Illinois studies in language and literature.

Vol.1, v.16, no.3-v.23, no.2. issued as University of Illinois bulletin.

Radical Language, Radical Identity: Korean Writers in Japanese Spaces and the Burden to "Represent"

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Influence apart from Adoption: How Interaction between Programming and Scientific Practices Shapes Modes of Inquiry in Four Oceanography Teams

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Virtual learning communities beyond the classroom: perceptions of tertiary Chinese language and non-language learners

As class contact times are reduced as a result of fiscal restraints in the modern tertiary sector, language instructors are placed in the position of having to find new ways to provide experience and continuity in language learning. Extending 'learning communities'—sites of learner knowledge exchange, exposure to diverse learning styles and strategies, and mutual support—beyond the classroom is one solution to maintaining successful linguistic competencies amongst learners. This, however, can conflict with the diverse extra-curricular commitments faced by tertiary students. The flexibility of web-based learning platforms provides one means of overcoming these obstacles. This study investigates learner perceptions of the use of the WebCT platform's computer medicated communication (CMC) tools as a means of extending the community of learning in tertiary Chinese language and non-language courses. Learner responses to Likert and open-ended questionnaires show that flexibility and reduction of negative affect are seen as significant benefits to 'virtual' interaction and communication, although responses are notably stronger in the non-language compared with the language cohort. While both learner cohorts acknowledge positive learning outcomes, CMC is not seen to consistently further interpersonal rapport beyond that established in the classroom. Maintaining a balance between web-based and classroom learning emerges as a concern, especially amongst language learners. [Author abstract, ed]

Gender, computing and the organisation of working time: public/private comparisons in the Australian context

Professional computing employment in Australia, as in most advanced economies, is highly sex segregated, reflecting well-rehearsed ideas about the masculinity of technology and computing culture. In this paper we are concerned with the processes of work organisation that sustain and reproduce this gendered occupational distribution, focusing in particular on differences and similarities in working-time arrangements between public and private sectors in the Australian context. While information technology companies are often highly competitive workplaces with individualised working arrangements, computing professionals work in a wide range of organisations with different regulatory histories and practices. Our goal is to investigate the implications of these variations for gender equity outcomes, using the public/private divide as indicative of different regulatory frameworks. We draw on Australian census data and a series of organisational case studies to compare working-time arrangements in professional computing employment across sectors, and to examine the various ways employees adapt and respond. Our analysis identifies a stronger ‘long hours culture’ in the private sector, but also underlines the rarity of part-time work in both sectors, and suggests that men and women tend to respond in different ways to these constraints. Although the findings highlight the importance of regulatory frameworks, the organisation of working time across sectors appears to be sustaining rather than challenging gender inequalities in computing employment.

The programming language python in earth system simulations

-scale vary from a planetary scale and million years for convection problems to 100km and 10 years for fault systems simulations. Various techniques are in use to deal with the time dependency (e.g. Crank-Nicholson), with the non-linearity (e.g. Newton-Raphson) and weakly coupled equations (e.g. non-linear Gauss-Seidel). Besides these high-level solution algorithms discretization methods (e.g. finite element method (FEM), boundary element method (BEM)) are used to deal with spatial derivatives. Typically, large-scale, three dimensional meshes are required to resolve geometrical complexity (e.g. in the case of fault systems) or features in the solution (e.g. in mantel convection simulations). The modelling environment escript allows the rapid implementation of new physics as required for the development of simulation codes in earth sciences. Its main object is to provide a programming language, where the user can define new models and rapidly develop high-level solution algorithms. The current implementation is linked with the finite element package finley as a PDE solver. However, the design is open and other discretization technologies such as finite differences and boundary element methods could be included. escript is implemented as an extension of the interactive programming environment python (see www.python.org). Key concepts introduced are Data objects, which are holding values on nodes or elements of the finite element mesh, and linearPDE objects, which are defining linear partial differential equations to be solved by the underlying discretization technology. In this paper we will show the basic concepts of escript and will show how escript is used to implement a simulation code for interacting fault systems. We will show some results of large-scale, parallel simulations on an SGI Altix system. Acknowledgements: Project work is supported by Australian Commonwealth Government through the Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator Major National Research Facility, Queensland State Government Smart State Research Facility Fund, The University of Queensland and SGI.

XBRL:an (open) source of enlightenment or disillusion?

Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is being adopted by European regulators as a data standard for the exchange of business information. This paper examines the approach of XBRL International (XII) to the meta-data standard's development and diffusion. We theorise the development of XBRL using concepts drawn from a model of successful open source projects. Comparison of the open source model to XBRL enables us to identify a number of interesting similarities and differences. In common with open source projects, the benefits and progress of XBRL have been overstated and 'hyped' by enthusiastic participants. While XBRL is an open data standard in terms of access to the equivalent of its 'source code' we find that the governance structure of the XBRL consortium is significantly different to a model open source approach. The barrier to participation that is created by requiring paid membership and a focus on transacting business at physical conferences and meetings is identified as particularly critical. Decisions about the technical structure of XBRL, the regulator-led pattern of adoption and the organisation of XII are discussed. Finally areas for future research are identified.

Motivations to deposit:two approaches to Open Educational Resources (OER) within Languages and Social Sciences (LSS) at Aston University

In Spring 2009, the School of Languages and Social Sciences (LSS) at Aston University responded to a JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) and Higher Education Academy (HEA) call for partners in Open Educational Resources (OER) projects. This led to participation in not one, but two different OER projects from within one small School of the University. This paper will share, from this unusual position, the experience of our English tutors, who participated in the HumBox Project, led by Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (LLAS) and will compare the approach taken with the Sociology partnership in the C-SAP OER Project , led by the Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics (C-SAP). These two HEA Subject Centre-led projects have taken different approaches to the challenges of encouraging tutors to deposit teaching resources, as on ongoing process, for others to openly access, download and re-purpose. As the projects draw to a close, findings will be discussed, in relation to the JISC OER call, with an emphasis on examining the language and discourses from the two collaborations to see where there are shared issues and outcomes, or different subject specific concerns to consider.

INTAMAP: an interoperable automated interpolation web service

INTAMAP is a web processing service for the automatic interpolation of measured point data. Requirements were (i) using open standards for spatial data such as developed in the context of the open geospatial consortium (OGC), (ii) using a suitable environment for statistical modelling and computation, and (iii) producing an open source solution. The system couples the 52-North web processing service, accepting data in the form of an observations and measurements (O&M) document with a computing back-end realized in the R statistical environment. The probability distribution of interpolation errors is encoded with UncertML, a new markup language to encode uncertain data. Automatic interpolation needs to be useful for a wide range of applications and the algorithms have been designed to cope with anisotropies and extreme values. In the light of the INTAMAP experience, we discuss the lessons learnt.

INTAMAP: the design and implementation of an interoperable automated interpolation web service

INTAMAP is a Web Processing Service for the automatic spatial interpolation of measured point data. Requirements were (i) using open standards for spatial data such as developed in the context of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), (ii) using a suitable environment for statistical modelling and computation, and (iii) producing an integrated, open source solution. The system couples an open-source Web Processing Service (developed by 52°North), accepting data in the form of standardised XML documents (conforming to the OGC Observations and Measurements standard) with a computing back-end realised in the R statistical environment. The probability distribution of interpolation errors is encoded with UncertML, a markup language designed to encode uncertain data. Automatic interpolation needs to be useful for a wide range of applications and the algorithms have been designed to cope with anisotropy, extreme values, and data with known error distributions. Besides a fully automatic mode, the system can be used with different levels of user control over the interpolation process.

A language for self-adaptive system requirements

Self-adaptive systems have the capability to autonomously modify their behaviour at run-time in response to changes in their environment. Such systems are now commonly built in domains as diverse as enterprise computing, automotive control systems, and environmental monitoring systems. To date, however, there has been limited attention paid to how to engineer requirements for such systems. As a result, selfadaptivity is often constructed in an ad-hoc manner. In this paper, we argue that a more rigorous treatment of requirements relating to self-adaptivity is needed and that, in particular, requirements languages for self-adaptive systems should include explicit constructs for specifying and dealing with the uncertainty inherent in self-adaptive systems. We present some initial thoughts on a new requirements language for selfadaptive systems and illustrate it using examples from the services domain. © 2008 IEEE.

Fast Information Retrieval in the Open Grid Service Architecture

This is an extended version of an article presented at the Second International Conference on Software, Services and Semantic Technologies, Sofia, Bulgaria, 11–12 September 2010.

Interactive 3D Visualization of Bézier Curves using Java Open Graphics Library (JOGL)

We present a new program tool for interactive 3D visualization of some fundamental algorithms for representation and manipulation of Bézier curves. The program tool has an option for demonstration of one of their most important applications - in graphic design for creating letters by means of cubic Bézier curves. We use Java applet and JOGL as our main visualization techniques. This choice ensures the platform independency of the created applet and contributes to the realistic 3D visualization. The applet provides basic knowledge on the Bézier curves and is appropriate for illustrative and educational purposes. Experimental results are included.

AstroWeb – A Graphical Representation of an Astronomical WFPDB Database Using a Web-Based Open Source Geographical Information System

ACM Computing Classification System (1998): H.5.2, H.2.8, J.2, H.5.3.