CU2CL: A CUDA-to-OpenCL Translator for Multi- and Many-core Architectures

The use of graphics processing units (GPUs) in high-performance parallel computing continues to become more prevalent, often as part of a heterogeneous system. For years, CUDA has been the de facto programming environment for nearly all general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) applications. In spite of this, the framework is available only on NVIDIA GPUs, traditionally requiring reimplementation in other frameworks in order to utilize additional multi- or many-core devices. On the other hand, OpenCL provides an open and vendorneutral programming environment and runtime system. With implementations available for CPUs, GPUs, and other types of accelerators, OpenCL therefore holds the promise of a “write once, run anywhere” ecosystem for heterogeneous computing. Given the many similarities between CUDA and OpenCL, manually porting a CUDA application to OpenCL is typically straightforward, albeit tedious and error-prone. In response to this issue, we created CU2CL, an automated CUDA-to- OpenCL source-to-source translator that possesses a novel design and clever reuse of the Clang compiler framework. Currently, the CU2CL translator covers the primary constructs found in CUDA runtime API, and we have successfully translated many applications from the CUDA SDK and Rodinia benchmark suite. The performance of our automatically translated applications via CU2CL is on par with their manually ported countparts

Social Media and Peer Review: Edmodo in the Composition Classroom

Peer review has become a staple in the composition classroom because of its ability to help students to see writing in a social context. While students use social writing on a daily basis on social networking sites (SNS), these communicative tools have yet to be accepted as valuable pedagogical tools in composition classrooms. This case study investigates how students use Edmodo, an education-specific SNS, to perform a semi-anonymous peer review activity with students from another class. Due to the lack of research in composition studies related to SNS use as a peer review tool, this study expands the conversations of computer-mediated communication tools for peer review to include SNS. By incorporating SNS into the composition classroom, instructors are able to help students become more conscious of the writing that they do over these networks, helping students to make the connection between the writing they do inside and outside of the classroom

The Fate of Iron Released from Heme by Hemeoxygenase-1

A strain of Escherichia coli was genetically modified to co-express human heme oxygenase-1 and ferritin. The E. coli were then grown with varying amounts of hemin to see if the iron released upon degradation of the hemin by heme oxygenase-1 is loaded into ferritin. Following incubation, the ferritin was purified and the amount of iron loaded into ferritin determined. It was found that ferritin purifed from E. coli expressing human heme oxygenase-1 contained more iron than E. coli that did not contain human heme oxygenase-1. It was concluded that some of the iron released upon degradation of hemin by heme oxygenase-1 can be sequestered by ferritin

Survey of the Native and Nonnative Vascular Plant Species of Three Islands in Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire

This study examined the long-term patterns in vascular plant composition on three islands in Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. It also tested the role of island biogeography in ecology as it analyzed the effectiveness of a land use plan implemented on the islands. Samplings were made on the islands in the summer of 2011 and were compared to earlier samplings in 1978, 1991, and 2001. The flora was observed and measured in 25 permanent plots that were established on the three islands in 1978. The understory flora was measured by presence and percent cover and the overstory was measured by frequency and density of individual trees and shrubs, dominance ratings, and basal areas. This study also focused on plants of interest including certain rare (Rhododendron maximum), introduced (Halesia carolina) and potentially invasive species (Poa compressa). Data from the study shows that the species richness on all the islands increased significantly from 1978 to 1991 on all three islands but remained relatively constant in the 1991, 2001, and 2011 samplings. Species evenness on all the islands remained relatively constant in all four years of sampling. The statistical analyses shothat all samplings were statistically significant across all the islands and years of sampling. The plants of interest mostly remained in the same areas that they were found in earlier samplings. In particular, the rare plants remained in the least disturbed areas of the islands while the introduced and potentially invasive species were found in the most disturbed areas of the islands

Interactive 3-D Visualization: A tool for seafloor navigation, exploration, and engineering

Recent years have seen remarkable advances in sonar technology, positioning capabilities, and computer processing power that have revolutionized the way we image the seafloor. The massive amounts of data produced by these systems present many challenges but also offer tremendous opportunities in terms of visualization and analysis. We have developed a suite of interactive 3-D visualization and exploration tools specifically designed to facilitate the interpretation and analysis of very large (10\u27s to 100\u27s of megabytes), complex, multi-component spatial data sets. If properly georeferenced and treated, these complex data sets can be presented in a natural and intuitive manner that allows the integration of multiple components each at their inherent level of resolution and without compromising the quantitative nature of the data. Artificial sun-illumination, shading, and 3-D rendering can be used with digital bathymetric data (DTM\u27s) to form natural looking and easily interpretable, yet quantitative, landscapes. Color can be used to represent depth or other parameters (like backscatter or sediment properties) which can be draped over the DTM, or high resolution imagery can be texture mapped on bathymetric data. When combined with interactive analytical tools, this environment has facilitated the use of multibeam sonar and other data sets in a range of geologic, environmental, fisheries, and engineering applications

Nitrogen cycling in Sabine Lake

As a part of continuing efforts to investigate nitrogen cycling in Texas estuaries, denitrification, nitrogen fixation, dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA), and sediment oxygen demand were measured in Sabine Lake, Texas. Estuarine phytoplankton production can be limited by N availability, and sediments often are an important source of dissolved inorganic N ... . Denitrification transforms combined N to gaseous forms ... . These end-products represent unavailable nutrient sources to most estuarine producers (e.g., phytoplankton and bacteria; Howarth et al. 1988). Thus, denitrification may drive systems toward N limitation (Seitzinger 1990). The purposes of this study were to evaluate the importance of denitrification in nitrogen cycling and examine environmental conditions influencing nitrogen cycling in Sabine Lake. A membrane inlet mass spectrometer (MIMS) for dissolved gas measurement and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system for ammonium isotope measurements were used to quantify denitrification, N-fixation, DNRA, and sediment oxygen demand. Four sampling trips to Sabine Lake were made in June, September, December 2000 and March 2001. Here, we report water column measurements and incubation experiment results.Final report submitted to: The Texas Water Development Board, contract #2000-483-337July 2001Marine Scienc

THE EFFECT OF PRIOR CYCLING ON LEG STIFFNESS DURING RUNNING IN HIGH PERFORMANCE TRIATHLETES

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence cycling has on lower limb stiffness during the run leg in triathletes. Seven well trained triathletes completed a triathlon-run (TR; run preceded by a 40 km cycle) and a control-run (CR; run at the same pace as TR, but without a prior cycle). Vertical, hip, knee and ankle stiffness measured during double leg jumping (2.2 Hz) were compared both before and after the cycle leg and between TR and CR conditions. Maximum hip and knee moments and knee joint stiffness were significantly greater immediately following cycling. However, maximum hip moments and hip joint stiffness were lower in CR than TR. This study provided an insight into how joint stiffness is altered following cycling and may help explain the perceived loss of coordination reported frequently by triathletes at the start of the run leg

MOON: MapReduce On Opportunistic eNvironments

Abstract—MapReduce offers a flexible programming model for processing and generating large data sets on dedicated resources, where only a small fraction of such resources are every unavailable at any given time. In contrast, when MapReduce is run on volunteer computing systems, which opportunistically harness idle desktop computers via frameworks like Condor, it results in poor performance due to the volatility of the resources, in particular, the high rate of node unavailability. Specifically, the data and task replication scheme adopted by existing MapReduce implementations is woefully inadequate for resources with high unavailability. To address this, we propose MOON, short for MapReduce On Opportunistic eNvironments. MOON extends Hadoop, an open-source implementation of MapReduce, with adaptive task and data scheduling algorithms in order to offer reliable MapReduce services on a hybrid resource architecture, where volunteer computing systems are supplemented by a small set of dedicated nodes. The adaptive task and data scheduling algorithms in MOON distinguish between (1) different types of MapReduce data and (2) different types of node outages in order to strategically place tasks and data on both volatile and dedicated nodes. Our tests demonstrate that MOON can deliver a 3-fold performance improvement to Hadoop in volatile, volunteer computing environments

Mapping a Continental Shelf and Slope in the 1990s: A Tale of Three Multibeams

Increasing societal pressures on the U.S. continental shelves adjacent to dense population centers have brought to light the lack of accurate base maps in these areas. Existing bathymetric maps and random sidescan sonar surveys are either not accurate enough or do not provide the coverage necessary to make policy decisions. Until the mid 1990s, it was not financially prudent nor technically efficient to map the shallow shelves. However, the availability of high-resolution multibeam mapping systems now allow efficient and accurate mapping of the continental margins. In 1996 the U.S. Geological Survey began a large-scale seafloor mapping campaign on the continental shelf and slope adjacent to Los Angeles, CA. The first survey used a Kongsberg Simrad EM1000 (95 kHz). The survey continued in 1998 by mapping the slope and proximal basins from Newport to Long Beach, CA, using a Kongsberg Simrad EM300 (30 kHz). The area was completed in May 1999 by mapping the entire shelf adjacent to Long Beach, CA using an EM3000D (a dual-headed 300-kHz system). The mapping used both INS from the vehicle motion sensor and DGPS to provide position accuracies of ~1 m. All the data were processed in the field in near realtime using software developed at the Univ. of New Brunswick. Because of the different systems used and the range of water depths, the spatial resolution of the processed data varies from \u3c0.5 m on the inner shelf to 8 m on the basin floors. Perspective overviews of backscatter draped over bathymetry reveals a host of geological features unknown to exist in this area. These features include shallow, linear gullys, barchan dunes, small-scale bedforms in shallow troughs, major canyon system complexes, large- and smallscale mass movements, faults, and large areas of outcrop. The effects on sediment transport of man-made features, such as sewer outfall pipes and dredge-disposal fields, are clearly delineated on the new maps. The maps provide the fundamental base maps for studies as varied as those involving benthic habitats, marine disposal sites, sediment transport, and tectonic ma

Childhood correlates of adult TV viewing time: a 32-year follow-up of the 1970 British Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: To identify, using a longitudinal data set, parental and childhood correlates of adult television (TV) viewing time at 32-year follow-up. METHOD: Data were derived from the 1970 British Cohort Study, a longitudinal observational study of 17 248 British people born in a single week of 1970. The present analyses incorporated data from the age 10 and 42-year surveys. When participants were aged 10 years, their mothers provided information on how often participants watched TV and played sports (never/sometimes/often), and parents' own occupation, as well as height and weight. A health visitor objectively assessed participants' height and weight at age 10. Thirty-two years later, when participants were aged 42 years, they reported their daily TV viewing hours (none/0≤1/1<3/3<5/≥5), physical activity and health status. Associations between putative childhood and parental correlates and adult TV viewing time were investigated using logistic regression. RESULTS: Valid data at both time points were available for 6188 participants. Logistic regression models showed that those who reported 'often' watching TV at baseline were significantly more likely to watch >3 h/days of TV at follow-up (OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.65), as were those whose father was from a lower socio-occupational class (intermediate, routine/manual) compared with managerial (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.14 to 2.11; OR 2.05, 95% CI 1.47 to 2.87). Body mass index (BMI) at age 10 was inversely associated with high TV in adulthood (per unit increase; OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.96) although fathers BMI when the child was aged 10 was positively associated with high TV in adulthood (per unit increase; OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.06). CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that childhood TV viewing time tracks into adulthood. Parents' health behaviours and social position appear to be associated with their children's viewing habits, which may have important implications for the direction of future policy and practice. Specifically, findings support the case for early life interventions, particularly on socioeconomic inequalities, as a way of preventing sedentary behaviour in later life