AIDI: An adaptive image denoising FPGA-based IP-core for real-time applications

The presence of noise in images can significantly impact the performances of digital image processing and computer vision algorithms. Thus, it should be removed to improve the robustness of the entire processing flow. The noise estimation in an image is also a key factor, since, to be more effective, algorithms and denoising filters should be tuned to the actual level of noise. Moreover, the complexity of these algorithms brings a new challenge in real-time image processing applications, requiring high computing capacity. In this context, hardware acceleration is crucial, and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) best fit the growing demand of computational capabilities. This paper presents an Adaptive Image Denoising IP-core (AIDI) for real-time applications. The core first estimates the level of noise in the input image, then applies an adaptive Gaussian smoothing filter to remove the estimated noise. The filtering parameters are computed on-the-fly, adapting them to the level of noise in the image, and pixel by pixel, to preserve image information (e.g., edges or corners). The FPGA-based architecture is presented, highlighting its improvements w.r.t. a standard static filtering approac

Thermoelectric Control of Deep UV LED to Improve Optical Performance

A thermoelectric control system using thermoelectric cooler devices (TEC) combined with an aluminum heat dissipater and a fan heat extractor allows improving considerably the optical performance of deep UV LEDs (285 nm) operating at desired temperatures. A proportional, integral, and differential controller (PID) control technique was implemented to control the voltage in the TEC devices, and therefore, the desired range of temperatures can be achieved. The PID parameters are obtained with computational simulations based on physical models and experimental data recordings of the temperature, using a thermistor sensor for the temperature measurements and SiC photodiode with UV enhanced system for the optical power measurements. The experimental data show that decreasing the temperature of the UV-C LED light source using a TEC increases the optical output power, while it has been shown that the lifetime of the LED devices can be improved

SATTA: a Self-Adaptive Temperature-based TDF awareness methodology for dynamically reconfigurable FPGAs

Dependability issues due to non functional properties are emerging as major cause of faults in modern digital systems. Effective countermeasures have to be presented to properly manage their critical timing effects. This paper presents a methodology to avoid transition delay faults in FPGA-based systems, with low area overhead. The approach is able to exploit temperature information and aging characteristics to minimize the cost in terms of performances degradation and power consumption. The architecture of a hardware manager able to avoid delay faults is presented and deeply analyzed, as well as its integration in the standard implementation design flow

SA-FEMIP: A Self-Adaptive Features Extractor and Matcher IP-Core Based on Partially Reconfigurable FPGAs for Space Applications

Video-based navigation (VBN) is increasingly used in space applications to enable autonomous entry, descent, and landing of aircrafts. VBN algorithms require real-time performances and high computational capabilities, especially to perform features extraction and matching (FEM). In this context, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can be employed as efficient hardware accelerators. This paper proposes an improved FPGA-based FEM module. Online self-adaptation of the parameters of both the image noise filter and the features extraction algorithm is adopted to improve the algorithm robustness. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed self-adaptive module. It introduces a marginal resource overhead and no timing performance degradation when compared with the reference state-of-the-art architecture

Dependable Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration with minimal area & time overheads on Xilinx FPGAS

Thanks to their flexibility, FPGAs are nowadays widely used to implement digital systems' prototypes and, more frequently, their final releases. Reconfiguration traditionally required an external controller to upload contents in the FPGA. Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR) opens new horizons in FPGAs' applications, providing many new utilization paradigms, as it enables an FPGA to reconfigure itself: no external controller is required since it can be included in the FPGA. However, DPR also introduces reliability issues related to errors in the partial reconfiguration bitstreams. FPGA manufacturers currently provide solutions that are not efficient. In this paper new DfD (Design for Dependability) techniques are proposed. Exploiting information density of configuration data, they improve the performance while providing the same reliability characteristics as the previous one

SAFE: a Self Adaptive Frame Enhancer FPGA-based IP-core for real-time space applications

Video-based navigation is an increasingly used procedure with hard real-time requirements and high computational effort. In this field, FPGA hardware accelleration supplyes low-cost and considerable performances enhancement. The video-based navigation algorithms extrapolate and correlates features from images, relying on their accuracy. Image enhancement provides more defined and contrasted frames, assuring high precision feature extraction. This work introduces an FPGA-based self-adaptive image enhancer. The IP-core is suitable for hard-real time applications, such as space applications, thanks to the guaranteed high-throughput

miEAA 2023: updates, new functional microRNA sets and improved enrichment visualizations

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play a critical role in regulating diverse biological processes. Extracting functional insights from a list of miRNAs is challenging, as each miRNA can potentially interact with hundreds of genes. To address this challenge, we developed miEAA, a flexible and comprehensive miRNA enrichment analysis tool based on direct and indirect miRNA annotation. The latest release of miEAA includes a data warehouse of 19 miRNA repositories, covering 10 different organisms and 139 399 functional categories. We have added information on the cellular context of miRNAs, isomiRs, and high-confidence miRNAs to improve the accuracy of the results. We have also improved the representation of aggregated results, including interactive Upset plots to aid users in understanding the interaction among enriched terms or categories. Finally, we demonstrate the functionality of miEAA in the context of ageing and highlight the importance of carefully considering the miRNA input list. MiEAA is free to use and publicly available at https://www.ccb.uni-saarland.de/mieaa/

FEMIP: A high performance FPGA-based features extractor & matcher for space applications

Nowadays, Video-Based Navigation (VBN) is increasingly used in space-applications. The future space-missions will include this approach during the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) phase, in order to increase the landing point precision. This paper presents FEMIP: a high performance FPGA-based features extractor and matcher tuned for space applications. It outperforms the current state-of-the-art, ensuring a higher throughput and a lower hardware resources usage

SAFE: a Self Adaptive Frame Enhancer FPGA-based IP-core for real-time space applications

Video-based navigation is an increasingly used procedure with hard real-time requirements and high computational effort. In this field, FPGA hardware accelleration supplyes low-cost and considerable performances enhancement. The video-based navigation algorithms extrapolate and correlates features from images, relying on their accuracy. Image enhancement provides more defined and contrasted frames, assuring high precision feature extraction. This work introduces an FPGA-based self-adaptive image enhancer. The IP-core is suitable for hard-real time applications, such as space applications, thanks to the guaranteed high-throughpu

L'hypertension artérielle et les désordres vasculaires induits par l'érythropoïétine recombinante humaine et le système rénine-angiotensine-aldostérone (Effet de l'exercice et des cellules T régulatrices)

L hypertension artérielle (HTA) est l une des pathologies les plus fréquentes et les plus préoccupantes des pays occidentaux. Elle est souvent associée au surpoids, à des maladies rénales, cardiaques et aussi à un dysfonctionnement du système endocrinien. Les désordres vasculaires compliquant l HTA induite par le traitement par l érythropoïétine recombinante (r-HuEPO) chez les patients ayant une maladie rénale chronique ou en lien avec une perturbation du système rénine-angiotensine-aldostérone (SRAA), associent une augmentation de la rigidité artérielle, une dysfonction endothéliale, un déséquilibre endothéline-1/monoxyde d azote (ET-1/NO) et un état inflammatoire. L'inflammation vasculaire contribue à la physiopathologie de l'HTA par l augmentation du stress oxydatif et l'activation des cellules immunitaires. Plusieurs études ont suggéré que le système immunitaire est impliqué dans le développement des maladies cardiovasculaires. Cependant le rôle des lymphocytes T régulatrices (Treg) dans l'HTA ou d'autres formes de maladies cardio-vasculaires, reste encore largement inconnu. Bien que la majorité des études ont montré que l HTA induite par l r-HuEPO est associée à une dysfunction endothéliale et à un déséquilibre du rapport (ET-1/NO), les mécanismes exacts restent à être identifier.Plusieurs études ont montré que l exercice physique d endurance prévient l HTA chez les patients ou les modèles animaux. L objectif de la première partie du travail est d étudier l impact du shear stress et de l exercice sur les désordres vasculaires et l HTA induits par l r-HuEPO, en présence d un déséquilibre endothélial (ET-1/NO). Pour ce faire, trois environnements ont été utilisés (in vitro (cellules en culture), in vitro (artères mésentériques (AM)) et in vivo (souris transgéniques sur-exprimant l ET-1 au niveau de l endothélium). Nos résultats montrent que l'association L-NAME/r-HuEPO est responsable d'une vasoconstriction flux-dépendante et une augmentation accrue du shear stress correspondant (plus de 25 dyn/cm2). Le Bosentan, inhibiteur non sélectif des récepteurs de l ET-1, empêche la vasoconstriction flux-dépendante engendrée par la combinaison L-NAME/rHu-EPO, sans pour autant corriger la vasodilatation; Le traitement des souris transgéniques eET-1 avec l r-HuEPO augmente la pression artérielle systolique, la concentration plasmatique en ET-1, le stress oxydatif, l infiltration des monocytes et des macrophages aortiques (MOMA-2), le taux des cytokines pro-inflammatoire INF-g, TNF-a et IL-6 et exacerbe la dysfonction endothéliale. L exercice physique prévient tous les effets délétères engendrés par l administration de l r-HuEPO. Il est à noter aussi que l exercice augmente le taux du Foxp3 dans la rate et le cortex rénal. Quant à la deuxième partie, il s'agissait de tester l effet du transfert adoptif des Treg sur l HTA et les désordres vasculaires induits par l administration d angiotensine II ou d aldostérone à des souris. Nos résultats montrent que le transfert adoptif des Treg prévient l HTA induite par l Ang II, l altération de la vasodilatation endothélium-dépendante, prévient l augmentation de la rigidité des AM, diminue le stress oxydatif et les taux plasmatiques des cytokines proinflammatoires (INF-g, TNF-a et IL-6), ainsi que l infiltration aortique et rénale des macrophages. Le transfert adoptif des Treg prévient partiellement l augmentation de la pression artérielle systolique induite par l Aldo, prévient l altération de la vasodilatation endothelium dépendante et le remodelage hypertrophique des AM, diminue le stress oxydatif et l infiltration des cellules immunitaires inflammatoires. Le transfert adoptif des cellules T effectrices (Teff) exacerbe la majorité des effets de l Aldo. Nos résultats justifient, d une part, l importance de l exercice comme outil préventif de l HTA induite par l r-HuEPO, et d autre part, présentent les Treg comme élément essential dans la modulation de l HTA et des désordres cardiovasculaires.Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most frequent disease and is of greatest concern in Western countries.HTN is often associated with overweight, kidney, heart and endocrine system disease. Vasculardisorders, associated with HTN induced by erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) treatment in chronic kidneydisease or in case of disruption of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), associated increasein arterial stiffness, endothelial dysfunction, unbalanced endothelin-1/nitric oxide ratio (ET-1/NO) andinflammation. Vascular inflammation contributes to the pathophysiology of hypertension by increasingoxidative stress and activation of immune cells. Several studies have suggested that the immune systemis involved in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the role of regulatory T cells (Treg)in HTN and other forms of cardiovascular diseases remains largely unknown. In addition, most of thestudies have shown that hypertension induced by r-HuEPO is related to endothelial dysfunction and theratio (ET-1/NO). The exact mechanisms remain to be identified. Several studies have shown thatphysical exercise prevents HTN in patients or animal models. The aim of the first part of this work is tostudy the impact of shear stress and exercise on HTN and vascular disorders induced by r-HuEPO, in thepresence of an endothelial imbalance (ET-1/NO). This was carried out in three settings: in vitro (culturecells), ex vivo (mesenteric arteries) and in vivo (transgenic mice overexpressing ET-1 in endothelialcells). Our results show that the association L-NAME/r-HuEPO is responsible for a significant decreasein intravascular diameter, in response to elevated intravascular flow resulting in a flow-dependentvasoconstriction and increased corresponding shear stress (more than 25 dyn/cm2). Bosentan (a nonselectiveantagonist of ET-1 receptors) inhibits flow-dependent vasoconstriction induced by thecombination L-NAME/rHu-EPO without correcting vasodilation. Treatment of ET-1 transgenic micewith r-HuEPO increases systolic blood pressure, ET-1 plasma concentration, oxidative stress, infiltrationof aortic monocytes and macrophages (MOMA-2), pro-inflammatory cytokines levels INF-g, TNF-a andIL-6 and exacerbate endothelial dysfunction. Exercise prevents all the deleterious effects of r-HuEPO. Itis also noteworthy that exercise increases the number of Foxp3-positive cells in the spleen and renalcortex. Then, the second aim of our study was to test the effect of adoptive transfer of Treg cells on HTNand vascular disorders induced in mice treated with angiotensin II (Ang II) or aldosterone (Aldo). Ourresults show that adoptive transfer of Treg prevents Ang II induced hypertension, endothelialdysfunction, prevents stiffness of mesenteric arteries, decreases oxidative stress and plasma levels ofpro-inflammatory cytokines (IFN-g, TNF-a and IL-6) and the aortic and renal infiltration ofmacrophages. Adoptive transfer of Treg prevents the increase in systolic blood pressure induced byAldo, prevents impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilatation and hypertrophic remodelling ofmesenteric arteries, decreases oxidative stress and infiltration of inflammatory immune cells. Theadoptive transfer of T effectors cells (Teff) exacerbates the majority of the Aldo effects. Our resultsjustify, on one hand, the importance of exercise as a preventive tool for hypertension induced by r-HuEPO, and on the other hand, highlight the role of Treg as an essential component in the modulation ofhypertension and cardiovascular disorders.AVIGNON-Bib. numérique (840079901) / SudocSudocFranceF