Phenomenology Tools on Cloud Infrastructures using OpenStack

We present a new environment for computations in particle physics phenomenology employing recent developments in cloud computing. On this environment users can create and manage "virtual" machines on which the phenomenology codes/tools can be deployed easily in an automated way. We analyze the performance of this environment based on "virtual" machines versus the utilization of "real" physical hardware. In this way we provide a qualitative result for the influence of the host operating system on the performance of a representative set of applications for phenomenology calculations.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures; information on memory usage included, as well as minor modifications. Version to appear in EPJ

Self-regulation and tobacco use: contributes of the confirmatory factor analysis of the Portuguese version of the short self-regulation questionnaire

Self-regulation has been one of most studied developmental skills, given its close relation with health and lifestyle, adjustment and resilience and in the prevention of risk behaviours as substance use. Given the lack of studies about self-regulation and tobacco use in Portuguese context, this paper aims to present the results of the confirmatory factor analysis of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Carey, Neal & Collins, 2004) in our population, exploring the role of self-regulation in tobacco use. To do that, the SSRQ and a socio-demographic questionnaire was administered to a sample of 390 adolescents, mostly females (n= 228, 59.2%), with ages ranging from 15 and 18 years old (M= 16.05, SD=. 865). Results allow us to find a good fit model with good reliability of the SSRQ. Descriptive statistics and differential studies allow us to find differences in impulse control according gender and a negative correlation with age. Results allow us also to verify a negative correlation between self-regulation and onset age of tobacco use and a negative correlation between control impulse and tobacco use. Data is analysed according to the literature and its implications to prevention and further researches are presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A critical assessment of the dislocation-driven model for superplasticity in yttria tetragonal zirconia polycrystals

In this paper, the origin of the threshold stress in pure 3 mol %-yttria tetragonal zirconia polycrystals (YTZP) is analysed in detail. At this regard, the two explanations reported in literature are discussed thoroughly. One of them invokes dislocation activity as the origin for such quantity, whereas the other one is based upon yttrium segregation at the grain boundaries. Crirical assessment for both of them is performed, and it has allowed concluding that the dislocation activity observed by Morita and Hiraga is just an artifact created during sample preparation. Thence, segregation at the grain boundaries seems to be the only mechanism accounting for a threshold stress and its temperature and grain size dependence

Strategies to parallelize a finite element mesh truncation technique on multi-core and many-core architectures

Achieving maximum parallel performance on multi-core CPUs and many-core GPUs is a challenging task depending on multiple factors. These include, for example, the number and granularity of the computations or the use of the memories of the devices. In this paper, we assess those factors by evaluating and comparing different parallelizations of the same problem on a multiprocessor containing a CPU with 40 cores and four P100 GPUs with Pascal architecture. We use, as study case, the convolutional operation behind a non-standard finite element mesh truncation technique in the context of open region electromagnetic wave propagation problems. A total of six parallel algorithms implemented using OpenMP and CUDA have been used to carry out the comparison by leveraging the same levels of parallelism on both types of platforms. Three of the algorithms are presented for the first time in this paper, including a multi-GPU method, and two others are improved versions of algorithms previously developed by some of the authors. This paper presents a thorough experimental evaluation of the parallel algorithms on a radar cross-sectional prediction problem. Results show that performance obtained on the GPU clearly overcomes those obtained in the CPU, much more so if we use multiple GPUs to distribute both data and computations. Accelerations close to 30 have been obtained on the CPU, while with the multi-GPU version accelerations larger than 250 have been achieved.Funding for open access charge: CRUE-Universitat Jaume

U B V R I Photometry of Stellar Structures throughout the Disk of the Barred Galaxy NGC 3367

We report new detailed surface U, B, V, R, and I photometry of 81 stellar structures in the disk of the barred galaxy NGC 3367. The images show many different structures indicating that star formation is going on in the most part of the disk. NGC 3367 is known to have a very high concentration of molecular gas distribution in the central regions of the galaxy and bipolar synchrotron emission from the nucleus with two lobes (at 6 kpc) forming a triple structure similar to a radio galaxy. We have determined the U, B, V, R, and I magnitudes and U - B, B - V, U - V, and V - I colors for the central region (nucleus), a region which includes supernovae 2003 AA, and 79 star associations throughout NGC 3367. Estimation of ages of star associations is very difficult due to several factors, among them: filling factor, metallicity, spatial distribution of each structure and the fact that we estimated the magnitudes with a circular aperture of 16 pixels in diameter, equivalent to $6''.8\sim1.4$ kpc. However, if the colors derived for NGC 3367 were similar to the colors expected of star clusters with theoretical evolutionary star tracks developed for the LMC and had a similar metallicity, NGC 3367 show 51 percent of the observed structures with age type SWB I (few tens of Myrs), with seven sources outside the bright surface brightness visible disk of NGC 3367.Comment: Accepted for publication (abr 2007) in The Astronomical Journal (July 2007 issue

Characterization and immunolocalization of a main proteinaceous component of the cell wall of the protozoan parasite Perkinsus atlanticus

Described in the present study is a major component of the cell wall of two of the most pathogenic parasites of molluscs, Perkinsus atlanticus and P. marinus. The component is a high-molecular-weight protein (233-kDa), which we have named PWP-1 (for Perkinsus wall protein-1). Western blots, using a polyclonal serum generated against purified PWP-1 from P. atlanticus, revealed that this protein is expressed by all walled developmental stages of this protozoon. By means of immunogold electron microscopy, labelling for PWP-1 was strong and specifically associated with the cell wall. The label density and distribution pattern was quite different between trophozoites and prezoosporangia. With regard to the structural organization of this protein, PWP-1 is disulphide-linked to other cell wall components and released from the cell wall only following treatment with a sulfhydryl agent. We also report that PWP-1 is a trypsin-resistant protein, both in its native and heat-denatured conformation. In addition, results from the N-terminal microsequence of this protein allow us to define PWP-1 as a novel cell wall protein. Overall, our findings strongly suggest that PWP-1 plays a key role in the organization of the cell wall of these protozoa promoting their survival

Synthesis of Enantioenriched Amines by Iron-Catalysed Amination of Alcohols Employing at Least One Achiral Substrate

The synthesis of a broad range of enantioenriched amines by the direct Fe-catalysed coupling of amines with alcohols through the borrowing hydrogen strategy, while at least one of these substrates is achiral is reported. When starting from α-chiral amines and achiral alcohols, a wide range of enantioenriched amine products, including N-heterocyclic moieties can be obtained with complete retention of stereochemistry and the power of this method is demonstrated in the one-step synthesis of known pharmaceuticals from commercially available, simple enantiopure primary amines and achiral alcohols. It was also found that the use of β-branched enantioenriched primary alcohols and achiral amines as reaction partners leads to a partial loss of stereochemical integrity in the final product, however, a systematic optimization enabled partial retention of enantiopurity and possible parameters effecting for racemization were identified.</p

Dynamic Control of a Novel Planar Cable-Driven Parallel Robot with a Large Wrench Feasible Workspace

Cable-Driven Parallel Robots (CDPRs) are special manipulators where rigid links are replaced with cables. The use of cables offers several advantages over the conventional rigid manipulators, one of the most interesting being their ability to cover large workspaces since cables are easily winded. However, this workspace coverage has its limitations due to the maximum permissible cable tensions, i.e., tension limitations cause a decrease in the Wrench Feasible Workspace (WFW) of these robots. To solve this issue, a novel design based in the addition of passive carriages to the robot frame of three degrees-of-freedom (3DOF) fully-constrained CDPRs is used. The novelty of the design allows reducing the variation in the cable directions and forces increasing the robot WFW; nevertheless, it presents a low stiffness along the x direction. This paper presents the dynamic model of the novel proposal together with a new dynamic control technique, which rejects the vibrations caused by the stiffness loss while ensuring an accurate trajectory tracking. The simulation results show that the controlled system presents a larger WFW than the conventional scheme of the CDPR, maintaining a good performance in the trajectory tracking of the end-effector. The novel proposal presented here can be applied in multiple planar applications

Humic like substances extracted from oil mill wastes in photo-Fenton processes: Characterization, performance and toxicity assesment

Olive mill waste has been used as sourcing materials for the isolation of humic like substances (OMW-HLS) which have demonstrated its capacity to expand the range of applicability of photo-Fenton process to pH= 5. During the isolation process, membranes of three different pore sizes (300 kDa, 150 kDa and 50 kDa) were employed in order to obtain three batches of OMW-HLS. Four pollutants contained in 2013/39/EC were used as target substances: terbutryn (TBT), diclofenac (DCF), chlorfenvinphos (CVF) and pentachlorophenol (PCP). Results showed that OMW-HLS was able to enhance photo-Fenton at pH = 5, but differences were not significant, either among fractions or with commercial humic substances. Reactions were scaled-up and driven under real sunlight and pollutants removal was faster in the presence of OMW-HLS. Toxicity was monitored according to bioassays based on different organisms or cell lines. Detoxification was observed with and without OMW-HLS, although higher toxicity was detected in the presence of humic acids, most probably due to the surfactant effect, that allows a better contact between pollutant and organism

Phenomenology Tools on Cloud Infrastructures using OpenStack

We present a new environment for computations in particle physics phenomenology employing recent developments in cloud computing. On this environment users can create and manage “virtual” machines on which the phenomenology codes/tools can be deployed easily in an automated way. We analyze the performance of this environment based on “virtual” machines versus the utilization of physical hardware. In this way we provide a qualitative result for the influence of the host operating system on the performance of a representative set of applications for phenomenology calculations.Peer Reviewe