Frontal sinus infection leading to sino-orbital aspergillosis: a case report

Sino-orbital aspergillosis is an uncommon but aggressive infection. It rarely originates from the frontal sinus due to the complex anatomy of the frontal recess and anteromedial position of its ostium. An 87-year-old man of Nigerian heritage with a history of multiple myeloma, chronic kidney disease and type 2 diabetes, presented to the eye clinic with a right tense swollen eyelid and proptosis. Computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan revealed a right superomedial mass communicating with the frontal sinus and biopsy confirmed an orbital aspergilloma. The patient was successfully treated with debulking surgery and anti-fungal treatment despite developing side effects to the drugs. To improve prognosis, ophthalmologists should be aware of this distinct entity and use a multi-disciplinary approach

Toward High-Performance Implementation of 5G SCMA Algorithms

International audienceThe recent evolution of mobile communication systems toward a 5G network is associated with the search for new types of non-orthogonal modulations such as Sparse Code Multiple Access (SCMA). Such modulations are proposed in response to demands for increasing the number of connected users. SCMA is a non-orthogonal multiple access technique that offers improved Bit Error Rate (BER) performance and higher spectral efficiency than other comparable techniques, but these improvements come at the cost of complex decoders. There are many challenges in designing near-optimum high throughput SCMA decoders. This paper explores means to enhance the performance of SCMA decoders. To achieve this goal, various improvements to the MPA algorithms are proposed. They notably aim at adapting SCMA decoding to the Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) paradigm. An approximate modeling of noise is performed to reduce the complexity of floating-point calculations. The effects of Forward Error Corrections (FEC) such as polar, turbo and LDPC codes, as well as different ways of accessing memory and improving power efficiency of modified MPAs are investigated. The results show that the throughput of a SCMA decoder can be increased by 3.1 to 21 times when compared to the original MPA on different computing platforms using the suggested improvements

Fast and Flexible Software Polar List Decoders

International audienceFlexibility is one mandatory aspect of channel coding in modern wireless communication systems. Among other things, the channel decoder has to support several code lengths and code rates. This need for flexibility applies to polar codes that are considered for control channels in the future 5G standard. This paper presents a new generic and flexible implementation of a software Successive Cancellation List (SCL) decoder. A large set of parameters can be fine-tuned dynamically without re-compiling the software source code: the code length, the code rate, the frozen bits set, the puncturing patterns, the cyclic redundancy check, the list size, the type of decoding algorithm, the tree-pruning strategy and the data quantization. This generic and flexible SCL decoder enables to explore tradeoffs between throughput, latency and decoding performance. Several optimizations are proposed to achieve a competitive decoding speed despite the constraints induced by the genericity and the flexibility. The resulting polar list decoder is about 4 times faster than a generic software decoder and only 2 times slower than a non-flexible unrolled decoder. Thanks to the flexibility of the decoder, the fully adaptive SCL algorithm can be easily implemented and achieves higher throughput than any other similar decoder in the literature (up to 425 Mb/s on a single processor core for N = 2048 and K = 1723 at 4.5 dB)

Bioinformatics for precision medicine in oncology: principles and application to the SHIVA clinical trial

Precision medicine (PM) requires the delivery of individually adapted medical care based on the genetic characteristics of each patient and his/her tumor. The last decade witnessed the development of high-throughput technologies such as microarrays and next-generation sequencing which paved the way to PM in the field of oncology. While the cost of these technologies decreases, we are facing an exponential increase in the amount of data produced. Our ability to use this information in daily practice relies strongly on the availability of an efficient bioinformatics system that assists in the translation of knowledge from the bench towards molecular targeting and diagnosis. Clinical trials and routine diagnoses constitute different approaches, both requiring a strong bioinformatics environment capable of (i) warranting the integration and the traceability of data, (ii) ensuring the correct processing and analyses of genomic data, and (iii) applying well-defined and reproducible procedures for workflow management and decision-making. To address the issues, a seamless information system was developed at Institut Curie which facilitates the data integration and tracks in real-time the processing of individual samples. Moreover, computational pipelines were developed to identify reliably genomic alterations and mutations from the molecular profiles of each patient. After a rigorous quality control, a meaningful report is delivered to the clinicians and biologists for the therapeutic decision. The complete bioinformatics environment and the key points of its implementation are presented in the context of the SHIVA clinical trial, a multicentric randomized phase II trial comparing targeted therapy based on tumor molecular profiling versus conventional therapy in patients with refractory cancer. The numerous challenges faced in practice during the setting up and the conduct of this trial are discussed as an illustration of PM application

Deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty: A surgeon's guide

Purpose: To review and highlight important practical aspects of deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) surgery and provide some useful tips for surgeons wishing to convert to this procedure from the conventional penetrating keratoplasty (PK) technique. Methods: In this narrative review, the procedure of DALK is described in detail. Important pre, intra, and postoperative considerations are discussed with illustrative examples for better understanding. A comprehensive literature review was conducted in PubMed/Medline from January 1995 to July 2017 to identify original studies in English language regarding DALK. The primary endpoint of this review was the narrative description of surgical steps for DALK, its pitfalls, and management of common intraoperative complications. Results: A standard DALK procedure can be successfully performed taking into consideration factors such as age, ophthalmic co-morbidities, status of the crystalline lens, retina, and intraocular pressure. Careful trephination and dissection of the host cornea employing appropriate technique (such as big bubble technique, manual dissection, visco-dissection, etc.) suitable for the specific case is important to achieve good postoperative outcomes. Prompt identification of intraoperative complications such as double bubble, micro and macroperforations, etc. are vital to change the management strategies. Conclusion: Although there is a steep learning curve for DALK procedure, considering details and having insight into the management of intraoperative issues facilitates learning and reduces complication rates. Keywords: DALK, Lamellar corneal transplant, Keratoplast

Transport Triggered Polar Decoders

In this paper, the first transport triggered architecture (TTA) customized for the decoding of polar codes is proposed. A first version of this programmable processor is optimized for the successive cancellation (SC) decoding of polar codes while a second architecture is further specialized to also support Soft CANcellation (SCAN) decoding. Both architectures were fully validated on FPGA device by prototyping. The first architecture was also synthesized in 28nm ASIC technology. It runs at a frequency of 800 MHz and reaches a throughput of 352 Mbps for a (1024, 512) polar code decoded with the SC algorithm. Compared to previous work, the energy consumption is reduced by one order of magnitude (0.14 nJ / bit) and the throughput is increased fivefold. Compared to an optimized software implementation on a general purpose processor (x86 architecture), the throughput is 37 % higher and the energy consumption is two orders of magnitude lower. TTA can be seen as a way to reduce the gap between programmable and dedicated polar decoders.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Improving performance of SCMA MPA decoders using estimation of conditional probabilities

International audienceSparse code multiple access (SCMA) is a new type of non-orthogonal modulation suggested for 5G systems offering lower bit-error rate and higher spectral efficiency. There are many challenges when designing high throughput SCMA message passing decoders to meet the standards expected from 5G networks. Particularly, the message passing algorithm (MPA) needs many exponential computations to calculate conditional probabilities in case of Gaussian noise channels. This paper describes a sub-optimal modeling of noise using polynomial probability distributions rather than a normal distribution to eliminate the exponential calculations for MPA detectors. Simulation results demonstrate that an estimated SCMA MPA reaches the desired bit-error rate performance with much lower computational/hardware complexity

Mission d'expertise sur la restructuration de la filière pêche à Saint Pierre et Miquelon

L’objet de la mission consiste à proposer un projet technique de restructuration de la filière pêche à Saint Pierre et Miquelon. A cette fin, à la demande du Ministère de l’Outre-Mer, une mission d’expertise composée de trois experts (Camille KNOCKAERT / IFREMER Nantes ; Bruno LE FUR / Plate-Forme d’Innovation NOUVELLES VAGUES ; Yvon BONNIOU / ODYSSEE DEVELOPPEMENT) s’est déplacée sur Saint Pierre et Miquelon du 11 au 18 Février 2012 pour réaliser une évaluation du volume disponible de produits de la mer sur les deux îles, et proposer une activité de transformation, se positionnant dans le cadre d’un projet de pôle unique de transformation « bi localisé ». Une visite des différents sites industriels a permis d’en déterminer un projet de « refonte » des infrastructures prenant en compte leur dimension ainsi que leur vétusté et l’équipement présent. Concernant les mesures prioritaires, la mission a identifié les urgences, tant sur le plan investissements prioritaires pour permettre à la filière de travailler sur l’année en cours, que sur le volet « mesures conservatoires ». Pour effectuer son travail, la mission s’est appuyée sur l’antenne Ifremer locale et les services de l’Etat, ainsi que sur l’audition de tous les acteurs de la filière depuis les pêcheurs jusqu’aux transformateurs. Enfin, ce travail se réfère aux préconisations de trois rapports de mission réalisés en 2011 : · Mission d’audit de la société « SPMSeafood International » du 12 au 21 Mars 2011 (CGAAER/AFD: Fourgeaud P et Darpoux J.) · La restructuration de la filière pêche et aquaculture de l’archipel de SPM du 27 au 1 Juillet 2011 (CGAAER: Berger A.) · La restructuration de la filière pêche et aquaculture de l’archipel de SPM du 29 au 1 Juillet 2011 (ID.MER: Allaume P.) · La restructuration de la filière pêche et aquaculture de l'archipel de Saint-Pierre et Miquelon / Constitution d'un pôle de transformation unique / Jacques BRULHET / Vice-président du CGAAER / février 2012 · Rapport de restitution de la mission Saint-Pierre et Miquelon / Volet: restructuration de la pêche artisanale / janvier 201