Rex, un dinosaure a Nova York. 'Rex, un dinosaurio en Nueva York'.

Resumen basado parcialmente en el de la autora.

Amy and the rex box.

El objetivo de esta serie es desarrollar en los niños las habilidades para la lectura y la comprensión de textos, en doce niveles y mediante la narración de una historia distinta en cada uno de los libros que la componen. También se refuerza el vocabulario relacionado con el contenido de la historia y se acompaña de distintas actividades. En ésta, se narran las aventuras de la protagonista en una caja que le transporta en el tiempo hasta le época de los dinosaurios, y se incluye en el nivel nueve.

Running climate models on grids using G-Rex

Compute grids are used widely in many areas of environmental science, but there has been limited uptake of grid computing by the climate modelling community, partly because the characteristics of many climate models make them difficult to use with popular grid middleware systems. In particular, climate models usually produce large volumes of output data, and running them also involves complicated workflows implemented as shell scripts. A new grid middleware system that is well suited to climate modelling applications is presented in this paper. Grid Remote Execution (G-Rex) allows climate models to be deployed as Web services on remote computer systems and then launched and controlled as if they were running on the user's own computer. Output from the model is transferred back to the user while the run is in progress to prevent it from accumulating on the remote system and to allow the user to monitor the model. G-Rex has a REST architectural style, featuring a Java client program that can easily be incorporated into existing scientific workflow scripts. Some technical details of G-Rex are presented, with examples of its use by climate modellers.

Grid Remote Execution (G-Rex) of Climate Models

G-Rex is light-weight Java middleware that allows scientific applications deployed on remote computer systems to be launched and controlled as if they are running on the user's own computer. G-Rex is particularly suited to ocean and climate modelling applications because output from the model is transferred back to the user while the run is in progress, which prevents the accumulation of large amounts of data on the remote cluster. The G-Rex server is a RESTful Web application that runs inside a servlet container on the remote system, and the client component is a Java command line program that can easily be incorporated into existing scientific work-flow scripts. The NEMO and POLCOMS ocean models have been deployed as G-Rex services in the NERC Cluster Grid, and G-Rex is the core grid middleware in the GCEP and GCOMS e-science projects.

Running Climate Models On The NERC Cluster Grid Using G-Rex

Compute grids are used widely in many areas of environmental science, but there has been limited uptake of grid computing by the climate modelling community, partly because the characteristics of many climate models make them difficult to use with popular grid middleware systems. In particular, climate models usually produce large volumes of output data, and running them usually involves complicated workflows implemented as shell scripts. For example, NEMO (Smith et al. 2008) is a state-of-the-art ocean model that is used currently for operational ocean forecasting in France, and will soon be used in the UK for both ocean forecasting and climate modelling. On a typical modern cluster, a particular one year global ocean simulation at 1-degree resolution takes about three hours when running on 40 processors, and produces roughly 20 GB of output as 50000 separate files. 50-year simulations are common, during which the model is resubmitted as a new job after each year. Running NEMO relies on a set of complicated shell scripts and command utilities for data pre-processing and post-processing prior to job resubmission. Grid Remote Execution (G-Rex) is a pure Java grid middleware system that allows scientific applications to be deployed as Web services on remote computer systems, and then launched and controlled as if they are running on the user's own computer. Although G-Rex is general purpose middleware it has two key features that make it particularly suitable for remote execution of climate models: (1) Output from the model is transferred back to the user while the run is in progress to prevent it from accumulating on the remote system and to allow the user to monitor the model; (2) The client component is a command-line program that can easily be incorporated into existing model work-flow scripts. G-Rex has a REST (Fielding, 2000) architectural style, which allows client programs to be very simple and lightweight and allows users to interact with model runs using only a basic HTTP client (such as a Web browser or the curl utility) if they wish. This design also allows for new client interfaces to be developed in other programming languages with relatively little effort. The G-Rex server is a standard Web application that runs inside a servlet container such as Apache Tomcat and is therefore easy to install and maintain by system administrators. G-Rex is employed as the middleware for the NERC1 Cluster Grid, a small grid of HPC2 clusters belonging to collaborating NERC research institutes. Currently the NEMO (Smith et al. 2008) and POLCOMS (Holt et al, 2008) ocean models are installed, and there are plans to install the Hadley Centre’s HadCM3 model for use in the decadal climate prediction project GCEP (Haines et al., 2008). The science projects involving NEMO on the Grid have a particular focus on data assimilation (Smith et al. 2008), a technique that involves constraining model simulations with observations. The POLCOMS model will play an important part in the GCOMS project (Holt et al, 2008), which aims to simulate the world’s coastal oceans. A typical use of G-Rex by a scientist to run a climate model on the NERC Cluster Grid proceeds as follows :(1) The scientist prepares input files on his or her local machine. (2) Using information provided by the Grid’s Ganglia3 monitoring system, the scientist selects an appropriate compute resource. (3) The scientist runs the relevant workflow script on his or her local machine. This is unmodified except that calls to run the model (e.g. with “mpirun”) are simply replaced with calls to "GRexRun" (4) The G-Rex middleware automatically handles the uploading of input files to the remote resource, and the downloading of output files back to the user, including their deletion from the remote system, during the run. (5) The scientist monitors the output files, using familiar analysis and visualization tools on his or her own local machine. G-Rex is well suited to climate modelling because it addresses many of the middleware usability issues that have led to limited uptake of grid computing by climate scientists. It is a lightweight, low-impact and easy-to-install solution that is currently designed for use in relatively small grids such as the NERC Cluster Grid. A current topic of research is the use of G-Rex as an easy-to-use front-end to larger-scale Grid resources such as the UK National Grid service.

Large-scale and synoptic meteorology in the south-east Pacific during the observations campaign VOCALS-REx in austral Spring 2008

We present a descriptive overview of the meteorology in the south eastern subtropical Pacific (SEP) during the VOCALS-REx intensive observations campaign which was carried out between October and November 2008. Mainly based on data from operational analyses, forecasts, reanalysis, and satellite observations, we focus on spatio-temporal scales from synoptic to planetary. A climatological context is given within which the specific conditions observed during the campaign are placed, with particular reference to the relationships between the large-scale and the regional circulations. The mean circulations associated with the diurnal breeze systems are also discussed. We then provide a summary of the day-to-day synoptic-scale circulation, air-parcel trajectories, and cloud cover in the SEP during VOCALS-REx. Three meteorologically distinct periods of time are identified and the large-scale causes for their different character are discussed. The first period was characterised by significant variability associated with synoptic-scale systems interesting the SEP; while the two subsequent phases were affected by planetary-scale disturbances with a slower evolution. The changes between initial and later periods can be partly explained from the regular march of the annual cycle, but contributions from subseasonal variability and its teleconnections were important. Across the whole of the two months under consideration we find a significant correlation between the depth of the inversion-capped marine boundary layer (MBL) and the amount of low cloud in the area of study. We discuss this correlation and argue that at least as a crude approximation a typical scaling may be applied relating MBL and cloud properties with the large-scale parameters of SSTs and tropospheric temperatures. These results are consistent with previously found empirical relationships involving lower-tropospheric stability.

Art and Oedipus

[No Abstract]

Um osso para rex: as relações entre consumidor e animais de estimação e as suas influências no ato de presentear

The objective of the present work is to investigate gift-giving behavior between humans and their pets, and whether the relationship between human and pet affects the choice and purchase of these gifts. Theoretical support comes from works by Wolfinbarger (1990) who categorized the motivations underlying gift-giving, Belk & Coon (1993) who observed gift-giving as an economic exchange, Belk (1993) who approached gift-giving as an act of agapic love, and finally Hirschman (1994) who described many forms of relationship between consumers and their pets. The present study is of exploratory character. In-depth interviews were conducted so then the feelings and emotions of the informants, necessary to the analysis, could emerge. It was assumed that agapic, unconditional love, guided the gifts choice and purchase. Nevertheless, interpretation of the records shows that motivations which led the humans to give gifts to their pets were many. The work shows these motivations in a matrix. Records also indicate that it is difficult to establish the threshold between on motivation and the other.

Identificação e caracterização de elementos retrotransponíveis da família Rex do genoma de espécies do genêro Leporinus SPIX, 1829 (Teleostei: Anostomidae)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)