41 research outputs found
CernVM Online and Cloud Gateway: a uniform interface for CernVM contextualization and deployment
In a virtualized environment, contextualization is the process of configuring
a VM instance for the needs of various deployment use cases. Contextualization
in CernVM can be done by passing a handwritten context to the user data field
of cloud APIs, when running CernVM on the cloud, or by using CernVM web
interface when running the VM locally. CernVM Online is a publicly accessible
web interface that unifies these two procedures. A user is able to define,
store and share CernVM contexts using CernVM Online and then apply them either
in a cloud by using CernVM Cloud Gateway or on a local VM with the single-step
pairing mechanism. CernVM Cloud Gateway is a distributed system that provides a
single interface to use multiple and different clouds (by location or type,
private or public). Cloud gateway has been so far integrated with OpenNebula,
CloudStack and EC2 tools interfaces. A user, with access to a number of clouds,
can run CernVM cloud agents that will communicate with these clouds using their
interfaces, and then use one single interface to deploy and scale CernVM
clusters. CernVM clusters are defined in CernVM Online and consist of a set of
CernVM instances that are contextualized and can communicate with each other.Comment: Conference paper at the 2013 Computing in High Energy Physics (CHEP)
Conference, Amsterda
Micro-CernVM: Slashing the Cost of Building and Deploying Virtual Machines
The traditional virtual machine building and and deployment process is
centered around the virtual machine hard disk image. The packages comprising
the VM operating system are carefully selected, hard disk images are built for
a variety of different hypervisors, and images have to be distributed and
decompressed in order to instantiate a virtual machine. Within the HEP
community, the CernVM File System has been established in order to decouple the
distribution from the experiment software from the building and distribution of
the VM hard disk images.
We show how to get rid of such pre-built hard disk images altogether. Due to
the high requirements on POSIX compliance imposed by HEP application software,
CernVM-FS can also be used to host and boot a Linux operating system. This
allows the use of a tiny bootable CD image that comprises only a Linux kernel
while the rest of the operating system is provided on demand by CernVM-FS. This
approach speeds up the initial instantiation time and reduces virtual machine
image sizes by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, security updates can be
distributed instantaneously through CernVM-FS. By leveraging the fact that
CernVM-FS is a versioning file system, a historic analysis environment can be
easily re-spawned by selecting the corresponding CernVM-FS file system
snapshot.Comment: Conference paper at the 2013 Computing in High Energy Physics (CHEP)
Conference, Amsterda
Lattice Three Dimensional Skyrmions Revisited
In the continuum a skyrmion is a topological nontrivial map between Riemannian manifolds, an a stationary point of a particular energy functional. This paper describes lattice analogues of the aforementioned skyrmions, namely a natural way of using the topological properties of the three dimensional continuum Skyrme model to achieve topological stability on the lattice. In particular, using fixed point iterations, numerically exact lattice skyrmions are constructed: and their stability under small perturbation sis explored by means of linear stability analysis. While stable branches of such solutions are identified, it is also shown that they possess a particularly delicate bifurcation structure, especially so in the vicinity of the continuum limit. The corresponding bifurcation diagram is elucidated and a prescription for selecting the branch asymptoting to the well known continuum limit is given. Finally, the robustness of the spectrally stable solutions is corroborated by the virtue of direct numerical simulations
Self-similar blow-up solutions in the generalized Korteweg-de Vries equation: Spectral analysis, normal form and asymptotics
In the present work we revisit the problem of the generalized Korteweg-de
Vries equation parametrically, as a function of the relevant nonlinearity
exponent, to examine the emergence of blow-up solutions, as traveling waveforms
lose their stability past a critical point of the relevant parameter , here
at . We provide a {\it normal form} of the associated collapse dynamics
and illustrate how this captures the collapsing branch bifurcating from the
unstable traveling branch. We also systematically characterize the
linearization spectrum of not only the traveling states, but importantly of the
emergent collapsing waveforms in the so-called co-exploding frame where these
waveforms are identified as stationary states. This spectrum, in addition to
two positive real eigenvalues which are shown to be associated with the
symmetries of translation and scaling invariance of the original
(non-exploding) frame features complex patterns of negative eigenvalues that we
also fully characterize. We show that the phenomenology of the latter is
significantly affected by the boundary conditions and is far more complicated
than in the corresponding symmetric Laplacian case of the nonlinear
Schr{\"o}dinger problem that has recently been explored. In addition, we
explore the dynamics of the unstable solitary waves for in the
co-exploding frame.Comment: 33 pages, 16 figure
GEM-E3 Model Documentation
The computable general equilibrium model GEM-E3 has been used in a large set of climate policy applications supporting Commission policy proposals during the last decade, as well as in other environmental and economic policy areas. It can be considered a multi-purpose macroeconomic model, designed to estimate the effects of sector-specific policies on the economy as a whole.
The main purpose of this publication is to provide extensive documentation of the model's equations and its underlying databases, in order to offer to the broader audience an accurate description of the model characteristics.JRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor
Creativity in Citizen Cyberscience
An interview study was conducted to explore volunteers’ experiences of creativity in citizen cyberscience. Participants were recruited from 4 projects: GeoTag-X, Virtual Atom Smasher, Synthetic Biology, and Extreme Citizen Science. Ninety-six interviews were conducted in total: 86 with volunteers (citizen scientists) and 10 with professional scientists. The resulting thematic analysis revealed that volunteers are involved in a range of creative activities, such as discussing ideas, suggesting improvements, gamification, artwork, creative writing, and outreach activities. We conclude that the majority of creative products are community-related. Creativity in citizen cyberscience is a collective process: volunteers create within a project and a community, both for themselves and for others
Recent Advances in Our Understanding of the Role of Meltwater in the Greenland Ice Sheet System
Nienow, Sole and Cowton’s Greenland research has been supported by a number of UK NERC research grants (NER/O/S/2003/00620; NE/F021399/1; NE/H024964/1; NE/K015249/1; NE/K014609/1) and Slater has been supported by a NERC PhD studentshipPurpose of the review: This review discusses the role that meltwater plays within the Greenland ice sheet system. The ice sheet’s hydrology is important because it affects mass balance through its impact on meltwater runoff processes and ice dynamics. The review considers recent advances in our understanding of the storage and routing of water through the supraglacial, englacial, and subglacial components of the system and their implications for the ice sheet Recent findings:  There have been dramatic increases in surface meltwater generation and runoff since the early 1990s, both due to increased air temperatures and decreasing surface albedo. Processes in the subglacial drainage system have similarities to valley glaciers and in a warming climate, the efficiency of meltwater routing to the ice sheet margin is likely to increase. The behaviour of the subglacial drainage system appears to limit the impact of increased surface melt on annual rates of ice motion, in sections of the ice sheet that terminate on land, while the large volumes of meltwater routed subglacially deliver significant volumes of sediment and nutrients to downstream ecosystems. Summary: Considerable advances have been made recently in our understanding of Greenland ice sheet hydrology and its wider influences. Nevertheless, critical gaps persist both in our understanding of hydrology-dynamics coupling, notably at tidewater glaciers, and in runoff processes which ensure that projecting Greenland’s future mass balance remains challenging.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe
Downscaling Climate Change Impacts, Socio-Economic Implications and Alternative Adaptation Pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the future scenarios of climate change and management concerns associated with climate change impacts on the blue economy of European islands and outermost regions. The publication collects major findings of the SOCLIMPACT project’s research outcomes, aiming to raise social awareness among policy-makers and industry about climate change consequences at local level, and provide knowledge-based information to support policy design, from local to national level. This comprehensive book will also assist students, scholars and practitioners to understand, conceptualize and effectively and responsibly manage climate change information and applied research. This book provides invaluable material for Blue Growth Management, theory and application, at all levels. This first edition includes up-to-date data, statistics, references, case material and figures of the 12 islands case studies. ¨Downscaling climate change impacts, socio-economic implications and alternative adaptation pathways for Islands and Outermost Regions¨ is a must-read book, given the accessible style and breadth and depth with which the topic is dealt. The book is an up-to-date synthesis of key knowledge on this area, written by a multidisciplinary group of experts on climate and economic modelling, and policy design
The effect of donors' demographic characteristics in renal function post-living kidney donation. Analysis of a UK single centre cohort
Introduction: There is a great need to increase the organ donor pool, particularly for living donors. This study analyses the difference in post-living donation kidney function according to pre-donation characteristics of age, genetic relationship with the recipient, sex, ethnicity, and Body Mass Index (BMI). Methods: Retrospective single centre analysis of the trajectory of estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) post-living kidney donation, as a measure of kidney function. Mean eGFR of the different groups was compared at 6 months and during the 60 months follow up. Results: Mean age was 46 ± 13 years, 57% were female, and 60% Caucasian. Mean BMI was 27 ± 5 kg/m2, with more than a quarter of the cohort having a BMI > 30 (26%), and the majority of the donors genetically related to their recipients (56%). The higher decline rate in eGFR was at 6 months after donation, with female sex, non-Caucasian ethnicity, and age lower than 60 years being independently associated with higher recovery in kidney function (p < 0.05). In the 60 months follow up, older age, genetic relationship with the recipient, and male sex led to higher percentual difference in eGFR post-donation. Conclusion: In this study, with a high proportion of high BMI living kidney donors, female sex, age lower than 60 years, and non-genetic relationship with recipient were persistently associated with higher increase in post-donation kidney function. Ethnicity and BMI, per se, should not be a barrier to increasing the living donor kidney pool