31238264
The populated web: Browsing, searching and inhabiting the WWW using collaborative virtual environments
This paper presents new approaches for accessing the World Wide Web using multi-user three dimensional spaces, or collaborative virtual environments (CVEs.) The major sections of the paper deal with the aspects of browsing and navigating, searching, populating and displaying information within, and about the WWW. The methods described are illustrated with examples of working applications developed by the authors which together present an image of a possible future for Web access and collaboration based around the Web and its contents.
12173886
VR-VIBE: A Virtual Environment for Co-operative Information Retrieval
We present a virtual reality application called VR-VIBE which is intended to support the co-operative browsing and filtering of large document stores. VR-VIBE extends a visualisation approach proposed in a previous two dimensional system called VIBE into three dimensions, allowing more information to be visualised at one time and supporting more powerful styles of interaction, The essence of VR-VIBE is that multiple users can explore the results of applying several simultaneous queries to a corpus of documents. By arranging the queries into a spatial framework, the system shows the relative attraction of each document to each query by its spatial position and also shows the absolute relevance of each document to all of the queries. Users may then navigate the space, select individual documents, control the display according to a dynamic relevance threshold and dynamically drag the queries to new positions to see the effect on the document space. Co-operative browsing is supported by directly embodying users and providing them with the ability to interact over live audio connections and to attach brief textual annotations to individual documents. Finally, we conclude with some initial observations gleaned from our experience of constructing VR-VIBE and using it in the laboratory setting.
26764049
ERP implementation approaches: toward a contingency framework
In the last few years, the way in which systems are provided in many manufacturing and service organizations has changed significantly: rather than developing and maintaining customized mainframe applications for single business clients, IS professionals are involved in the implementation of large-scale, cross-functionally integrated, packaged systems on client-server platforms. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are on-line, interactive systems that can provide a “total” solution to an organization’s information systems needs by addressing a large proportion of business functions. They support a process-oriented view of the business as well as business processes standardized across the enterprise. Today, these packages are implemented on client/server architectures that are more flexible and scalable than mainframe systems. Five major vendors of ERP software have emerged, with SAP AG being the leader with more than a 30% market share.
12227821
DisProt: a database of protein disorder
UNLABELLED
The Database of Protein Disorder (DisProt) is a curated database that provides structure and function information about proteins that lack a fixed three-dimensional (3D) structure under putatively native conditions, either in their entirety or in part. Starting from the central premise that intrinsic disorder is an important structural class of protein and in order to meet the increasing interest thereof, DisProt is aimed at becoming a central repository of disorder-related information. For each disordered protein, the database includes the name of the protein, various aliases, accession codes, amino acid sequence, location of the disordered region(s), and methods used for structural (disorder) characterization. If applicable, most entries also list the biological function(s) of each disordered region, how each region of disorder is used for function, as well as provide links to PubMed abstracts and major protein databases.


AVAILABILITY
www.disprot.org
14987889
Optimal Camera Parameter Selection for State Estimation with Applications in Object Recognition
In this paper we introduce a formalism for optimal camera parameter selection for iterative state estimation. We consider a framework based on Shannon's information theory and select the camera parameters that maximize the mutual information, i.e. the information that the captured image conveys about the true state of the system. The technique explicitly takes into account the a priori probability governing the computation of the mutual information. Thus, a sequential decision process can be formed by treating the a posteriori probability at the current time step in the decision process as the a priori probability for the next time step. The convergence of the decision process can be proven. 
 
We demonstrate the benefits of our approach using an active object recognition scenario. The results show that the sequential decision process outperforms a random strategy, both in the sense of recognition rate and number of views necessary to return a decision.
14596078
G-8 collaborative initiatives and the digital divide: readiness for e-government
At the G-8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July 2000, the industrialized nations acknowledged the advancement of the private sector in information technology (IT) and committed the organization to the Global Digital Divide Initiative (GDDI) of the World Economic Forum Task Force. The Task Force outlined nine initiatives and a set of concrete action plans for implementation, which may achieve e-government readiness in developing countries. Major cultural variables, however, threaten to impede or thwart the facilitation of e-government, even though many countries promote e-government policies. To examine the G-8's first effort to implement collaborative policy initiatives of the private, public and non-profit sectors to eliminate the global digital divide, this paper explores the relationship between six cultural variables and the implementation of the GDDI to alleviate the digital divide and effect e-government readiness in developing countries.
13531439
Combining Type Theory and Untyped Set Theory
We describe a dependent type theory with proof irrelevance. Within this framework, we give a representation of a form of Mac Lane set theory and discuss automated support for constructing proofs within this set theory. One of the novel aspects of the representation is that one is allowed to use any class (in the set theory) as a type (in the type theory). Such class types allow a natural way of representing partial functions (e.g., the first and second operators on the class of Kuratowski ordered pairs). We also discuss how automated search can be used to construct proofs. In particular, the first-order prover Vampire can be called to solve a challenge problem (the injective Cantor Theorem) which is notoriously difficult for higher-order automated provers.