Coastal Survey Maps: From Historical Documents to Digital Databases

This paper describes the spatial data handling procedures used to create a vector database of the Connecticut shoreline from Coastal Survey Maps. The appendix contains detailed information on how the procedures were implemented using Geographic Transformer Software 5 and ArcGIS 8.3. The project was a joint project of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the University of Connecticut Center for Geographic Information and Analysis.

Digital repository implementation: a toolbox for streamlined success

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the tools and strategies that were employed by C/W MARS to successfully develop and implement the Digital Treasures digital repository. Design/methodology/approach – This paper outlines the planning and subsequent technical issues that arise when implementing a digitization project on the scale of the large, multi-type, automated library network. Workflow solutions addressed include synchronous online metadata record submissions from multiple library sources and the delivery of collection-level use statistics to participating library administrators. The importance of standards-based descriptive metadata and the role of project collaboration are also discussed. Findings – From the time of its initial planning, the Digital Treasures repository was fully implemented in six months. The discernable and statistically quantified online discovery and access of actual digital objects greatly assisted libraries unsure of their own staffing costs/benefits to join the repository. Originality/value – This case study may serve as a possible example of initial planning, workflow and final implementation strategies for new repositories in both the general and library consortium environment. Keywords – Digital repositories, Library networks, Data management. Paper type – Case study

Job Matching and Wage Growth in the U.S. and Germany

This paper examines the contribution of job matching to wage growth in the U.S. and Germany using data drawn from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the German Socio-Economic Panel from 1984 through 1992. Using a symmetrical set of variables and data handling procedures, real wage growth is found to be higher in the U.S. than in Germany during this period. Also, using two different estimators, job matches are found to enhance wage growth in the U.S. and retard it in Germany. The relationship of general skills to employment in each country appears responsible for this result.

Reseña sobre las metodologías de campo, analíticas y estadísticas empleadas en la determinación y manejo de datos de los elementos de tierras raras en el sistema suelo-planta

El presente artículo es una revisión detallada de estudios científicos publicados que tratan el tema relacionado con la determinación de los elementos de las tierras raras (REEs) en el sistema suelo-planta. Los estudios han sido llevados a cabo principalmente en países europeos y asiáticos. Cabe señalar que la investigación en los países latinoamericanos es muy escasa; sin embargo, es creciente el interés de analizar la aportación de estos elementos al suelo y la planta, lo cual se debe a la aplicación de fertilizantes que contienen dosis elevadas de estos elementos en su composición. Diversas técnicas de muestreo, experimentación y análisis han sido empleadas para la determinación de los REEs. No obstante, se considera que el manejo de los datos ha sido incorrecto estadísticamente. El contenido del presente artículo aborda: (i) las generalidades de los REEs; (ii) el análisis de la bibliografía disponible con el fin de conocer las metodologías de muestreo y análisis más utilizadas en 37 artículos en total, señalando algunos puntos que se consideran todavía deficientes; (iii) dos ejemplos de la aplicación de técnicas estadísticas (intervalo de confianza de la media y pruebas de significancia de la relación F de Fisher y t de Student) utilizando datos reportados en dos artículos. Los resultados mostraron, con los datos del primer artículo analizado, que: a) no se aplicó una metodología estadística para evaluar la calidad de datos; b) al aplicar estadística se encontró que existen diferencias sistemáticas entre los datos determinados en el laboratorio y los certificados. En el segundo artículo analizado se demostró, mediante pruebas de significancia, que existen diferencias significativas en las medias de Ce y Eu (los dos elementos tomados como ejemplos) en las plantas de un sitio a otro.

On the simulation of the UPMSAT-2 microsatellite power

Simulation of satellite subsystems behaviour is extramely important in the design at early stages. The subsystems are normally simulated in the both ways : isolated and as part of more complex simulation that takes into account imputs from other subsystems (concurrent design). In the present work, a simple concurrent simulation of the power subsystem of a microsatellite, UPMSat-2, is described. The aim of the work is to obtain the performance profile of the system (battery charging level, power consumption by the payloads, power supply from solar panels....). Different situations such as battery critical low or high level, effects of high current charging due to the low temperature of solar panels after eclipse,DoD margins..., were analysed, and different safety strategies studied using the developed tool (simulator) to fulfil the mission requirements. Also, failure cases were analysed in order to study the robustness of the system. The mentioned simulator has been programed taking into account the power consumption performances (average and maximum consumptions per orbit/day) of small part of the subsystem (SELEX GALILEO SPVS modular generators built with Azur Space solar cells, SAFT VES16 6P4S Li-ion battery, SSBV magnetometers, TECNOBIT and DATSI/UPM On Board Data Handling -OBDH-...). The developed tool is then intended to be a modular simulator, with the chance of use any other components implementing some standard data.

Dynamic multi-resolution spatial object derivation for mobile and WWW applications

Online geographic information systems provide the means to extract a subset of desired spatial information from a larger remote repository. Data retrieved representing real-world geographic phenomena are then manipulated to suit the specific needs of an end-user. Often this extraction requires the derivation of representations of objects specific to a particular resolution or scale from a single original stored version. Currently standard spatial data handling techniques cannot support the multi-resolution representation of such features in a database. In this paper a methodology to store and retrieve versions of spatial objects at, different resolutions with respect to scale using standard database primitives and SQL is presented. The technique involves heavy fragmentation of spatial features that allows dynamic simplification into scale-specific object representations customised to the display resolution of the end-user's device. Experimental results comparing the new approach to traditional R-Tree indexing and external object simplification reveal the former performs notably better for mobile and WWW applications where client-side resources are limited and retrieved data loads are kept relatively small.

Modeling geometric rules in object based models:an XML / GML approach

Most object-based approaches to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have concentrated on the representation of geometric properties of objects in terms of fixed geometry. In our road traffic marking application domain we have a requirement to represent the static locations of the road markings but also enforce the associated regulations, which are typically geometric in nature. For example a give way line of a pedestrian crossing in the UK must be within 1100-3000 mm of the edge of the crossing pattern. In previous studies of the application of spatial rules (often called 'business logic') in GIS emphasis has been placed on the representation of topological constraints and data integrity checks. There is very little GIS literature that describes models for geometric rules, although there are some examples in the Computer Aided Design (CAD) literature. This paper introduces some of the ideas from so called variational CAD models to the GIS application domain, and extends these using a Geography Markup Language (GML) based representation. In our application we have an additional requirement; the geometric rules are often changed and vary from country to country so should be represented in a flexible manner. In this paper we describe an elegant solution to the representation of geometric rules, such as requiring lines to be offset from other objects. The method uses a feature-property model embraced in GML 3.1 and extends the possible relationships in feature collections to permit the application of parameterized geometric constraints to sub features. We show the parametric rule model we have developed and discuss the advantage of using simple parametric expressions in the rule base. We discuss the possibilities and limitations of our approach and relate our data model to GML 3.1. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A flexible, extensible object oriented real-time near photorealistic visualization system:the system framework design

In this paper we describe a novel, extensible visualization system currently under development at Aston University. We introduce modern programming methods, such as the use of data driven programming, design patterns, and the careful definition of interfaces to allow easy extension using plug-ins, to 3D landscape visualization software. We combine this with modern developments in computer graphics, such as vertex and fragment shaders, to create an extremely flexible, extensible real-time near photorealistic visualization system. In this paper we show the design of the system and the main sub-components. We stress the role of modern programming practices and illustrate the benefits these bring to 3D visualization. © 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

Applied operational research with SAS

Using a wide range of operational research (OR) optimization examples, Applied Operational Research with SAS demonstrates how the OR procedures in SAS work. The book is one of the first to extensively cover the application of SAS procedures to OR problems, such as single criterion optimization, project management decisions, printed circuit board assembly, and multiple criteria decision making. The text begins with the algorithms and methods for linear programming, integer linear programming, and goal programming models. It then describes the principles of several OR procedures in SAS. Subsequent chapters explain how to use these procedures to solve various types of OR problems. Each of these chapters describes the concept of an OR problem, presents an example of the problem, and discusses the specific procedure and its macros for the optimal solution of the problem. The macros include data handling, model building, and report writing. While primarily designed for SAS users in OR and marketing analytics, the book can also be used by readers interested in mathematical modeling techniques. By formulating the OR problems as mathematical models, the authors show how SAS can solve a variety of optimization problems.

Identifying the Structure and Fate of Wastewater Derived Organic Micropollutants by High-resolution Mass Spectrometry

Human activities represent a significant burden on the global water cycle, with large and increasing demands placed on limited water resources by manufacturing, energy production and domestic water use. In addition to changing the quantity of available water resources, human activities lead to changes in water quality by introducing a large and often poorly-characterized array of chemical pollutants, which may negatively impact biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems, leading to impairment of valuable ecosystem functions and services. Domestic and industrial wastewaters represent a significant source of pollution to the aquatic environment due to inadequate or incomplete removal of chemicals introduced into waters by human activities. Currently, incomplete chemical characterization of treated wastewaters limits comprehensive risk assessment of this ubiquitous impact to water. In particular, a significant fraction of the organic chemical composition of treated industrial and domestic wastewaters remains uncharacterized at the molecular level. Efforts aimed at reducing the impacts of water pollution on aquatic ecosystems critically require knowledge of the composition of wastewaters to develop interventions capable of protecting our precious natural water resources.

The goal of this dissertation was to develop a robust, extensible and high-throughput framework for the comprehensive characterization of organic micropollutants in wastewaters by high-resolution accurate-mass mass spectrometry. High-resolution mass spectrometry provides the most powerful analytical technique available for assessing the occurrence and fate of organic pollutants in the water cycle. However, significant limitations in data processing, analysis and interpretation have limited this technique in achieving comprehensive characterization of organic pollutants occurring in natural and built environments. My work aimed to address these challenges by development of automated workflows for the structural characterization of organic pollutants in wastewater and wastewater impacted environments by high-resolution mass spectrometry, and to apply these methods in combination with novel data handling routines to conduct detailed fate studies of wastewater-derived organic micropollutants in the aquatic environment.

In Chapter 2, chemoinformatic tools were implemented along with novel non-targeted mass spectrometric analytical methods to characterize, map, and explore an environmentally-relevant “chemical space” in municipal wastewater. This was accomplished by characterizing the molecular composition of known wastewater-derived organic pollutants and substances that are prioritized as potential wastewater contaminants, using these databases to evaluate the pollutant-likeness of structures postulated for unknown organic compounds that I detected in wastewater extracts using high-resolution mass spectrometry approaches. Results showed that application of multiple computational mass spectrometric tools to structural elucidation of unknown organic pollutants arising in wastewaters improved the efficiency and veracity of screening approaches based on high-resolution mass spectrometry. Furthermore, structural similarity searching was essential for prioritizing substances sharing structural features with known organic pollutants or industrial and consumer chemicals that could enter the environment through use or disposal.

I then applied this comprehensive methodological and computational non-targeted analysis workflow to micropollutant fate analysis in domestic wastewaters (Chapter 3), surface waters impacted by water reuse activities (Chapter 4) and effluents of wastewater treatment facilities receiving wastewater from oil and gas extraction activities (Chapter 5). In Chapter 3, I showed that application of chemometric tools aided in the prioritization of non-targeted compounds arising at various stages of conventional wastewater treatment by partitioning high dimensional data into rational chemical categories based on knowledge of organic chemical fate processes, resulting in the classification of organic micropollutants based on their occurrence and/or removal during treatment. Similarly, in Chapter 4, high-resolution sampling and broad-spectrum targeted and non-targeted chemical analysis were applied to assess the occurrence and fate of organic micropollutants in a water reuse application, wherein reclaimed wastewater was applied for irrigation of turf grass. Results showed that organic micropollutant composition of surface waters receiving runoff from wastewater irrigated areas appeared to be minimally impacted by wastewater-derived organic micropollutants. Finally, Chapter 5 presents results of the comprehensive organic chemical composition of oil and gas wastewaters treated for surface water discharge. Concurrent analysis of effluent samples by complementary, broad-spectrum analytical techniques, revealed that low-levels of hydrophobic organic contaminants, but elevated concentrations of polymeric surfactants, which may effect the fate and analysis of contaminants of concern in oil and gas wastewaters.

Taken together, my work represents significant progress in the characterization of polar organic chemical pollutants associated with wastewater-impacted environments by high-resolution mass spectrometry. Application of these comprehensive methods to examine micropollutant fate processes in wastewater treatment systems, water reuse environments, and water applications in oil/gas exploration yielded new insights into the factors that influence transport, transformation, and persistence of organic micropollutants in these systems across an unprecedented breadth of chemical space.

Context Mediation in the Semantic Web: Handling OWL Ontology and Data Disparity through Context Interchange

The COntext INterchange (COIN) strategy is an approach to solving the problem of interoperability of semantically heterogeneous data sources through context mediation. COIN has used its own notation and syntax for representing ontologies. More recently, the OWL Web Ontology Language is becoming established as the W3C recommended ontology language. We propose the use of the COIN strategy to solve context disparity and ontology interoperability problems in the emerging Semantic Web – both at the ontology level and at the data level. In conjunction with this, we propose a version of the COIN ontology model that uses OWL and the emerging rules interchange language, RuleML.