Advanced Architectures for Astrophysical Supercomputing

Astronomers have come to rely on the increasing performance of computers to reduce, analyze, simulate and visualize their data. In this environment, faster computation can mean more science outcomes or the opening up of new parameter spaces for investigation. If we are to avoid major issues when implementing codes on advanced architectures, it is important that we have a solid understanding of our algorithms. A recent addition to the high-performance computing scene that highlights this point is the graphics processing unit (GPU). The hardware originally designed for speeding-up graphics rendering in video games is now achieving speed-ups of $O(100\times)$ in general-purpose computation -- performance that cannot be ignored. We are using a generalized approach, based on the analysis of astronomy algorithms, to identify the optimal problem-types and techniques for taking advantage of both current GPU hardware and future developments in computing architectures.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the proceedings of ADASS XIX, Oct 4-8 2009, Sapporo, Japan (ASP Conf. Series

Where and Who? Automatic Semantic-Aware Person Composition

Image compositing is a method used to generate realistic yet fake imagery by inserting contents from one image to another. Previous work in compositing has focused on improving appearance compatibility of a user selected foreground segment and a background image (i.e. color and illumination consistency). In this work, we instead develop a fully automated compositing model that additionally learns to select and transform compatible foreground segments from a large collection given only an input image background. To simplify the task, we restrict our problem by focusing on human instance composition, because human segments exhibit strong correlations with their background and because of the availability of large annotated data. We develop a novel branching Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) that jointly predicts candidate person locations given a background image. We then use pre-trained deep feature representations to retrieve person instances from a large segment database. Experimental results show that our model can generate composite images that look visually convincing. We also develop a user interface to demonstrate the potential application of our method.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figure

Spotting Radio Transients with the help of GPUs

Exploration of the time-domain radio sky has huge potential for advancing our knowledge of the dynamic universe. Past surveys have discovered large numbers of pulsars, rotating radio transients and other transient radio phenomena; however, they have typically relied upon off-line processing to cope with the high data and processing rate. This paradigm rules out the possibility of obtaining high-resolution base-band dumps of significant events or of performing immediate follow-up observations, limiting analysis power to what can be gleaned from detection data alone. To overcome this limitation, real-time processing and detection of transient radio events is required. By exploiting the significant computing power of modern graphics processing units (GPUs), we are developing a transient-detection pipeline that runs in real-time on data from the Parkes radio telescope. In this paper we discuss the algorithms used in our pipeline, the details of their implementation on the GPU and the challenges posed by the presence of radio frequency interference.Comment: 4 Pages. To appear in the proceedings of ADASS XXI, ed. P.Ballester and D.Egret, ASP Conf. Serie

Exploring the Relationships Between Pornography Consumption, Relationship Satisfaction, Relationship Beliefs, and Masculinity

Pornography is widely available and consumed in the United States and worldwide. Despite pornography’s wide spread use and expansions since the advent of the Internet, the psychosocial problems related to its use are not fully delineated. Previous studies have explored the relationship between pornography consumption and psychosocial variables such as sexual and physical violence against women, misogynistic beliefs, sexual callousness, acceptance of rape myths, and other problematic sexual beliefs and behaviors. Fewer studies have explored pornography use and its impact on relationship variables such as relationship satisfaction and beliefs about relational constructs such as intimacy, passion, and equality/independence. Furthermore, there are limited studies on how pornography consumption relates to constructs such as masculinity and body satisfaction among male users. The current study aimed to explore the relationship between these constructs, as well as further delineate pornography consumption by examining frequency, duration, method, subgenre, and perceived harm. One hundred fifty-six males were recruited from various northeastern universities and through online advertisements. Results demonstrated a significant negative relationship between pornography consumption and relationship satisfaction. Alternatively, body dissatisfaction and masculinity did not relate to pornography use or relationship satisfaction. Exploratory analysis indicated that pornography consumption was not related to perceived harm or opinions about intimacy, passion, or equality/independence. Research and clinical implications of the findings and future directions are discussed

Precarious foodscapes: Life, caring, digitization, and labor in the face of deepening food crises

In the face of deepening environmental and economic crises, the concept of precarity helps to draw out the grave problems that permeate contemporary foodscapes. In this special issue introduction, we lay the conceptual groundwork for connecting the concept of precarity with contemporary foodscapes by identifying four key sources of precarity within precarious foodscapes: life, caring, digitization, and labor. Life becomes a source of shared precarity with human and non-human life in the face of a destabilizing climactic and health ecologies. Caring becomes a source of precarity as food becomes intertwined with gendered food work and emotional labor. Digital information technologies become a source of precarity as discourses and ideas of food become destabilized and recreated by digital platforms, algorithms, and technologies. Labor becomes a source of precarity as the corporate food regime deepens its exploitation of compensated human labor, unpaid human labor, and non-human labor. This discussion contextualizes the articles that follow and aims to open up and invite further research on precarious foodscapes going forward

Good-Bye Dolly Gray : March & Two Step

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/1798/thumbnail.jp