A high throughput hardware architecture for parallel recursive systematic convolutional encoders

During the last years, recursive systematic convolutional (RSC) encoders have found application in modern telecommunication systems to reduce the bit error rate (BER). In view of the necessity of increasing the throughput of such applications, several approaches using hardware implementations of RSC encoders were explored. In this paper, we propose a hardware intellectual property (IP) for high throughput RSC encoders. The IP core exploits a methodology based on the ABCD matrices model which permits to increase the number of inputs bits processed in parallel. Through an analysis of the proposed network topology and by exploiting data relative to the implementation on Zynq 7000 xc7z010clg400-1 field programmable gate array (FPGA), an estimation of the dependency of the input data rate and of the source occupation on the parallelism degree is performed. Such analysis, together with the BER curves, provides a description of the principal merit parameters of a RSC encoder

Noise Induced Phenomena in the Dynamics of Two Competing Species

Noise through its interaction with the nonlinearity of the living systems can give rise to counter-intuitive phenomena. In this paper we shortly review noise induced effects in different ecosystems, in which two populations compete for the same resources. We also present new results on spatial patterns of two populations, while modeling real distributions of anchovies and sardines. The transient dynamics of these ecosystems are analyzed through generalized Lotka-Volterra equations in the presence of multiplicative noise, which models the interaction between the species and the environment. We find noise induced phenomena such as quasi-deterministic oscillations, stochastic resonance, noise delayed extinction, and noise induced pattern formation. In addition, our theoretical results are validated with experimental findings. Specifically the results, obtained by a coupled map lattice model, well reproduce the spatial distributions of anchovies and sardines, observed in a marine ecosystem. Moreover, the experimental dynamical behavior of two competing bacterial populations in a meat product and the probability distribution at long times of one of them are well reproduced by a stochastic microbial predictive model.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; to be published in Math. Model. Nat. Phenom. (2016

On the conceptual design of the novel balanced rolling piston expander

This work presents a novel type of positive-displacement expander, named the balanced rolling piston expander. It proposes also a design procedure and assesses the mechanical behavior of a virtual prototype. The expander is conceptually capable of operating at higher fluid temperatures than other positive-displacement expanders, such as scroll- or screw-type machines. Moreover, it employs a radially balanced rotor, differently from common rolling piston technologies and does not require any timing mechanism for filling and emptying the working chambers, differently from Wankel or reciprocating solutions. The investigated virtual prototype is chosen for the study case of a small-scale heat recovery unit currently under investigation. The results indicate that a prototype of about 300 mm in diameter and 100 mm in length is capable of an ideal power of 20 kW. Moreover, vane accelerations can be relatively high but anyhow comparable to those in sliding vane machines, while pressure drops in percent terms are in general lower than 1%. Lastly, load-induced displacements are manageable by a proper radial clearance at room temperature. In brief, the balanced rolling piston expander is a promising option for small-scale power generation units operating with temperatures not achievable by common technologies and, hence, it deserves further investigation

Searching for Ground Truth: a stepping stone in automating genre classification

This paper examines genre classification of documents and its role in enabling the effective automated management of digital documents by digital libraries and other repositories. We have previously presented genre classification as a valuable step toward achieving automated extraction of descriptive metadata for digital material. Here, we present results from experiments using human labellers, conducted to assist in genre characterisation and the prediction of obstacles which need to be overcome by an automated system, and to contribute to the process of creating a solid testbed corpus for extending automated genre classification and testing metadata extraction tools across genres. We also describe the performance of two classifiers based on image and stylistic modeling features in labelling the data resulting from the agreement of three human labellers across fifteen genre classes.

A systematic review of criteria used to report complications in soft tissue and oncologic surgical clinical research studies in dogs and cats.

ObjectiveTo evaluate reporting of surgical complications and other adverse events in clinical research articles describing soft tissue and oncologic surgery in dogs and cats.Study designSystematic literature review.SampleEnglish-language articles describing soft tissue and oncologic surgeries in client-owned dogs and cats published in peer-reviewed journals from 2013 to 2016.MethodsCAB, AGRICOLA, and MEDLINE databases were searched for eligible articles. Article characteristics relevant to complications were abstracted and summarized, including reported events, definitions, criteria used to classify events according to severity and time frame, and relevant citations.ResultsOne hundred fifty-one articles involving 10 522 animals were included. Canine retrospective case series of dogs predominated. Ninety-two percent of articles mentioned complications in study results, but only 7.3% defined the term complication. Articles commonly described complications according to time frame and severity, but terminology and classification criteria were highly variable, conflicting between studies, or not provided. Most (58%) reported complications could have been graded with a published veterinary adverse event classification scheme, although common intraoperative complications were notable exceptions.ConclusionDefinitions and criteria used to classify and report soft tissue and oncologic surgical complications are often absent, incomplete, or contradictory among studies.Clinical significanceLack of consistent terminology contributes to inadequate communication of important information about surgical complications. Standardization of terminology and consistency in severity scoring will improve comparative evaluation of clinical research results

EFFECT OF SIDEROPHORES AGAINST E. COLI O157:H7

In this study, the inhibiting activity of siderophores produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens against Escherichia coli O157:7 was assayed. Siderophores were extracted from P. fluorescens cultures and preliminarily tested by C.A.S. reagent and UV. The siderophores activity against E. coli O157:H7 was characterised by the determination of Minimal Inhibiting Concentration (MIC). Furthermore, E. coli O157:H7 growth tests with and without siderophores were prepared at 12°C, pH 7 and 5, aw 0.997 and 0,988. The MIC was assessed at 7 μg/ml whereas the growth test showed a high inhibiting activity with the exception of tests at pH 5

A robust ransac-based planet radius estimation for onboard visual based navigation

Individual spacecraft manual navigation by human operators from ground station is expected to be an emerging problem as the number of spacecraft for space exploration increases. Hence, as an attempt to reduce the burden to control multiple spacecraft, future missions will employ smart spacecraft able to navigate and operate autonomously. Recently, image-based optical navigation systems have proved to be promising solutions for inexpensive autonomous navigation. In this paper, we propose a robust image processing pipeline for estimating the center and radius of planets and moons in an image taken by an on-board camera. Our custom image pre-processing pipeline is tailored for resource-constrained applications, as it features a computationally simple processing flow with a limited memory footprint. The core of the proposed pipeline is a best-fitting model based on the RANSAC algorithm that is able to handle images corrupted with Gaussian noise, image distortions, and frame drops. We report processing time, pixel-level error of estimated body center and radius and the effect of noise on estimated body parameters for a dataset of synthetic images

Molecular mechanisms of photosensitization induced by drugs XIV: Two different behaviours in the photochemistry and photosensitization of antibacterials containing a fluoroquinolone like chromophore

This paper deals with the photosensitizing activity of FLQs towards two different biosubstrates, membrane and DNA. Thein vitrophototoxic activity of these drugsvs.DNA presents peculiar features with respect to thatvs.membranes, probably due to a specific binding of the drugs to the double helix and to the operativeness of different photosensitization mechanisms with the two types of biosubstrates. A description of the UVA photochemistry and the photosensitizing properties of two significant examples in the FLQ family is reported. The investigated compounds are Enoxacin, 1-ethyl-6-fluoro-1,4-dihydro-4- oxo-7-[1-piperazinyl]-1,8-naphtyridine-3-carboxilic acid and Rufloxacin, 9-fluoro-2,3-dihydro-10-4´-methyl- 1´-piperazinyl-7-oxo-7H-pyrido[1,2,3−de]-1,4-benzothiazine-6-carboxylic acid