5,073 research outputs found
Performance Evaluation of Sparse Matrix Multiplication Kernels on Intel Xeon Phi
Intel Xeon Phi is a recently released high-performance coprocessor which
features 61 cores each supporting 4 hardware threads with 512-bit wide SIMD
registers achieving a peak theoretical performance of 1Tflop/s in double
precision. Many scientific applications involve operations on large sparse
matrices such as linear solvers, eigensolver, and graph mining algorithms. The
core of most of these applications involves the multiplication of a large,
sparse matrix with a dense vector (SpMV). In this paper, we investigate the
performance of the Xeon Phi coprocessor for SpMV. We first provide a
comprehensive introduction to this new architecture and analyze its peak
performance with a number of micro benchmarks. Although the design of a Xeon
Phi core is not much different than those of the cores in modern processors,
its large number of cores and hyperthreading capability allow many application
to saturate the available memory bandwidth, which is not the case for many
cutting-edge processors. Yet, our performance studies show that it is the
memory latency not the bandwidth which creates a bottleneck for SpMV on this
architecture. Finally, our experiments show that Xeon Phi's sparse kernel
performance is very promising and even better than that of cutting-edge general
purpose processors and GPUs
An Experimental Study of the Effects of Inequality and Relative Deprivation on Trusting Behavior
Several non-experimental studies report that income inequality and other forms of population-based heterogeneity reduce levels of trust in society. However, recent work by Glaeser et al. (2000) calls into question the reliability of widely used survey-based measures of trust. Specifically, survey responses regarding trust attitudes did not reflect subjects actual behavior in a trust game. In this paper, we conduct a novel experimental test of the effects of inequality on trust and trustworthiness. Our experimental design induces inequality by varying the show-up fees paid to subjects, in contrast to previous experiments that focus on broad cultural or national differences in trust. We do not find robust support for the hypothesis that inequality per se dampens trusting behavior among all subjects; however, we do find some evidence that trust and rustworthiness are influenced by an individuals relative position in the group. Finally, we confirm previous findings that common survey-based measures of social trust are not associated with actual trusting behavior.Trust, social capital, heterogeneity, inequality, experiment
Cauchy horizon singularity without mass inflation
A perturbed Reissner-Nordstr\"om-de Sitter solution is used to emphasize the
nature of the singularity along the Cauchy horizon of a charged spherically
symmetric black hole. For these solutions, conditions may prevail under which
the mass function is bounded and yet the curvature scalar
diverges.Comment: typeset in RevTex, 13 page
An experimental investigation of the hypergolic ignition of some polymeric fuels with oxygen
Hypergolic ignition of polymeric fuels with oxyge
Increased surface flashover voltage in microfabricated devices
With the demand for improved performance in microfabricated devices, the
necessity to apply greater electric fields and voltages becomes evident. When
operating in vacuum, the voltage is typically limited by surface flashover
forming along the surface of a dielectric. By modifying the fabrication process
we have discovered it is possible to more than double the flashover voltage.
Our finding has significant impact on the realization of next-generation micro-
and nano-fabricated devices and for the fabrication of on-chip ion trap arrays
for the realization of scalable ion quantum technology
Cosmic Censorship: As Strong As Ever
Spacetimes which have been considered counter-examples to strong cosmic
censorship are revisited. We demonstrate the classical instability of the
Cauchy horizon inside charged black holes embedded in de Sitter spacetime for
all values of the physical parameters. The relevant modes which maintain the
instability, in the regime which was previously considered stable, originate as
outgoing modes near to the black hole event horizon. This same mechanism is
also relevant for the instability of Cauchy horizons in other proposed
counter-examples of strong cosmic censorship.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX style, 1 figure included using epsfi
Accumulation and distribution of doxorubicin in tumour spheroids: the influence of acidity and expression of P-glycoprotein
Purpose: The intra-tumour distribution of anticancer drugs remains an important, but often under-estimated, influence on drug efficacy. Tumour acidity and the presence of efflux pumps were examined for their influence on the distribution of doxorubicin in a solid tumour model. Methods: Anticancer drug distribution and overall accumulation was measured in tumour spheroids (TS) of varying sizes. The distribution profiles were examined in normoxic and hypoxic TS, the latter generating metabolic acidosis. Finally, the drug distribution profiles were related to efficacy using radial outgrowth assays. Results: In large tumour spheroids (TS) (d âŒ500 ÎŒm), intracellular accumulation of doxorubicin was restricted to cells in the outermost layers and failed to accumulate within the viable cells in the intermediate hypoxic zone. A similar profile was obtained for another protonatable amine, 7-AAD. In contrast, the distribution of the non-ionisable drug (at physiological pH) BODIPY-Taxol was uniform throughout the TS. In order to independently model the hypoxic and normoxic zones of TS, we compared drug accumulation in small entirely normoxic TS (d âŒ200 ÎŒm) with equivalent sized ones exposed to hypoxia in an anaerobic chamber. Exposure of TS to hypoxia caused a considerable reduction in the pH of the bathing medium and lower tissue accumulation of doxorubicin. Interstitial acidity reduces the proportion of doxorubicin in the non-ionised form. Conclusions: In TS, the accumulation and distribution of doxorubicin was influenced by both the expression of P-glycoprotein and hypoxia-induced acidity. Therefore, optimisation of doxorubicin chemotherapy for hypoxic tumours will require circumvention of both of these crucial pharmacokinetic determinants
Pair Creation of Black Holes by Domain Walls
In this paper we study the production of pairs of neutral and charged black
holes by domain walls, finding classical solutions and calculating their
classical actions. We find that neutral black holes whose creation is mediated
by Euclidean instantons must be produced mutually at rest with respect to one
another, but for charged black holes a new type of instanton is possible in
which after formation the two black holes accelerate away from one another.
These new types of instantons are not possible in Einstein-Maxwell theory with
a cosmological constant. We also find that the creation of non-orientable black
hole solutions can be mediated by Euclidean instantons and that in addition if
one is prepared to consider entirely Lorentzian no-boundary type contributions
to the path integral then mutually accelerating pairs may be created even in
the neutral case. Finally we consider the production of Kaluza-Klein monopoles
both by a standard cosmological term and in the presence of a domain wall. We
find that compactification is accompanied by the production of pairs of
Kaluza-Klein monopoles.Comment: 22 pages (REVTeX with AMS Symbols) with 5 postscript figures attached
in a single uuencoded, g-zipped, tar file at end of tex fil
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