HPC Cloud for Scientific and Business Applications: Taxonomy, Vision, and Research Challenges

High Performance Computing (HPC) clouds are becoming an alternative to on-premise clusters for executing scientific applications and business analytics services. Most research efforts in HPC cloud aim to understand the cost-benefit of moving resource-intensive applications from on-premise environments to public cloud platforms. Industry trends show hybrid environments are the natural path to get the best of the on-premise and cloud resources---steady (and sensitive) workloads can run on on-premise resources and peak demand can leverage remote resources in a pay-as-you-go manner. Nevertheless, there are plenty of questions to be answered in HPC cloud, which range from how to extract the best performance of an unknown underlying platform to what services are essential to make its usage easier. Moreover, the discussion on the right pricing and contractual models to fit small and large users is relevant for the sustainability of HPC clouds. This paper brings a survey and taxonomy of efforts in HPC cloud and a vision on what we believe is ahead of us, including a set of research challenges that, once tackled, can help advance businesses and scientific discoveries. This becomes particularly relevant due to the fast increasing wave of new HPC applications coming from big data and artificial intelligence.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures, Published in ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR

SWKB Quantization Rules for Bound States in Quantum Wells

In a recent paper by Gomes and Adhikari (J.Phys B30 5987(1997)) a matrix formulation of the Bohr-Sommerfield quantization rule has been applied to the study of bound states in one dimension quantum wells. Here we study these potentials in the frame work of supersymmetric WKB (SWKB) quantization approximation and find that SWKB quantization rule is superior to the modified Bohr-Sommerfield or WKB rules as it exactly reproduces the eigenenergies.Comment: 8 page

Study of the microcirculation level in bone with osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures during therapy with recombinant erythropoietin, rosuvastatin and their combinations

The experiment was carried out in female white Wistar rats. The effects of recombinant erythropoietin, rosuvastatin and their combination were investigated based on the blood supply to the bone after a modelled experimental osteoporosis. It was found that the studied drugs prevent decrease of bone microcirculation in cases of osteoporosis and in callus tissue in experimental osteoporotic fractures, positively influencing the course of reparative regeneration of bone tissu

Exposure to Household Air Pollution from Biomass-Burning Cookstoves and HbA1c and Diabetic Status Among Honduran Women

Household air pollution from biomass cookstoves is estimated to be responsible for more than two and a half million premature deaths annually, primarily in low and middle‐income countries where cardiometabolic disorders, such as Type II Diabetes, are increasing. Growing evidence supports a link between ambient air pollution and diabetes, but evidence for household air pollution is limited. This cross‐sectional study of 142 women (72 with traditional stoves and 70 with cleaner‐burning Justa stoves) in rural Honduras evaluated the association of exposure to household air pollution (stove type, 24‐hour average kitchen and personal fine particulate matter [PM2.5] mass and black carbon) with glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and diabetic status based on HbA1c levels. The prevalence ratio (PR) per interquartile range increase in pollution concentration indicated higher prevalence of prediabetes/diabetes (vs normal HbA1c) for all pollutant measures (eg, PR per 84 μg/m3 increase in personal PM2.5, 1.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.11‐2.01). Results for HbA1c as a continuous variable were generally in the hypothesized direction. These results provide some evidence linking household air pollution with the prevalence of prediabetes/diabetes, and, if confirmed, suggest that the global public health impact of household air pollution may be broader than currently estimated

Development and experimental assessment of a numerical modelling code to aid the design of profile extrusion cooling tools

On the extrusion of thermoplastic profiles, upon the forming stage that takes place in the extrusion die, the profile must be cooled in a metallic calibrator. This stage must be done at a high rate, to assure increased productivity, but avoiding the development of high temperature gradients, in order to minimize the level of induced thermal residual stresses. In this work, we present a new coupled numerical solver, developed in the framework of the OpenFOAM® computational library, that computes the temperature distribution in both domains simultaneously (metallic calibrator and plastic profile), whose implementation aimed the minimization of the computational time. The new solver was experimentally assessed with an industrial case study.SFRH/BPD/100353/2014info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effect of pH and temperature on the morphology and phases of co-precipitated hydroxyapatite

This paper reports a high-yield process to fabricate biomimetic hydroxyapatite nano-particles or nano-plates. Hydroxyapatite is obtained by simultaneous dripping of calcium chloride and ammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions into a reaction vessel. Reactions were carried out under various pH and temperature conditions. The morphology and phase composition of the precipitates were investigated using scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The analyses showed that large plates of calcium hydrophosphate are formed at neutral or acidic pH condition. Nanoparticles of hydroxyapatite were obtained in precipitates prepared at pH 9–11. Hydroxyapatite plates akin to seashell nacre were obtained at 40 °C and pH 9. This material holds promise to improve the strength of hydroxyapatite containing composites for bone implant or bone cement used in orthopaedic surgeries. The thermodynamics of the crystal growth under these conditions was discussed. An assembly mechanism of the hydroxyapatite plates was proposed according to the nanostructure observations

Effects of antiplatelet therapy after stroke due to intracerebral haemorrhage (RESTART): a randomised, open-label trial

Antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of major vascular events for people with occlusive vascular disease, although it might increase the risk of intracranial haemorrhage. Patients surviving the commonest subtype of intracranial haemorrhage, intracerebral haemorrhage, are at risk of both haemorrhagic and occlusive vascular events, but whether antiplatelet therapy can be used safely is unclear. We aimed to estimate the relative and absolute effects of antiplatelet therapy on recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage and whether this risk might exceed any reduction of occlusive vascular events

MRI in multiple myeloma : a pictorial review of diagnostic and post-treatment findings

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly being used in the diagnostic work-up of patients with multiple myeloma. Since 2014, MRI findings are included in the new diagnostic criteria proposed by the International Myeloma Working Group. Patients with smouldering myeloma presenting with more than one unequivocal focal lesion in the bone marrow on MRI are considered having symptomatic myeloma requiring treatment, regardless of the presence of lytic bone lesions. However, bone marrow evaluation with MRI offers more than only morphological information regarding the detection of focal lesions in patients with MM. The overall performance of MRI is enhanced by applying dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and diffusion weighted imaging sequences, providing additional functional information on bone marrow vascularization and cellularity. This pictorial review provides an overview of the most important imaging findings in patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, smouldering myeloma and multiple myeloma, by performing a 'total' MRI investigation with implications for the diagnosis, staging and response assessment. Main message aEuro cent Conventional MRI diagnoses multiple myeloma by assessing the infiltration pattern. aEuro cent Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI diagnoses multiple myeloma by assessing vascularization and perfusion. aEuro cent Diffusion weighted imaging evaluates bone marrow composition and cellularity in multiple myeloma. aEuro cent Combined morphological and functional MRI provides optimal bone marrow assessment for staging. aEuro cent Combined morphological and functional MRI is of considerable value in treatment follow-up

Asymmetric cyclopropanation of conjugated cyanosulfones using a novel cupreine organocatalyst: rapid access to d3-amino acids

An organocatalytic asymmetric synthesis of a novel, highly functionalised cyclopropane system furnished with versatile substituents and containing a quaternary centre is described. The process utilises a new bifunctional catalyst based on the cinchona alkaloid framework and the products made using this catalyst were obtained as single diastereoisomers, with very high enantioselectivities (up to 96% ee). We have also demonstrated that these resulting cyclopropanes are very useful synthetic intermediates to interesting products, such as the difficult to access d3-amino acids

Fuzzy Logic Controller Design for Intelligent Drilling System

An intelligent drilling system can be commercially very profitable in terms of reduction in crude material and labor involvement. The use of fuzzy logic based controller in the intelligent cutting and drilling operations has become a popular practice in the ever growing manufacturing industry. In this paper, a fuzzy logic controller has been designed to select the cutting parameter more precisely for the drilling operation. Specifically, different input criterion of machining parameters are considered such as the tool and material hardness, the diameter of drilling hole and the flow rate of cutting fluid. Unlikethe existing fuzzy logic based methods, which use only two input parameters, the proposed system utilizes more input parameters to provide spindle speed and feed rate information more precisely for the intelligent drilling operation