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The recent years saw an evolution of Grid technologies from early ideas to production deployments. At the same time, the expectations for Grids shifted from idealistic hopes — buoyed by the successes of the initial testbeds — to disillusionment with available implementations when applied to large-scale general purpose computing. In this paper, we argue that a mature e-Infrastructure aiming to bridge the gaps between visions and realities cannot be delivered without introducing Service Level Management (SLM). To support this thesis, we present an analysis of the Grid foundations and definitions that shows that SLM-related ideas were incorporated in them from the beginning. Next, we describe how implementing SLM in Grids could improve the usability and user-experience of the infrastructure - both for its customers and service providers. We also present a selection of real-life Grid application scenarios that are important for the research communities supported by the Grid, but cannot be efficiently supported without the SLM process in place. In addition, the paper contains introduction to SLM, a discussion on what introducing SLM to Grids might mean in practice, and what were the current efforts already applied in this field.

This paper presents a methodology used to create a site independent assessment process of the capabilities of service management systems in federated e-infrastructures that can contribute to introduce or improve service management in these application domains. Based on ISO/IEC 20000 concepts it consist of an actors and relationships model, a set of management processes with their corresponding requirements and a capability model that all converge in an easy to use assessment tool. The methodology has been evaluated through its adoption in an existing federated e-infrastructure

Book Title: Child sexual abuse, disclosure, delay and denialEditors: Margaret-Ellen Pipe, Michael E. Lamb, Yael Orbach & Ann-Christin CederborgISBN: 0805852840Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, London, 2007, p. 301

Implementation of stereo tiled displays is a rather demanding task. In this article we want to share the lessons we have learned during the design and construction of the ICWall tiled display. This large display, used in a classroom setting, is a high-resolution stereo tiled display (2×8 tiles), built from low-cost commodity components. The overall image is produced by an array of projectors. When building such a system, a key challenge is to align the projector images. We describe our automated approach for alignment/calibration of the left- and right-eye stereo images. We provide measurements that show accuracy of this procedure. We explain and compare two calibration approaches; a single-pass and a two-pass rendering method to align the tiled images. We explain how to provide seamless image on the tiled display and which issues have to be solved. We also discuss the depth perception issues on the ICWall for the large audiences. Another important aspect, is the architecture of the software used for PC-cluster-based rendering. We describe Aura, the parallel scene graph API that is used for rendering on our tiled display. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To facilitate nuclear technology with high-temperature reactors without any risk of serious accidents, it is necessary to ensure that even the largest accidents will not have any significant effectt on the area around the power station. In this case, it is vital to ensure the chemical stability ofthose reactors ifthere is an ingress ofair as a result ofan accident. A large-scale test installation is currently in operation at the Institute of Safety Research and Reactor Technology in the Research Centre Jülich. It is used to investigate the sequence of events and consequences of air ingress accidents ofthat kind. The experiments are designed to ascertain what the possible extent of the damage will be in certain sceuarios and also to develop possible concepts for counteracting the damage and safeguarding the chemical stability ofthe system. Numerous experiments have been conducted an flow and mass transfer in the course of this study. These experiments describe the individual physical processes within the test installation. The findings derived from this on plant-specific loss of pressure, transfer of heat and material allow to interpret accident simulation experiments reliably and ensure that this data can be applied to the situation in high-temperature reactors using computer programs.

To elucidate the fundamental differences and similarities of the neuropathological features and etiopathogenesis of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and parkinsonism-dementia complex (PDC) of Guam, we conducted a topographic, quantitative and histological investigation of tau-containing neurons, neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), Bunina bodies and ubiquitinated inclusion bodies in 27 non-ALS non-PDC Guamanian subjects, as well as 10 Guam ALS patients, 28 PDC patients, and 5 patients with combined ALS and PDC (ALS-PDC). The topographic distribution of NFTs was basically the same in each disease and also in the non-ALS non-PDC group. There were relatively few, if any, NFTs in non-ALS non-PDC subjects and ALS patients, but there were many, especially in the frontal and temporal cortex, in Guam PDC and ALS-PDC patients. The histological and ultrastructural features of Bunina bodies in Guam ALS and ALS-PDC patients were similar to those reported in classic ALS. The ratio of occurrence of the inclusion in Guam ALS and ALS-PDC patients was similar to that reported so far in classic ALS. Ubiquitinated skein-like inclusion bodies were observed in the spinal anterior horn cells in Guam ALS and ALS-PDC patients. These findings indicate that classic ALS does exist on Guam, that NFTs in Guam ALS patients are merely a background feature widely dispersed in the population, that the mechanism of neuronal degeneration of Guam ALS is basically different from that of PDC, and that Guam ALS occurs initially are classic ALS.