One of the most challenging aspects to designing a Java messaging system for HPC is the intermediate buffering layer. The lower and higher levels of the messaging software use this buffering layer to write and read messages. The Java New I/O package adds the concept of direct buffers, which—coupled with a memory management algorithm—opens the possibility of efficiently implementing this bufferi...

AIMS Breathlessness is a cardinal symptom of heart failure and the altered regulation of breathing is common. The contribution of abnormal central nervous system activity has not previously been investigated directly, although abnormal autonomic responses have been described. Our aim was to assess whether heart failure patients exhibit different patterns of regional brain activation after exerc...

In an investigation of a rapid screening test for airway reactivity using isocapnic hyperventilation with room air and cold air the results of this test were compared with the airway response to histamine and methacholine challenge. Twelve non-atopic, non-smoking normal subjects and 11 subjects with stable asthma who had an FEV1 above 74% of the predicted value were studied. In the normal subje...

One of the most important items for better file system performance is efficient buffering of disk blocks in main memory. Efficient buffering helps to reduce the widespeed gap between main memory and hard disks. In this buffering system, the block replacement policy is one of the most important design decisions that determines which disk block should be replaced when the buffer is full. To o...

Database buffering normally assumes that a proper measure of performance is the number of pages transferred. This paper justifies that the number of I/O’s is the proper unit of measure. From this we derive a buffering policy that improves over known buffering policies for nested loop joins, we derive some buffering policies for hashing joins, and we make an observation about selections and quer...

Research in stress physiology has demonstrated the benefits of receiving social support during stressful conditions. However, recent data have shown that the efficacy of social support in buffering physiological and behavioral responses to stressor agents depends on species, sex, and relatedness among animals. This study investigated whether different kinds of social support (presence of same s...

The paradigm of “buffering” is applied to multiple phenomena of diverse nature. Similarly, a great variety of units for the quantitation of buffering action has been proposed. Fundamental aspects regarding the definition and quantitation of “buffering” remain unclear or unresolved. i) Is there a single common principle behind these diverse buffering phenomena? Or is “buffer” an equivocal label ...

Utilizing Indo-1 microfluorimetry, we have investigated the role of mitochondria and Na+/Ca2+ exchange in buffering calcium loads induced by glutamate stimulation or depolarization of cultured rat forebrain neurons. A 15 sec pulse of 3 microM glutamate or 50 mM potassium with veratridine was followed by a 2 min wash with a solution containing either Na(+)-free buffer or the mitochondrial uncoup...