Using SVG as the Rendering Model for Structured and Graphically Complex Web Material

This paper reports some experiments in using SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), rather than the browser default of (X)HTML/CSS, as a potential Web-based rendering technology, in an attempt to create an approach that integrates the structural and display aspects of a Web document in a single XML-compliant envelope. Although the syntax of SVG is XML based, the semantics of the primitive graphic operations more closely resemble those of page description languages such as PostScript or PDF. The principal usage of SVG, so far, is for inserting complex graphic material into Web pages that are predominantly controlled via (X)HTML and CSS. The conversion of structured and unstructured PDF into SVG is discussed. It is found that unstructured PDF converts into pages of SVG with few problems, but difficulties arise when one attempts to map the structural components of a Tagged PDF into an XML skeleton underlying the corresponding SVG. These difficulties are not fundamentally syntactic; they arise largely because browsers are innately bound to (X)HTML/CSS as their default rendering model. Some suggestions are made for ways in which SVG could be more totally integrated into browser functionality, with the possibility that future browsers might be able to use SVG as their default rendering paradigm.

The influence of surface and deep cues on primary and secondary school students’ assessment of relevance in Web menus

International audience

Aplicación web para enseñanza/aprendizaje de cálculo y álgebra

El principal objetivo de este trabajo fin de grado es la implementación de una aplicación web que permita realizar actividades de enseñanza/aprendizaje en las ramas de cálculo y álgebra de las matemáticas, enfocada principalmente en los contenidos impartidos en las asignaturas de matemáticas en Bachillerato, concretamente de la unidad de realización de derivadas. Se han desarrollado dos modelos: Uno para el profesor, que permite la generación de los ejercicios, así como la consulta de las posibles soluciones. Esta aplicación ofrece al docente la posibilidad de mediante una serie de ajustes, generar de forma dinámica las actividades deseadas. Otro para el alumno, que permite la realización de las actividades y la inclusión de respuestas paso a paso, además de la visualización de las correcciones a sus procedimientos. Para el desarrollo de estas aplicaciones se ha usado el lenguaje Java con ayuda de JSON para el intercambio de datos. También se ha utilizado el motor de respuestas Wolfram Alpha para realizar las correcciones paso a paso de las respuestas de los alumnos.

Una herramienta web para la planificación de horarios y de asignaciones de aulas.

Este proyecto ha consistido en la realización de una aplicación web para cubrir una necesidad del centro universitario; la necesidad de gestionar los horarios y la asignación de aulas cada inicio de curso de una forma más automática de la que se usa en la actualidad. El objetivo principal ha sido que la aplicación fuera lo más intuitiva posible y que tenga una facilidad de uso que motivase su utilización. Para ello nos hemos decantado por una serie de características tanto visuales (distribución de la información, códigos de colores), como de uso (sistema de Drag&Drop). La aplicación tiene tres módulos principales: Un primer módulo para el manejo de los horarios, el cual nos permite la construcción de un horario para un grupo determinado evitando cualquier tipo de conflicto.El segundo módulo para la asignación de grupo a aulas, de forma que nos permite tener un control de los espacios del centro. El tercero y último, con una fuerte relación con el segundo, que en este caso se utiliza para asignar asignaturas optativas a aulas. Todo esto va acompañado por una variedad de páginas de información y de una vista administrativa para gestionar los datos necesarios para usar la aplicación. Una de las ventajas más importantes que tiene esta aplicación es la automatización a la hora de realizar todas las comprobaciones necesarias para hacer cualquier asignación. Debido a la envergadura del proyecto, optamos por realizar este proyecto conjuntamente entre tres personas para ser capaces de ofrecer un producto lo más completo posible sin salirnos de los límites de este trabajo de fin de grado.

Geospatial Data Indexing Analysis and Visualization via Web Services with Autonomic Resource Management

With the exponential growth of the usage of web-based map services, the web GIS application has become more and more popular. Spatial data index, search, analysis, visualization and the resource management of such services are becoming increasingly important to deliver user-desired Quality of Service. First, spatial indexing is typically time-consuming and is not available to end-users. To address this, we introduce TerraFly sksOpen, an open-sourced an Online Indexing and Querying System for Big Geospatial Data. Integrated with the TerraFly Geospatial database [1-9], sksOpen is an efficient indexing and query engine for processing Top-k Spatial Boolean Queries. Further, we provide ergonomic visualization of query results on interactive maps to facilitate the user’s data analysis. Second, due to the highly complex and dynamic nature of GIS systems, it is quite challenging for the end users to quickly understand and analyze the spatial data, and to efficiently share their own data and analysis results with others. Built on the TerraFly Geo spatial database, TerraFly GeoCloud is an extra layer running upon the TerraFly map and can efficiently support many different visualization functions and spatial data analysis models. Furthermore, users can create unique URLs to visualize and share the analysis results. TerraFly GeoCloud also enables the MapQL technology to customize map visualization using SQL-like statements [10]. Third, map systems often serve dynamic web workloads and involve multiple CPU and I/O intensive tiers, which make it challenging to meet the response time targets of map requests while using the resources efficiently. Virtualization facilitates the deployment of web map services and improves their resource utilization through encapsulation and consolidation. Autonomic resource management allows resources to be automatically provisioned to a map service and its internal tiers on demand. v-TerraFly are techniques to predict the demand of map workloads online and optimize resource allocations, considering both response time and data freshness as the QoS target. The proposed v-TerraFly system is prototyped on TerraFly, a production web map service, and evaluated using real TerraFly workloads. The results show that v-TerraFly can accurately predict the workload demands: 18.91% more accurate; and efficiently allocate resources to meet the QoS target: improves the QoS by 26.19% and saves resource usages by 20.83% compared to traditional peak load-based resource allocation.

Standardised tobacco packaging:a health policy case study of corporate conflict expansion and adaptation

Objectives: To investigate opposition to standardised tobacco packaging in the UK. To increase understanding of how transnational corporations are adapting to changes in their access to policymakers precipitated by Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Design: Case study web-based documentary analysis, using NVivo V.10. Examination of relationships between opponents of standardised packaging and transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) and of the volume, nature, transparency and timing of their activities. Setting: UK standardised packaging policy debate 2011-2013. Participants: Organisations selected on basis of opposition to, or facilitation thereof, standardised tobacco packaging in the UK; 422 associated documents. Results: Excluding tobacco manufacturing and packaging companies (n=12), 109 organisations were involved in opposing standardised packaging, 82 (75%) of which had a financial relationship with 1 or more TTC. These 82 organisations (43 actively opposing the measure, 39 facilitating opposition) were responsible for 60% of the 404 activities identified, including the majority of public communications and research production. TTCs were directly responsible for 28% of total activities, predominantly direct lobbying, but also financially underwrote third party research, communication, mass recruitment and lobbying. Active organisations rarely reported any financial relationship with TTCs when undertaking opposition activities. Conclusions: The multifaceted opposition to standardised packaging was primarily undertaken by third parties with financial relationships with major tobacco manufacturers. Low levels of transparency regarding these links created a misleading impression of diverse and widespread opposition. Countries should strengthen implementation of Article 5.3 of the FCTC by systematically requiring conflict of interest declarations from all organisations participating in political or media debates on tobacco control.

From client's dreams to achievable projects: An expert system for determining web site feasibility

This paper presents a web based expert system application that carries out an initial assessment of the feasibility of a web project. The system allows detection of inconsistency problems before design starts, and suggests correcting actions to solve them. The developed system presents important advantages not only for determining the feasibility of a web project but also by acting as a means of communication between the client company and the web development team, making the requirements specification clearer.

ProbFAST: Probabilistic Functional Analysis System Tool

Background: The post-genomic era has brought new challenges regarding the understanding of the organization and function of the human genome. Many of these challenges are centered on the meaning of differential gene regulation under distinct biological conditions and can be performed by analyzing the Multiple Differential Expression (MDE) of genes associated with normal and abnormal biological processes. Currently MDE analyses are limited to usual methods of differential expression initially designed for paired analysis. Results: We proposed a web platform named ProbFAST for MDE analysis which uses Bayesian inference to identify key genes that are intuitively prioritized by means of probabilities. A simulated study revealed that our method gives a better performance when compared to other approaches and when applied to public expression data, we demonstrated its flexibility to obtain relevant genes biologically associated with normal and abnormal biological processes. Conclusions: ProbFAST is a free accessible web-based application that enables MDE analysis on a global scale. It offers an efficient methodological approach for MDE analysis of a set of genes that are turned on and off related to functional information during the evolution of a tumor or tissue differentiation. ProbFAST server can be accessed at http://gdm.fmrp.usp.br/probfast.

A score system for quality evaluation of RNA sequence tags: an improvement for gene expression profiling

Background: High-throughput molecular approaches for gene expression profiling, such as Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE), Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing (MPSS) or Sequencing-by-Synthesis (SBS) represent powerful techniques that provide global transcription profiles of different cell types through sequencing of short fragments of transcripts, denominated sequence tags. These techniques have improved our understanding about the relationships between these expression profiles and cellular phenotypes. Despite this, more reliable datasets are still necessary. In this work, we present a web-based tool named S3T: Score System for Sequence Tags, to index sequenced tags in accordance with their reliability. This is made through a series of evaluations based on a defined rule set. S3T allows the identification/selection of tags, considered more reliable for further gene expression analysis. Results: This methodology was applied to a public SAGE dataset. In order to compare data before and after filtering, a hierarchical clustering analysis was performed in samples from the same type of tissue, in distinct biological conditions, using these two datasets. Our results provide evidences suggesting that it is possible to find more congruous clusters after using S3T scoring system. Conclusion: These results substantiate the proposed application to generate more reliable data. This is a significant contribution for determination of global gene expression profiles. The library analysis with S3T is freely available at http://gdm.fmrp.usp.br/s3t/.S3T source code and datasets can also be downloaded from the aforementioned website.

Insulin and leptin relations in obesity: a multimedia approach

Obesity has been recognized as a worldwide public health problem. It significantly increases the chances of developing several diseases, including Type II diabetes. The roles of insulin and leptin in obesity involve reactions that can be better understood when they are presented step by step. The aim of this work was to design software with data from some of the most recent publications on obesity, especially those concerning the roles of insulin and leptin in this metabolic disturbance. The most notable characteristic of this software is the use of animations representing the cellular response together with the presentation of recently discovered mechanisms on the participation of insulin and leptin in processes leading to obesity. The software was field tested in the Biochemistry of Nutrition web-based course. After using the software and discussing its contents in chatrooms, students were asked to answer an evaluation survey about the whole activity and the usefulness of the software within the learning process. The teaching assistants (TA) evaluated the software as a tool to help in the teaching process. The students' and TAs' satisfaction was very evident and encouraged us to move forward with the software development and to improve the use of this kind of educational tool in biochemistry classes.

Migrating eprints.org data to a Fez repository

This document records the process of migrating eprints.org data to a Fez repository. Fez is a Web-based digital repository and workflow management system based on Fedora (http://www.fedora.info/). At the time of migration, the University of Queensland Library was using EPrints 2.2.1 [pepper] for its ePrintsUQ repository. Once we began to develop Fez, we did not upgrade to later versions of eprints.org software since we knew we would be migrating data from ePrintsUQ to the Fez-based UQ eSpace. Since this document records our experiences of migration from an earlier version of eprints.org, anyone seeking to migrate eprints.org data into a Fez repository might encounter some small differences. Moving UQ publication data from an eprints.org repository into a Fez repository (hereafter called UQ eSpace (http://espace.uq.edu.au/) was part of a plan to integrate metadata (and, in some cases, full texts) about all UQ research outputs, including theses, images, multimedia and datasets, in a single repository. This tied in with the plan to identify and capture the research output of a single institution, the main task of the eScholarshipUQ testbed for the Australian Partnership for Sustainable Repositories project (http://www.apsr.edu.au/). The migration could not occur at UQ until the functionality in Fez was at least equal to that of the existing ePrintsUQ repository. Accordingly, as Fez development occurred throughout 2006, a list of eprints.org functionality not currently supported in Fez was created so that programming of such development could be planned for and implemented.

The interaction between technologies and society: Lessons learnt from 160 evolutionary years of online news services

In mapping the evolutionary process of online news and the socio-cultural factors determining this development, this paper has a dual purpose. First, in reworking the definition of “online communication”, it argues that despite its seemingly sudden emergence in the 1990s, the history of online news started right in the early days of the telegraphs and spread throughout the development of the telephone and the fax machine before becoming computer-based in the 1980s and Web-based in the 1990s. Second, merging macro-perspectives on the dynamic of media evolution by DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach (1989) and Winston (1998), the paper consolidates a critical point for thinking about new media development: that something technically feasible does not always mean that it will be socially accepted and/or demanded. From a producer-centric perspective, the birth and development of pre-Web online news forms have been more or less generated by the traditional media’s sometimes excessive hype about the power of new technologies. However, placing such an emphasis on technological potentials at the expense of their social conditions not only can be misleading but also can be detrimental to the development of new media, including the potential of today’s online news.

Proof Explanation in the DR-DEVICE System

Trust is a vital feature for Semantic Web: If users (humans and agents) are to use and integrate system answers, they must trust them. Thus, systems should be able to explain their actions, sources, and beliefs, and this issue is the topic of the proof layer in the design of the Semantic Web. This paper presents the design and implementation of a system for proof explanation on the Semantic Web, based on defeasible reasoning. The basis of this work is the DR-DEVICE system that is extended to handle proofs. A critical aspect is the representation of proofs in an XML language, which is achieved by a RuleML language extension.

Computational methods for prediction of T-cell epitopes - a framework for modelling, testing, and applications

Computational models complement laboratory experimentation for efficient identification of MHC-binding peptides and T-cell epitopes. Methods for prediction of MHC-binding peptides include binding motifs, quantitative matrices, artificial neural networks, hidden Markov models, and molecular modelling. Models derived by these methods have been successfully used for prediction of T-cell epitopes in cancer, autoimmunity, infectious disease, and allergy. For maximum benefit, the use of computer models must be treated as experiments analogous to standard laboratory procedures and performed according to strict standards. This requires careful selection of data for model building, and adequate testing and validation. A range of web-based databases and MHC-binding prediction programs are available. Although some available prediction programs for particular MHC alleles have reasonable accuracy, there is no guarantee that all models produce good quality predictions. In this article, we present and discuss a framework for modelling, testing, and applications of computational methods used in predictions of T-cell epitopes. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Accuracy of store-and-forward diagnosis in leproy

Telemedicine might increase the speed of diagnosis for leprosy and reduce the development of disabilities. We compared the accuracy of diagnosis made by telemedicine with that made by in-person examination. The cases were patients with suspected leprosy at eight public health clinics in outlying areas of the city of Sao Paulo. The case history and clinical examination data, and at least two clinical images for each patient, were stored in a web-based system developed for teledermatology. After the examination in the public clinic, patients then attended a teaching hospital for an in-person examination. The benchmark was the clinical examination of two dermatologists at the university hospital. From August 2005 to April 2006, 142 suspected cases of leprosy were forwarded to the website by the doctors at the clinics. Of these, 36 cases were excluded. There was overall agreement in the diagnosis of leprosy in 74% of the 106 remaining cases. The sensitivity was 78% and the specificity was 31%. Although the specificity was low, the study suggests that telemedicine may be a useful low-cost method for obtaining second opinions in programmes to control leprosy.