Using dynamic reconfiguration to reduce the area of a JPEG decoder on FPGA

Partial dynamic reconfiguration of FPGAs can be used to implement complex applications using the concept of virtual hardware. In this work we have used partial dynamic reconfiguration to implement a JPEG decoder with reduced area. The image decoding process was adapted to be implemented on the FPGA fabric using this technique. The architecture was tested in a low cost ZYNQ-7020 FPGA that supports dynamic reconfiguration. The results show that the proposed solution needs only 40% of the resources utilized by a static implementation. The performance of the dynamic solution is about 9X slower than the static solution by trading-off internal resources of the FPGA. A throughput of 7 images per second is achievable with the proposed partial dynamic reconfiguration solution.

GPU implementation of a hyperspectral coded aperture algorithm for compressive sensing

This paper presents a new parallel implementation of a previously hyperspectral coded aperture (HYCA) algorithm for compressive sensing on graphics processing units (GPUs). HYCA method combines the ideas of spectral unmixing and compressive sensing exploiting the high spatial correlation that can be observed in the data and the generally low number of endmembers needed in order to explain the data. The proposed implementation exploits the GPU architecture at low level, thus taking full advantage of the computational power of GPUs using shared memory and coalesced accesses to memory. The proposed algorithm is evaluated not only in terms of reconstruction error but also in terms of computational performance using two different GPU architectures by NVIDIA: GeForce GTX 590 and GeForce GTX TITAN. Experimental results using real data reveals signficant speedups up with regards to serial implementation.

Maintenance of fire sprinkler systems based on the dynamic assessment of its condition

Safety is one of the major concerns of process safety engineers in most industrial facilities all over the world. To this scope, some events play an important role once the effect of their consequences can be assumed as totally undesirable. One of these events refers to the occurrence of a fire. Such event can result in catastrophic consequences for life, equipment, and continuity of activities or even leading to environmental damage. A fire protection equipment with low reliability means that this equipment are often unavailable and thus the risk of a fire increases. Maintenance of fire protection equipment is very important because this kind of systems is mostly in a dormant mode, which gives uncertainty about their operability when demanded in a real situation of fire. This article outlines the importance of tests, inspection, and maintenance operations in the context of a fire sprinkler system and proposes a methodology based on international standards and supported by test/inspection reports to correct the frequency of these actions according to the level of degradation of the components and regarding safety purposes. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Development of a high-throughput monitoring technique of bacteria photodynamic inactivation

Summary form only given. Bacterial infections and the fight against them have been one of the major concerns of mankind since the dawn of time. During the `golden years' of antibiotic discovery, during the 1940-90s, it was thought that the war against infectious diseases had been won. However currently, due to the drug resistance increase, associated with the inefficiency of discovering new antibiotic classes, infectious diseases are again a major public health concern. A potential alternative to antibiotic treatments may be the antimicrobial photodynamic inactivation (PDI) therapy. To date no indication of antimicrobial PDI resistance development has been reported. However the PDI protocol depends on the bacteria species [1], and in some cases on the bacteria strains, for instance Staphylococcus aureus [2]. Therefore the development of PDI monitoring techniques for diverse bacteria strains is critical in pursuing further understanding of such promising alternative therapy. The present works aims to evaluate Fourier-Transformed-Infra-Red (FT-IR) spectroscopy to monitor the PDI of two model bacteria, a gram-negative (Escherichia coli) and a gram-positive (S. aureus) bacteria. For that a high-throughput FTIR spectroscopic method was implemented as generally described in Scholz et al. [3], using short incubation periods and microliter quantities of the incubation mixture containing the bacteria and the PDI-drug model the known bactericidal tetracationic porphyrin 5,10,15,20-tetrakis (4-N, N, Ntrimethylammoniumphenyl)-porphyrin p-tosylate (TTAP4+). In both bacteria models it was possible to detect, by FTIR-spectroscopy, the drugs effect on the cellular composition either directly on the spectra or on score plots of principal component analysis. Furthermore the technique enabled to infer the effect of PDI on the major cellular biomolecules and metabolic status, for example the turn-over metabolism. In summary bacteria PDI was monitored in an economic, rapid (in minutes- , high-throughput (using microplates with 96 wells) and highly sensitive mode resourcing to FTIR spectroscopy, which could serve has a technological basis for the evaluation of antimicrobial PDI therapies efficiency.

Molecular fingerprint of human gastric cell line infected by Helicobacter pylori

Helicobacter pylori infection represents a serious health problem, given its association with serious gastric diseases as gastric ulcers, cancer and MALT lymphoma. Currently no vaccine exists and antibiotic-based eradication therapy is already failing in more than 20% of cases. To increase the knowledge on the infection process diverse gastric cell lines, e.g. the adenocarcinona gastric (AGS) cell line, are routinely used has in vitro models of gastric epithelia. In the present work the molecular fingerprint of infected and non-infected AGS cell lines, by diverse H. pylori strains, was acquired using vibrational infrared spectroscopy. These molecular fingerprints enabled to discriminate infected from non-infected AGS cells, and infection due to different strains, by performing Principal Component Analysis. It was also possible to estimate, from the AGS cells molecular fingerprint, the effect of the infection on diverse biochemical and metabolic cellular status. In resume infra-red spectroscopy enabled the acquisition of infected AGS cells molecular fingerprint with minimal sample preparation, in a rapid, high-throughput, economic process yielding highly sensitive and informative data, most useful for promoting critical knowledge on the H. pylori infection process. © 2015 IEEE.

Comparative analysis of near and mid-infrared spectroscopy to monitor recombinant cyprosin production

Infrared spectroscopy, either in the near and mid (NIR/MIR) region of the spectra, has gained great acceptance in the industry for bioprocess monitoring according to Process Analytical Technology, due to its rapid, economic, high sensitivity mode of application and versatility. Due to the relevance of cyprosin (mostly for dairy industry), and as NIR and MIR spectroscopy presents specific characteristics that ultimately may complement each other, in the present work these techniques were compared to monitor and characterize by in situ and by at-line high-throughput analysis, respectively, recombinant cyprosin production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Partial least-square regression models, relating NIR and MIR-spectral features with biomass, cyprosin activity, specific activity, glucose, galactose, ethanol and acetate concentration were developed, all presenting, in general, high regression coefficients and low prediction errors. In the case of biomass and glucose slight better models were achieved by in situ NIR spectroscopic analysis, while for cyprosin activity and specific activity slight better models were achieved by at-line MIR spectroscopic analysis. Therefore both techniques enabled to monitor the highly dynamic cyprosin production bioprocess, promoting by this way more efficient platforms for the bioprocess optimization and control.

Hyperspectral signal subspace estimation

Given an hyperspectral image, the determination of the number of endmembers and the subspace where they live without any prior knowledge is crucial to the success of hyperspectral image analysis. This paper introduces a new minimum mean squared error based approach to infer the signal subspace in hyperspectral imagery. The method, termed hyperspectral signal identification by minimum error (HySime), is eigendecomposition based and it does not depend on any tuning parameters. It first estimates the signal and noise correlation matrices and then selects the subset of eigenvalues that best represents the signal subspace in the least squared error sense. The effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated using simulated data based on U.S.G.S. laboratory spectra and real hyperspectral data collected by the AVIRIS sensor over Cuprite, Nevada.

Parallel sparse unmixing of hyperspectral data

In this paper, a new parallel method for sparse spectral unmixing of remotely sensed hyperspectral data on commodity graphics processing units (GPUs) is presented. A semi-supervised approach is adopted, which relies on the increasing availability of spectral libraries of materials measured on the ground instead of resorting to endmember extraction methods. This method is based on the spectral unmixing by splitting and augmented Lagrangian (SUNSAL) that estimates the material's abundance fractions. The parallel method is performed in a pixel-by-pixel fashion and its implementation properly exploits the GPU architecture at low level, thus taking full advantage of the computational power of GPUs. Experimental results obtained for simulated and real hyperspectral datasets reveal significant speedup factors, up to 1 64 times, with regards to optimized serial implementation.

The impact of an online mathematics education project (MATACTIVA) on higher education students

The Online Mathematics Education Project (MatActiva) is an exciting new initiative which aims to support and enhance mathematics education. The project is led by the Institute of Accounting and Administration of Porto (ISCAP), part of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP). It provides innovative resources and carefully constructed materials around themes such as Elementary Mathematics, Calculus, Algebra, Statistics and Financial Mathematics to help support and inspire students and teachers of mathematics. The goal is to increase mathematical understanding, confidence and enjoyment, enrich the mathematical experience of each person, and promote creative and imaginative approaches to mathematics. Furthermore the project can be used to deliver engaging and effective mathematics instruction through the flipped classroom model. This paper also presents the findings of a large survey, whose propose was to study the student’s reaction to the project.

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis: a mycologic and immunochemical study of a sample isolated from an armadillo (Dasipus novencinctus)

A sample of P. brasiliensis isolated from the spleen and the liver of an armadillo (Dasipus novencinctus) has been analysed under a mycological and immunochemical viewpoint. The armadillo was captured in an area of Tucuruí (State of Pará, Brazil), the animal being already established as an enzootic reservoir of P. brasiliensis at that region of the country. This sample maintained in the fungal collection of the Tropical Medicine Institute of São Paulo (Brazil) numbered 135, has got all the characteristics of P. brasiliensis, with a strong antigenic power and low virulence for guinea-pigs and Wistar rats. The specific exoantigen of P. brasiliensis - the glycoprotein with a molecular weight of 43 kDa - was easily demonstrated with double immunodiffusion, immunoelectrophoresis, SDS-PAGE and immunobloting techniques.

Etiological drug treatment of human infection by Trypanosoma cruzi

Forty-nine American Trypanosomiasis (Chagas' disease) patients, with xenodiagnosis proven parasitemia were treated by the authors. Forty-one of these patients were given benznidazole, at dosages ranging from 5mg/kg/day to 8mg/kg/day, during a pre-established period of 60 days. In this group, 17 patients had an undetermined form of the disease, whereas 22 had cardiologic disease and 4 had digestive disease (two patients had a mixed form of the disease). Side effects were frequent, and led to the discontinuation of treatment in 17 patients. The follow-up period ranged from 1 to 20 years (mean follow-up period of 6 yrs. 7 mo). 26 (63.4%) of the patients became parasitemia-negative. The other eight patients were treated with nifurtimox, during 120 days, following a variable dose regime of 5mg/kg/day (initial dose) to 17 mg/kg/day (final dose). Six of them had severe side effects, and only one patient remained parasitemia-negative throughout the observation period (ranging from 1 to 18 years). Benznidazole proved to be better tolerated and more effective in the management of parasitemia when compared to nifurtimox, although more effective and less toxic drugs are still desirable.

Automorphisms of partial endomorphism semigroups

Publicationes Mathematicae Debrecen

Metabolic and morphogenetic engineering of Bacillus subtilis: biotechnology for industry

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D. degree in “Biology” at the Institute of Chemical and Biological Technology of the New University of Lisbon

Vibroacoustic disease II: The biological and acoustical basis of low frequency noise induced pathology

Proceedings Institute of Acoustics (UK); vol. 25, nº2, p. 72-78.