The AXIOM software layers

AXIOM project aims at developing a heterogeneous computing board (SMP-FPGA).The Software Layers developed at the AXIOM project are explained.OmpSs provides an easy way to execute heterogeneous codes in multiple cores. People and objects will soon share the same digital network for information exchange in a world named as the age of the cyber-physical systems. The general expectation is that people and systems will interact in real-time. This poses pressure onto systems design to support increasing demands on computational power, while keeping a low power envelop. Additionally, modular scaling and easy programmability are also important to ensure these systems to become widespread. The whole set of expectations impose scientific and technological challenges that need to be properly addressed.The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) will research new hardware/software architectures for cyber-physical systems to meet such expectations. The technical approach aims at solving fundamental problems to enable easy programmability of heterogeneous multi-core multi-board systems. AXIOM proposes the use of the task-based OmpSs programming model, leveraging low-level communication interfaces provided by the hardware. Modular scalability will be possible thanks to a fast interconnect embedded into each module. To this aim, an innovative ARM and FPGA-based board will be designed, with enhanced capabilities for interfacing with the physical world. Its effectiveness will be demonstrated with key scenarios such as Smart Video-Surveillance and Smart Living/Home (domotics).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The AXIOM platform for next-generation cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are widely used in many applications that require interactions between humans and their physical environment. These systems usually integrate a set of hardware-software components for optimal application execution in terms of performance and energy consumption. The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module), presented in this paper, proposes a hardware-software platform for CPS coupled with an easy parallel programming model and sufficient connectivity so that the performance can scale-up by adding multiple boards. AXIOM supports a task-based programming model based on OmpSs and leverages a high-speed, inexpensive communication interface called AXIOM-Link. The board also tightly couples the CPU with reconfigurable resources to accelerate portions of the applications. As case studies, AXIOM uses smart video surveillance, and smart home living applicationsThis work is partially supported by the European Union H2020 program through the AXIOM project (grant ICT-01-2014 GA 645496) and HiPEAC (GA 687698), by the Spanish Government through Programa Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology through TIN2015-65316-P project, and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (contracts 2014-SGR-1051 and 2014-SGR-1272). We also thank the Xilinx University Program for its hardware and software donations.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Meta-analysis of multidecadal biodiversity trends in Europe

Local biodiversity trends over time are likely to be decoupled from global trends, as local processes may compensate or counteract global change. We analyze 161 long-term biological time series (15-91 years) collected across Europe, using a comprehensive dataset comprising similar to 6,200 marine, freshwater and terrestrial taxa. We test whether (i) local long-term biodiversity trends are consistent among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, and (ii) changes in biodiversity correlate with regional climate and local conditions. Our results reveal that local trends of abundance, richness and diversity differ among biogeoregions, realms and taxonomic groups, demonstrating that biodiversity changes at local scale are often complex and cannot be easily generalized. However, we find increases in richness and abundance with increasing temperature and naturalness as well as a clear spatial pattern in changes in community composition (i.e. temporal taxonomic turnover) in most biogeoregions of Northern and Eastern Europe. The global biodiversity decline might conceal complex local and group-specific trends. Here the authors report a quantitative synthesis of longterm biodiversity trends across Europe, showing how, despite overall increase in biodiversity metric and stability in abundance, trends differ between regions, ecosystem types, and taxa.peerReviewe

The Biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea: Estimates, Patterns, and Threats

The Mediterranean Sea is a marine biodiversity hot spot. Here we combined an extensive literature analysis with expert opinions to update publicly available estimates of major taxa in this marine ecosystem and to revise and update several species lists. We also assessed overall spatial and temporal patterns of species diversity and identified major changes and threats. Our results listed approximately 17,000 marine species occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. However, our estimates of marine diversity are still incomplete as yet—undescribed species will be added in the future. Diversity for microbes is substantially underestimated, and the deep-sea areas and portions of the southern and eastern region are still poorly known. In addition, the invasion of alien species is a crucial factor that will continue to change the biodiversity of the Mediterranean, mainly in its eastern basin that can spread rapidly northwards and westwards due to the warming of the Mediterranean Sea. Spatial patterns showed a general decrease in biodiversity from northwestern to southeastern regions following a gradient of production, with some exceptions and caution due to gaps in our knowledge of the biota along the southern and eastern rims. Biodiversity was also generally higher in coastal areas and continental shelves, and decreases with depth. Temporal trends indicated that overexploitation and habitat loss have been the main human drivers of historical changes in biodiversity. At present, habitat loss and degradation, followed by fishing impacts, pollution, climate change, eutrophication, and the establishment of alien species are the most important threats and affect the greatest number of taxonomic groups. All these impacts are expected to grow in importance in the future, especially climate change and habitat degradation. The spatial identification of hot spots highlighted the ecological importance of most of the western Mediterranean shelves (and in particular, the Strait of Gibraltar and the adjacent Alboran Sea), western African coast, the Adriatic, and the Aegean Sea, which show high concentrations of endangered, threatened, or vulnerable species. The Levantine Basin, severely impacted by the invasion of species, is endangered as well

Work-efficient parallel non-maximum suppression for embedded GPU architectures

With the emergence of GPU computing, deep neural networks have become a widely used technique for advancing research in the field of image and speech processing. In the context of object and event detection, slidingwindow classifiers require to choose the best among all positively discriminated candidate windows. In this paper, we introduce the first GPU-based non-maximum suppression (NMS) algorithm for embedded GPU architectures. The obtained results show that the proposed parallel algorithm reduces the NMS latency by a wide margin when compared to CPUs, even clocking the GPU at 50% of its maximum frequency on an NVIDIA Tegra K1. In this paper, we show results for object detection in images. The proposed technique is directly applicable to speech segmentation tasks such as speaker diarization.Peer Reviewe

Work-efficient parallel non-maximum suppression for embedded GPU architectures

With the emergence of GPU computing, deep neural networks have become a widely used technique for advancing research in the field of image and speech processing. In the context of object and event detection, slidingwindow classifiers require to choose the best among all positively discriminated candidate windows. In this paper, we introduce the first GPU-based non-maximum suppression (NMS) algorithm for embedded GPU architectures. The obtained results show that the proposed parallel algorithm reduces the NMS latency by a wide margin when compared to CPUs, even clocking the GPU at 50% of its maximum frequency on an NVIDIA Tegra K1. In this paper, we show results for object detection in images. The proposed technique is directly applicable to speech segmentation tasks such as speaker diarization.Peer Reviewe

Ag2CuMnO4 : A new silver copper oxide with delafossite structure

The use of hydrothermal methods has allowed the synthesis of a new silver copper mixed oxide, Ag2CuMnO4, the first example of a quaternary oxide containing both elements. It crystallizes with the delafossite 3R structure, thus being the first delafossite to contain both Ag and Cu. Synthesis conditions affect the final particle size (30-500 nm). Powder X-ray diffraction Rietveld refinement indicates a trigonal structure (R (3) over barm) and cell parameters a = 2.99991 angstrom and c = 18.428 angstrom, where Cu and Mn are disordered within the octahedral B positions in the plane and linearly coordinated Ag occupies de A position between layers. X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) for copper and manganese, and XPS for silver evidence + 2, + 4, and + 1 oxidation states. The microstructure consists of layered particles that may form large twins showing 5 nm nanodomains. Finally, magnetic measurements reveal the existence of ferromagnetic coupling yielding in-plane moments that align antiferromagnetically at lower temperatures. The singularity of the new phase resides on the fact that is an example of a bidimensional arrangement of silver and copper in an oxide that also shows clear bidimensionality in its physical properties. That is of special relevance to the field of high T. superconducting oxides, while the ferromagnetic coupling in a bidimensional system deserves itself special attention. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Características epidemiológicas de la hernia diafragmática diagnosticada en la edad adulta.

Diaphragmatic hernia is defined as the protrusion of abdominal viscera towards the thorax through a defect in the diaphragm, associated with a change in the pressure gradient between these two cavities. This is a rare pathology in adults, which can be of congenital or acquired origin, the latter being the most frequent etiology. The main causes of it are closed or open trauma, whether due to traffic accidents, falls from great heights, gunshot wounds or sharp injuries. This is why they tend to occur more frequently in young men. Due to the distribution of the abdominal organs, they occur more frequently in the left hemidiaphragm since they do not have the protection of the liver and various studies show a decrease in muscle thickness on this side. Due to the location, the most commonly evidenced viscera are: stomach, intestine, spleen and pancreas. The clinical manifestations of this pathology are non-specific, which is why they are commonly diagnosed incidentally when exploring other pathologies; however, it can have fatal complications secondary to strangulation of the herniated viscera. Its approach in all cases is surgical and depends on the individual factors of each patient and the surgeon's decision to choose an abdominal or thoracic procedure. Due to the mortality associated with the complications of this pathology, there is a need to know the epidemiology and establish a clinical suspicion to achieve early diagnosis and treatment.La hernia diafragmática se define como la protrusión de vísceras abdominales hacia el tórax a través de un defecto en el diafragma, asociado a un cambio en el gradiente de presiones entre estas dos cavidades. Esta es una patología rara en el adulto, que puede ser de origen congénito o adquirido, siendo este último la etiología más frecuente. Las causas principales de la misma son traumatismos cerrados o abiertos, ya sea por accidentes de tránsito, caídas a grandes alturas, heridas por arma de fuego o cortopunzantes. Es por esto por lo que suelen presentarse con mayor frecuencia en hombres jóvenes. Debido a la distribución de los órganos abdominales, se presentan con mayor frecuencia en el hemidiafragma izquierdo ya que no cuentan con la protección del hígado y diversos estudios muestran una disminución en el grosor del músculo en este lado. Debido a la localización, las vísceras más comúnmente evidenciadas son: estómago, intestino, bazo y páncreas. Las manifestaciones clínicas de esta patología son inespecíficas por lo que comúnmente se diagnostican de forma incidental al explorar otras patologías, sin embargo puede tener complicaciones fatales secundarias al estrangulamiento de las vísceras herniadas. Su abordaje en todos los casos es quirúrgico y depende de los factores individuales de cada paciente y de la decisión del cirujano la elección de un procedimiento abdominal o torácico.  Debido a la mortalidad asociada a las complicaciones de esta patología surge la necesidad de conocer la epidemiología y establecer una sospecha clínica para lograr un diagnóstico y tratamiento temprano

AXIOM: a hardware-software platform for cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are widely necessary for many applications that require interactions with the humans and the physical environment. A CPS integrates a set of hardware-software components to distribute, execute and manage its operations. The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) aims at developing a hardware-software platform for CPS such that i) it can use an easy parallel programming model and ii) it can easily scale-up the performance by adding multiple boards (e.g., 1 to 10 boards can run in parallel). AXIOM supports taskbased programming model based on OmpSs and leverage a high-speed, inexpensive communication interface called AXIOM-Link. Another key aspect is that the board provides programmable logic (FPGA) to accelerate portions of an application. We are using smart video surveillance, and smart home living applications to drive our design.Peer Reviewe

AXIOM: a hardware-software platform for cyber physical systems

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) are widely necessary for many applications that require interactions with the humans and the physical environment. A CPS integrates a set of hardware-software components to distribute, execute and manage its operations. The AXIOM project (Agile, eXtensible, fast I/O Module) aims at developing a hardware-software platform for CPS such that i) it can use an easy parallel programming model and ii) it can easily scale-up the performance by adding multiple boards (e.g., 1 to 10 boards can run in parallel). AXIOM supports taskbased programming model based on OmpSs and leverage a high-speed, inexpensive communication interface called AXIOM-Link. Another key aspect is that the board provides programmable logic (FPGA) to accelerate portions of an application. We are using smart video surveillance, and smart home living applications to drive our design.Peer Reviewe