OpenCL Actors - Adding Data Parallelism to Actor-based Programming with CAF

The actor model of computation has been designed for a seamless support of concurrency and distribution. However, it remains unspecific about data parallel program flows, while available processing power of modern many core hardware such as graphics processing units (GPUs) or coprocessors increases the relevance of data parallelism for general-purpose computation. In this work, we introduce OpenCL-enabled actors to the C++ Actor Framework (CAF). This offers a high level interface for accessing any OpenCL device without leaving the actor paradigm. The new type of actor is integrated into the runtime environment of CAF and gives rise to transparent message passing in distributed systems on heterogeneous hardware. Following the actor logic in CAF, OpenCL kernels can be composed while encapsulated in C++ actors, hence operate in a multi-stage fashion on data resident at the GPU. Developers are thus enabled to build complex data parallel programs from primitives without leaving the actor paradigm, nor sacrificing performance. Our evaluations on commodity GPUs, an Nvidia TESLA, and an Intel PHI reveal the expected linear scaling behavior when offloading larger workloads. For sub-second duties, the efficiency of offloading was found to largely differ between devices. Moreover, our findings indicate a negligible overhead over programming with the native OpenCL API.Comment: 28 page

Vitamin D Status in Lean and Obese Mexican American Children

Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide problem amongst adolescents and adults, particularly in minority populations due to high skin melanin content. Melanin blocks the absorption of UVB photons, which limits natural vitamin D accumulation, requiring more dietary intake of vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with an increased risk for chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus. Low levels of vitamin D are inversely correlated with systemic inflammation possibly mediating the relationship between vitamin D deficiency and disease. Adequate levels of vitamin D may decrease the risks of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, common cancers, and autoimmune diseases. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency, because vitamin D can become sequestered deep in subcutaneous adipose tissue, where it is biologically inert. In the US, Mexican-Americans are at a higher risk for both obesity and obesity-associate chronic diseases, making them an ideal research population. Objective: Investigate the relationship between serum vitamin-D status and systemic inflammation in Mexican-American children of differing obesity status. Patients and Methods: Serum vitamin D concentration will be measured using a commercially available ELISA kit. Vitamin D status will be determined using norms established by the Institute of Medicine in 2010. Serum TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-8 concentration will be measured using a Luminex Multiplex assay (Millipore Milliplex)

Evaluation of inappropriate prescribing to the hospitalized elderly patients in Al Shifa hospital, Gaza, Palestine

Background: The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of inappropriate prescribing (IP) for hospitalized elderly patients at Al Shifa Hospital, Gaza, Palestine.Methods: This study was a retrospective cross-sectional study. A total of 2385 prescribed drugs for 380 elderly inpatients in internal, cardiology, and respiratory departments were screened for IP. Four criteria were used to detect IP using chart review method; Drug-drug interactions (DDIs), drug contra-indications (CI), duplication of therapy and Beers' criteria 2012.Results: The results showed that 44.2% of patients had at least one IP. Around 33.2% of the patients had DDIs, 19.2% had IP according to Beers' criteria and 1.1% had drug CI. There was no duplication of therapy. A total of 323 IP instances were detected. Of them, 74% for DDIs and 24.8% for Beers' criteria. The prevalence of overall IP was significantly influenced by age (p-value=0.024), polypharmacy (p-value<0.001), degree of morbidity (p-value<0.001), and departments (p-value=0.018). The prevalence of DDIs was influenced by polypharmacy (p-value<0.001), degree of morbidity (p-value=0.001), and departments (p-value=0.005). Finally, the prevalence of IP according to Beers' criteria was significantly influenced by departments with the highest in the cardiology department (29.7%) (P-value=0.007).Conclusions: Although the overall IP was common, it was not far higher than that reported worldwide. The majority of IP was DDIs. Age, polypharmacy, degree of morbidity and departments influenced the occurrence of IP

Prevalence and Levels of Depression Among Parents of Children with Cancer in Basrah, Iraq

Objectives: Cancer in a family member can be a major source of psychological disorders, especially for the parents of children diagnosed with cancer. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and levels of depression among parents of children with cancer in Basrah, Iraq. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between November 2014 and April 2015 at the Specialist Paediatric Hospital in Basrah City, Iraq. One parent each of 384 children with cancer admitted to the hospital for treatment or follow-up during the study period were invited to participate in the study. Age, gender, years of education, occupation, monthly income, place of residence and the overall number of children in a family were recorded. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale was used to identify depression and assess levels of depression. Results: A total of 336 parents participated in the study (response rate: 87.5%). Of these, 70.5% were depressed, 54.1% of which had major depression. Depression was significantly more common (77.2% versus 57.1%) and more severe (60.7% versus 41.1%) among mothers compared to fathers (P = 0.001). Parents with fewer years of education were more likely to be depressed; this association was significant for mothers but not fathers (P = 0.001 and 0.814, respectively). Depression was significantly inversely associated with monthly income (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The prevalence of depression among the parents of children with cancer was high. Depression was significantly more severe among mothers compared to fathers and among mothers who were less educated. Income also had a significant association with levels of depression among parents

Corticosterone Levels in Sedentary, Wheel, and Treadmill Acclimated Mice following a Bout of Forced Treadmill Running

Murine models have been used to study the immune response to exercise under various diet and training interventions .Our laboratory has previously studied the effect of forced exercise versus voluntary exercise on fasting blood glucose measurements. However, forced exercise may result in increased corticosterone levels. This may affect glucose levels and subsequent weight gain. Male, wild-type CD-1 mice were randomly divided into the following groups: forced exercise, wheel running, and sedentary. After a 8- weeks of the intervention, all mice were placed on a treadmill and forced to run for 30 minutes. Blood was collected from the mice prior to exercise, immediately following exercise, and one hour post exercise. Plasma corticosterone levels were assessed using an ELISA. 3-color flow cytometry was used to assess blood leukocytes. We found that despite treadmill acclimation in the forced exercise group, there was no significant difference between groups in corticosterone or leukocyte levels when forced to run on a treadmill. All groups showed a spike in corticosterone levels immediately following exercise which returned to baseline at one-hour post

The Contribution of the Pineal Gland on Daily Rhythms and Masking in Diurnal Grass Rats, Arvicanthis niloticus

Melatonin is a hormone rhythmically secreted at night by the pineal gland in vertebrates. In diurnal mammals, melatonin is present during the inactive phase of the rest/activity cycle, and in primates it directly facilitates sleep and decreases body temperature. However, the role of the pineal gland for the promotion of sleep at night has not yet been studied in non-primate diurnal mammalian species. Here, the authors directly examined the hypothesis that the pineal gland contributes to diurnality in Nile grass rats by decreasing activity and increasing sleep at night, and that this could occur via effects on circadian mechanisms or masking, or both. Removing the pineal gland had no effect on the hourly distribution of activity across a 12:12 light-dark (LD) cycle or on the patterns of sleep-like behavior at night. Masking effects of light at night on activity were also not significantly different in pinealectomized and control grass rats, as 1h pulses of light stimulated increases in activity of sham and pinealectomized animals to a similar extent. In addition, the circadian regulation of activity was unaffected by the surgical condition of the animals. Our results suggest that the pineal gland does not contribute to diurnality in the grass rat, thus highlighting the complexity of temporal niche transitions. The current data raise interesting questions about how and why genetic and neural mechanisms linking melatonin to sleep regulatory systems might vary among mammals that reached a diurnal niche via parallel and independent pathways

RELEASE: A High-level Paradigm for Reliable Large-scale Server Software

Erlang is a functional language with a much-emulated model for building reliable distributed systems. This paper outlines the RELEASE project, and describes the progress in the first six months. The project aim is to scale the Erlang’s radical concurrency-oriented programming paradigm to build reliable general-purpose software, such as server-based systems, on massively parallel machines. Currently Erlang has inherently scalable computation and reliability models, but in practice scalability is constrained by aspects of the language and virtual machine. We are working at three levels to address these challenges: evolving the Erlang virtual machine so that it can work effectively on large scale multicore systems; evolving the language to Scalable Distributed (SD) Erlang; developing a scalable Erlang infrastructure to integrate multiple, heterogeneous clusters. We are also developing state of the art tools that allow programmers to understand the behaviour of massively parallel SD Erlang programs. We will demonstrate the effectiveness of the RELEASE approach using demonstrators and two large case studies on a Blue Gene

The development of productivity interfirm comparison procedures for the cement industry of Saudi Arabia

Productivity Interfirm Comparison (PIC) is a simple method used to improve productivity at the firm level, where a number of firms operate in the same product line so that performance information on the firms can be compiled and compared. This results in identifying potential areas for improvement or exploitation. The comparison may unearth performance inefficiencies that, over time, may have insidiously come to be regarded as acceptable when quite the contrary is true. Three Saudi cement firms participated in this research whose purpose was to determine the usefulness and applicability of PIC for firms in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from the participating firms and converted to ratios which were represented graphically and discussed in detail. In spite of the differences between Saudi Arabia and the United States, it was found that PIC is useful to firms in Saudi Arabia and many benefits could be gained from its use. This includes use at the national level in applying PIC in all industries. Experience in its use could be gained by affiliating or contracting with productivity improvement and measurement centers and organizations. PIC procedures can also be conducted internationally