cuIBM -- A GPU-accelerated Immersed Boundary Method

A projection-based immersed boundary method is dominated by sparse linear algebra routines. Using the open-source Cusp library, we observe a speedup (with respect to a single CPU core) which reflects the constraints of a bandwidth-dominated problem on the GPU. Nevertheless, GPUs offer the capacity to solve large problems on commodity hardware. This work includes validation and a convergence study of the GPU-accelerated IBM, and various optimizations.Comment: Extended paper post-conference, presented at the 23rd International Conference on Parallel Computational Fluid Dynamics (http://www.parcfd.org), ParCFD 2011, Barcelona (unpublished

ADVANCING THROUGH RETREATING: SELF-CARE AMONG HELPING PRACTITIONERS

The research was conducted in Cape Town amongst a non-probability sample of 16 helping practitioners who are also retreatants. A literature review describes the value of retreats and retreating and informs the empirical study. The review supports the view that helping practitioners have not only the ability but also a duty to care for themselves The empirical research explores respondents’ perceptions and explanations of their retreating experience, using their own words. Six themes surrounding the meaning of retreating emerged from the data. A discussion of findings identifies the efficacy of retreating as a self-care tool among helping practitioners. Retreatants yearn for recuperative silence and reflective opportunities that remedy the stresses and pace of modern living. By retreating, they experience not only an avoidance of burnout but also an enhancement of functioning and well-being. The tools used on retreat have as much value outside the retreat setting as in it. Eight recommendations encourage the development of self-awareness and self-care practices related to retreating, including making space for this development in the workplace

Soil pH governs production rate of calcium carbonate secreted by the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris

Lumbricus terrestris earthworms exposed to 11 soils of contrasting properties produced, on average, 0.8 ± 0.1 mgCaCO3 earthworm−1 day−1 in the form of granules up to 2 mm in diameter. Production rate increased with soil pH (r2 = 0.68, p < 0.01). Earthworms could be a significant source of calcite in soils

Mimicry and mitonuclear discordance in nudibranchs : new insights from exon capture phylogenomics

Open access via the Wiley Jisc Agreement Funding Information Gorgon Barrow Island Net Conservation Benefits Fund The University of Western Australia Malacological Society of Australasia ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to our collaborators who have contributed specimens to this work, including David Mullins, Gary Cobb, Greg Rouse, Karen Cheney, Kate Dawson, Lisa Kirkendale, Terry Farr, and Terry Gosliner. We also thank Elizabeth Kools for coordinating K.K.S.L's tissue sampling at the California Academy of Sciences and for sending specimens for this work. We sincerely thank Alison Devault and Jakob Enk from Arbor Biosciences for logistical support and advice, and Greg Rouse, Joel Huey, and Josefin Stiller for feedback on data analysis. Funding for this project comes from the Gorgon Project's Barrow Island Net Conservation Benefits Fund, The University of Western Australia, and the Malacological Society of Australasia. K.K.S.L. was supported by a University Postgraduate Award for International Students (UPAIS) and an RTP International Fees Offset scholarship (RTPFI) administered by the University of Western Australia, as well as a postgraduate doctoral scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Here we provide permit details for newly collected specimens that do not derive from Layton et al. (2018). Specimens from Western Australia were collected under permits from the Department of Parks and Wildlife, including a regulation 17 licence to collect fauna for scientific purposes (SF010218, SF010710) and a regulation 4 exemption to collect marine invertebrates within Ningaloo Marine Park (CE005306). Specimens from Queensland were collected under permits from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (Permit #: 183990). Specimens from Victoria were collected under permits from the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Permit #: 10007853). The specimen from California was collected under a permit from California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Permit #: 4564).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A newly discovered radiation of endoparasitic gastropods and their coevolution with asteroid hosts in Antarctica

Funding Funding for this research comes from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition, The University of Western Australia, and the National Science Foundation (USA) ANT-1043749. KKSL was supported by a University Postgraduate Award for International Students (UPAIS) and an RTP International Fees Offset scholarship (RTPFI) administered by The University of Western Australia, as well as a postgraduate doctoral scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). These funding bodies did not have a role in the design of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, or in writing the manuscript. Availability of data and materials The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request and GenBank accessions appear in the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exploring Canadian Echinoderm Diversity through DNA Barcodes

Funding: This research was funded, in part, by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) through a Discovery Grant to PDNH and a postgraduate scholarship to EAC. Sequence analysis was enabled by funding from the government of Canada through Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute in support of the International Barcode of Life Project (OGI-036). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Acknowledgments We thank Bridgette Clarkston, Christina Carr, Claudia Hand, Jeremy deWaard, Jim Boutillier, Katy Hind, Robert Frank, Sandra McCubbin, Tanya Brown, Tom Sheldon, and Victoria Frank for contributing specimens and aiding in collections. Kelly Sendall kindly provided access to the echinoderm collections at the Royal British Columbia Museum while we deeply appreciate the help that Chris Mah, Melissa Frey, and Phil Lambert provided with identifications. We also thank staff at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding in the CBG for their aid in sequence acquisition. Lastly, we thank O.S. Klanten and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

State Plans for Containment of Pandemic Influenza

Current plans for control of pandemic influenza vary, and many do not include nonpharmaceutical interventions

Assessment of KaraShieldTM properties in supporting the immune health of healthy subjects: a randomized, parallel, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study

Background: This study aims to investigate whether a novel herbal extract blend, KaraShieldTM could be used to help build a healthy immune system that could reduce the number of incidences or severity of common upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). Methods: A randomized, parallel, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study of 60 days was done on 120 healthy subjects allocated to a treatment arm (500 mg/day, KaraShieldTM) or placebo arm (500 mg/day). Results: A 500 mg daily dosage of KaraShieldTM significantly improved the subjects' immune health as measured by parameters such as the frequency and severity of upper respiratory tract conditions, the serum IgG level, mean ISQ raw score, WURSS scale score, CRP level in the serum and WHOQOL-BREF score at the end of the study period of sixty days from the baseline compared to that of the placebo. The investigated product was found to be safe and well tolerated by the subjects. Conclusions: KaraShieldTM may represent a promising safe and effective formulation for building a healthy immune system that could then counteract URTIs

Accidental Releases of Sour Gas From Wells and Collection Pipelines in the Overthrust Belt: Calculating and Assessing Potential Health and Environmental Risks

Parts of the Overthrust Belt of western Wyoming and adjoining areas in Utah and Idaho contain geologic formations with significant accumulations of oil and natural gas. Some of these formations, though, yield gas that is contaminated with toxic hydrogen sulfide. As a consequence, the development of these so-called sour-gas reservoirs requires special safety procedures and technologies in order to prevent accidental releases of gas to the atmosphere that could cause adverse occupational and public health effects. To improve the analysis and assessment of wells and collection pipelines completed on lands leased from the Federal Government, the Minerals Management Service, Onshore Operations, now part of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), asked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to conduct a study to test methods to the analysis of the potential risks associated with the development of sour-gas resources located near Evanston, Wyoming. The process of assessing the health risks of a potential sour-gas release involves estimation of the emission rate of hydrogen sulfide, specification of how the gas is released (e.g., vertically into the atmosphere or horizontally), prediction of downwind concentrations of the gas, analysis of the potential health effects, and finally, review of safety methods required to minimize the potential health risks. The first part of the report includes an analysis of data on the health effects of hydrogen sulfide to determine the nature of its dose-response relationship. Following that review is a study of the different methods of quantifying the emission rate of gas from wells and pipelines. Data on the frequency of accidental releases from those facilities are also analyzed. To assess the health risks of an accidental release from a well under BLM supervision located near Evanston, we collected meteorological data for 1 yr from four stations in that area. Our analysis of a worst-case release scenario (i.e., a gas plume that is near the surface) using those data indicates that the greatest risks of incurring an acute health effect (e.g., unconsciousness, respiratory arrest, pulmonary edema, or death) are located in the northwest sector downwind from the well because of the occurrence of stable atmospheric conditions along with slow winds from the southeast. The risks of an acute health effect in that northwest sector over the 20-yr operation of the well were on the order of 10 -4 to 10 -5 -- similar to the risk of accidental death caused by a natural disaster over the same period