The lignin in corn stalks makes it difficult to process for biomass and harder for animals to digest. Levels are especially high in the tough outer ‘rind’ and vascular bundles of the stem.For this...
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Most biological processes involve multiple proteins interacting with each other. While the principles governing protein-protein interactions are not fully understood, it is known that a small subset o...
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In a multicore processor, the different cores share a common clock timing and operate at a synchronized frequency. Such processors are fast because their cores can work in parallel to execute differen...
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Some extremely complex tasks – like sorting very large databases or factoring large numbers – are challenging for classical computers. Quantum computers can solve such problems because they use qu...
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It is widely accepted that future processor technology will suffer from some degree of failure due to core aging. This failure leads to device faults. Anticipating faults before they occur can help th...
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Hardware accelerators improve computer performance by allowing the main processor to off-load certain tasks, for example, processing floating-point or graphics calculations. The accelerator is designe...
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Energy consumption is a major constraint in computer design because of factors like power costs, operating life and heat. The tradeoff between energy consumption and performance is managed to some deg...
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Logic gates are the building blocks of integrated circuits. They use multiple transistors to receive and interpret voltage inputs, then provide outputs. Future generations of integrated circuit micr...
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In a computer, an input-output memory management unit (IOMMU) may be positioned between the physical memory and I/O devices such as disk drives. The IOMMU provides the I/O devices with virtual address...
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Computer processors typically include a number of central processing unit (CPU) cores for executing instructions. Each core is capable of reading and executing a sequence of instruction code, or ‘th...
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Executing different portions of a program in parallel on different processors is known as parallelism. While this can boost how fast a program is executed, increased parallelism is not always benefici...
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Articulated mechanisms, such as walking robots or robotic arms, can be understood as a set of rigid links connected to each other by joints. The joints are put into motion using motors, sensors that i...
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Approximately 15 million Americans suffer from a swallowing disorder (dysphagia). People with acid reflux, a neurological disorder or cancer of the head and neck are particularly at risk. The leading ...
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Computer ‘interrupts’ are signals received by a processor that cause it to switch from a present task or thread to a different one. Interrupts can be generated by hardware or software, or even exe...
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Achieving energy efficiency is important in mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablets because they rely on battery power but are constrained by size and weight. Moreover, these devices inc...
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A database system combines hardware and software to manage and selectively access the large amounts of data it holds. Such a structure may hold data elements organized in logical rows and columns (for...
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With public cloud computing, customers pay a flat hourly rate for a bundle of virtualized resources called ‘instances’ from a service provider. Providers may sell a variety of instance types that...
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High dynamic range (HDR) video delivers imagery in a wide range of light intensities, from sunlight to dark shadows. This provides a truer brightness that can significantly enhance viewers’ experien...
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Many data-intensive networked systems rely on high-performance indexes that link pairs of ‘keys’ with storage addresses. These indexes help locate and process large volumes (i.e., terabytes) of da...
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To reliably transmit and store data, error detection/correction techniques are employed to guard against data corruption. Generally, such protection can be achieved by inserting redundant bits in the ...
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Computer processors have cache memories that reduce delays spent waiting for data from the main memory. Data expected to be used by the processor in executing a program are loaded into these caches.Ca...
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Cache memories play a critical role in reducing a computer system’s energy. Generally, they are fast access memories that store data reflecting locations in a corresponding main memory. Typically, t...
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In chemical manufacturing, a production system may receive and process raw materials in multiple steps, with each step or task associated with a certain procedure or tool. Ideally, each step is schedu...
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Graphic processing units (GPUs) are specialized for graphics but also work with conventional computer processing units (CPUs) to accelerate different applications. In normal operation, the CPU loads d...
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Touch screen systems have many advantages, including simplification of the user's task and elimination of a separate keyboard. However, touch screen systems present an insurmountable barrier to ma...
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