Virtual Machine Support for Many-Core Architectures: Decoupling Abstract from Concrete Concurrency Models

The upcoming many-core architectures require software developers to exploit concurrency to utilize available computational power. Today's high-level language virtual machines (VMs), which are a cornerstone of software development, do not provide sufficient abstraction for concurrency concepts. We analyze concrete and abstract concurrency models and identify the challenges they impose for VMs. To provide sufficient concurrency support in VMs, we propose to integrate concurrency operations into VM instruction sets. Since there will always be VMs optimized for special purposes, our goal is to develop a methodology to design instruction sets with concurrency support. Therefore, we also propose a list of trade-offs that have to be investigated to advise the design of such instruction sets. As a first experiment, we implemented one instruction set extension for shared memory and one for non-shared memory concurrency. From our experimental results, we derived a list of requirements for a full-grown experimental environment for further research

Data-Driven Spectral Submanifold Reduction for Nonlinear Optimal Control of High-Dimensional Robots

Modeling and control of high-dimensional, nonlinear robotic systems remains a challenging task. While various model- and learning-based approaches have been proposed to address these challenges, they broadly lack generalizability to different control tasks and rarely preserve the structure of the dynamics. In this work, we propose a new, data-driven approach for extracting low-dimensional models from data using Spectral Submanifold Reduction (SSMR). In contrast to other data-driven methods which fit dynamical models to training trajectories, we identify the dynamics on generic, low-dimensional attractors embedded in the full phase space of the robotic system. This allows us to obtain computationally-tractable models for control which preserve the system's dominant dynamics and better track trajectories radically different from the training data. We demonstrate the superior performance and generalizability of SSMR in dynamic trajectory tracking tasks vis-a-vis the state of the art, including Koopman operator-based approaches.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, Submission to International Conference for Robotics and Automation 202

Basisregister und kontrollierte Vokabulare als Wegbereiter für Linked Open Data in der Schweiz

«Basisregister und kontrollierte Vokabulare sind zentrale Bestandteile eines Linked-Data-Ökosystems: Zusammen mit gemeinsam verwendeten Datenmodellen bzw. Ontologien sorgen sie dafür, dass Datenbestände auch über Organisationsgrenzen hinweg miteinander verknüpft werden können. Um die Publikation von Linked Data zu befördern, gab E-Government Schweiz im Frühjahr 2019 ein Innovationsprojekt in Auftrag, das zum Ziel hatte, die LOD-Publikation von Basisregistern und kontrollierten Vokabularen durch Schweizer Behörden systematisch anzugehen. Dabei wurde ein Aktionsforschungs-Ansatz verfolgt: Einerseits wurden zwei Basisregister und ein kontrolliertes Vokabular auf einem Testserver als Linked Open Data publiziert, um die praktischen Herausforderungen im Zusammenhang mit der Datenpublikation genauer zu beleuchten. Andererseits wurden Priorisierungskriterien erarbeitet und anhand einer Online-Befragung innerhalb der Schweizer LOD-Community ein Ranking von Datenbeständen hinsichtlich ihres Nutzungspotenzials erstellt.

Pantanal Basin river muds from source to sink: compositional changes in a tropical back-bulge depozone

The Pantanal Basin is a low-gradient back-bulge analog for distal depozones associated with retroarc foreland basin systems in the geological record. Extensive lowland environments including fluvial megafans, floodplains, wetlands, and lakes make up the Pantanal Basin today, with detrital sediment sources located along basin-margin plateaus and remnants of ancient orogenic belts. Here, we examine the chemical composition and mineralogy of modern fine-fraction fluvial sediments using X-ray methods to assess the influence of chemical weathering on sediment composition in this tropical basin. The abundance of clay minerals follows the rank order pattern of kaolinite > vermiculite > illite > smectite. Kaolinite is more abundant in river muds from the north-central than the southern Pantanal, suggesting strong extant chemical weathering plus the potential for clays inherited from siliciclastic parent lithologies that formed under Mesozoic greenhouse conditions. Illite occurs in sediments draining the North Paraguay Belt and limited parts of the South Paraguay Belt, and it reflects the influence of mechanical weathering of the metamorphic facies. In the southeastern Pantanal, vermiculite is a dominant constituent of the Miranda River watershed, which drains dacitic parent rocks and rhodic ferralsols. The geochemistry of the sediments reveals the interplay of quartz addition and clays inherited from the parent rocks. The most quartzose sediments are encountered at the confluence of the Paraguay River and the Taquari River megafan, where the cumulative effect of the 2 – 3-month flood pulse maximizes chemical weathering. Clay plus silt in back-bulge basins are controlled by climate > soils > parent rocks

Penilaian Kinerja Keuangan Koperasi di Kabupaten Pelalawan

This paper describe development and financial performance of cooperative in District Pelalawan among 2007 - 2008. Studies on primary and secondary cooperative in 12 sub-districts. Method in this stady use performance measuring of productivity, efficiency, growth, liquidity, and solvability of cooperative. Productivity of cooperative in Pelalawan was highly but efficiency still low. Profit and income were highly, even liquidity of cooperative very high, and solvability was good

Measurements of the pp → ZZ production cross section and the Z → 4ℓ branching fraction, and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings at √s = 13 TeV

Four-lepton production in proton-proton collisions, pp -> (Z/gamma*)(Z/gamma*) -> 4l, where l = e or mu, is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The ZZ production cross section, sigma(pp -> ZZ) = 17.2 +/- 0.5 (stat) +/- 0.7 (syst) +/- 0.4 (theo) +/- 0.4 (lumi) pb, measured using events with two opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs produced in the mass region 60 4l) = 4.83(-0.22)(+0.23) (stat)(-0.29)(+0.32) (syst) +/- 0.08 (theo) +/- 0.12(lumi) x 10(-6) for events with a four-lepton invariant mass in the range 80 4GeV for all opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs. The results agree with standard model predictions. The invariant mass distribution of the four-lepton system is used to set limits on anomalous ZZZ and ZZ. couplings at 95% confidence level: -0.0012 < f(4)(Z) < 0.0010, -0.0010 < f(5)(Z) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(4)(gamma) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(5)(gamma) < 0.0013

Severe early onset preeclampsia: short and long term clinical, psychosocial and biochemical aspects

Preeclampsia is a pregnancy specific disorder commonly defined as de novo hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks gestational age. It occurs in approximately 3-5% of pregnancies and it is still a major cause of both foetal and maternal morbidity and mortality worldwide1. As extensive research has not yet elucidated the aetiology of preeclampsia, there are no rational preventive or therapeutic interventions available. The only rational treatment is delivery, which benefits the mother but is not in the interest of the foetus, if remote from term. Early onset preeclampsia (<32 weeks’ gestational age) occurs in less than 1% of pregnancies. It is, however often associated with maternal morbidity as the risk of progression to severe maternal disease is inversely related with gestational age at onset2. Resulting prematurity is therefore the main cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in patients with severe preeclampsia3. Although the discussion is ongoing, perinatal survival is suggested to be increased in patients with preterm preeclampsia by expectant, non-interventional management. This temporising treatment option to lengthen pregnancy includes the use of antihypertensive medication to control hypertension, magnesium sulphate to prevent eclampsia and corticosteroids to enhance foetal lung maturity4. With optimal maternal haemodynamic status and reassuring foetal condition this results on average in an extension of 2 weeks. Prolongation of these pregnancies is a great challenge for clinicians to balance between potential maternal risks on one the eve hand and possible foetal benefits on the other. Clinical controversies regarding prolongation of preterm preeclamptic pregnancies still exist – also taking into account that preeclampsia is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the Netherlands5 - a debate which is even more pronounced in very preterm pregnancies with questionable foetal viability6-9. Do maternal risks of prolongation of these very early pregnancies outweigh the chances of neonatal survival? Counselling of women with very early onset preeclampsia not only comprises of knowledge of the outcome of those particular pregnancies, but also knowledge of outcomes of future pregnancies of these women is of major clinical importance. This thesis opens with a review of the literature on identifiable risk factors of preeclampsia

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Blood-brain barrier impairment in MPS III patients

BACKGROUND: Mucopolysaccharidosis type III (MPS III) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by deficiency of a specific enzyme leading to heparan sulfate (HS) accumulation within cells and to eventual progressive cerebral and systemic organ abnormalities. Different enzyme deficiencies comprise the MPS III subcategories (A, B, C, D). Since neuropathological manifestations are common to all MPS III types, determining blood-brain barrier (BBB) condition may be critical to understand potential additional disease mechanisms. METHODS: We investigated BBB integrity in various brain structures of post-mortem tissues from an eleven year old Caucasian female with MPS III A and from a twenty four year old Caucasian female with MPS III D. Control tissues were obtained post-mortem from three Caucasians without neurological deficits: a twelve year old male, a twenty four year old female, and a twenty seven year old female. BBB capillary ultrastructure (electron microscopy) and capillary functional integrity (IgG leakage, tight junction proteins, and lysosomal accumulation within endothelium) were examined. RESULTS: Compromised BBB integrity was found in both MPS III cases. Major study findings were: (1) capillary endothelial and pericyte cell damage; (2) mucopolysaccharide bodies in a majority of endothelial cells and pericytes rupturing cell membranes; (3) severe extracellular edema; (4) IgG microvascular leakage and reductions of occludin and claudin-5 with variations between MPS III types; (5) extensive lysosomal accumulation in capillary endothelium. CONCLUSIONS: These new findings of BBB structural and functional impairment, although from only two cases, MPS III A and III D, may have implications for disease pathogenesis and should be considered in treatment development for MPS III