569 research outputs found
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Parallel Peak Pruning for Scalable SMP Contour Tree Computation
As data sets grow to exascale, automated data analysis and visu- alisation are increasingly important, to intermediate human under- standing and to reduce demands on disk storage via in situ anal- ysis. Trends in architecture of high performance computing sys- tems necessitate analysis algorithms to make effective use of com- binations of massively multicore and distributed systems. One of the principal analytic tools is the contour tree, which analyses rela- tionships between contours to identify features of more than local importance. Unfortunately, the predominant algorithms for com- puting the contour tree are explicitly serial, and founded on serial metaphors, which has limited the scalability of this form of analy- sis. While there is some work on distributed contour tree computa- tion, and separately on hybrid GPU-CPU computation, there is no efficient algorithm with strong formal guarantees on performance allied with fast practical performance. We report the first shared SMP algorithm for fully parallel contour tree computation, with for- mal guarantees of O(lgnlgt) parallel steps and O(nlgn) work, and implementations with up to 10× parallel speed up in OpenMP and up to 50× speed up in NVIDIA Thrust
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Optimization and Augmentation for Data Parallel Contour Trees
Contour trees are used for topological data analysis in scientific visualization. While originally computed with serial algorithms, recent work has introduced a vector-parallel algorithm. However, this algorithm is relatively slow for fully augmented contour trees which are needed for many practical data analysis tasks. We therefore introduce a representation called the hyperstructure that enables efficient searches through the contour tree and use it to construct a fully augmented contour tree in data parallel, with performance on average 6 times faster than the state-of-the-art parallel algorithm in the TTK topological toolkit
Thermo-mechanical behavior of a granodiorite from the Liquiñe fractured geothermal system (39°S) in the Southern Volcanic Zone of the Andes
Fractures and faults in granitic rocks play an important role in geothermal systems because they permit the circulation of hot fluids. However, the thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of granitic rocks has predominantly been studied at temperatures exceeding 300 °C but many geothermal systems experience temperatures much lower than this. The aim of this study was to evaluate how the depth, temperature, and amount and rate of mechanical loading associated conditions, that are realistic in low temperature geothermal system, influence the physical properties of geothermal reservoir hosting rock. We carried out both room temperature and low temperature thermo-mechanical tests on a granodiorite sample from the Liquiñe area, Chile, and performed post-experimental X-ray microtomography analysis to numerically estimate the permeability of the generated fractures. The results showed that both rock strength and rock stiffness decreased with increments of temperature treatment related to the development of thermal crack damage at temperatures > 150 °C and through the development of sub-critical cracking at constant temperatures between 50–75 °C. Slowest deformed samples also exhibited lower strengths, attributed to the development of sub-critical cracking. The cyclic triaxial loading test indicated that significant mechanical fracture damage was only initiated above 80% of the peak stress regardless of the number of repeated loading cycles at lower stresses. Low-temperature treatment appears to be a conditioning factor, but not the dominant factor in controlling the physical properties of reservoir hosting rocks. Our findings indicate that thermal crack damage is likely important for developing microfracture related permeability at depths between around 2–6 km where the temperature is sufficiently high to induce thermal cracking. At shallower depths, such was previously estimated the reservoir of Liquiñe, thermal crack damage is only generated adjacent to fractures that remain open and circulate the hot fluids but sub-critical cracking over time reduces the strength of rocks in lower temperature regimes. These processes combined to produce a geothermal reservoir in Liquiñe which likely first required the presence of a highly fractured fault zone
Scalable Contour Tree Computation by Data Parallel Peak Pruning
As data sets grow to exascale, automated data analysis and visualisation are increasingly important, to intermediate human understanding and to reduce demands on disk storage via in situ analysis. Trends in architecture of high performance computing systems necessitate analysis algorithms to make effective use of combinations of massively multicore and distributed systems. One of the principal analytic tools is the contour tree, which analyses relationships between contours to identify features of more than local importance. Unfortunately, the predominant algorithms for computing the contour tree are explicitly serial, and founded on serial metaphors, which has limited the scalability of this form of analysis. While there is some work on distributed contour tree computation, and separately on hybrid GPU-CPU computation, there is no efficient algorithm with strong formal guarantees on performance allied with fast practical performance. We report the first shared SMP algorithm for fully parallel contour tree computation, with formal guarantees of O(lgnlgt) parallel steps and O(nlgn) work, and implementations with more than 30× parallel speed up on both CPU using TBB and GPU using Thrust and up 70× speed up compared to the serial sweep and merge algorithm
Putting our money where their mouth is: alignment of charitable aims with charity investments - tensions in policy and practice
Given the values-driven nature of the mission of most charities, it might be expected that investment behaviour would be similarly values-driven. This paper documents the ethical investment policies and practices of the largest UK charities and explores how these are aligned with the charitable aims, drawing upon accountability, behavioural and managerial perspectives as theoretical lenses. The study employs two distinct research methods: responses to a postal questionnaire and follow-up semi-structured interviews with selected charities. The evidence indicates that a significant minority of large charities do not have a written ethical investment policy. Charities with larger investments, fundraising charities and religious charities were more likely to have a written ethical policy. We suggest that there is a pressing need for improved alignment between charities' aims and their investment practices and better monitoring of investment policies
Socioeconomic inequalities in childhood overweight: heterogeneity across five countries in the WHO European childhood obesity surveillance initiative (COSI-2008)
Free PMC Article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4856730/BACKGROUND: Excess risk of childhood overweight and obesity occurring in socioeconomically disadvantaged families has been
demonstrated in numerous studies from high-income regions, including Europe. It is well known that socioeconomic characteristics
such as parental education, income and occupation are etiologically relevant to childhood obesity. However, in the pan-European
setting, there is reason to believe that inequalities in childhood weight status may vary among countries as a function of differing
degrees of socioeconomic development and equity.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, we have examined socioeconomic differences in childhood obesity in
different parts of the European region using nationally representative data from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Portugal
and Sweden that were collected in 2008 during the first round of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Childhood
Obesity Surveillance Initiative.
RESULTS: Heterogeneity in the association between parental socioeconomic indicators and childhood overweight or obesity was
clearly observed across the five countries studied. Positive as well as negative associations were observed between parental
socioeconomic indicators and childhood overweight, with statistically significant interactions between country and parental
indicators.
CONCLUSIONS: These findings have public health implications for the WHO European Region and underscore the necessity to
continue documenting socioeconomic inequalities in obesity in all countries through international surveillance efforts in countries
with diverse geographic, social and economic environments. This is a prerequisite for universal as well as targeted preventive
actions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
New Constraints (and Motivations) for Abelian Gauge Bosons in the MeV-TeV Mass Range
We survey the phenomenological constraints on abelian gauge bosons having
masses in the MeV to multi-GeV mass range (using precision electroweak
measurements, neutrino-electron and neutrino-nucleon scattering, electron and
muon anomalous magnetic moments, upsilon decay, beam dump experiments, atomic
parity violation, low-energy neutron scattering and primordial
nucleosynthesis). We compute their implications for the three parameters that
in general describe the low-energy properties of such bosons: their mass and
their two possible types of dimensionless couplings (direct couplings to
ordinary fermions and kinetic mixing with Standard Model hypercharge). We argue
that gauge bosons with very small couplings to ordinary fermions in this mass
range are natural in string compactifications and are likely to be generic in
theories for which the gravity scale is systematically smaller than the Planck
mass - such as in extra-dimensional models - because of the necessity to
suppress proton decay. Furthermore, because its couplings are weak, in the
low-energy theory relevant to experiments at and below TeV scales the charge
gauged by the new boson can appear to be broken, both by classical effects and
by anomalies. In particular, if the new gauge charge appears to be anomalous,
anomaly cancellation does not also require the introduction of new light
fermions in the low-energy theory. Furthermore, the charge can appear to be
conserved in the low-energy theory, despite the corresponding gauge boson
having a mass. Our results reduce to those of other authors in the special
cases where there is no kinetic mixing or there is no direct coupling to
ordinary fermions, such as for recently proposed dark-matter scenarios.Comment: 49 pages + appendix, 21 figures. This is the final version which
appears in JHE
Reference values of bone stiffness index and C-terminal telopeptide in healthy European children
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Quantitative ultrasound measurements and bone metabolic markers can help to monitor bone health and to detect impaired skeletal development. Population-based reference values for children may serve as a basis for preventive measures to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures in later life. This is the first paper providing age-, sex-and height-specific reference values for bone stiffness index (SI) and serum carboxy-terminal cross-linking telopeptide of type I collagen (CTX) in healthy, apparently prepubertal children.
SUBJECTS/METHODS: In the population-based IDEFICS baseline survey (2007-2008) and follow-up (2009-2010), 18 745 children from eight European countries were newly recruited. A total of 10 791 2-10.9-year-old and 1646 3-8.9-year-old healthy children provided data on SI of the right and left calcaneus and serum CTX, respectively. Furthermore, height and weight were measured. Percentile curves were calculated using the General Additive Model for Location Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) to model the distribution of SI and CTX depending on multiple covariates while accounting for dispersion, skewness, and the kurtosis of this distribution.
RESULTS: SI was negatively associated with age and height in children aged 2-5 years, whereas a positive association was observed in children aged 6-10 years. The dip in SI occurred at older age for higher SI percentiles and was observed earlier in taller children than in smaller children. The CTX reference curves showed a linear-positive association with age and height. No major sex differences were observed for the SI and CTX reference values.
CONCLUSION: These reference data lay the ground to evaluate bone growth and metabolism in prepubertal children in epidemiological and clinical settings. They may also inform clinical practice to monitor skeletal development and to assess adverse drug reactions during medical treatments
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