Algorithms Used to Update State Soil Survey

While seasonal weather can be the difference between a good and a bad harvest, it is the soil that moderates the long-term productivity of a field. The inherent properties of soils are vital to know when it comes to management practices on any agricultural landscape

SciTokens: Capability-Based Secure Access to Remote Scientific Data

The management of security credentials (e.g., passwords, secret keys) for computational science workflows is a burden for scientists and information security officers. Problems with credentials (e.g., expiration, privilege mismatch) cause workflows to fail to fetch needed input data or store valuable scientific results, distracting scientists from their research by requiring them to diagnose the problems, re-run their computations, and wait longer for their results. In this paper, we introduce SciTokens, open source software to help scientists manage their security credentials more reliably and securely. We describe the SciTokens system architecture, design, and implementation addressing use cases from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) Scientific Collaboration and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) projects. We also present our integration with widely-used software that supports distributed scientific computing, including HTCondor, CVMFS, and XrootD. SciTokens uses IETF-standard OAuth tokens for capability-based secure access to remote scientific data. The access tokens convey the specific authorizations needed by the workflows, rather than general-purpose authentication impersonation credentials, to address the risks of scientific workflows running on distributed infrastructure including NSF resources (e.g., LIGO Data Grid, Open Science Grid, XSEDE) and public clouds (e.g., Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure). By improving the interoperability and security of scientific workflows, SciTokens 1) enables use of distributed computing for scientific domains that require greater data protection and 2) enables use of more widely distributed computing resources by reducing the risk of credential abuse on remote systems.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, PEARC '18: Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing, July 22--26, 2018, Pittsburgh, PA, US

3D Tracking via Body Radio Reflections

This paper introduces WiTrack, a system that tracks the 3D motion of a user from the radio signals reflected off her body. It works even if the person is occluded from the WiTrack device or in a different room. WiTrack does not require the user to carry any wireless device, yet its accuracy exceeds current RF localization systems, which require the user to hold a transceiver. Empirical measurements with a WiTrack prototype show that, on average, it localizes the center of a human body to within 10 to 13 cm in the x and y dimensions, and 21 cm in the z dimension. It also provides coarse tracking of body parts, identifying the direction of a pointing hand with a median of 11.2 degrees. WiTrack bridges a gap between RF-based localization systems which locate a user through walls and occlusions, and human-computer interaction systems like WiTrack, which can track a user without instrumenting her body, but require the user to stay within the direct line of sight of the device

Assessing Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches to Measure Program Outcomes in Human Service Organizations

Leadership and organizational performance are interconnected, and in many cases the two go hand in hand. In nonprofit organizations, leaders are expected to guide and produce positive program outcomes that reflect the mission of the organization. One problem nonprofit leaders face, however, is how to measure program outcomes. What metrics, including impact measurement and performance measurement, of outcomes are available for nonprofit leaders to use? How does a leader know if his or her nonprofit is performing well? Are there any new frameworks or models to consider that may help with this problem? This paper addresses these questions by exploring the nonprofit literature on performance measurement specific to human service organizations. In addition, the paper creates three frameworks that can be used by nonprofit leaders to help measure their program outcomes

Understanding Demographics and Experience of Tourists in Yellowstone National Park through Social Media

This study compared tourists’ demographic variables between survey data and Twitter data in Yellowstone National Park and explored tourists’ experience through Twitter data. First, there were significant differences in age groups of tourists between social media data and survey data. Compared to survey data, tourists who identified by Twitter data concentrated on middle age groups. Secondly, the spatial distribution of geotagged tweets reflected the road network and main attractions in Yellowstone National Park. The peak visitation season is from June to September in survey data, while, in social media data, the peak visitation season is slightly shorter. Finally, the sentiment analysis was conducted and only 6.7% of tweets were negative, indicating that most tourists in Yellowstone National Park had good experience. Therefore, analyzing Twitter data will be helpful for understanding tourists’ demographics, attitudes and experience in the national parks and improving customer service in the further

A dosimetric comparison of four treatment planning methods for high grade glioma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>High grade gliomas (HGG) are typically treated with a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Three dimensional (3D) conformal radiotherapy treatment planning is still the main stay of treatment for these patients. New treatment planning methods suggest better dose distributions and organ sparing but their clinical benefit is unclear. The purpose of the current study was to compare normal tissue sparing and tumor coverage using four different radiotherapy planning methods in patients with high grade glioma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Three dimensional conformal (3D), sequential boost IMRT, integrated boost (IB) IMRT and Tomotherapy (TOMO) treatment plans were generated for 20 high grade glioma patients. T1 and T2 MRI abnormalities were used to define GTV and CTV with 2 and 2.5 cm margins to define PTV1 and PTV2 respectively.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean dose to PTV2 but not to PTV1 was less then 95% of the prescribed dose with IB and IMRT plans. The mean doses to the optic chiasm and the ipsilateral globe were highest with 3D plans and least with IB plans. The mean dose to the contralateral globe was highest with TOMO plans. The mean of the integral dose (ID) to the brain was least with the IB plan and was lower with IMRT compared to 3D plans. The TOMO plans had the least mean D10 to the normal brain but higher mean D50 and D90 compared to IB and IMRT plans. The mean D10 and D50 but not D90 were significantly lower with the IMRT plans compared to the 3D plans.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>No single treatment planning method was found to be superior to all others and a personalized approach is advised for planning and treating high-grade glioma patients with radiotherapy. Integral dose did not reflect accurately the dose volume histogram (DVH) of the normal brain and may not be a good indicator of delayed radiation toxicity.</p

Flexible Session Management in a Distributed Environment

Many secure communication libraries used by distributed systems, such as SSL, TLS, and Kerberos, fail to make a clear distinction between the authentication, session, and communication layers. In this paper we introduce CEDAR, the secure communication library used by the Condor High Throughput Computing software, and present the advantages to a distributed computing system resulting from CEDAR's separation of these layers. Regardless of the authentication method used, CEDAR establishes a secure session key, which has the flexibility to be used for multiple capabilities. We demonstrate how a layered approach to security sessions can avoid round-trips and latency inherent in network authentication. The creation of a distinct session management layer allows for optimizations to improve scalability by way of delegating sessions to other components in the system. This session delegation creates a chain of trust that reduces the overhead of establishing secure connections and enables centralized enforcement of system-wide security policies. Additionally, secure channels based upon UDP datagrams are often overlooked by existing libraries; we show how CEDAR's structure accommodates this as well. As an example of the utility of this work, we show how the use of delegated security sessions and other techniques inherent in CEDAR's architecture enables US CMS to meet their scalability requirements in deploying Condor over large-scale, wide-area grid systems