The Natural History Collections of Adam Mickiewicz University (AMUNATCOLL) in Poznań contain over 2.2 million specimens. Until recently, access to the collections was limited to specialists and was challenging because of the analogue data files. Therefore, this paper presents a new approach to data sharing called the Scientific, Educational, Public, and Practical Use (SEPP) Model. Since the stakeholder group is broad, the SEPP Model assumes the following key points: full open access to the digitized collections, the structure of metadata in accordance with certain standards, and a versatile tool set for data mining or statistical and spatial analysis. The SEPP Model was implemented in the AMUNATCOLL IT system, which consists of a web portal equipped with a wide set of explorative functionalities tailored to different user groups: scientists, students, officials, and nature enthusiasts. An integral part of the system is a mobile application designed for field surveys, enabling users to conduct studies comparing their own field data and AMUNATCOLL data. The AMUNATCOLL IT database contains digital data on specimens, biological samples, bibliographic sources, and multimedia nature documents. The metadata structure was developed in accordance with ABCD 2.06 and Darwin Core standards.

Abstract The paper describes the interfaces implemented in the AMUNATCOLL IT system, which enable access to and explorationand manipulation of data available in the database containing unique natural collections from the Faculty of Biology of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (FBAMU). Data can be accessed using the two available interfaces: graphical and programming application interfaces. The first is implemented in two forms: a portal, which is the main interface for accessingthe data stored in the database, and a mobile application that complements functions related to field research and creating private collections. To deliver the required set of operations, the portal was equipped with simplified and advanced searching, statistical analysis and spatial processing (BioGIS). Data openness and the ability to collaborate with other solutions and systems are key elements in achieving synergies in conducting research on biodiversity. AMUNATCOLL IT offers an opportunity to respond to these challenges, enabling data export for independent processing with external tools related to portal functionality or giving access to data directly using an application programming interface. Graphical interfaces are subject to numerous requirements and restrictions reflected in the graphic design and accessibility issues related to the accommodation of disabled individuals. These interfaces must properly address both groups of target recipients, considering their different goals and level of knowledge, as well as adjusting the level of interaction due to the limitations of using the interface.

This paper presents work done to prepare compute resource reservations in the PL-Grid Infrastructure. A compute resource reservation allows a user to allocate some fraction of resources for exclusive access, when reservation is prepared. That way the user is able to run his/her job without waiting for allocating resources in a batch system. In the PL-Grid Infrastructure reservations can be allocated up to amount negotiated in a PL-Grid grant. One way of getting reservation is allocation by a resource administrator. Another way is to use predefined pool of resources accessible by various middleware. In both approaches once obtained, reservations identifiers can be used by middleware during job submissions. Enabling reservations requires changes in middleware. The modifications needed in each middleware will be described. The possible extension of existing reservation model in the PL-Grid Infrastructure can be envisaged: reservation usage normalization and reservation accounting. The reservations are created and utilized in the user's context, so there must be a way to pass the reservation details from the user-level tools to a batch system. Each of PL-Grid supported middleware, namely gLite, UNICORE and QosCosGrid, required adaptations to implement this goal.

The chapter discusses how to simplify integration of Grid applications in the Remote Instrumentation Infrastructure with usage of parametric extensions for JSDL. Capabilities of Parametric Sweep are presented spotlighting features most valuable in the frame of applying to Instrument Element enabled applications. Then a brief analysis of JSDL support in most common middlewares is followed by a real case study for one of the DORII project's applications. Starting from this application's use case two solutions in the field of parametric jobs are presented - g -Eclipse JSDL-Param library and Workflow Management System in DORII.

Strommetric is a new image analysis computer program that performs morphometric measurements of stromatoporoid sponges. The program measures 15 features of skeletal elements (pillars and laminae) visible in both longitudinal and transverse thin sections. The software is implemented in C++, using the Open Computer Vision (OpenCV) library. The image analysis system distinguishes skeletal elements from sparry calcite using Otsu's method for image thresholding. More than 150 photos of thin sections were used as a test set, from which 36,159 measurements were obtained. The software provided about one hundred times more data than the current method applied until now. The data obtained are reproducible, even if the work is repeated by different workers. Thus the method makes the biometric studies of stromatoporoids objective.

The g-Eclipse is an integrated workbench framework to access the power of existing Grid infrastructures. It can be used as a rich client application with user friendly interface to access Grid resources, but can also be used as a base for writing customised grid application using gEclipse model and g-Eclipse common grid library. Scientific application can use g-Eclipse to gain access to grid resources independently on specific grid infrastructure. Applications can enhance g-Eclipse with specific application editors, viewers and submission supports or can can be extended to a Rich Client Platform application using g-Eclipse as a common grid library.

The g-Eclipse framework provides a general, integrated workbench toolset for grid users, operators and developers. Based on the open source eclipse ecosystem, g-Eclipse supports scientists to interact with grid resources independent of the underlying grid middleware. Its main objective is to deliver an extensible framework for different grid actors, by providing a unified abstraction of the grid. The grid abstraction enables grid application users to access the grid in a desktop-like manner with wizards specific for common use cases; it also provides a set of visual configuration tools to maintain and configure grid resources.

In the paper we present how g-Eclipse can be used for easy running computation on Grid resources. The g-Eclipse project is an EU-founded project that aims to build an integrated workbench framework to access the power of existing Grid infrastructures. The g-Eclipse framework provides a general, integrated workbench toolset for Grid users, operators and developers. It is very useful for inexperienced users to interact with Grid resources independently of the underlying Grid middleware. The Grid abstraction enables Grid users to access the Grid in a desktop-like manner with wizards specified for common use cases.

To assure secure access to any computer resources one must provide an adequate level of authentication, authorization job isolation and possibility of auditing user actions. In the grid environment that comprises a large number of users and resources in different administrative domains, these features are challenging. Grid economy and accounting related to it are becoming more and more important in an emerging aspect of grid commercialization. Also, the requirements of the users and administrators are becoming more and more sophisticated: checkpointing and migration of jobs, detailed software requirements, quality of service, collaborative work, and load balancing, to name a few. Virtualization techniques, nowadays more and more matured and advanced, seem to help solve the above-mentioned problems. In the present paper we discuss some of these techniques as well as existing solutions and then propose a framework for Virtual Environments. The framework focuses on resource access control, but the benefits of virtualization are wider.

In this paper we present a simplified version of heterogeneous metacomputing environments for specific applications, allowing ability to run jobs on remote systems without administration overhead connected with maintaining user accounts, and transparently for the real user. We present problems with developing distributed computing environments, the idea of the Virtual User Account on specialised application servers, advantages and disadvantages of this solution, and possible further works.

Scalable and fine-grained Grid authorization requires the move away from gridmap-file based access control and 1-to-1 mappings to individual operating system user accounts. This is recognized and addressed by virtual organization authorization services and user management systems e. g. Virtual Organization Membership Service (VOMS), Local Centre Authorization System (LCAS), Local Credential MAPping Service (LCMAPS) and Community Authorization Service (CAS). They do, however, not address user operating system account management and isolation/sandboxing requirements, such as flexible pooling of accounts while maintaining auditing records. In this paper we compare existing systems which solve the above shortcomings and are currently used in real production grids.

The Certification Authority Coordination Group in the European DataGrid project has created a large-scale Public Key Infrastructure and the policies and procedures to operate it successfully. The infrastructure demonstrates interoperability of multiple certification authorities (CAs) in a novel system of peer-assessment of the roots of trust. Crucial to the assessment is the definition of minimum requirements that all CAs must meet in order to be accepted. The evaluation is aided by software-generated trust matrices. Related work building on this infrastructure is described. The group's policies and experience now form the basis of the new European Policy Management Authority for Grid Authentication in e-Science.

The Migrating Desktop is a ready-to-use GUI framework for making use of grid applications and putting into practice the “applications on demand” concept. On-demand computing, contrary to the traditional approach of assigning resources to applications, refers to the concept of pooling system resources and dynamically allocating them to meet shifting demands. We introduce a ready-to-use framework for the integration of different HPC systems into a comfortable working environment with support for “applications on demand”. This work is done under the EU CrossGrid project IST-2001-32243.

The International Testbed of the CrossGrid Project has been in operation for the last three years, including 16 sites in 9 countries across Europe. The main achievements in installation and operation are described, and also the substantial experience gained on providing support to application and middleware developers in the project. Results are presented showing the availability of a realistic Grid framework to execute distributed interactive and parallel jobs.

In this work we consider scheduling divisible loads on a distributed computing system with limited available memory. The communication delays and heterogeneity of the system are taken into account. The problem studied consists in finding such a distribution of the load that the communication and computation time is the shortest possible. A new robust method is proposed to solve the problem of finding optimal distribution of computations on star network, and networks in which binomial trees can be embedded (meshes, hypercubes, multistage interconnections). We demonstrate that in many cases memory limitations do not restrict efficiency of parallel processing as much as computation and communication speeds.