A cloud robotics architecture for an emergency management and monitoring service in a smart cityenvironment

Cloud robotics is revolutionizing not only the robotics industry but also the ICT world, giving robots more storage and computing capacity, opening new scenarios that blend the physical to the digital world. In this vision new IT architectures are required to manage robots, retrieve data from them and create services to interact with users. In this paper a possible implementation of a cloud robotics architecture for the interaction between users and UAVs is described. Using the latter as monitoring agents, a service for fighting crime in urban environment is proposed, making one step forward towards the idea of smart cit

Alternative producer-consumer relationships: the AgroGeoTrace project and the speciality products virtual roads

The AgroGeoTrace (AGT) project makes use of Geographical Information Systems and multichannel information technologies to facilitate the access of final consumers to local food speciality products. The project builds a prototype of an informative system designed, first, to help consumers to understand the agronomic and technological characteristics that make the targeted products special ones, and, second, to precisely and easily locate the sites (farms and oil mills) where they can buy them. The information made available through the project is intended to the symbolic relocalization of the regional products, hence to promote them and to create added value. The final outcomes of the project are the virtual maps of on-farm shops made available on Digital television (channel In+), PDAs and mobile phones.food speciality products, short agro-food chains, Geographical Information Systems, Agribusiness,

CareerAdvance® Implementation Study Findings through FY 2018

This report examines the implementation of the third year of HPOG II services in a five-year grant cycle, including post-HPOG sustainability planning for CareerAdvance®. This report focuses on how and why the program has changed and adjusted to meet the requirements of HPOG II, while responding to the needs of the participants being served, the local job market, and the partners working together to implement and sustain the program. First, this report briefly describes the organizations partnering to implement the HPOG II version of CareerAdvance®. It then examines changes made to the program components, including the eligibility requirements, recruitment, assessment, and selection process, support services, training options, and other program elements. Also, it describes the HPOG II FY 2018 (September 1, 2017-August 31, 2018) cohorts enrolled in training, including assessment scores and detailed demographic information on the participants and their families, as well as program completion and certification attainment of all HPOG II participants (April 2016-August 31, 2018). A final section addresses CareerAdvance® sustainability planning issues, options and opportunities. This report draws from previous CareerAdvance® reports, information on the HPOG II program participants and their families, and interviews with CAP, Tulsa Tech, Family and Children Services, and Tulsa Community WorkAdvance leadership and staff.Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesRay Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resource

I2PA, U-prove, and Idemix: An Evaluation of Memory Usage and Computing Time Efficiency in an IoT Context

The Internet of Things (IoT), in spite of its innumerable advantages, brings many challenges namely issues about users' privacy preservation and constraints about lightweight cryptography. Lightweight cryptography is of capital importance since IoT devices are qualified to be resource-constrained. To address these challenges, several Attribute-Based Credentials (ABC) schemes have been designed including I2PA, U-prove, and Idemix. Even though these schemes have very strong cryptographic bases, their performance in resource-constrained devices is a question that deserves special attention. This paper aims to conduct a performance evaluation of these schemes on issuance and verification protocols regarding memory usage and computing time. Recorded results show that both I2PA and U-prove present very interesting results regarding memory usage and computing time while Idemix presents very low performance with regard to computing time

The Greening of China’s Food - Green Food, Organic Food, and Eco-labelling

China is rapidly adopting, adapting and developing green technology and ideas. China is now a world leader in organic production and this can have implications for world food production. This paper examines the rapid rise of green food and organic agriculture in China, the multiple motivations that have driven it, and the innovative implementation strategies underpinning it. The first organic export from China was in 1990. The Chinese national organic standard and national organic logo were established in 2005. Thirty eight certifiers now operate in China servicing both domestic and export markets. While “Organic” is still poorly understood in the Chinese domestic market, “Green Food” is well known and readily available. Green Food is a Chinese innovation and dates from 1990. The China Green Food Development Centre was founded in 1992 to oversee the implementation of this food production innovation. Certification for Green Food production involves the regulation of inputs, with the objective of reduced use of pesticides, the oversight of production, and the residue testing of the produce. This Green Food strategy has been used as a “half-way house” between chemical food and organic food production. In 1995 Green Food certification was split into Grade A and Grade AA. It is this bifurcation of Green Food standards that laid the groundwork for the rapid articulation from Green Food certification to organic certification, and thus enabled the reported dramatic ten-fold increase in organic hectares in China in 2006 - and thereby placed China second in the world in terms of hectares under organic management, after only Australia. Longitudinal data are examined to reveal China’s organic and green trajectories, and potential future scenarios are presented. The new phenomenon of Chinese certified organic produce raises many questions. Data is presented to illuminate what role country of origin labelling (CoOL) might play, now and in the future, in a world market that is wary of Chinese food quality. China has gone well beyond being an adopter of organic concepts, and is now an active organic innovator - how successful and how exportable might these innovations be? Is the development of Chinese organics a threat or an opportunity, and for whom? China's organic sector production is valued at between US$5.6 and US$10.2 billion. China's Green Food production is valued at US$20.7 billion. China's Hazard-free agricultural production is valued between US$29.1 an US$39.7 billion. The total value of China's eco-labelled food production is between US$55.4 and US$70.6 billion. This paper reports on the new phenomenon of the export of China's Green Food production standards and certification procedures to other countries, including Canada

Applying Online: Technological Innovation for Income Support Programs in Four States

A study examining the development, implementation, and best practices for online applications for public benefits programs in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Washington based on interviews with state agencies and community-based organizations

Oceanography Professional Development in Virginia Via Collaboration, Field Integration, and Inquiry

Seventy-nine in-service teachers completed one of six sections of a grant-funded, graduate-level, summer course entitled, Oceanography, that was offered at four different locations in Virginia between 2005 and 2007. The majority of the teachers enrolled with the objective of obtaining their add-on earth science endorsement through the Virginia Earth Science Collaborative (VESC). Oceanography was designed to integrate the following: 1) the ocean science disciplines of geology, chemistry, physics, and biology; 2) inquiry-based learning strategies, quantitative activities, and technology; and, 3) Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) field experience with classroom experiences. These design themes were informed by ocean science content standards and science education best practices, and supported the goal that, upon completion of the course, teachers would be confident and competent in their abilities to teach oceanography concepts to grades 6-12 [1-3]. Learning outcomes, instructor feedback, and participant feedback suggest that the VESC’s Oceanography can serve as an instructional model for teacher professional development in oceanography. A collaborative instructional framework (marine educators, master teacher, and university faculty), small class size, and end-of-course field synthesis projects are additional elements that contributed to positive learning outcomes in course sections. The primary challenge in the course was the compressed, two-week time frame of face-to-face instruction

Establishing a Central Archive for Transit Passenger Data

This report describes the rationale, background, establishing organization, and future steps of CATPAD, the Central Archive for Transit Passenger Data. The Central Archive for Transit Passenger Data is a repository that collects, indexes, archives, and makes available online the transit survey instruments, data, and reports collected across the country. This resource is unique in its focus on the disaggregated information of individual transit users – information that is critical for a range of transportation planning analyses. In addition, where available, CATPAD contains aggregated information, such as station boardings and service and fare schedules, to provide key context for the disaggregate person-level data. The Central Archive for Transit Passenger Data seeks to overcome the current impediments to accessing transit survey data by providing a single, searchable, internet archive to store and disseminate this valuable information. The Central Archive for Transit Passenger Data explicitly aims to expand the public return on the considerable investment made to gather transit passenger data. The resource is designed from the start to serve the needs of a range of use cases from transportation planners and policy makers to researchers and community advocates. The goal of CATPAD is to make useful data available to inform transit decision making at all levels and to foster ongoing refinement of the nation’s transit network