These free technical supplements cover technical areas in
more detail than Tessellations.
Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) is a technology used to create
web applications. It is designed to run on a Windows-based server,
such as Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsoft
Personal Web Server.
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Keeping records is
vital for any organization, and as advances in technology increase apace,
more and more of these records are now being generated, processed and
stored in electronic format. This Technical Supplement examines the issues
involved with archiving of electronic data, looks at the requirements for
record keeping from a regulatory perspective, and examines some of the
current approaches to the problem.
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Industry is built upon critical assets: systems
that are vital to the smooth and safe operation of business. This supplement explores the automated
approach to asset monitoring, and the benefits that this technology can bring up.
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As software becomes increasingly
complex, testing has never been more important. Fortunately, many
specialist tools are now available to ease the process of testing
GUI-based applications. This technical supplement presents an overview
of some of the capabilities required of such tools, and the issues
that must be confronted when choosing one.
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The essence of the Bayesian approach is to provide a mathematical
rule explaining how you should change your existing beliefs in the
light of new evidence. It allows scientists to combine new data
with their existing knowledge or expertise. Bayesian Statistics
deals with the concept of Subjective Probability.
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More and more organizations are turning to Beowulf
clusters to provide solutions to their highly computationally intensive
problems. This supplement seeks to understand what Beowulf computers
are and how they can solve your computation problems.
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Integration of the LIMS with other systems to build a data pipeline can provide
business benefits far beyond simple efficiency and quality gains. Integration is
an enabler for a whole range of technologies and business processes from the
laboratory to the enterprise level.
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This supplement provides a brief overview to
the C++ programming language, in order to demonstrate how C++ is
an improvement on C, and how its features allow it to be used as
a language for implementing object-oriented software.
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COM (Component Object Model) is now used extensively
in Microsoft products, with OLE being one of the most notable uses.
Distributed COM (DCOM) is an extension to COM that allows the linking
together of components across a network.
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Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a rapidly developing discipline.
This technical supplement aims to provide current and prospective users of CFD technology with an overview of
emerging techniques, which may enhance their CFD capability. In addition, the guide will consider ways in which
organisations using CFD technology can benefit from smart IT-based methods to make their use of CFD more
productive.
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Image processing is a growth field covering a wide
range of techniques for the manipulation of digital images. With the
low cost and high availability of CCD cameras, more companies than
ever before are able to utilize image processing software and reliable
hardware in their research, production and quality control environments,
as well as in their products.
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A Decision Support System (DSS) is any tool used
to improve the process of decision making in complex systems, particularly
where information is uncertain or incomplete. DSS is an old term
that now applies collectively to a number of “new” systems
such as OLAP (On Line Analytical Processing), EIS, ESS, expert systems
and more. This technical supplement will present DSS as a whole.
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The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in the availability of
powerful, stable, well-connected mobile computing platforms at a reasonable price. As well
as satisfying the demands of home users, these devices offer huge opportunities to scientific
and engineering organizations who wish to have access to IT systems when on the move. This
supplement will provide a discussion of the options available for software development on
the mobile platform.
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The most commonly cited reason for retaining digital information within
pharmaceutical companies is to comply with legal and regulatory obligations and to protect
intellectual property. This paper discusses the challenges posed by digital archiving –
in particular those faced by the pharmaceutical industry – drawing on the experience of building
practical archival solutions.
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Digital preservation is an issue for any organization
which produces electronic records with a lifetime exceeding that of the
software or hardware used to create or read them. Failure to address the
issue could lead to irrevocable loss of data. In recent years, a number of
mainly academic and government organisations have pioneered active preservation,
which has allowed a body of knowledge and experience to be developed that can
give other organizations the confidence to face the challenge. This White Paper
discusses the issues from data selection to future-proofing the records.
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The UK Government produces, maintains and publishes vast quantities
of information. In the past this has been made available haphazardly,
conforming to differing standards across different parts of the
public sector. Interaction and sharing of data across departments
has become both difficult and costly. To address this issue, the
e-GIF framework was published in 2000, and this Technical Supplement
deals with the main features of the framework, including how it
is set to evolve, its relation to other initiatives, and how compliance
is enforced.
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Electronic Data Capture (EDC) is the gathering of data collected
by humans into computer systems without the need for manual data
re-entry. This technical supplement provides an overview of EDC
techniques and then looks at some case studies where EDC has been
used and has been a major benefit to organizations.
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Paper notebooks are the mainstay of the laboratory
work of many companies. However they are looking increasingly outdated. Much laboratory data is
generated electronically and then printed and stuck into laboratory notebooks or manually retyped.
This is time consuming and can lead to transcription errors.
Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) offer a cost effective alternative. This technical supplement
discusses how an ELN can be implemented to meet legal, regulatory, technical and scientific
requirements.
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This article explores the potential of Excel, one
of the industries most important applications by describing how VBA
language can be used to create customisable applications, tailored
to suit business needs.
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The purpose of this
report is to focus on the benefits of updating outmoded user interfaces
and data presentation methods with more current approaches.
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FDA rule 21CFR Part 11 describes the regulatory framework required for submission of
electronic records to the FDA. This technical supplement describes the core requirements
that need to be considered when adopting or developing an electronic records system to
ensure that it meets the FDA's requirements.
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Formulation within manufacturing industries is an important and complex process. From
conception through to production, the entire development lifecycle has to be managed.
Within this overall process, the formulation stage (which includes product conception and
manufacturing process design) is particularly difficult to manage, and in this highly
competitive information driven world, the success of a business may ultimately depend
on the quality of its formulation system.
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An introduction to FORTRAN 90, in comparison
with its predecessors.
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Grid computing provides a way of sharing computer resources such as processing and storage
capacity for solving massive computational problems. The resources may include a dedicated cluster in an
organization's computer room, an unmanaged cluster of workstations in the next building, or potentially a
home PC on the other side of the world.
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Drug discovery and development is big money and big business. The benefit of being the first
to market with a new drug can be as much as $1bn revenue in the first year, with a 75% market share for the
lifetime of the drug. The implementation of a High Throughput Screening system can significantly speed drug
discovery and testing. This technical supplement looks at the role that IT plays in HTS.
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The control and automation of an instrumentation device through software has applications in a range of industries.
This technical supplement discusses the issues involved in implementing an instrument control system.
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The process of conducting scientific research within a laboratory
environment is a relatively complex one. The typical workflow for
a research scientist will involve numerous steps using a variety
of applications. Often the applications integrate poorly with each
other and a researcher can spend a lot of time performing housekeeping
tasks such as file reformatting. An Integrated Laboratory System
offers a method of integrating each step of a process using a standard
interface.
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Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is a language and toolkit for developing
software which answers modern corporate needs, including those of
scalability, reliability and use of standard architectures to keep
total cost of ownership low.
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Java is an object-oriented computer language, similar to C++.
Its platform independence makes it ideal for applications that need to run on a
variety of different computer systems, and over the past few years has also taken
an important role in large-scale enterprise systems.
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Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) address a number of needs in laboratory
environments: elimination of paper records, automatic data collection and management of
laboratory data and personnel. This technical supplement looks at the options available
to a company wishing to implement a LIMS.
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During the last few years, the Linux operating
system has been rapidly gaining in popularity. Once seen as solely
the province of UNIX enthusiasts with PCs it has grown to become a
viable alternative to other commercial operating systems, such as
Windows. This article aims to explore this change in perception and
highlight the advantages and disadvantages of switching to Linux for
both home PC use and from the point of view of the business world.
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The term “.NET” has evolved to cover a broad range of
technologies, concepts and products, and in this article we attempt
to explain what these technologies are, and why we should consider
investing in them. Microsoft .NET is a set of Microsoft software
technologies for rapidly building and integrating XML Web services,
Microsoft Windows-based applications, and Web solutions.
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The selection of an architecture or a development approach can be critical factors in
ensuring that a software application continues to meet the changing demands of your
organization. This article discusses n-tier architectures and how they can reduce total
cost of ownership and improve scalability.
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OOP refers to 3 steps in the application development
life cycle: Object oriented analysis, Object Oriented Design and
Object Oriented Programming. This supplement aims to give a brief
insight into the key features of this development methodology.
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Open Source Software (OSS) can no longer said
to be only an out-of-hours pastime for enthusiasts as more and more
commercial organizations, including the likes of IBM, take strategic
decisions to embrace OSS. This supplement will consider the relative
advantages/disadvantages of OSS as a whole and then look at some
concrete examples of real OSS used in IT infrastructure and software
development.
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Designing and developing software for handheld computers is substantially
different from conventional software development on desktop PCs.
This supplement focuses on PocketPC 2002, Microsoft's most recent
version of the Windows CE operating system for devices like the
Compaq iPAQ and HP Jornada, and the new T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone
Edition.
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Portability of applications
across different platforms is a subject that has attracted a lot of
attention for some time. This report outlines the Java approach and
some other methods and tools which can be used to create truly portable
interfaces and can be maintained as a single application.
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The first part of this document
looks at some of the aspects that distinguish a real-time system from
other computing systems. The second part examines some of those aspects
in the context of choosing between a common general-purpose operating
system and specialized real-time operating systems.
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Regression tests are checks which are used to
try to ensure that no new errors are introduced into a program during
maintenance. They form one of the types of tests that a program
should undergo during its lifetime. In this article we will look
at testing in general to set the context before considering regression
tests in more detail, using the example of a particular program,
NOTATION.
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The Internet has huge potential for businesses everywhere.
Most companies are aware of the need to maintain the security of their internal
systems and data. However this security often consists of a single poorly
configured firewall. This technical supplement argues that security should be
an integral part of a company's computer systems and sets out a model for how an
appropriate security regime should be developed by a company.
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Modern business has to stay competitive by keeping development and
training costs and times to a minimum, whilst still keeping high levels of quality for
both. Modelling and simulation of systems can provide solutions for product development
and personnel training without the costs usually associated with these. In this technical
supplement the reasons for using software simulation, the types of simulation available
and the factors involved in developing a successful simulation are introduced.
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Soft Computing is an umbrella term for a collection of
computing techniques including evolutionary computing, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic
and Bayesian statistics. Used together they can produce solutions to problems that are too
complex or inherently noisy to tackle with conventional mathematical methods.
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The software requirements describe "what"
is to be produced; the software design says "how" it will
be produced and describes a feasible solution to the requirements.
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A well structured approach
is essential to the success of any software development project. This
report details a set of procedures which describe how each phase of
the software development lifecycle should be organised.
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Manuals are often written
with little, or no consideration for the needs of new users: a fact
reinforced by the number of 'Dummy's Guide' books subsequently written
to interpret the manufacturer's own documentation. This supplement
provides guidelines on writing software documentation, which, if followed,
should ensure that users of your software will be fully satisfied.
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End users are demanding the
same functionality on the whole spectrum of systems available to them.
This supplement aims to help the developer to recognize the need for
portability as early as possible and to engineer the application with
this in mind.
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This report provides
a general overview of the software re-engineering process. Its main
purpose being to give a brief high-level guide on how old, poorly
documented, poorly structured code can be brought up to an acceptable
and maintainable standard.
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This supplement aims to introduce
you to some of the approaches used to specify software and give advice
on the circumstances in which these approaches can be used.
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This supplement is aimed at database users with
little or no experience of SQL. Its purpose is to introduce the concept
of a relational database and guide the reader through all of the stages
required to store, amend and retrieve data.
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Inherent in
UNIX, perhaps due to the diversity of its origins, there are a fairly
wide range of methods to allow processes to talk to each other. This
supplement describes in outline how to use some of the inter-process
communication features of UNIX.
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UNIX system managers are now having to
invest more of their time in tackling performance problems. It is hoped this
supplement will give the reader the confidence to attempt to tune his or her system
before agreeing to a hardware upgrade.
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Web scripting technologies are a
group of tools – mostly in the form of programming languages – that enable you to
provide dynamic web features.This technical supplement provides an overview of the
common scripting technologies in use today.
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There has been a great deal of talk about Web Services. Much of
this has been due to Microsoft, which sees them as central to the
latest technology, .NET. A Web Service enables a company to make
a service accessible to programs running elsewhere, in the same
way that a web site could make the service available to remote users.
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This supplement explains Windows 2000 services,
defining them as background processes controlled by a server process
called the Service Control Manager and also introduces the methods
by which they are implemented.
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Workflow systems are being used more and more in the scientific and engineering
sectors to automate business processes. The needs for global systems, high throughput and regulatory
compliance are driving forces for automation through workflow, and there is a wealth of technological
options to choose from.
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X-Windows has become the standard system for graphical
user interfaces on UNIX and VMS computers. Its strengths are its flexibility,
portability and the ease with which it can be used over networks.
This supplements describes this system, and how to make the best use
of it.
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The supplement outlines the technology behind XML,
the current standard for content-based document markup.
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