cuIBM -- A GPU-accelerated Immersed Boundary Method

A projection-based immersed boundary method is dominated by sparse linear algebra routines. Using the open-source Cusp library, we observe a speedup (with respect to a single CPU core) which reflects the constraints of a bandwidth-dominated problem on the GPU. Nevertheless, GPUs offer the capacity to solve large problems on commodity hardware. This work includes validation and a convergence study of the GPU-accelerated IBM, and various optimizations.Comment: Extended paper post-conference, presented at the 23rd International Conference on Parallel Computational Fluid Dynamics (http://www.parcfd.org), ParCFD 2011, Barcelona (unpublished

MULTIPLE STRUCTURAL BREAKS IN AUSTRALIA’S MACROECONOMIC DATA: AN APPLICATION OF THE LUMSDAINE AND PAPELL TEST

This paper employs all available annual time series data to endogenously determine the timing of structural breaks for 10 macroeconomic variables in the Australian economy. The ADF (Augmented Dickey and Fuller) test and the LP (Lumsdaine and Papell, 1997) test are used to examine the time series properties of the data. The ADF test results provide no evidence against the unit root null hypothesis in all ten macroeconomic variables. After accounting for the two most significant structural breaks in the data impacting on both the intercept and trend, the results from the LP test indicate that the null of at least one unit root is rejected for four of the variables under investigation at the 10 per cent level or better. We also found that the dates of structural breaks in most cases point to: (a) the oil/wages shock occurring in the 1973-1975 period, (b) the 1990-1991 recession; (c) the culmination of financial deregulation and innovation in the late 1980s; and (d) the 1997 Asian crisis.Unit roots Hypothesis, structural breaks, and Australian economy

Babies and Boardrooms: A Comparison of Women in the Labor Forces of Japan and the United States

The goal of this paper is to examine the participation of women in the Japanese labor force and to compare this participation rate to that of the United States. This paper explores various situational and cultural differences between the two countries that lead to a stagnant female participation rate in Japan as compared to significant growth in the United States. It provides historical context and applies personal experience to a current economic situation in order to understand why it is occurring. Topics covered in this paper include Japanese cultural background, labor force participations issues in Japan and the United States, salient statistics, current female labor force participation, wage gap and childcare issues, and recent Japanese legislation

Electrocoagulation for sulfate removal

In the United States, one of the major rising issues is water shortage, especially in Western, inland states with arid climates. Not only do deficiencies exist for potable water, but for irrigation and agricultural purposes as well. Currently, the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico has four separate wells that are being used for experimentation. A major concern is that a considerable amount of this water is currently wasted by being sent to evaporation ponds without any sort of treatment for human consumption. The WERC-A-HOLICS have identified two possible methods to alleviate this problem. Electrocoagulation (EC) is a technology useful for the removal of sulfate and other anions from brackish groundwater. The process charges concentrated water through an EC chamber in a serpentine pathway, and uses an applied voltage to flow current through the system. By identifying the ideal combination of current density and residence time, it is possible to achieve approximately 40% sulfate removal by EC alone. In addition to this technology, reverse osmosis (RO) was also considered as a means of water desalination. This is a very attractive option, and has been extensively implemented in other parts of the world, especially Europe and the Middle East. RO is extremely effective in reducing salt concentrations, within EPA limits, suitable for human consumption. The WERC-A-HOLICS performed experiments to determine if EC was a viable means of removing sulfate from brackish water (well 2). On a purely scientific level, EC as pretreatment for RO produced potable water; however, this system is not economical long term on an industrial scale due to its high yearly operating costs. If implemented on a smaller scale or using brackish water feed with a lower sulfate concentration, such as the other three research wells, EC as pretreatment has potential to be economical due to its lower yearly operating and waste disposal costs

Damages

Covers cases on damages for private nuisances and on interest on disputed claims

Social infrastructure and public life - notes on Finsbury Park, London

Cities need social infrastructure, places that support social connection in neighborhoods and across communities. In the face of austerity in many places, the provision of such infrastructures are under threat. To protect such infrastructures, it is important to have robust arguments for their provision, maintenance, and protection. Through a case study of a dispute about the appropriate use and provisioning of an everyday park located in London, UK, this article examines what social infrastructure is and why it matters. The dispute has brought to the surface a number of critical questions about how to fund and provide collective, public social life. It has also raised questions about what types of social and collective life should be valued. To examine the dispute a sixfold typology is developed to explore the different registers of sociality afforded by social infrastructure: co-presence, sociability and friendship, care and kinship, kinesthetic practices, and civic engagement