Modeling the Impacts of Climate Change on Phytogeographical Units. A Case Study of the Moesz Line

Regional climate models (RCMs) provide reliable climatic predictions for the next 90 years with high horizontal and temporal resolution. In the 21st century northward latitudinal and upward altitudinal shift of the distribution of plant species and phytogeographical units is expected. It is discussed how the modeling of phytogeographical unit can be reduced to modeling plant distributions. Predicted shift of the Moesz line is studied as case study (with three different modeling approaches) using 36 parameters of REMO regional climate data-set, ArcGIS geographic information software, and periods of 1961-1990 (reference period), 2011-2040, and 2041-2070. The disadvantages of this relatively simple climate envelope modeling (CEM) approach are then discussed and several ways of model improvement are suggested. Some statistical and artificial intelligence (AI) methods (logistic regression, cluster analysis and other clustering methods, decision tree, evolutionary algorithm, artificial neural network) are able to provide development of the model. Among them artificial neural networks (ANN) seems to be the most suitable algorithm for this purpose, which provides a black box method for distribution modeling.

Circumpolar Landscape Units, links to GeoTIFFs

Requirements for space based monitoring of permafrost features had been already defined within the IGOS Cryosphere Theme Report at the start of the IPY in 2007 (IGOS, 2007). The WMO Polar Space Task Group (PSTG, http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/sat/pstg_en.php) identified the need to review the requirements for permafrost monitoring and to update these requirements in 2013. Relevant surveys with focus on satellite data are already available from the ESA DUE Permafrost User requirements survey (2009), the United States National Research Council (2014) and the ESA - CliC - IPA - GTN -P workshop in February 2014. These reports have been reviewed and specific needs discussed within the community and a white paper submitted to the WMO PSTG. Acquisition requirements for monitoring of especially terrain changes (incl. rock glaciers and coastal erosion) and lakes (extent, ice properties etc.) with respect to current satellite missions have been specified. About 50 locations ('cold spots') where permafrost (Arctic and Antarctic) in situ monitoring has been taking place for many years or where field stations are currently established have been identified. These sites have been proposed to the WMO Polar Space Task Group as focus areas for future monitoring by high resolution satellite data. The specifications of these sites including meta-data on site instrumentation have been published as supplement to the white paper (Bartsch et al. 2014, doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.847003). The representativity of the 'cold spots' around the arctic has been in the following assessed based on a landscape units product which has been developed as part of the FP7 project PAGE21. The ESA DUE Permafrost service has been utilized to produce a pan-arctic database (25km, 2000-2014) comprising Mean Annual Surface Temperature, Annual and summer Amplitude of Surface Temperature, Mean Summer (July-August) Surface Temperature. Surface status (frozen/unfrozen) related products have been also derived from the ESA DUE Permafrost service. This includes the length of unfrozen period, first unfrozen day and first frozen day. In addition, SAR (ENVISAT ASAR GM) statistics as well as topographic parameters have been considered. The circumpolar datasets have been assessed for their redundancy in information content. 12 distinct units could be derived. The landscape units reveal similarities between North Slope Alaska and the region from the Yamal Peninsula to the Yenisei estuary. Northern Canada is characterized by the same landscape units like western Siberia. North-eastern Canada shows similarities to the Laptev coast region. This paper presents the result of this assessment and formulates recommendations for extensions of the in situ monitoring networks and categorizes the sites by satellite data requirements (specifically Sentinels) with respect to the landscape type and related processes.

Strategies for protecting intellectual property when using CUDA applications on graphics processing units

Recent advances in the massively parallel computational abilities of graphical processing units (GPUs) have increased their use for general purpose computation, as companies look to take advantage of big data processing techniques. This has given rise to the potential for malicious software targeting GPUs, which is of interest to forensic investigators examining the operation of software. The ability to carry out reverse-engineering of software is of great importance within the security and forensics elds, particularly when investigating malicious software or carrying out forensic analysis following a successful security breach. Due to the complexity of the Nvidia CUDA (Compute Uni ed Device Architecture) framework, it is not clear how best to approach the reverse engineering of a piece of CUDA software. We carry out a review of the di erent binary output formats which may be encountered from the CUDA compiler, and their implications on reverse engineering. We then demonstrate the process of carrying out disassembly of an example CUDA application, to establish the various techniques available to forensic investigators carrying out black-box disassembly and reverse engineering of CUDA binaries. We show that the Nvidia compiler, using default settings, leaks useful information. Finally, we demonstrate techniques to better protect intellectual property in CUDA algorithm implementations from reverse engineering.

Effects of Information and Time of Use Pricing on Irish Electricity Demand and Supply

In this dissertation I quantify residential behavior response to interventions designed to reduce electricity demand at different periods of the day. In the first chapter, I examine the effect of information provision coupled with bimonthly billing, monthly billing, and in-home displays, as well as a time-of-use (TOU) pricing scheme to measure consumption over each month of the Irish Consumer Behavior Trial. I find that time-of-use pricing with real time usage information reduces electricity usage up to 8.7 percent during peak times at the start of the trial but the effect decays over the first three months and after three months the in-home display group is indistinguishable from the monthly treatment group. Monthly and bi-monthly billing treatments are not found to be statistically different from another. These findings suggest that increasing billing reports to the monthly level may be more cost effective for electricity generators who wish to decrease expenses and consumption, rather than providing in-home displays. In the following chapter, I examine the response of residential households after exposure to time of use tariffs at different hours of the day. I find that these treatments reduce electricity consumption during peak hours by almost four percent, significantly lowering demand. Within the model, I find evidence of overall conservation in electricity used. In addition, weekday peak reductions appear to carry over to the weekend when peak pricing is not present, suggesting changes in consumer habit. The final chapter of my dissertation imposes a system wide time of use plan to analyze the potential reduction in carbon emissions from load shifting based on the Ireland and Northern Single Electricity Market. I find that CO2 emissions savings are highest during the winter months when load demand is highest and dirtier power plants are scheduled to meet peak demand. TOU pricing allows for shifting in usage from peak usage to off peak usage and this shift in load can be met with cleaner and cheaper generated electricity from imports, high efficiency gas units, and hydro units.

Ethical aspects of children’s perceptions of information-giving in care

The aim of this study was to identify key aspects in the exchange of information and to determine how nurses communicate news to hospitalised children. For this study, we applied the critical incident technique with 30 children aged between 8 and 14 years. Data were collected in paediatric units in a hospital in Alicante (Spain) using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The analysis yielded three main categories: the children’s reaction to the information, nursing staff behaviour as a key aspect in the exchange of information and communication of news as well as children’s experience. This article emphasises the need to promote children’s consent and participation in nursing interventions. An analysis of these aspects will verify whether children’s rights are being respected and taken into account in order to promote children’s well-being and adaptation to hospitalisation.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROJECTS IN NONPROFIT UNIVERSITY: A PROJECT GOVERNANCE PERSPECTIVE

The universities rely on the Information Technology (IT) projects to support and enhance their core strategic objectives of teaching, research, and administration. The researcher’s literature review found that the level of IT funding and resources in the universities is not adequate to meet the IT demands. The universities received more IT project requests than they could execute. As such, universities must selectively fund the IT projects. The objectives of the IT projects in the universities vary. An IT project which benefits the teaching functions may not benefit the administrative functions. As such, the selection of an IT project is challenging in the universities. To aid with the IT decision making, many universities in the United States of America (USA) have formed the IT Governance (ITG) processes. ITG is an IT decision making and accountability framework whose purpose is to align the IT efforts in an organization with its strategic objectives, realize the value of the IT investments, meet the expected performance criteria, and manage the risks and the resources (Weil & Ross, 2004). ITG in the universities is relatively new, and it is not well known how the ITG processes are aiding the nonprofit universities in selecting the right IT projects, and managing the performance of these IT projects. This research adds to the body of knowledge regarding the IT project selection under the governance structure, the maturity of the IT projects, and the IT project performance in the nonprofit universities. The case study research methodology was chosen for this exploratory research. The convenience sampling was done to choose the cases from two large, research universities with decentralized colleges, and two small, centralized universities. The data were collected on nine IT projects from these four universities using the interviews and the university documents. The multi-case analysis was complemented by the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to systematically analyze how the IT conditions lead to an outcome. This research found that the IT projects were selected in the centralized universities in a more informed manner. ITG was more authoritative in the small centralized universities; the ITG committees were formed by including the key decision makers, the decision-making roles, and responsibilities were better defined, and the frequency of ITG communication was higher. In the centralized universities, the business units and colleges brought the IT requests to ITG committees; which in turn prioritized the IT requests and allocated the funds and the resources to the IT projects. ITG committee members in the centralized universities had a higher awareness of the university-wide IT needs, and the IT projects tended to align with the strategic objectives. On the other hand, the decentralized colleges and business units in the large universities were influential and often bypassed the ITG processes. The decentralized units often chose the “pet” IT projects, and executed them within a silo, without bringing them to the attention of the ITG committees. While these IT projects met the departmental objectives, they did not always align with the university’s strategic objectives. This research found that the IT project maturity in the university could be increased by following the project management methodologies. The IT project management maturity was found higher in the IT projects executed by the centralized university, where a full-time project manager was assigned to manage the project, and the project manager had a higher expertise in the project management. The IT project executed under the guidance of the Project Management Office (PMO) has exhibited a higher project management maturity, as the PMO set the standards and controls for the project. The IT projects managed by the decentralized colleges by a part-time project manager with lower project management expertise have exhibited a lower project management maturity. The IT projects in the decentralized colleges were often managed by the business, or technical leads, who often lacked the project management expertise. This research found that higher the IT project management maturity, the better is the project performance. The IT projects with a higher maturity had a lower project delay, lower number of missed requirements, and lower number of IT system errors. This research found that the quality of IT decision in the university could be improved by centralizing the IT decision-making processes. The IT project management maturity could be improved by following the project management methodologies. The stakeholder management and communication were found critical for the success of the IT projects in the university. It is hoped that the findings from this research would help the university leaders make the strategic IT decisions, and the university’s IT project managers make the IT project decisions.

The right hippocampus leads the bilateral integration of gamma-parsed lateralized information

It is unclear whether the two hippocampal lobes convey similar or different activities and how they cooperate. Spatial discrimination of electric fields in anesthetized rats allowed us to compare the pathway-specific field potentials corresponding to the gamma-paced CA3 output (CA1 Schaffer potentials) and CA3 somatic inhibition within and between sides. Bilateral excitatory Schaffer gamma waves are generally larger and lead from the right hemisphere with only moderate covariation of amplitude, and drive CA1 pyramidal units more strongly than unilateral waves. CA3 waves lock to the ipsilateral Schaffer potentials, although bilateral coherence was weak. Notably, Schaffer activity may run laterally, as seen after the disruption of the connecting pathways. Thus, asymmetric operations promote the entrainment of CA3-autonomous gamma oscillators bilaterally, synchronizing lateralized gamma strings to converge optimally on CA1 targets. The findings support the view that interhippocampal connections integrate different aspects of information that flow through the left and right lobes.

O curso de literacia da informação da NOVA Escola Doutoral: The road to information literacy

Descrevem-se as diversas fases do “Projeto para uma Estratégia de Literacia Informacional na NOVA” com vista à implementação de uma estratégia transversal de literacia da informação que abrangesse todas as Unidades Orgânicas da NOVA e o modo como a sua orientação de topo, dinâmica, metodologia e objetivos conduziram, posteriormente, à inclusão de um curso de Literacia Informacional no programa da NOVA Escola Doutoral. Realçando que a implementação do curso de Literacia Informacional nesse projeto passou a constituir um dos poucos exemplos de oferta formativa e de efetiva concretização de um projeto de intervenção curricular e pedagógica ao nível da literacia da informação no ensino superior em Portugal, promovendo a colaboração entre colegas e indo ao encontro de uma transferência de saberes e de uma partilha de competências abertas à colaboração de doutorandos e orientadores, enunciamse os objetivos do curso de Literacia Informacional e de cada módulo que o constitui e os resultados esperados ao nível do ensino e da aprendizagem. Conclui-se que a diversificação dos percursos formativos em contexto universitário, em estreita convergência com outras aprendizagens ao nível sociocultural, confere aos bibliotecários a responsabilidade de desempenhar um papel ativo no ensino e na promoção e consolidação das competências transversais dos estudantes, contribuindo a literacia da informação para o sucesso académico também ao nível do ensino superior.

Prevalence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in family units living in the United States

The human gut is host to a diversity of microorganisms including the single-celled microbial eukaryote Blastocystis. Although Blastocystis has a global distribution, there is dearth of information relating to its prevalence and diversity in many human populations. The mode of Blastocystis transmission to humans is also insufficiently characterised, however, it is speculated to vary between different populations. Here we investigated the incidence and genetic diversity of Blastocystis in a US population and also the possibility of Blastocystis human-human transmission between healthy individuals using family units (N = 50) living in Boulder, Colorado as our sample-set. Ten of the 139 (~ 7%) individuals in our dataset were positive for Blastocystis, nine of whom were adults and one individual belonging to the children/adolescents group. All positive cases were present in different family units. A number of different Blastocystis subtypes (species) were detected with no evidence of mixed infections. The prevalence of Blastocystis in this subset of the US population is comparatively low relative to other industrialised populations investigated to date; however, subtype diversity was largely consistent with that previously reported in studies of European populations. The distribution of Blastocystis within family units indicates that human-human transmission is unlikely to have occurred within families that participated in this study. It is not unexpected that given the world-wide variation in human living conditions and lifestyles between different populations, both the prevalence of Blastocystis and its mode of transmission to humans may vary considerably.

The role of information literacy competence and higher order thinking skills to develop academic writing in science and engineering students

This article discusses a study organized to develop academic writing skills in undergraduate students pursuing engineering courses. The target group consisted of 30 students pursuing a Bachelor of Technology in their third year. The classroom observations regarding teaching writing revealed that writing proficiency for most of the students was at a very low level. Followed by this, an intervention program was organized in one college, where the researcher taught academic writing to the students. Units comprising tasks that focused on raising awareness of the academic texts and involving the students in the cognitive processes of writing were designed. The study focused on raising student awareness regarding the nature and characteristics of academic texts in order to develop academic writing skills. The study also emphasized that involving the students in the cognitive processes of writing (e.g., defining the rhetorical problem, identifying the rhetorical situation, determining the audience, setting goals for writing, planning for the text by generating, and organizing ideas) is necessary. The study further suggests that discussions between students and teachers regarding the construction of a text and the way language works in various text types facilitates better writing.

Eulerian-Lagrangian definition of coarse bed-load transport: Theory and verification with low-cost inertial measurement units

Fluvial sediment transport is controlled by hydraulics, sediment properties and arrangement, and flow history across a range of time scales. This physical complexity has led to ambiguous definition of the reference frame (Lagrangian or Eulerian) in which sediment transport is analysed. A general Eulerian-Lagrangian approach accounts for inertial characteristics of particles in a Lagrangian (particle fixed) frame, and for the hydrodynamics in an independent Eulerian frame. The necessary Eulerian-Lagrangian transformations are simplified under the assumption of an ideal Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), rigidly attached at the centre of the mass of a sediment particle. Real, commercially available IMU sensors can provide high frequency data on accelerations and angular velocities (hence forces and energy) experienced by grains during entrainment and motion, if adequately customized. IMUs are subjected to significant error accu- mulation but they can be used for statistical parametrisation of an Eulerian-Lagrangian model, for coarse sediment particles and over the temporal scale of individual entrainment events. In this thesis an Eulerian-Lagrangian model is introduced and evaluated experimentally. Absolute inertial accelerations were recorded at a 4 Hz frequency from a spherical instrumented particle (111 mm diameter and 2383 kg/m3 density) in a series of entrainment threshold experiments on a fixed idealised bed. The grain-top inertial acceleration entrainment threshold was approximated at 44 and 51 mg for slopes 0.026 and 0.037 respectively. The saddle inertial acceleration entrainment threshold was at 32 and 25 mg for slopes 0.044 and 0.057 respectively. For the evaluation of the complete Eulerian-Lagrangian model two prototype sensors are presented: an idealised (spherical) with a diameter of 90 mm and an ellipsoidal with axes 100, 70 and 30 mm. Both are instrumented with a complete IMU, capable of sampling 3D inertial accelerations and 3D angular velocities at 50 Hz. After signal analysis, the results can be used to parametrize sediment movement but they do not contain positional information. The two sensors (spherical and ellipsoidal) were tested in a series of entrainment experiments, similar to the evaluation of the 111 mm prototype, for a slope of 0.02. The spherical sensor entrained at discharges of 24.8 ± 1.8 l/s while the same threshold for the ellipsoidal sensor was 45.2 ± 2.2 l/s. Kinetic energy calculations were used to quantify the particle-bed energy exchange under fluvial (discharge at 30 l/s) and non-fluvial conditions. All the experiments suggest that the effect of the inertial characteristics of coarse sediments on their motion is comparable to the effect hydrodynamic forces. The coupling of IMU sensors with advanced telemetric systems can lead to the tracking of Lagrangian particle trajectories, at a frequency and accuracy that will permit the testing of diffusion/dispersion models across the range of particle diameters.

Length of Stay in Intensive Care Units - A Case Base Evaluation

As a matter of fact, an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) stands for a hospital facility where patients require close observation and monitoring. Indeed, predicting Length-of-Stay (LoS) at ICUs is essential not only to provide them with improved Quality-of-Care, but also to help the hospital management to cope with hospital resources. Therefore, in this work one`s aim is to present an Artificial Intelligence based Decision Support System to assist on the prediction of LoS at ICUs, which will be centered on a formal framework based on a Logic Programming acquaintance for knowledge representation and reasoning, complemented with a Case Based approach to computing, and able to handle unknown, incomplete, or even contradictory data, information or knowledge.