Abstract
An increasing interest in the design of mobile robots has been observed in recent years, which is mainly motivated by technological advances that may allow their application to consumer markets, in addition to industrial areas. Although sophisticated techniques have been developed, choosing the appropriate hardware-software partitioning and programming robot functions are still very complex tasks. Current approaches often involve the design and implementation of hardwired solutions, with the associated problems of a long development cycle and inflexibility. In this paper we present a framework called ARCHITECT-R, which aims to design and program specialized hardware for robots based on FPGAs. We also present the first results obtained using this framework.

Abstract
This paper presents a technique, called loop dissevering, for temporally partitioning any type of loop presented in programming languages. The technique can be used in the presence of complex loops that oversize the physically available hardware resources. Unlike loop fission or distribution, the technique can be applied to all types of loops and it is not constrained by loop dependences. Thus, the technique guarantees the compilation of complex loops that otherwise cannot be mapped to the target reconfigurable computing architecture. Moreover, the technique only needs to communicate scalar variables between temporal partitions (configurations) and does not need auxiliary array variables used for scalar expansion when applying loop distribution. We show the results of applying the technique when compiling C programs to the PACT eXtreme Processing Platform (XPP) and to a hypothetical version with faster switching between contexts. We show that the technique leads to implementations using fewer resources and might lead to performance improvements when it is possible to overlap some of the execution stages (e.g., fetch, configure, and compute). As performance is concerned, the technique is most efficient and the reconfiguration time is fast. © 2003 IEEE.

Abstract
Peripheral nerve researchers frequently use the rat sciatic nerve crush model in order to test different therapeutic approaches. The purpose of this study was to determine the sequence of changes after an axonotmetic injury by means of a biomechanical model of the foot and ankle, and compare them with walking track analysis, over a fixed period of time. A kinematic analysis program was used to acquire ankle motion data for further analysis. Although repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant cumulative changes induced by the crush lesion for both ankle kinematic parameters and sciatic functional index, post-hoc multiple comparisons by the Student-Neuman-Keuls test revealed significant differences between week 0 and week 8 only for ankle kinematics. These results are of importance in showing the superiority of ankle kinematics in detecting small biomechanical deficits related to hyperexcitability of the plantarflexor muscles, in contrast with walking track analysis, which showed full motor functional recovery 8 weeks after the crush lesion.

Abstract
In experimental peripheral nerve studies, the rat sciatic nerve model is widely used to examine functional outcome following nerve injury and repair. A variety of evaluation methods exist in the literature, but an adequate selection continues to be a critical point for the researcher. Rats with sciatic nerve injury typically ambulate with an external rotation of the foot. A new functional assessment instrument, the toe out angle (TOA) is quantified using computerized gait analysis. We compared Sciatic Functional Index (SFI) with TOA parameter after peripheral nerve transection and entubulation repair. We found a good correlation between SFI and TOA measurements in terms of predicting functional recovery. Moreover, the TOA provides information on the biomechanical consequences of the external rotation of the foot in the stance phase of walking.

Abstract
In this paper wastewater treatment processes in fixed-bed bioreactor are examined. One possible way to acquire more precise description of such processes is their real consideration as objects with distributed parameters. In order to avoid the complexity of mathematical description of distributed parameters objects, some new methods have to be applied. In this paper a new approach for description of wastewater treatment processes, based on the apparatus of Generalized Nets and Intuitionistic Fuzzy Logic, is presented. As a result from applied techniques, different decisions could be made about the variation of the number of levels in biofilter and about optimal carrying out of the processes in the meaning of technological time and quality of outlet water.

Abstract
A new approach for modelling of Escherichia coli cultivation process, based on the apparatus of Generalized Nets, is presented in this paper. Generalized Nets provide the opportunity to describe the logic of the cultivation process modelling. Developed Generalized Net model gives a possibility to change the concentration of feeding solution in dependence of substrate concentration in the fermenter in order to prevent the inhibition effect. Moreover, proposed Generalized Nets model allows to control the concentration of dissolved oxygen at some desired value, changing the aeration rate in dependence on concentration of dissolved oxygen during the process. The opportunities, which obtained Generalized Net model gives for process optimization, affirm the apparatus of Generalized Nets as very efficient tool for modelling of fermentation processes.