Saber: window-based hybrid stream processing for heterogeneous architectures

Modern servers have become heterogeneous, often combining multicore CPUs with many-core GPGPUs. Such heterogeneous architectures have the potential to improve the performance of data-intensive stream processing applications, but they are not supported by current relational stream processing engines. For an engine to exploit a heterogeneous architecture, it must execute streaming SQL queries with sufficient data-parallelism to fully utilise all available heterogeneous processors, and decide how to use each in the most effective way. It must do this while respecting the semantics of streaming SQL queries, in particular with regard to window handling. We describe SABER, a hybrid high-performance relational stream processing engine for CPUs and GPGPUs. SABER executes windowbased streaming SQL queries in a data-parallel fashion using all available CPU and GPGPU cores. Instead of statically assigning query operators to heterogeneous processors, SABER employs a new adaptive heterogeneous lookahead scheduling strategy, which increases the share of queries executing on the processor that yields the highest performance. To hide data movement costs, SABER pipelines the transfer of stream data between different memory types and the CPU/GPGPU. Our experimental comparison against state-ofthe-art engines shows that SABER increases processing throughput while maintaining low latency for a wide range of streaming SQL queries with small and large windows sizes

A comparison of methods to evaluate energy expenditure of incubating wandering albatrosses

Measurements of incubation energetics can vary depending on the method used to measure metabolism of an incubating bird. Therefore, we evaluated the energy expenditure of six male and four female wandering albatrosses (Diomedea exulans Linnaeus) using doubly labeled water (DLW), the rate of mass loss, and estimates of metabolic water production derived from water influx rate (WIR). Incubation metabolic rates (IMR) determined with DLW ( 169 ± 21 kJ kg d SD) were significantly lower than estimates derived from mass loss ( 277 ± 46kJ kg d SD) and WIR ( males=289 ± 60 kJ kg d vs. females = 400 ± 69 kJ kg d SD). Estimates of IMR from f WIR were similar to IMR (305 ± 39 kJ kg d SD) determined by respirometry in a previous study, and IMR from DLW was similar to estimates based on heart rate (HR; 147 ± 26 kJ d SD) determined in another study. Ap- 147 26 plying the different measurements of IMR to construct an en-ergy budget, we estimate that a breeding pair of wandering albatrosses spends 124--234 MJ to incubate the egg for 78 d. Finally, IMRs determined with DLW and HR were similar

Cognition and Behavior in Two-Person Guessing Games: An Experimental Study

This paper reports experiments that elicit subjects' initial responses to 16 dominancesolvable two-person guessing games. The structure is publicly announced except for varying payoff parameters, to which subjects are given free access, game by game, through an interface that records their information searches. Varying the parameters allows strong separation of the behavior implied by leading decision rules and makes monitoring search a powerful tool for studying cognition. Many subjects' decisions and searches show clearly that they understand the games and seek to maximize their payoffs, but have boundedly rational models of others' decisions, which lead to systematic deviations from equilibrium.

Effective restoration of chiral and axial symmetries at finite temperature and density

The effective restoration of chiral and axial symmetries is investigated within the framework of the SU(3) Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. The topological susceptibility, modeled from lattice data at finite temperature, is used to extract the temperature dependence of the coupling strength of the anomaly. The study of the scalar and pseudoscalar mixing angles is performed in order to discuss the evolution of the flavor combinations of $q \bar q$ pairs and its consequences for the degeneracy of chiral partners. A similar study at zero temperature and finite density is also realized.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Talk given at Strange Quark Matter 2004, Cape Town, South Africa, 15-20 September, 200

Critical Steps of Plasmodium falciparum Ookinete Maturation

The egress and fertilization of Plasmodium gametes and development of a motile ookinete are the first crucial steps that mediate the successful transmission of the malaria parasites from humans to the Anopheles vector. However, limited information exists about the cell biology and regulation of this process. Technical impediments in the establishment of in vitro conditions for ookinete maturation in Plasmodium falciparum and other human malaria parasites further constrain a detailed characterization of ookinete maturation. Here, using fluorescence microscopy and immunolabeling, we compared P. falciparum ookinete maturation in Anopheles coluzzii mosquitoes in vivo and in cell culture in vitro. Our results identified two critical steps in ookinete maturation that are regulated by distinct mosquito factors, thereby highlighting the role of the mosquito environment in the transmission efficiency of malaria parasites

K X-Ray Energies and Transition Probabilities for He-, Li- and Be-like Praseodymium ions

Theoretical transition energies and probabilities for He-, Li- and Be-like Praseodymium ions are calculated in the framework of the multi-configuration Dirac-Fock method (MCDF), including QED corrections. These calculated values are compared to recent experimental data obtained in the Livermore SuperEBIT electron beam ion trap facility