Coherent control of polariton parametric scattering in semiconductor microcavities

In a pump-probe experiment, we have been able to control, with phase-locked probe pulses, the ultrafast nonlinear optical emission of a semiconductor microcavity, arising from polariton parametric amplification. This evidences the coherence of the polariton population near k = 0, even for delays much longer than the pulse width. The control of a large population at k = 0 is possible although the probe pulses are much weaker than the large polarization they control. With rising pump power the dynamics of the scattering get faster. Just above threshold the parametric scattering process shows unexpected long coherence times, whereas when pump power is risen the contrast decays due to a significant pump reservoir depletion. The weak pulses at normal incidence control the whole angular emission pattern of the microcavity

A study to assess changes in myocardial perfusion after treatment with spinal cord stimulation and percutaneous myocardial laser revascularisation; data from a randomised trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) and percutaneous myocardial laser revascularisation (PMR) are treatment modalities used to treat refractory angina pectoris, with the major aim of such treatment being the relief of disabling symptoms. This study compared the change in myocardial perfusion following SCS and PMR treatment.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects with Canadian Cardiovascular Society class 3/4 angina and reversible perfusion defects as assessed by single-photon emission computed tomographic myocardial perfusion scintigraphy were randomised to SCS (34) or PMR (34). 28 subjects in each group underwent repeat myocardial perfusion imaging 12 months post intervention. Visual scoring of perfusion images was performed using a 20-segment model and a scale of 0 to 4.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean (standard deviation) baseline summed rest score (SRS) and stress scores (SSS) were 4.6 (5.7) and 13.6 (9.0) in the PMR group and 6.1 (7.4) and 16.8 (11.6) in the SCS group. At 12 months, SRS was 5.5 (6.0) and SSS 15.3 (11.3) in the PMR group and 6.9 (8.2) and 15.1 (10.9) in the SCS group. There was no significant difference between the two treatment groups adjusted for baseline (p = 1.0 for SRS, p = 0.29 for SSS).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There was no significant difference in myocardial perfusion one year post treatment with SCS or PMR.</p

Context and culture associated with alcohol use amongst youth in major urban cities: A cross-country population based survey

Background: Alcohol consumption patterns are dependent upon culture and context. The aim of this study was to interview people aged 18–34 year old living in four cities in different regions of the world to explore differences in a range of alcohol measures to assist in determining culturally appropriate alcohol initiatives for this age group. Method: Multistage random sampling was consistent across the four cities (Ilorin (Nigeria), Wuhan (China), Montevideo (Uruguay) and Moscow (Russia)). The questionnaire was forward and back translated into relevant languages and face-to-face interviewing undertaken. The data were weighted to the population of each city. Uni-variable analysis (ever consumed, first time consumed, age when drunk for first time, number of days consumed, type consumed) and logistic regression modeling were undertaken. The final model for each city was adjusted for age, sex, marital status, highest education and employment status. In total 6235 interviews were undertaken (1391 in Ilorin, 1600 in Montevideo, 1604 in Moscow and 1640 in Wuhan). Results: Alcohol was consumed by 96.4% in Montevideo, 86.1% in Moscow, 53.4% in Wuhan and 33.3% in Ilorin. There was very little difference by gender except Ilorin males were more likely to consume alcohol than females. Alcohol was consumed on more days for Ilorin males; Wuhan females consumed alcohol on the least number of days; Ilorin had the most abstainers; Montevideo and Moscow the highest proportion of light drinkers; Ilorin and Montevideo the highest proportion of heavy drinkers. Differences by type of alcohol were also apparent. The final logistic regression model provided different models including higher alcohol consumption rates for males, 25–34 years of age, divorced/separated marital status and employed part time for Ilorin respondents; males and higher educated for Montevideo; males, 25 to 29 years of age and higher educated for Moscow; and 25–29 years of age, non-married and vocationally trained for those in Wuhan. Conclusion: Alcohol consumption in these four cities does not increase with age as found in most high income countries. The alcohol consumption patterns during this stage of the life cycle are important to assess so that high level, as well as country-specific, planning and interventions can be implemented

Impacts of large-scale climatic disturbances on the terrestrial carbon cycle

BACKGROUND: The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere steadily increases as a consequence of anthropogenic emissions but with large interannual variability caused by the terrestrial biosphere. These variations in the CO(2 )growth rate are caused by large-scale climate anomalies but the relative contributions of vegetation growth and soil decomposition is uncertain. We use a biogeochemical model of the terrestrial biosphere to differentiate the effects of temperature and precipitation on net primary production (NPP) and heterotrophic respiration (Rh) during the two largest anomalies in atmospheric CO(2 )increase during the last 25 years. One of these, the smallest atmospheric year-to-year increase (largest land carbon uptake) in that period, was caused by global cooling in 1992/93 after the Pinatubo volcanic eruption. The other, the largest atmospheric increase on record (largest land carbon release), was caused by the strong El Niño event of 1997/98. RESULTS: We find that the LPJ model correctly simulates the magnitude of terrestrial modulation of atmospheric carbon anomalies for these two extreme disturbances. The response of soil respiration to changes in temperature and precipitation explains most of the modelled anomalous CO(2 )flux. CONCLUSION: Observed and modelled NEE anomalies are in good agreement, therefore we suggest that the temporal variability of heterotrophic respiration produced by our model is reasonably realistic. We therefore conclude that during the last 25 years the two largest disturbances of the global carbon cycle were strongly controlled by soil processes rather then the response of vegetation to these large-scale climatic events

B2B e-marketplaces in the airline industry:process drivers and performance indicators

Competitive pressures are increasing within and between different strategically oriented groups of airlines. This paper focuses on the level of efficiency improvements gained by using e-Marketplaces in the procurement process. Findings from a survey among 88 international airlines reveal that the use of Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Marketplaces does play different roles across the various airline groupings. Airlines that are involved in strategic alliances show higher joint procurement activities than airlines that are not involved in strategic alliances. However, alliances are probably viewed as loose arrangements and thus airlines may be reluctant to share information on procurement prices and processes with another airline that could also be acting as a competitor. The financial involvement in or initiation of e-Marketplaces by airlines is very low. Low cost airlines show high use of e-Marketplaces, but demonstrate little financial involvement in contrast. Overall, the categories of spares and repairs, office supplies, tools and ground support equipment (GSE) show the greatest potential for reducing costs and increasing procurement process efficiencies. The intense competitive pressures facing carriers will make their search for tools to realise even incremental savings and efficiency gains ever more urgent. There is evidence that e-Marketplaces are one tool to improve such performance indicators

Defining the Cellular Environment in the Organ of Corti following Extensive Hair Cell Loss: A Basis for Future Sensory Cell Replacement in the Cochlea

Background: Following the loss of hair cells from the mammalian cochlea, the sensory epithelium repairs to close the lesions but no new hair cells arise and hearing impairment ensues. For any cell replacement strategy to be successful, the cellular environment of the injured tissue has to be able to nurture new hair cells. This study defines characteristics of the auditory sensory epithelium after hair cell loss. Methodology/Principal Findings: Studies were conducted in C57BL/6 and CBA/Ca mice. Treatment with an aminoglycoside-diuretic combination produced loss of all outer hair cells within 48 hours in both strains. The subsequent progressive tissue re-organisation was examined using immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. There was no evidence of significant de-differentiation of the specialised columnar supporting cells. Kir4.1 was down regulated but KCC4, GLAST, microtubule bundles, connexin expression patterns and pathways of intercellular communication were retained. The columnar supporting cells became covered with non-specialised cells migrating from the outermost region of the organ of Corti. Eventually non-specialised, flat cells replaced the columnar epithelium. Flat epithelium developed in distributed patches interrupting regions of columnar epithelium formed of differentiated supporting cells. Formation of the flat epithelium was initiated within a few weeks post-treatment in C57BL/6 mice but not for several months in CBA/Ca’s, suggesting genetic background influences the rate of re-organisation

INDIGO-DataCloud: a Platform to Facilitate Seamless Access to E-Infrastructures

[EN] This paper describes the achievements of the H2020 project INDIGO-DataCloud. The project has provided e-infrastructures with tools, applications and cloud framework enhancements to manage the demanding requirements of scientific communities, either locally or through enhanced interfaces. The middleware developed allows to federate hybrid resources, to easily write, port and run scientific applications to the cloud. In particular, we have extended existing PaaS (Platform as a Service) solutions, allowing public and private e-infrastructures, including those provided by EGI, EUDAT, and Helix Nebula, to integrate their existing services and make them available through AAI services compliant with GEANT interfederation policies, thus guaranteeing transparency and trust in the provisioning of such services. Our middleware facilitates the execution of applications using containers on Cloud and Grid based infrastructures, as well as on HPC clusters. Our developments are freely downloadable as open source components, and are already being integrated into many scientific applications.INDIGO-Datacloud has been funded by the European Commision H2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement RIA 653549.Salomoni, D.; Campos, I.; Gaido, L.; Marco, J.; Solagna, P.; Gomes, J.; Matyska, L.... (2018). INDIGO-DataCloud: a Platform to Facilitate Seamless Access to E-Infrastructures. Journal of Grid Computing. 16(3):381-408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10723-018-9453-3S381408163García, A.L., Castillo, E.F.-d., Puel, M.: Identity federation with VOMS in cloud infrastructures. In: 2013 IEEE 5Th International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, pp 42–48 (2013)Chadwick, D.W., Siu, K., Lee, C., Fouillat, Y., Germonville, D.: Adding federated identity management to OpenStack. Journal of Grid Computing 12(1), 3–27 (2014)Craig, A.L.: A design space review for general federation management using keystone. In: Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE/ACM 7th International Conference on Utility and Cloud Computing, pp 720–725. IEEE Computer Society (2014)Pustchi, N., Krishnan, R., Sandhu, R.: Authorization federation in iaas multi cloud. In: Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Security in Cloud Computing, pp 63–71. ACM (2015)Lee, C.A., Desai, N., Brethorst, A.: A Keystone-Based Virtual Organization Management System. In: 2014 IEEE 6Th International Conference On Cloud Computing Technology and Science (Cloudcom), pp 727–730. IEEE (2014)Castillo, E.F.-d., Scardaci, D., García, A.L.: The EGI Federated Cloud e-Infrastructure. Procedia Computer Science 68, 196–205 (2015)AARC project: AARC Blueprint Architecture, see https://aarc-project.eu/architecture . Technical report (2016)Oesterle, F., Ostermann, S., Prodan, R., Mayr, G.J.: Experiences with distributed computing for meteorological applications: grid computing and cloud computing. Geosci. Model Dev. 8(7), 2067–2078 (2015)Plasencia, I.C., Castillo, E.F.-d., Heinemeyer, S., García, A.L., Pahlen, F., Borges, G.: Phenomenology tools on cloud infrastructures using OpenStack. The European Physical Journal C 73(4), 2375 (2013)Boettiger, C.: An introduction to docker for reproducible research. ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review 49(1), 71–79 (2015)Docker: http://www.docker.com (2013)Gomes, J., Campos, I., Bagnaschi, E., David, M., Alves, L., Martins, J., Pina, J., Alvaro, L.-G., Orviz, P.: Enabling rootless linux containers in multi-user environments: the udocker tool. Computing Physics Communications. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2018.05.021 (2018)Zhang, Z., Chuan, W., Cheung, D.W.L.: A survey on cloud interoperability taxonomies, standards, and practice. SIGMETRICS perform. Eval. Rev. 40(4), 13–22 (2013)Lorido-Botran, T., Miguel-Alonso, J., Lozano, J.A.: A Review of Auto-scaling Techniques for Elastic Applications in Cloud Environments. Journal of Grid Computing 12(4), 559–592 (2014)Nyrén, R., Metsch, T., Edmonds, A., Papaspyrou, A.: Open Cloud Computing Interface–Core. Technical report, Open Grid Forum (2010)Metsch, T., Edmonds, A.: Open Cloud Computing Interface-Infrastructure. Technical report, Open Grid Forum (2010)Metsch, T., Edmonds, A.: Open Cloud Computing Interface-RESTful HTTP Rendering. Technical report, Open Grid Forum (2011)(Ca Technologies) Lipton, P., (Ibm) Moser, S., (Vnomic) Palma, D., (Ibm) Spatzier, T.: Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications. Technical report, OASIS Standard (2013)Teckelmann, R., Reich, C., Sulistio, A.: Mapping of cloud standards to the taxonomy of interoperability in IaaS. In: Proceedings - 2011 3rd IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, CloudCom 2011, pp 522–526 (2011)García, A.L., Castillo, E.F.-d., Fernández, P.O.: Standards for enabling heterogeneous IaaS cloud federations. Computer Standards & Interfaces 47, 19–23 (2016)Caballer, M., Zala, S., García, A.L., Montó, G., Fernández, P.O., Velten, M.: Orchestrating complex application architectures in heterogeneous clouds. Journal of Grid Computing 16 (1), 3–18 (2018)Hardt, M., Jejkal, T., Plasencia, I.C., Castillo, E.F.-d., Jackson, A., Weiland, M., Palak, B., Plociennik, M., Nielsson, D.: Transparent Access to Scientific and Commercial Clouds from the Kepler Workflow Engine. Computing and Informatics 31(1), 119 (2012)Fakhfakh, F., Kacem, H.H., Kacem, A.H.: Workflow Scheduling in Cloud Computing a Survey. In: IEEE 18Th International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference Workshops and Demonstrations (EDOCW), 2014, Vol. 71, pp. 372–378. Springer, New York (2014)Stockton, D.B., Santamaria, F.: Automating NEURON simulation deployment in cloud resources. Neuroinformatics 15(1), 51–70 (2017)Plóciennik, M., Fiore, S., Donvito, G., Owsiak, M., Fargetta, M., Barbera, R., Bruno, R., Giorgio, E., Williams, D.N., Aloisio, G.: Two-level Dynamic Workflow Orchestration in the INDIGO DataCloud for Large-scale, Climate Change Data Analytics Experiments. Procedia Computer Science 80, 722–733 (2016)Moreno-Vozmediano, R., Montero, R.S., Llorente, I.M.: Multicloud deployment of computing clusters for loosely coupled mtc applications. IEEE transactions on parallel and distributed systems 22(6), 924–930 (2011)Katsaros, G., Menzel, M., Lenk, A.: Cloud Service Orchestration with TOSCA, Chef and Openstack. In: Ic2e (2014)Garcia, A.L., Zangrando, L., Sgaravatto, M., Llorens, V., Vallero, S., Zaccolo, V., Bagnasco, S., Taneja, S., Dal Pra, S., Salomoni, D., Donvito, G.: Improved Cloud resource allocation: how INDIGO-DataCloud is overcoming the current limitations in Cloud schedulers. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 898(9), 92010 (2017)Singh, S., Chana, I.: A survey on resource scheduling in cloud computing issues and challenges. Journal of Grid Computing, pp. 1–48 (2016)García, A.L., Castillo, E.F.-d., Fernández, P.O., Plasencia, I.C., de Lucas, J.M.: Resource provisioning in Science Clouds: Requirements and challenges. Software: Practice and Experience 48(3), 486–498 (2018)Chauhan, M.A., Babar, M.A., Benatallah, B.: Architecting cloud-enabled systems: a systematic survey of challenges and solutions. Software - Practice and Experience 47(4), 599–644 (2017)Somasundaram, T.S., Govindarajan, K.: CLOUDRB A Framework for scheduling and managing High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications in science cloud. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 34, 47–65 (2014)Sotomayor, B., Keahey, K., Foster, I.: Overhead Matters: A Model for Virtual Resource Management. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Virtualization Technology in Distributed Computing SE - VTDC ’06, p 5. IEEE Computer Society, Washington (2006)SS, S.S., Shyam, G.K., Shyam, G.K.: Resource management for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) in cloud computing SS Manvi A survey. J. Netw. Comput. Appl. 41, 424–440 (2014)INDIGO-DataCloud consortium: Initial requirements from research communities - d2.1, see https://www.indigo-datacloud.eu/documents/initial-requirements-research-communities-d21 https://www.indigo-datacloud.eu/documents/initial-requirements-research-communities-d21 https://www.indigo-datacloud.eu/documents/initial-requirements-research-communities-d21 . Technical report (2015)Europen open science cloud: https://ec.europa.eu/research/openscience (2015)Proot: https://proot-me.github.io/ (2014)Runc: https://github.com/opencontainers/runc (2016)Fakechroot: https://github.com/dex4er/fakechroot (2015)Pérez, A., Moltó, G., Caballer, M., Calatrava, A.: Serverless computing for container-based architectures Future Generation Computer Systems (2018)de Vries, K.J.: Global fits of supersymmetric models after LHC run 1. Phd thesis Imperial College London (2015)Openstack: https://www.openstack.org/ (2015)See http://argus-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/stable/argus_introduction.html (2017)See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/xacml (2013)See http://www.simplecloud.info (2014)Opennebula: http://opennebula.org/ (2018)Redhat openshift: http://www.opencityplatform.eu (2011)The cloud foundry foundation: https://www.cloudfoundry.org/ (2015)Caballer, M., Blanquer, I., Moltó, G., de Alfonso, C.: Dynamic management of virtual infrastructures. Journal of Grid Computing 13(1), 53–70 (2015)See http://www.infoq.com/articles/scaling-docker-with-kubernetes http://www.infoq.com/articles/scaling-docker-with-kubernetes (2014)Prisma project: http://www.ponsmartcities-prisma.it/ (2010)Opencitiy platform: http://www.opencityplatform.eu (2014)Onedata: https://onedata.org/ (2018)Dynafed: http://lcgdm.web.cern.ch/dynafed-dynamic-federation-project http://lcgdm.web.cern.ch/dynafed-dynamic-federation-project (2011)Fts3: https://svnweb.cern.ch/trac/fts3 (2011)Fernández, P.O., García, A.L., Duma, D.C., Donvito, G., David, M., Gomes, J.: A set of common software quality assurance baseline criteria for research projects, see http://hdl.handle.net/10261/160086 . Technical reportHttermann, M.: Devops for developers Apress (2012)EOSC-Hub: ”Integrating and managing services for the European Open Science Cloud” Funded by H2020 research and innovation pr ogramme under grant agreement No. 777536. See http://eosc-hub.eu (2018)Apache License: author = https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 (2004)INDIGO Package Repo: http://repo.indigo-datacloud.eu/ (2017)INDIGO DockerHub: https://hub.docker.com/u/indigodatacloud/ https://hub.docker.com/u/indigodatacloud/ (2015)Indigo gitbook: https://indigo-dc.gitbooks.io/indigo-datacloud-releases https://indigo-dc.gitbooks.io/indigo-datacloud-releases (2017)Van Zundert, G.C., Bonvin, A.M.: Disvis: quantifying and visualizing the accessible interaction space of distance restrained biomolecular complexes. Bioinformatics 31(19), 3222–3224 (2015)Van Zundert, G.C., Bonvin, A.M.: Fast and sensitive rigid–body fitting into cryo–em density maps with powerfit. AIMS Biophys. 2(0273), 73–87 (2015