Make the most out of your SIMD investments: Counter control flow divergence in compiled query pipelines

Increasing single instruction multiple data (SIMD) capabilities in modern hardware allows for compiling efficient data-parallel query pipelines. This means GPU-alike challenges arise: control flow divergence causes underutilization of vector-processing units. In this paper, we present efficient algorithms for the AVX-512 architecture to address this issue. These algorithms allow for fine-grained assignment of new tuples to idle SIMD lanes. Furthermore, we present strategies for their integration with compiled query pipelines without introducing inefficient memory materializations. We evaluate our approach with a high-performance geospatial join query, which shows performance improvements of up to 35%

Make the most out of your SIMD investments: counter control flow divergence in compiled query pipelines

Increasing single instruction multiple data (SIMD) capabilities in modern hardware allows for the compilation of data-parallel query pipelines. This means GPU-alike challenges arise: control flow divergence causes the underutilization of vector-processing units. In this paper, we present efficient algorithms for the AVX-512 architecture to address this issue. These algorithms allow for the fine-grained assignment of new tuples to idle SIMD lanes. Furthermore, we present strategies for their integration with compiled query pipelines so that tuples are never evicted from registers. We evaluate our approach with three query types: (i) a table scan query based on TPC-H Query 1, that performs up to 34% faster when addressing underutilization, (ii) a hashjoin query, where we observe up to 25% higher performance, and (iii) an approximate geospatial join query, which shows performance improvements of up to 30%

Calculation of Effective Coulomb Interaction for Pr3+Pr^{3+}, U4+U^{4+}, and UPt3UPt_3

In this paper, the Slater integrals for a screened Coulomb interaction of the the Yukawa form are calculated and by fitting the Thomas-Fermi wavevector, good agreement is obtained with experiment for the multiplet spectra of $Pr^{3+}$ and $U^{4+}$ ions. Moreover, a predicted multiplet spectrum for the heavy fermion superconductor $UPt_3$ is shown with a calculated Coulomb U of 1.6 eV. These effective Coulomb interactions, which are quite simple to calculate, should be useful inputs to further many-body calculations in correlated electron metals.Comment: 8 pages, revtex, 3 uuencoded postscript figure

Simulations of Weighted Tree Automata

Simulations of weighted tree automata (wta) are considered. It is shown how such simulations can be decomposed into simpler functional and dual functional simulations also called forward and backward simulations. In addition, it is shown in several cases (fields, commutative rings, Noetherian semirings, semiring of natural numbers) that all equivalent wta M and N can be joined by a finite chain of simulations. More precisely, in all mentioned cases there exists a single wta that simulates both M and N. Those results immediately yield decidability of equivalence provided that the semiring is finitely (and effectively) presented.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figure

Adaptive geospatial joins for modern hardware

Geospatial joins are a core building block of connected mobility applications. An especially challenging problem are joins between streaming points and static polygons. Since points are not known beforehand, they cannot be indexed. Nevertheless, points need to be mapped to polygons with low latencies to enable real-time feedback. We present an adaptive geospatial join that uses true hit filtering to avoid expensive geometric computations in most cases. Our technique uses a quadtree-based hierarchical grid to approximate polygons and stores these approximations in a specialized radix tree. We emphasize on an approximate version of our algorithm that guarantees a user-defined precision. The exact version of our algorithm can adapt to the expected point distribution by refining the index. We optimized our implementation for modern hardware architectures with wide SIMD vector processing units, including Intel’s brand new Knights Landing. Overall, our approach can perform up to two orders of magnitude faster than existing techniques

Approximate geospatial joins with precision guarantees

Geospatial joins are a core building block of con- nected mobility applications. An especially challenging problem are joins between streaming points and static polygons. Since points are not known beforehand, they cannot be indexed. Nevertheless, points need to be mapped to polygons with low latencies to enable real-time feedback. We present an approximate geospatial join that guarantees a user-defined precision. Our technique uses a quadtree-based hierarchical grid to approximate polygons and stores these approximations in a specialized radix tree. Our approach can perform up to several orders of magnitude faster than existing techniques while providing sufficiently precise results for many applications

IRF4 and BATF are critical for CD8(+) T-cell function following infection with LCMV.

CD8(+) T-cell functions are critical for preventing chronic viral infections by eliminating infected cells. For healthy immune responses, beneficial destruction of infected cells must be balanced against immunopathology resulting from collateral damage to tissues. These processes are regulated by factors controlling CD8(+) T-cell function, which are still incompletely understood. Here, we show that the interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) and its cooperating binding partner B-cell-activating transcription factor (BATF) are necessary for sustained CD8(+) T-cell effector function. Although Irf4(-/-) CD8(+) T cells were initially capable of proliferation, IRF4 deficiency resulted in limited CD8(+) T-cell responses after infection with the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Consequently, Irf4(-/-) mice established chronic infections, but were protected from fatal immunopathology. Absence of BATF also resulted in reduced CD8(+) T-cell function, limited immunopathology, and promotion of viral persistence. These data identify the transcription factors IRF4 and BATF as major regulators of antiviral cytotoxic T-cell immunity

Dynamic Changes in High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin I in Response to Anthracycline-Based Chemotherapy

Aims: Treatment advances have improved cancer-related outcomes and shifted interest towards minimising long-term iatrogenic complications, particularly chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) assays accurately quantify very low concentrations of plasma troponin and enable early detection of cardiomyocyte injury prior to the development of myocardial dysfunction. The profile of hs-cTnI in response to anthracycline-based treatment has not previously been described. Materials and methods: This was a multicentre prospective observational cohort study. Female patients with newly diagnosed invasive breast cancer scheduled to receive anthracycline-based (epirubicin) chemotherapy were recruited. Blood sampling was carried out before and 24 h after each cycle. Hs-cTnI concentrations were measured using the Abbott ARCHITECTSTAT assay. Results: We recruited 78 women with a median (interquartile range) age of 52 (49–61) years. The median baseline troponin concentration was 1 (1–4) ng/l and the median cumulative epirubicin dose was 394 (300–405) mg/m2. Following an initial 33% fall 24 h after anthracycline dosing (P < 0.001), hs-cTnI concentrations increased by a median of 50% (P < 0.001) with each successive treatment cycle. In total, 45 patients had troponin measured immediately before the sixth treatment cycle, 21 (46.6%) of whom had hs-cTnI concentrations ≥16 ng/l, indicating myocardial injury. Plasma hs-cTnI concentrations before the second treatment cycle were a strong predictor of subsequent myocardial injury. Conclusions: Cardiotoxicity arising from anthracycline therapy is detectable in the earliest stages of breast cancer treatment and is cumulative with each treatment cycle. This injury is most reliably determined from blood sampling carried out before rather than after each treatment cycle

Human Endogenous Retrovirus and Neuroinflammation in Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy.

Human endogenous retroviruses HERV-W encode a pro-inflammatory protein, named MSRV-Env from its original identification in Multiple Sclerosis. Though not detected in various neurological controls, MSRV-Env was found in patients with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathies (CIDPs). This study investigated the expression of MSRV in CIDP and evaluated relevant MSRV-Env pathogenic effects. 50 CIDP patients, 19 other neurological controls (ONDs) and 65 healthy blood donors (HBDs) were recruited from two different countries. MSRV-env and -pol transcripts, IL6 and CXCL10 levels were quantified from blood samples. MSRV-Env immunohistology was performed in distal sensory nerves from CIDP and neurological controls biopsies. MSRV-Env pathogenic effects and mode of action were assayed in cultured primary human Schwann cells (HSCs). In both cohorts, MSRV-env and -pol transcripts, IL6 positivity prevalence and CXCL10 levels were significantly elevated in CIDP patients when compared to HBDs and ONDs (statistically significant in all comparisons). MSRV-Env protein was detected in Schwann cells in 5/7 CIDP biopsies. HSC exposed to or transfected with MSRV-env presented a strong increase of IL6 and CXCL10 transcripts and protein secretion. These pathogenic effects on HSC were inhibited by GNbAC1, a highly specific and neutralizing humanized monoclonal antibody targeting MSRV-Env. The present study showed that MSRV-Env may trigger the release of critical immune mediators proposed as instrumental factors involved in the pathophysiology of CIDP. Significant MSRV-Env expression was detected in a significant proportion of patients with CIDP, in which it may play a role according to its presently observed effects on Schwann cells along with previously known effects on immune cells. Experimental results also suggest that a biomarker-driven therapeutic strategy targeting this protein with a neutralizing antibody such as GNbAC1 may offer new perspectives for treating CIDP patients with positive detection of MSRV-Env expression. Geneuro-Innovation, France