Evaluation of Docker Containers for Scientific Workloads in the Cloud

The HPC community is actively researching and evaluating tools to support execution of scientific applications in cloud-based environments. Among the various technologies, containers have recently gained importance as they have significantly better performance compared to full-scale virtualization, support for microservices and DevOps, and work seamlessly with workflow and orchestration tools. Docker is currently the leader in containerization technology because it offers low overhead, flexibility, portability of applications, and reproducibility. Singularity is another container solution that is of interest as it is designed specifically for scientific applications. It is important to conduct performance and feature analysis of the container technologies to understand their applicability for each application and target execution environment. This paper presents a (1) performance evaluation of Docker and Singularity on bare metal nodes in the Chameleon cloud (2) mechanism by which Docker containers can be mapped with InfiniBand hardware with RDMA communication and (3) analysis of mapping elements of parallel workloads to the containers for optimal resource management with container-ready orchestration tools. Our experiments are targeted toward application developers so that they can make informed decisions on choosing the container technologies and approaches that are suitable for their HPC workloads on cloud infrastructure. Our performance analysis shows that scientific workloads for both Docker and Singularity based containers can achieve near-native performance. Singularity is designed specifically for HPC workloads. However, Docker still has advantages over Singularity for use in clouds as it provides overlay networking and an intuitive way to run MPI applications with one container per rank for fine-grained resources allocation

GenBio-MAPS as a Case Study to Understand and Address the Effects of Test-Taking Motivation in Low-Stakes Program Assessments

The General Biology–Measuring Achievement and Progression in Science (GenBio-MAPS) assessment measures student understanding of the Vision and Change core concepts at the beginning, middle, and end of undergraduate biology degree programs. Assessment coordinators typically administer this instrument as a low-stakes assignment for which students receive participation credit. While these conditions can elicit high participation rates, it remains unclear how to best measure and account for potential variation in the amount of effort students give to the assessment. To better understand student test-taking motivation, we analyzed GenBio-MAPS data from more than 8000 students at 20 institutions. While the majority of students give acceptable effort, some students exhibited behaviors associated with low motivation, such as low self-reported effort, short test completion time, and high levels of rapid-selection behavior on test questions. Standard least-squares regression models revealed that students’ self-reported effort predicts their observable time-based behaviors and that these motivation indices predict students’ Gen- Bio-MAPS scores. Furthermore, we observed that test-taking behaviors and performance change as students progress through the assessment. We provide recommendations for identifying and filtering out data from students with low test-taking motivation so that the filtered data set better represents student understanding

How Administration Stakes and Settings Affect Student Behavior and Performance on a Biology Concept Assessment

Biology instructors use concept assessments in their courses to gauge student understanding of important disciplinary ideas. Instructors can choose to administer concept assessments based on participation (i.e., lower stakes) or the correctness of responses (i.e., higher stakes), and students can complete the assessment in an in-class or out-of-class setting. Different administration conditions may affect how students engage with and perform on concept assessments, thus influencing how instructors should interpret the resulting scores. Building on a validity framework, we collected data from 1578 undergraduate students over 5 years under five different administration conditions. We did not find significant differences in scores between lower-stakes in-class, higher-stakes in-class, and lower-stakes out-of-class conditions, indicating a degree of equivalence among these three options. We found that students were likely to spend more time and have higher scores in the higher-stakes out-of-class condition. However, we suggest that instructors cautiously interpret scores from this condition, as it may be associated with an increased use of external resources. Taken together, we highlight the lower-stakes out-of-class condition as a widely applicable option that produces outcomes similar to in-class conditions, while respecting the common desire to preserve classroom instructional time

Word meaning acquisition is reflected in brain potentials of isolated words

Learning a new concept and corresponding word typically involves repeated exposure to the word in the same or a similar context until the link crystallizes in long term memory. Although electrophysiological indices of the result of learning are well documented, there is currently no measure of the process of conceptually-mediated learning itself. Here, we recorded event-related brain potentials from participants who read unfamiliar words presented in isolation followed by a definition that either explained the meaning of the word or was a true, but uninformative statement. Self-reported word knowledge ratings increased for those words that were followed by meaningful definitions and were correlated with a decrease in ERP amplitude of a late frontal negativity (LFN) elicited by the isolated word. Importantly, the rate of LFN amplitude change predicted post-hoc learning outcome measures. Therefore, the LFN is real-time measure that is not under conscious control and which reflects conceptually-mediated learning. We propose that the LFN provides for the first time the opportunity to assess learning during study

Scientific Railway Signalling Symposium 2022 - Mehr Schiene – mehr Klimaschutz: Wie kann die Bahn das wachsende Verkehrsaufkommen nachhaltig meistern?

Aufgrund des Klimawandels wird eine massive Verkehrsverlagerung von der Straße auf die Schiene zwingend. Durch diesen Bedeutungszuwachs der Schiene muss die Eisenbahn bereits im Jahr 2030 ein Verkehrswachstum von 20 - 30 % bewältigen können. Bereits heute ist das Streckennetz jedoch vielerorts an der Belastungsgrenze. Im Rahmen des Scientific Railway Signalling Symposiums (SRSS) 2022 widmeten sich am 18. Mai daher ca. 90 Fachexpertinnen und Fachexperten aus Forschung und Praxis der Frage, wie die Bahn das wachsende Verkehrsaufkommen nachhaltig meistern kann. Nach dem erfolgreichen virtuellen SRSS 2021 konnte das fünfte SRSS 2022 wieder in Präsenz im Georg-Christoph-Lichtenberg-Haus in Darmstadt stattfinden. Die Beiträge der Konferenz zeigten, dass eine der größten Herausforderungen die Entwicklung und das reibungslose Zusammenspiel der verschiedenen Technologien darstellt, die das zukünftige Eisenbahnsystem bilden werden. In den Keynotes berichtete zu Beginn Bernd Elsweiler von der DB Netz AG über eine Vielzahl von Projekten und Programmen, die zur Umsetzung des Zielbildes der Digitalen Schiene Deutschland beitragen sollen. Roman Treydel von der DB Netz AG erläuterte, wie Initiativen wie Shift2Rail und RCA in ERJU zu einem vereinheitlichten europäischen Bahnsystem führen sollen. Durch die Diskussion in Kleingruppen wurde bereits der Blick auf die übernächsten Innovationen geworfen. Der Nachmittag widmete sich detaillierteren Themen. Neben wissenschaftlichen Vorträgen aus den Bereichen Zugvollständigkeitserkennung und digitaler automatisierter Infrastrukturplanung standen Themen aus der Praxis im Vordergrund. In dieser Publikation sollen ausgewählte Arbeiten zu den Praxis-Vortragsthemen veröffentlicht werden. Sonja-Lara Bepperling von Nextrail berichtete von modernen Lösungsansätzen zur Strukturierung der Zulassungs- und Sicherheitsbewertungen, da der Sicherheitsnachweis für alle Innovationen im Bereich der Sicherungstechnik eine zentrale Rolle spielt. Neben funktionaler Sicherheit ist auch die Gewährleistung der Sicherheit gegen Angriffe (Security) ein zentrales Thema. Dabei ist ein schnelles Erkennen des Angriffs und der Angriffsart und darauffolgend ein zielgerichtetes Handeln essentiell. Damit die schnelle Bewertung von Angriffen gewährleistet werden kann, wurden von Markus Heinrich von der INCYDE GmbH Angriffsgraphen zur Unterstützung der Risikoanalyse sowie zur expliziten Zuordnung von Bedrohungen vorgestellt. Um Kapazitätsvorteile im Bereich der LST zu erzielen, sind viele innovative Technologien auf eine präzise Ortung der Fahrzeuge angewiesen. Einige dieser Technologien basieren auf dem Prinzip von Fiber Optic Sensing (FOS), bei dem die akustischen Ereignisse entlang der Strecke mit Hilfe der verlegten Glasfaserkabel in Echtzeit lokalisiert und durch Methoden der Mustererkennung klassifiziert werden. Roman Wilhelm von AP Sensing gab hierzu einen Einblick in neuartige Lösungsansätze zur zuverlässigen KI-basierten Zugortung in Echtzeit. Neben der Entwicklung innovativer Technologien muss auch der Rollout dieser Technologien effizient und zeitnah umsetzbar sein. Hierfür ist ein effizienter Planungsprozess erforderlich. In diesem Zusammenhang stellte Volker Uminski von WSP die Vorteile der Verknüpfung des LST-Planungstools PlanPro mit der BIM-Planung der Infrastruktur vor

Contribuições da auriculoterapia à saúde de profissionais de enfermagem de unidades perioperatórias: estudo qualitativo

Objetivo: analisar as contribuições da auriculoterapia à saúde de profissionais de enfermagem de unidades de perioperatório. Método: estudo exploratório, descritivo, desenvolvido com oito profissionais de enfermagem de unidades de perioperatório de um hospital de ensino da região central do Rio Grande do Sul. Dados coletados com entrevista semiestruturada. Aplicou-se análise textual discursiva. Resultados: construiu-se categoria central: repercussões da auriculoterapia para profissionais de enfermagem perioperatória; ela foi unitarizada em uma unidade de base e três categorias de análise. Conclusão: a auriculoterapia demonstrou-se uma prática benéfica para a saúde dos profissionais de enfermagem perioperatória, ao passo que auxiliou no alívio de sintomas como ansiedade, estresse, cansaço, irritabilidade, bruxismo e desconfortos gastrintestinais, bem como proporcionou melhora do sono, do relacionamento interpessoal com familiares e equipe de trabalho, na redução do uso de tabaco e na perda de peso. Esta pesquisa revela a auriculoterapia como prática promissora à saúde do trabalhador de enfermagem perioperatória