THE NAS PARALLEL BENCHMARKS

The Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program, which is based at NASA Ames Research Center, is a large-scale effort to advance the state of computational aerodynamics. Specifically, the NAS organization aims &dquo;to provide the Nation’s aerospace research and development community by the year 2000 a highperformance, operational computing system capable of simulating an entire aerospace vehicle system within a computing time of one to several hours&dquo; (NAS Systems Division, 1988, p. 3). The successful solution of this &dquo;grand challenge&dquo; problem will require the development of computer systems that can perform the required complex scientific computations at a sustained rate nearly 1,000 times greater than current generation supercomputers can achieve. The architecture of computer systems able to achieve this level of performance will likely be dissimilar to the shared memory multiprocessing supercomputers of today. While no consensus yet exists on what the design will be, it is likely that the system will consist of at least 1,000 processors computing in parallel. Highly parallel systems with computing power roughly equivalent to that of traditional shared memory multiprocessors exist today. Unfortunately, for various reasons, the performance evaluation of these systems on comparable types of scientific computations is very difficult. Relevant data for the performance of algorithms of interest to the computational aerophysics community on many currently available parallel systems are limited. Benchmarking and performance evaluation of such systems have not kept pace with advances in hardware, software, and algorithms. In particular, there is as yet no generally accepted benchmark program or even a benchmark strategy for these systems

Preliminary effects of fertilization on ecochemical soil condition in mature spruce stands experiencing dieback in the Beskid Śla̧ski and Żywiecki Mountains, Poland

In recent years, there has been the phenomena of spruce dieback in Europe. Significant areas of spruce low mortality now cover both sides of the Polish southern border. We evaluated ecochemical parameters influencing the heavy dieback occurring in mature spruce stands in the Polish Carpathian Mountains. Dolomite, magnesite and serpentinite fertilizers were applied to experimental plots located in 100-year-old stands in the autumn of 2008. The experimental plots were located in the mid-elevational forest zone (900-950 m) on two nappes of the flysch Carpathians: Magura (Ujsoły Forest District) and Silesian (Wisła Forest District). The saturation of the studied soils demonstrates moderate resilience of soils in Wisła Forest District in relation to acid load and high flexibility of the Ujsoły soils. After application of the fertilizers, an increase of Mg, Ca and Mb was noted in the soil solution, determined in the overlaying highly acidic organic horizons through the ion-exchange buffering mechanism of highly protonated functional groups with high buffering capacity. Magnesium concentration increased following fertilization, presenting a potential improvement of forest growth capacity without the hazard of adverse side effects of liming. Aluminium stress in old spruce is unlikely, while trees in the control plots in Wisła Forest District may already be sensitive to aluminium stress. Serpentinite fertilization improved the supply of soils in magnesium without causing significant changes in the pH of the soil. Such changes in the pH were found in dolomite and magnesite fertilizer. © The Author(s) 2014

Economic downturn results in tick-borne disease upsurge

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The emergence of zoonoses is due both to changes in human activities and to changes in their natural wildlife cycles. One of the most significant vector-borne zoonoses in Europe, tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), doubled in incidence in 1993, largely as a consequence of the socio-economic transition from communism to capitalism and associated environmental changes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>To test the effect of the current economic recession, unemployment in 2009 and various socio-economic indices were compared to weather indices (derived from principal component analyses) as predictors for the change in TBE case numbers in 2009 relative to 2004-08, for 14 European countries.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Greatest increases in TBE incidence occurred in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (91, 79 and 45%, respectively). The weather was rejected as an explanatory variable. Indicators of high background levels of poverty, e.g. percent of household expenditure on food, were significant predictors. The increase in unemployment in 2009 relative to 2008 together with 'in-work risk of poverty' is the only case in which a multivariate model has a second significant term.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Background socio-economic conditions determine susceptibility to risk of TBE, while increased unemployment triggered a sudden increase in risk. Mechanisms behind this result may include reduced resistance to infection through stress; reduced uptake of costly vaccination; and more exposure of people to infected ticks in their forest habitat as they make greater use of wild forest foods, especially in those countries, Lithuania and Poland, with major marketing opportunities in such products. Recognition of these risk factors could allow more effective protection through education and a vaccination programme targeted at the economically most vulnerable.</p

Tension pneumothorax in a newborn after Cesarean-section delivery -A case report-

Tension pneumothorax in newborns is a rare but life-threatening complication. We encountered a case of a full-term neonate with a breech presentation. An elective cesarean section was scheduled. Immediately after delivery, the newborn was found to be breathless with a heart rate <60/min. During intubation and cardiac massage, the patient's femoral artery and vein were accessed. The infantogram revealed a right side tension pneumothorax. A 22 gauge needle thoracentesis relieved the right side chest pressure and a closed thoracostomy was performed. The severe acidosis was corrected with sodium bicarbonate. The patient was managed in the neonatal intensive care unit, but died from uncorrectable acidosis. We report this case with a review of the relevant literature

Bearing signal separation enhancement with application to helicopter transmission system

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Bearing vibration signal separation is essential for fault detection of gearboxes, especially where the vibration is nonstationary, susceptible to background noise, and subjected to an arduous transmission path from the source to the receiver. This paper presents a methodology for improving fault detection via a series of vibration signal processing techniques, including signal separation, synchronous averaging (SA), spectral kurtosis (SK), and envelope analysis. These techniques have been tested on experimentally obtained vibration data acquired from the transmission system of a CS-29 Category A helicopter gearbox operating under different bearing damage conditions. Results showed successful enhancement of bearing fault detection on the second planetary stage of the gearbo

Repeat Detector: versatile sizing of expanded tandem repeats and identification of interrupted alleles from targeted DNA sequencing

Targeted DNA sequencing approaches will improve how the size of short tandem repeats is measured for diagnostic tests and preclinical studies. The expansion of these sequences causes dozens of disorders, with longer tracts generally leading to a more severe disease. Interrupted alleles are sometimes present within repeats and can alter disease manifestation. Determining repeat size mosaicism and identifying interruptions in targeted sequencing datasets remains a major challenge. This is in part because standard alignment tools are ill-suited for repetitive and unstable sequences. To address this, we have developed Repeat Detector (RD), a deterministic profile weighting algorithm for counting repeats in targeted sequencing data. We tested RD using blood-derived DNA samples from Huntington’s disease and Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy patients sequenced using either Illumina MiSeq or Pacific Biosciences single-molecule, real-time sequencing platforms. RD was highly accurate in determining repeat sizes of 609 blood-derived samples from Huntington’s disease individuals and did not require prior knowledge of the flanking sequences. Furthermore, RD can be used to identify alleles with interruptions and provide a measure of repeat instability within an individual. RD is therefore highly versatile and may find applications in the diagnosis of expanded repeat disorders and in the development of novel therapies

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)