1st INCF Workshop on Sustainability of Neuroscience Databases

The goal of the workshop was to discuss issues related to the sustainability of neuroscience databases, identify problems and propose solutions, and formulate recommendations to the INCF. The report summarizes the discussions of invited participants from the neuroinformatics community as well as from other disciplines where sustainability issues have already been approached. The recommendations for the INCF involve rating, ranking, and supporting database sustainability

An SDI for the GIS-education at the UGent Geography Department

The UGent Geography Department (GD) (ca. 200 students; 10 professors) has been teaching GIS since the mid 90’s. Ever since, GIS has evolved from Geographic Information Systems, to GIScience, to GIServices; implying that a GIS specialist nowadays has to deal with more than just desktop GIS. Knowledge about the interaction between different components of an SDI (spatial data, technologies, laws and policies, people and standards) is crucial for a graduated Master student. For its GIS education, the GD has until recently been using different sources of datasets, which were stored in a non-centralized system. In conformity with the INSPIRE Directive and the Flemish SDI Decree, the GD aims to set-up its own SDI using free and open source software components, to improve the management, user-friendliness, copyright protection and centralization of datasets and the knowledge of state of the art SDI structure and technology. The central part of the system is a PostGIS-database in which both staff and students can create and share information stored in a multitude of tables and schemas. A web-based application facilitates upper-level management of the database for administrators and staff members. Exercises in various courses not only focus on accessing and handling data from the SDI through common GIS-applications as QuantumGIS or GRASS, but also aim at familiarizing students with the set-up of widely used SDI-elements as WMS, WFS and WCS services. The (dis)advantages of the new SDI will be tested in a case study in which the workflow of a typical ‘GIS Applications’ exercise is elaborated. By solving a problem of optimal location, students interact in various ways with geographic data. A comparison is made between the situation before and after the implementation of the SDI

Human Resource Information Systems for Competitive Advantage: Interviews with Ten Leaders

[Excerpt] Increasingly, today\u27s organizations use computer technology to manage human resources (HR). Surveys confirm this trend (Richards-Carpenter, 1989; Grossman and Magnus, 1988; Human Resource Systems Professionals 1988; KPMGPeat Marwick, 1988). HR professionals and managers routinely have Personnel Computers (PCs) or computer terminals on their desks or in their departments. HR computer applications, once confined to payroll and benefit domains, now encompass incentive compensation, staffing, succession planning, and training. Five years ago, we had but a handful of PC-based software applications for HR management. Today, we find a burgeoning market of products spanning a broad spectrum of price, sophistication, and quality (Personnel Journal, 1990). Top universities now consider computer literacy a basic requirement for students of HR, and many consulting firms and universities offer classes designed to help seasoned HR professionals use computers in their work (Boudreau, 1990). Changes in computer technology offer expanding potential for HR management (Business Week, 1990; Laudon and Laudon, 1988)

Educating the educators: Incorporating bioinformatics into biological science education in Malaysia

Bioinformatics can be defined as a fusion of computational and biological sciences. The urgency to process and analyse the deluge of data created by proteomics and genomics studies has caused bioinformatics to gain prominence and importance. However, its multidisciplinary nature has created a unique demand for specialist trained in both biology and computing. In this review, we described the components that constitute the bioinformatics field and distinctive education criteria that are required to produce individuals with bioinformatics training. This paper will also provide an introduction and overview of bioinformatics in Malaysia. The existing bioinformatics scenario in Malaysia was surveyed to gauge its advancement and to plan for future bioinformatics education strategies. For comparison, we surveyed methods and strategies used in education by other countries so that lessons can be learnt to further improve the implementation of bioinformatics in Malaysia. It is believed that accurate and sufficient steerage from the academia and industry will enable Malaysia to produce quality bioinformaticians in the future

Visualization of database structures for information retrieval

This paper describes the Book House system, which is designed to support children's information retrieval in libraries as part of their education. It is a shareware program available on CD‐ROM or floppy disks, and comprises functionality for database searching as well as for classifying and storing book information in the database. The system concept is based on an understanding of children's domain structures and their capabilities for categorization of information needs in connection with their activities in schools, in school libraries or in public libraries. These structures are visualized in the interface by using metaphors and multimedia technology. Through the use of text, images and animation, the Book House encourages children ‐ even at a very early age ‐ to learn by doing in an enjoyable way, which plays on their previous experiences with computer games. Both words and pictures can be used for searching; this makes the system suitable for all age groups. Even children who have not yet learned to read properly can, by selecting pictures, search for and find those books they would like to have read aloud. Thus, at the very beginning of their school life, they can learn to search for books on their own. For the library community, such a system will provide an extended service which will increase the number of children's own searches and also improve the relevance, quality and utilization of the book collections in the libraries. A market research report on the need for an annual indexing service for books in the Book House format is in preparation by the Danish Library Centre A/S

A survey of simulation techniques in commerce and defence

Despite the developments in Modelling and Simulation (M&S) tools and techniques over the past years, there has been a gap in the M&S research and practice in healthcare on developing a toolkit to assist the modellers and simulation practitioners with selecting an appropriate set of techniques. This study is a preliminary step towards this goal. This paper presents some results from a systematic literature survey on applications of M&S in the commerce and defence domains that could inspire some improvements in the healthcare. Interim results show that in the commercial sector Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) has been the most widely used technique with System Dynamics (SD) in second place. However in the defence sector, SD has gained relatively more attention. SD has been found quite useful for qualitative and soft factors analysis. From both the surveys it becomes clear that there is a growing trend towards using hybrid M&S approaches

Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists

Documents and analyzes the environment of support for individual artists. Provides a framework for analysis of various dimensions of the support structure, nationally and in specific sites across the U.S. Includes support programs and policy initiatives

The development and evaluation of the public institutions personnel

Professional development and the continuous improvement of the public servants and auxiliary personnel competence in public institutions have become one of the main necessities in public institutions all over the area of the well-developed countries. In every country member of the European Union, the tendency of adapting public management to the process of technology implementation into information has determined significant changes in the content of administrative, general institutional and human resources policies. The creation and permanent development of a unitary training system for public servants is a decisive and indispensable process in what concerns the adaptation of public management. As a consequence we created an online educational platform designed to train the personnel in public institutions. The platform contains: - the distribution of the materials needed for training; - PowerPoint presentations for various themes, with different self-tests included; - statistical reports regarding the level of information understanding and assimilation; The utilisation of such a training application by the public institutions’ personnel in Romania is not only a well received change, but an absolutely necessary one, which decisively helps at clearly defining objectives and the way of reaching them, but also helps at creating the internal managing mechanism.educational platform, learning module, online tests module, project topics module