Hydra: An Accelerator for Real-Time Edge-Aware Permeability Filtering in 65nm CMOS

Many modern video processing pipelines rely on edge-aware (EA) filtering methods. However, recent high-quality methods are challenging to run in real-time on embedded hardware due to their computational load. To this end, we propose an area-efficient and real-time capable hardware implementation of a high quality EA method. In particular, we focus on the recently proposed permeability filter (PF) that delivers promising quality and performance in the domains of HDR tone mapping, disparity and optical flow estimation. We present an efficient hardware accelerator that implements a tiled variant of the PF with low on-chip memory requirements and a significantly reduced external memory bandwidth (6.4x w.r.t. the non-tiled PF). The design has been taped out in 65 nm CMOS technology, is able to filter 720p grayscale video at 24.8 Hz and achieves a high compute density of 6.7 GFLOPS/mm2 (12x higher than embedded GPUs when scaled to the same technology node). The low area and bandwidth requirements make the accelerator highly suitable for integration into SoCs where silicon area budget is constrained and external memory is typically a heavily contended resource

HR-SAR-Net: A Deep Neural Network for Urban Scene Segmentation from High-Resolution SAR Data

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data is becoming increasingly available to a wide range of users through commercial service providers with resolutions reaching 0.5m/px. Segmenting SAR data still requires skilled personnel, limiting the potential for large-scale use. We show that it is possible to automatically and reliably perform urban scene segmentation from next-gen resolution SAR data (0.15m/px) using deep neural networks (DNNs), achieving a pixel accuracy of 95.19% and a mean IoU of 74.67% with data collected over a region of merely 2.2km${}^2$. The presented DNN is not only effective, but is very small with only 63k parameters and computationally simple enough to achieve a throughput of around 500Mpx/s using a single GPU. We further identify that additional SAR receive antennas and data from multiple flights massively improve the segmentation accuracy. We describe a procedure for generating a high-quality segmentation ground truth from multiple inaccurate building and road annotations, which has been crucial to achieving these segmentation results

Évolution du statut fonctionnel dès 65 ans (Lc65+, n°1)

Quelle réponse médico-sociale faut-il apporter, face à un vieillissement démographique qui s’accélère rapidement, depuis qu’en 2009 la vague des baby-boomers a abordé le cap des 65 ans ? Combien de ressources faut-il prévoir pour prendre en charge les déficits fonctionnels fréquents à un grand âge qu’aujourd’hui la plupart atteignent ? Pour répondre à ces questions il ne suffit pas de compter le nombre de personnes âgées, considérant qu’une fraction immuable nécessitera, demain comme hier, d’être aidée dans les activités de la vie quotidienne. En effet, l’évolution de la santé alors que la longévité augmente fait l’objet de théories dont la plus populaire est celle d’une « compression de la morbidité ». Cette théorie veut qu’à un même âge les nouvelles générations, bénéficiant d’une plus grande longévité, soient en meilleure santé que les générations précédentes. La fraction des personnes devant être aidées à un âge donné ne serait donc pas fixe mais aurait diminué progressivement, et continuerait à diminuer avec les gains de longévité. La théorie d’une compression de la morbidité est notamment portée par l’image que donnent les medias d’une génération de baby-boomers en parfaite santé. Son impact peut être considérable si elle amène avec optimisme à ne pas développer les services médico-sociaux de façon proportionnelle au vieillissement de la population. Elle reste cependant à vérifier. Ce numéro des Essentiels se penche sur l’évolution du statut fonctionnel des personnes âgées. Les données de la cohorte Lc65+ (encadré) permettent d’étudier l’effet de l’âge sur la fréquence des difficultés fonctionnelles dans un échantillon représentatif de la population lausannoise suivi sur 13 ans. Elles permettent aussi de comparer « à âge égal » les personnes nées respectivement avant, pendant et à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Ces trois groupes, bien que séparés de 5 ans seulement, diffèrent significativement par les conditions socio-économiques auxquelles ils ont été exposés

Near-Memory Computing Architectures and Circuits for Ultra-Low Power Near-Sensor Processors

Artificial intelligence has started to permeate the entire technological fabric of our interconnected world and has long found its way to the network edge. Be it as part of novel biomedical devices that constantly monitor patient health, smart sensors in industrial settings where they drive the transformation from reactive- to pro-active maintenance in industry 4.0 or integrated into the next evolution of human-machine interfaces like XR, ML-enacting near-sensor circuits are omnipresent. The tight power and latency constraints of these applications fuel a paradigm shift in the hardware architecture domain, away from conventional von-Neumann-based computing, which is bound by the memory bandwidth bottleneck of the data- and control path. The "new golden age of computer architecture", as the famous computer pioneer David Patterson calls it, is marked by innovative Near- and In-memory architectures around conventional CMOS as well as novel "beyond-CMOS" technologies like PCM or ReRAM. However, many of these techniques are explored with an isolated, device-level-focused view, whereas advances at the system-level demand a holistic multi-objective optimization approach that involves hardware-software co-design and the exploration of new computing paradigms. This thesis investigates energy-efficient digital hardware architectures at both the circuit- and the system level and develops adequate strategies to enable energy-proportionality for general-purpose near-sensor analytics, i.e. the proportionality of energy consumption to vastly varying dynamic changes in workload compute intensity. We follow a multi-stage architectural approach where highly energy-efficient circuits based on the compute framework of Vector-Symbolic Architectures make up the first, always-on stage of our architecture "stack". In the second part of this thesis, we shift focus to the next, more computationally performant stage around heterogeneous compute cluster architectures, with an emphasis on the memory hierarchy. Here we propose a novel architectural design pattern to tightly couple NVM to the hardware accelerator. Both aspects are demonstrated and evaluated in several silicon realizations in 65nm bulk, 22nm FDSOI and 16nm FinFET technology

Troubles psychiatriques, maintien à domicile et coopération : le point de vue des acteurs d'un réseau de soins

Dans le cadre de sa filière psychiatrie communautaire, ARCOS a mis sur pied un groupe de travail " coopération en psychiatrie ". Le groupe est chargé de mettre en place un modèle de coopération entre partenaires et de proposer des recommandations visant à améliorer la collaboration entre partenaires, afin de favoriser le maintien dans la communauté des personnes atteintes d'un handicap psychique. Cette recherche-action est issue des activités de ce groupe...[Auteurs, p. 8] [Table des matières] 1. Introduction : constat des difficultés de coopération; l'articulation des soins spécialisés et de premier; etc. 2. Méthode. 3. Entretiens individuels : procédure d'analyse ; etc. 4. Entretiens collectifs (focus groups). 5. Discussion et perspectives: 5.1 Participer à l'élaboration d'une politique de santé mentale. 5.2 Introduire la dimension du réseau dans les institutions. 5.3 Les attentes des acteurs du réseau vis à vis des institutions

Management of infections in critically ill returning travellers in the intensive care unit—II: clinical syndromes and special considerations in immunocompromised patients

This position paper is the second ESCMID Consensus Document on this subject and aims to provide intensivists, infectious disease specialists, and emergency physicians with a standardized approach to the management of serious travel-related infections in the intensive care unit (ICU) or the emergency department. This document is a cooperative effort between members of two European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) study groups and was coordinated by Hakan Leblebicioglu and Jordi Rello for ESGITM (ESCMID Study Group for Infections in Travellers and Migrants) and ESGCIP (ESCMID Study Group for Infections in Critically Ill Patients), respectively. A relevant expert on the subject of each section prepared the first draft which was then edited and approved by additional members from both ESCMID study groups. This article summarizes considerations regarding clinical syndromes requiring ICU admission in travellers, covering immunocompromised patients

64-kB 65-nm GC-eDRAM With Half-Select Support and Parallel Refresh Technique

Gain-cell-embedded DRAM (GC-eDRAM) is an attractive alternative to traditional 6T SRAM, as it offers higher density, lower leakage power, and two-ported functionality. However, its refresh requirement also results in power consumption and memory access limitations. In this letter, we present a GC-eDRAM architecture designed to overcome the refresh disadvantages using a novel technique for improving the availability of the memory. In addition, by using a read-before-write mechanism, half select is supported. The macro avoids the need for supply boosting by employing 3T-1C bitcells and also integrates a replica bit line for optimal access timing to improve performance and power consumption. A 64- kB GC-eDRAM macro was fabricated in a 65- nm process technology, providing a 40% area reduction compared to a 6T SRAM cell, while achieving a 99.99% bit yield with a 16 mu s retention time.ISSN:2573-960

The Jiddat al Harasis 073 strewn field, Sultanate of Oman

The recently discovered Jiddat al Harasis (JaH) 073 strewn field is the largest found so far in the Sultanate of Oman, covering an area of 19 x 6 km. The 3463 single stones collected range in weight from 52.2 kg down to <1 g (total weight 600.8 kg) and show a pronounced mass sorting. The strewn field shape can be approximated by a NW-SE-oriented ellipsoid, indicating an atmospheric entry from SE at a low angle relative to the surface. The meteorite belongs to the L6 ordinary chondrite group and shows S4 average shock grade. Smaller stones generally show a higher weathering grade resulting in a spread from W2 and W4. Enhanced weathering of the stones causing fragmentation after the fall is observed in sandy depressions. Five 14C measurements on stones of variable size and weathering grade yielded 14C from 3.8 to 49.9 dpm/kg. Three samples give a 14C/10Be age consistent with about 14.4 ka. For two samples the cosmogenic, trapped, and radiogenic noble gases were measured. The ratio of the 4He and 40Ar gas retention ages of 0.29 +/- 0.10 and that of the 3He and 21Ne cosmic ray exposure ages of 0.36 +/- 0.08 Ma indicate that JaH 073 experienced a complex exposure history and lost 4He and 40Ar due to a major collision. Fragmentation statistics indicate a single major atmospheric disruption and an originally relatively spherical shape of the object. Assuming the material collected represents the majority of fallen mass, and 90-99% of the original weight was lost by ablation, the pre-atmospheric minimum radius of the meteoroid with density 3.4 g cm^(-3) would have been at least 75 cm.The Meteoritics & Planetary Science archives are made available by the Meteoritical Society and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202