Report of the Indiana University Research Data Management Taskforce

The “data deluge” in the sciences—the ability to create massive streams of digital data—has been discussed at great length in the academic and lay press. The ability with which scientists can now produce data has transformed scientific practice so that creating data is now less of a challenge in many disciplines than making use of, properly analyzing, and properly storing such data. Two aspects of the data deluge are not as widely appreciated. One is that the data deluge is not contained simply to the sciences. Humanities scholars and artists are generating data at prodigious rates as well through massive scanning projects, digitization of still photographs, video, and music, and the creation of new musical and visual art forms that are inherently digital. A second factor that is not well appreciated is that data collected now is potentially valuable forever. The genomic DNA sequences of a particular organism are what they are. They are known precisely. Or, more properly, the sequences of the contigs that are assembled to create the sequence are known precisely, while there may be dispute about the proper assembly. Such data will be of value indefinitely – and for example to the extent that we wonder if environmental changes are changing the population genetics of various organisms, data on the frequency of particular genetic variations in populations will be of value indefinitely. Similarly, video and audio of an American folk musician, a speaker of an endangered language or a ballet performance will be of value indefinitely although argument might well go on regarding the interpretation and annotation of that video and audio. Such images and associated audio can never be recreated, and are thus of use indefinitely

Prepared for Bradley C. Wheeler, Chief Information Officer, and Pat Steele, Ruth Lilly Interim Dean of University Libraries

The “data deluge” in the sciences—the ability to create massive streams of digital data—has been discussed at great length in the academic and lay press. The ability with which scientists can now produce data has transformed scientific practice so that creating data is now less of a challenge in many disciplines than making use of, properly analyzing, and properly storing such data. Two aspects of the data deluge are not as widely appreciated. One is that the data deluge is not contained simply to the sciences. Humanities scholars and artists are generating data at prodigious rates as well through massive scanning projects, digitization of still photographs, video, and music, and the creation of new musical and visual art forms that are inherently digital. A second factor that is not well appreciated is that data collected now is potentially valuable forever. The genomic DNA sequences of a particular organism are what they are. They are known precisely. Or, more properly, the sequences of the contigs that are assembled to create the sequence are known precisely, while there may be dispute about the proper assembly. Such data will be of value indefinitely – and for example to the extent that we wonder if environmental changes are changing the population genetics of various organisms, data on the frequency of particular genetic variations in populations will be of value indefinitely. Similarly, video and audio of an American folk musician, a speaker of an endangered language or a ballet performance will be of value indefinitely although argument might well go on regarding the interpretation and annotation of that video and audio. Such images and associated audio can never be recreated, and are thus of use indefinitely. In 2005 then-Vice President Michael A. McRobbie commissioned a Cyberinfrastructure Research Taskforce to provide advice as regards Indiana University's cyberinfrastructure plans and goals

Differential Diagnosis of Parkinsonism and Tremor Disorders: Basal Ganglia Imaging With a Novel Isotope

There have been continual changes in medical diagnosis and treatment throughout the generations. Present medical practice emphasises accuracy and accountability, and an evidence base for diagnosis and therapeutic intervention. The differential diagnosis of tremor disorders and parkinsonism serves as a good example of evolving concepts and treatment approaches, and is the subject of the present thesis. It is necessary first to review present knowledge about the accuracy of diagnosis and why this is important (Chapter 1), then to review how imaging techniques have contributed to the knowledge base (Chapter 2) and then report current understanding of the dopamine transporter (Chapter 3) - as it is at this site that the new isotope -123I-N-fluoropropyl-2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl) nortropane (123I-FP-CIT) is known to work. It is the aim of the present thesis to examine an advanced phase of clinical application of the technique of SPECT imaging with 123I-FP-CIT to the differential diagnosis of selected movement disorders as follows: In study 1 (Chapter 4) the design and result of study of 220 subjects with idiopathic Parkinson's disease (iPD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), essential tremor (ET) and healthy volunteers are presented. A new technique of assessing 123I-FP-CIT SPECT by visual inspection was developed which proved to be useful in differentiating essential tremor from other parkinsonian syndromes. Semi-quantitative analysis showed limited usefulness of 123I-FP-CIT SPECT in differentiating iPD from atypical parkinsonism. This study provides evidence against significant association between iPD and ET. Study 2 (Chapter 5) addressed the issue of the correlation of severity, staging and duration of parkinsonian features with 123I-FP-CIT striatal uptake in 41 patients with iPD. A positive correlation of striatal uptake was identified for these variables and for bradykinesia, but not for tremor suggesting that tremor could have an origin outwith the dopamine transporter system. The clinical lateralisation of parkinsonian signs was studied in relation to striatal uptake with the finding that clinical asymmetry in iPD was more marked than the degree of the asymmetry in 123I-FP-CIT uptake. The patterns of 123I-FP-CIT uptake in iPD, 8 MSA, 3 PSP and 6 healthy volunteers were reported, confirming that the posterior putamen is the most affected part in iPD and showing that there are limitations in attempting to differentiate parkinsonism subtypes using this technique. In study 3 (Chapter 6) 10 patients with tremor and/or clinical features suggesting possible parkinsonism (but not fulfilling diagnostic criteria for either iPD or ET) were compared to 9 unilateral patients fulfilling diagnostic criteria for iPD and 6 healthy volunteers. Reduced 123I-FP-CIT striatal uptake was found bilateral in 7 tremor patient and all 9 of the unilateral iPD patients, confirming the presymptomatic phase of the illness not only in early parkinsonism cases but even in monosymptomatic cases who have yet to develop definitive clinical features. Of the 10 tremor cases, 3 showed striatal uptake values above the range established for iPD patients fulfilling clinical criteria, even although the duration of disease in the tremor patients was similar to that in definite iPD patients. Three of the 10 tremor patients showed normal striatal uptake. This indicated the usefulness of this technique in demonstrating the nigrostriatal change at a very early stage of disease, helping to exclude or confirm the diagnosis of parkinsonism. In study 4 (Chapter 7) the relationship between cerebrovascular disease and parkinsonism was studied. 123I-FP-CIT striatal uptake in 12 patients with vascular parkinsonism was compared to 6 healthy volunteers. Also an index case of isolated tremor related to ischaemic lesion was reported. A reduction in uptake was shown in all vascular parkinsonism patients except one. Two distinct patterns of dopaminergic loss, both of which differ from idiopathic Parkinson's disease were identified, indicating that vascular lesions may disrupt the dopaminergic system to produce parkinsonian features. In summary, a simple visual inspection of 123I-FP-CIT SPECT scans helps in differentiating parkinsonian syndromes from essential tremor and detecting changes in the dopaminergic system in patients with unilateral parkinsonism, even in patients not fulfilling diagnostic criteria for iPD. However there are limitations in using this technique in differentiating iPD from MSA or PSP. A reduction in striatal uptake was shown in vascular parkinsonism patients supporting a dopaminergic source of symptoms in this group. The correlation of disease staging, severity and duration with striatal 123I-FP-CIT uptake indicates the potential usefulness of SPECT in monitoring disease progression and the effects of putative neuroprotective therapy. In conclusion, this new technique represents a significant advance in medical diagnosis of movement disorders.

Cost-effective resource management for distributed computing

Current distributed computing and resource management infrastructures (e.g., Cluster and Grid) suffer from a wide variety of problems related to resource management, which include scalability bottleneck, resource allocation delay, limited quality-of-service (QoS) support, and lack of cost-aware and service level agreement (SLA) mechanisms. This thesis addresses these issues by presenting a cost-effective resource management solution which introduces the possibility of managing geographically distributed resources in resource units that are under the control of a Virtual Authority (VA). A VA is a collection of resources controlled, but not necessarily owned, by a group of users or an authority representing a group of users. It leverages the fact that different resources in disparate locations will have varying usage levels. By creating smaller divisions of resources called VAs, users would be given the opportunity to choose between a variety of cost models, and each VA could rent resources from resource providers when necessary, or could potentially rent out its own resources when underloaded. The resource management is simplified since the user and owner of a resource recognize only the VA because all permissions and charges are associated directly with the VA. The VA is controlled by a ’rental’ policy which is supported by a pool of resources that the system may rent from external resource providers. As far as scheduling is concerned, the VA is independent from competitors and can instead concentrate on managing its own resources. As a result, the VA offers scalable resource management with minimal infrastructure and operating costs. We demonstrate the feasibility of the VA through both a practical implementation of the prototype system and an illustration of its quantitative advantages through the use of extensive simulations. First, the VA concept is demonstrated through a practical implementation of the prototype system. Further, we perform a cost-benefit analysis of current distributed resource infrastructures to demonstrate the potential cost benefit of such a VA system. We then propose a costing model for evaluating the cost effectiveness of the VA approach by using an economic approach that captures revenues generated from applications and expenses incurred from renting resources. Based on our costing methodology, we present rental policies that can potentially offer effective mechanisms for running distributed and parallel applications without a heavy upfront investment and without the cost of maintaining idle resources. By using real workload trace data, we test the effectiveness of our proposed rental approaches. Finally, we propose an extension to the VA framework that promotes long-term negotiations and rentals based on service level agreements or long-term contracts. Based on the extended framework, we present new SLA-aware policies and evaluate them using real workload traces to demonstrate their effectiveness in improving rental decisions

Study program to define a medical and paramedical investigation of man in a closed ecological environment. Volume 2 - Annotated bibliography

Annotated bibliography of literature related to man and animals in closed ecological systems and simulated space environment