A Tuned and Scalable Fast Multipole Method as a Preeminent Algorithm for Exascale Systems

Among the algorithms that are likely to play a major role in future exascale computing, the fast multipole method (FMM) appears as a rising star. Our previous recent work showed scaling of an FMM on GPU clusters, with problem sizes in the order of billions of unknowns. That work led to an extremely parallel FMM, scaling to thousands of GPUs or tens of thousands of CPUs. This paper reports on a a campaign of performance tuning and scalability studies using multi-core CPUs, on the Kraken supercomputer. All kernels in the FMM were parallelized using OpenMP, and a test using 10^7 particles randomly distributed in a cube showed 78% efficiency on 8 threads. Tuning of the particle-to-particle kernel using SIMD instructions resulted in 4x speed-up of the overall algorithm on single-core tests with 10^3 - 10^7 particles. Parallel scalability was studied in both strong and weak scaling. The strong scaling test used 10^8 particles and resulted in 93% parallel efficiency on 2048 processes for the non-SIMD code and 54% for the SIMD-optimized code (which was still 2x faster). The weak scaling test used 10^6 particles per process, and resulted in 72% efficiency on 32,768 processes, with the largest calculation taking about 40 seconds to evaluate more than 32 billion unknowns. This work builds up evidence for our view that FMM is poised to play a leading role in exascale computing, and we end the paper with a discussion of the features that make it a particularly favorable algorithm for the emerging heterogeneous and massively parallel architectural landscape

The Initial Mass Function of the Orion Nebula Cluster across the H-burning limit

We present a new census of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) over a large field of view (>30'x30'), significantly increasing the known population of stellar and substellar cluster members with precisely determined properties. We develop and exploit a technique to determine stellar effective temperatures from optical colors, nearly doubling the previously available number of objects with effective temperature determinations in this benchmark cluster. Our technique utilizes colors from deep photometry in the I-band and in two medium-band filters at lambda~753 and 770nm, which accurately measure the depth of a molecular feature present in the spectra of cool stars. From these colors we can derive effective temperatures with a precision corresponding to better than one-half spectral subtype, and importantly this precision is independent of the extinction to the individual stars. Also, because this technique utilizes only photometry redward of 750nm, the results are only mildly sensitive to optical veiling produced by accretion. Completing our census with previously available data, we place some 1750 sources in the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram and assign masses and ages down to 0.02 solar masses. At faint luminosities, we detect a large population of background sources which is easily separated in our photometry from the bona fide cluster members. The resulting initial mass function of the cluster has good completeness well into the substellar mass range, and we find that it declines steeply with decreasing mass. This suggests a deficiency of newly formed brown dwarfs in the cluster compared to the Galactic disk population.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Enhacement in the dymanic response of a viscoelastic fluid flowing through a longitudinally vibrating tube

We analyzed effects of elasticity on the dynamics of fluids in porous media by studying a flow of a Maxwell fluid in a tube, which oscillates longitudinally and is subject to oscillatory pressure gradient. The present study investigates novelties brought about into the classic Biot's theory of propagation of elastic waves in a fluid-saturated porous solid by inclusion of non-Newtonian effects that are important, for example, for hydrocarbons. Using the time Fourier transform and transforming the problem into the frequency domain, we calculated: (A) the dynamic permeability and (B) the function $F(\kappa)$ that measures the deviation from Poiseuille flow friction as a function of frequency parameter $\kappa$. This provides a more complete theory of flow of Maxwell fluid through the longitudinally oscillating cylindrical tube with the oscillating pressure gradient, which has important practical applications. This study has clearly shown transition from dissipative to elastic regime in which sharp enhancements (resonances) of the flow are found

New characterizations of the region of complete localization for random Schr\"odinger operators

We study the region of complete localization in a class of random operators which includes random Schr\"odinger operators with Anderson-type potentials and classical wave operators in random media, as well as the Anderson tight-binding model. We establish new characterizations or criteria for this region of complete localization, given either by the decay of eigenfunction correlations or by the decay of Fermi projections. (These are necessary and sufficient conditions for the random operator to exhibit complete localization in this energy region.) Using the first type of characterization we prove that in the region of complete localization the random operator has eigenvalues with finite multiplicity

Embolisation of Prostatic Arteries as Treatment of Moderate to Severe Lower Urinary Symptoms (LUTS) Secondary to Benign Hyperplasia: Results of Short- and Mid-Term Follow-Up

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the short- and medium-term results of prostatic arterial embolisation (PAE) for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). METHODS: This was a prospective non-randomised study including 255 patients diagnosed with BPH and moderate to severe lower urinary tract symptoms after failure of medical treatment for at least 6 months. The patients underwent PAE between March 2009 and April 2012. Technical success is when selective prostatic arterial embolisation is completed in at least one pelvic side. Clinical success was defined as improving symptoms and quality of life. Evaluation was performed before PAE and at 1, 3, 6 and every 6 months thereafter with the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), quality of life (QoL), International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF), uroflowmetry, prostatic specific antigen (PSA) and volume. Non-spherical polyvinyl alcohol particles were used. RESULTS: PAE was technically successful in 250 patients (97.9 %). Mean follow-up, in 238 patients, was 10 months (range 1-36). Cumulative rates of clinical success were 81.9 %, 80.7 %, 77.9 %, 75.2 %, 72.0 %, 72.0 %, 72.0 % and 72.0 % at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months, respectively. There was one major complication. CONCLUSIONS: PAE is a procedure with good results for BPH patients with moderate to severe LUTS after failure of medical therapy. KEY POINTS: • Prostatic artery embolisation offers minimally invasive therapy for benign prostatic hyperplasia. • Prostatic artery embolisation is a challenging procedure because of vascular anatomical variations. • PAE is a promising new technique that has shown good results

Encounters with di-baryons - from the ABC effect to a new resonance?

The ABC effect, an intriguing low-mass enhancement in the $\pi\pi$ invariant mass spectrum, is known from inclusive measurements of two-pion production in nuclear fusion reactions to the few-body systems d, $^{3}$He and $^{4}$He. It was first observed 1960 by Abashian, Booth and Crowe in the inclusive pd $\to$ $^{3}$He X reaction. Its explanation has been a puzzle since then. In an effort to solve this long-standing problem by exclusive and kinematically complete high-statistics experiments, we have measured the fusion reactions to d, $^{3}$He and $^{4}$He with WASA-at-COSY. These measurements cover the full energy region, where the ABC effect has been observed previously in inclusive reactions. In a recent kinematically complete measurement of the $pn \to d\pi ^{0}\pi ^{0}$ reaction we have shown that the ABC effect in this basic double-pionic fusion reaction is correlated with a narrow structure in the total cross section with quantum numbers I(J$^{P}$) = 0(3$^{+}$), a mass of 2.37 GeV and a width of about 70 MeV. The mass is about 90 MeV below 2 times the mass of $\Delta$, the mass of a $\Delta\Delta$ system, and the width is three times narrower than expected from a conventional t-channel $\Delta\Delta$ process. In the double-pionic fusion reaction to the helium isotope $dd \to ^{4}$He$\pi ^{0}\pi ^{0}$ again the ABC effect is observed to be correlated with the appearance of a resonance-like structure in the total cross section at the same excess energy. From a previous exclusive experiment at CELSIUS-WASA it is known that the double-pionic fusion to $^{3}$He also exhibits a pronunced ABC effect. New data from COSY on the $pd \to ^{3}$He$\pi ^{0}\pi ^{0}$ reaction scanning the full ABC region are presented as well as the status of measurements in other reaction channels, where the new resonance might contribute

The gut–muscle axis in older subjects with low muscle mass and performance: a proof of concept study exploring fecal microbiota composition and function with shotgun metagenomics sequencing

The gut microbiota could influence the pathophysiology of age‐related sarcopenia through multiple mechanisms implying modulation of chronic inflammation and anabolic resistance. The aim of this study was to compare the fecal microbiota composition and functionality, assessed by shotgun metagenomics sequencing, between two groups of elderly outpatients, differing only for the presence of primary sarcopenia. Five sarcopenic elderly subjects and twelve non‐sarcopenic controls, classified according to lower limb function and bioimpedance‐derived skeletal muscle index, provided a stool sample, which was analyzed with shotgun metagenomics approaches, to determine the overall microbiota composition, the representation of bacteria at the species level, and the prediction of bacterial genes involved in functional metabolic pathways. Sarcopenic subjects displayed different fecal microbiota compositions at the species level, with significant depletion of two species known for their metabolic capacity of producing short‐chain fatty acids (SCFAs), Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Roseburia inulinivorans, and of Alistipes shahii. Additionally, their fecal metagenome had different representation of genes belonging to 108 metabolic pathways, namely, depletion of genes involved in SCFA synthesis, carotenoid and isoflavone biotransformation, and amino acid interconversion. These results support the hypothesis of an association between microbiota and sarcopenia, indicating novel possible mediators, whose clinical relevance should be investigated in future studies

Characteristics of Vacuum Freeze Drying with Utilization of Internal Cooling and Condenser Waste Heat for Sublimation

Vacuum freeze drying is an excellent drying method, but it is very energy-intensive because a relatively long drying time is required. This research investigates the utilization of condenser waste heat for sublimation as a way of accelerating the drying rate. In addition, it also investigates the effect of internal cooling combined with vacuum cooling in the pressure reduction process. Jelly fish tentacles were used as the specimen, with different configurations for condenser heat waste and internal cooling valve opening. The results show that heating with condenser heat waste can accelerate the drying rate up to 0.0035 kg/m2.s. In addition, pre-freezing by internal cooling prevents evaporation until the mass of the specimen is 0.47 g and promotes transition of the specimen into the solid phase

What determines the spreading of a wave packet?

The multifractal dimensions D2^mu and D2^psi of the energy spectrum and eigenfunctions, resp., are shown to determine the asymptotic scaling of the width of a spreading wave packet. For systems where the shape of the wave packet is preserved the k-th moment increases as t^(k*beta) with beta=D2^mu/D2^psi, while in general t^(k*beta) is an optimal lower bound. Furthermore, we show that in d dimensions asymptotically in time the center of any wave packet decreases spatially as a power law with exponent D_2^psi - d and present numerical support for these results.Comment: Physical Review Letters to appear, 4 pages postscript with figure