A network for learning about networks: A model and an innovative approach to teaching network engineering

We propose a model for design of courses in which students need to develop understanding not just of theory, but also of what happens in complex, distributed real world environments. Advances in network technologies (e.g., Grid technologies, and “the Cloud”) provide opportunities to simulate complex models and to use real, large-scale data sets in learning activities. We apply our model to design of Network Engineering courses in a way that provides different sequences of study for students from different backgrounds, interests, and learning styles, but which enables all students to complete a course of study that balances understanding of theory of how networks work with what happens when a network is implemented in a real operational context. We consider how such a model might be implemented by a network of learning institutions, organizations, educators and learners

Theoretical Study of Chloroperoxidase Catalyzed Chlorination of beta-Cyclopentanedione and Role of Water in the Chlorination Mechanism

Chloroperoxidase (CPO) is a potential biocatalyst for use in asymmetric synthesis. The mechanisms of CPO catalysis are therefore of interest. The halogenation reaction, one of several chemical reactions that CPO catalyzes, is not fully understood and is the subject of this dissertation. The mechanism by which CPO catalyzes halogenation is disputed. It has been postulated that halogenation of substrates occurs at the active site. Alternatively, it has been proposed that hypochlorous acid, produced at the active site via oxidation of chloride, is released prior to reaction, so that halogenation occurs in solution. The free-solution mechanism is supported by the observation that halogenation of most substrates often occurs non-stereospecifically. On the other hand, the enzyme-bound mechanism is supported by the observation that some large substrates undergo halogenation stereospecifically. The major purpose of this research is to compare chlorination of the substrate beta-cyclopentanedione in the two environments. One study was of the reaction with limited hydration because such a level of hydration is typical of the active site. For this work, a purely quantum mechanical approach was used. To model the aqueous environment, the limited hydration environment approach is not appropriate. Instead, reaction precursor conformations were obtained from a solvated molecular dynamics simulation, and reaction of potentially reactive molecular encounters was modeled with a hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical approach. Extensive work developing parameters for small molecules was pre-requisite for the molecular dynamics simulation. It is observed that a limited and optimized (active-site-like) hydration environment leads to a lower energetic barrier than the fully solvated model representative of the aqueous environment at room temperature, suggesting that the stable water network near the active site is likely to facilitate the chlorination mechanism. The influence of the solvent environment on the reaction barrier is critical. It is observed that stabilization of the catalytic water by other solvent molecules lowers the barrier for keto-enol tautomerization. Placement of water molecules is more important than the number of water molecules in such studies. The fully-solvated model demonstrates that reaction proceeds when the instantaneous dynamical water environment is close to optimal for stabilizing the transition state

Distributed Collaborative Learning Communities Enabled by Information Communication Technology

How and why can Information Communication Technology (ICT) contribute to enhancing learning in distributed Collaborative Learning Communities (CLCs)? Drawing from relevant theories concerned with phenomenon of ICT enabled distributed collaborative learning, this book identifies gaps in the current knowledge. Many questions can be asked about the role of technology in distributed CLCs. How technology is enabling collaborative learning in learning communities is an important one. What are the issues and problems in the context of technology enabled collaborative learning, is another. The articulation of CLC characteristics stem from the Communities of Practice and Communities and Technologies movements that have taken root in twenty-first century Information Society dialog. The theoretical lens provides a framework to study this phenomenon empirically in a case study setting. The research methodology explains the choice and justification for the single case study of the Fielding Graduate University. Fielding offers a unique example of both the phenomenon and context of technology enabled distributed graduate education. The study findings can begin to be generalized to CLCs with similar characteristics to the Fielding Graduate University. Because of the need for intense collaboration, distributed collaborative learning can be facilitated by the use of rich media. Where people use media rich technologies their distributed collaborative learning results seem to be better than their colleagues that did not use ICT. Therefore, media rich ICTs with collaborative features may improve the level of learning and performance in collaborative distributed learning environments

From the cinema screen to the smartphone: A study of the impact of media convergence on the distribution sector of American independent cinema 2006 – 2010

Film distribution has undoubtedly changed during this contemporary era of media convergence, with a range of innovative practices and methods being adopted across US film and the arrival of new organisations to the industry and distribution sector. This should not suggest that conventional distribution and marketing methods are extinct, or that the traditional gatekeepers of these fields are obsolete. Rather it should indicate a merging of old and new strategies, practices, methods, and organisations, and it is through this fusion of tradition and novelty that today’s complex distribution landscape has emerged. At the forefront of many of these changes has been American independent cinema and as such, the central question posed by this thesis is: how has media convergence impacted on the distribution and marketing of American independent cinema, and how can this impact be understood in terms of wider technological, industrial and sociocultural contexts relevant to the current media landscape? In answering this, this thesis provides a comprehensive re-mapping of the distribution sector of American independent cinema, in terms of the distributors involved and methods and strategies through which films are being released, within this contemporary era of media convergence. This thesis uses the concept of media convergence as a complex and multifaceted lens that has dimensions in the technological, industrial and sociocultural realms, through which recent innovations in film distribution and marketing can be examined. Underpinning this framework is the adoption of an approach informed by the emergent media industry studies agenda (Holt and Perren, 2009; Hilmes, 2013; and McDonald, 2013). The implementation of this converged method to understanding media industries has allowed for a fluid, diverse and multi-layered assessment of the area under examination. Specifically, the thesis uses Thomas Schatz’s (2009) macro and micro level framework to examining film industries in order to identify key trends and industrial practices within American independent cinema (and, to a degree, US film at large), exploring how they relate to specific films, filmmakers and companies, within a distribution context. From this a number of key findings have emerged, including: • The identification of a new industrial structure that has facilitated a form of re-conglomeration of parts of the American independent cinema that is similar to the co-option of American independent cinema in the late 1980s and early 1990s. • The identification of new, collaborative distribution and marketing strategies being used within American independent cinema that not only seek to connect films with consumers, but also involve them, to varying degrees, in related processes. • An outline and discussion on how changes within the distribution sector have impacted on film form and consumption practices evident in this era of convergence. The thesis provides original contributions to knowledge in the fields of American independent cinema and distribution studies at large by: reconceptualising what independent film is within this contemporary period of media convergence; reframing discussions on film distribution to be more inclusive and less elitist in their scope; providing new methodological approaches to understanding the wider workings of film distribution and marketing; and demonstrating how distribution studies can be utilised to understand innovations within the fields of film production and exhibition

CyberBridges A Model Collaboration Infrastructure for e-Science

The “CyberBridges ” pilot project is an innovative model for creating a new generation of scientists and engineers who are capable of fully integrating cyberinfrastructure into the whole educational, professional, and creative process of their respective disciplines. CyberBridges augments graduate student education to include a foundation of understanding in Advanced Networking and Grid Infrastructure for High Performance Computing, and bridges the divide between the information technology community and diverse science and engineering disciplines. CyberBridges is increasing the rate of discovery fo

Memorias del Congreso Latinoamericano de Computación de Alto Rendimiento (CLCAR)

Ponencias Orales Algoritmo paralelo para la detección y caracterización de halos de materia oscura en simulaciones cosmológicas. Parallel algorithm for the detection of dark matter halos and computation of their properties in cosmological simulations. Vera, Carlos A.; Zuluaga Callejas, Jorge I. y Muñoz, Juan C. Bio-FPGA: una plataforma computacional masivamente paralela y fuertemente bioinspirada implementada en hardware reconfigurable.Bio-FPGA: a massively parallel, strongly bioinspired platform implemented in reconfigurable hardware. Parra Plaza, Jaime Alberto CyberBridges: un modelo de colaboración integrando infraestructura avanzada de malla con ciencia e ingeniería. CyberBridges: a model collaboration integrating advanced grid infrastructure with science and engineering. Alvarez, Heidi L.; Chatfield, David; Cox, Donald A.; Crumpler, Eric; D’Cunha, Cassian; Gutierrez, Ronald; Ibarra, Julio; Johnson, Eric; Kumar, Kuldeep; Milledge, Tom; Narasimhan, Giri; Sadjadi, S. Masoud y Zhang, Chi Computación en malla aplicada a la generación de rutas de trasporte escolar. Grid computing applied to scholar routing generation. Díaz Rivera, Julián Orlando y Bravo Córdoba, Germán Enrique Experiencias al implementar un display distribuido para el servidor X window.Experiences at the implementation of a distributed display for the Xwindow server. Rodríguez, Ana Isabel; Verduzco, Jesús Alberto; Farias, Nicandro; García Bellido, Juan y García, Noel Generación de números pseudo-aleatorios con autómatas celulares unidimensionales de radio 2. Random number generation with one-dimensional r=2, k=2 cellular automata. Castillo Izquierdo, Nelson Enrique Implementación out-of-core para producto matriz-vector y transpuesta de matrices dispersas. Out-of-core implementation for sparse operations: matrix-vector product and transposition. Castellanos, Jorge y Larrazábal, Germán Instalación y configuración de una sala cluster como una solución de bajo costo para el acceso a tecnología de computación distribuida en Latinoamérica. Installation and configuration of a cluster-room as a low cost solution for the access to distributed computing technologies in Latin America. Zuluaga Callejas, Jorge I. y Ospina Sanjuan, Alvaro E. Integración de interfaces web con el portal grid GENIUS. Web interface integration with the GENIUS grid portal. Oldenhof, M. y Mendoza, Claudio MAGOS: simplificación del desarrollo de aplicaciones.Datagrid MAGOS: simplifying datagrid application development. Jiménez Guarín, Claudia L.; Cañón Vargas, Marcela; Cardona Marín, Juan D. y López Borja, Vladimir Paralelización de la factorización LU usando el lenguaje ZPL.Parallelization of the LU decomposition with the ZPL programming language. Castellanos, Jorge; Chacón Ramírez, José Luis y Rey, Demetrio PASTEUR: un sistema para indexación y búsqueda de componentes de software.PASTEUR: an indexing and localization system for software components. Pomares Quimbaya, Alexandra y Morales Chavarro, Javier Mauricio Performance evaluation of meta-data transfer and storage in clusters. Hermann, Everton; Kassick, Rodrigo V.; Ávila, Rafael B.; Barrios Hernández, Carlos J.; Riveill, Michel; Denneulin, Yves y Navaux, Philippe O. A. Propuesta de caché semántico en un sistema de interrogación P2P.Semantic caching proposal in a P2P querying system. Prada Rojas, Carlos Hernan y Villamil, María del Pilar Query and data caching in grid middleware. D’Orazio, Laurent; Labbé, Cyril y Roncancio, Claudia Rendimiento de estrategias de calendarización considerando fluctuación de tiempo de ejecucion de tareas en un Grid computacional. Performance of scheduling strategies by considering fluctuation of tasks execution time in a computational Grid. Rodríguez, Ana Isabel; Ramírez, Juan Manuel; Tchernykh, Andrei y Verduzco, Jesús Alberto The CGIAR global cluster grid of HPCs for bioinformatics. Collins, Anthony Una infraestructura genérica para computación distribuida en la web. A generic infrastructure forWeb computing. Carrera, Enrique V.; Bustamante, Pablo y Pasmay, Fausto Usando herramientas del sistema de colas para acelerar y hacer escalables nuestras rutinas seriales: aplicaciones a colisiones atómicas.Using queue tools to speed-up and scale our serial routines:applications to atomic collisions. Ciappina, Marcelo Fabián Uso de tecnología grid en algoritmos de optimización evolutiva. Grid-enabled evolutive optimization framework. Guardo, Elisa; Castro, Harold; Bravo, Germán y Medaglia, Andrés L. ZeBrA-Core: una Herramienta para la generación de imágenes fotorrealistas usando POV-Ray en ambientes de computación distribuida. ZeBrA-Core: a computer tool to render photorrealistic images using POV-Ray in distributed computing environments. Salazar Bedoya, Diego A.; Escobar Cadavid, Carolina y Zuluaga Callejas, Jorge I. Conferences Aplicaciones climáticas en Grid: proyecto EELA.Climate applications on Grid: EELA project. Richard, Miguel; Abarca, Rodrigo; Gutiérrez, José Manuel; Carrillo, Mauricio; Baeza, Claudio; Cofiño, Antonio y Fernandez, Valvanuz Applications and cyberinfrastructure research.Aplicaciones y investigación de cyberinfrastructure. Katz, Daniel S. Campus-Grid uniandes. Castro, Harold y Pérez, Danilo Clúster de cómputo "enchufar y listo"."Plug-and-play" cluster computing. Dauger, Dean E. y Decyk, Viktor K. De bases de datos a espacios de datos: la nueva realidad de la e-ciencia.From databases to dataspaces: the new e-science reality. Mendoza, Claudio E-investigación: una nueva manera de producir conocimiento. Núñez, Luis El Grid académico venezolano. The Venezuelan Academic Grid. Hoeger, Herbert Fuerza de trabajo iniciativa de Grid nacional - Grid Colombia.Task force national Grid iniciative NGI - Grid Colombia. Diaz, Cesar O. Grids computacionales. Computing Grids. Hamar, Vanessa Java for high performance and distributed computing. Baker, Mark A.; Shafi, Aamir y Grove, Matthew Métodos de la dinámica no lineal en la variabilidad del ritmo cardíaco de pacientes chagásicos.Methods from nonlinear dynamics in heart rate variability of chagasic patients. Guillén Rondón, Pablo Plataformas actuales para computación de alto rendimiento.Current platforms for high performance computing. Díaz, Gilberto Rocks and rolls: sistemas de computación de alto rendimiento de fácil despliegue.Rocks and Rolls: easily deployable HPC systems for everyone. Zuluaga Callejas, Jorge I. Sistemas de acceso a Grids. Grid access systems. Hernández, Emilio Sistemas de archivos para arquitecturas de gran escala. Denneulin, Yves Sobre la calendarización en la Grid. Pecero Sánchez, Johnatan E. Transferencia masiva e intensiva de datos en computación de alto rendimiento. Intensive and masive data transfer in high performance computing. Barrios Hernández, Carlos JaimeNivel monográfic