Interlinking educational data to web of data

With the proliferation of educational data on the Web, publishing and interlinking eLearning resources have become an important issue nowadays. Educational resources are exposed under heterogeneous Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) in different times and formats. Some resources are implicitly related to each other or to the interest, cultural and technical environment of learners. Linking educational resources to useful knowledge on the Web improves resource seeking. This becomes crucial for moving from current isolated eLearning repositories towards an open discovery space, including distributed resources irrespective of their geographic and system boundaries. Linking resources is also useful for enriching educational content, as it provides a richer context and other related information to both educators and learners. On the other hand, the emergence of the so-called "Linked Data" brings new opportunities for interconnecting different kinds of resources on the Web of Data. Using the Linked Data approach, data providers can publish structured data and establish typed links between them from various sources. To this aim, many tools, approaches and frameworks have been built to first expose the data as Linked Data formats and to second discover the similarities between entities in the datasets. The research carried out for this PhD thesis assesses the possibilities of applying the Linked Open Data paradigm to the enrichment of educational resources. Generally speaking, we discuss the interlinking educational objects and eLearning resources on the Web of Data focusing on existing schemas and tools. The main goals of this thesis are thus to cover the following aspects: -- Exposing the educational (meta)data schemas and particularly IEEE LOM as Linked Data -- Evaluating currently available interlinking tools in the Linked Data context -- Analyzing datasets in the Linked Open Data cloud, to discover appropriate datasets for interlinking -- Discussing the benefits of interlinking educational (meta)data in practice

Scalable Quality Assessment of Linked Data

In a world where the information economy is booming, poor data quality can lead to adverse consequences, including social and economical problems such as decrease in revenue. Furthermore, data-driven indus- tries are not just relying on their own (proprietary) data silos, but are also continuously aggregating data from different sources. This aggregation could then be re-distributed back to “data lakes”. However, this data (including Linked Data) is not necessarily checked for its quality prior to its use. Large volumes of data are being exchanged in a standard and interoperable format between organisations and published as Linked Data to facilitate their re-use. Some organisations, such as government institutions, take a step further and open their data. The Linked Open Data Cloud is a witness to this. However, similar to data in data lakes, it is challenging to determine the quality of this heterogeneous data, and subsequently to make this information explicit to data consumers. Despite the availability of a number of tools and frameworks to assess Linked Data quality, the current solutions do not aggregate a holistic approach that enables both the assessment of datasets and also provides consumers with quality results that can then be used to find, compare and rank datasets’ fitness for use. In this thesis we investigate methods to assess the quality of (possibly large) linked datasets with the intent that data consumers can then use the assessment results to find datasets that are fit for use, that is; finding the right dataset for the task at hand. Moreover, the benefits of quality assessment are two-fold: (1) data consumers do not need to blindly rely on subjective measures to choose a dataset, but base their choice on multiple factors such as the intrinsic structure of the dataset, therefore fostering trust and reputation between the publishers and consumers on more objective foundations; and (2) data publishers can be encouraged to improve their datasets so that they can be re-used more. Furthermore, our approach scales for large datasets. In this regard, we also look into improving the efficiency of quality metrics using various approximation techniques. However the trade-off is that consumers will not get the exact quality value, but a very close estimate which anyway provides the required guidance towards fitness for use. The central point of this thesis is not on data quality improvement, nonetheless, we still need to understand what data quality means to the consumers who are searching for potential datasets. This thesis looks into the challenges faced to detect quality problems in linked datasets presenting quality results in a standardised machine-readable and interoperable format for which agents can make sense out of to help human consumers identifying the fitness for use dataset. Our proposed approach is more consumer-centric where it looks into (1) making the assessment of quality as easy as possible, that is, allowing stakeholders, possibly non-experts, to identify and easily define quality metrics and to initiate the assessment; and (2) making results (quality metadata and quality reports) easy for stakeholders to understand, or at least interoperable with other systems to facilitate a possible data quality pipeline. Finally, our framework is used to assess the quality of a number of heterogeneous (large) linked datasets, where each assessment returns a quality metadata graph that can be consumed by agents as Linked Data. In turn, these agents can intelligently interpret a dataset’s quality with regard to multiple dimensions and observations, and thus provide further insight to consumers regarding its fitness for use

Internet of Things Applications - From Research and Innovation to Market Deployment

The book aims to provide a broad overview of various topics of Internet of Things from the research, innovation and development priorities to enabling technologies, nanoelectronics, cyber physical systems, architecture, interoperability and industrial applications. It is intended to be a standalone book in a series that covers the Internet of Things activities of the IERC – Internet of Things European Research Cluster from technology to international cooperation and the global "state of play".The book builds on the ideas put forward by the European research Cluster on the Internet of Things Strategic Research Agenda and presents global views and state of the art results on the challenges facing the research, development and deployment of IoT at the global level. Internet of Things is creating a revolutionary new paradigm, with opportunities in every industry from Health Care, Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, Agriculture, Computer, Electronics Telecommunications, Automotive, Aeronautics, Transportation Energy and Retail to apply the massive potential of the IoT to achieving real-world solutions. The beneficiaries will include as well semiconductor companies, device and product companies, infrastructure software companies, application software companies, consulting companies, telecommunication and cloud service providers. IoT will create new revenues annually for these stakeholders, and potentially create substantial market share shakeups due to increased technology competition. The IoT will fuel technology innovation by creating the means for machines to communicate many different types of information with one another while contributing in the increased value of information created by the number of interconnections among things and the transformation of the processed information into knowledge shared into the Internet of Everything. The success of IoT depends strongly on enabling technology development, market acceptance and standardization, which provides interoperability, compatibility, reliability, and effective operations on a global scale. The connected devices are part of ecosystems connecting people, processes, data, and things which are communicating in the cloud using the increased storage and computing power and pushing for standardization of communication and metadata. In this context security, privacy, safety, trust have to be address by the product manufacturers through the life cycle of their products from design to the support processes. The IoT developments address the whole IoT spectrum - from devices at the edge to cloud and datacentres on the backend and everything in between, through ecosystems are created by industry, research and application stakeholders that enable real-world use cases to accelerate the Internet of Things and establish open interoperability standards and common architectures for IoT solutions. Enabling technologies such as nanoelectronics, sensors/actuators, cyber-physical systems, intelligent device management, smart gateways, telematics, smart network infrastructure, cloud computing and software technologies will create new products, new services, new interfaces by creating smart environments and smart spaces with applications ranging from Smart Cities, smart transport, buildings, energy, grid, to smart health and life. Technical topics discussed in the book include: • Introduction• Internet of Things Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda• Internet of Things in the industrial context: Time for deployment.• Integration of heterogeneous smart objects, applications and services• Evolution from device to semantic and business interoperability• Software define and virtualization of network resources• Innovation through interoperability and standardisation when everything is connected anytime at anyplace• Dynamic context-aware scalable and trust-based IoT Security, Privacy framework• Federated Cloud service management and the Internet of Things• Internet of Things Application

Impact of geogenic degassing on C-isotopic composition of dissolved carbon in karst systems of Greece

The Earth C-cycle is complex, where endogenic and exogenic sources are interconnected, operating in a multiple spatial and temporal scale (Lee et al., 2019). Non-volcanic CO2 degassing from active tectonic structures is one of the less defined components of this cycle (Frondini et al., 2019). Carbon mass-balance (Chiodini et al., 2000) is a useful tool to quantify the geogenic carbon output from regional karst hydrosystems. This approach has been demonstrated for central Italy and may be valid also for Greece, due to the similar geodynamic settings. Deep degassing in Greece has been ascertained mainly at hydrothermal and volcanic areas, but the impact of geogenic CO2 released by active tectonic areas has not yet been quantified. The main aim of this research is to investigate the possible deep degassing through the big karst aquifers of Greece. Since 2016, 156 karst springs were sampled along most of the Greek territory. To discriminate the sources of carbon, the analysis of the isotopic composition of carbon was carried out. δ13CTDIC values vary from -16.61 to -0.91‰ and can be subdivided into two groups characterized by (a) low δ13CTDIC, and (b) intermediate to high δ13CTDIC with a threshold value of -6.55‰. The composition of the first group can be related to the mixing of organic-derived CO2 and the dissolution of marine carbonates. Springs of the second group, mostly located close to Quaternary volcanic areas, are linked to possible carbon input from deep sources

EVOLUTION OF THE SUBCONTINENTAL LITHOSPHERE DURING MESOZOIC TETHYAN RIFTING: CONSTRAINTS FROM THE EXTERNAL LIGURIAN MANTLE SECTION (NORTHERN APENNINE, ITALY)

Our study is focussed on mantle bodies from the External Ligurian ophiolites, within the Monte Gavi and Monte Sant'Agostino areas. Here, two distinct pyroxenite-bearing mantle sections were recognized, mainly based on their plagioclase-facies evolution. The Monte Gavi mantle section is nearly undeformed and records reactive melt infiltration under plagioclase-facies conditions. This process involved both peridotites (clinopyroxene-poor lherzolites) and enclosed spinel pyroxenite layers, and occurred at 0.7–0.8 GPa. In the Monte Gavi peridotites and pyroxenites, the spinel-facies clinopyroxene was replaced by Ca-rich plagioclase and new orthopyroxene, typically associated with secondary clinopyroxene. The reactive melt migration caused increase of TiO2 contents in relict clinopyroxene and spinel, with the latter also recording a Cr2O3 increase. In the Monte Gavi peridotites and pyroxenites, geothermometers based on slowly diffusing elements (REE and Y) record high temperature conditions (1200-1250 °C) related to the melt infiltration event, followed by subsolidus cooling until ca. 900°C. The Monte Sant'Agostino mantle section is characterized by widespread ductile shearing with no evidence of melt infiltration. The deformation recorded by the Monte Sant'Agostino peridotites (clinopyroxene-rich lherzolites) occurred at 750–800 °C and 0.3–0.6 GPa, leading to protomylonitic to ultramylonitic textures with extreme grain size reduction (10–50 μm). Compared to the peridotites, the enclosed pyroxenite layers gave higher temperature-pressure estimates for the plagioclase-facies re-equilibration (870–930 °C and 0.8–0.9 GPa). We propose that the earlier plagioclase crystallization in the pyroxenites enhanced strain localization and formation of mylonite shear zones in the entire mantle section. We subdivide the subcontinental mantle section from the External Ligurian ophiolites into three distinct domains, developed in response to the rifting evolution that ultimately formed a Middle Jurassic ocean-continent transition: (1) a spinel tectonite domain, characterized by subsolidus static formation of plagioclase, i.e. the Suvero mantle section (Hidas et al., 2020), (2) a plagioclase mylonite domain experiencing melt-absent deformation and (3) a nearly undeformed domain that underwent reactive melt infiltration under plagioclase-facies conditions, exemplified by the the Monte Sant'Agostino and the Monte Gavi mantle sections, respectively. We relate mantle domains (1) and (2) to a rifting-driven uplift in the late Triassic accommodated by large-scale shear zones consisting of anhydrous plagioclase mylonites. Hidas K., Borghini G., Tommasi A., Zanetti A. & Rampone E. 2021. Interplay between melt infiltration and deformation in the deep lithospheric mantle (External Liguride ophiolite, North Italy). Lithos 380-381, 105855

Impact of Etna’s volcanic emission on major ions and trace elements composition of the atmospheric deposition

Mt. Etna, on the eastern coast of Sicily (Italy), is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and it is widely recognized as a big source of volcanic gases (e.g., CO2 and SO2), halogens, and a lot of trace elements, to the atmosphere in the Mediterranean region. Especially during eruptive periods, Etna’s emissions can be dispersed over long distances and cover wide areas. A group of trace elements has been recently brought to attention for their possible environmental and human health impacts, the Technology-critical elements. The current knowledge about their geochemical cycles is still scarce, nevertheless, recent studies (Brugnone et al., 2020) evidenced a contribution from the volcanic activity for some of them (Te, Tl, and REE). In 2021, in the framework of the research project “Pianeta Dinamico”, by INGV, a network of 10 bulk collectors was implemented to collect, monthly, atmospheric deposition samples. Four of these collectors are located on the flanks of Mt. Etna, other two are in the urban area of Catania and three are in the industrial area of Priolo, all most of the time downwind of the main craters. The last one, close to Cesarò (Nebrodi Regional Park), represents the regional background. The research aims to produce a database on major ions and trace element compositions of the bulk deposition and here we report the values of the main physical-chemical parameters and the deposition fluxes of major ions and trace elements from the first year of research. The pH ranged from 3.1 to 7.7, with a mean value of 5.6, in samples from the Etna area, while it ranged between 5.2 and 7.6, with a mean value of 6.4, in samples from the other study areas. The EC showed values ranging from 5 to 1032 μS cm-1, with a mean value of 65 μS cm-1. The most abundant ions were Cl- and SO42- for anions, Na+ and Ca+ for cations, whose mean deposition fluxes, considering all sampling sites, were 16.6, 6.8, 8.4, and 6.0 mg m-2 d, respectively. The highest deposition fluxes of volcanic refractory elements, such as Al, Fe, and Ti, were measured in the Etna’s sites, with mean values of 948, 464, and 34.3 μg m-2 d-1, respectively, higher than those detected in the other sampling sites, further away from the volcanic source (26.2, 12.4, 0.5 μg m-2 d-1, respectively). The same trend was also observed for volatile elements of prevailing volcanic origin, such as Tl (0.49 μg m-2 d-1), Te (0.07 μg m-2 d-1), As (0.95 μg m-2 d-1), Se (1.92 μg m-2 d-1), and Cd (0.39 μg m-2 d-1). Our preliminary results show that, close to a volcanic area, volcanic emissions must be considered among the major contributors of ions and trace elements to the atmosphere. Their deposition may significantly impact the pedosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere and directly or indirectly human health