Visualizing the Cherokee Homeland through Indigenous Historical GIS: An Interactive Map of James Mooney's Ethnographic Fieldwork and Cherokee Collective Memory

In 1887, the Bureau of American Ethnology appointed James Mooney to work among the Eastern Band of Cherokee. From 1887 to 1916, Mooney documented the sites and stories of the Cherokee homeland as shared with him by members of the community. Mooney's working maps and field notes were recently discovered at the archive of the Smithsonian Institution. For this thesis, I combine Mooney's work with Cherokee collective memory to re-interpret the stories of the Cherokee homeland according to Duyuktv, a Cherokee theoretical framework and paradigm. Asking the question, "How can the Mooney archive be transformed into a digital map that will engage and inspire Cherokee youth to learn and explore the stories of their homeland?" I demonstrate what is possible when Cherokee perspective is synthesized with geospatial technologies to present the ancient stories of the Cherokee homeland in a way that weaves traditional and modern culture into its components

MAZI Deliverable Report D2.5: – Design, progress and evaluation of the Deptford CreekNet pilot (version 2)

In this deliverable, the second in a series of three, we report on progress in the Creeknet pilot. We describe progress towards tasks identified in the Description of Work (DoW) for Task 2.2, focusing on activities in Year 2 (2017: months 13-24) and look forward to Year 3. The Creeknet pilot consists of four phases. This year, our focus has been on consolidating initial contacts made in Year 1 (Phase 1), and continuing community engagement activities alongside carrying out an initial deployment of the MAZI toolkit with a number of engaged community groups and individuals (Phase 2). In the second half of the year, as the toolkit was developed and an integrated set of tool established these groups and others were invited to engage in further trials, and feedback was gathered to further inform onward development (Phase 3). We have continued with our efforts to build upon existing relationships in Deptford Creek and further afield to help us explore the different ways in which DIY networking in the broadest sense and the use of the MAZI toolkit in particular might help address local challenges. We have reassessed some of our foci through seeking out new opportunities for engagement and trialling the MAZI toolkit. A major activity was planning and running the two day MAZI London Cross-fertilisation symposium. This created the opportunity for Creeknet participants to share their experiences and engage with the other MAZI pilots, bringing together existing community contacts in Deptford Creek, and MAZI partners, and attracted new contributors. Through our activities, working with the emerging MAZI toolkit that evolved through several iterations during the year, we have better understood local circumstances and the complexity involved in the conceptualisation of ‘DIY networking’ - it cannot be assumed to be a single notion. We have identified that both social and technological concerns can restrict its uptake, and consider routes to overcoming these challenges. We provide analysis of work carried out so far, and look towards the future activities

Activities of the Remote Sensing Information Sciences Research Group

Topics on the analysis and processing of remotely sensed data in the areas of vegetation analysis and modelling, georeferenced information systems, machine assisted information extraction from image data, and artificial intelligence are investigated. Discussions on support field data and specific applications of the proposed technologies are also included

Assessing Facilitating Factors and Barriers to Body Mass Index Screening among School Nurses

Child obesity among school age children is epidemic in the United States (U.S.). A critical review of literature was completed that concluded that Body Mass Index (BMI) screening for early identification and growth surveillance is needed for successful school-based obesity prevention intervention programs. This study used total survey design methods to identify the BMI screening practices of school nurses (SNs) and to identify the facilitating factors and barriers to BMI screening in public elementary schools among school age populations. Focus groups were used to identify current BMI screening practice in terms of facilitating factors and barriers. Survey methods were used to determine the validity of the barriers and facilitating factors identified in the focus groups. An adapted version of the Health People 2010 Determinants of Health Model guided this research. Results from 3 focus groups with SNs (N=25) working in public elementary schools indicated that SN BMI screening practice was conditional to policy, school social and physical environments, risk/protection, and access to quality health care. Themes related to geographic area emerged. All SNs described teachers as the most important facilitating factor. Suburban SNs identified that gym teachers were especially important to their BMI screening process. Urban SNs collectively agreed that trained personnel such as aides would be very helpful for data collection and BMI conversion. Rural SNs were also interested in collaborative work but focused on assisting one another as opposed to hiring assistance. Primary barriers voiced by SNs included lack of privacy, time, and policy. School size and amount of space the SNs had to assess a child were barriers, but for rural SNs this assumed there was a specific area designated as a clinic. For suburban SNs, having space to obtain BMIs located near a gym class was important. Urban SNs focused their concerns primarily on school organization and the logistic of obtaining data. Age and grade level had an effect on how rapidly data were collected. Geography in terms of the number and distance of schools that any one nurse is assigned affects the time a nurse can collect data. Subsequent to the focus group work a survey entitled the Body Mass Index Screening Survey (BMI-SS) was developed to allow for a more thorough assessment of SN BMI screening practices. Total survey design methods were used to establish face and content validity as well as baseline reliability. Face validity was established by subjective determination using 3 SN in a focus group discussion. Content validity was established with a Content Validity Index (.80) by 3 SN experts and 10 clinicians. Reliability was established through test-retest by 10 SN certification students. Administration of the survey to a randomly selected group of SNs is recommended so that data can be used to support policy and obesity intervention standards for care of school age children

Remote sensing of the mountain cryosphere: Current capabilities and future opportunities for research

Remote sensing technologies are integral to monitoring the mountain cryosphere in a warming world. Satellite missions and field-based platforms have transformed understanding of the processes driving changes in mountain glacier dynamics, snow cover, lake evolution, and the associated emergence of hazards (e.g. avalanches, floods, landslides). Sensors and platforms are becoming more bespoke, with innovation being driven by the commercial sector, and image repositories are more frequently open access, leading to the democratisation of data analysis and interpretation. Cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are rapidly transforming our ability to handle this exponential increase in data. This review therefore provides a timely opportunity to synthesise current capabilities in remote sensing of the mountain cryosphere. Scientific and commercial applications were critically examined, recognising the technologies that have most advanced the discipline. Low-cost sensors can also be deployed in the field, using microprocessors and telecommunications equipment to connect mountain glaciers to stakeholders for real-time monitoring. The potential for novel automated pipelines that can process vast volumes of data is also discussed, from reimagining historical aerial imagery to produce elevation models, to automatically delineating glacier boundaries. Finally, the applications of these emerging techniques that will benefit scientific research avenues and real-world societal programmes are discussed

Accelerating transition to virtual research organisation in social science (AVROSS) : final report

This report is the fourth deliverable of the AVROSS study (Accelerating Transition to Virtual Research Organisation in Social Science, AVROSS). The study aims were to identify the requirements and options for accelerating the transition from traditional research to virtual research organisations through e-Infrastructures. The reason for this focus is that it is clear that "soft" sciences have both much to gain and a key role to play in promoting e-Infrastructure uptake across the disciplines, but to date have not been the fastest adopters of advanced grid-based e-Infrastructure. Our recommendations to EU policy-makers can be expected to point the way to changing this situation, promoting e-Infrastructure in Europe in these disciplines, with clear requirements to developers and expected impact in several other disciplines with related requirements, such as e-Health

Building Digital 3D Learning Environments To Support the Teaching in Geosciences

Non peer reviewe