CARMEN e-Science Portal

大脑和神经系统的研究是英国和国际生物研究的优先领域之一。神经科学研究通常采用生成大型数据文件（称为时间序列数据）的技术，这些数据文件记录一个或多个神经细胞的活动以及其他伴随数据，如生理测量、行为或用于激活系统的刺激。这些大量的数据需要进行详细的分析，以便提取重要的信息，并寻找能够洞察大脑功能方式的模式。CARMEN（电子神经科学代码分析、存储库和建模的首字母缩写）利用网络的力量，使研究人员能够完成这种分析，同时提供一种共享数据的方法，无论是在私人用户组内还是在科学社区内公开。从2006年10月开始，英国11所大学的计算机科学家和神经科学家合作开发了这个资源的第一版。通过web门户的远程访问，用户可以将他们的数据文件上传到CARMEN平台。同时，系统允许收集实验信息和数据文件（元数据），以便其他人了解实验。用户还可以上传可用于分析数据的软件工具，或使用社区中其他人提供的工具。我们还在开发可以在实验进行的同时进行上传的方法，以便合作者可以同时进行记录和分析（实时分布式协作）。重要的是，CARMEN的开发使得资源的共享不受用于捕获数据的文件格式或编写分析方法的方式（互操作性）的限制。还有一个安全结构，允许用户最初私下处理文件，但是一旦数据发布，数据文件就可以公开，以便其他人可以使用它们。通过这种方式，CARMEN既可以整理实验数据，又可以为二次分析或不同实验室数据的组合提供资源。这种重复使用数据的能力大大增加了它们的价值，特别是对于执行复杂或使用稀有组织的实验。目前的项目将继续维护和开发CARMEN门户网站四年。重要的是，该项目将支持从初始开发阶段向更广泛的社区参与过渡。这将包括为新用户提供帮助台支持，排除系统问题，以及根据用户反馈进一步开发门户网站。此外，我们将开发新的功能，以便上传、分享和分析特定的数据类型。在这方面，我们将重点关注两个主要领域：(i)脑电图（EEG）记录和大脑对刺激的反应（事件相关电位），以及（ii）可以从视频图像中提取的神经活动数据。在后一种情况下，这将使CARMEN能够用于采用最新一代光学记录技术的记录。最后，我们将开发与其他生物信息学项目连接的方法，以便同时存储和分析大脑结构，基因表达等细节。最后一项工作将由我们参与国际神经信息学协调设施（INCF）协助，该设施最近成立，旨在支持神经科学数据库和信息学资源之间的联系。CARMEN是一个独特的设施，它解决了在网络上存储和分析神经生理学数据的具体问题，以促进协作和数据共享。随着未来网络计算能力（云计算）的发展，这很可能会越来越多地成为公认的研究方法。

The study of the brain and of nervous systems is one of the priority areas for biological research in the UK and internationally. Neuroscience research commonly employs techniques that generate large data files (called time-series data) that record the activity of one or many nerve cells as well as other accompanying data, such as physiological measures, behaviour, or a stimulus that is used to activate the system. This mass of data requires detailed analysis in order to extract the important information and to look for patterns which can provide insight into the way the brain functions. CARMEN (an acronym for Code Analysis, Repository and Modelling for e-Neuroscience) harnesses the power of the web in order to enable researchers to accomplish this analysis and at the same time provide a way to share data, either within private user groups or openly within the science community. Starting in October 2006 a collaborative effort between computer scientists and neuroscientists at 11 UK universities has developed the first version of this resource. Using remote access through a web portal users can upload their data files to the CARMEN platform. At the same time the system allows information about the experiment and the data files (metadata) to be gathered so that others can understand the experiment. Users can also upload software tools that can be used to analyse the data or use tools provided by others in the community. We are also developing ways that the upload can happen whilst the experiment is being performed in order that collaborators can perform recording and analysis at the same time (real time distributed collaboration). Importantly, CARMEN has been developed so that this sharing of the resource is not restricted by the format of the files used to capture the data or the way in which the analysis methods have been written (interoperability). There is also a security structure that allows users to initially work on the files privately but, once the data have been published the data files can be made public so that others can use them. In this way CARMEN can both curate experimental data and provide a resource for secondary analysis or combination of data from different laboratories. This ability to reuse data adds significantly to their value, particularly for experiments that are complex to perform or which employ rare tissue. The current project will maintain and develop the CARMEN portal for a further four years. Importantly the project will support the transition from the initial development stage to a wider community engagement. This will involve Help Desk support for new users, troubleshooting of system problems, and further development of the web portal in response to user feedback. In addition, we will undertake development of new functions to allow specific data types to be uploaded, shared and analysed. In this respect we will focus effort on two main areas: (i) electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings and the brain responses to stimuli (event-related potentials), and (ii) neural activity data that can be extracted from video images. In the latter case this will enable CARMEN to be used for recordings that employ the latest generation of optical recording techniques. Finally, we will develop ways to link into other bioinformatics projects in order that details of brain structure, gene expresion, etc. might be stored and analysed at the same time. This last effort will be assisted by our involvement with the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) which was recently established to support links between databases and informatics resources in neuroscience. CARMEN is a unique facility that has addressed the specific issues of storing and analysing neurophysiological data on the web in order to facilitate collaboration and data sharing. With future development of the computing power of the web (cloud computing) it is likely that this will increasingly become the accepted method of research.