BEW

BEW facilitates management, exchange, and computational analysis of experimental biofilm data using an XML-based interchange format, integration with the R statistical package, and connectivity to the BiofOmics database Web services.

Key Features:

• XML-based interchange format: Encodes biofilm experimental data in a novel XML schema to enable systematic, harmonized, and large-scale data computation and exchange.
• R integration: Integrates with the R statistical package to support robust data analysis and computation.
• BiofOmics connectivity: Connects to the BiofOmics database Web services to enable experiment deposition and data exchange.
• Excel import: Imports experimental data from Excel spreadsheets for downstream analysis.
• Experiment creation and management: Supports creation and management of new experiments and associated metadata.
• Analytical computation: Performs computation of analytical results on biofilm experimental datasets.
• Web-publishable report generation: Constructs highly customizable, web-publishable reports on demand.
• Comparative analysis: Enables comparison of experimental outcomes across different laboratories.
• Implementation framework: Developed using AIBench, an open-source Java desktop application framework.

Scientific Applications:

• Cross-laboratory comparison: Facilitates comparative analysis of biofilm experimental outcomes across laboratories to harmonize results.
• Data deposition and sharing: Supports deposition and public sharing of biofilm experiments via BiofOmics Web services.
• Large-scale computation: Enables systematic large-scale computation of biofilm experimental data for microbiological and clinical studies.
• Report dissemination: Produces web-publishable reports for dissemination of experimental findings.

Methodology:

Implemented on the AIBench Java desktop framework; integrates the R statistical package; employs a novel XML-based interchange format; connects to BiofOmics database Web services; imports data from Excel spreadsheets; computes analytical results; generates web-publishable reports; supports comparative analyses across laboratories.