An AER handshake-less modular infrastructure PCB with x8 2.5Gbps LVDS serial links

Nowadays spike-based brain processing emulation is taking off. Several EU and others worldwide projects are demonstrating this, like SpiNNaker, BrainScaleS, FACETS, or NeuroGrid. The larger the brain process emulation on silicon is, the higher the communication performance of the hosting platforms has to be. Many times the bottleneck of these system implementations is not on the performance inside a chip or a board, but in the communication between boards. This paper describes a novel modular Address-Event-Representation (AER) FPGA-based (Spartan6) infrastructure PCB (the AER-Node board) with 2.5Gbps LVDS high speed serial links over SATA cables that offers a peak performance of 32-bit 62.5Meps (Mega events per second) on board-to-board communications. The board allows back compatibility with parallel AER devices supporting up to x2 28-bit parallel data with asynchronous handshake. These boards also allow modular expansion functionality through several daughter boards. The paper is focused on describing in detail the LVDS serial interface and presenting its performance.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-02/01Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-02/01Junta de Andalucía TIC-6091Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad PRI-PIMCHI-2011-076

Admírase de que Flora, siendo toda fuego y luz, sea toda hielo” (con una nota sobre la antigua Escitia)

El presente soneto es una muestra clara de la pervivencia de la poética de la lírica amorosa de los cancioneros castellanos del siglo XV en el Barroco español y, particularmente, en Quevedo; en la composición se hace gala de la técnica de contrarios u opósitos al presentar a la amada por medio de una doble metáfora, fundamentada sobre la referencia a Escitia (la zona fría por excelencia, como revelan múltiples fuentes desde el mundo clásico hasta la época de Quevedo) y al Etna (también por excelencia el volcán de ardientes lavas, lo que llevó en múltiples ocasiones a servirse de su nombre de forma genérica o antonomástica). El artificio, no obstante, es mucho más complejo en Quevedo, pues cuaja en dos formas de discurso gemelas aunque opuestas en su propósito, el elogio o laus y la invectiva o vituperatio, fundidas y entremezcladas con habilidad y suma gracia; de ese modo, el poema une el piropo a la pulla (aunque el tono de esta última acabe por imponerse), en consonancia con los gustos literarios quevedescos. This sonnet clearly shows the survival of some poetic principles of XVth Century Castilian Cancioneros, within the particular realm of love-lyric, in Baroque Art and more specifically in Quevedo’s poetry. The beloved female is depicted by means of a double metaphor, depending upon the so-called «technique of opposite or contrary terms». First, she is known as Scythia (the coldest area of the world, according to a large number of sources from the Classical period onwards) and the Etna (the famous volcano, whose name was commonly used in a generic or antonomastic way). In spite of these similarities, Quevedo’s poem is much more complex since it bears two different and opposite samples of the same form of speech: praise or laus and mockery or vituperatio, wisely and amusingly melted and mingled. In accordance with Quevedo’s literary taste, this sonnet conveys both compliments and quips (the poem’s tone being given by the latter) at the same time

Small-polaron hopping conductivity in bilayer manganite La1.2_{1.2}Sr1.8_{1.8}Mn2_{2}O7_{7}

We report anisotropic resistivity measurements on a La$_{1.2}$Sr$_{1.8}$Mn$_{2}$O$_{7}$ single crystal over a temperature $T$ range from 2 to 400 K and in magnetic fields $H$ up to 14 T. For $T\geq 218$ K, the temperature dependence of the zero-field in-plane $\rho_{ab}(T)$ resistivity obeys the adiabatic small polaron hopping mechanism, while the out-of-plane $\rho_{c}(T)$ resistivity can be ascribed by an Arrhenius law with the same activation energy. Considering the magnetic character of the polarons and the close correlation between the resistivity and magnetization, we developed a model which allows the determination of $\rho_{ab,c}(H,T)$. The excellent agreement of the calculations with the measurements indicates that small polarons play an essential role in the electrical transport properties in the paramagnetic phase of bilayer manganites.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Physical Review

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Modified 2-Deoxystreptamine Dimers

Aminoglycosides are powerful antibiotics, but the emergence of resistant bacterial strains has prompted the search for analogues with better pharmacological profiles. The synthesis of 2-deoxystreptamine (2-DOS) dimers linked by polyamines and analogues based on furylcarbopeptoid skeletons is described. Potent and selective ligands for bacterial 16S rRNA were identified using microarray techniques by determining the affinity of these derivatives toward bacterial and human ribosomal RNA

Paleoenvironmental evolution of estuarine systems during the last 14000 years - the case of Douro Estuary (NW Portugal)

Proceedings of the 8th International Coastal Symposium, ICS 2004, Itajaí/Itapema, Santa Catarina, Brazil, 14 to 19 March 200

Ultrasonic evidence of an uncorrelated cluster formation temperature in manganites with first-order magnetic transition at T_C

Ultrasonic attenuation and phase velocity measurements have been carried out in the ferromagnetic perovskites La_{2/3}Ca_{1/3}MnO_3 and La_{2/3}Sr_{1/3}MnO_3. Data show that the transition at the Curie temperature, T_C, changes from first- to second-order as Sr replaces Ca in the perovskite. The compound with first-order transition shows also another transition at a temperature T* > T_C. We interpret the temperature window T_C < T < T* as a region of coexistence of a phase separated regime of metallic and insulating regions, in the line of recent theoretical proposals.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Extracorporeal immune therapy with immobilized agonistic anti-Fas antibodies leads to transient reduction of circulating neutrophil numbers and limits tissue damage after hemorrhagic shock/resuscitation in a porcine model

Background: Hemorrhagic shock/resuscitation is associated with aberrant neutrophil activation and organ failure. This experimental porcine study was done to evaluate the effects of Fas-directed extracorporeal immune therapy with a leukocyte inhibition module (LIM) on hemodynamics, neutrophil tissue infiltration, and tissue damage after hemorrhagic shock/resuscitation. Methods: In a prospective controlled double-armed animal trial 24 Munich Mini Pigs (30.3 +/- 3.3 kg) were rapidly haemorrhaged to reach a mean arterial pressure (MAP) of 35 +/- 5 mmHg, maintained hypotensive for 45 minutes, and then were resuscitated with Ringer's solution to baseline MAP. With beginning of resuscitation 12 pigs underwent extracorporeal immune therapy for 3 hours (LIM group) and 12 pigs were resuscitated according to standard medical care (SMC). Haemodynamics, haematologic, metabolic, and organ specific damage parameters were monitored. Neutrophil infiltration was analyzed histologically after 48 and 72 hours. Lipid peroxidation, and apoptosis were specifically determined in lung, bowel, and liver. Results: In the LIM group, neutrophil counts were reduced versus SMC during extracorporeal immune therapy. After 72 hours, the haemodynamic parameters MAP and cardiac output (CO) were significantly better in the LIM group. Histological analyses showed reduction of shock-related neutrophil tissue infiltration in the LIM group, especially in the lungs. Lower amounts of apoptotic cells and lipid peroxidation were found in organs after LIM treatment. Conclusions: Transient Fas-directed extracorporeal immune therapy may protect from posthemorrhagic neutrophil tissue infiltration and tissue damage

Competition between superconductor : ferromagnetic stray magnetic fields in YBa2Cu3O7−x films pierced with Co nano-rods

Altres ajuts: Cost Actions MP1201 and CM1301 (CELINA). A. Sanchez acknowledges a grant from ICREA Academia, funded by the Generalitat de Catalunya. We are grateful to I. Rivas and R. Valero from LMA-INA (Zaragoza, Spain) for experimental help in the cobalt growth and Ar+milling processes, and Dr C. Magén and Dr. P. Algarabel from LMA-INA (Zaragoza, Spain) for facilitating the use of their high performance computing server to perform the micromagnetic simulations. We acknowledge R. Morales from UPV/EHU and Ikerbasque, A. Fernández-Pacheco from U. Cambridge and S. Valencia from Helmholtz-Zentrum, Berlin for fruitful discussions.Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are two antagonistic phenomena that combined can lead to a rich phenomenology of interactions, resulting in novel physical properties and unique functionalities. Here we propose an original hybrid system formed by a high-temperature superconducting film, patterned with antidots, and with ferromagnetic nano-rods grown inside them. This particular structure exhibits the synergic influence of superconductor (SC) - ferromagnetic (FM) stray fields, in both the superconducting behaviour of the film and the three-dimensional (3D) magnetic structure of nano-rods. We show that FM stray fields directly influence the critical current density of the superconducting film. Additional functionalities appear due to the interaction of SC stray fields, associated to supercurrent loops, with the non-trivial 3D remanent magnetic structure of FM nano-rods. This work unravels the importance of addressing quantitatively the effect of stray magnetic fields from both, the superconductor and the ferromagnet in hybrid magnetic nano-devices based on high temperature superconductors