Browsing by Subject "Cyberinfrastructure"
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Item Cyberinfrastructure for an online animation of high performance chemical dynamics simulations(2007-05) Khadka, Prashant; Zhuang, Yu; Hase, William L.; Shin, MichaelChemical dynamics simulation is an effective means to study atomic level motions of molecules, collections of molecules, liquids, surfaces, interfaces of materials, and chemical reactions. To make chemical dynamics simulations globally accessible to a broad range of users, recently a cyberinfrastructure was developed that provides an online portal to VENUS, a popular chemical dynamics simulation program package, to allow people to submit simulation jobs that will be executed on the web server machine. To improve its quality of service, this research further developed the cyberinfrastructure by dispatching the submitted simulations jobs from the web server machine onto a cluster of workstations, and by adding an animation tool, which is optimized for animating the simulation results. The separation of the server machine from the simulation-running machine improves the service quality by increasing the capacity to serve more requests simultaneously with a reduced web response time, and allows the execution of large scale, time-consuming simulation jobs on the powerful workstation cluster. With the addition of an animation tool, the cyberinfrastructure automatically converts, upon the selection of the user, some simulation results into animation that can be viewed on usual web browsers without requiring an installation of any special software on the user computer. Since animation is essential for understanding the results of chemical dynamics simulations, this animation capacity provides a better way for understanding the simulation details of the chemical dynamics.Item Hypoxia modeling in Corpus Christi Bay using a hydrologic information system(2009-05) To, Sin Chit; Maidment, David R.Hypoxia is frequently detected during summer in Corpus Christi Bay, Texas, and causes significant harm to benthic organism population and diversity. Hypoxia is associated with the density stratification in the Bay but the cause of stratification is uncertain. To support the study of hypoxia and stratification, a cyberinfrastructure based on the CUAHSI (Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc) Hydrologic Information System (HIS) is implemented. HIS unites the sensor networks in the Bay by providing a standard data language and protocol for transferring data. Thus hypoxia-related data from multiple sources can be compiled into a structured database. In Corpus Christi Bay, salinity data collected from many locations and times are synthesized into a three-dimensional space-time continuum using geostatistical methods. The three dimensions are the depth, the distance along a transect line, and time. The kriged salinity concentration in space and time illuminates the pattern of movement of a saline gravity current along the bottom of the Bay. The travel time of a gravity current in the Bay is estimated to be on the order of one week and the speed is on the order of 1 km per day. Statistical study of high-resolution wind data shows that the stratification pattern in the Bay is related to the occurrence of strong, southeasterly winds in the 5 days prior to the observation. This relationship supports the hypothesis that stratification is caused by the wind initiating hypersaline gravity currents which flow from Laguna Madre into Corpus Christi Bay. An empirical physical hypoxia model is created that tracks the fate and transport of the gravity currents. The model uses wind and water quality data from real-time sensors published by HIS to predict the extent and duration of hypoxic regions in the Bay. Comparison of model results with historical data from 2005 to 2008 shows that wind-driven gravity currents can explain the spatially heterogeneous patterns of hypoxic zones in Corpus Christi Bay.Item The rationalities behind the adoption of cyberinfrastructure for e-science in the early 21st century U.S.A.(2010-08) Kee, Kerk Fong; Browning, Larry D.; Ballard, Dawna I.; Boisseau, John R.; Rice, Ronald E.; Stephens, Keri K.Based on grounded theory and thematic analysis of 70 in-depth interviews conducted over 32 months (from November 2007 to June 2010) with domain scientists, computational technologists, supercomputer center administrators, program officers at the National Science Foundation, social scientists, policy analysts, and industry experts, this dissertation explores the rationalities behind initial adoption of cyberinfrastructure for e-science in the early 21st century U.S. This dissertation begins with Research Question 1 (i.e., how does cyberinfrastructure's nature influence its adoption process in early 21st century U.S.?) and identifying four areas of challenging conditions to reveal a lack of trialability/observability (due to the participatory/bespoke nature), a lack of simplicity (due to the meta/complex characteristic), a lack of perceived compatibility (due to the disruptive/revolutionary quality), and a lack of full control (due to the community/network property). Then analysis for Research Question 2 (i.e., what are the rationalities that drive cyberinfrastructure adoption in early 21st century U.S.?) suggests that there are three primary driving rationalities behind adoption. First, the adoption of cyberinfrastructure as a meta-platform of interrelated technologies is driven by the perceived need for computational power, massive storage, multi-scale integration, and distributed collaboration. Second, the adoption of cyberinfrastructure as an organizational/behavioral practice is driven by its relative advantages to produce quantitative and/or qualitative benefits that increase the possibility of major publications and scientific reputations. Third, the adoption of cyberinfrastructure as a new approach to science is driven and maintained by shared visions held by scientists, technologists, professional networks, and scientific communities. Findings suggests that initial adoption by pioneering users was driven by the logic of quantitative and qualitative benefits derived from optimizing cyberinfrastructure resources to enable breakthrough science and the vision of what is possible for the entire scientific community. The logic was sufficient to drive initial adoption despite the challenging conditions that reveal the socio-technical barriers and risky time-investment. Findings also suggest that rationalization is a structuration process, which is sustained by micro individual actions and governed by macro community norms simultaneously. Based on Browning’s (1992) framework of organizational communication, I argue that cyberinfrastructure adoption in the early 21st century lies at the intersection of technical rationalities (i.e., perceived needs, relative advantages, and shared visions) and narrative rationalities (i.e., trialability, observability/communicability, simplicity, perceived compatibility, and full control).