The protocols used by distributed file systems vary widely. The aim of this talk is to give an overview of these protocols and discuss their applicability for a cluster environment. File systems like NFS have weak semantics, making tight sharing difficult. AFS, Coda and InterMezzo give a great deal of autonomy to cluster members, and involve a persistent file cache for each system. True cluster...

We propose a scenario in which dark energy and dark matter are described in a unified manner. The ultralight pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone (pNG) boson, A, naturally explains the observed magnitude of dark energy, while the bosonic supersymmetry partner of the pNG boson, B, can be a dominant component of dark matter. The decay of B into a pair of electron and positron may explain the 511 keV γ ray from...

A natural scenario for the generation of neutrino masses is the see-saw mechanism, in which a large right-handed neutrino mass makes the left-handed neutrinos light. We review a special case when the Majorana masses originate from spontaneous breaking of a global U(1)XU(1) symmetry. The interactions of the right-handed with the left-handed neutrinos at the electorweak scale further break the gl...

BACKGROUND Acral peeling skin syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder in which skin exfoliation is limited to the hands and feet. While it typically manifests from early childhood, in this first reported case from South Africa, the patient did not manifest clinically until the fourth decade of life. CASE REPORT A 44-year-old woman of African descent, 1 of a set of non-identical twins,...

PURPOSE The aim of the present study was to analyze the role of the two primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) genes, trabecular meshwork-induced glucocorticoid response (TIGR/MYOC) and optineurin (OPTN), in Finnish glaucoma families originating from southern coast of Finland. METHODS In total, 136 patients were examined to determine their ophthalmological status. Genealogical studies were perfor...