14596570
Managing cognitive overload in the Flora of North America project
The Flora of North America (FNA) is a large-scale collaboration involving over 800 scientists working together to create a 30-volume compendium of all naturally-occurring plants in North America. The size and complexity of the project result in significant cognitive overload which comprises not just information or data but also work practices and activities. We view FNA as a distributed cognitive system where information, people, artifacts, processes and expertise are functionally distributed among members of the community. Our Web-based work environment, the FNA Internet Information Service (FNA IIS), implements role-based views derived from the socially constructed roles that exist within FNA. We propose that the concepts of role-based views and boundary object reification represent at least a partial answer to the problems of complexity management and information overload in large-scale collaborative systems such as FNA.
31472915
Using Hermes-F: experiences with a framework for developing information retrieval applications
Hermes-F is a framework that enables the development of applications that perform information retrieval (IR) tasks. Its central component is an extensible server that provides access to a variety of IR models, query transformations and digital collections. We have successfully instantiated our proposed framework by implementing a fully operational IR server that is accessed from various digital library applications. We describe the Hermes-F environment and focus on our results of using and extending the available IR models for diverse collections.
16679270
Collaborative environments for digital publishing
This work presents a software platform designed and implemented to support the creation of digital publishing organizations (DPOs) and to mediate the collaborative interaction among participants of the digital publishing process. We posit that as digital publications become the norm, the organization of publishing entities is expected to evolve and to differ significantly from current print-oriented publishers. Our major goal is to support the entire digital publishing process, which may vary from DPO to DPO. Distinctive features of our design include facilities for users to define the structure, participants and genres handled by DPOs, as well as tools to support the processes involved in authoring, reviewing, publishing and using digital materials.
40290854
A Hybrid Approach for Image Retrieval with Ontological Content-Based Indexing
This paper presents a novel approach for image retrieval from digital collections. Specifically, we describe IRONS (Image Retrieval with Ontological Descriptions of Shapes), a system based on the application of several novel algorithms that combine low-level image analysis techniques with automatic shape extraction and indexing. In order to speed up preprocessing, we have proposed and implemented the convex regions algorithm and discrete curve evolution approach. The image indexing module of IRONS is addressed using two proposed algorithms: the tangent space and the two-segment turning function for shapes representation invariant to rotation and scale. Another goal of the proposed method is the integration of user-oriented descriptions, which leads to more complete retrieval by accelerating the convergence to the expected result. For the definition of image semantics, ontology annotation of sub-regions has been used.
5575203
X-tract: structure extraction from botanical textual descriptions
Most available information today, both from printed books and digital repositories, is in the form of free-format texts. The task of retrieving information from these ever-growing repositories has become a challenge for information retrieval (IR) researchers. In some fields, such as botany and taxonomy, textual descriptions observe a set of rules and use a relatively limited vocabulary. This makes botanical textual descriptions an interesting area to explore IR techniques for finding structure and facilitating semantic analysis. This paper presents X-tract, a solution to the problem of text analysis and structure extraction in a specific application domain, namely floristic morphologic descriptions. The solution demonstrates the potential of using a grammar in the determination of information structure in a botanical digital library. We have developed a prototype based on this approach in which given an HTML or plain text, X-tract analyzes it and presents results to the user so he or she can verify the proposed structure before updating the database. This transformation is useful also in the process of storing morphologic descriptions in a database with a preestablished format. The solution is implemented in the context of the Floristic Digital Library (FDL), a large digital library project comprising a wide variety of botanical documents, formats and services.
1477944
HyperActive: extending an open hypermedia architecture to support agency
Agency and hypermedia have both been suggested as powerful means to cope with future information management and human-computer interaction requirements. However, research projects have included interface agents only marginally in the context of hypermedia systems. This article proposes a set of criteria for characterizing interface agents and offers a perspective view of ongoing research in the field using those criteria as a framework. The need to provide a supporting infrastructure that facilitates testing and experimentation of interface agents is stressed. The article describes an existing open hypermedia architecture and introduces an extended architecture that includes provisions to support the development and operation of interface agents. A prototype instantiating this system architecture is presented, as well as an initial assessment of the potential and requirements of interface agents in a hypermedia environment.
361845
Divide-and-conquer approach for brain machine interfaces: nonlinear mixture of competitive linear models
This paper proposes a divide-and-conquer strategy for designing brain machine interfaces. A nonlinear combination of competitively trained local linear models (experts) is used to identify the mapping from neuronal activity in cortical areas associated with arm movement to the hand position of a primate. The proposed architecture and the training algorithm are described in detail and numerical performance comparisons with alternative linear and nonlinear modeling approaches, including time-delay neural networks and recursive multilayer perceptrons, are presented. This new strategy allows training the local linear models using normalized LMS and using a relatively smaller nonlinear network to efficiently combine the predictions of the linear experts. This leads to savings in computational requirements, while the performance is still similar to a large fully nonlinear network.
6491207
Florida Wireless Implantable Recording Electrodes (FWIRE) for Brain Machine Interfaces
This paper reviews on-going efforts towards the development of the Florida wireless implantable recording electrodes (FWIRE). The FWIRE microsystem platform is a fully implantable flexible substrate microelectrode array that employs state-of-the-art integrate-and-fire (IF) signal representation and wireless interface circuitry for recording neural activity from behaving rodents. The modular nature of the implantable neural recording electrode allows future enhancements to be seamlessly added to improve functionality including but not limited to rechargeability through inductive coupling, custom microelectrode arrays, higher capacity batteries, and more advanced integrated circuit technologies. This paper concentrates on custom integrated circuits such as neural interfacing amplifiers, baseband signal processing, wireless data and power interfaces, and battery management system.