FriendComputing: Organic application centric distributed computing

Proceedings of: Second International Workshop on Sustainable Ultrascale Computing Systems (NESUS 2015). Krakow (Poland), September 10-11, 2015.Building Ultrascale computer systems is a hard problem, not yet solved and fully explored. Combining the computing resources of multiple organizations, often in different administrative domains with heterogeneous hardware and diverse demands on the system, requires new tools and frameworks to be put in place. During previous work we developed POP-Java, a Java programming language extension that allows to easily develop distributed applications in a heterogeneous environment. We now present an extension to the POP-Java language, that allows to create application centered networks in which any member can benefit from the computing power and storage capacity of its members. An accounting system is integrated, allowing the different members of the network to bill the usage of their resources to the other members, if so desired. The system is expanded through a similar process as seen in social networks, making it possible to use the resources of friend and friends of friends. Parts of the proposed system has been implemented as a prototype inside the POP-Java programming language

Le jeu de rôle "sérieux": un outil pédagogique pour l’EDD et la pensée complexe ?

Les JIES ont accueilli une session expérimentale de « L’empire des hyperplaneurs », un jeu de rôle "sérieux", autour de la problématique des pétroles de schistes. Ce jeu a été élaboré par la Haute Ecole pédagogique de Fribourg, en vue de former les futurs enseignants à la pensée complexe caractéristique de l’éducation au développement durable (EDD). L’objectif de ce test grandeur nature est de l’épouver, à défaut de véritablement l’évaluer, afin de pouvoir l’utiliser en formation initiale des enseignants, mais également afin que ces derniers puissent l’utiliser à leur tour comme outil pédagogique dans leurs classes.The 2013 edition of the JIES has hosted an experimental session of "The Empire of hypergliders", a "serious" role-play about questions related to shale oil. This game was elaborated by the Haute École pédagogique in Fribourg, Switzerland, and aims at training future teachers to complex thinking, which is a major feature of sustainable development education. The purpose of this first trial in real life was to test it, if not to assess it, to then be able to use it in the initial training of teachers but also to allow them to use it as a teaching tool in their future classrooms

Single breath-hold 3D measurement of left atrial volume using compressed sensing cardiovascular magnetic resonance and a non-model-based reconstruction approach

Background:Left atrial (LA) dilatation is associated with a large variety of cardiac diseases. Current cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) strategies to measure LA volumes are based on multi-breath-hold multi-slice acquisitions, which are time-consuming and susceptible to misregistration.Aim:To develop a time-efficient single breath-hold 3D CMR acquisition and reconstruction method to precisely measure LA volumes and function.Methods:A highly accelerated compressed-sensing multi-slice cine sequence (CS-cineCMR) was combined with a non-model-based 3D reconstruction method to measure LA volumes with high temporal and spatial resolution during a single breath-hold. This approach was validated in LA phantoms of different shapes and applied in 3 patients. In addition, the influence of slice orientations on accuracy was evaluated in the LA phantoms for the new approach in comparison with a conventional model-based biplane area-length reconstruction. As a reference in patients, a self-navigated high-resolution whole-heart 3D dataset (3D-HR-CMR) was acquired during mid-diastole to yield accurate LA volumes.Results:Phantom studies. LA volumes were accurately measured by CS-cineCMR with a mean difference of −4.73 ± 1.75 ml (−8.67 ± 3.54 %, r² = 0.94). For the new method the calculated volumes were not significantly different when different orientations of the CS-cineCMR slices were applied to cover the LA phantoms. Long-axis “aligned” vs “not aligned” with the phantom long-axis yielded similar differences vs the reference volume (−4.87 ± 1.73 ml vs −4.45 ± 1.97 ml, p = 0.67) and short-axis “perpendicular” vs “not-perpendicular” with the LA long-axis (−4.72 ± 1.66 ml vs −4.75 ± 2.13 ml; p = 0.98). The conventional bi-plane area-length method was susceptible for slice orientations (p = 0.0085 for the interaction of “slice orientation” and “reconstruction technique”, 2-way ANOVA for repeated measures). To use the 3D-HR-CMR as the reference for LA volumes in patients, it was validated in the LA phantoms (mean difference: −1.37 ± 1.35 ml, −2.38 ± 2.44 %, r² = 0.97). Patient study: The CS-cineCMR LA volumes of the mid-diastolic frame matched closely with the reference LA volume (measured by 3D-HR-CMR) with a difference of −2.66 ± 6.5 ml (3.0 % underestimation; true LA volumes: 63 ml, 62 ml, and 395 ml). Finally, a high intra- and inter-observer agreement for maximal and minimal LA volume measurement is also shown.Conclusions:The proposed method combines a highly accelerated single-breathhold compressed-sensing multi-slice CMR technique with a non-model-based 3D reconstruction to accurately and reproducibly measure LA volumes and function

High prevalence of unsuspected abdominal aortic aneurysms in patients hospitalised for surgical coronary revascularisation

Objectives: Prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is not exactly known among patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who are considered for surgical revascularisation. We evaluated the value of screening AAA among coronary patients admitted in our cardiovascular surgery unit. Methods: Over a 24-month period, an abdominal echography was proposed to male patients aged 60 or more while hospitalised for surgical coronary revascularisation. Patients with previous investigation of the aorta were excluded. The aorta was considered aneurysmal when the anterior-posterior diameter was of 30 mm or more. Results: Three hundred and ninety-five consecutive patients all accepted a proposed abdominal echographic screening for AAA. Forty unsuspected AAA were detected (10.1%). The mean diameter was 38.9±1.3 mm. Four AAA were larger than 50 mm and considered for surgery after the CABG procedure. Surveillance was proposed to the other 36, especially the 10 patients with an AAA larger than 40 mm. Patients with AAA were significantly older than those without AAA (71.3±0.8 vs. 69.4±0.3 years, P<0.05). Smoking history (P<0.05) and hypertension (P<0.05) were also associated more frequently with AAA. More than 16% of the patients being smokers and suffering hypertension presented with unsuspected AAA. Conclusions: In-hospital screening of AAA is very efficient among patients with coronary artery disease. Therefore, patients with CAD may be considered for routine AAA screenin

Intrapericardial paraganglioma: The role of integrated advanced multi-modality cardiac imaging for the assessment and management of rare primary cardiac tumors

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The LAUsanne STAPHylococcus aureus ENdocarditis (LAUSTAPHEN) score: A prediction score to estimate initial risk for infective endocarditis in patients with S. aureus bacteremia

IntroductionInfective endocarditis (IE) is a common complication of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB). The study aimed to develop and validate a prediction score to determine IE risk among SAB.MethodsThis retrospective study included adults with SAB (2015–2021) and divided them into derivation and validation cohorts. Using the modified 2015 European Society of Cardiology modified Duke Criteria for definite IE, the LAUSTAPHEN score was compared to previous scores.ResultsAmong 821 SAB episodes, 419 and 402 were divided into derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. Transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE) were performed in 77.5 and 42.1% of episodes, respectively. Definite IE was diagnosed in 118 episodes (14.4%). Derivation cohort established that cardiac predisposing factors, such as cardiac implantable electronic devices, prolonged bacteremia ≥48 h, and vascular phenomena were independently associated with IE. In addition to those parameters, native bone and joint infections were used to constitute the LAUSTAPHEN score. LAUSTAPHEN and VIRSTA scores misclassified &lt;4% of IE cases as low risk. Misclassification using POSITIVE and PREDICT scores was &gt;10%. The number of TOEs required to safely exclude IE were 66.9 and 51.6% with VIRSTA and LAUSTAPHEN, respectively.DiscussionLAUSTAPHEN and VIRSTA scores exhibited the lowest misclassification rate of IE cases to the low-risk group. However, the number of patients requiring TOE was higher for VIRSTA than for LAUSTAPHEN