Plain Reading, Subtle Meaning: Rethinking the IOIA and the Immunity of International Organizations

Immunity is freedom from liability, and as such, it can quite literally provide a “get out of jail free” card. In the United States, international organizations face uncertainty about the scope of their immunity, which is provided by the International Organizations Immunities Act (IOIA). The D.C. Circuit has found that international organizations enjoy absolute immunity under the IOIA. Conversely, the Third Circuit recently held that international organizations are only entitled to restrictive immunity, which limits immunity to claims involving an organization’s public acts and does not exempt them from suits based on their commercial or private conduct. This Note contends that a plain reading of the IOIA, combined with a full understanding of the history and legislative purpose behind the immunity of international organizations, presents a third interpretation. It concludes that the IOIA requires judicial deference to immunity determinations by the executive branch, which provides the flexibility necessary to allow international organizations to operate without undue interference

Fast Fourier Transform algorithm design and tradeoffs

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a mainstay of certain numerical techniques for solving fluid dynamics problems. The Connection Machine CM-2 is the target for an investigation into the design of multidimensional Single Instruction Stream/Multiple Data (SIMD) parallel FFT algorithms for high performance. Critical algorithm design issues are discussed, necessary machine performance measurements are identified and made, and the performance of the developed FFT programs are measured. Fast Fourier Transform programs are compared to the currently best Cray-2 FFT program

On evaluating parallel computer systems

A workshop was held in an attempt to program real problems on the MIT Static Data Flow Machine. Most of the architecture of the machine was specified but some parts were incomplete. The main purpose for the workshop was to explore principles for the evaluation of computer systems employing new architectures. Principles explored were: (1) evaluation must be an integral, ongoing part of a project to develop a computer of radically new architecture; (2) the evaluation should seek to measure the usability of the system as well as its performance; (3) users from the application domains must be an integral part of the evaluation process; and (4) evaluation results should be fed back into the design process. It is concluded that the general organizational principles are achievable in practice from this workshop

Exploiting Fine-Grain Concurrency Analytical Insights in Superscalar Processor Design

This dissertation develops analytical models to provide insight into various design issues associated with superscalar-type processors, i.e., the processors capable of executing multiple instructions per cycle. A survey of the existing machines and literature has been completed with a proposed classification of various approaches for exploiting fine-grain concurrency. Optimization of a single pipeline is discussed based on an analytical model. The model-predicted performance curves are found to be in close proximity to published results using simulation techniques. A model is also developed for comparing different branch strategies for single-pipeline processors in terms of their effectiveness in reducing branch delay. The additional instruction fetch traffic generated by certain branch strategies is also studied and is shown to be a useful criterion for choosing between equally well performing strategies. Next, processors with multiple pipelines are modelled to study the tradeoffs associated with deeper pipelines versus multiple pipelines. The model developed can reveal the cause of performance bottleneck: insufficient resources to exploit discovered parallelism, insufficient instruction stream parallelism, or insufficient scope of concurrency detection. The cost associated with speculative (i.e., beyond basic block) execution is examined via probability distributions that characterize the inherent parallelism in the instruction stream. The throughput prediction of the analytic model is shown, using a variety of benchmarks, to be close to the measured static throughput of the compiler output, under resource and scope constraints. Further experiments provide misprediction delay estimates for these benchmarks under scope constraints, assuming beyond-basic-block, out-of-order execution and run-time scheduling. These results were derived using traces generated by the Multiflow TRACE SCHEDULING™(*) compacting C and FORTRAN 77 compilers. A simplified extension to the model to include multiprocessors is also proposed. The extended model is used to analyze combined systems, such as superpipelined multiprocessors and superscalar multiprocessors, both with shared memory. It is shown that the number of pipelines (or processors) at which the maximum throughput is obtained is increasingly sensitive to the ratio of memory access time to network access delay, as memory access time increases. Further, as a function of inter-iteration dependency distance, optimum throughput is shown to vary nonlinearly, whereas the corresponding Optimum number of processors varies linearly. The predictions from the analytical model agree with published results based on simulations. (*)TRACE SCHEDULING is a trademark of Multiflow Computer, Inc

Radio-Frequency Spectroscopy

Contains reports on four research projects

Antiinflammatory Therapy with Canakinumab for Atherosclerotic Disease

Background: Experimental and clinical data suggest that reducing inflammation without affecting lipid levels may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Yet, the inflammatory hypothesis of atherothrombosis has remained unproved. Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial of canakinumab, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody targeting interleukin-1β, involving 10,061 patients with previous myocardial infarction and a high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level of 2 mg or more per liter. The trial compared three doses of canakinumab (50 mg, 150 mg, and 300 mg, administered subcutaneously every 3 months) with placebo. The primary efficacy end point was nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or cardiovascular death. RESULTS: At 48 months, the median reduction from baseline in the high-sensitivity C-reactive protein level was 26 percentage points greater in the group that received the 50-mg dose of canakinumab, 37 percentage points greater in the 150-mg group, and 41 percentage points greater in the 300-mg group than in the placebo group. Canakinumab did not reduce lipid levels from baseline. At a median follow-up of 3.7 years, the incidence rate for the primary end point was 4.50 events per 100 person-years in the placebo group, 4.11 events per 100 person-years in the 50-mg group, 3.86 events per 100 person-years in the 150-mg group, and 3.90 events per 100 person-years in the 300-mg group. The hazard ratios as compared with placebo were as follows: in the 50-mg group, 0.93 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.80 to 1.07; P = 0.30); in the 150-mg group, 0.85 (95% CI, 0.74 to 0.98; P = 0.021); and in the 300-mg group, 0.86 (95% CI, 0.75 to 0.99; P = 0.031). The 150-mg dose, but not the other doses, met the prespecified multiplicity-adjusted threshold for statistical significance for the primary end point and the secondary end point that additionally included hospitalization for unstable angina that led to urgent revascularization (hazard ratio vs. placebo, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.95; P = 0.005). Canakinumab was associated with a higher incidence of fatal infection than was placebo. There was no significant difference in all-cause mortality (hazard ratio for all canakinumab doses vs. placebo, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.06; P = 0.31). Conclusions: Antiinflammatory therapy targeting the interleukin-1β innate immunity pathway with canakinumab at a dose of 150 mg every 3 months led to a significantly lower rate of recurrent cardiovascular events than placebo, independent of lipid-level lowering. (Funded by Novartis; CANTOS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01327846.

Search for narrow resonances in dilepton mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV and combination with 8 TeV data

Peer reviewe

Search for light bosons in decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for R-parity violating supersymmetry with displaced vertices in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe