Easy Creation of Semantics-Enhanced Digital Artwork Collections

In this paper we propose an approach for cost-effective employing of semantic technologies to improve the efficiency of searching and browsing of digital artwork collections. It is based on a semi-automatic creation of a Topic Map-based virtual art gallery portal by using existing Topic Maps tools. Such a ‘cheap’ solution could enable small art museums or art-related educational programs that lack sufficient funding for software development and publication infrastructure to take advantage of the emerging semantic technologies. The proposed approach has been used for creating the WSSU Diggs Gallery Portal.

Software and Space: Investigating How a Cosmology Research Group Enacts Infrastructure by Producing Software

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Implementação de software livre na administração pública: um estudo de múltiplos casos no Estado do Rio Grande do Norte

New technologies appear each moment and its use can result in countless benefits for that they directly use and for all the society as well. In this direction, the State also can use the technologies of the information and communication to improve the level of rendering of services to the citizens, to give more quality of life to the society and to optimize the public expense, centering it in the main necessities. For this, it has many research on politics of Electronic Government (e-Gov) and its main effect for the citizen and the society as a whole. This research studies the concept of Electronic Government and wishes to understand the process of implementation of Free Softwares in the agencies of the Direct Administration in the Rio Grande do Norte. Moreover, it deepens the analysis to identify if its implantation results in reduction of cost for the state treasury and intends to identify the Free Software participation in the Administration and the bases of the politics of Electronic Government in this State. Through qualitative interviews with technologies coordinators and managers in 3 State Secretaries it could be raised the ways that come being trod for the Government in order to endow the State with technological capacity. It was perceived that the Rio Grande do Norte still is an immature State in relation to practical of electronic government (e-Gov) and with Free Softwares, where few agencies have factual and viable initiatives in this area. It still lacks of a strategical definition of the paper of Technology and more investments in infrastructure of staff and equipment. One also observed advances as the creation of the normative agency, the CETIC (State Advice of Technology of the Information and Communication), the Managing Plan of Technology that provide a necessary diagnosis with the situation how much Technology in the State and considered diverse goals for the area, the accomplishment of a course of after-graduation for managers of Technology and the training in BrOffice (OppenOffice) for 1120 public servers

Implementação de software livre na administração pública: um estudo de múltiplos casos no Estado do Rio Grande do Norte

New technologies appear each moment and its use can result in countless benefits for that they directly use and for all the society as well. In this direction, the State also can use the technologies of the information and communication to improve the level of rendering of services to the citizens, to give more quality of life to the society and to optimize the public expense, centering it in the main necessities. For this, it has many research on politics of Electronic Government (e-Gov) and its main effect for the citizen and the society as a whole. This research studies the concept of Electronic Government and wishes to understand the process of implementation of Free Softwares in the agencies of the Direct Administration in the Rio Grande do Norte. Moreover, it deepens the analysis to identify if its implantation results in reduction of cost for the state treasury and intends to identify the Free Software participation in the Administration and the bases of the politics of Electronic Government in this State. Through qualitative interviews with technologies coordinators and managers in 3 State Secretaries it could be raised the ways that come being trod for the Government in order to endow the State with technological capacity. It was perceived that the Rio Grande do Norte still is an immature State in relation to practical of electronic government (e-Gov) and with Free Softwares, where few agencies have factual and viable initiatives in this area. It still lacks of a strategical definition of the paper of Technology and more investments in infrastructure of staff and equipment. One also observed advances as the creation of the normative agency, the CETIC (State Advice of Technology of the Information and Communication), the Managing Plan of Technology that provide a necessary diagnosis with the situation how much Technology in the State and considered diverse goals for the area, the accomplishment of a course of after-graduation for managers of Technology and the training in BrOffice (OppenOffice) for 1120 public servers

The joint European Research Infrastructure Network for Coastal Observatories: Achievements and Strategy for the Future

This document is summarizing a major part of the work performed by the FP7-JERICO consortium, including 27 partner institutions, during 4 years (2011-2015). Its objective is to propose a strategy for the European coastal observation and monitoring. To do so we give an overview of the main achievements of the FP7-JERICO project. From this overview, gaps are analysed to draw some recommendations for the future. Overview, gaps and recommendation are addressed at both Hardware and Software levels of the JERICO Research Infrastructure. The main part of the document is built upon this analysis to outcome a general strategy for the future, giving priorities to be targeted and some possible funding mechanisms, but also upon discussions held in dedicated JERICO strategy workshops. This document was initiated in 2014 by the coordination team but considering the fact that an overview of the entire project and its achievement were needed to feed this strategy deliverable it couldn’t ended before the end of FP7-JERICO, April 2015. The preparation of the JERICO-NEXT proposal in summer 2014 to answer an H2020 call for proposals pushed the consortium ahead, fed deep thoughts about this strategy but the intention was to not propose a strategy only bounded by the JERICO-NEXT answer. Authors are conscious that writing JERICO-NEXT is even drawing a bias in the thoughts and they tried to be opened. Nevertheless, comments are always welcome to go farther ahead. Structure of the document The Chapter 3 introduces the need of sustained coastal observatories, from different point of view including a short description of the FP7-JERICO project. In Chapter 4, an analysis of the JERICO coastal observatory Hardware (platforms and sensors) in terms of Status at the end of JERICO, identified gaps and recommendations for further development is provided region by region. The main challenges that remain to be overcome is also summarized. Chapter 5 is dedicated the JERICO infrastructure Software (calibration, operation, quality assessment, data management) and the progress made through JERICO on harmonization of procedures and definition of best practices. Chapter 6 provides elements of a strategy towards sustainable and integrated coastal observations for Europe, drawing a roadmap for cost-effective scientific-based consolidation of the present infrastructure while maximizing the potential arising from JERICO in terms of innovation, wealth-creation, and business development. After reading the chapter 3, for who doesn’t know JERICO, any chapter can be read independently. More details are available in the JERICO final reports and its intermediate reports; all are available on the JERICO web site (www.jerico-FP7.eu) as well as any deliverable. Each chapter will list referring JERICO documents. A small bibliographic list is available at the end of this deliverable.

Explora: Infrastructure for Scaling Up Software Visualisation to Corpora

Visualisation provides good support for software analysis. It copes with the intangible nature of software by providing concrete representations of it. By reducing the complexity of software, visualisations are especially useful when dealing with large amounts of code. One domain that usually deals with large amounts of source code data is empirical analysis. Although there are many tools for analysis and visualisation, they do not cope well software corpora. In this paper we present Explora, an infrastructure that is specifically targeted at visualising corpora. We report on early results when conducting a sample analysis on Smalltalk and Java corpora.

Decision support tools for concrete infrastructure rehabilitation (using FRP composites)

This report presents a summary of the research conducted by the research team of the CRC project 2002-005-C, “Decision support tools for concrete infrastructure rehabilitation”. The project scope, objectives, significance and innovation and the research methodology is outlined in the introduction, which is followed by five chapters covering different aspects of the research completed. Major findings of a review of literature conducted covering both use of fibre reinforced polymer composites in rehabilitation of concrete bridge structures and decision support frameworks in civil infrastructure asset management is presented in chapter two. Case study of development of a strengthening scheme for the “Tenthill Creek bridge” is covered in the third chapter, which summarises the capacity assessment, traditional strengthening solution and the innovative solution using FRP composites. The fourth chapter presents the methodology for development of a user guide covering selection of materials, design and application of FRP in strengthening of concrete structures, which were demonstrated using design examples. Fifth chapter presents the methodology developed for evaluating whole of life cycle costing of treatment options for concrete bridge structures. The decision support software tool developed to compare different treatment options based on reliability based whole of life cycle costing will be briefly described in this chapter as well. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for future research.

Final report : a software diagnostic tool for evaluating distress mechanisms in bridges exposed to aggressive environments

Durability issues of reinforced concrete construction cost millions of dollars in repair or demolition. Identification of the causes of degradation and a prediction of service life based on experience, judgement and local knowledge has limitations in addressing all the associated issues. The objective of this CRC CI research project is to develop a tool that will assist in the interpretation of the symptoms of degradation of concrete structures, estimate residual capacity and recommend cost effective solutions. This report is a documentation of the research undertaken in connection with this project. The primary focus of this research is centred on the case studies provided by Queensland Department of Main Roads (QDMR) and Brisbane City Council (BCC). These organisations are endowed with the responsibility of managing a huge volume of bridge infrastructure in the state of Queensland, Australia. The main issue to be addressed in managing these structures is the deterioration of bridge stock leading to a reduction in service life. Other issues such as political backlash, public inconvenience, approach land acquisitions are crucial but are not within the scope of this project. It is to be noted that deterioration is accentuated by aggressive environments such as salt water, acidic or sodic soils. Carse, 2005, has noted that the road authorities need to invest their first dollars in understanding their local concretes and optimising the durability performance of structures and then look at potential remedial strategies.

From Prosumer to Produser: Understanding User-Led Content Creation

Alvin Toffler’s image of the prosumer (1970, 1980, 1990) continues to influence in a significant way our understanding of the user-led, collaborative processes of content creation which are today labelled “social media” or “Web 2.0”. A closer look at Toffler’s own description of his prosumer model reveals, however, that it remains firmly grounded in the mass media age: the prosumer is clearly not the self-motivated creative originator and developer of new content which can today be observed in projects ranging from open source software through Wikipedia to Second Life, but simply a particularly well-informed, and therefore both particularly critical and particularly active, consumer. The highly specialised, high end consumers which exist in areas such as hi-fi or car culture are far more representative of the ideal prosumer than the participants in non-commercial (or as yet non-commercial) collaborative projects. And to expect Toffler’s 1970s model of the prosumer to describe these 21st-century phenomena was always an unrealistic expectation, of course. To describe the creative and collaborative participation which today characterises user-led projects such as Wikipedia, terms such as ‘production’ and ‘consumption’ are no longer particularly useful – even in laboured constructions such as ‘commons-based peer-production’ (Benkler 2006) or ‘p2p production’ (Bauwens 2005). In the user communities participating in such forms of content creation, roles as consumers and users have long begun to be inextricably interwoven with those as producer and creator: users are always already also able to be producers of the shared information collection, regardless of whether they are aware of that fact – they have taken on a new, hybrid role which may be best described as that of a produser (Bruns 2008). Projects which build on such produsage can be found in areas from open source software development through citizen journalism to Wikipedia, and beyond this also in multi-user online computer games, filesharing, and even in communities collaborating on the design of material goods. While addressing a range of different challenges, they nonetheless build on a small number of universal key principles. This paper documents these principles and indicates the possible implications of this transition from production and prosumption to produsage.

Infrastructure project planning decision making : challenges for decision support system applications

Most infrastructure projects share the same characteristics in term of management aspects and shortcomings. Human factor is believed to be the major drawbacks due to the nature of unstructured problems which can further contribute to management conflicts. This growing complexity in infrastructure projects has shift the paradigm of policy makers to adopt Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a driving force. For this reason, it is vital to fully maximise and utilise the recent technologies to accelerate management process particularly in planning phase. Therefore, a lot of tools have been developed to assist decision making in construction project management. The variety of uncertainties and alternatives in decision making can be entertained by using useful tool such as Decision Support System (DSS). However, the recent trend shows that most DSS in this area only concentrated in model development and left few fundamentals of computing. Thus, most of them were found complicated and less efficient to support decision making within project team members. Due to the current incapability of many software aspects, it is desirable for DSS to provide more simplicity, better collaborative platform, efficient data manipulation and reflection to user needs. By considering these factors, the paper illustrates four challenges for future DSS development i.e. requirement engineering, communication framework, data management and interoperability, and software usability

Infrastructure Sustainability : Damage Assessment in Multiple-Girder Composite Bridges Using Vibration Characteristics

Assessing the structural health state of urban infrastructure is crucial in terms of infrastructure sustainability. This chapter uses dynamic computer simulation techniques to apply a procedure using vibration-based methods for damage assessment in multiple-girder composite bridges. In addition to changes in natural frequencies, this multi-criteria procedure incorporates two methods, namely, the modal flexibility and the modal strain energy method. Using the numerically simulated modal data obtained through finite element analysis software, algorithms based on modal flexibility and modal strain energy change, before and after damage, are obtained and used as the indices for the assessment of structural health state. The feasibility and capability of the approach is demonstrated through numerical studies of a proposed structure with six damage scenarios. It is concluded that the modal strain energy method is capable of application to multiple-girder composite bridges, as evidenced through the example treated in this chapter.

Sustainable airport infrastructure : balancing infrastructures for the airport metropolis

Ongoing financial, environmental and political adjustments have shifted the role of large international airports. Many airports are expanding from a narrow concentration on operating as transportation centres to becoming economic hubs. By working together, airports and other industry sectors can contribute to and facilitate not only economic prosperity, but create social advantage for local and regional areas in new ways. This transformation of the function and orientation of airports has been termed the aerotropolis or airport metropolis, where the airport is recognised as an economic centre with land uses that link local and global markets. This chapter contends that the conversion of an airport into a sustainable airport metropolis requires more than just industry clustering and the existence of hard physical infrastructure. Attention must also be directed to the creation and on-going development of social infrastructure within proximate areas and the maximisation of connectivity flows within and between infrastructure elements. It concludes that the establishment of an interactive and interdependent infrastructure trilogy of hard, soft and social infrastructures provides the necessary balance to the airport metropolis to ensure sustainable development. This chapter provides the start of an operating framework to integrate and harness the infrastructure trilogy to enable the achievement of optimal and sustainable social and economic advantage from airport cities.

Metadata aggregation : a critical component of research infrastructure for the future

The development of research data management infrastructure and services and making research data more discoverable and accessible to the research community is a key priority at the national, state and individual university level. This paper will discuss and reflect upon a collaborative project between Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology to commission a Metadata Hub or Metadata Aggregation service based upon open source software components. It will describe the role that metadata aggregation services play in modern research infrastructure and argue that this role is a critical one.

A programming language for software components

Component software has many benefits, most notably increased software re-use; however, the component software process places heavy burdens on programming language technology, which modern object-oriented programming languages do not address. In particular, software components require specifications that are both sufficiently expressive and sufficiently abstract, and, where possible, these specifications should be checked formally by the programming language. This dissertation presents a programming language called Mentok that provides two novel programming language features enabling improved specification of stateful component roles. Negotiable interfaces are interface types extended with protocols, and allow specification of changing method availability, including some patterns of out-calls and re-entrance. Type layers are extensions to module signatures that allow specification of abstract control flow constraints through the interfaces of a component-based application. Development of Mentok's unique language features included creation of MentokC, the Mentok compiler, and formalization of key properties of Mentok in mini-languages called MentokP and MentokL.

Ubiquitous and smart system approaches to infrastructure planning : learnings from Korea, Japan and Hong Kong

The robust economic growth across South East Asia and the significant advances in nano-technologies in the past two decades have resulted in the creation of intelligent urban infrastructures. Cities like Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong have been competing against each other to develop the first ‘ubiquitous city’, a strategic global node of science and technology that provides all municipal services for residents and visitors via ubiquitous infrastructures. This chapter scrutinises the development of ubiquitous and smart infrastructure in Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. These cases provide invaluable learnings for policy-makers and urban and infrastructure planners when considering adopting these systems approaches in their cities.