Improving Fixed-Point Implementation of QR Decomposition by Rounding-to-Nearest

QR decomposition is a key operation in many current communication systems. This paper shows how to reduce the area of a fixed-point QR decomposition implementation based on Givens rotations by using a new number representation system. This new representation allows performing round-tonearest at the same cost of truncation. Consequently, the rounding errors of the results are halved, which allows it to reduce the word-length by one bit. This reduction positively impacts on the area, delay and power consumption of the design.Ministry of Education and Science of Spain and Junta of Andalucía under contracts TIN2013-42253-P and TIC-1692, respectively, and Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

High-Throughput FPGA Implementation of QR Decomposition

Munoz, S.D.; Hormigo, J. "High-Throughput FPGA Implementation of QR Decomposition" IEEE Transactions on in Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs,vol.62, no.9, pp.861-865, Sept. 2015 doi: 10.1109/TCSII.2015.2435753This brief presents a hardware design to achieve high-throughput QR decomposition, using Givens Rotation Method. It utilizes a new two-dimensional systolic array architecture with pipelined processing elements, which are based on the COordinate Rotation DIgital Computer (CORDIC) algorithm. CORDIC computes vector rotations through shifts and additions. This approach allows a continuous computation of QR factorizations with simple hardware. A fixed-point FPGA architecture for 4 x 4 matrices has been optimized by balancing the number of CORDIC iterations with the final error. As a result, compared to other previous proposals for FPGA, our design achieves at least 50% more throughput, and much less resource utilization.Ministry of Education and Science of Spain and Junta of Andalucia under contracts TIN2013-42253-P and P07-TIC-02630, respectively

Avanzando hacia un curriculum por competencias profesionales en Ingeniería Agronómica

Un rasgo esencial de las competencias es la relación entre práctica-teoría, en la cual la práctica delimita la teoría acorde a condiciones y demandas de situaciones concretas en un contexto dado. En las Ciencias Agrarias hay consenso que el sustento de la formación profesional está en la interdisciplinariedad, por tanto se plantea la necesidad de abordar el estudio de los agrosistemas desde equipos multidisciplinarios. El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar la experiencia “Proyecto cursos correlativos por crédito12: Integración de conocimientos a partir de la articulación teoría-práctica desde la Física al manejo conservacionista del cultivo” – Edición 2010 y 2011–. En la misma participaron alumnos que habían regularizado la asignatura Mecanización Agrícola de la carrera Ingeniería Agronómica y docentes de las cátedras de Física, Topografía, Edafología, Mecanización Agrícola, Manejo de Suelo y Riego y Cultivos Industriales; desarrollándose actividades de integración entre las áreas curriculares de la carrera. Los resultados fueron analizados desde la percepción del alumno mediante encuestas y desde los docentes mediante el análisis de las mismas, la observación participante, registros y la reflexión grupal; de lo cual surge que esta metodología didáctica innovadora, permite avanzar hacia una formación en competencias profesionales.Eje temático 1: Problemáticas y alternativas de mejora de la enseñanza e - Los enfoques y modalidades de integración curricularFacultad de Ciencias Agrarias y Forestale

Monitoring Radiographic Brain Tumor Progression

Determining radiographic progression in primary malignant brain tumors has posed a significant challenge to the neuroncology community. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM, WHO Grade IV) through its inherent heterogeneous enhancement, growth patterns, and irregular nature has been difficult to assess for progression. Our ability to detect tumor progression radiographically remains inadequate. Despite the advanced imaging techniques, detecting tumor progression continues to be a clinical challenge. Here we review the different criteria used to detect tumor progression, and highlight the inherent challenges with detection of progression

YKL-40 tissue expression and plasma levels in patients with ovarian cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>YKL-40 (chitinase-3-like-1) is a member of "mammalian chitinase-like proteins". The protein is expressed in many types of cancer cells and the highest plasma YKL-40 levels have been found in patients with metastatic disease, short recurrence/progression-free intervals, and short overall survival. The aim of the study was to determine the expression of YKL-40 in tumor tissue and plasma in patients with borderline ovarian tumor or epithelial ovarian cancer (OC), and investigate prognostic value of this marker.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>YKL-40 protein expression was determined by immunohistochemistry in tissue arrays from 181 borderline tumors and 473 OC. Plasma YKL-40 was determined by ELISA in preoperative samples from 19 patients with borderline tumor and 76 OC patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>YKL-40 protein expression was found in cancer cells, tumor associated macrophages, neutrophils and mast cells. The tumor cell expression was higher in OC than in borderline tumors (p = 0.001), and associated with FIGO stage (p < 0.0001) and histological subtype (p = 0.0009). Positive YKL-40 expression (≥ 5% staining) was not associated with reduced survival. Plasma YKL-40 was also higher in patients with OC than in patients with borderline tumors (p < 0.0001), and it was positively correlated to serum CA-125 (p < 0.0001) and FIGO stage (p = 0.0001). Univariate Cox analysis of plasma YKL-40 showed association with overall survival (p < 0.0001). Multivariate Cox analysis, including plasma YKL-40, serum CA125, FIGO stage, age and radicality after primary surgery as variables, showed that elevated plasma YKL-40 was associated with a shorter survival (HR = 2.13, 95% CI: 1.40–3.25, p = 0.0004).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>YKL-40 in OC tissue and plasma are related to stage and histology, but only plasma YKL-40 is a prognostic biomarker in patients with OC.</p

Enabling and Enhancing Science Exploration Across the Solar System: Aerocapture Technology for SmallSat to Flagship Missions

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Designed Enzymatic Cascades

One of the major advantage of enzymes as catalyst is that many of them work in similar conditions of pH, temperature, etc. and thus can be combined in one-pot multi-step reactions pathways. The jointed action of a sequence of enzymes allows to build complex structures from simple elements; to make irreversible a reversible process or to shift the equilibrium reaction in a way that enantiomerically pure products can be obtained from racemic or prochiral substrates. In this chapter we want to highlight the developments of recent studies involving multi-enzyme cascade reactions for the synthesis of different classes of organic compounds.Peer reviewe