A hardware DC motor emulator

Much work have been done lately to develop complex motor control systems. However they always rely on a physical drive/motor/encoder setup for experimental results. This paper presents a hardware DC motor emulator that can be synthesized to FPGAs. The emulator is intended to replace an actual DC motor during the development phase of motor controllers. A torque based input is required and incremental encoder output is provided, so this model can replace both the DC motor, and its power driver without modifications to the motor control system. The proposed emulator is able to reach a clock frequency of hundreds of megahertz and uses very few logic resources in current FPGA technologies. The hardware can be parameterized at synthesis time to make the model suitable for specific needs

Anti-inflammatory response to acute exercise is related with intensity and physical fitness

Purpose: The relationship between inflammatory markers and energetic metabolism has been explored. However, the relation between exercise intensity and fitness-status is unclear and it is necessary to understand this relationship to apply specific exercise guidance. The purpose of the study was to analyze metabolic and inflammatory responses imposed by acute exercise sessions performed at moderate, heavy and severe intensities and their relationship with physical fitnessstatus. Methods: Nineteen healthy male volunteers performed three acute exercise sessions until exhaustion or up to 60 minutes on a cycle ergometer at moderate (90% of VT1), heavy (midpoint between VT1/VT2), and severe (midpoint between VT2/Wmax) intensities. Blood lactate, glucose, NEFA, endotoxin and cytokines were determined for each exercise session. Peripheral and LPS-stimulated release of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10 were analyzed pre, post and 60-min after sessions. Results: In peripheral blood, severe intensity increased lactate, endotoxin and TNF-α immediately post-exercise and glucose at 60-min post-exercise. There was a trend for IL-10 increase at 60-min post-exercise in peripheral blood. Immediately post-exercise, LPS-stimulated TNF-α, IL-6, IL-6/IL-10 ratio and lactate levels were higher in the severe intensity while NEFA levels decreased at this time. At 60-min post-exercise higher concentrations of glucose and a trend for increased IL-10 were observed in severe intensity. Positive correlation was observed between maximal aerobic power and IL-10 (r=0.513, p=0.042) and negative correlations between maximal aerobic power and endotoxin (r=-0.531, p=0.034) and lactate (r=-0.538, p=0.031) in heavy intensity. Conclusion: Our data show a novel finding that higher cytokine responses occur at higher intensities, mainly in severe intensity. However, the anti-inflammatory (IL-10) response was physical fitness-dependent

An Improved Synthesis Method for Low Power Hardwired FIR Filters

This work presents a method to design parallel digital finite impulse response (FIR) filters for hardwired (fixed coefficients) implementation with reduced number of adders and logic depth in the multiplier block. The proposed method uses a combination of two approaches: first, the reduction of the coefficients to N-Power-of-Two (NPT) terms, where N is the maximum number of bits in ’1 ’ state allowed for each coefficient and Common Subexpression Elimination (CSE) among multipliers. An algorithm for selecting the best NPT coefficient set for a given filter specification is proposed. Initially, a floating point coefficient set is generated using classical methods for FIR filters and then several sets of fixed point coefficients are generated by rounding the result of the floating point coefficients multiplied by a scale factor different for each set. The coefficient sets are then converted to NPT and a frequency response for each set is obtained. Based on the frequency response, the algorithm selects the best set. This set is then used as input for a CSE algorithm, which eliminate all common subexpressions among the multipliers and generates a hardware description of the filter in VHDL for synthesis purpose. The results show significant reduction in the number of adders and logic depth of the multiplier block with a minimal degradation in the filter transfer characteristics, showing the usefulness of the proposed method for low power design of parallel filters

A hardware DC motor emulator

Much work have been done lately to develop complex motor control systems. However they always rely on a physical drive/motor/encoder setup for experimental results. This paper presents a hardware DC motor emulator that can be synthesized to FPGAs. The emulator is intended to replace an actual DC motor during the development phase of motor controllers. A torque based input is required and incremental encoder output is provided, so this model can replace both the DC motor, and its power driver without modifications to the motor control system. The proposed emulator is able to reach a clock frequency of hundreds of megahertz and uses very few logic resources in current FPGA technologies. The hardware can be parameterized at synthesis time to make the model suitable for specific needs

Anti‐inflammatory response to acute exercise is related with intensity and physical fitness

This paper is in closed access until 15 October 2019.Purpose: The relationship between inflammatory markers and energetic metabolism has been explored. However, the relation between exercise intensity and fitness-status is unclear and it is necessary to understand this relationship to apply specific exercise guidance. The purpose of the study was to analyze metabolic and inflammatory responses imposed by acute exercise sessions performed at moderate, heavy and severe intensities and their relationship with physical fitnessstatus. Methods: Nineteen healthy male volunteers performed three acute exercise sessions until exhaustion or up to 60 minutes on a cycle ergometer at moderate (90% of VT1), heavy (midpoint between VT1/VT2), and severe (midpoint between VT2/Wmax) intensities. Blood lactate, glucose, NEFA, endotoxin and cytokines were determined for each exercise session. Peripheral and LPS-stimulated release of TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-10 were analyzed pre, post and 60-min after sessions. Results: In peripheral blood, severe intensity increased lactate, endotoxin and TNF-α immediately post-exercise and glucose at 60-min post-exercise. There was a trend for IL-10 increase at 60-min post-exercise in peripheral blood. Immediately post-exercise, LPS-stimulated TNF-α, IL-6, IL-6/IL-10 ratio and lactate levels were higher in the severe intensity while NEFA levels decreased at this time. At 60-min post-exercise higher concentrations of glucose and a trend for increased IL-10 were observed in severe intensity. Positive correlation was observed between maximal aerobic power and IL-10 (r=0.513, p=0.042) and negative correlations between maximal aerobic power and endotoxin (r=-0.531, p=0.034) and lactate (r=-0.538, p=0.031) in heavy intensity. Conclusion: Our data show a novel finding that higher cytokine responses occur at higher intensities, mainly in severe intensity. However, the anti-inflammatory (IL-10) response was physical fitness-dependent

Design and FPGA prototyping of a H.264/AVC main profile decoder for HDTV

This paper presents the architecture, design, validation, and hardware prototyping of the main architectural blocks of main profile H.264/AVC decoder, namely the blocks: inverse transforms and quantization, intra prediction, motion compensation and deblocking filter, for a main profile H.264/AVC decoder. These architectures were designed to reach high throughputs and to be easily integrated with the other H.264/AVC modules. The architectures, all fully H.264/AVC compliant, were completely described in VHDL and further validated through simulations and FPGA prototyping. They were prototyped using a Digilent XUP V2P board, containing a Virtex-II Pro XC2VP30 Xilinx FPGA. The post place-and-route synthesis results indicate that the designed architectures are able to process 114 million samples per second and, in the worst case, they are able to process 64 HDTV frames (1080x1920) per second, allowing their use in H.264/AVC decoders targeting real time HDTV applications

A novel association between Rhodnius neglectus and the Livistona australis palm tree in an urban center foreshadowing the risk of Chagas disease transmission by vectorial invasions in Monte Alto City, Sao Paulo, Brazil

After several public notifications of domiciliary invasions, palm trees were investigated in downtown Monte Alto City, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, in proximity to the city hall building, the main church, condominiums and marketing establishments. One hundred seventy four palm trees of 10 species were investigated, in which 72 specimens of Rhodnius neglectus, a potential Chagas disease vector, were captured via manual methods. All insects were collected from dead leaves, organic debris and bird nests in the only three Livistona australis palm trees in the central park square. This was the first record of R. neglectus colonizing this palm species. Although no Trypanosoma cruzi was found by abdominal compression followed by light microscopy, the poor nutritional status of the bugs hampered the examination of gut contents for parasite detection. Furthermore, the central crowns of the trees, which shelter bats (Chiroptera: Mammalia), could not be carefully searched for insects due to difficult access. This new finding highlights the sudden alteration in insect behavior, probably as a result of man's interference. This report aims to warn those involved in the health system about this new threat, justifying detailed research of the area to evaluate the magnitude of this emerging public health issue. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP