Internet Fish

I have invented "Internet Fish," a novel class of resource-discovery tools designed to help users extract useful information from the Internet. Internet Fish (IFish) are semi-autonomous, persistent information brokers; users deploy individual IFish to gather and refine information related to a particular topic. An IFish will initiate research, continue to discover new sources of information, and keep tabs on new developments in that topic. As part of the information-gathering process the user interacts with his IFish to find out what it has learned, answer questions it has posed, and make suggestions for guidance. Internet Fish differ from other Internet resource discovery systems in that they are persistent, personal and dynamic. As part of the information-gathering process IFish conduct extended, long-term conversations with users as they explore. They incorporate deep structural knowledge of the organization and services of the net, and are also capable of on-the-fly reconfiguration, modification and expansion. Human users may dynamically change the IFish in response to changes in the environment, or IFish may initiate such changes itself. IFish maintain internal state, including models of its own structure, behavior, information environment and its user; these models permit an IFish to perform meta-level reasoning about its own structure. To facilitate rapid assembly of particular IFish I have created the Internet Fish Construction Kit. This system provides enabling technology for the entire class of Internet Fish tools; it facilitates both creation of new IFish as well as additions of new capabilities to existing ones. The Construction Kit includes a collection of encapsulated heuristic knowledge modules that may be combined in mix-and-match fashion to create a particular IFish; interfaces to new services written with the Construction Kit may be immediately added to "live" IFish. Using the Construction Kit I have created a demonstration IFish specialized for finding World-Wide Web documents related to a given group of documents. This "Finder" IFish includes heuristics that describe how to interact with the Web in general, explain how to take advantage of various public indexes and classification schemes, and provide a method for discovering similarity relationships among documents

The Development and Usage of the Greenstone Digital Library Software

The Greenstone software has helped spread the practical impact of digital library technology throughout the world-particularly in developing countries. This article reviews the project’s origins, usage, and the development of support mechanisms for Greenstone users. We begin with a brief summary of salient aspects of this open source software package and its user population. Next we describe how its international, humanitarian focus arose. We then review the special requirements imposed by the conditions that prevail in developing courtiers. Finally we discuss efforts to establish regional support organizations for Greenstone in India and Africa

Report of the second STREAM regional conference. Tagaytay City, Philippines 8-10 June 2003

The Second STREAM Regional Conference was held in Tagaytay City, Philippines, from 8-10 June 2003 with the participation of 23 people from Australia, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan (China). Following a regional overview of STREAM’s themes, country partners, donors and funding, and activities, participants visited four “stations” on the themes of livelihoods, institutions, policy development, and communications, working in groups representing National Coordinators, Communications Hub Managers, and Partners. They engaged in discussions with a “station leader” and each other to learn about and comment on objectives, activities, outcomes and outputs, and to consider issues that need addressing in STREAM. (PDF has 49 pages.

Scenarios for Educational and Game Activities using Internet of Things Data

Raising awareness among young people and changing their behavior and habits concerning energy usage and the environment is key to achieving a sustainable planet. The goal to address the global climate problem requires informing the population on their roles in mitigation actions and adaptation of sustainable behaviors. Addressing climate change and achieve ambitious energy and climate targets requires a change in citizen behavior and consumption practices. IoT sensing and related scenario and practices, which address school children via discovery, gamification, and educational activities, are examined in this paper. Use of seawater sensors in STEM education, that has not previously been addressed, is included in these educational scenaria

The role of privately owned sports related green spaces in urban ecological frameworks

An ecological framework seeks to maintain ecological processes in the wider landscape and to conserve ecosystems, habitats, species, genetic diversity, and landscapes of importance. As greater attention is paid to ecological frameworks and in particular to such frameworks within an urban setting, then an understanding of the landscape ecology of sports related open spaces and their position within the wider ecological setting of a city requires attention. In this chapter we focus on golf courses and in particular address questions relating to their historic development and their contemporary role in urban ecosystems. The exploration of these issues will be based on a case study centred on a new golf course development constructed in the 1990s at the Marriott Worsley Park, Salford UK. In this case study the historic development of Salford is outlined and the development of the Marriott Worsley Park is discussed in detail. Contemporary land use data are presented in order to understand the spatial importance of sports and open space within the city. This analysis leads to suggestions for the inclusion of sports space, and in particular golf courses within urban ecological frameworks

MAKLUMAT INDUSTRI DAN SAINS INFORMATION SERVICE FOR COMMERCE & INDUSTRY

MALAYSIA PLANS TO DEVELOP GHS Malaysia hopes to implement the chemical hazard classification and communication system based on the Globally Harmonised System (GHS) by year-end. GSH, a system to define and classify hazards through a uniform hazard information on labels and safety data sheet to be used in worldwide communication, will be implemented in four sectors -- industrial workplace, agriculture, transport and consumer products. The international structure for harmonizing classification and labeling systems for chemicals will have a beneficial impact on chemical trade, the exchange of information related to chemicals, the cost of risk assessment and management of chemicals and ultimately the protection of workers, the general public and the environment. A plan to implement the GHS was adopted at the 2002 UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa. Countries were encouraged to have the GHS fully operational by 2008. Sources were quoted

FISH mapping and molecular organization of the major repetitive sequences of tomato

This paper presents a bird's-eye view of the major repeats and chromatin types of tomato. Using fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) with Cot-1, Cot-10 and Cot-100 DNA as probes we mapped repetitive sequences of different complexity on pachytene complements. Cot-100 was found to cover all heterochromatin regions, and could be used to identify repeat-rich clones in BAC filter hybridization. Next we established the chromosomal locations of the tandem and dispersed repeats with respect to euchromatin, nucleolar organizer regions (NORs), heterochromatin, and centromeres. The tomato genomic repeats TGRII and TGRIII appeared to be major components of the pericentromeres, whereas the newly discovered TGRIV repeat was found mainly in the structural centromeres. The highly methylated NOR of chromosome 2 is rich in [GACA](4), a microsatellite that also forms part of the pericentromeres, together with [GA](8), [GATA](4) and Ty1-copia. Based on the morphology of pachytene chromosomes and the distribution of repeats studied so far, we now propose six different chromatin classes for tomato: (1) euchromatin, (2) chromomeres, (3) distal heterochromatin and interstitial heterochromatic knobs, (4) pericentromere heterochromatin, (5) functional centromere heterochromatin and (6) nucleolar organizer regio

The State of the Great Central Valley -- The Environment

Part of a series that provides various quality of life indicators for California's Central Valley. Includes data on air quality, water, and land use. Highlights successful efforts that combine goals of economic growth and environmental stewardship