3,893 research outputs found
A statistical approach to the inverse problem in magnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an imaging technique used to measure the
magnetic field outside the human head produced by the electrical activity
inside the brain. The MEG inverse problem, identifying the location of the
electrical sources from the magnetic signal measurements, is ill-posed, that
is, there are an infinite number of mathematically correct solutions. Common
source localization methods assume the source does not vary with time and do
not provide estimates of the variability of the fitted model. Here, we
reformulate the MEG inverse problem by considering time-varying locations for
the sources and their electrical moments and we model their time evolution
using a state space model. Based on our predictive model, we investigate the
inverse problem by finding the posterior source distribution given the multiple
channels of observations at each time rather than fitting fixed source
parameters. Our new model is more realistic than common models and allows us to
estimate the variation of the strength, orientation and position. We propose
two new Monte Carlo methods based on sequential importance sampling. Unlike the
usual MCMC sampling scheme, our new methods work in this situation without
needing to tune a high-dimensional transition kernel which has a very high
cost. The dimensionality of the unknown parameters is extremely large and the
size of the data is even larger. We use Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) to speed
up the computation.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/14-AOAS716 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Beyond XSPEC: Towards Highly Configurable Analysis
We present a quantitative comparison between software features of the defacto
standard X-ray spectral analysis tool, XSPEC, and ISIS, the Interactive
Spectral Interpretation System. Our emphasis is on customized analysis, with
ISIS offered as a strong example of configurable software. While noting that
XSPEC has been of immense value to astronomers, and that its scientific core is
moderately extensible--most commonly via the inclusion of user contributed
"local models"--we identify a series of limitations with its use beyond
conventional spectral modeling. We argue that from the viewpoint of the
astronomical user, the XSPEC internal structure presents a Black Box Problem,
with many of its important features hidden from the top-level interface, thus
discouraging user customization. Drawing from examples in custom modeling,
numerical analysis, parallel computation, visualization, data management, and
automated code generation, we show how a numerically scriptable, modular, and
extensible analysis platform such as ISIS facilitates many forms of advanced
astrophysical inquiry.Comment: Accepted by PASP, for July 2008 (15 pages
Distributed computing methodology for training neural networks in an image-guided diagnostic application
Distributed computing is a process through which a set of computers connected by a network is used collectively to solve a single problem. In this paper, we propose a distributed computing methodology for training neural networks for the detection of lesions in colonoscopy. Our approach is based on partitioning the training set across multiple processors using a parallel virtual machine. In this way, interconnected computers of varied architectures can be used for the distributed evaluation of the error function and gradient values, and, thus, training neural networks utilizing various learning methods. The proposed methodology has large granularity and low synchronization, and has been implemented and tested. Our results indicate that the parallel virtual machine implementation of the training algorithms developed leads to considerable speedup, especially when large network architectures and training sets are used
High performance computing of explicit schemes for electrofusion jointing process based on message-passing paradigm
The research focused on heterogeneous cluster workstations comprising of a number of CPUs in single and shared architecture platform. The problem statements under consideration involved one dimensional parabolic equations. The thermal process of electrofusion jointing was also discussed. Numerical schemes of explicit type such as AGE, Brian, and Charlies Methods were employed. The parallelization of these methods were based on the domain decomposition technique. Some parallel performance measurement for these methods were also addressed. Temperature profile of the one dimensional radial model of the electrofusion process were also given
Fast Low Fidelity Microsimulation of Vehicle Traffic on Supercomputers
A set of very simple rules for driving behavior used to simulate roadway
traffic gives realistic results. Because of its simplicity, it is easy to
implement the model on supercomputers (vectorizing and parallel), where we have
achieved real time limits of more than 4~million~kilometers (or more than
53~million vehicle sec/sec). The model can be used for applications where both
high simulation speed and individual vehicle resolution are needed. We use the
model for extended statistical analysis to gain insight into traffic phenomena
near capacity, and we discuss that this model is a good candidate for network
routing applications. (Submitted to Transportation Research Board Meeting, Jan.
1994, Washington D.C.)Comment: 11 pages, latex, figs. available upon request, Cologne-WP 93.14
Algorithmic Based Fault Tolerance Applied to High Performance Computing
We present a new approach to fault tolerance for High Performance Computing
system. Our approach is based on a careful adaptation of the Algorithmic Based
Fault Tolerance technique (Huang and Abraham, 1984) to the need of parallel
distributed computation. We obtain a strongly scalable mechanism for fault
tolerance. We can also detect and correct errors (bit-flip) on the fly of a
computation. To assess the viability of our approach, we have developed a fault
tolerant matrix-matrix multiplication subroutine and we propose some models to
predict its running time. Our parallel fault-tolerant matrix-matrix
multiplication scores 1.4 TFLOPS on 484 processors (cluster jacquard.nersc.gov)
and returns a correct result while one process failure has happened. This
represents 65% of the machine peak efficiency and less than 12% overhead with
respect to the fastest failure-free implementation. We predict (and have
observed) that, as we increase the processor count, the overhead of the fault
tolerance drops significantly
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