Is Arm software ecosystem ready for HPC?

In recent years, the HPC community has increasingly grown its interest towards the Arm architecture with research projects targeting primarily the installation of Arm-based clusters. State of the art research project examples are the European Mont-Blanc, the Japanese Post-K, and the UKs GW4/EPSRC. Primarily attention is usually given to hardware platforms, and the Arm HPC community is growing as the hardware is evolving towards HPC workloads via solutions borrowed from mobile market e.g., big.LITTLE and additions such as Armv8-A Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) technology. However the availability of a mature software ecosystem and the possibility of running large and complex HPC applications plays a key role in the consolidation process of a new technology, especially in a conservative market like HPC. For this reason in this poster we present a preliminary evaluation of the Arm system software ecosystem, limited here to the Arm HPC Compiler and the Arm Performance Libraries, together with a porting and testing of three fairly complex HPC code suites: QuantumESPRESSO, WRF and FEniCS. The selection of these codes has not been totally random: they have been in fact proposed as HPC challenges during the last two editions of the Student Cluster Competition at ISC where all the authors have been involved operating an Arm-based cluster and awarded with the Fan Favorite award.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] and Horizon 2020 under the Mont-Blanc projects [3], grant agreements n. 288777, 610402 and 671697. The authors would also like to thank E4 Computer Engineering for providing part of the hardware resources needed for the evaluation carried out in this poster as well as for greatly supporting the Student Cluster Competition team.Postprint (author's final draft

Efficacy and safety of human papillomavirus vaccination in HIV-infected patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The prophylactic vaccines available to protect against infections by HPV are well tolerated and highly immunogenic. People with HIV have a higher risk of developing HPV infection and HPV-associated cancers due to a lower immune response, and due to viral interactions. We performed a systematic review of RCTs to assess HPV vaccines efficacy and safety on HIV-infected people compared to placebo or no intervention in terms of seroconversion, infections, neoplasms, adverse events, CD4+ T-cell count and HIV viral load. The vaccine-group showed a seroconversion rate close to 100% for each vaccine and a significantly higher level of antibodies against HPV vaccine types, as compared to the placebo group (MD = 4333.3, 95% CI 2701.4; 5965.1 GMT EL.U./ml for HPV type 16 and MD = 1408.8, 95% CI 414.8; 2394.7 GMT EL.U./ml for HPV type 18). There were also no differences in terms of severe adverse events (RR = 0.6, 95% CI 0.2; 1.6) and no severe adverse events (RR = 0.6, 95% CI 0.9; 1.2) between vaccine and placebo groups. Secondary outcomes, such as CD4 + T-cell count and HIV viral load, did not differ between groups (MD = 14.8, 95% CI − 35.1; 64.6 cells/µl and MD = 0.0, 95% CI − 0.3; 0.3 log10 RNA copies/ml, respectively). Information on the remaining outcomes was scarce and that did not allow us to combine the data. The results support the use of the HPV vaccine in HIV-infected patients and highlight the need of further RCTs assessing the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine on infections and neoplasms

Hypersensitivity in molar incisor hypomineralization: Superficial infiltration treatment

To date, there are no standardized protocols available in the literature for hypersensitivity treatment in molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of erosion\u2013infiltration treatments with resin in children with a strong hypersensitivity and also to develop a minimally invasive diagnostic\u2013therapeutic pathway for young MIH patients. Patients with clinical signs of MIH were enrolled according to international guidelines. A total of 42 patients (8\u201314 years old) with sensitivity of at least one molar and patients with post eruptive enamel fractures, but without dentin involvement or cavitated carious lesions were selected. A single superficial infiltration treatment with ICON (DMG, Germany) was performed with a modified etching technique. Sensitivity was tested with the Schiff Scale and Wong Baker Face Scale and was repeated at 12 months follow\u2010up. All patients reported lower sensitivity values at the end of the treatment. Significant differences of sensitivity according to the Schiff scale were reported between T0 and all subsequent follow\u2010ups, p < 0.05. The treatment of erosion infiltration with ICON resin is a minimally invasive preventive treatment that significantly improves the problem of hypersensitivity in permanent molars with MIH

The Influence of Cancer Stem Cells on the Risk of Relapse in Adenocarcinoma and Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Lung: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Purpose Lung cancer relapse may be associated with the presence of a small population of cancer stem cells (CSCs) with unlimited proliferative potential. Our study assessed the relationship between CSCs and the relapse rate in patients harboring adenocarcinoma (ADL) and squamous cell carcinoma of the lung (SCCL). Experimental design This is an observational prospective cohort study (NCT04634630) assessing the influence of CSC frequency on relapse rate after major lung resection in 35 patients harboring early (I-II) (n = 21) and locally advanced (IIIA) (n = 14) ADL and SCCL. There was a 2-year enrollment period followed by a 1-year follow-up period. Surgical tumor specimens were processed, and CSCs were quantified by cytofluorimetric analysis. Results Cancer stem cells were expressed in all patients with a median of 3.1% of the primary cell culture. Primary analysis showed no influence of CSC frequency on the risk of relapse (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.05, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.85-1.30). At secondary analysis, patients with locally advanced disease with higher CSC frequency had an increased risk of relapse (HR = 1.26, 95% CI = 1.14-1.39), whereas this was not observed in early-stage patients (HR = 0.90, 95% CI = 0.65-1.25). Conclusion No association was found between CSC and relapse rates after major lung resection in patients harboring ACL and SCCL. However, in locally advanced-stage patients, a positive correlation was observed between CSC frequency and risk of relapse. These results indicate a need for further molecular investigations into the prognostic role of CSCs at different lung cancer stages

Use of adjunctive cardiovascular therapy in patients hospitalized for acute exacerbations of COPD.

Acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) is one of the most frequent diagnoses in patients presenting with acute dyspnea or respiratory failure. According to the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) document, it is defined clinically, as acute worsening of respiratory symptoms that result in additional therapies, being bronchodilators, corticosteroids, and antibiotics the cornerstone of acute management. However, comorbidities in COPD, including cardiac disease, contribute significantly to heterogeneity of the single acute episode in real-life practice. Therefore, we were interested in evaluating how patients admitted to the hospital with a clinical diagnosis of AECOPD were managed at admission, and we analyzed the therapeutic approach at onset of AECOPD in hospitalized patients, aiming at assessing the adjunctive use of diuretic therapy

Photobiomodulation of human fibroblasts and keratinocytes with blue light: Implications in wound healing

In recent years, photobiomodulation (PBM) has been recognized as a physical therapy in wound management. Despite several published research papers, the mechanism underlying photobiomodulation is still not completely understood. The investigation about application of blue light to improve wound healing is a relatively new research area. Tests in selected patients evidenced a stimulation of the healing process in superficial and chronic wounds treated with a blue LED light emitting at 420 nm; a study in animal model pointed out a faster healing process in superficial wound, with an important role of fibroblasts and myofibroblasts. Here, we present a study aiming at evidencing the effects of blue light on the proliferation and metabolism in fibroblasts from healthy skin and keratinocytes. Different light doses (3.43, 6.87, 13.7, 20.6, 30.9 and 41.2 J/cm2) were used to treat the cells, evidencing inhibitory and stimulatory effects following a biphasic dose behavior. Electrophysiology was used to investigate the effects on membrane currents: healthy fibroblasts and keratinocytes showed no significant differences between treated and not treated cells. Raman spectroscopy revealed the mitochondrial Cytochrome C (Cyt C) oxidase dependence on blue light irradiation: a significant decrease in peak intensity of healthy fibroblast was evidenced, while it is less pronounced in keratinocytes. In conclusion, we observed that the blue LED light can be used to modulate metabolism and proliferation of human fibroblasts, and the effects in wound healing are particularly evident when studying the fibroblasts and keratinocytes co-cultures

Anti-GD2 CAR MSCs against metastatic Ewing's sarcoma

Background: Ewing's sarcoma (ES) is an aggressive cancer affecting children and young adults. We pre-clinically demonstrated that mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) can deliver tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) against primary ES after local injection. However, ES is often metastatic calling for approaches able to support MSC targeting to the ES multiple remote sites. Considering that the disialoganglioside GD2 is expressed by ES and to optimise MSC tumour affinity, bi-functional (BF) MSCs expressing both TRAIL and a truncated anti-GD2 chimeric antigen receptor (GD2 tCAR) were generated and challenged against ES. Methods: The anti-GD2 BF MSCs delivering a soluble variant of TRAIL (sTRAIL) were tested in several in vitro ES models. Tumour targeting and killing by BF MSCs was further investigated by a novel immunodeficient ES metastatic model characterized by different metastatic sites, including lungs, liver and bone, mimicking the deadly clinical scenario. Findings: In vitro data revealed both tumour affinity and killing of BF MSCs. In vivo, GD2 tCAR molecule ameliorated the tumour targeting and persistence of BF MSCs counteracting ES in lungs but not in liver. Interpretation: We here generated data on the potential effects of BF MSCs within a complex ES metastatic in vivo model, exploring also the biodistribution of MSCs. Our BF MSC-based strategy promises to pave the way for potential improvements in the therapeutic delivery of TRAIL for the treatment of metastatic ES and other deadly GD2-positive malignancies

Breathlessness, but not cough, suggests chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in elderly smokers with stable heart failure.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common comorbidity of heart failure (HF), but remains often undiagnosed, and we aimed to identify symptoms predicting COPD in HF. As part of an observational, prospective study, we investigated stable smokers with a confirmed diagnosis of HF, using the 8-item COPD-Assessment-Test (CAT) questionnaire to assess symptoms. All the items were correlated with the presence of COPD, and logistic regression models were used to identify independent predictors. 96 HF patients were included, aged 74, 33% with COPD. Patients with HF and COPD were more symptomatic, but only breathlessness when walking up a hill was an independent predictor of COPD (odds ratio=1.33, p=0.0484). Interestingly, COPD-specific symptoms such as cough and phlegm were not significant. Thus, in elderly smokers with stable HF, significant breathlessness when walking up a hill is most indicative of associated COPD, and may indicate the need for further lung function evaluation