PRIM an Open Mobile Robot Platform. Motivation, Present and Future Trends

This paper is focused on the robot mobile platform PRIM (platform robot information multimedia). This robot has been made in order to cover two main needs of our group, on one hand the need for a full open mobile robotic platform that is very useful in fulfilling the teaching and research activity of our school community, and on the other hand with the idea of introducing an ethical product which would be useful as mobile multimedia information point as a service tool. This paper introduces exactly how the system is made up and explains just what the philosophy is behind this work. The navigation strategies and sensor fusion, where machine vision system is the most important one, are oriented towards goal achievement and are the key to the behaviour of the robot

COMP3016 Web Technology - Strand 3 "History" Lecture 2

Lecture 1: Contributions of Pre WWW Research: Open Hypermedia Systems Contains Powerpoint Lecture slides and Hypertext Research Papers: Industrial Strength Hypermedia: Requirements for a Large Engineering Enterprise (Malcolm et al. 1991); Towards An Integrated Information Environment With Open Hypermedia Systems (Davis et al. 1992); Unifying Strategies for Web Augmentation (Bouvin 1999); Hyper-G (Adapted from Lowe and Hall); OHP:A Draft Proposal for a Standard Open Hypermedia Protocol (Davis et al. 1996); XML Linking (DeRose 99)

Toward 2^W beyond Web 2.0

From its inception as a global hypertext system, the Web has evolved into a universal platform for deploying loosely coupled distributed applications. 2^W is a result of the exponentially growing Web building on itself to move from a Web of content to a Web of applications.

Plataforma web y sistema integral de incentivos basado en el esquema de cupones online y el mercado de compras colectivas

En este trabajo se realiza una descripción y análisis del esquema de funcionamiento detrás del emergente mercado de las compras colectivas y los cupones online desde una perspectiva tanto teórica como empírica. Inicialmente, se desarrolla un marco teórico teniendo en cuenta elementos de: teoría económica, e-marketing y comercio electrónico en los que se basa éste mercado. Posteriormente, se muestra el proyecto de implementación de una plataforma virtual y un sistema de incentivos basado en el esquema de cupones online desarrollado por el autor para la franquicia de tarjetas de crédito Diners Club International del Banco Davivienda S.A. en Colombia

Bias in the Social Web

Abstract A frequent assumption in Social Media is that its open nature leads to a representative view of the world. In this talk we want to consider bias occurring in the Social Web. We will consider a case study of liquid feedback, a direct democracy platform of the German pirate party as well as models of (non-)discriminating systems. As a conclusion of this talk we stipulate the need of Social Media systems to bias their working according to social norms and to publish the bias they introduce. Speaker Biography: Prof Steffen Staab Steffen studied in Erlangen (Germany), Philadelphia (USA) and Freiburg (Germany) computer science and computational linguistics. Afterwards he worked as researcher at Uni. Stuttgart/Fraunhofer and Univ. Karlsruhe, before he became professor in Koblenz (Germany). Since March 2015 he also holds a chair for Web and Computer Science at Univ. of Southampton sharing his time between here and Koblenz. In his research career he has managed to avoid almost all good advice that he now gives to his team members. Such advise includes focusing on research (vs. company) or concentrating on only one or two research areas (vs. considering ontologies, semantic web, social web, data engineering, text mining, peer-to-peer, multimedia, HCI, services, software modelling and programming and some more). Though, actually, improving how we understand and use text and data is a good common denominator for a lot of Steffen's professional activities.

Documental web hogar diverso

Hogar Diverso es un documental web que pretende ser un instrumento de expresión y argumentación para los integrantes de las familias diversas colombianas y para quienes desean conocer más acerca del tema; es una plataforma virtual que busca llenar vacíos así como crear nuevas discusiones acerca del tema de coyuntura nacional. Cuenta con diferentes formatos y productos periodísticos que revelan la intimidad de los hogares diversos colombianos, así como con los datos de las sentencias y los fallos que han determinado la historia de los derechos LGBT en el país.

An automatic correction tool for relational database schemas

A Web-based tool developed to automatically correct relational database schemas is presented. This tool has been integrated into a more general e-learning platform and is used to reinforce teaching and learning on database courses. This platform assigns to each student a set of database problems selected from a common repository. The student has to design a relational database schema and enter it into the system through a user friendly interface specifically designed for it. The correction tool corrects the design and shows detected errors. The student has the chance to correct them and send a new solution. These steps can be repeated as many times as required until a correct solution is obtained. Currently, this system is being used in different introductory database courses at the University of Girona with very promising results

An ECOOP web portal for visualising and comparing distributed coastal oceanography model and in situ data

As part of a large European coastal operational oceanography project (ECOOP), we have developed a web portal for the display and comparison of model and in situ marine data. The distributed model and in situ datasets are accessed via an Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) respectively. These services were developed independently and readily integrated for the purposes of the ECOOP project, illustrating the ease of interoperability resulting from adherence to international standards. The key feature of the portal is the ability to display co-plotted timeseries of the in situ and model data and the quantification of misfits between the two. By using standards-based web technology we allow the user to quickly and easily explore over twenty model data feeds and compare these with dozens of in situ data feeds without being concerned with the low level details of differing file formats or the physical location of the data. Scientific and operational benefits to this work include model validation, quality control of observations, data assimilation and decision support in near real time. In these areas it is essential to be able to bring different data streams together from often disparate locations.

Integrated cytokine and metabolic analysis of pathological responses to parasite exposure in rodents

Parasitic infections cause a myriad of responses in their mammalian hosts, on immune as well as on metabolic level. A multiplex panel of cytokines and metabolites derived from four parasite-rodent models, namely, Plasmodium berghei-mouse, Trypanosoma brucei brucei-mouse, Schistosoma mansoni-mouse, and Fasciola hepatica-rat were statistically coanalyzed. 1H NMR spectroscopy and multivariate statistical analysis were used to characterize the urine and plasma metabolite profiles in infected and noninfected animals. Each parasite generated a unique metabolic signature in the host. Plasma cytokine concentrations were obtained using the ‘Meso Scale Discovery’ multi cytokine assay platform. Multivariate data integration methods were subsequently used to elucidate the component of the metabolic signature which is associated with inflammation and to determine specific metabolic correlates with parasite-induced changes in plasma cytokine levels. For example, the relative levels of acetyl glycoproteins extracted from the plasma metabolite profile in the P. berghei-infected mice were statistically correlated with IFN-γ, whereas the same cytokine was anticorrelated with glucose levels. Both the metabolic and the cytokine data showed a similar spatial distribution in principal component analysis scores plots constructed for the combined murine data, with samples from all infected animals clustering according to the parasite species and whereby the protozoan infections (P. berghei and T. b. brucei) grouped separately from the helminth infection (S. mansoni). For S. mansoni, the main infection-responsive cytokines were IL-4 and IL-5, which covaried with lactate, choline, and D-3-hydroxybutyrate. This study demonstrates that the inherently differential immune response to single and multicellular parasites not only manifests in the cytokine expression, but also consequently imprints on the metabolic signature, and calls for in-depth analysis to further explore direct links between immune features and biochemical pathways.

A Web Map Service implementation for the visualization of multidimensional gridded environmental data

We describe ncWMS, an implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Map Service (WMS) specification for multidimensional gridded environmental data. ncWMS can read data in a large number of common scientific data formats – notably the NetCDF format with the Climate and Forecast conventions – then efficiently generate map imagery in thousands of different coordinate reference systems. It is designed to require minimal configuration from the system administrator and, when used in conjunction with a suitable client tool, provides end users with an interactive means for visualizing data without the need to download large files or interpret complex metadata. It is also used as a “bridging” tool providing interoperability between the environmental science community and users of geographic information systems. ncWMS implements a number of extensions to the WMS standard in order to fulfil some common scientific requirements, including the ability to generate plots representing timeseries and vertical sections. We discuss these extensions and their impact upon present and future interoperability. We discuss the conceptual mapping between the WMS data model and the data models used by gridded data formats, highlighting areas in which the mapping is incomplete or ambiguous. We discuss the architecture of the system and particular technical innovations of note, including the algorithms used for fast data reading and image generation. ncWMS has been widely adopted within the environmental data community and we discuss some of the ways in which the software is integrated within data infrastructures and portals.

Urban integrated meteorological observations: practice and experience in Shanghai, China

Observations of atmospheric conditions and processes in citiesare fundamental to understanding the interactions between the urban surface and weather/climate, improving the performance of urban weather, air quality and climate models, and providing key information for city end-users (e.g. decision-makers, stakeholders, public). In this paper, Shanghai's urban integrated meteorological observation network (SUIMON) and some examples of intended applications are introduced. Its characteristics include being: multi- purpose (e.g. forecast, research, service), multi-function (high impact weather, city climate, special end-users), multi-scale (e.g. macro/meso-, urban-, neighborhood, street canyon), multi-variable (e.g. thermal, dynamic, chemical, bio-meteorological, ecological), and multi- platform (e.g. radar, wind profiler, ground-based, satellite based, in-situ observation/ sampling). Underlying SUIMON is a data management system to facilitate exchange of data and information. The overall aim of the network is to improve coordination strategies and instruments; to identify data gaps based on science and user driven requirements; and to intelligently combine observations from a variety of platforms by using a data assimilation system that is tuned to produce the best estimate of the current state of the urban atmosphere.

IntFOLD: an integrated server for modelling protein structures and functions from amino acid sequences

IntFOLD is an independent web server that integrates our leading methods for structure and function prediction. The server provides a simple unified interface that aims to make complex protein modelling data more accessible to life scientists. The server web interface is designed to be intuitive and integrates a complex set of quantitative data, so that 3D modelling results can be viewed on a single page and interpreted by non-expert modellers at a glance. The only required input to the server is an amino acid sequence for the target protein. Here we describe major performance and user interface updates to the server, which comprises an integrated pipeline of methods for: tertiary structure prediction, global and local 3D model quality assessment, disorder prediction, structural domain prediction, function prediction and modelling of protein-ligand interactions. The server has been independently validated during numerous CASP (Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction) experiments, as well as being continuously evaluated by the CAMEO (Continuous Automated Model Evaluation) project. The IntFOLD server is available at: http://www.reading.ac.uk/bioinf/IntFOLD/

Communicating thematic data quality with web map services

Geospatial information of many kinds, from topographic maps to scientific data, is increasingly being made available through web mapping services. These allow georeferenced map images to be served from data stores and displayed in websites and geographic information systems, where they can be integrated with other geographic information. The Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Map Service (WMS) standard has been widely adopted in diverse communities for sharing data in this way. However, current services typically provide little or no information about the quality or accuracy of the data they serve. In this paper we will describe the design and implementation of a new “quality-enabled” profile of WMS, which we call “WMS-Q”. This describes how information about data quality can be transmitted to the user through WMS. Such information can exist at many levels, from entire datasets to individual measurements, and includes the many different ways in which data uncertainty can be expressed. We also describe proposed extensions to the Symbology Encoding specification, which include provision for visualizing uncertainty in raster data in a number of different ways, including contours, shading and bivariate colour maps. We shall also describe new open-source implementations of the new specifications, which include both clients and servers.

GRASSIUS: A Platform for Comparative Regulatory Genomics across the Grasses

Transcription factors (TFs) are major players in gene regulatory networks and interactions between TFs and their target genes furnish spatiotemporal patterns of gene expression. Establishing the architecture of regulatory networks requires gathering information on TFs, their targets in the genome, and the corresponding binding sites. We have developed GRASSIUS (Grass Regulatory Information Services) as a knowledge-based Web resource that integrates information on TFs and gene promoters across the grasses. In its initial implementation, GRASSIUS consists of two separate, yet linked, databases. GrassTFDB holds information on TFs from maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), sugarcane (Saccharum spp.), and rice (Oryza sativa). TFs are classified into families and phylogenetic relationships begin to uncover orthologous relationships among the participating species. This database also provides a centralized clearinghouse for TF synonyms in the grasses. GrassTFDB is linked to the grass TFome collection, which provides clones in recombination-based vectors corresponding to full-length open reading frames for a growing number of grass TFs. GrassPROMDB contains promoter and cis-regulatory element information for those grass species and genes for which enough data are available. The integration of GrassTFDB and GrassPROMDB will be accomplished through GrassRegNet as a first step in representing the architecture of grass regulatory networks. GRASSIUS can be accessed from www.grassius.org.

Studies of Design and Assembly Defects on Integrated and Modular Architectures

It is known that despite companies’ efforts to improve the quality of their products, design and assembly defects results in large repair costs both in terms of repair and providing feedback to the origin of the defect. The purpose of this paper is to study these types of defects and the defect rates in design and assembly. The paper presents a web based questionnaire answered by 29 companies. The result shows that the defect rate (defects per product) spanned from 0.01 to 10. Also, design and assembly defects covered 46%, 23% respectively, of all occurred defects. A case study is also presented, performed at a company who recently implemented a modular architecture. In this company, defects from 5 700 integrated product architectures are compared with defects from 431 modular architectures. The average defect rate increased by 21.5% – from 0.65 to 0.79 – when a more modular architecture has been implemented. Furthermore, the study showed that the assembly defects have decreased while the design defects increased. The results presented in this paper will also support the development of the MPV (Module Property Verification) method which is briefly described.