Extending the Nested Parallel Model to the Nested Dataflow Model with Provably Efficient Schedulers

The nested parallel (a.k.a. fork-join) model is widely used for writing parallel programs. However, the two composition constructs, i.e. "$\parallel$" (parallel) and "$;$" (serial), are insufficient in expressing "partial dependencies" or "partial parallelism" in a program. We propose a new dataflow composition construct "$\leadsto$" to express partial dependencies in algorithms in a processor- and cache-oblivious way, thus extending the Nested Parallel (NP) model to the \emph{Nested Dataflow} (ND) model. We redesign several divide-and-conquer algorithms ranging from dense linear algebra to dynamic-programming in the ND model and prove that they all have optimal span while retaining optimal cache complexity. We propose the design of runtime schedulers that map ND programs to multicore processors with multiple levels of possibly shared caches (i.e, Parallel Memory Hierarchies) and provide theoretical guarantees on their ability to preserve locality and load balance. For this, we adapt space-bounded (SB) schedulers for the ND model. We show that our algorithms have increased "parallelizability" in the ND model, and that SB schedulers can use the extra parallelizability to achieve asymptotically optimal bounds on cache misses and running time on a greater number of processors than in the NP model. The running time for the algorithms in this paper is $O\left(\frac{\sum_{i=0}^{h-1} Q^{*}({\mathsf t};\sigma\cdot M_i)\cdot C_i}{p}\right)$, where $Q^{*}$ is the cache complexity of task ${\mathsf t}$, $C_i$ is the cost of cache miss at level-$i$ cache which is of size $M_i$, $\sigma\in(0,1)$ is a constant, and $p$ is the number of processors in an $h$-level cache hierarchy

Decorrelation of User Defined Function Invocations in Queries

Queries containing user-defined functions (UDFs) are widely used, since they allow queries to be written using a mix of imperative language constructs and SQL, thereby increasing the expressive power of SQL; further, they encourage modularity, and make queries easier to understand. However, not much attention has been paid to their optimization, except for simple UDFs without imperative constructs. Queries invoking UDFs with imperative constructs are executed using iterative invocation of the UDFs, leading to poor performance, especially if the UDF contains queries. Such poor execution has been a major deterrent to the wider usage of complex UDFs

Determination of Phase Fraction, Lattice Parameters and Crystallite Size in Mechanically Alloyed Fe-Ni Powders

This is the first systematic report on the synthesis of mechanically alloyed Fe-Ni powders ball milled at liquid nitrogen temperature. Pure Fe-Ni samples were ball milled in a SPEX 8000 shaker mill at liquid nitrogen temperature. X-ray diffractometry was used to determine the phase fractions of the bcc and fcc phases in the alloys and to determine the lattice parameters and crystallite size. The main objective of this project is to study how the milling at low temperatures affects the region of two phase co-existence, phase structure and crystallite size. It was found that the composition ranges of the bcc and fcc single phase regions were extended well beyond the equilibrium ranges. The results obtained for the samples ball milled at liquid nitrogen temperature were compared to the previous samples ball milled at room temperature

Tensor Core GPU and Krylov Subspace-Based Algorithms for Multiport Large-Scale Circuit Reduction

Due to the recent surge in the user demand for high-speed, low-power, and multi-function designs, the resulting circuits tend of very large size, making the simulation excessively time consuming. Model-order reduction techniques based on Krylov-subspace based approach have been suggested in the literature to speed up the simulation of large circuits. In this thesis, these algorithms are advanced and compared to exploit the massively parallel potential of the emerging Tensor core-based GPUs. Proposed algorithms provide significant speed up compared to the existing approaches in the literature

Role of Wolbachia in shaping the microbiome of Drosophila melanogaster

The endosymbiotic bacteria Wolbachia and the gut microbiome have independently been shown to affect several aspects of insect biology, including reproduction, development, lifespan, stem cell activity and resistance to human pathogens in insect vectors. This research shows that Wolbachia, which reside mainly in the fly germline, affect the microbial species present in the gut of a lab reared strain of Drosophila melanogaster. Fruit flies host two main genera of commensal bacteria – Acetobacter and Lactobacillus. Wolbachia-infected flies have significantly reduced titers of Acetobacter. Analysis of the microbiome of axenic flies fed with equal proportions of both bacteria shows that Wolbachia’s presence is a determinant in the microbiome composition throughout fly development. This effect of Wolbachia on the Drosophila microbiome is host genotype-dependent. To investigate the mechanism of microbiome modulation, the effect of Wolbachia on Imd and ROS pathways, the main regulators of immune response in the fly gut was measured. Wolbachia’s presence did not cause significant gene expression changes of the effector molecules in either pathway. It was also found that Wolbachia slightly reduce the relative length of the acidic region of the gut. However, this observation lacks the robustness necessary to provide a mechanism for the significantly reduced Acetobacter levels. Furthermore, microbiome modulation is not due to direct interaction between Wolbachia and the gut microbes,as confocal microscopy shows that Wolbachia is absent from the gut lumen. These results indicate that the mechanistic basis of the modulation of microbiome composition by Wolbachia is more complex than direct bacteria interaction or Wolbachia’s effect on fly immunity. The findings reported here highlight the importance of considering the gut microbiome composition and host genetic background during Wolbachia-induced phenotypic studies and microbial based-disease vector control strategies

A novel Schottky barrier MOSFET for VLSI applications

Schottky barrier MOSFETs are expected to offer certain fabrication advantages, low series resistance and the feasibility to go into sub-micron technology without having short-channel effects. A p-channel MOSFET using Schottky contacts as source and drain is reviewed theoritically. The limitations of the device arising from the oxide offset between source/channel is studied with the help of one dimensional simulation SEDAN. The process sequence leads to an offset between source and channel. The performance of the SBMOSFETs with and without offset is estimated using two dimensional device simulation program PISCES-II for PtSi and IrSi as source and drain material. A novel process sequence is proposed to eliminate the oxide separation(offset), which is responsible for the degradation in device performance between source/drain and channel of SBMOSFET. The modified device structure without offset (gate overlapping source/drain edges) is simulated to estimate its performance. The gain of SBMOSFET with overlapping gate using PtSi is 32% and using IrSi is 82% of the conventional MOSFET\u27s gain ( from PISCES simulations)

Exosomal derived HLA-B-Associated Transcript-3 is a ligand for NKp30 and regulates Natural Killer Function in Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses

Natural Killer cells are key effector cells of the innate immune system. They were originally described as the first line of defense against infections and tumor cells that secrete cytokines and kill target cells without prior antigen stimulation. Emerging evidence reveals that NK cell activation is a more complex process and includes priming of NK cells that in turn shape the adaptive immune response mainly by interacting with dendritic cells. The activity of NK-cells is mainly mediated through their wide variety of receptors, activating and inhibitory in function. Among the versatile receptors present on NK cells, the activating receptor NCR3, NKp30 is a major receptor involved in both direct killing of target cells and mutual NK and dendritic cell activation. However, the cellular ligands on tumor-transformed cells and DCs have remained elusive. This study identifies HLA-B-associated transcript 3 (BAT3), as a tumor-associated cellular ligand for NKp30 and moreover it is shown that BAT3 is expressed in immature dendritic cells and released as exosomes into the extracellular environment. Further it demonstrates that BAT3 is expressed on the surface of exosomes either derived from tumor cells or iDCs activate NK cells resulting in a strong release of major cytokines (TNFα and IFNγ) and enhanced cytotoxicity. Moreover, BAT3 regulates the NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity against iDCs. Thus, a novel concept is proposed for target cell recognition by NK cells beyond "missing-self" and "induced-self", mediated through extracellular factors. These factors may be derived from the target cells as well from the accessory cells. Moreover, these data also suggest that the reciprocal activation of NK cells and iDCs is partly due to BAT3 presenting exosomes independent from direct cell contacts

“Regulatory Challenges For The Development Of Probiotics As Foods And Drugs And Cmc (Chemistry Manufacturing And Control) Considerations For Probiotics”

The purpose of this study is to elucidate the importance of probiotics, regulatory challenges that are faced in developing probiotics as foods and drugs and as well as the Chemistry, Manufacturing and control (CMC)considerations for probiotics. Probiotics are friendly live microorganisms (in most cases, bacteria) that are similar to the beneficial microorganisms found in the human gut and, when consumed, have the potential to improve or maintain the intestinal microbial flora of consumers, thereby benefiting their health. The utilization of probiotics has been in existence for a very long time. Lactobacilli, bifidobacterial, and lactococciare are the examples of probiotics have long been assumed to be safe whereas the most important determinant for probiotics selection is human health safety. Probiotics can be consumed by consumers largely in the form of food and dietary supplements. They are also even available in the form of tablets, capsules and powders and in some other forms as well, yet, their claims of health advantages could put the conventional distinction between food and medicine in jeopardy. The position of the regulatory environment for probiotics within the existing categories has become hazy and quite unclear as a result of the introduction of numerous probiotic products into the global marke

Detecting Emotion from Natural Language Text Using Hybrid and NLP Pre-trained Models

In current days emotion analysis has been attracting many users to continue their research towards detecting various emotions from natural text. Almost a lot of study is being done in the area of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which mainly focuses on identifying the human state rather than digging the inner reason behind those state or emotions, like why those states are not recognized properly. There were many failures in the primitive methods for emotion detection because of improper correlation among emotions. Hence this motivated me to design a new model, which can fill the gap between emotion recognition and emotion correlation mining through natural language text from text conversations. In this proposed model, we try to mine emotion correlation from emotion recognition through natural text by using various kinds of features and by applying machine learning and deep learning pre-trained models. The main features are anger, disgust, fear, guilt, joy, sadness, and shame. By conducting various experiments on proposed models by taking a sample dataset collected from the Kaggle website, we try to observe the performance metrics of each and every individual algorithm in order to detect the emotions very accurately from natural language text