in the Western Australian market imposes discrete time pricing on petrol retailers, enabling us to observe the exact timing of price changes. We employ a Markov‐switching regression model, finding the existence of Edgeworth price cycles of a similar nature to those recently observed in some other retail petrol markets. Cycles are frequent, asymmetric and of substantial amplitude. Importantly, firms change prices almost every period, limiting the relevance of the leading theory of Edgeworth cycles due to Maskin and Tirole (). We also discuss episodes of disruption and evolution of the price cycle.

Medidas y estrategias para la prevención y control de los accidentes de tránsito: experiencia peruana por niveles de prevención

This article aims to describe the main actions that are being developed in Peru for primary and secondary prevention of road traffic injuries, considering the epidemiological aspects that characterize the Peruvian experience, as reported in other countries. At the primary prevention level, it addresses issues related to the timing restriction of the sales of alcoholic beverages, detection of drivers with positive testing for alcohol in blood and the chosen driver. Regarding secondary prevention, the studies on black spots and the impact containment barrels are presented, also a brief overview of the pre-hospital care systems in the case of road traffic injuries. There is a need for better characterization of the problem, in order to establish healthy public policies regarding traffic accidents, there is a need for evidence-based reviews and studies of economic evaluations.

Gasoline Price Cycles Under Discrete Time Pricing

We characterise petrol pricing dynamics in an unusual policy environment. A timing restriction in the Western Australian market imposes discrete time pricing on petrol retailers, enabling us to observe the exact timing of price changes. We employ a Markov switching regression model, finding the existence of Edgeworth price cycles of a similar nature to those recently observed in some other retail petrol markets. Cycles are frequent, asymmetric, and of substantial amplitude. Importantly, firms change prices almost every period, limiting the relevance of the leading theory of Edgeworth cycles due to Maskin and Tirole (1988). We also discuss episodes of disruption and evolution of the price cycle.

CMOS Charge Pump With Transfer Blocking Technique for No Reversion Loss and Relaxed Clock Timing Restriction

A CMOS charge pump based on a transfer blocking technique and a modified precharge scheme is proposed for avoiding reversion loss and relaxing the timing restrictions imposed on input clocks. Comparison results in an 80-nm CMOS process indicate that, with no loading current, the output voltage of the proposed charge pump reaches almost 98% of the ideal boosting level with switching ripple reduced by up to 97%. They also indicate that output voltage deviations due to temperature and process variations are reduced by 24%-98% and 81%-95%, respectively.

BioRoute: A Network-Flow-Based Routing Algorithm for the Synthesis of Digital Microfluidic Biochips

Due to recent advances in microfluidics, digital microfluidic biochips are expected to revolutionize laboratory procedures. One critical problem for biochip synthesis is the droplet routing problem. Unlike traditional very large scale integration routing problems, in addition to routing path selection, the biochip routing problem needs to address the issue of scheduling droplets under practical constraints imposed by the fluidic property and timing restriction of synthesis results. In this paper, we present the first network-flow-based routing algorithm that can concurrently route a set of noninterfering nets for the droplet routing problem on biochips. We adopt a two-stage technique of global routing followed by detailed routing. In global routing, we first identify a set of noninterfering nets and then adopt the network-flow approach to generate optimal global-routing paths for nets. In detailed routing, we present the <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">first</i> polynomial-time algorithm for simultaneous routing and scheduling using the global-routing paths with a negotiation-based routing scheme. Our algorithm targets at both the minimization of cells used for routing for better fault tolerance and minimization of droplet transportation time for better reliability and faster bioassay execution. Experimental results show the robustness and efficiency of our algorithm.

Response of New Cultivars to Early Postemergence Chlorimuron Applications1

Abstract Field studies were conducted in Alabama and Georgia in 2002 and 2003 to determine whether the peanut cultivar that replaced the cultivar Florunner can tolerate earlier applications of the herbicide chlorimuron than what is registered. The application timing restriction of chlorimuron on peanut had been established in the late 1980s with Florunner. In a factorial treatment arrangement, the cultivars AT201, Georgia Green, Viragard, C99R, and Florunner were treated with chlorimuron at 8.75 g ai/ha at 5, 7, 9, or 11 wk after planting. Only the later two application timings are covered by the current registration. Across all 4 yr-location replications, yield was influenced by the main effect of peanut cultivar. C99R was consistently the highest yielding cultivar. Chlorimuron had no effect on yield, regardless of application timing when compared to the nontreated entries in three of the four repetitions (i.e. Plains 2002, Plains 2003, and Headland 2002). Cultivar-based chlorimuron tolerance differences were detected only at Headland in 2003. For this location, chlorimuron applied at 5 wk after planting reduced yield across all cultivars, while application at 7, 9, and 11 WAP had no effect on yield. Results indicate that chlorimuron possesses a yield-reducing risk only when the crop has been stressed by other factors. Assuming that the crop has been stressed, the potential of yield reduction can be avoided only by observing the currently registered application timing. No clear indication was obtained that one cultivar was more tolerant to chlorimuron than another cultivar.

Cloning and developmental expression of Sna, a murine homologue of the Drosophila snail gene.

The genetic analysis of dorsoventral patterning in Drosophila has identified a zinc-finger gene, snail, that is required for mesoderm formation. The cloning and nuclease protection analysis of a Xenopus homologue of this gene has suggested a possible role in the mesoderm of vertebrates. Here, we describe the cloning of a murine homologue of snail, Sna, and in situ hybridisation studies of its developmental expression. Sequence analysis reveals substantial conservation of the second to fifth zinc fingers, but not of the first zinc finger in the Sna gene. Expression occurs in the ectoplacental cone, parietal endoderm, embryonic and extraembryonic mesoderm, in neural crest and in condensing precartilage. Based on the timing and spatial restriction of expression in embryonic mesoderm, we suggest that Sna might be required for the early development of this tissue, as is the case for its Drosophila counterpart. In addition, we propose that Sna might have an analogous role in the development of neural crest. The expression in condensing precartilage indicates that this gene also has a later function in chondrogenesis.

Prechirper to relax the timing restrictions for soliton-dragging logic gates

The timing restrictions for soliton-dragging logic gates can be relaxed by asymmetrizing the interaction between the orthogonally polarized control and signal pulses. In particular, by prechirping the signal pulse in a normal group-velocity dispersion fiber, we find experimentally that the timing restriction can be loosened from less than 2 pulse widths to over 3.3 pulse widths. For this passive prechirper arrangement the timing restrictions are loosened at the expense of increased minimum switching energy. Soliton-dragging logic gates with a signal prechirper can provide timing restoration as well as logic-level restoration, so that two inverter gates can be cascaded to implement an ultrafast, all-optical pulse regenerator.

Pulse-pair concept in the design of a microprocessor-based programmer for solid-state NMR

A versatile stand-alone pulse programmer is described. Sequences of essentially unlimited complexity, subject to a timing restriction discussed in the text, are programmed in software. Time intervals are software specified and digitally derived with 1-μsec resolution. Simplicity, low cost (⪅$200), and speed of implementation were prime criteria in the design.