Education and training on Web mapping and the Geospatial Web

We developed an identifier mapping application for bio-informatics research in Java programming language. It is easy to use and provides many usability functionalities that are expected as essentials for a professional appli-cation. It supports three widely used mapping services and can convert many ids from one source database in-to many target databases at once. Id mapping across service providers is possible by remapping the resultant ids. Because it adheres to the NetBeans platform archi-tecture, it can be incorporated into other NetBeans plat-form applications as an id mapping provider without adaption or modification.Availability: You can access the application at http://ne-on. gachon.ac.kr/idmapper.html.Keywords: ID mapping, java, netbeans, rich client, web services Introduction “-omics” style experiments, such as sequencing, micro-array, and proteomics, generate enormous amounts of data (Kim et al., 2006, Kim et al., 2008). To integrate and analyze the data in various respects, multiple tools are used. Each tool supports its own set of identifiers for genes or gene products. Even though there are widely used identifiers, such as Ensembl (Flicek et al., 2008), NCBI RefSeq (Pruitt et al., 2007), UniProt (The Uniprot Consortium, 2008) and HGNC (Povey et al., 2001), there is no universal identifier. When multiple tools and services are used, identifier conversion prob-lems across multiple databases arise frequently. A small research group can not afford its own mapping service and relies on external services. There exist efforts to reconcile identifiers across multiple source databases, such as the David gene ID conversion tool (Huang et al., 2008), MatchMiner (Bussey et al., 2003), IDconverter (Alibes et al., 2007), Onto- translate (Khatri et al., 2006), PICR (Cote et al., 2007), Synergizer (Brriz et al., 2008), and Biomart (Smedley et al., 2009). Services that are provided in the form of a web page can not be incorporated into other applications easily. Only a few services provide API access for batch map-ping or incorporation into other applications. The Protein Identifier Cross-Reference (PICR) service is a web application that provides interactive and pro-grammatic (SOAP and REST) access to a mapping algo-rithm that uses the UniProt Archive (UniParc) as a data warehouse to offer protein cross-references. The Syner-gizer is a service for translating between sets of bio-logical identifiers. It can, for example, translate Ensembl Gene IDs to Entrez Gene IDs, or IPI IDs to HGNC gene symbols, and much more. The Synergizer works via a web interface (for users who are not programmers) or through a web service (for programmatic access). BioMart is a query-oriented data management system, developed jointly by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the European Bioinformatics Insti-tute (EBI). It can be accessed via web services and can be adapted for identifier mapping. BridgeDb, though not released publically yet, is an-other attempt at an id mapping framework for bio-informatics applications. BridgeDb lets one add the fol-lowing capabilities quickly and easily: translate identi-fiers from one system to another, search references by id or symbol, and link out to online information for an identifier. Applications, such as the PathVisio pathway analysis tool, WikiPathways, CyThesaurus Cytoscape plug-in, and the NetworkMerge Cytoscape plug-in, are utilizing functionalities provided by BridgeDB.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has constituted a major part of the curriculum in private and public institutions in Saudi Arabia for over eight decades. More recently, the emergence of English as a global language has made it a socially desirable language in Saudi society, as elsewhere in the world. However, despite the long history of English teaching in Saudi Arabia and the growth of the profession over the years, the overall English proficiency level of the majority of students is low and unsatisfactory. Saudi researchers have reported many reasons for the ineffectiveness of English Language Teaching (ELT) including, but not limited to, low levels of student motivation, negative attitudes toward English, a substandard English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, and inefficient teacher pedagogical practices. These problems fall into two major categories: problems related to the lwhyr of teaching and learning of EFL, and problems related to the lhowr of teaching and learning EFL. In investigating these issues, much of this research has been carried out within individual/psychological/structuralist/positivist frameworks, which has failed not only to problematize the complexity of such constructs but also to appreciate the fact that all realities are produced/(re)produced via ldiscourser. Hence, the present study investigated EFL teaching and learning practices by employing Foucauldian and poststructuralist frameworks. This study used poststructuralism not only as a theoretical lens per se, but also established it through the implemented analytical tools and textual representations of the collected data. Employing a poststructuralist discursive perspective made it possible to view EFL teaching and learning as complex social practices, interacting with the discourses of English and ELT practices available in the global as well as the local context(s). These discourses create the nexus between power and knowledge and impact on what an EFL teacher/ learner does within a classroom setting by constructing perspectives of reality through which he or she comes to understand the EFL teaching and learning process in certain ways which constitute epistemological spaces and generate particular practices. Drawing on policy documents, EFL textbooks, classroom observations, interviews with two Saudi EFL teachers, and focus group discussions with Saudi EFL students in two rural areas, the study identified seven discourses circulating within and competing across the examined discursive spaces. The first three discourses are related to English and its values, including: English as a universal language; English as the language for better employment opportunities; and English as the language for spreading religion. The remaining four discourses centred around ELT with exams as an important aspect of EFL learning and ELT; CLT as the key to success in ELT; L1 as a barrier to successful EFL learning; and EFL textbooks as an essential aspect of the processes of EFL learning and ELT. In exploring the production and (re)production of these discourses through the examination of how visibilization, normalisation, exclusionary/inclusionary acts, classification, and subject positioning as discursive strategies are employed, it was found that whether a particular discourse was made visible or invisible depended on other discourses operating across the examined discursive spaces: the social context, the policy, the textbook, the classroom, and the teachers and students. The analysis of the connection(s) and misconnection(s) between these discursive spaces demonstrated that the interplay between the different discourses constructed discursive battlegrounds, which impacted the processes of EFL teaching and learning. Through the investigation of this interplay, it was found that there was a disconnect and an ambivalent relationship between the study participantsr espoused discourses of English and their EFL teaching and learning practices, suggesting that EFL teachers and learners should not be considered lstabler figures, but rather as social agents with discursively constructed ever changing subjectivities. Furthermore, the analyses of the constructions of the discourses operating within the examined policy texts demonstrate an intra disparity and fragmentation. This was manifested in the difference between the ideals of the EFL curriculum and the institutionally imposed regulating techniques, that is, examinations and teachersr assessment practices which had negative effects on EFL teaching and learning dynamics. Additionally, as a consequence of the competition between the different sources of discursive constructions, I found that there was a gulf between the EFL policies and the enactment of these policies in EFL teaching and learning dynamics in the observed EFL classrooms. The findings of this study also indicate that if a discourse promoted through the policy is mediated by discourses operating in the larger societal context, it became more visible in teaching and learning practices as compared to other discourses that did not have social moorings. This suggests that taking the prevailing social expectations into account at the stage of developing any policy is of paramount importance.nThe study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the interplay of connections and misconnections between competing discourses across different spaces in Saudi educational settings for improving the EFL teaching/learning environments in Saudi Arabia and other similar contexts.n

Curriculum material is generally considered the subject matter of information, talents, dispositions, understandings, and principles that make up research programs in the field. At a more complex level, the curricula need to contain historical and socio-political strengths, traditions, cultural views, and goals with wide differences in sovereignty, adaptation, and local understanding that encompass a diversity of cultures, laws, metaphysics, and political discourse This study aims to develop a curriculum with local content as a new approach in early childhood science learning. The Local Content Curriculum (LCC) is compiled and developed to preserve the uniqueness of local culture, natural environment, and community crafts for early childhood teachers so that they can introduce local content to early childhood. Research and model development combines the design of the Dick-Carey and Dabbagh models with qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that local content curriculum products can be supplemented into early childhood curricula in institutions according to local conditions. Curricula with local content can be used as a reinforcement for the introduction of science in early childhood. The research implication demands the concern of all stakeholders to see that the introduction of local content is very important to be given from an early age, so that children know, get used to, like, maintain, and love local wealth from an early age.
 Keywords: Early Childhood, Scientific Learning, Local Content Curriculum Model

This thesis emphasizes current Web GIS technologies with emphasis on architectures, particularly web applications. The goal of the study is based on data sharing and improving the efficiency of students, professionals and researchers utilizing data from the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science (SFRES) geospatial data. This paper is an overview of the MTU geospatial web page and using ArcGIS JavaScript API to develop a web application. The development of the application was based on open source software tools such as Map Server and Feature Server for the GIS functions, HTML, and JavaScript as programming languages and CSS as a markup language.

Concerns about the mental health of college students have raised in recent years. The present study aims to assess the presence of student psychological services provided for higher education students in Europe centres. We developed a semi-structured web-based survey and searched the websites of institutions included in the European Tertiary Education Registry. Survey questions covered the presence/absence of student psychological centres, provided services, their theoretical orientation, the duration of interventions, the students’ most common reported problems, and the most common organisational problems these services faced. We contacted via email and/or contact forms 2806 institutions. Only 121 participated (4.05% of all European institutions). The majority (103, 85.12%) of institutions reported having student psychological services. Counselling was the most widely provided intervention (81, 78.64%), followed by group interventions (25, 24.27%), workshops, psychotherapy, and career counselling (22, 21.36%). According to services staff, the main issues reported by students were anxiety (57, 55.34%), social and relational problems (40, 38.83%), academic issues (37, 35.92%), and mood disorders (37, 35.92%). Many services offered cognitive-behavioural interventions (38, 36.89%), while psychodynamic interventions were offered in 12 institutions (11.65%). This study is a first attempt to underline the importance of mapping student counselling centres and services available in European tertiary education institutions, and, also, to promote international data sharing of these important insights. These insights reveal the inadequacy of institutional mental health services for students struggling with serious mental health problems, which in turn explains the great need for clinical psychology and psychotherapeutic interventions.

This article explores some problems and issues in developing a common curriculum in European schools and teacher training institutions. The themes of tolerance and interdependence are explored against the background of data from a multi‐lateral action research project and some perspectives arising from a Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

While there is a wealth of research evidencing the benefits of active-learning approaches, the extent to which these teaching practices are adopted in the sciences is not well known. The aim of this study is to establish an evidential baseline of teaching practices across a bachelor of science degree program at a large research-intensive Australian university. Our purpose is to contribute to knowledge on the adoption levels of evidence-based teaching practices by faculty within a science degree program and inform our science curriculum review in practical terms. We used the Teaching Practices Inventory (TPI) to measure the use of evidence-based teaching approaches in 129 courses (units of study) across 13 departments. We compared the results with those from a Canadian institution to identify areas in need of improvement at our institution. We applied a regression analysis to the data and found that the adoption of evidence-based teaching practices differs by discipline and is higher in first-year classes at our institution. The study demonstrates that the TPI can be used in different institutional contexts and provides data that can inform practice and policy.

As European higher education institutions (HEIs) increasingly grapple with new challenges, the importance and difficulty of massification, democratization, and inclusion have been reinforced by the recent pandemic crisis and the simultaneous need for pedagogical continuity. Meeting these challenges not only implies a profound change in organization and teaching practices, which need to focus on user-centered quality learning, but also raises questions about financing, management, and governance. Using results from two participative experiments conducted in the French University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne in the framework of the OpenU (Online Pedagogical Resources in European Universities) project, the authors present ethical and practical issues that currently face inclusive and user-oriented policies in the European higher education area. Through this paper, we argue that creating an imaginative and inclusive participative process is as essential today in the spirit of evidence-based policies supporting digital education as it is partial. We furthermore present emerging results on current needs, as well as incentives to increase participation. Such results ultimately allow us to draw conclusions and recommendations for institutional and national policymakers to further improve user-oriented policies.

Semantic Web technologies are being increasingly adopted by the geospatial community during last decade through the utilization of open standards for expressing and serving geospatial data. This was also dramatically assisted by the ever-increasing access and usage of geographic mapping and location-based services via smart devices in people’s daily activities. In this paper, we explore the developmental framework of a pure JavaScript client-side GIS platform exclusively based on invocable geospatial Web services. We also extend JavaScript utilization on the server side by deploying a node server acting as a bridge between open source WPS libraries and popular geoprocessing engines. The vehicle for such an exploration is a cross platform Web browser capable of interpreting JavaScript commands to achieve interaction with geospatial providers. The tool is a generic Web interface providing capabilities of acquiring spatial datasets, composing layouts and applying geospatial processes. In an ideal form the end-user will have to identify those services, which satisfy a geo-related need and put them in the appropriate row. The final output may act as a potential collector of freely available geospatial web services. Its server-side components may exploit geospatial processing suppliers composing that way a light-weight fully transparent open Web GIS platform.

Uspostavljanje modela filmske edukacije u srednjoj školi

In the broadband satellite multimedia (BSM) architecture, developed by the European Telecommunications Standardizatlon Institute (ETSI), the physical layers are isolated from the rest by a satellite independent-service access point (SI-SAP). For technological reasons, satellite independent (SI) traffic accesses, requiring different QoS guarantees, must be aggregated together within the satellite dependent (SD) core and may change encapsulation format. Moreover, SD layers must assure proper fading countermeasures to face satellite channel radiation. In this work, we investigate a novel control algorithm to tackle the envisaged problems. Simulation results update the proposed approach

This article focuses on the impact of colonisation and its associated impact on Indigenous teaching and learning. Western European institutions have dominated Indigenous ways of knowing and in Australia this has led to barriers which restrict the participation of Aboriginal people in education systems. Globally Indigenous people are attempting to bring into the introduced educational systems culturally appropriate teaching and learning practices so that a more holistic approach to education can become the norm rather than the exception. The relationship between Indigenous knowledge and western European concepts of knowledge and knowing need to placed in a framework of mutual interaction so that not only do Indigenous people benefit, but so do non-Indigenous educators and students.

Recent advances in open geospatial web service, such as Web Map Service as well as corresponding web ready data processing service, have led to the generation of large amounts of OGC enabled links on Internet. How to find the correct spatial aware web service in a heterogeneous distributed environment with some special criteria, such as coincidence of type, version, time, space and scale has become a "bottleneck" of geospatial web-based applications. In order to improve the accessing precision of OGC Web Map Service (WMS) on WWW, a new methodology for retrieving WMS based on extended search engine and service capability match is put forward in this paper. Major components include the WMS search engine, WMS ontology generator, WMS catalogue service and multi protocol WMS client. Here we proposed the architecture and interaction between these components before focusing on the service capability match and design of the WMS ontology. The process of WMS link detection, capability matching, ontology modeling, and automatic registry are reported in this paper. Then the precision and response time of WMS retrieval is evaluated, results show that the mean execution time during per effective hit of proposed method is 0.44 times than that of traditional method, moreover, the precision is about 10 times than that of traditional method. WMS ontology record could be generated by ontology reasoning, registered and served by CSW.

Forest fire detection through space-based observations using thermal sensors is in operation since more than one decades. These active fire alerts are generated by using products from MODIS and SNPP–VIIRS satellites and are limited up to identification of active fire locations based on recorded temperature in satellite sensors. However, relation of fire location with forest type map, terrain profile and weather data are required for planning and monitoring of vulnerable areas. An attempt is made to develop online Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) and spatial model for forest fire risk mapping. The developed SDSS is based on Geospatial Web Service Orchestration (GWSO) workflow which enables forest fire risk alerts and advisories as Web Map Service, Geo SMS and a Geoportal application. User can use this SDSS with minimum technical skills and limited computation resources to generate daily forest fire risk map for fire monitoring and management.

Starting at the end of the last century, the delivery of geospatial information over the web has since then evolved dramatically along with the advancements in web technologies. This chapter offers an updated and comprehensive view of the so-called geospatial web and its current WebGIS or web mapping applications, outlining the main trends, practices, and business models, and offering a deep analysis of the available technologies to search, publish, and consume geospatial data on the web. The chapter then reflects on the potential uptake of WebGIS in the field of agroecology, which is still very limited but could undoubtedly help in sharing agroecological practices and building networks between farmers, researchers, and policymakers to scale agroecology from the farm to the regional and even global dimensions.