The state of semantic technology today - overview of the first SEALS evaluation campaigns

This paper describes the first five SEALS Evaluation Campaigns over the semantic technologies covered by the SEALS project (ontology engineering tools, ontology reasoning tools, ontology matching tools, semantic search tools, and semantic web service tools). It presents the evaluations and test data used in these campaigns and the tools that participated in them along with a comparative analysis of their results. It also presents some lessons learnt after the execution of the evaluation campaigns and draws some final conclusions

Harnessing location-based services for effective citizen observatories

The essence of a city is its citizens and communities. A city’s infrastructure and associated services play a vital role in citizens' day-to-day living and their overall quality of life. Traditionally, services are deployed in a top-down approach where authorities, councils and public bodies take a reactive approach to address community needs and concerns. In this paper, we propose our ‘Citizen Observatory’ approach to enable citizens to take a proactive role in the management of their local communities and environment by supporting their engagement in the decision-making process. We discuss how to empower citizens and communities to engage with and assist authorities to establish a more informed understanding of residents’ needs and the status of their local environments. Through the WeSenseIt project, we employ a location-based crowdsourcing and communication strategy to develop a resilient, efficient and collaborative information ecosystem for decision-making in urban and rural areas

Citizens observatories for effective Earth observations: the WeSenseIt approach

Tese de doutoramento em Biociências, no ramo de Ecologia Marinha, apresentada ao Departamento de Ciências da Vida da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de CoimbraIn the face of the current non-linear and abrupt changes in ecosystems around the world, a systematic impact has arisen to the environmental dynamics of the coastal systems. At their essential intermediate trophic level in the marine system, sardines are recognized for being highly susceptible to the deregulation of their stocks when subjected to intensive exploitation. Given this, there are significant difficulties of management and participatory coastal management of the species of sardines in the Atlantic Ocean. In this way, local ecological knowledge (LEK) emerges as an auxiliary tool that seeks to extract specific information about an individual about the environment as well as to understand the attitudes of local individuals regarding a resource as a way to improve biodiversity conservation practices. Therefore, the present thesis sought to evaluate and share local ecological knowledge (LEK) and attitudes for the conservation of European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) and Brazilian sardine (Sardinella brasiliensis) in two fishing villages (Peniche, District of Leiria, Portugal and Arraial do Cabo, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). This study was based on 221 semi-structured interviews conducted with fishermen from Peniche (N = 87) about European sardines, and with fishers from Arraial do Cabo (N = 134) about Brazilian sardine. The data extracted from the interviews were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed, and the LEK made available was compared with the literature following an emic-etic approach. Additives knowledge indicators and attitudes about sardines were created for comparison purposes. The classification adopted to evaluate the LEK, and the attitudes respected the premises of the three-point Likert scale. It was also sought to investigate possible correlations between LEK, attitudes and the profile of fishers from both communities. The statistical treatments performed were calculated using program R version 3.3.2. The profiles of the interviewees of the studied communities were investigated and measured succinctly. Informants shared detailed informal knowledge of the significant biological and ecological aspects of the clupeoids in question. Taboos and food aversions were present inexpressively and were not related to conservation measures. Fishers from both Atlantic communities presented moderate local ecological knowledge about sardines when compared to the biological data already published of this small pelagic species. Attitudes towards conservation of sardines were classified as positive in Peniche, while in the Brazilian community analyzed, they were moderate. In Peniche, attitudes showed to be a predictor of LEK, age and educational level of informants. Otherwise, in Arraial do Cabo the variables of the fisher´s profile (source of income, educational level, boat ownership, association with fishing colony and occupation) showed a correlation with LEK and with conservationist attitudes. Encouraging the continuation of regular educational training of informants and the inclusion of environmental education programs with the sharing of information on sardine conservation. This ethnobiological study reported comparable results with other studies examining LEK and local community attitudes about a natural resource, which reaffirms the importance of this socio-ecological tool for environmental management. Informal knowledge not compatible with the literature should not be discarded. This type of information can be further analysed and used in the formulation of testable hypotheses for future investigations of the species studied. The next step would be to include the LEK provided by the surveyed communities for analysis at meetings between all actors directly involved with the fishing resource. This procedure can collaborate and promote greater social inclusion of the less favored in the fisheries management decision-making in the Portuguese and Brazilian communities verified. A discussion with the participation of all the interested parties, without preconceived privileges to any of those involved, becomes of extreme importance because it enables reliability among the participants of these assemblies. This process, if well conducted, still can generate a better understanding of the predisposition of these communities to conserve the environmental resource. Also, this participatory management strategy may also provide an opportunity for local populations to acquire reliable and more scientific knowledge about this depleting fishing resource. Finally, a continuous exchange of information between ecologists and ethnobiologists is suggested on possible gaps in knowledge that may arise about fish stocks in both Atlantic systems.Em virtude das actuais mudanças não-lineares e abruptas nos ecossistemas em todo o planeta, a dinâmica ambiental dos sistemas costeiros tem sido bastante modificada. Por ocuparem o nível trófico intermediário essencial no sistema marinho, as sardinhas são reconhecidas por serem altamente susceptíveis a grandes alterações dos seus efectivos populacionais quando submetidas à exploração intensiva. Diante de tal cenário, observam-se grandes dificuldades na gestão costeira (que se quer participativa) das espécies de sardinhas no oceano Atlântico. Desse modo, o conhecimento ecológico local (CEL) surge como uma ferramenta auxiliar que busca extrair informações específicas de um indivíduo em relação ao meio ambiente como também compreender as atitudes de indivíduos locais no que tange a um recurso em particular, como forma de melhorar as práticas de conservação da biodiversidade. Por conseguinte, a presente tese tentou avaliar o conhecimento ecológico local (CEL), bem como as atitudes para a conservação da sardinha europeia (Sardina pilchardus) e da sardinha brasileira (Sardinella brasiliensis) em duas aldeias piscatórias (Peniche, Distrito de Leiria, Portugal; e Arraial do Cabo, Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil). Este estudo baseou-se em 221 entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas aleatoriamente com pescadores de Peniche (N = 87) acerca da sardinha europeia, e com pescadores de Arraial do Cabo (N = 134) sobre a sardinha brasileira. Os dados extraídos das entrevistas foram analisados de modo qualitativo e quantitativo e o CEL disponibilizado foi comparado com a literatura através da utilização das abordagens êmica e ética. Foram criados índices para medir o CEL e as atitudes dos pescadores em relação à conservação das espécies de sardinhas. A classificação adotada para avaliar o CEL e as atitudes respeitou as premissas da escala de três pontos de Likert. Por último, também foram investigadas as possíveis correlações entre CEL, atitudes e o perfil dos pescadores de ambas as comunidades. Os tratamentos estatísticos realizados foram calculados por meio do programa R versão 3.3.2. Os perfis dos entrevistados das comunidades estudadas foram investigados e analisados sucintamente. Os entrevistados compartilharam conhecimentos informais detalhados dos principais aspectos biológicos e ecológicos dos clupeóides em questão. Os tabus e aversões alimentares estiveram presentes de forma inexpressiva e não foram relacionados com medidas conservacionistas. Os pescadores de ambas as comunidades Atlânticas apresentaram um conhecimento ecológico local moderado acerca das sardinhas quando comparados aos dados biológicos já publicados dessas pequenas espécies pelágicas. Em Peniche, houve a correlação entre as atitudes e o CEL, a idade e o nível educacional dos informantes respectivamente. Por outro lado, em Arraial do Cabo as variáveis do perfil dos pescadores (fonte de renda, nível educacional, propriedade de embarcação, associação à colónia de pescadores e ocupação) mostraram correlação com o CEL e com as atitudes conservacionistas. O incentivo à continuação da formação educacional convencional dos informantes (pescadores) e a inserção de programas de educação ambiental acompanhados de informações acerca da conservação da sardinha nas aldeias de pescadores investigadas são essenciais para estabelecer e melhorar as atitudes conservacionistas. Este estudo etnobiológico reportou resultados comparáveis com outros estudos que investigam o LEK e atitudes de comunidades locais acerca de um determinado recurso natural, o que reafirma a importância desta ferramenta sócio-ecológica para a gestão ambiental. O conhecimento informal não compatível com a literatura não deve ser totalmente descartado. Esse tipo de informação pode ainda ser analisado minuciosamente e utilizado na formulação de hipóteses para futuras investigações acerca da espécie estudada. O próximo passo seria incluir o CEL fornecido pelas comunidades estudadas para análises em reuniões entre todos os atores envolvidos directamente com o recurso pesqueiro. Esse procedimento pode promover uma maior inclusão social dos menos favorecidos nas decisões relativas à gestão dos stocks pesqueiros nas comunidades portuguesa e brasileira. Uma discussão com a participação de todos os interessados, sem privilégios preconcebidos a nenhum dos envolvidos, torna- se de extrema importância pois aumenta a confiança entre todos os envolvidos. Este processo, se bem conduzido, ainda tem a capacidade de gerar um melhor entendimento da predisposição dessas comunidades em conservar o recurso ambiental. Além disso, esta estratégia de gestão participativa também pode proporcionar uma oportunidade das populações locais adquirirem conhecimentos mais científicos sobre esse recurso pesqueiro em questão. Por fim, sugere-se ainda uma contínua troca de informações entre ecólogos e etnobiólogos sobre as possíveis lacunas de informações que possam surgir relativamente aos stocks pesqueiros em ambos os sistemas Atlânticos.Centre for Functional Ecology - CFE, Department of life Sciences, University of Coimbra, PortugalProject ReNATURE - Valorization of the Natural Endogenous Resources of the Centro Region (Centro 2020, Centro-01-0145-FEDER-000007)CAPES Foundation – Ministry of Education of Brazil for financial support (BEX: 8926/13-1

Citizens observatories for effective Earth observations: the WeSenseIt approach

The WeSenseIt project defines citizen observatories as “A method, an environment and an infrastructure supporting an information ecosystem for communities and citizens, as well as emergency operators and policymakers, for discussion, monitoring and intervention on situations, places and events” . A collaborative approach has been taken to develop solutions that involve an exchange of information and expertise from all participants and where the focus is on arriving at practical solutions with a clear vision and direction. This has created a shared ownership scheme, and shifts power to the process itself rather than remaining within authorities, developers or decision-makers. The project’s emphasis is on delivering highly innovative technologies to support citizens, communities and authorities in developing a real-time situation awareness while ensuring all stakeholders play their part. Implementation has been through a combination of crowdsourcing, custom applications and dedicated web portals designed to foster collaboration, and which has created a shared knowledge base that facilitates decision-making processes and engages with communities. Data is captured via innovative sensors that are used directly by citizens, crowdsourcing from social networks (or by collective intelligence)

Citizen science and crowdsourcing for Earth observations: An analysis of stakeholder opinions on the present and future

The impact of Crowdsourcing and citizen science activities on academia, businesses, governance and society has been enormous. This is more prevalent today with citizens and communities collaborating with organizations, businesses and authorities to contribute in a variety of manners, starting from mere data providers to being key stakeholders in various decision-making processes. The “Crowdsourcing for observations from Satellites” project is a recently concluded study supported by demonstration projects funded by European Space Agency (ESA). The objective of the project was to investigate the different facets of how crowdsourcing and citizen science impact upon the validation, use and enhancement of Observations from Satellites (OS) products and services. This paper presents our findings in a stakeholder analysis activity involving participants who are experts in crowdsourcing, citizen science for Earth Observations. The activity identified three critical areas that needs attention by the community as well as provides suggestions to potentially help in addressing some of the challenges identified

Design of the second evaluation campaign

wrigley2011aThis deliverable is concerned with the implementation of the second evaluation campaign based upon the methodology and design recommendations made in SEALS Deliverable D3.1. This deliverable covers the initial preparation of the second SEALS Evaluation Campaign and describes the tasks that have been performed during the Initiation and Involvement phases. Furthermore, the deliverable describes the steps to be taken over the next few months and the actors who are responsible for those steps

‘Instead of fetching flowers, the youths brought in flakes of snow’: exploring extreme weather history through English parish registers

Parish registers provide organized, dated and located population data and as such, are routinely among the most frequently consulted documents within the holdings of county record offices and archives. Throughout history, extreme weather has had significant impacts on the church, its congregation, and local landscape. It is for these reasons that extreme weather events have been deemed worthy of official note by authors of many registers. Although isolated entries have been used as supporting evidence for the occurrence of a number of historic extreme weather events, the information that parish registers contain relating to weather history has not been studied in its own right. Parish register narratives add new events to existing chronologies of extreme weather events and contribute to our understanding of their impacts at the local level. As public and well used documents they also function to keep the memory of particular events alive. The examples in this paper cover a wide range of weather types, places, and time periods, also enabling recording practice to be explored. Finally, as the number of digitized registers increases, we highlight the risks of weather narratives being obscured, and reflect on how the weather history contained within might be systematically captured

Underestimating intraspecific variation: The problem with excluding Sts 19 from Australopithecus africanus

Two analyses conclude that Sts 19 cannot be accommodated within the Australopithecus africanus hypodigm (Kimbel and Rak [1993] In Kimbel and Martin [eds.]: Species, Species Concepts, and Primate Evolution. New York: Plenum, pp. 461–484; Sarmiento [1993] Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. [Suppl.] 16: 173). Both studies exclude Sts 19 because it possesses synapomorphies with Homo. Furthermore, according to Kimbel and Rak (1993), including Sts 19 in A. africanus results in an unacceptably high degree of polymorphism. This study aims to refute the null hypothesis that Sts 19 belongs to A. africanus. Twelve basicranial characters, as defined and implemented in Kimbel and Rak's study, were scored for casts of seven A. africanus and seven Homo habilis basicranial specimens. These characters were also examined on specimens from a large (N = 87) sample of African pongids. Contrary to Kimbel and Rak's (1993) findings, the null hypothesis is not refuted. The degree of polymorphism among A. africanus with Sts 19 included is less than that seen in Pan troglodytes. In addition, Sts 19 shares only one apomorphy with Homo. However, when treated metrically, Sts 19's morphology for this character is not significantly divergent from other A. africanus specimens. Am J Phys Anthropol 105:461–480, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/37684/1/5_ftp.pd

Phase II trial of Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA) virus expressing 5T4 and high dose Interleukin-2 (IL-2) in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Interleukin-2 (IL-2) induces durable objective responses in a small cohort of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) but the antigen(s) responsible for tumor rejection are not known. 5T4 is a non-secreted membrane glycoprotein expressed on clear cell and papillary RCCs. A modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) encoding 5T4 was tested in combination with high-dose IL-2 to determine the safety, objective response rate and effect on humoral and cell-mediated immunity.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>25 patients with metastatic RCC who qualified for IL-2 were eligible and received three immunizations every three weeks followed by IL-2 (600,000 IU/kg) after the second and third vaccinations. Blood was collected for analysis of humoral, effector and regulatory T cell responses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no serious vaccine-related adverse events. While no objective responses were observed, three patients (12%) were rendered disease-free after nephrectomy or resection of residual metastatic disease. Twelve patients (48%) had stable disease which was associated with improved median overall survival compared to patients with progressive disease (not reached vs. 28 months, p = 0.0261). All patients developed 5T4-specific antibody responses and 13 patients had an increase in 5T4-specific T cell responses. Although the baseline frequency of Tregs was elevated in all patients, those with stable disease showed a trend toward increased effector CD8+ T cells and a decrease in Tregs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p><b>V</b>accination with MVA-5T4 did not improve objective response rates of IL-2 therapy but did result in stable disease associated with an increase in the ratio of 5T4-specific effector to regulatory T cells in selected patients.</p> <p>Trial registration number</p> <p>ISRCTN83977250</p