113,903 research outputs found
Beyond XSPEC: Towards Highly Configurable Analysis
We present a quantitative comparison between software features of the defacto
standard X-ray spectral analysis tool, XSPEC, and ISIS, the Interactive
Spectral Interpretation System. Our emphasis is on customized analysis, with
ISIS offered as a strong example of configurable software. While noting that
XSPEC has been of immense value to astronomers, and that its scientific core is
moderately extensible--most commonly via the inclusion of user contributed
"local models"--we identify a series of limitations with its use beyond
conventional spectral modeling. We argue that from the viewpoint of the
astronomical user, the XSPEC internal structure presents a Black Box Problem,
with many of its important features hidden from the top-level interface, thus
discouraging user customization. Drawing from examples in custom modeling,
numerical analysis, parallel computation, visualization, data management, and
automated code generation, we show how a numerically scriptable, modular, and
extensible analysis platform such as ISIS facilitates many forms of advanced
astrophysical inquiry.Comment: Accepted by PASP, for July 2008 (15 pages
Cloud service localisation
The essence of cloud computing is the provision of software
and hardware services to a range of users in dierent locations. The aim of cloud service localisation is to facilitate the internationalisation and localisation of cloud services by allowing their adaption to dierent locales.
We address the lingual localisation by providing service-level language translation techniques to adopt services to dierent languages and regulatory localisation by providing standards-based mappings to achieve regulatory compliance with regionally varying laws, standards and regulations. The aim is to support and enforce the explicit modelling of
aspects particularly relevant to localisation and runtime support consisting of tools and middleware services to automating the deployment based on models of locales, driven by the two localisation dimensions.
We focus here on an ontology-based conceptual information model that integrates locale specication in a coherent way
GoSam-2.0: a tool for automated one-loop calculations within the Standard Model and beyond
We present the version 2.0 of the program package GoSam for the automated
calculation of one-loop amplitudes. GoSam is devised to compute one-loop QCD
and/or electroweak corrections to multi-particle processes within and beyond
the Standard Model. The new code contains improvements in the generation and in
the reduction of the amplitudes, performs better in computing time and
numerical accuracy, and has an extended range of applicability. The extended
version of the "Binoth-Les-Houches-Accord" interface to Monte Carlo programs is
also implemented. We give a detailed description of installation and usage of
the code, and illustrate the new features in dedicated examples.Comment: replaced by published version and reference adde
Shingle 2.0: generalising self-consistent and automated domain discretisation for multi-scale geophysical models
The approaches taken to describe and develop spatial discretisations of the
domains required for geophysical simulation models are commonly ad hoc, model
or application specific and under-documented. This is particularly acute for
simulation models that are flexible in their use of multi-scale, anisotropic,
fully unstructured meshes where a relatively large number of heterogeneous
parameters are required to constrain their full description. As a consequence,
it can be difficult to reproduce simulations, ensure a provenance in model data
handling and initialisation, and a challenge to conduct model intercomparisons
rigorously. This paper takes a novel approach to spatial discretisation,
considering it much like a numerical simulation model problem of its own. It
introduces a generalised, extensible, self-documenting approach to carefully
describe, and necessarily fully, the constraints over the heterogeneous
parameter space that determine how a domain is spatially discretised. This
additionally provides a method to accurately record these constraints, using
high-level natural language based abstractions, that enables full accounts of
provenance, sharing and distribution. Together with this description, a
generalised consistent approach to unstructured mesh generation for geophysical
models is developed, that is automated, robust and repeatable, quick-to-draft,
rigorously verified and consistent to the source data throughout. This
interprets the description above to execute a self-consistent spatial
discretisation process, which is automatically validated to expected discrete
characteristics and metrics.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 1 table. Submitted for publication and under
revie
Forum Session at the First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC03)
The First International Conference on Service Oriented Computing (ICSOC) was held in Trento, December 15-18, 2003. The focus of the conference ---Service Oriented Computing (SOC)--- is the new emerging paradigm for distributed computing and e-business processing that has evolved from object-oriented and component computing to enable building agile networks of collaborating business applications distributed within and across organizational boundaries. Of the 181 papers submitted to the ICSOC conference, 10 were selected for the forum session which took place on December the 16th, 2003. The papers were chosen based on their technical quality, originality, relevance to SOC and for their nature of being best suited for a poster presentation or a demonstration. This technical report contains the 10 papers presented during the forum session at the ICSOC conference. In particular, the last two papers in the report ere submitted as industrial papers
GoSam: A program for automated one-loop Calculations
The program package GoSam is presented which aims at the automated
calculation of one-loop amplitudes for multi-particle processes. The amplitudes
are generated in terms of Feynman diagrams and can be reduced using either
D-dimensional integrand-level decomposition or tensor reduction, or a
combination of both. GoSam can be used to calculate one-loop corrections to
both QCD and electroweak theory, and model files for theories Beyond the
Standard Model can be linked as well. A standard interface to programs
calculating real radiation is also included. The flexibility of the program is
demonstrated by various examples.Comment: 10 pages, Talk given at the International Workshop on Advanced
Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics Research (ACAT), Uxbridge,
London, September 201
- …