Developing numerical libraries in Java

The rapid and widespread adoption of Java has created a demand for reliable and reusable mathematical software components to support the growing number of compute-intensive applications now under development, particularly in science and engineering. In this paper we address practical issues of the Java language and environment which have an effect on numerical library design and development. Benchmarks which illustrate the current levels of performance of key numerical kernels on a variety of Java platforms are presented. Finally, a strategy for the development of a fundamental numerical toolkit for Java is proposed and its current status is described.Comment: 11 pages. Revised version of paper presented to the 1998 ACM Conference on Java for High Performance Network Computing. To appear in Concurrency: Practice and Experienc

Standards in semen examination:publishing reproducible and reliable data based on high-quality methodology

Biomedical science is rapidly developing in terms of more transparency, openness and reproducibility of scientific publications. This is even more important for all studies that are based on results from basic semen examination. Recently two concordant documents have been published: the 6th edition of the WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, and the International Standard ISO 23162:2021. With these tools, we propose that authors should be instructed to follow these laboratory methods in order to publish studies in peer-reviewed journals, preferable by using a checklist as suggested in an Appendix to this article.Peer reviewe

Global overview of the management of acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic (CHOLECOVID study)

Background: This study provides a global overview of the management of patients with acute cholecystitis during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: CHOLECOVID is an international, multicentre, observational comparative study of patients admitted to hospital with acute cholecystitis during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on management were collected for a 2-month study interval coincident with the WHO declaration of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and compared with an equivalent pre-pandemic time interval. Mediation analysis examined the influence of SARS-COV-2 infection on 30-day mortality. Results: This study collected data on 9783 patients with acute cholecystitis admitted to 247 hospitals across the world. The pandemic was associated with reduced availability of surgical workforce and operating facilities globally, a significant shift to worse severity of disease, and increased use of conservative management. There was a reduction (both absolute and proportionate) in the number of patients undergoing cholecystectomy from 3095 patients (56.2 per cent) pre-pandemic to 1998 patients (46.2 per cent) during the pandemic but there was no difference in 30-day all-cause mortality after cholecystectomy comparing the pre-pandemic interval with the pandemic (13 patients (0.4 per cent) pre-pandemic to 13 patients (0.6 per cent) pandemic; P = 0.355). In mediation analysis, an admission with acute cholecystitis during the pandemic was associated with a non-significant increased risk of death (OR 1.29, 95 per cent c.i. 0.93 to 1.79, P = 0.121). Conclusion: CHOLECOVID provides a unique overview of the treatment of patients with cholecystitis across the globe during the first months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The study highlights the need for system resilience in retention of elective surgical activity. Cholecystectomy was associated with a low risk of mortality and deferral of treatment results in an increase in avoidable morbidity that represents the non-COVID cost of this pandemic

Standards in semen examination: publishing reproducible and reliable data based on high-quality methodology

Biomedical science is rapidly developing in terms of more transparency, openness and reproducibility of scientific publications. This is even more important for all studies that are based on results from basic semen examination. Recently two concordant documents have been published: the 6th edition of the WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, and the International Standard ISO 23162:2021. With these tools, we propose that authors should be instructed to follow these laboratory methods in order to publish studies in peer-reviewed journals, preferable by using a checklist as suggested in an Appendix to this article

Performance Simulation and Modeling of Numerical Computations on the . . .

tions, relaxation techniques, and PDE applications on this architecture. By conducting baseline experiments aimed at establishing parameters for floating point operations and grid-based communication, we can formulate practical performance models that predict grid algorithm behavior with very good accuracy. We also describe the design of a software package, CMPS, that analyzes and predicts the communication and computation behavior of actual CM-Fortran and C* codes. Utilizing a concrete example of a 2D fluid code describing atmospheric and ocean systems, we demonstrate how such models can be used to predict application performance to within ten percent error. C - e ie The Connection Machine CM-2 is a massively parallel single instruction multiple data stream (SIMD) distributed memory hypercube computer. A fully configured machine consists of 64K (65,536) bit-serial processors utilizing 2,048 Weitek 3132 floating point units (FPU) for an aggregate peak performance of o

LAPACK++ v. 1.1 Release Notes and Installation Manual

Contents 1 About LAPACK++ 2 1.1 What's new : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 2 2 Included in this release 3 3 Obtaining and installing LAPACK++ 3 3.1 Installation in a nutshell : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 3.2 Testing : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 3.3 Overview : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 3 3.4 Building LAPACK++ : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 4 3.4.1 Editing the Makefiles : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : 4 4 Testing LAPACK++ 7 4.1 Test Matrix Generation Library : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :