Styx grid services: lightweight middleware for efficient scientific workflows

The service-oriented approach to performing distributed scientific research is potentially very powerful but is not yet widely used in many scientific fields. This is partly due to the technical difficulties involved in creating services and workflows and the inefficiency of many workflow systems with regard to handling large datasets. We present the Styx Grid Service, a simple system that wraps command-line programs and allows them to be run over the Internet exactly as if they were local programs. Styx Grid Services are very easy to create and use and can be composed into powerful workflows with simple shell scripts or more sophisticated graphical tools. An important feature of the system is that data can be streamed directly from service to service, significantly increasing the efficiency of workflows that use large data volumes. The status and progress of Styx Grid Services can be monitored asynchronously using a mechanism that places very few demands on firewalls. We show how Styx Grid Services can interoperate with with Web Services and WS-Resources using suitable adapters.

Social organization of the eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus styx (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)

The present study was carried out under field conditions in Rio Claro, Southeastern Brazil. The following average life-spans of adults of Mischocyttarus cerberus styx were observed: queens 191.1 days, workers 14.0 days, and males 10.7 days. The short longevity of workers is attributed to the early foraging activity which was performed since the first week of adult age. The life table of the workers revealed high mortality rates during the first three weeks of life. Twenty-four behavioral categories were reported for these wasps and a comparative behavioral catalogue showed that the solitary foundresses (pre-emergence stage) are significantly more active than the queens (post-emergence stage) because they have to perform all the tasks for the nest maintenance. On the other hand, the queens were highly active even in the presence of the workers. The small number of individuals on the nest was the probable cause of the high activity of the queens in the post-emergence colonies. There was no clear division of tasks among workers according to their age (in weeks), so that most of the behavior categories were potentially performed by any worker of any age. Dead queens were replaced by their daughters.

Dominance hierarchy in different stages of development in colonies of the primitively eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus styx (Hymenoptera, Vespidae)

In primitively eusocial insect societies, reproductive division of labor is established by dominance-submission interactions which determine a linear dominance hierarchy. As previously observed for other species, in Mischocyttarus cerberus styx (Hymenoptera, Vespidae), the dominant female is the main egg layer. Most of her attacks were to the females directly beneath in the rank establishing a hierarchy. During the pre-emergence stage, the hierarchy was already defined and in the post-emergence stage, pre-male substage, the frequency of dominance interactions were strong but the hierarchy was still maintained by the first-ranked female. In the decline stage there were many neutral individuals which could be the reproductives of a new colony.

The effects of the social hierarchy destabilization on the foraging activity of eusocial wasp Mischocyttarus cerberus styx Richards, 1940 (Hymenoptera: Vespidae: Polistinae)

The genus Mischocyttarus comprises 245 species of neotropical basal eusocial wasps. They form small colonies (rarely more than few tens of individuals); castes are morphologically undifferentiated and determined behaviorally by agonistic interactions. The aim of this study was to verify the effects of the experimental disruption of social hierarchy on foraging activity of Mischocyttarus cerberus styx. We observed six colonies in postemergence phase and recorded data on the foraging activity under two experimental conditions: (1) removal of lower-ranked females and (2) removal of higher ranked females, except the queen. Our results showed that the removal of higher-ranked females had higher effect on the number of foraging trips of M. cerberus styx than the removal of lower-ranked females (the number of foraging trips/hour decreased by 66.4 and 32.7, resp.). Such results are likely due to the social organization of this species and the presence of a distinct class of females, which in this study were regarded as intermediates. Our data also showed that, irrespective of the hierarchical status of the females, the removal of two or three individuals affected significantly the number of foraging trips in this species. Copyright 2011 Vanderlei Conceio Costa Filho et al.

Diferenciação etológica e morfofisiológica das castas de Mischocyttarus cerberus styx Richards, 1940 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Mischocyttarini), com especial referência à dinâmica do estabelecimento da hierarquia social

Pós-graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia) - IBRC

Influência da atividade de forragem, números de adultos e de larvas, na diferenciação de castas de Mischocyttarus cerberus styx Richards, 1940 (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Mischocyttarini)

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Mr. Munchausen; being a true account of some of the recent adventures beyond the Styx of the late Hieronymus Carl Friedrich, sometime Baron Munchausen of Bodenwerder, as originally reported for the Sunday edition of the Gehenna Gazette by its special interviewer the late Mr. Ananias formerly of Jerusalem and now first transcribed from the columns of that journal

BAL

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from STYX expedition stations

The cores described in this paper were taken in the tropical central Pacific Ocean by Scripps Institution of Oceanography's R/V Alexander Agassiz on the STYX Expedition of April-September 1968. A total of 132 cores were attempted of which 97 were successful. These cores are available at Scripps for sampling and study.

Pour une herméneutique du style

Au commencement était le style, et le style était monolithique, et le monolithe était style. Mais au commencement de quels commencements? L’Odyssée immémoriale d’Homère ou celle, postmémorielle, de Stanley Kubrick? L’odyssée qui nous fait traverser les eaux troubles du Léthé ou celle qui nous plonge dans la source solennelle du Styx? Le style descendant sur terre sous la forme d’un monolithe pour accélérer le développement de la parole chez les hommes singes ou celui, létal, remontant le fleuve héraclitéen afin de la ravir, tel le feu prométhéen, aux sages femmes? Premier postulat axiologique : la question du style est elle-même une question de style. Impossible de la soulever sans d’abord reconnaître qu’elle dépend de sa formulation dans l’avancement hasardeux d’une réponse. C’est pourtant ce à quoi je vais m’employer, avec ou sans style, dans les pages qui suivent. À défaut de répondre à la question « qu’est-ce que le style? » ou « qu’en est-il du style aujourd’hui? », je veux interroger le style comme opération herméneutique manœuvrant entre forme et sens. La question ainsi reformulée devient : que peut faire le style? [Introduction]