Toward Information Infrastructure Studies: Ways of Knowing in a Networked Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bowker, Geoffrey C.; Baker, Karen; Millerand, Florence; Ribes, David

This article presents Information Infrastructure Studies, a research area that takes up some core issues in digital information and organization research. Infrastructure Studies simultaneously addresses the technical, social, and organizational aspects of the development, usage, and maintenance of infrastructures in local communities as well as global arenas. While infrastructure is understood as a broad category referring to a variety of pervasive, enabling network resources such as railroad lines, plumbing and pipes, electrical power plants and wires, this article focuses on information infrastructure, such as computational services and help desks, or federating activities such as scientific data repositories and archives spanning the multiple disciplines needed to address such issues as climate warming and the biodiversity crisis. These are elements associated with the internet and, frequently today, associated with cyberinfrastructure or e-science endeavors. We argue that a theoretical understanding of infrastructure provides the context for needed dialogue between design, use, and sustainability of internet-based infrastructure services. This article outlines a research area and outlines overarching themes of Infrastructure Studies. Part one of the paper presents definitions for infrastructure and cyberinfrastructure, reviewing salient previous work. Part two portrays key ideas from infrastructure studies (knowledge work, social and political values, new forms of sociality, etc.). In closing, the character of the field today is considered.

Implementation of a health data-sharing infrastructure across diverse primary care organizations.

PubMed

Cole, Allison M; Stephens, Kari A; Keppel, Gina A; Lin, Ching-Ping; Baldwin, Laura-Mae

2014-01-01

Practice-based research networks bring together academic researchers and primary care clinicians to conduct research that improves health outcomes in real-world settings. The Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho region Practice and Research Network implemented a health data-sharing infrastructure across 9 clinics in 3 primary care organizations. Following implementation, we identified challenges and solutions. Challenges included working with diverse primary care organizations, adoption of health information data-sharing technology in a rapidly changing local and national landscape, and limited resources for implementation. Overarching solutions included working with a multidisciplinary academic implementation team, maintaining flexibility, and starting with an established network for primary care organizations. Approaches outlined may generalize to similar initiatives and facilitate adoption of health data sharing in other practice-based research networks.

Implementation of a Health Data-Sharing Infrastructure Across Diverse Primary Care Organizations

PubMed Central

Cole, Allison M.; Stephens, Kari A.; Keppel, Gina A.; Lin, Ching-Ping; Baldwin, Laura-Mae

2014-01-01

Practice-based research networks bring together academic researchers and primary care clinicians to conduct research that improves health outcomes in real-world settings. The Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho region Practice and Research Network implemented a health data-sharing infrastructure across 9 clinics in 3 primary care organizations. Following implementation, we identified challenges and solutions. Challenges included working with diverse primary care organizations, adoption of health information data-sharing technology in a rapidly changing local and national landscape, and limited resources for implementation. Overarching solutions included working with a multidisciplinary academic implementation team, maintaining flexibility, and starting with an established network for primary care organizations. Approaches outlined may generalize to similar initiatives and facilitate adoption of health data sharing in other practice-based research networks. PMID:24594564

Considering Climate Change in Road and Building Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobs, Jennifer M.; Kirshen, Paul H.; Daniel, Jo Sias

2013-07-01

What is the role of climate in infrastructure design? How can engineers design for a changing climate? How can climate scientists better inform the design process? These were the questions posed at the first Infrastructure and Climate Network (ICNet) Steering Committee Workshop, which was sponsored by a U.S. National Science Foundation research grant (CBET-1231326) from the Research Coordination Networks-Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (RCN-SEES) program.

Converged Infrastructure for Emerging Regions - A Research Agenda

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chevrollier, Nicolas; Zidbeck, Juha; Ntlatlapa, Ntsibane; Simsek, Burak; Marikar, Achim

In remote parts of Africa, the lack of energy supply, of wired infrastructure, of trained personnel and the limitation in OPEX and CAPEX impose stringent requirements on the network building blocks that support the communication infrastructure. Consequently, in this promising but untapped market, the research aims at designing and implementing energy-efficient, robust, reliable and affordable wide heterogeneous wireless mesh networks to connect geographically very large areas in a challenged environment. This paper proposes a solution that is aimed at enhancing the usability of Internet services in the harsh target environment and especially how the end-users experience the reliability of these services.

Requirements for data integration platforms in biomedical research networks: a reference model.

PubMed

Ganzinger, Matthias; Knaup, Petra

2015-01-01

Biomedical research networks need to integrate research data among their members and with external partners. To support such data sharing activities, an adequate information technology infrastructure is necessary. To facilitate the establishment of such an infrastructure, we developed a reference model for the requirements. The reference model consists of five reference goals and 15 reference requirements. Using the Unified Modeling Language, the goals and requirements are set into relation to each other. In addition, all goals and requirements are described textually in tables. This reference model can be used by research networks as a basis for a resource efficient acquisition of their project specific requirements. Furthermore, a concrete instance of the reference model is described for a research network on liver cancer. The reference model is transferred into a requirements model of the specific network. Based on this concrete requirements model, a service-oriented information technology architecture is derived and also described in this paper.

Romanian contribution to research infrastructure database for EPOS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ionescu, Constantin; Craiu, Andreea; Tataru, Dragos; Balan, Stefan; Muntean, Alexandra; Nastase, Eduard; Oaie, Gheorghe; Asimopolos, Laurentiu; Panaiotu, Cristian

2014-05-01

European Plate Observation System - EPOS is a long-term plan to facilitate integrated use of data, models and facilities from mainly distributed existing, but also new, research infrastructures for solid Earth Science. In EPOS Preparatory Phase were integrated the national Research Infrastructures at pan European level in order to create the EPOS distributed research infrastructures, structure in which, at the present time, Romania participates by means of the earth science research infrastructures of the national interest declared on the National Roadmap. The mission of EPOS is to build an efficient and comprehensive multidisciplinary research platform for solid Earth Sciences in Europe and to allow the scientific community to study the same phenomena from different points of view, in different time periods and spatial scales (laboratory and field experiments). At national scale, research and monitoring infrastructures have gathered a vast amount of geological and geophysical data, which have been used by research networks to underpin our understanding of the Earth. EPOS promotes the creation of comprehensive national and regional consortia, as well as the organization of collective actions. To serve the EPOS goals, in Romania a group of National Research Institutes, together with their infrastructures, gathered in an EPOS National Consortium, as follows: 1. National Institute for Earth Physics - Seismic, strong motion, GPS and Geomagnetic network and Experimental Laboratory; 2. National Institute of Marine Geology and Geoecology - Marine Research infrastructure and Euxinus integrated regional Black Sea observation and early-warning system; 3. Geological Institute of Romania - Surlari National Geomagnetic Observatory and National lithoteque (the latter as part of the National Museum of Geology) 4. University of Bucharest - Paleomagnetic Laboratory After national dissemination of EPOS initiative other Research Institutes and companies from the potential stakeholders group also show their interest to participate in the EPOS National Consortium.

Practice-Based Research Network Infrastructure Design for Institutional Review Board Risk Assessment and Generalizability of Clinical Results.

PubMed

Curro, Frederick; Thompson, Van P; Naftolin, Frederick; Grill, Ashley; Vena, Don; Terracio, Louis; Hashimoto, Mariko; Buchholz, Matthew; McKinstry, Andrea; Cannon, Diane; Alfano, Vincent; Gooden, Thalia; Vernillo, Anthony; Czeisler, Elan

2013-01-01

Data from clinical studies generated by Practice Based Research Networks should be generalizable to the profession. For nationally representative data a broad recruitment of practitioners may pose added risks to IRB's. Infrastructure must assure data integrity while minimizing risk to assure that the clinical results are generalizable. The PEARL Network is an interdisciplinary dental/medical PBRN conducting a broad range of clinical studies. The infrastructure is designed to support the principles of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and create a data audit trail to ensure data integrity for generalizability. As the PBRN concept becomes of greater interest, membership may expand beyond the local community, and the issue of geography versus risk management becomes of concern to the IRB. The PEARL Network describes how it resolves many of the issues related to recruiting on a National basis while maintaining study compliance to ensure patient safety and minimize risk to the IRB.

Data interoperabilty between European Environmental Research Infrastructures and their contribution to global data networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutsch, W. L.; Zhao, Z.; Hardisty, A.; Hellström, M.; Chin, Y.; Magagna, B.; Asmi, A.; Papale, D.; Pfeil, B.; Atkinson, M.

2017-12-01

Environmental Research Infrastructures (ENVRIs) are expected to become important pillars not only for supporting their own scientific communities, but also a) for inter-disciplinary research and b) for the European Earth Observation Program Copernicus as a contribution to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) or global thematic data networks. As such, it is very important that data-related activities of the ENVRIs will be well integrated. This requires common policies, models and e-infrastructure to optimise technological implementation, define workflows, and ensure coordination, harmonisation, integration and interoperability of data, applications and other services. The key is interoperating common metadata systems (utilising a richer metadata model as the `switchboard' for interoperation with formal syntax and declared semantics). The metadata characterises data, services, users and ICT resources (including sensors and detectors). The European Cluster Project ENVRIplus has developed a reference model (ENVRI RM) for common data infrastructure architecture to promote interoperability among ENVRIs. The presentation will provide an overview of recent progress and give examples for the integration of ENVRI data in global integration networks.

Accelerator infrastructure in Europe: EuCARD 2011

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2011-10-01

The paper presents a digest of the research results in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the annual meeting of the EuCARD - European Coordination of Accelerator Research and Development. The conference concerns building of the research infrastructure, including in this advanced photonic and electronic systems for servicing large high energy physics experiments. There are debated a few basic groups of such systems like: measurement - control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution.

SEE-GRID eInfrastructure for Regional eScience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Prnjat, Ognjen; Balaz, Antun; Vudragovic, Dusan; Liabotis, Ioannis; Sener, Cevat; Marovic, Branko; Kozlovszky, Miklos; Neagu, Gabriel

In the past 6 years, a number of targeted initiatives, funded by the European Commission via its information society and RTD programmes and Greek infrastructure development actions, have articulated a successful regional development actions in South East Europe that can be used as a role model for other international developments. The SEEREN (South-East European Research and Education Networking initiative) project, through its two phases, established the SEE segment of the pan-European G ´EANT network and successfully connected the research and scientific communities in the region. Currently, the SEE-LIGHT project is working towards establishing a dark-fiber backbone that will interconnect most national Research and Education networks in the region. On the distributed computing and storage provisioning i.e. Grid plane, the SEE-GRID (South-East European GRID e-Infrastructure Development) project, similarly through its two phases, has established a strong human network in the area of scientific computing and has set up a powerful regional Grid infrastructure, and attracted a number of applications from different fields from countries throughout the South-East Europe. The current SEEGRID-SCI project, ending in April 2010, empowers the regional user communities from fields of meteorology, seismology and environmental protection in common use and sharing of the regional e-Infrastructure. Current technical initiatives in formulation are focusing on a set of coordinated actions in the area of HPC and application fields making use of HPC initiatives. Finally, the current SEERA-EI project brings together policy makers - programme managers from 10 countries in the region. The project aims to establish a communication platform between programme managers, pave the way towards common e-Infrastructure strategy and vision, and implement concrete actions for common funding of electronic infrastructures on the regional level. The regional vision on establishing an e-Infrastructure compatible with European developments, and empowering the scientists in the region in equal participation in the use of pan- European infrastructures, is materializing through the above initiatives. This model has a number of concrete operational and organizational guidelines which can be adapted to help e-Infrastructure developments in other world regions. In this paper we review the most important developments and contributions by the SEEGRID- SCI project.

A case analysis of INFOMED: the Cuban national health care telecommunications network and portal.

PubMed

Séror, Ann C

2006-01-27

The Internet and telecommunications technologies contribute to national health care system infrastructures and extend global health care services markets. The Cuban national health care system offers a model to show how a national information portal can contribute to system integration, including research, education, and service delivery as well as international trade in products and services. The objectives of this paper are (1) to present the context of the Cuban national health care system since the revolution in 1959, (2) to identify virtual institutional infrastructures of the system associated with the Cuban National Health Care Telecommunications Network and Portal (INFOMED), and (3) to show how they contribute to Cuban trade in international health care service markets. Qualitative case research methods were used to identify the integrated virtual infrastructure of INFOMED and to show how it reflects socialist ideology. Virtual institutional infrastructures include electronic medical and information services and the structure of national networks linking such services. Analysis of INFOMED infrastructures shows integration of health care information, research, and education as well as the interface between Cuban national information networks and the global Internet. System control mechanisms include horizontal integration and coordination through virtual institutions linked through INFOMED, and vertical control through the Ministry of Public Health and the government hierarchy. Telecommunications technology serves as a foundation for a dual market structure differentiating domestic services from international trade. INFOMED is a model of interest for integrating health care information, research, education, and services. The virtual infrastructures linked through INFOMED support the diffusion of Cuban health care products and services in global markets. Transferability of this model is contingent upon ideology and interpretation of values such as individual intellectual property and confidentiality of individual health information. Future research should focus on examination of these issues and their consequences for global markets in health care.

A Case Analysis of INFOMED: The Cuban National Health Care Telecommunications Network and Portal

PubMed Central

2006-01-01

Background The Internet and telecommunications technologies contribute to national health care system infrastructures and extend global health care services markets. The Cuban national health care system offers a model to show how a national information portal can contribute to system integration, including research, education, and service delivery as well as international trade in products and services. Objective The objectives of this paper are (1) to present the context of the Cuban national health care system since the revolution in 1959, (2) to identify virtual institutional infrastructures of the system associated with the Cuban National Health Care Telecommunications Network and Portal (INFOMED), and (3) to show how they contribute to Cuban trade in international health care service markets. Methods Qualitative case research methods were used to identify the integrated virtual infrastructure of INFOMED and to show how it reflects socialist ideology. Virtual institutional infrastructures include electronic medical and information services and the structure of national networks linking such services. Results Analysis of INFOMED infrastructures shows integration of health care information, research, and education as well as the interface between Cuban national information networks and the global Internet. System control mechanisms include horizontal integration and coordination through virtual institutions linked through INFOMED, and vertical control through the Ministry of Public Health and the government hierarchy. Telecommunications technology serves as a foundation for a dual market structure differentiating domestic services from international trade. Conclusions INFOMED is a model of interest for integrating health care information, research, education, and services. The virtual infrastructures linked through INFOMED support the diffusion of Cuban health care products and services in global markets. Transferability of this model is contingent upon ideology and interpretation of values such as individual intellectual property and confidentiality of individual health information. Future research should focus on examination of these issues and their consequences for global markets in health care. PMID:16585025

TRANSVAC research infrastructure - Results and lessons learned from the European network of vaccine research and development.

PubMed

Geels, Mark J; Thøgersen, Regitze L; Guzman, Carlos A; Ho, Mei Mei; Verreck, Frank; Collin, Nicolas; Robertson, James S; McConkey, Samuel J; Kaufmann, Stefan H E; Leroy, Odile

2015-10-05

TRANSVAC was a collaborative infrastructure project aimed at enhancing European translational vaccine research and training. The objective of this four year project (2009-2013), funded under the European Commission's (EC) seventh framework programme (FP7), was to support European collaboration in the vaccine field, principally through the provision of transnational access (TNA) to critical vaccine research and development (R&D) infrastructures, as well as by improving and harmonising the services provided by these infrastructures through joint research activities (JRA). The project successfully provided all available services to advance 29 projects and, through engaging all vaccine stakeholders, successfully laid down the blueprint for the implementation of a permanent research infrastructure for early vaccine R&D in Europe. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Requirements for data integration platforms in biomedical research networks: a reference model

PubMed Central

Knaup, Petra

2015-01-01

Biomedical research networks need to integrate research data among their members and with external partners. To support such data sharing activities, an adequate information technology infrastructure is necessary. To facilitate the establishment of such an infrastructure, we developed a reference model for the requirements. The reference model consists of five reference goals and 15 reference requirements. Using the Unified Modeling Language, the goals and requirements are set into relation to each other. In addition, all goals and requirements are described textually in tables. This reference model can be used by research networks as a basis for a resource efficient acquisition of their project specific requirements. Furthermore, a concrete instance of the reference model is described for a research network on liver cancer. The reference model is transferred into a requirements model of the specific network. Based on this concrete requirements model, a service-oriented information technology architecture is derived and also described in this paper. PMID:25699205

Using high-performance networks to enable computational aerosciences applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Marjory J.

1992-01-01

One component of the U.S. Federal High Performance Computing and Communications Program (HPCCP) is the establishment of a gigabit network to provide a communications infrastructure for researchers across the nation. This gigabit network will provide new services and capabilities, in addition to increased bandwidth, to enable future applications. An understanding of these applications is necessary to guide the development of the gigabit network and other high-performance networks of the future. In this paper we focus on computational aerosciences applications run remotely using the Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility located at NASA Ames Research Center. We characterize these applications in terms of network-related parameters and relate user experiences that reveal limitations imposed by the current wide-area networking infrastructure. Then we investigate how the development of a nationwide gigabit network would enable users of the NAS facility to work in new, more productive ways.

Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for a Learning Healthcare System (SCILHS): Architecture

PubMed Central

Mandl, Kenneth D; Kohane, Isaac S; McFadden, Douglas; Weber, Griffin M; Natter, Marc; Mandel, Joshua; Schneeweiss, Sebastian; Weiler, Sarah; Klann, Jeffrey G; Bickel, Jonathan; Adams, William G; Ge, Yaorong; Zhou, Xiaobo; Perkins, James; Marsolo, Keith; Bernstam, Elmer; Showalter, John; Quarshie, Alexander; Ofili, Elizabeth; Hripcsak, George; Murphy, Shawn N

2014-01-01

We describe the architecture of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for a Learning Healthcare System (SCILHS, http://www.SCILHS.org) clinical data research network, which leverages the $48 billion dollar federal investment in health information technology (IT) to enable a queryable semantic data model across 10 health systems covering more than 8 million patients, plugging universally into the point of care, generating evidence and discovery, and thereby enabling clinician and patient participation in research during the patient encounter. Central to the success of SCILHS is development of innovative ‘apps’ to improve PCOR research methods and capacitate point of care functions such as consent, enrollment, randomization, and outreach for patient-reported outcomes. SCILHS adapts and extends an existing national research network formed on an advanced IT infrastructure built with open source, free, modular components. PMID:24821734

Norwegian Ocean Observatory Network (NOON)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ferré, Bénédicte; Mienert, Jürgen; Winther, Svein; Hageberg, Anne; Rune Godoe, Olav; Partners, Noon

2010-05-01

The Norwegian Ocean Observatory Network (NOON) is led by the University of Tromsø and collaborates with the Universities of Oslo and Bergen, UniResearch, Institute of Marine Research, Christian Michelsen Research and SINTEF. It is supported by the Research Council of Norway and oil and gas (O&G) industries like Statoil to develop science, technology and new educational programs. Main topics relate to ocean climate and environment as well as marine resources offshore Norway from the northern North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean. NOON's vision is to bring Norway to the international forefront in using cable based ocean observatory technology for marine science and management, by establishing an infrastructure that enables real-time and long term monitoring of processes and interactions between hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere. This activity is in concert with the EU funded European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap and European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observation (EMSO) project to attract international leading research developments. NOON envisions developing towards a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). Beside, the research community in Norway already possesses a considerable marine infrastructure that can expand towards an international focus for real-time multidisciplinary observations in times of rapid climate change. PIC The presently established cable-based fjord observatory, followed by the establishment of a cable-based ocean observatory network towards the Arctic from an O&G installation, will provide invaluable knowledge and experience necessary to make a successful larger cable-based observatory network at the Norwegian and Arctic margin (figure 1). Access to large quantities of real-time observation from the deep sea, including high definition video, could be used to provide the public and future recruits to science a fascinating insight into an almost unexplored part of the Earth beyond the Arctic Circle. More information about NOON is available at NOON's web site www.oceanobservatory.com. PIC

[The Competence Network for HIV/AIDS. Data, Samples, Facts].

PubMed

Michalik, Claudia; Skaletz-Rorowski, Adriane; Brockmeyer, Norbert H

2016-04-01

With funding for the Competence Networks in Medicine from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Competence Network for HIV/AIDS (KompNet HIV/AIDS) was established as an interdisciplinary research association. Essential working groups were incorporated all over Germany, which are active in clinical and basic HIV/AIDS research. After successful establishment, providing research infrastructure for national and international cooperation in the field of HIV/AIDS was the focus of the network. By bringing together research activities, preconditions are created for improving HIV infection treatment and increasing life expectancy of HIV-infected patients. The members of KompNet HIV/AIDS are HIV experts from university clinics, HIV physicians, patient representatives, as well as national reference centers. As a scientific research basis, the network established an HIV patient cohort. Clinical and sociodemographic data of HIV patients were documented biannually and complemented by serum and DNA-samples collected twice per year. Furthermore, a child cohort was set up. Within the KompNet HIV/AIDS, a research infrastructure for HIV was established for internal, external as well international scientists. Within the HIV cohort a total of 16,500 patients are documented. The associated biobank comprises ~ 56,000 serum samples and ~ 16,000 DNA samples. The child cohort consists of 647 HIV-exposed and 230 infected children. The KompNet HIV/AIDS cohorts became an important partner in several international collaborations. Nevertheless, the maintenance of such infrastructures without public funding is a challenge.

Critical Infrastructure Protection II, The International Federation for Information Processing, Volume 290.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papa, Mauricio; Shenoi, Sujeet

The information infrastructure -- comprising computers, embedded devices, networks and software systems -- is vital to day-to-day operations in every sector: information and telecommunications, banking and finance, energy, chemicals and hazardous materials, agriculture, food, water, public health, emergency services, transportation, postal and shipping, government and defense. Global business and industry, governments, indeed society itself, cannot function effectively if major components of the critical information infrastructure are degraded, disabled or destroyed. Critical Infrastructure Protection II describes original research results and innovative applications in the interdisciplinary field of critical infrastructure protection. Also, it highlights the importance of weaving science, technology and policy in crafting sophisticated, yet practical, solutions that will help secure information, computer and network assets in the various critical infrastructure sectors. Areas of coverage include: - Themes and Issues - Infrastructure Security - Control Systems Security - Security Strategies - Infrastructure Interdependencies - Infrastructure Modeling and Simulation This book is the second volume in the annual series produced by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 11.10 on Critical Infrastructure Protection, an international community of scientists, engineers, practitioners and policy makers dedicated to advancing research, development and implementation efforts focused on infrastructure protection. The book contains a selection of twenty edited papers from the Second Annual IFIP WG 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection held at George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, USA in the spring of 2008.

Comparative-effectiveness research in distributed health data networks.

PubMed

Toh, S; Platt, R; Steiner, J F; Brown, J S

2011-12-01

Comparative-effectiveness research (CER) can be conducted within a distributed health data network. Such networks allow secure access to separate data sets from different data partners and overcome many practical obstacles related to patient privacy, data security, and proprietary concerns. A scalable network architecture supports a wide range of CER activities and meets the data infrastructure needs envisioned by the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research.

A hybrid method for protection against threats to a network infrastructure for an electronic warfare management system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Byłak, Michał; RóŻański, Grzegorz

2017-04-01

The article presents the concept of ensuring the security of network information infrastructure for the management of Electronic Warfare (EW) systems. The concept takes into account the reactive and proactive tools against threats. An overview of the methods used to support the safety of IT networks and information sources about threats is presented. Integration of mechanisms that allow for effective intrusion detection and rapid response to threats in a network has been proposed. The architecture of the research environment is also presented.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Happenny, Sean F.

The United States’ power infrastructure is aging, underfunded, and vulnerable to cyber attack. Emerging smart grid technologies may take some of the burden off of existing systems and make the grid as a whole more efficient, reliable, and secure. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is funding research into several aspects of smart grid technology and grid security, creating a software simulation tool that will allow researchers to test power distribution networks utilizing different smart grid technologies to determine how the grid and these technologies react under different circumstances. Demonstrating security in embedded systems is another research area PNNL ismore » tackling. Many of the systems controlling the U.S. critical infrastructure, such as the power grid, lack integrated security and the networks protecting them are becoming easier to breach. Providing a virtual power substation network to each student team at the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, thereby supporting the education of future cyber security professionals, is another way PNNL is helping to strengthen the security of the nation’s power infrastructure.« less

A Programmable SDN+NFV Architecture for UAV Telemetry Monitoring

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

White, Kyle J. S.; Pezaros, Dimitrios P.; Denney, Ewen; Knudson, Matt D.

2017-01-01

With the explosive growth in UAV numbers forecast worldwide, a core concern is how to manage the ad-hoc network configuration required for mobility management. As UAVs migrate among ground control stations, associated network services, routing and operational control must also rapidly migrate to ensure a seamless transition. In this paper, we present a novel, lightweight and modular architecture which supports high mobility, resilience and flexibility through the application of SDN and NFV principles on top of the UAV infrastructure. By combining SDN programmability and Network Function Virtualization we can achieve resilient infrastructure migration of network services, such as network monitoring and anomaly detection, coupled with migrating UAVs to enable high mobility management. Our container-based monitoring and anomaly detection Network Functions (NFs) can be tuned to specific UAV models providing operators better insight during live, high-mobility deployments. We evaluate our architecture against telemetry from over 80flights from a scientific research UAV infrastructure.

Advanced European Network of E-Infrastructures for Astronomy with the SKA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massardi, Marcella

2017-11-01

Here, I present the AENEAS (Advanced European Network of E-infrastructures for Astronomy with the SKA) project has been funded in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme call "Research and Innovation Actions for International Co-operation on high-end e-infrastructure requirements" supporting the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). INAF is contributing to all the AENEAS working packages and leading the WP5 - Access and Knowledge Creation (WP leader M. Massardi IRA-ARC), participants from IRA (Brand, Nanni, Venturi) ,OACT(Becciani, Costa, Umana), OATS (Smareglia, Knapic, Taffoni)

Networking of Icelandic Earth Infrastructures - Natural laboratories and Volcano Supersites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vogfjörd, K. S.; Sigmundsson, F.; Hjaltadóttir, S.; Björnsson, H.; Arason, Ø.; Hreinsdóttir, S.; Kjartansson, E.; Sigbjörnsson, R.; Halldórsson, B.; Valsson, G.

2012-04-01

The back-bone of Icelandic geoscientific research infrastructure is the country's permanent monitoring networks, which have been built up to monitor seismic and volcanic hazard and deformation of the Earth's surface. The networks are mainly focussed around the plate boundary in Iceland, particularly the two seismic zones, where earthquakes of up to M7.3 have occurred in centuries past, and the rift zones with over 30 active volcanic systems where a large number of powerful eruptions have occurred, including highly explosive ones. The main observational systems are seismic, strong motion, GPS and bore-hole strain networks, with the addition of more recent systems like hydrological stations, permanent and portable radars, ash-particle counters and gas monitoring systems. Most of the networks are owned by a handful of Icelandic institutions, but some are operated in collaboration with international institutions and universities. The networks have been in operation for years to decades and have recorded large volumes of research quality data. The main Icelandic infrastructures will be networked in the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). The plate boundary in the South Iceland seismic zone (SISZ) with its book-shelf tectonics and repeating major earthquakes sequences of up to M7 events, has the potential to be defined a natural laboratory within EPOS. Work towards integrating multidisciplinary data and technologies from the monitoring infrastructures in the SISZ with other fault regions has started in the FP7 project NERA, under the heading of Networking of Near-Fault Observatories. The purpose is to make research-quality data from near-fault observatories available to the research community, as well as to promote transfer of knowledge and techical know-how between the different observatories of Europe, in order to create a network of fault-monitoring networks. The seismic and strong-motion systems in the SISZ are also, to some degree, being networked nationally to strengthen their early warning capabilities. In response to the far-reaching dispersion of ash from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption and subsequent disturbance to European air-space, the instrumentation of the Icelandic volcano observatory was greatly improved in number and capability to better monitor sub-surface volcanic processes as well as the air-borne products of eruptions. This infrastructure will also be networked with other European volcano observatories in EPOS. Finally the Icelandic EPOS team, together with other European collaborators, has responded to an FP7 call for the establishment of an Icelandic volcano supersite, where land- and space-based data will be made available to researchers and hazard managers, in line with the implementation plan of the GEO. The focus of the Icelandic volcano supersite are the active volcanoes in Iceland's Eastern volcanic zone.

Sustaining Research Networks: the Twenty-Year Experience of the HMO Research Network

PubMed Central

Steiner, John F.; Paolino, Andrea R.; Thompson, Ella E.; Larson, Eric B.

2014-01-01

Purpose: As multi-institutional research networks assume a central role in clinical research, they must address the challenge of sustainability. Despite its importance, the concept of network sustainability has received little attention in the literature, and the sustainability strategies of durable scientific networks have not been described. Innovation: The Health Maintenance Organization Research Network (HMORN) is a consortium of 18 research departments in integrated health care delivery systems with over 15 million members in the United States and Israel. The HMORN has coordinated federally funded scientific networks and studies since 1994. This case study describes the HMORN approach to sustainability, proposes an operational definition of network sustainability, and identifies 10 essential elements that can enhance sustainability. Credibility: The sustainability framework proposed here is drawn from prior publications on organizational issues by HMORN investigators and from the experience of recent HMORN leaders and senior staff. Conclusion and Discussion: Network sustainability can be defined as (1) the development and enhancement of shared research assets to facilitate a sequence of research studies in a specific content area or multiple areas, and (2) a community of researchers and other stakeholders who reuse and develop those assets. Essential elements needed to develop the shared assets of a network include: network governance; trustworthy data and processes for sharing data; shared knowledge about research tools; administrative efficiency; physical infrastructure; and infrastructure funding. The community of researchers within a network is enhanced by: a clearly defined mission, vision and values; protection of human subjects; a culture of collaboration; and strong relationships with host organizations. While the importance of these elements varies based on the membership and goals of a network, this framework for sustainability can enhance strategic planning within the network and can guide relationships with external stakeholders. PMID:25848605

ENFIN--A European network for integrative systems biology.

PubMed

Kahlem, Pascal; Clegg, Andrew; Reisinger, Florian; Xenarios, Ioannis; Hermjakob, Henning; Orengo, Christine; Birney, Ewan

2009-11-01

Integration of biological data of various types and the development of adapted bioinformatics tools represent critical objectives to enable research at the systems level. The European Network of Excellence ENFIN is engaged in developing an adapted infrastructure to connect databases, and platforms to enable both the generation of new bioinformatics tools and the experimental validation of computational predictions. With the aim of bridging the gap existing between standard wet laboratories and bioinformatics, the ENFIN Network runs integrative research projects to bring the latest computational techniques to bear directly on questions dedicated to systems biology in the wet laboratory environment. The Network maintains internally close collaboration between experimental and computational research, enabling a permanent cycling of experimental validation and improvement of computational prediction methods. The computational work includes the development of a database infrastructure (EnCORE), bioinformatics analysis methods and a novel platform for protein function analysis FuncNet.

Resilience of networks formed of interdependent modular networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shekhtman, Louis M.; Shai, Saray; Havlin, Shlomo

2015-12-01

Many infrastructure networks have a modular structure and are also interdependent with other infrastructures. While significant research has explored the resilience of interdependent networks, there has been no analysis of the effects of modularity. Here we develop a theoretical framework for attacks on interdependent modular networks and support our results through simulations. We focus, for simplicity, on the case where each network has the same number of communities and the dependency links are restricted to be between pairs of communities of different networks. This is particularly realistic for modeling infrastructure across cities. Each city has its own infrastructures and different infrastructures are dependent only within the city. However, each infrastructure is connected within and between cities. For example, a power grid will connect many cities as will a communication network, yet a power station and communication tower that are interdependent will likely be in the same city. It has previously been shown that single networks are very susceptible to the failure of the interconnected nodes (between communities) (Shai et al 2014 arXiv:1404.4748) and that attacks on these nodes are even more crippling than attacks based on betweenness (da Cunha et al 2015 arXiv:1502.00353). In our example of cities these nodes have long range links which are more likely to fail. For both treelike and looplike interdependent modular networks we find distinct regimes depending on the number of modules, m. (i) In the case where there are fewer modules with strong intraconnections, the system first separates into modules in an abrupt first-order transition and then each module undergoes a second percolation transition. (ii) When there are more modules with many interconnections between them, the system undergoes a single transition. Overall, we find that modular structure can significantly influence the type of transitions observed in interdependent networks and should be considered in attempts to make interdependent networks more resilient.

Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for a Learning Healthcare System (SCILHS): architecture.

PubMed

Mandl, Kenneth D; Kohane, Isaac S; McFadden, Douglas; Weber, Griffin M; Natter, Marc; Mandel, Joshua; Schneeweiss, Sebastian; Weiler, Sarah; Klann, Jeffrey G; Bickel, Jonathan; Adams, William G; Ge, Yaorong; Zhou, Xiaobo; Perkins, James; Marsolo, Keith; Bernstam, Elmer; Showalter, John; Quarshie, Alexander; Ofili, Elizabeth; Hripcsak, George; Murphy, Shawn N

2014-01-01

We describe the architecture of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) funded Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for a Learning Healthcare System (SCILHS, http://www.SCILHS.org) clinical data research network, which leverages the $48 billion dollar federal investment in health information technology (IT) to enable a queryable semantic data model across 10 health systems covering more than 8 million patients, plugging universally into the point of care, generating evidence and discovery, and thereby enabling clinician and patient participation in research during the patient encounter. Central to the success of SCILHS is development of innovative 'apps' to improve PCOR research methods and capacitate point of care functions such as consent, enrollment, randomization, and outreach for patient-reported outcomes. SCILHS adapts and extends an existing national research network formed on an advanced IT infrastructure built with open source, free, modular components. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Infrastructure resources for clinical research in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

PubMed

Sherman, Alexander V; Gubitz, Amelie K; Al-Chalabi, Ammar; Bedlack, Richard; Berry, James; Conwit, Robin; Harris, Brent T; Horton, D Kevin; Kaufmann, Petra; Leitner, Melanie L; Miller, Robert; Shefner, Jeremy; Vonsattel, Jean Paul; Mitsumoto, Hiroshi

2013-05-01

Clinical trial networks, shared clinical databases, and human biospecimen repositories are examples of infrastructure resources aimed at enhancing and expediting clinical and/or patient oriented research to uncover the etiology and pathogenesis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease that leads to the paralysis of voluntary muscles. The current status of such infrastructure resources, as well as opportunities and impediments, were discussed at the second Tarrytown ALS meeting held in September 2011. The discussion focused on resources developed and maintained by ALS clinics and centers in North America and Europe, various clinical trial networks, U.S. government federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and several voluntary disease organizations that support ALS research activities. Key recommendations included 1) the establishment of shared databases among individual ALS clinics to enhance the coordination of resources and data analyses; 2) the expansion of quality-controlled human biospecimen banks; and 3) the adoption of uniform data standards, such as the recently developed Common Data Elements (CDEs) for ALS clinical research. The value of clinical trial networks such as the Northeast ALS (NEALS) Consortium and the Western ALS (WALS) Consortium was recognized, and strategies to further enhance and complement these networks and their research resources were discussed.

Frequency Count Attribute Oriented Induction of Corporate Network Data for Mapping Business Activity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanutama, Lukas

2014-03-01

Companies increasingly rely on Internet for effective and efficient business communication. As Information Technology infrastructure backbone for business activities, corporate network connects the company to Internet and enables its activities globally. It carries data packets generated by the activities of the users performing their business tasks. Traditionally, infrastructure operations mainly maintain data carrying capacity and network devices performance. It would be advantageous if a company knows what activities are running in its network. The research provides a simple method of mapping the business activity reflected by the network data. To map corporate users' activities, a slightly modified Attribute Oriented Induction (AOI) approach to mine the network data was applied. The frequency of each protocol invoked were counted to show what the user intended to do. The collected data was samples taken within a certain sampling period. Samples were taken due to the enormous data packets generated. Protocols of interest are only Internet related while intranet protocols are ignored. It can be concluded that the method could provide the management a general overview of the usage of its infrastructure and lead to efficient, effective and secure ICT infrastructure.

Primary care research--a blueprint for action for Singapore.

PubMed

Chuan, T N; Gan, G L

2001-01-01

Primary care research, hitherto overshadowed by research in the tertiary institutions, lacks impetus due to image, limitations of resources and poor infrastructure. This article looks into the current state of research development and the barriers. These hurdles can be overcome by a paradigm shift through the initiation of regular research meetings, training, infrastructure support and a collaborative research network to optimize time and resources. This will open the door to a wide field of primary care research, from basic, clinical research to health service and health system analysis and evaluation. Family physicians can tap on this opportunity to sharpen their critical appraisal skills through research, which can form an integral part of their continuous professional development. A network of pro-research family physicians will foster a vibrant research culture and pave the way to a renaissance of primary care research.

An Overview of the Distributed Space Exploration Simulation (DSES) Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crues, Edwin Z.; Chung, Victoria I.; Blum, Michael G.; Bowman, James D.

2007-01-01

This paper describes the Distributed Space Exploration Simulation (DSES) Project, a research and development collaboration between NASA centers which investigates technologies, and processes related to integrated, distributed simulation of complex space systems in support of NASA's Exploration Initiative. In particular, it describes the three major components of DSES: network infrastructure, software infrastructure and simulation development. With regard to network infrastructure, DSES is developing a Distributed Simulation Network for use by all NASA centers. With regard to software, DSES is developing software models, tools and procedures that streamline distributed simulation development and provide an interoperable infrastructure for agency-wide integrated simulation. Finally, with regard to simulation development, DSES is developing an integrated end-to-end simulation capability to support NASA development of new exploration spacecraft and missions. This paper presents the current status and plans for these three areas, including examples of specific simulations.

Research Networking Systems: The State of Adoption at Institutions Aiming to Augment Translational Research Infrastructure

PubMed Central

Obeid, Jihad S; Johnson, Layne M; Stallings, Sarah; Eichmann, David

2015-01-01

Fostering collaborations across multiple disciplines within and across institutional boundaries is becoming increasingly important with the growing emphasis on translational research. As a result, Research Networking Systems that facilitate discovery of potential collaborators have received significant attention by institutions aiming to augment their research infrastructure. We have conducted a survey to assess the state of adoption of these new tools at the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) funded institutions. Survey results demonstrate that most CTSA funded institutions have either already adopted or were planning to adopt one of several available research networking systems. Moreover a good number of these institutions have exposed or plan to expose the data on research expertise using linked open data, an established approach to semantic web services. Preliminary exploration of these publically-available data shows promising utility in assessing cross-institutional collaborations. Further adoption of these technologies and analysis of the data are needed, however, before their impact on cross-institutional collaboration in research can be appreciated and measured. PMID:26491707

Research Networking Systems: The State of Adoption at Institutions Aiming to Augment Translational Research Infrastructure.

PubMed

Obeid, Jihad S; Johnson, Layne M; Stallings, Sarah; Eichmann, David

Fostering collaborations across multiple disciplines within and across institutional boundaries is becoming increasingly important with the growing emphasis on translational research. As a result, Research Networking Systems that facilitate discovery of potential collaborators have received significant attention by institutions aiming to augment their research infrastructure. We have conducted a survey to assess the state of adoption of these new tools at the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) funded institutions. Survey results demonstrate that most CTSA funded institutions have either already adopted or were planning to adopt one of several available research networking systems. Moreover a good number of these institutions have exposed or plan to expose the data on research expertise using linked open data, an established approach to semantic web services. Preliminary exploration of these publically-available data shows promising utility in assessing cross-institutional collaborations. Further adoption of these technologies and analysis of the data are needed, however, before their impact on cross-institutional collaboration in research can be appreciated and measured.

Optimizing Virtual Network Functions Placement in Virtual Data Center Infrastructure Using Machine Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bolodurina, I. P.; Parfenov, D. I.

2018-01-01

We have elaborated a neural network model of virtual network flow identification based on the statistical properties of flows circulating in the network of the data center and characteristics that describe the content of packets transmitted through network objects. This enabled us to establish the optimal set of attributes to identify virtual network functions. We have established an algorithm for optimizing the placement of virtual data functions using the data obtained in our research. Our approach uses a hybrid method of visualization using virtual machines and containers, which enables to reduce the infrastructure load and the response time in the network of the virtual data center. The algorithmic solution is based on neural networks, which enables to scale it at any number of the network function copies.

Scalable Architecture for Federated Translational Inquiries Network (SAFTINet) Technology Infrastructure for a Distributed Data Network

PubMed Central

Schilling, Lisa M.; Kwan, Bethany M.; Drolshagen, Charles T.; Hosokawa, Patrick W.; Brandt, Elias; Pace, Wilson D.; Uhrich, Christopher; Kamerick, Michael; Bunting, Aidan; Payne, Philip R.O.; Stephens, William E.; George, Joseph M.; Vance, Mark; Giacomini, Kelli; Braddy, Jason; Green, Mika K.; Kahn, Michael G.

2013-01-01

Introduction: Distributed Data Networks (DDNs) offer infrastructure solutions for sharing electronic health data from across disparate data sources to support comparative effectiveness research. Data sharing mechanisms must address technical and governance concerns stemming from network security and data disclosure laws and best practices, such as HIPAA. Methods: The Scalable Architecture for Federated Translational Inquiries Network (SAFTINet) deploys TRIAD grid technology, a common data model, detailed technical documentation, and custom software for data harmonization to facilitate data sharing in collaboration with stakeholders in the care of safety net populations. Data sharing partners host TRIAD grid nodes containing harmonized clinical data within their internal or hosted network environments. Authorized users can use a central web-based query system to request analytic data sets. Discussion: SAFTINet DDN infrastructure achieved a number of data sharing objectives, including scalable and sustainable systems for ensuring harmonized data structures and terminologies and secure distributed queries. Initial implementation challenges were resolved through iterative discussions, development and implementation of technical documentation, governance, and technology solutions. PMID:25848567

Scalable Architecture for Federated Translational Inquiries Network (SAFTINet) Technology Infrastructure for a Distributed Data Network.

PubMed

Schilling, Lisa M; Kwan, Bethany M; Drolshagen, Charles T; Hosokawa, Patrick W; Brandt, Elias; Pace, Wilson D; Uhrich, Christopher; Kamerick, Michael; Bunting, Aidan; Payne, Philip R O; Stephens, William E; George, Joseph M; Vance, Mark; Giacomini, Kelli; Braddy, Jason; Green, Mika K; Kahn, Michael G

2013-01-01

Distributed Data Networks (DDNs) offer infrastructure solutions for sharing electronic health data from across disparate data sources to support comparative effectiveness research. Data sharing mechanisms must address technical and governance concerns stemming from network security and data disclosure laws and best practices, such as HIPAA. The Scalable Architecture for Federated Translational Inquiries Network (SAFTINet) deploys TRIAD grid technology, a common data model, detailed technical documentation, and custom software for data harmonization to facilitate data sharing in collaboration with stakeholders in the care of safety net populations. Data sharing partners host TRIAD grid nodes containing harmonized clinical data within their internal or hosted network environments. Authorized users can use a central web-based query system to request analytic data sets. SAFTINet DDN infrastructure achieved a number of data sharing objectives, including scalable and sustainable systems for ensuring harmonized data structures and terminologies and secure distributed queries. Initial implementation challenges were resolved through iterative discussions, development and implementation of technical documentation, governance, and technology solutions.

802.11 Wireless Infrastructure To Enhance Medical Response to Disasters

PubMed Central

Arisoylu, Mustafa; Mishra, Rajesh; Rao, Ramesh; Lenert, Leslie A.

2005-01-01

802.11 (WiFi) is a well established network communications protocol that has wide applicability in civil infrastructure. This paper describes research that explores the design of 802.11 networks enhanced to support data communications in disaster environments. The focus of these efforts is to create network infrastructure to support operations by Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) units and Federally-sponsored regional teams that respond to mass casualty events caused by a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological weapons or by a hazardous materials spill. In this paper, we describe an advanced WiFi-based network architecture designed to meet the needs of MMRS operations. This architecture combines a Wireless Distribution Systems for peer-to-peer multihop connectivity between access points with flexible and shared access to multiple cellular backhauls for robust connectivity to the Internet. The architecture offers a high bandwidth data communications infrastructure that can penetrate into buildings and structures while also supporting commercial off-the-shelf end-user equipment such as PDAs. It is self-configuring and is self-healing in the event of a loss of a portion of the infrastructure. Testing of prototype units is ongoing. PMID:16778990

The Australian SuperSite Network: A continental, long-term terrestrial ecosystem observatory.

PubMed

Karan, Mirko; Liddell, Michael; Prober, Suzanne M; Arndt, Stefan; Beringer, Jason; Boer, Matthias; Cleverly, James; Eamus, Derek; Grace, Peter; Van Gorsel, Eva; Hero, Jean-Marc; Hutley, Lindsay; Macfarlane, Craig; Metcalfe, Dan; Meyer, Wayne; Pendall, Elise; Sebastian, Alvin; Wardlaw, Tim

2016-10-15

Ecosystem monitoring networks aim to collect data on physical, chemical and biological systems and their interactions that shape the biosphere. Here we introduce the Australian SuperSite Network that, along with complementary facilities of Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), delivers field infrastructure and diverse, ecosystem-related datasets for use by researchers, educators and policy makers. The SuperSite Network uses infrastructure replicated across research sites in different biomes, to allow comparisons across ecosystems and improve scalability of findings to regional, continental and global scales. This conforms with the approaches of other ecosystem monitoring networks such as Critical Zone Observatories, the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network; Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems, Europe; Chinese Ecosystem Research Network; International Long Term Ecological Research network and the United States Long Term Ecological Research Network. The Australian SuperSite Network currently involves 10 SuperSites across a diverse range of biomes, including tropical rainforest, grassland and savanna; wet and dry sclerophyll forest and woodland; and semi-arid grassland, woodland and savanna. The focus of the SuperSite Network is on using vegetation, faunal and biophysical monitoring to develop a process-based understanding of ecosystem function and change in Australian biomes; and to link this with data streams provided by the series of flux towers across the network. The Australian SuperSite Network is also intended to support a range of auxiliary researchers who contribute to the growing body of knowledge within and across the SuperSite Network, public outreach and education to promote environmental awareness and the role of ecosystem monitoring in the management of Australian environments. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Lighting the Blue Touchpaper for UK e-Science - Closing Conference of ESLEA Project. ESLEA, March 26-28, 2007, Edinburgh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clarke, Peter; Davenhall, Clive; Greenwood, Colin; Strong, Matthew

ESLEA, an EPSRC-funded project, aims to demonstrate the potential benefits of circuit-switched optical networks (lightpaths) to the UK e-Science community. This is being achieved by running a number of "proof of benefit" pilot applications over UKLight, the UK's first national optical research network. UKLight provides a new way for researchers to obtain dedicated "lightpaths" between remote sites and to deploy and test novel networking methods and technologies. It facilitates collaboration on global projects by providing a point of access to the fast growing international optical R&D infrastructure. A diverse range of data-intensive fields of academic endeavour are participating in the ESLEA project; all these groups require the integration of high-bandwidth switched lightpath circuits into their experimental and analysis infrastructure for international transport of high-volume applications data. In addition, network protocol research and development of circuit reservation mechanisms has been carried out to help the pilot applications to exploit the UKLight infrastructure effectively. Further information about ESLEA can be viewed at www.eslea.uklight.ac.uk. ESLEA activities are now coming to an end and work will finish from February to July 2007, depending upon the terms of funding of each pilot application. The first quarter of 2007 is considered the optimum time to hold a closing conference for the project. The objectives of the conference are to: 1. Provide a forum for the dissemination of research findings and learning experiences from the ESLEA project. 2. Enable colleagues from the UK and international e-Science communities to present, discuss and learn about the latest developments in networking technology. 3. Raise awareness about the deployment of the UKLight infrastructure and its relationship to SuperJANET 5. 4. Identify potential uses of UKLight by existing or future research projects

Modeling, Simulation and Analysis of Public Key Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Liu, Yuan-Kwei; Tuey, Richard; Ma, Paul (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

Security is an essential part of network communication. The advances in cryptography have provided solutions to many of the network security requirements. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the foundation of the cryptography applications. The main objective of this research is to design a model to simulate a reliable, scalable, manageable, and high-performance public key infrastructure. We build a model to simulate the NASA public key infrastructure by using SimProcess and MatLab Software. The simulation is from top level all the way down to the computation needed for encryption, decryption, digital signature, and secure web server. The application of secure web server could be utilized in wireless communications. The results of the simulation are analyzed and confirmed by using queueing theory.

The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network: a history of multicenter collaboration in the United States.

PubMed

Tzimenatos, Leah; Kim, Emily; Kuppermann, Nathan

2014-12-01

In this article, we review the history and progress of a large multicenter research network pertaining to emergency medical services for children. We describe the history, organization, infrastructure, and research agenda of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), and highlight some of the important accomplishments since its inception. We also describe the network's strategy to grow its research portfolio, train new investigators, and study how to translate new evidence into practice. This strategy ensures not only the sustainability of the network in the future, but the growth of research in emergency medical services for children in general.

The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network: a history of multicenter collaboration in the United States.

PubMed

Tzimenatos, Leah; Kim, Emily; Kuppermann, Nathan

2015-01-01

In this article, we review the history and progress of a large multicenter research network pertaining to emergency medical services for children. We describe the history, organization, infrastructure, and research agenda of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network and highlight some of the important accomplishments since its inception. We also describe the network's strategy to grow its research portfolio, train new investigators, and study how to translate new evidence into practice. This strategy ensures not only the sustainability of the network in the future but the growth of research in emergency medical services for children in general.

Policy Model of Sustainable Infrastructure Development (Case Study : Bandarlampung City, Indonesia)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Persada, C.; Sitorus, S. R. P.; Marimin; Djakapermana, R. D.

2018-03-01

Infrastructure development does not only affect the economic aspect, but also social and environmental, those are the main dimensions of sustainable development. Many aspects and actors involved in urban infrastructure development requires a comprehensive and integrated policy towards sustainability. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate an infrastructure development policy that considers various dimensions of sustainable development. The main objective of this research is to formulate policy of sustainable infrastructure development. In this research, urban infrastructure covers transportation, water systems (drinking water, storm water, wastewater), green open spaces and solid waste. This research was conducted in Bandarlampung City. This study use a comprehensive modeling, namely the Multi Dimensional Scaling (MDS) with Rapid Appraisal of Infrastructure (Rapinfra), it uses of Analytic Network Process (ANP) and it uses system dynamics model. The findings of the MDS analysis showed that the status of Bandarlampung City infrastructure sustainability is less sustainable. The ANP analysis produces 8 main indicators of the most influential in the development of sustainable infrastructure. The system dynamics model offered 4 scenarios of sustainable urban infrastructure policy model. The best scenario was implemented into 3 policies consist of: the integrated infrastructure management, the population control, and the local economy development.

A Cloud-based Infrastructure and Architecture for Environmental System Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, D.; Wei, Y.; Shankar, M.; Quigley, J.; Wilson, B. E.

2016-12-01

The present availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost computers and storage devices, and the widespread adoption of hardware virtualization and service-oriented architecture provide a great opportunity to enable data and computing infrastructure sharing between closely related research activities. By taking advantage of these approaches, along with the world-class high computing and data infrastructure located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a cloud-based infrastructure and architecture has been developed to efficiently deliver essential data and informatics service and utilities to the environmental system research community, and will provide unique capabilities that allows terrestrial ecosystem research projects to share their software utilities (tools), data and even data submission workflow in a straightforward fashion. The infrastructure will minimize large disruptions from current project-based data submission workflows for better acceptances from existing projects, since many ecosystem research projects already have their own requirements or preferences for data submission and collection. The infrastructure will eliminate scalability problems with current project silos by provide unified data services and infrastructure. The Infrastructure consists of two key components (1) a collection of configurable virtual computing environments and user management systems that expedite data submission and collection from environmental system research community, and (2) scalable data management services and system, originated and development by ORNL data centers.

Research-informed design, management and maintenance of infrastructure slopes: development of a multi-scalar approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glendinning, S.; Helm, P. R.; Rouainia, M.; Stirling, R. A.; Asquith, J. D.; Hughes, P. N.; Toll, D. G.; Clarke, D.; Powrie, W.; Smethurst, J.; Hughes, D.; Harley, R.; Karim, R.; Dixon, N.; Crosby, C.; Chambers, J.; Dijkstra, T.; Gunn, D.; Briggs, K.; Muddle, D.

2015-09-01

The UK's transport infrastructure is one of the most heavily used in the world. The performance of these networks is critically dependent on the performance of cutting and embankment slopes which make up £20B of the £60B asset value of major highway infrastructure alone. The rail network in particular is also one of the oldest in the world: many of these slopes are suffering high incidents of instability (increasing with time). This paper describes the development of a fundamental understanding of earthwork material and system behaviour, through the systematic integration of research across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Spatially these range from microscopic studies of soil fabric, through elemental materials behaviour to whole slope modelling and monitoring and scaling up to transport networks. Temporally, historical and current weather event sequences are being used to understand and model soil deterioration processes, and climate change scenarios to examine their potential effects on slope performance in futures up to and including the 2080s. The outputs of this research are being mapped onto the different spatial and temporal scales of infrastructure slope asset management to inform the design of new slopes through to changing the way in which investment is made into aging assets. The aim ultimately is to help create a more reliable, cost effective, safer and more resilient transport system.

Network Computing Infrastructure to Share Tools and Data in Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Guehee; Suzuki, Yoshio; Teshima, Naoya

CCSE/JAEA (Center for Computational Science and e-Systems/Japan Atomic Energy Agency) integrated a prototype system of a network computing infrastructure for sharing tools and data to support the U.S. and Japan collaboration in GNEP (Global Nuclear Energy Partnership). We focused on three technical issues to apply our information process infrastructure, which are accessibility, security, and usability. In designing the prototype system, we integrated and improved both network and Web technologies. For the accessibility issue, we adopted SSL-VPN (Security Socket Layer-Virtual Private Network) technology for the access beyond firewalls. For the security issue, we developed an authentication gateway based on the PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) authentication mechanism to strengthen the security. Also, we set fine access control policy to shared tools and data and used shared key based encryption method to protect tools and data against leakage to third parties. For the usability issue, we chose Web browsers as user interface and developed Web application to provide functions to support sharing tools and data. By using WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) function, users can manipulate shared tools and data through the Windows-like folder environment. We implemented the prototype system in Grid infrastructure for atomic energy research: AEGIS (Atomic Energy Grid Infrastructure) developed by CCSE/JAEA. The prototype system was applied for the trial use in the first period of GNEP.

Application of sensor networks to intelligent transportation systems.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-12-01

The objective of the research performed is the application of wireless sensor networks to intelligent transportation infrastructures, with the aim of increasing their dependability and improving the efficacy of data collection and utilization. Exampl...

Co-location and Self-Similar Topologies of Urban Infrastructure Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klinkhamer, Christopher; Zhan, Xianyuan; Ukkusuri, Satish; Elisabeth, Krueger; Paik, Kyungrock; Rao, Suresh

2016-04-01

The co-location of urban infrastructure is too obvious to be easily ignored. For reasons of practicality, reliability, and eminent domain, the spatial locations of many urban infrastructure networks, including drainage, sanitary sewers, and road networks, are well correlated. However, important questions dealing with correlations in the network topologies of differing infrastructure types remain unanswered. Here, we have extracted randomly distributed, nested subnets from the urban drainage, sanitary sewer, and road networks in two distinctly different cities: Amman, Jordan; and Indianapolis, USA. Network analyses were performed for each randomly chosen subnet (location and size), using a dual-mapping approach (Hierarchical Intersection Continuity Negotiation). Topological metrics for each infrastructure type were calculated and compared for all subnets in a given city. Despite large differences in the climate, governance, and populace of the two cities, and functional properties of the different infrastructure types, these infrastructure networks are shown to be highly spatially homogenous. Furthermore, strong correlations are found between topological metrics of differing types of surface and subsurface infrastructure networks. Also, the network topologies of each infrastructure type for both cities are shown to exhibit self-similar characteristics (i.e., power law node-degree distributions, [p(k) = ak-γ]. These findings can be used to assist city planners and engineers either expanding or retrofitting existing infrastructure, or in the case of developing countries, building new cities from the ground up. In addition, the self-similar nature of these infrastructure networks holds significant implications for the vulnerability of these critical infrastructure networks to external hazards and ways in which network resilience can be improved.

Development of a remote sensing network for time-sensitive detection of fine scale damage to transportation infrastructure : [final report].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-09-23

This research project aimed to develop a remote sensing system capable of rapidly identifying fine-scale damage to critical transportation infrastructure following hazard events. Such a system must be pre-planned for rapid deployment, automate proces...

Developing a data infrastructure for a learning health system: the PORTAL network

PubMed Central

McGlynn, Elizabeth A; Lieu, Tracy A; Durham, Mary L; Bauck, Alan; Laws, Reesa; Go, Alan S; Chen, Jersey; Feigelson, Heather Spencer; Corley, Douglas A; Young, Deborah Rohm; Nelson, Andrew F; Davidson, Arthur J; Morales, Leo S; Kahn, Michael G

2014-01-01

The Kaiser Permanente & Strategic Partners Patient Outcomes Research To Advance Learning (PORTAL) network engages four healthcare delivery systems (Kaiser Permanente, Group Health Cooperative, HealthPartners, and Denver Health) and their affiliated research centers to create a new national network infrastructure that builds on existing relationships among these institutions. PORTAL is enhancing its current capabilities by expanding the scope of the common data model, paying particular attention to incorporating patient-reported data more systematically, implementing new multi-site data governance procedures, and integrating the PCORnet PopMedNet platform across our research centers. PORTAL is partnering with clinical research and patient experts to create cohorts of patients with a common diagnosis (colorectal cancer), a rare diagnosis (adolescents and adults with severe congenital heart disease), and adults who are overweight or obese, including those with pre-diabetes or diabetes, to conduct large-scale observational comparative effectiveness research and pragmatic clinical trials across diverse clinical care settings. PMID:24821738

78 FR 69857 - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-21

... research opportunities and needs; Renewing research infrastructure network program. Place: Hyatt Regency...., Acting Director, National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR), Director, Biological...

The GÉANT network: addressing current and future needs of the HEP community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capone, Vincenzo; Usman, Mian

2015-12-01

The GÉANT infrastructure is the backbone that serves the scientific communities in Europe for their data movement needs and their access to international research and education networks. Using the extensive fibre footprint and infrastructure in Europe the GÉANT network delivers a portfolio of services aimed to best fit the specific needs of the users, including Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure, end-to-end performance monitoring, advanced network services (dynamic circuits, L2-L3VPN, MD-VPN). This talk will outline the factors that help the GÉANT network to respond to the needs of the High Energy Physics community, both in Europe and worldwide. The Pan-European network provides the connectivity between 40 European national research and education networks. In addition, GÉANT also connects the European NRENs to the R&E networks in other world region and has reach to over 110 NREN worldwide, making GÉANT the best connected Research and Education network, with its multiple intercontinental links to different continents e.g. North and South America, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The High Energy Physics computational needs have always had (and will keep having) a leading role among the scientific user groups of the GÉANT network: the LHCONE overlay network has been built, in collaboration with the other big world REN, specifically to address the peculiar needs of the LHC data movement. Recently, as a result of a series of coordinated efforts, the LHCONE network has been expanded to the Asia-Pacific area, and is going to include some of the main regional R&E network in the area. The LHC community is not the only one that is actively using a distributed computing model (hence the need for a high-performance network); new communities are arising, as BELLE II. GÉANT is deeply involved also with the BELLE II Experiment, to provide full support to their distributed computing model, along with a perfSONAR-based network monitoring system. GÉANT has also coordinated the setup of the network infrastructure to perform the BELLE II Trans-Atlantic Data Challenge, and has been active on helping the BELLE II community to sort out their end-to-end performance issues. In this talk we will provide information about the current GÉANT network architecture and of the international connectivity, along with the upcoming upgrades and the planned and foreseeable improvements. We will also describe the implementation of the solutions provided to support the LHC and BELLE II experiments.

Analysis of Pervasive Mobile Ad Hoc Routing Protocols

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qadri, Nadia N.; Liotta, Antonio

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are a fundamental element of pervasive networks and therefore, of pervasive systems that truly support pervasive computing, where user can communicate anywhere, anytime and on-the-fly. In fact, future advances in pervasive computing rely on advancements in mobile communication, which includes both infrastructure-based wireless networks and non-infrastructure-based MANETs. MANETs introduce a new communication paradigm, which does not require a fixed infrastructure - they rely on wireless terminals for routing and transport services. Due to highly dynamic topology, absence of established infrastructure for centralized administration, bandwidth constrained wireless links, and limited resources in MANETs, it is challenging to design an efficient and reliable routing protocol. This chapter reviews the key studies carried out so far on the performance of mobile ad hoc routing protocols. We discuss performance issues and metrics required for the evaluation of ad hoc routing protocols. This leads to a survey of existing work, which captures the performance of ad hoc routing algorithms and their behaviour from different perspectives and highlights avenues for future research.

In-Space Networking On NASA's SCaN Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brooks, David; Eddy, Wesley M.; Clark, Gilbert J., III; Johnson, Sandra K.

2016-01-01

The NASA Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Testbed, an external payload onboard the International Space Station, is equipped with three software defined radios (SDRs) and a programmable flight computer. The purpose of the Testbed is to conduct inspace research in the areas of communication, navigation, and networking in support of NASA missions and communication infrastructure. Multiple reprogrammable elements in the end to end system, along with several communication paths and a semi-operational environment, provides a unique opportunity to explore networking concepts and protocols envisioned for the future Solar System Internet (SSI). This paper will provide a general description of the system's design and the networking protocols implemented and characterized on the testbed, including Encapsulation, IP over CCSDS, and Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN). Due to the research nature of the implementation, flexibility and robustness are considered in the design to enable expansion for future adaptive and cognitive techniques. Following a detailed design discussion, lessons learned and suggestions for future missions and communication infrastructure elements will be provided. Plans for the evolving research on SCaN Testbed as it moves towards a more adaptive, autonomous system will be discussed.

Monitoring bridge scour using fiber optic sensors : research project capsule.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-03-01

The interstate highway network is an : important national asset. Bridges : constituting critical nodes within : transportation networks are the : backbone of the transportation : infrastructure. It is well known that : scour is one of the major cours...

The Importance of Distributed Broadband Networks to Academic Biomedical Research and Education Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yellowlees, Peter M.; Hogarth, Michael; Hilty, Donald M.

2006-01-01

Objective: This article highlights the importance of distributed broadband networks as part of the core infrastructure necessary to deliver academic research and education programs. Method: The authors review recent developments in the field and present the University of California, Davis, environment as a case study of a future virtual regional…

Satellite Communications for Aeronautical Applications: Recent research and Development Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kerczewski, Robert J.

2001-01-01

Communications systems have always been a critical element in aviation. Until recently, nearly all communications between the ground and aircraft have been based on analog voice technology. But the future of global aviation requires a more sophisticated "information infrastructure" which not only provides more and better communications, but integrates the key information functions (communications, navigation, and surveillance) into a modern, network-based infrastructure. Satellite communications will play an increasing role in providing information infrastructure solutions for aviation. Developing and adapting satellite communications technologies for aviation use is now receiving increased attention as the urgency to develop information infrastructure solutions grows. The NASA Glenn Research Center is actively involved in research and development activities for aeronautical satellite communications, with a key emphasis on air traffic management communications needs. This paper describes the recent results and status of NASA Glenn's research program.

77 FR 65002 - Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA) Priority List of Needs in Pediatric Therapeutics

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-24

... specific pediatric needs, including research associated with a particular drug, biologic, or device. Please... infrastructure to conduct pediatric pharmacological research, including research networks and trained pediatric...

Towards an integrated European strong motion data distribution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luzi, Lucia; Clinton, John; Cauzzi, Carlo; Puglia, Rodolfo; Michelini, Alberto; Van Eck, Torild; Sleeman, Reinhoud; Akkar, Sinan

2013-04-01

Recent decades have seen a significant increase in the quality and quantity of strong motion data collected in Europe, as dense and often real-time and continuously monitored broadband strong motion networks have been constructed in many nations. There has been a concurrent increase in demand for access to strong motion data not only from researchers for engineering and seismological studies, but also from civil authorities and seismic networks for the rapid assessment of ground motion and shaking intensity following significant earthquakes (e.g. ShakeMaps). Aside from a few notable exceptions on the national scale, databases providing access to strong motion data has not appeared to keep pace with these developments. In the framework of the EC infrastructure project NERA (2010 - 2014), that integrates key research infrastructures in Europe for monitoring earthquakes and assessing their hazard and risk, the network activity NA3 deals with the networking of acceleration networks and SM data. Within the NA3 activity two infrastructures are being constructed: i) a Rapid Response Strong Motion (RRSM) database, that following a strong event, automatically parameterises all available on-scale waveform data within the European Integrated waveform Data Archives (EIDA) and makes the waveforms easily available to the seismological community within minutes of an event; and ii) a European Strong Motion (ESM) database of accelerometric records, with associated metadata relevant to earthquake engineering and seismology research communities, using standard, manual processing that reflects the state of the art and research needs in these fields. These two separate repositories form the core infrastructures being built to distribute strong motion data in Europe in order to guarantee rapid and long-term availability of high quality waveform data to both the international scientific community and the hazard mitigation communities. These infrastructures will provide the access to strong motion data in an eventual EPOS seismological service. A working group on Strong Motion data is being created at ORFEUS in 2013. This body, consisting of experts in strong motion data collection, processing and research from across Europe, will provide the umbrella organisation that will 1) have the political clout to negotiate data sharing agreements with strong motion data providers and 2) manage the software during a transition from the end of NERA to the EPOS community. We expect the community providing data to the RRSM and ESM will gradually grow, under the supervision of ORFEUS, and eventually include strong motion data from networks from all European countries that can have an open data policy.

Envri Cluster - a Community-Driven Platform of European Environmental Researcher Infrastructures for Providing Common E-Solutions for Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asmi, A.; Sorvari, S.; Kutsch, W. L.; Laj, P.

2017-12-01

European long-term environmental research infrastructures (often referred as ESFRI RIs) are the core facilities for providing services for scientists in their quest for understanding and predicting the complex Earth system and its functioning that requires long-term efforts to identify environmental changes (trends, thresholds and resilience, interactions and feedbacks). Many of the research infrastructures originally have been developed to respond to the needs of their specific research communities, however, it is clear that strong collaboration among research infrastructures is needed to serve the trans-boundary research requires exploring scientific questions at the intersection of different scientific fields, conducting joint research projects and developing concepts, devices, and methods that can be used to integrate knowledge. European Environmental research infrastructures have already been successfully worked together for many years and have established a cluster - ENVRI cluster - for their collaborative work. ENVRI cluster act as a collaborative platform where the RIs can jointly agree on the common solutions for their operations, draft strategies and policies and share best practices and knowledge. Supporting project for the ENVRI cluster, ENVRIplus project, brings together 21 European research infrastructures and infrastructure networks to work on joint technical solutions, data interoperability, access management, training, strategies and dissemination efforts. ENVRI cluster act as one stop shop for multidisciplinary RI users, other collaborative initiatives, projects and programmes and coordinates and implement jointly agreed RI strategies.

The child and adolescent psychiatry trials network (CAPTN): infrastructure development and lessons learned

PubMed Central

Shapiro, Mark; Silva, Susan G; Compton, Scott; Chrisman, Allan; DeVeaugh-Geiss, Joseph; Breland-Noble, Alfiee; Kondo, Douglas; Kirchner, Jerry; March, John S

2009-01-01

Background In 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health funded the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Trials Network (CAPTN) under the Advanced Center for Services and Intervention Research (ACSIR) mechanism. At the time, CAPTN was believed to be both a highly innovative undertaking and a highly speculative one. One reviewer even suggested that CAPTN was "unlikely to succeed, but would be a valuable learning experience for the field." Objective To describe valuable lessons learned in building a clinical research network in pediatric psychiatry, including innovations intended to decrease barriers to research participation. Methods The CAPTN Team has completed construction of the CAPTN network infrastructure, conducted a large, multi-center psychometric study of a novel adverse event reporting tool, and initiated a large antidepressant safety registry and linked pharmacogenomic study focused on severe adverse events. Specific challenges overcome included establishing structures for network organization and governance; recruiting over 150 active CAPTN participants and 15 child psychiatry training programs; developing and implementing procedures for site contracts, regulatory compliance, indemnification and malpractice coverage, human subjects protection training and IRB approval; and constructing an innovative electronic casa report form (eCRF) running on a web-based electronic data capture system; and, finally, establishing procedures for audit trail oversight requirements put forward by, among others, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Conclusion Given stable funding for network construction and maintenance, our experience demonstrates that judicious use of web-based technologies for profiling investigators, investigator training, and capturing clinical trials data, when coupled to innovative approaches to network governance, data management and site management, can reduce the costs and burden and improve the feasibility of incorporating clinical research into routine clinical practice. Having successfully achieved its initial aim of constructing a network infrastructure, CAPTN is now a capable platform for large safety registries, pharmacogenetic studies, and randomized practical clinical trials in pediatric psychiatry. PMID:19320979

High-speed and high-fidelity system and method for collecting network traffic

DOEpatents

Weigle, Eric H [Los Alamos, NM

2010-08-24

A system is provided for the high-speed and high-fidelity collection of network traffic. The system can collect traffic at gigabit-per-second (Gbps) speeds, scale to terabit-per-second (Tbps) speeds, and support additional functions such as real-time network intrusion detection. The present system uses a dedicated operating system for traffic collection to maximize efficiency, scalability, and performance. A scalable infrastructure and apparatus for the present system is provided by splitting the work performed on one host onto multiple hosts. The present system simultaneously addresses the issues of scalability, performance, cost, and adaptability with respect to network monitoring, collection, and other network tasks. In addition to high-speed and high-fidelity network collection, the present system provides a flexible infrastructure to perform virtually any function at high speeds such as real-time network intrusion detection and wide-area network emulation for research purposes.

Final report for the Integrated and Robust Security Infrastructure (IRSI) laboratory directed research and development project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hutchinson, R.L.; Hamilton, V.A.; Istrail, G.G.

1997-11-01

This report describes the results of a Sandia-funded laboratory-directed research and development project titled {open_quotes}Integrated and Robust Security Infrastructure{close_quotes} (IRSI). IRSI was to provide a broad range of commercial-grade security services to any software application. IRSI has two primary goals: application transparency and manageable public key infrastructure. IRSI must provide its security services to any application without the need to modify the application to invoke the security services. Public key mechanisms are well suited for a network with many end users and systems. There are many issues that make it difficult to deploy and manage a public key infrastructure. IRSImore » addressed some of these issues to create a more manageable public key infrastructure.« less

Evidence, Engagement, and Technology: Themes of and the State of Primary Care Practice-based Network Research.

PubMed

Nease, Donald E

2016-01-01

Practice-based research supported by practice-based research network (PBRN) infrastructure has historically provided an important method for challenging guidelines and evidence arising from secondary and tertiary care settings. This sample of current practice-based research in this issue of the JABFM provides an opportunity to ask whether practice-based research continues to address questions relevant to primary care practices and clinicians and whether a PBRN infrastructure is instrumental to maintaining the relevance and feasibility of practice-based research. Based on this issue's articles, the current state of practice-based research seems to be good, at face value addressing relevant issues for primary care practices. Less clear is the degree to which PBRN infrastructures and relationships informed the questions asked and facilitated the implementation of the studies presented. Practice-based research-related articles that routinely report about how study questions arose-from practices and their clinicians, staff and communities, or elsewhere-could help directly answer questions of relevance. In addition, reporting how practices are recruited to practice-based research studies could inform the degree to which ongoing relationships central to PBRNs facilitate the recruitment and conduct of practice-based research. © Copyright 2016 by the American Board of Family Medicine.

Some recent advances of intelligent health monitoring systems for civil infrastructures in HIT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ou, Jinping

2005-06-01

The intelligent health monitoring systems more and more become a technique for ensuring the health and safety of civil infrastructures and also an important approach for research of the damage accumulation or even disaster evolving characteristics of civil infrastructures, and attracts prodigious research interests and active development interests of scientists and engineers since a great number of civil infrastructures are planning and building each year in mainland China. In this paper, some recent advances on research, development nad implementation of intelligent health monitoring systems for civil infrastructuresin mainland China, especially in Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), P.R.China. The main contents include smart sensors such as optical fiber Bragg grating (OFBG) and polivinyllidene fluoride (PVDF) sensors, fatigue life gauges, self-sensing mortar and carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP), wireless sensor networks and their implementation in practical infrastructures such as offshore platform structures, hydraulic engineering structures, large span bridges and large space structures. Finally, the relative research projects supported by the national foundation agencies of China are briefly introduced.

PKI security in large-scale healthcare networks.

PubMed

Mantas, Georgios; Lymberopoulos, Dimitrios; Komninos, Nikos

2012-06-01

During the past few years a lot of PKI (Public Key Infrastructures) infrastructures have been proposed for healthcare networks in order to ensure secure communication services and exchange of data among healthcare professionals. However, there is a plethora of challenges in these healthcare PKI infrastructures. Especially, there are a lot of challenges for PKI infrastructures deployed over large-scale healthcare networks. In this paper, we propose a PKI infrastructure to ensure security in a large-scale Internet-based healthcare network connecting a wide spectrum of healthcare units geographically distributed within a wide region. Furthermore, the proposed PKI infrastructure facilitates the trust issues that arise in a large-scale healthcare network including multi-domain PKI infrastructures.

OSiRIS: a distributed Ceph deployment using software defined networking for multi-institutional research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKee, Shawn; Kissel, Ezra; Meekhof, Benjeman; Swany, Martin; Miller, Charles; Gregorowicz, Michael

2017-10-01

We report on the first year of the OSiRIS project (NSF Award #1541335, UM, IU, MSU and WSU) which is targeting the creation of a distributed Ceph storage infrastructure coupled together with software-defined networking to provide high-performance access for well-connected locations on any participating campus. The projects goal is to provide a single scalable, distributed storage infrastructure that allows researchers at each campus to read, write, manage and share data directly from their own computing locations. The NSF CC*DNI DIBBS program which funded OSiRIS is seeking solutions to the challenges of multi-institutional collaborations involving large amounts of data and we are exploring the creative use of Ceph and networking to address those challenges. While OSiRIS will eventually be serving a broad range of science domains, its first adopter will be the LHC ATLAS detector project via the ATLAS Great Lakes Tier-2 (AGLT2) jointly located at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. Part of our presentation will cover how ATLAS is using the OSiRIS infrastructure and our experiences integrating our first user community. The presentation will also review the motivations for and goals of the project, the technical details of the OSiRIS infrastructure, the challenges in providing such an infrastructure, and the technical choices made to address those challenges. We will conclude with our plans for the remaining 4 years of the project and our vision for what we hope to deliver by the projects end.

Tools for Large-Scale Data Analytic Examination of Relational and Epistemic Networks in Engineering Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madhavan, Krishna; Johri, Aditya; Xian, Hanjun; Wang, G. Alan; Liu, Xiaomo

2014-01-01

The proliferation of digital information technologies and related infrastructure has given rise to novel ways of capturing, storing and analyzing data. In this paper, we describe the research and development of an information system called Interactive Knowledge Networks for Engineering Education Research (iKNEER). This system utilizes a framework…

Medical education practice-based research networks: Facilitating collaborative research.

PubMed

Schwartz, Alan; Young, Robin; Hicks, Patricia J

2016-01-01

Research networks formalize and institutionalize multi-site collaborations by establishing an infrastructure that enables network members to participate in research, propose new studies, and exploit study data to move the field forward. Although practice-based clinical research networks are now widespread, medical education research networks are rapidly emerging. In this article, we offer a definition of the medical education practice-based research network, a brief description of networks in existence in July 2014 and their features, and a more detailed case study of the emergence and early growth of one such network, the Association of Pediatric Program Directors Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network (APPD LEARN). We searched for extant networks through peer-reviewed literature and the world-wide web. We identified 15 research networks in medical education founded since 2002 with membership ranging from 8 to 120 programs. Most focus on graduate medical education in primary care or emergency medicine specialties. We offer four recommendations for the further development and spread of medical education research networks: increasing faculty development, obtaining central resources, studying networks themselves, and developing networks of networks.

Medical education practice-based research networks: Facilitating collaborative research

PubMed Central

Schwartz, Alan; Young, Robin; Hicks, Patricia J.; APPD LEARN, For

2016-01-01

Abstract Background: Research networks formalize and institutionalize multi-site collaborations by establishing an infrastructure that enables network members to participate in research, propose new studies, and exploit study data to move the field forward. Although practice-based clinical research networks are now widespread, medical education research networks are rapidly emerging. Aims: In this article, we offer a definition of the medical education practice-based research network, a brief description of networks in existence in July 2014 and their features, and a more detailed case study of the emergence and early growth of one such network, the Association of Pediatric Program Directors Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network (APPD LEARN). Methods: We searched for extant networks through peer-reviewed literature and the world-wide web. Results: We identified 15 research networks in medical education founded since 2002 with membership ranging from 8 to 120 programs. Most focus on graduate medical education in primary care or emergency medicine specialties. Conclusions: We offer four recommendations for the further development and spread of medical education research networks: increasing faculty development, obtaining central resources, studying networks themselves, and developing networks of networks. PMID:25319404

Application of the dynamically allocated virtual clustering management system to emulated tactical network experimentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marcus, Kelvin

2014-06-01

The U.S Army Research Laboratory (ARL) has built a "Network Science Research Lab" to support research that aims to improve their ability to analyze, predict, design, and govern complex systems that interweave the social/cognitive, information, and communication network genres. Researchers at ARL and the Network Science Collaborative Technology Alliance (NS-CTA), a collaborative research alliance funded by ARL, conducted experimentation to determine if automated network monitoring tools and task-aware agents deployed within an emulated tactical wireless network could potentially increase the retrieval of relevant data from heterogeneous distributed information nodes. ARL and NS-CTA required the capability to perform this experimentation over clusters of heterogeneous nodes with emulated wireless tactical networks where each node could contain different operating systems, application sets, and physical hardware attributes. Researchers utilized the Dynamically Allocated Virtual Clustering Management System (DAVC) to address each of the infrastructure support requirements necessary in conducting their experimentation. The DAVC is an experimentation infrastructure that provides the means to dynamically create, deploy, and manage virtual clusters of heterogeneous nodes within a cloud computing environment based upon resource utilization such as CPU load, available RAM and hard disk space. The DAVC uses 802.1Q Virtual LANs (VLANs) to prevent experimentation crosstalk and to allow for complex private networks. Clusters created by the DAVC system can be utilized for software development, experimentation, and integration with existing hardware and software. The goal of this paper is to explore how ARL and the NS-CTA leveraged the DAVC to create, deploy and manage multiple experimentation clusters to support their experimentation goals.

Three-Dimensional Space to Assess Cloud Interoperability

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-03-01

12 1. Portability and Mobility ...collection of network-enabled services that guarantees to provide a scalable, easy accessible, reliable, and personalized computing infrastructure , based on...are used in research to describe cloud models, such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a service), IaaS ( Infrastructure as a Service

Big Data Analytics for Disaster Preparedness and Response of Mobile Communication Infrastructure during Natural Hazards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhong, L.; Takano, K.; Ji, Y.; Yamada, S.

2015-12-01

The disruption of telecommunications is one of the most critical disasters during natural hazards. As the rapid expanding of mobile communications, the mobile communication infrastructure plays a very fundamental role in the disaster response and recovery activities. For this reason, its disruption will lead to loss of life and property, due to information delays and errors. Therefore, disaster preparedness and response of mobile communication infrastructure itself is quite important. In many cases of experienced disasters, the disruption of mobile communication networks is usually caused by the network congestion and afterward long-term power outage. In order to reduce this disruption, the knowledge of communication demands during disasters is necessary. And big data analytics will provide a very promising way to predict the communication demands by analyzing the big amount of operational data of mobile users in a large-scale mobile network. Under the US-Japan collaborative project on 'Big Data and Disaster Research (BDD)' supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and National Science Foundation (NSF), we are going to investigate the application of big data techniques in the disaster preparedness and response of mobile communication infrastructure. Specifically, in this research, we have considered to exploit the big amount of operational information of mobile users for predicting the communications needs in different time and locations. By incorporating with other data such as shake distribution of an estimated major earthquake and the power outage map, we are able to provide the prediction information of stranded people who are difficult to confirm safety or ask for help due to network disruption. In addition, this result could further facilitate the network operators to assess the vulnerability of their infrastructure and make suitable decision for the disaster preparedness and response. In this presentation, we are going to introduce the results we obtained based on the big data analytics of mobile user statistical information and discuss the implications of these results.

Long term agro-ecosystem research: The Southern Plains partnership

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is coordinating ten well-established research sites as a Long Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) Network. The goal of the LTAR is to sustain a land-based infrastructure for research, environmental management testing, and education, that enables understan...

Developing a data infrastructure for a learning health system: the PORTAL network.

PubMed

McGlynn, Elizabeth A; Lieu, Tracy A; Durham, Mary L; Bauck, Alan; Laws, Reesa; Go, Alan S; Chen, Jersey; Feigelson, Heather Spencer; Corley, Douglas A; Young, Deborah Rohm; Nelson, Andrew F; Davidson, Arthur J; Morales, Leo S; Kahn, Michael G

2014-01-01

The Kaiser Permanente & Strategic Partners Patient Outcomes Research To Advance Learning (PORTAL) network engages four healthcare delivery systems (Kaiser Permanente, Group Health Cooperative, HealthPartners, and Denver Health) and their affiliated research centers to create a new national network infrastructure that builds on existing relationships among these institutions. PORTAL is enhancing its current capabilities by expanding the scope of the common data model, paying particular attention to incorporating patient-reported data more systematically, implementing new multi-site data governance procedures, and integrating the PCORnet PopMedNet platform across our research centers. PORTAL is partnering with clinical research and patient experts to create cohorts of patients with a common diagnosis (colorectal cancer), a rare diagnosis (adolescents and adults with severe congenital heart disease), and adults who are overweight or obese, including those with pre-diabetes or diabetes, to conduct large-scale observational comparative effectiveness research and pragmatic clinical trials across diverse clinical care settings. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

78 FR 73202 - Review and Revision of the National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (NCISR...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-12-05

...This Request for Information (RFI) notice informs the public that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is currently developing a National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Research and Development Plan (NCISR R&D Plan) to conform to the requirements of Presidential Policy Directive 21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. As part of a comprehensive national review process, DHS solicits public comment on issues or language in the NCISR R&D Plan that need to be included. Critical infrastructure includes both cyber and physical components, systems, and networks for the sixteen established ``critical infrastructures''.

European network infrastructures of observatories for terrestrial Global Change research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vereecken, H.; Bogena, H.; Lehning, M.

2009-04-01

The earth's climate is significantly changing (e.g. IPCC, 2007) and thus directly affecting the terrestrial systems. The number and intensity hydrological extremes, such as floods and droughts, are continually increasing, resulting in major economical and social impacts. Furthermore, the land cover in Europe has been modified fundamentally by conversions for agriculture, forest and for other purposes such as industrialisation and urbanisation. Additionally, water resources are more than ever used for human development, especially as a key resource for agricultural and industrial activities. As a special case, the mountains of the world are of significant importance in terms of water resources supply, biodiversity, economy, agriculture, traffic and recreation but particularly vulnerable to environmental change. The Alps are unique because of the pronounced small scale variability they contain, the high population density they support and their central position in Europe. The Alps build a single coherent physical and natural environment, artificially cut by national borders. The scientific community and governmental bodies have responded to these environmental changes by performing dedicated experiments and by establishing environmental research networks to monitor, analyse and predict the impact of Global Change on different terrestrial systems of the Earths' environment. Several European network infrastructures for terrestrial Global Change research are presently immerging or upgrading, such as ICOS, ANAEE, LifeWatch or LTER-Europe. However, the strongest existing networks are still operating on a regional or national level and the historical growth of such networks resulted in a very heterogeneous landscape of observation networks. We propose therefore the establishment of two complementary networks: The NetwOrk of Hydrological observAtories, NOHA. NOHA aims to promote the sustainable management of water resources in Europe, to support the prediction of hydrological system changes, and to develop and implement tools and technologies for monitoring, prevention and mitigation of environmental risks and pressures. In addition, NOHA will provide long-term statistical series of hydrological state variables and fluxes for the analysis and prognosis of Global Change consequences using integrated model systems. These data will support the development and establishment of efficient prevention, mitigation and adaptation strategies (E.g. EU-Water Framework Directive) and spur the development and validation of hydrological theories and models. The second network, ALPS, - the Alpine Observing System - will create an unique infrastructure for environmental and climate research and observation for the whole Alpine region, providing a common platform for the benefit of the society in Europe as a whole. The initiative will build on existing infrastructure in the participating countries and on new and emerging technology, allowing an unprecedented coverage of observation systems at affordable cost. ALPS will create a new collaboration between scientists, engineers, monitoring agencies, public and decision makers, with the aim to gain an integrated understanding of complex environmental systems. The ALPS effort will be structured along three major axes: (i) harmonize and strengthen the backbone of permanent measurement infrastructures and complement these with dense deployments of intelligent networks, to improve the recording of environmental parameters overcoming disciplinary and national borders, (ii) link the main data centres to create a distributed cyber-infrastructure with the final aim to enable effective data access and retrieval to all science and society users, and (iii) invest in data assimilation and exploitation toward scientific and practical results in particular with respect to dealing with extreme events and natural hazards. In this presentation, we will focus on the motivation, the concept and the scientific and organizational challenges of ALPS and NOHA.

Building electronic data infrastructure for comparative effectiveness research: accomplishments, lessons learned and future steps.

PubMed

Randhawa, Gurvaneet S

2014-11-01

There are large gaps in our knowledge on the potential impact of diagnostics and therapeutics on outcomes of patients treated in the real world. Comparative effectiveness research aims to fill these gaps to maximize effectiveness of these interventions. Health information technology has the potential to dramatically improve the practice of medicine and of research. This is an overview of about US$100 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act investment in 12 projects managed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to build an electronic clinical data infrastructure that connects research with healthcare delivery. The achievements and lessons learned from these projects provided a foundation for the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet)and will help to guide future infrastructure development needed to build an efficient, scalable and sustainable learning health system.

NCI Awards 18 Grants to Continue the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) Biomarkers Effort | Division of Cancer Prevention

Cancer.gov

The NCI has awarded 18 grants to continue the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN), a national infrastructure that supports the integrated development, validation, and clinical application of biomarkers for the early detection of cancer. The awards fund 7 Biomarker Developmental Laboratories, 8 Clinical Validation Centers, 2 Biomarker Reference Laboratories, and a Data

[ECRIN (European clinical research infrastructures network), a pan-European infrastructure for clinical research].

PubMed

Demotes-Mainard, Jacques

2010-12-01

Clinical research plays a key role both in the development of innovative health products and in the optimisation of medical strategies, leading to evidence-based practice and healthcare cost containment. ECRIN is a distributed ESFRI-roadmap pan-European infrastructure designed to support multinational clinical research, making Europe a single area for clinical studies, taking advantage of its population size to access patients, and unlocking latent scientific providing services to multinational. Servicing of multinational trials started during the preparatory phase, and ECRIN has applied for ERIC status in 2011. In parallel, ECRIN has also proposed an FP7 integrating activity project to further develop, upgrade and expand the ECRIN infrastructure built up during the past FP6 and FP7 projects, facilitating an efficient organization of clinical research in Europe, with ECRIN developing generic tools and providing generic services for multinational studies, and supporting the construction of pan-European disease-oriented networks that will in turn act as ECRIN users. This organization will improve Europe's attractiveness for industry trials, boost its scientific competitiveness, and result in better healthcare for European citizens. The three medical areas supported in this project (rare diseases, medical devices, and nutrition) will serve as pilots for other biomedical research fields. By creating a single area for clinical research in Europe, this structure will contribute to the implementation of the Europe flagship initiative 2020 'Innovation Union', whose objectives include defragmentation of research and educational capacities, tackling the major societal challenges (starting with healthy aging), and removing barriers to bringing ideas to the market.

Review of EuCARD project on accelerator infrastructure in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2013-01-01

The aim of big infrastructural and research programs (like pan-European Framework Programs) and individual projects realized inside these programs in Europe is to structure the European Research Area - ERA in this way as to be competitive with the leaders of the world. One of this projects in EuCARD (European Coordination of Accelerator Research and Development) with the aim to structure and modernize accelerator, (including accelerators for big free electron laser machines) research infrastructure. This article presents the periodic development of EuCARD which took place between the annual meeting, April 2012 in Warsaw and SC meeting in Uppsala, December 2012. The background of all these efforts are achievements of the LHC machine and associated detectors in the race for new physics. The LHC machine works in the regime of p-p, Pb-p, Pb-Pb (protons and lead ions). Recently, a discovery by the LHC of Higgs like boson, has started vivid debates on the further potential of this machine and the future. The periodic EuCARD conference, workshop and meetings concern building of the research infrastructure, including in this advanced photonic and electronic systems for servicing large high energy physics experiments. There are debated a few basic groups of such systems like: measurement - control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution. The aim of the discussion is not only summarize the current status but make plans and prepare practically to building new infrastructures. Accelerator science and technology is one of a key enablers of the developments in the particle physic, photon physics and also applications in medicine and industry. Accelerator technology is intensely developed in all developed nations and regions of the world. The EuCARD project contains a lot of subjects related directly and indirectly to photon physics and photonics, as well as optoelectronics, electronics and integration of these with large research infrastructure.

Harnessing person-generated health data to accelerate patient-centered outcomes research: the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America PCORnet Patient Powered Research Network (CCFA Partners)

PubMed Central

Sandler, Robert S; Long, Millie D; Ahrens, Sean; Burris, Jessica L; Martin, Christopher F; Anton, Kristen; Robb, Amber; Caruso, Thomas P; Jaeger, Elizabeth L; Chen, Wenli; Clark, Marshall; Myers, Kelly; Dobes, Angela; Kappelman, Michael D

2016-01-01

The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Partners Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) seeks to advance and accelerate comparative effectiveness and translational research in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Our IBD-focused PCORnet PPRN has been designed to overcome the major obstacles that have limited patient-centered outcomes research in IBD by providing the technical infrastructure, patient governance, and patient-driven functionality needed to: 1) identify, prioritize, and undertake a patient-centered research agenda through sharing person-generated health data; 2) develop and test patient and provider-focused tools that utilize individual patient data to improve health behaviors and inform health care decisions and, ultimately, outcomes; and 3) rapidly disseminate new knowledge to patients, enabling them to improve their health. The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America Partners PPRN has fostered the development of a community of citizen scientists in IBD; created a portal that will recruit, retain, and engage members and encourage partnerships with external scientists; and produced an efficient infrastructure for identifying, screening, and contacting network members for participation in research. PMID:26911821

Increasing the resilience and security of the United States' power infrastructure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Happenny, Sean F.

2015-08-01

The United States' power infrastructure is aging, underfunded, and vulnerable to cyber attack. Emerging smart grid technologies may take some of the burden off of existing systems and make the grid as a whole more efficient, reliable, and secure. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is funding research into several aspects of smart grid technology and grid security, creating a software simulation tool that will allow researchers to test power infrastructure control and distribution paradigms by utilizing different smart grid technologies to determine how the grid and these technologies react under different circumstances. Understanding how these systems behave in real-worldmore » conditions will lead to new ways to make our power infrastructure more resilient and secure. Demonstrating security in embedded systems is another research area PNNL is tackling. Many of the systems controlling the U.S. critical infrastructure, such as the power grid, lack integrated security and the aging networks protecting them are becoming easier to attack.« less

Final Environmental Assessment for Wide Area Coverage Construct Land Mobile Network Communications Infrastructure Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-02-01

FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT February 2008 Malmstrom ® AFB WIDE AREA COVERAGE CONSTRUCT LAND MOBILE NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE...Wide Area Coverage Construct Land Mobile Network Communications Infrastructure Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER 5b. GRANT...SIGNIFICANT IMPACT WIDE AREA COVERAGE CONSTRUCT LAND MOBILE NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS INFRASTRUCTURE MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, MONTANA The

From Dyadic Ties to Information Infrastructures: Care-Coordination between Patients, Providers, Students and Researchers

PubMed Central

Purkayastha, S.; Biswas, R.; Jai Ganesh, A.U.; Otero, P.

2015-01-01

Summary Objective To share how an effectual merging of local and online networks in low resource regions can supplement and strengthen the local practice of patient centered care through the use of an online digital infrastructure powered by all stakeholders in healthcare. User Driven Health Care offers the dynamic integration of patient values and evidence based solutions for improved medical communication in medical care. Introduction This paper conceptualizes patient care-coordination through the lens of engaged stakeholders using digital infrastructures tools to integrate information technology. We distinguish this lens from the prevalent conceptualization of dyadic ties between clinician-patient, patient-nurse, clinician-nurse, and offer the holistic integration of all stakeholder inputs, in the clinic and augmented by online communication in a multi-national setting. Methods We analyze an instance of the user-driven health care (UDHC), a network of providers, patients, students and researchers working together to help manage patient care. The network currently focuses on patients from LMICs, but the provider network is global in reach. We describe UDHC and its opportunities and challenges in care-coordination to reduce costs, bring equity, and improve care quality and share evidence. Conclusion UDHC has resulted in coordinated global based local care, affecting multiple facets of medical practice. Shared information resources between providers with disparate knowledge, results in better understanding by patients, unique and challenging cases for students, innovative community based research and discovery learning for all. PMID:26123908

From Dyadic Ties to Information Infrastructures: Care-Coordination between Patients, Providers, Students and Researchers. Contribution of the Health Informatics Education Working Group.

PubMed

Purkayastha, S; Price, A; Biswas, R; Jai Ganesh, A U; Otero, P

2015-08-13

To share how an effectual merging of local and online networks in low resource regions can supplement and strengthen the local practice of patient centered care through the use of an online digital infrastructure powered by all stakeholders in healthcare. User Driven Health Care offers the dynamic integration of patient values and evidence based solutions for improved medical communication in medical care. This paper conceptualizes patient care-coordination through the lens of engaged stakeholders using digital infrastructures tools to integrate information technology. We distinguish this lens from the prevalent conceptualization of dyadic ties between clinician-patient, patient-nurse, clinician-nurse, and offer the holistic integration of all stakeholder inputs, in the clinic and augmented by online communication in a multi-national setting. We analyze an instance of the user-driven health care (UDHC), a network of providers, patients, students and researchers working together to help manage patient care. The network currently focuses on patients from LMICs, but the provider network is global in reach. We describe UDHC and its opportunities and challenges in care-coordination to reduce costs, bring equity, and improve care quality and share evidence. UDHC has resulted in coordinated global based local care, affecting multiple facets of medical practice. Shared information resources between providers with disparate knowledge, results in better understanding by patients, unique and challenging cases for students, innovative community based research and discovery learning for all.

Lessons learned: Infrastructure development and financial management for large, publicly funded, international trials.

PubMed

Larson, Gregg S; Carey, Cate; Grarup, Jesper; Hudson, Fleur; Sachi, Karen; Vjecha, Michael J; Gordin, Fred

2016-04-01

Randomized clinical trials are widely recognized as essential to address worldwide clinical and public health research questions. However, their size and duration can overwhelm available public and private resources. To remain competitive in international research settings, advocates and practitioners of clinical trials must implement practices that reduce their cost. We identify approaches and practices for large, publicly funded, international trials that reduce cost without compromising data integrity and recommend an approach to cost reporting that permits comparison of clinical trials. We describe the organizational and financial characteristics of The International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials, an infectious disease research network that conducts multiple, large, long-term, international trials, and examine challenges associated with simple and streamlined governance and an infrastructure and financial management model that is based on performance, transparency, and accountability. It is possible to reduce costs of participants' follow-up and not compromise clinical trial quality or integrity. The International Network for Strategic Initiatives in Global HIV Trials network has successfully completed three large HIV trials using cost-efficient practices that have not adversely affected investigator enthusiasm, accrual rates, loss-to-follow-up, adherence to the protocol, and completion of data collection. This experience is relevant to the conduct of large, publicly funded trials in other disease areas, particularly trials dependent on international collaborations. New approaches, or creative adaption of traditional clinical trial infrastructure and financial management tools, can render large, international clinical trials more cost-efficient by emphasizing structural simplicity, minimal up-front costs, payments for performance, and uniform algorithms and fees-for-service, irrespective of location. However, challenges remain. They include institutional resistance to financial change, growing trial complexity, and the difficulty of sustaining network infrastructure absent stable research work. There is also a need for more central monitoring, improved and harmonized regulations, and a widely applied metric for measuring and comparing cost efficiency in clinical trials. ClinicalTrials.gov is recommended as a location where standardized trial cost information could be made publicly accessible. © The Author(s) 2016.

Storing and using health data in a virtual private cloud.

PubMed

Regola, Nathan; Chawla, Nitesh V

2013-03-13

Electronic health records are being adopted at a rapid rate due to increased funding from the US federal government. Health data provide the opportunity to identify possible improvements in health care delivery by applying data mining and statistical methods to the data and will also enable a wide variety of new applications that will be meaningful to patients and medical professionals. Researchers are often granted access to health care data to assist in the data mining process, but HIPAA regulations mandate comprehensive safeguards to protect the data. Often universities (and presumably other research organizations) have an enterprise information technology infrastructure and a research infrastructure. Unfortunately, both of these infrastructures are generally not appropriate for sensitive research data such as HIPAA, as they require special accommodations on the part of the enterprise information technology (or increased security on the part of the research computing environment). Cloud computing, which is a concept that allows organizations to build complex infrastructures on leased resources, is rapidly evolving to the point that it is possible to build sophisticated network architectures with advanced security capabilities. We present a prototype infrastructure in Amazon's Virtual Private Cloud to allow researchers and practitioners to utilize the data in a HIPAA-compliant environment.

Assessing Research Collaboration through Co-Authorship Network Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fagan, Jesse; Eddens, Katherine S.; Dolly, Jennifer; Vanderford, Nathan L.; Weiss, Heidi; Levens, Justin S.

2018-01-01

Interdisciplinary research collaboration is needed to perform transformative science and accelerate innovation. The Science of Team Science strives to investigate, evaluate, and foster team science, including institutional policies that may promote or hinder collaborative interdisciplinary research and the resources and infrastructure needed to…

Research Activities at Fermilab for Big Data Movement

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mhashilkar, Parag; Wu, Wenji; Kim, Hyun W

2013-01-01

Adaptation of 100GE Networking Infrastructure is the next step towards management of Big Data. Being the US Tier-1 Center for the Large Hadron Collider's (LHC) Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment and the central data center for several other large-scale research collaborations, Fermilab has to constantly deal with the scaling and wide-area distribution challenges of the big data. In this paper, we will describe some of the challenges involved in the movement of big data over 100GE infrastructure and the research activities at Fermilab to address these challenges.

Infrastructure to support learning health systems: are we there yet? Innovative solutions and lessons learned from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act CER investments.

PubMed

Holve, Erin; Segal, Courtney

2014-11-01

The 11 big health data networks participating in the AcademyHealth Electronic Data Methods Forum represent cutting-edge efforts to harness the power of big health data for research and quality improvement. This paper is a comparative case study based on site visits conducted with a subset of these large infrastructure grants funded through the Recovery Act, in which four key issues emerge that can inform the evolution of learning health systems, including the importance of acknowledging the challenges of scaling specialized expertise needed to manage and run CER networks; the delicate balance between privacy protections and the utility of distributed networks; emerging community engagement strategies; and the complexities of developing a robust business model for multi-use networks.

Layer 1 VPN services in distributed next-generation SONET/SDH networks with inverse multiplexing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghani, N.; Muthalaly, M. V.; Benhaddou, D.; Alanqar, W.

2006-05-01

Advances in next-generation SONET/SDH along with GMPLS control architectures have enabled many new service provisioning capabilities. In particular, a key services paradigm is the emergent Layer 1 virtual private network (L1 VPN) framework, which allows multiple clients to utilize a common physical infrastructure and provision their own 'virtualized' circuit-switched networks. This precludes expensive infrastructure builds and increases resource utilization for carriers. Along these lines, a novel L1 VPN services resource management scheme for next-generation SONET/SDH networks is proposed that fully leverages advanced virtual concatenation and inverse multiplexing features. Additionally, both centralized and distributed GMPLS-based implementations are also tabled to support the proposed L1 VPN services model. Detailed performance analysis results are presented along with avenues for future research.

Integration of research infrastructures and ecosystem models toward development of predictive ecology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Luo, Y.; Huang, Y.; Jiang, J.; MA, S.; Saruta, V.; Liang, G.; Hanson, P. J.; Ricciuto, D. M.; Milcu, A.; Roy, J.

2017-12-01

The past two decades have witnessed rapid development in sensor technology. Built upon the sensor development, large research infrastructure facilities, such as National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) and FLUXNET, have been established. Through networking different kinds of sensors and other data collections at many locations all over the world, those facilities generate large volumes of ecological data every day. The big data from those facilities offer an unprecedented opportunity for advancing our understanding of ecological processes, educating teachers and students, supporting decision-making, and testing ecological theory. The big data from the major research infrastructure facilities also provides foundation for developing predictive ecology. Indeed, the capability to predict future changes in our living environment and natural resources is critical to decision making in a world where the past is no longer a clear guide to the future. We are living in a period marked by rapid climate change, profound alteration of biogeochemical cycles, unsustainable depletion of natural resources, and deterioration of air and water quality. Projecting changes in future ecosystem services to the society becomes essential not only for science but also for policy making. We will use this panel format to outline major opportunities and challenges in integrating research infrastructure and ecosystem models toward developing predictive ecology. Meanwhile, we will also show results from an interactive model-experiment System - Ecological Platform for Assimilating Data into models (EcoPAD) - that have been implemented at the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental change (SPRUCE) experiment in Northern Minnesota and Montpellier Ecotron, France. EcoPAD is developed by integrating web technology, eco-informatics, data assimilation techniques, and ecosystem modeling. EcoPAD is designed to streamline data transfer seamlessly from research infrastructure facilities to model simulation, data assimilation, and ecological forecasting.

Assessing Research Interest and Capacity in Community Health Centers

PubMed Central

Bhuiya, Nazmim; Pernice, Joan; Khan, Sami M.; Sequist, Thomas D.; Tendulkar, Shalini A.

2013-01-01

Abstract Objective Community health centers (CHCs) have great potential to participate in the development of evidence‐based primary care but face obstacles to engagement in clinical translational research. Methods To understand factors associated with CHC interest in building research infrastructure, Harvard Catalyst and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers conducted an online survey of medical directors in all 50 Massachusetts CHC networks. Results Thirty‐two (64%) medical directors completed the survey representing 126 clinical sites. Over 80% reported that their primary care providers (PCPs) were slightly to very interested in future clinical research and that they were interested in building research infrastructure at their CHC. Frequently cited barriers to participation in research included financial issues, lack of research skills, and lack of research infrastructure. In bivariate analyses, PCP interest in future clinical research and a belief that involvement in research contributed to PCP retention were significantly associated with interest in building research infrastructure. Conclusion CHCs critical role in caring for vulnerable populations ideally positions them to raise relevant research questions and translate evidence into practice. Our findings suggest a high interest in engagement in research among CHC leadership. CTSAs have a unique opportunity to support local CHCs in this endeavor. PMID:24127928

Developing an Open Source, Reusable Platform for Distributed Collaborative Information Management in the Early Detection Research Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hart, Andrew F.; Verma, Rishi; Mattmann, Chris A.; Crichton, Daniel J.; Kelly, Sean; Kincaid, Heather; Hughes, Steven; Ramirez, Paul; Goodale, Cameron; Anton, Kristen;

Architecture of a Biomedical Informatics Research Data Management Pipeline.

PubMed

Bauer, Christian R; Umbach, Nadine; Baum, Benjamin; Buckow, Karoline; Franke, Thomas; Grütz, Romanus; Gusky, Linda; Nussbeck, Sara Yasemin; Quade, Matthias; Rey, Sabine; Rottmann, Thorsten; Rienhoff, Otto; Sax, Ulrich

2016-01-01

In University Medical Centers, heterogeneous data are generated that cannot always be clearly attributed to patient care or biomedical research. Each data set has to adhere to distinct intrinsic and operational quality standards. However, only if high-quality data, tools to work with the data, and most importantly guidelines and rules of how to work with the data are addressed adequately, an infrastructure can be sustainable. Here, we present the IT Research Architecture of the University Medical Center Göttingen and describe our ten years' experience and lessons learned with infrastructures in networked medical research.

Research Infrastructure and Scientific Collections: The Supply and Demand of Scientific Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, E.; Schindel, D. E.

2016-12-01

Research infrastructure is essential in both experimental and observational sciences and is commonly thought of as single-sited facilities. In contrast, object-based scientific collections are distributed in nearly every way, including by location, taxonomy, geologic epoch, discipline, collecting processes, benefits sharing rules, and many others. These diffused collections may have been amassed for a particular discipline, but their potential for use and impact in other fields needs to be explored. Through a series of cross-disciplinary activities, Scientific Collections International (SciColl) has explored and developed new ways in which the supply of scientific collections can meet the demand of researchers in unanticipated ways. From cross-cutting workshops on emerging infectious diseases and food security, to an online portal of collections, SciColl aims to illustrate the scope and value of object-based scientific research infrastructure. As distributed infrastructure, the full impact of scientific collections to the research community is a result of discovering, utilizing, and networking these resources. Examples and case studies from infectious disease research, food security topics, and digital connectivity will be explored.

Modeling track access charge to enhance railway industry performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berawi, Mohammed Ali; Miraj, Perdana; Berawi, Abdur Rohim Boy; Susantono, Bambang; Leviakangas, Pekka; Radiansyah, Hendra

2017-11-01

Indonesia attempts to improve nation's competitiveness by increasing the quality and the availability of railway network. However, the infrastructure improperly managed by the operator in terms of the technical issue. One of the reasons for this problem is an unbalanced value of infrastructure charge. In 2000's track access charge and infrastructure maintenance and operation for Indonesia railways are equal and despite current formula of the infrastructure charge, issues of transparency and accountability still in question. This research aims to produce an alternative scheme of track access charge by considering marginal cost plus markup (MC+) approach. The research combines qualitative and quantitative method through an in-depth interview and financial analysis. The result will generate alternative formula of infrastructure charge in Indonesia's railway industry. The simulation also conducted to estimate track access charge for the operator and to forecast government support in terms of subsidy. The result is expected to enhance railway industry performance and competitiveness.

Advanced Optical Burst Switched Network Concepts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nejabati, Reza; Aracil, Javier; Castoldi, Piero; de Leenheer, Marc; Simeonidou, Dimitra; Valcarenghi, Luca; Zervas, Georgios; Wu, Jian

In recent years, as the bandwidth and the speed of networks have increased significantly, a new generation of network-based applications using the concept of distributed computing and collaborative services is emerging (e.g., Grid computing applications). The use of the available fiber and DWDM infrastructure for these applications is a logical choice offering huge amounts of cheap bandwidth and ensuring global reach of computing resources [230]. Currently, there is a great deal of interest in deploying optical circuit (wavelength) switched network infrastructure for distributed computing applications that require long-lived wavelength paths and address the specific needs of a small number of well-known users. Typical users are particle physicists who, due to their international collaborations and experiments, generate enormous amounts of data (Petabytes per year). These users require a network infrastructures that can support processing and analysis of large datasets through globally distributed computing resources [230]. However, providing wavelength granularity bandwidth services is not an efficient and scalable solution for applications and services that address a wider base of user communities with different traffic profiles and connectivity requirements. Examples of such applications may be: scientific collaboration in smaller scale (e.g., bioinformatics, environmental research), distributed virtual laboratories (e.g., remote instrumentation), e-health, national security and defense, personalized learning environments and digital libraries, evolving broadband user services (i.e., high resolution home video editing, real-time rendering, high definition interactive TV). As a specific example, in e-health services and in particular mammography applications due to the size and quantity of images produced by remote mammography, stringent network requirements are necessary. Initial calculations have shown that for 100 patients to be screened remotely, the network would have to securely transport 1.2 GB of data every 30 s [230]. According to the above explanation it is clear that these types of applications need a new network infrastructure and transport technology that makes large amounts of bandwidth at subwavelength granularity, storage, computation, and visualization resources potentially available to a wide user base for specified time durations. As these types of collaborative and network-based applications evolve addressing a wide range and large number of users, it is infeasible to build dedicated networks for each application type or category. Consequently, there should be an adaptive network infrastructure able to support all application types, each with their own access, network, and resource usage patterns. This infrastructure should offer flexible and intelligent network elements and control mechanism able to deploy new applications quickly and efficiently.

Long-term agro-ecosystem research or the southern great plains: The USDA-ARS Grazinglands Research Laboratory partnership

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is coordinating ten well-established research sites as a Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) Network. The goal of the LTAR is to sustain a land-based infrastructure for research, environmental management testing, and education, that enables understan...

Workshop report: developing a pediatric inflammatory bowel diseases network and data platform in Canada.

PubMed

Sherman, Philip M; Brown, Sally; Rose, Keeley; Murphy, Tim; Makarchuk, Mary-Jo; Paterson, William; Belanger, Paul

2012-08-01

The purpose of the workshop was to receive input from the Canadian pediatric inflammatory bowel diseases research community to develop a research funding opportunity for a Canadian pediatric inflammatory bowel diseases network and data platform supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, in partnership with the Foundation for Children with Intestinal and Liver Disorders. Leaders from across the country came together, with the objectives of identifying the scientific goals for a Canadian pediatric inflammatory bowel disease network, the required infrastructure, and an appropriate governance structure needed to achieve such a network and data platform, as well as other elements needed to ensure the successful implementation of a network.

From County Roads to Superhighway: Keeping Pace with the New Business and Legal Turns on the Information Superhighway.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordon, Mark L.; McKenzie, Diana J. P.

1994-01-01

Discusses the development of a national information superhighway. Highlights include the National Information Infrastructure; NREN (National Research and Education Network); private networks, including Prodigy; repositioning in the telecommunications industry, including telephone, cable, and entertainment companies; government regulations;…

Architectural and Mobility Management Designs in Internet-Based Infrastructure Wireless Mesh Networks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Weiyi

2011-01-01

Wireless mesh networks (WMNs) have recently emerged to be a cost-effective solution to support large-scale wireless Internet access. They have numerous applications, such as broadband Internet access, building automation, and intelligent transportation systems. One research challenge for Internet-based WMNs is to design efficient mobility…

A decision support tool for vehicle infrastructure integration : understanding information effects and advancing data fusion algorithms for traffic management applications.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-10-15

This research seeks to explore vehicle-to-vehicle information networks to understand the interplay : between the information communicated and traffic conditions on the network. A longer-term goal is to : develop a decision support tool for processing...

IP Infrastructure Geolocation

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-01

unlimited 13. ABSTRACT (maximum 200 words) Physical network maps are important to critical infrastructure defense and planning. Current state-of...the-art network infrastructure geolocation relies on Domain Name System (DNS) inferences. However, not only is using the DNS relatively inaccurate for...INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK iv ABSTRACT Physical network maps are important to critical infrastructure defense and planning. Cur- rent state-of-the-art

Secure, Network-Centric Operations of a Space-Based Asset: Cisco Router in Low Earth Orbit (CLEO) and Virtual Mission Operations Center (VMOC)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ivancic, William; Stewart, Dave; Shell, Dan; Wood, Lloyd; Paulsen, Phil; Jackson, Chris; Hodgson, Dave; Notham, James; Bean, Neville; Miller, Eric

2005-01-01

This report documents the design of network infrastructure to support operations demonstrating the concept of network-centric operations and command and control of space-based assets. These demonstrations showcase major elements of the Transformal Communication Architecture (TCA), using Internet Protocol (IP) technology. These demonstrations also rely on IP technology to perform the functions outlined in the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Space Link Extension (SLE) document. A key element of these demonstrations was the ability to securely use networks and infrastructure owned and/or controlled by various parties. This is a sanitized technical report for public release. There is a companion report available to a limited audience. The companion report contains detailed networking addresses and other sensitive material and is available directly from William Ivancic at Glenn Research Center.

Measuring Road Network Vulnerability with Sensitivity Analysis

PubMed Central

Jun-qiang, Leng; Long-hai, Yang; Liu, Wei-yi; Zhao, Lin

2017-01-01

This paper focuses on the development of a method for road network vulnerability analysis, from the perspective of capacity degradation, which seeks to identify the critical infrastructures in the road network and the operational performance of the whole traffic system. This research involves defining the traffic utility index and modeling vulnerability of road segment, route, OD (Origin Destination) pair and road network. Meanwhile, sensitivity analysis method is utilized to calculate the change of traffic utility index due to capacity degradation. This method, compared to traditional traffic assignment, can improve calculation efficiency and make the application of vulnerability analysis to large actual road network possible. Finally, all the above models and calculation method is applied to actual road network evaluation to verify its efficiency and utility. This approach can be used as a decision-supporting tool for evaluating the performance of road network and identifying critical infrastructures in transportation planning and management, especially in the resource allocation for mitigation and recovery. PMID:28125706

Connected vehicle pilot deployment program.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-01-01

The U.S. Department of Transportations (USDOTs) connected vehicle research program is a multimodal initiative to enable safe, interoperable, networked wireless communications among vehicles, infrastructure, and personal communications devices. ...

The Czech National Grid Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chudoba, J.; Křenková, I.; Mulač, M.; Ruda, M.; Sitera, J.

2017-10-01

The Czech National Grid Infrastructure is operated by MetaCentrum, a CESNET department responsible for coordinating and managing activities related to distributed computing. CESNET as the Czech National Research and Education Network (NREN) provides many e-infrastructure services, which are used by 94% of the scientific and research community in the Czech Republic. Computing and storage resources owned by different organizations are connected by fast enough network to provide transparent access to all resources. We describe in more detail the computing infrastructure, which is based on several different technologies and covers grid, cloud and map-reduce environment. While the largest part of CPUs is still accessible via distributed torque servers, providing environment for long batch jobs, part of infrastructure is available via standard EGI tools in EGI, subset of NGI resources is provided into EGI FedCloud environment with cloud interface and there is also Hadoop cluster provided by the same e-infrastructure.A broad spectrum of computing servers is offered; users can choose from standard 2 CPU servers to large SMP machines with up to 6 TB of RAM or servers with GPU cards. Different groups have different priorities on various resources, resource owners can even have an exclusive access. The software is distributed via AFS. Storage servers offering up to tens of terabytes of disk space to individual users are connected via NFS4 on top of GPFS and access to long term HSM storage with peta-byte capacity is also provided. Overview of available resources and recent statistics of usage will be given.

Safeguarding donors' personal rights and biobank autonomy in biobank networks: the CRIP privacy regime.

PubMed

Schröder, Christina; Heidtke, Karsten R; Zacherl, Nikolaus; Zatloukal, Kurt; Taupitz, Jochen

2011-08-01

Governance, underlying general ICT (Information and Communication Technology) architecture, and workflow of the Central Research Infrastructure for molecular Pathology (CRIP) are discussed as a model enabling biobank networks to form operational "meta biobanks" whilst respecting the donors' privacy, biobank autonomy and confidentiality, and the researchers' needs for appropriate biospecimens and information, as well as confidentiality. Tailored to these needs, CRIP efficiently accelerates and facilitates research with human biospecimens and data.

The PBRN Initiative

PubMed Central

Curro, F.A.; Vena, D.; Naftolin, F.; Terracio, L.; Thompson, V.P.

2012-01-01

The NIDCR-supported Practice-based Research Network initiative presents dentistry with an unprecedented opportunity by providing a pathway for modifying and advancing the profession. It encourages practitioner participation in the transfer of science into practice for the improvement of patient care. PBRNs vary in infrastructure and design, and sustaining themselves in the long term may involve clinical trial validation by regulatory agencies. This paper discusses the PBRN concept in general and uses the New York University College of Dentistry’s Practitioners Engaged in Applied Research and Learning (PEARL) Network as a model to improve patient outcomes. The PEARL Network is structured to ensure generalizability of results, data integrity, and to provide an infrastructure in which scientists can address clinical practitioner research interests. PEARL evaluates new technologies, conducts comparative effectiveness research, participates in multidisciplinary clinical studies, helps evaluate alternative models of healthcare, educates and trains future clinical faculty for academic positions, expands continuing education to include “benchmarking” as a form of continuous feedback to practitioners, adds value to dental schools’ educational programs, and collaborates with the oral health care and pharmaceutical industries and medical PBRNs to advance the dental profession and further the integration of dental research and practice into contemporary healthcare (NCT00867997, NCT01268605). PMID:22699662

Pervasive Monitoring—An Intelligent Sensor Pod Approach for Standardised Measurement Infrastructures

PubMed Central

Resch, Bernd; Mittlboeck, Manfred; Lippautz, Michael

2010-01-01

Geo-sensor networks have traditionally been built up in closed monolithic systems, thus limiting trans-domain usage of real-time measurements. This paper presents the technical infrastructure of a standardised embedded sensing device, which has been developed in the course of the Live Geography approach. The sensor pod implements data provision standards of the Sensor Web Enablement initiative, including an event-based alerting mechanism and location-aware Complex Event Processing functionality for detection of threshold transgression and quality assurance. The goal of this research is that the resultant highly flexible sensing architecture will bring sensor network applications one step further towards the realisation of the vision of a “digital skin for planet earth”. The developed infrastructure can potentially have far-reaching impacts on sensor-based monitoring systems through the deployment of ubiquitous and fine-grained sensor networks. This in turn allows for the straight-forward use of live sensor data in existing spatial decision support systems to enable better-informed decision-making. PMID:22163537

Pervasive monitoring--an intelligent sensor pod approach for standardised measurement infrastructures.

PubMed

Resch, Bernd; Mittlboeck, Manfred; Lippautz, Michael

2010-01-01

Geo-sensor networks have traditionally been built up in closed monolithic systems, thus limiting trans-domain usage of real-time measurements. This paper presents the technical infrastructure of a standardised embedded sensing device, which has been developed in the course of the Live Geography approach. The sensor pod implements data provision standards of the Sensor Web Enablement initiative, including an event-based alerting mechanism and location-aware Complex Event Processing functionality for detection of threshold transgression and quality assurance. The goal of this research is that the resultant highly flexible sensing architecture will bring sensor network applications one step further towards the realisation of the vision of a "digital skin for planet earth". The developed infrastructure can potentially have far-reaching impacts on sensor-based monitoring systems through the deployment of ubiquitous and fine-grained sensor networks. This in turn allows for the straight-forward use of live sensor data in existing spatial decision support systems to enable better-informed decision-making.

The Distributed Space Exploration Simulation (DSES)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crues, Edwin Z.; Chung, Victoria I.; Blum, Mike G.; Bowman, James D.

2007-01-01

The paper describes the Distributed Space Exploration Simulation (DSES) Project, a research and development collaboration between NASA centers which focuses on the investigation and development of technologies, processes and integrated simulations related to the collaborative distributed simulation of complex space systems in support of NASA's Exploration Initiative. This paper describes the three major components of DSES: network infrastructure, software infrastructure and simulation development. In the network work area, DSES is developing a Distributed Simulation Network that will provide agency wide support for distributed simulation between all NASA centers. In the software work area, DSES is developing a collection of software models, tool and procedures that ease the burden of developing distributed simulations and provides a consistent interoperability infrastructure for agency wide participation in integrated simulation. Finally, for simulation development, DSES is developing an integrated end-to-end simulation capability to support NASA development of new exploration spacecraft and missions. This paper will present current status and plans for each of these work areas with specific examples of simulations that support NASA's exploration initiatives.

Modeling the resilience of critical infrastructure: the role of network dependencies.

PubMed

Guidotti, Roberto; Chmielewski, Hana; Unnikrishnan, Vipin; Gardoni, Paolo; McAllister, Therese; van de Lindt, John

2016-01-01

Water and wastewater network, electric power network, transportation network, communication network, and information technology network are among the critical infrastructure in our communities; their disruption during and after hazard events greatly affects communities' well-being, economic security, social welfare, and public health. In addition, a disruption in one network may cause disruption to other networks and lead to their reduced functionality. This paper presents a unified theoretical methodology for the modeling of dependent/interdependent infrastructure networks and incorporates it in a six-step probabilistic procedure to assess their resilience. Both the methodology and the procedure are general, can be applied to any infrastructure network and hazard, and can model different types of dependencies between networks. As an illustration, the paper models the direct effects of seismic events on the functionality of a potable water distribution network and the cascading effects of the damage of the electric power network (EPN) on the potable water distribution network (WN). The results quantify the loss of functionality and delay in the recovery process due to dependency of the WN on the EPN. The results show the importance of capturing the dependency between networks in modeling the resilience of critical infrastructure.

Modeling the resilience of critical infrastructure: the role of network dependencies

PubMed Central

Guidotti, Roberto; Chmielewski, Hana; Unnikrishnan, Vipin; Gardoni, Paolo; McAllister, Therese; van de Lindt, John

2017-01-01

Water and wastewater network, electric power network, transportation network, communication network, and information technology network are among the critical infrastructure in our communities; their disruption during and after hazard events greatly affects communities’ well-being, economic security, social welfare, and public health. In addition, a disruption in one network may cause disruption to other networks and lead to their reduced functionality. This paper presents a unified theoretical methodology for the modeling of dependent/interdependent infrastructure networks and incorporates it in a six-step probabilistic procedure to assess their resilience. Both the methodology and the procedure are general, can be applied to any infrastructure network and hazard, and can model different types of dependencies between networks. As an illustration, the paper models the direct effects of seismic events on the functionality of a potable water distribution network and the cascading effects of the damage of the electric power network (EPN) on the potable water distribution network (WN). The results quantify the loss of functionality and delay in the recovery process due to dependency of the WN on the EPN. The results show the importance of capturing the dependency between networks in modeling the resilience of critical infrastructure. PMID:28825037

LifeWatch - a Large-scale eScience Infrastructure to Assist in Understanding and Managing our Planet's Biodiversity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hernández Ernst, Vera; Poigné, Axel; Los, Walter

2010-05-01

Understanding and managing the complexity of the biodiversity system in relation to global changes concerning land use and climate change with their social and economic implications is crucial to mitigate species loss and biodiversity changes in general. The sustainable development and exploitation of existing biodiversity resources require flexible and powerful infrastructures offering, on the one hand, the access to large-scale databases of observations and measures, to advanced analytical and modelling software, and to high performance computing environments and, on the other hand, the interlinkage of European scientific communities among each others and with national policies. The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) selected the "LifeWatch e-science and technology infrastructure for biodiversity research" as a promising development to construct facilities to contribute to meet those challenges. LifeWatch collaborates with other selected initiatives (e.g. ICOS, ANAEE, NOHA, and LTER-Europa) to achieve the integration of the infrastructures at landscape and regional scales. This should result in a cooperating cluster of such infrastructures supporting an integrated approach for data capture and transmission, data management and harmonisation. Besides, facilities for exploration, forecasting, and presentation using heterogeneous and distributed data and tools should allow the interdisciplinary scientific research at any spatial and temporal scale. LifeWatch is an example of a new generation of interoperable research infrastructures based on standards and a service-oriented architecture that allow for linkage with external resources and associated infrastructures. External data sources will be established data aggregators as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) for species occurrences and other EU Networks of Excellence like the Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER), GMES, and GEOSS for terrestrial monitoring, the MARBEF network for marine data, and the Consortium for European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) and its European Distributed Institute for Taxonomy (EDIT) for taxonomic data. But also "smaller" networks and "volunteer scientists" may send data (e.g. GPS supported species observations) to a LifeWatch repository. Autonomous operating wireless environmental sensors and other smart hand-held devices will contribute to increase data capture activities. In this way LifeWatch will directly underpin the development of GEOBON, the biodiversity component if GEOSS, the Global Earth observation System. To overcome all major technical difficulties imposed by the variety of currently and future technologies, protocols, data formats, etc., LifeWatch will define and use common open interfaces. For this purpose, the LifeWatch Reference Model was developed during the preparatory phase specifying the service-oriented architecture underlying the ICT-infrastructure. The Reference Model identifies key requirements and key architectural concepts to support workflows for scientific in-silico experiments, tracking of provenance, and semantic enhancement, besides meeting the functional requirements mentioned before. It provides guidelines for the specification and implementation of services and information models, defining as well a number of generic services and models. Another key issue addressed by the Reference Model is that the cooperation of many developer teams residing in many European countries has to be organized to obtain compatible results in that conformance with the specifications and policies of the Reference Model will be required. The LifeWatch Reference Model is based on the ORCHESTRA Reference Model for geospatial-oriented architectures and services networks that provides a generic framework and has been endorsed as best practice by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). The LifeWatch Infrastructure will allow (interdisciplinary) scientific researchers to collaborate by creating e-Laboratories or by composing e-Services which can be shared and jointly developed. For it a long-term vision for the LifeWatch Biodiversity Workbench Portal has been developed as a one-stop application for the LifeWatch infrastructure based on existing and emerging technologies. There the user can find all available resources such as data, workflows, tools, etc. and access LifeWatch applications that integrate different resource and provides key capabilities like resource discovery and visualisation, creation of workflows, creation and management of provenance, and the support of collaborative activities. While LifeWatch developers will construct components for solving generic LifeWatch tasks, users may add their own facilities to fulfil individual needs. Examples for application of the LifeWatch Reference Model and the LifeWatch Biodiversity Workbench Portal will be given.

Australia's TERN: Building, Sustaining and Advancing Collaborative Long Term Ecosystem Research Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

HEld, A. A.; Phinn, S. R.

2012-12-01

TERN is Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (www.tern.org.au) is one of several environmental data collection, storage and sharing projects developed through the government's research infrastructure programs 2008-2014. This includes terrestrial and coastal ecosystem data collection infrastructure across multiple disciplines, hardware, software and processes used to store, analyse and integrate data sets. TERN's overall objective is to build the collaborations, infrastructure and programs to meet the needs of ecosystem science communities in Australia in the long term, through institutional frameworks necessary to establish a national terrestrial ecosystem site and observational network, coordinated networks enabling cooperation and operational experience; public access to quality assured and appropriately licensed data; and allowing the terrestrial ecosystem research community to define and sustain the terrestrial observing paradigm into the longer term. This paper explains how TERN was originally established, and now operates, along with plans to sustain itself in the future. TERN is implemented through discipline/technical groups referred to as "TERN Facilities". Combined, the facilities provide observations of surface mass and energy fluxes over key ecosystems, biophysical remote sensing data, ecological survey plots, soils information, and coastal ecosystems and associated water quality variables across Australia. Additional integrative facilities cover elements of ecoinformatics, data-scaling and modelling, and linking science to management. A central coordination and portal facility provides meta-data storage, data identification, legal and licensing support. Data access, uploading, meta-data generation, DOI attachment and licensing is completed at each facility's own portal level. TERN also acts as the open-data repository of choice for Australian scientists required to publish their data. Several key lessons we have learnt, will be presented during the talk.

GSDC: A Unique Data Center in Korea for HEP research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahn, Sang-Un

2017-04-01

Global Science experimental Data hub Center (GSDC) at Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) is a unique data center in South Korea established for promoting the fundamental research fields by supporting them with the expertise on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the infrastructure for High Performance Computing (HPC), High Throughput Computing (HTC) and Networking. GSDC has supported various research fields in South Korea dealing with the large scale of data, e.g. RENO experiment for neutrino research, LIGO experiment for gravitational wave detection, Genome sequencing project for bio-medical, and HEP experiments such as CDF at FNAL, Belle at KEK, and STAR at BNL. In particular, GSDC has run a Tier-1 center for ALICE experiment using the LHC at CERN since 2013. In this talk, we present the overview on computing infrastructure that GSDC runs for the research fields and we discuss on the data center infrastructure management system deployed at GSDC.

OOI CyberInfrastructure - Next Generation Oceanographic Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Farcas, C.; Fox, P.; Arrott, M.; Farcas, E.; Klacansky, I.; Krueger, I.; Meisinger, M.; Orcutt, J.

2008-12-01

Software has become a key enabling technology for scientific discovery, observation, modeling, and exploitation of natural phenomena. New value emerges from the integration of individual subsystems into networked federations of capabilities exposed to the scientific community. Such data-intensive interoperability networks are crucial for future scientific collaborative research, as they open up new ways of fusing data from different sources and across various domains, and analysis on wide geographic areas. The recently established NSF OOI program, through its CyberInfrastructure component addresses this challenge by providing broad access from sensor networks for data acquisition up to computational grids for massive computations and binding infrastructure facilitating policy management and governance of the emerging system-of-scientific-systems. We provide insight into the integration core of this effort, namely, a hierarchic service-oriented architecture for a robust, performant, and maintainable implementation. We first discuss the relationship between data management and CI crosscutting concerns such as identity management, policy and governance, which define the organizational contexts for data access and usage. Next, we detail critical services including data ingestion, transformation, preservation, inventory, and presentation. To address interoperability issues between data represented in various formats we employ a semantic framework derived from the Earth System Grid technology, a canonical representation for scientific data based on DAP/OPeNDAP, and related data publishers such as ERDDAP. Finally, we briefly present the underlying transport based on a messaging infrastructure over the AMQP protocol, and the preservation based on a distributed file system through SDSC iRODS.

Biomedical informatics research network: building a national collaboratory to hasten the derivation of new understanding and treatment of disease.

PubMed

Grethe, Jeffrey S; Baru, Chaitan; Gupta, Amarnath; James, Mark; Ludaescher, Bertram; Martone, Maryann E; Papadopoulos, Philip M; Peltier, Steven T; Rajasekar, Arcot; Santini, Simone; Zaslavsky, Ilya N; Ellisman, Mark H

2005-01-01

Through support from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources, the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) is pioneering the use of advanced cyberinfrastructure for medical research. By synchronizing developments in advanced wide area networking, distributed computing, distributed database federation, and other emerging capabilities of e-science, the BIRN has created a collaborative environment that is paving the way for biomedical research and clinical information management. The BIRN Coordinating Center (BIRN-CC) is orchestrating the development and deployment of key infrastructure components for immediate and long-range support of biomedical and clinical research being pursued by domain scientists in three neuroimaging test beds.

Developing a data life cycle for carbon and greenhouse gas measurements: challenges, experiences and visions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutsch, W. L.

2015-12-01

Environmental research infrastructures and big data integration networks require common data policies, standardized workflows and sophisticated e-infrastructure to optimise the data life cycle. This presentation summarizes the experiences in developing the data life cycle for the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), a European Research Infrastructure. It will also outline challenges that still exist and visions for future development. As many other environmental research infrastructures ICOS RI built on a large number of distributed observational or experimental sites. Data from these sites are transferred to Thematic Centres and quality checked, processed and integrated there. Dissemination will be managed by the ICOS Carbon Portal. This complex data life cycle has been defined in detail by developing protocols and assigning responsibilities. Since data will be shared under an open access policy there is a strong need for common data citation tracking systems that allow data providers to identify downstream usage of their data so as to prove their importance and show the impact to stakeholders and the public. More challenges arise from interoperating with other infrastructures or providing data for global integration projects as done e.g. in the framework of GEOSS or in global integration approaches such as fluxnet or SOCAt. Here, common metadata systems are the key solutions for data detection and harvesting. The metadata characterises data, services, users and ICT resources (including sensors and detectors). Risks may arise when data of high and low quality are mixed during this process or unexperienced data scientists without detailed knowledge on the data aquisition derive scientific theories through statistical analyses. The vision of fully open data availability is expressed in a recent GEO flagship initiative that will address important issues needed to build a connected and interoperable global network for carbon cycle and greenhouse gas observations and aims to meet the most urgent needs for integration between different information sources and methodologies, between different regional networks and from data providers to users.

Wireless Sensor Network Quality of Service Improvement on Flooding Attack Condition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartono, R.; Widyawan; Wibowo, S. B.; Purnomo, A.; Hartatik

2018-03-01

There are two methods of building communication using wireless media. The first method is building a base infrastructure as an intermediary between users. Problems that arise on this type of network infrastructure is limited space to build any network physical infrastructure and also the cost factor. The second method is to build an ad hoc network between users who will communicate. On ad hoc network, each user must be willing to send data from source to destination for the occurrence of a communication. One of network protocol in Ad Hoc, Ad hoc on demand Distance Vector (AODV), has the smallest overhead value, easier to adapt to dynamic network and has small control message. One AODV protocol’s drawback is route finding process’ security for sending the data. In this research, AODV protocol is optimized by determining Expanding Ring Search (ERS) best value. Random topology is used with variation in the number of nodes: 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150 with node’s speed of 10m/s in the area of 1000m x 1000m on flooding network condition. Parameters measured are Throughput, Packet Delivery Ratio, Average Delay and Normalized Routing Load. From the test results of AODV protocol optimization with best value of Expanding Ring Search (ERS), throughput increased by 5.67%, packet delivery ratio increased by 5.73%, and as for Normalized Routing Load decreased by 4.66%. ERS optimal value for each node’s condition depending on the number of nodes on the network.

Population as a proxy for infrastructure in the determination of event response and recovery resource allocations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stamber, Kevin L.; Unis, Carl J.; Shirah, Donald N.

Research into modeling of the quantification and prioritization of resources used in the recovery of lifeline critical infrastructure following disruptive incidents, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, has shown several factors to be important. Among these are population density and infrastructure density, event effects on infrastructure, and existence of an emergency response plan. The social sciences literature has a long history of correlating the population density and infrastructure density at a national scale, at a country-to-country level, mainly focused on transportation networks. This effort examines whether these correlations can be repeated at smaller geographic scales, for a variety of infrastructure types,more » so as to be able to use population data as a proxy for infrastructure data where infrastructure data is either incomplete or insufficiently granular. Using the best data available, this effort shows that strong correlations between infrastructure density for multiple types of infrastructure (e.g. miles of roads, hospital beds, miles of electric power transmission lines, and number of petroleum terminals) and population density do exist at known geographic boundaries (e.g. counties, service area boundaries) with exceptions that are explainable within the social sciences literature. Furthermore, the correlations identified provide a useful basis for ongoing research into the larger resource utilization problem.« less

Population as a proxy for infrastructure in the determination of event response and recovery resource allocations

DOE PAGES

Stamber, Kevin L.; Unis, Carl J.; Shirah, Donald N.; ...

2016-04-01

Research into modeling of the quantification and prioritization of resources used in the recovery of lifeline critical infrastructure following disruptive incidents, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, has shown several factors to be important. Among these are population density and infrastructure density, event effects on infrastructure, and existence of an emergency response plan. The social sciences literature has a long history of correlating the population density and infrastructure density at a national scale, at a country-to-country level, mainly focused on transportation networks. This effort examines whether these correlations can be repeated at smaller geographic scales, for a variety of infrastructure types,more » so as to be able to use population data as a proxy for infrastructure data where infrastructure data is either incomplete or insufficiently granular. Using the best data available, this effort shows that strong correlations between infrastructure density for multiple types of infrastructure (e.g. miles of roads, hospital beds, miles of electric power transmission lines, and number of petroleum terminals) and population density do exist at known geographic boundaries (e.g. counties, service area boundaries) with exceptions that are explainable within the social sciences literature. Furthermore, the correlations identified provide a useful basis for ongoing research into the larger resource utilization problem.« less

Harnessing person-generated health data to accelerate patient-centered outcomes research: the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America PCORnet Patient Powered Research Network (CCFA Partners).

PubMed

Chung, Arlene E; Sandler, Robert S; Long, Millie D; Ahrens, Sean; Burris, Jessica L; Martin, Christopher F; Anton, Kristen; Robb, Amber; Caruso, Thomas P; Jaeger, Elizabeth L; Chen, Wenli; Clark, Marshall; Myers, Kelly; Dobes, Angela; Kappelman, Michael D

2016-05-01

The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) seeks to advance and accelerate comparative effectiveness and translational research in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs). Our IBD-focused PCORnet PPRN has been designed to overcome the major obstacles that have limited patient-centered outcomes research in IBD by providing the technical infrastructure, patient governance, and patient-driven functionality needed to: 1) identify, prioritize, and undertake a patient-centered research agenda through sharing person-generated health data; 2) develop and test patient and provider-focused tools that utilize individual patient data to improve health behaviors and inform health care decisions and, ultimately, outcomes; and 3) rapidly disseminate new knowledge to patients, enabling them to improve their health. The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America Partners PPRN has fostered the development of a community of citizen scientists in IBD; created a portal that will recruit, retain, and engage members and encourage partnerships with external scientists; and produced an efficient infrastructure for identifying, screening, and contacting network members for participation in research. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Ten years of the Immune Tolerance Network: an integrated clinical research organization.

PubMed

Bluestone, Jeffrey A; Krensky, Alan M; Turka, Laurence A; Rotrosen, Daniel; Matthews, Jeffrey B

2010-02-17

The U.S. National Institutes of Health Roadmap and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Critical Path Initiative have endorsed the establishment of large academic clinical research networks as part of the solution to the growing divide between increased R&D spending and the lagging number of new drugs making it to market. Clearly, the role of these networks as translational science incubators that complement industry-sponsored programs is laudable and much-needed. However, the path to success for such organizations is less clear. Here, drawing on the experiences of the Immune Tolerance Network, a multidisciplinary clinical research network founded in 1999, we discuss some of the barriers inherent in developing such consortia and offer firsthand insight into the planning, resources, and organizational infrastructure required for a successful research program.

International Symposium on Grids and Clouds (ISGC) 2016

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

The International Symposium on Grids and Clouds (ISGC) 2016 will be held at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan from 13-18 March 2016, with co-located events and workshops. The conference is hosted by the Academia Sinica Grid Computing Centre (ASGC). The theme of ISGC 2016 focuses on“Ubiquitous e-infrastructures and Applications”. Contemporary research is impossible without a strong IT component - researchers rely on the existence of stable and widely available e-infrastructures and their higher level functions and properties. As a result of these expectations, e-Infrastructures are becoming ubiquitous, providing an environment that supports large scale collaborations that deal with global challenges as well as smaller and temporal research communities focusing on particular scientific problems. To support those diversified communities and their needs, the e-Infrastructures themselves are becoming more layered and multifaceted, supporting larger groups of applications. Following the call for the last year conference, ISGC 2016 continues its aim to bring together users and application developers with those responsible for the development and operation of multi-purpose ubiquitous e-Infrastructures. Topics of discussion include Physics (including HEP) and Engineering Applications, Biomedicine & Life Sciences Applications, Earth & Environmental Sciences & Biodiversity Applications, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) Applications, Virtual Research Environment (including Middleware, tools, services, workflow, etc.), Data Management, Big Data, Networking & Security, Infrastructure & Operations, Infrastructure Clouds and Virtualisation, Interoperability, Business Models & Sustainability, Highly Distributed Computing Systems, and High Performance & Technical Computing (HPTC), etc.

Storing and Using Health Data in a Virtual Private Cloud

PubMed Central

Regola, Nathan

2013-01-01

Electronic health records are being adopted at a rapid rate due to increased funding from the US federal government. Health data provide the opportunity to identify possible improvements in health care delivery by applying data mining and statistical methods to the data and will also enable a wide variety of new applications that will be meaningful to patients and medical professionals. Researchers are often granted access to health care data to assist in the data mining process, but HIPAA regulations mandate comprehensive safeguards to protect the data. Often universities (and presumably other research organizations) have an enterprise information technology infrastructure and a research infrastructure. Unfortunately, both of these infrastructures are generally not appropriate for sensitive research data such as HIPAA, as they require special accommodations on the part of the enterprise information technology (or increased security on the part of the research computing environment). Cloud computing, which is a concept that allows organizations to build complex infrastructures on leased resources, is rapidly evolving to the point that it is possible to build sophisticated network architectures with advanced security capabilities. We present a prototype infrastructure in Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud to allow researchers and practitioners to utilize the data in a HIPAA-compliant environment. PMID:23485880

Effective Utilization of Resources and Infrastructure for a Spaceport Network Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gill, Tracy; Larson, Wiley; Mueller, Robert; Roberson, Luke

2012-01-01

Providing routine, affordable access to a variety of orbital and deep space destinations requires an intricate network of ground, planetary surface, and space-based spaceports like those on Earth (land and sea), in various Earth orbits, and on other extraterrestrial surfaces. Advancements in technology and international collaboration are critical to establish a spaceport network that satisfies the requirements for private and government research, exploration, and commercial objectives. Technologies, interfaces, assembly techniques, and protocols must be adapted to enable mission critical capabilities and interoperability throughout the spaceport network. The conceptual space mission architecture must address the full range of required spaceport services, from managing propellants for a variety of spacecraft to governance structure. In order to accomplish affordability and sustainability goals, the network architecture must consider deriving propellants from in situ planetary resources to the maximum extent possible. Water on the Moon and Mars, Mars' atmospheric CO2, and O2 extracted from lunar regolith are examples of in situ resources that could be used to generate propellants for various spacecraft, orbital stages and trajectories, and the commodities to support habitation and human operations at these destinations. The ability to use in-space fuel depots containing in situ derived propellants would drastically reduce the mass required to launch long-duration or deep space missions from Earth's gravity well. Advances in transformative technologies and common capabilities, interfaces, umbilicals, commodities, protocols, and agreements will facilitate a cost-effective, safe, reliable infrastructure for a versatile network of Earth- and extraterrestrial spaceports. Defining a common infrastructure on Earth, planetary surfaces, and in space, as well as deriving propellants from in situ planetary resources to construct in-space propellant depots to serve the spaceport network, will reduce exploration costs due to standardization of infrastructure commonality and reduction in number and types of interfaces and commodities.

A model for simulating adaptive, dynamic flows on networks: Application to petroleum infrastructure

DOE PAGES

Corbet, Thomas F.; Beyeler, Walt; Wilson, Michael L.; ...

2017-10-03

Simulation models can greatly improve decisions meant to control the consequences of disruptions to critical infrastructures. We describe a dynamic flow model on networks purposed to inform analyses by those concerned about consequences of disruptions to infrastructures and to help policy makers design robust mitigations. We conceptualize the adaptive responses of infrastructure networks to perturbations as market transactions and business decisions of operators. We approximate commodity flows in these networks by a diffusion equation, with nonlinearities introduced to model capacity limits. To illustrate the behavior and scalability of the model, we show its application first on two simple networks, thenmore » on petroleum infrastructure in the United States, where we analyze the effects of a hypothesized earthquake.« less

A model for simulating adaptive, dynamic flows on networks: Application to petroleum infrastructure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Corbet, Thomas F.; Beyeler, Walt; Wilson, Michael L.

Simulation models can greatly improve decisions meant to control the consequences of disruptions to critical infrastructures. We describe a dynamic flow model on networks purposed to inform analyses by those concerned about consequences of disruptions to infrastructures and to help policy makers design robust mitigations. We conceptualize the adaptive responses of infrastructure networks to perturbations as market transactions and business decisions of operators. We approximate commodity flows in these networks by a diffusion equation, with nonlinearities introduced to model capacity limits. To illustrate the behavior and scalability of the model, we show its application first on two simple networks, thenmore » on petroleum infrastructure in the United States, where we analyze the effects of a hypothesized earthquake.« less

The ADVANCE network: accelerating data value across a national community health center network

PubMed Central

DeVoe, Jennifer E; Gold, Rachel; Cottrell, Erika; Bauer, Vance; Brickman, Andrew; Puro, Jon; Nelson, Christine; Mayer, Kenneth H; Sears, Abigail; Burdick, Tim; Merrell, Jonathan; Matthews, Paul; Fields, Scott

2014-01-01

The ADVANCE (Accelerating Data Value Across a National Community Health Center Network) clinical data research network (CDRN) is led by the OCHIN Community Health Information Network in partnership with Health Choice Network and Fenway Health. The ADVANCE CDRN will ‘horizontally’ integrate outpatient electronic health record data for over one million federally qualified health center patients, and ‘vertically’ integrate hospital, health plan, and community data for these patients, often under-represented in research studies. Patient investigators, community investigators, and academic investigators with diverse expertise will work together to meet project goals related to data integration, patient engagement and recruitment, and the development of streamlined regulatory policies. By enhancing the data and research infrastructure of participating organizations, the ADVANCE CDRN will serve as a ‘community laboratory’ for including disadvantaged and vulnerable patients in patient-centered outcomes research that is aligned with the priorities of patients, clinics, and communities in our network. PMID:24821740

National Institutes of Health eliminates funding for national architecture linking primary care research.

PubMed

Peterson, Kevin A

2007-01-01

With the ending of the National Electronic Clinical Trial and Research Network (NECTAR) pilot programs and the abridgement of Clinical Research Associate initiative, the National Institutes of Health Roadmap presents a strategic shift for practice-based research networks from direct funding of a harmonized national infrastructure of cooperating research networks to a model of local engagement of primary care clinics performing practice-based research under the aegis of regional academic health centers through Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Although this may present important opportunities for partnering between community practices and large health centers, for primary care researchers, the promise of a transformational change that brings a unified national primary care community into the clinical research enterprise seems likely to remain unfulfilled.

A systems approach to risk reduction of transportation infrastructure networks subject to multiple hazards : final report, December 31, 2008.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-12-31

Integrity, robustness, reliability, and resiliency of infrastructure networks are vital to the economy, : security and well-being of any country. Faced with threats caused by natural and man-made hazards, : transportation infrastructure network manag...

Genesis, goals and achievements of Long-Term Ecological Research at the global scale: A critical review of ILTER and future directions.

PubMed

Mirtl, M; T Borer, E; Djukic, I; Forsius, M; Haubold, H; Hugo, W; Jourdan, J; Lindenmayer, D; McDowell, W H; Muraoka, H; Orenstein, D E; Pauw, J C; Peterseil, J; Shibata, H; Wohner, C; Yu, X; Haase, P

2018-06-01

Since its founding in 1993 the International Long-term Ecological Research Network (ILTER) has gone through pronounced development phases. The current network comprises 44 active member LTER networks representing 700 LTER Sites and ~80 LTSER Platforms across all continents, active in the fields of ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological research. The critical challenges and most important achievements of the initial phase have now become state-of-the-art in networking for excellent science. At the same time increasing integration, accelerating technology, networking of resources and a strong pull for more socially relevant scientific information have been modifying the mission and goals of ILTER. This article provides a critical review of ILTER's mission, goals, development and impacts. Major characteristics, tools, services, partnerships and selected examples of relative strengths relevant for advancing ILTER are presented. We elaborate on the tradeoffs between the needs of the scientific community and stakeholder expectations. The embedding of ILTER in an increasingly collaborative landscape of global environmental observation and ecological research networks and infrastructures is also reflected by developments of pioneering regional and national LTER networks such as SAEON in South Africa, CERN/CEOBEX in China, TERN in Australia or eLTER RI in Europe. The primary role of ILTER is currently seen as a mechanism to investigate ecosystem structure, function, and services in response to a wide range of environmental forcings using long-term, place-based research. We suggest four main fields of activities and advancements for the next decade through development/delivery of a: (1) Global multi-disciplinary community of researchers and research institutes; (2) Strategic global framework and strong partnerships in ecosystem observation and research; (3) Global Research Infrastructure (GRI); and (4) a scientific knowledge factory for societally relevant information on sustainable use of natural resources. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) | Division of Cancer Prevention

Cancer.gov

http://edrn.nci.nih.gov/EDRN is a collaborative network that maintains comprehensive infrastructure and resources critical to the discovery, development and validation of biomarkers for cancer risk and early detection. The program comprises a public/private sector consortium to accelerate the development of biomarkers that will change medical practice, ensure data

Organizational Strategies for Critical Transportation Infrastructure: Characteristics of Urban Resilience. The Case of Montreal.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beauregard, Stéphane; Therrien, Marie-Christine; Normandin, Julie-Maude

2010-05-01

Organizational Strategies for Critical Transportation Infrastructure: Characteristics of Urban Resilience. The Case of Montreal. Stéphane Beauregard M.Sc. Candidate École nationale d'administration publique Julie-Maude Normandin Ph.D. Candidate École nationale d'administration publique Marie-Christine Therrien Professor École nationale d'administration publique The proposed paper presents preliminary results on the resilience of organizations managing critical infrastructure in the Metropolitan Montreal area (Canada). A resilient city is characterized by a network of infrastructures and individuals capable of maintaining their activities in spite of a disturbance (Godschalk, 2002). Critical infrastructures provide essential services for the functioning of society. In a crisis situation, the interruption or a decrease in performance of critical infrastructures could have important impacts on the population. They are also vulnerable to accidents and cascading effects because on their complexity and tight interdependence (Perrow, 1984). For these reasons, protection and security of the essential assets and networks are one of the objectives of organizations and governments. But prevention and recovery are two endpoints of a continuum which include also intermediate concerns: ensuring organizational robustness or failing with elegance rather than catastrophically. This continuum also includes organizational resilience (or system), or the ability to recover quickly after an interruption has occurred. Wildavsky (1988) proposes that anticipation strategies work better against known problems while resilience strategies focus on unknown problems. Anticipation policies can unnecessarily immobilize investments against risks, while resilience strategies include the potential for a certain sacrifice in the interests of a more long-term survival and adaptation to changing threats. In addition, a too large confidence in anticipation strategies can bring loss of capacity of an organization to adapt to conditions. Each strategy must adapt to specific conditions. Where uncertainties important, resilience is probably the most appropriate. Where conditions are stable, and where future projections are generally fair, anticipating works better, although it should be used judiciously (Fiksel, 2003). Anticipation strategies immobilize specific or tangible resources and, can eventually be costly in the long-term. On the other hand, resilient systems and organizations are those that quickly acquire information about their environments, quickly change their behaviour and their structures, even if the circumstances are chaotic. They communicate easily and openly, and largely mobilize networks of expertise and support (Perrow, 1999). We conducted qualitative research to assess different variables that positively affect the organizational resilience in the management of critical infrastructure. We preferred a methodology allowing us to retain the complexity of the phenomenon, not affecting the nature of the system studied. Our methodology allows us to create pragmatic theoretical concepts (grounded theory) (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Our main concern is not to separate the phenomenon studied in its context. This methodology allows us to better understand the coordination between the organizations network infrastructure essential by a process of "sweeping-in" (Dewey, 1938). After conducting a literature review of various concepts of our research (Comfort, L. K., 2002; Lagadec and Michel-Kerjan, 2004; Perrow, 1999; Weick and Sutcliffe, 2001; and more) we have conducted numerous interviews and distributed a questionnaire to highlight significant indicators. For the first part of this research, we targeted the transportation critical infrastructure of Montreal area because it is crucial and also this infrastructure includes public, parapublic and private organisations. The first results of this research demonstrate the contribution of different structural and functional factors that influence the intraorganizational resilience and interorganizational resilience for the transportation sector of Montreal.

Accelerators for society: succession of European infrastructural projects: CARE, EuCARD, TIARA, EuCARD2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2013-10-01

Accelerator science and technology is one of a key enablers of the developments in the particle physic, photon physics and also applications in medicine and industry. The paper presents a digest of the research results in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the realization of CARE (Coordinated Accelerator R&D), EuCARD (European Coordination of Accelerator R&D) and during the national annual review meeting of the TIARA - Test Infrastructure of European Research Area in Accelerator R&D. The European projects on accelerator technology started in 2003 with CARE. TIARA is an European Collaboration of Accelerator Technology, which by running research projects, technical, networks and infrastructural has a duty to integrate the research and technical communities and infrastructures in the global scale of Europe. The Collaboration gathers all research centers with large accelerator infrastructures. Other ones, like universities, are affiliated as associate members. TIARA-PP (preparatory phase) is an European infrastructural project run by this Consortium and realized inside EU-FP7. The paper presents a general overview of CARE, EuCARD and especially TIARA activities, with an introduction containing a portrait of contemporary accelerator technology and a digest of its applications in modern society. CARE, EuCARD and TIARA activities integrated the European accelerator community in a very effective way. These projects are expected very much to be continued.

International global network of fiducial stations: Scientific and implementation issues

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1991-11-01

In this report, an ad hoc panel of the National Research Council's Committee on Geodesy, Board of Earth Sciences and Resources (1) evaluates the scientific importance of a global network of fiducial sites, monitored very precisely, using a combination of surface- and space-geodetic techniques; (2) examines strategies for implementing and operating such a network; and (3) assesses whether such a network would provide a suitable global infrastructure for geodetic and other geophysical systems of the next century. The panel concludes that a global network of fiducial sites would be a valuable tool for addressing global change issues and play a critical role in providing a reference frame for scientific Earth missions. The panel suggests that existing global networks be integrated and anticipates that such a network would grow from about 30 to the ultimate size of about 200 fiducial sites. It is noted that such a global network will provide a long-term infrastructure for geodetic and geophysical studies. The panel expects that these fiducial sites would evolve into terrestrial observatories or laboratories that would permit more comprehensive studies of the Earth than those now possible.

International global network of fiducial stations: Scientific and implementation issues

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1991-01-01

In this report, an ad hoc panel of the National Research Council's Committee on Geodesy, Board of Earth Sciences and Resources (1) evaluates the scientific importance of a global network of fiducial sites, monitored very precisely, using a combination of surface- and space-geodetic techniques; (2) examines strategies for implementing and operating such a network; and (3) assesses whether such a network would provide a suitable global infrastructure for geodetic and other geophysical systems of the next century. The panel concludes that a global network of fiducial sites would be a valuable tool for addressing global change issues and play a critical role in providing a reference frame for scientific Earth missions. The panel suggests that existing global networks be integrated and anticipates that such a network would grow from about 30 to the ultimate size of about 200 fiducial sites. It is noted that such a global network will provide a long-term infrastructure for geodetic and geophysical studies. The panel expects that these fiducial sites would evolve into terrestrial observatories or laboratories that would permit more comprehensive studies of the Earth than those now possible.

RNA transcriptional biosignature analysis for identifying febrile infants with serious bacterial infections in the emergency department: a feasibility study.

PubMed

Mahajan, Prashant; Kuppermann, Nathan; Suarez, Nicolas; Mejias, Asuncion; Casper, Charlie; Dean, J Michael; Ramilo, Octavio

2015-01-01

To develop the infrastructure and demonstrate the feasibility of conducting microarray-based RNA transcriptional profile analyses for the diagnosis of serious bacterial infections in febrile infants 60 days and younger in a multicenter pediatric emergency research network. We designed a prospective multicenter cohort study with the aim of enrolling more than 4000 febrile infants 60 days and younger. To ensure success of conducting complex genomic studies in emergency department (ED) settings, we established an infrastructure within the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, including 21 sites, to evaluate RNA transcriptional profiles in young febrile infants. We developed a comprehensive manual of operations and trained site investigators to obtain and process blood samples for RNA extraction and genomic analyses. We created standard operating procedures for blood sample collection, processing, storage, shipping, and analyses. We planned to prospectively identify, enroll, and collect 1 mL blood samples for genomic analyses from eligible patients to identify logistical issues with study procedures. Finally, we planned to batch blood samples and determined RNA quantity and quality at the central microarray laboratory and organized data analysis with the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network data coordinating center. Below we report on establishment of the infrastructure and the feasibility success in the first year based on the enrollment of a limited number of patients. We successfully established the infrastructure at 21 EDs. Over the first 5 months we enrolled 79% (74 of 94) of eligible febrile infants. We were able to obtain and ship 1 mL of blood from 74% (55 of 74) of enrolled participants, with at least 1 sample per participating ED. The 55 samples were shipped and evaluated at the microarray laboratory, and 95% (52 of 55) of blood samples were of adequate quality and contained sufficient RNA for expression analysis. It is possible to create a robust infrastructure to conduct genomic studies in young febrile infants in the context of a multicenter pediatric ED research setting. The sufficient quantity and high quality of RNA obtained suggests that whole blood transcriptional profile analysis for the diagnostic evaluation of young febrile infants can be successfully performed in this setting.

A system to build distributed multivariate models and manage disparate data sharing policies: implementation in the scalable national network for effectiveness research.

PubMed

Meeker, Daniella; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Matheny, Michael E; Farcas, Claudiu; D'Arcy, Michel; Pearlman, Laura; Nookala, Lavanya; Day, Michele E; Kim, Katherine K; Kim, Hyeoneui; Boxwala, Aziz; El-Kareh, Robert; Kuo, Grace M; Resnic, Frederic S; Kesselman, Carl; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2015-11-01

Centralized and federated models for sharing data in research networks currently exist. To build multivariate data analysis for centralized networks, transfer of patient-level data to a central computation resource is necessary. The authors implemented distributed multivariate models for federated networks in which patient-level data is kept at each site and data exchange policies are managed in a study-centric manner. The objective was to implement infrastructure that supports the functionality of some existing research networks (e.g., cohort discovery, workflow management, and estimation of multivariate analytic models on centralized data) while adding additional important new features, such as algorithms for distributed iterative multivariate models, a graphical interface for multivariate model specification, synchronous and asynchronous response to network queries, investigator-initiated studies, and study-based control of staff, protocols, and data sharing policies. Based on the requirements gathered from statisticians, administrators, and investigators from multiple institutions, the authors developed infrastructure and tools to support multisite comparative effectiveness studies using web services for multivariate statistical estimation in the SCANNER federated network. The authors implemented massively parallel (map-reduce) computation methods and a new policy management system to enable each study initiated by network participants to define the ways in which data may be processed, managed, queried, and shared. The authors illustrated the use of these systems among institutions with highly different policies and operating under different state laws. Federated research networks need not limit distributed query functionality to count queries, cohort discovery, or independently estimated analytic models. Multivariate analyses can be efficiently and securely conducted without patient-level data transport, allowing institutions with strict local data storage requirements to participate in sophisticated analyses based on federated research networks. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Transit connected vehicle research program.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-01-01

Connected vehicles have the potential to transform the way Americans travel through the creation of a safe, : interoperable wireless communications network that links cars, buses, trucks, trains, transportation infrastructure, : and personal mobile d...

Telethon Network of Genetic Biobanks: a key service for diagnosis and research on rare diseases.

PubMed

Filocamo, Mirella; Baldo, Chiara; Goldwurm, Stefano; Renieri, Alessandra; Angelini, Corrado; Moggio, Maurizio; Mora, Marina; Merla, Giuseppe; Politano, Luisa; Garavaglia, Barbara; Casareto, Lorena; Bricarelli, Francesca Dagna

2013-08-30

Several examples have always illustrated how access to large numbers of biospecimens and associated data plays a pivotal role in the identification of disease genes and the development of pharmaceuticals. Hence, allowing researchers to access to significant numbers of quality samples and data, genetic biobanks are a powerful tool in basic, translational and clinical research into rare diseases. Recently demand for well-annotated and properly-preserved specimens is growing at a high rate, and is expected to grow for years to come. The best effective solution to this issue is to enhance the potentialities of well-managed biobanks by building a network.Here we report a 5-year experience of the Telethon Network of Genetic Biobanks (TNGB), a non-profit association of Italian repositories created in 2008 to form a virtually unique catalogue of biospecimens and associated data, which presently lists more than 750 rare genetic defects. The process of TNGB harmonisation has been mainly achieved through the adoption of a unique, centrally coordinated, IT infrastructure, which has enabled (i) standardisation of all the TNGB procedures and activities; (ii) creation of an updated TNGB online catalogue, based on minimal data set and controlled terminologies; (iii) sample access policy managed via a shared request control panel at web portal. TNGB has been engaged in disseminating information on its services into both scientific/biomedical - national and international - contexts, as well as associations of patients and families. Indeed, during the last 5-years national and international scientists extensively used the TNGB with different purposes resulting in more than 250 scientific publications. In addition, since its inception the TNGB is an associated member of the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure and recently joined the EuroBioBank network. Moreover, the involvement of patients and families, leading to the formalization of various agreements between TNGB and Patients' Associations, has demonstrated how promoting Biobank services can be instrumental in gaining a critical mass of samples essential for research, as well as, raising awareness, trust and interest of the general public in Biobanks. This article focuses on some fundamental aspects of networking and demonstrates how the translational research benefits from a sustained infrastructure.

Common solutions for power, communication and robustness in operations of large measurement networks within Research Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huber, Robert; Beranzoli, Laura; Fiebig, Markus; Gilbert, Olivier; Laj, Paolo; Mazzola, Mauro; Paris, Jean-Daniel; Pedersen, Helle; Stocker, Markus; Vitale, Vito; Waldmann, Christoph

2017-04-01

European Environmental Research Infrastructures (RI) frequently comprise in situ observatories from large-scale networks of platforms or sites to local networks of various sensors. Network operation is usually a cumbersome aspect of these RIs facing specific technological problems related to operations in remote areas, maintenance of the network, transmission of observation values, etc.. Robust inter-connection within and across these networks is still at infancy level and the burden increases with remoteness of the station, harshness of environmental conditions, and unavailability of classic communication systems, which is a common feature here. Despite existing RIs having developed ad-hoc solutions to overcome specific problems and innovative technologies becoming available, no common approach yet exists. Within the European project ENVRIplus, a dedicated work package aims to stimulate common network operation technologies and approaches in terms of power supply and storage, robustness, and data transmission. Major objectives of this task are to review existing technologies and RI requirements, propose innovative solutions and evaluate the standardization potential prior to wider deployment across networks. Focus areas within these efforts are: improving energy production and storage units, testing robustness of RI equipment towards extreme conditions as well as methodologies for robust data transmission. We will introduce current project activities which are coordinated at various levels including the engineering as well as the data management perspective, and explain how environmental RIs can benefit from the developments.

Complex Networks and Critical Infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Setola, Roberto; de Porcellinis, Stefano

The term “Critical Infrastructures” indicates all those technological infrastructures such as: electric grids, telecommunication networks, railways, healthcare systems, financial circuits, etc. that are more and more relevant for the welfare of our countries. Each one of these infrastructures is a complex, highly non-linear, geographically dispersed cluster of systems, that interact with their human owners, operators, users and with the other infrastructures. Their augmented relevance and the actual political and technological scenarios, which have increased their exposition to accidental failure and deliberate attacks, demand for different and innovative protection strategies (generally indicate as CIP - Critical Infrastructure Protection). To this end it is mandatory to understand the mechanisms that regulate the dynamic of these infrastructures. In this framework, an interesting approach is those provided by the complex networks. In this paper we illustrate some results achieved considering structural and functional properties of the corresponding topological networks both when each infrastructure is assumed as an autonomous system and when we take into account also the dependencies existing among the different infrastructures.

CREST biorepository for translational studies on malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer and other respiratory tract diseases: Informatics infrastructure and standardized annotation.

PubMed

Ugolini, Donatella; Neri, Monica; Bennati, Luca; Canessa, Pier Aldo; Casanova, Georgia; Lando, Cecilia; Leoncini, Giacomo; Marroni, Paola; Parodi, Barbara; Simonassi, Claudio; Bonassi, Stefano

2012-03-01

Advances in molecular epidemiology and translational research have led to the need for biospecimen collection. The Cancer of the Respiratory Tract (CREST) biorepository is concerned with pleural malignant mesothelioma (MM) and lung cancer (LC). The biorepository staff has collected demographic and epidemiological data directly from consenting subjects using a structured questionnaire, in agreement with The Public Population Project in Genomics (P(3)G). Clinical and follow-up data were collected. Sample data were also recorded. The architecture is based on a database designed with Microsoft Access. Data standardization was carried out to conform with established conventions or procedures. As from January 31, 2011, the overall number of recruited subjects was 1,857 (454 LC, 245 MM, 130 other cancers and 1,028 controls). Due to its infrastructure, CREST was able to join international projects, sharing samples and/or data with other research groups in the field. The data management system allows CREST to be involved, through a minimum data set, in the national project for the construction of the Italian network of Oncologic BioBanks (RIBBO), and in the infrastructure of a pan-European biobank network (BBMRI). The CREST biorepository is a valuable tool for translational studies on respiratory tract diseases, because of its simple and efficient infrastructure.

The biobanking research infrastructure BBMRI_CZ: a critical tool to enhance translational cancer research.

PubMed

Holub, P; Greplova, K; Knoflickova, D; Nenutil, R; Valik, D

2012-01-01

We introduce the national research biobanking infrastructure, BBMRI_CZ. The infrastructure has been founded by the Ministry of Education and became a partner of the European biobanking infrastructure BBMRI.eu. It is designed as a network of individual biobanks where each biobank stores samples obtained from associated healthcare providers. The biobanks comprise long term storage (various types of tissues classified by diagnosis, serum at surgery, genomic DNA and RNA) and short term storage (longitudinally sampled patient sera). We discuss the operation workflow of the infrastructure that needs to be the distributed system: transfer of the samples to the biobank needs to be accompanied by extraction of data from the hospital information systems and this data must be stored in a central index serving mainly for sample lookup. Since BBMRI_CZ is designed solely for research purposes, the data is anonymised prior to their integration into the central BBMRI_CZ index. The index is then available for registered researchers to seek for samples of interest and to request the samples from biobank managers. The paper provides an overview of the structure of data stored in the index. We also discuss monitoring system for the biobanks, incorporated to ensure quality of the stored samples.

Effects of spatial configuration of imperviousness and green infrastructure networks on hydrologic response in a residential sewershed

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Theodore C.; Welty, Claire

2017-09-01

Green infrastructure (GI) is an approach to stormwater management that promotes natural processes of infiltration and evapotranspiration, reducing surface runoff to conventional stormwater drainage infrastructure. As more urban areas incorporate GI into their stormwater management plans, greater understanding is needed on the effects of spatial configuration of GI networks on hydrological performance, especially in the context of potential subsurface and lateral interactions between distributed facilities. In this research, we apply a three-dimensional, coupled surface-subsurface, land-atmosphere model, ParFlow.CLM, to a residential urban sewershed in Washington DC that was retrofitted with a network of GI installations between 2009 and 2015. The model was used to test nine additional GI and imperviousness spatial network configurations for the site and was compared with monitored pipe-flow data. Results from the simulations show that GI located in higher flow-accumulation areas of the site intercepted more surface runoff, even during wetter and multiday events. However, a comparison of the differences between scenarios and levels of variation and noise in monitored data suggests that the differences would only be detectable between the most and least optimal GI/imperviousness configurations.

Facility and Laboratory Equipment | Energy Systems Integration Facility |

Science.gov Websites

Energy Systems Integration Facility is its infrastructure. In addition to extensive fixed laboratory . Photo of researchers testing building loads and power networks in the Systems Performance Laboratory

Scalability Issues for Remote Sensing Infrastructure: A Case Study.

PubMed

Liu, Yang; Picard, Sean; Williamson, Carey

2017-04-29

For the past decade, a team of University of Calgary researchers has operated a large "sensor Web" to collect, analyze, and share scientific data from remote measurement instruments across northern Canada. This sensor Web receives real-time data streams from over a thousand Internet-connected sensors, with a particular emphasis on environmental data (e.g., space weather, auroral phenomena, atmospheric imaging). Through research collaborations, we had the opportunity to evaluate the performance and scalability of their remote sensing infrastructure. This article reports the lessons learned from our study, which considered both data collection and data dissemination aspects of their system. On the data collection front, we used benchmarking techniques to identify and fix a performance bottleneck in the system's memory management for TCP data streams, while also improving system efficiency on multi-core architectures. On the data dissemination front, we used passive and active network traffic measurements to identify and reduce excessive network traffic from the Web robots and JavaScript techniques used for data sharing. While our results are from one specific sensor Web system, the lessons learned may apply to other scientific Web sites with remote sensing infrastructure.

Insecurity of Wireless Networks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sheldon, Frederick T; Weber, John Mark; Yoo, Seong-Moo

Wireless is a powerful core technology enabling our global digital infrastructure. Wi-Fi networks are susceptible to attacks on Wired Equivalency Privacy, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and WPA2. These attack signatures can be profiled into a system that defends against such attacks on the basis of their inherent characteristics. Wi-Fi is the standard protocol for wireless networks used extensively in US critical infrastructures. Since the Wired Equivalency Privacy (WEP) security protocol was broken, the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) protocol has been considered the secure alternative compatible with hardware developed for WEP. However, in November 2008, researchers developed an attack on WPA,more » allowing forgery of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packets. Subsequent enhancements have enabled ARP poisoning, cryptosystem denial of service, and man-in-the-middle attacks. Open source systems and methods (OSSM) have long been used to secure networks against such attacks. This article reviews OSSMs and the results of experimental attacks on WPA. These experiments re-created current attacks in a laboratory setting, recording both wired and wireless traffic. The article discusses methods of intrusion detection and prevention in the context of cyber physical protection of critical Internet infrastructure. The basis for this research is a specialized (and undoubtedly incomplete) taxonomy of Wi-Fi attacks and their adaptations to existing countermeasures and protocol revisions. Ultimately, this article aims to provide a clearer picture of how and why wireless protection protocols and encryption must achieve a more scientific basis for detecting and preventing such attacks.« less

Study on transport infrastructure as mechanism of long-term urban planning strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popova, Olga; Martynov, Kirill; Khusnutdinov, Rinat

2017-10-01

In this article, the authors carry out the research of the transport infrastructure. The authors have developed an algorithm for quality assessment of transport networks and connectivity of urban development areas. The results of the research are presented on the example of several central city quarters of Arkhangelsk city. The analysis was carried out by clustering objects (separate quarters of the Arkhangelsk city) using of SOM in comparable groups with a high level of similarity of characteristics inside each group. The result of clustering was 5 clusters with different levels of transport infrastructure. The novelty of the study is to justification for advantages of applying structural analysis for qualitative ranking of areas. The advantage of the proposed methodology is that it gives the opportunity both to compare the transport infrastructure quality of different city quarters and to determine the strategy for its development with a list of specific activities.

Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) - a domain-overarching long-term research infrastructure for the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lavric, J. V.; Juurola, E.; Vermeulen, A. T.; Kutsch, W. L.

2016-12-01

In a world that is undergoing climate change and is increasingly impacted by human influence, the need for globally integrated observations of greenhouse gases (GHG) and independent evaluation of their fluxes is becoming increasingly pressing. Since the 2015 COP21 meeting in Paris, such observation systems are also demanded by global stakeholders and policy makers. For successful monitoring and implementation of mitigation measures, the behavior of natural carbon pools must be well understood, the human carbon emission inventories better constrained, and the interaction between the two better studied. The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), currently comprising 12 member countries, is a European domain-overarching distributed research infrastructure dedicated to providing freely accessible long-term, high-quality data and data products on greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets and their evolution in terrestrial ecosystems, oceans and atmosphere. ICOS was built on the foundations of nationally-operated in-situ measurement facilities and modelling efforts. Today, it consists of National Networks, Central Facilities, and the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ICOS ERIC), founded in November 2015. The long-term objective of ICOS is to remain independent, sustainable, on the forefront of scientific and technological development, and to find a good balance between scientific interests on one side and expectations of policy makers and society on the other. On the global scale, ICOS seeks to interlink with complementary research infrastructures (e.g. ACTRIS, IAGOS, etc.) to form partnerships that maximize the output and the effect of invested resources to the benefit of all stakeholders. A lot of attention will also be given to network design and attracting new partners from regions where such observations are still lacking in order to fill the gaps in the global observation network. In this presentation we present the latest developments concerning ICOS and its roadmap for the near future.

Lessons learned: Infrastructure development and financial management for large, publically funded, international trials

PubMed Central

Larson, Gregg S; Carey, Cate; Grarup, Jesper; Hudson, Fleur; Sachi, Karen; Vjecha, Michael J; Gordin, Fred

2015-01-01

Background/Aims Randomized clinical trials are widely recognized as essential to address world-wide clinical and public health research questions. However, for many conditions, their size and duration can overwhelm available public and private resources. To remain competitive in international research settings, advocates and practitioners of clinical trials must implement practices that reduce their cost. We identify approaches and practices for large, publicly-funded, international trials that reduce cost without compromising data integrity, and recommend an approach to cost reporting that permits comparison of clinical trials. Methods We describe the organizational and financial characteristics of INSIGHT, an infectious disease research network that conducts multiple, large, long-term, international trials, and examine challenges associated with simple and streamlined governance and an infrastructure and financial management model that is based on performance, transparency, and accountability. Results It is possible to reduce costs of participant follow-up and not compromise clinical trial quality or integrity. The INSIGHT network has successfully completed four large HIV trials using cost-efficient practices that have not adversely affected investigator enthusiasm, accrual rates, loss-to-follow-up, adherence to the protocol, and completion of data collection. This experience is relevant to the conduct of large, publically funded trials in other disease areas, particularly trials dependent on international collaborations. Conclusion New approaches, or creative adaption of traditional clinical trial infrastructure and financial management tools, can render large, international clinical trials more cost-efficient by emphasizing structural simplicity; minimal up-front costs; payments for performance; and uniform algorithms and fees-for-service, irrespective of location. However, challenges remain. They include institutional resistance to financial change, growing trial complexity, and the difficulty of sustaining network infrastructure absent stable research work. There is also a need for more central monitoring, improved and harmonized regulations, and a widely-applied metric for measuring and comparing cost efficiency in clinical trials. ClinicalTrials.gov is recommended as a location where standardized trial cost information could be made publicly accessible. PMID:26908541

Inventory on the dietary assessment tools available and needed in africa: a prerequisite for setting up a common methodological research infrastructure for nutritional surveillance, research, and prevention of diet-related non-communicable diseases.

PubMed

Pisa, Pedro T; Landais, Edwige; Margetts, Barrie; Vorster, Hester H; Friedenreich, Christine M; Huybrechts, Inge; Martin-Prevel, Yves; Branca, Francesco; Lee, Warren T K; Leclercq, Catherine; Jerling, Johann; Zotor, Francis; Amuna, Paul; Al Jawaldeh, Ayoub; Aderibigbe, Olaide Ruth; Amoussa, Waliou Hounkpatin; Anderson, Cheryl A M; Aounallah-Skhiri, Hajer; Atek, Madjid; Benhura, Chakare; Chifamba, Jephat; Covic, Namukolo; Dary, Omar; Delisle, Hélène; El Ati, Jalila; El Hamdouchi, Asmaa; El Rhazi, Karima; Faber, Mieke; Kalimbira, Alexander; Korkalo, Liisa; Kruger, Annamarie; Ledo, James; Machiweni, Tatenda; Mahachi, Carol; Mathe, Nonsikelelo; Mokori, Alex; Mouquet-Rivier, Claire; Mutie, Catherine; Nashandi, Hilde Liisa; Norris, Shane A; Onabanjo, Oluseye Olusegun; Rambeloson, Zo; Saha, Foudjo Brice U; Ubaoji, Kingsley Ikechukwu; Zaghloul, Sahar; Slimani, Nadia

2018-01-02

To carry out an inventory on the availability, challenges, and needs of dietary assessment (DA) methods in Africa as a pre-requisite to provide evidence, and set directions (strategies) for implementing common dietary methods and support web-research infrastructure across countries. The inventory was performed within the framework of the "Africa's Study on Physical Activity and Dietary Assessment Methods" (AS-PADAM) project. It involves international institutional and African networks. An inventory questionnaire was developed and disseminated through the networks. Eighteen countries responded to the dietary inventory questionnaire. Various DA tools were reported in Africa; 24-Hour Dietary Recall and Food Frequency Questionnaire were the most commonly used tools. Few tools were validated and tested for reliability. Face-to-face interview was the common method of administration. No computerized software or other new (web) technologies were reported. No tools were standardized across countries. The lack of comparable DA methods across represented countries is a major obstacle to implement comprehensive and joint nutrition-related programmes for surveillance, programme evaluation, research, and prevention. There is a need to develop new or adapt existing DA methods across countries by employing related research infrastructure that has been validated and standardized in other settings, with the view to standardizing methods for wider use.

Development of Bioinformatics Infrastructure for Genomics Research.

PubMed

Mulder, Nicola J; Adebiyi, Ezekiel; Adebiyi, Marion; Adeyemi, Seun; Ahmed, Azza; Ahmed, Rehab; Akanle, Bola; Alibi, Mohamed; Armstrong, Don L; Aron, Shaun; Ashano, Efejiro; Baichoo, Shakuntala; Benkahla, Alia; Brown, David K; Chimusa, Emile R; Fadlelmola, Faisal M; Falola, Dare; Fatumo, Segun; Ghedira, Kais; Ghouila, Amel; Hazelhurst, Scott; Isewon, Itunuoluwa; Jung, Segun; Kassim, Samar Kamal; Kayondo, Jonathan K; Mbiyavanga, Mamana; Meintjes, Ayton; Mohammed, Somia; Mosaku, Abayomi; Moussa, Ahmed; Muhammd, Mustafa; Mungloo-Dilmohamud, Zahra; Nashiru, Oyekanmi; Odia, Trust; Okafor, Adaobi; Oladipo, Olaleye; Osamor, Victor; Oyelade, Jellili; Sadki, Khalid; Salifu, Samson Pandam; Soyemi, Jumoke; Panji, Sumir; Radouani, Fouzia; Souiai, Oussama; Tastan Bishop, Özlem

2017-06-01

Although pockets of bioinformatics excellence have developed in Africa, generally, large-scale genomic data analysis has been limited by the availability of expertise and infrastructure. H3ABioNet, a pan-African bioinformatics network, was established to build capacity specifically to enable H3Africa (Human Heredity and Health in Africa) researchers to analyze their data in Africa. Since the inception of the H3Africa initiative, H3ABioNet's role has evolved in response to changing needs from the consortium and the African bioinformatics community. H3ABioNet set out to develop core bioinformatics infrastructure and capacity for genomics research in various aspects of data collection, transfer, storage, and analysis. Various resources have been developed to address genomic data management and analysis needs of H3Africa researchers and other scientific communities on the continent. NetMap was developed and used to build an accurate picture of network performance within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world, and Globus Online has been rolled out to facilitate data transfer. A participant recruitment database was developed to monitor participant enrollment, and data is being harmonized through the use of ontologies and controlled vocabularies. The standardized metadata will be integrated to provide a search facility for H3Africa data and biospecimens. Because H3Africa projects are generating large-scale genomic data, facilities for analysis and interpretation are critical. H3ABioNet is implementing several data analysis platforms that provide a large range of bioinformatics tools or workflows, such as Galaxy, the Job Management System, and eBiokits. A set of reproducible, portable, and cloud-scalable pipelines to support the multiple H3Africa data types are also being developed and dockerized to enable execution on multiple computing infrastructures. In addition, new tools have been developed for analysis of the uniquely divergent African data and for downstream interpretation of prioritized variants. To provide support for these and other bioinformatics queries, an online bioinformatics helpdesk backed by broad consortium expertise has been established. Further support is provided by means of various modes of bioinformatics training. For the past 4 years, the development of infrastructure support and human capacity through H3ABioNet, have significantly contributed to the establishment of African scientific networks, data analysis facilities, and training programs. Here, we describe the infrastructure and how it has affected genomics and bioinformatics research in Africa. Copyright © 2017 World Heart Federation (Geneva). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Leukemia research in Germany: the Competence Network Acute and Chronic Leukemias].

PubMed

Kossak-Roth, Ute; Saußele, Susanne; Aul, Carlo; Büchner, Thomas; Döhner, Hartmut; Dugas, Martin; Ehninger, Gerhard; Ganser, Arnold; Giagounidis, Aristoteles; Gökbuget, Nicola; Griesshammer, Martin; Hasford, Jörg; Heuser, Michael; Hiddemann, Wolfgang; Hochhaus, Andreas; Hoelzer, Dieter; Niederwieser, Dietger; Reiter, Andreas; Röllig, Christoph; Hehlmann, Rüdiger

2016-04-01

The Competence Network "Acute and Chronic Leukemias" was founded in 1997 by the consolidation of the leading leukemia study groups in Germany. Key results are the development of new trials and cooperative studies, the setup of patient registries and biobanking facilities, as well as the improvement of study infrastructure. In 2003, the concept of the competence network contributed to the foundation of the European LeukemiaNet (ELN). Synergy with the ELN resulted in cooperation on a European and international level, standardization of diagnostics and treatment, and recommendations for each leukemia and interdisciplinary specialty. The ultimate goal of the network is the cure of leukemia through cooperative research.

NCI's national environmental research data collection: metadata management built on standards and preparing for the semantic web

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Jingbo; Bastrakova, Irina; Evans, Ben; Gohar, Kashif; Santana, Fabiana; Wyborn, Lesley

2015-04-01

National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) manages national environmental research data collections (10+ PB) as part of its specialized high performance data node of the Research Data Storage Infrastructure (RDSI) program. We manage 40+ data collections using NCI's Data Management Plan (DMP), which is compatible with the ISO 19100 metadata standards. We utilize ISO standards to make sure our metadata is transferable and interoperable for sharing and harvesting. The DMP is used along with metadata from the data itself, to create a hierarchy of data collection, dataset and time series catalogues that is then exposed through GeoNetwork for standard discoverability. This hierarchy catalogues are linked using a parent-child relationship. The hierarchical infrastructure of our GeoNetwork catalogues system aims to address both discoverability and in-house administrative use-cases. At NCI, we are currently improving the metadata interoperability in our catalogue by linking with standardized community vocabulary services. These emerging vocabulary services are being established to help harmonise data from different national and international scientific communities. One such vocabulary service is currently being established by the Australian National Data Services (ANDS). Data citation is another important aspect of the NCI data infrastructure, which allows tracking of data usage and infrastructure investment, encourage data sharing, and increasing trust in research that is reliant on these data collections. We incorporate the standard vocabularies into the data citation metadata so that the data citation become machine readable and semantically friendly for web-search purpose as well. By standardizing our metadata structure across our entire data corpus, we are laying the foundation to enable the application of appropriate semantic mechanisms to enhance discovery and analysis of NCI's national environmental research data information. We expect that this will further increase the data discoverability and encourage the data sharing and reuse within the community, increasing the value of the data much further than its current use.

The AGING Initiative experience: a call for sustained support for team science networks.

PubMed

Garg, Tullika; Anzuoni, Kathryn; Landyn, Valentina; Hajduk, Alexandra; Waring, Stephen; Hanson, Leah R; Whitson, Heather E

2018-05-18

Team science, defined as collaborative research efforts that leverage the expertise of diverse disciplines, is recognised as a critical means to address complex healthcare challenges, but the practical implementation of team science can be difficult. Our objective is to describe the barriers, solutions and lessons learned from our team science experience as applied to the complex and growing challenge of multiple chronic conditions (MCC). MCC is the presence of two or more chronic conditions that have a collective adverse effect on health status, function or quality of life, and that require complex healthcare management, decision-making or coordination. Due to the increasing impact on the United States society, MCC research has been identified as a high priority research area by multiple federal agencies. In response to this need, two national research entities, the Healthcare Systems Research Network (HCSRN) and the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Centers (OAIC), formed the Advancing Geriatrics Infrastructure and Network Growth (AGING) Initiative to build nationwide capacity for MCC team science. This article describes the structure, lessons learned and initial outcomes of the AGING Initiative. We call for funding mechanisms to sustain infrastructures that have demonstrated success in fostering team science and innovation in translating findings to policy change necessary to solve complex problems in healthcare.

Climate Science's Globally Distributed Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, D. N.

2016-12-01

The Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) is primarily funded by the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Science (the Office of Biological and Environmental Research [BER] Climate Data Informatics Program and the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Next Generation Network for Science Program), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF), the European Infrastructure for the European Network for Earth System Modeling (IS-ENES), and the Australian National University (ANU). Support also comes from other U.S. federal and international agencies. The federation works across multiple worldwide data centers and spans seven international network organizations to provide users with the ability to access, analyze, and visualize data using a globally federated collection of networks, computers, and software. Its architecture employs a series of geographically distributed peer nodes that are independently administered and united by common federation protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs). The full ESGF infrastructure has now been adopted by multiple Earth science projects and allows access to petabytes of geophysical data, including the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP; output used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment reports), multiple model intercomparison projects (MIPs; endorsed by the World Climate Research Programme [WCRP]), and the Accelerated Climate Modeling for Energy (ACME; ESGF is included in the overarching ACME workflow process to store model output). ESGF is a successful example of integration of disparate open-source technologies into a cohesive functional system that serves the needs the global climate science community. Data served by ESGF includes not only model output but also observational data from satellites and instruments, reanalysis, and generated images.

The Threshold Shortest Path Interdiction Problem for Critical Infrastructure Resilience Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-09-01

being pushed over the minimum designated threshold. 1.4 Motivation A simple setting to motivate this research is the “30 minutes or it’s free” guarantee...parallel network structure in Fig. 4.4 is simple in design , yet shows a relatively high resilience when compared to the other networks in general. The high...United States Naval Academy, 2002 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN OPERATIONS RESEARCH

A National Virtual Specimen Database for Early Cancer Detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Crichton, Daniel; Kincaid, Heather; Kelly, Sean; Thornquist, Mark; Johnsey, Donald; Winget, Marcy

2003-01-01

Access to biospecimens is essential for enabling cancer biomarker discovery. The National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) comprises and integrates a large number of laboratories into a network in order to establish a collaborative scientific environment to discover and validate disease markers. The diversity of both the institutions and the collaborative focus has created the need for establishing cross-disciplinary teams focused on integrating expertise in biomedical research, computational and biostatistics, and computer science. Given the collaborative design of the network, the EDRN needed an informatics infrastructure. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the National Cancer Institute,and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) teamed up to build an informatics infrastructure creating a collaborative, science-driven research environment despite the geographic and morphology differences of the information systems that existed within the diverse network. EDRN investigators identified the need to share biospecimen data captured across the country managed in disparate databases. As a result, the informatics team initiated an effort to create a virtual tissue database whereby scientists could search and locate details about specimens located at collaborating laboratories. Each database, however, was locally implemented and integrated into collection processes and methods unique to each institution. This meant that efforts to integrate databases needed to be done in a manner that did not require redesign or re-implementation of existing system

Cyberinfrastructure for Airborne Sensor Webs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Freudinger, Lawrence C.

2009-01-01

Since 2004 the NASA Airborne Science Program has been prototyping and using infrastructure that enables researchers to interact with each other and with their instruments via network communications. This infrastructure uses satellite links and an evolving suite of applications and services that leverage open-source software. The use of these tools has increased near-real-time situational awareness during field operations, resulting in productivity improvements and the collection of better data. This paper describes the high-level system architecture and major components, with example highlights from the use of the infrastructure. The paper concludes with a discussion of ongoing efforts to transition to operational status.

Uganda's National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure Project: Technical Challenges and the Way Forward

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bulega, T.; Kyeyune, A.; Onek, P.; Sseguya, R.; Mbabazi, D.; Katwiremu, E.

2011-10-01

Several publications have identified technical challenges facing Uganda's National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure project. This research addresses the technical limitations of the National Transmission Backbone Infrastructure project, evaluates the goals of the project, and compares the results against the technical capability of the backbone. The findings of the study indicate a bandwidth deficit, which will be addressed by using dense wave division multiplexing repeaters, leasing bandwidth from private companies. Microwave links for redundancy, a Network Operation Center for operation and maintenance, and deployment of wireless interoperability for microwave access as a last-mile solution are also suggested.

The TENCompetence Infrastructure: A Learning Network Implementation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vogten, Hubert; Martens, Harrie; Lemmers, Ruud

The TENCompetence project developed a first release of a Learning Network infrastructure to support individuals, groups and organisations in professional competence development. This infrastructure Learning Network infrastructure was released as open source to the community thereby allowing users and organisations to use and contribute to this development as they see fit. The infrastructure consists of client applications providing the user experience and server components that provide the services to these clients. These services implement the domain model (Koper 2006) by provisioning the entities of the domain model (see also Sect. 18.4) and henceforth will be referenced as domain entity services.

Integrated information systems for translational medicine.

PubMed

Winter, A; Funkat, G; Haeber, A; Mauz-Koerholz, C; Pommerening, K; Smers, S; Stausberg, J

2007-01-01

Translational medicine research needs a two-way information highway between 'bedside' and 'bench'. Unfortunately there are still weak links between successfully integrated information roads for bench, i.e. research networks, and bedside, i.e. regional or national health information systems. The question arises, what measures have to be taken to overcome the deficiencies. It is examined how patient care-related costs of clinical research can be separated and shared by health insurances, whether quality of patient care data is sufficient for research, how patient identity can be maintained without conflict to privacy, how care and research records can be archived, and how information systems for care and research can be integrated. Since clinical trials improve quality of care, insurers share parts of the costs. Quality of care data has to be improved by introducing minimum basic data sets. Pseudonymization solves the conflict between needs for patient identity and privacy. Archiving patient care records and research records is similar and XML and CDISC can be used. Principles of networking infrastructures for care and research still differ. They have to be bridged first and harmonized later. To link information systems for care (bed) and for research (bench) needs technical infrastructures as well as economic and organizational regulations.

Editorial [Special issue on software defined networks and infrastructures, network function virtualisation, autonomous systems and network management

DOE PAGES

Biswas, Amitava; Liu, Chen; Monga, Inder; ...

2016-01-01

For last few years, there has been a tremendous growth in data traffic due to high adoption rate of mobile devices and cloud computing. Internet of things (IoT) will stimulate even further growth. This is increasing scale and complexity of telecom/internet service provider (SP) and enterprise data centre (DC) compute and network infrastructures. As a result, managing these large network-compute converged infrastructures is becoming complex and cumbersome. To cope up, network and DC operators are trying to automate network and system operations, administrations and management (OAM) functions. OAM includes all non-functional mechanisms which keep the network running.

Development of the AuScope Australian Earth Observing System

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rawling, T.

2017-12-01

Advances in monitoring technology and significant investment in new national research initiatives, will provide significant new opportunities for delivery of novel geoscience data streams from across the Australian continent over the next decade. The AuScope Australian Earth Observing System (AEOS) is linking field and laboratory infrastructure across Australia to form a national sensor array focusing on the Solid Earth. As such AuScope is working with these programs to deploy observational infrastructure, including MT, passive seismic, and GNSS networks across the entire Australian Continent. Where possible the observational grid will be co-located with strategic basement drilling in areas of shallow cover and tied with national reflection seismic and sampling transects. This integrated suite of distributed earth observation and imaging sensors will provide unprecedented imaging fidelity of our crust, across all length and time scales, to fundamental and applied researchers in the earth, environmental and geospatial sciences. The AEOS will the Earth Science community's Square Kilometer Array (SKA) - a distributed telescope that looks INTO the earth rather than away from it - a 10 million SKA. The AEOS is strongly aligned with other community strategic initiatives including the UNCOVER research program as well as other National Collaborative Research Infrastructure programs such as the Terrestrial Environmental Research Network (TERN) and the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) providing an interdisciplinary collaboration platform across the earth and environmental sciences. There is also very close alignment between AuScope and similar international programs such as EPOS, the USArray and EarthCube - potential collaborative linkages we are currently in the process of pursuing more fomally. The AuScope AEOS Infrastructure System is ultimately designed to enable the progressive construction, refinement and ongoing enrichment of a live, "FAIR" four-dimensional Earth Model for the Australian Continent and its immediate environs.

Innovation networks for improving access and quality across the healthcare ecosystem.

PubMed

Carroll, Mark; James, Judith A; Lardiere, Michael R; Proser, Michelle; Rhee, Kyu; Sayre, Michael H; Shore, Jay H; Ternullo, Joseph

2010-01-01

Partnerships between patient communities, healthcare providers, and academic researchers are key to stepping up the pace and public health impact of clinical and translational research supported by the National Institutes of Health. With emphasis shifting toward community engagement and faster translation of research advances into clinical practice, academic researchers have a vital stake in widening the use of health information technology systems and telehealth networks to support collaboration and innovation. However, limited interaction between academic institutions and healthcare providers hinders the ability to form and sustain the integrated networks that are needed to conduct meaningful community-engaged research that improves public health outcomes. Healthcare providers, especially those affiliated with smaller practices, will need sustainable infrastructure and real incentives to utilize such networks, as well as training and additional resources for ongoing technical assistance.

Evaluation of Mexican transportation infrastructure projects.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-01-01

This research examined the legal, financial, institutional and policy processes that Mexico uses to plan, finance, construct, and implement its transportation network. It documents through twelve case studies the state of the practice in planning, fi...

A Federated Network for Translational Cancer Research Using Clinical Data and Biospecimens

PubMed Central

Becich, Michael J.; Bollag, Roni J.; Chavan, Girish; Corrigan, Julia; Dhir, Rajiv; Feldman, Michael D.; Gaudioso, Carmelo; Legowski, Elizabeth; Maihle, Nita J.; Mitchell, Kevin; Murphy, Monica; Sakthivel, Mayur; Tseytlin, Eugene; Weaver, JoEllen

2015-01-01

Advances in cancer research and personalized medicine will require significant new bridging infrastructures, including more robust biorepositories that link human tissue to clinical phenotypes and outcomes. In order to meet that challenge, four cancer centers formed the TIES Cancer Research Network, a federated network that facilitates data and biospecimen sharing among member institutions. Member sites can access pathology data that is de-identified and processed with the TIES natural language processing system, which creates a repository of rich phenotype data linked to clinical biospecimens. TIES incorporates multiple security and privacy best practices that, combined with legal agreements, network policies and procedures, enable regulatory compliance. The TIES Cancer Research Network now provides integrated access to investigators at all member institutions, where multiple investigator-driven pilot projects are underway. Examples of federated search across the network illustrate the potential impact on translational research, particularly for studies involving rare cancers, rare phenotypes, and specific biologic behaviors. The network satisfies several key desiderata including local control of data and credentialing, inclusion of rich phenotype information, and applicability to diverse research objectives. The TIES Cancer Research Network presents a model for a national data and biospecimen network. PMID:26670560

Utilizing an integrated infrastructure for outcomes research: a systematic review.

PubMed

Dixon, Brian E; Whipple, Elizabeth C; Lajiness, John M; Murray, Michael D

2016-03-01

To explore the ability of an integrated health information infrastructure to support outcomes research. A systematic review of articles published from 1983 to 2012 by Regenstrief Institute investigators using data from an integrated electronic health record infrastructure involving multiple provider organisations was performed. Articles were independently assessed and classified by study design, disease and other metadata including bibliometrics. A total of 190 articles were identified. Diseases included cognitive, (16) cardiovascular, (16) infectious, (15) chronic illness (14) and cancer (12). Publications grew steadily (26 in the first decade vs. 100 in the last) as did the number of investigators (from 15 in 1983 to 62 in 2012). The proportion of articles involving non-Regenstrief authors also expanded from 54% in the first decade to 72% in the last decade. During this period, the infrastructure grew from a single health system into a health information exchange network covering more than 6 million patients. Analysis of journal and article metrics reveals high impact for clinical trials and comparative effectiveness research studies that utilised data available in the integrated infrastructure. Integrated information infrastructures support growth in high quality observational studies and diverse collaboration consistent with the goals for the learning health system. More recent publications demonstrate growing external collaborations facilitated by greater access to the infrastructure and improved opportunities to study broader disease and health outcomes. Integrated information infrastructures can stimulate learning from electronic data captured during routine clinical care but require time and collaboration to reach full potential. © 2015 Health Libraries Group.

A modeling framework for investment planning in interdependent infrastructures in multi-hazard environments.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brown, Nathanael J. K.; Gearhart, Jared Lee; Jones, Dean A.

Currently, much of protection planning is conducted separately for each infrastructure and hazard. Limited funding requires a balance of expenditures between terrorism and natural hazards based on potential impacts. This report documents the results of a Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project that created a modeling framework for investment planning in interdependent infrastructures focused on multiple hazards, including terrorism. To develop this framework, three modeling elements were integrated: natural hazards, terrorism, and interdependent infrastructures. For natural hazards, a methodology was created for specifying events consistent with regional hazards. For terrorism, we modeled the terrorists actions based on assumptions regardingmore » their knowledge, goals, and target identification strategy. For infrastructures, we focused on predicting post-event performance due to specific terrorist attacks and natural hazard events, tempered by appropriate infrastructure investments. We demonstrate the utility of this framework with various examples, including protection of electric power, roadway, and hospital networks.« less

A coordinated set of ecosystem research platforms open to international research in ecotoxicology, AnaEE-France.

PubMed

Mougin, Christian; Azam, Didier; Caquet, Thierry; Cheviron, Nathalie; Dequiedt, Samuel; Le Galliard, Jean-François; Guillaume, Olivier; Houot, Sabine; Lacroix, Gérard; Lafolie, François; Maron, Pierre-Alain; Michniewicz, Radika; Pichot, Christian; Ranjard, Lionel; Roy, Jacques; Zeller, Bernd; Clobert, Jean; Chanzy, André

2015-10-01

The infrastructure for Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems (AnaEE-France) is an integrated network of the major French experimental, analytical, and modeling platforms dedicated to the biological study of continental ecosystems (aquatic and terrestrial). This infrastructure aims at understanding and predicting ecosystem dynamics under global change. AnaEE-France comprises complementary nodes offering access to the best experimental facilities and associated biological resources and data: Ecotrons, seminatural experimental platforms to manipulate terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, in natura sites equipped for large-scale and long-term experiments. AnaEE-France also provides shared instruments and analytical platforms dedicated to environmental (micro) biology. Finally, AnaEE-France provides users with data bases and modeling tools designed to represent ecosystem dynamics and to go further in coupling ecological, agronomical, and evolutionary approaches. In particular, AnaEE-France offers adequate services to tackle the new challenges of research in ecotoxicology, positioning its various types of platforms in an ecologically advanced ecotoxicology approach. AnaEE-France is a leading international infrastructure, and it is pioneering the construction of AnaEE (Europe) infrastructure in the field of ecosystem research. AnaEE-France infrastructure is already open to the international community of scientists in the field of continental ecotoxicology.

Climate and change: simulating flooding impacts on urban transport network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pregnolato, Maria; Ford, Alistair; Dawson, Richard

2015-04-01

National-scale climate projections indicate that in the future there will be hotter and drier summers, warmer and wetter winters, together with rising sea levels. The frequency of extreme weather events is expected to increase, causing severe damage to the built environment and disruption of infrastructures (Dawson, 2007), whilst population growth and changed demographics are placing new demands on urban infrastructure. It is therefore essential to ensure infrastructure networks are robust to these changes. This research addresses these challenges by focussing on the development of probabilistic tools for managing risk by modelling urban transport networks within the context of extreme weather events. This paper presents a methodology to investigate the impacts of extreme weather events on urban environment, in particular infrastructure networks, through a combination of climate simulations and spatial representations. By overlaying spatial data on hazard thresholds from a flood model and a flood safety function, mitigated by potential adaptation strategies, different levels of disruption to commuting journeys on road networks are evaluated. The method follows the Catastrophe Modelling approach and it consists of a spatial model, combining deterministic loss models and probabilistic risk assessment techniques. It can be applied to present conditions as well as future uncertain scenarios, allowing the examination of the impacts alongside socio-economic and climate changes. The hazard is determined by simulating free surface water flooding, with the software CityCAT (Glenis et al., 2013). The outputs are overlapped to the spatial locations of a simple network model in GIS, which uses journey-to-work (JTW) observations, supplemented with speed and capacity information. To calculate the disruptive effect of flooding on transport networks, a function relating water depth to safe driving car speed has been developed by combining data from experimental reports (Morris et al., 2011) safety literature (Great Britain Department for Transport, 1999), analysis of videos of cars driving through floodwater, and expert judgement. A preliminary analysis has been run in the Tyne & Wear (in North-East England) region to demonstrate how the analysis can be used to assess the disruptions for commuter journeys due to flooding and will be demonstrated in this paper. The research will also investigate the effectiveness of adaptation strategies for extreme rainfall events, such as permeable surfaces and roof storages for buildings. Multiple scenarios (from the every-day-rainfall to the extreme weather phenomena) will be modelled, with different rainfall rates, rainfall durations and return periods. The comparison between the scenarios in which no interventions are adopted and those improved by one of the adaptation option will be compared to determine the cost-effectiveness of the solution considered. Integrating spatial analysis of transport use with an urban flood model and flood safety function enables the investigation of the impacts of extreme weather on infrastructure networks. Further work will develop the analysis in a number of ways (i) testing a range of flood events with different severity and frequency, (ii) exploration of the influence of climate and socio-economic change (iii) analysis of multiple hazard events and (iv) consideration of cascading disruption across different infrastructure networks.

Smart Valley Infrastructure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maule, R. William

1994-01-01

Discusses prototype information infrastructure projects in northern California's Silicon Valley. The strategies of the public and private telecommunications carriers vying for backbone services and industries developing end-user infrastructure technologies via office networks, set-top box networks, Internet multimedia, and "smart homes"…

New Geodetic Infrastructure for Australia: The NCRIS / AuScope Geospatial Component

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tregoning, P.; Watson, C. S.; Coleman, R.; Johnston, G.; Lovell, J.; Dickey, J.; Featherstone, W. E.; Rizos, C.; Higgins, M.; Priebbenow, R.

2009-12-01

In November 2006, the Australian Federal Government announced AUS15.8M in funding for geospatial research infrastructure through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Funded within a broader capability area titled ‘Structure and Evolution of the Australian Continent’, NCRIS has provided a significant investment across Earth imaging, geochemistry, numerical simulation and modelling, the development of a virtual core library, and geospatial infrastructure. Known collectively as AuScope (www.auscope.org.au), this capability area has brought together Australian’s leading Earth scientists to decide upon the most pressing scientific issues and infrastructure needs for studying Earth systems and their impact on the Australian continent. Importantly and at the same time, the investment in geospatial infrastructure offers the opportunity to raise Australian geodetic science capability to the highest international level into the future. The geospatial component of AuScope builds onto the AUS15.8M of direct funding through the NCRIS process with significant in-kind and co-investment from universities and State/Territory and Federal government departments. The infrastructure to be acquired includes an FG5 absolute gravimeter, three gPhone relative gravimeters, three 12.1 m radio telescopes for geodetic VLBI, a continent-wide network of continuously operating geodetic quality GNSS receivers, a trial of a mobile SLR system and access to updated cluster computing facilities. We present an overview of the AuScope geospatial capability, review the current status of the infrastructure procurement and discuss some examples of the scientific research that will utilise the new geospatial infrastructure.

A Case Study of the Uses Supported by Higher Education Computer Networks and an Analysis of Application Traffic

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pisano, Mark

2017-01-01

Universities and Higher Education Institutions spend large sums of money to maintain and build network infrastructures. Current research and discussions in this area revolve around providing large amounts of bandwidth to students who live in a residence hall. However, there is a lack of information showing what is being used to support research…

It Takes a Network to Raise a Child: Improving the Communication Infrastructure of Public Education to Enable Community Cooperation in Young People's Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollock, Mica

2013-01-01

Background/Context: In this essay, I propose a design research agenda that braids equity research and technology research in education. More specifically, I propose that researchers join educators, youth, families, and community partners in tackling a central challenge for education research today: figuring out how and when low-cost and…

Integrated Service Provisioning in an Ipv6 over ATM Research Network

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eli Dart; Helen Chen; Jerry Friesen

1999-02-01

During the past few years, the worldwide Internet has grown at a phenomenal rate, which has spurred the proposal of innovative network technologies to support the fast, efficient and low-latency transport of a wide spectrum of multimedia traffic types. Existing network infrastructures have been plagued by their inability to provide for real-time application traffic as well as their general lack of resources and resilience to congestion. This work proposes to address these issues by implementing a prototype high-speed network infrastructure consisting of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) on top of an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) transport medium. Since ATM ismore » connection-oriented whereas IP uses a connection-less paradigm, the efficient integration of IPv6 over ATM is especially challenging and has generated much interest in the research community. We propose, in collaboration with an industry partner, to implement IPv6 over ATM using a unique approach that integrates IP over fast A TM hardware while still preserving IP's connection-less paradigm. This is achieved by replacing ATM's control software with IP's routing code and by caching IP's forwarding decisions in ATM's VPI/VCI translation tables. Prototype ''VR'' and distributed-parallel-computing applications will also be developed to exercise the realtime capability of our IPv6 over ATM network.« less

Characterizing Crowd Participation and Productivity of Foldit Through Web Scraping

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing CDF Cumulative Distribution Function CPU Central Processing Unit CSSG Crowdsourced Serious Game...computers at once can create a similar capacity. According to Anderson [6], principal investigator for the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network...extraterrestrial life. From this project, a software-based distributed computing platform called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing

Maryland's Special Populations Network. A model for cancer disparities research, education, and training.

PubMed

Baquet, Claudia R; Mack, Kelly M; Mishra, Shiraz I; Bramble, Joy; Deshields, Mary; Datcher, Delores; Savoy, Mervin; Brooks, Sandra E; Boykin-Brown, Stephanie; Hummel, Kery

2006-10-15

The unequal burden of cancer in minority and underserved communities nationally and in Maryland is a compelling crisis. The Maryland Special Populations Cancer Research Network (MSPN) developed an infrastructure covering Maryland's 23 jurisdictions and Baltimore City through formal partnerships between the University of Maryland School of Medicine, University of Maryland Statewide Health Network, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and community partners in Baltimore City, rural Eastern Shore, rural Western Maryland, rural Southern Maryland, and Piscataway Conoy Tribe and statewide American Indians. Guided by the community-based participatory framework, the MSPN undertook a comprehensive assessment (of needs, strengths, and resources available) that laid the foundation for programmatic efforts in community-initiated cancer awareness and education, research, and training. The MSPN infrastructure was used to implement successful and innovative community-based cancer education interventions and technological solutions; conduct education and promotion of clinical trials, cancer health disparities research, and minority faculty cancer research career development; and leverage additional resources for sustainability. MSPN engaged in informed advocacy among decision- and policymakers at state and national levels, and its community-based clinical trials program was recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a Best Practice Award. The solutions to reduce and eliminate cancer health disparities are complex and require comprehensive and focused multidisciplinary cancer health disparities research, training, and education strategies implemented through robust community-academic partnerships. Cancer 2006. (c) American Cancer Society.

Networking: the view from HEP

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKee, Shawn

2017-10-01

Networks have played a critical role in high-energy physics (HEP), enabling us to access and effectively utilize globally distributed resources to meet the needs of our physicists. National and global-scale collaborations that characterize HEP would not be feasible without ubiquitous capable networks. Because of their importance in enabling our grid computing infrastructure many physicists have taken leading roles in research and education (R&E) networking, participating in, and even convening, network related meetings and research programs with the broader networking community worldwide. This has led to HEP benefiting from excellent global networking capabilities for little to no direct cost. However, as other science domains ramp-up their need for similar networking it becomes less clear that this situation will continue unchanged. This paper will briefly discuss the history of networking in HEP, the current activities and challenges we are facing, and try to provide some understanding of where networking may be going in the next 5 to 10 years.

The NASA Science Internet: An integrated approach to networking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rounds, Fred

1991-01-01

An integrated approach to building a networking infrastructure is an absolute necessity for meeting the multidisciplinary science networking requirements of the Office of Space Science and Applications (OSSA) science community. These networking requirements include communication connectivity between computational resources, databases, and library systems, as well as to other scientists and researchers around the world. A consolidated networking approach allows strategic use of the existing science networking within the Federal government, and it provides networking capability that takes into consideration national and international trends towards multivendor and multiprotocol service. It also offers a practical vehicle for optimizing costs and maximizing performance. Finally, and perhaps most important to the development of high speed computing is that an integrated network constitutes a focus for phasing to the National Research and Education Network (NREN). The NASA Science Internet (NSI) program, established in mid 1988, is structured to provide just such an integrated network. A description of the NSI is presented.

An open-source software platform for data management, visualisation, model building and model sharing in water, energy and other resource modelling domains.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Knox, S.; Meier, P.; Mohammed, K.; Korteling, B.; Matrosov, E. S.; Hurford, A.; Huskova, I.; Harou, J. J.; Rosenberg, D. E.; Thilmant, A.; Medellin-Azuara, J.; Wicks, J.

2015-12-01

Capacity expansion on resource networks is essential to adapting to economic and population growth and pressures such as climate change. Engineered infrastructure systems such as water, energy, or transport networks require sophisticated and bespoke models to refine management and investment strategies. Successful modeling of such complex systems relies on good data management and advanced methods to visualize and share data.Engineered infrastructure systems are often represented as networks of nodes and links with operating rules describing their interactions. Infrastructure system management and planning can be abstracted to simulating or optimizing new operations and extensions of the network. By separating the data storage of abstract networks from manipulation and modeling we have created a system where infrastructure modeling across various domains is facilitated.We introduce Hydra Platform, a Free Open Source Software designed for analysts and modelers to store, manage and share network topology and data. Hydra Platform is a Python library with a web service layer for remote applications, called Apps, to connect. Apps serve various functions including network or results visualization, data export (e.g. into a proprietary format) or model execution. This Client-Server architecture allows users to manipulate and share centrally stored data. XML templates allow a standardised description of the data structure required for storing network data such that it is compatible with specific models.Hydra Platform represents networks in an abstract way and is therefore not bound to a single modeling domain. It is the Apps that create domain-specific functionality. Using Apps researchers from different domains can incorporate different models within the same network enabling cross-disciplinary modeling while minimizing errors and streamlining data sharing. Separating the Python library from the web layer allows developers to natively expand the software or build web-based apps in other languages for remote functionality. Partner CH2M is developing a commercial user-interface for Hydra Platform however custom interfaces and visualization tools can be built. Hydra Platform is available on GitHub while Apps will be shared on a central repository.

The impact of internet-connected control systems on the oil and gas industry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martel, Ruth T.

In industry and infrastructure today, communication is a way of life. In the oil and gas industry, the use of devices that communicate with the network at large is both commonplace and expected. Unfortunately, security on these devices is not always best. Many industrial control devices originate from legacy devices not originally configured with security in mind. All infrastructure and industry today has seen an increase in attacks on their networks and in some cases, a very dramatic increase, which should be a cause for alarm and action. The purpose of this research was to highlight the threat that Internet-connected devices present to an organization's network in the oil and gas industry and ultimately, to the business and possibly even human life. Although there are several previous studies that highlight the problem of these Internet-connected devices, there remains evidence that security response has not been adequate. The analysis conducted on only one easily discovered device serves as an example of the ongoing issue of the security mindset in the oil and gas industry. The ability to connect to a network through an Internet-connected device gives a hacker an anonymous backdoor to do great damage in that network. The hope is that the approach to security in infrastructure and especially the oil and gas industry, changes before a major catastrophe occurs involving human life.

Building sustainable multi-functional prospective electronic clinical data systems.

PubMed

Randhawa, Gurvaneet S; Slutsky, Jean R

2012-07-01

A better alignment in the goals of the biomedical research enterprise and the health care delivery system can help fill the large gaps in our knowledge of the impact of clinical interventions on patient outcomes in the real world. There are several initiatives underway to align the research priorities of patients, providers, researchers, and policy makers. These include Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-supported projects to build flexible prospective clinical electronic data infrastructure that meet the needs of these diverse users. AHRQ has previously supported the creation of 2 distributed research networks as a new approach to conduct comparative effectiveness research (CER) while protecting a patient's confidential information and the proprietary needs of a clinical organization. It has applied its experience in building these networks in directing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for CER to support new clinical electronic infrastructure projects that can be used for several purposes including CER, quality improvement, clinical decision support, and disease surveillance. In addition, AHRQ has funded a new Electronic Data Methods forum to advance the methods in clinical informatics, research analytics, and governance by actively engaging investigators from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-funded projects and external stakeholders.

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research in Practice: The CAPriCORN Infrastructure.

PubMed

Solomonides, Anthony; Goel, Satyender; Hynes, Denise; Silverstein, Jonathan C; Hota, Bala; Trick, William; Angulo, Francisco; Price, Ron; Sadhu, Eugene; Zelisko, Susan; Fischer, James; Furner, Brian; Hamilton, Andrew; Phua, Jasmin; Brown, Wendy; Hohmann, Samuel F; Meltzer, David; Tarlov, Elizabeth; Weaver, Frances M; Zhang, Helen; Concannon, Thomas; Kho, Abel

2015-01-01

CAPriCORN, the Chicago Area Patient Centered Outcomes Research Network, is one of the eleven PCORI-funded Clinical Data Research Networks. A collaboration of six academic medical centers, a Chicago public hospital, two VA hospitals and a network of federally qualified health centers, CAPriCORN addresses the needs of a diverse community and overlapping populations. To capture complete medical records without compromising patient privacy and confidentiality, the network created policies and mechanisms for patient consultation, central IRB approval, de-identification, de-duplication, and integration of patient data by study cohort, randomization and sampling, re-identification for consent by providers and patients, and communication with patients to elicit patient-reported outcomes through validated instruments. The paper describes these policies and mechanisms and discusses two case studies to prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the network.

Development of Network-based Communications Architectures for Future NASA Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Slywczak, Richard A.

2007-01-01

Since the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) announcement, NASA has been developing a communications infrastructure that combines existing terrestrial techniques with newer concepts and capabilities. The overall goal is to develop a flexible, modular, and extensible architecture that leverages and enhances terrestrial networking technologies that can either be directly applied or modified for the space regime. In addition, where existing technologies leaves gaps, new technologies must be developed. An example includes dynamic routing that accounts for constrained power and bandwidth environments. Using these enhanced technologies, NASA can develop nodes that provide characteristics, such as routing, store and forward, and access-on-demand capabilities. But with the development of the new infrastructure, challenges and obstacles will arise. The current communications infrastructure has been developed on a mission-by-mission basis rather than an end-to-end approach; this has led to a greater ground infrastructure, but has not encouraged communications between space-based assets. This alone provides one of the key challenges that NASA must encounter. With the development of the new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), NASA has the opportunity to provide an integration path for the new vehicles and provide standards for their development. Some of the newer capabilities these vehicles could include are routing, security, and Software Defined Radios (SDRs). To meet these needs, the NASA/Glenn Research Center s (GRC) Network Emulation Laboratory (NEL) has been using both simulation and emulation to study and evaluate these architectures. These techniques provide options to NASA that directly impact architecture development. This paper identifies components of the infrastructure that play a pivotal role in the new NASA architecture, develops a scheme using simulation and emulation for testing these architectures and demonstrates how NASA can strengthen the new infrastructure by implementing these concepts.

Improving Defense Health Program Medical Research Processes

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-08

needed for DHP medical research , such as the Army’s Clinical and Translational Research Program Office, 38 the Navy’s Research Methods Training Program... research stated, “key infrastructure for a learning health system will encompass three core elements: data networks, methods , and workforce.” 221 A 2012... Research Methods Training Program, 132 which will be further discussed in Appendix D.2. AIR FORCE Air Force Instruction 40-402, Protection of

Defense Strategies for Asymmetric Networked Systems with Discrete Components.

PubMed

Rao, Nageswara S V; Ma, Chris Y T; Hausken, Kjell; He, Fei; Yau, David K Y; Zhuang, Jun

2018-05-03

We consider infrastructures consisting of a network of systems, each composed of discrete components. The network provides the vital connectivity between the systems and hence plays a critical, asymmetric role in the infrastructure operations. The individual components of the systems can be attacked by cyber and physical means and can be appropriately reinforced to withstand these attacks. We formulate the problem of ensuring the infrastructure performance as a game between an attacker and a provider, who choose the numbers of the components of the systems and network to attack and reinforce, respectively. The costs and benefits of attacks and reinforcements are characterized using the sum-form, product-form and composite utility functions, each composed of a survival probability term and a component cost term. We present a two-level characterization of the correlations within the infrastructure: (i) the aggregate failure correlation function specifies the infrastructure failure probability given the failure of an individual system or network, and (ii) the survival probabilities of the systems and network satisfy first-order differential conditions that capture the component-level correlations using multiplier functions. We derive Nash equilibrium conditions that provide expressions for individual system survival probabilities and also the expected infrastructure capacity specified by the total number of operational components. We apply these results to derive and analyze defense strategies for distributed cloud computing infrastructures using cyber-physical models.

Defense Strategies for Asymmetric Networked Systems with Discrete Components

PubMed Central

Rao, Nageswara S. V.; Ma, Chris Y. T.; Hausken, Kjell; He, Fei; Yau, David K. Y.

2018-01-01

We consider infrastructures consisting of a network of systems, each composed of discrete components. The network provides the vital connectivity between the systems and hence plays a critical, asymmetric role in the infrastructure operations. The individual components of the systems can be attacked by cyber and physical means and can be appropriately reinforced to withstand these attacks. We formulate the problem of ensuring the infrastructure performance as a game between an attacker and a provider, who choose the numbers of the components of the systems and network to attack and reinforce, respectively. The costs and benefits of attacks and reinforcements are characterized using the sum-form, product-form and composite utility functions, each composed of a survival probability term and a component cost term. We present a two-level characterization of the correlations within the infrastructure: (i) the aggregate failure correlation function specifies the infrastructure failure probability given the failure of an individual system or network, and (ii) the survival probabilities of the systems and network satisfy first-order differential conditions that capture the component-level correlations using multiplier functions. We derive Nash equilibrium conditions that provide expressions for individual system survival probabilities and also the expected infrastructure capacity specified by the total number of operational components. We apply these results to derive and analyze defense strategies for distributed cloud computing infrastructures using cyber-physical models. PMID:29751588

A Comprehensive and Cost-Effective Computer Infrastructure for K-12 Schools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Warren, G. P.; Seaton, J. M.

1996-01-01

Since 1993, NASA Langley Research Center has been developing and implementing a low-cost Internet connection model, including system architecture, training, and support, to provide Internet access for an entire network of computers. This infrastructure allows local area networks which exceed 50 machines per school to independently access the complete functionality of the Internet by connecting to a central site, using state-of-the-art commercial modem technology, through a single standard telephone line. By locating high-cost resources at this central site and sharing these resources and their costs among the school districts throughout a region, a practical, efficient, and affordable infrastructure for providing scale-able Internet connectivity has been developed. As the demand for faster Internet access grows, the model has a simple expansion path that eliminates the need to replace major system components and re-train personnel. Observations of optical Internet usage within an environment, particularly school classrooms, have shown that after an initial period of 'surfing,' the Internet traffic becomes repetitive. By automatically storing requested Internet information on a high-capacity networked disk drive at the local site (network based disk caching), then updating this information only when it changes, well over 80 percent of the Internet traffic that leaves a location can be eliminated by retrieving the information from the local disk cache.

Crowdsourcing Physical Network Topology Mapping With Net.Tagger

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

backend server infrastructure . This in- cludes a full security audit, better web services handling, and integration with the OSM stack and dataset to...a novel approach to network infrastructure mapping that combines smartphone apps with crowdsourced collection to gather data for offline aggregation...and analysis. The project aims to build a map of physical network infrastructure such as fiber-optic cables, facilities, and access points. The

The Other Infrastructure: Distance Education's Digital Plant.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boettcher, Judith V.; Kumar, M. S. Vijay

2000-01-01

Suggests a new infrastructure--the digital plant--for supporting flexible Web campus environments. Describes four categories which make up the infrastructure: personal communication tools and applications; network of networks for the Web campus; dedicated servers and software applications; software applications and services from external…

Mobile Support For Logistics

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-01

Infrastructure to Support Mobile Devices (Takai, 2012, p. 2). The objectives needed in order to meet this goal are to: evolve spectrum management, expand... infrastructure to support wireless capabilities, and establish a mobile device security architecture (Takai, 2012, p. 2). By expanding infrastructure to...often used on Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs). MANETS are infrastructure -less networks that include, but are not limited to, mobile devices. These

Networking among young global health researchers through an intensive training approach: a mixed methods exploratory study.

PubMed

Lenters, Lindsey M; Cole, Donald C; Godoy-Ruiz, Paula

2014-01-25

Networks are increasingly regarded as essential in health research aimed at influencing practice and policies. Less research has focused on the role networking can play in researchers' careers and its broader impacts on capacity strengthening in health research. We used the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR) annual Summer Institute for New Global Health Researchers (SIs) as an opportunity to explore networking among new global health researchers. A mixed-methods exploratory study was conducted among SI alumni and facilitators who had participated in at least one SI between 2004 and 2010. Alumni and facilitators completed an online short questionnaire, and a subset participated in an in-depth interview. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data was triangulated with quantitative results and CCGHR reports on SIs. Synthesis occurred through the development of a process model relevant to networking through the SIs. Through networking at the SIs, participants experienced decreased isolation and strengthened working relationships. Participants accessed new knowledge, opportunities, and resources through networking during the SI. Post-SI, participants reported ongoing contact and collaboration, although most participants desired more opportunities for interaction. They made suggestions for structural supports to networking among new global health researchers. Networking at the SI contributed positively to opportunities for individuals, and contributed to the formation of a network of global health researchers. Intentional inclusion of networking in health research capacity strengthening initiatives, with supportive resources and infrastructure could create dynamic, sustainable networks accessible to global health researchers around the world.

Scalability Issues for Remote Sensing Infrastructure: A Case Study

PubMed Central

Liu, Yang; Picard, Sean; Williamson, Carey

2017-01-01

For the past decade, a team of University of Calgary researchers has operated a large “sensor Web” to collect, analyze, and share scientific data from remote measurement instruments across northern Canada. This sensor Web receives real-time data streams from over a thousand Internet-connected sensors, with a particular emphasis on environmental data (e.g., space weather, auroral phenomena, atmospheric imaging). Through research collaborations, we had the opportunity to evaluate the performance and scalability of their remote sensing infrastructure. This article reports the lessons learned from our study, which considered both data collection and data dissemination aspects of their system. On the data collection front, we used benchmarking techniques to identify and fix a performance bottleneck in the system’s memory management for TCP data streams, while also improving system efficiency on multi-core architectures. On the data dissemination front, we used passive and active network traffic measurements to identify and reduce excessive network traffic from the Web robots and JavaScript techniques used for data sharing. While our results are from one specific sensor Web system, the lessons learned may apply to other scientific Web sites with remote sensing infrastructure. PMID:28468262

Enabling a Science Support Structure for NASAs Global Hawk UASs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sullivan, Donald V.

2014-01-01

In this paper we describe the information technologies developed by NASA for the Winter/Spring 2013/2014, and Fall 2014, NASA Earth Venture Campaigns, Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) and Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX). These campaigns utilized Global Hawk UAS vehicles equipped at the NASA Armstrong (previously Dryden) Flight Research Facility (AFRC), Edwards Air Force Base, California, and operated from there, the NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF), Virginia, and Anderson Air Force Base (AAFB), Guam. Part of this enabling infrastructure utilized a layer 2 encrypted terrestrial Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) that, at times, spanned greater than ten thousand miles (AAFB <-> AFRC <-> WFF) and was routed over geosynchronous Ku band communication Satellites directly to the aircraft sensor network. This infrastructure enabled seamless hand off between Satellites, and Satellite ground stations in Guam, California and Virginia, so allowing simultaneous Aircraft Command and Control and Science operations from remote locations. Additionally, we will describe the other elements of this infrastructure, from on-board geo-enabled databases, to real time communications directly from the instruments (in some cases, more than twelve were carried, and simultaneously operated, on one aircraft) to the researchers and other interested parties, world wide.

Reducing Cascading Failure Risk by Increasing Infrastructure Network Interdependence

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Korkali, Mert; Veneman, Jason G.; Tivnan, Brian F.

Increased coupling between critical infrastructure networks, such as power and communication systems, has important implications for the reliability and security of these systems. To understand the effects of power-communication coupling, several researchers have studied models of interdependent networks and reported that increased coupling can increase vulnerability. However, these conclusions come largely from models that have substantially different mechanisms of cascading failure, relative to those found in actual power and communication networks, and that do not capture the benefits of connecting systems with complementary capabilities. In order to understand the importance of these details, this paper compares network vulnerability in simplemore » topological models and in models that more accurately capture the dynamics of cascading in power systems. First, we compare a simple model of topological contagion to a model of cascading in power systems and find that the power grid model shows a higher level of vulnerability, relative to the contagion model. Second, we compare a percolation model of topological cascading in coupled networks to three different models of power networks coupled to communication systems. Again, the more accurate models suggest very different conclusions than the percolation model. In all but the most extreme case, the physics-based power grid models indicate that increased power-communication coupling decreases vulnerability. This is opposite from what one would conclude from the percolation model, in which zero coupling is optimal. Only in an extreme case, in which communication failures immediately cause grid failures, did we find that increased coupling can be harmful. Together, these results suggest design strategies for reducing the risk of cascades in interdependent infrastructure systems.« less

Reducing Cascading Failure Risk by Increasing Infrastructure Network Interdependence

DOE PAGES

Korkali, Mert; Veneman, Jason G.; Tivnan, Brian F.; ...

2017-03-20

Increased coupling between critical infrastructure networks, such as power and communication systems, has important implications for the reliability and security of these systems. To understand the effects of power-communication coupling, several researchers have studied models of interdependent networks and reported that increased coupling can increase vulnerability. However, these conclusions come largely from models that have substantially different mechanisms of cascading failure, relative to those found in actual power and communication networks, and that do not capture the benefits of connecting systems with complementary capabilities. In order to understand the importance of these details, this paper compares network vulnerability in simplemore » topological models and in models that more accurately capture the dynamics of cascading in power systems. First, we compare a simple model of topological contagion to a model of cascading in power systems and find that the power grid model shows a higher level of vulnerability, relative to the contagion model. Second, we compare a percolation model of topological cascading in coupled networks to three different models of power networks coupled to communication systems. Again, the more accurate models suggest very different conclusions than the percolation model. In all but the most extreme case, the physics-based power grid models indicate that increased power-communication coupling decreases vulnerability. This is opposite from what one would conclude from the percolation model, in which zero coupling is optimal. Only in an extreme case, in which communication failures immediately cause grid failures, did we find that increased coupling can be harmful. Together, these results suggest design strategies for reducing the risk of cascades in interdependent infrastructure systems.« less

Clinical trial network for the promotion of clinical research for rare diseases in Japan: muscular dystrophy clinical trial network.

PubMed

Shimizu, Reiko; Ogata, Katsuhisa; Tamaura, Akemi; Kimura, En; Ohata, Maki; Takeshita, Eri; Nakamura, Harumasa; Takeda, Shin'ichi; Komaki, Hirofumi

2016-07-11

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is the most commonly inherited neuromuscular disease. Therapeutic agents for the treatment of rare disease, namely "orphan drugs", have recently drawn the attention of researchers and pharmaceutical companies. To ensure the successful conduction of clinical trials to evaluate novel treatments for patients with rare diseases, an appropriate infrastructure is needed. One of the effective solutions for the lack of infrastructure is to establish a network of rare diseases. To accomplish the conduction of clinical trials in Japan, the Muscular dystrophy clinical trial network (MDCTN) was established by the clinical research group for muscular dystrophy, including the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, as well as national and university hospitals, all which have a long-standing history of research cooperation. Thirty-one medical institutions (17 national hospital organizations, 10 university hospitals, 1 national center, 2 public hospitals, and 1 private hospital) belong to this network and collaborate to facilitate clinical trials. The Care and Treatment Site Registry (CTSR) calculates and reports the proportion of patients with neuromuscular diseases in the cooperating sites. In total, there are 5,589 patients with neuromuscular diseases in Japan and the proportion of patients with each disease is as follows: DMD, 29 %; myotonic dystrophy type 1, 23 %; limb girdle muscular dystrophy, 11 %; Becker muscular dystrophy, 10 %. We work jointly to share updated health care information and standardized evaluations of clinical outcomes as well. The collaboration with the patient registry (CTSR), allows the MDCTN to recruit DMD participants with specific mutations and conditions, in a remarkably short period of time. Counting with a network that operates at a national level is important to address the corresponding national issues. Thus, our network will be able to contribute with international research activity, which can lead to an improvement of neuromuscular disease treatment in Japan.

Satellite Networks: Architectures, Applications, and Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhasin, Kul (Compiler)

1998-01-01

Since global satellite networks are moving to the forefront in enhancing the national and global information infrastructures due to communication satellites' unique networking characteristics, a workshop was organized to assess the progress made to date and chart the future. This workshop provided the forum to assess the current state-of-the-art, identify key issues, and highlight the emerging trends in the next-generation architectures, data protocol development, communication interoperability, and applications. Presentations on overview, state-of-the-art in research, development, deployment and applications and future trends on satellite networks are assembled.

Nanoporous thin film additives to improve precast concrete construction of transportation facilities.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-12-01

The national transportation network contains a significant number of highway and railway bridges. This research is intended to transform the use of precast/pre-stressed materials in the transportation infrastructure. Specifically it examines how nano...

Distributed Data Networks That Support Public Health Information Needs.

PubMed

Tabano, David C; Cole, Elizabeth; Holve, Erin; Davidson, Arthur J

Data networks, consisting of pooled electronic health data assets from health care providers serving different patient populations, promote data sharing, population and disease monitoring, and methods to assess interventions. Better understanding of data networks, and their capacity to support public health objectives, will help foster partnerships, expand resources, and grow learning health systems. We conducted semistructured interviews with 16 key informants across the United States, identified as network stakeholders based on their respective experience in advancing health information technology and network functionality. Key informants were asked about their experience with and infrastructure used to develop data networks, including each network's utility to identify and characterize populations, usage, and sustainability. Among 11 identified data networks representing hundreds of thousands of patients, key informants described aggregated health care clinical data contributing to population health measures. Key informant interview responses were thematically grouped to illustrate how networks support public health, including (1) infrastructure and information sharing; (2) population health measures; and (3) network sustainability. Collaboration between clinical data networks and public health entities presents an opportunity to leverage infrastructure investments to support public health. Data networks can provide resources to enhance population health information and infrastructure.

Infrastructure for collaborative science and societal applications in the Columbia River estuary

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baptista, António M.; Seaton, Charles; Wilkin, Michael P.; Riseman, Sarah F.; Needoba, Joseph A.; Maier, David; Turner, Paul J.; Kärnä, Tuomas; Lopez, Jesse E.; Herfort, Lydie; Megler, V. M.; McNeil, Craig; Crump, Byron C.; Peterson, Tawnya D.; Spitz, Yvette H.; Simon, Holly M.

2015-12-01

To meet societal needs, modern estuarine science needs to be interdisciplinary and collaborative, combine discovery with hypotheses testing, and be responsive to issues facing both regional and global stakeholders. Such an approach is best conducted with the benefit of data-rich environments, where information from sensors and models is openly accessible within convenient timeframes. Here, we introduce the operational infrastructure of one such data-rich environment, a collaboratory created to support (a) interdisciplinary research in the Columbia River estuary by the multi-institutional team of investigators of the Science and Technology Center for Coastal Margin Observation & Prediction and (b) the integration of scientific knowledge into regional decision making. Core components of the operational infrastructure are an observation network, a modeling system and a cyber-infrastructure, each of which is described. The observation network is anchored on an extensive array of long-term stations, many of them interdisciplinary, and is complemented by on-demand deployment of temporary stations and mobile platforms, often in coordinated field campaigns. The modeling system is based on finiteelement unstructured-grid codes and includes operational and process-oriented simulations of circulation, sediments and ecosystem processes. The flow of information is managed through a dedicated cyber-infrastructure, conversant with regional and national observing systems.

Impact modeling and prediction of attacks on cyber targets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khalili, Aram; Michalk, Brian; Alford, Lee; Henney, Chris; Gilbert, Logan

2010-04-01

In most organizations, IT (information technology) infrastructure exists to support the organization's mission. The threat of cyber attacks poses risks to this mission. Current network security research focuses on the threat of cyber attacks to the organization's IT infrastructure; however, the risks to the overall mission are rarely analyzed or formalized. This connection of IT infrastructure to the organization's mission is often neglected or carried out ad-hoc. Our work bridges this gap and introduces analyses and formalisms to help organizations understand the mission risks they face from cyber attacks. Modeling an organization's mission vulnerability to cyber attacks requires a description of the IT infrastructure (network model), the organization mission (business model), and how the mission relies on IT resources (correlation model). With this information, proper analysis can show which cyber resources are of tactical importance in a cyber attack, i.e., controlling them enables a large range of cyber attacks. Such analysis also reveals which IT resources contribute most to the organization's mission, i.e., lack of control over them gravely affects the mission. These results can then be used to formulate IT security strategies and explore their trade-offs, which leads to better incident response. This paper presents our methodology for encoding IT infrastructure, organization mission and correlations, our analysis framework, as well as initial experimental results and conclusions.

Dual-Polarization Observations of Precipitation: State of the Art in Operational and Research Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chandra, C. V.; Moisseev, D. N.; Baldini, L.; Bechini, R.; Cremonini, R.; Wolff, D. B.; Petersen, W. A.; Junyent, F.; Chen, H.; Beauchamp, R.

2016-12-01

Dual-polarization weather radars have been widely used for rainfall measurement applications and studies of the microphysical characteristics of precipitation. Ground-based, dual-polarization radar systems form the cornerstones of national severe weather warning and forecasting infrastructure in many developed countries. As a result of the improved performance of dual-polarization radars for these applications, large scale dual-polarization upgrades are being planned for India and China. In addition to national forecast and warning operations, dual-polarization radars have also been used for satellite ground validation activities. The operational Dual-Polarization radars in the US are mostly S band systems whereas in Europe are mostly C band systems. In addition a third class of systems is emerging in urban regions where networks of X band systems are being deployed operationally. There are successful networks planned or already deployed in big cities such as Dallas Fort Worth, Tokyo or Beijing. These X band networks are developing their own operational domain. In summary a large infrastructure in terms of user specified products and dual use of operational research applications are also emerging in these systems. This paper will discuss some of the innovative uses of the operational dual-polarization radar networks for research purposes, with references to calibration, hydrometeor classification and quantitative precipitation estimation. Additional application to the study of precipitation processes will also be discussed.

NHERI: Advancing the Research Infrastructure of the Multi-Hazard Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blain, C. A.; Ramirez, J. A.; Bobet, A.; Browning, J.; Edge, B.; Holmes, W.; Johnson, D.; Robertson, I.; Smith, T.; Zuo, D.

2017-12-01

The Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI), supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is a distributed, multi-user national facility that provides the natural hazards research community with access to an advanced research infrastructure. Components of NHERI are comprised of a Network Coordination Office (NCO), a cloud-based cyberinfrastructure (DesignSafe-CI), a computational modeling and simulation center (SimCenter), and eight Experimental Facilities (EFs), including a post-disaster, rapid response research facility (RAPID). Utimately NHERI enables researchers to explore and test ground-breaking concepts to protect homes, businesses and infrastructure lifelines from earthquakes, windstorms, tsunamis, and surge enabling innovations to help prevent natural hazards from becoming societal disasters. When coupled with education and community outreach, NHERI will facilitate research and educational advances that contribute knowledge and innovation toward improving the resiliency of the nation's civil infrastructure to withstand natural hazards. The unique capabilities and coordinating activities over Year 1 between NHERI's DesignSafe-CI, the SimCenter, and individual EFs will be presented. Basic descriptions of each component are also found at https://www.designsafe-ci.org/facilities/. Additionally to be discussed are the various roles of the NCO in leading development of a 5-year multi-hazard science plan, coordinating facility scheduling and fostering the sharing of technical knowledge and best practices, leading education and outreach programs such as the recent Summer Institute and multi-facility REU program, ensuring a platform for technology transfer to practicing engineers, and developing strategic national and international partnerships to support a diverse multi-hazard research and user community.

The UK DNA banking network: a "fair access" biobank.

PubMed

Yuille, Martin; Dixon, Katherine; Platt, Andrew; Pullum, Simon; Lewis, David; Hall, Alistair; Ollier, William

2010-08-01

The UK DNA Banking Network (UDBN) is a secondary biobank: it aggregates and manages resources (samples and data) originated by others. The network comprises, on the one hand, investigator groups led by clinicians each with a distinct disease specialism and, on the other hand, a research infrastructure to manage samples and data. The infrastructure addresses the problem of providing secure quality-assured accrual, storage, replenishment and distribution capacities for samples and of facilitating access to DNA aliquots and data for new peer-reviewed studies in genetic epidemiology. 'Fair access' principles and practices have been pragmatically developed that, unlike open access policies in this area, are not cumbersome but, rather, are fit for the purpose of expediting new study designs and their implementation. UDBN has so far distributed >60,000 samples for major genotyping studies yielding >10 billion genotypes. It provides a working model that can inform progress in biobanking nationally, across Europe and internationally.

Cyber threat model for tactical radio networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurdziel, Michael T.

2014-05-01

The shift to a full information-centric paradigm in the battlefield has allowed ConOps to be developed that are only possible using modern network communications systems. Securing these Tactical Networks without impacting their capabilities has been a challenge. Tactical networks with fixed infrastructure have similar vulnerabilities to their commercial counterparts (although they need to be secure against adversaries with greater capabilities, resources and motivation). However, networks with mobile infrastructure components and Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANets) have additional unique vulnerabilities that must be considered. It is useful to examine Tactical Network based ConOps and use them to construct a threat model and baseline cyber security requirements for Tactical Networks with fixed infrastructure, mobile infrastructure and/or ad hoc modes of operation. This paper will present an introduction to threat model assessment. A definition and detailed discussion of a Tactical Network threat model is also presented. Finally, the model is used to derive baseline requirements that can be used to design or evaluate a cyber security solution that can be scaled and adapted to the needs of specific deployments.

EUFAR the key portal and network for airborne research in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gérard, Elisabeth; Brown, Philip

2017-04-01

Created in 2000 and supported by the EU Framework Programmes since then as an Integrating Activities' project, EUFAR (European Facility of Airborne Research in environmental and Geo-sciences) was born out of the necessity to create a central network and access point for the airborne research community in Europe. With the aim to support researchers by granting them access to aircraft and instrumentation most suited to the needs of researchers across Europe, not accessible in their home countries, EUFAR also provides technical support and training in the field of airborne research for the environmental and geosciences, and enables the sharing of expertise and harmonisation of research practices. Today, EUFAR2 (2014-2018) coordinates and facilitates transnational access to 19 instrumented aircraft and 5 remote-sensing instruments through the 14 operators who are part of EUFAR's current 24-partner European consortium. In addition, the current project supports networking and joint research activities focused on providing an enabling environment for and to promote airborne research. Examples of some of these recent activities will be shown EUFAR is currently seeking to establish itself as an AISBL (international non-profit association) to ensure its existence and operations beyond January 2018 when our present EC funding comes to an end. The objectives of the EUFAR AISBL will include continuing to develop the integration of the research aircraft community in Europe and also its links with other environmental research infrastructures, such as the community of research infrastructures under the umbrella of ENVRIplus. Another objective will be to continue to broaden access to research facilities beyond that supported solely by national funding streams so that EUFAR better approaches the status of a European open research infrastructure. Together with the implementation of an Open Access scheme by means of resource-sharing envisaged in late 2017, such a sustainable structure will contribute substantially toward broadening the user base of existing airborne research facilities in Europe and mobilising additional resources to this end. EUFAR AISBL will be the most appropriate organisation for the (i) coordination of joint activities among the European institutions involved in airborne research, and also (ii) coordination of projects funded by the European Commission or other bodies for supporting activities beyond the self-financing perimeter of the AISBL (transnational access projects, education and training events, joint research activities, etc.). This will confirm EUFAR's position as the key portal for airborne research in Europe. This central position opens the way for further collaboration with other communities (UAS, etc.) and environmental research infrastructures (IAGOS, ACTRIS, ENVRIplus, EUROFLEETS, etc.) to ensure the mutual benefit of joint efforts in addressing future science challenges in a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the Earth system.

Mapping and discrimination of networks in the complexity-entropy plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiedermann, Marc; Donges, Jonathan F.; Kurths, Jürgen; Donner, Reik V.

2017-10-01

Complex networks are usually characterized in terms of their topological, spatial, or information-theoretic properties and combinations of the associated metrics are used to discriminate networks into different classes or categories. However, even with the present variety of characteristics at hand it still remains a subject of current research to appropriately quantify a network's complexity and correspondingly discriminate between different types of complex networks, like infrastructure or social networks, on such a basis. Here we explore the possibility to classify complex networks by means of a statistical complexity measure that has formerly been successfully applied to distinguish different types of chaotic and stochastic time series. It is composed of a network's averaged per-node entropic measure characterizing the network's information content and the associated Jenson-Shannon divergence as a measure of disequilibrium. We study 29 real-world networks and show that networks of the same category tend to cluster in distinct areas of the resulting complexity-entropy plane. We demonstrate that within our framework, connectome networks exhibit among the highest complexity while, e.g., transportation and infrastructure networks display significantly lower values. Furthermore, we demonstrate the utility of our framework by applying it to families of random scale-free and Watts-Strogatz model networks. We then show in a second application that the proposed framework is useful to objectively construct threshold-based networks, such as functional climate networks or recurrence networks, by choosing the threshold such that the statistical network complexity is maximized.

Vulnerability of network of networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Havlin, S.; Kenett, D. Y.; Bashan, A.; Gao, J.; Stanley, H. E.

2014-10-01

Our dependence on networks - be they infrastructure, economic, social or others - leaves us prone to crises caused by the vulnerabilities of these networks. There is a great need to develop new methods to protect infrastructure networks and prevent cascade of failures (especially in cases of coupled networks). Terrorist attacks on transportation networks have traumatized modern societies. With a single blast, it has become possible to paralyze airline traffic, electric power supply, ground transportation or Internet communication. How, and at which cost can one restructure the network such that it will become more robust against malicious attacks? The gradual increase in attacks on the networks society depends on - Internet, mobile phone, transportation, air travel, banking, etc. - emphasize the need to develop new strategies to protect and defend these crucial networks of communication and infrastructure networks. One example is the threat of liquid explosives a few years ago, which completely shut down air travel for days, and has created extreme changes in regulations. Such threats and dangers warrant the need for new tools and strategies to defend critical infrastructure. In this paper we review recent advances in the theoretical understanding of the vulnerabilities of interdependent networks with and without spatial embedding, attack strategies and their affect on such networks of networks as well as recently developed strategies to optimize and repair failures caused by such attacks.

Recent developments in Lambda networking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Laat, C.; Grosso, P.

About 6 years ago the first baby-steps were made on opening up dark fiber and DWDM infrastructure for direct use by ISP's after the transformation of the old style Telecom sector into a market driven business. Since then Lambda workshops, community groups like GLIF and a number of experiments have led to many implementations of hybrid national research and education networks and lightpath-based circuit exchanges as pioneered by SURFnet in GigaPort and NetherLight in collaboration with StarLight in Chicago and Canarie in Canada. This article looks back on those developments, describes some current open issues and research developments and proposes a concept of terabit networking.

Time-Varying, Multi-Scale Adaptive System Reliability Analysis of Lifeline Infrastructure Networks

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gearhart, Jared Lee; Kurtz, Nolan Scot

2014-09-01

The majority of current societal and economic needs world-wide are met by the existing networked, civil infrastructure. Because the cost of managing such infrastructure is high and increases with time, risk-informed decision making is essential for those with management responsibilities for these systems. To address such concerns, a methodology that accounts for new information, deterioration, component models, component importance, group importance, network reliability, hierarchical structure organization, and efficiency concerns has been developed. This methodology analyzes the use of new information through the lens of adaptive Importance Sampling for structural reliability problems. Deterioration, multi-scale bridge models, and time-variant component importance aremore » investigated for a specific network. Furthermore, both bridge and pipeline networks are studied for group and component importance, as well as for hierarchical structures in the context of specific networks. Efficiency is the primary driver throughout this study. With this risk-informed approach, those responsible for management can address deteriorating infrastructure networks in an organized manner.« less

Benefits and Challenges of Linking Green Infrastructure and Highway Planning in the United States

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marcucci, Daniel J.; Jordan, Lauren M.

2013-01-01

Landscape-level green infrastructure creates a network of natural and semi-natural areas that protects and enhances ecosystem services, regenerative capacities, and ecological dynamism over long timeframes. It can also enhance quality of life and certain economic activity. Highways create a network for moving goods and services efficiently, enabling commerce, and improving mobility. A fundamentally profound conflict exists between transportation planning and green infrastructure planning because they both seek to create connected, functioning networks across the same landscapes and regions, but transportation networks, especially in the form of highways, fragment and disconnect green infrastructure networks. A key opportunity has emerged in the United States during the last ten years with the promotion of measures to link transportation and environmental concerns. In this article we examined the potential benefits and challenges of linking landscape-level green infrastructure planning and implementation with integrated transportation planning and highway project development in the United States policy context. This was done by establishing a conceptual model that identified logical flow lines from planning to implementation as well as the potential interconnectors between green infrastructure and highway infrastructure. We analyzed the relationship of these activities through literature review, policy analysis, and a case study of a suburban Maryland, USA landscape. We found that regionally developed and adopted green infrastructure plans can be instrumental in creating more responsive regional transportation plans and streamlining the project environmental review process while enabling better outcomes by enabling more targeted mitigation. In order for benefits to occur, however, landscape-scale green infrastructure assessments and plans must be in place before integrated transportation planning and highway project development occurs. It is in the transportation community's interests to actively facilitate green infrastructure planning because it creates a more predictable environmental review context. On the other hand, for landscape-level green infrastructure, transportation planning and development is much more established and better funded and can provide a means of supporting green infrastructure planning and implementation, thereby enhancing conservation of ecological function.

Benefits and challenges of linking green infrastructure and highway planning in the United States.

PubMed

Marcucci, Daniel J; Jordan, Lauren M

2013-01-01

Landscape-level green infrastructure creates a network of natural and semi-natural areas that protects and enhances ecosystem services, regenerative capacities, and ecological dynamism over long timeframes. It can also enhance quality of life and certain economic activity. Highways create a network for moving goods and services efficiently, enabling commerce, and improving mobility. A fundamentally profound conflict exists between transportation planning and green infrastructure planning because they both seek to create connected, functioning networks across the same landscapes and regions, but transportation networks, especially in the form of highways, fragment and disconnect green infrastructure networks. A key opportunity has emerged in the United States during the last ten years with the promotion of measures to link transportation and environmental concerns. In this article we examined the potential benefits and challenges of linking landscape-level green infrastructure planning and implementation with integrated transportation planning and highway project development in the United States policy context. This was done by establishing a conceptual model that identified logical flow lines from planning to implementation as well as the potential interconnectors between green infrastructure and highway infrastructure. We analyzed the relationship of these activities through literature review, policy analysis, and a case study of a suburban Maryland, USA landscape. We found that regionally developed and adopted green infrastructure plans can be instrumental in creating more responsive regional transportation plans and streamlining the project environmental review process while enabling better outcomes by enabling more targeted mitigation. In order for benefits to occur, however, landscape-scale green infrastructure assessments and plans must be in place before integrated transportation planning and highway project development occurs. It is in the transportation community's interests to actively facilitate green infrastructure planning because it creates a more predictable environmental review context. On the other hand, for landscape-level green infrastructure, transportation planning and development is much more established and better funded and can provide a means of supporting green infrastructure planning and implementation, thereby enhancing conservation of ecological function.

Cloud access to interoperable IVOA-compliant VOSpace storage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertocco, S.; Dowler, P.; Gaudet, S.; Major, B.; Pasian, F.; Taffoni, G.

2018-07-01

Handling, processing and archiving the huge amount of data produced by the new generation of experiments and instruments in Astronomy and Astrophysics are among the more exciting challenges to address in designing the future data management infrastructures and computing services. We investigated the feasibility of a data management and computation infrastructure, available world-wide, with the aim of merging the FAIR data management provided by IVOA standards with the efficiency and reliability of a cloud approach. Our work involved the Canadian Advanced Network for Astronomy Research (CANFAR) infrastructure and the European EGI federated cloud (EFC). We designed and deployed a pilot data management and computation infrastructure that provides IVOA-compliant VOSpace storage resources and wide access to interoperable federated clouds. In this paper, we detail the main user requirements covered, the technical choices and the implemented solutions and we describe the resulting Hybrid cloud Worldwide infrastructure, its benefits and limitations.

Online catalog access and distribution of remotely sensed information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lutton, Stephen M.

1997-09-01

Remote sensing is providing voluminous data and value added information products. Electronic sensors, communication electronics, computer software, hardware, and network communications technology have matured to the point where a distributed infrastructure for remotely sensed information is a reality. The amount of remotely sensed data and information is making distributed infrastructure almost a necessity. This infrastructure provides data collection, archiving, cataloging, browsing, processing, and viewing for applications from scientific research to economic, legal, and national security decision making. The remote sensing field is entering a new exciting stage of commercial growth and expansion into the mainstream of government and business decision making. This paper overviews this new distributed infrastructure and then focuses on describing a software system for on-line catalog access and distribution of remotely sensed information.

Environmental Research Infrastructures providing shared solutions for science and society (ENVRIplus)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutsch, Werner Leo; Asmi, Ari; Laj, Paolo; Brus, Magdalena; Sorvari, Sanna

2016-04-01

ENVRIplus is a Horizon 2020 project bringing together Environmental and Earth System Research Infrastructures, projects and networks together with technical specialist partners to create a more coherent, interdisciplinary and interoperable cluster of Environmental Research Infrastructures (RIs) across Europe. The objective of ENVRIplus is to provide common solutions to shared challenges for these RIs in their efforts to deliver new services for science and society. To reach this overall goal, ENVRIplus brings together the current ESFRI roadmap environmental and associate fields RIs, leading I3 projects, key developing RI networks and specific technical specialist partners to build common synergic solutions for pressing issues in RI construction and implementation. ENVRIplus will be organized along 6 main objectives, further on called "Themes": 1) Improve the RI's abilities to observe the Earth System, particularly in developing and testing new sensor technologies, harmonizing observation methodologies and developing methods to overcome common problems associated with distributed remote observation networks; 2) Generate common solutions for shared information technology and data related challenges of the environmental RIs in data and service discovery and use, workflow documentation, data citations methodologies, service virtualization, and user characterization and interaction; 3) Develop harmonized policies for access (physical and virtual) for the environmental RIs, including access services for the multidisciplinary users; 4) Investigate the interactions between RIs and society: Find common approaches and methodologies how to assess the RIs' ability to answer the economical and societal challenges, develop ethics guidelines for RIs and investigate the possibility to enhance the use Citizen Science approaches in RI products and services; 5) Ensure the cross-fertilisation and knowledge transfer of new technologies, best practices, approaches and policies of the RIs by generating training material for RI personnel to use the new observational, technological and computational tools and facilitate inter-RI knowledge transfer via a staff exchange program; 6) Create RI communication and cooperation framework to coordinate activities of the environmental RIs towards common strategic development, improved user interaction and interdisciplinary cross-RI products and services. The produced solutions, services, systems and other project results are made available to all environmental research infrastructure initiatives.

MmWave Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communication :Analysis of Urban Microcellular Networks

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-05-01

Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication may provide high data rates to vehicles via millimeterwave (mmWave) microcellular networks. This report uses stochastic geometry to analyze the coverage of urban mmWave microcellular networks. Prior work ...

"Comments on Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes": Technologies that Facilitate Generating Knowledge and Possibly Wisdom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dede, Chris

2009-01-01

Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes (2009) argue that Web 2.0 media are well suited to enhancing the education research community's purpose of generating and sharing knowledge. The author of this comment article first articulates how a research infrastructure with capabilities for communal bookmarking, photo and video sharing, social networking, wikis,…

Federated Ground Station Network Model and Interface Specification

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

interface definition language JSON JavaScript Object Notation LEO low Earth orbit LNA low-noise amplifier MC3 Mobile CubeSat Command and Control...Naval Research Laboratory OQPSK offset quadrature phase-shift keying xviii P2P peer-to-peer PKI public key infrastructure REST Representational...enhanced our work being performed on the Mobile CubeSat Command and Control (MC3) ground station network. You also provided crucial guidance from

A telehealth architecture for networked embedded systems: a case study in in vivo health monitoring.

PubMed

Dabiri, Foad; Massey, Tammara; Noshadi, Hyduke; Hagopian, Hagop; Lin, C K; Tan, Robert; Schmidt, Jacob; Sarrafzadeh, Majid

2009-05-01

The improvement in processor performance through continuous breakthroughs in transistor technology has resulted in the proliferation of lightweight embedded systems. Advances in wireless technology and embedded systems have enabled remote healthcare and telemedicine. While medical examinations could previously extract only localized symptoms through snapshots, now continuous monitoring can discretely analyze how a patient's lifestyle affects his/her physiological conditions and if additional symptoms occur under various stimuli. We demonstrate how medical applications in particular benefit from a hierarchical networking scheme that will improve the quantity and quality of ubiquitous data collection. Our Telehealth networking infrastructure provides flexibility in terms of functionality and the type of applications that it supports. We specifically present a case study that demonstrates the effectiveness of our networked embedded infrastructure in an in vivo pressure application. Experimental results of the in vivo system demonstrate how it can wirelessly transmit pressure readings measuring from 0 to 1.5 lbf/in (2) with an accuracy of 0.02 lbf/in (2). The challenges in biocompatible packaging, transducer drift, power management, and in vivo signal transmission are also discussed. This research brings researchers a step closer to continuous, real-time systemic monitoring that will allow one to analyze the dynamic human physiology.

Network testbed creation and validation

DOEpatents

Thai, Tan Q.; Urias, Vincent; Van Leeuwen, Brian P.; Watts, Kristopher K.; Sweeney, Andrew John

2017-03-21

Embodiments of network testbed creation and validation processes are described herein. A "network testbed" is a replicated environment used to validate a target network or an aspect of its design. Embodiments describe a network testbed that comprises virtual testbed nodes executed via a plurality of physical infrastructure nodes. The virtual testbed nodes utilize these hardware resources as a network "fabric," thereby enabling rapid configuration and reconfiguration of the virtual testbed nodes without requiring reconfiguration of the physical infrastructure nodes. Thus, in contrast to prior art solutions which require a tester manually build an emulated environment of physically connected network devices, embodiments receive or derive a target network description and build out a replica of this description using virtual testbed nodes executed via the physical infrastructure nodes. This process allows for the creation of very large (e.g., tens of thousands of network elements) and/or very topologically complex test networks.

Network testbed creation and validation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Thai, Tan Q.; Urias, Vincent; Van Leeuwen, Brian P.

Embodiments of network testbed creation and validation processes are described herein. A "network testbed" is a replicated environment used to validate a target network or an aspect of its design. Embodiments describe a network testbed that comprises virtual testbed nodes executed via a plurality of physical infrastructure nodes. The virtual testbed nodes utilize these hardware resources as a network "fabric," thereby enabling rapid configuration and reconfiguration of the virtual testbed nodes without requiring reconfiguration of the physical infrastructure nodes. Thus, in contrast to prior art solutions which require a tester manually build an emulated environment of physically connected network devices,more » embodiments receive or derive a target network description and build out a replica of this description using virtual testbed nodes executed via the physical infrastructure nodes. This process allows for the creation of very large (e.g., tens of thousands of network elements) and/or very topologically complex test networks.« less

Rerouting Urban Waters: A Historic Examination of the Age of Imperviousness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hopkins, K. G.; Bain, D. J.

2011-12-01

From the 1600's to the 1900's landscapes along the Eastern United States underwent dramatic changes, including transitions from forest to production agriculture and eventually urban development. Legacy effects from decisions on sewer and water infrastructure built during the early 1900's are emerging today in degraded urban waterways. Impervious cover is often a factor used to predict water impairment. However, does imperviousness age or change through the course of landscape evolution? This study reconstructs the history of imperviousness in the Panther Hollow watershed (161 ha, Pittsburgh, PA) to examine these changes. We reconstruct the importance of factors influencing effective imperviousness from the 1800's to present including; (1) pipe and road network technological transitions, (2) land cover changes, particularly the loss of forest cover, and (3) modifications to local topography. Analysis reveals effective imperviousness (impervious area in the basin directly connected to stream channels) increased dramatically after 1900. Prior to 1900, water and sewer infrastructure was very limited. Local drainage networks generally followed the natural topography and households accessed water supplies from wells, precipitation harvesting or surface water. Road networks were sparse and predominantly dirt or aggregate surfaces. Forests and large family farms dominated land cover. Around 1910 public water supply expanded, significantly increasing effective imperviousness due to installation of brick and ceramic sewer infrastructure that routed waste waters directly to stream channels. Road networks also expanded and began transitioning from dirt roads to brick and eventually asphalt. Shifting to impervious paving materials required the installation of stormwater drainage. New drainage systems altered historic flow paths by re-routed large quantities of water through macro-pore sewer networks to local waterways. While this improvement prevented flooding to roadways, it also created new flooding issues downstream of outfalls. Improvements to transit networks also increased mobility and connected towns together facilitating the expansion of development. Significant losses of urban tree canopy cover and the loss of water storage capacity in soils compounded issues, dramatically increasing effective imperviousness. From 1940 - 1960 concerns over polluted waterways resulted in the re-routing of sewage networks from streams to treatment facilities, decreasing sewage subsidies to effective imperviousness. However, connection of stormwater drainage networks to sewage infrastructure designed for earlier flow regimes and the increasing effective imperviousness resulted in frequent overflows of sewage directly to local waterways. Currently, aging infrastructure presents the opportunity to incorporate low impact development techniques in infrastructure repair. This has the potential to reduce effective imperviousness in urban areas by re-establishing lost hydrologic flow paths. This research indicates imperviousness as a parameter incorporates a complicated mix of processes. Examining the causal, mechanistic links between these systems can provide additional perspective on water impairments in urban landscapes throughout the course of landscape evolution.

Defense strategies for cloud computing multi-site server infrastructures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rao, Nageswara S.; Ma, Chris Y. T.; He, Fei

We consider cloud computing server infrastructures for big data applications, which consist of multiple server sites connected over a wide-area network. The sites house a number of servers, network elements and local-area connections, and the wide-area network plays a critical, asymmetric role of providing vital connectivity between them. We model this infrastructure as a system of systems, wherein the sites and wide-area network are represented by their cyber and physical components. These components can be disabled by cyber and physical attacks, and also can be protected against them using component reinforcements. The effects of attacks propagate within the systems, andmore » also beyond them via the wide-area network.We characterize these effects using correlations at two levels using: (a) aggregate failure correlation function that specifies the infrastructure failure probability given the failure of an individual site or network, and (b) first-order differential conditions on system survival probabilities that characterize the component-level correlations within individual systems. We formulate a game between an attacker and a provider using utility functions composed of survival probability and cost terms. At Nash Equilibrium, we derive expressions for the expected capacity of the infrastructure given by the number of operational servers connected to the network for sum-form, product-form and composite utility functions.« less

The Impact of Network Performance on Warfighter Effectiveness

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

SECURITY TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE WORKFORCE AND WORKPLACE The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective...Support Es- tablishment, Auckland , New Zealand), 2000. Lauren, M., R. Stephen, and N. Hore, “Application of the MANA Model to Operations in East Timor

Assessment Report of US-Japan-Europe Collaborative Research on Probe Data International Probe Data Work Group Phase 2.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-01-01

The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT), the Road Bureau of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan, and the European Unions European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Conte...

Infrastructure Vulnerability Assessment and Defense

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-03-01

companies or organizations. The connectivity and communications within and among networks are "glued" together by a set of protocols defined by the Internet ... research communities, which are modified and improved over decades of time. Those protocols are usually designed in the principle to achieve

Our Plan for a Wireless Loan Service.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allmang, Nancy

2003-01-01

Discusses the planning for wireless technology at the research library of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Highlights include computer equipment, including laptops and PDAs; local area networks; equipment loan service; writing a business plan; infrastructure; training programs; and future considerations, including…

Optical Access Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jun; Ansari, Nirwan

2005-03-01

Call for Papers: Optical Access Networks With the wide deployment of fiber-optic technology over the past two decades, we have witnessed a tremendous growth of bandwidth capacity in the backbone networks of today's telecommunications infrastructure. However, access networks, which cover the "last-mile" areas and serve numerous residential and small business users, have not been scaled up commensurately. The local subscriber lines for telephone and cable television are still using twisted pairs and coaxial cables. Most residential connections to the Internet are still through dial-up modems operating at a low speed on twisted pairs. As the demand for access bandwidth increases with emerging high-bandwidth applications, such as distance learning, high-definition television (HDTV), and video on demand (VoD), the last-mile access networks have become a bandwidth bottleneck in today's telecommunications infrastructure. To ease this bottleneck, it is imperative to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in the access networks to open the bottleneck and thus present more opportunities for the provisioning of multiservices. Optical access solutions promise huge bandwidth to service providers and low-cost high-bandwidth services to end users and are therefore widely considered the technology of choice for next-generation access networks. To realize the vision of optical access networks, however, many key issues still need to be addressed, such as network architectures, signaling protocols, and implementation standards. The major challenges lie in the fact that an optical solution must be not only robust, scalable, and flexible, but also implemented at a low cost comparable to that of existing access solutions in order to increase the economic viability of many potential high-bandwidth applications. In recent years, optical access networks have been receiving tremendous attention from both academia and industry. A large number of research activities have been carried out or are now underway this hot area. The purpose of this feature issue is to expose the networking community to the latest research breakthroughs and progresses in the area of optical access networks. This feature issue aims to present a collection of papers that focus on the state-of-the-art research in various networking aspects of optical access networks. Original papers are solicited from all researchers involved in area of optical access networks. Topics of interest include but not limited to:

A data management proposal to connect in a hierarchical way nodes of the Spanish Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuentes, Daniel; Pérez-Luque, Antonio J.; Bonet García, Francisco J.; Moreno-LLorca, Ricardo A.; Sánchez-Cano, Francisco M.; Suárez-Muñoz, María

2017-04-01

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) network aims to provide the scientific community, policy makers, and society with the knowledge and predictive understanding necessary to conserve, protect, and manage the ecosystems. LTER is organized into networks ranging from the global to national scale. In the top of network, the International Long Term Ecological Research (ILTER) Network coordinates among ecological researchers and LTER research networks at local, regional and global scales. In Spain, the Spanish Long Term Ecological Research (LTER-Spain) network was built to foster the collaboration and coordination between longest-lived ecological researchers and networks on a local scale. Currently composed by nine nodes, this network facilitates the data exchange, documentation and preservation encouraging the development of cross-disciplinary works. However, most nodes have no specific information systems, tools or qualified personnel to manage their data for continued conservation and there are no harmonized methodologies for long-term monitoring protocols. Hence, the main challenge is to place the nodes in its correct position in the network, providing the best tools that allow them to manage their data autonomously and make it easier for them to access information and knowledge in the network. This work proposes a connected structure composed by four LTER nodes located in southern Spain. The structure is built considering hierarchical approach: nodes that create information which is documented using metadata standards (such as Ecological Metadata Language, EML); and others nodes that gather metadata and information. We also take into account the capacity of each node to manage their own data and the premise that the data and metadata must be maintained where it is generated. The current state of the nodes is a follows: two of them have their own information management system (Sierra Nevada-Granada and Doñana Long-Term Socio-ecological Research Platform) and another has no infrastructure to maintain their data (The Arid Iberian South East LTSER Platform). The last one (Environmental Information Network of Andalusia-REDIAM) acts as the coordinator, providing physical and logical support to other nodes and also gathers and distributes the information "uphill" to the rest of the network (LTER Europe and ILTER). The development of the network has been divided in three stages. First, existing resources and data management requirements are identified in each node. Second, the necessary software tools and interoperable standards to manage and exchange the data have been selected, installed and configured in each participant. Finally, once the network has been set up completely, it is expected to expand it all over Spain with new nodes and its connection to others LTER and similar networks. This research has been funded by ADAPTAMED (Protection of key ecosystem services by adaptive management of Climate Change endangered Mediterranean socioecosystems) Life EU project, Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory (LTER-site) and eLTER (Integrated European Long Term Ecosystem & Socio-Ecological Research Infrastructure).

Game-theoretic strategies for asymmetric networked systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rao, Nageswara S.; Ma, Chris Y. T.; Hausken, Kjell

Abstract—We consider an infrastructure consisting of a network of systems each composed of discrete components that can be reinforced at a certain cost to guard against attacks. The network provides the vital connectivity between systems, and hence plays a critical, asymmetric role in the infrastructure operations. We characterize the system-level correlations using the aggregate failure correlation function that specifies the infrastructure failure probability given the failure of an individual system or network. The survival probabilities of systems and network satisfy first-order differential conditions that capture the component-level correlations. We formulate the problem of ensuring the infrastructure survival as a gamemore » between anattacker and a provider, using the sum-form and product-form utility functions, each composed of a survival probability term and a cost term. We derive Nash Equilibrium conditions which provide expressions for individual system survival probabilities, and also the expected capacity specified by the total number of operational components. These expressions differ only in a single term for the sum-form and product-form utilities, despite their significant differences.We apply these results to simplified models of distributed cloud computing infrastructures.« less

Solar-Terrestrial and Astronomical Research Network (STAR-Network) - A Meaningful Practice of New Cyberinfrastructure on Space Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, X.; Zou, Z.

2017-12-01

For the next decades, comprehensive big data application environment is the dominant direction of cyberinfrastructure development on space science. To make the concept of such BIG cyberinfrastructure (e.g. Digital Space) a reality, these aspects of capability should be focused on and integrated, which includes science data system, digital space engine, big data application (tools and models) and the IT infrastructure. In the past few years, CAS Chinese Space Science Data Center (CSSDC) has made a helpful attempt in this direction. A cloud-enabled virtual research platform on space science, called Solar-Terrestrial and Astronomical Research Network (STAR-Network), has been developed to serve the full lifecycle of space science missions and research activities. It integrated a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary resources, to provide science-problem-oriented data retrieval and query service, collaborative mission demonstration service, mission operation supporting service, space weather computing and Analysis service and other self-help service. This platform is supported by persistent infrastructure, including cloud storage, cloud computing, supercomputing and so on. Different variety of resource are interconnected: the science data can be displayed on the browser by visualization tools, the data analysis tools and physical models can be drived by the applicable science data, the computing results can be saved on the cloud, for example. So far, STAR-Network has served a series of space science mission in China, involving Strategic Pioneer Program on Space Science (this program has invested some space science satellite as DAMPE, HXMT, QUESS, and more satellite will be launched around 2020) and Meridian Space Weather Monitor Project. Scientists have obtained some new findings by using the science data from these missions with STAR-Network's contribution. We are confident that STAR-Network is an exciting practice of new cyberinfrastructure architecture on space science.

Implementation status of the extreme light infrastructure - nuclear physics (ELI-NP) project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.; Zamfir, N. V.

2015-02-01

The Project Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is part of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW lasers and a Compton back-scattering high-brilliance and intense gamma beam, a marriage of laser and accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as the science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.

[The Competence Network Parkinson (CNP)].

PubMed

Oertel, Wolfgang H; Deuschl, Guenther; Eggert, Karla

2016-04-01

The Competence Network Parkinson (CNP) is a research infrastructure for disease-oriented translational and clinical research in the field of Parkinson syndromes (PS). It was initiated in 1999 and funded until 2008 by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). The CNP created a highly frequented website with information on PS for the general public and for experts. The CNP designed and established one of the first electronic internet-based data entry systems (secuTrial®) - fulfilling the legal standards of data safety and security - a material bank for genetic research on Parkinson's disease (PD), implemented and investigated new methods for early diagnosis of PD and related atypical PS including in vivo dopamine transporter imaging (DAT SPECT), established the German Parkinson Study Group (GPS-Pharma) with 40 certified trial centres for pharmacotherapeutical trials and the German interdisciplinary Parkinson Study Group (neurology and neurosurgery) for deep brain stimulation (GPS-DBS), and carried out several pharmacoeconomic and health care studies on PD in Germany. Sustainability of the infrastructure CNP has in part been achieved in form of the GPS-Pharma and the GPS-DBS, as well as in the German Study Group on REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD), a prodromal phase of PD. Part of the CNP activities, such as genetic research and research on cohorts of PD patients, have been incorporated into the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disorders (DZNE). Furthermore, topics such as health care research are funded within projects of the EU research program. The article describes problems in setting up a competence network from scratch and contains recommendations how to avoid them in the future.

Networking among young global health researchers through an intensive training approach: a mixed methods exploratory study

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Networks are increasingly regarded as essential in health research aimed at influencing practice and policies. Less research has focused on the role networking can play in researchers’ careers and its broader impacts on capacity strengthening in health research. We used the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research (CCGHR) annual Summer Institute for New Global Health Researchers (SIs) as an opportunity to explore networking among new global health researchers. Methods A mixed-methods exploratory study was conducted among SI alumni and facilitators who had participated in at least one SI between 2004 and 2010. Alumni and facilitators completed an online short questionnaire, and a subset participated in an in-depth interview. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data was triangulated with quantitative results and CCGHR reports on SIs. Synthesis occurred through the development of a process model relevant to networking through the SIs. Results Through networking at the SIs, participants experienced decreased isolation and strengthened working relationships. Participants accessed new knowledge, opportunities, and resources through networking during the SI. Post-SI, participants reported ongoing contact and collaboration, although most participants desired more opportunities for interaction. They made suggestions for structural supports to networking among new global health researchers. Conclusions Networking at the SI contributed positively to opportunities for individuals, and contributed to the formation of a network of global health researchers. Intentional inclusion of networking in health research capacity strengthening initiatives, with supportive resources and infrastructure could create dynamic, sustainable networks accessible to global health researchers around the world. PMID:24460819

Infrastructure for Training and Partnershipes: California Water and Coastal Ocean Resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Siegel, David A.; Dozier, Jeffrey; Gautier, Catherine; Davis, Frank; Dickey, Tommy; Dunne, Thomas; Frew, James; Keller, Arturo; MacIntyre, Sally; Melack, John

2000-01-01

The purpose of this project was to advance the existing ICESS/Bren School computing infrastructure to allow scientists, students, and research trainees the opportunity to interact with environmental data and simulations in near-real time. Improvements made with the funding from this project have helped to strengthen the research efforts within both units, fostered graduate research training, and helped fortify partnerships with government and industry. With this funding, we were able to expand our computational environment in which computer resources, software, and data sets are shared by ICESS/Bren School faculty researchers in all areas of Earth system science. All of the graduate and undergraduate students associated with the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Institute for Computational Earth System Science have benefited from the infrastructure upgrades accomplished by this project. Additionally, the upgrades fostered a significant number of research projects (attached is a list of the projects that benefited from the upgrades). As originally proposed, funding for this project provided the following infrastructure upgrades: 1) a modem file management system capable of interoperating UNIX and NT file systems that can scale to 6.7 TB, 2) a Qualstar 40-slot tape library with two AIT tape drives and Legato Networker backup/archive software, 3) previously unavailable import/export capability for data sets on Zip, Jaz, DAT, 8mm, CD, and DLT media in addition to a 622Mb/s Internet 2 connection, 4) network switches capable of 100 Mbps to 128 desktop workstations, 5) Portable Batch System (PBS) computational task scheduler, and vi) two Compaq/Digital Alpha XP1000 compute servers each with 1.5 GB of RAM along with an SGI Origin 2000 (purchased partially using funds from this project along with funding from various other sources) to be used for very large computations, as required for simulation of mesoscale meteorology or climate.

High-Rate Wireless Airborne Network Demonstration (HiWAND) Flight Test Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Franz, Russell

2008-01-01

An increasing number of flight research and airborne science experiments now contain network-ready systems that could benefit from a high-rate bidirectional air-to-ground network link. A prototype system, the High-Rate Wireless Airborne Network Demonstration, was developed from commercial off-the-shelf components while leveraging the existing telemetry infrastructure on the Western Aeronautical Test Range. This approach resulted in a cost-effective, long-range, line-of-sight network link over the S and the L frequency bands using both frequency modulation and shaped-offset quadrature phase-shift keying modulation. This report discusses system configuration and the flight test results.

High-Rate Wireless Airborne Network Demonstration (HiWAND) Flight Test Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Franz, Russell

2007-01-01

An increasing number of flight research and airborne science experiments now contain network-ready systems that could benefit from a high-rate bidirectional air-to-ground network link. A prototype system, the High-Rate Wireless Airborne Network Demonstration, was developed from commercial off-the-shelf components while leveraging the existing telemetry infrastructure on the Western Aeronautical Test Range. This approach resulted in a cost-effective, long-range, line-of-sight network link over the S and the L frequency bands using both frequency modulation and shaped-offset quadrature phase-shift keying modulation. This paper discusses system configuration and the flight test results.

Community Needs Assessment and Portal Prototype Development for an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wiggins, H. V.; Warnick, W. K.; Hempel, L. C.; Henk, J.; Sorensen, M.; Tweedie, C. E.; Gaylord, A. G.

2007-12-01

As the creation and use of geospatial data in research, management, logistics, and education applications has proliferated, there is now a tremendous potential for advancing science through a variety of cyber-infrastructure applications, including Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) and related technologies. SDIs provide a necessary and common framework of standards, securities, policies, procedures, and technology to support the effective acquisition, coordination, dissemination and use of geospatial data by multiple and distributed stakeholder and user groups. Despite the numerous research activities in the Arctic, there is no established SDI and, because of this lack of a coordinated infrastructure, there is inefficiency, duplication of effort, and reduced data quality and search ability of arctic geospatial data. The urgency for establishing this framework is significant considering the myriad of data that is being collected in celebration of the International Polar Year (IPY) in 2007-2008 and the current international momentum for an improved and integrated circum-arctic terrestrial-marine-atmospheric environmental observatories network. The key objective of this project is to lay the foundation for full implementation of an Arctic Spatial Data Infrastructure (ASDI) through an assessment of community needs, readiness, and resources and through the development of a prototype web-mapping portal.

Infrastructure and social tie: Spatial model approach on understanding poverty in Malang regency, Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ari, I. R. D.; Hasyim, A. W.; Pratama, B. A.; Helmy, M.; Sheilla, M. N.

2017-06-01

Poverty is a problem that requires attention from the government especially in developing countries such as Indonesia. This Research takes Place at Kasembon District because it has 53,19% family below poverty line in the region. The purpose of this research is to measure poverty based on 3 poverty indicators published by World Bank and 1 multidimensional poverty index. Furthermore, this research invesitigas the relationship between poverty with social and infrastructure in Kasembon District. This study using social network analysis, hot spots analysis, and regression analysis with ordinary least squares. From the poverty indicators known that Pondokagung Village has the highest poverty rate compared to another region. Results from regression model indicate that social and infrastructure affecting poverty in Kasembon District. Social parameter that affecting poverty is density. Infrastructure parameter that affecting poverty is length of paved road. Coefficient value of density is the largest in the model. Therefore it can be concluded that social factors can give more opportunity to reduce poverty rates in Kasembon District. In the local model of paved road coefficient, it is known that the coefficient for each village has not much different value from the global model.

Roadmap for the establishment of a European vaccine R&D infrastructure.

PubMed

Leroy, Odile; Geels, Mark; Korejwo, Joanna; Dodet, Betty; Imbault, Nathalie; Jungbluth, Stefan

2014-12-05

To consolidate the integration of the fragmented European vaccine development landscape, TRANSVAC - the European Network of Vaccine Research and Development, funded by the European Commission (EC) - has initiated the development of a roadmap through a process of stakeholder consultation. The outcome of this consultation highlighted the need for transnational cooperation and the opportunities that could be generated by such efforts. This cooperation can be achieved through the establishment of a European Vaccine Research and Development Infrastructure (EVRI). EVRI will support cooperation between existing vaccine Research and Development (R&D) organisations from the public and private sector and other networks throughout Europe. It will become sustainable over time by receiving support from multiple sources including the EC, European Union (EU) Member States, European vaccine companies, EVRI partner organisations, and by income generated. Different stakeholders have demonstrated support for the concept of a vaccine infrastructure and agree that such an infrastructure can function as leverage institution between public and private institutions thus making significant contributions to the vaccine field as a whole in its quest to develop vaccines. EVRI will be launched in three phases: preparatory (during which the legal and administrative framework will be defined and a business plan will be elaborated), implementation and operational. If sufficient political and financial commitment can be secured from relevant national and European entities as well as from the private sector and other stakeholders, it could enter into operational phase from 2017 onwards. In conclusion, EVRI can make vaccine R&D more efficient and help address European and global health challenges, help alleviate the burden and spread of infectious diseases, thus contributing to the sustainability of public healthcare systems. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Percolation of localized attack on complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shao, Shuai; Huang, Xuqing; Stanley, H. Eugene; Havlin, Shlomo

2015-02-01

The robustness of complex networks against node failure and malicious attack has been of interest for decades, while most of the research has focused on random attack or hub-targeted attack. In many real-world scenarios, however, attacks are neither random nor hub-targeted, but localized, where a group of neighboring nodes in a network are attacked and fail. In this paper we develop a percolation framework to analytically and numerically study the robustness of complex networks against such localized attack. In particular, we investigate this robustness in Erdős-Rényi networks, random-regular networks, and scale-free networks. Our results provide insight into how to better protect networks, enhance cybersecurity, and facilitate the design of more robust infrastructures.

Vehicle infrastructure integration (VII) : exploring the application of disruptive technology to assist older drivers.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-01-01

This report discusses the approach and findings of a research project aimed at the evaluation of : an inter-vehicle communications scheme for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANETs). : Because of the size, frequency, and expected number of receivers of pe...

Concept development and needs identification for Intelligent Network Flow Optimization (INFLO) : assessment of relevant prior and ongoing research.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-03-01

Through the USDOT Dynamic Mobility Applications (DMA) program, a number of high-priority mobility applications have been assessed and identified that can connect vehicles, travelers, and infrastructure in order to provide better information to travel...

New approach to enhance and evaluate the performance of vehicle-infrastructure integration and its communication systems, final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-09-01

Initial research studied the use of wireless local area networks (WLAN) protocols in Inter-Vehicle Communications : (IVC) environments. The protocols performance was evaluated in terms of measuring throughput, jitter time and : delay time. This re...

Generic patterns in the evolution of urban water networks: Evidence from a large Asian city

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krueger, Elisabeth; Klinkhamer, Christopher; Urich, Christian; Zhan, Xianyuan; Rao, P. Suresh C.

2017-03-01

We examine high-resolution urban infrastructure data using every pipe for the water distribution network (WDN) and sanitary sewer network (SSN) in a large Asian city (≈4 million residents) to explore the structure as well as the spatial and temporal evolution of these infrastructure networks. Network data were spatially disaggregated into multiple subnets to examine intracity topological differences for functional zones of the WDN and SSN, and time-stamped SSN data were examined to understand network evolution over several decades as the city expanded. Graphs were generated using a dual-mapping technique (Hierarchical Intersection Continuity Negotiation), which emphasizes the functional attributes of these networks. Network graphs for WDNs and SSNs are characterized by several network topological metrics, and a double Pareto (power-law) model approximates the node-degree distributions of both water infrastructure networks (WDN and SSN), across spatial and hierarchical scales relevant to urban settings, and throughout their temporal evolution over several decades. These results indicate that generic mechanisms govern the networks' evolution, similar to those of scale-free networks found in nature. Deviations from the general topological patterns are indicative of (1) incomplete establishment of network hierarchies and functional network evolution, (2) capacity for growth (expansion) or densification (e.g., in-fill), and (3) likely network vulnerabilities. We discuss the implications of our findings for the (re-)design of urban infrastructure networks to enhance their resilience to external and internal threats.

Defense strategies for asymmetric networked systems under composite utilities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rao, Nageswara S.; Ma, Chris Y. T.; Hausken, Kjell

We consider an infrastructure of networked systems with discrete components that can be reinforced at certain costs to guard against attacks. The communications network plays a critical, asymmetric role of providing the vital connectivity between the systems. We characterize the correlations within this infrastructure at two levels using (a) aggregate failure correlation function that specifies the infrastructure failure probability giventhe failure of an individual system or network, and (b) first order differential conditions on system survival probabilities that characterize component-level correlations. We formulate an infrastructure survival game between an attacker and a provider, who attacks and reinforces individual components, respectively.more » They use the composite utility functions composed of a survival probability term and a cost term, and the previously studiedsum-form and product-form utility functions are their special cases. At Nash Equilibrium, we derive expressions for individual system survival probabilities and the expected total number of operational components. We apply and discuss these estimates for a simplified model of distributed cloud computing infrastructure« less

Instinctive analytics for coalition operations (Conference Presentation)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Mel, Geeth R.; La Porta, Thomas; Pham, Tien; Pearson, Gavin

2017-05-01

The success of future military coalition operations—be they combat or humanitarian—will increasingly depend on a system's ability to share data and processing services (e.g. aggregation, summarization, fusion), and automatically compose services in support of complex tasks at the network edge. We call such an infrastructure instinctive—i.e., an infrastructure that reacts instinctively to address the analytics task at hand. However, developing such an infrastructure is made complex for the coalition environment due to its dynamism both in terms of user requirements and service availability. In order to address the above challenge, in this paper, we highlight our research vision and sketch some initial solutions into the problem domain. Specifically, we propose means to (1) automatically infer formal task requirements from mission specifications; (2) discover data, services, and their features automatically to satisfy the identified requirements; (3) create and augment shared domain models automatically; (4) efficiently offload services to the network edge and across coalition boundaries adhering to their computational properties and costs; and (5) optimally allocate and adjust services while respecting the constraints of operating environment and service fit. We envision that the research will result in a framework which enables self-description, discover, and assemble capabilities to both data and services in support of coalition mission goals.

Establishing a clinical trials network in nephrology: experience of the Australasian Kidney Trials Network

PubMed Central

Morrish, Alicia T; Hawley, Carmel M; Johnson, David W; Badve, Sunil V; Perkovic, Vlado; Reidlinger, Donna M; Cass, Alan

2014-01-01

Chronic kidney disease is a major public health problem globally. Despite this, there are fewer high-quality, high-impact clinical trials in nephrology than other internal medicine specialties, which has led to large gaps in evidence. To address this deficiency, the Australasian Kidney Trials Network, a Collaborative Research Group, was formed in 2005. Since then, the Network has provided infrastructure and expertise to conduct patient-focused high-quality, investigator-initiated clinical trials in nephrology. The Network has not only been successful in engaging the nephrology community in Australia and New Zealand but also in forming collaborations with leading researchers from other countries. This article describes the establishment, development, and functions of the Network. The article also discusses the current and future funding strategies to ensure uninterrupted conduct of much needed clinical trials in nephrology to improve the outcomes of patients affected by kidney diseases with cost-effective interventions. PMID:24088955

Green infrastructure and its catchment-scale effects: an emerging science

PubMed Central

Golden, Heather E.; Hoghooghi, Nahal

2018-01-01

Urbanizing environments alter the hydrological cycle by redirecting stream networks for stormwater and wastewater transmission and increasing impermeable surfaces. These changes thereby accelerate the runoff of water and its constituents following precipitation events, alter evapotranspiration processes, and indirectly modify surface precipitation patterns. Green infrastructure, or low-impact development (LID), can be used as a standalone practice or in concert with gray infrastructure (traditional stormwater management approaches) for cost-efficient, decentralized stormwater management. The growth in LID over the past several decades has resulted in a concomitant increase in research evaluating LID efficiency and effectiveness, but mostly at localized scales. There is a clear research need to quantify how LID practices affect water quantity (i.e., runoff and discharge) and quality at the scale of catchments. In this overview, we present the state of the science of LID research at the local scale, considerations for scaling this research to catchments, recent advances and findings in scaling the effects of LID practices on water quality and quantity at catchment scales, and the use of models as novel tools for these scaling efforts. PMID:29682288

Green infrastructure and its catchment-scale effects: an emerging science.

PubMed

Golden, Heather E; Hoghooghi, Nahal

2018-01-01

Urbanizing environments alter the hydrological cycle by redirecting stream networks for stormwater and wastewater transmission and increasing impermeable surfaces. These changes thereby accelerate the runoff of water and its constituents following precipitation events, alter evapotranspiration processes, and indirectly modify surface precipitation patterns. Green infrastructure, or low-impact development (LID), can be used as a standalone practice or in concert with gray infrastructure (traditional stormwater management approaches) for cost-efficient, decentralized stormwater management. The growth in LID over the past several decades has resulted in a concomitant increase in research evaluating LID efficiency and effectiveness, but mostly at localized scales. There is a clear research need to quantify how LID practices affect water quantity (i.e., runoff and discharge) and quality at the scale of catchments. In this overview, we present the state of the science of LID research at the local scale, considerations for scaling this research to catchments, recent advances and findings in scaling the effects of LID practices on water quality and quantity at catchment scales, and the use of models as novel tools for these scaling efforts.

Ensuring Support for Research and Quality Improvement (QI) Networks: Four Pillars of Sustainability-An Emerging Framework.

PubMed

Holve, Erin

2013-01-01

Multi-institutional research and quality improvement (QI) projects using electronic clinical data (ECD) hold great promise for improving quality of care and patient outcomes but typically require significant infrastructure investments both to initiate and maintain the project over its duration. Consequently, it is important for these projects to think holistically about sustainability to ensure their long-term success. Four "pillars" of sustainability are discussed based on the experiences of EDM Forum grantees and other research and QI networks. These include trust and value, governance, management, and financial and administrative support. Two "foundational considerations," adaptive capacity and policy levers, are also discussed.

EMSO: European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Favali, Paolo

2010-05-01

EMSO, a Research Infrastructure listed within ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) Roadmap (Report 2006, http://cordis.europa.eu/esfri/roadmap.htm), is the European-scale network of multidisciplinary seafloor observatories from the Arctic to the Black Sea with the scientific objective of long-term real-time monitoring of processes related to geosphere/biosphere/hydrosphere interactions. EMSO will enhance our understanding of processes through long time series appropriate to the scale of the phenomena, constituting the new frontier of studying Earth interior, deep-sea biology and chemistry and ocean processes. The development of an underwater network is based on previous EU-funded projects since early '90 and is being supported by several EU initiatives, as the on-going ESONET-NoE, coordinated by IFREMER (2007-2011, http://www.esonet-emso.org/esonet-noe/), and aims at gathering together the Research Community of the Ocean Observatories. In 2006 the FP7 Capacities Programme launched a call for Preparatory Phase (PP) projects, that will provide the support to create the legal and organisational entities in charge of managing the infrastructures, and coordinating the financial effort among the countries. Under this call the EMSO-PP project was approved in 2007 with the coordination of INGV and the participation of other 11 Institutions of 11 countries. The project has started in April 2008 and will last 4 years. The EMSO is a key-infrastructure both for Ocean Sciences and for Solid Earth Sciences. In this respect it will enhance and complement profitably the capabilities of other European research infrastructures such as EPOS, ERICON-Aurora Borealis, and SIOS. The perspective of the synergy among EMSO and other ESFRI Research Infrastructures will be outlined. EMSO Partners: IFREMER-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (France, ref. Roland Person); KDM-Konsortium Deutsche Meeresforschung e.V. (Germany, ref. Christoph Waldmann); IMI-Irish Marine Institute (Ireland, ref. Michael Gillooly); UTM-CSIC-Unidad de Tecnologia Marina - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (Spain, ref. Juan Jose Danobeitia); UGOT-Goteborgs Universitet (Sweden, ref. Per Hall); HCMR-Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece, ref. Vasilios Likousis); NOCS-National Oceanography Centre Southampton (United Kingdom, ref. Henry A. Ruhl); UiT-University of Tromsø (Norway, ref. Jürgen Mienert); FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal, ref. Jorge Miguel Alberto de Miranda); ITU-Istanbul Teknik Universitesi (Turkey, ref. Namik Çagatay); NIOZ-Stichting Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Onderzoek der Zee (The Netherlands, ref. Jens Greinert).

Resilience Simulation for Water, Power & Road Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clark, S. S.; Seager, T. P.; Chester, M.; Eisenberg, D. A.; Sweet, D.; Linkov, I.

2014-12-01

The increasing frequency, scale, and damages associated with recent catastrophic events has called for a shift in focus from evading losses through risk analysis to improving threat preparation, planning, absorption, recovery, and adaptation through resilience. However, neither underlying theory nor analytic tools have kept pace with resilience rhetoric. As a consequence, current approaches to engineering resilience analysis often conflate resilience and robustness or collapse into a deeper commitment to the risk analytic paradigm proven problematic in the first place. This research seeks a generalizable understanding of resilience that is applicable in multiple disciplinary contexts. We adopt a unique investigative perspective by coupling social and technical analysis with human subjects research to discover the adaptive actions, ideas and decisions that contribute to resilience in three socio-technical infrastructure systems: electric power, water, and roadways. Our research integrates physical models representing network objects with examination of the knowledge systems and social interactions revealed by human subjects making decisions in a simulated crisis environment. To ensure a diversity of contexts, we model electric power, water, roadway and knowledge networks for Phoenix AZ and Indianapolis IN. We synthesize this in a new computer-based Resilient Infrastructure Simulation Environment (RISE) to allow individuals, groups (including students) and experts to test different network design configurations and crisis response approaches. By observing simulated failures and best performances, we expect a generalizable understanding of resilience may emerge that yields a measureable understanding of the sensing, anticipating, adapting, and learning processes that are essential to resilient organizations.

Enhancing the actinide sciences in Europe through hot laboratories networking and pooling: from ACTINET to TALISMAN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bourg, S.; Poinssot, C.

2013-07-01

Since 2004, Europe supports the strengthening of the European actinides sciences scientific community through the funding of dedicated networks: (i) from 2004 to 2008, the ACTINET6 network of excellence (6. Framework Programme) gathered major laboratories involved in nuclear research and a wide range of academic research organisations and universities with the specific aims of funding and implementing joint research projects to be performed within the network of pooled facilities; (ii) from 2009 to 2013, the ACTINET-I3 integrated infrastructure initiative (I3) supports the cost of access of any academics in the pooled EU hot laboratories. In this continuation, TALISMAN (Trans-national Accessmore » to Large Infrastructures for a Safe Management of Actinides) gathers now the main European hot laboratories in actinides sciences in order to promote their opening to academics and universities and strengthen the EU-skills in actinides sciences. Furthermore, a specific focus is set on the development of advanced cutting-edge experimental and spectroscopic capabilities, the combination of state-of-the art experimental with theoretical first-principle methods on a quantum mechanical level and to benefit from the synergy between the different scientific and technical communities. ACTINET-I3 and TALISMAN attach a great importance and promote the Education and Training of the young generation of actinides scientists in the Trans-national access but also by organizing Schools (general Summer Schools or Theoretical User Lab Schools) or by granting students to attend International Conference on actinide sciences. (authors)« less

Virtualization of open-source secure web services to support data exchange in a pediatric critical care research network

PubMed Central

Sward, Katherine A; Newth, Christopher JL; Khemani, Robinder G; Cryer, Martin E; Thelen, Julie L; Enriquez, Rene; Shaoyu, Su; Pollack, Murray M; Harrison, Rick E; Meert, Kathleen L; Berg, Robert A; Wessel, David L; Shanley, Thomas P; Dalton, Heidi; Carcillo, Joseph; Jenkins, Tammara L; Dean, J Michael

2015-01-01

Objectives To examine the feasibility of deploying a virtual web service for sharing data within a research network, and to evaluate the impact on data consistency and quality. Material and Methods Virtual machines (VMs) encapsulated an open-source, semantically and syntactically interoperable secure web service infrastructure along with a shadow database. The VMs were deployed to 8 Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network Clinical Centers. Results Virtual web services could be deployed in hours. The interoperability of the web services reduced format misalignment from 56% to 1% and demonstrated that 99% of the data consistently transferred using the data dictionary and 1% needed human curation. Conclusions Use of virtualized open-source secure web service technology could enable direct electronic abstraction of data from hospital databases for research purposes. PMID:25796596

The Recovery-Oriented Care Collaborative: A Practice-Based Research Network to Improve Care for People With Serious Mental Illnesses.

PubMed

Kelly, Erin L; Kiger, Holly; Gaba, Rebecca; Pancake, Laura; Pilon, David; Murch, Lezlie; Knox, Lyndee; Meyer, Mathew; Brekke, John S

2015-11-01

Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) create continuous collaborations among academic researchers and practitioners. Most PBRNs have operated in primary care, and less than 5% of federally registered PBRNs include mental health practitioners. In 2012 the first PBRN in the nation focused on individuals with serious mental illnesses-the Recovery-Oriented Care Collaborative-was established in Los Angeles. This column describes the development of this innovative PBRN through four phases: building an infrastructure, developing a research study, executing the study, and consolidating the PBRN. Key lessons learned are also described, such as the importance of actively engaging direct service providers and clients.

The EDRN knowledge environment: an open source, scalable informatics platform for biological sciences research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crichton, Daniel; Mahabal, Ashish; Anton, Kristen; Cinquini, Luca; Colbert, Maureen; Djorgovski, S. George; Kincaid, Heather; Kelly, Sean; Liu, David

2017-05-01

We describe here the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) for Cancer's knowledge environment. It is an open source platform built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with contributions from the California Institute of Technology, and Giesel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. It uses tools like Apache OODT, Plone, and Solr, and borrows heavily from JPL's Planetary Data System's ontological infrastructure. It has accumulated data on hundreds of thousands of biospecemens and serves over 1300 registered users across the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The scalable computing infrastructure is built such that we are being able to reach out to other agencies, provide homogeneous access, and provide seamless analytics support and bioinformatics tools through community engagement.

A Grid Infrastructure for Supporting Space-based Science Operations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bradford, Robert N.; Redman, Sandra H.; McNair, Ann R. (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

Emerging technologies for computational grid infrastructures have the potential for revolutionizing the way computers are used in all aspects of our lives. Computational grids are currently being implemented to provide a large-scale, dynamic, and secure research and engineering environments based on standards and next-generation reusable software, enabling greater science and engineering productivity through shared resources and distributed computing for less cost than traditional architectures. Combined with the emerging technologies of high-performance networks, grids provide researchers, scientists and engineers the first real opportunity for an effective distributed collaborative environment with access to resources such as computational and storage systems, instruments, and software tools and services for the most computationally challenging applications.

Anti-social networking: crowdsourcing and the cyber defence of national critical infrastructures.

PubMed

Johnson, Chris W

2014-01-01

We identify four roles that social networking plays in the 'attribution problem', which obscures whether or not cyber-attacks were state-sponsored. First, social networks motivate individuals to participate in Distributed Denial of Service attacks by providing malware and identifying potential targets. Second, attackers use an individual's social network to focus attacks, through spear phishing. Recipients are more likely to open infected attachments when they come from a trusted source. Third, social networking infrastructures create disposable architectures to coordinate attacks through command and control servers. The ubiquitous nature of these architectures makes it difficult to determine who owns and operates the servers. Finally, governments recruit anti-social criminal networks to launch attacks on third-party infrastructures using botnets. The closing sections identify a roadmap to increase resilience against the 'dark side' of social networking.

Optical Access Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jun; Ansari, Nirwan

2005-06-01

Call for Papers: Optical Access Networks With the wide deployment of fiber-optic technology over the past two decades, we have witnessed a tremendous growth of bandwidth capacity in the backbone networks of today's telecommunications infrastructure. However, access networks, which cover the "last-mile" areas and serve numerous residential and small business users, have not been scaled up commensurately. The local subscriber lines for telephone and cable television are still using twisted pairs and coaxial cables. Most residential connections to the Internet are still through dial-up modems operating at a low speed on twisted pairs. As the demand for access bandwidth increases with emerging high-bandwidth applications, such as distance learning, high-definition television (HDTV), and video on demand (VoD), the last-mile access networks have become a bandwidth bottleneck in today's telecommunications infrastructure. To ease this bottleneck, it is imperative to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in the access networks to open the bottleneck and thus present more opportunities for the provisioning of multiservices. Optical access solutions promise huge bandwidth to service providers and low-cost high-bandwidth services to end users and are therefore widely considered the technology of choice for next-generation access networks. To realize the vision of optical access networks, however, many key issues still need to be addressed, such as network architectures, signaling protocols, and implementation standards. The major challenges lie in the fact that an optical solution must be not only robust, scalable, and flexible, but also implemented at a low cost comparable to that of existing access solutions in order to increase the economic viability of many potential high-bandwidth applications. In recent years, optical access networks have been receiving tremendous attention from both academia and industry. A large number of research activities have been carried out or are now underway this hot area. The purpose of this feature issue is to expose the networking community to the latest research breakthroughs and progresses in the area of optical access networks. This feature issue aims to present a collection of papers that focus on the state-of-the-art research in various networking aspects of optical access networks. Original papers are solicited from all researchers involved in area of optical access networks. Topics of interest include but not limited to: Optical access network architectures and protocols Passive optical networks (BPON, EPON, GPON, etc.) Active optical networks Multiple access control Multiservices and QoS provisioning Network survivability Field trials and standards Performance modeling and analysis

Optical Access Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jun; Ansari, Nirwan; Jersey Inst Ansari, New; Jersey Inst, New

2005-04-01

Call for Papers: Optical Access Networks With the wide deployment of fiber-optic technology over the past two decades, we have witnessed a tremendous growth of bandwidth capacity in the backbone networks of today's telecommunications infrastructure. However, access networks, which cover the "last-mile" areas and serve numerous residential and small business users, have not been scaled up commensurately. The local subscriber lines for telephone and cable television are still using twisted pairs and coaxial cables. Most residential connections to the Internet are still through dial-up modems operating at a low speed on twisted pairs. As the demand for access bandwidth increases with emerging high-bandwidth applications, such as distance learning, high-definition television (HDTV), and video on demand (VoD), the last-mile access networks have become a bandwidth bottleneck in today's telecommunications infrastructure. To ease this bottleneck, it is imperative to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in the access networks to open the bottleneck and thus present more opportunities for the provisioning of multiservices. Optical access solutions promise huge bandwidth to service providers and low-cost high-bandwidth services to end users and are therefore widely considered the technology of choice for next-generation access networks. To realize the vision of optical access networks, however, many key issues still need to be addressed, such as network architectures, signaling protocols, and implementation standards. The major challenges lie in the fact that an optical solution must be not only robust, scalable, and flexible, but also implemented at a low cost comparable to that of existing access solutions in order to increase the economic viability of many potential high-bandwidth applications. In recent years, optical access networks have been receiving tremendous attention from both academia and industry. A large number of research activities have been carried out or are now underway this hot area. The purpose of this feature issue is to expose the networking community to the latest research breakthroughs and progresses in the area of optical access networks. This feature issue aims to present a collection of papers that focus on the state-of-the-art research in various networking aspects of optical access networks. Original papers are solicited from all researchers involved in area of optical access networks. Topics of interest include but not limited to: Optical access network architectures and protocols Passive optical networks (BPON, EPON, GPON, etc.) Active optical networks Multiple access control Multiservices and QoS provisioning Network survivability Field trials and standards Performance modeling and analysis

Optical Access Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jun; Ansari, Nirwan

2005-05-01

Call for Papers: Optical Access Networks With the wide deployment of fiber-optic technology over the past two decades, we have witnessed a tremendous growth of bandwidth capacity in the backbone networks of today's telecommunications infrastructure. However, access networks, which cover the "last-mile" areas and serve numerous residential and small business users, have not been scaled up commensurately. The local subscriber lines for telephone and cable television are still using twisted pairs and coaxial cables. Most residential connections to the Internet are still through dial-up modems operating at a low speed on twisted pairs. As the demand for access bandwidth increases with emerging high-bandwidth applications, such as distance learning, high-definition television (HDTV), and video on demand (VoD), the last-mile access networks have become a bandwidth bottleneck in today's telecommunications infrastructure. To ease this bottleneck, it is imperative to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in the access networks to open the bottleneck and thus present more opportunities for the provisioning of multiservices. Optical access solutions promise huge bandwidth to service providers and low-cost high-bandwidth services to end users and are therefore widely considered the technology of choice for next-generation access networks. To realize the vision of optical access networks, however, many key issues still need to be addressed, such as network architectures, signaling protocols, and implementation standards. The major challenges lie in the fact that an optical solution must be not only robust, scalable, and flexible, but also implemented at a low cost comparable to that of existing access solutions in order to increase the economic viability of many potential high-bandwidth applications. In recent years, optical access networks have been receiving tremendous attention from both academia and industry. A large number of research activities have been carried out or are now underway this hot area. The purpose of this feature issue is to expose the networking community to the latest research breakthroughs and progresses in the area of optical access networks. This feature issue aims to present a collection of papers that focus on the state-of-the-art research in various networking aspects of optical access networks. Original papers are solicited from all researchers involved in area of optical access networks. Topics of interest include but not limited to: Optical access network architectures and protocols Passive optical networks (BPON, EPON, GPON, etc.) Active optical networks Multiple access control Multiservices and QoS provisioning Network survivability Field trials and standards Performance modeling and analysis

Optical stabilization for time transfer infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vojtech, Josef; Altmann, Michal; Skoda, Pavel; Horvath, Tomas; Slapak, Martin; Smotlacha, Vladimir; Havlis, Ondrej; Munster, Petr; Radil, Jan; Kundrat, Jan; Altmannova, Lada; Velc, Radek; Hula, Miloslav; Vohnout, Rudolf

2017-08-01

In this paper, we propose and present verification of all-optical methods for stabilization of the end-to-end delay of an optical fiber link. These methods are verified for deployment within infrastructure for accurate time and stable frequency distribution, based on sharing of fibers with research and educational network carrying live data traffic. Methods range from path length control, through temperature conditioning method to transmit wavelength control. Attention is given to achieve continuous control for relatively broad range of delays. We summarize design rules for delay stabilization based on the character and the total delay jitter.

Space-Based Information Infrastructure Architecture for Broadband Services

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Price, Kent M.; Inukai, Tom; Razdan, Rajendev; Lazeav, Yvonne M.

1996-01-01

This study addressed four tasks: (1) identify satellite-addressable information infrastructure markets; (2) perform network analysis for space-based information infrastructure; (3) develop conceptual architectures; and (4) economic assessment of architectures. The report concludes that satellites will have a major role in the national and global information infrastructure, requiring seamless integration between terrestrial and satellite networks. The proposed LEO, MEO, and GEO satellite systems have satellite characteristics that vary widely. They include delay, delay variations, poorer link quality and beam/satellite handover. The barriers against seamless interoperability between satellite and terrestrial networks are discussed. These barriers are the lack of compatible parameters, standards and protocols, which are presently being evaluated and reduced.

QoS Challenges and Opportunities in Wireless Sensor/Actuator Networks

PubMed Central

Xia, Feng

2008-01-01

A wireless sensor/actuator network (WSAN) is a group of sensors and actuators that are geographically distributed and interconnected by wireless networks. Sensors gather information about the state of physical world. Actuators react to this information by performing appropriate actions. WSANs thus enable cyber systems to monitor and manipulate the behavior of the physical world. WSANs are growing at a tremendous pace, just like the exploding evolution of Internet. Supporting quality of service (QoS) will be of critical importance for pervasive WSANs that serve as the network infrastructure of diverse applications. To spark new research and development interests in this field, this paper examines and discusses the requirements, critical challenges, and open research issues on QoS management in WSANs. A brief overview of recent progress is given. PMID:27879755

GuMNet - Guadarrama Monitoring Network initiative (Madrid,Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santolaria-Canales, Edmundo

2017-04-01

The Guadarrama Monitoring Network initiative (GuMNet) is an observational infrastructure focused on monitoring the state of the atmosphere, surface and subsurface in the Sierra de Guadarrama, 50 km NW of the city of Madrid. The network is composed of 10 automatic real time weather stations ranging from low altitude (ca. 900 m.a.s.l) to high mountain areas (ca. 2400 m.a.s.l). The GuMNet infrastructure consists in 10 real time automatic weather stations with instrumentation for observing the state of the atmosphere, surface and the subsurface at the Sierra de Guadarrama, just 50 km north-northwest of the city of Madrid. GuMNet lays the foundations of a research network on weather, soil thermodynamics, boundary layer physics, climate and ecosystem oriented impacts, air pollutions, etc. in the Sierra de Guadarrama. GuMNet represents a first step to provide a unique observational network in an environment of high protection to be used as a laboratory serving a wide range of scientific and educational interests. High altitude sites are focused on periglacial areas and lower altitude sites have emphasis on pastures. One of the low altitude sites is equipped with a 10 m high anemometric tower with a 3D sonic anemometer at the top jointly with a CO2/H2O analyzer that will allow sampling of wind profiles and H2O and CO2 eddy covariance fluxes, important for soil respiration and CO2 and water vapor exchange. A portable station has also a 3D sonic anemometer with CO2/H2O analyzer, this 4 meters-high portable tower is designed for comparison with other soil terrain fluxes. The network is connected via general packet radio service (GPRS) to the central lab in the Campus of Excellence of Moncloa and a management software has been developed to handle the operation of the infrastructure. The deployment of instrumentation and connection of sites to the network was finished in 2016. GuMNet is currently in the process of becoming operational. Conceptually, GuMNet intends to convert a well known space such as the Sierra de Guadarrama into a laboratory for interdisciplinary research. On one hand, a space for exchange of observational and scientific discussion among researchers. On the other hand, online platforms and various informative materials will allow the public to access the results generated by different research lines with a focus on this region. GuMNet is part of the MRI initiative and as well as ongoing collaboration with the Global Precipitation Measurements (NASA). This initiative is supported and developed by research groups integrating the GuMNet Consortium from the Complutense and Polytechnical Universities of Madrid (UCM and UPM), the Energetic Environmental and Technological Research Centre (CIEMAT), the Spanish meteorological agency, AEMET, the National Park Sierra de Guadarrama (PNSG) and the National Research Council (CSIC). Web and contact: http://www.ucm.es/gumnet/

Network information attacks on the control systems of power facilities belonging to the critical infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loginov, E. L.; Raikov, A. N.

2015-04-01

The most large-scale accidents occurred as a consequence of network information attacks on the control systems of power facilities belonging to the United States' critical infrastructure are analyzed in the context of possibilities available in modern decision support systems. Trends in the development of technologies for inflicting damage to smart grids are formulated. A volume matrix of parameters characterizing attacks on facilities is constructed. A model describing the performance of a critical infrastructure's control system after an attack is developed. The recently adopted measures and legislation acts aimed at achieving more efficient protection of critical infrastructure are considered. Approaches to cognitive modeling and networked expertise of intricate situations for supporting the decision-making process, and to setting up a system of indicators for anticipatory monitoring of critical infrastructure are proposed.

IPv6 Test Bed for Testing Aeronautical Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilkins, Ryan; Zernic, Michael; Dhas, Chris

2004-01-01

Aviation industries in United States and in Europe are undergoing a major paradigm shift in the introduction of new network technologies. In the US, NASA is also actively investigating the feasibility of IPv6 based networks for the aviation needs of the United States. In Europe, the Eurocontrol lead, Internet Protocol for Aviation Exchange (iPAX) Working Group is actively investigating the various ways of migrating the aviation authorities backbone infrastructure from X.25 based networks to an IPv6 based network. For the last 15 years, the global aviation community has pursued the development and implementation of an industry-specific set of communications standards known as the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN). These standards are now beginning to affect the emerging military Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) community as well as the commercial air transport community. Efforts are continuing to gain a full understanding of the differences and similarities between ATN and Internet architectures as related to Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure choices. This research paper describes the implementation of the IPv6 test bed at NASA GRC, and Computer Networks & Software, Inc. and these two test beds are interface to Eurocontrol over the IPv4 Internet. This research work looks into the possibility of providing QoS performance for Aviation application in an IPv6 network as is provided in an ATN based network. The test bed consists of three autonomous systems. The autonomous system represents CNS domain, NASA domain and a EUROCONTROL domain. The primary mode of connection between CNS IPv6 testbed and NASA and EUROCONTROL IPv6 testbed is initially a set of IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels. The aviation application under test (CPDLC) consists of two processes running on different IPv6 enabled machines.

Perspectives in understanding open access to research data - infrastructure and technology challenges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bigagli, Lorenzo; Sondervan, Jeroen

2014-05-01

The Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe (RECODE) project, started in February 2013 with a duration of two years, has the objective to identify a series of targeted and over-arching policy recommendations for Open Access to European research data, based on existing good practice and addressing such hindering factors as stakeholder fragmentation, technical and infrastructural issues, ethical and legal issues, and financial and institutional policies. In this work we focus on the technical and infrastructural aspect, where by "infrastructure" we mean the technological assets (hardware and software), the human resources, and all the policies, processes, procedures and training for managing and supporting its continuous operation and evolution. The context targeted by RECODE includes heterogeneous networks, initiatives, projects and communities that are fragmented by discipline, geography, stakeholder category (publishers, academics, repositories, etc.) as well as other boundaries. Many of these organizations are already addressing key technical and infrastructural barriers to Open Access to research data. Such barriers may include: lack of automatic mechanisms for policy enforcement, lack of metadata and data models supporting open access, obsolescence of infrastructures, scarce awareness about new technological solutions, lack of training and/or expertise on IT and semantics aspects. However, these organizations are often heterogeneous and fragmented by discipline, geography, stakeholder category (publishers, academics, repositories, etc.) as well as other boundaries, and often work in isolation, or with limited contact with one another. RECODE has addressed these challenges, and the possible solutions to mitigate them, engaging all the identified stakeholders in a number of ways, including an online questionnaire, case studies interviews, literature review, a workshop. The conclusions have been validated by the RECODE Advisory Board and will contribute to shape the RECODE policy guidelines for Open Access to Research Data. In the work, we report on the identified technological and infrastructural issues, classified according to the barriers of heterogeneity, sustainability, volume, quality, and security.

Road Extraction from AVIRIS Using Spectral Mixture and Q-Tree Filter Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gardner, Margaret E.; Roberts, Dar A.; Funk, Chris; Noronha, Val

2001-01-01

Accurate road location and condition information are of primary importance in road infrastructure management. Additionally, spatially accurate and up-to-date road networks are essential in ambulance and rescue dispatch in emergency situations. However, accurate road infrastructure databases do not exist for vast areas, particularly in areas with rapid expansion. Currently, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) extends great effort in field Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping and condition assessment to meet these informational needs. This methodology, though effective, is both time-consuming and costly, because every road within a DOT's jurisdiction must be field-visited to obtain accurate information. Therefore, the USDOT is interested in identifying new technologies that could help meet road infrastructure informational needs more effectively. Remote sensing provides one means by which large areas may be mapped with a high standard of accuracy and is a technology with great potential in infrastructure mapping. The goal of our research is to develop accurate road extraction techniques using high spatial resolution, fine spectral resolution imagery. Additionally, our research will explore the use of hyperspectral data in assessing road quality. Finally, this research aims to define the spatial and spectral requirements for remote sensing data to be used successfully for road feature extraction and road quality mapping. Our findings will facilitate the USDOT in assessing remote sensing as a new resource in infrastructure studies.

International Convergence on Geoscience Cyberinfrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Allison, M. L.; Atkinson, R.; Arctur, D. K.; Cox, S.; Jackson, I.; Nativi, S.; Wyborn, L. A.

2012-04-01

There is growing international consensus on addressing the challenges to cyber(e)-infrastructure for the geosciences. These challenges include: Creating common standards and protocols; Engaging the vast number of distributed data resources; Establishing practices for recognition of and respect for intellectual property; Developing simple data and resource discovery and access systems; Building mechanisms to encourage development of web service tools and workflows for data analysis; Brokering the diverse disciplinary service buses; Creating sustainable business models for maintenance and evolution of information resources; Integrating the data management life-cycle into the practice of science. Efforts around the world are converging towards de facto creation of an integrated global digital data network for the geosciences based on common standards and protocols for data discovery and access, and a shared vision of distributed, web-based, open source interoperable data access and integration. Commonalities include use of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and ISO specifications and standardized data interchange mechanisms. For multidisciplinarity, mediation, adaptation, and profiling services have been successfully introduced to leverage the geosciences standards which are commonly used by the different geoscience communities -introducing a brokering approach which extends the basic SOA archetype. Principal challenges are less technical than cultural, social, and organizational. Before we can make data interoperable, we must make people interoperable. These challenges are being met by increased coordination of development activities (technical, organizational, social) among leaders and practitioners in national and international efforts across the geosciences to foster commonalities across disparate networks. In doing so, we will 1) leverage and share resources, and developments, 2) facilitate and enhance emerging technical and structural advances, 3) promote interoperability across scientific domains, 4) support the promulgation and institutionalization of agreed-upon standards, protocols, and practice, and 5) enhance knowledge transfer not only across the community, but into the domain sciences, 6) lower existing entry barriers for users and data producers, 7) build on the existing disciplinary infrastructures leveraging their service buses. . All of these objectives are required for establishing a permanent and sustainable cyber(e)-infrastructure for the geosciences. The rationale for this approach is well articulated in the AuScope mission statement: "Many of these problems can only be solved on a national, if not global scale. No single researcher, research institution, discipline or jurisdiction can provide the solutions. We increasingly need to embrace e-Research techniques and use the internet not only to access nationally distributed datasets, instruments and compute infrastructure, but also to build online, 'virtual' communities of globally dispersed researchers." Multidisciplinary interoperability can be successfully pursued by adopting a "system of systems" or a "Network of Networks" philosophy. This approach aims to: (a) supplement but not supplant systems mandates and governance arrangements; (b) keep the existing capacities as autonomous as possible; (c) lower entry barriers; (d) Build incrementally on existing infrastructures (information systems); (e) incorporate heterogeneous resources by introducing distribution and mediation functionalities. This approach has been adopted by the European INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) initiative and by the international GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) programme.

The EPOS Architecture: Integrated Services for solid Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cocco, Massimo; Consortium, Epos

2013-04-01

The European Plate Observing System (EPOS) represents a scientific vision and an IT approach in which innovative multidisciplinary research is made possible for a better understanding of the physical processes controlling earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, unrest episodes and tsunamis as well as those driving tectonics and Earth surface dynamics. EPOS has a long-term plan to facilitate integrated use of data, models and facilities from existing (but also new) distributed research infrastructures, for solid Earth science. One primary purpose of EPOS is to take full advantage of the new e-science opportunities coming available. The aim is to obtain an efficient and comprehensive multidisciplinary research platform for the Earth sciences in Europe. The EPOS preparatory phase (EPOS PP), funded by the European Commission within the Capacities program, started on November 1st 2010 and it has completed its first two years of activity. EPOS is presently mid-way through its preparatory phase and to date it has achieved all the objectives, milestones and deliverables planned in its roadmap towards construction. The EPOS mission is to integrate the existing research infrastructures (RIs) in solid Earth science warranting increased accessibility and usability of multidisciplinary data from monitoring networks, laboratory experiments and computational simulations. This is expected to enhance worldwide interoperability in the Earth Sciences and establish a leading, integrated European infrastructure offering services to researchers and other stakeholders. The Preparatory Phase aims at leveraging the project to the level of maturity required to implement the EPOS construction phase, with a defined legal structure, detailed technical planning and financial plan. We will present the EPOS architecture, which relies on the integration of the main outcomes from legal, governance and financial work following the strategic EPOS roadmap and according to the technical work done during the first two years in order to establish an effective implementation plan guaranteeing long term sustainability for the infrastructure and the associated services. We plan to describe the RIs to be integrated in EPOS and to illustrate the initial suite of integrated and thematic core services to be offered to the users. We will present examples of combined data analyses and we will address the importance of opening our research infrastructures to users from different communities. We will describe the use-cases identified so far in order to allow stakeholders and potential future users to understand and interact with the EPOS infrastructure. In this framework, we also discuss the global perspectives for data infrastructures in order to verify the coherency of the EPOS plans and present the EPOS contributions. We also discuss the international cooperation initiatives in which EPOS is involved emphasizing the implications for solid Earth data infrastructures. In particular, EPOS and the satellite Earth Observation communities are collaborating in order to promote the integration of data from in-situ monitoring networks and satellite observing systems. Finally, we will also discuss the priorities for the third year of activity and the key actions planned to better involve users in EPOS. In particular, we will discuss the work done to finalize the design phase as well as the activities to start the validation and testing phase of the EPOS infrastructure.

Reliability analysis of interdependent lattices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Limiao, Zhang; Daqing, Li; Pengju, Qin; Bowen, Fu; Yinan, Jiang; Zio, Enrico; Rui, Kang

2016-06-01

Network reliability analysis has drawn much attention recently due to the risks of catastrophic damage in networked infrastructures. These infrastructures are dependent on each other as a result of various interactions. However, most of the reliability analyses of these interdependent networks do not consider spatial constraints, which are found important for robustness of infrastructures including power grid and transport systems. Here we study the reliability properties of interdependent lattices with different ranges of spatial constraints. Our study shows that interdependent lattices with strong spatial constraints are more resilient than interdependent Erdös-Rényi networks. There exists an intermediate range of spatial constraints, at which the interdependent lattices have minimal resilience.

Being Young in Rural Settings: Young People's Everyday Community Affiliations and Trepidations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fabiansson, Charlotte

2006-01-01

Geographical isolation creates a special context of obligations, reciprocal relationships, social network systems, inclusion and exclusion strategies, and a need to focus on maintaining services, employment opportunities and business infrastructures. This research explored Australian young people's role and everyday circumstances within a rural…

DoD Cybersecurity Discipline Implementation Plan

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-02-01

provided email services are disabled for commercial mobile devices. N/A Commanders and Supervisors must ensure all servers and network infrastructure ... infrastructure physically and logically. All of these protections come from security measures that are already required. This line of effort supports...networks and critical infrastructure . These threats and risks have been recognized by DoD for several years, and the Department has responded with

Open source system OpenVPN in a function of Virtual Private Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Skendzic, A.; Kovacic, B.

2017-05-01

Using of Virtual Private Networks (VPN) can establish high security level in network communication. VPN technology enables high security networking using distributed or public network infrastructure. VPN uses different security and managing rules inside networks. It can be set up using different communication channels like Internet or separate ISP communication infrastructure. VPN private network makes security communication channel over public network between two endpoints (computers). OpenVPN is an open source software product under GNU General Public License (GPL) that can be used to establish VPN communication between two computers inside business local network over public communication infrastructure. It uses special security protocols and 256-bit Encryption and it is capable of traversing network address translators (NATs) and firewalls. It allows computers to authenticate each other using a pre-shared secret key, certificates or username and password. This work gives review of VPN technology with a special accent on OpenVPN. This paper will also give comparison and financial benefits of using open source VPN software in business environment.

Scaling the PuNDIT project for wide area deployments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKee, Shawn; Batista, Jorge; Carcassi, Gabriele; Dovrolis, Constantine; Lee, Danny

2017-10-01

In today’s world of distributed scientific collaborations, there are many challenges to providing reliable inter-domain network infrastructure. Network operators use a combination of active monitoring and trouble tickets to detect problems, but these are often ineffective at identifying issues that impact wide-area network users. Additionally, these approaches do not scale to wide area inter-domain networks due to unavailability of data from all the domains along typical network paths. The Pythia Network Diagnostic InfrasTructure (PuNDIT) project aims to create a scalable infrastructure for automating the detection and localization of problems across these networks. The project goal is to gather and analyze metrics from existing perfSONAR monitoring infrastructures to identify the signatures of possible problems, locate affected network links, and report them to the user in an intuitive fashion. Simply put, PuNDIT seeks to convert complex network metrics into easily understood diagnoses in an automated manner. We present our progress in creating the PuNDIT system and our status in developing, testing and deploying PuNDIT. We report on the project progress to-date, describe the current implementation architecture and demonstrate some of the various user interfaces it will support. We close by discussing the remaining challenges and next steps and where we see the project going in the future.

Acoustic emission safety monitoring of intermodal transportation infrastructure.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-09-01

Safety and integrity of the national transportation infrastructure are of paramount importance and highway bridges are critical components of the highway system network. This network provides an immense contribution to the industry productivity and e...

Using crowdsourcing to prioritize bicycle network improvements : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-04-01

Effort to improve the bicycle route network using crowdsourced data is a powerful means : of incorporating citizens in infrastructure improvement decisions, which will improve : livability by maximizing the benefit of the bicycle infrastructure fundi...

Optical Access Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jun; Ansari, Nirwan

2005-02-01

Call for Papers: Optical Access Networks With the wide deployment of fiber-optic technology over the past two decades, we have witnessed a tremendous growth of bandwidth capacity in the backbone networks of today's telecommunications infrastructure. However, access networks, which cover the "last-mile" areas and serve numerous residential and small business users, have not been scaled up commensurately. The local subscriber lines for telephone and cable television are still using twisted pairs and coaxial cables. Most residential connections to the Internet are still through dial-up modems operating at a low speed on twisted pairs. As the demand for access bandwidth increases with emerging high-bandwidth applications, such as distance learning, high-definition television (HDTV), and video on demand (VoD), the last-mile access networks have become a bandwidth bottleneck in today's telecommunications infrastructure. To ease this bottleneck, it is imperative to provide sufficient bandwidth capacity in the access networks to open the bottleneck and thus present more opportunities for the provisioning of multiservices. Optical access solutions promise huge bandwidth to service providers and low-cost high-bandwidth services to end users and are therefore widely considered the technology of choice for next-generation access networks. To realize the vision of optical access networks, however, many key issues still need to be addressed, such as network architectures, signaling protocols, and implementation standards. The major challenges lie in the fact that an optical solution must be not only robust, scalable, and flexible, but also implemented at a low cost comparable to that of existing access solutions in order to increase the economic viability of many potential high-bandwidth applications. In recent years, optical access networks have been receiving tremendous attention from both academia and industry. A large number of research activities have been carried out or are now underway this hot area. The purpose of this feature issue is to expose the networking community to the latest research breakthroughs and progresses in the area of optical access networks.

The UK DNA banking network: a “fair access” biobank

PubMed Central

Dixon, Katherine; Platt, Andrew; Pullum, Simon; Lewis, David; Hall, Alistair; Ollier, William

2009-01-01

The UK DNA Banking Network (UDBN) is a secondary biobank: it aggregates and manages resources (samples and data) originated by others. The network comprises, on the one hand, investigator groups led by clinicians each with a distinct disease specialism and, on the other hand, a research infrastructure to manage samples and data. The infrastructure addresses the problem of providing secure quality-assured accrual, storage, replenishment and distribution capacities for samples and of facilitating access to DNA aliquots and data for new peer-reviewed studies in genetic epidemiology. ‘Fair access’ principles and practices have been pragmatically developed that, unlike open access policies in this area, are not cumbersome but, rather, are fit for the purpose of expediting new study designs and their implementation. UDBN has so far distributed >60,000 samples for major genotyping studies yielding >10 billion genotypes. It provides a working model that can inform progress in biobanking nationally, across Europe and internationally. PMID:19672698

High Performance Computing and Visualization Infrastructure for Simultaneous Parallel Computing and Parallel Visualization Research

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-11-09

Total Number: Sub Contractors (DD882) Names of Personnel receiving masters degrees Names of personnel receiving PHDs Names of other research staff...Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card (2) Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 2.5GHz, 30M Cache, 9.60GT/s QPI, Turbo, HT , 12C/24T (120W...Broadcom 5720 QP 1Gb Network Daughter Card (2) Intel Xeon E5-2680 v3 2.5GHz, 30M Cache, 9.60GT/s QPI, Turbo, HT , 12C/24T (120W

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dykstra, Dave; Garzoglio, Gabriele; Kim, Hyunwoo

As of 2012, a number of US Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratories have access to a 100 Gb/s wide-area network backbone. The ESnet Advanced Networking Initiative (ANI) project is intended to develop a prototype network, based on emerging 100 Gb/s Ethernet technology. The ANI network will support DOE's science research programs. A 100 Gb/s network test bed is a key component of the ANI project. The test bed offers the opportunity for early evaluation of 100Gb/s network infrastructure for supporting the high impact data movement typical of science collaborations and experiments. In order to make effective use of thismore » advanced infrastructure, the applications and middleware currently used by the distributed computing systems of large-scale science need to be adapted and tested within the new environment, with gaps in functionality identified and corrected. As a user of the ANI test bed, Fermilab aims to study the issues related to end-to-end integration and use of 100 Gb/s networks for the event simulation and analysis applications of physics experiments. In this paper we discuss our findings from evaluating existing HEP Physics middleware and application components, including GridFTP, Globus Online, etc. in the high-speed environment. These will include possible recommendations to the system administrators, application and middleware developers on changes that would make production use of the 100 Gb/s networks, including data storage, caching and wide area access.« less

Implementation status of the extreme light infrastructure - nuclear physics (ELI-NP) project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gales, S., E-mail: sydney.gales@eli-np.ro; Zamfir, N. V., E-mail: sydney.gales@eli-np.ro

2015-02-24

The Project Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is part of the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) Roadmap. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW lasers and a Compton back-scattering high-brilliance and intense gamma beam, a marriage of laser and accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as themore » science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.« less

Medical image informatics infrastructure design and applications.

PubMed

Huang, H K; Wong, S T; Pietka, E

1997-01-01

Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) is a system integration of multimodality images and health information systems designed for improving the operation of a radiology department. As it evolves, PACS becomes a hospital image document management system with a voluminous image and related data file repository. A medical image informatics infrastructure can be designed to take advantage of existing data, providing PACS with add-on value for health care service, research, and education. A medical image informatics infrastructure (MIII) consists of the following components: medical images and associated data (including PACS database), image processing, data/knowledge base management, visualization, graphic user interface, communication networking, and application oriented software. This paper describes these components and their logical connection, and illustrates some applications based on the concept of the MIII.

The Healthy Aging Research Network: Modeling Collaboration for Community Impact.

PubMed

Belza, Basia; Altpeter, Mary; Smith, Matthew Lee; Ory, Marcia G

2017-03-01

As the first Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Research Centers Program thematic network, the Healthy Aging Research Network was established to better understand the determinants of healthy aging within older adult populations, identify interventions that promote healthy aging, and assist in translating research into sustainable community-based programs throughout the nation. To achieve these goals requires concerted efforts of a collaborative network of academic, community, and public health organizational partnerships. For the 2001-2014 Prevention Research Center funding cycles, the Healthy Aging Research Network conducted prevention research and promoted the wide use of practices known to foster optimal health. Organized around components necessary for successful collaborations (i.e., governance and infrastructure, shaping focus, community involvement, and evaluation and improvement), this commentary highlights exemplars that demonstrate the Healthy Aging Research Network's unique contributions to the field. The Healthy Aging Research Network's collaboration provided a means to collectively build capacity for practice and policy, reduce fragmentation and duplication in health promotion and aging research efforts, maximize the efficient use of existing resources and generate additional resources, and ultimately, create synergies for advancing the healthy aging agenda. This collaborative model was built upon a backbone organization (coordinating center); setting of common agendas and mutually reinforcing activities; and continuous communications. Given its successes, the Healthy Aging Research Network model could be used to create new and evaluate existing thematic networks to guide the translation of research into policy and practice. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In-Space Internet-Based Communications for Space Science Platforms Using Commercial Satellite Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kerczewski, Robert J.; Bhasin, Kul B.; Fabian, Theodore P.; Griner, James H.; Kachmar, Brian A.; Richard, Alan M.

1999-01-01

The continuing technological advances in satellite communications and global networking have resulted in commercial systems that now can potentially provide capabilities for communications with space-based science platforms. This reduces the need for expensive government owned communications infrastructures to support space science missions while simultaneously making available better service to the end users. An interactive, high data rate Internet type connection through commercial space communications networks would enable authorized researchers anywhere to control space-based experiments in near real time and obtain experimental results immediately. A space based communications network architecture consisting of satellite constellations connecting orbiting space science platforms to ground users can be developed to provide this service. The unresolved technical issues presented by this scenario are the subject of research at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Assessment of network architectures, identification of required new or improved technologies, and investigation of data communications protocols are being performed through testbed and satellite experiments and laboratory simulations.

Assessing needs and assets for building a regional network infrastructure to reduce cancer related health disparities.

PubMed

Wells, Kristen J; Lima, Diana S; Meade, Cathy D; Muñoz-Antonia, Teresita; Scarinci, Isabel; McGuire, Allison; Gwede, Clement K; Pledger, W Jack; Partridge, Edward; Lipscomb, Joseph; Matthews, Roland; Matta, Jaime; Flores, Idhaliz; Weiner, Roy; Turner, Timothy; Miele, Lucio; Wiese, Thomas E; Fouad, Mona; Moreno, Carlos S; Lacey, Michelle; Christie, Debra W; Price-Haywood, Eboni G; Quinn, Gwendolyn P; Coppola, Domenico; Sodeke, Stephen O; Green, B Lee; Lichtveld, Maureen Y

2014-06-01

Significant cancer health disparities exist in the United States and Puerto Rico. While numerous initiatives have been implemented to reduce cancer disparities, regional coordination of these efforts between institutions is often limited. To address cancer health disparities nation-wide, a series of regional transdisciplinary networks through the Geographic Management Program (GMaP) and the Minority Biospecimen/Biobanking Geographic Management Program (BMaP) were established in six regions across the country. This paper describes the development of the Region 3 GMaP/BMaP network composed of over 100 investigators from nine institutions in five Southeastern states and Puerto Rico to develop a state-of-the-art network for cancer health disparities research and training. We describe a series of partnership activities that led to the formation of the infrastructure for this network, recount the participatory processes utilized to develop and implement a needs and assets assessment and implementation plan, and describe our approach to data collection. Completion, by all nine institutions, of the needs and assets assessment resulted in several beneficial outcomes for Region 3 GMaP/BMaP. This network entails ongoing commitment from the institutions and institutional leaders, continuous participatory and engagement activities, and effective coordination and communication centered on team science goals. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessing Needs and Assets for Building a Regional Network Infrastructure to Reduce Cancer Related Health Disparities

PubMed Central

Wells, Kristen J.; Lima, Diana S.; Meade, Cathy D.; Muñoz-Antonia, Teresita; Scarinci, Isabel; McGuire, Allison; Gwede, Clement K.; Pledger, W. Jack; Partridge, Edward; Lipscomb, Joseph; Matthews, Roland; Matta, Jaime; Flores, Idhaliz; Weiner, Roy; Turner, Timothy; Miele, Lucio; Wiese, Thomas E.; Fouad, Mona; Moreno, Carlos S.; Lacey, Michelle; Christie, Debra W.; Price-Haywood, Eboni G.; Quinn, Gwendolyn P.; Coppola, Domenico; Sodeke, Stephen O.; Green, B. Lee; Lichtveld, Maureen Y.

2015-01-01

Significant cancer health disparities exist in the United States and Puerto Rico. While numerous initiatives have been implemented to reduce cancer disparities, regional coordination of these efforts between institutions is often limited. To address cancer health disparities nationwide, a series of regional transdisciplinary networks through the Geographic Management Program (GMaP) and the Minority Biospecimen/Biobanking Geographic Management Program (BMaP) were established in six regions across the country. This paper describes the development of the Region 3 GMaP/BMaP network composed of over 100 investigators from nine institutions in five Southeastern states and Puerto Rico to develop a state-of-the-art network for cancer health disparities research and training. We describe a series of partnership activities that led to the formation of the infrastructure for this network, recount the participatory processes utilized to develop and implement a needs and assets assessment and implementation plan, and describe our approach to data collection. Completion, by all nine institutions, of the needs and assets assessment resulted in several beneficial outcomes for Region 3 GMaP/BMaP. This network entails ongoing commitment from the institutions and institutional leaders, continuous participatory and engagement activities, and effective coordination and communication centered on team science goals. PMID:24486917

Health care network communications infrastructure: an engineering design for the Military Health Service System.

PubMed

Hoffman, P; Kline, E; George, L; Price, K; Clark, M; Walasin, R

1995-01-01

The Military Health Service System (MHSS) provides health care for the Department of Defense (DOD). This system operates on an annual budget of $15 Billion, supports 127 medical treatment facilities (MTFs) and 500 clinics, and provides support to 8.7 million beneficiaries worldwide. To support these facilities and their patients, the MHSS uses more than 125 different networked automated medical systems. These systems rely on a heterogeneous telecommunications infrastructure for data communications. With the support of the Defense Medical Information Management (DMIM) Program Office, our goal was to identify the network requirements for DMIM migration and target systems and design a communications infrastructure to support all systems with an integrated network. This work used tools from Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and applied it to communications infrastructure design for the first time. The methodology and results are applicable to any health care enterprise, military or civilian.

Health care network communications infrastructure: an engineering design for the Military Health Service System.

PubMed Central

Hoffman, P.; Kline, E.; George, L.; Price, K.; Clark, M.; Walasin, R.

1995-01-01

The Military Health Service System (MHSS) provides health care for the Department of Defense (DOD). This system operates on an annual budget of $15 Billion, supports 127 medical treatment facilities (MTFs) and 500 clinics, and provides support to 8.7 million beneficiaries worldwide. To support these facilities and their patients, the MHSS uses more than 125 different networked automated medical systems. These systems rely on a heterogeneous telecommunications infrastructure for data communications. With the support of the Defense Medical Information Management (DMIM) Program Office, our goal was to identify the network requirements for DMIM migration and target systems and design a communications infrastructure to support all systems with an integrated network. This work used tools from Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and applied it to communications infrastructure design for the first time. The methodology and results are applicable to any health care enterprise, military or civilian. PMID:8563346

The development of network infrastructure in rural areas and problems in applying IT to the medical field.

PubMed

Ooe, Yosuke; Anamizu, Hiromitsu; Tatsumi, Haruyuki; Tanaka, Hiroshi

2008-07-01

The financial condition of the Japanese health insurance system is said to be compounded with the aging of the population. The government argues that the application of IT and networking is required in order to streamline health care services while avoiding its collapse. The Internet environment has been furnished with broadband connection and multimedia in the span of one year or shorter, and is becoming more and more convenient. It is true that the Internet is now a part of Tokyo's infrastructure along with electricity and water supply, as it is the center of politics. However, in local cities, development of the Internet environment is still insufficient. In order to use the network as a common infrastructure at health care facilities, we need to be aware of this digital divide. This study investigated the development status of network infrastructure in regional cities.

Modeling of the Space Station Freedom data management system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Johnson, Marjory J.

1990-01-01

The Data Management System (DMS) is the information and communications system onboard Space Station Freedom (SSF). Extensive modeling of the DMS is being conducted throughout NASA to aid in the design and development of this vital system. Activities discussed at NASA Ames Research Center to model the DMS network infrastructure are discussed with focus on the modeling of the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) token-ring protocol and experimental testbedding of networking aspects of the DMS.

Integrating Network Management for Cloud Computing Services

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-06-01

abstraction and system design. In this dissertation, we make three major contributions. We rst propose to consolidate the tra c and infrastructure management...abstraction and system design. In this dissertation, we make three major contributions. We first propose to consolidate the traffic and infrastructure ...1.3.1 Safe Datacenter Traffic/ Infrastructure Management . . . . . . 9 1.3.2 End-host/Network Cooperative Traffic Management . . . . . . 10 1.3.3 Direct

75 FR 39698 - National Institute on Aging; Notice of Closed Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-12

... DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging... personal privacy. Name of Committee: National Institute on Aging Special Emphasis Panel, Network Infrastructure for Aging Research. Date: July 20, 2010. Time: 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Agenda: To review and evaluate...

Investigating the Application of Moving Target Defenses to Network Security

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

developing an MTD testbed using OpenStack [14] to show that our MTD design can actually work. Building an MTD system in a cloud infrastructure will be...Information Intelli- gence Research. New York, USA: ACM, 2013. [14] Openstack , “ Openstack : The folsom release,” http://www.openstack.org/software

Contaminant transport pathways between urban sewer networks and water supply wells

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Water supply wells and sanitary sewers are critical components of urban infrastructure, but sewer leakage threatens the quality of groundwater in sewered areas. Previous work by our group has documented the presence of human enteric viruses in deep public supply wells. Our current research uses such...

Telemammography Using Satellite Communications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

Telemammography, the electronic transmission of digitized mammograms, can connect patients with timely, critical medical expertise; howev er, an adequate terrestrial communications infrastructure does not exist in these areas. NASA Lewis Research Center's Advanced Space Commu nications Laboratory is now working with leading breast cancer resear ch hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Virginia, to perform the critical research necessary to allow new satell ite networks to support telemammography.

Assessing the Climate Resilience of Transport Infrastructure Investments in Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, J. W.; Pant, R.; Koks, E.; Thacker, S.; Russell, T.

2017-12-01

Whilst there is an urgent need for infrastructure investment in developing countries, there is a risk that poorly planned and built infrastructure will introduce new vulnerabilities. As climate change increases the magnitudes and frequency of natural hazard events, incidence of disruptive infrastructure failures are likely to become more frequent. Therefore, it is important that infrastructure planning and investment is underpinned by climate risk assessment that can inform adaptation planning. Tanzania's rapid economic growth is placing considerable strain on the country's transportation infrastructure (roads, railways, shipping and aviation); especially at the port of Dar es Salaam and its linking transport corridors. A growing number of natural hazard events, in particular flooding, are impacting the reliability of this already over-used network. Here we report on new methodology to analyse vulnerabilities and risks due to failures of key locations in the intermodal transport network of Tanzania, including strategic connectivity to neighboring countries. To perform the national-scale risk analysis we will utilize a system-of-systems methodology. The main components of this general risk assessment, when applied to transportation systems, include: (1) Assembling data on: spatially coherent extreme hazards and intermodal transportation networks; (2) Intersecting hazards with transport network models to initiate failure conditions that trigger failure propagation across interdependent networks; (3) Quantifying failure outcomes in terms of social impacts (customers/passengers disrupted) and/or macroeconomic consequences (across multiple sectors); and (4) Simulating, testing and collecting multiple failure scenarios to perform an exhaustive risk assessment in terms of probabilities and consequences. The methodology is being used to pinpoint vulnerability and reduce climate risks to transport infrastructure investments.

Explorations Around "Graceful Failure" in Transportation Infrastructure: Lessons Learned By the Infrastructure and Climate Network (ICNet)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jacobs, J. M.; Thomas, N.; Mo, W.; Kirshen, P. H.; Douglas, E. M.; Daniel, J.; Bell, E.; Friess, L.; Mallick, R.; Kartez, J.; Hayhoe, K.; Croope, S.

2014-12-01

Recent events have demonstrated that the United States' transportation infrastructure is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events which will likely increase in the future. In light of the 60% shortfall of the $900 billion investment needed over the next five years to maintain this aging infrastructure, hardening of all infrastructures is unlikely. Alternative strategies are needed to ensure that critical aspects of the transportation network are maintained during climate extremes. Preliminary concepts around multi-tier service expectations of bridges and roads with reference to network capacity will be presented. Drawing from recent flooding events across the U.S., specific examples for roads/pavement will be used to illustrate impacts, disruptions, and trade-offs between performance during events and subsequent damage. This talk will also address policy and cultural norms within the civil engineering practice that will likely challenge the application of graceful failure pathways during extreme events.

Connectivity, interoperability and manageability challenges in internet of things

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haseeb, Shariq; Hashim, Aisha Hassan A.; Khalifa, Othman O.; Ismail, Ahmad Faris

2017-09-01

The vision of Internet of Things (IoT) is about interconnectivity between sensors, actuators, people and processes. IoT exploits connectivity between physical objects like fridges, cars, utilities, buildings and cities for enhancing the lives of people through automation and data analytics. However, this sudden increase in connected heterogeneous IoT devices takes a huge toll on the existing Internet infrastructure and introduces new challenges for researchers to embark upon. This paper highlights the effects of heterogeneity challenges on connectivity, interoperability, management in greater details. It also surveys some of the existing solutions adopted in the core network to solve the challenges of massive IoT deployment. The paper finally concludes that IoT architecture and network infrastructure needs to be reengineered ground-up, so that IoT solutions can be safely and efficiently deployed.

Developing Governance for Federated Community-based EHR Data Sharing

PubMed Central

Lin, Ching-Ping; Stephens, Kari A.; Baldwin, Laura-Mae; Keppel, Gina A.; Whitener, Ron J.; Echo-Hawk, Abigail; Korngiebel, Diane

2014-01-01

Bi-directional translational pathways between scientific discoveries and primary care are crucial for improving individual patient care and population health. The Data QUEST pilot project is a program supporting data sharing amongst community based primary care practices and is built on a technical infrastructure to share electronic health record data. We developed a set of governance requirements from interviewing and collaborating with partner organizations. Recommendations from our partner organizations included: 1) partner organizations can physically terminate the link to the data sharing network and only approved data exits the local site; 2) partner organizations must approve or reject each query; 3) partner organizations and researchers must respect local processes, resource restrictions, and infrastructures; and 4) partner organizations can be seamlessly added and removed from any individual data sharing query or the entire network. PMID:25717404

Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection and Monitoring for Field Area Network: Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pietrowicz, Stanley

This report summarizes the key technical accomplishments, industry impact and performance of the I2-CEDS grant entitled “Cybersecurity Intrusion Detection and Monitoring for Field Area Network”. Led by Applied Communication Sciences (ACS/Vencore Labs) in conjunction with its utility partner Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the project accelerated research on a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity monitoring solution for Advanced Meter Infrastructure and Distribution Automation field networks. It advanced the technology to a validated, full-scale solution that detects anomalies, intrusion events and improves utility situational awareness and visibility. The solution was successfully transitioned and commercialized for production use as SecureSmart™ Continuous Monitoring. Discoveries made withmore » SecureSmart™ Continuous Monitoring led to tangible and demonstrable improvements in the security posture of the US national electric infrastructure.« less

ENES the European Network for Earth System modelling and its infrastructure projects IS-ENES

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guglielmo, Francesca; Joussaume, Sylvie; Parinet, Marie

2016-04-01

The scientific community working on climate modelling is organized within the European Network for Earth System modelling (ENES). In the past decade, several European university departments, research centres, meteorological services, computer centres, and industrial partners engaged in the creation of ENES with the purpose of working together and cooperating towards the further development of the network, by signing a Memorandum of Understanding. As of 2015, the consortium counts 47 partners. The climate modelling community, and thus ENES, faces challenges which are both science-driven, i.e. analysing of the full complexity of the Earth System to improve our understanding and prediction of climate changes, and have multi-faceted societal implications, as a better representation of climate change on regional scales leads to improved understanding and prediction of impacts and to the development and provision of climate services. ENES, promoting and endorsing projects and initiatives, helps in developing and evaluating of state-of-the-art climate and Earth system models, facilitates model inter-comparison studies, encourages exchanges of software and model results, and fosters the use of high performance computing facilities dedicated to high-resolution multi-model experiments. ENES brings together public and private partners, integrates countries underrepresented in climate modelling studies, and reaches out to different user communities, thus enhancing European expertise and competitiveness. In this need of sophisticated models, world-class, high-performance computers, and state-of-the-art software solutions to make efficient use of models, data and hardware, a key role is played by the constitution and maintenance of a solid infrastructure, developing and providing services to the different user communities. ENES has investigated the infrastructural needs and has received funding from the EU FP7 program for the IS-ENES (InfraStructure for ENES) phase I and II projects. We present here the case study of an existing network of institutions brought together toward common goals by a non-binding agreement, ENES, and of its two IS-ENES projects. These latter will be discussed in their double role as a means to provide and/or maintain the actual infrastructure (hardware, software, skilled human resources, services) to achieve ENES scientific goals -fulfilling the aims set in a strategy document-, but also to inform and provide to the network a structured way of working and of interacting with the extended community. The genesis and evolution of the network and the interaction network/projects will also be analysed in terms of long-term sustainability.

VISUAL3D - An EIT network on visualization of geomodels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bauer, Tobias

2017-04-01

When it comes to interpretation of data and understanding of deep geological structures and bodies at different scales then modelling tools and modelling experience is vital for deep exploration. Geomodelling provides a platform for integration of different types of data, including new kinds of information (e.g., new improved measuring methods). EIT Raw Materials, initiated by the EIT (European Institute of Innovation and Technology) and funded by the European Commission, is the largest and strongest consortium in the raw materials sector worldwide. The VISUAL3D network of infrastructure is an initiative by EIT Raw Materials and aims at bringing together partners with 3D-4D-visualisation infrastructure and 3D-4D-modelling experience. The recently formed network collaboration interlinks hardware, software and expert knowledge in modelling visualization and output. A special focus will be the linking of research, education and industry and integrating multi-disciplinary data and to visualize the data in three and four dimensions. By aiding network collaborations we aim at improving the combination of geomodels with differing file formats and data characteristics. This will create an increased competency in modelling visualization and the ability to interchange and communicate models more easily. By combining knowledge and experience in geomodelling with expertise in Virtual Reality visualization partners of EIT Raw Materials but also external parties will have the possibility to visualize, analyze and validate their geomodels in immersive VR-environments. The current network combines partners from universities, research institutes, geological surveys and industry with a strong background in geological 3D-modelling and 3D visualization and comprises: Luleå University of Technology, Geological Survey of Finland, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, TUBA Freiberg, Uppsala University, Geological Survey of France, RWTH Aachen, DMT, KGHM Cuprum, Boliden, Montan Universität Leoben, Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, Tallinn University of Technology and Turku University. The infrastructure within the network comprises different types of capturing and visualization hardware, ranging from high resolution cubes, VR walls, VR goggle solutions, high resolution photogrammetry, UAVs, lidar-scanners, and many more.

Driving Innovation in Optical Networking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colizzi, Ernesto

Over the past 30 years, network applications have changed with the advent of innovative services spanning from high-speed broadband access to mobile data communications and to video signal distribution. To support this service evolution, optical transport infrastructures have changed their role. Innovations in optical networking have not only allowed the pure "bandwidth per fiber" increase, but also the realization of highly dependable and easy-to-manage networks. This article analyzes the innovations that have characterized the optical networking solutions from different perspectives, with a specific focus on the advancements introduced by Alcatel-Lucent's research and development laboratories located in Italy. The advancements of optical networking will be explored and discussed through Alcatel-Lucent's optical products to contextualize each innovation with the market evolution.

AmeriFlux and EuroFlux: History of a Strong Collaboration that Provided Unique Resources to the Scientific Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Papale, D.; Agarwal, D.; Biraud, S.; Canfora, E.; Pastorello, G.; Torn, M. S.; Trotta, C.

2017-12-01

In 1995 scientific communities in Europe and North America using the eddy covariance technique to measure carbon, water, and energy exchanges between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere started to organize their respective regional networks. Although there was a general interest and agreement to collaborate and exchange information and data between the two communities, these mainly occurred at the single site or individual levels through direct communications rather than systematically across networks. Between 2000 and 2008 common strategies to facilitate data sharing, promote data use across the two networks, and outreach to the scientific community, started to be more deeply discussed. Early on, harmonization across networks was deemed necessary to the success of both networks. This actually required major effort including lengthy discussions, compromises, and interactions between the networks for concrete implementation of common platforms and tools. Topics such as measurement units, variable definitions and labeling, data processing methods, data sharing policy, data distribution systems and formats, were key elements that had to be addressed and agreed upon carefully to build integrated and inter-operable research infrastructures (RIs). Today, AmeriFlux and EuroFlux are the basis, not only of the continental research infrastructures (ICOS in Europe), but they are also the driving force behind FLUXNET, where other regional networks are joining this coalition and contributing to the definition of a common system to make complex measurements accessible and comparable across continents. The latest dataset produced from this collaboration includes data contributed by over 200 sites around the world, with records spanning over two decades of data, and has been downloaded by over 900 users in the first 1.5 years of its publication. The core strategy of this collaboration, critical aspects and implemented solutions, as well as the current state of this effort will be presented to stimulate a community discussion aiming at growing the number of participating RIs and/or to stimulate similar processes in other research areas.

Distributed data networks: a blueprint for Big Data sharing and healthcare analytics.

PubMed

Popovic, Jennifer R

2017-01-01

This paper defines the attributes of distributed data networks and outlines the data and analytic infrastructure needed to build and maintain a successful network. We use examples from one successful implementation of a large-scale, multisite, healthcare-related distributed data network, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-sponsored Sentinel Initiative. Analytic infrastructure-development concepts are discussed from the perspective of promoting six pillars of analytic infrastructure: consistency, reusability, flexibility, scalability, transparency, and reproducibility. This paper also introduces one use case for machine learning algorithm development to fully utilize and advance the portfolio of population health analytics, particularly those using multisite administrative data sources. © 2016 New York Academy of Sciences.

EMSO: European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Favali, P.; Partnership, Emso

2009-04-01

EMSO, a Research Infrastructure listed within ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) Roadmap), is the European-scale network of multidisciplinary seafloor observatories from the Arctic to the Black Sea with the scientific objective of long-term real-time monitoring of processes related to geosphere/biosphere/hydrosphere interactions. EMSO will enhance our understanding of processes through long time series appropriate to the scale of the phenomena, constituting the new frontier of studying Earth interior, deep-sea biology and chemistry and ocean processes. EMSO will reply also to the need expressed in the frame of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) to develop a marine segment integrated in the in situ and satellite global monitoring system. The EMSO development relays upon the synergy between the scientific community and the industry to improve the European competitiveness with respect to countries like USA/Canada, NEPTUNE, VENUS and MARS projects, Taiwan, MACHO project, and Japan, DONET project. In Europe the development of an underwater network is based on previous EU-funded projects since early '90, and presently supported by EU initiatives. The EMSO infrastructure will constitute the extension to the sea of the land-based networks. Examples of data recorded by seafloor observatories will be presented. EMSO is presently at the stage of Preparatory Phase (PP), funded in the EC FP7 Capacities Programme. The project has started in April 2008 and will last 4 years with the participation of 12 Institutions representing 12 countries. EMSO potential will be significantly increased also with the interaction with other Research Infrastructures addressed to Earth Science. 2. IFREMER-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer (France, ref. Roland Person); KDM-Konsortium Deutsche Meeresforschung e.V. (Germany, ref. Christoph Waldmann); IMI-Irish Marine Institute (Ireland, ref. Michael Gillooly); UTM-CSIC-Unidad de Tecnologia Marina - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (Spain, ref. Juan Jose Danobeitia); UGOT-Goteborgs Universitet (Sweden, ref. Per Hall); HCMR-Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece, ref. Vasilios Likousis); NOCS-National Oceanography Centre Southampton (United Kingdom, ref. Henry A. Ruhl); UiT-University of Tromsø (Norway, ref. Jürgen Mienert); FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal, ref. Jorge Miguel Alberto de Miranda); ITU-Istanbul Teknik Universitesi (Turkey, ref. Namik Çagatay); NIOZ-Stichting Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut voor Zeeonderzoek (The Netherlands, ref. Tjeerd C.E. van Weering).

Animal transportation networks

PubMed Central

Perna, Andrea; Latty, Tanya

2014-01-01

Many group-living animals construct transportation networks of trails, galleries and burrows by modifying the environment to facilitate faster, safer or more efficient movement. Animal transportation networks can have direct influences on the fitness of individuals, whereas the shape and structure of transportation networks can influence community dynamics by facilitating contacts between different individuals and species. In this review, we discuss three key areas in the study of animal transportation networks: the topological properties of networks, network morphogenesis and growth, and the behaviour of network users. We present a brief primer on elements of network theory, and then discuss the different ways in which animal groups deal with the fundamental trade-off between the competing network properties of travel efficiency, robustness and infrastructure cost. We consider how the behaviour of network users can impact network efficiency, and call for studies that integrate both network topology and user behaviour. We finish with a prospectus for future research. PMID:25165598

Assessing urban strategies for reducing the impacts of extreme weather on infrastructure networks.

PubMed

Pregnolato, Maria; Ford, Alistair; Robson, Craig; Glenis, Vassilis; Barr, Stuart; Dawson, Richard

2016-05-01

Critical infrastructure networks, including transport, are crucial to the social and economic function of urban areas but are at increasing risk from natural hazards. Minimizing disruption to these networks should form part of a strategy to increase urban resilience. A framework for assessing the disruption from flood events to transport systems is presented that couples a high-resolution urban flood model with transport modelling and network analytics to assess the impacts of extreme rainfall events, and to quantify the resilience value of different adaptation options. A case study in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK shows that both green roof infrastructure and traditional engineering interventions such as culverts or flood walls can reduce transport disruption from flooding. The magnitude of these benefits depends on the flood event and adaptation strategy, but for the scenarios considered here 3-22% improvements in city-wide travel times are achieved. The network metric of betweenness centrality, weighted by travel time, is shown to provide a rapid approach to identify and prioritize the most critical locations for flood risk management intervention. Protecting just the top ranked critical location from flooding provides an 11% reduction in person delays. A city-wide deployment of green roofs achieves a 26% reduction, and although key routes still flood, the benefits of this strategy are more evenly distributed across the transport network as flood depths are reduced across the model domain. Both options should form part of an urban flood risk management strategy, but this method can be used to optimize investment and target limited resources at critical locations, enabling green infrastructure strategies to be gradually implemented over the longer term to provide city-wide benefits. This framework provides a means of prioritizing limited financial resources to improve resilience. This is particularly important as flood management investments must typically exceed a far higher benefit-cost threshold than transport infrastructure investments. By capturing the value to the transport network from flood management interventions, it is possible to create new business models that provide benefits to, and enhance the resilience of, both transport and flood risk management infrastructures. Further work will develop the framework to consider other hazards and infrastructure networks.

Assessing urban strategies for reducing the impacts of extreme weather on infrastructure networks

PubMed Central

Pregnolato, Maria; Ford, Alistair; Robson, Craig; Glenis, Vassilis; Barr, Stuart; Dawson, Richard

2016-01-01

Critical infrastructure networks, including transport, are crucial to the social and economic function of urban areas but are at increasing risk from natural hazards. Minimizing disruption to these networks should form part of a strategy to increase urban resilience. A framework for assessing the disruption from flood events to transport systems is presented that couples a high-resolution urban flood model with transport modelling and network analytics to assess the impacts of extreme rainfall events, and to quantify the resilience value of different adaptation options. A case study in Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK shows that both green roof infrastructure and traditional engineering interventions such as culverts or flood walls can reduce transport disruption from flooding. The magnitude of these benefits depends on the flood event and adaptation strategy, but for the scenarios considered here 3–22% improvements in city-wide travel times are achieved. The network metric of betweenness centrality, weighted by travel time, is shown to provide a rapid approach to identify and prioritize the most critical locations for flood risk management intervention. Protecting just the top ranked critical location from flooding provides an 11% reduction in person delays. A city-wide deployment of green roofs achieves a 26% reduction, and although key routes still flood, the benefits of this strategy are more evenly distributed across the transport network as flood depths are reduced across the model domain. Both options should form part of an urban flood risk management strategy, but this method can be used to optimize investment and target limited resources at critical locations, enabling green infrastructure strategies to be gradually implemented over the longer term to provide city-wide benefits. This framework provides a means of prioritizing limited financial resources to improve resilience. This is particularly important as flood management investments must typically exceed a far higher benefit–cost threshold than transport infrastructure investments. By capturing the value to the transport network from flood management interventions, it is possible to create new business models that provide benefits to, and enhance the resilience of, both transport and flood risk management infrastructures. Further work will develop the framework to consider other hazards and infrastructure networks. PMID:27293781

Ensuring Support for Research and Quality Improvement (QI) Networks: Four Pillars of Sustainability—An Emerging Framework

PubMed Central

Holve, Erin

2013-01-01

Multi-institutional research and quality improvement (QI) projects using electronic clinical data (ECD) hold great promise for improving quality of care and patient outcomes but typically require significant infrastructure investments both to initiate and maintain the project over its duration. Consequently, it is important for these projects to think holistically about sustainability to ensure their long-term success. Four “pillars” of sustainability are discussed based on the experiences of EDM Forum grantees and other research and QI networks. These include trust and value, governance, management, and financial and administrative support. Two “foundational considerations,” adaptive capacity and policy levers, are also discussed. PMID:25848557

A Survey on Next-Generation Mixed Line Rate (MLR) and Energy-Driven Wavelength-Division Multiplexed (WDM) Optical Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iyer, Sridhar

2015-06-01

With the ever-increasing traffic demands, infrastructure of the current 10 Gbps optical network needs to be enhanced. Further, since the energy crisis is gaining increasing concerns, new research topics need to be devised and technological solutions for energy conservation need to be investigated. In all-optical mixed line rate (MLR) network, feasibility of a lightpath is determined by the physical layer impairment (PLI) accumulation. Contrary to PLI-aware routing and wavelength assignment (PLIA-RWA) algorithm applicable for a 10 Gbps wavelength-division multiplexed (WDM) network, a new Routing, Wavelength, Modulation format assignment (RWMFA) algorithm is required for the MLR optical network. With the rapid growth of energy consumption in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), recently, lot of attention is being devoted toward "green" ICT solutions. This article presents a review of different RWMFA (PLIA-RWA) algorithms for MLR networks, and surveys the most relevant research activities aimed at minimizing energy consumption in optical networks. In essence, this article presents a comprehensive and timely survey on a growing field of research, as it covers most aspects of MLR and energy-driven optical networks. Hence, the author aims at providing a comprehensive reference for the growing base of researchers who will work on MLR and energy-driven optical networks in the upcoming years. Finally, the article also identifies several open problems for future research.

PubMed Central

Fernandes, Pedro; Gevaert, Kris; Rothacker, Julie; Saiyed, Taslimarif; Detwiler, Michelle

2012-01-01

This roundtable will feature four international speakers who will discuss national and international collaborative initiatives and outreach efforts in which they participate. They will share how these efforts have facilitated access to cutting-edge technology, fostered new generations of scientists, and ultimately advanced the progression of global scientific research. Open discussion will follow the presentations! Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, National Centre for Biological Sciences, India: experiences in implementing a national high-end core facility organization with the goals of improving regional technology access and enhancing the quality of research for scientists in academia, biotechnology companies, and the biopharmaceutical industry.Monash University Technology Platforms and Broader Victorian and Australian Networks: Australian initiatives to build global research capabilities and identify means to internationally benchmark regional capabilities to ensure delivery of world class infrastructure. Within the context of the current Australian strategic framework, funding considerations will be discussed, along with expectations for partner facilities to collaborate and be fully accessible to academia and industry.Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia, Portugal and beyond: Multiple roles of networking in science and extending outreach while consolidating community integration. Discussion will include achievement of community building and integration using concepts of sharing, training, resource availability, and the value and empowerment gained using acquired skills. The role of networking and institutional visibility will also be discussed.PRIME-XS: This EU-funded consortium provides an infrastructure of proteomics technologies to the European research community. The core is formed by six access facilities through which the consortium provides access to their technologies. Twelve partners work together to develop new resources to aid the community including the development of bioinformatic tools to analyze large-scale proteomics data and novel technologies to analyze protein interaction networks, post-translational modifications and more sensitive ways to detect protein and peptide biomarkers in complex samples.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Joe Mambretti

This is the summary report of the third annual Optical Networking Testbed Workshop (ONT3), which brought together leading members of the international advanced research community to address major challenges in creating next generation communication services and technologies. Networking research and development (R&D) communities throughout the world continue to discover new methods and technologies that are enabling breakthroughs in advanced communications. These discoveries are keystones for building the foundation of the future economy, which requires the sophisticated management of extremely large qualities of digital information through high performance communications. This innovation is made possible by basic research and experiments within laboratoriesmore » and on specialized testbeds. Initial network research and development initiatives are driven by diverse motives, including attempts to solve existing complex problems, the desire to create powerful new technologies that do not exist using traditional methods, and the need to create tools to address specific challenges, including those mandated by large scale science or government agency mission agendas. Many new discoveries related to communications technologies transition to wide-spread deployment through standards organizations and commercialization. These transition paths allow for new communications capabilities that drive many sectors of the digital economy. In the last few years, networking R&D has increasingly focused on advancing multiple new capabilities enabled by next generation optical networking. Both US Federal networking R&D and other national R&D initiatives, such as those organized by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) of Japan are creating optical networking technologies that allow for new, powerful communication services. Among the most promising services are those based on new types of multi-service or hybrid networks, which use new optical networking technologies. Several years ago, when many of these optical networking research topics were first being investigated, they were the subject of controversial debate. The new techniques challenged many long-held concepts related to architecture and technology. However, today all major networking organizations are transitioning toward infrastructure that incorporates these new concepts. This progress has been assisted through the series of Optical Networking Testbed Workshops (ONT). The first (ONT1) outlined a general framework of key issues and topics and developed a series of recommendations (www.nren.nasa.gov/workshop7). The second (ONT2) developed a common vision of optical network technologies, services, infrastructure, and organizations (www.nren.nasa.gov/workshop8). Processes that allow for a common vision encourage widespread deployment of these types of resources among advanced networking communities. Also, such a shared vision enables key concepts and technologies to migrate from basic research testbeds to wider networking communities. The ONT-3 workshop built on these earlier activities by expanding discussion to include additional considerations of the international interoperability and of greater impact of optical networking technology on networking in general. In accordance with this recognition, the workshop confirmed that future-oriented research and development is indispensable to fundamentally change the current Internet architecture to create a global network incorporating completely new concepts. The workshop also recognized that the first priority to allow for this progress is basic research and development, including international collaborative activities, which are important for the global realization of interoperability of a new generation architecture.« less

Robustness of spatial micronetworks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McAndrew, Thomas C.; Danforth, Christopher M.; Bagrow, James P.

2015-04-01

Power lines, roadways, pipelines, and other physical infrastructure are critical to modern society. These structures may be viewed as spatial networks where geographic distances play a role in the functionality and construction cost of links. Traditionally, studies of network robustness have primarily considered the connectedness of large, random networks. Yet for spatial infrastructure, physical distances must also play a role in network robustness. Understanding the robustness of small spatial networks is particularly important with the increasing interest in microgrids, i.e., small-area distributed power grids that are well suited to using renewable energy resources. We study the random failures of links in small networks where functionality depends on both spatial distance and topological connectedness. By introducing a percolation model where the failure of each link is proportional to its spatial length, we find that when failures depend on spatial distances, networks are more fragile than expected. Accounting for spatial effects in both construction and robustness is important for designing efficient microgrids and other network infrastructure.

EuCARD2: enhanced accelerator research and development in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2013-10-01

Accelerator science and technology is one of a key enablers of the developments in the particle physic, photon physics and also applications in medicine and industry. EuCARD2 is an European research project which will be realized during 2013-2017 inside the EC FP7 framework. The project concerns the development and coordination of European Accelerator Research and Development. The project is particularly important, to a number of domestic laboratories, due to some plans to build large accelerator infrastructure in Poland. Large accelerator infrastructure of fundamental and applied research character stimulates around it the development and industrial applications as well as biomedical of advanced accelerators, material research and engineering, cryo-technology, mechatronics, robotics, and in particular electronics - like networked measurement and control systems, sensors, computer systems, automation and control systems. The paper presents a digest of the European project EuCARD2 which is Enhanced European Coordination for Accelerator Research and Development. The paper presents a digest of the research results and assumptions in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the final fourth annual meeting of the EuCARD - European Coordination of Accelerator R&D, and the kick-off meeting of the EuCARD2. There are debated a few basic groups of accelerator systems components like: measurement - control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution, high field magnets, superconducting cavities, novel beam collimators, etc. The paper bases on the following materials: Internet and Intranet documents combined with EuCARD2, Description of Work FP7 EuCARD-2 DoW-312453, 2013-02-13, and discussions and preparatory materials worked on by Eucard-2 initiators.

NIHR Clinical Research Networks: what they do and how they help paediatric research.

PubMed

Lythgoe, Hanna; Price, Victoria; Poustie, Vanessa; Attar, Sabah; Hawcutt, Daniel; Preston, Jennifer; Beresford, Michael W

2017-08-01

This review provides paediatricians with an update on the new structure of the National Institute for Health Research's (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN): Children and its role within the wider NIHR infrastructure. The network supports delivery of high-quality research within the NHS in England and supports researchers, through provision of staff and resources, with feasibility, site set-up, patient recruitment and study management. Since 2013, over 80% of commercial contract studies running within the UK sat within the UKCRN Portfolio. Of the diverse, increasing portfolio of studies supported by the network, many studies are interventional, with 33% being randomised controlled studies. Recruitment to studies supported by the network through the Children's Portfolio has consistently improved. Over 200 000 participants have been recruited to the Children's Portfolio studies to date, and there are currently approximately 500 studies open to recruitment. The CRN: Children has successfully involved patients and the public in all aspects of study design and delivery, including through the work of Generation R. Challenges remain in conducting paediatric research and the network is committed to supporting Children's research and further building on its achievements to date. Education and engagement of paediatricians within the network and research is important to further improving quality and delivery of paediatric research. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

SINET3: advanced optical and IP hybrid network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Urushidani, Shigeo

2007-11-01

This paper introduces the new Japanese academic backbone network called SINET3, which has been in full-scale operation since June 2007. SINET3 provides a wide variety of network services, such as multi-layer transfer, enriched VPN, enhanced QoS, and layer-1 bandwidth on demand (BoD) services to create an innovative and prolific science infrastructure for more than 700 universities and research institutions. The network applies an advanced hybrid network architecture composed of 75 layer-1 switches and 12 high-performance IP routers to accommodate such diversified services in a single network platform, and provides sufficient bandwidth using Japan's first STM256 (40 Gbps) lines. The network adopts lots of the latest networking technologies, such as next-generation SDH (VCAT/GFP/LCAS), GMPLS, advanced MPLS, and logical-router technologies, for high network convergence, flexible resource assignment, and high service availability. This paper covers the network services, network design, and networking technologies of SINET3.

The COMET Sleep Research Platform.

PubMed

Nichols, Deborah A; DeSalvo, Steven; Miller, Richard A; Jónsson, Darrell; Griffin, Kara S; Hyde, Pamela R; Walsh, James K; Kushida, Clete A

2014-01-01

The Comparative Outcomes Management with Electronic Data Technology (COMET) platform is extensible and designed for facilitating multicenter electronic clinical research. Our research goals were the following: (1) to conduct a comparative effectiveness trial (CET) for two obstructive sleep apnea treatments-positive airway pressure versus oral appliance therapy; and (2) to establish a new electronic network infrastructure that would support this study and other clinical research studies. The COMET platform was created to satisfy the needs of CET with a focus on creating a platform that provides comprehensive toolsets, multisite collaboration, and end-to-end data management. The platform also provides medical researchers the ability to visualize and interpret data using business intelligence (BI) tools. COMET is a research platform that is scalable and extensible, and which, in a future version, can accommodate big data sets and enable efficient and effective research across multiple studies and medical specialties. The COMET platform components were designed for an eventual move to a cloud computing infrastructure that enhances sustainability, overall cost effectiveness, and return on investment.

The COMET Sleep Research Platform

PubMed Central

Nichols, Deborah A.; DeSalvo, Steven; Miller, Richard A.; Jónsson, Darrell; Griffin, Kara S.; Hyde, Pamela R.; Walsh, James K.; Kushida, Clete A.

2014-01-01

Introduction: The Comparative Outcomes Management with Electronic Data Technology (COMET) platform is extensible and designed for facilitating multicenter electronic clinical research. Background: Our research goals were the following: (1) to conduct a comparative effectiveness trial (CET) for two obstructive sleep apnea treatments—positive airway pressure versus oral appliance therapy; and (2) to establish a new electronic network infrastructure that would support this study and other clinical research studies. Discussion: The COMET platform was created to satisfy the needs of CET with a focus on creating a platform that provides comprehensive toolsets, multisite collaboration, and end-to-end data management. The platform also provides medical researchers the ability to visualize and interpret data using business intelligence (BI) tools. Conclusion: COMET is a research platform that is scalable and extensible, and which, in a future version, can accommodate big data sets and enable efficient and effective research across multiple studies and medical specialties. The COMET platform components were designed for an eventual move to a cloud computing infrastructure that enhances sustainability, overall cost effectiveness, and return on investment. PMID:25848590

Body area network--a key infrastructure element for patient-centered telemedicine.

PubMed

Norgall, Thomas; Schmidt, Robert; von der Grün, Thomas

2004-01-01

The Body Area Network (BAN) extends the range of existing wireless network technologies by an ultra-low range, ultra-low power network solution optimised for long-term or continuous healthcare applications. It enables wireless radio communication between several miniaturised, intelligent Body Sensor (or actor) Units (BSU) and a single Body Central Unit (BCU) worn at the human body. A separate wireless transmission link from the BCU to a network access point--using different technology--provides for online access to BAN components via usual network infrastructure. The BAN network protocol maintains dynamic ad-hoc network configuration scenarios and co-existence of multiple networks.BAN is expected to become a basic infrastructure element for electronic health services: By integrating patient-attached sensors and mobile actor units, distributed information and data processing systems, the range of medical workflow can be extended to include applications like wireless multi-parameter patient monitoring and therapy support. Beyond clinical use and professional disease management environments, private personal health assistance scenarios (without financial reimbursement by health agencies / insurance companies) enable a wide range of applications and services in future pervasive computing and networking environments.

Polish Geophysical Solid Earth Infrastructure Contributing to EPOS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Debski, W.; Mutke, G.; Suchcicki, J.; Jozwiak, W.; Wiejacz, P.; Trojanowski, J.

2012-04-01

In this poster we present the current state of the main polish solid-earth-orientated infrastructures and shortly described history of their development, current state, and some plans for their future development. The presen- tation concentrates only on the classical infrastructure leaving aside for the while the the geodetic-orientated infrastructure, like GPS network and the GPS processing data centers, gravimetric infrastructure and others of this type. Polish broadband seismic infrastructure consists of 7 permanent broadband stations incorporated into the VEBSN initiative running at the polish territory and one operated in collaboration with NORSAR is settled at the Hornsund (Svalbard) polish polar station. All stations are equipped with STS-2 seismometers and polish MK-6 seismic stations providing 120 dB dynamics 100Hz sampling and data transmission in a real time to processing center. Besides this permanent broadband seismic network (PLSN) the Central Institute of Mining is running the permanent regional, short period network at the Upper Silesia area dedicated to the detailed monitoring of seismicity induced by the black coal mining activity in this area. The network consists of As the mining activity is the main source of seismicity in Poland also all mines are running underground short period networks, like for example Rudna-Polkowice copper mine seismic network consisting of 64 underground located short period seimometers. In that area, especially around the Zelazny Most: the huge post-floating artificial lake the, IGF PAS is running the local seismic array consisting of 4 short period seismometers. Besides these permanent network IGF PAN is running the portable seismic network for detailed mapping a possible natural seismic activity in selected regions of Poland. Important contribution to classical geophysical observation in the electro-magnetic field are provided by three permanent geomagnetic observatories (one at Hornsund) and supporting set of 10 portable, high-accuracy magnetoteluric stations.

Data governance requirements for distributed clinical research networks: triangulating perspectives of diverse stakeholders

PubMed Central

Kim, Katherine K; Browe, Dennis K; Logan, Holly C; Holm, Roberta; Hack, Lori; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2014-01-01

There is currently limited information on best practices for the development of governance requirements for distributed research networks (DRNs), an emerging model that promotes clinical data reuse and improves timeliness of comparative effectiveness research. Much of the existing information is based on a single type of stakeholder such as researchers or administrators. This paper reports on a triangulated approach to developing DRN data governance requirements based on a combination of policy analysis with experts, interviews with institutional leaders, and patient focus groups. This approach is illustrated with an example from the Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research, which resulted in 91 requirements. These requirements were analyzed against the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protected versus non-protected health information. The requirements addressed all FIPPs, showing how a DRN's technical infrastructure is able to fulfill HIPAA regulations, protect privacy, and provide a trustworthy platform for research. PMID:24302285

75 FR 75611 - Critical Infrastructure Protection Month, 2010

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-12-03

... Part IV The President Proclamation 8607--Critical Infrastructure Protection Month, 2010..., 2010 Critical Infrastructure Protection Month, 2010 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation During Critical Infrastructure Protection Month, we highlight the vast network of systems and...

Sustainable development of a GCP-compliant clinical trials platform in Africa: the malaria clinical trials alliance perspective.

PubMed

Ogutu, Bernhards R; Baiden, Rita; Diallo, Diadier; Smith, Peter G; Binka, Fred N

2010-04-20

The Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance (MCTA), a programme of INDEPTH network of demographic surveillance centres, was launched in 2006 with two broad objectives: to facilitate the timely development of a network of centres in Africa with the capacity to conduct clinical trials of malaria vaccines and drugs under conditions of good clinical practice (GCP); and to support, strengthen and mentor the centres in the network to facilitate their progression towards self-sustaining clinical research centres. Sixteen research centres in 10 African malaria-endemic countries were selected that were already working with the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) or the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). All centres were visited to assess their requirements for research capacity development through infrastructure strengthening and training. Support provided by MCTA included: laboratory and facility refurbishment; workshops on GCP, malaria diagnosis, strategic management and media training; and training to support staff to undertake accreditation examinations of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). Short attachments to other network centres were also supported to facilitate sharing practices within the Alliance. MCTA also played a key role in the creation of the African Media & Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), which aims to promote interaction between researchers and the media for appropriate publicity and media reporting of research and developments on malaria, including drug and vaccine trials. In three years, MCTA strengthened 13 centres to perform GCP-compliant drug and vaccine trials, including 11 centres that form the backbone of a large phase III malaria vaccine trial. MCTA activities have demonstrated that centres can be brought up to GCP compliance on this time scale, but the costs are substantial and there is a need for further support of other centres to meet the growing demand for clinical trial capacity. The MCTA experience also indicates that capacity development in clinical trials is best carried out in the context of preparation for specific trials. In this regard MCTA centres involved in the phase III malaria vaccine trial were, on average, more successful at consolidating the training and infrastructure support than those centres focussing only on drug trials.

Sustainable development of a GCP-compliant clinical trials platform in Africa: the Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance perspective

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The Malaria Clinical Trials Alliance (MCTA), a programme of INDEPTH network of demographic surveillance centres, was launched in 2006 with two broad objectives: to facilitate the timely development of a network of centres in Africa with the capacity to conduct clinical trials of malaria vaccines and drugs under conditions of good clinical practice (GCP); and to support, strengthen and mentor the centres in the network to facilitate their progression towards self-sustaining clinical research centres. Case description Sixteen research centres in 10 African malaria-endemic countries were selected that were already working with the Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) or the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). All centres were visited to assess their requirements for research capacity development through infrastructure strengthening and training. Support provided by MCTA included: laboratory and facility refurbishment; workshops on GCP, malaria diagnosis, strategic management and media training; and training to support staff to undertake accreditation examinations of the Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP). Short attachments to other network centres were also supported to facilitate sharing practices within the Alliance. MCTA also played a key role in the creation of the African Media & Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), which aims to promote interaction between researchers and the media for appropriate publicity and media reporting of research and developments on malaria, including drug and vaccine trials. Conclusion In three years, MCTA strengthened 13 centres to perform GCP-compliant drug and vaccine trials, including 11 centres that form the backbone of a large phase III malaria vaccine trial. MCTA activities have demonstrated that centres can be brought up to GCP compliance on this time scale, but the costs are substantial and there is a need for further support of other centres to meet the growing demand for clinical trial capacity. The MCTA experience also indicates that capacity development in clinical trials is best carried out in the context of preparation for specific trials. In this regard MCTA centres involved in the phase III malaria vaccine trial were, on average, more successful at consolidating the training and infrastructure support than those centres focussing only on drug trials. PMID:20406478

Linking Geophysical Networks to International Economic Development Through Integration of Global and National Monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lerner-Lam, A.

2007-05-01

Outside of the research community and mission agencies, global geophysical monitoring rarely receives sustained attention except in the aftermath of a humanitarian disaster. The recovery and rebuilding period focuses attention and resources for a short time on regional needs for geophysical observation, often at the national or sub-national level. This can result in the rapid deployment of national monitoring networks, but may overlook the longer-term benefits of integration with global networks. Even in the case of multinational disasters, such as the Indian Ocean tsunami, it has proved difficult to promote the integration of national solutions with global monitoring, research and operations infrastructure. More importantly, continuing operations at the national or sub-national scale are difficult to sustain once the resources associated with recovery and rebuilding are depleted. Except for some notable examples, the vast infrastructure associated with global geophysical monitoring is not utilized constructively to promote the integration of national networks with international efforts. This represents a missed opportunity not only for monitoring, but for developing the international research and educational collaborations necessary for technological transfer and capacity building. The recent confluence of highly visible disasters, global multi-hazard risk assessments, evaluations of the relationships between natural disasters and socio-economic development, and shifts in development agency policies, provides an opportunity to link global geophysical monitoring initiatives to central issues in international development. Natural hazard risk reduction has not been the first priority of international development agendas for understandable, mainly humanitarian reasons. However, it is now recognized that the so-called risk premium associated with making development projects more risk conscious or risk resilient is relatively small relative to potential losses. Thus there is an attitudinal shift emerging whereby disaster risk management can be "mainstreamed" into the sustainable development programs in many countries. Consequently, it is incumbent to demonstrate that multi-scale geophysical monitoring, comprising integration of global networks with national and sub-national operations, is a foundational component of sustainable development infrastructure. This suggests even greater emphasis on developing dynamic and adaptive multi- hazard risk assessments, encompassing valid estimates of social and physical vulnerabilities; designing multi- scale network integration strategies that consider risk as well as hazard; providing operational and flexible templates for developing national networks in a global context; emphasizing the backbone characteristics of global geophysical monitoring to nations seeking to develop their own monitoring capacity; promoting sustained international research, education and training collaborations coinciding with the development of monitoring capacity; and continuing to promote the free and open exchange of data as a necessary component of sustained intellectual interest in monitoring. A combination of these strategies may counteract the decay of interest in regional geophysical monitoring after a disaster.

Adapting a commercial power system simulator for smart grid based system study and vulnerability assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Navaratne, Uditha Sudheera

The smart grid is the future of the power grid. Smart meters and the associated network play a major role in the distributed system of the smart grid. Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) can enhance the reliability of the grid, generate efficient energy management opportunities and many innovations around the future smart grid. These innovations involve intense research not only on the AMI network itself but as also on the influence an AMI network can have upon the rest of the power grid. This research describes a smart meter testbed with hardware in loop that can facilitate future research in an AMI network. The smart meters in the testbed were developed such that their functionality can be customized to simulate any given scenario such as integrating new hardware components into a smart meter or developing new encryption algorithms in firmware. These smart meters were integrated into the power system simulator to simulate the power flow variation in the power grid on different AMI activities. Each smart meter in the network also provides a communication interface to the home area network. This research delivers a testbed for emulating the AMI activities and monitoring their effect on the smart grid.

The challenge of developing ethical guidelines for a research infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kutsch, Werner Leo

2016-04-01

The mission of the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS RI) is to enable research to understand the greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets and perturbations. The ICOS RI provides the long-term observations required to understand the present state and predict future behaviour of the global carbon cycle and GHG emissions. Technological developments and implementations, related to GHGs, will be promoted by the linking of research, education and innovation. In order to provide this data ICOS RI is a distributed research infrastructure. The backbones of ICOS RI are the national measurement stations such as ICOS atmosphere, ecosystem and ocean stations. ICOS Central Facilities are the European level ICOS RI Centres, which have the specific tasks in collecting and processing the data and samples received from the national measurement networks. During the establishment of ICOS RI ethical guidelines were developed. These guidelines describe principles of ethics in the research activities that should be applied within ICOS RI. They should be acknowledged and followed by all researchers affiliated to ICOS RI and should be supported by all participating institutions. The presentation describes (1) the general challenge to develop ethical guidelines in a complex international infrastructure and (2) gives an overview about the content that includes different kinds of conflicts of interests, data ethics and social responsibility.

Reducing Cascading Failure Risk by Increasing Infrastructure Network Interdependence.

PubMed

Korkali, Mert; Veneman, Jason G; Tivnan, Brian F; Bagrow, James P; Hines, Paul D H

2017-03-20

Increased interconnection between critical infrastructure networks, such as electric power and communications systems, has important implications for infrastructure reliability and security. Others have shown that increased coupling between networks that are vulnerable to internetwork cascading failures can increase vulnerability. However, the mechanisms of cascading in these models differ from those in real systems and such models disregard new functions enabled by coupling, such as intelligent control during a cascade. This paper compares the robustness of simple topological network models to models that more accurately reflect the dynamics of cascading in a particular case of coupled infrastructures. First, we compare a topological contagion model to a power grid model. Second, we compare a percolation model of internetwork cascading to three models of interdependent power-communication systems. In both comparisons, the more detailed models suggest substantially different conclusions, relative to the simpler topological models. In all but the most extreme case, our model of a "smart" power network coupled to a communication system suggests that increased power-communication coupling decreases vulnerability, in contrast to the percolation model. Together, these results suggest that robustness can be enhanced by interconnecting networks with complementary capabilities if modes of internetwork failure propagation are constrained.

Reducing Cascading Failure Risk by Increasing Infrastructure Network Interdependence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korkali, Mert; Veneman, Jason G.; Tivnan, Brian F.; Bagrow, James P.; Hines, Paul D. H.

2017-03-01

Increased interconnection between critical infrastructure networks, such as electric power and communications systems, has important implications for infrastructure reliability and security. Others have shown that increased coupling between networks that are vulnerable to internetwork cascading failures can increase vulnerability. However, the mechanisms of cascading in these models differ from those in real systems and such models disregard new functions enabled by coupling, such as intelligent control during a cascade. This paper compares the robustness of simple topological network models to models that more accurately reflect the dynamics of cascading in a particular case of coupled infrastructures. First, we compare a topological contagion model to a power grid model. Second, we compare a percolation model of internetwork cascading to three models of interdependent power-communication systems. In both comparisons, the more detailed models suggest substantially different conclusions, relative to the simpler topological models. In all but the most extreme case, our model of a “smart” power network coupled to a communication system suggests that increased power-communication coupling decreases vulnerability, in contrast to the percolation model. Together, these results suggest that robustness can be enhanced by interconnecting networks with complementary capabilities if modes of internetwork failure propagation are constrained.

Reducing Cascading Failure Risk by Increasing Infrastructure Network Interdependence

PubMed Central

Korkali, Mert; Veneman, Jason G.; Tivnan, Brian F.; Bagrow, James P.; Hines, Paul D. H.

2017-01-01

Increased interconnection between critical infrastructure networks, such as electric power and communications systems, has important implications for infrastructure reliability and security. Others have shown that increased coupling between networks that are vulnerable to internetwork cascading failures can increase vulnerability. However, the mechanisms of cascading in these models differ from those in real systems and such models disregard new functions enabled by coupling, such as intelligent control during a cascade. This paper compares the robustness of simple topological network models to models that more accurately reflect the dynamics of cascading in a particular case of coupled infrastructures. First, we compare a topological contagion model to a power grid model. Second, we compare a percolation model of internetwork cascading to three models of interdependent power-communication systems. In both comparisons, the more detailed models suggest substantially different conclusions, relative to the simpler topological models. In all but the most extreme case, our model of a “smart” power network coupled to a communication system suggests that increased power-communication coupling decreases vulnerability, in contrast to the percolation model. Together, these results suggest that robustness can be enhanced by interconnecting networks with complementary capabilities if modes of internetwork failure propagation are constrained. PMID:28317835

Neural Network Based Intrusion Detection System for Critical Infrastructures

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Todd Vollmer; Ondrej Linda; Milos Manic

2009-07-01

Resiliency and security in control systems such as SCADA and Nuclear plant’s in today’s world of hackers and malware are a relevant concern. Computer systems used within critical infrastructures to control physical functions are not immune to the threat of cyber attacks and may be potentially vulnerable. Tailoring an intrusion detection system to the specifics of critical infrastructures can significantly improve the security of such systems. The IDS-NNM – Intrusion Detection System using Neural Network based Modeling, is presented in this paper. The main contributions of this work are: 1) the use and analyses of real network data (data recordedmore » from an existing critical infrastructure); 2) the development of a specific window based feature extraction technique; 3) the construction of training dataset using randomly generated intrusion vectors; 4) the use of a combination of two neural network learning algorithms – the Error-Back Propagation and Levenberg-Marquardt, for normal behavior modeling. The presented algorithm was evaluated on previously unseen network data. The IDS-NNM algorithm proved to be capable of capturing all intrusion attempts presented in the network communication while not generating any false alerts.« less

Strategic Planning to Conduct Joint Force Network Operations: A Content Analysis of NETOPS Organizations Strategic Plans

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-03-01

information dominance , Joint Network Operations (NETOPS) organizations need to be strategically aligned. As result, to enhance the capabilities-based effects of NETOPS and reduce our NETOP infrastructures susceptibility to compromise. Once the key organizations were identified, their strategic plans were analyzed using a structured content analysis framework. The results illustrated that the strategic plans were aligned with the community of interests tasking to conduct NETOPS. Further research is required into the strategic alignment beyond the strategic

ENFIN a network to enhance integrative systems biology.

PubMed

Kahlem, Pascal; Birney, Ewan

2007-12-01

Integration of biological data of various types and development of adapted bioinformatics tools represent critical objectives to enable research at the systems level. The European Network of Excellence ENFIN is engaged in developing both an adapted infrastructure to connect databases and platforms to enable the generation of new bioinformatics tools as well as the experimental validation of computational predictions. We will give an overview of the projects tackled within ENFIN and discuss the challenges associated with integration for systems biology.

Auscope: Australian Earth Science Information Infrastructure using Free and Open Source Software

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woodcock, R.; Cox, S. J.; Fraser, R.; Wyborn, L. A.

2013-12-01

Since 2005 the Australian Government has supported a series of initiatives providing researchers with access to major research facilities and information networks necessary for world-class research. Starting with the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) the Australian earth science community established an integrated national geoscience infrastructure system called AuScope. AuScope is now in operation, providing a number of components to assist in understanding the structure and evolution of the Australian continent. These include the acquisition of subsurface imaging , earth composition and age analysis, a virtual drill core library, geological process simulation, and a high resolution geospatial reference framework. To draw together information from across the earth science community in academia, industry and government, AuScope includes a nationally distributed information infrastructure. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has been a significant enabler in building the AuScope community and providing a range of interoperable services for accessing data and scientific software. A number of FOSS components have been created, adopted or upgraded to create a coherent, OGC compliant Spatial Information Services Stack (SISS). SISS is now deployed at all Australian Geological Surveys, many Universities and the CSIRO. Comprising a set of OGC catalogue and data services, and augmented with new vocabulary and identifier services, the SISS provides a comprehensive package for organisations to contribute their data to the AuScope network. This packaging and a variety of software testing and documentation activities enabled greater trust and notably reduced barriers to adoption. FOSS selection was important, not only for technical capability and robustness, but also for appropriate licensing and community models to ensure sustainability of the infrastructure in the long term. Government agencies were sensitive to these issues and AuScope's careful selection has been rewarded by adoption. In some cases the features provided by the SISS solution are now significantly in advance of COTS offerings which will create expectations that can be passed back from users to their preferred vendors. Using FOSS, AuScope has addressed the challenge of data exchange across organisations nationally. The data standards (e.g. GeosciML) and platforms that underpin AuScope provide important new datasets and multi-agency links independent of underlying software and hardware differences. AuScope has created an infrastructure, a platform of technologies and the opportunity for new ways of working with and integrating disparate data at much lower cost. Research activities are now exploiting the information infrastructure to create virtual laboratories for research ranging from geophysics through water and the environment. Once again the AuScope community is making heavy use of FOSS to provide access to processing software and Cloud computing and HPC. The successful use of FOSS by AuScope, and the efforts made to ensure it is suitable for adoption, have resulted in the SISS being selected as a reference implementation for a number of Australian Government initiatives beyond AuScope in environmental information and bioregional assessments.

Survey on Monitoring and Quality Controlling of the Mobile Biosignal Delivery.

PubMed

Pawar, Pravin A; Edla, Damodar R; Edoh, Thierry; Shinde, Vijay; van Beijnum, Bert-Jan

2017-10-31

A Mobile Patient Monitoring System (MPMS) acquires patient's biosignals and transmits them using wireless network connection to the decision-making module or healthcare professional for the assessment of patient's condition. A variety of wireless network technologies such as wireless personal area networks (e.g., Bluetooth), mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET), and infrastructure-based networks (e.g., WLAN and cellular networks) are in practice for biosignals delivery. The wireless network quality-of-service (QoS) requirements of biosignals delivery are mainly specified in terms of required bandwidth, acceptable delay, and tolerable error rate. An important research challenge in the MPMS is how to satisfy QoS requirements of biosignals delivery in the environment characterized by patient mobility, deployment of multiple wireless network technologies, and variable QoS characteristics of the wireless networks. QoS requirements are mainly application specific, while available QoS is largely dependent on QoS provided by wireless network in use. QoS provisioning refers to providing support for improving QoS experience of networked applications. In resource poor conditions, application adaptation may also be required to make maximum use of available wireless network QoS. This survey paper presents a survey of recent developments in the area of QoS provisioning for MPMS. In particular, our contributions are as follows: (1) overview of wireless networks and network QoS requirements of biosignals delivery; (2) survey of wireless networks' QoS performance evaluation for the transmission of biosignals; and (3) survey of QoS provisioning mechanisms for biosignals delivery in MPMS. We also propose integrating end-to-end QoS monitoring and QoS provisioning strategies in a mobile patient monitoring system infrastructure to support optimal delivery of biosignals to the healthcare professionals.

e!DAL - a framework to store, share and publish research data

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The life-science community faces a major challenge in handling “big data”, highlighting the need for high quality infrastructures capable of sharing and publishing research data. Data preservation, analysis, and publication are the three pillars in the “big data life cycle”. The infrastructures currently available for managing and publishing data are often designed to meet domain-specific or project-specific requirements, resulting in the repeated development of proprietary solutions and lower quality data publication and preservation overall. Results e!DAL is a lightweight software framework for publishing and sharing research data. Its main features are version tracking, metadata management, information retrieval, registration of persistent identifiers (DOI), an embedded HTTP(S) server for public data access, access as a network file system, and a scalable storage backend. e!DAL is available as an API for local non-shared storage and as a remote API featuring distributed applications. It can be deployed “out-of-the-box” as an on-site repository. Conclusions e!DAL was developed based on experiences coming from decades of research data management at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK). Initially developed as a data publication and documentation infrastructure for the IPK’s role as a data center in the DataCite consortium, e!DAL has grown towards being a general data archiving and publication infrastructure. The e!DAL software has been deployed into the Maven Central Repository. Documentation and Software are also available at: http://edal.ipk-gatersleben.de. PMID:24958009

e!DAL--a framework to store, share and publish research data.

PubMed

Arend, Daniel; Lange, Matthias; Chen, Jinbo; Colmsee, Christian; Flemming, Steffen; Hecht, Denny; Scholz, Uwe

2014-06-24

The life-science community faces a major challenge in handling "big data", highlighting the need for high quality infrastructures capable of sharing and publishing research data. Data preservation, analysis, and publication are the three pillars in the "big data life cycle". The infrastructures currently available for managing and publishing data are often designed to meet domain-specific or project-specific requirements, resulting in the repeated development of proprietary solutions and lower quality data publication and preservation overall. e!DAL is a lightweight software framework for publishing and sharing research data. Its main features are version tracking, metadata management, information retrieval, registration of persistent identifiers (DOI), an embedded HTTP(S) server for public data access, access as a network file system, and a scalable storage backend. e!DAL is available as an API for local non-shared storage and as a remote API featuring distributed applications. It can be deployed "out-of-the-box" as an on-site repository. e!DAL was developed based on experiences coming from decades of research data management at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK). Initially developed as a data publication and documentation infrastructure for the IPK's role as a data center in the DataCite consortium, e!DAL has grown towards being a general data archiving and publication infrastructure. The e!DAL software has been deployed into the Maven Central Repository. Documentation and Software are also available at: http://edal.ipk-gatersleben.de.

Barriers to the conduct of randomised clinical trials within all disease areas.

PubMed

Djurisic, Snezana; Rath, Ana; Gaber, Sabrina; Garattini, Silvio; Bertele, Vittorio; Ngwabyt, Sandra-Nadia; Hivert, Virginie; Neugebauer, Edmund A M; Laville, Martine; Hiesmayr, Michael; Demotes-Mainard, Jacques; Kubiak, Christine; Jakobsen, Janus C; Gluud, Christian

2017-08-01

Randomised clinical trials are key to advancing medical knowledge and to enhancing patient care, but major barriers to their conduct exist. The present paper presents some of these barriers. We performed systematic literature searches and internal European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) communications during face-to-face meetings and telephone conferences from 2013 to 2017 within the context of the ECRIN Integrating Activity (ECRIN-IA) project. The following barriers to randomised clinical trials were identified: inadequate knowledge of clinical research and trial methodology; lack of funding; excessive monitoring; restrictive privacy law and lack of transparency; complex regulatory requirements; and inadequate infrastructures. There is a need for more pragmatic randomised clinical trials conducted with low risks of systematic and random errors, and multinational cooperation is essential. The present paper presents major barriers to randomised clinical trials. It also underlines the value of using a pan-European-distributed infrastructure to help investigators overcome barriers for multi-country trials in any disease area.

Using virtual machine monitors to overcome the challenges of monitoring and managing virtualized cloud infrastructures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bamiah, Mervat Adib; Brohi, Sarfraz Nawaz; Chuprat, Suriayati

2012-01-01

Virtualization is one of the hottest research topics nowadays. Several academic researchers and developers from IT industry are designing approaches for solving security and manageability issues of Virtual Machines (VMs) residing on virtualized cloud infrastructures. Moving the application from a physical to a virtual platform increases the efficiency, flexibility and reduces management cost as well as effort. Cloud computing is adopting the paradigm of virtualization, using this technique, memory, CPU and computational power is provided to clients' VMs by utilizing the underlying physical hardware. Beside these advantages there are few challenges faced by adopting virtualization such as management of VMs and network traffic, unexpected additional cost and resource allocation. Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM) or hypervisor is the tool used by cloud providers to manage the VMs on cloud. There are several heterogeneous hypervisors provided by various vendors that include VMware, Hyper-V, Xen and Kernel Virtual Machine (KVM). Considering the challenge of VM management, this paper describes several techniques to monitor and manage virtualized cloud infrastructures.

Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics Eli-Np Project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gales, S.

2015-06-01

The development of high power lasers and the combination of such novel devices with accelerator technology has enlarged the science reach of many research fields, in particular High energy, Nuclear and Astrophysics as well as societal applications in Material Science, Nuclear Energy and Medicine. The European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) has selected a proposal based on these new premises called "ELI" for Extreme Light Infrastructure. ELI will be built as a network of three complementary pillars at the frontier of laser technologies. The ELI-NP pillar (NP for Nuclear Physics) is under construction near Bucharest (Romania) and will develop a scientific program using two 10 PW class lasers and a Back Compton Scattering High Brilliance and Intense Low Energy Gamma Beam , a marriage of Laser and Accelerator technology at the frontier of knowledge. In the present paper, the technical description of the facility, the present status of the project as well as the science, applications and future perspectives will be discussed.

Adapting Modeling & SImulation for Network Enabled Operations

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-01

vari- ety of new business and organizational models. The relatively rapid rise of online book stores and more recently eBooks came to many as a...articulating critical research issues ; • working to strengthen command and control research infrastructure; • sponsoring a series of workshops and...designed to acquaint senior military personnel and civilians with these emerging issues . The CCRP Publication Series is a key element of this effort

Robustness and Recovery of Lifeline Infrastructure and Ecosystem Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhatia, U.; Ganguly, A. R.

2015-12-01

Disruptive events, both natural and man-made, can have widespread impacts on both natural systems and lifeline infrastructure networks leading to the loss of biodiversity and essential functionality, respectively. Projected sea-level rise and climate change can further increase the frequency and severity of large-scale floods on urban-coastal megacities. Nevertheless, Failure in infrastructure systems can trigger cascading impacts on dependent ecosystems, and vice-versa. An important consideration in the behavior of the isolated networks and inter-connected networks following disruptive events is their resilience, or the ability of the network to "bounce back" to a pre-disaster state. Conventional risk analysis and subsequent risk management frameworks have focused on identifying the components' vulnerability and strengthening of the isolated components to withstand these disruptions. But high interconnectedness of these systems, and evolving nature of hazards, particularly in the context of climate extremes, make the component level analysis unrealistic. In this study, we discuss the complex network-based resilience framework to understand fragility and recovery strategies for infrastructure systems impacted by climate-related hazards. We extend the proposed framework to assess the response of ecological networks to multiple species loss and design the restoration management framework to identify the most efficient restoration sequence of species, which can potentially lead to disproportionate gains in biodiversity.

Applying a Space-Based Security Recovery Scheme for Critical Homeland Security Cyberinfrastructure Utilizing the NASA Tracking and Data Relay (TDRS) Based Space Network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaw, Harry C.; McLaughlin, Brian; Stocklin, Frank; Fortin, Andre; Israel, David; Dissanayake, Asoka; Gilliand, Denise; LaFontaine, Richard; Broomandan, Richard; Hyunh, Nancy

2015-01-01

Protection of the national infrastructure is a high priority for cybersecurity of the homeland. Critical infrastructure such as the national power grid, commercial financial networks, and communications networks have been successfully invaded and re-invaded from foreign and domestic attackers. The ability to re-establish authentication and confidentiality of the network participants via secure channels that have not been compromised would be an important countermeasure to compromise of our critical network infrastructure. This paper describes a concept of operations by which the NASA Tracking and Data Relay (TDRS) constellation of spacecraft in conjunction with the White Sands Complex (WSC) Ground Station host a security recovery system for re-establishing secure network communications in the event of a national or regional cyberattack. Users would perform security and network restoral functions via a Broadcast Satellite Service (BSS) from the TDRS constellation. The BSS enrollment only requires that each network location have a receive antenna and satellite receiver. This would be no more complex than setting up a DIRECTTV-like receiver at each network location with separate network connectivity. A GEO BSS would allow a mass re-enrollment of network nodes (up to nationwide) simultaneously depending upon downlink characteristics. This paper details the spectrum requirements, link budget, notional assets and communications requirements for the scheme. It describes the architecture of such a system and the manner in which it leverages off of the existing secure infrastructure which is already in place and managed by the NASAGSFC Space Network Project.

Research on public participant urban infrastructure safety monitoring system using smartphone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhao, Xuefeng; Wang, Niannian; Ou, Jinping; Yu, Yan; Li, Mingchu

2017-04-01

Currently more and more people concerned about the safety of major public security. Public participant urban infrastructure safety monitoring and investigation has become a trend in the era of big data. In this paper, public participant urban infrastructure safety protection system based on smart phones is proposed. The system makes it possible to public participant disaster data collection, monitoring and emergency evaluation in the field of disaster prevention and mitigation. Function of the system is to monitor the structural acceleration, angle and other vibration information, and extract structural deformation and implement disaster emergency communications based on smartphone without network. The monitoring data is uploaded to the website to create urban safety information database. Then the system supports big data analysis processing, the structure safety assessment and city safety early warning.

pSCANNER: patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research

PubMed Central

Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Agha, Zia; Bell, Douglas S; Dahm, Lisa; Day, Michele E; Doctor, Jason N; Gabriel, Davera; Kahlon, Maninder K; Kim, Katherine K; Hogarth, Michael; Matheny, Michael E; Meeker, Daniella; Nebeker, Jonathan R

2014-01-01

This article describes the patient-centered Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research (pSCANNER), which is part of the recently formed PCORnet, a national network composed of learning healthcare systems and patient-powered research networks funded by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). It is designed to be a stakeholder-governed federated network that uses a distributed architecture to integrate data from three existing networks covering over 21 million patients in all 50 states: (1) VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI), with data from Veteran Health Administration's 151 inpatient and 909 ambulatory care and community-based outpatient clinics; (2) the University of California Research exchange (UC-ReX) network, with data from UC Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego; and (3) SCANNER, a consortium of UCSD, Tennessee VA, and three federally qualified health systems in the Los Angeles area supplemented with claims and health information exchange data, led by the University of Southern California. Initial use cases will focus on three conditions: (1) congestive heart failure; (2) Kawasaki disease; (3) obesity. Stakeholders, such as patients, clinicians, and health service researchers, will be engaged to prioritize research questions to be answered through the network. We will use a privacy-preserving distributed computation model with synchronous and asynchronous modes. The distributed system will be based on a common data model that allows the construction and evaluation of distributed multivariate models for a variety of statistical analyses. PMID:24780722

Quantifying the benefits of urban forest systems as a component of the green infrastructure stormwater treatment network

Treesearch

Eric Kuehler; Jon Hathaway; Andrew Tirpak

2017-01-01

The use of green infrastructure for reducing stormwater runoff is increasingly common. One under‐studied component of the green infrastructure network is the urban forest system. Trees can play an important role as the “first line of defense” for restoring more natural hydrologic regimes in urban watersheds by intercepting rainfall, delaying runoff, infiltrating, and...

Compilation of climate data from heterogeneous networks across the Hawaiian Islands

Treesearch

Ryan J. Longman; Thomas W. Giambelluca; Michael A. Nullet; Abby G. Frazier; Kevin Kodama; Shelley D. Crausbay; Paul D. Krushelnycky; Susan Cordell; Martyn P. Clark; Andy J. Newman; Jeffrey R. Arnold

2018-01-01

Long-term, accurate observations of atmospheric phenomena are essential for a myriad of applications, including historic and future climate assessments, resource management, and infrastructure planning. In Hawai‘i, climate data are available from individual researchers, local, State, and Federal agencies, and from large electronic repositories such as the National...

Wireless Broadband Communications Systems in Rural Wisconsin. Rural Research Report. Volume 19, Issue 1, Spring 2008

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schlager, Kenneth J.

2008-01-01

This report describes a communications system engineering planning process that demonstrates an ability to design and deploy cost-effective broadband networks in low density rural areas. The emphasis in on innovative solutions and systems optimization because of the marginal nature of rural telecommunications infrastructure investments. Otherwise,…

Critical Success Factors for E-Learning and Institutional Change--Some Organisational Perspectives on Campus-Wide E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Su

2007-01-01

Computer technology has been harnessed for education in UK universities ever since the first computers for research were installed at 10 selected sites in 1957. Subsequently, real costs have fallen dramatically. Processing power has increased; network and communications infrastructure has proliferated, and information has become unimaginably…

The history of infrastructures and the future of cyberinfrastructure in the Earth system sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edwards, P. N.

2012-12-01

Infrastructures display similar historical patterns of inception, development, growth and decay. They typically begin as centralized systems which later proliferate into competing variants. Users' desire for seamless functionality tends eventually to push these variants toward interoperability, usually through "gateway" technologies that link incompatible systems into networks. Another stage is reached when these networks are linked to others, as in the cases of container transport (connecting trucking, rail, and shipping) or the Internet. End stages of infrastructure development include "splintering" (specialized service tiering) and decay, as newer infrastructures displace older ones. Temporal patterns are also visible in historical infrastructure development. This presentation, by a historian of science and technology, describes these patterns through examples of both physical and digital infrastructures, focusing on the global weather forecast infrastructure since the 19th century. It then investigates how some of these patterns might apply to the future of cyberinfrastructure for the Earth system sciences.

ARCUS Project Managers and the Intangible Infrastructure of Large Interdisciplinary Arctic Research Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Myers, B.; Wiggins, H. V.; Turner-Bogren, E. J.; Warburton, J.

2017-12-01

Project Managers at the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) lead initiatives to convene, communicate with, and connect the Arctic research community across challenging disciplinary, geographic, temporal, and cultural boundaries. They regularly serve as the organizing hubs, archivists and memory-keepers for collaborative projects comprised of many loosely affiliated partners. As leading organizers of large open science meetings and other outreach events, they also monitor the interdisciplinary landscape of community needs, concerns, opportunities, and emerging research directions. However, leveraging the ARCUS Project Manager role to strategically build out the intangible infrastructure necessary to advance Arctic research requires a unique set of knowledge, skills, and experience. Drawing on a range of lessons learned from past and ongoing experiences with collaborative science, education and outreach programming, this presentation will highlight a model of ARCUS project management that we believe works best to support and sustain our community in its long-term effort to conquer the complexities of Arctic research.

Landscape of the EU-US Research Infrastructures and actors: Moving towards international interoperability of earth system data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asmi, Ari; Powers, Lindsay

2015-04-01

Research Infrastructures (RIs) are major long-term investments supporting innovative, bottom-up research activities. In the environmental research, they range from high atmosphere radars, to field observation networks and coordinated laboratory facilities. The Earth system is highly interactive and each part of the system interconnected across the spatial and disciplinary borders. However, due practical and historical reasons, the RIs are built from disciplinary points-of-view and separately in different parts of the world, with differing standards, policies, methods and research cultures. This heterogeneity provides necessary diversity to study the complex Earth system, but makes cross-disciplinary and/or global interoperability a challenge. Global actions towards better interoperability are surfacing, especially with EU and US. For example, recent mandates within the US government prioritize open data for federal agencies and federally funded science, and encourage collaboration among agencies to reduce duplication of efforts and increase efficient use of resources. There are several existing initiatives working toward these goals (e.g., COOPEUS, EarthCube, RDA, ICSU-WDS, DataOne, ESIP, USGEO, GEO). However, there is no cohesive framework to coordinate efforts among these, and other, entities. COOPEUS and EarthCube have now begun to map the landscape of interoperability efforts across earth science domains. The COOPEUS mapping effort describes the EU and US landscape of environmental research infrastructures to accomplish the following: identify gaps in services (data provision) necessary to address societal priorities; provide guidance for development of future research infrastructures; and identify opportunities for Research Infrastructures (RIs) to collaborate on issues of common interest. EarthCube mapping effort identifies opportunities to engage a broader community by identifying scientific domain organizations and entities. We present the current situation of the landscape analysis to create a sustainable effort towards removing barriers to interoperability on a global scale.

The Navajo Learning Network and the NASA Life Sciences/AFOSR Infrastructure Development Project

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1999-01-01

The NSF-funded Navajo Learning Network project, with help from NASA Life Sciences and AFOSR, enabled Dine College to take a giant leap forward technologically - in a way that could never had been possible had these projects been managed separately. The combination of these and other efforts created a network of over 500 computers located at ten sites across the Navajo reservation. Additionally, the college was able to install a modern telephone system which shares network data, and purchase a new higher education management system. The NASA Life Sciences funds further allowed the college library system to go online and become available to the entire campus community. NSF, NASA and AFOSR are committed to improving minority access to higher education opportunities and promoting faculty development and undergraduate research through infrastructure support and development. This project has begun to address critical inequalities in access to science, mathematics, engineering and technology for Navajo students and educators. As a result, Navajo K-12 education has been bolstered and Dine College will therefore better prepare students to transfer successfully to four-year institutions. Due to the integration of the NSF and NASA/AFOSR components of the project, a unified project report is appropriate.

Human initiated cascading failures in societal infrastructures.

PubMed

Barrett, Chris; Channakeshava, Karthik; Huang, Fei; Kim, Junwhan; Marathe, Achla; Marathe, Madhav V; Pei, Guanhong; Saha, Sudip; Subbiah, Balaaji S P; Vullikanti, Anil Kumar S

2012-01-01

In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of human-initiated cascading failures in three critical inter-dependent societal infrastructures due to behavioral adaptations in response to a crisis. We focus on three closely coupled socio-technical networks here: (i) cellular and mesh networks, (ii) transportation networks and (iii) mobile call networks. In crises, changes in individual behaviors lead to altered travel, activity and calling patterns, which influence the transport network and the loads on wireless networks. The interaction between these systems and their co-evolution poses significant technical challenges for representing and reasoning about these systems. In contrast to system dynamics models for studying these interacting infrastructures, we develop interaction-based models in which individuals and infrastructure elements are represented in detail and are placed in a common geographic coordinate system. Using the detailed representation, we study the impact of a chemical plume that has been released in a densely populated urban region. Authorities order evacuation of the affected area, and this leads to individual behavioral adaptation wherein individuals drop their scheduled activities and drive to home or pre-specified evacuation shelters as appropriate. They also revise their calling behavior to communicate and coordinate among family members. These two behavioral adaptations cause flash-congestion in the urban transport network and the wireless network. The problem is exacerbated with a few, already occurring, road closures. We analyze how extended periods of unanticipated road congestion can result in failure of infrastructures, starting with the servicing base stations in the congested area. A sensitivity analysis on the compliance rate of evacuees shows non-intuitive effect on the spatial distribution of people and on the loading of the base stations. For example, an evacuation compliance rate of 70% results in higher number of overloaded base stations than the evacuation compliance rate of 90%.

Human Initiated Cascading Failures in Societal Infrastructures

PubMed Central

Barrett, Chris; Channakeshava, Karthik; Huang, Fei; Kim, Junwhan; Marathe, Achla; Marathe, Madhav V.; Pei, Guanhong; Saha, Sudip; Subbiah, Balaaji S. P.; Vullikanti, Anil Kumar S.

2012-01-01

In this paper, we conduct a systematic study of human-initiated cascading failures in three critical inter-dependent societal infrastructures due to behavioral adaptations in response to a crisis. We focus on three closely coupled socio-technical networks here: (i) cellular and mesh networks, (ii) transportation networks and (iii) mobile call networks. In crises, changes in individual behaviors lead to altered travel, activity and calling patterns, which influence the transport network and the loads on wireless networks. The interaction between these systems and their co-evolution poses significant technical challenges for representing and reasoning about these systems. In contrast to system dynamics models for studying these interacting infrastructures, we develop interaction-based models in which individuals and infrastructure elements are represented in detail and are placed in a common geographic coordinate system. Using the detailed representation, we study the impact of a chemical plume that has been released in a densely populated urban region. Authorities order evacuation of the affected area, and this leads to individual behavioral adaptation wherein individuals drop their scheduled activities and drive to home or pre-specified evacuation shelters as appropriate. They also revise their calling behavior to communicate and coordinate among family members. These two behavioral adaptations cause flash-congestion in the urban transport network and the wireless network. The problem is exacerbated with a few, already occurring, road closures. We analyze how extended periods of unanticipated road congestion can result in failure of infrastructures, starting with the servicing base stations in the congested area. A sensitivity analysis on the compliance rate of evacuees shows non-intuitive effect on the spatial distribution of people and on the loading of the base stations. For example, an evacuation compliance rate of 70% results in higher number of overloaded base stations than the evacuation compliance rate of 90%. PMID:23118847

Europlanet-RI IDIS - A Data Network in Support of Planetary Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schmidt, Walter; Capria, Maria Teresa; Chanteur, Gérard

2010-05-01

The "Europlanet Research Infrastructure - Europlanet RI", supported by the European Commission's Framework Program 7, aims at integrating major parts of the distributed European Planetary Research infrastructure with as diverse components as space exploration, ground-based observations, laboratory experiments and numerical modeling teams. A central part of Europlanet RI is the "Integrated and Distributed Information Service" (IDIS), a network of data and information access facilities in Europe via which information relevant for planetary research can be easily found and retrieved. This covers the wide range from contact addresses of possible research partners, laboratories and test facilities to the access of data collected with space missions or during laboratory or simulation tests and to model software useful for their interpretation. During the following three years the capabilities of the network will be extended to allow the combination of many different data sources for comperative studies including the results of modeling calculations and simulations of instrument observations. Together with the access to complex databases for spectra of atmospheric molecules and planetary surface material IDIS will offer a versatile working environment for making the scientific exploitation of the resources put into planetary research in the past and future more effective. Many of the mentioned capabilities are already available now. List of contact web-sites: Technical node for support and management aspects: http://www.idis.europlanet-ri.eu/ Planetary Surfaces and Interiors node: http://www.idis-interiors.europlanet-ri.eu/ Planetary Plasma node: http://www.idis-plasma.europlanet-ri.eu/ Planetary Atmospheres node: http://www.idis-atmos.europlanet-ri.eu/ Small Bodies and Dust node: http://www.idis-sbdn.europlanet-ri.eu/ Planetary Dynamics and Extraterrestrial Matter node: http://www.idis-dyn.europlanet-ri.eu/

An i2b2-based, generalizable, open source, self-scaling chronic disease registry

PubMed Central

Quan, Justin; Ortiz, David M; Bousvaros, Athos; Ilowite, Norman T; Inman, Christi J; Marsolo, Keith; McMurry, Andrew J; Sandborg, Christy I; Schanberg, Laura E; Wallace, Carol A; Warren, Robert W; Weber, Griffin M; Mandl, Kenneth D

2013-01-01

Objective Registries are a well-established mechanism for obtaining high quality, disease-specific data, but are often highly project-specific in their design, implementation, and policies for data use. In contrast to the conventional model of centralized data contribution, warehousing, and control, we design a self-scaling registry technology for collaborative data sharing, based upon the widely adopted Integrating Biology & the Bedside (i2b2) data warehousing framework and the Shared Health Research Information Network (SHRINE) peer-to-peer networking software. Materials and methods Focusing our design around creation of a scalable solution for collaboration within multi-site disease registries, we leverage the i2b2 and SHRINE open source software to create a modular, ontology-based, federated infrastructure that provides research investigators full ownership and access to their contributed data while supporting permissioned yet robust data sharing. We accomplish these objectives via web services supporting peer-group overlays, group-aware data aggregation, and administrative functions. Results The 56-site Childhood Arthritis & Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Registry and 3-site Harvard Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Longitudinal Data Repository now utilize i2b2 self-scaling registry technology (i2b2-SSR). This platform, extensible to federation of multiple projects within and between research networks, encompasses >6000 subjects at sites throughout the USA. Discussion We utilize the i2b2-SSR platform to minimize technical barriers to collaboration while enabling fine-grained control over data sharing. Conclusions The implementation of i2b2-SSR for the multi-site, multi-stakeholder CARRA Registry has established a digital infrastructure for community-driven research data sharing in pediatric rheumatology in the USA. We envision i2b2-SSR as a scalable, reusable solution facilitating interdisciplinary research across diseases. PMID:22733975

An i2b2-based, generalizable, open source, self-scaling chronic disease registry.

PubMed

Natter, Marc D; Quan, Justin; Ortiz, David M; Bousvaros, Athos; Ilowite, Norman T; Inman, Christi J; Marsolo, Keith; McMurry, Andrew J; Sandborg, Christy I; Schanberg, Laura E; Wallace, Carol A; Warren, Robert W; Weber, Griffin M; Mandl, Kenneth D

2013-01-01

Registries are a well-established mechanism for obtaining high quality, disease-specific data, but are often highly project-specific in their design, implementation, and policies for data use. In contrast to the conventional model of centralized data contribution, warehousing, and control, we design a self-scaling registry technology for collaborative data sharing, based upon the widely adopted Integrating Biology & the Bedside (i2b2) data warehousing framework and the Shared Health Research Information Network (SHRINE) peer-to-peer networking software. Focusing our design around creation of a scalable solution for collaboration within multi-site disease registries, we leverage the i2b2 and SHRINE open source software to create a modular, ontology-based, federated infrastructure that provides research investigators full ownership and access to their contributed data while supporting permissioned yet robust data sharing. We accomplish these objectives via web services supporting peer-group overlays, group-aware data aggregation, and administrative functions. The 56-site Childhood Arthritis & Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Registry and 3-site Harvard Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Longitudinal Data Repository now utilize i2b2 self-scaling registry technology (i2b2-SSR). This platform, extensible to federation of multiple projects within and between research networks, encompasses >6000 subjects at sites throughout the USA. We utilize the i2b2-SSR platform to minimize technical barriers to collaboration while enabling fine-grained control over data sharing. The implementation of i2b2-SSR for the multi-site, multi-stakeholder CARRA Registry has established a digital infrastructure for community-driven research data sharing in pediatric rheumatology in the USA. We envision i2b2-SSR as a scalable, reusable solution facilitating interdisciplinary research across diseases.

Linking International Development Actors to Geophysical Infrastructure: Exploring an IRIS Community Role in Bridging a Communications Gap

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lerner-Lam, A.; Aster, R.; Beck, S.; Ekstrom, G.; Fisher, K.; Meltzer, A.; Nyblade, A.; Sandvol, E.; Willemann, R.

2008-12-01

Over the past quarter century, national investments in high-fidelity digital seismograph networks have resulted in a global infrastructure for real-time in situ earthquake monitoring. Many network operators adhere to community-developed standards, with the result that there are few technical impediments to data sharing and real-time information exchange. Two unanswered questions, however, are whether the existing models of international collaboration will ensure the stability and sustainability of global earthquake monitoring, and whether the participating institutions can work with international development agencies and non- governmental organizations in meeting linked development and natural hazard risk reduction goals. Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, many of these actors are enlarging their commitments to natural hazard risk reduction and building national technical capacities, among broader programs in poverty alleviation and adaptation to environmental stress. Despite this renewed commitment, international development organizations, with notable exceptions, have been relatively passive in discussions of how the existing earthquake monitoring infrastructure could be leveraged to support risk-reduction programs and meet sustainable development goals. At the same time, the international seismological community - comprising universities and government seismological surveys - has built research and education initiatives such as EarthScope, AfricaArray, and similar programs in China, Europe and South America, that use innovative instrumentation technologies and deployment strategies to enable new science and applications, and promote education and training in critical sectors. Can these developments be combined? Recognizing this communication or knowledge gap, the IRIS International Working Group (IWG) explores the link between the activities of IRIS Members using IRIS facilities and the missions of international development agencies, such as US AID, the World Bank, other international development banks, and agencies of the United Nations. Interests of US seismologists are served by encouraging development of modern seismographic systems in countries around the world to collect data that are useful in research as well as hazard mitigation and other national interests. Activities of the IWG to date include communicating the benefits of geophysical infrastructure and training to disaster risk reduction programs within the United Nations and development banks, coordinating an initiative to leverage retired PASSCAL data loggers through long-term loans to network operators in foreign countries, preparing a white paper outlining IRIS capabilities relevant to international development, and conducting a workshop, "Out of Africa", on modernizing geophysical infrastructure in the Americas and Southeast Asia through projects that are closely tied to university education and academic research.

A simulation study of the impact of the public-private partnership strategy on the performance of transport infrastructure.

PubMed

Huang, Zhengfeng; Zheng, Pengjun; Ma, Yanqiang; Li, Xuan; Xu, Wenjun; Zhu, Wanlu

2016-01-01

The choice of investment strategy has a great impact on the performance of transport infrastructure. Positive projects such as the "Subway plus Property" model in Hong Kong have created sustainable financial profits for the public transport projects. Owing to a series of public debt and other constraints, public-private partnership (PPP) was introduced as an innovative investment model to address this issue and help develop transport infrastructure. Yet, few studies provide a deeper understanding of relationships between PPP strategy and the performance of such transport projects (particularly the whole transport system). This paper defines the research scope as a regional network of freeway. With a popular PPP model, travel demand prediction method, and relevant parameters as input, agents in a simulation framework can simulate the choice of PPP freeway over time. The simulation framework can be used to analyze the relationship between the PPP strategy and performance of the regional freeway network. This study uses the Freeway Network of Yangtze River Delta (FN-YRD) in China as the context. The results demonstrate the value of using simulation models of complex transportation systems to help decision makers choose the right PPP projects. Such a tool is viewed as particularly important given the ongoing transformation of functions of the Chinese transportation sector, including franchise rights of transport projects, and freeway charging mechanism.

Standardized cardiovascular data for clinical research, registries, and patient care: a report from the Data Standards Workgroup of the National Cardiovascular Research Infrastructure project.

PubMed

Anderson, H Vernon; Weintraub, William S; Radford, Martha J; Kremers, Mark S; Roe, Matthew T; Shaw, Richard E; Pinchotti, Dana M; Tcheng, James E

2013-05-07

Relatively little attention has been focused on standardization of data exchange in clinical research studies and patient care activities. Both are usually managed locally using separate and generally incompatible data systems at individual hospitals or clinics. In the past decade there have been nascent efforts to create data standards for clinical research and patient care data, and to some extent these are helpful in providing a degree of uniformity. Nonetheless, these data standards generally have not been converted into accepted computer-based language structures that could permit reliable data exchange across computer networks. The National Cardiovascular Research Infrastructure (NCRI) project was initiated with a major objective of creating a model framework for standard data exchange in all clinical research, clinical registry, and patient care environments, including all electronic health records. The goal is complete syntactic and semantic interoperability. A Data Standards Workgroup was established to create or identify and then harmonize clinical definitions for a base set of standardized cardiovascular data elements that could be used in this network infrastructure. Recognizing the need for continuity with prior efforts, the Workgroup examined existing data standards sources. A basic set of 353 elements was selected. The NCRI staff then collaborated with the 2 major technical standards organizations in health care, the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium and Health Level Seven International, as well as with staff from the National Cancer Institute Enterprise Vocabulary Services. Modeling and mapping were performed to represent (instantiate) the data elements in appropriate technical computer language structures for endorsement as an accepted data standard for public access and use. Fully implemented, these elements will facilitate clinical research, registry reporting, administrative reporting and regulatory compliance, and patient care. Copyright © 2013 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Oceans of Data : the Australian Ocean Data Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Proctor, R.; Blain, P.; Mancini, S.

2012-04-01

The Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS, www.imos.org.au) is a research infrastructure project to establish an enduring marine observing system for Australian oceanic waters and shelf seas (in total, 4% of the world's oceans). Marine data and information are the main products and data management is therefore a central element to the project's success. A single integrative framework for data and information management has been developed which allows discovery and access of the data by scientists, managers and the public, based on standards and interoperability. All data is freely available. This information infrastructure has been further developed to form the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN, www.aodn.org.au) which is rapidly becoming the 'one-stop-shop' for marine data in Australia. In response to requests from users, new features have recently been added to data discovery, visualization, and data access which move the AODN closer towards providing full integration of multi-disciplinary data.

Joint optimization of logistics infrastructure investments and subsidies in a regional logistics network with CO 2 emission reduction targets

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Dezhi; Zhan, Qingwen; Chen, Yuche

This study proposes an optimization model that simultaneously incorporates the selection of logistics infrastructure investments and subsidies for green transport modes to achieve specific CO 2 emission targets in a regional logistics network. The proposed model is formulated as a bi-level formulation, in which the upper level determines the optimal selection of logistics infrastructure investments and subsidies for green transport modes such that the benefit-cost ratio of the entire logistics system is maximized. The lower level describes the selected service routes of logistics users. A genetic and Frank-Wolfe hybrid algorithm is introduced to solve the proposed model. The proposed modelmore » is applied to the regional logistics network of Changsha City, China. Findings show that using the joint scheme of the selection of logistics infrastructure investments and green subsidies is more effective than using them solely. In conclusion, carbon emission reduction targets can significantly affect logistics infrastructure investments and subsidy levels.« less

Joint optimization of logistics infrastructure investments and subsidies in a regional logistics network with CO 2 emission reduction targets

DOE PAGES

Zhang, Dezhi; Zhan, Qingwen; Chen, Yuche; ...

2016-03-14

This study proposes an optimization model that simultaneously incorporates the selection of logistics infrastructure investments and subsidies for green transport modes to achieve specific CO 2 emission targets in a regional logistics network. The proposed model is formulated as a bi-level formulation, in which the upper level determines the optimal selection of logistics infrastructure investments and subsidies for green transport modes such that the benefit-cost ratio of the entire logistics system is maximized. The lower level describes the selected service routes of logistics users. A genetic and Frank-Wolfe hybrid algorithm is introduced to solve the proposed model. The proposed modelmore » is applied to the regional logistics network of Changsha City, China. Findings show that using the joint scheme of the selection of logistics infrastructure investments and green subsidies is more effective than using them solely. In conclusion, carbon emission reduction targets can significantly affect logistics infrastructure investments and subsidy levels.« less

Information Assurance in Wireless Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kabara, Joseph; Krishnamurthy, Prashant; Tipper, David

2001-09-01

Emerging wireless networks will contain a hybrid infrastructure based on fixed, mobile and ad hoc topologies and technologies. In such a dynamic architecture, we define information assurance as the provisions for both information security and information availability. The implications of this definition are that the wireless network architecture must (a) provide sufficient security measures, (b) be survivable under node or link attack or failure and (c) be designed such that sufficient capacity remains for all critical services (and preferably most other services) in the event of attack or component failure. We have begun a research project to investigate the provision of information assurance for wireless networks viz. survivability, security and availability and here discuss the issues and challenges therein.

A Comparison of Techniques for Optimal Infrastructure Restoration

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-01

to solve incremental network design problems. Álvarez et al. (2014) use a continuous MILP to solve the supply chain network infras- tructure problem...S. Long, T. Shoberg, S. Corns. 2014. A mathe- matical model for supply chain network infrastructure restoration. Y. Guan, H. Liao, eds., Proceedings...Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 A.5 Use Supply from a Particular Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 A.6 High Demand with High Building

Integration in primary community care networks (PCCNs): examination of governance, clinical, marketing, financial, and information infrastructures in a national demonstration project in Taiwan

PubMed Central

Lin, Blossom Yen-Ju

2007-01-01

Background Taiwan's primary community care network (PCCN) demonstration project, funded by the Bureau of National Health Insurance on March 2003, was established to discourage hospital shopping behavior of people and drive the traditional fragmented health care providers into cooperate care models. Between 2003 and 2005, 268 PCCNs were established. This study profiled the individual members in the PCCNs to study the nature and extent to which their network infrastructures have been integrated among the members (clinics and hospitals) within individual PCCNs. Methods The thorough questionnaire items, covering the network working infrastructures – governance, clinical, marketing, financial, and information integration in PCCNs, were developed with validity and reliability confirmed. One thousand five hundred and fifty-seven clinics that had belonged to PCCNs for more than one year, based on the 2003–2005 Taiwan Primary Community Care Network List, were surveyed by mail. Nine hundred and twenty-eight clinic members responded to the surveys giving a 59.6 % response rate. Results Overall, the PCCNs' members had higher involvement in the governance infrastructure, which was usually viewed as the most important for establishment of core values in PCCNs' organization design and management at the early integration stage. In addition, it found that there existed a higher extent of integration of clinical, marketing, and information infrastructures among the hospital-clinic member relationship than those among clinic members within individual PCCNs. The financial infrastructure was shown the least integrated relative to other functional infrastructures at the early stage of PCCN formation. Conclusion There was still room for better integrated partnerships, as evidenced by the great variety of relationships and differences in extent of integration in this study. In addition to provide how the network members have done for their initial work at the early stage of network forming in this study, the detailed surveyed items, the concepts proposed by the managerial and theoretical professionals, could be a guide for those health care providers who have willingness to turn their business into multi-organizations. PMID:17577422

Integration in primary community care networks (PCCNs): examination of governance, clinical, marketing, financial, and information infrastructures in a national demonstration project in Taiwan.

PubMed

Lin, Blossom Yen-Ju

2007-06-19

Taiwan's primary community care network (PCCN) demonstration project, funded by the Bureau of National Health Insurance on March 2003, was established to discourage hospital shopping behavior of people and drive the traditional fragmented health care providers into cooperate care models. Between 2003 and 2005, 268 PCCNs were established. This study profiled the individual members in the PCCNs to study the nature and extent to which their network infrastructures have been integrated among the members (clinics and hospitals) within individual PCCNs. The thorough questionnaire items, covering the network working infrastructures--governance, clinical, marketing, financial, and information integration in PCCNs, were developed with validity and reliability confirmed. One thousand five hundred and fifty-seven clinics that had belonged to PCCNs for more than one year, based on the 2003-2005 Taiwan Primary Community Care Network List, were surveyed by mail. Nine hundred and twenty-eight clinic members responded to the surveys giving a 59.6 % response rate. Overall, the PCCNs' members had higher involvement in the governance infrastructure, which was usually viewed as the most important for establishment of core values in PCCNs' organization design and management at the early integration stage. In addition, it found that there existed a higher extent of integration of clinical, marketing, and information infrastructures among the hospital-clinic member relationship than those among clinic members within individual PCCNs. The financial infrastructure was shown the least integrated relative to other functional infrastructures at the early stage of PCCN formation. There was still room for better integrated partnerships, as evidenced by the great variety of relationships and differences in extent of integration in this study. In addition to provide how the network members have done for their initial work at the early stage of network forming in this study, the detailed surveyed items, the concepts proposed by the managerial and theoretical professionals, could be a guide for those health care providers who have willingness to turn their business into multi-organizations.

University/Science Center Collaborations (A Science Center Perspective): Developing an Infrastructure of Partnerships with Science Centers to Support the Engagement of Scientists and Engineers in Education and Outreach for Broad Impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marshall, Eric

2009-03-01

Science centers, professional associations, corporations and university research centers share the same mission of education and outreach, yet come from ``different worlds.'' This gap may be bridged by working together to leverage unique strengths in partnership. Front-end evaluation results for the development of new resources to support these (mostly volunteer-based) partnerships elucidate the factors which lead to a successful relationship. Maintaining a science museum-scientific community partnership requires that all partners devote adequate resources (time, money, etc.). In general, scientists/engineers and science museum professionals often approach relationships with different assumptions and expectations. The culture of science centers is distinctly different from the culture of science. Scientists/engineers prefer to select how they will ultimately share their expertise from an array of choices. Successful partnerships stem from clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Scientists/engineers are somewhat resistant to the idea of traditional, formal training. Instead of developing new expertise, many prefer to offer their existing strengths and expertise. Maintaining a healthy relationship requires the routine recognition of the contributions of scientists/engineers. As professional societies, university research centers and corporations increasingly engage in education and outreach, a need for a supportive infrastructure becomes evident. Work of TryScience.org/VolTS (Volunteers TryScience), the MRS NISE Net (Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network) subcommittee, NRCEN (NSF Research Center Education Network), the IBM On Demand Community, and IEEE Educational Activities exemplify some of the pieces of this evolving infrastructure.

Fieldservers and Sensor Service Grid as Real-time Monitoring Infrastructure for Ubiquitous Sensor Networks

PubMed Central

Honda, Kiyoshi; Shrestha, Aadit; Witayangkurn, Apichon; Chinnachodteeranun, Rassarin; Shimamura, Hiroshi

2009-01-01

The fieldserver is an Internet based observation robot that can provide an outdoor solution for monitoring environmental parameters in real-time. The data from its sensors can be collected to a central server infrastructure and published on the Internet. The information from the sensor network will contribute to monitoring and modeling on various environmental issues in Asia, including agriculture, food, pollution, disaster, climate change etc. An initiative called Sensor Asia is developing an infrastructure called Sensor Service Grid (SSG), which integrates fieldservers and Web GIS to realize easy and low cost installation and operation of ubiquitous field sensor networks. PMID:22574018

Astronomy: On the Bleeding Edge of Scholarly Infrastructure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borgman, Christine; Sands, A.; Wynholds, L. A.

2013-01-01

The infrastructure for scholarship has moved online, making data, articles, papers, journals, catalogs, and other scholarly resources nodes in a deeply interconnected network. Astronomy has led the way on several fronts, developing tools such as ADS to provide unified access to astronomical publications and reaching agreement on a common data file formats such as FITS. Astronomy also was among the first fields to establish open access to substantial amounts of observational data. We report on the first three years of a long-term research project to study knowledge infrastructures in astronomy, funded by the NSF and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Early findings indicate that the availability and use of networked technologies for integrating scholarly resources varies widely within astronomy. Substantial differences arise in the management of data between ground-based and space-based missions and between subfields of astronomy, for example. While large databases such as SDSS and MAST are essential resources for many researchers, much pointed, ground-based observational data exist only on local servers, with minimal curation. Some astronomy data are easily discoverable and usable, but many are not. International coordination activities such as IVOA and distributed access to high-level data products servers such as SIMBAD and NED are enabling further integration of published data. Astronomers are tackling yet more challenges in new forms of publishing data, algorithms, visualizations, and in assuring interoperability with parallel infrastructure efforts in related fields. New issues include data citation, attribution, and provenance. Substantial concerns remain for the long term discoverability, accessibility, usability, and curation of astronomy data and other scholarly resources. The presentation will outline these challenges, how they are being addressed by astronomy and related fields, and identify concerns and accomplishments expressed by the astronomers we have interviewed and observed.

Green infrastructure development at European Union's eastern border: Effects of road infrastructure and forest habitat loss.

PubMed

Angelstam, Per; Khaulyak, Olha; Yamelynets, Taras; Mozgeris, Gintautas; Naumov, Vladimir; Chmielewski, Tadeusz J; Elbakidze, Marine; Manton, Michael; Prots, Bohdan; Valasiuk, Sviataslau

2017-05-15

The functionality of forest patches and networks as green infrastructure may be affected negatively both by expanding road networks and forestry intensification. We assessed the effects of (1) the current and planned road infrastructure, and (2) forest loss and gain, on the remaining large forest landscape massifs as green infrastructure at the EU's eastern border region in post-socialistic transition. First, habitat patch and network functionality in 1996-98 was assessed using habitat suitability index modelling. Second, we made expert interviews about road development with planners in 10 administrative regions in Poland, Belarus and Ukraine. Third, forest loss and gain inside the forest massifs, and gain outside them during the period 2001-14 were measured. This EU cross-border region hosts four remaining forest massifs as regional green infrastructure hotspots. While Poland's road network is developing fast in terms of new freeways, city bypasses and upgrades of road quality, in Belarus and Ukraine the focus is on maintenance of existing roads, and no new corridors. We conclude that economic support from the EU, and thus rapid development of roads in Poland, is likely to reduce the permeability for wildlife of the urban and agricultural matrix around existing forest massifs. However, the four identified forest massifs themselves, forming the forest landscape green infrastructure at the EU's east border, were little affected by road development plans. In contrast, forest loss inside massifs was high, especially in Ukraine. Only in Poland forest loss was balanced by gain. Forest gain outside forest massifs was low. To conclude, pro-active and collaborative spatial planning across different sectors and countries is needed to secure functional forest green infrastructure as base for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Invisible transportation infrastructure technology to mitigate energy and environment.

PubMed

Hossain, Md Faruque

2017-01-01

Traditional transportation infrastructure built by heat trapping products and the transportation vehiles run by fossil fuel, both causing deadly climate change. Thus, a new technology of invisible Flying Transportation system has been proposed to mitigate energy and environmental crisis caused by traditional infrastructure system. Underground Maglev system has been modeled to be constructed for all transportation systems to run the vehicle smoothly just over two feet over the earth surface by propulsive and impulsive force at flying stage. A wind energy modeling has also been added to meet the vehicle's energy demand when it runs on a non-maglev area. Naturally, all maglev infrastructures network to be covered by evergreen herb except pedestrian walkways to absorb CO 2 , ambient heat, and moisture (vapor) from the surrounding environment to make it cool. The research revealed that the vehicle will not require any energy since it will run by superconducting electromagnetic force while it runs on a maglev infrastructure area and directed by wind energy while it runs on non-maglev area. The proposed maglev transportation infrastructure technology will indeed be an innovative discovery in modern engineering science which will reduce fossil fuel energy consumption and climate change dramatically.

National research and education network

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Villasenor, Tony

1991-01-01

Some goals of this network are as follows: Extend U.S. technological leadership in high performance computing and computer communications; Provide wide dissemination and application of the technologies both to the speed and the pace of innovation and to serve the national economy, national security, education, and the global environment; and Spur gains in the U.S. productivity and industrial competitiveness by making high performance computing and networking technologies an integral part of the design and production process. Strategies for achieving these goals are as follows: Support solutions to important scientific and technical challenges through a vigorous R and D effort; Reduce the uncertainties to industry for R and D and use of this technology through increased cooperation between government, industry, and universities and by the continued use of government and government funded facilities as a prototype user for early commercial HPCC products; and Support underlying research, network, and computational infrastructures on which U.S. high performance computing technology is based.

Framework and implementation of a continuous network-wide health monitoring system for roadways

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Ming; Birken, Ralf; Shahini Shamsabadi, Salar

2014-03-01

According to the 2013 ASCE report card America's infrastructure scores only a D+. There are more than four million miles of roads (grade D) in the U.S. requiring a broad range of maintenance activities. The nation faces a monumental problem of infrastructure management in the scheduling and implementation of maintenance and repair operations, and in the prioritization of expenditures within budgetary constraints. The efficient and effective performance of these operations however is crucial to ensuring roadway safety, preventing catastrophic failures, and promoting economic growth. There is a critical need for technology that can cost-effectively monitor the condition of a network-wide road system and provide accurate, up-to-date information for maintenance activity prioritization. The Versatile Onboard Traffic Embedded Roaming Sensors (VOTERS) project provides a framework and the sensing capability to complement periodical localized inspections to continuous network-wide health monitoring. Research focused on the development of a cost-effective, lightweight package of multi-modal sensor systems compatible with this framework. An innovative software infrastructure is created that collects, processes, and evaluates these large time-lapse multi-modal data streams. A GIS-based control center manages multiple inspection vehicles and the data for further analysis, visualization, and decision making. VOTERS' technology can monitor road conditions at both the surface and sub-surface levels while the vehicle is navigating through daily traffic going about its normal business, thereby allowing for network-wide frequent assessment of roadways. This deterioration process monitoring at unprecedented time and spatial scales provides unique experimental data that can be used to improve life-cycle cost analysis models.

Crosstalk-aware virtual network embedding over inter-datacenter optical networks with few-mode fibers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Haibin; Guo, Bingli; Li, Xin; Yin, Shan; Zhou, Yu; Huang, Shanguo

2017-12-01

Virtualization of datacenter (DC) infrastructures enables infrastructure providers (InPs) to provide novel services like virtual networks (VNs). Furthermore, optical networks have been employed to connect the metro-scale geographically distributed DCs. The synergistic virtualization of the DC infrastructures and optical networks enables the efficient VN service over inter-DC optical networks (inter-DCONs). While the capacity of the used standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) is limited by their nonlinear characteristics. Thus, mode-division multiplexing (MDM) technology based on few-mode fibers (FMFs) could be employed to increase the capacity of optical networks. Whereas, modal crosstalk (XT) introduced by optical fibers and components deployed in the MDM optical networks impacts the performance of VN embedding (VNE) over inter-DCONs with FMFs. In this paper, we propose a XT-aware VNE mechanism over inter-DCONs with FMFs. The impact of XT is considered throughout the VNE procedures. The simulation results show that the proposed XT-aware VNE can achieves better performances of blocking probability and spectrum utilization compared to conventional VNE mechanisms.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Eltoweissy, Mohamed Y.; Du, David H.C.; Gerla, Mario

Mission-Critical Networking (MCN) refers to networking for application domains where life or livelihood may be at risk. Typical application domains for MCN include critical infrastructure protection and operation, emergency and crisis intervention, healthcare services, and military operations. Such networking is essential for safety, security and economic vitality in our complex world characterized by uncertainty, heterogeneity, emergent behaviors, and the need for reliable and timely response. MCN comprise networking technology, infrastructures and services that may alleviate the risk and directly enable and enhance connectivity for mission-critical information exchange among diverse, widely dispersed, mobile users.

Wireless intelligent network: infrastructure before services?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chu, Narisa N.

1996-01-01

The Wireless Intelligent Network (WIN) intends to take advantage of the Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) concepts and products developed from wireline communications. However, progress of the AIN deployment has been slow due to the many barriers that exist in the traditional wireline carriers' deployment procedures and infrastructure. The success of AIN has not been truly demonstrated. The AIN objectives and directions are applicable to the wireless industry although the plans and implementations could be significantly different. This paper points out WIN characteristics in architecture, flexibility, deployment, and value to customers. In order to succeed, the technology driven AIN concept has to be reinforced by the market driven WIN services. An infrastructure suitable for the WIN will contain elements that are foreign to the wireline network. The deployment process is expected to seed with the revenue generated services. Standardization will be achieved by simplifying and incorporating the IS-41C, AIN, and Intelligent Network CS-1 recommendations. Integration of the existing and future systems impose the biggest challenge of all. Service creation has to be complemented with service deployment process which heavily impact the carriers' infrastructure. WIN deployment will likely start from an Intelligent Peripheral, a Service Control Point and migrate to a Service Node when sufficient triggers are implemented in the mobile switch for distributed call control. The struggle to move forward will not be based on technology, but rather on the impact to existing infrastructure.

Collaborative-Large scale Engineering Assessment Networks for Environmental Research: The Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moo-Young, H.

2004-05-01

A networked infrastructure for engineering solutions and policy alternatives is necessary to assess, manage, and protect complex, anthropogenic ally stressed environmental resources effectively. Reductionist and discrete disciplinary methodologies are no longer adequate to evaluate and model complex environmental systems and anthropogenic stresses. While the reductonist approach provides important information regarding individual mechanisms, it cannot provide complete information about how multiple processes are related. Therefore, it is not possible to make accurate predictions about system responses to engineering interventions and the effectiveness of policy options. For example, experts cannot agree on best management strategies for contaminated sediments in riverine and estuarine systems. This is due, in part to the fact that existing models do not accurately capture integrated system dynamics. In addition, infrastructure is not available for investigators to exchange and archive data, to collaborate on new investigative methods, and to synthesize these results to develop engineering solutions and policy alternatives. Our vision for the future is to create a network comprising field facilities and a collaboration of engineers, scientists, policy makers, and community groups. This will allow integration across disciplines, across different temporal and spatial scales, surface and subsurface geographies, and air sheds and watersheds. Benefits include fast response to changes in system health, real-time decision making, and continuous data collection that can be used to anticipate future problems, and to develop sound engineering solutions and management decisions. CLEANER encompasses four general aspects: 1) A Network of environmental field facilities instrumented for the acquisition and analysis of environmental data; 2) A Virtual Repository of Data and information technology for engineering modeling, analysis and visualization of data, i.e. an environmental cyber-infrastructure; 3) A Mechanism for multidisciplinary research and education activities designed to exploit the output of the instrumented sites and networked information technology, to formulate engineering and policy options directed toward the protection, remediation, and restoration of stressed environments and sustainability of environmental resources; and 4) A Collaboration among engineers, natural and social scientists, educators, policy makers, industry, non-governmental organizations, the public, and other stakeholders.

Accelerator science and technology in Europe: EuCARD 2012

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Romaniuk, Ryszard S.

2012-05-01

Accelerator science and technology is one of a key enablers of the developments in the particle physic, photon physics and also applications in medicine and industry. The paper presents a digest of the research results in the domain of accelerator science and technology in Europe, shown during the third annual meeting of the EuCARD - European Coordination of Accelerator Research and Development. The conference concerns building of the research infrastructure, including in this advanced photonic and electronic systems for servicing large high energy physics experiments. There are debated a few basic groups of such systems like: measurement - control networks of large geometrical extent, multichannel systems for large amounts of metrological data acquisition, precision photonic networks of reference time, frequency and phase distribution.

Emerging Fabric of Science: Persistent Identifiers and Knowledge Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hugo, W.

2017-12-01

There is an increasing emphasis on the use of persistent identifiers in the description of scientific activity, whether this is done to cite scholarly publications and research output, reliably identify role players such as funders and researchers, or to provide long-lasting references to controlled vocabulary. The ICSU World Data System has been promoting the establishment of a "Knowledge Network" to describe research activity, realising that parts of the network will be established as a federated `system', based on linkages between registries of persistent identifiers. In addition, there is a growing focus on not only the relationship between these major role players and associated digital objects, but also on the processes of science: provenance, reproducibility, and re-usability being significant topics of discussion. The paper will focus on description of the `Fabric of Science' from the perspectives of both structure and processes, review the state of implementation of real services and infrastructure in support of it. A case is made for inclusion of persistent identifiers into the mainstream activities of scientists and data infrastructure managers, and for the development of services, such as Scholix, to make better use of the relationships between digital objects and major role players. A proposal is made for the adoption of a federated system of services that are based on a hybrid graph-object framework similar to Scholix for recording the activity of scientific research. Finally, links to related ideas are explored: novel ways of representing of knowledge (such as Nanopublications) and the possibility that the publication paradigm currently in use may have to be amended.

Optical network democratization.

PubMed

Nejabati, Reza; Peng, Shuping; Simeonidou, Dimitra

2016-03-06

The current Internet infrastructure is not able to support independent evolution and innovation at physical and network layer functionalities, protocols and services, while at same time supporting the increasing bandwidth demands of evolving and heterogeneous applications. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a completely democratized optical network infrastructure. It introduces the novel concepts of the optical white box and bare metal optical switch as key technology enablers for democratizing optical networks. These are programmable optical switches whose hardware is loosely connected internally and is completely separated from their control software. To alleviate their complexity, a multi-dimensional abstraction mechanism using software-defined network technology is proposed. It creates a universal model of the proposed switches without exposing their technological details. It also enables a conventional network programmer to develop network applications for control of the optical network without specific technical knowledge of the physical layer. Furthermore, a novel optical network virtualization mechanism is proposed, enabling the composition and operation of multiple coexisting and application-specific virtual optical networks sharing the same physical infrastructure. Finally, the optical white box and the abstraction mechanism are experimentally evaluated, while the virtualization mechanism is evaluated with simulation. © 2016 The Author(s).

Insights and Challenges to Integrating Data from Diverse Ecological Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Peters, D. P. C.

2014-12-01

Many of the most dramatic and surprising effects of global change occur across large spatial extents, from regions to continents, that impact multiple ecosystem types across a range of interacting spatial and temporal scales. The ability of ecologists and inter-disciplinary scientists to understand and predict these dynamics depend, in large part, on existing site-based research infrastructures that developed in response to historic events. Integrating these diverse sources of data is critical to addressing these broad-scale questions. A conceptual approach is presented to synthesize and integrate diverse sources and types of data from different networks of research sites. This approach focuses on developing derived data products through spatial and temporal aggregation that allow datasets collected with different methods to be compared. The approach is illustrated through the integration, analysis, and comparison of hundreds of long-term datasets from 50 ecological sites in the US that represent ecosystem types commonly found globally. New insights were found by comparing multiple sites using common derived data. In addition to "bringing to light" many dark data in a standardized, open access, easy-to-use format, a suite of lessons were learned that can be applied to up and coming research networks in the US and internationally. These lessons will be described along with the challenges, including cyber-infrastructure, cultural, and behavioral constraints associated with the use of big and little data, that may keep ecologists and inter-disciplinary scientists from taking full advantage of the vast amounts of existing and yet-to-be exposed data.

Quantifying the conservation gains from shared access to linear infrastructure.

PubMed

Runge, Claire A; Tulloch, Ayesha I T; Gordon, Ascelin; Rhodes, Jonathan R

2017-12-01

The proliferation of linear infrastructure such as roads and railways is a major global driver of cumulative biodiversity loss. One strategy for reducing habitat loss associated with development is to encourage linear infrastructure providers and users to share infrastructure networks. We quantified the reductions in biodiversity impact and capital costs under linear infrastructure sharing of a range of potential mine to port transportation links for 47 mine locations operated by 28 separate companies in the Upper Spencer Gulf Region of South Australia. We mapped transport links based on least-cost pathways for different levels of linear-infrastructure sharing and used expert-elicited impacts of linear infrastructure to estimate the consequences for biodiversity. Capital costs were calculated based on estimates of construction costs, compensation payments, and transaction costs. We evaluated proposed mine-port links by comparing biodiversity impacts and capital costs across 3 scenarios: an independent scenario, where no infrastructure is shared; a restricted-access scenario, where the largest mining companies share infrastructure but exclude smaller mining companies from sharing; and a shared scenario where all mining companies share linear infrastructure. Fully shared development of linear infrastructure reduced overall biodiversity impacts by 76% and reduced capital costs by 64% compared with the independent scenario. However, there was considerable variation among companies. Our restricted-access scenario showed only modest biodiversity benefits relative to the independent scenario, indicating that reductions are likely to be limited if the dominant mining companies restrict access to infrastructure, which often occurs without policies that promote sharing of infrastructure. Our research helps illuminate the circumstances under which infrastructure sharing can minimize the biodiversity impacts of development. © 2017 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.

KM3NeT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jong, M. de; Leiden Institute of Physics, Leiden University, Leiden; Collaboration: KM3NeT Collaboration

2015-07-15

KM3NeT is a large research infrastructure, that will consist of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. The main objective of KM3NeT is the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe. A further physics perspective is the measurement of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. A corresponding study, ORCA, is ongoing within KM3NeT. A cost effective technology for (very) large water Cherenkov detectors has been developed based on a new generation of low price 3-inch photo-multiplier tubes. Following the successful deployment and operation of two prototypes, the construction of the KM3NeT research infrastructure hasmore » started. The prospects of the different phases of the implementation of KM3NeT are summarised.« less

KM3NeT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Jong, M.

2015-07-01

KM3NeT is a large research infrastructure, that will consist of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. The main objective of KM3NeT is the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe. A further physics perspective is the measurement of the mass hierarchy of neutrinos. A corresponding study, ORCA, is ongoing within KM3NeT. A cost effective technology for (very) large water Cherenkov detectors has been developed based on a new generation of low price 3-inch photo-multiplier tubes. Following the successful deployment and operation of two prototypes, the construction of the KM3NeT research infrastructure has started. The prospects of the different phases of the implementation of KM3NeT are summarised.

Clinical Trials Network / Building Infrastructure to Accelerate Transfer of Basic Research in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) to Clinical Practice

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-05-01

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and of associated injuries with the Abbreviated Injury Scale . The American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale (AIS) is...registry protocol includes: the AIS Impairment Scale , and where appropriate, the Functional Independence Measure FIM™, the Spinal Cord Independence...have been achieved with the registry. Enrollment of 762 participants has demonstrated that is feasible to acquire prospective standardized research

Infrastructure, Components and System Level Testing and Analysis of Electric Vehicles: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-09-353

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Neubauer, J.

2013-05-01

Battery technology is critical for the development of innovative electric vehicle networks, which can enhance transportation sustainability and reduce dependence on petroleum. This cooperative research proposed by Better Place and NREL will focus on predicting the life-cycle economics of batteries, characterizing battery technologies under various operating and usage conditions, and designing optimal usage profiles for battery recharging and use.

Research note: Mapping spatial patterns in sewer age, material, and proximity to surface waterways to infer sewer leakage hotspots

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hopkins, Kristina G.; Bain, Daniel J.

2018-01-01

Identifying areas where deteriorating sewer infrastructure is in close proximity to surface waterways is needed to map likely connections between sewers and streams. We present a method to estimate sewer installation year and deterioration status using historical maps of the sewer network, parcel-scale property assessment data, and pipe material. Areas where streams were likely buried into the sewer system were mapped by intersecting the historical stream network derived from a 10-m resolution digital elevation model with sewer pipe locations. Potential sewer leakage hotspots were mapped by identifying where aging sewer pipes are in close proximity (50-m) to surface waterways. Results from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA), indicated 41% of the historical stream length was lost or buried and the potential interface between sewers and streams is great. The co-location of aging sewer infrastructure (>75 years old) near stream channels suggests that 42% of existing streams are located in areas with a high potential for sewer leakage if sewer infrastructure fails. Mapping the sewer-stream interface provides an approach to better understand areas were failing sewers may contribute a disproportional amount of nutrients and other pathogens to surface waterways.

Nevada Infrastructure for Climate Change Science, Education, and Outreach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dana, G. L.; Piechota, T. C.; Lancaster, N.; Mensing, S. A.

2009-12-01

The Nevada system of Higher Education, including the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Nevada, Reno, the Desert Research Institute, and Nevada State College have begun a five year research and infrastructure building program, funded by the National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (NSF EPSCoR) with the vision “to create a statewide interdisciplinary program and virtual climate change center that will stimulate transformative research, education, and outreach on the effects of regional climate change on ecosystem resources (especially water) and support use of this knowledge by policy makers and stakeholders.” Six major strategies are proposed: 1) Develop a capability to model climate change and its effects at a regional and sub-regional scales to evaluate different future scenarios and strategies (Climate Modeling Component) 2) Develop data collection, modeling, and visualization infrastructure to determine and analyze effects on ecosystems and disturbance regimes (Ecological Change Component) 3) Develop data collection, modeling, and visualization infrastructure to better quantify and model changes in water balance and resources under climate change (Water Resources Component) 4) Develop data collection and modeling infrastructure to assess effects on human systems, responses to institutional and societal aspects, and enhance policy making and outreach to communities and stakeholders (Policy, Decision-Making, and Outreach Component) 5) Develop a data portal and software to support interdisciplinary research via integration of data from observational networks and modeling (Cyberinfrastructure Component) and 6) Develop educational infrastructure to train students at all levels and provide public outreach in climate change issues (Education Component). As part of the new infrastructure, two observational transects will be established across Great Basin Ranges, one in southern Nevada in the Spring Mountains, and the second to be located in the Snake Range of eastern Nevada which will reach bristlecone pine stands. Climatic, hydrologic and ecological data from these transects will be downloaded into high capacity data storage units and made available to researchers through creation of the Nevada climate change portal. Our research will aim to answer two interdisciplinary science questions: 1) How will climate change affect water resources and linked ecosystem resources and human systems? And 2) How will climate change affect disturbance regimes (e.g., wildland fires, invasive species, insect outbreaks, droughts) and linked systems?

Low-Cost, Robust, Threat-aware Wireless Sensor Network for Assuring the Nation's Energy Infrastructure

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Carlos H. Rentel

2007-03-31

The objective of this project was to create a low-cost, robust anticipatory wireless sensor network (A-WSN) to ensure the security and reliability of the United States energy infrastructure. This document highlights Eaton Corporation's plan to bring these technologies to market.

ENT audit and research in the era of trainee collaboratives.

PubMed

Smith, Matthew E; Hardman, John; Ellis, Matthew; Williams, Richard J

2018-05-26

Large surgical audits and research projects are complex and costly to deliver, but increasingly surgical trainees are delivering these projects within formal collaboratives and research networks. Surgical trainee collaboratives are now recognised as a valuable part of the research infrastructure, with many perceived benefits for both the trainees and the wider surgical speciality. In this article, we describe the activity of ENT trainee research collaboratives within the UK, and summarise how INTEGRATE, the UK National ENT Trainee Research Network, successfully delivered a national audit of epistaxis management. The prospective audit collected high-quality data from 1826 individuals, representing 94% of all cases that met the inclusion criteria at the 113 participating sites over the 30-day audit period. It is hoped that the audit has provided a template for subsequent high-quality and cost-effective national studies, and we discuss the future possibilities for ENT trainee research collaboratives.

The UK clinical research network--has it been a success for dermatology clinical trials?

PubMed

Thomas, Kim S; Koller, Karin; Foster, Katharine; Perdue, Jo; Charlesworth, Lisa; Chalmers, Joanne R

2011-06-16

Following the successful introduction of five topic-specific research networks in the UK, the Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) was established in 2008 in order to provide a blanket level of support across the whole country regardless of the clinical discipline. The role of the CLRN was to facilitate recruitment into clinical trials, and to encourage greater engagement in research throughout the National Health Service (NHS). This report evaluates the impact of clinical research networks in supporting clinical trials in the UK, with particular reference to our experiences from two non-commercial dermatology trials. It covers our experience of engaging with the CLRN (and other research networks) using two non-commercial dermatology trials as case studies. We present the circumstances that led to our approach to the research networks for support, and the impact that this support had on the delivery of these trials. In both cases, recruitment was boosted considerably following the provision of additional support, although other factors such as the availability of experienced personnel, and the role of advertising and media coverage in promoting the trials were also important in translating this additional resource into increased recruitment. Recruitment into clinical trials is a complex task that can be influenced by many factors. A world-class clinical research infrastructure is now in place in England (with similar support available in Scotland and Wales), and it is the responsibility of the research community to ensure that this unique resource is used effectively and responsibly.

From multifunctionality to multiple ecosystem services? A conceptual framework for multifunctionality in green infrastructure planning for urban areas.

PubMed

Hansen, Rieke; Pauleit, Stephan

2014-05-01

Green infrastructure (GI) and ecosystem services (ES) are promoted as concepts that have potential to improve environmental planning in urban areas based on a more holistic understanding of the complex interrelations and dynamics of social-ecological systems. However, the scientific discourses around both concepts still lack application-oriented frameworks that consider such a holistic perspective and are suitable to mainstream GI and ES in planning practice. This literature review explores how multifunctionality as one important principle of GI planning can be operationalized by approaches developed and tested in ES research. Specifically, approaches developed in ES research can help to assess the integrity of GI networks, balance ES supply and demand, and consider trade-offs. A conceptual framework for the assessment of multifunctionality from a social-ecological perspective is proposed that can inform the design of planning processes and support stronger exchange between GI and ES research.

Advances Made in the Next Generation of Satellite Networks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bhasin, Kul B.

1999-01-01

Because of the unique networking characteristics of communications satellites, global satellite networks are moving to the forefront in enhancing national and global information infrastructures. Simultaneously, broadband data services, which are emerging as the major market driver for future satellite and terrestrial networks, are being widely acknowledged as the foundation for an efficient global information infrastructure. In the past 2 years, various task forces and working groups around the globe have identified pivotal topics and key issues to address if we are to realize such networks in a timely fashion. In response, industry, government, and academia undertook efforts to address these topics and issues. A workshop was organized to provide a forum to assess the current state-of-the-art, identify key issues, and highlight the emerging trends in the next-generation architectures, data protocol development, communication interoperability, and applications. The Satellite Networks: Architectures, Applications, and Technologies Workshop was hosted by the Space Communication Program at the NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Nearly 300 executives and technical experts from academia, industry, and government, representing the United States and eight other countries, attended the event (June 2 to 4, 1998). The program included seven panels and invited sessions and nine breakout sessions in which 42 speakers presented on technical topics. The proceedings covers a wide range of topics: access technology and protocols, architectures and network simulations, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) over satellite networks, Internet over satellite networks, interoperability experiments and applications, multicasting, NASA interoperability experiment programs, NASA mission applications, and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) over satellite: issues, relevance, and experience.

Network-Friendly Gossiping

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Serbu, Sabina; Rivière, Étienne; Felber, Pascal

The emergence of large-scale distributed applications based on many-to-many communication models, e.g., broadcast and decentralized group communication, has an important impact on the underlying layers, notably the Internet routing infrastructure. To make an effective use of network resources, protocols should both limit the stress (amount of messages) on each infrastructure entity like routers and links, and balance as much as possible the load in the network. Most protocols use application-level metrics such as delays to improve efficiency of content dissemination or routing, but the extend to which such application-centric optimizations help reduce and balance the load imposed to the infrastructure is unclear. In this paper, we elaborate on the design of such network-friendly protocols and associated metrics. More specifically, we investigate random-based gossip dissemination. We propose and evaluate different ways of making this representative protocol network-friendly while keeping its desirable properties (robustness and low delays). Simulations of the proposed methods using synthetic and real network topologies convey and compare their abilities to reduce and balance the load while keeping good performance.

Unmanned Aerial Systems, Moored Balloons, and the U.S. Department of Energy ARM Facilities in Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivey, Mark; Verlinde, Johannes

2014-05-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), through its scientific user facility, the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility, provides scientific infrastructure and data to the international Arctic research community via its research sites located on the North Slope of Alaska. Facilities and infrastructure to support operations of unmanned aerial systems for science missions in the Arctic and North Slope of Alaska were established at Oliktok Point Alaska in 2013. Tethered instrumented balloons will be used in the near future to make measurements of clouds in the boundary layer including mixed-phase clouds. The DOE ARM Program has operated an atmospheric measurement facility in Barrow, Alaska, since 1998. Major upgrades to this facility, including scanning radars, were added in 2010. Arctic Observing Networks are essential to meet growing policy, social, commercial, and scientific needs. Calibrated, high-quality arctic geophysical datasets that span ten years or longer are especially important for climate studies, climate model initializations and validations, and for related climate policy activities. For example, atmospheric data and derived atmospheric forcing estimates are critical for sea-ice simulations. International requirements for well-coordinated, long-term, and sustained Arctic Observing Networks and easily-accessible data sets collected by those networks have been recognized by many high-level workshops and reports (Arctic Council Meetings and workshops, National Research Council reports, NSF workshops and others). The recent Sustaining Arctic Observation Network (SAON) initiative sponsored a series of workshops to "develop a set of recommendations on how to achieve long-term Arctic-wide observing activities that provide free, open, and timely access to high-quality data that will realize pan-Arctic and global value-added services and provide societal benefits." This poster will present information on opportunities for members of the arctic research community to make atmospheric measurements using unmanned aerial systems or tethered balloons.

A National Climate Change Adaptation Network for Protecting Water Security

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Weaver, A.; Sauchyn, D.; Byrne, J. M.

2009-12-01

Water security and resource-dependent community-survival are being increasingly challenged as a consequence of climate change, and it is urgent that we plan now for the security of our water supplies which support our lives and livelihoods. However, the range of impacts of climate change on water availability, and the consequent environmental and human adaptations that are required, is so complex and serious that it will take the combined work of natural, health and social scientists working with industries and communities to solve them. Networks are needed that will identify crucial water issues under climate change at a range of scales in order to provide regionally-sensitive, solutions-oriented research and adaptation. We suggest national and supra-national water availability and community sustainability issues must be addressed by multidisciplinary research and adaptation networks. The work must be driven by a bottom-up research paradigm — science in the service of community and governance. We suggest that interdisciplinary teams of researchers, in partnership with community decision makers and local industries, are the best means to develop solutions as communities attempt to address future water demands, protect their homes from infrastructure damage, and meet their food, drinking water, and other essential resource requirements. The intention is to cover: the impact of climate change on Canadian natural resources, both marine and terrestrial; issues of long-term sustainability and resilience in human communities and the environments in which they are embedded; the making and moving of knowledge, be that between members of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, researchers of different disciplines, communities, industry, policymakers and the academy and the crucial involvement of the various orders of government in the response to water problems, under conditions of heightened uncertainty. Such an adaptation network must include a national communications strategy that will ensure widespread visibility of the network’s activities and findings and general public awareness-raising regarding water challenges and opportunities, including accessible web infrastructure and printed materials and communication with key organizations.

European environmental research infrastructures are going for common 30 years strategy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Asmi, Ari; Konjin, Jacco; Pursula, Antti

2014-05-01

Environmental Research infrastructures are facilities, resources, systems and related services that are used by research communities to conduct top-level research. Environmental research is addressing processes at very different time scales, and supporting research infrastructures must be designed as long-term facilities in order to meet the requirements of continuous environmental observation, measurement and analysis. This longevity makes the environmental research infrastructures ideal structures to support the long-term development in environmental sciences. ENVRI project is a collaborative action of the major European (ESFRI) Environmental Research Infrastructures working towards increased co-operation and interoperability between the infrastructures. One of the key products of the ENVRI project is to combine the long-term plans of the individual infrastructures towards a common strategy, describing the vision and planned actions. The envisaged vision for environmental research infrastructures toward 2030 is to support the holistic understanding of our planet and it's behavior. The development of a 'Standard Model of the Planet' is a common ambition, a challenge to define an environmental standard model; a framework of all interactions within the Earth System, from solid earth to near space. Indeed scientists feel challenged to contribute to a 'Standard Model of the Planet' with data, models, algorithms and discoveries. Understanding the Earth System as an interlinked system requires a systems approach. The Environmental Sciences are rapidly moving to become a one system-level science. Mainly since modern science, engineering and society are increasingly facing complex problems that can only be understood in the context of the full overall system. The strategy of the supporting collaborating research infrastructures is based on developing three key factors for the Environmental Sciences: the technological, the cultural and the human capital. The technological capital development concentrates on improving the capacities to measure, observe, preserve and compute. This requires staff, technologies, sensors, satellites, floats, software to integrate and to do analysis and modeling, including data storage, computing platforms and networks. The cultural capital development addresses issues such as open access to data, rules, licenses, citation agreements, IPR agreements, technologies for machine-machine interaction, workflows, metadata, and RI community on the policy level. Human capital actions are based on anticipated need of specialists, including data scientists and 'generalists' that oversee more than just their own discipline. Developing these, as interrelated services, should help the scientific community to enter innovative and large projects contributing to a 'Standard Model of the Planet'. To achieve the overall goal, ENVRI will publish a set of action items that contains intermediate aims, bigger and smaller steps to work towards the development of the 'Standard Model of the Planet' approach. This timeline of actions can used as reference and 'common denominator' in defining new projects and research programs. Either within the various environmental scientific disciplines or when cooperating among these disciplines or even when outreaching towards other disciplines like social sciences, physics/chemistry, medical/life sciences etc.

The importance of national and international collaboration in adult congenital heart disease: A network analysis of research output.

PubMed

Orwat, Melanie Iris; Kempny, Aleksander; Bauer, Ulrike; Gatzoulis, Michael A; Baumgartner, Helmut; Diller, Gerhard-Paul

2015-09-15

The determinants of adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) research output are only partially understood. The heterogeneity of ACHD naturally calls for collaborative work; however, limited information exists on the impact of collaboration on academic performance. We aimed to examine the global topology of ACHD research, distribution of research collaboration and its association with cumulative research output. Based on publications presenting original research between 2005 and 2011, a network analysis was performed quantifying centrality measures and key players in the field of ACHD. In addition, network maps were produced to illustrate the global distribution and interconnected nature of ACHD research. The proportion of collaborative research was 35.6 % overall, with a wide variation between countries (7.1 to 62.8%). The degree of research collaboration, as well as measures of network centrality (betweenness and degree centrality), were statistically associated with cumulative research output independently of national wealth and available workforce. The global ACHD research network was found to be scale-free with a small number of central hubs and a relatively large number of peripheral nodes. In addition, we could identify potentially influential hubs based on cluster analysis and measures of centrality/key player analysis. Using network analysis methods the current study illustrates the complex and global structures of ACHD research. It suggests that collaboration between research institutions is associated with higher academic output. As a consequence national and international collaboration in ACHD research should be encouraged and the creation of an adequate supporting infrastructure should be further promoted. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tracking the Evolution of Infrastructure Systems and Mass Responses Using Publically Available Data

PubMed Central

Guan, Xiangyang; Chen, Cynthia; Work, Dan

2016-01-01

Networks can evolve even on a short-term basis. This phenomenon is well understood by network scientists, but receive little attention in empirical literature involving real-world networks. On one hand, this is due to the deceitfully fixed topology of some networks such as many physical infrastructures, whose evolution is often deemed unlikely to occur in short term; on the other hand, the lack of data prohibits scientists from studying subjects such as social networks that seem likely to evolve on a short-term basis. We show that both networks—the infrastructure network and social network—are able to demonstrate evolutionary dynamics at the system level even in the short-term, characterized by shifting between different phases as predicted in network science. We develop a methodology of tracking the evolutionary dynamics of the two networks by incorporating flows and the microstructure of networks such as motifs. This approach is applied to the human interaction network and two transportation networks (subway and taxi) in the context of Hurricane Sandy, using publically available Twitter data and transportation data. Our result shows that significant changes in the system-level structure of networks can be detected on a continuous basis. This result provides a promising channel for real-time tracking in the future. PMID:27907061

Building Sustainable Local Capacity for Global Health Research in West Africa.

PubMed

Sam-Agudu, Nadia A; Paintsil, Elijah; Aliyu, Muktar H; Kwara, Awewura; Ogunsola, Folasade; Afrane, Yaw A; Onoka, Chima; Awandare, Gordon A; Amponsah, Gladys; Cornelius, Llewellyn J; Mendy, Gabou; Sturke, Rachel; Ghansah, Anita; Siberry, George K; Ezeanolue, Echezona E

Global health research in resource-limited countries has been largely sponsored and led by foreign institutions. Thus, these countries' training capacity and productivity in global health research is limited. Local participation at all levels of global health knowledge generation promotes equitable access to evidence-based solutions. Additionally, leadership inclusive of competent local professionals promotes best outcomes for local contextualization and implementation of successful global health solutions. Among the sub-Saharan African regions, West Africa in particular lags in research infrastructure, productivity, and impact in global health research. In this paper, experts discuss strategies for scaling up West Africa's participation in global health evidence generation using examples from Ghana and Nigeria. We conducted an online and professional network search to identify grants awarded for global health research and research education in Ghana and Nigeria. Principal investigators, global health educators, and representatives of funding institutions were invited to add their knowledge and expertise with regard to strengthening research capacity in West Africa. While there has been some progress in obtaining foreign funding, foreign institutions still dominate local research. Local research funding opportunities in the 2 countries were found to be insufficient, disjointed, poorly sustained, and inadequately publicized, indicating weak infrastructure. As a result, research training programs produce graduates who ultimately fail to launch independent investigator careers because of lack of mentoring and poor infrastructural support. Research funding and training opportunities in Ghana and Nigeria remain inadequate. We recommend systems-level changes in mentoring, collaboration, and funding to drive the global health research agenda in these countries. Additionally, research training programs should be evaluated not only by numbers of individuals graduated but also by numbers of independent investigators and grants funded. Through equitable collaborations, infrastructure, and mentoring, West Africa can match the rest of Africa in impactful global health research. Copyright © 2016 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. All rights reserved.

On Applications of Disruption Tolerant Networking to Optical Networking in Space

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hylton, Alan Guy; Raible, Daniel E.; Juergens, Jeffrey; Iannicca, Dennis

2012-01-01

The integration of optical communication links into space networks via Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a largely unexplored area of research. Building on successful foundational work accomplished at JPL, we discuss a multi-hop multi-path network featuring optical links. The experimental test bed is constructed at the NASA Glenn Research Center featuring multiple Ethernet-to-fiber converters coupled with free space optical (FSO) communication channels. The test bed architecture models communication paths from deployed Mars assets to the deep space network (DSN) and finally to the mission operations center (MOC). Reliable versus unreliable communication methods are investigated and discussed; including reliable transport protocols, custody transfer, and fragmentation. Potential commercial applications may include an optical communications infrastructure deployment to support developing nations and remote areas, which are unburdened with supporting an existing heritage means of telecommunications. Narrow laser beam widths and control of polarization states offer inherent physical layer security benefits with optical communications over RF solutions. This paper explores whether or not DTN is appropriate for space-based optical networks, optimal payload sizes, reliability, and a discussion on security.

The Rise of Global Science and the Emerging Political Economy of International Research Collaborations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peters, Michael A.

2006-01-01

This article charts the rise of global science and a global science infrastructure as part of the emerging international knowledge system exemplifying a geography of knowledge and the importance of new info-communications networks. The article theorises the rise of global science, which still strongly reflects a Western bias and is highly…

Building Infrastructure to Accelerate Transfer of Basic Research in Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) to Clinical Practice: North American Clinical Trials Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

RISCIS trial. 2. Participation by NACTN sites in the Novartis clinical trial of the monoclonal antibody to Nogo. Martin Schwab, PhD...Martha Horn and Simone Hirsch at Traumacenter, Murnau; Kristin Lorenz and Petra Schatz at Hohe Warte, Bayreuth. 8 Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair

Prerequisites for Setting Up Management System in Municipal Retail Trade

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suraeva, Maria O.; Grigoryants, Igor A.; Karpova, Galina A.; Khoreva, Lyubov V.; Schreyer, Alexander V.; Sirotkin, Victor A.

2016-01-01

The relevance of the research problem Urban district, management, trade, sales network is determined by the number of complex problems that exist in present Samara municipal retail trade system, which is manifested in the lack of regulation, a glut of sales area, and poorly developed infrastructure. The purpose of this article is to form a…

Review of the Italian current legislation on research biobanking activities on the eve of the participation of national biobanks’ network in the legal consortium BBMRI-ERIC.

PubMed

Calzolari, Alessia; Napolitano, Mariarosaria; Bravo, Elena

2013-04-01

The ethical-legal framework of research biobanking activities is still scarcely defined in Italy, and this constitutes a major obstacle to exploit the potential benefits of existing bioresource patrimony at the national and international levels. Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI), which aims to become a major interface between biological samples and data and top-level biological and medical research, is undertaking the crucial transformation to the ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) legal entity. In this scenario, there is a need to address the national legal and ethical concerns that are strictly correlated with the use of human biosources in research across European countries participating (and not) in BBMRI. In this perspective, this article aims to review the legal framework applying to research biobanking in Italy, including both "soft" nonbinding instruments and binding regulations. Since ethical and societal aspects impact biobanking research activities, the article discusses both the critical ethical and legal open issues that need to be implemented at the national level.

Using i2b2 to Bootstrap Rural Health Analytics and Learning Networks

PubMed Central

Harris, Daniel R.; Baus, Adam D.; Harper, Tamela J.; Jarrett, Traci D.; Pollard, Cecil R.; Talbert, Jeffery C.

2017-01-01

We demonstrate that the open-source i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) data model can be used to bootstrap rural health analytics and learning networks. These networks promote communication and research initiatives by providing the infrastructure necessary for sharing data and insights across a group of healthcare and research partners. Data integration remains a crucial challenge in connecting rural healthcare sites with a common data sharing and learning network due to the lack of interoperability and standards within electronic health records. The i2b2 data model acts as a point of convergence for disparate data from multiple healthcare sites. A consistent and natural data model for healthcare data is essential for overcoming integration issues, but challenges such as those caused by weak data standardization must still be addressed. We describe our experience in the context of building the West Virginia/Kentucky Health Analytics and Learning Network, a collaborative, multi-state effort connecting rural healthcare sites. PMID:28261006

Using i2b2 to Bootstrap Rural Health Analytics and Learning Networks.

PubMed

Harris, Daniel R; Baus, Adam D; Harper, Tamela J; Jarrett, Traci D; Pollard, Cecil R; Talbert, Jeffery C

2016-08-01

We demonstrate that the open-source i2b2 (Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside) data model can be used to bootstrap rural health analytics and learning networks. These networks promote communication and research initiatives by providing the infrastructure necessary for sharing data and insights across a group of healthcare and research partners. Data integration remains a crucial challenge in connecting rural healthcare sites with a common data sharing and learning network due to the lack of interoperability and standards within electronic health records. The i2b2 data model acts as a point of convergence for disparate data from multiple healthcare sites. A consistent and natural data model for healthcare data is essential for overcoming integration issues, but challenges such as those caused by weak data standardization must still be addressed. We describe our experience in the context of building the West Virginia/Kentucky Health Analytics and Learning Network, a collaborative, multi-state effort connecting rural healthcare sites.

ATLAS computing on Swiss Cloud SWITCHengines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haug, S.; Sciacca, F. G.; ATLAS Collaboration

2017-10-01

Consolidation towards more computing at flat budgets beyond what pure chip technology can offer, is a requirement for the full scientific exploitation of the future data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. One consolidation measure is to exploit cloud infrastructures whenever they are financially competitive. We report on the technical solutions and the performances used and achieved running simulation tasks for the ATLAS experiment on SWITCHengines. SWITCHengines is a new infrastructure as a service offered to Swiss academia by the National Research and Education Network SWITCH. While solutions and performances are general, financial considerations and policies, on which we also report, are country specific.

Next generation information communication infrastructure and case studies for future power systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qiu, Bin

As power industry enters the new century, powerful driving forces, uncertainties and new functions are compelling electric utilities to make dramatic changes in their information communication infrastructure. Expanding network services such as real time measurement and monitoring are also driving the need for more bandwidth in the communication network. These needs will grow further as new remote real-time protection and control applications become more feasible and pervasive. This dissertation addresses two main issues for the future power system information infrastructure: communication network infrastructure and associated power system applications. Optical networks no doubt will become the predominant data transmission media for next generation power system communication. The rapid development of fiber optic network technology poses new challenges in the areas of topology design, network management and real time applications. Based on advanced fiber optic technologies, an all-fiber network is investigated and proposed. The study will cover the system architecture and data exchange protocol aspects. High bandwidth, robust optical networks could provide great opportunities to the power system for better service and efficient operation. In the dissertation, different applications are investigated. One of the typical applications is the SCADA information accessing system. An Internet-based application for the substation automation system will be presented. VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) technology is also used for one-line diagrams auto-generation. High transition rate and low latency optical network is especially suitable for power system real time control. In the dissertation, a new local area network based Load Shedding Controller (LSC) for isolated power system will be presented. By using PMU (Phasor Measurement Unit) and fiber optic network, an AGE (Area Generation Error) based accurate wide area load shedding scheme will also be proposed. The objective is to shed the load in the limited area with minimum disturbance.

Utilizing Semantic Big Data for realizing a National-scale Infrastructure Vulnerability Analysis System

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chinthavali, Supriya; Shankar, Mallikarjun

Critical Infrastructure systems(CIs) such as energy, water, transportation and communication are highly interconnected and mutually dependent in complex ways. Robust modeling of CIs interconnections is crucial to identify vulnerabilities in the CIs. We present here a national-scale Infrastructure Vulnerability Analysis System (IVAS) vision leveraging Se- mantic Big Data (SBD) tools, Big Data, and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) tools. We survey existing ap- proaches on vulnerability analysis of critical infrastructures and discuss relevant systems and tools aligned with our vi- sion. Next, we present a generic system architecture and discuss challenges including: (1) Constructing and manag- ing a CI network-of-networks graph,more » (2) Performing analytic operations at scale, and (3) Interactive visualization of ana- lytic output to generate meaningful insights. We argue that this architecture acts as a baseline to realize a national-scale network based vulnerability analysis system.« less

Building the European Seismological Research Infrastructure: results from 4 years NERIES EC project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Eck, T.; Giardini, D.

2010-12-01

The EC Research Infrastructure (RI) project, Network of Research Infrastructures for European Seismology (NERIES), implemented a comprehensive European integrated RI for earthquake seismological data that is scalable and sustainable. NERIES opened a significant amount of additional seismological data, integrated different distributed data archives, implemented and produced advanced analysis tools and advanced software packages and tools. A single seismic data portal provides a single access point and overview for European seismological data available for the earth science research community. Additional data access tools and sites have been implemented to meet user and robustness requirements, notably those at the EMSC and ORFEUS. The datasets compiled in NERIES and available through the portal include among others: - The expanded Virtual European Broadband Seismic Network (VEBSN) with real-time access to more then 500 stations from > 53 observatories. This data is continuously monitored, quality controlled and archived in the European Integrated Distributed waveform Archive (EIDA). - A unique integration of acceleration datasets from seven networks in seven European or associated countries centrally accessible in a homogeneous format, thus forming the core comprehensive European acceleration database. Standardized parameter analysis and actual software are included in the database. - A Distributed Archive of Historical Earthquake Data (AHEAD) for research purposes, containing among others a comprehensive European Macroseismic Database and Earthquake Catalogue (1000 - 1963, M ≥5.8), including analysis tools. - Data from 3 one year OBS deployments at three sites, Atlantic, Ionian and Ligurian Sea within the general SEED format, thus creating the core integrated data base for ocean, sea and land based seismological observatories. Tools to facilitate analysis and data mining of the RI datasets are: - A comprehensive set of European seismological velocity reference model including a standardized model description with several visualisation tools currently adapted on a global scale. - An integrated approach to seismic hazard modelling and forecasting, a community accepted forecasting testing and model validation approach and the core hazard portal developed along the same technologies as the NERIES data portal. - Implemented homogeneous shakemap estimation tools at several large European observatories and a complementary new loss estimation software tool. - A comprehensive set of new techniques for geotechnical site characterization with relevant software packages documented and maintained (www.geopsy.org). - A set of software packages for data mining, data reduction, data exchange and information management in seismology as research and observatory analysis tools NERIES has a long-term impact and is coordinated with related US initiatives IRIS and EarthScope. The follow-up EC project of NERIES, NERA (2010 - 2014), is funded and will integrate the seismological and the earthquake engineering infrastructures. NERIES further provided the proof of concept for the ESFRI2008 initiative: the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). Its preparatory phase (2010 - 2014) is also funded by the EC.

Virtualization of open-source secure web services to support data exchange in a pediatric critical care research network.

PubMed

Frey, Lewis J; Sward, Katherine A; Newth, Christopher J L; Khemani, Robinder G; Cryer, Martin E; Thelen, Julie L; Enriquez, Rene; Shaoyu, Su; Pollack, Murray M; Harrison, Rick E; Meert, Kathleen L; Berg, Robert A; Wessel, David L; Shanley, Thomas P; Dalton, Heidi; Carcillo, Joseph; Jenkins, Tammara L; Dean, J Michael

2015-11-01

To examine the feasibility of deploying a virtual web service for sharing data within a research network, and to evaluate the impact on data consistency and quality. Virtual machines (VMs) encapsulated an open-source, semantically and syntactically interoperable secure web service infrastructure along with a shadow database. The VMs were deployed to 8 Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network Clinical Centers. Virtual web services could be deployed in hours. The interoperability of the web services reduced format misalignment from 56% to 1% and demonstrated that 99% of the data consistently transferred using the data dictionary and 1% needed human curation. Use of virtualized open-source secure web service technology could enable direct electronic abstraction of data from hospital databases for research purposes. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Proceedings Second Annual Cyber Security and Information Infrastructure Research Workshop

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sheldon, Frederick T; Krings, Axel; Yoo, Seong-Moo

2006-01-01

The workshop theme is Cyber Security: Beyond the Maginot Line Recently the FBI reported that computer crime has skyrocketed costing over $67 billion in 2005 alone and affecting 2.8M+ businesses and organizations. Attack sophistication is unprecedented along with availability of open source concomitant tools. Private, academic, and public sectors invest significant resources in cyber security. Industry primarily performs cyber security research as an investment in future products and services. While the public sector also funds cyber security R&D, the majority of this activity focuses on the specific mission(s) of the funding agency. Thus, broad areas of cyber security remain neglectedmore » or underdeveloped. Consequently, this workshop endeavors to explore issues involving cyber security and related technologies toward strengthening such areas and enabling the development of new tools and methods for securing our information infrastructure critical assets. We aim to assemble new ideas and proposals about robust models on which we can build the architecture of a secure cyberspace including but not limited to: * Knowledge discovery and management * Critical infrastructure protection * De-obfuscating tools for the validation and verification of tamper-proofed software * Computer network defense technologies * Scalable information assurance strategies * Assessment-driven design for trust * Security metrics and testing methodologies * Validation of security and survivability properties * Threat assessment and risk analysis * Early accurate detection of the insider threat * Security hardened sensor networks and ubiquitous computing environments * Mobile software authentication protocols * A new "model" of the threat to replace the "Maginot Line" model and more . . .« less

Modernization of B-2 Data, Video, and Control Systems Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cmar, Mark D.; Maloney, Christian T.; Butala, Vishal D.

2012-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, commonly referred to as B-2, is NASA s third largest thermal-vacuum facility with propellant systems capability. B-2 has completed a modernization effort of its facility legacy data, video and control systems infrastructure to accommodate modern integrated testing and Information Technology (IT) Security requirements. Integrated systems tests have been conducted to demonstrate the new data, video and control systems functionality and capability. Discrete analog signal conditioners have been replaced by new programmable, signal processing hardware that is integrated with the data system. This integration supports automated calibration and verification of the analog subsystem. Modern measurement systems analysis (MSA) tools are being developed to help verify system health and measurement integrity. Legacy hard wired digital data systems have been replaced by distributed Fibre Channel (FC) network connected digitizers where high speed sampling rates have increased to 256,000 samples per second. Several analog video cameras have been replaced by digital image and storage systems. Hard-wired analog control systems have been replaced by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), fiber optic networks (FON) infrastructure and human machine interface (HMI) operator screens. New modern IT Security procedures and schemes have been employed to control data access and process control flows. Due to the nature of testing possible at B-2, flexibility and configurability of systems has been central to the architecture during modernization.

Modernization of B-2 Data, Video, and Control Systems Infrastructure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cmar, Mark D.; Maloney, Christian T.; Butala, Vishal D.

2012-01-01

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center (GRC) Plum Brook Station (PBS) Spacecraft Propulsion Research Facility, commonly referred to as B-2, is NASA's third largest thermal-vacuum facility with propellant systems capability. B-2 has completed a modernization effort of its facility legacy data, video and control systems infrastructure to accommodate modern integrated testing and Information Technology (IT) Security requirements. Integrated systems tests have been conducted to demonstrate the new data, video and control systems functionality and capability. Discrete analog signal conditioners have been replaced by new programmable, signal processing hardware that is integrated with the data system. This integration supports automated calibration and verification of the analog subsystem. Modern measurement systems analysis (MSA) tools are being developed to help verify system health and measurement integrity. Legacy hard wired digital data systems have been replaced by distributed Fibre Channel (FC) network connected digitizers where high speed sampling rates have increased to 256,000 samples per second. Several analog video cameras have been replaced by digital image and storage systems. Hard-wired analog control systems have been replaced by Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC), fiber optic networks (FON) infrastructure and human machine interface (HMI) operator screens. New modern IT Security procedures and schemes have been employed to control data access and process control flows. Due to the nature of testing possible at B-2, flexibility and configurability of systems has been central to the architecture during modernization.

DRIHM: Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parodi, A.; Rebora, N.; Kranzlmueller, D.; Schiffers, M.; Clematis, A.; Tafferner, A.; Garrote, L. M.; Llasat Botija, M.; Caumont, O.; Richard, E.; Cros, P.; Dimitrijevic, V.; Jagers, B.; Harpham, Q.; Hooper, R. P.

2012-12-01

Hydro-Meteorology Research (HMR) is an area of critical scientific importance and of high societal relevance. It plays a key role in guiding predictions relevant to the safety and prosperity of humans and ecosystems from highly urbanized areas, to coastal zones, and to agricultural landscapes. Of special interest and urgency within HMR is the problem of understanding and predicting the impacts of severe hydro-meteorological events, such as flash-floods and landslides in complex orography areas, on humans and the environment, under the incoming climate change effects. At the heart of this challenge lies the ability to have easy access to hydrometeorological data and models, and facilitate the collaboration between meteorologists, hydrologists, and Earth science experts for accelerated scientific advances in this field. To face these problems the DRIHM (Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorology) project is developing a prototype e-Science environment to facilitate this collaboration and provide end-to-end HMR services (models, datasets and post-processing tools) at the European level, with the ability to expand to global scale (e.g. cooperation with Earth Cube related initiatives). The objectives of DRIHM are to lead the definition of a common long-term strategy, to foster the development of new HMR models and observational archives for the study of severe hydrometeorological events, to promote the execution and analysis of high-end simulations, and to support the dissemination of predictive models as decision analysis tools. DRIHM combines the European expertise in HMR, in Grid and High Performance Computing (HPC). Joint research activities will improve the efficient use of the European e-Infrastructures, notably Grid and HPC, for HMR modelling and observational databases, model evaluation tool sets and access to HMR model results. Networking activities will disseminate DRIHM results at the European and global levels in order to increase the cohesion of European and possibly worldwide HMR communities and increase the awareness of ICT potential for HMR. Service activities will deploy the end-to-end DRIHM services and tools in support of HMR networks and virtual organizations on top of the existing European e-Infrastructures.

Fostering Collaboration Across the U.S. Critical Zone Observatories Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharkey, S.; White, T. S.

2017-12-01

The Critical Zone (CZ) is defined as the permeable layer from the top of the vegetation canopy to the bottom of freely circulating groundwater where rock, soil, water, air and life meet. The study of the CZ is motivated by an overall lack of understanding of the coupled physical, chemical, and biological processes in this zone at differing spatial and temporal scales. Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs), supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation's Geosciences Directorate, are natural laboratories that aim to provide infrastructure, data and models to gain understanding of the evolution and function of the CZ from grain-to-watershed scales. The nine U.S. observatories span a range of climatic, ecologic, geologic, and physiographic environments from California to Puerto Rico, working on site-specific hypotheses and network-scale goals. CZO research infrastructure allows for teams of cross-disciplinary scientists at each site to further CZ science using field and theoretical approaches, education and outreach, and cross-CZO science. Cross-CZO science emerges from a set of common CZ science questions and hypotheses focused on CZ structure and evolution, event-based and continuous fluxes across CZ interfaces, and changes in storage of major CZ reservoirs at the catchment scale. CZO research seeks to understand coupled processes across all timescales using quantitative models parameterized from observations of meteorological variables, streams, and groundwater, and sampling and analyzing landforms, bedrock, soils, and ecosystems. Each observatory strives to apply common infrastructure, protocols and measurements that help quantify the composition and fluxes of energy, water, solutes, sediments, energy, and mass across boundaries of the CZ system through both space and time. This type of approach enables researchers to access and integrate data in a way that allows for the isolation of environmental variables and comparison of processes and responses across environmental gradients. There is opportunity to foster cross-collaborations with existing research infrastructure (i.e. LTER, NEON, international CZOs) to promote cross-site science and expand upon geologic, climatic, ecological, land use and hydrologic gradients required to understand the CZ.

A systematic literature review of evidence-based clinical practice for rare diseases: what are the perceived and real barriers for improving the evidence and how can they be overcome?

PubMed

Rath, Ana; Salamon, Valérie; Peixoto, Sandra; Hivert, Virginie; Laville, Martine; Segrestin, Berenice; Neugebauer, Edmund A M; Eikermann, Michaela; Bertele, Vittorio; Garattini, Silvio; Wetterslev, Jørn; Banzi, Rita; Jakobsen, Janus C; Djurisic, Snezana; Kubiak, Christine; Demotes-Mainard, Jacques; Gluud, Christian

2017-11-22

Evidence-based clinical practice is challenging in all fields, but poses special barriers in the field of rare diseases. The present paper summarises the main barriers faced by clinical research in rare diseases, and highlights opportunities for improvement. Systematic literature searches without meta-analyses and internal European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) communications during face-to-face meetings and telephone conferences from 2013 to 2017 within the context of the ECRIN Integrating Activity (ECRIN-IA) project. Barriers specific to rare diseases comprise the difficulty to recruit participants because of rarity, scattering of patients, limited knowledge on natural history of diseases, difficulties to achieve accurate diagnosis and identify patients in health information systems, and difficulties choosing clinically relevant outcomes. Evidence-based clinical practice for rare diseases should start by collecting clinical data in databases and registries; defining measurable patient-centred outcomes; and selecting appropriate study designs adapted to small study populations. Rare diseases constitute one of the most paradigmatic fields in which multi-stakeholder engagement, especially from patients, is needed for success. Clinical research infrastructures and expertise networks offer opportunities for establishing evidence-based clinical practice within rare diseases.

Local Infrastructures for School Networking: Current Models and Prospects. Technical Report No. 22.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Denis; And Others

This paper identifies a paradigm shift that must take place in school networking. The ultimate goal is to retool the schools with a local technical infrastructure that gives teachers and students immediate access to communication systems and information resources, thereby supporting the implementation of advances in pedagogy and educational…

Body Area Network BAN--a key infrastructure element for patient-centered medical applications.

PubMed

Schmidt, Robert; Norgall, Thomas; Mörsdorf, Joachim; Bernhard, Josef; von der Grün, Thomas

2002-01-01

The Body Area Network (BAN) concept enables wireless communication between several miniaturized, intelligent Body Sensor (or actor) Units (BSU) and a single Body Central Unit (BCU) worn at the human body. A separate wireless transmission link from the BCU to a network access point--using different technology--provides for online access to BAN data via usual network infrastructure. BAN is expected to become a basic infrastructure element for service-based electronic health assistance: By integrating patient-attached sensors and control of mobile dedicated actor units, the range of medical workflow can be extended by wireless patient monitoring and therapy support. Beyond clinical use, professional disease management environments, and private personal health assistance scenarios (without financial reimbursement by health agencies/insurance companies), BAN enables a wide range of health care applications and related services.

Australia's TERN: Advancing Ecosystem Data Management in Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Phinn, S. R.; Christensen, R.; Guru, S.

2013-12-01

Globally, there is a consistent movement towards more open, collaborative and transparent science, where the publication and citation of data is considered standard practice. Australia's Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) is a national research infrastructure investment designed to support the ecosystem science community through all stages of the data lifecycle. TERN has developed and implemented a comprehensive network of ';hard' and ';soft' infrastructure that enables Australia's ecosystem scientists to collect, publish, store, share, discover and re-use data in ways not previously possible. The aim of this poster is to demonstrate how TERN has successfully delivered infrastructure that is enabling a significant cultural and practical shift in Australia's ecosystem science community towards consistent approaches for data collection, meta-data, data licensing, and data publishing. TERN enables multiple disciplines, within the ecosystem sciences to more effectively and efficiently collect, store and publish their data. A critical part of TERN's approach has been to build on existing data collection activities, networks and skilled people to enable further coordination and collaboration to build each data collection facility and coordinate data publishing. Data collection in TERN is through discipline based facilities, covering long term collection of: (1) systematic plot based measurements of vegetation structure, composition and faunal biodiversity; (2) instrumented towers making systematic measurements of solar, water and gas fluxes; and (3) satellite and airborne maps of biophysical properties of vegetation, soils and the atmosphere. Several other facilities collect and integrate environmental data to produce national products for fauna and vegetation surveys, soils and coastal data, as well as integrated or synthesised products for modelling applications. Data management, publishing and sharing in TERN are implemented through a tailored data licensing framework suitable for ecosystem data, national standards for metadata, a DOI-minting service, and context-appropriate data repositories and portals. The TERN Data infrastructure is based on loosely coupled 'network of networks.' Overall, the data formats used across the TERN facilities vary from NetCDF, comma-separated values and descriptive documents. Metadata standards include ISO19115, Ecological Metadata Language and rich semantic enabled contextual information. Data services vary from Web Mapping Service, Web Feature Service, OpeNDAP, file servers and KNB Metacat. These approaches enable each data collection facility to maintain their discipline based data collection and storage protocols. TERN facility meta-data are harvested regularly for the central TERN Data Discovery Portal and converted to a national standard format. This approach enables centralised discovery, access, and re-use of data simply and effectively, while maintaining disciplinary diversity. Effort is still required to support the cultural shift towards acceptance of effective data management, publication, sharing and re-use as standard practice. To this end TERN's future activities will be directed to supporting this transformation and undertaking ';education' to enable ecosystem scientists to take full advantage of TERN's infrastructure, and providing training and guidance for best practice data management.

Software defined networking (SDN) over space division multiplexing (SDM) optical networks: features, benefits and experimental demonstration.

PubMed

Amaya, N; Yan, S; Channegowda, M; Rofoee, B R; Shu, Y; Rashidi, M; Ou, Y; Hugues-Salas, E; Zervas, G; Nejabati, R; Simeonidou, D; Puttnam, B J; Klaus, W; Sakaguchi, J; Miyazawa, T; Awaji, Y; Harai, H; Wada, N

2014-02-10

We present results from the first demonstration of a fully integrated SDN-controlled bandwidth-flexible and programmable SDM optical network utilizing sliceable self-homodyne spatial superchannels to support dynamic bandwidth and QoT provisioning, infrastructure slicing and isolation. Results show that SDN is a suitable control plane solution for the high-capacity flexible SDM network. It is able to provision end-to-end bandwidth and QoT requests according to user requirements, considering the unique characteristics of the underlying SDM infrastructure.

EU H2020 SERA: Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giardini, Domenico; Saleh, Kauzar; SERA Consortium, the

2017-04-01

SERA - Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe - is a new infrastructure project awarded in the last Horizon 2020 call for Integrating Activities for Advanced Communities (INFRAIA-01-2016-2017). Building up on precursor projects like NERA, SHARE, NERIES, SERIES, etc., SERA is expected to contribute significantly to the access of data, services and research infrastructures, and to develop innovative solutions in seismology and earthquake engineering, with the overall objective of reducing the exposure to risks associated to natural and anthropogenic earthquakes. For instance, SERA will revise the European Seismic Hazard reference model for input in the current revision of the Eurocode 8 on Seismic Design of Buildings; we also foresee to develop the first comprehensive framework for seismic risk modeling at European scale, and to develop new standards for future experimental observations and instruments for earthquake engineering and seismology. To that aim, SERA is engaging 31 institutions across Europe with leading expertise in the operation of research facilities, monitoring infrastructures, data repositories and experimental facilities in the fields of seismology, anthropogenic hazards and earthquake engineering. SERA comprises 26 activities, including 5 Networking Activities (NA) to improve the availability and access of data through enhanced community coordination and pooling of resources, 6 Joint Research Activities (JRA) aimed at creating new European standards for the optimal use of the data collected by the European infrastructures, Virtual Access (VA) to the 5 main European services for seismology and engineering seismology, and Trans-national Access (TA) to 10 high-class experimental facilities for earthquake engineering and seismology in Europe. In fact, around 50% of the SERA resources will be dedicated to virtual and transnational access. SERA and EPOS (European Platform Observing System, a European Research Infrastructure Consortium for solid Earth services in Europe) will be developed in parallel, giving SERA the capacity to develop building blocks for EPOS in the areas of seismology, anthropogenic hazards and seismic engineering, such as new virtual access, new anthropogenic hazards products, expanded access to waveform data, etc. In addition, services developed and validated in SERA will be produced in a way that is compatible for integration in EPOS. This communication is aimed at informing the scientific community about the objectives and workplan of SERA, starting in spring 2017 for a duration of 3 years.

Accelerating Innovation that Enhances Resource Recovery in the Wastewater Sector: Advancing a National Testbed Network.

PubMed

Mihelcic, James R; Ren, Zhiyong Jason; Cornejo, Pablo K; Fisher, Aaron; Simon, A J; Snyder, Seth W; Zhang, Qiong; Rosso, Diego; Huggins, Tyler M; Cooper, William; Moeller, Jeff; Rose, Bob; Schottel, Brandi L; Turgeon, Jason

2017-07-18

This Feature examines significant challenges and opportunities to spur innovation and accelerate adoption of reliable technologies that enhance integrated resource recovery in the wastewater sector through the creation of a national testbed network. The network is a virtual entity that connects appropriate physical testing facilities, and other components needed for a testbed network, with researchers, investors, technology providers, utilities, regulators, and other stakeholders to accelerate the adoption of innovative technologies and processes that are needed for the water resource recovery facility of the future. Here we summarize and extract key issues and developments, to provide a strategy for the wastewater sector to accelerate a path forward that leads to new sustainable water infrastructures.

Data governance requirements for distributed clinical research networks: triangulating perspectives of diverse stakeholders.

PubMed

Kim, Katherine K; Browe, Dennis K; Logan, Holly C; Holm, Roberta; Hack, Lori; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2014-01-01

There is currently limited information on best practices for the development of governance requirements for distributed research networks (DRNs), an emerging model that promotes clinical data reuse and improves timeliness of comparative effectiveness research. Much of the existing information is based on a single type of stakeholder such as researchers or administrators. This paper reports on a triangulated approach to developing DRN data governance requirements based on a combination of policy analysis with experts, interviews with institutional leaders, and patient focus groups. This approach is illustrated with an example from the Scalable National Network for Effectiveness Research, which resulted in 91 requirements. These requirements were analyzed against the Fair Information Practice Principles (FIPPs) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protected versus non-protected health information. The requirements addressed all FIPPs, showing how a DRN's technical infrastructure is able to fulfill HIPAA regulations, protect privacy, and provide a trustworthy platform for research. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Connecting the Empire: New Research Perspectives on Infrastructures and the Environment in the (Post)Colonial World.

PubMed

van der Straeten, Jonas; Hasenöhrl, Ute

2016-12-01

In the academic debate on infrastructures in the Global South, there is a broad consensus that (post)colonial legacies present a major challenge for a transition towards more inclusive, sustainable and adapted modes of providing services. Yet, relatively little is known about the emergence and evolution of infrastructures in former colonies. Until a decade ago, most historical studies followed Daniel Headrick's (1981) "tools of empire" thesis, painting-with broad brush strokes-a picture of infrastructures as instruments for advancing the colonial project of exploitation and subordination of non-European peoples and environments. This paper explores new research perspectives beyond this straightforward, 'diffusionist' perspective on technology transfer. In order to do so, it presents and discusses more recent studies which focus on interactive transfer processes as well as mechanisms of appropriation, and which increasingly combine approaches from imperial history, environmental history, and history of technology.There is much to gain from unpacking the changing motives and ideologies behind technology transfer; tracing the often contested and negotiated flows of ideas, technologies and knowledge within multilayered global networks; investigating the manifold ways in which infrastructures reflected and (re)produced colonial spaces and identities; critically reflecting on the utility of large (socio)technical systems (LTS) for the Global South; and approaching infrastructures in the (post)colonial world through entangled histories of technology and the environment. Following David Arnold's (2005) plea for a "more interactive, culturally-nuanced, multi-sited debate" on technology in the non-Western world, the paper offers fresh insights for a broader debate about how infrastructures work within specific parameters of time, place and culture.

Networking seismological data exchange in Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sleeman, Reinoud; van Eck, Torild; van den Hazel, Gert-Jan; Trani, Luca; Spinuso, Alessandro

2010-05-01

The mission of the ORFEUS Data Centre (ODC) is to collect and archive high-quality seismic broadband waveform data from European-Mediterranean organizations and to provide open access to this data for monitoring and research purposes by the scientific community. The core activity of the ODC is to run an automatic, sustainable system to achieve this mission. Our 4 key operations are: data exchange protocols, quality control procedures, data management and data services. All these activities at the ODC benefit from developments within the EC Infrastructure (I3) project NERIES (Network of Research Infrastructure for European Seismology). For the data acquisition the ODC uses different standard, real-time data exchange protocols (e.g. Antelope, SeedLink, Scream) to ensure a very high data availability from stations in the Virtual European Broadband Seismic Network (VEBSN), which currently exists of about 500 BB stations. Within the data services a number of tools (e.g. Wilber II, NetDC, BreqFast, AutoDRM and webforms) are in place to serve the scientific community. These are currently being complemented by webservices and an integrated portal. The data management part relies on a simple flat file structure and a MySQL data management system on which both ArcLink and the Generic Data Interface (GDI) operate. In this presentation we will present an overview of the different aspects concerning data acquisition, services and management at ODC.

Disaster-hardened imaging POD for PACS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Honeyman-Buck, Janice; Frost, Meryll

2005-04-01

After the events of 9/11, many people questioned their ability to keep critical services operational in the face of massive infrastructure failure. Hospitals increased their backup and recovery power, made plans for emergency water and food, and operated on a heightened alert awareness with more frequent disaster drills. In a film-based radiology department, if a portable X-ray unit, a CT unit, an Ultrasound unit, and an film processor could be operated on emergency power, a limited, but effective number of studies could be performed. However, in a digital department, there is a reliance on the network infrastructure to deliver images to viewing locations. The system developed for our institution uses several imaging PODS, a name we chose because it implied to us a safe, contained environment. Each POD is a stand-alone emergency powered network capable of generating images and displaying them in the POD or printing them to a DICOM printer. The technology we used to create a POD consists of a computer with dual network interface cards joining our private, local POD network, to the hospital network. In the case of an infrastructure failure, each POD can and does work independently to produce CTs, CRs, and Ultrasounds. The system has been tested during disaster drills and works correctly, producing images using equipment technologists are comfortable using with very few emergency switch-over tasks. Purpose: To provide imaging capabilities in the event of a natural or man-made disaster with infrastructure failure. Method: After the events of 9/11, many people questioned their ability to keep critical services operational in the face of massive infrastructure failure. Hospitals increased their backup and recovery power, made plans for emergency water and food, and operated on a heightened alert awareness with more frequent disaster drills. In a film-based radiology department, if a portable X-ray unit, a CT unit, an Ultrasound unit, and an film processor could be operated on emergency power, a limited, but effective number of studies could be performed. However, in a digital department, there is a reliance on the network infrastructure to deliver images to viewing locations. The system developed for our institution uses several imaging PODS, a name we chose because it implied to us a safe, contained environment. Each POD is on both the standard and the emergency power systems. All the vendor equipment that produces images is on a private, stand-alone network controlled either by a simple or a managed switch. Included in each POD is a dry-process DICOM printer that is rarely used during normal operations and a display workstation. One node on the private network is a PACS application processor (AP) with two network interface cards, one for the private network, one for the standard PACS network. During ordinary daily operations, all acquired images pass through this AP and are routed to the PACS archives, web servers, and workstations. However, if the power and network to much of the hospital were to fail, the stand-alone POD could still function. Images are routed to the AP, but cannot forward to the main network. However, they can be routed to the printer and display in the POD. They are also stored on the AP to continue normal routing when the infrastructure is restored. Results: The imaging PODS have been tested in actual disaster testing where the infrastructure was intentionally removed and worked as designed. To date, we have not had to use them in a real-life scenario and we hope we never do, but we feel we have a reasonable level of emergency imaging capability if we ever need it. Conclusions: Our testing indicates our PODS are a viable way to continue medical imaging in the face of an emergency with a major part of our network and electrical infrastructure destroyed.

Common Technologies for Environmental Research Infrastructures in ENVRIplus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paris, Jean-Daniel

2016-04-01

Environmental and geoscientific research infrastructures (RIs) are dedicated to distinct aspects of the ocean, atmosphere, ecosystems, or solid Earth research, yet there is significant commonality in the way they conceive, develop, operate and upgrade their observation systems and platforms. Many environmental Ris are distributed network of observatories (be it drifting buoys, geophysical observatories, ocean-bottom stations, atmospheric measurements sites) with needs for remote operations. Most RIs have to deal with calibration and standardization issues. RIs use a variety of measurements technologies, but this variety is based on a small, common set of physical principles. All RIs have set their own research and development priorities, and developed their solution to their problems - however many problems are common across RIs. Finally, RIs may overlap in terms of scientific perimeter. In ENVRIplus we aim, for the first time, to identify common opportunities for innovation, to support common research and development across RIs on promising issues, and more generally to create a forum to spread state of the art techniques among participants. ENVRIplus activities include 1) measurement technologies: where are the common types of measurement for which we can share expertise or common development? 2) Metrology : how do we tackle together the diversified challenge of quality assurance and standardization? 3) Remote operations: can we address collectively the need for autonomy, robustness and distributed data handling? And 4) joint operations for research: are we able to demonstrate that together, RIs are able to provide relevant information to support excellent research. In this process we need to nurture an ecosystem of key players. Can we involve all the key technologists of the European RIs for a greater mutual benefit? Can we pave the way to a growing common market for innovative European SMEs, with a common programmatic approach conducive to targeted R&D? Can we develop a common metrological language adapted to the observation of our environment? We aim at creating a space for exchange on the "hardware" issues of our networks of observatories, a forum that allows fast transmission across RIs of best practices and state of the art technology, a laboratory for joint research and co-development, where research infrastructures and their communities join efforts on well-identified objectives.

Designing and implementing sample and data collection for an international genetics study: the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC).

PubMed

Hilner, Joan E; Perdue, Letitia H; Sides, Elizabeth G; Pierce, June J; Wägner, Ana M; Aldrich, Alan; Loth, Amanda; Albret, Lotte; Wagenknecht, Lynne E; Nierras, Concepcion; Akolkar, Beena

2010-01-01

The Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium (T1DGC) is an international project whose primary aims are to: (a) discover genes that modify type 1 diabetes risk; and (b) expand upon the existing genetic resources for type 1 diabetes research. The initial goal was to collect 2500 affected sibling pair (ASP) families worldwide. T1DGC was organized into four regional networks (Asia-Pacific, Europe, North America, and the United Kingdom) and a Coordinating Center. A Steering Committee, with representatives from each network, the Coordinating Center, and the funding organizations, was responsible for T1DGC operations. The Coordinating Center, with regional network representatives, developed study documents and data systems. Each network established laboratories for: DNA extraction and cell line production; human leukocyte antigen genotyping; and autoantibody measurement. Samples were tracked from the point of collection, processed at network laboratories and stored for deposit at National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Central Repositories. Phenotypic data were collected and entered into the study database maintained by the Coordinating Center. T1DGC achieved its original ASP recruitment goal. In response to research design changes, the T1DGC infrastructure also recruited trios, cases, and controls. Results of genetic analyses have identified many novel regions that affect susceptibility to type 1 diabetes. T1DGC created a resource of data and samples that is accessible to the research community. Participation in T1DGC was declined by some countries due to study requirements for the processing of samples at network laboratories and/or final deposition of samples in NIDDK Central Repositories. Re-contact of participants was not included in informed consent templates, preventing collection of additional samples for functional studies. T1DGC implemented a distributed, regional network structure to reach ASP recruitment targets. The infrastructure proved robust and flexible enough to accommodate additional recruitment. T1DGC has established significant resources that provide a basis for future discovery in the study of type 1 diabetes genetics.

Building sustainable neuroscience capacity in Africa: the role of non-profit organisations.

PubMed

Karikari, Thomas K; Cobham, Ansa E; Ndams, Iliya S

2016-02-01

While advances in neuroscience are helping to improve many aspects of human life, inequalities exist in this field between Africa and more scientifically-advanced continents. Many African countries lack the infrastructure and appropriately-trained scientists for neuroscience education and research. Addressing these challenges would require the development of innovative approaches to help improve scientific competence for neuroscience across the continent. In recent years, science-based non-profit organisations (NPOs) have been supporting the African neuroscience community to build state-of-the-art scientific capacity for sustainable education and research. Some of these contributions have included: the establishment of training courses and workshops to introduce African scientists to powerful-yet-cost-effective experimental model systems; research infrastructural support and assistance to establish research institutes. Other contributions have come in the form of the promotion of scientific networking, public engagement and advocacy for improved neuroscience funding. Here, we discuss the contributions of NPOs to the development of neuroscience in Africa.

Toward a phenology network in Turkey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dalfes, H. N.; Ülgen, H.; Zeydanli, U.; Durak, A. T.

2012-04-01

All climate projections indicate that drastic changes are to occur in the Mediterranean Basin and Southwestern Asia. Detailed studies also foresee strong patterns of change in seasonality for most climate fields all across the country, threatening Turkey's rich biodiversity and diverse ecosystems already in trouble due to massive land use changes and careless resource extraction projects. It is therefore obvious that climate impact studies can benefit from detailed and continuous monitoring of relationships between climate and natural systems. Recently started efforts to build a phenology network for Turkey will hopefully constitute a component of a more comprehensive ecological observation infrastructure. The Phenology Network of Turkey Project saw its debut as a joint initiative of an academic institution (Istanbul Technical University) and a research NGO (Nature Conservation Center). It has been decided from the very beginning to rely a much as possible on Internet technologies (provided by the National High Performance Computing Center of Turkey). The effort is also inspired by and collaborates with already established networks in general and USA National Phenology Network in particular. Many protocols, instructional materials and Nature's Notebook application has been barrowed from the USA NPN. The project has been designed from the start as a two-faceted effort: an infrastructure to accumulate/provide useful data to climate/ecosystem research communities and a 'citizen science' project to raise nature and climate change awareness among all components of the society in Turkey in general and secondary education teachers and students in particular. It has been opted to start by gathering plant phenological data. A set with 20 plant species has been designed to serve as a countrywide 'calibration set'. It is also anticipated to salvage and extend as much of possible historical animal (especially bird and butterfly) observations.

Sensing Models and Sensor Network Architectures for Transport Infrastructure Monitoring in Smart Cities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Simonis, Ingo

2015-04-01

Transport infrastructure monitoring and analysis is one of the focus areas in the context of smart cities. With the growing number of people moving into densely populated urban metro areas, precise tracking of moving people and goods is the basis for profound decision-making and future planning. With the goal of defining optimal extensions and modifications to existing transport infrastructures, multi-modal transport has to be monitored and analysed. This process is performed on the basis of sensor networks that combine a variety of sensor models, types, and deployments within the area of interest. Multi-generation networks, consisting of a number of sensor types and versions, are causing further challenges for the integration and processing of sensor observations. These challenges are not getting any smaller with the development of the Internet of Things, which brings promising opportunities, but is currently stuck in a type of protocol war between big industry players from both the hardware and network infrastructure domain. In this paper, we will highlight how the OGC suite of standards, with the Sensor Web standards developed by the Sensor Web Enablement Initiative together with the latest developments by the Sensor Web for Internet of Things community can be applied to the monitoring and improvement of transport infrastructures. Sensor Web standards have been applied in the past to pure technical domains, but need to be broadened now in order to meet new challenges. Only cross domain approaches will allow to develop satisfying transport infrastructure approaches that take into account requirements coming form a variety of sectors such as tourism, administration, transport industry, emergency services, or private people. The goal is the development of interoperable components that can be easily integrated within data infrastructures and follow well defined information models to allow robust processing.

Integrating Data and Networks: Human Factors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, R. S.

2012-12-01

The development of technical linkages and interoperability between scientific networks is a necessary but not sufficient step towards integrated use and application of networked data and information for scientific and societal benefit. A range of "human factors" must also be addressed to ensure the long-term integration, sustainability, and utility of both the interoperable networks themselves and the scientific data and information to which they provide access. These human factors encompass the behavior of both individual humans and human institutions, and include system governance, a common framework for intellectual property rights and data sharing, consensus on terminology, metadata, and quality control processes, agreement on key system metrics and milestones, the compatibility of "business models" in the short and long term, harmonization of incentives for cooperation, and minimization of disincentives. Experience with several national and international initiatives and research programs such as the International Polar Year, the Group on Earth Observations, the NASA Earth Observing Data and Information System, the U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure, the Global Earthquake Model, and the United Nations Spatial Data Infrastructure provide a range of lessons regarding these human factors. Ongoing changes in science, technology, institutions, relationships, and even culture are creating both opportunities and challenges for expanded interoperability of scientific networks and significant improvement in data integration to advance science and the use of scientific data and information to achieve benefits for society as a whole.

Building a Generic Virtual Research Environment Framework for Multiple Earth and Space Science Domains and a Diversity of Users.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyborn, L. A.; Fraser, R.; Evans, B. J. K.; Friedrich, C.; Klump, J. F.; Lescinsky, D. T.

2017-12-01

Virtual Research Environments (VREs) are now part of academic infrastructures. Online research workflows can be orchestrated whereby data can be accessed from multiple external repositories with processing taking place on public or private clouds, and centralised supercomputers using a mixture of user codes, and well-used community software and libraries. VREs enable distributed members of research teams to actively work together to share data, models, tools, software, workflows, best practices, infrastructures, etc. These environments and their components are increasingly able to support the needs of undergraduate teaching. External to the research sector, they can also be reused by citizen scientists, and be repurposed for industry users to help accelerate the diffusion and hence enable the translation of research innovations. The Virtual Geophysics Laboratory (VGL) in Australia was started in 2012, built using a collaboration between CSIRO, the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) and Geoscience Australia, with support funding from the Australian Government Department of Education. VGL comprises three main modules that provide an interface to enable users to first select their required data; to choose a tool to process that data; and then access compute infrastructure for execution. VGL was initially built to enable a specific set of researchers in government agencies access to specific data sets and a limited number of tools. Over the years it has evolved into a multi-purpose Earth science platform with access to an increased variety of data (e.g., Natural Hazards, Geochemistry), a broader range of software packages, and an increasing diversity of compute infrastructures. This expansion has been possible because of the approach to loosely couple data, tools and compute resources via interfaces that are built on international standards and accessed as network-enabled services wherever possible. Built originally for researchers that were not fussy about general usability, increasing emphasis on User Interfaces (UIs) and stability will lead to increased uptake in the education and industry sectors. Simultaneously, improvements are being added to facilitate access to data and tools by experienced researchers who want direct access to both data and flexible workflows.

Disaster protection of transport infrastructure and mobility using flood risk modeling and geospatial visualization.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-05-01

infrastructure networks are essential to sustain our economy, society and quality of life. Natural disasters cost lives, infrastructure destruction, and economic losses. In 2013 over 28 million people were displaced worldwide by natural disasters wit...

Driver performance modelling and its practical application to railway safety.

PubMed

Hamilton, W Ian; Clarke, Theresa

2005-11-01

This paper reports on the development and main features of a model of driver information processing. The work was conducted on behalf of Network Rail to meet a requirement to understand and manage the driver's interaction with the infrastructure through lineside reminder appliances. The model utilises cognitive theory and modelling techniques to describe driver performance in relation to infrastructure features and operational conditions. The model is capable of predicting the performance time, workload and error consequences of different operational conditions. The utility of the model is demonstrated through reports of its application to the following studies: Research on the effect of line speed on driver interaction with signals and signs. Calculation of minimum reading times for signals. Development of a human factors signals passed at danger (SPAD) hazard checklist, and a method to resolve conflicts between signal sighting solutions. Research on the demands imposed on drivers by European train control system (ETCS) driving in a UK context. The paper also reports on a validation of the model's utility as a tool for assessing cab and infrastructure drivability.

Interdependence and dynamics of essential services in an extensive risk context: a case study in Montserrat, West Indies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sword-Daniels, V. L.; Rossetto, T.; Wilson, T. M.; Sargeant, S.

2015-05-01

The essential services that support urban living are complex and interdependent, and their disruption in disasters directly affects society. Yet there are few empirical studies to inform our understanding of the vulnerabilities and resilience of complex infrastructure systems in disasters. This research takes a systems thinking approach to explore the dynamic behaviour of a network of essential services, in the presence and absence of volcanic ashfall hazards in Montserrat, West Indies. Adopting a case study methodology and qualitative methods to gather empirical data, we centre the study on the healthcare system and its interconnected network of essential services. We identify different types of relationship between sectors and develop a new interdependence classification system for analysis. Relationships are further categorised by hazard conditions, for use in extensive risk contexts. During heightened volcanic activity, relationships between systems transform in both number and type: connections increase across the network by 41%, and adapt to increase cooperation and information sharing. Interconnections add capacities to the network, increasing the resilience of prioritised sectors. This in-depth and context-specific approach provides a new methodology for studying the dynamics of infrastructure interdependence in an extensive risk context, and can be adapted for use in other hazard contexts.

Interdependence and dynamics of essential services in an extensive risk context: a case study in Montserrat, West Indies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sword-Daniels, V. L.; Rossetto, T.; Wilson, T. M.; Sargeant, S.

2015-02-01

The essential services that support urban living are complex and interdependent, and their disruption in disasters directly affects society. Yet there are few empirical studies to inform our understanding of the vulnerabilities and resilience of complex infrastructure systems in disasters. This research takes a systems thinking approach to explore the dynamic behaviour of a network of essential services, in the presence and absence of volcanic ashfall hazards in Montserrat, West Indies. Adopting a case study methodology and qualitative methods to gather empirical data we centre the study on the healthcare system and its interconnected network of essential services. We identify different types of relationship between sectors and develop a new interdependence classification system for analysis. Relationships are further categorised by hazard condition, for use in extensive risk contexts. During heightened volcanic activity, relationships between systems transform in both number and type: connections increase across the network by 41%, and adapt to increase cooperation and information sharing. Interconnections add capacities to the network, increasing the resilience of prioritised sectors. This in-depth and context-specific approach provides a new methodology for studying the dynamics of infrastructure interdependence in an extensive risk context, and can be adapted for use in other hazard contexts.

Campaign-level dynamic network modelling for spaceflight logistics for the flexible path concept

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, Koki; de Weck, Olivier L.; Hoffman, Jeffrey A.; Shishko, Robert

2016-06-01

This paper develops a network optimization formulation for dynamic campaign-level space mission planning. Although many past space missions have been designed mainly from a mission-level perspective, a campaign-level perspective will be important for future space exploration. In order to find the optimal campaign-level space transportation architecture, a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulation with a generalized multi-commodity flow and a time-expanded network is developed. Particularly, a new heuristics-based method, a partially static time-expanded network, is developed to provide a solution quickly. The developed method is applied to a case study containing human exploration of a near-Earth object (NEO) and Mars, related to the concept of the Flexible Path. The numerical results show that using the specific combinations of propulsion technologies, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), and other space infrastructure elements can reduce the initial mass in low-Earth orbit (IMLEO) significantly. In addition, the case study results also show that we can achieve large IMLEO reduction by designing NEO and Mars missions together as a campaign compared with designing them separately owing to their common space infrastructure pre-deployment. This research will be an important step toward efficient and flexible campaign-level space mission planning.

Trans-Pacific Astronomy Experiment Project Status

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hsu, Eddie

2000-01-01

The Trans-Pacific Astronomy Experiment is Phase 2 of the Trans-Pacific High Data Rate Satcom Experiments following the Trans-Pacific High Definition Video Experiment. It is a part of the Global Information Infrastructure-Global Interoperability for Broadband Networks Project (GII-GIBN). Provides global information infrastructure involving broadband satellites and terrestrial networks and access to information by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Collaboration of government, industry, and academic organizations demonstrate the use of broadband satellite links in a global information infrastructure with emphasis on astronomical observations, collaborative discussions and distance learning.

Cloud computing applications for biomedical science: A perspective.

PubMed

Navale, Vivek; Bourne, Philip E

2018-06-01

Biomedical research has become a digital data-intensive endeavor, relying on secure and scalable computing, storage, and network infrastructure, which has traditionally been purchased, supported, and maintained locally. For certain types of biomedical applications, cloud computing has emerged as an alternative to locally maintained traditional computing approaches. Cloud computing offers users pay-as-you-go access to services such as hardware infrastructure, platforms, and software for solving common biomedical computational problems. Cloud computing services offer secure on-demand storage and analysis and are differentiated from traditional high-performance computing by their rapid availability and scalability of services. As such, cloud services are engineered to address big data problems and enhance the likelihood of data and analytics sharing, reproducibility, and reuse. Here, we provide an introductory perspective on cloud computing to help the reader determine its value to their own research.

Cloud computing applications for biomedical science: A perspective

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

Biomedical research has become a digital data–intensive endeavor, relying on secure and scalable computing, storage, and network infrastructure, which has traditionally been purchased, supported, and maintained locally. For certain types of biomedical applications, cloud computing has emerged as an alternative to locally maintained traditional computing approaches. Cloud computing offers users pay-as-you-go access to services such as hardware infrastructure, platforms, and software for solving common biomedical computational problems. Cloud computing services offer secure on-demand storage and analysis and are differentiated from traditional high-performance computing by their rapid availability and scalability of services. As such, cloud services are engineered to address big data problems and enhance the likelihood of data and analytics sharing, reproducibility, and reuse. Here, we provide an introductory perspective on cloud computing to help the reader determine its value to their own research. PMID:29902176

Reconfiguring practice: the interdependence of experimental procedure and computing infrastructure in distributed earthquake engineering.

PubMed

De La Flor, Grace; Ojaghi, Mobin; Martínez, Ignacio Lamata; Jirotka, Marina; Williams, Martin S; Blakeborough, Anthony

2010-09-13

When transitioning local laboratory practices into distributed environments, the interdependent relationship between experimental procedure and the technologies used to execute experiments becomes highly visible and a focal point for system requirements. We present an analysis of ways in which this reciprocal relationship is reconfiguring laboratory practices in earthquake engineering as a new computing infrastructure is embedded within three laboratories in order to facilitate the execution of shared experiments across geographically distributed sites. The system has been developed as part of the UK Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation e-Research project, which links together three earthquake engineering laboratories at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford. We consider the ways in which researchers have successfully adapted their local laboratory practices through the modification of experimental procedure so that they may meet the challenges of coordinating distributed earthquake experiments.

Growing School Networks for Instructional Improvement in Jordan, 2009-2010. CPRE Research Report, # RR-70

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Marian A.

2011-01-01

In the last decade, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has made a substantial commitment to improving the quality of its public education system. The main vehicle for this work has been the Education Reform for Knowledge Economy (ERfKE) initiative. To date, key investments have been made in early childhood education, school infrastructure,…

The Science Information Infrastructure: An Integrated Network for Finding and Using Information about Our Physical World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warnick, Walter

2001-01-01

Several federal science agencies have formed an alliance to work together and to make an interagency science portal, science.gov http://www.science.gov, a reality that will serve the needs of the research community and provide universal access to physical science information for citizens. While much progress has been made, challenges of resources…

Practice-based Research Network Research Good Practices (PRGPs): Summary of Recommendations.

PubMed

Dolor, Rowena J; Campbell-Voytal, Kimberly; Daly, Jeanette; Nagykaldi, Zsolt J; O'Beirne, Maeve; Sterling, Pamela; Fagnan, Lyle J; Levy, Barcey; Michaels, LeAnn; Louks, Hannah A; Smith, Paul; Aspy, Cheryl B; Patterson, V Beth; Kano, Miria; Sussman, Andrew L; Williams, Robert; Neale, Anne Victoria

2015-12-01

Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) conduct research in community settings, which poses quality control challenges to the integrity of research, such as study implementation and data collection. A foundation for improving research processes within PBRNs is needed to ensure research integrity. Network directors and coordinators from seven U.S.-based PBRNs worked with a professional team facilitator during semiannual in-person meetings and monthly conference calls to produce content for a compendium of recommended research practices specific to the context of PBRNs. Participants were assigned to contribute content congruent with their expertise. Feedback on the draft document was obtained from attendees at the preconference workshop at the annual PBRN meeting in 2013. A revised document was circulated to additional PBRN peers prior to finalization. The PBRN Research Good Practices (PRGPs) document is organized into four chapters: (1) Building PBRN Infrastructure; (2) Study Development and Implementation; (3) Data Management, and (4) Dissemination Policies. Each chapter contains an introduction, detailed procedures for each section, and example resources with information links. The PRGPs is a PBRN-specific resource to facilitate PBRN management and staff training, to promote adherence to study protocols, and to increase validity and generalizability of study findings. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Intercontinental Multi-Domain Monitoring for LHC with perfSONAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vicinanza, D.

2012-12-01

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently running at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. Physicists are using LHC to recreate the conditions just after the Big Bang, by colliding two beams of particles and heavy ions head-on at very high energy. The project is generating more than 15 TB of raw data per year, plus 10 TB of “event summary data”. This data is sent out from CERN to eleven Tier 1 research centres in Europe, Asia, and North America using a multi-gigabits Optical Private Network (OPN), the LHCOPN. Tier 1 sites are then connected to 100+ academic and research institutions in the world (the Tier 2s) through a Multipoint to Multipoint network, the LHC Open Network Environment (LHCONE). Network monitoring on such complex network architecture to ensure robust and reliable operation is of crucial importance. The chosen approach for monitoring the OPN and ONE is based on the perfSONAR framework, which is designed for multi-domain monitoring environments. perfSONAR (www.perfsonar.net) is an infrastructure for performance monitoring data exchange between networks, making it easier to solve performance problems occurring between network measurement points interconnected through several network domains.

Emergency Communications Network for Disasters Management in Venezuela

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burguillos, C.; Deng, H.

2018-04-01

The integration and use of different space technology applications for disasters management, play an important role at the time of prevents the causes and mitigates the effects of the natural disasters. Nevertheless, the space technology counts with the appropriate technological resources to provide the accurate and timely information required to support in the decision making in case of disasters. Considering the aforementioned aspects, in this research is presented the design and implementation of an Emergency Communications Network for Disasters Management in Venezuela. Network based on the design of a topology that integrates the satellites platforms in orbit operation under administration of Venezuelan state, such as: the communications satellite VENESAT-1 and the remote sensing satellites VRSS-1 and VRSS-2; as well as their ground stations with the aim to implement an emergency communications network to be activated in case of disasters which affect the public and private communications infrastructures in Venezuela. In this regard, to design the network several technical and operational specifications were formulated, between them: Emergency Strategies to Maneuver the VRSS-1 and VRSS-2 satellites for optimal images capture and processing, characterization of the VENESAT-1 transponders and radiofrequencies for emergency communications services, technologies solutions formulation and communications links design for disaster management. As result, the emergency network designed allows to put in practice diverse communications technologies solutions and different scheme or media for images exchange between the areas affected for disasters and the entities involved in the disasters management tasks, providing useful data for emergency response and infrastructures recovery.

Closing the Gap: Cybersecurity for U.S. Forces and Commands

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-03-30

Dickson, Ph.D. Professor of Military Studies , JAWS Thesis Advisor Kevin Therrien, Col, USAF Committee Member Stephen Rogers, Colonel, USA Director...infrastructures, and includes the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and controllers in critical industries.”5...of information technology infrastructures, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, computer systems, and embedded processors and

Quality of service provision assessment in the healthcare information and telecommunications infrastructures.

PubMed

Babulak, Eduard

2006-01-01

The continuous increase in the complexity and the heterogeneity of corporate and healthcare telecommunications infrastructures will require new assessment methods of quality of service (QoS) provision that are capable of addressing all engineering and social issues with much faster speeds. Speed and accessibility to any information at any time from anywhere will create global communications infrastructures with great performance bottlenecks that may put in danger human lives, power supplies, national economy and security. Regardless of the technology supporting the information flows, the final verdict on the QoS is made by the end user. The users' perception of telecommunications' network infrastructure QoS provision is critical to the successful business management operation of any organization. As a result, it is essential to assess the QoS Provision in the light of user's perception. This article presents a cost effective methodology to assess the user's perception of quality of service provision utilizing the existing Staffordshire University Network (SUN) by adding a component of measurement to the existing model presented by Walker. This paper presents the real examples of CISCO Networking Solutions for Health Care givers and offers a cost effective approach to assess the QoS provision within the campus network, which could be easily adapted to any health care organization or campus network in the world.

Computer networks for financial activity management, control and statistics of databases of economic administration at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tyupikova, T. V.; Samoilov, V. N.

2003-04-01

Modern information technologies urge natural sciences to further development. But it comes together with evaluation of infrastructures, to spotlight favorable conditions for the development of science and financial base in order to prove and protect legally new research. Any scientific development entails accounting and legal protection. In the report, we consider a new direction in software, organization and control of common databases on the example of the electronic document handling, which functions in some departments of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.

Ubiquitous Green Computing Techniques for High Demand Applications in Smart Environments

PubMed Central

Zapater, Marina; Sanchez, Cesar; Ayala, Jose L.; Moya, Jose M.; Risco-Martín, José L.

2012-01-01

Ubiquitous sensor network deployments, such as the ones found in Smart cities and Ambient intelligence applications, require constantly increasing high computational demands in order to process data and offer services to users. The nature of these applications imply the usage of data centers. Research has paid much attention to the energy consumption of the sensor nodes in WSNs infrastructures. However, supercomputing facilities are the ones presenting a higher economic and environmental impact due to their very high power consumption. The latter problem, however, has been disregarded in the field of smart environment services. This paper proposes an energy-minimization workload assignment technique, based on heterogeneity and application-awareness, that redistributes low-demand computational tasks from high-performance facilities to idle nodes with low and medium resources in the WSN infrastructure. These non-optimal allocation policies reduce the energy consumed by the whole infrastructure and the total execution time. PMID:23112621

Ubiquitous green computing techniques for high demand applications in Smart environments.

PubMed

Zapater, Marina; Sanchez, Cesar; Ayala, Jose L; Moya, Jose M; Risco-Martín, José L

2012-01-01

Ubiquitous sensor network deployments, such as the ones found in Smart cities and Ambient intelligence applications, require constantly increasing high computational demands in order to process data and offer services to users. The nature of these applications imply the usage of data centers. Research has paid much attention to the energy consumption of the sensor nodes in WSNs infrastructures. However, supercomputing facilities are the ones presenting a higher economic and environmental impact due to their very high power consumption. The latter problem, however, has been disregarded in the field of smart environment services. This paper proposes an energy-minimization workload assignment technique, based on heterogeneity and application-awareness, that redistributes low-demand computational tasks from high-performance facilities to idle nodes with low and medium resources in the WSN infrastructure. These non-optimal allocation policies reduce the energy consumed by the whole infrastructure and the total execution time.

Multi Infrastructure Control and Optimization Toolkit, Resilient Design Module (MICOT-RDT), version 2.X

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bent, Russell; Nagarajan, Harsha; Yamangil, Emre

2016-06-24

MICOT is a tool for optimizing and controlling infrastructure systems. In includes modules for optimizing the operations of an infrastructure structure (for example optimal dispatch), designing infrastructure systems, restoring infrastructures systems, resiliency, preparing for natural disasters, interdicting networks, state estimation, sensor placement, and simulation of infrastructure systems. It implements algorithms developed at LANL that have been published in the academic community. This is a release of the of resilient design module of the MICOT.

How to Purchase, Set Up, & Safeguard a CD-ROM Network.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Almquist, Arne J.

1996-01-01

Presents an overview of the hardware and software required to network CD-ROMs in schools. Topics include network infrastructures, networking software, file server-based systems, CD-ROM servers, vendors of network components, workstations, network utilities, and network management. (LRW)

GuMNet - A high altitude monitoring network in the Sierra de Guadarrama (Madrid, Spain)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santolaria-Canales, Edmundo

2016-04-01

The Guadarrama Monitoring Network (GuMNet) is an observational infrastructure focused on monitoring the state of the atmosphere and the ground in the Sierra de Guadarrama, 50 km NW of the city of Madrid. The network is composed of10 stations ranging from low altitude (900 m a.s.l.) to high mountain climate (2400 m a.s.l.). The atmospheric instrumentation includes sensors for air temperature, air humidity, 4-component net radiation, precipitation, snow height and wind speed and direction. The surface and subsurface infrastructure includes temperature and humidity sensors distributed in 9 trenches up to a maximum of 1 m depth and additionally temperature sensors in 15 PVC cased boreholes down to 20 m and 2 m with a higher vertical resolution close to the surface. All stations are located in exposed open areas except for one site that is in a forested area for measuring air-ground fluxes under forest conditions. High altitude sites are focused on periglacial areas and lower altitude sites have emphasis on pastures. One of the low altitude sites is equipped with a 10 m high tower with 3D sonic anemometers and a CO2/H2O analyzer that will allow the sampling of wind profiles and H2O and CO2 eddy covariance fluxes, important for estimation of CO2 and energy exchanges over complex vegetated surfaces. The network is connected via general packet radio service to the central lab in the Campus of Excellence of Moncloa and management software has been developed to handle the operation of the infrastructure. The data provided by GuMNet will help to improve the characterization of atmospheric variability from turbulent scales to meteorology and climate at high mountain areas, as well as land-atmosphere interactions. The network information aims at meeting the needs of accuracy to be used for biological, agricultural, hydrological, meteorological and climatic investigations in this area with relevance for ecosystem oriented studies. This setup will complement the broader network of meteorological stations of the Spanish National Meteorological Agency(AEMET), mostly distributed in the lower latitude range. This initiative is supported and developed by research groups integrating the GuMNet Consortium from the Complutense and Polytechnical Universities of Madrid (UCM and UPM), the Energetic Environmental and Technological Research Centre (CIEMAT), AEMET, and the National Park Sierra de Guadarrama (PNSG) which provided the initial foundations of this network. GuMNet will be operational in 2016. Web: http://www.ucm.es/gumnet/ Contact: edmundo.santolaria@ucm.es

The International Symposium on Grids and Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

The International Symposium on Grids and Clouds (ISGC) 2012 will be held at Academia Sinica in Taipei from 26 February to 2 March 2012, with co-located events and workshops. The conference is hosted by the Academia Sinica Grid Computing Centre (ASGC). 2012 is the decennium anniversary of the ISGC which over the last decade has tracked the convergence, collaboration and innovation of individual researchers across the Asia Pacific region to a coherent community. With the continuous support and dedication from the delegates, ISGC has provided the primary international distributed computing platform where distinguished researchers and collaboration partners from around the world share their knowledge and experiences. The last decade has seen the wide-scale emergence of e-Infrastructure as a critical asset for the modern e-Scientist. The emergence of large-scale research infrastructures and instruments that has produced a torrent of electronic data is forcing a generational change in the scientific process and the mechanisms used to analyse the resulting data deluge. No longer can the processing of these vast amounts of data and production of relevant scientific results be undertaken by a single scientist. Virtual Research Communities that span organisations around the world, through an integrated digital infrastructure that connects the trust and administrative domains of multiple resource providers, have become critical in supporting these analyses. Topics covered in ISGC 2012 include: High Energy Physics, Biomedicine & Life Sciences, Earth Science, Environmental Changes and Natural Disaster Mitigation, Humanities & Social Sciences, Operations & Management, Middleware & Interoperability, Security and Networking, Infrastructure Clouds & Virtualisation, Business Models & Sustainability, Data Management, Distributed Volunteer & Desktop Grid Computing, High Throughput Computing, and High Performance, Manycore & GPU Computing.

Heterogeneous Wireless Mesh Network Technology Evaluation for Space Proximity and Surface Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeCristofaro, Michael A.; Lansdowne, Chatwin A.; Schlesinger, Adam M.

2014-01-01

NASA has identified standardized wireless mesh networking as a key technology for future human and robotic space exploration. Wireless mesh networks enable rapid deployment, provide coverage in undeveloped regions. Mesh networks are also self-healing, resilient, and extensible, qualities not found in traditional infrastructure-based networks. Mesh networks can offer lower size, weight, and power (SWaP) than overlapped infrastructure-perapplication. To better understand the maturity, characteristics and capability of the technology, we developed an 802.11 mesh network consisting of a combination of heterogeneous commercial off-the-shelf devices and opensource firmware and software packages. Various streaming applications were operated over the mesh network, including voice and video, and performance measurements were made under different operating scenarios. During the testing several issues with the currently implemented mesh network technology were identified and outlined for future work.

Ocean Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP): developing a common framework for marine data management on a global scale

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glaves, Helen; Schaap, Dick

2016-04-01

The increasingly ocean basin level approach to marine research has led to a corresponding rise in the demand for large quantities of high quality interoperable data. This requirement for easily discoverable and readily available marine data is currently being addressed by initiatives such as SeaDataNet in Europe, Rolling Deck to Repository (R2R) in the USA and the Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN) with each having implemented an e-infrastructure to facilitate the discovery and re-use of standardised multidisciplinary marine datasets available from a network of distributed repositories, data centres etc. within their own region. However, these regional data systems have been developed in response to the specific requirements of their users and in line with the priorities of the funding agency. They have also been created independently of the marine data infrastructures in other regions often using different standards, data formats, technologies etc. that make integration of marine data from these regional systems for the purposes of basin level research difficult. Marine research at the ocean basin level requires a common global framework for marine data management which is based on existing regional marine data systems but provides an integrated solution for delivering interoperable marine data to the user. The Ocean Data Interoperability Platform (ODIP/ODIP II) project brings together those responsible for the management of the selected marine data systems and other relevant technical experts with the objective of developing interoperability across the regional e-infrastructures. The commonalities and incompatibilities between the individual data infrastructures are identified and then used as the foundation for the specification of prototype interoperability solutions which demonstrate the feasibility of sharing marine data across the regional systems and also with relevant larger global data services such as GEO, COPERNICUS, IODE, POGO etc. The potential impact for the individual regional data infrastructures of implementing these prototype interoperability solutions is also being evaluated to determine both the technical and financial implications of their integration within existing systems. These impact assessments form part of the strategy to encourage wider adoption of the ODIP solutions and approach beyond the current scope of the project which is focussed on regional marine data systems in Europe, Australia, the USA and, more recently, Canada.

RMS: a platform for managing cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional research project collaboration.

PubMed

Luo, Jake; Apperson-Hansen, Carolyn; Pelfrey, Clara M; Zhang, Guo-Qiang

2014-11-30

Cross-institutional cross-disciplinary collaboration has become a trend as researchers move toward building more productive and innovative teams for scientific research. Research collaboration is significantly changing the organizational structure and strategies used in the clinical and translational science domain. However, due to the obstacles of diverse administrative structures, differences in area of expertise, and communication barriers, establishing and managing a cross-institutional research project is still a challenging task. We address these challenges by creating an integrated informatics platform to reduce the barriers to biomedical research collaboration. The Request Management System (RMS) is an informatics infrastructure designed to transform a patchwork of expertise and resources into an integrated support network. The RMS facilitates investigators' initiation of new collaborative projects and supports the management of the collaboration process. In RMS, experts and their knowledge areas are categorized and managed structurally to provide consistent service. A role-based collaborative workflow is tightly integrated with domain experts and services to streamline and monitor the life-cycle of a research project. The RMS has so far tracked over 1,500 investigators with over 4,800 tasks. The research network based on the data collected in RMS illustrated that the investigators' collaborative projects increased close to 3 times from 2009 to 2012. Our experience with RMS indicates that the platform reduces barriers for cross-institutional collaboration of biomedical research projects. Building a new generation of infrastructure to enhance cross-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration has become an important yet challenging task. In this paper, we share the experience of developing and utilizing a collaborative project management system. The results of this study demonstrate that a web-based integrated informatics platform can facilitate and increase research interactions among investigators.

Network Randomization and Dynamic Defense for Critical Infrastructure Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chavez, Adrian R.; Martin, Mitchell Tyler; Hamlet, Jason

2015-04-01

Critical Infrastructure control systems continue to foster predictable communication paths, static configurations, and unpatched systems that allow easy access to our nation's most critical assets. This makes them attractive targets for cyber intrusion. We seek to address these attack vectors by automatically randomizing network settings, randomizing applications on the end devices themselves, and dynamically defending these systems against active attacks. Applying these protective measures will convert control systems into moving targets that proactively defend themselves against attack. Sandia National Laboratories has led this effort by gathering operational and technical requirements from Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and performing research and developmentmore » to create a proof-of-concept solution. Our proof-of-concept has been tested in a laboratory environment with over 300 nodes. The vision of this project is to enhance control system security by converting existing control systems into moving targets and building these security measures into future systems while meeting the unique constraints that control systems face.« less

Broadband Satellite Technologies and Markets Assessed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wallett, Thomas M.

1999-01-01

The current usage of broadband (data rate greater than 64 kilobits per second (kbs)) for multimedia network computer applications is increasing, and the need for network communications technologies and systems to support this use is also growing. Satellite technology will likely be an important part of the National Information Infrastructure (NII) and the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) in the next decade. Several candidate communications technologies that may be used to carry a portion of the increased data traffic have been reviewed, and estimates of the future demand for satellite capacity have been made. A study was conducted by the NASA Lewis Research Center to assess the satellite addressable markets for broadband applications. This study effort included four specific milestones: (1) assess the changing nature of broadband applications and their usage, (2) assess broadband satellite and terrestrial technologies, (3) estimate the size of the global satellite addressable market from 2000 to 2010, and (4) identify how the impact of future technology developments could increase the utility of satellite-based transport to serve this market.