5,340 research outputs found
Characterizing spatial burn severity patterns of 2016 Chimney Tops 2 fire using multi-temporal Landsat and NEON LiDAR data
The Chimney Tops 2 wildfire (CT2) in 2016 at Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) was recorded as the largest fire in GSMNP history. Understanding spatial patterns of burn severity and its underlying controlling factors is essential for managing the forests affected and reducing future fire risks; however, this has not been well understood. Here, we formulated two research questions: 1) What were the most important factors characterizing the patterns of burn severity in the CT2 fire? 2) Were burn severity measures from passive and active optical remote sensing sensors providing consistent views of fire damage? To address these questions, we used multitemporal Landsat- and lidar-based burn severity measures, i.e., relativized differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (RdNBR) and relativized differenced Mean Tree Height (RdMTH). A random forest approach was used to identify key drivers in characterizing spatial variability of burn severity, and the partial dependence of each explanatory variable was further evaluated. We found that pre-fire vegetation structure and topography both play significant roles in characterizing heterogeneous mixed burn severity patterns in the CT2 fire. Mean tree height, elevation, and topographic position emerged as key factors in explaining burn severity variation. We observed generally consistent spatial patterns from Landsat- and lidar-based burn severity measures. However, vegetation type and structure-dependent relations between RdNBR and RdMTH caused locally inconsistent burn severity patterns, particularly in high RdNBR regions. Our study highlights the important roles of pre-fire vegetation structure and topography in understanding burn severity patterns and urges to integrate both spectral and structural changes to fully map and understand fire impacts on forest ecosystems
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Ensuring Access to Safe and Nutritious Food for All Through the Transformation of Food Systems
Beyond invisibility: The position and role of the literary translator in the digital paratextual space
This thesis presents a new theoretical framework through which to analyse the visibility of literary translators in the digital materials that present translations to readers, referred to throughout as paratextual spaces. Central to this model is the argument that paratextual ‘visibility’ must be understood as including both the way translators and their labour are presented to readers, defined here as their position, and also their role in the establishment of that position. Going beyond Lawrence Venuti’s concept of invisibility as an inevitably negative position to be fought against, this thesis instead establishes paratextual visibility as a complex negotiation between the agency of individual translators, the needs of a publishing house and the interests of readers.
The value of this approach is demonstrated through a case study examining the visibility of translator Jamie Bulloch in the digital spaces surrounding his English-language translations of two novels by German author Timur Vermes: Look Who’s Back and The Hungry and the Fat. This analysis finds that even though Bulloch played an early role in creating the publisher’s paratextual materials, publisher MacLehose Press prioritised making the novels’ German origins and the foreignness of the texts visible over Bulloch’s status as the translator, or his translatorship. Bulloch’s limited visibility in the publisher-created materials was then reproduced in digital paratexts created by readers and third parties such as retailer Amazon, despite his attempts to interact with readers and perform his translatorship in digital spaces such as Twitter. Rather than challenging Bulloch’s limited visibility, then, digital spaces served to amplify it. This thesis therefore finds that the translator’s active participation in the promotion of their work does not always equate to increased visibility, thus demonstrating the need to go beyond Venuti’s invisibility and towards understanding the multifaceted roles played by translators in presenting literary texts to new audiences
Technologies and Applications for Big Data Value
This open access book explores cutting-edge solutions and best practices for big data and data-driven AI applications for the data-driven economy. It provides the reader with a basis for understanding how technical issues can be overcome to offer real-world solutions to major industrial areas. The book starts with an introductory chapter that provides an overview of the book by positioning the following chapters in terms of their contributions to technology frameworks which are key elements of the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the upcoming Partnership on AI, Data and Robotics. The remainder of the book is then arranged in two parts. The first part “Technologies and Methods” contains horizontal contributions of technologies and methods that enable data value chains to be applied in any sector. The second part “Processes and Applications” details experience reports and lessons from using big data and data-driven approaches in processes and applications. Its chapters are co-authored with industry experts and cover domains including health, law, finance, retail, manufacturing, mobility, and smart cities. Contributions emanate from the Big Data Value Public-Private Partnership and the Big Data Value Association, which have acted as the European data community's nucleus to bring together businesses with leading researchers to harness the value of data to benefit society, business, science, and industry. The book is of interest to two primary audiences, first, undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in various fields, including big data, data science, data engineering, and machine learning and AI. Second, practitioners and industry experts engaged in data-driven systems, software design and deployment projects who are interested in employing these advanced methods to address real-world problems
Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe
This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations of scientific knowledge in the early modern period. It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera, by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring Sacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650, represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities
Neutrons for Sciences
IN 1967, France and Germany agreed to cooperate on the construction and commissioning of a nuclear reactor dedicated to research in physics, chemistry and biology. Thus was born the Institut Laue-Langevin, a project whose aim was to provide research scientists with an extremely intense source of neutron beams, a fundamental tool for probing the mysteries of matter. Britain soon joined the project, followed gradually by other countries both from western and eastern Europe, making the Institut Laue-Langevin a particularly successful example of European cooperation. This success is a clear illustration of how, by joining forces and skills in this way, it was possible to provide scientists from “the old continent” with the means to tackle ambitious projects by giving them the best neutron source in the world. Neutrons for Science tells the story of the beginnings of this project and shows how, with the right organisation, it was possible to optimise the use of the reactor. The book also paints the portraits of three eminent figures, Jules Horowitz, Heinz Maier-Leibnitz and Louis Néel, who played a key role in this success. In this English edition, a chapter has been added covering the period 2004-2018 in order to create a link with the modern era and highlight the dynamism that has marked the Institute since it was founded
New Research and Trends in Higher Education
This book aims to discuss new research and trends on all dimensions of Higher Education, as there is a growing interest in the field of Higher Education, regarding new methodologies, contexts, and technologies. It includes investigations of diverse issues that affect the learning processes in Higher Education: innovations in learning, new pedagogical methods, and new learning contexts.In this sense, original research contributions of research papers, case studies and demonstrations that present original scientific results, methodological aspects, concepts and educational technologies, on the following topics:a) Technological Developments in Higher Education: mobile technology, virtual environments, augmented reality, automation and robotics, and other tools for universal learning, focusing on issues that are not addressed by existing research;b) Digital Higher Education: mobile learning, eLearning, Game-based Learning, social media in education, new learning models and technologies and wearable technologies for education;c) Case Studies in Higher Education: empirical studies in higher education regarding digital technologies, new methodologies, new evaluation techniques and tools, perceptions of learning processes efficiency and digital learning best practice
Craft Sciences
The field of ‘Craft Sciences’ refers to research conducted across and within different craft subjects and academic contexts. This anthology aims to expose the breadth of topics, source material, methods, perspectives, and results that reside in this field, and to explore what unites the research in such diverse contexts as, for example, the arts, conservation, or vocational craft education. The common thread between each of the chapters in the present book is the augmented attention given to methods—the craft research methods—and to the relationship between the field of inquiry and the field of practice. A common feature is that practice plays an instrumental role in the research found within the chapters, and that the researchers in this publication are also practitioners. The authors are researchers but they are also potters, waiters, carpenters, gardeners, textile artists, boat builders, smiths, building conservators, painting restorers, furniture designers, illustrators, and media designers. The researchers contribute from different research fields, like craft education, meal sciences, and conservation crafts, and from particular craft subjects, like boat-building and weaving. The main contribution of this book is that it collects together a number of related case studies and presents a reflection on concepts, perspectives, and methods in the general fields of craft research from the point of view of craft practitioners. It adds to the existing academic discussion of crafts through its wider acknowledgement of craftsmanship and extends its borders and its discourse outside the arts and crafts context. This book provides a platform from which to develop context-appropriate research strategies and to associate with the Craft Sciences beyond the borders of faculties and disciplines
Biodiversity, Distribution and Conservation of Plants and Fungi
This Special Issue brings together some interconnected topics related to fungi and plants such as biodiversity, taxonomy, conservation, molecular phylogeny, ecology, and plant–fungal interactions. Additionally, some applied aspects are covered, such as phytoremediation, the improvement of spinach growth by biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, bio-friendly solutions for waste reduction, the accumulation of rare-earth elements by wild edible mushrooms, etc
Advances in Forensic Genetics
The book has 25 articles about the status and new directions in forensic genetics. Approximately half of the articles are invited reviews, and the remaining articles deal with new forensic genetic methods. The articles cover aspects such as sampling DNA evidence at the scene of a crime; DNA transfer when handling evidence material and how to avoid DNA contamination of items, laboratory, etc.; identification of body fluids and tissues with RNA; forensic microbiome analysis with molecular biology methods as a supplement to the examination of human DNA; forensic DNA phenotyping for predicting visible traits such as eye, hair, and skin colour; new ancestry informative DNA markers for estimating ethnic origin; new genetic genealogy methods for identifying distant relatives that cannot be identified with conventional forensic DNA typing; sensitive DNA methods, including single-cell DNA analysis and other highly specialised and sensitive methods to examine ancient DNA from unidentified victims of war; forensic animal genetics; genetics of visible traits in dogs; statistical tools for interpreting forensic DNA analyses, including the most used IT tools for forensic STR-typing and DNA sequencing; haploid markers (Y-chromosome and mitochondria DNA); inference of ethnic origin; a comprehensive logical framework for the interpretation of forensic genetic DNA data; and an overview of the ethical aspects of modern forensic genetics
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