All issues

Although the era of exponential performance growth in computer chips has ended, processor core numbers have reached 16 or more even in general-purpose desktop CPUs. As DRAM throughput is unable to keep pace with this computing power growth, CPU designers need to find ways of lowering memory traffic per instruction. The straightforward way to do this is to reduce the miss rate of the last-level cache. Assuming “non-inclusive cache, inclusive directory” (NCID) scheme already implemented, three ways of reducing the cache miss rate further were studied.

The first is to achieve more uniform usage of cache banks and sets by employing hash-based interleaving and indexing. In the experiments in SPEC CPU2017 refrate tests, even the simplest XOR-based hash functions demonstrated a performance increase of 3.2%, 9.1%, and 8.2% for CPU configurations with 16, 32, and 64 cores and last-level cache banks, comparable to the results of more complex matrix-, division- and CRC-based functions.

The second optimisation is aimed at reducing replication at different cache levels by means of automatically switching to the exclusive scheme when it appears optimal. A known scheme of this type, FLEXclusion, was modified for use in NCID caches and showed an average performance gain of 3.8%, 5.4 %, and 7.9% for 16-, 32-, and 64-core configurations.

The third optimisation is to increase the effective cache capacity using compression. The compression rate of the inexpensive and fast BDI*-HL (Base-Delta-Immediate Modified, Half-Line) algorithm, designed for NCID, was measured, and the respective increase in cache capacity yielded roughly 1% of the average performance increase.

All three optimisations can be combined and demonstrated a performance gain of 7.7%, 16% and 19% for CPU configurations with 16, 32, and 64 cores and banks, respectively.

X-ray diffraction experiment allows determining of magnitudes of complex coefficients in the decomposition of the studied electron density distribution into Fourier series. The determination of the lost in the experiment phase values poses the central problem of the method, namely the phase problem. Some methods for solving of the phase problem result in a set of feasible solutions. Cluster analysis method may be used to investigate the composition of this set and to extract one or several typical solutions. An essential feature of the approach is the estimation of the closeness of two solutions by the map correlation between two aligned Fourier syntheses calculated with the use of phase sets under comparison. An interactive computer program ClanGR was designed to perform this analysis.

The problem of ligand binding to certain receptor proteins is of central importance in cellular signaling, but it is still unresolved at a molecular level. In order to enhance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms we used a biophysical approach to study a serotonin-gated ion channel. The molecular model of 5-HT3 receptor extracellular domain was created using computer-based homology modeling. The docking method was used for building complexes of the 5-HT3 receptor and ligands. Some different activities were investigated by the method of molecular dynamics.

Flexible software for modeling polymeric film production by use of blown extrusion has been developed. It consists of library of mathematical models for extrusion and forming blown film, sub-system for changeover to new type of film and sub-system for investigation of extrusion and forming for film quality control under film production. The sub-system for changeover allows to choose the equipment of extrusion line on technical and economic indices, to synthesize 3D model of the line and to generate regulation ranges of regime parameters for given type of film. The sub-system for investigation allows to calculate temperature profiles of heating and cooling material, geometrical and optical characteristics of film depending on regime parameters for stages of extrusion and forming and to evaluate regime parameters ensuring given quality of polymeric film.

In this paper we propose a mathematical model of cancer tumour occurrence in a quasi twodimensional epithelial tissue. Basic model of the epithelium growth describes the appearance of intensive movement and growth of tissue when it is damaged. The model includes the effects of division of cells and intercalation. It is assumed that the movement of cells is caused by the wave of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), which in turn activated by the chemo-mechanical signal propagating along tissue due to its local damage. In this paper it is assumed that cancer cells arise from local failure of spatial synchronization of circadian rhythms. The study of the evolutionary dynamics of the model could determine the chemo-physical properties of a tumour, and spatial relationship between the occurrence of cancer cells and development of the entire tissue parameters coordinating its evolution through the exchange of chemical and mechanical signals.

Metal hydrides are an interesting class of chemical compounds that can reversibly bind a large amount of hydrogen and are, therefore, of interest for energy applications. Understanding the factors affecting the kinetics of hydride formation and decomposition is especially important. Features of the material, experimental setup and conditions affect the mathematical description of the processes, which can undergo significant changes during the processing of experimental data. The article proposes a general approach to numerical modeling of the formation and decomposition of metal hydrides and solving inverse problems of estimating material parameters from measurement data. The models are divided into two classes: diffusive ones, that take into account the gradient of hydrogen concentration in the metal lattice, and models with fast diffusion. The former are more complex and take the form of non-classical boundary value problems of parabolic type. A rather general approach to the grid solution of such problems is described. The second ones are solved relatively simply, but can change greatly when model assumptions change. Our experience in processing experimental data shows that a flexible software tool is needed; a tool that allows, on the one hand, building models from standard blocks, freely changing them if necessary, and, on the other hand, avoiding the implementation of routine algorithms. It also should be adapted for high-performance systems of different paradigms. These conditions are satisfied by the HIMICOS library presented in the paper, which has been tested on a large number of experimental data. It allows simulating the kinetics of formation and decomposition of metal hydrides, as well as related tasks, at three levels of abstraction. At the low level, the user defines the interface procedures, such as calculating the time layer based on the previous layer or the entire history, calculating the observed value and the independent variable from the task variables, comparing the curve with the reference. Special algorithms can be used for solving quite general parabolic-type boundary value problems with free boundaries and with various quasilinear (i.e., linear with respect to the derivative only) boundary conditions, as well as calculating the distance between the curves in different metric spaces and with different normalization. This is the middle level of abstraction. At the high level, it is enough to choose a ready tested model for a particular material and modify it in relation to the experimental conditions.

Mathematicity of physics is surprising, but it enables us to understand the laws of nature through the analysis of mathematical structures describing it. This concerns, however, only physics. The degree of the mathematization of biology is low, and attempts to mathematize it are limited to the application of mathematical methods used for the description of physical systems. When doing so, we are likely to commit an error of attributing to biological systems features that they do not have. Some argue that biology does need new mathematical methods conforming to its needs, and not known from physics. However, because of a specific complexity of biological systems, we should speak of their algorithmicity, rather than of their mathematicity. As an example of algorithmic approach one can indicate so called individual-based models used in ecology to describe population dynamics or fractal models applied to describe geometrical complexity of such biological structures as trees.

Our purpose is to study the spatio-temporal population wave behavior observed in the predator-prey system. It is assumed that predators move both directionally and randomly, and prey spread only diffusely. The model does not take into account demographic processes in the predator population; it’s total number is constant and is a parameter. The variables of the model are the prey and predator densities and the predator speed, which are connected by a system of three reaction – diffusion – advection equations. The system is considered on an annular range, that is the periodic conditions are set at the boundaries of the interval. We have studied the bifurcations of wave modes arising in the system when two parameters are changed — the total number of predators and their taxis acceleration coefficient.

The main research method is a numerical analysis. The spatial approximation of the problem in partial derivatives is performed by the finite difference method. Integration of the obtained system of ordinary differential equations in time is carried out by the Runge –Kutta method. The construction of the Poincare map, calculation of Lyapunov exponents, and Fourier analysis are used for a qualitative analysis of dynamic regimes.

It is shown that, population waves can arise as a result of existence of directional movement of predators. The population dynamics in the system changes qualitatively as the total predator number increases. А stationary homogeneous regime is stable at low value of parameter, then it is replaced by self-oscillations in the form of traveling waves. The waveform becomes more complicated as the bifurcation parameter increases; its complexity occurs due to an increase in the number of temporal vibrational modes. A large taxis acceleration coefficient leads to the possibility of a transition from multi-frequency to chaotic and hyperchaotic population waves. A stationary regime without preys becomes stable with a large number of predators.

The article is devoted to the construction and investigation of an averaged mathematical model of an aluminum-cobalt-molybdenum hydrocracking catalyst oxidative regeneration. The oxidative regeneration is an effective means of restoring the activity of the catalyst when its granules are coating with coke scurf.

The mathematical model of this process is a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations, which includes kinetic equations for reagents’ concentrations and equations for changes in the temperature of the catalyst granule and the reaction mixture as a result of isothermal reactions and heat transfer between the gas and the catalyst layer. Due to the heterogeneity of the oxidative regeneration process, some of the equations differ from the standard kinetic ones and are based on empirical data. The article discusses the scheme of chemical interaction in the regeneration process, which the material balance equations are compiled on the basis of. It reflects the direct interaction of coke and oxygen, taking into account the degree of coverage of the coke granule with carbon-hydrogen and carbon-oxygen complexes, the release of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide during combustion, as well as the release of oxygen and hydrogen inside the catalyst granule. The change of the radius and, consequently, the surface area of coke pellets is taken into account. The adequacy of the developed averaged model is confirmed by an analysis of the dynamics of the concentrations of substances and temperature.

The article presents a numerical experiment for a mathematical model of oxidative regeneration of an aluminum-cobalt-molybdenum hydrocracking catalyst. The experiment was carried out using the Kutta–Merson method. This method belongs to the methods of the Runge–Kutta family, but is designed to solve stiff systems of ordinary differential equations. The results of a computational experiment are visualized.

The paper presents the dynamics of the concentrations of substances involved in the oxidative regeneration process. A conclusion on the adequacy of the constructed mathematical model is drawn on the basis of the correspondence of the obtained results to physicochemical laws. The heating of the catalyst granule and the release of carbon monoxide with a change in the radius of the granule for various degrees of initial coking are analyzed. There are a description of the results.

In conclusion, the main results and examples of problems which can be solved using the developed mathematical model are noted.

In this paper, compared fundamentally different turbulence models for calculating a strongly swirling flow in an abrupt expanding pipe. This task is not only of great importance in practice, but also in theoretical terms. Because in such a flow a very complex anisotropic turbulence with recirculation zones arises and the study of the ongoing processes allows us to find an answer to many questions about turbulence. The flow under consideration has been well studied experimentally. Therefore, it is a very complex and interesting test problem for turbulence models. In the paper compared the numerical results of the one-parameter v_t-92 model, the SSG/LRR-RSMw2012 Reynolds stress method and the new two-fluid model. These models are very different from each other. Because the Boussinesq hypothesis is used in the one-parameter v_t-92 model, in the SSG/LRR-RSM-w2012 model, its own equation is written for each stress, and for the new two-fluid model, the basis is a completely different approach to turbulence. A feature of the approach to turbulence for the new two-fluid model is that it allows one to obtain a closed system of equations. Comparison of these models is carried out not only by the correspondence of their results with experimental data, but also by the computational resources expended on the numerical implementation of these models. Therefore, in this work, for all models, the same technique was used to numerically calculate the turbulent swirling flow at the Reynolds number $Re=3\cdot 10^4$ and the swirl parameter $S_w=0.6$. In the paper showed that the new two-fluid model is effective for the study of turbulent flows, because has good accuracy in describing complex anisotropic turbulent flows and is simple enough for numerical implementation.