e-Science na Embrapa.

A Ciência da Computação já vem sendo considerada o terceiro pilar da Ciência, ao lado da teoria e da experimentação. No entanto, muitos pesquisadores já consideram essa área do conhecimento a responsável pela emergência de um quarto paradigma científico, e-Science. Atualmente, grandes desafios, como o tratamento de uma imensa quantidade de dados e a crescente necessidade de colaboração entre cientistas das mais variadas áreas, exigem mais do que uma automatização da Ciência. São necessários novos métodos e uma próxima geração de infraestrutura para se fazer Ciência e se resolver problemas, além de meios eficazes para que cientistas realmente trabalhem colaborativamente. A Computação está presente em todos esses aspectos, e, em essência, é disso que se trata a e-Science. A Embrapa, por ser uma empresa de pesquisa, deve assumir um papel relevante nas iniciativas relacionadas a e-Science. A associação da Computação ao domínio agropecuário pode prover as soluções de que a Embrapa necessita, a fim de se promover um maior avanço nas pesquisas realizadas na empresa. Nesse contexto, a Embrapa Informática Agropecuária assume um papel de extrema importância. Este documento explica em detalhes o que vem sendo chamado de e-Science e outros termos relacionados a esse conceito. Também apresenta propostas do que a Embrapa pode fazer em relação à aplicação das ideias preconizadas pela e-Science, conforme suas prioridades estratégicas.bitstream/item/58331/1/Livro-doc117-1.pd

Ecotonality, or Adapting Soundscape Ecology to Creative Practice: Ecological Sound Art Responses to Four South Australian Ecosystems

Vol. 1 Exegesis -- Vol. 2 Creative Artefacts DVDEcotonality, or Adapting Soundscape Ecology to Creative Practice: Ecological Sound Art Responses to Four South Australian Ecosystems presents a practice-led research project, introducing Ecotonality, a creative framework which connects and adapts the principles, frameworks and methods of the ecological discipline, ‘soundscape ecology’ to ecological sound art practice. It consists of a portfolio of creative works and 30,000-word exegesis. Drawing on the growth of research in soundscape ecology (and by extension ecoacoustics, bioacoustics and acoustic ecology), in the past decade, the Ecotonal Creative Framework considers the adaptation of soundscape ecology research, fieldwork and analysis as it relates to creative concerns of project conception, data collation, creative material preparation, compositional assemblage, artistic realisation and post-project reflection. Additionally, the framework appraises roles of human and non-human agency (via Karen Barad and Timothy Morton), and the inherent role and implications of technological mediation, as related to soundscape ecology and creative practice. Ecotonality allows a reconsideration of the macro- and micromorphological relationships of ecosystems in creative works, which engages the ethical concerns of site-specific practice and impact of creative work on ecosystems and soundscapes. Four creative site-specific responses are subsequently discussed, each in response a different South Australian site - Mobilong Swamp (swamp ecosystem), Long Island (riparian ecosystem), Featherstone Place (urban ecosystem) and Farina (desert ecosystem) - and each employing multichannel surround sound setups and acoustic instrumentation. These creative project act as case studies of the implementation of the Ecotonal Creative Framework, creatively expressing ideas related to place, ecosystem, soundscape and identity. Through the recording, manipulation and utilisation of extant material circumstances of particular places, (i.e. their contemporary soundscape and ecosystem), the resultant creative responses provide commentary on ecological, sociocultural, political and spiritual circumstances, histories and identities.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Elder Conservatorium of Music, 201

Queensland University of Technology: Annual Report 2008

Our annual report provides an evaluation of our performance and achievements during the previous year, measured against our goals and strategic plans. It documents our performance in the three key areas of: teaching and learning research community service. The report includes a summary of financial performance and a copy of our audited accounts

Seafarers, Silk, and Science: Oceanographic Data in the Making

This thesis comprises an empirical case study of scientific data production in oceanography and a philosophical analysis of the relations between newly created scientific data and the natural world. Based on qualitative interviews with researchers, I reconstruct research practices that lead to the ongoing production of digital data related to long-term developments of plankton biodiversity in the oceans. My analysis is centred on four themes: materiality, scientific representing with data, methodological continuity, and the contribution of non-scientists to epistemic processes. These are critically assessed against the background of today’s data-intensive sciences and increased automation and remoteness in oceanographic practices. Sciences of the world’s oceans have by and large been disregarded in philosophical scholarship thus far. My thesis opens this field for philosophical analysis and reveals various conditions and constraints of data practices that are largely uncontrollable by ocean scientists. I argue that the creation of useful scientific data depends on the implementation and preservation of material, methodological, and social continuities. These allow scientists to repeatedly transform visually perceived characteristics of research samples into meaningful scientific data stored in a digital database. In my case study, data are not collected but result from active intervention and subsequent manipulation and processing of newly created material objects. My discussion of scientific representing with data suggests that scientists do not extract or read any intrinsic representational relation between data and a target, but make data gradually more computable and compatible with already existing representations of natural systems. My arguments shed light on the epistemological significance of materiality, on limiting factors of scientific agency, and on an inevitable balance between changing conditions of concrete research settings and long-term consistency of data practices.European Research Counci

Workshop, Long and Short Paper, and Poster Proceedings from the Fourth Immersive Learning Research Network Conference (iLRN 2018 Montana), 2018.

ILRN 2018 - Conferência internacional realizada em Montana de 24-29 de june de 2018.Workshop, short paper, and long paper proceedingsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design and Development of a Knowledge Modelling Approach to Govern the Use of Electronic Health Records for Research

There is now increasing commitment internationally to using electronic healthcare records collected during routine care delivery to conduct clinical research. This must be rigorously controlled by an extensive set of information governance requirements defining the legal, ethical and practical guidelines to respect the privacy rights of the people about whom the records are kept, uphold the clinical profession’s duty of confidentiality and protect the interests of participants, practitioners and researchers. The development of information security policies is a highly regarded method of meeting these requirements. This is hampered by the need to interpret a complex framework of legislation and guidelines, lack of clear advice and inconsistency in authoring, interpretation and understanding amongst the people whose behaviour they are expected to guide. By using the results of several UK and European research and information platform development projects in which the author has participated and by gathering requirements from stakeholders in the clinical and research communities, this thesis defines a knowledge management representation to specify policy requirements in a computable form. The work provides the first set of knowledge requirements for governing research uses of electronic healthcare records, and a knowledge model that describes information security policies and generates a web application tool. The tool allows policy control authoring that provides a consistent, clear and unambiguous view of governance requirements to researchers and service providers. The model and tool have been evaluated in a laboratory setting to explore their effects on behaviour and understanding of invited participants when authoring policy about handling healthcare records in research and making decisions about sharing information. The work has resulted in a validation of the model and demonstrated the potential positive effects of this new approach on practice. It makes recommendations about how it should be used in working practice and for educating people about information governance when performing clinical research to improve care provision

Digital Planning Practices - A multi-stage study on current approaches and future prospects for the use of analytics in urban planning practice

Technological advances in big data and artificial intelligence have led to a resurgence of enthusiasm for using computers to solve urban planning problems. History shows, however, that high hopes for new digital tools do not always lead to their adoption in planning practice. Given this new wave of enthusiasm, there is a need for up-to-date empirical research to assess how data, analytics, and digital tools are being implemented in contemporary urban planning practice and how planners perceive their future utility. The research involved a multi-stage, mixed-methods study. Past studies have commonly focused on the design and use of individual digital tools. Instead, this research adopted a systems approach, to empirically examine expectations for the future digital transformation of planning practices. Methods focused on identifying inductive patterns arising from examination of relationships between the producers, regulators and users of data, analytics, and digital tools. Stage one involved a review of existing theories of digital planning and ideas, including a citation network analysis of the planning support systems literature. Stage two involved empirical research. Firstly, surveys of professional planners across Australia, United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand on their current and prospective use of data and digital tools. Secondly, a case study on the use of analytics in preparing the Greater Sydney Regional and District Plans, including a content and citation network analysis of planning documents, and key-informant interviews. In addition to updating empirical knowledge, the research provides a new characterisation of the social and political rationales shaping digital planning practices, and the barriers to adopting open and transparent approaches. For scholars, the findings of this research assist in evaluating published theories of digital planning and ideas. For practitioners, the findings contribute to more informed investment in data, tools, training, and governance frameworks that meet the specific needs of urban planning

Realising an eScience platform to support climate change adaptation in Victoria

Our research is focused on developing an ecoinformatics platform to support climate change adaptation in Victoria. A multidisciplinary, cross-organisational approach is taken in developing adaptation strategies to deal with the 'diabolical' policy problem of climate change. The platform comprises a number of components including: (i) a metadata discovery tool to support modelling, (ii) a workflow engine for connecting climate change models, (iii) geographical visualisation tools for communicating landscape and farm impacts, (iv) a landscape object library for storing and sharing digital models, and (v) a landscape constructor tool to support participatory decision-making, and (vi) a virtual organisation for collaboration and sharing information. In this paper we will discuss the platform as it has been developed to support collaborative research and to inform stakeholders of the likely impacts of climate change in South West Victoria, Australia. We will discuss some of the drivers for research in developing the ecoinformatics platform and its components. The paper concludes by identifying some future research directions in better connecting researchers and communicating science outcomes associated with climate change impact and adaptation

The relationship between research data management and virtual research environments

The aim of the study was to compile a conceptual model of a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) that indicates the relationship between Research Data Management (RDM) and VREs. The outcome of this study was that VREs are ideal platforms for the management of research data. In the first part of the study, a literature review was conducted by focusing on four themes: VREs and other concepts related to VREs; VRE components and tools; RDM; and the relationship between VREs and RDM. The first theme included a discussion of definitions of concepts, approaches to VREs, their development, aims, characteristics, similarities and differences of concepts, an overview of the e-Research approaches followed in this study, as well as an overview of concepts used in this study. The second theme consisted of an overview of developments of VREs in four countries (United Kingdom, USA, The Netherlands, and Germany), an indication of the differences and similarities of these programmes, and a discussion on the concept of research lifecycles, as well as VRE components. These components were then matched with possible tools, as well as to research lifecycle stages, which led to the development of a first conceptual VRE framework. The third theme included an overview of the definitions of the concepts ‘data’ and ‘research data’, as well as RDM and related concepts, an investigation of international developments with regards to RDM, an overview of the differences and similarities of approaches followed internationally, and a discussion of RDM developments in South Africa. This was followed by a discussion of the concept ‘research data lifecycles’, their various stages, corresponding processes and the roles various stakeholders can play in each stage. The fourth theme consisted of a discussion of the relationship between research lifecycles and research data lifecycles, a discussion on the role of RDM as a component within a VRE, the management of research data by means of a VRE, as well as the presentation of a possible conceptual model for the management of research data by means of a VRE. This literature review was conducted as a background and basis for this study. In the second part of the study, the research methodology was outlined. The chosen methodology entailed a non-empirical part consisting of a literature study, and an empirical part consisting of two case studies from a South African University. The two case studies were specifically chosen because each used different methods in conducting research. The one case study used natural science oriented data and laboratory/experimental methods, and the other, human orientated data and survey instruments. The proposed conceptual model derived from the literature study was assessed through these case studies and feedback received was used to modify and/or enhance the conceptual model. The contribution of this study lies primarily in the presentation of a conceptual VRE model with distinct component layers and generic components, which can be used as technological and collaborative frameworks for the successful management of research data.Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2018.National Research FoundationInformation ScienceDPhilUnrestricte

Technologies and Applications for Big Data Value

This open access book explores cutting-edge solutions and best practices for big data and data-driven AI applications for the data-driven economy. It provides the reader with a basis for understanding how technical issues can be overcome to offer real-world solutions to major industrial areas. The book starts with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of the book by positioning the following chapters in terms of their contributions to technology frameworks which are key elements of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the upcoming Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. The remainder of the book is then arranged in two parts. The first part “Technologies and Methods” contains horizontal contributions of technologies and methods that enable data value chains to be applied in any sector. The second part “Processes and Applications” details experience reports and lessons from using big data and data-driven approaches in processes and applications. Its chapters are co-authored with industry experts and cover domains including health, law, finance, retail, manufacturing, mobility, and smart cities. Contributions emanate from the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the Big Data Value Association, which have acted as the European data community's nucleus to bring together businesses with leading researchers to harness the value of data to benefit society, business, science, and industry. The book is of interest to two primary audiences, first, undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in various fields, including big data, data science, data engineering, and machine learning and AI. Second, practitioners and industry experts engaged in data-driven systems, software design and deployment projects who are interested in employing these advanced methods to address real-world problems