Characterizing Power and Energy Efficiency of Legion Data-Centric Runtime and Applications on Heterogeneous High-Performance Computing Systems

The traditional parallel programming models require programmers to explicitly specify parallelism and data movement of the underlying parallel mechanisms. Different from the traditional computation-centric programming, Legion provides a data-centric programming model for extracting parallelism and data movement. In this chapter, we aim to characterize the power and energy consumption of running HPC applications on Legion. We run benchmark applications on compute nodes equipped with both CPU and GPU, and measure the execution time, power consumption and CPU/GPU utilization. Additionally, we test the message passing interface (MPI) version of these applications and compare the performance and power consumption of high-performance computing (HPC) applications using the computation-centric and data-centric programming models. Experimental results indicate Legion applications outperforms MPI applications on both performance and energy efficiency, i.e., Legion applications can be 9.17 times as fast as MPI applications and use only 9.2% energy. Legion effectively explores the heterogeneous architecture and runs applications tasks on GPU. As far as we know, this is the first study to understand the power and energy consumption of Legion programming and runtime infrastructure. Our findings will enable HPC system designers and operators to develop and tune the performance of data-centric HPC applications with constraints on power and energy consumption

Solvation Dynamics in Protein Environments Studied by Photon Echo Spectroscopy

Photon echo spectroscopy is used to study the mechanisms of solvation dynamics in protein environments at room temperature. Ultrafast and additional multi-exponential long time scales are observed in the three-pulse photon echo peak shift data of the fluorescein dye eosin bound to lysozyme in aqueous solution. The dynamics of the solvated lysozyme are characterized with dielectric continuum models that integrate dielectric data for water with that for lysozyme. By comparing our data with previous results for eosin in water [Lang, M. J.; Jordanides, X. J.; Song, X.; Fleming, G. R. J. Chem. Phys. 1999, 110, 5584], we find that the total coupling of the electronic transition frequency of eosin to the nuclear motions of the aqueous lysozyme solution is smaller than in the aqueous solution. On an ultrafast time scale, solvation appears to be dominated by the surrounding water and not by the ultrafast internal motions of lysozyme. However, over long time scales, lysozyme does contribute significantly, either directly through motions of polar side chains or indirectly through reorientation of the water “bound” to the surface of the protein

Eriodictyol modulates glioma cell autophagy and apoptosis by inhibition of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate the effects of eriodictyol (ERD) on U251 human glioma cell cycle and viability, autophagy and apoptosis by modulation of PI3/Akt/mTOR signaling cascade. Methods: 740 Y-P was used to activate U251 human glioma cells. For exploring ERD effects, the U251 cells were treated with ERD and 740 Y-P together. MTT assay was used to elucidate cell viability and apoptosis. The expression of autophagic proteins (LC3B and Beclin-1), and apoptotic proteins (Bcl-2 and Bax) were quantified using Western blotting. To explore the role of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway, their expression was measured in comparison to their respective phosphorylated derivatives by Western blotting. Results: ERD exposure downregulated p-PI3K and p-Akt protein expression. The results also indicate that ERD reduced cell viability and stimulated apoptosis in U251 cells (p < 0.05). Consequently, Bax expression was upregulated and the expression of Bcl-2 was downregulated. ERD enhanced the autophagy of glioma cells U251 by enhancing LC3B and Beclin-1 expression (p < 0.05). These effects were opposite to that revealed by 740 Y-P exposure alone. Conclusion: ERD reduces U251 human glioma cell viability, and triggers cell autophagy and apoptosis, which is significantly correlated to downregulation of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling cascade. Thus, the compound can potentially be used for the treatment of glioma

Oxytocin is implicated in social memory deficits induced by early sensory deprivation in mice

Acknowledgements We thank Miss Jia-Yin and Miss Yu-Ling Sun for their help in breading the mice. Funding This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81200933 to N.-N. Song; 81200692 to L. Chen; 81101026 to Y. Huang; 31528011 to B. Lang; 81221001, 91232724 and 81571332 to Y-Q. Ding), Zhejiang Province Natural Science Foundation of China (LQ13C090004 to C. Zhang), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2016 M591714 to C.-C. Qi), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2013KJ049).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A review of building occupants adaptive behavior in buildings of China

In order to realize the sustainable development of society, building energy consumption has become a global concern. In buildings, occupants adaptive behaviors that means how to use the buildings have an very important influence on the building energy use. The researches of occupants adaptive behaviors have been carried out for more than 30 years in Europe, including England, Switzerland, Denmark and so on. In past 10 years, many Chinese scholars also started to study on this field. This paper reviewed the articles of occupants adaptive behaviors in china and summerized the current development situations then discussed the proper development direction in the future that can give some advises and references for the future study

Vaginal Lactobacilli Induce Differentiation of Monocytic Precursors Toward Langerhans-like Cells: in Vitro Evidence

Lactobacilli have immunomodulatory mechanisms that affect the host cell immune system, leading to inhibition of HIV-1 transmission. Thus, lactobacilli as mucosal delivery vehicles for developing HIV-1 vaccines have attracted interest in recent years. Herein, we investigated the immunomodulatory effects of six strains of Lactobacillus naturally isolated from vaginal samples, including Lactobacillus crispatus (L. crispatus), L. fermentum, L. jensenii, L. gasseri, L. delbrueckii and L. johnsonii, on differentiation of monocytic precursors. L. crispatus, L. fermentum and L. delbrueckii could drive human monocytic cell line THP-1 cells to differentiate into dendritic-like cells according to the morphology. Moreover, L. crispatus increased costimulatory molecules including CD40, CD80 and CD86, and Langerhans cell specific C-type lectin receptors CD207, while L. fermentum decreased these molecules in THP-1 cells. Furthermore, L. crispatus promoted the differentiation of THP-1 cells with specific markers, phagocytic features, cytokine production ability and reduced the expression of receptors for HIV-1 entry of Langerhans cells. However, in the presence of L. fermentum, THP-1 cells did not show the above alterations. Moreover, similar effects of L. crispatus and L. fermentum were observed in CD14+ monocytes. These data suggested that L. crispatus facilitates the differentiation of monocytic precursors toward Langerhans-like cells in vitro. We further identified the cell wall components of Lactobacillus and found that peptidoglycans (PGNs), rather than bacteriocins, S-layer protein and lipoteichoic acid, were key contributors to the induction of CD207 expression. However, PGNs originating from Bacillus subtilis, E. coli JM109 and E. coli DH5α did not elevate CD207 expression, indicating that only PGN derived from Lactobacillus could enhance CD207 expression. Finally, the recognized receptors of L. crispatus (such as TLR2 and TLR6) and the upstream transcription factors (PU.1, TAL1, TIF1γ, and POLR2A) of CD207 were examined, and the expression of these molecules was enhanced in THP-1 cells following L. crispatus treatment. Thus, this study offers powerful evidence that vaginal lactobacilli modulate monocytic precursor differentiation into Langerhans-like cells probably via activating the TLR2/6-TFs-CD207 axis. These data provide clues for further investigation of the original occurrence, development and differentiation of Langerhans cells from monocytes

Acute type A dissection without intimal tear in arch: Proximal or extensive repair?

ObjectiveFor acute type A dissection without an intimal tear in the arch, the optimal surgical strategy is unknown. The present study was designed to clarify the issue by comparing the early and late outcomes of proximal (PR) and extensive repair (ER).MethodsFrom January 2002 to June 2010, 331 patients with acute type A dissection were treated surgically at our institute. Of these 331 patients, 197 were identified without an arch tear on the preoperative imaging examination and by intraoperative inspection. Of these 197 patients, 74 underwent proximal repair, including the aortic root, ascending aortic, or hemiarch repair, and 88 underwent extensive repair, including proximal repair, total arch replacement and a stented elephant trunk technique. The perioperative variables and late results were statistically analyzed.ResultsNo significant difference was found in the rates of early mortality and morbidity between the 2 groups, despite the shorter duration of circulatory arrest in the PR group. During long-term follow-up (mean, 55.7 ± 33.1 months; maximum, 129), the overall survival rate in the whole cohort was 100%, 90.8%, and 71.1% at 1, 5, and 8 years, respectively. No difference was found in survival between the 2 groups (P > .05). However, complete thrombosis of the false lumen in the proximal descending aorta was achieved in 100% of the ER group and 24.6% of the PR group (P < .001). For patients with a patent false lumen in the PR group, distal anastomosis leakage and unclosed small intimal tears were identified in 53.3% and 35.6% patients, respectively. The reintervention rate was also lower in the ER group than in the PR group (4.9% vs 15.9%, P < .05) during follow-up. Moreover, the reintervention rate for patients with Marfan syndrome was 9.5% in the ER group and 38.5% in the PR group (P < .05).ConclusionsFor patients with acute type A dissection without an intimal tear in the arch, extensive repair could promote the occlusion of distal false lumen and decrease the reintervention rate without increasing the operative risk