The Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (SADI) Web service Design-Pattern, API and Reference Implementation

Background. 
The complexity and inter-related nature of biological data poses a difficult challenge for data and tool integration. There has been a proliferation of interoperability standards and projects over the past decade, none of which has been widely adopted by the bioinformatics community. Recent attempts have focused on the use of semantics to assist integration, and Semantic Web technologies are being welcomed by this community.

Description. 
SADI – Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration – is a lightweight set of fully standards-compliant Semantic Web service design patterns that simplify the publication of services of the type commonly found in bioinformatics and other scientific domains. Using Semantic Web technologies at every level of the Web services “stack”, SADI services consume and produce instances of OWL Classes following a small number of very straightforward best-practices. In addition, we provide codebases that support these best-practices, and plug-in tools to popular developer and client software that dramatically simplify deployment of services by providers, and the discovery and utilization of those services by their consumers.

Conclusions.
SADI Services are fully compliant with, and utilize only foundational Web standards; are simple to create and maintain for service providers; and can be discovered and utilized in a very intuitive way by biologist end-users. In addition, the SADI design patterns significantly improve the ability of software to automatically discover appropriate services based on user-needs, and automatically chain these into complex analytical workflows. We show that, when resources are exposed through SADI, data compliant with a given ontological model can be automatically gathered, or generated, from these distributed, non-coordinating resources - a behavior we have not observed in any other Semantic system. Finally, we show that, using SADI, data dynamically generated from Web services can be explored in a manner very similar to data housed in static triple-stores, thus facilitating the intersection of Web services and Semantic Web technologies

Stability conditions and canonical metrics

In this thesis we study the principle that extremal objects in differential geometry correspond to stable objects in algebraic geometry. In our introduction we survey the most famous instances of this principle with a view towards the results and background needed in the later chapters. In Part I we discuss the notion of a Z-critical metric recently introduced in joint work with Ruadhaí Dervan and Lars Martin Sektnan. We prove a correspondence for existence with an analogue of Bridgeland stability in the large volume limit, and study important properties of the subsolution condition away from this limit, including identifying the analogues of the Donaldson and Yang-Mills functionals for the equation. In Part II we study the recent theory of optimal symplectic connections on Kähler fibrations in the isotrivial case. We prove a correspondence with the existence of Hermite-Einstein metrics on holomorphic principal bundles.Open Acces

An Expansion of Piccolo Trumpet Solo Repertoire: Transcriptions From the Romantic Period

The modern piccolo trumpet is a relatively new instrument in that its current form was fully developed in the last 60–70 years. Due to the late development of the instrument, and several other contributing factors, there is a lack of significant piccolo trumpet repertoire extending from the end of the Classical Period through the Romantic Period. This dissertation provides trumpeters, particularly developing students, with an expansion of repertoire drawn from the Romantic Period, for study and performance on the piccolo trumpet. This project includes transcriptions and arrangements of existing Romantic repertoire that are idiomatically suitable for piccolo trumpet. The repertoire is specifically selected to include various challenges for different ability levels. This study includes a pedagogical analysis and written exercises derived from representative works from the Romantic Period, thus providing trumpeters with drills and instruction for practicing the expanding skillset necessary for performing these transcriptions. Trumpet students pursuing careers as professional classical musicians will certainly be required to become proficient on the piccolo trumpet. The expansion of the piccolo trumpet solo repertoire through transcriptions from the Romantic Period will benefit trumpeters by providing new opportunities to study, learn, and perform solo music written by exemplary composers from the 19th century. Currently, a large portion of the existing piccolo trumpet repertoire is from the Baroque Period, however, these compositions were originally written for natural trumpet, which boasts a completely different sound. The piccolo trumpet is fundamentally a very different instrument than the natural trumpet of the Baroque Period. While Baroque compositions are commonly written in the upper register of the natural trumpet, they must be treated like transcriptions when performed on piccolo trumpet, as its modern design is significantly different. The chosen repertoire for this dissertation will introduce musical styles, forms, and appropriate performance practices from an era other than the Baroque, while providing aspiring piccolo trumpet performers a greater variety of repertoire with different musical and technical challenges. The Romantic Period was chosen for this project due to the broad range of expressive gestures, significant composers, and lack of piccolo trumpet repertoire

Cities, The Sharing Economy and What's Next

This report seeks to provide an analysis of what is currently happening in American cities so that city leaders may better understand, encourage and regulate the growing sharing economy. Interviews were conducted with city officials on the impact of the sharing economy and related topics, and the report centers around five key themes: innovation, economic development, equity, safety and implementation.The sharing economy is also commonly referred to as collaborative consumption, the collaborative economy, or the peer-to-peer economy. This term refers to business models that enable providers and consumers to share resources and services, from housing to vehicles and more. These business models typically take the form of an online and/or application-based platform for business transactions

Determinants of the Tournaments

No abstract provided in this article

Hitchin's projectively flat connection and the moduli space of Higgs bundles

In this thesis we investigate the geometric quantization of moduli spaces of vector bundles over compact Riemann surfaces. In particular we will recall the geometric quantization of the moduli space of stable holomorphic vector bundles carried out by Hitchin, and study the generalisation of this problem for the moduli space of stable holomorphic Higgs bundles. The geometric quantization of Higgs moduli spaces presents new difficulties, since these moduli spaces are non-compact. However, they come with natural C+ actions, and this has implications for the geometric quantization: the quantum spaces for the Higgs moduli spaces split into finite-dimensional weight spaces for the C+ action, which can be identified with spaces of sections of certain bundles over the compact stable bundle moduli space. In the first part of this thesis, we review necessary background in differential geometry. Chapter 1 reviews the standard theory of connections on smooth vector bundles. Chapter 2 serves as an introduction to symplectic geometry, symplectic quotients, and their relationship to geometric invariant theory. Chapter 3 reviews the fundamental ideas in complex di erential geometry, and in particular in Kahler geometry, as well as the basic theory of holomorphic vector bundles required later. In the second part of this thesis, we introduce the moduli spaces of stable bundles and Higgs bundles, formally defining them as infinite-dimensional Kahler quotients. In Chapter 4 the stable bundle space is considered, and we review its important properties and interpretations. Chapter 5 concerns the Higgs bundle moduli space and the ways it generalises and compares to the stable bundle moduli space. In the third and final part of this thesis, we recall the process of geometric quantization via Kahler polarisations, and apply it to the moduli space of Higgs bundles. In Chapter 6 we define geometric quantization, and state a theorem of Andersen on the existence of Hitchin connections for compact symplectic manifolds. In Chapter 7 we geometrically quantize the Higgs line bundle moduli space, and investigate the difficulties of generalising the techniques used to the higher rank spaces. In particular we construct a projectively at Hitchin connection on the bundle of quantum spaces over Teichmuller space. As far as the author is aware, this is an original result.Thesis (MPhil) -- University of Adelaide, School of Mathematical Sciences, 201

The Relationship Between Force Plate Derived Eccentric Rate of Force Development and ELEIKO Vmaxpro Derived Eccentric Motion Rate of Force Development

Eccentric rate of force development (ECC RFD) is a measure of the rate at which muscles can generate decelerative forces. However, it has traditionally been measured while jumping on force plates, which are not easily accessible or easy to use in a practical setting. With technology advancements it may be possible to measure ECC RFD in more practical settings. An inertial measurement unit (IMU) such as the ELEIKO Vmaxpro IMU, which are IMUs embedded at the end of a barbell, may provide practitioners the ability measure ECC RFD without force plates. Vmaxpro calls their variable specifically peak ECC motion RFD (peak ECC mRFD). However, the relationship between force plate derived ECC RFD and ELEIKO Vmaxpro derived ECC mRFD is unknown. Twenty-one male participants performed maximum effort weighted countermovement jumps (wCMJs) with a 20kg ELEIKO barbell with Vmaxpro IMUs on a dual force plate. Both average and peak ECC RFD were calculated for each jump from the force plate data, whereas peak ECC mRFD was calculated from the ELEIKO Vmaxpro IMU. Force plate derived average ECC RFD was calculated as the slope of the line of best fit over the entire eccentric phase. Both force plate derived peak ECC RFD and Vmaxpro peak ECC mRFD were calculated as the slope of 40 ms continuous intervals over the entire eccentric phase. The trial producing peak jump height derived from the force plate was used for analysis. Pearson correlation coefficients and simple linear regressions were calculated between average ECC RFD and Vmaxpro peak ECC mRFD, as well as between peak ECC RFD and Vmaxpro peak ECC mRFD. Of the 99 trials collected, 44% were unable to be used due to missing data from Vmaxpro including all trials from one participant, which left 20 participants in the final analyses. Very large, positive correlations were observed between force plate average ECC RFD and peak ECC mRFD (r = 0.71), as well as force plate peak ECC RFD and peak ECC mRFD (r = 0.80). Both linear regressions were found to be statistically significant (p < 0.005). A goal of this study was to find an alternative way of tracking ECC RFD in a practical setting other than using force plates. Although this study demonstrates a promising future for the use ELEIKO Vmaxpro IMUs to measure ECC RFD, due to the high number of missed trials, caution is suggested when using this device in a practical setting

Australia's coastal waters are rich in Indigenous cultural heritage, but it remains hidden and under threat

[Extract] In two new studies published in Australian Archaeology, we outline approaches to help us better understand and manage Indigenous underwater cultural heritage. Through a two-pronged approach at both the local and regional level, we review big data to predict the location of sites. We also put boots on the ground and divers in the water to find and record them

ROSIA: Rotation-Search-Based Star Identification Algorithm

This paper presents a rotation-search-based approach for addressing the star identification (Star-ID) problem. The proposed algorithm, ROSIA, is a heuristics-free algorithm that seeks the optimal rotation that maximally aligns the input and catalog stars in their respective coordinates. ROSIA searches the rotation space systematically with the Branch-and-Bound (BnB) method. Crucially affecting the runtime feasibility of ROSIA is the upper bound function that prioritizes the search space. In this paper, we make a theoretical contribution by proposing a tight (provable) upper bound function that enables a 400x speed-up compared to an existing formulation. Coupling the bounding function with an efficient evaluation scheme that leverages stereographic projection and the R-tree data structure, ROSIA achieves feasible operational speed on embedded processors with state-of-the-art performances under different sources of noise. The source code of ROSIA is available at https://github.com/ckchng/ROSIA.Comment: 21 pages, 16 figures, Accepted to IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic System