Hydrographic Products/Services as a Fundamental Component of the e-Navigation Concept of Operation

e-Navigation is a recent initiative aimed at moving traditional maritime navigation towards a connected digital environment. Defined by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as “the harmonized collection, integration, exchange, presentation and analysis of maritime information onboard and ashore by electronic means to enhance birth-to-birth navigation and related services, for safety and security at sea and protection of the marine environment”, e-Navigation is not a new system of equipment but more an operational concept. Three significant outcomes are envisioned: 1) Shipboard navigation systems will benefit from the integration of own ship sensors, supporting information, standard user interface, and a comprehensive system for managing guard zones and alerts. Core elements include high-integrity electronic positioning, use of ENCs, and an analysis capability to reduce human error. 2) The management of vessel traffic and related services from ashore will be enhanced through better provision, coordination, and exchange of comprehensive data in formats that will be more easily understood and utilized. 3) A communications infrastructure designed to enable authorised seamless information transfer onboard ship, between ships, between ship and shore and between shore authorities. This paper discusses the main hydrographic-related components, implications for further standards development, some challenges/opportunities, and the role that IHO and others in the hydrographic community should play to facilitate the development and implementation of eNavigation

A Note on Weighted Rooted Trees

Let $T$ be a tree rooted at $r$. Two vertices of $T$ are related if one is a descendant of the other; otherwise, they are unrelated. Two subsets $A$ and $B$ of $V(T)$ are unrelated if, for any $a\in A$ and $b\in B$, $a$ and $b$ are unrelated. Let $\omega$ be a nonnegative weight function defined on $V(T)$ with $\sum_{v\in V(T)}\omega(v)=1$. In this note, we prove that either there is an $(r, u)$-path $P$ with $\sum_{v\in V(P)}\omega(v)\ge \frac13$ for some $u\in V(T)$, or there exist unrelated sets $A, B\subseteq V(T)$ such that $\sum_{a\in A }\omega(a)\ge \frac13$ and $\sum_{b\in B }\omega(b)\ge \frac13$. The bound $\frac13$ is tight. This answers a question posed in a very recent paper of Bonamy, Bousquet and Thomass\'e

IHO S-100: The New Hydrographic Geospatial Standard for Marine Data and Information

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) is an intergovernmental consultative and technical organization established in 1921 to support the safety of navigation, and to contribute to the protection of the marine environment. One of its primary roles is to establish and maintain appropriate standards to assist in the proper and efficient use of hydrographic data and information. This paper describes the new IHO Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data to be known as S-100, together with the Geospatial Information Infrastructure (GII) that is in the course of development and implementation by the IHO. In both cases, details have yet to be finalised – for example, the first draft of S-100 – IHO Geospatial Standard for Hydrographic Data was only released for stakeholder comment in March 2008 and S-100 is not expected to be an active standard until at least 2009 or 2010. Nevertheless, the concepts and supporting organisational framework behind the GII are already beginning to take shape. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to what is happening and thereby promote comment and the active involvement of both existing and potential stakeholders in the development and implementation of both the IHO GII and S-100

Comments and Suggestions for Improvement of the Archon Genomics X PRIZE Validation Protocol

This document is a comment on the X PRIZE validation protocol written by Kedes et al. (2011). We propose several modifications which we think will improve the fairness and transparency of the contest while keeping the cost of the validation process under control

Effects of Ethanol on Pigeons\u27 Near-Win Responding in a Slot-Machine Analog

In slot machine play, near wins are losses that are visually similarity to wins and increase gambling persistence, but provide no reinforcer. To measure effects of ethanol on near-win responding, pigeons pecked for food in a slot-machine analog following ethanol administration. In any given trial, one of four outcomes was signaled by consecutive presentations of red or green key lights, followed by a white collect key. Three red lights signaled a win and three green lights signaled a loss. Two red lights followed by a green light signaled a near win. On winning trials, food was delivered 5 s after presentation of the white collect key, provided there was at least one peck to the collect key while it was illuminated. The probability of pecking the collect key during losing trial types increased as a function of ethanol dose. Response rates did not change systematically as a function of ethanol dose. Pecks to the collect key were allocated more evenly across all trial types at higher alcohol doses. The time to peck the first presentation of a green key did not decrease systematically as a function of dose. These results provide evidence for a decrease in stimulus discrimination between trial types

Toward an Augustan Poetic: Edmund Waller\u27s Reform of English Poetry

The almost universal adulation given Edmund Waller in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries—an adulation which, often as not, attached to his reform of poetry—has been commonly accepted with little question of the grounds on which it is based. In this essay Alexander Ward Allison presents for the first time a specific analysis of the changes from Jacobean modes which Waller made, suggesting in the course of his analysis that the seventeenth century saw not a dissociation of sensibility, but rather a new fusion, of which Waller is a type. By a careful and detailed reading of the poems, Mr. Allison shows how Waller, writing in the genre of occasional verse, replaced the rational, ethical, direct Jacobean mode with a tone of geniality and personal detachment supported by an easy association of ideas and images. The same examination reveals how Waller elevated his diction and how, under the influence of Fairfax, he continued the “sweet” tradition of Spenser in his smoothly modulated metric. That to neoclassical poets Waller constituted a paragon is evident from their sometimes excessive praise; that he is one indeed is demonstrated by Allison with a style which enjoys an Augustan nicety. Alexander Ward Allison is professor of English at the University of Michigan.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_british_isles/1027/thumbnail.jp