Informação geográfica: meta-informação, codificação e visualização

Desenvolver sistemas cada vez mais complexos guiados somente pela tecnologia põe em risco o propósito do próprio sistema, que colapsa se não se puderem garantir determinadas claúsulas de integridade, rigor nas análises, e se não se puderem quantificar os erros subjacentes aos dados e aos processos. Por isso, a primeira asserção desta tese, é que o desenvolvimento dos SIG necessita de uma ciência de suporte que assegure o rigor subjacente aos processos de decisão. No Cap. 2 apresento os conceitos fundamentais das Ciências da Informação Geográfica e clarifico o âmbito destas. Sendo complexa, a IG não é auto-descritiva e exige um trabalho de documentação rigoroso em todo o seu ciclo de vida. Por isso, na segunda asserção desta tese afirmo que a meta- informação geográfica é essencial para encontrar e explorar a informação espalhada por um grande volume de dados geográficos. No Cap. 3, discuto o papel da meta-informação e refiro as propostas mais importantes nesta área. Abordo em profundidade a motivação, as vantagens e as formas de catalogar IG. Apresento uma ferramenta desenvolvida em JAVA para catalogar IG, baseada na norma ISO 19115. Localizar e adquirir a informação que se pretende, num formato proprietário que não se consegue manipular, não é muito animador. Ter que descartar os dados processados nos últimos anos e adquirir novos, se se quiser trocar a plataforma (proprietária) de geo-processamento, também é desanimador. A adopção de formatos abertos garante a longevidade dos sistemas e dos dados, naquela que constitui a terceira alegação desta tese. No Cap. 4 concentro-me na codificação de IG em GML, um formato aberto codificado em XML. É uma meta-linguagem que incorpora os conceitos fundamentais da IG. Refiro, ainda, que os construtores do GML conseguem encapsular uma determinada complexidade num tipo, à semelhança dos tipos abstractos de dados, para mostrar que o GML é também uma linguagem de modelação, podendo ser integrada com o UML. Disponibilizar IG sobre a Web não é, como poderia parecer, uma moda. A dispersão da informação geográfica é uma característica intrínseca da mesma, sendo óbvio que é necessário passar a oferecer dados e serviços através de uma teia de servidores junto da informação a que dizem respeito. No Cap. 5, apresento os Web Services, como a plataforma computacional que permite esta disponibilização de dados e serviços sobre a Web, encapsulando a complexidade, o volume e os sistemas proprietários atrás de interfaces comuns. Estes podem-se compor sucessivamente para resolver problemas mais complexos. À semelhança do que acontece em CC, a abordagem à complexidade faz-se por encapsulamento e composição, sendo esta a minha quarta asseveração. O consórcio OGC, do qual faço parte, tem liderado este processo e, por isso, são apresentados os serviços preconizados pelo mesmo. No Cap. 6 apresento a linguagem SVG, destacando os aspectos que me parecem mais relevantes para a visualização da IG. Apresento um visualizador de SVG desenvolvido em JAVA para plataformas móveis. Reforço a convicção de que a manutenção de uma clara separação dos conteúdosdas formas concretas de apresentação potencia formas flexíveis de visualização. Por último, recorro aos Serviços Baseados na Localização, Cap. 7, para discutir um dos desafios que actualmente se coloca às CIG: a capacidade de adequar a exploração da IG ao contexto de utilização. Depois da passagem dos mapas em papel para os mapas em computador, precisamos de sofisticar o conceito de mapa que, no limite, se pode transformar numa mensagem de voz. Neste capítulo é fundamentada a diferença entre o utente tradicional, sentado no seu gabinete em frente ao computador, e o utente em movimento, que experimenta o mundo real, desenvolvendo uma actividade provavelmente mais importante e interessante do que a interacção com o dispositivo móvel. Apresento dois exemplos que introduzem a noção de contexto na visualização de IG, desenvolvidos sobre o ArcPAD da ESRI.The technology driven design of more and more sophisticated GIS applications, is too dangerous to support sound decisions, if we can not ensure the quality of the developed solutions. GIS development must be scientifically supported. In Chapter 2, I introduce the fundamental concepts related to GI Science. Being complex and not self described, a rigorous documentation effort must follow the GI datasets life cycle. GI metadata is essential to find and take advantage of all datasets produced by different companies. In Chapter 3, most relevant metadata proposals are considered. A JAVA based solution for GI metadata developed, is described, based on the standard ISO 19115. The enormous amount of data models and formats, instead of being a blessing for the users, became a nightmare. The use of open formats guaranties the long term value of geographic information. In Chapter 4, I describe the GML meta-language. GML is used as an encoding format as well a modelling language, that can be integrated with the mainstream UML language. The distribution of GI around the globe is an intrinsic property of it. In Chapter 5, I suggest the use of Web Services to provide an open platform for distributed GI processing. Geo-Web Services with enable better and more sophisticated applications, by encapsulation and composition, fundamental CC concepts. I describe some of the service proposed by the Open Geospatial Consortium, as I am a member of it. In Chapter 6, the most suitable features of SVG related to GI are highlighted. I present an SVG viewer I’ve developed for mobile devices. I sustain that presentation should be kept apart from the contents. Finally, in Chapter 7, I describe Location Based Services as a new demanding field of GI. The difference is not the limited device resources; is the context in permanent change. I present to examples I’ve developed, showing how GI visualization can be influenced by the changing context

Image Geocoding as a Service

Driven by the ambition of a global geocoding solution, in this paper we present the architecture of an image geocoding service. It takes advantage of the ubiquity of cameras, that are present in almost all smartphones. It is an inexpensive sensor yet powerful, that can be used to provide precise location and orientation. This geocoding service provides an API similar to existing ones for place names and addresses, like Google Geocoding API. Instead of a text based query, images can be submitted to estimate the location and orientation of the user. Developers can use this new API, keeping almost all the existing code already used for other geocoding APIs. Behind the scenes, image features are extracted from the submitted photograph, and compared against a huge database of georeferenced models. These models were constructed using structure from motion (SFM) techniques, and heavily reduced to a representative set of all information using Synthetic Views. Our preliminary results shows that the pose estimation of the majority of the images submitted to our geocoding was successfully computed (more than 60%) with the mean positional error around 2 meters. With this service, an inexpensive outdoor/indoor location service can be provided, for example, for urban environments, where GPS fails

A new competitive implementation of the electromagnetism-like algorithm for global optimization

The Electromagnetism-like (EM) algorithm is a population- based stochastic global optimization algorithm that uses an attraction- repulsion mechanism to move sample points towards the optimal. In this paper, an implementation of the EM algorithm in the Matlab en- vironment as a useful function for practitioners and for those who want to experiment a new global optimization solver is proposed. A set of benchmark problems are solved in order to evaluate the performance of the implemented method when compared with other stochastic methods available in the Matlab environment. The results con rm that our imple- mentation is a competitive alternative both in term of numerical results and performance. Finally, a case study based on a parameter estimation problem of a biology system shows that the EM implementation could be applied with promising results in the control optimization area.Acknowledgments This work has been supported by FCT (Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia e Tecnologia, Portugal) in the scope of the project PEst-UID/CEC/00319/2013

Follow-up of the survivors of congenital diaphragmatic hernia

INTRODUCTION: Survivors of congenital diaphragmatic hernia have increased with the introduction of new treatment modalities and have been reported to experience ongoing medical morbidity until adulthood. AIM: To describe the long-term functional impact of congenital diaphragmatic repair on the survivors of a single institution cohort of newborns over a 14-year period. METHODS: The follow up medical charts of 39 congenital diaphragmatic hernia survivors treated at a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit, from January 1997 to December 2010, were analyzed. RESULTS: The median age at follow up was 70 (4-162) months. Gastrointestinal sequelae were the most common with 12 (30.7%) patients affected by failure to thrive. Chronic lung disease occurred in 5 (12.8%) patients, neurodevelopmental delay in 5 (12.8%), musculoskeletal sequelae in 6 (15.3%), recurrence of hernia in 4 (10.2%) and 2 (7.6%) were deceased. CONCLUSION: Congenital diaphragmatic hernia survivors are a group of patients that requires long term periodic follow up in a multidisciplinary setting to provide adequate support and improve their quality of life

Suporte Informático para trabalhos de prospecção e escavação arqueológica

Os trabalhos de armazenamento, interpretação e divulgação da informação arqueológica vêem bebendo, há alguns anos, das vantagens do suporte informático, nomeadamente dos Sistemas de Informação Geográfica, das Bases de Dados Relacionais e, em grande medida, da informação vectorizada ou em raster, quer sob a forma de documentação gráfica ou fotográfica. A passagem da informação para o computador, nomeadamente no que respeita à vectorizacão, apresenta-se uma árdua e morosa tarefa, dado o volume e o rigor com que deve ser realizado, sendo necessário recorrer e envolver operadores contratados para o efeito. Esta tarefa fica significativamente condicionada pelas dificuldades de interpretação do registo efectuado no campo por outra pessoa, pelos custos adicionais que implica e pelo atraso entre a recolha dos dados e o seu posterior tratamento e divulgação. Para melhorar o processo de introdução de informação no sistema informático, propomos uma arquitectura para uma solução móvel, que permita que os dados sejam registados em computador, no campo, de forma sistemática e automática, pelos próprios arqueólogos. A arquitectura apresentada define um ciclo que se baseia na preparação de um dispositivo móvel (Palm), em função dos dados que irá recolher, na recolha propriamente dita, e na descarga dos dados para um Sistema de Informação Arqueológica. Para estudar a viabilidade da solução proposta, antes de iniciar o seu desenvolvimento, foram desenvolvidos pequenos protótipos que ensaiam algumas das funcionalidades pretendidas

SGML documents : where does quality go?

Quality control in electronic publications should be one of the major concerns of everyone who is managing a project. Big projects, like digital libraries, try to gather information from a series of different sources: libraries, museums, universities, and other scientific or cultural organizations. Collecting and treating information from several different sources raises very interesting problems, one being the assurance of quality. Quality in electronic publications can be reflected in several forms, from the visual aspects of the interface, to linguistic and literary aspects, to the correctness of data. With SGML we can solve part of the problem, structural/syntactic correctness. SGML provides a nice way to specify the structure of documents keeping a complete separation between structure (syntax) and typesetting. Today there are lots of editors and environments that can assist the user producing well-formed and valid SGML documents (validating their structure). However, current software still gives the user too much freedom. The user has full control of the data being introduced, creating a margin for errors. In this context there are situations where pre-conditions over the information being introduced should be enforced in order to prevent the user from introducing erroneous data; we shall call this process data semantics validation. The idea is to constrain the values of some structural elements of a document according to its final purpose. This way the user (who writes the documents according to that DTD) will not have full control of his data; he will be forced to obey certain domain range limitations or certain information relationships. SGML does not have the necessary constructs to implement this extra validation task. In this paper we will present and discuss ways of associating a constraint language with the SGML model. We will present the steps towards the implementation of that language. In the end, we present a new SGML authoring and processing model which has an extra validation task: semantic validation. Along the paper we will show some case studies that could have their quality improved with this new working scheme

Gastroschisis: preterm or term delivery?

AIM: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the association between prematurity and the time to achieve full enteral feeding in newborns with gastroschisis. The second objective was to analyze the associations between length of hospital stay and time to achieve full enteral feeding with mode of delivery, birth weight and surgical procedure. METHODS: The medical records of newborns with gastroschisis treated between 1997 and 2007 were reviewed. Two groups were considered: those delivered before 37 weeks (group A) and those delivered after 37 weeks (group B). The variables of gestational age, mode of delivery, birth weight, time to achieve full enteral feeding, length of hospital stay and surgical approach were analyzed and compared between groups. RESULTS: Forty-one patients were studied. In Group A, there were 14 patients with a mean birth weight (BW) of 2300 g (range=1680-3000) and a mean gestational age (GA) of 36 weeks (range=34-36). In group B, there were 24 patients with a mean BW of 2700 g (range=1500-3550) and a mean GA of 38 weeks (range=37-39). The mean time to achieve full enteral feeding was 30.1±6.7 days in group A and 17.0±2.5 days in group B (p=0.09) with an OR of 0.82 and a 95% CI of 0.20-3.23 after adjustment for sepsis and BW. No statistical difference was found between low BW (<2500 g), mode of delivery and number of days to achieve full enteral feeding (p=0.34 and p=0.13, respectively). Patients with BW over 2500 g had fewer days in the hospital (22.9±3.1 vs. 35.7±5.7 days; p=0.06). CONCLUSION: The results of this study do not support the idea of anticipating the delivery of fetuses with gastroschisis in order to achieve full enteral feeding earlier

Programmed Cell Death-Related Proteases in Plants

From an ancient Greek term related to the “leavening of bread” (en, in; zyme, leaven), an enzyme can be defined as a substance showing the properties of a catalyst that is produced as a result of cellular activity. Every proteinaceous enzyme that performs hydrolysis of peptide bonds is appropriately termed “protease” (peptidase). All of them share aspects of catalytic strategy, but with some variation. As a result, the proteases are grouped into six different catalytic families: serine, threonine, cysteine, aspartic, glutamic and metallopeptidases (http://merops.sanger.ac.uk/). The larger families (cysteine, serine, aspartic and metallopeptidases) have a wide range of distribution on living organism groups, and are also present in the “controversial” viruses. As a well‐represented family, the cysteine proteases play important roles in events such as signalling pathways, programmed cell death (PCD), nutrient mobilization, protein maturing, hormone synthesis and degradation. In the past two decades, an increased interest was driven to the study of the programmed cell death (PCD), mainly after the discovery of caspase‐related proteins and caspase‐like activities in organisms not metazoan. Caspases are cysteine proteases that cleave their substrate after aspartate residues and are part of signalling cascades of the apoptotic PCD process (also in inflammatory process), unique of metazoan. The caspase‐related proteins are named paracaspases and metacaspases. Paracaspases are found on metazoan and Dictyostelium, whereas the metacaspases are present on plants, fungi and groups of protozoan. On plants, PCD has features that are distinct from that of animals and is an important pathway on developmental events, defensive and stress response (biotic and abiotic). All these events have their own particularities, but the participation of proteases seems to be universal with those responsible for caspase‐like activities and metacaspases having an increasing number of reports that put them as important for plant PCD. In this chapter, we tackle important aspects of the proteases, in special that involved in plant PDC, as well as their specific regulators. Aspects of function, catalytic mechanisms and interaction with ligands will be on focus

Procesamiento sensorial y rendimiento escolar en niños de 7 a 8 años del segundo grado de nivel primario de educación básica regular de la Institución Educativa Soberana Orden Militar de Malta durante el año escolar 2012

Publicación a texto completo no autorizada por el autorDetermina la relación entre el procesamiento sensorial y el rendimiento escolar en niños de 7 a 8 años del segundo grado de nivel primario de educación básica regular teniendo como criterios de asociación los sistemas sensoriales y las notas académicas. En este estudio se aplicó el cuestionario Sensory Profile Winnie Dunn, el cual fue explicado previamente a los padres o apoderados en una charla de orientación, luego fue llenado por los padres o apoderados de 45 niños del segundo grado de primaria de la Institución Educativa Soberana Orden Militar de Malta. Una vez obtenido el puntaje del cuestionario Sensory Profile Winnie Dunn divididos en los sistemas visual, táctil, vestibular, auditivo, multisensorial y sensorio oral; así como las notas académicas del registro de notas finales del año 2012 de dichos alumnos se procedió a analizarlas mediante el estadístico del coeficiente de correlación de Pearson permitiéndonos determinar si existe o no asociación de relación directa. De los 45 alumnos evaluados, corresponden 24 niños (53.3%) y 21 niñas (47.7%). Entre los principales resultados se observa que el curso de menor rendimiento es matemática con 19 alumnos (42.2%) de entre los cuales corresponden 10 niñas (22.2%) y 9 niños (20%), mayor rendimiento en educación artística con un 57.8% de entre los cuales corresponden 14 niñas (31.1%) y 12 niños (26.6%), y al aplicar el Sensory Profile dio como resultado que el sistema sensorial que presentó diferencia definitiva es el vestibular con 33 casos (73.3%), así mismo se encontró que con un nivel de confianza del 99%, valor de significancia bilateral de 0.005 y coeficiente de correlación de Pearson de 0.409 se puede decir que existe suficiente evidencia estadística para rechazar la hipótesis nula, es decir, que si existe relación directa entre el curso de Matemática y el grupo de sistemas G1 (Vestibular, Visual y Multisensorial) y de acuerdo al estudio la prevalencia en el sexo masculino de Diferencia Definitiva en el procesamiento sensorial fue mayor en el sexo masculino con 67 casos frente al sexo femenino con 57 casos en todos los sistemas sensoriales estudiados.Tesi

Adapting museum structures for the web: no changes needed!

Canadian Heritage Information Networ