High performance computing in the cloud

In recent years, the interest in both scientific and business workflows has increased. A workflow is composed of a series of tools, which should be executed in a predefined order to perform an analysis. Traditionally, these workflows were executed in a manual way, sending the output of one tool to the next one in the analysis process. Many applications to execute workflows automatically, appeared recently. These applications ease the work of the users while executing their analyses. In addition, from the computational point of view, some workflows require a significant amount of resources. Consequently, workflow execution moved from single workstations to distributed environments such as Grids or Clouds. Data management and tasks scheduling are required to execute workflows in an efficient way in such environments. In this thesis, we propose a cloud-based HPC environment, focusing on tasks scheduling, resources auto-scaling, data management and simplifying the access to the resources with software clients. First, the cloud computing infrastructure is devised, which includes the base software (i.e. OpenStack) plus several additional modules aimed at improving authentication (i.e. LDAP) and data management (i.e. GridFTP, Globus Online and CloudFuse). Second, built on top of the mentioned infrastructure, the TORQUE distributed resources manager and the Maui scheduler have been configured to schedule and distribute tasks to the cloud-based workers. To reduce the number of idle nodes and the incurred cost of the active cloud resources, we also propose a configurable auto-scaling technique, which is able to scale the execution cluster depending on the workload. Additionally, in order to simplify tasks submission to the TORQUE execution cluster, we have interconnected the Galaxy workflows management system with it, therefore users benefit from a simple way to execute their tasks. Finally, we conducted an experimental evaluation, composed by a number of different studies with synthetic and real-world applications, to show the behaviour of the auto-scaled execution cluster managed by TORQUE and Maui. All experiments have been performed by using an OpenStack cloud computing environment and the benchmarked applications correspond to the benchmarking suite, which is specially designed for workflows scheduling in the cloud computing environment. Cybershake, Ligo and Montage have been the selected synthetic applications from the benchmarking suite. GECKO and a GWAS pipeline represent the real-world test use cases, both having a diverse and heterogeneous set of tasks.The numerous technological advances in data acquisition techniques allow the massive production of enormous amounts of data in diverse fields such as astronomy, health and social networks. Nowadays, only a small part of this data can be analysed because of the lack of computational resources. High Performance Computing (HPC) strategies represent the single choice to analyse such overwhelming amount of data. However, in general, HPC techniques require the use of big and expensive computing and storage infrastructures, usually not affordable or available for most users. Cloud computing, where users pay for the resources they need and when they actually need them, appears as an interesting alternative. Besides the savings in hardware infrastructure, cloud computing offers further advantages such as the removal of installation, administration and supplying requirements. In addition, it enables users to use better hardware than the one they can usually afford, scale the resources depending on their needs, and a greater fault-tolerance, amongst others. The efficient utilisation of HPC resources becomes a fundamental task, particularly in cloud computing. We need to consider the cost of using HPC resources, specially in the case of cloud-based infrastructures, where users have to pay for storing, transferring and analysing data. Therefore, it is really important the usage of generic tasks scheduling and auto-scaling techniques to efficiently exploit the computational resources. It is equally important to make these tasks user-friendly through the development of tools/applications (software clients), which act as interface between the user and the infrastructure

An integrated study of earth resources in the state of California using remote sensing techniques

The author has identified the following significant results. The effects on estimates of monthly volume runoff were determined separately for each of the following parameters: precipitation, evapotranspiration, lower zone and upper zone tension water capacity, imperviousness of the watershed, and percent of the watershed occupied by riparian vegetation, streams, and lakes. The most sensitive and critical parameters were found to be precipitation during the entire year and springtime evapotranspiration

Holland City News, Volume 92, Number 5: January 31, 1963

Newspaper published in Holland, Michigan, from 1872-1977, to serve the English-speaking people in Holland, Michigan. Purchased by local Dutch language newspaper, De Grondwet, owner in 1888.https://digitalcommons.hope.edu/hcn_1963/1004/thumbnail.jp

Detmold Conference Week 2017

Since 2000 (in the beginning 21st Century) climate change and globalisation have influenced the actual world and all societies tremendously and the have also affected the way we are building. Safety and security requirements are increasing and are consequently influencing the design of the building envelope. ‘Resilience’ describes the function and ability of buildings and their facades to to recover from or adjust easily to change. “Resilience” addresses the impacts of climate change and globalization and of safety and security requirements on the building envelope. The first edition of the Detmold Conference Week 2017 connects education and research, scholars and professionals in different events and formats: a master workshop and two conferences will discuss the approaches of resilient design and construction for buildings and facades. The direct way to specific stresses forced by water, wind, fire, explosion or earthquake but also in an indirect way seen as a general ability of adaptivity to different changes will be discussed at the facade2017 conference on Friday 24th November 2017 from different academic and professional perspectives. The 1st RMB Conference on Thursday 23rd November 2017 is organized by the consortium of the ERASMUS+ project “RMB: Reuse of Modernist Buildings. Design Tools for Sustainable Transformations”. There representatives of the consortium as well as international guest will debate in particular issues of Resilience of Modern Movement Buildings and Neighborhoods. During the conference we will discuss new design and educational concepts for the reuse of modern postwar buildings for housing and other purposes – resilience through reuse. Scholars, PhD and master students present and discuss selected papers and posters

Federal Register

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii

Unravelling the drivers of short- and long-term variability in the Amazon hydrological cycle using tree-ring oxygen isotopes

The Amazon hydrological cycle has intensified since approximately 1990, and yet long-term meteorological data from the region are limited, making it difficult to determine the cause of current variability. Proxy records can be used to reconstruct past climate, thus providing useful historical context for recent changes. This thesis focuses on the climate insights that can be gained from oxygen isotopes in tree rings (δ18OTR). The consistency of annual ring formation was tested first, as this is an important prerequisite for constructing a well-dated proxy record. Cedrela trees were found to form annual rings across most of the species’ natural range, but biannual rings in Suriname (Chapter 3). Next, new δ18OTR records were developed from Cedrela and seven other tree species from northern Bolivia. δ18OTR signals were shown to correlate between different species, and between sites large distances apart (<1000 km), indicating a large-scale environmental control on δ18OTR (Chapter 4). Following this, atmospheric back-trajectory modelling and basin-scale vapour transport analysis were used to confirm that rainout of heavy isotopes during moisture transport across the continent is the primary control on interannual δ18OTR signals in the western Amazon (Chapter 5). Finally, new Cedrela δ18OTR chronologies from Ecuador and Bolivia were developed. These records show an increase in δ18OTR from the early 1800s until approximately 1950, indicating a change in hydrological functioning over this period, with a reversal in the trend over the last 1–2 decades. The increase is most likely driven by a reduction in the fraction of incoming water vapour that rains out over the Amazon, which could be caused by a reduction in precipitation, or an increase in the volume of imported vapour. Overall, these results provide evidence for long-term changes in Amazon hydrology over the past 200 years, and make an important contribution to the field of tropical dendroclimatology

Sources for the history of sport in Britain: A bibliographical compilation and analysis with particular reference to the problems of bibliographical control

The purpose of this study is to identify, discuss the merits of, list and analyse the bibliographical control of secondary and selected primary sources for the history of sport in Britain. The Introduction sets sport in its social setting, traces the emergence of sports history as a field of study, identifies historiographical trends and barriers to progress. Following a review of the literature, it is concluded that a major barrier to research and improved scholarship is a perceived lack and awareness of source material. Part A identifies both primary and secondary sources for the sports historian, both in general terms and in relation to specific areas of research and topics of investigation. This includes detailed discussions of their merits, problems associated with their use, identification and location. The need is stressed for a comprehensive bibliography of secondary works and a listing of manuscript material. Part B attempts to document all secondary sources (monographs, periodical articles, conference papers, chapters in books, festschriften, theses, and typescripts, including reference works), on the history of sport and physical education in Britain published in the English language, in a classified order designed to meet the needs of the sports historian and all those otherwise interested in the development of sport in Britain and its literature. Part C attempts to index sporting manuscripts held in public record offices and by national governing bodies of sport. An overview describes problems experienced by the author during the course of the study and analyses the effectiveness of existing bibliographical control in efficient literature searching. This thesis concludes that whilst sporting records have been sadly neglected by the sporting bodies, by professional archivists and in librarians' divisions of human knowledge, considerable source material of value to the sports historian does exist but that this is scattered and fragmented. Existing bibliographical sources do not serve the interests of the researcher in sports history well. For sport, as perhaps for several other 'low status', multi-disciplinary subject areas, the most efficient strategy for comprehensive literature searching within the existing bibliographical network is to start with the most extensive 'form' bibliographies and to then eliminate unwanted items

Detmold Conference Week 2017

Since 2000 (in the beginning 21st Century) climate change and globalisation have influenced the actual world and all societies tremendously and the have also affected the way we are building. Safety and security requirements are increasing and are consequently influencing the design of the building envelope. ‘Resilience’ describes the function and ability of buildings and their facades to to recover from or adjust easily to change. “Resilience” addresses the impacts of climate change and globalization and of safety and security requirements on the building envelope. The first edition of the Detmold Conference Week 2017 connects education and research, scholars and professionals in different events and formats: a master workshop and two conferences will discuss the approaches of resilient design and construction for buildings and facades. The direct way to specific stresses forced by water, wind, fire, explosion or earthquake but also in an indirect way seen as a general ability of adaptivity to different changes will be discussed at the facade2017 conference on Friday 24th November 2017 from different academic and professional perspectives. The 1st RMB Conference on Thursday 23rd November 2017 is organized by the consortium of the ERASMUS+ project “RMB: Reuse of Modernist Buildings. Design Tools for Sustainable Transformations”. There representatives of the consortium as well as international guest will debate in particular issues of Resilience of Modern Movement Buildings and Neighborhoods. During the conference we will discuss new design and educational concepts for the reuse of modern postwar buildings for housing and other purposes – resilience through reuse. Scholars, PhD and master students present and discuss selected papers and posters

Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995)

The files on this record represent the various databases that originally composed the CD-ROM issue of "Abstracts on Radio Direction Finding" database, which is now part of the Dudley Knox Library's Abstracts and Selected Full Text Documents on Radio Direction Finding (1899 - 1995) Collection. (See Calhoun record https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/57364 for further information on this collection and the bibliography). Due to issues of technological obsolescence preventing current and future audiences from accessing the bibliography, DKL exported and converted into the three files on this record the various databases contained in the CD-ROM. The contents of these files are: 1) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_xls.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.xls: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format; RDFA_Glossary.xls: Glossary of terms, in Excel 97-2003 Workbookformat; RDFA_Biographies.xls: Biographies of leading figures, in Excel 97-2003 Workbook format]; 2) RDFA_CompleteBibliography_csv.zip [RDFA_CompleteBibliography.TXT: Metadata for the complete bibliography, in CSV format; RDFA_Glossary.TXT: Glossary of terms, in CSV format; RDFA_Biographies.TXT: Biographies of leading figures, in CSV format]; 3) RDFA_CompleteBibliography.pdf: A human readable display of the bibliographic data, as a means of double-checking any possible deviations due to conversion