AstroGrid-D: Enhancing Astronomic Science with Grid Technology

We present AstroGrid-D, a project bringing together astronomers and experts in Grid technology to enhance astronomic science in many aspects. First, by sharing currently dispersed resources, scientists can calculate their models in more detail. Second, by developing new mechanisms to efficiently access and process existing datasets, scientific problems can be investigated that were until now impossible to solve. Third, by adopting Grid technology large instruments such as robotic telescopes and complex scientific workflows from data aquisition to analysis can be managed in an integrated manner. In this paper, we present prominent astronomic use cases, discuss requirements on a Grid middleware and present our approach to extend/augment existing middleware to facilitate the improvements mentioned above

Accessing RDF(S) data resources in service-based Grid infrastructures

We describe the results of the RDF(S) activity within the Open Grid Forum (http://www.ogf.org) (OGF) Database Access and Integration Services (DAIS) Working Group (http://forge.gridforum.org/projects/dais-wg) whose objective is to develop standard service-based grid access mechanisms for data expressed in RDF and RDF Schema. We produce two specifications, focused on the provision of SPARQL querying capabilities for accessing RDF data and a set of RDF Schema ontology handling primitives for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting RDF data. In this paper we present a set of use cases that justify this work and an overview of these specifications, which will enter in editorial process at OGF25. We conclude by outlining the future work that will be made in the context of this standardization process

Understanding Semantic Aware Grid Middleware for e-Science

In this paper we analyze several semantic-aware Grid middleware services used in e-Science applications. We describe them according to a common analysis framework, so as to find their commonalities and their distinguishing features. As a result of this analysis we categorize these services into three groups: information services, data access services and decision support services. We make comparisons and provide additional conclusions that are useful to understand better how these services have been developed and deployed, and how similar services would be developed in the future, mainly in the context of e-Science applications

A Grid Middleware for Ontology Access

Many advanced grid applications need access to ontologies represent-ing knowledge about a certain application domain. To deal with the high heterogeneity of available ontologies, we propose a general ser-vice-oriented middleware for making ontologies accessible to grid ap-plications. Our implementation is integrated in the German D-Grid in-frastructure and provides several applications a uniform access to biomedical ontologies such as Gene Ontology, NCI Thesaurus and several OBO ontologies

A Grid Middleware for Ontology Access

Many advanced grid applications need access to ontologies represent-ing knowledge about a certain application domain. To deal with the high heterogeneity of available ontologies, we propose a general ser-vice-oriented middleware for making ontologies accessible to grid ap-plications. Our implementation is integrated in the German D-Grid in-frastructure and provides several applications a uniform access to biomedical ontologies such as Gene Ontology, NCI Thesaurus and several OBO ontologies

DRIVER Technology Watch Report

This report is part of the Discovery Workpackage (WP4) and is the third report out of four deliverables. The objective of this report is to give an overview of the latest technical developments in the world of digital repositories, digital libraries and beyond, in order to serve as theoretical and practical input for the technical DRIVER developments, especially those focused on enhanced publications. This report consists of two main parts, one part focuses on interoperability standards for enhanced publications, the other part consists of three subchapters, which give a landscape picture of current and surfacing technologies and communities crucial to DRIVER. These three subchapters contain the GRID, CRIS and LTP communities and technologies. Every chapter contains a theoretical explanation, followed by case studies and the outcomes and opportunities for DRIVER in this field

The OMII Software Distribution

This paper describes the work carried out at the Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII) and the key elements of the OMII software distribution that have been developed in collaboration with members of the Managed Programme Initiative. The main objective of the OMII is to preserve and consolidate the achievements of the UK e-Science Programme by collecting, maintaining and improving the software modules that form the key components of a generic Grid middleware. Recently, the activity at Southampton has been extended beyond 2009 through a new project, OMII-UK, that forms a partnership that now includes the OGSA-DAI activities at Edinburgh and the myGrid project at Manchester

Requirements and services for metadata management

Knowledge-intensive applications pose new challenges to metadata management, including distribution, access control, uniformity of access, and evolution in time. The authors identify general requirements for metadata management and describe a simple model and service that focuses on RDF metadata to address these requirements

Understanding semantic aware Grid middleware for e-Science

In this paper we analyze several semantic-aware Grid middleware services used in e-Science applications. We describe them according to a common analysis framework, so as to find their commonalities and their distinguishing features. As a result of this analysis we categorize these services into three groups: information services, data access services and decision support services. We make comparisons and provide additional conclusions that are useful to understand better how these services have been developed and deployed, and how similar services would be developed in the future, mainly in the context of e-Science applications