Using the High Productivity Language Chapel to Target GPGPU Architectures

It has been widely shown that GPGPU architectures offer large performance gains compared to their traditional CPU counterparts for many applications. The downside to these architectures is that the current programming models present numerous challenges to the programmer: lower-level languages, explicit data movement, loss of portability, and challenges in performance optimization. In this paper, we present novel methods and compiler transformations that increase productivity by enabling users to easily program GPGPU architectures using the high productivity programming language Chapel. Rather than resorting to different parallel libraries or annotations for a given parallel platform, we leverage a language that has been designed from first principles to address the challenge of programming for parallelism and locality. This also has the advantage of being portable across distinct classes of parallel architectures, including desktop multicores, distributed memory clusters, large-scale shared memory, and now CPU-GPU hybrids. We present experimental results from the Parboil benchmark suite which demonstrate that codes written in Chapel achieve performance comparable to the original versions implemented in CUDA.NSF CCF 0702260Cray Inc. Cray-SRA-2010-016962010-2011 Nvidia Research Fellowshipunpublishednot peer reviewe

Letter to Editor: Carpal tunnel syndrome due to an atypical deep soft tissue leiomyoma: The risk of misdiagnosis and mismanagement

A response to Chalidis et al: Carpal tunnel syndrome due to an atypical deep soft tissue leiomyoma: The risk of misdiagnosis and mismanagement. World J Surg Oncol 2007, 5:92

Consumption Patterns for Selected Fruits in La Union, Philippines

With the economic, ethical, and environmental consequences of human consumption patterns, understanding its dynamics is essential in setting suitable development direction for industries and formulating environmental policies. Focusing on fruits, the study was designed to determine the consumption and marketing practices and factors affecting consumption, as well as analyze the demand and supply situation, of selected fruints in La Union, Philippines. The data, drawn from 150 consumers and 150 sellers who were randomly selected using the stratified proportionate random sampling, were statistically analyzed using central tendencies, correlation, and regression analysis. Results revealed that consumers preferred fruits that are fresh; classified according to size, color, or variety; and without chemical treatment, even at a high price. Among the major fruits produced in La Union (banana, mango, watermelon, and guapple), banana is most preferred by consumers and guapple the least preferred, while mango was perceived as the most nutritious. The average per capita consumption of these fruits in La Union at 7.69 kg is higher than the national average (6.90 kg). The factors that had significant influence on consumption included the socio-economic characteristics of consumers such as age, income, and education and the characteristics of the product such as taste and price. Based on market supply and demand analysis, there was a huge market shortage of these fruits, except for mango, throughout 2015. This suggests that domestic production can be intensified through the adoption of organic farming practices; grading and standardization according to size, variety, color, and freshness of products; the development of other value-added product forms for the industrial market; and the provision of support systems in the form of trainings, marketing, and financial assistance for farmers

Filipino Women in Cooperative Management

In response to the twin policies aligned towards cooperative development and the empowerment of women, this study was conducted to assess the competency of women in cooperative management. The data was drawn from 24 registered cooperatives in La Union Province, Philippines, using complete enumeration and analyzed using frequency counts, percentages, and weighted mean. Results revealed that more women than men were involved in cooperative management. The women were perceived to be better than men in managerial, interpersonal, and intellectual competencies. Men on the other hand, were perceived to be better than women in organization and leadership. The women were extremely competent along interpersonal and managerial competencies, and highly competent along leadership, entrepreneurial, intellectual and organizational aspects. With the management competencies, the women therefore are to be accorded with privileges and opportunities to assume positions along managerial and entrepreneurial positions in cooperative, government and nongovernment organizations

Association of Injury History and Incident Injury in Cadet Basic Military Training

To determine the association between injury history at enrollment and incident lower extremity (LE) injury during cadet basic training among first-year military cadets

Automatic alignment of surgical videos using kinematic data

Over the past one hundred years, the classic teaching methodology of "see one, do one, teach one" has governed the surgical education systems worldwide. With the advent of Operation Room 2.0, recording video, kinematic and many other types of data during the surgery became an easy task, thus allowing artificial intelligence systems to be deployed and used in surgical and medical practice. Recently, surgical videos has been shown to provide a structure for peer coaching enabling novice trainees to learn from experienced surgeons by replaying those videos. However, the high inter-operator variability in surgical gesture duration and execution renders learning from comparing novice to expert surgical videos a very difficult task. In this paper, we propose a novel technique to align multiple videos based on the alignment of their corresponding kinematic multivariate time series data. By leveraging the Dynamic Time Warping measure, our algorithm synchronizes a set of videos in order to show the same gesture being performed at different speed. We believe that the proposed approach is a valuable addition to the existing learning tools for surgery.Comment: Accepted at AIME 201

l-Acetyl-carnitine in Patients with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome: Effects on Nerve Protection, Hand Function and Pain

Background and Aim: l-Acetyl-carnitine (LAC) exerts an energetic effect on nerves and muscles. Recently, preclinical experiments have demonstrated a central anti-nociceptive action. Objective: Our objective was to assess the effects of LAC on neuroprotection, pain, and function in carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a very frequent chronic compressive neuropathy. Methods: In a multicentre, examiner-blinded, clinical and neurophysiological 4-month study, we enrolled 82 patients and examined 120 hands with CTS of mild to moderate severity. Patients were assessed at baseline and 10, 60 and 120\uc2 days after treatment with LAC 500\uc2 mg twice daily (BID). All patients underwent a conduction study of the median nerve, the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) and the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI). The primary endpoint was the sensory conduction velocity (SCV) of the median nerve. Results: The primary endpoint was met, with significant improvement of the SCV (P\uc2&nbsp

Contribution of ultrasound in the assessment of nerve diseases

Background and purpose:  Recently, ultrasound (US) has been used to assess the peripheral nervous system; however, there is no real study about its possible significant role in routine practice. Our study aims to assess the contribution of US as a routine tool in a neurophysiological laboratory. Methods:  The study assesses 130 patients who presented clinical suspicion of peripheral nerve diseases, excluding motor neuron disease, radiculopathy, hereditary and acquired polyneuropathy. All patients were clinically, neurophysiologically and sonographically assessed in the same session by the same neurologist/neurophysiologist. To avoid interpretation bias, two independent and blinded clinicians, different than the examiners performing electrodiagnosis and US, reviewed clinical, neurophysiological and US findings (also data about follow-up, when available) and classified the contribution of US as follows: Contributive (US had influence on the diagnostic and therapeutic strategies), Confirming (US confirmed the clinical and neurophysiological diagnosis), Non-Confirming (US findings were normal) and Incorrect (US findings led to incorrect diagnosis). Results:  US impacted, namely modified the diagnostic and therapeutic path in 42.3% of cases (55 patients); US had a confirmatory role in 40% (52 patients); US did not confirm clinical and neurophysiological diagnosis in 17.7% (23 cases); no incorrect US findings were observed. Conclusion:  US complements neurophysiological assessment even in routine practice, and this confirms the increasing interest in US for a multidimensional evaluation of peripheral nerve system disease