Data DNA: The Next Generation of Statistical Metadata

Describes the components of a complete statistical metadata system and suggests ways to create and structure metadata for better access and understanding of data sets by diverse users

A proposal for a coordinated effort for the determination of brainwide neuroanatomical connectivity in model organisms at a mesoscopic scale

In this era of complete genomes, our knowledge of neuroanatomical circuitry remains surprisingly sparse. Such knowledge is however critical both for basic and clinical research into brain function. Here we advocate for a concerted effort to fill this gap, through systematic, experimental mapping of neural circuits at a mesoscopic scale of resolution suitable for comprehensive, brain-wide coverage, using injections of tracers or viral vectors. We detail the scientific and medical rationale and briefly review existing knowledge and experimental techniques. We define a set of desiderata, including brain-wide coverage; validated and extensible experimental techniques suitable for standardization and automation; centralized, open access data repository; compatibility with existing resources, and tractability with current informatics technology. We discuss a hypothetical but tractable plan for mouse, additional efforts for the macaque, and technique development for human. We estimate that the mouse connectivity project could be completed within five years with a comparatively modest budget.Comment: 41 page

Internet of robotic things : converging sensing/actuating, hypoconnectivity, artificial intelligence and IoT Platforms

The Internet of Things (IoT) concept is evolving rapidly and influencing newdevelopments in various application domains, such as the Internet of MobileThings (IoMT), Autonomous Internet of Things (A-IoT), Autonomous Systemof Things (ASoT), Internet of Autonomous Things (IoAT), Internetof Things Clouds (IoT-C) and the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) etc.that are progressing/advancing by using IoT technology. The IoT influencerepresents new development and deployment challenges in different areassuch as seamless platform integration, context based cognitive network integration,new mobile sensor/actuator network paradigms, things identification(addressing, naming in IoT) and dynamic things discoverability and manyothers. The IoRT represents new convergence challenges and their need to be addressed, in one side the programmability and the communication ofmultiple heterogeneous mobile/autonomous/robotic things for cooperating,their coordination, configuration, exchange of information, security, safetyand protection. Developments in IoT heterogeneous parallel processing/communication and dynamic systems based on parallelism and concurrencyrequire new ideas for integrating the intelligent “devices”, collaborativerobots (COBOTS), into IoT applications. Dynamic maintainability, selfhealing,self-repair of resources, changing resource state, (re-) configurationand context based IoT systems for service implementation and integrationwith IoT network service composition are of paramount importance whennew “cognitive devices” are becoming active participants in IoT applications.This chapter aims to be an overview of the IoRT concept, technologies,architectures and applications and to provide a comprehensive coverage offuture challenges, developments and applications

Determining geometric primitives for a 3D GIS : easy as 1D, 2D, 3D?

Acquisition techniques such as photo modelling, using SfM-MVS algorithms, are being applied increasingly in several fields of research and render highly realistic and accurate 3D models. Nowadays, these 3D models are mainly deployed for documentation purposes. As these data generally encompass spatial data, the development of a 3D GIS would allow researchers to use these 3D models to their full extent. Such a GIS would allow a more elaborate analysis of these 3D models and thus support the comprehension of the objects that the features in the model represent. One of the first issues that has to be tackled in order to make the resulting 3D models compatible for implementation in a 3D GIS is the choice of a certain geometric primitive to spatially represent the input data. The chosen geometric primitive will not only influence the visualisation of the data, but also the way in which the data can be stored, exchanged, manipulated, queried and understood. Geometric primitives can be one-, two- and three-dimensional. By adding an extra dimension, the complexity of the data increases, but the user is allowed to understand the original situation more intuitively. This research paper tries to give an initial analysis of 1D, 2D and 3D primitives in the framework of the integration of SfM-MVS based 3D models in a 3D GIS

Optimizing precision agricultural operations by standardized cloud-based functions

Aim of study: An approach to integrate knowledge into the IT-infrastructure of precision agriculture (PA) is presented. The creation of operation relevant information is analyzed and explored to be processed by standardized web services and thereby to integrate external knowledge into PA. The target is to make knowledge integrable into any software solution. Area of study: The data sampling took place at the Heidfeld Hof Research Station in Stuttgart, Germany. Material and methods: This study follows the information science’s idea to separate the process from data sampling into the final actuation through four steps: data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. The process from the data acquisition, over a professional data treatment to the actual application is analyzed by methods modelled in the Unified Modelling Language (UML) for two use-cases. It was further applied for a low altitude sensor in a PA operation; a data sampling by UAV represents the starting point. Main results: For the implemented solution, the Web Processing Service (WPS) of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is proposed. This approach reflects the idea of a function as a service (FaaS), in order to develop a demand-driven and extensible solution for irregularly used functionalities. PA benefits, as on-farm processes are season oriented and a FaaS reflects the farm’s variable demands over time by origin and extends the concept to offer external know-how for the integration into specific processes. Research highlights: The standardized implementation of knowledge into PA software products helps to generate additional benefits for PA