763 research outputs found
Managing the Ethical Dimensions of Brain-Computer Interfaces in eHealth: An SDLC-based Approach
A growing range of brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies is being employed for purposes of therapy and human augmentation. While much thought has been given to the ethical implications of such technologies at the âmacroâ level of social policy and âmicroâ level of individual users, little attention has been given to the unique ethical issues that arise during the process of incorporating BCIs into eHealth ecosystems. In this text a conceptual framework is developed that enables the operators of eHealth ecosystems to manage the ethical components of such processes in a more comprehensive and systematic way than has previously been possible. The frameworkâs first axis defines five ethical dimensions that must be successfully addressed by eHealth ecosystems: 1) beneficence; 2) consent; 3) privacy; 4) equity; and 5) liability. The second axis describes five stages of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) process whereby new technology is incorporated into an eHealth ecosystem: 1) analysis and planning; 2) design, development, and acquisition; 3) integration and activation; 4) operation and maintenance; and 5) disposal. Known ethical issues relating to the deployment of BCIs are mapped onto this matrix in order to demonstrate how it can be employed by the managers of eHealth ecosystems as a tool for fulfilling ethical requirements established by regulatory standards or stakeholdersâ expectations. Beyond its immediate application in the case of BCIs, we suggest that this framework may also be utilized beneficially when incorporating other innovative forms of information and communications technology (ICT) into eHealth ecosystems
Image processing system performance prediction and product quality evaluation
The author has identified the following significant results. A new technique for image processing system performance prediction and product quality evaluation was developed. It was entirely objective, quantitative, and general, and should prove useful in system design and quality control. The technique and its application to determination of quality control procedures for the Earth Resources Technology Satellite NASA Data Processing Facility are described
Movement and Aggregation of Eastern Hudson Bay Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas): A Comparison of Patterns Found through Satellite Telemetry and Nunavik Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) consists of the collective knowledge, experience, and values of subsistence communities, while Western science relies on hypothesis testing to obtain information on natural processes. Both approaches provide important ecological information, but few studies have directly compared the two. We compared information on movements and aggregation of beluga whales obtained from TEK interview records (n = 3253) and satellite telemetry records of 30 whales tagged in eastern Hudson Bay, Canada, using geographic information system (GIS) approaches that allowed common formatting of the data sets. Estuarine centres of aggregation in the summer were evident in both data sets. The intensive use of offshore areas seen in the telemetry data, where 76% of the locations were more than 15 km from mainland Quebec, was not evident in the TEK data, where only 17% of the records indicated offshore locations. Morisitaâs index of similarity indicated that TEK and telemetry data distributions varied with season, with the highest similarity in winter (0.74). Location and movement data from the telemetry study were limited by small sample size and short tag deployment times, while TEK data were biased by spatial coverage and coastal travel habits. Although the two data sets can provide complementary information, both suffer from weaknesses that need to be acknowledged when these data are adapted for use in resource management.Les connaissances Ă©cologiques traditionnelles (CĂT) consistent en lâensemble des connaissances, de lâexpĂ©rience et des valeurs des communautĂ©s de subsistance, tandis que la science occidentale sâappuie sur la mise Ă lâĂ©preuve dâhypothĂšses dans le but dâobtenir de lâinformation sur les processus naturels. Bien que ces deux dĂ©marches permettent dâobtenir dâimportants renseignements sur lâĂ©cologie, peu dâĂ©tudes ont Ă©tabli une comparaison directe entre ces deux dĂ©marches. Nous avons comparĂ© des donnĂ©es sur les mouvements et le rassemblement des bĂ©lugas, donnĂ©es obtenues Ă partir de CĂT prĂ©levĂ©es au moyen dâentrevues (n = 3253) ainsi quâĂ partir de rĂ©sultats de tĂ©lĂ©mĂ©trie par satellite sur 30 baleines marquĂ©es dans lâest de la baie dâHudson, au Canada, Ă lâaide de systĂšmes dâinformation gĂ©ographique (SIG) qui ont permis le formatage commun des ensembles de donnĂ©es. Pendant lâĂ©tĂ©, les centres de rassemblement en estuaire Ă©taient Ă©vidents dans les deux ensembles de donnĂ©es. Lâutilisation intensive des zones au large en ce qui a trait aux donnĂ©es de tĂ©lĂ©mĂ©trie, oĂč 76 % des localisations se situaient Ă plus de 15 km du continent quĂ©bĂ©cois, nâĂ©tait pas Ă©vidente dans le cas des donnĂ©es des CĂT, oĂč seulement 17 % des rĂ©sultats indiquaient des localisations au large. Lâindice de similaritĂ© de Morisita indiquait que la rĂ©partition des donnĂ©es obtenues par CĂT et par tĂ©lĂ©mĂ©trie variait dâune saison Ă lâautre, la similaritĂ© la plus grande ayant Ă©tĂ© atteinte lâhiver (0,74). Les donnĂ©es de localisation et de mouvement dĂ©coulant de lâĂ©tude de tĂ©lĂ©mĂ©trie Ă©taient limitĂ©es par la petite taille de lâĂ©chantillon et les courtes durĂ©es de dĂ©ploiement des Ă©tiquettes, tandis que les donnĂ©es provenant des CĂT Ă©taient biaisĂ©es par lâespace Ă couvrir et les habitudes de dĂ©placement sur la cĂŽte. Bien que les deux ensembles de donnĂ©es puissent fournir de lâinformation complĂ©mentaire, tous deux possĂšdent des faiblesses quâil y a lieu de reconnaĂźtre lorsque ces donnĂ©es sont adaptĂ©es Ă des fins de gestion des ressources
Relationships Between Borders, Management Agencies, and the Likelihood of Watershed Impairment
In the United States, the Clean Water Act (CWA) establishes water quality standards important for maintaining healthy freshwater ecosystems. Within the CWA framework, states define their own water quality criteria, leading to a potential fragmentation of standards between states. This fragmentation can influence the management of shared water resources and produce spillover effects of pollutants crossing state lines and other political boundaries. We used numerical simulations to test the null prediction of no difference in impairment between watersheds that cross political boundaries (i.e. state lines, national or coastal borders, hereafter termed âtransboundaryâ) and watersheds that cross no boundaries (hereafter âinternalâ). We found that transboundary watersheds are more likely to be impaired than internal watersheds. Further, we examined possible causes for this relationship based on both geographic and sociopolitical drivers. Though geographic variables such as human-modified land cover and the amount of upstream catchment area are associated with watershed impairment, the number and type of agencies managing land within a watershed better explained the different impairment levels between transboundary and internal watersheds. Watersheds primarily consisting of public lands are less impaired than watersheds consisting of private lands. Similarly, watersheds primarily managed by federal agencies are less impaired than state-managed watersheds. Our results highlight the importance of considering Integrated Watershed Management strategies for water resources within a fragmented policy framework
Genome-wide association study of receptive language ability of 12 year olds
Purpose: We have previously shown that individual differences in measures of receptive language ability at age 12 are highly heritable. The current study attempted to identify some of the genes responsible for the heritability of receptive language ability using a genome-wide association (GWA) approach.
Method: We administered four internet-based measures of receptive language (vocabulary, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics) to a sample of 2329 12-year-olds for whom DNA and genome-wide genotyping were available. Nearly 700,000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and one million imputed SNPs were included in a GWA analysis of receptive language composite scores.
Results: No SNP associations met the demanding criterion of genome-wide significance that corrects for multiple testing across the genome (p < 5 Ă10-8). The strongest SNP association did not replicate in an additional sample of 2639 12-year-olds.
Conclusion: These results indicate that individual differences in receptive language ability in the general population do not reflect common genetic variants that account for >3% of the phenotypic variance. The search for genetic variants associated with language skill will require larger samples and additional methods to identify and functionally characterize the full spectrum of risk variants
Benthic meiofaunal community response to the cascading effects of herbivory within an algal halo system of the Great Barrier Reef
© 2018 Ollivier et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Benthic fauna play a crucial role in organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling at the sediment-water boundary in aquatic ecosystems. In terrestrial systems, grazing herbivores have been shown to influence below-ground communities through alterations to plant distribution and composition, however whether similar cascading effects occur in aquatic systems is unknown. Here, we assess the relationship between benthic invertebrates and above-ground fish grazing across the âgrazing halosâ of Heron Island lagoon, Australia. Grazing halos, which occur around patch reefs globally, are caused by removal of seagrass or benthic macroalgae by herbivorous fish that results in distinct bands of unvegetated sediments surrounding patch reefs. We found that benthic algal canopy height significantly increased with distance from patch reef, and that algal canopy height was positively correlated with the abundances of only one invertebrate taxon (Nematoda). Both sediment carbon to nitrogen ratios (C:N) and mean sediment particle size (?m) demonstrated a positive correlation with Nematoda and Arthropoda (predominantly copepod) abundances, respectively. These positive correlations indicate that environmental conditions are a major contributor to benthic invertebrate community distribution, acting on benthic communities in conjunction with the cascading effects of above-ground algal grazing. These results suggest that benthic communities, and the ecosystem functions they perform in this system, may be less responsive to changes in above-ground herbivorous processes than those previously studied in terrestrial systems. Understanding how above-ground organisms, and processes, affect their benthic invertebrate counterparts can shed light on how changes in aquatic communities may affect ecosystem function in previously unknown ways
Landscape heterogeneity strengthens the relationship between ÎČ-diversity and ecosystem function.
Consensus has emerged in the literature that increased biodiversity enhances the capacity of ecosystems to perform multiple functions. However, most biodiversity/ecosystem function studies focus on a single ecosystem, or on landscapes of homogenous ecosystems. Here, we investigate how increased landscape-level environmental dissimilarity may affect the relationship between different metrics of diversity (α, ÎČ, or Îł) and ecosystem function. We produced a suite of simulated landscapes, each of which contained four experimental outdoor aquatic mesocosms. Differences in temperature and nutrient conditions of the mesocosms allowed us to simulate landscapes containing a range of within-landscape environmental heterogeneities. We found that the variation in ecosystem functions was primarily controlled by environmental conditions, with diversity metrics accounting for a smaller (but significant) amount of variation in function. When landscapes were more homogeneous, α, ÎČ, and Îł diversity was not associated with differences in primary production, and only Îł was associated with changes in decomposition. In these homogeneous landscapes, differences in these two ecosystem functions were most strongly related to nutrient and temperature conditions in the ecosystems. However, as landscape-level environmental dissimilarity increased, the relationship between α, ÎČ, or Îł and ecosystem functions strengthened, with ÎČ being a greater predictor of variation in decomposition at the highest levels of environmental dissimilarity than α or Îł. We propose that when all ecosystems in a landscape have similar environmental conditions, species sorting is likely to generate a single community composition that is well suited to those environmental conditions, ÎČ is low, and the efficiency of diversity-ecosystem function couplings is similar across communities. Under this low ÎČ, the effect of abiotic conditions on ecosystem function will be most apparent. However, when environmental conditions vary among ecosystems, species sorting pressures are different among ecosystems, producing different communities among locations in a landscape. These conditions lead to stronger relationships between ÎČ and the magnitude of ecosystem functions. Our results illustrate that abiotic conditions and the homogeneity of communities influence ecosystem function expressed at the landscape scale
Warming alters food web-driven changes in the CO2 flux of experimental pond ecosystems
Evidence shows the important role biota play in the carbon cycle, and strategic management of plant and animal populations could enhance CO(2) uptake in aquatic ecosystems. However, it is currently unknown how management-driven changes to community structure may interact with climate warming and other anthropogenic perturbations to alter CO(2) fluxes. Here we showed that under ambient water temperatures, predators (three-spined stickleback) and nutrient enrichment synergistically increased primary producer biomass, resulting in increased CO(2) uptake by mesocosms in early dawn. However, a 3°C increase in water temperatures counteracted positive effects of predators and nutrients, leading to reduced primary producer biomass and a switch from CO(2) influx to efflux. This confounding effect of temperature demonstrates that climate scenarios must be accounted for when undertaking ecosystem management actions to increase biosequestration
Food web persistence is enhanced by non-trophic interactions.
The strength of interspecific interactions is often proposed to affect food web stability, with weaker interactions increasing the persistence of species, and food webs as a whole. However, the mechanisms that modify interaction strengths, and their effects on food web persistence are not fully understood. Using food webs containing different combinations of predator, prey, and nonprey species, we investigated how predation risk of susceptible prey is affected by the presence of species not directly trophically linked to either predators or prey. We predicted that indirect alterations to the strength of trophic interactions translate to changes in persistence time of extinction-prone species. We assembled interaction webs of protist consumers and turbellarian predators with eight different combinations of prey, predators and nonprey species, and recorded abundances for over 130 prey generations. Persistence of predation-susceptible species was increased by the presence of nonprey. Furthermore, multiple nonprey species acted synergistically to increase prey persistence, such that persistence was greater than would be predicted from the dynamics of simpler food webs. We also found evidence suggesting increased food web complexity may weaken interspecific competition, increasing persistence of poorer competitors. Our results demonstrate that persistence times in complex food webs cannot be predicted from the dynamics of simplified systems, and that species not directly involved in consumptive interactions likely play key roles in maintaining persistence. Global species diversity is currently declining at an unprecedented rate and our findings reveal that concurrent loss of species that modify trophic interactions may have unpredictable consequences for food web stability
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