Web-based Tracking Research Articles

Implementing large projects in software engineering courses

In software engineering education, large projects are widely recognized as a useful way of exposing students to the real-world difficulties of team software development. But large projects are difficult to put into practice. First, educators rarely have additional time to manage software projects. Second, classrooms have inherent limitations that threaten the realism of large projects. Third, quantitative evaluation of individuals who work in groups is notoriously difficult. As a result, many software engineering courses compromise the project experience by reducing the team sizes, project scope, and risk. In this paper, we present an approach to teaching a one-semester software engineering course in which 20 to 30 students work together to construct a moderately sized (15 KLOC) software system. The approach combines carefully coordinated lectures and homeworks, a hierarchical project management structure, modern communication technologies, and a web-based project tracking and individual assessment system. Our approach provides a more realistic project experience for the students, without incurring significant additional overhead for the instructor. We present our experiences using the approach the last 2 years for the software engineering course at The College of William and Mary. Although the approach has some weaknesses, we believe that they are strongly outweighed by the pedagogical benefits.

Encoding and Decoding Graphical Chemical Structures as Two-Dimensional (PDF417) Barcodes

A wide range of molecular representations exist today, ranging from human-readable structural diagrams over line notations such as Wiswesser Line Notation (WLN) and SMILES to several dozen computer-readable file formats. Still, to encode molecular structures in a computer-readable way for inputting structures in computer systems those formats are not the method of choice since they are not easily and faultlessly readable via optical recognition. In the present study a two-dimensional (PDF417) barcode representation of molecular structures in SMILES format is explored that enables the user to read and input molecular structures into computer systems in a fully automated fashion. A Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) based compressed version of SMILES is suggested for cases where the size of the structure exceeds the storage capacity of PDF417 barcodes. Alternatively, the compact ACS format may be employed as a structural representation. The input via barcodes is fast, practically error free due to the 2D barcodes used which employ error correction and fully automatic. A Web application interface is developed which is able to interpret these barcodes and export them as optimized 3D chemical structures. Applications of this representation range from keeping automated storage systems to Web-based tracking systems of molecular samples. The National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, employs 2D barcode encoded structures for in-house repository management, where barcodes can also be used for querying the database for similar or substructures of the query structure.

Chromosoma ? Exploring new horizons

Chromosomes have fascinated biologists ever since Boveri and Sutton formulated the Chromosomal Theory of Inheritance about a hundred years ago, and this year is characterized by world-wide celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the DNA double helix. Although many fundamental questions concerning chromosome structure, function and dynamics remain unanswered, there is ample reason for optimism. The availability of more and more sequence information (for an ever-increasing number of organisms) and the emergence of new and powerful techniques (such as live cell imaging and RNA interference) now set the stage for rapid progress towards a better understanding of the functional organization of the cell nucleus. The journal Chromosoma is dedicated to chromosome structure and dynamics, as well as the mechanisms that underlie the duplication, maintenance and expression of genomes in eukaryotic cells and organisms. Hence, it covers one of the most fascinating and rapidly expanding areas of contemporary research. Chromosoma was founded almost 60 years ago by Hans Bauer and was subsequently managed by Wolfgang Beerman (two pioneers of research on the polytene ‘giant’ chromosomes). For the past more than 20 years, Wolfgang Hennig has been the Chief Editor of this venerable journal, and I have now taken over this responsibility as of 1 August 2003. In contrast to my predecessors, research in my laboratory does not focus on Drosophila or polytene chromosomes (see http://www.biochem.mpg.de/nigg/home.shtml for a survey of our research activities). I am nevertheless honored to follow in the footsteps of the former Editors of Chromosoma and look forward to working for the future scientific success of this journal. To take over responsibility for a journal at a time when publishing is undergoing major changes is both an exciting and a difficult task. I have decided to accept this challenge in recognition of the standing, tradition and importance of Chromosoma. I am convinced that Chromosoma has the potential to develop into a first-class scholarly journal. In recent years, chromatin research and studies on the biology of the cell nucleus have seen important scientific developments. Studies on histone modifications, epigenetic mechanisms of inheritance, chromatin boundaries, dynamic aspects of intra-nuclear organization, chromosome segregation in mitosis and meiosis, and the regulation of gene expression through miRNAs and siRNAs (to name but a few key subjects) have provided a wealth of new information but also raised many intriguing questions. It is my hope that Chromosoma will play an important role in describing the development of these research areas in the years to come. As a first step towards achieving this goal, the “Aims and Scope” of the journal have been revised and several leading scientists have been recruited to the Editorial Board (see inside cover). At this point in time, I am particularly delighted to welcome Drs. Genevi ve Almouzni, John Diffley, Conly Rieder and Frank Uhlmann as new Associate Editors. In another new initiative, we look forward to publishing an increasing number of authoritative review articles from leading scientists in Chromosoma. Finally, on the technical side, Springer will soon be introducing “ManuscriptCentral”, a web-based electronic manuscript submission and tracking system (implementation scheduled for 1 January 2004). This will increase both the convenience and the speed of manuscript processing and should contribute to enhancing further the attractiveness of Chromosoma for prospective authors. Importantly, all the advantages of publishing in Chromosoma will remain unchanged (see inside cover): in particular, publication in Chromosoma does not entail any page charges and there are no charges for the reproduction of figures in color. I look forward to working with a team of dedicated Associate Editors and to receiving competent technical support from the Publisher. With their help, I aim to ensure ever-increasing scientific quality for Chromosoma for the benefit of authors and readers alike.

A Web-Based Formative Assessment Tracking Program

A Web-Based Formative Assessment Tracking Program

Publishing in the Journals of the APS: Why Are Authors Charged Fees?

Publishing in the Journals of the APS: Why Are Authors Charged Fees?

Publishing in the journals of the APS: why are authors charged fees?

Publishing in the journals of the APS: why are authors charged fees?

Web-based issue tracking for large software projects

Many problems are found and fixed during the development of a software system. The Project Issue Tracking System toolkit, a Web-based issue-management tool, can be used to organize issue reports during development and to communicate with different project teams around the world. The Project Issue Tracking System (PITS) is a tool that supports the IV&V effort for two major NASA projects: the Earth Observation System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and the Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). The EOSDIS IV&V effort teams several companies and organizations at several sites with Intermetrics, Inc, serving as the lead contractor. We examine the PITS Web-based mechanisms for tracking issue reports.