DRIVER Technology Watch Report

This report is part of the Discovery Workpackage (WP4) and is the third report out of four deliverables. The objective of this report is to give an overview of the latest technical developments in the world of digital repositories, digital libraries and beyond, in order to serve as theoretical and practical input for the technical DRIVER developments, especially those focused on enhanced publications. This report consists of two main parts, one part focuses on interoperability standards for enhanced publications, the other part consists of three subchapters, which give a landscape picture of current and surfacing technologies and communities crucial to DRIVER. These three subchapters contain the GRID, CRIS and LTP communities and technologies. Every chapter contains a theoretical explanation, followed by case studies and the outcomes and opportunities for DRIVER in this field

Recovering the lost gold of the developing world : bibliographic database

This report contains a library of 181 references, including abstracts, prepared for Project R 7120 "Recovering the lost gold of the developing world" funded by the UK' s Department for International Development (DFID) under the Knowledge and Research (KAR) programme. As part of an initial desk study, a literature review of gold processing methods used by small-scale miners was carried out using the following sources; the lSI Science Citation Index accessed via Bath Information and Data Services (BIDS), a licensed GEOREF CD-ROM database held at the BGS's Library in Keyworth and IMMage a CD-ROM database produced by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy held by the Minerals group ofBGS. Information on the search terms used is available from the author

Microbial ecology of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans

FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Geological Survey Washington. D.C.The contents of this report were developed in part under a grant from the Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. Grant number 14-08-0001-61313

BlogForever: D3.1 Preservation Strategy Report

This report describes preservation planning approaches and strategies recommended by the BlogForever project as a core component of a weblog repository design. More specifically, we start by discussing why we would want to preserve weblogs in the first place and what it is exactly that we are trying to preserve. We further present a review of past and present work and highlight why current practices in web archiving do not address the needs of weblog preservation adequately. We make three distinctive contributions in this volume: a) we propose transferable practical workflows for applying a combination of established metadata and repository standards in developing a weblog repository, b) we provide an automated approach to identifying significant properties of weblog content that uses the notion of communities and how this affects previous strategies, c) we propose a sustainability plan that draws upon community knowledge through innovative repository design

Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems: Natural and Artificial Ecosystems

The scientists supported by the NASA sponsored Controlled Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) program have played a major role in creating a Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) section devoted to the development of bioregenerative life support for use in space. The series of 22 papers were sponsored by Subcommission F.4. The papers deal with many of the diverse aspects of life support, and with outgrowth technologies that may have commercial applications in fields such as biotechnology and bioengineering. Papers from researchers in France, Canada, Japan and the USSR are also presented

Problematizing Second Language (L2) Learning Using Emerging VR Systems

There is little doubt that there is nothing like being immersed in the country of the language you are trying to learn. Not only do students who wish to learn English as a Second Language (ESL) enjoy the experience of inter-cultural learning contexts from a sensory and affective sense, it is often the case that they gain emotional and intellectual maturity while living abroad. The reality of travelling abroad to learn English however for many International students is often a difficult transitional one especially at pre-sessional or beginner/foundation levels in terms of language acquisition, expense, feelings of isolation while in some cases, struggling with pressures to maintain scholarships. As it stands, existing English language centres work hard to advance students onto higher levels of language competencies. They offer students opportunities to avail of further language courses, which help them progress onto undergraduate studies. As part of such programmes, colleges often plan visits to historical and cultural sites to encourage non-formal learning. Such trips often impart historical information, however, that is outside students’ immediate language levels, and this oversight does not optimise the experience as potentially pedagogical in developing competencies as outlined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). While not intending to replace present ESL courses, we propose that the use of VR systems can successfully compliment Internationalisation programmes in Ireland. The emergence of commercially available VR head-mounted displays offers opportunities for immersive ESL virtual environments. VR technology can enable spaces for creative learning structures during foundation/beginner courses by delivering VR-based learning within Irish virtual site visits from their home-based colleges. This will work to tailor courses to where students’ levels are at in actuality before they progress to their respective host English-speaking countries at higher levels in class-based environments. While in Ireland, it is envisaged that the VR supports will facilitate visits to on-site locations that are followed up by virtual site equivalents to maximise language learning in structured, innovative ways. VR can also engage with online colleges that do not have a physical campus in offering students a diversity of online courses while offering students the option to stay at home to best suit their own personal life situations. A collaborative project between researchers at Limerick Institute of Technology and Hibernia College Dublin aims to capture the structural and acoustic data of various historical buildings and iconic landmarks in Ireland. The acquisition of structural features will involve the use of a 3D laser scanner and a record of construction materials. The acquisition of acoustic data will involve measuring the impulse response of the space using a dodecahedron speaker, reference and binaural microphones. Using this data, digital equivalents incorporating spatial attributes of both auditory and visual modalities will be rendered for the Oculus Rift VR headset and standard headphones. These renders will seek to position both the ESL learner and English language lecturer at virtual Irish historical sites to articulate immersive learning to find full expression in realising the digital campus

Nonterrestrial utilization of materials: Automated space manufacturing facility

Four areas related to the nonterrestrial use of materials are included: (1) material resources needed for feedstock in an orbital manufacturing facility, (2) required initial components of a nonterrestrial manufacturing facility, (3) growth and productive capability of such a facility, and (4) automation and robotics requirements of the facility

Control of Dioxins From the Pulp and Paper Industry Under the Clean Water Act and Lead in Soil at Superfund Mining Sites: Two Case Studies in EPA's Use of Science

This paper discusses EPA's acquisition and use of science in addressing dioxins (and other organochlorines) from the pulp and paper industry under the Clean Water Act and lead in soil at large Superfund mining sites. The common thread between both cases is the challenge posed by administering national pollution control programs while considering site-by-site variability in factors that influence environmental risks. In the first case study, high levels of dioxin in fish downstream of pulp and paper mills were inadvertently detected in 1983 as part of an EPA effort to determine background levels of dioxin in areas presumed to be relatively uncontaminated. These findings quickly got the release of dioxins from pulp and paper mills on EPA's research agenda. News reports beginning in 1987 elevated the issue onto the regulatory agenda, but more than a decade has passed without EPA taking final regulatory action. Meanwhile, the pulp and paper industry has dramatically reduced, but not eliminated, dioxin discharges from mills. The key scientific issue now confronting EPA decisionmakers is how much weight to give to a water quality indicator called AOX. AOX is not statistically related to dioxin at the levels under consideration. Environmentalists justify using AOX because it serves as a surrogate measure for the entire toxicologically uncharacterized "soup" of organocholorines discharged from bleaching mills. Additionally, EPA estimates that discharges of dioxin from plants at levels below the analytical detection limits will continue to result in exceedances of stringent federal ambient water quality criteria under some local conditions. Industry counters that reductions in AOX do not achieve any measurable or monetizable environmental benefits. This case illustrates EPA's use of science to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of nominally technology-based water pollution controls. In the second case study, the Superfund program does not have the option of following its standard operating procedures for evaluating risks and determining Preliminary Remediation Goals for lead-contaminated sites because EPA has no numerical health-based standard for ingested lead (the agency's goal for lead is based on the level of lead in children's bloodstream). The study, therefore, illuminates the challenges and opportunities posed by developing and using rigorous site-specific scientific information. Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) generated rodent bioassay data which suggested that the bioavailability of lead in soil at mining sites would be much lower than EPA's default assumption. However, the agency disputed the validity of using mature rodents as animals models for the population of concern, children. In response, EPA conducted experiments with juvenile swine. The results indicated considerable variability in the bioavailability of lead in soil among the sites tested, with some higher, some lower, and some about the same as the agency's default assumption. Consequently, EPA cannot generalize across sites where similar mining activities occurred or draw any general distinctions between different types of mining sites, as had been presumed. This case illustrates that selection of the most appropriate animal model for toxicological studies involves tradeoffs between cost, experimental power and control, fidelity to human physiology, and the value of information for decision-making. Determination of the "optimal" animal model depends on the evaluative criterion being used. Although the new scientific data generated by EPA suggests higher bioavailability of lead in soil at some sites than the agency's default assumption, in terms of the final remedy selection, it appears that all of the results will be either beneficial or essentially neutral to Large Area Lead Site PRPs because EPA deems the cost of removing the contaminated soil to be excessive.