Efficient Point based Global Illumination on Intel MIC Architecture

International audiencePoint-Based Global Illumination (PBGI) is a popular rendering method in special effects and motion picture productions. The tree-cut computation is in general the most time consuming part of this algorithm, but it can be formulated for efficient parallel execution, in particular regarding wide-SIMD hardware. In this context, we propose several vectorization schemes, namely single, packet and hybrid, to maximize the utilization of modern CPU architectures. While for the single scheme, 16 nodes from the hierarchy are processed for a single receiver in parallel, the packet scheme handles one node for 16 receivers. These two schemes work well for scenes having smooth geometry and diffuse material. When the scene contains high frequency bumps maps and glossy reflections, we use a hybrid vectorization method. We conduct experiments on an Intel Many Integrated Corearchitecture and report preliminary results on several scenes, showing that up to a 3x speedup can be achieved when compared with non-vectorized execution

Evidence-Based Study to Compare Daodi

Background. Daodi medicinal material is widely used in Chinese herb medication. However, there is a lack of systematic methodology for identifying characteristics associated with good quality and reliable efficacy of Daodi med-material. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to provide some evidence to further substantiate the use of Daodi medicinal materials. Methods. Seven relevant databases were searched before July 2014. Two evaluators were responsible for screening and categorizing the results. The data was analyzed with Microsoft Excel 2007 and SPSS 21.0 statistical software. Results. Overall, 107 articles were systematically analyzed. Of these studies, 55.1% (59/107) focused on the methodology to assess Daodi med-material, and 38.3% (41/107) were interested in med-material ingredients, soil physical and chemical properties, and the geological background system (GBS). Only 6.5% (7/107) of studies were mainly conducted as clinical trials and animal experiments. Conclusion. Comparisons between Daodi and non-Daodi materials have been studied mainly in terms of the ingredients or composition of medical materials, soil physics and chemistry, and the GBS, and some identifying methodologies have been created to identify Daodi attributes. Until now, there is still no consensus of comparison criteria between Daodi and non-Daodi medicinal material. Only a few studies were conducted through animal experiments and clinical trials to determine Daodi superiority

CD151-α3β1 Integrin Complexes are Prognostic Markers of Glioblastoma and Cooperate with EGFR to Drive Tumor Cell Motility and Invasion

Glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer, is featured by high tumor cell motility and invasiveness, which not only fuel tumor infiltration, but also enable escape from surgical or other clinical interventions. Thus, better understanding of how these malignant traits are controlled will be key to the discovery of novel biomarkers and therapies against this deadly disease. Tetraspanin CD151 and its associated α3β1 integrin have been implicated in facilitating tumor progression across multiple cancer types. How these adhesion molecules are involved in the progression of glioblastoma, however, remains largely unclear. Here, we examined an in-house tissue microarray-based cohort of 96 patient biopsies and TCGA dataset to evaluate the clinical significance of CD151 and α3β1 integrin. Functional and signaling analyses were also conducted to understand how these molecules promote the aggressiveness of glioblastoma at molecular and cellular levels. Results from our analyses showed that CD151 and α3 integrin were significantly elevated in glioblastomas at both protein and mRNA levels, and exhibited strong inverse correlation with patient survival (p \u3c 0.006). These adhesion molecules also formed tight protein complexes and synergized with EGF/EGFR to accelerate tumor cell motility and invasion. Furthermore, disruption of such complexes enhanced the survival of tumor-bearing mice in a xenograft model, and impaired activation of FAK and small GTPases. Also, knockdown- or pharmacological agent-based attenuation of EGFR, FAK or Graf (ARHGAP26)/small GTPase-mediated pathways markedly mitigated the aggressiveness of glioblastoma cells. Collectively, our findings provide clinical, molecular and cellular evidence of CD151-α3β1 integrin complexes as promising prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for glioblastoma

Future Grain Consumption Trends and Implications on Grain Security in China

Associated with population and income growth, grain consumption in China is expected to increase, and thus has inevitably influenced the food security. Using statistical data of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from 1978 to 2017, this study adopting the vector auto-regression (VAR) model and implied demand approach, projected the future consumption of major grains (rice, wheat, maize, and soybean) for food, feed, and other uses in China during 2018–2030. On this basis, it further discussed their implications on grain security. The results showed that during 2018–2030, the Chinese dietary structure would continue to shift from food grain to animal foods. As a result, the grain’s food consumption will decrease slightly (1.5%), while the feed consumption will increase significantly (31.4%), contributing 71.4% to the total increase of grain consumption. By 2030, the total grain consumption will increase by 20.2% to 846.2 million tons, of which 50.2% will be consumed for feeding animals. In the total consumption, maize will be the largest consumed grain variety, accounting for 39.2%. The security of rice and wheat would be optimistic in the future, while the security of maize and soybeans is likely to decline, and thus needs to be given high priority. These findings have great policy implications for improving the grain security, suggesting that in addition to promote the expansion of maize and soybean growing area by adjusting the cropping structure of the arable land, great efforts should be paid to improve the yield of both crops. In addition, residents should be guided to adjust the dietary structure, and also, it is important to improve the animal feeding efficiency