Workforce Demand Assessment to Shape Future GI-Education – First Results of a Survey

Ponencias, comunicaciones y pósters presentados en el 17th AGILE Conference on Geographic Information Science "Connecting a Digital Europe through Location and Place", celebrado en la Universitat Jaume I del 3 al 6 de junio de 2014.Geographic Information Science & Technology (GIS&T) is constantly evolving in scientific and technological terms. In 2006 the GIS&T Body of Knowledge (BoK) initiative has provided a domain inventory that serves as a structured basis for curriculum development. The content and structure of the BoK are currently undergoing revision. One of the projects addressing an update of the BoK is the project Geographic Information: Need to Know. In this project an assessment of current and future workforce demand and educational supply in the geographic information (GI) domain provide the basis for revising the BoK. This article reports on first results from a survey regarding GI workforce demand in Europe. People working in the GIS&T domain were asked to rate BoK knowledge areas related to their relevance in a professional working context. These ratings are differentiated by types of organizations and educational backgrounds of respondents. The report is rounded off with an outlook to the results on future competences identified by respondents

Reproducible Research and GIScience: An Evaluation Using GIScience Conference Papers

Ponencia presentada en: 11th International Conference on Geographic Information Science (GIScience 2021)GIScience conference authors and researchers face the same computational reproducibility challenges as authors and researchers from other disciplines who use computers to analyse data. Here, to assess the reproducibility of GIScience research, we apply a rubric for assessing the reproducibility of 75 conference papers published at the GIScience conference series in the years 2012-2018. Since the rubric and process were previously applied to the publications of the AGILE conference series, this paper itself is an attempt to replicate that analysis, however going beyond the previous work by evaluating and discussing proposed measures to improve reproducibility in the specific context of the GIScience conference series. The results of the GIScience paper assessment are in line with previous findings: although descriptions of workflows and the inclusion of the data and software suffice to explain the presented work, in most published papers they do not allow a third party to reproduce the results and findings with a reasonable effort. We summarise and adapt previous recommendations for improving this situation and propose the GIScience community to start a broad discussion on the reusability, quality, and openness of its research. Further, we critically reflect on the process of assessing paper reproducibility, and provide suggestions for improving future assessments

Ca2+ Homeostasis in the Agonist-sensitive Internal Store: Functional Interactions Between Mitochondria and the ER Measured In Situ in Intact Cells

Mitochondria have a well-established capacity to detect cytoplasmic Ca2+ signals resulting from the discharge of ER Ca2+ stores. Conversely, both the buffering of released Ca2+ and ATP production by mitochondria are predicted to influence ER Ca2+ handling, but this complex exchange has been difficult to assess in situ using conventional measurement techniques. Here we have examined this interaction in single intact BHK-21 cells by monitoring intraluminal ER [Ca2+] directly using trapped fluorescent low-affinity Ca2+ indicators. Treatment with mitochondrial inhibitors (FCCP, antimycin A, oligomycin, and rotenone) dramatically prolonged the refilling of stores after release with bradykinin. This effect was largely due to inhibition of Ca2+ entry pathways at the plasma membrane, but a significant component appears to arise from reduction of SERCA-mediated Ca2+ uptake, possibly as a consequence of ATP depletions in a localized subcellular domain. The rate of bradykinin-induced Ca2+ release was reduced to 51% of control by FCCP. This effect was largely overcome by loading cells with BAPTA-AM, highlighting the importance of mitochondrial Ca2+ buffering in shaping the release kinetics. However, mitochondria-specific ATP production was also a significant determinant of the release dynamic. Our data emphasize the localized nature of the interaction between these organelles, and show that competent mitochondria are essential for generating explosive Ca2+ signals

Multi-Disciplinary Forest Fire Danger Assessment in Europe: The Potential to Integrate Long-Term Drought Information

A key motivation for multi-disciplinary collaborations is the inclusion of data and knowledge from contributing disciplines for the further development of existing models. The objective of this research is to evaluate the potential of using drought information from the European Drought Observatory (EDO) to complement the forest fire danger assessment of the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS). Drought conditions are provided through the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which is a spatially invariant and probabilistic year-round index based on precipitation alone. For verifying the hypothesis that drought information can improve the danger assessment of forest fires, we statistically analyse the correspondence between multi-timescale drought condition information with the incidence of forest fires. Within this paper, we perform a detailed comparative analysis of the SPI frequencies for burnt areas with the respective SPI frequencies for the total study area during the same period. The research is carried out in the Iberian Peninsula for the reference year 2009, using the burnt areas mapped by the EFFIS Rapid Damage Assessment. The results clearly show that the frequencies of burnt areas in Iberian Peninsula relate to the regions with abnormal 24-month accumulated precipitation totals, as mapped by the SPI. This suggests that the long-term lack of water contributes to vegetation dryness in the region and thereby increases its risk of fire danger. The added value of including drought information in the fire danger assessment lies in particular outside the forest fire season, when it provides complementary information on areas under risk that are not necessarily marked with a high fire risk following the risk assessment of EFFIS. Based on the results of the study, we suggest an operational integration of drought information coming from EDO into EFFIS using the existing web service infrastructure

Development of a three-colour digital PCR for early and quantitative detection of benzimidazole resistance-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms in Haemonchus contortus

Haemonchus contortus is the most pathogenic nematode in small ruminants and anthelmintic resistance (AR) hampers its efficient control. Early detection of AR status is required to reduce selection for AR and cannot be achieved using phenotypic tests. For benzimidazoles (BZs), the detection of AR-associated alleles characterised by single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the isotype 1 β-tubulin gene allows early AR detection in strongyles. The F200Y, F167Y, E198A and E198L polymorphisms have been described in BZ-resistant populations with a clear variation in frequencies between regions. A novel digital PCR (dPCR) enables the detection of all of the above-described polymorphisms in H. contortus. Assays were validated using synthetic DNA fragments containing these SNPs. Then, larvae obtained and pooled at farm level from 26 Austrian and 10 Italian sheep farms were analysed. For all assays a detection limit of 15 copies/μl of resistance alleles and a high level of accuracy were demonstrated, allowing to detect allele frequencies of 1% in most samples. In Austrian samples, elevated frequencies of F200Y resistance alleles were detected on all farms. Polymorphisms in codon 167 and codon 198 were identified in H. contortus from Austria for the first time. In Italian samples, the frequency of resistance alleles was still comparatively low, but F200Y resistance alleles were traceable. In conclusion we developed for the first time dPCR assays that target all SNPs of relevance associated with BZ-resistance in H. contortus. Future research on AR development could benefit from an early onset of SNP-based surveillance that would include the developed assays for all SNPs of relevance. Improved surveillance in the long term will include other important, though less pathogenic, nematode genera in the analyses