Creating a Discipline-specific Commons for Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Objective: To create a commons for infectious disease (ID) epidemiology in which epidemiologists, public health officers, data producers, and software developers can not only share data and software, but receive assistance in improving their interoperability. Materials and Methods: We represented 586 datasets, 54 software, and 24 data formats in OWL 2 and then used logical queries to infer potentially interoperable combinations of software and datasets, as well as statistics about the FAIRness of the collection. We represented the objects in DATS 2.2 and a software metadata schema of our own design. We used these representations as the basis for the Content, Search, FAIR-o-meter, and Workflow pages that constitute the MIDAS Digital Commons. Results: Interoperability was limited by lack of standardization of input and output formats of software. When formats existed, they were human-readable specifications (22/24; 92%); only 3 formats (13%) had machine-readable specifications. Nevertheless, logical search of a triple store based on named data formats was able to identify scores of potentially interoperable combinations of software and datasets. Discussion: We improved the findability and availability of a sample of software and datasets and developed metrics for assessing interoperability. The barriers to interoperability included poor documentation of software input/output formats and little attention to standardization of most types of data in this field. Conclusion: Centralizing and formalizing the representation of digital objects within a commons promotes FAIRness, enables its measurement over time and the identification of potentially interoperable combinations of data and software.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure

Synthetic seismograms through synthetic Franiscan: Insights into factors affecting large-aperture seismic data

In spite of an order of magnitude increase over the past 15 years in spatial sampling of the wavefield, a major uncertainty in the analysis of active source seismic data remains phase identification. This uncertainty results in part from the wide range of spatial scales of velocity heterogeneity in the crust. Smaller scale variations than those which can be deterministically resolved given the design of a particular seismic experiment can be modeled statistically using geologic constraints. Here we can present synthetic seismograms generated from several different realizations of a stochastic model describing the velocity heterogeneity of Fanciscan terrane rocks. We compare the results to observed data and to synthetic seismograms generated for a model derived from tomographic inversion of the data in order to obtain qualitative insights into the relative importance of large and small scale velocit heterogeneity. not surprisingly, the synthetic data for the tomographic model best reproduce observed small-scale variations of the stochastic model. The synthetic seismograms generated for the stochastic models best reproduce the level of signal-generated noise and suggest that the amplitude of velocity variation locally within the Fanciscan is approximately 1 km/s. They also illustrate the effect of a strongly heterogeneous upper and mid-crust on the amplitude-versus-offset pattern of arrivals from the lower crust and upper mantle. These effects may sometimes be interpreted deterministically, leading to biased models or an overly optimistic estimate of lower crustal resolution.Copyrighted by American Geophysical Union

Projected resurgence of COVID-19 in the United States in July—December 2021 resulting from the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant and faltering vaccination

In Spring 2021, the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant began to cause increases in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in parts of the United States. At the time, with slowed vaccination uptake, this novel variant was expected to increase the risk of pandemic resurgence in the US in summer and fall 2021. As part of the COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, an ensemble of nine mechanistic models produced 6-month scenario projections for July–December 2021 for the United States. These projections estimated substantial resurgences of COVID-19 across the US resulting from the more transmissible Delta variant, projected to occur across most of the US, coinciding with school and business reopening. The scenarios revealed that reaching higher vaccine coverage in July–December 2021 reduced the size and duration of the projected resurgence substantially, with the expected impacts was largely concentrated in a subset of states with lower vaccination coverage. Despite accurate projection of COVID-19 surges occurring and timing, the magnitude was substantially underestimated 2021 by the models compared with the of the reported cases, hospitalizations, and deaths occurring during July–December, highlighting the continued challenges to predict the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination uptake remains critical to limiting transmission and disease, particularly in states with lower vaccination coverage. Higher vaccination goals at the onset of the surge of the new variant were estimated to avert over 1.5 million cases and 21,000 deaths, although may have had even greater impacts, considering the underestimated resurgence magnitude from the model

Industriellt träbyggande förenar ekonomi och byggbarhet

Industrialized Timber Housing is based on repetition of the predefined building processes compared with traditional building where the business transaction and the customer are arranged into unique projects. Since the construction process consists of recurring activities, the industrial methods do not only improve the design and production phase, but the positive impact stretches well into the management phase. The market today can be offered cost-effective housing, with higher flexibility and better quality if the client, contractor and supplier takes control of the construction process.Industriellt träbyggande baseras på en återupprepning av givna byggprocesser jämfört med traditionellt byggande där affären och kunden ordnas in i unika projekt. Eftersom byggprocessen består av återkommande aktiviteter kan de industriella metoderna förbättra inte bara projektering och produktion, utan de positiva effekterna stäcker sig ända in i förvaltningsfasen. Marknaden kan redan idag erbjudas kostnadseffektivare bostäder, med högre flexibilitet och bättre kvalitet genom att beställaren, entreprenören och leverantören tar kontroll över byggprocessen.Godkänd; 2010; 20100423 (jarkko)TräI

Industriellt träbyggande förenar ekonomi och byggbarhet

Industrialized Timber Housing is based on repetition of the predefined building processes compared with traditional building where the business transaction and the customer are arranged into unique projects. Since the construction process consists of recurring activities, the industrial methods do not only improve the design and production phase, but the positive impact stretches well into the management phase. The market today can be offered cost-effective housing, with higher flexibility and better quality if the client, contractor and supplier takes control of the construction process.Industriellt träbyggande baseras på en återupprepning av givna byggprocesser jämfört med traditionellt byggande där affären och kunden ordnas in i unika projekt. Eftersom byggprocessen består av återkommande aktiviteter kan de industriella metoderna förbättra inte bara projektering och produktion, utan de positiva effekterna stäcker sig ända in i förvaltningsfasen. Marknaden kan redan idag erbjudas kostnadseffektivare bostäder, med högre flexibilitet och bättre kvalitet genom att beställaren, entreprenören och leverantören tar kontroll över byggprocessen.Godkänd; 2010; 20100423 (jarkko)TräI