Improving Short DNA Sequence Alignment with Parallel Computing

Variations in different types of genomes have been found to be responsible for a large degree of physical diversity such as appearance and susceptibility to disease. Identification of genomic variations is difficult and can be facilitated through computational analysis of DNA sequences. Newly available technologies are able to sequence billions of DNA base pairs relatively quickly. These sequences can be used to identify variations within their specific genome but must be mapped to a reference sequence first. In order to align these sequences to a reference sequence, we require mapping algorithms that make use of approximate string matching and string indexing methods. To date, few mapping algorithms have been tailored to handle the massive amounts of output generated by newly available sequencing technologies. In otrder to handle this large amount of data, we modified the popular mapping software BWA to run in parallel using OpenMPI. Parallel BWA matches the efficiency of multithreaded BWA functions while providing efficient parallelism for BWA functions that do not currently support multithreading. Parallel BWA shows significant wall time speedup in comparison to multithreaded BWA on high-performance computing clusters, and will thus facilitate the analysis of genome sequencing data.

Invoice for Goods - 28 May 1838

An invoice for goods bought in Port Robinson, 28, May 1838. The list of goods includes: Blue cloth, buttons & thread, high lace shoes etc. There is also a note which reads "To Mr. W. Cowen, Dear Sir, The above is the quantity of goods you wanted and as ---- the quality as may be. I hope they will suit him. I have not all the ------- for the vest & pant above, but have sent what I have. I could not procure a silk handkerchief of any kind. I think Mr. Donaldson will be up soon he is now at Toronto. Give my compliments to Mrs. Cowan & family no more at present" Robert Elliot

Invoice - Thorold Mills April 11th 1851

An Invoice for Mr. W. Cowan form Alex Hutchison, totalling $1000.00. The note at the bottom of the invoice reads "I have nothing to communicate as Mr. Parks is just writing you. Hoping you and your family are all well with respect I am dear Sir, Yours Truly Alex Hutchison"

Airplane Invoice, 1949

An invoice for a Luscombe Silvaire, Model 8-A Sky Pal plane with additional items installed. The total for the invoice is $2541.63 for all items. The invoice was made out by Aero Activities Limited, Barker Airport, Toronto 10, Ontario. There is a handwritten note at the top of the invoice that reads, "Our 1st airplane".