myTea: Connecting the Web to Digital Science on the Desktop

Bioinformaticians regularly access the hundreds of databases and tools that are available to them on the Web. None of these tools communicate with each other, causing the scientist to copy results manually from a Web site into a spreadsheet or word processor. myGrids' Taverna has made it possible to create templates (workflows) that automatically run searches using these databases and tools, cutting down what previously took days of work into hours, and enabling the automated capture of experimental details. What is still missing in the capture process, however, is the details of work done on that material once it moves from the Web to the desktop: if a scientist runs a process on some data, there is nothing to record why that action was taken; it is likewise not easy to publish a record of this process back to the community on the Web. In this paper, we present a novel interaction framework, built on Semantic Web technologies, and grounded in usability design practice, in particular the Making Tea method. Through this work, we introduce a new model of practice designed specifically to (1) support the scientists' interactions with data from the Web to the desktop, (2) provide automatic annotation of process to capture what has previously been lost and (3) associate provenance services automatically with that data in order to enable meaningful interrogation of the process and controlled sharing of the results

JIGSAW WITH CROSSWORD-PUZZLE GAME IN IMPROVING STUDENTS’ MASTERY OF ACCOUNTING VOCABULARY : A Mixed-Method Study at a Vocational High School in West Java

Mastery of accounting vocabulary is important for students of vocational high school. Nevertheless, the current curriculum only provides general English vocabulary which does not support students’ accounting vocabulary mastery, so that students can hardly meet workplace requirements. Picking the materials of accounting vocabulary from ESP (English for Special Purposes), this study attempts to implement the accounting vocabulary teaching through the technique of Jigsaw with crossword-puzzle game. This research is a mixed method research: (a) qualitative: open-ended questionnaire, observation and semi-structured interview, and (b) quantitative: quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test. The participants are the second grade students in a vocational high school in West Java. They are divided into two classes as the control (24 participants) and experiment class (25 participants). The findings indicate that the implementation of this technique was effective in developing the students’ mastery of accounting vocabulary. The analysis result of t-test shows that t-observed is higher than t-critic, (3,71 ˃ 2,02). It shows that jigsaw with crossword-puzzle game is an effective medium for increasing the students’ mastery of accounting vocabulary since the elements of jigsaw and crossword-puzzle game facilitated an effective learning. Having positive attitudes, students believe that this implementation has enhanced their understanding the vocabulary found in accounting literatures, so that they have a good mastery of accounting vocabulary. Keyword: Accounting vocabulary, jigsaw, crossword-puzzle game Menguasai “kosakata akuntansi bahasa Inggris” sangat penting untuk siswa SMK program studi akuntansi. Namun, kurikulum yang ada belum memadai dengan hanya menyajikan “kosakata bahasa Inggris umum”. Sehingga para siswa sulit memenuhi persyaratan kerja. Dengan mengambil materi kosakata akuntansi dari ESP (English for Special Purposes), studi ini mencoba mengenalkan kosakata akuntansi bahasa Inggris melalui teknik “Jigsaw dengan permainan teka-teki silang”. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian gabungan dengan pengumpulan data: (a) kualitatif: angket skala Likert, observasi dan wawancara semi-terstruktur. (b) Kuantitatif: quasi-expermental dengan menggunakan desain pre-test dan post-test. Sampel penelitian ini menyertakan dua kelas pada program akuntansi kelas XI SMK di Jawa Barat. Mereka dibagi menjadi dua kelompok yaitu kelas kontrol (24 peserta) dan kelas eksperimen (25 peserta). Hasil penelitian mengindikasikan bahwa pengimplementasian Jigsaw dengan permainan teka-teki silang efektif dalam meningkatkan penguasaan kosakata akuntansi bahasa Inggris siswa. Hasil analisis dari rumus t-test juga menunjukan bahwa t-observasi lebih tinggi dari t-kritik, (3,71 ˃ 2,02). Hal ini mengindikasikan bahwa Jigsaw dengan permainan teka-teki silang adalah medium yang efektif untuk meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam penguasaan kosakata akuntansi bahasa Inggris. Semua elemen pada Jigsaw dan permainan teka-teki silang mampu memfasilitasi pembelajaran yang efektif. Serta siswa memiliki positive attitudes, juga siswa percaya bahwa pengimplementasian pembelajaran ini mampu meningkakan pemahaman kosakata akuntansi bahasa Inggris dalam berbagai literatur akuntansi. Kata kunci: Kosakata akuntansi, jigsaw, permainan teka-teki silan

Jigsaw Language Toolkit

In recent years, graphical programming systems based on the jigsaw puzzle metaphor have gained popularity due to their ability to visualize syntactical constraints. The supported languages usually have very simple type systems and little to no static type checking. The jigsaw puzzle metaphor has the potential to visualise the constraints and possibilities in languages with more complex types. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a reusable GUI toolkit based on the jigsaw puzzle metaphor. The toolkit supports concepts from object oriented design, such as type polymorphism, inheritance and generics

Trusty URIs: Verifiable, Immutable, and Permanent Digital Artifacts for Linked Data

To make digital resources on the web verifiable, immutable, and permanent, we propose a technique to include cryptographic hash values in URIs. We call them trusty URIs and we show how they can be used for approaches like nanopublications to make not only specific resources but their entire reference trees verifiable. Digital artifacts can be identified not only on the byte level but on more abstract levels such as RDF graphs, which means that resources keep their hash values even when presented in a different format. Our approach sticks to the core principles of the web, namely openness and decentralized architecture, is fully compatible with existing standards and protocols, and can therefore be used right away. Evaluation of our reference implementations shows that these desired properties are indeed accomplished by our approach, and that it remains practical even for very large files.Comment: Small error corrected in the text (table data was correct) on page 13: "All average values are below 0.8s (0.03s for batch mode). Using Java in batch mode even requires only 1ms per file.

Using Probabilistic Graphical Models to Solve NP-complete Puzzle Problems

Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) are commonly used in machine learning to solve problems stemming from medicine, meteorology, speech recognition, image processing, intelligent tutoring, gambling, games, and biology. PGMs are applicable for both directed graph and undirected graph. In this work, I focus on the undirected graphical model. The objective of this work is to study how PGMs can be applied to find solutions to two puzzle problems, sudoku and jigsaw puzzles. First, both puzzle problems are represented as undirected graphs, and then I map the relations of nodes to PGMs and Belief Propagation (BP). This work represents the puzzle grid as a bipartite graph, which contains disjoint sets S and C such that the graph’s edges connect vertices in S only with vertices in C, and vice versa. S contains all the cells. C contains all constraint groups. Then, I apply the well-known sum-product message passing (MP) algorithm, which is also known as BP. In the jigsaw puzzle problem, I aim to reconstruct an image from a collection of square image patches. I use the neighborhood pairwise compatibility and local evidence similarity to evaluate the correctness of a reconstruction. The sudoku and the jigsaw puzzle problems are known to be NP-complete [16, 6]. In this work, I implement the algorithms mentioned above, and show that PGMs are quite successful in rapidly tackling these two problems. I am able to solve 90% of hard sudoku puzzles within 17 rounds of MP. The jigsaw images that are reconstructed by the chosen algorithm are reasonable

A Fully Automated Solver for Multiple Square Jigsaw Puzzles Using Hierarchical Clustering

The square jigsaw puzzle is a variant of traditional jigsaw puzzles, wherein all pieces are equal-sized squares; these pieces must be placed adjacent to one another to reconstruct an original image. This thesis proposes an agglomerative hierarchical clustering based solver that can simultaneously reconstruct multiple square jigsaw puzzles. This solver requires no additional information beyond an input bag of puzzle pieces and significantly outperforms the current state of the art in terms of both the quality of the reconstructed outputs as well the number of input puzzles it supports. In addition, this thesis defines Enhanced Direct Accuracy Score (EDAS), Shiftable Enhanced Direct Accuracy Score (SEDAS), and Enhanced Neighbor Accuracy Score (ENAS), which are the first quality metrics specifically tailored for multi-puzzle solvers. This thesis also outlines the first standards for visualizing best buddies and the quality of solver solutions

Scaffolder - Software for Reproducible Genome Scaffolding.

Background: Assembly of short-read sequencing data can result in a fragmented non-contiguous series of genomic sequences. Therefore a common step in a genome project is to join neighboring sequence regions together and fill gaps in the assembly using additional sequences. This scaffolding step, however, is non-trivial and requires manually editing large blocks of nucleotide sequence. Joining these sequences together also hides the source of each region in the final genome sequence. Taken together, these considerations may make reproducing or editing an existing genome build difficult.

Methods: The software outlined here, “Scaffolder,” is implemented in the Ruby programming language and can be installed via the RubyGems software management system. Genome scaffolds are defined using YAML - a data format, which is both human and machine-readable. Command line binaries and extensive documentation are available.

Results: This software allows a genome build to be defined in terms of the constituent sequences using a relatively simple syntax to define the scaffold. This syntax further allows unknown regions to be defined, and adds additional sequences to fill gaps in the scaffold. Defining the genome construction in a file makes the scaffolding process reproducible and easier to edit compared with FASTA nucleotide sequence.

Conclusions: Scaffolder is easy-to-use genome scaffolding software. This tool promotes reproducibility and continuous development in a genome project. Scaffolder can be found at http://next.gs

UPAYA MENINGKATKAN KETERAMPILAN BERBICARA DAN PRESTASI BELAJAR BAHASA JAWA MENGGUNAKAN MODEL COOPERATIVE LEARNING TYPE JIGSAW DENGAN MEDIA FLASH CARD PADA SISWA KELAS V DI SD NEGERI BULUSPESANTREN KEBUMEN

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meningkatkan keterampilan berbicara dan prestasi belajar Bahasa Jawa menggunakan model cooperative learning type jigsaw dengan media flash card pada siswa kelas V di SD Negeri Buluspesantren Kebumen. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian tindakan kelas dengan langkah-langkah yang terdiri atas tahap perencanaan, pelaksanaan (tindakan), observasi, dan refleksi.Pengambilan data dilakukan dengan observasi, wawancara, tes, dan dokumentasi.Model pembelajaran yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah model cooperative learning type jigsaw denganmedia flash card.Analisis data menggunakan pedoman penilaian berbicara, rata-rata hitung, dan persentase ketuntasan belajar. Penelitian tindakan kelas ini menggunakan analisa data penelitian yang bersifat deskripstif kualitatif.Berdasarkan analisis data penelitian keterampilan berbicara yang diperoleh siswa saat pra siklus rata-rata 57 dengan ketuntasan 33% pada siklus I rata-rata 64 dengan ketuntasan 52% dan pada siklus II nilai rata-rata meningkat menjadi 78 dengan ketuntasan 86%. Sedangkan, prestasi belajar yang diperoleh siswa saat pra siklus rata-rata 59 dengan ketuntasan 38% pada siklus I rata-rata 69 dengan ketuntasan 62% dan pada siklus II nilai rata-rata meningkat menjadi 80 dengan ketuntasan 95%. Dari hasil penelitian tersebut, kesimpulan yang dapat diambil adalah penerapan model cooperative learning type jigsaw denganmedia flash carddapat meningkatkan keterampilan berbicara dan prestasi belajar Bahasa Jawa, sehingga meningkatkan ketuntasan klasikal yang diharapkan

Technical Issues in the Development of Knowledge-Based Services for the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web aims to extend the current Web with formal semantics in order to improve how users experience the Web, by ameliorating current activities and supporting the automation of some others. So far, current Semantic Web prototypes mostly aim at collecting and exposing information. Still, a semantic layer can support applying Knowledge-Based Systems techniques to the development of brand-new fully-fledged Knowledge-Based Services for the Web. In this paper, we present the technical issues that have to be faced in the development of such a kind of application by presenting the Online Design of Events Application: a Semantic Web-based design support system that assists event organisers in the process of preparing events such as workshops and conferences, by effectively reasoning over an inter-organisational process across the Web

My IoT Puzzle: Debugging IF-THEN Rules Through the Jigsaw Metaphor

End users can nowadays define applications in the format of IF-THEN rules to personalize their IoT devices and online services. Along with the possibility to compose such applications, however, comes the need to debug them, e.g., to avoid unpredictable and dangerous behaviors. In this context, different questions are still unexplored: which visual languages are more appropriate for debugging IF-THEN rules? Which information do end users need to understand, identify, and correct errors? To answer these questions, we first conducted a literature analysis by reviewing previous works on end-user debugging, with the aim of extracting design guidelines. Then, we developed My IoT Puzzle, a tool to compose and debug IF-THEN rules based on the Jigsaw metaphor. My IoT Puzzle interactively assists users in the debugging process with different real-time feedback, and it allows the resolution of conflicts by providing textual and graphical explanations. An exploratory study with 6 participants preliminary confirms the effectiveness of our approach, showing that the usage of the Jigsaw metaphor, along with real-time feedback and explanations, helps users understand and fix conflicts among IF-THEN rules