136,729 research outputs found
High-Performance Cloud Computing: A View of Scientific Applications
Scientific computing often requires the availability of a massive number of
computers for performing large scale experiments. Traditionally, these needs
have been addressed by using high-performance computing solutions and installed
facilities such as clusters and super computers, which are difficult to setup,
maintain, and operate. Cloud computing provides scientists with a completely
new model of utilizing the computing infrastructure. Compute resources, storage
resources, as well as applications, can be dynamically provisioned (and
integrated within the existing infrastructure) on a pay per use basis. These
resources can be released when they are no more needed. Such services are often
offered within the context of a Service Level Agreement (SLA), which ensure the
desired Quality of Service (QoS). Aneka, an enterprise Cloud computing
solution, harnesses the power of compute resources by relying on private and
public Clouds and delivers to users the desired QoS. Its flexible and service
based infrastructure supports multiple programming paradigms that make Aneka
address a variety of different scenarios: from finance applications to
computational science. As examples of scientific computing in the Cloud, we
present a preliminary case study on using Aneka for the classification of gene
expression data and the execution of fMRI brain imaging workflow.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, conference pape
A Combinatorial Solution to Non-Rigid 3D Shape-to-Image Matching
We propose a combinatorial solution for the problem of non-rigidly matching a
3D shape to 3D image data. To this end, we model the shape as a triangular mesh
and allow each triangle of this mesh to be rigidly transformed to achieve a
suitable matching to the image. By penalising the distance and the relative
rotation between neighbouring triangles our matching compromises between image
and shape information. In this paper, we resolve two major challenges: Firstly,
we address the resulting large and NP-hard combinatorial problem with a
suitable graph-theoretic approach. Secondly, we propose an efficient
discretisation of the unbounded 6-dimensional Lie group SE(3). To our knowledge
this is the first combinatorial formulation for non-rigid 3D shape-to-image
matching. In contrast to existing local (gradient descent) optimisation
methods, we obtain solutions that do not require a good initialisation and that
are within a bound of the optimal solution. We evaluate the proposed method on
the two problems of non-rigid 3D shape-to-shape and non-rigid 3D shape-to-image
registration and demonstrate that it provides promising results.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure
Epigenetic inheritance. Concepts, mechanisms and perspectives
Parents' stressful experiences can influence an offspring's vulnerability to many pathological conditions, including psychopathologies, and their effects may even endure for several generations. Nevertheless, the cause of this phenomenon has not been determined, and only recently have scientists turned to epigenetics to answer this question. There is extensive literature on epigenetics, but no consensus exists with regard to how and what can (and must) be considered to study and define epigenetics processes and their inheritance. In this work, we aimed to clarify and systematize these concepts. To this end, we analyzed the dynamics of epigenetic changes over time in detail and defined three types of epigenetics: a direct form of epigenetics (DE) and two indirect epigenetic processes-within (WIE) and across (AIE). DE refers to changes that occur in the lifespan of an individual, due to direct experiences with his environment. WIE concerns changes that occur inside of the womb, due to events during gestation. Finally, AIE defines changes that affect the individual's predecessors (parents, grandparents, etc.), due to events that occur even long before conception and that are somehow (e.g., through gametes, the intrauterine environment setting) transmitted across generations. This distinction allows us to organize the main body of epigenetic evidence according to these categories and then focus on the latter (AIE), referring to it as a faster route of informational transmission across generations-compared with genetic inheritance-that guides human evolution in a Lamarckian (i.e., experience-dependent) manner. Of the molecular processes that are implicated in this phenomenon, well-known (methylation) and novel (non-coding RNA, ncRNA) regulatory mechanisms are converging. Our discussion of the chief methods that are used to study epigenetic inheritance highlights the most compelling technical and theoretical problems of this discipline. Experimental suggestions to expand this field are provided, and their practical and ethical implications are discussed extensivel
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