Design and Optimization of Residual Neural Network Accelerators for Low-Power FPGAs Using High-Level Synthesis

Residual neural networks are widely used in computer vision tasks. They enable the construction of deeper and more accurate models by mitigating the vanishing gradient problem. Their main innovation is the residual block which allows the output of one layer to bypass one or more intermediate layers and be added to the output of a later layer. Their complex structure and the buffering required by the residual block make them difficult to implement on resource-constrained platforms. We present a novel design flow for implementing deep learning models for field programmable gate arrays optimized for ResNets, using a strategy to reduce their buffering overhead to obtain a resource-efficient implementation of the residual layer. Our high-level synthesis (HLS)-based flow encompasses a thorough set of design principles and optimization strategies, exploiting in novel ways standard techniques such as temporal reuse and loop merging to efficiently map ResNet models, and potentially other skip connection-based NN architectures, into FPGA. The models are quantized to 8-bit integers for both weights and activations, 16-bit for biases, and 32-bit for accumulations. The experimental results are obtained on the CIFAR-10 dataset using ResNet8 and ResNet20 implemented with Xilinx FPGAs using HLS on the Ultra96-V2 and Kria KV260 boards. Compared to the state-of-the-art on the Kria KV260 board, our ResNet20 implementation achieves 2.88X speedup with 0.5% higher accuracy of 91.3%, while ResNet8 accuracy improves by 2.8% to 88.7%. The throughputs of ResNet8 and ResNet20 are 12971 FPS and 3254 FPS on the Ultra96 board, and 30153 FPS and 7601 FPS on the Kria KV26, respectively. They Pareto-dominate state-of-the-art solutions concerning accuracy, throughput, and energy

Nanostructures for SERS in living cell

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has received renewed interest in recent years in fields such as trace analysis, biorelated diagnosis, and living cell study. However, the interference of impurities left on the surface from the preparation process of substrates limits to some extent the application of SERS. In the present paper, we propose a method to prepare clean SERS substrates by a combined method of hydrothermal green synthesis and thermal treatment to obtain a clean and impurity-free surface for SERS measurements, suitable for cells growth. The goal of such activity was the study of the membrane proteome, with special attention to prion protein (PrPC), in its physiological ambient. SERS has been used to evidence the PrPC-Cu(II) interaction in a rat neuroblastoma cell line (B104), known to overexpress the cellular prion protein PrPC

Intrathecal tigecycline is a safe and effective treatment for central nervous system infections

Both the safety and effectiveness of intrathecal tigecycline (TGC) for treatment of infections of the central nervous system (CNS) are discussed using the clinical findings from a study of a recent patient who came to our attention, along with a literature review. Although penetration into the CNS is low (approximately 11%), intraventricular TGC could help treat patients with severe post-neurosurgical CNS infections. The use of multiple routes of TGC administration appears to be encouraging and should be considered in managing life-threatening intraventricular infections

Candida guilliermondii Peritonitis During Peritoneal Dialysis. Case Report and Literature Review

Peritonitis is the most frequent complication of peritoneal dialysis (PD) and 3–6% of episodes have fungal origin. Candida guilliermondii is an uncommon species of Candida with invasive behavior in patients affected by severe underlying disorders or using indwelling vascular devices. Here we report the case of an 84-year-old woman undergoing outpatient PD for 4 years who had fever, chills, and diffuse increasing abdominal pain. After empiric antimicrobial therapy, based on teicoplanin in the dialytic circuit plus oral ciprofloxacin plus fluconazole, the patient was hospitalized. Afterwards, the culture from the peritoneal fluid showed the presence of C. guilliermondii. PD-related fungal peritonitis is an infrequent event, but the morbidity and mortality rates are significant. In this scenario, appropriate prevention strategies including antifungal prophylaxis during antibiotic treated bacterial peritonitis should be evaluated

Indirect hyperbilirubinemia and jaundice during chronic hepatitis C in an HIV-infected patient treated with glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (GLE/PIB) and antiretroviral therapy (ART). The first reported case in Italy

Glecaprevir (GLE)/pibrentasvir (PIB) is a pangenotypic direct- acting antiviral regimen approved for treating chronic hepatitis C virus. Primary treatment and re-treatment with GLE/PIB are effective and safe for patients without decompensated liver cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis C in a real-world clinical setting. However, in the context of compensated cirrhosis and concomitant adminis- tration of inhibitors of cytochromes, a careful monitoring of liver biomarkers, as well as therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), may be advisable during GLE/PIB therapy. The GLE / PIB combination is very effective and safe in achieving a sustained virological response, but it can be associated with the development of severe hepatic adverse events, which require virological and serum con- centration monitoring of the two drugs to prevent a serious liver damage. The possible onset of hyperbilirubinemia must not neces- sarily lead to the suspension of therapy, because the phenomenon may be transient. We report what is likely the first known case of severe jaundice after treatment with GLE/PIB in Italy in a patient with compensated chronic hepatitis in the context of HIV disease

Status and perspectives of the 4 pi charged particles multidetector CHIMERA

The construction of the multidetector CHIMERA designed to detect and identify charged particles and fragments emitted in heavy ion reactions at intermediate energy is in progress and is coming to an end. The construction of this multidetector is presented in this paper as well as the status of the project

Association between preoperative evaluation with lung ultrasound and outcome in frail elderly patients undergoing orthopedic surgery for hip fractures: study protocol for an Italian multicenter observational prospective study (LUSHIP)

Hip fracture is one of the most common orthopedic causes of hospital admission in frail elderly patients. Hip fracture fixation in this class of patients is considered a high-risk procedure. Preoperative physical examination, plasma natriuretic peptide levels (BNP, Pro-BNP), and cardiovascular scoring systems (ASA-PS, RCRI, NSQIP-MICA) have all been demonstrated to underestimate the risk of postoperative complications. We designed a prospective multicenter observational study to assess whether preoperative lung ultrasound examination can predict better postoperative events thanks to the additional information they provide in the form of "indirect" and "direct" cardiac and pulmonary lung ultrasound signs

Ceftolozane/Tazobactam for Treatment of Severe ESBL-Producing Enterobacterales Infections: A Multicenter Nationwide Clinical Experience (CEFTABUSE II Study)

Background. Few data are reported in the literature about the outcome of patients with severe extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Enterobacterales (ESBL-E) infections treated with ceftolozane/tazobactam (C/T), in empiric or definitive therapy.Methods. A multicenter retrospective study was performed in Italy (June 2016-June 2019). Successful clinical outcome was defined as complete resolution of clinical signs/symptoms related to ESBL-E infection and lack of microbiological evidence of infection. The primary end point was to identify predictors of clinical failure of C/T therapy.Results. C/T treatment was documented in 153 patients: pneumonia was the most common diagnosis (n = 46, 30%), followed by 34 cases of complicated urinary tract infections (22.2%). Septic shock was observed in 42 (27.5%) patients. C/T was used as empiric therapy in 46 (30%) patients and as monotherapy in 127 (83%) patients. Favorable clinical outcome was observed in 128 (83.7%) patients; 25 patients were considered to have failed C/T therapy. Overall, 30-day mortality was reported for 15 (9.8%) patients. At multivariate analysis, Charlson comorbidity index >4 (odds ratio [OR], 2.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9-3.5; P = .02), septic shock (OR, 6.2; 95% CI, 3.8-7.9; P < .001), and continuous renal replacement therapy (OR, 3.1; 95% CI, 1.9-5.3; P = .001) were independently associated with clinical failure, whereas empiric therapy displaying in vitro activity (OR, 0.12; 95% CI, 0.01-0.34; P < .001) and adequate source control of infection (OR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.14-0.55; P < .001) were associated with clinical success.Conclusions. Data show that C/T could be a valid option in empiric and/or targeted therapy in patients with severe infections caused by ESBL-producing Enterobacterales. Clinicians should be aware of the risk of clinical failure with standard-dose C/T therapy in septic patients receiving CRRT

A genome-wide association study for survival from a multi-centre European study identified variants associated with COVID-19 risk of death

: The clinical manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection vary widely among patients, from asymptomatic to life-threatening. Host genetics is one of the factors that contributes to this variability as previously reported by the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative (HGI), which identified sixteen loci associated with COVID-19 severity. Herein, we investigated the genetic determinants of COVID-19 mortality, by performing a case-only genome-wide survival analysis, 60 days after infection, of 3904 COVID-19 patients from the GEN-COVID and other European series (EGAS00001005304 study of the COVID-19 HGI). Using imputed genotype data, we carried out a survival analysis using the Cox model adjusted for age, age2, sex, series, time of infection, and the first ten principal components. We observed a genome-wide significant (P-value < 5.0 × 10-8) association of the rs117011822 variant, on chromosome 11, of rs7208524 on chromosome 17, approaching the genome-wide threshold (P-value = 5.19 × 10-8). A total of 113 variants were associated with survival at P-value < 1.0 × 10-5 and most of them regulated the expression of genes involved in immune response (e.g., CD300 and KLR genes), or in lung repair and function (e.g., FGF19 and CDH13). Overall, our results suggest that germline variants may modulate COVID-19 risk of death, possibly through the regulation of gene expression in immune response and lung function pathways

Gain- and Loss-of-Function CFTR Alleles Are Associated with COVID-19 Clinical Outcomes

Carriers of single pathogenic variants of the CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) gene have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 and 14-day death. The machine learning post-Mendelian model pinpointed CFTR as a bidirectional modulator of COVID-19 outcomes. Here, we demonstrate that the rare complex allele [G576V;R668C] is associated with a milder disease via a gain-of-function mechanism. Conversely, CFTR ultra-rare alleles with reduced function are associated with disease severity either alone (dominant disorder) or with another hypomorphic allele in the second chromosome (recessive disorder) with a global residual CFTR activity between 50 to 91%. Furthermore, we characterized novel CFTR complex alleles, including [A238V;F508del], [R74W;D1270N;V201M], [I1027T;F508del], [I506V;D1168G], and simple alleles, including R347C, F1052V, Y625N, I328V, K68E, A309D, A252T, G542*, V562I, R1066H, I506V, I807M, which lead to a reduced CFTR function and thus, to more severe COVID-19. In conclusion, CFTR genetic analysis is an important tool in identifying patients at risk of severe COVID-19