Ethics/Aesthetics

This is the editorial of Autumn 2012 issue of JoLA-Journal of Landscape Architecture. Aesthetics are rearely explicitly addressed in conjunction with ethics in the body of literature examining recent landscape architectural research. The article addresses the relationship between ethics and aesthetics

Report of CE on Semantic DS

The Semantic DS allows describing the world depicted by the AV content and interpreting that world, i.e., the “about” of the AV content or depicted narrative reality, which sometimes is imaginary. This document reports on the core experiment on the Semantic DS [6]. The CE originally started at the Maui meeting in December 1999 [3]. Progress reports of the CE were provided at the Geneva meeting [1] and at the Beijing meeting [2]. In Beijing, some components of the Semantic DS were promoted to the XM: Semantic DS, Object DS, PersonObject DS, Event DS, State DS, MediaOccurrence DS, SemanticTime DS, SemanticLocation DS, UsageLabel D, and some semantic relations. The main tasks of this core experiment have been the following: 1) To refine the specification of the Semantic DS by solving identified issues; 2) To define the Conceptual DSs; 3) To recommend the standardization of more semantic relations; 4) To investigate the use of membership functions to describe the strength of relations; 5) To generate simple and complex semantic descriptions of multimedia material; 6) To implement a retrieval and browsing application/s that uses the generated descriptions and that shows the functionality of the UsageLabel D, the Conceptual DSs, the State DS, and membership functions for relations, especially; 7) To recommend changes and additions to the Semantic DS based on the results of the experiment. The retrieval application that the CE has accomplished two objectives: (1) to show the utility of the components of the Semantic DS in a retrieval scenario, and (2) to be the software for the MPEG-7 XM platform

Report of CE on Semantic DS

This document reports on the core experiment on the Semantic DS [5]. The Semantic DS allows describing the world depicted by the AV content and interpreting that world, i.e., the “about” of the AV content or depicted narrative reality, which sometimes is imaginary. The CE originally started at the Maui meeting in December 1999 [4]. Progress reports of the CE were provided at the Geneva meeting [1], at the Beijing meeting [3], and at the La Baule meeting [2]. In La Baule, some components of the Semantic DS were promoted to the WD - Semantic DS, SemanticBase DS, Object DS, Event DS, AgentObject DS, SemanticPlace DS, SemanticTime DS, MediaOccurrence DS, and semantic relations-, and others were promoted to the XM – SemanticState DS, Concept DS, and AbstractionLevel datatype. The goal of this CE is to continue the refinement and evaluation of the Semantic DS and to continue the evaluation of the use of membership functions to describe relation strength. The AbstractionLevel datatype was promoted to CD before Pisa. At Pisa, the work to update the specification of the the SemanticTime, SemanticPlace, and Event DSs and to explain the methods for abstraction and the use of abstract concepts was started. The main tasks of this core experiment have been the following: 1. To refine the specification of the Semantic DS by solving open issues identified by reviewers and previous CEs; 2. To recommend the standardization of more semantic relations; 3. To continue the investigation of the use of membership functions to describe the strength of relations; 4. To generate simple and complex semantic descriptions of multimedia material, 5. To continue the implementation of a retrieval and browsing application/s that use/s the generated descriptions and that show/s the functionality of the DSs in the MDS XM, and 6. To recommend changes and additions to the Semantic DS based on the results of the experiment. The retrieval application that the CE continued the development of the software that had already been integrated into the XM for the Semantic DS

Report of CE on Semantic DS

ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29/WG11, MPEG00/M6355, 53rd meeting, Jul. 2000, Beijing, PR

Semantics of Multimedia in MPEG-7

In this paper, we present the tools standardized by MPEG-7 for describing the semantics of multimedia. In particular, we focus on the abstraction model, entities, attributes and relations of MPEG-7 semantic descriptions. MPEG-7 tools can describe the semantics of specific instances of multimedia such as one image or one video segment but can also generalize these descriptions either to multiple instances of multimedia or to a set of semantic descriptions. The key components of MPEG-7 semantic descriptions are semantic entities such as objects and events, attributes of these entities such as labels and properties, and, finally, relations of these entities such as an object being the patient of an event. The descriptive power and usability of these tools has been demonstrated in numerous experiments and applications, these make them key candidates to enable intelligent applications that deal with multimedia at human levels

The nature of the Class I population in Ophiuchus as revealed through gas and dust mapping

The Ophiuchus clouds, in particular L~1688, are an excellent region to study the embedded phases of star formation, due to the relatively large number of protostars. However, the standard method of finding and characterizing embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) through just their infrared spectral slope does not yield a reliable sample. This may affect the age determinations, often derived from the statistics on the total number of embedded YSOs and pre-main sequence stars within a cloud.Our aim is to characterize the structure of protostellar envelopes on an individual basis and to correctly identify the embedded YSO population of L1688. Spectral maps of the HCO+ J=4--3 and C18O J=3--2 lines using the HARP-B array on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and SCUBA 850 micron dust maps are obtained of all sources in the L1688 region with infrared spectral slopes consistent with, or close to, that of embedded YSOs. Selected 350 micron maps obtained with the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory are presented as well. The properties, extent and variation of dense gas, column density and dust on scalesup to 1' are probed at 15" resolution. Using the spatial variation of the gas and dust, together with the intensity of the HCO+ J=4--3 line, we are able to accurately identify the truly embedded YSOs and determine their properties. RESULTS The protostellar envelopes range from 0.05 to 0.5 Msun in mass. The concentration of HCO+ emission (~0.5 to 0.9) is generally higher than that of the dust concentration. Combined with absolute intensities, HCO+ proves to be a better tracer of protostellar envelopes than dust, which can contain disk and cloud contributions. Our total sample of 45 sources, including all previously classified Class I sources, several flat-spectrum sources and some known disks, was re-classified using the ....Comment: accepted for publication in A&A, 29 pages including online appendi

2007 Report of the ICES Study Group on Fisheries-Induced Adaptive Change (SGFIAC)

There is a growing body of scientific evidence indicating that fisheries can cause evolutionary responses over time periods as short as 1020 years, in particular in traits such as the onset of maturation. As these changes will most likely result in a reduction of the productivity of a fish stock, management objectives and (precautionary) reference points for sustainable exploitation need to be re-defined, and new objectives and reference points for managing fisheries-induced evolution need to be developed. Current knowledge allows for two generalisations. First, reducing harvest rates will almost always slow the rate and extent of fisheries-induced evolution in most life-history traits. Second, raising a stock's minimum size limit for exploitation well above the size range over which maturation occurs will slow down the rate of evolution in its maturation schedule. To go beyond these generic insights, "Evolutionary Impact Assessments" (EvoIAs) are proposed to quantify the effects of management measures, through the evolutionary response of specific stocks, on the utility functions defined by managers. The Study Group on Fisheries Induced Adaptive Change [SGFIAC] proposes to further develop this framework in dialogue with fisheries scientists and managers, with the aim of integrating the effects of fisheries-induced evolution into fisheries management advice. Developing EvoIAs in the context of suitable case studies is considered to be the most efficient way for making progress