Oracle SQL 9i Training Course

PrePrint: Application Transparency: How and Why are Providers Manipulating Our Information?

In contrast to network neutrality, application transparency has so far received little scientific or media attention. Consequently, little is being done to ensure that Internet users understand how the information they receive may have been manipulated, let alone ensuring that they know whether they really are being given the information they asked for. We initiate a discussion of this problem by attempting a definition of application transparency, describing a categorization system for the reasons behind application manipulation, presenting and analysing some real-world examples of unexpected service behavior, and finally providing suggestions for achieving true application transparency.

PrePrint: Evaluation: A Challenge for Visual Analytics

Visual analytics aims at providing people insight in large data sets using a combination of automated and visual methods. Development of successful solutions is currently often a trial and error process, and there is a lack of solid guidelines and findings. One explanation for this is that visual analytics aims to cover a huge range of data, users, and tasks; another factor is that evaluation in visual analytics is particularly challenging. In this article we give a broad overview of these challenges and efforts to make progress.

PrePrint: Reflecting on the foundations and qualities of tangible interaction

In the past decade, the field of Tangible Interaction (TI) has gained significant interest. As a result, numerous systems, theories and frameworks have been developed with this vision in mind. This has led to various instantiations of TI that seem developed to make digital information tangible, rather than to optimally use and combine all important qualities of TI. We believe that TI has more to offer than what has been used advantageously so far. Therefore, this paper reflects on the foundations of TI and identifies three qualities of control and representation in TI based on existing systems, theories and frameworks.

PrePrint: Big Data and Opportunities for Critical Care

Intensive Care Units (ICUs) internationally provide critical care to patients with life threatening conditions. Neonatal ICUs care for premature and ill term infants. Critical care utilizes significant healthcare resources. In USA and Canada, it has been estimated that the cost of critical care is between 20% and 30% of healthcare organization expenditure [1]. There has been a growing effort to move from paper to electronic charting in critical care. These initiatives however, are not addressing the lack of research and clinical translation using high frequency data streams in critical care for earlier onset detection of a range of conditions together with improved information about clinical events. There is great potential for such tools to improved clinical decision support within critical care. Clinical decision support in critical care is a big data problem that requires big data approaches for improved quality of care. Critical care is a complex environment that must support collaborative decision making amongst different care provider roles. Opportunities abound for significant medical discovery and quality improvement in healthcare through the systemic adoption of Big Data approaches for Critical Care.

PrePrint: Rapid Prototyping of Advanced Cloud-Based Systems

Deploying muti-tier business, retail, financial or social networks on the computing cloud is a complex, expensive and challenging task. While frameworks such as Software as a Service (SaaS) or Platform as a Service (PaaS) appear to offer a pathway to rapid deployment, on closer examination these approaches are both language-specific and architecture-specific, and often tied to a vendor through use of predefined application templates. The authors propose a new approach to constructing, deploying and optimizing complex cloud-based applications in a language-independent and vendor-neutral manner, allowing rapid prototyping of business applications in a manner that assists targeted performance optimization. The proposed approach, Cloud Component Model (CCM), relies on logical functional decomposition of the application, utilizing loosely coupled components in a manner that realizes the promise of the cloud, while freeing the design from the restrictive constraints of a particular programming style or architectural pattern. Our experience using a complex e-Commerce benchmark provides describes CCM's application and resulting benefits in terms of reduction in prototyping time, testing cost, and performance.

PrePrint: Transforming Big Data Into Collective Awareness For Transformative Impact On Society

ThThis article examines the transformation of Big Data into collective awareness in order to have transformative impact on society. We argue that computational management of common-pool resources requires a new approach to ‘institution science’. This proposal goes beyond using sensor networks for event and situation recognition and ICT for social networking, and instead integrates the artificial society of sensors and devices and the natural society of ICT-enabled users within a self-organising community. We intend this integration to deliver a ‘higher form’ of collective awareness by using Big Data to achieve desirable macro-level outcomes for the community and to avoid undesirable ones, for example by sustaining rather than depleting a common-pool resource. We argue that a crucial element of ensuring that the original producers of the Big Data are also those that receive the benefits of the desirable outcomes, Big Data should also be treated as a common-pool resource. In summary we propose a common integrated framework for both knowledge-commons management and critical-infrastructure management and discuss its potential for transformative impact on society.

PrePrint: Real-time Visual Analytics of Text Data Streams

Social media, online news websites, and product review pages are examples for the production of vast amounts of textual information that have become widely accessible through the Web. This article describes novel visual data analysis methodology that supports the interactive exploration of this rich body of information in real-time. We also discuss related research challenges and present a taxonomy of current text analysis components, helpful for the design of visual analysis systems for streaming text sources.

PrePrint: Smart Cities in China

Smart Cities, change the traditional production mode and lifestyle, enrich people's material and cultural life, and promote economic and social progress. This paper introduces the research from Digital Cities to Smart Cities, discusses major projects of Smart Cities in China, analyzes their theoretical basis, key technology and framework, reflects on existing problems, draws lessons, and makes suggestions and explores possible development in the future.

PrePrint: Understanding Blood-Flow Dynamics: Challenges in Visualization

Blood-flow velocity information can nowadays be obtained through imaging and simulation, providing time-varying volumetric vector-fields. The 4D blood-flow data contain valuable information for diagnosis, prognosis, and risk assessment of cardiovascular diseases, which currently form the leading cause of death worldwide. However, these complex blood-flow data are still rarely analyzed, because conventional inspection is insufficient to extract useful information. Therefore, comprehensive visualization techniques are necessary to effectively communicate the essential blood-flow dynamics. In recent years, the blood-flow application has gained interest in the visualization research field, and new techniques have been proposed to convey the complex hemodynamics. Still, many challenges remain in terms of the visualization and interaction. This work first describes the main applications, and the current blood-flow analysis process. Subsequently, we set out key challenges for blood-flow visualization research, and describe to what extent the challenges have been achieved in the state of the art in this field.

PrePrint: Software and Hardware Infrastructures for Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics is growing in popularity both as a research and application field. However, implementing Visual Analytics applications remains difficult due to the mismatch between the needs of analysts who perform exploratory analysis and existing software components for information visualization, data analysis, and data management. We explain analysts' requirements in terms of human cognitive abilities and show how information visualization has had to re-implement in-memory databases and some analytical algorithms to meet these demands. Visual Analytics relies on visualization but also requires tools for performing analysis and managing data at larger scales. We explain how the competing constraints of limited human cognition and increasing data strain existing software systems and provide some hints how to address them in the future. We argue that addressing these requirements will benefit not only Visual Analytics tools, but also analytics and data management systems in general.

Bank of England and HM Treasury announce extension to the Funding for Lending Scheme

The Bank of England and HM Treasury are today announcing an extension to the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS).

Drax Biomass backed by UK Guarantee

Today, Drax Group Plc has announced that private funding for the conversion of their coal-fired power station to biomass will be the first to be underpinned by a UK Guarantee.

Review of the Special Administration Regime for Investment Banks published

The Treasury is today presenting Peter Bloxham’s review of the special administration regime for investment banks (SAR) to Parliament.

Minister launches online Gift Aid service

Claiming Gift Aid repayments will be quicker and easier for charities and sports clubs from now on, Sajid Javid, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said today.

Central Government Main Supply Estimates 2013-14

Manor of Northstead

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has this day appointed David Wright Miliband to be Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.

New UK multilateral action to combat tax evasion

Statistical Release: UK Official holdings of international reserves, March 2013

Chancellor speech on changes to the tax and benefits system

Government announces board members of new Financial Conduct Authority

Today, the Government has announced the board members of the new Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).