A General Framework for Complex Time-Driven Simulations on Hypercubes

We describe a general framework for building and running complex time-driven simulations with several levels of concurrency. The framework has been implemented on the Caltech/JPL Mark IIIfp hypercube using the Centaur communications protocol. Our framework allows the programmer to break the hypercube up into one or more subcubes of arbitrary size (task parallelism). Each subcube runs a separate application using data parallelism and synchronous communications internal to the subcube. Communications between subcubes are performed with asynchronous messages. Subcubes can each define their own parameters and commands which drive their particular application. These are collected and organized by the Control Processor (CP) in order that the entire simulation can be driven from a single command-driven shell. This system allows several programmers to develop disjoint pieces of a large simulation in parallel and to then integrate them with little effort. Each programmer is, of course, also able to take advantage of the separate data and I/O processors on each hypercube node in order to overlap calculation and communication (on-board parallelism) as well as the pipelined floating point processor on each node (pipelined processor parallelism). We show, as an example of the framework, a large space defense simulation. Functions (sensing, tracking, etc.) each comprise a subcube; functions are collected into defense platforms (satellites); and many platforms comprise the defense architecture. Software in the CP uses simple input to determine the node allocation to each function based on the desired defense architecture and number of platforms simulated in the hypercube. This allows many different architectures to be simulated. The set of simulated platforms, the results, and the messages between them are shown on color graphics displays. The methods used herein can be generalized to other simulations of a similar nature in a straightforward manner

Feminist Economics, Setting out the Parameters

___Introduction___ Feminist economics has developed its position over the past decade, towards a firmer embeddedness in economic science and a source of inspiration for activists, policy makers, and social science researchers in a wide variety of fields of research. This development has come about in a relatively short period of time, as is reflected, for example, in the follow-up book of the feminist economic primer Beyond Economic Man (Ferber/Nelson 1993), published ten years later: Feminist Economics Today (Ferber/Nelson, 2003) The strengthened position of feminist economics also shows in the 10-year anniversary of the prize-winning journal Feminist Economics, the flourishing of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), as well as the more regular demand for feminist economic policy advise by institutions like the UN, OECD and governments in developed and developing countries, and in well-established training courses in feminist economics, such as at the Institute of Social Studies and University of Utah . It is impossible to give a fair overview of the state of the art of feminist economics in the number of pages available, even when limited to issues pertaining to development and macroeconomics . As a consequence, this is a very sketchy and subjective overview of what I perceive to be recent developments in feminist economics that have relevance for feminist development analysis and policy. The next section recognizes three trends in feminist economics, in particular the engagement of feminist economists with heterodox schools of economics. The following sections will briefly review developments in methodology and methods in feminist economics. These will be followed by three sections on topics that have recently become key themes or areas of research in feminist economics, in particular in the area of development economics: unpaid labour and the care economy; the two-way relationship between gender and trade; and gender, efficiency and growth. Each of these topics will be introduced, with references to the main literature, and some links to policy recommendations. The paper will end with a conclusion

A modest proposal for inclusion of women's household human capital production in analysis of structural transformation

Neoclassical economists posit a set of stylized facts which mark the structural transformation of national economies. Yet these facts, when disaggregated by gender, exhibit puzzling anomalies. For the 132 countries in our sample, female rates of economic activity are much lower than men's, and GDP per capita accounts for less than 16 percent of the variation in female rates. We argue that the missing female labor is occupied in a fourth sector - production and maintenance of human capital. Utilizing a series of heroic assumptions, the paper makes a first rough estimate of the value of this sector on a country-by-country basis.Women, production, reproduction, labor, structural transformation, human capital,

A Modest Proposal for Inclusion of Women's Household Human Capital Production in Analysis of Structural Transformation

Neoclassical economists posit a set of stylized facts which mark the structural transformation of national economies. Yet these facts, when disaggregated by gender, exhibit puzzling anomalies. For the 132 countries in our sample, female rates of economic activity are much lower than men's, and GDP per capita accounts for less than 16 percent of the variation in female rates. We argue that the missing female labor is occupied in a fourth sector-production and maintenance of human capital. Utilizing a series of heroic assumptions, the paper makes a first rough estimate of the value of this sector on a country-by-country basis.Women, Production, Reproduction, Labor, Structural Transformation, Human Capital,

Femmes dans le développement : cadre pour un projet d’analyse

La planification pour le développement a omis de reconnaître pleinement, ou systématiquement, la contribution des femmes au processus de développement et les effets de ce processus sur les femmes. Cet échec a limité les efforts et les résultats du développement. La croissance économique, l’efficacité des projets et la justice sociale demandent une nouvelle approche du développement qui doit systématiquement inclure les femmes. Dans son étude riche et novatrice de 1970, Esther Boserup dénonçai..

Neisseria gonorrhoeae Uses Two Lytic Transglycosylases To Produce Cytotoxic Peptidoglycan Monomers▿ †

Peptidoglycan fragments released by Neisseria gonorrhoeae contribute to the inflammation and ciliated cell death associated with gonorrhea and pelvic inflammatory disease. However, little is known about the production and release of these fragments during bacterial growth. Previous studies demonstrated that one lytic transglycosylase, LtgA, was responsible for the production of approximately half of the released peptidoglycan monomers. Systematic mutational analysis of other putative lytic transglycosylase genes identified lytic transglycosylase D (LtgD) as responsible for release of peptidoglycan monomers from gonococci. An ltgA ltgD double mutant was found not to release peptidoglycan monomers and instead released large, soluble peptidoglycan fragments. In pulse-chase experiments, recycled peptidoglycan was not found in cytoplasmic extracts from the ltgA ltgD mutant as it was for the wild-type strain, indicating that generation of anhydro peptidoglycan monomers by lytic transglycosylases facilitates peptidoglycan recycling. The ltgA ltgD double mutant showed no growth abnormalities or cell separation defects, suggesting that these enzymes are involved in pathogenesis but not necessary for normal growth