APEnet+: high bandwidth 3D torus direct network for petaflops scale commodity clusters

We describe herein the APElink+ board, a PCIe interconnect adapter featuring the latest advances in wire speed and interface technology plus hardware support for a RDMA programming model and experimental acceleration of GPU networking; this design allows us to build a low latency, high bandwidth PC cluster, the APEnet+ network, the new generation of our cost-effective, tens-of-thousands-scalable cluster network architecture. Some test results and characterization of data transmission of a complete testbench, based on a commercial development card mounting an Altera FPGA, are provided.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, proceeding of CHEP 2010, Taiwan, October 18-2

Wearable inertial sensors for human movement analysis

Introduction: The present review aims to provide an overview of the most common uses of wearable inertial sensors in the field of clinical human movement analysis.Areas covered: Six main areas of application are analysed: gait analysis, stabilometry, instrumented clinical tests, upper body mobility assessment, daily-life activity monitoring and tremor assessment. Each area is analyzed both from a methodological and applicative point of view. The focus on the methodological approaches is meant to provide an idea of the computational complexity behind a variable/parameter/index of interest so that the reader is aware of the reliability of the approach. The focus on the application is meant to provide a practical guide for advising clinicians on how inertial sensors can help them in their clinical practice.Expert commentary: Less expensive and more easy to use than other systems used in human movement analysis, wearable sensors have evolved to the point that they can be considered ready for being part of routine clinical routine

Simulations of working memory spiking networks driven by short-term plasticity

Working Memory (WM) is a cognitive mechanism that enables temporary holding and manipulation of information in the human brain. This mechanism is mainly characterized by a neuronal activity during which neuron populations are able to maintain an enhanced spiking activity after being triggered by a short external cue. In this study, we implement, using the NEST simulator, a spiking neural network model in which the WM activity is sustained by a mechanism of short-term synaptic facilitation related to presynaptic calcium kinetics. The model, which is characterized by leaky integrate-and-fire neurons with exponential postsynaptic currents, is able to autonomously show an activity regime in which the memory information can be stored in a synaptic form as a result of synaptic facilitation, with spiking activity functional to facilitation maintenance. The network is able to simultaneously keep multiple memories by showing an alternated synchronous activity which preserves the synaptic facilitation within the neuron populations holding memory information. The results shown in this study confirm that a WM mechanism can be sustained by synaptic facilitation

Space-time adaptive reduction of unsteady flamalets

The Wavelet Adaptive Multiresolution Representation (WAMR) code and the G-Scheme framework are used for the numerical time integration of the flamelet model. The steep gradients are efficiently captured by the WAMR algorithm with an a-priori defined accuracy and an associated large reduction of the number of degrees of freedom (DOFs). A further opportunity to reduce the complexity of the problem is represented by the G-Scheme, to achieve multi-scale adaptive model reduction along-with the time integration of the differential equations

Numerical generation of multidimensional flamelet databases using an adaptive wavelet method

The Wavelet Adaptive Multiresolution Representation (WAMR) code is used for the numerical time integration of the one-dimensional laminar diffusion flames equations in trans-critical and supercritical conditions, where the thermodynamic and transport properties exhibit large changes. These steep gradients are efficiently captured by the WAMR algorithm with an a-priori defined accuracy and an associated large reduction of the number of degrees of freedom, allowing a highly efficient flamelet database generation critical conditions

Disaggregated optical network control and orchestration of heterogeneous domains

Network softwarization and disaggregation are two trends that are revolutionizing the network-cloud ecosystem. This paper details possible solutions to control and monitor an infrastructure including an IoT domain, a Cloud domain and a packet-optical network domain

GPU-based Real-time Triggering in the NA62 Experiment

Over the last few years the GPGPU (General-Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units) paradigm represented a remarkable development in the world of computing. Computing for High-Energy Physics is no exception: several works have demonstrated the effectiveness of the integration of GPU-based systems in high level trigger of different experiments. On the other hand the use of GPUs in the low level trigger systems, characterized by stringent real-time constraints, such as tight time budget and high throughput, poses several challenges. In this paper we focus on the low level trigger in the CERN NA62 experiment, investigating the use of real-time computing on GPUs in this synchronous system. Our approach aimed at harvesting the GPU computing power to build in real-time refined physics-related trigger primitives for the RICH detector, as the the knowledge of Cerenkov rings parameters allows to build stringent conditions for data selection at trigger level. Latencies of all components of the trigger chain have been analyzed, pointing out that networking is the most critical one. To keep the latency of data transfer task under control, we devised NaNet, an FPGA-based PCIe Network Interface Card (NIC) with GPUDirect capabilities. For the processing task, we developed specific multiple ring trigger algorithms to leverage the parallel architecture of GPUs and increase the processing throughput to keep up with the high event rate. Results obtained during the first months of 2016 NA62 run are presented and discussed

Immunotherapy with low-dose recombinant interleukin 2 after high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation in neuroblastoma.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate in a phase I-II trial whether low doses of recombinant human interleukin 2 (rHuIL-2) over a prolonged period of time are safe and effective in eradicating or controlling minimal residual disease in children with neuroblastoma given high-dose chemotherapy (HDCT) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). From January 1992 to July 1996, 17 consecutive patients, with either stage IV or relapsed neuroblastoma, were enrolled. Patients received rHuIL-2 after a median time interval (min-max) of 105 days (56-153) after HDCT and ASCT. The protocol consisted of 2 'priming' courses of rHuIL-2 at escalating doses administered intravenously at 72-h intervals, followed by 'maintenance' with 11 monthly and six bimonthly boosting 5-day courses administered subcutaneously on an outpatient basis. At April 1997, 7 out of the 17 patients had completed the treatment schedule, four had discontinued treatment because of toxicity and four because of relapse; the remaining two patients are still on treatment, having completed 15 courses. Expansion of T lymphocytes, together with an increase in both natural killer cells and in activated T lymphocytes was evidenced. After a median (min-max) follow-up time of 30 (16-64) months, 12 out of 17 patients are alive and well. Two patients relapsed and died 14 and 35 months after transplant. Three patients are alive after having relapsed at 41, 21 and 13 months. The actuarial 2-year event-free survival and overall survival are 67% and 92% respectively. Intermittent administration of low doses of rHuIL-2 given for a long period of time is well tolerated and seems capable of controlling minimal residual disease after HDCT and ASCT in children with high-risk neuroblastoma

High-speed data transfer with FPGAs and QSFP+ modules

We present test results and characterization of a data transmission system based on a last generation FPGA and a commercial QSFP+ (Quad Small Form Pluggable +) module. QSFP+ standard defines a hot-pluggable transceiver available in copper or optical cable assemblies for an aggregated bandwidth of up to 40 Gbps. We implemented a complete testbench based on a commercial development card mounting an Altera Stratix IV FPGA with 24 serial transceivers at 8.5 Gbps, together with a custom mezzanine hosting three QSFP+ modules. We present test results and signal integrity measurements up to an aggregated bandwidth of 12 Gbps.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Published on JINST Journal of Instrumentation proceedings of Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics 2010, 20-24 September 2010, Aachen, Germany(R Ammendola et al 2010 JINST 5 C12019

On boson algebras as Hopf algebras

Certain types of generalized undeformed and deformed boson algebras which admit a Hopf algebra structure are introduced, together with their Fock-type representations and their corresponding $R$-matrices. It is also shown that a class of generalized Heisenberg algebras including those algebras including those underlying physical models such as that of Calogero-Sutherland, is isomorphic with one of the types of boson algebra proposed, and can be formulated as a Hopf algebra.Comment: LaTex, 18 page