Coherent Diffractive Imaging Using Randomly Coded Masks

Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) provides new opportunities for high resolution X-ray imaging with simultaneous amplitude and phase contrast. Extensions to CDI broaden the scope of the technique for use in a wide variety of experimental geometries and physical systems. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a new extension to CDI that encodes additional information through the use of a series of randomly coded masks. The information gained from the few additional diffraction measurements removes the need for typical object-domain constraints; the algorithm uses prior information about the masks instead. The experiment is performed using a laser diode at 532.2 nm, enabling rapid prototyping for future X-ray synchrotron and even free electron laser experiments. Diffraction patterns are collected with up to 15 different masks placed between a CCD detector and a single sample. Phase retrieval is performed using a convex relaxation routine known as "PhaseCut" followed by a variation on Fienup's input-output algorithm. The reconstruction quality is judged via calculation of phase retrieval transfer functions as well as by an object-space comparison between reconstructions and a lens-based image of the sample. The results of this analysis indicate that with enough masks (in this case 3 or 4) the diffraction phases converge reliably, implying stability and uniqueness of the retrieved solution

Fatherhood Education During the Pandemic

This article highlights the transition of Healthy Relationships Utah from in-person to virtual fatherhood education workshops during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, evaluation results showed no differences in program outcomes between in-person and virtual formats. Qualitative data from virtual participants illustrates the benefits and challenges of virtual program delivery

An Examination of Geographic and Socio- Demographic Impacts on Private Industry Job Change in the Dakotas, 2002 – 2008

This study examines geographic and socio-demographic factors associated with private industry job change in North and South Dakota from 2002 to 2008. We conceptualize private industries as enterprises or businesses that are individually or corporately owned and operated outside the public sector. County-level occupational data were captured using the U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI). Results indicate that percentage of workers commuting to another county for work, median household income, the percentage of residents identifying as American Indian and Alaska Native, and population change were significant predictors of county-level private industry job change

A High-Performance Implementation of Atomistic Spin Dynamics Simulations on x86 CPUs

Atomistic spin dynamics simulations provide valuable information about the energy spectrum of magnetic materials in different phases, allowing one to identify instabilities and the nature of their excitations. However, the time cost of evaluating the dynamical correlation function $S(\mathbf{q}, t)$ increases quadratically as the number of spins $N$, leading to significant computational effort, making the simulation of large spin systems very challenging. In this work, we propose to use a highly optimized general matrix multiply (GEMM) subroutine to calculate the dynamical spin-spin correlation function that can achieve near-optimal hardware utilization. Furthermore, we fuse the element-wise operations in the calculation of $S(\mathbf{q}, t)$ into the in-house GEMM kernel, which results in further performance improvements of 44\% - 71\% on several relatively large lattice sizes when compared to the implementation that uses the GEMM subroutine in OpenBLAS, which is the state-of-the-art open source library for Basic Linear Algebra Subroutine (BLAS).Comment: 18 (short) pages, 6 figure

Well-being among Older Adults in Mississippi: Exploring Differences between Metropolitan, Micropolitan, and Noncore Rural Settings

It is a common belief that older adults in rural areas have high subjective well-being, despite often experiencing greater poverty and having access to fewer resources than older adults who live in urban areas, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the “rural-urban paradox.” However, research does not consistently find high well-being in rural areas, which might be due to research not distinguishing between very rural and semi-rural (or small town) settings. This study compares the subjective well-being of older adults in micropolitan and noncore counties with the well-being of older adults in metropolitan areas in Mississippi (n = 659). Preliminary results indicate metropolitan respondents reporting higher subjective well-being than both micropolitan and noncore respondents. However, after accounting for key covariates, micropolitan residents were found to have significantly lower levels of subjective well- being compared to metropolitan residents. Overall, our study suggests that micropolitan settings may be less conducive to healthy, successful aging when compared to metropolitan settings

Kernel Fusion in Atomistic Spin Dynamics Simulations on Nvidia GPUs using Tensor Core

In atomistic spin dynamics simulations, the time cost of constructing the space- and time-displaced pair correlation function in real space increases quadratically as the number of spins $N$, leading to significant computational effort. The GEMM subroutine can be adopted to accelerate the calculation of the dynamical spin-spin correlation function, but the computational cost of simulating large spin systems ($>40000$ spins) on CPUs remains expensive. In this work, we perform the simulation on the graphics processing unit (GPU), a hardware solution widely used as an accelerator for scientific computing and deep learning. We show that GPUs can accelerate the simulation up to 25-fold compared to multi-core CPUs when using the GEMM subroutine on both. To hide memory latency, we fuse the element-wise operation into the GEMM kernel using $\mathtt{CUTLASS}$ that can improve the performance by 26% $\sim$ 33% compared to implementation based on $\mathtt{cuBLAS}$. Furthermore, we perform the on-the-fly calculation in the epilogue of the GEMM subroutine to avoid saving intermediate results on global memory, which makes the large-scale atomistic spin dynamics simulation feasible and affordable

Structural Conditions and Migration in the Dakotas

This study examines the influence of selected structural conditions on the county-level net-migration trends of North Dakota and South Dakota. Key principles from Lee’s Theory of Migration (1966) and Wallerstein’s World Systems model (1974) were integrated to explain how geographic context, economic dependency, and pace of economic development combine to serve as the main catalysts behind the migration patterns in these two states. Results indicate that commuting patterns, the percentage of workers employed in extractive industries, the percentage of workers employed in manufacturing, and job change rates were significant predictors of county migration patterns

What Do You Want to Accomplish in the Next 10 Years? The Goals of Emerging Adults

Emerging adulthood is a period characterized by transition. Individuals in this stage of development find themselves in between adolescence and young adulthood, faced with consequential decisions related to their educational attainment, career trajectory, and the overall direction of their life course. This study focused on the goal-setting behavior of emerging adults. Data were collected through interviews with individuals between the ages of 18 and 25 (N = 91). It was expected that the goals of this group would be oriented toward more individualistic pursuits, with less emphasis placed on more collectivistic goals. It also was anticipated that interviewees would have wide-ranging and multiple goals, which is reflective of the exploratory nature of emerging adulthood. Results show partial support for these hypotheses as interviewees listed more collectivistic goals than anticipated, but also were likely to list multiple and wideranging goals

Indicators of Supportive Service Need Among Older Adults in Mississippi

Providing quality services is one of the challenges associated with the continued increase in the nation’s older adult population. Effective use of needs assessment data can be useful in assessing service need. This study measures the level of perceived need for supportive services among older adults in Mississippi. Using statewide needs assessment data, this study applies the Behavioral Model to measure the perceived need for supportive services among survey participants aged 60 and older (N = 838). Results indicate that age, race, physical health, and subjective well-being were consistent predictors of perceived need for supportive services. Results suggest the importance of understanding the factors associated with the perceived need for supportive services to more effectively plan service delivery