Toward a new generation of world climate research and computing facilities

The impending threat of global climate change and its regional manifestations is among the most important and urgent problems facing humanity. Society needs accurate and reliable estimates of changes in the probability of regional weather variations to develop science-based adaptation and mitigation strategies. Recent advances in weather prediction and in our understanding and ability to model the climate system suggest that it is both necessary and possible to revolutionize climate prediction to meet these societal needs. However, the scientific workforce and the computational capability required to bring about such a revolution is not available in any single nation. Motivated by the success of internationally funded infrastructure in other areas of science, this paper argues that, because of the complexity of the climate system, and because the regional manifestations of climate change are mainly through changes in the statistics of regional weather variations, the scientific and computational requirements to predict its behavior reliably are so enormous that the nations of the world should create a small number of multinational high-performance computing facilities dedicated to the grand challenges of developing the capabilities to predict climate variability and change on both global and regional scales over the coming decades. Such facilities will play a key role in the development of next-generation climate models, build global capacity in climate research, nurture a highly trained workforce, and engage the global user community, policy-makers, and stakeholders. We recommend the creation of a small number of multinational facilities with computer capability at each facility of about 20 peta-flops in the near term, about 200 petaflops within five years, and 1 exaflop by the end of the next decade. Each facility should have sufficient scientific workforce to develop and maintain the software and data analysis infrastructure. Such facilities will enable questions of what resolution, both horizontal and vertical, in atmospheric and ocean models, is necessary for more confident predictions at the regional and local level. Current limitations in computing power have placed severe limitations on such an investigation, which is now badly needed. These facilities will also provide the world's scientists with the computational laboratories for fundamental research on weather–climate interactions using 1-km resolution models and on atmospheric, terrestrial, cryospheric, and oceanic processes at even finer scales. Each facility should have enabling infrastructure including hardware, software, and data analysis support, and scientific capacity to interact with the national centers and other visitors. This will accelerate our understanding of how the climate system works and how to model it. It will ultimately enable the climate community to provide society with climate predictions, which are based on our best knowledge of science and the most advanced technology.

Latin America and the Caribbean in the World Economy 2011-2012: Continuing crisis in the centre and new opportunities for developing economies

Includes bibliography

Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC): new biregional trade and investment relations in a changing world economic environment$c

Includes bibliography

A precautionary tale when describing species in a world of invaders: Morphology, coloration and genetics demonstrate that Lysmata rauli is not a new species endemic to Brazil but a junior synonym of the Indo-Pacific L. vittata

The objective of this study was to investigate morphological variation in traits of systematic relevance and the phylogenetic position, ecology, and reproductive biology of the shrimp Lysmata rauli Laubenheimer and Rhyne, 2010 (Caridea: Hippolytidae), described based only on a single specimen collected in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. We analyzed a total of 89 specimens from Camamu Bay, Bahia (n = 88) and from S3o Vicente estuary, São Paulo (n = 1). Considerable morphological variation was detected in the rostral spine series, number of segments on the carpus and merus of pereiopod 2, number of spiniform setae on the ventrolateral margin of merus and on the ventral margin of propodus of pereiopods 3-5. Importantly, L rauli can be distinguished neither using morphology, nor coloration from the Indo-Pacific L. vittata (Stimpson, 1860). Furthermore, molecular phylogenetic analyses (using the 16S mt DNA fragment) did not reveal any considerable genetic dissimilarities between L rauli and L vittata. Thus, our results clearly indicate that L rauli is not a new species but a junior synonym of L vittata. The high density observed within the structures of oyster farming indicates that the invasive L vittata lives in crowds in Brazil. The studied population was composed of males, hermaphrodites, and transitional individuals (having characteristics of males and hermaphrodites). The above information suggests that L rauli is a protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite, as it has been observed in all species of Lysmata that have been investigated. Lysmata vittata has invaded the southwestern Atlantic and is present in Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and S3o Paulo, Brazil. © The Crustacean Society, 2013. Published by Brill NV, Leiden.

Interpretative summary of the Meeting on a New Latin America in a Changing World Economy

Includes bibliography

Meeting on a new Latin America in a changing world economy

Reunión organizada en forma conjunta por la CEPAL y el Programa Latinoamericano del Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

A new species of hydrogamasellus (acari: Mesostigmata: Ologamasidae) from brazil, with a key to the world species of the genus

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

C-TPAT and AEO: new channels for world trade

This edition of the FAL Bulletin analyses the requirements of and the advantages offered by the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) of the United States and the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programme implemented by the European Union.Supply chain security, especially for foodstuffs, has grown considerably in importance in recent years, owing to a combination of different factors which are emerging or becoming more significant, making the requirement of ensuring that a cargo is harmless increasingly essential and valuable during trade negotiations.In the field of certifying the harmlessness of a cargo, a number of private-sector standards have arisen worldwide, but the benefits offered by the C-TPAT and AEO programmes are well above those of their private-sector counterparts.As a first step, a comparative analysis of the programmes implemented by the two largest markets in the northern hemisphere is needed in order to provide to Latin American and Caribbean exporters the information they need in order to modify or tailor their installations and production procedures, to achieve greater market entry.

A new genus and two new species of Opilioacaridae (Acari: Parasitiformes) from Amazonia, Brazil with a key to world genera

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

A world key to the species of Pyxine with lichexanthone, with a new species from Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)