Usability Engineering For Successful Open Citizen Science

Do-it-yourself construction kits for sensor stations is a novel approach for citizen driven sensor networks. In this paper we present the development of SenseBox, a toolkit for open source sensor applications. We provide manuals and open source toolkits for hardware makers to establish a large scale sensor network in Germany, and additionally for schools to teach secondary school students programming in a playful and simple way based on open source microcontrollers. All collected data is open and being published on OpenSenseMap, our platform for open sensor data. After a test phase where we equipped citizens with construction kits for continuous measurements we discovered that most of the stations were disconnected after a few weeks. Following from that we performed a user study to reveal possible error sources during the wiring process, software installation and online registration on OpenSenseMap. Missing general computer skills led to larger problems than wiring of hardware parts

It’s GIrls’ Day! What sketch maps show about girls’ spatial knowledge

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.This paper describes the analysis of sketch maps from girls who participated in the Girls’ Day annual event in Germany. The event caters to girls from Grades 7 – 10 as an opportunity to experience various jobs that might interest them in the future, typically within the STEM-disciplines. One of the performed activities was asking the girls who participated to draw a sketch map of an area they are familiar with. We are interested in finding out how girls externalize the environment they were told to draw. The activity also helps us understand how they organize their environmental knowledge through sketch maps. This descriptive work deviates from gender comparison of map-making by focusing only on girls. This paper allows us to understand differences of girls’ cognitive abilities based on what they have drawn on the map. The results showed that girls draw map ranging from egocentric pictorial representation with few details to survey structured map. More than 40% of the girls have included landmarks and streets outside the region of interest showing a more global view of the area. Landmarks frequently drawn showed visual, structural and cognitive characteristics. This study contributes to research related to better understanding of the cognitive abilities of young adults, particularly girls

OPENSENSEMAP - A Citizen Science Platform For Publishing And Exploring Sensor Data as Open Data

A plethora of citizen science sensor platforms for dierent use-cases already exist. They provide cheap, precongured, plug and playable hardware and software solutions. Using data from multiple platforms and resources can be a challenging task in respect of discovering, exploring, downloading and converting. This work aims to implement a one-stop-shop for sensor data that tries to tackle these problems. Therefore a basic data schema capable of metadata is established that allows publishing generic sensor platforms and sensor data. For exploration a web platform is implemented based on common web standards. This work describes the requirements, design and implementation of the OpenSenseMap. OpenSenseMap is following the clientserver model and its complete application stack is implemented in JavaScript. It describes the basic components and the underlying data model. All components are using open-source technology and are published under an opensource license too. The RESTful service is the heart of OpenSenseMap and implements the data publish and data retrieval functions. Developers may use it to build custom applications around OpenSenseMap or integrate OpenSenseMap into existing projects. The NodeJS application runs its own web server and implements the different HTTP request types. The OpenSenseMap concept is being evaluated with a technical and a user survey

Desenvolvimento do Cadastron na Alemanha

The first part of the paper will give an overview on the classification of ALKISwithin the German NSDI initiative. The following two parts describe the ALKISModeland the implementation of the system in the case of North Rhine-Westphalia.The penultimate point focuses upon the discussion of an increasing use and value of(official) geographical data. In a final step, future prospects are presented.A primeira parte do artigo traz uma visão geral do sistema ALKIS - AmtlichesLiegenschaftskataster Informationssystem, que é uma iniciativa do GovernoAlemão dentro do NSDI - National Spatial Data Infrastructure. As duas partesseguintes descrevem o modelo ALKIS e a implantação do sistema em uma regiãopiloto, a de Rhine-Westphalia Norte. No penúltimo item é formulada uma discussãosobre a utilização e o crescente valor dos dados espaciais. Na etapa do final é feitauma apresentação sobre o futuro do sistema

Gestural Interaction with Spatiotemporal Linked Open Data

Exploring complex spatiotemporal data can be very challenging for non-experts. Recently, gestural interaction has emerged as a promising option, which has been successfully applied to various domains, including simple map control. In this paper, we investigate whether gestures can be used to enable non-experts to explore and understand complex spatiotemporal phenomena. In this case study we made use of large amounts of Linked Open Data about the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest and related ecological, economical and social factors. The results of our study indicate that people of all ages can easily learn gestures and successfully use them to explore the visualized and aggregated spatiotemporal data about the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest

Patterns in Mongolian nomadic household movement derived from GPS trajectories

This paper presents an approach for a quantitative analysis of movement patterns of nomadic households based on GPS trajectories. We distributed GPS loggers to 400 Mongolian herder households who carried them over a 9-month period, continuously recording position data every 30min. A total of 142of the resulting trajectories fulfilled our data quality criteria and were considered during the analysis. Based on this data, we derive summary indicators describing key parameters of the households’ mobility including measures of distance and number of movements as well as shape characteristics of the trajectories. We conduct an explorative statistical analysis of these summary indicators to investigate patterns in the nomadic mobility. We identify three movement strategies based on the number of different campsite locations and the distances traveled between campsites. We also compare the results to the existing literature on the mobility of Mongolian herders. Our findings show that GPS-based studies present a suitable framework to quantitatively analyze different movement strategies of nomadic herders

Distinct and stage-specific contributions of TET1 and TET2 to stepwise cytosine oxidation in the transition from naive to primed pluripotency

Cytosine DNA bases can be methylated by DNA methyltransferases and subsequently oxidized by TET proteins. The resulting 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), 5-formylcytosine (5fC), and 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC) are considered demethylation intermediates as well as stable epigenetic marks. To dissect the contributions of these cytosine modifying enzymes, we generated combinations of Tet knockout (KO) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and systematically measured protein and DNA modification levels at the transition from naive to primed pluripotency. Whereas the increase of genomic 5-methylcytosine (5mC) levels during exit from pluripotency correlated with an upregulation of the de novo DNA methyltransferases DNMT3A and DNMT3B, the subsequent oxidation steps turned out to be far more complex. The strong increase of oxidized cytosine bases (5hmC, 5fC, and 5caC) was accompanied by a drop in TET2 levels, yet the analysis of KO cells suggested that TET2 is responsible for most 5fC formation. The comparison of modified cytosine and enzyme levels in Tet KO cells revealed distinct and differentiation-dependent contributions of TET1 and TET2 to 5hmC and 5fC formation arguing against a processive mechanism of 5mC oxidation. The apparent independent steps of 5hmC and 5fC formation suggest yet to be identified mechanisms regulating TET activity that may constitute another layer of epigenetic regulation

Large-Scale Recombinant Production of the SARS-CoV-2 Proteome for High-Throughput and Structural Biology Applications

The highly infectious disease COVID-19 caused by the Betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2 poses a severe threat to humanity and demands the redirection of scientific efforts and criteria to organized research projects. The international COVID19-NMR consortium seeks to provide such new approaches by gathering scientific expertise worldwide. In particular, making available viral proteins and RNAs will pave the way to understanding the SARS-CoV-2 molecular components in detail. The research in COVID19-NMR and the resources provided through the consortium are fully disclosed to accelerate access and exploitation. NMR investigations of the viral molecular components are designated to provide the essential basis for further work, including macromolecular interaction studies and high-throughput drug screening. Here, we present the extensive catalog of a holistic SARS-CoV-2 protein preparation approach based on the consortium’s collective efforts. We provide protocols for the large-scale production of more than 80% of all SARS-CoV-2 proteins or essential parts of them. Several of the proteins were produced in more than one laboratory, demonstrating the high interoperability between NMR groups worldwide. For the majority of proteins, we can produce isotope-labeled samples of HSQC-grade. Together with several NMR chemical shift assignments made publicly available on covid19-nmr.com, we here provide highly valuable resources for the production of SARS-CoV-2 proteins in isotope-labeled form

Assessing the Usability of WebGIS for Schools. GI_Forum 2013 – Creating the GISociety|

This work introduces concepts from usability engineering and user centered design into software development in the educational context. As still most digital geomedia on the educational market are based on classical GIS principles made for professionals there is a need for usable tools that fit the needs of students and teachers. A prototype WebGIS application for schools to present various geospatial datasets with an intuitive user interface will be presented. The used technologies and GUI elements are described. Usability tests with secondary school students are conducted and are used to assess the performance of the prototype web application in a realistic environment