Exploring the Impact of Contextual Information on Student Performance and Interest in Open Humanitarian Mapping

The opportunity to engage university students in authentic, open humanitarian mapping raises important questions about how to guide the quality and productivity of volunteer spatial contributions while providing a valuable learning experience. It presents the unique chance to pique new mappers’ interest, satisfaction, and confidence in spatial technologies in particular, and technology in general, as well as pique their interest in the people and places that are served by the humanitarian mapping projects. This article shares the findings of a study that explores the importance of sharing authentic contextual information about the purpose of the humanitarian mapping task. Two groups of beginner mappers were given mapping tasks, with only one group being provided details on the purpose. Comparisons were made on their respective performance and changes in affective response to a series of questions about technology, education, good citizenship, and empathy. Measures of the quantity and quality of spatial data produced; their respective levels of interest, satisfaction, and confidence in technology; and affective responses before and after mapping show the relative effects of contextual information. Results provide insights about the potential effectiveness of authentic instruction on the performance of mapping as well as the potential effect on mappers themselves. Key Words: citizenship, data quality, empathy, humanitarian mapping, volunteered geographic information.     

Pathogenic fungi: an unacknowledged risk at coastal resorts? New insights on microbiological sand quality in Portugal

Whilst the potential impact on beach users from microorganisms in water has received considerable attention, there has been relatively little investigation into microbial contaminants in sand. Thirty three beaches across Portugal were analyzed during a five year period (2006-2010) to determine the presence of yeasts, pathogenic fungi, dermatophytes, total coliforms, Escherichia coli and intestinal enterococci in sand.Our results showed that 60.4% of the samples were positive for fungi and that 25.2% were positive for the bacterial parameters. The most frequent fungal species found were Candida sp. and Aspergillus sp., whereas intestinal enterococci were the most frequently isolated bacteria. Positive associations were detected among analyzed parameters and country-regions but none among those parameters and sampling period.Regarding threshold values, we propose 15 cfu/g for yeasts, 17 cfu/g for potential pathogenic fungi, 8 cfu/g for dermatophytes. Eighty four cfu/g for coliforms, 250 cfu/g for E. coli, and 100 cfu/g for intestinal enterococci.     

Estimation of extreme Component-wise Excess design realization: a hydrological application

The classic univariate risk measure in environmental sciences is the Return Period (RP). The RP is traditionally defined as “the average time elapsing between two successive realizations of a prescribed event”. The notion of design quantile related with RP is also of great importance. The design quantile represents the “value of the variable(s) characterizing the event associated with a given RP”. Since an individual risk may strongly be affected by the degree of dependence amongst all risks, the need for the provision of multivariate design quantiles has gained ground. In contrast to the univariate case, the design quantile definition in the multivariate setting presents certain difficulties. In particular, Salvadori, G., De Michele, C. and Durante F. define in the paper called “On the return period and design in a multivariate framework” (Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15:3293–3305, 2011) the design realization as the vector that maximizes a weight function given that the risk vector belongs to a given critical layer of its joint multivariate distribution function. In this paper, we provide the explicit expression of the aforementioned multivariate risk measure in the Archimedean copula setting. Furthermore, this measure is estimated by using Extreme Value Theory techniques and the asymptotic normality of the proposed estimator is studied. The performance of our estimator is evaluated on simulated data. We conclude with an application on a real hydrological data-set.     

Gas kinematics in the halo of the warm ULIRG PKS1345+12

We use long-slit spectra taken with the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma and high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging to study the gas kinematic in the halo of the ultraluminous infrared/radio galaxy PKS1345+12 (z=0.122). Our long-slit spectra show line splitting at the locations of massive star clusters ( $10^{6}<M_{\mathrm{SSC}}^{\mathrm{YSP}}<10^{7}$ M_⊙), indicating that they are moving at up to 450 km?s^?1 with respect to the local ambient gas. Given their kinematics, it is plausible that these super star clusters have been formed either in fast-moving gas streams or tidal tails that are falling back into the nuclear regions as part of the merger process, or as a consequence of jet-induced star formation linked to the extended, diffuse radio emission detected in the halo of the galaxy.     

Ecological quality assessment of small estuaries from the Portuguese coast based on benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages indices

Benthic macroinvertebrates communities are the most consistently emphasized biotic component of aquatic ecosystems and are one of the biological indicators required for assessment by the European Water Framework Directive. In this context, several indices based on these communities have been developed in order to assess ecological quality of estuarine systems. In the present work we used AMBI, M-AMBI, BENTIX and BAT to distinguish ecological status of five small estuarine systems of the Portuguese south and southwest coasts. Although indices outputs did not differ between systems and sampling seasons, results indicated that the metrics in which these indices are based could differentiate community structures as a result of two main gradients that force these communities: the natural variability, and the anthropogenic impact.     

Use of LIDAR in landslide investigations: a review

This paper presents a short history of the appraisal of laser scanner technologies in geosciences used for imaging relief by high-resolution digital elevation models (HRDEMs) or 3D models. A general overview of light detection and ranging (LIDAR) techniques applied to landslides is given, followed by a review of different applications of LIDAR for landslide, rockfall and debris-flow. These applications are classified as: (1) Detection and characterization of mass movements; (2) Hazard assessment and susceptibility mapping; (3) Modelling; (4) Monitoring. This review emphasizes how LIDAR-derived HRDEMs can be used to investigate any type of landslides. It is clear that such HRDEMs are not yet a common tool for landslides investigations, but this technique has opened new domains of applications that still have to be developed.     

A multi‐method approach to dating the burial and skeleton of Kiacatoo Man,New South Wales,Australia

Kiacatoo Man, a large, rugged Aboriginal adult buried in the Lachlan riverine plains of southeastern Australia, was discovered in 2011. Laser‐ablation uranium series analysis on bone yielded a minimum age for the burial of 27.4 ± 0.4 ka (2σ). Single‐grain, optically stimulated luminescence ages on quartz sediment in which the grave had been dug gave a weighted mean age of 26.4 ± 1.5 ka (1σ). Luminescence samples from the grave infill and from sediment beneath the grave exhibit overdispersed dose distributions consistent with bioturbation or other disturbance, which has obscured the burial signal. The overlap between the minimum (U‐series) and maximum (luminescence) ages places the burial between 27.0 and 29.4 ka (2σ). Luminescence ages obtained from the channel belt of between 28 ± 2 and 25 ± 3 ka indicate that fluvial sedimentation was occurring before the Last Glacial Maximum, which is consistent with the broader geomorphic setting. Together, these results are internally and regionally consistent, and indicate that Kiacatoo Man was one of the more ancient individuals so far identified in Australia. His remains are important to our understanding of patterns of biological variation and other processes that have shaped people in the Murray‐Darling Basin through time. Copyright © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Intra-plant differences in seaweed nutritional quality and chemical defenses: Importance for the feeding behavior of the intertidal amphipod Orchestoidea tuberculata

As a result of their morphological complexity, large macroalgae show intra-thallus variations in their nutritional composition and secondary metabolite content, which influences the trophic ecology of herbivorous invertebrates, and ultimately their fitness. In this study, we evaluated for the first time the variability in nutritional quality (protein content, carbohydrates, lipids, and total organic matter), secondary metabolites (phlorotannins), and structure (shape and toughness) between blades and stipes of the macroalgae Durvillaea Antarctica. Specifically, we looked at their effect on feeding preference, rate of consumption, absorption efficiency, and growth rate of the amphipod Orchestoidea tuberculata, one of the most abundant organisms on Chilean sandy beaches. Proteins, carbohydrates, total organic matter and phlorotannin contents were significantly higher in blades than in stipes. Preference experiments revealed that the amphipods preferred blades when fresh pieces of blades and stipes were offered at the same time. Similar results were found when artificial food (in which structures of both parts of the alga were standardized) was offered, suggesting that shape and toughness of the two different parts of the alga did not influence preference patterns of O. tuberculata. Absorption efficiency of O. tuberculata was higher on blades compared to stipes. When the amphipods were kept with each of the algal parts separately (i.e. no choice), they consumed a significantly higher amount of stipe, which suggests that O. tuberculata used food quantity to compensate for the lower nutritional quality of stipes. The higher nutritional values of blades compared to stipes appears to explain observed preference patterns by O. tuberculata. Phlorotannin content did not appear to inhibit blade consumption, suggesting that the nutritional quality of the food could be more important than chemical defense in determining food choice in O. tuberculata. Growth did not differ between the amphipods maintained with either blades or stipes (i.e. no choice), which is consistent with the hypothesis of compensatory feeding. To conclude, O. tuberculata can actively select specific parts of an alga and this selection appears to be based on nutritional quality. The capacity for using different feeding strategies allow O. tuberculata, in some cases, to successfully exploit food types with different nutritional qualities.     

Geological,geophysical and geochemical structure of a fault zone developed in granitic rocks: Implications for fault zone modeling in 3-D

The structure of a fault zone developed in granitic rocks can be established on the basis of the spatial variability of geological, geophysical and geochemical parameters. In the North Fault of the Mina Ratones area (SW Iberian Massif, Spain), fault rocks along two studied traverses (SR-2 and SR-3 boreholes) exhibit systematic changes in mineralogy, geochemistry, fabrics and microstructures that are related to brittle deformation and alteration of granite to form cataclasite and subsequent gouge. The spatial distribution and intensity of these changes suggest a North Fault morphology that is consistent with the fault-core/damage-zone model proposed by Chester et al. (1993) to describe a fault zone architecture. North Fault damage zone thickness can be defined by the development of mechanically related mesoscopic faults and joints, that produce a Fracture Index (FI)>10. High FI values are spatially correlated with relative low seismic velocity zones (V_P<5 km/s and V_S<2.5 km/s in the well-logs), more probably related to a high concentration of fractures and geochemical alteration produced by meteoric water-granite interaction along fault surfaces. This correlation is the base of a geostatistical model proposed in the final part of this study to image the fault zone architecture of a granitic massif.     

管状蠕虫Ridgeia piscesae TAK1的克隆及其转基因果蝇制备

Ridgeia piscesae是唯一一种存在于东北太平洋Juan de Fuca Ridge热液区的管状蠕虫,我们成功通过RACE PCR获得Ridgeia piscesae TAK1(Rp TAK1)基因全长c DNA序列.为深入研究TAK1基因在管状蠕虫中的作用,本文通过显微注射获得Rp TAK1转基因果蝇,并在果蝇体内成功过表达Rp TAK1基因.我们发现由Rp TAK1编码的氨基酸序列具有一定保守性,可能暗示其功能上的保守性,同时也暗示TAK1蛋白在物种进化中的保守性.而过表达突变体果蝇的眼睛出现变异,包括眼睛变得粗糙、单眼排列不整齐及整体形状变小,可以看出Rp TAK1基因影响果蝇的机体发育,我们猜测在Rp TAK1基因在管状蠕虫的生长发育过程中也可能起到重要作用.