Surveying GeoNames Gazetteer Data for the Nordic Countries

This paper takes a look at freely available gazetteer data for the Nordic countries. We examine locations in this region to understand their characteristics and the quality of the available data. Several indicators are developed and discussed to estimate the expected data quality. The distribution and coverage of the data is mapped and the accuracy and quality indicators are visualized. The used method focuses on populated places as locations of interest but can be extended to arbitrary types of locations. The results give insights into the distribution of issues based on multiple indicators and give an estimate of per-country data quality

The governance approach of smart city initiatives. Evidence from Trondheim, Bergen, and Bodø

A pragmatic and polity-focused solution for governing a smart city in the direction of sustainability is still missing in theory and practice. A debate about whether a smart city is a pragmatic solution for modern challenges or just a technology-led urban utopia is entangled with the vexed issue of governance. While ‘smart governance’ has drawn unprecedented interest, the combination of its conceptual vagueness and broad applications couple with a lack of focus on its underlying international and local political paradigms have raised concerns about its utility. This study contributes to restoring attention to the original concept of governance, its differences with governing and government, and the potential challenges resulting from its functionality in its real, multi-layered, and complex contexts. This paper explores the intellectual connection between governance and smart cities, from both an empirical and a conceptual/analytical perspective. From the empirical side, we examine which actors, processes, and relational mechanisms at different levels that have had an impact on the initiation of smart cities in three Norwegian cities: Trondheim, Bergen, and Bodø. We illustrate how the structural sources of the interests, roles, and power in smart city initiatives have caused governance to emerge and change, but have also affected the goals designed by specific actors.publishedVersio

A Measurement-Driven Approach to Understand Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Nordic Cities

Cities are main drivers for climate change mitigation and emission reduction today. However, in many cases they lack reliable baselines of emissions to validate current developments over time, assess the impact of their projects, and prioritize investments and actions. They also need better data on a small geospatial and temporal scale to really understand local emissions. This paper describes the rationale and the design of the Carbon Track and Trace project (CTT) that aims to develop an automated system for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions monitoring through a low-cost city-level sensor network. The system is based on a flexible architecture incorporating open source sensor platforms, an Internet-of-Things wireless backbone, and extensive data analytics. We describe concept, architecture, and deployment as well as initial results

A Web-based Reviewing Process Guidance System for an Ecological Database of Plant Traits

Abstract This paper covers the design, development and implementation of a review-based quality management system for an ecological database. We define a quality assurance process similar to that of a peer-review, whereby incoming data is separated into smaller items suitable for individual reviewing based on individual expertise. A simple yet efficient scheduling mechanism is devised that will distribute the trait datasets among the group of reviewers, considering certain particular requirements and conditions

Analysis and Visualization of Urban Emission Measurements in Smart Cities

Cities worldwide aim to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality for their citizens. Therefore, there is a need to implement smart city approaches to monitor, model, and understand local emissions to better guide these actions. We present our approach that deploys a number of low-cost sensors through a wireless Internet of Things (IoT) backbone and is thus capable of collecting high-granular data. Based on a flexible architecture, we built an ecosystem of data management and data analytics including processing, integration, analysis, and visualization as well as decision-support systems for cities to better understand their emissions. Our prototype system has so far been tested in two Scandinavian cities. We present this system and demonstrate how to collect, integrate, analyze, and visualize real-time air quality data

Observation of High-Energy Astrophysical Neutrinos in Three Years of IceCube Data

A search for high-energy neutrinos interacting within the IceCube detector between 2010 and 2012 provided the first evidence for a high-energy neutrino flux of extraterrestrial origin. Results from an analysis using the same methods with a third year (2012-2013) of data from the complete IceCube detector are consistent with the previously reported astrophysical flux in the 100 TeV - PeV range at the level of $10^{-8}\, \mathrm{GeV}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-2}\, \mathrm{s}^{-1}\, \mathrm{sr}^{-1}$ per flavor and reject a purely atmospheric explanation for the combined 3-year data at $5.7 \sigma$. The data are consistent with expectations for equal fluxes of all three neutrino flavors and with isotropic arrival directions, suggesting either numerous or spatially extended sources. The three-year dataset, with a livetime of 988 days, contains a total of 37 neutrino candidate events with deposited energies ranging from 30 to 2000 TeV. The 2000 TeV event is the highest-energy neutrino interaction ever observed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by PRL. The event catalog, event displays, and other data tables are included after the final page of the article. Changed from the initial submission to reflect referee comments, expanding the section on atmospheric backgrounds, and fixes offsets of up to 0.9 seconds in reported event times. Address correspondence to: J. Feintzeig, C. Kopper, N. Whitehor

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin

IL-12 and GM-CSF in DNA/MVA Immunizations against HIV-1 CRF12_BF Nef Induced T-Cell Responses With an Enhanced Magnitude, Breadth and Quality

In Argentina, the HIV epidemic is characterized by the co-circulation of subtype B and BF recombinant viral variants. Nef is an HIV protein highly variable among subtypes, making it a good tool to study the impact of HIV variability in the vaccine design setting. We have previously reported a specific cellular response against NefBF with low cross-reactivity to NefB in mice. The aim of this work was to analyze whether the co-administration of IL-12 and GM-CSF, using DNA and MVA vaccine vectors, could improve the final cellular response induced. Mice received three DNA priming doses of a plasmid that express NefBF plus DNAs expressing IL-12 and/or GM-CSF. Afterwards, all the groups were boosted with a MVAnefBF dose. The highest increase in the magnitude of the NefBF response, compared to that induced in the control was found in the IL-12 group. Importantly, a response with higher breadth was detected in groups which received IL-12 or GM-CSF, evidenced as an increased frequency of recognition of homologous (BF) and heterologous (B) Nef peptides, as well as a higher number of other Nef peptide pools representing different viral subtypes. However, these improvements were lost when both DNA cytokines were simultaneously administered, as the response was focused against the immunodominant peptide with a detrimental response towards subdominant epitopes. The pattern of cytokines secreted and the specific-T-cell proliferative capacity were improved in IL-12 and IL-12+GM-CSF groups. Importantly IL-12 generated a significant higher T-cell avidity against a B heterologous peptide