Shell-model half-lives for r-process waiting point nuclei including first-forbidden contributions

We have performed large-scale shell-model calculations of the half-lives and neutron-branching probabilities of the r-process waiting point nuclei at the magic neutron numbers N=50, 82, and 126. The calculations include contributions from allowed Gamow-Teller and first-forbidden transitions. We find good agreement with the measured half-lives for the N=50 nuclei with charge numbers Z=28-32 and for the N=82 nuclei 129Ag and 130Cd. The contribution of forbidden transitions reduce the half-lives of the N=126 waiting point nuclei significantly, while they have only a small effect on the half-lives of the N=50 and 82 r-process nuclei.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Modified Debye-Huckel Electron Shielding and Penetration Factor

Screened potential, modified by non standard electron cloud distributions responsible for the shielding effect on fusion of reacting nuclei in astrophysical plasmas, is derived. The case of clouds with depleted tails in space coordinates is discussed. The modified screened potential is obtained both from statistical mechanics arguments based on fluctuations of the inverse of the Debye-Huckel radius and from the solution of a Bernoulli equation used in generalized statistical mechanics. Plots and tables useful in evaluating penetration probability at any energy are provided.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, 3 table

Bibliografía

Fernández Cuenca, C.; F. J. E. (1945). Bibliografía. Cine experimental. (5):306-308. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/42655.Importación Masiva306308

Characterization of a possible nosocomial aspergillosis outbreak

ObjectiveTo study the epidemiologic aspects of a suspected outbreak of nosocomial invasive aspergillosis.MethodsSixteen Aspergillus fumigatus strains were isolated from bronchoalveolar washings or sputa of 10 patients during a 9-month period. Furthermore, two environmental samples, isolated in a microbiological screening of the hospital, were also available for analysis. Random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD) was carried out.ResultsThe analysis performed by RAPD clearly demonstrated substantial genetic variation among the isolates. Both of the two different primers selected for RAPD analysis (R-108 and AP12h) were able to demonstrate that the strains isolated from all patients infected with the same fungal species and the environmental samples were genotypically distinct. The results by RAPD typing demonstrated that this technique could detect variability among isolates of Aspergillus fumigatus from different patients and even from the same patient.ConclusionsRAPD genotyping proved that the outbreak of invasive aspergillosis consisted of a series of events, non-related, and probably not coming from the same source within the hospital. This type of analysis is an easy, quick and highly discriminatory technique that may help in planning epidemiologic studies of aspergillosis

Empirical Installation of Linear Algebra Shared-Memory Subroutines for Auto-Tuning

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10766-013-0249-6The introduction of auto-tuning techniques in linear algebra shared-memory routines is analyzed. Information obtained in the installation of the routines is used at running time to take some decisions to reduce the total execution time. The study is carried out with routines at different levels (matrix multiplication, LU and Cholesky factorizations and linear systems symmetric or general routines) and with calls to routines in the LAPACK and PLASMA libraries with multithread implementations. Medium NUMA and large cc-NUMA systems are used in the experiments. This variety of routines, libraries and systems allows us to obtain general conclusions about the methodology to use for linear algebra shared-memory routines auto-tuning. Satisfactory execution times are obtained with the proposed methodology.Partially supported by Fundacion Seneca, Consejeria de Educacion de la Region de Murcia, 08763/PI/08, PROMETEO/2009/013 from Generalitat Valenciana, the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science through TIN2012-38341-C04-03, and the High-Performance Computing Network on Parallel Heterogeneus Architectures (CAPAP-H). The authors gratefully acknowledge the computer resources and assistance provided by the Supercomputing Centre of the Scientific Park Foundation of Murcia and by the Centre de Supercomputacio de Catalunya.Cámara, J.; Cuenca, J.; Giménez, D.; García, LP.; Vidal Maciá, AM. (2014). Empirical Installation of Linear Algebra Shared-Memory Subroutines for Auto-Tuning. International Journal of Parallel Programming. 42(3):408-434. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10766-013-0249-6S408434423Agullo, E., Demmel, J., Dongarra, J., Hadri, B., Kurzak, J., Langou, J., Ltaief, H., Luszczek, P., Tomov, S.: Numerical linear algebra on emerging architectures: the PLASMA and MAGMA projects. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 180(1), 1–5 (2009)Alberti, P., Alonso, P., Vidal, A.M., Cuenca, J., Giménez, D.: Designing polylibraries to speed up linear algebra computations. Int. J. High Perform. Comput. Netw. 1/2/3(1), 75–84 (2004)Anderson, E., Bai, Z., Bischof, C., Demmel, J., Dongarra, J.J., Du Croz, J., Grenbaum, A., Hammarling, S., McKenney, A., Ostrouchov, S., D. Sorensen, S.: LAPACK User’s Guide. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Philadelphia (1995)Bernabé, G., Cuenca, J., Giménez, D.: Optimization techniques for 3D-FWT on systems with manycore GPUs and multicore CPUs. In: ICCS (2013)Buttari, A., Langou, J., Kurzak, J., Dongarra, J.: A class of parallel tiled linear algebra algorithms for multicore architectures. Parallel Comput. 35(1), 38–53 (2009)Cámara, J., Cuenca, J., Giménez, D., Vidal. A.M.: Empirical autotuning of two-level parallel linear algebra routines on large cc-NUMA systems. In: ISPA (2012)Caron, E., Desprez, F., Suter, F.: Parallel extension of a dynamic performance forecasting tool. Scalable Comput. Pract. Exp. 6(1), 57–69 (2005)Chen, Z., Dongarra, J., Luszczek, P., Roche, K.: Self adapting software for numerical linear algebra and LAPACK for clusters. Parallel Comput. 29, 1723–1743 (2003)Cuenca, J., Giménez, D., González, J.: Achitecture of an automatic tuned linear algebra library. Parallel Comput. 30(2), 187–220 (2004)Cuenca, J., García, L.P., Giménez, D.: Improving linear algebra computation on NUMA platforms through auto-tuned nested parallelism. 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A Novel Mouse Model of Peritoneal Dialysis: Combination of Uraemia and Long-Term Exposure to PD Fluid

Different animal models for peritoneal dialysis (PD) have been used in the past decades to develop PD fluids compatible with patient life and to identify markers of peritoneal fibrosis and inflammation. Only few of those studies have taken into account the importance of uraemia-induced alterations at both systemic and peritoneal levels. Moreover, some animal studies which have reported about PD in a uremic setting did not always entirely succeed in terms of uraemia establishment and animal survival. In the present study we induced uraemia in the recently established mouse PD exposure model in order to obtain a more clinically relevant mouse model for kidney patients. This new designed model reflected both the slight thickening of peritoneal membrane induced by uraemia and the significant extracellular matrix deposition due to daily PD fluid instillation. In addition the model offers the opportunity to perform long-term exposure to PD fluids, as it is observed in the clinical setting, and gives the advantage to knock out candidate markers for driving peritoneal inflammatory mechanisms.Marie Curie actionsPeer Reviewe

The management and integration of biomedical knowledge: Application in the health-e-child project (position paper)

The Health-e-Child project aims to develop an integrated healthcare platform for European paediatrics. In order to achieve a comprehensive view of children’s health, a complex integration of biomedical data, information, and knowledge is necessary. Ontologies will be used to formally define this domain knowledge and will form the basis for the medical knowledge management system. This paper introduces an innovative methodology for the vertical integration of biomedical knowledge. This approach will be largely clinician-centered and will enable the definition of ontology fragments, connections between them (semantic bridges) and enriched ontology fragments (views). The strategy for the specification and capture of fragments, bridges and views is outlined with preliminary examples demonstrated in the collection of biomedical information from hospital databases, biomedical ontologies, and biomedical public databases