Interactive Supercomputing with MIT Matlab

This paper describes MITMatlab, a system that enables users of supercomputers or networked PCs to work on large data sets within Matlab transparently. MITMatlab is based on the Parallel Problems Server (PPServer), a standalone 'linear algebra server' that provides a mechanism for running distributed memory algorithms on large data sets. The PPServer and MITMatlab enable high-performance interactive supercomputing. With such a tool, researchers can now use Matlab as more than a prototyping tool for experimenting with small problems. Instead, MITMatlab makes is possible to visualize and operate interactively on large data sets. This has implications not only in supercomputing, but for Artificial Intelligence applicatons such as Machine Learning, Information Retrieval and Image Processing

O futuro é coisa de criança: teoria queer, desidentificação e a pulsão de morte

Abstract: In this essay, Lee Edelman builds on Lacanian psychoanalysis and deconstruction to outline a radicallynegative ethics for queer theory. His main target is the all-pervasive figure of the Child, which he reads as the linchpinof our universal politics of “reproductive futurism.” Edelman argues that the Child, understood as innocence in need ofprotection, represents the promise of a future against which the queer is positioned as the embodiment of a relentlesslynarcissistic, antisocial, and future negating drive. He boldly insists that the efficacy of queerness lies in its verywillingness to embrace this refusal of the social and political order, which is materialized through irony, jouissance,and, ultimately, the death drive itself.Keywords: Queer theory. Psychoanalysis. Childhood.Resumen: En este ensayo, Lee Edelman articula el psicoanálisis lacaniano y la deconstrucción para delinear una éticade la teoría queer radicalmente negativa. Su blanco principal es la figura omnipresente del Niño, que el autor entiendecomo el máximo emblema de la lógica universalizadora del “futurismo reproductivo”. Edelman sostiene que este Niño,cuya inocencia exige nuestra protección, representa la promesa de un futuro sin espacio para lo queer, entendido comola personificación de una pulsión de muerte implacable, narcisista y antisocial. El autor insiste en que el poder de laqueeridad reside en su propia disposición a abrazar este rechazo del orden social y político, materializado en la ironía,en el goce y, en última instancia, en la pulsión de muerte misma.Palabras clave: Teoria queer. Psicoanálisis. Infância.Neste ensaio, Lee Edelman articula psicanálise lacaniana e desconstrução para esboçar uma ética radicalmente negativa para a teoria queer. Seu alvo principal é a figura onipresente da Criança, que o autor entende como a insígnia máxima da lógica universalizante do “futurismo reprodutivo”. Edelman argumenta que essa Criança representa a promessa de um futuro sem espaço para o queer, entendido como a personificação de uma pulsão de morte implacável, narcisista e antissocial. O autor insiste que a potência da queeridade reside em sua própria disposição a abraçar essa recusa da ordem social e política, materializada na ironia, no gozo e, em última instância, na própria pulsão de morte

Homographèse : identité corporelle et différence sexuelle

En inventant le terme « homographèse » pour nommer l’assemblage du corps homosexuel aussi bien avec la différence d’inscription graphique qu’avec l’illisibilité qui vient de son statut de « similitude » potentielle, cet article étudie les contradictions qui s’ensuivent quand le corps accède à la visibilité en tant que texte d’identité sexuelle, contradictions qui deviennent en elles-mêmes visibles quand la logique de la textualité remet en question les revendications identitaires. Cet essai situe le corps homosexuel au centre d’un combat pour la lisibilité corporelle dans lequel les forces aussi bien disciplinaires que contestataires ont intérêt à savoir « lire » ce corps comme un indice d’« identité sexuelle ». De ce point de vue, l’essai examine la relation entre l’émergence d’une identité homosexuelle socialement articulable et sa connexion figurative à une idéologie culturellement suspecte de l’écriture.Coining the term “homographesis” to name the conflation of the homosexual body both with the difference of graphic inscription and with the illegibility that arises from its status as potentially “the same,” this essay explores the contradictions that follow when the body enters visibility as a text of sexual identity—contradictions that themselves become visible when the logic of textuality challenges identitarian claims. The essay situates the homosexual body at the center of a struggle over corporeal legibility in which both disciplinary and contestatory forces have a stake in being able to “read” that body as an index of a “sexual identity.” From that perspective, the essay examines the connection between the emergence of a socially articulable homosexual identity and its figural connection to a culturally suspect ideology of writing

Fiber polytopes for the projections between cyclic polytopes

The cyclic polytope $C(n,d)$ is the convex hull of any $n$ points on the moment curve ${(t,t^2,...,t^d):t \in \reals}$ in $\reals^d$. For $d' >d$, we consider the fiber polytope (in the sense of Billera and Sturmfels) associated to the natural projection of cyclic polytopes $\pi: C(n,d') \to C(n,d)$ which "forgets" the last $d'-d$ coordinates. It is known that this fiber polytope has face lattice indexed by the coherent polytopal subdivisions of $C(n,d)$ which are induced by the map $\pi$. Our main result characterizes the triples $(n,d,d')$ for which the fiber polytope is canonical in either of the following two senses: - all polytopal subdivisions induced by $\pi$ are coherent, - the structure of the fiber polytope does not depend upon the choice of points on the moment curve. We also discuss a new instance with a positive answer to the Generalized Baues Problem, namely that of a projection $\pi:P\to Q$ where $Q$ has only regular subdivisions and $P$ has two more vertices than its dimension.Comment: 28 pages with 1 postscript figur

Leveraging Academic-Service Partnerships: Implications for Implementing the RWJ/IOM's Recommendations to Improve Quality, Access, and Value in Academic Medical Centers

Transformation of the current healthcare system is critical to achieve improved quality, safety, value, and access. Patients with multiple, chronic health conditions require integrated care coordination yet the current health care system is fragmented and complex. Nursing must play a key role in constructing a system that is value based and patient focused. The Robert Wood Johnson/Institute of Medicine (RWJ/IOM) report on the future of nursing outlines strategic opportunities for nursing to take a lead role in this transformation. Partnerships across academic institutions and health care systems have the potential to address issues through mutual goal setting, sharing of risks, responsibilities, and accountability, and realignment of resources. The purpose of this paper is to present Stony Brook University Medical Center's (SBUMC) academic-service partnership which implemented several of the RWJ/IOM recommendations. The partnership resulted in several initiatives that improved quality, safety, access, and value. It also characterized mutual goal setting, shared missions and values, and a united vision for health care

Mixed Valvular Disease Following Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Quantification and Systematic Differentiation Using Clinical Measurements and Image-Based Patient‐Specific In Silico Modeling

Background: Mixed valvular disease (MVD), mitral regurgitation (MR) from pre‐existing disease in conjunction with paravalvular leak (PVL) following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), is one of the most important stimuli for left ventricle (LV) dysfunction, associated with cardiac mortality. Despite the prevalence of MVD, the quantitative understanding of the interplay between pre‐existing MVD, PVL, LV, and post‐TAVR recovery is meager. Methods and Results: We quantified the effects of MVD on valvular‐ventricular hemodynamics using an image‐based patient‐specific computational framework in 72 MVD patients. Doppler pressure was reduced by TAVR (mean, 77%; N=72; P<0.05), but it was not always accompanied by improvements in LV workload. TAVR had no effect on LV workload in 22 patients, and LV workload post‐TAVR significantly rose in 32 other patients. TAVR reduced LV workload in only 18 patients (25%). PVL significantly alters LV flow and increases shear stress on transcatheter aortic valve leaflets. It interacts with mitral inflow and elevates shear stresses on mitral valve and is one of the main contributors in worsening of MR post‐TAVR. MR worsened in 32 patients post‐TAVR and did not improve in 18 other patients. Conclusions: PVL limits the benefit of TAVR by increasing LV load and worsening of MR and heart failure. Post‐TAVR, most MVD patients (75% of N=72; P<0.05) showed no improvements or even worsening of LV workload, whereas the majority of patients with PVL, but without that pre‐existing MR condition (60% of N=48; P<0.05), showed improvements in LV workload. MR and its exacerbation by PVL may hinder the success of TAVR

Impact of HbA1c Criterion on the Detection of Subjects with Increased Risk for Diabetes among Health Check-Up Recipients in Korea

BackgroundWe performed the study to examine the impact of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) criterion on the screening of increased risk for diabetes among health check-up subjects in Korea.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed clinical and laboratory data of 37,754 Korean adults (age, 20 to 89 years; 41% women) which were measured during regular health check-ups. After excluding subjects with previously diagnosed diabetes mellitus (n=1,812) and with overt anemia (n=318), 35,624 subjects (21,201 men and 14,423 women) were included in the analysis.ResultsAmong the 35,624 subjects, 11,316 (31.8%) subjects were categorized as increased risk for diabetes (IRD) by fasting plasma glucose (FPG) criteria, 6,531 (18.1%) subjects by HbA1c criteria, and 13,556 (38.1%) subjects by combined criteria. Therefore, although HbA1c criteria alone identifies 42% [(11,316-6,531)/11,316] fewer subjects with IRD than does FPG criteria, about 20% [(13,556-11,316)/11,316] more subjects could be detected by including new HbA1c criteria in addition to FPG criteria. Among the 13,556 subjects with IRD, 7,025 (51.8%) met FPG criteria only, 2,240 (16.5%) met HbA1c criteria only, and 4,291 (31.7%) met both criteria. Among subjects with impaired fasting glucose, 65% were normal, 32% were IRD, and 3% were diabetes by HbA1c criterion. In receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, cutoff point of HbA1c with optimal sensitivity and specificity for identifying IRD was 5.4%.ConclusionAlthough HbA1c criteria alone identifies fewer subjects with IRD than does FPG criteria, about 20% more could be detected by addition of HbA1c criteria. Further studies are needed to define optimal cutoff point of HbA1c and to establish screening and management guidelines for IRD

The π Complex of the Hydronium Ion Frozen on the Pathway of Electrophilic Aromatic Substitution

A very rare crystal was prepared consisting of a 2D aromatic (toluene) together with a weakly coordinating 3D aromatic (closo-1-CB11H12 –) and a hydronium ion, and this crystal was analyzed by using X-ray diffraction and high-level quantum-mechanical calculations. The nature of the crystal arrangement made it possible to detect the frozen π complex that would originate during protonation of toluene by the acidic hydronium ion

Epistemic Beliefs: Relationship to Future Expectancies and Quality of Life in Cancer Patients.

CONTEXT: Expectations about the future (future expectancies) are important determinants of psychological well-being among cancer patients, but the strategies patients use to maintain positive and cope with negative expectancies are incompletely understood. OBJECTIVES: To obtain preliminary evidence on the potential role of one strategy for managing future expectancies: the adoption of epistemic beliefs in fundamental limits to medical knowledge. METHODS: A sample of 1307 primarily advanced-stage cancer patients participating in a genomic tumor testing study in community oncology practices completed measures of epistemic beliefs, positive future expectancies, and mental and physical health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Descriptive and linear regression analyses were conducted to assess the relationships between these factors and test two hypotheses: 1) epistemic beliefs affirming fundamental limits to medical knowledge ( fallibilistic epistemic beliefs ) are associated with positive future expectancies and mental HRQOL, and 2) positive future expectancies mediate this association. RESULTS: Participants reported relatively high beliefs in limits to medical knowledge (M = 2.94, s.d.=.67) and positive future expectancies (M = 3.01, s.d.=.62) (range 0-4), and relatively low mental and physical HRQOL. Consistent with hypotheses, fallibilistic epistemic beliefs were associated with positive future expectancies (b = 0.11, SE=.03, P\u3c 0.001) and greater mental HRQOL (b = 0.99, SE=.34, P = 0.004); positive expectancies also mediated the association between epistemic beliefs and mental HRQOL (Sobel Z=4.27, P\u3c0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Epistemic beliefs in limits to medical knowledge are associated with positive future expectancies and greater mental HRQOL; positive expectancies mediate the association between epistemic beliefs and HRQOL. More research is needed to confirm these relationships and elucidate their causal mechanisms