Numerical ‘health check’ for scientific codes: the CADNA approach

Scientific computation has unavoidable approximations built into its very fabric. One important source of error that is difficult to detect and control is round-off error propagation which originates from the use of finite precision arithmetic. We propose that there is a need to perform regular numerical `health checks' on scientific codes in order to detect the cancerous effect of round-off error propagation. This is particularly important in scientific codes that are built on legacy software. We advocate the use of the CADNA library as a suitable numerical screening tool. We present a case study to illustrate the practical use of CADNA in scientific codes that are of interest to the Computer Physics Communications readership. In doing so we hope to stimulate a greater awareness of round-off error propagation and present a practical means by which it can be analyzed and managed.

The Gazeta de Literatura de México (1788-1795): The Formation of a Literary-Scientific Periodical in Late-Viceregal Mexico

The study of the periodical press has long played an important role in understanding the transmission and reception of ideas in early modero history. This article explores different facets of the formation of one of Spanish America's most important early periodicals, the_Gazeta de Literatura de México, in order to deepen our understanding of the nature of Mexican periodical publications and in particular the work of José Antonio Alzate y Ramírez. It also seeks to place the Gazeta de Literatura firmly within the international republic of letters, linking it to contemporary periodicals in Mexico and Europe.

Analysis of the reading and comprehension control in scientific texts in high school students

Students' learning process can be negatively affected when their reading and comprehension control is not appropriated. This research focuses on the analysis of how a group of students from high school evaluate their reading comprehension in manipulated scientific texts. An analysis tool was designed to determine the students' degree of comprehension control when reading a scientific short text with an added contradiction. The results have revealed that the students from 1st and 3rd ESO do not properly self-evaluated their reading comprehension. A different behavior has been observed in 1st Bachillerato, where appropriate evaluation and regulation seem to be more frequent. Moreover, no significant differences have been found regarding the type of text, year or gender. Finally, as identified by previous research, the correlations between the students' comprehension control and their school marks have shown to have a weak relationship and inversely proportional to the students' age.

The text and the tale: differences between scientific reports and scientists’ reportings on the eruption of Mount Chance, Montserrat

This article looks at the difference between scientists’ written reports and their oral accounts, explanations and stories. The subject of these discourses is the eruption of Mount Chance on Montserrat, a British Overseas Territory in the Eastern Caribbean, and its continued monitoring and reporting. Scientific notions of risk and uncertainty which feature in these texts and tales will subsequently be examined and critiqued. Further to this, this article will end by pointing out that, ironically, the latter - the tale – can in some cases be a more effective and approximate mode of communication with the public than the former – the text.

El pensamiento político de José Ortega y Gasset

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre el pensamiento político de José Ortega y Gasset, mostrando –entre otras cosas– su evolución desde lo que sería el neokantismo de mocedad de Ortega hasta su madurez. Para cumplir con nuestro objetivo se ha recurrido a los escritos de Ortega, así como a autores especializados en su pensamiento. La historia del pensamiento político contemporáneo tiene una deuda contraída con Ortega que desde sus primeros escritos manifestó un claro interés por la política concebida ésta como pedagogía social y cuyo fin debía ser, en primer lugar, solventar los problemas de la vida pública nacional. El pensamiento político de Ortega se define asimismo por la defensa de los valores liberales (liberalismo) compatibles con los principios socialistas (socialismo), que en una primera época de juventud idealista neokantiana adquieren un significado eminentemente cultural aunque también moral, que no se perderá completamente en su madurez o época de plenitud vital, aunque bien es verdad que aquellos dos conceptos (liberalismo y socialismo), así como también su idea de democracia, irán respondiendo a la evolución de su pensamiento.

Hybrid philosophy and rational vitalism in Canguilhem and Ortega y Gasset

This paper explores the problem of the synthesis between vitalism and rationalism, in contemporary philosophy. With this aim, we compare the intellectual careers of Georges Canguilhem (1904-1995) and José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955). We contrast their conceptions of philosophy as “hybrid” knowledge, closely related to science, as well as their points of view on Vitalism, anthropology, the technique and the perspectivism. To avoid that comparison is purely abstract and ahistorical, we use the method of the sociology of philosophy. This forces us to locate both paths in their respective philosophical fields and generational units, also according to his social background and professional career.

The discursive capacity of graphic design

The relationship between rhetoric and graphic design is presented in this article. The comparison between a classical orator and a graphic designer, between a discourse and a piece of design comes from the connections between with the communication and creativity. We will see how an application of the fundamentals of rhetoric can open new doors to the professional practice, the education of graphic design and the same theory of the rhetoric of the image.By the analysis of a design is exemplified the points of union that show how the arguments, operations, figures of discourse and rhetorical phases are present in the creative process of graphic design and how designers, perhaps unconsciously, use techniques that were traditional. In other words, graphic design is a rhetorical construction.There is then a transposition of a discourse model created by linguistic signs to a discourse model consists of visual and typographic signs, causing design is seen as a discursivediscipline that goes beyond the aesthetic component.