Ecosystem services and connectivity in spatial conservation prioritization

Peer reviewe

Robust and secure resource management for automotive cyber-physical systems

2022 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Modern vehicles are examples of complex cyber-physical systems with tens to hundreds of interconnected Electronic Control Units (ECUs) that manage various vehicular subsystems. With the shift towards autonomous driving, emerging vehicles are being characterized by an increase in the number of hardware ECUs, greater complexity of applications (software), and more sophisticated in-vehicle networks. These advances have resulted in numerous challenges that impact the reliability, security, and real-time performance of these emerging automotive systems. Some of the challenges include coping with computation and communication uncertainties (e.g., jitter), developing robust control software, detecting cyber-attacks, ensuring data integrity, and enabling confidentiality during communication. However, solutions to overcome these challenges incur additional overhead, which can catastrophically delay the execution of real-time automotive tasks and message transfers. Hence, there is a need for a holistic approach to a system-level solution for resource management in automotive cyber-physical systems that enables robust and secure automotive system design while satisfying a diverse set of system-wide constraints. ECUs in vehicles today run a variety of automotive applications ranging from simple vehicle window control to highly complex Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) applications. The aggressive attempts of automakers to make vehicles fully autonomous have increased the complexity and data rate requirements of applications and further led to the adoption of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) based techniques for improved perception and control. Additionally, modern vehicles are becoming increasingly connected with various external systems to realize more robust vehicle autonomy. These paradigm shifts have resulted in significant overheads in resource constrained ECUs and increased the complexity of the overall automotive system (including heterogeneous ECUs, network architectures, communication protocols, and applications), which has severe performance and safety implications on modern vehicles. The increased complexity of automotive systems introduces several computation and communication uncertainties in automotive subsystems that can cause delays in applications and messages, resulting in missed real-time deadlines. Missing deadlines for safety-critical automotive applications can be catastrophic, and this problem will be further aggravated in the case of future autonomous vehicles. Additionally, due to the harsh operating conditions (such as high temperatures, vibrations, and electromagnetic interference (EMI)) of automotive embedded systems, there is a significant risk to the integrity of the data that is exchanged between ECUs which can lead to faulty vehicle control. These challenges demand a more reliable design of automotive systems that is resilient to uncertainties and supports data integrity goals. Additionally, the increased connectivity of modern vehicles has made them highly vulnerable to various kinds of sophisticated security attacks. Hence, it is also vital to ensure the security of automotive systems, and it will become crucial as connected and autonomous vehicles become more ubiquitous. However, imposing security mechanisms on the resource constrained automotive systems can result in additional computation and communication overhead, potentially leading to further missed deadlines. Therefore, it is crucial to design techniques that incur very minimal overhead (lightweight) when trying to achieve the above-mentioned goals and ensure the real-time performance of the system. We address these issues by designing a holistic resource management framework called ROSETTA that enables robust and secure automotive cyber-physical system design while satisfying a diverse set of constraints related to reliability, security, real-time performance, and energy consumption. To achieve reliability goals, we have developed several techniques for reliability-aware scheduling and multi-level monitoring of signal integrity. To achieve security objectives, we have proposed a lightweight security framework that provides confidentiality and authenticity while meeting both security and real-time constraints. We have also introduced multiple deep learning based intrusion detection systems (IDS) to monitor and detect cyber-attacks in the in-vehicle network. Lastly, we have introduced novel techniques for jitter management and security management and deployed lightweight IDSs on resource constrained automotive ECUs while ensuring the real-time performance of the automotive systems

Digital Model-Based Engineering: Expectations, Prerequisites, and Challenges of Infusion

Digital model-based engineering (DMbE) is the use of digital artifacts, digital environments, and digital tools in the performance of engineering functions. DMbE is intended to allow an organization to progress from documentation-based engineering methods to digital methods that may provide greater flexibility, agility, and efficiency. The term 'DMbE' was developed as part of an effort by the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Infusion Task team to identify what government organizations might expect in the course of moving to or infusing MBSE into their organizations. The Task team was established by the Interagency Working Group on Engineering Complex Systems, an informal collaboration among government systems engineering organizations. This Technical Memorandum (TM) discusses the work of the MBSE Infusion Task team to date. The Task team identified prerequisites, expectations, initial challenges, and recommendations for areas of study to pursue, as well as examples of efforts already in progress. The team identified the following five expectations associated with DMbE infusion, discussed further in this TM: (1) Informed decision making through increased transparency, and greater insight. (2) Enhanced communication. (3) Increased understanding for greater flexibility/adaptability in design. (4) Increased confidence that the capability will perform as expected. (5) Increased efficiency. The team identified the following seven challenges an organization might encounter when looking to infuse DMbE: (1) Assessing value added to the organization. Not all DMbE practices will be applicable to every situation in every organization, and not all implementations will have positive results. (2) Overcoming organizational and cultural hurdles. (3) Adopting contractual practices and technical data management. (4) Redefining configuration management. The DMbE environment changes the range of configuration information to be managed to include performance and design models, database objects, as well as more traditional book-form objects and formats. (5) Developing information technology (IT) infrastructure. Approaches to implementing critical, enabling IT infrastructure capabilities must be flexible, reconfigurable, and updatable. (6) Ensuring security of the single source of truth (7) Potential overreliance on quantitative data over qualitative data. Executable/ computational models and simulations generally incorporate and generate quantitative vice qualitative data. The Task team also developed several recommendations for government, academia, and industry, as discussed in this TM. The Task team recommends continuing beyond this initial work to further develop the means of implementing DMbE and to look for opportunities to collaborate and share best practices

Gone with the forest: Assessing global woodpecker conservation from land use patterns

As a result of their ecological traits, woodpeckers (Picidae, Aves) are highly sensitive to forest cover change. We explored the current land cover in areas of high species richness of woodpeckers to determinate regions where urgent conservation actions are needed. In addition, we identified woodpecker species that are sensitive to forest loss and that have high levels of human habitat modification and low levels of protection (through protected areas) in their distribution ranges. Location: Global. Methods: We joined available range maps for all extant 254 woodpecker species with information of their conservation status and tolerances to human habitat modifications and generated a richness map of woodpecker species worldwide. Then, we associated this information (the richness pattern and individual species’ maps) with land cover and protected areas (PAs) maps. We found that the foremost woodpecker species richness hotspot is in Southeast Asia and is highly modified. At the second species richness hotspot in the eastern Andes, we observed a front of deforestation at its southern extreme and a greater deforested area in its northern extreme but most of its area remains with forest coverage. At the species level, 17 species that are sensitive to forest modification experience extensive deforestation and have low extents of PAs in their ranges.The most diverse woodpecker hotspots are mostly occupied by human-modified landscapes, and a large portion of the species there avoids anthropogenic environments. The level of representation of woodpecker species in PAs is low as a global general pattern, although slightly better in Asia. Our global analysis of threats to woodpecker from land use patterns reiterates the urgent conservation needs for Southeast Asian forests. Finally, based on our results, we recommend a re-evaluation for inclusion in the Red List of five woodpecker species.Fil: Vergara Tabares, David Lautaro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; ArgentinaFil: Lammertink, J. Martjan. Cornell University; Estados Unidos. Provincia de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Universidad Autónoma de Entre Ríos. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Santa Fe. Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia de Tecnología a la Producción; ArgentinaFil: Verga, Ernesto Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: Schaaf, Alejandro Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Jujuy. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Centro de Investigaciones y Transferencia de Jujuy; ArgentinaFil: Nori, Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Diversidad y Ecología Animal; Argentin

"Sellanen rähee". Nuoren rakennustyöläisen identiteetin rakentuminen Raksanuoret-lehdessä

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan Rakennusliiton nuorisojäsenten yhteisöllisen identiteetin rakentumista Raksanuoret-lehdessä. Tarkastelun tavoitteena on luonnostella, miten ja millaista identiteettiä alle 35-vuotiaista rakennusliittolaisista koostuvalle yhteisölle heidän omassa lehdessään rakennetaan. Se pyrkii vastaamaan kysymyksen, mitä ominaisuuksia yhteisön jäsenet pitävät itselleen tyypillisinä ja suotavina. Tarkastelu on toteutettu laadullisen sisällönanalyysin keinoin ja se pohjaa sosiaalisen konstruktivismin mukaiselle käsitykselle tiedosta. Laadullinen sisällönanalyysi pyrkii kuvailemaan tekstisisältöjä sanallisesti, pyrkien tuottamaan tutkittavasta ilmiöstä yleistettävissä olevan esityksen. Tarkastelun kohteena olivat Raksanuoret-lehdet 01/2009–01/2012, yhteensä seitsemän kappaletta. Tutkimuksen perusteella rakennusliittolaisen nuorisojäsenen, raksanuoren, identiteetin rakennuspalikoita näissä esityksissä ovat toverillisuus, urheilullisuus ja tunnollisuus. Työntekijänä raksanuori on ahkera ja tarkka, vapaa-ajalla hän etsii jännitystä ja kokeilee mielellään uusia aktiviteetteja. Raksanuori nauttii yhdessä tekemisestä ja olemisesta. Hän mieltää itsensä enemmän käsi- kuin teollisuustyöläiseksi. Raksanuori ei ole leimallisesti poliittinen tai luokkakantainen, mutta arvostaa muita työntekijöitä mieltäen työntekijäpuolen edut yhteneväisiksi alasta ja maasta riippumatta. Raksanuoren identiteetti on maskuliininen, mutta ei sukupuoleen sidottu. Tutkimus valottaa Raksanuoret-lehden kautta, miten yhteisöllisesti tuotetussa järjestölehdessä rakennetaan sen lukija- ja tekijäkunnan identiteettiä. Identiteetti piirtyy esiin sekä oman itsen että muiden yhteisön jäsenten esittämisen tavoissa ja sisällöissä. Tutkimuksen perusteella yhteisesti tunnustettu identiteetti on tässä tapausesimerkissä monipuolinen, mutta yhtenäinen. Yhteisesti hyväksytyssä ja tavoitellussa yhteisön jäsenen ideaalissa ei ole huomattavia murtumia tai ristiriitaisuuksia. Siltä osin Raksanuoret on tyypillinen järjestölehti epätyypillisestä tekoprosessistaan, jota tarkastelussa myös sivutaan, huolimatta. Asiasanat:järjestölehdet, ay-lehdet, identiteetti, yhteisö, luokka, sukupuol

Experimental study and optimization of the machining parameters in ultrasonic vibrationassisted turning (UVT)

In recent year’s applications of hard materials in different industries, like aviation, defense and petrochemicals sectors etc. have been increased remarkably. The machining of these hard materials is very difficult in conventional turning process. Ultrasonic assisted turning is a suitable and advanced process for machining hard and brittle material because of its periodic cutting mechanism. In the present work, an ultrasonic vibratory tool (UVT) is designed and analyzed using ANSYS® environment for calculation of its natural frequency and working amplitude of vibration. An ultrasonic assisted turning system is designed in consideration of cutting tool as a cantilever beam. Experimental study has been carried out to find the difference between ultrasonic-assisted turning and conventional turning at different cutting conditions taking Stainless steel (a general purpose engineering material) as the work piece material. It is found that ultrasonic assisted turning reduces the surface roughness and cutting forces in comparison with conventional turning. It is well known that cutting forces and surface finish/ roughness are two major parameters which affect the productivity of the turning process. In the present work, Taguchi with TOPSIS method is used to optimize both forces and surface roughness to find the best possible machining parameters under the used experimental working conditions

Spatial conservation planning for biodiversity and ecosystem services : from concepts and methods to policy agendas in the European Union

Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services (ES) is one of the greatest challenges of our times. The ultimate role of area-based conservation science and Systematic Conservation Planning is to inform on-the-ground spatial planning and decision-making. Computational methods and geographical data resources play an important role in spatial conservation prioritization, which is a frequently used analysis for identifying important areas for biodiversity, assessing present protected area networks, or designing future allocations for network expansions. Spatial data based on remote sensing, species distribution modelling, and citizen science have become available, allowing complex spatial analysis with large high-resolution data sets. Spatial conservation prioritization has introduced several concepts for identifying the best possible protected area network. Similarly, protected areas have been an integral part of international conventions, such as the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which has set a quantitative objective for increasing the global protected area coverage to 17 per cent worldwide. Area-based conservation goals are often included in regional biodiversity conservation agendas, such as in the European Union s (EU) biodiversity strategy to 2020. While policies have increasingly adopted the ES approach for conservation, it is poorly understood how identification of ES priority areas should be integrated into spatial conservation planning. In this thesis, my objective is to dissect the concepts and principles guiding spatial conservation prioritization for biodiversity and ES. I introduce novel methodological solutions in the Zonation software for integrating ES into spatial prioritization. My results show that clarifying the underlying concepts can aid spatial conservation planning. This is crucial especially regarding ES and their successful operationalization in spatial prioritization. Prioritization should always consider demand and connectivity requirements of individual ES. Otherwise, assessments effectively identifying ES priority areas do not necessarily provide timely policy-relevant information. This work also provides insights on how spatial conservation prioritization, with Zonation applied on modeled high-resolution vertebrate species distribution data, can be used to successfully inform continent-wide conservation policies. The EU-wide Natura 2000 network of protected areas covers moderately well the distributions of a representative group of vertebrate species. Nevertheless, there is a potential efficiency to be gained from additional coordinated conservation planning and future protected area site revisions or additions. While prioritization techniques with explicit spatial data are effective in identifying spatial priorities at the continental scale, conservation efficiency should be considered as part of a wider socio-ecological system. Ultimately, while ES bring spatial conservation planning closer to general land use planning, this work highlights the importance of considering complementary conservation mechanisms and finding more integrative approaches for sustainable land use planning.Luonnon monimuotoisuuden ja ekosysteemipalveluiden suojelu on yksi aikamme suurimpia haasteita. Systemaattinen suojelusuunnittelu kehittyi omaksi tieteenalaksi ennen vuosituhannen vaihdetta ja esitteli erillisen paikkatietoa ja laskennallisia menetelmiä hyödyntävän analyysin, spatiaalisen suojelupriorisoinnin. Sen tavoitteena oli alun perin tunnistaa kustannustehokkaasti luontoarvoiltaan monipuolisia ja luonnonsuojeluun sopivia alueita. Luonnonsuojelualueet ovat herättäneet paljon keskustelua myös politiikassa. Esimerkiksi Yhdistyneiden kansakuntien luonnon monimuotoisuutta koskevassa yleissopimuksessa on tavoitteena suojella 17 prosenttia maapallon pinta-alasta. Muita pinta-alaan perustuvia suojelutavoitteita on sisällytetty myös alueellisiin luonnonsuojeluohjelmiin, kuten esimerkiksi Euroopan Unionin (EU) biodiversiteettistrategiaan. Viime aikoina luonnonsuojelupolitiikka on myös alkanut huomioida ekosysteemipalveluja. Sen sijaan ei ole vielä selvää, miten ekosysteemipalveluille voidaan tunnistaa niiden suojelukäyttöön sopivia alueita. Väitöskirjatutkimukseni pyrkii keskustelemaan, mitkä spatiaalisen suojelupriorisoinnin käsitteet ja menetelmät nousevat keskeisiksi kun tunnistetaan luontoarvoiltaan ja ekosysteemipalveluiltaan arvokkaita alueita. Väitöskirjani arvioi EU:n biodiversiteettistrategian tärkeintä spatiaalista suojelutyökalua, Natura 2000-luonnonsuojelualueverkostoa, käyttämällä menetelmänä spatiaalista priorisointia ja erityisesti Zonation suojelu- ja maankäytön suunnitteluohjelmaa. Tulokseni osoittavat, että suojelusuunnittelun käsitteiden syvällinen ymmärtäminen ja selventäminen voi edistää sekä priorisointimenetelmien kehittymistä että käytännön suunnittelua. Käsitteiden selkeys on erityisen tärkeää tulosten välittämisessä eri sidosryhmille, mutta erityisesti ekosysteemipalveluiden integroimisessa osaksi suojelusuunnittelua. Ekosysteemipalvelut voidaan sisällyttää yksittäisinä piirrekerroksina suojelupriorisointeihin laji- ja habitaattitietojen rinnalle. Niiden erilaiset spatiaaliset kytkeytyvyysvaatimukset ja todellinen kysyntä olisi kuitenkin huomioitava, jotta priorisoinnit tuottaisivat politiikan ja suunnittelun kannalta mahdollisimman käyttökelpoisia tuloksia. Väitöskirjani tapaustutkimukset osoittavat, että spatiaalinen suojelupriorisointi menetelmänä, yhdessä eri lähteistä peräisin olevien korkealaatuisten paikkatietoaineistojen kanssa, onnistuu tarjoamaan käyttökelpoista tietoa EU-laajuiseen luonnonsuojelusuunnitteluun ja -politiikkaan. Nykyinen EU-laajuinen Natura 2000-verkosto onnistuu suhteellisen hyvin suojelemaan edustavan määrän selkärankaisia lajeja. Suojelupriorisoinnin avulla voidaan tehokkaasti tunnistaa potentiaalisia alueita luonnonsuojelualueverkoston laajentamiseen. Myös yhteistoiminnallisella rajoja ylittävällä suojelusuunnittelulla pystytään lisäämään suojelun tehokkuutta. Toisaalta luonnonsuojelualueet ja niiden kustannustehokkuus tulisi ymmärtää osana laajempaa sosio-ekologista järjestelmää. Väitöskirjatyöni antaa esimerkkejä siitä, kuinka ekosysteemipalvelut tuovat spatiaalisen suojelusuunnittelun lähemmäs yleistä maankäytön suunnittelua. Suojelusuunnittelu tieteenalana hyötyisi todennäköisesti integroivista, ekologisen ja sosiaalisen kestävyyden huomioivista näkökulmista

Mobile Banking Application with Barcode Generation

Mobile phones have become a part in our day to day life; every smart phone user is using different variety of mobile applications for various purposes. In the banking sector mobile banking is playing a major role in transferring money electronically, and to manage accounts. But to create new account, to apply loans and credit cards, and to close accounts banking customers must go to website, to make it easy and to work on it everywhere this Mobile Banking Application is used. And to make transactions easily in shopping malls (Card less Transactions) this application generates a barcode in mobile application, this barcode is been scanned by retailer to make a transaction easy