EULA - End-User Licence Agreement - Satellite Remote Sensing Data

Completion of the INSPIRE compliant JRC “End User Licence Agreement (EULA) for the use of satellite remote sensing data products and services” Completion of the JRC “End User Licence Agreement (EULA) for the use of satellite remote sensing data products and services”. On the 8th of June 2011 this EULA was proposed to ESTAT to be included in the INSPIRE guidance documentation, where it was accepted on 12/12/2011. It forms part of the new “Good practice in data and service sharing” of the INSPIRE working team and is available at http://inspire.jrc.ec.europa.eu/documents/Data_and_Service_Sharing/GoodPractice_%20DataService%20Sharing_v2.pdf on page 39, under Topic Licenses. The EULA is a translation of the Licensing Terms & Conditions ruling between the EC Services and the Satellite Data Suppliers and is now a legally valid document to be “click-to-accepted” as end user (or Licensee) requests data access through the CID portal http://cidportal.jrc.ec.europa.eu/home/idp . The EULA has been achieved in collaboration with the JRC Intellectual Property & Technology Transfer Unit (A02) of the JRC. It presents a topic particularly critical to a successful data and service sharing management in line with INSPIRE and GEO/GEOSS nomenclature and going further than the Commission Regulation (EU) No. 268/2010 of the 29/03/2010 on ‘access to spatial data sets and services’. The EULA is available for reading to any user, either registered to the CID portal or not, at http://cidportal.jrc.ec.europa.eu/home/sites/default/files/user/documents/EULA.pdf (ref. JRC IES/H04/C/PAR/par D(2011)(13408)), and bases itself on giving the Licensee access rights to products through Discovery, View and/or Download Services. Search and preview (Discovery) is open to the public. Access (View, Download) to the product is limited to authorized and registered users. The CID action of the JRC is responsible for the CID portal and provides a technical infrastructure composed of a frontend (data access, data dissemination), and a backend (data loading, data preparation and data production routines) and an underlying IT infrastructure (image and image metadata storage) held centrally at the JRC guaranteeing High Availability. Category: 2.2a Scientific and policy reports.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

Specifications of view services for GMES Core_003 VHR2 coverage

For the so-called DataWareHouse concept (DWH) within the GMES Initial Operations period 2011-2014, data access management is funded through a Delegation Agreement between the EC and ESA. The Core_003 VHR2 dataset is one of the satellite coverages that are defined as CORE datasets within the DWH with fixed specifications which will be of-fered to a broad range of users and activities. JRC was asked by DG Enterprise to provide technical specifications for the implementation of a view service for the Core_003 datasets as part of the Administrative Arrangement n. 5 between DG Enterprise and JRC. This report provides an overview about different view service types with their specific characteristics and use cases. Since compliance with INSPIRE implementing rules is a goal to be achieved by GMES services, the spe-cific requirements of INSPIRE for view services have been taken into account. The Core_003 datasets have been ana-lysed with regard to their parameters that are important for the inclusion in view services. Based on the results of the analyses, recommendations are given for the implementation of the view services as well as for the data processing and configuration of the Core_003 datasets.JRC.H.6-Digital Earth and Reference Dat

CID Survey Report Satellite Imagery and Associated Services used by the JRC. Current Status and Future Needs

The Agriculture and Fisheries Unit (IPSC) together with the Informatics, Networks and Library Unit (ISD) has performed this inventory called the Community Image Data portal Survey (the CID Survey); 20 Actions from 4 different Institutes (ISD, IPSC, IES, and IHCP) were interviewed. The objectives of the survey were to make an inventory of existing satellite data and future requirements; to obtain an overview of how data is acquired, used and stored; to quantify human and financial resources engaged in this process; to quantify storage needs and to query the staff involved in image acquisition and management on their needs and ideas for improvements in view of defining a single JRC portal through which imaging requests could be addressed. Within the JRC there are (including 2006) more than 700 000 low resolution (LR) and 50 000 medium resolution (MR) images, with time series as far back as 1981 for the LR data. There are more than 10 000 high resolution (HR) images and over 500 000 km2 of very high resolution (VHR) images. For the LR and MR data, cyclic global or continental coverage dominates, while the majority of HR and VHR data is acquired over Europe. The expected data purchase in the future (2007, 2008) known which enables good planning. Most purchases of VHR and HR data are made using the established FCs with common licensing terms. Otherwise multiple types of licensing govern data usage which emphasizes the need for CID to establish adequate means of data access. The total amount of image data stored (2006 inclusive) is 55 TB, with an expected increase of 80% in 2 years. Most of the image data is stored on internal network storage inside the corporate network which implies that the data is accessible from JRC, but difficulties arise when access is to be made by external users via Internet. In principle current storage capacity in the JRC could be enough, but available space is fragmented between Actions which therefore implies that a deficit in storage could arise. One solution to this issue is the sharing of a central storage service. Data reception is dominated by FTP data transfer which therefore requires reliable and fast Internet transfer bandwidth. High total volume for backup requires thorough definition of backup strategy. The user groups at JRC are heterogeneous which places requirements on CID to provide flexible authentication mechanisms. There is a requirement for a detailed analysis of all metadata standards needed for reference in a catalogue. There is a priority interest for such Catalogue Service and also for a centralized storage. The services to implement for data hosted on central storage should be WCS, WMS, file system access. During the analysis of the results mentioned above, some major areas could be identified as a base for common services to be provided to interested Actions, such as: provision of a centralized data storage facility with file serving functionality including authentication service, image catalogue services, data visualization and dissemination services. Specialized data services that require highly customized functionality with respect to certain properties of the different image types will usually remain the sole responsibility of the individual Actions. An orthorectification service for semi-automated orthorectification of HR and VHR data will be provided to certain Actions. At the end of the report some priorities and an implementation schedule for the Community Image Data portal (CID) are given.JRC.G.3-Agricultur

The use of external controls: To what extent can it currently be recommended?

With more and better clinical data being captured outside of clinical studies and greater data sharing of clinical studies, external controls may become a more attractive alternative to randomized clinical trials. Both industry and regulators recognize that in situations where a randomized study cannot be performed, external controls can provide the needed contextualization to allow a better interpretation of studies without a randomized control. It is also agreed that external controls will not fully replace randomized clinical trials as the gold standard for formal proof of efficacy in drug development and the yardstick of clinical research. However, it remains unclear in which situations conclusions about efficacy and a positive benefit/risk can reliably be based on the use of an external control. This paper will provide an overview on types of external control, their applications and the different sources of bias their use may incur, and discuss potential mitigation steps. It will also give recommendations on how the use of external controls can be justified

Community Image Data Portal: Sharing Licensed Earth Observation Data

TUsage and sharing of Earth Observation data are typically restricted by various licensing terms and conditions imposed by commercial data providers. Standards defining the protocols to transmit such data do not include any identification or security layer yet: they allow optimum software interoperability for sharing data available to the public, but they cannot ensure the required security for licensed data, which requires limited and controlled access. This article aims to present the up to date solutions and recommendations in the fields of data dissemination, authentication and rights management from standard developing organisations and from the Earth Observation community. The project context is the Community Image Data (CID) portal, which is an application for managing and accessing data from a large digital repository of EO data located at the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. Data discovery and data sharing between different and heterogeneous user groups require the provision of interoperability with a large variety of client software; emphasis has therefore been given to the implementation of an infrastructure based on INSPIRE-compliant Discovery, View and Download services, following the same direction undertaken by the EU Member States in their compliance to the European Parliament and Council (2007) INSPIRE Directive: 2007/2/EC, and European Commission (2009): Regulation 976/2009 on Network Services. During the study of standards for such data services, as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium, the lack of authentication and security features has been identified. Even if numerous initiatives have filled this disparity, the technologies considered cannot assure the required interoperability, as they are not part of the standards implemented in common software. The CID project acknowledged this situation and implemented its own original solution that addresses both the interoperability and data security aspects. Inspired by the electronic commerce domain and its “shopping cart” feature, a “portfolio” concept has been introduced, allowing users to make selections from the available data products, filling up their own ”basket” of EO data. These portfolios are the basis for associated data services, which give access to the selected datasets for the single user, thus ensuring data security

Towards a Map of the European Tree Cover based on Sentinel-2

Many areas of science and policy depend on knowledge of the tree cover in Europe. Sentinel-2 is a new (launched in 2015) satellite with a higher spatial resolution compared to previous satellites. In the present study a new algorithm for mapping tree cover from Sentinel-2 is developed, an analysis of which bands should be used for tree cover mapping is made, the accuracy of the mapping is assessed, and the tree cover from the present approach is compared with previous estimates. Firstly, the feasibility of the present algorithm is demonstrated. Secondly, it is shown that only ten band combinations have good performance in four selected Sentinel-2 tiles and that the bands 3, 5, 6, 12 appear in most combinations. Thirdly, the accuracy is assessed to be high, and lastly it is shown that the relative difference between the tree cover of the present study and the tree cover of previous studies is between -14% and 68

A Central Clearing Clinic to Provide Mental Health Services for Refugees in Germany

Objective: To determine migration related distress pattern in refugees and feasibility of a de novo established, central low-threshold outpatient clinic serving more than 80,000 newly arrived refugees in the metropole of Berlin. Methods: In an observational cohort study the relative prevalence of major psychiatric disorders by age, place of living within berlin, language and region of origin were assessed in a refugee cohort from 63 nationalities speaking 36 languages. Findings: Within 18 months, a total of 3,096 cases with a mean age of 29.7 years (11.7) have been referred from all 12 districts and 165 of 182 subdistricts of Berlin to the CCC. 33.7% of the patients were female. The three most frequent diagnoses were unipolar depression (40.4%), posttraumatic stress disorder (24.3%), and adjustment disorder (19.6%). Conclusion: The present data gives insight into the distribution of mental disorders in a large sample of refugees and provides evidence that a CCC is an effective service to quickly and broadly provide psychiatric consultations and thus to overcome classical barriers refugees usually experience in the host communities. In Berlin, Germany, and Europe treatment resources for this population should focus on stress and trauma related disorders

Does the Identification of a Minimum Number of Cases Correlate With Better Adherence to International Guidelines Regarding the Treatment of Penile Cancer? Survey Results of the European PROspective Penile Cancer Study (E-PROPS)

Background: Penile cancer represents a rare malignant disease, whereby a small caseload is associated with the risk of inadequate treatment expertise. Thus, we hypothesized that strict guideline adherence might be considered a potential surrogate for treatment quality. This study investigated the influence of the annual hospital caseload on guideline adherence regarding treatment recommendations for penile cancer. Methods: In a 2018 survey study, 681 urologists from 45 hospitals in four European countries were queried about six hypothetical case scenarios (CS): local treatment of the primary tumor pTis (CS1) and pT1b (CS2); lymph node surgery inguinal (CS3) and pelvic (CS4); and chemotherapy neoadjuvant (CS5) and adjuvant (CS6). Only the responses from 206 head and senior physicians, as decision makers, were evaluated. The answers were assessed based on the applicable European Association of Urology (EAU) guidelines regarding their correctness. The real hospital caseload was analyzed based on multivariate logistic regression models regarding its effect on guideline adherence. Results: The median annual hospital caseload was 6 (interquartile range (IQR) 3–9). Recommendations for CS1–6 were correct in 79%, 66%, 39%, 27%, 28%, and 28%, respectively. The probability of a guideline-adherent recommendation increased with each patient treated per year in a clinic for CS1, CS2, CS3, and CS6 by 16%, 7.8%, 7.2%, and 9.5%, respectively (each p < 0.05); CS4 and CS5 were not influenced by caseload. A caseload threshold with a higher guideline adherence for all endpoints could not be perceived. The type of hospital care (academic vs. non-academic) did not affect guideline adherence in any scenario. Conclusions: Guideline adherence for most treatment recommendations increases with growing annual penile cancer caseload. Thus, the results of our study call for a stronger centralization of diagnosis and treatment strategies regarding penile cancer

Sentinel-2 web platform for REDD+ monitoring. Online web platform for browsing and processing Sentinel-2 data for forest cover monitoring over the Tropics

The recent availability of time series of Sentinel-2 imagery represents a significant technological step in the use of Earth Observation (EO) data for forest cover monitoring. The 5 days revisiting time (S-2 A and S-2B satellites) and the 10m spatial resolution imply the need for much larger storage and processing resources than ever. To facilitate the use of Sentinel-2 imagery by national forestry services in the tropics (in particular in relation to REDD+ activities), the JRC has developed the Sentinel-2 web platform, an online Web system which is aimed at browsing, exploring and processing the full dataset of Sentinel-2 imagery available over theTropical belt.JRC.D.1-Bio-econom