A Surgical Virtual Learning Environment

A computer based Virtual Learning Environment is proposed for training and evaluating novice surgeons. Although this Virtual Learning Environments is thought to be useful in other learning situations as well, especially where knowledge of different complex procedures and the ability to correctly assess a complex situation is critical, in this project we specifically focus on vascular surgery. This environment will be developed as part of the DIME project (Distributed Interactive Medical Exploratory). We are building this Virtual Learning Environment using a new navigational metaphor, which affords modeling the learning process, rather than focusing solely on modeling the operating room. This 'navigational metaphor' can be thought of as an semi-threedimensional interface to a database containing multimedia fragments and expert annotations of the knowledge domain under study

A surgical virtual environment for navigating experience.

A computer generated pre-surgical planning and teaching environment is proposed for training and evaluating novice surgeons. Although this environment is generic and can be put into practice in any medical specialisation where such 3D imaging techniques are in use, in this project we specifically focus on vascular surgery. This environment will be developed as part of the DIME project (Distributed Interactive Medical Exploratory). We are building this Virtual Environment (VE) using a new navigational metaphor, which includes modelling the learning process, rather than the operating room

The Open Data, Open Society report

Цей звіт є першим результатом науково-дослідного проекту про відкритість державних даних в місцевих адміністраціях ЄС. Повний звіт був завершений у жовтні 2010 року, випущений під ліцензією Creative Commons CC-BY та може бути вільно завантажений з веб-сайту проекту DIME 2 або Школи Св’ятої Анни. Доповідь також повністю перевидана на http://stop.zona-m.net 3, розділена на окремі сторінки з можливістю коментування анонімними читачами для того, щоб отримати якомога більше зворотного зв'язку та обговорення кожної окремої частини (але спочатку зпогодженням умов читачами!). Це повідомлення містить тільки вступ до цього.This report is the first output of a research project about openness of public data in EU local administrations. The full report was finished in October 2010, is released under a Creative Commons cc-by license and can be freely downloaded from the web site of the DIME project 2 or from Sant’Anna school. The report is also integrally republished on http://stop.zona-m.net 3, split in separate pages with comments open to anonymous readers, in order to facilitate as much as possible feedback and discussion on each single part (but please do check the notes to readers first!). This report only contains the introduction about this

Predicting tropical forest stand structure parameters from Fourier transform of very high-resolution remotely sensed canopy images

1. Predicting stand structure parameters for tropical forests from remotely sensed data has numerous important applications, such as estimating above-ground biomass and carbon stocks and providing spatial information for forest mapping and management planning, as well as detecting potential ecological determinants of plant species distributions. As an alternative to direct measurement of physical attributes of the vegetation and individual tree crown delineation, we present a powerful holistic approach using an index of canopy texture that can be extracted from either digitized air photographs or satellite images by means of two-dimensional spectral analysis by Fourier transform. 2. We defined an index of canopy texture from the ordination of the Fourier spectra computed for 3545 1-ha square images of an undisturbed tropical rain forest in French Guiana. This index expressed a gradient of coarseness vs. fineness resulting from the relative importance of small, medium and large spatial frequencies in the Fourier spectra. 3. Based on 12 1-ha control plots, the canopy texture index showed highly significant correlations with tree density (R2 = 0·80), diameter of the tree of mean basal area (R2 = 0·71), distribution of trees into d.b.h. classes (R2 = 0·64) and mean canopy height (R2 = 0·57), which allowed us to produce reasonable predictive maps of stand structure parameters from digital aerial photographs. 4. Synthesis and applications. Two-dimensional Fourier analysis is a powerful method for obtaining quantitative characterization of canopy texture, with good predictive ability on stand structure parameters. Forest departments should use routine forest inventory operations to set up and feed regional databases, featuring both tree diameter figures and digital canopy images, with the ultimate aims of calibrating robust regression relationships and deriving predictive maps of stand structure parameters over large areas of tropical forests. Such maps would be particularly useful for forest classification and to guide field assessment of tropical forest resources and biodiversity

Digital Humanities Solutions for Pan-European Numismatic and Archaeological Heritage Based on Linked Open Data

This paper discusses current challenges in archaeological cultural heritage data management and presents the interdisciplinary research project DigiNUMA. The project investigates solutions in data harmonisation and dissemination of pan-European cultural heritage through an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral project in Digital Humanities, semantic computing, participatory heritage, museum collections management and archaeological/numismatic studies. Using Finnish and English numismatic data as a test case, DigiNUMA creates ontological infrastructure and a proof-of-concept data model for finely-grained Linked Open Data (LOD) harmonisation across national and international databases for cultural heritage data, and tests it through a broad suite of Digital Humanities analyses.Peer reviewe

Citizen Science in Archaeology : Developing a Collaborative Web Service for Archaeological Finds in Finland

Peer reviewe

State Public-Law Litigation in an Age of Polarization

Public-law litigation by state governments plays an increasingly prominent role in American governance. Although public lawsuits by state governments designed to challenge the validity or shape the content of national policy are not new, such suits have increased in number and salience over the last few decades — especially since the tobacco litigation of the late 1990s. Under the Obama and Trump Administrations, such suits have taken on a particularly partisan cast; “red” states have challenged the Affordable Care Act and President Obama’s immigration orders, for example, and “blue” states have challenged President Trump’s travel bans and attempts to roll back prior environmental policies. As a result, longstanding concerns about state litigation as a form of national policymaking that circumvents ordinary lawmaking processes have been joined by new concerns that state litigation reflects and aggravates partisan polarization. This Article explores the relationship between state litigation and the polarization of American politics. As we explain, our federal system can mitigate the effects of partisan polarization by taking some divisive issues off the national agenda, leaving them to be solved in state jurisdictions where consensus may be more attainable — both because polarization appears to be dampened at the state level, and because political preferences are unevenly distributed geographically. State litigation can both help and hinder this dynamic. The available evidence suggests that state attorneys general (who handle the lion’s share of state litigation) are themselves fairly polarized, as are certain categories of state litigation. We map out the different ways states can use litigation to shape national policy, linking each to concerns about polarization. We thus distinguish between “vertical” conflicts, in which states sue to preserve their autonomy to go their own way on divisive issues, and “horizontal” conflicts, in which different groups of states vie for control of national policy. The latter, we think, will tend to aggravate polarization. But we concede — and illustrate — that it will often be difficult to separate out the vertical and horizontal aspects of particular disputes, and that in some horizontal disputes the polarization costs of state litigation may be worth paying. We argue, moreover, that state litigation cannot be understood in a vacuum, but must be assessed as part of a broader phenomenon in American law: our reliance on entrepreneurial litigation to develop and enforce public norms. In this context, state attorneys general often play roles similar to “private attorneys general” such as class action lawyers or public interest organizations. And states, with their built-in systems of democratic accountability and internal checks and balances, compare well with other entrepreneurial enforcement vehicles in a number of respects. Nevertheless, state litigation efforts may not always account well for divergent preferences and interests within the broad publics that the states represent, and this deficiency becomes particularly important in politically polarized times. Although our account of state litigation is, on the whole, a positive one, we caution that state attorneys general face a significant risk of backlash by other political actors, and by courts, if state litigation is (or is perceived to be) a bitterly partisan affair

A data set of sea surface stereo images to resolve space-time wave fields

Stereo imaging of the sea surface elevation provides unique field data to investigate the geometry and dynamics of oceanic waves. Typically, this technique allows retrieving the 4-D ocean topography (3-D space + time) at high frequency (up to 15–20 Hz) over a sea surface region of area ~104 m2. Stereo data fill the existing wide gap between sea surface elevation time-measurements, like the local observation provided by wave-buoys, and large-scale ocean observations by satellites. The analysis of stereo images provides a direct measurement of the wavefield without the need of any linear-wave theory assumption, so it is particularly interesting to investigate the nonlinearities of the surface, wave-current interaction, rogue waves, wave breaking, air-sea interaction, and potentially other processes not explored yet. In this context, this open dataset aims to provide, for the first time, valuable stereo measurements collected in different seas and wave conditions to invite the ocean-wave scientific community to continue exploring these data and to contribute to a better understanding of the nature of the sea surface dynamics

St. Petersburg as a Place of Belonging : Sticker Artists Inhabit and Imagine the City

The article approaches belonging using the conceptual tool of urban imaginary to demonstrate how a certain place can be represented in different ways, offering different scenarios for the emergence, explanation, and experience of belonging. Urban politics in St. Petersburg and Russia, in general, generate controversial imaginaries of the city and attach different meanings to belonging, forcing street artists to strike a balance between the hegemonic structures of governance and capitalism, local (national) and global (western), rebellion, and dependency, notably, to fulfill their ideas of belonging. Using sticker artists in St. Petersburg, based on ethnographic data, the article shows how young people assimilate several urban imaginaries and, following the logic inherent in each of these, position themselves and their activity in the city. Sticker artists are described as urban agents, who, by participating in place-making and transforming urban space using stickers, find their subjectivity and opportunities to wield microscale power.publishedVersionPeer reviewe