Improving Performance of Iterative Methods by Lossy Checkponting

Iterative methods are commonly used approaches to solve large, sparse linear systems, which are fundamental operations for many modern scientific simulations. When the large-scale iterative methods are running with a large number of ranks in parallel, they have to checkpoint the dynamic variables periodically in case of unavoidable fail-stop errors, requiring fast I/O systems and large storage space. To this end, significantly reducing the checkpointing overhead is critical to improving the overall performance of iterative methods. Our contribution is fourfold. (1) We propose a novel lossy checkpointing scheme that can significantly improve the checkpointing performance of iterative methods by leveraging lossy compressors. (2) We formulate a lossy checkpointing performance model and derive theoretically an upper bound for the extra number of iterations caused by the distortion of data in lossy checkpoints, in order to guarantee the performance improvement under the lossy checkpointing scheme. (3) We analyze the impact of lossy checkpointing (i.e., extra number of iterations caused by lossy checkpointing files) for multiple types of iterative methods. (4)We evaluate the lossy checkpointing scheme with optimal checkpointing intervals on a high-performance computing environment with 2,048 cores, using a well-known scientific computation package PETSc and a state-of-the-art checkpoint/restart toolkit. Experiments show that our optimized lossy checkpointing scheme can significantly reduce the fault tolerance overhead for iterative methods by 23%~70% compared with traditional checkpointing and 20%~58% compared with lossless-compressed checkpointing, in the presence of system failures.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures, HPDC'1

The Mass Power Spectrum in Quintessence Cosmological Models

We present simple analytic approximations for the linear and fully evolved nonlinear mass power spectrum for spatially flat cold dark matter (CDM) cosmological models with quintessence (Q). Quintessence is a time evolving, spatially inhomogeneous energy component with negative pressure and an equation of state w_Q < 0. It clusters gravitationally on large length scales but remains smooth like the cosmological constant on small length scales. We show that the clustering scale is determined by the Compton wavelength of the Q-field and derive a shape parameter, \Gamma_Q, to characterize the linear mass power spectrum. The growth of linear perturbations as functions of redshift, w_Q, and matter density \Omega_m is also quantified. Calibrating to N-body simulations, we construct a simple extension of the formula by Ma (1998) that closely approximates the nonlinear power spectrum for a range of plausible QCDM models.Comment: 5 pages with 3 inserted postscript figures, AAS LaTeX v4.0 emulateapj.sty. Astrophysical Journal Letters, in pres

Face-gear drives: Design, analysis, and testing for helicopter transmission applications

The use of face-gears in helicopter transmissions was explored. A light-weight, split-torque transmission design utilizing face-gears is described. Face-gear design and geometry were investigated. Topics included tooth generation, limiting inner and outer radii, tooth contact analysis, contact ratio, gear eccentricity, grinding, and structural stiffness. Design charts were developed to determine minimum and maximum face-gear inner and outer radii. An analytical study showed that the face-gear drive is relatively insensitive to gear misalignment with respect to transmission errors, but the tooth contact is affected by misalignment. A method of localizing the bearing contact to permit operation with misalignment was explored. Two new methods for grinding of the face-gear tooth surfaces were also investigated. The proper choice of shaft stiffness enabled good load sharing in the split-torque transmission design. Face-gear experimental studies were also conducted. These tests demonstrated the feasibility of face-gears in high-speed, high-load applications such as helicopter transmissions

Application of Face-Gear Drives in Helicopter Transmissions

The use of face gears in helicopter transmissions was explored. A light-weight, split torque transmission design utilizing face gears was described. Face-gear design and geometry were investigated. Topics included tooth generation, limiting inner and outer radii, tooth contact analysis, contact ratio, gear eccentricity, and structural stiffness. Design charts were developed to determine minimum and maximum face-gear inner and outer radii. Analytical study of transmission error showed face-gear drives were relatively insensitive to gear misalignment, but tooth contact was affected by misalignment. A method of localizing bearing contact to compensate for misalignment was explored. The proper choice of shaft support stiffness enabled good load sharing in the split torque transmission design. Face-gear experimental studies were also included and the feasibility of face gears in high-speed, high-load applications such as helicopter transmissions was demonstrated

The flashing ratchet and unidirectional transport of matter

We study the flashing ratchet model of a Brownian motor, which consists in cyclical switching between the Fokker-Planck equation with an asymmetric ratchet-like potential and the pure diffusion equation. We show that the motor really performs unidirectional transport of mass, for proper parameters of the model, by analyzing the attractor of the problem and the stationary vector of a related Markov chain.Comment: 11 page

Redshift Evolution of the Nonlinear Two-Point Correlation Function

This paper presents a detailed theoretical study of the two-point correlation function $\xi$ for both dark matter halos and the matter density field in five cosmological models with varying matter density $\Omega_m$ and neutrino fraction $\Omega_\nu$. The objectives of this systematic study are to evaluate the nonlinear gravitational effects on $\xi$, to contrast the behavior of $\xi$ for halos vs. matter, and to quantify the redshift evolution of $\xi$ and its dependence on cosmological parameters. Overall, $\xi$ for halos exhibits markedly slower evolution than $\xi$ for matter, and its redshift dependence is much more intricate than the single power-law parameterization used in the literature. Of particular interest is that the redshift evolution of the halo-halo correlation length $r_0$ depends strongly on $\Omega_m$ and $\Omega_\nu$, being slower in models with lower $\Omega_m$ or higher $\Omega_\nu$. Measurements of $\xi$ to higher redshifts can therefore be a potential discriminator of cosmological parameters. The evolution rate of $r_0$ for halos within a given model increases with time, passing the phase of fixed comoving clustering at $z\sim 1$ to 3 toward the regime of stable clustering at $z\sim 0$. The shape of the halo-halo $\xi$, on the other hand, is well approximated by a power law with slope -1.8 in all models and is not a sensitive model discriminator.Comment: 22 pages, 8 postscript figures, AAS LaTeX v4.0. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 510 (January 1 1999

Requirements for contractility in disordered cytoskeletal bundles

Actomyosin contractility is essential for biological force generation, and is well understood in highly organized structures such as striated muscle. Additionally, actomyosin bundles devoid of this organization are known to contract both in vivo and in vitro, which cannot be described by standard muscle models. To narrow down the search for possible contraction mechanisms in these systems, we investigate their microscopic symmetries. We show that contractile behavior requires non-identical motors that generate large enough forces to probe the nonlinear elastic behavior of F-actin. This suggests a role for filament buckling in the contraction of these bundles, consistent with recent experimental results on reconstituted actomyosin bundles.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; text shortene

Fabrication of bismuth nanowires with a silver nanocrystal shadowmask

We fabricated bismuth (Bi) nanowires with low energy electron beam lithography using silver (Ag) nanocrystal shadowmasks and a subsequent chlorine reactive ion etching. Submicron-size metal contacts on the single Bi nanowire were successfully prepared by in situ focused ion beam metal deposition for transport measurements. The temperature dependent resistance measurements on the 50 nm wide Bi nanowires showed that the resistance increased with decreasing temperature, which is characteristic of semiconductors and insulators

Improved Iterative Coordinated Beamforming Based on Singular Value Decomposition for Multiuser Mimo Systems With Limited Feedforward

Coordinated beamforming based on singular value decomposition is an iterative method to jointly optimize thetransmit beamformers and receive combiners, to achieve high levels of sum rates in the downlink of multiusersystems, by exploiting the multi-dimensional wireless channel created by multiple transmit and receive antennas. The optimization is done at the base station and the quantized beamformers are sent to the users through a low rate link.In this work, we propose to optimize this algorithm by reducing the number of iterations and improving its uncoded bit error rate performance. Simulation results show that our proposal achieves a better bit error rate with a lower number of iterations than the original algorithm

Electron Transport through a Molecular Conductor with Center-of-Mass Motion

The linear conductance of a molecular conductor oscillating between two metallic leads is investigated numerically both for Hubbard interacting and noninteracting electrons. The molecule-leads tunneling barriers depend on the molecule displacement from its equilibrium position. The results present an interesting interference which leads to a conductance dip at the electron-hole symmetry point, that could be experimentally observable. It is shown that this dip is caused by the destructive interference between the purely electronic and phonon-assisted tunneling channels, which are found to carry opposite phases. When an internal vibrational mode is also active, the electron-hole symmetry is broken but a Fano-like interference is still observed