Forging Ahead and Adapting to Change: a Review of the Initiatives of the ISPRS Student Consortium

The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Student Consortium (ISPRS SC) is an international organization that represents a constituency of the students and the young professionals with common interests and goals within ISPRS in the areas of photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information science. The ISPRS SC Board of Directors strengthened the organization’s foundations and increased its engagement in the Society from 2016 to 2022. Given the current global health crisis, selected members of the Board of Directors continued to serve in the ISPRS SC for a two-year extension and developed creative strategies in navigating the new normal. Building on the strengths of the organization and motivated by the incredible ideas of connecting and engaging the scientific community that emerged during the pandemic, we were able to transform challenges into opportunities through collaborations and sustained participation of our members. In this paper, we summarize all the activities of the Consortium from 2016 to 2022 and provide insights on the impacts and values of these initiatives to the organization and its members. We also elaborated on hosting the GeoMixers as virtual networking events with our partner organizations as well as organizing the virtual Google Earth Engine meetup in the Singapore Geospatial Festival, which was given the short title, EarthEngine@SG. Outcomes of the Leadership and Service Mentoring Programme, the Consortium’s first mentorship and training programme for potential nominees for the incoming Board of Directors, demonstrated the remarkable potential of the youth in leading and engaging in relevant social and global issues and contributing to the scientific community. Sustaining our relevance to ISPRS, experiencing growth during the pandemic and understanding our roles as an international organization, the Consortium will continue to forge ahead and adapt to change to support the youth and contribute to building resilience and adaptability in our scientific community

Creative strategies in navigating the new normal: advancing the contributions of the ISPRS student consortium as an internatıonal organization

17 June 2021 2021 24th ISPRS Congress on Imaging Today, Foreseeing Tomorrow, Commission V and Youth ForumNice5 July 2021 through 9 July 2021Code 174094The International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Student Consortium (ISPRS SC) is an international student organization representing the youth in the ISPRS. The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected students and young professionals around the world because of country-wide lockdowns and comprehensive quarantine and social distancing measures. This situation led to the implementation of distance learning and remote work. The Consortium organized different activities in support of students and young professionals during the global health crisis. Despite the challenges and necessary adjustments, the unprecedented situation helped the organization adapt to change and encouraged us to revisit our roles as an international organization. The ISPRS SC hosts and coordinates activities and events both in person and online, including the Webinar Series, the publication of the SpeCtrum and the summer schools. During the pandemic, we improved our existing activities to provide support to our members and to the scientific community in general as we navigate major lifestyle changes and become more adept in using technology in our day-to-day lives. We also introduced new initiatives such as the Virtual Rooms and the GeoMixer, and continued to work in partnership with different organizations in remote sensing, photogrammetry and spatial information science. Moreover, we continued to strengthen our connection to the ISPRS through a collaboration with the ISPRS White Elephant Club and for a special event honouring one of the most important figures in the Society and in the profession. With all these activities organized during this challenging time, the Consortium experienced growth in terms of organizing and improving its activities, our roles as an international organization, and our online presence. The Consortium has also taken steps for continuity and sustained relevance to both the youth and ISPRS

Preference incorporation in MOEA/D using an outranking approach with imprecise model parameters

Multi-objective Optimization Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) face numerous challenges when they are used to solve Many-objective Optimization Problems (MaOPs). Decomposition-based strategies, such as MOEA/D, divide an MaOP into multiple single-optimization sub-problems, achieving better diversity and a better approximation of the Pareto front, and dealing with some of the challenges of MaOPs. However, these approaches still require one to solve a multi-criteria selection problem that will allow a Decision-Maker (DM) to choose the final solution. Incorporating preferences may provide results that are closer to the region of interest of a DM. Most of the proposals to integrate preferences in decomposition-based MOEAs prefer progressive articulation over the “a priori” incorporation of preferences. Progressive articulation methods can hardly work without comparable and transitive preferences, and they can significantly increase the cognitive effort required of a DM. On the other hand, the “a priori” strategies do not demand transitive judgements from the DM but require a direct parameter elicitation that usually is subject to imprecision. Outranking approaches have properties that allow them to suitably handle non-transitive preferences, veto conditions, and incomparability, which are typical characteristics of many real DMs. This paper explores how to incorporate DM preferences into MOEA/D using the “a priori” incorporation of preferences, based on interval outranking relations, to handle imprecision when preference parameters are elicited. Several experiments make it possible to analyze the proposal's performance on benchmark problems and to compare the results with the classic MOEA/D without preference incorporation and with a recent, state-of-the-art preference-based decomposition algorithm. In many instances, our results are closer to the Region of Interest, particularly when the number of objectives increases

Electronic Payment Systems: Payment Gateways and Data Security Standards

The use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops allow electronic transactions to be made anytime, anywhere, and by anyone. This version of commerce, known as e-commerce or digital commerce, has become a mainstay in the way consumers shop. Online payments have essentially made cash payment systems virtually obsolete. Also, the Internet has made it possible for businesses to expand their reach across the globe. More importantly, due to the proliferation of social media as a guiding agent for purchasing decisions, e-commerce has evolved into one of the most significant driving forces into how businesses generate revenue (Wong 2018). According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2019), the year’s retail e-commerce sales reached 154.7 billion, and the data indicated that sales would continue to grow. Coexisting with the steady rise of sales is the need for skilled and knowledgeable workers. Torpey (2018) shared a Bureau of Labor and Statistics report which revealed that e-commerce employment is expected to reach approximately 450,000 by 2026. Many of these jobs require advanced knowledge of credit card standards and acceptance procedures. Aligned to these expectations, the purpose of this project was to garner an understanding of payment gateways (PGs) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) to develop material to enhance an undergraduate e-commerce curriculum. The outcome of this research will be three-fold. First, it will offer qualitative outcomes on how students and teachers collaborated on gathering appropriate learning material to be used in the classroom. Second, the results of a quantitative student survey, administered near the end of the semester, will provide supporting evidence of the need to add this material into the curriculum. Third, using a scholarly practitioner model, the outcomes will bridge the gap between academia and real-world applications to equip students with the necessary knowledge to enter the workforce

An ACO-based Hyper-heuristic for Sequencing Many-objective Evolutionary Algorithms that Consider Different Ways to Incorporate the DM's Preferences

Many-objective optimization is an area of interest common to researchers, professionals, and practitioners because of its real-world implications. Preference incorporation into Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) is one of the current approaches to treat Many-Objective Optimization Problems (MaOPs). Some recent studies have focused on the advantages of embedding preference models based on interval outranking into MOEAs; several models have been proposed to achieve it. Since there are many factors influencing the choice of the best outranking model, there is no clear notion of which is the best model to incorporate the preferences of the decision maker into a particular problem. This paper proposes a hyper-heuristic algorithm—named HyperACO—that searches for the best combination of several interval outranking models embedded into MOEAs to solve MaOPs. HyperACO is able not only to select the most appropriate model but also to combine the already existing models to solve a specific MaOP correctly. The results obtained on the DTLZ and WFG test suites corroborate that HyperACO can hybridize MOEAs with a combined preference model that is suitable to the problem being solved. Performance comparisons with other state-of-the-art MOEAs and tests for statistical significance validate this conclusion

Chilaiditi's sign in complicated acute appendicitis: case report and literature review

Chilaiditi's condition refers to the presence of a loop of small intestine or colon between the diaphragm and the hepatic rim, usually due to alterations in the attachment of the liver to the diaphragm. Chilaiditi syndrome is associated with abdominal pain as the most common clinical manifestation. Pneumoperitoneum should always be ruled out in the context of these patients. We presented the case of a male in his eighth decade of life who presented with data suggestive of drug-modified acute appendicitis, for which computed tomography of the abdomen identified acute appendicitis and Chilaiditi's condition. An open appendectomy was performed without complications and the condition resolved

Cultivation Systems of Microalgae for the Production of Biofuels

As reported in the study, the high-oil/ha-year productivity of microalgae has raised a lot of interest in their use as a source of raw materials for biofuels. However, the high costs of production and maintenance of closed culture systems (photobioreactor type) and the problems of contamination that lead to lower productivity of open systems (of the “open-pond” type) have become important limitations in evaluating the sustainability of producing biofuels from microalgae.In the view of the favorable prospects of employing microalgae as an economically viable source of raw materials for the production of biofuels, this chapter outlines the different ways microalgae are cultivated, the required nutritional conditions and the main procedures used for increasing their scale. Additionally, those more commonly used on a large scale are described and their advantages and disadvantages are pointed out. This analysis results in a proposal of a new type of photobioreactor, of the cylindrical container type, constructed of polyethylene, a non-transparent material that is cheaper and more durable than the ones that are commonly used (polycarbonate, glass or polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)). Internal illumination of the photobioreactor is provided by a beam from plastic optical fibers that receive sunlight focused at the extremity of the beam

Susceptibility of biological stages of the horn fly, Haematobia irritans, to entomopathogenic fungi (Hyphomycetes)

The susceptibility of the egg, pupa, and adult of Haematobia irritans (L.) (Diptera: Muscidae) to isolates of the fungi Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.) Sor., Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill., and Paecilomyces fumosoroseus (Wize) Brown and Smith, was evaluated under laboratory conditions. Groups of 20 eggs than 4 h old, pupae less than 48h old and adults were sprayed with a conidial suspension of each isolate. Eggs, pupae and adults of horn fly were susceptible to these entomopathogenic fungi. For treated eggs, the isolates Ma3, Ma 15, Ma25, Pfr1, and Pfr8 reduced adult emergence to 3.8% to 6.3% in comparison with the control (72%). The mortality of pupae infected by the isolates Ma2, Ma25, and Pfr10 ranged between 50% and 71.3%. Mortality of adults after treatment with the isolates Ma6, Ma 10, Ma 14, Ma 15, Pfr 1, Pfr 9, Pfr 10, Pfr 11, and Pfr12 were higher than 90%. The isolate Ma6 produced the lowest LC(50) against adult horn flies (8.08 &times 10(2)conidia/ml). These findings supported the hypotheses that isolates of M. anisopliae, and P. fumosoroseus are pathogenic against the different biological stages of horn flies by reducing adult emergence when applied on groups of eggs and pupae, and producing mortality when applied to adults