A Power-Efficient Methodology for Mapping Applications on Multi-Processor System-on-Chip Architectures

This work introduces an application mapping methodology and case study for multi-processor on-chip architectures. Starting from the description of an application in standard sequential code (e.g. in C), first the application is profiled, parallelized when possible, then its components are moved to hardware implementation when necessary to satisfy performance and power constraints. After mapping, with the use of hardware objects to handle concurrency, the application power consumption can be further optimized by a task-based scheduler for the remaining software part, without the need for operating system support. The key contributions of this work are: a methodology for high-level hardware/software partitioning that allows the designer to use the same code for both hardware and software models for simulation, providing nevertheless preliminary estimations for timing and power consumption; and a task-based scheduling algorithm that does not require operating system support. The methodology has been applied to the co-exploration of an industrial case study: an MPEG4 VGA real-time encoder

Mycochemical study of polysaccharides from the edible mushroom Cortinarius caperatus (Gypsy mushroom)

Among basidiomycete molecules, cell wall polysaccharides have been recognized as a major class of bioactive constituents. [1] They are safe molecules and they have a wide spectrum of biological activities, such as immunostimulatory and antioxidant, therefore they possess a prominent role in health benefits coming from mushroom consumption. These properties make mushroom polysaccharides potential candidates for nutraceutical applications and bioactive ingredients production. [2] Fractionation of the hot aqueous extract of Cortinarius caperatus led to isolation of two fractions characterized by spectroscopic analyses (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, DEPT, 1H-1H COSY, DQCOSY, TOCSY, HSQC, HMBC and HMQC), mass spectrometry (EI-MS, ESI-MS), infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), chemical reactions of hydrolysis and derivatization followed by GC and HPLC analyses. [3] This mycochemical study revealed a water-soluble fraction characterized as a \u3b2-(1\uf0e06)-D-glucan, whose presence inside C. caperatus has never, to the best of our knowledge, been reported before. Moreover, a water insoluble fraction purified has been characterized as a branched \uf061, (1\u21926) glucan which structure is assumed to be: [\u21926)-\u3b2-D-Glcp(1\u21926)]4-\u3b1-D-Glcp(1\u21924)-\u3b2-D-Glcp(1\u2192 6 \u2191 1 \u3b1-D-Glcp The antioxidant activity of the soluble polysaccharide fraction has been evaluated as radical-scavenging activity with the DPPH test, the \u3b2-(1\uf0e06)-D-glucan showed significative antioxidant activity

Modelagem bioeconômica da transferência de embriões em bovinos.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver um modelo matemático orientado a eventos de simulação, para auxiliar tomadas de decisão relativas à transferência de embriões em bovinos, considerando-se as dinâmicas de dois componentes da transferência de embriões: receptoras e embriões. Na simulação, não se avaliaram respostas individuais de doadoras a coletas consecutivas e eventos correspondentes na transferência de embriões. Simulou-se o mesmo protocolo para superovulação a todas as doadoras. Receptoras foram sincronizadas simulando-se o uso de prostaglandina. O número de embriões viáveis produzido por doadora e sua variabilidade tiveram como base um processo aleatório de simulação de Monte Carlo, que pressupôs uma distribuição exponencial negativa de densidade de probabilidade. Custos e receitas foram inseridos no modelo por meio de um cenário-base para calcular indicadores econômicos de rentabilidade. A análise sugeriu a impraticabilidade da atividade, se realizada diante do cenário proposto (VPL ? R$: 57.596,69). A partir do cenário proposto, o custo médio estimado foi de R$ 1.178,19, e de R$ 980,03, para se obter uma prenhez a partir de uma situação otimizada, sugerida pelo modelo (5/100; 5/190)

Rupturing fungal cell walls for higher yield of polysaccharides: Acid treatment of the basidiomycete prior to extraction

The fungal cell wall of Agaricus bisporus powder was degraded by ethanol-acid treatment in order to improve the yield of the hot water extractions. Polysaccharides from multiple hot water extractions of treated and untreated mushroom were precipitated with ethanol and characterised separately. The treatment and the sequenced extractions changed the anomeric compositions, the molecular weights, and the sugar contents of the extracted polysaccharides. The total yield of the first extraction of treated A. bisporus increased by 46% with over 10 percentage points higher glucan content compared to untreated batch. Bioactivities were decreasing within the extraction batches and after the treatment. This was found to be connected to the amount of polysaccharides and the content of mannitol in the precipitates

Robust area coverage with connectivity maintenance

Robot swarms herald the ability to solve complex tasks using a large collection of simple devices. However, engineering a robotic swarm is far from trivial, with a major hurdle being the definition of the control laws leading to the desired globally coordinated behavior. Communication is a key element for coordination and it is considered one of the current most important challenges for swarm robotics. In this paper, we study the problem of maintaining robust swarm connectivity while performing a coverage task based on the Voronoi tessellation of an area of interest. We implement our methodology in a team of eight Khepera IV robots. With the assumptions that robots have a limited sensing and communication range - and cannot rely on centralized processing - we propose a tri-objective control law that outperforms other simpler strategies (e.g. a potential-based coverage) in terms of network connectivity, robustness to failure, and area coverage

PMO Calculations for the Regiochemistry of 1,3-Cycloadditions of 3,5-Dichloro-2,4,6-trimethylbenzonitrile Oxide to Thiophen, Furan, Benzothiophen, and Benzofuran

A perturbational molecular orbital (PMO) treatment has been developed for the title 1,3-cycloaddition reactions. Molecular orbitals were computed by the CND0/2 method. The results obtained at different levels of approximation of the PMO theory are presented. The regiochemistry is also discussed on the basis of the charge transfer model by using EA\u27s and IP\u27s

Análise da produção de embriões na fertilização in vitro e transferência de embriões para doadoras Nelore.

Ajustou-se uma função de densidade probabilidade para o número de embriões viáveis produzidos após fertilização in vitro em doadoras da raça Nelore, a partir de dados fornecidos pela Associação Brasileira de Criadores de Zebu (ABCZ), referente à análise de 20.619 doadoras, 71.602 aspirações e um total de 509.643 embriões. Modelou-se a densidade probabilidade do número de embriões viáveis mediante a função exponencial, executando-se a determinação dos parâmetros por meio da máxima verossimilhança, em um método de gradiente não linear. O nível de precisão obtido foi de RMSE = 0,040 e R2 = 0,98, para a representação da probabilidade do número de embriões viáveis produzidos por doadoras Nelore na técnica de fertilização in vitro(FIV). Para comparar os modelos (curvas de probabilidade de transferência de embriões ajustada por Beltrame, em 2006, e de FIV, neste trabalho), aplicou-se a técnica de comparação de curvas com o teste F (Silva e Azevedo, 2002). Não foram encontradas diferenças entre as curvas do número de embriões viáveis obtidos após coleta e produzidos após aspiração de doadoras na raça Nelore. Ainda, sugere-se a existência de um fator único limitante que afete biologicamente a produção de embriões nas técnicas de transferência de embriões e fertilização in vitro