As the Cursor Blinks: Electronic Scholarship and Undergraduates in the Library

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Young people and Information Literacy

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Reti sociali e piccola impresa, per una cultura della partecipazione

The paper outlines how the collaborative culture can bring significant benefits to SMEs and describes one of the most significant trend developed in the last years: the use of business focused online communities to support collaboration in different areas of business, from knowledge sharing among colleagues to improving relationships with customers.Poich? le reti sociali consentono di estendere la propria rete di contatti, ci si ? accorti che questi strumenti possono essere di grande utilit? anche per le aziende. Creare e pubblicare contenuti sui social media rappresenta una mossa fondamentale per attirare l\u27attenzione del pubblico verso la propria impresa e una nuova opportunit? di costruire rapporti basati sulla fiducia. Cambia il modo in cui le imprese costruiscono la propria immagine, i tradizionali canali pubblicitari vengono ampliati per raggiungere nuove fasce di consumatori. E\u27 cambiato anche l\u27atteggiamento del consumatore, divenuto un soggetto attivo che cerca il dialogo con l\u27azienda, che vuole partecipare alla realizzazione dei prodotti

The MIG Framework: Enabling Transparent Process Migration in Open MPI

This paper introduces the mig framework: an Open MPI extension to transparently support the migration of application processes, over different nodes of a distributed High-Performance Computing (HPC) system. The framework provides mechanism on top of which suitable resource managers can implement policies to react to hardware faults, address performance variability, improve resource utilization, perform a fine-grained load balancing and power thermal management. Compared to other state-of-the-art approaches, the mig framework does not require changes in the application code. Moreover, it is highly maintainable, since it is mainly a self-contained solution that has required a very few changes in other already existing Open MPI frameworks. Experimental results have shown that the proposed extension does not introduce significant overhead in the application execution, while the penalty due to performing a migration can be properly taken into account by a resource manager

Precision-Aware application execution for Energy-optimization in HPC node system

Power consumption is a critical consideration in high performance computing systems and it is becoming the limiting factor to build and operate Petascale and Exascale systems. When studying the power consumption of existing systems running HPC workloads, we find that power, energy and performance are closely related which leads to the possibility to optimize energy consumption without sacrificing (much or at all) the performance. In this paper, we propose a HPC system running with a GNU/Linux OS and a Real Time Resource Manager (RTRM) that is aware and monitors the healthy of the platform. On the system, an application for disaster management runs. The application can run with different QoS depending on the situation. We defined two main situations. Normal execution, when there is no risk of a disaster, even though we still have to run the system to look ahead in the near future if the situation changes suddenly. In the second scenario, the possibilities for a disaster are very high. Then the allocation of more resources for improving the precision and the human decision has to be taken into account. The paper shows that at design time, it is possible to describe different optimal points that are going to be used at runtime by the RTOS with the application. This environment helps to the system that must run 24/7 in saving energy with the trade-off of losing precision. The paper shows a model execution which can improve the precision of results by 65% in average by increasing the number of iterations from 1e3 to 1e4. This also produces one order of magnitude longer execution time which leads to the need to use a multi-node solution. The optimal trade-off between precision vs. execution time is computed by the RTOS with the time overhead less than 10% against a native execution

Multicore resource management: a horizontal perspective

Gli odierni sistemi di calcolo mirano ad offire prestazioni sempre più aggressive nonostante sempre più stringenti vincoli di ottimizzazione di sistema. Tale problema è complesso e riguarda una vasta gamma di architetture: a causa del selvaggio sviluppo tecnologico causato dalla diffusione di dispositivi come gli Smartphone, ad esempio, i circuiti integrati di fascia alta stanno rapidamente colmando il divario con i dispositivi desktop, in termini sia di prestazioni sia di complessità. Allo stesso modo, i sistemi ad alte prestazioni (supercomputer, cloud ...) stanno cercando di raggiungere potenze computazionali nell’ordine dell’exa-FLOP (10 18 operazioni in virgola mobile al secondo), in modo da poter servire carichi di lavoro sempre più esigenti. Ciò comporta problemi non banali: i circuiti integrati sono solitamente soggetti a vincoli termici ed energetici per massimizzare la durata della batteria (ove presente), minimizzare i guasti e, per lo meno nel caso di dispositivi palmari, garantirne un comodo uso (l’utente vuole un dispositivo che duri anni, che abbia una batteria costantemente carica e che non sia bollente al tocco), mentre i grandi sistemi di calcolo sono soggetti a vincoli termici e di potenza onde minimizzare i costi di energia elettrica e raffreddamento e, anche in questo caso, per minimizzare la probabilità di guasto. Purtroppo, gli utenti non sono assolutamente interessati all’ottimizzazione del sistema; al contrario, vogliono soltanto ottenere le migliori prestazioni possibili dalle proprie applicazioni. L’evidente ortogonalità tra gli obiettivi di utenti e amministratori di sistema fa sì che questo problema non sia facilmente risolvibile; tuttavia, esso può essere affrontato mediante l’uso di gestori di risorse, ovvero programmi che agiscono da mediatori tra sistema operativo e applicazioni. Più nel dettaglio, i gestori di risorse decidono quante e quali risorse di calcolo allocare a ogni applicazione in modo tale da soddisfare, ove possibile, sia i requisiti dell’utente sia quelli di sistema. Questa tesi espora il problema della gestione di risorse seguendo un approccio orizzontale. Nel dettaglio, analizziamo il problema dell’allocazione di elementi processanti—cores, in questo caso—dai circuiti integrati fino ai sistemi ad alte prestazioni. Per ognuna di queste categorie, cercheremo di capire i requisiti fondamentali per una allocazione ottima delle risorse, i maggiori problemi ancora da affrontare e cosa possiamo fare per risolverli.Modern computing systems strive to provide ever increasing performance levels despite increasingly strict system-wide optimization objectives. This is a vast problem that spans over a wide variety of architectures: due to the wild technological development caused by the spread of devices such as Smartphones, high-end embedded systems are quickly closing the gap with desktop computers; similarly, high performance and cloud-based systems are scaling up towards exascale to serve increasingly demanding workloads. Indeed, this technological trend poses several, nontrivial problems: embedded systems are usually subject to thermal and energy constraints in order to maximize battery life, to minimize faults and, at least in the case of hand-held devices, to provide a comfortable user experience (users want to hold a long lasting, ever charged and cold device), while bigger systems are typically subject to thermal and power constraints in order to minimize supplying/cooling costs and, again, to prevent faults. On the other hand, users do not care about system optimization objectives: they just want their applications to comply with some Quality of Service requirement. This problem does not have a simple solution, because system and user goals are orthogonal and increasingly demanding; however, it can be addressed by employing resource managers, which are software layers that act as brokers between computing systems and applications. Resource managers decide which and how many resources will be allocated to each application so that, whenever it is possible, both system-wide and user goals are complied with. This dissertation explores the problem of resource management from a horizontal perspective. That is, we analyze the problem of CPU resource management spanning from high-end embedded to High Performance Computing systems. For each of those architectures, we try to understand what is yet missing to obtain an optimal resource management and how we can fill some of those gaps.DIPARTIMENTO DI ELETTRONICA, INFORMAZIONE E BIOINGEGNERIAComputer Science and Engineering30BONARINI, ANDREABONARINI, ANDRE

Improved antitumor response to isolated limb perfusion with tumor necrosis factor after upregulation of endothelial monocyte-activating polypeptide II in soft tissue sarcoma

BACKGROUND: Experiments with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) in rodents have shown that a high dose can lead to hemorrhagic necrosis in tumors. Endothelial monocyte-activating polypeptide II (EMAP-II) is a novel tumor-derived cytokine, and its expression increases the TNF-1 receptor on tumor endothelium, enhances the induction of tissue factor on tumor endothelial cells, and has an antiangiogenic effect. It has recently been shown that in vivo sensitivity of tumor vasculature to TNF is determined by tumor production of EMAP-II. METHODS: We measured the level of EMAP-II in a TNF-resistant soft tissue sarcoma. We subsequently stabile-transfected this cell line with a retroviral construct containing the EMAP gene. In an extremity perfusion model in tumor-bearing rats, we measured response rates to TNF therapy. RESULTS: Functional EMAP-II production was increased after this transfection. Immunostaining of paraffin-embedded tumor tissue sections in rats showed an overexpression of human EMAP-II. Results of the TNF perfusions in rats suggest that this tumor is more sensitive to TNF therapy. CONCLUSIONS: EMAP-II is produced in various levels. One can increase the sensitivity of tumor for TNF therapy in vivo by upregulating the EMAP-II production. This result leaves an opportunity for enhanced TNF response of tumors in future settings

Evidence for Two Modes of Synergistic Induction of Apoptosis by Mapatumumab and Oxaliplatin in Combination with Hyperthermia in Human Colon Cancer Cells

Colorectal cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the world-- the main cause of death from colorectal cancer is hepatic metastases, which can be treated with isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP). Searching for the most clinically relevant approaches for treating colorectal metastatic disease by isolated hepatic perfusion (IHP), we developed the application of oxaliplatin concomitantly with hyperthermia and humanized death receptor 4 (DR4) antibody mapatumumab (Mapa), and investigated the molecular mechanisms of this multimodality treatment in human colon cancer cell lines CX-1 and HCT116 as well as human colon cancer stem cells Tu-12, Tu-21 and Tu-22. We showed here, in this study, that the synergistic effect of the multimodality treatment-induced apoptosis was caspase dependent and activated death signaling via both the extrinsic apoptotic pathway and the intrinsic pathway. Death signaling was activated by c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling which led to Bcl-xL phosphorylation at serine 62, decreasing the anti-apoptotic activity of Bcl-xL, which contributed to the intrinsic pathway. The downregulation of cellular FLICE inhibitory protein long isoform (c-FLIPL) in the extrinsic pathway was accomplished through ubiquitination at lysine residue (K) 195 and protein synthesis inhibition. Overexpression of c-FLIPL mutant (K195R) and Bcl-xL mutant (S62A) completely abrogated the synergistic effect. The successful outcome of this study supports the application of multimodality strategy to patients with colorectal hepatic metastases who fail to respond to standard chemoradiotherapy that predominantly targets the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. © 2013 Song et al

Effect of biochar and inorganic or organic fertilizer co-application on soil properties, plant growth and nutrient content in Swiss Chard

From the perspective of sustainable agri-food production, farmers need to make the best use of natural resources. Biochar can be a solution to adopt a more sustainable way of farming. Despite its environmental and agronomic advantages, biochar has a low plant nutrient value. This study evaluated the effect of biochar and the co-application of an inorganic or organic fertilizer on the soil properties, growth and nutrient content of Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris L. var. cycla, Caryophyllales order, Chenopodiaceae family). The experiment consisted of two factors: biochar type (from vineyard prunings and wood chips) and fertilizing source (ammonium nitrate and vermicompost). Biochars were applied at a 2% rate (w/w) and fertilizers at a dose providing 280 kg N ha(-1). The soil properties (pH, EC, extractable anions, cations, total N, Corg and C/N ratio) were measured before the plants were transplanted and at the end of the growing cycle, along with the growth parameters (leaf number, length and fresh weight) of each leaf cut, the productive parameters (total number of leaves and yield per plant) at the end of the growing cycle and the leaf content of anions (NO3-, P2O43-, SO42-), cations (NH4+, Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+) and total N. The co-application of biochar and a fertilizing source had a positive effect on soil properties and leaf nutrient content. Vermicompost increased plant growth by 22% and plant yield by 116%, in contrast to biochar, and increased limited leaf NO3- accumulation by about 81% in comparison to ammonium nitrate. The co-application of biochar and vermicompost is the better option to increase Swiss chard yield while preserving the nutritional and health qualities of the product