Binarized Convolutional Neural Networks with Separable Filters for Efficient Hardware Acceleration

State-of-the-art convolutional neural networks are enormously costly in both compute and memory, demanding massively parallel GPUs for execution. Such networks strain the computational capabilities and energy available to embedded and mobile processing platforms, restricting their use in many important applications. In this paper, we push the boundaries of hardware-effective CNN design by proposing BCNN with Separable Filters (BCNNw/SF), which applies Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) on BCNN kernels to further reduce computational and storage complexity. To enable its implementation, we provide a closed form of the gradient over SVD to calculate the exact gradient with respect to every binarized weight in backward propagation. We verify BCNNw/SF on the MNIST, CIFAR-10, and SVHN datasets, and implement an accelerator for CIFAR-10 on FPGA hardware. Our BCNNw/SF accelerator realizes memory savings of 17% and execution time reduction of 31.3% compared to BCNN with only minor accuracy sacrifices.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for Embedded Vision Workshop (CVPRW

Is a Space Laundry Needed for Exploration?

Future human space exploration missions will lengthen to years, and keeping crews clothed without a huge resupply burden is an important consideration for habitation systems. A space laundry system could be the solution; however, the resources it uses must be accounted for and must win out over the very reliable practice of bringing along enough spare underwear. Through NASA's Logistics Reduction and Repurposing project, trade off studies have been conducted to compare current space clothing systems, life extension of that clothing, traditional water based clothes washing and other sanitizing techniques. The best clothing system of course depends on the mission and assumptions, but in general, analysis results indicate that washing clothes on space missions will start to pay off as mission durations push past a year

Statistical description of short pulses in long optical fibers: Effects of nonlocality

We present a statistical description of the propagation of short pulses in long optical fibers, taking into account the Kerr and nonlocal nonlinearities on an equal footing. We use the Wigner approach on the modified nonlinear Schroedinger equation to obtain a wave kinetic equation and a nonlinear dispersion relation. The latter exhibit that the optical pulse decoherence reduces the growth rate of the modulational instability, and thereby contribute to the nonlinear stability of the pulses in long optical fibers. It is also found that the interaction between spectral broadening and nonlocality tends to extend the instability region.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Electron screening in molecular fusion reactions

Recent laboratory experiments have measured fusion cross sections at center-of-mass energies low enough for the effects of atomic and molecular electrons to be important. To extract the cross section for bare nuclei from these data (as required for astrophysical applications), it is necessary to understand these screening effects. We study electron screening effects in the low-energy collisions of Z=1 nuclei with hydrogen molecules. Our model is based on a dynamical evolution of the electron wavefunctions within the TDHF scheme, while the motion of the nuclei is treated classically. We find that at the currently accessible energies the screening effects depend strongly on the molecular orientation. The screening is found to be larger for molecular targets than for atomic targets, due to the reflection symmetry in the latter. The results agree fairly well with data measured for deuteron collisions on molecular deuterium and tritium targets.Comment: 15 Page RevTeX document, twelve postscript figures, now in a uufile packag

New interleukin-15 superagonist (IL-15SA) significantly enhances graft-versus-tumor activity.

Interleukin-15 (IL-15) is a potent cytokine that increases CD8+ T and NK cell numbers and function in experimental models. However, obstacles remain in using IL-15 therapeutically, specifically its low potency and short in vivo half-life. To help overcome this, a new IL-15 superagonist complex comprised of an IL-15N72D mutation and IL-15RαSu/Fc fusion (IL-15SA, also known as ALT-803) was developed. IL-15SA exhibits a significantly longer serum half-life and increased in vivo activity against various tumors. Herein, we evaluated the effects of IL-15SA in recipients of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Weekly administration of IL-15SA to transplant recipients significantly increased the number of CD8+ T cells (specifically CD44+ memory/activated phenotype) and NK cells. Intracellular IFN-γ and TNF-α secretion by CD8+ T cells increased in the IL-15SA-treated group. IL-15SA also upregulated NKG2D expression on CD8+ T cells. Moreover, IL-15SA enhanced proliferation and cytokine secretion of adoptively transferred CFSE-labeled T cells in syngeneic and allogeneic models by specifically stimulating the slowly proliferative and nonproliferative cells into actively proliferating cells.We then evaluated IL-15SA\u27s effects on anti-tumor activity against murine mastocytoma (P815) and murine B cell lymphoma (A20). IL-15SA enhanced graft-versus-tumor (GVT) activity in these tumors following T cell infusion. Interestingly, IL-15 SA administration provided GVT activity against A20 lymphoma cells in the murine donor leukocyte infusion (DLI) model without increasing graft versus host disease. In conclusion, IL-15SA could be a highly potent T- cell lymphoid growth factor and novel immunotherapeutic agent to complement stem cell transplantation and adoptive immunotherapy

Rods Near Curved Surfaces and in Curved Boxes

We consider an ideal gas of infinitely rigid rods near a perfectly repulsive wall, and show that the interfacial tension of a surface with rods on one side is lower when the surface bends towards the rods. Surprisingly we find that rods on both sides of surfaces also lower the energy when the surface bends. We compute the partition functions of rods confined to spherical and cylindrical open shells, and conclude that spherical shells repel rods, whereas cylindrical shells (for thickness of the shell on the order of the rod-length) attract them. The role of flexibility is investigated by considering chains composed of two rigid segments.Comment: 39 pages including figures and tables. 12 eps figures. LaTeX with REVTe

Laboratory experimental study of ocean waves propagating over a partially buried pipeline in a trench layer

YesSeabed instability around a pipeline is one of the primary concerns in offshore pipeline projects. To date, most studies focus on investigating the wave/current-induced response within a porous seabed around either a fully buried pipeline or a thoroughly exposed one. In this study, unlike previous investigations, a series of comprehensive laboratory experiments are carried out in a wave flume to investigate the wave-induced pore pressures around a partially embedded pipeline in a trench layer. Measurements show that the presence of the partially buried pipeline can significantly affect the excess pore pressure in a partially backfilled trench layer, which deviates considerably from that predicted by the theoretical approach. The morphology of the trench layer accompanied with the backfill sediments, especially the deeper trench and thicker backfill (i.e.,b≥1D,e≥0.5D), provides a certain degree of resistance to seabed instability. The amplitude of excess pore pressure around the trench layer roughly exhibits a left-right asymmetric distribution along the periphery of the pipeline, and decays sharply from the upper layer of the trench to the lower region. Deeper trench depth and thicker buried layer significantly weaken the pore-water pressures in the whole trench area, thus sheltering and protecting the submarine pipeline against the transient seabed liquefaction.The National Key research and development program of China (2017YFC1404200), the research grants of Jiangsu (BK20150804), the marine renewable energy research project of State Oceanic Administration (GHME2015GC01), Open Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University (Project No: 2016491011), the Royal Academy of Engineering the Distinguished Visiting Fellowship (DVF1718-8-7