Exact Tests via Complete Enumeration: A Distributed Computing Approach

The analysis of categorical data often leads to the analysis of a contingency table. For large samples, asymptotic approximations are sufficient when calculating p-values, but for small samples the tests can be unreliable. In these situations an exact test should be considered. This bases the test on the exact distribution of the test statistic. Sampling techniques can be used to estimate the distribution. Alternatively, the distribution can be found by complete enumeration. A new algorithm is developed that enables a model to be defined by a model matrix, and all tables that satisfy the model are found. This provides a more efficient enumeration mechanism for complex models and extends the range of models that can be tested. The technique can lead to large calculations and a distributed version of the algorithm is developed that enables a number of machines to work efficiently on the same problem

A Uniform Approach to Programming the World Wide Web

We propose a uniform model for programming distributed Web applications. The model is based on the concept of Web computation places and provides mechanisms to coordinate distributed computations at these places, including peer-to-peer communication between places and a uniform mechanism to initiate computation in remote places. Computations can interact with the flow of HTTP requests and responses, typically as clients, proxies or servers in the Web architecture. We have implemented the model using the global pointers and remote service requests provided by the Nexus communication library. We present the model and its rationale, with some illustrative examples, and we describe the implementation

The myExperiment Open Repository for Scientific Workflows

4th International Conference on Open RepositoriesThis presentation was part of the session : Conference PresentationsDate: 2009-05-19 10:00 AM – 11:30 AMmyExperiment is an open repository solution for the born-digital items arising in contemporary research practice, in particular scientific workflows and experiment plans. Launched in November 2007, the public repository (myexperiment.org) has established a significant collection of scientific workflows, spanning multiple disciplines and multiple workflow systems, which has been accessed by over 16,000 users worldwide. Built according to Web 2.0 design principles, myExperiment demonstrates the success of blending modern social curation methods with the demands of researchers sharing hard-won intellectual assets and research works within a scholarly communication lifecycle. myExperiment is an important component in the revolution in creating, sharing and publishing scientific results, and has already established itself as a valuable and unique repository with a growing international presence.JISC; EPSRC; Microsoft Corporatio

Proust og den hemmelige læsemåde

Proust og den hemmelige læsemåd

The Literacy Fieldtrip: Using UbiComp to Support Children's Creative Writing

Fieldtrips, traditionally associated with science, history and geography teaching, have long been used to support children’s learning by allowing them to engage with environments first-hand. Recently, ubiquitous computing (UbiComp) has been used to enhance fieldtrips in these educational areas by augmenting environments with a range of instruments, devices and sensors. However, the sorts of interaction design that UbiComp makes possible have the potential not just to enhance the value of educational techniques in known application areas, but also to expand the application of those techniques into new areas of curriculum. We report on a UbiComp-supported fieldtrip to support creative writing, associated with the learning of literacy skills. We discuss how the fieldtrip, designed and run in the grounds of a historic English country house with Year 5 UK schoolchildren, engendered interactions which changed both the processes and products of creative writing, with benefits for both teachers and children

UbiComp in Opportunity Spaces: Challenges for Participatory Design

The rise of ubiquitous computing (UbiComp), where pervasive, wireless and disappearing technologies offer hitherto unavailable means of supporting activity, increasingly opens up ‘opportunity spaces’. These are spaces where there is no urgent problem to be solved, but much potential to augment and enhance practice in new ways. Based on our experience of co-designing novel user experiences for visitors to an English country estate, we discuss challenges for PD in such an opportunity space. Key amongst these are how to build a working relationship of value when there are no urgent requirements; how to understand and scope the space of opportunities; and how to leave users with new resources of value to them

A persistent infrastructure for augmented field trips

This paper describes an approach to the provision of pervasive field trips where a persistent infrastructure is provided, upon which teachers can easily create novel pervasive experiences for children. The physical infrastructure is briefly described along with the underlying information infrastructure, which enables the tools for authoring the content and designing the orchestration of the experience to be placed in the hands of teachers. A literacy experience and initial trials of the system are discussed, conclusions drawn, and future directions outlined

PROV-JSONLD: a JSON and linked data representation for provenance

In this paper, we propose a representation for PROV in JSON-LD, the JSON format for Linked Data, called PROV-JSONLD. As a JSON-based format, this provenance representation can be readily consumed by Web applications currently supporting JSON. As a Linked Data format, at the same time, it also represents provenance data in RDF using the PROV ontology. Hence, it is suitable for usages in both the Web and the Semantic Web

A Reusable, Extensible Infrastructure for Augmented Field Trips

This paper describes a reusable pervasive information infrastructure developed as part of the Equator IRC, designed to allow the construction of literacy based eLearning activities on top of material created as part of a more traditional visitors system. The architecture of the system is described along with details of the creation of the curated material and the subsequent adaption of the system by local primary school teachers to create a literacy experiences. Results of the first trials of the system are presented with conclusions drawn and discussion of future directions

Memetic: from meeting memory to virtual ethnography & distributed video analysis

The JISC-funded Memetic2 project was designed as knowledge management and project memory support for teams meeting via the Access Grid environment (Buckingham Shum et al, 2006). This paper describes how these capabilities also enable it to serve as a novel distributed video analysis tool to support interaction analysis. Memetic technologies can be used to record, annotate and discuss sessions recorded within a flexible, visual hypermedia environment called Compendium. We propose that beyond the use originally conceived, the Memetic toolset could find wide ranging applications within social science for virtual ethnography and data analysis