DeltaTree: A Practical Locality-aware Concurrent Search Tree

As other fundamental programming abstractions in energy-efficient computing, search trees are expected to support both high parallelism and data locality. However, existing highly-concurrent search trees such as red-black trees and AVL trees do not consider data locality while existing locality-aware search trees such as those based on the van Emde Boas layout (vEB-based trees), poorly support concurrent (update) operations. This paper presents DeltaTree, a practical locality-aware concurrent search tree that combines both locality-optimisation techniques from vEB-based trees and concurrency-optimisation techniques from non-blocking highly-concurrent search trees. DeltaTree is a $k$-ary leaf-oriented tree of DeltaNodes in which each DeltaNode is a size-fixed tree-container with the van Emde Boas layout. The expected memory transfer costs of DeltaTree's Search, Insert, and Delete operations are $O(\log_B N)$, where $N, B$ are the tree size and the unknown memory block size in the ideal cache model, respectively. DeltaTree's Search operation is wait-free, providing prioritised lanes for Search operations, the dominant operation in search trees. Its Insert and {\em Delete} operations are non-blocking to other Search, Insert, and Delete operations, but they may be occasionally blocked by maintenance operations that are sometimes triggered to keep DeltaTree in good shape. Our experimental evaluation using the latest implementation of AVL, red-black, and speculation friendly trees from the Synchrobench benchmark has shown that DeltaTree is up to 5 times faster than all of the three concurrent search trees for searching operations and up to 1.6 times faster for update operations when the update contention is not too high

Prevalence of bacterial vaginosis in pregnant women in Maiduguri, North‑Eastern Nigeria

Objective: This study determined the prevalence and socio‑demographic characteristics of bacterial vaginosis (BV) among pregnant women with abnormal vaginal discharge.Study Design: Descriptive cross‑sectional study.Setting: University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.Materials and Methods: Vaginal swab samples and data on epidemiological risk factors were collected from 400 consecutive pregnant women with complaints of abnormal vaginal discharge. The data was analyzed using the SPSS 16.0 statistical software. Association between variables was compared by using the Chi‑square (χ2) and Fisher’s exact tests while P < 0.05 was considered significant at 95.0% confidence level.Result: The prevalence of BV among pregnant women with abnormal vaginal discharge was 17.3%. Age 20‑24 years, multigravidity, lack of western education and unemployment were associated with increased prevalence of BV. Yellowish, watery vaginal discharge (P = 0.001) was associated with BV. Dysuria, dyspareunia and lower abdominal tenderness were associated with BV (P = 0.001). Fifty three (77%) of patients had BV during the second trimester compared to 6 (9%) who had it in the 1st trimester of pregnancy (P = 0.012).Conclusion: The high prevalence of BV in this study may necessitate adequate screening of pregnant women with abnormal vaginal discharge in order to give appropriate treatment and avoid complications associated with it.Key words: Bacterial vaginosis, pregnancy, vaginal discharg

Evaluating Yield Performance of Cowpea Varieties under Sole And Intercropping with Sorghum at Bauchi, Nigeria

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A rule of seven in Watson-Crick base-pairing of mismatched sequences

Sequence recognition through base-pairing is essential for DNA repair and gene regulation, but the basic rules governing this process remain elusive. In particular, the kinetics of annealing between two imperfectly matched strands is not well characterized, despite its potential importance in nucleic acid–based biotechnologies and gene silencing. Here we use single-molecule fluorescence to visualize the multiple annealing and melting reactions of two untethered strands inside a porous vesicle, allowing us to precisely quantify the annealing and melting rates. The data as a function of mismatch position suggest that seven contiguous base pairs are needed for rapid annealing of DNA and RNA. This phenomenological rule of seven may underlie the requirement for seven nucleotides of complementarity to seed gene silencing by small noncoding RNA and may help guide performance improvement in DNA- and RNA-based bio- and nanotechnologies, in which off-target effects can be detrimental

DeltaTree: A Practical Locality-aware Concurrent Search Tree

As other fundamental programming abstractions in energy-e cient computing, search trees are expected to support both high parallelism and data locality. However, existing highly-concurrent search trees such as red-black trees and AVL trees do not consider data locality while existing locality-aware search trees such as those based on the van Emde Boas layout (vEB-based trees), poorly support concurrent (update) operations. This paper presents DeltaTree, a practical locality-aware concurrent search tree that combines both locality-optimisation techniques from vEB-based trees and concurrency-optimisation techniques from non-blocking highly-concurrent search trees. DeltaTree is a k-ary leaf-oriented tree of DeltaNodes in which each DeltaNode is a size- xed tree-container with the van Emde Boas layout. The expected memory transfer costs of DeltaTree's Search, Insert and Delete operations are O(logBN), where N;B are the tree size and the unknown memory block size in the ideal cache model, respectively. DeltaTree's Search operation is wait-free, providing prioritised lanes for Search operations, the dominant operation in search trees. Its Insert and Delete operations are non-blocking to other Search, Insert and Delete operations, but they may be occasionally blocked by maintenance operations that are sometimes triggered to keep DeltaTree in good shape. Our experimental evaluation using the latest implementation of AVL, red-black, and speculation friendly trees from the Synchrobench benchmark has shown that DeltaTree is up to 5 times faster than all of the three concurrent search trees for searching operations and up to 1.6 times faster for update operations when the update contention is not too high

Chelatococcus thermostellatus sp. nov., a new thermophile for bioplastic synthesis: comparative phylogenetic and physiological study

The poly(3-hydroxybutyrate), PHB, accumulating thermophilic strain MW9(T), isolated from an aerobic organic waste treatment plant, was characterized by detailed physiological and phylogenetic studies. The strain is a Gram-stainnegative, rod shaped, non-spore forming member of Alphaproteobacteria. It shows optimum growth at 50 degrees C. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity, the strain together with five very similar isolates, was affiliated to the genus Chelatococcus (Ibrahim et al. in J Appl Microbiol 109: 1579-1590, 2010). Rep-PCR genomic fingerprints and partial dnaK gene sequence also revealed that these isolates are very similar, but differ from other Chelatococcus type strains. The major fatty acids were similar to those of other strains of the genus Chelatococcus. DNA-DNA hybridization of strain MW9(T) with Chelatococcus species type strains revealed 11.0-47.7 % relatedness. G+C content of DNA was 67.1 mol%, which is comparable with the other strains of Chelatococcus species. The physiological and phenotypic characteristics of the new strain MW9(T) are sufficient to differentiate it from previously described species in the genus Chelatococcus. Strain MW9(T) is considered to represent a novel species of the genus Chelatococcus, for which the name Chelatococcus thermostellatus is proposed. The type strain is MW9(T) (= LMG 27009(T) = DSM 28244(T)). Compared to known Chelatococcus strains, strain MW9(T) could be a potent candidate for bioplastic production at elevated temperature