Source of the Week

'Source of the Week' is back! And what prompted us to revive the weekly feature where we highlight a report or article that focuses on science and/or technology? Why the Interagency Working Group on Digital Data of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Science, of course!

Anyway.... The above-mentioned, lengthy-named agency just released a report on curating digital science data, called "Harnessing the Power of Digital Data for Science and Society" (60 pages; pdf). From the abstract:

"The Interagency Working Group on Digital Data of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Science has released a report describing a strategy to promote preservation and access to digital scientific data.

The report lays out a strategic vision for “a digital scientific data universe in which data creation, collection, documentation, analysis, preservation, and dissemination can be appropriately, reliably, and readily managed, thereby enhancing the return on our nation’s research and development investment by ensuring that digital data realize their full potential as catalysts for progress in our global information society.”

The report includes three key recommendations to pursue this vision. The first is to create an Interagency Subcommittee under NSTC that will focus on goals that are best addressed through continuing broad cooperation and coordination across agencies. The second key element of the strategic framework is for departments and agencies to lay the foundations for agency digital scientific data policy and make the policy publicly available. In laying these foundations, agencies should consider all components of a comprehensive policy to address the full data management life cycle. The third key element is for all agencies to promote a data management planning process for projects that generate scientific data for preservation." Read more...>>

(Source: ReferenceShelf)

Source of the Week: Cyberinfrastructure Vision for 21st Century Discovery

This report from the National Science Foundation describes "the various challenges and opportunities in the complementary areas that make up cyberinfrastructure: computing systems, data, information resources, networking, digitally enabled-sensors, instruments, virtual organizations, and observatories, along with an interoperable suite of software services and tools. This technology is complemented by the interdisciplinary teams of professionals that are responsible for its development, deployment and its use in transformative approaches to scientific and engineering discovery and learning. The vision also includes attention to the educational and workforce initiatives necessary for both the creation and effective use of cyberinfrastructure." Read more...>>

Virtual Astral Projection

Two teams of neuroscientists have made a breakthrough in the study of "out-of-body experiences," according to this week's issue of Science. About one in 10 people report having had the strange sensation of floating away from their bodies at some point in their lives. According to the new studies, it's now possible to induce that feeling of astral projection in the lab. Read more...>>

(Source: Slate.com)

As a Stevens user, you have full-text access to Science magazine. Check out the report in its entirety here.

(Off-campus users will have to configure their browser settings to access online library resources.)

Science, Simpsons Style...

In honor of the recently released Simpsons Movie:

Part of The Simpsons' greatness is a willingness to find the humour in absolutely everything — including science. Executive producer Al Jean, the show's head writer and a Harvard mathematics graduate, talks to Nature about how to get a laugh out of Euler's formula. Read more...>>

Also check out the top ten science moments in The Simpsons, as chosen by Nature's editorial staff.

(Source: http://www.nature.com/news/index.html)

Did you know that Stevens users have full-text online access to Nature journal? Check it out here.

Source of the Week: Changes in Innovation Ecology ('Science' Editorial)

The June 2007 issue of Science Magazine features an editorial by William A. Wulf, past president of the National Academy of Engineering, about cultivating and stimulating innovation in our current technological environment, a topic that could be considered particularly relevant here at an institution that is looking to create a climate of innovation.

From the article: "Globalization has introduced both uncertainties and opportunities worldwide. In the United States, a flurry of recent books and reports has told the country how to be competitive in the 21st century, from Thomas L. Freidman's The World is Flat, to the National Academies'Rising Above the Gathering Storm, and at least a dozen more. All note the historic strength of the United States in innovation and suggest that reinvigorating this capability is key to future prosperity. The resulting recommendations relate to an "ecology" of interrelated institutions, laws, regulations, and policies providing an innovation infrastructure that entails education, research, tax policy, and intellectual property protection, among others. Unfortunately, this ecology is more fundamentally broken than is generally recognized." Read more...>>

Source of the Week: Technologies for increased energy efficiency in railway systems

Since the Stevens family has a long history with the railroad, the following seemed an apt candidate for the source of the week:

Technologies for increased energy efficiency in railway systems

Abstract: This article gives an overview of the various possibilities of increased energy efficiency in electrical railway systems. Not only the power systems in the main traction circuit are emphasized, but also efficient solutions arising from auxiliary-optimization, reduced weight of the vehicles, aerodynamics and efficient rail automation. The main focus is on the application of energy storage in traction systems. The stationary installation in substations is described and the advantages demonstrated in a number of applications using different main strategies. A wide and varied range of benefits arise from the typical application situation.

Source: 2005 European Conference on Power Electronics and Applications

(Having trouble viewing the article? Here are the directions for accessing library resources from off-campus.)

Source of the Week: On the capacity of mobile ad-hoc networks with delay constraints

We'd like to start a new weekly series here on eSource, where we feature articles and papers that might be of interest to the Stevens community.

What better way to start than with a paper by one of our own? Stevens professor Cristina Comaniciu has won a 2007 IEEE best paper award for a paper she co-authored with Professor Vincent Poor from Princeton University.

So, without further ado, our first "Source of the Week":

Comaniciu, C., & Poor, H. V. (2006). On the capacity of mobile ad-hoc networks with delay constraints. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 5(8), 2061-2071.

(Having trouble viewing the article? Here are the directions for accessing library resources from off-campus.)