The TeraGyroid Experiment

The TeraGyroid experiment at SC 03 addressed a large-scale problem of genuine scientific interest at the same time as showing how intercontinental grids enable new paradigms for collaborative computational science that can dramatically reduce the time to insight. TeraGyroid used computational steering to accelerate the exploration of parameter space in condensed matter simulations. The scientific objective was to study the self-assembly, defect pathways and dynamics of liquid crystalline cubic gyroid mesophases using the largest set of lattice-Boltzmann (LB) simulations ever performed, involving in some cases lattices of over one billion sites and for highly extended simulation times. We describe the application in sufficient detail to reveal how it uses the grid to support interactions between its distributed parts, where the interfaces exist between the application and the middleware infrastructure, what grid services and capabilities are used, and why important design decisions were made. We also describe how the resources of highend computing services were federated with the UK e-Science Grid and the US TeraGrid to form the TeraGyroid testbed, and summarise the lessons learned during the experiment

The relationship between anxiety-stability, working memory and cognitive style

While prior research indicates that relationships exist between anxiety-stability and working memory, and cognitive style and anxiety-stability, they have not been considered together. The aim of this study was to consider how anxiety-stability is related to working memory, gender and style in interaction. The sample consisted of 179 12-13-year-old Year 8 secondary comprehensive school pupils in the UK. Teachers rated the level of anxiety-stability of pupils. Pupils completed an assessment of working memory efficiency, the Information Processing Index (IPI) (Riding, 2000a). They also did the Cognitive Styles Analysis (Riding, 1991) to determine their positions on the two fundamental cognitive style dimensions, which were indicated by two ratios - the Wholist-Analytic ratio and the Verbal-Imagery ratio. Working memory capacity and cognitive style interacted in their relationship with anxietystability, such that higher memory was associated with a greater increased stability for Wholist-Verbalisers and Analytic-Imagers than for Analytic-Verbalisers and Wholist- Imagers. The results were discussed in terms of the unitary versus complementary nature of style combinations