Normalizing or not normalizing? An open question for floating-point arithmetic in embedded systems

Emerging embedded applications lack of a specific standard when they require floating-point arithmetic. In this situation they use the IEEE-754 standard or ad hoc variations of it. However, this standard was not designed for this purpose. This paper aims to open a debate to define a new extension of the standard to cover embedded applications. In this work, we only focus on the impact of not performing normalization. We show how eliminating the condition of normalized numbers, implementation costs can be dramatically reduced, at the expense of a moderate loss of accuracy. Several architectures to implement addition and multiplication for non-normalized numbers are proposed and analyzed. We show that a combined architecture (adder-multiplier) can halve the area and power consumption of its counterpart IEEE-754 architecture. This saving comes at the cost of reducing an average of about 10 dBs the Signal-to-Noise Ratio for the tested algorithms. We think these results should encourage researchers to perform further investigation in this issue.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Unbiased Rounding for HUB Floating-point Addition

Copyright (c) 2018 IEEE doi:10.1109/TC.2018.2807429Half-Unit-Biased (HUB) is an emerging format based on shifting the represented numbers by half Unit in the Last Place. This format simplifies two’s complement and roundto- nearest operations by preventing any carry propagation. This saves power consumption, time and area. Taking into account that the IEEE floating-point standard uses an unbiased rounding as the default mode, this feature is also desirable for HUB approaches. In this paper, we study the unbiased rounding for HUB floating-point addition in both as standalone operation and within FMA. We show two different alternatives to eliminate the bias when rounding the sum results, either partially or totally. We also present an error analysis and the implementation results of the proposed architectures to help the designers to decide what their best option are.TIN2013-42253-P, TIN2016-80920-R, JA2012P12-TIC-169

Fast HUB Floating-point Adder for FPGA

Several previous publications have shown the area and delay reduction when implementing real number computation using HUB formats for both floating-point and fixed-point. In this paper, we present a HUB floating-point adder for FPGA which greatly improves the speed of previous proposed HUB designs for these devices. Our architecture is based on the double path technique which reduces the execution time since each path works in parallel. We also deal with the implementation of unbiased rounding in the proposed adder. Experimental results are presented showing the goodness of the new HUB adder for FPGA.TIN2016- 80920-R, JA2012 P12-TIC-1692, JA2012 P12-TIC-147

New Results on Non-normalized Floating-point Formats

Compulsory normalization of the represented numbers is a key requirement of the floating-point standard. This requirement contributes to fundamental characteristics of the standard, such as taking the most of the precision available, reproducibility and facilitation of comparison and other operations. However, it also imposes a high restriction in effectiveness of basic arithmetic operation implementation. In many embedded applications may be worth to sacrifice the benefits of normalization for gaining in implementation metrics. This paper analyzes and measures the effect of removing the normalization requirement in terms of precision and implementation savings for embedded applications. We propose several adder and multiplier architectures to deal with non-normalized floating-point numbers, and quantify the accuracy loss and the improvements in hardware implementation. Our experiments show that it is possible to reduce the area and power consumption up to 78% in ASIC and 50% in FPGA implementations with a reasonable accuracy loss.TIN2016-80920-R, JA2012 P12-TIC-1692, JA2012 P12-TIC-147

Cinética de imbibición e isotermas de adsorción de humedad de la semilla de jamaica (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.)

La jamaica es un arbusto que se cultiva para comercializar el cáliz de sus flores, pero como subproducto se obtienen las semillas, que por su valor nutritivo y alto rendimiento representan un potencial económico considerable. El objetivo de este trabajo fue describir la cinética de imbibición y las isotermas de adsorción de humedad a 25, 35 y 45ºC en tres variedades cultivadas en México ("Criolla", "China" y "Sudán"). Los resultados mostraron que el proceso de imbibición describe una curva que se ajusta al modelo de Weibull, con coeficientes α de 12.99, 8.81 y 2.21 horas y β de 0.83, 1.70 y 0.72 para las variedades Criolla, China y Sudán, respectivamente. Los modelos de GAB, y de Chung-Pfost describieron adecuadamente las isotermas de adsorción. La humedad de la capa monomolecular (coeficiente a del modelo de GAB) resultó entre 3.97 y 5.71% b.s., lo cual representa una actividad de agua entre 0.1 y 0.30. Los calores isostéricos totales de adsorción obtenidos en el intervalo de humedades de equilibrio de 6 a 22% b.s., oscilaron entre 52.85 y 42.90 .90 kJmּol-1, 60.99 y 43.41 kJmּol-1 y 51.23 y 43.20 kJmּol-1para las variedades Criolla, China y Sudán, respectivamente. A humedades de equilibrio iguales o superiores a 12 % b.s., el calor isostérico fue similar a la entalpía de vaporización del agua, pero a humedades inferiores a 6% b.s., éste alcanzó los valores más elevados

Match activities of top-class female soccer assistant referees in relation

The aim of this study was to examine the match activities of top-class female assistant referees (mean age 34.8 years, s=3.5; stature 1.64 m, s=0.05; weight 58.1 kg, s=7.4; body mass index 21.6 kg · m–2, s=2.4) in relation to the offside line. Computerized match analyses were performed on 14 top-class assistant referees during 10 matches (a total of 20 observations) from the 2006 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) under-20 Women's World Championship held in Russia. In addition, the position of the second last defensive player of both teams was calculated throughout the matches to determine the distance from the assistant referee to the offside line. The total distance covered during a game was 5594 m (s=473), of which 27% was sideways movements (1492 m, s=135). High-intensity activities (>13 km · h–1) accounted for 1999 m (s=371). Mean distance from the offside line during the entire match was 1.06 m (s=0.26). Total distance covered, high-intensity activities, and distance from the offside line were not different (P>0.05) between the two halves of the game or consecutive 15-min match periods. Our results show that: (1) the kinematic demands placed on top-class female assistant referees are similar to those of top-class male assistant refereeing except for the amount of high-intensity activities, and (2) assistant referees were able to maintain the distance from the offside line during the match, which suggests an ability to keep up with the pace of the play throughout the matc

Oral administration of zein-based nanoparticles reduces glycemia and improves glucose tolerance in rats

The aim was to evaluate the effect of zein-based nanoparticles on the glucose homeostasis, following oral administration to Wistar rats. For this purpose, bare nanoparticles (NP, with tropism for the upper intestinal regions) and poly(ethylene glycol)-coated nanoparticles (NP-PEG), with the capability to reach the ileum and cecum of animals, were evaluated. Both formulations were spherical in shape, displaying sizes around 200 nm and a negative surface zeta potential. The oral administration of a single dose of these nanoparticles to animals (50 mg/kg) induced a significant decrease of the glycemia, compared control rats and in animals treated with the free protein (p < 0.001). Moreover, these nanoparticles improved the glycemic control against an intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test; particularly NP-PEG. These findings would be due to an increased release of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) by L-cells, which are more abundant in distal regions of the intestine. In fact, the GLP-1 blood levels of animals treated with nanoparticles were significantly higher than controls (about 40 % and 60 % for NP and NP-PEG groups, respectively). This higher capability of NP-PEG, with respect to NP, to increase the release of GLP-1 and control glycemia would be related to its ability to reach the distal areas of the small intestine

Computer-assisted dental implant placement following free flap reconstruction: virtual planning, CAD/CAM templates, dynamic navigation and augmented reality

Image-guided surgery, prosthetic-based virtual planning, 3D printing, and CAD/CAM technology are changing head and neck ablative and reconstructive surgical oncology. Due to quality-of-life improvement, dental implant rehabilitation could be considered in every patient treated with curative intent. Accurate implant placement is mandatory for prosthesis long-term stability and success in oncologic patients. We present a prospective study, with a novel workflow, comprising 11 patients reconstructed with free flaps and 56 osseointegrated implants placed in bone flaps or remnant jaws (iliac crest, fibula, radial forearm, anterolateral thigh). Starting from CT data and jaw plaster model scanning, virtual dental prosthesis was designed. Then prosthetically driven dental implacement was also virtually planned and transferred to the patient by means of intraoperative infrared optical navigation (first four patients), and a combination of conventional static teeth supported 3D-printed acrylic guide stent, intraoperative dynamic navigation, and augmented reality for final intraoperative verification (last 7 patients). Coronal, apical, and angular deviation between virtual surgical planning and final guided intraoperative position was measured on each implant. There is a clear learning curve for surgeons when applying guided methods. Initial only-navigated cases achieved low accuracy but were comparable to non-guided freehand positioning due to jig registration instability. Subsequent dynamic navigation cases combining highly stable acrylic static guides as reference and registration markers result in the highest accuracy with a 1-1.5-mm deviation at the insertion point. Smartphone-based augmented reality visualization is a valuable tool for intraoperative visualization and final verification, although it is still a difficult technique for guiding surgery. A fixed screw-retained ideal dental prosthesis was achieved in every case as virtually planned. Implant placement, the final step in free flap oncological reconstruction, could be accurately planned and placed with image-guided surgery, 3D printing, and CAD/CAM technology. The learning curve could be overcome with preclinical laboratory training, but virtually designed and 3D-printed tracer registration stability is crucial for accurate and predictable results. Applying these concepts to our difficult oncologic patient subgroup with deep anatomic alterations ended in comparable results as those reported in non-oncologic patients.This work was supported by grant PI18/01625 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación-Instituto de Salud Carlos III and European Regional Development Fund "Una manera de hacer Europa"). This study was also supported by Ticare® implants (Mozo-Grau, Valladolid, Spain). The funder was not involved in the study design, collection, analysis, interpretation of data, the writing of this article or the decision to submit it for publication

Evaluation of triple negative breast cancer with heterogeneous immune infiltration

Intratumor heterogeneity; Transcriptomics; Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytesHeterogeneïtat intratumoral; Transcriptòmica; Limfòcits infiltrants de tumorsHeterogeneidad intratumoral; Transcriptómica; Linfocitos infiltrantes de tumoresIntroduction: Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are known to be a prognostic and predictive biomarker in breast cancer, particularly in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients. International guidelines have been proposed to evaluate them in the clinical setting as a continuous variable, without a clear defined cut-off. However, there are scenarios where the immune infiltration is heterogeneous that some areas of the patient’s tumour have high numbers of TILs while other areas completely lack them. This spontaneous presentation of a heterogeneous immune infiltration could be a great opportunity to study why some tumours present TILs at diagnosis but others do not, while eliminating inter patient’s differences. Methods: In this study, we have identified five TNBC patients that showed great TIL heterogeneity, with areas of low (≤5%) and high (≥50%) numbers of TILs in their surgical specimens. To evaluate immune infiltration heterogeneity, we performed and analyzed bulk RNA-sequencing in three independent triplicates from the high and low TIL areas of each patient. Results: Gene expression was homogeneous within the triplicates in each area but was remarkable different between TILs regions. These differences were not only due to the presence of TILs as there were other non-inflammatory genes and pathways differentially expressed between the two areas. Discussion: This highlights the importance of intratumour heterogeneity driving the immune infiltration, and not patient’s characteristics like the HLA phenotype, germline DNA or immune repertoire.This research has received funding from “Contigo contra el cancer de la mujer” Foundation and FERO Foundation

Determinants of activity and efficacy of anti-PD1/PD-L1 therapy in patients with advanced solid tumors recruited in a clinical trials unit: a longitudinal prospective biomarker-based study

Immune checkpoint inhibitors; Immunotherapy; Solid tumorsInhibidores de puntos de control inmunitarios; Inmunoterapia; Tumores sólidosInhibidors del punt de control immunitari; Immunoteràpia; Tumors sòlidsImmune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have revolutionized the therapeutic landscape of cancer. However, optimal patient selection is still an unmet need. One-hundred-forty-six patients with metastatic cancer candidates to ICI at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona Clinical Trials Unit were prospectively recruited in this observational study. Blood samples were collected at different timepoints, baseline LIPI score calculated and pre-ICI archived tissues retrieved to evaluate PD-L1, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and PD1 mRNA levels. Tumor assessments were centrally reviewed by RECIST 1.1 criteria. Associations with overall response rates (ORR), durable clinical benefit (DCB), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were performed with univariable/multivariable logistic and Cox regressions, where appropriate. At a median follow-up of 26.9 months, median PFS and OS were 2.7 and 12.9 months. Response rates were 17.8% with duration of response (DOR) of 4.4 months. LIPI score was independently associated with PFS (p = 0.025) and OS (p < 0.001). Immunotherapy-naïve status was independently associated with better PFS (p = 0.005). Time-to-best response (TTBR) and ORR (p < 0.001 both) were associated with better OS at univariate analysis. PFS and DOR were moderately correlated with OS (p < 0.001 both). A PD-L1 10% cut-off detected worse/best responders in terms of ORR (univariate p = 0.011, multivariate p = 0.028) and DCB (univariate p = 0.043). PD1 mRNA levels were strikingly associated to complete responses (p = 0.021). To resume, in our prospective observational pan-cancer study, baseline LIPI score, immunotherapy-naïve status, cancer type and RT before starting ICI were the most relevant clinical factors independently correlated with immunotherapy outcomes. Longer TTBR seemed to associate with better survival, while PD1 mRNA and PD-L1 protein levels might be tumor-agnostic predictive factors of response to ICI and should be furtherly explored