Designing Institutional Infrastructure for E-Science

A new generation of information and communication infrastructures, including advanced Internet computing and Grid technologies, promises more direct and shared access to more widely distributed computing resources than was previously possible. Scientific and technological collaboration, consequently, is more and more dependent upon access to, and sharing of digital research data. Thus, the U.S. NSF Directorate committed in 2005 to a major research funding initiative, “Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery”. These investments are aimed at enhancement of computer and network technologies, and the training of researchers. Animated by much the same view, the UK e-Science Core Programme has preceded the NSF effort in funding development of an array of open standard middleware platforms, intended to support Grid enabled science and engineering research. This proceeds from the sceptical view that engineering breakthroughs alone will not be enough to achieve the outcomes envisaged. Success in realizing the potential of e-Science—through the collaborative activities supported by the "cyberinfrastructure," if it is to be achieved, will be the result of a nexus of interrelated social, legal, and technical transformations.e-science, cyberinfrastructure, information sharing, research

Falling reserve balances and the federal funds rate

The growth of "sweeps"--a banking practice in which depository institutions shift funds out of customer accounts subject to reserve requirements--has reduced the required balances held by banks in their accounts at the Federal Reserve. This development could lead to greater volatility in the federal funds rate as banks try to manage their accounts with very low balances. An analysis of the evidence suggests that the volatility of the funds rate is rising slightly, but not enough to disrupt the federal funds market or affect the implementation of monetary policy.Bank reserves ; Federal funds market (United States)

TOWARDS INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES FOR E-SCIENCE: The Scope of the Challenge

The three-fold purpose of this Report to the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Research Councils (UK) is to: • articulate the nature and significance of the non-technological issues that will bear on the practical effectiveness of the hardware and software infrastructures that are being created to enable collaborations in e- Science; • characterise succinctly the fundamental sources of the organisational and institutional challenges that need to be addressed in regard to defining terms, rights and responsibilities of the collaborating parties, and to illustrate these by reference to the limited experience gained to date in regard to intellectual property, liability, privacy, and security and competition policy issues affecting scientific research organisations; and • propose approaches for arriving at institutional mechanisms whose establishment would generate workable, specific arrangements facilitating collaboration in e-Science; and, that also might serve to meet similar needs in other spheres such as e- Learning, e-Government, e-Commerce, e-Healthcare. In carrying out these tasks, the report examines developments in enhanced computer-mediated telecommunication networks and digital information technologies, and recent advances in technologies of collaboration. It considers the economic and legal aspects of scientific collaboration, with attention to interactions between formal contracting and 'private ordering' arrangements that rest upon research community norms. It offers definitions of e-Science, virtual laboratories, collaboratories, and develops a taxonomy of collaborative e-Science activities which is implemented to classify British e-Science pilot projects and contrast these with US collaboratory projects funded during the 1990s. The approach to facilitating inter-organizational participation in collaborative projects rests upon the development of a modular structure of contractual clauses that permit flexibility and experience-based learning.

Siete retos en edición digital para las fuentes documentales

Este artículo examinará los retos principales para la edición digital de fuentes documentales, empezando por los conceptos fluidos de editor/lector y edición/recurso que la era digital ha favorecido, aunque han sido frenados en cierta medida por las realidades institucionales y el recelo de algunos investigadores ante cambios que cuanto menos ponen en debate los modos tradicionales de editar. Estos cambios suponen un arma de doble filo: un cuestionamiento, pero también una oportunidad para crear nuevas formas de editar, que afectan a ideas tan fundamentales como los procesos de revisión por pares, la autoridad del experto-científico y el concepto de la edición académica. Se hará frecuentes referencias frecuente a la red CHARTA, una red que pretende crear un corpus de textos y documentos antiguos de España e Hispanoamérica, para ejemplificar algunos argumentos expresados.This article examines the principle challenges facing those involved in digital edition of documentary sources, starting with fluid concepts of reader/user and edition/resource which the digital era has favoured, and which have to some extent been held back by institutional realities and the resistance of some researchers towards changes which at the very least place a question mark over traditional forms of editing. These changes can be viewed as a challenge, but also as an opportunity to re-think the editorial function, which affects fundamental issues such as the peer-review process, scholarly authority and the concept of scholarly editions. Reference is made throughout to the CHARTA network, a project which aims to create a corpus of ancient texts and documents from Spain and the Spanish-speaking Americas

Edición académica en la era digital : modelos, difusión y proceso de investigación

Este artículo analiza los retos para la edición académica en la era digital, tomando una perspectica analítica y práctica, con referencia a la historia reciente en la edición digital, y sobre todo a experiencias dentro de investigadores en las humanidades digitales.This article analyses scholarly edition in the digital age from both theoretical and practical perspectives, with reference to recent history in digital edition, and with special reference to research in this area in the field of digital humanities

The Digital Humanities and textual scholarship. Integration between digital resources in the humanities, challenges and possibilities

Este artículo explora el papel de la producción académica digital en el modelado, edición, consulta y publicación de textos de humanidades. Se hace especial referencia al campo emergente de las "Humanidades Digitales" y de los marcos y normas que han surgido al amparo de las mismas, incluida la Text Encoding Initiative (Iniciativa de Codificación de Textos) y de las iniciativas de dominio específico para garantizar una mayor integración entre investigación y edición digital.Artikulu honek produkzio akademiko digitalaren eginkizuna aztertzen du humanitateen alorreko testuen moldaketa, edizio, kontsulta eta argitalpenari dagokionez. Bereziki aipatzen dira goraka ari den "Humanitate Digitalak" alorra eta horien babesean sortu diren esparruak eta arauak, Text Encoding Initiative (Testuak Kodetzeko Ekimena) eta arlo bereziko ekimenak barne, zeinek ikerketaren eta edizio digitalaren arteko integrazio handiagoa bermatzeko helburua duten.Cet article explore le rôle de la production académique digitale dans la modélisation, l'édition, la consultation et la publication de textes en sciences humaines. Il fait notamment référence au domaine émergent de les "Sciences Humaines Digitalisées" ainsi qu'aux cadres et aux normes qui ont émergé sous son égide, dont la Text Encoding Initiative (Initiative de Codification de Textes) et des initiatives spécifiques aux domaines pour assurer une plus grande intégration dans la recherche impliquant l'édition digitale.This paper explores the role of digital scholarship in modelling, editing, querying and publishing humanities texts. It makes particular reference to the emerging field of the 'Digital Humanities' and the frameworks and standards that have emerged under it s umbrella, including the 'Text Encoding Initiative' and domain-specific initiatives to ensure greater integration between research involving digital edition

Designing Institutional Infrastructures for e-Science

The opportunity exists today for unprecedented connections between scientists, information, data, computational services, and instruments through the Internet. A new generation of information and communication infrastructures, including advanced Internet computing and Grid technologies, is beginning to enable much greater direct and shared access to more widely distributed computing resources than previously has been possible.3 The term ‘e-Science’ usually is applied in reference to large scale science that, increasingly, is being carried out through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet.4 Such collaborative scientific enterprises typically require access to very extensive data collections, very large scale computing resources, and high performance visualisation of research data and analysis of results by the individual users. The potential for these advances in technology to support new levels of collaborative activity in scientific and engineering, and ultimately in other domains, is a major driving force behind the UK’s Core e-Science Programme.

UK public perceptions of ocean acidification - the importance of place and environmental identity

The marine environment is affected by climate change in many ways but it is also affected by the separate problem of ocean acidification (OA). Anthropogenic carbon dioxide that is absorbed by the ocean causes changes in ocean chemistry including an increase in acidity. Fisheries and shellfish industries, which are vital livelihoods for some communities have already been affected by OA. As there has been little research conducted to examine public risk perceptions of this issue, the aim was to explore this through a survey (N = 954) carried out in the UK. The survey explored a range of psychological factors including concern, place attachment, and environmental identity that are known to influence risk perceptions. A regression analysis found that more concerned participants had stronger environmental identities and higher levels of knowledge about OA. As predicted, they also felt more attached to the ocean and felt more negative about OA. It was clear that place attachment and environmental identity were important factors and thus should not be neglected when developing risk communications, particularly for this unfamiliar risk issue. As unfamiliar and complex risks such as OA are becoming more prevalent and must be communicated successfully in a world full of conflicting information, it is important to consider how OA is perceived by the public and how this can inform policy decisions in future. If major mitigation and adaptation strategies are adopted by policymakers the success of these will also ultimately require society to accept them