Benefit Sharing in the Arctic

This book provides a first-of-its-kind review and analysis of benefit sharing frameworks between extractive industries and Indigenous and local communities in different parts of the Arctic. The authors describe a wealth of case studies in order to examine predominant practices, policies, arrangements, mechanisms and impact assessment methodologies. They also discuss possible ways to improve and advance existing benefit sharing regimes, in order to attain fair and equitable benefit sharing and support sustainable development. Among the topics covered in the book are corporate social responsibility and social license to operate, principles and methodologies of determining compensation, legal and informal frameworks of benefit sharing, community response to extractive activities, and global-to-local linkages that shape benefit sharing processes. The book will be of interest to academics, industry experts, legal specialists, policymakers, community members concerned with industrial activities, and anyone interested in sustainable development in the Arctic

Geographic Citizen Science Design

Little did Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and other ‘gentlemen scientists’ know, when they were making their scientific discoveries, that some centuries later they would inspire a new field of scientific practice and innovation, called citizen science. The current growth and availability of citizen science projects and relevant applications to support citizen involvement is massive; every citizen has an opportunity to become a scientist and contribute to a scientific discipline, without having any professional qualifications. With geographic interfaces being the common approach to support collection, analysis and dissemination of data contributed by participants, ‘geographic citizen science’ is being approached from different angles. Geographic Citizen Science Design takes an anthropological and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) stance to provide the theoretical and methodological foundations to support the design, development and evaluation of citizen science projects and their user-friendly applications. Through a careful selection of case studies in the urban and non-urban contexts of the Global North and South, the chapters provide insights into the design and interaction barriers, as well as on the lessons learned from the engagement of a diverse set of participants; for example, literate and non-literate people with a range of technical skills, and with different cultural backgrounds. Looking at the field through the lenses of specific case studies, the book captures the current state of the art in research and development of geographic citizen science and provides critical insight to inform technological innovation and future research in this area

Geographic Citizen Science Design: No one left behind

Little did Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and other ‘gentlemen scientists’ know, when they were making their scientific discoveries, that some centuries later they would inspire a new field of scientific practice and innovation, called citizen science. The current growth and availability of citizen science projects and relevant applications to support citizen involvement is massive; every citizen has an opportunity to become a scientist and contribute to a scientific discipline, without having any professional qualifications. With geographic interfaces being the common approach to support collection, analysis and dissemination of data contributed by participants, ‘geographic citizen science’ is being approached from different angles. Geographic Citizen Science Design takes an anthropological and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) stance to provide the theoretical and methodological foundations to support the design, development and evaluation of citizen science projects and their user-friendly applications. Through a careful selection of case studies in the urban and non-urban contexts of the Global North and South, the chapters provide insights into the design and interaction barriers, as well as on the lessons learned from the engagement of a diverse set of participants; for example, literate and non-literate people with a range of technical skills, and with different cultural backgrounds. Looking at the field through the lenses of specific case studies, the book captures the current state of the art in research and development of geographic citizen science and provides critical insight to inform technological innovation and future research in this area

Geographic Citizen Science Design

Little did Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and other ‘gentlemen scientists’ know, when they were making their scientific discoveries, that some centuries later they would inspire a new field of scientific practice and innovation, called citizen science. The current growth and availability of citizen science projects and relevant applications to support citizen involvement is massive; every citizen has an opportunity to become a scientist and contribute to a scientific discipline, without having any professional qualifications. With geographic interfaces being the common approach to support collection, analysis and dissemination of data contributed by participants, ‘geographic citizen science’ is being approached from different angles. Geographic Citizen Science Design takes an anthropological and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) stance to provide the theoretical and methodological foundations to support the design, development and evaluation of citizen science projects and their user-friendly applications. Through a careful selection of case studies in the urban and non-urban contexts of the Global North and South, the chapters provide insights into the design and interaction barriers, as well as on the lessons learned from the engagement of a diverse set of participants; for example, literate and non-literate people with a range of technical skills, and with different cultural backgrounds. Looking at the field through the lenses of specific case studies, the book captures the current state of the art in research and development of geographic citizen science and provides critical insight to inform technological innovation and future research in this area

Embedded Cloud System for Ann-Cod Analysis Using UV Spectroscopy

One of the many parameters indicating water quality is chemical oxygen demand (COD), which is an indirect measurement of the amount of organic compound material in water. There have been many studies, in both academia and the industry, to analyze the COD content of water using spectral analysis. The proposal of this thesis was to study, analyze, and identify methods to determine the presence of COD using UV spectroscopy data and an artificial neural network (ANN) in a cloud-connected embedded system. The system was implemented using an ARM11 board and a portable spectrometer. Light in the UV range was used to analyze the water sample. As an analysis strategy, the spectral data were converted into a real number value in the range of 0 to 1. Twenty equidistance samples were taken out of the converted data to be fed into the ANN, and the ANN was trained with known samples to identify any presence of COD. Experiments used laboratory-calibrated water samples with known COD and some real-life water samples. All the experiments showed that the implemented system could successfully indicate the presence or absence of COD in the given water sample. The system also successfully demonstrated the application of a cloud-connected embedded system to an area in environmental engineering. This indicated that the system was a bridge between computer and environmental engineering

Pushing for Better: Confronting Conflict, Unsustainability & Colonialism through Sustainability Assessment and Regional Assessment in the Ring of Fire

The Ring of Fire is a mineral resource-rich area of approximately 5,120 km2 located in the James Bay Lowlands region of Northern Ontario, about 500 kilometers northeast of Thunder Bay. The Ontario Ministry of Northern Development and Mines generously estimates the Ring of Fire to contain $60 billion worth of minerals. The Ontario government and industry envision that the Ring of Fire could be a region with multi-generational mining activity. However, the area has no historical or current industrial activity, and no road or rail access. Also, mining proposals in this resource rich, inaccessible and ecologically sensitive area have generated significant controversy and conflict because the potential for wealth generation is accompanied by the potential for significant and possibly serious net negative lasting cumulative effects and poorly distributed benefits and risks, particularly for First Nations communities, including Eabametoong First Nation. One major method of anticipating and planning for the effects of industrial development is environmental assessment. However, my research finds that traditional assessment methods are woefully inadequate for considering the potential regional impacts of the Ring of Fire on the land, waters and communities. Conventional assessment is insufficient to identify and address cumulative effects, and it does not provide an adequate base for determining whether proposed developments are likely contribute to lasting well-being and sustainability. These inadequacies are particularly challenging for the most vulnerable communities, where these deficiencies threaten to perpetuate long standing colonialism and conflict. The findings suggest that Canadian resource development processes at large would be considerably assisted if anticipatory assessment and decision making focused on the actual (in this case regional) scale of the potential effects, examined the potential for lasting overall gains, and integrated fair process with equitable relationships and substantive consideration of context-dependent sustainability. In this research, assessment criteria were developed in collaboration with Eabametoong First Nation for application in the Ring of Fire utilizing generic sustainability criteria, existing academic data and Eabametoong’s own perspectives. Central to the resulting assessment framework is the need to foster consent, respect indigenous rights and utilize indigenous knowledge. My findings indicate that much of the mainstream discussion on the Ring of Fire has framed the key debates as economy versus the environment, and have situated the current project-centred environmental assessment processes as a venue for battles over these priorities. A broader and more positive approach, using regional strategic assessments to find pathways to lasting overall benefits for the Ring of Fire communities and area, is not yet on the agenda. This research found that a more comprehensive package that utilizes assessment not simply as a box check, but as a means to enhance the lives of Eabametoong First Nations and other communities, would better ensure that development in the region contributes to a sustainable future

Android Application Development for the Intel Platform

Computer scienc

Scientific Programming and Computer Architecture

A variety of programming models relevant to scientists explained, with an emphasis on how programming constructs map to parts of the computer.What makes computer programs fast or slow? To answer this question, we have to get behind the abstractions of programming languages and look at how a computer really works. This book examines and explains a variety of scientific programming models (programming models relevant to scientists) with an emphasis on how programming constructs map to different parts of the computer's architecture. Two themes emerge: program speed and program modularity. Throughout this book, the premise is to "get under the hood," and the discussion is tied to specific programs. The book digs into linkers, compilers, operating systems, and computer architecture to understand how the different parts of the computer interact with programs. It begins with a review of C/C++ and explanations of how libraries, linkers, and Makefiles work. Programming models covered include Pthreads, OpenMP, MPI, TCP/IP, and CUDA.The emphasis on how computers work leads the reader into computer architecture and occasionally into the operating system kernel. The operating system studied is Linux, the preferred platform for scientific computing. Linux is also open source, which allows users to peer into its inner workings. A brief appendix provides a useful table of machines used to time programs. The book's website (https://github.com/divakarvi/bk-spca) has all the programs described in the book as well as a link to the html text