A Tuned and Scalable Fast Multipole Method as a Preeminent Algorithm for Exascale Systems

Among the algorithms that are likely to play a major role in future exascale computing, the fast multipole method (FMM) appears as a rising star. Our previous recent work showed scaling of an FMM on GPU clusters, with problem sizes in the order of billions of unknowns. That work led to an extremely parallel FMM, scaling to thousands of GPUs or tens of thousands of CPUs. This paper reports on a a campaign of performance tuning and scalability studies using multi-core CPUs, on the Kraken supercomputer. All kernels in the FMM were parallelized using OpenMP, and a test using 10^7 particles randomly distributed in a cube showed 78% efficiency on 8 threads. Tuning of the particle-to-particle kernel using SIMD instructions resulted in 4x speed-up of the overall algorithm on single-core tests with 10^3 - 10^7 particles. Parallel scalability was studied in both strong and weak scaling. The strong scaling test used 10^8 particles and resulted in 93% parallel efficiency on 2048 processes for the non-SIMD code and 54% for the SIMD-optimized code (which was still 2x faster). The weak scaling test used 10^6 particles per process, and resulted in 72% efficiency on 32,768 processes, with the largest calculation taking about 40 seconds to evaluate more than 32 billion unknowns. This work builds up evidence for our view that FMM is poised to play a leading role in exascale computing, and we end the paper with a discussion of the features that make it a particularly favorable algorithm for the emerging heterogeneous and massively parallel architectural landscape

Access to Financial Services and Income Inequality: A Panel Data Analysis

The allocation of capital through finance alters economic opportunities. Access and use of financial services allow individuals to facilitate their daily payment transactions, think for the long term through borrowing and savings, or manage unexpected emergencies. Extending financial access universally should arguably benefit those on the lower end of the income distribution. Accordingly, this paper investigated the relationship between financial inclusion and income inequality using panel data of select countries for the period 2000–2017

A Time-Space Tradeoff for Triangulations of Points in the Plane

In this paper, we consider time-space trade-offs for reporting a triangulation of points in the plane. The goal is to minimize the amount of working space while keeping the total running time small. We present the first multi-pass algorithm on the problem that returns the edges of a triangulation with their adjacency information. This even improves the previously best known random-access algorithm

Making memories: the development of long-term visual knowledge in children with visual agnosia

There are few reports about the effects of perinatal acquired brain lesions on the development of visual perception. These studies demonstrate nonseverely impaired visual-spatial abilities and preserved visual memory. Longitudinal data analyzing the effects of compromised perceptions on long-term visual knowledge in agnosics are limited to lesions having occurred in adulthood. The study of children with focal lesions of the visual pathways provides a unique opportunity to assess the development of visual memory when perceptual input is degraded. We assessed visual recognition and visual memory in three children with lesions to the visual cortex having occurred in early infancy. We then explored the time course of visual memory impairment in two of them at 2 years and 3.7 years from the initial assessment. All children exhibited apperceptive visual agnosia and visual memory impairment. We observed a longitudinal improvement of visual memory modulated by the structural properties of objects. Our findings indicate that processing of degraded perceptions from birth results in impoverished memories. The dynamic interaction between perception and memory during development might modulate the long-term construction of visual representations, resulting in less severe impairment

Kundalini Yoga y desarrollo humano. Un proceso y un encuentro bio-psico-socio-trascendente

En este trabajo se tuvo el objetivo de recuperar la experiencia de la puesta en práctica del yoga y de un grupo de crecimiento en el que se intentó propiciar que los integrantes incrementaran su autoconocimiento y el descubrimiento de recursos personales para la solución de alguna problemática personal emergente. El marco teórico de ambas actividades fue el Kundalini Yoga y el desarrollo humano, y se tomaron en cuenta el Enfoque Centrado en la Persona, la Gestalt y la logoterapia. En las actividades participaron 11 personas: un hombre y diez mujeres. Se inició con una clase de yoga con duración de hora y media seguida por otra hora y media de grupo de crecimiento. Los resultados obtenidos y presentados en gráficas y fragmentos de algunas transcripciones elaboradas de grabaciones de las 15 sesiones, fueron muy reveladores y positivos. Se destaca un mayor bienestar físico, liberado de estrés y relajado; el contacto con sensaciones y sentimientos, la expresión de emociones, el empoderamiento y desarrollo de sus potencialidades

First report and molecular analysis of Apple scar skin viroid in sweet cherry

Apple scar skin viroid (ASSVd) is a serious pathogen of pome fruits. Recently, it has been reported in Chinese apricot and Chinese peach. In the context of our research on fruit tree viroids in Greece, ASSVd was initially detected in a sweet cherry tree cv ‘Tragana Edessis’ from Florina (Macedonia) by RT-PCR and this finding was confirmed by direct sequencing. This tree is located at the edge of a newly established apple orchard, along with other sweet cherry and wild cherry (Prunus avium) trees. In order to verify this interesting finding, we examined for ASSVd four sweet cherry trees, two wild cherry trees and their neighboring apple trees in the same orchard.The examination was done by imprint hybridization using an ASSVd-specific DIG-labelled probe at stringent hybridization conditions and by RT-PCR using two different ASSVd specific primer pairs. We obtained ASSVdpositive results for all 6 cherry trees. No ASSVd was detected in the apple trees of the orchard. Purified ASSVdpositive RT-PCR products from the cherries were directly sequenced or cloned into the pGEM-T vector and then sequenced. ASSVd sequences were obtained from 5 trees. These sequences are 327-340 nucleotides long and share 96-99% identity with ASSVd isolates from Asian (Indian) apples. These results are similar to our data for other ASSVd variants from cultivated and wild pome fruit trees in Greece. The cherry ASSVd variants differ from the ASSCS prototype isolate of ASSVd at 18-29 sites. There are 15 nucleotide changes (differences from ASSCS) common to all Hellenic ASSVd variants, including cherry and pome fruit tree variants. There are no cherry-specific nucleotide changes in the ASSVd sequences obtained. To our knowledge, this is the first published report of natural infection of cherry by ASSVd. Keywords: ASSVd, cherry, molecular analysis, Hellenic sequence

Clinical Processes - The Killer Application for Constraint-Based Process Interactions?

For more than a decade, the interest in aligning information systems in a process-oriented way has been increasing. To enable operational support for business processes, the latter are usually specified in an imperative way. The resulting process models, however, tend to be too rigid to meet the flexibility demands of the actors involved. Declarative process modeling languages, in turn, provide a promising alternative in scenarios in which a high level of flexibility is demanded. In the scientific literature, declarative languages have been used for modeling rather simple processes or synthetic examples. However, to the best of our knowledge, they have not been used to model complex, real-world scenarios that comprise constraints going beyond control-flow. In this paper, we propose the use of a declarative language for modeling a sophisticated healthcare process scenario from the real world. The scenario is subject to complex temporal constraints and entails the need for coordinating the constraint-based interactions among the processes related to a patient treatment process. As demonstrated in this work, the selected real process scenario can be suitably modeled through a declarative approach.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015-71938-RED

Predicting Academic Success for NCAA Division I Student-Athletes

Demographic data were obtained on the population of all freshmen student-athletes admitted to the University of Florida (UF) during 1995 (N=91). Demographic data included gender, race, age, distance from home, and several subjective measures. The researchers analyzed the relationship between UF's predictive index and student-athletes' actual Grade Point Average (GPA) and found a significant correlation (r(89)=.60). The correlation between athletes' High School GPA (HSGPA) and their UF GPA was also significant (r(89)=.61). No correlation was found between UF GPA and any of the subjective measures administered to the athletes. Recommendations are made for future testing and prediction of academic success for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I student-athletes

Nucleotide analysis of pome fruit virus isolates detected in apple and pear samples from Italy and India

In the framework of a joint research project between Italy and India field surveys were done in different pear and apple growing areas of North of India and Central and Southern Italy. Samples were collected from plants belonging to common and local varieties and molecularly analyzed for the detection of the main pome fruit viruses (Apple stem pitting virus, Apple stem groving virus, Apple chlorotic leaf spot virus, Apple mosaic virus) by using harmonized diagnostic protocols.The sequence homology was evaluated and a phylogenetic tree was built, on the basis of which, the Indian isolate of ASGV showed maximum sequence identity at a nucleotide level to Italian isolates when analyzed by BLAST (http://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Blast.cgi). Similarly, a maximum identity, ranging from 90-93%, was found for the Italian isolates of ASPV and pear and apple isolates from Poland, while a sequence homology ranging from 83 to86% was observed within the Indian isolates of ASPV. Multiple alignment of the Indian pome ACLSV-isolates indicate maximum variability in the middle portion while the first 140 nucleotides are maximally conserved and shared a percent identity at nucleotide level of 86-100% with the Italian isolates.The ApMV Indian isolates showed maximum (92-99%) sequence homology to the Korean isolate (AY125977) from apple. However, a comparison with other isolates from different host plant species revealed a clustering of Indian isolates with a Czech isolate from pear and a sequence homology of 84 to 98%. Phylogenetic analysis showed that sequence variability was independent to the geographical origin or the host for all the investigated viruses.Keywords: ACLSV, ASPV, ASGV, ApMV, sequences analysis, Italy, India

Triple positive breast cancer. A distinct subtype?

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, and within the HER-2 positive subtype this is highly exemplified by the presence of substantial phenotypical and clinical heterogeneity, mostly related to hormonal receptor (HR) expression. It is well known how HER-2 positivity is commonly associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype and decreased overall survival and, moreover, with a reduced benefit from endocrine treatment. Preclinical studies corroborate the role played by functional crosstalks between HER-2 and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling in endocrine resistance and, more recently, the activation of ER signaling is emerging as a possible mechanism of resistance to HER-2 blocking agents. Indeed, HER-2 positive breast cancer heterogeneity has been suggested to underlie the variability of response not only to endocrine treatments, but also to HER-2 blocking agents. Among HER-2 positive tumors, HR status probably defines two distinct subtypes, with dissimilar clinical behavior and different sensitivity to anticancer agents. The triple positive subtype, namely, ER/PgR/Her-2 positive tumors, could be considered the subset which most closely resembles the HER-2 negative/HR positive tumors, with substantial differences in biology and clinical outcome. We argue on whether in this subgroup the "standard" treatment may be considered, in selected cases, i.e., small tumors, low tumor burden, high expression of both hormonal receptors, an overtreatment. This article review the existing literature on biologic and clinical data concerning the HER-2/ER/PgR positive tumors, in an attempt to better define the HER-2 subtypes and to optimize the use of HER-2 targeted agents, chemotherapy and endocrine treatments in the various subsets