A Hybrid Approach combining ANN-based and Conventional Demapping in Communication for Efficient FPGA-Implementation

In communication systems, Autoencoder (AE) refers to the concept of replacing parts of the transmitter and receiver by artificial neural networks (ANNs) to train the system end-to-end over a channel model. This approach aims to improve communication performance, especially for varying channel conditions, with the cost of high computational complexity for training and inference. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have been shown to be a suitable platform for energy-efficient ANN implementation. However, the high number of operations and the large model size of ANNs limit the performance on resource-constrained devices, which is critical for low latency and high-throughput communication systems. To tackle his challenge, we propose a novel approach for efficient ANN-based remapping on FPGAs, which combines the adaptability of the AE with the efficiency of conventional demapping algorithms. After adaption to channel conditions, the channel characteristics, implicitly learned by the ANN, are extracted to enable the use of optimized conventional demapping algorithms for inference. We validate the hardware efficiency of our approach by providing FPGA implementation results and by comparing the communication performance to that of conventional systems. Our work opens a door for the practical application of ANN-based communication algorithms on FPGAs.Comment: Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/983569

Unsupervised ANN-Based Equalizer and Its Trainable FPGA Implementation

In recent years, communication engineers put strong emphasis on artificial neural network (ANN)-based algorithms with the aim of increasing the flexibility and autonomy of the system and its components. In this context, unsupervised training is of special interest as it enables adaptation without the overhead of transmitting pilot symbols. In this work, we present a novel ANN-based, unsupervised equalizer and its trainable field programmable gate array (FPGA) implementation. We demonstrate that our custom loss function allows the ANN to adapt for varying channel conditions, approaching the performance of a supervised baseline. Furthermore, as a first step towards a practical communication system, we design an efficient FPGA implementation of our proposed algorithm, which achieves a throughput in the order of Gbit/s, outperforming a high-performance GPU by a large margin.Comment: accepted for publication at Joint European Conference on Networks and Communications & 6G Summit (EuCNC/6G Summit), Gothenburg, Sweden, 6 - 9 June 202

Evaluation of automatic transcription systems for the judicial domain

This paper describes two different automatic transcription systems developed for judicial application domains for the Polish and Italian languages. The judicial domain requires to cope with several factors which are known to be critical for automatic speech recognition, such as: background noise, reverberation, spontaneous and accented speech, overlapped speech, cross channel effects, etc. The two automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems have been developed independently starting from out-of-domain data and, then, they have been adapted to the judicial domain using a certain amount of in-domain audio and text data. The ASR performance have been measured on audio data acquired in the courtrooms of Naples and Wroclaw. The resulting word error rates are around 40%, for Italian, and around between 30% and 50% for Polish. This performance, similar to that reported for other comparable ASR tasks (e.g. meeting transcriptions with distant microphone), suggests that possible applications can address tasks such as indexing and/or information retrieval in multimedia documents recorded during judicial debates

Collective topological spin dynamics in a correlated spin glass

The interplay between spin-orbit interaction (SOI) and magnetic order is currently one of the most active research fields in condensed matter physics and leading the search for materials with novel and tunable magnetic and spin properties. Here we report on a variety of unexpected and unique observations in thin multiferroic \Ge$_{1-x}$Mn$_x$Te films. The ferrimagnetic order in this ferroelectric semiconductor is found to reverse with current pulses six orders of magnitude lower as for typical spin-orbit torque systems. Upon a switching event, the magnetic order spreads coherently and collectively over macroscopic distances through a correlated spin-glass state. Lastly, we present a novel methodology to controllably harness this stochastic magnetization dynamics, allowing us to detect spatiotemporal nucleation of topological spin textures we term ``skyrmiverres''.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, 2 table

Epidemiology of rare diseases in Brazil : protocol of the Brazilian Rare Diseases Network (RARAS-BRDN)

The Brazilian Policy of Comprehensive Care for People with Rare Diseases (BPCCPRD) was established by the Ministry of Health to reduce morbidity and mortality and improve the quality of life of people with rare diseases (RD). Several laboratory tests, most using molecular genetic technologies, have been incorporated by the Brazilian Public Health System, and 18 specialised centres have so far been established at university hospitals (UH) in the capitals of the Southern, Southeastern and Northeastern regions. However, whether the available human and technological resources in these services are appropriate and sufficient to achieve the goals of care established by the BPCCPRD is unknown. Despite great advances in diagnosis, especially due to new technologies and the recent structuring of clinical assessment of RD in Brazil, epidemiological data are lacking and when available, restricted to specific disorders. This position paper summarises the performance of a nationally representative survey on epidemiology, clinical status, and diagnostic and therapeutic resources employed for individuals with genetic and non-genetic RD in Brazil. The Brazilian Rare Disease Network (BRDN) is under development, comprising 40 institutions, including 18 UH, 17 Rare Diseases Reference Services and five Newborn Screening Reference Services. A retrospective study will be initially conducted, followed by a prospective study. The data collection instrument will use a standard protocol with sociodemographic data and clinical and diagnostic aspects according to international ontology. This great collaborative network is the first initiative of a large epidemiological data collection of RD in Latin America, and the results will increase the knowledge of RD in Brazil and help health managers to improve national public policy on RD in Brazil

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 loci associated with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P < 1 × 10-4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (P < 5 × 10-8) in the discovery GWAS were not genome-wide significant in the combined analysis, consistent with small effect sizes and limited power but also with genetic heterogeneity. In the combined analysis, 30 loci were genome-wide significant, including 20 newly identified loci. The significant loci contain genes encoding ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters and synaptic components. Pathway analysis revealed nine significantly enriched gene sets, including regulation of insulin secretion and endocannabinoid signaling. Bipolar I disorder is strongly genetically correlated with schizophrenia, driven by psychosis, whereas bipolar II disorder is more strongly correlated with major depressive disorder. These findings address key clinical questions and provide potential biological mechanisms for bipolar disorder

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

Dissecting the Shared Genetic Architecture of Suicide Attempt, Psychiatric Disorders, and Known Risk Factors

Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide, and nonfatal suicide attempts, which occur far more frequently, are a major source of disability and social and economic burden. Both have substantial genetic etiology, which is partially shared and partially distinct from that of related psychiatric disorders. Methods We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 29,782 suicide attempt (SA) cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium (ISGC). The GWAS of SA was conditioned on psychiatric disorders using GWAS summary statistics via multitrait-based conditional and joint analysis, to remove genetic effects on SA mediated by psychiatric disorders. We investigated the shared and divergent genetic architectures of SA, psychiatric disorders, and other known risk factors. Results Two loci reached genome-wide significance for SA: the major histocompatibility complex and an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, the latter of which remained associated with SA after conditioning on psychiatric disorders and replicated in an independent cohort from the Million Veteran Program. This locus has been implicated in risk-taking behavior, smoking, and insomnia. SA showed strong genetic correlation with psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with smoking, pain, risk-taking behavior, sleep disturbances, lower educational attainment, reproductive traits, lower socioeconomic status, and poorer general health. After conditioning on psychiatric disorders, the genetic correlations between SA and psychiatric disorders decreased, whereas those with nonpsychiatric traits remained largely unchanged. Conclusions Our results identify a risk locus that contributes more strongly to SA than other phenotypes and suggest a shared underlying biology between SA and known risk factors that is not mediated by psychiatric disorders.Peer reviewe

Genetic Overlap Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Bipolar Disorder Implicates the MARK2 and VAC14 Genes

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and bipolar disorder (BIP) are complex traits influenced by numerous common genetic variants, most of which remain to be detected. Clinical and epidemiological evidence suggest that AD and BIP are related. However, it is not established if this relation is of genetic origin. Here, we applied statistical methods based on the conditional false discovery rate (FDR) framework to detect genetic overlap between AD and BIP and utilized this overlap to increase the power to identify common genetic variants associated with either or both traits. Methods: We obtained genome wide association studies data from the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project part 1 (17,008 AD cases and 37,154 controls) and the Psychiatric Genetic Consortium Bipolar Disorder Working Group (20,352 BIP cases and 31,358 controls). We used conditional QQ-plots to assess overlap in common genetic variants between AD and BIP. We exploited the genetic overlap to re-rank test-statistics for AD and BIP and improve detection of genetic variants using the conditional FDR framework. Results: Conditional QQ-plots demonstrated a polygenic overlap between AD and BIP. Using conditional FDR, we identified one novel genomic locus associated with AD, and nine novel loci associated with BIP. Further, we identified two novel loci jointly associated with AD and BIP implicating the MARK2 gene (lead SNP rs10792421, conjunctional FDR=0.030, same direction of effect) and the VAC14 gene (lead SNP rs11649476, conjunctional FDR=0.022, opposite direction of effect). Conclusions: We found polygenic overlap between AD and BIP and identified novel loci for each trait and two jointly associated loci. Further studies should examine if the shared loci implicating the MARK2 and VAC14 genes could explain parts of the shared and distinct features of AD and BIP