Chip multiprocessor (CMP) architecture has attracting much attention as a next-generation microprocessor architecture and many kinds of CMP are widely being researched. However, CMP architectures ...several difficulties for effective use of memory, especially cache or local memory near a processor core. The authors have proposed OSCAR CMP architecture, which cooperatively works with multigrain parallelizing compiler which gives us much higher parallelism than instruction level parallelism or loop level parallelism and high productivity of application programs. To support the compiler optimization for effective use of cache or local memory, OSCAR CMP has local data memory (LDM) for processor private data and distributed shared memory (DSM) for synchronization and fine grain data transfers among processors, in addition to centralized shared memory (CSM) to support dynamic task scheduling. This paper proposes a static coarse grain task scheduling scheme for data localization using live variable analysis. Furthermore, remote memory data transfer scheduling scheme using information of live variable analysis is also described. The proposed scheme is implemented on OSCAR FORTRAN multigrain parallelizing compiler and is evaluated on OSCAR CMP using Tomcatv and Swim in SPEC CFP 95 benchmark
Single exposure of cells to hyperthermic treatment, makes them thermotolerant to subsequent heat treatment. Tumor cells that express normal or elevated levels of HSPs show thermotolerence. KNK437, a ...chemically synthesized benzylidene lactam compound, has been specifically found to inhibit the synthesis of heat shock proteins and thus leading to significant reduction in the thermotolerance of cells. However, mechanisms by which KNK437 inhibits thermotolerence are still not clearly understood. In this study an attempt has been made to elucidate the mechanisms of inhibition of HSPs by KNK437 in 2 cell lines of human oral squamous cell carcinma with varying sensitivities (HSC4 ; heat-resistant and KB ; heat-sensitive) with an aim to identify which of the HSPs are targeted by KNK437. Single administration of 100μM KNK437-treatment always resulted in a higher than 85% cell survival compared to the untreated groups, indicating the KNK437 had a minimum cytotoxic effect in both cell lines. Combination of hyperthermia with KNK437 after heat shock, specifically inhibited the induction of HSPs, where the expression of HSP27, HSP40, HSP70 and HSP90 reduced in a time dependent manner. Interestingly, the hyperthermic treatment combined with KNK437 produced supra-reductive effect on the expression of HSP27 and HSP90 in HSC4, HSP27, HSP40 and HSP90 in KB cells, when compared to heat treatment alone. Our results indicate that inhibition of HSPs by KNK437 plays an important role in inhibiting the thermotolerence of the cells and may be a valuable to improve the efficacy of oral cancer during hyperthermic therapy.
Currently, many people are enjoying multimedia applications with image and audio processing on PCs, PDAs, mobile phones and so on. With the popularization of the multimedia applications, needs for ...low cost, low power consumption and high performance processors has been increasing. To this end, chip multiprocessor architectures which allow us to attain scalable performance improvement by using multigrain parallelism are attracting much attention. However, in order to extract higher performance on a chip multiprocessor, more sophisticated software techniques are required, such as decomposing a program into adequate grain of tasks, assigning them onto processors considering parallelism, data locality optimization and so on. This paper describes a parallel processing scheme for MPEG2 encoding using data localization which improve execution efficiency assigning coarse grain tasks sharing same data on a same processor consecutively for a chip multiprocessor. The performance evaluation on OSCAR chip multiprocessor architecture shows that proposed scheme gives us 6.97 times speedup using 8 processors and 10.93 times speedup using 16 processors against sequential execution time respectively. Moreover, the proposed scheme gives us 1.61 times speedup using 8 processors and 2.08 times speedup using 16 processors against loop parallel processing which has been widely used for multiprocessor systems using the same number of processors
Prostaglandin (PG) E2 is known to play significant roles in the local control of bone metabolism and to stimulate both formation and resorption of bone in vivo and in vitro. We previously reported a ...stimulatory effect of PGE2 on the formation of bone nodules (BNs) in cultures of fetal rat calvaria RC) cells and we clarified that PGE2 at 3× 10-8M markedly promoted the differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells in cultures of RC cells. In this study, we investigated the action of PGE2 on BN formation by mature osteoblasts using an RC cell culture system. Treatment with PGE2 at 3×10-8M resulted in an increase in the ratio of BN mineralization which was initiated by organic phosphate. However, PGE2 did not affect alkaline phosphatase activity during the whole experimental period. SDS-PAGE profiles showed that PGE2 at 3×10-8M increased the content of Ca2+-binding proteins (58 and 62 kDa) in mineralized BN matrix. Western blot analysis revealed that the increased proteins were osteopontin. These data suggest that PGE2 increased mineralization by stimulating the cellular function of mature osteoblasts in cultures of RC cells.
We report a 31-year-old female with a granulomatous ureteral polyp. She had complained of pollakiuria and terminal miction pain. The preoperative diagnosis was a right low-ureteral polyp with ...calcification, and the polyp was successfully resected. Pathological findings were those of a granulomatous polyp with tissue eosinophilia at the polyp head. The postoperative course was uneventful and she has remained asymptomatic, to date.
We measured serum levels of human hepatocyte growth factor (hHGF) at the time of liver biopsy in patients with various types of alcoholic liver disease who were negative for HBs antigen and HCV ...antibody and underwent liver biopsies. Compared to normal populations in the literature, patients with each type of disease excluding fatty liver and alcoholic hepatitis for which there were few cases showed significant high values. The value for liver cirrhosis patients was significantly higher than those for all other diseases except fatty liver. Serum hHGF showed a good correlation only with the degree of hepatic fibrosis among histological finding. Serum hHGF values showed a good positive correlation with values of serum fibrotic markers such as type IV collagen and laminin. Serum hHGF levels dropped after abstinence, but there was a significant correlation with the severity of hepatic fibrosis and serum levels of laminin at all times. Serum hHGF was assumed to show some relation with hepatic fibrosis.
Magnetic fluid is composed of nano-meter size particles. Magnetic Targeting Drug delivery System (MT-DDS) which uses magnetic fluid attracts a great deal of attention as one of most advanced medical ...treatments especially for cancers. Since it needs a real-time monitoring system, we investigated its observation properties in a mouse body with X-ray imaging at Spring-8 in this study. As a result, we found it is possible to extract the density distribution of magnetic fluid in mouse body. Moreover, we demonstrated that optimization of digital values of imaging data can make the contrast better, which suggests possibility of real-time imaging system for MT-DDS.
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