Remote Asynchronous Message Service Gateway

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Shin-Ywan; Burleigh, Scott C.

2011-01-01

The Remote Asynchronous Message Service (RAMS) gateway is a special-purpose AMS application node that enables exchange of AMS messages between nodes residing in different AMS "continua," notionally in different geographical locations. JPL s implementation of RAMS gateway functionality is integrated with the ION (Interplanetary Overlay Network) implementation of the DTN (Delay-Tolerant Networking) bundle protocol, and with JPL s implementation of AMS itself. RAMS protocol data units are encapsulated in ION bundles and are forwarded to the neighboring RAMS gateways identified in the source gateway s AMS management information base. Each RAMS gateway has interfaces in two communication environments: the AMS message space it serves, and the RAMS network - the grid or tree of mutually aware RAMS gateways - that enables AMS messages produced in one message space to be forwarded to other message spaces of the same venture. Each gateway opens persistent, private RAMS network communication channels to the RAMS gateways of other message spaces for the same venture, in other continua. The interconnected RAMS gateways use these communication channels to forward message petition assertions and cancellations among themselves. Each RAMS gateway subscribes locally to all subjects that are of interest in any of the linked message spaces. On receiving its copy of a message on any of these subjects, the RAMS gateway node uses the RAMS network to forward the message to every other RAMS gateway whose message space contains at least one node that has subscribed to messages on that subject. On receiving a message via the RAMS network from some other RAMS gateway, the RAMS gateway node forwards the message to all subscribers in its own message space.

Critical Thinking in Asynchronous Online Discussion: An Investigation of Student Facilitation Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Sze Chung Raymond; Cheung, Wing Sum; Hew, Khe Foon

2011-01-01

Background: In the last decade, asynchronous online discussion forums have become a primary focus of many educational researchers. Some advocates believed that the process of typing out messages in itself can promote in-depth critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, empirical research has not provided much support for this claim in natural…

Asynchronous Online Peer Assistance: Telephone Messages of Encouragement in Post Licensure Nursing Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Melrose, Sherri; Swettenham, Steve

2012-01-01

Peer assistance activities can strengthen online learning environments. And yet, like other professional adult learners, working post licensure nurses attending university part time to upgrade their credentials may have limited interest in student-to-student interaction. Some intentionally choose asynchronous self-paced courses so they can work on…

Does the Medium Dictate the Message? Cultivating E-Communication in an Asynchronous Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiernan, Mary; Thomas, Pete; Woodroffe, Mark

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are often perceived by education establishments as an opportunity to widen access without traditional overheads. An integral part of most VLEs is asynchronous computer conferencing and on-line moderators must help students migrate quickly to the new virtual environment to minimize learning disruption. This…

Designing Asynchronous Communication Tools for Optimization of Patient-Clinician Coordination

PubMed Central

Eschler, Jordan; Liu, Leslie S.; Vizer, Lisa M.; McClure, Jennifer B.; Lozano, Paula; Pratt, Wanda; Ralston, James D.

2015-01-01

Asynchronous communication outside the clinical setting has both enriched and complicated patient-clinician interactions. Many patients can now interact with a patient portal 24 hours a day, asking questions of their clinicians via secure message, checking lab results, ordering medication refills, or making appointments. However, the mode of communication (asynchronous) and the nature of the interaction (lacking tone or body language) strip valuable information from each side of patient-clinician asynchronous communication. Using interviews with 34 individuals who actively manage a chronic illness of their own, or for a child or partner, we elicited narratives about patients’ experiences and expectations for using asynchronous communication to address medical issues with their clinicians. Based on these perspectives, we present opportunities for designing asynchronous communication tools to better facilitate understanding of and coordination around care activities between patients and clinicians. PMID:26958188

Exploring Change in Graduate Students' Perceptions of Web-Based Education throughout an Asynchronous Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timotheou, Maria Mama

2017-01-01

This paper presents the main findings of a UK study exploring graduate students' perceptions of web-based education, with a specific focus on their change over time, throughout an asynchronous course. Data were collected through online messages and interviews, and analyzed qualitatively, following content and thematic analyses. Participant pre-…

Statistical Discourse Analysis: A Method for Modelling Online Discussion Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chiu, Ming Ming; Fujita, Nobuko

2014-01-01

Online forums (synchronous and asynchronous) offer exciting data opportunities to analyze how people influence one another through their interactions. However, researchers must address several analytic difficulties involving the data (missing values, nested structure [messages within topics], non-sequential messages), outcome variables (discrete…

Instructors' Experiences of Web Based Synchronous Communication using Two Way Audio and Direct Messaging

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Elizabeth; Ciszewska-Carr, Justyna

2007-01-01

This paper reports on an exploratory case study designed to gain insight into instructors' experiences with web based synchronous communication using two way audio and direct messaging. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight instructors who used "Elluminate Live" in their web based, asynchronous courses in Education, Nursing,…

Intel NX to PVM 3.2 message passing conversion library

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arthur, Trey; Nelson, Michael L.

1993-01-01

NASA Langley Research Center has developed a library that allows Intel NX message passing codes to be executed under the more popular and widely supported Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) message passing library. PVM was developed at Oak Ridge National Labs and has become the defacto standard for message passing. This library will allow the many programs that were developed on the Intel iPSC/860 or Intel Paragon in a Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) design to be ported to the numerous architectures that PVM (version 3.2) supports. Also, the library adds global operations capability to PVM. A familiarity with Intel NX and PVM message passing is assumed.

The Effects on Health Behavior and Health Outcomes of Internet-Based Asynchronous Communication Between Health Providers and Patients With a Chronic Condition: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Ros, Wynand JG; Schrijvers, Guus

2014-01-01

Background In support of professional practice, asynchronous communication between the patient and the provider is implemented separately or in combination with Internet-based self-management interventions. This interaction occurs primarily through electronic messaging or discussion boards. There is little evidence as to whether it is a useful tool for chronically ill patients to support their self-management and increase the effectiveness of interventions. Objective The aim of our study was to review the use and usability of patient-provider asynchronous communication for chronically ill patients and the effects of such communication on health behavior, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Methods A literature search was performed using PubMed and Embase. The quality of the articles was appraised according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) criteria. The use and usability of the asynchronous communication was analyzed by examining the frequency of use and the number of users of the interventions with asynchronous communication, as well as of separate electronic messaging. The effectiveness of asynchronous communication was analyzed by examining effects on health behavior, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Results Patients’ knowledge concerning their chronic condition increased and they seemed to appreciate being able to communicate asynchronously with their providers. They not only had specific questions but also wanted to communicate about feeling ill. A decrease in visits to the physician was shown in two studies (P=.07, P=.07). Increases in self-management/self-efficacy for patients with back pain, dyspnea, and heart failure were found. Positive health outcomes were shown in 12 studies, where the clinical outcomes for diabetic patients (HbA1c level) and for asthmatic patients (forced expiratory volume [FEV]) improved. Physical symptoms improved in five studies. Five studies generated a variety of positive psychosocial outcomes. Conclusions The effect of asynchronous communication is not shown unequivocally in these studies. Patients seem to be interested in using email. Patients are willing to participate and are taking the initiative to discuss health issues with their providers. Additional testing of the effects of asynchronous communication on self-management in chronically ill patients is needed. PMID:24434570

The effects on health behavior and health outcomes of Internet-based asynchronous communication between health providers and patients with a chronic condition: a systematic review.

PubMed

de Jong, Catharina Carolina; Ros, Wynand Jg; Schrijvers, Guus

2014-01-16

In support of professional practice, asynchronous communication between the patient and the provider is implemented separately or in combination with Internet-based self-management interventions. This interaction occurs primarily through electronic messaging or discussion boards. There is little evidence as to whether it is a useful tool for chronically ill patients to support their self-management and increase the effectiveness of interventions. The aim of our study was to review the use and usability of patient-provider asynchronous communication for chronically ill patients and the effects of such communication on health behavior, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction. A literature search was performed using PubMed and Embase. The quality of the articles was appraised according to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) criteria. The use and usability of the asynchronous communication was analyzed by examining the frequency of use and the number of users of the interventions with asynchronous communication, as well as of separate electronic messaging. The effectiveness of asynchronous communication was analyzed by examining effects on health behavior, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction. Patients' knowledge concerning their chronic condition increased and they seemed to appreciate being able to communicate asynchronously with their providers. They not only had specific questions but also wanted to communicate about feeling ill. A decrease in visits to the physician was shown in two studies (P=.07, P=.07). Increases in self-management/self-efficacy for patients with back pain, dyspnea, and heart failure were found. Positive health outcomes were shown in 12 studies, where the clinical outcomes for diabetic patients (HbA1c level) and for asthmatic patients (forced expiratory volume [FEV]) improved. Physical symptoms improved in five studies. Five studies generated a variety of positive psychosocial outcomes. The effect of asynchronous communication is not shown unequivocally in these studies. Patients seem to be interested in using email. Patients are willing to participate and are taking the initiative to discuss health issues with their providers. Additional testing of the effects of asynchronous communication on self-management in chronically ill patients is needed.

Building asynchronous geospatial processing workflows with web services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Peisheng; Di, Liping; Yu, Genong

2012-02-01

Geoscience research and applications often involve a geospatial processing workflow. This workflow includes a sequence of operations that use a variety of tools to collect, translate, and analyze distributed heterogeneous geospatial data. Asynchronous mechanisms, by which clients initiate a request and then resume their processing without waiting for a response, are very useful for complicated workflows that take a long time to run. Geospatial contents and capabilities are increasingly becoming available online as interoperable Web services. This online availability significantly enhances the ability to use Web service chains to build distributed geospatial processing workflows. This paper focuses on how to orchestrate Web services for implementing asynchronous geospatial processing workflows. The theoretical bases for asynchronous Web services and workflows, including asynchrony patterns and message transmission, are examined to explore different asynchronous approaches to and architecture of workflow code for the support of asynchronous behavior. A sample geospatial processing workflow, issued by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Service, Phase 6 (OWS-6), is provided to illustrate the implementation of asynchronous geospatial processing workflows and the challenges in using Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) to develop them.

Theoretic derivation of directed acyclic subgraph algorithm and comparisons with message passing algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ha, Jeongmok; Jeong, Hong

2016-07-01

This study investigates the directed acyclic subgraph (DAS) algorithm, which is used to solve discrete labeling problems much more rapidly than other Markov-random-field-based inference methods but at a competitive accuracy. However, the mechanism by which the DAS algorithm simultaneously achieves competitive accuracy and fast execution speed, has not been elucidated by a theoretical derivation. We analyze the DAS algorithm by comparing it with a message passing algorithm. Graphical models, inference methods, and energy-minimization frameworks are compared between DAS and message passing algorithms. Moreover, the performances of DAS and other message passing methods [sum-product belief propagation (BP), max-product BP, and tree-reweighted message passing] are experimentally compared.

Computer Networking for Collegial Exchange among Teachers: A Summary of Findings and Recommendations. Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

West, Mary Maxwell; McSwiney, Eileen

Asynchronous computer-based conferencing offers several unique capabilities as a medium. Participants can read and write messages at whatever time is convenient for them, groups can interact even though participants are geographically separated, and messages are available to readers almost instantly. Because the medium has served for over a decade…

Efficient Data Generation and Publication as a Test Tool

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Einstein, Craig Jakob

2017-01-01

A tool to facilitate the generation and publication of test data was created to test the individual components of a command and control system designed to launch spacecraft. Specifically, this tool was built to ensure messages are properly passed between system components. The tool can also be used to test whether the appropriate groups have access (read/write privileges) to the correct messages. The messages passed between system components take the form of unique identifiers with associated values. These identifiers are alphanumeric strings that identify the type of message and the additional parameters that are contained within the message. The values that are passed with the message depend on the identifier. The data generation tool allows for the efficient creation and publication of these messages. A configuration file can be used to set the parameters of the tool and also specify which messages to pass.

Porting Gravitational Wave Signal Extraction to Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thirumalainambi, Rajkumar; Thompson, David E.; Redmon, Jeffery

2009-01-01

Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a planned NASA-ESA mission to be launched around 2012. The Gravitational Wave detection is fundamentally the determination of frequency, source parameters, and waveform amplitude derived in a specific order from the interferometric time-series of the rotating LISA spacecrafts. The LISA Science Team has developed a Mock LISA Data Challenge intended to promote the testing of complicated nested search algorithms to detect the 100-1 millihertz frequency signals at amplitudes of 10E-21. However, it has become clear that, sequential search of the parameters is very time consuming and ultra-sensitive; hence, a new strategy has been developed. Parallelization of existing sequential search algorithms of Gravitational Wave signal identification consists of decomposing sequential search loops, beginning with outermost loops and working inward. In this process, the main challenge is to detect interdependencies among loops and partitioning the loops so as to preserve concurrency. Existing parallel programs are based upon either shared memory or distributed memory paradigms. In PVM, master and node programs are used to execute parallelization and process spawning. The PVM can handle process management and process addressing schemes using a virtual machine configuration. The task scheduling and the messaging and signaling can be implemented efficiently for the LISA Gravitational Wave search process using a master and 6 nodes. This approach is accomplished using a server that is available at NASA Ames Research Center, and has been dedicated to the LISA Data Challenge Competition. Historically, gravitational wave and source identification parameters have taken around 7 days in this dedicated single thread Linux based server. Using PVM approach, the parameter extraction problem can be reduced to within a day. The low frequency computation and a proxy signal-to-noise ratio are calculated in separate nodes that are controlled by the master using message and vector of data passing. The message passing among nodes follows a pattern of synchronous and asynchronous send-and-receive protocols. The communication model and the message buffers are allocated dynamically to address rapid search of gravitational wave source information in the Mock LISA data sets.

AMS Prototyping Activities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burleigh, Scott

2008-01-01

This slide presentation reviews the activity around the Asynchronous Message Service (AMS) prototype. An AMS reference implementation has been available since late 2005. It is aimed at supporting message exchange both in on-board environments and over space links. The implementation incoroporates all mandatory elements of the draft recommendation from July 2007: (1) MAMS, AMS, and RAMS protocols. (2) Failover, heartbeats, resync. (3) "Hooks" for security, but no cipher suites included in the distribution. The performance is reviewed, and a Benchmark latency test over VxWorks Message Queues is shown as histograms of a count vs microseconds per 1000-byte message

A multiprocessing architecture for real-time monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, James L.; Kao, Simon M.; Read, Jackson Y.; Weitzenkamp, Scott M.; Laffey, Thomas J.

1988-01-01

A multitasking architecture for performing real-time monitoring and analysis using knowledge-based problem solving techniques is described. To handle asynchronous inputs and perform in real time, the system consists of three or more distributed processes which run concurrently and communicate via a message passing scheme. The Data Management Process acquires, compresses, and routes the incoming sensor data to other processes. The Inference Process consists of a high performance inference engine that performs a real-time analysis on the state and health of the physical system. The I/O Process receives sensor data from the Data Management Process and status messages and recommendations from the Inference Process, updates its graphical displays in real time, and acts as the interface to the console operator. The distributed architecture has been interfaced to an actual spacecraft (NASA's Hubble Space Telescope) and is able to process the incoming telemetry in real-time (i.e., several hundred data changes per second). The system is being used in two locations for different purposes: (1) in Sunnyville, California at the Space Telescope Test Control Center it is used in the preflight testing of the vehicle; and (2) in Greenbelt, Maryland at NASA/Goddard it is being used on an experimental basis in flight operations for health and safety monitoring.

PsychVACS: a system for asynchronous telepsychiatry.

PubMed

Odor, Alberto; Yellowlees, Peter; Hilty, Donald; Parish, Michelle Burke; Nafiz, Najia; Iosif, Ana-Maria

2011-05-01

To describe the technical development of an asynchronous telepsychiatry application, the Psychiatric Video Archiving and Communication System. A client-server application was developed in Visual Basic.Net with Microsoft(®) SQL database as the backend. It includes the capability of storing video-recorded psychiatric interviews and manages the workflow of the system with automated messaging. Psychiatric Video Archiving and Communication System has been used to conduct the first ever series of asynchronous telepsychiatry consultations worldwide. A review of the software application and the process as part of this project has led to a number of improvements that are being implemented in the next version, which is being written in Java. This is the first description of the use of video recorded data in an asynchronous telemedicine application. Primary care providers and consulting psychiatrists have found it easy to work with and a valuable resource to increase the availability of psychiatric consultation in remote rural locations.

MPF: A portable message passing facility for shared memory multiprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Malony, Allen D.; Reed, Daniel A.; Mcguire, Patrick J.

1987-01-01

The design, implementation, and performance evaluation of a message passing facility (MPF) for shared memory multiprocessors are presented. The MPF is based on a message passing model conceptually similar to conversations. Participants (parallel processors) can enter or leave a conversation at any time. The message passing primitives for this model are implemented as a portable library of C function calls. The MPF is currently operational on a Sequent Balance 21000, and several parallel applications were developed and tested. Several simple benchmark programs are presented to establish interprocess communication performance for common patterns of interprocess communication. Finally, performance figures are presented for two parallel applications, linear systems solution, and iterative solution of partial differential equations.

Efficiently passing messages in distributed spiking neural network simulation.

PubMed

Thibeault, Corey M; Minkovich, Kirill; O'Brien, Michael J; Harris, Frederick C; Srinivasa, Narayan

2013-01-01

Efficiently passing spiking messages in a neural model is an important aspect of high-performance simulation. As the scale of networks has increased so has the size of the computing systems required to simulate them. In addition, the information exchange of these resources has become more of an impediment to performance. In this paper we explore spike message passing using different mechanisms provided by the Message Passing Interface (MPI). A specific implementation, MVAPICH, designed for high-performance clusters with Infiniband hardware is employed. The focus is on providing information about these mechanisms for users of commodity high-performance spiking simulators. In addition, a novel hybrid method for spike exchange was implemented and benchmarked.

Passing crisis and emergency risk communications: the effects of communication channel, information type, and repetition.

PubMed

Edworthy, Judy; Hellier, Elizabeth; Newbold, Lex; Titchener, Kirsteen

2015-05-01

Three experiments explore several factors which influence information transmission when warning messages are passed from person to person. In Experiment 1, messages were passed down chains of participants using five different modes of communication. Written communication channels resulted in more accurate message transmission than verbal. In addition, some elements of the message endured further down the chain than others. Experiment 2 largely replicated these effects and also demonstrated that simple repetition of a message eliminated differences between written and spoken communication. In a final field experiment, chains of participants passed information however they wanted to, with the proviso that half of the chains could not use telephones. Here, the lack of ability to use a telephone did not affect accuracy, but did slow down the speed of transmission from the recipient of the message to the last person in the chain. Implications of the findings for crisis and emergency risk communication are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Solving Partial Differential Equations in a data-driven multiprocessor environment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gaudiot, J.L.; Lin, C.M.; Hosseiniyar, M.

1988-12-31

Partial differential equations can be found in a host of engineering and scientific problems. The emergence of new parallel architectures has spurred research in the definition of parallel PDE solvers. Concurrently, highly programmable systems such as data-how architectures have been proposed for the exploitation of large scale parallelism. The implementation of some Partial Differential Equation solvers (such as the Jacobi method) on a tagged token data-flow graph is demonstrated here. Asynchronous methods (chaotic relaxation) are studied and new scheduling approaches (the Token No-Labeling scheme) are introduced in order to support the implementation of the asychronous methods in a data-driven environment.more » New high-level data-flow language program constructs are introduced in order to handle chaotic operations. Finally, the performance of the program graphs is demonstrated by a deterministic simulation of a message passing data-flow multiprocessor. An analysis of the overhead in the data-flow graphs is undertaken to demonstrate the limits of parallel operations in dataflow PDE program graphs.« less

Global tree network for computing structures enabling global processing operations

DOEpatents

Blumrich; Matthias A.; Chen, Dong; Coteus, Paul W.; Gara, Alan G.; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Hoenicke, Dirk; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard D.; Takken, Todd E.; Vranas, Pavlos M.

2010-01-19

A system and method for enabling high-speed, low-latency global tree network communications among processing nodes interconnected according to a tree network structure. The global tree network enables collective reduction operations to be performed during parallel algorithm operations executing in a computer structure having a plurality of the interconnected processing nodes. Router devices are included that interconnect the nodes of the tree via links to facilitate performance of low-latency global processing operations at nodes of the virtual tree and sub-tree structures. The global operations performed include one or more of: broadcast operations downstream from a root node to leaf nodes of a virtual tree, reduction operations upstream from leaf nodes to the root node in the virtual tree, and point-to-point message passing from any node to the root node. The global tree network is configurable to provide global barrier and interrupt functionality in asynchronous or synchronized manner, and, is physically and logically partitionable.

Guided and Unguided Internet-Based Treatment for Problematic Alcohol Use - A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial.

PubMed

Sundström, Christopher; Gajecki, Mikael; Johansson, Magnus; Blankers, Matthijs; Sinadinovic, Kristina; Stenlund-Gens, Erik; Berman, Anne H

2016-01-01

The Internet has increasingly been studied as mode of delivery for interventions targeting problematic alcohol use. Most interventions have been fully automated, but some research suggests that adding counselor guidance may improve alcohol consumption outcomes. An eight-module Internet-based self-help program based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) was tested among Internet help-seekers. Eighty participants with problematic alcohol use according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT; scores of ≥ 6 for women and ≥ 8 for men) were recruited online from an open access website and randomized into three different groups. All groups were offered the same self-help program, but participants in two of the three groups received Internet-based counselor guidance in addition to the self-help program. One of the guidance groups was given a choice between guidance via asynchronous text messages or synchronous text-based chat, while the other guidance group received counselor guidance via asynchronous text messages only. In the choice group, 65% (13 of 20 participants) chose guidance via asynchronous text messages. At the 10-week post-treatment follow-up, an intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis showed that participants in the two guidance groups (choice and messages) reported significantly lower past week alcohol consumption compared to the group without guidance; 10.8 (SD = 12.1) versus 22.6 (SD = 18.4); p = 0.001; Cohen's d = 0.77. Participants in both guidance groups reported significantly lower scores on the AUDIT at follow-up compared to the group without guidance, with a mean score of 14.4 (SD = 5.2) versus 18.2 (SD = 5.9); p = 0.003; Cohen's d = 0.68. A higher proportion of participants in the guidance groups said that they would recommend the program compared to the group without guidance (81% for choice; 93% for messages versus 47% for self-help). Self-help programs for problematic alcohol use can be more effective in reducing alcohol consumption over a 10-week period when counselor guidance is added. Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02384304.

Statistics of Epidemics in Networks by Passing Messages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shrestha, Munik Kumar

Epidemic processes are common out-of-equilibrium phenomena of broad interdisciplinary interest. In this thesis, we show how message-passing approach can be a helpful tool for simulating epidemic models in disordered medium like networks, and in particular for estimating the probability that a given node will become infectious at a particular time. The sort of dynamics we consider are stochastic, where randomness can arise from the stochastic events or from the randomness of network structures. As in belief propagation, variables or messages in message-passing approach are defined on the directed edges of a network. However, unlike belief propagation, where the posterior distributions are updated according to Bayes' rule, in message-passing approach we write differential equations for the messages over time. It takes correlations between neighboring nodes into account while preventing causal signals from backtracking to their immediate source, and thus avoids "echo chamber effects" where a pair of adjacent nodes each amplify the probability that the other is infectious. In our first results, we develop a message-passing approach to threshold models of behavior popular in sociology. These are models, first proposed by Granovetter, where individuals have to hear about a trend or behavior from some number of neighbors before adopting it themselves. In thermodynamic limit of large random networks, we provide an exact analytic scheme while calculating the time dependence of the probabilities and thus learning about the whole dynamics of bootstrap percolation, which is a simple model known in statistical physics for exhibiting discontinuous phase transition. As an application, we apply a similar model to financial networks, studying when bankruptcies spread due to the sudden devaluation of shared assets in overlapping portfolios. We predict that although diversification may be good for individual institutions, it can create dangerous systemic effects, and as a result financial contagion gets worse with too much diversification. We also predict that financial system exhibits "robust yet fragile" behavior, with regions of the parameter space where contagion is rare but catastrophic whenever it occurs. In further results, we develop a message-passing approach to recurrent state epidemics like susceptible-infectious-susceptible and susceptible-infectious-recovered-susceptible where nodes can return to previously inhabited states and multiple waves of infection can pass through the population. Given that message-passing has been applied exclusively to models with one-way state changes like susceptible-infectious and susceptible-infectious-recovered, we develop message-passing for recurrent epidemics based on a new class of differential equations and demonstrate that our approach is simple and efficiently approximates results obtained from Monte Carlo simulation, and that the accuracy of message-passing is often superior to the pair approximation (which also takes second-order correlations into account).

Verification of Faulty Message Passing Systems with Continuous State Space in PVS

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pilotto, Concetta; White, Jerome

2010-01-01

We present a library of Prototype Verification System (PVS) meta-theories that verifies a class of distributed systems in which agent commu nication is through message-passing. The theoretic work, outlined in, consists of iterative schemes for solving systems of linear equations , such as message-passing extensions of the Gauss and Gauss-Seidel me thods. We briefly review that work and discuss the challenges in formally verifying it.

The serial message-passing schedule for LDPC decoding algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Mingshan; Liu, Shanshan; Zhou, Yuan; Jiang, Xue

2015-12-01

The conventional message-passing schedule for LDPC decoding algorithms is the so-called flooding schedule. It has the disadvantage that the updated messages cannot be used until next iteration, thus reducing the convergence speed . In this case, the Layered Decoding algorithm (LBP) based on serial message-passing schedule is proposed. In this paper the decoding principle of LBP algorithm is briefly introduced, and then proposed its two improved algorithms, the grouped serial decoding algorithm (Grouped LBP) and the semi-serial decoding algorithm .They can improve LBP algorithm's decoding speed while maintaining a good decoding performance.

Users manual for the Chameleon parallel programming tools

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gropp, W.; Smith, B.

1993-06-01

Message passing is a common method for writing programs for distributed-memory parallel computers. Unfortunately, the lack of a standard for message passing has hampered the construction of portable and efficient parallel programs. In an attempt to remedy this problem, a number of groups have developed their own message-passing systems, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Chameleon is a second-generation system of this type. Rather than replacing these existing systems, Chameleon is meant to supplement them by providing a uniform way to access many of these systems. Chameleon`s goals are to (a) be very lightweight (low over-head), (b) be highlymore » portable, and (c) help standardize program startup and the use of emerging message-passing operations such as collective operations on subsets of processors. Chameleon also provides a way to port programs written using PICL or Intel NX message passing to other systems, including collections of workstations. Chameleon is tracking the Message-Passing Interface (MPI) draft standard and will provide both an MPI implementation and an MPI transport layer. Chameleon provides support for heterogeneous computing by using p4 and PVM. Chameleon`s support for homogeneous computing includes the portable libraries p4, PICL, and PVM and vendor-specific implementation for Intel NX, IBM EUI (SP-1), and Thinking Machines CMMD (CM-5). Support for Ncube and PVM 3.x is also under development.« less

Performance Comparison of a Matrix Solver on a Heterogeneous Network Using Two Implementations of MPI: MPICH and LAM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Phillips, Jennifer K.

1995-01-01

Two of the current and most popular implementations of the Message-Passing Standard, Message Passing Interface (MPI), were contrasted: MPICH by Argonne National Laboratory, and LAM by the Ohio Supercomputer Center at Ohio State University. A parallel skyline matrix solver was adapted to be run in a heterogeneous environment using MPI. The Message-Passing Interface Forum was held in May 1994 which lead to a specification of library functions that implement the message-passing model of parallel communication. LAM, which creates it's own environment, is more robust in a highly heterogeneous network. MPICH uses the environment native to the machine architecture. While neither of these free-ware implementations provides the performance of native message-passing or vendor's implementations, MPICH begins to approach that performance on the SP-2. The machines used in this study were: IBM RS6000, 3 Sun4, SGI, and the IBM SP-2. Each machine is unique and a few machines required specific modifications during the installation. When installed correctly, both implementations worked well with only minor problems.

Self-Regulated Learning in Virtual Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delfino, Manuela; Dettori, Giuliana; Persico, Donatella

2008-01-01

This paper investigates self-regulated learning (SRL) in a virtual learning community of adults interacting through asynchronous textual communication. The investigation method chosen is interaction analysis, a qualitative/quantitative approach allowing a systematic study of the contents of the messages exchanged within online communities. The…

Implementing Multidisciplinary and Multi-Zonal Applications Using MPI

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fineberg, Samuel A.

1995-01-01

Multidisciplinary and multi-zonal applications are an important class of applications in the area of Computational Aerosciences. In these codes, two or more distinct parallel programs or copies of a single program are utilized to model a single problem. To support such applications, it is common to use a programming model where a program is divided into several single program multiple data stream (SPMD) applications, each of which solves the equations for a single physical discipline or grid zone. These SPMD applications are then bound together to form a single multidisciplinary or multi-zonal program in which the constituent parts communicate via point-to-point message passing routines. Unfortunately, simple message passing models, like Intel's NX library, only allow point-to-point and global communication within a single system-defined partition. This makes implementation of these applications quite difficult, if not impossible. In this report it is shown that the new Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard is a viable portable library for implementing the message passing portion of multidisciplinary applications. Further, with the extension of a portable loader, fully portable multidisciplinary application programs can be developed. Finally, the performance of MPI is compared to that of some native message passing libraries. This comparison shows that MPI can be implemented to deliver performance commensurate with native message libraries.

Development of a distributed control system for TOTEM experiment using ASIO Boost C++ libraries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cafagna, F.; Mercadante, A.; Minafra, N.; Quinto, M.; Radicioni, E.

2014-06-01

The main goals of the TOTEM Experiment at the LHC are the measurements of the elastic and total p-p cross sections and the studies of the diffractive dissociation processes. Those scientific objectives are achieved by using three tracking detectors symmetrically arranged around the interaction point called IP5. The control system is based on a C++ software that allows the user, by means of a graphical interface, direct access to hardware and handling of devices configuration. A first release of the software was designed as a monolithic block, with all functionalities being merged together. Such approach showed soon its limits, mainly poor reusability and maintainability of the source code, evident not only in phase of bug-fixing, but also when one wants to extend functionalities or apply some other modifications. This led to the decision of a radical redesign of the software, now based on the dialogue (message-passing) among separate building blocks. Thanks to the acquired extensibility, the software gained new features and now is a complete tool by which it is possible not only to configure different devices interfacing with a large subset of buses like I2C and VME, but also to do data acquisition both for calibration and physics runs. Furthermore, the software lets the user set up a series of operations to be executed sequentially to handle complex operations. To achieve maximum flexibility, the program units may be run either as a single process or as separate processes on different PCs which exchange messages over the network, thus allowing remote control of the system. Portability is ensured by the adoption of the ASIO (Asynchronous Input Output) library of Boost, a cross-platform suite of libraries which is candidate to become part of the C++ 11 standard. We present the state of the art of this project and outline the future perspectives. In particular, we describe the system architecture and the message-passing scheme. We also report on the results obtained in a first complete test of the software both as a single process and on two PCs.

Interface For Fault-Tolerant Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaver, Charles; Williamson, Michael

1989-01-01

Interface unit and controller emulator developed for research on electronic helicopter-flight-control systems equipped with artificial intelligence. Interface unit interrupt-driven system designed to link microprocessor-based, quadruply-redundant, asynchronous, ultra-reliable, fault-tolerant control system (controller) with electronic servocontrol unit that controls set of hydraulic actuators. Receives digital feedforward messages from, and transmits digital feedback messages to, controller through differential signal lines or fiber-optic cables (thus far only differential signal lines have been used). Analog signals transmitted to and from servocontrol unit via coaxial cables.

Efficient Implementation of Multigrid Solvers on Message-Passing Parrallel Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lou, John

1994-01-01

We discuss our implementation strategies for finite difference multigrid partial differential equation (PDE) solvers on message-passing systems. Our target parallel architecture is Intel parallel computers: the Delta and Paragon system.

Developing Preservice Teachers' Global Understanding through Computer-Mediated Communication Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zong, Guichun

2009-01-01

This study examines preservice teachers' conceptual understanding of global education subsequent to participation in an asynchronous web-based multinational project to discuss issues related to cultural diversity and global challenges. Data included 59 preservice teachers' online messages and reflective essays. Six perspectives emerged from this…

Exploring Use of the Coordinate Response Measure in a Multitalker Babble Paradigm

PubMed Central

Kidd, Gary R.; Fogerty, Daniel

2017-01-01

Purpose Three experiments examined the use of competing coordinate response measure (CRM) sentences as a multitalker babble. Method In Experiment I, young adults with normal hearing listened to a CRM target sentence in the presence of 2, 4, or 6 competing CRM sentences with synchronous or asynchronous onsets. In Experiment II, the condition with 6 competing sentences was explored further. Three stimulus conditions (6 talkers saying same sentence, 1 talker producing 6 different sentences, and 6 talkers each saying a different sentence) were evaluated with different methods of presentation. Experiment III examined the performance of older adults with hearing impairment in a subset of conditions from Experiment II. Results In Experiment I, performance declined with increasing numbers of talkers and improved with asynchronous sentence onsets. Experiment II identified conditions under which an increase in the number of talkers led to better performance. In Experiment III, the relative effects of the number of talkers, messages, and onset asynchrony were the same for young and older listeners. Conclusions Multitalker babble composed of CRM sentences has masking properties similar to other types of multitalker babble. However, when the number of different talkers and messages are varied independently, performance is best with more talkers and fewer messages. PMID:28249093

A formal model of asynchronous communication and its use in mechanically verifying a biphase mark protocol

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, J. Strother

1992-01-01

In this paper we present a formal model of asynchronous communication as a function in the Boyer-Moore logic. The function transforms the signal stream generated by one processor into the signal stream consumed by an independently clocked processor. This transformation 'blurs' edges and 'dilates' time due to differences in the phases and rates of the two clocks and the communications delay. The model can be used quantitatively to derive concrete performance bounds on asynchronous communications at ISO protocol level 1 (physical level). We develop part of the reusable formal theory that permits the convenient application of the model. We use the theory to show that a biphase mark protocol can be used to send messages of arbitrary length between two asynchronous processors. We study two versions of the protocol, a conventional one which uses cells of size 32 cycles and an unconventional one which uses cells of size 18. We conjecture that the protocol can be proved to work under our model for smaller cell sizes and more divergent clock rates but the proofs would be harder.

Towards Cloud-based Asynchronous Elasticity for Iterative HPC Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

da Rosa Righi, Rodrigo; Facco Rodrigues, Vinicius; André da Costa, Cristiano; Kreutz, Diego; Heiss, Hans-Ulrich

2015-10-01

Elasticity is one of the key features of cloud computing. It allows applications to dynamically scale computing and storage resources, avoiding over- and under-provisioning. In high performance computing (HPC), initiatives are normally modeled to handle bag-of-tasks or key-value applications through a load balancer and a loosely-coupled set of virtual machine (VM) instances. In the joint-field of Message Passing Interface (MPI) and tightly-coupled HPC applications, we observe the need of rewriting source codes, previous knowledge of the application and/or stop-reconfigure-and-go approaches to address cloud elasticity. Besides, there are problems related to how profit this new feature in the HPC scope, since in MPI 2.0 applications the programmers need to handle communicators by themselves, and a sudden consolidation of a VM, together with a process, can compromise the entire execution. To address these issues, we propose a PaaS-based elasticity model, named AutoElastic. It acts as a middleware that allows iterative HPC applications to take advantage of dynamic resource provisioning of cloud infrastructures without any major modification. AutoElastic provides a new concept denoted here as asynchronous elasticity, i.e., it provides a framework to allow applications to either increase or decrease their computing resources without blocking the current execution. The feasibility of AutoElastic is demonstrated through a prototype that runs a CPU-bound numerical integration application on top of the OpenNebula middleware. The results showed the saving of about 3 min at each scaling out operations, emphasizing the contribution of the new concept on contexts where seconds are precious.

Time, Space, and Dialogue in a Distance-Learning Class Discussion Board

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kabat, Katalin J.

2014-01-01

The present study investigates the temporal elements affecting asynchronous discussion board messages over a semester, ways in which time is contextualized in space and content, and students' spatio-temporal practices within fixed frames. The theoretical framework uses Lefebvre's rhythm analysis, Bakhtin's chronotope, and…

Net Results: Online Protocols Boost Group Learning Potential

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dichter, Alan; Zydney, Janet Mannheimer

2015-01-01

Educators have begun to use protocols to facilitate professional development in online spaces--partly because people need to connect from different places, but also to take advantage of new environments for learning. For example, asynchronous tools, such as discussion forums, blogs, or Google+, where participants post messages to one another at…

A wavelet approach to binary blackholes with asynchronous multitasking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Hyun; Hirschmann, Eric; Neilsen, David; Anderson, Matthew; Debuhr, Jackson; Zhang, Bo

2016-03-01

Highly accurate simulations of binary black holes and neutron stars are needed to address a variety of interesting problems in relativistic astrophysics. We present a new method for the solving the Einstein equations (BSSN formulation) using iterated interpolating wavelets. Wavelet coefficients provide a direct measure of the local approximation error for the solution and place collocation points that naturally adapt to features of the solution. Further, they exhibit exponential convergence on unevenly spaced collection points. The parallel implementation of the wavelet simulation framework presented here deviates from conventional practice in combining multi-threading with a form of message-driven computation sometimes referred to as asynchronous multitasking.

Message passing with parallel queue traversal

DOEpatents

Underwood, Keith D [Albuquerque, NM; Brightwell, Ronald B [Albuquerque, NM; Hemmert, K Scott [Albuquerque, NM

2012-05-01

In message passing implementations, associative matching structures are used to permit list entries to be searched in parallel fashion, thereby avoiding the delay of linear list traversal. List management capabilities are provided to support list entry turnover semantics and priority ordering semantics.

Text messaging to support a perinatal collaborative care model for depression: A multi-methods inquiry.

PubMed

Bhat, Amritha; Mao, Johnny; Unützer, Jürgen; Reed, Susan; Unger, Jennifer

Mental health care integrated into obstetric settings improves access to perinatal depression treatments. Digital interactions such as text messaging between patient and provider can further improve access. We describe the use of text messaging within a perinatal Collaborative Care (CC) program, and explore the association of text messaging content with perinatal depression outcomes. We analyzed data from an open treatment trial of perinatal CC in a rural obstetric clinic. Twenty five women with Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score of ≥10 enrolled in CC, and used text messaging to communicate with their Care Manager(CM). We used surveys and focus groups to assessacceptability of text messaging with surveys and focus groups. We calculated the number of text messages exchanged, and analyzed content to understand usage patterns. We explored association between text messaging content and depression outcomes. CMs initiated 85.4% messages, and patients responded to 86.9% messages. CMs used text messaging for appointment reminders, and patients used it to obtain obstetric and parenting information. CMs had concerns about the likelihood of boundary violations. Patients appreciated the asynchronous nature of text messaging. Text messaging is feasible and acceptable within a perinatal CC program. We need further research into the effectiveness of text messaging content, and response protocols. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Event Driven Messaging with Role-Based Subscriptions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bui, Tung; Bui, Bach; Malhotra, Shantanu; Chen, Fannie; Kim, rachel; Allen, Christopher; Luong, Ivy; Chang, George; Zendejas, Silvino; Sadaqathulla, Syed

2009-01-01

Event Driven Messaging with Role-Based Subscriptions (EDM-RBS) is a framework integrated into the Service Management Database (SMDB) to allow for role-based and subscription-based delivery of synchronous and asynchronous messages over JMS (Java Messaging Service), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), or SMS (Short Messaging Service). This allows for 24/7 operation with users in all parts of the world. The software classifies messages by triggering data type, application source, owner of data triggering event (mission), classification, sub-classification and various other secondary classifying tags. Messages are routed to applications or users based on subscription rules using a combination of the above message attributes. This program provides a framework for identifying connected users and their applications for targeted delivery of messages over JMS to the client applications the user is logged into. EDMRBS provides the ability to send notifications over e-mail or pager rather than having to rely on a live human to do it. It is implemented as an Oracle application that uses Oracle relational database management system intrinsic functions. It is configurable to use Oracle AQ JMS API or an external JMS provider for messaging. It fully integrates into the event-logging framework of SMDB (Subnet Management Database).

Neighbourhood-consensus message passing and its potentials in image processing applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ružic, Tijana; Pižurica, Aleksandra; Philips, Wilfried

2011-03-01

In this paper, a novel algorithm for inference in Markov Random Fields (MRFs) is presented. Its goal is to find approximate maximum a posteriori estimates in a simple manner by combining neighbourhood influence of iterated conditional modes (ICM) and message passing of loopy belief propagation (LBP). We call the proposed method neighbourhood-consensus message passing because a single joint message is sent from the specified neighbourhood to the central node. The message, as a function of beliefs, represents the agreement of all nodes within the neighbourhood regarding the labels of the central node. This way we are able to overcome the disadvantages of reference algorithms, ICM and LBP. On one hand, more information is propagated in comparison with ICM, while on the other hand, the huge amount of pairwise interactions is avoided in comparison with LBP by working with neighbourhoods. The idea is related to the previously developed iterated conditional expectations algorithm. Here we revisit it and redefine it in a message passing framework in a more general form. The results on three different benchmarks demonstrate that the proposed technique can perform well both for binary and multi-label MRFs without any limitations on the model definition. Furthermore, it manifests improved performance over related techniques either in terms of quality and/or speed.

Foundations for a healthy future.

PubMed

Riley, R; Green, J; Willis, S; Soden, E; Rushby, C; Postle, D; Wakeling, S

1998-01-01

Health promotion activities with children and young people are important as they take messages about health seriously and can be influential in spreading messages about healthy living to their friends and families. Child health professionals have an important role to play in passing on messages of positive health to children and young people. Peer education is a useful way of passing on messages about health to young people. This article shares examples of three health promotion projects with children in a community trust, looking at asthma, sex education and testicular examination.

Patient Centeredness in Electronic Communication: Evaluation of Patient-to-Health Care Team Secure Messaging

PubMed Central

Luger, Tana M; Volkman, Julie E; Rocheleau, Mary; Mueller, Nora; Barker, Anna M; Nazi, Kim M; Houston, Thomas K; Bokhour, Barbara G

2018-01-01

Background As information and communication technology is becoming more widely implemented across health care organizations, patient-provider email or asynchronous electronic secure messaging has the potential to support patient-centered communication. Within the medical home model of the Veterans Health Administration (VA), secure messaging is envisioned as a means to enhance access and strengthen the relationships between veterans and their health care team members. However, despite previous studies that have examined the content of electronic messages exchanged between patients and health care providers, less research has focused on the socioemotional aspects of the communication enacted through those messages. Objective Recognizing the potential of secure messaging to facilitate the goals of patient-centered care, the objectives of this analysis were to not only understand why patients and health care team members exchange secure messages but also to examine the socioemotional tone engendered in these messages. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional coding evaluation of a corpus of secure messages exchanged between patients and health care team members over 6 months at 8 VA facilities. We identified patients whose medical records showed secure messaging threads containing at least 2 messages and compiled a random sample of these threads. Drawing on previous literature regarding the analysis of asynchronous, patient-provider electronic communication, we developed a coding scheme comprising a series of a priori patient and health care team member codes. Three team members tested the scheme on a subset of the messages and then independently coded the sample of messaging threads. Results Of the 711 messages coded from the 384 messaging threads, 52.5% (373/711) were sent by patients and 47.5% (338/711) by health care team members. Patient and health care team member messages included logistical content (82.6%, 308/373 vs 89.1%, 301/338), were neutral in tone (70.2%, 262/373 vs 82.0%, 277/338), and respectful in nature (25.7%, 96/373 vs 33.4%, 113/338). Secure messages from health care team members sometimes appeared hurried (25.4%, 86/338) but also displayed friendliness or warmth (18.9%, 64/338) and reassurance or encouragement (18.6%, 63/338). Most patient messages involved either providing or seeking information; however, the majority of health care team member messages involved information provision in response to patient questions. Conclusions This evaluation is an important step toward understanding the content and socioemotional tone that is part of the secure messaging exchanges between patients and health care team members. Our findings were encouraging; however, there are opportunities for improvement. As health care organizations seek to supplement traditional encounters with virtual care, they must reexamine their use of secure messaging, including the patient centeredness of the communication, and the potential for more proactive use by health care team members. PMID:29519774

Asynchronous Message Service Reference Implementation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burleigh, Scott C.

2011-01-01

This software provides a library of middleware functions with a simple application programming interface, enabling implementation of distributed applications in conformance with the CCSDS AMS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems Asynchronous Message Service) specification. The AMS service, and its protocols, implement an architectural concept under which the modules of mission systems may be designed as if they were to operate in isolation, each one producing and consuming mission information without explicit awareness of which other modules are currently operating. Communication relationships among such modules are self-configuring; this tends to minimize complexity in the development and operations of modular data systems. A system built on this model is a society of generally autonomous, inter-operating modules that may fluctuate freely over time in response to changing mission objectives, modules functional upgrades, and recovery from individual module failure. The purpose of AMS, then, is to reduce mission cost and risk by providing standard, reusable infrastructure for the exchange of information among data system modules in a manner that is simple to use, highly automated, flexible, robust, scalable, and efficient. The implementation is designed to spawn multiple threads of AMS functionality under the control of an AMS application program. These threads enable all members of an AMS-based, distributed application to discover one another in real time, subscribe to messages on specific topics, and to publish messages on specific topics. The query/reply (client/server) communication model is also supported. Message exchange is optionally subject to encryption (to support confidentiality) and authorization. Fault tolerance measures in the discovery protocol minimize the likelihood of overall application failure due to any single operational error anywhere in the system. The multi-threaded design simplifies processing while enabling application nodes to operate at high speeds; linked lists protected by mutex semaphores and condition variables are used for efficient, inter-thread communication. Applications may use a variety of transport protocols underlying AMS itself, including TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), UDP (User Datagram Protocol), and message queues.

Training and Assessing Interprofessional Virtual Teams Using a Web-Based Case System.

PubMed

Dow, Alan W; Boling, Peter A; Lockeman, Kelly S; Mazmanian, Paul E; Feldman, Moshe; DiazGranados, Deborah; Browning, Joel; Coe, Antoinette; Selby-Penczak, Rachel; Hobgood, Sarah; Abbey, Linda; Parsons, Pamela; Delafuente, Jeffrey; Taylor, Suzanne F

2016-01-01

Today, clinical care is often provided by interprofessional virtual teams-groups of practitioners who work asynchronously and use technology to communicate. Members of such teams must be competent in interprofessional practice and the use of information technology, two targets for health professions education reform. The authors created a Web-based case system to teach and assess these competencies in health professions students. They created a four-module, six-week geriatric learning experience using a Web-based case system. Health professions students were divided into interprofessional virtual teams. Team members received profession-specific information, entered a summary of this information into the case system's electronic health record, answered knowledge questions about the case individually, then collaborated asynchronously to answer the same questions as a team. Individual and team knowledge scores and case activity measures--number of logins, message board posts/replies, views of message board posts--were tracked. During academic year 2012-2013, 80 teams composed of 522 students from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work participated. Knowledge scores varied by profession and within professions. Team scores were higher than individual scores (P < .001). Students and teams with higher knowledge scores had higher case activity measures. Team score was most highly correlated with number of message board posts/replies and was not correlated with number of views of message board posts. This Web-based case system provided a novel approach to teach and assess the competencies needed for virtual teams. This approach may be a valuable new tool for measuring competency in interprofessional practice.

The "VoiceForum" Platform for Spoken Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fynn, Fohn; Wigham, Chiara R.

2011-01-01

Showcased in the courseware exhibition, "VoiceForum" is a web-based software platform for asynchronous learner interaction in threaded discussions using voice and text. A dedicated space is provided for the tutor who can give feedback on a posted message and dialogue with the participants at a separate level from the main interactional…

A Primer on the Effective Use of Threaded Discussion Forums.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kirk, James J.; Orr, Robert L.

Threaded discussion forums are asynchronous, World Wide Web-based discussions occurring under a number of different topics called threads. By allowing students to post, read, and respond to messages independently of time or place, threaded discussion forums give students an opportunity for deeper reflection and more thoughtful replies than chat…

Learning Analytics for Online Discussions: Embedded and Extracted Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wise, Alyssa Friend; Zhao, Yuting; Hausknecht, Simone Nicole

2014-01-01

This paper describes an application of learning analytics that builds on an existing research program investigating how students contribute and attend to the messages of others in asynchronous online discussions. We first overview the E-Listening research program and then explain how this work was translated into analytics that students and…

Dispatching packets on a global combining network of a parallel computer

DOEpatents

Almasi, Gheorghe [Ardsley, NY; Archer, Charles J [Rochester, MN

2011-07-19

Methods, apparatus, and products are disclosed for dispatching packets on a global combining network of a parallel computer comprising a plurality of nodes connected for data communications using the network capable of performing collective operations and point to point operations that include: receiving, by an origin system messaging module on an origin node from an origin application messaging module on the origin node, a storage identifier and an operation identifier, the storage identifier specifying storage containing an application message for transmission to a target node, and the operation identifier specifying a message passing operation; packetizing, by the origin system messaging module, the application message into network packets for transmission to the target node, each network packet specifying the operation identifier and an operation type for the message passing operation specified by the operation identifier; and transmitting, by the origin system messaging module, the network packets to the target node.

MPIRUN: A Portable Loader for Multidisciplinary and Multi-Zonal Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fineberg, Samuel A.; Woodrow, Thomas S. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Multidisciplinary and multi-zonal applications are an important class of applications in the area of Computational Aerosciences. In these codes, two or more distinct parallel programs or copies of a single program are utilized to model a single problem. To support such applications, it is common to use a programming model where a program is divided into several single program multiple data stream (SPMD) applications, each of which solves the equations for a single physical discipline or grid zone. These SPMD applications are then bound together to form a single multidisciplinary or multi-zonal program in which the constituent parts communicate via point-to-point message passing routines. One method for implementing the message passing portion of these codes is with the new Message Passing Interface (MPI) standard. Unfortunately, this standard only specifies the message passing portion of an application, but does not specify any portable mechanisms for loading an application. MPIRUN was developed to provide a portable means for loading MPI programs, and was specifically targeted at multidisciplinary and multi-zonal applications. Programs using MPIRUN for loading and MPI for message passing are then portable between all machines supported by MPIRUN. MPIRUN is currently implemented for the Intel iPSC/860, TMC CM5, IBM SP-1 and SP-2, Intel Paragon, and workstation clusters. Further, MPIRUN is designed to be simple enough to port easily to any system supporting MPI.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Painter, J.; McCormick, P.; Krogh, M.

This paper presents the ACL (Advanced Computing Lab) Message Passing Library. It is a high throughput, low latency communications library, based on Thinking Machines Corp.`s CMMD, upon which message passing applications can be built. The library has been implemented on the Cray T3D, Thinking Machines CM-5, SGI workstations, and on top of PVM.

Patient Centeredness in Electronic Communication: Evaluation of Patient-to-Health Care Team Secure Messaging.

PubMed

Hogan, Timothy P; Luger, Tana M; Volkman, Julie E; Rocheleau, Mary; Mueller, Nora; Barker, Anna M; Nazi, Kim M; Houston, Thomas K; Bokhour, Barbara G

2018-03-08

As information and communication technology is becoming more widely implemented across health care organizations, patient-provider email or asynchronous electronic secure messaging has the potential to support patient-centered communication. Within the medical home model of the Veterans Health Administration (VA), secure messaging is envisioned as a means to enhance access and strengthen the relationships between veterans and their health care team members. However, despite previous studies that have examined the content of electronic messages exchanged between patients and health care providers, less research has focused on the socioemotional aspects of the communication enacted through those messages. Recognizing the potential of secure messaging to facilitate the goals of patient-centered care, the objectives of this analysis were to not only understand why patients and health care team members exchange secure messages but also to examine the socioemotional tone engendered in these messages. We conducted a cross-sectional coding evaluation of a corpus of secure messages exchanged between patients and health care team members over 6 months at 8 VA facilities. We identified patients whose medical records showed secure messaging threads containing at least 2 messages and compiled a random sample of these threads. Drawing on previous literature regarding the analysis of asynchronous, patient-provider electronic communication, we developed a coding scheme comprising a series of a priori patient and health care team member codes. Three team members tested the scheme on a subset of the messages and then independently coded the sample of messaging threads. Of the 711 messages coded from the 384 messaging threads, 52.5% (373/711) were sent by patients and 47.5% (338/711) by health care team members. Patient and health care team member messages included logistical content (82.6%, 308/373 vs 89.1%, 301/338), were neutral in tone (70.2%, 262/373 vs 82.0%, 277/338), and respectful in nature (25.7%, 96/373 vs 33.4%, 113/338). Secure messages from health care team members sometimes appeared hurried (25.4%, 86/338) but also displayed friendliness or warmth (18.9%, 64/338) and reassurance or encouragement (18.6%, 63/338). Most patient messages involved either providing or seeking information; however, the majority of health care team member messages involved information provision in response to patient questions. This evaluation is an important step toward understanding the content and socioemotional tone that is part of the secure messaging exchanges between patients and health care team members. Our findings were encouraging; however, there are opportunities for improvement. As health care organizations seek to supplement traditional encounters with virtual care, they must reexamine their use of secure messaging, including the patient centeredness of the communication, and the potential for more proactive use by health care team members. ©Timothy P Hogan, Tana M Luger, Julie E Volkman, Mary Rocheleau, Nora Mueller, Anna M Barker, Kim M Nazi, Thomas K Houston, Barbara G Bokhour. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 08.03.2018.

Asynchronous Communication: Investigating the Influences of Relational Elements and Background on the Framing Structure of Emails

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AlAfnan, Mohammad Awad

2015-01-01

This study explored the influences of relational elements and the background of communicators on the framing structure of email messages that were exchanged in an educational Institute in Malaysia. The investigation revealed that social distance played a more significant role than power relations as Malaysian respondents are, generally, more…

On a model of three-dimensional bursting and its parallel implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tabik, S.; Romero, L. F.; Garzón, E. M.; Ramos, J. I.

2008-04-01

A mathematical model for the simulation of three-dimensional bursting phenomena and its parallel implementation are presented. The model consists of four nonlinearly coupled partial differential equations that include fast and slow variables, and exhibits bursting in the absence of diffusion. The differential equations have been discretized by means of a second-order accurate in both space and time, linearly-implicit finite difference method in equally-spaced grids. The resulting system of linear algebraic equations at each time level has been solved by means of the Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) method. Three different parallel implementations of the proposed mathematical model have been developed; two of these implementations, i.e., the MPI and the PETSc codes, are based on a message passing paradigm, while the third one, i.e., the OpenMP code, is based on a shared space address paradigm. These three implementations are evaluated on two current high performance parallel architectures, i.e., a dual-processor cluster and a Shared Distributed Memory (SDM) system. A novel representation of the results that emphasizes the most relevant factors that affect the performance of the paralled implementations, is proposed. The comparative analysis of the computational results shows that the MPI and the OpenMP implementations are about twice more efficient than the PETSc code on the SDM system. It is also shown that, for the conditions reported here, the nonlinear dynamics of the three-dimensional bursting phenomena exhibits three stages characterized by asynchronous, synchronous and then asynchronous oscillations, before a quiescent state is reached. It is also shown that the fast system reaches steady state in much less time than the slow variables.

DMA engine for repeating communication patterns

DOEpatents

Chen, Dong; Gara, Alan G.; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard; Vranas, Pavlos

2010-09-21

A parallel computer system is constructed as a network of interconnected compute nodes to operate a global message-passing application for performing communications across the network. Each of the compute nodes includes one or more individual processors with memories which run local instances of the global message-passing application operating at each compute node to carry out local processing operations independent of processing operations carried out at other compute nodes. Each compute node also includes a DMA engine constructed to interact with the application via Injection FIFO Metadata describing multiple Injection FIFOs where each Injection FIFO may containing an arbitrary number of message descriptors in order to process messages with a fixed processing overhead irrespective of the number of message descriptors included in the Injection FIFO.

Improving UDP/IP Transmission Without Increasing Congestion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burleigh, Scott

2006-01-01

Datagram Retransmission (DGR) is a computer program that, within certain limits, ensures the reception of each datagram transmitted under the User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol. [User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is considered unreliable because it does not involve a reliability-ensuring connection-initiation dialogue between sender and receiver. UDP is well suited to issuing of many small messages to many different receivers.] Unlike prior software for ensuring reception of UDP datagrams, DGR does not contribute to network congestion by retransmitting data more frequently as an ever-increasing number of messages and acknowledgements is lost. Instead, DGR does just the opposite: DGR includes an adaptive timeout-interval- computing component that provides maximum opportunity for reception of acknowledgements, minimizing retransmission. By monitoring changes in the rate at which message-transmission transactions are completed, DGR detects changes in the level of congestion and responds by imposing varying degrees of delay on the transmission of new messages. In addition, DGR maximizes throughput by not waiting for acknowledgement of a message before sending the next message. All DGR communication is asynchronous, to maximize efficient utilization of network connections. DGR manages multiple concurrent datagram transmission and acknowledgement conversations.

Asynchronous Data Retrieval from an Object-Oriented Database

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gilbert, Jonathan P.; Bic, Lubomir

We present an object-oriented semantic database model which, similar to other object-oriented systems, combines the virtues of four concepts: the functional data model, a property inheritance hierarchy, abstract data types and message-driven computation. The main emphasis is on the last of these four concepts. We describe generic procedures that permit queries to be processed in a purely message-driven manner. A database is represented as a network of nodes and directed arcs, in which each node is a logical processing element, capable of communicating with other nodes by exchanging messages. This eliminates the need for shared memory and for centralized control during query processing. Hence, the model is suitable for implementation on a multiprocessor computer architecture, consisting of large numbers of loosely coupled processing elements.

Parents' views on childhood obesity: qualitative analysis of discussion board postings.

PubMed

Appleton, Jessica; Fowler, Cathrine; Brown, Nicola

2017-08-01

Childhood obesity is an increasing concern for parents and health professionals alike. Parents' perception of obesity as a current health issue for their children is important for the everyday parenting and health choices parents make. As parents are frequently going online to seek and exchange information about parenting and child health, asynchronous online discussion forums provide an opportunity to investigate their perceptions and concerns. Understanding parents' perceptions, beliefs and attitudes is important in any childhood obesity prevention and intervention. To explore parents' perceptions, perspectives and concerns regarding childhood obesity expressed on asynchronous online discussion forums. A qualitative descriptive approach using template analysis to analyse a novel data collection strategy of 34 purposefully sampled threads from two Australian-based asynchronous online discussion forums. Parents on the discussion forum displayed an understanding of childhood obesity as a public health concern, the discussion incorporated issues such as providing a healthy diet and lifestyle for children. Parents shared their own opinions and experiences that challenged or conceded to the status quo of the discussion. Parents discussed the role of health professionals in obesity prevention. There were varied opinions on the relevance of health professionals, particularly nurses, monitoring of growth and risk of obesity. This exploratory study highlights that parents perceive childhood obesity as an important public health concern, and that they understand the key public health messages of prevention and intervention. Yet, for many it is difficult to successfully implement these messages into their everyday lives. Health professionals need to play a key role in providing non-judgemental, innovative support and advice to parents to successfully implement prevention and intervention strategies.

The impact of secure messaging on workflow in primary care: Results of a multiple-case, multiple-method study.

PubMed

Hoonakker, Peter L T; Carayon, Pascale; Cartmill, Randi S

2017-04-01

Secure messaging is a relatively new addition to health information technology (IT). Several studies have examined the impact of secure messaging on (clinical) outcomes but very few studies have examined the impact on workflow in primary care clinics. In this study we examined the impact of secure messaging on workflow of clinicians, staff and patients. We used a multiple case study design with multiple data collections methods (observation, interviews and survey). Results show that secure messaging has the potential to improve communication and information flow and the organization of work in primary care clinics, partly due to the possibility of asynchronous communication. However, secure messaging can also have a negative effect on communication and increase workload, especially if patients send messages that are not appropriate for the secure messaging medium (for example, messages that are too long, complex, ambiguous, or inappropriate). Results show that clinicians are ambivalent about secure messaging. Secure messaging can add to their workload, especially if there is high message volume, and currently they are not compensated for these activities. Staff is -especially compared to clinicians- relatively positive about secure messaging and patients are overall very satisfied with secure messaging. Finally, clinicians, staff and patients think that secure messaging can have a positive effect on quality of care and patient safety. Secure messaging is a tool that has the potential to improve communication and information flow. However, the potential of secure messaging to improve workflow is dependent on the way it is implemented and used. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Sequential Analysis of Responses in Online Debates to Postings of Students Exhibiting High Versus Low Grammar and Spelling Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jeong, Allan; Li, Haiying; Pan, Andy Jiaren

2017-01-01

Given that grammatical and spelling errors have been found to influence perceived competence and credibility in written communication, this study examined how a student's grammar and spelling errors affect how other students respond to the student's postings in four online debates hosted in asynchronous threaded discussions. Message-response…

Analyzing the Social Knowledge Construction Behavioral Patterns of an Online Synchronous Collaborative Discussion Instructional Activity Using an Instant Messaging Tool: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hou, Huei-Tse; Wu, Sheng-Yi

2011-01-01

Online discussions have been widely utilized as an educational activity, and much research has been conducted on the process and behaviors involved in asynchronous discussions. However, research on behavioral patterns in learners' synchronous discussions, including the process of social knowledge construction and project coordination is limited.…

The Effects of Facilitating Feedback on Online Learners' Cognitive Engagement: Evidence from the Asynchronous Online Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guo, Wenge; Chen, Ye; Lei, Jing; Wen, Yan

2014-01-01

With a large-scale online K-12 teacher professional development course as the research context, this study examined the effects of facilitating feedback on online learners' cognitive engagement using quasi-experiment method. A total of 1,540 discussion messages from 110 learners (65 in the experimental group and 45 in the control group) were both…

Message Passing vs. Shared Address Space on a Cluster of SMPs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shan, Hongzhang; Singh, Jaswinder Pal; Oliker, Leonid; Biswas, Rupak

2000-01-01

The convergence of scalable computer architectures using clusters of PCs (or PC-SMPs) with commodity networking has become an attractive platform for high end scientific computing. Currently, message-passing and shared address space (SAS) are the two leading programming paradigms for these systems. Message-passing has been standardized with MPI, and is the most common and mature programming approach. However message-passing code development can be extremely difficult, especially for irregular structured computations. SAS offers substantial ease of programming, but may suffer from performance limitations due to poor spatial locality, and high protocol overhead. In this paper, we compare the performance of and programming effort, required for six applications under both programming models on a 32 CPU PC-SMP cluster. Our application suite consists of codes that typically do not exhibit high efficiency under shared memory programming. due to their high communication to computation ratios and complex communication patterns. Results indicate that SAS can achieve about half the parallel efficiency of MPI for most of our applications: however, on certain classes of problems SAS performance is competitive with MPI. We also present new algorithms for improving the PC cluster performance of MPI collective operations.

Simple Algorithms for Distributed Leader Election in Anonymous Synchronous Rings and Complete Networks Inspired by Neural Development in Fruit Flies.

PubMed

Xu, Lei; Jeavons, Peter

2015-11-01

Leader election in anonymous rings and complete networks is a very practical problem in distributed computing. Previous algorithms for this problem are generally designed for a classical message passing model where complex messages are exchanged. However, the need to send and receive complex messages makes such algorithms less practical for some real applications. We present some simple synchronous algorithms for distributed leader election in anonymous rings and complete networks that are inspired by the development of the neural system of the fruit fly. Our leader election algorithms all assume that only one-bit messages are broadcast by nodes in the network and processors are only able to distinguish between silence and the arrival of one or more messages. These restrictions allow implementations to use a simpler message-passing architecture. Even with these harsh restrictions our algorithms are shown to achieve good time and message complexity both analytically and experimentally.

HERMIES-I: a mobile robot for navigation and manipulation experiments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Weisbin, C.R.; Barhen, J.; de Saussure, G.

1985-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to report the current status of investigations ongoing at the Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) in the areas of navigation and manipulation in unstructured environments. The HERMIES-I mobile robot, a prototype of a series which contains many of the major features needed for remote work in hazardous environments is discussed. Initial experimental work at CESAR has begun in the area of navigation. It briefly reviews some of the ongoing research in autonomous navigation and describes initial research with HERMIES-I and associated graphic simulation. Since the HERMIES robots will generally be composed ofmore » a variety of asynchronously controlled hardware components (such as manipulator arms, digital image sensors, sonars, etc.) it seems appropriate to consider future development of the HERMIES brain as a hypercube ensemble machine with concurrent computation and associated message passing. The basic properties of such a hypercube architecture are presented. Decision-making under uncertainty eventually permeates all of our work. Following a survey of existing analytical approaches, it was decided that a stronger theoretical basis is required. As such, this paper presents the framework for a recently developed hybrid uncertainty theory. 21 refs., 2 figs.« less

A message passing kernel for the hypercluster parallel processing test bed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blech, Richard A.; Quealy, Angela; Cole, Gary L.

1989-01-01

A Message-Passing Kernel (MPK) for the Hypercluster parallel-processing test bed is described. The Hypercluster is being developed at the NASA Lewis Research Center to support investigations of parallel algorithms and architectures for computational fluid and structural mechanics applications. The Hypercluster resembles the hypercube architecture except that each node consists of multiple processors communicating through shared memory. The MPK efficiently routes information through the Hypercluster, using a message-passing protocol when necessary and faster shared-memory communication whenever possible. The MPK also interfaces all of the processors with the Hypercluster operating system (HYCLOPS), which runs on a Front-End Processor (FEP). This approach distributes many of the I/O tasks to the Hypercluster processors and eliminates the need for a separate I/O support program on the FEP.

Patient-generated secure messages and eVisits on a patient portal: are patients at risk?

PubMed Central

North, Frederick; Crane, Sarah J; Stroebel, Robert J; Cha, Stephen S; Edell, Eric S; Tulledge-Scheitel, Sidna M

2013-01-01

Background Patient portals are becoming increasingly common, but the safety of patient messages and eVisits has not been well studied. Unlike patient-to-nurse telephonic communication, patient messages and eVisits involve an asynchronous process that could be hazardous if patients were using it for time-sensitive symptoms such as chest pain or dyspnea. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 7322 messages (6430 secure messages and 892 eVisits). To assess the overall risk associated with the messages, we looked for deaths within 30 days of the message and hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits within 7 days following the message. We also examined message content for symptoms of chest pain, breathing concerns, and other symptoms associated with high risk. Results Two deaths occurred within 30 days of a patient-generated message, but were not related to the message. There were six hospitalizations related to a previous secure message (0.09% of secure messages), and two hospitalizations related to a previous eVisit (0.22% of eVisits). High-risk symptoms were present in 3.5% of messages but a subject line search to identify these high-risk messages had a sensitivity of only 15% and a positive predictive value of 29%. Conclusions Patients use portal messages 3.5% of the time for potentially high-risk symptoms of chest pain, breathing concerns, abdominal pain, palpitations, lightheadedness, and vomiting. Death, hospitalization, or an ED visit was an infrequent outcome following a secure message or eVisit. Screening the message subject line for high-risk symptoms was not successful in identifying high-risk message content. PMID:23703826

Information Management and Learning in Computer Conferences: Coping with Irrelevant and Unconnected Messages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwan, Stephan; Straub, Daniela; Hesse, Friedrich W.

2002-01-01

Describes a study of computer conferencing where learners interacted over the course of four log-in sessions to acquire the knowledge sufficient to pass a learning test. Studied the number of messages irrelevant to the topic, explicit threading of messages, reading times of relevant messages, and learning outcomes. (LRW)

What it Takes to Get Passed On: Message Content, Style, and Structure as Predictors of Retransmission in the Boston Marathon Bombing Response

PubMed Central

Sutton, Jeannette; Gibson, C. Ben; Spiro, Emma S.; League, Cedar; Fitzhugh, Sean M.; Butts, Carter T.

2015-01-01

Message retransmission is a central aspect of information diffusion. In a disaster context, the passing on of official warning messages by members of the public also serves as a behavioral indicator of message salience, suggesting that particular messages are (or are not) perceived by the public to be both noteworthy and valuable enough to share with others. This study provides the first examination of terse message retransmission of official warning messages in response to a domestic terrorist attack, the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. Using messages posted from public officials’ Twitter accounts that were active during the period of the Boston Marathon bombing and manhunt, we examine the features of messages that are associated with their retransmission. We focus on message content, style, and structure, as well as the networked relationships of message senders to answer the question: what characteristics of a terse message sent under conditions of imminent threat predict its retransmission among members of the public? We employ a negative binomial model to examine how message characteristics affect message retransmission. We find that, rather than any single effect dominating the process, retransmission of official Tweets during the Boston bombing response was jointly influenced by various message content, style, and sender characteristics. These findings suggest the need for more work that investigates impact of multiple factors on the allocation of attention and on message retransmission during hazard events. PMID:26295584

Distributed Problem-Based Learning in Social Economy: A Study of the Use of a Structured Method for Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bjorck, Ulric

Students' use of distributed Problem-Based Learning (dPBL) in university courses in social economy was studied. A sociocultural framework was used to analyze the actions of students focusing on their mastery of dPBL. The main data material consisted of messages written in an asynchronous conferencing system by 50 Swedish college students in 2…

The Edge-Disjoint Path Problem on Random Graphs by Message-Passing.

PubMed

Altarelli, Fabrizio; Braunstein, Alfredo; Dall'Asta, Luca; De Bacco, Caterina; Franz, Silvio

2015-01-01

We present a message-passing algorithm to solve a series of edge-disjoint path problems on graphs based on the zero-temperature cavity equations. Edge-disjoint paths problems are important in the general context of routing, that can be defined by incorporating under a unique framework both traffic optimization and total path length minimization. The computation of the cavity equations can be performed efficiently by exploiting a mapping of a generalized edge-disjoint path problem on a star graph onto a weighted maximum matching problem. We perform extensive numerical simulations on random graphs of various types to test the performance both in terms of path length minimization and maximization of the number of accommodated paths. In addition, we test the performance on benchmark instances on various graphs by comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms and results found in the literature. Our message-passing algorithm always outperforms the others in terms of the number of accommodated paths when considering non trivial instances (otherwise it gives the same trivial results). Remarkably, the largest improvement in performance with respect to the other methods employed is found in the case of benchmarks with meshes, where the validity hypothesis behind message-passing is expected to worsen. In these cases, even though the exact message-passing equations do not converge, by introducing a reinforcement parameter to force convergence towards a sub optimal solution, we were able to always outperform the other algorithms with a peak of 27% performance improvement in terms of accommodated paths. On random graphs, we numerically observe two separated regimes: one in which all paths can be accommodated and one in which this is not possible. We also investigate the behavior of both the number of paths to be accommodated and their minimum total length.

The Edge-Disjoint Path Problem on Random Graphs by Message-Passing

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

We present a message-passing algorithm to solve a series of edge-disjoint path problems on graphs based on the zero-temperature cavity equations. Edge-disjoint paths problems are important in the general context of routing, that can be defined by incorporating under a unique framework both traffic optimization and total path length minimization. The computation of the cavity equations can be performed efficiently by exploiting a mapping of a generalized edge-disjoint path problem on a star graph onto a weighted maximum matching problem. We perform extensive numerical simulations on random graphs of various types to test the performance both in terms of path length minimization and maximization of the number of accommodated paths. In addition, we test the performance on benchmark instances on various graphs by comparison with state-of-the-art algorithms and results found in the literature. Our message-passing algorithm always outperforms the others in terms of the number of accommodated paths when considering non trivial instances (otherwise it gives the same trivial results). Remarkably, the largest improvement in performance with respect to the other methods employed is found in the case of benchmarks with meshes, where the validity hypothesis behind message-passing is expected to worsen. In these cases, even though the exact message-passing equations do not converge, by introducing a reinforcement parameter to force convergence towards a sub optimal solution, we were able to always outperform the other algorithms with a peak of 27% performance improvement in terms of accommodated paths. On random graphs, we numerically observe two separated regimes: one in which all paths can be accommodated and one in which this is not possible. We also investigate the behavior of both the number of paths to be accommodated and their minimum total length. PMID:26710102

Message passing with a limited number of DMA byte counters

DOEpatents

Blocksome, Michael [Rochester, MN; Chen, Dong [Croton on Hudson, NY; Giampapa, Mark E [Irvington, NY; Heidelberger, Philip [Cortlandt Manor, NY; Kumar, Sameer [White Plains, NY; Parker, Jeffrey J [Rochester, MN

2011-10-04

A method for passing messages in a parallel computer system constructed as a plurality of compute nodes interconnected as a network where each compute node includes a DMA engine but includes only a limited number of byte counters for tracking a number of bytes that are sent or received by the DMA engine, where the byte counters may be used in shared counter or exclusive counter modes of operation. The method includes using rendezvous protocol, a source compute node deterministically sending a request to send (RTS) message with a single RTS descriptor using an exclusive injection counter to track both the RTS message and message data to be sent in association with the RTS message, to a destination compute node such that the RTS descriptor indicates to the destination compute node that the message data will be adaptively routed to the destination node. Using one DMA FIFO at the source compute node, the RTS descriptors are maintained for rendezvous messages destined for the destination compute node to ensure proper message data ordering thereat. Using a reception counter at a DMA engine, the destination compute node tracks reception of the RTS and associated message data and sends a clear to send (CTS) message to the source node in a rendezvous protocol form of a remote get to accept the RTS message and message data and processing the remote get (CTS) by the source compute node DMA engine to provide the message data to be sent.

Public-channel cryptography based on mutual chaos pass filters.

PubMed

Klein, Einat; Gross, Noam; Kopelowitz, Evi; Rosenbluh, Michael; Khaykovich, Lev; Kinzel, Wolfgang; Kanter, Ido

2006-10-01

We study the mutual coupling of chaotic lasers and observe both experimentally and in numeric simulations that there exists a regime of parameters for which two mutually coupled chaotic lasers establish isochronal synchronization, while a third laser coupled unidirectionally to one of the pair does not synchronize. We then propose a cryptographic scheme, based on the advantage of mutual coupling over unidirectional coupling, where all the parameters of the system are public knowledge. We numerically demonstrate that in such a scheme the two communicating lasers can add a message signal (compressed binary message) to the transmitted coupling signal and recover the message in both directions with high fidelity by using a mutual chaos pass filter procedure. An attacker, however, fails to recover an errorless message even if he amplifies the coupling signal.

A thematic analysis of messages posted by moderators within health-related asynchronous online support forums.

PubMed

Smedley, Richard M; Coulson, Neil S

2017-09-01

To identify and describe the activities performed by online support community moderators. A total of 790 messages were downloaded for analysis. Messages were written by 59 moderators from 6 forums that represent a diverse range of conditions (arthritis, complex regional pain syndrome, Crohn's disease, depression, diabetes and Huntington's disease). Thematic analysis revealed four themes: supportive tasks supportive tasks involve providing help to members, moderators sharing experiences shows how they use forums to fulfil their own personal support needs, making announcements about new discoveries and upcoming events, and administrative tasks such as enforcing rules and deleting spam. These results are consistent with the helper-therapy principle and provide a new insight into the diverse and varied range of activities carried out by moderators. Moderators perform many roles, including using forums for their own support needs. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An Efficient Two-Tier Causal Protocol for Mobile Distributed Systems

PubMed Central

Dominguez, Eduardo Lopez; Pomares Hernandez, Saul E.; Gomez, Gustavo Rodriguez; Medina, Maria Auxilio

2013-01-01

Causal ordering is a useful tool for mobile distributed systems (MDS) to reduce the non-determinism induced by three main aspects: host mobility, asynchronous execution, and unpredictable communication delays. Several causal protocols for MDS exist. Most of them, in order to reduce the overhead and the computational cost over wireless channels and mobile hosts (MH), ensure causal ordering at and according to the causal view of the Base Stations. Nevertheless, these protocols introduce certain disadvantage, such as unnecessary inhibition at the delivery of messages. In this paper, we present an efficient causal protocol for groupware that satisfies the MDS's constraints, avoiding unnecessary inhibitions and ensuring the causal delivery based on the view of the MHs. One interesting aspect of our protocol is that it dynamically adapts the causal information attached to each message based on the number of messages with immediate dependency relation, and this is not directly proportional to the number of MHs. PMID:23585828

Investigation of Asynchronous Events in Non-Time-Managed Federations

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

filtering allowed the use of 80% of received messages. The effects of network latency can be minimized by designing for uniformity in latency across the...quantified tradeoffs between time and non-time-managed federations in the presence of network latency, which is a major federation design issue. The...presence sur Ie reseau de trafic peu intense comparativement aux ressources disponibles. On a suppose que la baisse du rendement resultait

An implementation and performance measurement of the progressive retry technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Suri, Gaurav; Huang, Yennun; Wang, Yi-Min; Fuchs, W. Kent; Kintala, Chandra

1995-01-01

This paper describes a recovery technique called progressive retry for bypassing software faults in message-passing applications. The technique is implemented as reusable modules to provide application-level software fault tolerance. The paper describes the implementation of the technique and presents results from the application of progressive retry to two telecommunications systems. the results presented show that the technique is helpful in reducing the total recovery time for message-passing applications.

Belief propagation decoding of quantum channels by passing quantum messages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Renes, Joseph M.

2017-07-01

The belief propagation (BP) algorithm is a powerful tool in a wide range of disciplines from statistical physics to machine learning to computational biology, and is ubiquitous in decoding classical error-correcting codes. The algorithm works by passing messages between nodes of the factor graph associated with the code and enables efficient decoding of the channel, in some cases even up to the Shannon capacity. Here we construct the first BP algorithm which passes quantum messages on the factor graph and is capable of decoding the classical-quantum channel with pure state outputs. This gives explicit decoding circuits whose number of gates is quadratic in the code length. We also show that this decoder can be modified to work with polar codes for the pure state channel and as part of a decoder for transmitting quantum information over the amplitude damping channel. These represent the first explicit capacity-achieving decoders for non-Pauli channels.

LCAMP: Location Constrained Approximate Message Passing for Compressed Sensing MRI

PubMed Central

Sung, Kyunghyun; Daniel, Bruce L; Hargreaves, Brian A

2016-01-01

Iterative thresholding methods have been extensively studied as faster alternatives to convex optimization methods for solving large-sized problems in compressed sensing. A novel iterative thresholding method called LCAMP (Location Constrained Approximate Message Passing) is presented for reducing computational complexity and improving reconstruction accuracy when a nonzero location (or sparse support) constraint can be obtained from view shared images. LCAMP modifies the existing approximate message passing algorithm by replacing the thresholding stage with a location constraint, which avoids adjusting regularization parameters or thresholding levels. This work is first compared with other conventional reconstruction methods using random 1D signals and then applied to dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MRI to demonstrate the excellent reconstruction accuracy (less than 2% absolute difference) and low computation time (5 - 10 seconds using Matlab) with highly undersampled 3D data (244 × 128 × 48; overall reduction factor = 10). PMID:23042658

Efficient Tracing for On-the-Fly Space-Time Displays in a Debugger for Message Passing Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hood, Robert; Matthews, Gregory

2001-01-01

In this work we describe the implementation of a practical mechanism for collecting and displaying trace information in a debugger for message passing programs. We introduce a trace format that is highly compressible while still providing information adequate for debugging purposes. We make the mechanism convenient for users to access by incorporating the trace collection in a set of wrappers for the MPI (message passing interface) communication library. We implement several debugger operations that use the trace display: consistent stoplines, undo, and rollback. They all are implemented using controlled replay, which executes at full speed in target processes until the appropriate position in the computation is reached. They provide convenient mechanisms for getting to places in the execution where the full power of a state-based debugger can be brought to bear on isolating communication errors.

Design of a network for concurrent message passing systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Paul Y.

1988-08-01

We describe the design of the network design frame (NDF), a self-timed routing chip for a message-passing concurrent computer. The NDF uses a partitioned data path, low-voltage output drivers, and a distributed token-passing arbiter to provide a bandwidth of 450 Mbits/sec into the network. Wormhole routing and bidirectional virtual channels are used to provide low latency communications, less than 2us latency to deliver a 216 bit message across the diameter of a 1K node mess-connected machine. To support concurrent software systems, the NDF provides two logical networks, one for user messages and one for system messages. The two networks share the same set of physical wires. To facilitate the development of network nodes, the NDF is a design frame. The NDF circuitry is integrated into the pad frame of a chip leaving the center of the chip uncommitted. We define an analytic framework in which to study the effects of network size, network buffering capacity, bidirectional channels, and traffic on this class of networks. The response of the network to various combinations of these parameters are obtained through extensive simulation of the network model. Through simulation, we are able to observe the macro behavior of the network as opposed to the micro behavior of the NDF routing controller.

LEGION: Lightweight Expandable Group of Independently Operating Nodes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burl, Michael C.

2012-01-01

LEGION is a lightweight C-language software library that enables distributed asynchronous data processing with a loosely coupled set of compute nodes. Loosely coupled means that a node can offer itself in service to a larger task at any time and can withdraw itself from service at any time, provided it is not actively engaged in an assignment. The main program, i.e., the one attempting to solve the larger task, does not need to know up front which nodes will be available, how many nodes will be available, or at what times the nodes will be available, which is normally the case in a "volunteer computing" framework. The LEGION software accomplishes its goals by providing message-based, inter-process communication similar to MPI (message passing interface), but without the tight coupling requirements. The software is lightweight and easy to install as it is written in standard C with no exotic library dependencies. LEGION has been demonstrated in a challenging planetary science application in which a machine learning system is used in closed-loop fashion to efficiently explore the input parameter space of a complex numerical simulation. The machine learning system decides which jobs to run through the simulator; then, through LEGION calls, the system farms those jobs out to a collection of compute nodes, retrieves the job results as they become available, and updates a predictive model of how the simulator maps inputs to outputs. The machine learning system decides which new set of jobs would be most informative to run given the results so far; this basic loop is repeated until sufficient insight into the physical system modeled by the simulator is obtained.

A web-based and mobile patient-centered ''microblog'' messaging platform to improve care team communication in acute care.

PubMed

Dalal, Anuj K; Schnipper, Jeffrey; Massaro, Anthony; Hanna, John; Mlaver, Eli; McNally, Kelly; Stade, Diana; Morrison, Constance; Bates, David W

2017-04-01

Communication in acute care settings is fragmented and occurs asynchronously via a variety of electronic modalities. Providers are often not on the same page with regard to the plan of care. We designed and developed a secure, patient-centered "microblog" messaging platform that identifies care team members by synchronizing with the electronic health record, and directs providers to a single forum where they can communicate about the plan of care. The system was used for 35% of patients admitted to a medical intensive care unit over a 6-month period. Major themes in messages included care coordination (49%), clinical summarization (29%), and care team collaboration (27%). Message transparency and persistence were seen as useful features by 83% and 62% of respondents, respectively. Availability of alternative messaging tools and variable use by non-unit providers were seen as main barriers to adoption by 83% and 62% of respondents, respectively. This approach has much potential to improve communication across settings once barriers are addressed. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Scalable and Resilient Middleware to Handle Information Exchange during Environment Crisis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tao, R.; Poslad, S.; Moßgraber, J.; Middleton, S.; Hammitzsch, M.

2012-04-01

The EU FP7 TRIDEC project focuses on enabling real-time, intelligent, information management of collaborative, complex, critical decision processes for earth management. A key challenge is to promote a communication infrastructure to facilitate interoperable environment information services during environment events and crises such as tsunamis and drilling, during which increasing volumes and dimensionality of disparate information sources, including sensor-based and human-based ones, can result, and need to be managed. Such a system needs to support: scalable, distributed messaging; asynchronous messaging; open messaging to handling changing clients such as new and retired automated system and human information sources becoming online or offline; flexible data filtering, and heterogeneous access networks (e.g., GSM, WLAN and LAN). In addition, the system needs to be resilient to handle the ICT system failures, e.g. failure, degradation and overloads, during environment events. There are several system middleware choices for TRIDEC based upon a Service-oriented-architecture (SOA), Event-driven-Architecture (EDA), Cloud Computing, and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). In an SOA, everything is a service (e.g. data access, processing and exchange); clients can request on demand or subscribe to services registered by providers; more often interaction is synchronous. In an EDA system, events that represent significant changes in state can be processed simply, or as streams or more complexly. Cloud computing is a virtualization, interoperable and elastic resource allocation model. An ESB, a fundamental component for enterprise messaging, supports synchronous and asynchronous message exchange models and has inbuilt resilience against ICT failure. Our middleware proposal is an ESB based hybrid architecture model: an SOA extension supports more synchronous workflows; EDA assists the ESB to handle more complex event processing; Cloud computing can be used to increase and decrease the ESB resources on demand. To reify this hybrid ESB centric architecture, we will adopt two complementary approaches: an open source one for scalability and resilience improvement while a commercial one can be used for ultra-speed messaging, whilst we can bridge between these two to support interoperability. In TRIDEC, to manage such a hybrid messaging system, overlay and underlay management techniques will be adopted. The managers (both global and local) will collect, store and update status information (e.g. CPU utilization, free space, number of clients) and balance the usage, throughput, and delays to improve resilience and scalability. The expected resilience improvement includes dynamic failover, self-healing, pre-emptive load balancing, and bottleneck prediction while the expected improvement for scalability includes capacity estimation, Http Bridge, and automatic configuration and reconfiguration (e.g. add or delete clients and servers).

The graphical brain: Belief propagation and active inference

PubMed Central

Friston, Karl J.; Parr, Thomas; de Vries, Bert

2018-01-01

This paper considers functional integration in the brain from a computational perspective. We ask what sort of neuronal message passing is mandated by active inference—and what implications this has for context-sensitive connectivity at microscopic and macroscopic levels. In particular, we formulate neuronal processing as belief propagation under deep generative models. Crucially, these models can entertain both discrete and continuous states, leading to distinct schemes for belief updating that play out on the same (neuronal) architecture. Technically, we use Forney (normal) factor graphs to elucidate the requisite message passing in terms of its form and scheduling. To accommodate mixed generative models (of discrete and continuous states), one also has to consider link nodes or factors that enable discrete and continuous representations to talk to each other. When mapping the implicit computational architecture onto neuronal connectivity, several interesting features emerge. For example, Bayesian model averaging and comparison, which link discrete and continuous states, may be implemented in thalamocortical loops. These and other considerations speak to a computational connectome that is inherently state dependent and self-organizing in ways that yield to a principled (variational) account. We conclude with simulations of reading that illustrate the implicit neuronal message passing, with a special focus on how discrete (semantic) representations inform, and are informed by, continuous (visual) sampling of the sensorium. Author Summary This paper considers functional integration in the brain from a computational perspective. We ask what sort of neuronal message passing is mandated by active inference—and what implications this has for context-sensitive connectivity at microscopic and macroscopic levels. In particular, we formulate neuronal processing as belief propagation under deep generative models that can entertain both discrete and continuous states. This leads to distinct schemes for belief updating that play out on the same (neuronal) architecture. Technically, we use Forney (normal) factor graphs to characterize the requisite message passing, and link this formal characterization to canonical microcircuits and extrinsic connectivity in the brain. PMID:29417960

CSlib, a library to couple codes via Client/Server messaging

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Plimpton, Steve

The CSlib is a small, portable library which enables two (or more) independent simulation codes to be coupled, by exchanging messages with each other. Both codes link to the library when they are built, and can them communicate with each other as they run. The messages contain data or instructions that the two codes send back-and-forth to each other. The messaging can take place via files, sockets, or MPI. The latter is a standard distributed-memory message-passing library.

High-Performance Design Patterns for Modern Fortran

DOE PAGES

Haveraaen, Magne; Morris, Karla; Rouson, Damian; ...

2015-01-01

This paper presents ideas for using coordinate-free numerics in modern Fortran to achieve code flexibility in the partial differential equation (PDE) domain. We also show how Fortran, over the last few decades, has changed to become a language well-suited for state-of-the-art software development. Fortran’s new coarray distributed data structure, the language’s class mechanism, and its side-effect-free, pure procedure capability provide the scaffolding on which we implement HPC software. These features empower compilers to organize parallel computations with efficient communication. We present some programming patterns that support asynchronous evaluation of expressions comprised of parallel operations on distributed data. We implemented thesemore » patterns using coarrays and the message passing interface (MPI). We compared the codes’ complexity and performance. The MPI code is much more complex and depends on external libraries. The MPI code on Cray hardware using the Cray compiler is 1.5–2 times faster than the coarray code on the same hardware. The Intel compiler implements coarrays atop Intel’s MPI library with the result apparently being 2–2.5 times slower than manually coded MPI despite exhibiting nearly linear scaling efficiency. As compilers mature and further improvements to coarrays comes in Fortran 2015, we expect this performance gap to narrow.« less

Design and Implementation of an Operations Module for the ARGOS paperless Ship System

DTIC Science & Technology

1989-06-01

A. OPERATIONS STACK SCRIPTS SCRIPTS FOR STACK: operations * BACKGROUND #1: Operations * on openStack hide message box show menuBar pass openStack end... openStack ** CARD #1, BUTTON #1: Up ***** on mouseUp visual effect zoom out go to card id 10931 of stack argos end mouseUp ** CARD #1, BUTTON #2...STACK SCRIPTS SCRIPTS FOR STACK: Reports ** BACKGROUND #1: Operations * on openStack hie message box show menuBar pass openStack end openStack ** CARD #1

Experiences Using OpenMP Based on Compiler Directed Software DSM on a PC Cluster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, Matthias; Jost, Gabriele; Mueller, Matthias; Ruehle, Roland; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

In this work we report on our experiences running OpenMP (message passing) programs on a commodity cluster of PCs (personal computers) running a software distributed shared memory (DSM) system. We describe our test environment and report on the performance of a subset of the NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmarks that have been automatically parallelized for OpenMP. We compare the performance of the OpenMP implementations with that of their message passing counterparts and discuss performance differences.

Charon Message-Passing Toolkit for Scientific Computations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanderWijngaart, Rob F.; Yan, Jerry (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Charon is a library, callable from C and Fortran, that aids the conversion of structured-grid legacy codes-such as those used in the numerical computation of fluid flows-into parallel, high- performance codes. Key are functions that define distributed arrays, that map between distributed and non-distributed arrays, and that allow easy specification of common communications on structured grids. The library is based on the widely accepted MPI message passing standard. We present an overview of the functionality of Charon, and some representative results.

Couriers in the Inca Empire: Getting Your Message Across. [Lesson Plan].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

2002

This lesson shows how the Inca communicated across the vast stretches of their mountain realm, the largest empire of the pre-industrial world. The lesson explains how couriers carried messages along mountain-ridge roads, up and down stone steps, and over chasm-spanning footbridges. It states that couriers could pass a message from Quito (Ecuador)…

Virtually-synchronous communication based on a weak failure suspector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schiper, Andre; Ricciardi, Aleta

1993-01-01

Failure detectors (or, more accurately Failure Suspectors (FS)) appear to be a fundamental service upon which to build fault-tolerant, distributed applications. This paper shows that a FS with very weak semantics (i.e., that delivers failure and recovery information in no specific order) suffices to implement virtually-synchronous communication (VSC) in an asynchronous system subject to process crash failures and network partitions. The VSC paradigm is particularly useful in asynchronous systems and greatly simplifies building fault-tolerant applications that mask failures by replicating processes. We suggest a three-component architecture to implement virtually-synchronous communication: (1) at the lowest level, the FS component; (2) on top of it, a component (2a) that defines new views; and (3) a component (2b) that reliably multicasts messages within a view. The issues covered in this paper also lead to a better understanding of the various membership service semantics proposed in recent literature.

Inference in the brain: Statistics flowing in redundant population codes

PubMed Central

Pitkow, Xaq; Angelaki, Dora E

2017-01-01

It is widely believed that the brain performs approximate probabilistic inference to estimate causal variables in the world from ambiguous sensory data. To understand these computations, we need to analyze how information is represented and transformed by the actions of nonlinear recurrent neural networks. We propose that these probabilistic computations function by a message-passing algorithm operating at the level of redundant neural populations. To explain this framework, we review its underlying concepts, including graphical models, sufficient statistics, and message-passing, and then describe how these concepts could be implemented by recurrently connected probabilistic population codes. The relevant information flow in these networks will be most interpretable at the population level, particularly for redundant neural codes. We therefore outline a general approach to identify the essential features of a neural message-passing algorithm. Finally, we argue that to reveal the most important aspects of these neural computations, we must study large-scale activity patterns during moderately complex, naturalistic behaviors. PMID:28595050

Critical field-exponents for secure message-passing in modular networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shekhtman, Louis M.; Danziger, Michael M.; Bonamassa, Ivan; Buldyrev, Sergey V.; Caldarelli, Guido; Zlatić, Vinko; Havlin, Shlomo

2018-05-01

We study secure message-passing in the presence of multiple adversaries in modular networks. We assume a dominant fraction of nodes in each module have the same vulnerability, i.e., the same entity spying on them. We find both analytically and via simulations that the links between the modules (interlinks) have effects analogous to a magnetic field in a spin-system in that for any amount of interlinks the system no longer undergoes a phase transition. We then define the exponents δ, which relates the order parameter (the size of the giant secure component) at the critical point to the field strength (average number of interlinks per node), and γ, which describes the susceptibility near criticality. These are found to be δ = 2 and γ = 1 (with the scaling of the order parameter near the critical point given by β = 1). When two or more vulnerabilities are equally present in a module we find δ = 1 and γ = 0 (with β ≥ 2). Apart from defining a previously unidentified universality class, these exponents show that increasing connections between modules is more beneficial for security than increasing connections within modules. We also measure the correlation critical exponent ν, and the upper critical dimension d c , finding that ν {d}c=3 as for ordinary percolation, suggesting that for secure message-passing d c = 6. These results provide an interesting analogy between secure message-passing in modular networks and the physics of magnetic spin-systems.

How language affects peer responsiveness in an online cancer support group: implications for treatment design and facilitation.

PubMed

Lewallen, Andrea C; Owen, Jason E; Bantum, Erin O'Carroll; Stanton, Annette L

2014-07-01

Little is known about how positive group interactions develop in online support groups. Previous research suggests that message content, self-disclosure, and emotional expression may be central to this process. The purpose of this study was to identify linguistic and qualitative characteristics of participants' messages that predict how other participants respond in an asynchronous discussion board for cancer-related distress. 525 discussion board messages posted by 116 participants in the health-space.net trial were collected. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (2001) was used to identify linguistic markers of emotional expression and pronoun use. Message topics were identified using qualitative analysis. Logistic regression and chi-square analyses were used to evaluate whether linguistic characteristics and message topics predicted receiving a response from other survivors in the online group. Messages were more likely to receive a reply if they had higher word count, OR=1.30, p=0.001, or fewer second-person pronouns, OR=0.923, p=0.040. Messages with high levels of positive emotion were less likely to receive a reply, OR=0.94, p=0.03. Common message topics related to self-disclosure (51%), the support group (38.5%), medical experiences (30.9%), and experiences with the website (30.1%). Several message topics were associated with greater likelihood of a reply: self-disclosure (p<0.001), medical experiences (p=0.01), relationship issues (p=0.05), and introductory posts (p<0.01). Informing participants how to introduce themselves to the group (i.e., detailed and self-focused messages discussing personal issues such as the effects of illness on life and relationships) could promote cohesion and enhance overall engagement with Internet-based support groups or interventions. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PRAIS: Distributed, real-time knowledge-based systems made easy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldstein, David G.

1990-01-01

This paper discusses an architecture for real-time, distributed (parallel) knowledge-based systems called the Parallel Real-time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS). PRAIS strives for transparently parallelizing production (rule-based) systems, even when under real-time constraints. PRAIS accomplishes these goals by incorporating a dynamic task scheduler, operating system extensions for fact handling, and message-passing among multiple copies of CLIPS executing on a virtual blackboard. This distributed knowledge-based system tool uses the portability of CLIPS and common message-passing protocols to operate over a heterogeneous network of processors.

Gene-network inference by message passing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Braunstein, A.; Pagnani, A.; Weigt, M.; Zecchina, R.

2008-01-01

The inference of gene-regulatory processes from gene-expression data belongs to the major challenges of computational systems biology. Here we address the problem from a statistical-physics perspective and develop a message-passing algorithm which is able to infer sparse, directed and combinatorial regulatory mechanisms. Using the replica technique, the algorithmic performance can be characterized analytically for artificially generated data. The algorithm is applied to genome-wide expression data of baker's yeast under various environmental conditions. We find clear cases of combinatorial control, and enrichment in common functional annotations of regulated genes and their regulators.

Optimal mapping of neural-network learning on message-passing multicomputers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chu, Lon-Chan; Wah, Benjamin W.

1992-01-01

A minimization of learning-algorithm completion time is sought in the present optimal-mapping study of the learning process in multilayer feed-forward artificial neural networks (ANNs) for message-passing multicomputers. A novel approximation algorithm for mappings of this kind is derived from observations of the dominance of a parallel ANN algorithm over its communication time. Attention is given to both static and dynamic mapping schemes for systems with static and dynamic background workloads, as well as to experimental results obtained for simulated mappings on multicomputers with dynamic background workloads.

Trace-Driven Debugging of Message Passing Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frumkin, Michael; Hood, Robert; Lopez, Louis; Bailey, David (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

In this paper we report on features added to a parallel debugger to simplify the debugging of parallel message passing programs. These features include replay, setting consistent breakpoints based on interprocess event causality, a parallel undo operation, and communication supervision. These features all use trace information collected during the execution of the program being debugged. We used a number of different instrumentation techniques to collect traces. We also implemented trace displays using two different trace visualization systems. The implementation was tested on an SGI Power Challenge cluster and a network of SGI workstations.

Gauge-free cluster variational method by maximal messages and moment matching.

PubMed

Domínguez, Eduardo; Lage-Castellanos, Alejandro; Mulet, Roberto; Ricci-Tersenghi, Federico

2017-04-01

We present an implementation of the cluster variational method (CVM) as a message passing algorithm. The kind of message passing algorithm used for CVM, usually named generalized belief propagation (GBP), is a generalization of the belief propagation algorithm in the same way that CVM is a generalization of the Bethe approximation for estimating the partition function. However, the connection between fixed points of GBP and the extremal points of the CVM free energy is usually not a one-to-one correspondence because of the existence of a gauge transformation involving the GBP messages. Our contribution is twofold. First, we propose a way of defining messages (fields) in a generic CVM approximation, such that messages arrive on a given region from all its ancestors, and not only from its direct parents, as in the standard parent-to-child GBP. We call this approach maximal messages. Second, we focus on the case of binary variables, reinterpreting the messages as fields enforcing the consistency between the moments of the local (marginal) probability distributions. We provide a precise rule to enforce all consistencies, avoiding any redundancy, that would otherwise lead to a gauge transformation on the messages. This moment matching method is gauge free, i.e., it guarantees that the resulting GBP is not gauge invariant. We apply our maximal messages and moment matching GBP to obtain an analytical expression for the critical temperature of the Ising model in general dimensions at the level of plaquette CVM. The values obtained outperform Bethe estimates, and are comparable with loop corrected belief propagation equations. The method allows for a straightforward generalization to disordered systems.

Gauge-free cluster variational method by maximal messages and moment matching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Domínguez, Eduardo; Lage-Castellanos, Alejandro; Mulet, Roberto; Ricci-Tersenghi, Federico

2017-04-01

We present an implementation of the cluster variational method (CVM) as a message passing algorithm. The kind of message passing algorithm used for CVM, usually named generalized belief propagation (GBP), is a generalization of the belief propagation algorithm in the same way that CVM is a generalization of the Bethe approximation for estimating the partition function. However, the connection between fixed points of GBP and the extremal points of the CVM free energy is usually not a one-to-one correspondence because of the existence of a gauge transformation involving the GBP messages. Our contribution is twofold. First, we propose a way of defining messages (fields) in a generic CVM approximation, such that messages arrive on a given region from all its ancestors, and not only from its direct parents, as in the standard parent-to-child GBP. We call this approach maximal messages. Second, we focus on the case of binary variables, reinterpreting the messages as fields enforcing the consistency between the moments of the local (marginal) probability distributions. We provide a precise rule to enforce all consistencies, avoiding any redundancy, that would otherwise lead to a gauge transformation on the messages. This moment matching method is gauge free, i.e., it guarantees that the resulting GBP is not gauge invariant. We apply our maximal messages and moment matching GBP to obtain an analytical expression for the critical temperature of the Ising model in general dimensions at the level of plaquette CVM. The values obtained outperform Bethe estimates, and are comparable with loop corrected belief propagation equations. The method allows for a straightforward generalization to disordered systems.

Multiple node remote messaging

DOEpatents

Blumrich, Matthias A.; Chen, Dong; Gara, Alan G.; Giampapa, Mark E.; Heidelberger, Philip; Ohmacht, Martin; Salapura, Valentina; Steinmacher-Burow, Burkhard; Vranas, Pavlos

2010-08-31

A method for passing remote messages in a parallel computer system formed as a network of interconnected compute nodes includes that a first compute node (A) sends a single remote message to a remote second compute node (B) in order to control the remote second compute node (B) to send at least one remote message. The method includes various steps including controlling a DMA engine at first compute node (A) to prepare the single remote message to include a first message descriptor and at least one remote message descriptor for controlling the remote second compute node (B) to send at least one remote message, including putting the first message descriptor into an injection FIFO at the first compute node (A) and sending the single remote message and the at least one remote message descriptor to the second compute node (B).

JMS Proxy and C/C++ Client SDK

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wolgast, Paul; Pechkam, Paul

2007-01-01

JMS Proxy and C/C++ Client SDK (JMS signifies "Java messaging service" and "SDK" signifies "software development kit") is a software package for developing interfaces that enable legacy programs (here denoted "clients") written in the C and C++ languages to communicate with each other via a JMS broker. This package consists of two main components: the JMS proxy server component and the client C library SDK component. The JMS proxy server component implements a native Java process that receives and responds to requests from clients. This component can run on any computer that supports Java and a JMS client. The client C library SDK component is used to develop a JMS client program running in each affected C or C++ environment, without need for running a Java virtual machine in the affected computer. A C client program developed by use of this SDK has most of the quality-of-service characteristics of standard Java-based client programs, including the following: Durable subscriptions; Asynchronous message receipt; Such standard JMS message qualities as "TimeToLive," "Message Properties," and "DeliveryMode" (as the quoted terms are defined in previously published JMS documentation); and Automatic reconnection of a JMS proxy to a restarted JMS broker.

Improvements of the ALICE HLT data transport framework for LHC Run 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rohr, David; Krzwicki, Mikolaj; Engel, Heiko; Lehrbach, Johannes; Lindenstruth, Volker; ALICE Collaboration

2017-10-01

The ALICE HLT uses a data transport framework based on the publisher- subscriber message principle, which transparently handles the communication between processing components over the network and between processing components on the same node via shared memory with a zero copy approach. We present an analysis of the performance in terms of maximum achievable data rates and event rates as well as processing capabilities during Run 1 and Run 2. Based on this analysis, we present new optimizations we have developed for ALICE in Run 2. These include support for asynchronous transport via Zero-MQ which enables loops in the reconstruction chain graph and which is used to ship QA histograms to DQM. We have added asynchronous processing capabilities in order to support long-running tasks besides the event-synchronous reconstruction tasks in normal HLT operation. These asynchronous components run in an isolated process such that the HLT as a whole is resilient even to fatal errors in these asynchronous components. In this way, we can ensure that new developments cannot break data taking. On top of that, we have tuned the processing chain to cope with the higher event and data rates expected from the new TPC readout electronics (RCU2) and we have improved the configuration procedure and the startup time in order to increase the time where ALICE can take physics data. We analyze the maximum achievable data processing rates taking into account processing capabilities of CPUs and GPUs, buffer sizes, network bandwidth, the incoming links from the detectors, and the outgoing links to data acquisition.

Three-pass protocol scheme for bitmap image security by using vernam cipher algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rachmawati, D.; Budiman, M. A.; Aulya, L.

2018-02-01

Confidentiality, integrity, and efficiency are the crucial aspects of data security. Among the other digital data, image data is too prone to abuse of operation like duplication, modification, etc. There are some data security techniques, one of them is cryptography. The security of Vernam Cipher cryptography algorithm is very dependent on the key exchange process. If the key is leaked, security of this algorithm will collapse. Therefore, a method that minimizes key leakage during the exchange of messages is required. The method which is used, is known as Three-Pass Protocol. This protocol enables message delivery process without the key exchange. Therefore, the sending messages process can reach the receiver safely without fear of key leakage. The system is built by using Java programming language. The materials which are used for system testing are image in size 200×200 pixel, 300×300 pixel, 500×500 pixel, 800×800 pixel and 1000×1000 pixel. The result of experiments showed that Vernam Cipher algorithm in Three-Pass Protocol scheme could restore the original image.

Ordering Traces Logically to Identify Lateness in Message Passing Programs

DOE PAGES

Isaacs, Katherine E.; Gamblin, Todd; Bhatele, Abhinav; ...

2015-03-30

Event traces are valuable for understanding the behavior of parallel programs. However, automatically analyzing a large parallel trace is difficult, especially without a specific objective. We aid this endeavor by extracting a trace's logical structure, an ordering of trace events derived from happened-before relationships, while taking into account developer intent. Using this structure, we can calculate an operation's delay relative to its peers on other processes. The logical structure also serves as a platform for comparing and clustering processes as well as highlighting communication patterns in a trace visualization. We present an algorithm for determining this idealized logical structure frommore » traces of message passing programs, and we develop metrics to quantify delays and differences among processes. We implement our techniques in Ravel, a parallel trace visualization tool that displays both logical and physical timelines. Rather than showing the duration of each operation, we display where delays begin and end, and how they propagate. As a result, we apply our approach to the traces of several message passing applications, demonstrating the accuracy of our extracted structure and its utility in analyzing these codes.« less

Dust Dynamics in Protoplanetary Disks: Parallel Computing with PVM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de La Fuente Marcos, Carlos; Barge, Pierre; de La Fuente Marcos, Raúl

2002-03-01

We describe a parallel version of our high-order-accuracy particle-mesh code for the simulation of collisionless protoplanetary disks. We use this code to carry out a massively parallel, two-dimensional, time-dependent, numerical simulation, which includes dust particles, to study the potential role of large-scale, gaseous vortices in protoplanetary disks. This noncollisional problem is easy to parallelize on message-passing multicomputer architectures. We performed the simulations on a cache-coherent nonuniform memory access Origin 2000 machine, using both the parallel virtual machine (PVM) and message-passing interface (MPI) message-passing libraries. Our performance analysis suggests that, for our problem, PVM is about 25% faster than MPI. Using PVM and MPI made it possible to reduce CPU time and increase code performance. This allows for simulations with a large number of particles (N ~ 105-106) in reasonable CPU times. The performances of our implementation of the pa! rallel code on an Origin 2000 supercomputer are presented and discussed. They exhibit very good speedup behavior and low load unbalancing. Our results confirm that giant gaseous vortices can play a dominant role in giant planet formation.

TravelAid : in-vehicle signing and variable speed limit evaluation

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2001-12-01

This report discusses the effectiveness of using variable message signs (VMSs) and in-vehicle traffic advisory systems (IVUs) on a mountainous pass (Snoqualmie Pass on Interstate 90 in Washington State) for changing driver behavior. As part of this p...

Implementing TCP/IP and a socket interface as a server in a message-passing operating system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hipp, E.; Wiltzius, D.

1990-03-01

The UNICOS 4.3BSD network code and socket transport interface are the basis of an explicit network server for NLTSS, a message passing operating system on the Cray YMP. A BSD socket user library provides access to the network server using an RPC mechanism. The advantages of this server methodology are its modularity and extensibility to migrate to future protocol suites (e.g. OSI) and transport interfaces. In addition, the network server is implemented in an explicit multi-tasking environment to take advantage of the Cray YMP multi-processor platform. 19 refs., 5 figs.

A real-time MPEG software decoder using a portable message-passing library

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kwong, Man Kam; Tang, P.T. Peter; Lin, Biquan

1995-12-31

We present a real-time MPEG software decoder that uses message-passing libraries such as MPL, p4 and MPI. The parallel MPEG decoder currently runs on the IBM SP system but can be easil ported to other parallel machines. This paper discusses our parallel MPEG decoding algorithm as well as the parallel programming environment under which it uses. Several technical issues are discussed, including balancing of decoding speed, memory limitation, 1/0 capacities, and optimization of MPEG decoding components. This project shows that a real-time portable software MPEG decoder is feasible in a general-purpose parallel machine.

Complexity of parallel implementation of domain decomposition techniques for elliptic partial differential equations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gropp, W.D.; Keyes, D.E.

1988-03-01

The authors discuss the parallel implementation of preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG)-based domain decomposition techniques for self-adjoint elliptic partial differential equations in two dimensions on several architectures. The complexity of these methods is described on a variety of message-passing parallel computers as a function of the size of the problem, number of processors and relative communication speeds of the processors. They show that communication startups are very important, and that even the small amount of global communication in these methods can significantly reduce the performance of many message-passing architectures.

n-body simulations using message passing parallel computers.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grama, A. Y.; Kumar, V.; Sameh, A.

The authors present new parallel formulations of the Barnes-Hut method for n-body simulations on message passing computers. These parallel formulations partition the domain efficiently incurring minimal communication overhead. This is in contrast to existing schemes that are based on sorting a large number of keys or on the use of global data structures. The new formulations are augmented by alternate communication strategies which serve to minimize communication overhead. The impact of these communication strategies is experimentally studied. The authors report on experimental results obtained from an astrophysical simulation on an nCUBE2 parallel computer.

Asynchronous Distance Education Forum - Brainstorming vs. Snowballing: A Case Study for Teaching in Programming Didactics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patriarcheas, Kiriakos; Xenos, Michalis

Asynchronous discussion fora all the more become part of the educational process of distance education. The goal of this research is the study of the educational techniques of Brainstorming and Snowballing to their utilisation in the frame of a distance education forum, both as far as participation and creation of learning environment and also educational effectiveness are concerned. This research refers to computer teachers’ training on didactics of programming within the framework of educational micro-worlds. As it is deduced from the data analysis and the study of the messages higher participation and improvement of critical thinking are noted when Brainstorming technique is used, while fairly less time is spent and less off-topic interventions are made when Snowballing technique is used. Meanwhile, Brainstorming is found to be more advantageous than Snowballing concerning the effectiveness both in primary level (trained teachers) and in secondary level of adaptation and knowledge impartment to the students (results of their students).

The Prodiguer Messaging Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Denvil, S.; Greenslade, M. A.; Carenton, N.; Levavasseur, G.; Raciazek, J.

2015-12-01

CONVERGENCE is a French multi-partner national project designed to gather HPC and informatics expertise to innovate in the context of running French global climate models with differing grids and at differing resolutions. Efficient and reliable execution of these models and the management and dissemination of model output are some of the complexities that CONVERGENCE aims to resolve.At any one moment in time, researchers affiliated with the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) climate modeling group, are running hundreds of global climate simulations. These simulations execute upon a heterogeneous set of French High Performance Computing (HPC) environments. The IPSL's simulation execution runtime libIGCM (library for IPSL Global Climate Modeling group) has recently been enhanced so as to support hitherto impossible realtime use cases such as simulation monitoring, data publication, metrics collection, simulation control, visualizations … etc. At the core of this enhancement is Prodiguer: an AMQP (Advanced Message Queue Protocol) based event driven asynchronous distributed messaging platform. libIGCM now dispatches copious amounts of information, in the form of messages, to the platform for remote processing by Prodiguer software agents at IPSL servers in Paris. Such processing takes several forms: Persisting message content to database(s); Launching rollback jobs upon simulation failure; Notifying downstream applications; Automation of visualization pipelines; We will describe and/or demonstrate the platform's: Technical implementation; Inherent ease of scalability; Inherent adaptiveness in respect to supervising simulations; Web portal receiving simulation notifications in realtime.

A personal computer-based, multitasking data acquisition system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, Steven A.

1990-01-01

A multitasking, data acquisition system was written to simultaneously collect meteorological radar and telemetry data from two sources. This system is based on the personal computer architecture. Data is collected via two asynchronous serial ports and is deposited to disk. The system is written in both the C programming language and assembler. It consists of three parts: a multitasking kernel for data collection, a shell with pull down windows as user interface, and a graphics processor for editing data and creating coded messages. An explanation of both system principles and program structure is presented.

A Multi-Center Space Data System Prototype Based on CCSDS Standards

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rich, Thomas M.

2016-01-01

Deep space missions beyond earth orbit will require new methods of data communications in order to compensate for increasing RF propagation delay. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standard protocols Spacecraft Monitor & Control (SM&C), Asynchronous Message Service (AMS), and Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) provide such a method. The maturity level of this protocol set is, however, insufficient for mission inclusion at this time. This prototype is intended to provide experience which will raise the Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of these protocols..

Space Reclamation for Uncoordinated Checkpointing in Message-Passing Systems. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Yi-Min

1993-01-01

Checkpointing and rollback recovery are techniques that can provide efficient recovery from transient process failures. In a message-passing system, the rollback of a message sender may cause the rollback of the corresponding receiver, and the system needs to roll back to a consistent set of checkpoints called recovery line. If the processes are allowed to take uncoordinated checkpoints, the above rollback propagation may result in the domino effect which prevents recovery line progression. Traditionally, only obsolete checkpoints before the global recovery line can be discarded, and the necessary and sufficient condition for identifying all garbage checkpoints has remained an open problem. A necessary and sufficient condition for achieving optimal garbage collection is derived and it is proved that the number of useful checkpoints is bounded by N(N+1)/2, where N is the number of processes. The approach is based on the maximum-sized antichain model of consistent global checkpoints and the technique of recovery line transformation and decomposition. It is also shown that, for systems requiring message logging to record in-transit messages, the same approach can be used to achieve optimal message log reclamation. As a final topic, a unifying framework is described by considering checkpoint coordination and exploiting piecewise determinism as mechanisms for bounding rollback propagation, and the applicability of the optimal garbage collection algorithm to domino-free recovery protocols is demonstrated.

Relations Among Central Auditory Abilities, Socio-Economic Factors, Speech Delay, Phonic Abilities and Reading Achievement: A Longitudinal Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flowers, Arthur; Crandell, Edwin W.

Three auditory perceptual processes (resistance to distortion, selective listening in the form of auditory dedifferentiation, and binaural synthesis) were evaluated by five assessment techniques: (1) low pass filtered speech, (2) accelerated speech, (3) competing messages, (4) accelerated plus competing messages, and (5) binaural synthesis.…

An Application of the "Virtual Spacecraft" Concept in Evaluation of the Mars Pathfinder Lander Low Gain Antenna

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pogorzelski, R. J.; Beckon, R. J.

1997-01-01

The virtual spacecraft concept is embodied in a set of subsystems, either in the form of hardware or computational models, which together represent all, or a portion of, a spacecraft. For example, the telecommunications transponder may be a hardware prototype while the propulsion system may exist only as a simulation. As the various subsystems are realized in hardware, the spacecraft becomes progressively less virtual. This concept is enabled by JPL's Mission System Testbed which is a set of networked workstations running a message passing operating system called "TRAMEL" which stands for Task Remote Asynchronous Message Exchange Layer. Each simulation on the workstations, which may in fact be hardware controlled by the workstation, "publishes" its operating parameters on TRAMEL and other simulations requiring those parameters as input may "subscribe" to them. In this manner, the whole simulation operates as a single virtual system. This paper describes a simulation designed to evaluate a communications link between the earth and the Mars Pathfinder Lander module as it descends under a parachute through the Martian atmosphere toward the planet's surface. This link includes a transmitter and a low gain antenna on the spacecraft and a receiving antenna and receiver on the earth as well as a simulation of the dynamics of the spacecraft. The transmitter, the ground station antenna, the receiver and the dynamics are all simulated computationally while the spacecraft antenna is implemented in hardware on a very simple spacecraft mockup. The dynamics simulation is a record of one output of the ensemble of outputs of a Monte Carlo simulation of the descent. Additionally, the antenna/spacecraft mock-up system was simulated using APATCH, a shooting and bouncing ray code developed by Demaco, Inc. The antenna simulation, the antenna hardware, and the link simulation are all physically located in different facilities at JPL separated by several hundred meters and are linked via the local area network (LAN).

XMPP for cloud computing in bioinformatics supporting discovery and invocation of asynchronous web services

PubMed Central

Wagener, Johannes; Spjuth, Ola; Willighagen, Egon L; Wikberg, Jarl ES

2009-01-01

Background Life sciences make heavily use of the web for both data provision and analysis. However, the increasing amount of available data and the diversity of analysis tools call for machine accessible interfaces in order to be effective. HTTP-based Web service technologies, like the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and REpresentational State Transfer (REST) services, are today the most common technologies for this in bioinformatics. However, these methods have severe drawbacks, including lack of discoverability, and the inability for services to send status notifications. Several complementary workarounds have been proposed, but the results are ad-hoc solutions of varying quality that can be difficult to use. Results We present a novel approach based on the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), consisting of an extension (IO Data) to comprise discovery, asynchronous invocation, and definition of data types in the service. That XMPP cloud services are capable of asynchronous communication implies that clients do not have to poll repetitively for status, but the service sends the results back to the client upon completion. Implementations for Bioclipse and Taverna are presented, as are various XMPP cloud services in bio- and cheminformatics. Conclusion XMPP with its extensions is a powerful protocol for cloud services that demonstrate several advantages over traditional HTTP-based Web services: 1) services are discoverable without the need of an external registry, 2) asynchronous invocation eliminates the need for ad-hoc solutions like polling, and 3) input and output types defined in the service allows for generation of clients on the fly without the need of an external semantics description. The many advantages over existing technologies make XMPP a highly interesting candidate for next generation online services in bioinformatics. PMID:19732427

XMPP for cloud computing in bioinformatics supporting discovery and invocation of asynchronous web services.

PubMed

Wagener, Johannes; Spjuth, Ola; Willighagen, Egon L; Wikberg, Jarl E S

2009-09-04

Life sciences make heavily use of the web for both data provision and analysis. However, the increasing amount of available data and the diversity of analysis tools call for machine accessible interfaces in order to be effective. HTTP-based Web service technologies, like the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and REpresentational State Transfer (REST) services, are today the most common technologies for this in bioinformatics. However, these methods have severe drawbacks, including lack of discoverability, and the inability for services to send status notifications. Several complementary workarounds have been proposed, but the results are ad-hoc solutions of varying quality that can be difficult to use. We present a novel approach based on the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), consisting of an extension (IO Data) to comprise discovery, asynchronous invocation, and definition of data types in the service. That XMPP cloud services are capable of asynchronous communication implies that clients do not have to poll repetitively for status, but the service sends the results back to the client upon completion. Implementations for Bioclipse and Taverna are presented, as are various XMPP cloud services in bio- and cheminformatics. XMPP with its extensions is a powerful protocol for cloud services that demonstrate several advantages over traditional HTTP-based Web services: 1) services are discoverable without the need of an external registry, 2) asynchronous invocation eliminates the need for ad-hoc solutions like polling, and 3) input and output types defined in the service allows for generation of clients on the fly without the need of an external semantics description. The many advantages over existing technologies make XMPP a highly interesting candidate for next generation online services in bioinformatics.

Quantum cluster variational method and message passing algorithms revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Domínguez, E.; Mulet, Roberto

2018-02-01

We present a general framework to study quantum disordered systems in the context of the Kikuchi's cluster variational method (CVM). The method relies in the solution of message passing-like equations for single instances or in the iterative solution of complex population dynamic algorithms for an average case scenario. We first show how a standard application of the Kikuchi's CVM can be easily translated to message passing equations for specific instances of the disordered system. We then present an "ad hoc" extension of these equations to a population dynamic algorithm representing an average case scenario. At the Bethe level, these equations are equivalent to the dynamic population equations that can be derived from a proper cavity ansatz. However, at the plaquette approximation, the interpretation is more subtle and we discuss it taking also into account previous results in classical disordered models. Moreover, we develop a formalism to properly deal with the average case scenario using a replica-symmetric ansatz within this CVM for quantum disordered systems. Finally, we present and discuss numerical solutions of the different approximations for the quantum transverse Ising model and the quantum random field Ising model in two-dimensional lattices.

Low latency messages on distributed memory multiprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rosing, Matthew; Saltz, Joel

1993-01-01

Many of the issues in developing an efficient interface for communication on distributed memory machines are described and a portable interface is proposed. Although the hardware component of message latency is less than one microsecond on many distributed memory machines, the software latency associated with sending and receiving typed messages is on the order of 50 microseconds. The reason for this imbalance is that the software interface does not match the hardware. By changing the interface to match the hardware more closely, applications with fine grained communication can be put on these machines. Based on several tests that were run on the iPSC/860, an interface that will better match current distributed memory machines is proposed. The model used in the proposed interface consists of a computation processor and a communication processor on each node. Communication between these processors and other nodes in the system is done through a buffered network. Information that is transmitted is either data or procedures to be executed on the remote processor. The dual processor system is better suited for efficiently handling asynchronous communications compared to a single processor system. The ability to send data or procedure is very flexible for minimizing message latency, based on the type of communication being performed. The test performed and the proposed interface are described.

Real time software tools and methodologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Christofferson, M. J.

1981-01-01

Real time systems are characterized by high speed processing and throughput as well as asynchronous event processing requirements. These requirements give rise to particular implementations of parallel or pipeline multitasking structures, of intertask or interprocess communications mechanisms, and finally of message (buffer) routing or switching mechanisms. These mechanisms or structures, along with the data structue, describe the essential character of the system. These common structural elements and mechanisms are identified, their implementation in the form of routines, tasks or macros - in other words, tools are formalized. The tools developed support or make available the following: reentrant task creation, generalized message routing techniques, generalized task structures/task families, standardized intertask communications mechanisms, and pipeline and parallel processing architectures in a multitasking environment. Tools development raise some interesting prospects in the areas of software instrumentation and software portability. These issues are discussed following the description of the tools themselves.

Asynchronous discrete event schemes for PDEs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stone, D.; Geiger, S.; Lord, G. J.

2017-08-01

A new class of asynchronous discrete-event simulation schemes for advection-diffusion-reaction equations is introduced, based on the principle of allowing quanta of mass to pass through faces of a (regular, structured) Cartesian finite volume grid. The timescales of these events are linked to the flux on the face. The resulting schemes are self-adaptive, and local in both time and space. Experiments are performed on realistic physical systems related to porous media flow applications, including a large 3D advection diffusion equation and advection diffusion reaction systems. The results are compared to highly accurate reference solutions where the temporal evolution is computed with exponential integrator schemes using the same finite volume discretisation. This allows a reliable estimation of the solution error. Our results indicate a first order convergence of the error as a control parameter is decreased, and we outline a framework for analysis.

Asbestos: Securing Untrusted Software with Interposition

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

consistent intelligible interfaces to different types of resource. Message-based operating systems, such as Accent, Amoeba, Chorus, L4 , Spring...control on self-authenticating capabilities, precluding policies that restrict delegation. L4 uses a strict hierarchy of interpositions, useful for...the OS de- sign space amenable to secure application construction. Similar effects might be possible with message-passing microkernels , or unwieldy

Performance Evaluation of Remote Memory Access (RMA) Programming on Shared Memory Parallel Computers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jin, Hao-Qiang; Jost, Gabriele; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of remote memory access (RMA) programming on shared memory parallel computers. We discuss different RMA based implementations of selected CFD application benchmark kernels and compare them to corresponding message passing based codes. For the message-passing implementation we use MPI point-to-point and global communication routines. For the RMA based approach we consider two different libraries supporting this programming model. One is a shared memory parallelization library (SMPlib) developed at NASA Ames, the other is the MPI-2 extensions to the MPI Standard. We give timing comparisons for the different implementation strategies and discuss the performance.

Comparing the OpenMP, MPI, and Hybrid Programming Paradigm on an SMP Cluster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jost, Gabriele; Jin, Hao-Qiang; anMey, Dieter; Hatay, Ferhat F.

2003-01-01

Clusters of SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processors) nodes provide support for a wide range of parallel programming paradigms. The shared address space within each node is suitable for OpenMP parallelization. Message passing can be employed within and across the nodes of a cluster. Multiple levels of parallelism can be achieved by combining message passing and OpenMP parallelization. Which programming paradigm is the best will depend on the nature of the given problem, the hardware components of the cluster, the network, and the available software. In this study we compare the performance of different implementations of the same CFD benchmark application, using the same numerical algorithm but employing different programming paradigms.

ADAPTIVE TETRAHEDRAL GRID REFINEMENT AND COARSENING IN MESSAGE-PASSING ENVIRONMENTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hallberg, J.; Stagg, A.

2000-10-01

A grid refinement and coarsening scheme has been developed for tetrahedral and triangular grid-based calculations in message-passing environments. The element adaption scheme is based on an edge bisection of elements marked for refinement by an appropriate error indicator. Hash-table/linked-list data structures are used to store nodal and element formation. The grid along inter-processor boundaries is refined and coarsened consistently with the update of these data structures via MPI calls. The parallel adaption scheme has been applied to the solution of a transient, three-dimensional, nonlinear, groundwater flow problem. Timings indicate efficiency of the grid refinement process relative to the flow solvermore » calculations.« less

Statistical mechanics of unsupervised feature learning in a restricted Boltzmann machine with binary synapses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Haiping

2017-05-01

Revealing hidden features in unlabeled data is called unsupervised feature learning, which plays an important role in pretraining a deep neural network. Here we provide a statistical mechanics analysis of the unsupervised learning in a restricted Boltzmann machine with binary synapses. A message passing equation to infer the hidden feature is derived, and furthermore, variants of this equation are analyzed. A statistical analysis by replica theory describes the thermodynamic properties of the model. Our analysis confirms an entropy crisis preceding the non-convergence of the message passing equation, suggesting a discontinuous phase transition as a key characteristic of the restricted Boltzmann machine. Continuous phase transition is also confirmed depending on the embedded feature strength in the data. The mean-field result under the replica symmetric assumption agrees with that obtained by running message passing algorithms on single instances of finite sizes. Interestingly, in an approximate Hopfield model, the entropy crisis is absent, and a continuous phase transition is observed instead. We also develop an iterative equation to infer the hyper-parameter (temperature) hidden in the data, which in physics corresponds to iteratively imposing Nishimori condition. Our study provides insights towards understanding the thermodynamic properties of the restricted Boltzmann machine learning, and moreover important theoretical basis to build simplified deep networks.

Principles for problem aggregation and assignment in medium scale multiprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nicol, David M.; Saltz, Joel H.

1987-01-01

One of the most important issues in parallel processing is the mapping of workload to processors. This paper considers a large class of problems having a high degree of potential fine grained parallelism, and execution requirements that are either not predictable, or are too costly to predict. The main issues in mapping such a problem onto medium scale multiprocessors are those of aggregation and assignment. We study a method of parameterized aggregation that makes few assumptions about the workload. The mapping of aggregate units of work onto processors is uniform, and exploits locality of workload intensity to balance the unknown workload. In general, a finer aggregate granularity leads to a better balance at the price of increased communication/synchronization costs; the aggregation parameters can be adjusted to find a reasonable granularity. The effectiveness of this scheme is demonstrated on three model problems: an adaptive one-dimensional fluid dynamics problem with message passing, a sparse triangular linear system solver on both a shared memory and a message-passing machine, and a two-dimensional time-driven battlefield simulation employing message passing. Using the model problems, the tradeoffs are studied between balanced workload and the communication/synchronization costs. Finally, an analytical model is used to explain why the method balances workload and minimizes the variance in system behavior.

Throughput analysis of the IEEE 802.4 token bus standard under heavy load

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pang, Joseph; Tobagi, Fouad

1987-01-01

It has become clear in the last few years that there is a trend towards integrated digital services. Parallel to the development of public Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is service integration in the local area (e.g., a campus, a building, an aircraft). The types of services to be integrated depend very much on the specific local environment. However, applications tend to generate data traffic belonging to one of two classes. According to IEEE 802.4 terminology, the first major class of traffic is termed synchronous, such as packetized voice and data generated from other applications with real-time constraints, and the second class is called asynchronous which includes most computer data traffic such as file transfer or facsimile. The IEEE 802.4 token bus protocol which was designed to support both synchronous and asynchronous traffic is examined. The protocol is basically a timer-controlled token bus access scheme. By a suitable choice of the design parameters, it can be shown that access delay is bounded for synchronous traffic. As well, the bandwidth allocated to asynchronous traffic can be controlled. A throughput analysis of the protocol under heavy load with constant channel occupation of synchronous traffic and constant token-passing times is presented.

Performance analysis of distributed applications using automatic classification of communication inefficiencies

DOEpatents

Vetter, Jeffrey S.

2005-02-01

The method and system described herein presents a technique for performance analysis that helps users understand the communication behavior of their message passing applications. The method and system described herein may automatically classifies individual communication operations and reveal the cause of communication inefficiencies in the application. This classification allows the developer to quickly focus on the culprits of truly inefficient behavior, rather than manually foraging through massive amounts of performance data. Specifically, the method and system described herein trace the message operations of Message Passing Interface (MPI) applications and then classify each individual communication event using a supervised learning technique: decision tree classification. The decision tree may be trained using microbenchmarks that demonstrate both efficient and inefficient communication. Since the method and system described herein adapt to the target system's configuration through these microbenchmarks, they simultaneously automate the performance analysis process and improve classification accuracy. The method and system described herein may improve the accuracy of performance analysis and dramatically reduce the amount of data that users must encounter.

Evaluating user experiences of the secure messaging tool on the Veterans Affairs' patient portal system.

PubMed

Haun, Jolie N; Lind, Jason D; Shimada, Stephanie L; Martin, Tracey L; Gosline, Robert M; Antinori, Nicole; Stewart, Max; Simon, Steven R

2014-03-06

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented an electronic asynchronous "Secure Messaging" tool within a Web-based patient portal (ie, My HealtheVet) to support patient-provider communication. This electronic resource promotes continuous and coordinated patient-centered care, but to date little research has evaluated patients' experiences and preferences for using Secure Messaging. The objectives of this mixed-methods study were to (1) characterize veterans' experiences using Secure Messaging in the My HealtheVet portal over a 3-month period, including system usability, (2) identify barriers to and facilitators of use, and (3) describe strategies to support veterans' use of Secure Messaging. We recruited 33 veterans who had access to and had previously used the portal's Secure Messaging tool. We used a combination of in-depth interviews, face-to-face user-testing, review of transmitted secure messages between veterans and staff, and telephone interviews three months following initial contact. We assessed participants' computer and health literacy during initial and follow-up interviews. We used a content-analysis approach to identify dominant themes in the qualitative data. We compared inferences from each of the data sources (interviews, user-testing, and message review) to identify convergent and divergent data trends. The majority of veterans (27/33, 82%) reported being satisfied with Secure Messaging at initial interview; satisfaction ratings increased to 97% (31/32, 1 missing) during follow-up interviews. Veterans noted Secure Messaging to be useful for communicating with their primary care team to manage health care needs (eg, health-related questions, test requests and results, medication refills and questions, managing appointments). Four domains emerged from interviews: (1) perceived benefits of using Secure Messaging, (2) barriers to using Secure Messaging, (3) facilitators for using Secure Messaging, and (4) suggestions for improving Secure Messaging. Veterans identified and demonstrated impediments to successful system usage that can be addressed with education, skill building, and system modifications. Analysis of secure message content data provided insights to reasons for use that were not disclosed by participants during interviews, specifically sensitive health topics such as erectile dysfunction and sexually transmitted disease inquiries. Veterans perceive Secure Messaging in the My HealtheVet patient portal as a useful tool for communicating with health care teams. However, to maximize sustained utilization of Secure Messaging, marketing, education, skill building, and system modifications are needed. Data from this study can inform a large-scale quantitative assessment of Secure Messaging users' experiences in a representative sample to validate qualitative findings.

Multiuser signal detection using sequential decoding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xie, Zhenhua; Rushforth, Craig K.; Short, Robert T.

1990-05-01

The application of sequential decoding to the detection of data transmitted over the additive white Gaussian noise channel by K asynchronous transmitters using direct-sequence spread-spectrum multiple access is considered. A modification of Fano's (1963) sequential-decoding metric, allowing the messages from a given user to be safely decoded if its Eb/N0 exceeds -1.6 dB, is presented. Computer simulation is used to evaluate the performance of a sequential decoder that uses this metric in conjunction with the stack algorithm. In many circumstances, the sequential decoder achieves results comparable to those obtained using the much more complicated optimal receiver.

Comprehensive multiplatform collaboration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singh, Kundan; Wu, Xiaotao; Lennox, Jonathan; Schulzrinne, Henning G.

2003-12-01

We describe the architecture and implementation of our comprehensive multi-platform collaboration framework known as Columbia InterNet Extensible Multimedia Architecture (CINEMA). It provides a distributed architecture for collaboration using synchronous communications like multimedia conferencing, instant messaging, shared web-browsing, and asynchronous communications like discussion forums, shared files, voice and video mails. It allows seamless integration with various communication means like telephones, IP phones, web and electronic mail. In addition, it provides value-added services such as call handling based on location information and presence status. The paper discusses the media services needed for collaborative environment, the components provided by CINEMA and the interaction among those components.

Evaluating User Experiences of the Secure Messaging Tool on the Veterans Affairs’ Patient Portal System

PubMed Central

Lind, Jason D; Shimada, Stephanie L; Martin, Tracey L; Gosline, Robert M; Antinori, Nicole; Stewart, Max; Simon, Steven R

2014-01-01

Background The United States Department of Veterans Affairs has implemented an electronic asynchronous “Secure Messaging” tool within a Web-based patient portal (ie, My HealtheVet) to support patient-provider communication. This electronic resource promotes continuous and coordinated patient-centered care, but to date little research has evaluated patients’ experiences and preferences for using Secure Messaging. Objective The objectives of this mixed-methods study were to (1) characterize veterans’ experiences using Secure Messaging in the My HealtheVet portal over a 3-month period, including system usability, (2) identify barriers to and facilitators of use, and (3) describe strategies to support veterans’ use of Secure Messaging. Methods We recruited 33 veterans who had access to and had previously used the portal’s Secure Messaging tool. We used a combination of in-depth interviews, face-to-face user-testing, review of transmitted secure messages between veterans and staff, and telephone interviews three months following initial contact. We assessed participants’ computer and health literacy during initial and follow-up interviews. We used a content-analysis approach to identify dominant themes in the qualitative data. We compared inferences from each of the data sources (interviews, user-testing, and message review) to identify convergent and divergent data trends. Results The majority of veterans (27/33, 82%) reported being satisfied with Secure Messaging at initial interview; satisfaction ratings increased to 97% (31/32, 1 missing) during follow-up interviews. Veterans noted Secure Messaging to be useful for communicating with their primary care team to manage health care needs (eg, health-related questions, test requests and results, medication refills and questions, managing appointments). Four domains emerged from interviews: (1) perceived benefits of using Secure Messaging, (2) barriers to using Secure Messaging, (3) facilitators for using Secure Messaging, and (4) suggestions for improving Secure Messaging. Veterans identified and demonstrated impediments to successful system usage that can be addressed with education, skill building, and system modifications. Analysis of secure message content data provided insights to reasons for use that were not disclosed by participants during interviews, specifically sensitive health topics such as erectile dysfunction and sexually transmitted disease inquiries. Conclusions Veterans perceive Secure Messaging in the My HealtheVet patient portal as a useful tool for communicating with health care teams. However, to maximize sustained utilization of Secure Messaging, marketing, education, skill building, and system modifications are needed. Data from this study can inform a large-scale quantitative assessment of Secure Messaging users’ experiences in a representative sample to validate qualitative findings. PMID:24610454

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-08-20

Earth observation taken during day pass by an Expedition 36 crew member on board the International Space Station (ISS). Per Twitter message: Looking southwest over northern Africa. Libya, Algeria, Niger.

Application of a distributed network in computational fluid dynamic simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deshpande, Manish; Feng, Jinzhang; Merkle, Charles L.; Deshpande, Ashish

1994-01-01

A general-purpose 3-D, incompressible Navier-Stokes algorithm is implemented on a network of concurrently operating workstations using parallel virtual machine (PVM) and compared with its performance on a CRAY Y-MP and on an Intel iPSC/860. The problem is relatively computationally intensive, and has a communication structure based primarily on nearest-neighbor communication, making it ideally suited to message passing. Such problems are frequently encountered in computational fluid dynamics (CDF), and their solution is increasingly in demand. The communication structure is explicitly coded in the implementation to fully exploit the regularity in message passing in order to produce a near-optimal solution. Results are presented for various grid sizes using up to eight processors.

Approximate message passing with restricted Boltzmann machine priors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tramel, Eric W.; Drémeau, Angélique; Krzakala, Florent

2016-07-01

Approximate message passing (AMP) has been shown to be an excellent statistical approach to signal inference and compressed sensing problems. The AMP framework provides modularity in the choice of signal prior; here we propose a hierarchical form of the Gauss-Bernoulli prior which utilizes a restricted Boltzmann machine (RBM) trained on the signal support to push reconstruction performance beyond that of simple i.i.d. priors for signals whose support can be well represented by a trained binary RBM. We present and analyze two methods of RBM factorization and demonstrate how these affect signal reconstruction performance within our proposed algorithm. Finally, using the MNIST handwritten digit dataset, we show experimentally that using an RBM allows AMP to approach oracle-support performance.

New NAS Parallel Benchmarks Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yarrow, Maurice; Saphir, William; VanderWijngaart, Rob; Woo, Alex; Kutler, Paul (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

NPB2 (NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmarks 2) is an implementation, based on Fortran and the MPI (message passing interface) message passing standard, of the original NAS Parallel Benchmark specifications. NPB2 programs are run with little or no tuning, in contrast to NPB vendor implementations, which are highly optimized for specific architectures. NPB2 results complement, rather than replace, NPB results. Because they have not been optimized by vendors, NPB2 implementations approximate the performance a typical user can expect for a portable parallel program on distributed memory parallel computers. Together these results provide an insightful comparison of the real-world performance of high-performance computers. New NPB2 features: New implementation (CG), new workstation class problem sizes, new serial sample versions, more performance statistics.

Passing messages between biological networks to refine predicted interactions.

PubMed

Glass, Kimberly; Huttenhower, Curtis; Quackenbush, John; Yuan, Guo-Cheng

2013-01-01

Regulatory network reconstruction is a fundamental problem in computational biology. There are significant limitations to such reconstruction using individual datasets, and increasingly people attempt to construct networks using multiple, independent datasets obtained from complementary sources, but methods for this integration are lacking. We developed PANDA (Passing Attributes between Networks for Data Assimilation), a message-passing model using multiple sources of information to predict regulatory relationships, and used it to integrate protein-protein interaction, gene expression, and sequence motif data to reconstruct genome-wide, condition-specific regulatory networks in yeast as a model. The resulting networks were not only more accurate than those produced using individual data sets and other existing methods, but they also captured information regarding specific biological mechanisms and pathways that were missed using other methodologies. PANDA is scalable to higher eukaryotes, applicable to specific tissue or cell type data and conceptually generalizable to include a variety of regulatory, interaction, expression, and other genome-scale data. An implementation of the PANDA algorithm is available at www.sourceforge.net/projects/panda-net.

Earth observation taken by the Expedition 46 crew

NASA Image and Video Library

2016-01-23

ISS046e021993 (01/23/2016) --- Earth observation of the coast of Oman taken during a night pass by the Expedition 46 crew aboard the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra tweeted this image out with this message: "Passing over the Gulf of #Oman at night -- city lights of #Muscat #Dubai #AbuDhabi and #Doha in the distance".

Demonstrating NaradaBrokering as a Middleware Fabric for Grid-based Remote Visualization Services

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pallickara, S.; Erlebacher, G.; Yuen, D.; Fox, G.; Pierce, M.

2003-12-01

Remote Visualization Services (RVS) have tended to rely on approaches based on the client server paradigm. Here we demonstrate our approach - based on a distributed brokering infrastructure, NaradaBrokering [1] - that relies on distributed, asynchronous and loosely coupled interactions to meet the requirements and constraints of RVS. In our approach to RVS, services advertise their capabilities to the broker network that manages these service advertisements. Among the services considered within our system are those that perform graphic transformations, mediate access to specialized datasets and finally those that manage the execution of specified tasks. There could be multiple instances of each of these services and the system ensures that load for a given service is distributed efficiently over these service instances. We will demonstrate implementation of concepts that we outlined in the oral presentation. This would involve two or more visualization servers interacting asynchronously with multiple clients through NaradaBrokering. The communicating entities may exchange SOAP [2] (Simple Object Access Protocol) messages. SOAP is a lightweight protocol for exchange of information in a decentralized, distributed environment. It is an XML based protocol that consists of three parts: an envelope that describes what is in a message and how to process it, rules for expressing instances of application-defined data types, and a convention for representing remote invocation related operations. Furthermore, we will also demonstrate how clients can retrieve their results after prolonged disconnects or after any failures that might have taken place. The entities, services and clients alike, are not limited by the geographical distances that separate them. We are planning to test this system in the context of trans-Atlantic links separating interacting entities. {[1]} The NaradaBrokering Project: http://www.naradabrokering.org {[2]} Newcomer, E., 2002, Understanding web services: XML, WSDL, SOAP, and UDDI, Addison Wesley Professional.

It's not about pager replacement: an in-depth look at the interprofessional nature of communication in healthcare.

PubMed

Quan, Sherman D; Wu, Robert C; Rossos, Peter G; Arany, Teri; Groe, Silvi; Morra, Dante; Wong, Brian M; Cavalcanti, Rodrigo; Coke, William; Lau, Francis Y

2013-03-01

Institutions have tried to replace the use of numeric pagers for clinical communication by implementing health information technology (HIT) solutions. However, failing to account for the sociotechnical aspects of HIT or the interplay of technology with existing clinical workflow, culture, and social interactions may create other unintended consequences. To evaluate a Web-based messaging system that allows asynchronous communication between health providers and identify the unintended consequences associated with implementing such technology. Intervention-a Web-based messaging system at the University Health Network to replace numeric paging practices in May 2010. The system facilitated clinical communication on the medical wards for coordinating patient care. Study design-pre-post mixed methods utilizing both quantitative and qualitative measures. Five residents, 8 nurses, 2 pharmacists, and 2 social workers were interviewed. Pre-post interruption-15 residents from 5 clinical teams in both periods. The study compared the type of messages sent to physicians before and after implementation of the Web-based messaging system; a constant comparative analysis of semistructured interviews was used to generate key themes related to unintended consequences. Interruptions increased 233%, from 3 pages received per resident per day pre-implementation to 10 messages received per resident per day post-implementation. Key themes relating to unintended consequences that emerged from the interviews included increase in interruptions, accountability, and tactics to improve personal productivity. Meaningful improvements in clinical communication can occur but require more than just replacing pagers. Introducing HIT without addressing the sociotechnical aspects of HIT that underlie clinical communication can lead to unintended consequences. Copyright © 2013 Society of Hospital Medicine.

Mean-field message-passing equations in the Hopfield model and its generalizations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mézard, Marc

2017-02-01

Motivated by recent progress in using restricted Boltzmann machines as preprocessing algorithms for deep neural network, we revisit the mean-field equations [belief-propagation and Thouless-Anderson Palmer (TAP) equations] in the best understood of such machines, namely the Hopfield model of neural networks, and we explicit how they can be used as iterative message-passing algorithms, providing a fast method to compute the local polarizations of neurons. In the "retrieval phase", where neurons polarize in the direction of one memorized pattern, we point out a major difference between the belief propagation and TAP equations: The set of belief propagation equations depends on the pattern which is retrieved, while one can use a unique set of TAP equations. This makes the latter method much better suited for applications in the learning process of restricted Boltzmann machines. In the case where the patterns memorized in the Hopfield model are not independent, but are correlated through a combinatorial structure, we show that the TAP equations have to be modified. This modification can be seen either as an alteration of the reaction term in TAP equations or, more interestingly, as the consequence of message passing on a graphical model with several hidden layers, where the number of hidden layers depends on the depth of the correlations in the memorized patterns. This layered structure is actually necessary when one deals with more general restricted Boltzmann machines.

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-08-03

Earth observation taken during day pass by an Expedition 36 crew member on board the International Space Station (ISS). Per Twitter message: Perhaps a dandelion losing its seeds in the wind? Love clouds!

Paralysis

MedlinePlus

Paralysis is the loss of muscle function in part of your body. It happens when something goes ... way messages pass between your brain and muscles. Paralysis can be complete or partial. It can occur ...

Advanced Numerical Techniques of Performance Evaluation. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-06-01

multiprocessor environment. This factor is determined by the overhead of the primitives available in the system ( semaphore , monitor , or message... semaphore , monitor , or message passing primitives ) and U the programming ability of the user who implements the simulation. " t,: the sequential...Warp Operating System . i Pro" lftevcnth ACM Symposum on Operating Systems Princlplcs, pages 77 9:3, Auslin, TX, Nov wicr 1987. ACM. [121 D.R. Jefferson

Benchmarking hypercube hardware and software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grunwald, Dirk C.; Reed, Daniel A.

1986-01-01

It was long a truism in computer systems design that balanced systems achieve the best performance. Message passing parallel processors are no different. To quantify the balance of a hypercube design, an experimental methodology was developed and the associated suite of benchmarks was applied to several existing hypercubes. The benchmark suite includes tests of both processor speed in the absence of internode communication and message transmission speed as a function of communication patterns.

Data transfer using complete bipartite graph

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chandrasekaran, V. M.; Praba, B.; Manimaran, A.; Kailash, G.

2017-11-01

Information exchange extent is an estimation of the amount of information sent between two focuses on a framework in a given time period. It is an extremely significant perception in present world. There are many ways of message passing in the present situations. Some of them are through encryption, decryption, by using complete bipartite graph. In this paper, we recommend a method for communication using messages through encryption of a complete bipartite graph.

Trellis Tone Modulation Multiple-Access for Peer Discovery in D2D Networks

PubMed Central

Lim, Chiwoo; Kim, Sang-Hyo

2018-01-01

In this paper, a new non-orthogonal multiple-access scheme, trellis tone modulation multiple-access (TTMMA), is proposed for peer discovery of distributed device-to-device (D2D) communication. The range and capacity of discovery are important performance metrics in peer discovery. The proposed trellis tone modulation uses single-tone transmission and achieves a long discovery range due to its low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR). The TTMMA also exploits non-orthogonal resource assignment to increase the discovery capacity. For the multi-user detection of superposed multiple-access signals, a message-passing algorithm with supplementary schemes are proposed. With TTMMA and its message-passing demodulation, approximately 1.5 times the number of devices are discovered compared to the conventional frequency division multiple-access (FDMA)-based discovery. PMID:29673167

Statistical physics of hard combinatorial optimization: Vertex cover problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Jin-Hua; Zhou, Hai-Jun

2014-07-01

Typical-case computation complexity is a research topic at the boundary of computer science, applied mathematics, and statistical physics. In the last twenty years, the replica-symmetry-breaking mean field theory of spin glasses and the associated message-passing algorithms have greatly deepened our understanding of typical-case computation complexity. In this paper, we use the vertex cover problem, a basic nondeterministic-polynomial (NP)-complete combinatorial optimization problem of wide application, as an example to introduce the statistical physical methods and algorithms. We do not go into the technical details but emphasize mainly the intuitive physical meanings of the message-passing equations. A nonfamiliar reader shall be able to understand to a large extent the physics behind the mean field approaches and to adjust the mean field methods in solving other optimization problems.

Trellis Tone Modulation Multiple-Access for Peer Discovery in D2D Networks.

PubMed

Lim, Chiwoo; Jang, Min; Kim, Sang-Hyo

2018-04-17

In this paper, a new non-orthogonal multiple-access scheme, trellis tone modulation multiple-access (TTMMA), is proposed for peer discovery of distributed device-to-device (D2D) communication. The range and capacity of discovery are important performance metrics in peer discovery. The proposed trellis tone modulation uses single-tone transmission and achieves a long discovery range due to its low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR). The TTMMA also exploits non-orthogonal resource assignment to increase the discovery capacity. For the multi-user detection of superposed multiple-access signals, a message-passing algorithm with supplementary schemes are proposed. With TTMMA and its message-passing demodulation, approximately 1.5 times the number of devices are discovered compared to the conventional frequency division multiple-access (FDMA)-based discovery.

A Message Passing Approach to Side Chain Positioning with Applications in Protein Docking Refinement *

PubMed Central

Moghadasi, Mohammad; Kozakov, Dima; Mamonov, Artem B.; Vakili, Pirooz; Vajda, Sandor; Paschalidis, Ioannis Ch.

2013-01-01

We introduce a message-passing algorithm to solve the Side Chain Positioning (SCP) problem. SCP is a crucial component of protein docking refinement, which is a key step of an important class of problems in computational structural biology called protein docking. We model SCP as a combinatorial optimization problem and formulate it as a Maximum Weighted Independent Set (MWIS) problem. We then employ a modified and convergent belief-propagation algorithm to solve a relaxation of MWIS and develop randomized estimation heuristics that use the relaxed solution to obtain an effective MWIS feasible solution. Using a benchmark set of protein complexes we demonstrate that our approach leads to more accurate docking predictions compared to a baseline algorithm that does not solve the SCP. PMID:23515575

Multi-partitioning for ADI-schemes on message passing architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vanderwijngaart, Rob F.

1994-01-01

A kind of discrete-operator splitting called Alternating Direction Implicit (ADI) has been found to be useful in simulating fluid flow problems. In particular, it is being used to study the effects of hot exhaust jets from high performance aircraft on landing surfaces. Decomposition techniques that minimize load imbalance and message-passing frequency are described. Three strategies that are investigated for implementing the NAS Scalar Penta-diagonal Parallel Benchmark (SP) are transposition, pipelined Gaussian elimination, and multipartitioning. The multipartitioning strategy, which was used on Ethernet, was found to be the most efficient, although it was considered only a moderate success because of Ethernet's limited communication properties. The efficiency derived largely from the coarse granularity of the strategy, which reduced latencies and allowed overlap of communication and computation.

Parallel and fault-tolerant algorithms for hypercube multiprocessors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Aykanat, C.

1988-01-01

Several techniques for increasing the performance of parallel algorithms on distributed-memory message-passing multi-processor systems are investigated. These techniques are effectively implemented for the parallelization of the Scaled Conjugate Gradient (SCG) algorithm on a hypercube connected message-passing multi-processor. Significant performance improvement is achieved by using these techniques. The SCG algorithm is used for the solution phase of an FE modeling system. Almost linear speed-up is achieved, and it is shown that hypercube topology is scalable for an FE class of problem. The SCG algorithm is also shown to be suitable for vectorization, and near supercomputer performance is achieved on a vectormore » hypercube multiprocessor by exploiting both parallelization and vectorization. Fault-tolerance issues for the parallel SCG algorithm and for the hypercube topology are also addressed.« less

Incremental Parallelization of Non-Data-Parallel Programs Using the Charon Message-Passing Library

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanderWijngaart, Rob F.

2000-01-01

Message passing is among the most popular techniques for parallelizing scientific programs on distributed-memory architectures. The reasons for its success are wide availability (MPI), efficiency, and full tuning control provided to the programmer. A major drawback, however, is that incremental parallelization, as offered by compiler directives, is not generally possible, because all data structures have to be changed throughout the program simultaneously. Charon remedies this situation through mappings between distributed and non-distributed data. It allows breaking up the parallelization into small steps, guaranteeing correctness at every stage. Several tools are available to help convert legacy codes into high-performance message-passing programs. They usually target data-parallel applications, whose loops carrying most of the work can be distributed among all processors without much dependency analysis. Others do a full dependency analysis and then convert the code virtually automatically. Even more toolkits are available that aid construction from scratch of message passing programs. None, however, allows piecemeal translation of codes with complex data dependencies (i.e. non-data-parallel programs) into message passing codes. The Charon library (available in both C and Fortran) provides incremental parallelization capabilities by linking legacy code arrays with distributed arrays. During the conversion process, non-distributed and distributed arrays exist side by side, and simple mapping functions allow the programmer to switch between the two in any location in the program. Charon also provides wrapper functions that leave the structure of the legacy code intact, but that allow execution on truly distributed data. Finally, the library provides a rich set of communication functions that support virtually all patterns of remote data demands in realistic structured grid scientific programs, including transposition, nearest-neighbor communication, pipelining, gather/scatter, and redistribution. At the end of the conversion process most intermediate Charon function calls will have been removed, the non-distributed arrays will have been deleted, and virtually the only remaining Charon functions calls are the high-level, highly optimized communications. Distribution of the data is under complete control of the programmer, although a wide range of useful distributions is easily available through predefined functions. A crucial aspect of the library is that it does not allocate space for distributed arrays, but accepts programmer-specified memory. This has two major consequences. First, codes parallelized using Charon do not suffer from encapsulation; user data is always directly accessible. This provides high efficiency, and also retains the possibility of using message passing directly for highly irregular communications. Second, non-distributed arrays can be interpreted as (trivial) distributions in the Charon sense, which allows them to be mapped to truly distributed arrays, and vice versa. This is the mechanism that enables incremental parallelization. In this paper we provide a brief introduction of the library and then focus on the actual steps in the parallelization process, using some representative examples from, among others, the NAS Parallel Benchmarks. We show how a complicated two-dimensional pipeline-the prototypical non-data-parallel algorithm- can be constructed with ease. To demonstrate the flexibility of the library, we give examples of the stepwise, efficient parallel implementation of nonlocal boundary conditions common in aircraft simulations, as well as the construction of the sequence of grids required for multigrid.

Message Passing on GPUs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stuart, J. A.

2011-12-01

This paper explores the challenges in implementing a message passing interface usable on systems with data-parallel processors, and more specifically GPUs. As a case study, we design and implement the ``DCGN'' API on NVIDIA GPUs that is similar to MPI and allows full access to the underlying architecture. We introduce the notion of data-parallel thread-groups as a way to map resources to MPI ranks. We use a method that also allows the data-parallel processors to run autonomously from user-written CPU code. In order to facilitate communication, we use a sleep-based polling system to store and retrieve messages. Unlike previous systems, our method provides both performance and flexibility. By running a test suite of applications with different communication requirements, we find that a tolerable amount of overhead is incurred, somewhere between one and five percent depending on the application, and indicate the locations where this overhead accumulates. We conclude that with innovations in chipsets and drivers, this overhead will be mitigated and provide similar performance to typical CPU-based MPI implementations while providing fully-dynamic communication.

Passing Messages between Biological Networks to Refine Predicted Interactions

PubMed Central

Glass, Kimberly; Huttenhower, Curtis; Quackenbush, John; Yuan, Guo-Cheng

2013-01-01

Regulatory network reconstruction is a fundamental problem in computational biology. There are significant limitations to such reconstruction using individual datasets, and increasingly people attempt to construct networks using multiple, independent datasets obtained from complementary sources, but methods for this integration are lacking. We developed PANDA (Passing Attributes between Networks for Data Assimilation), a message-passing model using multiple sources of information to predict regulatory relationships, and used it to integrate protein-protein interaction, gene expression, and sequence motif data to reconstruct genome-wide, condition-specific regulatory networks in yeast as a model. The resulting networks were not only more accurate than those produced using individual data sets and other existing methods, but they also captured information regarding specific biological mechanisms and pathways that were missed using other methodologies. PANDA is scalable to higher eukaryotes, applicable to specific tissue or cell type data and conceptually generalizable to include a variety of regulatory, interaction, expression, and other genome-scale data. An implementation of the PANDA algorithm is available at www.sourceforge.net/projects/panda-net. PMID:23741402

Applications of Probabilistic Combiners on Linear Feedback Shift Register Sequences

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-12-01

on the resulting output strings show a drastic increase in complexity, while simultaneously passing the stringent randomness tests required by the...a three-variable function. Our tests on the resulting output strings show a drastic increase in complex- ity, while simultaneously passing the...10001101 01000010 11101001 Decryption of a message that has been encrypted using bitwise XOR is quite simple. Since each bit is its own additive inverse

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-07-26

Earth observation taken during day pass by an Expedition 36 crew member on board the International Space Station (ISS). Per Twitter message: Never tire of finding shapes in the clouds! These look very botanical to me. Simply perfect.

PREEMIE Reauthorization Act

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Sen. Alexander, Lamar [R-TN

2011-07-28

Senate - 12/19/2012 Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendments to Senate bill. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Electronic Cigarettes on Twitter – Spreading the Appeal of Flavors

PubMed Central

Chu, Kar-Hai; Unger, Jennifer B.; Cruz, Tess Boley; Soto, Daniel W.

2016-01-01

Objectives Social media platforms are used by tobacco companies to promote products. This study examines message content on Twitter from e-cigarette brands and determines if messages about flavors are more likely than non-flavor messages to be passed along to other viewers. Methods We examined Twitter data from 2 e-cigarette brands and identified messages that contained terms related to e-cigarette flavors. Results Flavor-related posts were retweeted at a significantly higher rate by e-cigarette brands (p = .04) and other Twitter users (p < .01) than non-flavor posts. Conclusions E-cigarette brands and other Twitter users pay attention to flavor-related posts and retweet them often. These findings suggest flavors continue to be an attractive characteristic and their marketing should be monitored closely. PMID:27853734

Parallelization of the TRIGRS model for rainfall-induced landslides using the message passing interface

USGS Publications Warehouse

Alvioli, M.; Baum, R.L.

2016-01-01

We describe a parallel implementation of TRIGRS, the Transient Rainfall Infiltration and Grid-Based Regional Slope-Stability Model for the timing and distribution of rainfall-induced shallow landslides. We have parallelized the four time-demanding execution modes of TRIGRS, namely both the saturated and unsaturated model with finite and infinite soil depth options, within the Message Passing Interface framework. In addition to new features of the code, we outline details of the parallel implementation and show the performance gain with respect to the serial code. Results are obtained both on commercial hardware and on a high-performance multi-node machine, showing the different limits of applicability of the new code. We also discuss the implications for the application of the model on large-scale areas and as a tool for real-time landslide hazard monitoring.

Identifying an influential spreader from a single seed in complex networks via a message-passing approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Min, Byungjoon

2018-01-01

Identifying the most influential spreaders is one of outstanding problems in physics of complex systems. So far, many approaches have attempted to rank the influence of nodes but there is still the lack of accuracy to single out influential spreaders. Here, we directly tackle the problem of finding important spreaders by solving analytically the expected size of epidemic outbreaks when spreading originates from a single seed. We derive and validate a theory for calculating the size of epidemic outbreaks with a single seed using a message-passing approach. In addition, we find that the probability to occur epidemic outbreaks is highly dependent on the location of the seed but the size of epidemic outbreaks once it occurs is insensitive to the seed. We also show that our approach can be successfully adapted into weighted networks.

The design of multi-core DSP parallel model based on message passing and multi-level pipeline

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niu, Jingyu; Hu, Jian; He, Wenjing; Meng, Fanrong; Li, Chuanrong

2017-10-01

Currently, the design of embedded signal processing system is often based on a specific application, but this idea is not conducive to the rapid development of signal processing technology. In this paper, a parallel processing model architecture based on multi-core DSP platform is designed, and it is mainly suitable for the complex algorithms which are composed of different modules. This model combines the ideas of multi-level pipeline parallelism and message passing, and summarizes the advantages of the mainstream model of multi-core DSP (the Master-Slave model and the Data Flow model), so that it has better performance. This paper uses three-dimensional image generation algorithm to validate the efficiency of the proposed model by comparing with the effectiveness of the Master-Slave and the Data Flow model.

Generalized hypercube structures and hyperswitch communication network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Young, Steven D.

1992-01-01

This paper discusses an ongoing study that uses a recent development in communication control technology to implement hybrid hypercube structures. These architectures are similar to binary hypercubes, but they also provide added connectivity between the processors. This added connectivity increases communication reliability while decreasing the latency of interprocessor message passing. Because these factors directly determine the speed that can be obtained by multiprocessor systems, these architectures are attractive for applications such as remote exploration and experimentation, where high performance and ultrareliability are required. This paper describes and enumerates these architectures and discusses how they can be implemented with a modified version of the hyperswitch communication network (HCN). The HCN is analyzed because it has three attractive features that enable these architectures to be effective: speed, fault tolerance, and the ability to pass multiple messages simultaneously through the same hyperswitch controller.

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-08-03

Earth observation taken during day pass by an Expedition 36 crew member on board the International Space Station (ISS). Per Twitter message: From southernmost point of orbit over the South Pacific- all clouds seemed to be leading to the South Pole.

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2013-07-21

Earth observation taken during night pass by an Expedition 36 crew member on board the International Space Station (ISS). Per Twitter message this is labeled as : Tehran, Iran. Lights along the coast of the Caspian Sea visible through clouds. July 21.

Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2010

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Akaka, Daniel K. [D-HI

2009-02-03

Senate - 12/22/2010 Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendments to Senate bill. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Earth Observation

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-05-31

Earth Observation taken during a day pass by the Expedition 40 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Folder lists this as: CEO - Arena de Sao Paolo. View used for Twitter message: Cloudy skies over São Paulo Brazil

Interprocess Communication in Highly Distributed Systems - A Workshop Report - 20 to 22, November 1978.

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-12-01

Links between processes can be aLlocated strictLy to controL functions. In fact, the degree of separation of control and data is an important research is...delays or Loss of control messages. Cognoscienti agree that message-passing IPC schemes are equivalent in "power" to schemes which employ shared...THEORETICAL WORK Page 55 SECTION 6 THEORETICAL WORK 6.1 WORKING GRUP JIM REP.OR STRUCTURE of Discussion: Distributed system without central (or any) control

Distributed parameter estimation in unreliable sensor networks via broadcast gossip algorithms.

PubMed

Wang, Huiwei; Liao, Xiaofeng; Wang, Zidong; Huang, Tingwen; Chen, Guo

2016-01-01

In this paper, we present an asynchronous algorithm to estimate the unknown parameter under an unreliable network which allows new sensors to join and old sensors to leave, and can tolerate link failures. Each sensor has access to partially informative measurements when it is awakened. In addition, the proposed algorithm can avoid the interference among messages and effectively reduce the accumulated measurement and quantization errors. Based on the theory of stochastic approximation, we prove that our proposed algorithm almost surely converges to the unknown parameter. Finally, we present a numerical example to assess the performance and the communication cost of the algorithm. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2014

THOMAS, 113th Congress

Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [D-NY

2014-04-10

Senate - 12/11/2014 Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendment to Senate bill. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Electronic Message Preservation Act

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Hodes, Paul W. [D-NH-2

2009-03-09

Senate - 03/18/2010 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 2009

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Voinovich, George V. [R-OH

2009-01-22

Senate - 12/15/2009 Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendment to Senate bill. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Messaging to Increase Public Support for Naloxone Distribution Policies in the United States: Results from a Randomized Survey Experiment.

PubMed

Bachhuber, Marcus A; McGinty, Emma E; Kennedy-Hendricks, Alene; Niederdeppe, Jeff; Barry, Colleen L

2015-01-01

Barriers to public support for naloxone distribution include lack of knowledge, concerns about potential unintended consequences, and lack of sympathy for people at risk of overdose. A randomized survey experiment was conducted with a nationally-representative web-based survey research panel (GfK KnowledgePanel). Participants were randomly assigned to read different messages alone or in combination: 1) factual information about naloxone; 2) pre-emptive refutation of potential concerns about naloxone distribution; and 3) a sympathetic narrative about a mother whose daughter died of an opioid overdose. Participants were then asked if they support or oppose policies related to naloxone distribution. For each policy item, logistic regression models were used to test the effect of each message exposure compared with the no-exposure control group. The final sample consisted of 1,598 participants (completion rate: 72.6%). Factual information and the sympathetic narrative alone each led to higher support for training first responders to use naloxone, providing naloxone to friends and family members of people using opioids, and passing laws to protect people who administer naloxone. Participants receiving the combination of the sympathetic narrative and factual information, compared to factual information alone, were more likely to support all policies: providing naloxone to friends and family members (OR: 2.0 [95% CI: 1.4 to 2.9]), training first responders to use naloxone (OR: 2.0 [95% CI: 1.2 to 3.4]), passing laws to protect people if they administer naloxone (OR: 1.5 [95% CI: 1.04 to 2.2]), and passing laws to protect people if they call for medical help for an overdose (OR: 1.7 [95% CI: 1.2 to 2.5]). All messages increased public support, but combining factual information and the sympathetic narrative was most effective. Public support for naloxone distribution can be improved through education and sympathetic portrayals of the population who stands to benefit from these policies.

Compression of digital images over local area networks. Appendix 1: Item 3. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gorjala, Bhargavi

1991-01-01

Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM) has been used with speech for many years. It has not been as successful for images because of poor edge performance. The only corruption in DPC is quantizer error but this corruption becomes quite large in the region of an edge because of the abrupt changes in the statistics of the signal. We introduce two improved DPCM schemes; Edge correcting DPCM and Edge Preservation Differential Coding. These two coding schemes will detect the edges and take action to correct them. In an Edge Correcting scheme, the quantizer error for an edge is encoded using a recursive quantizer with entropy coding and sent to the receiver as side information. In an Edge Preserving scheme, when the quantizer input falls in the overload region, the quantizer error is encoded and sent to the receiver repeatedly until the quantizer input falls in the inner levels. Therefore these coding schemes increase the bit rate in the region of an edge and require variable rate channels. We implement these two variable rate coding schemes on a token wing network. Timed token protocol supports two classes of messages; asynchronous and synchronous. The synchronous class provides a pre-allocated bandwidth and guaranteed response time. The remaining bandwidth is dynamically allocated to the asynchronous class. The Edge Correcting DPCM is simulated by considering the edge information under the asynchronous class. For the simulation of the Edge Preserving scheme, the amount of information sent each time is fixed, but the length of the packet or the bit rate for that packet is chosen depending on the availability capacity. The performance of the network, and the performance of the image coding algorithms, is studied.

Highly Scalable Asynchronous Computing Method for Partial Differential Equations: A Path Towards Exascale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Konduri, Aditya

Many natural and engineering systems are governed by nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) which result in a multiscale phenomena, e.g. turbulent flows. Numerical simulations of these problems are computationally very expensive and demand for extreme levels of parallelism. At realistic conditions, simulations are being carried out on massively parallel computers with hundreds of thousands of processing elements (PEs). It has been observed that communication between PEs as well as their synchronization at these extreme scales take up a significant portion of the total simulation time and result in poor scalability of codes. This issue is likely to pose a bottleneck in scalability of codes on future Exascale systems. In this work, we propose an asynchronous computing algorithm based on widely used finite difference methods to solve PDEs in which synchronization between PEs due to communication is relaxed at a mathematical level. We show that while stability is conserved when schemes are used asynchronously, accuracy is greatly degraded. Since message arrivals at PEs are random processes, so is the behavior of the error. We propose a new statistical framework in which we show that average errors drop always to first-order regardless of the original scheme. We propose new asynchrony-tolerant schemes that maintain accuracy when synchronization is relaxed. The quality of the solution is shown to depend, not only on the physical phenomena and numerical schemes, but also on the characteristics of the computing machine. A novel algorithm using remote memory access communications has been developed to demonstrate excellent scalability of the method for large-scale computing. Finally, we present a path to extend this method in solving complex multi-scale problems on Exascale machines.

Parallelization of KENO-Va Monte Carlo code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramón, Javier; Peña, Jorge

1995-07-01

KENO-Va is a code integrated within the SCALE system developed by Oak Ridge that solves the transport equation through the Monte Carlo Method. It is being used at the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (CSN) to perform criticality calculations for fuel storage pools and shipping casks. Two parallel versions of the code: one for shared memory machines and other for distributed memory systems using the message-passing interface PVM have been generated. In both versions the neutrons of each generation are tracked in parallel. In order to preserve the reproducibility of the results in both versions, advanced seeds for random numbers were used. The CONVEX C3440 with four processors and shared memory at CSN was used to implement the shared memory version. A FDDI network of 6 HP9000/735 was employed to implement the message-passing version using proprietary PVM. The speedup obtained was 3.6 in both cases.

Statistical analysis of loopy belief propagation in random fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yasuda, Muneki; Kataoka, Shun; Tanaka, Kazuyuki

2015-10-01

Loopy belief propagation (LBP), which is equivalent to the Bethe approximation in statistical mechanics, is a message-passing-type inference method that is widely used to analyze systems based on Markov random fields (MRFs). In this paper, we propose a message-passing-type method to analytically evaluate the quenched average of LBP in random fields by using the replica cluster variation method. The proposed analytical method is applicable to general pairwise MRFs with random fields whose distributions differ from each other and can give the quenched averages of the Bethe free energies over random fields, which are consistent with numerical results. The order of its computational cost is equivalent to that of standard LBP. In the latter part of this paper, we describe the application of the proposed method to Bayesian image restoration, in which we observed that our theoretical results are in good agreement with the numerical results for natural images.

Message-passing-interface-based parallel FDTD investigation on the EM scattering from a 1-D rough sea surface using uniaxial perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary.

PubMed

Li, J; Guo, L-X; Zeng, H; Han, X-B

2009-06-01

A message-passing-interface (MPI)-based parallel finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm for the electromagnetic scattering from a 1-D randomly rough sea surface is presented. The uniaxial perfectly matched layer (UPML) medium is adopted for truncation of FDTD lattices, in which the finite-difference equations can be used for the total computation domain by properly choosing the uniaxial parameters. This makes the parallel FDTD algorithm easier to implement. The parallel performance with different processors is illustrated for one sea surface realization, and the computation time of the parallel FDTD algorithm is dramatically reduced compared to a single-process implementation. Finally, some numerical results are shown, including the backscattering characteristics of sea surface for different polarization and the bistatic scattering from a sea surface with large incident angle and large wind speed.

Extensions to the Parallel Real-Time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS) for fault-tolerant heterogeneous cycle-stealing reasoning

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldstein, David

1991-01-01

Extensions to an architecture for real-time, distributed (parallel) knowledge-based systems called the Parallel Real-time Artificial Intelligence System (PRAIS) are discussed. PRAIS strives for transparently parallelizing production (rule-based) systems, even under real-time constraints. PRAIS accomplished these goals (presented at the first annual C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) conference) by incorporating a dynamic task scheduler, operating system extensions for fact handling, and message-passing among multiple copies of CLIPS executing on a virtual blackboard. This distributed knowledge-based system tool uses the portability of CLIPS and common message-passing protocols to operate over a heterogeneous network of processors. Results using the original PRAIS architecture over a network of Sun 3's, Sun 4's and VAX's are presented. Mechanisms using the producer-consumer model to extend the architecture for fault-tolerance and distributed truth maintenance initiation are also discussed.

Service Management Database for DSN Equipment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zendejas, Silvino; Bui, Tung; Bui, Bach; Malhotra, Shantanu; Chen, Fannie; Wolgast, Paul; Allen, Christopher; Luong, Ivy; Chang, George; Sadaqathulla, Syed

2009-01-01

This data- and event-driven persistent storage system leverages the use of commercial software provided by Oracle for portability, ease of maintenance, scalability, and ease of integration with embedded, client-server, and multi-tiered applications. In this role, the Service Management Database (SMDB) is a key component of the overall end-to-end process involved in the scheduling, preparation, and configuration of the Deep Space Network (DSN) equipment needed to perform the various telecommunication services the DSN provides to its customers worldwide. SMDB makes efficient use of triggers, stored procedures, queuing functions, e-mail capabilities, data management, and Java integration features provided by the Oracle relational database management system. SMDB uses a third normal form schema design that allows for simple data maintenance procedures and thin layers of integration with client applications. The software provides an integrated event logging system with ability to publish events to a JMS messaging system for synchronous and asynchronous delivery to subscribed applications. It provides a structured classification of events and application-level messages stored in database tables that are accessible by monitoring applications for real-time monitoring or for troubleshooting and analysis over historical archives.

Proactive authenticated notifications for health practitioners: two way human computer interaction through phone.

PubMed

Majeed, Raphael W; Stöhr, Mark R; Röhrig, Rainer

2012-01-01

Notifications and alerts play an important role in clinical daily routine. Rising prevalence of clinical decision support systems and electronic health records also result in increasing demands on notification systems. Failure adequately to communicate a critical value is a potential cause of adverse events. Critical laboratory values and changing vital data depend on timely notifications of medical staff. Vital monitors and medical devices rely on acoustic signals for alerting which are prone to "alert fatigue" and require medical staff to be present within audible range. Personal computers are unsuitable to display time critical notification messages, since the targeted medical staff are not always operating or watching the computer. On the other hand, mobile phones and smart devices enjoy increasing popularity. Previous notification systems sending text messages to mobile phones depend on asynchronous confirmations. By utilizing an automated telephony server, we provide a method to deliver notifications quickly and independently of the recipients' whereabouts while allowing immediate feedback and confirmations. Evaluation results suggest the feasibility of the proposed notification system for real-time notifications.

Space Flight Middleware: Remote AMS over DTN for Delay-Tolerant Messaging

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burleigh, Scott

2011-01-01

This paper describes a technique for implementing scalable, reliable, multi-source multipoint data distribution in space flight communications -- Delay-Tolerant Reliable Multicast (DTRM) -- that is fully supported by the "Remote AMS" (RAMS) protocol of the Asynchronous Message Service (AMS) proposed for standardization within the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS). The DTRM architecture enables applications to easily "publish" messages that will be reliably and efficiently delivered to an arbitrary number of "subscribing" applications residing anywhere in the space network, whether in the same subnet or in a subnet on a remote planet or vehicle separated by many light minutes of interplanetary space. The architecture comprises multiple levels of protocol, each included for a specific purpose and allocated specific responsibilities: "application AMS" traffic performs end-system data introduction and delivery subject to access control; underlying "remote AMS" directs this application traffic to populations of recipients at remote locations in a multicast distribution tree, enabling the architecture to scale up to large networks; further underlying Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) Bundle Protocol (BP) advances RAMS protocol data units through the distribution tree using delay-tolerant storeand- forward methods; and further underlying reliable "convergence-layer" protocols ensure successful data transfer over each segment of the end-to-end route. The result is scalable, reliable, delay-tolerant multi-source multicast that is largely self-configuring.

Message passing with queues and channels

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dozsa, Gabor J; Heidelberger, Philip; Kumar, Sameer

In an embodiment, a send thread receives an identifier that identifies a destination node and a pointer to data. The send thread creates a first send request in response to the receipt of the identifier and the data pointer. The send thread selects a selected channel from among a plurality of channels. The selected channel comprises a selected hand-off queue and an identification of a selected message unit. Each of the channels identifies a different message unit. The selected hand-off queue is randomly accessible. If the selected hand-off queue contains an available entry, the send thread adds the first sendmore » request to the selected hand-off queue. If the selected hand-off queue does not contain an available entry, the send thread removes a second send request from the selected hand-off queue and sends the second send request to the selected message unit.« less

Scalable Optical-Fiber Communication Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chow, Edward T.; Peterson, John C.

1993-01-01

Scalable arbitrary fiber extension network (SAFEnet) is conceptual fiber-optic communication network passing digital signals among variety of computers and input/output devices at rates from 200 Mb/s to more than 100 Gb/s. Intended for use with very-high-speed computers and other data-processing and communication systems in which message-passing delays must be kept short. Inherent flexibility makes it possible to match performance of network to computers by optimizing configuration of interconnections. In addition, interconnections made redundant to provide tolerance to faults.

Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR

2009-12-22

Senate - 12/21/2010 Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendment to Senate bill. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Chaos synchronization communication using extremely unsymmetrical bidirectional injections.

PubMed

Zhang, Wei Li; Pan, Wei; Luo, Bin; Zou, Xi Hua; Wang, Meng Yao; Zhou, Zhi

2008-02-01

Chaos synchronization and message transmission between two semiconductor lasers with extremely unsymmetrical bidirectional injections (EUBIs) are discussed. By using EUBIs, synchronization is realized through injection locking. Numerical results show that if the laser subjected to strong injection serves as the receiver, chaos pass filtering (CPF) of the system is similar to that of unidirectional coupled systems. Moreover, if the other laser serves as the receiver, a stronger CPF can be obtained. Finally, we demonstrate that messages can be extracted successfully from either of the two transmission directions of the system.

Automation Framework for Flight Dynamics Products Generation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiegand, Robert E.; Esposito, Timothy C.; Watson, John S.; Jun, Linda; Shoan, Wendy; Matusow, Carla

2010-01-01

XFDS provides an easily adaptable automation platform. To date it has been used to support flight dynamics operations. It coordinates the execution of other applications such as Satellite TookKit, FreeFlyer, MATLAB, and Perl code. It provides a mechanism for passing messages among a collection of XFDS processes, and allows sending and receiving of GMSEC messages. A unified and consistent graphical user interface (GUI) is used for the various tools. Its automation configuration is stored in text files, and can be edited either directly or using the GUI.

ASC ATDM Level 2 Milestone #5325: Asynchronous Many-Task Runtime System Analysis and Assessment for Next Generation Platforms.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Baker, Gavin Matthew; Bettencourt, Matthew Tyler; Bova, Steven W.

2015-09-01

This report provides in-depth information and analysis to help create a technical road map for developing next- generation Orogramming mocleN and runtime systemsl that support Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) work- load requirements. The focus herein is on 4synchronous many-task (AMT) model and runtime systems, which are of great interest in the context of "Oriascale7 computing, as they hold the promise to address key issues associated with future extreme-scale computer architectures. This report includes a thorough qualitative and quantitative examination of three best-of-class AIM] runtime systemsHCharm-HE, Legion, and Uintah, all of which are in use as part of the Centers.more » The studies focus on each of the runtimes' programmability, performance, and mutability. Through the experiments and analysis presented, several overarching Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program II (PSAAP-II) Ascl findings emerge. From a performance perspective, AIVT11runtimes show tremendous potential for addressing extreme- scale challenges. Empirical studies show an AM11 runtime can mitigate performance heterogeneity inherent to the machine itself and that Message Passing Interface (MP1) and AM11runtimes perform comparably under balanced con- ditions. From a programmability and mutability perspective however, none of the runtimes in this study are currently ready for use in developing production-ready Sandia ASCIapplications. The report concludes by recommending a co- design path forward, wherein application, programming model, and runtime system developers work together to define requirements and solutions. Such a requirements-driven co-design approach benefits the community as a whole, with widespread community engagement mitigating risk for both application developers developers. and high-performance computing inntime systein« less

WIYN: A New Technology Telescope on Kitt Peak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Silva, David R.

1995-05-01

The WIYN Observatory, a joint venture between the University of Wisconsin (W), Indiana University (I), Yale University (Y), and the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (N), is a new technology alt-az 3.5m telescope located on Kitt Peak. Science operations are scheduled to begin during July 1995. WIYN has achieved site-limited delivered image quality (DIQ) through a combination of careful site selection, enclosure thermal control, and active optics techniques. The Observatory site was selected based on previous empirical observations of sub-arcsecond images. Heat from the enclosure is vented actively and passively: with 2 m/s winds, the observing chamber volume is exchanged roughly once per minute. The temperature and shape of the lightweight primary mirror, spun-cast by the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab, are maintained by control systems developed by NOAO. These systems maintain the mirror temperature within 0.2 deg C of ambient and the total delivered wavefront error within 150 nm RMS of the ideal. The measured WIYN median DIQ was 0.7'' FWHM for the period June 1994 through January 1995. The main facility instruments, the Multi-Object Spectrograph (MOS/Hydra) and the WIYN Imager, are currently being commissioned simultaneously at the two Nasymth foci. A f/6.3, 1 deg corrected beam is presented to MOS/Hydra while the beam presented to the Imager is corrected over 0.5 deg. The WIYN control system is based on a distributed network of real-time and time-sharing processors linked together by a low-bandwidth asynchronous message passing system. This architecture is robust, easily expandable, and amenable to remote operations. The baseline system was designed and implemented by the University of Wisconsin Controls Group. Current telescope performance and commissioning progress will be presented at the Meeting.

The design, marketing, and implementation of online continuing education about computers and nursing informatics.

PubMed

Sweeney, Nancy M; Saarmann, Lembi; Seidman, Robert; Flagg, Joan

2006-01-01

Asynchronous online tutorials using PowerPoint slides with accompanying audio to teach practicing nurses about computers and nursing informatics were designed for this project, which awarded free continuing education units to completers. Participants had control over the advancement of slides, with the ability to repeat when desired. Graphics were kept to a minimum; thus, the program ran smoothly on computers using dial-up modems. The tutorials were marketed in live meetings and through e-mail messages on nursing listservs. Findings include that the enrollment process must be automated and instantaneous, the program must work from every type of computer and Internet connection, marketing should be live and electronic, and workshops should be offered to familiarize nurses with the online learning system.

Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Rep. Rogers, Harold [R-KY-5

2011-02-11

Senate - 12/30/2012 Message on Senate action sent to the House. (All Actions) Notes: This bill was for a time the Senate legislative vehicle for Hurricane Sandy supplemental appropriations. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Cooperative Data Sharing: Simple Support for Clusters of SMP Nodes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DiNucci, David C.; Balley, David H. (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

Libraries like PVM and MPI send typed messages to allow for heterogeneous cluster computing. Lower-level libraries, such as GAM, provide more efficient access to communication by removing the need to copy messages between the interface and user space in some cases. still lower-level interfaces, such as UNET, get right down to the hardware level to provide maximum performance. However, these are all still interfaces for passing messages from one process to another, and have limited utility in a shared-memory environment, due primarily to the fact that message passing is just another term for copying. This drawback is made more pertinent by today's hybrid architectures (e.g. clusters of SMPs), where it is difficult to know beforehand whether two communicating processes will share memory. As a result, even portable language tools (like HPF compilers) must either map all interprocess communication, into message passing with the accompanying performance degradation in shared memory environments, or they must check each communication at run-time and implement the shared-memory case separately for efficiency. Cooperative Data Sharing (CDS) is a single user-level API which abstracts all communication between processes into the sharing and access coordination of memory regions, in a model which might be described as "distributed shared messages" or "large-grain distributed shared memory". As a result, the user programs to a simple latency-tolerant abstract communication specification which can be mapped efficiently to either a shared-memory or message-passing based run-time system, depending upon the available architecture. Unlike some distributed shared memory interfaces, the user still has complete control over the assignment of data to processors, the forwarding of data to its next likely destination, and the queuing of data until it is needed, so even the relatively high latency present in clusters can be accomodated. CDS does not require special use of an MMU, which can add overhead to some DSM systems, and does not require an SPMD programming model. unlike some message-passing interfaces, CDS allows the user to implement efficient demand-driven applications where processes must "fight" over data, and does not perform copying if processes share memory and do not attempt concurrent writes. CDS also supports heterogeneous computing, dynamic process creation, handlers, and a very simple thread-arbitration mechanism. Additional support for array subsections is currently being considered. The CDS1 API, which forms the kernel of CDS, is built primarily upon only 2 communication primitives, one process initiation primitive, and some data translation (and marshalling) routines, memory allocation routines, and priority control routines. The entire current collection of 28 routines provides enough functionality to implement most (or all) of MPI 1 and 2, which has a much larger interface consisting of hundreds of routines. still, the API is small enough to consider integrating into standard os interfaces for handling inter-process communication in a network-independent way. This approach would also help to solve many of the problems plaguing other higher-level standards such as MPI and PVM which must, in some cases, "play OS" to adequately address progress and process control issues. The CDS2 API, a higher level of interface roughly equivalent in functionality to MPI and to be built entirely upon CDS1, is still being designed. It is intended to add support for the equivalent of communicators, reduction and other collective operations, process topologies, additional support for process creation, and some automatic memory management. CDS2 will not exactly match MPI, because the copy-free semantics of communication from CDS1 will be supported. CDS2 application programs will be free to carefully also use CDS1. CDS1 has been implemented on networks of workstations running unmodified Unix-based operating systems, using UDP/IP and vendor-supplied high- performance locks. Although its inter-node performance is currently unimpressive due to rudimentary implementation technique, it even now outperforms highly-optimized MPI implementation on intra-node communication due to its support for non-copy communication. The similarity of the CDS1 architecture to that of other projects such as UNET and TRAP suggests that the inter-node performance can be increased significantly to surpass MPI or PVM, and it may be possible to migrate some of its functionality to communication controllers.

Interactive Supercomputing’s Star-P Platform

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Edelman, Alan; Husbands, Parry; Leibman, Steve

2006-09-19

The thesis of this extended abstract is simple. High productivity comes from high level infrastructures. To measure this, we introduce a methodology that goes beyond the tradition of timing software in serial and tuned parallel modes. We perform a classroom productivity study involving 29 students who have written a homework exercise in a low level language (MPI message passing) and a high level language (Star-P with MATLAB client). Our conclusions indicate what perhaps should be of little surprise: (1) the high level language is always far easier on the students than the low level language. (2) The early versions ofmore » the high level language perform inadequately compared to the tuned low level language, but later versions substantially catch up. Asymptotically, the analogy must hold that message passing is to high level language parallel programming as assembler is to high level environments such as MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple, or even Python. We follow the Kepner method that correctly realizes that traditional speedup numbers without some discussion of the human cost of reaching these numbers can fail to reflect the true human productivity cost of high performance computing. Traditional data compares low level message passing with serial computation. With the benefit of a high level language system in place, in our case Star-P running with MATLAB client, and with the benefit of a large data pool: 29 students, each running the same code ten times on three evolutions of the same platform, we can methodically demonstrate the productivity gains. To date we are not aware of any high level system as extensive and interoperable as Star-P, nor are we aware of an experiment of this kind performed with this volume of data.« less

Combining Distributed and Shared Memory Models: Approach and Evolution of the Global Arrays Toolkit

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Nieplocha, Jarek; Harrison, Robert J.; Kumar, Mukul

2002-07-29

Both shared memory and distributed memory models have advantages and shortcomings. Shared memory model is much easier to use but it ignores data locality/placement. Given the hierarchical nature of the memory subsystems in the modern computers this characteristic might have a negative impact on performance and scalability. Various techniques, such as code restructuring to increase data reuse and introducing blocking in data accesses, can address the problem and yield performance competitive with message passing[Singh], however at the cost of compromising the ease of use feature. Distributed memory models such as message passing or one-sided communication offer performance and scalability butmore » they compromise the ease-of-use. In this context, the message-passing model is sometimes referred to as?assembly programming for the scientific computing?. The Global Arrays toolkit[GA1, GA2] attempts to offer the best features of both models. It implements a shared-memory programming model in which data locality is managed explicitly by the programmer. This management is achieved by explicit calls to functions that transfer data between a global address space (a distributed array) and local storage. In this respect, the GA model has similarities to the distributed shared-memory models that provide an explicit acquire/release protocol. However, the GA model acknowledges that remote data is slower to access than local data and allows data locality to be explicitly specified and hence managed. The GA model exposes to the programmer the hierarchical memory of modern high-performance computer systems, and by recognizing the communication overhead for remote data transfer, it promotes data reuse and locality of reference. This paper describes the characteristics of the Global Arrays programming model, capabilities of the toolkit, and discusses its evolution.« less

Performance Measurement, Visualization and Modeling of Parallel and Distributed Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yan, Jerry C.; Sarukkai, Sekhar R.; Mehra, Pankaj; Lum, Henry, Jr. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

This paper presents a methodology for debugging the performance of message-passing programs on both tightly coupled and loosely coupled distributed-memory machines. The AIMS (Automated Instrumentation and Monitoring System) toolkit, a suite of software tools for measurement and analysis of performance, is introduced and its application illustrated using several benchmark programs drawn from the field of computational fluid dynamics. AIMS includes (i) Xinstrument, a powerful source-code instrumentor, which supports both Fortran77 and C as well as a number of different message-passing libraries including Intel's NX Thinking Machines' CMMD, and PVM; (ii) Monitor, a library of timestamping and trace -collection routines that run on supercomputers (such as Intel's iPSC/860, Delta, and Paragon and Thinking Machines' CM5) as well as on networks of workstations (including Convex Cluster and SparcStations connected by a LAN); (iii) Visualization Kernel, a trace-animation facility that supports source-code clickback, simultaneous visualization of computation and communication patterns, as well as analysis of data movements; (iv) Statistics Kernel, an advanced profiling facility, that associates a variety of performance data with various syntactic components of a parallel program; (v) Index Kernel, a diagnostic tool that helps pinpoint performance bottlenecks through the use of abstract indices; (vi) Modeling Kernel, a facility for automated modeling of message-passing programs that supports both simulation -based and analytical approaches to performance prediction and scalability analysis; (vii) Intrusion Compensator, a utility for recovering true performance from observed performance by removing the overheads of monitoring and their effects on the communication pattern of the program; and (viii) Compatibility Tools, that convert AIMS-generated traces into formats used by other performance-visualization tools, such as ParaGraph, Pablo, and certain AVS/Explorer modules.

Applications Performance Under MPL and MPI on NAS IBM SP2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saini, Subhash; Simon, Horst D.; Lasinski, T. A. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

On July 5, 1994, an IBM Scalable POWER parallel System (IBM SP2) with 64 nodes, was installed at the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Facility Each node of NAS IBM SP2 is a "wide node" consisting of a RISC 6000/590 workstation module with a clock of 66.5 MHz which can perform four floating point operations per clock with a peak performance of 266 Mflop/s. By the end of 1994, 64 nodes of IBM SP2 will be upgraded to 160 nodes with a peak performance of 42.5 Gflop/s. An overview of the IBM SP2 hardware is presented. The basic understanding of architectural details of RS 6000/590 will help application scientists the porting, optimizing, and tuning of codes from other machines such as the CRAY C90 and the Paragon to the NAS SP2. Optimization techniques such as quad-word loading, effective utilization of two floating point units, and data cache optimization of RS 6000/590 is illustrated, with examples giving performance gains at each optimization step. The conversion of codes using Intel's message passing library NX to codes using native Message Passing Library (MPL) and the Message Passing Interface (NMI) library available on the IBM SP2 is illustrated. In particular, we will present the performance of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) kernel from NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) under MPL and MPI. We have also optimized some of Fortran BLAS 2 and BLAS 3 routines, e.g., the optimized Fortran DAXPY runs at 175 Mflop/s and optimized Fortran DGEMM runs at 230 Mflop/s per node. The performance of the NPB (Class B) on the IBM SP2 is compared with the CRAY C90, Intel Paragon, TMC CM-5E, and the CRAY T3D.

Parallelization of a hydrological model using the message passing interface

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Yiping; Li, Tiejian; Sun, Liqun; Chen, Ji

2013-01-01

With the increasing knowledge about the natural processes, hydrological models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) are becoming larger and more complex with increasing computation time. Additionally, other procedures such as model calibration, which may require thousands of model iterations, can increase running time and thus further reduce rapid modeling and analysis. Using the widely-applied SWAT as an example, this study demonstrates how to parallelize a serial hydrological model in a Windows® environment using a parallel programing technology—Message Passing Interface (MPI). With a case study, we derived the optimal values for the two parameters (the number of processes and the corresponding percentage of work to be distributed to the master process) of the parallel SWAT (P-SWAT) on an ordinary personal computer and a work station. Our study indicates that model execution time can be reduced by 42%–70% (or a speedup of 1.74–3.36) using multiple processes (two to five) with a proper task-distribution scheme (between the master and slave processes). Although the computation time cost becomes lower with an increasing number of processes (from two to five), this enhancement becomes less due to the accompanied increase in demand for message passing procedures between the master and all slave processes. Our case study demonstrates that the P-SWAT with a five-process run may reach the maximum speedup, and the performance can be quite stable (fairly independent of a project size). Overall, the P-SWAT can help reduce the computation time substantially for an individual model run, manual and automatic calibration procedures, and optimization of best management practices. In particular, the parallelization method we used and the scheme for deriving the optimal parameters in this study can be valuable and easily applied to other hydrological or environmental models.

Enabling Energy Saving Innovations Act

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Rep. Aderholt, Robert B. [R-AL-4

2012-04-26

Senate - 09/24/2012 Message on Senate action sent to the House. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.6582, which became Public Law 112-210 on 12/18/2012. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

A Model for Speedup of Parallel Programs

DTIC Science & Technology

1997-01-01

Sanjeev. K Setia . The interaction between mem- ory allocation and adaptive partitioning in message- passing multicomputers. In IPPS 󈨣 Workshop on Job...Scheduling Strategies for Parallel Processing, pages 89{99, 1995. [15] Sanjeev K. Setia and Satish K. Tripathi. A compar- ative analysis of static

Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Aderholt, Robert B. [R-AL-4

2009-10-14

House - 11/17/2010 On motion to refer the bill and the accompanying veto message to the Committee on the Judiciary. Agreed to without objection. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Failed to pass over vetoHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Communication Studies of DMP and SMP Machines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sohn, Andrew; Biswas, Rupak; Chancellor, Marisa K. (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

Understanding the interplay between machines and problems is key to obtaining high performance on parallel machines. This paper investigates the interplay between programming paradigms and communication capabilities of parallel machines. In particular, we explicate the communication capabilities of the IBM SP-2 distributed-memory multiprocessor and the SGI PowerCHALLENGEarray symmetric multiprocessor. Two benchmark problems of bitonic sorting and Fast Fourier Transform are selected for experiments. Communication-efficient algorithms are developed to exploit the overlapping capabilities of the machines. Programs are written in Message-Passing Interface for portability and identical codes are used for both machines. Various data sizes and message sizes are used to test the machines' communication capabilities. Experimental results indicate that the communication performance of the multiprocessors are consistent with the size of messages. The SP-2 is sensitive to message size but yields a much higher communication overlapping because of the communication co-processor. The PowerCHALLENGEarray is not highly sensitive to message size and yields a low communication overlapping. Bitonic sorting yields lower performance compared to FFT due to a smaller computation-to-communication ratio.

Approximate message passing for nonconvex sparse regularization with stability and asymptotic analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakata, Ayaka; Xu, Yingying

2018-03-01

We analyse a linear regression problem with nonconvex regularization called smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) under an overcomplete Gaussian basis for Gaussian random data. We propose an approximate message passing (AMP) algorithm considering nonconvex regularization, namely SCAD-AMP, and analytically show that the stability condition corresponds to the de Almeida-Thouless condition in spin glass literature. Through asymptotic analysis, we show the correspondence between the density evolution of SCAD-AMP and the replica symmetric (RS) solution. Numerical experiments confirm that for a sufficiently large system size, SCAD-AMP achieves the optimal performance predicted by the replica method. Through replica analysis, a phase transition between replica symmetric and replica symmetry breaking (RSB) region is found in the parameter space of SCAD. The appearance of the RS region for a nonconvex penalty is a significant advantage that indicates the region of smooth landscape of the optimization problem. Furthermore, we analytically show that the statistical representation performance of the SCAD penalty is better than that of \

Message passing for integrating and assessing renewable generation in a redundant power grid

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zdeborova, Lenka; Backhaus, Scott; Chertkov, Michael

2009-01-01

A simplified model of a redundant power grid is used to study integration of fluctuating renewable generation. The grid consists of large number of generator and consumer nodes. The net power consumption is determined by the difference between the gross consumption and the level of renewable generation. The gross consumption is drawn from a narrow distribution representing the predictability of aggregated loads, and we consider two different distributions representing wind and solar resources. Each generator is connected to D consumers, and redundancy is built in by connecting R {le} D of these consumers to other generators. The lines are switchablemore » so that at any instance each consumer is connected to a single generator. We explore the capacity of the renewable generation by determining the level of 'firm' generation capacity that can be displaced for different levels of redundancy R. We also develop message-passing control algorithm for finding switch sellings where no generator is overloaded.« less

Mapping a battlefield simulation onto message-passing parallel architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nicol, David M.

1987-01-01

Perhaps the most critical problem in distributed simulation is that of mapping: without an effective mapping of workload to processors the speedup potential of parallel processing cannot be realized. Mapping a simulation onto a message-passing architecture is especially difficult when the computational workload dynamically changes as a function of time and space; this is exactly the situation faced by battlefield simulations. This paper studies an approach where the simulated battlefield domain is first partitioned into many regions of equal size; typically there are more regions than processors. The regions are then assigned to processors; a processor is responsible for performing all simulation activity associated with the regions. The assignment algorithm is quite simple and attempts to balance load by exploiting locality of workload intensity. The performance of this technique is studied on a simple battlefield simulation implemented on the Flex/32 multiprocessor. Measurements show that the proposed method achieves reasonable processor efficiencies. Furthermore, the method shows promise for use in dynamic remapping of the simulation.

On the design of high-speed energy-efficient successive-approximation logic for asynchronous SAR ADCs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jiaqi; Li, Ting; Yu, Mingyuan; Zhang, Shuangshuang; Lin, Fujiang; He, Lin

2017-08-01

This paper analyzes the power consumption and delay mechanisms of the successive-approximation (SA) logic of a typical asynchronous SAR ADC, and provides strategies to reduce both of them. Following these strategies, a unique direct-pass SA logic is proposed based on a full-swing once-triggered DFF and a self-locking tri-state gate. The unnecessary internal switching power of a typical TSPC DFF, which is commonly used in the SA logic, is avoided. The delay of the ready detector as well as the sequencer is removed from the critical path. A prototype SAR ADC based on the proposed SA logic is fabricated in 130 nm CMOS. It achieves a peak SNDR of 56.3 dB at 1.2 V supply and 65 MS/s sampling rate, and has a total power consumption of 555 μW, while the digital part consumes only 203 μW. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 61204033, 61331015), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. WK2100230015), and the Funds of Science and Technology on Analog Integrated Circuit Laboratory (No. 9140C090111150C09041).

Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2009

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large

2009-04-23

Senate - 09/28/2010 Message on Senate action sent to the House. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.6278, which became Public Law 111-328 on 12/22/2010. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Distance Learning and Public School Finance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monahan, Brian; Wimber, Charles

This discussion of the application of computers and telecommunications technology to distance learning begins by describing a workstation equipped to produce "lessonware" in such formats as audiocassettes, videocassettes, diskettes, and voice messages. Such workstations would be located in classrooms equipped with two-way reverse passes to a cable…

Reducing Flight Delays Act of 2013

THOMAS, 113th Congress

Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME

2013-04-25

Senate - 04/30/2013 Message on Senate action sent to the House. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.1765, which became Public Law 113-9 on 5/1/2013. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Temporary Bankruptcy Judgeships Extension Act of 2011

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Rep. Smith, Lamar [R-TX-21

2011-03-10

Senate - 04/23/2012 Message on Senate action sent to the House. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.4967, which became Public Law 112-121 on 5/25/2012. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Six degrees of depolarization. Comment on "Network science of biological systems at different scales: A review" by Marko Gosak et al.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wedgwood, Kyle C. A.; Satin, Leslie S.

2018-03-01

In 1967, the social psychologist Stanley Milgram asked how many intermediates would be required for a letter from participants in various U.S. states to be received by a contact in Boston, given that participants were given only basic information about the contact, and were instructed only to pass along the message to someone that might know the intended recipient [27]. The surprising answer was that, in spite of the social and geographical distances covered, on average, only 6 people were required for the message to reach its intended target.

A distributed infrastructure for publishing VO services: an implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cepparo, Francesco; Scagnetto, Ivan; Molinaro, Marco; Smareglia, Riccardo

2016-07-01

This contribution describes both the design and the implementation details of a new solution for publishing VO services, enlightening its maintainable, distributed, modular and scalable architecture. Indeed, the new publisher is multithreaded and multiprocess. Multiple instances of the modules can run on different machines to ensure high performance and high availability, and this will be true both for the interface modules of the services and the back end data access ones. The system uses message passing to let its components communicate through an AMQP message broker that can itself be distributed to provide better scalability and availability.

WinHPC System Programming | High-Performance Computing | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Programming WinHPC System Programming Learn how to build and run an MPI (message passing interface (mpi.h) and library (msmpi.lib) are. To build from the command line, run... Start > Intel Software Development Tools > Intel C++ Compiler Professional... > C++ Build Environment for applications running

Human erythrocytes analyzed by generalized 2D Raman correlation spectroscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wesełucha-Birczyńska, Aleksandra; Kozicki, Mateusz; Czepiel, Jacek; Łabanowska, Maria; Nowak, Piotr; Kowalczyk, Grzegorz; Kurdziel, Magdalena; Birczyńska, Malwina; Biesiada, Grażyna; Mach, Tomasz; Garlicki, Aleksander

2014-07-01

The most numerous elements of the blood cells, erythrocytes, consist mainly of two components: homogeneous interior filled with hemoglobin and closure which is the cell membrane. To gain insight into their specific properties we studied the process of disintegration, considering these two constituents, and comparing the natural aging process of human healthy blood cells. MicroRaman spectra of hemoglobin within the single RBC were recorded using 514.5, and 785 nm laser lines. The generalized 2D correlation method was applied to analyze the collected spectra. The time passed from blood donation was regarded as an external perturbation. The time was no more than 40 days according to the current storage limit of blood banks, although, the average RBC life span is 120 days. An analysis of the prominent synchronous and asynchronous cross peaks allow us to get insight into the mechanism of hemoglobin decomposition. Appearing asynchronous cross-peaks point towards globin and heme separation from each other, while synchronous shows already broken globin into individual amino acids. Raman scattering analysis of hemoglobin "wrapping", i.e. healthy erythrocyte ghosts, allows for the following peculiarity of their behavior. The increasing power of the excitation laser induced alterations in the assemblage of membrane lipids. 2D correlation maps, obtained with increasing laser power recognized as an external perturbation, allows for the consideration of alterations in the erythrocyte membrane structure and composition, which occurs first in the proteins. Cross-peaks were observed indicating an asynchronous correlation between the senescent-cell antigen (SCA) and heme or proteins vibrations. The EPR spectra of the whole blood was analyzed regarding time as an external stimulus. The 2D correlation spectra points towards participation of the selected metal ion centers in the disintegration process.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sadowski, Greg

In one form, a logic circuit includes an asynchronous logic circuit, a synchronous logic circuit, and an interface circuit coupled between the asynchronous logic circuit and the synchronous logic circuit. The asynchronous logic circuit has a plurality of asynchronous outputs for providing a corresponding plurality of asynchronous signals. The synchronous logic circuit has a plurality of synchronous inputs corresponding to the plurality of asynchronous outputs, a stretch input for receiving a stretch signal, and a clock output for providing a clock signal. The synchronous logic circuit provides the clock signal as a periodic signal but prolongs a predetermined state ofmore » the clock signal while the stretch signal is active. The asynchronous interface detects whether metastability could occur when latching any of the plurality of the asynchronous outputs of the asynchronous logic circuit using said clock signal, and activates the stretch signal while the metastability could occur.« less

Information processing in the CNS: a supramolecular chemistry?

PubMed

Tozzi, Arturo

2015-10-01

How does central nervous system process information? Current theories are based on two tenets: (a) information is transmitted by action potentials, the language by which neurons communicate with each other-and (b) homogeneous neuronal assemblies of cortical circuits operate on these neuronal messages where the operations are characterized by the intrinsic connectivity among neuronal populations. In this view, the size and time course of any spike is stereotypic and the information is restricted to the temporal sequence of the spikes; namely, the "neural code". However, an increasing amount of novel data point towards an alternative hypothesis: (a) the role of neural code in information processing is overemphasized. Instead of simply passing messages, action potentials play a role in dynamic coordination at multiple spatial and temporal scales, establishing network interactions across several levels of a hierarchical modular architecture, modulating and regulating the propagation of neuronal messages. (b) Information is processed at all levels of neuronal infrastructure from macromolecules to population dynamics. For example, intra-neuronal (changes in protein conformation, concentration and synthesis) and extra-neuronal factors (extracellular proteolysis, substrate patterning, myelin plasticity, microbes, metabolic status) can have a profound effect on neuronal computations. This means molecular message passing may have cognitive connotations. This essay introduces the concept of "supramolecular chemistry", involving the storage of information at the molecular level and its retrieval, transfer and processing at the supramolecular level, through transitory non-covalent molecular processes that are self-organized, self-assembled and dynamic. Finally, we note that the cortex comprises extremely heterogeneous cells, with distinct regional variations, macromolecular assembly, receptor repertoire and intrinsic microcircuitry. This suggests that every neuron (or group of neurons) embodies different molecular information that hands an operational effect on neuronal computation.

Increasing the Operational Value of Event Messages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Zhenping; Savkli, Cetin; Smith, Dan

2003-01-01

Assessing the health of a space mission has traditionally been performed using telemetry analysis tools. Parameter values are compared to known operational limits and are plotted over various time periods. This presentation begins with the notion that there is an incredible amount of untapped information contained within the mission s event message logs. Through creative advancements in message handling tools, the event message logs can be used to better assess spacecraft and ground system status and to highlight and report on conditions not readily apparent when messages are evaluated one-at-a-time during a real-time pass. Work in this area is being funded as part of a larger NASA effort at the Goddard Space Flight Center to create component-based, middleware-based, standards-based general purpose ground system architecture referred to as GMSEC - the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center. The new capabilities and operational concepts for event display, event data analyses and data mining are being developed by Lockheed Martin and the new subsystem has been named GREAT - the GMSEC Reusable Event Analysis Toolkit. Planned for use on existing and future missions, GREAT has the potential to increase operational efficiency in areas of problem detection and analysis, general status reporting, and real-time situational awareness.

Scalable Replay with Partial-Order Dependencies for Message-Logging Fault Tolerance

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lifflander, Jonathan; Meneses, Esteban; Menon, Harshita

2014-09-22

Deterministic replay of a parallel application is commonly used for discovering bugs or to recover from a hard fault with message-logging fault tolerance. For message passing programs, a major source of overhead during forward execution is recording the order in which messages are sent and received. During replay, this ordering must be used to deterministically reproduce the execution. Previous work in replay algorithms often makes minimal assumptions about the programming model and application in order to maintain generality. However, in many cases, only a partial order must be recorded due to determinism intrinsic in the code, ordering constraints imposed bymore » the execution model, and events that are commutative (their relative execution order during replay does not need to be reproduced exactly). In this paper, we present a novel algebraic framework for reasoning about the minimum dependencies required to represent the partial order for different concurrent orderings and interleavings. By exploiting this theory, we improve on an existing scalable message-logging fault tolerance scheme. The improved scheme scales to 131,072 cores on an IBM BlueGene/P with up to 2x lower overhead than one that records a total order.« less

A no-key-exchange secure image sharing scheme based on Shamir's three-pass cryptography protocol and the multiple-parameter fractional Fourier transform.

PubMed

Lang, Jun

2012-01-30

In this paper, we propose a novel secure image sharing scheme based on Shamir's three-pass protocol and the multiple-parameter fractional Fourier transform (MPFRFT), which can safely exchange information with no advance distribution of either secret keys or public keys between users. The image is encrypted directly by the MPFRFT spectrum without the use of phase keys, and information can be shared by transmitting the encrypted image (or message) three times between users. Numerical simulation results are given to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm.

E-mail, decisional styles, and rest breaks.

PubMed

Baker, James R; Phillips, James G

2007-10-01

E-mail is a common but problematic work application. A scale was created to measure tendencies to use e-mail to take breaks (e-breaking); and self-esteem and decisional style (vigilance, procrastination, buck-passing, hypervigilance) were used to predict the self-reported and actual e-mail behaviors of 133 participants (students and marketing employees). Individuals who were low in defensive avoidance (buck-passing) engaged in more e-mailing per week, both in time spent on e-mail and message volume. E-breakers were more likely to engage in behavioral procrastination and spent more time on personal e-mail.

PyPanda: a Python package for gene regulatory network reconstruction

PubMed Central

van IJzendoorn, David G.P.; Glass, Kimberly; Quackenbush, John; Kuijjer, Marieke L.

2016-01-01

Summary: PANDA (Passing Attributes between Networks for Data Assimilation) is a gene regulatory network inference method that uses message-passing to integrate multiple sources of ‘omics data. PANDA was originally coded in C ++. In this application note we describe PyPanda, the Python version of PANDA. PyPanda runs considerably faster than the C ++ version and includes additional features for network analysis. Availability and implementation: The open source PyPanda Python package is freely available at http://github.com/davidvi/pypanda. Contact: mkuijjer@jimmy.harvard.edu or d.g.p.van_ijzendoorn@lumc.nl PMID:27402905

PyPanda: a Python package for gene regulatory network reconstruction.

PubMed

van IJzendoorn, David G P; Glass, Kimberly; Quackenbush, John; Kuijjer, Marieke L

2016-11-01

PANDA (Passing Attributes between Networks for Data Assimilation) is a gene regulatory network inference method that uses message-passing to integrate multiple sources of 'omics data. PANDA was originally coded in C ++. In this application note we describe PyPanda, the Python version of PANDA. PyPanda runs considerably faster than the C ++ version and includes additional features for network analysis. The open source PyPanda Python package is freely available at http://github.com/davidvi/pypanda CONTACT: mkuijjer@jimmy.harvard.edu or d.g.p.van_ijzendoorn@lumc.nl. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

To amend the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 to provide for Debbie Smith grants for auditing sexual assault evidence backlogs, and for other purposes.

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX

2012-05-24

Senate - 01/02/2013 Message on House action received in Senate and at desk: House amendments to Senate bill. (All Actions) Tracker: This bill has the status Passed HouseHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Support for Debugging Automatically Parallelized Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hood, Robert; Jost, Gabriele

2001-01-01

This viewgraph presentation provides information on support sources available for the automatic parallelization of computer program. CAPTools, a support tool developed at the University of Greenwich, transforms, with user guidance, existing sequential Fortran code into parallel message passing code. Comparison routines are then run for debugging purposes, in essence, ensuring that the code transformation was accurate.

Earth observation taken by the Expedition 43 crew.

NASA Image and Video Library

2015-03-13

Earth observation taken during a day pass by the Expedition 43 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Sent as part of Twitter message: #HappyStPatrickDay with best wishes from the #E43 crew! From space you can see the “Emerald Isle” is very green!

New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal Act

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Nelson, Bill [D-FL

2009-05-01

Senate - 09/23/2010 Message received in the Senate: Returned to the Senate pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 1653. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.2245, which became Public Law 111-44 on 8/7/2009. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Travel Promotion Act of 2009

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Dorgan, Byron L. [D-ND

2009-05-12

Senate - 09/23/2010 Message received in the Senate: Returned to the Senate pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 1653. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.1299, which became Public Law 111-145 on 3/4/2010. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Union Agitators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Honawar, Vaishali

2006-01-01

A decade has passed since a few union leaders formed the network known as Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN) to search for innovative ways to enhance education. Selling their message has not always been easy. Created in 1995, TURN was the brain child of Adam Urbanski, the president of the Rochester (N.Y.) Teachers Association for the past 25…

Monitoring Data-Structure Evolution in Distributed Message-Passing Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sarukkai, Sekhar R.; Beers, Andrew; Woodrow, Thomas S. (Technical Monitor)

1996-01-01

Monitoring the evolution of data structures in parallel and distributed programs, is critical for debugging its semantics and performance. However, the current state-of-art in tracking and presenting data-structure information on parallel and distributed environments is cumbersome and does not scale. In this paper we present a methodology that automatically tracks memory bindings (not the actual contents) of static and dynamic data-structures of message-passing C programs, using PVM. With the help of a number of examples we show that in addition to determining the impact of memory allocation overheads on program performance, graphical views can help in debugging the semantics of program execution. Scalable animations of virtual address bindings of source-level data-structures are used for debugging the semantics of parallel programs across all processors. In conjunction with light-weight core-files, this technique can be used to complement traditional debuggers on single processors. Detailed information (such as data-structure contents), on specific nodes, can be determined using traditional debuggers after the data structure evolution leading to the semantic error is observed graphically.

PVM Wrapper

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Katz, Daniel

2004-01-01

PVM Wrapper is a software library that makes it possible for code that utilizes the Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM) software library to run using the message-passing interface (MPI) software library, without needing to rewrite the entire code. PVM and MPI are the two most common software libraries used for applications that involve passing of messages among parallel computers. Since about 1996, MPI has been the de facto standard. Codes written when PVM was popular often feature patterns of {"initsend," "pack," "send"} and {"receive," "unpack"} calls. In many cases, these calls are not contiguous and one set of calls may even exist over multiple subroutines. These characteristics make it difficult to obtain equivalent functionality via a single MPI "send" call. Because PVM Wrapper is written to run with MPI- 1.2, some PVM functions are not permitted and must be replaced - a task that requires some programming expertise. The "pvm_spawn" and "pvm_parent" function calls are not replaced, but a programmer can use "mpirun" and knowledge of the ranks of parent and child tasks with supplied macroinstructions to enable execution of codes that use "pvm_spawn" and "pvm_parent."

Parallelized direct execution simulation of message-passing parallel programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dickens, Phillip M.; Heidelberger, Philip; Nicol, David M.

1994-01-01

As massively parallel computers proliferate, there is growing interest in findings ways by which performance of massively parallel codes can be efficiently predicted. This problem arises in diverse contexts such as parallelizing computers, parallel performance monitoring, and parallel algorithm development. In this paper we describe one solution where one directly executes the application code, but uses a discrete-event simulator to model details of the presumed parallel machine such as operating system and communication network behavior. Because this approach is computationally expensive, we are interested in its own parallelization specifically the parallelization of the discrete-event simulator. We describe methods suitable for parallelized direct execution simulation of message-passing parallel programs, and report on the performance of such a system, Large Application Parallel Simulation Environment (LAPSE), we have built on the Intel Paragon. On all codes measured to date, LAPSE predicts performance well typically within 10 percent relative error. Depending on the nature of the application code, we have observed low slowdowns (relative to natively executing code) and high relative speedups using up to 64 processors.

Message Passing and Shared Address Space Parallelism on an SMP Cluster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shan, Hongzhang; Singh, Jaswinder P.; Oliker, Leonid; Biswas, Rupak; Biegel, Bryan (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Currently, message passing (MP) and shared address space (SAS) are the two leading parallel programming paradigms. MP has been standardized with MPI, and is the more common and mature approach; however, code development can be extremely difficult, especially for irregularly structured computations. SAS offers substantial ease of programming, but may suffer from performance limitations due to poor spatial locality and high protocol overhead. In this paper, we compare the performance of and the programming effort required for six applications under both programming models on a 32-processor PC-SMP cluster, a platform that is becoming increasingly attractive for high-end scientific computing. Our application suite consists of codes that typically do not exhibit scalable performance under shared-memory programming due to their high communication-to-computation ratios and/or complex communication patterns. Results indicate that SAS can achieve about half the parallel efficiency of MPI for most of our applications, while being competitive for the others. A hybrid MPI+SAS strategy shows only a small performance advantage over pure MPI in some cases. Finally, improved implementations of two MPI collective operations on PC-SMP clusters are presented.

Low-pass filtering of noisy Schlumberger sounding curves. Part I: Theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Patella, D.

1986-02-01

A contribution is given to the solution of the problem of filtering noise-degraded Schlumberger sounding curves. It is shown that the transformation to the pole-pole system is actually a smoothing operation that filters high-frequency noise. In the case of residual noise contamination in the transformed pole-pole curve, it is demonstrated that a subsequent application of a conventional rectangular low-pass filter, with cut-off frequency not less than the right-hand frequency limit of the main message pass-band, may satisfactorily solve the problem by leaving a pole-pole curve available for interpretation. An attempt is also made to understand the essential peculiarities of themore » pole-pole system as far as penetration depth, resolving power and selectivity power are concerned.« less

Secure Web-Site Access with Tickets and Message-Dependent Digests

USGS Publications Warehouse

Donato, David I.

2008-01-01

Although there are various methods for restricting access to documents stored on a World Wide Web (WWW) site (a Web site), none of the widely used methods is completely suitable for restricting access to Web applications hosted on an otherwise publicly accessible Web site. A new technique, however, provides a mix of features well suited for restricting Web-site or Web-application access to authorized users, including the following: secure user authentication, tamper-resistant sessions, simple access to user state variables by server-side applications, and clean session terminations. This technique, called message-dependent digests with tickets, or MDDT, maintains secure user sessions by passing single-use nonces (tickets) and message-dependent digests of user credentials back and forth between client and server. Appendix 2 provides a working implementation of MDDT with PHP server-side code and JavaScript client-side code.

Real time explosive hazard information sensing, processing, and communication for autonomous operation

DOEpatents

Versteeg, Roelof J; Few, Douglas A; Kinoshita, Robert A; Johnson, Doug; Linda, Ondrej

2015-02-24

Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses provide robotic explosive hazard detection. A robot intelligence kernel (RIK) includes a dynamic autonomy structure with two or more autonomy levels between operator intervention and robot initiative A mine sensor and processing module (ESPM) operating separately from the RIK perceives environmental variables indicative of a mine using subsurface perceptors. The ESPM processes mine information to determine a likelihood of a presence of a mine. A robot can autonomously modify behavior responsive to an indication of a detected mine. The behavior is modified between detection of mines, detailed scanning and characterization of the mine, developing mine indication parameters, and resuming detection. Real time messages are passed between the RIK and the ESPM. A combination of ESPM bound messages and RIK bound messages cause the robot platform to switch between modes including a calibration mode, the mine detection mode, and the mine characterization mode.

Real time explosive hazard information sensing, processing, and communication for autonomous operation

DOEpatents

Versteeg, Roelof J.; Few, Douglas A.; Kinoshita, Robert A.; Johnson, Douglas; Linda, Ondrej

2015-12-15

Methods, computer readable media, and apparatuses provide robotic explosive hazard detection. A robot intelligence kernel (RIK) includes a dynamic autonomy structure with two or more autonomy levels between operator intervention and robot initiative A mine sensor and processing module (ESPM) operating separately from the RIK perceives environmental variables indicative of a mine using subsurface perceptors. The ESPM processes mine information to determine a likelihood of a presence of a mine. A robot can autonomously modify behavior responsive to an indication of a detected mine. The behavior is modified between detection of mines, detailed scanning and characterization of the mine, developing mine indication parameters, and resuming detection. Real time messages are passed between the RIK and the ESPM. A combination of ESPM bound messages and RIK bound messages cause the robot platform to switch between modes including a calibration mode, the mine detection mode, and the mine characterization mode.

Machine-checked proofs of the design and implementation of a fault-tolerant circuit

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bevier, William R.; Young, William D.

1990-01-01

A formally verified implementation of the 'oral messages' algorithm of Pease, Shostak, and Lamport is described. An abstract implementation of the algorithm is verified to achieve interactive consistency in the presence of faults. This abstract characterization is then mapped down to a hardware level implementation which inherits the fault-tolerant characteristics of the abstract version. All steps in the proof were checked with the Boyer-Moore theorem prover. A significant results is the demonstration of a fault-tolerant device that is formally specified and whose implementation is proved correct with respect to this specification. A significant simplifying assumption is that the redundant processors behave synchronously. A mechanically checked proof that the oral messages algorithm is 'optimal' in the sense that no algorithm which achieves agreement via similar message passing can tolerate a larger proportion of faulty processor is also described.

Parallel community climate model: Description and user`s guide

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Drake, J.B.; Flanery, R.E.; Semeraro, B.D.

This report gives an overview of a parallel version of the NCAR Community Climate Model, CCM2, implemented for MIMD massively parallel computers using a message-passing programming paradigm. The parallel implementation was developed on an Intel iPSC/860 with 128 processors and on the Intel Delta with 512 processors, and the initial target platform for the production version of the code is the Intel Paragon with 2048 processors. Because the implementation uses a standard, portable message-passing libraries, the code has been easily ported to other multiprocessors supporting a message-passing programming paradigm. The parallelization strategy used is to decompose the problem domain intomore » geographical patches and assign each processor the computation associated with a distinct subset of the patches. With this decomposition, the physics calculations involve only grid points and data local to a processor and are performed in parallel. Using parallel algorithms developed for the semi-Lagrangian transport, the fast Fourier transform and the Legendre transform, both physics and dynamics are computed in parallel with minimal data movement and modest change to the original CCM2 source code. Sequential or parallel history tapes are written and input files (in history tape format) are read sequentially by the parallel code to promote compatibility with production use of the model on other computer systems. A validation exercise has been performed with the parallel code and is detailed along with some performance numbers on the Intel Paragon and the IBM SP2. A discussion of reproducibility of results is included. A user`s guide for the PCCM2 version 2.1 on the various parallel machines completes the report. Procedures for compilation, setup and execution are given. A discussion of code internals is included for those who may wish to modify and use the program in their own research.« less

High Performance Programming Using Explicit Shared Memory Model on Cray T3D1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, Horst D.; Saini, Subhash; Grassi, Charles

1994-01-01

The Cray T3D system is the first-phase system in Cray Research, Inc.'s (CRI) three-phase massively parallel processing (MPP) program. This system features a heterogeneous architecture that closely couples DEC's Alpha microprocessors and CRI's parallel-vector technology, i.e., the Cray Y-MP and Cray C90. An overview of the Cray T3D hardware and available programming models is presented. Under Cray Research adaptive Fortran (CRAFT) model four programming methods (data parallel, work sharing, message-passing using PVM, and explicit shared memory model) are available to the users. However, at this time data parallel and work sharing programming models are not available to the user community. The differences between standard PVM and CRI's PVM are highlighted with performance measurements such as latencies and communication bandwidths. We have found that the performance of neither standard PVM nor CRI s PVM exploits the hardware capabilities of the T3D. The reasons for the bad performance of PVM as a native message-passing library are presented. This is illustrated by the performance of NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) programmed in explicit shared memory model on Cray T3D. In general, the performance of standard PVM is about 4 to 5 times less than obtained by using explicit shared memory model. This degradation in performance is also seen on CM-5 where the performance of applications using native message-passing library CMMD on CM-5 is also about 4 to 5 times less than using data parallel methods. The issues involved (such as barriers, synchronization, invalidating data cache, aligning data cache etc.) while programming in explicit shared memory model are discussed. Comparative performance of NPB using explicit shared memory programming model on the Cray T3D and other highly parallel systems such as the TMC CM-5, Intel Paragon, Cray C90, IBM-SP1, etc. is presented.

Design and implementation of a prototype micropositioning and fusion of optical fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vega, Fabio; Torres, Cesar; Mattos, Lorenzo

2011-09-01

We developed an automated system in micro and optical fiber fusion, using stepper motors of 3.6 ° (1.8 ° Medium step) with a threaded system for displacements in the order of microns, a LM016 LCD for User message management, a PIC16F877A microcontroller to control the prototype. We also used internal modules: TMR0, EEPROM, PWM (pulse width modulation) control using a pulse opto-cupped the discharge circuit high voltage (20 to 35 kilovolt transformer for FLYBACK fusion) The USART (Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) for serial interface with the PC. The software platform developed under Visual Basic 6.0, which lets you manipulate the prototype from the PC. The entire program is optimized for microcontroller interrupt, macro-functions and is written in MPLAB 7.31. The prototype is now finished.

Enabling scientific teamwork

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hereld, Mark; Hudson, Randy; Norris, John; Papka, Michael E.; Uram, Thomas

2009-07-01

The Computer Supported Collaborative Work research community has identified that the technology used to support distributed teams of researchers, such as email, instant messaging, and conferencing environments, are not enough. Building from a list of areas where it is believed technology can help support distributed teams, we have divided our efforts into support of asynchronous and synchronous activities. This paper will describe two of our recent efforts to improve the productivity of distributed science teams. One effort focused on supporting the management and tracking of milestones and results, with the hope of helping manage information overload. The second effort focused on providing an environment that supports real-time analysis of data. Both of these efforts are seen as add-ons to the existing collaborative infrastructure, developed to enhance the experience of teams working at a distance by removing barriers to effective communication.

Please respond ASAP: workplace telepressure and employee recovery.

PubMed

Barber, Larissa K; Santuzzi, Alecia M

2015-04-01

Organizations rely heavily on asynchronous message-based technologies (e.g., e-mail) for the purposes of work-related communications. These technologies are primary means of knowledge transfer and building social networks. As a by-product, workers might feel varying levels of preoccupations with and urges for responding quickly to messages from clients, coworkers, or supervisors--an experience we label as workplace telepressure. This experience can lead to fast response times and thus faster decisions and other outcomes initially. However, research from the stress and recovery literature suggests that the defining features of workplace telepressure interfere with needed work recovery time and stress-related outcomes. The present set of studies defined and validated a new scale to measure telepressure. Study 1 tested an initial pool of items and found some support for a single-factor structure after problematic items were removed. As expected, public self-consciousness, techno-overload, and response expectations were moderately associated with telepressure in Study 1. Study 2 demonstrated that workplace telepressure was distinct from other personal (job involvement, affective commitment) and work environment (general and ICT work demands) factors and also predicted burnout (physical and cognitive), absenteeism, sleep quality, and e-mail responding beyond those factors. Implications for future research and workplace practices are discussed. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

ALICE HLT Run 2 performance overview.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krzewicki, Mikolaj; Lindenstruth, Volker; ALICE Collaboration

2017-10-01

For the LHC Run 2 the ALICE HLT architecture was consolidated to comply with the upgraded ALICE detector readout technology. The software framework was optimized and extended to cope with the increased data load. Online calibration of the TPC using online tracking capabilities of the ALICE HLT was deployed. Offline calibration code was adapted to run both online and offline and the HLT framework was extended to support that. The performance of this schema is important for Run 3 related developments. An additional data transport approach was developed using the ZeroMQ library, forming at the same time a test bed for the new data flow model of the O2 system, where further development of this concept is ongoing. This messaging technology was used to implement the calibration feedback loop augmenting the existing, graph oriented HLT transport framework. Utilising the online reconstruction of many detectors, a new asynchronous monitoring scheme was developed to allow real-time monitoring of the physics performance of the ALICE detector, on top of the new messaging scheme for both internal and external communication. Spare computing resources comprising the production and development clusters are run as a tier-2 GRID site using an OpenStack-based setup. The development cluster is running continuously, the production cluster contributes resources opportunistically during periods of LHC inactivity.

Approving the renewal of import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003.

THOMAS, 112th Congress

Rep. Crowley, Joseph [D-NY-7

2011-05-26

Senate - 09/15/2011 Message on Senate action sent to the House. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.2017, which became Public Law 112-33 on 9/30/2011. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Final report: Compiled MPI. Cost-Effective Exascale Application Development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gropp, William Douglas

2015-12-21

This is the final report on Compiled MPI: Cost-Effective Exascale Application Development, and summarizes the results under this project. The project investigated runtime enviroments that improve the performance of MPI (Message-Passing Interface) programs; work at Illinois in the last period of this project looked at optimizing data access optimizations expressed with MPI datatypes.

Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Rep. Price, David E. [D-NC-4

2010-07-27

Senate - 09/23/2010 Message received in the Senate: Returned to the Senate pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 1653. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.6080, which became Public Law 111-230 on 8/13/2010. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

A Down-to-Earth Educational Operating System for Up-in-the-Cloud Many-Core Architectures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ziwisky, Michael; Persohn, Kyle; Brylow, Dennis

2013-01-01

We present "Xipx," the first port of a major educational operating system to a processor in the emerging class of many-core architectures. Through extensions to the proven Embedded Xinu operating system, Xipx gives students hands-on experience with system programming in a distributed message-passing environment. We expose the software primitives…

LDPC Codes--Structural Analysis and Decoding Techniques

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Xiaojie

2012-01-01

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes have been the focus of much research over the past decade thanks to their near Shannon limit performance and to their efficient message-passing (MP) decoding algorithms. However, the error floor phenomenon observed in MP decoding, which manifests itself as an abrupt change in the slope of the error-rate curve,…

Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2009

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Dodd, Christopher J. [D-CT

2009-11-19

Senate - 09/23/2010 Message received in the Senate: Returned to the Senate pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 1653. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.2194, which became Public Law 111-195 on 7/1/2010. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Rockefeller, John D., IV [D-WV

2010-03-25

Senate - 09/23/2010 Message received in the Senate: Returned to the Senate pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 1653. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.5147, which became Public Law 111-161 on 4/30/2010. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Minority Journalists Push Media to Maintain Diversity Commitment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Michelle D.

2008-01-01

In a media advisory released earlier this month, the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) had an urgent message for the newspaper industry: Diversity should not be treated like a passing fad and it should continue to be a top priority. The advocacy organization, where a majority of its 4,000 members are Black print journalists, warned…

Fiber optic voice/data network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergman, Larry A. (Inventor)

1989-01-01

An asynchronous, high-speed, fiber optic local area network originally developed for tactical environments with additional benefits for other environments such as spacecraft, and the like. The network supports ordinary data packet traffic simultaneously with synchronous T1 voice traffic over a common token ring channel; however, the techniques and apparatus of this invention can be applied to any deterministic class of packet data networks, including multitier backbones, that must transport stream data (e.g., video, SAR, sensors) as well as data. A voice interface module parses, buffers, and resynchronizes the voice data to the packet network employing elastic buffers on both the sending and receiving ends. Voice call setup and switching functions are performed external to the network with ordinary PABX equipment. Clock information is passed across network boundaries in a token passing ring by preceeding the token with an idle period of non-transmission which allows the token to be used to re-establish a clock synchronized to the data. Provision is made to monitor and compensate the elastic receiving buffers so as to prevent them from overflowing or going empty.

From Our Practices to Yours: Key Messages for the Journey to Integrated Behavioral Health.

PubMed

Gold, Stephanie B; Green, Larry A; Peek, C J

The historic, cultural separation of primary care and behavioral health has caused the spread of integrated care to lag behind other practice transformation efforts. The Advancing Care Together study was a 3-year evaluation of how practices implemented integrated care in their local contexts; at its culmination, practice leaders ("innovators") identified lessons learned to pass on to others. Individual feedback from innovators, key messages created by workgroups of innovators and the study team, and a synthesis of key messages from a facilitated discussion were analyzed for themes via immersion/crystallization. Five key themes were captured: (1) frame integrated care as a necessary paradigm shift to patient-centered, whole-person health care; (2) initialize: define relationships and protocols up-front, understanding they will evolve; (3) build inclusive, empowered teams to provide the foundation for integration; (4) develop a change management strategy of continuous evaluation and course-correction; and (5) use targeted data collection pertinent to integrated care to drive improvement and impart accountability. Innovators integrating primary care and behavioral health discerned key messages from their practical experience that they felt were worth sharing with others. Their messages present insight into the challenges unique to integrating care beyond other practice transformation efforts. © Copyright 2017 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

Concurrent hypercube system with improved message passing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Peterson, John C. (Inventor); Tuazon, Jesus O. (Inventor); Lieberman, Don (Inventor); Pniel, Moshe (Inventor)

1989-01-01

A network of microprocessors, or nodes, are interconnected in an n-dimensional cube having bidirectional communication links along the edges of the n-dimensional cube. Each node's processor network includes an I/O subprocessor dedicated to controlling communication of message packets along a bidirectional communication link with each end thereof terminating at an I/O controlled transceiver. Transmit data lines are directly connected from a local FIFO through each node's communication link transceiver. Status and control signals from the neighboring nodes are delivered over supervisory lines to inform the local node that the neighbor node's FIFO is empty and the bidirectional link between the two nodes is idle for data communication. A clocking line between neighbors, clocks a message into an empty FIFO at a neighbor's node and vica versa. Either neighbor may acquire control over the bidirectional communication link at any time, and thus each node has circuitry for checking whether or not the communication link is busy or idle, and whether or not the receive FIFO is empty. Likewise, each node can empty its own FIFO and in turn deliver a status signal to a neighboring node indicating that the local FIFO is empty. The system includes features of automatic message rerouting, block message transfer and automatic parity checking and generation.

Performance issues for domain-oriented time-driven distributed simulations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nicol, David M.

1987-01-01

It has long been recognized that simulations form an interesting and important class of computations that may benefit from distributed or parallel processing. Since the point of parallel processing is improved performance, the recent proliferation of multiprocessors requires that we consider the performance issues that naturally arise when attempting to implement a distributed simulation. Three such issues are: (1) the problem of mapping the simulation onto the architecture, (2) the possibilities for performing redundant computation in order to reduce communication, and (3) the avoidance of deadlock due to distributed contention for message-buffer space. These issues are discussed in the context of a battlefield simulation implemented on a medium-scale multiprocessor message-passing architecture.

Parallel integer sorting with medium and fine-scale parallelism

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dagum, Leonardo

1993-01-01

Two new parallel integer sorting algorithms, queue-sort and barrel-sort, are presented and analyzed in detail. These algorithms do not have optimal parallel complexity, yet they show very good performance in practice. Queue-sort designed for fine-scale parallel architectures which allow the queueing of multiple messages to the same destination. Barrel-sort is designed for medium-scale parallel architectures with a high message passing overhead. The performance results from the implementation of queue-sort on a Connection Machine CM-2 and barrel-sort on a 128 processor iPSC/860 are given. The two implementations are found to be comparable in performance but not as good as a fully vectorized bucket sort on the Cray YMP.

Reducing Interprocessor Dependence in Recoverable Distributed Shared Memory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Janssens, Bob; Fuchs, W. Kent

1994-01-01

Checkpointing techniques in parallel systems use dependency tracking and/or message logging to ensure that a system rolls back to a consistent state. Traditional dependency tracking in distributed shared memory (DSM) systems is expensive because of high communication frequency. In this paper we show that, if designed correctly, a DSM system only needs to consider dependencies due to the transfer of blocks of data, resulting in reduced dependency tracking overhead and reduced potential for rollback propagation. We develop an ownership timestamp scheme to tolerate the loss of block state information and develop a passive server model of execution where interactions between processors are considered atomic. With our scheme, dependencies are significantly reduced compared to the traditional message-passing model.

[Old age in primary school readers: a journey through the end of the 19th century to the start of the 21st century in Argentina].

PubMed

Oddone, María Julieta

2013-04-01

This article presents the content (discourse) analysis of messages transmitted by primary school readers in the period between 1880 to 2012. This study allowed us to explore the image of old age and aging that society has and passes on to new generations as well as the role assigned to this generational group. The historical periods that provide the context for the data were defined according to the continuity of or the turning points in the social values transmitted in the reading materials. The role assigned to elderly people and the image of old age that the Argentine society passed on and continues to pass on to younger generations demonstrate that each period described has its own model of aging.

Acceptability of an Asynchronous Learning Forum on Mobile Devices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Chih-Kai

2010-01-01

Mobile learning has recently become noteworthy because mobile devices have become popular. To construct an asynchronous learning forum on mobile devices is important because an asynchronous learning forum is always an essential part of networked asynchronous distance learning. However, the input interface in handheld learning devices, which is…

The Influence of Asynchronous Video Communication on Learner Social Presence: A Narrative Analysis of Four Cases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borup, Jered; West, Richard E.; Graham, Charles R.

2013-01-01

Online courses are increasingly using asynchronous video communication. However, little is known about how asynchronous video communication influences students' communication patterns. This study presents four narratives of students with varying characteristics who engaged in asynchronous video communication. The extrovert valued the efficiency of…

Transcriptional dynamics with time-dependent reaction rates

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nandi, Shubhendu; Ghosh, Anandamohan

2015-02-01

Transcription is the first step in the process of gene regulation that controls cell response to varying environmental conditions. Transcription is a stochastic process, involving synthesis and degradation of mRNAs, that can be modeled as a birth-death process. We consider a generic stochastic model, where the fluctuating environment is encoded in the time-dependent reaction rates. We obtain an exact analytical expression for the mRNA probability distribution and are able to analyze the response for arbitrary time-dependent protocols. Our analytical results and stochastic simulations confirm that the transcriptional machinery primarily act as a low-pass filter. We also show that depending on the system parameters, the mRNA levels in a cell population can show synchronous/asynchronous fluctuations and can deviate from Poisson statistics.

Ultrafast Single-Shot Optical Oscilloscope based on Time-to-Space Conversion due to Temporal and Spatial Walk-Off Effects in Nonlinear Mixing Crystal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takagi, Yoshihiro; Yamada, Yoshifumi; Ishikawa, Kiyoshi; Shimizu, Seiji; Sakabe, Shuji

2005-09-01

A simple method for single-shot sub-picosecond optical pulse diagnostics has been demonstrated by imaging the time evolution of the optical mixing onto the beam cross section of the sum-frequency wave when the interrogating pulse passes over the tested pulse in the mixing crystal as a result of the combined effect of group-velocity difference and walk-off beam propagation. A high linearity of the time-to-space projection is deduced from the process solely dependent upon the spatial uniformity of the refractive indices. A snap profile of the accidental coincidence between asynchronous pulses from separate mode-locked lasers has been detected, which demonstrates the single-shot ability.

Pharmacists' perception of synchronous versus asynchronous distance learning for continuing education programs.

PubMed

Buxton, Eric C

2014-02-12

To evaluate and compare pharmacists' satisfaction with the content and learning environment of a continuing education program series offered as either synchronous or asynchronous webinars. An 8-lecture series of online presentations on the topic of new drug therapies was offered to pharmacists in synchronous and asynchronous webinar formats. Participants completed a 50-question online survey at the end of the program series to evaluate their perceptions of the distance learning experience. Eighty-two participants completed the survey instrument (41 participants from the live webinar series and 41 participants from the asynchronous webinar series.) Responses indicated that while both groups were satisfied with the program content, the asynchronous group showed greater satisfaction with many aspects of the learning environment. The synchronous and asynchronous webinar participants responded positively regarding the quality of the programming and the method of delivery, but asynchronous participants rated their experience more positively overall.

Pharmacists’ Perception of Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Distance Learning for Continuing Education Programs

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Objective. To evaluate and compare pharmacists’ satisfaction with the content and learning environment of a continuing education program series offered as either synchronous or asynchronous webinars. Methods. An 8-lecture series of online presentations on the topic of new drug therapies was offered to pharmacists in synchronous and asynchronous webinar formats. Participants completed a 50-question online survey at the end of the program series to evaluate their perceptions of the distance learning experience. Results. Eighty-two participants completed the survey instrument (41 participants from the live webinar series and 41 participants from the asynchronous webinar series.) Responses indicated that while both groups were satisfied with the program content, the asynchronous group showed greater satisfaction with many aspects of the learning environment. Conclusion. The synchronous and asynchronous webinar participants responded positively regarding the quality of the programming and the method of delivery, but asynchronous participants rated their experience more positively overall. PMID:24558276

Comparing the force ripple during asynchronous and conventional stimulation.

PubMed

Downey, Ryan J; Tate, Mark; Kawai, Hiroyuki; Dixon, Warren E

2014-10-01

Asynchronous stimulation has been shown to reduce fatigue during electrical stimulation; however, it may also exhibit a force ripple. We quantified the ripple during asynchronous and conventional single-channel transcutaneous stimulation across a range of stimulation frequencies. The ripple was measured during 5 asynchronous stimulation protocols, 2 conventional stimulation protocols, and 3 volitional contractions in 12 healthy individuals. Conventional 40 Hz and asynchronous 16 Hz stimulation were found to induce contractions that were as smooth as volitional contractions. Asynchronous 8, 10, and 12 Hz stimulation induced contractions with significant ripple. Lower stimulation frequencies can reduce fatigue; however, they may also lead to increased ripple. Future efforts should study the relationship between force ripple and the smoothness of the evoked movements in addition to the relationship between stimulation frequency and NMES-induced fatigue to elucidate an optimal stimulation frequency for asynchronous stimulation. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Synchronous Office Hours in an Asynchronous Course: Making the Connection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibbons-Kunka, Beatrice

2017-01-01

The notion of synchronous office hours in an asynchronous course seems counterintuitive. After all, one of the tenets of asynchronous education is to not require students to be online and participating at any time during the course. Having taught higher education online asynchronous courses for twenty years, the researcher experimented with online…

Commanding and Controlling Satellite Clusters (IEEE Intelligent Systems, November/December 2000)

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-01-01

real - time operating system , a message-passing OS well suited for distributed...ground Flight processors ObjectAgent RTOS SCL RTOS RDMS Space command language Real - time operating system Rational database management system TS-21 RDMS...engineer with Princeton Satellite Systems. She is working with others to develop ObjectAgent software to run on the OSE Real Time Operating System .

VAC: Versatile Advection Code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tóth, Gábor; Keppens, Rony

2012-07-01

The Versatile Advection Code (VAC) is a freely available general hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulation software that works in 1, 2 or 3 dimensions on Cartesian and logically Cartesian grids. VAC runs on any Unix/Linux system with a Fortran 90 (or 77) compiler and Perl interpreter. VAC can run on parallel machines using either the Message Passing Interface (MPI) library or a High Performance Fortran (HPF) compiler.

Sharing Content and Experiences in Smart Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plomp, Johan; Heinilä, Juhani; Ikonen, Veikko; Kaasinen, Eija; Välkkynen, Pasi

Once upon a time… Stories used to be the only way to pass a message. The story teller would take his audience through the events by mere oration. Here and there he would hesitate, whisper, or gesticulate to emphasise his story or induce the right emotions in his audience. No doubt troubadourswere loved, they both brought news of the world as well as entertainment.

Performance of hybrid programming models for multiscale cardiac simulations: preparing for petascale computation.

PubMed

Pope, Bernard J; Fitch, Blake G; Pitman, Michael C; Rice, John J; Reumann, Matthias

2011-10-01

Future multiscale and multiphysics models that support research into human disease, translational medical science, and treatment can utilize the power of high-performance computing (HPC) systems. We anticipate that computationally efficient multiscale models will require the use of sophisticated hybrid programming models, mixing distributed message-passing processes [e.g., the message-passing interface (MPI)] with multithreading (e.g., OpenMP, Pthreads). The objective of this study is to compare the performance of such hybrid programming models when applied to the simulation of a realistic physiological multiscale model of the heart. Our results show that the hybrid models perform favorably when compared to an implementation using only the MPI and, furthermore, that OpenMP in combination with the MPI provides a satisfactory compromise between performance and code complexity. Having the ability to use threads within MPI processes enables the sophisticated use of all processor cores for both computation and communication phases. Considering that HPC systems in 2012 will have two orders of magnitude more cores than what was used in this study, we believe that faster than real-time multiscale cardiac simulations can be achieved on these systems.

Simulated Raman Spectral Analysis of Organic Molecules

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Lu

The advent of the laser technology in the 1960s solved the main difficulty of Raman spectroscopy, resulted in simplified Raman spectroscopy instruments and also boosted the sensitivity of the technique. Up till now, Raman spectroscopy is commonly used in chemistry and biology. As vibrational information is specific to the chemical bonds, Raman spectroscopy provides fingerprints to identify the type of molecules in the sample. In this thesis, we simulate the Raman Spectrum of organic and inorganic materials by General Atomic and Molecular Electronic Structure System (GAMESS) and Gaussian, two computational codes that perform several general chemistry calculations. We run these codes on our CPU-based high-performance cluster (HPC). Through the message passing interface (MPI), a standardized and portable message-passing system which can make the codes run in parallel, we are able to decrease the amount of time for computation and increase the sizes and capacities of systems simulated by the codes. From our simulations, we will set up a database that allows search algorithm to quickly identify N-H and O-H bonds in different materials. Our ultimate goal is to analyze and identify the spectra of organic matter compositions from meteorites and compared these spectra with terrestrial biologically-produced amino acids and residues.

Petascale computation performance of lightweight multiscale cardiac models using hybrid programming models.

PubMed

Pope, Bernard J; Fitch, Blake G; Pitman, Michael C; Rice, John J; Reumann, Matthias

2011-01-01

Future multiscale and multiphysics models must use the power of high performance computing (HPC) systems to enable research into human disease, translational medical science, and treatment. Previously we showed that computationally efficient multiscale models will require the use of sophisticated hybrid programming models, mixing distributed message passing processes (e.g. the message passing interface (MPI)) with multithreading (e.g. OpenMP, POSIX pthreads). The objective of this work is to compare the performance of such hybrid programming models when applied to the simulation of a lightweight multiscale cardiac model. Our results show that the hybrid models do not perform favourably when compared to an implementation using only MPI which is in contrast to our results using complex physiological models. Thus, with regards to lightweight multiscale cardiac models, the user may not need to increase programming complexity by using a hybrid programming approach. However, considering that model complexity will increase as well as the HPC system size in both node count and number of cores per node, it is still foreseeable that we will achieve faster than real time multiscale cardiac simulations on these systems using hybrid programming models.

PyPele Rewritten To Use MPI

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hockney, George; Lee, Seungwon

2008-01-01

A computer program known as PyPele, originally written as a Pythonlanguage extension module of a C++ language program, has been rewritten in pure Python language. The original version of PyPele dispatches and coordinates parallel-processing tasks on cluster computers and provides a conceptual framework for spacecraft-mission- design and -analysis software tools to run in an embarrassingly parallel mode. The original version of PyPele uses SSH (Secure Shell a set of standards and an associated network protocol for establishing a secure channel between a local and a remote computer) to coordinate parallel processing. Instead of SSH, the present Python version of PyPele uses Message Passing Interface (MPI) [an unofficial de-facto standard language-independent application programming interface for message- passing on a parallel computer] while keeping the same user interface. The use of MPI instead of SSH and the preservation of the original PyPele user interface make it possible for parallel application programs written previously for the original version of PyPele to run on MPI-based cluster computers. As a result, engineers using the previously written application programs can take advantage of embarrassing parallelism without need to rewrite those programs.

Detecting and Preventing Sybil Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Message Authentication and Passing Method.

PubMed

Dhamodharan, Udaya Suriya Raj Kumar; Vayanaperumal, Rajamani

2015-01-01

Wireless sensor networks are highly indispensable for securing network protection. Highly critical attacks of various kinds have been documented in wireless sensor network till now by many researchers. The Sybil attack is a massive destructive attack against the sensor network where numerous genuine identities with forged identities are used for getting an illegal entry into a network. Discerning the Sybil attack, sinkhole, and wormhole attack while multicasting is a tremendous job in wireless sensor network. Basically a Sybil attack means a node which pretends its identity to other nodes. Communication to an illegal node results in data loss and becomes dangerous in the network. The existing method Random Password Comparison has only a scheme which just verifies the node identities by analyzing the neighbors. A survey was done on a Sybil attack with the objective of resolving this problem. The survey has proposed a combined CAM-PVM (compare and match-position verification method) with MAP (message authentication and passing) for detecting, eliminating, and eventually preventing the entry of Sybil nodes in the network. We propose a scheme of assuring security for wireless sensor network, to deal with attacks of these kinds in unicasting and multicasting.

Detecting and Preventing Sybil Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Message Authentication and Passing Method

PubMed Central

Dhamodharan, Udaya Suriya Raj Kumar; Vayanaperumal, Rajamani

2015-01-01

Wireless sensor networks are highly indispensable for securing network protection. Highly critical attacks of various kinds have been documented in wireless sensor network till now by many researchers. The Sybil attack is a massive destructive attack against the sensor network where numerous genuine identities with forged identities are used for getting an illegal entry into a network. Discerning the Sybil attack, sinkhole, and wormhole attack while multicasting is a tremendous job in wireless sensor network. Basically a Sybil attack means a node which pretends its identity to other nodes. Communication to an illegal node results in data loss and becomes dangerous in the network. The existing method Random Password Comparison has only a scheme which just verifies the node identities by analyzing the neighbors. A survey was done on a Sybil attack with the objective of resolving this problem. The survey has proposed a combined CAM-PVM (compare and match-position verification method) with MAP (message authentication and passing) for detecting, eliminating, and eventually preventing the entry of Sybil nodes in the network. We propose a scheme of assuring security for wireless sensor network, to deal with attacks of these kinds in unicasting and multicasting. PMID:26236773

Streaming data analytics via message passing with application to graph algorithms

DOE PAGES

Plimpton, Steven J.; Shead, Tim

2014-05-06

The need to process streaming data, which arrives continuously at high-volume in real-time, arises in a variety of contexts including data produced by experiments, collections of environmental or network sensors, and running simulations. Streaming data can also be formulated as queries or transactions which operate on a large dynamic data store, e.g. a distributed database. We describe a lightweight, portable framework named PHISH which enables a set of independent processes to compute on a stream of data in a distributed-memory parallel manner. Datums are routed between processes in patterns defined by the application. PHISH can run on top of eithermore » message-passing via MPI or sockets via ZMQ. The former means streaming computations can be run on any parallel machine which supports MPI; the latter allows them to run on a heterogeneous, geographically dispersed network of machines. We illustrate how PHISH can support streaming MapReduce operations, and describe streaming versions of three algorithms for large, sparse graph analytics: triangle enumeration, subgraph isomorphism matching, and connected component finding. Lastly, we also provide benchmark timings for MPI versus socket performance of several kernel operations useful in streaming algorithms.« less

Teaching Controversial Topics to Skeptical High School Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ford, K. S.

2012-12-01

Tennessee passes the "Monkey Bill" (HB 0368, SB 0893), North Carolina's state government passes a law to criminalize reference in state documents to scientific models that predict sea level rise to reach at least one meter by the next century, and public concern still lags far behind the scientific community's concern on climate change. The American public and even science teachers across the country seem to have lost faith in the ability of the scientific community to unify a strong message about several important scientific lessons, including global warming in particular. This lack of a unified message has weakened the ability of science teachers to effectively teach the lesson of global warming. For science teachers in strongly conservative areas of the country, it is much easier to omit difficult topics and avoid angering parents and school board members. Teachers who do feel strongly about scientifically proven, yet publically controversial topics CAN teach these topics in conservative areas by confirming students' belief systems by being honest and open about motivations surrounding both sides of controversial topics, and by using vocabulary that avoids triggering negative perceptions about these controversial topics. For true learning and change of preconceived opinion to take place, it is important for students to come to the understanding in their own minds in an open and safe learning environment instead of having the message "preached" to them, which only serves to make them feel unintelligent and defensive if they disagree. This presentation will include lessons learned from a practicing science teacher who works in a community that overwhelmingly disputes the validity of human impacts on climate change.

An epigenetic state associated with areas of gene duplication

PubMed Central

Gimelbrant, Alexander A.; Chess, Andrew

2006-01-01

Asynchronous DNA replication is an epigenetically determined feature found in all cases of monoallelic expression, including genomic imprinting, X-inactivation, and random monoallelic expression of autosomal genes such as immunoglobulins and olfactory receptor genes. Most genes of the latter class were identified in experiments focused on genes functioning in the chemosensory and immune systems. We performed an unbiased survey of asynchronous replication in the mouse genome, excluding known asynchronously replicated genes. Fully 10% (eight of 80) of the genes tested exhibited asynchronous replication. A common feature of the newly identified asynchronously replicated areas is their proximity to areas of tandem gene duplication. Testing of other clustered areas supported the idea that such regions are enriched with asynchronously replicated genes. PMID:16687731

Motion Imagery and Robotics Application (MIRA)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martinez, Lindolfo; Rich, Thomas

2011-01-01

Objectives include: I. Prototype a camera service leveraging the CCSDS Integrated protocol stack (MIRA/SM&C/AMS/DTN): a) CCSDS MIRA Service (New). b) Spacecraft Monitor and Control (SM&C). c) Asynchronous Messaging Service (AMS). d) Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN). II. Additional MIRA Objectives: a) Demo of Camera Control through ISS using CCSDS protocol stack (Berlin, May 2011). b) Verify that the CCSDS standards stack can provide end-to-end space camera services across ground and space environments. c) Test interoperability of various CCSDS protocol standards. d) Identify overlaps in the design and implementations of the CCSDS protocol standards. e) Identify software incompatibilities in the CCSDS stack interfaces. f) Provide redlines to the SM&C, AMS, and DTN working groups. d) Enable the CCSDS MIRA service for potential use in ISS Kibo camera commanding. e) Assist in long-term evolution of this entire group of CCSDS standards to TRL 6 or greater.

Internet-based remote consultations - general practitioner experience and attitudes in Norway and Germany.

PubMed

Kampik, Timotheus; Larsen, Frank; Bellika, Johan Gustav

2015-01-01

The objective of the study was to identify experiences and attitudes of German and Norwegian general practitioners (GPs) towards Internet-based remote consultation solutions supporting communication between GPs and patients in the context of the German and Norwegian healthcare systems. Interviews with four German and five Norwegian GPs were conducted. The results were qualitatively analyzed. All interviewed GPs stated they would like to make use of Internet-based remote consultations in the future. Current experiences with remote consultations are existent to a limited degree. No GP reported to use a comprehensive remote consultation solution. The main features GPs would like to see in a remote consultation solution include asynchronous exchange of text messages, video conferencing with text chat, scheduling of remote consultation appointments, secure login and data transfer and the integration of the remote consultation solution into the GP's EHR system.

Secret Forwarding of Events over Distributed Publish/Subscribe Overlay Network.

PubMed

Yoon, Young; Kim, Beom Heyn

2016-01-01

Publish/subscribe is a communication paradigm where loosely-coupled clients communicate in an asynchronous fashion. Publish/subscribe supports the flexible development of large-scale, event-driven and ubiquitous systems. Publish/subscribe is prevalent in a number of application domains such as social networking, distributed business processes and real-time mission-critical systems. Many publish/subscribe applications are sensitive to message loss and violation of privacy. To overcome such issues, we propose a novel method of using secret sharing and replication techniques. This is to reliably and confidentially deliver decryption keys along with encrypted publications even under the presence of several Byzantine brokers across publish/subscribe overlay networks. We also propose a framework for dynamically and strategically allocating broker replicas based on flexibly definable criteria for reliability and performance. Moreover, a thorough evaluation is done through a case study on social networks using the real trace of interactions among Facebook users.

Secret Forwarding of Events over Distributed Publish/Subscribe Overlay Network

PubMed Central

Kim, Beom Heyn

2016-01-01

Publish/subscribe is a communication paradigm where loosely-coupled clients communicate in an asynchronous fashion. Publish/subscribe supports the flexible development of large-scale, event-driven and ubiquitous systems. Publish/subscribe is prevalent in a number of application domains such as social networking, distributed business processes and real-time mission-critical systems. Many publish/subscribe applications are sensitive to message loss and violation of privacy. To overcome such issues, we propose a novel method of using secret sharing and replication techniques. This is to reliably and confidentially deliver decryption keys along with encrypted publications even under the presence of several Byzantine brokers across publish/subscribe overlay networks. We also propose a framework for dynamically and strategically allocating broker replicas based on flexibly definable criteria for reliability and performance. Moreover, a thorough evaluation is done through a case study on social networks using the real trace of interactions among Facebook users. PMID:27367610

Applications of Multi-Channel Safety Authentication Protocols in Wireless Networks.

PubMed

Chen, Young-Long; Liau, Ren-Hau; Chang, Liang-Yu

2016-01-01

People can use their web browser or mobile devices to access web services and applications which are built into these servers. Users have to input their identity and password to login the server. The identity and password may be appropriated by hackers when the network environment is not safe. The multiple secure authentication protocol can improve the security of the network environment. Mobile devices can be used to pass the authentication messages through Wi-Fi or 3G networks to serve as a second communication channel. The content of the message number is not considered in a multiple secure authentication protocol. The more excessive transmission of messages would be easier to collect and decode by hackers. In this paper, we propose two schemes which allow the server to validate the user and reduce the number of messages using the XOR operation. Our schemes can improve the security of the authentication protocol. The experimental results show that our proposed authentication protocols are more secure and effective. In regard to applications of second authentication communication channels for a smart access control system, identity identification and E-wallet, our proposed authentication protocols can ensure the safety of person and property, and achieve more effective security management mechanisms.

Bad News Has Wings: Dread Risk Mediates Social Amplification in Risk Communication.

PubMed

Jagiello, Robert D; Hills, Thomas T

2018-05-29

Social diffusion of information amplifies risk through processes of birth, death, and distortion of message content. Dread risk-involving uncontrollable, fatal, involuntary, and catastrophic outcomes (e.g., terrorist attacks and nuclear accidents)-may be particularly susceptible to amplification because of the psychological biases inherent in dread risk avoidance. To test this, initially balanced information about high or low dread topics was given to a set of individuals who then communicated this information through diffusion chains, each person passing a message to the next. A subset of these chains were also reexposed to the original information. We measured prior knowledge, perceived risk before and after transmission, and, at each link, number of positive and negative statements. Results showed that the more a message was transmitted the more negative statements it contained. This was highest for the high dread topic. Increased perceived risk and production of negative messages was closely related to the amount of negative information that was received, with domain knowledge mitigating this effect. Reexposue to the initial information was ineffectual in reducing bias, demonstrating the enhanced danger of socially transmitted information. © 2018 Society for Risk Analysis.

Uniform instruction using web-based, asynchronous technology in a geographically distributed clinical clerkship: analysis of osteopathic medical student participation and satisfaction.

PubMed

Peska, Don N; Lewis, Kadriye O

2010-03-01

As medical schools in the United States increase their class sizes, many institutions are forced to extend their teaching affiliations outside of their immediate communities. Geographic distribution threatens the ability to provide the uniform learning opportunities that students need and accrediting bodies require. To determine if a Web-based, asynchronous learning module can provide an effective, uniform learning opportunity for osteopathic medical students enrolled in clinical clerkship. Third-year osteopathic medical students enrolled in an 8-week core clinical clerkship in surgery were required to participate in a Web-based, asynchronous, interactive instructional module designed to provide opportunities for higher-order thinking through analysis, synthesis, and reflective learning. The quantity and content of students' online course interactions were analyzed to determine quantitative and qualitative features of their course participation. At the completion of the clerkship, students completed a 10-item Likert-type survey of their experience to determine the most helpful attributes of the Web-based learning module. Responses were assigned numerical values from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) to obtain a mean score for each question. Sixty-three students completed the Web-based module. The content of their discussions, as determined by message coding, identified the critical thinking needed to acquire abstract conceptualization of the problems presented in a typical surgery clerkship. Students found the content of the module relevant to the clerkship (mean score, 4.18) and valued facilitator feedback (4.00). Although they did not prefer Web-based instruction of classroom lecture (2.66), students indicated that the Web-based module enhanced their overall learning experience in the clerkship (3.30). Web-based technology in the clinical education of third-year osteopathic medical students appears to afford an acceptable teaching alternative when face-to-face instruction cannot be provided. Further study of the impact of instructional design on the quality of higher-order thinking in this domain is needed, as is an appreciation for the dynamics of group learning in a virtual environment.

Asynchronous and Synchronous Teleconsultation for Diabetes Care: A Systematic Literature Review

PubMed Central

Verhoeven, Fenne; Tanja-Dijkstra, Karin; Nijland, Nicol; Eysenbach, Gunther; van Gemert-Pijnen, Lisette

2010-01-01

Aim A systematic literature review, covering publications from 1994 to 2009, was carried out to determine the effects of teleconsultation regarding clinical, behavioral, and care coordination outcomes of diabetes care compared to usual care. Two types of teleconsultation were distinguished: (1) asynchronous teleconsultation for monitoring and delivering feedback via email and cell phone, automated messaging systems, or other equipment without face-to-face contact; and (2) synchronous teleconsultation that involves real-time, face-to-face contact (image and voice) via videoconferencing equipment (television, digital camera, webcam, videophone, etc.) to connect caregivers and one or more patients simultaneously, e.g., for the purpose of education. Methods Electronic databases were searched for relevant publications about asynchronous and synchronous tele-consultation [Medline, Picarta, Psychinfo, ScienceDirect, Telemedicine Information Exchange, Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science, Google Scholar]. Reference lists of identified publications were hand searched. The contribution to diabetes care was examined for clinical outcomes [e.g., hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), dietary values, blood pressure, quality of life], for behavioral outcomes (patient-caregiver interaction, self-care), and for care coordination outcomes (usability of technology, cost-effectiveness, transparency of guidelines, equity of access to care). Randomized controlled trials with HbA1c as an outcome were pooled using standard meta-analytical methods. Results Of 2060 publications identified, 90 met inclusion criteria for electronic communication between (groups of) caregivers and patients with type 1 and 2 or gestational diabetes. Studies that evaluated teleconsultation not particularly aimed at diabetes were excluded, as were those that described interventions aimed solely at clinical improvements (e.g., HbA1c or lipid profiles). In 63 of 90 interventions, the interaction had an asynchronous teleconsultation character, in 18 cases interaction was synchronously (videoconferencing), and 9 involved a combination of synchronous with asynchronous interaction. Most of the reported improvements concerned clinical values (n = 49), self-care (n = 46), and satisfaction with technology (n = 43). A minority of studies demonstrated improvements in patient-caregiver interactions (n = 28) and cost reductions (n = 27). Only a few studies reported enhanced quality of life (n = 12), transparency of health care (n = 7), and improved equity in care delivery (n = 4). Asynchronous and synchronous applications appeared to differ in the type of contribution they made to diabetes care compared to usual care: asynchronous applications were more successful in improving clinical values and self-care, whereas synchronous applications led to relatively high usability of technology and cost reduction in terms of lower travel costs for both patients and care providers and reduced unscheduled visits compared to usual care. The combined applications (n = 9) scored best according to quality of life (22.2%). No differences between synchronous and asynchronous teleconsultation could be observed regarding the positive effect of technology on the quality of patient-provider interaction. Both types of applications resulted in intensified contact and increased frequency of transmission of clinical values with respect to usual care. Fifteen of the studies contained HbA1c data that permitted pooling. There was significant statistical heterogeneity among the pooled randomized controlled trials (χ2 = 96.46, P < 0.001). The pooled reduction in HbA1c was not statically significant (weighted mean difference -0.10; 95% confidence interval -0.39 to 0.18). Conclusion The included studies suggest that both synchronous and asynchronous teleconsultations for diabetes care are feasible, cost-effective, and reliable. However, it should be noted that many of the included studies showed no significant differences between control (usual care) and intervention groups. This might be due to the diversity and lack of quality in study designs (e.g., inaccurate or incompletely reported sample size calculations). Future research needs quasi-experimental study designs and a holistic approach that focuses on multilevel determinants (clinical, behavioral, and care coordination) to promote self-care and proactive collaborations between health care professionals and patients to manage diabetes care. Also, a participatory design approach is needed in which target users are involved in the development of cost-effective and personalized interventions. Currently, too often technology is developed within the scope of the existing structures of the health care system. Including patients as part of the design team stimulates and enables designers to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective, leading to applications that are better tailored to patients' needs. PMID:20513335

Information and the Origin of Qualia

PubMed Central

Orpwood, Roger

2017-01-01

This article argues that qualia are a likely outcome of the processing of information in local cortical networks. It uses an information-based approach and makes a distinction between information structures (the physical embodiment of information in the brain, primarily patterns of action potentials), and information messages (the meaning of those structures to the brain, and the basis of qualia). It develops formal relationships between these two kinds of information, showing how information structures can represent messages, and how information messages can be identified from structures. The article applies this perspective to basic processing in cortical networks or ensembles, showing how networks can transform between the two kinds of information. The article argues that an input pattern of firing is identified by a network as an information message, and that the output pattern of firing generated is a representation of that message. If a network is encouraged to develop an attractor state through attention or other re-entrant processes, then the message identified each time physical information is cycled through the network becomes “representation of the previous message”. Using an example of olfactory perception, it is shown how this piggy-backing of messages on top of previous messages could lead to olfactory qualia. The message identified on each pass of information could evolve from inner identity, to inner form, to inner likeness or image. The outcome is an olfactory quale. It is shown that the same outcome could result from information cycled through a hierarchy of networks in a resonant state. The argument for qualia generation is applied to other sensory modalities, showing how, through a process of brain-wide constraint satisfaction, a particular state of consciousness could develop at any given moment. Evidence for some of the key predictions of the theory is presented, using ECoG data and studies of gamma oscillations and attractors, together with an outline of what further evidence is needed to provide support for the theory. PMID:28484376

A Phenomenological Synapse Model for Asynchronous Neurotransmitter Release

PubMed Central

Wang, Tao; Yin, Luping; Zou, Xiaolong; Shu, Yousheng; Rasch, Malte J.; Wu, Si

2016-01-01

Neurons communicate with each other via synapses. Action potentials cause release of neurotransmitters at the axon terminal. Typically, this neurotransmitter release is tightly time-locked to the arrival of an action potential and is thus called synchronous release. However, neurotransmitter release is stochastic and the rate of release of small quanta of neurotransmitters can be considerably elevated even long after the ceasing of spiking activity, leading to asynchronous release of neurotransmitters. Such asynchronous release varies for tissue and neuron types and has been shown recently to be pronounced in fast-spiking neurons. Notably, it was found that asynchronous release is enhanced in human epileptic tissue implicating a possibly important role in generating abnormal neural activity. Current neural network models for simulating and studying neural activity virtually only consider synchronous release and ignore asynchronous transmitter release. Here, we develop a phenomenological model for asynchronous neurotransmitter release, which, on one hand, captures the fundamental features of the asynchronous release process, and, on the other hand, is simple enough to be incorporated in large-size network simulations. Our proposed model is based on the well-known equations for short-term dynamical synaptic interactions and includes an additional stochastic term for modeling asynchronous release. We use experimental data obtained from inhibitory fast-spiking synapses of human epileptic tissue to fit the model parameters, and demonstrate that our model reproduces the characteristics of realistic asynchronous transmitter release. PMID:26834617

Software architecture for time-constrained machine vision applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Usamentiaga, Rubén; Molleda, Julio; García, Daniel F.; Bulnes, Francisco G.

2013-01-01

Real-time image and video processing applications require skilled architects, and recent trends in the hardware platform make the design and implementation of these applications increasingly complex. Many frameworks and libraries have been proposed or commercialized to simplify the design and tuning of real-time image processing applications. However, they tend to lack flexibility, because they are normally oriented toward particular types of applications, or they impose specific data processing models such as the pipeline. Other issues include large memory footprints, difficulty for reuse, and inefficient execution on multicore processors. We present a novel software architecture for time-constrained machine vision applications that addresses these issues. The architecture is divided into three layers. The platform abstraction layer provides a high-level application programming interface for the rest of the architecture. The messaging layer provides a message-passing interface based on a dynamic publish/subscribe pattern. A topic-based filtering in which messages are published to topics is used to route the messages from the publishers to the subscribers interested in a particular type of message. The application layer provides a repository for reusable application modules designed for machine vision applications. These modules, which include acquisition, visualization, communication, user interface, and data processing, take advantage of the power of well-known libraries such as OpenCV, Intel IPP, or CUDA. Finally, the proposed architecture is applied to a real machine vision application: a jam detector for steel pickling lines.

Clandestine Message Passing in Virtual Environments

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-09-01

accessed April 4, 2008). Weir, Laila. “Boring Game? Outsorce It.” (August 24, 2004). http://www.wired.com/ entertainment / music /news/2004/08/ 64638...Multiplayer Online MOVES - Modeling Virtual Environments and Simulation MTV – Music Television NPS - Naval Postgraduate School PAN – Personal Area...Network PSP - PlayStation Portable RPG – Role-playing Game SL - Second Life SVN - Subversion VE – Virtual Environments vMTV – Virtual Music

An Ode to Stuart Hall's "The Supply of Demand": The Case of Post-Secondary Education in Ontario Fifty Years Later

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

FitzGerald Murphy, Maggie

2016-01-01

Despite the fact that over fifty years have passed since its publication, Stuart Hall's article "The Supply of Demand" (1960), is remarkably relevant today. The central message that society must not be blinded by "prosperity" such that it no longer envisions and demands a better world is especially pertinent in light of the…

The Guardian. Volume 9, Number 3, Winter 2007

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

message correctly. Muslims will ultimately determine whether the ideology of al Qaeda, its affiliates, franchisees , and fellow travelers represents...opined that the effort would not work or would not pass the cost– benefit comparison. Others wanted to develop comprehensive NATO doctrine to guide...full BAT capability, the access-control benefits of BAT/HIIDE are a significant improvement to overall ISAF force protection, even in stand-alone mode

PETSc Users Manual Revision 3.7

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Balay, Satish; Abhyankar, S.; Adams, M.

This manual describes the use of PETSc for the numerical solution of partial differential equations and related problems on high-performance computers. The Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) is a suite of data structures and routines that provide the building blocks for the implementation of large-scale application codes on parallel (and serial) computers. PETSc uses the MPI standard for all message-passing communication.

PETSc Users Manual Revision 3.8

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Balay, S.; Abhyankar, S.; Adams, M.

This manual describes the use of PETSc for the numerical solution of partial differential equations and related problems on high-performance computers. The Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc) is a suite of data structures and routines that provide the building blocks for the implementation of large-scale application codes on parallel (and serial) computers. PETSc uses the MPI standard for all message-passing communication.

Statistical Inference in Graphical Models

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-17

fuse probability theory and graph theory in such a way as to permit efficient rep- resentation and computation with probability distributions. They...message passing. 59 viii 1. INTRODUCTION In approaching real-world problems, we often need to deal with uncertainty. Probability and statis- tics provide a...dynamic programming methods. However, for many sensors of interest, the signal-to-noise ratio does not allow such a treatment. Another source of

NAS Parallel Benchmark. Results 11-96: Performance Comparison of HPF and MPI Based NAS Parallel Benchmarks. 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saini, Subash; Bailey, David; Chancellor, Marisa K. (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

High Performance Fortran (HPF), the high-level language for parallel Fortran programming, is based on Fortran 90. HALF was defined by an informal standards committee known as the High Performance Fortran Forum (HPFF) in 1993, and modeled on TMC's CM Fortran language. Several HPF features have since been incorporated into the draft ANSI/ISO Fortran 95, the next formal revision of the Fortran standard. HPF allows users to write a single parallel program that can execute on a serial machine, a shared-memory parallel machine, or a distributed-memory parallel machine. HPF eliminates the complex, error-prone task of explicitly specifying how, where, and when to pass messages between processors on distributed-memory machines, or when to synchronize processors on shared-memory machines. HPF is designed in a way that allows the programmer to code an application at a high level, and then selectively optimize portions of the code by dropping into message-passing or calling tuned library routines as 'extrinsics'. Compilers supporting High Performance Fortran features first appeared in late 1994 and early 1995 from Applied Parallel Research (APR) Digital Equipment Corporation, and The Portland Group (PGI). IBM introduced an HPF compiler for the IBM RS/6000 SP/2 in April of 1996. Over the past two years, these implementations have shown steady improvement in terms of both features and performance. The performance of various hardware/ programming model (HPF and MPI (message passing interface)) combinations will be compared, based on latest NAS (NASA Advanced Supercomputing) Parallel Benchmark (NPB) results, thus providing a cross-machine and cross-model comparison. Specifically, HPF based NPB results will be compared with MPI based NPB results to provide perspective on performance currently obtainable using HPF versus MPI or versus hand-tuned implementations such as those supplied by the hardware vendors. In addition we would also present NPB (Version 1.0) performance results for the following systems: DEC Alpha Server 8400 5/440, Fujitsu VPP Series (VX, VPP300, and VPP700), HP/Convex Exemplar SPP2000, IBM RS/6000 SP P2SC node (120 MHz) NEC SX-4/32, SGI/CRAY T3E, SGI Origin2000.

Control over social interactions: an important reason for young people's use of the Internet and mobile phones for communication?

PubMed

Madell, Dominic E; Muncer, Steven J

2007-02-01

This paper reports some research that was undertaken to determine why young people choose to use certain communication media, especially the Internet and mobile phones for social purposes. Focus group methodology was employed in achieving this aim. Specifically, two focus groups containing young people aged 18-20 years were asked to discuss the question "why do you use different communication media, such as the Internet and mobile phones, in your social lives?" Discussions from the sessions were recorded on audiotapes, and then transcribed, and analyzed according to the principles of Grounded Theory. A number of categories emerged from the data. The most significant category indicated that young people often liked to use communication media such as the Internet and mobile phones to communicate because these afforded them control over their interactions. In particular, the data seemed to suggest that participants felt that because some communication media such as email, text messaging and instant messaging can be used asynchronously as well as synchronously, they allow one time to stop and think before giving a response if this is desired, or, alternatively, allowed one to retain the conversational nature of interactions if this is preferred. This gave participants greater control over interactions than they would have if, say, communicating via voice calls using the telephone or face-to-face, which are necessarily synchronous.

A Hartree-Fock Application Using UPC++ and the New DArray Library

DOE PAGES

Ozog, David; Kamil, Amir; Zheng, Yili; ...

2016-07-21

The Hartree-Fock (HF) method is the fundamental first step for incorporating quantum mechanics into many-electron simulations of atoms and molecules, and it is an important component of computational chemistry toolkits like NWChem. The GTFock code is an HF implementation that, while it does not have all the features in NWChem, represents crucial algorithmic advances that reduce communication and improve load balance by doing an up-front static partitioning of tasks, followed by work stealing whenever necessary. To enable innovations in algorithms and exploit next generation exascale systems, it is crucial to support quantum chemistry codes using expressive and convenient programming modelsmore » and runtime systems that are also efficient and scalable. Here, this paper presents an HF implementation similar to GTFock using UPC++, a partitioned global address space model that includes flexible communication, asynchronous remote computation, and a powerful multidimensional array library. UPC++ offers runtime features that are useful for HF such as active messages, a rich calculus for array operations, hardware-supported fetch-and-add, and functions for ensuring asynchronous runtime progress. We present a new distributed array abstraction, DArray, that is convenient for the kinds of random-access array updates and linear algebra operations on block-distributed arrays with irregular data ownership. Finally, we analyze the performance of atomic fetch-and-add operations (relevant for load balancing) and runtime attentiveness, then compare various techniques and optimizations for each. Our optimized implementation of HF using UPC++ and the DArrays library shows up to 20% improvement over GTFock with Global Arrays at scales up to 24,000 cores.« less

A Study of Asynchronous Mobile-Enabled SMS Text Psychotherapy.

PubMed

Hull, Thomas D; Mahan, Kush

2017-03-01

Many obstacles to obtaining psychotherapy continue to diminish its reach despite its documented positive effects. Using short message service (SMS) texting and Web platforms to enable licensed psychotherapists to deliver therapy directly to the lived context of the client is one possible solution. Employing a feasibility study design, this pilot trial further evaluated the external validity for treatment outcomes of text therapy and extended findings to include mobile-enabled text platforms. Adults seeking text therapy treatment for a variety of disorders were recruited from a text therapy service (N = 57). Clinical outcomes were measured using the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) through 15 weeks of treatment. A process variable, the therapeutic alliance, was measured with the Working Alliance Inventory. Treatment acceptability was assessed with ratings of satisfaction for several aspects of the treatment, including affordability, effectiveness, convenience, wait times to receiving treatment, and cost-effectiveness. Results indicate evidence for the effectiveness of the intervention (GHQ-12, Cohen's d = 1.3). Twenty-five (46%) participants experienced clinically significant symptom remission. Therapeutic alliance scores were lower than those found in traditional treatment settings, but still predicted symptom improvement (R 2  = 0.299). High levels of satisfaction with text therapy were reported on dimensions of affordability, convenience, and effectiveness. Cost-effectiveness analyses suggest that text therapy is 42.2% the cost of traditional services and offers much reduced wait times. Mobile-enabled asynchronous text therapy with a licensed therapist is an acceptable and clinically beneficial medium for individuals with various diagnoses and histories of psychological distress.

A Hartree-Fock Application Using UPC++ and the New DArray Library

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ozog, David; Kamil, Amir; Zheng, Yili

The Hartree-Fock (HF) method is the fundamental first step for incorporating quantum mechanics into many-electron simulations of atoms and molecules, and it is an important component of computational chemistry toolkits like NWChem. The GTFock code is an HF implementation that, while it does not have all the features in NWChem, represents crucial algorithmic advances that reduce communication and improve load balance by doing an up-front static partitioning of tasks, followed by work stealing whenever necessary. To enable innovations in algorithms and exploit next generation exascale systems, it is crucial to support quantum chemistry codes using expressive and convenient programming modelsmore » and runtime systems that are also efficient and scalable. Here, this paper presents an HF implementation similar to GTFock using UPC++, a partitioned global address space model that includes flexible communication, asynchronous remote computation, and a powerful multidimensional array library. UPC++ offers runtime features that are useful for HF such as active messages, a rich calculus for array operations, hardware-supported fetch-and-add, and functions for ensuring asynchronous runtime progress. We present a new distributed array abstraction, DArray, that is convenient for the kinds of random-access array updates and linear algebra operations on block-distributed arrays with irregular data ownership. Finally, we analyze the performance of atomic fetch-and-add operations (relevant for load balancing) and runtime attentiveness, then compare various techniques and optimizations for each. Our optimized implementation of HF using UPC++ and the DArrays library shows up to 20% improvement over GTFock with Global Arrays at scales up to 24,000 cores.« less

Asynchronous Video Streaming vs. Synchronous Videoconferencing for Teaching a Pharmacogenetic Pharmacotherapy Course

PubMed Central

2007-01-01

Objectives To compare students' performance and course evaluations for a pharmacogenetic pharmacotherapy course taught by synchronous videoconferencing method via the Internet and for the same course taught via asynchronous video streaming via the Internet. Methods In spring 2005, a pharmacogenetic therapy course was taught to 73 students located on Amarillo, Lubbock, and Dallas campuses using synchronous videoconferencing, and in spring 2006, to 78 students located on the same 3 campuses using asynchronous video streaming. A course evaluation was administered to each group at the end of the courses. Results Students in the asynchronous setting had final course grades of 89% ± 7% compared to the mean final course grade of 87% ± 7% in the synchronous group (p = 0.05). Regardless of which technology was used, average course grades did not differ significantly among the 3 campus sites. Significantly more of the students in the asynchronous setting agreed (57%) with the statement that they could read the lecture notes and absorb the content on their own without attending the class than students in the synchronous class (23%; chi-square test; p < 0.001). Conclusions Students in both asynchronous and synchronous settings performed well. However, students taught using asynchronous videotaped lectures had lower satisfaction with the method of content delivery, and preferred live interactive sessions or a mix of interactive sessions and asynchronous videos over delivery of content using the synchronous or asynchronous method alone. PMID:17429516

A flexible software architecture for scalable real-time image and video processing applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Usamentiaga, Rubén; Molleda, Julio; García, Daniel F.; Bulnes, Francisco G.

2012-06-01

Real-time image and video processing applications require skilled architects, and recent trends in the hardware platform make the design and implementation of these applications increasingly complex. Many frameworks and libraries have been proposed or commercialized to simplify the design and tuning of real-time image processing applications. However, they tend to lack flexibility because they are normally oriented towards particular types of applications, or they impose specific data processing models such as the pipeline. Other issues include large memory footprints, difficulty for reuse and inefficient execution on multicore processors. This paper presents a novel software architecture for real-time image and video processing applications which addresses these issues. The architecture is divided into three layers: the platform abstraction layer, the messaging layer, and the application layer. The platform abstraction layer provides a high level application programming interface for the rest of the architecture. The messaging layer provides a message passing interface based on a dynamic publish/subscribe pattern. A topic-based filtering in which messages are published to topics is used to route the messages from the publishers to the subscribers interested in a particular type of messages. The application layer provides a repository for reusable application modules designed for real-time image and video processing applications. These modules, which include acquisition, visualization, communication, user interface and data processing modules, take advantage of the power of other well-known libraries such as OpenCV, Intel IPP, or CUDA. Finally, we present different prototypes and applications to show the possibilities of the proposed architecture.

Evaluation Metrics for the Paragon XP/S-15

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Traversat, Bernard; McNab, David; Nitzberg, Bill; Fineberg, Sam; Blaylock, Bruce T. (Technical Monitor)

1993-01-01

On February 17th 1993, the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility located at the NASA Ames Research Center installed a 224 node Intel Paragon XP/S-15 system. After its installation, the Paragon was found to be in a very immature state and was unable to support a NAS users' workload, composed of a wide range of development and production activities. As a first step towards addressing this problem, we implemented a set of metrics to objectively monitor the system as operating system and hardware upgrades were installed. The metrics were designed to measure four aspects of the system that we consider essential to support our workload: availability, utilization, functionality, and performance. This report presents the metrics collected from February 1993 to August 1993. Since its installation, the Paragon availability has improved from a low of 15% uptime to a high of 80%, while its utilization has remained low. Functionality and performance have improved from merely running one of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks to running all of them faster (between 1 and 2 times) than on the iPSC/860. In spite of the progress accomplished, fundamental limitations of the Paragon operating system are restricting the Paragon from supporting the NAS workload. The maximum operating system message passing (NORMA IPC) bandwidth was measured at 11 Mbytes/s, well below the peak hardware bandwidth (175 Mbytes/s), limiting overall virtual memory and Unix services (i.e. Disk and HiPPI I/O) performance. The high NX application message passing latency (184 microns), three times than on the iPSC/860, was found to significantly degrade performance of applications relying on small message sizes. The amount of memory available for an application was found to be approximately 10 Mbytes per node, indicating that the OS is taking more space than anticipated (6 Mbytes per node).

Parallel Ray Tracing Using the Message Passing Interface

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

software is available for lens design and for general optical systems modeling. It tends to be designed to run on a single processor and can be very...Cameron, Senior Member, IEEE Abstract—Ray-tracing software is available for lens design and for general optical systems modeling. It tends to be designed to...National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), optical ray tracing, parallel computing, parallel pro- cessing, prime numbers, ray tracing

High-performance computing — an overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marksteiner, Peter

1996-08-01

An overview of high-performance computing (HPC) is given. Different types of computer architectures used in HPC are discussed: vector supercomputers, high-performance RISC processors, various parallel computers like symmetric multiprocessors, workstation clusters, massively parallel processors. Software tools and programming techniques used in HPC are reviewed: vectorizing compilers, optimization and vector tuning, optimization for RISC processors; parallel programming techniques like shared-memory parallelism, message passing and data parallelism; and numerical libraries.

Implementation of a Serial Delay Insertion Type Loop Communication for a Real Time Multitransputer System.

DTIC Science & Technology

1985-06-01

just pass the message WAIT NOW AFTER Rlock + timeo t -- if time is out write.screen( TIME IS OUT") MAIN PROGRAM* CHAN linki , link2, link3, link4...PAR D.I.Loop.Interface (link4, linkl,) D.I.Loop.Interface ( linki , link2, 2) D.I.Loop.Interface (link2, link3, 3) JD.I Loop.Interface (link3, link4, 4

Control Transfer in Operating System Kernels

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-05-13

microkernel system that runs less code in the kernel address space. To realize the performance benefit of allocating stacks in unmapped kseg0 memory, the...review how I modified the Mach 3.0 kernel to use continuations. Because of Mach’s message-passing microkernel structure, interprocess communication was...critical control transfer paths, deeply- nested call chains are undesirable in any case because of the function call overhead. 4.1.3 Microkernel Operating

A bill to clarify the health care provided by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs that constitutes minimum essential coverage.

THOMAS, 111th Congress

Sen. Akaka, Daniel K. [D-HI

2010-03-24

Senate - 09/23/2010 Message received in the Senate: Returned to the Senate pursuant to the provisions of H.Res. 1653. (All Actions) Notes: For further action, see H.R.5014, which became Public Law 111-173 on 5/27/2010. Tracker: This bill has the status Passed SenateHere are the steps for Status of Legislation:

Performance Analysis and Optimization of the Winnow Secret Key Reconciliation Protocol

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

use in a quantum key system can be defined in two ways :  The number of messages passed between Alice and Bob  The...classical and quantum environment. Post- quantum cryptography , which is generally used to describe classical quantum -resilient protocols, includes...composed of a one- way quantum channel and a two - way classical channel. Owing to the physics of the channel, the quantum channel is subject to

FPGA implementation of low complexity LDPC iterative decoder

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Verma, Shivani; Sharma, Sanjay

2016-07-01

Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, proposed by Gallager, emerged as a class of codes which can yield very good performance on the additive white Gaussian noise channel as well as on the binary symmetric channel. LDPC codes have gained lots of importance due to their capacity achieving property and excellent performance in the noisy channel. Belief propagation (BP) algorithm and its approximations, most notably min-sum, are popular iterative decoding algorithms used for LDPC and turbo codes. The trade-off between the hardware complexity and the decoding throughput is a critical factor in the implementation of the practical decoder. This article presents introduction to LDPC codes and its various decoding algorithms followed by realisation of LDPC decoder by using simplified message passing algorithm and partially parallel decoder architecture. Simplified message passing algorithm has been proposed for trade-off between low decoding complexity and decoder performance. It greatly reduces the routing and check node complexity of the decoder. Partially parallel decoder architecture possesses high speed and reduced complexity. The improved design of the decoder possesses a maximum symbol throughput of 92.95 Mbps and a maximum of 18 decoding iterations. The article presents implementation of 9216 bits, rate-1/2, (3, 6) LDPC decoder on Xilinx XC3D3400A device from Spartan-3A DSP family.

"Some convincing arguments to pass back to nervous customers": the role of the tobacco retailer in the Australian tobacco industry's smoker reassurance campaign 1950-1978.

PubMed

Tofler, A; Chapman, S

2003-12-01

Epidemiological studies and reports on smoking and health published in the 1950s and 1960s threatened the tobacco industry worldwide, which acted to reassure smokers and counteract mounting evidence that smoking posed a serious risk to smokers' health. To document the use of tobacco retailers (1) as a conduit to pass messages of reassurance onto smokers, and (2) to recruit youth and women into smoking. Review of an extensive collection of Australian tobacco retail trade journals (1950-1978) for articles consistent with the industry's efforts to counter messages about smoking and health, and how to attract non-smokers, particularly youth and women. The main arguments advanced in the journals included the notion that air pollution and other substances cause cancer, that "statistics" did not constitute proof in the tobacco health scare, and that the industry was committed to research into the causes of cancer and into developing a "safer" cigarette. Numerous articles designed to be reiterated to customers were published, arguing against the link between tobacco and ill health. Tobacco retailers, salesmen and retail trade organisations played a significant role in dissembling the tobacco health nexus. Tobacco retail journals may be an important component in tobacco industry misinformation strategies.

A Bayesian Model for Highly Accelerated Phase-Contrast MRI

PubMed Central

Rich, Adam; Potter, Lee C.; Jin, Ning; Ash, Joshua; Simonetti, Orlando P.; Ahmad, Rizwan

2015-01-01

Purpose Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging (PC-MRI) is a noninvasive tool to assess cardiovascular disease by quantifying blood flow; however, low data acquisition efficiency limits the spatial and temporal resolutions, real-time application, and extensions to 4D flow imaging in clinical settings. We propose a new data processing approach called Reconstructing Velocity Encoded MRI with Approximate message passing aLgorithms (ReVEAL) that accelerates the acquisition by exploiting data structure unique to PC-MRI. Theory and Methods ReVEAL models physical correlations across space, time, and velocity encodings. The proposed Bayesian approach exploits the relationships in both magnitude and phase among velocity encodings. A fast iterative recovery algorithm is introduced based on message passing. For validation, prospectively undersampled data are processed from a pulsatile flow phantom and five healthy volunteers. Results ReVEAL is in good agreement, quantified by peak velocity and stroke volume (SV), with reference data for acceleration rates R ≤ 10. For SV, Pearson r ≥ 0.996 for phantom imaging (n = 24) and r ≥ 0.956 for prospectively accelerated in vivo imaging (n = 10) for R ≤ 10. Conclusion ReVEAL enables accurate quantification of blood flow from highly undersampled data. The technique is extensible to 4D flow imaging, where higher acceleration may be possible due to additional redundancy. PMID:26444911

EMPIRE and pyenda: Two ensemble-based data assimilation systems written in Fortran and Python

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geppert, Gernot; Browne, Phil; van Leeuwen, Peter Jan; Merker, Claire

2017-04-01

We present and compare the features of two ensemble-based data assimilation frameworks, EMPIRE and pyenda. Both frameworks allow to couple models to the assimilation codes using the Message Passing Interface (MPI), leading to extremely efficient and fast coupling between models and the data-assimilation codes. The Fortran-based system EMPIRE (Employing Message Passing Interface for Researching Ensembles) is optimized for parallel, high-performance computing. It currently includes a suite of data assimilation algorithms including variants of the ensemble Kalman and several the particle filters. EMPIRE is targeted at models of all kinds of complexity and has been coupled to several geoscience models, eg. the Lorenz-63 model, a barotropic vorticity model, the general circulation model HadCM3, the ocean model NEMO, and the land-surface model JULES. The Python-based system pyenda (Python Ensemble Data Assimilation) allows Fortran- and Python-based models to be used for data assimilation. Models can be coupled either using MPI or by using a Python interface. Using Python allows quick prototyping and pyenda is aimed at small to medium scale models. pyenda currently includes variants of the ensemble Kalman filter and has been coupled to the Lorenz-63 model, an advection-based precipitation nowcasting scheme, and the dynamic global vegetation model JSBACH.

A practical approach to portability and performance problems on massively parallel supercomputers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Beazley, D.M.; Lomdahl, P.S.

1994-12-08

We present an overview of the tactics we have used to achieve a high-level of performance while improving portability for a large-scale molecular dynamics code SPaSM. SPaSM was originally implemented in ANSI C with message passing for the Connection Machine 5 (CM-5). In 1993, SPaSM was selected as one of the winners in the IEEE Gordon Bell Prize competition for sustaining 50 Gflops on the 1024 node CM-5 at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Achieving this performance on the CM-5 required rewriting critical sections of code in CDPEAC assembler language. In addition, the code made extensive use of CM-5 parallel I/Omore » and the CMMD message passing library. Given this highly specialized implementation, we describe how we have ported the code to the Cray T3D and high performance workstations. In addition we will describe how it has been possible to do this using a single version of source code that runs on all three platforms without sacrificing any performance. Sound too good to be true? We hope to demonstrate that one can realize both code performance and portability without relying on the latest and greatest prepackaged tool or parallelizing compiler.« less

Toward Abstracting the Communication Intent in Applications to Improve Portability and Productivity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mintz, Tiffany M; Hernandez, Oscar R; Kartsaklis, Christos

Programming with communication libraries such as the Message Passing Interface (MPI) obscures the high-level intent of the communication in an application and makes static communication analysis difficult to do. Compilers are unaware of communication libraries specifics, leading to the exclusion of communication patterns from any automated analysis and optimizations. To overcome this, communication patterns can be expressed at higher-levels of abstraction and incrementally added to existing MPI applications. In this paper, we propose the use of directives to clearly express the communication intent of an application in a way that is not specific to a given communication library. Our communicationmore » directives allow programmers to express communication among processes in a portable way, giving hints to the compiler on regions of computations that can be overlapped with communication and relaxing communication constraints on the ordering, completion and synchronization of the communication imposed by specific libraries such as MPI. The directives can then be translated by the compiler into message passing calls that efficiently implement the intended pattern and be targeted to multiple communication libraries. Thus far, we have used the directives to express point-to-point communication patterns in C, C++ and Fortran applications, and have translated them to MPI and SHMEM.« less

A new control system hardware architecture for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope prime focus instrument package

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramiller, Chuck; Taylor, Trey; Rafferty, Tom H.; Cornell, Mark E.; Rafal, Marc; Savage, Richard

2010-07-01

The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) will be undergoing a major upgrade as a precursor to the HET Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX‡). As part of this upgrade, the Prime Focus Instrument Package (PFIP) will be replaced with a new design that supports the HETDEX requirements along with the existing suite of instruments and anticipated future additions. This paper describes the new PFIP control system hardware plus the physical constraints and other considerations driving its design. Because of its location at the top end of the telescope, the new PFIP is essentially a stand-alone remote automation island containing over a dozen subsystems. Within the PFIP, motion controllers and modular IO systems are interconnected using a local Controller Area Network (CAN) bus and the CANOpen messaging protocol. CCD cameras that are equipped only with USB 2.0 interfaces are connected to a local Ethernet network via small microcontroller boards running embedded Linux. Links to ground-level systems pass through a 100 m cable bundle and use Ethernet over fiber optic cable exclusively; communications are either direct or through Ethernet/CAN gateways that pass CANOpen messages transparently. All of the control system hardware components are commercially available, designed for rugged industrial applications, and rated for extended temperature operation down to -10 °C.

Compiling global name-space programs for distributed execution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Koelbel, Charles; Mehrotra, Piyush

1990-01-01

Distributed memory machines do not provide hardware support for a global address space. Thus programmers are forced to partition the data across the memories of the architecture and use explicit message passing to communicate data between processors. The compiler support required to allow programmers to express their algorithms using a global name-space is examined. A general method is presented for analysis of a high level source program and along with its translation to a set of independently executing tasks communicating via messages. If the compiler has enough information, this translation can be carried out at compile-time. Otherwise run-time code is generated to implement the required data movement. The analysis required in both situations is described and the performance of the generated code on the Intel iPSC/2 is presented.

The Raid distributed database system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhargava, Bharat; Riedl, John

1989-01-01

Raid, a robust and adaptable distributed database system for transaction processing (TP), is described. Raid is a message-passing system, with server processes on each site to manage concurrent processing, consistent replicated copies during site failures, and atomic distributed commitment. A high-level layered communications package provides a clean location-independent interface between servers. The latest design of the package delivers messages via shared memory in a configuration with several servers linked into a single process. Raid provides the infrastructure to investigate various methods for supporting reliable distributed TP. Measurements on TP and server CPU time are presented, along with data from experiments on communications software, consistent replicated copy control during site failures, and concurrent distributed checkpointing. A software tool for evaluating the implementation of TP algorithms in an operating-system kernel is proposed.

Plasma Physics Calculations on a Parallel Macintosh Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Decyk, Viktor; Dauger, Dean; Kokelaar, Pieter

2000-03-01

We have constructed a parallel cluster consisting of 16 Apple Macintosh G3 computers running the MacOS, and achieved very good performance on numerically intensive, parallel plasma particle-in-cell simulations. A subset of the MPI message-passing library was implemented in Fortran77 and C. This library enabled us to port code, without modification, from other parallel processors to the Macintosh cluster. For large problems where message packets are large and relatively few in number, performance of 50-150 MFlops/node is possible, depending on the problem. This is fast enough that 3D calculations can be routinely done. Unlike Unix-based clusters, no special expertise in operating systems is required to build and run the cluster. Full details are available on our web site: http://exodus.physics.ucla.edu/appleseed/.

Plasma Physics Calculations on a Parallel Macintosh Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Decyk, Viktor K.; Dauger, Dean E.; Kokelaar, Pieter R.

We have constructed a parallel cluster consisting of 16 Apple Macintosh G3 computers running the MacOS, and achieved very good performance on numerically intensive, parallel plasma particle-in-cell simulations. A subset of the MPI message-passing library was implemented in Fortran77 and C. This library enabled us to port code, without modification, from other parallel processors to the Macintosh cluster. For large problems where message packets are large and relatively few in number, performance of 50-150 Mflops/node is possible, depending on the problem. This is fast enough that 3D calculations can be routinely done. Unlike Unix-based clusters, no special expertise in operating systems is required to build and run the cluster. Full details are available on our web site: http://exodus.physics.ucla.edu/appleseed/.

Supporting Beacon and Event-Driven Messages in Vehicular Platoons through Token-Based Strategies

PubMed Central

Uhlemann, Elisabeth

2018-01-01

Timely and reliable inter-vehicle communications is a critical requirement to support traffic safety applications, such as vehicle platooning. Furthermore, low-delay communications allow the platoon to react quickly to unexpected events. In this scope, having a predictable and highly effective medium access control (MAC) method is of utmost importance. However, the currently available IEEE 802.11p technology is unable to adequately address these challenges. In this paper, we propose a MAC method especially adapted to platoons, able to transmit beacons within the required time constraints, but with a higher reliability level than IEEE 802.11p, while concurrently enabling efficient dissemination of event-driven messages. The protocol circulates the token within the platoon not in a round-robin fashion, but based on beacon data age, i.e., the time that has passed since the previous collection of status information, thereby automatically offering repeated beacon transmission opportunities for increased reliability. In addition, we propose three different methods for supporting event-driven messages co-existing with beacons. Analysis and simulation results in single and multi-hop scenarios showed that, by providing non-competitive channel access and frequent retransmission opportunities, our protocol can offer beacon delivery within one beacon generation interval while fulfilling the requirements on low-delay dissemination of event-driven messages for traffic safety applications. PMID:29570676

Supporting Beacon and Event-Driven Messages in Vehicular Platoons through Token-Based Strategies.

PubMed

Balador, Ali; Uhlemann, Elisabeth; Calafate, Carlos T; Cano, Juan-Carlos

2018-03-23

Timely and reliable inter-vehicle communications is a critical requirement to support traffic safety applications, such as vehicle platooning. Furthermore, low-delay communications allow the platoon to react quickly to unexpected events. In this scope, having a predictable and highly effective medium access control (MAC) method is of utmost importance. However, the currently available IEEE 802.11p technology is unable to adequately address these challenges. In this paper, we propose a MAC method especially adapted to platoons, able to transmit beacons within the required time constraints, but with a higher reliability level than IEEE 802.11p, while concurrently enabling efficient dissemination of event-driven messages. The protocol circulates the token within the platoon not in a round-robin fashion, but based on beacon data age, i.e., the time that has passed since the previous collection of status information, thereby automatically offering repeated beacon transmission opportunities for increased reliability. In addition, we propose three different methods for supporting event-driven messages co-existing with beacons. Analysis and simulation results in single and multi-hop scenarios showed that, by providing non-competitive channel access and frequent retransmission opportunities, our protocol can offer beacon delivery within one beacon generation interval while fulfilling the requirements on low-delay dissemination of event-driven messages for traffic safety applications.

Assessing clarity of message communication for mandated USEPA drinking water quality reports.

PubMed

Phetxumphou, Katherine; Roy, Siddhartha; Davy, Brenda M; Estabrooks, Paul A; You, Wen; Dietrich, Andrea M

2016-04-01

The United States Environmental Protection Agency mandates that community water systems (CWSs), or drinking water utilities, provide annual consumer confidence reports (CCRs) reporting on water quality, compliance with regulations, source water, and consumer education. While certain report formats are prescribed, there are no criteria ensuring that consumers understand messages in these reports. To assess clarity of message, trained raters evaluated a national sample of 30 CCRs using the Centers for Disease Control Clear Communication Index (Index) indices: (1) Main Message/Call to Action; (2) Language; (3) Information Design; (4) State of the Science; (5) Behavioral Recommendations; (6) Numbers; and (7) Risk. Communication materials are considered qualifying if they achieve a 90% Index score. Overall mean score across CCRs was 50 ± 14% and none scored 90% or higher. CCRs did not differ significantly by water system size. State of the Science (3 ± 15%) and Behavioral Recommendations (77 ± 36%) indices were the lowest and highest, respectively. Only 63% of CCRs explicitly stated if the water was safe to drink according to federal and state standards and regulations. None of the CCRs had passing Index scores, signaling that CWSs are not effectively communicating with their consumers; thus, the Index can serve as an evaluation tool for CCR effectiveness and a guide to improve water quality communications.

The Physical Therapy and Society Summit (PASS) Meeting: observations and opportunities.

PubMed

Kigin, Colleen M; Rodgers, Mary M; Wolf, Steven L

2010-11-01

The construct of delivering high-quality and cost-effective health care is in flux, and the profession must strategically plan how to meet the needs of society. In 2006, the House of Delegates of the American Physical Therapy Association passed a motion to convene a summit on "how physical therapists can meet current, evolving, and future societal health care needs." The Physical Therapy and Society Summit (PASS) meeting on February 27-28, 2009, in Leesburg, Virginia, sent a clear message that for physical therapists to be effective and thrive in the health care environment of the future, a paradigm shift is required. During the PASS meeting, participants reframed our traditional focus on the physical therapist and the patient/client (consumer) to one in which physical therapists are an integral part of a collaborative, multidisciplinary health care team with the health care consumer as its focus. The PASS Steering Committee recognized that some of the opportunities that surfaced during the PASS meeting may be disruptive or may not be within the profession's present strategic or tactical plans. Thus, adopting a framework that helps to establish the need for change that is provocative and potentially disruptive to our present care delivery, yet prioritizes opportunities, is a critical and essential step. Each of us in the physical therapy profession must take on post-PASS roles and responsibilities to accomplish the systemic change that is so intimately intertwined with our destiny. This article offers a perspective of the dynamic dialogue and suggestions that emerged from the PASS event, providing further opportunities for discussion and action within our profession.

Synchronization of Hierarchical Time-Varying Neural Networks Based on Asynchronous and Intermittent Sampled-Data Control.

PubMed

Xiong, Wenjun; Patel, Ragini; Cao, Jinde; Zheng, Wei Xing

In this brief, our purpose is to apply asynchronous and intermittent sampled-data control methods to achieve the synchronization of hierarchical time-varying neural networks. The asynchronous and intermittent sampled-data controllers are proposed for two reasons: 1) the controllers may not transmit the control information simultaneously and 2) the controllers cannot always exist at any time . The synchronization is then discussed for a kind of hierarchical time-varying neural networks based on the asynchronous and intermittent sampled-data controllers. Finally, the simulation results are given to illustrate the usefulness of the developed criteria.In this brief, our purpose is to apply asynchronous and intermittent sampled-data control methods to achieve the synchronization of hierarchical time-varying neural networks. The asynchronous and intermittent sampled-data controllers are proposed for two reasons: 1) the controllers may not transmit the control information simultaneously and 2) the controllers cannot always exist at any time . The synchronization is then discussed for a kind of hierarchical time-varying neural networks based on the asynchronous and intermittent sampled-data controllers. Finally, the simulation results are given to illustrate the usefulness of the developed criteria.

Digital Synchronizer without Metastability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simle, Robert M.; Cavazos, Jose A.

2009-01-01

A proposed design for a digital synchronizing circuit would eliminate metastability that plagues flip-flop circuits in digital input/output interfaces. This metastability is associated with sampling, by use of flip-flops, of an external signal that is asynchronous with a clock signal that drives the flip-flops: it is a temporary flip-flop failure that can occur when a rising or falling edge of an asynchronous signal occurs during the setup and/or hold time of a flip-flop. The proposed design calls for (1) use of a clock frequency greater than the frequency of the asynchronous signal, (2) use of flip-flop asynchronous preset or clear signals for the asynchronous input, (3) use of a clock asynchronous recovery delay with pulse width discriminator, and (4) tying the data inputs to constant logic levels to obtain (5) two half-rate synchronous partial signals - one for the falling and one for the rising edge. Inasmuch as the flip-flop data inputs would be permanently tied to constant logic levels, setup and hold times would not be violated. The half-rate partial signals would be recombined to construct a signal that would replicate the original asynchronous signal at its original rate but would be synchronous with the clock signal.

The Effects of Asynchronous Visual Delays on Simulator Flight Performance and the Development of Simulator Sickness Symptomatology

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-12-26

NAVAL TRAINING SYSTEMS CENTER ORLANDO. FLORIDA IT FILE COPY THE EFFECTS OF ASYNCHRONOUS VISUAL DELAYS ON SIMULATOR FLIGHT PERFORMANCE AND THE...ASYNCHRONOUS VISUAL. DELAYS ON SI.WLATOR FLIGHT PERF OMANCE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIMLATOR SICKNESS SYMPTOMATOLOGY K. C. Uliano, E. Y. Lambert, R. S. Kennedy...ACCESSION NO. N63733N SP-01 0785-7P6 I. 4780 11. TITLE (Include Security Classification) The Effects of Asynchronous Visual Delays on Simulator Flight

Modeling and Analysis of Mixed Synchronous/Asynchronous Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Driscoll, Kevin R.; Madl. Gabor; Hall, Brendan

2012-01-01

Practical safety-critical distributed systems must integrate safety critical and non-critical data in a common platform. Safety critical systems almost always consist of isochronous components that have synchronous or asynchronous interface with other components. Many of these systems also support a mix of synchronous and asynchronous interfaces. This report presents a study on the modeling and analysis of asynchronous, synchronous, and mixed synchronous/asynchronous systems. We build on the SAE Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL) to capture architectures for analysis. We present preliminary work targeted to capture mixed low- and high-criticality data, as well as real-time properties in a common Model of Computation (MoC). An abstract, but representative, test specimen system was created as the system to be modeled.

A novel comparator featured with input data characteristic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, Xiaobo; Ye, Desheng; Xu, Xiangmin; Zheng, Shuai

2016-03-01

Two types of low-power asynchronous comparators featured with input data statistical characteristic are proposed in this article. The asynchronous ripple comparator stops comparing at the first unequal bit but delivers the result to the least significant bit. The pre-stop asynchronous comparator can completely stop comparing and obtain results immediately. The proposed and contrastive comparators were implemented in SMIC 0.18 μm process with different bit widths. Simulation shows that the proposed pre-stop asynchronous comparator features the lowest power consumption, shortest average propagation delay and highest area efficiency among the comparators. Data path of low-density parity check decoder using the proposed pre-stop asynchronous comparators are most power efficient compared with other data paths with synthesised, clock gating and bitwise competition logic comparators.

Interactional Coherence in Asynchronous Learning Networks: A Rhetorical Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Potter, Andrew

2008-01-01

Numerous studies have affirmed the value of asynchronous online communication as a learning resource. Several investigations, however, have indicated that discussions in asynchronous environments are often neither interactive nor coherent. The research reported sought to develop an enhanced understanding of interactional coherence, argumentation,…

Labeled Postings for Asynchronous Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ChanLin, Lih-Juan; Chen, Yong-Ting; Chan, Kung-Chi

2009-01-01

The Internet promotes computer-mediated communications, and so asynchronous learning network systems permit more flexibility in time, space, and interaction than synchronous mode of learning. The key point of asynchronous learning is the materials for web-aided teaching and the flow of knowledge. This research focuses on improving online…

An Asynchronous Augmentation to Traditional Course Delivery.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolverton, Marvin L.; Wolverton, Mimi

Asynchronous augmentation facilitates distributed learning, which relies heavily on technology and self-learning. This paper reports the results of delivering a real estate principles course using an asynchronous course delivery format. It highlights one of many ways to enhance learning using technology, and it provides information concerning how…

A Taxonomy of Learning through Asynchronous Discussion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knowlton, Dave S.

2005-01-01

This article presents a five-tiered taxonomy that describes the nature of participation in, and learning through, asynchronous discussion. The taxonomy is framed by a constructivist view of asynchronous discussion. The five tiers of the taxonomy include the following: (a) passive participation, (b) developmental participation, (c) generative…

Designing Asynchronous Online Discussion Environments: Recent Progress and Possible Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Fei; Zhang, Tianyi; Franklin, Teresa

2013-01-01

Asynchronous online discussion environments are important platforms to support learning. Research suggests, however, threaded forums, one of the most popular asynchronous discussion environments, do not often foster productive online discussions naturally. This paper explores how certain properties of threaded forums have affected or constrained…

Integrating Asynchronous Digital Design Into the Computer Engineering Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, S. C.; Al-Assadi, W. K.; Di, J.

2010-01-01

As demand increases for circuits with higher performance, higher complexity, and decreased feature size, asynchronous (clockless) paradigms will become more widely used in the semiconductor industry, as evidenced by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors' (ITRS) prediction of a likely shift from synchronous to asynchronous design…

A Parallel Workload Model and its Implications for Processor Allocation

DTIC Science & Technology

1996-11-01

with SEV or AVG, both of which can tolerate c = 0.4 { 0.6 before their performance deteriorates signi cantly. On the other hand, Setia [10] has...Sanjeev. K Setia . The interaction between memory allocation and adaptive partitioning in message-passing multicomputers. In IPPS 󈨣 Workshop on Job...Scheduling Strategies for Parallel Processing, pages 89{99, 1995. [11] Sanjeev K. Setia and Satish K. Tripathi. An analysis of several processor

Parallel deterministic neutronics with AMR in 3D

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Clouse, C.; Ferguson, J.; Hendrickson, C.

1997-12-31

AMTRAN, a three dimensional Sn neutronics code with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) has been parallelized over spatial domains and energy groups and runs on the Meiko CS-2 with MPI message passing. Block refined AMR is used with linear finite element representations for the fluxes, which allows for a straight forward interpretation of fluxes at block interfaces with zoning differences. The load balancing algorithm assumes 8 spatial domains, which minimizes idle time among processors.

GENASIS Basics: Object-oriented utilitarian functionality for large-scale physics simulations (Version 2)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cardall, Christian Y.; Budiardja, Reuben D.

2017-05-01

GenASiS Basics provides Fortran 2003 classes furnishing extensible object-oriented utilitarian functionality for large-scale physics simulations on distributed memory supercomputers. This functionality includes physical units and constants; display to the screen or standard output device; message passing; I/O to disk; and runtime parameter management and usage statistics. This revision -Version 2 of Basics - makes mostly minor additions to functionality and includes some simplifying name changes.

A Survey of Rollback-Recovery Protocols in Message-Passing Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

1999-06-01

and M.A. Castillo. "Checkpointing through garbage collection." Technical report. Departamento de Ciencia de la Computation, Escuela de Ingenieria ...between consecutive checkpoints. It can be implemented by using the dirty-bit of the memory protection hardware or by emulating a dirty-bit in software [4...compare the program’s state with the previous checkpoint in software , and writing the difference in a new checkpoint [46]. The required storage and

An HLA-Based Approach to Quantify Achievable Performance for Tactical Edge Applications

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-05-01

in: Proceedings of the 2002 Fall Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 02F- SIW -068, Nov 2002. [16] P. Knight, et al. ―WBT RTI Independent...Benchmark Tests: Design, Implementation, and Updated Results‖, in: Proceedings of the 2002 Spring Simulation Interoperability Workshop, 02S- SIW -081, March...Interoperability Workshop, 98F- SIW -085, Nov 1998. [18] S. Ferenci and R. Fujimoto. ―RTI Performance on Shared Memory and Message Passing Architectures‖, in

Actively Engaging Students in Asynchronous Online Classes. IDEA Paper #64

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riggs, Shannon A.; Linder, Kathryn E.

2016-01-01

Active learning activities and pedagogical strategies can look different in online learning environments, particularly in asynchronous courses when students are not interacting with the instructor, or with each other, in real time. This paper suggests a three-pronged approach for conceptualizing active learning in the online asynchronous class:…

Exploring Asynchronous and Synchronous Tool Use in Online Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oztok, Murat; Zingaro, Daniel; Brett, Clare; Hewitt, Jim

2013-01-01

While the independent contributions of synchronous and asynchronous interaction in online learning are clear, comparatively less is known about the pedagogical consequences of using both modes in the same environment. In this study, we examine relationships between students' use of asynchronous discussion forums and synchronous private messages…

Teaching Presence and Communication Timeliness in Asynchronous Online Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skramstad, Erik; Schlosser, Charles; Orellana, Anymir

2012-01-01

This study examined student perceptions of teaching presence and communication timeliness in asynchronous online courses. Garrison, Anderson, and Archer's (2000) community of inquiry model provided the framework for the survey research methodology used. Participants were 59 student volunteers taking 1 or more asynchronous online graduate courses.…

Two Studies Examining Argumentation in Asynchronous Computer Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joiner, Richard; Jones, Sarah; Doherty, John

2008-01-01

Asynchronous computer mediated communication (CMC) would seem to be an ideal medium for supporting development in student argumentation. This paper investigates this assumption through two studies. The first study compared asynchronous CMC with face-to-face discussions. The transactional and strategic level of the argumentation (i.e. measures of…

Using Television Sitcoms to Facilitate Asynchronous Discussions in the Online Communication Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tolman, Elizabeth; Asbury, Bryan

2012-01-01

Asynchronous discussions are a useful instructional resource in the online communication course. In discussion groups students have the opportunity to actively participate and interact with students and the instructor. Asynchronous communication allows for flexibility because "participants can interact with significant amounts of time between…

Asynchronous Discussion Board Facilitation and Rubric Use in a Blended Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giacumo, Lisa

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of instructor response prompts and rubrics on students' performance in an asynchronous discussion-board assignment, their learning achievement on an objective-type posttest, and their reported satisfaction levels. Researchers who have studied asynchronous computer-mediated student…

Asynchronous Learning Forums for Business Acculturation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pence, Christine Cope; Wulf, Catharina

2009-01-01

The use of IT as a facilitator for student collaboration in higher business education has grown rapidly since 2000. Asynchronous discussion forums are used abundantly for collaborative training purposes and for teaching students business-relevant tools for their future careers. This article presents an analysis of the asynchronous discussion forum…

Comparing face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous learning: postgraduate dental resident preferences.

PubMed

Kunin, Marc; Julliard, Kell N; Rodriguez, Tobias E

2014-06-01

The Department of Dental Medicine of Lutheran Medical Center has developed an asynchronous online curriculum consisting of prerecorded PowerPoint presentations with audio explanations. The focus of this study was to evaluate if the new asynchronous format satisfied the educational needs of the residents compared to traditional lecture (face-to-face) and synchronous (distance learning) formats. Lectures were delivered to 219 dental residents employing face-to-face and synchronous formats, as well as the new asynchronous format; 169 (77 percent) participated in the study. Outcomes were assessed with pretests, posttests, and individual lecture surveys. Results found the residents preferred face-to-face and asynchronous formats to the synchronous format in terms of effectiveness and clarity of presentations. This preference was directly related to the residents' perception of how well the technology worked in each format. The residents also rated the quality of student-instructor and student-student interactions in the synchronous and asynchronous formats significantly higher after taking the lecture series than they did before taking it. However, they rated the face-to-face format as significantly more conducive to student-instructor and student-student interaction. While the study found technology had a major impact on the efficacy of this curricular model, the results suggest that the asynchronous format can be an effective way to teach a postgraduate course.

Asynchronous glimpsing of speech: Spread of masking and task set-size

PubMed Central

Ozmeral, Erol J.; Buss, Emily; Hall, Joseph W.

2012-01-01

Howard-Jones and Rosen [(1993). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 2915–2922] investigated the ability to integrate glimpses of speech that are separated in time and frequency using a “checkerboard” masker, with asynchronous amplitude modulation (AM) across frequency. Asynchronous glimpsing was demonstrated only for spectrally wide frequency bands. It is possible that the reduced evidence of spectro-temporal integration with narrower bands was due to spread of masking at the periphery. The present study tested this hypothesis with a dichotic condition, in which the even- and odd-numbered bands of the target speech and asynchronous AM masker were presented to opposite ears, minimizing the deleterious effects of masking spread. For closed-set consonant recognition, thresholds were 5.1–8.5 dB better for dichotic than for monotic asynchronous AM conditions. Results were similar for closed-set word recognition, but for open-set word recognition the benefit of dichotic presentation was more modest and level dependent, consistent with the effects of spread of masking being level dependent. There was greater evidence of asynchronous glimpsing in the open-set than closed-set tasks. Presenting stimuli dichotically supported asynchronous glimpsing with narrower frequency bands than previously shown, though the magnitude of glimpsing was reduced for narrower bandwidths even in some dichotic conditions. PMID:22894234

Asynchronous vs didactic education: it's too early to throw in the towel on tradition.

PubMed

Jordan, Jaime; Jalali, Azadeh; Clarke, Samuel; Dyne, Pamela; Spector, Tahlia; Coates, Wendy

2013-08-08

Asynchronous, computer based instruction is cost effective, allows self-directed pacing and review, and addresses preferences of millennial learners. Current research suggests there is no significant difference in learning compared to traditional classroom instruction. Data are limited for novice learners in emergency medicine. The objective of this study was to compare asynchronous, computer-based instruction with traditional didactics for senior medical students during a week-long intensive course in acute care. We hypothesized both modalities would be equivalent. This was a prospective observational quasi-experimental study of 4th year medical students who were novice learners with minimal prior exposure to curricular elements. We assessed baseline knowledge with an objective pre-test. The curriculum was delivered in either traditional lecture format (shock, acute abdomen, dyspnea, field trauma) or via asynchronous, computer-based modules (chest pain, EKG interpretation, pain management, trauma). An interactive review covering all topics was followed by a post-test. Knowledge retention was measured after 10 weeks. Pre and post-test items were written by a panel of medical educators and validated with a reference group of learners. Mean scores were analyzed using dependent t-test and attitudes were assessed by a 5-point Likert scale. 44 of 48 students completed the protocol. Students initially acquired more knowledge from didactic education as demonstrated by mean gain scores (didactic: 28.39% ± 18.06; asynchronous 9.93% ± 23.22). Mean difference between didactic and asynchronous = 18.45% with 95% CI [10.40 to 26.50]; p = 0.0001. Retention testing demonstrated similar knowledge attrition: mean gain scores -14.94% (didactic); -17.61% (asynchronous), which was not significantly different: 2.68% ± 20.85, 95% CI [-3.66 to 9.02], p = 0.399. The attitudinal survey revealed that 60.4% of students believed the asynchronous modules were educational and 95.8% enjoyed the flexibility of the method. 39.6% of students preferred asynchronous education for required didactics; 37.5% were neutral; 23% preferred traditional lectures. Asynchronous, computer-based instruction was not equivalent to traditional didactics for novice learners of acute care topics. Interactive, standard didactic education was valuable. Retention rates were similar between instructional methods. Students had mixed attitudes toward asynchronous learning but enjoyed the flexibility. We urge caution in trading in traditional didactic lectures in favor of asynchronous education for novice learners in acute care.

A Cloud Architecture for Teleradiology-as-a-Service.

PubMed

Melício Monteiro, Eriksson J; Costa, Carlos; Oliveira, José L

2016-05-17

Telemedicine has been promoted by healthcare professionals as an efficient way to obtain remote assistance from specialised centres, to get a second opinion about complex diagnosis or even to share knowledge among practitioners. The current economic restrictions in many countries are increasing the demand for these solutions even more, in order to optimize processes and reduce costs. However, despite some technological solutions already in place, their adoption has been hindered by the lack of usability, especially in the set-up process. In this article we propose a telemedicine platform that relies on a cloud computing infrastructure and social media principles to simplify the creation of dynamic user-based groups, opening up opportunities for the establishment of teleradiology trust domains. The collaborative platform is provided as a Software-as-a-Service solution, supporting real time and asynchronous collaboration between users. To evaluate the solution, we have deployed the platform in a private cloud infrastructure. The system is made up of three main components - the collaborative framework, the Medical Management Information System (MMIS) and the HTML5 (Hyper Text Markup Language) Web client application - connected by a message-oriented middleware. The solution allows physicians to create easily dynamic network groups for synchronous or asynchronous cooperation. The network created improves dataflow between colleagues and also knowledge sharing and cooperation through social media tools. The platform was implemented and it has already been used in two distinct scenarios: teaching of radiology and tele-reporting. Collaborative systems can simplify the establishment of telemedicine expert groups with tools that enable physicians to improve their clinical practice. Streamlining the usage of this kind of systems through the adoption of Web technologies that are common in social media will increase the quality of current solutions, facilitating the sharing of clinical information, medical imaging studies and patient diagnostics among collaborators.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gorentla Venkata, Manjunath; Graham, Richard L; Ladd, Joshua S

This paper describes the design and implementation of InfiniBand (IB) CORE-Direct based blocking and nonblocking broadcast operations within the Cheetah collective operation framework. It describes a novel approach that fully ofFLoads collective operations and employs only user-supplied buffers. For a 64 rank communicator, the latency of CORE-Direct based hierarchical algorithm is better than production-grade Message Passing Interface (MPI) implementations, 150% better than the default Open MPI algorithm and 115% better than the shared memory optimized MVAPICH implementation for a one kilobyte (KB) message, and for eight mega-bytes (MB) it is 48% and 64% better, respectively. Flat-topology broadcast achieves 99.9% overlapmore » in a polling based communication-computation test, and 95.1% overlap for a wait based test, compared with 92.4% and 17.0%, respectively, for a similar Central Processing Unit (CPU) based implementation.« less

Health Worker Focused Distributed Simulation for Improving Capability of Health Systems in Liberia.

PubMed

Gale, Thomas C E; Chatterjee, Arunangsu; Mellor, Nicholas E; Allan, Richard J

2016-04-01

The main goal of this study was to produce an adaptable learning platform using virtual learning and distributed simulation, which can be used to train health care workers, across a wide geographical area, key safety messages regarding infection prevention control (IPC). A situationally responsive agile methodology, Scrum, was used to develop a distributed simulation module using short 1-week iterations and continuous synchronous plus asynchronous communication including end users and IPC experts. The module contained content related to standard IPC precautions (including handwashing techniques) and was structured into 3 distinct sections related to donning, doffing, and hazard perception training. Using Scrum methodology, we were able to link concepts applied to best practices in simulation-based medical education (deliberate practice, continuous feedback, self-assessment, and exposure to uncommon events), pedagogic principles related to adult learning (clear goals, contextual awareness, motivational features), and key learning outcomes regarding IPC, as a rapid response initiative to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Gamification approach has been used to map learning mechanics to enhance user engagement. The developed IPC module demonstrates how high-frequency, low-fidelity simulations can be rapidly designed using scrum-based agile methodology. Analytics incorporated into the tool can help demonstrate improved confidence and competence of health care workers who are treating patients within an Ebola virus disease outbreak region. These concepts could be used in a range of evolving disasters where rapid development and communication of key learning messages are required.

Collaborative Resource Allocation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Yeou-Fang; Wax, Allan; Lam, Raymond; Baldwin, John; Borden, Chester

2007-01-01

Collaborative Resource Allocation Networking Environment (CRANE) Version 0.5 is a prototype created to prove the newest concept of using a distributed environment to schedule Deep Space Network (DSN) antenna times in a collaborative fashion. This program is for all space-flight and terrestrial science project users and DSN schedulers to perform scheduling activities and conflict resolution, both synchronously and asynchronously. Project schedulers can, for the first time, participate directly in scheduling their tracking times into the official DSN schedule, and negotiate directly with other projects in an integrated scheduling system. A master schedule covers long-range, mid-range, near-real-time, and real-time scheduling time frames all in one, rather than the current method of separate functions that are supported by different processes and tools. CRANE also provides private workspaces (both dynamic and static), data sharing, scenario management, user control, rapid messaging (based on Java Message Service), data/time synchronization, workflow management, notification (including emails), conflict checking, and a linkage to a schedule generation engine. The data structure with corresponding database design combines object trees with multiple associated mortal instances and relational database to provide unprecedented traceability and simplify the existing DSN XML schedule representation. These technologies are used to provide traceability, schedule negotiation, conflict resolution, and load forecasting from real-time operations to long-range loading analysis up to 20 years in the future. CRANE includes a database, a stored procedure layer, an agent-based middle tier, a Web service wrapper, a Windows Integrated Analysis Environment (IAE), a Java application, and a Web page interface.

A communication model to integrate the Request-Response and the Publish-Subscribe paradigms into ubiquitous systems.

PubMed

Rodríguez-Domínguez, Carlos; Benghazi, Kawtar; Noguera, Manuel; Garrido, José Luis; Rodríguez, María Luisa; Ruiz-López, Tomás

2012-01-01

The Request-Response (RR) paradigm is widely used in ubiquitous systems to exchange information in a secure, reliable and timely manner. Nonetheless, there is also an emerging need for adopting the Publish-Subscribe (PubSub) paradigm in this kind of systems, due to the advantages that this paradigm offers in supporting mobility by means of asynchronous, non-blocking and one-to-many message distribution semantics for event notification. This paper analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of both the RR and PubSub paradigms to support communications in ubiquitous systems and proposes an abstract communication model in order to enable their seamless integration. Thus, developers will be focused on communication semantics and the required quality properties, rather than be concerned about specific communication mechanisms. The aim is to provide developers with abstractions intended to decrease the complexity of integrating different communication paradigms commonly needed in ubiquitous systems. The proposal has been applied to implement a middleware and a real home automation system to show its applicability and benefits.

Distributed Processing System for Restoration of Electric Power Distribution Network Using Two-Layered Contract Net Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kodama, Yu; Hamagami, Tomoki

Distributed processing system for restoration of electric power distribution network using two-layered CNP is proposed. The goal of this study is to develop the restoration system which adjusts to the future power network with distributed generators. The state of the art of this study is that the two-layered CNP is applied for the distributed computing environment in practical use. The two-layered CNP has two classes of agents, named field agent and operating agent in the network. In order to avoid conflicts of tasks, operating agent controls privilege for managers to send the task announcement messages in CNP. This technique realizes the coordination between agents which work asynchronously in parallel with others. Moreover, this study implements the distributed processing system using a de-fact standard multi-agent framework, JADE(Java Agent DEvelopment framework). This study conducts the simulation experiments of power distribution network restoration and compares the proposed system with the previous system. We confirmed the results show effectiveness of the proposed system.

CCSDS - Advancing Spaceflight Technology for International Collaboration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kearney, Mike; Kiely, Aaron; Yeh, Penshu; Gerner, Jean-Luc; Calzolari, Gian-Paolo; Gifford, Kevin; Merri, Mario; Weiss, Howard

2010-01-01

The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) has been developing data and communications standards since 1982, with the objective of providing interoperability for enabling international collaboration for spaceflight missions. As data and communications technology has advanced, CCSDS has progressed to capitalize on existing products when available and suitable for spaceflight, and to develop innovative new approaches when available products fail. The current scope of the CCSDS architecture spans the end-to-end data architecture of a spaceflight mission, with ongoing efforts to develop and standardize cutting-edge technology. This manuscript describes the overall architecture, the position of CCSDS in the standards and international mission community, and some CCSDS processes. It then highlights in detail several of the most interesting and critical technical areas in work right now, and how they support collaborative missions. Special topics include: Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), Asynchronous Message Service (AMS), Multispectral/Hyperspectral Data Compression (MHDC), Coding and Synchronization, Onboard Wireless, Spacecraft Monitor and Control, Navigation, Security, and Time Synchronization/Correlation. Broad international participation in development of CCSDS standards is encouraged.

MAX - An advanced parallel computer for space applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lewis, Blair F.; Bunker, Robert L.

1991-01-01

MAX is a fault-tolerant multicomputer hardware and software architecture designed to meet the needs of NASA spacecraft systems. It consists of conventional computing modules (computers) connected via a dual network topology. One network is used to transfer data among the computers and between computers and I/O devices. This network's topology is arbitrary. The second network operates as a broadcast medium for operating system synchronization messages and supports the operating system's Byzantine resilience. A fully distributed operating system supports multitasking in an asynchronous event and data driven environment. A large grain dataflow paradigm is used to coordinate the multitasking and provide easy control of concurrency. It is the basis of the system's fault tolerance and allows both static and dynamical location of tasks. Redundant execution of tasks with software voting of results may be specified for critical tasks. The dataflow paradigm also supports simplified software design, test and maintenance. A unique feature is a method for reliably patching code in an executing dataflow application.

KeyWare: an open wireless distributed computing environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shpantzer, Isaac; Schoenfeld, Larry; Grindahl, Merv; Kelman, Vladimir

1995-12-01

Deployment of distributed applications in the wireless domain lack equivalent tools, methodologies, architectures, and network management that exist in LAN based applications. A wireless distributed computing environment (KeyWareTM) based on intelligent agents within a multiple client multiple server scheme was developed to resolve this problem. KeyWare renders concurrent application services to wireline and wireless client nodes encapsulated in multiple paradigms such as message delivery, database access, e-mail, and file transfer. These services and paradigms are optimized to cope with temporal and spatial radio coverage, high latency, limited throughput and transmission costs. A unified network management paradigm for both wireless and wireline facilitates seamless extensions of LAN- based management tools to include wireless nodes. A set of object oriented tools and methodologies enables direct asynchronous invocation of agent-based services supplemented by tool-sets matched to supported KeyWare paradigms. The open architecture embodiment of KeyWare enables a wide selection of client node computing platforms, operating systems, transport protocols, radio modems and infrastructures while maintaining application portability.

Concurrent simulation of a parallel jaw end effector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bynum, Bill

1985-01-01

A system of programs developed to aid in the design and development of the command/response protocol between a parallel jaw end effector and the strategic planner program controlling it are presented. The system executes concurrently with the LISP controlling program to generate a graphical image of the end effector that moves in approximately real time in response to commands sent from the controlling program. Concurrent execution of the simulation program is useful for revealing flaws in the communication command structure arising from the asynchronous nature of the message traffic between the end effector and the strategic planner. Software simulation helps to minimize the number of hardware changes necessary to the microprocessor driving the end effector because of changes in the communication protocol. The simulation of other actuator devices can be easily incorporated into the system of programs by using the underlying support that was developed for the concurrent execution of the simulation process and the communication between it and the controlling program.

Towards a distributed information architecture for avionics data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mattmann, Chris; Freeborn, Dana; Crichton, Dan

2003-01-01

Avionics data at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL consists of distributed, unmanaged, and heterogeneous information that is hard for flight system design engineers to find and use on new NASA/JPL missions. The development of a systematic approach for capturing, accessing and sharing avionics data critical to the support of NASA/JPL missions and projects is required. We propose a general information architecture for managing the existing distributed avionics data sources and a method for querying and retrieving avionics data using the Object Oriented Data Technology (OODT) framework. OODT uses XML messaging infrastructure that profiles data products and their locations using the ISO-11179 data model for describing data products. Queries against a common data dictionary (which implements the ISO model) are translated to domain dependent source data models, and distributed data products are returned asynchronously through the OODT middleware. Further work will include the ability to 'plug and play' new manufacturer data sources, which are distributed at avionics component manufacturer locations throughout the United States.

Fostering Critical Reflection in a Computer-Based, Asynchronously Delivered Diversity Training Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Givhan, Shawn T.

2013-01-01

This dissertation study chronicles the creation of a computer-based, asynchronously delivered diversity training course for a state agency. The course format enabled efficient delivery of a mandatory curriculum to the Massachusetts Department of State Police workforce. However, the asynchronous format posed a challenge to achieving the learning…

Anonymity and Motivation in Asynchronous Discussions and L2 Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polat, Nihat; Mancilla, Rae; Mahalingappa, Laura

2013-01-01

This study investigates L2 attainment in asynchronous online environments, specifically possible relationships among anonymity, L2 motivation, participation in discussions, quality of L2 production, and success in L2 vocabulary learning. It examines, in asynchronous discussions, (a) if participation and (b) motivation contribute to L2 vocabulary…

Exploring the Effect of Scripted Roles on Cognitive Presence in Asynchronous Online Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olesova, Larisa; Slavin, Margaret; Lim, Jieun

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of scripted roles on students' level of cognitive presence in asynchronous online threaded discussions. A quantitative content analysis was used to investigate: (1) what level of cognitive presence is achieved by students' assigned roles in asynchronous online discussions; (2) differences…

A Multi-Perspective Investigation into Learners' Interaction in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çardak, Çigdem Suzan

2016-01-01

This article focusses on graduate level students' interactions during asynchronous CMC activities of an online course about the teaching profession in Turkey. The instructor of the course designed and facilitated a semester-long asynchronous CMC on forum discussions, and investigated the interaction of learners in multiple perspectives: learners'…

The Negotiation Model in Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC): Negotiation in Task-Based Email Exchanges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kitade, Keiko

2006-01-01

Based on recent studies, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been considered a tool to aid in language learning on account of its distinctive interactional features. However, most studies have referred to "synchronous" CMC and neglected to investigate how "asynchronous" CMC contributes to language learning. Asynchronous CMC possesses…

Integrating the Intangibles into Asynchronous Online Instruction: Strategies for Improving Interaction and Social Presence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGuire, Beverley Foulks

2016-01-01

This paper considers how instructors of asynchronous online courses in the Humanities might integrate intangibles associated with face-to-face instruction into their online environments. It presents a case study of asynchronous online instruction in a philosophy and religion department at a midsize public university in the southeastern United…

Postgraduate Students' Knowledge Construction during Asynchronous Computer Conferences in a Blended Learning Environment: A Malaysian Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kian-Sam, Hong; Lee, Julia Ai Cheng

2008-01-01

Blended learning, using e-learning tools to supplement existing on campus learning, often incorporates asynchronous computer conferencing as a means of augmenting knowledge construction among students. This case study reports findings about levels of knowledge construction amongst adult postgraduate students in six asynchronous computer…

Asynchronous Learning Sources in a High-Tech Organization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bouhnik, Dan; Giat, Yahel; Sanderovitch, Yafit

2009-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to characterize learning from asynchronous sources among research and development (R&D) personnel. It aims to examine four aspects of asynchronous source learning: employee preferences regarding self-learning; extent of source usage; employee satisfaction with these sources and the effect of the sources on the…

Asynchronous reference frame agreement in a quantum network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Islam, Tanvirul; Wehner, Stephanie

2016-03-01

An efficient implementation of many multiparty protocols for quantum networks requires that all the nodes in the network share a common reference frame. Establishing such a reference frame from scratch is especially challenging in an asynchronous network where network links might have arbitrary delays and the nodes do not share synchronised clocks. In this work, we study the problem of establishing a common reference frame in an asynchronous network of n nodes of which at most t are affected by arbitrary unknown error, and the identities of the faulty nodes are not known. We present a protocol that allows all the correctly functioning nodes to agree on a common reference frame as long as the network graph is complete and not more than t\\lt n/4 nodes are faulty. As the protocol is asynchronous, it can be used with some assumptions to synchronise clocks over a network. Also, the protocol has the appealing property that it allows any existing two-node asynchronous protocol for reference frame agreement to be lifted to a robust protocol for an asynchronous quantum network.

Performance and Application of Parallel OVERFLOW Codes on Distributed and Shared Memory Platforms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Djomehri, M. Jahed; Rizk, Yehia M.

1999-01-01

The presentation discusses recent studies on the performance of the two parallel versions of the aerodynamics CFD code, OVERFLOW_MPI and _MLP. Developed at NASA Ames, the serial version, OVERFLOW, is a multidimensional Navier-Stokes flow solver based on overset (Chimera) grid technology. The code has recently been parallelized in two ways. One is based on the explicit message-passing interface (MPI) across processors and uses the _MPI communication package. This approach is primarily suited for distributed memory systems and workstation clusters. The second, termed the multi-level parallel (MLP) method, is simple and uses shared memory for all communications. The _MLP code is suitable on distributed-shared memory systems. For both methods, the message passing takes place across the processors or processes at the advancement of each time step. This procedure is, in effect, the Chimera boundary conditions update, which is done in an explicit "Jacobi" style. In contrast, the update in the serial code is done in more of the "Gauss-Sidel" fashion. The programming efforts for the _MPI code is more complicated than for the _MLP code; the former requires modification of the outer and some inner shells of the serial code, whereas the latter focuses only on the outer shell of the code. The _MPI version offers a great deal of flexibility in distributing grid zones across a specified number of processors in order to achieve load balancing. The approach is capable of partitioning zones across multiple processors or sending each zone and/or cluster of several zones into a single processor. The message passing across the processors consists of Chimera boundary and/or an overlap of "halo" boundary points for each partitioned zone. The MLP version is a new coarse-grain parallel concept at the zonal and intra-zonal levels. A grouping strategy is used to distribute zones into several groups forming sub-processes which will run in parallel. The total volume of grid points in each group are approximately balanced. A proper number of threads are initially allocated to each group, and in subsequent iterations during the run-time, the number of threads are adjusted to achieve load balancing across the processes. Each process exploits the multitasking directives already established in Overflow.

Pediatric emergency medicine asynchronous e-learning: a multicenter randomized controlled Solomon four-group study.

PubMed

Chang, Todd P; Pham, Phung K; Sobolewski, Brad; Doughty, Cara B; Jamal, Nazreen; Kwan, Karen Y; Little, Kim; Brenkert, Timothy E; Mathison, David J

2014-08-01

Asynchronous e-learning allows for targeted teaching, particularly advantageous when bedside and didactic education is insufficient. An asynchronous e-learning curriculum has not been studied across multiple centers in the context of a clinical rotation. We hypothesize that an asynchronous e-learning curriculum during the pediatric emergency medicine (EM) rotation improves medical knowledge among residents and students across multiple participating centers. Trainees on pediatric EM rotations at four large pediatric centers from 2012 to 2013 were randomized in a Solomon four-group design. The experimental arms received an asynchronous e-learning curriculum consisting of nine Web-based, interactive, peer-reviewed Flash/HTML5 modules. Postrotation testing and in-training examination (ITE) scores quantified improvements in knowledge. A 2 × 2 analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) tested interaction and main effects, and Pearson's correlation tested associations between module usage, scores, and ITE scores. A total of 256 of 458 participants completed all study elements; 104 had access to asynchronous e-learning modules, and 152 were controls who used the current education standards. No pretest sensitization was found (p = 0.75). Use of asynchronous e-learning modules was associated with an improvement in posttest scores (p < 0.001), from a mean score of 18.45 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 17.92 to 18.98) to 21.30 (95% CI = 20.69 to 21.91), a large effect (partial η(2) = 0.19). Posttest scores correlated with ITE scores (r(2) = 0.14, p < 0.001) among pediatric residents. Asynchronous e-learning is an effective educational tool to improve knowledge in a clinical rotation. Web-based asynchronous e-learning is a promising modality to standardize education among multiple institutions with common curricula, particularly in clinical rotations where scheduling difficulties, seasonality, and variable experiences limit in-hospital learning. © 2014 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine.

Modeling and Analysis of Asynchronous Systems Using SAL and Hybrid SAL

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tiwari, Ashish; Dutertre, Bruno

2013-01-01

We present formal models and results of formal analysis of two different asynchronous systems. We first examine a mid-value select module that merges the signals coming from three different sensors that are each asynchronously sampling the same input signal. We then consider the phase locking protocol proposed by Daly, Hopkins, and McKenna. This protocol is designed to keep a set of non-faulty (asynchronous) clocks phase locked even in the presence of Byzantine-faulty clocks on the network. All models and verifications have been developed using the SAL model checking tools and the Hybrid SAL abstractor.

Detection of Failure in Asynchronous Motor Using Soft Computing Method

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vinoth Kumar, K.; Sony, Kevin; Achenkunju John, Alan; Kuriakose, Anto; John, Ano P.

2018-04-01

This paper investigates the stator short winding failure of asynchronous motor also their effects on motor current spectrums. A fuzzy logic approach i.e., model based technique possibly will help to detect the asynchronous motor failure. Actually, fuzzy logic similar to humanoid intelligent methods besides expected linguistic empowering inferences through vague statistics. The dynamic model is technologically advanced for asynchronous motor by means of fuzzy logic classifier towards investigate the stator inter turn failure in addition open phase failure. A hardware implementation was carried out with LabVIEW for the online-monitoring of faults.

Asynchronous discrete control of continuous processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kaliski, M. E.; Johnson, T. L.

1984-07-01

The research during this second contract year continued to deal with the development of sound theoretical models for asynchronous systems. Two criteria served to shape the research pursued: the first, that the developed models extend and generalize previously developed research for synchronous discrete control; the second, that the models explicitly address the question of how to incorporate system transition times into themselves. The following sections of this report concisely delineate this year's work. Our original proposal for this research identified four general tasks of investigation: (1.1) Analysis of Qualitative Properties of Asynchronous Hybrid Systems; (1.2) Acceptance and Control for Asynchronous Hybrid Systems.

High-Throughput and Low-Latency Network Communication with NetIO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schumacher, Jörn; Plessl, Christian; Vandelli, Wainer

2017-10-01

HPC network technologies like Infiniband, TrueScale or OmniPath provide low- latency and high-throughput communication between hosts, which makes them attractive options for data-acquisition systems in large-scale high-energy physics experiments. Like HPC networks, DAQ networks are local and include a well specified number of systems. Unfortunately traditional network communication APIs for HPC clusters like MPI or PGAS exclusively target the HPC community and are not suited well for DAQ applications. It is possible to build distributed DAQ applications using low-level system APIs like Infiniband Verbs, but it requires a non-negligible effort and expert knowledge. At the same time, message services like ZeroMQ have gained popularity in the HEP community. They make it possible to build distributed applications with a high-level approach and provide good performance. Unfortunately, their usage usually limits developers to TCP/IP- based networks. While it is possible to operate a TCP/IP stack on top of Infiniband and OmniPath, this approach may not be very efficient compared to a direct use of native APIs. NetIO is a simple, novel asynchronous message service that can operate on Ethernet, Infiniband and similar network fabrics. In this paper the design and implementation of NetIO is presented and described, and its use is evaluated in comparison to other approaches. NetIO supports different high-level programming models and typical workloads of HEP applications. The ATLAS FELIX project [1] successfully uses NetIO as its central communication platform. The architecture of NetIO is described in this paper, including the user-level API and the internal data-flow design. The paper includes a performance evaluation of NetIO including throughput and latency measurements. The performance is compared against the state-of-the- art ZeroMQ message service. Performance measurements are performed in a lab environment with Ethernet and FDR Infiniband networks.

The NifTK software platform for image-guided interventions: platform overview and NiftyLink messaging.

PubMed

Clarkson, Matthew J; Zombori, Gergely; Thompson, Steve; Totz, Johannes; Song, Yi; Espak, Miklos; Johnsen, Stian; Hawkes, David; Ourselin, Sébastien

2015-03-01

To perform research in image-guided interventions, researchers need a wide variety of software components, and assembling these components into a flexible and reliable system can be a challenging task. In this paper, the NifTK software platform is presented. A key focus has been high-performance streaming of stereo laparoscopic video data, ultrasound data and tracking data simultaneously. A new messaging library called NiftyLink is introduced that uses the OpenIGTLink protocol and provides the user with easy-to-use asynchronous two-way messaging, high reliability and comprehensive error reporting. A small suite of applications called NiftyGuide has been developed, containing lightweight applications for grabbing data, currently from position trackers and ultrasound scanners. These applications use NiftyLink to stream data into NiftyIGI, which is a workstation-based application, built on top of MITK, for visualisation and user interaction. Design decisions, performance characteristics and initial applications are described in detail. NiftyLink was tested for latency when transmitting images, tracking data, and interleaved imaging and tracking data. NiftyLink can transmit tracking data at 1,024 frames per second (fps) with latency of 0.31 milliseconds, and 512 KB images with latency of 6.06 milliseconds at 32 fps. NiftyIGI was tested, receiving stereo high-definition laparoscopic video at 30 fps, tracking data from 4 rigid bodies at 20-30 fps and ultrasound data at 20 fps with rendering refresh rates between 2 and 20 Hz with no loss of user interaction. These packages form part of the NifTK platform and have proven to be successful in a variety of image-guided surgery projects. Code and documentation for the NifTK platform are available from http://www.niftk.org . NiftyLink is provided open-source under a BSD license and available from http://github.com/NifTK/NiftyLink . The code for this paper is tagged IJCARS-2014.

Learning classifier systems for single and multiple mobile robots in unstructured environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bay, John S.

1995-12-01

The learning classifier system (LCS) is a learning production system that generates behavioral rules via an underlying discovery mechanism. The LCS architecture operates similarly to a blackboard architecture; i.e., by posted-message communications. But in the LCS, the message board is wiped clean at every time interval, thereby requiring no persistent shared resource. In this paper, we adapt the LCS to the problem of mobile robot navigation in completely unstructured environments. We consider the model of the robot itself, including its sensor and actuator structures, to be part of this environment, in addition to the world-model that includes a goal and obstacles at unknown locations. This requires a robot to learn its own I/O characteristics in addition to solving its navigation problem, but results in a learning controller that is equally applicable, unaltered, in robots with a wide variety of kinematic structures and sensing capabilities. We show the effectiveness of this LCS-based controller through both simulation and experimental trials with a small robot. We then propose a new architecture, the Distributed Learning Classifier System (DLCS), which generalizes the message-passing behavior of the LCS from internal messages within a single agent to broadcast massages among multiple agents. This communications mode requires little bandwidth and is easily implemented with inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware. The DLCS is shown to have potential application as a learning controller for multiple intelligent agents.

The amplification of risk in experimental diffusion chains.

PubMed

Moussaïd, Mehdi; Brighton, Henry; Gaissmaier, Wolfgang

2015-05-05

Understanding how people form and revise their perception of risk is central to designing efficient risk communication methods, eliciting risk awareness, and avoiding unnecessary anxiety among the public. However, public responses to hazardous events such as climate change, contagious outbreaks, and terrorist threats are complex and difficult-to-anticipate phenomena. Although many psychological factors influencing risk perception have been identified in the past, it remains unclear how perceptions of risk change when propagated from one person to another and what impact the repeated social transmission of perceived risk has at the population scale. Here, we study the social dynamics of risk perception by analyzing how messages detailing the benefits and harms of a controversial antibacterial agent undergo change when passed from one person to the next in 10-subject experimental diffusion chains. Our analyses show that when messages are propagated through the diffusion chains, they tend to become shorter, gradually inaccurate, and increasingly dissimilar between chains. In contrast, the perception of risk is propagated with higher fidelity due to participants manipulating messages to fit their preconceptions, thereby influencing the judgments of subsequent participants. Computer simulations implementing this simple influence mechanism show that small judgment biases tend to become more extreme, even when the injected message contradicts preconceived risk judgments. Our results provide quantitative insights into the social amplification of risk perception, and can help policy makers better anticipate and manage the public response to emerging threats.

The amplification of risk in experimental diffusion chains

PubMed Central

Moussaïd, Mehdi; Brighton, Henry; Gaissmaier, Wolfgang

2015-01-01

Understanding how people form and revise their perception of risk is central to designing efficient risk communication methods, eliciting risk awareness, and avoiding unnecessary anxiety among the public. However, public responses to hazardous events such as climate change, contagious outbreaks, and terrorist threats are complex and difficult-to-anticipate phenomena. Although many psychological factors influencing risk perception have been identified in the past, it remains unclear how perceptions of risk change when propagated from one person to another and what impact the repeated social transmission of perceived risk has at the population scale. Here, we study the social dynamics of risk perception by analyzing how messages detailing the benefits and harms of a controversial antibacterial agent undergo change when passed from one person to the next in 10-subject experimental diffusion chains. Our analyses show that when messages are propagated through the diffusion chains, they tend to become shorter, gradually inaccurate, and increasingly dissimilar between chains. In contrast, the perception of risk is propagated with higher fidelity due to participants manipulating messages to fit their preconceptions, thereby influencing the judgments of subsequent participants. Computer simulations implementing this simple influence mechanism show that small judgment biases tend to become more extreme, even when the injected message contradicts preconceived risk judgments. Our results provide quantitative insights into the social amplification of risk perception, and can help policy makers better anticipate and manage the public response to emerging threats. PMID:25902519

Combining Live Video and Audio Broadcasting, Synchronous Chat, and Asynchronous Open Forum Discussions in Distance Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teng, Tian-Lih; Taveras, Marypat

2004-01-01

This article outlines the evolution of a unique distance education program that began as a hybrid--combining face-to-face instruction with asynchronous online teaching--and evolved to become an innovative combination of synchronous education using live streaming video, audio, and chat over the Internet, blended with asynchronous online discussions…

Utilizing Spectrum Efficiently (USE)

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-28

18 4.8 Space-Time Coded Asynchronous DS - CDMA with Decentralized MAI Suppression: Performance and...numerical results. 4.8 Space-Time Coded Asynchronous DS - CDMA with Decentralized MAI Suppression: Performance and Spectral Efficiency In [60] multiple...supported at a given signal-to-interference ratio in asynchronous direct-sequence code-division multiple-access ( DS - CDMA ) sys- tems was examined. It was

The Development, Validity, and Reliability of Communication Satisfaction in an Online Asynchronous Discussion Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Min-Ling; Chou, Chien

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify dimensions of students' communication satisfaction in an asynchronous discussion forum. An asynchronous discussion may be defined as text-based human-to-human communication via computer networks that provides a platform for the participants to interact with one another to exchange ideas, insights, and…

Web-based Cases in Teaching and Learning - the Quality of Discussions and a Stage of Perspective Taking in Asynchronous Communication.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarvela, Sanna; Hakkinen, Paivi

2002-01-01

Examines the quality of asynchronous interaction in Web-based conferencing among preservice teachers. The study combines asynchronous conferencing with peer and mentor collaboration to electronically apprentice student learning. Results point out different levels of Web-based discussion: higher-level, progressive, and lower-level discussion. A…

Object-oriented knowledge representation for expert systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scott, Stephen L.

1991-01-01

Object oriented techniques have generated considerable interest in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community in recent years. This paper discusses an approach for representing expert system knowledge using classes, objects, and message passing. The implementation is in version 4.3 of NASA's C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS), an expert system tool that does not provide direct support for object oriented design. The method uses programmer imposed conventions and keywords to structure facts, and rules to provide object oriented capabilities.

Temporal Proof Methodologies for Real-Time Systems,

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-09-01

real time systems that communicate either through shared variables or by message passing and real time issues such as time-outs, process priorities (interrupts) and process scheduling. The authors exhibit two styles for the specification of real - time systems . While the first approach uses bounded versions of temporal operators the second approach allows explicit references to time through a special clock variable. Corresponding to two styles of specification the authors present and compare two fundamentally different proof

Advances in Parallel Computing and Databases for Digital Pathology in Cancer Research

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-11-13

these technologies and how we have used them in the past. We are interested in learning more about the needs of clinical pathologists as we continue to...such as image processing and correlation. Further, High Performance Computing (HPC) paradigms such as the Message Passing Interface (MPI) have been...Defense for Research and Engineering. such as pMatlab [4], or bcMPI [5] can significantly reduce the need for deep knowledge of parallel computing. In

Experiences using OpenMP based on Computer Directed Software DSM on a PC Cluster

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hess, Matthias; Jost, Gabriele; Mueller, Matthias; Ruehle, Roland

2003-01-01

In this work we report on our experiences running OpenMP programs on a commodity cluster of PCs running a software distributed shared memory (DSM) system. We describe our test environment and report on the performance of a subset of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks that have been automaticaly parallelized for OpenMP. We compare the performance of the OpenMP implementations with that of their message passing counterparts and discuss performance differences.

Discrete Event Simulation Modeling and Analysis of Key Leader Engagements

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-06-01

to offer. GreenPlayer agents require four parameters, pC, pKLK, pTK, and pRK , which give probabilities for being corrupt, having key leader...HandleMessageRequest component. The same parameter constraints apply to these four parameters. The parameter pRK is the same parameter from the CreatePlayers component...whether the local Green player has resource critical knowledge by using the parameter pRK . It schedules an EndResourceKnowledgeRequest event, passing

Parallel-Processing Test Bed For Simulation Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blech, Richard; Cole, Gary; Townsend, Scott

1996-01-01

Second-generation Hypercluster computing system is multiprocessor test bed for research on parallel algorithms for simulation in fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, chemistry, and other fields with large computational requirements but relatively low input/output requirements. Built from standard, off-shelf hardware readily upgraded as improved technology becomes available. System used for experiments with such parallel-processing concepts as message-passing algorithms, debugging software tools, and computational steering. First-generation Hypercluster system described in "Hypercluster Parallel Processor" (LEW-15283).

Time-Dependent Simulations of Incompressible Flow in a Turbopump Using Overset Grid Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kiris, Cetin; Kwak, Dochan

2001-01-01

This viewgraph presentation provides information on mathematical modelling of the SSME (space shuttle main engine). The unsteady SSME-rig1 start-up procedure from the pump at rest has been initiated by using 34.3 million grid points. The computational model for the SSME-rig1 has been completed. Moving boundary capability is obtained by using DCF module in OVERFLOW-D. MPI (Message Passing Interface)/OpenMP hybrid parallel code has been benchmarked.

"Some convincing arguments to pass back to nervous customers": the role of the tobacco retailer in the Australian tobacco industry's smoker reassurance campaign 1950–1978

PubMed Central

Tofler, A; Chapman, S

2003-01-01

Background: Epidemiological studies and reports on smoking and health published in the 1950s and 1960s threatened the tobacco industry worldwide, which acted to reassure smokers and counteract mounting evidence that smoking posed a serious risk to smokers' health. Objective: To document the use of tobacco retailers (1) as a conduit to pass messages of reassurance onto smokers, and (2) to recruit youth and women into smoking. Methods: Review of an extensive collection of Australian tobacco retail trade journals (1950–1978) for articles consistent with the industry's efforts to counter messages about smoking and health, and how to attract non-smokers, particularly youth and women. Results: The main arguments advanced in the journals included the notion that air pollution and other substances cause cancer, that "statistics" did not constitute proof in the tobacco health scare, and that the industry was committed to research into the causes of cancer and into developing a "safer" cigarette. Conclusions: Numerous articles designed to be reiterated to customers were published, arguing against the link between tobacco and ill health. Tobacco retailers, salesmen and retail trade organisations played a significant role in dissembling the tobacco health nexus. Tobacco retail journals may be an important component in tobacco industry misinformation strategies. PMID:14645943

Strategies for Energy Efficient Resource Management of Hybrid Programming Models

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Li, Dong; Supinski, Bronis de; Schulz, Martin

2013-01-01

Many scientific applications are programmed using hybrid programming models that use both message-passing and shared-memory, due to the increasing prevalence of large-scale systems with multicore, multisocket nodes. Previous work has shown that energy efficiency can be improved using software-controlled execution schemes that consider both the programming model and the power-aware execution capabilities of the system. However, such approaches have focused on identifying optimal resource utilization for one programming model, either shared-memory or message-passing, in isolation. The potential solution space, thus the challenge, increases substantially when optimizing hybrid models since the possible resource configurations increase exponentially. Nonetheless, with the accelerating adoptionmore » of hybrid programming models, we increasingly need improved energy efficiency in hybrid parallel applications on large-scale systems. In this work, we present new software-controlled execution schemes that consider the effects of dynamic concurrency throttling (DCT) and dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) in the context of hybrid programming models. Specifically, we present predictive models and novel algorithms based on statistical analysis that anticipate application power and time requirements under different concurrency and frequency configurations. We apply our models and methods to the NPB MZ benchmarks and selected applications from the ASC Sequoia codes. Overall, we achieve substantial energy savings (8.74% on average and up to 13.8%) with some performance gain (up to 7.5%) or negligible performance loss.« less

Weighted community detection and data clustering using message passing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Cheng; Liu, Yanchen; Zhang, Pan

2018-03-01

Grouping objects into clusters based on the similarities or weights between them is one of the most important problems in science and engineering. In this work, by extending message-passing algorithms and spectral algorithms proposed for an unweighted community detection problem, we develop a non-parametric method based on statistical physics, by mapping the problem to the Potts model at the critical temperature of spin-glass transition and applying belief propagation to solve the marginals corresponding to the Boltzmann distribution. Our algorithm is robust to over-fitting and gives a principled way to determine whether there are significant clusters in the data and how many clusters there are. We apply our method to different clustering tasks. In the community detection problem in weighted and directed networks, we show that our algorithm significantly outperforms existing algorithms. In the clustering problem, where the data were generated by mixture models in the sparse regime, we show that our method works all the way down to the theoretical limit of detectability and gives accuracy very close to that of the optimal Bayesian inference. In the semi-supervised clustering problem, our method only needs several labels to work perfectly in classic datasets. Finally, we further develop Thouless-Anderson-Palmer equations which heavily reduce the computation complexity in dense networks but give almost the same performance as belief propagation.

Cellular automata with object-oriented features for parallel molecular network modeling.

PubMed

Zhu, Hao; Wu, Yinghui; Huang, Sui; Sun, Yan; Dhar, Pawan

2005-06-01

Cellular automata are an important modeling paradigm for studying the dynamics of large, parallel systems composed of multiple, interacting components. However, to model biological systems, cellular automata need to be extended beyond the large-scale parallelism and intensive communication in order to capture two fundamental properties characteristic of complex biological systems: hierarchy and heterogeneity. This paper proposes extensions to a cellular automata language, Cellang, to meet this purpose. The extended language, with object-oriented features, can be used to describe the structure and activity of parallel molecular networks within cells. Capabilities of this new programming language include object structure to define molecular programs within a cell, floating-point data type and mathematical functions to perform quantitative computation, message passing capability to describe molecular interactions, as well as new operators, statements, and built-in functions. We discuss relevant programming issues of these features, including the object-oriented description of molecular interactions with molecule encapsulation, message passing, and the description of heterogeneity and anisotropy at the cell and molecule levels. By enabling the integration of modeling at the molecular level with system behavior at cell, tissue, organ, or even organism levels, the program will help improve our understanding of how complex and dynamic biological activities are generated and controlled by parallel functioning of molecular networks. Index Terms-Cellular automata, modeling, molecular network, object-oriented.

A Bayesian model for highly accelerated phase-contrast MRI.

PubMed

Rich, Adam; Potter, Lee C; Jin, Ning; Ash, Joshua; Simonetti, Orlando P; Ahmad, Rizwan

2016-08-01

Phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging is a noninvasive tool to assess cardiovascular disease by quantifying blood flow; however, low data acquisition efficiency limits the spatial and temporal resolutions, real-time application, and extensions to four-dimensional flow imaging in clinical settings. We propose a new data processing approach called Reconstructing Velocity Encoded MRI with Approximate message passing aLgorithms (ReVEAL) that accelerates the acquisition by exploiting data structure unique to phase-contrast magnetic resonance imaging. The proposed approach models physical correlations across space, time, and velocity encodings. The proposed Bayesian approach exploits the relationships in both magnitude and phase among velocity encodings. A fast iterative recovery algorithm is introduced based on message passing. For validation, prospectively undersampled data are processed from a pulsatile flow phantom and five healthy volunteers. The proposed approach is in good agreement, quantified by peak velocity and stroke volume (SV), with reference data for acceleration rates R≤10. For SV, Pearson r≥0.99 for phantom imaging (n = 24) and r≥0.96 for prospectively accelerated in vivo imaging (n = 10) for R≤10. The proposed approach enables accurate quantification of blood flow from highly undersampled data. The technique is extensible to four-dimensional flow imaging, where higher acceleration may be possible due to additional redundancy. Magn Reson Med 76:689-701, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Asynchronous vs didactic education: it’s too early to throw in the towel on tradition

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Asynchronous, computer based instruction is cost effective, allows self-directed pacing and review, and addresses preferences of millennial learners. Current research suggests there is no significant difference in learning compared to traditional classroom instruction. Data are limited for novice learners in emergency medicine. The objective of this study was to compare asynchronous, computer-based instruction with traditional didactics for senior medical students during a week-long intensive course in acute care. We hypothesized both modalities would be equivalent. Methods This was a prospective observational quasi-experimental study of 4th year medical students who were novice learners with minimal prior exposure to curricular elements. We assessed baseline knowledge with an objective pre-test. The curriculum was delivered in either traditional lecture format (shock, acute abdomen, dyspnea, field trauma) or via asynchronous, computer-based modules (chest pain, EKG interpretation, pain management, trauma). An interactive review covering all topics was followed by a post-test. Knowledge retention was measured after 10 weeks. Pre and post-test items were written by a panel of medical educators and validated with a reference group of learners. Mean scores were analyzed using dependent t-test and attitudes were assessed by a 5-point Likert scale. Results 44 of 48 students completed the protocol. Students initially acquired more knowledge from didactic education as demonstrated by mean gain scores (didactic: 28.39% ± 18.06; asynchronous 9.93% ± 23.22). Mean difference between didactic and asynchronous = 18.45% with 95% CI [10.40 to 26.50]; p = 0.0001. Retention testing demonstrated similar knowledge attrition: mean gain scores −14.94% (didactic); -17.61% (asynchronous), which was not significantly different: 2.68% ± 20.85, 95% CI [−3.66 to 9.02], p = 0.399. The attitudinal survey revealed that 60.4% of students believed the asynchronous modules were educational and 95.8% enjoyed the flexibility of the method. 39.6% of students preferred asynchronous education for required didactics; 37.5% were neutral; 23% preferred traditional lectures. Conclusions Asynchronous, computer-based instruction was not equivalent to traditional didactics for novice learners of acute care topics. Interactive, standard didactic education was valuable. Retention rates were similar between instructional methods. Students had mixed attitudes toward asynchronous learning but enjoyed the flexibility. We urge caution in trading in traditional didactic lectures in favor of asynchronous education for novice learners in acute care. PMID:23927420

[A novel proposal explaining sleep disturbance of children in Japan--asynchronization].

PubMed

Kohyama, Jun

2008-07-01

It has been reported that more than half of the children in Japan suffer from daytime sleepiness. In contrast, about one quarter of junior high-school students in Japan complain of insomnia. According to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (Second edition), these children could be diagnosed as having behaviorally-induced insufficient sleep syndrome due to inadequate sleeping habits. Getting on adequate amount of sleep should solve such problems;however, such a therapeutic approach often fails. Although social factors are involved in these sleep disturbances, I feel that a novel notion - asynchronization - leads to an understanding of the pathophysiology of disturbances in these children. Further, it could contribute to resolve their problems. The essence of asynchronization is a disturbance of various aspects (e.g., cycle, amplitude, phase, and interrelationship) of the biological rhythms that normally exhibits circadian oscillation. The main cause of asynchronization is hypothesized to be the combination of light exposure during night and the lack of light exposure in the morning. Asynchronization results in the disturbance of variable systems. Thus, symptoms of asynchronization include disturbances of the autonomic nervous system (sleepiness, insomnia, disturbance of hormonal excretion, gastrointestinal problems, etc.) and higher brain function (disorientation, loss of sociality, loss of will or motivation, impaired alertness and performance, etc.). Neurological (attention deficit, aggression, impulsiveness, hyperactivity, etc.), psychiatric (depressive disorders, personality disorders, anxiety disorders, etc.) and somatic (tiredness, fatigue, etc.) disturbances could also be symptoms of asynchronization. At the initial phase of asynchronization, disturbances are functional and can be resolved relatively easily, such as by the establishment of a regular sleep-wakefulness cycle;however, without adequate intervention the disturbances could gradually worsen and become hard to resolve.

Building research capacity with members of underserved American Indian/Alaskan Native communities: training in research ethics and the protection of human subjects.

PubMed

Jetter, Karen M; Yarborough, Mark; Cassady, Diana L; Styne, Dennis M

2015-05-01

To develop a research ethics training course for American Indian/Alaskan Native health clinic staff and community researchers who would be conducting human subjects research. Community-based participatory research methods were used in facilitated discussions of research ethics centered around topics included in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative research ethics course. The community-based participatory research approach allowed all partners to jointly develop a research ethics training program that was relevant for American Indian/Alaskan Native communities. All community and clinic partners were able to pass the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative course they were required to pass so that they could be certified to conduct research with human subjects on federally funded projects. In addition, the training sessions provided a foundation for increased community oversight of research. By using a collaborative process to engage community partners in research ethics discussions, rather than either an asynchronous online or a lecture/presentation format, resulted in significant mutual learning about research ethics and community concerns about research. This approach requires university researchers to invest time in learning about the communities in which they will be working prior to the training. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

PcapDB: Search Optimized Packet Capture, Version 0.1.0.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ferrell, Paul; Steinfadt, Shannon

PcapDB is a packet capture system designed to optimize the captured data for fast search in the typical (network incident response) use case. The technology involved in this software has been submitted via the IDEAS system and has been filed as a provisional patent. It includes the following primary components: capture: The capture component utilizes existing capture libraries to retrieve packets from network interfaces. Once retrieved the packets are passed to additional threads for sorting into flows and indexing. The sorted flows and indexes are passed to other threads so that they can be written to disk. These components aremore » written in the C programming language. search: The search components provide a means to find relevant flows and the associated packets. A search query is parsed and represented as a search tree. Various search commands, written in C, are then used resolve this tree into a set of search results. The tree generation and search execution management components are written in python. interface: The PcapDB web interface is written in Python on the Django framework. It provides a series of pages, API's, and asynchronous tasks that allow the user to manage the capture system, perform searches, and retrieve results. Web page components are written in HTML,CSS and Javascript.« less

Stand-Alone and Hybrid Positioning Using Asynchronous Pseudolites

PubMed Central

Gioia, Ciro; Borio, Daniele

2015-01-01

global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers are usually unable to achieve satisfactory performance in difficult environments, such as open-pit mines, urban canyons and indoors. Pseudolites have the potential to extend GNSS usage and significantly improve receiver performance in such environments by providing additional navigation signals. This also applies to asynchronous pseudolite systems, where different pseudolites operate in an independent way. Asynchronous pseudolite systems require, however, dedicated strategies in order to properly integrate GNSS and pseudolite measurements. In this paper, several asynchronous pseudolite/GNSS integration strategies are considered: loosely- and tightly-coupled approaches are developed and combined with pseudolite proximity and receiver signal strength (RSS)-based positioning. The performance of the approaches proposed has been tested in different scenarios, including static and kinematic conditions. The tests performed demonstrate that the methods developed are effective techniques for integrating heterogeneous measurements from different sources, such as asynchronous pseudolites and GNSS. PMID:25609041

Distributed Consensus of Stochastic Delayed Multi-agent Systems Under Asynchronous Switching.

PubMed

Wu, Xiaotai; Tang, Yang; Cao, Jinde; Zhang, Wenbing

2016-08-01

In this paper, the distributed exponential consensus of stochastic delayed multi-agent systems with nonlinear dynamics is investigated under asynchronous switching. The asynchronous switching considered here is to account for the time of identifying the active modes of multi-agent systems. After receipt of confirmation of mode's switching, the matched controller can be applied, which means that the switching time of the matched controller in each node usually lags behind that of system switching. In order to handle the coexistence of switched signals and stochastic disturbances, a comparison principle of stochastic switched delayed systems is first proved. By means of this extended comparison principle, several easy to verified conditions for the existence of an asynchronously switched distributed controller are derived such that stochastic delayed multi-agent systems with asynchronous switching and nonlinear dynamics can achieve global exponential consensus. Two examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Hydrodynamic advantages of swimming by salp chains.

PubMed

Sutherland, Kelly R; Weihs, Daniel

2017-08-01

Salps are marine invertebrates comprising multiple jet-propelled swimming units during a colonial life-cycle stage. Using theory, we show that asynchronous swimming with multiple pulsed jets yields substantial hydrodynamic benefit due to the production of steady swimming velocities, which limit drag. Laboratory comparisons of swimming kinematics of aggregate salps ( Salpa fusiformis and Weelia cylindrica ) using high-speed video supported that asynchronous swimming by aggregates results in a smoother velocity profile and showed that this smoother velocity profile is the result of uncoordinated, asynchronous swimming by individual zooids. In situ flow visualizations of W. cylindrica swimming wakes revealed that another consequence of asynchronous swimming is that fluid interactions between jet wakes are minimized. Although the advantages of multi-jet propulsion have been mentioned elsewhere, this is the first time that the theory has been quantified and the role of asynchronous swimming verified using experimental data from the laboratory and the field. © 2017 The Author(s).

Merging the Forces of Asynchronous Tutoring and Synchronous Conferencing: A Qualitative Study of Arab ESL Academic Writers Using E-Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alqadoumi, Omar Mohamed

2012-01-01

Previous studies in the field of e-tutoring dealt either with asynchronous tutoring or synchronous conferencing as modes for providing e-tutoring services to English learners. This qualitative research study reports the experiences of Arab ESL tutees with both asynchronous tutoring and synchronous conferencing. It also reports the experiences of…

Differences in Electronic Exchanges in Synchronous and Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: The Effect of Culture as a Mediating Variable

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angeli, Charoula; Schwartz, Neil H.

2016-01-01

Two hundred and eighty undergraduates from universities in two countries were asked to read didactic material, and then think and write about potential solutions to an ill-defined problem. The writing was conducted within a synchronous or asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) environment. Asynchronous CMC took the form of email…

Localized radio frequency communication using asynchronous transfer mode protocol

DOEpatents

Witzke, Edward L [Edgewood, NM; Robertson, Perry J [Albuquerque, NM; Pierson, Lyndon G [Albuquerque, NM

2007-08-14

A localized wireless communication system for communication between a plurality of circuit boards, and between electronic components on the circuit boards. Transceivers are located on each circuit board and electronic component. The transceivers communicate with one another over spread spectrum radio frequencies. An asynchronous transfer mode protocol controls communication flow with asynchronous transfer mode switches located on the circuit boards.

Features of the Asynchronous Correlation between the China Coal Price Index and Coal Mining Accidental Deaths.

PubMed

Huang, Yuecheng; Cheng, Wuyi; Luo, Sida; Luo, Yun; Ma, Chengchen; He, Tailin

2016-01-01

The features of the asynchronous correlation between accident indices and the factors that influence accidents can provide an effective reference for warnings of coal mining accidents. However, what are the features of this correlation? To answer this question, data from the China coal price index and the number of deaths from coal mining accidents were selected as the sample data. The fluctuation modes of the asynchronous correlation between the two data sets were defined according to the asynchronous correlation coefficients, symbolization, and sliding windows. We then built several directed and weighted network models, within which the fluctuation modes and the transformations between modes were represented by nodes and edges. Then, the features of the asynchronous correlation between these two variables could be studied from a perspective of network topology. We found that the correlation between the price index and the accidental deaths was asynchronous and fluctuating. Certain aspects, such as the key fluctuation modes, the subgroups characteristics, the transmission medium, the periodicity and transmission path length in the network, were analyzed by using complex network theory, analytical methods and spectral analysis method. These results provide a scientific reference for generating warnings for coal mining accidents based on economic indices.

A software bus for thread objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Callahan, John R.; Li, Dehuai

1995-01-01

The authors have implemented a software bus for lightweight threads in an object-oriented programming environment that allows for rapid reconfiguration and reuse of thread objects in discrete-event simulation experiments. While previous research in object-oriented, parallel programming environments has focused on direct communication between threads, our lightweight software bus, called the MiniBus, provides a means to isolate threads from their contexts of execution by restricting communications between threads to message-passing via their local ports only. The software bus maintains a topology of connections between these ports. It routes, queues, and delivers messages according to this topology. This approach allows for rapid reconfiguration and reuse of thread objects in other systems without making changes to the specifications or source code. A layered approach that provides the needed transparency to developers is presented. Examples of using the MiniBus are given, and the value of bus architectures in building and conducting simulations of discrete-event systems is discussed.

An implementation and evaluation of the MPI 3.0 one-sided communication interface

DOE PAGES

Dinan, James S.; Balaji, Pavan; Buntinas, Darius T.; ...

2016-01-09

The Q1 Message Passing Interface (MPI) 3.0 standard includes a significant revision to MPI’s remote memory access (RMA) interface, which provides support for one-sided communication. MPI-3 RMA is expected to greatly enhance the usability and performance ofMPI RMA.We present the first complete implementation of MPI-3 RMA and document implementation techniques and performance optimization opportunities enabled by the new interface. Our implementation targets messaging-based networks and is publicly available in the latest release of the MPICH MPI implementation. Here using this implementation, we explore the performance impact of new MPI-3 functionality and semantics. Results indicate that the MPI-3 RMA interface providesmore » significant advantages over the MPI-2 interface by enabling increased communication concurrency through relaxed semantics in the interface and additional routines that provide new window types, synchronization modes, and atomic operations.« less

An implementation and evaluation of the MPI 3.0 one-sided communication interface

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dinan, James S.; Balaji, Pavan; Buntinas, Darius T.

The Q1 Message Passing Interface (MPI) 3.0 standard includes a significant revision to MPI’s remote memory access (RMA) interface, which provides support for one-sided communication. MPI-3 RMA is expected to greatly enhance the usability and performance ofMPI RMA.We present the first complete implementation of MPI-3 RMA and document implementation techniques and performance optimization opportunities enabled by the new interface. Our implementation targets messaging-based networks and is publicly available in the latest release of the MPICH MPI implementation. Here using this implementation, we explore the performance impact of new MPI-3 functionality and semantics. Results indicate that the MPI-3 RMA interface providesmore » significant advantages over the MPI-2 interface by enabling increased communication concurrency through relaxed semantics in the interface and additional routines that provide new window types, synchronization modes, and atomic operations.« less

Non-invasive lightweight integration engine for building EHR from autonomous distributed systems.

PubMed

Angulo, Carlos; Crespo, Pere; Maldonado, José A; Moner, David; Pérez, Daniel; Abad, Irene; Mandingorra, Jesús; Robles, Montserrat

2007-12-01

In this paper we describe Pangea-LE, a message-oriented lightweight data integration engine that allows homogeneous and concurrent access to clinical information from disperse and heterogeneous data sources. The engine extracts the information and passes it to the requesting client applications in a flexible XML format. The XML response message can be formatted on demand by appropriate Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) transformations in order to meet the needs of client applications. We also present a real deployment in a hospital where Pangea-LE collects and generates an XML view of all the available patient clinical information. The information is presented to healthcare professionals in an Electronic Health Record (EHR) viewer Web application with patient search and EHR browsing capabilities. Implantation in a real setting has been a success due to the non-invasive nature of Pangea-LE which respects the existing information systems.

The equipment access software for a distributed UNIX-based accelerator control system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trofimov, Nikolai; Zelepoukine, Serguei; Zharkov, Eugeny; Charrue, Pierre; Gareyte, Claire; Poirier, Hervé

1994-12-01

This paper presents a generic equipment access software package for a distributed control system using computers with UNIX or UNIX-like operating systems. The package consists of three main components, an application Equipment Access Library, Message Handler and Equipment Data Base. An application task, which may run in any computer in the network, sends requests to access equipment through Equipment Library calls. The basic request is in the form Equipment-Action-Data and is routed via a remote procedure call to the computer to which the given equipment is connected. In this computer the request is received by the Message Handler. According to the type of the equipment connection, the Message Handler either passes the request to the specific process software in the same computer or forwards it to a lower level network of equipment controllers using MIL1553B, GPIB, RS232 or BITBUS communication. The answer is then returned to the calling application. Descriptive information required for request routing and processing is stored in the real-time Equipment Data Base. The package has been written to be portable and is currently available on DEC Ultrix, LynxOS, HPUX, XENIX, OS-9 and Apollo domain.

Development of an asynchronous communication channel between wireless sensor nodes, smartphone devices, and web applications using RESTful Web Services for intelligent farming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Leon, Marlene M.; Estuar, Maria Regina E.; Lim, Hadrian Paulo; Victorino, John Noel C.; Co, Jerelyn; Saddi, Ivan Lester; Paelmo, Sharlene Mae; Dela Cruz, Bon Lemuel

2017-09-01

Environment and agriculture related applications have been gaining ground for the past several years and have been the context for researches in ubiquitous and pervasive computing. This study is a part of a bigger study that uses artificial intelligence in developing models to detect, monitor, and forecast the spread of Fusarium oxysporum cubense TR4 (FOC TR4) on Cavendish bananas cultivated in the Philippines. To implement an Intelligent Farming system, 1) wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) are deployed in Philippine banana plantations to collect soil parameter data that is considered to affect the health of Cavendish bananas, 2) a custom built smartphone application is used for collecting, storing, and transmitting soil data, plant images and plant status data to a cloud storage, and 3) a custom built web application is used to load and display results of physico-chemical analysis of soil, analysis of data models, and geographic locations of plants being monitored. This study discusses the issues, considerations, and solutions implemented in the development of an asynchronous communication channel to ensure that all data collected by WSNs and smartphone applications are transmitted with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. From a design standpoint: standard API documentation on usage of data type is required to avoid inconsistencies in parameter passing. From a technical standpoint, there is a need to include error-handling mechanisms especially for delays in transmission of data as well as generalize method of parsing thru multidimensional array of data. Strategies are presented in the paper.

Behavior of Flotsam in the California Current System Utilizing Surface Drift of RAFOS Floats

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-01

drifter is most widely used (Lumpkin and Pazos 2006). The evolution and construction of the SVP drifter is described by Lumpkin and Pazos (2006). SVP...weight them down so that they were almost submerged in order to reduce the effect of the wind force on drifting objects (Lumpkin and Pazos 2007...by Argos (2011) and Lumpkin and Pazos (2007). As the satellite passes over the drifter, it begins receiving messages. To calculate the drifter’s

Proof of Concept for the Rewrite Rule Machine: Interensemble Studies

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-02-23

34 -,,, S2 •fbo fibo 0 1 Figure 1: Concurrent Rewriting of Fibonacci Expressions exploit a problem’s parallelism at several levels. We call this...property multigrain concurrency; it makes the RRM very well suited for solving not only homogeneous problems, but also complex, locally homogeneous but...interprocessor message passing over a network-is not well suited to data parallelism. A key goal of the RRM is to combine the best of these two approaches in a

Alexander George Karczmar (1917-2017).

PubMed

Soreq, Hermona; Silman, Israel

2017-12-01

The neurochemistry community at large and the Advisory Board of The International Symposia on Cholinergic Mechanisms mourn the loss of Alexander George Karczmar, the elected Honorary President of these international symposia, who passed away peacefully in his Chicago home at the age of 100 on August 17, 2017. For many of us Alex was the essence of cholinergic signaling, and personified its versatile power to send messages between the brain and the peripheral tissues and organs, and to connect between body and soul. © 2017 International Society for Neurochemistry.

Strategic and Tactical Decision-Making Under Uncertainty

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-03

message passing algorithms. In recent work we applied this method to the problem of joint decoding of a low-density parity-check ( LDPC ) code and a partial...Joint Decoding of LDPC Codes and Partial-Response Channels." IEEE Transactions on Communications. Vol. 54, No. 7, 1149-1153, 2006. P. Pakzad and V...Michael I. Jordan PAGES U U U SAPR 20 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (Include area code ) 510/642-3806 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18

NAS Parallel Benchmarks. 2.4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanderWijngaart, Rob; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

We describe a new problem size, called Class D, for the NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB), whose MPI source code implementation is being released as NPB 2.4. A brief rationale is given for how the new class is derived. We also describe the modifications made to the MPI (Message Passing Interface) implementation to allow the new class to be run on systems with 32-bit integers, and with moderate amounts of memory. Finally, we give the verification values for the new problem size.

IMPETUS - Interactive MultiPhysics Environment for Unified Simulations.

PubMed

Ha, Vi Q; Lykotrafitis, George

2016-12-08

We introduce IMPETUS - Interactive MultiPhysics Environment for Unified Simulations, an object oriented, easy-to-use, high performance, C++ program for three-dimensional simulations of complex physical systems that can benefit a large variety of research areas, especially in cell mechanics. The program implements cross-communication between locally interacting particles and continuum models residing in the same physical space while a network facilitates long-range particle interactions. Message Passing Interface is used for inter-processor communication for all simulations. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Specification of Fenix MPI Fault Tolerance library version 1.0.1

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gamble, Marc; Van Der Wijngaart, Rob; Teranishi, Keita

This document provides a specification of Fenix, a software library compatible with the Message Passing Interface (MPI) to support fault recovery without application shutdown. The library consists of two modules. The first, termed process recovery , restores an application to a consistent state after it has suffered a loss of one or more MPI processes (ranks). The second specifies functions the user can invoke to store application data in Fenix managed redundant storage, and to retrieve it from that storage after process recovery.

Relay Forward-Link File Management Services (MaROS Phase 2)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allard, Daniel A.; Wallick, Michael N.; Hy, Franklin H.; Gladden, Roy E.

2013-01-01

This software provides the service-level functionality to manage the delivery of files from a lander mission repository to an orbiter mission repository for eventual spacelink relay by the orbiter asset on a specific communications pass. It provides further functions to deliver and track a set of mission-defined messages detailing lander authorization instructions and orbiter data delivery state. All of the information concerning these transactions is persisted in a database providing a high level of accountability of the forward-link relay process.

8755 Emulator Design

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-12-01

Break Control....................51 8755 I/O Control..................54 Z-100 Control Software................. 55 Pass User Memory...the emulator SRAM and the other is 55 for the target SRAM. If either signal is replaced by the NACK signal the host computer displays an error message...Block Diagram 69 AUU M/M 8 in Fiur[:. cemti Daga 70m F’M I-- ’I ANLAD AMam U52 COMM ow U2 i M.2 " -n ax- U 6_- Figure 2b. Schematic Diagram 71 )-M -A -I

Some Aspects of Parallel Implementation of the Finite Element Method on Message Passing Architectures

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-05-01

for Advanced Computer Studies and Department of Computer Science University of Maryland College Park, MD 20742 4, ABSTRACT We discuss some aspects of...Computer Studies and Technology & Dept. of Compute. Scienc II. CONTROLLING OFFICE NAME AND ADDRESS Viyriyf~ 12. REPORT DATE Department of the Navy uo...number)-1/ 2.) We study the performance of CG and PCG by examining its performance for u E (0,1), for solving the two model problems with an accuracy

Asynchronous vibration problem of centrifugal compressor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fujikawa, T.; Ishiguro, N.; Ito, M.

1980-01-01

An unstable asynchronous vibration problem in a high pressure centrifugal compressor and the remedial actions against it are described. Asynchronous vibration of the compressor took place when the discharge pressure (Pd) was increased, after the rotor was already at full speed. The typical spectral data of the shaft vibration indicate that as the pressure Pd increases, pre-unstable vibration appears and becomes larger, and large unstable asynchronous vibration occurs suddenly (Pd = 5.49MPa). A computer program was used which calculated the logarithmic decrement and the damped natural frequency of the rotor bearing systems. The analysis of the log-decrement is concluded to be effective in preventing unstable vibration in both the design stage and remedial actions.

Satellite telemetry: performance of animal-tracking systems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Keating, Kim A.; Brewster, Wayne G.; Key, Carl H.

1991-01-01

t: We used 10 Telonics ST-3 platform transmitter terminals (PTT's) configured for wolves and ungulates to examine the performance of the Argos satellite telemetry system. Under near-optimal conditions, 68 percentile errors for location qualities (NQ) 1, 2, and 3 were 1,188, 903, and 361 m, respectively. Errors (rE) exceeded expected values for NQ = 2 and 3, varied greatly among PTT's, increased as the difference (HE) between the estimated and actual PTT elevations increased, and were correlated nonlinearly with maximum satellite pass height (P,). We present a model of the relationships among rE, HE, and PH. Errors were bimodally distributed along the east-west axis and tended to occur away from the satellite when HE was positive. A southeasterly bias increased with HE, probably due to the particular distribution of satellite passes and effects of HE on rE. Under near-optimal conditions, 21 sensor message was received for up to 64% of available (PH, 50) satellite passes, and a location (NQ 2 1) was calculated for up to 63% of such passes. Sampling frequencies of sensor and location data declined 13 and 70%, respectively, for PTT's in a valley bottom and 65 and 86%, respectively, for PTT's on animals that were in valley bottoms. Sampling frequencies were greater for ungulate than for wolf collars.

Evaluation of the implementation of new traceability and food safety requirements in the pig industry in eastern Australia.

PubMed

Hernández-Jover, M; Schembri, N; Toribio, J-A; Holyoake, P K

2009-10-01

To evaluate the implementation and barriers to adoption, among pig producers, of a newly introduced traceability and food safety system in Australia. Implementation of the PigPass national vendor declaration (NVD) linked to an on-farm quality assurance (QA) program was evaluated in May and December 2007 at saleyards and abattoirs in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Four focus group discussions with saleyard producers were held between April and July 2007. Implementation of the PigPass system in terms of accurate completion of the form and QA accreditation was higher at the export abattoir than at the regional saleyard at the first audit (P < 0.01). Implementation increased at the second audit at the abattoirs, but little change with time was observed at saleyards. Approximately half of the producers at saleyards used photocopied PigPass forms, made at least one error (>64%), and many vendors did not appear to be QA-accredited. During focus groups, producers expressed the view that PigPass implementation improved animal and product traceability. They identified the associated costs and a perceived lack of support by information providers as obstacles for adoption. Improvement in the implementation of PigPass among producers marketing pigs at export abattoirs was observed during the 8-month period of the study. There is a need for a more uniform message to producers from government agencies on the importance of the PigPass NVD and QA and extension and education targeted toward producers supplying pigs to saleyards and domestic abattoirs to ensure compliance with the traceability requirements.

Optimization of parameters of special asynchronous electric drives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karandey, V. Yu; Popov, B. K.; Popova, O. B.; Afanasyev, V. L.

2018-03-01

The article considers the solution of the problem of parameters optimization of special asynchronous electric drives. The solution of the problem will allow one to project and create special asynchronous electric drives for various industries. The created types of electric drives will have optimum mass-dimensional and power parameters. It will allow one to realize and fulfill the set characteristics of management of technological processes with optimum level of expenses of electric energy, time of completing the process or other set parameters. The received decision allows one not only to solve a certain optimizing problem, but also to construct dependences between the optimized parameters of special asynchronous electric drives, for example, with the change of power, current in a winding of the stator or rotor, induction in a gap or steel of magnetic conductors and other parameters. On the constructed dependences, it is possible to choose necessary optimum values of parameters of special asynchronous electric drives and their components without carrying out repeated calculations.

[Cost-effectiveness of Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Telepsychiatry in Prison Inmates With Depression].

PubMed

Barrera-Valencia, Camilo; Benito-Devia, Alexis Vladimir; Vélez-Álvarez, Consuelo; Figueroa-Barrera, Mario; Franco-Idárraga, Sandra Milena

Telepsychiatry is defined as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in providing remote psychiatric services. Telepsychiatry is applied using two types of communication: synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (store and forward). To determine the cost-effectiveness of a synchronous and an asynchronous telepsychiatric model in prison inmate patients with symptoms of depression. A cost-effectiveness study was performed on a population consisting of 157 patients from the Establecimiento Penitenciario y Carcelario de Mediana Seguridad de Manizales, Colombia. The sample was determined by applying Zung self-administered surveys for depression (1965) and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), the latter being the tool used for the comparison. Initial Hamilton score, arrival time, duration of system downtime, and clinical effectiveness variables had normal distributions (P>.05). There were significant differences (P<.001) between care costs for the different models, showing that the mean cost of the asynchronous model is less than synchronous model, and making the asynchronous model more cost-effective. The asynchronous model is the most cost-effective model of telepsychiatry care for patients with depression admitted to a detention centre, according to the results of clinical effectiveness, cost measurement, and patient satisfaction. Copyright © 2016 Asociación Colombiana de Psiquiatría. Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Features of the Asynchronous Correlation between the China Coal Price Index and Coal Mining Accidental Deaths

PubMed Central

Huang, Yuecheng; Cheng, Wuyi; Luo, Sida; Luo, Yun; Ma, Chengchen; He, Tailin

2016-01-01

The features of the asynchronous correlation between accident indices and the factors that influence accidents can provide an effective reference for warnings of coal mining accidents. However, what are the features of this correlation? To answer this question, data from the China coal price index and the number of deaths from coal mining accidents were selected as the sample data. The fluctuation modes of the asynchronous correlation between the two data sets were defined according to the asynchronous correlation coefficients, symbolization, and sliding windows. We then built several directed and weighted network models, within which the fluctuation modes and the transformations between modes were represented by nodes and edges. Then, the features of the asynchronous correlation between these two variables could be studied from a perspective of network topology. We found that the correlation between the price index and the accidental deaths was asynchronous and fluctuating. Certain aspects, such as the key fluctuation modes, the subgroups characteristics, the transmission medium, the periodicity and transmission path length in the network, were analyzed by using complex network theory, analytical methods and spectral analysis method. These results provide a scientific reference for generating warnings for coal mining accidents based on economic indices. PMID:27902748

Efficacy of an asynchronous electronic curriculum in emergency medicine education in the United States.

PubMed

Wray, Alisa; Bennett, Kathryn; Boysen-Osborn, Megan; Wiechmann, Warren; Toohey, Shannon

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to measure the effect of an iPad-based asynchronous curriculum on emergency medicine resident performance on the in-training exam (ITE). We hypothesized that the implementation of an asynchronous curriculum (replacing 1 hour of weekly didactic time) would result in non-inferior ITE scores compared to the historical scores of residents who had participated in the traditional 5-hour weekly didactic curriculum. The study was a retrospective, non-inferiority study. conducted at the University of California, Irvine Emergency Medicine Residency Program. We compared ITE scores from 2012 and 2013, when there were 5 weekly hours of didactic content, with scores from 2014 and 2015, when 1 hour of conference was replaced with asynchro-nous content. Examination results were compared using a non-inferiority data analysis with a 10% margin of difference. Using a non-inferiority test with a 95% confidence interval, there was no difference between the 2 groups (before and after implementation of asynchronous learning), as the confidence interval for the change of the ITE was -3.5 to 2.3 points, whereas the 10% non-inferiority margin was 7.8 points. Replacing 1 hour of didactic conference with asynchronous learning showed no negative impact on resident ITE scores.

Evaluation of a high visibility enforcement project focused on passenger vehicles interacting with commercial vehicles.

PubMed

Thomas, F Dennis; Blomberg, Richard D; Peck, Raymond C; Cosgrove, Linda A; Salzberg, Philip M

2008-01-01

In 2004, Washington State applied NHTSA's High Visibility Enforcement model used in the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign in an attempt to reduce unsafe driving behaviors around commercial motor vehicles (CMVs). The program was called Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT). This paper details the methods used to evaluate the program's effectiveness and the results of the evaluation. Four high-crash interstate highway corridors, each approximately 25 miles in length, were selected. Two of these corridors received TACT media messages and increased enforcement over an 18-month period while two comparison corridors did not receive any increased media or enforcement. A total of 4,737 contacts were made with drivers during the two enforcement waves, and 72% of these contacts led to a citation. Drivers at the intervention sites who said they saw or heard any of the TACT messages increased from 17.7% in the pre period to a high of 67.3% in the post periods. Drivers at the intervention sites also reported increased exposure to the core message of leaving more space when passing trucks (14% pre to 40% post period). The percentage of drivers who said they leave more room when passing trucks than when passing cars rose from 16% in the pre period to 24% in the post period at the intervention sites, while comparison sites showed no change. Over 150 hours of video recorded by law enforcement officers in unmarked vehicles were utilized to examine violation rates and severity of violations before and after the intervention campaigns. Statistical analyses showed that violation rates were reduced significantly at the intervention sites (between 23% and 46%), while remaining constant at the comparison sites. Analyses of the video data also showed that the seriousness of the residual violations at the intervention sites decreased. Overall, the evaluation results provide a consistent picture of the effectiveness of the TACT pilot project. Success was demonstrated at every step - messages were received and understood, knowledge was changed in the intended direction, self reported driving behavior around large trucks improved, and observed driving behaviors confirmed the self reports. After this initial success in Washington State, the TACT model will continue to be implemented and evaluated by FMCSA in an attempt to validate the program. Based on the results of this study and the consistent positive results found for other sTEP projects, it is likely that TACT will show continued success in a variety of settings and will help reduce the number and severity of crashes involving CMVs. Future research should attempt to use many of the methods described here to further validate the methods for not only evaluations of TACT programs, but also for any other highway safety programs that require measurements of the program's effectiveness.

Multithreaded Stochastic PDES for Reactions and Diffusions in Neurons.

PubMed

Lin, Zhongwei; Tropper, Carl; Mcdougal, Robert A; Patoary, Mohammand Nazrul Ishlam; Lytton, William W; Yao, Yiping; Hines, Michael L

2017-07-01

Cells exhibit stochastic behavior when the number of molecules is small. Hence a stochastic reaction-diffusion simulator capable of working at scale can provide a more accurate view of molecular dynamics within the cell. This paper describes a parallel discrete event simulator, Neuron Time Warp-Multi Thread (NTW-MT), developed for the simulation of reaction diffusion models of neurons. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first parallel discrete event simulator oriented towards stochastic simulation of chemical reactions in a neuron. The simulator was developed as part of the NEURON project. NTW-MT is optimistic and thread-based, which attempts to capitalize on multi-core architectures used in high performance machines. It makes use of a multi-level queue for the pending event set and a single roll-back message in place of individual anti-messages to disperse contention and decrease the overhead of processing rollbacks. Global Virtual Time is computed asynchronously both within and among processes to get rid of the overhead for synchronizing threads. Memory usage is managed in order to avoid locking and unlocking when allocating and de-allocating memory and to maximize cache locality. We verified our simulator on a calcium buffer model. We examined its performance on a calcium wave model, comparing it to the performance of a process based optimistic simulator and a threaded simulator which uses a single priority queue for each thread. Our multi-threaded simulator is shown to achieve superior performance to these simulators. Finally, we demonstrated the scalability of our simulator on a larger CICR model and a more detailed CICR model.

Asynchronous networks: modularization of dynamics theorem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bick, Christian; Field, Michael

2017-02-01

Building on the first part of this paper, we develop the theory of functional asynchronous networks. We show that a large class of functional asynchronous networks can be (uniquely) represented as feedforward networks connecting events or dynamical modules. For these networks we can give a complete description of the network function in terms of the function of the events comprising the network: the modularization of dynamics theorem. We give examples to illustrate the main results.

Simulating fail-stop in asynchronous distributed systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sabel, Laura; Marzullo, Keith

1994-01-01

The fail-stop failure model appears frequently in the distributed systems literature. However, in an asynchronous distributed system, the fail-stop model cannot be implemented. In particular, it is impossible to reliably detect crash failures in an asynchronous system. In this paper, we show that it is possible to specify and implement a failure model that is indistinguishable from the fail-stop model from the point of view of any process within an asynchronous system. We give necessary conditions for a failure model to be indistinguishable from the fail-stop model, and derive lower bounds on the amount of process replication needed to implement such a failure model. We present a simple one-round protocol for implementing one such failure model, which we call simulated fail-stop.

Asynchronous Video Interviewing as a New Technology in Personnel Selection: The Applicant’s Point of View

PubMed Central

Brenner, Falko S.; Ortner, Tuulia M.; Fay, Doris

2016-01-01

The present study aimed to integrate findings from technology acceptance research with research on applicant reactions to new technology for the emerging selection procedure of asynchronous video interviewing. One hundred six volunteers experienced asynchronous video interviewing and filled out several questionnaires including one on the applicants’ personalities. In line with previous technology acceptance research, the data revealed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use predicted attitudes toward asynchronous video interviewing. Furthermore, openness revealed to moderate the relation between perceived usefulness and attitudes toward this particular selection technology. No significant effects emerged for computer self-efficacy, job interview self-efficacy, extraversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. PMID:27378969

Mark 4A antenna control system data handling architecture study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Briggs, H. C.; Eldred, D. B.

1991-01-01

A high-level review was conducted to provide an analysis of the existing architecture used to handle data and implement control algorithms for NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas and to make system-level recommendations for improving this architecture so that the DSN antennas can support the ever-tightening requirements of the next decade and beyond. It was found that the existing system is seriously overloaded, with processor utilization approaching 100 percent. A number of factors contribute to this overloading, including dated hardware, inefficient software, and a message-passing strategy that depends on serial connections between machines. At the same time, the system has shortcomings and idiosyncrasies that require extensive human intervention. A custom operating system kernel and an obscure programming language exacerbate the problems and should be modernized. A new architecture is presented that addresses these and other issues. Key features of the new architecture include a simplified message passing hierarchy that utilizes a high-speed local area network, redesign of particular processing function algorithms, consolidation of functions, and implementation of the architecture in modern hardware and software using mainstream computer languages and operating systems. The system would also allow incremental hardware improvements as better and faster hardware for such systems becomes available, and costs could potentially be low enough that redundancy would be provided economically. Such a system could support DSN requirements for the foreseeable future, though thorough consideration must be given to hard computational requirements, porting existing software functionality to the new system, and issues of fault tolerance and recovery.

Task-parallel message passing interface implementation of Autodock4 for docking of very large databases of compounds using high-performance super-computers.

PubMed

Collignon, Barbara; Schulz, Roland; Smith, Jeremy C; Baudry, Jerome

2011-04-30

A message passing interface (MPI)-based implementation (Autodock4.lga.MPI) of the grid-based docking program Autodock4 has been developed to allow simultaneous and independent docking of multiple compounds on up to thousands of central processing units (CPUs) using the Lamarkian genetic algorithm. The MPI version reads a single binary file containing precalculated grids that represent the protein-ligand interactions, i.e., van der Waals, electrostatic, and desolvation potentials, and needs only two input parameter files for the entire docking run. In comparison, the serial version of Autodock4 reads ASCII grid files and requires one parameter file per compound. The modifications performed result in significantly reduced input/output activity compared with the serial version. Autodock4.lga.MPI scales up to 8192 CPUs with a maximal overhead of 16.3%, of which two thirds is due to input/output operations and one third originates from MPI operations. The optimal docking strategy, which minimizes docking CPU time without lowering the quality of the database enrichments, comprises the docking of ligands preordered from the most to the least flexible and the assignment of the number of energy evaluations as a function of the number of rotatable bounds. In 24 h, on 8192 high-performance computing CPUs, the present MPI version would allow docking to a rigid protein of about 300K small flexible compounds or 11 million rigid compounds.

Network evolution induced by asynchronous stimuli through spike-timing-dependent plasticity.

PubMed

Yuan, Wu-Jie; Zhou, Jian-Fang; Zhou, Changsong

2013-01-01

In sensory neural system, external asynchronous stimuli play an important role in perceptual learning, associative memory and map development. However, the organization of structure and dynamics of neural networks induced by external asynchronous stimuli are not well understood. Spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is a typical synaptic plasticity that has been extensively found in the sensory systems and that has received much theoretical attention. This synaptic plasticity is highly sensitive to correlations between pre- and postsynaptic firings. Thus, STDP is expected to play an important role in response to external asynchronous stimuli, which can induce segregative pre- and postsynaptic firings. In this paper, we study the impact of external asynchronous stimuli on the organization of structure and dynamics of neural networks through STDP. We construct a two-dimensional spatial neural network model with local connectivity and sparseness, and use external currents to stimulate alternately on different spatial layers. The adopted external currents imposed alternately on spatial layers can be here regarded as external asynchronous stimuli. Through extensive numerical simulations, we focus on the effects of stimulus number and inter-stimulus timing on synaptic connecting weights and the property of propagation dynamics in the resulting network structure. Interestingly, the resulting feedforward structure induced by stimulus-dependent asynchronous firings and its propagation dynamics reflect both the underlying property of STDP. The results imply a possible important role of STDP in generating feedforward structure and collective propagation activity required for experience-dependent map plasticity in developing in vivo sensory pathways and cortices. The relevance of the results to cue-triggered recall of learned temporal sequences, an important cognitive function, is briefly discussed as well. Furthermore, this finding suggests a potential application for examining STDP by measuring neural population activity in a cultured neural network.

FAST: A fully asynchronous and status-tracking pattern for geoprocessing services orchestration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Huayi; You, Lan; Gui, Zhipeng; Gao, Shuang; Li, Zhenqiang; Yu, Jingmin

2014-09-01

Geoprocessing service orchestration (GSO) provides a unified and flexible way to implement cross-application, long-lived, and multi-step geoprocessing service workflows by coordinating geoprocessing services collaboratively. Usually, geoprocessing services and geoprocessing service workflows are data and/or computing intensive. The intensity feature may make the execution process of a workflow time-consuming. Since it initials an execution request without blocking other interactions on the client side, an asynchronous mechanism is especially appropriate for GSO workflows. Many critical problems remain to be solved in existing asynchronous patterns for GSO including difficulties in improving performance, status tracking, and clarifying the workflow structure. These problems are a challenge when orchestrating performance efficiency, making statuses instantly available, and constructing clearly structured GSO workflows. A Fully Asynchronous and Status-Tracking (FAST) pattern that adopts asynchronous interactions throughout the whole communication tier of a workflow is proposed for GSO. The proposed FAST pattern includes a mechanism that actively pushes the latest status to clients instantly and economically. An independent proxy was designed to isolate the status tracking logic from the geoprocessing business logic, which assists the formation of a clear GSO workflow structure. A workflow was implemented in the FAST pattern to simulate the flooding process in the Poyang Lake region. Experimental results show that the proposed FAST pattern can efficiently tackle data/computing intensive geoprocessing tasks. The performance of all collaborative partners was improved due to the asynchronous mechanism throughout communication tier. A status-tracking mechanism helps users retrieve the latest running status of a GSO workflow in an efficient and instant way. The clear structure of the GSO workflow lowers the barriers for geospatial domain experts and model designers to compose asynchronous GSO workflows. Most importantly, it provides better support for locating and diagnosing potential exceptions.

Asynchronous collision integrators: Explicit treatment of unilateral contact with friction and nodal restraints

PubMed Central

Wolff, Sebastian; Bucher, Christian

2013-01-01

This article presents asynchronous collision integrators and a simple asynchronous method treating nodal restraints. Asynchronous discretizations allow individual time step sizes for each spatial region, improving the efficiency of explicit time stepping for finite element meshes with heterogeneous element sizes. The article first introduces asynchronous variational integration being expressed by drift and kick operators. Linear nodal restraint conditions are solved by a simple projection of the forces that is shown to be equivalent to RATTLE. Unilateral contact is solved by an asynchronous variant of decomposition contact response. Therein, velocities are modified avoiding penetrations. Although decomposition contact response is solving a large system of linear equations (being critical for the numerical efficiency of explicit time stepping schemes) and is needing special treatment regarding overconstraint and linear dependency of the contact constraints (for example from double-sided node-to-surface contact or self-contact), the asynchronous strategy handles these situations efficiently and robust. Only a single constraint involving a very small number of degrees of freedom is considered at once leading to a very efficient solution. The treatment of friction is exemplified for the Coulomb model. Special care needs the contact of nodes that are subject to restraints. Together with the aforementioned projection for restraints, a novel efficient solution scheme can be presented. The collision integrator does not influence the critical time step. Hence, the time step can be chosen independently from the underlying time-stepping scheme. The time step may be fixed or time-adaptive. New demands on global collision detection are discussed exemplified by position codes and node-to-segment integration. Numerical examples illustrate convergence and efficiency of the new contact algorithm. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PMID:23970806

Within-female plasticity in sex allocation is associated with a behavioural polyphenism in house wrens.

PubMed

Bowers, E K; Thompson, C F; Sakaluk, S K

2016-03-01

Sex allocation theory assumes individual plasticity in maternal strategies, but few studies have investigated within-individual changes across environments. In house wrens, differences between nests in the degree of hatching synchrony of eggs represent a behavioural polyphenism in females, and its expression varies with seasonal changes in the environment. Between-nest differences in hatching asynchrony also create different environments for offspring, and sons are more strongly affected than daughters by sibling competition when hatching occurs asynchronously over several days. Here, we examined variation in hatching asynchrony and sex allocation, and its consequences for offspring fitness. The number and condition of fledglings declined seasonally, and the frequency of asynchronous hatching increased. In broods hatched asynchronously, sons, which are over-represented in the earlier-laid eggs, were in better condition than daughters, which are over-represented in the later-laid eggs. Nonetheless, asynchronous broods were more productive later within seasons. The proportion of sons in asynchronous broods increased seasonally, whereas there was a seasonal increase in the production of daughters by mothers hatching their eggs synchronously, which was characterized by within-female changes in offspring sex and not by sex-biased mortality. As adults, sons from asynchronous broods were in better condition and produced more broods of their own than males from synchronous broods, and both males and females from asynchronous broods had higher lifetime reproductive success than those from synchronous broods. In conclusion, hatching patterns are under maternal control, representing distinct strategies for allocating offspring within broods, and are associated with offspring sex ratios and differences in offspring reproductive success. © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology © 2015 European Society For Evolutionary Biology.

Asynchronous P300-based brain-computer interface to control a virtual environment: initial tests on end users.

PubMed

Aloise, Fabio; Schettini, Francesca; Aricò, Pietro; Salinari, Serenella; Guger, Christoph; Rinsma, Johanna; Aiello, Marco; Mattia, Donatella; Cincotti, Febo

2011-10-01

Motor disability and/or ageing can prevent individuals from fully enjoying home facilities, thus worsening their quality of life. Advances in the field of accessible user interfaces for domotic appliances can represent a valuable way to improve the independence of these persons. An asynchronous P300-based Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system was recently validated with the participation of healthy young volunteers for environmental control. In this study, the asynchronous P300-based BCI for the interaction with a virtual home environment was tested with the participation of potential end-users (clients of a Frisian home care organization) with limited autonomy due to ageing and/or motor disabilities. System testing revealed that the minimum number of stimulation sequences needed to achieve correct classification had a higher intra-subject variability in potential end-users with respect to what was previously observed in young controls. Here we show that the asynchronous modality performed significantly better as compared to the synchronous mode in continuously adapting its speed to the users' state. Furthermore, the asynchronous system modality confirmed its reliability in avoiding misclassifications and false positives, as previously shown in young healthy subjects. The asynchronous modality may contribute to filling the usability gap between BCI systems and traditional input devices, representing an important step towards their use in the activities of daily living.

Universal filtered multi-carrier system for asynchronous uplink transmission in optical access network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Soo-Min; Kim, Chang-Hun; Han, Sang-Kook

2016-02-01

In passive optical network (PON), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been studied actively due to its advantages such as high spectra efficiency (SE), dynamic resource allocation in time or frequency domain, and dispersion robustness. However, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-PON requires tight synchronization among multiple access signals. If not, frequency orthogonality could not be maintained. Also its sidelobe causes inter-channel interference (ICI) to adjacent channel. To prevent ICI caused by high sidelobes, guard band (GB) is usually used which degrades SE. Thus, OFDMA-PON is not suitable for asynchronous uplink transmission in optical access network. In this paper, we propose intensity modulation/direct detection (IM/DD) based universal filtered multi-carrier (UFMC) PON for asynchronous multiple access. The UFMC uses subband filtering to subsets of subcarriers. Since it reduces sidelobe of each subband by applying subband filtering, it could achieve better performance compared to OFDM. For the experimental demonstration, different sample delay was applied to subbands to implement asynchronous transmission condition. As a result, time synchronization robustness of UFMC was verified in asynchronous multiple access system.

A Binary Array Asynchronous Sorting Algorithm with Using Petri Nets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voevoda, A. A.; Romannikov, D. O.

2017-01-01

Nowadays the tasks of computations speed-up and/or their optimization are actual. Among the approaches on how to solve these tasks, a method applying approaches of parallelization and asynchronization to a sorting algorithm is considered in the paper. The sorting methods are ones of elementary methods and they are used in a huge amount of different applications. In the paper, we offer a method of an array sorting that based on a division into a set of independent adjacent pairs of numbers and their parallel and asynchronous comparison. And this one distinguishes the offered method from the traditional sorting algorithms (like quick sorting, merge sorting, insertion sorting and others). The algorithm is implemented with the use of Petri nets, like the most suitable tool for an asynchronous systems description.

A Communication Model to Integrate the Request-Response and the Publish-Subscribe Paradigms into Ubiquitous Systems

PubMed Central

Rodríguez-Domínguez, Carlos; Benghazi, Kawtar; Noguera, Manuel; Garrido, José Luis; Rodríguez, María Luisa; Ruiz-López, Tomás

2012-01-01

The Request-Response (RR) paradigm is widely used in ubiquitous systems to exchange information in a secure, reliable and timely manner. Nonetheless, there is also an emerging need for adopting the Publish-Subscribe (PubSub) paradigm in this kind of systems, due to the advantages that this paradigm offers in supporting mobility by means of asynchronous, non-blocking and one-to-many message distribution semantics for event notification. This paper analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of both the RR and PubSub paradigms to support communications in ubiquitous systems and proposes an abstract communication model in order to enable their seamless integration. Thus, developers will be focused on communication semantics and the required quality properties, rather than be concerned about specific communication mechanisms. The aim is to provide developers with abstractions intended to decrease the complexity of integrating different communication paradigms commonly needed in ubiquitous systems. The proposal has been applied to implement a middleware and a real home automation system to show its applicability and benefits. PMID:22969366

24-Hour Relativistic Bit Commitment.

PubMed

Verbanis, Ephanielle; Martin, Anthony; Houlmann, Raphaël; Boso, Gianluca; Bussières, Félix; Zbinden, Hugo

2016-09-30

Bit commitment is a fundamental cryptographic primitive in which a party wishes to commit a secret bit to another party. Perfect security between mistrustful parties is unfortunately impossible to achieve through the asynchronous exchange of classical and quantum messages. Perfect security can nonetheless be achieved if each party splits into two agents exchanging classical information at times and locations satisfying strict relativistic constraints. A relativistic multiround protocol to achieve this was previously proposed and used to implement a 2-millisecond commitment time. Much longer durations were initially thought to be insecure, but recent theoretical progress showed that this is not so. In this Letter, we report on the implementation of a 24-hour bit commitment solely based on timed high-speed optical communication and fast data processing, with all agents located within the city of Geneva. This duration is more than 6 orders of magnitude longer than before, and we argue that it could be extended to one year and allow much more flexibility on the locations of the agents. Our implementation offers a practical and viable solution for use in applications such as digital signatures, secure voting and honesty-preserving auctions.

Relationship between cortical state and spiking activity in the lateral geniculate nucleus of marmosets

PubMed Central

Pietersen, Alexander N.J.; Cheong, Soon Keen; Munn, Brandon; Gong, Pulin; Solomon, Samuel G.

2017-01-01

Key points How parallel are the primate visual pathways? In the present study, we demonstrate that parallel visual pathways in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) show distinct patterns of interaction with rhythmic activity in the primary visual cortex (V1).In the V1 of anaesthetized marmosets, the EEG frequency spectrum undergoes transient changes that are characterized by fluctuations in delta‐band EEG power.We show that, on multisecond timescales, spiking activity in an evolutionary primitive (koniocellular) LGN pathway is specifically linked to these slow EEG spectrum changes. By contrast, on subsecond (delta frequency) timescales, cortical oscillations can entrain spiking activity throughout the entire LGN.Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that, in waking animals, the koniocellular pathway selectively participates in brain circuits controlling vigilance and attention. Abstract The major afferent cortical pathway in the visual system passes through the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), where nerve signals originating in the eye can first interact with brain circuits regulating visual processing, vigilance and attention. In the present study, we investigated how ongoing and visually driven activity in magnocellular (M), parvocellular (P) and koniocellular (K) layers of the LGN are related to cortical state. We recorded extracellular spiking activity in the LGN simultaneously with local field potentials (LFP) in primary visual cortex, in sufentanil‐anaesthetized marmoset monkeys. We found that asynchronous cortical states (marked by low power in delta‐band LFPs) are linked to high spike rates in K cells (but not P cells or M cells), on multisecond timescales. Cortical asynchrony precedes the increases in K cell spike rates by 1–3 s, implying causality. At subsecond timescales, the spiking activity in many cells of all (M, P and K) classes is phase‐locked to delta waves in the cortical LFP, and more cells are phase‐locked during synchronous cortical states than during asynchronous cortical states. The switch from low‐to‐high spike rates in K cells does not degrade their visual signalling capacity. By contrast, during asynchronous cortical states, the fidelity of visual signals transmitted by K cells is improved, probably because K cell responses become less rectified. Overall, the data show that slow fluctuations in cortical state are selectively linked to K pathway spiking activity, whereas delta‐frequency cortical oscillations entrain spiking activity throughout the entire LGN, in anaesthetized marmosets. PMID:28116750

Interpolation algorithm for asynchronous ADC-data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bramburger, Stefan; Zinke, Benny; Killat, Dirk

2017-09-01

This paper presents a modified interpolation algorithm for signals with variable data rate from asynchronous ADCs. The Adaptive weights Conjugate gradient Toeplitz matrix (ACT) algorithm is extended to operate with a continuous data stream. An additional preprocessing of data with constant and linear sections and a weighted overlap of step-by-step into spectral domain transformed signals improve the reconstruction of the asycnhronous ADC signal. The interpolation method can be used if asynchronous ADC data is fed into synchronous digital signal processing.

Application of intelligent soft start in asynchronous motor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Du, Xue; Ye, Ying; Wang, Yuelong; Peng, Lei; Zhang, Suying

2018-05-01

The starting way of three phase asynchronous motor has full voltage start and step-down start. Direct starting brings large current impact, causing excessive local temperature to the power grid and larger starting torque will also impact the motor equipment and affect the service life of the motor. Aim at the problem of large current and torque caused by start-up, an intelligent soft starter is proposed. Through the application of intelligent soft start on asynchronous motor, highlights its application advantage in motor control.

A new deadlock resolution protocol and message matching algorithm for the extreme-scale simulator

DOE PAGES

Engelmann, Christian; Naughton, III, Thomas J.

2016-03-22

Investigating the performance of parallel applications at scale on future high-performance computing (HPC) architectures and the performance impact of different HPC architecture choices is an important component of HPC hardware/software co-design. The Extreme-scale Simulator (xSim) is a simulation toolkit for investigating the performance of parallel applications at scale. xSim scales to millions of simulated Message Passing Interface (MPI) processes. The overhead introduced by a simulation tool is an important performance and productivity aspect. This paper documents two improvements to xSim: (1)~a new deadlock resolution protocol to reduce the parallel discrete event simulation overhead and (2)~a new simulated MPI message matchingmore » algorithm to reduce the oversubscription management overhead. The results clearly show a significant performance improvement. The simulation overhead for running the NAS Parallel Benchmark suite was reduced from 102% to 0% for the embarrassingly parallel (EP) benchmark and from 1,020% to 238% for the conjugate gradient (CG) benchmark. xSim offers a highly accurate simulation mode for better tracking of injected MPI process failures. Furthermore, with highly accurate simulation, the overhead was reduced from 3,332% to 204% for EP and from 37,511% to 13,808% for CG.« less

Application Portable Parallel Library

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cole, Gary L.; Blech, Richard A.; Quealy, Angela; Townsend, Scott

1995-01-01

Application Portable Parallel Library (APPL) computer program is subroutine-based message-passing software library intended to provide consistent interface to variety of multiprocessor computers on market today. Minimizes effort needed to move application program from one computer to another. User develops application program once and then easily moves application program from parallel computer on which created to another parallel computer. ("Parallel computer" also include heterogeneous collection of networked computers). Written in C language with one FORTRAN 77 subroutine for UNIX-based computers and callable from application programs written in C language or FORTRAN 77.

Design and evaluation of Nemesis, a scalable, low-latency, message-passing communication subsystem.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buntinas, D.; Mercier, G.; Gropp, W.

2005-12-02

This paper presents a new low-level communication subsystem called Nemesis. Nemesis has been designed and implemented to be scalable and efficient both in the intranode communication context using shared-memory and in the internode communication case using high-performance networks and is natively multimethod-enabled. Nemesis has been integrated in MPICH2 as a CH3 channel and delivers better performance than other dedicated communication channels in MPICH2. Furthermore, the resulting MPICH2 architecture outperforms other MPI implementations in point-to-point benchmarks.

Leading article: Use of smartphones to pass on information about patients - what are the current issues?

PubMed

Rokadiya, S; McCaul, J A; Mitchell, D A; Brennan, P A

2016-07-01

Many doctors now use mobile devices such as smartphones to communicate with one another about their patients, and sometimes this is without the knowledge and approval of their employer. We know of little information about the use of texting and other web-based messaging services by doctors in hospitals, so we reviewed relevant published studies to assess the safety and usefulness of current methods of digital communication. Copyright © 2016 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Porting LAMMPS to GPUs.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brown, William Michael; Plimpton, Steven James; Wang, Peng

2010-03-01

LAMMPS is a classical molecular dynamics code, and an acronym for Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator. LAMMPS has potentials for soft materials (biomolecules, polymers) and solid-state materials (metals, semiconductors) and coarse-grained or mesoscopic systems. It can be used to model atoms or, more generically, as a parallel particle simulator at the atomic, meso, or continuum scale. LAMMPS runs on single processors or in parallel using message-passing techniques and a spatial-decomposition of the simulation domain. The code is designed to be easy to modify or extend with new functionality.

Implementation of a 3D mixing layer code on parallel computers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Roe, K.; Thakur, R.; Dang, T.; Bogucz, E.

1995-01-01

This paper summarizes our progress and experience in the development of a Computational-Fluid-Dynamics code on parallel computers to simulate three-dimensional spatially-developing mixing layers. In this initial study, the three-dimensional time-dependent Euler equations are solved using a finite-volume explicit time-marching algorithm. The code was first programmed in Fortran 77 for sequential computers. The code was then converted for use on parallel computers using the conventional message-passing technique, while we have not been able to compile the code with the present version of HPF compilers.

High-energy physics software parallelization using database techniques

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Argante, E.; van der Stok, P. D. V.; Willers, I.

1997-02-01

A programming model for software parallelization, called CoCa, is introduced that copes with problems caused by typical features of high-energy physics software. By basing CoCa on the database transaction paradimg, the complexity induced by the parallelization is for a large part transparent to the programmer, resulting in a higher level of abstraction than the native message passing software. CoCa is implemented on a Meiko CS-2 and on a SUN SPARCcenter 2000 parallel computer. On the CS-2, the performance is comparable with the performance of native PVM and MPI.

Computer-aided programming for message-passing system; Problems and a solution

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wu, M.Y.; Gajski, D.D.

1989-12-01

As the number of processors and the complexity of problems to be solved increase, programming multiprocessing systems becomes more difficult and error-prone. Program development tools are necessary since programmers are not able to develop complex parallel programs efficiently. Parallel models of computation, parallelization problems, and tools for computer-aided programming (CAP) are discussed. As an example, a CAP tool that performs scheduling and inserts communication primitives automatically is described. It also generates the performance estimates and other program quality measures to help programmers in improving their algorithms and programs.

Multiple-Ring Digital Communication Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kirkham, Harold

1992-01-01

Optical-fiber digital communication network to support data-acquisition and control functions of electric-power-distribution networks. Optical-fiber links of communication network follow power-distribution routes. Since fiber crosses open power switches, communication network includes multiple interconnected loops with occasional spurs. At each intersection node is needed. Nodes of communication network include power-distribution substations and power-controlling units. In addition to serving data acquisition and control functions, each node acts as repeater, passing on messages to next node(s). Multiple-ring communication network operates on new AbNET protocol and features fiber-optic communication.

Performance measurement and modeling of component applications in a high performance computing environment : a case study.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Armstrong, Robert C.; Ray, Jaideep; Malony, A.

2003-11-01

We present a case study of performance measurement and modeling of a CCA (Common Component Architecture) component-based application in a high performance computing environment. We explore issues peculiar to component-based HPC applications and propose a performance measurement infrastructure for HPC based loosely on recent work done for Grid environments. A prototypical implementation of the infrastructure is used to collect data for a three components in a scientific application and construct performance models for two of them. Both computational and message-passing performance are addressed.

Determination of power and moment on shaft of special asynchronous electric drives

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karandey, V. Yu; Popov, B. K.; Popova, O. B.; Afanasyev, V. L.

2018-03-01

In the article, questions and tasks of determination of power and the moment on a shaft of special asynchronous electric drives are considered. Use of special asynchronous electric drives in mechanical engineering and other industries is relevant. The considered types of electric drives possess the improved mass-dimensional indicators in comparison with singleengine systems. Also these types of electric drives have constructive advantages; the improved characteristics allow one to realize the technological process. But creation and design of new electric drives demands adjustment of existing or development of new methods and approaches of calculation of parameters. Determination of power and the moment on a shaft of special asynchronous electric drives is the main objective during design of electric drives. This task has been solved based on a method of electromechanical transformation of energy.

Distributed asynchronous microprocessor architectures in fault tolerant integrated flight systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dunn, W. R.

1983-01-01

The paper discusses the implementation of fault tolerant digital flight control and navigation systems for rotorcraft application. It is shown that in implementing fault tolerance at the systems level using advanced LSI/VLSI technology, aircraft physical layout and flight systems requirements tend to define a system architecture of distributed, asynchronous microprocessors in which fault tolerance can be achieved locally through hardware redundancy and/or globally through application of analytical redundancy. The effects of asynchronism on the execution of dynamic flight software is discussed. It is shown that if the asynchronous microprocessors have knowledge of time, these errors can be significantly reduced through appropiate modifications of the flight software. Finally, the papear extends previous work to show that through the combined use of time referencing and stable flight algorithms, individual microprocessors can be configured to autonomously tolerate intermittent faults.

The Design of Finite State Machine for Asynchronous Replication Protocol

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yanlong; Li, Zhanhuai; Lin, Wei; Hei, Minglei; Hao, Jianhua

Data replication is a key way to design a disaster tolerance system and to achieve reliability and availability. It is difficult for a replication protocol to deal with the diverse and complex environment. This means that data is less well replicated than it ought to be. To reduce data loss and to optimize replication protocols, we (1) present a finite state machine, (2) run it to manage an asynchronous replication protocol and (3) report a simple evaluation of the asynchronous replication protocol based on our state machine. It's proved that our state machine is applicable to guarantee the asynchronous replication protocol running in the proper state to the largest extent in the event of various possible events. It also can helpful to build up replication-based disaster tolerance systems to ensure the business continuity.

The Use of Efficient Broadcast Protocols in Asynchronous Distributed Systems. Ph.D. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmuck, Frank Bernhard

1988-01-01

Reliable broadcast protocols are important tools in distributed and fault-tolerant programming. They are useful for sharing information and for maintaining replicated data in a distributed system. However, a wide range of such protocols has been proposed. These protocols differ in their fault tolerance and delivery ordering characteristics. There is a tradeoff between the cost of a broadcast protocol and how much ordering it provides. It is, therefore, desirable to employ protocols that support only a low degree of ordering whenever possible. This dissertation presents techniques for deciding how strongly ordered a protocol is necessary to solve a given application problem. It is shown that there are two distinct classes of application problems: problems that can be solved with efficient, asynchronous protocols, and problems that require global ordering. The concept of a linearization function that maps partially ordered sets of events to totally ordered histories is introduced. How to construct an asynchronous implementation that solves a given problem if a linearization function for it can be found is shown. It is proved that in general the question of whether a problem has an asynchronous solution is undecidable. Hence there exists no general algorithm that would automatically construct a suitable linearization function for a given problem. Therefore, an important subclass of problems that have certain commutativity properties are considered. Techniques for constructing asynchronous implementations for this class are presented. These techniques are useful for constructing efficient asynchronous implementations for a broad range of practical problems.

Getting the Message? Native Reactive Electrophiles Pass Two Out of Three Thresholds to be Bona Fide Signaling Mediators.

PubMed

Poganik, Jesse R; Long, Marcus J C; Aye, Yimon

2018-05-01

Precision cell signaling activities of reactive electrophilic species (RES) are arguably among the most poorly-understood means to transmit biological messages. Latest research implicates native RES to be a chemically-distinct subset of endogenous redox signals that influence cell decision making through non-enzyme-assisted modifications of specific proteins. Yet, fundamental questions remain regarding the role of RES as bona fide second messengers. Here, we lay out three sets of criteria we feel need to be met for RES to be considered as true cellular signals that directly mediate information transfer by modifying "first-responding" sensor proteins. We critically assess the available evidence and define the extent to which each criterion has been fulfilled. Finally, we offer some ideas on the future trajectories of the electrophile signaling field taking inspiration from work that has been done to understand canonical signaling mediators. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/rG7o0clVP0c. © 2018 WILEY Periodicals, Inc.

Performance Analysis of Distributed Object-Oriented Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schoeffler, James D.

1998-01-01

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of a distributed simulation architecture which creates individual modules which are made self-scheduling through the use of a message-based communication system used for requesting input data from another module which is the source of that data. To make the architecture as general as possible, the message-based communication architecture was implemented using standard remote object architectures (Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) and/or Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM)). A series of experiments were run in which different systems are distributed in a variety of ways across multiple computers and the performance evaluated. The experiments were duplicated in each case so that the overhead due to message communication and data transmission can be separated from the time required to actually perform the computational update of a module each iteration. The software used to distribute the modules across multiple computers was developed in the first year of the current grant and was modified considerably to add a message-based communication scheme supported by the DCOM distributed object architecture. The resulting performance was analyzed using a model created during the first year of this grant which predicts the overhead due to CORBA and DCOM remote procedure calls and includes the effects of data passed to and from the remote objects. A report covering the distributed simulation software and the results of the performance experiments has been submitted separately. The above report also discusses possible future work to apply the methodology to dynamically distribute the simulation modules so as to minimize overall computation time.

Messages about appearance, food, weight and exercise in "tween" television.

PubMed

Simpson, Courtney C; Kwitowski, Melissa; Boutte, Rachel; Gow, Rachel W; Mazzeo, Suzanne E

2016-12-01

Tweens (children ages ~8-14years) are a relatively recently defined age group, increasingly targeted by marketers. Individuals in this age group are particularly vulnerable to opinions and behaviors presented in media messages, given their level of cognitive and social development. However, little research has examined messages about appearance, food, weight, and exercise in television specifically targeting tweens, despite the popularity of this media type among this age group. This study used a content analytic approach to explore these messages in the five most popular television shows for tweens on the Disney Channel (as of 2015). Using a multiple-pass approach, relevant content in episodes from the most recently completed seasons of each show was coded. Appearance related incidents occurred in every episode; these most frequently mentioned attractiveness/beauty. Food related incidents were also present in every episode; typically, these situations were appearance and weight neutral. Exercise related incidents occurred in 53.3% of episodes; the majority expressed resistance to exercise. Weight related incidents occurred in 40.0% of the episodes; the majority praised the muscular ideal. Women were more likely to initiate appearance incidents, and men were more likely to initiate exercise incidents. These results suggest that programs specifically marketed to tweens reinforce appearance ideals, including stereotypes about female attractiveness and male athleticism, two constructs linked to eating pathology and body dissatisfaction. Given the developmental vulnerability of the target group, these findings are concerning, and highlight potential foci for prevention programming, including media literacy, for tweens. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Digital Self-Interference Cancellation for Asynchronous In-Band Full-Duplex Underwater Acoustic Communication.

PubMed

Qiao, Gang; Gan, Shuwei; Liu, Songzuo; Ma, Lu; Sun, Zongxin

2018-05-24

To improve the throughput of underwater acoustic (UWA) networking, the In-band full-duplex (IBFD) communication is one of the most vital pieces of research. The major drawback of IBFD-UWA communication is Self-Interference (SI). This paper presents a digital SI cancellation algorithm for asynchronous IBFD-UWA communication system. We focus on two issues: one is asynchronous communication dissimilar to IBFD radio communication, the other is nonlinear distortion caused by power amplifier (PA). First, we discuss asynchronous IBFD-UWA signal model with the nonlinear distortion of PA. Then, we design a scheme for asynchronous IBFD-UWA communication utilizing the non-overlapping region between SI and intended signal to estimate the nonlinear SI channel. To cancel the nonlinear distortion caused by PA, we propose an Over-Parameterization based Recursive Least Squares (RLS) algorithm (OPRLS) to estimate the nonlinear SI channel. Furthermore, we present the OPRLS with a sparse constraint to estimate the SI channel, which reduces the requirement of the length of the non-overlapping region. Finally, we verify our concept through simulation and the pool experiment. Results demonstrate that the proposed digital SI cancellation scheme can cancel SI efficiently.

A massively asynchronous, parallel brain.

PubMed

Zeki, Semir

2015-05-19

Whether the visual brain uses a parallel or a serial, hierarchical, strategy to process visual signals, the end result appears to be that different attributes of the visual scene are perceived asynchronously--with colour leading form (orientation) by 40 ms and direction of motion by about 80 ms. Whatever the neural root of this asynchrony, it creates a problem that has not been properly addressed, namely how visual attributes that are perceived asynchronously over brief time windows after stimulus onset are bound together in the longer term to give us a unified experience of the visual world, in which all attributes are apparently seen in perfect registration. In this review, I suggest that there is no central neural clock in the (visual) brain that synchronizes the activity of different processing systems. More likely, activity in each of the parallel processing-perceptual systems of the visual brain is reset independently, making of the brain a massively asynchronous organ, just like the new generation of more efficient computers promise to be. Given the asynchronous operations of the brain, it is likely that the results of activities in the different processing-perceptual systems are not bound by physiological interactions between cells in the specialized visual areas, but post-perceptually, outside the visual brain.

A Multi-Center Space Data System Prototype Based on CCSDS Standards

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rich, Thomas M.

2016-01-01

Deep space missions beyond earth orbit will require new methods of data communications in order to compensate for increasing Radio Frequency (RF) propagation delay. The Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) standard protocols Spacecraft Monitor & Control (SM&C), Asynchronous Message Service (AMS), and Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) provide such a method. However, the maturity level of this protocol stack is insufficient for mission inclusion at this time. This Space Data System prototype is intended to provide experience which will raise the Technical Readiness Level (TRL) of this protocol set. In order to reduce costs, future missions can take advantage of these standard protocols, which will result in increased interoperability between control centers. This prototype demonstrates these capabilities by implementing a realistic space data system in which telemetry is published to control center applications at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and the Johnson Space Center (JSC). Reverse publishing paths for commanding from each control center are also implemented. The target vehicle consists of realistic flight computer hardware running Core Flight Software (CFS) in the integrated Power, Avionics, and Power (iPAS) Pathfinder Lab at JSC. This prototype demonstrates a potential upgrade path for future Deep Space Network (DSN) modification, in which the automatic error recovery and communication gap compensation capabilities of DTN would be exploited. In addition, SM&C provides architectural flexibility by allowing new service providers and consumers to be added efficiently anywhere in the network using the common interface provided by SM&C's Message Abstraction Layer (MAL). In FY 2015, this space data system was enhanced by adding telerobotic operations capability provided by the Robot API Delegate (RAPID) family of protocols developed at NASA. RAPID is one of several candidates for consideration and inclusion in a new international standard being developed by the CCSDS Telerobotic Operations Working Group. Software gateways for the purpose of interfacing RAPID messages with the existing SM&C based infrastructure were developed. Telerobotic monitor, control, and bridge applications were written in the RAPID framework, which were then tailored to the NAO telerobotic test article hardware, a product of Aldebaran Robotics.

Scenario Decomposition for 0-1 Stochastic Programs: Improvements and Asynchronous Implementation

DOE PAGES

Ryan, Kevin; Rajan, Deepak; Ahmed, Shabbir

2016-05-01

We recently proposed scenario decomposition algorithm for stochastic 0-1 programs finds an optimal solution by evaluating and removing individual solutions that are discovered by solving scenario subproblems. In our work, we develop an asynchronous, distributed implementation of the algorithm which has computational advantages over existing synchronous implementations of the algorithm. Improvements to both the synchronous and asynchronous algorithm are proposed. We also test the results on well known stochastic 0-1 programs from the SIPLIB test library and is able to solve one previously unsolved instance from the test set.