Use Of CD-ROM Research Articles

The Grid Grew from Physicists’ Computing Needs

The feature article by Ian Foster on “The Grid: A New Infrastructure for 21st Century Science” ( Physics Today 0031-9228 55 2 2002 42 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1461327. February 2002, page 42 ) presents well the structure and great potential of the Grid. At a time when government funding tends to focus on short-term returns that directly benefit society while overlooking basic physics research, Foster has reminded us that physics remains closely associated with important new, far-reaching technological developments.I think Physics Today missed an opportunity to deliver an important message with the publication of this fine article: Basic physics research, and basic science research in general, is often the driving force behind important developments in computing. In the European part of the world map (see Foster’s figure 4), the prominent role of CERN and of high-energy laboratories in Europe is obvious. Yet CERN (or its Large Hadron Collider) is briefly mentioned twice in the article, and only for its computing demands rather than for its contributions to the field.During the mid-1990s, when I was the adviser to the CERN director general on member state affairs, I had to rally support for the LHC among nonscientists. The expected computing technologies resulting from the LHC and the potential for broad application of those technologies were a strong selling point. I would tell my audience that each large detector must handle more than 1015 bytes of information per year, about a million times that contained in the human genome. This fact made an impression. At the time, given the existing technology, it was impossible to handle that amount of information. The use of CD-ROMs for storage would have required a 3-kilometer-high stack of them; processing the information would have required 50 000 PCs.But my experience has been this: Trust the physicists. By 2005, they will have found a way to meet the computing challenge, with resulting benefits for people from many walks of life. The detector collaborations, each with close to 2000 scientists, contain a vast number of highly competent people who freely exchange information and criticism. They know that, despite limited funding, they must be able to trade ideas and information and must have a successful system for that in place by the time the machine is completed.Now, several years later, the picture has already changed. By making the best use of improving hardware and networking, scientists can reduce the storage stack by a factor of 5, and reduce the number of computers needed for processing by even more. The Grid offers the possibility of greatly enhancing the available computing power for any specific need.Yet the capacity that LHC scientists will need has not been reached. Current technology, when fully used, already gives a factor of 10, but new developments to increase computing capacities by another factor of 10 are needed during the few years that remain before the LHC is commissioned. The Grid will play an important role in filling this need.I think that particle physics (and heavy basic science research) as the driving force behind computing developments cannot be overemphasized. Clearly, particle physicists are not alone in demanding new and highly efficient computing means. However, carefully planned projects in the past have often fallen short of expectations, whereas those technologies that arise spontaneously out of the computing needs of physicists have paid large dividends, usually at relatively low expense.Other arenas are motivating increases in computing power, particularly in the US, but particle physics has a specificity of its own. Very large amounts of data must be available simultaneously to a great many users. The number of physicists working coherently on the LHC will exceed 6000, scattered worldwide. These users will need both access to information and the ability to process it. The solution to this computing challenge, once implemented, will find many other applications.So I would like to end on a provocative note: If you want much better computing worldwide, remember to also invest in particle physics. The computing advances are likely to come faster and to be less expensive that way than through a more direct, top-down route.© 2002 American Institute of Physics.

The use of computers, the Internet, and CD-ROMS for staff training, care enhancement, and facility organization and management in the long-term care setting

The use of computers, the Internet, and CD-ROMS for staff training, care enhancement, and facility organization and management in the long-term care setting

Using distance training to deliver first aid training.

The St John Ambulance organization in Alberta issues over 100,000 first aid certificates each year (an 80% market share). The success of the organization is attributed to a province-wide infrastructure of volunteer public first aid providers and over 2000 volunteer instructors in industry and other spheres. In 1998 St John Ambulance piloted the use of CD-ROMs for teaching, producing two courses. One was a first aid course and the other was a babysitter course. The experience of the pilot programmes will allow the digital material to be transferred to our Website. Once this is done people around the world will be able to receive the self-paced learning components. Hands-on evaluation of skills, however, is mandatory to certification. Mass training where certification is required therefore requires a mixture of distance learning and hands-on testing, reinforcing the need for trained evaluators to be available to the population.

Using CD-ROMs in teaching science: Findings from a small scale study

<span>This paper reports on data collected through 52 surveys investigating teachers' use of CD-ROMs. The paper indicates that while teachers are familiar with the commonly voiced potential of CD-ROMs and recognise CD-ROM features of merit, the majority of teachers have yet to realise CD-ROM potential in the reality of their classroom. For many teachers issues of access to hardware or software continue to dictate their practices, where location rather than resource levels have established use. Consequently CD-ROMs have been promoted in terms of individual student assignments and other strategies involving whole class or group work have not been implemented.</span>

Use of Best Value Selection Process: Utah Department of Transportation I-15 Design-Build Project

Carter and Burgess, Inc., was selected by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) to evaluate several aspects of the I-15 design-build reconstruction project under way in Salt Lake City. The evaluations are being completed in part to fulfill commitments made to FHWA, which granted a Special Experimental Project 14 status to the I-15 project, permitting design-build contracting methods. Information is presented about the selection process used by UDOT to hire a design-build team to work on the project. UDOT decided to use a “best value” selection process instead of low cost to select a contractor. Comparisons are made between the design-bid-build and design-build processes. Described is the “best value” selection process used by UDOT to evaluate and select a contractor, using the detailed selection process. A description of the organizational structure required to prepare and review the proposals is presented. Unique features of the UDOT process are discussed, including use of stipend, risk sharing, ISO 9000 certification, design life, performance specifications, best and final offer, award fees, and use of CD-ROMs to distribute the proposal information. Lessons learned in the process also are presented.

Use of Multiplatform CD-ROMs for Disseminating Supplementary Learning Materials in a Pharmaceutical Calculations Course

Use of Multiplatform CD-ROMs for Disseminating Supplementary Learning Materials in a Pharmaceutical Calculations Course

The “currency” of electronic databases

This article examines some of the procedures that affect the ability of online database vendors and hosts to provide current information. The article focuses on the results of a survey on information use by a sample of business people in the Grampian region of Scotland. The study investigated the importance of timeliness or “currency” to those users in the context of electronic and non-electronic information. The findings illustrate methods of verification of currency used by business people in their assessment of information. The data reveal a relatively low pattern of individual use of online databases and CD-ROMs; the use of individual experience and industry contacts in evaluation of the currency of information; and an indication of general satisfaction with perceptions of currency. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Use of CD-ROMs for Teaching Systemic Botany and Horticultural Production Courses

Systemic botany often requires the students to visually examine plant materials at different stages of growth and development to determine family characteristics. Fresh plant materials used in these demonstrations are often unavailable to allow the student to review for laboratory examinations. The timing of production courses means that students do not have the chance to see field operations for various crops. CD-ROMs have been developed as a adjunct to lectures to allow students to review and examine material at their own pace in order to better prepare them for examinations.

Collaborative practice of science construction in a computer-based multimedia environment

This paper discusses a case study of nine pairs working collaboratively in a multimedia CD-ROM science environment. The main goal of the study was to investigate the ways in which the collaborative use of a multimedia-based encyclopaedia can foster science learning. By focusing on pupils' discursive, cognitive and collaborative activities, the study highlights pupils' information handling and knowledge construction in the multimedia context. Also the pupils' developing understanding of the science concepts dealt with in the tasks are considered. The research data consist of video and audio recordings, interviews, questionnaires and field notes collected from one 6th grade primary classroom. The results show that the pupils' activities during task-processing were highly procedural and product-oriented. The nature of the activity was also reflected in the pupils' poster displays indicating rather surface-level and incoherent understanding of the science concepts. The pupils were also found to have inefficient skills in accessing and retrieving information from the multimedia software. Although the findings are strongly linked with the nature of the collaborative task designed around the multimedia context and with the sociocultural background of the pupils, the study illuminates common problems related to the use of multimedia-based CD-ROMs in learning and points out aspects which need to be considered in order to make collaborative learning more effective in multimedia environments.

Computer Music: An Interactive Documentary, Interactive CD-ROM for Macintosh and Windows

Music: An Interactive Documentary contains a wealth of information useful to anyone interested in using computers in conjunction with musical composition, performance, or recording. Instructional sound and video clips cover many important concepts, ranging from the nature of binary systems to various types of synthesis, from digital sampling, editing, and processing to composing with instruments. Informal presentations by manufacturers' representatives serve to introduce viewers to various commercial sequencing, notation, and digital editing software. The use of CD-ROM to disseminate such information is a natural choice, since this medium can utilize the very technology discussed in order to present video, sound, text, and animated graphics. Many relevant issues are difficult to explain quickly without such instructional aids. Music takes full advantage of the means available to elucidate many complex concepts, resulting in segments that could benefit beginning electronic-music classes or technophobe musicians. One of the primary advantages of the CD-ROM medium is the random access it offers to all the information on a disk, resulting in the much vaunted liberation from the tyranny of linearity. This new freedom can be either revelatory and exhilarating or confusing and discouraging, and Music has its share of both extremes. Although most of the individual clips are quite coherent, it is not always easy to find a lucid and satisfying path from one topic to another. The content itself ranges from vitally important and clearly presented material to unedited informal conversation, but the juxtaposition of the two can be either refreshing or disappointing, as clearly both the tone and the density of the information vacillate much too widely. One moment the viewer is in a college classroom, and the next in a guitar shop, talking with a salesperson. This approach could be seen as an attempt to provide something for everyone, but the transitions are disconcerting. The user interface with Music includes several useful and fairly standard features. Always visible along the bottom of the window are buttons offering access to such features as a glossary of sixty-five terms, an index of all forty-eight video clips and their transcripts, and a notebook for writing and saving notes. But the primary means of interacting with the program is through the image of a video jukebox, the face of which offers a choice of four basic categories. Each features four compact-disc icons, which can be dragged to a slot and played. The categories themselves are somewhat enigmatic: Tech Tunes, MIDI, and Composition. The largest section, Tech Tunes, contains modules (represented by CD icons) entitled Innovation, How Computers Make Music, Digital Signals, and Digital Recording, and includes theoretical background, product-specific instructions, and visionary remarks by artists. In the Synthesis section (Sounds, Basic Instruments, Sound Synthesis, and Acoustic Modeling), most of the modules are narrated animations, and they cover in some detail such topics as hearing, basic parameters of sound, digital representation and manipulation of sound, various types of synthesis, and a brief history of computer music. The section (featuring Galaxy of Sounds, MIDI Basics, Sampling Sounds, and MIDI Instruments) includes narrated animations and conversations with engineers to present basic concepts, sampling, a demonstration of how a composer/performer might use a setup, and a guided tour inside a synthesizer, with an engineer pointing out various hardware components and their functions. In the Composition section (which includes Sequencing, Composing, Computer Music, and Making Music), composers and engineers present segments concerned with sequencing, notation software, and composing with computers. …

Distance Education in Dietetics: Delivery Education to Your Door

LEARNING OUTCOME: To understand the opportunities in undergraduate, graduate and continuing education which will be possible with the use of distance education technologies. The advent of a wide variety of distance education technologies is revolutionizing the delivery of courses and continuing education opportunities. Teaching via the Internet, use of listservs, chat rooms, CD-ROMS, audio- and video-conferencing are all ways in which individuals can take advantage of educational opportunities. The authors have been involved in a groundbreaking effort to deliver a complete undergraduate dietetics program by distance education. This venture has yielded many rewards as well as challenges. This presentation will enumerate these rewards and challenges and discuss ways in which both providers and participants in distance education can make the most of technology. Providers of educational opportunities must be sensitive to participants and their level of comfort with technology. Techniques which are effective in the face-to-face classroom can not necessarily be transferred intact to the “cyber-classroom”. Participants must be willing to try out new and different technologies and interact with their instructor in ways other than in-person. Issues of copyright, intellectual property, and security of tests are examples of other issues which must be addressed. Dietetics professionals must work to enhance their computer literacy and level of comfort with technology to fully take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead.

Media choice in nutrition education of general practitioners

In the traditional model of communicating information, a general practitioner receives information from his or her teacher (when they choose to give it) and from print media (books and journals) and in turn can pass on the information didactically to patients (whether they asked for it or not). The arrival and development of new electronic media are changing the system and the possibilities. Patients now have access to more information independently (some of it correct, some misleading). GPs cannot trust their own solid body of knowledge any longer. To keep up with new and rising expectations they must become professional information seekers. New media will give opportunities for GPs to look for information by electronic means at the time that they need it, eg, through on-line connections with databases or through use of CD-roms. The role of journals will change from simply providing detailed data; journals can concentrate on the questions behind the questions.

The use of online databases and CD-ROMs in law libraries

Reviews early surveys of the use of online databases and CD-ROM databases by law libraries and uses the results to compile a database list, including: LEXIS; Books on Screen; Context Limited; Internet databases; FT Profile; MAID; Companies House Direct (CHORUS); FT Excel; and Perfect Information. Provides brief descriptions of each database and summarizes forthcoming products, know-how systems, changes within the online and CD-ROM market, delivery methods, costs and pricing structures, account logging, recharging, training, troubleshooting, and help-desk support issues. Contact addresses and details are presented for each of the services described.

Beyond the Trees

In early 1991, the Chicago-Kent Law Library embarked on a project to change the nature of the Information Center- to increase its efficiency and effectveness, to improve its cash position and, most of all, to remove the physical barriers presents not only by the building, but the very books and aterias themselves . This was when the Information Center began to offer access to its own materials electronically. The goals of the projecyt are outlines. The changes are analysed

The information dissemination policy of the United States patent and trademark office

This paper discusses in detail the reasoning behind the patent information dissemination policy of the USPTO and briefly contrasts this with the policies followed by the EPO and JPO. The relationship between the USPTO and the commercial sector is outlined and aspects of the pricing structure are given. The legal framework under which the USPTO operates is also given to explain their pricing policy. The paper then discusses the alternative methods available for disseminating patent information and goes into the advantages and disadvantages of using CD-ROM. The conclusion drawn is that the most-cost effective use of CD-ROM in the Office today is at the desktop, providing search assistance and document delivery. The future for CD-ROM, including high-density products, is discussed.

Methods for training library staff members in the use of CD-ROMs in federal depository libraries in Texas a survey

This paper presents the results of a questionnaire survey mailed to one contact person in each of the 59 selective depositories in Texas. The purpose of this study was to determine the methods employed to train depository library staff members in the state of Texas to use federal government CD-ROMs. This study examined the types of formal training programs and the informal methods of training used. Informal methods were more commonly employed than formal methods. Almost one-half of the respondents reported that none of the staff members received formal training. A large percentage, however, received informal training. The most common method of formal training was a workshop or conference conducted by an outside expert. The most common types of informal training were self-instruction and one-on-one instruction.

The use of recordable CDROMs as an electronic archiving medium for librarians

Libraries should not adopt a neutral or complacent attitude to their archive information, but should see it as an essential element in their ability to establish themselves as competitive providers of information. Conventional archive storage methods are unlikely to be entirely satisfactory, for a variety of reasons mentioned in the main text. Recordable compact discs (CDROMs), on the other hand, offer numerous clear benefits as electronic archiving media. The article concludes with an example of the technical specifications of an increasingly popular form of document management software used in conjunction with recordable CDs.

“PD” (Powerfull Optical Disk System) for Multimedia

The use of CD-ROM has become widespread. PC users have generally been satisfied with the performance CD-ROM's, however, there is also a demand for larger-capacity removable rewritable media for “Multimedia” applications. The “PD” system offers users an optical disk which is easily handled such as floppy disks presently in use. In addition, “PD” can also read CD-ROM at fourtimes of the speed using a single common slot for both CD-ROM and PD media. The PD system (name of the new optical disk system prososed by Matsushita Electric Industrial. Co., Ltd.) has good compatibility for pit and groove recording. We calculated the reflectivity, tracking error, and ROM modulation, and varied the groove depth and width to maximize performance. A signal was written on various pregroove depths, and the reproduced signal ratio was measured. We obtained good results by using a phase-change material with the PD optical disk.

Cool season cyclogenesis and associated mesoscale weather

The modernization of the National Weather Service (NWS) and a profusion of recent field experiments (Table 1) are bringing an explosion of mesoscale observations to the meteorological community during the 1990's. (The term “mesoscale” used in this paper refers to horizontal dimensions ranging from a few tens of kilometers to a few hundred kilometers. Thus, a Doppler weather radar is a tool that can make observations of mesoscale weather phenomena; for example air‐flow in a thunderstorm.) These new observational resources in combination with unprecedented growth in our computing and data handling capacities, for example, high speed workstations and widespread use of CD ROMs for data dissemination, have facilitated a renaissance in our ability to probe the mesoscale structure and evolution of winter cyclones in recent years. Many recent advances have provided substance for a new generation of texts. For example, textbooks by Carlson [1991] and Bluestein [1992] focus on synoptic and mesoscale weather systems, while Holton [1992] presents an updated treatment of their dynamics. Kraus and Businger [1994]. review the air‐sea interaction in cyclones, and Houze [1993] and Emanuel [1994] focus on the dynamics and structure of precipitating systems.

Application of CDROM technology in the multimedia library of La Villette Centre for Science and Industry

The Centre for Science and Industry in Paris, which is one of the most attractive high‐tech science museums in Europe, hosts a unique multimedia library holding some 330 000 documents in scientific and technological fields (books, periodicals, films, educational software, cassettes and CDROMs) with an average of 4000 users per day. Ever since its opening to the public in 1986, the library has been fully automated with an integrated system and presently it operates under GEAC GLIS (running on a GEAC 9000 computer) for acquisition, cataloguing, OPAC and circulation. The OPAC is also available on videotex (French Minitel). After a brief review of the background of CDROM installation in French public libraries, the particular case of the use of CDROMs at La Villette Library is discussed. CDROMs made available to the public are differentiated from those used by the staff, mainly for cataloguing and reference purposes. Other than cost, problems related to the design of hardware and software configuration, as well as the importance of testing pilot products, are analysed. Finally, future developments including the replacement of the existing hardware, upgrading of the software and the necessity of systematic evaluation of CDROM usage by patrons are discussed.