AI App With Unlimited Photo Uploads

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  • Plotly

    Plotly

    Plotly is a technical computing company headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, that develops online data analytics and visualization tools. Plotly provides online graphing, analytics, and statistics tools for individuals and collaboration, as well as scientific graphing libraries for Python, R, MATLAB, Perl, Julia, Arduino, JavaScript and REST. == History == Plotly was founded by Alex Johnson, Jack Parmer, Chris Parmer, and Matthew Sundquist. The founders' backgrounds are in science, energy, and data analysis and visualization. Early employees include Christophe Viau, a Canadian software engineer and Ben Postlethwaite, a Canadian geophysicist. Plotly was named one of the Top 20 Hottest Innovative Companies in Canada by the Canadian Innovation Exchange. Plotly was featured in "startup row" at PyCon 2013, and sponsored the SciPy 2018 conference. Plotly raised $5.5 million during its Series A funding, led by MHS Capital, Siemens Venture Capital, Rho Ventures, Real Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. The Boston Globe and Washington Post newsrooms have produced data journalism using Plotly. In 2020, Plotly was named a Best Place to Work by the Canadian SME National Business Awards, and nominated as Business of the Year. == Products == Plotly offers open-source and enterprise products. Dash is an open-source Python, R, and Julia framework for building web-based analytic applications. Many specialized open-source Dash libraries exist that are tailored for building domain-specific Dash components and applications. Some examples are Dash DAQ, for building data acquisition GUIs to use with scientific instruments, and Dash Bio, which enables users to build custom chart types, sequence analysis tools, and 3D rendering tools for bioinformatics applications. Dash Enterprise is Plotly's paid product for building, testing, deploying, managing and scaling Dash applications organization-wide. Chart Studio Cloud is a free, online tool for creating interactive graphs. It has a point-and-click graphical user interface for importing and analyzing data into a grid and using stats tools. Graphs can be embedded or downloaded. Chart Studio Enterprise is a paid product that allows teams to create, style, and share interactive graphs on a single platform. It offers expanded authentication and file export options, and does not limit sharing and viewing. Data visualization libraries Plotly.js is an open-source JavaScript library for creating graphs and powers Plotly.py for Python, as well as Plotly.R for R, MATLAB, Node.js, Julia, and Arduino and a REST API. Plotly can also be used to style interactive graphs with Jupyter notebook. Figure converters which convert matplotlib, ggplot2, and IGOR Pro graphs into interactive, online graphs. == Data visualization libraries == Plotly provides a collection of supported chart types across several programming languages: == Dash == Dash is a Python framework built on top of React, a JavaScript library. Dash also works for R, and most recently supports Julia. While still described as a Python framework, Python isn't used for the other languages: "... describing Dash as a Python framework misses a key feature of its design: the Python side (the back end/server) of Dash was built to be lightweight and stateless [allowing] multiple back-end languages to coexist on an equal footing". It is possible to integrate D3.js charts as Dash components. Dash provides the default CSS (plus HTML and JavaScript), but for custom styling Dash applications, CSS can be added, or Dash Enterprise used. === Dash Enterprise === Dash Enterprise is Plotly's paid product for building, testing, deploying, managing and scaling Dash applications organization-wide. The product integrates with enterprise IT systems to enable organizations to build, deploy and scale low-code Dash applications. With open-source Dash, analytic applications can be run from a local machine, but cannot be easily accessed by others in the organization. ==== Enterprise IT integration ==== Dash Enterprise installs on cloud environments and on-premises. Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure are supported, as are multiple Linux on-premises servers. Authentication integrations include LDAP, AD, PKI, Okta, SAML, OAuth2, SSO, and email authentication, and Dash application access is managed through a GUI rather than code. Dash Enterprise connects to major big data backends, including Salesforce, PostgreSQL, Databricks via PySpark, Snowflake, Dask, Datashader, and Vaex. In 2020, Plotly partnered with NVIDIA to integrate Dash with RAPIDS, and NVIDIA participated in Plotly's Series C funding round. ==== Low-code capabilities ==== Dash Enterprise enables low-code development of Dash applications, which is not possible with open-source Dash. Enterprise users can write applications in multiple development environments, including Jupyter Notebook. Dash Enterprise ships with several “development engines” for drag-and-drop application editing, application design, and automated reporting, as well as dozens of artificial intelligence and machine learning application templates. ==== Deployment and scaling ==== Dash application code is deployed to Dash Enterprise using the git-push command. Dash application deployments are containerized to avoid dependency conflicts, and can be embedded in existing web platforms without iframes. Deployed applications can be managed and accessed in a single portal called App Manager, where administrators can control user authentication and view usage analytics. Dash Enterprise scales horizontally with Kubernetes. Jobs queuing, GPU acceleration, and CPU parallelization support high performance computing requirements. Plotly also offers professional services for application development and workshop training.

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  • Data quality

    Data quality

    Data quality refers to the state of qualitative or quantitative pieces of information. There are many definitions of data quality, but data is generally considered high quality if it is "fit for [its] intended uses in operations, decision making and planning". Data is deemed of high quality if it correctly represents the real-world construct to which it refers. Apart from these definitions, as the number of data sources increases, the question of internal data consistency becomes significant, regardless of fitness for use for any particular external purpose. People's views on data quality can often be in disagreement, even when discussing the same set of data used for the same purpose. When this is the case, businesses may adopt recognised international standards for data quality (See #International Standards for Data Quality below). Data governance can also be used to form agreed upon definitions and standards, including international standards, for data quality. In such cases, data cleansing, including standardization, may be required in order to ensure data quality. == Definitions == Defining data quality is difficult due to the many contexts data are used in, as well as the varying perspectives among end users, producers, and custodians of data. From a consumer perspective, data quality is: "data that are fit for use by data consumers" data "meeting or exceeding consumer expectations" data that "satisfies the requirements of its intended use" From a business perspective, data quality is: data that are "'fit for use' in their intended operational, decision-making and other roles" or that exhibits "'conformance to standards' that have been set, so that fitness for use is achieved" data that "are fit for their intended uses in operations, decision making and planning" "the capability of data to satisfy the stated business, system, and technical requirements of an enterprise" From a standards-based perspective, data quality is: the "degree to which a set of inherent characteristics (quality dimensions) of an object (data) fulfills requirements" "the usefulness, accuracy, and correctness of data for its application" Arguably, in all these cases, "data quality" is a comparison of the actual state of a particular set of data to a desired state, with the desired state being typically referred to as "fit for use," "to specification," "meeting consumer expectations," "free of defect," or "meeting requirements." These expectations, specifications, and requirements are usually defined by one or more individuals or groups, standards organizations, laws and regulations, business policies, or software development policies. == Dimensions of data quality == Drilling down further, those expectations, specifications, and requirements are stated in terms of characteristics or dimensions of the data, such as: accessibility or availability accuracy or correctness comparability completeness or comprehensiveness consistency, coherence, or clarity credibility, reliability, or reputation flexibility plausibility relevance, pertinence, or usefulness timeliness or latency uniqueness validity or reasonableness A systematic scoping review of the literature suggests that data quality dimensions and methods with real world data are not consistent in the literature, and as a result quality assessments are challenging due to the complex and heterogeneous nature of these data. == International standards for data quality == ISO 8000 is an international standard for data quality. Managed by the International Organization for Standardization, the ISO 8000 standards address and describe general aspects of data quality including principles, vocabulary and measurement data governance data quality management data quality assessment quality of master data, including exchange of characteristic data and identifiers quality of industrial data == History == Before the rise of the inexpensive computer data storage, massive mainframe computers were used to maintain name and address data for delivery services. This was so that mail could be properly routed to its destination. The mainframes used business rules to correct common misspellings and typographical errors in name and address data, as well as to track customers who had moved, died, gone to prison, married, divorced, or experienced other life-changing events. Government agencies began to make postal data available to a few service companies to cross-reference customer data with the National Change of Address registry (NCOA). This technology saved large companies millions of dollars in comparison to manual correction of customer data. Large companies saved on postage, as bills and direct marketing materials made their way to the intended customer more accurately. Initially sold as a service, data quality moved inside the walls of corporations, as low-cost and powerful server technology became available. Companies with an emphasis on marketing often focused their quality efforts on name and address information, but data quality is recognized as an important property of all types of data. Principles of data quality can be applied to supply chain data, transactional data, and nearly every other category of data found. For example, making supply chain data conform to a certain standard has value to an organization by: 1) avoiding overstocking of similar but slightly different stock; 2) avoiding false stock-out; 3) improving the understanding of vendor purchases to negotiate volume discounts; and 4) avoiding logistics costs in stocking and shipping parts across a large organization. For companies with significant research efforts, data quality can include developing protocols for research methods, reducing measurement error, bounds checking of data, cross tabulation, modeling and outlier detection, verifying data integrity, etc. == Overview == There are a number of theoretical frameworks for understanding data quality. A systems-theoretical approach influenced by American pragmatism expands the definition of data quality to include information quality, and emphasizes the inclusiveness of the fundamental dimensions of accuracy and precision on the basis of the theory of science (Ivanov, 1972). One framework, dubbed "Zero Defect Data" (Hansen, 1991) adapts the principles of statistical process control to data quality. Another framework seeks to integrate the product perspective (conformance to specifications) and the service perspective (meeting consumers' expectations) (Kahn et al. 2002). Another framework is based in semiotics to evaluate the quality of the form, meaning and use of the data (Price and Shanks, 2004). One highly theoretical approach analyzes the ontological nature of information systems to define data quality rigorously (Wand and Wang, 1996). A considerable amount of data quality research involves investigating and describing various categories of desirable attributes (or dimensions) of data. Nearly 200 such terms have been identified and there is little agreement in their nature (are these concepts, goals or criteria?), their definitions or measures (Wang et al., 1993). Software engineers may recognize this as a similar problem to "ilities". MIT has an Information Quality (MITIQ) Program, led by Professor Richard Wang, which produces a large number of publications and hosts a significant international conference in this field (International Conference on Information Quality, ICIQ). This program grew out of the work done by Hansen on the "Zero Defect Data" framework (Hansen, 1991). In practice, data quality is a concern for professionals involved with a wide range of information systems, ranging from data warehousing and business intelligence to customer relationship management and supply chain management. One industry study estimated the total cost to the U.S. economy of data quality problems at over U.S. $600 billion per annum (Eckerson, 2002). Incorrect data – which includes invalid and outdated information – can originate from different data sources – through data entry, or data migration and conversion projects. In 2002, the USPS and PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report stating that 23.6 percent of all U.S. mail sent is incorrectly addressed. One reason contact data becomes stale very quickly in the average database – more than 45 million Americans change their address every year. In fact, the problem is such a concern that companies are beginning to set up a data governance team whose sole role in the corporation is to be responsible for data quality. In some organizations, this data governance function has been established as part of a larger Regulatory Compliance function - a recognition of the importance of Data/Information Quality to organizations. Problems with data quality don't only arise from incorrect data; inconsistent data is a problem as well. Eliminating data shadow systems and centralizing data in a warehouse is one of the initiatives a company can take to ensure data consistency. En

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  • Basic Formal Ontology

    Basic Formal Ontology

    Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology developed by Barry Smith and colleagues to promote interoperability among domain ontologies. The BFO methodology accomplishes this through a process of downward population. BFO is a formal ontology. The structure of BFO is based on a division of entities into two disjoint categories of continuant and occurrent, the former consists of objects and spatial regions, the latter contains processes conceived as extended through (or spanning) time. BFO thereby seeks to consolidate both time and space within a single framework A guide to building BFO-conformant domain ontologies was published by MIT Press in 2015. In 2021, the standard ISO/IEC 21838-2:2021 Information Technology — Top-level Ontologies (TLO) — Part 2: Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) was published by the Joint Technical Committee of the International Standards Organization and the International Electrotechnical Commission. ISO/IEC 21838 is a multi-part standard. Part 1 of the standard specifies the requirements that must be met if an ontology is to be classified as a top-level ontology by the standard. == History == BFO arose against the background of research in ontologies in the domain of geospatial information science by David Mark, Pierre Grenon, Achille Varzi and others, with a special role for the study of vagueness and of the ways sharp boundaries in the geospatial and other domains are created by fiat. BFO has passed through four major releases. 2001: release of BFO 1 2007: release of BFO 1.1 2015: release of BFO 2.0 2020: release of BFO 2020 2021: release of BFO 2020 as an ISO/IEC Standard The current revision was released in 2020, and this forms the basis of the standard ISO/IEC 21838-2, which was released by the Joint Committee of the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission in 2021. == Applications == BFO has been adopted as a foundational ontology by over 650 ontology projects, principally in the areas of biomedical ontology, security and defense (intelligence) ontology, and industry ontologies. Example applications of BFO can be seen in the Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI). In January 2024, BFO and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO), a suite of BFO-extension ontologies, were adopted as the "baseline standards for formal DOD and IC ontology" development work in the DOD and Intelligence Community. A memorandum to this effect was signed by the chief data officers of the DOD, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

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  • Secure Electronic Delivery

    Secure Electronic Delivery

    Secure Electronic Delivery (SED) is a service created in 2003 and provided by the British Library Document Supply Service (BLDSS). Its purpose is to enable faster delivery of digital materials as encrypted, copyright-compliant PDF Documents, to a personal e-mail address. These documents are supplied from the British Library via its On Demand service. When the British Library supplies articles electronically, it sends them securely in order to ensure its usage is permitted (research purposes) and copyright law is observed. == Methods == As the publishing industry, authors and creators become highly protective of their assets and intellectual property, they impose strict rules on delivery methods to prevent copyright infringement. Nowadays, DRM-enabled secure delivery appears to be the most widely used solution to address issues faced by libraries in supplying ebooks and digital materials to their users. SED, one of these solutions, is using Adobe LiveCycle Digital Rights Management (LCDRM) as an encryption method to deliver documents. == Advantages == SED offers convenience, quality and speed as documents are delivered upon request at any location and on any device. Requested articles are scanned for high quality reproduction, opened anywhere on any machine, including mobile devices. == Restrictions == The following are restrictions hold in a SED service implementation: The digital material is accessible only for 14 days via a link sent to a personal message. Due to copyright reasons, the material can be opened only once, saved for 14 days and does not allow a copy-paste action. Upon display, the material must be printed from the same device and reprinted only once. The On Demand encryption technology works best on the default Safari browser although other browsers may accommodate it.

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  • Hybrid machine translation

    Hybrid machine translation

    Hybrid machine translation is a method of machine translation that is characterized by the use of multiple machine translation approaches within a single machine translation system. The motivation for developing hybrid machine translation systems stems from the failure of any single technique to achieve a satisfactory level of accuracy. Many hybrid machine translation systems have been successful in improving the accuracy of the translations, and there are several popular machine translation systems which employ hybrid methods. == Approaches == === Multi-engine === This approach to hybrid machine translation involves running multiple machine translation systems in parallel. The final output is generated by combining the output of all the sub-systems. Most commonly, these systems use statistical and rule-based translation subsystems, but other combinations have been explored. For example, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have had some success combining example-based, transfer-based, knowledge-based and statistical translation sub-systems into one machine translation system. === Statistical rule generation === This approach involves using statistical data to generate lexical and syntactic rules. The input is then processed with these rules as if it were a rule-based translator. This approach attempts to avoid the difficult and time-consuming task of creating a set of comprehensive, fine-grained linguistic rules by extracting those rules from the training corpus. This approach still suffers from many problems of normal statistical machine translation, namely that the accuracy of the translation will depend heavily on the similarity of the input text to the text of the training corpus. As a result, this technique has had the most success in domain-specific applications, and has the same difficulties with domain adaptation as many statistical machine translation systems. === Multi-Pass === This approach involves serially processing the input multiple times. The most common technique used in multi-pass machine translation systems is to pre-process the input with a rule-based machine translation system. The output of the rule-based pre-processor is passed to a statistical machine translation system, which produces the final output. This technique is used to limit the amount of information a statistical system need consider, significantly reducing the processing power required. It also removes the need for the rule-based system to be a complete translation system for the language, significantly reducing the amount of human effort and labor necessary to build the system. === Confidence-Based === This approach differs from the other hybrid approaches in that in most cases only one translation technology is used. A confidence metric is produced for each translated sentence from which a decision can be made whether to try a secondary translation technology or to proceed with the initial translation output. SMT is also used when common error patterns such as multiple repeat words appear in sequence, as is common with NMT when the attention mechanism is confused.

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  • Schema crosswalk

    Schema crosswalk

    A schema crosswalk is a table that shows equivalent elements (or "fields") in more than one database schema. It maps the elements in one schema to the equivalent elements in another. Crosswalk tables are often employed within or in parallel to enterprise systems, especially when multiple systems are interfaced or when the system includes legacy system data. In the context of Interfaces, they function as an internal extract, transform, load (ETL) mechanism. For example, this is a metadata crosswalk from MARC standards to Dublin Core: Crosswalks show people where to put the data from one scheme into a different scheme. They are often used by libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions to translate data to or from MARC standards, Dublin Core, Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and other metadata schemes. For example, an archive has a MARC record in its catalog describing a manuscript. Suppose the archive makes a digital copy of that manuscript and wants to display it on the web along with the information from the catalog. In that case, it will have to translate the data from the MARC catalog record into a different format, such as Metadata Object Description Schema, that is viewable on a webpage. Because MARC has various fields than MODS, decisions must be made about where to put the data into MODS. This type of "translating" from one format to another is often called "metadata mapping" or "field mapping," and is related to "data mapping", and "semantic mapping". Crosswalks also have several technical capabilities. They help databases using different metadata schemes to share information. They help metadata harvesters create union catalogs. They enable search engines to search multiple databases simultaneously with a single query. == Challenges for crosswalks == One of the biggest challenges for crosswalks is that no two metadata schemes are 100% equivalent. One scheme may have a field that doesn't exist in another scheme or a field that is split into two different fields in another scheme; this is why data is often lost when mapping from a complex scheme to a simpler one. For example, when mapping from MARC to Simple Dublin Core, the distinction between types of titles is lost: Simple Dublin Core only has one "Title" element, so all of the different types of MARC titles get lumped together without further distinctions. A future attempt to convert the metadata back into MARC would enter the information in the basic MARC 245 Title Statement field, with none of the original distinctions. This is why crosswalks are said to be "lateral" (one-way) mappings from one scheme to another. Separate crosswalks would be required to map from scheme A to scheme B and from scheme B to scheme A. === Difficulties in mapping === Other mapping problems arise when: One scheme has one element that needs to be split up with different parts of it placed in multiple other elements in the second scheme ("one-to-many" mapping) One scheme allows an element to be repeated more than once while another only allows that element to appear once with multiple terms in it Schemes have different data formats (e.g. John Doe or Doe, John) An element in one scheme is indexed, but the equivalent element in the other scheme is not Schemes may use different controlled vocabularies Schemes change their standards over time Some of these problems are not fixable. As Karen Coyle says in "Crosswalking Citation Metadata: The University of California's Experience," "The more metadata experience we have, the more it becomes clear that metadata perfection is not attainable, and anyone who attempts it will be sorely disappointed. When metadata is crosswalked between two or more unrelated sources, there will be data elements that cannot be reconciled in an ideal manner. The key to a successful metadata crosswalk is intelligent flexibility. It is essential to focus on the important goals and be willing to compromise to reach a practical conclusion to projects."

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  • Information audit

    Information audit

    The information audit (IA) extends the concept of auditing from a traditional scope of accounting and finance to the organisational information management system. Information is representative of a resource which requires effective management and this led to the development of interest in the use of an IA. Prior the 1990s and the methodologies of Orna, Henczel, Wood, Buchanan and Gibb, IA approaches and methodologies focused mainly upon an identification of formal information resources (IR). Later approaches included an organisational analysis and the mapping of the information flow. This gave context to analysis within an organisation's information systems and a holistic view of their IR and as such could contribute to the development of the information systems architecture (ISA). In recent years the IA has been overlooked in favour of the systems development process which can be less expensive than the IA, yet more heavily technically focused, project specific (not holistic) and does not favour the top-down analysis of the IA. == Definition == A definition for the Information Audit cannot be universally agreed-upon amongst scholars, however the definition offered by ASLIB received positive support from a few notable scholars including Henczel, Orna and Wood; “(the IA is a) systematic examination of information use, resources and flows, with a verification by reference to both people and existing documents, in order to establish the extent to which they are contributing to an organisation’s objectives” In summary, the term audit itself implies a counting, the IA being much the same yet it counts IR and analyses how they are used and how critical they are to the success of a given task. == Role and scope of an IA == In much the same way as the IA is difficult to define, it can be utilised in a range of contexts by the information professional, from complying with freedom of information legislation to identifying any existing gaps, duplications, bottlenecks or other inefficiencies in information flows and to understand how existing channels can be used for knowledge transfer In 2007 Buchanan and Gibb developed upon their 1998 examination of the IA process by outlining a summary of its main objectives: To identify an organisation’s information resource To identify an organisation’s information needs Furthermore, Buchanan and Gibb went on to state that the IA also had to meet the following additional objectives: To identify the cost/benefits of information resources To identify the opportunities to use the information resources for strategic competitive advantage To integrate IT investment with strategic business initiatives To identify information flow and processes To develop an integrated information strategy and/or policy To create an awareness of the importance of Information Resource Management (IRM) To monitor/evaluate conformance to information related standards, legislations, policy and guidelines. == Methodology evolution == === Overview === In 1976 Riley first published a definition of IA as a way of analysing IR based on a cost-benefit model. Since Riley, scholars have outlined further developed methodologies. Henderson took a cost-benefit approach hoping to draw focus from manpower-costing to information storage and acquisition which he felt was being overlooked. In 1985 Gillman focused upon identifying the relationships which existed between various components in order to map them to one another. Neither Henderson nor Gillman’s methods offered alternative approaches beyond the existing organisational frameworks. Quinn took a hybrid-approach combining Gillman and Henderson’s methods to identify the purpose of existing IR and to position them within the organisation, as did Worlock. The differentiator between Quinn and Worlock lay in Worlock’s consideration of solutions outside of the current organisational structure. These approaches had thus far had paid little attention to the needs of the user or in making structured recommendations for the development of a corporate information strategy. Therefore, here follows a brief outline and overall comparison of four published strategic approaches in order that one might understand the development of the IA methodology. === Burk and Horton === In 1988 Burk and Horton developed InfoMap, the first IA methodology developed for widespread use. It aimed to discover, map and evaluate the IR within an organisation using a 4-stage process: Survey staff using questionnaires/interviews Measure the IR against cost/value Analyse resources Synthesise the findings and map the strengths and weaknesses of the IR against the objectives of the organisation. Although the method inventoried all IR (and therefore met standard ISO 1779) this bottom-up approach revealed limited analysis of the organisation holistically and the steps were not explicit enough. === Orna === Orna produced a top-down methodology in contrast to Burk and Horton, placing emphasis upon the importance of organisational analysis and aimed to assist in the production of a corporate information policy. Initially the method had just 4-stages, this later revised to a 10-stage process which included pre and post-audit stages as below: Conduct a preliminary review to confirm operational/strategic direction Gain support/resource from management Gain commitment from the other stakeholders (staff) Planning including the project, team, tools and techniques Identify the IR, information flow and produce a cost/value assessment Interpret findings based upon current versus desired state Produce a report to present findings Implement recommendations Monitor effects of change Repeat the IA Orna’s method introduced the need for a cyclical IA to be put in place in order for the IR to be continually tracked and improvements made regularly. Again this method was criticised for lacking some practical application and in 2004 Orna revised the methodology once more to try to rectify this problem === Buchanan and Gibb === In 1998, similarly to Orna's earlier publication, Buchanan and Gibb took a top-down approach, drawing techniques from established management disciplines to provide a framework and a level of familiarity for information professionals. This set of techniques was a notable contribution to IA methodologies and understood the need to be flexible for each organisation. Theirs was a 5-stage process: Promote benefits of the IA through seminars/surveys/CEO letter for cooperation Identify the mission objectives of the organisation, define environment (PEST), map information flow and examine organisation culture. Analyse and formulate action plan for problem areas, flow diagrams and a report of findings and recommendations Account for cost of IR and related services using Activity Based Costing (ABC) and Output Based Specification (OBS). Synthesise the whole process in final audit report and provide an information strategy (strategic direction) in relation to the organisation’s mission statement. This was the introduction of a new approach to costing the IR and had an integrated strategic direction, yet the scholars admitted that this method may be impractical for smaller organisations. === Henczel === Henczel’s methodology drew upon the strengths of Orna and Buchanan and Gibb to produce a 7-stage process: Planning and submission of business case for approval to proceed Data collection and development of an IR database and population through survey techniques Structured data analysis Data evaluation, interpretation and formulation of recommendations Communication of recommendations through a report Implementing recommendations through a devised programme The IA as a continuum-establishment of a cyclical process Focus was made once more on the strategic direction of the organisation conducting the IA. Furthermore, Henczel made examination into the use of the IA as a first-step in the development of a knowledge audit or knowledge management strategy as discussed in the later section. == Case studies == Scholars and information professionals have since tested the above methodologies with varied results. An early case study produced by Soy and Bustelo in a Spanish financial institution in 1999 aimed to identify the use of information resources for qualitative and quantitative data analysis due to the rapid expansion of the organisation within a six-year period. Although the methodology was not explicitly credited to any of the above-mentioned scholars, it did follow a strategic (post 1990's) IA process including gaining support from management, the use of questionnaires for data collection, analysis and evaluation of the data, identification and mapping of the IR, cost-analysis and outlining recommendations to assist with the establishment of an Information policy. In addition the IA report suggested that the process would need to be continual (cyclical as Orna, Henczel and Buchanan and Gibb suggest). Conclusions of this case-study stated that th

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  • Mobile content management system

    Mobile content management system

    A mobile content management system (MCMs) is a type of content management system (CMS) capable of storing and delivering content and services to mobile devices, such as mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs. Mobile content management systems may be discrete systems, or may exist as features, modules or add-ons of larger content management systems capable of multi-channel content delivery. Mobile content delivery has unique, specific constraints including widely variable device capacities, small screen size, limitations on wireless bandwidth, sometimes small storage capacity, and (for some devices) comparatively weak device processors. Demand for mobile content management increased as mobile devices became increasingly ubiquitous and sophisticated. MCMS technology initially focused on the business to consumer (B2C) mobile market place with ringtones, games, text-messaging, news, and other related content. Since, mobile content management systems have also taken root in business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-employee (B2E) situations, allowing companies to provide more timely information and functionality to business partners and mobile workforces in an increasingly efficient manner. A 2008 estimate put global revenue for mobile content management at US$8 billion. == Key features == === Multi-channel content delivery === Multi-channel content delivery capabilities allow users not to manage a central content repository while simultaneously delivering that content to mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Content can be stored in a raw format (such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Text, HTML etc.) to which device-specific presentation styles can be applied. === Content access control === Access control includes authorization, authentication, access approval to each content. In many cases the access control also includes download control, wipe-out for specific user, time specific access. For the authentication, MCM shall have basic authentication which has user ID and password. For higher security many MCM supports IP authentication and mobile device authentication. === Specialized templating system === While traditional web content management systems handle templates for only a handful of web browsers, mobile CMS templates must be adapted to the very wide range of target devices with different capacities and limitations. There are two approaches to adapting templates: multi-client and multi-site. The multi-client approach makes it possible to see all versions of a site at the same domain (e.g. sitename.com), and templates are presented based on the device client used for viewing. The multi-site approach displays the mobile site on a targeted sub-domain (e.g. mobile.sitename.com). === Location-based content delivery === Location-based content delivery provides targeted content, such as information, advertisements, maps, directions, and news, to mobile devices based on current physical location. Currently, GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems offer the most popular location-based services. Navigation systems are specialized systems, but incorporating mobile phone functionality makes greater exploitation of location-aware content delivery possible.

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  • Electronic sell-through

    Electronic sell-through

    Electronic sell-through (EST) is a method of media distribution whereby consumers pay a one-time fee to download a media file for storage on a hard drive. Although EST is often described as a transaction that grants content "ownership" to the consumer, the content may become unusable after a certain period and may not be viewable using competing platforms. EST is used by a wide array of digital media products, including movies, television, music, games, and mobile applications. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with download to own (DTO). == Film and television == The film and television industry's $18.8 billion home entertainment market consists of rental and sell-through segments, the latter of which includes the electronic sell-through of digital content. In 2010, EST generated $683 million of total home entertainment revenues, putting it behind the more lucrative revenue streams of cable video-on-demand (VOD) and internet video-on-demand (iVOD), which brought in a combined $1.8 billion in the same period. In 2010, Apple's iTunes Store accounted for three quarters of the U.S. EST business. The rest of the EST market was captured by Microsoft (via its Zune Video platform), Sony, Amazon VOD (now Amazon Video), and Walmart (via its VUDU service). A number of industry trends indicate the future expansion of EST's share of digital distribution revenues. David Bishop, worldwide president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, describes the following outlook: "With the launch of UltraViolet (the cloud-based digital copy locker system) establishing a common digital distribution platform later this year, prices potentially coming down on digital sales, more marketing devoted to digital sellthrough, and studios adding more value to the sellthrough product by making HD available and building in smarter extra features, we see the balance tilting even more toward owning and collecting digital movies."

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  • Synthetic data

    Synthetic data

    Synthetic data are artificially generated data not produced by real-world events. Typically created using algorithms, synthetic data can be deployed to validate mathematical models and to train machine learning models. Data generated by a computer simulation can be seen as synthetic data. This encompasses most applications of physical modeling, such as music synthesizers or flight simulators. The output of such systems approximates the real thing, but is fully algorithmically generated. Synthetic data is used in a variety of fields as a filter for information that would otherwise compromise the confidentiality of particular aspects of the data. In many sensitive applications, datasets theoretically exist but cannot be released to the general public; synthetic data sidesteps the privacy issues that arise from using real consumer information without permission or compensation. == Usefulness == Synthetic data is generated to meet specific needs or certain conditions that may not be found in the original, real data. One of the hurdles in applying up-to-date machine learning approaches for complex scientific tasks is the scarcity of labeled data, a gap effectively bridged by the use of synthetic data, which closely replicates real experimental data. This can be useful when designing many systems, from simulations based on theoretical value, to database processors, etc. This helps detect and solve unexpected issues such as information processing limitations. Synthetic data are often generated to represent the authentic data and allows a baseline to be set. Another benefit of synthetic data is to protect the privacy and confidentiality of authentic data, while still allowing for use in testing systems. Computer security experts claim generated synthetic data "... enables us to create realistic behavior profiles for users and attackers. The data is used to train the fraud detection system itself, thus creating the necessary adaptation of the system to a specific environment." In defense and military contexts, synthetic data is seen as a potentially valuable tool to develop and improve complex AI systems, particularly in contexts where high-quality real-world data is scarce. At the same time, synthetic data together with the testing approach can give the ability to model real-world scenarios. == History == Scientific modelling of physical systems has a long history that runs concurrent with the history of physics. For example, research into synthesis of audio and voice can be traced back to the 1930s and before, driven forward by the developments of the telephone and audio recording technologies. Digitization gave rise to software synthesizers from the 1970s onwards. In the context of privacy-preserving statistical analysis, in 1993, the idea of original fully synthetic data was created by Donald Rubin. Rubin originally designed this to synthesize the Decennial Census long form responses for the short form households. He then released samples that did not include any actual long form records - in this he preserved anonymity of the household. Later that year, the idea of original partially synthetic data was created by Little. Little used this idea to synthesize the sensitive values on the public use file. A 1993 work fitted a statistical model to 60,000 MNIST digits, then it was used to generate over 1 million examples. Those were used to train a LeNet-4 to reach state of the art performance. In 1994, Stephen Fienberg introduced 'critical refinement', in which a parametric posterior predictive distribution (instead of a Bayes bootstrap) is used to do the sampling. Later, other important contributors to the development of synthetic data generation were Trivellore Raghunathan, Jerry Reiter, Donald Rubin, John M. Abowd, and Jim Woodcock. Collectively they came up with a solution for how to treat partially synthetic data with missing data. Similarly, they developed the technique of Sequential Regression Multivariate Imputation. == Calculations == Researchers test the framework on synthetic data, which is "the only source of ground truth on which they can objectively assess the performance of their algorithms". Synthetic data can be generated through the use of random lines, having different orientations and starting positions. Datasets can get fairly complicated. A more complicated dataset can be generated by using a synthesizer build. To create a synthesizer build, first use the original data to create a model or equation that fits the data the best. This model or equation will be called a synthesizer build. This build can be used to generate more data. Constructing a synthesizer build involves constructing a statistical model. In a linear regression line example, the original data can be plotted, and a best fit linear line can be created from the data. This line is a synthesizer created from the original data. The next step will be generating more synthetic data from the synthesizer build or from this linear line equation. In this way, the new data can be used for studies and research, and it protects the confidentiality of the original data. David Jensen from the Knowledge Discovery Laboratory explains how to generate synthetic data: "Researchers frequently need to explore the effects of certain data characteristics on their data model." To help construct datasets exhibiting specific properties, such as auto-correlation or degree disparity, proximity can generate synthetic data having one of several types of graph structure: random graphs that are generated by some random process; lattice graphs having a ring structure; lattice graphs having a grid structure, etc. In all cases, the data generation process follows the same process: Generate the empty graph structure. Generate attribute values based on user-supplied prior probabilities. Since the attribute values of one object may depend on the attribute values of related objects, the attribute generation process assigns values collectively. == Applications == === Fraud detection and confidentiality systems === Testing and training fraud detection and confidentiality systems are devised using synthetic data. Specific algorithms and generators are designed to create realistic data, which then assists in teaching a system how to react to certain situations or criteria. For example, intrusion detection software is tested using synthetic data. This data is a representation of the authentic data and may include intrusion instances that are not found in the authentic data. The synthetic data allows the software to recognize these situations and react accordingly. If synthetic data was not used, the software would only be trained to react to the situations provided by the authentic data and it may not recognize another type of intrusion. === Scientific research === Researchers doing clinical trials or any other research may generate synthetic data to aid in creating a baseline for future studies and testing. Real data can contain information that researchers may not want released, so synthetic data is sometimes used to protect the privacy and confidentiality of a dataset. Using synthetic data reduces confidentiality and privacy issues since it holds no personal information and cannot be traced back to any individual. Beyond privacy protection, synthetic data is also being explored for methodological innovation in drug development. For instance, synthetic data may be used to construct synthetic control arms as an alternative to conventional external control arms based on real-world data (RWD) or randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Collectively, regulatory agencies such as the FDA and EMA appear to be at various stages of recognizing and integrating AI-generated synthetic data into their methodologies. While there is growing consensus on the potential of such data to support model development and the broader lifecycle of medicinal products, to date no drug or medical device has been approved using solely or predominantly synthetic data—particularly not as a comparator arm generated entirely via data-driven algorithms. The quality and statistical handling of synthetic data are expected to become more prominent in future regulatory discussions, particularly in contexts such as predictive modeling (e.g., digital twins), where innovative approaches have already been referenced. === Machine learning === Synthetic data is increasingly being used for machine learning applications: a model is trained on a synthetically generated dataset with the intention of transfer learning to real data. Efforts have been made to enable more data science experiments via the construction of general-purpose synthetic data generators, such as the Synthetic Data Vault. In general, synthetic data has several natural advantages: once the synthetic environment is ready, it is fast and cheap to produce as much data as needed; synthetic data can have perfectly accurate labels, including labeling that may be very expensive or impo

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  • WCF Data Services

    WCF Data Services

    WCF Data Services (formerly ADO.NET Data Services, codename "Astoria") is a platform for what Microsoft calls Data Services. It is actually a combination of the runtime and a web service through which the services are exposed. It also includes the Data Services Toolkit which lets Astoria Data Services be created from within ASP.NET itself. The Astoria project was announced at MIX 2007, and the first developer preview was made available on April 30, 2007. The first CTP was made available as a part of the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview. The final version was released as part of Service Pack 1 of the .NET Framework 3.5 on August 11, 2008. The name change from ADO.NET Data Services to WCF data Services was announced at the 2009 PDC. == Overview == WCF Data Services exposes data, represented as Entity Data Model (EDM) objects, via web services accessed over HTTP. The data can be addressed using a REST-like URI. The data service, when accessed via the HTTP GET method with such a URI, will return the data. The web service can be configured to return the data in either plain XML, JSON or RDF+XML. In the initial release, formats like RSS and ATOM are not supported, though they may be in the future. In addition, using other HTTP methods like PUT, POST or DELETE, the data can be updated as well. POST can be used to create new entities, PUT for updating an entity, and DELETE for deleting an entity. == Description == Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) comes to the rescue when we find ourselves not able to achieve what we want to achieve using web services, i.e., other protocols support and even duplex communication. With WCF, we can define our service once and then configure it in such a way that it can be used via HTTP, TCP, IPC, and even Message Queues. We can consume Web Services using server side scripts (ASP.NET), JavaScript Object Notations (JSON), and even REST (Representational State Transfer). Understanding the basics When we say that a WCF service can be used to communicate using different protocols and from different kinds of applications, we will need to understand how we can achieve this. If we want to use a WCF service from an application, then we have three major questions: 1.Where is the WCF service located from a client's perspective? 2.How can a client access the service, i.e., protocols and message formats? 3.What is the functionality that a service is providing to the clients? Once we have the answer to these three questions, then creating and consuming the WCF service will be a lot easier for us. The WCF service has the concept of endpoints. A WCF service provides endpoints which client applications can use to communicate with the WCF service. The answer to these above questions is what is known as the ABC of WCF services and in fact are the main components of a WCF service. So let's tackle each question one by one. Address: Like a webservice, a WCF service also provides a URI which can be used by clients to get to the WCF service. This URI is called as the Address of the WCF service. This will solve the first problem of "where to locate the WCF service?" for us. Binding: Once we are able to locate the WCF service, one should think about how to communicate with the service (protocol wise). The binding is what defines how the WCF service handles the communication. It could also define other communication parameters like message encoding, etc. This will solve the second problem of "how to communicate with the WCF service?" for us. Contract: Now the only question one is left with is about the functionalities that a WCF service provides. The contract is what defines the public data and interfaces that WCF service provides to the clients. The URIs representing the data will contain the physical location of the service, as well as the service name. It will also need to specify an EDM Entity-Set or a specific entity instance, as in respectively http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection or http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection[SomeArtist] The former will list all entities in the Collection set whereas the latter will list only for the entity which is indexed by SomeArtist. The URIs can also specify a traversal of a relationship in the Entity Data Model. For example, http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection[SomeSong]/Genre traverses the relationship Genre (in SQL parlance, joins with the Genre table) and retrieves all instances of Genre that are associated with the entity SomeSong. Simple predicates can also be specified in the URI, like http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection[SomeArtist]/ReleaseDate[Year eq 2006] will fetch the items that are indexed by SomeArtist and had their release in 2006. Filtering and partition information can also be encoded in the URL as http://dataserver/service.svc/MusicCollection?$orderby=ReleaseDate&$skip=100&$top=50 Although the presence of skip and top keywords indicates paging support, in Data Services version 1 there is no method of determining the number of records available and thus impossible to determine how many pages there may be. The OData 2.0 spec adds support for the $count path segment (to return just a count of entities) and $inlineCount (to retrieve a page worth of entities and a total count without a separate round-trip....).

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  • Computer and information science

    Computer and information science

    Computer and information science (CIS; also known as information and computer science) is a field that emphasizes both computing and informatics, upholding the strong association between the fields of information sciences and computer sciences and treating computers as a tool rather than a field. Information science is one with a long history, unlike the relatively very young field of computer science, and is primarily concerned with gathering, storing, disseminating, sharing and protecting any and all forms of information. It is a broad field, covering a myriad of different areas but is often referenced alongside computer science because of the incredibly useful nature of computers and computer programs in helping those studying and doing research in the field – particularly in helping to analyse data and in spotting patterns too broad for a human to intuitively perceive. While information science is sometimes confused with information theory, the two have vastly different subject matter. Information theory focuses on one particular mathematical concept of information while information science is focused on all aspects of the processes and techniques of information. Computer science, in contrast, is less focused on information and its different states, but more, in a very broad sense, on the use of computers – both in theory and practice – to design and implement algorithms in order to aid the processing of information during the different states described above. It has strong foundations in the field of mathematics, as the very first recognised practitioners of the field were renowned mathematicians such as Alan Turing. Information science and computing began to converge in the 1950s and 1960s, as information scientists started to realize the many ways computers would improve information storage and retrieval. == Terminology == Due to the distinction between computers and computing, some of the research groups refer to computing or datalogy. The French refer to computer science as the term informatique. The term information and communications technology (ICT), refers to how humans communicate with using machines and computers, making a distinction from information and computer science, which is how computers use and gain information. Informatics is also distinct from computer science, which encompasses the study of logic and low-level computing issues. == Education == Universities may confer degrees with a major in computer and information science, not to be confused with a more specific Bachelor of Computer Science or respective graduate computer science degrees. The QS World University Rankings is one of the most widely recognised and distinguished university comparisons. They ranked the top 10 universities for computer science and information systems in 2015. They are: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Stanford University University of Oxford Carnegie Mellon University Harvard University University of California, Berkeley (UCB) University of Cambridge The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) Princeton University A Computer Information Science degree gives students both network and computing knowledge which is needed to design, develop, and assist information systems which helps to solve business problems and to support business problems and to support business operations and decision making at a managerial level also. == Areas of information and computer science == Due to the nature of this field, many topics are also shared with computer science and information systems. The discipline of Information and Computer Science spans a vast range of areas from basic computer science theory (algorithms and computational logic) to in depth analysis of data manipulation and use within technology. === Programming theory === The process of taking a given algorithm and encoding it into a language that can be understood and executed by a computer. There are many different types of programming languages and various different types of computers, however, they all have the same goal: to turn algorithms into machine code. Popular programming languages used within the academic study of CIS include, but are not limited to: Java, Python, C#, C++, Perl, Ruby, Pascal, Swift, Visual Basic. === Information and information systems === The academic study of software and hardware systems that process large quantities and data, support large scale data management and how data can be used. This is where the field is unique from the standard study of computer science. The area of information systems focuses on the networks of hardware and software that are required to process, manipulate and distribute such data. === Computer systems and organisations === The process of analysing computer architecture and various logic circuits. This involves looking at low level computer processes at bit level computation. This is an in-depth look into the hardware processing of a computational system, involving looking at the basic structure of a computer and designing such systems. This can also involve evaluating complex circuit diagrams, and being able to construct these to solve a main problem. The main purpose behind this area of study is to achieve an understanding of how computers function on a basic level, often through tracing machine operations. === Machines, languages, and computation === This is the study into fundamental computer algorithms, which are the basis to computer programs. Without algorithms, no computer programs would exist. This also involves the process of looking into various mathematical functions behind computational algorithms, basic theory and functional (low level) programming. In an academic setting, this area would introduce the fundamental mathematical theorems and functions behind theoretical computer science which are the building blocks for other areas in the field. Complex topics such as; proofs, algebraic functions and sets will be introduced during studies of CIS. == Developments == Information and computer science is a field that is rapidly developing with job prospects for students being extremely promising with 75.7% of graduates gaining employment. Also the IT industry employs one in twenty of the workforce with it predicted to increase nearly five times faster than the average of the UK and between 2012 and 2017 more than half a million people will be needed within the industry and the fact that nine out of ten tech firms are suffering from candidate shortages which is having a negative impact on their business as it delays the creation and development of new products, and it's predicted in the US that in the next decade there will be more than one million jobs in the technology sector than computer science graduates to fill them. Because of this programming is now being taught at an earlier age with an aim to interest students from a young age into computer and information science hopefully leading more children to study this at a higher level. For example, children in England will now be exposed to computer programming at the age of 5 due to an updated national curriculum. == Employment == Due to the wide variety of jobs that now involve computer and information science related tasks, it is difficult to provide a comprehensive list of possible jobs in this area, but some of the key areas are artificial intelligence, software engineering and computer networking and communication. Work in this area also tends to require sufficient understanding of mathematics and science. Moreover, jobs that having a CIS degree can lead to, include: systems analyst, network administrator, system architect, information systems developer, web programmer, or software developer. The earning potential for CIS graduates is quite promising. A 2013 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that the average starting salary for graduates who earned a degree in a computer related field was $59,977, up 4.3% from the prior year. This is higher than other popular degrees such as business ($54,234), education ($40,480) and math and sciences ($42,724). Furthermore, Payscale ranked 129 college degrees based on their graduates earning potential with engineering, math, science, and technology fields dominating the ranking. With eight computer related degrees appearing among the top 30. With the lowest starting salary for these jobs being $49,900. A Rasmussen College article describes various jobs CIS graduates may obtain with software applications developers at the top making a median income of $98,260. According to the National Careers Service an Information Scientist can expect to earn £24,000+ per year as a starting salary.

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  • Advanced automation functions

    Advanced automation functions

    In automation production technology the actions performed by an automated process are executed by a program of instructions which is run during a work cycle. To execute work cycle programs, an automated system should be available to execute these advanced functions. == Safety monitoring == If there is a need for workers in an automated system, a safety monitoring is required for the occupational safety and health of the workers. In a safety monitoring various steps can take place including a complete stop of the system, sounding an alarm or reducing the operating speed. Usually, limiting switches are sensors like temperature probes, heat and smoke detectors or pressure sensitive floor pads. == Maintenance and repair diagnostics == There are three modes of operations which are used in a cycle of maintenance and repair diagnostics: status monitoring, failure diagnostics and recommendation of the repair procedure. In the status monitoring mode, the current system status is displayed. The failure diagnostics mode takes place when a failure occurs. The system will then suggest an adequate repair procedure to a team of experts. == Error detection and recovery == The error detection mode is a step to determine if and when a failure occurs in automated system. The possible errors can be divided into three categories. random errors, systematic errors and aberrations. While in the error recovery mode, remedy actions take place for all detected errors.

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  • Information literacy

    Information literacy

    The Association of College and Research Libraries defines information literacy as a "set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning". In the United Kingdom, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals' definition also makes reference to knowing both "when" and "why" information is needed. The 1989 American Library Association (ALA) Presidential Committee on Information Literacy formally defined information literacy (IL) as attributes of an individual, stating that "to be information literate, a person must be able to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information". In 1990, academic Lori Arp published a paper asking, "Are information literacy instruction and bibliographic instruction the same?" Arp argued that neither term was particularly well defined by theoreticians or practitioners in the field. Further studies were needed to lessen the confusion and continue to articulate the parameters of the question. The Alexandria Proclamation of 2005 defined the term as a human rights issue: "Information literacy empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals. It is a basic human right in a digital world and promotes social inclusion in all nations." The United States National Forum on Information Literacy defined information literacy as "the ability to know when there is a need for information, to be able to identify, locate, evaluate, and effectively use that information for the issue or problem at hand." Meanwhile, in the UK, the library professional body CILIP, define information literacy as "the ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to develop informed views and to engage fully with society." A number of other efforts have been made to better define the concept and its relationship to other skills and forms of literacy. Other pedagogical outcomes related to information literacy include traditional literacy, computer literacy, research skills and critical thinking skills. Information literacy as a sub-discipline is an emerging topic of interest and counter measure among educators and librarians with the prevalence of misinformation, fake news, and disinformation. Scholars have argued that in order to maximize people's contributions to a democratic and pluralistic society, educators should be challenging governments and the business sector to support and fund educational initiatives in information literacy. == History == The phrase "information literacy" first appeared in print in a 1974 report written on behalf of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science by Paul G. Zurkowski, who was at the time president of the Information Industry Association (now the Software and Information Industry Association). Zurkowski used the phrase to describe the "techniques and skills" learned by the information literate "for utilizing the wide range of information tools as well as primary sources in molding information solutions to their problems" and drew a relatively firm line between the "literates" and "information illiterates." The concept of information literacy appeared again in a 1976 paper by Lee Burchina presented at the Texas A&M University library's symposium. Burchina identified a set of skills needed to locate and use information for problem solving and decision making. In another 1976 article in Library Journal, M.R. Owens applied the concept to political information literacy and civic responsibility, stating, "All [people] are created equal but voters with information resources are in a position to make more intelligent decisions than citizens who are information illiterates. The application of information resources to the process of decision-making to fulfill civic responsibilities is a vital necessity." In a literature review published in an academic journal in 2020, Oral Roberts University professor Angela Sample cites several conceptual waves of information literacy definitions as defining information as a way of thinking, a set of skills, and a social practice. The introduction of these concepts led to the adoption of a mechanism called metaliteracy and the creation of threshold concepts and knowledge dispositions, which led to the creation of the ALA's Information Literacy Framework. The American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy released a report on January 10, 1989. Titled as the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report, the article outlines the importance of information literacy, opportunities to develop it, and the idea of an Information Age School. The recommendations of the Committee led to establishment of the National Forum on Information Literacy, a coalition of more than 90 national and international organizations. In 1998, the American Association of School Librarians and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology published Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, which further established specific goals for information literacy education, defining some nine standards in the categories of "information literacy," "independent learning," and "social responsibility." Also in 1998, the Presidential Committee on Information Literacy updated its final report. The report outlined six recommendations from the original report, and examined areas of challenge and progress. In 1999, the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) in the UK published The Seven Pillars of Information Literacy to model the relationship between information skills and IT skills, and the idea of the progression of information literacy into the curriculum of higher education. In 2003, the National Forum on Information Literacy, along with UNESCO and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, sponsored an international conference in Prague. Representatives from twenty-three countries gathered to discuss the importance of information literacy in a global context. The resulting Prague Declaration described information literacy as a "key to social, cultural, and economic development of nations and communities, institutions and individuals in the 21st century" and declared its acquisition as "part of the basic human right of lifelong learning". In the United States specifically, information literacy was prioritized in 2009 during President Barack Obama's first term. In effort to stress the value information literacy has on everyday communication, he designated October as National Information Literacy Awareness Month in his released proclamation. In 2015, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) adopted the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, which defines information literacy as "the set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning".Association of College and Research Libraries (2015-02-09). "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education". Association of College and Research Libraries. American Library Association. Retrieved 2026-02-17. == Presidential Committee on Information Literacy == The American Library Association's Presidential Committee on Information Literacy defined information literacy as the ability "to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information" and highlighted information literacy as a skill essential for lifelong learning and the production of an informed and prosperous citizenry. The committee outlined six principal recommendations. Included were recommendations like "Reconsider the ways we have organized information institutionally, structured information access, and defined information's role in our lives at home in the community, and in the work place"; to promote "public awareness of the problems created by information illiteracy"; to develop a national research agenda related to information and its use; to ensure the existence of "a climate conducive to students' becoming information literate"; to include information literacy concerns in teacher education democracy. In the updated report, the committee ended with an invitation, asking the National Forum and regular citizens to recognize that "the result of these combined efforts will be a citizenry which is made up of effective lifelong learners who can always find the information needed for the issue or decision at hand. This new

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  • Predictor–corrector method

    Predictor–corrector method

    In numerical analysis, predictor–corrector methods belong to a class of algorithms designed to integrate ordinary differential equations – to find an unknown function that satisfies a given differential equation. All such algorithms proceed in two steps: The initial, "prediction" step, starts from a function fitted to the function-values and derivative-values at a preceding set of points to extrapolate ("anticipate") this function's value at a subsequent, new point. The next, "corrector" step refines the initial approximation by using the predicted value of the function and another method to interpolate that unknown function's value at the same subsequent point. == Predictor–corrector methods for solving ODEs == When considering the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), a predictor–corrector method typically uses an explicit method for the predictor step and an implicit method for the corrector step. === Example: Euler method with the trapezoidal rule === A simple predictor–corrector method (known as Heun's method) can be constructed from the Euler method (an explicit method) and the trapezoidal rule (an implicit method). Consider the differential equation y ′ = f ( t , y ) , y ( t 0 ) = y 0 , {\displaystyle y'=f(t,y),\quad y(t_{0})=y_{0},} and denote the step size by h {\displaystyle h} . First, the predictor step: starting from the current value y i {\displaystyle y_{i}} , calculate an initial guess value y ~ i + 1 {\displaystyle {\tilde {y}}_{i+1}} via the Euler method, y ~ i + 1 = y i + h f ( t i , y i ) . {\displaystyle {\tilde {y}}_{i+1}=y_{i}+hf(t_{i},y_{i}).} Next, the corrector step: improve the initial guess using trapezoidal rule, y i + 1 = y i + 1 2 h ( f ( t i , y i ) + f ( t i + 1 , y ~ i + 1 ) ) . {\displaystyle y_{i+1}=y_{i}+{\tfrac {1}{2}}h{\bigl (}f(t_{i},y_{i})+f(t_{i+1},{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}){\bigr )}.} That value is used as the next step. === PEC mode and PECE mode === There are different variants of a predictor–corrector method, depending on how often the corrector method is applied. The Predict–Evaluate–Correct–Evaluate (PECE) mode refers to the variant in the above example: y ~ i + 1 = y i + h f ( t i , y i ) , y i + 1 = y i + 1 2 h ( f ( t i , y i ) + f ( t i + 1 , y ~ i + 1 ) ) . {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}&=y_{i}+hf(t_{i},y_{i}),\\y_{i+1}&=y_{i}+{\tfrac {1}{2}}h{\bigl (}f(t_{i},y_{i})+f(t_{i+1},{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}){\bigr )}.\end{aligned}}} It is also possible to evaluate the function f only once per step by using the method in Predict–Evaluate–Correct (PEC) mode: y ~ i + 1 = y i + h f ( t i , y ~ i ) , y i + 1 = y i + 1 2 h ( f ( t i , y ~ i ) + f ( t i + 1 , y ~ i + 1 ) ) . {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}&=y_{i}+hf(t_{i},{\tilde {y}}_{i}),\\y_{i+1}&=y_{i}+{\tfrac {1}{2}}h{\bigl (}f(t_{i},{\tilde {y}}_{i})+f(t_{i+1},{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}){\bigr )}.\end{aligned}}} Additionally, the corrector step can be repeated in the hope that this achieves an even better approximation to the true solution. If the corrector method is run twice, this yields the PECECE mode: y ~ i + 1 = y i + h f ( t i , y i ) , y ^ i + 1 = y i + 1 2 h ( f ( t i , y i ) + f ( t i + 1 , y ~ i + 1 ) ) , y i + 1 = y i + 1 2 h ( f ( t i , y i ) + f ( t i + 1 , y ^ i + 1 ) ) . {\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}&=y_{i}+hf(t_{i},y_{i}),\\{\hat {y}}_{i+1}&=y_{i}+{\tfrac {1}{2}}h{\bigl (}f(t_{i},y_{i})+f(t_{i+1},{\tilde {y}}_{i+1}){\bigr )},\\y_{i+1}&=y_{i}+{\tfrac {1}{2}}h{\bigl (}f(t_{i},y_{i})+f(t_{i+1},{\hat {y}}_{i+1}){\bigr )}.\end{aligned}}} The PECEC mode has one fewer function evaluation than PECECE mode. More generally, if the corrector is run k times, the method is in P(EC)k or P(EC)kE mode. If the corrector method is iterated until it converges, this could be called PE(CE)∞.

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