Seamless Online Distribution of Amundsen Multibeam Data

Since 2003, all underway multibeam and sub-bottom data from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Amundsen has been posted online within approximately six months of the end of each cruise. A custom interface allowing the user to access 15\u27 latitude by 30\u27 longitude mapsheets was implemented in 2006, allowing the user to download the bathymetric and backscatter data at 10 metre resolution. While this interface matched the underlying data management scheme implemented at the University of New Brunswick, the zoom and pan capability was at a fixed scale with limited contextual data. In the past few years, with the introduction of web-based geographic information systems (GIS) (e.g. Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Bing Maps), there have been thousands of maps published online. These online GIS programs are a suitable platform to display the seven years of Amundsen coverage within the context of the GIS-served satellite imagery and allow the user to freely browse all data in a familiar interface. The challenge, however, for serving up third party data through these map engines is to efficiently cope with the multiple zoom levels and changing resolutions. Custom tiling software was developed to take all the raw data from the seven years of Amundsen (and others\u27) multibeam coverage and convert it into multiple scale resolution images suitable for interpretation by Google Maps. The images were stored in a pyramid structure utilizing Google\u27s map projection and uniquely named to reflect their georeferencing and resolution. This image pyramid is then accessed by Google Maps according to the user\u27s current zoom level to optimize visualization. This multi-resolution data is served up on demand from the University of New Brunswick for dynamic overlay on Google\u27s satellite data. This web interface allows any interested parties to easily view multibeam and sub-bottom data from the Pacific Ocean through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and into the Atlantic Ocean. The broad overview helps to understand regional trends and then focus on areas of interest at high resolutions to see particular features. The web interface also provides a link to the 15\u27 by 30\u27 mapsheet model with full source traceability

Risk factors for pre-term birth in Iraq: a case-control study

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth (PTB)is a major clinical problem associated with perinatal mortality and morbidity. The aim of the present study is to identify risk factors associated with PTB in Mosul, Iraq. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted in Mosul, Iraq, from 1(st )September, 2003 to 28(th )February, 2004. RESULTS: A total of 200 cases of PTB and 200 controls of full-term births were screened and enrolled in the study. Forward logistic regression analysis was used in the analysis. Several significant risk associations between PTB and the following risk factors were identified: poor diet (OR = 4.33), heavy manual work (OR = 1.70), caring for domestic animals (OR = 5.06), urinary tract infection (OR = 2.85), anxiety (OR = 2.16), cervical incompetence (OR = 4.74), multiple pregnancies (OR = 7.51), direct trauma to abdomen (OR = 3.76) and abortion (OR = 6.36). CONCLUSION: The main determinants of PTB in Iraq were low socio-economic status and factors associated with it, such as heavy manual work and caring for domestic animals, in addition to urinary tract infections and poor obstetric history

Peri-urban Promises of Connectivity: Linking project-led polycentrism to the infrastructure scramble

This paper offers an interpretive framework linking polycentric urban expansion in emerging/frontier economies to the global extension of infrastructure networks. Drawing from scholarship on state restructuring, we theorize an infrastructure scramble whereby numerous state actors and agencies make massive investments in infrastructure connectivity to secure effective integration to transnational value chains as economic and geopolitical competition intensify. This has manifold territorial implications, and matters for debates on planetary urbanization. Novel urbanization processes include the proliferation of peri-urban nodes. Built in cheaply-available land, these respond to (or anticipate economic gains from) enhanced connective infrastructure. In contrast to city-regional exemplars, project-led polycentrism does not arise from territorially-decentralized governance arrangements, and may deepen peri-urban exclusion. The paper includes an experimental comparison of two peri-urban nodal projects: the Iranduba University City, located in a riparian rainforest of the Brazilian Amazon 17 miles from bustling Manaus, and the Bagamoyo Port and Special Economic Zone, located 35 miles north of the congested port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s expansive capital. Our findings suggest that: i) techno-entrepreneurial capacity requirements underpin the centralist scalar politics governing the development of peri-urban nodes; as ii) state-led projects rely on ambitious physical planning, with masterplans evincing elite, globalization-oriented objectives that neglect local needs and trigger displacement; and iii) even failing projects spearhead varying trajectories of territorial transformation in erstwhile-stagnant peri-urban peripheries. Concluding, we call for further research on multiple drivers and modalities of polycentrism in the global South, and the infrastructure scramble’s broad implications for hyper-connected and bypassed territories