Using widgets to provide portable services for IMS Learning Design

Since the publication of the IMS LD specification it has been recognised that the lack of a rich set of runtime services is a major barrier to adoption. The approaches taken to resolving this problem are reviewed, and their strengths and limitations identified. A generic widget server developed by the authors is described. Integration of the widget server with the IMS LD runtime system provides an extensible set of services. This has been demonstrated with the creation of widgets for forums, messaging, vote, and Google maps which are provided for users within the context of their role and activities in a Unit of Learning. Authoring and administration are described, showing how the system is both extensible and portable

Coral Disease and Health Workshop: Coral Histopathology II

The health and continued existence of coral reef ecosystems are threatened by an increasing array of environmental and anthropogenic impacts. Coral disease is one of the prominent causes of increased mortality among reefs globally, particularly in the Caribbean. Although over 40 different coral diseases and syndromes have been reported worldwide, only a few etiological agents have been confirmed; most pathogens remain unknown and the dynamics of disease transmission, pathogenicity and mortality are not understood. Causal relationships have been documented for only a few of the coral diseases, while new syndromes continue to emerge. Extensive field observations by coral biologists have provided substantial documentation of a plethora of new pathologies, but our understanding, however, has been limited to descriptions of gross lesions with names reflecting these observations (e.g., black band, white band, dark spot). To determine etiology, we must equip coral diseases scientists with basic biomedical knowledge and specialized training in areas such as histology, cell biology and pathology. Only through combining descriptive science with mechanistic science and employing the synthesis epizootiology provides will we be able to gain insight into causation and become equipped to handle the pending crisis. One of the critical challenges faced by coral disease researchers is to establish a framework to systematically study coral pathologies drawing from the field of diagnostic medicine and pathology and using generally accepted nomenclature. This process began in April 2004, with a workshop titled Coral Disease and Health Workshop: Developing Diagnostic Criteria co-convened by the Coral Disease and Health Consortium (CDHC), a working group organized under the auspices of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, and the International Registry for Coral Pathology (IRCP). The workshop was hosted by the U.S. Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) in Madison, Wisconsin and was focused on gross morphology and disease signs observed in the field. A resounding recommendation from the histopathologists participating in the workshop was the urgent need to develop diagnostic criteria that are suitable to move from gross observations to morphological diagnoses based on evaluation of microscopic anatomy. (PDF contains 92 pages

A Model-driven Approach to the development of a PBL Script Editor

Designing a pedagogically sound and technically executable collaboration script is a highly complex, time-consuming and error-prone task. This paper presents a model-driven approach to enable practitioners to design online PBL courses. Adopting this technical approach, we developed a PBL scripting language that provides natural concepts for the teacher to use in PBL practices. Based on the PBL scripting language, we developed a PBL script editor that facilitates teachers to design, communicate, customize, and reuse PBL scripts. In addition, it provides functions to transform a PBL script to a unit of learning (UoL) represented in IMS Learning Design (LD), which can be executed in an IMS LD run-time environment to scaffold PBL processes

D3.1. Architecture and design of the platform

This document aims to establish the requirements and the technological basis and design of the PANACEA platform. These are the main goals of the document: - Survey the different technological approaches that can be used in PANACEA. - Specify some guidelines for the metadata. - Establish the requirements for the platform. - Make a Common Interface proposal for the tools. - Propose a format for the data to be exchanged by the tools (Travelling Object). - Choose the technologies that will be used to develop the platform. - Propose a workplan

Simple identification tools in FishBase

Simple identification tools for fish species were included in the FishBase information system from its inception. Early tools made use of the relational model and characters like fin ray meristics. Soon pictures and drawings were added as a further help, similar to a field guide. Later came the computerization of existing dichotomous keys, again in combination with pictures and other information, and the ability to restrict possible species by country, area, or taxonomic group. Today, www.FishBase.org offers four different ways to identify species. This paper describes these tools with their advantages and disadvantages, and suggests various options for further development. It explores the possibility of a holistic and integrated computeraided strategy

Engineering polymer informatics: Towards the computer-aided design of polymers

The computer-aided design of polymers is one of the holy grails of modern chemical informatics and of significant interest for a number of communities in polymer science. The paper outlines a vision for the in silico design of polymers and presents an information model for polymers based on modern semantic web technologies, thus laying the foundations for achieving the vision

BioSStore: A Client Interface for a Repository of Semantically Annotated Bioinformatics Web Services

Bioinformatics has shown itself to be a domain in which Web services are being used extensively. In this domain, simple but real services are being developed. Thus, there are huge repositories of real services available (for example BioMOBY main repository includes more than 1500 services). Besides, bioinformatics repositories usually have active communities using and working on improvements. However, these kinds of repositories do not exploit the full potential of Web services (and SOA, Service Oriented Applications, in general). On the other hand, sophisticated technologies have been proposed to improve SOA, including the annotation on Web services to explicitly describe them. However, these approaches are lacking in repositories with real services. In the work presented here, we address the drawbacks present in bioinformatics services and try to improve the current semantic model by introducing the use of the W3C standard Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema (SAWSDL) and related proposals (WSMO Lite). This paper focuses on a user interface that takes advantage of a repository of semantically annotated bioinformatics Web services. In this way, we exploit semantics for the discovery of Web services, showing how the use of semantics will improve the user searches. The BioSStore is available at http://biosstore.khaos.uma.es. This portal will contain also future developments of this proposal

Expert Systems for Environmental Screening. An Application in the Lower Mekong Basin

This research report describes MEXSES, a rule-based expert system for environmental impact assessment at a screening level, implemented for the analysis of water resources development projects in the Lower Mekong Basin. The report makes a brief review of environmental impact assessment methods and tools. It discusses expert systems technology, with emphasis on environmental applications. The Lower Mekong Basin and its specific environmental problems, as well as the Mekong Secretariat's environmental policy are examined. Subsequently, the software system is described from a user's perspective, followed by a detailed description of the methodology employed and its implementation. In the final chapter, a number of issues around the successful application of such a system are discussed, including a number of suggested improvements and extensions to the current operational prototype