Extraction of spatio‐temporal data about historical events from text documents

Often, we are faced with questions regarding past events and the answers are hidden in the historical text archives. The growing developments in geographic information retrieval and temporal information retrieval techniques have given new ways to explore digital text archives for spatio‐temporal data. The question is how to retrieve the answers from the text documents. This work contributes to a better understanding of spatio‐temporal information extraction from text documents. Natural language processing techniques were used to develop an information extraction approach using the GATE language processing software. The developed framework uses gazetteer matching, spatio‐temporal relationship extraction and pattern‐based rules to recognize and annotate elements in historical text documents. The extracted spatio‐temporal data is used as input for GIS studies on the time–geography context of the German–Herero resistance war of 1904 in Namibia. Related issues when analyzing the historical data in current GIS are discussed. Particularly problematic are movement data in small scale with poor temporal density and trajectories that are short or connect very distant locations.     

A multi-dimensional assessment of urban vulnerability to climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa

In this paper, we develop and apply a multi-dimensional vulnerability assessment framework for understanding the impacts of climate change-induced hazards in Sub-Saharan African cities. The research was carried out within the European/African FP7 project CLimate change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa, which investigated climate change-induced risks, assessed vulnerability and proposed policy initiatives in five African cities. Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) was used as a main case with a particular focus on urban flooding. The multi-dimensional assessment covered the physical, institutional, attitudinal and asset factors influencing urban vulnerability. Multiple methods were applied to cover the full range of vulnerabilities and to identify potential response strategies, including: model-based forecasts, spatial analyses, document studies, interviews and stakeholder workshops. We demonstrate the potential of the approach to assessing several dimensions of vulnerability and illustrate the complexity of urban vulnerability at different scales: households (e.g., lacking assets); communities (e.g., situated in low-lying areas, lacking urban services and green areas); and entire cities (e.g., facing encroachment on green and flood-prone land). Scenario modeling suggests that vulnerability will continue to increase strongly due to the expected loss of agricultural land at the urban fringes and loss of green space within the city. However, weak institutional commitment and capacity limit the potential for strategic coordination and action. To better adapt to urban flooding and thereby reduce vulnerability and build resilience, we suggest working across dimensions and scales, integrating climate change issues in city-level plans and strategies and enabling local actions to initiate a ‘learning-by-doing’ process of adaptation.

     

EU shipping in the dawn of managing the ballast water issue

After almost two decades of intensified research, regulatory and political activities focussed on the prevention of harmful organisms and pathogen transfers around the world in 2004 the International Convention on the Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) was adopted to provide a common and globally uniform ballast water management (BWM) approach. Nevertheless, regionally different BWM approaches are developing. By now, many countries around the world seem to be aware of the ballast water issue and its management limitations. In the EU, different approaches have been identified at regional and national scales. The first voluntary BWM requirements at the regional level have been introduced by the HELCOM and OSPAR countries, Adriatic countries have prepared a common approach considering a new legal framework for implementation, and some national level requirements have also been identified. However, a common EU wide BWM approach has not yet clearly emerged. In this paper the authors review the BWM approaches developing in Europe, and describe the EU response on BWM. The authors further provide recommendations which may be considered when developing BWM measures in the EU. This contribution focuses on the BWM issue in European seas in light of the EU Maritime Policy and EU Marine Strategy. The Caspian Sea was also considered.     

DmpIRFs and DmpST:DAMPE instrument response functions and science tools for gamma-ray data analysis

Observing GeV gamma-rays is an important goal of the DArk Matter Particle Explorer(DAMPE)for indirect dark matter searching and high energy astrophysics. In this work, we present a set of accurate instrument response functions for DAMPE(DmpIRFs) including the effective area, point-spread function and energy dispersion, which are crucial for gamma-ray data analysis based on statistics from simulation data. A dedicated software named DmpST is developed to facilitate the scientific analyses of DAMPE gamma-ray data. Considering the limited number of photons and angular resolution of DAMPE, the maximum likelihood method is adopted in DmpST to better disentangle different source components. The basic mathematics and framework regarding this software are also introduced in this paper.     

Simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of Galactic Centre low-mass X-ray binaries

We have performed simultaneous X-ray and radio observations of 13 Galactic Centre low-mass X-ray binaries in 1998 April using the Wide Field Cameras on board BeppoSAX and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the latter simultaneously at 4.8 and 8.64 GHz. We detect two Z sources, GX 17+2 and GX 5−1, and the unusual 'hybrid' source GX 13+1. Upper limits, which are significantly deeper than previous non-detections, are placed on the radio emission from two more Z sources and seven atoll sources. Hardness–intensity diagrams constructed from the Wide Field Camera data reveal GX 17+2 and GX 5−1 to have been on the lower part of the horizontal branch and/or the upper part of the normal branch at the time of the observations, and the two non-detected Z sources, GX 340+0 and GX 349+2, to have been on the lower part of the normal branch. This is consistent with the previous empirically determined relation between radio and X-ray emission from Z sources, in which radio emission is strongest on the horizontal branch and weakest on the flaring branch. For the first time we have information on the X-ray state of atoll sources, which are clearly radio-quiet relative to the Z sources, during periods of observed radio upper limits. We place limits on the linear polarization from the three detected sources, and use accurate radio astrometry of GX 17+2 to confirm that it is probably not associated with the optical star NP Ser. Additionally we place strong upper limits on the radio emission from the X-ray binary 2S 0921−630, disagreeing with suggestions that it is a Z-source viewed edge-on.     

Stickstoff- und Kohlenhydratspeicherung in Rhizomen von Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steudel an unterschiedlichen aquatischen Standorten oberbayerischer Seen

Nitrogen and carbohydrate utilization in Phragmites australis rhizomes was investigated under natural conditions at 10 sites in 5 lakes in Upper Bavaria over a period of two years. Nitrate and ammonium of surface and interstitial water was determined. The results indicate that conditions of habitat and environment, such as climate and fluctuation of water level, lead to different adaptations of reed. These parameters had an effect on the storage of nitrogen and carbohydrate. The reed stands exposed to high water level during spring and summer have a high carbohydrate content in the rhizomes. A positive correlation was shown between the aboveground biomass and the content of storaged carbohydrates during the vegetation period. No relationship could be demonstrated between the nitrogen availability of the habitats and the type of storage of carbohydrates and nitrogen. The nitrogen content in the rhizomes can be used as an indicator of the ability of reed stands to produce new secondary shoots after shoot loss. The differently established reed genotypes are not able to compensate short-term environmental changes, such as growing leisure problems and higher shoot loss by the increasing appearance of waterfowl, from their reserve storage.     

Incorporation of aerosol particles between 25 and 850 nm into cloud elements: measurements with a new complementary sampling system

The interpretation of the physico-chemical processes in clouds is facilitated by segregating in situ cloud elements from their carrier gas and small particles (interstitial aerosol). Thus, the present study focuses on the quantitative phase segregation of interstitial air from cloud phase by two complementary samplers with microphysical on-line analysis of the separated phases. An improved counterflow virtual impactor (CVI) was developed for the collection and subsequent evaporation of the condensed phase, releasing dissolved gaseous material and residual particles. This sampler operates in the size range of few micrometers up to 50 μm in cloud element diameter and is matched by an interstitial Round Jet Impactor sampling the gas phase with interstitial particles. Calibrations of both samplers verified the calculated cut sizes D₅₀ of 4, 5, and 6 μm and quantified the slope of the collection efficiency curves. Until this study no direct CVI measurements of the residual particle sizes far below the diameter of 0.1 μm were available. For the first time a CVI was connected to a Differential Mobility Particle Sizer (DMPS) scanning between 25 nm and 850 nm, thus, including the entire Aitken mode in the residual size analysis. Cloud studies on the Puy de Dôme, France, revealed residual particle sizes including Aitken mode (diameter D<100 nm) and accumulation mode (D>100 nm). A major feature of the CVI data is expressed by the fact that despite incomplete incorporation of accumulation mode particles in cloud elements there are contributions of particles with diameters smaller than 0.1 μm to the number of residual particles. Cloud entrainment from height levels above the maximum supersaturation as wells as the size-dependent chemical composition of the aerosol population most likely produced the S-shaped size-dependent partitioning of residual particles. Compared to earlier studies the 50% partitioning diameters dropped significantly below 100 nm to roughly 70 nm.