GeoSocial: exploring the usefulness of social media mining in the applied natural geohazard sciences

Obtaining real-time information about a geohazard event as it unfolds, such as a flood or earthquake, used to be largely limited to the professional media. Nowadays, obtaining news stories from social media (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr etc.), directly as they unfold, is becoming the ‘norm’ for many in society. The Haitian Earthquake in January 2010 and the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, provided some of the first natural hazard examples, to really demonstrate the power of social media over traditional news sources for obtaining, live information from which people and authorities could gain situational awareness

careers and incentives

En primer lugar se caracterizan los arreglos institucionales que rigen los contratos y la movilidad de los docentes. Se describe luego la condición social de la fuerza de trabajo para examinar el atractivo de la ocupación para quienes la ejercen. Se examina la evolución histórica de la matrícula de los centros de formación docente. La tercera parte examina el impacto de programas especiales sobre la movilidad. La cuarta sección trata el perfil de los cuerpos docentes según tipos de escuela. La quinta sección considera la medición del desempeño docente a través de variables sociodemográficas y actitudinales

Potential methodological influences on the determination of particle retention efficiency by suspension feeders: Mytilus edulis and ciona intestinalis

The retention efficiency (RE) of suspension-feeding bivalve molluscs depends on particle size and is generally assumed to decline below a maximum retention of particles larger than 3 to 7 µm. Previous suggestions that the RE spectrum of mussels Mytilus edulis can exhibit variability, possibly as a result of physiological regulation, have been attributed to artifacts associated with the indirect method. The possibility that variable physical properties of seston particles and/or miscalculations can result in inaccurate RE measurements was examined using 3 methodologies (static, flow-through and a new approach based on the static method) and 3 particle sources (natural seston, algal cell monocultures and clay). Measurements obtained with the static method varied depending on the selected sampling interval. However, this artifact can be removed using frequent sampling and a regression analysis approach. Accurate RE measurements can be obtained with the flow-through method when feeding behaviour is flow independent. For all particle suspensions and methods, mussels from the study site in Lysefjord, Norway, had a maximum RE for particles >8–11 µm (1 to 5 September 2015). The RE for smaller particles declined gradually, with 50–60% retention of 4 µm particles and 30–40% retention of 2 µm particles. Differences in the RE size spectra of mussels and tunicates Ciona intestinalis, collected and measured at the same site, further indicated that RE was not influenced by potentially confounding methodological factors. Assumptions regarding the RE spectrum of bivalves have contributed to many conclusions on their ecosystem interactions. The reliability of clearance rate measurements obtained using the indirect method can only be assured if the effective retention of tracer particles is confirmed and not assumed.publishedVersio

SparkFlow : towards high-performance data analytics for Spark-based genome analysis

The recent advances in DNA sequencing technology triggered next-generation sequencing (NGS) research in full scale. Big Data (BD) is becoming the main driver in analyzing these large-scale bioinformatic data. However, this complicated process has become the system bottleneck, requiring an amalgamation of scalable approaches to deliver the needed performance and hide the deployment complexity. Utilizing cutting-edge scientific workflows can robustly address these challenges. This paper presents a Spark-based alignment workflow called SparkFlow for massive NGS analysis over singularity containers. SparkFlow is highly scalable, reproducible, and capable of parallelizing computation by utilizing data-level parallelism and load balancing techniques in HPC and Cloud environments. The proposed workflow capitalizes on benchmarking two state-of-art NGS workflows, i.e., BaseRecalibrator and ApplyBQSR. SparkFlow realizes the ability to accelerate large-scale cancer genomic analysis by scaling vertically (HyperThreading) and horizontally (provisions on-demand). Our result demonstrates a trade-off inevitably between the targeted applications and processor architecture. SparkFlow achieves a decisive improvement in NGS computation performance, throughput, and scalability while maintaining deployment complexity. The paper’s findings aim to pave the way for a wide range of revolutionary enhancements and future trends within the High-performance Data Analytics (HPDA) genome analysis realm.Postprin

Expert System Design for Sewage Treatment Plant

Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Characterisation of electrical power systems based on electrical curves and their properties

[Abstract]: Due to the proliferation of renewable energy systems, the study of voltage and frequency stability is a crucial aspect. Recently, this problem has been approached from a purely geometrical point of view with interesting results. The present work investigates the properties of the so-called electrical curves described by arbitrary voltage or current vectors in Euclidean spaces. Through the invariants of these curves, certain indices can be constructed to detect abnormal operation or irregular characteristics in electrical power systems. Different scenarios and examples have been solved in this work to support the proposed theory

Tunable optical tweezers for wavelength-dependent measurements

Optical trapping forces depend on the difference between the trap wavelength and the extinction resonances of trapped particles. This leads to a wavelength-dependent trapping force, which should allow for the optimization of optical tweezers systems, simply by choosing the best trapping wavelength for a given application. Here we present an optical tweezer system with wavelength tunability, for the study of resonance effects. With this system, the optical trap stiffness is measured for single trapped particles that exhibit either single or multiple extinction resonances. We include discussions of wavelength-dependent effects, such as changes in temperature, and how to measure them

Effect of Mytilus coruscus selective filtration on phytoplankton assemblages

The feeding selectivity of bivalves can play an important role in shaping the structure of phytoplankton communities of natural waters. This could be particularly true in waters with intensive bivalves farming, like Sungo Bay, Northern China. Understanding the role of bivalve feeding behavior is important for assessing how the dense cultivation of bivalves may affect phytoplankton community composition and food web structure in farm areas. In this study, we investigated the feeding selectivity of blue mussel Mytilus coruscus on natural phytoplankton assemblages in Sungo Bay using both optical microscopy and HPLC-pigment analysis. Results showed that cryptophytes dominated the phytoplankton community and made up 66.1% of the total phytoplankton abundance. A comparison of phytoplankton composition between natural and filtered seawater showed that M. coruscus preferred cryptophytes and dinoflagellates than Chaetoceros spp. and Skeletonema spp. Cryptophytes were not detected in gut contents by microscopic observation, while their marker pigment alloxanthin was present, suggesting they were also consumed by M. coruscus and can be readily digested. This highlights the shortcomings of microscopic methods and the significance of HPLC-pigment analysis in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of feeding selectivity of bivalves. The proportions of Chaetoceros spp. and Skeletonema spp. in gut contents were significantly lower than their proportions in the seawater, and contrastingly, the proportions of Cocconeis spp. and Pinnularia spp. showed opposite patterns. The marker pigments prasinoxanthin and zeaxanthin were detected in the gut of M. coruscus indicating that picophytoplankton (e.g., prasinophytes and Synechococcus) are also food sources for this bivalve. This information furthers our understanding of bivalve aquaculture and environment interactions.publishedVersio