6,416 research outputs found
Astronomy in the Cloud: Using MapReduce for Image Coaddition
In the coming decade, astronomical surveys of the sky will generate tens of
terabytes of images and detect hundreds of millions of sources every night. The
study of these sources will involve computation challenges such as anomaly
detection and classification, and moving object tracking. Since such studies
benefit from the highest quality data, methods such as image coaddition
(stacking) will be a critical preprocessing step prior to scientific
investigation. With a requirement that these images be analyzed on a nightly
basis to identify moving sources or transient objects, these data streams
present many computational challenges. Given the quantity of data involved, the
computational load of these problems can only be addressed by distributing the
workload over a large number of nodes. However, the high data throughput
demanded by these applications may present scalability challenges for certain
storage architectures. One scalable data-processing method that has emerged in
recent years is MapReduce, and in this paper we focus on its popular
open-source implementation called Hadoop. In the Hadoop framework, the data is
partitioned among storage attached directly to worker nodes, and the processing
workload is scheduled in parallel on the nodes that contain the required input
data. A further motivation for using Hadoop is that it allows us to exploit
cloud computing resources, e.g., Amazon's EC2. We report on our experience
implementing a scalable image-processing pipeline for the SDSS imaging database
using Hadoop. This multi-terabyte imaging dataset provides a good testbed for
algorithm development since its scope and structure approximate future surveys.
First, we describe MapReduce and how we adapted image coaddition to the
MapReduce framework. Then we describe a number of optimizations to our basic
approach and report experimental results comparing their performance.Comment: 31 pages, 11 figures, 2 table
P01.12. Prophylactic effects of Lonicera japonica extract on dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis in a mouse model by inhibition of the Th1/Th17 response
Keratin 6a marks mammary bipotential progenitor cells that can give rise to a unique tumor model resembling human normal-like breast cancer.
Progenitor cells are considered an important cell of origin of human malignancies. However, there has not been any single gene that can define mammary bipotential progenitor cells, and as such it has not been possible to use genetic methods to introduce oncogenic alterations into these cells in vivo to study tumorigenesis from them. Keratin 6a is expressed in a subset of mammary luminal epithelial cells and body cells of terminal end buds. By generating transgenic mice using the Keratin 6a (K6a) gene promoter to express tumor virus A (tva), which encodes the receptor for avian leukosis virus subgroup A (ALV/A), we provide direct evidence that K6a(+) cells are bipotential progenitor cells, and the first demonstration of a non-basal location for some biopotential progenitor cells. These K6a(+) cells were readily induced to form mammary tumors by intraductal injection of RCAS (an ALV/A-derived vector) carrying the gene encoding the polyoma middle T antigen. Tumors in this K6a-tva line were papillary and resembled the normal breast-like subtype of human breast cancer. This is the first model of this subtype of human tumors and thus may be useful for preclinical testing of targeted therapy for patients with normal-like breast cancer. These observations also provide direct in vivo evidence for the hypothesis that the cell of origin affects mammary tumor phenotypes
Monovalent counterion distributions at highly charged water interfaces: Proton-transfer and Poisson-Boltzmann theory
Surface sensitive synchrotron-X-ray scattering studies reveal the
distributions of monovalent ions next to highly charged interfaces. A lipid
phosphate (dihexadecyl hydrogen-phosphate) was spread as a monolayer at the
air-water interface, containing CsI at various concentrations. Using anomalous
reflectivity off and at the Cs resonance, we provide, for the first
time, spatial counterion distributions (Cs) next to the negatively charged
interface over a wide range of ionic concentrations. We argue that at low salt
concentrations and for pure water the enhanced concentration of hydroniums
HO at the interface leads to proton-transfer back to the phosphate
group by a high contact-potential, whereas high salt concentrations lower the
contact-potential resulting in proton-release and increased surface
charge-density. The experimental ionic distributions are in excellent agreement
with a renormalized-surface-charge Poisson-Boltzmann theory without fitting
parameters or additional assumptions
Clec9a-mediated ablation of conventional dendritic cells suggests a lymphoid path to generating dendritic cells In Vivo
Conventional dendritic cells (cDCs) are versatile activators of immune responses that develop as part of the myeloid lineage downstream of hematopoietic stem cells. We have recently shown that in mice precursors of cDCs, but not of other leukocytes, are marked by expression of DNGR-1/CLEC9A. To genetically deplete DNGR-1-expressing cDC precursors and their progeny, we crossed Clec9a-Cre mice to Rosa-lox-STOP-lox-diphtheria toxin (DTA) mice. These mice develop signs of age-dependent myeloproliferative disease, as has been observed in other DC-deficient mouse models. However, despite efficient depletion of cDC progenitors in these mice, cells with phenotypic characteristics of cDCs populate the spleen. These cells are functionally and transcriptionally similar to cDCs in wild type control mice but show somatic rearrangements of Ig-heavy chain genes, characteristic of lymphoid origin cells. Our studies reveal a previously unappreciated developmental heterogeneity of cDCs and suggest that the lymphoid lineage can generate cells with features of cDCs when myeloid cDC progenitors are impaired
Scalar field propagation in the phi^4 kappa-Minkowski model
In this article we use the noncommutative (NC) kappa-Minkowski phi^4 model
based on the kappa-deformed star product, ({*}_h). The action is modified by
expanding up to linear order in the kappa-deformation parameter a, producing an
effective model on commutative spacetime. For the computation of the tadpole
diagram contributions to the scalar field propagation/self-energy, we
anticipate that statistics on the kappa-Minkowski is specifically
kappa-deformed. Thus our prescription in fact represents hybrid approach
between standard quantum field theory (QFT) and NCQFT on the kappa-deformed
Minkowski spacetime, resulting in a kappa-effective model. The propagation is
analyzed in the framework of the two-point Green's function for low,
intermediate, and for the Planckian propagation energies, respectively.
Semiclassical/hybrid behavior of the first order quantum correction do show up
due to the kappa-deformed momentum conservation law. For low energies, the
dependence of the tadpole contribution on the deformation parameter a drops out
completely, while for Planckian energies, it tends to a fixed finite value. The
mass term of the scalar field is shifted and these shifts are very different at
different propagation energies. At the Planckian energies we obtain the
direction dependent kappa-modified dispersion relations. Thus our
kappa-effective model for the massive scalar field shows a birefringence
effect.Comment: 23 pages, 2 figures; To be published in JHEP. Minor typos corrected.
Shorter version of the paper arXiv:1107.236
Noncommutative Field Theory from twisted Fock space
We construct a quantum field theory in noncommutative spacetime by twisting
the algebra of quantum operators (especially, creation and annihilation
operators) of the corresponding quantum field theory in commutative spacetime.
The twisted Fock space and S-matrix consistent with this algebra have been
constructed. The resultant S-matrix is consistent with that of Filk\cite{Filk}.
We find from this formulation that the spin-statistics relation is not violated
in the canonical noncommutative field theories.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, minor changes, add reference
An optimal modal coordination strategy based on modal superposition theory to mitigate low frequency oscillation in FCWG penetrated power systems
Full converter-based wind power generation (FCWG, e.g. permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG)) becomes prevalent in power electronics dominated multi-machine power system (MMPS). With flexibly modified FCWG oscillation modes (FOMs), FCWG has the potential to actuate conducive dynamic interactions with electromechanical oscillation modes (EOMs) of MMPS. In this paper, a mathematical model of FCWG and MMPS is firstly derived to examine the dynamic interactions. Then a novel modal superposition theory is proposed to classify the modal interactions between FOMs and EOMs in the complex plane for the first time. The modal coupling mechanism is graphically visualized to investigate the dynamic interactions, and the eigenvalue shift index is proposed to quantify the dynamic interaction impact on critical EOM. Based on different manifestos in modal coupling mechanism and eigenvalue shift index, a novel methodology to optimize the dynamic interactions between the FCWG and MMPS is designed within the existing control frame. The optimized dynamic interactions (i.e. modal counteraction) can significantly enhance the LFO stability of MMPS, effectiveness of which is verified by both modal analysis and time domain simulations
3D Imaging of Lithium Protrusions in SolidâState Lithium Batteries using XâRay Computed Tomography
Solidâstate lithium batteries will revolutionize the lithiumâion battery and energy storage applications if certain key challenges can be resolved. The formation of lithiumâprotrusions (dendrites) that can cause catastrophic shortâcircuiting is one of the main obstacles, and progresses by a mechanism that is not yet fully understood. By utilizing Xâray computed tomography with nanoscale resolution, the 3D morphology of lithium protrusions inside shortâcircuited solid electrolytes has been obtained for the first time. Distinguishable from adjacent voids, lithium protrusions partially filled cracks that tended to propagate intergranularly through the solid electrolyte, forming a large waved plane in the shape of the grain boundaries. Occasionally, the lithium protrusions bifurcate into flat planes in a transgranular mode. Within the cracks themselves, lithium protrusions are preferentially located in regions of relatively low curvature. The crack volume filled with lithium in two samples is 82.0% and 83.1%, even though they have distinctly different relative densities. Preâexisting pores in the solid electrolyte, as a consequence of fabrication, can also be partâfilled with lithium, but do not have a significant influence on the crack path. The crack/lithiumâprotrusion behavior qualitatively supports a model of propagation combining electrochemical and mechanical effects
Stochastic Budget Optimization in Internet Advertising
Internet advertising is a sophisticated game in which the many advertisers
"play" to optimize their return on investment. There are many "targets" for the
advertisements, and each "target" has a collection of games with a potentially
different set of players involved. In this paper, we study the problem of how
advertisers allocate their budget across these "targets". In particular, we
focus on formulating their best response strategy as an optimization problem.
Advertisers have a set of keywords ("targets") and some stochastic information
about the future, namely a probability distribution over scenarios of cost vs
click combinations. This summarizes the potential states of the world assuming
that the strategies of other players are fixed. Then, the best response can be
abstracted as stochastic budget optimization problems to figure out how to
spread a given budget across these keywords to maximize the expected number of
clicks.
We present the first known non-trivial poly-logarithmic approximation for
these problems as well as the first known hardness results of getting better
than logarithmic approximation ratios in the various parameters involved. We
also identify several special cases of these problems of practical interest,
such as with fixed number of scenarios or with polynomial-sized parameters
related to cost, which are solvable either in polynomial time or with improved
approximation ratios. Stochastic budget optimization with scenarios has
sophisticated technical structure. Our approximation and hardness results come
from relating these problems to a special type of (0/1, bipartite) quadratic
programs inherent in them. Our research answers some open problems raised by
the authors in (Stochastic Models for Budget Optimization in Search-Based
Advertising, Algorithmica, 58 (4), 1022-1044, 2010).Comment: FINAL versio
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