GPU Accelerated Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Shallow Water Equations

We discuss the development, verification, and performance of a GPU accelerated discontinuous Galerkin method for the solutions of two dimensional nonlinear shallow water equations. The shallow water equations are hyperbolic partial differential equations and are widely used in the simulation of tsunami wave propagations. Our algorithms are tailored to take advantage of the single instruction multiple data (SIMD) architecture of graphic processing units. The time integration is accelerated by local time stepping based on a multi-rate Adams-Bashforth scheme. A total variational bounded limiter is adopted for nonlinear stability of the numerical scheme. This limiter is coupled with a mass and momentum conserving positivity preserving limiter for the special treatment of a dry or partially wet element in the triangulation. Accuracy, robustness and performance are demonstrated with the aid of test cases. We compare the performance of the kernels expressed in a portable threading language OCCA, when cross compiled with OpenCL, CUDA, and OpenMP at runtime.Comment: 26 pages, 51 figure

Nuclear Matrix Elements of Axial-Charge Exchange Currents Derived in Heavy-Fermion Chiral Perturbation Theory

We calculate shell-model matrix elements of the axial-charge exchange current operators that have been obtained up to the next-to-leading order from heavy-fermion chiral perturbation theory. It is found that loop corrections to the soft one-pion-exchange contribution are small (around 10 \%) and have no significant dependence on the nuclear mass number or on the valence-nucleon orbits. These results render further support to the chiral-filtering conjecture.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX, SNUTP 94-29, USC(NT)-94-

Corrections to the Nuclear Axial Vector Coupling in a Nuclear Medium

We examine further corrections to the time component of the axial vector coupling constant in a nuclear medium. The dominant correction is that of exchange currents. The corrections we examine make the remaining discrepancy worse.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

The effect of font type on sight word reading performance of 4th and 5th grade students with reading disabilities

Reading interventions are a crucial component to combat barriers associated with reading difficulties. Within the education realm, nearly 50% of students who receive special education supports have a Specific Learning Disability (Gargiulo, 2006). As a result, the development and implementation of effective and targeted interventions is critical. Christian Boer developed a font called Dyslexie to help remediate reading difficulties of individuals with Dyslexia (Boer, 2011). However, studies by de Leeuw (2010) and Pjipker (2013) provide inconsistent supportive evidence, regarding the effectiveness of Dyslexie. The current study sought to examine the effectiveness of Dyslexie as compared to Arial on sight word recognition tasks. A total of 36 fourth and fifth grade students with a Specific Learning Disability read two real word lists and one pseudoword lists in either font. Results do not suggest a significant difference between either font on sight word recognition tasks. Results, future directions, and implications for School Psychologists are discussed

Isofrequency pairing of geodesic orbits in Kerr geometry

Abstract ? Bound geodesic orbits around a Kerr black hole can be parametrized by three constants of the motion: the (specific) orbital energy, angular momentum, and Carter constant. Generically, each orbit also has associated with it three frequencies, related to the radial, longitudinal, and (mean) azimuthal motions. Here, we note the curious fact that these two ways of characterizing bound geodesics are not in a one-to-one correspondence. While the former uniquely specifies an orbit up to initial conditions, the latter does not: there is a (strong-field) region of the parameter space in which pairs of physically distinct orbits can have the same three frequencies. In each such isofrequency pair, the two orbits exhibit the same rate of periastron precession and the same rate of Lense-Thirring precession of the orbital plane, and (in a certain sense) they remain “synchronized” in phase.<br/

Subcentimeter depth resolution using a single-photon counting time-of-flight laser ranging system at 1550 nm wavelength

We demonstrate subcentimeter depth profiling at a stand off distance of 330m using a time-of-flight approach based on time-correlated single-photon counting. For the first time to our knowledge, the photon-counting time-of-flight technique was demonstrated at a wavelength of 1550nm using a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. The performance achieved suggests that a system using superconducting detectors has the potential for low-light-level and eye-safe operation. The system’s instrumental response was 70ps full width at half-maximum, which meant that 1cm surface-to-surface resolution could be achieved by locating the centroids of each return signal. A depth resolution of 4mm was achieved by employing an optimized signal-processing algorithm based on a reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo method

Dominant hemisphere functional networks compensate for structural connectivity loss to preserve phonological retrieval with aging

Introduction Loss of hemispheric asymmetry during cognitive tasks has been previously demonstrated in the literature. In the context of language, increased right hemisphere activation is observed with aging. Whether this relates to compensation to preserve cognitive function or dedifferentiation implying loss of hemispheric specificity without functional consequence, remains unclear. Methods With a multifaceted approach, integrating structural and functional imaging data during a word retrieval task, in a group of younger and older adults with equivalent cognitive performance, we aimed to establish whether interactions between hemispheres or reorganization of dominant hemisphere networks preserve function. We examined functional and structural connectivity on data from our previously published functional activation study. Functional connectivity was measured using psychophysiological interactions analysis from the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) and the left insula (LINS), based on published literature, and the right inferior frontal gyrus (RIFG) based on our previous study. Results Although RIFG showed increased activation, its connectivity decreased with age. Meanwhile, LIFG and LINS connected more bilaterally in the older adults. White matter integrity, measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) from diffusion tensor imaging, decreased significantly in the older group. Importantly, LINS functional connectivity to LIFG correlated inversely with FA. Conclusions We demonstrate that left hemispheric language areas show higher functional connectivity in older adults with intact behavioral performance, and thus, may have a role in preserving function. The inverse correlation of functional and structural connectivity with age is in keeping with emerging literature and merits further investigation with tractography studies and in other cognitive domains