3,911 research outputs found

    Seafloor characterization using airborne hyperspectral co-registration procedures independent from attitude and positioning sensors

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    The advance of remote-sensing technology and data-storage capabilities has progressed in the last decade to commercial multi-sensor data collection. There is a constant need to characterize, quantify and monitor the coastal areas for habitat research and coastal management. In this paper, we present work on seafloor characterization that uses hyperspectral imagery (HSI). The HSI data allows the operator to extend seafloor characterization from multibeam backscatter towards land and thus creates a seamless ocean-to-land characterization of the littoral zone

    Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Data Clearinghouse

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    The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is an electronic information network that provides access to biological data and information on our nationā€™s plants, animals, and ecosystems. Information contributed by federal, state, and local government agencies; non-government organizations; and private-sector organizations is linked through the NBII gateway and made accessible to a variety of audiences, including researchers, natural resource managers, decision-makers, educators, students, and other members of the general public. Implementation of the NBII is being accomplished through the development of nodes that serve as entry points to the network. These nodes function as fully digital, distributed, and interactive systems that focus on content on a defined subject area or a geographic region. The NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) addresses the need for information on a variety of disease agents in wildlife and their implications, including those affecting domestic animals and humans. The Chronic Wasting Disease Data Clearinghouse (CWDDC) is an innovative product of WDIN built through collaborative efforts to assist in the study of Chronic Wasting Disease

    2017 SCAT (Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique) Workshop Report

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    On January 18-19, 2017, the Coastal Response Research Center (CRRC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Response and Restoration (ORR) Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Disaster Response Center (DRC) co-sponsored the ā€œShoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) for Tomorrowā€ workshop at NOAAā€™s Disaster Response Center training facility in Mobile, AL. NOAA ORR supports the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in its role in emergency response (Emergency Response Division [ERD]) and also overseas damage assessment and restoration (Assessment and Restoration Division [ARD]). As part of its role, ORR updates existing tools and creates new ones related oil spill response, assessment and restoration. This workshop assisted ORR in advancing SCAT with respect to data standards and data exchange. Collecting, managing and sharing SCAT data collected or managed by different organizations can be difficult due to the various data methods and formats used. One of ORRā€™s major goals is to develop a common data standard for SCAT that is acceptable to federal and state agencies, and industry, and enhancing information sharing

    Economic Development and Maineā€™s Sustainability Solutions Initiative

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    The authors discuss how Maineā€™s Sustainability SoluĀ­tions Initiative (SSI) can contribute to economic develĀ­opment in the state. SSI research is covering five of the seven targeted technology areas identified in recent reports as being important for economic development in the state (forestry and agriculture, environmental, information, composites, marine and aquaculture). The authors note how the broad scope of research carried out through SSI provides opportunities to catalyze new commercial opportunities. As important, SSI is providing many students with a unique learnĀ­ing environment that will prepare them for the new knowledge-based economy

    RoboChain: A Secure Data-Sharing Framework for Human-Robot Interaction

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    Robots have potential to revolutionize the way we interact with the world around us. One of their largest potentials is in the domain of mobile health where they can be used to facilitate clinical interventions. However, to accomplish this, robots need to have access to our private data in order to learn from these data and improve their interaction capabilities. Furthermore, to enhance this learning process, the knowledge sharing among multiple robot units is the natural step forward. However, to date, there is no well-established framework which allows for such data sharing while preserving the privacy of the users (e.g., the hospital patients). To this end, we introduce RoboChain - the first learning framework for secure, decentralized and computationally efficient data and model sharing among multiple robot units installed at multiple sites (e.g., hospitals). RoboChain builds upon and combines the latest advances in open data access and blockchain technologies, as well as machine learning. We illustrate this framework using the example of a clinical intervention conducted in a private network of hospitals. Specifically, we lay down the system architecture that allows multiple robot units, conducting the interventions at different hospitals, to perform efficient learning without compromising the data privacy.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

    One health policy context of Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya

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    Standardizing Geospatial Information for New England Conservation Lands: Data Capture Methods and Technology

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    In 2002 The New England Environmental Finance Center and Applied Geographics issued the Feasibility Study for a GIS Inventory of New England Conservation Lands 1 describing the conservation lands data status throughout EPA Region 1 (New England). This report identified stakeholders and technologies participating in the maintenance of conservation lands data within this region. In the four years since that initial report dramatic changes have occurred in the technical means by which geographic data are delivered from their respective repositories. These changes have been most pronounced and obvious in the area of web mapping services. Web mapping services are software utilities by which diverse and frequently unrelated geographic data sets are structured and symbolized for consumption by remote clients through the Internet. In a more general sense, these represent a kind of democratization of access to digitally mapped data, by providing tools and content (often free) from remote servers that can be consumed by an end user with only a web browser or a small software download (and with little or no technical expertise). This method of delivery is in striking contrast to the preceding era in GIS evolution where all data and tools were closely held and generally inaccessible by dint of their expense and technical complexity

    Identifying Diseased Areas using a Geospatially Developed Human African Trypanosomiasis Vector Habitat Classification Scheme

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    Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is a vector-borne disease transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly that results in high human morbidity and mortality.Ā  There is no HAT vaccine, but biological control of the vector has been successful in reducing HAT incidence. However, in recent years the disease has re-emerged and spread. Due to insufficient knowledge of HAT endemic foci, the disease management remains challenging. Information is vital to effective disease management, but the level of underreporting of disease, most especially HAT in Nigeria, impedes progress. The information gap, such as comprehensive digital spatial epidemiological information/data, could be reduced with geo-referenced studies, lacking in some previous work.Ā  To achieve effective deployment of control strategies, accurate knowledge of the spatial distribution of the disease is vital. The current study is based in Nigeria, and looks at part of Delta State, in which HAT has been identified.Ā  The study utilizes a previously geospatially developed HAT vector habitat classification scheme, to explore the dynamics of HAT propagation. The goal was to map the direction and magnitude of HAT and identify HAT vulnerable/risk areas. This helped identify ā€˜HAT priority intervention areasā€™. The study highlights the significance of geospatial techniques where epidemiological data are limited, for improving understanding of HAT.Ā Ā  The study findings suggested HAT propagation in the study area was multidirectional, and that this may have been influenced by landscape characteristics.Ā  The study also suggested that the study area could be regarded as highly hazardous and that the human population residing in the area could be said to be at moderate risk of HAT. The method employed in this study will facilitate efficient decision making, planning for resource allocation as well as support active HAT surveillance. Keywords: Propagation, geospatially, multidirectional, disease

    Importance of Indigenous Peoples' lands for the conservation of Intact Forest Landscapes

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    Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) are critical strongholds for the environmental services that they provide, not least for their role in climate protection. On the basis of information about the distributions of IFLs and Indigenous Peoplesā€™ lands, we examined the importance of these areas for conserving the world's remaining intact forests. We determined that at least 36% of IFLs are within Indigenous Peoplesā€™ lands, making these areas crucial to the mitigation action needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. We also provide evidence that IFL loss rates have been considerably lower on Indigenous Peoplesā€™ lands than on other lands, although these forests are still vulnerable to clearing and other threats. World governments must recognize Indigenous Peoplesā€™ rights, including land tenure rights, to ensure that Indigenous Peoples play active roles in decisionā€making processes that affect IFLs on their lands. Such recognition is critical given the urgent need to reduce deforestation rates in the face of escalating climate change and global biodiversity loss.Intact Forest Landscapes (IFLs) are critical strongholds for the environmental services that they provide, not least for their role in climate protection. On the basis of information about the distributions of IFLs and Indigenous Peoples' lands, we examined the importance of these areas for conserving the world's remaining intact forests. We determined that at least 36% of IFLs are within Indigenous Peoples' lands, making these areas crucial to the mitigation action needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. We also provide evidence that IFL loss rates have been considerably lower on Indigenous Peoples' lands than on other lands, although these forests are still vulnerable to clearing and other threats. World governments must recognize Indigenous Peoples' rights, including land tenure rights, to ensure that Indigenous Peoples play active roles in decision-making processes that affect IFLs on their lands. Such recognition is critical given the urgent need to reduce deforestation rates in the face of escalating climate change and global biodiversity loss.Peer reviewe
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