Parallel simulation system for earthquake generation: Fault analysis modules and parallel coupling analysis

Solid earth simulations have recently been developed to address issues such as natural disasters, global environmental destruction and the conservation of natural resources. The simulation of solid earth phenomena involves the analysis of complex structures including strata, faults, and heterogeneous material properties. Simulation of the generation and cycle of earthquakes is particularly important, but such simulations require the analysis of complex fault dynamics. GeoFEM is a parallel finite-element analysis system intended for solid earth field phenomena problems. This paper describes recent development in the GeoFEM project for the simulation of earthquake generation and cycles.

Ovary colonization by Claviceps africana is related to ergot resistance in male-sterile sorghum lines

Ergot, caused by Claviceps africana, has emerged as a serious threat to sorghum hybrid seed production worldwide. In the absence of gene-for-gene-based qualitative resistance in commercial cultivars, varieties with high pollen production that can escape ergot infection are preferred. Recent demonstration of differences in ergot susceptibility among male-sterile lines has indicated the presence of partial resistance. Using chitin-specific fluorescin-isothiocyanate-conjugated wheat germ agglutin and callose-specific aniline blue, this study investigated the process of sorghum ovary colonization by C. africana. Conidia germinated within 24 h after inoculation (a.i.); the pathogen was established in the ovary by 79 h a.i., and at least half of the ovary was converted into sphacelial tissue by 120 h a.i. Changes in fungal cell wall chitin content and strategic callose deposition in the host tissue were associated with penetration and invasion of the ovary. The rate of ovary colonization differed in three male-sterile lines that also differed in ergot susceptibility. This work demonstrates a possible histological basis for partial resistance in male-sterile sorghum lines that could lay the foundation for variety improvement through further breeding and selection.

Selection of common bean lines with high grain yield and high grain calcium and iron concentrations

Genetic improvement of common bean nutritional quality has advantages in marketing and can contribute to society as a food source. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic variability for grain yield, calcium and iron concentrations in grains of inbred common bean lines obtained by different breeding methods. For this, 136 F7 inbred lines were obtained using the Pedigree method and 136 F7 inbred lines were obtained using the Single-Seed Descent (SSD) method. The lines showed genetic variability for grain yield, and concentrations of calcium and iron independently of the method of advancing segregating populations. The Pedigree method allows obtaining a greater number of lines with high grain yield. Selection using the SSD method allows the identification of a larger number of lines with high concentrations of calcium and iron in grains. Weak negative correlations were found between grain yield and calcium concentration (r = -0.0994) and grain yield and iron concentration (r = -0.3926). Several lines show genetic superiority for grain yield and concentrations of calcium and iron in grains and their selection can result in new common bean cultivars with high nutritional quality.

Kdd, semma crisp-dm: a parallel overviee

In the last years there has been a huge growth and consolidation of the Data Mining field. Some efforts are being done that seek the establishment of standards in the area. Included on these efforts there can be enumerated SEMMA and CRISP-DM. Both grow as industrial standards and define a set of sequential steps that pretends to guide the implementation of data mining applications. The question of the existence of substantial differences between them and the traditional KDD process arose. In this paper, is pretended to establish a parallel between these and the KDD process as well as an understanding of the similarities between them.

KDD, SEMMA and CRISP-DM: a parallel overview

In the last years there has been a huge growth and consolidation of the Data Mining field. Some efforts are being done that seek the establishment of standards in the area. Included on these efforts there can be enumerated SEMMA and CRISP-DM. Both grow as industrial standards and define a set of sequential steps that pretends to guide the implementation of data mining applications. The question of the existence of substantial differences between them and the traditional KDD process arose. In this paper, is pretended to establish a parallel between these and the KDD process as well as an understanding of the similarities between them.

Modelling of n-stage Blumlein stacked lines for bipolar pulse generation

A Blumlein line is a particular Pulse Forming Line, PFL, configuration that allows the generation of high-voltage sub-microsecond square pulses, with the same voltage amplitude as the dc charging voltage, into a matching load. By stacking n Blumlein lines one can multiply in theory by n the input dc voltage charging amplitude. In order to understand the operating behavior of this electromagnetic system and to further optimize its operation it is fundamental to theoretically model it, that is to calculate the voltage amplitudes at each circuit point and the time instant that happens. In order to do this, one needs to define the reflection and transmission coefficients where impedance discontinuity occurs. The experimental results of a fast solid-state switch, which discharges a three stage Blumlein stack, will be compared with theoretical ones.

Synthesis, characterization and antiproliferative activity on cancer cell lines of new ionic liquids from ampicillin

Ionic Liquids (ILs) are ionic compounds that possess melting temperature below 100ºC and they have been a topic of great interest since the mid-1990s due to their unique properties. The range of IL uses has been broadened, due to a significant increase in the variety of physical, chemical and biological ILs properties. They are now used as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and recent interests are focused on their application as innovative solutions in new medical treatment and delivery options.1 In this work, our principal objective was the synthesis and investigation of physicochemical and medical properties of ionic liquids (ILs) and organic salts from ampicillin. This approach is of huge interest in pharmaceutical industry as cation and anion composition of ILs and organic salts can greatly alter their desired properties, namely the melting temperature and even synergistic effects can be obtained.2,3 For the synthesis of these compounds we used a recently developed method proposed by Ohno et al.4 for the preparation of quaternary ammonium and phosphonium hydroxides, that were neutralized by ampicillin. After purification we obtained pure ILs and salts in good yields. These ILs shows good antimicrobial and antifungal activities. As it is well known that some ionic liquids containing phosphonium and ammonium cation also shows anti-cancer activity1,5 we also decided to study these compounds against some cancer cell lines.

Recuperação do calor de um efluente primário para aquecimento de lamas de um reactor anaeróbio

O presente trabalho tem como principal objectivo o estudo da possibilidade de recuperação de calor de um efluente proveniente do tratamento primário da fábrica do grupo Portucel Soporcel (fábrica produtora de pasta de papel), para o aquecimento da corrente de lamas do digestor anaeróbio da SimRia S.A. – ETAR Norte, (ambas localizadas em Cacia, distrito de Aveiro). A solução consiste na implementação de um sistema de permuta térmica entre estas duas correntes, constituído fundamentalmente por dois permutadores de placas em espiral, montados em paralelo que operam em contra-corrente. Segundo este novo sistema de aquecimento, as lamas abandonam o digestor anaeróbio da mesma ETAR a um caudal de 110 m3/h, que se dividirá em duas linhas, sendo admitidas em cada permutador a 55 m3/h e a uma temperatura de 32 ºC regressando ao digestor a uma temperatura de 37 ºC (temperatura óptima a que ocorre a digestão anaeróbia das lamas). O efluente disponível, abandona o tratamento primário da Portucel, a 45 ºC e é encaminhado até aos permutadores da SimRia S.A., onde vai trocar calor com as lamas e regressa à Portucel a 40ºC, sendo admitido nas torres de arrefecimento da fábrica de papel. A nova instalação proposta pretende substituir a actual existente na ETAR em causa, em que a corrente de água que aquece as lamas, circula num circuito fechado entre um único permutador e uma caldeira, alimentada com o biogás que se produz no digestor anaeróbio, e que é responsável pelo controlo da temperatura da corrente de água. Pretende-se que a implementação deste novo método de aquecimento de lamas seja uma alternativa económica relativamente ao actual sistema, uma vez que vai substituir a corrente de biogás alimentada à caldeira podendo este recurso ser transformado em energia eléctrica e posteriormente comercializada. A análise financeira realizada ao projecto demonstrou que o projecto é rentável, uma vez que, a diferença entre todos ganhos e custos ao fim dos 10 anos de vida útil estimados é de cerca de 150 000,0 €. O período de retorno do investimento é alcançado no final dos primeiros 6 anos e a taxa interna de rentabilidade obtida foi de 36 %. Posteriormente incluiu-se neste estudo a possibilidade de tratamento das lamas geradas na fábrica da Portucel na ETAR da SimRia recorrendo a um terceiro digestor. Conclui-se que se trata duma opção vantajosa, uma vez que permite obter um caudal de biogás 44 m3/h, que convertido em potência permite obter 150 kW que poderá ser aproveitado para produção de energia ou comercializado gerando uma receita adicional de 130 000,0 €/ano para as entidades envolvidas.

Parallel implementation of vertex component analysis for hyperspectral endmember extraction

International Conference with Peer Review 2012 IEEE International Conference in Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 22-27 July 2012, Munich, Germany

Power law and entropy analysis of catastrophic phenomena

Catastrophic events, such as wars and terrorist attacks, tornadoes and hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and landslides, are always accompanied by a large number of casualties. The size distribution of these casualties has separately been shown to follow approximate power law (PL) distributions. In this paper, we analyze the statistical distributions of the number of victims of catastrophic phenomena, in particular, terrorism, and find double PL behavior. This means that the data sets are better approximated by two PLs instead of a single one. We plot the PL parameters, corresponding to several events, and observe an interesting pattern in the charts, where the lines that connect each pair of points defining the double PLs are almost parallel to each other. A complementary data analysis is performed by means of the computation of the entropy. The results reveal relationships hidden in the data that may trigger a future comprehensive explanation of this type of phenomena.

Real-time scheduling of parallel tasks in the Linux Kernel

This paper proposes a global multiprocessor scheduling algorithm for the Linux kernel that combines the global EDF scheduler with a priority-aware work-stealing load balancing scheme, enabling parallel real-time tasks to be executed on more than one processor at a given time instant. We state that some priority inversion may actually be acceptable, provided it helps reduce contention, communication, synchronisation and coordination between parallel threads, while still guaranteeing the expected system’s predictability. Experimental results demonstrate the low scheduling overhead of the proposed approach comparatively to an existing real-time deadline-oriented scheduling class for the Linux kernel.

Supporting real-time parallel task models with work-stealing

Dynamic parallel scheduling using work-stealing has gained popularity in academia and industry for its good performance, ease of implementation and theoretical bounds on space and time. Cores treat their own double-ended queues (deques) as a stack, pushing and popping threads from the bottom, but treat the deque of another randomly selected busy core as a queue, stealing threads only from the top, whenever they are idle. However, this standard approach cannot be directly applied to real-time systems, where the importance of parallelising tasks is increasing due to the limitations of multiprocessor scheduling theory regarding parallelism. Using one deque per core is obviously a source of priority inversion since high priority tasks may eventually be enqueued after lower priority tasks, possibly leading to deadline misses as in this case the lower priority tasks are the candidates when a stealing operation occurs. Our proposal is to replace the single non-priority deque of work-stealing with ordered per-processor priority deques of ready threads. The scheduling algorithm starts with a single deque per-core, but unlike traditional work-stealing, the total number of deques in the system may now exceed the number of processors. Instead of stealing randomly, cores steal from the highest priority deque.

Parallel real-time support for distributed adaptive embedded applications

Real-time embedded applications require to process large amounts of data within small time windows. Parallelize and distribute workloads adaptively is suitable solution for computational demanding applications. The purpose of the Parallel Real-Time Framework for distributed adaptive embedded systems is to guarantee local and distributed processing of real-time applications. This work identifies some promising research directions for parallel/distributed real-time embedded applications.

A framework for the development of parallel and distributed real-time embedded systems

Embedded real-time applications increasingly present high computation requirements, which need to be completed within specific deadlines, but that present highly variable patterns, depending on the set of data available in a determined instant. The current trend to provide parallel processing in the embedded domain allows providing higher processing power; however, it does not address the variability in the processing pattern. Dimensioning each device for its worst-case scenario implies lower average utilization, and increased available, but unusable, processing in the overall system. A solution for this problem is to extend the parallel execution of the applications, allowing networked nodes to distribute the workload, on peak situations, to neighbour nodes. In this context, this report proposes a framework to develop parallel and distributed real-time embedded applications, transparently using OpenMP and Message Passing Interface (MPI), within a programming model based on OpenMP. The technical report also devises an integrated timing model, which enables the structured reasoning on the timing behaviour of these hybrid architectures.