Catalogue Interfaces of Integrated Library Management Systems (ILMS): Experiences in a Proprietary and Open Source Software

The Central Library of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) has been automated by proprietary software (Adlib Library) since 2000. After 11 years, in 2011, the university authorities decided to shift to an open source software (OSS), for integrated library management system (ILMS), Koha for automating the library housekeeping operations. In this context, this study attempts to share the experiences in cataloging with both type of software. The features of the cataloging modules of both the software are analysed on the badis of certain check points. It is found that the cataloging module of Koha is almost in par with that of proven proprietary software that has been in market for the past 25 years. Some suggestions made by this study may be incorporated for the further development and perfection of Koha.

Use of Online Information Resources for Knowledge Organisation in Library and Information Centres: A Case Study of CUSAT

The paper discusses the use of online information resources for organising knowledge in library and information centres in Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). The paper discusses the status and extent of automation in CUSAT library. The use of different online resources and the purposes for which these resources are being used, is explained in detail. Structured interview method was applied for collecting data. It was observed that 67 per cent users consult online resources for assisting knowledge organisation. Library of Congress catalogue is the widely used (100 per cent) online resource followed by OPAC of CUSAT and catalogue of British Library. The main purposes for using these resources are class number building and subject indexing

Modelling and simulation of a photovoltaic fuel cell hybrid system

A stand-alone power system is an autonomous system that supplies electricity to the user load without being connected to the electric grid. This kind of decentralized system is frequently located in remote and inaccessible areas. It is essential for about one third of the world population which are living in developed or isolated regions and have no access to an electricity utility grid. The most people live in remote and rural areas, with low population density, lacking even the basic infrastructure. The utility grid extension to these locations is not a cost effective option and sometimes technically not feasible. The purpose of this thesis is the modelling and simulation of a stand-alone hybrid power system, referred to as “hydrogen Photovoltaic-Fuel Cell (PVFC) hybrid system”. It couples a photovoltaic generator (PV), an alkaline water electrolyser, a storage gas tank, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), and power conditioning units (PCU) to give different system topologies. The system is intended to be an environmentally friendly solution since it tries maximising the use of a renewable energy source. Electricity is produced by a PV generator to meet the requirements of a user load. Whenever there is enough solar radiation, the user load can be powered totally by the PV electricity. During periods of low solar radiation, auxiliary electricity is required. An alkaline high pressure water electrolyser is powered by the excess energy from the PV generator to produce hydrogen and oxygen at a pressure of maximum 30bar. Gases are stored without compression for short- (hourly or daily) and long- (seasonal) term. A proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is used to keep the system’s reliability at the same level as for the conventional system while decreasing the environmental impact of the whole system. The PEM fuel cell consumes gases which are produced by an electrolyser to meet the user load demand when the PV generator energy is deficient, so that it works as an auxiliary generator. Power conditioning units are appropriate for the conversion and dispatch the energy between the components of the system. No batteries are used in this system since they represent the weakest when used in PV systems due to their need for sophisticated control and their short lifetime. The model library, ISET Alternative Power Library (ISET-APL), is designed by the Institute of Solar Energy supply Technology (ISET) and used for the simulation of the hybrid system. The physical, analytical and/or empirical equations of each component are programmed and implemented separately in this library for the simulation software program Simplorer by C++ language. The model parameters are derived from manufacturer’s performance data sheets or measurements obtained from literature. The identification and validation of the major hydrogen PVFC hybrid system component models are evaluated according to the measured data of the components, from the manufacturer’s data sheet or from actual system operation. Then, the overall system is simulated, at intervals of one hour each, by using solar radiation as the primary energy input and hydrogen as energy storage for one year operation. A comparison between different topologies, such as DC or AC coupled systems, is carried out on the basis of energy point of view at two locations with different geographical latitudes, in Kassel/Germany (Europe) and in Cairo/Egypt (North Africa). The main conclusion in this work is that the simulation method of the system study under different conditions could successfully be used to give good visualization and comparison between those topologies for the overall performance of the system. The operational performance of the system is not only depending on component efficiency but also on system design and consumption behaviour. The worst case of this system is the low efficiency of the storage subsystem made of the electrolyser, the gas storage tank, and the fuel cell as it is around 25-34% at Cairo and 29-37% at Kassel. Therefore, the research for this system should be concentrated in the subsystem components development especially the fuel cell.

A contextual-logic extension of TOSCANA

The aim of this paper is to indicate how TOSCANA may be extended to allow graphical representations not only of concept lattices but also of concept graphs in the sense of Contextual Logic. The contextual-logic extension of TOSCANA requires the logical scaling of conceptual and relatioal scales for which we propose the Peircean Algebraic Logic as reconstructed by R. W. Burch. As graphical representations we recommend, besides labelled line diagrams of concept lattices and Sowa's diagrams of conceptual graphs, particular information maps for utilizing background knowledge as much as possible. Our considerations are illustrated by a small information system about the domestic flights in Austria.

Identifying the component structure of job satisfaction by principal components analysis among extension officers in North West Province, South Africa

The component structure of a 34-item scale measuring different aspects of job satisfaction was investigated among extension officers in North West Province, South Africa. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 40 extension officers from which data were collected. A structured questionnaire consisting of 34 job satisfaction and 10 personal characteristic items was administered to the extension officers. Items on job satisfaction were measured at interval level and analyzedwith Principal ComponentAnalysis. Most of the respondents (82.5%) weremales, between 40 to 45 years, 85% were married and 87.5% had a diploma as their educational qualification. Furthermore, 54% of the households size between 4 to 6 persons, whereas 75% were Christians. The majority of the extension officers lived in their job area (82.5), while 80% covered at least 3 communities and 3 farmer groups. In terms of number of farmers covered, only 40% of the extension officers covered more than 500 farmers and 45% travelled more than 40 km to reach their farmers. From the job satisfaction items 9 components were extracted to show areas for job satisfaction among extension officers. These were in-service training, research policies, communicating recommended practices, financial support for self and family, quality of technical help, opportunity to advance education, management and control of operations, rewarding system and sanctions. The results have several implications for motivating extension officers for high job performance especially with large number of clients and small number of extension agents.

Development of an ArcGIS extension to model urban climate factors

The possibility to develop automatically running models which can capture some of the most important factors driving the urban climate would be very useful for many planning aspects. With the help of these modulated climate data, the creation of the typically used “Urban Climate Maps” (UCM) will be accelerated and facilitated. This work describes the development of a special ArcGIS software extension, along with two support databases to achieve this functionality. At the present time, lacking comparability between different UCMs and imprecise planning advices going along with the significant technical problems of manually creating conventional maps are central issues. Also inflexibility and static behaviour are reducing the maps’ practicality. From experi-ence, planning processes are formed more productively, namely to implant new planning parameters directly via the existing work surface to map the impact of the data change immediately, if pos-sible. In addition to the direct climate figures, information of other planning areas (like regional characteristics / developments etc.) have to be taken into account to create the UCM as well. Taking all these requirements into consideration, an automated calculation process of urban climate impact parameters will serve to increase the creation of homogenous UCMs efficiently.

An Extension to the Tactical Planning Model for a Job Shop: Continuous-Time Control

We develop an extension to the tactical planning model (TPM) for a job shop by the third author. The TPM is a discrete-time model in which all transitions occur at the start of each time period. The time period must be defined appropriately in order for the model to be meaningful. Each period must be short enough so that a job is unlikely to travel through more than one station in one period. At the same time, the time period needs to be long enough to justify the assumptions of continuous workflow and Markovian job movements. We build an extension to the TPM that overcomes this restriction of period sizing by permitting production control over shorter time intervals. We achieve this by deriving a continuous-time linear control rule for a single station. We then determine the first two moments of the production level and queue length for the workstation.

An R Library for Compositional Data Analysis in Archaeometry

Compositional data naturally arises from the scientific analysis of the chemical composition of archaeological material such as ceramic and glass artefacts. Data of this type can be explored using a variety of techniques, from standard multivariate methods such as principal components analysis and cluster analysis, to methods based upon the use of log-ratios. The general aim is to identify groups of chemically similar artefacts that could potentially be used to answer questions of provenance. This paper will demonstrate work in progress on the development of a documented library of methods, implemented using the statistical package R, for the analysis of compositional data. R is an open source package that makes available very powerful statistical facilities at no cost. We aim to show how, with the aid of statistical software such as R, traditional exploratory multivariate analysis can easily be used alongside, or in combination with, specialist techniques of compositional data analysis. The library has been developed from a core of basic R functionality, together with purpose-written routines arising from our own research (for example that reported at CoDaWork'03). In addition, we have included other appropriate publicly available techniques and libraries that have been implemented in R by other authors. Available functions range from standard multivariate techniques through to various approaches to log-ratio analysis and zero replacement. We also discuss and demonstrate a small selection of relatively new techniques that have hitherto been little-used in archaeometric applications involving compositional data. The application of the library to the analysis of data arising in archaeometry will be demonstrated; results from different analyses will be compared; and the utility of the various methods discussed

MapFish. A WebGIS 2.0 Framework: toolkit to build rich client WebGIS

MapFish is an open-source development framework for building webmapping applications. MapFish is based on the OpenLayers API and the Geo extension of Ext library, and extends the Pylons general-purpose web development framework with geo-specific functionnalities. This presentation first describes what the MapFish development framework provides and how it can help developers implement rich web-mapping applications. It then demonstrates through real web-mapping realizations what can be achieved using MapFish : Geo Business Intelligence applications, 2D/3D data visualization, on/off line data edition, advanced vectorial print functionnalities, advanced administration suite to build WebGIS applications from scratch, etc. In particular, the web-mapping application for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and a Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure will be demonstrated

Extension of the Job Demands-Resources model in the prediction of burnout and engagement among teachers over time. 'Una ampliaci??n del modelo de demandas-recursos laborales en la predicci??n del burnout y del engagement en profesores'

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n. Resumen tambi??n en ingl??s

Multicast extension of unicast charging for QoS Services

In order to successfully deploy multicast services in QoS-aware networks, pricing architectures must take into account the particular characteristics of multicast sessions. With this objective, we propose a charging scheme for QoS multicast services, assuming that the unicast cost of each interconnecting link is determined and that such cost is expressed in terms of quality of service (QoS) parameters. Our scheme allows determining the cost distribution of a multicast session along a cost distribution tree (CDT), and basing such distribution in those pre-existing unicast cost functions. The paper discusses in detail the main characteristics of the problem in a realistic interdomain scenario and how the proposed scheme would contribute to its solution

Hartley Library tour

Audio recording of a Hartley Library tour for the academic session 2007/2008. Voices of a nursing student and Mike Weaver, School of Nursing & Midwifery.

Biomedical Sciences Library tour

Audio recording of a tour of the Biomedical Sciences Library at the Boldrewood Campus for the academic session 2007-2008. Voices of 2 students from the School of Biological Sciences.

Health Services Library tour

Audio recording of a Library tour for University of Southampton Health Services Library located at Southampton General Hospital. Voices of members of Library staff used including Ric Paul. Prepared for the academic session 2007-2008.