A Discussion of Thin Client Technology for Computer Labs

Computer literacy is not negotiable for any professional in an increasingly computerised environment. Educational institutions should be equipped to provide this new basic training for modern life. Accordingly, computer labs are an essential medium for education in almost any field. Computer labs are one of the most popular IT infrastructures for technical training in primary and secondary schools, universities and other educational institutions all over the world. Unfortunately, a computer lab is expensive, in terms of both initial purchase and annual maintenance costs, and especially when we want to run the latest software. Hence, research efforts addressing computer lab efficiency, performance or cost reduction would have a worldwide repercussion. In response to this concern, this paper presents a survey on thin client technology for computer labs in educational environments. Besides setting out the advantages and drawbacks of this technology, we aim to refute false prejudices against thin clients, identifying a set of educational scenarios where thin clients are a better choice and others requiring traditional solutions

Results on life cycle assessments to determine impacts of agronomic management choices in the Cauca and Honduras CSV

The intense management of the crops, that characterizes current agricultural cropping systems, has resulted in increased concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). In this study, we used the field-scale agricultural assessment model - Cool Farm Tool (CFT), to model GHG emissions and uptake estimates (Hillier et al., 2011). This tool combines different algorithms that integrate climate, soil and crop data and presents outputs on carbon footprints in a format that is accessible to non-experts. Furthermore, the CFT provides the possibility to compare GHG emissions and uptake estimates from different production sites and systems. Finally, the tool CFT enables crop producers and stakeholders to take a more informed and holistic approach to environmental sustainability in the agricultural sector

Memorias TeSAC Santa Rita, Honduras 2019

La introducción del enfoque de los Territorios Sostenibles Adaptados al Clima (TeSAC) en Santa Rita ha permitido conformar una plataforma socialmente inclusiva en donde se ha generado evidencia sobre la adopción de prácticas de agricultura sostenible adaptada al clima (ASAC) y cuya consolidación ha sido posible gracias al fortalecimiento de las capacidades de los productores e instituciones locales por medio de talleres y capacitaciones enfocados en el uso de información agroclimática y la adopción de prácticas. Entre las instituciones más relevantes dentro del desarrollo del TeSAC en Santa Rita, resalta el rol de la Comisión de Acción Social Menonita (CASM) la cual hace presencia en la región y ha permitido la extensión de la metodología PICSA (Servicios Integrados Participativos de Clima para la Agricultura) entre productores agrícolas, integrando la información climática disponible a los procesos de toma de decisiones entre los productores agrícolas. Entre las principales practicas implementadas que se adaptan al contexto de Santa Rita y se espera puedan escalarse a otros contextos, se encuentran aquellas relacionadas con sistemas de recolección de agua para el riego como cosecha de agua, huertos con sistemas de recolección de agua y reservorios de agua, con 158 hogares implementándolas; así mismo, practicas orientadas a mejorar la calidad de los suelos mediante el uso de fertilizantes orgánicos, Kuxur rum, siembra en terrazas y manejo del café bajo sombra con podas sanitarias, han sido adoptadas por 177 hogares. De igual forma, se han logrado introducir otro tipo de prácticas como la construcción de huertos familiares (105 hogares), sistemas piscícolas (22 hogares), barreras vivas (6 hogares) y la siembra de frijol biofortificado (120 hogares). Por otro lado, se busca seguir trabajando en asegurar el financiamiento de los procesos de escalamiento del enfoque TeSAC a otras comunidades, así como el desarrollo de diversas investigaciones y la divulgación de la información recogida en los procesos realizados en el TeSAC.The introduction of the Climate Smart Villages (CSV) approach in Santa Rita has allowed the creation of a socially inclusive platform where evidence has been generated on the adoption of climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices and whose consolidation has been possible thanks to the strengthening of the capacities of local producers and institutions through workshops and training focused on the use of agroclimatic information and the adoption of practices. Among the most relevant institutions involved on the development of Santa Rita’s CSV, the Mennonite Social Action Commission (CASM) stands out, making presence in the region and allowing the scaling of the PICSA methodology among agricultural producers (Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture) integrating the climate information available to the decision-making processes among agricultural producers. Among the main practices implemented in Santa Rita’s context and expected to be scaled in other contexts, are those related to irrigation water collection systems such as water harvesting, orchards with water collection systems and reservoirs of water, with 158 homes implementing them; Likewise, practices focused on improving the quality of soils through the use of organic fertilizers, Kuxur rum, sowing on terraces and shade coffee control with sanitary pruning, have been adopted by 177 households. Similarly, other types of practices have been introduced such as the construction of family gardens (105 households), fish farming systems (22 households), living barriers (6 households) and the planting of biofortified beans (120 households). On the other hand, there are some advances ensuring the finance of the scaling processes of the CSV approach in other communities, as well as the development of various researches and the dissemination of the information collected in the processes carried out in the CSV

Memorias TeSAC Olopa, Guatemala 2019

La introducción del enfoque de los Territorios Sostenibles Adaptados al Clima (TeSAC) en Olopa ha permitido conformar una plataforma socialmente inclusiva, que además ha generado evidencia sobre la adopción de prácticas, el fortalecimiento de capacidades institucionales y la implementación de herramientas enfocadas en reducir la vulnerabilidad de los hogares de este municipio a los efectos negativos del cambio climático. Entre los principales avances que se resaltan de la implementación del enfoque TeSAC en 2019, se encuentra el fortalecimiento de capacidades institucionales de uno de los principales aliados locales como la Asociación Regional Campesina Ch’orti’ (ASORECH), lo cual permitirá el escalamiento y la sostenibilidad de los procesos que se han venido adelantando los últimos años. Así mismo, el fortalecimiento de capacidades y lazos entre las instituciones involucradas y la comunidad a partir de talleres, ha ayudado a mejorar la comprensión de las diferentes herramientas que desde la Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima (ASAC) permite a los hogares tener una mayor resiliencia frente a los efectos del cambio climático sobre sus sistemas productivos. De igual forma, se espera que se genere información que permita el escalamiento de las prácticas implementadas y los mecanismos de participación para la toma de decisiones, permitiendo acoplar estas herramientas a otras comunidades cercanas o a contextos similares en otras regiones. Entre las prácticas que se han implementado hasta el momento, se encuentran la creación de sistemas de recolección de agua como reservorios de agua y sistemas de cosecha de agua lluvia en 123 hogares; adaptaciones físicas de los terrenos destinados al cultivo como terraceo, huertos con cubierta plástica, labranza de conservación y uso zanjas de contorno en 95 hogares; la adaptación de sistemas rompe vientos como barreras vivas, barreras muertas y cortinas rompe vientos en 60 hogares y otro tipo de prácticas como la introducción de semillas resistentes al estrés hídrico (28 hogares), el uso de fertilizantes orgánicos (125 hogares) y la adaptación de sistemas piscícolas (14 hogares).The introduction of the Climate Smart Village (CVS) approach in Olopa has allowed the creation of a socially inclusive platform that has also generated enough evidence on the adoption of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices, the strengthening of institutional capacities and the implementation of tools focused on reducing climate vulnerability of households in this municipality. Among the main achievements of the implementation of the CSV approach in 2019, the strengthening of institutional capacities of one of the main local parthners such as the Ch'orti ' Farmers Regional Association (ASORECH by its acronym in Spanish), has allowed the continuity and scaling of the developing processes that have been done in recent years. Likewise, the strengthening of capacities and the engagement between the institutions involved and the community through workshops, has helped to improve the understanding of the different tools that through the CSA approach allows households to have greater resilience against the effects of climate change on their production systems. Similarly, it´s expected that the information generated allow the scaling up of the different CSA practices implemented and the mechanisms of participation for decision-making, allowing these tools to be adopted to other nearby communities or producers with similar contexts in other regions. Among the CSA practices that have been implemented so far, there is the creation of water collection systems such as water reservoirs and rainwater harvesting systems in 123 households; physical adaptations of the land for cultivation such as terraces, home gardens with plastic coverage, conservation tillage, and use contour ditches in 95 households; the adaptation of windbreak systems such as live barriers, dead barriers and windbreak curtains in 60 households and other CSA practices such as the introduction of drought-resistant seeds (28 households), the use of organic fertilizers (125 households) and the adaptation of fish farming systems (14 households)

Evolutionary topology optimization of continuum structures under uncertainty using sensitivity analysis and smooth boundary representation

This paper presents an evolutionary approach for the Robust Topology Optimization (RTO) of continuum structures under loading and material uncertainties. The method is based on an optimality criterion obtained from the stochastic linear elasticity problem in its weak form. The smooth structural topology is determined implicitly by an iso-value of the optimality criterion field. This iso-value is updated using an iterative approach to reach the solution of the RTO problem. The proposal permits to model the uncertainty using random variables with different probability distributions as well as random fields. The computational burden, due to the high dimension of the random field approximation, is efficiently addressed using anisotropic sparse grid stochastic collocation methods. The numerical results show the ability of the proposal to provide smooth and clearly defined structural boundaries. Such results also show that the method provides structural designs satisfying a trade-off between conflicting objectives in the RTO problem.The authors would like to thank Dr. Francisco Periago for constructive suggestions and discussions. This work has been partially supported by the AEI/FEDER and UE under the contract DPI2016-77538-R and by the “Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia” under the contract 19274/PI/14

GPU acceleration for evolutionary topology optimization of continuum structures using isosurfaces

Evolutionary topology optimization of three-dimensional continuum structures is a computationally demanding task in terms of memory consumption and processing time. This work aims to alleviate these constraints proposing a well-suited strategy for Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computing. Such a proposal adopts a fine-grained GPU instance of matrix-free iterative solver for structural analysis and an efficient GPU implementation for isosurface extraction and volume fraction calculation. The performance of the solving stage is evaluated using two preconditioning techniques, including the comparison with the sparse-matrix CPU implementation. The proposal is evaluated using topology optimization problems for real-world applications.We gratefully acknowledge the support of NVIDIA Corporation with the donation of some of the GPUs used for this research. Such a work has also been supported by the research support programmes of Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the contract DPI2016-77538-R and \Fundación Séneca Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia" under the contract 19274/PI/14

Multi-GPU acceleration of large-scale density-based topology optimization

This work presents a parallel implementation of density-based topology optimization using distributed GPU computing systems. The use of multiple GPU devices allows us accelerating the computing process and increasing the device memory available for GPU computing. This increment of device memory enables us to address large models that commonly do not fit into one GPU device. The most modern scientific computers incorporate these devices to design energy-efficient, low-cost, and high-computing power systems. However, we should adopt the proper techniques to take advantage of the computational resources of such high-performance many-core computing systems. It is well-known that the bottleneck of density-based topology optimization is the solving of the linear elasticity problem using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) during the topology optimization iterations. We solve the linear system of equations obtained from FEA using a distributed conjugate gradient solver preconditioned by a smooth aggregation-based algebraic multigrid (AMG) using GPU computing with multiple devices. The use of aggregation-based AMG reduces memory requirements and improves the efficiency of the interpolation operation. This fact is rewarding for GPU computing. We evaluate the performance and scalability of the distributed GPU system using structured and unstructured meshes. We also test the performance using different 3D finite elements and relaxing operators. Besides, we evaluate the use of numerical approaches to increase the topology optimization performance. Finally, we present a comparison between the many-core computing instance and one efficient multi-core implementation to highlight the advantages of using GPU computing in large-scale density-based topology optimization problems.This work has been supported by the AEI/FEDER and UE under the contract DPI2016-77538-R, and by the “Fundación Séneca – Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia” of Spain under the contract 20911/PI/18

La gestión turística de las villas vénetas. Un modelo de referencia para la promoción de las villas de Cartagena como producto turístico

La villa constituye una tipología arquitectónica que ha legado excelentes edificios a lo largo de la historia. Buena muestra de ello es el numeroso conjunto de villas existente en la región italiana del Véneto construidas entre los siglos XV y XVIII. También en otros lugares se han vivido momentos de auge en la construcción de villas, por ejemplo en Cartagena, situada en el sureste de España, donde destacan una serie de residencias de recreo, ubicadas en pleno campo y construidas con cierta singularidad arquitectónica, pertenecientes a la etapa final siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. Lamentablemente, frente al reconocido valor de las villas vénetas, las villas de Cartagena se encuentran en un grave estado de abandono que hace necesaria la adopción de medidas para su recuperación y puesta en valor. Se plantea por tanto esta investigación con el objetivo de extraer de la experiencia italiana en la gestión turística de las villas vénetas el principal enfoque responsable de su éxito, tomando de este modo estrategias útiles encaminadas a la promoción de las villas del campo de Cartagena como producto turístico

Evaluación de tres variedades de Frijol en dos comunidades del TeSAC de Olopa, Chiquimula; con implementación de prácticas ASAC en base al modelo de Servicios Integrados Participativos de Clima para la Agricultura (PICSA)

En el marco de los proyectos Soluciones Digitales Integradas Agroclimáticas (Agroclimas Fase 2) y Territorios Sostenibles Adaptados al Clima (TeSAC) ambos parte del programa de investigación del CGIAR sobre Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS), se busca generar evidencia de la implementación de servicios climáticos participativos. Específicamente en el TeSAC de Olopa1, CCAFS-CIAT con el apoyo de los socios estratégicos, en particular la Asociación Regional Campesina Ch'orti' (ASORECH), y en asocio con el Centro Universitario de Oriente (CUNORI) de la Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (USAC), se adelantan procesos de capacitación relacionados manejo agronómico, información climática y la toma de decisiones basadas en condiciones de tiempo y clima. En este contexto CCAFS-CIAT está realizando intervenciones en sistemas de producción de fríjol del TeSAC de Olopa orientadas a mejorar la toma de decisiones con respecto a la variabilidad climática histórica y pronosticada. Se están llevando a cabo experimentos en pequeñas fincas sobre manejos de fechas de siembra u otras prácticas que den evidencia sobre el desempeño de las decisiones basadas en pronósticos estacionales. El presente reporte muestra los avances de ensayos de frijol en el departamento de Olopa, en los que se evaluarán prácticas de manejo y rendimiento, que den indicios de mejoras en las comunidades que han implementado metodologías de métodos participativos de servicios climáticos.Within the framework of the Integrated Agro-climatic Digitally Integrated Solutions (Agroclimas Phase 2) and Cliamte-Smart Villages (CSV) projects, both parts of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), are seeking to generate evidence of the implementation of participatory climate services. Specifically in theOlopa CSV, CCAFS-CIAT with the support of the strategic partners, in particular the Asociación Regional Campesina Ch'orti' (ASORECH), and in association with the Centro Universitario de Oriente (CUNORI) of the University of San Carlos of Guatemala (USAC), training processes related to agronomic management, climate information and decision-making based on weather and climate conditions are advanced. In this context, CCAFS-CIAT is carrying out interventions in bean production systems of Olopa CSV aimed at improving decision-making regarding historical and predicted climatic variability. Experiments in small farms on sowing dates or other practices that give evidence on the performance of decisions based on seasonal movements are affected. This report shows the progress of bean trials in the department of Olopa, in which they evaluate management and performance practices, which give indications of improvements in communities that, have implemented methodologies of participatory methods of climate services

Fundamental finite key limits for information reconciliation in quantum key distribution

The security of quantum key distribution protocols is guaranteed by the laws of quantum mechanics. However, a precise analysis of the security properties requires tools from both classical cryptography and information theory. Here, we employ recent results in non-asymptotic classical information theory to show that information reconciliation imposes fundamental limitations on the amount of secret key that can be extracted in the finite key regime. In particular, we find that an often used approximation for the information leakage during one-way information reconciliation is flawed and we propose an improved estimate