37,340 research outputs found
Ontology technology for the development and deployment of learning technology systems - a survey
The World-Wide Web is undergoing dramatic changes at the moment. The Semantic Web is an initiative to bring meaning to the Web. The Semantic Web is based on ontology
technology – a knowledge representation framework – at its core. We illustrate the importance of this evolutionary development. We survey five scenarios demonstrating different forms of applications of ontology technologies in the development and deployment of learning technology
systems. Ontology technologies are highly useful to organise, personalise, and publish learning content and to discover, generate, and compose learning objects
Design of the shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and development of a web-based GIS interface
Chapter 5The Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) is a collaborative initiative of
the European Commission (EC) and the European Environment Agency (EEA) aimed to
establish an integrated and shared EU-wide environmental information system together
with the Member States.
SEIS presents the European vision on environmental information interoperability. It is
a set of high-level principles & workflow-processes that organize the collection, exchange,
and use of environmental data & information aimed to:
• Modernise the way in which information required by environmental legislation is
made available to member states or EC instruments;
• Streamline reporting processes and repeal overlaps or obsolete reporting obligations;
• Stimulate similar developments at international conventions;
• Standardise according to INSPIRE when possible; and
• Introduce the SDI (spatial database infrastructure) principle EU-wide.
SEIS is a system and workflow of operations that offers technical capabilities geared to
meet concept expectations. In that respect, SEIS shows the way and sets up the workflow
effectively in a standardise way (e.g, INSPIRE) to:
• Collect Data from Spatial Databases, in situ sensors, statistical databases, earth
observation readings (e.g., EOS, GMES), marine observation using standard data
transfer protocols (ODBC, SOS, ft p, etc).
• Harmonise collected data (including data check/data integrity) according to best
practices proven to perform well, according to the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC
(1) Annexes I: II: III: plus INSPIRE Implementation Rules for data not specified in
above mentioned Annexes.
• Harmonise collected data according to WISE (Water Information System from
Europe) or Ozone-web.
• Process, aggregate harmonise data so to extract information in a format understandable
by wider audiences (e.g., Eurostat, enviro-indicators).
• Document information to fulfi l national reporting obligations towards EU bodies
(e.g., the JRC, EEA, DGENV, Eurostat)
• Store and publish information for authorised end-users (e.g., citizens, institutions).
This paper presents the development and integration of the SEIS-Malta Geoportal.
The first section outlines EU Regulations on INSPIRE and Aarhus Directives. The second
covers the architecture and the implementation of SEIS-Malta Geoportal. The third
discusses the results and successful implementation of the Geoportal.peer-reviewe
UK utility data integration: overcoming schematic heterogeneity
In this paper we discuss syntactic, semantic and schematic issues which inhibit the integration of utility data in the UK. We then focus on the techniques employed within the VISTA project to overcome schematic heterogeneity. A Global
Schema based architecture is employed. Although automated approaches to Global Schema definition were attempted
the heterogeneities of the sector were too great. A manual approach to Global Schema definition was employed. The
techniques used to define and subsequently map source utility data models to this schema are discussed in detail. In order to ensure a coherent integrated model, sub and cross domain validation issues are then highlighted. Finally the proposed framework and data flow for schematic integration is introduced
Service Platform for Converged Interactive Broadband Broadcast and Cellular Wireless
A converged broadcast and telecommunication
service platform is presented that is able to create, deliver, and
manage interactive, multimedia content and services for consumption
on three different terminal types. The motivations of
service providers for designing converged interactive multimedia
services, which are crafted for their individual requirements, are
investigated. The overall design of the system is presented with
particular emphasis placed on the operational features of each
of the sub-systems, the flows of media and metadata through the
sub-systems and the formats and protocols required for inter-communication
between them. The key features of tools required for
creating converged interactive multimedia content for a range of
different end-user terminal types are examined. Finally possible
enhancements to this system are discussed. This study is of particular
interest to those organizations currently conducting trials
and commercial launches of DVB-H services because it provides
them with an insight of the various additional functions required
in the service provisioning platforms to provide fully interactive
services to a range of different mobile terminal types
Designing Traceability into Big Data Systems
Providing an appropriate level of accessibility and traceability to data or
process elements (so-called Items) in large volumes of data, often
Cloud-resident, is an essential requirement in the Big Data era.
Enterprise-wide data systems need to be designed from the outset to support
usage of such Items across the spectrum of business use rather than from any
specific application view. The design philosophy advocated in this paper is to
drive the design process using a so-called description-driven approach which
enriches models with meta-data and description and focuses the design process
on Item re-use, thereby promoting traceability. Details are given of the
description-driven design of big data systems at CERN, in health informatics
and in business process management. Evidence is presented that the approach
leads to design simplicity and consequent ease of management thanks to loose
typing and the adoption of a unified approach to Item management and usage.Comment: 10 pages; 6 figures in Proceedings of the 5th Annual International
Conference on ICT: Big Data, Cloud and Security (ICT-BDCS 2015), Singapore
July 2015. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1402.5764,
arXiv:1402.575
Virtual reality in the service of user participation in architecture
The issue of user participation in the processes of building and urban design is enjoying renewed attention following its relative neglect over the last 20 years due, in large measure, to significant advances in emerging information technologies, particularly multimedia, virtual reality and internet technologies. This paper re-established the theoretical framework for participatory design evolved in the late sixties and early seventies as part of the movement towards a more explicit design methodology and attempts an explanation of why the concept failed to gain commitment from the architectural and urban design professionals. The paper then gives an account of two significant developments in the evolution of the application of information technologies with which the authors have been engaged. These are: i. a responsive and interactive interface to wholly immersive and realistic virtual reality representations of proposed buildings and urban neighbourhoods. ii. an intuitive and platform-independent VR modelling environment allowing collaborative evolution of the scheme from within the virtual world. The impact of these IT developments is demonstrated in the context of the design of a leisure facility for a community of users with physical impairment
London SynEx Demonstrator Site: Impact Assessment Report
The key ingredients of the SynEx-UCL software components are:
1. A comprehensive and federated electronic healthcare record that can be used to
reference or to store all of the necessary healthcare information acquired from a
diverse range of clinical databases and patient-held devices.
2. A directory service component to provide a core persons demographic database to
search for and authenticate staff users of the system and to anchor patient
identification and connection to their federated healthcare record.
3. A clinical record schema management tool (Object Dictionary Client) that enables
clinicians or engineers to define and export the data sets mapping to individual
feeder systems.
4. An expansible set of clinical management algorithms that provide prompts to the
patient or clinician to assist in the management of patient care.
CHIME has built up over a decade of experience within Europe on the requirements
and information models that are needed to underpin comprehensive multiprofessional
electronic healthcare records. The resulting architecture models have
influenced new European standards in this area, and CHIME has designed and built
prototype EHCR components based on these models. The demonstrator systems
described here utilise a directory service and object-oriented engineering approach,
and support the secure, mobile and distributed access to federated healthcare
records via web-based services.
The design and implementation of these software components has been founded on
a thorough analysis of the clinical, technical and ethico-legal requirements for
comprehensive EHCR systems, published through previous project deliverables and
in future planned papers.
The clinical demonstrator site described in this report has provided the solid basis
from which to establish "proof of concept" verification of the design approach, and a
valuable opportunity to install, test and evaluate the results of the component
engineering undertaken during the EC funded project. Inevitably, a number of
practical implementation and deployment obstacles have been overcome through
this journey, each of those having contributed to the time taken to deliver the
components but also to the richness of the end products.
UCL is fortunate that the Whittington Hospital, and the department of cardiovascular
medicine in particular, is committed to a long-term vision built around this work. That
vision, outlined within this report, is shared by the Camden and Islington Health
Authority and by many other purchaser and provider organisations in the area, and
by a number of industrial parties. They are collectively determined to support the
Demonstrator Site as an ongoing project well beyond the life of the EC SynEx
Project.
This report, although a final report as far as the EC project is concerned, is really a
description of the first phase in establishing a centre of healthcare excellence. New
EC Fifth Framework project funding has already been approved to enable new and
innovative technology solutions to be added to the work already established in north
London
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