Improving latency tolerance of multithreading through decoupling

The increasing hardware complexity of dynamically scheduled superscalar processors may compromise the scalability of this organization to make an efficient use of future increases in transistor budget. SMT processors, designed over a superscalar core, are therefore directly concerned by this problem. The article presents and evaluates a novel processor microarchitecture which combines two paradigms: simultaneous multithreading and access/execute decoupling. Since its decoupled units issue instructions in order, this architecture is significantly less complex, in terms of critical path delays, than a centralized out-of-order design, and it is more effective for future growth in issue-width and clock speed. We investigate how both techniques complement each other. Since decoupling features an excellent memory latency hiding efficiency, the large amount of parallelism exploited by multithreading may be used to hide the latency of functional units and keep them fully utilized. The study shows that, by adding decoupling to a multithreaded architecture, fewer threads are needed to achieve maximum throughput. Therefore, in addition to the obvious hardware complexity reduction, it places lower demands on the memory system. The study also reveals that multithreading by itself exhibits little memory latency tolerance. Results suggest that most of the latency hiding effectiveness of SMT architectures comes from the dynamic scheduling. On the other hand, decoupling is very effective at hiding memory latency. An increase in the cache miss penalty from 1 to 32 cycles reduces the performance of a 4-context multithreaded decoupled processor by less than 2 percent. For the nondecoupled multithreaded processor, the loss of performance is about 23 percent.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The effects of trophic transfer and environmental factors on microplastic uptake by plaice, Pleuronectes plastessa, and spider crab, Maja squinado

Microplastic pollution is apparent throughout the marine environment from deep ocean sediments to coastal habitats. Most of this is believed to originate on land, although marine activities, such as fishing and shipping, also contribute to the release and redistribution of microplastic. The relative importance of these maritime plastic sources, the manner by which they are distributed in the environment, and their effect on uptake by marine organisms are yet to be fully quantified. In this study, the relative impact of fishing activities on microplastic uptake by demersal fish and crustaceans was explored. Local fishing intensity, proximity to land and mean water velocity are compared to microplastic uptake in plaice, Pleuronectes platessa, and spider crab, Maja squinado, from the Celtic Sea. Observations were also made of microplastic contamination in ingested sand eels, Ammodytes tobianus, to establish a potential route of trophic transfer. This study is the first to identify microplastic contamination in spider crab and to document trophic transfer in the wild. Individuals were sampled from sites of varied fishing intensity in the Celtic Sea, and their stomach contents examined for the presence of microplastic. Contamination was observed in 50% of P. platessa, 42.4% of M. squinado, and 44.4% of A. tobianus. Locations of highest plastic abundance varied between P. platessa and M. squinado, indicating that different factors influence the uptake of microplastic in these two taxa. No significant link was observed between fishing effort and microplastic abundance; however, proximity to land was linked to increased abundance in M. squinado and Observations of whole prey demonstrate ongoing trophic transfer from A. tobianus to P. platessa. The lack of significant difference in microplastic abundance between predator and prey suggests that microplastic is not retained by P. platessa

Discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximation of quasilinear elliptic boundary value problems I: The scalar case

We develop a one--parameter family of hp-version discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for the numerical solution of quasilinear elliptic equations in divergence-form in a bounded Lipschitz domain. Using Brouwer's Fixed Point Theorem, we show existence and uniqueness of the solution. In addition, we derive an error bound in a broken energy norm which is optimal in h and mildly suboptimal in p

Local Air pollution and global climate change taxes: a distributional analysis for the case of Spain.

Global climate change measures are difficult to implement. In this context, local air pollution measures may play an important role in the political agenda since their effects are felt more immediately by citizens. Distributional implications are one of the main barriers for implementing environmental policies. This paper explores the distributional implications of air pollution taxes and compares them to climate change taxes. For the comparison, both tax schemes were set to yield the same revenue. Methodologically, the study uses a top down approach linking a macro model to a micro model. We find that taxes on local air pollutants are more regressive than those levied on CO2. This is because the goods implicitly taxed have a greater weight in the consumer basket of low-income groups, even if the tax revenues are recycled. Furthermore, the revenue-neutral recycle scheme increases both taxes efficiency, but, at the same time, can increase regressivity

Sintesis Nanokomposit Fe3O4/SiO2/TiO2 dengan Metode Sol-Gel

The research was began with the synthesis of magnetite by reacting FeCl3.6H2O and FeSO4.7H2O by co-precipitation and sonication method. Then magnetite covered by silica was sintisized using sonication method by reacting TEOS with magnetit in base condition, and then coated by TiO2 using sol-gel method followed by calcination by using TTIP as a precusor. The X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) were used to characterize the nanoparticles. The XRD defractofram showed the diffraction pattern 2Ɵ (o) at 25.38o, 35.881o, 38o, 38,797o, 48.26o, 54.22o, 55,4o, 63.119o, and 69.24o  that based on JCPDS data No. 21-1272 that showed TiO2 anatase stucture

Heterozygosity decrease in wild boar mating system. A case of outbreeding avoidance?

In sexually reproducing organisms, the specific combinations of parental alleles can have important consequences on offspring viability and fitness. Accordingly, genetic relationship between mates can be used as a criterion for mate choice. Here, we used microsatellite genetic markers to estimate the genetic relationship between mating pairs in the wild boar, Sus scrofa. Males, females and foetuses proceeding from Portugal, Spain and Hungary were genotyped using 14 microsatellite markers. The genetic relationship between mates was estimated using different measures of foetus heterozygosity. We found that the observed heterozygosity of foetuses was lower than that expected under random mating. This result occurred mainly when Sd2 (relatedness of parental genomes) was used as the heterozygosity measure. After simulations, we concluded that the observed low heterozygosity was possibly due to outbreeding avoidance. Outbreeding avoidance based on genetically different genomes might play an important role in species evolution and its genetic conservation

Are Ni/ and Ni5Fe1/biochar catalysts suitable for synthetic natural gas production? A comparison with γ-Al2O3 supported catalysts

Among challenges implicit in the transition to the post–fossil fuel energetic model, the finite amount of resources available for the technological implementation of CO2 revalorizing processes arises as a central issue. The development of fully renewable catalytic systems with easier metal recovery strategies would promote the viability and sustainability of synthetic natural gas production circular routes. Taking Ni and NiFe catalysts supported over γ-Al2O3 oxide as reference materials, this work evaluates the potentiality of Ni and NiFe supported biochar catalysts for CO2 methanation. The development of competitive biochar catalysts was found dependent on the creation of basic sites on the catalyst surface. Displaying lower Turn Over Frequencies than Ni/Al catalyst, the absence of basic sites achieved over Ni/C catalyst was related to the depleted catalyst performances. For NiFe catalysts, analogous Ni5Fe1 alloys were constituted over both alumina and biochar supports. The highest specific activity of the catalyst series, exhibited by the NiFe/C catalyst, was related to the development of surface basic sites along with weaker NiFe–C interactions, which resulted in increased Ni0:NiO surface populations under reaction conditions. In summary, the present work establishes biochar supports as a competitive material to consider within the future low-carbon energetic panorama.Sasol Foundation gamma-Al2O

Nucleon Electromagnetic Form Factors in a Relativistic Quark Pair Creation Model

We study the effects of the | qqq q\bar{q} > component of the hadronic wave function on the description of the electromagnetic structure of the nucleon. Starting with a qqq baryonic wave function which describes the baryonic and mesonic low energy spectrum, the extra q\bar{q} pair is generated through a relativistic version of the 3P_0 model. It is shown that this model leads to a renormalization of the quark mass that allows one to construct a conserved electromagnetic current. We conclude that these dynamical relativistic corrections play an important role in reproducing the Q2 dependence of the electromagnetic form factors at low Q^2

Effects of substrata and environmental conditions on ecological succession on historic shipwrecks

An understanding of the interactions between biological, chemical and physical dynamics is especially important for the adequate conservation of the Underwater Cultural Heritage. However, while physical and chemical processes are relatively well-investigated, the biological communities associated with these habitats are poorly studied. We compared the sessile community developed on panels of different materials placed on two historical shipwrecks, the Fougueux and the Bucentaure, from the Battle of Trafalgar (October 1805). Six materials used at the construction of vessels at the 18th and 19th centuries were selected: copper, brass, cast iron, carbon steel, pine and oak. The sessile community developed on the panels was studied two and 15 months after their immersion at the water to determine the effects of materials and environmental conditions (sediments, waves, hydrodynamic conditions, temperature and salinity) on ecological succession and the possible implications at the conservation of historical shipwrecks. On the Fougueux, the environmental conditions more strongly influenced the biological succession than the material type, with pioneer colonisers dominating the communities in both sampling periods. On the Bucentaure, exposed to more stable environmental conditions, the sessile community showed differences between sampling periods and among materials at the end of the experiment. Under these more stable environmental conditions, the material type showed a higher influence on the sessile community. Species that produce calcareous concretions developed on metallic panels, but were absent on wood panels, where the shipworm Teredo navalis was more abundant. The relationship between environmental conditions, sessile organisms and material type can influence the conservation status of the archaeological sites

Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in the Toa Baja Well, Puerto Rico: implications for burial diagenesis and hydrocarbon generation

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from "http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com".The Toa Baja Well was drilled on the coastal plains of northern Puerto Rico with a total depth of 2705 m [Larue, 1990]. Interstratified limestone, quartz-bearing calcareous sandstones, and shales dominate the uppermost 580 m and are separated from underlying rocks by an unconformity. Below this unconformity continuing to total depth, lithologies encountered consist of volcaniclastic sandstones/siltstones, pelagic carbonates, volcanic flows and either plutonic rocks or coarse-grained immature sandstones derived from plutonic bodies. Stable isotopic data of carbonates suggest diagenetic modification under a meteoric and meteoric-marine mixing environments for sediments above 915 m. A fracture zone near 915 m coincides with an abrupt shift in δ18O compositions indicating the presence of hotter fluids during alteration of these sediments. The depleted δ13C signatures occurring above a fault at 1220 m are suggestive of isotopically light gaseous hydrocarbons migrating through the fault and being oxidized as they dispersed through the sediment column. The abrupt shift in δ18O compositions and its coincidence with the fracture zone at 915 m suggest geopressuring and thermal buildup due to accumulation of hotter, upward migrating formational fluids. Estimated burial temperatures for the interval above 915 m do not exceed 40°C and are possibly lower due to circulating colder meteoric fluids. Maximum estimated burial temperatures for sediments below 915 m range from 80° to a a maximum of 150°C at 2400 m. The data suggests that the bulk of the sediment pile has not been exposed to temperatures above the oil window and possibly hydrocarbons have been generated deeper in the basin