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Summary: The t$$ t $$‐admissibility is a min‐max problem that concerns to determine whether a graph G$$ G $$ contains a spanning tree T$$ T $$ in which the distance between any two adjacent vertices of G$$ G $$ is at most t$$ t $$ in T$$ T $$. The stretch index of G$$ G $$, σ(G)$$ \sigma (G) $$, is the smallest t$$ t $$ for which G$$ G $$ is t$$ t $$‐admissible. This problem is in P for t≤2$$ t\le 2 $$, NP‐complete for σ(G)≤t$$ \sigma (G)\le t $$, t≥4$$ t\ge 4 $$, and remaining open for t=3$$ t=3 $$. In a very recent development, Couto et al. (Inf Process Lett, 2022; 177: 106265) introduced both sequential and parallel algorithms for constructing spanning trees. Additionally, they proposed two greedy heuristics for generating a candidate solution tree, but they left unresolved the issue of how to decide between two vertices when both have equal chances of being chosen in a greedy step. This criterion is important, since different branches can yield different stretch indexes. In response to this question, we developed nine new heuristics that use the concept of vertex importance in complex networks. Our research evaluates results on several types of graphs, including Barabási‐Albert, Erdős‐Rényi, Watts‐Strogatz, and bipartite graphs. Furthermore, we introduce a new parallel algorithm that employs a method using induced cycle of the graph to compare its performance with previously proposed algorithms. We develop a deep analysis on the proposed strategies (parallel and heuristics) comparing all of them to the other ones in the literature and as a result we obtain the best results so far in order to obtain exact values (or heuristics) of stretch indexes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In pharmacokinetic studies for respiratory diseases, urea is a commonly used dilution marker for volume normalization of various biological matrices, owing to the fact that urea diffuses freely throughout the body and is minimally affected by disease states. In this study, we developed a convenient liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) surrogate matrix assay for accurate urea quantitation in plasma, serum and epithelial lining fluid. Different mass spectrometer platforms and ionization modes were compared in parallel. The LC method and mass spectrometer parameters were comprehensively optimized to reduce interferences, to smooth the baseline and to maximize the signal‐to‐noise ratio. Saline was selected as the surrogate matrix, and its suitability was confirmed by good parallelism and accurate quality control sample measurements. Reliable and robust assay performance was demonstrated by precision and accuracy, dilution integrity, sensitivity, recovery and stability, all of which met bioanalysis requirements to support clinical studies. The assay performance was also verified and better understood by comparing it with a colorimetric assay and to a surrogate analyte assay. The newly developed surrogate matrix assay has the potential to be further expanded for urea quantitation in numerous physiological matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A line coloring of PG(n,q) $\text{PG}(n,q)$, the n $n$‐dimensional projective space over GF(q) $(q)$, is an assignment of colors to all lines of PG(n,q) $\text{PG}(n,q)$ so that any two lines with the same color do not intersect. The chromatic index of PG(n,q) $\text{PG}(n,q)$, denoted by χ′(PG(n,q)) $\chi ^{\prime} (\text{PG}(n,q))$, is the least number of colors for which a coloring of PG(n,q) $\text{PG}(n,q)$ exists. This paper translates the problem of determining the chromatic index of PG(n,q) $\text{PG}(n,q)$ to the problem of examining the existences of PG(3,q) $\text{PG}(3,q)$ and PG(4,q) $\text{PG}(4,q)$ with certain properties. In particular, it is shown that for any odd integer n $n$ and q∈{3,4,8,16},χ′(PG(n,q))=(qn−1)∕(q−1) $q\in \{3,4,8,16\},\chi ^{\prime} (\text{PG}(n,q))=({q}^{n}-1)\unicode{x02215}(q-1)$, which implies the existence of a parallelism of PG(n,q) $\text{PG}(n,q)$ for any odd integer n $n$ and q∈{3,4,8,16} $q\in \{3,4,8,16\}$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: When large‐scale content‐based publish/subscribe systems face dynamic workloads, it is challenging to stabilize event delivery latency. In this article, we propose a latency‐aware parallelism framework (Lap) to address this challenge. Specifically, we propose a lightweight parallelism method called PhSIH for event matching algorithms. In addition, we design a reactive parallelism degree adjustment (RPDA) mechanism in the backpressure way to determine the parallelism degree. We implement Lap in Apache Kafka and evaluate the parallelism effect of PhSIH and the adaptability of RPDA on trace data. The experiment results demonstrate that PhSIH achieves linear speedup on three existing algorithms and RPDA possesses a desirable adaptability to the dynamic workloads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce a novel simulated certainty equivalent approximation (SCEQ) method for solving dynamic stochastic problems. Our examples show that SCEQ can quickly solve high‐dimensional finite‐ or infinite‐horizon, stationary or nonstationary dynamic stochastic problems with hundreds of state variables, a wide state space, and occasionally binding constraints. With the SCEQ method, a desktop computer will suffice for large problems, but it can also use parallel tools efficiently. The SCEQ method is simple, stable, and can utilize any solver, making it suitable for solving complex economic problems that cannot be solved by other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: It is well known that a good microsurgeon needs eight important factors: a high resolution view, an optimally magnified view, optimal brightness of the working field, optimal working space, fine surgical instruments and devices, fine motor skills, precise hand-eye coordination, and fine visual perceptions. Of these factors, the first five are highly depending on manufacturer development abilities. The remaining factors have a lots of possibilities that microsurgeons can improve by themselves. A microsurgeon needs to identify shape, size, angle, inclination, length, height, depth, spatial position, centering in the optical field, orthogonality, and parallelism in a second. Knowing one's tendency and acuity in perceptions, learning perceptions that one is not good at, and paying selective attention on one's difficult perceptions, will provide better surgical outcome. Aim of this series of research is designing visual targets measuring specific visual perceptions for microsurgeons, achieving mean values of each perceptions, and identifying the tendency on each perceptions. Material and Methods: Two hundred and eighty volunteer dentists in Japan and France were tested and multiple comparisons were made among age, gender, visual acuity, three magnification levels, and inclination angles against a standard target. Results and Coclusion: There is a tendency that identifying 1° misalignment in parallelism is difficult. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The White Sands lizards of New Mexico are a rare and classic example of convergent evolution where three species have evolved blanched coloration on the white gypsum dunes. Until now, no geological replicate of the pattern had been described. However, one of the White Sands species, the lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata), has been discovered to also inhabit the Salt Basin Dunes of Texas, where it has also evolved a blanched morph. We here present a first phenotypic and genetic description of the Salt Basin Dunes population of H. maculata. Phylogenetic inference based on a housekeeping gene (ND4) and a classic candidate gene in the melanin‐synthesis pathway (Melanocortin 1 Receptor; Mc1r) shows the newly discovered population as an independent lineage, with no evidence of genetic parallelism in the coding region of Mc1r. Initial morphological data suggest that while this population displays convergent evolution in blanched coloration, there are divergent patterns in limb length and habitat use behavior between the gypsum environments. Our findings present the White Sands/Salt Basin Dunes as an exceptionally promising comparative model for studies of adaptation and convergent evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The repeatability of evolution at the genetic level has been demonstrated to vary along a continuum from complete parallelism to divergence. In order to better understand why this continuum exists within and among systems, hypotheses must be tested using high‐confidence candidate loci for repeatability. However, few methods have been developed to scan SNP data for signatures specifically associated with repeatability, as opposed to local adaptation.We present AF‐vapeR (Allele Frequency Vector Analysis of Parallel Evolutionary Responses), an approach designed to identify genomic regions exhibiting highly correlated allele frequency changes within haplotypes and among replicated allele frequency change vectors. The method divides the genome into windows of an equivalent number of SNPs, and within each window performs eigen decomposition over normalised allele frequency change vectors (AFVs), each derived from a replicated pair of populations/species. Properties of the resulting eigenvalue distribution can be used to compare regions of the genome for those exhibiting strong geometric parallelism, and can also be compared against a null distribution derived from randomly permuted AFVs. Furthermore, the shape of the eigenvalue distribution can reveal multiple axes of parallelism within datasets.We demonstrate the utility of this approach to detect different modes of parallel evolution using simulations, and a reduced type‐II error rate compared with intersecting FST outliers. Lastly, we apply AF‐vapeR to four previously published datasets (stickleback, Drosophila, guppies and Galapagos finches) which comprise a range of sampling and sequencing strategies, and lineage ages. We detect known parallel regions while also identifying novel candidates.The main benefits of this approach include a reduced false‐negative rate under many conditions, an emphasis on signals associated specifically with repeatable evolution as opposed to local adaptation, and an opportunity to identify different modes of parallel evolution at the first instance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Standardised quantitative analysis of the humoral immune response to SARS‐CoV‐2 antigens may be useful for estimating the extent and duration of immunity. The aim was to develop enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) for the quantification of human IgG antibodies against SARS‐CoV‐2 antigens. Methods: Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assays were developed based on monoclonal antibodies against human IgG and recombinant SARS‐CoV‐2 antigens (Spike‐S1 and Nucleocapsid). The WHO 67/086 immunoglobulin and WHO 20/136 SARS‐CoV‐2 references were used for standardisation. Sera of a study group of COVID‐19‐positive subjects (n = 144), pre‐pandemic controls (n = 135) and individuals vaccinated with BioNTech–Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine (n = 48) were analysed. The study group sera were also tested using EuroImmun SARS‐CoV‐2‐ELISAs and a quantitative S1‐specific fluorescence enzyme immunoassay (FEIA) from Thermo Fisher. Results: The ELISA results were repeatable and traceable to international units because of their parallelism to both WHO references. In the study group, median anti‐S1‐IgG concentrations were 102 BAU mL−1, compared to 100 and 1457 BAU mL−1 in the vaccination group after first and second vaccination, respectively. The ELISAs achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.965 (S1) and 0.955 (Nucleocapsid) in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, and a specificity of 1 (S1) and 0.963 (Nucleocapsid) and sensitivity of 0.903 (S1) and 0.833 (Nucleocapsid) at the maximum Youden index. In comparison, the commercial assays (S1‐FEIA, S1 and Nucleocapsid ELISA EuroImmun) achieved sensitivities of 0.764, 0.875 and 0.882 in the study group, respectively. Conclusions: The quantitative ELISAs to measure IgG binding to SARS‐CoV‐2 antigens have good analytical and clinical performance characteristics and units traceable to international standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recapitulation is a hypothetical concept that assumes embryogenesis of an animal parallels its own phylogenetic history, sequentially developing from more ancestral features to more derived ones. This concept predicts that the earliest developmental stage of various animals should represent the most evolutionarily conserved patterns. Recent transcriptome‐based studies, on the other hand, have reported that mid‐embryonic, organogenetic periods show the highest level of conservation (the developmental hourglass model). This, however, does not rule out the possibility that recapitulation would still be detected after the mid‐embryonic period. In accordance with this, recapitulation‐like morphological features are enriched in late developmental stages. Moreover, our recent chromatin accessibility‐based study provided molecular evidence for recapitulation in the mid‐to‐late embryogenesis of vertebrates, as newly evolved gene regulatory elements tended to be activated at late embryonic stages. In this review, we revisit the recapitulation hypothesis, together with recent molecular‐based studies that support the developmental hourglass model. We contend that the recapitulation hypothesis does not entirely contradict the developmental hourglass model and that these two may even coexist in later embryonic stages of vertebrates. Finally, we review possible mechanisms underlying the recapitulation pattern of chromatin accessibility together with the hourglass‐like evolutionary conservation in vertebrate embryogenesis. Research Highlights: Recapitulation pattern has been reported for chromatin accessibility during the mid‐to‐late embryogenesis.The observed recapitulation pattern and the developmental hourglass model may coexist.The possible evolutionary mechanisms underlying tendencies of embryonic evolution were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper presents semi‐automatic software refactorings to introduce and tune structured parallelism in sequential Erlang code, as well as to generate code for running computations on GPUs and possibly other accelerators. Our refactorings are based on the lapedo framework for programming heterogeneous multi‐core systems in Erlang. lapedo is based on the PaRTE refactoring tool and also contains (1) a set of hybrid skeletons that target both CPU and GPU processors, (2) novel refactorings for introducing and tuning parallelism, and (3) a tool to generate the GPU offloading and scheduling code in Erlang, which is used as a component of hybrid skeletons. We demonstrate, on four realistic use‐case applications, that we are able to refactor sequential code and produce heterogeneous parallel versions that can achieve significant and scalable speedups of up to 220 over the original sequential Erlang program on a 24‐core machine with a GPU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: It was estimated there would be 72 million users using spreadsheets monthly in 2017 some of which build complex financial, scientific, and mathematical models. Most of these end‐users are not trained IT professionals but domain experts. In the age of multicore computing and ever‐increasing amounts of data, how can end‐users access this powerful, parallel hardware to accelerate spreadsheet computation? Some existing solutions are usually not fully automatic and require a level of interaction from end‐users to facilitate parallel execution. Ideally, an end‐user tool would transparently exploit the underlying hardware and automatically discover available parallelism in the spreadsheet without any required interaction. This article presents an algorithm for automatic parallel evaluation of the cells in a spreadsheet and dynamic, parallel cycle detection. It is implemented in the Funcalc research spreadsheet application which supports higher‐order functions in the spreadsheet paradigm. Altogether, this promises a powerful and expressive platform for end‐user development. Our results on a 48 logical core machine show a maximum 7–14× speed‐up on a set of benchmark spreadsheets and a maximum 21–32× speed‐up on a set of synthetic spreadsheets with predefined topologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Most scientific experiments can be modeled as workflows. These workflows are usually computing‐ and data‐intensive, demanding the use of high‐performance computing environments such as clusters, grids, and clouds. This latter offers the advantage of the elasticity, which allows for changing the number of virtual machines (VMs) on demand. Workflows are typically managed using scientific workflow management systems (SWfMS). Many existing SWfMSs offer support for cloud‐based execution. Each SWfMS has its scheduler that follows a well‐defined cost function. However, such cost functions should consider the characteristics of a dynamic environment, such as live migrations or performance fluctuations, which are far from trivial to model. This article proposes a novel scheduling strategy, named ReASSIgN, based on reinforcement learning (RL). By relying on an RL technique, one may assume that there is an optimal (or suboptimal) solution for the scheduling problem, and aims at learning the best scheduling based on previous executions in the absence of a mathematical model of the environment. For this, an extension of a well‐known workflow simulator WorkflowSim is proposed to implement an RL strategy for scheduling workflows. Once the scheduling plan is generated via simulation, the workflow is executed in the cloud using SciCumulus SWfMS. We conducted a throughout evaluation of the proposed scheduling strategy using a real astronomy workflow named Montage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: C∀ is a polymorphic, nonobject‐oriented, concurrent, backwards compatible extension of the C programming language. This paper discusses the design philosophy and implementation of its advanced control‐flow and concurrent/parallel features, along with the supporting runtime written in C∀. These features are created from scratch as ISO C has only low‐level and/or unimplemented concurrency, so C programmers continue to rely on library approaches like pthreads. C∀ introduces modern language‐level control‐flow mechanisms, like generators, coroutines, user‐level threading, and monitors for mutual exclusion and synchronization. The runtime provides significant programmer simplification and safety by eliminating spurious wakeup and monitor barging. The runtime also ensures multiple monitors can be safely acquired in a deadlock‐free way, and this feature is fully integrated with all monitor synchronization mechanisms. All control‐flow features integrate with the C∀ polymorphic type‐system and exception handling, while respecting the expectations and style of C programmers. Experimental results show comparable performance of the new features with similar mechanisms in other concurrent programming languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Computer‐assisted implant surgery (CAIS) can facilitate accuracy of single implant placement, but little is known with regards to parallelism between multiple implants. Purpose To compare the accuracy of position and parallelism of two implants, using static and dynamic CAIS systems. Materials and methods: Thirty patients received two implants (60 implants) randomly allocated to two different CAIS systems. Optimal implant position and absolute parallelism was planned based on preoperative cone beam CT (CBCT). Patients received implants with a surgical guide (static CAIS, n = 30) or real‐time navigation (dynamic CAIS, n = 30). Implant three‐dimensional deviation and parallelism was calculated after surgery. Results: The mean 3D deviation in the static and dynamic CAIS group at implant platform were 1.04 ± 0.67 vs 1.24 ± 0.39 mm, at apex were 1.54 ± 0.79 vs 1.58 ± 0.56 mm and angulation were 4.08° ± 1.69° vs 3.78° ± 1.84°, respectively. The angle deviations between two placed implants (parallelism) in static and dynamic CAIS groups were 4.32° ± 2.44° and 3.55° ± 2.29°, respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in all parameters between groups. Conclusion: Static and dynamic CAIS provides similar accuracy of the 3D implant position and parallelism between two implants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic underpinnings of incipient speciation, including the genomic mechanisms which contribute to morphological and ecological differentiation and reproductive isolation, remain poorly understood. The repeated evolution of consistently, phenotypically distinct morphs of Arctic Charr (Salvelinus alpinus) within the Quaternary period offer an ideal model to study the repeatability of evolution at the genomic level. Sympatric morphs of Arctic Charr are found across this species' circumpolar distribution. However, the specific genetic mechanisms driving this morph differentiation are largely unknown despite the cultural and economic importance of the anadromous morph. We used a newly designed 87k SNP chip to investigate the character and consistency of the genomic differences among sympatric morphs within three recently deglaciated and geographically proximate lakes in Labrador, Canada. We found genetically distinct small and large morph Arctic Charr in all three lakes consistent with resident and anadromous morphs, respectively. A degree of reproductive isolation among sympatric morphs is likely given genome‐wide distributions of outlier SNPs and high genome‐wide FSTs. Across all lakes, outlier SNPs were largely nonoverlapping suggesting a lack of genetic parallelism driving morph differentiation. Alternatively, several genes and paralogous copies of the same gene consistently differentiated morphs across multiple lakes suggesting their importance to the manifestation of morphs. Our results confirm the utility of Arctic Charr as a model for investigating the predictability of evolution and support the importance of both genetic parallelism and nonparallelism to the incipient speciation of Arctic Charr morphs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing demand for high‐performance computing has emphasised the invocation of sophisticated multi/many‐core computing architecture. Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) is considered to be an essential innovation in this regard as GPU offers a significant amount of parallelism in the execution of complex computing applications. The performance of GPUs in reducing the computational time of such applications is worth mentioning. Although GPUs appear to be a problem‐solving solution for complex applications yet high power consumption has been a challenging problem, associated with this many‐core computer architecture. Efficient resource management is a emerging and promising solution to this challenge; however, reducing the resources would degrade the system's overall performance. On the other hand, reducing the resources based on the analysis of workload can save significant power without degrading the system's overall performance. Therefore, a smart controller to optimise the resources of general purpose‐GPU (GP‐GPU) architecture is required. AFBRMC‐2, a neuro‐fuzzy type‐2 based controller, is presented for GP‐GPU architecture and, based on a feedback mechanism, keeps analysing the stats of processor and manages resources using dynamic voltage frequency scaling and core gating techniques. The proposed controller achieved up to 55% reduction in power consumption against various benchmarks on the NVIDIA TK1 GPU kit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper focuses on parallel implementations of three two‐dimensional explicit numerical methods on Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processor and the coprocessor Knights Landing. In this study, the performance of a hybrid parallel programming with message passing interface (MPI) and Open Multi‐Processing (OpenMP) and a pure MPI implementation used with two thread binding policies is compared with an improved OpenMP‐based implementation in three explicit finite‐difference methods for solving partial differential equations on shared‐memory multicore and manycore systems. Specifically, the improved OpenMP‐based version is a strategy that synchronizes adjacent threads and eliminates the implicit barriers of a naïve OpenMP‐based implementation. The experiments show that the most suitable approach depends on several characteristics related to the nonuniform memory access (NUMA) effect and load balancing, such as the size of the MPI domain and the number of synchronization points used in the parallel implementation. In algorithms that use four and five synchronization points, hybrid MPI/OpenMP approaches yielded better speedups than the other versions did in runs performed on both systems. The pure MPI‐based strategy, however, achieved better results than the other proposed approaches did in the method that employs only one synchronization point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a measurement method for a bike frame to solve a problem that usually relies on the digimatic callipers or mechanical molds handled by a human, therefore avoiding a long time process and measurement errors. In such a mechanism, the measured data is based on the handwritten record, and thus a difficulty may occur in further data analysis using the computer. For this reason, this study aims to develop a mathematical model of three‐dimensional geometry especially applied for robotic arm‐based bike frame measurement. The proposed mathematical geometric model effectively integrates the sphere formula with the inner product of normal vector to find four parameters in the sphere formula using only three measured points. Accordingly, the centre coordinate of the check point and its diameter can be calculated accurately and simply. The practical model performance also prooves that all crucial quality checking items such as centre plane offset, inside diameter, axis point and parallelism in different rotating shafts of bike frame can be achieved in term of rapid, robustness and precision. Moreover, the measurement accuracy in the estimated standard deviation and measurement uncertainty using two different bike frames is presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bootstrap particle filter (BPF) is the cornerstone of many algorithms used for solving generally intractable inference problems with hidden Markov models. The long-term stability of the BPF arises from particle interactions that typically make parallel implementations of the BPF nontrivial. We propose a method whereby particle interaction is done in several stages. With the proposed method, full interaction can be accomplished even if we allow only pairwise communications between processing elements at each stage. We show that our method preserves the consistency and the long-term stability of the BPF, although our analysis suggests that the constraints on the stagewise interactions introduce errors leading to a lower convergence rate than standard Monte Carlo. The proposed method also suggests a new, more flexible, adaptive resampling scheme, which, according to our numerical experiments, is the method of choice, displaying a notable gain in efficiency in certain parallel computing scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The advent of big data technologies has changed the way many companies manage their data. Several companies moved their data to the cloud using the concept of database‐as‐a‐service (DBaaS). Moving databases to the cloud presents several challenges related to flexible and scalable management of data. Although some of these companies migrated to NoSQL databases, most still rely on relational databases in the cloud to manage data, especially data that is critical to the decision making process. Online analytical processing (OLAP) queries take a long time to be processed, thus demanding high‐performance capabilities from their associated database systems to get results in a feasible time. In this article, we propose a middleware solution that can be deployed in any cloud provider, named C‐ParGRES, which explores database replication and interquery and intraquery parallelism to efficiently support OLAP queries in the cloud. C‐ParGRES is an extension of ParGRES, an open‐source database cluster middleware for high‐performance OLAP query processing in clusters. C‐ParGRES exploits cloud capabilities such as on‐demand resource provisioning and elasticity. In addition, C‐ParGRES can create multiple and independent virtual clusters for different database and users. We evaluate C‐ParGRES with two real‐world OLAP applications, both from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Results show that C‐ParGRES is a cost‐effective solution for OLAP query processing in the cloud. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the applications in network coding, subspace codes and designs have received many attentions. Suppose that k∣n and V(n,q) is an n‐dimensional space over the finite field Fq. A k‐spread is a (qn−1)/(qk−1)‐set of k‐dimensional subspaces of V(n,q) such that each nonzero vector is contained in exactly one element of it. A partial k‐parallelism in V(n,q) is a set of pairwise disjoint k‐spreads. As the number of k‐dimensional subspaces in V(n,q) is nkq, there are at most n−1k−1q spreads in a partial k‐parallelism. By studying the independence numbers of Cayley graphs associated to a special type of partial k‐parallelisms in V(n,q), we obtain new lower bounds for partial k‐parallelisms. In particular, we show that there exist at least qk−1qn−1n−1k−1q pairwise disjoint k‐spreads in V(n,q). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orthodontic brackets, specifically in their slots, are responsible for receiving active orthodontic forces and transferring them to the teeth to be moved. The presence of an altered slot or inaccurate dimensions can influence the mechanical relationship between the bracket and archwire, interfering with the biomechanics of tooth movement. The objective of this study was by comparing the accuracy of slot placement of upper right lateral incisor metal brackets for Bioprogressive Ricketts therapy from five trademarks. The following characteristics were evaluated: height, torque, and internal parallelism of the walls of the slot. The sample included 75 brackets, 15 each from the following trademarks: 3M Abzil, Forestadent, Morelli Rocky Mountain Orthodontics, and Tecnident. Images of the slot profiles were obtained through standardized techniques using scanning electron microscopy, measured by the AutoCAD 2017 software, and compared to Ricketts prescription, respecting standard deviation with the technical and tolerance parameters present in standard ISO 27020. The results indicated that most of the evaluated characteristics were in accordance with the standard parameters, considering the tolerance adopted. There were exceptions found to this pattern of precision in the 3M Abzil brackets with regard to torque variation, and the Morelli brackets in relation to height variation and parallelism between the walls of the slot. Considering the measured dimensional characteristics, the metal brackets used in Bioprogressive Ricketts therapy has satisfactory pattern accuracy; however, there are still some specific inaccuracies in brackets from certain brands that can require more attention during the detailing phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensembles of data assimilations (EDA) in numerical weather prediction (NWP) are frequently used for both initialization of ensemble prediction systems and provision of background‐error statistics to a deterministic variational data assimilation scheme. The EDA consists of running multiple data assimilation schemes in parallel with perturbed observations and backgrounds. This kind of ensemble is computationally expensive, in particular because it requires the solution of as many linear systems as there are members in the ensemble. Recently, we proposed the use of block Krylov methods to take advantage of the EDA structure to solve all the linear systems simultaneously, allowing us to reduce the number of iterations needed for convergence. This approach is studied further in this article. We develop advanced parallelization strategies for the block Krylov method formulated in observation space using the Object‐Oriented Prediction System (OOPS) jointly developed by the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts, Météo‐France, and their partners. The algorithm is fully tested with the EDA of the limited‐area model AROME of Météo‐France, for different weather situations and configurations representative of the current system, namely assimilating around 104–105 observations together with 25 members. This new block Krylov approach allows us to gain from 13–45% of the computational time of the minimizations. Experiments with extended configurations that assimilate more observations and use more ensemble members confirm the potential of the algorithm in the future, with gains of up to 65%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The monitoring of factor VIII (FVIII) replacement therapy relies on the accurate measurement of FVIII activity over a large concentration range. However, unexplained overestimation of low FVIII levels has recently been reported with extended half‐life recombinant FVIIIs. Aim: The objective of this study was to confirm previous publications indicating that the reagents used to generate the calibration curves determine the accuracy of the measurement of low FVIII levels. Methods: We generated FVIII calibration curves with FVIII‐deficient plasmas or a commercial diluent buffer. We then measured FVIII levels in FVIII‐deficient plasma spiked with plasma FVIII, a full‐length recombinant FVIII (Advate®, Shire, Brussels, Belgium) and two extended half‐life recombinant FVIIIs (Elocta® , Swedish Orphan Biovitrum, Woluwe Saint‐Lambert, Belgium and Afstyla®, CSL Behring, Mechelen, Belgium). FVIII levels were also analyzed in spiked samples prediluted two‐ and fourfold, either in diluent buffer or in FVIII‐deficient plasma to evaluate parallelism. Results: Coagulation times of calibration curves generated with diluent buffer were longer than those with FVIII‐deficient plasmas. This resulted in an overestimation of FVIII levels lower than 25 IU/dL in spiked samples and in detection of FVIII activity (≥1 IU/dL) in FVIII‐deficient plasma. Predilution of samples with diluent buffer rather than with FVIII‐deficient plasma also led to discordant results. Conclusion: Our data confirm that the generation of calibration curves by dilution in FVIII‐deficient plasma is crucial for the accurate measurement of low FVIII levels. When serial dilutions of samples are analyzed, predilution in FVIII‐deficient plasma is required to respect the parallelism criteria. These methods should be more generally implemented for coagulation instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Letter introduces an optimisation method that is based on parallelism to simulate the behaviour of foraging ants using spiking neural P (SN P) systems. The proposed method is designed by collaborating several SN P systems to obtain a polynomial time optimal solution. The complexity and reliability of the method have been verified. A theoretical analysis has been performed on the measures of complexity and proved the efficiency of the scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The USP<1032> guidelines recommend the screening of bioassay data for outliers prior to performing a relative potency (RP) analysis. The guidelines, however, do not offer advice on the size or type of outlier that should be removed prior to model fitting and calculation of RP. Computer simulation was used to investigate the consequences of ignoring the USP<1032> guidance to remove outliers. For biotherapeutics and vaccines, outliers in potency data may result in the false acceptance/rejection of a bad/good lot of drug product. Biological activity, measured through a potency bioassay, is considered a critical quality attribute in manufacturing. If the concentration‐response potency curve of a test sample is deemed to be similar in shape to that of the reference standard, the curves are said to exhibit constant RP, an essential criterion for the interpretation of a RP. One or more outliers in the concentration‐response data, however, may result in a failure to declare similarity or may yield a biased RP estimate. Concentration‐response curves for test and reference were computer generated with constant RP from four‐parameter logistic curves. Single outlier, multiple outlier, and whole‐curve outlier scenarios were explored for their effects on the similarity testing and on the RP estimation. Though the simulations point to situations for which outlier removal is unnecessary, the results generally support the USP<1032> recommendation and illustrate the impact on the RP calculation when application of outlier removal procedures are discounted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of efficiently solving ensembles of variational data assimilations in the context of numerical weather prediction. Running several assimilations notably allows us to initialize ensemble prediction systems and to more accurately represent background‐error statistics, but is computationally expensive, limiting ensemble size. We propose a new class of algorithms for speeding up the minimization of the ensemble of data assimilations. It consists of using block Krylov methods to simultaneously perform the minimization for all members of the ensemble, instead of performing each minimization separately. We develop preconditioned block Krylov versions of the Full Orthogonal Method and of the Lanczos algorithm in both primal and dual space. The latter works in observation space that is usually of smaller dimension than the state space, thus giving an advantage in terms of memory requirements and computational cost. We describe and compare several parallelization strategies for speeding up the minimization and limiting the communications. These methods have been tested on a quasi‐geostrophic system, consisting of a simplified atmospheric circulation model equipped with an ensemble of 3D‐Var schemes tuned to mimic some features of a limited‐area numerical weather prediction system. Experimentation shows that the number of iterations needed to converge is drastically reduced by the block Krylov approaches. We indicate that, while working in primal space does not save significant computational time, working in the dual space may reduce the computational time by a factor of 2 to 5 (depending on ensemble size) compared to standard Krylov methods, making our approach attractive for operational use. Illustration of the two workload distributions implemented in this work on the AROME‐France domain for four MPI processes and two members in the ensemble. (a) Workload geographical distribution (no distribution by member), as used in the SEQ version of block B‐FOM. (b) Workload distribution by member, combined with an underlying geographical distribution, as used in the MPI and MPIstored versions of block B‐FOM, and in B‐FOM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper presents the development and implementation of an independent component analysis (ICA)–based background subtraction method on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) system on a chip (SoC) with embedded processor. The use of the classic form of ICA for this purpose results in a complex implementation with high hardware resource usage for an embedded system. Therefore, an alternative version of FastICA was developed that adapts directly to the parallelism offered by the FPGA. In addition, the incorporation of this version of ICA into the motion‐detection method exploits the architecture of the FPGA‐SoC with embedded processor. This recent technology complements the parallelism of the FPGA with the general‐purpose computing capacity of the processors while maintaining low energy consumption and a compact size. The above features are appropriate for autonomous devices that handle mainly background subtraction, while a central device receives this information and performs the remaining tasks required for the application. The use of processors allows a faster implementation and integration of the device into other systems in a simple manner, while the parallelism of the FPGA increases the processing speed by accelerating intensive numeric calculations. The results obtained from the implementation that uses both FPGA and the embedded processor of the SoC show an increase of 3300% in the number of frames per second compared with an implementation that uses only the embedded processor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The rough periwinkle, Littorina saxatilis, is a model system for studying parallel ecological speciation in microparapatry. Phenotypically parallel wave‐adapted and crab‐adapted ecotypes that hybridize within the middle shore are replicated along the northwestern coast of Spain and have likely arisen from two separate glacial refugia. We tested whether greater geographic separation corresponding to reduced opportunity for contemporary or historical gene flow between parallel ecotypes resulted in less parallel genomic divergence. We sequenced double‐digested restriction‐associated DNA (ddRAD) libraries from individual snails from upper, mid, and low intertidal levels of three separate sites colonized from two separate refugia. Outlier analysis of 4256 SNP markers identified 34.4% sharing of divergent loci between two geographically close sites; however, these sites each shared only 9.9%–15.1% of their divergent loci with a third more‐distant site. STRUCTURE analysis revealed that genotypes from only three of 166 phenotypically intermediate mid‐shore individuals appeared to result from recent hybridization, suggesting that hybrids cannot be reliably identified using shell traits. Hierarchical AMOVA indicated that the primary source of genomic differentiation was geographic separation, but also revealed greater similarity of the same ecotype across the two geographically close sites than previously estimated with dominant markers. These results from a model system for ecological speciation suggest that genomic parallelism is affected by the opportunity for historical or contemporary gene flow between populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: I offer poetic parallelism as evidence for an ethnography of authoritarian power in Laos and as a conceptual frame for understanding hazards in ethnography and anthropological knowledge production. Parallel poems take the form of juxtaposed statements, often characterized by multiplicity and contradiction. In an authoritarian context marked by state violence, the very form of the parallels is data on Lao society. I examine poetic parallels as a provocation to write field poems rather than field notes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Miscommunication phenomena such as repair in dialogue are important indicators of the quality of communication. Automatic detection is therefore a key step toward tools that can characterize communication quality and thus help in applications from call center management to mental health monitoring. However, most existing computational linguistic approaches to these phenomena are unsuitable for general use in this way, and particularly for analyzing human–human dialogue: Although models of other‐repair are common in human‐computer dialogue systems, they tend to focus on specific phenomena (e.g., repair initiation by systems), missing the range of repair and repair initiation forms used by humans; and while self‐repair models for speech recognition and understanding are advanced, they tend to focus on removal of “disfluent” material important for full understanding of the discourse contribution, and/or rely on domain‐specific knowledge. We explain the requirements for more satisfactory models, including incrementality of processing and robustness to sparsity. We then describe models for self‐ and other‐repair detection that meet these requirements (for the former, an adaptation of an existing repair model; for the latter, an adaptation of standard techniques) and investigate how they perform on datasets from a range of dialogue genres and domains, with promising results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Tunnel field‐effect transistors (TFETs) are one of the most attractive steep subthreshold slope devices currently being investigated as a means of overcoming the power density and energy inefficiency limitations of Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between devices and register transfer–level architecture choices. We claim that architectural issues should be considered when evaluating this type of transistors because of the differences in delay versus supply voltage behavior exhibited by TFET logic gates with respect to CMOS gates. More specifically, the potential of pipelining and parallelism, both of which rely on lowering supply voltage, as power reduction techniques is evaluated and compared for CMOS and TFET technologies. The results obtained show significantly larger savings in power and energy per clock cycle for the TFET designs than for their CMOS counterparts, especially at low voltages. Pipelining and parallelism make it possibly to fully exploit the distinguishing characteristics of TFETs, and their relevance as competitive TFET circuit design solutions should be explored in greater depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT While much of evolutionary biology attempts to explain the processes of diversification, there is an important place for the study of phenotypic similarity across life forms. When similar phenotypes evolve independently in different lineages this is referred to as convergent evolution. Although long recognised, evolutionary convergence is receiving a resurgence of interest. This is in part because new genomic data sets allow detailed and tractable analysis of the genetic underpinnings of convergent phenotypes, and in part because of renewed recognition that convergence may reflect limitations in the diversification of life. In this review we propose that although convergent evolution itself does not require a new evolutionary framework, none the less there is room to generate a more systematic approach which will enable evaluation of the importance of convergent phenotypes in limiting the diversity of life's forms. We therefore propose that quantification of the frequency and strength of convergence, rather than simply identifying cases of convergence, should be considered central to its systematic comprehension. We provide a non-technical review of existing methods that could be used to measure evolutionary convergence, bringing together a wide range of methods. We then argue that quantification also requires clear specification of the level at which the phenotype is being considered, and argue that the most constrained examples of convergence show similarity both in function and in several layers of underlying form. Finally, we argue that the most important and impressive examples of convergence are those that pertain, in form and function, across a wide diversity of selective contexts as these persist in the likely presence of different selection pressures within the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a learning parallel constraint programming (CP) solver designed for solving CP problems with several instances on massively parallel computing platforms comprising multi-core parallel machines or Many Integrated Cores. The CP solver proposed in this work is based on a Portfolio parallelization that employs a linear reward inaction learning algorithm in order to obtain the best possible performance for a large set of instances of the same problem. The linear reward inaction algorithm enables the prediction of the number of cores to be assigned to each search strategy based on previous experiments, reducing the computing time required to solve constraint satisfaction and optimization problems. The underlying principle of the Portfolio approach is to run N sequential search strategies using N computing cores ( N To N Portfolio) where each core uses its own strategy in order to perform a search that is different from strategies used by the other cores. The first strategy that finds a solution stops all other strategies. The problem with the N To N Portfolio approach is that the number of search strategies is very small compared with the current number of computing cores used by the parallel machines. However, using an internal parallelization for each search strategy, it is possible to run N parallel search using P computing cores with P ≫ N ( N To P Portfolio). This N To P Portfolio performs suboptimally for solving different CP problems because many computing resources are wasted. To improve this Portfolio model, an adaptive N To P Portfolio was proposed, which tries to privilege the strategy that is most likely to find a solution first in order to give it more computing cores than the other strategies. However, the main problem with the adaptive Portfolio is that it loses all the learned information at the end of each search; it is designed to solve just one CP problem. Furthermore, many computational resources are wasted by both Portfolio solvers, the non-adaptive ( N To N and N To P) and the adaptive N To P Portfolio, when employed in some industrial projects, such as the PAJERO project, which always solves different instances of the same CP problem. To minimize the amount of wasted resources and to learn the most efficient search strategies, we propose a new learning Portfolio solver that uses a learning algorithm that configures automatically number of cores to each search. The performance obtained using the different Portfolio solvers is compared and illustrated by solving CP problems using as example the Google OR-Tools solver. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We construct all regular parallelisms of [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JavaScript web applications are improving performance mainly thanks to the inclusion of new standards by HTML5. Among others, web workers API allows multithreaded JavaScript web apps to exploit parallel processors. However, developers have difficulties to determine the minimum number of web workers that provide the highest performance. But even if developers found out this optimal number, it is a static value configured at the beginning of the execution. Because users tend to execute other applications in background, the estimated number of web workers could be non-optimal, because it may overload or underutilize the system. In this paper, we propose a solution for highly parallel web apps to dynamically adapt the number of running web workers to the actual available resources, avoiding the hassle to estimate a static optimal number of threads. The solution consists in the inclusion of a web worker pool and a simple management algorithm in the web app. Even though there are co-running applications, the results show our approach dynamically enables a number of web workers close to the optimal. Our proposal, which is independent of the web browser, overcomes the lack of knowledge of the underlying processor architecture as well as dynamic resources availability changes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Symbolic computation has underpinned a number of key advances in Mathematics and Computer Science. Applications are typically large and potentially highly parallel, making them good candidates for parallel execution at a variety of scales from multi-core to high-performance computing systems. However, much existing work on parallel computing is based around numeric rather than symbolic computations. In particular, symbolic computing presents particular problems in terms of varying granularity and irregular task sizes that do not match conventional approaches to parallelisation. It also presents problems in terms of the structure of the algorithms and data. This paper describes a new implementation of the free open-source GAP computational algebra system that places parallelism at the heart of the design, dealing with the key scalability and cross-platform portability problems. We provide three system layers that deal with the three most important classes of hardware: individual shared memory multi-core nodes, mid-scale distributed clusters of (multi-core) nodes and full-blown high-performance computing systems, comprising large-scale tightly connected networks of multi-core nodes. This requires us to develop new cross-layer programming abstractions in the form of new domain-specific skeletons that allow us to seamlessly target different hardware levels. Our results show that, using our approach, we can achieve good scalability and speedups for two realistic exemplars, on high-performance systems comprising up to 32000 cores, as well as on ubiquitous multi-core systems and distributed clusters. The work reported here paves the way towards full-scale exploitation of symbolic computation by high-performance computing systems, and we demonstrate the potential with two major case studies. © 2016 The Authors. Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Populations arrayed along broad latitudinal gradients often show patterns of clinal variation in phenotype and genotype. Such population differentiation can be generated and maintained by both historical demographic events and local adaptation. These evolutionary forces are not mutually exclusive and can in some cases produce nearly identical patterns of genetic differentiation among populations. Here, we investigate the evolutionary forces that generated and maintain clinal variation genome-wide among populations of Drosophila melanogaster sampled in North America and Australia. We contrast patterns of clinal variation in these continents with patterns of differentiation among ancestral European and African populations. Using established and novel methods we derive here, we show that recently derived North America and Australia populations were likely founded by both European and African lineages and that this hybridization event likely contributed to genome-wide patterns of parallel clinal variation between continents. The pervasive effects of admixture mean that differentiation at only several hundred loci can be attributed to the operation of spatially varying selection using an F ST outlier approach. Our results provide novel insight into the well-studied system of clinal differentiation in D. melanogaster and provide a context for future studies seeking to identify loci contributing to local adaptation in a wide variety of organisms, including other invasive species as well as temperate endemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examples of clinal variation in phenotypes and genotypes across latitudinal transects have served as important models for understanding how spatially varying selection and demographic forces shape variation within species. Here, we examine the selective and demographic contributions to latitudinal variation through the largest comparative genomic study to date of Drosophila simulans and Drosophila melanogaster, with genomic sequence data from 382 individual fruit flies, collected across a spatial transect of 19 degrees latitude and at multiple time points over 2 years. Consistent with phenotypic studies, we find less clinal variation in D. simulans than D. melanogaster, particularly for the autosomes. Moreover, we find that clinally varying loci in D. simulans are less stable over multiple years than comparable clines in D. melanogaster. D. simulans shows a significantly weaker pattern of isolation by distance than D. melanogaster and we find evidence for a stronger contribution of migration to D. simulans population genetic structure. While population bottlenecks and migration can plausibly explain the differences in stability of clinal variation between the two species, we also observe a significant enrichment of shared clinal genes, suggesting that the selective forces associated with climate are acting on the same genes and phenotypes in D. simulans and D. melanogaster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A parallel implementation is presented of a series of algorithms for the evaluation of several one-electron properties of large molecular and periodic (of any dimensionality) systems. The electron charge and momentum densities of the system, the electrostatic potential, X-ray structure factors, directional Compton profiles can be effectively evaluated at low computational cost along with a full topological analysis of the electron charge density (ECD) of the system according to Bader's quantum theory of atoms in molecules. The speedup of the parallelization of the different algorithms is presented. The search of all symmetry-irreducible critical points of the ECD of the crystallized crambin protein and the evaluation of all the corresponding bond paths, for instance, would require about 32 days if run in serial mode and reduces to less than 2 days when run in parallel mode over 32 processors. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we consider the following question. What is the maximum number of pairwise disjoint k-spreads that exist in PG( [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A typical solid-state drive contains several independent channels that can be operated in parallel. To exploit this channel-level parallelism, a variety of works proposed to split consecutive write sequences into small segments and schedule them to different channels. This scheme exploits the parallelism but breaks the spatial locality of write traffic; thus, it is able to significantly degrade the efficiency of garbage collection. This paper proposes a channelaware write reordering (CAWR) mechanism to schedule write requests to different channels more intelligently. The novel mechanism encapsulates correlated pages into a cluster beforehand. All pages belonging to a cluster are scheduled to the same channels to exploit spatial locality, while different clusters are scheduled to different channels to exploit the parallelism. As CAWR covers both garbage collection and I/O performance, it outperforms existing schemes significantly. Trace-driven simulation results demonstrate that the CAWR mechanism reduces the average response time by 26% on average and decreases the valid page copies by 10% on average, while achieving a similar hit ratio to that of existing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A letter to the editor is presented related to ecological wood anatomy and plant hydraulics.

Premise of study: Male garnetophytes of seed plants are sexually immature at the time they are dispersed as pollen, but approximately 30% of flowering plants have tricellular pollen containing fully formed sperm at anthesis. The classic study of Brewbaker (1967: American Journal of Botany 54: 1069-1083) provided a powerful confirmation of the long-standing hypothesis that tricellular pollen had many parallel and irreversible origins within angiosperms. We readdressed the main questions of that study with modern comparative phylogenetic methods. Methods: We used our own and more recent reports to greatly expand the Brewbaker data set. We modeled trait evolution for 2511 species on a time-calibrated angiosperm phylogeny using (1} Binary State Speciation and Extinction (BiSSE), which accounts for the effect of species diversification rates on character transition rates and, (2) the hidden rates model (HRM), which incorporates variation in transition rates across a phylogeny. Key results: Seventy percent of species had bicellular pollen. BiSSE found a 1.9-fold higher bicellular to tricellular transition rate than in the reverse direction, and bicellular lineages had a 1.8-fold higher diversification rate than tricellular lineages. HRM found heterogeneity in evolutionary rates, with bidirectional transition rates in three of four rate classes, Conclusions: The tricellular condition is not irreversible. Pollen cell numbers are maintained at intermediate frequencies because lower net diversification rates of tricellular lineages are counterbalanced by slower state shifts to the bicellular condition. That tricellular lineages diversify slowly and give rise to bicellular lineages slowly reflects a linkage between the evolution of sporophyte lifestyles and the developmental lability of male garnetophytes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Algebraic multigrid (AMG) has proven to be an effective scalable solver on many high performance computers; however, its increasing communication complexity on coarser levels has shown to seriously impact its performance on computers with high communication cost. Additive AMG variants provide not only increased parallelism as well as decreased numbers of messages per cycle but also generally exhibit slower convergence. We present various new additive variants with convergence rates that are significantly improved compared to the classical additive algebraic multigrid method and investigate their potential for decreased communication, and improved communication-computation overlap, features that are essential for good performance on future exascale architectures. Published 2014. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the relationship between genomic and phenotypic evolution among replicate populations of Escherichia coli evolved for 1000 generations in four different environments. By resequencing evolved genomes, we identified parallel changes in genes encoding transcription regulators within and between environments. Depending on both the environment and the altered gene, genetic parallelism at the gene level involved mutations that affected identical codons, protein domains or were widely distributed across the gene. Evolved clones were characterized by parallel phenotypic changes in their respective evolution environments but also in the three alternative environments. Phenotypic parallelism was high for clones that evolved in the same environment, even in the absence of genetic parallelism. By contrast, clones that evolved in different environments revealed a higher parallelism in correlated responses when they shared mutated genes. Altogether, this work shows that after an environmental change or the colonization of a new habitat, similar ecological performance might be expected from individuals that share mutated genes or that experienced similar past selective pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Predicting the resources that are consumed by a program component is crucial for many parallel or distributed systems. In this context, the main resources of interest are execution time, space and communication/synchronisation costs. There has recently been significant progress in resource analysis technology, notably in type-based analyses and abstract interpretation. At the same time, parallel and distributed computing are becoming increasingly important. This paper synthesises progress in both areas to survey the state-of-the-art in resource analysis for parallel and distributed computing. We articulate a general model of resource analysis and describe parallel/distributed resource analysis together with the relationship to sequential analysis. We use three parallel or distributed resource analyses as examples and provide a critical evaluation of the analyses. We investigate why the chosen analysis is effective for each application and identify general principles governing why the resource analysis is effective. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Many of the existing large-scale scientific experiments modeled as scientific workflows are compute-intensive. Some scientific workflow management systems already explore parallel techniques, such as parameter sweep and data fragmentation, to improve performance. In those systems, computing resources are used to accomplish many computational tasks in high performance environments, such as multiprocessor machines or clusters. Meanwhile, cloud computing provides scalable and elastic resources that can be instantiated on demand during the course of a scientific experiment, without requiring its users to acquire expensive infrastructure or to configure many pieces of software. In fact, because of these advantages some scientists have already adopted the cloud model in their scientific experiments. However, this model also raises many challenges. When scientists are executing scientific workflows that require parallelism, it is hard to decide a priori the amount of resources to use and how long they will be needed because the allocation of these resources is elastic and based on demand. In addition, scientists have to manage new aspects such as initialization of virtual machines and impact of data staging. SciCumulus is a middleware that manages the parallel execution of scientific workflows in cloud environments. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive approach for executing parallel scientific workflows in the cloud. This approach adapts itself according to the availability of resources during workflow execution. It checks the available computational power and dynamically tunes the workflow activity size to achieve better performance. Experimental evaluation showed the benefits of parallelizing scientific workflows using the adaptive approach of SciCumulus, which presented an increase of performance up to 47.1%. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major focus of evolutionary developmental (evo-devo) studies is to determine the genetic basis of variation in organismal form and function, both of which are fundamental to biological diversification. Pioneering work on metazoan and flowering plant systems has revealed conserved sets of genes that underlie the bauplan of organisms derived from a common ancestor. However, the extent to which variation in the developmental genetic toolkit mirrors variation at the phenotypic level is an active area of research. Here we explore evidence from the angiosperm evo-devo literature supporting the frugal use of genes and genetic pathways in the evolution of developmental patterning. In particular, these examples highlight the importance of genetic pleiotropy in different developmental modules, thus reducing the number of genes required in growth and development, and the reuse of particular genes in the parallel evolution of ecologically important traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]