Capacity building in Ocean Bathymetry: The Nippon Foundation GEBCO Training Programme at the University of New Hampshire

A successful Capacity Building project in hydrography is underway at the University of New Hampshire. Organised by the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans and sponsored by the Nippon Foundation, the programme trains hydrographers and other marine scientists in bathymetric mapping. Participants are formally prepared to produce bathymetric maps when they return to their home countries through a combination of graduate level courses and workshops, practical field training, participation in deep ocean research cruises, working visits to other laboratories and institutions, focused lectures from visiting experts, and the preparation of a bathymetry map of their area from public domain data. Intangible but necessary preparation includes the networking with professionals in bathymetry and related fields within Ocean Mapping, and the building of a cadre of graduates who will form the basis of international bathymetric mapping in the future

An Efficient Hybrid Ant Colony System for the Generalized Traveling Salesman Problem

The Generalized Traveling Salesman Problem (GTSP) is an extension of the well-known Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), where the node set is partitioned into clusters, and the objective is to find the shortest cycle visiting each cluster exactly once. In this paper, we present a new hybrid Ant Colony System (ACS) algorithm for the symmetric GTSP. The proposed algorithm is a modification of a simple ACS for the TSP improved by an efficient GTSP-specific local search procedure. Our extensive computational experiments show that the use of the local search procedure dramatically improves the performance of the ACS algorithm, making it one of the most successful GTSP metaheuristics to date.Comment: 7 page

"Every Heart North of the Tweed": Placing Canadian magazines of the 1820s and 1830s

No abstract available

Estimation of Sounding Uncertainty from Measurements of Water Mass Variability

Analysis techniques are introduced that allow for estimation of potential sounding uncertainty due to water mass variability from reconnaissance campaigns in which oceanographic parameters are measured at a high temporal and spatial resolution. The analysis techniques do not require sounding data, thus analyses can be tailored to match any survey system; this allows for pre-analysis campaigns to optimize survey instrumentation and sound speed profiling rates such that a desired survey specification can be maintained. Additionally, the output of the analysis methods can potentially provide a higher fidelity estimation of sounding uncertainty due to water mass variability than uncertainty models in common use

Huddl: the Hydrographic Universal Data Description Language

Since many of the attempts to introduce a universal hydrographic data format have failed or have been only partially successful, a different approach is proposed. Our solution is the Hydrographic Universal Data Description Language (HUDDL), a descriptive XML-based language that permits the creation of a standardized description of (past, present, and future) data formats, and allows for applications like HUDDLER, a compiler that automatically creates drivers for data access and manipulation. HUDDL also represents a powerful solution for archiving data along with their structural description, as well as for cataloguing existing format specifications and their version control. HUDDL is intended to be an open, community-led initiative to simplify the issues involved in hydrographic data access

Environmental Risks Monitoring of Shipwrecks in Italian Seas

After a description of the international regulatory framework, this paper examines the European project DE.E.P.P. and provides an overview of shipwreck databases in Italy. Afterwards, it reconstructs the recent history of the supertanker VLCC Haven which represents one of the largest Mediterranean shipwrecks. The findings of this paper emphasize the need to unify all the various agencies databases into a national Territorial Information System of potentially polluting wrecks. This System would be completed by all the information available in archives and press, to allow an adequate environmental risk monitoring and classification of shipwrecks in the Italian seas

Growing up Overseas: Perceptions of Second Language Attrition and Retrieval Amongst Expatriate Children in India

This study involves expatriate children whose first language (L1) is English and who learned Hindi as their second language (L2) while their parents worked in India. The purpose of the study was to investigate the linguistic experiences of the children after they had left India, particularly experiences with L2 attrition. Through semi-structured interviews, subjects shared their stories of L2 acquisition and attrition. Common experiences which contributed to the attrition of the L2 included periods of non-use of the L2, social responses to the use of the L2, the lack of development of Hindi literacy and subjects’ attitude toward using the L2. Some of the subjects were able to retrieve the L2 on return trips to India and an examination is made of their perceptions of what supported this retrieval process. These include exposure to the “environment” of India and personal motivation. The conclusion provides questions and suggestions for further research to contribute to a better understanding of the linguistic experiences of expatriate children. Cette étude concerne les enfants expatriés de langue maternelle anglaise qui ont appris le hindi comme deuxième langue (L2) alors que leurs parents travaillaient en Inde. Le but de cette étude était d’enquêter sur les pratiques linguistiques usuelles de ces enfants une fois qu’ils avaient quitté l’Inde, avec un accent particulier sur l’érosion de la L2. Au cours d’entrevues semistructurées, les participants ont raconté comment ils ont acquis et oublié la deuxième langue (L2). Les facteurs usuels d’érosion de la L2 comprennent des périodes de non utilisation de la L2, les réactions sociales à l’utilisation de la L2, le manque de développement de l’alphabétisation des participants en hindi, et leur attitude envers l’usage de la L2. Certains des participants ont pu récupérer la langue suite à un retour en Inde; ils attribuent cette récupération à plusieurs facteurs, notamment l’exposition à un environnement indien et la motivation personnelle. La conclusion formule des questions et des suggestions pour mener d’autres recherches afin de mieux comprendre les expériences linguistiques des enfants expatriés

A Process for Producing Ice Coverage Marine Information Objects (MIOs) in IHO S-57 Format

While global warming may be opening up more Arctic waters in the summer, ice still infests key shipping lanes in the northern hemisphere during the winter months. To safely navigate these areas, mariners rely on daily ice coverage charts produced by national governmental agencies. Ice charts are primarily issued in paper format or as a fax. However, there is increased interest to ice coverage information on vessel navigation systems such as an Electronic Chart and Display Information Systems (ECDIS). However, to do so, the ice information must be provided as a separate layer of information to the Electronic Navigational Chart (ENC)

Seafloor mapping in the Arctic: support for a potential U.S. extended continental shelf

For the United States, the greatest opportunity for an extended continental shelf under UNCLOS is in the ice-covered regions of the Arctic north of Alaska. Since 2003, CCOM/JHC has been using the icebreaker Healy equipped with a multibeam echosounder, chirp subbottom profiler, and dredges, to map and sample the region of Chukchi Borderland and Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge complex. These data have led to the discovery of several new features, have radically changed our view of the bathymetry and geologic history of the area, and may have important ramifications for the determination of the limits of a U.S. extended continental shelf under Article 76