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Spiking neural networks (SNNs) is a promising research direction to their ability to imitate certain functions of brain. Hardware acceleration of SNN can offer orders of magnitude increase in performance and power efficiency. However, traditional hardware description languages have a barrier for rapid development and prototyping of custom internal hardware mechanisms that affect hardware construction throughout the entire processor structure. Mainstream high-level design methods also have disadvantages, e.g. poor ...

Radon (222Rn) is a natural gas produced by the radioactive decay of uranium-bearing rocks and soils in the Earth?s crust. Geology is one of the main factors controlling source and distribution of radon. Most rocks and soils possess small amount of uranium, but there are particular types of bedrocks and unconsolidated deposits characterized by higher than average uranium contents. These lithological types include some granites, light-colored volcanic rocks, phosphatic rocks, ironstones, limestones and shales rich i...

The area of underwater seismic and geophysical exploration is now rapidly growing with increasing complexity of the employed equipment. At present, more reliable data are gathered by Ocean Bottom Seismometers - autonomous instruments used in long duration seismic surveys. The general idea behind this equipment is that autonomous devices are unable to transmit data in real-time and require offshore operations for periodical deployment. However, the task of a permanent underwater monitoring for seismic events with o...

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation is the most environmentally friendly method for the accumulation of biologically bound nitrogen. Nitrogen fixation is carried out by bacteria, including from the class of ?-proteobacteria. Global climate changes lead to an increase of agricultural areas subjected to salinity. Current knowledge about the effect of high-salt stress on nitrogen-fixing symbiotic ?-proteobacteria has the appearance of a puzzle. The genetic mechanisms determining salt tolerance have been studied in the most d...

Approbation of software design technique in hardware field nowadays is an obvious trend. However, hardware cores with complex microarchitecture are not sufficiently supported by modern design tools. This happens because of remaining focus on structural design rather than designing abstract mechanisms of micro-operations scheduling inside the hardware and their explicit mapping on EDA components. In the article, original formulation of gap between the needed and currently available hardware design methods and tools...

Adjustment of compositions and processing techniques, mainly ? firing conditions, has been a key route for ceramics performance improvement. The present research addresses sintering process of alumina ceramics with an additive in system that was studied by non-isothermal method. Experimental samples shaped as cylinders 25 ? 6 mm in size were obtained and sintered by consequtive firings in air at heating rates q1 = 1,0 and q2 = 3,0 °?/min without curing and quenched in air. Linear shrinkage (? = ??/?, hereon ? ?) a...

The study of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere is one of the important parts of climate research, because according to the reports of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the growth of GHG content in the atmosphere is the most likely cause of modern global warming. Such studies are of great importance in the arctic territories, where the climate effects are most pronounced. The Institute of Industrial Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Yekaterin...

The Ogosta Valley downstream the town of Chiprovtsi, NW Bulgaria, was subject to long-lasting contamination with arsenic and other toxic elements due to mining and ore-processing activities in the second half of the last century. Although the exploitation of lead-silver and iron ores was ceased in the end of the 90`s, the soil in particular sections of the Ogosta?s river floodplain remained highly contaminated with arsenic, lead and other heavy metals. Arsenic mobilization and transport in the vadose zone is highl...

Raising abstraction level of designing of custom digital circuits is a major scientific and practical problem that attracts a lot of academic and industrial efforts nowadays. However, existing approaches to handling of this problem typically do not provide sufficient means of defining individual domain- and project-specific custom-level microarchitectural decisions being directed by custom user specification that coordinates their application via specialized controls embedded in this specification. In the article,...

The methodological assessment of the geological phenomena (geotopes, geosites) is an important step in judging their geoconservation significance. The present Expert Card provides a tentative test for assessment based on 16 common criteria: aesthetic, scientific, research, educational, ecological, entertainment, ethnographic, social and spiritual values, sense of place, possibility for inclusion in geopark, sensitivity, degree of study, preservation, exposure and access. The first 7 criteria are considered importa...