BIRP: Software for interactive search and retrieval of image engineering data

Better Image Retrieval Programs (BIRP), a set of programs to interactively sort through and to display a database, such as engineering data for images acquired by spacecraft is described. An overview of the philosophy of BIRP design, the structure of BIRP data files, and examples that illustrate the capabilities of the software are provided

Maritime Safety - Stakeholders in Information Exchange Process

This paper presents the methodology and research results on identification of potential users of the ESABALT system, which is targeted towards improving the situational awareness in the Baltic Sea region. We describe the technique of analysing the stakeholders involved in maritime sector processes, especially in maritime transport processes, while also taking into account their different classification criteria. The resulting list of stakeholders is used to identify system users and their classification into user profiles groups. This study will form the basis for the identification of user requirements of the ESABALT system

PowerAqua: fishing the semantic web

The Semantic Web (SW) offers an opportunity to develop novel, sophisticated forms of question answering (QA). Specifically, the availability of distributed semantic markup on a large scale opens the way to QA systems which can make use of such semantic information to provide precise, formally derived answers to questions. At the same time the distributed, heterogeneous, large-scale nature of the semantic information introduces significant challenges. In this paper we describe the design of a QA system, PowerAqua, designed to exploit semantic markup on the web to provide answers to questions posed in natural language. PowerAqua does not assume that the user has any prior information about the semantic resources. The system takes as input a natural language query, translates it into a set of logical queries, which are then answered by consulting and aggregating information derived from multiple heterogeneous semantic sources

The effects of scale on the costs of targeted HIV prevention interventions among female and male sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgenders in India

BACKGROUND: The India AIDS Initiative (Avahan) project is involved in rapid scale-up of HIV-prevention interventions in high-risk populations. This study examines the cost variation of 107 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) implementing targeted interventions, over the start up (defined as period from project inception until services to the key population commenced) and first 2 years of intervention. METHODS: The Avahan interventions for female and male sex workers and their clients, in 62 districts of four southern states were costed for the financial years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 using standard costing techniques. Data sources include financial and economic costs from the lead implementing partners (LPs) and subcontracted local implementing NGOs retrospectively and prospectively collected from a provider perspective. Ingredients and step-down allocation processes were used. Outcomes were measured using routinely collected project data. The average costs were estimated and a regression analysis carried out to explore causes of cost variation. Costs were calculated in US$2006. RESULTS: The total number of registered people was 134,391 at the end of 2 years, and 124,669 had used STI services during that period. The median average cost of Avahan programme for this period was$76 per person registered with the project. Sixty-one per cent of the cost variation could be explained by scale (positive association), number of NGOs per district (negative), number of LPs in the state (negative) and project maturity (positive) (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: During rapid scale-up in the initial phase of the Avahan programme, a significant reduction in average costs was observed. As full scale-up had not yet been achieved, the average cost at scale is yet to be realised and the extent of the impact of scale on costs yet to be captured. Scale effects are important to quantify for planning resource requirements of large-scale interventions. The average cost after 2 years is within the range of global scale-up costs estimates and other studies in India

ESABALT - Improvement of Situational Awareness in the Baltic with the Use of Crowdsourcing

This paper presents the key assumptions and preliminary research on an integrated system called ESABALT, for enhancing maritime safety, which incorporates the latest technological advances in positioning, e-Navigation, Earth observation systems and multi-channel cooperative communications. The most novel part of the ESABALT concept, however, is a focus on user-driven crowdsourcing techniques for information gathering and integration. The system will consist of a situational awareness solution for real-time maritime traffic monitoring via utilizing various positioning technologies; an observation system of the marine environment relevant to transportation and accidents including assessing the sea ice, oil spread, waves, wind etc.; and a methodology for context-aware maritime communication with cooperative, multi-channel capabilities. The paper presents the intelligent, novel, user-driven solution and associated services developed in ESABALT for enhancing the maritime safety in the whole Baltic area

The Historical Context of the Gender Gap in Mathematics

This chapter is based on the talk that I gave in August 2018 at the ICM in Rio de Janeiro at the panel on "The Gender Gap in Mathematical and Natural Sciences from a Historical Perspective". It provides some examples of the challenges and prejudices faced by women mathematicians during last two hundred and fifty years. I make no claim for completeness but hope that the examples will help to shed light on some of the problems many women mathematicians still face today

The whole and its parts : why and how to disentangle plant communities and synusiae in vegetation classification

Most plant communities consist of different structural and ecological subsets, ranging from cryptogams to different tree layers. The completeness and approach with which these subsets are sampled have implications for vegetation classification. Non‐vascular plants are often omitted or sometimes treated separately, referring to their assemblages as “synusiae” (e.g. epiphytes on bark, saxicolous species on rocks). The distinction of complete plant communities (phytocoenoses or holocoenoses) from their parts (synusiae or merocoenoses) is crucial to avoid logical problems and inconsistencies of the resulting classification systems. We here describe theoretical differences between the phytocoenosis as a whole and its parts, and outline consequences of this distinction for practise and terminology in vegetation classification. To implement a clearer separation, we call for modifications of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature and the EuroVegChecklist. We believe that these steps will make vegetation classification systems better applicable and raise the recognition of the importance of non‐vascular plants in the vegetation as well as their interplay with vascular plants