286 research outputs found
An FPGA accelerator for Fingerprint Authentication
No full textSi tratta di un concorso per progetti multidisciplinari nell’ambito dell’ingegneria aperto a laureandi e neo-laureati italiani, nato con lo scopo di aiutare studenti capaci a coltivare il loro interesse verso i sistemi embedded, a migliorare le loro tecniche di progetto e soprattutto a sfruttare creatività e innovazione per ottenere i migliori risultati. Nella primavera di quest’anno, il gruppo di lavoro del laboratorio di Microcalcolatori ha proposto le idee e la documentazione di progetto relativi ad un’attività di tesi di laurea in corso; a metà giugno, ha ricevuto la comunicazione che l’attività era stata giudicata una fra le 40 migliori presentate e dunque idonea per la partecipazione alla selezione finale. A ciò sono seguiti l’invio del progetto completo a fine settembre e la premiazione in occasione della manifestazione annuale “System on a Programmable Chip (SOPC) World Italy 2008” tenutasi a Milano il 5 novembre. Il gruppo era composto da Giulia Matrone, laureata il 13 ottobre 2008, da Mauro Giachero e Nelson Nazzicari, dottorandi di Ricerca, sotto la guida dei professori Giovanni Danese e Francesco Leporati. La proposta riguardava lo studio e la realizzazione di in sistema compatto ed efficiente per il riconoscimento automatico di impronte digitali
Palladium(II) Complexes Containing a P,N-chelating Ligand Part. II. Synthesis and Characterization of Complexes With Different Hydrazinic Ligands Catalytic Activity in the Hydrogenation of Double and Triple C-C Bonds
No full textGPU-based key-frame selection of pulmonary ultrasound images to detect COVID-19
No full textIn the last decades, technological advances have led to a considerable increase in computing power constraints to simulate complex phenomena in various application fields, among which are climate, physics, genomics and medical diagnosis. Often, accurate results in real time, or quasi real time, are needed, especially if related to a process requiring rapid interventions. To deal with such demands, more sophisticated approaches have been designed, including GPUs, multicore processors and hardware accelerators. Supercomputers manage high amounts of data at a very high speed; however, despite their considerable performance, their limitations are due to maintenance costs, rapid obsolescence and notable energy consumption. New processing architectures and GPUs in the medical field can provide diagnostic and therapeutic support whenever the patient is subject to risk. In this context, image processing as an aid to diagnosis, in particular pulmonary ultrasound to detect COVID-19, represents a promising diagnostic tool with the ability to discriminate between different degrees of disease. This technique has several advantages, such as no radiation exposure, low costs, the availability of follow-up tests and the ease of use even with limited resources. This work aims to identify the best approach to optimize and parallelize the selection of the most significant frames of a video which is given as the input to the classification network that will differentiate between healthy and COVID patients. Three approaches have been evaluated: histogram, entropy and ResNet-50, followed by a K-means clustering. Results highlight the third approach as the most accurate, simultaneously showing GPUs significantly lowering all processing times
HS2RGB: an Encoder Approach to Transform Hyper-Spectral Images to Enriched RGB Images
No full textHyperspectral imaging (HSI) captures detailed spectral information across numerous wavelengths, providing superior object characterization to conventional RGB imaging. Despite these advantages, training deep learning models on HSI data is challenging due to the limited availability of extensive datasets, unlike the more familiar RGB images. To address this issue, we propose an encoder model that transforms hyperspectral images into enriched RGB images. These new enriched images represent a graphical depiction of HSI and become a new dataset to use as input for well-known models pre-trained on RGB images. In this work, we introduce HS2RGB, an encoder model based on the Vision Transformer (ViT) architecture, which condenses hyperspectral data into a three-element vector interpreted as RGB channels. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the new images generated by the encoder, showing better visual differentiation of features compared to traditional RGB images. Morover, results highlighted greater consistency in latent vectors of the same type of tissue across different samples compared to images generated with feature selection and transformation techniques like PCA and t-SNE. Finally, we tested the enriched RGB images using Meta's SAM model for instance segmentation, revealing that our model's images provided more precise identification of regions of interest, such as tumours in medical images
High speed wireless optical system for motorsport data loggers
No full textTelemetry allows to monitor the behavior of a system and it is applied to many different and popular fields such as motorsport. In this case, a data-logger collects all the data coming from different automobile sensors providing a very reliable image of the car status and a better vehicle setup. This paper is focused on the development of a new data-logging system for motorsport application, which meets several process constraints, such as high throughput and low power consumption that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the available devices on the market were not able to satisfy. The new data-logger consists of a fixed and a removable part, which exchanges data through a transceiver exploiting the visible light communication (VLC) technology. In this way, every physical contact between the two parts of the system is avoided. All the communication procedures are managed by a micro-controller mounted on each part of the system. The transceiver consists of the AFBR-1634Z and AFBR-2634Z (Broadcom Limited, San Jose, CA, USA) components, the optical fiber transmitter and the receiver, respectively, produced by Broadcom Inc. By keeping the distance short between them, they can assure a real wireless communication, even without using a high throughput technology like optical fiber. The entire system is powered by an inductive coupling system. In order to test the transceiver, it is connected to a micro-controller reaching a data rate of 8 Mbit/s. But even better performance is achieved by upgrading the micro-controller and changing the transmission technique, connecting the transceiver to the serial peripheral interface (SPI) port of the micro-controller: in this case, a data rate of 21 Mbit/s is reached, perfectly suitable with the application requirements and even furthe
The Many Roads to the Simulation of Reaction Systems
No full textReaction systems are a computational model inspired by the bio-chemical reactions that happen inside biological cells. They have been and currently are studied for their many nice theoretical properties. They are also a useful modeling tool for biochemical systems, but in order to be able to employ them effectively in the field the presence of efficient and widely available simulators is essential. Here we explore three different algorithms and implementations of the simulation, comparing them to the current state of the art. We also show that we can obtain performances comparable to GPU-based simulations on real-world systems by using a carefully tuned CPU-based simulator
Spatial–Spectral Feature Extraction With Local Covariance Matrix From Hyperspectral Images Through Hybrid Parallelization
No full textThis article presents the optimization and hybrid parallelization of a spatial-spectral feature extraction (FE) method from hyperspectral images (HSIs) using local covariance matrix (CM) representation, exploiting hybrid parallelism through multicore and manycore processors. The aim is to evaluate the performance of parallel versions of this innovative algorithm that characterizes spatial-spectral information prior to classification when conducting FE. The HSI is first projected into a subspace, using the maximum noise fraction method. Then, for each test pixel, its most similar neighbors are clustered using the cosine distance measurement. The result is used to calculate a local CM with each nondiagonal entry characterizing the correlation between different spectral bands. Such matrices represent the spatial-spectral features and are fed to a support vector machine for classification. To optimize the successive parallelization process, a new version of the original MATLAB code has been first developed using C language. This serial version serves as baseline for hybrid parallelization in OpenMP and CUDA. Performance analysis has been conducted using publicly available HSI datasets, confirming that our parallel implementation ensures the quality of the classification while significantly reducing the involved processing times
Stereoselective formation of ternary copper(II) complexes of (S)-amino acid amides and (R)- or (S)-histidine and (R)- or (S)-tyrosine in aqueous solution
No full textDetermination of endogenous and exogenous corticosteroids in bovine urine and effect of fighting stress during the ?Batailles des Reines? on their biosynthesis
No full textNatural corticosteroids include two families of substances: mineralocorticoids and glucocorticoids. Several drugs of similar structure and biological activity have been synthesized and are currently used in the clinical practice. Beside legal pharmacological treatments, these drugs have been consistently misused in animal breeding. One of the most abused corticosteroids is prednisolone. For many years, prednisolone has been considered of exclusive synthetic origin, but nowadays a debate about its possible endogenous production is under way. Several studies have been addressed to ascertain the potential relationship between stressful conditions, such as transportation and slaughtering, and endogenous production of prednisolone. In order to verify further the effect of stressful conditions, our laboratory analysed urine samples collected from the cows participating to the "Batailles des Reines" (a traditional contest based on ritual and spontaneous fights of pregnant cows), to verify if an endogenous prednisolone production may occur in these animals. We developed and validated a LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of cortisol, cortisone, prednisolone and five of its metabolites. The method was applied to the analysis of urine samples collected from "Batailles des Reines" competitions in 2012 and 2013. All these samples had been previously analysed within an anti-doping control program and tested compliant to all screenings
Valutazione dell’accuratezza statica dei convertitori analogico-digitale ad elevata risoluzione
No full textIl lavoro presenta un sistema realizzato su PC in grado di misurare e classificare gli errori di conversione in ADC commercialmente disponibili, permettendo di valutare il degrado delle prestazioni rispetto al comportamento ideale.
Vengono riportati infine i risultati ottenuti dall'analisi di due componenti commerciali a 14 e 16 bit
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